Before Columbus: The Leif Eriksson Expedition
Author:
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Book Type: Hardcover
Author:
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Book Type: Hardcover
Another in the Landmark series, but this is one of the more recent offerings, published in the early 2000s. It's also one of the shortest I've read, at just about 90 pages. One of the advantages over many of the older ones written in the 1950s is the inclusion of additional material, including a bibliography for further reading and several photos of artifacts, documents and drawings.
This short edition describes the life and voyages of Leif Eriksson, about whom, admittedly, facts are few. I think it could have included far more content about the source material, which is worthy of some discussion itself, in the form of the famous Icelandic sagas, about which I think there should have been more material in this short volume.
On account of the paucity of the source material, we don't even know definitively when Leif Erikson was born or when he died, which is usually stated to be around 970 to the 1020s. Also known as Leif the Lucky, he is believed to have been the first European to have reached continental North America, nearly 500 years before Columbus did - but the latter only made brief excursions to central and the very northern tip of South America, never actually setting foot in the continental United States or Canada.
The source material for much of Erikson's life is contained within the "Sagas of Icelanders," narratives based on more or less historical events which occurred primarily in the ninth through the eleventh centuries. The sagas were composed in Old Icelandic, a dialect of Old Norse. The specific composers or authors are mostly unknown. Most of the information about Leif Erikson is contained within the "EirÃks saga rauða: or the Saga of Erik the Red and "The Saga of the Greenlanders." Believed to have been composed in approximately 1200, the Erik the Red saga was probably written down initially in the thirteenth century, and it is preserved in two manuscripts, albeit in slightly differing versions, which date from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, so the written accounts date to at least a century after the initial composition of the orally-transmitted sagas.
Leif Erikson was reportedly the son of famous chieftain Erik the Red and his wife Thjodhild of Iceland. Leif reportedly had two known sons. The book attempts to reconstruct his early life based on what is generally known about Norse culture, but much of that also comes from the sagas, especially regarding pagan religious practices and their spiritual traditions. What is known is that at some point, Leif's father was banished from Iceland for a time, reportedly for murder, and therefore took his family along with other settlers west to what is now modern-day Greenland, where he established the first permanent settlement in 986. His son likewise became a famous explorer, but whether he was the individual who founded the Norse settlement at Newfoundland, known as L'Anse aux Meadows, which was occupied approximately 1,000 years ago, is unknown.
There are also conflicting accounts of how Leif Erikson came upon the North American continent, specifically the area called Vinland. In the Saga of Erik the Red, Leif reportedly discovered it accidentally when he was blown off course while returning to Greenland from Norway. In the second account, however, which is decidedly more detailed, Leif reportedly relies on the reports of Bjarni Herjolfsson who had sighted land to the west which was thick with trees, approximately fifteen years before Erikson made a formal voyage of exploration. The latter account also states that Leif had spent time at the court of Norwegian king Olaf, where he was first introduced to and converted to Christianity. Some later scholars assert, in fact, that the latter version was composed to highlight Leif's evangelizing efforts on behalf of King Olaf Tyrggvason, who is mentioned in the book. This story may have been invented by a monk who wrote a now-lost biography of King Olaf around the year 1200.
It is also in the second account, The Saga of the Greenlanders, that Leif reportedly approached Bjarni about his earlier discovery, and purchased his ship, before taking on a crew of approximately 35 men to mount an expedition to see if he could find the land populated with tall trees which Bjarni had reportedly come across accidentally years prior. It is this account which also describes his father Erik the Red's injury in a fall from his horse on his way to board the ship, which he took as a bad omen, and decided to stay behind. This account chronicles that the expedition reportedly landed on an unknown shore, after traveling for many days, where some of their party found wild grapes, wheat and maple trees. There are no reports of them encountering any native peoples there.
Despite the briefness of the narrative, this is a good introduction for young children, and includes a bibliography for further reading. I think it would have been good to also discuss the sagas in more detail, including a section on the conflicting information, which offered a good opportunity to introduce some textual analysis, and how what we think we know can change with additional discoveries, such as archaeological sites. It could also have discussed to some degree the difficulty of reconstructing historical events based on limited information, but overall, as with most of the other books in this series, it's an enjoyable read which hits the highlights and provides a good introduction to the subject.
This short edition describes the life and voyages of Leif Eriksson, about whom, admittedly, facts are few. I think it could have included far more content about the source material, which is worthy of some discussion itself, in the form of the famous Icelandic sagas, about which I think there should have been more material in this short volume.
On account of the paucity of the source material, we don't even know definitively when Leif Erikson was born or when he died, which is usually stated to be around 970 to the 1020s. Also known as Leif the Lucky, he is believed to have been the first European to have reached continental North America, nearly 500 years before Columbus did - but the latter only made brief excursions to central and the very northern tip of South America, never actually setting foot in the continental United States or Canada.
The source material for much of Erikson's life is contained within the "Sagas of Icelanders," narratives based on more or less historical events which occurred primarily in the ninth through the eleventh centuries. The sagas were composed in Old Icelandic, a dialect of Old Norse. The specific composers or authors are mostly unknown. Most of the information about Leif Erikson is contained within the "EirÃks saga rauða: or the Saga of Erik the Red and "The Saga of the Greenlanders." Believed to have been composed in approximately 1200, the Erik the Red saga was probably written down initially in the thirteenth century, and it is preserved in two manuscripts, albeit in slightly differing versions, which date from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, so the written accounts date to at least a century after the initial composition of the orally-transmitted sagas.
Leif Erikson was reportedly the son of famous chieftain Erik the Red and his wife Thjodhild of Iceland. Leif reportedly had two known sons. The book attempts to reconstruct his early life based on what is generally known about Norse culture, but much of that also comes from the sagas, especially regarding pagan religious practices and their spiritual traditions. What is known is that at some point, Leif's father was banished from Iceland for a time, reportedly for murder, and therefore took his family along with other settlers west to what is now modern-day Greenland, where he established the first permanent settlement in 986. His son likewise became a famous explorer, but whether he was the individual who founded the Norse settlement at Newfoundland, known as L'Anse aux Meadows, which was occupied approximately 1,000 years ago, is unknown.
There are also conflicting accounts of how Leif Erikson came upon the North American continent, specifically the area called Vinland. In the Saga of Erik the Red, Leif reportedly discovered it accidentally when he was blown off course while returning to Greenland from Norway. In the second account, however, which is decidedly more detailed, Leif reportedly relies on the reports of Bjarni Herjolfsson who had sighted land to the west which was thick with trees, approximately fifteen years before Erikson made a formal voyage of exploration. The latter account also states that Leif had spent time at the court of Norwegian king Olaf, where he was first introduced to and converted to Christianity. Some later scholars assert, in fact, that the latter version was composed to highlight Leif's evangelizing efforts on behalf of King Olaf Tyrggvason, who is mentioned in the book. This story may have been invented by a monk who wrote a now-lost biography of King Olaf around the year 1200.
It is also in the second account, The Saga of the Greenlanders, that Leif reportedly approached Bjarni about his earlier discovery, and purchased his ship, before taking on a crew of approximately 35 men to mount an expedition to see if he could find the land populated with tall trees which Bjarni had reportedly come across accidentally years prior. It is this account which also describes his father Erik the Red's injury in a fall from his horse on his way to board the ship, which he took as a bad omen, and decided to stay behind. This account chronicles that the expedition reportedly landed on an unknown shore, after traveling for many days, where some of their party found wild grapes, wheat and maple trees. There are no reports of them encountering any native peoples there.
Despite the briefness of the narrative, this is a good introduction for young children, and includes a bibliography for further reading. I think it would have been good to also discuss the sagas in more detail, including a section on the conflicting information, which offered a good opportunity to introduce some textual analysis, and how what we think we know can change with additional discoveries, such as archaeological sites. It could also have discussed to some degree the difficulty of reconstructing historical events based on limited information, but overall, as with most of the other books in this series, it's an enjoyable read which hits the highlights and provides a good introduction to the subject.
