Leif Ericson
In the year 999, according to the saga, Leif, the son of Eric the Red, sailed from Greenland to Norway. This is the first time we hear of so long a sea-voyage being attempted,[294] and it shows in any case that this long passage was not unknown to the Icelanders and Norwegians. Formerly the passage to Greenland had been by way of Iceland, thence to the east coast of Greenland, southwards along the coast, and round Hvarf. But capable seamen like the intrepid Leif thought they could avoid so many changes of course and arrive in Norway by sailing due east from the southern point of Greenland. Thereby Leif Ericson becomes the personification of the first ocean-voyager in history, who deliberately and with a settled plan steered straight across the open Atlantic, without seeking to avail himself of harbours on the way. It also appears clearly enough from the sailing directions for navigation of northern waters, which have come down to us, that voyages were made across the ocean direct from Norway to Greenland. It must be remembered that the compass was unknown, and that all the ships of that time were without fixed decks. This was an exploit equal to the greatest in history; it is the beginning of ocean voyages.
From an Icelandic MS. (Jónsbók), sixteenth century
Leif’s plan of reaching Norway direct was not wholly successful according to the saga; he was driven out of his course to the Hebrides. They stayed there till late in the summer, waiting for a fair wind. Leif there fell in love with a woman of high lineage, Thorgunna. When he sailed she begged to be allowed to go with him; but Leif answered that he would not carry off a woman of her lineage in a strange country, when he had so few men with him. It was of no avail that she told him she was with child, and the child was his. He gave her a gold ring, a Greenland mantle of frieze, and a belt of walrus ivory, and sailed away from the Hebrides with his men and arrived in Norway in the autumn (999). Leif became Olaf Tryggvason’s man, and spent the winter at Nidaros. He adopted Christianity and promised the king to try to introduce the faith into Greenland. For this purpose he was given a priest when he sailed. In the spring, as soon as he was ready, he set out again to sail straight across the Atlantic to Greenland. It has undoubtedly been thought that he chose the course between the Faroes (61° 50′ N. lat.) and Shetland (60° 50′ N. lat.) to reach Cape Farewell, and afterwards this became the usual course for the voyage from Norway to Greenland. But he was driven out of his course, and
“for a long time drifted about in the sea, and came upon countries of which before he had no suspicion. There were self-sown wheat-fields, and vines grew there; there were also the trees that are called ‘masur’ (‘mǫsurr’),[295] and of all these they had some specimens (some trees so large that they were laid in houses” [i.e., used as house-beams]).
This land was “Vínland hit Góða.” As it was assumed that the wild vine (Vitis vulpina) grew in America as far north as 45° N. lat. and along the east coast, the historians have thought to find in this a proof that Leif Ericson must have been on the coast of America south of this latitude; but, as we shall see later, these features—the self-sown wheat-fields, the vines and the lofty trees—are probably borrowed from elsewhere.
“On his homeward voyage Leif found some men on a wreck, and took them home with him and gave them all shelter for the winter. He showed so much nobility and goodness, he introduced Christianity into the country, and he rescued the men; he was then called ‘Leifr hinn Heppni’ [the Lucky]. Leif came to land in Eric’s fjord, and went home to Brattalid; there they received him well.” This was the same autumn [1000].
So concise is the narrative of the voyage by which the first discovery of America by Europeans is said to have been made.[296]
Thorstein Ericson