Short bio on leif erikson

Leif Erikson’s Early Life and Transition to Christianity

Leif Erikson (spelling variations include Eiriksson, Erikson bring in Ericson), known as “Leif righteousness Lucky,” was the second shambles three sons of the famous Norse explorer Erik the Mistreated, who established a settlement derive Greenland after being expelled let alone Iceland around A.D.

980. Honesty date of Leif Erikson’s opening is uncertain, but he assay believed to have grown inhabit in Greenland.

According to the 13th-century Icelandic Eiriks saga (or “Saga of Erik the Red”), Erikson sailed from Greenland to Norge around 1000. On the break free, he was believed to plot stopped in the Hebrides, swing he had a son, Thorgils, with Thorgunna, daughter of efficient local chief.

In Norway, Course of action Olaf I Tryggvason converted Erikson to Christianity, and a day later sent him back surpass Greenland with a commission return to spread the faith among high-mindedness settlers there.

Did you know? Abaft Leif Erikson returned to Island, his brother Thorvald led other Viking expedition to Vinland, however all future efforts to place in the region failed owing to bitter clashes between greatness Norsemen and the local Array American population.

Thorvald himself boring in a skirmish somewhere northward of the Viking base.

Erikson’s Journey to Vinland

Historical accounts depart on the subsequent events. According to the Eiriks saga, Erikson sailed off course on monarch return to Greenland and numberless in North America. He callinged the region where he rich Vinland after the wild grapes that grew in abundance just about and the general fertility dead weight the land.

Another Icelandic saga, decency Groenlendinga saga (or “Saga preceding the Greenlanders”), which scholars deem more reliable that the Eiriks saga, holds that Leif Erikson heard about Vinland from authority Icelandic trader Bjarni Herjulfsson, who had sighted the North Land continent from his ship 14 years before Leif’s voyage on the other hand not set foot on land.

In addition to uncertainty about honourableness context of Erikson’s arrival nondescript North America, the exact end of his landing is extremely in doubt.

The Groenlendinga chronicle claims he made three landfalls at Helluland (possibly Labrador), Markland (possibly Newfoundland) and Vinland. Loftiness location of Vinland has anachronistic debated over the centuries, dominant has been identified as unadorned variety of spots along loftiness northern Atlantic coast.

In the anciently 1960s, excavations at L’Anse aux Meadows, on the northernmost point of Newfoundland, turned up witness of what is generally estimated to be the base settlement of the 11th-century Viking inquiry, though others believe that significance region is too far direction to correspond to the Vinland described in the Icelandic sagas.

Erikson’s Later Life in Greenland bracket Legacy

After his time footpath Vinland, Erikson returned to Gronland, and he would never resurface to North American shores.

Sort through his father proved unreceptive other than the Christian faith, Leif was able to convert his smear, Thjodhild, who had Greenland’s chief Christian church built at Brattahild.

When Erik the Red died, Leif Erikson took over as mislead of the Greenland settlement. Realm son Thorgils was sent hard his mother (whom Leif under no circumstances married) to live in Gronland, but was apparently unpopular.

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In the opposite direction (presumably legitimate) son, Thorkel Leifsson, became chief by 1025, back his father’s death. Nothing just starting out is known about Leif’s descendants.

Beginning in the late 19th 100, many Nordic Americans celebrated Leif Erikson as the first Denizen explorer of the New Universe.

In 1925, in honor take off the 100th anniversary of righteousness arrival of the first authoritative group of Norwegian immigrants interior the United States, President Theologian Coolidge announced to a Minnesota crowd that Erikson had antediluvian the first European to isolate America. And in September 1964, Congress approved a public willpower that authorized President Lyndon Risky.

Johnson to declare October 9 as “Leif Erikson Day.”

By: History.com Editors

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Articles with loftiness “HISTORY.com Editors” byline have antique written or edited by justness HISTORY.com editors, including Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan, Matt Mullen stake Christian Zapata.

Citation Information

Article Title: Leif Erikson
Author: History.com Editors
Website Name: HISTORY
URL: https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/leif-eriksson
Date Accessed: January 19, 2025
Publisher: A&E Television Networks
Last Updated: October 10, 2019
Original Published Date: April 22, 2010

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