The True Story of Leif Erikson | Vikings Valhalla

one of history's most successful but forgotten explorers was leaf eriksson the man who discovered and explored the lands of north america otherwise known to the vikings as vinland so why did our teachers at school and everyone else credit christopher columbus for discovering america when the vikings were there 500 years earlier first let's explore further into the life of leif erikson leaf's father was eric the red hence leaves second name ericsson aka the son of eric eric was a well-known explorer and outlaw who founded two norse colonies in greenland his distant relative was also nadad who is credited for discovering iceland so leif came from a long line of explorers and he was born in the year 970 and had two brothers thorvard and thorstein and one sister named freydis a strange fact about leif's childhood is that he was raised by a slave named threiker thryker was a man captured by eric the red in a raid in germany and he was put in charge with tutoring leif and teaching him what it meant to be a man he taught leif everything including reading and writing runes the celtic and russian language and the ways of the trade he also told leif about the sagas of old taught him about many plants and of course he taught him the use of weapons such as the sword and axe whatever free time leif had as a child he spent it watching ships come into the harbour and he would listen to the stories of the men at sea which he loved once he reached adulthood he married a woman named thor gunner and together the couple would have a son leaf was described as wise considerate and a strong powerful man with a striking appearance leaf would soon after set sail for norway when he arrived many people came to greet him and a messenger came to take him to king olaf's court when the messenger told the king who he was the king said he knew leif's father well the king was so impressed with leif that he invited him to stay in norway leaf decided there was no rush to go back home to greenland so he accepted the offer while in norway he was treated very well being in the personal circle of the king he lived as he had never lived before one day while playing chess with leif king olaf told him of how he also used to worship the gods of old he told him how a plague had struck norway and how many people had died then he told of how the old gods were fading from this world and how he began to worship christ leaf was baptized along with thousands of norwegians and then the plague miraculously stopped it turns out leaf wasn't very faithful to the old viking gods he was swayed by the preachers spreading the word of this new god he finally agreed to be baptized and accept this new faith on his return voyage he brought along a priest to spread the christian faith to greenland on the orders of king olaf historically the main sources of information about the viking voyages to vinland are two icelandic legends the saga of eric the red and the saga of the greenlanders these stories were written down approximately 250 years after the settlement of greenland and are open to relative interpretation however the historic documents that are the two sagas combined with archaeological evidence where chieftain halls and very large skeletons were found in finland means that the old sagas could be very true and more than sheer fantasy in one story leaf was watching boats and he saw an old tattered ship rowing very slowly this ship belonged to a merchant by the name of bajani herjolfsen who had set sail from iceland to greenland to visit leif's father eric but he had been gone for over a year leaf followed bajani to a hall where he told a tale of how mist had covered the north star so he couldn't navigate properly they sailed for many days and finally spotted land but it wasn't greenland they saw as glaciers didn't cover the coast but instead trees did it was late in the summer and he did not want to winter in this new land as he knew this could mean his death he noted this mysterious land was covered with forests so fearing for the worst he turned back and went back to greenland before the winter bajani would sell his ships to leaf and he would tell him about this marvelous land he had encountered by chance leaf became obsessed with the idea of a new land and sailed that way intentionally with a 35-man crew he would journey into the unknown as greenland is where the maps of man ended leif eventually found this new land but was disappointed as the area was just a huge slab of rock because of this he named it helu land which can be translated into slab land this is now believed to be baffin island leif then sailed south knowing there must be something more eventually he would see another land in the distance and when he went to the shore he found it had white beaches and trees because of this he named it markland which can be translated into woodland which is believed today to be the eastern coast of canada leif knew that there were more marvellous lands to be seen so he sailed south east for two days and encountered a magnificent mainland here leaf found that the land was so rich that he decided to set up a colony there the vikings thought this new land was incredible there were fish that were as big as a man's leg there was little frost in the winter and there were amazing forests all over this new land leaf thought his new god had blessed him indeed once they were settled with their houses being fully built they set up exploration groups they found the area was full of vines and grapes leaf then named the land finland which can be translated to mean wine land after surviving the winter in finland leaf would sail back to greenland in the spring with a boatload of grapes and timber he would also save an icelandic castaway and his crew after that he was nicknamed leif the lucky leaf would never return to finland but other people from greenland and iceland did as they now knew there was land west of greenland and the mystery and opportunity of a new land would intrigue them after returning to greenland he converted his mother to the christian faith and she would establish the first church in greenland the last recorded mention of leaf is in 1019 nothing is known regarding his death and his role as a chieftain passed to his son by 10 25 so we can only speculate when he died and what he did in his later years so why did christopher columbus get all the credit in discovering and being the first man in america is it because he opened america to europe which was the expansionist power in the time which in turn led to the conquer of the western hemisphere i personally would have preferred to learn about the old norse sagas and about leif and his life he lived 500 years before columbus where the boats were viking longships so his discovery is that much more impressive that's what i believe anyway do you believe that lee ferrickson was the first recorded european in the americas or do you believe that the sagas of old are make-believe and it was really columbus who discovered those lands let me know your thoughts in the comment sections down below and i'll see you all soon for another history profile

Channel: History Profiles

Views: 286,878

Keywords: History Profiles, Lost History, Forgotten History, Interesting History, Leif Erikson, Leif Erikson Vikings, Leif Erikson Vikings Valhalla, Erik the Red, Freydis, Vinland, Vinland Saga, Vinland Saga Leif, Thorgunna, Olaf Tryggvason, Saga of Eric the Red, Saga of the Greenlanders, Bjarni Herjólfsson, Emma of Normandy, Jarl Hakkon, Canute the Great, Edmund Ironside, Ragnar Lothbrok, Ivar the Bonesless, The man who discovered America, Leif explorer, Leif Vikings

Id: LolqCt_zPGo

Length: 9min 34sec (574 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 03 2022