Born: 970 or 980 (circa), Iceland
Died: 1019
Country most active: International
Also known as: Guðríðr víðfǫrla Þorbjarnardóttir, Guðríður víðförla Þorbjarnardóttir
Nancy Marie Brown on Viking Women transcript
This biography was originally published in the World History Encyclopedia and was written by Joshua J. Mark. It is shared in line with the Encyclopedia’s policies under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir (b. c. 970/980 CE) was among the earliest explorers of North America, according to both The Saga of the Greenlanders and Erik the Red’s Saga. She was originally from Iceland but went with her father and Erik the Red to settle Greenland. In Greenland, her husband died and she soon after married the younger brother of Leif Erikson, Thorstein, and accompanied her husband and brother-in-law on their expedition to North America where she explored Vinland with the others in the party.
Thorstein died there and Gudrid returned to Greenland where she married one Thorfinn Karlsefni and, sometime later, returned with him to Vinland to establish a permanent settlement there. Their son, Snorri Thorfinnsson, was the first European child born in North America. Like Freydis, the Gudrid of the sagas is likely rooted in an actual historical figure.