EirÄ«kr ÞÅrvaldsson (Old Norse) was a 10th century Icelandic explorer credited with founding the first Norse settlement in Greenland. He received his “red†moniker due to the color of his hair; in any case, Eric the Red’s story is indeed a colorful one. As a child, Eric’s father ÞÅrvald was banished to Iceland from Norway after killing a man, and young Eric went along for the ride. Like father, like son, apparently, because when Eric was just over 30 years of age, he, too, would be exiled from Iceland for the act of manslaughter. Perhaps he received his “red†sobriquet as a result of his fiery temper, as well. As Eric explored the area west of Iceland in search of a place to settle, he discovered Greenland. After finding inhabitable fjords (coastal inlets), he returned with his family to live out his three year sentence. The ÞÅrvaldsson family lived in near isolation for those three years in exile, but they spent much of that time exploring the lands and seas to the west. Incidentally, Leif Ericsson (the first European explorer of North America – outside of Greenland), was Eric the Red’s son. After returning to Iceland, Eric convinced hundreds of Icelanders to assist him in colonizing the new-found land (and several hundred took him up on his offer). Eric the Red purportedly named the gigantic ice sheet Greenland in an effort to attract settlers. The Greenland colony flourished to about 5,000 Norse inhabitants but ultimately fell apart in the 14th/15th centuries due to a much colder climate resulting from the Little Ice Age, ongoing conflicts with the native population and general undernourishment from soil erosion and famine. In the early 17th century, Denmark re-established sovereignty over the land mass.
