Timeline of Norse colonization of the Americas

• Norse colonization of the Americas:
  • c.1000: Erik the Red and Leif Ericson, Viking navigators, discovered and settled Greenland, Helluland (possibly Baffin Island), Markland (perhaps Labrador) and Vinland (probably Newfoundland). The Greenland colony lasted until the 15th century, but the settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, the only known site of a Norse village in North America outside of Greenland, is estimated to have endured less than a decade.
  • c.1350: The Norse Western Settlement in Greenland was abandoned.
  • 1354: King Magnus of Sweden and Norway authorised Paul Knutson to lead an expedition to Greenland which may never have taken place
  • c.1450–1480s: The Norse Eastern Settlement in Greenland was abandoned, as the opening stages of the Little Ice Age occurred.

Other Sources

• Seaver, Kristen (1995) The Frozen Echo: Greenland and the Exploration of North America, ca. A.D. 1000-1500 (Stanford University Press) ISBN 978-0804731614

See also

• Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
• Settlement of the Americas

• Kirsten Seaver (1995) The Frozen Echo: Greenland and the Exploration of North America, ca. A.D. 1000-1500 p.205: a reference to sailors in Bergen in 1484 who had visited Greenland (Seaver speculates that they may have been English); p.229ff: archaeological evidence of contact with Europe towards the end of the 15th century