Leif Erikson
~970–~1020 · Norse (Iceland/Greenland) · Viking Age
Known for: First European known to reach North America, approximately 500 years before Columbus
Leif was the son of Erik the Red, founder of the Norse Greenland colony. According to the sagas, he sailed west from Greenland and landed at places he named Helluland, Markland, and Vinland, where he found wild grapes and built winter houses. Archaeological evidence at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland confirms Norse presence around 1000 CE.
Leif returned to Greenland and became a Christian, converting the Greenlanders. He was described in the sagas as 'tall and strong and very impressive in appearance, a shrewd man and in every respect a fair-dealing one.' He discovered a continent and then just... went home.
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