re: Today is the 534th anniversary of one of the most consequential events in world history...

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Leif Erickson says hinga dinga durgen! Not so fast!

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Leif Erickson and his motley crew of misfits landed in Newfoundland, established a seasonal settlement, and then abandoned it without telling anyone what they had done or where they had been. They were the first Europeans to arrive in North America but their voyages would have been lost to the dustbin of history if not for archeology.

Columbus and the Spanish crown advertised what they had done to the rest of Europe.

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Dude….. the Vinland sagas were 100% recorded and passed down…

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Most Europeans during the Middle Ages probably knew little or nothing about the Vinland sagas. Knowledge of the Norse voyages survived primarily in Iceland and Scandinavia, although reports did reach continental Europe. Around 1075, the German chronicler Adam of Bremen mentioned Vinland, demonstrating that Europeans outside the Norse world had heard of it. By the time Columbus sailed in 1492, however, Vinland had largely disappeared from mainstream European geographical knowledge.

When scholars began seriously examining the Icelandic sagas in subsequent centuries, they debated whether the stories represented actual historical events or a mixture of history and folklore.

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Top 5 goat endings

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Love this movie and scene but I’ve always wondered about this: this was likely not Columbus but a bit later (maybe Cordoba?), right?

A few pieces to it:
- The Spanish didn’t contact the Yucatán until about 1517 or so
- There is already rampant plague / smallpox in the movie, indicating the Spanish had arrived elsewhere in the Americas well before the movie
- There are at least four ships in the scene (so not the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria)

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Columbus and the Spanish crown advertised what they had done to the rest of Europe.

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Yep. Columbus was not the first discoverer of the new would.

But he was the last.

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it's funny how some people get upset when updated facts dispute what they learned in 3rd grade.

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No one is upset.

Leif Erickson beat Christopher Columbus to the punch by about 500 years. No one is disputing that. However, Erickson's impact on world history was minimal while Columbus's was substantial.

The Vikings are a trivia question answer when it comes to the history of the United States and Canada.