The latest item of interest I’ve found stored away is a document entitled AMERICA IN THE MAKING, A Series of Broadcasts by Val Bjornson. It appears to be a transcript of three radio broadcasts made in Minnesota by Bjornson during October, 1948.

The front page says, “Since printed reproductions of this broadcast were exhausted last year, this copy has been prepared to send to a number of interested friends. Discussion of Icelandic settlements in Minnesota and elsewhere in the United States is retained in this manuscript presentation due to the particular interest it may hold  for some to whom it is sent.”

How and why it came to be among my husband’s Irish/Swedish family memorabilia remains a mystery to me.

And not having grown up in Minnesota, I resorted to Wikipedia to find out who Val Bjornson was:

"Kristjan Valdemar “Val” Bjornson (1906-1987) was a Minnesota writer, newspaper editor, and politician who served as State Treasurer for more than two decades.

He was born in Minneota, Minnesota, of Icelandic descent. In World War II he served in Navy Intelligence, stationed in Iceland. Besides English, he was able to speak Icelandic, Finnish, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian…"

The three segments in the transcript I found are “The Viking Voyagers,” “Modern Migrations Begin,” and “Evaluating the Contribution.” This 12-page typed report contains numerous names and places and appears to be a wonderful source for Icelandic research.

For today, I’ll just share part of Bjornson’s commentary “about the historic validity of Leif Erikson’s discovery of America in the year 1000. [He says} It isn’t just something to be treated with an indulgent smile – a shrugging, ‘Oh, yes, those Scandinavians again – swelling their chests about some fanciful claim that historians have never accepted fully.’”

Bjornson continues, “Columbus was no more the discoverer of America than you or I. He never saw the North American mainland. He got to the island of San Salvador in 1492. He visited the South American mainland later. But as a discoverer he was a full five hundred years late, as far as this continent is concerned…  I intend to discuss briefly the attempted Viking colonization of America – right here on our own mainland, and not merely in nearby Greenland – between the years 1003 and 1006. The Icelandic sagas contain the detailed record… For purposes of this discussion, however, I would rather use other sources than the sagas.”

He goes on, “The best evidence, both as to the discovery of America and the early attempt at its colonization is to be found in Catholic sources. In preparing this morning broadcast, I have beside me a large, 826-page volume. It is the first in a 15-volume set, The Catholic Encyclopedia (1907)… Look on page 416 of that first volume. The heading is: ‘America – Pre-Columbian Discovery of’. And then follows over seven pages of its finely printed text, one of the best and most authoritative brief treatments of Leif Erikson’s discovery of America that has been printed in the English language.”

After pages of examples and citations, Bjornson concludes, “(Leif Erikson) found America in the year 1000 on a voyage intended to take him from Nidaros, Norway’s ancient capital, now Trondheim, to Brattahlid, his father’s [Erik the Red’s] home in Greenland. He made three successive landings along our eastern seaboard. It was in 1003 that Thorfinnur Karlsefni, a rich merchant from Iceland, having married in Greenland, Gudridur, the widow of Thorsteinn, a brother of Leif Erikson, organized an expedition to find Vinland – which some think was in the region that is now Massachusetts, though others would place it considerably further north – and to attempt to colonize it.”

Bjornson then ended his first broadcast and promised to continue the story the next week; the following two parts of the transcript cover details of North American settlements.

I’ve shared the document with Icelandic Roots; the Icelandic National League of North American (INLNA); and IGSI's Bob Z., the only Icelander I know personally.