The fact that he is remembered as a wild Viking is due to his family history! Because Erik the Red's father was a man exiled from Norway for the murders he committed. Years later, Erik the Red was exiled for murder, just like his father, and at the end of this exile, he discovered Greenland.
Erik the Red or Erik Thorvaldsson (950 - 1003), Norwegian explorer. It is known in medieval and Icelandic epic sources that he founded the first settlement in Greenland. He most likely earned the nickname "Red" due to the color of his hair and beard.
According to the Icelandic saga, he was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, Norway, the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson. He is the father of Leif Ericson, the European who first set foot in North America.
Erik Thorvaldsson, Erik the Great commonly known as Erik the Red, is among the most famous and fiercest Vikings known!
The reason why Erik the Red is known by this name is his red hair and beard. Erik the Red owes his fame to his discovery of Greenland and the establishment of a settlement there.
Erik Thorvaldsson (c. 950 – c. 1003), known as Erik the Red, was a Norse explorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first European settlement in Greenland. Erik most likely earned the epithet "the Red" due to the color of his hair and beard. According to Icelandic sagas, Erik was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, Norway, as the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson; to which Thorvald would later be banished from Norway, and would sail west to Iceland with Erik and his family. During Erik's life in Iceland, he married Þjódhild Jorundsdottir and would have four children, with one of Erik's sons being the well-known Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson.
The fact that he is remembered as a wild Viking is due to his family history! Because Erik the Red's father was a man exiled from Norway for the murders he committed. Years later, Erik the Red was exiled for murder, just like his father, and at the end of this exile he discovered Greenland.
The discoveries of Erik the Red, a subject of the King of Norway, were part of the expansion and settlement of the Vikings in Northern Europe in the early Middle Ages. The Vikings, who settled in these lands after plundering England and Normandy, also established new settlements in Iceland. Erik's father had to leave Norway and settled in Iceland. Erik left Iceland as a result of a serious fight with the Icelanders. In 982, he sailed westwards and reached the shores of Greenland. He hunted and fished here for three years; and made discoveries. He then returned to Iceland in 986 to recruit people to establish a settlement in Greenland.
While Erik named this new island Greenland, meaning "green lands", he hoped that people would be attracted by this name and want to settle on the island. Greenland was a more attractive name than Iceland, which means "land of ice." Only 14 of the 25 ships that set out to settle on the island were able to reach Greenland. At that time, two settlements were established, one on the west coast (Godthåb) and the other on the south coast (Julianehåb). It is thought that Erik spent the rest of his life in Greenland.
The settlements founded by Erik the Red in Greenland survived for a long time. Around 1000, around 1,000 people lived on the island. Again, many people died as a result of an epidemic that broke out in those years. The western settlement was abandoned in 1350; The one in the south continued its existence until the 16th century.