After the fall of Rome in the V century. N. e. science in Europe not only did not develop, but even made a noticeable step back.
At this time, the real geographers became those who did not have any idea about science, - sailors. In the VIII-X centuries, great successes in long-distance voyages reached the Vikings. So called sea robbers and merchants who operated in coastal waters and on the coast. Most Vikings came from modern Scandinavian countries, primarily from Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
For two hundred years they have conquered land in Scotland, Ireland, north-east England and northern France, reached Sicily, settled Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Most peoples were not able to resist, so they paid tribute to the Vikings.
The so-called "Map of Windland" (XIII century.), On which America is depicted in the form of a large island of Windland west of Greenland. It was found in 1957, but scientists have not yet reached a common ground on the authenticity of the document.
In Christian Europe, almost nothing was known about the discovery of the Vikings, so they did not affect the development of geographical science. The memory of those heroic hikes has survived only in a few ancient sagas of Iceland and Greenland.Did you know that ...
We know about the achievements of Scandinavian explorers from the works of oral folk art - sagas. Unlike the Greek texts, which had a lot of fabrications, the sagas are simple and reliable.