Eric the Red

Flaming red hair gave the Viking Eric Thorvaldson his well known nickname.

Eric was a Norwegian-born mariner, who became the first European to explore Greenland. He named it Greenland because it was more visually appealing that Iceland.

Eric was trying to escape manslaughter charges in Iceland, where his family had settled, and persuaded his relatives to go with him and form a colony on Greenland.

Several shiploads arrived in the new land in 985. They formed settlements on the west coast, as the east coast was covered in ice.

Eric’s son Leif Ericson, is believed to have been one of the first Europeans to reach Vinland, (North America). He named the area Vinland or Wineland after the many grapes he saw growing as he sailed along the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland.