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LEIF ERICSON

CALLED LEIF THE LUCKY

Born around 970 Died around 1020

Far in the Northern Land,
By the wild Baltic's strand,
I, with my childish hand,
Tamed the gerfalcon;
And, with my skates fast bound,
Skimmed the half-frozen Sound,
That the poor whimpering hound
Trembled to walk on.

But when I older grew,
Joining a corsair's crew,
O'er the dark sea I flew
With the marauders.

Wild was the life we led;
Many the souls that sped,
Many the hearts that bled,
By our stern orders.
— LONGFELLOW'S "The Skeleton in Armor."




More than a thousand years ago, when Leif Ericson was a boy, the compass had not been heard of, and there were no maps or charts of the great seas. Only the bravest and most daring sailors ventured far from land.

Who was Leif Ericson, and why should we learn about him when beginning the study of American history?

If we are told that he was a Northman, which will not help us much until we learn who the Northmen were.

These Northmen, or Vikings, as they were also called, lived in what are now Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. They were a race of tall, strong men, with light hair and blue eyes. They loved adventure and were fearless in battle, wearing coats made of steel rings or scales, and on their heads helmets of glistening steel with wings at the side.

They put out to sea in open boats no larger than our fishing boats. These were usually built of oak, and the timbers were fastened together with iron bolts and with withes made from the roots of trees. Many of the vessels were ornamented with the head of a dragon at the prow.

The stern was sometimes built to resemble a dragon's tail. Besides sails, they carried many pairs of oars. One of these ships was dug up in Norway not long ago.

The people of this race to which Leif Ericson belonged were the first who were brave and daring enough to take their vessels out on the rough seas where only sky and water could be seen, and where there was nothing to guide the sailors but the sun, moon, and stars.

Often a thick fog would settle for days over the cold northern waters. Until it lifted and the sun shone out, these brave men had no means of knowing in what direction their boats were sailing. Sometimes they took ravens with them on their wild voyages. When the Northmen thought they were near land, they would free the birds, and steered in the direction in which the ravens flew.


These Vikings liked to fight and to conquer, and it was not long before their pirate ships were a terror to England and France. No one could tell when the swift-sailing boats with their fearless masters would descend upon the coast of England, and compel the hardy Britons to fight for their lives; or when they would attack northern France and plunder and burn everything that came in their way.

At last good King Alfred of England — Alfred the Great — and King Charles of France made an agreement with the Vikings."

“We will give you," said these rulers, "certain sections of our country for your own, if you will promise to dwell therein and cease fighting." The Vikings accepted this offer and soon made themselves at home in their adopted countries. In a short time they were using the language, religion, and manners of the people around them, but they kept their own hardy, romantic, and danger-loving character.

But the Northmen were not satisfied to invade only England and France. They longed to see new lands and other peoples.

One stormy day a Viking boat was driven by winds and currents upon the coast of Iceland, and found its way home with great difficulty. The sailors were less interested to talk of the dangers they had escaped than of the strange new country. Soon several boats sailed for Iceland, and many of the Northmen remained on the island and founded a settlement there.

This new colony was so successful that Eric the Red, Leif Ericson's father, sailed in search of more land. This time he discovered and named Greenland.

It is hard to understand why he should have given to those cold, desolate shores such a pleasant sounding name; but it is believed that Greenland's climate then was milder than it is now.

This little colony of Northmen built stone huts and a stone church, the ruins of which are still standing. In the Sagas — the old legends and tales of those cold countries —we may read of the long, dangerous sea-journeys and of the new colonies.
One day in the year 1000 Leif Ericson set out on a voyage of discovery. He headed his boat toward the west, and on it sped until a long stretch of shore came in sight. What could it be? "Some island," thought Leif, "that never has been discovered."


It was the great continent of America, and the Vikings were the first white men to set foot upon our soil.

On the pleasant wooded coast of what was afterward called New England, so different from the steep cliffs and icy fiords which they had left, Leif and his crew of thirty-five men built wooden huts in which to pass the winter. How beautiful did the grass, trees, and autumn flowers appear to these people, accustomed to see little besides ice and snow! Wild grapes hung in great clusters on the vines.

"Surely," said Leif, "this country must be called vinland or wineland. I will name it Vinland the Good."
The land was covered with trees and plants unknown in northern regions and in the streams were plenty of fish. In the spring the Vikings sailed for home, taking with them a cargo of lumber, as this was scarce in Greenland. They had not been on the water many days when a shipwreck was sighted.

Quickly Leif brought his boat alongside the wreck, just in time to rescue fifteen men. After this famous voyage he was called Leif the Lucky.

Leif Ericson spent the rest of his days in Greenland, where he became chief of the colony after his father's death. There is no record in the Sagas that he ever made a second visit to our country.

Leif's brother Thorvald undertook the same voyage a few years later. He found the huts left vacant by the first discoverers, and his little party spent two winters in them. In the second winter Thorvald was killed. He was on an exploring trip along the coast, when an Indian shot an arrow that ended the Northman's life.

As far back as we can trace our country's history the Indians were already in possession of this land. Where they came from and how they found their way to America never has been learned. The Vikings gave to the Indian natives the name Skraelings, which means an inferior people. The Sagas describe the Skraelings as dark in color, with broad cheeks, straight hair, sharp black eyes, and a cruel expression.

After Thorvald's death his companions returned to Greenland. They had been very unhappy in this strange country peopled by savages. Still the love of adventure was strong in Leif Ericson's family, and a third brother, Thorstein, made an attempt to reach Vinland. But terrible storms and large icebergs forced him to turn back.


About the same time there came from Iceland to Greenland a brave man of noble blood, Thorfinn Karlsefni, who fell in love with Thorstein's widow, Gudrid, and married her. Gudrid had been much disappointed when Thorstein failed to reach Vinland. She was as fond of excitement as any of the men of her race, so she urged Karlsefni to make an effort to find the spot where purple grapes grew on green vines, and bright flowers lifted their heads from the grass.

Accordingly, in the year 1007, Thorfinn Karlsefni set sail with three or four ships, between one and two hundred men and women, and some cattle. He had little trouble in finding Vinland, and for three years his colony remained there.

The strange white settlers excited great curiosity among the savages. The Indians gladly exchanged valuable furs and skins of animals for small strips of red cloth with which to deck themselves, for they liked bright colors.

But as the months passed and the curiosity of the Indians was satisfied, they became treacherous and cruel. Thorfinn and his colonists at last grew tired of fighting such crafty foes, and the Vikings sailed away from these shores. "We like better the cold and snow among our own people," said they, "than sun and fruit among these barbarous copper-skins."

The Northmen never again tried to found a colony in America, and the Indians were left in possession of the country.

On exactly what part of the American coast did Leif Ericson and his followers land? That is a question that has been asked for hundreds of years, but will probably never be answered. It was doubtless somewhere on the coast of New England, and it may have been on Massachusetts Bay. For a long time the neighborhood of Narragansett Bay was believed to be the spot. It was thought that an old stone tower still standing at Newport, Rhode Island, was built by these early discoverers; but it has been proved that this was a windmill erected only about two hundred years ago.

One day a skeleton clad in broken and rusty armor was dug up at Fall River, Massachusetts. The poet Longfellow was deeply interested in this. Might not the skeleton be that of a daring Northman, perhaps one of the very men who had built the tower? In any event, it was a good subject for a poem, and he
wrote "The Skeleton in Armor."

If you read this poem, you will learn how one of the bold Vikings fell in love with the daughter of a prince, and how the prince refused to allow his beautiful child to marry a pirate. But one night the fearless sea rover persuaded the young princess to run away with him, and he immediately put to sea with his prize. The enraged father followed in his ship. After a hard- fought battle the prince's vessel was sunk and the lovers continued on their journey.

"Three weeks we westward bore
And when the storm was o'er,
Cloud-like we saw the shore
Stretching to leeward;
There for my lady's bower
Built I the lofty tower,
Which, to this very hour,
Stands looking seaward."

As the Northmen founded no permanent colony in America, their discovery was of less importance than what they later did for the country. Long after Leif Ericson's time, thousands of the Vikings' descendants — Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes — came to help settle the New World. They are still coming and are still helping in many ways to develop Leif's "Vinland the Good." 

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