Bjarni Herjólfsson (
fl.Floruit is a verb meaning 'flourished', which denotes the period of time during which a person, school, movement or even species was active or flourishing...
10th century) was a Norwegian explorer who is the first known
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an discoverer of the mainland of the
AmericasThe Americas, or America, are lands in the Western hemisphere or New World, comprising the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. America may be ambiguous in English, as it is more commonly used to refer to the United States of America...
, which he sighted in 986.
Bjarni was born to Herjulf, whose father was Bard Herjólfsson, and Thorgerd in
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
. Bjarni's home country was
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
, though he visited his father every summer in Iceland.
Bjarni is believed to be the first European to see North America.
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Bjarni Herjólfsson (
fl.Floruit is a verb meaning 'flourished', which denotes the period of time during which a person, school, movement or even species was active or flourishing...
10th century) was a Norwegian explorer who is the first known
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an discoverer of the mainland of the
AmericasThe Americas, or America, are lands in the Western hemisphere or New World, comprising the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. America may be ambiguous in English, as it is more commonly used to refer to the United States of America...
, which he sighted in 986.
Life
Bjarni was born to Herjulf, whose father was Bard Herjólfsson, and Thorgerd in
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
. Bjarni's home country was
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
, though he visited his father every summer in Iceland.
Discovery of America
Bjarni is believed to be the first European to see North America. The
Grœnlendinga sagaThe Grœnlendinga saga is an Icelandic saga. Along with Eiríks saga rauða it is one of the two main literary sources of information for the Norse exploration of North America. It relates the colonization of Greenland by Erik the Red and his followers...
('Greenlanders Saga') tells that he was sailing from Iceland to visit his parents as usual, except he came home and his father had gone with Eric the Red to Greenland. So he took his crew and set off to find him.. But in that summer of 985 or 986, Bjarni was blown off course by a storm with no map or compass. He saw a piece of land that was not Greenland. It was covered with trees and mountains and although his crew begged him to, he refused to stop and look around. Since no one in his crew had been to Greenland before, they had to search for it. Although he managed to regain his course, he reported seeing low-lying hills covered with forests some distance farther to the west. The land looked hospitable, but Bjarni was eager to reach Greenland to see his parents and did not land and explore the new lands. He reported his findings both in Greenland and in Norway, but no one at the time seems to have shown interest in them.
Legacy for Leif
Ten years later, however,
Leif EricsonLeif Ericson was a Norse explorer who is currently regarded as the first European to land in North America 492 years before Christopher Columbus...
(Leifur Eiríksson) took Bjarni's claims more seriously. He bought the ship that Bjarni had used for the voyage, hired a crew of 35 people and set out to find the land. The result is thought to be the
VikingA Viking is one of the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far...
settlement at
L'Anse aux MeadowsL'Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Discovered in 1960, it is the only known site of a Norse village in North America outside of Greenland...
in
NewfoundlandNewfoundland and Labrador is a province of Canada on the country's Atlantic coast in northeastern North America. This easternmost Canadian province comprises two main parts: the island of Newfoundland off the country's eastern coast, and Labrador on the mainland to the northwest of the island.A...
. This is the first known attempt at settlement by Europeans on the mainland of the Americas. (The North American island of Greenland was settled much earlier.)