The exploration of North America by Norsemen began in the late 10th century when they explored areas of the North Atlantic , colonized Greenland , and created a short-term settlement near the northern tip of Newfoundland. The remains of buildings were found at L'Anse aux Meadows in dating to approximately 1, years ago. The Norse settlements on Greenland lasted for almost years. L'Anse aux Meadows, the only confirmed Norse site in present-day Canada, [ 5 ] was small and did not last as long.
Other such Norse voyages are likely to have occurred for some time, but there is no evidence of any other Norse settlements in North America. The Norse exploration has been subject to numerous controversies concerning the European exploration and settlement of North America. They are heroic narratives originally shared orally and written down centuries later in Iceland during the 13th and 14th centuries.
This limits their reliability as a historical record. After the end of the Medieval Warm Period , the area began to freeze over and became hazardous to ships. His crew continued past the skerries, down the coast of Greenland, and settled on an island near Tunulliarfik Fjord ; he named the fjord Eiriksfjord after himself.
Norse Greenland consisted of two main settlements. The Eastern Settlement was at the southwestern tip of Greenland, while the Western Settlement was about km up the west coast, near present-day Nuuk. Norse Greenlanders were limited to living along scattered fjords on the island that provided habitable land for their animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, and cats to be kept and farms to be established.
There is evidence of Norse trade with the Thule , the ancestors of the Inuit , and the Beothuk , related to the Algonquin. The Dorset people had withdrawn from Greenland before the Norse settlement of the island.
