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Jongseong | 11 years ago

It's certainly possible, but I don't know if there is unambiguous evidence for contact between the Inuit and the Norse in Canada. Norse objects and technology in Inuit possession in Canada could easily have been obtained first in Greenland, where the Norse settlements were. There are Norse objects that have been discovered in places the Norse never visited like Ellesmere Island, indicating that they reached there through trade between Inuit groups.

The Greenland Norse probably sent expeditions to the Canadian islands and coast to get timber for a few centuries at least. An Icelandic document records that in 1347, a ship that was returning from "Markland" came off course and ended up in Iceland. Markland along with Helluland and Vinland is one of the Norse names given to regions in the North American coast and islands. So there could well have been opportunities to encounter Inuits who expanded to Northwest Canada by the 13th or 14th centuries. But even the Norse themselves haven't left many records about such expeditions or encounters with other peoples.

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