talesoffjords:

Erik the Red, Greenland and Iceland:

Erik the Red was an icelandic born viking explorer, who found Greenland and settled the huge island.
At first, Norwegians had explored and settled Iceland. This name of course comes from the many glaciers and icy beaches, even though the area were way warmer than today, and was covered in 80% forests compared to the 10% today.

Erik the Red found Greenland with a crew, sailed back to Iceland to gain more settlers for the new land. He didn’t succeed so he had to lie about it, calling it Greenland for making it sound more appealing even though it was colder and further north than Iceland.

Erik then found several cities, and one of theese (Ruins pictured) stood on Greenland till 1500 totally isolated from the rest of Europe. Greenland was rediscovered by Danish missionaries in the 1700’s.

(Accidentally posted this on my private blog, re-posting it here.)