50 Fun Facts About Leif Erikson

Leif Erikson is thought to have been the first European to set foot on which continent?

He got there roughly half a millennium before Christopher Columbus.

How did Leif Erikson's father, Erik the Red, die around 1003?

Immigrants who arrived in 1002 brought the disease that killed many of the colony's leading citizens.

By what nickname is Erikson also known?

He earned it on the voyage home from Vinland.

According to the sagas, Leif Erikson named the land where his crew found grapevines after which drink?

Vinland means Wineland, though some scholars argue the root vin- meant pasture or meadow.

In which modern country is L'Anse aux Meadows, the Norse site often linked to Leif Erikson's settlement?

It sits at the northern tip of Newfoundland and was occupied about 1,000 years ago.

On which family estate in Greenland's Eastern Settlement did Leif Erikson grow up?

Erik built it near present-day Narsarsuaq after his exile from Iceland.

Leif Erikson's paternal grandfather was banished from Norway for what crime?

The family went into exile in Iceland, and Erik the Red was later banished from Iceland too.

How many known sons did Leif Erikson have?

Thorgils was born abroad and, when sent to Greenland, was not popular; Thorkell succeeded Leif as chieftain.

Which of Leif Erikson's siblings was a sister?

Some scholars suspect she and the foster father are literary inventions.

Which of Erik the Red's thralls did Leif Erikson later call his foster father?

In the Saga of the Greenlanders it is this same man who discovers the vines and grapes.

Which two sagas from around 1200 contain the main accounts of Leif Erikson's voyages?

They are read as literature more than history, and their accounts sometimes conflict.

In the Saga of Erik the Red, whom did Leif rescue on the way back east after finding Vinland?

That rescue, plus converting Norse Greenland to Christianity, earned him his nickname.

At whose court did Leif Erikson convert to Christianity?

The Norwegian king then commissioned Leif to convert the settlers back home in Greenland.

According to the Saga of the Greenlanders, who first sighted the unknown coast after being blown past Greenland?

Bjarni did not go ashore; roughly 15 years later Leif bought his ship and retraced the route in reverse.

How many men did Leif Erikson gather as crew for his expedition in the Saga of the Greenlanders?

He bought Bjarni's ship and followed Bjarni's route in reverse.

Why, according to the saga, did Erik the Red drop out of Leif's expedition just before it sailed?

The fall was read as a bad omen, so the father stayed home.

What name did Leif Erikson give the first rocky, desolate land he reached, possibly Baffin Island?

The name means Flat-Rock Land.

Markland, the second place Leif named, has a name meaning what?

It is often placed near Cape Porcupine in Labrador; later Norse voyages went back there for wood and trade.

What was Leif's small Vinland settlement called by later visitors from Greenland?

The name means Leif's Booths; the Ingstads suggested L'Anse aux Meadows could be the same place.

Which fish was plentiful in the mild, verdant land where Leif decided to winter?

He sent out exploring parties from the camp as winter approached.

Besides grapes, what cargo did Leif bring back to Greenland from Vinland in the spring?

Wood was scarce in Greenland, which is why later voyages kept going back to Markland for it.

How many times did Leif Erikson return to Vinland after his first voyage?

Others from Greenland and Iceland, including Thorfinn Karlsefni, made the later trips.

Which Norwegian husband-and-wife team identified the Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows in the early 1960s?

They ran seven excavation seasons between 1961 and 1968 and found eight buildings, perhaps nine.

A 2021 study of tree rings pinpointed which year for Norse activity at L'Anse aux Meadows?

The date was fixed using a known spike in atmospheric carbon-14 from the year 993.

Which nut found at L'Anse aux Meadows shows the Norse went further south than Newfoundland?

They do not grow naturally north of New Brunswick, which is also grape country.

The Norse buildings at L'Anse aux Meadows were constructed of what material over a wooden frame?

Over 800 Norse objects were found, including evidence of iron production in a smithy.

In which year did UNESCO make L'Anse aux Meadows a World Heritage Site?

It had already been a National Historic Site for ten years.

Which local resident led Helge Ingstad to the overgrown mounds at L'Anse aux Meadows in 1960?

He lived in the fishing hamlet beside the site.

Which medieval chronicler wrote the oldest generally accepted surviving mention of Vinland, around 1075?

He explained the name by saying grapevines grew there by themselves.

Leif Erikson fell in love with a noblewoman named Thorgunna when his ship was driven to which islands?

She bore his son Thorgils but stayed behind because Leif would not take her without her family's permission.

How did Leif Erikson's mother Thjodhild respond to his mission to convert Greenland?

Erik the Red reacted coldly to the idea of abandoning his gods.

Which text last mentions Leif Erikson alive, in 1018?

By 1025 the chieftaincy had passed to his son Thorkell, so he probably died in Greenland between those dates.

What archaic term did the Norse use for the Indigenous peoples they met in Vinland?

It roughly meant wretches; Leif himself had no contact with them, but his brother did.

Which of Leif's brothers was killed by a native's arrow in Vinland, according to both sagas?

In the Saga of Erik the Red he pulls out the arrow and remarks on the fat around his entrails before dying.

In which US city was the first statue of Leif Erikson erected, in 1887?

Eben Norton Horsford, who thought Vinland lay on the Charles River, pushed for Anne Whitney's statue.

Which US president told the 1925 Minnesota State Fair that Leif Erikson had discovered America?

The occasion was the centenary of the first official Norwegian immigration to America.

The 1930 Leif Erikson statue in Reykjavik was a US gift marking 1,000 years of what?

It now stands in front of Hallgrimskirkja church.

Which US state was first to make 9 October Leif Erikson Day, in 1929?

Congress finally asked the president to proclaim the day annually in 1964.

Why was 9 October chosen for Leif Erikson Day?

The sagas only say the landfall came in the fall of the year.

Which manga makes Leif Erikson one of its main characters?

Makoto Yukimura's series has also been adapted into an anime.

Which Netflix drama features Leif Erikson as a main character, played by Sam Corlett?

The 1928 silent film The Viking made him its lead nearly a century earlier.

For how many years was Erik the Red outlawed from Iceland, the exile during which he explored Greenland?

He returned with stories of Greenland and led colonists back to found the settlement in 986.

Which Robert Frost poem mentions Leif Erikson by his nickname?

A fitting title, given what the foster father found in the sagas.

In which Norwegian district was Leif's father, Erik the Red, born?

The family sailed west to Iceland when Erik's own father, Thorvald, was banished from Norway.

Why did Erik the Red call his new land 'Greenland', according to the sagas?

The salesmanship worked: 25 ships of colonists set out in 985, though only 14 arrived.

How many of the 25 ships that left Iceland for Greenland with Erik in 985 actually arrived?

Some of the rest turned back and others were likely lost; two settlements followed on the southwest coast.

Who is credited with the first Norse sighting of Greenland, nearly a century before Erik the Red?

Popular history often wrongly credits Erik as the first European to discover the island.

Besides 'wine', what alternative meaning of the Old Norse root 'vin' do some scholars favour for Vinland?

The name was spelled Winland as early as Adam of Bremen's account of about 1075.

In the Saga of Erik the Red, Thorfinn Karlsefni reaches a snow-free, bountiful place called what?

His crew numbered 140 or 160 in that saga but only 60 in the Saga of the Greenlanders.

How many Norse buildings have been found at L'Anse aux Meadows?

Over 800 Norse objects and evidence of iron production were also unearthed at the 8,000-hectare site.