appointments were according to Larsen a reward for having discovered the Land of Codfish. General research While Larsen's claims have enjoyed strong scholarly and public support in Scandinavia and Portugal, it has been more disputed among German scholars. Reception of the account by American and English historians has generally ranged from ridicule to acceptance of the plausibility of at least part of it. Many further circumstances are known to support the theory, although it is generally concluded that the theory is "not proven" (nor sufficiently "disproven"), with any possible "final proof" lacking. Regardless, no sources explicitly support that Pining and Pothorst had any connections with the journey by Corte-Real, nor that they reached North America (excluding Greenland). What is known however, is that Pining and Pothorst were sent out by a royal Danish order to find out which of several possible policies concerning trade in Iceland should be developed, in which settlements and harbours. Pining's orders further included investigating what formerly, in the 11th century, had been called the regiones finitimae (i.e. "the coasts opposite those still-remembered but obsolete settlements in Greenland"). In 1476, they made this trip, which likely went to Greenland, where they were reported to have encountered hostile Inuit, and no Norse people. The location they visited is assumed by some to have been around Angmagssalik. Nothing specific suggests it went further west than this. Later years In 1478, Didrik Pining became the governor (höfuðsmaðr) of Iceland, serving until 1481, when he is mentioned as having "fared out of Iceland." He replaced the former governor Thorleif Björnsson, whose struggle to marry his own cousin Ingvild was supported by Pining. The following year, Thorleif gave Pining silver and a horn of walrus ivory to pay the king for a license for his union. The agreement was constituted in 1484, merging two of Iceland's most fortunate political dynasties. In the same year, there came complaints of Pining and his men having raped women and stolen money from farmers. In 1481, Pining was present at the funeral of Danish king Christian I. He also made state visits of homage to Bergen and Copenhagen, became knighted in Norway, and employed his personal coat of arms which featured a grappling hook. Some years later, in 1489 and 1490, he is again described as "governor (hirdstjore) over the whole of Iceland" in two Icelandic laws or edicts (the so-called Pining's Laws). A later