Leif Erikson

Leif Erikson, also known as Leif the Lucky, was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According to the sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at Vinland, which is usually interpreted as being coastal North America. There is ongoing speculation that this settlement corresponds to the remains found in Newfoundland, Canada, called L'Anse aux Meadows, which was occupied about 1,000 years ago.

Leif's place of birth is unknown, but it is assumed to have been in Iceland. His father, Erik the Red, founded the first Norse settlement in Greenland, where Leif was later raised. After his voyage to Vinland and the death of his father, Leif became chief of the Greenland settlement. He had two known sons: Thorgils, born in the Hebrides, and Thorkell, who succeeded him as Greenland's chieftain.

Early life

Leif was the son of Erik the Red and his wife Thjodhild (Old Norse: Þjóðhildur), and was also the grandson of Thorvald Ásvaldsson. When Erik the Red was young, he was sent away from Norway, and the family moved to live in Iceland. Leif was likely born in Iceland, where his parents lived.

Later, Erik was sent away from Iceland and sailed to a place he named Greenland. He returned briefly to take his family and others to Greenland, where they started the first permanent home in 986. Leif grew up on the family farm Brattahlíð in the Eastern Settlement of Greenland. He had two brothers named Thorstein and Thorvald, and a sister named Freydís. Tyrker, one of Erik's trusted helpers, was like a father to Leif.

Discovering Vinland

The Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders tell stories about voyages to Vinland, a place many believe was in North America. These stories were written around the year 1200 and mix facts with imagination, so historians debate how true they are. The only early historical mentions of Vinland are in Adam of Bremen's writings from around 1075 and in the Book of Icelanders from around 1122 by Ari the Wise, but these only mention it briefly.

In the Saga of Erik the Red, Leif Erikson found Vinland after a storm blew him off course while he was traveling from Norway to Greenland. Before this, Leif had visited the court of King Olaf Tryggvesson and learned about Christianity. When the storm pushed him to an unknown land, his crew explored and found wild grapes, wheat that grew by itself, and maple trees. They took these back to Greenland and also helped some sailors whose ship had crashed. Because of this and for helping bring Christianity to Norse Greenland, Leif became known as "Leif the Lucky". Though Leif never went back to Vinland, others from Greenland and Iceland did, including Thorfinn Karlsefni.

In the Saga of the Greenlanders, another sailor named Bjarni Herjólfsson first saw lands that were not Greenland but did not stop to explore them. About 15 years later, Leif bought Bjarni's ship and set out to find those lands. After landing in rocky and forested areas, he finally reached a pleasant place with lots of salmon and vines. He named this land Vinland, meaning "Wineland", and his crew built a small settlement there called Leifsbudir. The next spring, Leif returned to Greenland with grapes and wood, and again helped rescue someone lost at sea.

Most experts think Vinland was in North America. In the 1960s, explorers Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad found a Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada. This place dates back to around the year 1021 and shows that Norse people reached North America about 500 years before Christopher Columbus. Some believe Vinland might have included areas around the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with L'Anse aux Meadows serving as a stopping point for trips there.

Personal life

Leif is described in the Vinland sagas as a wise, kind, and strong man with a striking appearance. When he was old enough, Leif traveled to Norway, likely to serve as a retainer for its king, Olaf Tryggvason. On this trip to Norway, Leif's ship was blown to the Hebrides, where he and his crew had to stay for much of the summer waiting for good winds. During this time, Leif fell in love with a noblewoman named Thorgunna, who had a son named Thorgils with him. Thorgunna stayed in the Hebrides when Leif left, because he would not take her without her family's permission. Thorgils was later sent to join Leif in Greenland, but he did not become popular there.

After arriving at the court of Norway's King Olaf Tryggvason, Leif became a Christian. Both the Saga of Erik the Red, and Olaf Tryggvason's Saga as found in Heimskringla, tell how, after Leif's conversion, the king asked him to return to Greenland to help the settlers there become Christian. During this trip, Leif was blown off course and discovered Vinland before reaching Greenland. Leif's father Erik did not like the idea of changing his religion, but his mother Thjóðhildr became a Christian and built a church called Thjóðhild's Church. A different version of Olaf Tryggvason's Saga, found in Flateyjarbók, says that after Leif arrived in Greenland, the whole country became Christian, including Leif's father Erik. Some versions of Olaf Tryggvason's Saga also say that Leif brought a priest and other religious leaders to Greenland to help with the change.

Chieftaincy and death

The winter after Leif returned from Vinland, his father died (shortly after 1000 CE), making Leif the main leader in Greenland. Leif is last mentioned as being alive in 1018 in the Saga of St. Olaf. According to The Saga of the Sworn Brothers, by 1025 the leadership of Eiríksfjǫrðr had passed to his son Thorkell. The sagas do not say how he died—he likely passed away in Greenland sometime between these years. Beyond Thorkell taking over as leader, nothing more is known about Leif's family.

Historicity

Leif was probably a real person and is thought to be the first European to reach North America. However, many details about his life are debated. Some scholars believe that parts of his story, like his sister Freydís and his foster father Tyrker, might not be true. His role as a missionary to Greenland could also be made up, as it comes from a story told by Gunnlaugr Leifsson.

Legacy

Norse and medieval Europe

Leif's journey to a place called Vinland inspired other Norse explorers to travel to the same area. They were the first Europeans to reach parts of North America. However, they did not stay there permanently. Even so, stories about their travels spread across Europe. Some writers mentioned lands far to the west, and one writer named Adam of Bremen wrote about Vinland around the year 1075, based on what he heard from Danish people.

Norse encounters with the Indigenous peoples

Leif himself did not meet the local people, but later Norse explorers did. They called these people skrælingi, an old word meaning "wretches." The first meeting happened when a group led by Thorfinn Karlsefni, including Leif's brother Thorvald, tried to settle in Vinland. At first, they traded with the local people, but later there was a fight. Thorvald was killed by an arrow from one of the local people. When they left Vinland, Karlsefni's group took two young local boys back to Greenland.

Travels and commemoration

Stories about Leif's trip to North America became very important to people of Nordic heritage who moved to America later. The first statue of Leif was put up in Boston in 1887. More statues were erected in cities like Milwaukee, Chicago, and Seattle over the years. In 1924, a statue was placed in Reykjavík, Iceland, as a gift from the United States to mark 1,000 years since Iceland's parliament began.

Leif Erikson Day

In 1929, Wisconsin made October 9th "Leif Erikson Day." Later, many other states did the same. In 1964, Congress asked the president to proclaim October 9th each year as Leif Erikson Day. Every president since then has done this. The date October 9th was chosen because it was already an important day for Norwegian immigrants to America, when a ship named Restaurationen arrived in New York in 1825.

Gallery of art and sculptures

_[Leiv Eirikson Discovering America](/wiki/Leiv_Eirikson_Discovering_America)_ by [Christian Krohg](/wiki/Christian_Krohg) (1893)

[Leif Erikson memorial statue](/wiki/Statue_of_Leif_Erikson_\(Seattle\)) at Shilshole Bay Marina, [Port of Seattle](/wiki/Port_of_Seattle)

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  Leif Eriksson Memorial (1929–1932), Reykjavík, Iceland. This statue is at the front of the Hallgrímskirkja. There is a copy of this statue in Newport News, Virginia, USA.

Leif Erikson by [John K. Daniels](/wiki/John_Karl_Daniels), 1948–49, near the [Minnesota State Capitol](/wiki/Minnesota_State_Capitol).

The [oldest public statue of Leif Erikson](/wiki/Statue_of_Leif_Erikson_\(Boston\)), by [Anne Whitney](/wiki/Anne_Whitney), placed in [Boston](/wiki/Boston) in 1887.

A 'Leif Ericson' [proof dollar](/wiki/Proof_coinage) from the United States, minted in 2000. It reads 'Founder of the New World'

In fiction

• Leif is the main character in the 1928 film The Viking.
• An Old Captivity is a novel which involves a dream sequence featuring a character called Leif Ericson. Notably, it also features an attempt to uncover historical Viking settlements using air surveys. It was written by Nevil Shute and published in 1940.
• In children's literature, Leif the Lucky written and illustrated by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. Published by Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1941.
• Leif is one of the main characters in Makoto Yukimura's manga Vinland Saga.
• Leif is the main character in the juvenile historical novel Vinland the Good. The author is Henry Treece, and it is illustrated by William Stobbs. It is an account of Viking Era explorations, based mainly on the Greenland saga.
• Leif is a main character in the Netflix historical drama series Vikings: Valhalla played by Sam Corlett.
• The Leif Erikson is the name of Hagbard Celine's golden submarine in The Illuminatus! Trilogy.