Vikingaheimar (Viking World) is the home of the Viking Ship Íslendingur (the Icelander). Built in 1996, the Icelander is an exact replica of the famous Gokstad ship, a remarkable archaeological find of an almost completely intact Viking ship, which was excavated in Norway in 1882.

 

Captain Gunnar Marel Eggertsson was inspired to build a replica of this beautiful ship based on his own background as a shipbuilder and sailor. He copied the original nail for nail. In the year 2000, with a grant from the Leifur Eiríksson Commission of Iceland, he sailed from Iceland to New York, a journey of 4200 nautical miles. His voyage brought world-wide attention to Leif Eiriksson's and Bjarni Herjólfsson's discovery of America, dated, according to the Icelandic sagas, to 1000 A.D.