LEIF ERIKSSON

Leif was the son of Eric the Red, a native of Norway, when they reached Greenland, and has resided in about 986 in the area Vesterbyugden ( 'west village') on the shore Ameralik Fjord. From the saga of Erik ginger is known that in 999 Leif sailed from Greenland to Norway, where he spent the winter at the court of King Olaf I Tryugvasona and adopted the Christian faith. In the spring of 1000, King sent a message to Leif Vikings in Greenland, which included an appeal to Christianity. In a way, Leif off course and landed in the edge, which previously did not know. There he found a natural wheat fields and vineyards, as well as trees msurr (probably maple).
Some sources Leif called Vinland, a pioneer and a conduit of Christianity in Greenland. Perhaps it is the echoes of lost saga of King Olaf Tryugvasone by Icelandic Benedictine monk Gunnleugr Leyfsson (mind. 1218) written in Latin. Another story shows in a story on the Greenlanders, which reported that the Icelander Byadni Heroulfsson visited Vinland, for 14 years before Lucky Leif and Leif himself learned about this place from Byadni.

According to this source, Leif first came to America a few years after 1000, visiting Helluland (Newfoundland), Markland (Labrador). Probably, he settled in the Scandinavian settlement of L'Anse-au-Meadow, situated in the far north coast of Newfoundland. Earlier Icelandic sources called Leif the son of Erik the Red and a resident of Greenland, not to mention that he discovered Vinland. Other ancient sources, including the history of the Hamburg bishops (Nistoria Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae, OK. 1070) Adam of Bremen and the Book of Icelanders (Islendingabuk, ca. 1133) Ari Torgilssona, nicknamed the Wise, reported Vinland, but no mention Leif.

Historians and geographers have extensively discussed the location of Vinland. Based on data on climate and vegetation, contained in the sources, many tend to believe this area of New Scotland, while others place it much further south. Open archaeologists Scandinavian settlements in Greenland and Newfoundland have confirmed some details about Leif Eriksson, gleaned from the sagas.