Vikingaheimar is the home of the Viking Ship Íslendingur, “The Icelander”. Built in 1996, Icelander is an exact replica of the famous Gokstad ship, a remarkable archaeological find of an almost completely intact Viking ship, 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 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 exactly 1000 A.D.
Building Icelander was an extraordinary achievement;at 23 metres long, 5.25 meters wide and with a holding capacity of 80 tons (by modern standards), it took 2 years of effort.
