Leif Erikson

Life and legacy

Leif was the son of Erik the Red, the Norse chieftain who founded the first European settlement in Greenland around 985. Raised in this frontier outpost at the edge of the known world, Leif grew up immersed in the seafaring culture that had carried the Vikings from Scandinavia to Iceland, Greenland, and beyond. According to the sagas, he was tall, strong, and "a man of striking appearance, wise, temperate, and well-liked."

The sagas offer two accounts of how Leif reached North America. In the Saga of the Greenlanders, a merchant named Bjarni Herjolfsson had sighted unknown lands to the west after being blown off course around 986. Leif purchased Bjarni's ship and, around the year 1000, sailed west with a crew of thirty-five to find these lands. In the Saga of Erik the Red, Leif discovered the new lands by accident while returning from Norway to Greenland. Most historians give greater weight to the Saga of the Greenlanders' version.

Leif and his crew identified three distinct regions as they sailed south along the coast: Helluland (likely Baffin Island), a barren land of flat stones; Markland (likely Labrador), a forested shore; and Vinland, where they found wild grapes or berries and self-sown wheat. They built houses and spent one winter at Vinland before returning to Greenland with a cargo of timber and grapes. The mild climate and abundant resources made a strong impression.

The Norse settlement at Vinland proved short-lived. Leif's brother Thorvald led a subsequent expedition but was killed in a conflict with indigenous people whom the Norse called Skraelings. Later attempts at permanent settlement, including one led by Thorfinn Karlsefni, were also abandoned due to hostilities and the sheer distance from Greenland. Leif himself never returned to Vinland; he remained in Greenland, where he succeeded his father as chieftain.

For centuries, the Vinland voyages were known only through the Icelandic sagas and were dismissed by many scholars as legend. Then, in 1960, Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and his archaeologist wife Anne Stine Ingstad discovered the remains of a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland. Carbon dating confirmed it to around 1000 CE. The discovery proved conclusively that Europeans had reached North America roughly five hundred years before Columbus.

Key accomplishments

• Led the first known European expedition to reach North America, around 1000 CE
• Established a temporary settlement at Vinland, now identified as L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland
• Explored and named Helluland, Markland, and Vinland along the North American coast
• Succeeded Erik the Red as chieftain of the Norse settlement in Greenland

Quotes

There was no lack of salmon either in the river or in the lake, and larger salmon than they had ever seen before.

Saga of the Greenlanders (13th-century Icelandic manuscript)

Related figures