Introduction
The Vikings and the associated settlements, though largely identified as having originated within the region now known as Northern Europe and Scandinavia, have since expanded from the modern nations of Norway and Sweden east into Finland and Russia, though only barely so, but more importantly, south and west into Denmark, Scotland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and, finally, Newfoundland.
Old World or New World?
Prior to 1492, the regions that the Vikings had settled had likely been referred to simply by more local names, such as “Vinland” or “Greenland” in North America. Since the concept of the “New World” had not been established prior to the expeditions of Christopher Columbus, the entirety of the Viking territory would have been considered “Old World” territory, yet the regions had later been redefined as included within the “New World” by way of being transatlantic, even though the regions settled by the Vikings have been surprisingly sequential and not necessarily across the lengthy reaches of the Atlantic.
Today, the definition of the “New World” defines the continents almost entirely by plate tectonics; however, all of Iceland, including the North American side of the island, remains identified as a European power nonetheless, for instance. Even though the closest distance from Norway to Newfoundland may require lengthy Atlantic travel, the Viking journey between the two had likely involved the aforementioned stepping stones of Denmark, Scotland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland prior to the final settlement of Vinland by the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland in present-day Canada. For Scotland, the specific regions to be settled by the Vikings had largely corresponded with the Orkney Islands, the Shetland Islands, Caithness, Sutherland, and the Inner and Outer Hebrides, including the Uist Islands and the Isles of Skye and Barra.
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