For decades, Viking seafarers ruled the North Atlantic as they roamed through the colonies in Iceland and Greenland without using any compasses. Researchers have discovered that the seafarers may have crossed paths with legendary crystals known as sunstones between Norway and settlements in Greenland. Viking seafarers performed this given the heavy clouds and fog surrounding the two islands.

Researchers have suggested that enigmatic” sunstones” mentioned in Viking tales such as “ The Saga of King Olaf” were the key to navigating under the skies. The legendary crystals known as sunstiones could identify the sun’s location even if it was locked by clouds, yet no stones have been found in the handful of Viking shipwrecks that exist. Stephen Harding, a biochemist at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom noted that the possibility of sunstones existing includes a rough,whitish crystal found near other navigational aids in a 16th century English shipwreck. Harding also mentions that english sailors learned navigational tricks from the Vikings, who raided the British Isles centuries earlier. Navigating with crystals and several types of minerals such as ultrapure crystals of calcite, cordierite, and tourmaline can split a beam of sunlight to form two different images, with polarized light taking a slightly different path than the main beam. By looking through a crystal and then rotating it so the two images are equally bright, it’s possible to spot the rings of polarized light that surround the sun, even under cloudy skies.Gabor Horvath, a biophysicist at Eotvos Lorand university in Budapest. Horvarth and university colleague Denes Szaz have built studies by incorporating the data into computer simulations of voyages between Bergen, Norway and the viking settlement of Hvarf on greenlands southeastern coast. The researches simulated 3600 voyages taken during the spring equinox, the presumed start of the open seas travel season, and the longest day of the northern year. Navigators took readings every four hours, their ships reached Greenland between 32 and 59 of the time.

The three types of crystals that the steam studied calcite, corderitec and tourmaline. Cordierite scored a perfect record of successful  voyages. Harding mentioned Vikings were fantastic boatbuilders. Researchers suggested that Viking explorers that ended up passing south of Greenland.