Erik the Red
Erik was a nomadic Viking blessed with prodigious strength... and cursed with a fiery temper that led some to call him Erik the Red.
Fiction
Nearly two thousand years ago, Erik's family was exiled from Norway. With his wife Thjodhilde and son Leif, they settled in Iceland, where Erik was determined to build a farm on the land for his father's sake. He set about building their homestead single-handedly.
When Erik had to take a trip to his brother's for some tools, he left his wooden beams in the care of his new neighbour. Returning a few days later, he swore by the great Thor on seeing his wood was gone. He found his neighbour and his sons chopping up the food, and Erik flew into a rage. When the sons tried to separate Erik from their father, he turned on them too, and they fought for several minutes. Once he had regained his composure, Erik and his neighbour discovered that both sons had been killed. That evening, Erik's family was sentenced to three years exile by the council of elders.
The next morning, Erik and his family prepared a boat, manned by a few of his faithful friends who now called him Erik the Red because of the blood on his hands. Erik followed the legend of Gunnbjorn, passed down by the old folk of Iceland, to a fertile green land far overseas to the west. Together, the Vikings created a small colony on the landmass they called Greenland.
After three years of peace, Erik's exile expired, and he returned to Iceland to persuade others to join the colony. Five hundred Vikings in twenty-five longships returned with him, but ten of the ships sank in a turbulent storm. In an unrelated incident, a settler named Bjarni was blown off course and sighted a landmass in the distance.
At least fifteen years later, the colony faced a shortage of wood. Erik's son Leif reminded his father of the coast spotted by Bjarni and suggested it would be full of the resources they lacked. Despite Erik's misgivings that he was too old to lead such an expedition, his men insisted on his command. Shortly before embarking, he took a fall from his horse, which he believed to be an omen from the gods. He relinquished leadership to Leif.
As his son departed with thirty-five men, Erik prayed to his gods and the spirits of his ancestors that Leif would return safely one day. The Saga of Erik the Red
Notes
- Erik Thorvaldsson was a Norse explorer who lived approximately from 950 to 1003. He likely took his nickname from his red hair and beard. Erik's father, Thorvald Asvaldsson, was banished from Norway for manslaughter; he settled in Iceland with Erik when the boy was ten years old, and died before he was twenty. Erik is not known to have had a brother.
- Erik married the Icelandic Þjóðhildur Jorundsdottir and built a farm called Eiríksstaðir. In addition to Leif, they reportedly had three other children named Freydis, Thorvald, and Thorstein.
- Erik had two exiles in Iceland. The first occurred when Erik's thralls caused a landslide on a neighbouring farm and were murdered by a friend of the landowner named Eyjolf the Foul; in retaliation, Erik killed Eyjolf and another man, and was banished from that region. The incident depicted in the comic is based on his second exile; Erik left his prized setstokkr – ornamented pillars inherited from his father – with a man called Thorgest while Erik finished building his new home. Thorgest refused to give them back, leading to a fight in which Erik killed a number of men including Thorgest's sons. Erik and the men that sided with him were exiled from Iceland by the local thing.
- Erik returned after his exile expired and told tales of Greenland, a name chosen specifically to sound more appealing than Iceland.
- Despite his family converting to Christianity, Erik reportedly remained a devout Norse pagan for the rest of his life.
