Leif Eriksson – 1st explorer of North America

In Brattahlid, which today is known by the Greenlandic name of Qassiarsuk, a bronze statue of Leif Eriksson has been erected as a memorial to his fantastic discoveries in the year 1000 AD. The statue has been erected at the site in Southern Greenland from where the legendary son of Erik the Red set course towards the uncharted west from his childhood home.

Statue of Leif Eriksson

First Europeans in North America
The voyage made Leif Eriksson – whose byname was ‘the Fortunate’ – the first ever European to set foot on the North American continent. The areas that Leif Eriksson discovered and explored where christened by him Helluland, Markland and finally Vinland. The areas are thought to be Baffin Island, Labrador and Newfoundland respectively.

Viking settlers in Canada
It is indeed in north-western Newfoundland in Canada, more specifically at L'Anse-aux-Meadows, that the oldest known European settlement in the New World has been discovered. More than 2400 Viking objects have been excavated from the area, conclusive proof that the Viking settlers discovered North America long before Columbus.

The statue of Leif Eriksson
The statue of Leif the Fortunate was erected in the year 2000 in conjunction with the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the heroic voyage. It is a copy of similar statues originally erected in Seattle on the American west coast and subsequently in Trondheim in the north of Norway.

The museum in Narsaq houses an exciting permanent exhibition of the early Viking settlers and their way of life.

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