Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Random Picture A


#11- Leif Erikson


11 Leif Erikson



In 986, the Viking, Eirik Thorvaldsson, or Erik the Red, discovered and colinized Greenland. This Viking had a son named Leif Erikson(c. 960- c.1020). As a young man, Erikson went to Norway and worked for the king there. After coming back to Greenland, Erikson sailed West, probably in search of the land that the Viking, Bjarni Harjulfsson had passed by and described as hilly and heavily forrested. Harjulfsson never landed in America, saying that it was a useless land. Around the year 1000, Erikson made it to America, about 500 years before Colombus. He found three islands, naming the smaller two Heeluland and Markland. The third and largest island, he named Vineland because he thought that the berries that grew there were grapes. This island is probably Newfoundland. After a winter on Vineland, Erikson returned. Some Vikings came back to Vineland later on to form a settlement, but the hostility between the Vikings and the Native Americans led to the failure of the colony. Erikson earned his place in history for being the first European to set foot on in the New World.

Information from...
http://www.mnc.net/norway/LeifErikson.htm