Eric the Red

Eric the Red, fl. 10th cent., Norse chieftain, discoverer and colonizer of Greenland. He left (c.950) Norway with his exiled father and settled in Iceland. A feud resulting in manslaughter led to his banishment (c.981) from Iceland for three years. He sailed c.982 to seek land reputed to lie W of Iceland. The discovery of Greenland followed, and Eric and his Viking followers spent three years exploring the south and west coasts. On his return to Iceland he promoted a colonizing venture and is said to have given Greenland its attractive name to encourage settlers. He led (c.986) to the new land a group of 25 ships, of which 14 arrived, carrying about 500 people. Eric established a farmstead, Brattahlid, near present Julianehaab and was a leader of a southern settlement at Osterbygd. He resisted in vain the introduction (c.1000) of Christianity by his son Leif Ericsson. Although the colony grew to approximately 1,000 settlers, it gradually died out; other Norse settlements in Greenland, however, survived.

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Eric the Red

?940--?1010 ad, Norse navigator: discovered and colonized Greenland; father of Leif Ericson

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Eric the Red 

(also Eric Thorvaldsson). Tenth-century Norse navigator; father of Leif Ericson.

In 981 or 982, Eric the Red was the first to explore the southern and southwestern coasts of Greenland and gave the island its name. He established the first Norse settlements on its southern coast. In 985, Eric returned to Greenland.