The discovery of Vínland is attributed first to Bjarni, who never actually landed in Vínland.
[47] The first person to land in North America, was supposedly Leif Eiríksson, the son of Eirík the Red. Before America, however, Leif was said to be staying with the Norwegian King:
“Leif had sailed to Norway, where he stayed with King Olaf Tryggvason. But when he had set sail from Greenland in the summer, his ship was driven off course to the Hebrides. He and his men stayed most of the summer there while they were waiting for favourable winds.”
[48]This was a journey (Figure 14) of 2244 miles. Leif first arrived in North America at at Helluland
[49] (believed to be Baffin Island),
[50] and then sailed to Markland
[51] (believed to be Labrador),
[52] before finally arriving in Vínland,
[53] believed to be at L’Anse aux Meadows (Figure 15).
[54] Eirík is described as being ‘of Brattahlid’ and returning there after travelling to the ship with Leif; from this, we can ‘read’ that firstly, Eirík lived at Brattahlid, and that secondly, the Leif did not sail from there. The saga records that Eirík fell from his horse on this journey to the ship, which is
why he did not sail with Leif. Therefore, we will measure Leif's journey to Vínland from Tunulliarfik Fjord, as Eiríksfjord is now called. The journey would have been around 1841 miles – the return journey, assuming it was more direct, would have added 762 miles. Leif, therefore, travelled at least 4847 miles on