New evidence suggests Vikings – and their mice – beat Portugal to the Azores

Evidence from animal remains shows Norse seafarers settled on the islands centuries before Portuguese explorers

They came from the land of the ice and snow and the midnight sun - but still ended up in some balmy destinations. This is the conclusion of researchers who have discovered evidence to support the idea that the Vikings settled on the clement shores of the Azores several hundred years before the Portuguese arrived in 1427.

Given that the Vikings are usually associated with the frozen north, the claim is startling. Nevertheless, it is based on solid science, says a group of international researchers who recently analysed lakebed sediments in the Azores, an archipelago in the mid-Atlantic.