Leif Erikson 18 x 24 inches Acrylic 2019
Leif Erikson (970 - 1020) is considered to be the first European to set foot on the North American continent, doing so hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus opened up the Americas to exploration and colonization. (There are numerous other claimants to this achievement, but none widely accepted).
Leif’s grandfather Thorvald Ásvaldsson was exiled from Norway in about 960, during the reign of King Haakon the Good. Apparently he had killed several people and as punishment was exiled to Iceland, a large island to the west that had been discovered by Thorvald’s great grandfather’s brother and was now a thriving Norse settlement. Accompanying Thorvald was his 10 year old son Erik the Red (red referring to the color of his hair and beard).
Around 982 Erik the Red was sentenced to three years in exile for killing the man who had slain several of his thralls (slaves). He consequently left Iceland and sailed west, reaching a huge land mass that had yet to be thoroughly explored or successfully settled. He spent his three years in exile there and when he returned to Iceland he promoted settlement of the land that he called “Greenland” (the name stuck). With arable land in Iceland running out, he was able to attract many potential colonists and led a fleet of 25 ships to Greenland. Although only 14 of the ships reached Greenland, two permanent settlements were established there on the southwest coast. Its population soon reached a few thousand individuals. Erik the Red established himself as the chieftain of the so-called Eastern Settlement and became an honored and wealthy man.
Among the four children of Erik the Red and his wife Thjodhild (a descendant of an Irish king) was Leif, who earned th epithet, “the Lucky.” Leif grew up in Greenland, but Erik was a mostly absent parent. Leif was raised by his father’s thrall, Tyrker, who, not Norse, may have been of Germanic, Slavic, or even Hungarian derivation.
In 999 is when we first hear of Leif Erikson. He set sail at that time for Norway, but blown off course, he landed in the Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland. Staying there for the summer, he fell in love with a noblewoman named Thorgunna, who bore him a son. Marriage with her was not practical, but she did eventually send their son, Thorgils, to Greenland.
At last arriving in Norway, Leif was presented to King Olaf Tryggvason at his capital of Trondheim and became his hirdman, one of his retinue of warriors and household companions. It was there that Leif, to please his king, converted to Christianity, renouncing the traditional Norse religion, which featured the gods Thor, Odin, Freyr, and so forth. King Olaf succeeded in what his predecessor King Haakon had tried but failed to do, convert the people of Norway to the Christian religion, even if Olaf often had to do it forcibly.
Leif Erikson returned to Greenland in the spring, but on the voyage back home his ship was blown off course and ended up farther west that was intended. Leif and his men saw a strange uncharted land that had reportedly been glimpsed many years before by an Icelandic merchant named Bjarni Herjólfsson on his voyage to Greenland. Erikson rescued some shipwrecked seamen who also claimed to have seen this land. Significantly, the land sighted by Erikson and Herjólfsson was forested. Greenlanders, who lacked timber, were, therefore, interested. So was Leif. Possessed by the curiosity of the explorer, which many Norsemen of the time were amply endowed with, he was determined to find it again. With the support of the Greenlanders, he mounted an expedition to voyage farther west and explore the newly found land. He recruited a crew of 35 men and purchased the very boat Bjarni Herjólfsson had sailed in when he had made his sighting. Erik the Red had been persuaded to join the expedition, but when he fell off his horse riding to the ship, he begged off, deciding the omens were against him.
The Greenland explorers set out in the fall of 1000 or 1001. The voyage of Leif Erikson was indeed successful. He made landfall first at what was probably Baffin Island, a rocky, desolate place he named Helluland (flat-rock land). Continuing south and west he landed on a country well forested. He dubbed it Markland (forest land). This was probably Labrador on the coast of what is now Canada. Next, two days sailing to the south, he found country where the climate was milder, the landscape lusher, and the waters teeming with salmon. Here he decided to stop and spend the winter. Half of his men, though, led by Tyrker, were sent out to conduct explorations. It was Tyrker who found a welcoming land distinguished by its vines and grapes. The Norse moved there to winter and named it Vinland (land of vines). The settlement built there was later called Leifsbudir (Leif’s booths). It was probably located on the tip of the northern peninsula of the island of Newfoundland.
With a cargo of timber and grapes, Leif Erikson returned to Greenland in the spring. He then followed through with his mission to Christianize the country. Erikson, perceived as a man of strength, character, and wisdom, was respected and listened to when he brought word of this new religion. Therefore, he was generally successful in his efforts to convert the people of Greenland to Christianity, (although it is probable Christianity had already taken root there). His mother was quick to embrace the new religion and had a Christian church built, but his father, Erik the Red, rejected it and stubbornly clung to his belief in the old Norse deities. (As a result of this religious disagreement between husband and wife, Thjodhild denied Erik her bed).
Vinland was visited by other Norsemen, but problems arouse when contact was made with the native Inuit inhabitants, who the Norse called skraelings. Many of these encounters were hostile. Leif’s brother Thorvald first came upon them in 1004. Armed conflict resulted and Thorvald was killed. Trade was conducted with the skraelings, but any future settlements were imperiled by their general hostility to foreigners. It is conjectural how many further Norse settlements were made in America or how far from Vinland they might have been. It is established that for centuries after Norsemen did make expeditions to Markland, particularly to acquire timber. It was probably an open secret among mariners that such lands did exists to the west, although after the abandonment of the Norse settlements, no one deemed it worthwhile to travel there. Christopher Columbus visited to Iceland in 1477 and may have been privy to and inspired by stories of Vinland and lands to the west.
The last Norse settlements in Greenland were abandoned in the early 14th Century and the onset of the Little Ice Age made the island virtually uninhabitable due to the lower temperatures and the consequent inability to grow crops there. Other factors, though, are believed to have contributed to decline of Norse Greenland.
It is not certain how many voyages Leif Erikson might have made to Vinland. After the death of his father from the plague in 1004 he assumed a role as chieftain in Greenland and probably remained there after that time. The date of Leif Erikson’s death is uncertain, sometime between 1019 and 1025. He was succeeded as chieftain by his son Thorkell. (The identity of Thorkell’s mother is not known).
Icelandic sagas written in the 13th Century are primary sources for accounts of Erik the Red and Leif Erikson. But there are some earlier, more reliably historical accounts such as that of Adam of Bremen, a German scholar who wrote in the late 11th Century. Norse discovery of the New World would eventually be corroborated by archaeology. In the early 1960s Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and his archaeologist wife Anne Stine uncovered remains of a Norse settlement dated to 1000 AD in the northern tip of Newfoundland at a place known as L’Anse aux Meadows. It was probably the site of Leifsbudir. While further archaeological evidence suggest that Vinland was in the Gulf of St. Lawrence area, its location remains a matter of controversy. Cape Cod, for instance, is believed by some to be the Norse Vinland. There are, in fact, many theories regarding the extent of the Norse presence in America, some supported by evidence that is intriguing, but others based upon dubious, even spurious assumptions.
Nothing is known of Leif’s appearance. We know that he had a grandson, but no further descendants have been identified. Leif Erikson, though, remains an iconic hero, especially to Scandinavians in America. Sometimes cast as a competitor to Columbus, he maintains the advantage of possessing a reputation that is unsullied — save for the illegitimate Scottish offspring!
Leif’s grandfather Thorvald Ásvaldsson was exiled from Norway in about 960, during the reign of King Haakon the Good. Apparently he had killed several people and as punishment was exiled to Iceland, a large island to the west that had been discovered by Thorvald’s great grandfather’s brother and was now a thriving Norse settlement. Accompanying Thorvald was his 10 year old son Erik the Red (red referring to the color of his hair and beard).
Around 982 Erik the Red was sentenced to three years in exile for killing the man who had slain several of his thralls (slaves). He consequently left Iceland and sailed west, reaching a huge land mass that had yet to be thoroughly explored or successfully settled. He spent his three years in exile there and when he returned to Iceland he promoted settlement of the land that he called “Greenland” (the name stuck). With arable land in Iceland running out, he was able to attract many potential colonists and led a fleet of 25 ships to Greenland. Although only 14 of the ships reached Greenland, two permanent settlements were established there on the southwest coast. Its population soon reached a few thousand individuals. Erik the Red established himself as the chieftain of the so-called Eastern Settlement and became an honored and wealthy man.
Among the four children of Erik the Red and his wife Thjodhild (a descendant of an Irish king) was Leif, who earned th epithet, “the Lucky.” Leif grew up in Greenland, but Erik was a mostly absent parent. Leif was raised by his father’s thrall, Tyrker, who, not Norse, may have been of Germanic, Slavic, or even Hungarian derivation.
In 999 is when we first hear of Leif Erikson. He set sail at that time for Norway, but blown off course, he landed in the Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland. Staying there for the summer, he fell in love with a noblewoman named Thorgunna, who bore him a son. Marriage with her was not practical, but she did eventually send their son, Thorgils, to Greenland.
At last arriving in Norway, Leif was presented to King Olaf Tryggvason at his capital of Trondheim and became his hirdman, one of his retinue of warriors and household companions. It was there that Leif, to please his king, converted to Christianity, renouncing the traditional Norse religion, which featured the gods Thor, Odin, Freyr, and so forth. King Olaf succeeded in what his predecessor King Haakon had tried but failed to do, convert the people of Norway to the Christian religion, even if Olaf often had to do it forcibly.
Leif Erikson returned to Greenland in the spring, but on the voyage back home his ship was blown off course and ended up farther west that was intended. Leif and his men saw a strange uncharted land that had reportedly been glimpsed many years before by an Icelandic merchant named Bjarni Herjólfsson on his voyage to Greenland. Erikson rescued some shipwrecked seamen who also claimed to have seen this land. Significantly, the land sighted by Erikson and Herjólfsson was forested. Greenlanders, who lacked timber, were, therefore, interested. So was Leif. Possessed by the curiosity of the explorer, which many Norsemen of the time were amply endowed with, he was determined to find it again. With the support of the Greenlanders, he mounted an expedition to voyage farther west and explore the newly found land. He recruited a crew of 35 men and purchased the very boat Bjarni Herjólfsson had sailed in when he had made his sighting. Erik the Red had been persuaded to join the expedition, but when he fell off his horse riding to the ship, he begged off, deciding the omens were against him.
The Greenland explorers set out in the fall of 1000 or 1001. The voyage of Leif Erikson was indeed successful. He made landfall first at what was probably Baffin Island, a rocky, desolate place he named Helluland (flat-rock land). Continuing south and west he landed on a country well forested. He dubbed it Markland (forest land). This was probably Labrador on the coast of what is now Canada. Next, two days sailing to the south, he found country where the climate was milder, the landscape lusher, and the waters teeming with salmon. Here he decided to stop and spend the winter. Half of his men, though, led by Tyrker, were sent out to conduct explorations. It was Tyrker who found a welcoming land distinguished by its vines and grapes. The Norse moved there to winter and named it Vinland (land of vines). The settlement built there was later called Leifsbudir (Leif’s booths). It was probably located on the tip of the northern peninsula of the island of Newfoundland.
With a cargo of timber and grapes, Leif Erikson returned to Greenland in the spring. He then followed through with his mission to Christianize the country. Erikson, perceived as a man of strength, character, and wisdom, was respected and listened to when he brought word of this new religion. Therefore, he was generally successful in his efforts to convert the people of Greenland to Christianity, (although it is probable Christianity had already taken root there). His mother was quick to embrace the new religion and had a Christian church built, but his father, Erik the Red, rejected it and stubbornly clung to his belief in the old Norse deities. (As a result of this religious disagreement between husband and wife, Thjodhild denied Erik her bed).
Vinland was visited by other Norsemen, but problems arouse when contact was made with the native Inuit inhabitants, who the Norse called skraelings. Many of these encounters were hostile. Leif’s brother Thorvald first came upon them in 1004. Armed conflict resulted and Thorvald was killed. Trade was conducted with the skraelings, but any future settlements were imperiled by their general hostility to foreigners. It is conjectural how many further Norse settlements were made in America or how far from Vinland they might have been. It is established that for centuries after Norsemen did make expeditions to Markland, particularly to acquire timber. It was probably an open secret among mariners that such lands did exists to the west, although after the abandonment of the Norse settlements, no one deemed it worthwhile to travel there. Christopher Columbus visited to Iceland in 1477 and may have been privy to and inspired by stories of Vinland and lands to the west.
The last Norse settlements in Greenland were abandoned in the early 14th Century and the onset of the Little Ice Age made the island virtually uninhabitable due to the lower temperatures and the consequent inability to grow crops there. Other factors, though, are believed to have contributed to decline of Norse Greenland.
It is not certain how many voyages Leif Erikson might have made to Vinland. After the death of his father from the plague in 1004 he assumed a role as chieftain in Greenland and probably remained there after that time. The date of Leif Erikson’s death is uncertain, sometime between 1019 and 1025. He was succeeded as chieftain by his son Thorkell. (The identity of Thorkell’s mother is not known).
Icelandic sagas written in the 13th Century are primary sources for accounts of Erik the Red and Leif Erikson. But there are some earlier, more reliably historical accounts such as that of Adam of Bremen, a German scholar who wrote in the late 11th Century. Norse discovery of the New World would eventually be corroborated by archaeology. In the early 1960s Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and his archaeologist wife Anne Stine uncovered remains of a Norse settlement dated to 1000 AD in the northern tip of Newfoundland at a place known as L’Anse aux Meadows. It was probably the site of Leifsbudir. While further archaeological evidence suggest that Vinland was in the Gulf of St. Lawrence area, its location remains a matter of controversy. Cape Cod, for instance, is believed by some to be the Norse Vinland. There are, in fact, many theories regarding the extent of the Norse presence in America, some supported by evidence that is intriguing, but others based upon dubious, even spurious assumptions.
Nothing is known of Leif’s appearance. We know that he had a grandson, but no further descendants have been identified. Leif Erikson, though, remains an iconic hero, especially to Scandinavians in America. Sometimes cast as a competitor to Columbus, he maintains the advantage of possessing a reputation that is unsullied — save for the illegitimate Scottish offspring!
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