Erik the Red: life of the week

Hello and welcome to Life of the Week, where leading historians delve into the lives of some of history's most intriguing and significant figures, from ancient Egyptian pharaohs and medieval warriors to daring 20th-century spies. Explorer, settler, leader and murderer. Leaving a trail of blood behind him, Eric the Red was the first European to land on Greenland. And from there his family would play a crucial role in the Norse world as the Viking Age drew to a close. Historian, broadcaster and writer Elmer Barraclough joined James Osborne to examine Eric's turbulent life and legacy.

Eleanor, could you just give us the top line on Eric the Red? Why do we remember him? Well, he's got a good name for a start, right? Eric the Red, it's memorable, but the Vikings are very good at memorable nicknames. But the other thing is because what he does is he essentially settles a whole country, he settles Greenland from Iceland at the end of the 10th century.

So he's memorable for that. And we have sagas. where he plays a very prominent role. So he's he's he's an interesting character all around, but definitely a complicated character too. I described him as a Viking.

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