Talk:Leif Erikson

Year of arrival in Vinland wanted

I think Wikipedia should include the year of Leif's arrival in "Vinland". The year was what I was looking for when I came upon this page and I was very disapointed that even though I was cascaded with knowlegde about Leif Ericsson, it failed to mention the key purpose of my search-- the year. Please consider this and update your site with the date included. Thanks! -Marrissa

The problem with that, is that the year is not exactly known. I think 1001 is the 'average' estimate, but it is also sometimes placed one or two years earlier or later. Andre Engels 11:00, 30 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Discussion regarding L.E.'s name

Standard form of his name?

Is there a standard historically-recognized name for this fellow? The spelling Leifur Eiríksson exists elsewhere on this site, and seems to me to be more authoritative. Perhaps a renaming of this article could be considered. Radagastp

Someone who might come to this page might have no idea that this article is about the person who is commonly known in English as "Leif Ericsson". I'm going to change the references back to "Leif Ericsson", move the page back, and make a note that his Norwegian name was "Leifur Eiríksson". Nohat 22:08, 2004 Apr 24 (UTC)

As far as I'm concerned there was never a person called "Leif Ericsson". I do think we ought to use his real name. Biekko 22:19, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

There was also never a person called Christopher Columbus, but certain historical figures have been given Anglicized names, and it's Wikipedia policy to use the most common English name to name pages. See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names). I've heard of Leif Ericsson but not "Leifur Eiríksson", and in the previous incarnation of the page, it wouldn't have been apparent to me that the article was about the same person we learned about in history class. It does seem that Leifur Eiríksson was his real name, and it is certainly important we indicate that, but the page title and references should be to the most common English name, which is Leif Ericsson. Nohat 22:33, 2004 Apr 24 (UTC)

Recommended use: Leif Erikson (spelling mostly used in offical US and UK papers) or Leif Eriksson (more correct)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/erikson_leif.shtml

In Norwegian, the correct name is Leif Eiriksson.

Variations: 'Google stats'

As has been pointed out before there seems to be no single recognized name for the man. A quick websearch I did revealed these different variations of his last name all being used at once:

• Ericsson
• Ericson
• Eriksson
• Erickson
• Erikson
• Eiriksson

Even Britannica had two of these variations in its article titles, the name "Ericsson" has no authority over any of these, all of those should redirect to his native language name and these different spellings be explained there. Biekko 23:01, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

OK, you bring up a good point. I didn't double check the last name. I did Google searches on the following phrases, and these are the results:

Search phrase	Result count
Leif Ericsson	11,000
Leif Ericson	23,300
Leif Eriksson	15,700
Leif Erickson	13,300
Leif Erikson	9,270
Leif Eiriksson	790
Leif Eiríksson	133
Leifur Ericsson	67
Leifur Ericson	6
Leifur Eriksson	240
Leifur Erickson	2
Leifur Erikson	28
Leifur Eiriksson	2,190
Leifur Eiríksson	1,730

As you can see, the versions with "Leif" are much more plentiful than "Leifur". The evidence for the last name is less clear, although it does seem to point to "Ericson", with 1 's', being the most common. I would then say that the most common English name is "Leif Ericson", and we should say in the first sentence that his Icelandic name was "Leifur Eiríksson", but we should include at least some of these others. It seems that "Erickson", "Eriksson", and "Ericsson" are all about equally common after "Ericson". Nohat 00:21, 2004 Apr 25 (UTC)

Ericson is probably closer to a proper English version of his name, his father was Eric and Leifur was his son, thus Ericson. The double 's' is however derived from the grammatics of Icelandic. If we are going to use this English name, then it should probably rather be with a single 's'. But I'm content as long as it is made clear to anybody who visits this page that his proper name was Leifur Eiríksson. :) Biekko 00:58, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

His proper name is no more Leifur Eiríksson than it is Leif Ericson, both are modernizations of Leifr Eiríksson. -- Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 16:01, 2004 Dec 21 (UTC)

According to Thorkell Ericson, Leif's son also had the last name Ericson. Is this correct or was he really Thorkell Leifson or something like that? Nohat 04:47, 2004 Apr 25 (UTC)

Yes, he ought to be Leifsson if he really was Leifur's son. I need to do some research on this, I haven't yet been able to find any sources indicating that Leifur even had a son. This Thorkell Ericson article seems to be all wrong.Biekko 09:20, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The Google search doesn't take into account that many unrelated people are named Leif or Eriksson (or Ericsson etc). For example, "Peter Eriksson" gives some 70,000 hits. I do not think this search should carry any weight when choosing the name. Filur 06:48, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

It does, actually, when you enter the search phrase within quotes, such as this: "Leif Ericson". No problem at all, which I'm sure the above contributors know. --Wernher 05:22, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

Just for completeness, I did the following searches:

Search phrase	Result count
Leiv Eiriksson	21,200
Leifr Eiriksson	1,790
Leifr Eiríksson	1,770

The "Leiv" form is the most common one in modern Norwegian; 12,300 of the results for that form are Norwegian-language webpages. The two "Leifr" searches should probably be combined, which gives a sum of 3,560 hits. I don't see any reason to oppose the 'predominant form in English'-argument, however, as long as the most common alternative forms are mentioned and redirected from. --Wernher 05:22, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

L.E. is known in Iceland as Leifr Eiricsson. That combination has not been discussed here yet ...

On the other hand, It is best to use most common known name(s). Therefore I suggest to call the article "Leif Ericsson", and Refer below on most other names (in Scandinavia today, he is known as "Leif Eriksson"). But double "S" should be there as "Leif hiS Son". Due to writing mistakes in the past, his name also is spelled with ck

These unsigned comments are incorrect; please see discussion below of Leif's name in Old Norse. -- Rob C (Alarob) 16:21, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

k or c

The article about Erik the Red uses the k spelling but here the c spelling is used. For the sake of consistency this article should be moved to Leif Erikson or the one about Erik to Eric the Red. --Biekko 16:50, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Ericsson instead of Ericson

This article should be titled "Leif Ericsson" with double s. No mather how often "Ericson" is indexed by Google. Those "Ericson"s are often sites that borough content from Wikipedia, so when we change the title to "Ericsson", in a few weeks "Ericson" will have been dropped in the Google ranking. After all, his name means "Eric's son" (see the double s), not "Eric-son". Switisweti 10:52, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC)

1. There was no evidence when I gathered those statistics that Wikipedia mirrors constituted a significant portion of the Google search results. Nohat 18:11, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Evidently there is also no evidence those mirrors did not constitute the main part of those results. Maybe you didn't take note of that possibility. Those mirrors should always be left out in such investigations. Now we don't have a clue about the quality of the results. And those results lead to the decission to keep the title with *son. Switisweti 11:11, 23 Jan 2005 (UTC)

2. Your logic is flawed. We don't have "Johnsson", "Fredericksson", "Wilsson", "Robertsson", "Jacobsson", etc. Nohat 18:11, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC)

In English language you may not find *sson (although I doubt that's the case, I don't know of any examples with *sson), but in many other germanic languages you do! In Dutch there is both "Jansen" and "Janssen", and this double s is very common in Danish, Norse and Swedish. In fact, an important telecompany is called "Ericsson" (!) with double ss. And since the original name of this explorer is "Eiríksson" we should stay close with "Ericsson". "Eirík" can be rendered "Eric" because otherwise there are problems with pronounciation, but *sson shouldn't be changed. But this my opinion, and if no others agree, I rest my case. Switisweti 10:59, 23 Jan 2005 (UTC)

BTW: One Google search gave me 602,000 examples of Internet use of "Johnsson", with double s! But now I really leave it to you, fellow Wikipedians. Switisweti 11:19, 23 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I say keep the double 's' -- it's the form of the Old Norse patronym, and hence *the* patronymic, irrespective of various English or Norwegian bastardizations of the name. -- Palthrow 18:20, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Old Norse name?

Shouldn't the Old Norse name be "Leifr Eiríksson" and not "Leif Eriksson"? I will change it in the article. Nidator 13:47, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

• That's correct; thanks for making the change. N.B. Masculine names in Old Norse (Leif's native language) normally took the suffix -r in the nominative case. The modern language most closely related to Old Norse is Icelandic, in which masculine names normally take a -ur nominative suffix. Hence the modernized spelling Leifur. -- Rob C (Alarob) 16:18, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for a clear overview. That is how I understand it as well. Do you also agree that the name of his mother should be modernised as "Tjodhild", and not as "Thorhild"? (Nidator 19:44, 20 February 2007 (UTC))

I should explain that in English I hold with using the name Leif, sans suffix. Our language is not declined and inflected like Old Norse or Icelandic, so we should not attach a nominative suffix to Leif's name. I have no strong feeling against Anglicizing his mother's name as Thorhild -- especially in light of how Tjodhild is likely to be mispronounced ˈtʒadhɪld by the typical English speaker. -- Rob C (Alarob) 20:04, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, just Leif in both English and contemporary Norwegian. I was only correcting the Old Norse name close to the start of the article. With regards to the name of the mother I suspect that "Thorhild" is simply erroneous. Maybe "Thjodhild" is better than "Tjodhild" in an English language article though? (Nidator 20:13, 20 February 2007 (UTC))

I have looked up the etymology of "Thorhild" (in the Norwegian form "Torhild") and the Old Norse form was "Þórhildr" [1]. The same site modernises "Þjóðhildr" as "Tjodhild" [2]. With this in mind there is little doubt that "Thorhild" is erroneous and that "Thjodhild" would be the best form in English. I will change the article. - Nidator 12:49, 21 February 2007 (UTC) -

Þjóðhildr and Þórhildr are two separate names. Þórhildr is associated with Thor, the Norse pagan god, whereas Þjóðhildr is associated with 'þjóð' which means people or folk. So it should most definitely not be anglicised as Thorhild, regardless of whether English speakers have a hard time pronouncing Thjodhild. -- Palthrow 14:22, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Non-English text characters

I reverted Switisweti because he made a total mess of the article -- Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 15:50, 2004 Dec 21 (UTC)

Excuse me, but I just reverted YOUR edits, which were not in place since this is English Wikipedia, so you should use English equivalents of original (Icelandic, Old Norse) names. And please stop using non-English characters in this English text. <THORN> should be rendered "th" and <eth> should be rendered "d". Thank you very much. Switisweti 21:22, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

They were in place, we're discussion a topic which in which the persons discussed have names in old Icelandic or Old Norse, which means that we use whatever none-english characters needed when discussing their original names.

As for your claim that Þ should be rendered "th" and ð should be rendered "d" is simply untrue, please stop changing the relevant characters, it makes them unreadable. -- Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 16:26, 2004 Dec 22 (UTC)

Changing those characters is completely unintentionally since my computer doesn't support them, renders them as <THORN> and <eth> whenever I change other parts of the article or this talk page and save these changes. Blaim Wikipedia-software. And please use English variants of those original names whenever you're talking plain English, though you may indeed mention their original form once or twice. Switisweti 22:16, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Actually you - or rather the software you're using to edit wikipedia is to blame, i presume that you're using internet explorer on mac os 9 which has a known problem with Þ and ð. -- Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 17:55, 2004 Dec 25 (UTC)

Mac OS 9 and MSIE 5 are to blame. You're right. I'll stay away from the article. Switisweti 11:31, 23 Jan 2005 (UTC)

NN 7 has no problem with Þ and ð - as you can see. I repaired all I caused in this section. Switisweti 23:29, 23 Jan 2005 (UTC)

You can always use &thorn; and &eth; to make þ and ð--157.157.117.34 06:05, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Intro pgph improvement wanted

Can someone rewrite the first paragraph so it is clear who Leif Ericson is and what his importance is? As it is now, we only know that he is a Viking, and then there's information about his genealogy. We only know that he's an explorer after reading the whole article. 202.152.46.130 03:32, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Suspected class paper removed

I deleted a section that appears to be a paper for class. This section introduced Leif, ignoring the fact that he has already been identified earlier in the article. It contained numbers in brackets which referred to nothing. It had a very chatty tone: "Don't worry about the underlines brackets or numbers they where for a class for history/writing". It also contradicted items established earlier in the article (the main article says Leif had converted to Christianity, but the deleted portion says he converted others but did not accept the religion himself. -Volfy 06:05, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

Here is most of the text: --Volfy 02:45, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

Did you know that it is thought that Leif Erickson was the first one to discover North America? [6] Well he did! [5] Although some people think that Christopher Columbus discovered it and he did but he was just the second Europeans to land there. [1] Three topics that will be talked about in this essay are: his life and family, his faith, sailing.

[1] Leif Erickson was a Viking and sailor who dwelled from 960-1020 A.D. His father’s name was Eric the Red. [3] Happily sailing was Leif favorite thing to do. It is thought that he was one of the first Europeans to set foot on North American soil. [6] Eric established a settlement in Greenland. [2] Like his dad, Leif was a natural fighter although he did not like fighting. [4] Living on a family farm he frequently helped everyday. One of his main jobs was to ride the horse that was carrying the hay from the fields to the barn fir storage. [5] Because Vikings had very hard but exciting lives, they aged very quickly.

When Leif traveled to Nidaros, King Olav’s (Olaf) country and Olav accepted them in to his house for awhile. [5] As a result, Olav taught them some of the basic ways of Christianity like the golden rule and putting God above all others. [4] Imposing to his own nation, Leif was quickly becoming a great leader. [2] Throughout his life Leif was a believable and trustworthy man. [1] He sailed back home and shared the faith with his family which they all chose to believe. [6] Most Vikings believed as well. [3] Shortly after, his men built a church for the Vikings to worship in. Although Leif himself never accepted the faith, he still returned to view the finished church house.

[3] Interestingly the first time Leif set sail it, was for a Viking whale hunt which is far away from land. [1] Leif yelled at the crew, “She blows,” because he observed the magnificent creature first. [2] From the stern of the boat his father took aim. Eric the Red shot. It flew high. It stuck. [6] The whale was captured. It took them a day to get back from their hunt. [4] Sailing was a humongous part in a Vikings life and almost every Viking had the same kind of boat. [5] When Vikings sailed, they usually stayed nearby land so that if they needed supplies, then they could raid the local villages.

[1] Leif Erickson was a family man; he loved sailing, and taught some of the Vikings Christianity. [3] Slowly people have been realizing that he was the one that discovered America and that it was not Christopher Columbus who was the first one. [5] Although Christopher made some colonies, which does not make him the founder of America, Leif is still the first discoverer. The most significant thing about Leif Erickson is that he helped convert the Vikings to Christianity even though he himself did not accept the faith for himself. Because he did not think that it was truly the right faith to believe in.

Is "namesake" the correct word?

In a recent edit, I stated that the fictional submarine named after L.E. is his "namesake". Now, is this a proper use of that word, or do "namesakes" always have to be other people? --Wernher 09:02, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

A few notes on the name

I somewhat idly did a search with books.google.com which I think yields slightly more helpful results than a normal Google search. This is what I got.

• Standardized 13th century Old Norse: Leifr Eiríksson - 13
• Modern Icelandic: Leifur Eiríksson - 46
• Modern Norwegian version 1: Leiv Eiriksson - 7
• Modern Norwegian version 2: Leiv Eriksson - 6

Various Anglicized versions:

• Leif Ericson - 456
• Leif Eriksson - 382
• Leif Ericsson - 281
• Leif Erickson - 274
• Leif Erikson - 253
• Leif Eiriksson - 104

By that test the article is currently at the most popular Anglicized version of the name.

It's also, perhaps, worth pointing out that the standardized Old Norse spelling is not something you'd expect to find in the original manuscripts. I'll see if I can find a sample to show you.

If Leifr was literate, and he very well may have been, he would have written his name with the runic equivalent of "laifR:airiks:sunR" or something similar. That is if he would have chosen to indicate his father's name after his. Patronyms were by no means a fixed part of Norse names back then. His name was just Leifr - anything after that was just to disambiguate him from all the other Leifrs out there :) - Haukur Þorgeirsson 02:31, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Fictional namesakes

• The Leif Ericson  submarine in the Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson is named for the above explorer. It is owned and captained by Hagbard Celine who himself is named for viking legend Hagbard.
• The Leif Eriksson is one of the three space ships carrying the Council of Humanity from Earth in Building Harlequin's Moon by Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper.
• Indie rock group Interpol's debut album, Turn on the Bright Lights, closes with a song entitled Leif Erikson. The song has no relevence to the man, however.

Heres the story behind the Interpol song:

Paul Banks of Interpol - "That was one of those things where, if you were to be able to isolate the keyboard part to that song-- which you probably can't-- but if you were in the studio, or if you just heard us doing a soundcheck, there's a quality to it which someone commented was kind of Viking-esque. Like if you were watching a film, you could see the galleon approaching the coast, the fucking Vikings peering over the edge or whatever, and then I just said, you know, "Oh, Leif Erikson," and I was really happy that everyone could live with it, because for me, it's like absurdist. Absurdism is great, 'cause why not? It seems more arbitrary to take a lyric and make it your title than to take something completely out of left field."

Folks, don't forget to sign your comments with ~~~~. Regards, Rob C (Alarob) 16:24, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Did Leif Erickson ever land in New York??

• There is a section of The Belt Parkway in Brooklyn which is officially known as Leif Erickson Drive & there is also a Leif Erickson park. I always wondered the reasons behind this. (obviously he must have, but I can't find any information to confirm it)

  That name is surely just to honour him. It is highly unlikely that he ever went further south than Newfoundland but it is impossible to prove that beyond all doubt. Stefán Ingi 18:09, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Some "experts" believe he at least visited Long Island sound, and that his basecamp was not too far north of there on an island now called No Man's Land which I'd have to look up because I can't remember where it is. It has purportedly a much milder winter climate than the surrounding area, with little or no snow. Another tip is claimed to be the comments of the explorers that daylight lasts much longer (and the nights shorter) in Vinland than in Greenland/Iceland/Norway in winter. (Eirik the Red was from Jæren, almost as far south as one can get in Norway.)

(Whether these claims are true or not, it's entirely possible that the people who named Leif Erickson Drive and park had never heard of them.) --Hordaland (talk) 15:44, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Pronunciation

I've always been taught that Leif was pronounced "Layve", not "Leaf". Am I correct in saying that this is the correct pronunciation? → J@red  22:42, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

I am unsure how I would pronounce Layve but Leaf is probably far of target in any English pronounciation. As an approximation to how Leif was pronounced in Old norse, try saying the English word "late" but with an "f" sound instead of the "t" at the end. I would add an IPA pronounciation but I would probably get it wrong. Stefán Ingi 08:51, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Well, yeah, that's sort of what I was trying to get at with layve. Here's another example: say "wave" but with an "l" instead of a "w". I think your pronunciation is similar to mine. → J@red  19:10, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm Norwegian, and here, we pronounce it pretty much like one pronounces the english world life, only with a slightly bolder I. Pretty similar to what some regional british dialects sound like. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 193.157.238.202 (talk) 19:28, 5 December 2006 (UTC).

We pronounce it like the English word "Life" in Danish too, but the Icelandic/Old Norse pronounciation would be something like "Layf". --dllu 18:12, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Article title

I've skimmed the part of this discussion page regarding the title of the article and don't have quite the patience to figure out which name became the accepted title. I'm just wondering why the article is named "Leif Ericson" but that name does not appear at all in the opening sentence. — Larry V (talk) 16:39, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

name again

Today, someone tried to rename this article by crude copy-paste move, which destrys the history of the article, and is questionable by itself. I urge the person to discuss his changes before moving (which because of the available history at the desired location has to be done by an admin). -- Kim van der Linde ^{at venus} 19:44, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

referenced, not OR

Thanks for the message. As I responded on my page, this claim can be referenced by William O Kellogg, who is former Head of the History Dept. at the highly esteemed St. Paul's School, in his texbook "American History th easy way,' 3rd Ed. ISBN 0-7641-1973-7, 2003. The actual section is on page 9 under "The Vikings." and page 8, "European Immigrants." Im sure if you researched this question, though, you'd find it in many other reputable academic sources. I made clear we are talking about the Norsemen settlements; Ericson explored the coast of North America and the settlements resulted, with the evidence suggesting as far as Minnesota.Giovanni33 21:57, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I am about to update the Norwegian article which is currently is a sad case, and then I am checking out the facts here first. One thing is certain. No Norsemen ever reached as far as Minnesota. They explored the coastline only at best. The whole Minnesota thing originates back to the so called Kensington stone which has been proven false again and again. As a Norwegian I would proud if Norsemen actually have gone as far as Minnesota, but as a historian I can not support false evidence. This particularly information or suggestion will not be available on the Norwegian Wikipedia. --FinnBjork 18:29, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Impressive

Four years (article was created in 2002), hundreds of edits and still 5 lines? Are these lines all known facts about this supposed 1st lander of America? Must be an hoax or somethin'. Shame On You 20:49, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Used to be longer - look at this for example. Feel free to revert to some fuller version. Read Grœnlendinga saga and Eiríks saga rauða (the sagas, not just the articles) and you'll basically know as much as anyone. Haukur 20:56, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Slightly misleading?

His exploration resulted in several settlements, with some evidence suggesting that later Norsemen may eventually have penetrated as far as Minnesota...

This is somewhat weasely, for me, and borderline misleading. If mentioning Minnesota is indeed relevant, which I doubt, should it not be acknowledged at the very least that what evidence has been found is highly controversial? In any case, if Norsemen did turn up in Minnesota, which I also doubt, that would have been centuries after Leif's sojourn in Vinland; surely no-one has suggested that settlements begun by Leif survived till the supposed time of the Kensington runestone in the 1300s. qp10qp 23:17, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Bulk source addition

Here will be placed the bulk addition of source that was added by an editor and later removed in order to maybe re-use some of the material for later purposes.

(Copyvio text removed per OTRS # 2008062510017401. Rjd0060 (talk) 00:50, 26 June 2008 (UTC))

Lincher 14:40, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Strange sentence in Early Life in Iceland

What is "Then designed the first ever farm of people and cows." supposed to mean? That sounds very fishy... 207.255.66.200 23:04, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

That was during a period of heavy vandalism on the article, so individual changes may not have been looked at closely. That one looks like it maybe came from someone with limited English. I'm not sure what it meant, so I've removed it. Fan-1967 23:11, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Intrests

This article fails to recognize any of leif's intrests and I was wondering if there were any. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.196.206.204 (talk) 01:10, 21 February 2007 (UTC).

Leif born in Iceland

There have been some edits that change the article to say that Leif was born in Norway. This is not supported at all by the historical evidence. The following excerpt is from Eiríks saga rauða from Sturlubók:

Þorvaldur hét maður. Hann var son Ásvalds Úlfssonar Yxna-Þórissonar. Eiríkur hét son hans. Þeir feðgar fóru af Jaðri til Íslands fyri víga sakir og námu land á Hornströndum og bjuggu að Dröngum. Þar andaðist Þorvaldur, en Eiríkur fékk þá Þjóðhildar, dóttur Jörundar Atlasonar og Þorbjargar knarrarbringu.

This translates as:

There was a man named Thorvaldur. He was the son of Asvald Ulfsson son of Yxna-Thorir. His son's name was Eirik. He and his father left Jadur for Iceland because of some killings and claimed land in Hornstrandir and lived in Drangar. There Thorvaldur died, but Eirik married Thjodhild, daughter of Jorund Atlason and Thorbjorg knarrbringa.

This account occurs both in Eiríks saga rauða and in Landnáma, so we have two written sources indicating that Leif's father did not meet his mother until he settled in Iceland (along with an account of Thjodhild's Icelandic parentage). This seems fairly solid evidence that Leifur cannot have been born in Norway. Everything seems indicate that he was born in Iceland, although it is in principle possible that he was born in Greenland.

I would like to ask the Norwegians who are changing his nationality to Norwegian to stop, please. -- Palthrow 14:28, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Date of birth

"It is believed that Leif was born about 960 AD in Iceland[2], the son of Erik the Red" "Erik the Red (950–1000[1])"

are you claiming that Leif Ericson had a father that was 10 years old and had already become an outlaw, sailed over the atlantic and created a child?

quite impressive...

Anonymous user

Name once again

As was mentioned above, the Old Norse form is Leifr without a u, so I added that again. I also removed the (sic!) part from the "Leif Ericson Day" paragraph, because it was clearly POV. The last name should be spelled Eiriksson, or at the very least Erikson with a k. I think the article should be moved. I know it has been discussed before, but the fact that no consensus was achieved doesn't make the current title any less arbitrary. --dllu 18:22, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I agree, the article should be moved to Leif Eiriksson or Leif Eriksson. - Palthrow 01:26, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

I removed a line someone had vandalized. It stated "IM MANDYS GRANDPA" which I felt was irrelevant to the article.

James mcaninch 13:42, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Speculation

It seems to me the speculation section would be more appropriate to some other article, since none of it deals specifically with L.E. or even mentions him. Perhaps see also links to articles about these speculative ideas would suffice. As it reads now, it all just seems tacked on. Anyone disagree? Jonathunder 13:58, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

errors?

in this article its states his crew size as 15

yet in the article on Bjarni Herjólfsson it states Leif Ericson's crew as 35

could you please help me figure out the true number —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.49.38.142 (talk) 17:32, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 17:02, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Known vs Claimed

While the claims are moderately strong, there's a distinction - which is borne out by most of the article - that Leif Ericson is widely claimed to be the first European (with whoever accompanied him - not mentioned). "Known" is an unqualified statement of fact. We don't have those facts. Tedickey (talk) 11:56, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

agree - "thought" is acceptable (though to some, it's equivalent) Tedickey (talk) 21:08, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

I think it's more accurate at any rate - one can think Leif was the first without making a definite claim that he was (along with the unknown Vikings who came with him, as you say), or without "knowing" it. And many people do.--Cúchullain ^t/c 21:15, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

The first european in America?

I took a quiz at Facebook which stated that Juan Ponce de León was the first euopean in America, and when i looked it up here it said the same thing. Doesn't Greenland count as Europe or what? Can someone help me?--Arvid Edberg, Sweden

• That the Vikings really were in the Americas, rather than just having thought to maybe have come to the Americas, is a development of relatively recent scholarship. However, the quiz is wrong anyway because Juan Ponce de León accompanied Columbus on his 2nd voyage indicating, obviously, that the Europeans on Columbus' 1st voyage visited before him. --House of Scandal (talk) 20:41, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps that quiz meant America as in just the United States? Incredibly US-centric I know but it could fit. Juan Ponce de León is said to have "discovered" Florida so maybe he was the first European in the current territory of the USA. --Bjarki (talk) 16:24, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Leif married?

" Leif married a woman named Thorgunna ...", it says. Did he? He had a son with her and acknowledged fatherhood, but I think he never married her. --Hordaland (talk) 15:57, 19 August 2008 (UTC) I agree with this statement. i do not think he married her but another woman