Leif Erikson , [ note 1 ] also known as Leif the Lucky c. There is ongoing speculation that the settlement made by Leif and his crew corresponds to the remains of a Norse settlement found in Newfoundland, Canada , called L'Anse aux Meadows , which was occupied approximately 1, years ago.
Leif's place of birth is unknown, [ 9 ] although it is assumed to have been in Iceland. Following his voyage to Vinland and the subsequent death of his father, Leif became chief of the Greenland settlement. He had two known sons: Thorgils, born in the Hebrides ; and Thorkell, who succeeded him as Greenland's chieftain.
When Erik the Red was young, his father was banished from Norway for manslaughter, and the family went into exile in Iceland which, during the century preceding Leif's birth, had been colonized by Norsemen, mainly from Norway.
Leif was also a distant relative of Naddodd , [ 13 ] [ unreliable source? Leif's year of birth is often estimated in the c. Erik was later banished from Iceland and sailed west to a place he named Greenland. He then briefly returned to Iceland to bring his family and other colonists back with him to Greenland, establishing its first permanent settlement in The Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders , both thought to have been written around , [ 21 ] contain different accounts of the voyages to Vinland usually interpreted as coastal North America.
According to this saga, Leif discovered Vinland after being blown off course on his way from Norway to Greenland. When Leif encountered the storm that forced him off course, he had been on his way to introduce Christianity to the Greenlanders. After they had arrived at an unknown shore, the crew disembarked and explored the area. They found wild grapes, self-sown wheat, and maple trees. Afterwards, they loaded their ship with samples of these newly-found goods and sailed east to Greenland, rescuing a group of shipwrecked sailors along the way.
