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LEIF ERICSSON ILEIFR

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 396 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LEIF ERICSSON ILEIFR EIRIKSSON] (fl. 999-1000), Scandinavian explorer, of Icelandic See also:

family, the first known See also:European discoverer of " See also:Vinland," " See also:Vineland " or " Wineland, the See also:Good," in See also:North See also:America. He was a son of See also:Eric the Red (Eirikr hinn raudi Thorvaldsson), the founder of the earliest Scandinavian settlements—from See also:Iceland—in See also:Greenland (985). In 999 he went from Greenland to the See also:court of See also:King See also:Olaf Tryggvason in See also:Norway, stopping in the See also:Hebrides on the way. On his departure from Norway in 1000, the king commissioned him to proclaim See also:Christianity in Greenland. As on his outward voyage, Leif was again driven far out of his course by contrary See also:weather—this See also:time to lands (in America) " of which he had previously had no knowledge," where " self-sown " See also:wheat See also:grew, and vines, and " mdsur " (See also:maple?) See also:wood. Leif took specimens of all these, and sailing away came See also:home safely to his See also:father's home in Brattahlid on Ericsfiord in Greenland. On his voyage from this Vineland to Greenland, Leif rescued some shipwrecked men, and from this, and his discoveries, gained his name of " The Lucky " (limn heppni). On the subsequent expedition of Thorfinn Karlsefni for the further exploration and See also:settlement of the Far Western See also:vine-See also:country, it is recorded that certain Gaels, incredibly See also:fleet of See also:foot, who had been given to Leif by Olaf Tryggvason, and whom Leif had offered to Thorfinn, were put on See also:shore to See also:scout. Such is the See also:account of the See also:Saga of Eric the Red, supported by a number of briefer references in See also:early Icelandic and other literature. The less trustworthy See also:history of the Flatey See also:Book makes Biarni Heriulfsson in 985 discover Helluland (Labrador?) as well as other western lands which he does not explore, not even permitting his' men to See also:land; while Leif Ericsson follows up Biarni's discoveries, begins the exploration of Helluland, See also:Markland and Vinland, and realizes some of the charms of the last named, where he winters. But this secondary authority (the Flatey Book narrative), which till lately formed the basis of all See also:general knowledge as to Vinland, abounds in contradictions and difficulties from which Eric the Red Saga is comparatively See also:free.

Thus (in Flatey) the grapes of Vinland are found in See also:

winter and gathered in See also:spring; the See also:man who first finds them, Leif's See also:foster-father Tyrker• the See also:German, gets drunk from eating the See also:fruit; and the vines themselves are spoken of as big trees affording See also:timber. Looking at the See also:record in Eric the Red Saga, it would seem probable that Leif's Vinland answers to some See also:part of See also:southern Nova See also:Scotia. See VINLAND. (As to Helluland and Markland see TIIORFINN KARLSEFNI.) The See also:MSS. of Eric the Red's Saga are Nos. 544 and 557 of the See also:Arne-Magnaean collection in See also:Copenhagen; the MS. of the Flatey Book, so called because it was See also:long the See also:property of a family living on See also:Flat See also:Island in Broad See also:Firth (Flatey in Breiis'afjord [B-eidafj-d]), on the north-See also:West See also:coast of Iceland, was presented in 1662 to the Royal Library of See also:Denmark, of which it is still one of the See also:chief treasures. These leading narratives are supplemented by See also:Adam of See also:Bremen, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, See also:chap. 38 (247 See also:Lappenberg) of book iv. (often separately entitled Descriptio Insularum Aquilonis; Adam's is the earliest extant reference to Vinland, c. 1070) : we have also notices of Vinland in the Libellus Islandorum of See also:Ari Frodi (c. 1120), the See also:oldest Icelandic historian; in the Kristni Saga (repeated in Snorri Sturlason's Heimskringla) ; in Eyrbyggia Saga (c. 1250); in Gretti Saga (c. 1290); and in an Icelandic See also:chorography of the 14th See also:century, or earlier, partly derived from the famous traveller See also:Abbot See also:Nicolas of Thing-eyrar (t1159).

See Gustav See also:

Storm, " Studies on the Vineland Voyages," inthe Me,noires de la Societe royale See also:des Antiquaires du See also:Nord (Copenhagen, 1888); and Eiriks Saga Raudha (Copenhagen, 1891); A. M. See also:Reeves, Finding of Wineland the Good: the History of the Icelandic See also:Discovery of America (See also:London, 1890) ; in this See also:work the See also:original authorities are given in full, with photographic facsimiles, See also:English See also:translations and adequate commentary; See also:Rafn's Antiquitates Americanae (Copenhagen, 1837) contains all the See also:sources, but the editor's See also:personal views have in many cases failed to satisfy See also:criticism; the Flatey See also:text is printed also by See also:Vigfusson and Unger in Flateyjar-bok, vol. i. (See also:Christiania, 1860). There are also translations of Flatey and Red Eric Saga in Beamish, Discovery of North America. by the Northmen (Lend., 1841) ; E. F. Slafter, Voyages of the Northmen (See also:Boston, 1877) ; B. F. de See also:Costa, Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen (See also:Albany, 1901); and Original Narratives of Early See also:American History; The Northmen, See also:Columbus and See also:Cabot, pp. 1-66 (New See also:York, 1906). See also C. See also:Raymond Beazley, See also:Dawn of See also:Modern See also:Geography ii. 48-83 (London, 1901) ; Josef See also:Fischer, See also:Die Entdeckungen der Nor. mannen in Amerika (See also:Freiburg i.

B., 1902); See also:

John See also:Fiske, Discovery of America, vol. i. ; Juul Dieserud, " Norse Discoveries in America," in the Bulletin of the American See also:Geographical Society (See also:February, 1901) ; G. Vigfusson, Origines Islandicae (1905), which strangely expresses a preference for the Flatey Book " account of the first sighting of the American See also:continent " by the Norsemen. (C. R.

End of Article: LEIF ERICSSON ILEIFR

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