The two medieval Icelandic sagas translated in this volume tell one of the most fascinating stories in the history of exploration — the discovery of America by Norseman, five centuries before Christopher Columbus. In spare and vigorous prose they record Europe's first surprised glimpse of the eastern shores of the North American continent and the Red Indian natives who inhabited them. The Sagas describe how Eirik the Red founded an Icelandic colony in Greenland and how his son, Leif the Lucky, later sailed south to explore and if possible exploit the chance discovery by Bjarni Herjolfsson of an unknown land.

The cover shows an axehead from the grave of a Viking chief in the National Museum, Copenhagen. (Snark International)