The story of America's discovery by Europeans begins with a fugitive. Eirik the Red fled his native Norway, the sagas say, "because of some killings." Settling in Iceland, Eirik took up farming and feuded with a neighbor, Filth-Eyjolf. Then he slew Filth, as well as Hrafn the Dueller. Banished for the murders, Eirik moved to islands off Iceland's coast and lent bedsteads to a man named Thorgest. When the loan went bad, Eirik killed Thorgest's sons, "along with several other men."
Tony Horwitz, A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America
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