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Many historians contend that Norse explorers settled on the North American continent long before it was "discovered" by Columbus, and this adventure blends historical research with the filmmakers' imagination in the tale of two 11th Century Vikings and their struggle to survive in a new land. Orn (Tony Stone) and Volnard (Fiore Tedesco) are the only two survivors of a bloody clash between their Viking clan and a band of Native Americans; aware that their best hope of survival is to move on, they set out to find a new territory to settle. While making their way through the wilderness of what is now the Canadian province of Newfoundland, Orn and Volnard encounter a pair of monks from Ireland who have escaped from a Viking camp. They quickly slay one of the monks, but they allow the other (David Perry) to live, and he joins them in their daily battle to scratch out an existence in the beautiful but forbidding landscapes. Along the way, Orn wins an unlikely companion, a native woman (Noelle Bailey) who first saw him as he was laying waste to her village. Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America was the first feature film from writer and director Tony Stone, who also plays Orn; it received its premiere at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival.