1001 A.D. by Wes
Wetzel is an adventure story of Leif Ericson and the first Vikings to explore
North America. Leif Ericson was a famous explorer who is famous for settling
Vinland which is in modern day Newfoundland.
The story opens with Jonathan Henry, an archaeologist giving
a lecture at Cornell University. He is discuss the amazing discovery that a
U.N. team sent to explore the effects of global warming in Greenland. The team
discovered the remains of a Viking village. In the village, they discover the
ruins of a church and images of iron hammer and well as two sunken Viking ships
in the harbor. While excavated the site, they discover old hide scrolls in Old
Norse script. The team discovers it is the journal of Eric Thorson, a Viking
man born in 975 and a friend of Leif Ericson. The audience is then introduced
to the life and adventures of Eric Thorson and the Vikings who left their home
in Iceland, settled in Greenland and would explore to new land in the New World.
I enjoyed this book as it explored a part of history that is
often forgotten as Christopher Columbus is celebrated as the “discoverer” of
the New World. Since the 1960s, there have been discoveries of evidence that
the Vikings were in North American almost 500 years before Columbus. I enjoyed
Mr. Wetzel’s imagination of what life may have been like for these men and
women who adventured from their home to create a new home in new lands. I
highly recommend this book for those who enjoy reading about another piece of
history.
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