Thorvald Eiriksson ( non, Þórvaldr Eiríksson ;

Modern Icelandic Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Due to being a West Scandinavian language, it is most closely re ...

: ) was the son of

Erik the Red Erik Thorvaldsson (), known as Erik the Red, was a Norse explorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first settlement in Greenland. He most likely earned the epithet "the Red" due to the color of his hair a ...

and brother of Leif Erikson. The only Medieval Period source material available regarding Thorvald Eiriksson are the two '' Vinland sagas''; the '' Greenland Saga'' and the '' Saga of Erik the Red''. Although differing in various detail, according to both sagas Thorvald was part of an expedition for the exploration of Vinland and became the first European to die in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. The ''Greenland Saga'' describes a voyage made by

Bjarni Herjolfsson Bjarni is an Icelandic male given name and may refer to: *Bjarni Ármannsson resigned as CEO of Glitnir (formerly Íslandsbanki) in May 2007 *Bjarni Ólafur Eiríksson (born 1982), footballer (defender) from Iceland * Bjarni Benediktsson (born ...

, and the subsequent voyages of Leif Eriksson, his brother Thorvald Eiriksson, his sister Freydís Eiríksdóttir, and the Icelandic merchant Thorfinn Karlsefni. The Saga describes hostilities with '' Skrælings'', the Norse term for the native peoples they met in the lands visited south and west of Greenland which they called Vinland and Markland. The ''Saga of Erik the Red'' tells the story as a single expedition led by Thorfinn Karlsefni. The voyage of Thorvald Eriksson is told here as part of the Karlsefni expedition.

References

Other sources

* Brown, Nancy Marie (2012) ''Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths'' (Palgrave Macmillan) * Haugen, Einar (2007) ''Voyages To Vinland - The First American Saga Newly Translated And Interpreted'' (Barzun Press) * Jones, Gwyn (1986) ''The Norse Atlantic Saga: Being the Norse Voyages of Discovery and Settlement to Iceland, Greenland, and North America'' (Oxford University Press) * Magnusson, Magnus (1973) ''The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America'' (Penguin Group) *Short, William R. (2010) ''Icelanders in the Viking age: the people of the sagas'' (McFarland) {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorvaldr Eiriksson Year of birth unknown 1006 deaths 10th-century Icelandic people 11th-century Icelandic people Viking Age in Canada Explorers of Canada Vikings killed in battle Icelandic explorers Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact 10th-century explorers 11th-century explorers 11th-century Vikings Norse settlements in Greenland

See also

References

Other sources