Leif Erikson

About Leif Erikson

Leif Erikson, a Norse explorer from the late 10th and early 11th centuries, is ranked #189 in historical importance by MIT’s Pantheon project due to his pioneering role as one of the first Europeans known to have set foot in North America, preceding Columbus by nearly five centuries. As a key figure in the **Age of Exploration** for kids, his voyages from Greenland to lands he called Helluland, Markland, and Vinland fundamentally altered the known geographical scope of the medieval world, even if the knowledge did not persist in mainstream European consciousness.

In 2025, Erikson garnered an annualized 864K Wikipedia views, placing his *Attention Gap* near 1x, suggesting a relatively balanced reflection of his historical rank online. This puts him in stark contrast to other explorers, for example, James Cook, who, despite being ranked much lower at #515, attracted 1.4 million views. Furthermore, his momentum shows a concerning trend, with a 15% drop in attention between Q1 and Q3 of 2025, accompanied by a significant 34.1% year-over-year decline in viewership, indicating that his legacy may be fading slightly in the current internet landscape.