I'm John Batchel with Martin Whittick. His new book is American Vikings, how the North sailed into the lands and imaginations of America.

The books to depend upon are Eric the Red Saga in the 13th century and Saga of Greenlanders in the 14th century.

And boy, are they dramatic. Martin, is this wonderful to speak of the drama presented.

Men and women, a Lady Macbeth figure, you've mentioned, her Freitas, daughter of Eric the Red.

And then the men come and go, but there are not enough women for them, more tension.

They are looking, however, always for new lands.

They're looking for timber that goes back to Greenland because timber is in short supply in Greenland.

And we come to a place that has been identified over these last two centuries as a possible outpost, a base for Leif Erikson and and his crew. Loss Almeadow. Where is that, Martin?

Lottes Omeadow is in Newfoundland, in northern Newfoundland, and excavations there in the 1960s

have revealed clear, definite proof of Norse presence in North America.

Four complexes of halls and buildings were found there.

Some ironworking was going on there as well.

The style of the buildings are clearly similar to those in Iceland, Greenland and Norway.

Wood was cut by metal axes, which are clearly European axes, of a type

that were not used by Native Americans. Some of the very small number of personal finds there,

striker lights and some jewellery, clearly point to Norse origins. as recently as 2021,

dendro chronological research there showed that wood was cut there

in the year 1021.

So exactly 1,000 years after the wood was cut in 1021, we were able to date it to that year. We know that

in 1021 and before that probably as well, probably for a little time afterwards, there were

Vikings, there were Norse at Lentormado in northern Newfoundland, but it wasn't Vinland.

They must have gone further on from that because

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