Happy Leif Erikson Day, Everyone!

Happy Leif Erikson Day, everyone! Context: The history of Leif Erikson Day as a beloved holiday is a history of Victorian era historians making outrageous claims with no evidence, and somehow being proven spot on a century later. In the mid 19th century, Norwegian Americans, looking to bolster their prestige and present the Germanic/Norse speaking world as great discoverers, claimed that Leif Erikson had discovered America, long before the Romance speaking world would sail their ocean blue. It had all the hallmarks of a Victorian era crackpot historian theory. "Oh our source? Well these two sagas, Erik's and Vinland Saga, which are pretty vague/conflicting about Vinland. Oh! And a few occasional Norse trinkets that are time inaccurate or could have been brought later, particularly this runestone discovered in Kensington, MN! Yeah every expert in Norse has called it a total and obvious fabrication, but no trust us, from these pieces of evidence alone, we can assure you a massive continent-spanning Norse empire existed centuries before 1492!"
So like so many crackpot theories, this should have been relegated to the dustbins of history. And then L'Anse aux Meadows was discovered in 1960. Does this prove a massive Norse empire? No. But at this point most of the historical community is now in consensus that the Vikings had established some semi-permanent colonies in Eastern Canada for some period of time, though further research is needed to better understand the nature, permanence of these colonies and the lives the inhabitants led. But, in a rare Victorian W, looks like those Norwegian Americans can lean back and tell us all "we told you so, kinda."