There is no archaeological evidence of a Viking settlement in New England. L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland remains the only confirmed Viking settlement in America, though there is also some evidence from more northerly parts of Canada. Eben Norton Horsford's Norumbega is generally regarded as a load of nonsense, partly based on an El Dorado-like story.

However, some scholars argue that the descriptions of 'Vinland' in the Viking Sagas do not apply to Newfoundland, meaning that some Vikings must have gone further south.

Viking sagas are rarely the most reliable of sources, but they attest to violent conflict between the Vikings and the Native Americans. They do not mention any Vikings staying and assimilating, and it would appear that the surviving expeditionaries all went back to Greenland and Iceland (these Vikings weren't directly from Scandinavia).