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Leif Eriksson

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Leif Eriksson
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(flourished 11th century) Icelandic explorer, possibly the first European to reach North America. The second son of Erik the Red, he was on his way back from Norway to Greenland, where he had been sent by Olaf I Tryggvason to Christianize the natives (c. 1000), when he sailed off course and landed probably at Nova Scotia, which he called Vinland. This standard account comes from the Icelandic Eiríks saga. Another account, the Groenlendinga saga, says he learned of Vinland from a man who had been there 14 years earlier and that Leif reached North America after 1000.

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