Which Norse explorer from Iceland led the Viking expansion where Vikings sailed the North Atlantic and reached south to North Africa and Russia?
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Leif Erikson Leif Erikson or Leif Ericson (Old Norse: "Leifr Eiríksson" ; Icelandic: "Leifur Eiríksson"; Norwegian: "Leiv Eiriksson" 970 – c. 1020) was a Norse explorer from Iceland. He was the first known European to have discovered continental North America (excluding Greenland), before Christopher Columbus (or possibly Saint Brendan). According to the Sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at Vinland, tentatively identified with the Norse L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland in modern-day Canada. Later archaeological evidence suggests that Vinland may have been the areas around the Gulf of St. Lawrence and that the L'Anse aux Meadows site was a ship repair station.
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Viking expansion Viking expansion is the process by which the Vikings sailed most of the North Atlantic, reaching south to North Africa and east to Russia, Constantinople and the Middle East as looters, traders, colonists and mercenaries. Vikings under Leif Ericsson, the heir to Erik the Red, reached North America and set up a short-lived settlement in present-day L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Longer and more established settlements were formed in Greenland, Iceland, Great Britain and Normandy.
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Great Heathen Army The Great Viking Army or Great Danish Army, known by the Anglo-Saxons as the Great Heathen Army (OE: "mycel hæþen here"), was a coalition of Norse warriors, originating from Denmark (and likely also from Sweden and Norway) who came together under a unified command to invade the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that constituted England in AD 865.
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The Exploration Museum The Exploration Museum (Icelandic: "Könnunarsögusafnið)" is dedicated to the history of human exploration, from the early explorers to the exploration of space. The museum is located in the center of Húsavík in North Iceland, 50 km from the Arctic Circle. The museum was founded in 2011 and formally opened in 2014 by the President of Iceland.
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Vinland sagas The Vinland Sagas are two Icelandic texts written independently of each other in the early thirteenth century; The Saga of the Greenlanders ("Grænlendinga Saga") and The Saga of Eric the Red, ("Eiríks Saga Rauða"). The sagas were written down between 1220 and 1280, much later than the initial time of action 970–1030.
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Naddodd Naddod (Old Norse: "Naddoðr" or "Naddaðr" , literally "studded") was a Norse-Faroese Viking who is credited with the discovery of Iceland. Naddod was also one of the first settlers on the Faroe Islands after Grímur Kamban became the first to settle there around 825. Naddod was born in Agder, which comprises the two Norwegian counties of Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder.
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Olaf Guthfrithson Olaf Guthfrithson (Old Norse: "Óláfr Guðrøðsson" ; ; Old Irish: "Amlaíb mac Gofraid" ; died 941) was a Viking leader who ruled Dublin and Viking Northumbria in the 10th century. He was the son of Gofraid ua Ímair and great-grandson of Ímar, making him one of the Uí Ímair. Olaf succeeded his father as King of Dublin in 934 and succeeded in establishing dominance over the Vikings of Limerick when he captured their king, Amlaíb Cenncairech, in 937. That same year he allied with Constantine II of Scotland in an attempt to reclaim the Kingdom of Northumbria which his father had ruled briefly in 927. The forces of Olaf and Constantine were defeated by the English led by Æthelstan at the Battle of Brunanburh.
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Sigert Patursson Sigert O. Patursson (October 15, 1869 – September 17, 1931) was a Faroese explorer.
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Þorbjörg Lítilvölva Þorbjörg Lítilvölva (Thorbjörg) was a renowned Greenlandic Völva described in the Saga of Erik the Red.
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Bjarni Herjólfsson Bjarni Herjólfsson (fl. 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.
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Gunnbjörn Ulfsson Gunnbjörn Ulfsson (c. 10th century), also Gunnbjörn Ulf-Krakuson, was a Norwegian settler in Iceland. He was reportedly the first European to sight Greenland. A number of modern place names in Greenland commemorates Gunnbjörn, most notably Gunnbjørn Fjeld.
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Viking Beer Viking Beer is an Icelandic brand, brewed by Vifilfell hf. The brewery is located in Akureyri, Iceland, a small town just south of the Arctic Circle.
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Þórðr Kolbeinsson Þórðr Kolbeinsson ("Thordr Kolbeinsson") was an 11th-century Icelandic skald, or poet. He was the court poet of Eiríkr Hákonarson and some 17 stanzas of his poetry on the earl are preserved in the kings' sagas. The following example is from Eiríkr's campaign in England with Canute the Great.
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Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan The geographical chronicle Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan (] ) was published in c. 1157 AD by Níkulás Bergsson (a.k.a. Nikolaos), the abbot of the monastery of Þverá in Eyjafjörður, Northern Iceland.
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Settlement of Iceland The settlement of Iceland (Icelandic: "Landnámsöld") is generally believed to have begun in the second half of the 9th century, when Norse settlers migrated across the North Atlantic. The reasons for the migration may be traced to a shortage of arable land in Scandinavia and civil strife brought about by the ambitions of the Norwegian king Harald I of Norway. Unlike the British Isles, Iceland was unsettled land and could be claimed without conflict with existing inhabitants.
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Sverre of Norway Sverre Sigurdsson (Old Norse: "Sverrir Sigurðarson" ) (c. 1145/1151 – 9 March 1202) was the King of Norway from 1184 to 1202. He married Margareta Eriksdotter, the daughter of the Swedish king Eric IX, by whom he had the daughter Kristina Sverresdotter.
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Freydís Eiríksdóttir Freydís Eiríksdóttir was said to be born around 970 to Erik the Red (as in her patronym) who was associated with the Norse exploration of North America and the finding of Vinland with his son Leif Erikson. The only medieval and primary sources we have of Freydís are the two Vinland sagas; the Grœnlendinga saga and the Eiríks saga rauða. The two sagas offer differing accounts, though in both Freydís appears as a masculine, strong-willed woman who would defy the odds of her society.
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Thorstein the Red Thorstein the Red or Thorstein Olafsson was a viking chieftain who flourished in late ninth-century Scotland. He was born around 850 AD and was the son of Olaf the White, King of Dublin, and Aud the Deep-minded, who was the daughter of Ketil Flatnose. After the death of Olaf, Aud and Thorstein went to live in the Hebrides, then under Ketil's rule.
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Harald Hardrada Harald Sigurdsson (Old Norse: "Haraldr Sigurðarson" ;  1015 – 25 September 1066), given the epithet Hardråde ("harðráði ", roughly translated as "stern counsel" or "hard ruler") in the sagas, was King of Norway (as Harald III) from 1046 to 1066. In addition, he unsuccessfully claimed the Danish throne until 1064 and the English throne in 1066. Prior to becoming king, Harald had spent around fifteen years in exile as a mercenary and military commander in Kievan Rus' and of the Varangian Guard in the Byzantine Empire.
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Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen (20 September [O.S. 9 September] 1778 – 25 January [O.S. 13 January] 1852 ; Russian: Фаддей Фаддеевич Беллинсгаузен , Faddey Faddeyevich Bellinsgauzen), a Russian officer of Baltic German descent in the Imperial Russian Navy, cartographer and explorer, ultimately rose to the rank of Admiral. He participated in the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe and subsequently became a leader of another circumnavigation expedition which discovered the continent of Antarctica.
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Orkneyinga saga The Orkneyinga saga (also called the History of the Earls of Orkney) is an historical narrative of the history of the Orkney Islands, from their capture by the Norwegian king in the ninth century onwards until about 1200. The saga has "no parallel in the social and literary record of Scotland".
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Hrothgar Hrothgar (Old English: "Hrōðgār" ] ; ) was a legendary Danish king living in the early 6th century.