This essay has outlined why the people included in its survey are Vikings (broadly preferring the term ‘Northmen’ to describe them); and moving from this, it highlighted its methodological issues, primarily surrounding the inability to locate many locations mentioned in the primary sources, but secondarily because there has been no critical interrogation of the primary sources, which is not within the scope of this essay. The essay then examined the Icelandic discoverers and settlers. The essay then looked at Greenland’s founder, Eirík the Red, before looking at three expeditions to North America. The essay looked at Gudrid, a woman who travelled over 7434 miles in her lifetime. Finally, this essay looked at the incredible journey of Auðun, who travelled more than 9413 miles. This essay also found there may be more locations in Northmen locations, undiscovered in North America, specifically evidencing Thorvald’s visit. Further research could explore the locations mentioned in the sagas more explicitly, trying to build a more accurate picture of the journeys to understand more about the individuals who undertook them, exploring the day-to-day life of these travellers on the ‘road’ and at sea.

REFERENCES

[1] Stefan Brink, ‘Who Were The Vikings?’, in The Viking World (Abingdon, England, UK: Routledge, 2008), 5–6; Judith Jesch, The Viking Diaspora, The Viking Diaspora (Abingdon, England, UK: Routledge, 2015), 6, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315708331.
[2] Jesch, The Viking Diaspora, 7.
[3] Clare Downham, ‘Viking Ethnicities: A Historiographic Overview’, History Compass 10, no. 1 (2012): 1, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2011.00820.x.
[4] Brink, ‘Who Were The Vikings?’, 4.
[5] Brink, 5–7.
[6] Jesch, The Viking Diaspora, 19–22.
[7] Jesch, 22–24.
[8] Jesch, 24.
[9] Jesch, 28–29.
[10] Anders Winroth, The Age of the Vikings (Princeton, New Jersey, USA: Princeton University Press, 2014), 196.
[11] Hermann Palsson, ‘Audun’s Story’, in Hrafnkel’s Saga and Other Icelandic Stories, ed. Hermann Palsson (translator) (Harmondsworth, England, UK: Penguin Books Ltd, 1980), 124; Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America: Grænlendinga Saga and Eirik’s Saga (London, England, UK: Penguin Books, 1965), 71.
[12] Gilbert Márkus, ‘“The Just Man Will Never Waver” (Psalm 111:6): Adomnán and His World’, in Conceiving a Nation (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2017), 158, https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748678983.003.0004.
[13] Márkus, 175.
[14] Gilbert Márkus, Adomnán’s ’ Law of the Innocents’: Cáin Adomnáin (Kilmartin, Scotland UK: Kilmartin House Trust, 2008).
[15] Palsson, ‘Audun’s Story’, 125.
[16] Atria A. Larson, ‘From Protections for Miserabiles Personae to Legal Privileges for International Travellers: The Historical Development of the Medieval Canon Law Regarding Pilgrims’, Glossae 16 (2019): 170.
[17] Stefan Brink and Neil Price, eds., The Viking World (Abingdon, England, UK: Routledge, 2008), 178–79, https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.47-0508.
[18] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America: Grænlendinga Saga and Eirik’s Saga, 50–51.
[19] Jónas Kristjánsson et al., ‘Falling into Vínland: Newfoundland Hunting Pitfalls at the Edge of the Viking World’, Acta Archaeologica 83, no. 1 (2012): 149–51, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0390.2012.00623.x.
[20] Egil Mikkelsen, Looting or Missioning: Insular and Continental Sacred Objects in Viking Age Contexts in Norway (Oxford, England, UK: Oxbow Books, 2019), 7, http://www.nber.org/papers/w16019; Andrew Jennings, ‘Iona and the Vikings: Survival and Continuity’, Northern Studies 33 (1998): 33, http://ssns.org.uk/resources/Documents/NorthernStudies/Vol33/Jennings_1998_Vol_33_pp_37_54.pdf; Brink and Price, The Viking World, 624; Siân Grønlie, Íslendingabók - Kristni Saga: The Book of the Icelanders, The Story of the Conversion (London, England, UK: Viking Society for Northern Research, University College London, 2006), xxvi, https://doi.org/10.2307/20722751.
[21] Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards, The Book of Settlements: Landnámabók (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: University of Manitoba Press, 2006), sec. 320.
[22] Grønlie, Íslendingabók - Kristni Saga: The Book of the Icelanders, The Story of the Conversion, xxvi.
[23] Grønlie, 4.
[24] Grønlie, 3–4; Landnámabók also says Harald Finehair was King of Norway: Palsson and Edwards, The Book of Settlements: Landnámabók, sec. 2: ‘Harald Fine-Hair was King of Norway, Eirik Eymundsson and his son ruled over Sweden, and Gorm the Old over Denmark. Alfred the Great and his son Edward ruled in England, King Kjarval in Dublin and Earl Sigurd the Mighty over the Orkneys.’
[25] Grønlie, Íslendingabók - Kristni Saga: The Book of the Icelanders, The Story of the Conversion, 4.
[26] Palsson and Edwards, The Book of Settlements: Landnámabók, sec. 3.
[27] Palsson and Edwards, sec. 4.
[28] Distances, Göteborg, Sweeden to Höfn, Iceland (using app-savy-navy.com) is estimated to be 931 nautical miles (1071 miles), a return trip, doubling this, would be 2142 miles, adding in our original figure of 1956 brings this to 4098 miles. Again, sailing is not ‘as the crow flies’ but would in fact involve a number of extra miles.
[29] Palsson and Edwards, The Book of Settlements: Landnámabók, sec. 5.
[30] Palsson and Edwards, sec. 5.
[31] Palsson and Edwards, sec. 5.
[32] Palsson and Edwards, secs 7–9.
[33] Grønlie, Íslendingabók - Kristni Saga: The Book of the Icelanders, The Story of the Conversion, 3–4.
[34] Vardetangen, Austrheim, Norway was selected as the western-most point of mainland Norway.
[35] Palsson and Edwards, The Book of Settlements: Landnámabók, sec. 8.
[36] This could be Arnarhóll, in Stokkseyri; but it seems more likely to be Arnarhóll, a mountain in Reykjavík – because this Arnarhóll, is where the Ingolf’s two ‘highseat pillars’ were said to have landed, and he vowed to make their landing place his home.
[37] Palsson and Edwards, The Book of Settlements: Landnámabók, secs 8–9.
[38] These journeys combine to around 302 miles.
[39] Grønlie, Íslendingabók - Kristni Saga: The Book of the Icelanders, The Story of the Conversion, 7: This is slightly misleading - Breiðafjörður is a bay in Iceland, and likely near the place Eirík lived in Iceland.
[40] Jæderen’s Point is 21 miles south of Stavanger, modern day Jaeren which Gwyn Jones, The Norse Atlantic Saga: Being the Norse Voyages of Discovery and Settlement of Iceland, Greenland, and North America, 1986, 74. writes in place of Jæderen is only 7-8 miles south of Stavanger, so the exact location is unidentified.
[41] Jones, 74.
[42] Palsson and Edwards, The Book of Settlements: Landnámabók, sec. 89; This is also confirmed by the Grænlendinga Saga and Eirik’s Saga Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America: Grænlendinga Saga and Eirik’s Saga, 47 & 76.
[43] Palsson and Edwards, The Book of Settlements: Landnámabók, sec. 89: note 38 says ‘Blaserk ('Blue Shirt’) has been tentatively identified with Ingolfsfjeld, a glacier peak near Angmagssalik.’; Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America: Grænlendinga Saga and Eirik’s Saga, 47 The Grænlendinga Saga says Eirík the Red left Iceland from Eiríksbay, but this no longer appears on maps by this name.
[44] Palsson and Edwards, The Book of Settlements: Landnámabók, sec. 90.
[45] According to: Palsson and Edwards, sec. 90 there were originally 25 ships, but not all made the journey.
[46] Palsson and Edwards, secs 90–92.
[47] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America: Grænlendinga Saga and Eirik’s Saga, 51–54.
[48] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, 84.
[49] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, 55.
[50] Kristjánsson et al., ‘Falling into Vínland: Newfoundland Hunting Pitfalls at the Edge of the Viking World’, 172.
[51] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America: Grænlendinga Saga and Eirik’s Saga, 55.
[52] Kristjánsson et al., ‘Falling into Vínland: Newfoundland Hunting Pitfalls at the Edge of the Viking World’, 172.
[53] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America: Grænlendinga Saga and Eirik’s Saga, 55–56.
[54] Margot Kuitems et al., ‘Evidence for European Presence in the Americas in AD1021’, Nature 601, no. 7893 (2022): 388–91, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03972-8; Birgitta Wallace, ‘The Norse in Newfoundland: L’Anse Aux Meadows and Vinland’, Newfoundland Studies 19, no. 1 (2003): 5–43, https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/NFLDS/article/view/140/236; Birgitta Wallace, ‘L’Anse Aux Meadows, Leif Eriksson’s Home in Vinland’, Journal of the North Atlantic Special Vo (2009): 114–25.
[55] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America: Grænlendinga Saga and Eirik’s Saga, 59–61.
[56] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, 60.
[57] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, 61.
[58] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, 64.
[59] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, 61.
[60] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, 65.
[61] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, 67.
[62] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, 71.
[63] Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, 71.
[64] Palsson, ‘Audun’s Story’, 121.
[65] Palsson, 121–22.
[66] Palsson, 122, 123–24.
[67] Palsson, 122–23.
[68] Palsson, 123–24.
[69] Palsson, 124–25.
[70] Palsson, 127–28.