[Htsthbjig]

Where did you hear that story, in Norway?

Had he had information about the Vikings, he would had used the Viking route going around the coast that is way easier than strait on the Ocean. Don't you believe?.

In Columbus times, there were real stories of manmade and natural objects on the beach(Portugal and Spanish beaches) after strong storms, that were not native from Spain and Portugal.

Those stories are documented on Spanish documentation. The Indias archive contains an incredible amount of documentation.

Columbus probably had some hints that there was something at America's distance, because he used that distance in order to calculate the earth radius if it(America) this were Japan. But he was totally wrong on what it was(thankfully).

In X century there were accurate records of earth radius but Colombus uses a new value considering America's distance as the extreme of the world, because Colombus believed that was the Indias(India, Japan...).

Why he used this value? We don't know.

[restalis]

Also, it's worth remembering that Columbus wasn't trying to discover America, he was just trying to find another route to India. Whatever might one have learned about Vikings' achievements in Columbus time it definitely sounded like something very different from the highly sought India!