Leif was the son of Erik the Red and his wife Thjodhild (Old Norse: Þjóðhildur), and, through his paternal line, the grandson of Thorvald Ásvaldsson.

[15] Though his birthplace is not accounted for in the sagas,[16] it is likely he was born in Iceland,[10] where his parents met[17]—probably somewhere on the edge of Breiðafjörður, and possibly at the farm Haukadal, where his mother's family was based.

[22][23] The only two known strictly historical mentions of Vinland are found in the work of Adam of Bremen c. 1075 and in the Book of Icelanders, compiled c. 1122 by Ari the Wise.

Afterwards, they loaded their ship with samples of these newly-found goods and sailed east to Greenland, rescuing a group of shipwrecked sailors along the way.

Instead Bjarni Herjólfsson and his crew—on a voyage from Iceland to Greenland—were overtaken by wind and fog, missed the southern tip of Greenland, and encountered an unknown coast.

[30][31] His father Erik was set to join him but dropped out after he fell from his horse on his way to the ship, an incident he interpreted as a bad omen.

[44][45] 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 and waypoint for voyages there.

That does not necessarily contradict the identification of L'Anse aux Meadows as Leifsbudir[45][46] since the two sagas appear to describe Vinland as a wider region which included several settlements.

[49] It was on this journey to Norway that the Saga of Erik the Red states that Leif's ship was driven to the Hebrides, where he and his crew were forced to remain for much of the summer, awaiting favorable winds.

[1] Leif is, in all likelihood, a historical figure who remains the first known European to set foot in continental North America,[58] but other details of his life vary and are a subject of debate.

It has been suggested by several scholars that both Leif's sister, Freydís, and his foster father, Tyrker, are works of fiction, as are their roles in the Vinland sagas.

[60][31] Leif's successful expedition in Vinland encouraged other Norsemen to also make the journey, and the Norse became the first Europeans to colonize the area.

In the end there were no permanent Norse settlements, although sporadic voyages at least to Markland for forages, timber and trade possibly lasted for centuries.

[note 2] It has been suggested that the knowledge of Vinland might have been maintained in European seaports in the 15th century, and that Christopher Columbus, who claimed in a letter to have visited Iceland in 1477, could have heard stories of it.

[63] While Leif had no contact with the Indigenous peoples of Vinland,[64][65] later Norse explorers did, referring to them as skrælingi, an archaic term for "wretches".

[66] According to the Saga of Erik the Red, the first encounter was made during a colonizing expedition led by Thorfinn Karlsefni, which also included Leif's brother Thorvald.

[64] He is famously known for pulling the arrow out, and poetically reciting the phrase, "This is a rich country we have found; there is plenty of fat around my entrails", upon which he dies.

[68] A statue was also erected in Chicago in 1901, having been originally commissioned for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition to coincide with the arrival of the reconstructed Viking ship from Bergen, Norway.

[18] Another work of art made for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the painting Leiv Eirikson Discovering America by Christian Krohg, was in the possession of a Leif Erikson Memorial Association in Chicago before being given back to the National Gallery of Norway in 1900.

[18] In 1924, a party of four consisting of a Swede, an Englishman, and two Americans attempted to emulate Leif's voyage in an eponymous 40-foot vessel but were lost after reaching the west coast of Greenland.

[79] In the subsequent decades, a number of unsuccessful attempts were made to pass legislation requesting Leif Erikson Day be proclaimed annually by the president.

[80] Proponents eventually succeeded, when, in 1964, the Congress authorized and requested the president to proclaim 9 October of each year as "Leif Erikson Day".