The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2001, Page 5

Vol. 56 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
87
On the Cover
The Islendingur, one of the largest replica Viking ships sailed from
Iceland to Greenland during the summer of2000, for festivities commemo-
rating Leif Eriksson’s discovery of The New World, 1000 years ago. Then it
sailed across the Atlantic to Newfoundland, retracing the voyage of Leif
Eriksson. The Captain, Gunnar Marel Eggertsson, who was born in 1954, is
a direct descendant of Eriksson, who was born circa 930 A.D.
In Canada, the Islendingur led a fleet of replica Viking ships that assem-
bled at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, the only authenticated
Viking settlement in North America for a grand encampment of Vikings.
Following those festivities, the ship sailed down the east coast of Canada and
the United States in commemoration of Eriksson’s original discovery of
North America in 1000 A.D.