The Vinland Mystery (1984) Online

The video describes the discovery of a Norse settlement in Newfoundland called L'Anse aux Meadows. I would say that overall this video is really well done. The details about the discovery of this land, and the general structure that the video was ordered in makes it very easy to comprehend while also being interesting to listen to. The accounts coming from the discover himself help portray this discover and gives the motivations behind how it was discovered. Furthermore, the info they give on the Eskimos and what appears to be a recounting of events gives and even bigger context to this historic event and help encapsulate the video's time-frame. Additionally, a major aspect of this film that helped convey the overall sentiment was the sound score. Throughout the entirety of the film, the music that went along with the content helped give a sense of wonder and accomplishment while just watching to story of this site. Finally, I like the way that all the info was presented and the addition of good visuals to showcase the discovery.

A problem with the film, however, is that although the content is really good in this film, I would say that it does not go in-depth enough. This is mainly limited by the length of the film; however, if they could have included more commentary from the discoverer or more historical background into the context of the site, it would have greatly improved the film. Further, I think that the pacing could have been slightly quicker. It feels to be a bit too drawn out for the content that is in the film, and I think conveying the content a bit quicker could help remedy with that. Another criticism that I have with this film is that the cuts of the discoverer could be a bit cleaner in their presentation. It feels that the film is built around an interview almost, and I think it could be improved by just making those portions more straightforward so that it seems more like the discoverer himself is telling the story. Overall, I think that it is still a great film and would rate it 8/10.

I would rate this film from one out of ten I rate it a seven out of ten. This film goes over how settlers arrived in modern day Canada and try to figure out the events that took placed during that time period. Events that were lost throughout time are hard to piece together from discoveries that are found because it can answer some questions, but they will also create other questions. The objective of this film is to inform and talk about some of the discoveries that were made by stories that where written and passed down through generations. They used that knowledge to figure out where and the reasons in to why they settled down in certain areas in modern day Canada. In my opinion I found the subject of this film to be very interesting and I learned many new theories on how people arrived in Canada and the reason why. The way that the research was being told in a boring tone that is kind of typical in most historical documentaries. The Vinland Mystery goes into the research and the discovery that was being made through stories being told by Norse tales that were passed down throughout the generation which detailed the event into why they arrived in Canada. There were also some beautiful scenery in the documentary like the discovery the 40 mile long beach that was mentioned in the Norse documents. The amount of history that that the producers had to fit within the time frame of the film was well put together and was told in a way that the audience could get an understanding of the research being done. I also found interesting that once they were finish with their research the site became a national historical park and was nominated to the world heritage list by UNESCO. Overall, I found the film to be a very good film that should be watch if you are interested into the Norse movement to the Canada and how they may have been the first to discover the America instead of the Europeans. The length of the film helps it to be a quick watch and still get a lot of information from it.

This film was very intriguing and educational. Nordic groups are typically viewed as extreme war hungry people who ravage and pillage all that they see. The Vikings depicted through this film were a gentler folk who built societies and extended culture. Although there was still distrust betrayal between the Vikings and the Native Canadians, the people groups still will willing to live with the idea of possibly coexisting. The videos contributor, Dr. Helge Ingstad, and his wife were in search for remains and archaeological evidence of the vikings in North America. The story and preservation of the site was in good hands. Dr. Helge was very intelligent in finding the remains of the Viking's home. He used legend and tale that was past on with word of mouth for centuries to find the location of the site. The excitement and feeling of discovery kept me drawn into the film. The idea that there were preserved, untouched remains in Northern Newfoundland was quite exciting to here. The Narration of the film was also well kept. The voice was calm and smooth, but was also vivid enough to not put me to sleep. (As most Narrators seem to do for any form of documentary I watch.) Another good point about the film was the quality of video. The video itself may not be in high definition, but the color was well kept in digitizing the original film. Though the old video also is a bit off putting because of its nature of being fuzzy at times. The movie as a whole was well directed, though. It was smooth, but straight to the point. I felt that I could get a good amount of information, while still feeling fully entertained. The image of the map in the video was another good point that I found visually stimulating as I watched the video. Even though the video was of lesser quality, I could still see and read the map quite clearly. Out of 10 stars, 10 being best, I would give this video seven and a half stars. It was intriguing and still straight to the point.

This is a well made short documentary. It left me curious about what other information we know about the Norse and Vinland, though I had the impression it's not much. The pace was relatively slow which is good for a documentary, it was slow enough the information was easier to comprehend without being so slow as to become tedious or frustrating. They editors did a good job at keeping the photos and video clips "in sync" with the narration even when the two were not strictly related, it felt appropriate and related - neither distracted from the other as documentaries are occasionally guilty of. The subject of "the Vinland Mystery" was exciting too. Even at documentary paces, the passion of the archeologist was clear. They were seeking this mysterious land and trying to tell the story of the Norse who tried to settle it, and the terrible wars between the native peoples because they truly cares about it. While I personally would have like more detail on things like how the Norse constricted their houses, and comparing the actually cultures of the Natives and Norse, perhaps comparing cultures of different Norse settlements discovering/seeking Vineland; I believe it was a wise choice to leave such information out of this particular film. It is a half hour, short documentary. Without knowing much about or having much interest in the Norse and Vinland, this documentary remains very approachable at that length and level of detail. Anyone with any interest in the History of this land, the Norse, or Native people/ their interactions with newcomers to North America could enjoy this video. In particular the dreadful war between the Norse and native peoples was a fascinating (tragic, but somehow that always makes wars more interesting to study, doesn't it?). That is a subject that could have it's own shirt documentary, or one could their own deeper research into the subject, as I will. There is also footage of mound style.houses are mentioned but not fully explained in the video in the middle a bit and more at the end. These houses looked much bigger on the inside than I expected, and I would have liked to know more about them. I understand they were recreations, but I am still a little confused what they are recreations of; where were the originals, who made the originals, who made the recreations? That was the one bit that I think maybe was explained a bit more than I picked up on in the video.

I would give this film a rating of 9/10. The premise is fascinating, and for when this film is put together, it utilizes graphics well. It also shows the watcher the story the search for Vinland in a concise and directed manner. The story of the search for Vinland begins in Norse and Eskimo legends - each group mentions meeting each other, but a location had not yet been determined. After searching, an initial location used for a shipping stop was discovered. This was not the final location; this was supposedly found later at the now Historic Ste of L'Anse aux Meadows. Artifacts dating from 11th century Vikings were found in the area, making it the earliest known Viking settlement in North America. As for the quality of the production, the style makes for an incredible short documentary, before productions such as today's History Channel and Discovery Channel decisively changed what a documentary is. It has the classic line on the map graphics, illustrations of legends, interviews with archeologists, and a written introduction for the watcher to gather essential background information, all of which make it amazing for what it is - a 1980's documentary. Two moments I found particularly fascinating were the description of how they discovered the location of the camp, and the legend of when the Vikings met the Eskimos. Instead of just following coastline, they followed the current of the water in order to find where the ship of the Vikings would most likely appear. This seems simple, but probably cut out much of the coastline that they would be required to look at. As for the meeting between cultures, after learning about the Eskimos' practices and culture and knowing the Vikings' activities in Europe (destruction and pillaging - the fun stuff), the ending is not that surprising. The Vikings pillaged an Eskimo village, and the Eskimos used their dominance in the cold environment to oust the Vikings back to sea. Given all of this, the film deserves a 9/10. It is not perfect - even if the style is nostalgic, it is dated. However, it was very informational and put together very well, and definitely deserves the 9/10.

I really enjoyed this documentary, I thought it provided good information on a specific topic of Norse history in Canada. With that being said I would rate this documentary as a 7.5 out of 10.

I gave it this rating because, although I feel it did provide very good information in a condensed movie, I think it was slightly too condensed. In my opinion this documentary could have been slightly longer and talked a little bit more about the voyages of Eric the Red and Leif Erickson. It also could've delved more into some of the interactions between the Inuit people and the settlers. While this documentary covered a good deal about the excavation I feel like the documentary could've talked a little bit less about all the little details of the excavation, for example, I feel like the could've covered everything about the bog iron in probably 30 seconds.

I also think this movie could've spoken more about the "legends" of Vinland. After watching the documentary, I feel like this whole documentary was about a hunt for this place only talked about in stories and they didn't find it. But they did find something.

The movie was very interesting and provided good insight into the history of the Norse in Canada. I thought that the movie did a very good job of explaining the basic history of the Norse explorations to North America. Although it would've been nice for the documentary to cover more about the expeditions and I feel like the historical significance of the dig site was kind of skimmed over.

Overall, this documentary provided very good information about a pretty significant archaeological find. I would be curious to find out if anymore excavations have been done since this documentary has been made. This movie was very well made for being an old movie and was actually very easy to watch. So, all in all this movie was a great learning experience that provided good information.

I would rate this title at 7/10 as it was interesting as it was somewhat easier to follow, and the spectacular visuals really provided insight but at the same time could add to some confusion throughout the documentary.

Before watching this short documentary, I was completely unaware of a Norse settlement in North America. "The Vinland Mystery" follows the research of Norwegian archeologist Dr. Helge Ingstad which led to the discovery and validation of a Norse settlement located in Newfoundland, Canada. This documentary was created in the 1980s which makes sense as the production quality was lacking with minimal technical aspects - generally it seems like something that could be made in iMovie or Windows Movie Maker as they just had the audio playing over pictures or video clips.

The use of Dr. Ingstad's work in this documentary gives it a sense of validity as the actual archeological work is displayed as they cover information relating to it. The mystery aspect of this was really intriguing as Ingstad and his wife were able to comb through Icelandic records to determine where Vinland might be - figuring that "Vinland" might not be referencing a vineyard or wine production but rather a pasture or meadow. The physical journey was one of the most interesting ideas followed by Ingstad as moving from one clue to the next allowed them to get closer to what they wanted to find. Though as this was a short documentary - there was minimal resolution other than the fact that the L'Anse aux Meadows site could've just been a stopover as the previous locations had been. Quite possible that some form of climate change disallowed the growth of grapes or somewhere southernly would be Vinland if sticking to the original interpretation of the name.

Finally, to recap everything - the archeological process followed throughout this film was very intuitive and intriguing. Following the path of historical documents allowed for a generally accepted location for "Vinland." Production was a little questionable but acceptable as this came out during the 80s, though the images and video clips made for a visually pleasing piece if you forego analysis. I would recommend this piece to anyone who has an interest in the Norse and their cross-Atlantic travels during the early ages that has a continuous path of analysis without jumping around much.

This was a very good goose chase that only ended up finding the egg of the goose and a few feathers. Having no knowledge of this prior, it was a solid description from start to finish and I actually learned a lot.

The vinland mystery is a story that was told down through many generations and this "land" was the wonderful grape growing land that was "found". I thought it gave a good background and really went to give as much information as they had found, so the whole line of events could easily be traced. It was funny how this land in which everyone knew about through word of mouth, never had been documented except in only two sagas: 'Eric the Red' and 'Greenlanders'. Eric's story was the same in 'eric the red' and 'greenlanders'. Eric had to be exiled which I find fascinating because of his choices but why did he commit murder in the first place? It's a total side mission but I would have liked to know why. This is why he lived a hard life like his dad but then the next question is why was his father living a hard life? There's just some backstory on Eric that I would like to know but I guess that's up to me to dream about. It makes sense that Dr. Ingstead would follow the exact route described by leif Erickson but if he already knew what was there, why go along the path? Well it was a good thing he did because he found what he needed, but not what he wanted. There was a beach that was a day long as in the story so Dr. Ingstead found said beach and followed it for another day and found 'L'anse Aux Meadows'. It was a big surprise that he found this beach, but the Norse went even further north. It was perfectly written as so that I thought they found vinland but they dug around and found where the Norse people were living for a short period of time. I was happy to know where they settled but why couldn't there have been clues for the actual 'vinland'? I enjoyed the ending in how they recognized this land of "L'anse Aux meadows" as a national treasure but we still don't know where vinland is. The only reason we're sure the Norse were here because of a nice clue, luckily left behind by those wonderful people. I'm just as happy as I am shocked, we found where they stopped but where did they go after that??? What's north? Ice? Did they turn around? I enjoyed this movie, just take the tiny wins during the movie and run with it! The Dr. and his wife didn't find vinland but they found the next best thing, proof.

I thought it was a good addition that the Dr. included some actual footage of his journey, it gave some life and allowed the viewer to see how gorgeous the land actually was. Having no prior knowledge of this or anything about the people, I had a clear description of who they were and their situations. It is a documentary, but I would recommend this for anyone who likes mystery and likes to have questions afterwards!

To rate this movie from a one to a ten with ten being the highest or best, I would have to give this movie a rating of six out of ten. I believe this movie to be very informative in the specific topic of "The Vinland Mystery." With that being said, while it was very informative there was one thing that made it very hard to watch. This was that of Dr Helge Ingstad, while i very much appreciated that they included him and his wife in this movie to provide more of their side of the story and details of what they experienced while exploring and researching, it is so hard to understand some of the things he is saying. This especially when they continue to play the audio of his voice but cut the video to another scenic moving portrait. I think adding subtitles to his voice would make it much easier to understand some of the things he is saying. Other than that, I fairly enjoyed the short movie, it did however cause me to ask a few questions. The first of these questions would be how they found out that the last recorded event in Greenland from the people Eric the Red brought over and colonized was a wedding in 1408? Probably an easy question to answer, but wasn't answered. The next on my list of questions would be how many people died trying to sail to Greenland, i only ask this because they said that Barnie was caught in a storm on his first trip from Iceland to Greenland and ended up in Vinland after not being able to navigate for days. This also makes me ask the question, if no one had sailed that far yet, where did all the native people come from? Speaking of native people, back in Greenland, whose bright idea was it to kill all the native women and children while the men were out hunting just because they seemed somewhat suspicious? Either way lets pretend that it happened to be the one person who escaped on the boat. After everything said and done, I did enjoy learning the story behind it considering i had never knew it prior, I just believe it could have been a better delivery.

On a scale of 1-10 I would rate this movie a 5/10To begin with, it's a very short film and not a lot can be reviewed from that. Secondly, it's a very old film and hard to watch. The technology isn't updated and it get's hard to focus when there is poor quality involved( even though at the time the technology used was the best). I would say that the video still has a lot of useful information about the mysterious Vinland. They used footage from actual researches trying to crack this mystery. Apparently Vinland is the place that could not be found and people have been trying to search for it, more than likely it could've been America that was discovered. I thought it was very informative on how they mentioned the background of Greenland and how Vinland was came to be heard of or discovered. They use sufficient information in my opinion, but it's very outdated. The video as a whole is very well made in it's connections to Norse history. It's still an informative video to people who haven't heard of the Vinland Mystery before. The movie traces history back to the original people who first settled there and told the stories from the artifacts that they had found. One thing I didn't like in the movie was how they kept going to the two people being interviewed. I know it's a documentary, but it kinda got off track when it would show them and it was hard to understand their accents. They could've improved on it more by just showing clips from the couples trip rather than having the actual interview in it. I also think that they could've added more information or background to Vinland rather than diving straight into it for people that have not a clue about it. Overall I thought the movie was informative, but slow and outdated. It could have been presented in a better way with more visual graphics to help viewers get a better understanding of where and what the narrator is talking about. Like mentioned before, I would say a 5/10, good information, but could've been presented better.

The Vinland Mystery is an interesting short documentary about Norse settlements in North America. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate this movie at a solid 7. The film does a great job of explaining how the Norse people ended up travelling to North America, and also how a pair of semi modern archeologists found and traced the journey of the first settlers. The documentary tells starts out by telling the viewer about Dr. Helge Ingstad and his wife Dr. Anne Stine Ingstad, and archeologist. In 1960, the Ingstads discovered the only authenticated Norse settlement in North America, located in Newfoundland. Together, the pair led many archeological expeditions and excavations between 1961 and 1968, which led to the confirmation that the site that they had discovered was indeed the first Norse settlement in North America. Dr. Ingstad then goes on to tell about how the Norse people made their way to North America, first settling in Iceland, and then Greenland, before moving on to what is now present-day Newfoundland. The documentary then switches gears, and focuses on the history of the first Norse settlers, by telling the story of Erik the Red. Erik was born in the year 950 and was brought to Iceland by his father. His father was a violent man, and Erik took after him. He was forced in to exile, and he ended up settling in Greenland. From there, his son Leif went on to settle what is called Vinland. This is where it all clicked for me personally. I did not know much at all about Norse history, especially when it came to early Norse settlements. I did however, know about Leif Erikson, the first European to "discover" America. This film helped me learn more about the history of Leif's family, and how they ended up stumbling upon North America. Overall, the documentary provides lots of great information about how the Norse people settled in North America. I particularly liked that they made a connection to more modern themes by telling about Dr. Ingstad's archeological excavations and expeditions, it made the documentary more well-rounded.

It was very interesting to be able to learn about the discovery of a Norse settlement based purely on tales that have been passed down through generations and eventually written down. From these tales and a selection of maps that are available, Dr. Helge and his wife were able to accurately trace the route from Norway across the Atlantic and Arctic oceans to what is now Iceland and Greenland, and eventually what is now Newfoundland and Labrador. It is staggering to learn about how far the settlers actually had to travel between land masses. The name "Vinland" comes from the settler Leif Erikson who had reportedly found wild grapes growing above the northern limit of the grape growing area.

It was also interesting to learn about the interactions between the Norse settlers and the native Inuit people. At first, all was well and peaceful. Then the settlers grew weary of the native people and decided to take matters into their own hands to prevent the natives from turning against them. This resulted in the surviving natives exacting revenge by burning the settlement and killing all but one man. Interactions like these are interesting to discover and study as they expose the build up and eventual and sometimes explosive release of tension between cultures.

One of the most interesting things detailed in the documentary was the discovery of the smelter. Smelters are typically used in the production of high melting point metals such as iron. Along with the smelter, there was evidence of slag and large quantities of charcoal, both of which are byproducts of iron processing, which lead to the assumption, however without sufficient evidence, that a small amount of iron had been produced. Later, this assumption was proven correct by the discovery of a vast bog containing large amounts of raw iron ore, and of a single iron nail.

Knowing of all the technology that was incorporated into this settlement, it seems surprising that it was only around for possibly a couple of years before the settlers continued south further into the Americas, or ventured back to Greenland.

Overall I would rate this film at an 8/10. I give it this score because it is great. The visuals of the archaeological site during the excavation put into perspective just how slow and daunting the discovery process can be. That being said, during the interview, Dr. Helge was difficult to hear at some points and was not easily understood which took some of the awe out of the whole experience.

On a scale of 1-10 I would rate this video an 8 due to its great amount of information that it presented. This video did a great job with the back story all the way up to current times where archaeologist were discovering the cites of the Norse. I was amazed on the accuracy of the maps as they were from so long ago where the vikings/Norse had very little technology yet were able to produce very descriptive forms of information. The information along with the maps that described the landscape of the land so well that even to this day people can follow their tracks showed me how important information was to these settlers. I was also very impressed with the sailing skills of Leif Erikson and the other settler along with him. They were able to tell where they were just based on the sun along with taking in every detail around them. I was also very impressed with the natives focus on information as well. Mostly because both the natives and the Norse documented very very similar stories of their relations with each other. The archaeologists did a great job retracing the the tracks of these Norse settlers while being very persistent and finding many artifacts that gave solid evidence to the existence of the Norse settlement, now making it a national historic park which is a huge achievement as an archaeologist.

Its still crazy to me that people could just pack up and leave to look for a new place to live have absolutely no idea what is in store for them especially back in the viking times were it would be even harder surviving without any sources of technology except for a compass that uses the sun. This makes me respect the Norse very much with their ability to explore adapt and survive even if they did pillage a village of innocent native women and children.

All in all this film did a great job telling the story of the Norse and how they were very intelligent, along with being great sailors, great explorers but bad in foreign relations.

As an overall rating, I would rank this short film as a 6 out of 10.

As a whole, the short film "The Vinland Mystery" is a very well made short film about Norse history. It portrays the historical connections of the geographical aspects of history to the events that took place there. It is difficult to capture the true history of something from quite some time ago and the execution of the delivery of the history was not as great as it could have been but it still provided enough information in order to get the key concepts across. I found it relatively boring in the sense that it was mostly just a dialogue overlay on images and short video clips. This falls into the same category of the time frame that it had been made in being that it was made in the early 1980's so there was not much advancement in movie production. Taking that into account, it was overall well made.

Having known nothing about Norse history prior to watching this film, I had a very clear takeaway of the series of events. It was interesting to hear about the folklore that was connected to this history and to be provided images and geographical locations that proved where Norse sites were truly located. It was interesting that the folklore was what was used in order to trace through the history and the steps that led to the discovery of the location where everything had taken place. It is proven how difficult life may have been in these settlements given information about how secluded they truly were. They were said to live by themselves and very alone which for no one would be an easy task and yet they were able to sustain a life for themselves.

Overall, I would say that this was a decently well made short film, based on the resources of the time frame. The film gave a thorough description of Norse history. I would recommend this film for anyone with any interest in this topic, although a tad short, it gave a well thought out and strategic story-line of the true events that had occurred.

On a scale of one to ten with ten being the highest, I would rate this movie at about a 6. I think that, overall, the movie is a good watch and gives accurate information (accurate to the time the movie was filmed; early to mid- 1980s) to the viewer about Viking settlements along the North American coast. I think the inclusion of motion pictures from Dr. Ingstad's research helped authenticate the movie and ground it in real life- instead of just watching an interview and scenery, we were able to watch clips of life in the area and archaeological digs that provide physical evidence for Viking settlements. I believe the scenic shots also give the movie a sort of authenticity by providing the audience with visuals of the land they are learning about. Dr. Ingstad talks about iron and bog iron, and the voiceover is paired with a shot of bog iron being dug and pulled straight from the field. As a wildlife major, I tend to enjoy documentaries that include facts about the natural environment and animals and show long shots of scenery and native wildlife. I enjoyed animals such as the black bear and spruce grouse being the visual that was provided while the narrator was explaining possible locations the Vikings may have settled and where Vinland (traditionally) would have been. I think it made a nice connection to the fact that historians and archaeologists cannot just point at any given map and name any given location as Vinland- there are accounts by the Viking settlers that describe wildlife and vegetation and the landscape, and these all factor in to locating the 'true' Vinland. Additionally, the inclusion of traditional art and maps really gave me a sense of how real this actually is; Dr. Ingstad and the narrator aren't just talking about any random old story, they are explaining the history behind the first European settlers of North America.

I will admit, however, that my review is a bit on the low side of what I think this movie deserves. This is simply because the movie is a short documentary that reviews information that I already knew- I am biased. I think the movie is of excellent quality in both filmography and information for the time that it was created, and that it would be an interesting and insightful watch for someone who doesn't have prior knowledge of Vinland and Viking settlements in North America. It is an interesting movie and I think it would have been more interesting and fun to watch had I not already known the information that it was made to pass along.

I would rate this movie a (9/10). The overall movie was enjoyable to watch and intriguing. I have watched a few viking films previously, and studied some Norse history.

The producer does a good job of explaining the history behind the movie. I found it interesting to see how the Vikings made there way over through Iceland and Greenland. I thought it was cool when they started to dig on the site to find any evidence of the Vikings. Especially when they found the iron nail and the bronze. It was cool for the story to come full circle and they find evidence in support of viking existence at the dig site. Unfortunately they find that the site may not actually be Vinland, but there was vikings there at one point in history.

I'm particularly fond of Norse history, so naturally I was very excited to watch this film. I think the story was told well, but it was made back in the 1980's so the quality of the picture isn't the greatest. It makes up for the picture quality by the quality of information presented throughout the whole film. I decided to give this film a 9/10 because the film was hard to watch and it doesn't make me want to watch it again. I also found that some of the interviews during the film were hard to understand, even with headphones in. If I rated it 10/10, the movie picture and long story telling would have to improve.

The Vinland Mystery was overall a very enjoyable film. I gave the movie a 9/10 because of a few things that lacked quality. I thought the picture was hard to read at times. I did think the long talking scenes often gave a lot of information, which can make it hard to keep the audience entertained. I found some of the interviews hard to understand, but it made it more understandable with the talking scenes. I am a big fan of Norse history, so having an opportunity to write this review excited me. People often don't realize who some of the earliest settlers actually were.

"The Vinland Mystery" is a fascinating short documentary about a pair of Norwegian archaeologists whose search for evidence of a Norse or Viking settlement on the continent of North America takes them across the northern Atlantic Ocean, from their native Norway to Iceland, where the old stories and sagas are held, to the coast of Greenland and on to Atlantic Canada. Helge Ingstad and his wife Anna Stine Ingstad tell of their scholarly and physical journey toward this goal, articulating their theories about the movements of the Norse based on the old stories recorded in the Icelandic sagas and describing the painstaking search for evidence of an old settlement, the places it took them, and the people it brought them into contact with.

The film tells a very interesting story about pulling an even older and more interesting story from the depths of the past and showing it to the world. The narrative of this archaeological and historical search is laid out quite well and keeps the viewer engaged for its duration. The images shown of the people they met along the way, particularly a character of great help like George Decker, and the commentary from the interview of the Ingstads gives the film a strong human element, which probably made it better than a purely academic documentary about the travels of the Viking peoples might be. The images of the scenery, the hills and ice floes and fjords, gives the film a sense of setting, and the music enhances both the sense of setting and the sense of humanity, in my opinion. All this stands behind the topic of the first confirmed European settlement in North America, which is fascinating by itself.

"The Vinland Mystery" has an overwhelming sense of "northernness" as C.S. Lewis called it, which is fitting considering the topic and setting, and despite being less than half an hour long it has the ability to grip the imagination of anyone with an interest in or basic knowledge of the world at that time. This is one of the best documentaries of comparable length that I have seen. I rate it nine on a scale of ten.

Rating: 6/10

It is rather difficult to detail history that that took place centuries ago. The Vinland Mystery takes a unique perspective on the settlement of Norse cultures in modern day Canada. By looking at modern geography in comparison to the geography described in stories past down over generations then shared many years ago, The Vinland Mystery attempts to break down the history of settlement and provide insight on events less known.

The delivery of this analyzation, however, is incredibly stale, and reminds me of something I'd catch myself drooling to in a 5th grade Social Studies class. Frame after frame with a monotone voice over makes easy for loosing focus. In order to get a better understanding, I rewatched with subtitles making this more of an audio book. Other reviews claim this documentary is too short. No disrespect, but I can't agree.

The Vinland Mystery looks at stories of folklore in attempt to understand the substructure of history in further understanding of how these events could have taken place. I appreciated the use of appropriate figures including graphic story telling and ancient maps. By comparing cultures in Greenland and Norway to landscapes of Canada, Dr. Helge argues his beliefs on the appropriate location of settlements. These researchers combine efforts of archeology and geology to study the unknown that is Norse history in Canada. With their breakthrough discovery Of L'anse Aux Meadows they keys in the dirt of these buried civilizations that unlock knowledge about the ruined society. I found very interesting that with background information on Norse culture, they apply their archaeological discoveries of iron and the entire smithing process to confirm their suspicions that it was in fact a Norse settlement. What began as a mystery is uncovered in this documentary. Although discoveries can be made, the picture still isn't clear. Similar to a puzzle, the exact history can only be seen as the pieces that are properly in place. This leaves us without a clear picture of what exactly happened.

Overall, I did appreciate the detailing of how this discovery was made and the stressing that no one can ever be exactly sure. We can only know something for what we can prove it is.

The Vinland Mystery is a pleasant and informative short documentary about L'anse aux Meadows, the first confirmed site of Norse settlement in North America. The visual component of the documentary features some neat shots of ancient Norse writings and art work as well as a wide variety of beautiful nature footage from Greenland and the eastern coast of North America. The music is calm and does not distract from the footage and narration. I found the background on Norse settlements in Iceland and Greenland to be very interesting. The description of the conflict between the Norse settlers and the Inuit people along with the accompanying artwork was also engaging. The most interesting part of the documentary was the journey of Dr. Helge Ingstad and his wife along the coast of North America and the subsequent excavation of the L'anse aux Meadows site. The footage from the trip is breathtaking and showcased a great deal of interesting places I was not aware of, like the 40 mile long beach in Labrador. The archaeological excavation covered quite an impressive area and produced a great deal of interesting finds. I had no idea that things as simple as nails, slag and pins could provide such a definitive level of proof after such long periods of time. It is inspiring that Ingstad and his wife's trip up the coast was able to make such a huge impact on the history of the settlement of North America, it serves a great example of the power curiosity can have. I would really like to know more of the history of the actual settlement at L'anse aux Meadows, it seemed like a beautiful and community centered place. I also would like to know how the community was impacted by the creation of a national historic park so close by. Has the isolated nature of the settlement been completely altered? All in all the documentary went quickly and was extremely engaging, informative and beautiful. It also provides a good starting point for learning about ancient Norse settlements in Greenland and North America. I'd give the Vinland Mystery a 7/10 score.

I found this movie to be very informative especially to somebody like me who had never even heard of the Vinland mystery prior to watching this movie. I found it to be very entertaining despite being a quite old movie. It was very historic and it pointed out plenty of detail as far as the events that had to take place in order to retrace the steps of the Norse people to find Vinland. However, I did not like how slowly the story progressed and how there was very little real time expedition taking place throughout the movie. I believe they would have incorporated more film similar to the end of the movie that shows the archaeologists and their findings as they dug around the area of L'Anse Aux Meadows.

Another part of the movie that I was not a huge fan of was the use of the two people being interviewed. Their accents were very hard to understand and made it much more difficult to follow the storyline of the movie. I believe that they could have added more detail into their findings at the site where they believe that Vinland was. It would have been nice to see some more proof of the site other than a couple nails and a pin. It would have seemed much more convincing had they found some sort of tools or showed some proof of some carbon dating that put the date and the location together with the norse settlement. It's really hard to believe that these norse people were definitely in that area considering that the findings could have possibly been from a later settlement such as the people from France or Spain and many other possibilities.

All in all, I would give this movie a 6 out of 10 for being very informative if you are somebody that has no prior knowledge of this event, but I believe it could have contained more information and details about the location of Vinland to show for certain that this location was indeed Vinland. However, I did enjoy the movie and I would recommend it to anybody that wants to learn about historical events that are not very well known to the general public.

Really relaxing and beautiful scenes through out most of the movie and a nice narrators voice to add to the experience. Dr. Helge and their spouse were a little hard to hear clearly due to some very quiet moments of personally conversation, however the rest of the movie was very relaxing and enjoyable to sit down and watch. I had to watch the beginning to try and understand the maps and directions the Norse traveled. Following my found understanding of the way in which the Norse arrived, I still remember the awe I felt from the clips of the 40+ miles of beach leading to the settlement over looking the ocean and windy grass fields. I was also impressed by the discovery of the buried remains of the house they find towards the end and all the information they are able to perceive from a pile of metal shards, charcoal and a nail. But it all makes sense and doesn't seem like a long reach that was poorly made out of nothing. I find it sad that time and dirt continues to overlap the past and all the knowledge we can learn. On one end I tend to never associate myself with history, but films like this just feel to pull out something inside me like a call to arms, to pack up and go help learn what we can before everything in the past is lost for good. Thinking about discovering new places I think is a very common theme these days, due to the feeling we know everything, but I think we have so much more to learn about the world we live on and the history it shares with us, without having to go to the bottoms of the oceans to find something new. With hard work and creative minds we can try to think like our past civilizations, and learn from periods and cultures that lack written histories to learn how we came to be alive today. Now I am going to go eat some grapes because that was a central point of the film that made me very hungry. Also I would like to believe that there really was vines of grpaes that far north or that the Norse moved south and found current day america before the Europeans. 8/10

I would rate this as an 8 out of 10. The documentary was good for how short it was, but it could have been a bit longer. I did find it interesting how the documentary used the different folklore and maps. There were plenty of examples of proof that the site at L'Anse Aux Meadows, was indeed a Norse site.

The Inuit folklore telling was interesting. It was nice to see the paintings as the story was being told. The narration made the paintings make much more sense, and I am glad they took the time to tell the lore rather than just flashing the images at the audience. The use of the old map showing what could be the northern peninsula of Newfoundland was especially helpful in showing how the archeologists came to the conclusion of where to look for Vineland. It was also useful to see the reconstructions of the Norse homes, It was hard to see exactly what the archeologists were seeing on the ground before the reconstruction.

With that, there are a few things that the documentary could do better. It could have been slightly longer to allow for more detail. The documentary feels much like an overview of the site. It feels like something you would watch just to get a taste of what could be discovered. I would have loved to hear more about the actual construction of the homes. It also would have been helpful if they had mentioned whether they had discovered signs of fire at the sight. I know they had mentioned that the belongings of the settlers were gone, but were they actually taken by the settlers. If there is evidence that the site was packed up nicely, then it would show that this isn't vineland because lore shows vineland as being the site of a large fire that killed the inhabitants. The documentary could have also added drawings of what some of their finds may have looked like in their time of use. Things like a diagram of Norse construction, and an image of the pin holding up a Norse cape. The hardest part of looking at an archeologist site is imagining what the dirty, damaged pieces belonged to in the prime of their use.

This documentary tells a story about Norse expedition and settlement in North America and the surrounding islands. The film centers around its namesake, "Vinland", a place where the Norse had settled. This place was only mentioned in 2 Norse sagas, and while other locations from these sagas could be found, the location of Vinland was a mystery. The only real clues to its location were that it was west of both Iceland and Greenland and was named for the wild grapes that grew there. This film details the efforts of 2 archaeologists to find Vinland, and utilizes interviews with the archaeologists, along with actual footage of their travels and dig sites. The film goes on to describe the previously mentioned sagas, the Greenlanders Saga and the Saga of Erik the Red, and the ways in which they provide clues to Vinland's location. The way the film covers these sagas is interesting in that the Greenlanders Saga seems much more relevant to the search for Vinland. The Saga of Erik the Red mostly serves to provide context, through its namesake's expeditions and the eventual birth of his son, Leif Erikson. Leif Erikson is a more prominent figure when it comes to expeditions to and from Vinland. Because the Saga of Erik the Red does mention Vinland, I feel it is good to include it in the documentary. However, the relatively large amount of detail put into describing this saga seems a bit unnecessary, as Leif Erikson is a well-known figure already. After this, the film describes an Inuit folktale, featuring historic art, about a group of Inuits encountering a group of Norsemen in Greenland. While this is interesting, it again feels a bit unecessary. The encounter in Greenland doesn't really seem to add anything to the Vinland mystery. It would have been nice to have some more information on the relations between Norsemen and Inuits, as this is the only mention in the film. In the final half of the film, the archeologists utilize the available historical evidence and logical reasoning to locate the village of L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland. Through communication with the residents and archeological digs, they find ruins in this village that are definitively Norse. Whether this is Vinland itself or merely a stop along the way, the finding of this site was monumental because it is the first authenticated Norse settlement in North America. All in all, I found this film to be very interesting and enjoyable. The narration is nice to listen to and the images and videos fit nicely throughout the narrative. The video and audio are relatively low quality because of their age, but this did not detract from my viewing experience. The story being told kept me interested all the way through. I especially like the usage of interviews and footage from the archaeologists. The story they tell really emphasizes the difficulties they had to go through to find the site. Their descriptions of the weather, geography, and sea travel helps the viewer visualize what the expeditions would've been like for the Norsemen. It also goes to show how dedicated the archaeologists were to their work. My only real criticisms of the film are that it could benefit from less focus on seemingly irrelevant topics and/or more information on Inuit-Norse relations.

Overall I would rate this movie at a 9.5/10 (if I could). The premise was easy to understand and all the supporting evidence was presented in an orderly fashion.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story of how settlers came to happen upon early North America years before Columbus ever would. The recounting of what events transpired to get from that point and what happened to the settlers was very interesting. The best part of the movie had to be the footage where they showed the people finding metal and other evidence of settlers living in the area. It's weird how finding a single nail can be a huge discovery. Being able to draw the conclusion that people who worked with wood to build lived in the area long ago from a single nail is quite interesting.

The formatting of the movie was very well thought out. The interviews are spaced out nicely and offer a nice break from constant monologuing from the narrator. My only issue with the interviews is that some of the interviewees are hard to understand at certain points. I felt like they needed to speak up a little. Visually the movie is pretty good as well. The artwork is nice and the scenery is great. Being from 1984, the quality and resolution isn't amazing by today's standards. Fortunately this doesn't end up affecting the enjoyment of the film. The worst part of the movie visually is the beginning where the text is a bit difficult to read. It is readable, but it takes a little more effort to understand what is written. This is a minor nitpick and the only reason I rated this movie 9.5/10 instead of 10/10.

Overall I thought this movie was very informative. It's very easy to forget that Columbus was not the first European to reach the Americas. I wish that movies like this were shown to my school growing up. It's certainly more enjoyable and educational than some of the other films I've seen throughout my time at school. I would absolutely recommend others to watch this movie if they want to watch a History Channel-esqe movie without being bombarded by unnecessary talk of aliens.

I would rate this film a 8/10. The film starts with a short history on the Norse people and their cultural traditions. It also talks about the Norse Sagas and how those were used to trace and map the Norse settlements across the northern Atlantic. However, Vinland, a mysterious place that is unknown was mentioned twice, which lead to two Norwegian archaeologists to search for its location in North America. One of the things that the film does is talk about Erik the Red's story, which isn't all that important for the discovery of L'Anse Aux Meadows because all it talks about is how he was exiled from Iceland to Greenland. Not very important to the rest of the story. However, it can be argued that the stories of Erik the Red and his son Lief Erikson provide an interesting piece to the story that captures the attention of the viewer, because most people have heard of Lief Erikson. From these stories the viewer can gain insight on how miraculous these travels by the Norse people actually were, and how they navigated the North Atlantic. From the manuscripts and sagas the Norwegian archeologist were able narrow done their search. Another key item that the film includes is the story from the Inuit point of view. Through the interpretation of Inuit paintings a story is told of the Inuits running into a settlement of foreign peoples where the relationship started peaceful but turned violent quickly.

Similarly, when the archeologists reach the village of L'Anse Aux Meadows and talk with its inhabitants about ruins, it is made out that this was the mysterious Vinland. It is not until the end of the film that it is revealed that it is most likely that the ruins found are just a stop on the way to Vinland. From the excavation of L'Anse Aux Meadows their are two significant and interesting findings. The first is the iron nail which shows that the people that were there were would workers. Meaning they probably repaired their ships there. The second and more significant finding was the brass pin. Brass pins as stated in the film were like find a sword or an axe, because these were widely known in Norse culture to hold their cloaks on their shoulders. To a person like me, who knows little of Norse culture other than the stereotypes like their viking helmets and a violent people, I did not know the significance of this find. The film does a good job of explaining this to the audience.

Finally, the film does a good job of including the original photos from the excavation, as well as including graphics to help the reader understand where the Norse sailed from and settled. As well as showing the Norse manuscripts, which, I feel grab the readers attention.