Eric the Red, the founder of a Norse settlement in Greenland. He was born in Norway about 950. According to the current account, tradition rather than history, he fled from Norway to Iceland on a charge of murder. He was driven from Iceland for a similar outrage. He found a sheltered harbor in Greenland, but returned after three years to Iceland, whence he led a band of his followers to Greenland and founded a permanent settlement about 985. His son Leif Ericson introduced Christianity. The colony existed about 400 years, and was then wiped out by the Black Death.