Actually, the Saga of the Greenlanders doesn't mention Leiv's trip to Norway at all, and according to the Saga of Erik Red[1], Leiv found Vinland after he'd been in Norway (Roughly translated from a Norwegian translation):
That's correct. The Greenlanders Saga is the one with his trip to North America.
Leiv set to sea, but he stayed out a long time, and he found land that he had not known about before. There wheatefields grew wild, and there grew grape-vines. There were trees there of a kind that's called masur, and of all this they brought samples; some of the trees were so large that they were used for house timbers. Leiv found some people on a sea-raft and took them home with him. In this as in many other things he was magnamious and helpful, and he brought Christianity to [Greenland]. He was later known as Leiv the Lucky."
Now, it's very questionable how accurate this version is; it might very well have been 'massaged' to associate King Olav with the discovery. In general it is dangerous to read the Sagas as accurate portrayals of history.
I think there is little doubt that version is massaged.
The Greenlanders Saga tells us that Leif Erikson bought Bjarni Herjolfsson's ship, prepared it an then sailed directly to Vinland. Barni Herjolfson was the one who originally discovered North America when he was blown off course on his voyage to Greenland. We know Herjolfson was in Greenland at the time because it states in the Short Saga that once he got to Greenland he never went on another voyage but stayed in Greenland with his father.
And according to the sagas, Herjolfson had already told Erik the Red about the lands he had seen.
In the Greenlanders saga it states that sixteen winters after Eric the Red settled Greenland, Leif went to Norway to visit King Olaf. Eric settled Greenland in 985, that means Leif went to Norway in 1001. Except Olaf was already dead by then, having committed suicide in the middle of a naval battle in the fall of 1000. However, if the translation means that Leif visited Norway 16 years after Eric the Red originally went to Greenland when he was exiled from Iceland, that puts the trip in 997. this would make sense as the descriptions in the saga clearly show that Leif visited early in Olaf's reign.
As well, the woman who Leif met and had an illegitimate son with in the Hebrides, Thorgunna, srrives in Iceland with the boy, Thorgils in 1000. this would also seem to further the 997 date.
It further makes sense that Leif learned of the exploits of Olaf (a very bloody rise to power) from Thorer, the man who Leif rescued on his return voyage from Vinland, in 996. and who, with his wife Gudrid and three men, lived in Leif's home. As soon as the weather permitted in 997 Leif headed out.
But the fact remains, Leif bought his boat and sailed directly to Vinland. This makes it very unlikely that this voyage happened after his trip to Norway. I think Leif's voyage was direct from Greenland to North America. All the evidence supporting the Erik the Red version seem to come from the same source. They do not desrcribe anything of the actual voyage, only a couple of the major points.
