Saga of Erik the Red facts for kids

The different sailing routes to Greenland, Vinland (Newfoundland), Helluland (Baffin Island) and Markland (Labrador) traveled by different characters in the Icelandic sagas, mainly Saga of Erik the Red and Saga of the Greenlanders

A page from the Eiríks saga rauða manuscript.

The Saga of Erik the Red is an Icelandic story about the Norse people exploring North America. It was likely written in the 1200s. We have two slightly different versions of this story. One is in a book called Hauksbók from the 1300s, and the other is in Skálholtsbók from the 1400s.

Even though it's called "Saga of Erik the Red," the story mostly follows the adventures of Thorfinn Karlsefni and his wife Gudrid. Their journey is also told in another story, the Saga of the Greenlanders. The saga also shares how Erik the Red was sent away to Greenland. It tells how his son, Leif Erikson, brought Christianity there. It also describes Leif's discovery of Vinland after his ship was blown off course.

The Story of the Saga
English Translations of the Saga
See also

The Story of the Saga

Chapter 1: Aud's Journey to Iceland

Olaf the White, a Viking leader from Dublin, was married to Aud the Deep-Minded. Aud became a Christian. After Olaf died in battle, Aud and their son, Thorstein the Red, left Ireland. They sailed to the Hebrides islands, where Thorstein became a strong warrior king.

When Thorstein died, Aud sailed to Orkney. There, she arranged for Thorstein's daughter, Groa, to get married. Then, Aud sailed to Iceland, where she had family. She gave large pieces of land to the people who traveled with her.

Chapter 2: Erik the Red Finds Greenland

Erik the Red had some servants who accidentally caused a landslide. This landslide destroyed a farm. This led to a big argument, and Erik was sent away from his home area. Then he was sent away from all of Iceland.

Erik sailed to find land that people said was to the north. He explored this new land and named it Greenland. He chose this inviting name to encourage other people to come and live there. The place where he settled became known as Eiriksfjord.

Chapter 3: Gudrid's Difficult Journey

Thorbjorn was the son of a respected servant who had traveled with Aud the Deep-Minded. Aud had given him land. Thorbjorn had a daughter named Gudrid. One autumn, he proudly turned down a marriage offer for Gudrid. The offer came from Einar, a rich merchant whose father had once been a freed servant.

However, Thorbjorn was having money problems. The next spring, he announced that he would leave Iceland and go to Greenland. The ship carrying his family and friends ran into bad weather. They only reached Greenland in the autumn, after half of the people on board had died from sickness.

Chapter 4: A Prophecy in Greenland

That winter, there was a terrible famine in Greenland. Thorkel, an important farmer, was hosting Thorbjorn's group. He asked a traveling seidworker (a person who could see the future) named Thorbjorg to come to a winter feast. She was asked to tell them when conditions would get better.

Thorbjorg asked for someone to sing special "warding songs." Gudrid was Christian and didn't want to sing them. Her father had even left the room because of the non-Christian practice. But Gudrid had learned the songs from her foster mother, and she sang them beautifully. Thorbjorg then said that the famine would soon end. She also predicted that Gudrid would have two good marriages. One would be in Greenland, and a second in Iceland. From these marriages, a great family would come. In the spring, Thorbjorn sailed to Brattahlid, where Erik the Red welcomed him and gave him land.

Chapter 5: Leif Erikson's Discoveries

This chapter introduces Erik the Red's sons, Leif and Thorstein. Leif sailed to Norway but was blown off course to the Hebrides. There, he had a son, Thorgils, with a noblewoman, but he chose not to marry her. When Thorgils grew up, his mother sent him to Greenland, and Leif recognized him.

In Norway, Leif joined King Olaf Tryggvason's court. The King asked Leif to preach Christianity when he returned to Greenland. On his way back, storms carried him to an unknown land. There, he found wild wheat, grapevines, and maple trees. In one version of the story, he also found very large trees. Leif also rescued sailors whose ship had been wrecked. He took care of them and helped them become Christians. Back in Greenland, Leif convinced many people to become Christian, including his mother. She built a church. However, his father Erik did not convert, and because of this, Erik's wife left him.

Leif's brother, Thorstein, then planned an expedition to explore the new land. Both brothers were supposed to go, as well as their father. But Erik fell from his horse and was hurt while riding to the ship. (One story says he went anyway.) The expedition was not successful. After being blown in different directions by storms all summer, they returned to Eiriksfjord in the autumn.

Chapter 6: Thorstein's Death and Warning

Thorstein married Gudrid. But soon after, he died during a sickness at the farm where they were living. The farm was owned by another Thorstein and his wife, Sigrid. Shortly before Thorstein's death, Sigrid, who had already died, came back as a draugr (a kind of ghost) and tried to get into bed with him.

After Thorstein died, he also came back to life briefly and asked to speak to Gudrid. He told her to stop the Greenland Christian practice of burying people in unconsecrated ground. He asked her to bury him at the church. He blamed recent hauntings on the farm overseer, Gardi. He said Gardi's body should be burned. Thorstein also predicted a great future for Gudrid. But he warned her not to marry another Greenlander. He asked her to give their money to the church.

Chapter 7: Karlsefni Marries Gudrid

Thorfinn Karlsefni, a rich merchant from Iceland, visited Greenland with a group of traders in two ships. They spent the winter at Brattahlid and helped Erik the Red host a wonderful Yule (Christmas) feast. Karlsefni then asked to marry Gudrid. The feast was extended to celebrate their wedding.

Chapter 8: The Journey to Vinland

A group of 160 people in two ships, including Karlsefni and other Icelanders, set out to find the land to the west, now called Vinland. The wind carried them to a place they named Helluland. This place had large stone slabs and many foxes. Then they sailed south to a wooded area they called Markland and a point of land they called Kjalarness.

They stopped at a bay. They had two fast-running Scottish servants, gifts from King Olaf to Leif Erikson, scout the land. The servants brought back grapes and wheat. They spent the winter inland from a fjord they called Straumfjord. This area was mountainous with tall grass. An island at the mouth of the fjord was full of nesting birds.

Even though they brought animals for grazing, they were not ready for the harsh winter. They started to run out of food. Thorhall the Hunter, a pagan friend and servant of Erik's, disappeared. After three days, they found him lying on a cliff-top, mumbling and pinching himself. Soon, a strange kind of whale washed up on the shore. The meat made everyone sick. Thorhall then claimed he caused the whale to appear by making a poem for Thor, his patron god. So, they threw the rest of the whale meat over the cliff and prayed to God. The weather then cleared, and they had good fishing and enough food.

Chapter 9: Thorhall's Fate

In the spring, most of the expedition decided to go south to find Vinland. Thorhall wanted to go north. Nine others joined him on one ship. But the wind pushed their ship east across the Atlantic to Ireland. There, they were beaten and made slaves, and Thorhall died.

Chapter 10: First Meeting with Natives

The larger expedition, led by Karlsefni, found a place they called Hop ("tidal river"). A river flowed through a lake to the sea there. The land was full of wildlife, fishing was excellent, and wheat and grapes grew plentifully. It did not snow that winter.

They had their first meeting with native people they called Skrælings. The Skraelings used boats covered in animal skins. They waved sticks in the air that made a sound like threshing grain. The Norsemen showed a white shield as a sign of peace.

Chapter 11: Battle with the Skraelings

The Skraelings returned in a larger group. The Norse traded red cloth for animal pelts. They refused to trade swords and spears. Then, a bull got loose and scared the Skraelings, who left. Three weeks later, the Skraelings returned in even larger numbers. They whirled their sticks counterclockwise instead of clockwise and howled.

A battle began. The Skraelings used something like a ballista (a large crossbow) to throw a big, heavy sphere over the Norsemen's heads. This caused the Norsemen to retreat. Freydis, Erik the Red's daughter, then came out of her hut. She was heavily pregnant. She chased after the retreating Norsemen, calling them cowards. She frightened the Skraelings, who then left. The group realized that some of the attacking force was an illusion.

Having lost two of their people, they decided the place was not safe. They sailed back north to Straumfjord. On the way, they found five sleeping men with containers of deer marrow and blood. They killed them, thinking they were outlaws. Karlsefni then took one ship north to look for Thorhall. He found a lonely, forested area where they rested on the bank of a river that flowed west to the sea.

Chapter 12: Returning Home

Thorvald, who was traveling with Karlsefni, was killed by a uniped (a one-legged creature). It shot him in the groin with a bow and arrow. Karlsefni buried him in Vinland, in what is now Nova Scotia, Canada. The ship returned to Straumfjord. But with more and more disagreements, they decided to go home. Karlsefni's son, Snorri, who was born in the new land, was three years old when they left.

In Markland, they met five Skraelings. The three adults disappeared into the ground and escaped. But they captured the two boys and baptized them. They learned from the boys that the Skraelings lived in caves. They also learned that a nearby country was home to people who wore white clothes, carried poles with cloth, and shouted. The saga writer says this was thought to be the legendary Hvítramannaland, also called Great Ireland. They sailed back to Greenland and spent the winter with Erik the Red.

Chapter 13: Bjarni's Sacrifice

The ship with the rest of the expedition, led by another Icelander named Bjarni Grimolfsson, was blown off course. It ended up in either the Greenland Sea or the sea west of Ireland, depending on the story version. There, it was attacked by marine worms and began to sink. The ship's small boat was strong because it had been treated with tar made from seal blubber. But it could only carry half of the people on board.

Bjarni suggested they draw lots to see who would get a spot. But when a young Icelander asked, Bjarni gave up his seat in the boat. Bjarni and the others left on the sinking ship drowned. Those in the boat reached land safely.

Chapter 14: A Great Family

After a year and a half in Greenland, Karlsefni and Gudrid returned to Iceland. There, they had a second son. Their grandchildren later became the parents of three bishops, showing their family's importance.

English Translations of the Saga

Many people have translated this saga into English. Here are some of the well-known ones:

Jones, Gwyn (translator), "Eirik the Red's Saga", in The Norse Atlantic Saga: Being the Norse Voyages of Discovery and Settlement to Iceland, Greenland, and North America, new ed (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), pages 207–35. This translation is based on the Skálholtsbók version, and it also shows some differences from the Hauksbók version.
Kunz, Keneva (translator), "Erik the Red's Saga", in The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection (London: Penguin, 2001), pages 653–74. This seems to translate the Skálholtsbók text.
Magnusson, Magnus; Hermann Pálsson (translators), 'Eirik's Saga', in The Vinland Sagas (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965), pages 73–105. This is based on the Skálholtsbók version, but sometimes they prefer readings from Hauksbók.
Reeves, Arthur Middleton (editor and translator), The Saga of Eric the Red, also Called the Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefni and Snorri Thorbrandsson, in The Finding of Wineland the Good: The History of the Icelandic Discovery of America (London: Henry Frowde, 1890), pages 28–52, available online at Archive.org. This is based on the Hauksbók text, but it also uses some readings from Skálholtsbók. All the differences are listed. Editions and copies of both manuscripts are also included.
Sephton, J. (translator), Eirik the Red's Saga: A Translation Read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, January 12, 1880 (Liverpool: Marples, 1880), available online at Gutenberg.org (closer to the printed version) and Icelandic Saga Database. Parts in square brackets are based on Hauksbók; other parts are based on Skálholtsbók, but with some readings from Hauksbók.