Leif Erikkson: A Great Explorer

This explorer isn't just a random idiot who stumbled upon the Americas and thought he was in Asia. This explorer didn't demand a huge reward for what he did. This explorer knew where he was heading for and if he was blown off course he'd know he wasn't somewhere else. This explorer would explore for the sake of exploration, his nation, king, and religion. This explorer is Leif Erikson, a great viking man and a great explorer.

In about the year 980 AD/CE, the great explorer Leif Erikson was born in Iceland to his father Eiríkr rauði (Erik the Red) another famous explorer and his mother Þjóðhildr (Thorhild). Erik killed two men (Eyjolf Sauer and Hrafn the Dueler) making him an outlaw and caused him to be banished. Erik and and Leif went to Norway for a stay. While there Leif converted to Christianity like his mother (who set up her own church). While in Norway Leif and his father were asked that when they goto Greenland, that they would help spread Christianity by King Olaf. Although Leif was a Christian, his father was a Pagan and worshiped the Norse gods After returning back to Greenland again he had purchased the boat of Bjarni Herjólfsson (another explorer). At about 1000 Leif set out to a land Bjarni had found west of Greenland. He and his crew (of 35 men) first found a land densely covered with flat rocks. Because of this he called it Helluland (meaning Land of Flat Stones). He next found a land that was flat and heavily wooded with white beaches. He called it Markland (Woodland). They left and found more land again. They landed and built houses there and while searching they found lots of salmon in the rivers and saw that green grass grew all year long. It is mentioned that a man named Tykir found some wild grapes growing so Leif called the land Vinland.

Although Leif was a great explorer, and a great explorer all his life, most of his explorations and discoveries were made during his youth. Although his whole life is important, his entire life of exploration was his early life finding Markland, Helluland, and Vinland. Also many of his early explorations were done with his father, Erik the Red. He was probably a role in Leif's life and a great influence.

Leif had many great and important discoveries in his life. He discovered 3 lands: Helluland, Markland, and Vinland. Making the discovery of 3 different lands makes him quite a good explorer, possibly even better than Columbus. Another great accomplishment he made was to help spread Christianity his faith to Greenland. Because of one man a faith that was very important to his nation could be spread to another.

After reading this you would probably see how great of an explorer Leif Erikson is. You could probably also see why I picked this great explorer. During the writing of this essay it took me while to get the information needed for me to write it. I could not imagine why there would be so little info on this man. I wonder why such exciting tales of discovery would not be written on very much.