Name __________________________ Date _________________
Viking Notes
Use the information
from the websites to fill in the blanks.
1. Eric the Red was a __________________ explorer. He was the first European in _____________________. Eric the Red sailed from ________________ to ___________________. The Vikings sailed in long ______________ ships called _________________. These ships had a large _____________ sail on a central ________________.
2. Eric the Red was born in _____________________, but his family settled in Iceland. Eric the Red was later __________________ from Iceland for three years for murder.
3. During his banishment, Eric decided to sail to islands that lay to the _______________ of Iceland. He explored the area now known as ____________________.
4. When Eric’s banishment ended he returned to _________________. He called the new land Greenland, even though it was covered in ____________. He called the area Greenland to make it sound nicer and encourage ___________________.
5. Eric the Red and some settlers settled in Greenland in ______________. They did well for a while and then experienced unusually ____________ weather. Some settlers _________________ to Iceland. (The last recorded voyage between Iceland and Greenland was in ____________.) The rest of the settlers _________________. They may have been _________________ by Inuit people or they died from sickness and ___________________.
6. Eric the Red had a son, who was also a Viking explorer, named ___________________________. Leif was probably the first ___________________ to sail to _________________________. He sailed west from Greenland and landed in what is today called Newfoundland, which he called _________________ because it was covered with grape vines. Leif and his crew abandoned the settlement and returned to _____________________.
Look at the maps of Eric the Red’s route and of Leif Eriksson’s route.
1. Were the two explorers sailing north or south of the equator? __________________
2. Is Iceland or Greenland located on the Arctic Circle? ______________________
3. Name the ocean in which Iceland is located _______________________
4. Were these maps that Eric the Red and Leif Ericsson actually used? Why or why not? _________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________