Which Norse explorer from Iceland led the Viking expansion where Vikings sailed the North Atlantic and reached south to North Africa and Russia?
Leif Erikson Leif Erikson or Leif Ericson (Old Norse: "Leifr Eiríksson" ; Icelandic: "Leifur Eiríksson"; Norwegian: "Leiv Eiriksson" 970 – c. 1020) was a Norse explorer from Iceland. He was the first known European to have discovered continental North America (excluding Greenland), before Christopher Columbus (or possibly Saint Brendan). According to the Sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at Vinland, tentatively identified with the Norse L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland in modern-day Canada. Later archaeological evidence suggests that Vinland may have been the areas around the Gulf of St. Lawrence and that the L'Anse aux Meadows site was a ship repair station.
Settlement of Iceland The settlement of Iceland (Icelandic: "Landnámsöld") is generally believed to have begun in the second half of the 9th century, when Norse settlers migrated across the North Atlantic. The reasons for the migration may be traced to a shortage of arable land in Scandinavia and civil strife brought about by the ambitions of the Norwegian king Harald I of Norway. Unlike the British Isles, Iceland was unsettled land and could be claimed without conflict with existing inhabitants.