According to the Icelandic sagas, around 35 Vikings sailed from Greenland to North America around the year 1000. “Then they decided to stay there for the winter, and they built a large house on the site,” states The Saga of the Greenlanders.
In North America, the Norse settled in what is now Canada, and soon, several other expeditions followed in their wake. The sagas do not specify how long the Vikings lived in North America, but experts estimate it was only for a few decades.
This assessment is partly based on the remains of a Viking settlement discovered at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland in the 1960s. Excavations there have uncovered longhouses and tools that undoubtedly originated from the Norse. However, researchers have not found graves, barns, or traces of farming—signs that would suggest a long-term settlement. The last confirmed evidence of activity at L’Anse aux Meadows dates to the year 1021. At that time, trees were felled using Viking iron axes, as revealed by the cut marks and the tree rings.
The Colony Depended on Trade
Archaeologists have not discovered documented Viking settlements or Norse artifacts elsewhere in Canada, and it appears that the Vikings abandoned the idea of establishing a colony because North America was too far from the nearest colony in Greenland.
The distance made it difficult to sell goods and receive supplies from home—both of which were crucial for a sustainable colony. Additionally, the sagas recount that the Vikings repeatedly encountered conflicts with Indigenous peoples and lost settlers in battles.
Continued Timber Voyages
Although the Vikings did not live permanently in North America for long, they continued to sail there for timber. In the Norse colonies of Greenland, researchers have found several American wood species, and analyses of their tree rings indicate that timber expeditions continued until around 1450, when the Vikings disappeared from Greenland.