ABSTRACT
The celebration of Columbus's Day on 12 October is based on a sound historical foundation. That day commemorates the exhilarating moment more than five hundred years ago when Columbus first sighted an island off the American continent after having spent nine agonizing weeks on the Atlantic Ocean since his departure from Lisbon on 3 August 1492. In contrast, the dare for the observance of Leifr Eiríksson's Day, 9 October, in honor of the Vikings' discovery of America, is much less certain. 2 According to Eiríks saga rauða (henceforth Er), one of the two major sources treating the subject, Leifr arrived in the New World by chance. Having enjoyed the winter in Norway, he set out for Greenland the following summer. He spent a long time on the ocean, however, discovering"countries of whose existence he did not know" (Er, ÍF 4.5:211 ). 3 According to Groenlend-inga saga (henceforth Gr), the other main text, Leifr's expedition was carefully planned and he spent the winter in the New World. In either case it is impossible to guess when he would have landed, but one might assume that he would have preferred to arrive sooner than October. Not only is the date questionable, but the name itself is also open for discussion. According to Gr, the honor of being the first to"discover" the new country in the sense of sighting it and sailing close enough to the coast to describe three different areas, belongs to Leifr's contemporary, Bjarni Herjolfsson. Why has a questionable name been attached to an uncertain date? 4 I shall examine this example of modern myth surrounding the arrival of the first Europeans in North America by looking at the name before proceeding to the date.
