• Leif Erikson was born sometime between 960-980 A.D. in either Iceland or Greenland.
• His father, Eric the Red, was the first European to explore Greenland.
• Leif Erikson left his home at age 8 to live with a German man named Thyrker that his father had captured and brought back to Iceland.
• Thyrker taught Leif Erikson survival skills and how to be a man.
• Erikson went back to live with his father at age 12. Shortly after, his father killed a man and was banished from Iceland for 3 years, which lead up to the exploration of Greenland.

• Leif Erikson had heard stories of an Icelandic Explorer named Bjarni Herjulfsson who supposedly found land off the Southwest Coast of Greenland, but never went to shore.
• He wanted to sail, so he decided to see if he could find the land in the stories.
• He and a crew of 35 men started by heading North from the south tip of Greenland, to the southern coast of Baffin Island and Labrador, and ended up on the coast of Newfoundland, which he called Vinland.
• His journey lasted for 2 years.
• It started around the year 1000 A.D., reached Vinland in 1001 A.D. and returned to Greenland in 1002 A.D.
• Very few people traveled to Vinland after Erikson returned to Greenland.

• It is believed that Leif Erikson died somewhere between 1019-1025 A.D. in Greenland
• He is last mentioned in the year 1019 A.D. and his Chieftaincy was passed on by 1025 A.D.

Lief Erikson had a lot of accomplishments during his life. He was the first European Explorer to set foot in the America's. He was also the leader of a Nordic Tribe in Greenland.

• http://www.reisenett.no/norway/facts/history/norwegian_explorers.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leif_Erikson
• http://www.mnc.net/norway/LeifErikson.htm
• http://enchantedlearning.com/explorers/indexe.shtml

credits: Alex Bjorklund and Jena Holtkamp