"Celebrates and explores the Viking saga from the combined perspectives of history, archaeology, oral tradition, literature, and natural science. The book's contributors chart the spread of marauders and traders in Europe as well as the movement of farmers and explorers throughout the North Atlantic and into the New World"--Back cover.

"An exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., April 29, 2000-September 5, 2000"--T.p. Issued in conjunction with an exhibition held at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Apr. 29-Sept. 5, 2000.

Puffins, ringed pins, and runestones: the Viking passage to America /William W. Fitzhugh -- Viking Homelands. Scandinavia in the Viking Age / Peter H. Sawyer -- The Scandinavian landscape: people and environment / Neil S. Price -- Farming and daily life / Sigrid H.H. Kaland and Irmelin Martens -- Religion, art, and runes / Anne-Sofie Gräslund -- Shamanism and the Vikings? / Neil S. Price -- Political organization and social life / Lars Jørgensen -- From warrior to trade economy / Lotte Hedeager -- Ships and navigation / Arne Emil Christensen. -- Viking Raiders. The Viking age in Europe / Christopher D. Morris -- The eastern route: Finland in the Viking Age / Torsten Edgren -- " Laid waste, plundered, and burned" : Vikings in Frankia / Neil S. Price -- Viking expansion and cultural blending in Britain and Ireland / Colleen E. Batey, John Sheehan. -- Vikings in the North Atlantic. Sagas of western expansion / Haraldur Ólafsson -- The North Atlantic environment / Paul C. Buckland -- Vikings in the Faeroe Islands / Símun V. Arge -- The archaeology of Landnám: early settlement in Iceland / Orri Vésteinsson -- The Icelandic commonwealth period: building a new society / Helgi Thorláksson -- Eddas and sagas in medieval Iceland / Gísli Sigurðsson. -- Viking America. 1000 A.D.: East Meets West / Peter Schledermann -- Skraeling: first peoples of Helluland, Markland, and Vinland / D. Odess, S. Loring and W.W. Fitzhugh -- A Norse penny from Maine / Steven L. Cox -- The Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows / Birgitta Linderoth Wallace -- Jasper cores from L'Anse aux Meadows / Kevin P. Smith -- An introduction to the Vinland sagas / Gísli Sigurðsson -- Greenlander's saga -- Erik the Red's saga -- An archaeologist's interpretation of the Vinland sagas / Birgitta Linderoth Wallace -- The quest for Vinland in saga scholarship / Gísli Sigurðsson -- The Norse and Native North Americans / Patricia D. Sutherland -- Ellesmere: Vikings in the Far North / Peter Schledermann -- A world in transition: early cartography of the North Atlantic / Douglas McNaughton -- Unanswered questions / Kirsten A. Seaver. -- Norse Greenland. From Vikings to Norseman / Jette Arneborg and Kirsten A. Seaver -- Life and death in Norse Greenland / Niels Lynnerup -- The farm beneath the sand / Joel Berglund -- Greenland and Europe / Jette Arneborg -- Natives and Norse in Greenland / Hans Christian Gulløv -- The demise of Norse Greenland / Thomas H. McGovern -- The Norse legacy in Greenland / Hans Christian Petersen. -- Viking Legacy. Celebrating the Viking millennium in America / William W. Fitzhugh and Elisabeth I. Ward -- The old Norse dream / Carin Orrling -- Reflections on an icon: Vikings in American culture / Elisabeth I. Ward -- Stumbles and pitfalls in the search for Viking America / Birgitta L. Wallace and William W. Fitzhugh -- The Newport tower / Johannes Hertz -- Sagas and science: climate and human impacts in the North Atlantic / Astrid E.J. Ogilvie and Thomas H. McGovern -- Travel the Viking Trail: eco-tourism and Viking heritage / Ian A. Morrison.