Approaches to Vínland. A Conference on the Written and Archaeological Sources for the Norse Settlements in the North-Atlantic Region and Exploration of America. Edited by Andrew Wawn and Pórunn Sigurdardóttir. Sigurdur Nordal Institute Studies, 4. Reykjavík: 2001 Pp. 238. $32.

The seventeen articles in this volume are based on papers read at a colloquium sponsored by the Sigurdur Nordal Institute in 1999. Not a Stand der Forschung, nor yet an attempt to produce a conclusive study of the Vínland episode of Scandinavian exploration, the articles illustrate the different approaches—literary, historical, climatological, archeological, and others—that have been used to shed light on the question of where Vínland was, what happened there, and what those events meant to subsequent generations. The single exception is Árni Björnsson's "Prerequisites for saga writing" which attempts to explain the origins of saga writing in Iceland.

Margaret Cormack
College of Charleston