Happy Viking Day!

Today we celebrate Columbus arriving 500 years after the Vikings arrived in Vinland, which is now known as North America. How did the Vikings manage to do this before the advancement Columbus had in shipbuilding? Simple. The Vikings also had oars. Oars had reached their zenith of power in the Greek trireme. So why didn’t the Greeks make it as far the Vikings? The Greeks didn’t have the Viking’s Icelandic Yogurt.

The Vikings did not think they discovered a new land, as they had contact with Inuit groups that had themselves made it to the west coast of Greenland, which technically speaking, is grouped with North America. Iceland is where the North American and European tectonic plates meet so it is fitting that explorers from Iceland were the first to make the voyage to America.

The Vikings were not settlers; they were not looking for gold. They were looking for lumber and trading routes. Simply put, Greenland and Iceland don’t have a lot of trees. On their voyages, the Vikings brought with them Icelandic Yogurt – the first dairy in North America and the first good traded between Europe and America. More importantly, it was a fair trade.

Unfortunately, times changed and the Vikings stopped returning to their seasonal camps set up by Eric the Red like the ones found in L’Anse aux Meadows. 500 years later, Columbus sailed to the Americas never realizing he was in the same land as the Vikings. He would spend his entire life believing he had reached an unheard of part of Asia.

We are proud to carry on the great tradition of Viking Icelandic Yogurt in America. Just like then, Viking Icelandic Yogurt is all natural and high in protein. It powered the oars of the Viking long boats across the stormy North Atlantic. When you unleash your inner Viking, you’ll understand.

#holiday