A&E - Vikings in America

The exploits of Eric the Red. The legend of Leif Ericson. The struggle for power, the bond of a ...The exploits of Eric the Red. The legend of Leif Ericson. The struggle for power, the bond of a family, and the courage to sail beyond a dark and dangerous ocean. Guided by their hopes, the explorers of the North moved their horizon west in an odyssey of ice and uncertainty. Leaving Norway for Iceland, and an inauspicious tundra they named Greenland, the Norse in their long boats proved sturdy enough to reach one more distant shore--VINLAND.

Scandinavian sagas tell the tales of Leif the Lucky and the Land of Grapes, but are these merely boastful yarns of magical heroes or historical facts?

VIKING EXPLORERS investigates the oft-repeated claim that the Vikings landed on America's shores 1,000 years ago. Follow the incredible journey that these hardy sailors had to make across the North Atlantic, and go aboard a restored longboat like the one that carried them to the New World. Noted historians tell the remarkable story of Leif Ericsson and his father, the legendary Eric the Red, and attempt to separate fact from fiction in the sagas of these heroes. And in a remarkable interview, archaeologist Helge Ingstad recalls how her discovery of a Viking settlement in North America helped to rewrite history.

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