1: Thorvald Arvaldsson of the Øksne-Torer family has just buried his deceased wife and is sailing towards Iceland with his son Erik around the year 967. Erik was born in the year 952 and is around 15 years old.
2: Thorvald settles with Erik at Drangar in an area of northern Iceland after a hard journey across the North Sea.
3 : After Thorvald’s death: Erik the Red settles at Eriksfjord, Iceland’s west coast and marries Tjodhild and has a son Leif in 975.
Her father was a wealthy farmer, so she was a good match.
4: When Leif is 8 years old he is sent to be educated by a German slave and foster father called Thysker for 4 years. He learns to read and write runes, speak Irish and Russian. He learns the sagas, becomes a skilled trader and a skilled warrior.
4a: Erik the Red gets into a fight with a friend about some high-seat supports that the friend had borrowed from Erik and would not return. Erik takes them by force and kills the friend’s two sons when they want to defend the supports and the home.
5 : Erik the Red takes his son Leif to the decision of the case at the Thing. Here Erik is sentenced to be an outlaw for 3 years for the murders and violence against neighbors.
6 : Erik flees west with family and slaves and finds a fertile land. A Greenland that is warmer than today. Good grazing opportunities for the animals, lots of fish, reindeer, bears and birds. He settles and establishes the western settlement of Brattahlid. He called the new land Greenland to attract more settlers. More families follow. Not all make it across the foaming sea.
7 : Leif is sent on a trading trip to Scotland and then to King Olav in Norway. Here he was to try to restore Thorvald’s honor with the king. He brought many beautiful gifts. King Olav had Leif and all his men converted to Christianity. On his way to Scotland, Leif gets caught in a storm and lands on the Hebrides. Here he meets a beautiful young woman with whom he falls in love. They agree that she will come to Greenland.
7a: Leif brings a priest back to Greenland with a message from King Olav to Christianize Greenland and at the same time pay taxes to Norway. Erik is not at all happy with Olav’s order. In his anger, he calls upon his gods and makes a ritual sacrifice.
Leif’s wife and son come from the Hebrides.
8 : Erik the Red would not be baptized, but Tjodhild — his wife (Leif’s mother) — was baptized and she persuaded Erik to build a church at Brattahlid. In some sagas it is mentioned that this was the condition for gaining access to the marriage bed again.
9 : After some time, Erik organizes an expedition to go west to find the unexplored land that a visiting Viking has seen but not landed on. Erik also wants to subjugate this area as he has done with Greenland. On the way to the packed, ready-to-go boat, Erik stumbles and falls off his horse. He then decides that it is Leif who will go west.
10: Leif sets off with his brother and sister and a crew of 34 men. He finds a stone-covered beach, which he names Helluland. Today known as Baffinland. They continue south along the coast. They see land covered with grass and Leif calls it Markland. They continue through a channel and dock in a shallow bay. They find plenty of salmon, lush meadows covered with thick grass and behind them dense forests. Leif settles for a while on New Foundland (Lance of Meadows). He builds houses and lives there. One day they miss Thyrker (his old teacher). They find him drunk. He has found grapes, which he knows from his homeland. Vinland has been found.
11: Erik sails home after a while (he probably has wood to take home to the wood-poor Greenland). He rescues some shipwrecked people on an skerry and is therefore nicknamed “the lucky one” or “the lucky one”. Erik the Red died in 1010 and Leif the Happy died in 1020.