These are likely to have been Thorgest's setstokkr, although the sagas are unclear at this point. Erik then went to Breidabolstad and took them. When he had finished his new house, he went back to get them, but they 'could not be obtained'. He asked Thorgest to keep his setstokkr-inherited ornamented beams of significant mystical value, which his father had brought from Norway. Įrik then moved to Brokey island and Öxney (Eyxney) island in Iceland. Because Eyjolf's kinsmen demanded his banishment from Haukadal, the Icelanders later sentenced Erik to exile for three years for killing Eyjolf the Foul around the year 982. So, in retaliation, Erik killed Eyjolf and Holmgang-Hrafn. In turn, Valthjof's friend, Eyjolf the Foul, killed the thralls. The initial confrontation occurred when his thralls (slaves) started a landslide on the neighboring farm belonging to Valthjof. Exileįollowing in his father's footsteps, Erik also found himself exiled for a time. While Erik's wife took heartily to Christianity, even commissioning Greenland's first church, Erik greatly disliked it and stuck to his Norse gods-which, the sagas relate, led Þjódhild to withhold intercourse from her husband. Unlike his son Leif and Leif's wife, who became Christians, Erik remained a follower of Norse paganism. Medieval Icelandic tradition relates that Erik the Red and his wife Þjódhild had four children: a daughter, Freydís, and three sons, the explorer Leif Erikson, Thorvald and Thorstein. Þjódhild was the daughter of Jorundur Ulfsson and Þorbjorg Gilsdottir. Marriage and familyĮrik married Þjódhild Jorundsdottir and moved to Haukadalr (Hawksdale) where he built a farm called Eiríksstaðir.

He sailed west from Norway with his family, including 10-year-old Erik, and settled in Hornstrandir in northwestern Iceland, where he eventually died before 1000 CE. As a method of conflict resolution that subsequently became something of a family custom, Erik the Red's father, Thorvald Asvaldsson, was banished from Norway for manslaughter. He was the son of Thorvald Asvaldson (also spelled Osvaldson). Erik Thorvaldsson was born in Rogaland, Norway in 950 CE.

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