User:TheBigGorilla/Erik the Red

= Article Draft - Erik the Red =

Quick Summary of Changes (so far):
Disclaimer: Not all edits may be listed since they could be very minor word changes, as well as it is too annoying to switch between tabs and list every single minor edit. (All crossed out changes below are specific changes that I have made to the article).

-Expanded/Edited upon "Early Life" section

-Expanded/Edited upon "Lead Paragraph"

-Expanded/Edited beginning paragraph in the "Discoveries" section + Greenland sub-section

-Revamped, and added upon the "Exile" section of the article and made it much more clear what happened leading up to Erik's exile

-Edited areas where text could be seen as biased as to make article a bit more neutral

-Removed two references as it was the same reference found in "Reference #3", and replaced citations with reference #3 citation

-Added images to article, 3 in total, Statue of Erik the Red photo, Church Reconstruction photo, and Saga excerpt image towards the end

-Updated existing citation of "The Saga of Erik the Red" english translation, made a few "copies" specifying information from specific chapters in the Saga, same with the "Grænlendinga saga". Doing multiple citations of these primary sources so one doesn't have to dig through all of them to find the information. Each reference is the same, just with a different chapter # where the specified information is found.

-Have added 6 new references so far: "The Vikings" novel from Neil Oliver, SETR Eng. Translation (Ch.2), SETR Eng. Translation (Ch.5), SOTG Ice. Translation (Ch.2), SOTG Ice. Translation (Ch.4), and SOTG Ice. Translation (Ch.1); of which all are used a few times throughout the article.

-Did not use "The Viking Heart" or "The North Atlantic Saga" sources. Nothing noteworthy to add from TVH as all info has been included in the article with citations, and from TNAS, regarding the discrepancy that I noticed, it must've been a translation error. Erik first murders a man for killing his slaves after his slaves caused a landslide, Erik moves, then while building a new home the "wallboards" as said in TNAS, are actually the ornamental beams (setstokkr) that Erik could not get back after building his house and so he stole them back and killed the man whom he gave them to for storage in an ensuing fight. Read through the Saga, nothing mentioned of a cow either. So it was a string of murders, 1st for slaves being killed, second murders over ornamental beams. TNAS makes no mention of the slaves killings, just the ornamental beams being the primary result of Erik's murders in Iceland. I see no reason to add these sources as they bring nothing that isn't already known.

Lead Section Edits (Edits are in Bold):
 (Original):  "Erik Thorvaldsson (c. 950), known as Erik the Red, was a Norse explorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first European settlement in Greenland. He most likely earned the epithet "the Red" due to the color of his hair and beard. According to Icelandic sagas, he was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, Norway, as the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson. One of Erik's sons was the well-known Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson."

 (Edits): Erik Thorvaldsson (c. 950), known as Erik the Red, was a Norse explorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first European settlement in Greenland. Erik most likely earned the epithet "the Red" due to the color of his hair and beard. According to Icelandic sagas, Erik was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, Norway, as the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson'''; to which Thorvald would be later banished from Norway, and would sail west to Iceland with Erik and his family. (Added citation) During Erik's life in Iceland, he married Þjódhild Jorundsdottir and would have four children, with one of Erik's sons being''' the well-known Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson. Around the year of 982 Erik was exiled from Iceland for three years, to which Erik would spend his time exploring Greenland, and eventually founding the first European settlement on the island.

Article Neutrality Edits (Edits are in Bold):
 (Original):  "Erik Thorvaldsson was born in Rogaland, Norway in 950 CE. He was the son of Thorvald Asvaldson (also spelled Osvaldson). As a method of conflict resolution that subsequently became something of a family custom, Thorvald was banished from Norway for manslaughter."

 (Edits):  Erik Thorvaldsson was born in Rogaland, Norway in 950 CE. He was the son of Thorvald Asvaldson (also spelled Osvaldson). Thorvald would later be banished from Norway for committing acts of manslaughter. (Added SETR Citation)

 (Original):  "Even though popular history credits Erik as the first European person to discover Greenland, the Icelandic sagas suggest that earlier Norsemen discovered and tried to settle it before him."

 (Edits):  It has been a common mistake for popular history to occasionally credit Erik as being the first European to discover Greenland, however, Icelandic sagas suggest that earlier Norsemen discovered and attempted to settle it before him.

 (Original):  "Erik deliberately gave the land a more appealing name than "Iceland" in order to lure potential settlers. He explained, "people would be attracted to go there if it had a favorable name"."

 (Edits):  Erik purposefully gave the land a more appealing name than "Iceland" in order to convince potential settlers as he explained, "people would be attracted to go there if it had a favorable name".

Bullet Point List of Possible Minor Changes:
-Lead Section Changes: The lead section would benefit from including a brief rundown of the articles main sections, such as Early Life (name, epithet speculation, birthplace), brief rundown of his marriage and children (speak on Leif Erikson), Erik's exile from Iceland leading into achievement of being the first man to colonize Greenland, and date of death.

-Article Neutrality: Examples of sentences that could be seen in a biased tone: “As a method of conflict resolution that subsequently became something of a family custom,”, “Even though popular history credits”, “Erik deliberately”, "which ended in disaster". These sentences may need a change of wording choice.

-Fact check citations/evidence through using "The Saga of Erik the Red" English translation and add extra citations throughout.

-Add extra images (Found here) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Erik_the_Red.

Specific Section Changes (From Article Evaluation Assignment):
-“While Erik's wife took heartily to Christianity, even commissioning Greenland's first church, Erik greatly disliked it and stuck to his Norse gods—which, the sagas relate, led Þjódhild to withhold intercourse from her husband.[ additional citation(s) needed]”

(This information is actually explicitly stated in Chapter 5, Paragraph 7 of the SETR, add additional citation to original Saga, add chapter # in citation).

-''“These are likely to have been Thorgest's setstokkr, although the sagas are unclear at this point. Thorgest gave chase, and in the ensuing fight Erik slew both Thorgest's sons and "a few other men.”''

(Unclear speculation? Look over Saga translation and add citation if needed, change sentence wording).

 -“Erik later died in an epidemic that killed many of the colonists in the winter after his son's departure.” 

(Add citation from Greenland Saga, Chapter 4 https://sagadb.org/graenlendinga_saga.is, add chapter # in citation).

'' -“According to records[ which?] from the time, Galti headed the first Norse attempt to colonize Greenland, which ended in disaster. However, Erik the Red was the first permanent European settler.[ citation needed]” ''

(Could change final sentence to “Erik is widely believed to be the first permanent European settler”, then cite from introduction from this informational archive https://exploration.marinersmuseum.org/subject/erik-the-red/ (Citation is already in references in article, just used elsewhere)).(Pg. 212-213 of "The Vikings" speak on Galti and his failed colonization attempt of Greenland, allegedly once a Saga about their attempt but has been lost to time and was only preserved through oral accounts, no actual records whatsoever exist, add page # in citation).

-“His salesmanship proved successful, as many people—especially "those Vikings living on poor land in Iceland" and those that had suffered a "recent famine"—became convinced that Greenland held great opportunity.[ citation needed]”

(Both Saga’s explicitly state that Erik named it Greenland due to it attracting people so a settlement could prosper (in article already), but never the specific quotes stated above. Paragraph 8/9 of https://sagadb.org/graenlendinga_saga.is state that once Erik returned to Iceland and told of Greenland, ships left with him the following summer as he had success convincing many Icelanders. Change sentence structure and wording, and add citation to support, add chapter # in citation).