Lief Erikson Day

09 Oct 2022
by Samuel Taylor

Today, the 9th of October, is Lief Erikson Day, a celebration of the true first European explorer of North America.

Lief the Lucky is thought to have been a Viking explorer who set foot in North America, around about half a century before Christopher Columbus. Assumed to have been born in Iceland in a Norwegian colony, as his deeds of discovering "Vinland" (somewhere on the northern east coast of Canada) are recorded in Icelandic sagas, and a couple other medieval texts. (Adam of Bremen's work and the Book of Icelanders)


As for primary archaeological evidence, their settlement of Leifsbudir is thought to be a Norse site called L'Anse aux Meadows, found at the tip of Newfoundland, Canada.

The day itself was chosen not as it coincided with any day in Leif's life, but rather because the first Norwegian migrant ship, the Restauration, arrived on the October 9th in 1825.

Happy Lief Erikson Day!