For four centuries or more, from their first visits around AD 1000 to the eve of the Columbus voyages, the Vikings explored and settled thousands of miles of the coasts and rivers of North America. From New York's Long Island to the Canadian High Arctic, the New World was a playground for Viking adventurers. And the name the Vikings gave to this New World was 'America'.
Graeme Davis is a specialist in the mediaeval world, its language, literature and culture. Recent books include studies of the language and literature of Anglo-Saxon, Old High German and Old Icelandic cultures. He is a lecturer in the History of the English Language with the Open University, previously a British Academy funded researcher at the University of Iceland, and an enthusiast for the North Atlantic region, where he has travelled extensively.