Thorvald Asvaldsson

This is an Icelandic name. The last name is a patronymic, not a family name; this person is properly referred to by the given name Thorvald.

Thorvald Asvaldsson (Old Norse: Þórvaldr Ásvaldsson) was the father of the colonizer of Greenland, Erik the Red, and grandfather of Leif Ericson, who visited North America centuries before Christopher Columbus. Thorvald's father was Ásvald Ulfsson, whose father was Ulf Oxen-Thorisson, whose father was Oxen-Thorir, brother of Naddodd, discoverer of Iceland.

Thorvald Ásvaldsson was born in Norway. He was exiled from Norway c. 960, during the reign of King Harald Fairhair, for the crime manslaughter. He left with his son Erik to northwest Iceland, where he died before 980.

References

Thrapp, Dan L. Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography: In Three Volumes. University of Nebraska Press. 1991. p 456.

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