Freydís Eiriksdøttír

Many people know that Leif Eiriksson sat foot on the North American continent five hundred years before Columbus. The archeological site at L'Anse aux Meadows at the northern tip of Newfoundland bears witness to the presence of the Norse, who arrived from Greenland around 1000 A.D. and made a settlement. But few know that Leif had a sister, Freydís, who also commanded an expedition from Greenland to Newfoundland.The story of Freydís Eiriksdóttír's journey is told in two Icelandic sagas, along with the travels of her sister-in-law, Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttír. They were two of the many women who criss-crossed the North Atlantic in the Viking Age, sailing in wooden ships with a single woven sail, from the ninth to the eleventh centuries. Freydis and Gudrid were members of the small but intrepid Norse colony in Greenland who were drawn by the promise of adventure and wealth in the new world.