From Wikipedia's article on the subject...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_colonization_of_the_Americas

Settlements in continental North America aimed to exploit natural resources such as furs and in particular lumber, which was in short supply in Greenland.[12] It is unclear why the short-term settlements did not become permanent, though it was in part because of hostile relations with the indigenous peoples, referred to as Skrælings by the Norse.[13] Nevertheless, it appears that sporadic voyages to Markland for forages, timber, and trade with the locals could have lasted as long as 400 years.

Evidence of continuing trips includes the Maine Penny, a Norwegian coin from King Olaf Kyrre's reign (1067–1093) allegedly found in a Native American archaeological site in the U.S. state of Maine, suggesting an exchange between the Norse and the Native Americans late in or after the 11th century; and an entry in the Icelandic Annals from 1347 which refers to a small Greenlandic vessel with a crew of eighteen that arrived in Iceland while attempting to return to Greenland from Markland with a load of timber.

The question was definitively settled in the 1960s when a Norse settlement was excavated at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland by archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad and her husband, outdoorsman and author Helge Ingstad. The location of the various lands described in the sagas is still unclear however. Many historians identify Helluland with Baffin Island and Markland with Labrador. The location of Vinland is a thornier question. Most believe that the L'Anse aux Meadows settlement is the Vinland settlement described in the sagas; others argue that the sagas depict Vinland as being warmer than Newfoundland and that it therefore lay farther south.

In 2012, possible signs of Norse outposts in Nanook at Tanfield Valley on Baffin Island, as well as Nunguvik, Willows Island and the Avayalik Islands, were identified by Canadian researchers.[17][18][19] Unusual fabric cordage found on Baffin Island in the 1980s and stored at the Canadian Museum of Civilization was identified in 1999 as possibly of Norse manufacture; that discovery lead to more in-depth exploration of the Tanfield Valley site.

And it's fascinating. I had no idea about these other countries and their colonies, presumably because in school they focused on the English ones. That, and school was a long time ago

I'll see if I can get it through our local library.

I was first introduced to Bailyn's work during a college course, "Revolutionary and Republican America, 1750-1815," where we read his Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Later, during grad school, one of his works on historiography, The Atlantic World, as well as his The peopling of British North America" were on my reading list.

Outstanding author and historian! It's good to see he has produced another work, and I'll certainly be checking it out. I wonder if Gordon Wood will feel a need issue something new?