The North Atlantic

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

THE NORTH ATLANTIC EXPANSION

Gísli Sigurðsson

O

ur main source of information about the settlement of the North Atlantic
(Figure 41. 1 ) is Icelandic writings, supplemented by both archaeological evidence
and writings of foreign historians. Strong doubts have sometimes been raised about the
credibility of these texts which were first written in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
given that they describe events supposed to have taken place two to four centuries
before: the Book of the Icelanders, the Book of Settlement and the sagas of Icelanders

Figure 41. 1 Map of the North Atlantic.