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Who Was Leif Ericsson
Leif Ericsson was born in Iceland around 970 AD. His father was Eric the Red (also called Erik the Red) who was a famous Viking explorer and outlaw. His mother’s name was Thjodhild and he is believed to have had two brothers and one sister.In 985 AD Leif Ericsson sailed with his family to Greenland where his father established the first European settlement there. He stayed in Greenland for about fifteen years. He married a woman by the name of Thorgunna and had one son named Thorgils.
In 1000 AD he sailed to his homeland Norway. In Norway he became a Christian. The king of Norway, Olaf Tryggvason, asked him to return to Greenland and convert the settlers there to Christianity.
Leif Ericsson Discovers America
There are conflicting stories on how Leif Ericsson discovered America. One story is that while sailing from Norway back to Greenland, with the mission of converting the Greenland settlements to Christianity, he was blown off course and ended up in North America. Another version has Leif Ericson sailing for North America intentionally after hearing about it from a voyager named Bjarni Herjolfsson. If this is the case then Leif Ericsson was not the first European to discover America. No matter whether intentional or not it is presumed he landed in what is now Newfoundland Canada. He established a small settlement in what he called Vinland.The Vikings had selected an excellent location for their settlement. There was a river full of Salmon, there was not too much frost in the winter, and there were and endless amount of trees (wood was a scarce commodity in Greenland). However due to fighting with the native people and internal conflicts the settlement lasted for less than two years.
The main source of information about the voyage of Leif Ericson to America comes from two Icelandic sagas, the Saga of the Greenlanders and the Saga of Eric the Red. These sagas were written down many years after Leif Ericsson sailed to America. This caused a lot of speculation about their accuracy and cast doubt on whether he really ever sailed to America. However in the 1960's archaeologist discovered the remains of a Norse settlement in Newfoundland dating back to the time Leif Ericson is said to have settled there.