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Article: Putting a face on the Vikings in North America.(Features)(Ideas)
- Article from:
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Article date:
- September 23, 1999
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 The Christian Science Publishing Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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At the turn of the last millennium, a party of Norse Vikings landed on this rocky, fogbound shore, built a small settlement, and set out to explore a vast new region they called "Vinland."
But for much of the past 1,000 years, the Norse voyages were forgotten, the epic accounts of their journeys dismissed as myths. Generations of schoolchildren were taught that Columbus discovered America, and that another Italian, Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), was the first European to lay eyes on Newfoundland.
Today, the elusive Viking legacy in North America remains controversial. Like fall leaves falling, the US celebration of Columbus Day in a few weeks routinely ...