fl. 1000s

Viking explorer and sister-in-law of Leif Eriksson (c. 970-c. 1020). Gudrid first married Leif's brother Thorstein, who in 1006 led an unsuccessful expedition to Vínland, a colony in what is now eastern Canada discovered earlier by Leif. Thorstein died on the return voyage, and Gudrid married another brother, Thorfinn (980-c. 1007). The two took part in another expedition to Vinland, making Gudrid the first European woman to set foot on the North American continent, and in 1005 she gave birth to the first European child in North America, a son named Snorri. Later the family returned to Greenland.