For the explorers from ice-covered Greenland, it must have seemed a paradise. A genuinely green land of lush meadows irrigated by free-flowing rivers. Whales and caribou to hunt, nesting birds and wild salmon to catch, grapes and wheat to gather. A warmer climate with more daylight and milder winters.
Leif Erikson reached the Americas before Columbus. Why doesn’t he get more credit?
"Leiv Eiriksson Discovering America," by the Norwegian artist Christian Krohg, from the National Museum of Art in Oslo. A version of the painting by the artist's son, Per Krohg, hangs in the U.S. Capitol. (Heritage Images/Getty Images)
