Why did the Vikings call that big ice-covered island in the North Atlantic "Greenland?" We distinctly remember being taught in school that the Vikings caught sight of the big island, saw green pastures along the shore and, dunces that they were, named the place Greenland. As with everything else we learned in school it's not remotely true. They called it Greenland because they were pulling a snow job, so to speak. Erik the Red was hyping the place. He needed settlers. "It's the original Shady Acres," says Thomas McGovern, a professor of archaeology at Hunter College and an expert on the Viking...
