Leif Eriksson E-Book

50MINUTES

• Herausgeber: 50Minutes.com
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Serie: History
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 21

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Keen to learn but short on time? Get to grips with the life and travels of Leif Eriksson in next to no time with this concise guide.

50Minutes.com provides a clear and engaging analysis of Leif Eriksson’s life and travels. The discovery of America has always been credited to Christopher Columbus. But in fact, America was discovered long before he was even born, by a Viking called Leif Eriksson. Eriksson travelled from Greenland to Canada and formed his own colony there, although it did not last long. While it may have been forgotten by many, his achievement is a remarkable show of determination and the Vikings’ technological prowess.

In just 50 minutes you will:
   • Learn about Leif Eriksson’s life and what drove his ambition to discover new territories
   • Understand why Leif Eriksson travelled to America based on a rumour of an undiscovered land
   • Analyse why his discovery was forgotten about and how the truth is being gradually unveiled

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Leseprobe

Leif Eriksson

Key information

Born: circa 970, probably in IcelandDied: circa 1020, probably in GreenlandExpedition aims:Founding a new colonyFinding new wealth and resourcesRegions of the world explored: the Labrador and Newfoundland coasts, CanadaMost notable discovery: the Americas, almost 500 years before Christopher Columbus

Leif Eriksson (sometimes spelled Leif Ericson or Leif Erikkson) was a Viking navigator who made a name for himself in both Iceland and Greenland. He is thought to have discovered the Americas at the turn of first millennium AD, almost 500 years before Christopher Columbus (Genoese navigator, 1450/1451-1506).

The Vikings were first and foremost great explorers and merchants, contrary to popular belief which portrays them as warlords who looted and pillaged wherever they went. They established colonies in Europe, around the Mediterranean, all along the coast of the Black Sea and even as far afield as North America. As explorers, they were centuries ahead the rest of Europe due to their technologically superior ships capable of sailing the oceans and not just the seas, along with their acute sense of direction, developed and passed down through the generations. Through this, the Vikings were able to venture into undiscovered and unexplored lands.

Along with his crew, Leif Eriksson discovered Vinland, a fertile land rich in natural resources in North-East Canada on Newfoundland Island. The Vikings settled there for several years before being forced to give up their land and wealth due to conflict with the Native American population. Despite how extraordinary this discovery was given the era in which it occurred, it was largely forgotten for almost nine centuries until historians and archaeologists took new interest in Norse sagas, which tell the impressive tale of Eriksson, the great explorer.

Biography

Statue of Leif Eriksson in Qassiarsuk, in the South of Greeland.

Leif Eriksson: a life told through Norse sagas

Our only source on Leif Eriksson’s life and career are the Norse sagas. These texts are written in prose and relay the highlights and great events in the lives of some of the great figures of Vikingdom. For several generations, the stories were passed down orally and transformed before being recorded in written form around 1250. Two of these sagas give us an insight into Leif Eriksson’s life and discoveries:

the Saga of Erik the Redthe Greenland Saga