About 1000 year ago, during a voyage from Norway to Greenland, Viking Leif Ericson was blown off course and unexpectedly discovered North America. He named it after certain plants growing in the area. What did he call it?

The name given to this new territory translates from Old Norse to "Wine Land." According to the Norse sagas, which chronicle these voyages, members of Leif Ericson's expedition were astonished to find wild vines and grapes growing in the temperate climate. For explorers accustomed to the harsh, cold landscapes of Greenland and Iceland, such a fertile land was a remarkable discovery, and the name reflected its most valuable and surprising resource. The crew reportedly loaded their ship with both timber and grapes for the return journey.

This historic landing occurred around the year 1000 CE, nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus reached the Americas. Leif, son of the famous Erik the Red, wasn't intentionally seeking a new continent. He was sailing from Norway to the Norse colony in Greenland when a storm blew his ship far off course, leading to the accidental discovery of a land he would explore and name. He and his crew established a small, temporary settlement there to wait out the winter before returning to Greenland.

For centuries, these accounts were considered mere legends, but the discovery of a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, in the 1960s provided concrete archaeological evidence of their presence. While historians still debate whether the "vín" referred to true grapes or another type of berry suitable for fermentation, the name Vinland has endured as the Viking designation for their North American discovery.