Erik Thorvaldsson was born around 950 in Rogaland, Norway, and as a boy of about 10 followed his father Thorvald into exile in Iceland after a manslaughter, settling on the harsh coast of Hornstrandir. His nickname came from his red hair and beard. He married Thjodhild, farmed and fathered Leif Erikson, but when his thralls caused a landslide on a neighbor’s land and Eyjolf the Foul killed them, Erik killed Eyjolf and another man and was banished from the district around 982. When he asked Thorgest to return his carved high-seat pillars, ancestral posts brought from Norway, and Thorgest refused, Erik seized them; in the fight he killed two of Thorgest’s sons, and the Thorsnes Thing outlawed him from Iceland for three years.
Erik sailed west to a land already sighted by Gunnbjorn Ulfsson and where Snaebjorn Galti’s earlier settlement had failed. For three years he explored the coast past Cape Farewell and found grassy fjords fit for farming. Back in Iceland he named the land Greenland because, the sagas record, a pleasing name would draw settlers. In 985, 25 ships sailed and 14 arrived, founding the Eastern and Western Settlements; Erik took Brattahlid. Walrus ivory from hunts in Disko Bay made him paramount chieftain of about 5,000 colonists. Thjodhild became a Christian and built a church, while Erik clung to the old gods. He died in an epidemic around 1003, and the colony lasted until the 15th century.
- Iceland had no king or police, so disputes were settled through the Thing, compensation or blood feud.
- Vikings threw high-seat pillars overboard near a new coast and built where the gods washed them ashore.
- The sagas say Thjodhild refused to share a bed with Erik while he stayed pagan.
- A fall from his horse on the way to Leif’s ship convinced Erik not to sail to Vinland.
- The Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders differ on details such as his daughter Freydis.
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