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| Norse colonization of North America |
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 Leiv Eirikson Discovering America, 1893 painting byChristian Krohg |
Alleged artifacts |
Gunnbjörn Ulfsson (fl. c. 10th century), also calledGunnbjörn Ulf-Krakuson, was aNorse explorer, originally fromNorway and later asettler of Iceland. He is credited with being the first European to sightGreenland when he was blown off course during a voyage from Norway to Iceland. Several modern place names in Greenland commemorate him, most notablyGunnbjørn Fjeld, the island’s highest mountain.[1]
The only reference to Gunnbjörn is found in theBook of Settlement of Iceland (Landnámabók). It records that his sons lived in Iceland’sWestfjords and notes that theGunnbjörnssker were named after him. Blown off course while sailing from Norway, Gunnbjörn and his crew sighted islands west of Iceland (later calledGunnbjörn's skerries). They reported the discovery but did not land. An exact date for this event is not preserved in the sagas; sources suggest dates ranging from about 876 to 932. The first recorded visits to the skerries were made bySnæbjörn Galti around 978, and soon after byErik the Red, who explored Greenland and later established a settlement there.[2][3]
Waldemar Lehn (1911–2005), professor emeritus at theUniversity of Manitoba and an expert on atmospheric refraction and mirages, argued that the skerries Gunnbjörn reported may have been asuperior mirage of Greenland’s coast rather than actual islands.[4] Such phenomena were known to the Norse, who called themhillingar.[5] If this interpretation is correct, Gunnbjörn’s voyage would represent the first recorded European sighting of geologic North America.
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