Battle of Vinland (1010)

Thorfinn Karlsefni was the first Norse explorer to arrive in Canada, the newly discovered land of Vinland on the same site as his predecessors Thorvald and Leif Eriksson. According to the Saga of Erik the Red, he set sail with three ships and 140 men.[1]

Upon reaching Vinland, their intended destination, they found the now famous grapes and self-sown wheat which the land was named for. They spent a very hard winter at this site, where they barely survived by fishing, hunting game inland, and gathering eggs on the island. The following summer they sailed to the island of Hop where they had the first peaceful interactions with the native people, whom they traded with. Karlsefni forbade his men to trade their swords and spears, so they mainly exchanged their red cloth for pelts. Afterwards they were able to properly describe the aboriginal inhabitants, saying:

They were short in height with threatening features and tangled hair on their heads. Their eyes were large and their cheeks broad.[1]

Shortly thereafter the Norsemen were attacked by natives who had been frightened by a bull that broke loose from their encampment. They were forced to retreat to an easily defensible location and engage their attackers; at the end of the battle two of his men had been slain, while "many of the natives" were killed. As with anywhere in this foreign land, Karlsefni and his men realized that

despite everything the land had to offer there, they would be under constant threat of attack from the natives.[1]

After this adventure they returned to Greenland—their three-year excursion would be one of the longest-lasting known European colony in the New World until Columbus' voyages nearly 500 years later initiated full-scale trading operations. [2]