Not intending to "discover" America
- Norway 986. Viking explorer Bjarni Herjólfsson moved to Iceland at the end of the winter, where he met with his parents. When he landed at Eyrar, he learned that his parents had sold the property and had left the island along with Erik the Red to settle in Greenland. Then Bjarni headed west, not knowing exactly why. At least that is what the Greenland saga says. This saga is the account of the colonization of Greenland initiated by Erik el Rojo and, precisely, the father of Bjarni, Herjulf Bårdsson, was one of the first settlers of these territories.
Three days after leaving for Greenland, the wind changed direction and a dense fog entered; the boat continued drifting for several days. Time was cleared and the crew sighted the coast, but Bjarni thought that the wooded relief of small hills could not be Greenland. Without landing, he and his sailors headed north.
Two days later they saw him dry again. But this didn't look like Greenland either, because he was told that there were big glaciers in Greenland. It approached the coast and there were no glaciers there, but plains covered with trees. The wind calmed down and the crew considered it to be the right time to land and supply themselves with water and firewood. But Bjarni said no, they didn't need anything and they were going to move on.
For three days, the southwest wind drove them, and for the third time, the arid land appeared on the horizon. It was a mountainous territory and from the boat it also looked like a glacier. They walked along the shore until they discovered it was an island. But it wasn't Greenland either. Taking advantage of the favourable wind, they returned to the high seas.
Four days and a strong storm lasted until they saw land for the fourth time. At last, Bjarni gave an order to land in order to rejoice the crews. They chose a narrow promontory, and by chance, Bjarni found his parents there. He stayed there until his father's death.
But the lands he had seen on his journey, which he hadn't stepped on, quickly spread across Viking territory. Leif Erikson, the son of Erik the Red, bought Bjarni’s drakkar and repeated his way by bringing together 35 people. According to the experts, the colony called Vinland was founded by Erikson in Newfoundland and proof of this is the archaeological site of L´Anse aux Meadows.
However, there is no physical evidence of Bjarni's journey, and it is difficult to tell what the truth is in the story of the saga. T. University of Manitoba (Canada) J. In the words of historian Oleson, “we have strong arguments to think that the territories seen by Bjarni were Newfoundland, Labrador and the island of Baffin.”
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