Modern Voyage Marks Viking Atlantic Crossing

L’ANSE AUX MEADOWS, Newfoundland--When Viking adventurer Leif Ericson steered his ship to the barren, northern tip of Newfoundland 1,000 years ago, his landfall was likely witnessed by very few.

But Friday 15,000 people descended on L’Anse aux Meadows, population 44, to mark the anniversary of Ericson’s voyage and greet the arrival of the Viking replica ship Islendingur and a flotilla of others under clear skies in this sometimes inhospitable peninsula.

The crowd was entertained by traditional Newfoundland music as well as a combined Icelandic, Mi’kmaq, and Newfoundland choir.

A large iceberg rolled gently by as Islendingur captain Gunnar Meral Eggertsson noted how seeing Newfoundland on the horizon brought to mind “all kinds of images which the Vikings must have experienced as they approached Canada.”

Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin welcomed the Islendingur, saying that the crew of eight men and one woman proved that in Iceland as in Newfoundland, “one woman is equal to eight men.”

Concession stands ringed a new, Viking replica village, Norstead, created as a tourist draw in this area of high unemployment. They were offering items as diverse as moose antler carvings and plush toys.

One enterprising vendor had converted his left-over stock of wooden John Cabot carvings--dating from the 1997 celebration marking explorer John Cabot’s arrival in Newfoundland 500 years ago--into Viking carvings. Gone from the small figurines were Cabot’s hands and a hat, In their place were a shield and a Viking helmet.

Vendors selling Hollywood-style horned Viking helmets were outselling unhorned, but historically correct, models.

Ericson’s epic journey is being recreated by the 70-foot Islendingur, which left Iceland on June 24, retracing the Viking journey to Greenland and then the transatlantic voyage to Canada.

The captain set foot on the rocky shore right on cue in mid-afternoon. His crew, dressed in period Viking garb, were met by a young Inuit drum band from Labrador.

Ericson established the first known European settlement in North America at the L’Anse aux Meadows site. It was likely used as a base camp for subsequent expeditions farther south.

Iceland’s Deputy Prime Minister, Halldor Asgrimsson, saluted the “courage and skill” of the Islendingur crew at the welcoming ceremony and said the 1,000 year-old voyage of Ericson was a “tribute to the human spirit of exploration and adventure”.

Misel Joe, chief of the Conne River aboriginal Mi’kmaq band in Newfoundland, asked the crowd to stand and observe a moment of silence in memory of the Beothuk Indians, one of Newfoundland’s aboriginal people that were wiped out after the arrival of Europeans.

Hotels, motels, bed and breakfast establishments, campgrounds, and private homes were also overflowing with visitors, as media from North America and Europe took over private homes as they broadcast the Islendingur’s arrival during two hours and half.

The Vikings’ voyage ends in New York City in October as part of an Icelandic trade mission.