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50 free Leif Erikson trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Leif Erikson trivia quiz covers the Norse explorer who reached continental North America roughly five centuries before Columbus. The easy questions cover his famous father, the land he named for its wild grapes, the settlement his family founded in Greenland and the nickname he earned on the way home. From there the quiz moves through the two Vinland sagas: the ship he bought from Bjarni Herjolfsson, the crew of thirty-five, the lands he named Helluland and Markland, the foster father who found the vines, and the king who sent him home as a missionary. The hard end covers the archaeology and the afterlife: Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad at L'Anse aux Meadows, the tree-ring date of 1021, the butternuts that prove the Norse sailed further south, Adam of Bremen's passing mention, the Boston statue of 1887, President Coolidge at the Minnesota State Fair and why Leif Erikson Day falls on 9 October. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for Leif Erikson, Erik the Red, Vinland and L'Anse aux Meadows before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our Vikings and Norse mythology quizzes are natural next stops.
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Q 01Leif Erikson is thought to have been the first European to set foot on which continent?
North America
He got there roughly half a millennium before Christopher Columbus.
Q 02How did Leif Erikson's father, Erik the Red, die around 1003?
In a winter epidemic
Immigrants who arrived in 1002 brought the disease that killed many of the colony's leading citizens.
Q 03By what nickname is Erikson also known?
Leif the Lucky
He earned it on the voyage home from Vinland.
Q 04According to the sagas, Leif Erikson named the land where his crew found grapevines after which drink?
Wine
Vinland means Wineland, though some scholars argue the root vin- meant pasture or meadow.
Q 05In which modern country is L'Anse aux Meadows, the Norse site often linked to Leif Erikson's settlement?
Canada
It sits at the northern tip of Newfoundland and was occupied about 1,000 years ago.
Q 06On which family estate in Greenland's Eastern Settlement did Leif Erikson grow up?
Brattahlid
Erik built it near present-day Narsarsuaq after his exile from Iceland.
Q 07Leif Erikson's paternal grandfather was banished from Norway for what crime?
Manslaughter
The family went into exile in Iceland, and Erik the Red was later banished from Iceland too.
Q 08How many known sons did Leif Erikson have?
Two
Thorgils was born abroad and, when sent to Greenland, was not popular; Thorkell succeeded Leif as chieftain.
Q 09Which of Leif Erikson's siblings was a sister?
Freydis
Some scholars suspect she and the foster father are literary inventions.
Q 10Which of Erik the Red's thralls did Leif Erikson later call his foster father?
Tyrker
In the Saga of the Greenlanders it is this same man who discovers the vines and grapes.
Q 11Which two sagas from around 1200 contain the main accounts of Leif Erikson's voyages?
The Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders
They are read as literature more than history, and their accounts sometimes conflict.
Q 12In the Saga of Erik the Red, whom did Leif rescue on the way back east after finding Vinland?
A group of shipwrecked sailors
That rescue, plus converting Norse Greenland to Christianity, earned him his nickname.
Q 13At whose court did Leif Erikson convert to Christianity?
Q 21Besides grapes, what cargo did Leif bring back to Greenland from Vinland in the spring?
Timber
Wood was scarce in Greenland, which is why later voyages kept going back to Markland for it.
Q 22How many times did Leif Erikson return to Vinland after his first voyage?
Never
Others from Greenland and Iceland, including Thorfinn Karlsefni, made the later trips.
Q 23Which Norwegian husband-and-wife team identified the Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows in the early 1960s?
Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad
They ran seven excavation seasons between 1961 and 1968 and found eight buildings, perhaps nine.
Olaf Tryggvason
The Norwegian king then commissioned Leif to convert the settlers back home in Greenland.
Q 14According to the Saga of the Greenlanders, who first sighted the unknown coast after being blown past Greenland?
Bjarni Herjolfsson
Bjarni did not go ashore; roughly 15 years later Leif bought his ship and retraced the route in reverse.
Q 15How many men did Leif Erikson gather as crew for his expedition in the Saga of the Greenlanders?
Thirty-five
He bought Bjarni's ship and followed Bjarni's route in reverse.
Q 16Why, according to the saga, did Erik the Red drop out of Leif's expedition just before it sailed?
He fell from his horse on the way to the ship
The fall was read as a bad omen, so the father stayed home.
Q 17What name did Leif Erikson give the first rocky, desolate land he reached, possibly Baffin Island?
Helluland
The name means Flat-Rock Land.
Q 18Markland, the second place Leif named, has a name meaning what?
Forest Land
It is often placed near Cape Porcupine in Labrador; later Norse voyages went back there for wood and trade.
Q 19What was Leif's small Vinland settlement called by later visitors from Greenland?
Leifsbudir
The name means Leif's Booths; the Ingstads suggested L'Anse aux Meadows could be the same place.
Q 20Which fish was plentiful in the mild, verdant land where Leif decided to winter?
Salmon
He sent out exploring parties from the camp as winter approached.
Q 24A 2021 study of tree rings pinpointed which year for Norse activity at L'Anse aux Meadows?
1021
The date was fixed using a known spike in atmospheric carbon-14 from the year 993.
Q 25Which nut found at L'Anse aux Meadows shows the Norse went further south than Newfoundland?
Butternut
They do not grow naturally north of New Brunswick, which is also grape country.
Q 26The Norse buildings at L'Anse aux Meadows were constructed of what material over a wooden frame?
Sod
Over 800 Norse objects were found, including evidence of iron production in a smithy.
Q 27In which year did UNESCO make L'Anse aux Meadows a World Heritage Site?
1978
It had already been a National Historic Site for ten years.
Q 28Which local resident led Helge Ingstad to the overgrown mounds at L'Anse aux Meadows in 1960?
George Decker
He lived in the fishing hamlet beside the site.
Q 29Which medieval chronicler wrote the oldest generally accepted surviving mention of Vinland, around 1075?
Adam of Bremen
He explained the name by saying grapevines grew there by themselves.
Q 30Leif Erikson fell in love with a noblewoman named Thorgunna when his ship was driven to which islands?
The Hebrides
She bore his son Thorgils but stayed behind because Leif would not take her without her family's permission.