Leif Erikson: The Real European Discoverer of America

Leif Erikson, the first European recorded to have discovered America, was born sometime between 960 and 970 AD in the Viking settlement of Iceland, the second son of Erik the Red. Erik the Red was so named because of his red hair and beard and because of his tendency to kill people he argued with. Erik the Red had been exiled from Norway because of killings he had committed, according to the Saga of Erik the Red. He settled in Iceland with his wife, children, and slaves. Sometime in the 980s, Erik was exiled from Iceland for killing two in an altercation over two wooden benches and another man in an argument over an accident caused by his slaves.

Having heard of lands to the west, Erik, his family, slaves, and various followers set sail. They landed in Greenland and explored the place for about three years. With the term of his exile up, Erik returned to Iceland with tales of a land he called Greenland, shrewdly named to make the new land seem more appealing that Iceland. Erik returned to Greenland with settlers and established to settlements in the new land.

Little is known of the early life of Leif Erikson. One saga has him as a teenager using his knowledge of the sea to capture a polar bear trapped on an ice floe, greatly impressing the other Norsemen. Other depicts Leif hearing the tale of Bjorn Hergelfson, who had gone off course on his way between Iceland and Greenland and had claimed to have spotted a new land to the west.

In his early twenties, Leif captained a ship that bore gifts from Greenland to the King of Norway. On his way he and his crew stayed with the lord of the Hebrides Islands. There Leif met the lord's daughter, Thorgunna, who was said to be learned in witchcraft and other arts. He had a child with her, which was named Thorgils, and is the only known child of Leif's.

Leif arrived in Norway and was the guest of King Olav. It was in Norway that Leif converted to Christianity. When he eventually returned to Greenland, he brought along a priest to spread the word of Christianity.

Sometime later, Leif decided to find the lands to the west that Bjorn had spoken of. He bought Bjorn's boat and sometime in the year 1000 set forth with a crew of thirty five men.

After a voyage of about six hundred miles the first land Leif and his men came upon was a harsh, rocky place that he named Helluland or "Slab Land." This is thought to be Baffin Island. He and his crew sailed further south and came upon a new land that was flat and wooded and had white, sandy beaches. He named this land Mark Land or "Wooded Land."

Further south, Leif his men found an even more pleasant land, where they build temporary houses to stay the winter. They found plenty of salmon in the river and marveled at how mild the winter weather was. The sagas tell of how one of Leif's men found grapes. It was in honor of this discovery that Leif named the new land Vinland. Historians believe that Leif's settlement was on the tip of Newfoundland at the modern L'Anse Aux Meadows, where a buried Viking ship was found by archeologists.

With the spring, Leif and his men, with a ship filled with grapes and timber, returned to Greenland. Leif pretty much sails out of history at this point, though he is thought to have died in the year 1020.

The Norse attempted to found settlements in Vinland. Straumfjörðr was the name of the northern settlement and Hóp was the name for the southern settlement. However, according to the Norse sagas, the settlements were soon abandoned due mainly to conflicts with the native peoples. While there was some indications of timber cutting expeditions as late as the 1300, Vinland was lost to the Europeans and was hardly even remembered until a certain Genovese Captain in the service of Spain sailed across the Atlantic in search of a westerly route to the Indies and instead discovered America.