A Twitter pal of mine. Hjörtur Smárason, is trying his very best to crowd-fund a film project on Kickstarter.

He could do with your backing to help him. I was intrigued from the start (and have pledged accordingly). If you are interested, and want to pledge or find out more, you can do so here. oh, did I mention that his boat leaves on 15th June?!

This is what Hjötur has to say about the project:

‘Did the Vikings ever make it to America? Might there still be one left?

My mission is to find him!

The Icelandic sagas tell the story of Leif the Lucky who discovered Vinland in the west. More Vikings followed in his footsteps including his brother Thorvald (Þorvaldur). Thorvald was killed by an arrow from one of the natives as he was searching for a place for his future home and buried there. The description of the grave is quite accurate in the sagas but are they reliable?

So far a lot of the stories in the Sagas have turned out to be true. Erik the Red’s farm in Greenland has been found and so has the camp of his son Leif the Lucky in Newfoundland. The chance of finding a grave of a single man who’s been buried for 1.000 years somewhere in America is slim, to say the least. To increase the change it is important to understand the Sagas and the Vikings. What were they thinking? What were they looking for? Where would they bury a dead chief?’

We plan to leave Reykjavik, Iceland June 15th and start by visiting the birth place of Leif and Thorvald in the west of Iceland before heading off to Greenland. In Greenland we will be visiting the most important Viking sites, including their permanent homes. The Vikings lived in Greenland for over 400 years until they mysteriously disappeared. The last thing that was heard from them was a wedding in Hvalsey church September 16th 1408. No one knows what happened to them after that. From the western settlement in Greenland we will set sail for Vinland and the actual search for the grave begins. We expect to be at sea for 3-4 weeks and return mid July’