a Norwegian navigator, who fled to Iceland in 982. While searching for a western land which his countrymen had previously visited, he came upon Greenland. In 985 he returned to Iceland and organized a fleet of twenty vessels for a new voyage. Some of the ships were lost in a storm, but he succeeded in reaching the Greenland coast with fourteen. His colony was not permanent, however. His son LEIF, twelve years later, is said to have discovered the continent of North America, which he called Markland, or Vinland.