Which Icelandic saga tells the story of Erik the Red’s voyages and the discovery of Greenland?

The Icelandic saga about Erik the Red’s voyages and the discovery of Greenland is the Saga of Erik the Red.

The saga, also known as Eiríks saga rauða, recounts events involving Erik the Red, his family, and the Norse exploration of lands west of Iceland. It describes Erik’s exile from Iceland, his exploration of Greenland, and the settlement that followed. It also includes accounts of voyages to a land called Vinland.

The text survives mainly in two medieval Icelandic manuscripts, the Hauksbók and the Skálholtsbók. Like other Icelandic sagas, it was written down centuries after the events it describes. Historians therefore compare its narrative with archaeology and with other written sources rather than treating every detail as a direct eyewitness record.

The saga is often compared with the Greenlanders’ Saga. Both texts discuss Norse voyages across the North Atlantic, but they differ in characters, chronology, and emphasis. The archaeological site at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland independently confirms that Norse travellers reached North America around the eleventh century.