Erik the Red's Saga

Erik the Red's saga is a nice adventure story that includes people getting lost, engaging in hyperbole to sell real estate and deciding it is better to leave in peace than stay and fight. It also has bits about conflict between Christianity and the "old" religion. Everything together makes for an interesting story.

What makes it even more interesting is the setting and passing remarks about location. These guys just happened to voyage from Norway out to Greenland. That is quite a trip. But that what was not all. They also made it even further, out to what seems to be Newfoundland. They seemed to like it, but decided they would have to spend too much time fighting the natives, so they stayed away. It all seems so Scandinavian. Sure, they discovered all this stuff way before the other Europeans. But, they didn't want to rock the boat, so they never made a big deal about it. We only know about it, because it just happens to be part of a good story.