Leif stood on the beach with salt in his beard

The boys pulled the boats up, said the water runs clear

Found grapes on the vine, timber tall as a mast

He named it for sweetness, thought the hard times had passed

Back home they were starving on rocks and on ice

Here the soil came up black, you could plant something twice

He carved out a mark on a birch by the shore

Figured his children would need a few more

Vinland, Vinland

Green as a promise

Vinland, Vinland

Gone before we knew its name

They built them some houses, laid turf on the roofs

Olaf caught salmon, said he'd found him some proof

That God meant them well in this terrible year

But the skraelings came watching from the edge of the clear

Now Leif's in the ground by a fjord back in ice

And the houses fell in, and the grass took the splice

Of the world they thought they'd own with their hands and their will

Nobody remembers, but the grapes are there still

Vinland, Vinland

Green as a promise

Vinland, Vinland

Gone before we knew its name

The maps got it wrong for five hundred years

'Til some Swede found the nails and the fear