Erik the Red Was Exiled for Murder — So He Founded His Own Country

Around 982 AD, a man was outlawed from Iceland for killing his neighbours. With nowhere left to go, he sailed west into open ocean toward a land nobody had settled. Erik the Red spent three years exploring its coast — and then did something remarkable. He went back to Iceland and called the place Greenland, because, as the sagas state plainly, an attractive name would persuade people to follow him. Roughly 25 ships set out. About 14 arrived. This episode separates the saga from the history: the killings and the Norse law of outlawry, the voyage west, the naming, and what archaeology at Brattahlíð actually confirms about a colony that survived for nearly 500 years before it vanished. 🔔 Subscribe for more Viking history — new episodes in the Viking Legends series. -- #Vikings #ErikTheRed #Greenland #VikingHistory #NorseHistory