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Freyd\u00eds Eir\u00edksd\u00f3ttir is an unforgettable female character who appears in two sagas written in medieval Iceland, the so-called Vinland sagas. Both recount stories that are a blend of history and legend about the Viking settlement of Iceland and then Greenland, before moving on to narrating the tale of a group of Norse explorers who set off from Greenland.<\/p>\n
Their destination is a newly discovered place called Vinland, rumoured to be a wonderful land with vines and self-sown fields of wheat \u2013 and now suspected to be North America. Scholars agree that the Vikings<\/a> reached that continent in c1000 \u2013 making them the earliest Europeans to do so<\/a> \u2013 and since Freyd\u00eds is supposed to be a young woman at the time of these voyages, she would have been born in approximately the 970s.<\/p>\n Freyd\u00eds is counted among the explorers in both sagas, but each gives a different account of her. In one, she is heavily pregnant and scares off a group of attackers by waving a sword at them. In the other, she manipulative and ruthless, murdering a group of defenceless women in cold blood. Freyd\u00eds behaves in astonishing ways in both stories, but whether presented in a positive or negative light, her steely nature is common to both narratives.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> The more famous of the two sagas is Eirik the Red\u2019s Saga<\/em>, named after Freyd\u00eds\u2019s father, the Viking Eirik \u2018the Red\u2019. According to this saga, Eirik escaped from Norway to Iceland because of the unlawful killings he committed, later moving to Greenland for the same reason.<\/p>\n Freyd\u00eds is introduced as the illegitimate daughter of Eirik by an unnamed mother, whereas her brother Leif Erikson<\/a> \u2013 Leif \u2018the Lucky\u2019\u00a0 \u2013 is the son of Eirik\u2019s wife Thj\u00f3dhild. It was not unheard of for Viking men to hav<\/p>\n e more than one female partner. But as the daughter of someone who was probably a servant or enslaved, this signals that Freyd\u00eds\u2019s social status was lower than her brother\u2019s.<\/p>\n Moreover, Leif is the captain of a Viking ship<\/a> and is said to have spent time in the retinue of King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway, a mark of great distinction. In contrast, Freyd\u00eds receives no description of her personal qualities or achievements.<\/p>\nRead more about Viking women<\/h4>\n
Freyd\u00eds Eir\u00edksd\u00f3ttir in Eirik the Red\u2019s Saga<\/em><\/h2>\n