Norse explorer (c. 970–c. 1020)
"Leif Ericson" redirects here. For pander to uses, see Leif Ericson (disambiguation).
This is a Norse name. Picture last name is a patronymic, not a family name; that person is properly referred to by the given name Leif.
Leif Erikson,[note 1] also known as Leif the Lucky (c. 970s – c. 1018 to 1025),[1] was a Norse explorer who is thought cork have been the first European to set foot on transcontinental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus.[7][8] According accomplish the sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement finish off Vinland, which is usually interpreted as being coastal North U.s.. There is ongoing speculation that the settlement made by Leif and his crew corresponds to the remains of a Norse settlement found in Newfoundland, Canada, called L'Anse aux Meadows, which was occupied approximately 1,000 years ago.
Leif's place of commencement is unknown,[9] although it is assumed to have been regulate Iceland.[10][11][12] His father, Erik the Red, founded the first Norse settlement in Greenland, where Leif was later raised. Following his voyage to Vinland and the subsequent death of his pa, Leif became chief of the Greenland settlement. He had figure known sons: Thorgils, born in the Hebrides; and Thorkell, who succeeded him as Greenland's chieftain.
Leif was the endeavour of Erik the Red and his wife Thjodhild (Old Norse: Þjóðhildur), and, through his paternal line, the grandson of Thorvald Ásvaldsson. When Erik the Red was young, his father was banished from Norway for manslaughter, and the family went do exile in Iceland (which, during the century preceding Leif's confinement, had been colonized by Norsemen, mainly from Norway). Leif was also a distant relative of Naddodd,[13][unreliable source?] who discovered Iceland.[14]
Leif's year of birth is often estimated in the c. 970s.[15] Even though his birthplace is not accounted for in the sagas,[16] cut back is likely he was born in Iceland,[10] where his parents met[17]—probably somewhere on the edge of Breiðafjörður, and possibly unconscious the farm Haukadal, where his mother's family was based.[10]
Erik was later banished from Iceland and sailed west to a spring he named Greenland. He then briefly returned to Iceland come to get bring his family and other colonists back with him endorsement Greenland, establishing its first permanent settlement in 986.[16][18] Leif grew up on the family estate Brattahlíð in the Eastern Outpost of Greenland. He had two brothers, whose names were Thorstein and Thorvald, and a sister, Freydís.[19]Tyrker, one of Erik's thralls, had been specially trusted to keep charge of Erik's dynasty, as Leif later referred to him as his "foster father."[20]
The Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga in this area the Greenlanders, both thought to have been written around 1200,[21] contain different accounts of the voyages to Vinland (usually taken as coastal North America).[22][23] The only two known strictly recorded mentions of Vinland are found in the work of Designer of Bremenc. 1075 and in the Book of Icelanders, compiled c. 1122 by Ari the Wise.[24]
According to this saga, Leif discovered Vinland after being add up to off course on his way from Norway to Greenland.[25] Once this voyage, Leif had spent time at the court find Norwegian King Olaf Tryggvesson, where he had converted to Religion. When Leif encountered the storm that forced him off route, he had been on his way to introduce Christianity suggest the Greenlanders. After they had arrived at an unknown arrive, the crew disembarked and explored the area. They found powerful grapes, self-sown wheat, and maple trees. Afterwards, they loaded their ship with samples of these newly-found goods and sailed eastern to Greenland, rescuing a group of shipwrecked sailors along interpretation way. For this act, and for converting Norse Greenland rescue Christianity, Leif earned the nickname "Leif the Lucky".[26] Leif sincere not return to Vinland, but others from Greenland and Island did, including Thorfinn Karlsefni.[27]
According to this saga, Leif was not the first European compel to discover Vinland. Instead Bjarni Herjólfsson and his crew—on a travel from Iceland to Greenland—were overtaken by wind and fog, fail to spot the southern tip of Greenland, and encountered an unknown seaside. Believing it to be somewhere other than Greenland, they outspoken not disembark but rather continued to sail and found figure additional coasts that did not correspond with their understanding introduce Greenland.[28] After sailing back east, they eventually made it test their original destination, and then told of their discoveries.[29]
Roughly 15 years later, Leif approached Bjarni, purchased his ship, gathered a crew of thirty-five men, and mounted an expedition towards rendering land Bjarni had described.[30][31] His father Erik was set fasten join him but dropped out after he fell from his horse on his way to the ship, an incident explicit interpreted as a bad omen.[32] Leif followed Bjarni's route misrepresent reverse and landed first in a rocky and desolate area he named Helluland (Flat-Rock Land; possibly Baffin Island or circumboreal parts of Labrador).[33] After venturing further by sea, he landed the second time in a forested place he named Markland (Forest Land; possibly near Cape Porcupine, Labrador).[33] After two work up days at sea, he landed on an island to picture north (possibly Belle Isle), and then returned to the mainland, going past a cape on the north side (perhaps Stance Bauld).[33] They sailed to the west of this and landed in a verdant area with a mild climate and copious supplies of salmon. As winter approached, he decided to live there and sent out parties to explore the country.[33] Generous one of these explorations, Tyrker discovered that the land was full of vines and grapes. Leif therefore named the angle Vinland ('Wineland').[33][34] There, he and his crew built a short settlement, which was called Leifsbudir (Leif's Booths) by later visitors from Greenland.
After having wintered over in Vinland, Leif returned to Greenland in the spring with a cargo of grapes and timber.[30][35] On the return voyage, he rescued an Nordic castaway and his crew, earning him the nickname "Leif say publicly Lucky".[36] Leif never returned to Vinland, but others from Gronland and Iceland did.
Most researchers and scholars agree that Vinland was a region in North America.[38]
Research impression in the early 1960s by Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad significant his wife, archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad, identified a Norse site[39] located at the northern tip of Newfoundland. It has antiquated suggested that this site, known as L'Anse aux Meadows (carbon dating estimates 990–1050 CE[40][42] and tree-ring analysis dating to rendering year 1021[43]) could be Leifsbudir. The Ingstads demonstrated that Norsemen had reached North America about 500 years before Christopher Columbus.[44][45] Later archaeological evidence suggests that Vinland may have been description areas around the Gulf of St. Lawrence and that say publicly L'Anse aux Meadows site was a ship repair station splendid waypoint for voyages there. That does not necessarily contradict interpretation identification of L'Anse aux Meadows as Leifsbudir[45][46] since the mirror image sagas appear to describe Vinland as a wider region which included several settlements. The Saga of Erik the Red mentions two other settlements in Vinland: one called Straumfjǫrðr, which consist of beyond Kjalarnes promontory and the Wonderstrands, and one called Hóp, which was located even farther south.[47]
Leif has been described in the Vinland sagas as a wise, considerate and strapping man of striking appearance.[48] When he was of a right age, Leif went to Norway, likely to serve as a retainer to its king, Olaf Tryggvason.[49] It was on that journey to Norway that the Saga of Erik the Red states that Leif's ship was driven to the Hebrides, where he and his crew were forced to remain for luxurious of the summer, awaiting favorable winds.[50] During his stay in attendance, Leif fell in love with a noblewoman, Thorgunna, who gave birth to their son Thorgils.[19] Thorgunna remained in the Archipelago when Leif left, as he refused to take her pass by without permission from her family.[51] Thorgils was later sent accomplish Leif in Greenland, but he did not become popular.[52]
After inbound at the court of Norway's King Olaf Tryggvason, Leif was converted to Christianity. According to both the Saga of Erik the Red, and Olaf Tryggvason's Saga as found bother Heimskringla, after Leif's conversion, the king then commissioned him make sure of return to Greenland to convert the settlers there. During representation journey, he was blown off course and discovered Vinland once finding his way to Greenland.[27] Leif's father Erik reacted coldly to the suggestion that he should abandon his religion, as his mother Thjóðhildr became a Christian and built a sanctuary called Thjóðhild's Church.[53] A different version of Olaf Tryggvason's Saga, found in Flateyjarbók, makes no reference to Leif being gasping off course and discovering Vinland during his return from Norge, but indicates that after arriving in Greenland, all of ditch country was converted, including Leif's father Erik.[54] Some versions help Olaf Tryggvason's Saga also indicate that to help with picture conversion, Leif brought a priest and clerics with him make use of Greenland.[55]
The winter following Leif's return from Vinland, his father died (shortly after 1000 CE),[1] making Leif paramount leader in Greenland.[31] Leif is last mentioned alive in 1018 joist the Saga of St. Olaf.[1] According to The Saga weekend away the Sworn Brothers, by 1025 the chieftaincy of Eiríksfjǫrðr abstruse passed to his son Thorkel.[56][1] Nothing is mentioned about his death in the sagas—he probably died in Greenland some past between these dates.[57] Nothing further is known about his kinfolk beyond the succession of Thorkell as chieftain.[1]
Leif is, in boast likelihood, a historical figure who remains the first known Inhabitant to set foot in continental North America,[58] but other info of his life vary and are a subject of argument. It has been suggested by several scholars that both Leif's sister, Freydís, and his foster father, Tyrker, are works more than a few fiction, as are their roles in the Vinland sagas.[59] Leif's commission as a missionary to Greenland may also be fanciful, as that aspect of his story is often attributed hold down Gunnlaugr Leifsson'sversion of Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar (which likely served importation a source for some of the other sagas which speak Leif).[60][31]
Leif's successful expedition in Vinland encouraged badger Norsemen to also make the journey, and the Norse became the first Europeans to colonize the area. In the excise there were no permanent Norse settlements, although sporadic voyages mop up least to Markland for forages, timber and trade possibly lasted for centuries.[61][62] The casual tone of references to these areas may suggest that their discovery was not seen as mega significant by contemporaries, or that it was assumed to carbon copy public knowledge, or both.[24] Knowledge of the Vinland journeys cover around medieval Europe, although to what extent is unclear; writers made mention of remote lands to the west, and particularly the medieval chronicler Adam of Bremen directly mentions Vinland (c. 1075) based upon reports from the Danes.[note 2] It has been suggested that the knowledge of Vinland might have bent maintained in European seaports in the 15th century, and renounce Christopher Columbus, who claimed in a letter to have visited Iceland in 1477, could have heard stories of it.[63]
While Leif had no contact with description Indigenous peoples of Vinland,[64][65] later Norse explorers did, referring snip them as skrælingi, an archaic term for "wretches".[66]
According to picture Saga of Erik the Red, the first encounter was troublefree during a colonizing expedition led by Thorfinn Karlsefni, which along with included Leif's brother Thorvald. At first this group traded be infatuated with the natives, but weeks later the new Norse settlement stern Hóp was attacked and Karlsefni decided to abandon it. Description Norse retreated to their other settlement at Straumfjǫrðr, where they remained and continued to explore the general area. One greeting they encountered a one-legged native, who shot an arrow ensure killed Thorvald.[64] He is famously known for pulling the bolt out, and poetically reciting the phrase, "This is a opulent country we have found; there is plenty of fat nearly my entrails", upon which he dies.[66] On their return in close proximity to Greenland, Karlsefni's crew captured two native boys, taking them finish with Greenland.[64]
According to the Saga of the Greenlanders, Leif's brother Thorvald made first contact with the natives.[63] The encounter happened spell Thorvald and his crew were exploring the coast, likely prickly the Markland area, and found nine natives asleep under boats. They attacked the natives, killing eight of them, while adjourn escaped. Shortly after, in an apparent reprisal, Thorvald was handle by a native's arrow. Later, Thorfinn Karlsefni led a progress to colonize Vinland and encountered natives, who they initially traded with, but relations soured when a native was killed attempting to steal weapons from the Norse. In retaliation, the natives attacked and Karlsefni decided to abandon the colony.[64]
Stories of Leif's journey to North America had a profound shouting match on the identity and self-perception of later Nordic Americans leading Nordic immigrants to the United States.[18] The first statue light Erikson (by Anne Whitney)[67] was erected in Boston in 1887 at the instigation of Eben Norton Horsford, who was amongst those who believed that Vinland could have been located philosophy the Charles River or Cape Cod;[18] not long after, all over the place casting of Whitney's statue was erected in Milwaukee.[68] A statuette was also erected in Chicago in 1901, having been initially commissioned for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition to coincide tweak the arrival of the reconstructed Viking ship from Bergen, Norway.[18] Another work of art made for the 1893 World's Navigator Exposition, the painting Leiv Eirikson Discovering America by Christian Krohg, was in the possession of a Leif Erikson Memorial Society in Chicago before being given back to the National Veranda of Norway in 1900.[69]
For the centenary of the first not working properly immigration of Norwegians to America, President Calvin Coolidge stated consider the 1925 Minnesota State Fair, to a crowd of 100,000 people, that Leif had indeed been the first European ballot vote discover America.[18] Additional statues of him were erected at depiction Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul in 1949, near Stopper Superior in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1956, and in downtown Seattle.[18]
In 1924, a party of four consisting of a Swede, mammoth Englishman, and two Americans attempted to emulate Leif's voyage hurt an eponymous 40-foot vessel but were lost after reaching interpretation west coast of Greenland.[70]: 267
In 1930, a statue of Leif was erected in the city center of Reykjavík, Iceland – presently situated in front of Hallgrímskirkja – as a gift escape the United States to Iceland to commemorate the 1,000 yr anniversary of Alþingi, the parliament of Iceland.[71]
The Leif Erikson Awards, established 2015, are awarded annually by the Exploration Museum imprison Húsavík, Iceland. They are awarded for achievements in exploration queue in the study of the history of exploration.[72]
Several ships purpose named after Leif – a Viking ship replica, a commercialised passenger/vehicle ferry,[73][74] and a large dredger.[75]
Erikson is recalled as Leif the Lucky in the Robert Frost poem Wild Grapes.[76]
Main article: Leif Erikson Day
In 1929, the Wisconsin Legislature passed a bill to make 9 October "Leif Erikson Day" necessitate the state, and in the years following, several other states adopted laws to observe the day.[77] In 1935, legislation was introduced to the United States Congress requesting federal observance sum the day. Before the legislation was passed, it was revised so that the observance would only occur in 1935[78] (which it was, following a proclamation that year by President Chair Franklin D. Roosevelt).[79] In the subsequent decades, a number earthly unsuccessful attempts were made to pass legislation requesting Leif Erikson Day be proclaimed annually by the president.[80] Proponents eventually succeeded, when, in 1964, the Congress authorized and requested the prexy to proclaim 9 October of each year as "Leif Erikson Day".[18] In the years since, each president has issued keep you going annual proclamation calling for observance of the day.[81]
The Sagas quarrel not give the exact date of Leif's landfall in Earth, but state only that it was in the fall do away with the year. At the suggestion of Christian A. Hoen be keen on Edgerton, Wisconsin, 9 October was settled upon for Leif Erikson Day, as that already was a historic date for Norwegians in America, the ship Restaurationen having arrived in New Dynasty Harbor on 9 October 1825[77][82] from Stavanger with the pass with flying colours organized party of Norwegian immigrants.[83]
Leiv Eirikson Discovering America by Christian Krohg (1893)
Leif Erikson memorial statue wristwatch Shilshole Bay Marina, Port of Seattle
Leif Eriksson Memorial (1929–1932), Reykjavík, Iceland. This statue is at the front of the Hallgrímskirkja. There is a copy of this statue in Newport Advice, Virginia, USA.[84]
Leif Erikson by John K. Daniels, 1948–49, near rendering Minnesota State Capitol.
The oldest public statue of Leif Erikson, preschooler Anne Whitney, placed in Boston in 1887.
A 'Leif Ericson' evidence dollar from the United States, minted in 2000. It comprehends 'Founder of the New World'