Thorvald pronunciation
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Erik the Red
Eirikr rauði Þorvaldsson (approx. 950-1003 AD) was named Erik the Red primarily because of his red beard and hair, but perhaps also because of his fiery temper.
It is said that he was a particularly hot-headed fellow who, after being exiled from Norway and later Iceland, finally settled in Greenland. Erik the Red is the first Viking to discover Greenland and is credited for giving the country its name ‘green land’. His son Leif Eriksson is credited in history as the first Viking to discover North America.
ERIK THE RED’S SAGA
According to the sagas, Erik the Red was born in Norway, where his father, Þorvaldr Ásvaldsson, was exiled in 960 AD as a result of ‘a number of killings’, and Erik’s entire family thus settled in Iceland.
Here, Erik the Red married Tjodhilde (Þjódhild) but history repeated itself and his father’s fate also befell Erik. In 982 he was sentenced to exile from Iceland for three years for murder after a dispute with his neighbour sparked a confrontation that resulted in several deaths.
Erik the Red had t
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Leif Erikson’s Early Life and Conversion to Christianity
Leif Erikson (spelling variations include Eiriksson, Erikson or Ericson), known as “Leif the Lucky,” was the second of three sons of the famed Norse explorer Erik the Red, who established a settlement in Greenland after being expelled from Iceland around A.D. 980. The date of Leif Erikson’s birth is uncertain, but he is believed to have grown up in Greenland.
According to the 13th-century Icelandic Eiriks saga (or “Saga of Erik the Red”), Erikson sailed from Greenland to Norway around 1000. On the way, he was believed to have stopped in the Hebrides, where he had a son, Thorgils, with Thorgunna, daughter of a local chief. In Norway, King Olaf I Tryggvason converted Erikson to Christianity, and a year later sent him back to Greenland with a commission to spread the faith among the settlers there.
Did you know? After Leif Erikson returned to Greenland, his brother Thorvald led another Viking expedition to Vinland, but all future efforts to settle in the region failed due to bitter clashes between the Norsemen and t
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Erik the Red
Norse explorer
This article is about the Viking. For other uses, see Erik the Red (disambiguation).
This is a Norse name. The last name is a patronymic, not a family name; this person is properly referred to by the given name Erik.
Erik Thorvaldsson[a] (c. 950 – c. 1003), known as Erik the Red, was a Norseexplorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first European settlement in Greenland. Erik most likely earned the epithet "the Red" due to the color of his hair and beard.[1][2] According to Icelandic sagas, Erik was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, Norway, as the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson; to which Thorvald would later be banished from Norway, and would sail west to Iceland with Erik and his family.[3] During Erik's life in Iceland, he married Þjódhild Jorundsdottir and would have four children, with one of Erik's sons being the well-known Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson.[4][5] Around the year of 982, Erik was exiled from Iceland for th
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