Opposition of Indigenous Peoples to Norse Settlement
Native populations were larger and better armed in areas to the south of Newfoundland, and had more warlike traditions than did the small scattered groups who lived in the North. The Greenlanders and Icelanders who explored Vinland were farmers and traders, not Viking warriors. One of their small ships could carry no more than 20 or 30 men and there weren't many ships available in Greenland, so an expedition would only have consisted of a few ships carrying 100 to 200 people at most. The indigenous people would have easily outnumbered the Greenlanders. These warriors were armed with bows and clubs that would have been as effective as the bows and axes of the Norse in fighting small skirmishes. Their canoes were far easier to manoeuvre than Norse boats in attacking or retreating.

The North American forests must have been a frightening environment to Norsemen who had lived their lives in countries without trees, and they would have been at a great disadvantage in a hostile encounter. Most importantly, because of their cold homelands and their small populations, the Norse explorers did not carry diseases with them. In contrast, the European settlements that began six centuries later were made possible by the diseases that killed many of the indigenous peoples of the time.

Where was Vinland?
Today, we know where Vinland was not located. It would have been impossible for the Norse to reach the St. Lawrence or Mississippi valleys, nor could they have settled along the Atlantic coast south of New England. In these regions they would have come across many heavily populated towns linked by networks of communication and trade. Finally, if we trust the descriptions of the wild grapes, Vinland could not have been located in northern Newfoundland because it was too far north to grow grapes.

These coasts were only two or three days' sail away from L'Anse aux Meadows. This new land almost certainly gave rise to the name Vinland and the associated stories of vast forests, wild grapes, good grazing land in the extensive salt marshes, and rivers teeming with salmon. To Greenlanders it would have seemed a magnificant land, but one which they could only visit with caution. They would not have been tempted to travel further south into lands which were harder to reach and more densely populated.

The literary and archaeological evidence now available strongly suggests that the fabulous country of Vinland lay around the coasts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Here, approximately 1000 years ago, an event occurred that had been thousands of years in the making. For the first time, humans whose ancestors had expanded eastward around the earth met other humans moving westwards. For the first time, the human race had circled the globe, and met for the first time groups of humans who were not known from legend or history. It was not an easy encounter. In telling the Vinland story, The Greenlanders Saga reports that the dying Thorvald Eiriksson pulled an Indian arrow from his stomach, looked at it, and remarked "There is fat around my Belly! We have won a fine and fruitful country, but will hardly be allowed to enjoy it." It is clear that the native peoples of northeastern North America prevented an attempted European expansion into the New World, an event that would not take place for another 500 years.