This month Nordic communities worldwide will celebrate Leif Erikson Day on October 9th. In America, Congress declared that day in 1964. Erikson is supposed to have been the first European to discover America in around 1000 AD, almost 500 years before Columbus. However, there is a story that he might not have been the first Viking to see America. Bjarni Herjólfsson, an Icelander, is supposed to have seen it from a distance after being blown off course returning to Greenland; however, he did not make landfall. There is also a story that Erikson actually rescued two Europeans whom he found shipwrecked. Needless to say, Erikson is the one who is credited with the discovery and lived to tell it. And we celebrate this event in this article by discussing the sailing tradition of the Norwegians.
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