Leif Erikson Rescues Earlier Castaways

Around the year 1000, Norse explorer Leif Erikson sailed from Greenland and became the first named European known to reach North America, landing in a place he called Vinland near modern-day Newfoundland. According to the saga tradition, when he first made landfall, he found and rescued two shipwrecked men whose names were not recorded. Since these men had already reached the shore before Leif arrived, the account makes them the first known Europeans to set foot in America. Their identities remain unknown, but their rescue appears as the starting point of Leif Erikson’s voyage in the written sources.

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