Which Norse explorer was the first European to give birth in North America?

Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir was the Norse explorer traditionally identified as the first European woman to give birth in North America.

According to the Vinland sagas, Gudrid and her husband, the Icelandic explorer Thorfinn Karlsefni, led a settlement expedition to Vinland. There she gave birth to their son, Snorri Thorfinnsson. Snorri is generally described as the first known child of European descent born in the Americas, with Greenland usually excluded from that claim because Norse settlement there began earlier.

Gudrid’s story survives mainly in the Saga of the Greenlanders and the Saga of Erik the Red, which differ on parts of her biography and on expedition details. She is therefore a legendary-historical figure rather than someone documented by contemporary records. Leif Erikson is associated with the earlier discovery of Vinland, while Karlsefni led the settlement expedition; neither is the answer to the birth question. Freydís Eiríksdóttir was another prominent Vinland voyager, but she is not recorded as Snorri’s mother.