The indigenous people have their own ethnicity and oddly, are not mentioned here nor is the interaction between Norse and indigenous? As a side note, Norse women settled in these regions because they could own their own land. As to the comments a out Vikings and violence — there was a terrible period of history where that was true but after the clans united they move into an understanding of peace and have pursued that avenue into contemporary times.
See Queen Ragnhild influence on her King son. Grab a cup of coffee as we take a look back at his story… We can never know for sure who was the first European to set foot in North America, but one thing is certain… it was definitely not Christopher Columbus! Columbus and Cabot Everyone knows from their history lessons that in fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
So, was Cabot the first European to set foot in North America? Not even close! His early life Leif Erikson was the middle son of Erik the Red, the founder of the Norse settlement in Greenland and his wife Thjodhild.
Searching for Vinland According to the Saga of the Greenlanders, Leif heard the tale of Bjarni Herjolfsson an explorer who, on attempting to find Greenland for the first time with his crew, was blown off course and sighted hospitable-looking land, with mountains, hills and forests, to the west. The Greenland of today Anxious to get to Greenland to see his family there, Bjarni refuses to investigate and simply relays mention of the land to the West and was chided by King Eric for not investigating further.
Success at last After another couple of days of sailing south-west, they finally encountered a place that seemed like the place they were searching for. The Labrador coast of Canada They landed at a headland, with an Island offshore, and a pool accessible to ships at high tide in an area with shallow sea and sandbanks. Reenactment at L'Anse aux Meadows. According to the Eiriks saga, Erikson sailed off course on his return to Greenland and landed in North America.
He called the region where he landed Vinland after the wild grapes that grew in abundance there and the general fertility of the land. The Groenlendinga saga claims he made three landfalls at Helluland possibly Labrador , Markland possibly Newfoundland and Vinland. The location of Vinland has been debated over the centuries, and has been identified as a variety of spots along the northern Atlantic coast.
After his time in Vinland, Erikson returned to Greenland, and he would never return to North American shores. His son Thorgils was sent by his mother whom Leif never married to live in Greenland, but was apparently unpopular.
In , in honor of the th anniversary of the arrival of the first official group of Norwegian immigrants in the United States, President Calvin Coolidge announced to a Minnesota crowd that Erikson had been the first European to discover America. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. From around A. John Cabot or Giovanni Caboto, as he was known in Italian was an Italian explorer and navigator who may have developed the idea of sailing westward to reach the riches of Asia while working for a Venetian merchant.
Though the exact details of his life and expeditions are the Henry Hudson made his first voyage west from England in , when he was hired to find a shorter route to Asia from Europe through the Arctic Ocean. L eif Erikson was the son of Erik the Red, founder of the first European settlement on what is now called Greenland. Around A. According to one school of thought, Erikson sailed off course on his way back to Greenland and landed on the North American continent, where he explored a region he called Vinland.
The second of the three sons of Erik the Red, the first colonizer of Greenland, Leif sailed from Greenland to Norway shortly before to serve among the retainers at the court of Olaf I Tryggvason, who converted him to Christianity and commissioned him to urge that religion upon the Greenland settlers. On this land the dew on the grasses seemed as sweet as honey. Here Leif had some booths or temporary shelters built.
But, the land here was so rich that he decided to build at least one large house for the winter. On this land there were salmon bigger than any the Vikings had ever seen before, there were also very rich pastures there for their cattle they had brought a few , and there were rich forests covering this land. After the houses were built, Leif sent out an exploration group to explore the land. After one of these expeditions, Thyrker didn't return. The men searched for him all day and finally found him the next morning.
When they found him he was very excited and blabbering in German. After he calmed down he explained to the men that he had found grapes on this land. Leif ordered his men to load grapes and timber onto the boat, and then they settled in for the winter. But the winter here was very peculiar. No frost came to the grasses.
They also noticed that the days and nights were of more equal length here. When spring came and the men were ready to go, Leif gave this land a name, Vinland, which either means Wineland or Pastureland.
Surprisingly, few people ever returned to Vinland, only Leif's sister and a small group of settlers who were killed by Indians. Because of this, Europe remained almost totally in the dark about the discovery of this new world. The only references to it are in the Norse sagas where most of the information concerning Leif Erikson is recorded. Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, ed. Fulton, E.
Gray, Edward F. Leif Erikson Discoverer of America. New York: Kraus Reprint Co. Jensen, Malcolm C. Leif Erikson the Lucky. New York: Franklin Watts Inc. Shippen, Katherine B. Leif Eriksson First Voyager to America. Reprinted with permission from the Leif Erikson website.
To return to the Leif Ericson Linkpage, click below: To return to the main page, click below:. Bibliography Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, ed.
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