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Two of the most important characters in Scandinavian literature are Erik the Red and his son, Leif Eriksson. Erikson, nicknamed The Lucky One (970-1020), was a Viking explorer considered one of the first Europeans to reach North America. In 2009, United States President Barack Obama proclaimed October 9 as Leif Erikson Day.
Possibly born in Iceland, Leif was the second son of the Norwegian explorer Erik the Red (who in 985 founded the first Viking settlement in Greenland, shortly after being exiled from Iceland) and his wife Thjodhild, and is the grandson of Thorvaldr Asvaldsson. His year of birth is usually dated between 970. Although his birthplace is not referenced in the sagas, it is likely that he was born in Iceland where his parents met possibly somewhere outside Breiðafjörður and possibly on the farm where Thjóðhild's family may have settled. Leif had two brothers whose names were Thorsteinn and Thorvaldr, and a sister, Freydís.
Thorvald Asvaldsson was banished from Norway for murder and went into exile in Iceland accompanied by the young Erik. When Erik himself was banished from Iceland he traveled west to an area he called Greenland where he established the first permanent settlement in the year 986. Tyrker, one of Erik's slaves, was especially entrusted with the care of Erik's children. In this way Leif will refer to him as his adoptive father.
In 999 he visited Norway and was baptized under the protection of King Olaf Tryggvason, spending the winter with him. Around the year 1000, guided by the stories of the merchant Bjarni Herjólfsson, he headed west and spent a winter in a land he called Vinland and described as abundant in salmon and grasslands. Their camp would constitute the first European settlement in America, five hundred years before Christopher Columbus. It is likely that the Vikings sourced wood from America (there are no forests in Greenland) until the mid-14th century.
His brother Thorvald Eriksson was the first European to have contact with Amerindians, and also their first victim. The camp, Leifsbúðir, was located on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland, possibly at the site currently known as L'Anse aux Meadows, and lasted only a few years before being abandoned. This was probably due to the weather, internal problems and especially clashes with the natives (who the Vikings presumably called skrellings). The sagas only mention a relationship with a Hebridean woman called Þórgunna, who conceived a son considered illegitimate, Þorgils Leifsson (b. 1000). It is said that Leif Eriksson was the Viking who discovered America, he was the first and not Christopher Columbus.
