I didn’t mean to go on a voyage of discovery this morning!

So, being the day after Columbus day, I was doing a little reading at breakfast on the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria on Wikipedia.

You know how Wikipedia is- you can jump easily to related subjects. So, I clicked to Leif Erikson, a Viking who visited North America long before Columbus. They sure know a lot about him for a story that took place 1000 years ago!

What I learned:

• While he is often credited with the discovery of North America he actually learned of it from another sailor of the seas.
• When he got there he actually rescued others who had been shipwrecked in Canada for some time
• He was a Christian Missionary on his way to convert Greenland when he saw the North American coast for the first time.
• TODAY October 9 is Leif Erikson Day! Totally unexpected.(Surely it should have been the day before Columbus day not after?)
• AND there is an opera about the Leif Erikson expedition called The Visitor. I couldn’t find out much about it, the links are broken, but you can read quite a bit here: The Visitor Opera.

And seeing as there are no clips available of that piece, here instead is Viking God Wotan flying over the earth from the La fura dels baus Ring- one of my favorite parts of that production. I love this music- go Zubin!