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Icelandic Explorer

Bjarni Herjólfsson was probably the first European to see North America. Blown offcourse during a voyage from Iceland to Greenland, he saw the lands that Leif Eríksson would later explore and that Thorfinn Karlsefni would later try to colonize.

Bjarni was the son of Herjolf Bardarson the Younger, the son of Bard Herjolfsson, the son of Herjolf Bardarson the Elder. The family lived at the far western end of Reykjaness peninsula in southwestern Iceland on land granted to the Herjolf the Elder in the late ninth century by Ingólfur Arnarson, the original settler of Iceland. Like most Icelanders of the time, they made their living by farming, fishing, and raiding. Bjarni became a successful merchant.

About 900, Gunnbjorn Ulfsson, a Norwegian-born Icelander, discovered what was later called Greenland, but nothing resulted from this discovery. The Gunnbjarnar Skerries...