Leif Ericson (
Old Norse Leifr Eiríksson)
[1] (c. 970 – c. 1020) was a
Norse[2] explorer who was probably the first
European to land in
North America (excluding
Greenland).
[3] According to the
Sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at
Vinland, which has been tentatively identified with the
L'Anse aux Meadows Norse site on the northern tip of the island of
Newfoundland in
Newfoundland and Labrador,
Canada.
It is believed that Leif was born about AD 970 in Iceland,[4] the son of Erik the Red (Old Norse Eiríkr inn rauði), a Norse explorer and outlaw and himself the son of an outlaw, Þorvaldr Ásvaldsson. Leif's mother was Thjodhild (Þjóðhildr).[5] Erik the Red had founded two Norse colonies in Greenland, the Western Settlement and the Eastern Settlement, as he named them.
Leif Erikson had two brothers, Thorvald and Thorsteinn, and one sister, Freydís. Leif married a woman named Thorgunna, and they had one son, Thorkell Leifsson.
During a stay in Norway, Leif Ericson converted to Christianity,[6] like many Norse of that time, at the behest of the King of Norway, Olaf I. When he returned to Greenland, he bought Bjarni Herjólfsson's boat and set out to explore the land that Bjarni had seen (located west of Greenland), which likely was Newfoundland, Canada.
