Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir, the Viking Woman Who Sailed to America
c. 1000
Around the year 1000, an Icelandic woman named Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir (often written Gudrid) sailed west with her husband, the trader Thorfinn Karlsefni, to Vinland, the Norse name for part of what is now Atlantic Canada. According to the two Icelandic Vinland sagas, written down in the 13th century from older oral tradition, she gave birth there to a son, Snorri, traditionally called the first child of European descent known to be born in the Americas. The family returned after about three years and later farmed at Glaumbær in north Iceland. The sagas say that in later life, after her husband died, she made a pilgrimage to Rome, earning the nickname 'the Far-Traveller'. Archaeology at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland confirms the Norse reached North America around this time, though the sagas' details about Guðríður herself cannot be independently proven.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gudrid_Thorbjarnardóttir
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/did-viking-woman-named-gudrid-really-travel-north-america-1000-years-ago-180977126/
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-vikings-a-memorable-visit-to-america-98090935/
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/vikings-saga-first-nations-canada-north-america