page_title: Erik the Red
section_title: Discoveries
hierarchical_section_title: Erik the Red / Discoveries
caption_attribution_description: English: Septentrionalium Regionum Descrip by Abraham Orteius ca 1570 Map of the north Atlantic, Brittain, Ireland, Scandinavia, Iceland and Greenland. Includes some fantasy islands in the Atlantic. Source: http://www.antiquemaps.no/
context_page_description: Erik Thorvaldsson, known as Erik the Red, was a Norse explorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first settlement in Greenland. He most likely earned the epithet "the Red" due to the color of his hair and beard. According to Icelandic sagas, he was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, Norway, as the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson. Erik's own son was the well-known Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson.
context_section_description: Even though popular history credits Erik as the first person to discover Greenland, the Icelandic sagas suggest that earlier Norsemen discovered and tried to settle it before him. Tradition credits Gunnbjorn Ulfsson (also known as Gunnbjorn Ulf-Krakuson) with the first sighting of the land-mass. Nearly a century before Erik, strong winds had driven Gunnbjorn towards a land he called Gunnbjorn's skerries. But the accidental nature of Gunnbjorn's discovery has led to his neglect in the history of Greenland. After Gunnbjorn, Snaebjorn Galti had also visited Greenland. According to records from the time, Galti headed the first Norse attempt to colonize Greenland, which ended in disaster. However, Erik the Red was the first permanent European settler.
caption: Map of the northern region (including some fantasy islands) by Abraham Ortelius, c. 1570
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