Freydís Eiríksdóttir

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Freydís Eiríksdóttir was a Viking woman who sailed to Vínland in the early 11th century. She was an illegitimate daughter of Erik the Red and half sister to Leifur Eiríksson.

The Saga of the Greenlanders and Erik's Saga (both written in Iceland) differ on the details of Freydís Eiríksdóttir. What is clear is that Freydís participated in two voyages to Vinland.

The first was as a member of Þorfinnur Karlsefni Þórðarson's expedition. The Saga of Eric the Red tells that during that expedition, which lasted three years, she was pregnant. The Vikings had a disagreement with the natives of Vinland, whom they called Skraelings, over trade goods. The Vikings had given them milk and dairy products and the natives had never eaten dairy products before (which caused lactose intolerance in the adults of the community). Thinking that the Vikings had tried to poison them, the natives attacked, at which time Freydís was late in her pregnancy. Outnumbered, the Vikings ran for their ships. As they approached the beach, Freydís tripped and fell, but the men continued on to their ships which were in sight. She was left to fend for herself. She picked up a dropped sword and stood to face the attackers. According to the account of the incident, she bared her breasts, beat her chest with her sword, and screamed a battle cry, ready to fight them. It is said that the natives stopped in their tracks upon seeing this, turned and ran in the opposite direction out of fright that a pregnant woman of their enemy would face them in that manner. A few weeks later, she gave birth to a son, the first child of European origin born in North America. He was possibly named Snorri Þorfinnsson, although according to other accounts, his mother was Gudridr Thorbjörnsdottir. Freydís is not mentioned in the Greenlanders' saga in connection with this expedition.

The second expedition was about a year later. Freydís co-sponsored it with Icelandic brothers Helgi and Finnbogi and they left Greenland in two ships. According to the Greenlanders' saga, the alliance dissolved upon arrival in Vínland, and Helgi and Finnbogi built their own separate settlement there. Following a meeting in their camp, Freydís told her husband that she had been raped there, and asked him to avenge her. Þorvarður took his men to the camp and killed the men there; the women survived because by Viking custom it was dishonorable for a man to harm unarmed women (of their own culture, foreigners were free game). Freydís, however, was not satisfied, and killed the women with an axe.

Note: the following is from unconfirmed sources, and is therefore questionable.

Following the incident Þorvarður and Freydís returned to Greenland, and were exiled on account of their actions in Vínland.

Freydís was said to have worn men's clothes because she wanted to show courage (unconfirmed).

[edit] Popular culture references

Nickelodeon game show Legends of the Hidden Temple - in one episode, the artifact that teams competed to retrieve from the temple was The Milkbucket of Freydís.

Jackie French's 2005 children's fiction book They Came on Viking Ships is about young girl captured by Vikings and transported to Vinland with Freydís Eiríksdóttir.