DESCRIPTION:
Ceolskog is the symphonic folk metal project of Adam Helliwell, from Hamilton, New Zealand. Ceol mean music in Irish, and skog means forest in Norwegian and Swedish.

This song concerns Leif Eriksson or Leif Ericson, an Icelandic explorer who reached North America around the year 1000 A.D. He (and his party) were the first Europeans to discover North America, 500 years before Christopher Columbus. They were therefore the first people to re-discover it - the Native Americans, of course, were by far the first. That means Christopher Columbus only re-re-discovered it....after getting lost while looking for India!

According to the Sagas of Icelanders, Leif Ericson established a Norse settlement at Vinland, somewhere on the northern shores of Newfoundland in modern-day Canada. He was the son of Erik the Red, a Norwegian, who founded of the first Norse settlement in Greenland.

Leif Ericson is often referred to as a "Viking". Whether he was or not depends on the way the word "Viking" is defined. "Viking" is the name by which the Scandinavian sea-borne raiders of the early medieval period are now commonly known. The Anglo-Saxons used an Old English word "wicing". But this was not a word that they used often or exclusively for Scandinavian raiders. It meant "pirate" or "piracy". It was only in the late tenth or early eleventh century, in Anglo-Saxon poems such as The Battle of Maldon, that wicing came to mean "a Scandinavian sea-raider". Vikings were not professional privateers or full-time soldiers at first. Originally they were fishermen and farmers. Only in the summer would they have rallied to the call of a local leader and ventured across the sea to raid, trade or seek out new lands to settle.

The Old Norse language spoken in Scandinavia used the word "vikingr" in its vocabulary, but its origins are uncertain. The explanation currently favoured is that it originally meant "a seaman who came from the Vik district of Oslo fjord", and then came to mean sea-borne warrior from any part of Scandinavia. Although Leif Ericson was not a Viking in the sense of being a raider or Scandinavian pirate, he was a Viking in the sense of being a Scandinavian seaman and explorer.

Leif Erikson Day is an annual American observance which occurs on October the Ninth. The date is not associated with any particular event in Leif Ericson's life, but was chosen because the ship Restauration coming from Stavanger, Norway, arrived in New York Harbor on October 9, 1825. This was the start of the first organised immigration from Norway to the United States. In Episode 3B of the second season of the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, the show's title character celebrates the holiday by wearing a horned helmet and a fake red beard.

Sources of Information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leif_Erikson
http://jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/who-were-the-vikings/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leif_Erikson_Day

The places I visited for this video are Nganunui Beach and Manu Bay, out by Raglan, New Zealand. I filmed the footage on a stormy winter's day, just as the clouds were clearing up and letting the sunlight back through.

You can download this song and the rest of the EP from the Ceolskog Bandcamp page: http://ceolskog.bandcamp.com/

Ceolskog on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3ghh3bpgJ8rw8lPuRfRVlk

Ceolskog Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ceolskog

Ceolskog Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ceolskog/

Ceolskog on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/ceolskog/1314808092

Ceolskog on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/adamhelliwell

Ceolskog on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_srch_drd_B077JPVJDP?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=Ceolskog&index=digital-music&search-type=ss

Ceolskog Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ceolskog

Lyrics:

I turn to see a fading shore.
(We bid farewell, we bid thee farewell).
We depart Greenland and all we adore.
(We bid farewell, we bid thee farewell).
Following rumour's path, we have set forth,
strange lands await brave men of the north.

Into the horizon, our bearing: south-west.
(Let wind blow, Let the wind blow).
With thirty-five sailors at my behest.
(Let wind blow, Let the wind blow).
Into the unknown and ever far,
guided by the light of the Northern Star.

Over the raging ocean.
Under a thundering sky.
Our eyes on the horizon.
To discover, or to die?

I turn to see an approaching shore.
(Chase the new world, chase the new world).
My name shall live on like my father's before.
(Chase the new world, chase the new world).
For centuries to come they shall tell tales,
of history we made in Vinland's green vales.