Leif Ericson Memorial

LEIF ERICSON MEMORIAL

About AD 970 -1020 A tribute to the memory of one of the greatest travellers in world history who was the first to discover America

Bio

Links

Images

Books

Videos

Leif Ericson - Columbus' Predecessor by Nearly 500 Years ( By Linn Ryne)

In 986, Norwegian-born Eirik Thorvaldsson, known as Eirik the Red,
                          explored and colonized the southwestern part of Greenland. It was his son,
                          Leiv Eiriksson, who became the first European to set foot on the shores of
                          North America, and the first explorer of Norwegian extraction now accorded
                          worldwide recognition.

                          The date and place of Leiv Eiriksson's birth has not been definitely
                          established, but it is believed that he grew up on Greenland. The Saga of
                          Eric the Red relates that he set sail for Norway in 999, served King Olav
                          Trygvasson for a term, and was sent back to Greenland one year later to
                          bring Christianity to its people.

                          There are two schools of thought as to the subsequent course of events.
                          One of these is that Eiriksson, en route for Greenland, came off course, and
                          quite by chance came to the shores of northwestern America in the year
                          1000, thus preceding Columbus by nearly 500 years. However, according to
                          the Greenland Saga, generally believed to be trustworthy, Eiriksson's
                          discovery was no mere chance. The saga tells that he fitted out an
                          expedition and sailed west, in an attempt to gather proof of the claims made
                          by the Icelandic trader Bjarni Herjulfsson. In 986 Herjulfsson, driven far off
                          course by a fierce storm between Iceland and Greenland, had reported
                          sighting hilly, heavily forested land far to the west. Herjulfsson, though
                          believably the first European to see the continent of North America, never
                          set foot on its shores. Leiv Eiriksson, encouraged by the current talk of
                          potential discoveries, and the constant need of land to farm, bought Bjarni's
                          ship and set off on his quest of discovery.

He appears to have followed Bjarni's route in reverse, making three

                          landfalls. The first of these he named Helluland, or Flat-Stone Land, now
                          generally regarded as having been Labrador. The second was Markland, or
                          Wood Land, possibly Newfoundland. The exact location of the third, which
                          was named Vinland, is a matter of scholastic controversy, but it could have
                          been as far north as northern Newfoundland or as far south as Cape Cod or
                          even beyond this.

Eiriksson and his men spent the winter in Vinland, at a place they named
Leifsbud-ir, returning to Greenland the following year, 1001.

                          It was left to Eiriksson's brother, Thorvald to make the next voyage to the
                          new-found territory, for strange as it may seem, Leiv Eiriksson never
                          returned there. Subsequent attempts at settlement of Vinland were
                          unsuccessful, due to strong friction between the Viking settlers and the
                          native North Americans.

                          Though many still regard Christopher Columbus as the discoverer of the
                          New World, Eiriksson's right to this title received the stamp of official
                          approval in the USA when in 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson, backed
                          by a unanimous Congress, proclaimed October 9th "Leif Ericson Day" in
                          commemoration of the first arrival of a European on North American soil.