Conclusion
CONCLUSION
The story has endured for over 960 years through Interpretations from folklore, memory, runic script, Latin, and Icelandic to English. 'Through all that time, from all that distance, over so many peoples' tongues from that fey settlement of human daring, the actual vision of happenings has been transmitted to us. When the lost ruins of the old Viking settlements on Greenland came to light and awakened, sometime in the 16th century, interest in the old explorations of many years ago, a host of individuals and some companies - perhaps even the great Admiral Columbus - upon hearing and attempting decipherment of these even then ancient sagas, have made strenuous efforts at finding the precise locale of Leifsbudir - that river, lake and terrain whereon the son of Erick the Red had built his houses. The literature on the subject is voluminous, filing whole cases in libraries, the theories abounding, 'replica' voyages made, seminars, college courses, theses, theories, articles, books, pamphlets, speeches, talks, arguments - all have filled the void of mystery felt by generations of historians and Scandinavians for whom the old tales of the hero and the voyages thrill the hearts and resonate in the intellects of men.
So far, none of these studies has born the fruit of acceptance by all persons, or even a substantial portion of them. The site of L'Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland has so far come the closest to acceptance by being demonstrably Norse, but as time goes on and comparisons are made against the sagas, it too, becomes embroiled by doubts that it is Leifsbudir. Certainly that Canadian locale will not bear attempted duplication of navigational detail for it is in a straight line to and from Bratahlid in Greenland and would entail only days' travel thereto, not the long and elaborate voyages we can particularize from these epics. So the search has lasted for over four hundred years. I have reason to believe at this time that the search may be successfully concluded. A site which matches in all specifics and in all respects concerning the terrain and the traverse has been found and thereon exists evidence that at one time a people very like the Norse resided there. Perhaps, just perhaps, we have found the place where Leif Erickson and his hardy band of thirty-five made their epic landfall a thousand years ago.
The story has endured for over 960 years through Interpretations from folklore, memory, runic script, Latin, and Icelandic to English. 'Through all that time, from all that distance, over so many peoples' tongues from that fey settlement of human daring, the actual vision of happenings has been transmitted to us. When the lost ruins of the old Viking settlements on Greenland came to light and awakened, sometime in the 16th century, interest in the old explorations of many years ago, a host of individuals and some companies - perhaps even the great Admiral Columbus - upon hearing and attempting decipherment of these even then ancient sagas, have made strenuous efforts at finding the precise locale of Leifsbudir - that river, lake and terrain whereon the son of Erick the Red had built his houses. The literature on the subject is voluminous, filing whole cases in libraries, the theories abounding, 'replica' voyages made, seminars, college courses, theses, theories, articles, books, pamphlets, speeches, talks, arguments - all have filled the void of mystery felt by generations of historians and Scandinavians for whom the old tales of the hero and the voyages thrill the hearts and resonate in the intellects of men.
So far, none of these studies has born the fruit of acceptance by all persons, or even a substantial portion of them. The site of L'Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland has so far come the closest to acceptance by being demonstrably Norse, but as time goes on and comparisons are made against the sagas, it too, becomes embroiled by doubts that it is Leifsbudir. Certainly that Canadian locale will not bear attempted duplication of navigational detail for it is in a straight line to and from Bratahlid in Greenland and would entail only days' travel thereto, not the long and elaborate voyages we can particularize from these epics. So the search has lasted for over four hundred years. I have reason to believe at this time that the search may be successfully concluded. A site which matches in all specifics and in all respects concerning the terrain and the traverse has been found and thereon exists evidence that at one time a people very like the Norse resided there. Perhaps, just perhaps, we have found the place where Leif Erickson and his hardy band of thirty-five made their epic landfall a thousand years ago.
