Eric the red biography for kids

Between andErik the Red rounded the southernmost tip of the large landmass, finally arriving at a fjord now known as Tunulliarfik. From this base, Erik spent the next two years exploring west and north, assigning names to places he visited with derivatives of his name. He believed the land he explored was suitable for raising livestock and named it Greenland, hoping it would sound more enticing to would-be settlers.

Eric the red biography for kids: Early Life and Family.

He convinced several hundred people that Greenland held great promise and set out with 25 ships and more than people. Here, Erik the Red lived like a lord with his wife and four children, sons Leif, Thorvald, and Thorstein and daughter Freydis. The settlements are said to have survived a deadly epidemic but never grew to more than 2,—5, people.

The colonies eventually died out around the time of Columbus. Legend states that Erik died soon after the turn of the millennium, possibly due to complications from injuries sustained after falling off a horse. However, one group of immigrants that arrived in brought with it an epidemic that decimated the colony, killing many of its leading citizens, including Erik in the winter of Nevertheless, the colony was able to bounce back and survived well into the 15th centuryshortly before Christopher Columbus made his fateful journey.

As far as is known, Erik had four children. Demographics As of the census ofthere are 4, people, 1, households, and 1, families residing in the town. The population density is Despite its title, the saga mainly chronicles the life and expedition of Thorfinn Karlsefni and his wife Gudridalso recounted in the Saga of the Greenlanders.

It also details the events that led to the banishment of Erik the Red to Greenland and the preaching of Christianity by his son Leif Erikson as well as his discovery of Vinland after his longship was blown off course. Following Olaf's death in battle, she and their son Thorstein the Red left Ireland for the Hebrideswhere Thorstein became a great warrior king.

Upon his death, she sailed to Orkneywhere she married off Thorstein's daughter, Groa, and then to Icelandwhere she had relatives and gave extensive land grants to those in her party. Erik the Red's thralls start a landslide that destroys a farm, leading to a feud that results in Erik's banishment first from the district and then from Iceland; he sails in search of land that had been reported to lie to the north, and explores and names Greenlandchoosing an attractive name to encourage colonists.

Where he settles becomes known as Eiriksfjord. Thorbjorn, a son of a well-born thrall who had accompanied Aud the Deep-Minded and been given land by her, has a daughter named Gudrid.

Eric the red biography for kids: Erik the Red was a

One autumn, he proudly rejects a marriage proposal for her from Einar, a wealthy merchant who is also the son of a freedman. However, he is in financial difficulties; the following spring he announces he will leave Iceland and go to Greenland. The ship carrying his family and friends encounters bad weather and they reach Greenland only in autumn, after half have died of disease.

Thorbjorg prophesies that the famine will soon end and that Gudrid will make two good marriages, one in Greenland and a second in Iceland, from which will come a great family. In the spring Thorbjorn sails to Brattahlidwhere Erik the Red welcomes him and gives him land.

Eric the red biography for kids: Erik the Red is remembered

This chapter introduces Erik the Red's sons, Leif and Thorstein. Leif sails to Norway but is blown off course to the Hebrides, where he conceives a son, Thorgils, by a well-born woman whom he declines to marry; when Thorgils is grown, his mother sends him to Greenlandwhere Leif recognizes him. Thorgest gave chase, and in the ensuing fight Erik slew both Thorgest's sons and "a few other men".

The dispute was resolved at an assembly, the Thingwhich outlawed Erik for three years. Erik's son Leif Erikson became the first Viking to explore the land of Vinland —part of North America, probably near modern-day Newfoundland —and invited his father on the voyage. However, according to legend, Erik fell off his horse on the way to the ship and took this as a bad sign, leaving his son to continue without him.

Erik died in an epidemic that killed many of the colonists in the winter after his son's departure.

Eric the red biography for kids: Erik the Red was a Viking

Even though popular history credits Erik as the first European person to discover Greenland, the Icelandic sagas suggest that earlier Norsemen discovered and tried to settle it before him. According to records from the time, Galti headed the first Norse attempt to colonize Greenland, which ended in disaster. However, Erik the Red was the first permanent European settler.

He rounded the southern tip of the island, later known as Cape Farewell, and sailed up the western coast. Eventually, he reached a part of the coast that, for the most part, seemed ice-free and consequently had conditions—similar to those of Iceland—that promised growth and future prosperity. According to the Saga of Erik the Redhe spent his three years of exile exploring this land.

The first winter he spent on the island of Eiriksey, the second winter he passed in Eiriksholmar close to Hvarfsgnipa. In the final summer he explored as far north as Snaefell and into Hrafnsfjord. When Erik returned to Iceland after his exile had expired, he is said to have brought with him stories of "Greenland".