Talk:Erik the Red
From Academic Kids
Does anyone have any details of the precise incident for which Eric was banished? This is important, because Eric the Red is known as the 'exiled murderer who was the son of an exiled murderer'. --Anon
I have the Penguin Classics translation of the Vinland sagas. Here is the text from Eirik's saga. The Saga of the Greenlanders shows the same facts but somewhat less extensive.
- Eiriks's slaves started a landslide that destroyed the farm of a man called Valthjof, at Valthjofstead; so Eyjolf Saur, one of Valthjof's kinsmen, killed the slaves at Skeidsbrekkur, above Vatnshorn. For this, Eirik killed Eyjolf Saur; he als killed Hrafn the Dueller, at Leikskalar. Geirstein and Odd of Jorvi, who were Eyjolf's kinsmen, took action over his killing, and Eirik was banished from Haukadale.
- Eirik then took possession of Brok Island and Oxen Island, and spent the first winter at Tradir, in South Island. He lent his bench-boards to Thorgest of Breidabolstead. After that, Eirik moved to Oxen Island, and made his home at Eirikstead. He then asked for his bench-boards back, but they were not returned; so Eirik went to Breidabolstead and seized them. Thorgest pursued him, and they fought a battle near the farmstead at Drangar. Two of Thorgest's sons and several other men were killed there.
- After this, both Eirik and Thorgest maintained a force of fighting-men at home. Eirik was supported by Styr Thorgrimsson, Eyjolf of Svin Island, Thorbjorn Vifilsson, and the sons of Thorbrand of Alptafjord; Thorgest was supported by Thorgeir of Hitardale, Aslak of Langadale and his son Illugi, and the sons of Thord Gellir.
- Eirik and his men were sentenced to outlawry at the Thorsness assembly. (...)
After this, the story goes on to tell that Eirik decides to look for 'Gunnbjarnar Skerries', a land found earlier in the west.
The sagas are much less clear on what happened in Norway. They just say that Eirik's father and Eirik "left their home in Jaederen, in Norway, because of some killings".
Red Dragon?
The part that says that Eystribyggð means "Red Dragon" in old swedish seems really strange to me. I don't know Old Swedish, but in Norwegian the names of the two villages sound more like "Eystribyggð=Østerbygd=East Village" and "Vestribyggð=Vesterbygd=West Village" to me. user:Poccil, this phrase is a rather recent addition by you, do you have any basis for it?(Note left on Poccil's talk page).--MaxMad 09:34, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Spelling
In order to comply with the "Use Common Names" policy, this aricle should be moved to Eric the Red, because that name is more common. [1] (http://www.googlefight.com/cgi-bin/compare.pl?q1=%22Erik+the+Red%22&q2=%22Eric+the+Red%22&B1=Make+a+fight%21&compare=1&langue=us) Nohat 20:44, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Eirik Raude
There is also a movable and extremely resistant drilling platform that goes by the name of Eirik Raude. Shouldn't that be mentioned, or a new article created?
--Cctoide 21:50, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)
