Nico Medina - Who Was Leif Erikson?

Leif Erikson (say: LEEF AY-rick-sun) was only around twenty years old. But he had already accomplished quite a bit in his young life. And now, in the year 1000, he was sailing across the stormy North Atlantic Ocean from his home in Greenland to visit the king of Norway. It was a journey of several days. When Leif arrived in Norway, King Olaf was happy to meet him.

During their visit, Olaf and Leif talked about a friend of Leifs, Bjarni Herjlfsson (say: bih-YAR-nee hair-YOLF-sun). Bjarni had visited with King Olaf a couple of years earlier and had told him a story Leif knew well, about a mysterious land that lay west of Greenland.

Bjarni had spotted this heavily forested land on an earlier sea voyage. He had been sailing to Greenland but became lost when his ship was blown off course. An unfamiliar coast came into view. Bjarnis crew asked if they could go ashore to explore, but Bjarni was too cautious. He didnt want to put the crew in any danger. He refused.

King Olaf and his friends told Bjarni that he should have listened to his crew! And they now told Leif that they thought Bjarni had missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Leif wondered: Could there really be an unknown and unexplored land west of Greenland?

The folk stories of Norse mythology, the original religion of his youth, had taught Leif that the world he lived in was flat. He believed that the border of this flat area was encircled by a terrible snake-monster. And if you sailed too far from home, you might come face-to-face with itand meet a terrifying end!

But maybe there was more to the world than his mythology had taught him.

Leif was determined to return to Greenland and attempt to do what Bjarni hadnt: explore this mysterious New World. Just as his father, Erik the Red, had done in Greenland, Leif wanted to build a Viking settlement where no one had dared to before.

Leif Erikson would soon become the first European to set foot on North Americamore than four hundred years before Christopher Columbus was even born!

CHAPTER 1
Eriks Son

Erik the Red

Leif Erikson was born in Iceland around the year 980. His last name, Erikson (or Eriks son), came from his father, Erik Thorvaldsson, called Erik the Red. Like many Vikings before him, Leif was born into a life of exploration and adventure.

Erik the Red had grown up in Norway, nine hundred miles away from Iceland. He got his name from his fiery red hair and beardand his violent temper.

When Erik the Red was about ten years old, his father, Leifs grandfather, committed a murder. The king of Norway banished Erik and his fatherhe forced them to leave the country.

Viking kings, like the king of Norway, were very powerful men. Their history began with King Harald about one hundred years earlier.

Harald Fairhair, the First King of Norway (c. 850933)

Before King Harald, Norway was a collection of smaller kingdoms ruled by chieftainsthe heads of the local clans or tribes. When Harald was just ten years old, he became ruler of the kingdom of Vestfold. Years later, the legends say, he proposed to Princess Gyda. But Gyda said that she would not marry Harald until he had a great kingdom like Erik Anundsson of Sweden, or Gorm the Old of Denmark, two men who had recently united their countries. Harald vowed to unite the clans of Norway. He also promised that until he had done so, he would not cut or comb his hair!

Over the next ten years, Harald conquered kingdom after kingdom. He allowed the local chieftains to stay in power, as long as they paid taxes and sent men to Norways national army. Victory was his! Harald finally cut his wild and tangled hair. His handsome new look earned him his nickname, Fairhair. He and Gyda married. King Harald Fairhair would rule Norway for more than fifty years.

Today, buried in the cliffs above the site of his final battle, stands a monument of three Viking swords commemorating King Harald and the birthplace of modern Norway.

Erik the Red and his father left Norway and sailed to their new home: Iceland. Erik grew up and eventually purchased a sheep farm and married his wife, Thjodhild (say: JODE-hiled). They had three sons, Thorvald, Leif, and Thorstein. Leif also had a sister named Freydis. Erik and Thjodhilds children belonged to a typical Viking family.

The Vikings were fierce warriors and sailors from Norway, Denmark, and Swedenthe lands together known as Scandinavia. Since the late 700s, whenever summer rolled around, the Vikings left their homes in Scandinavia seeking adventure, glory, and treasure in lands across Europe. They were pirates who took what they wanted from the people they conquered, including other people whom they used as slaves. Many Vikings settled in the new lands they attacked, from England to Ireland to Icelandand as far away as Greenland.