''EirÃks þáttr rauða'' ('The Tale of Erik the Red') is a short story about
Erik the Red
Erik Thorvaldsson (), known as Erik the Red, was a Norse explorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first European settlement in Greenland. Erik most likely earned the epithet "the Red" due to the color o ...
, the conversion of his son,
Leif Erikson
Leif Erikson, also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norsemen, Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental Americas, America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According ...
, to Christianity, and the Norse discovery of
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
by
Bjarni Herjólfsson
Bjarni Herjólfsson ( 10th century) was a Norse- Icelandic explorer who is believed to be the first known European discoverer of the mainland of the Americas, which he sighted in 986.
Life
Bjarni was born to Herjólfr, son of Bárdi Herjólfss ...
.
The tale is preserved in the ''
Flateyjarbók
''Flateyjarbók'' (; "Book of Flatey, Breiðafjörður, Flatey") is an important medieval Iceland, Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name ''Codex Flateyensis''. It was commissioned by Jón Hákonarson and p ...
'', in columns 221–223, where it is interpolated into the
Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason.
It is commonly combined and translated with
Grœnlendinga þáttr (I)
''GrÅ“nlendinga þáttr'' ('The Tale of the Greenlanders') is a short story about the exploration of Vinland in North America by Leif Erikson and later Norse explorers, including Thorvald Eiriksson, Thorfinn Karlsefni, and FreydÃs EirÃksdótt ...
as the ''
Saga of the Greenlanders
''Grœnlendinga saga'' () (spelled ''Grænlendinga saga'' in modern Icelandic and translated into English as the Saga of the Greenlanders) is one of the sagas of Icelanders. Like the ''Saga of Erik the Red'', it is one of the two main sources on t ...
''.
Translations
English translations of ''EirÃks þáttr rauða'' can be found in:
*
Reeves, Arthur Middleton,
The Finding of Wineland the Good: The History of the Icelandic Discovery of America', London: Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, 1890 (pages 60–64, under the sections titled "A Brief History of Eric the Red, Leif the Lucky Baptized, and Biarni goes in quest of Greenland.")
*Royal Danish General Staff, Topographical Department,
Flateyjarbok. The "Flatey book"', Copenhagen, 1893 (pages 221–223)
References
{{Þættir
Þættir
Flateyjarbók
Vinland