Leif Ericson

## Early Life

Leif was the son of Erik the Red and his wife Thjodhild, and the grandson of Thorvaldr Ásvaldsson, and distant relative of Naddodd, who discovered Iceland. He was a Viking in the early days. His year of birth is most often given as c. 970 or c. 980. Though Leif's birthplace is not accounted for in the sagas, it is likely he was born in Iceland, where his parents met—probably somewhere on the edge of Breiðafjörður, and possibly at the farm *Haukadal* where Thjóðhild's family is said to have been based. Leif had two brothers, whose names were Thorsteinn and Thorvaldr, and a sister, Freydís.

Thorvald Asvaldsson was banished from Norway for manslaughter and went into exile in Iceland accompanied by young Erik. When Erik was himself banished from Iceland, he travelled further west to an area he named Greenland, where he established the first permanent settlement in 986. Tyrker, one of Erik's thralls, had been specially trusted to keep in charge of Erik's children, as Leif later referred to him as his "foster father".

## Background

Leif Eriksson was a Norse explorer born shortly before 1000 A.D. Exploration was apparently in his family blood, as he was the second of three sons of Erik the Red, who was the founder of the first European settlement on what is now Greenland. Eriksson's story has been told in several accounts, but the veracity of any of them is not easily ascertained.

## Reaching North America

By most accounts, Eriksson sailed from Greenland to Norway in 1000 and converted to Christianity under the guidance of the Norwegian king Olaf I Tryggvason.

The following year, Olaf commissioned Eriksson to proselytize across Greenland and spread Christianity to the settlers there. Eriksson made it to Greenland but, as one retelling has it, his ships went off course on the return voyage home, finding dry ground at last on the North American continent. What is now Nova Scotia is most likely where he disembarked, and he named this new land Vinland (perhaps because of the wild grapes his landing party saw there). Other accounts suggest that Eriksson had heard about "Vinland" from other seamen who had been there over a decade before, perhaps traders, and he headed there on purpose.

Whatever his motive (or lack thereof), he is generally regarded as the first European to set foot on the shores of North America, nearly five centuries before Christopher Columbus would arrive in 1492. According to 13th and 14th century Icelandic accounts of his life, and others that would follow, Eriksson was certainly a member of an early Viking voyage to North America, if not in fact the leader of that first expedition.

## Return to Greenland and Legacy

Eriksson never colonized the region, however, and he left at the end of the winter and never returned. (Thorvald, one of Leif Eriksson's brothers, later revisited Vinland, as did the Icelander Thorfinn Karlsefni.) Back home in Greenland, Eriksson spent his efforts spreading Christianity. His mother became an early convert and built Greenland's first Christian church, at Brattahlid.

The exact location of Vinland is not known, but in 1963, ruins of a Viking-type settlement were discovered at L'Anse-aux-Meadows, in northern Newfoundland. The site has been labeled the oldest European settlement in North America, and more than 2,000 Viking objects have been recovered from it.

## Woozworld Rivalry

On Woozworld, the two woozens Leif-Ericson and Christ-Columbus have been in a rivalry since the day they made their accounts! They always make bets on who will win this or that and sometimes, it brings other people involved. The reason they hate each other is because Christopher is angry that he was 500 years late to discover America and is jealous of Leif. But Leif hates Christopher because HE got all of the fame for it and Christopher won't believe or accept he discovered America first! But most of the Roleplay community believes Leif.