A Norse outlaw who was forced into exile for manslaughter, Erik the Red (950–c. 1003) became an explorer and established the first Viking colony on the island of Greenland. His voyage expanded the European map of the known world and opened the way for the discovery of America by his son, Leif (c. 970–c. 1020).
Erik was born in Norway, but was forced to flee after his father, Thorvald, was exiled for “a number of killings.” The family settled in Iceland, where Erik married a woman named Tjodhilde and had four children.
In 982, after killing two other Icelanders in property disputes, Erik was himself banished from the island for three years. Along with a handful of followers, he sailed west in a longship until he reached Greenland. The island Erik discovered had a warmer climate than it does today and was well suited for farming, leading to its name.
After the term of Erik’s banishment expired, he returned to Iceland and recruited about 500 colonists to move to Greenland. They set sail in 986, along with a load of cows, pigs, sheep, and goats. Just over half the group survived the voyage, but the colony, divided between the Western Settlement and the smaller Eastern Settlement, quickly grew to more than 3,000 inhabitants.
Erik’s son, Leif, meanwhile, had broken with family tradition by staying out of trouble and converting to Christianity. He moved to his father’s colony in 1000 with a cargo of Christian missionaries, who founded the island’s first church and converted the island’s pagan population.
The Icelandic sagas, the chief source of information about Erik’s life, provide little else about his biography. A plague that swept through the Greenland settlement may have killed its founder. Leif used Greenland as the base for his explorations of North America in the 1000s, which are believed to have been the first European visits to the New World.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- The Viking colony in Greenland lasted almost 500 years, but was abandoned in the fifteenth century for reasons that remain a mystery. It was reestablished by Denmark in 1721 and is now a self-governing Danish dependency.
- Leif Eriksson named the territory he discovered Vinland (Norse for “Wine Land”). His settlement, thought to have been located in Nova Scotia or Newfoundland, lasted three years until it was abandoned. Its name was a reference to the berries that the Vikings found growing along the North American coast, which they mistook for wine grapes.
- The source of the words the Red in Erik’s name is uncertain. It most likely refers to the color of his hair and beard, but may also be a reference to his hot-tempered personality.
