Friday, July 20, 2007

he found North America and wasn't interested


So there was someone named Bjarni Herjolfsson who was probably the first European to lay eyes on North America. He had been sailing from Iceland for Greenland in the year 985 and got lost in a fog. Since he and his crew didn't see glaciers they knew it wasn't at all Greenland, but something very much other, they never landed but turned their boat and sailed back toward Greenland. When he got to Greenland Bjarni told his story and some time later Leif Eiriksson bought his boat. Leif Eiriksson retraced Bjarni's path and found North America. He called this land "Vinland." Some people say it was because one of his party found grapes growing wild there, some other people say no no "vin" used to mean "plain" and he named it "plainland" not "wineland." What then about the grapes?

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