Eric was a seven year old who was abducted by a couple and held for ransom.
In 982 the Norwegian Eric the Red sailed from Iceland to find the land which GunnbjOrn had seen, and he spent three years on its south-western coasts exploring the country.
It may be noticed that the Flatey Book narrative gives a somewhat different but much slighter account of Thorfinn's expedition, making both Thorvald Ericsson and Freydis undertake separate Vinland ventures - one before, the other after, Karlsefni's enterprise - Thorvald being killed on his (as in Red Eric Saga, but with divergent details), and Freydis on her committing atrocities upon her comrades, the Icelanders Helgi and Finnbogi, which are unnoticed in Red Eric. The latter, however, in its mention of the domestic broils which arose over the women of the colony in its third winter, points to something which may have been the germ of the highly elaborated Freydis story in Flatey.
It was one of the five Wendish towns whose alliance extorted from King Eric of Norway a favourable commercial treaty in 1284-1285; and in the 14th century it was second only to Lubeck in the Hanseatic League.
In the end of the 9th century Iceland was colonized from Norway; and about 985 the intrepid viking, Eric the Red, discovered Greenland, and induced some of his Icelandic countrymen to settle on its inhospitable shores.