Leif Erikson (Radio Edit)

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Greg Jenner is joined in the 11th century by Dr Eleanor Barraclough and actor Kiell Smith-Bynoe to learn about legendary Viking explorer Leif Erikson. Leif was possibly the first European to reach the Americas, nearly half a millennium before Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean. According to the stories told about him, he was a lucky explorer with a murderer for a father and a fearsome warrior for a sister, who travelled in his longship across the Atlantic to the coast of North America. But we only know about him from two Norse sagas, written in the centuries after his death – so did he exist at all? This episode explores the saga narrative before delving into the archaeological…