Essay About Leif Erikson

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Leif Ericsson Who discovered America? The common answer to this question would most likely be Christopher Columbus. However, many explorers and adventurers came to America before Columbus. Viking Leif Ericsson was one of these explorers. Ericsson visited, and may have even discovered, the land that became America on one of his many adventures away from his native Greenland. The life, discoveries, and legacy of Leif Erikson are an important piece of history that not many are familiar with. Leif Ericsson, also known as “Leif the Lucky,” is thought to have been born in the 10th century, circa 960-970 AD. His father, Eric the Red, was a well-known Viking explorer who established the first Norse settlement on the land now known as Greenland. …show more content…

Thorgunna gave birth to a son, Thorgils, who Leif later retrieved from Norway and brought to Greenland. Since Thorgils did not have much popularity with the Greenlanders, Leif passed down the position of chief to another son, Thorkell. Leif is also known to have been converted to Christianity by King Olaf of Norway. Leif met with the king on one of his voyages, and the king proceeded to convert him, as was his custom with the people he believed to be heathens. “It proved easy for the king to persuade Leif, and he was accordingly baptized, together with all of his shipmates” (The Saga of Eric the Red). Little else is known about Leif’s personal life, and even less about his death, but he is believed to have lived peacefully in Greenland for the latter part of his life. Leif’s most well-known voyage, which included his visit to North America, began with a discovery made by another Viking by the name of Biarni Heriulfsson. On his way to visit Leif’s father, Biarni and his men sailed past a new land. Biarni refused to set foot on this foreign land because it was flat and wooded, very unlike the icy mountains he had been expecting to find in Greenland. When Biarni met with Eric the Red, he described what he saw on his journey

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