Not long after the year 1000, we find a certain settlement in Newfoundland, known to us these days as L’Anse Aux Meadows, to have become the permanent home of a growing number of Viking pilgrims. Why they hadn’t been driven away by indigenous folks the Sagas that survive in our history, refer to as Skraelings, is open to speculation. And the settlement grew and thrived, inviting others from the icy shores of Greenland to come West and enjoy a warmer clime in the land of Vinland, so named by Leif Eriksson. Fortunately, the pilgrims remained on friendly terms with the indigenous people, and began to set up trade routes to the mainland farther South. Soon a settlement was begun at a place you and I would know as Boston Massachusetts. Eventually others were drawn from the Dane land of Europa, hopscotching from there to Iceland to Greenland to Vinland. And so, it comes to pass, the Old World does not forget about the New World across the Atlantic. During the next centuries, a steady trickle of bearded white men come to visit, explore, and trade. Others come to raid and kill and conquer. They come in bigger vessels, with crossbows and muskets, and by a more southerly route. And the cartographers of Europa call the big content they encounter Vinlandia. And yes, they bring their diseases, too. But over the course of the centuries, that is, by the time the Julian year of 1492 arrives, the indigenous population along the eastern coast of Vinlandia has developed immunities to some of the worst plagues Europa has to offer. Thus, we find the Vinlandians to be more robust and more numerous than they ever would have been. And not only that, but more savvy and more able to defend themselves against those who would come to take their land. In fact, we find those Norsemen, once a fearsome sight in their dragon ships, confined to an area in the erstwhile state of Massachusetts, referred to in jest as the Norse Kingdon, surrounded by the Mohicans, to whom they pay tribute. Unfortunately, the evil cutthroats who sailed from Dakar in the 1200’s managed to overtake the Caribbean Isles and displace the gentle Taino. Then, during the next centuries, until the year of our Lord, 1976, there were numerous attempts by European people of that timeline, including the Britannians (Scotts), the Normandians (French), and the Hispanians (Spaniards), to invade and conquer portions of Vinlandia, these attempts ultimately failed. And thus we have the continent of Vinlandia, ruled and controlled for the most part, by the original inhabitants, precluding the existence of the United States of America. So come with me and explore the possibilities of that other timeline as we encounter the Vinlandians and explore their world, the one that exists right beneath our feet, hidden from our eyes, so near yet so far away!