The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1967, Page 4

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Summer 1967
THE MM Willi DISCOVERED AMERICA
As we read in the Icelandic Sagas, Eirik the Red sailed westward from Iceland
in A.D. 985 and discovered Greenland. With his family, he settled in one of the
fjords of Greenland and called it Eiriksfjord.
In the year A.D. 1000, Eirik’s son, Leifr, who was born in Iceland, attempted
to sail from Iceland to Eiriksfjord, but was driven off course in a south-
westerly direction, and discovered what is now Labrador. He sailed further
south and came across wooded land, probably Newfoundland.
Leifr, sailed still further south, and landed at the mouth of a river. He went
ashore and found wild grapes growing in a pleasant land. He called the land
"Vinland” or Wineland. This was on the east coast of what is now the New
England States.
These early exploits (probably well known to scholarly explorers like Columbus
and Cabot) found an echo in our Parliament Buildings at Ottawa last April 14,
when Prime Minister Pearson, at an impressive ceremony, accepted on behalf of
the government and people of Canada a bronze plaque recording these events.
This plaque, prominently displayed for all to see, is the appropriate Centennial
gift to Canada from Canada’s people of Icelandic descent.
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