The Story of Vinland

The man himself, the prototype of Norwegian-Americans

Sure, sure, as Norwegian-Americans, we all politely celebrate, get acceptably drunk (but not too much) and play music at just an audible level when Leif Eirikson's day comes around on October 9th here in the U.S.

But relatively little information actually comes down to us from the Icelandic Sagas  about the first European to come to America, Mr. Leif Eirikson, who is the foundational symbol, the patron, one might say, of Norwegian-America.

A statue of Leif Eirikson outside of the Minnesota Capitol Building 

According to Eirik the Red's Saga, Leif's father, Eirik the Red, sailed to a land rumored to the northwest (Greenland), after he got in trouble for some killings (the Sagas don't go into any more detail) in Iceland, after his family had moved to Iceland because they got in trouble for some killings in Norway. They had a problem, is what I'm saying...Although I like to imagine that most of the 'killings' happened through duels between warriors, somehow I don't think that's what the Sagas meant.

Anyway, after Leif comes of age, he sails out of Greenland, gets blown off-course to the Hebrides islands (where he impregnates a noblewoman without marrying her, by the way), and lands in Norway, where he becomes a member of the Norwegian King Olaf Tryggvason's court in Trondheim and converts to Christianity.

Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, previous seat of Norwegian Christianity (Credits: Morten Dreir, wikipedia)

Norway's King then charges him to converting Greenland. Soon after he sails out, however, he runs into trouble. As the Sagas put it:

"Leif put to sea and was at sea a long time, and lighted on those lands whose existence he had not so much as dreamt of before. There were wheat-fields growing wild there and grown vines. There were also those trees called maple..." ( from Eirik the Red and Other Icelandic Sagas, The World's Classics edition, circa 1988).

Vinland! (Credits: Dylan Kereluk, White Rock, Canada, Wikipedia)

So Vinland was founded and named!

As you might have guessed, the name supposedly comes from the abundance of grapes and vines (hence 'Vin'), though many modern academics think what he actually found were berries that could be used to make wine. Of course, other sources say that Vinland had already been discovered before Eirikson, and he just followed the rumors. There are a few different tellings of the tale, but the Saga of Eirik the Red says that Leif and other Greenlanders visited Vinland one or more times in the future, and established a temporary settlement at Vinland, before eventually getting chased off by conflicts with the Native inhabitants.

Beyond that, it seems like Leif just settled in Greenland and lived there the rest of his life.

And now, there are nearly 4 million Norwegian-Americans in America today who have followed his example, with most Norwegians having immigrated (nearly 800,000, a third of Norway's population) between 1825 and 1925 from a Norway beset with economic difficulties, food shortages, and a struggle for national independence, with most settling in the Mid-West, according to the official site of Norway in America.

And as Saint Patrick's day comes upon us again this year, amid all the chaos and revelry that it brings, many of us have begun looking forward to October 9th, when we can quietly, in an understated Norsk way, celebrate Leif's memory once again.

Norwegian farmer in front of his sod house in the mid-west