Eirik Thorvaldsson (abt. 920 - 1003)

Born about 0920 in Jæren, Rogaland, Norway

Died 1003 at about age 83 in Brattalid, Greenland

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Biography

Eirik Thorvaldsson is Notable.

Eiríkur "rauði" Þorvaldsson, Erik the Red, is best known as one of the earliest settlers of Greenland, and as the father of Leif Erikson.

According to Eiríks saga rauða, Eirik was the son of Thorvald Ásvaldsson, and came from Jæren in Norway.

Erik and his father were banished from Norway for the crime of manslaughter. They sailed West from Norway with their family and settled in Hornstrandir in northwestern Iceland.

In Iceland, Erik married Tjodhild, the daughter of Jörund Úlfsson and Torbjørg Knarrabringa.

The Icelanders later sentenced Erik to exile for three yeahs due to "some killings" he committed around the year 982.

Erik convinced others to settle Greenland with him, starting about 986. The settlement flourished, growing to 5,000 inhabitants spread over a considerable area along Eriksfjord and neighboring fjords. Groups of immigrants escaping overcrowding in Iceland joined the original party. However, one group of immigrants which arrived in 1002 brought with it an epidemic that ravaged the colony, killing many of its leading citizens including Erik himself. Nevertheless, the colony rebounded and survived until the Little Ice Age made the land marginal for European life-styles in the 15th century (shortly before Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas in 1492). Pirate raids, conflict with Inuit moving into the Norse territories, and the colony's abandonment by Norway were other factors in its decline.

Research Notes

The database Íslendingabók contains genealogical information about the inhabitants of Iceland, dating more than 1,200 years back. Íslendingabók is a collaboration project between deCODE genetics, a research company in the field of medical genetics, and Friðrik Skúlason, an anti-Helpvirus software entrepreneur. The project's goal is to trace all known family connections between Icelanders from the time of the settlement of Iceland to present times and register the genealogical information in a database.

In the creation of the Íslendingabók database we have used various sources and both unpublished and published documents. Most of the genealogical information comes from sources such as church records, national censuses, inhabitants registers and other public documents, but in addition to these sources there are chronicles, books of convictions, various publications on genealogy, books about individuals within specific occupations, lists of descendants and ancestral records as well as memorial articles to name but a few.

Birthyear is an estimated date from Íslendingabók. (Thorisdottir-4 11:18, 15 October 2022 (UTC))

Sources

• Landnáma, Ann.I.300, Ann.
• Flóamanna saga
• Eiríks saga rauða
• Íslendingabók, ch. 6
• Morten, Øystein: Eirik Raude i Store norske leksikon på snl.no. Hentet 20. august 2024 fra https://snl.no/Eirik_Raude
• Íslendingabók, database: Byggði Grænland 986, bjó í Brattahlíð á Grænlandi.
• Wikipedia: Erik the Red