Saga of Eric the Red

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Eiríks saga rauða or the Saga of Eric the Red is a saga on the Norse exploration of North-America.

The different sailing routes to Greenland, Vinland, Helluland and Markland travelled by different characters in the Icelandic Sagas, mainly Saga of Eric the Red and Saga of the Greenlanders. The names are the common modern English versions of the old Norse names.

In the saga, the events that led to Eric the Red's banishment to Greenland are chronicled, as well as Leif Ericson's discovery of Vinland the Good (a place where wheat and grapes grew naturally), after his longship was blown off-course. By geographical details, this place is surmised to be present-day Newfoundland, and is likely the first European discovery of the American mainland, some five centuries before Christopher Columbus's journey.

The saga is preserved in two manuscripts in somewhat different versions; Hauksbók (14th century) and Skálholtsbók (15th century). Modern philologists believe the Skálholtsbók version to be truer to the original. The original saga is thought to have been written in the 13th century.

See also: Vinland sagas, Grœnlendinga saga.