Thorvin Eriksson

Thorvin Eriksson was the son of Erik the Red and brother of Leif Eriksson. According to the sagas he was part of an expedition for the exploration of Vinland. Thorvald's brother Leif never returned to Vinland, but soon after their voyage back to Greenland, he returned with supplies and 30 men. They set up temporary winter camps and scouted the area for a possible settlement. Some sources say that he was enchanted with North America and wanted to live there and set up a permanent colony.

The Greenlander's Saga describes Thorvin finding nine Native Americans (or "Skraelings" as the Vikings called them) sleeping on a riverbank near their canoe. They were probably the ancestors of today's Labrodor Natives, the Innu, or maybe the Beothuk or even the Inuit; no one knows for sure. While the Natives slept under skin-covered boats, the Vikings, with superior iron weaponry and armor, attacked and killed all the natives save one. It was the first recorded contact between Europeans and the Natives of North America.

The next morning, Thorvin heard a voice telling him to flee as several dozen Skraeling archers fired at them from boats on the river. The Norsemen put up the canoe they had captured as a shield, and eventually the Skraelings left as quickly as they had appeared. Thorvald quickly found that he had been shot in the armpit, a wound which later killed him. [ Ferguson, Will: "Canadian History for Dummies" (page 36) ] His last words touched on irony: "I seemed to have hit truth when I said I wanted to spend the rest of my days here." His Viking comrades buried him at the place they made landfall, and erected a cross at his head and another at his feet, for Thorvin was Christian.

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