Leif Erikson

Leif Erikson

Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson, or Leif Ericson, also known as Leif the Lucky (Old Norse: Leifr hinn Heppni) (c. 970 – c. 1020), was a Norse explorer believed to be the first European to set foot on the North American mainland, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According to the Icelandic sagas, he founded a Norse settlement in Vinland, commonly interpreted as the North American coast. It has been speculated that the settlement established by Leif and his crew corresponds to the remains of a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, inhabited about 1,000 years ago (carbon dating estimates 990–1050 CE).

Leif was the son of Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse settlement in Greenland, and Thjodhild (Þjóðhildur) of Iceland. His birthplace is unknown, but it is believed he was born in Iceland, which had recently been colonized by Norse settlers, primarily from Norway. He grew up at the family estate Brattahlíð in the Eastern Settlement in Greenland. Leif had two known sons: Thorgils, born to the noblewoman Thorgunna in the Hebrides, and Thorkell, who succeeded him as chieftain of the Greenland settlement.

Early Life

Leif was the son of Erik the Red and his wife Thjodhild, and the grandson of Thorvald Ásvaldsson, a distant relative of Naddodd, who discovered Iceland. His birth year is most often cited as around 970 or 980. Although Leif’s birthplace is not mentioned in the sagas, it is likely he was born in Iceland, where his parents met, possibly somewhere along the shores of Breiðafjörður, perhaps at the farm Haukadal, believed to be Thjóðhild’s family home. Leif had two brothers, Thorsteinn and Thorvaldr, and a sister, Freydís.

Thorvald Ásvaldsson was exiled from Norway for manslaughter and sought refuge in Iceland with the young Erik. When Erik was later exiled from Iceland, he journeyed westward to a region he named Greenland, where he founded the first permanent settlement in 986. Tyrker, one of Erik’s thralls, had a special bond with Erik’s children, as Leif later referred to him as his “foster father.”

The Discovery of Vinland

The Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders, both likely written around 1200, provide differing accounts of the voyages to Vinland (commonly interpreted as the North American coast). The only two other known strictly historical mentions of Vinland appear in Adam of Bremen’s work (c. 1075) and The Book of the Icelanders, written by Ari the Wise around 1122.

Account in the Saga of Erik the Red

According to this saga, Leif discovered Vinland after being blown off course while sailing from Norway to Greenland. Before this journey, Leif had spent time at the court of the Norwegian King Olaf Tryggvason, where he converted to Christianity. When he was caught in a storm that carried him off course, he (accompanied by a priest) was en route to bring Christianity to the Greenlanders. Upon arriving at an unknown coast, the crew went ashore to explore the area. They found wild grapes, self-sown wheat, and maple trees. They subsequently loaded their ship with these resources and sailed east to Greenland, rescuing a group of shipwrecked sailors along the way. While Leif did not return to Vinland, others from Greenland and Iceland, including Thorfinn Karlsefni, did.

 

Account in the Saga of the Greenlanders

According to this saga, Leif was not the first European to discover America. Instead, Bjarni Herjólfsson and his crew accidentally encountered an unknown coastline while sailing from Iceland to Greenland. They had missed the southern tip of Greenland and stumbled upon the new land. Believing it to be something other than Greenland, they did not go ashore but sailed back east, eventually reaching their intended destination and reporting their discovery.

Leif then approached Bjarni, purchased his ship, assembled a crew of 35, and set out on an expedition to the land Bjarni had described. His father, Erik, intended to accompany him but abandoned the trip after falling from his horse on the way to the ship—a mishap he interpreted as a bad omen. Following Bjarni's route in reverse, Leif first landed at a rocky, desolate place he called Helluland ("Flat-Rock Land," possibly Baffin Island or northern Labrador). After another sea voyage, he landed at a wooded area he named Markland ("Forest Land," possibly near Cape Porcupine, Labrador). Two days later, he reached an island in the north (possibly Belle Isle) and then returned to the mainland, passing a cape on the northern side (perhaps Cape Bauld). They sailed west of the cape and landed in a green area with a mild climate and abundant salmon. As winter approached, Leif decided to settle there and sent out parties to explore the land. During one such expedition, Tyrker discovered grapevines and grapes, prompting Leif to name the land Vinland ("Wineland"). There, he and his crew established a small settlement, later known to Greenlanders as Leifsbudir ("Leif’s Booths").

After spending the winter in Vinland, Leif returned to Greenland in the spring with a cargo of grapes and timber. On the return journey, he rescued an Icelandic castaway and his crew, earning him the nickname "Leif the Lucky." Leif never returned to Vinland, but other Greenlanders and Icelanders did.

Archaeological Evidence for Vinland

In the early 1960s, Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and his wife, archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad, discovered a Norse site at the northern tip of Newfoundland. This site, known as L'Anse aux Meadows, was speculated to be Leifsbudir. The Ingstads demonstrated that Norse explorers reached America about 500 years before Christopher Columbus. Subsequent archaeological findings suggest that Vinland encompassed areas around the Gulf of St. Lawrence and that L'Anse aux Meadows served as a ship repair station and waypoint for voyages farther south. This interpretation does not necessarily contradict identifying L'Anse aux Meadows as Leifsbudir, as the two sagas seem to describe Vinland as a larger region containing multiple settlements. In the Saga of Erik the Red, two other Vinland settlements are mentioned: one called Straumfjǫrðr, beyond the cape Kjalarnes and the "Wonder Strands," and another called Hóp, further south.

Personal Life

Leif was described as wise, considerate, and strong, with a striking appearance. While staying in the Hebrides, he fell in love with a noblewoman, Thorgunna, who bore him a son, Thorgils. Thorgils was later sent to Leif in Greenland but was not well-liked.

Leif converted to Christianity while at the court of Olaf Tryggvason, King of Norway. Both the Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason in the Heimskringla state that the king tasked Leif with returning to Greenland to convert the settlers there. On this journey, he went off course and discovered Vinland before finding his way to Greenland. Leif's father, Erik, reacted coolly to the idea of abandoning his religion, while his mother, Thjóðhildr, embraced Christianity and built a church known as Thjóðhild’s Church. In another version of the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason found in Flateyjarbók, Leif is not said to have discovered Vinland by accident; instead, the entire region converted to Christianity upon his return, including Erik. Leif and the priest who accompanied him would thus have been the first Christian missionaries in America, predating Christopher Columbus.

Leif was last mentioned alive in 1019, and by 1025, he had passed his role as chieftain of Eiríksfjǫrðr to another son, Thorkell. The sagas do not record his death, but he likely died in Greenland sometime between these dates. Little is known about his family beyond Thorkell succeeding him as chieftain.

 

Legacy

Norse and Medieval Europe

Leif Erikson's successful expedition to Vinland inspired other Norse explorers to journey to the region, making the Norse the first Europeans to settle in North America. However, these settlements were not permanent, and sporadic voyages—primarily for grazing, timber, and trade—may have continued for centuries. The casual tone with which these areas are mentioned in sagas suggests that their discovery was either not considered particularly significant or was assumed to be common knowledge. Knowledge of the Vinland voyages spread throughout medieval Europe, though the extent of this awareness remains unclear. Writers referred to distant lands in the west, and the medieval chronicler Adam of Bremen directly mentioned Vinland around 1075, based on accounts from the Danes. Some have speculated that this knowledge may have persisted in European seaports into the 15th century, possibly influencing Christopher Columbus, who claimed to have visited Iceland in 1477, where he may have heard tales about Vinland.

Encounters with Indigenous Peoples

Although Leif himself did not encounter Vinland's Indigenous inhabitants, later Norse explorers did, referring to them as skrælingi, an archaic term for "wretches."

In the Saga of Erik the Red, the first encounter occurred during a colonization expedition led by Thorfinn Karlsefni, which included Leif’s brother Thorvald. Initially, the group traded with the Indigenous people, but weeks later, the settlement was attacked, prompting Karlsefni to abandon it. While continuing to explore the area, the Norse encountered a lone, one-legged native, who shot an arrow that killed Thorvald. As he removed the arrow, Thorvald poetically remarked, "This is a rich land we have found; there is much fat about my belly," before dying. On their return to Greenland, Karlsefni's crew captured two Indigenous boys and brought them back.

The Saga of the Greenlanders offers a slightly different account, stating that Thorvald was the first to encounter the Indigenous people while exploring the coast, likely near Markland. He and his crew discovered nine natives sleeping under boats. They attacked, killing eight while one escaped. Later, Thorvald was killed in retaliation by an Indigenous arrow. Thorfinn Karlsefni subsequently led another group to settle in Vinland and initially traded peacefully with the Indigenous people. However, hostilities later erupted, leading Karlsefni to abandon the colony.

Commemorations

Leif Erikson's journeys profoundly shaped the identity and self-perception of later Nordic Americans and Nordic immigrants to the United States. The first statue of Leif (by Anne Whitney) was erected in Boston in 1887, spearheaded by Eben Norton Horsford, who believed Vinland was located near the Charles River or Cape Cod. Shortly thereafter, a copy of Whitney’s statue was installed in Milwaukee. In 1901, a statue was placed in Chicago, initially commissioned for the 1893 World’s Fair to coincide with the arrival of a reconstructed Viking ship from Bergen, Norway. Another artwork created for the 1893 exposition, Christian Krohg's painting Leiv Eiriksson oppdager Amerika (Leif Erikson Discovers America), was once held by a Chicago Leif Erikson Memorial Association before being returned to Norway’s National Gallery in 1900.

During the centennial celebration of Norwegian immigration to America in 1925, President Calvin Coolidge declared at the Minnesota State Fair before a crowd of 100,000 that Leif had indeed been the first European to discover America. Additional statues were erected in 1949 at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, in 1956 near Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota, and in downtown Seattle.

In 1930, a statue of Erikson was installed in Reykjavík, Iceland, where it now stands in front of Hallgrímskirkja. This statue was a gift from the United States to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of the Icelandic parliament, Alþingi.

The Leif Erikson Awards, inaugurated in 2015, are presented annually by the Exploration Museum in Húsavík, Iceland, recognizing achievements in exploration and the study of exploration history.

Several ships have been named after Leif Erikson, including a Viking ship replica, a commercial passenger and vehicle ferry, and a large dredger.

Leif Erikson Day

In 1929, the Wisconsin legislature designated October 9 as Leif Erikson Day in the state. In 1964, the United States Congress authorized the President to declare October 9 as Leif Erikson Day. On October 6, 2000, President Bill Clinton issued Presidential Proclamation 7358, declaring Monday, October 9, 2000, as Leif Erikson Day.

While the sagas do not specify the exact date of Leif Erikson's landing in America, they note that it occurred in the fall. The selection of October 9 was based on a proposal by Christian A. Hoen of Edgerton, Wisconsin, who noted its significance as the arrival date of the ship Restaurationen in New York Harbor in 1825, carrying the first organized group of Norwegian immigrants from Stavanger.

In Fiction

  • Erikson is the protagonist of the 1928 film The Viking.
  • He is a central character in Makoto Yukimura's manga Vinland Saga.
  • Leif Erikson is the lead character in the historical children's novel Vinland the Good by Henry Treece, illustrated by William Stobbs, which recounts Viking Age discoveries based primarily on the Saga of the Greenlanders.
  • An Old Captivity, a novel by Nevil Shute published in 1940, features a dream sequence involving a character named Leif Erikson and an attempt to locate historical Viking settlements using aerial photography.
  • Erikson is a primary character in the 2022 Netflix historical series Vikings: Valhalla, portrayed by Sam Corlett.
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