THE
NORSE
Discoverers of
AMERICA
Oxford University Press
London Edinburgh Glasgow New York
Toronto Melbourne Cape Town Bombay
Humphrey Milford Publisher to the University
2376
THE
NORSE
Discoverers of
AMERICA
The Wineland Sagas
translated & discussed
By G. M. Gathorne-Hardy, F.R.G.S.
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
M CM XXI
Gi3
TO
H. A. L. FISHER
WHO FIRST REVEALED TO ME
THE FASCINATION OF HISTORICAL PROBLEMS
AND WHO ENCOURAGED THIS WORK
IN ITS EARLY STAGES
IN GRATITUDE FOR MUCH PATIENT TUITION
AND IN MEMORY OF NEW COLLEGE DAYS
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
4G2651
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION .... . Page 7
PART I. TRANSLATION
Chronological Summary ...... 18
Genealogical Table 20
i. Eric the Red and the colonization of Greenland 21
* 2. The adventure of Bjarni Herjulfson ... 25
3. Of Thorbjorn Vifilson .... 28
4. Gudrid comes to Greenland .... 30
5. Gudrid and the Sibyl -33
6. Leif goes to Norway ...... 37
* 7. Leif discovers Wineland 40
* 8. Thorvald's Voyage and Death . . . -.45
9. Thorstein's Unsuccessful Venture ... 49
* 10. The Expedition of Thorfin Karlsefni . . 52
ii. Freydis . . 67
Appendix of Alternative Versions and Supplementary
Passages ........ 73
* Sections in Part I marked thus are those dealing with
the discovery and exploration of America.
CONTENTS 5
PART II. DISCUSSION
1 . Nature of the Evidence .... Page 88
2. Discrepancies of the Flatey Book . . 113
3. The Stories as History 147
4. Skraelings . 173
5. The ' Daegr ' and ' Eyktarstad' Problems. . . 196
6. The Voyages. General Considerations . . 221
7. The Voyages in Detail : Bjarni, Leif, Thorvald 244
8. Karlsefni's Expedition 261
9. Aftermath and Conclusion 282
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... . 299
INDEX . 301
INTRODUCTION
THE study which has culminated in the production
of the present volume had been pursued for a number
of years, and the work itself was approaching com
pletion, when the events of August 1914 necessitated
its abandonment, while the writer was called away
from literary tasks by the claims of active service. It
is hoped, however, that the consequent delay has not
been altogether regrettable. In the first place, it has
enabled a fresh eye to be cast over what had previously
been written, with the result that some modifications
have been made, which are, it is hoped, an improve
ment. In the second place, the author found on his
return that there had been during the interval con
siderable additions to the literature dealing with his
subject. Worthy of special mention among works too
recent to have been read before the outbreak of
war are the monographs of Babcock (1913), Hovgaard
(1915), and Steensby (1918); these with Finnur
Jonsson's important paper in the A ar bog for Nordisk
Oldkyndighed, &c. for 1915, while they have not
modified the views hereinafter expressed, have been
deemed worthy of close consideration and have necessi
tated a considerable amount of re-writing : the minor
works of Neckel (1913), Kolischer (1914), Bruun(i9i5),
and Mr. Maurice Hewlett's work of fiction based on
these sagas under the title of Gudrid the Fair (1917)
also fall within the same period. The last-named
s ::;;vi:N.-r-&.6 D u c T i o N
book, while making no pretence to deal scientifically
with the subject, has been of particular interest to the
present writer, from the fact that its author comes
to the same conclusion with regard to Karlsefni's
ultimate landfall as that advocated in these pages.
The possibility of such an interpretation of the data
supplied in the sagas is admitted, in a rather hesitating
manner, in the History of the State of Neiu York,
by Yates and Moulton (1824); with this exception the
writer has been unable to trace any other authority
taking the view which he has independently formed.
Yates and Moulton appear to have depended for their
information on a translation from a Swedish book,
Schroder's Om Skandinav ernes fordna upptacktsresor
till NordAmerika(\lps^, 1818), which seems to have
been based exclusively on the version of the story
contained in the Flatey Book ; this does not by itself
provide enough information to enable a definite
conclusion to be formed.
In spite of a considerable bibliography, the early
Norse voyages to America provide a still unexhausted
field for investigation and discussion. So far are the
authors who have dealt with the subject from reaching
final and unchallenged conclusions that it may almost
be said that each fresh commentator provides new
matter for controversy. Apart from the fascinating
problem of attempting to locate on the map the
various parts of the American continent visited by the
first explorers, the historic value of the evidence has
been the subject of the most varied estimates, though
it may be said that nowadays no student of the subject
has remained completely sceptical. The relative impor
tance to be attached to the different versions of the
INTRODUCTION 9
narrative has also been much debated, and will no
doubt continue to be so, though on this point most
recent critics will be found arrayed in the opposite
camp to the present writer. As regards the precise
situation of the Norse discoveries, most points from
Northern Labrador and even Baffin's Land to well
down the Eastern coastline of the United States have
their advocates, who by a judicious selection of the
evidence have all managed to find something to say in
favour of their respective points of view. In these
circumstances it is felt that no apology is needed from
one who has given the matter close and protracted
study, if he ventures to add his quota to the
discussion.
The topic is moreover one on which the man in the
street — at any rate in England — stands in considerable
need of enlightenment. There are probably few
acknowledged historical facts on which the general
public is more surprisingly ignorant. Considering that
the available data compare favourably with what is
known of the later discoveries of Cabot and Corte
Real, it is regrettable to find, as any one will who takes
the trouble to mention the matter to a dozen friends
selected at random, that to most of them the fact that
the Norsemen visited America is quite unknown, while
by the remainder it is probably regarded as a vague
legend, containing perhaps a kernel of truth, but to be
ranked no higher than the Welsh tale of Madoc
and similar insubstantial traditions.
When Dr. Nansen's In Northern Mists appeared,
three allusions were made to it in Punch, the point
of which was in every case that the eminent explorer
had proved that the honour of the first discovery
io INTRODUCTION
of America belonged to his compatriots. Of course, as
a matter of fact, the proof was forthcoming long ago,
and Dr. Nansen, so far from adding to it, is one of the
most sceptical of the authorities dealing with the
subject ; but here, as is usually the case, our leading
humorous paper has faithfully represented the views
and the knowledge of the average educated man.
It is perhaps not altogether surprising that the circle
of the initiated has been so restricted. The principal
works dealing with the question, with very few excep
tions, are either written in foreign tongues, or entombed
in the pages of inaccessible scientific periodicals or in
works mainly concerned with a wider field, or have
been published so long ago that as the life of books
goes nowadays the man in the street can hardly
be expected to have read or to have remembered
them. Reeves' Finding of Wine land the Good, one of
the likeliest books on the subject to have fallen into the
hands of the general reader, is now more than twenty
years old. How many books — other than standard
classics— of a similar age, come under the eyes of
members of the ordinary public ?
It must be confessed, too, that a taste for Icelandic
literature is not widely prevalent in this country. The
- man in the street, if the author's experience of him
is typical, does not find the method of story-telling
which enthralled contemporary Icelandic audiences at
all to his mind. He cannot stomach the long genea
logies, on which no doubt the original reader or listener
insisted in order that he might add to the story the
flavour of personal interest arising from the inclusion
of ancestors, friends, or acquaintances. He gets
confused and irritated by names of unfamiliar sound,
INTRODUCTION 1 1
with uncouth nicknames attached, many of the former
closely resembling one another. When he has at
length managed to become engrossed in some thread
of the story, he finds himself suddenly switched off to
follow the fortunes of other characters, the previous
mention of whom he had forgotten, and finally losing
his bearings he throws the book down in disgust. The
present writer has on this account considered carefully
whether it would not have been better to transpose the
two parts of this work, putting the translation last, but
he feels that such an arrangement would be illogical,
and would make the arguments used in discussing the
question much more difficult to follow. As a sop
to the indolent he has, however, marked in the table
of contents the parts of the story dealing with the
American discoveries, though he feels personally that
those who skip the remainder will miss some very
interesting matter, including the vivid description of
the sibyl's seance.
It is hoped that it is not doing the average English
man an injustice to say that the word * saga ' generally
conveys to his mind an utterly false idea. Very often
he seems to think of a saga as poetry ; almost invari
ably as romance. In view of this it is perhaps
necessary to point out that almost all we know of the
early history of Scandinavia, and all that we know
in the cases of Iceland and Greenland, is derived from
wrhat can only be described as saga literature. Saga
simply means story, originally a story told by word
of mouth, often in the lifetime of those whose achieve
ments it celebrated ; and the great mass of the earlier
sagas aimed at historical truth, not of course at the
scientific accuracy of modern times, but at combining
12 INTRODUCTION
adherence to facts with the exigencies of picturesque
narrative, like the Books of Kings or any early
historical works. In fact, as will be indicated later on
(Part II, Chapter I), the historical saga of Iceland
compares favourably with the early history of most
other countries, for a variety of reasons.
Probably the erroneous ideas current on the subject
arise to some extent from what may be called the
Morris tradition in translating sagas into English.
The associations of the quaint language used in this
convention are poetical and consequently romantic ; the
words are obsolete in modern prose, whereas the
language of pure saga of the historical period is prosaic
to the verge of baldness, the statement of facts so
direct and terse as to be almost crude. Why then
should we be told that men * hove into a cheaping-
stead ' rather than that they came to a market ? Why
should we have 'hight' for named, 'mickle' for much
or many or great, ' may ' for girl or maiden, * yeasay '
for consent, and so forth ? It serves no purpose
except to show that at some bygone period Scandina
vian left its traces on the English language, and
produces an idea of the character of the literature
translated which is the very reverse of the true one.
What one should aim at reproducing in a transla
tion — and particularly a translation with an historical
purpose — is surely the effect produced on the audience
for which the original was composed. It may be right
in translating Homer to avoid crude modernism, for
Homer was archaic to the people of any known
historical period, but when we have one Icelander telling
another how his grandfather or even his nearer con
temporary fared at the hands of other men living under
INTRODUCTION 13
precisely the same conditions as the listener, surely it
is wrong to make use of English calling insistently and
continually for the help of a glossary.
Now, whether or no the present writer can be success
ful in popularizing any Icelandic translation, to those
who complain, as some may, that his rendering is
crudely modern, he replies that such is his deliberate
intention, for so it seems to him did the old Icelanders ;
tell their plain unvarnished tales. Art there was no !
doubt, in the arrangement of the story, an art which
kept in mind the demands of the contemporary audience
and which would in all probability have been modified
to captivate a different taste. But the diction is
throughout more straightforward, realistic, and un
adorned than any other to be met with in literature.
And as this treatment seems appropriate to the
narration of historical facts, so as to bring conviction
to the mind of the hearer, the author has perhaps even
gone too far in his desire to emphasize this characteristic.
In one respect he has certainly taken a liberty. The
incidental impromptu verses which are incorporated
in sagas would, in a literal rendering, be almost as
incomprehensible as in the original Icelandic. Nearly
every phrase, according to the convention of the time,
involves a riddling circumlocution, something like
Samson's ' Out of the eater came forth meat '. For
example, the hymn of Herjulfs Hebridean companion,
a verse of which is given in the chapter on Bjarni,
would read in a literal translation somewhat as
follows : —
' I pray the blameless monk-trier to assist my travels,
may the lord of the high hall of the earth hold over
me the hawk's perch.' Here ' the blameless monk-trier '
14 INTRODUCTION
is God, who tries the hearts of good men, ' the high hall
of the earth ' is the sky or heaven, and — most obscure of
all — 'the hawk's perch' is the hand, an allusion to falconry.
Only after unravelling these riddles does one arrive
at the true meaning — ' Sinless God, who triest the
hearts of thy saints, guide my wanderings ; Lord of
heaven, hold thy hand over me and so protect me,'
This ultimate meaning has been here paraphrased metri
cally, sacrificing the characteristics of early Scandinavian
verse in the interests of a clear and intelligible historical
&
narrative. And in the same way the translations of
other incidental verses aim at reproducing the effect
on the mind of an intelligent listener, rather than the
mere words which produced that effect. Apart from
these cases, the writer, while allowing himself a certain
amount of freedom in passages upon which nothing
turns, has sacrificed every other consideration to literal-
ness where any argument may depend on the text.
A word or two remains to be said about the arrange
ment adopted. As the reader will discover, the material
is provided by three texts,1 embodying two independent
versions which are in some cases difficult to reconcile.
The aim has been to present a consecutive narrative
drawn from all these sources indifferently. In only one
case, however, has the order of events as given in any
version been consciously interfered with. The Saga
of Eric the Red, and H auk's Book — which, as will be
seen, is substantially the same version — both begin
with a chapter in which the only relevant name is that
of Thorbjorn Vifilson, which appears in the concluding
sentence. The object of the chapter is to introduce
1 Hereinafter referred to as the Saga of Eric the Red, Hauk's Book,
and the Flatey Book. See Part II. Chapter I.
INTRODUCTION 15
this character, whose daughter, Gudrid, may be de
scribed as the heroine of the story.
But this object is likely to be defeated with an
English audience if the chapter is kept in its original
position. For the saga, having just mentioned Thor
bjorn, turns off characteristically to deal with Eric
the Red and the colonization of Greenland, so that
by the time Thorbjorn is introduced again the reader
is likely to have forgotten all about him. It has
consequently been thought better to begin with Eric
and his wanderings, following this up with the descrip
tion of Bjarni Herjulfson's voyage and discoveries from
the Flatey Book, which are intimately connected with
Eric's colonization of Greenland both in date and cir
cumstances. The author has then reverted to the actual
beginning of the saga, connecting thus in one coherent
narrative all parts of the story dealing with Thorbjorn
Vifilson. Having brought this character and his
daughter to Eric's new home in Greenland, the original
saga and the present edition alike turn to Leif Ericson,
and describe his voyage to the court of Olaf Trygg-
vason in Norway. Inasmuch as the 'accidental'
version of Leif s discovery of America is incompatible
with the introduction into the main story of the fuller
account in the Flatey Book, the former has been
relegated to the appendix and the latter incorporated
in the principal text. It will be seen from the chapter
on the Flatey Book that this is in the author's opinion
the most accurate historical treatment, but this is not
the motive of his action. Whether the Flatey Book
be right or wrong in ascribing Leif s journey to a de
liberate project, it contains by far the fullest account of
his expedition, and for this reason merits a place in the
1 6 INTRODUCTION
main course of the story. But it cannot be included
without excluding — or removing to a note or appen
dix — anything which conflicts with it. In the same
way an account of the death of Thorvald Ericson which
conflicts with the version of the Flatey Book has been
taken out of the main text, and the fuller narrative
substituted.
In every case, however, where an alternative version
of any incident or episode exists, care has been taken
to give it in the appendix; so that the reader may have
all the material available for forming his own views on
the question. Nothing is altogether omitted. The effect
of what has been done is to provide a consecutive
narrative, containing a fuller account of the Wineland
voyages than is comprised in any one version, which
may be summarized as follows : —
Eric the Red and his father come to Iceland. The
latter dies. Eric marries : Leif is born. Eric makes
the country too hot to hold him, and explores and
colonizes Greenland. He is accompanied by one
Herjulf, whose son, Bjarni, making an attempt to join
him, is driven accidentally to America, whence he
eventually returns to Greenland. Many years elapse
during which we may suppose Leif Ericson to be
growing up. During the interval we return to Iceland,
and follow the fortunes of Thorbjorn Vifilson and his
daughter Gudrid, up to the time when they too emigrate
to Greenland. Next comes Leif s voyage to Norway
and his conversion, followed by his voyage of explora
tion in America and his rescue of Gudrid among others
from shipwreck, somewhere on the Greenland coast.
This is followed by Thorvald Ericson's expedition and
death, his brother Thorstein's unsuccessful venture,
INTRODUCTION 17
the marriage of the latter to Gudrid and his death,
and then by the arrival of Karlsefni in Greenland, his
marriage to Gudrid, and his voyage to Wineland with
his -wife and companions. Last of all, we hear of
another voyage to the new country under the auspices
of Freydis, the illegitimate daughter of Eric the Red.
It is hoped that this connecting up of the material
into one harmonious story couched in ordinary phraseo
logy may render it more palatable to the general
public than a more scientific treatment might prove,
while those whom this volume entices deeper into the
problems of this fascinating subject will find alternative
readings and versions of the story included, without
being unduly obtruded.
The writer, in fact, while submitting his views to the
consideration of those who have studied the question,
hopes especially that some members of the general
public may find the subject take hold of them in
precisely the same way in which it captivated him, now
several years ago. First, interest in the story, the bare
text without unnecessary note or comment ; secondly
a conviction of its historical accuracy in main features ;
thirdly an interest in the problems and discussions
which it has evoked. Doubtless some will part company
at each of these three stages, but if such parts of the
book as they have not skipped have awakened in them
any interest, the author's task will not have been under
taken in vain.
CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY
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Ingolf comes to Iceland.
Birth of Thorgrim, father of Snorri Godi.
Conjectural date of birth of Eric the Red.
Birth of Snorri Godi.
Eric's first exploration of Greenland.
Foundation of the Greenland colony. Bjarni discovers
America.
Leif arrives in Norway. His conversion.
Christianity established in Iceland. Leif converts Greenland.
Death of Olaf Tryggvason. Bjarni in Norway with
Eric Jarl.
Bjarni returns to Greenland.
Leif discovers Wineland.
Leif returns. Death of Eric the Red ? and Thori, first
husband of Gudrid.
Thorvald's expedition.
Death of Thorvald.
Return of Thorvald's expedition.
Thorstein's expedition and death.
Gudrid returns to Brattahlid.
Olaf the Holy sends Rorek to Leif Ericson.
Karlsefni arrives in Greenland.
Karlsefni marries Gudrid. They sail to Straumsfjord.
Snorri born.
Return of Karlsefni.
Freydis' voyage.
Mean date of birth of Snorri's children.
Birth of Ari the Learned. Adam of Bremen director of
Bremen Cathedral School.
Death of Svein Esiridson, informant of Adam of Bremen.
Birth of Bishop Thorlak, grandson of Snorri Karlsefnison.
Eric, Bishop of Greenland, sails for Wineland.
Death of Bishop Thorlak.
CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY 19
1148. Death of Ari the Learned.
1162. Death of Bishop Bjorn, Karlsefni's great-grandson.
1 163. Ordination of Bishop Brand I.
1 201. Death of Bishop Brand I.
12*85. New land discovered west of Iceland.
1294. Royal edict making trade with Greenland, &c. a crown
monopoly.
1299. Hallbera appointed abbess of Reynisness.
1334. Death of Hauk.
1347. A ship from Markland reported in Icelandic Annals.
1370-1387. Compilation of the Flatey Book.
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PART I. TRANSLATION
Ji. ERIC THE RED AND THE
COLONIZATION OF GREENLAND
This passage is common to all versions of the story. The source
is Landnamab6k, II. 14, which is accordingly the text followed here.
The transcript in the Flatey tfook is somewhat abridged. Additional
matter supplied by any version of the story is given in italics.
THORVALD, son of Oswald, son of Wolf, son of Oxen-
Thori, and Eric the Red, his son, came from Jaederen
(in Norway) to Iceland because they were implicated
in homicide. Iceland was then largely settled}- They
took land in Hornstrands, and lived at Drange, where
Thorvald died. Eric then married Thjodhild, daughter
of Jorund Atlison and Thorberga the Ship-breasted,
who at that time was married to Thorbjorn of Haukadal.
Eric then moved from the north, and cleared ground
in Haukadal, and settled at Ericstad near Vatshorn.
Eric and Thjodhild had a son called Leif. * Now Eric's
slaves sent down a landslide on the house of Valthjof at
Valthjofstad. Eyulf Saur, a relation of Valthjof, killed
the slaves near Skeidsbrekka above Vatshorn. For
this Eric killed Eyulf Saur ; he also killed Hrafn the
Duellist at Leikskali. Geirstein and Odd of Jorfi,
Eyulf s relations, prosecuted Eric, whereupon he was
banished from Haukadal. He then took Brokey and
Oxney, and lived at Trade in Suderey the first winter.
At this juncture he lent his hall-beams 2 to Thorgest.
Afterwards Eric moved to Oxney, and lived at Ericstad.
1 Flatey Book. 2 See note at end of section.
22 \ : .; r.:E R:I Cy T<,H E RED
He then asked for his beams and failed to get them.
Thence arose the quarrels, and fights with Thorgest and
his party which are related in Erics Saga.1 [There
upon he went in search of his beams to Breidabolstad,
but Thorgest came after him. They fought a short
way from the farm at D range, where two sons of Thor
gest fell, and some other men. After this both sides
had a numerous following.2 Styr Thorgrim's son 1
helped Eric in the proceedings^ as did Eyulf of Sviney,
the sons of Thorbrand of Alptafjord and Thorbjorn
Vifilson ; but the sons of Thord Gelli and Thorgeir of
Hitadal, Aslak from Langadal and his son Illugi sided
with Thorgest. Eric and his men were outlawed at
the Thorsness sessions. He made ready his ship in
Ericsvag, but Eyulf hid him in Dimunavag while
Thorgest and his men were looking for him about the
islands. Thorbjorn and Eyulf and Styr escorted Eric
out round the islands. He told them that he intended
to look for the land which Gunnbjorn, son of Wolf the
Crow, sighted when he was driven west past Iceland,
when he discovered Gunnbjorn's skerry. He said that
he would come back and look up his friends if he dis
covered the country, and they parted on the best of terms.
Eric said that he would repay them with such help as
lay in his power if they should happen to need him. 3
Eric sailed out to sea past Snaefellsjokul, and arrived
(on the Greenland coast) near Midjokul, which is now
called Bldserk 4 ; thence he sailed south along the coast,
to ascertain if it was habitable there. He was the first
1 Flatey Book. Cf. Part II, Chapter I, p. 108.
2 From [ omitted in Flatey Book.
•• Hauk's Book and Saga of Eric the Red.
4 So Landnamab6k, Hauk's Book, and Flatey Book : Eric's Saga
has ' Hvitserk '.
AND GREENLAND 23
winter at Ericsey near the centre of the Western Settle
ment l ; the following spring he came to Ericsfjord, and
took himself a site there. He went that summer to
the western wilds, where he remained a long time 2 : he
gave names to places there over a wide tract. The
next winter he was at Ericsholm off Hvarfsgnipa, but
the third summer he went right up north to Snaefell,
and into Hrafnsfjord. Then he claimed to have come
to the head of Ericsfjord. At this point he turned
back, and he was at Ericsey off the mouth of Ericsfjord
the third winter. But afterwards, in the summer, he
returned to Iceland, and arrived in Breidafjord.
[He passed that winter with Ingolf at Holmlat. In
the spring he was attacked by Thorgest and his men,
and Eric was then defeated ; after which they were
reconciled.3 That summer Eric went to colonize the
country which he had discovered, and called it Green
land, stating as his reason that men would be much
attracted thither if the country had a good name.4
Learned men tell us that the same summer that Eric
the Red went to colonize Greenland* twenty-five ships6 set
sail from Breidafjord and Borgafjord, but only fourteen
arrived at their destination : some were driven back,
and some were lost. This was fifteen winters before
Christianity was legally established in Iceland. Bishop
Frederic and Thorvald Kodranson came out (to Iceland)
the same summer /'
1 Flatey Book and some texts of Landnamabok have 'Eastern
Settlement'. The Eastern Settlement was near Julianehaab, the
Western near Godthaab. Both were thus on the west coast of
Greenland.
- Hauk's Book. 3 Omitted in Flatey Book.
4 What follows is transcribed in the Flatey version only.
5 Flatey Book. ° Flatey Book has ' 35 '.
24 ERICTHERED
The following men who went out at this time with
Eric took land in Greenland: — Herjulf took Herjulfs-
fjord, he lived at Herjulfsness ; Ketil (took) Ketilsfjord;
Hrafn, Hrafnsfjord; Solvi, Solvadal; Helgi1 Thorb rand-
son, Alptafjord ; Thorbjorn Glora, Siglufjord ; Einar,
Einarsfjord ; Hafgrim, Hafgrimsfjord and Vatnahverfi;
Arnlaug, Arnlaugsfjord ; but some went to the Western
Settlement.
NOTE, Hall-pillars. ' Setstokkar ' are strictly speaking the horizontal
beams running between the central hall and the side aisles on to which the
bedrooms opened. They were frequently carved with the figures of Thor,
or other heathen deities, and were a sacred and valuable family possession.
The loan of such articles is difficult to explain, as they would be
necessary to their owner, and at first sight of no use to a temporary
borrower. Eric, however, had not at the time settled down in his new
home ; he would wait to build a suitable house until he had definitely
fixed upon a site, and in the meantime presumably would not require
his * setstokkar '. It may be that Thorgest represented that he wished
to copy them, but we know of another use to which such things were
put, which may throw some light on the matter. When Ingolf, the
founder of the colony, wished to select a home for himself in Iceland,
we are told that he ' threw overboard the pillars of his holy place
(ondugis sulur) for an omen, saying that he would settle in that place
where the pillars came to land' (Landnama, i. 6). This practice
was evidently widely adopted, for we read (Landnama, 3. 7) how
Kraku-Hreidar ' said that lie would not throw his pillars overboard,
saying that he considered it a poor thing to determine his plans in
that way '. That ' Setstokkar ' were used in the same way as ' ondugis
sulur ' is shown by another passage in Landnama (5. 9) where
'Hastein threw his Setstokkar overboard after the time-honoured
custom'. There is something analogous in the usage, which is
recorded in various traditions of the Scottish Highlands, whereby
a man would take up his residence where the packs first fell from
his horse after he set out on his travels. Thorgest was no doubt
a native of Iceland, lor he was the son of Stein the Great Sailor, who
was settled in Breidabolstad, still he may have required supernatural
aid in the choice of a new home.
1 Hauk's Landnamabok and some other texts have ' Snorri '. In
fact Snorri Thorbrandson went out later, as will be seen.
$2. THE ADVENTURE OF BJARNI
HERJULFSON
From the Flatey Book.
Herjulf was a son of Bard the son of Herjulf, who
was related to Ingolf the founder of the Iceland colony.
Ingolf gave land between V6g and Reykjaness to
Herjulf (the elder) and his people. Herjulf (the
younger) lived first at Drepstok. He had a wife named
Thorgerd, and their son was Bjarni, a very promising
man. He had taken to foreign voyages from his youth.
This brought him both wealth and credit, and he used
to spend his winters alternately abroad and with his
parents. Bjarni soon had a trading-ship of his own,
and the last winter that he was in Norway was when
Herjulf undertook the voyage to Greenland with Eric,
and removed his home there. Herjulf had on board
his ship a Christian from the Hebrides, who composed
the Song of the Tidal Wave, which contains this
verse : —
Almighty God, to whom alone
The hearts of all thy saints are known,
Sinless and just, to thee I pray
To guide me on my dangerous way :
Lord of the heavens that roof the land,
Hold o'er me thy protecting hand.
Herjulf settled at Herjulfsness ; he was held in the
greatest respect. Eric the Red lived at Brattahlid ; he
was the most distinguished person there, and was obeyed
by all. Eric's children were Leif, Thorvald, and Thor-
stein, and a daughter named Freydis, who was married
to a man named Thorvard : they lived at Garda, where
26 THE ADVENTURE OF
the cathedral is now : she was a very haughty woman,
but Thorvard was a man of no account; she was married
to him mainly for his money. People were heathen in
Greenland at that time.
Bjarni arrived in his ship at Eyrar in the summer of
the same year in the spring of which his father had
sailed away. Bjarni was much concerned at the news,
and would not discharge his cargo. H is crew thereupon
asked him what he meant to do ; he replied that he
meant to keep to his custom of passing the winter with
his parents, ' and I will ', said he, ' take my ship on to
Greenland, if you will accompany me '. They all said
that they would abide by his decision ; upon which
Bjarni remarked, ' Our voyage will be considered rash,
since none of us have been in Greenland waters.7
Notwithstanding this they put to sea as soon as they
had got ready, and they sailed for three days before
the land was laid ; but then the fair wind ceased, and
north winds and fogs came on, and they did not know
where they were going, and this went on for many
days. After this they saw the sun, and so were able to
get their bearings, whereupon they hoisted sail, and
after sailing that day they saw land, and they discussed
among themselves what land this could be, but Bjarni
said he fancied that it could not be Greenland. They
asked him whether he would sail to this land or not.
* I am for sailing in close to the land ', he said, and on
doing so they soon saw that the land was not moun
tainous, and was covered with wood, and that there were
small knolls on it, whereupon they left the land on the
port side, and let the sheet turn towards it. Then
after sailing two days they saw another land. They
asked Bjarni if he thought this was Greenland; he
BJARNI HERJULFSON 27
said that he did not think this was Greenland any more
than the first place, ' for it is said that there are very
large glaciers in Greenland '. They soon neared this
land,, and saw that it was a flat country and covered
with wood. At this point the fair wind dropped, where
upon the crew suggested that they should land there :
but Bjarni would not. They considered that they were
short both of wood and water. ' You are in no want
of either ', said Bjarni, but he got some abuse for this
from his crew. He ordered them to hoist sail, which
was done, and they turned the bows from the land, and
sailed out to sea for three days before a south-westerly
breeze, when they saw the third land : now this land
was high and mountainous, with ice upon it. So they
asked if Bjarni would put in there, but he said that he
would not, since — as he put it — this land appeared to
him to be good for nothing. Then without lowering
sail they kept on their course along the coast, and saw
that it was an island : once more they turned the bows
away from the land, and held out to sea with the same
breeze ; but the wind increased, so that Bjarni told them
to reef, and not crowd more sail than their ship and
rigging could stand. They now sailed for four days,
when they saw the fourth land. Then they asked
Bjarni if he thought this was Greenland, or not. Bjarni
replied, ' This is most like what was told me of Green
land, and here we will keep our course towards the
land/ So they did, and that evening they came to
land under a cape, which had a boat on it, and there on
that cape lived Herjulf, Bj ami's father, and it is from
him that the cape received its name, and has since been
called Herjulfsness.
Bjarni now went to his father, and gave up voyaging,
28 THORBJORN VIFILSON
and he was with his parents as long as Herjulf was
alive, and afterwards he succeeded his parents, and
lived there.
$3. OF THORBJORN VIFILSON
This passage is a translation from the text of Eric's saga, collated
with that of Hauk's Book. Both are an accurate abridgement from
the Landn£mab6k. The words italicized are in Hauk's book only.
There was a warrior king named Olaf, who was
called Olaf the White. He was a son of King Ingjald,
son of Helgi, son of Olaf, son of Gudrod, son of
Halfdan Whitelegs King of the Uplands. Olaf made
a raiding voyage in the West, and conquered Dublin
in Ireland and the Dublin district, and made himself
king over it. He married Aud the Very Wealthy,
daughter of Ketil Flatnose, son of Bjo'rn Buni, a great
man from Norway. Their son was called Thorstein
the Red. Olaf fell in battle in Ireland, whereupon
Aud and Thorstein went away to the Hebrides.
There Thorstein married Thurid, daughter of Eyvincl
Eastman and sister of Helgi the Lean : they had
many children. Thorstein became a warrior king : he
joined forces with Earl Sigurd the Rich, son of Eystein
Glumri. They won Caithness and Sutherland, Ross
and Moray, and more than half Scotland. Thorstein
made himself king over this district, until the Scots
betrayed him, and he fell there in battle. And was
in Caithness when she heard of Thorstein's fall.
Thereupon she had a vessel built secretly in the wood,
and when she was ready she sailed for the Orkneys.
There she gave in marriage Thorstein the Red's
THORBJORN VIFILSON 29
daughter Gro, who became the mother of Grelada,
whom Earl Thorfinn the Skull-cleaver married. After
this Aud went to look for Iceland ; she had twenty
free men on board. Aud came to Iceland, and stayed
the first winter in Bjornhaven with her brother Bjorn.
Later on Aud took all the Dalelands between the rivers
Dogurda and Skraumuhlaup, and she lived at Hvamm.
She had a private chapel at Crossholes, where she had
a cross set up, for she was baptized and of the true
faith.
With her came out many distinguished men, who
had been captured in the western raids and were
nominally slaves. One of these was named Vifil. He
was a man of good family, who had been taken captive
beyond the western sea, and was nominally a slave
until Aud freed him. And when Aud gave homes to
her crew Vifil asked her why she did not give him
a home like the rest. Aud said that it would make no
difference, and remarked that he would be considered
noble as he was. (Later on) Aud gave him Vifilsdal,
and he settled there. He had a wife. Their sons
were Thorgeir and Thorbjorn l : they were promising
men, and they grew up with their parents.
1 There must be an error in supposing this Vifil to have been the
father of Thorgeir and Thorbjorn. Even if we consider Vifil to have
been captured as a boy, and to belong to the generation of Aud's
grandson, Olaf Feilan, we know that Thorgeir and Thorbjorn were
of the generation of Snorri Godi and Thord Horsehead, the great-
grandsons of Olaf Feilan, as their daughters married the sons of these
persons respectively. (See Genealogical Table, p. 20.) It will be
seen, moreover, later on, that Thorbjorn Vifilson looked down on the
son of a slave, which would hardly have been the case had he been
one himself. (See/w/, p. 32).
30 GUDRID COMES
1 4. GUDRID COMES TO GREENLAND
Translation from the saga of Eric the Red : there are no material
variations in Hauk's Book.
Thorgeir Vifilson married, taking Arnora, daughter
of Einar of Laugarbrekka, the son of Sigmund, the son
of Ketil Thistil, who had taken Thistilsfjord. Einar
had another daughter, named Hallveig ; Thorbjorn
married her, getting with her Laugarbrekkaland at
Hellisvelli. Thorbjorn moved his home there, and
became a most respected man. He was a local chief
(goSi), and had a magnificent estate. The daughter
of Thorbjorn was called Gudrid ; she was a very
beautiful woman and most noble in all her behaviour.
There was a man called Orm, who lived at
Arnarstapi. He had a wife named Halldis. Orm was
a well-to-do yeoman, and a great friend of Thorbjorn,
and Gudrid was brought up for a long time in his
home. There was a man called Thorgeir, who lived
at Thorgeirsfell. He was well off for money and had
been freed from slavery. He had a son named Einar,
who was a fine man and well-bred ; he was also a great
dandy. Einar was engaged in the trade between
Iceland and Norway, a business in which he throve ;
he stayed alternate winters for an equal time in
Iceland and Norway. Now at this point it must be
told how one autumn when Einar was out here he
went out with his wares along Snaefellness to sell them.
He came to Arnarstapi. Orm asked him to stop
there, and Einar accepted, for they were friends. His
wares were carried into an outhouse. Einar opened
his wares and showed them to Orm and his household,
TO GREENLAND 31
inviting him to take what he liked. Orm accepted,
saying that Einar was a good sailor and a very lucky
man. Now as they were engaged over the wares
a woman passed the door of the outhouse. Einar
asked Orm, 'Who may that beautiful woman be who
passed by the door there ? I have not seen her here
before.' * That is Gudrid, my foster-child,' replied
Orm, ' daughter of squire Thorbjorn of Laugarbrekka.'
* She would be a good match,' said Einar, * but I
suppose more than one man has come to ask for
her hand/ ' Certainly there have been proposals,
my friend/ answered Orm, * but she is not to be
snapped up by the first comer ; it is thought that both
she and her father will prove particular.' * However
that may be,' said Einar, * she is the woman I mean
to ask in marriage, so I wish that you would take up
the suit for me with her father, and put all your mind
into the matter to bring it about : for I shall consider
it a most friendly act on your part. Squire Thorbjorn
should see that a union between us would be a good
thing, since he is a man of good standing and of good
estate, but I am told that his wealth is greatly decreas
ing, while I and my father have no lack of land or
goods, and it will be the strongest support to
Thorbjorn if this proposal is accepted.' ' Certainly
I consider myself a friend of yours,' replied Orm, * but
still I am unwilling to undertake this suit, for Thorbjorn
is quick-tempered and a very proud man as well.' Einar
said that he would be content with nothing but that
his proposal should be conveyed. Orm said he would
undertake it. Einar went back south till he came
home.
Some time afterwards Thorbjorn had a harvest
32 GUDRID COMES
festivity, as was his custom, for he was a man of a very
generous disposition. Orm came there from Arnars-
tapi, and many others of Thorbjorn's friends. Orm
spoke to Thorbjorn, and said that Einar had arrived
there from Thorgeirsfell, and that he had grown into
a promising man. Then Orm started the proposal for
Einar's hand, and said that it would be a good thing
for various reasons. ' It might become a great source
of strength to you, squire, from the pecuniary point of
view.' Thorbjorn replied, * I did not expect you to
say such a thing as that I should give my daughter in
marriage to the son of a slave. You evidently think
that my wealth is on the wane, and Gudrid shall not
stay with you any more, since you think her suited to
so poor a match/ After this Orm and all the other
guests went home. Gudrid stayed thenceforward with
her parents, and was at home that winter.
But in spring Thorbjorn gave a party and a good
feast was prepared : many people came, and the
feast was of the best. And at the feast Thorbjorn
prayed silence and spoke as follows : — ' I have lived
here a long time, I have experienced men's goodwill
and love towards me, and I admit that we have got
on well together in our intercourse. But now my
fortune is beginning to run low, though it has hitherto
been thought no unworthy one. Now I will rather
shift my home than lose my standing, rather quit the
country than disgrace my family ; so now I am resolved
to fall back upon the word of my friend Eric the Red,
which he gave me when we parted in Breidafjord, so
now I mean to travel to Greenland this summer, if
things go as I wish.'
This decision created a great sensation among the
TO GREENLAND 33
audience, — Thorbjo'rn had long been popular — but they
felt sure that Thorbjorn, having made this announcement
so publicly, could not be prevailed upon to draw back.
Thorbjorn made presents to the guests, after which the
banquet came to an end and the men went back to
their homes. Thorbjorn sold his estates and bought
a ship which was lying at the mouth of Hraunhaven.
Thirty men accompanied him on his voyage. Orm of
Arnarstapi and his wife were there, and such of
Thorbjorn' s friends as were unwilling to part with him.
Thereupon they put to sea. The weather was fine
when they set out, but when they came into the ocean
the fair breeze took off and they were caught in a great
storm, and they made slow progress during the summer.
Next a plague attacked their party, and Orm and
Halldis his wife and half of them died. The sea began
to rise, and they underwent a great deal of exhaustion
and misery in many ways, yet they reached Herjulfs-
ness in Greenland just as the winter began. Now a
man named Thorkel lived at Herjulfsness. He was
a good man and the principal landowner. He took in
Thorbjorn and all his crew for the winter. Thorkel
entertained them liberally. Thorbjorn and all his
crew were well satisfied.
§ 5. GUDRID AND THE SIBYL
Translation from the saga of Eric the Red, collated with Hauk's
Book. Passages italicized occur only in Hauk's Book.
At this time there was a great famine in Greenland ;
those men who had gone fishing had made but a small
catch, while some did not return. There was in the
settlement a woman named Thorbjorg; she was a
34 GUDRID AND THE SIBYL
prophetess, and was called the little sibyl. She had
had nine sisters, who were all gifted with prophecy,
but she alone remained alive. Thorbjorg was accus
tomed to attend banquets in the winter, and she was
especially invited by those who were curious about
their fate or the prospects of the season. And since
Thorkel was the principal landowner there, he thought
he would approach her to find out when these times of
scarcity which were oppressing them would cease.
Thorkel asked the prophetess to his house, where
a good welcome was prepared for her, as was customary
when this sort of woman was received. A throne was
made ready for her, and a cushion laid beneath, in
which there were hen's feathers. Now when she came
in the evening with the man who had been sent to
fetch her she was attired as follows : — she had on
a blue mantle, which was set with stones down to
the hem ; she had a rosary of glass on her neck and
a black hood of lambskin lined with white catskin
on her head, and she had a staff in her hand with a
knob on it : it was ornamented with brass, and set
with stones down from the knob : round her waist she
had a belt of amadou on which was a great skin bag,
in which she kept those charms which she needed for
her art. On her feet she wore hairy calfskin shoes,
the thongs of which were long and strong-looking and
had great buttons of lateen on the ends. On her
hands she had catskin gloves, which were white inside
and furry.
Now when she came in every one thought it right
to offer her courteous greetings, which she received
according as they were agreeable to her. Squire
Thorkel took the wise-woman by the hand, and led
GUDRID AND THE SIBYL 35
her to the throne which was ready for her. Thorkel
then asked her to run her eyes over household and
herd and home there. She spoke little about it all.
In tHe evening a table was brought in, and at this
point it must be told what food was made ready for
the prophetess. There was made for her porridge of
goat's beestings, and for her food there were provided
hearts of all living creatures which were obtainable ;
she had a brass spoon, and a knife with an ivory
handle bound with copper, and the point was broken
off. But when the table was cleared away Squire
Thorkel approached Thorbjorg, and asked what she
thought of the house, or the behaviour of the men, or
how soon those things would become known to her
which he had asked and men wished to know. She
told him that she would not say before the following
morning, when she had first slept the night.
But on the morrow late in the day the necessary
preparations were made for her to carry out the spell.
She asked that such women should be procured for
her as were instructed in the knowledge which was
needed for the spell, and was called ' varftlokkur '.l
But no such women were found, whereupon a search
was made about the house to find if any one knew these
things. Then Gudrid said, * I am not skilled in magic,
nor a wise-woman, but Halldis my foster-mother taught
me in Iceland that art which she called " var&lokkur ".
* Then you are wiser than I thought/ answered
Thorbjorg. ' This is a kind of lore and a proceeding',
said Gudrid, * which I intend in no way to forward,
since I am a Christian woman/ ( It may be', said
Thorbjorg, ' that you might become useful to the
1 i.e. a chant for attracting spirits '.
C 2
36 GUDRID AND THE SIBYL
company in this matter, yet be no worse woman than
before ; however I will leave it to Thorkel to procure
those things which are necessary to me.' At this
Thorkel urged Gudrid till she said she would do as he
wished.
The women then made a circle about the platform,
while Thorbjorg sat on the top of it ; Gudrid sang the
song so beautifully and well that those who were by
thought that none had heard the song sung with a
more beautiful voice. The prophetess thanked her
for the song, and said that she had brought many
spirits there who thought it delightful to hear the
chant, since it was so well done, ' who before wished to
keep themselves aloof from us, and not to yield us any
assistance : and many of those things are now clear to
me which before were hidden from me and others.
Now I can say that this famine will not last longer than
this winter, and that the season will improve as the
spring comes : the sickness which has so long oppressed
you will grow better sooner than was hoped. But you,
Gudrid, I will reward at once for the help which has
been received from you, for your fate is now quite clear
to me. You shall make the most distinguished match
here in Greenland that is open to you, though it will
not last you long, for your ways lie out to Iceland,
where a great lineage and a good shall come from you,
and over the branches of your stock bright rays shall
shine. But now farewell and prosper, daughter mine/
After this people approached the wise-woman, and
every one inquired about that which he was most
curious to know, and she was free with information,
and that which she told turned out true. Next she
was sent for from other houses, and she went there.
GUDRID AND THE SIBYL 37
Then they sent for Thorbjorn, for he would not be in
the house while such heathen rites were in progress.
The state of the weather improved quickly when spring
came, as Thorbjorg had said. Thorbjorn made ready
his ship and sailed till he came to Brattahlid. Eric
received him with open arms, and said that he had
done right to come there. Thorbjorn and his family
passed the winter with him, but they lodged the crew
with the farmers. Later in the spring Eric gave
Thorbjorn land at Stokkaness, and a fine house was
built there, where he lived thenceforward.
J6. LEIF GOES TO NORWAY
From the Saga of Eric the Red, collated with Hauk's Book.
At that time Eric had a wife named Thjodhild, and
by her two sons, one called Thorstein and the other
Leif. They were both likely men. Thorstein lived
at home with his parents, and no man in Greenland
was considered so promising as he. Leif had sailed to
Norway, and was with king Olaf Tryggvason. But
when Leif sailed from Greenland in the summer they
were driven by storms to the Hebrides. It was a
long time before they had a fair wind thence, and they
made a protracted stay there in the summer. Leif was
attracted by a woman there, named Thorgunna.1 She
was a woman of good family, and Leif formed the
opinion that she was gifted with supernatural know
ledge. Now when Leif prepared to go away Thorgunna
asked to go with him. Leif asked whether this would
have the approval of her kin, She said that as to that
1 See note at end of section.
8 LEIF GOES TO NORWAY
she did not care. Leif replied that he could not carry
off a lady of such high birth in an unknown country,
especially considering how small a force he had. ' It
is not certain that the course which appeals to you is
best/ said Thorgunna. ' I must risk that,' said Leif.
' Then I tell you ', said Thorgunna, ' that I shall not
suffer alone. I am with child, and I say that the child
is yours. I prophesy that it will be a boy when it is
born. And though you will not pay any heed still I
will bring up the boy, and send him to Greenland as
soon as he can go with other men. And I prophesy
that the possession of this son will turn out such a joy
as befits our parting. And I intend myself to come to
Greenland before the end.' Leif gave her a gold ring,
and a cloak of Greenland homespun, and a belt of
(walrus) ivory. This boy came to Greenland, and was
named Thorgils. Leif accepted paternity ; some men
say that this Thorgils came to Iceland in the summer
of the Froda miracle. But anyhow Thorgils came to
Greenland, where it was thought that there was some
thing uncanny about him up to the last.
Leif and his men sailed away from the Hebrides,
and reached Norway in the autumn. Leif joined the
court of king Olaf Tryggvason. The king treated him
with honour, evidently recognizing that he must be a
man of good breeding.
One day the king spoke to Leif, and said, ' Do you
mean to go out to Greenland this summer ? ' ' Yes/
said Leif, ' with your consent/ ' I think it will be well/
replied the king, * you shall go with my mission, and
preach Christianity in Greenland.' Leif said he would
consider it, but added that he thought such a mission
would have a difficult task in Greenland. The king,
LEIF GOES TO NORWAY 39
however, said that he knew no fitter person for it than
he, adding, ' you will bring it good luck.' ' If so, the
luck will be solely derived from you,' said Leif.1
Leif landed in Ericsfjord, and went home afterwards
to Brattahlid, where he was well received. He soon
started preaching about the country Christianity and
the Catholic Faith, and published the message of King
Olaf Tryggvason, and told how great glory and treasure
accompanied this creed. Eric was slow to abandon his
religion, but Thjodhild was soon won over, and she
had a church built, though not in the immediate
neighbourhood of the houses, which was called
Thjodhild's Church : there she, and her fellow-converts,
who were many, used to offer up their prayers.
Thjodhild would not live with Eric after her con
version, and this he took very much to heart.
NOTE. Thorgunna and the Froda Miracle. From the mention of
the Froda miracle it is clear that this must be the same Thorgunna
who is mentioned in the Eyrbyggja Saga (R. L. Stevenson's Waif
Woman]. On the other hand, neither the chronology nor the
description of Thorgunna can be reconciled in the two sagas.
According to Eyrbyggja (chap. 50) Thorgunna came to Iceland
in the summer in which Christianity was legally established (A. P. 1000),
and the Froda miracle, which was concerned with her death, followed
immediately afterwards; Thorgils, her son, could not therefore have
come to Iceland at this time unless he accompanied her as an infant,
and he is not stated to have done so. Again, though the Eyrbyggja
Saga agrees in describing Thorgunna as a Hebridean, and states that
she had valuable dresses and other property with her, it gives the
following account of her personal appearance, which does not suggest
the maiden victim of Leif s early passion : — * Thorgunna was a woman
of great size, broad and tall and very fat, swarthy and with eyes set
close together, with a quantity of brown hair ; most men considered
that she would have reached the sixties.' The words in Eric's Saga,
1 At this point, on the voyage to Greenland, comes the accidental
discovery of Wineland by Leif, as given in this version. For this see
Appendix, p. 76.
40 LEIF DISCOVERS WINELAND
' some men say ', suggest that there were various accounts of the
matter. As the whole story of the Froda miracle is obviously
incredible, there may well be some inaccuracy about the date of her
arrival in Iceland, which is really all that is required to reconcile the
two stories.
$7. LEIF DISCOVERS WINELAND
From the Flatey Book.
Now the next event to be recorded (after the death
of Olaf Tryggvason, September 1000) is that Bjarni
Herjulfson came over from Greenland to Earl Eric
(who became the ruler of a large part of Norway after
Olaf 's death), and the earl gave him a good reception.
Bjarni told the story of his voyage when he saw the
(strange) lands, but people thought that he had been
lacking in curiosity, since he had nothing to report about
those countries, and some fault was found with him on
this account. Bjarni was made an officer of the earl's
court, but the following summer he went out to Green
land.
There was now much talk of exploration. Leif,
Eric the Red's son from Brattahlid, went to Bjarni
Herjulfson and bought a ship of him, and engaged a
crew of thirty-five men. Leif asked his father Eric
still to be leader of the expedition.1 Eric excused
himself, saying that he was now an old man, and less
fitted to bear all the hardships than formerly. Leif
said that he was still the member of the family who
would bring the best luck ; Eric thereupon gave way
to Leif, and as soon as they were ready for it he rode
1 i.e. as he had formerly led the expedition to Greenland. Finnur
J6nsson sees in the word enn (' still ') a reminiscence of Thorstein's
voyage in Eric's Saga ; this interpretation, however, seems unneces
sarily far-fetched.
LEIF DISCOVERS WINELAND 41
from home, and came to within a short distance of the
ship. The horse which Eric was riding stumbled, and
he fell off and hurt his foot. Then Eric said, * I am
not fated to discover more countries than this in which
we are now settled, and we ought not to bear one
another company any longer/ So Eric went home to
Brattahlid, but Leif went on board with his com
panions, thirty-five men. There was a southerner
(German) on the expedition called Tyrker.
Now they prepared their ship, and when they were
ready they put to sea, and they found first the country
which Bjarni found last. There they sailed up to the
land, and having cast anchor and lowered a boat went
ashore, and saw no grass there. The background was
all great glaciers, and all the intermediate land from
the sea to the glaciers was like one flat rock, and the
country seemed to them destitute of value. Then Leif
said, ' We have not failed to land, like Bjarni ; now I
will give this country a name, and call it Helluland
(the land of flat stone).' Thereupon they returned on
board, after Xvhich they sailed to sea and discovered
the second land. Again they sailed up to the land and
cast anchor, then lowered the boat and went ashore.
This land was low-lying and wooded, and wherever
they went there were wide stretches of white sand, and
the slope from the sea was not abrupt. Then Leif
said, ' This land shall be given a name from its re
sources, and shall be called Markland (woodland)/
after which they returned to the ship as quickly as
.possible. And they sailed after that in the open sea
with a north-east wind, and were out two days before
they saw land, towards which they sailed, and having
come to an island which lay to the north of the main-
42 LEIF DISCOVERS WINELAND
land they landed on it, the weather being fine, and
looked round ; and they perceived that there was a
dew on the grass, and it came about that they put
their hands in the dew, and carried it to their mouths,
and thought that they had never known anything so
sweet as that was. Then they went back to the ship,
and sailing into the sound which lay between the
island and the cape which ran north from the mainland
they steered a westerly course past the cape. It was
very shallow there at low tide, so that their ship ran
aground, and soon it was a long way from the ship to
the sea. But they were so very eager to get to land
that they would not wait for the tide to rise under
their ship, but hurried ashore where a river came out
of a lake ; but when the sea had risen under their ship
they took the boat and rowed to the ship, and took her
up the river and afterwards into the lake, where they
cast anchor, and carrying their leather kitbags ashore
they put up shelters, but later, on deciding to pass the
winter there, they made large houses.
There was no want of salmon, either in the river or
the lake, and bigger salmon than they had seen before ;
the amenities of the country were such, as it seemed to
them, that no cattle would need fodder there in the
winter ; there came no frost in the winter, and the
grass did not wither there much. Day and night were
more equally divided there than in Greenland or
Iceland : on the shortest day the sun was up over
the (Icelandic) marks for both nones and breakfast
time.1
Now when they had finished building their houses,
1 Lit : ' the sun had there eykt-place and dagmal-place on the
shortest day '. See Part II, Chapter V.
LEIF DISCOVERS WINELAND 43
Leif said to his men, ' Now I will divide our party
into two, and have the country explored : and one
half shall stay at home in camp while the other ex-
plore.s the country, going no further than they can
return by the evening, and not separating.' And so
for a time they did this, Leif sometimes going with the
explorers and at others staying at home in camp.
Leif was a big, strong man, the handsomest of men in
appearance, and clever ; in fact he was in all respects
an excellent commander.
It happened one evening that a man of their party-
was missing, and this was Tyrker the southerner.
Leif was much distressed at this, for Tyrker had been
long with his father and him, and had been very fond
of Leif as a child : so now Leif, after finding great
fault with his men, prepared to look for him, taking a
dozen men with him. But when they had got a little
way from camp Tyrker came towards them, and was
received with joy. Leif saw at once that his foster-
father was in good spirits.
Tyrker had a projecting forehead and a very small
face with roving eyes ; he was a small and insignificant
man, but handy at every kind of odd job.
Then Leif said to him, 'Why are you so late, my
foster-father, and why did you separate from your com
panions ? ' Tyrker at this spoke for a long time in
German, rolling his eyes and grimacing, but the others
did not distinguish what he was saying. But a little
later he said in Norse, * I did not go much further than
you, (but) I have found something fresh to report. I
found vines and grapes/ * Is that true, foster-father ? '
said Leif. ' Certainly it is true,' he replied, ' for I was
born where there was no lack of vines or grapes/
44 LEIF DISCOVERS WINELAND
Now they slept that night, but in the morning Leif
said to his crew, * We will now do two things, keeping
separate days for each ; we will gather grapes and cut
down vines, and fell wood, to make a cargo for my
ship,' and this suggestion was adopted. The story
goes that their pinnace was full of grapes. So a cargo
was cut for the ship, and in spring they made ready
and sailed away, and Leif gave the country a name
according to its resources, and called it Wineland.
So after this they put to sea, and the breeze was fair
till they sighted Greenland, and the mountains under
its glaciers. Then a man spoke up and said to Leif,
4 Why are you steering the ship so much into the
wind ? ' 'I am paying attention to my steering,'
replied Leif, ' but to something else as well : what do
you see that is strange ? ' They said they could see
nothing remarkable. ' I do not know ', said Leif,
* whether it is a ship or a reef that I see.' Then they
saw it, and said that it was a reef. But Leif was
longer sighted than they, so that he saw men on the
reef. ' Now,' said Leif, ' I wish that we should beat
up wind, so as to reach them if they need our help and
it is necessary to assist them, and if they are not
peaceably disposed we are masters of the situation
and they are not.' So they came up to the reef, and
lowered their sail and cast anchor : and they launched
a second dinghy that they had with them. Then
Tyrker asked who was the captain (of the shipwrecked
party). 'His name is Thori/ was the reply, 'and he
is a Norseman, but what is your name ? ' Leif told
his name. ' Are you a ' son of Eric the Red of
Brattahlid ? ' said Thori. Leif assented. ' Now,'
said Leif, ' I will take you all on board my ship, and
LEIF DISCOVERS WINELAND 45
as much of your stuff as the ship can hold/ They
agreed to these terms, and afterwards they sailed to
Ericsfjord with this freight, until they came to
Brattahlid where they unloaded the ship. After that
Leif invited Thori and Gudrid his wife, and three
other men to stay with him, and procured lodgings for
the rest of the crews, both Thori's men and his own.
Leif took fifteen men from the reef; he was subse
quently called Leif the lucky. So Leif gained both
wealth and honour. That winter Thori's folk were
much attacked by sickness, and Thori and a great part
of his crew died.1
IS. THORVALD'S VOYAGE AND DEATH
Translation from the Flatey Book.
Now there was much discussion of Leif's expedition
to Wineland, and Thorvald, his brother, thought that
the exploration of the country had been confined to
too narrow an area. So Leif said to Thorvald, ' If
you wish, brother, you shall go to Wineland in my
ship : but I wish the ship to go first for the wood
which Thori had on the reef/ And this was done.
Thereupon Thorvald prepared for this expedition,
taking thirty men, by the advice of Leif, his brother.
Afterwards they made their ship ready and held out to
sea, and there is no report of their voyage before they
came to Wineland to Leif s camp. There they laid up
their ship, and remained quiet that winter, catching fish
1 The text adds : — ' Eric the Red died also that winter/ I am
disposed to think this statement probable, but as Eric is frequently
mentioned later on in the alternative version, I omit this from the
story. (See, however, Part II, Chapter II, p. 135.)
46 THORVALD'S VOYAGE
for their food. But in the spring Thorvald told them
to make ready their ship, and ordered the ship's
pinnace with some of the crew to go to the west of
the country and explore there during the summer. It
seemed to them a fine wooded country, the trees
coming close down to the sea, and there were white
sands. There were many islands, and many shoals.
They found no traces either of men or beasts, except
that on an island to the west they found a wooden
barn.1 Finding no further human handiwork they
returned, and came to Leif's camp in the autumn.
But the next summer Thorvald sailed to the east with
his trading ship, and along the more northerly part of
the country : then a sharp storm arose off a cape,
so that they ran ashore, breaking the keel under their
ship ; so they made a long stay there to repair their
vessel. Then Thorvald said to his companions, ' Now
I wish that we should raise up the keel here on
the cape, and call it Keelness,' and so they did. After
wards they sailed away thence and eastward along the
coast and into the nearest fjord mouths, and to a
headland which ran out there : it was all covered with
wood. Then they moored their ship, and put out
the gangway to land, and there Thorvald went ashore
with all his crew. Then he remarked, * This is a
beautiful spot, where I should like to make my home.'
After this they returned to the ship, and saw on the
sands inside the headland three lumps, and on ap
proaching they saw three canoes of skin, with three
men beneath each. Thereupon they divided their
party, and laid hands on all of them, except one who
escaped with his canoe. They killed the eight, and
1 See note at end of section.
ANDDEATH 47
afterwards went back to the headland, when they saw
inside in the fjord some mounds, which they took to be
dwelling-places. After this there came over them so
great "a heaviness that they could not keep awake, and
they all fell asleep. Then came a cry above them, so
that they all woke up, and the cry was, ' Awake,
Thorvald, and all your company, if you value your life:
and return to your ship with all your men, and leave
the land with all speed.' At that there came from
within the fjord countless skin canoes, which made
towards them. So Thorvald said, * We must set the
war-shields over the side, and defend ourselves as well
as we can, while assuming the offensive but little.' So
they did, but the savages,1 after shooting at them for a
while, afterwards fled away, each as quickly as he
could. Then Thorvald asked his men if they were
wounded at all ; they said there were no casualties.
* I have got a wound under the arm,' said he ; 'an arrow
flew between the gunwale and the shield under my arm
and here it is, and it will be my death. Now my advice
is that you prepare to go away as quickly as possible,
after carrying me to that headland which I thought the
best place to dwell in : maybe it was the truth that
came into my mouth that I should stay there awhile.
Bury me there with a cross at my head and at my feet,
and call it Crossness hereafter for ever.' Greenland
was then converted, though Eric the Red died before
conversion.
Now Thorvald died, but they carried out all his
instructions, after which they went and met their
companions, and told each other such tidings as they
knew, and they stayed there that winter, gathering
1 Sknelmgar.
48 THORVALD'S VOYAGE
grapes and vines for their ship. Then in the spring
they prepared to go back to Greenland, and arrived with
their ship in Ericsfjord, with great news to tell Leif.
NOTE. * A wooden barn '. (Kornhjdlm af /re). This is the only
allusion, direct or indirect, which is made to corn in the course of the
Flatey Book version. It is frequently referred to as one of the absur
dities affecting the credit of this part of the story. But it does not
seem to me to have any necessary or probable connexion with the
wild corn of the Saga of Eric. The ' selfsown wheat' is never
mentioned by the historian of the Flatey Book ; unlike the wild
grapes, he does not seem to have heard of this feature. It is therefore
impossible to suppose that the barn is an imaginary feature introduced
to colour the reports of wild corn. It is recorded merely as the only
trace of human occupation met with during the exploration conducted
in the ship's pinnace. And its very inappropriateness to the unculti
vated crops of which we are told in the rival version seems to me
a strong proof of its authenticity. Like the whole of this part of the
story, it is too purposeless to be invented. We need not on this
account imagine that it actually was a barn. The storage of Indian
corn in New England, according to the earliest observers, was, for
the most part at any rate, in holes in the ground, and an island remote
from human habitation seems a most unlikely situation.
On the other hand, De Laet's Nieuwe Werelt reports Hudson
as having seen ' a house well constructed of oak bark, and circular
in shape, so that it had the appearance of being well built, with
an arched roof. It contained a great quantity of maize or Indian
corn, and beans of the last year's growth, and there lay near the
house, for the purpose of drying, enough to load three ships/
{Hudson the Navigator, Hakluyt Society, p. 161).
But there may easily be a different interpretation. ' Hjalm ' in
its primary meaning is a conical helm, then a stack or cock o( similar
shape, and so finally a building used to cover such a stack of corn.
Two possible explanations occur to me. One is that what was seen
and originally reported was a structure of poles and bark of conical
shape, and that the explorers, being unfamiliar at this time with
savage architecture, assumed that it was intended to cover a rick of
corn, which in shape it resembled. Alternatively it may be that
originally the reference was solely to its shape, and not to its purpose,
and that the first report mentioned a conical ' stack ' of poles. In
either case what was actually seen may well have been a deserted
wigwam of poles and bark such as the Micmacs and other Indians
build at the present day. In' the earliest records similar dwellings
are described, while in some cases those observed by Champlain
appear to have been roughly dome-shaped at the top ; this, as a glance
at those illustrated in the sketch-maps of that writer will show, would
ANDDEATH 49
give them even more exactly the form of a cock of hay or corn. It
seems to me that the knowledge of the wild corn mentioned in Eric's
Saga and by Adam of Bremen has alone diverted the minds of
previous commentators from this, the most probable explanation.
$9. THORSTEIN'S UNSUCCESSFUL
VENTURE
Translation from the Flatey Book.
It had happened in Greenland, meanwhile, that
Thorstein of Ericsfjord had taken in marriage
Thorbjorn's daughter Gudrid, who, as has already been
mentioned, had been the wife of Thori Eastman.
Now Thorstein Ericson wished to go to Wineland for
the body of Thorvald his brother, so he made ready
the same ship, choosing his crew for their strength and
size ; and with twenty-five men and Gudrid his wife
they put to sea when they were ready, and lost sight of
land. All the summer they tossed about in the open,
and did not know where they went, and in the first
week of winter they made the land at Lysefjord
in Greenland in the Western Settlement.
Thorstein looked for lodgings for the party, and got
them for all his crew, but he and his wife were house
less. So they remained behind by the ship some two
nights. Christianity was still new then in Greenland.
One day some men came to their tent early in the
morning. So these men who were there asked what
persons were in the tent. Thorstein replied : ' Two
persons/ he said, ' but who are you who ask ? ' ' My
name is Thorstein,' ( said one of the men), 'and
I am called Thorstein the Black, but my errand
here is to invite both of you to lodge with me.'
2376 D
50 THORSTEIN'S
Thorstein said that he wished to consult his wife, but
she told him to decide, whereupon he accepted.
' Then/ (said the man), * I will come for you to-morrow
with a carthorse, for I have plenty of room to take you
in ; but it is very dull to stay with me, for there
are just the two of us, my wife and I, and I am
of a very obstinate disposition. I hold a different
faith from you, though I consider that which you hold
is superior.' So then he came for them in the morning
with a horse, and they went to lodge with Thorstein
the Black, and he treated them well. Gudrid was
a woman of striking appearance, and a clever woman
who could get on well with strangers. Early in
the winter a plague attacked Thorstein Ericson's
party, and many of his companions died there.
Thorstein ordered coffins to be made for the bodies
of those who died, and directed that they should be
taken to the ship and looked after, ' for ', he said,
* I wish to remove all the bodies to Ericsfjord in the
summer.' Now after a short interval plague attacked
Thorstein's house, and his wife, whose name was
Grimhild, was the first to fall ill. She was very
energetic, and as strong as a man, yet the plague got
the better of her, and soon afterwards Thorstein
Ericson caught the plague, and they were both laid up
at the same time : and Grimhild, wife of Thorstein the
Black, died. Now when she was dead Thorstein
(the Black) went out of the room for a plank to lay the
body on. Then Gudrid spoke : ' Do not stay away
long, my Thorstein/ she said. He said it should be as
she wished. Then said Thorstein Ericson, * Wonderful
things are happening to our hostess now, for she
is raising herself up with her elbows, and moving
UNSUCCESSFUL VENTURE 51
her feet from the bench, and groping for her shoes ' :
and with that Thorstein the owner of the place came in,
whereupon Grimhild laid herself down, and every
beam. in the room creaked. Now Thorstein made
a coffin for Grimhild's body, and took it away and made
preparations. He was a big man and strong, but
he needed all this before he got her out of the house.
Now the illness of Thorstein Ericson grew worse, and
he died. Gudrid his wife hardly realized it. They
were all in the room at the time. Gudrid had seated
herself on a chair before the bench on which Thorstein
her husband had been laid. Then Thorstein the
owner of the house took Gudrid from the chair in his
arms, and sat on another bench with her opposite
Thorstein's corpse, and spoke to her about it in many
ways, and comforted her, promising her that he would
go with her to Ericsfjord with the bodies of Thorstein
her husband and his companions, and said, * I will also
engage more servants here to console and entertain
you.' She thanked him. Then Thorstein Ericson sat
up and cried, ' Where is Gudrid ? ' Three times
he said this, but she remained silent. Then she said
to Thorstein of the house, ' Shall I answer his speech
or not ? ' He told her not to answer. Then Thorstein
of the house crossed the floor, and sat on the chair
with Gudrid on his knees, and then he spoke, saying,
' What do you want, namesake ? ' A moment passed,
and the other answered : * I am anxious to tell Gudrid
her fortune, so that she can the better bear my death,
for I have come to a good resting-place. Now there
is this to tell you, Gudrid, that you will be married to
a man of Iceland, and your life together will be long,
and a great line of men will spring from you, vigorous,
D 2
52 THORSTEIN'S VENTURE
bright and good, sweet and of a good savour. You
will travel from Greenland to Norway, and thence to
Iceland, where you will build a home. There the two
of you will live long, and you will survive him. You
will go abroad and make a pilgrimage to Rome (lit. : go
south), and come back home to Iceland, and then
a church will be built there where you will remain and
take the vows of a nun, and there you will die.' Upon
this Thorstein sank back, and his body was prepared
and carried to the ship. Thorstein of the house
thoroughly performed all that he had promised Gudrid.
He sold his land and livestock in the spring, and
accompanied Gudrid to the ship with all that was his ;
he made the ship ready and engaged a crew, and then
sailed away to Ericsfjord. The bodies were now
buried by the church. Gudrid went to Leif at
Brattahlid, while Thorstein the Black built a house on
Ericsfjord, where he stayed during his life, being
considered the most chivalrous of men.
1 10. THE EXPEDITION OF THORFIN
KARLSEFNI
Translation from the text of the saga of Eric the Red collated with
that of Hauk's Book. Passages in italics from Hauk's Book only.
There was a man named Thord, who lived at Hbfda
in Hbfdastrand. He married Fridgerda, daughter of
Thori Hyma and of Fridgerda daughter of Kjarval
king of the Irish. Thord zuas a son of Bjb'rn
Byrdusmb'r, son of Thorvald Hrygg, son of Asleik, son
of Bjb'rn Ironside, son of Ragnar Shaggy -Breeches.
77iey had a son called Snorri : he married Thorhild
THORFIN KARLSEFNI 53
Rype, a daughter of Thord Gelli : their son was Thord
Horsehead. Thord Horsehead had a son called Thorfin
Karlsefni, who lived in the north at Reynisness in
Skagafjord, as it now is called. Besides being of
a good stock Karlsefni was a wealthy man. His
mother's name was Thorunn. He was in the cruising
trade, and had a good reputation as a sailor.
One summer Karlsefni made ready his ship for
a voyage to Greenland. Snorri Thorbrandson from
Alptafjord joined him,1 and they had forty men with
them. A man named Bjarni Grimolfson from
Breidafjord, and another called Thorhall Gamlison 2
from Eastfjord both made ready their ship the same
summer as Karlsefni to go to Greenland ; they had
forty men on board. They put to sea with these two
ships, when they were ready. We are not told how
long they were at sea ; suffice it to say that both these
ships arrived at Ericsfjord in the autumn. Eric and
other settlers rode to the ships, where they began
to trade freely : the skippers told Gudrid3 to help
herself from their wares, but Eric was not behindhand
in generosity, for he invited the crews of both ships to
his home at Brattahlid for the winter. The traders
accepted this offer and went with Eric. Thereupon
their stuff was removed to the house at Brattahlid,
where there was no lack of good large out-buildings in
which to store their goods, and the merchants had
a good time with Eric during the winter.
But as it drew towards Christmas Eric began to be
1 See note at end of this section.
2 This is corroborated by Gretti's Saga, Chaps. 14 and 30, where
one ' Thorhall Gamlison the Winelander ' is mentioned.
3 Hauk's Book: 'Eric'.
54 THE EXPEDITION OF
less cheerful than usual. One day Karlsefni came to
speak to Eric, and said : * Is anything the matter,
Eric ? It seems to me that you are rather more
silent than you used to be ; you are treating us with the
greatest generosity, and we owe it to you to repay you
so far as lies in our power, so tell us what is troubling
you.' ' You have been good and courteous guests,'
replied Eric, ' my mind is not troubled by any lack of
response on your part, it is rather that I am afraid it
will be said when you go elsewhere that you never passed
a worse Christmas than when you stayed with Eric
the Red at Brattahlid in Greenland! * ' That shall not
be so,' replied Karlsefni, 'we have on our ships malt
and meal and corn, and you are welcome to take
of it what you will, and make as fine a feast as
your ideas of hospitality suggest.' Eric accepted this
offer, and a Christmas feast was prepared, which was so
splendid that people thought they had hardly ever seen
so magnificent a feast in a poor country.
And after Christmas Karlsefni asked Eric for
Gudrid's hand, since it appeared to him to be a matter
under Eric's control, and moreover he thought her
a beautiful and. accomplished woman. Eric answered,
saying that he would certainly entertain his suit,
but that she was a good match ; that it was likely that
she would be fulfilling her destiny if she was married
to him, and that he had heard good of Karlsefni. So
then the proposal was conveyed to her, and she left it
to Eric to decide for her. And now it was not
long before this proposal was accepted, and the fes
tivities began again, and their wedding was celebrated.
1 Following the text of Hauk's Book, as the clearer sense.
,
THORFIN KARLSEFNI 55
There was a very merry time at Brattahlid in the winter
with much playing at draughts and story-telling, and
a great deal to make their stay pleasant.
[At this time there was much discussion at Brattahlid
during the winter 1 about a search for Wineland the
Good, and it was said that it would be a profitable
country to visit ; Karlsefni and Snorri resolved to
search for Wineland, and the project was much talked
about, so it came about that Karlsefni and Snorri
made ready their ship to go and look for the country
in the summer.2 The man named Bjarni, and Thorhall,
who have already been mentioned, joined the expedition
with their ship, and the crew which had accompanied
them. There was a man named Thorvald 3 (evidently
Thorvard), who was connected by marriage with Eric
the Red. He also went with them, and Thorhall who
was called the Hunter, he had been long engaged with
Eric as hunter in the summer,4 and had many things
in his charge. Thorhall was big and strong and dark,
and like a giant : he was rather old, of a temper hard
to manage, taciturn and of few words as a rule, cunning
but abusive, and he was always urging Eric to the
worse course. He had had little dealings with the
faith since it came to Greenland. Thorhall was rather
unpopular, yet for a long time Eric had been in the
habit of consulting him. He was on the ship with
Thorvald's men,5 for he had a wide experience of wild
1 The copyist of Eric's Saga misplaces this sentence, putting it
before ' with much playing ', Hauk's is th« preferable reading.
2 Hauk's Book : 'spring'.
3 Hauk's Book corrects this to c Thorvard, who married Freydis, an
illegitimate daughter of Eric the Red', but adds ' and Thorvald Ericson '.
Cf. Part II, Chapter II, p. 126.
4 Plural, therefore he had been with Eric many years.
5 Hauk's Book : ' with Thorvard and Thorvald '.
56 THE EXPEDITIOiN OF
countries. They had the ship which Thorbjbrn had
brought out there, and they joined themselves to
Karlsefni's party for the expedition, and the majority
of the men were Greenlanders. The total force on
board their ships was 160 men.1 After this they sailed
away to the Western Settlement and the Bear Isles.
They sailed away from the Bear Isles with a northerly
wind. They were at sea two days. Then they found
land, and rowing ashore in boats they examined the
country, and found there a quantity of flat stones,
which were so large that two men could easily have
lain sole to sole on them : there were many arctic
foxes there. They gave the place a name, calling it
Helluland. Then they sailed for two days with north
wind, and changed their course from south to south-east,
and then there was a land before them on which was
much wood and many beasts. An island lay there off
shore to the south-east, on which they found a bear,
and they called it Bjarn^y (Bear Island), but the land
where the wood was they called Markland (woodland).
[Then when two days were passed they sighted land,
up to which they sailed. There was a cape where they
arrived.2 They beat along the coast, and left the land
to starboard : it was a desolate place, and there were
long beaches and sands there. They rowed ashore,
and found there on the cape the keel of a ship, so they
called the place Keelness : they gave the beaches also
a name, calling them Furdustrands (the Wonder
Beaches) because the sail past them was long. Next
1 Eric's Saga says, ' forty men of the second hundred '. Hauk's
Book has, ' forty men and a hundred '. As the Icelandic hundred was
1 20, this means 160 in each case.
2 From [ Hauk's Book has : ' Thence they coasted south for
a long while, and came to a cape ', &c.
THORFIN KARLSEFNI 57
the country became indented with bays, into one of
which they steered the ships.
Now when Leif was with king Olaf Tryggvason and
he commissioned him to preach Christianity in Green
land, the king gave him two Scots, a man called Hake
and a woman Hekja. The king told Leif to make use
of these people if he had need of speed, for they were
swifter than deer : these people Leif and Eric provided
to accompany Karlsefni. Now when they had coasted
past Furdustrands they set the Scots ashore, telling
them to run southward along the land to explore the
resources of the country and come back before three
days were past. They were dressed in what they
called a ' kjafal' ^ which was made with a hood above,
and open at the sides without sleeves : it was fastened
between the legs, where a button and a loop held it
together : otherwise they were naked. They cast
anchor and lay there in the meanwhile. And when
three days were past they came running down from the
land, and one of them had in his hand a grape-duster
while the other had a wild (lit : self-sown2) ear of wheat.
They told Karlsefni that they thought that they had
found that the resources of the country were good.
They received them into their ship, and went their
ways, till the country was indented by a fjord. They
took the ships into the fjord. There was an island
outside, about which there were strong currents, so
they called it Straumsey (Tide or Current Island).
There were so many birds 3 on the island that a man's
1 Hauk's Book ; Eric's Saga has ' bjafal '. The word is clearly
Gaelic. Nansen suggests an Irish word, ' cabhail ', the body of a shirt.
Or possibly ' gioball ' = garment.
2 Hauk's Book has 'newly-sown'.
3 Hauk's Book: 'eiders'
5.8 THE EXPEDITION OF
feet could hardly come down between the eggs. They
held along the fjord, and called the place Straumsfjord,
and there they carried up their goods from the ships
and prepared to stay : they had with them all sorts of
cattle, and they explored the resources of the country
there. There were mountains there, and the view was
beautiful. They did nothing but explore the country.
There was plenty of grass there. They were there for
the winter, and the winter was severe, but they had
done nothing to provide for it, and victuals grew scarce,
and hunting and fishing deteriorated. Then they went
out to the island, in the hope that this place might
yield something in the way of fishing or. jetsam. But
there was little food to be obtained on it, though their
cattle throve there well. After this they cried to God
to send them something to eat, and their prayer was
not answered as soon as they desired. Thorhall
disappeared and men went in search of him : that lasted
three successive days. On the fourth day Karlsefni
and Bjarni found Thorhall on a crag ; he was gazing
into the air with staring eyes, open mouth, and dilated
nostrils, and scratching and pinching himself and
reciting something. They asked him why he had
come there. He said it was no business of theirs, told
them not to be surprised at it, and said that he had
lived long enough to make it unnecessary for them to
trouble about him. They told him to come home with
them, and he did so. Soon afterwards there came a
whale, and they went to it and cut it up, but no one
knew what sort of whale it was. Karlsefni had a great
knowledge of whales, but still he did not recognize
this one. The cooks boiled this whale, and they ate
it, but were all ill from it : then Thorhall came up and
THORFIN KARLSEFNI 59
said : ' Was not the Red-Beard (Thor) more useful
than your Christ ? This is my reward for chanting of
Thor my patron ; seldom has he failed me. ' But
when they heard this none of them would avail them
selves of the food, and they threw it down off the rocks
and committed their cause to God's mercy : the state of
the weather then improved and permitted them to row
out, and from that time there was no lack of provision
during the spring. They went into Straumsfjord, and
got supplies from both places, hunting on the mainland,
and eggs and fishing from the sea.
Now they consulted about their expedition, and were
divided. Thorhall the Hunter wished to go north by
Furdustrands and past Keelness, and so look for
Wineland, but Karlsefni wished to coast south [and
off the east coast, considering that the region which
lay more to the south was the larger, and it seemed to
him the best plan to explore both ways.1 So then
Thorhall made ready out by the islands, and there
were no more than nine men for his venture, the rest
of the party going with Karlsefni. And one clay as
Thorhall was carrying water to his ship he drank it,
and recited this verse :
They flattered my confiding ear
With tales of drink abounding here :
My curse itpon the thirsty land !
A warrior, trained to bear a brand,
A pail instead I have to bring,
A nd bovv my back beside the spring :
For neer a single draught of wine
Has passed these parching lips of mine?
1 From [ omitted in Hauk's Book.
2 These verses follow the H auk's Book text, which is here less
corrupt than the other.
6o THE EXPEDITION OF
After this they set out, and Karlsefni accompanied
them by the islands.
Before they hoisted their sail Thorhall recited a
verse :
Now let the vessel plough the main
To Greenland and our friends again :
Away, and leave the strenuous host
Who praise this God-forsaken coast
70 linger in a desert land,
And boil their whales in Furdustrand.1
Afterwards they parted, and they sailed north past
Furdustrands and Keelness, and wished to bear west
ward ; but they were met by a storm and cast ashore
in Ireland, where they were much ill-treated and en
slaved. There Thorhall died, according to the reports
of traders.
Karlsefni coasted south with Snorri and Bjarni and
the rest of their party. They sailed a long time, till
they came to a river which flowed down from the land
and through a lake into the sea : there were great shoals
of gravel there in front of the estuary and they could
not enter the river except at high tide. Karlsefni
and his party sailed into the estuary, and called the
place Hop.
They found there wild (lit : self-sown) fields of wheat
wherever the ground was low, but vines wherever they
explored the hills. Every brook was full of fish.
They made pits where the land met high-water mark,
and when the tide ebbed there were halibut in the pits.
There was a great quantity of animals of all sorts in
1 See note 2 on previous page.
THORFIN KARLSEFNI 61
the woods. They were there a fortnight, enjoying
themselves, without noticing anything further : they
had their cattle with them.
And one morning early, as they looked about them,
they saw nine skin canoes, on which staves were waved
with a noise just like threshing, and they were waved
with the sun. Then Karlsefni said, * What is the
meaning of this ? ' Snorri answered him, ' Perhaps
this is a sign of peace, so let us take a white shield
and lift it in answer,' and they did so. Then these
men rowed to meet them, and, astonished at what they
saw, they landed. They were swarthy x men and ugly,
with unkempt hair on their heads. They had large
eyes and broad cheeks. They stayed there some
time, showing surprise. Then they rowed away south
past the cape.
Karlsefni and his men had made their camp above
the lake, and some of the huts were near the mainland
while others were near the lake. So they remained
there that winter ; no snow fell, and their cattle re
mained in the open, finding their own pasture. But
at the beginning of spring they saw one morning early
a fleet of skin canoes rowing from the south past the
cape, so many that the sea was black with them,2 and
on each boat there were staves waved. Karlsefni and
his men raised their shields, and they began to trade :
the (strange) people wanted particularly to buy red
cloth, in exchange for which they offered skins and grey
furs. They wished also to buy swords and spears, but
Karlsefni and Snorri forbade this. The savages got
for a dark skin a spans length of red cloth, which they
1 So Hauk's Book ; the companion text has ' small '.
2 Lit. as many as if it had been sowed with coal.
62 THE EXPEDITION OF
bound round their heads.1 Thus things continued for
awhile, but when the cloth began to give out they cut
it into pieces so small that they were not more than
a finger's breadth. The savages gave as much for it
as before, or more.
It happened that a bull belonging to Karlsefni's
party ran out of the wood, and bellowed loudly : this
terrified the savages, and they ran out to their canoes,
and rowed south along the coast, and there was nothing-
more seen of them for three consecutive weeks. But
when that time had elapsed they saw a great number
of the boats of the savages coming from the south like
a rushing torrent, and this time all the staves were
waved widdershins, and all the savages yelled loudly.
Upon this Karlsefni's men took a red shield and raised
it in answer. The savages ran from their boats and
thereupon they met and fought ; there was a heavy
rain of missiles ; the savages had war-slings too. Karl-
sefni and Snorri observed that the savages raised up on
a pole a very large globe, closely resembling a sheep's
paunch and dark in colour, and it flew from the pole
up on land over the party, and made a terrible noise
where it came down. Upon this a great fear came on
Karlsefni and his party, so that they wished for nothing
but to get away up stream, for they thought that the
savages were setting upon them from all sides, nor did
they halt till they came to some rocks where they made
a determined resistance.
Freydis came out, and seeing Karlsefni's men re
treating she cried out, ' Why are such fine fellows as
you running away from these unworthy men, whom
I thought you could have butchered like cattle ? Now
1 Following Hank's Book, as the clearer text.
THORFIN KARLSEFNI 63
if I had a weapon it seems to me that I should fight
better than any of you.' They paid no attention to
what she said. Freydis wished to follow them, but
was rather slow because she was not well ; yet she
went after them into the wood, pursued by the savages.
She found before her a dead man, Thorbrand Snorre-
son, with a flat stone standing in his head : his sword
lay beside him. This she took up, and prepared to
defend herself with it. Then the savages set upon
her, but she drew out her breast from beneath her
clothes and beat the sword upon it : with that the
savages were afraid, and running back to their ships
they withdrew. Karlsefni's men came up to her and
praised her courage. Two men of Karlsefni's force
fell, but four 1 of the savages, although the former were
outnumbered. So then they went back to their huts,
and bound their wounds, and considered what that force
could have been which set upon them from the land
side ; it now appeared to them that the attacking
party consisted solely of those who came from the ships,
and that the others must have been a delusion.
Moreover the savages found a dead man with an
axe lying beside him. One of them took up the axe and
cut at a tree, and then each of the others did so, and they
thought it a treasure and that it cut well. Afterwards
one of them cut at a stone, and the axe broke, where
upon he thought that it was useless, since it did not
stand against the stone, and threw it down.
It now appeared to Karlsefni's party that though
this country had good resources yet they would live
in a perpetual state of warfare and alarm on account of
the aborigines. So they prepared to depart, intending
1 Hauk's Book has * several '.
64 THE EXPEDITION OF
to return to their own country. They coasted north
ward, and found five savages in skins sleeping by
the sea ; these had with them receptacles in which was
beast's marrow mixed with blood. They concluded
that these men must have been sent from the country l:
they killed them. Later on they discovered a pro
montory and a quantity of beasts : the promontory
had the appearance of a cake of dung, because the
beasts lay there in the winter.2 Now they came to
Straumsfjord, where there was plenty of every kind.
Some men say that Bjarni and Freydis 3 stayed
there with a hundred men and went no further, while
Karlsefni and Snorri went south with forty men,
staying no longer at Hop than a scant two months,
and returning the same summer.4
They considered that those mountains which were at Hop
and those which they now found were all one, and ivere
therefore close opposite one another, and that the distance
from Straumsfjord was the same in both directions!'
They were at Straumsfjord the third winter.
At this time the men were much divided into parties,
which happened because of the women, the unmarried men
claiming the wives of those who were married,* which
gave rise to the greatest disorder. There Karlsefni's
son, Snorri, was born the first autumn, and he ivas three
winters old when they left.Q
1 i. e. sent from Hop, as hostile emissaries or spies.
2 Hauk'sBook: 'at night*. 3 Hauk'sBook: 'Gudrid'.
4 Here follows this narrative's version of the death of Thorvald.
(See Appendix, p. 77.)
6 Following Hauk's text. Eric's Saga reads, 'They intended to
explore all those mountains which were at H6p, and those which they
found.' It continues ' they went back, and the third winter ', &c.
6 Following Hauk's text.
THORFIN KARLSEFNI 65
On sailing from Wineland they got a south wind,
and came to Markland, where they found five savages,
one of whom was bearded. There were two women
and two children : Karlsefrii's men caught the boys,
but the others escaped, disappearing into the ground.
But they kept the two boys with them, and taught
them speech, and they were christened. They called
their mother Vaetilldi and their father Uvaegi. They
said that the savages' country was governed by kings,
one of whom was called Avalldamon and the other
Valldidida. They said that there were no houses there :
people lived in dens or caves. They reported that
another country lay on the other side, opposite to their
own, where people lived who wore white clothes, and
uttered loud cries, and carried poles, and went with
flags. It is thought that this was Hvitramannaland, or
Ireland the Great. So then they came to Greenland,
and stayed with Eric the Red for the winter.
Then Bjarni Grimolfson was carried into the sea of
Greenland,1 and came into a sea infested by the teredo,
and the first thing they noticed was that the ship beneath
them was worm-eaten. So they discussed what plan
should be adopted. They had a boat which was coated
with seal-tar. It is said that the teredo does not eat
wood which is coated with seal-tar. The majority
declared in favour of the proposal to man the boat with
such men as she would accommodate. But when this
was tested the boat would not accommodate more than
half the crew. Bjarni then said that the manning of
the boat should be by lot, and not by rank. But every
man who was there wished to go in the boat, and she
1 Hauk's Book, probably more correctly ' Ireland '.
2376 E
66 THE EXPEDITION OF
could not take them all. For this reason T they agreed
to the course of drawing lots for the manning of the
boat from the ship. So the result of the drawing was
that Bjarni drew a seat in the boat, and about half the
crew with him. So those who had been chosen by
the lots w^nt from the ship into the boat. When they
had got into the boat, a young Icelander, who had
been one of Bjarni's companions, said, ' Do you mean,
Bjarni, to desert me here ? ' Bjarni replied, * So it has
turned out.' ' This is not what you promised me ',
said he, ' when I left my father's house in Iceland to
go with you.' * But still ', said Bjarni, ' I do not see
any other course in this predicament : but answer me,
what course do you advise?' 'The course I see',
said he, ' is that we change places, and you come here
while I go there.' Bjarni answered, * Be it so. For I see
that you cling greedily to life, and think it a hard thing
to die.' Thereupon they changed places. This man
went down into the boat, while Bjarni got on board
the ship, and men say that Bjarni was lost there in the
teredo sea, with those men who were on board with
him. But the boat and those on board of her went
their ways, till they came to land, at Dublin in Ireland,
where they afterwards told this story.
NOTE. Snorri Thorbrandson comes to Greenland. The Eyrbyggja
Saga (chap. 48) mentions this emigration of Snorri Thorbrandson
as an event taking place ' after the reconciliation of the men of Eyr
and Alptafjord '. The ingenuity of commentators in constructing
a difficulty is well exemplified in connexion with this passage. Chapter
49 begins with the words ' it was next after this that Gizur the White
and Hjalti his son-in-law came out with the mission of Christianity,
and all men in Iceland were baptized, and Christianity was legally
established at the general sessions'. The events thus described
1 Hauk's Book gives a different reason. ' All thought this such
a manly offer that no one would speak against it.'
THORFIN KARLSEFNI 67
happened in the year 1000. If therefore the emigration of Snorri
Thorbrandson is taken as the event after which Christianity was
introduced, a discrepancy in the chronology is apparent. A reference
to the context shows, however, that chapter 48 concludes the section
of the saga which deals with the dispute between the men of Eyr
and Alptafjord. It is in accordance with the usual practice in such
cases that the subsequent fate of the principal characters should be
briefly indicated. Thus in the Flatey Book the Wineland episode
concludes with the subsequent careers of Karlsefni and Gudrid, and
the mention of their descendants. The book then reverts to the
consideration of other matters following upon the death of Olaf
Tryggvason. It is therefore quite unnecessary to regard Snorri's
journey to Greenland and his Wineland adventures as taking place
immediately after the settlement of the feud in which his family were
concerned, while the introduction of Christianity is the next main
episode after the Eyr-Alptafjord quarrel, and does not necessarily
follow in date the minor facts recorded in winding up this matter.
It may further be. pointed out that the sequence of the two chapters
is not the same in all MSS. of the Eyrbyggja Saga.
Apart from this question of chronological discrepancy this passage
strongly corroborates the Wineland story, for it goes on to state how
' Snorri went to Wineland the Good with Karlsefni ; when they
fought with the savages there Thorbrand Snorrison, the bravest
of men, fell there '. Some texts read ' Snorri Thorbrandson ' for
' Thorbrand Snorrison ', but, apart from the occurrence of the correct
name in what is probably the most reliable manuscript, the sense
seems to demand a different name from that of the original subject
of the sentence, while to substitute Snorri, incorrectly, for a similar
name not previously mentioned is a natural and characteristic error
for a copyist to commit.
Jn. FREYDIS
Translation from the Flatey Book.
Now talk began again about the journey to Wine-
land, for the voyage thither seemed both lucrative and
honourable. The same summer that Karlsefni returned
from Wineland there came a ship from Norway to
Greenland, commanded by two brothers, Helgi and
Finnbogi, and they stayed that winter in Greenland.
These brothers were of an Icelandic stock from
Eastfjord. Now the story goes that Freydis, Eric's
E 2
68 F R E Y D I S
daughter, made a journey from her home at Garda,
and went to see the brothers, Helgi and Finnbogi, and
invited them to go to Wineland with their ship, and
divide with her all the profit they might make out of
it. They consented. From them she went and inter
viewed her brother Leif, whom she asked to give her
the houses which he had had built in Wineland ; but he
gave her the same answer as before, that he would
lend the houses but not give them. l So it was
arranged between the brothers 2 and Freydis that each
should take thirty fighting men on board, besides women.
But Freydis broke these terms at once, and took five
extra men, whom she hid, so that the brothers knew
nothing of it before they reached Wineland.
Now they put out to sea, having arranged to sail
together as far as practicable, and as it turned out
there was not much difference between them, but the
brothers were slightly the first to arrive, and took their
belongings up to Leifs camp. But when Freydis
arrived her ship was unloaded, and her things taken up
to the camp. Then Freydis said, ' Why have you
brought your property in here ? ' * Because we
imagined', said they, 'that the whole arrangement
between us was going to be kept.' ' Leif lenfme the
houses/ said she, 'but not you/ Then Helgi said,
' We brothers are no match for you in wickedness ' : so
they carried out their goods, and made themselves
a camp, which they placed further from the sea by the
shore of a lake, and they thoroughly settled in, while
Freydis had wood cut for her ship.
Now when winter set in the brothers suggested that
1 See Appendix, p. 83.
2 The text has * Karlsefni ', an obvious slip.
F R E Y D I S 69
games should be started to pass the time. This went
on for a while, until a quarrel arose which led to dis
cord between them, and the games stopped, and no
one went from the one camp to the other. This state
of things continued for a long time during the winter.
Then one morning early Freydis got out of bed and
dressed, but put nothing on her feet : and it happened
that there was a heavy dew. She took her husband's
cloak, and went out to the brothers' house, to the door :
now a man had been out shortly before, and had left
the door ajar. She opened the door, and stood for
a while in the doorway without saying anything, till
Finnbogi, who was lying furthest from the door and
who was awake, said, ' What do you want here,
Freydis ? ' She replied, ' I want you to get up and
come out with me, and I want to talk to you.' He
did as she asked, and they went to a log which was
lying under the wall of the house, and sat down on it.
' How are you enjoying yourself?' she said. * I like
the country,' he replied, * but I do not like the quarrel
which has sprung up between us, for I do not see any
reason for it.' 'There you speak truly,' said she,
'and I am of the same opinion, but my reason for
coming here to you is that I want to buy the ship which
belongs to you brothers, for you have a larger ship
than I, and I wish to go away from this place.' ' I will
agree to that ', said he, ' if it will please you.' With
that they separated ; she went home, and Finnbogi
went to bed. She climbed into bed with her cold feet,
and waked Thorvard with them, so that he asked her
why she was so cold and wet. She answered with great
vehemence, ' I have been to the brothers to bid for
their ship, since I wanted to buy a larger ship ; but
70 F R E V D I S
they took it so ill that they beat me and grossly
maltreated me : and you, miserable man, will neither
avenge my shame nor your own ; but I can realize now
that I am not in Greenland, and I will separate from
you if you will not avenge this.' And when he could
bear her reproaches no longer he ordered his men to
get up at once and take their weapons, and having done
so they went to the brothers' house, and they went in
to them as they slept, and took them and bound them,
and brought each man out as he was bound, and Freydis
had each one killed as he came out. Now all the men
were killed, but the women were left, and no one
would kill them. Then said Freydis, ' Hand me an
axe.' So they did, and she killed the five women who
were there, and left them dead.
Now after that outrage they returned to their camp^
and Freydis appeared to them to think that she had
arranged matters perfectly : and she said to her men,
' If we are lucky enough to get back to Greenland
I shall contrive the death of anyone who tells of these
doings ; we must rather say that they stayed behind
here when we came away.'
So early in the spring they made the ship ready
which had belonged to the brothers, and loaded it with
all the good things which they could collect and the
ship would hold. After this they put to sea, and had
a rapid voyage, and came with their ship to Ericsfjord
early in the summer. Karlsefni was there then, ready
to put to sea, and waiting for a breeze, and it is said
that no richer ship ever left Greenland than this which
he commanded.
Freydis now went to her house, which had stood
safe meanwhile, and having given large presents to all
F R E YD I S 71
her followers, because she wished to hush up her mis
deeds, she settled down at home. But all were not so
close as to keep silent about their crimes and wicked
ness, jthat it should not leak out anywhere. So now it
came to the knowledge of her brother Leif, who
thought it a thoroughly bad business. Then Leif took
three men of Freydis's crew and tortured them till they
told the whole of the circumstances, and their stories
tallied with one another. * I cannot bring myself,
said Leif, ' to treat Freydis, my sister, as she deserves,
but I will predict of them that their stock will never
be worth much/ And the end of it was that no one
from that time forward thought anything but ill of
them.
Now we must go back to the point where Karlsefni
made ready his ship and sailed to sea. He made
a good passage, and arriving in Norway safe and sound
he stayed there for the winter and sold his wares, and
both he and his wife were honourably received by the
noblest men in Norway. But in the following spring
he made his ship ready to sail to Iceland, and when he
was quite ready and his ship was waiting for a breeze
alongside the quay, a southerner came to him who
was of Bremen in Saxony, and bargained with
Karlsefni for his ' husa-snotra '. 1 'I will not sell it ',
said he. ' I will give you half a mark of gold for it ',
said the southerner. Karlsefni thought it a good bid,
and thereupon they clinched the bargain. The
southerner went away with the * husa-snotra ' ; now
Karlsefni did not know what wood it was, but it was
' mausur ' come from Wineland.
Now Karlsefni put to sea, and came with his ship
1 The meaning of this word is uncertain.
72 F R E Y D I S
along the north of the land to Skagafjord, and his ship
was laid up there for the winter. But in the spring he
bought Glaumbaejarland, and built a house there, where
he passed the remainder of his life : he was a most noble
man, and many men and a good stock are descended
from him and his wife Gudrid. And when Karlsefni
was dead, Gudrid and Snorri her son, who was
born in Wineland, took over the management of the
place. But when Snorri married Gudrid went abroad,
and made a pilgrimage to Rome (lit. : went south),
and returned to the house of Snorri her son, who had
by that time had a church built at Glaumbcejar. After
wards Gudrid became a nun and lived the life of
a recluse, and she remained there while she lived.
Snorri had a son named Thorgeir, who was father of
Ingveld, mother of Bishop Brand. Snorri Karlsefni-
son had a daughter named Hallfrid, she was the
mother1 of Runolf, the father of Bishop Thorlak.
There was a son of Karlsefni and Gudrid called Bjorn ;
he was the father of Thorunn, the mother of Bishop
Bjorn. Many men are descended from Karlsefni, and
he became blessed in his descendants : and Karlsefni
has told most clearly of all men the incidents of all
these voyages, of which something has now .been
related.
1 A mistake. Hallfrid was the wife of Runolf, and mother of
Bishop Thorlak.
APPENDIX
-ALTERNATIVE VERSIONS AND
SUPPLEMENTARY PASSAGES
i. ERIC THE RED.
Eyrbyggja Saga, chap. 24.
At the same sessions the family of Thorgest the
Old and the sons of Thord Gelli prosecuted Eric the
Red for the slaughter of Thorgest's sons, which had
occurred in the autumn, when Eric went after his beams
to Breidabolstad ; and these sessions were very well
attended. The parties had previously had a numerous
following. During the sessions Eric had a ship made
ready for sea in Ericsvag in Oxney : and Eric's party
were assisted by Thorbjorn Vifilson and Styr the
Slayer and the sons of Thorbrand of Alptafjord and
Eyulf ^Esuson from Sviney ; but Styr was Eric's sole
supporter at the sessions, and he drew away from
Thorgest all the men he could. Styr then asked
Snorri Godi not to attack Eric after the sessions with
Thorgest's men, promising Snorri in return that he
would help him another time, if he should happen to
get into difficulties ; and because of this promise
Snorri lost interest in the proceedings. Now after
the sessions Thorgest and his men went with a number
of ships in among the islands, but Eyulf ^Esuson hid
Eric's ship in Dimunavag, where Styr and Thorbjorn
met Eric : Eyulf and Styr followed Arnkel's example
by escorting Eric together on his journey out round
Ellida Island.
74 APPENDIX
On that expedition Eric the Red discovered Green
land, and stayed there three winters, after which he
went to Iceland, where he stayed one winter before
setting out to colonize Greenland, and that was four
teen winters before Christianity was legally established
in Iceland.
From Arts hlendingabdk.
That land, which is called Greenland, was discovered
and colonized from Iceland. It was a man called Eric
the Red from Breidafjord who went out thither from
this country, and he settled in the place which was
afterwards called Ericsfjord : he named the country, and
called it Greenland ; saying that the fact that the country
had a good name would attract men to journey thither.
They found there, both in the east and the west of
the country, dwellings of men, and fragments of canoes,
and stone implements of a kind from which one may
tell that there the same kind of people had passed who
have settled in Wineland, and whom the Greenlanders
call 'skraelings' (savages). Now when he started to
colonize the country it was fourteen to fifteen winters
before Christianity came here to Iceland, according
to what was told Thorkel Gellison in Greenland by
one who himself accompanied Eric the Red.
2. LEIF.
Saga of Olaf Tryggvason (Frissbdk text).
The same winter Leif, the son of Eric the Red, was
with King Olaf, in great favour, and he adopted
Christianity. But that summer when Gizur went to
Iceland King Olaf sent Leif to Greenland, to preach
Christianity there. He sailed that summer to Green-
ALTERNATIVE VERSIONS 75
land. He found at sea men on a wreck, whom he
assisted. Then too he discovered Wineland the Good,
and he came jn the autumn to Greenland. He brought
thither a priest and other clergy, and he went home to
Eric his father at Brattahlid. Men called him after
wards Leif the Lucky. But Eric, his father, said that
the account was balanced, by Leif s rescue of the crew
at sea, and his importation of the hypocrite to Green
land. This referred to the priest.
Kristni Saga (Haitk's Book).
That summer Olaf the king went from the country
south to Wendland : then too he sent Leif Ericson to
Greenland, to preach the faith there : then Leif found
Wineland the Good, he found also men on a wreck at
sea, wherefore he was called Leif the Lucky.
Flatey Book, chap. 352 (in the body of the Saga of Olaf
Tryggvason).
Then the king had the Long Serpent brought out,
and many other ships both great and small. That
same summer he sent Gizur and Hjalti to Iceland, as
has already been written. Then King Olaf sent Leif
to Greenland to preach Christianity there. The king
got him a priest and some other holy men to baptize
people there and teach them the true faith. Leif went
that summer to Greenland, and brought into safety
a crew of men who were at that time in distress and
lay upon a wreck. He came at the end of that summer
to Greenland, and went to Eric his father to stay at
Brattahlid. Afterwards men called him Leif the Lucky.
But Eric his father said that the account was balanced,
in that Leif had rescued the crew and given the men
life, and had brought a hypocrite to Greenland. So
76 APPENDIX
he called the priest. Yet by the counsel and persuasion
of Leif, Eric and all the people in Greenland were
baptized.
Saga of Eric the Red and Hanks Book, the latter
italicized.
' Leif put to sea when he was ready. He was driven
about at sea for a long time, and lighted on lands
whose existence he had not before suspected. There
were wild (lit. : self-sown) wheatfields there, and vines
growing. There were also those trees which are called
"mosur", and they had some samples of all these things:
some of the trees were so large that they were used in
house-building. Leif found men on a wreck and took
them home with him, and got them all lodging for the
winter. He showed in this the greatest courtesy and
courage, as in many other ways, since he introduced
Christianity into the country, and rescued the men, and
he was ever afterwards called Leif the Lucky/
Flatey Book.
When sixteen winters had passed since the time
when Eric the Red crossed to live in Greenland, Leif,
Eric's son, travelled from Greenland to Norway : he
came to Trondhjem in the autumn when King'Olaf
Tryggvason was come from the north from Halogaland
(A. D. 999). Leif brought his ship into Nidaros, and
went straight to King Olaf. The king preached the
faith to him as he did to other heathen men who
came to him. The king had an easy task with Leif,
so he was baptized, and all his crew ; Leif stayed with
the king during the winter, and was hospitably
entertained.
ALTERNATIVE VERSIONS 77
3. THORVALD'S VOYAGE.
Hau&s Book : the companion text is here badly confused
by the copyist.
Karlsefni went with one ship to look for Thorhall
the Hunter, while the main body remained behind, and
they travelled north past Keelness, and then bore
along to the west of it, having the land on their port
side. There there was nothing but desolate woods,
with hardly any open places. And when they had
sailed a long time, a river came down from the land
from the east to the west: they entered the mouth of
the river, and lay by its southern bank. It happened
one morning that Karlsefni and his men saw before
them on an open place a speck, which glittered before
them, and they shouted at it ; it moved, and it was a
uniped, which darted down to the bank of the river by
which they lay. Thorvald, son of Eric the Red, was
sitting by the rudder, and the uniped shot an arrow into
his entrails. Thorvald drew out the arrow, crying,
' There is fat about my belly, we have reached a good
country, though we are hardly allowed to enjoy it.'1
Thorvald died of this wound soon afterwards. Then
the uniped rushed away, and back northward.
Karlsefni and his men pursued him, and saw him from
time to time. The last they saw of him was that he
ran towards a certain creek. Then Karlsefni and his
1 The dying speech ascribed here to Thorvald is evidently borrowed
from that of Thormod Kolbrunarskald after the battle of Stiklestad,
where the point is much more easy to grasp. Thorvald means that
he has come to a land providing plenty of nourishment, otherwise
he would not be fat.
78 APPENDIX
men turned back. Thereupon a man sang this little
ditty :
Hear, Karlsefni, while I sing
Of a true but wondrous thing,
How thy crew all vainly sped,
Following a uniped :
Strange it was to see him bound
Swiftly o'er the broken ground.
Then they went away, and back north, and imagined
that they saw Uniped Land. They would not then
risk their people further.
4. THORSTEIN'S VOYAGE.
Saga of Eric the Red and Haitks Book, the latter
italicized.
At this time men spoke much of seeking for those
countries which Leif had found. The leader of the
project was Thorstein Ericson, a clever and popular
man. Eric was also asked to join, since his luck and
foresight were most highly thought of. He was a long
time making up his mind, but he did not refuse what his
friends asked ; x so in the end they made ready the
ship which Thorbjorn had brought over, and manned
her with twenty men, taking little cargo, mostly arms
and provisions. The morning when Eric rode from
his home he took a casket containing gold and silver,
which he hid before going on his way, but when he
had hardly started he fell from horseback and broke a
rib, and hurt his arm in the shoulder-joint, which
made him cry out. In consequence of this mishap he
told his wife to remove the money which he had
1 Following Hauk's text, to supply what is illegible in the other
version.
ALTERNATIVE VERSIONS 79
hidden, considering that he had incurred this punish
ment by hiding it. Thereupon they sailed out from
Ericsfjord in high spirits, thinking most favourably of
their project. But they were tossed about for a long
time in the ocean, and could not keep on the course
which they desired. They sighted Iceland, and they
came across birds from Ireland. Then their ship was
driven out over the ocean. They came back in the
autumn, exceedingly worn out and exhausted ; they
came to Ericsfjord at the beginning of winter. Then
Eric said, ' We were merrier in the summer sailing out
of the fjord than we are now, and yet we have still
much to be thankful for.' Thorstein replied, e It is
proper now for the leaders to think out some good
plan for all these men who are here now unprovided
for, and to get them lodging for the winter/ Eric
answered, '// is a true saying that one is only wise
after the event, and our experience proves it. You shall
now have your way in this matter' And so all who
had no other lodging went with the father and son, after
which they went home to Brattahlid, where they stayed
ditring the winter^
Now at this point the story tells how Thorstein
Ericson proposed for the hand of Gudrid, Thorbjorn's
daughter. The proposal was accepted both by her
and by her father, and the matter was concluded by
the marriage of Thorstein to Gudrid, which took place
at Brattahlid in the autumn. The festivity was a
success, and very well attended. Thorstein had an
estate in the Western Settlement, in the district known
as Lysefjord. A man named Thorstein had also a
1 Following Hauk's text, the other version being badly confused
here.
8o APPENDIX
share in the place : his wife's name was Sigrid.
Thorstein went to Lysefjord in the autumn, to his
namesake, and Gudrid with him. They were given
a good reception and stayed there for the winter. But
as the winter drew on it happened that their estate
was visited by a plague. The foreman there was
a man named Gardi, who was an unpopular man : he
was the first to fall ill and die. After that it was not
long before one person after another fell ill and died.
Then Thorstein Ericson and Sigrid, wife of (the other)
Thorstein, fell ill, and one evening the latter wished to
go to the yard which stood opposite the front door.
Gudrid accompanied her, and they sat facing the
doors. Then Sigrid uttered a cry. ' We have been
foolish ', said Gudrid, ' to come unprotected into the
cold weather, so let us go in at once/ 'It is not
possible to do so ', replied Sigrid. ' All the host of the
dead is here before the doors, and there in the throng
I recognize Thorstein your husband, and myself, and
a sad sight it is.' And when this passed off she said,
' Now I do not see the host.' The foreman had also
vanished then, who had seemed to Sigrid at first to
have a whip in his hand, and to have made as if to
beat the host. After this they went in, and 'before
morning came Sigrid was dead, and a coffin was made
for her body. And the same day men were intending
to go rowing out, and Thorstein conducted them to
the quay, and in the twilight he went to see after their
fishing. Then Thorstein Ericson sent his namesake
word to come to him, saying that they were having an
uneasy time in the house, for the housewife made as if
to get on her feet, and get under the clothes by him ;
and when Thorstein came in she had come to the
ALTERNATIVE VERSIONS 81
bedpost close to Ericson. He took her by the hands,
and laid an axe to her breast. Thorstein Ericson
died about sunset. (His namesake) Thorstein told
Gudrid to lie down and sleep, saying that he would
watch through the night over the bodies. She did as
he told her and soon fell asleep, but when a little of
the night was past Thorstein Ericson raised himself
up, and said that he wished Gudrid to be called there,
and that he wished to speak to her. ' It is God's will
that this hour be given me for leave of absence, and
for the perfecting of my advice.' Thorstein went to
Gudrid, and woke her, telling her to cross herself and
pray God to help her, and said, ' Thorstein Ericson has
spoken to me, saying that he wishes to see you. Now
you must decide what to do, for I cannot advise you.'
She replied, * It may be that this, this wonderful event,
is meant for one of those things which are remembered
afterwards, but I hope that God will watch over me.
With God's mercy I will risk speaking to him, for I
must not at such a time shrink from harm to myself.
I will do it lest he should go further, for I suspect that
would happen otherwise.' So then Gudrid went and
saw Thorstein (her husband) and it seemed to her as
if he shed tears, and spoke some words low in her ear
so that she alone heard, and he said that those were
blessed who kept the faith well, and mercy and
succour attended them : but he said that many kept it
ill : — ' That is no good custom which has prevailed
here in Greenland since Christianity was introduced,
to put men in unconsecrated ground with but little
singing over them. I wish to be taken to the church
with the others who have died here, but Gardi I wish
to have burnt on a pyre as soon as possible, for he is
82 APPENDIX
the cause of all the apparitions which have been here
this winter/ l He spoke to her also of her affairs, and
said that she would have a great future. And he told
her to beware of marrying a Greenlander : he told her
too to contribute their money to the church, or to give
it to poor men, and then he sank back for the second
time.
The custom in Greenland, since the introduction of
Christianity, had been that men were buried on the
farms where they died, in unconsecrated ground, and
a stake would be set up from their breasts, and later
on, when priests came, the stake would be drawn up,
and holy water poured in there, and a funeral service
sung over them, though it might be long afterwards.2
The bodies were carried to the church at Ericsfjord
and funeral services held over them by the priests.
After this Thorbjorn died, and all his property then
came to Gudrid. Eric took her in, and looked after
her well.
5. THORFIN KARLSEFNI.
Flatey Book Version.
That same summer (when Thorstein the Black
brought Gudrid to Ericsfjord) a ship ca'me to
Greenland from Norway, commanded by a man
named Thorfin Karlsefni, who was a son of Thord
Horsehead, son of Snorri Thordarson of (Hofda).8
Thorfin Karlsefni was a wealthy man, and he stayed at
1 Or, ' he lords it over all the apparitions ', etc.
2 I have heard of a similar custom in the more remote parts of
Norway at the present day, where the visits of the priest are infrequent.
The only difference is that earth is sprinkled into the hole when the
funeral service is read, instead of holy water.
3 Word omitted in MS.
ALTERNATIVE VERSIONS 83
Brattahlid with Leif Ericson during the winter. He
soon turned his attention to Gudrid, and proposed to
her, but she left it to Leif to answer for her. After
wards -they were betrothed, and their wedding took
place that winter. There were the same discussions
as before about a Wineland voyage, and people-
both Gudrid and others — strongly urged Karlsefni to
undertake that journey. So then his expedition was
arranged, and he engaged his crew, sixty men and five
women. Karlsefni agreed with his crew that they
should have an equal share in any profit they might
make. They had with them all kinds of cattle,
because they proposed to colonize the country if they
could. Karlsefni asked Leif for his houses in Wine-
land, but he declared that he would lend his houses
but not give them. Afterwards they put out to sea with
their ship, and arriving at Leif s camp safe and sound
they carried up their baggage.
They soon made a great and a good catch, for a
whale both large and good was stranded there, upon
which they went to the whale and cut it up ; they were
then in no want of food. The cattle went ashore there,
but it soon came about that the males were unmanage
able, and made great havoc about them. They had
brought a bull with them. Karlsefni had wood cut,
and shaped into a cargo for the ship, and laid the
wood on a rock to season. They all took advantage
of the valuable resources of the country, such as there
were in the way of grapes and all kinds of game and
good things. In the summer following the first
winter they became acquainted with savages, a great
crowd of whom came from the forest : their cattle were
close by, and the bull began to bellow and roar very
¥ 2
84 APPENDIX
loudly ; now this terrified the savages, and they ran
away with their packs, which consisted of grey furs
and sables and all kinds of peltries, and turning
towards Karlsefni's house they would have entered it,
but Karlsefni had the doors guarded. Neither side
understood the speech of the other : then the savages
brought down their packs and undid them and offered
their wares, desiring especially weapons in exchange,
but Karlsefni forbade his men to sell weapons. And
now he hit upon the idea of telling the women to carry
out milk to them, and when they saw the milk they
wished to buy that and nothing else. So then the
result of the savages' trading was that they carried
away their purchases in their stomachs, but Karlsefni
and his companions kept their bales and furs ; so they
went away.
Now the story goes that Karlsefni had a strong
palisade made round his house, and preparations made
there (for defence). At that time Gudrid, Karlsefni's
wife, bore a boy child, and the boy was called Snorri.
Then at the beginning of the second winter the
savages came to them in much greater numbers than
before, with the same kind of wares as previously.
Thereupon Karlsefni said to the women, * Nt>w you
must carry out the food for which there was a demand
on the former occasion, and nothing else.' And when
they saw it they threw their packs in over the
palisade.
But Gudrid was sitting in the doorway by the cradle
of Snorri her son : then a shadow appeared in the
doorway and there came in a woman in a black
1 namkirtle '. She was rather short, and had a band
round her head ; her hair was light brown ; she was
ALTERNATIVE VERSIONS 85
pale and had eyes so large that no one had ever seen
eyes so large in a human head. She went up to
where Gudrid was sitting, and said, ' What is your
name ?-' ' My name is Gudrid,' said she ; ' but what
is yours ? ' ' My name is Gudrid ', said she. Then
Gudrid the housewife beckoned with her hand to her
to sit by her, when all of a sudden Gudrid heard a
great crash, and the woman had then vanished, and
simultaneously one of the savages was killed by one
of Karlsefni's servants, because he had wanted to steal
their arms, whereupon they ran away as fast as
possible, leaving their clothing and wares behind them.
No one had seen that woman but Gudrid only.
' Now we must take counsel,' said Karlsefni, ' for I
imagine they will pay us a third visit in a strong and
hostile body. Now the plan which we should adopt is
that ten men go forward on to this point and show
themselves there, while the rest of our force go into
the forest and there cut clearings for our cattle, as the
army comes out of the wood. We ought also to take
our bull, and let it go before us.'
Now the place where their meeting was arranged
had a lake on one side and the forest on the other.
Karlsefni's advice was followed, and the savages came
into the place which Karlsefni had planned for the
battle ; so the fight took place, and many of the
savages' army fell. There was a tall and distinguished
man in the army of the savages, who Karlsefni
thought must be their chief: now one of the savages
had taken up an axe, and having looked at it for a
while he raised it against one of his fellows and hewed
at him so that he fell dead ; whereat the tall man took
hold of the axe and looked at it for a time, after which
86 APPENDIX
he flung it into the sea as far as he could ; and there
upon they fled into the forest, each one as best he
might, and thus their fight then came to an end.
Karlsefni's men were there all that winter, but in
spring Karlsefni announced that he would not stay
there longer, but would sail to Greenland. So then
they made ready for their voyage, and they brought
thence much that was of value in vines and grapes and
furs. Now they put out to sea, and came safely to
Ericsfjord with their ship, and were there for the
winter.
6. KARLSEFNI'S DESCENDANTS.
Saga of Eric the Red with If auks Book. ( The latter
italicized^)
The second summer after this Karlsefni came to
Iceland, and Snorri l with him, and he went home to
Reynisness. His mother thought that he had made
a poor match, and so Gudrid was not at their house
the first winter. But when she found that Gudrid was
a very fine lady she came home, and they got on well
together.
The daughter of Snorri Karlsefnison was Hallfrid,
the mother of Bishop Thorlak, son of Runolf. They
(i.e. Karlsefni and Gudrid) had a son called Thorbjorn.
His daughter was called Thorunn, the mother of
Bishop Bjorn. There was a son of Snorri Karlsefnison
called Thorgeir, the father of Ingveld, the mother of
Bishop Brand the first. Another daughter of Snorri
Karlsefnison was Sleinunn, who married Einar, son of
Grunda-Ketil, son of 7~horvald Krok, son of Thori
1 Hauk's Book, ' Gudrid '.
ALTERNATIVE VERSIONS 87
of Espihol. Their son ivas Thor stein the Unjust, who
was father to Gudrun who married Jorund of Keldi :
their daughter was Halla, mother of Flosi, father of
Valgerda, mother of Sir Erlend the Strong, father
of Sir Hauk the Lawman. Another daughter of Flosi
was Thordis, mother of Lady Ingigerd the Rich. Her
daughter was Lady Hallbera, abbess of Reynisness at
Stad. A number of great men in Iceland besides are
sprung from Karlsefni and Gudrid, who are not
catalogued here. God be wit hits. Amen. And that is
the end of this story.
Aris Islendingabdk.
And, the woman colonist, who settled to the west of
Breidafjord in Hvamm, was mother of Thorstein the
Red, father of Olaf Feilan, father of Thord Gelli,
father of Thorhild Rype, mother of Thord Horsehead,
father of Carlsefni, father of Snorri, father of Hallfrid,
mother of Thorlak, who is now bishop in Scalaholt.
\
PART II. DISCUSSION
i. NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE
IN order to judge what historical value should be
assigned to the narrative here translated, it is necessary
for the reader to have a clear idea of the nature of saga
literature, and some notion of the process by which
such stories were transmitted from the time of their
occurrence to the period, more than three centuries
later, when they assumed the form which is now
known to us. In view of the fact, which must be at
once conceded, that we are dependent upon an interval
of oral tradition before any written account of the
Wineland voyages can have come into existence, we
must first of all consider how the special characteristics
of story-telling in Iceland affect the reliability of such
tradition ; next we should look for any early corrobora-
tion bearing upon the questions involved; and. finally
we must consider the manuscripts which form the
basis of the story, and inquire into any circumstances
which may make one source preferable to another.
Oral Tradition in Iceland.
None of the Wineland voyages which form the
subject of our inquiry can have taken place later than—
say — A. D. 1030, and the earliest would appear to date
from as early as 986. Until the inconvenient runic
alphabet, suited only to short inscriptions, was super-
NATURE OF EVIDENCE 89
seded by something better adapted to the requirements
of fluent literary composition, the history of such
events could be preserved only by word of mouth.
This -change did not occur till at any rate nearly a
century had elapsed from the time of the occurrences
with which we are dealing. Oral tradition, however,
may, under favourable conditions, show a fidelity to
the actual facts which is at first sight surprising.
Mention might be made in this connexion of the
Scottish Highlands, where, in spite of the Celtic
imagination, the 'shenachies' or prose annalists
attached to the more important families have been
found to have transmitted historical facts which have
been most exactly confirmed by subsequent investi
gation of documentary evidence. A little consideration
will show that this is not so extraordinary as one
might superficially be disposed to imagine. The dis
tinction, recognized by our law, between libel and
slander is partly at any rate based upon a consideration
which should be borne in mind in this connexion.
The written word remains, even though contradicted
and disproved ; nay, it may not infrequently survive
its contradiction. The verbal narrator of contemporary
events, however, is always liable to have among his
audience those who are as thoroughly conversant
with the facts described as he is himself. An in
accuracy may be suddenly and unpleasantly brought
to book ; the lie is no sooner uttered than it is
denounced and exposed. We find a good illustration
of the embarrassing predicament in which a story
teller might find himself placed (though the hero in
this instance came out of the ordeal with credit) in
the episode of the Icelandic saga-man at the court
90 NATUREOF
of King Harald Haardraade which is reproduced among
the excerpts in Vigfusson and Powell's Icelandic Reader
(p. 141). This young man, we are told, was taken in
at court for the purpose of entertaining the body
guard with his sagas. About Christmas time he
began to grow melancholy, and on the cause being
investigated it was found that he had used up all
his stories but one just at the time — the Yuletide
festivities — when his accomplishment was most in
demand. This remaining story he hesitated to recite,
for it was the saga of the king's own travels. En
couraged, however, by Harald himself, he ventured
upon his embarrassing task, the hero of the exploits
described being present among the audience. The
story was told, and the days passed by, but the Ice
lander evinced no curiosity to know how his rendering
had pleased the person who had first-hand knowledge
of the facts. * I am afraid about it ' w^as his reply,
when the king drew his attention to this omission
on his part. Harald reassured him, however, saying
that his version was perfectly correct, and inquired
the source from which so accurate a report had been
obtained. On learning that one Halldor Snorrison
was the person originally responsible, the king said
that he was no longer surprised at the accuracy of the
tale, and offered the narrator the hospitality of his
court on any future occasion when he might wish to
come there.
Another instance, where the consequences were
not so satisfactory to the story-teller, occurs in Njal's
Saga, where Gunnar Lambison is requested by King
Sigtrygg in the Orkneys to give an account of the
burning of Njdl in his house, to which he had been
THE EVIDENCE 91
a party. He starts telling the story in an unfair and
inaccurate manner, stating among other things t|iat
Skarphedinn, Njal's son, had wept as the danger closed
round him. Upon this Kari, who has been listening
at the door, dashes in with a drawn sword, and cuts
off the head of the untruthful historian. Flosi, another
of the burners, defends and justifies Kari's action, and
thereupon tells the story himself, and as he favours
neither one side nor the other unduly in his narration
we are told that his story was believed.
Now the conditions of this art of story-telling in
Iceland were unusually favourable to the maintenance
of an accurate tradition. In the first place, as may
be seen from the instance cited, the practice was to
all intents and purposes contemporaneous with the
occurrence of the events described. In the second
place, a point which will fall to be developed later on,
it is evident that the taste of the Icelandic audience
was intensely practical and unimaginative. Supersti
tions no doubt there were, in Iceland as throughout
the whole world of this and indeed far later periods,
but even their ghosts and supernatural occurrences
are treated by this people, far more than by any other
with whose works I am conversant, as something all
in the day's work. The Icelander did not want, like
the Celt or the later Romancers, to surround his
heroes with an atmosphere of picturesque mythology ;
his principal desire was to learn in the utmost detail
exactly how everything was done, with the dates,
genealogies, and circumstances relevant to the story
to which he was listening.
I have mentioned the word genealogies, and this
brings me to the last factor which operated in favour
92 NATUREOF
of the accuracy of oral tradition in Iceland. The
colony was from its very nature composed of a great
number of more or less connected families, equal in
social status, and known to each other to consist of
men of like passions with themselves. There was
no king, no outstanding heroic personality, round
whose unapproachable majesty the flattering tongues
of courtiers could weave their myths and fictions.
The saga-teller moreover was not, like the bards and
shenachies of the Scottish Highlands, the appanage
of a single family. He moved from place to place,
whiling away the monotony of the Arctic winter with
his histories, and the hero of one locality was in
another an ancestor or a member of a family in no
way superior to the persons who were gathered to
hear the tale. Each listener was deeply versed in
genealogy, a subject which was clearly regarded as
of primary importance. Most great families, by dint
of intermarriage, were connected with at all events
some of the characters which were introduced into
almost any saga, and the necessity of reciting correctly
before the most critical of audiences the intricate
ramifications of all the family trees occurring in the
course of the narrative must have been the* best
possible discipline to produce a school where accuracy
was placed above every other consideration.
From the circumstance, too, that the story had to
satisfy the inhabitants and the visitors of a number
of different settlements, with an equal social status
but with frequently conflicting interests, arose the
characteristic which has often been noticed by students
of Icelandic literature, that both or all sides of a
question are stated fairly, the author or reciter being,
THE EVIDENCE 93
as Vigfusson has put it, ' a heathen with the heathen,
a wrathful man with the avenger, and a sorrowful man
with the mourner, as his style reflects the varied
feelings of his dramatis personae '-1
We have therefore the best of grounds for imagining
that the exploits of those who fought, litigated, or
explored in the tenth and eleventh centuries were
carried with truth, impartiality, and accuracy over the
brief interval which separated them from the age of
written history, which dawned with Ari the Learned.
Ari the Learned.
This pioneer of Icelandic history and of the age of
writing was born, as we learn from the Icelandic Annals,
in the year following the Norman conquest of England
(1067). His grandfather, Gelli, was a contemporary
of Karlsefni, and was in fact his second cousin. (See
Genealogical Table, p. 20.) We are expressly told
by Ari that his uncle, Thorkel Gellison, supplied
him with information relating to Eric the Red, which
he had obtained from direct speech with one of the
latter's companions. The events with which we are
concerned thus fall within a period bridged by one
human memory from the time of occurrence to the
period when they could be recorded in writing, and
when written history, as superseding oral tradition,
may be said to begin.
It is moreover worthy of note in passing that the
most important explorer with whom these sagas deal,
Thorfin Karlsefni, was of the same stock as Ari, and
must almost necessarily have been personally known
to one of his informants, his uncle Thorkel.
1 Prolegom. to Slurlunga, p. xxv.
94 N A T U R E O F
It should also be remarked that one of the persons
for whom Ari expressly tells us that he composed his
Islendingabok, and to whom he showed it, was Bishop
Thorlak, the grandson of that Snorri who, as we are
told in the saga, was born to Karlsefni in Wineland.
To the truthful and conscientious work of Ari the
Learned a well-known introductory passage in the
history of the kings of Norway known as Heimskringla
bears eloquent witness. The author of this book was
greatly indebted to the researches of Ari ; in fact, though
the latter's original work on the subject of the Norse
kings no longer exists in its intact and primitive form,
we know that such a book was among his literary
achievements, and was in all probability 'followed closely
by subsequent compilers of stories relating to the
earlier history of Norway. Unfortunately, however,
greatly as later writers were indebted to Ari, of his
original work only one book remains, and this in a
highly condensed and summarized form. This is the
fslendingabok, or history of the Icelanders. We
know from the author's own statement that this book
was originally written in a different and probably more
extended form, of which no copies now remain, but
the little book now extant contains, besides a genealogy
of Karlsefni, one passage valuable to us in dealing
with the present subject, from the early corroboration
which it affords of the essential outlines of our story.
This passage, which will also be found in the Appendix
of Supplementary Passages, p. 74, may be rendered
as follows :
' The country which is called Greenland was dis
covered and colonized from Iceland. It was a man
called Eric the Red from Breidafjord who went out
THE EVIDENCE 95
thither from this country, and he took land in the
place which was afterwards called Ericsfjord : he named
the country and called it Greenland, saying that the
fact that the country had a good name would attract
men to journey thither. They found there, both in
the east and the west of the country, dwellings of
men, and fragments of canoes, and stone implements
of a kind from which one could tell that a race had
come (far it) there of the kind that inhabited (byg£)
Wineland, and whom the Greenlanders call Skrczlings.
Now the date when the settlement of that country
was started was from fourteen to fifteen winters
before Christianity came here to Iceland, according to
an account given to Thorkel Gellison in Greenland by
one who himself accompanied Eric the Red out.'
This casual reference would appear to afford the
strongest confirmation both of the known and recog
nized existence of Wineland, and, in particular, of the
episodes described in the sagas relating to the savages
or ' skraelings '.
It furnishes besides, in the present writer's opinion,
proof positive that a land inhabited by savages had
been visited by the Norsemen at a time when no
such people had actually been met with in Greenland
itself. The Eskimo of Greenland, it will be observed,
had, so far as Ari's information went, come and gone
before the Norse occupation (farit), and their existence
was only inferred from the traces above described,
while the natives of Wineland had at the same date
' a local habitation (bygf) and a name '. ' Skraelings '
was not therefore a title transferred from known
inhabitants of Greenland to savages figuring in tales
of Wineland ; the reverse was the case.
This point will be developed later, and certain
96 NATUREOF
objections which have been raised to this interpretation
of the passage will be fully dealt with, but it will at
once be seen that it is of considerable importance in
its bearing upon the accuracy of the saga and the
fact of the Norse discovery.
The Landnamabok.
Another work of high authority, in which it is certain
that the conscientious hand of Ari played a large part,
is the Landnamabok or history of the settlement of
Iceland. Hauk Erlendson, in his edition of this
classic, expressly acknowledges the authorship of the
master, saying that it is ' according to that which
first priest Ari the Learned, Thorgil's son, has written,
and Kolskegg the Wise '. Kolskegg was a contem
porary of Ari's, and Vigfusson 1 thinks that his share
in the collaboration was confined to supplying the
genealogies of the Eastern district. Judging from
its uniformity of style, this great authority2 has no
hesitation in ascribing the sole authorship of the
Landnamabok to Ari and Kolskegg. The authoritative
character of this work has a direct bearing upon our
subject, for it is evident that the writers of both
versions of the story drew largely from its pages,
indeed both versions contain a great deal of absolutely
literal quotation.
As regards Wineland itself, however, the Landnd
mabok has but little to say. It was in fact foreign
to the purpose of a book whose whole scope was con
fined to Iceland, and we ought not therefore to expect
more than we actually find. The only reliable mention
of the place is in the passage relating to Ari Marsson,
1 Prolegom. to Sturlunga, p. xxxvii. 2 Ibid., p. xxxi,
THE EVIDENCE 97
who is there said to have been cast upon Hvitra-
mannaland, 'which some call Ireland the Great, it lies
westward in the sea near Wineland the Good '. The
importance attaching to this passage is that Wineland
is casually mentioned as a well-known locality from
which the position of Hvitramannaland could be
approximately fixed, without the necessity of further
explanation. Another passage, relating to * Karlsefni
who found Wineland the Good', is of less value, as
it is in all probability an interpolation by Hauk, which
consequently affords no independent corroboration of
the discovery.
Adam of Bremen.
It has therefore been established so far that at the
time when writing superseded oral tradition the fact
of the discovery of a ' Wineland ' by the Norsemen
was perfectly well known, that it lay to the west (vide
Landnamabok), and contained savages. The name
moreover affords some corroboration in itself of the
details given in the sagas with reference to the dis
covery of grapes there. A further confirmation of the
facts recorded as to the principal products of the
country must now be dealt with. This dates from
an even earlier period, and comes from an independent
source, the Descriptio of the 'islands' or countries
of the North which was written by Adam of Bremen.
This worthy became director of the cathedral school
in Bremen in or about the year of Ari's birth (1067),
and derived, as he tells us, the information upon which
his description is based from Svein Estridson, King
of the Danes, who died in 1076.
Knowledge obtained from such a source brings us
98 N A T U R E O F
practically to the lifetime of Karlsefni's contemporaries,
and well within that of many who might remember
him or his associates. In the geographical work
referred to, Adam inserts the following reference to
Wineland :
* He (King Svein) told me of yet another island
besides, discovered by many in that Ocean, which is
called ' Wineland ', from the fact that there vines grow
naturally, producing the best wine. Moreover that
corn abounds there without sowing we have ascertained,
not from fabulous conjecture, but from the reliable
(certa) report of the Danes/
Prima facie, therefore, we have here the most con
troversial part of the whole story — the existence of the
wild corn and vines — substantiated by an authority
based on a Scandinavian source, almost within the
lifetime of the explorers themselves. In view of
a contention which will be dealt with more fully later,
that the accounts of vines and wild corn occurring in
the sagas are derived from references to the Fortunate
Islands in Isidore Hispalensis and classical works, it
may be important to note here the emphasis laid by
the writer on the source of his information.
Adam of Bremen, a learned continental magister,
must have been already familiar with the numerous
legends relating to these Fortunate Islands, references
to which are frequent in many classical authorities, and
he appears to be anticipating the criticism which has in
fact been made, when he draws, as he does, a careful
distinction between fabidosa opinio and certa relatio
Danorum. He seems in fact to be saying, — ' Of course
you think that this is another story based on classical
legends which are familiar to you, but it is nothing
THE EVIDENCE 99
of the sort : when I was in Denmark I had the oppor
tunity of questioning the Danes whose information
I have recorded, and I find it impossible to conclude
that this is merely a case of the Insulae Fortunatae at
second hand.'
Date of the Existing Manuscripts.
We may now pass on to consider the sources from
which the present translation is drawn. The existing
manuscripts, it will be found, are none of them earlier
than the fourteenth century, but it may be well to
point out that this fact is not so damaging to their
credit as might be supposed.
The day of oral tradition was long over, the day of
documentary history had been long established, and
the compilers of those versions which we now possess
must have worked in the main not from oral tradition,
but from earlier written sagas which had then attained
to a large extent the form in which we have them.
A well-known passage in the Sturlunga Saga is not
without a bearing on this point. ' Nearly all stories',
it says, * which had been made in Iceland before Bishop
Brand S^emundson died (A.D. 1201) had been com
mitted to writing ; but stories of things which have
taken place since were hardly committed to writing
at all before the skald Sturla Thordson dictated the
Iceland Sagas.' Now while we may admit, with
Vigfusson, that this passage has reference primarily to
the three sagas which have at this point been incor
porated in Sturlunga, it is clear that ' nearly all
stories ' cannot be a statement confined to three, and
must have a general reference to the condition of
all the stories known at that date. It follows that any
G 2
ioo NATUREOF
events which took place before 1201 had in all proba
bility assumed a more or less fixed written form before
Sturla (born c. 1217) started to write down the later
occurrences.
The contributions of later scribes would appear to
have been confined for the most part to bringing the
genealogies down to their own day ; the fashion of
romanticizing the earlier material to any great extent
did not become general till a later date than those
which we have to consider. .
That Eric's Saga had assumed a written form before
the Flatey Book version was compiled is evident from
the reference to it in the opening chapter of that story :
4 Thence arose the quarrels and fights between Eric
and Thorgest which are related in Eric's Saga/ How
far the saga of Eric known to the compilers of the
Flatey Book corresponded with any work which now
bears the same name is a question which cannot be
adequately discussed till we have considered further
the nature and authenticity of the versions from which
the translation has been derived.1
Book and the Saga of Eric the Red.
Our knowledge of the Wineland voyages is obtained,
as the careful reader of the translation will discover,
from two apparently independent sources, which may
for convenience be described as H auk's version and
that of the Flatey Book. The story as known to
Hauk is found in two manuscripts : one contained in
H auk's Book and partly written by his own hand ; the
other, in an early fifteenth-century hand, is No. 557
4to in the collection of Arne Magnusson, and is most
1 See below, p. 108.
THE EVl'DENCE 101
conveniently designated — according to its actual title-
as the Saga of Eric the Red.
This last-named manuscript, while it was undoubtedly
written long after H auk's Book, probably embodies
the earlier and better text of this version, It is cer
tainly not a free rendering of the story, but a literal
transcript of some earlier manuscript, for it contains
a number of typical copyist's errors. There are, for
example, words repeated twice in succession, and pas
sages which as they stand are meaningless, and require
some simple emendation. It is equally certain that
the text followed was not that of Hauk, for the language
differs slightly throughout, and there are sentences in
each version neither occurring in the other nor arising
from it by necessary implication. The theory that the
Saga of Eric the Red embodies an earlier text than
that of Hauk is deduced by experts from the greater
simplicity of the language in the former version. To
the lay mind the most convincing proof is to be derived
from the genealogy at the end of the saga. As has
already been stated, it was the practice of transcribers
to bring such pedigrees down to their own day. Hauk
follows this practice, tracing the line of Karlsefni down
to himself. The Saga of Eric stops short at Bishop
Brand the first, several generations earlier. Hauk,
according to his account, was the great-great-great-
grandson of Bishop Brand's second cousin. (See
Genealogical Table, p, 20.) The fact, however, that
Bishop Brand is described as ' the first ' shows con
clusively that the text copied in Eric's Saga was not
completed till the ordination of the second bishop of
that name, which took place in 1263.
Of course, as far as this goes, it is not inconsistent
102 *'AT'rE OF
with the writers of these two versions having worked
from the same manuscript, which Hauk altered and
edited, while the other scribe contented himself with
a literal copy. While, however, the sense of Hauk's
' version follows approximately that of the rival manu
script, the language is rarely identical for many words
together. Had both been working from the same
manuscript, this is not what one would expect to find :
it is so much simpler to transcribe a passage verbatim,
when the meaning which it is intended to convey is as
adequately given by such a method. And Hauk's
text occasionally gives us information which cannot
be explained as a mere intelligent amplification of the
other.
We are consequently justified in all probability in
imagining that the common origin of the two versions
must be assigned to a period considerably earlier than
either. Finnur Jonsson, an excellent critic of Icelandic
styles, considers that we may give the common arche-
type as early a date as 1200. As regards the date of
the extant manuscripts, to which, for reasons already
given, too much importance should not be attached, it is
sufficient to state that Hauk died in 1334, and as his
own hand concludes the saga it must have been written
some time before that date. The clue given by the
mention of Bishop Brand ' the first ', noticed above, is
common to both manuscripts, and fixes the period before
which neither manuscript was completed at 1263. In
the case of Hauk's Book these limits are further
narrowed by the mention of Hallbera with her title as
Abbess of Reynisness. We know that this lady attained
this position in 1 299, so that Hauk's Book cannot have
been completed before this date.
THE EVIDENCE 103
Hank's Personal Authority.
Mr. W. H. Babcock, in his clear and valuable treatise
on the subject,1 lays considerable stress on the fact
that Hauk was a descendant of Karlsefni, as enhancing1
the authority of this version of the narrative. To
some extent this is a good point, but it may be doubted
whether H auk's knowledge of his ancestors was suffi
cient to check the written records accessible in his day.
He follows the demonstrable error of Landnamabok in
making Thorbjorn Vifilson the son of Aud's freedman,
which a close examination of the chronological data
shows to be an altogether untenable theory. (See
Genealogical Table, p. 20.) He was separated from
Karlsefni by no fewer than eight generations, and any
reader who takes the trouble to consider how much he
knows of the achievements of so distant an ancestor
will no doubt form the conclusion that Hauk was not
in a position to throw much additional light on the
subject, though it was naturally of peculiar interest to
him. All we can say is that he regarded the saga as
historical and not romantic, and his wide experience of
Icelandic literature, quite apart from his family con
nexions, made him a good judge. That he had no
special private sources of information is clear from the
fact that he transcribed the saga practically as it stood.
It cannot be sustained that he discarded the Flatey
version, or preferred the alternative ; it seems much
more likely that the editors of the Flatey Book tapped
sources to which he never had access. Hauk, had he
deliberately compared the two authorities, would for
example inevitably have selected the Flatey version
1 Early Norse Visits to North America. Washington, 1913.
104 NATUREOF
of the stranded-whale episode, as this tallies much
better than his own text wi,h the older verses incor
porated. (Cf. next chapter, p. 132.) Hauk, in fact,
merely copied, with more or less intelligence, the only
version of the story which he knew, and his manuscript,
therefore, stands on exactly the same footing as the
Saga of Eric the Red : coming from a common arche
type they of course afford no independent corroboration
of one another.
Independence of the Flatey Version.
That such corroboration is, however, afforded by the
version contained in the Flatey Book is, I think, clear
to demonstration. But for the attitude of some modern
writers on the subject, the independence of this account
might be said to be beyond dispute, whatever its relative
value as an authority might be. Some commentators
have, however, attempted to establish that the Flatey
Book is but an embroidery based on the rival text.
Thus Mr. Juul Dieserud, in the Bulletin of the Ameri
can Geographical Society (1901), states boldly that the
Flatey Book * borrowed incidents and descriptions from
the story of Thorfin '. He adds : ' This may seem to
be a hazardous conjecture, but . . . the only way "out of
it is to regard the saga of Thorfin as the result of a
similar process.'
The alternative, however, with which Mr. Dieserud
here considers himself to be faced, is by no means the
only one. The depositions of two witnesses to
a matter of fact may show many points of agreement
as well as discrepancies without any collusion or bor
rowing whatsoever. So, too, different authors may
treat of a question of history or tradition without
THE EVIDENCE 105
having consulted each other's works. Again, if I
and a friend go through some experience together —
suppose, for instance, that we serve in the same unit
during the war — the accounts which we transmit to
our respective descendants may be quite independent
of one another. A charge of plagiarism, under such
conditions, needs to be established by definite and
cogent evidence.
Now what does Mr. Dieserud put forward as proof
or support of his contention ? He says, for example,
* an incident related of the stalwart Freydis and the
short mention of some quarrels caused by the women
during the last winter in Straumsfjord sets somebody's
imagination working till we get a gruesome tale of her
separate expedition to Wineland in company with the
brothers Helgi and Finnbogi '. The quarrels over (not
otherwise caused by) the women in the Saga of Eric
the Red are of a purely sexual character. The
bachelors, we are told, coveted the wives of the married
men. This situation, though hardly unique, might well
provide an imaginative mind with a plot like that of a
modern problem novel. But where is anything of the
kind to be traced in the Flatey Book story of Freydis ?
There is no quarrel about women ; in fact, feminine
charm was hardly Freydis's strong point. There is
a purely mercenary dispute about the ownership of a
boat, in which a person who is incidentally a woman
plays the principal part. In short, there is no sort of
connexion between the two plots ; it might as well be
said that the story of Jezebel and Naboth was a plagi
arism from that of David and Bathsheba.
In the same way, the alleged development of Bjarni
Herjulfson from Bjarni Grirnolfson, which is also
io6 NATURE OF
asserted by Joseph Fischer, l rests upon no more solid
foundation than the coincidence of a name by no means
uncommon in Icelandic literature. Storm, more cor
rectly, recognizes the Bjarni of the Flatey Book as * en
ellers ganske ubekjendt person ' (a person otherwise
quite unknown), and Neckel's Erste Entdeckung A meri-
kas makes use of an identical expression. Would
anyone, desiring to make up a good story about Bjarni
Grimolfson, neglect the dramatic episode of his death
in the worm-eaten ship, as given in the saga of Eric ?
Why, as Neckel says, not let him land and find the
vines and corn, if the object was to give him a credit
not his due ? Apart from their first names, Bjarni
Grimolfson and Bjarni Herjulfson have nothing what
ever in common. When Fischer says, ' Only in this way
(i.e. by inventing the Flatey Book story) could the priest
(John Thordson, one of the scribes of the Flatey Book)
ascribe the honour of the discovery of'Wineland to his
hero Bjarni, who was really only one of the band who
accompanied Karlsefni on his later expedition ', one is
disposed to ask, Who treats Bjarni as a hero ? He gets
no credit for the discovery which accident threw in his
way; Leif is here, as elsewhere, treated as the discoverer
of Wineland : nay, we are told that Bjarni was severely
criticized for lack of enterprise in not pursuing his
investigations further. Moreover, if Bjarni Grimolfson
was John Thordson's hero, why change his surname
altogether ?
The third parallel suggested by Mr. Dieserud is
between Tyrker in the Flatey Book and Hake and
Hekja in Eric's Saga. Hake and Hekja, one would
think, make a more picturesque appeal to an imaginative
1 Die Entdeckungen der Normannen in Amerika. Freiburg, 1902.
THEEVIDENCE 107
writer than Tyrker. They are at least as good material
for a story. But they are Scots or Celts while Tyrker
is a German, they are two while he is one ; in fact, they
show few points of resemblance. A better case could
be made out for a comparison between Tyrker and
Thorhall the Hunter, though even this would be pretty
remote. These are the three instances most promin
ently put forward to substantiate a charge of plagiarism.
When we look for points in one version which must
inevitably have been included in the other if the two
accounts were interdependent, we are only struck by
the dissimilarity. The wild corn, so prominent in Eric's
Saga and in the popular accounts which reached Adam
of Bremen, is not mentioned anywhere in the Flatey
Book. The stranded whale, evidently a fact, as shown
by Thorhall's verses, is referred to, but the whole point
of the story, as a story, is destroyed by too literal
adherence to what appears to be the simple truth.
On the other hand, numerous statements of a circum
stantial nature are made in the Flatey version which
find no place in the rival account. The important
' eyktarstad ' observation (see Chapter V) is a good
instance of this. The Flatey Book gives the south
westerly course which the necessities of the case, as
known to us, demand, but we look in vain for such a
course in Eric's Saga or Hauk's Book, which follow the
current ideas of Icelandic geographers in reporting
a uniform progress to the south. Is it suggested that
the greater accuracy of the Flatey Book in this parti
cular is a freak of a vivid but uninstructed imagination ?
The savages, sleeping under their boats, as Jacques
Cartier found them centuries later, are also mentioned
in the Flatey Book alone. It is true that the authors
io8 N A T U R E O F
,of this version, coming to the conclusion that all the
explorers made the same landfall, have felt at liberty
to draw the description of Leif's camp from what
appears to be a report of Karlsefni's Hop, but, assuming
the latter place to have been actually discovered by
Karlsefni, there is no evidence in this that another saga
was consulted at all. In short, I can find no evidence
whatever that the compilers of the Flatey Book version
had any knowledge of the rival account known to us.
It is true that Finnur J6nssonl considers that the
reference to ' Eric s saga ' in the introductory matter
quoted from Landnama is to the document known to
us by that name ; but, with all respect to the views of
so fine an Icelandic scholar, such a theory seems to me
untenable. In the first place, in the passage in question
the author must be alluding to a story so well known
to his audience that he can refer them to it without
hesitation. A fortiori a story known to himself. Yet
no one who had more than the haziest recollection of
our Eric's Saga could possibly make the wide departures
from it which are characteristic of the Flatey version.
Secondly, the reference to the ' quarrels and fights '
between Eric and Thorgest suggests a detailed account
of the whole dispute. Yet the matter omitted in the
Flatey Book from that supplied by Landnama, which is
the source quoted by all our authorities at this stage,
amounts to no more than a bane mention of the battle
which brought about Eric's banishment, and that on his
return to Iceland which was the prelude to reconciliation.
The omissions are in fact hardly longer than the explana
tion which the author inserts. The object of the
1 Opdagehen af og Reiserne til Vinland, Aarbog for Nordisk
Oldkyndighed, etc., for 1915.
THE EVIDENCE 109
reference being clearly to effect a saving of time or
space, one must suppose that the allusion is to some
fuller account. But even if the reference were to our
Eric's Saga, it would not disprove the independence of
the Flatey version as a whole, since at this point the
compiler has not reached the stage where he incor
porates new matter, but is copying practically verbatim
an abridgement from Landnama which is to be found
in other texts of the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason. The
reference to * Eric's saga ' is part of a quotation, rather
than an original observation. In fact, as Neckel puts
it, 'the (Flatey Book) narrative makes pretty strong
departures from the Saga of Eric the Red. It knows
on the one hand more, on the other less ; above all, the
same occurrences appear in quite different order and
connexion . . . * Between both accounts runs the
remarkable relationship that while clearly harmonious
in the main features they are widely separated from
one another in details. The use of the older narrative
by the younger is accordingly excluded.'
The motive apparently suggested by Mr. Dieserud
and those who agree with him for the tone adopted in
the Flatey Book is the glorification of the family of
Eric the Red. The introduction of a prior discoverer
to Leif does not seem likely to conduce to such a result,
and one feels that a member of Eric's family would
hardly regard the story of Freydis with pride or
pleasure. But let that pass. Those who adopt this
position seem to be faced with a dilemma. No one
outside Greenland had any interest in attempting such
a task, while if — as I myself believe (see next chapter,
p. 139) — this version comes in the main from a Green
land source, it is far more likely that it represents an
\
i io NATUREOF
independent tradition than that compilers in so inacces
sible a country had access to the version current in
Iceland. For these reasons we need have no hesitation
in accepting the independence of the Flatey version,
and in concluding with Vigfusson that ' the correspond
ence of these distinct versions throws great light on the
vitality and faithfulness of tradition, and is a strong
confirmation of the credibility in main points of a saga
which is especially important for historic reasons '. l
Date of the Flatey Book.
The date and circumstances of composition of the
Flatey Book are known to us from the invaluable
researches of Vigfusson, who transcribed the entire
manuscript for publication. From this source we learn
i that it was compiled for one John Haakonson, who
Was born in 1350; the date of its commencement can
therefore hardly have been earlier than some twenty
years later (c. 1370). As originally planned it com
menced with the mythical tale of Eric the Far-travelled,
a fact which is plain from the words of the text, * He
that wrote this book set this story first'. It continues
in the same hand to set down a long saga of Olaf
Tryggvason, King of Norway, followed by the saga of
King Olaf the Holy. At this point the first scribe,
John Thordson, lays down his pen, and the book is
carried on by one Magnus, terminating with some
Annals, which it was intended to keep up to date by
additions from time to time. When therefore Magnus
found himself in possession of some additional matter,
which it was thought desirable to incorporate in the
volume, he added a few leaves at the beginning of the
1 Prolegom. to Sturlunga, p. lix.
THE EVIDENCE in
work, leaving the blank pages at the end for the
continuation of the Annals. Towards the end of the
newly incorporated matter comes the statement that it
\ was written in the year 1387. Magnus then added a
title-page with a list of the contents, and continued to
add to the Annals from time to time till 1394. The
story of the Wineland voyages given in the Flatey
Book consists of two ' thaettir' or episodes, interpolated
after the manner of the time in the saga of Olaf
Tryggvason, which is the second piece of literature
included in the original volume. It follows therefore
that, so far as we are concerned, the manuscript dates
from some time after 1370.. when the owner came to
man's estate, and before 1387. Considering the time
which must have been occupied in writing a book of
such gigantic proportions, we may fairly ascribe the
Wineland parts of the book to a date considerably
earlier than the year last mentioned.
The manuscript at present extant is therefore of a
later date than that of H auk's Book. In admitting
this we should, I think, for the reasons given earlier,
be chary of attaching too much importance to the fact.
Evidence is not wanting that the sources followed com
pare favourably in age with the rival version. Two
such proofs are mentioned by Reeves, though only one
of these seems to me of real importance. This is the
fact that, unlike the rival version, the Flatey Book
refers to Bishop Brand without the distinguishing title
1 the first ', which would in all probability have been
added by anyone composing the archetype used by
John Thordson at a date subsequent to the second
Bishop's ordination. The other point mentioned by
Reeves is the reference to Eric's landfall in Greenland
ii2 NATURE OF EVIDENCE
by its original name of Midjokul, as well as by the later
designation of Blaserk, which latter is given alone in
Hauk's version. A reference to the Landnamabok,
however, shows that both names are there preserved,
and as the part of both versions where the name occurs
is obviously founded on Landnama, the omission of a
word of the matter copied by Hauk appears to me
devoid of significance.
Turning to the contents of the rival productions of
Hauk and the Flatey Book, though the two stories are
obviously the same, we are at once confronted by certain
striking dissimilarities. Bjarni Herjulfson and his
adventure are recorded in the Flatey Book, and no
where else in literature. Leifs voyage is represented
by the same version alone as being deliberately under
taken as a result of Bjarni's discoveries; elsewhere it is
accidental, an episode of a different voyage. A separate
voyage of Thorvald Ericson, terminating in his death,
is detailed in the same account, whereas in the Saga of
Eric the Red no such person is mentioned at all till
the^episode of his death, and in Hauk's Book and the
companion manuscript he is represented as sailing and
meeting his death under the auspices of Karlsefni's
expedition. Finally, after Karlsefni's return, we have
in the Flatey Book alone the story of Freydis's second
visit to the newly discovered country. With these
discrepancies, and the attitude of modern criticism
i towards them, it will be necessary to deal in a separate
\ chapter.
II. THE DISCREPANCIES OF
THE FLATEY BOOK
THE earlier writers on the subject of the Wineland
voyages based their theories very largely on the
Flatey version, and indeed accepted its authority as
in every way preferable to the alternative rendering of
the story. Laing, for example, in his preface to the
Heimskringla, laments the fact that any other document
besides the Flatey Book should come into the discus
sion at all : and Hauk's version is dismissed by a writer
in the Cornhill Magazine for 1872 (vol. xxvi) as 'a
later manuscript . . . full of the most marvellous im
possibilities'. In a slashing and sceptical paper on
the subject in vol. VII of the Proceedings of the
Royal Geographical Society, by R. G. Haliburton, the
same view is emphasized. This writer had but little
faith in any of the stories, but he treated the Flatey
account as at all events preferable to that of the Saga
of Eric the Red.
Perhaps none of the writers cited above can be con
sidered as of very high authority, but their attitude is
typical of the older school of thought, and the Flatey
Book has as great a critic as Vigfusson on its side.
They are quoted to show how widely the opinions of
students can vary. For since Gustav Storm in 1887
published his Studier over Vinlandsreiserne *, his views,
which have found very general acceptance and still
1 Aarbog for Nordisk Oldkynd. og Hist. 1887.
2376 H
n4 DISCREPANCIES OF
hold the field, have completely reversed the relative
status of the different versions. To-day it is the Flatey
Book which is criticized, and on all points where it
joins issue with the rival version the evidence of the
latter is preferred. With great deference to those
whose learning has contributed to such a result, it
seems to me that such criticism has gone a great deal
too far. Let us endeavour impartially to consider the
main points wherein there is variance, and thus form
our own conclusion as to which story is the more
correct.1
Bjarni Herjulf son.
Herjulf, Bj ami's father, was undoubtedly a real
person, whose name and pedigree occur in Landnama,
and it appears to be historically established that he
was one of Eric's companions when Greenland was
colonized in A. D. 985 or 986. A well-known headland
in Greenland was named after him, and in fact no one
hitherto has ventured to question Herjulfs existence,
or his emigration to Greenland.
We start then from the certain fact that Herjulf,
Bjarni's father, has sailed to Greenland about the
summer of 986. If he had a sailor son, absent in
Norway on a trading voyage, that son on his return to
Iceland would almost certainly endeavour to rejoin his
parent in the new colony. All the best available
pilots are gone, neither Bjarni nor his crew have any
clear knowledge of the seas they will have to traverse,
and it is with a knowledge of their risk, clearly stated,
1 Since this chapter was written, my attention has been called to
W. Hovgaard's Voyages of the Norsemen to America (1915), in which
the Flatey Book is defended.
THE FLATEY BOOK 115
that they start sailing west in the direction of Green
land, separated from them by a distance imperfectly
known, and also, if there is the slightest deviation to
the south of Cape Farewell, in the direction of America.
To America we are accordingly informed that they
came, driven thither by suitable winds and weather.
From America, without landing, without any informa
tion to impart as to these strange countries, they
returned to Greenland, and Iceland saw no more of
Bjarni thenceforward. As fiction, it is a pointless and
barren narrative, whatever may be its historical interest
to persons of a post-Columbian age. It was evidently
disappointing to those who heard and to those who sub
sequently wrote the story. So far from being treated
as a hero, as Professor Fischer would have us believe,
we are told that Bjarni received nothing but blame
for his lack of enterprise and curiosity on the occasion
which chance and unsuccessful navigation had thrown
in his way. These were not circumstances favourable
to the perpetuation of a story devoid of incident in
itself and redounding in no way to the credit of the
chief actor in it. It would not be surprising to find
that even in Greenland Bjarni's adventure was not
long remembered. The disappearance of the tale
from Iceland is a fortiori immensely more probable.
The interest of narrator and audience alike were in
that country exceptionally domestic. It is the rarest
possible exception to hear in Icelandic sagas of the
exploits of anyone who had permanently left the
country, and whose life never again threw him in
contact with Icelanders. Bjarni, from the time he set
sail from Eyrarbakki, was, short of a miracle, ' out
of the story', as the Icelandic narrators would have
H 2
n6 DISCREPANCIES OF
put it. That the popular account of the voyages
of Karlsefni and his predecessors should contain no
mention of Bjarni is in accordance with every proba
bility. The alternative appears to me to violate
everything that experience teaches us of the develop
ment of tradition here and elsewhere. A person,
possibly it is said fictitious, at best wholly devoid of
interest for Icelandic audiences, is credited with an
extremely featureless voyage, from which he derives
no sort of kudos, the effect of which is — if anything —
to some extent to impair the glory of the Icelander
Karlsefni. Such inaccuracy as characterizes tradition
has, it may be said with the utmost confidence, the
effect of merging the exploits of the less well known
with those of the more popular hero : the creation of
a fictitious hero in addition to the real one is, I submit,
the reverse of the normal process.
Thus, the legends which grew up about Charlemagne
endowed that hero with the achievements of earlier
Prankish kings and chieftains, and in particular ab
sorbed and confused with Charlemagne his ancestor,
Charles Martel. The national traditions of centuries
were annexed and grouped round Charlemagne and
his circle. On a smaller scale, much the same sort of
process can occasionally be traced in saga literature.
For instance, the earlier versions of the Landnamabok
mention a certain Helgi Thorbrandson, who sailed with
Eric to Greenland, and was accordingly less known in
Iceland than his brothers, who figure largely in the
Eyrbyggja Saga. This saga, therefore, ignores Helgi,
and does not mention him among the sons of Thorbrand
of Alptafjord. Similarly later editions of Landnama
substitute for Helgi's name that of his brother Snorri,
THE FLATEY BOOK 117
who went out later to Greenland, and was better
known in Iceland. The less-known figure disappears
and his history becomes absorbed in that of the better-
knowji character. Such is the normal and natural
working of tradition.
Prof. Gustav Storm, in his Studier over Vinlands-
reiserne, makes a great point of the fact that though
Bj ami's voyage is represented as taking place about
A. D. 986 nothing was done in the nature of further
exploration for a period of about sixteen years. I fail
to see the force of this argument. It was not till
about a century had elapsed from the time when
Gunnbjorn, son of Ulf Kraka, sighted an unknown
coast to the west of Iceland, that Eric the Red, having
made his adopted country too hot to hold him, followed
in his track to Greenland. The battered and storm-
tossed remnant who successfully accomplished the
emigration to Eric's new colony had little motive, in
Bjarni's bald description of unattractive coasts sighted
from shipboard, to induce them to tempt Providence
again. Leif, Eric's son and the explorer of the future,
was born in Iceland after the death of his grandfather,
and was in all probability still a child. He is the only
son of Eric mentioned in Landnamabok, which is
concerned with the Icelandic pedigrees only.
On coming of age, and accomplishing the remarkable
voyage from Greenland to Norway, having next
carried out the difficult task of converting his country
men to Christianity, it was time for him to look about
for fresh worlds to conquer. The old story was re
called, the ship was manned, and the first real discovery
and exploration of the new countries was effected, an
exploit for which, in the FJatey Book as elsewhere,
n8 DISCREPANCIES OF
Leif receives the entire credit, just as his father, and
not Gunnbjorn, is everywhere described as the ' dis
coverer ' of Greenland.
Leif's Voyage.
Next it is said that whereas, in the Flatey version,
Leifs discovery is represented as the result of an
expedition deliberately equipped to investigate Bjarni's
reports, it is uniformly described in every other account
as an accidental episode of his return voyage from the
court of Olaf Tryggvason in Norway. Here again it
must be remembered that Leif was by this time a
Greenlander, as to the exact details of whose exploits
Iceland was likely to be imperfectly informed and but
little interested. The main facts of his career might
be known : that he was a son of Eric the Red, that he
sailed to Norway and introduced Christianity to Green
land, that he rescued a crew of shipwrecked persons —
more especially if, as related in the Flatey Book, one of
these was the Icelandic heroine Gudrid — that he dis
covered somehow and at some time Wineland the
Good, and thereby gave rise to Karlsefni's subsequent
expedition. More exact knowledge was not necessary
as a prelude to the story of the adventures of the
Icelandic hero Karlsefni ; in fact, in so far as there is
likely to have been any conscious interference with
the truth, it may be observed that the less Leifs
voyage was dwelt on the greater would be the credit
attaching to the later explorer, in whom alone Icelanders
were likely to be generally interested. Such a state
of things was eminently calculated to produce the
fusion by tradition of two voyages into one, which was
likely to be more generally known for two obvious
THE FLATEY BOOK 119
reasons. In the first place, Leifs voyage to Norway
and his return with Olaf Tryggvason's mission to
Greenland was an important fact in the history of that
proselytizing king. In the second, it was of interest to
the priests who became the historians both of Iceland
and Norway. As I have urged already, merger rather
than expansion is the normal trend of tradition. The
' man in the street ' at the present day might well be
acquainted, for example, with an incident in the career
of Captain Cook, without being able accurately to
assign it to the correct voyage of the navigator, or
indeed without being certain as to the exact number
of the voyages for which he was distinguished. It is
far more likely, in my opinion, that such a merger took
place in Leifs story as usually summarized in Iceland
than that an imaginary and distinct voyage should
have been invented and described with much circum
stance and detail.
But, it is said, the Flatey Book's account stands
alone, while that of Hauk, short as it is, is corroborated
elsewhere, by a body of independent evidence. On
examination, however, this body of evidence shrinks
to the dimensions of a single passage, repeated in one
context with unimportant verbal variations in a number
of different manuscripts.
The oldest extant version of this passage, that
occurring in the Friis codex of the Book of the Kings
of Norway, will be found included in the Appendix to
our translation (p. 74). Another example, from the
great Olaf Tryggvason Saga, may be usefully given
here, for purposes of comparison :
' That same spring when Olaf the King sent Gizur
and Hjalti to Iceland, as has already been written,
120 DISCREPANCIES OF
he also sent Leif Ericson to Greenland, to preach
Christianity there. The King got him a priest and
other holy men, to baptize the people there and teach
them the right faith. Leif went that summer to
Greenland. He took at sea a ship's crew, who were
then in misfortune, and lay on a completely broken
wreck of a ship, and on that voyage he found Wine-
land the Good, and came at the end of that summer
to Greenland, and went home to Brattahlid to his
father Eric. Men called him afterwards Leif the
Lucky. But Eric his father said that the account was
balanced, since Leif had preserved and given life to
the men of the ship's crew, and had brought the
hypocrite to Greenland, so he called the priest.'
A similar passage in the Heimskringla may also be
compared.
Besides these we have also a shorter passage in
the Kristni Saga, which has been preserved for us
in Hauk's Book. This last, translated in the same
baldly literal manner, may also be found in the
Appendix of Supplementary Passages, p. 75
Now the first thing noticeable about all these
passages is that they occur in exactly the same con
text, the history of King Olaf Tryggvason's missionary
enterprises. We have further the authority of. Vig-
fusson for saying that both the Kristni Saga and the
Book of Kings, though in their present shape they
have passed through the hands of various editors,
were in their original form products of the pen of
Ari the Learned. We have therefore in all these
cases one author, one context, and substantially one
phraseology.
And, setting aside for the moment the exact form
of words used, we may fairly say that the essential
THE FLATEY BOOK 121
meaning of these various passages is as follows :—
Olaf Tryggvason also brought about the conversion
of Greenland. For this purpose he found an excellent
agent, in Leif, the son of the founder of that colony,
a man who attained distinction in many ways, for he
not only introduced the faith into those benighted
regions but he also earned the title of * Lucky ' by the
discovery of Wineland, and a brave and sensational
rescue of a crew of shipwrecked men. It will be
observed that Leifs career is only relevant in this
context in so far as it comes in contact with that of
Olaf Tryggvason, with whom the writer is principally
concerned, and all that it was necessary for him to
know, and possibly all that he did know, was the fact
that Leif was Olaf s missionary and that he had various
other claims to distinction. The when or the how of
these various adventures of Leif were altogether beside
the point, and did not need to be closely investigated.
In this way, without any blame attaching to the
original chronicler, even if he was responsible for the
present order of the words, a false idea of the circum
stances of Leif's discovery may easily have been
started in Iceland.
Between the two * thaettir ' or episodes which make
up our story as incorporated in the Flatey Book Saga
of Olaf Tryggvason, the passage already quoted from
other texts appears, slightly edited into conformity
with the Wineland story of the book by the omission
of any eference to that country (see Appendix of
Supplementary Passages, p. 75). The editing is in
complete, for the rescue of the crew remains, to be
repeated under different circumstances later on ; but
inasmuch as the whole passage is obviously derived
122 DISCREPANCIES OF
from the same source as the others which have been
mentioned, no point can legitimately be made of this
other than that the scribes of the Flatey Book did
not carry the interference with their sources very far,
which on the whole only goes to indicate that the
Wineland story as they copied it suffered no alteration
in the process, a fact in favour of this version rather
than otherwise.
It also shows that the thaettir were drawn from an
independent source.
We may sum up the argument on this branch of the
case as follows :
1. Leif was a person who came within the range
of Icelandic interest not because of his exploits in
themselves, which rather concerned Greenland, but
because they had a bearing on the history of an
Icelandic hero, Karlsefni, and of a Norse king, Olaf
Tryggvason.
2. For this purpose the precise circumstances and
date of his Wineland voyage were quite irrelevant.
3. The accounts therefore which appear of this
voyage, both in H auk's account of Wineland and in the
sagas of Olaf Tryggvason, are, as we should expect,
extremely short and superficial.
4. The account of Leif given in the Flatey Book, on
the other hand, is extremely circumstantial and detailed
and appears to have been written from a more intimate
knowledge of the facts.
5. The normal course of tradition is rather to blend
many voyages into one than to expand one voyage, in
(>ne and the same story, into many.
One other point may be mentioned.
Part at all events of the Flatey Book version is
THE FLATEY BOOK 123
accepted by the majority of those who have studied
the subject, especially the observation recorded of the
length of the shortest day, which is indeed one of the
most circumstantial points to be found in any of these
stories. Now assuming this observation to be correctly
attributed to Leif, and it is recorded of no one else,
then it is plain that Leif must have wintered in the new
country, and at the most southerly point in it to
which he penetrated. The alternative accounts are
one and all wholly inconsistent with any such idea.
According to these, Wineland was discovered by Leif
while endeavouring to return from Norway to Green
land in the summer of the year 1000. In the first
place, at least two of the texts giving this version
of the story state distinctly, and the others imply, that
he arrived in Greenland in the year in which he set
sail. (Cf. Frissbok : 'He came in the autumn
to Greenland ', and the passage occurring in the body
of the Flatey Book's Saga of Olaf Tryggvason : 'He
came at the end of that summer to Greenland.' )
But apart from these statements we may ask
ourselves, — is it likely that Leif would have passed the
winter in Wineland, unless he came there on a definite
voyage of exploration ? On the hypothesis of accident
he had come, and knew he had come, a tremendous
distance out of his way by the time he made land on
the coast of America. Would he have had either the
supplies or the inclination to stay the winter in the
newly discovered land ? Supposing that — as the
Flatey Book tells us — he arrived first at Helluland,
why should he have sailed south across open sea from
that point if his destination was Greenland? If he
followed the coast he would arrive in the Gulf of
i24 DISCREPANCIES OF
St. Lawrence, and would come across nothing resem
bling the Wineland of the story.1 And it is incredible
that he should have put directly to sea in the direction
opposite to his objective and happened by chance upon
the two more southerly ' lands '. Again, if we suppose
him to have gone through the experience recorded
of Bjarni, is it not still more unlikely that he would
have elected to pass the whole autumn and winter
in the very first place at which he touched, without
provisions and so very far from home ? Would he not
at least have sailed for Greenland after a very cursory
examination of the country, however much he might
have contemplated returning thither on another
occasion ? Even if we reject the circumstantial
version of the Flatey Book altogether and attribute
the observation of the sun to Karlsefni, of whom it is
nowhere recorded, it seems to me that the delay
necessary to collect the samples of local products
mentioned in Eric's Saga and Hauk's Book is most
unlikely to have taken place if the discovery of the
country was accidental and the party desirous of
returning to Greenland. For these reasons, therefore,
in addition to those given above, it seems to me that
we are justified in taking the Flatey version as
authentic.
Storm, in his Studier over Vinlandsreiserne, urges
that it was more likely that Leif, returning from
Norway to Greenland, should have been driven out of
his course to America than that Bjarni should have
tmet the same fate on the shorter journey from
* * This was written before the appearance of Professor Steensby's
monograph, which will be dealt with later (p. 237). This author
brings his explorers into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but I adhere
to my opinion.
THE FLATEY BOOK 125
Iceland. In the state of navigation at the time it is
course by no means incredible that either captain
should have missed his destination by the necessary
margin. There were practically no limits to the
possible deviation in those days. Thorstein, sailing to
Wineland, is said to have been driven by contrary
gales to the neighbourhood both of Iceland and
Ireland, and whether this be true or no it clearly
cannot have struck an Icelandic audience as at all
improbable. It has however to be remembered that
Leif, assuming the discovery to have been made on
the voyage from Norway, was retracing a known
course, and traversing a known distance ; and if we
follow the only version which supplies information on
the point, he, like Karlsefni, was carried first to
Helluland, which seems to argue a direction of the
wind which could not be very unfavourable for his
projected destination, Greenland ; Bjarni, on the other
hand, set out on a voyage of uncertain length across an
unknown sea, and his landfall in America is stated
to have been so far to the south as to point to really
contrary winds. Subject to these remarks I do not
think that there is much in the point, either one way
or the other.
Thorvald.
The next difference to be noted is with regard to the
fate of Thorvald Ericson. The Flatey Book assigns
to him an independent voyage, and a reasonable
death at the hands of the savages. The details of this
voyage are given at length, and substantially in
a natural and credible form. The other version
of his death is clearly incredible, for it introduces the
126 DISCREPANCIES OF
agency of a ' uniped ', a fabulous creature, not unknown
to classical legend.
Hauk's story, moreover, makes Thorvald a companion
of Karlsefni, not an independent explorer. It has
further to be noticed that until the episode of his
death it is not certain that the original wording of
this text recognizes Thorvald Ericson at all. Up to
the point of Karlsefni's expedition the only reference
to Eric's family in either of the companion texts reads
as follows : * At that time Eric had a wife named
Thjodhild, and by her two sons, one called Thorstein
and the other Leif ' : Thorvald, it will be observed, is
not mentioned at all. In the list of those accompanying
Karlsefni, the purer text of Eric's Saga again contains
no reference to this son of the house. ' There was
a man named Thorvald ', it runs, ' who was a connexion
by marriage of Eric the Red.' Thorvald, the connexion
by marriage, is obviously not Eric's son, but, as Hauk
correctly so far amends the passage, a slip for
' Thorvard, who married Freydis, an illegitimate
daughter of Eric the Red'. Hauk then interpolates
' and Thorvald Ericson ' in conformity with the story
of his death which is subsequently introduced. This,
the uniped episode, seems to be later in origin than the
main body of the saga. The melodramatic death-
speech of Thorvald is borrowed almost verbatim from
the death-scene of Thormod Kolbrunarskald, as given
in the Heimskringla ; so that a Greenlander in
Wineland is here represented as intelligently anticipat
ing the utterance of an Icelander in Norway. Then
again the uniped, as has already been pointed out,
is a borrowed conception : it is not a creature typical
of the normal superstitions of early Scandinavia. The
THE FLATEY BOOK 127
passage, as will be seen on a reference to the text,
where it has been omitted, is in no way necessary to
the story, and the sense is not affected by its absence.
It would seem therefore as if the author of the text on
which Hauk's version is founded, having derived from
another source an exaggerated and romanticized
account of Thorvald's death in Wineland, interpolated
it in the saga without taking the trouble to make his
account of Eric's family or Karlsefni's companions tally
with the final form of the story.
Two of the arguments which I have already used
apply with equal force to this part of the question.
Thorstein, as the husband of Gudrid, who subsequently
became by her marriage with Karlsefni an Icelandic
heroine, was a person necessary to an Icelandic version
of the story. So was Leif, because his voyage,
however and whenever accomplished, was the reason
of Karlsefni's subsequent exploration. But Thorvald
was a person in no way interesting to Icelanders ; he
had gone to Greenland with his father, probably
as a child, and was * out of the story '. The other
point is the normal trend of tradition. The important
voyage, to Icelanders, was Karlsefni's, and it was likely
in the ordinary course, like Aaron's serpent, to swallow
up all minor rivals, whose continued existence was not
necessary to its own. The Flatey Book version of
Thorvald's adventures and death appears to me there
fore infinitely more satisfactory than the other, and the
objections to it seem to have but little weight.
Freydis.
All that has been said hitherto applies to the second
voyage of Freydis. After Karlsefni's return to Iceland
128 DISCREPANCIES OF
his interest in Greenland and in Wineland ceased, and
with his own ceased naturally the interest of the
normal Icelandic historian and audience. * And that is
the end of this story ', says the author of Eric the Red's
Saga, as he lays down his pen, having got Karlsefni
safe at home, and his Icelandic descendants duly
chronicled. What happened in Greenland later on is
no concern of his. But life in Greenland went on, and
it cannot in any way be said to follow that nothing
happened in the family of Eric because nothing has
been recorded in a saga dealing mainly with a different
person. Those who would attack the authenticity
of this voyage must take other ground, and show from
the story itself that it is inherently impossible. The
task has no doubt been attempted, but it seems to me
that the saga emerges successfully from the ordeal.
The conduct of Freydis and her husband as described
in the Flatey Book is entirely consistent with their
characters as delineated in the rival version. I am
wholly unable to follow the reasoning of Laing, who
considers this incident in itself incredible, though
others seem to share his view. The independence and
power for evil possessed by an Icelandic wife of the
saga period are well illustrated in the Njal Sagar where
the wives of Njal and Gunnar respectively carry
on a bloody vendetta with complete immunity to
themselves, but at no inconsiderable expense to their
reluctant but powerless husbands, who, though on
terms of complete amity, are continually forced to pay
each other compensation for the murder of members
of their households perpetrated by third parties on
the instigation of these women.
Of course the interview between Freydis and
THE FLATEY BOOK 129
Finnbogi cannot be authentic, as no witness was left
but Freydis herself, whose version would naturally be '
different, and the details of the story may well have
been worked up by a later hand.
But consider the facts apart from this : Freydis,
a woman everywhere represented as of masculine
temper, is married to a wealthy nonentity named
Thorvard. From the contemptuous vituperation
which Freydis pours upon her panic-stricken com
panions in the skraeling fight in H auk's Book we get
a fine insight into her character. She and her husband
sail to Wineland with Helgi and Finnbogi, whom she
swindles and bullies at every turn. The crews of the
two ships are soon not on speaking terms ; a very little
more will lead to a violent encounter. The brothers
have a much better ship than Freydis, and on this ship
she, who has got her way in every other respect, has
set her heart. She makes a fruitless attempt to
bargain for the coveted vessel, as Ahab treated first
for Naboth's vineyard. Her overtures repulsed, she
returns in a rage to her miserable and helpless husband,
to whom she represents the conduct of Helgi and
Finnbogi as an insult only to be wiped out in blood.
The henpecked Thorvard is screwed to the sticking-
place, he turns out his men, between whom and the
rival crew there is already a quarrel, smouldering
under the cover of an armed neutrality. The camp of
the brothers is attacked, and the men are assassinated.
The women remain, damning witnesses of the outrage,
whom nevertheless male chivalry would spare. ' Hand
me an axe', says Freydis (' Infirm of purpose, give me /
the daggers '). The coup is not to be ruined by
humanitarian scruples : dead men (and women) tell no
130 DISCREPANCIES OF
tales. The massacre is completed. Surely it is all
consistent with our experience of women of this type
in history and even in modern life. Man draws the line,
he is ruled by convention, there are ' things no fellow
can do '. Woman is a law to herself, and as a result
there are heights to which she climbs where no man's
ideals will follow, and depths to which she falls from
which men are fortunately protected. With men,
treachery and cowardice go hand in hand ; in women
a masculine bravery seems merely to kill their natural
delicacy and horror of blood, they can be brave
and yet sink to the lowest excesses of meanness
and cruelty. Judith, Jezebel, Lady Macbeth — how
trave they are, and yet how disgracefully treacherous !
/It is of course a matter for individual judgement : the
/touchstone for such a tale is not to be found among the
/ canons of criticism. To me this dreadful story reads
as one of the most natural, consistent, and human
/ episodes in history ; and though of course such charac-
/ terization is not beyond the powers of a brilliant
writer of fiction, it seems to me far more reasonable to
accept it as authentic history. Why should this awful
libel disfigure the annals of the distinguished house of
Eric the Red, if there were nothing in it ? . Who
would dare to invent it, if it were not true ?
I contend, then, that on main lines, where the two
stories are in conflict, it is preferable throughout to
adopt the version of the Flatey Book, and that the
alleged discrepancies come to nothing more than this,
that the natural development of tradition in Iceland
led, to a great extent, to the ignoring of some elements
in the story and the fusion of others in what, to
Icelanders, were the more important episodes. Some
THE FLATEY BOOK 131
slight additional support to the view which has been
here put forward is supplied by Adam of Bremen's
reference to Wineland, which has been referred to
in another chapter. For he states that this country
has been ' a multis repertam ', that is to say, discovered /
or explored by many. This, so far as it goes, is in
favour of the Flatey Book, for a country visited on
but two occasions, one of which was accidental, could
hardly be so described.
Even where the narratives are in closer agreement,
the Flatey Book appears to me on the whole the more
reliable version.
Courses.
Especially is this the case with the courses given in
the narrative. According to the Saga of Eric the Red
and H auk's Book, Karlsefni rarely sailed in any direction
except south. Thus, Greenland to Helluland is south ;
Helluland to Markland either south or south-east;
Marklancl to Keelness south according to Hauk,
the companion version being silent ; Straumsfjord
to Hop, once more, south. Now, wherever we place
the lands discovered in America, the situation really
calls for a great deal more west than south for a large
part of the voyage. In a statement which is only
approximate, the bearing we need is south-west. This
occurs nowhere in the synoptic versions. Now
compare the Flatey Book. Bjarni's return is all north
east ; the lands therefore lie, as they do in fact, on
a south-westerly line. Leif sails south-west from
Markland to Wineland, and it is implied that his course
elsewhere corresponded with Bjarni's. This gives us
at any rate good foundation for supposing the data in
I 2
132 DISCREPANCIES OF
. the Flatey Book to be the more authentic. At the very
i least these statements go far to establish the entire
independence of the Flatey version, and to demolish the
\ suggestion already dealt with that this narrative is merely
a perverted embroidery of hints contained in the other.
It is astonishing to find that Storm and his school
prefer the courses set out in the rival version, and
seem to evince great difficulty in making anything
of the Flatey Book's geography. They even say that
the latter conveys to them the idea of a coast facing
north or north-east. How this is arrived at it is
difficult to see. When Bjarni turned in a north
easterly direction to search for a way home, we are
told that he ' left the land on the port side '. This
clearly indicates that the coast lay to the north of him
and faced south, trending away to the north in a little
while so as to disappear from sight. So again Thorvald
from his base in Wineland can go east or west, but to
reach ' the more northerly part of the country ' he has
first to turn east. This conveys the same idea as
Bj ami's voyage, a south -facing coast, turning to the
north at its eastern extremity. True, there is a word
in this voyage which seems to imply an easterly course
after leaving Keelness; this will be discussed -later,
but in any case, if it had to be rejected, it would
not justify the views expressed by Storm and his
followers as to the Flatey Book's geography as a whole.
The Stranded Whale.
I have incorporated the rival version of Karlsefni's
voyage in the story as I have rendered it, as the
differences are but small, and the version adopted
is less condensed and therefore fuller of information.
THE FLATEY BOOK 133
I will however give an instance to show that here also
the Flatey version is the more likely to be accurate.
Undoubtedly the oldest parts of the text of either
authority are the verses ascribed to Thorhall the
Hunter in the saga adopted by Hauk. These are
admitted by the most exacting critics to bear all
the indications of a date corresponding with their
ascribed origin. Even Dr. Nansen allows their /
genuineness. Now it will probably have struck
the careful reader that the second of these two poems
bears no sort of relation to its context. The verses,
either expressly or by necessary implication, convey
the following facts :
1. They are the utterance of a person who is leaving
the New World behind, to return to his own country.
2. Those whom he is leaving behind him are at
Furdustrands.
3. These people are satisfied with a diet of boiled
whale, which the poet considers unattractive.
The text, on the other hand, conveys a totally
different set of facts :
j. The verses are composed by a person who is
proposing to coast northwards in search of Wineland.
2. The explorers are at Straumsfjord, far to the
south of Furdustrands, and the main body are pro
posing to go even further away from that locality. (I
do not, however, attach much importance to this dis
crepancy, believing as I do that the name Furdustrands
was applied broadly to a large district in which
Straumsfjord may well have been included.)
3. The one person who appeared pleased with the |
whale, and indeed claimed the credit for its appearance,
was the author of the poem. The rest were made ill
134 DISCREPANCIES OF
by it, and on hearing of its supposed origin refused
altogether to eat it.
These differences are clearly quite irreconcilable,
and, the poem being the more reliable authority, the
version in the text at this point must be abandoned.
As Storm says, the fact that the author has plainly
misunderstood the verses quoted is in itself evidence
of the greater age of the latter. But in the Flatey
Book, though, the account being much condensed, no
mention is made of Thorhall or his verses, the whale
is given a perfectly natural origin, and is eaten without
any contretemps by the whole body of the explorers.
We may, however, reasonably assume that such fare
would not be relished by a fastidious person, and might
well provoke the utterance of the sentiments embodied
in the old song. There is at all events no incon
sistency between the text of the Flatey Book and the
poem.
There are one or two minor discrepancies which must
now be considered. Leif s visit to Norway is said in
the Flatey Book to have taken place sixteen years
after Eric's colonization of Greenland. This would
date his arrival after Olafs death in September 1000.
But Eric had explored Greenland with an eye to the
colony three years before it was actually inaugurated,
and if we take it that the date of the first visit is
referred to as part of the same transaction this point
disappears.
Thori Eastman.
In no other account in Icelandic literature do we
find Gudrid mentioned as the widow or wife of Thori
Eastman, i. e. the Norwegian, whom Leif rescued from
THE FLATEY BOOK 135
the wreck. It is still not improbable that she was so.
Gudrid apparently arrived in Greenland about the
time that Leif was absent on his voyage of discovery,
and Thori, from his remarks as reported in the Flatey
Book, "seems to have been acquainted with Brattahlid
before his shipwreck, which was not far from the coast
of Greenland. Supposing him to have married Gudrid
about this time, we are told that he died the same
winter, and Gudrid would almost immediately be free
to be married, as we are told she was, to Thorstein
Ericson ; consequently when Karlsefni married her,
which was the important incident in her career from
the point of view of the saga genealogists, she would
be, as all accounts make her, Thorstein's widow, and
the brief episode of her marriage with the compara
tively insignificant Thori would soon be forgo t ten, // !
particularly as Thori was a Norwegian, and therefore
of no interest to Icelanders.
Death of Eric the Red.
A more important question arises in connexion with
various conflicting statements as to the ultimate
religious faith of Eric the Red, and the precise time of
his death. On these points the Flatey Book is not
quite consistent with itself, for in the body of the Olaf
Tryggvason Saga, chap. 352, it states that Eric was
converted. This passage, however, is evidently from
a different source, and speaking broadly we have the
statement in the Flatey Book that Eric died in the
winter following Leifs return from Wineland, which
would hardly give time for his admittedly slow con
version to Christianity, while in H auk's version Eric
lives on to the time of Karlsefni. The repeated
136 DISCREPANCIES O F
statements in other authorities as to Eric's low opinion
of the priest, whom he described as a humbug or
hypocrite, give colour to the theory that he died
unconverted. The priestly chronicler of his achieve
ments, on the other hand, would doubtless favour any
rumour of the final conversion of his hero. It would
hardly do, if it could be avoided, to leave this pioneer
of colonial enterprise in the hell which the belief of the
period would inevitably assign to him if he refused to
the end to abandon his old creed.
I am inclined to think, on the whole, that the Flatey
Book is correct in saying that Eric was dead when the
later voyages took place.
If we glance at the chronology we find that Eric,
by 981 or 982 (date of first Greenland voyage), had been
long enough in Iceland to have made many friends as
well as enemies. Before he came to Iceland he was
old enough to be implicated in homicide with his
father.1 He married, and one son was born before his
three years' exile from Iceland. The sons of Thord
Gelli, brothers, that is, of Karlsefni's grandmother, were
among his active enemies. The father of Gudrid,
Thorbjorn Vifilson, was among his contemporaries, as
was Herjulf, who had a grown-up son who had owned
a ship for some years in 985-6. True, Snorri Godi,
born 963, and the sons of Thorbrand of Alptafjord, were
among those who participated, in his quarrels, but they
must have been among his younger contemporaries.
1 If the statement of the Fioamanna Saga can be relied on, Eric
as a young man, already grown up, was with Haakon Jarl in Norway
at the time when the latter ' took the kingdom ', i. e. immediately after
Harald GreyfeH's death (c. 970). The passage refers to Eric as an
' Icelander ', but must almost necessarily relate to the period before
Eric's emigration from Norway.
THE FLA TRY BOOK 137
In 985 or 986 Eric had an established position as
a leader of men ; at the date of Leif s voyage he con
sidered himself an old man. If we put his birth midway
between that of Snorri Godi (963) and his father (938),
we shall not then be far wrong. Eric, therefore, would
be born about 950.
Now Karlsefni's voyage, in spite of some state
ments to the contrary in the sagas, cannot have taken
place till about a quarter of a century after Leif s,
whether we date the latter from A. D. 1000, following
Hauk, or 1002, accepting the Flatey Book. This,
though not generally recognized, is clear from the
known dates of the descendants of Karlsefni's Wine-
land-born son. Snorri's grandson, Bishop Thorlak,
was born, as we find in the Annals, in 1085 ; Bishop
Brand the first, Snorri's great-grandson, died in 1201.
Brand's mother therefore, of the same generation as
Thorlak, can hardly have been born so early as 1085.
Putting the mean date of the birth of Snorri's children
at thirty years before 1085, which is making a liberal
allowance, we get the date 1055. Snorri therefore
cannot have been born much before 1025. If the
Flatey Book is correct, Gudrid was married in 1003,
and she certainly was of a marriageable age before
leaving Iceland, and was a widow when Karlsefni
married her. Karlsefni's voyage and the birth of
Snorri should accordingly be placed rather earlier than
1025, say 1020. At this time Eric would be about 70
years old, and, especially if he was ageing in 1002, it is
most improbable that he survived so long amid the
hardships of life in Greenland.
Again, when King Olaf the Holy, about 1018,
wished to get rid of the troublesome blind king Rorek,
138 DISCREPANCIES OF
and commissioned Thorar Nefjolfson to take him to
Greenland, it was Leif Ericson, and not his father,
whom he designated as consignee. (Vide Heims-
kringla, Saga of Olaf the Holy, c. 85.)
Finally, it seems strange that Leif should not have
accompanied Karlsefni on his voyage if there was
nothing in particular for him to do in Greenland,
whereas if the management of Brattahlid and the
control of the colony had devolved on his shoulders by
his father's death, the position is quite intelligible.1
There is accordingly abundant reason to conclude
that on this point also the Flatey Book is right, and
Hauk is wrong.
Other small discrepancies which have not escaped
the vigilance of commentators can be explained as
clerical slips, and consequently do not go to the root
of the matter. The alleged improbability of certain
details in both narratives will fall to be discussed here
after.
It seems to me, however, that too much importance
may easily be attached to the fruits of this sort of
microscopic criticism. The broad fact that we have
two quite independent versions telling to all intents
and purposes the same story — at any rate providing
material for a substantially consistent and circum
stantial history collated from both sources — is much
more important than the existence of any number of
minor discrepancies. By placing ourselves as far as
possible in the positions both of the actors and
chroniclers of these adventures we are likely, I think, to
1 According to the F6stbraedra Saga, when Thormod Kolbrunarskald
visited Greenland about five years before his death at Stiklestad (1030)
Eric's grandson, Thorkel Leifson, had succeeded to Brattahlid.
THE FLATEY BOOK 139
get a fuller appreciation of the facts as they were and
of the truth with which they have been related than if
we pore with a too studious eye over every line and
every .word, with a view, if it be possible, to establish
an inevitable but trivial inconsistency.
A Greenland Saga ?
The reader who has carefully followed the argument
so far will at this point probably be disposed to make
some such observation as follows : You argue that the
o
story is more likely to have lost the additional facts
given in the Flatey Book than to have invented them
by the natural operation of tradition. Well and good.
You also point out, with a certain amount of plausi
bility, that the probable state of interest and knowledge
in Iceland was just such as to produce precisely those
alterations and omissions from what you consider the
true course of the story, which, according to you, have
taken place in what we may call Hauk's version. You
appear to forget, however, that both texts are Ice
landic, and that this argument ought therefore to apply
with equal force to the Flatey version, where the parts
uninteresting to Icelanders are notwithstanding re
tained.
My first answer to this would be that it is quite
possible that actual facts might be retained in one
version in Iceland, even though not of great interest
to the people of that country, but it is highly improb
able that an Icelandic chronicler would be at the pains
to supply by invention precisely those points in which
his audience would feel the least concern.
My own private conviction, however, is that the
Flatey version is in the main drawn from a Greenland
140 DISCREPANCIES OF
source. Here we are embarking* upon conjecture,
a conjecture, by the way, which has been made before,
but it may be interesting shortly to consider the
grounds upon which such a theory is based.
It is in the first place improbable that in the narrow,
confines of Iceland two quite independent versions of
the same story should exist side by side. The original
story-tellers in this country were peripatetic, there was
a close intercourse between families residing in different
parts of the island, and it would be strange if the
tradition of one district had remained unaffected by
that of another. But the point most universally
admitted with regard to these two versions is that,
except for certain introductory and genealogical points
derived from a common source, the Landndmabok,
while on the whole the facts correspond, the stories are
obviously independent.
This curious circumstance is at once explained if we
suppose the historian of the Flatey Book to have had
access to a saga composed in Greenland.
Next, it is a marked and unique characteristic of the
Flatey manuscript considered as a whole that the
library from which it was derived was evidently rich in
literature treating of the Scandinavian colonies which
existed outside the confines of Iceland. This feature
has been noticed by Vigfusson in his preface to the
Orkney Saga in the Rolls Series (p. xxxii). ' Its
pages ', he writes of the Flatey Book, * preserve more
than half of all we know of the older history of the
Orkneys, the Faroes, Greenland, and Vineland
(America). Indeed John Haconson and his two
scribes seem for some reason, now unknown, to have
paid particular attention to gathering up every scrap
THE FLATEY BOOK 141
relating to these neighbour-lands of Outer, or Colonial,
Scandinavia/ It is therefore precisely in such a work
as the Flatey Book that we might expect to find
incorporated a saga derived from an outlandish source
such as I have suggested. We know, too, that the
practice of saga-telling went on in the new colony as in
the old, as indeed was a priori probable. In the Saga
of Eric the Red such a form of entertainment is
expressly mentioned as a means whereby the nights
of the Arctic winter were enlivened during the visit of
Karlsefni to Brattahlid. The stock-in-trade of these
Greenland story-tellers must inevitably have included
a detailed account of the founder of the colony, thus
supplying a rival ' Eric's Saga ' such as I have argued
(supra, p. 1 08) that the Flatey Book is referring to in
the passage where ' Eric's Saga* is mentioned. Now,
on turning to internal evidence, we shall find that
corroboration of the theory advanced is by no means
wanting. Not only does the Flatey Book, as has been
remarked already, supply precisely those episodes in
which Greenland rather than Iceland would be
interested, e. g. Bj ami's voyage, the circumstances,
date, and details of Leifs, and the full description of
Eric's family, but conversely, where Greenland interest
would naturally cease, the Flatey Book is far less rich
in detail than its rivals. Take, for example, the
case of Gudrid. To Icelanders this lady was a most
important character, the ancestress of many distin
guished men. To Greenlanders she was a girl who
paid a temporary visit to the colony, and was for a few
months the wife of a son of the house of Brattahlid
who met with an early death, before the promise of
his youth was fulfilled. She then married the Icelander,
142 DISCREPANCIES OF
Karlsefni, and disappeared from their ken. Conse
quently, though the Icelandic scribe of the Flatey
Book has been able to supply some facts about her
descendants in the concluding paragraphs of the
story, we find an extraordinary lack of information on
the subject of Gudrid in this version as compared with
the other.
In the Flatey Book she is subordinate in importance
to the truculent Freydis and her henpecked husband.
Besides the principal adventures of this couple we are
given a summary of their characters, the mercenary
nature of their union, and the exact place of their
abode, which is described in a phrase of more interest,
one would think, to a Greenland than an Icelandic
audience, as ' Garda, where the cathedral is now '. Of
Gudrid's origin we are told nothing. She appears
suddenly in the Flatey Book as the wife of the Norse
man Thori, who was rescued at sea by Leif. Of this
marriage, which is only recorded in this one source,
I have spoken already. Whether it is to be accepted
as a fact or no is not for the moment material, the
point is that Gudrid comes abruptly into the story as
a person whose previous history is of no importance.
In the rival versions she is the principal character, who
holds the stage from start to finish. The saga opens
with a passage — otherwise irrelevant — explaining the
origin of her family in Iceland, in the days of her
alleged grandfather, Vifil. Next, after Eric the Red
has migrated to Greenland, we have another interlude
devoted to explaining the reasons which brought about
her emigration with her father to the new colony,
followed by a description of the sibyl's stance in which
Gudrid played so important a part, which is so vivid
THE FLATEY BOOK 143
and real as to give rise to the suspicion that it may
have been derived from the description of Gudrid
herself.
Now the usually accepted explanation of the Flatey
version is that, being composed in the north of Iceland,
in close proximity to the religious establishment associ
ated with Gudrid's piety, and in the district where I
Karlsefni's family were settled, the story is derived
from the reports of the Icelandic explorer. And
indeed, the final paragraphs, wherein the descendants
of the pair are duly recorded, may well be ascribed to
a local origin. That some combination of different
sources takes place at this point is indicated by the fact
that the statement ' many men are descended from
Karlsefni ' occurs twice over in separate places towards
the end of the saga. It reads, in fact, exactly as if the
final passage beginning * and when Karlsefni was
dead ' was an addition from local sources. But is it
not in the last degree surprising, if the accepted theory
be true of the whole story, that here alone we should
be imperfectly informed as to the career and descent
of the local heroine ?
Again, if this story is the result of the full report
which we are told that Karlsefni left of his adventures,
is it not remarkable that in the description of this
voyage alone the Flatey Book gives place, in point of
circumstance and detail, to the rival account ? Not
a word is said of the Icelandic co-adventurers, Bjarni
Grimolfson and Snorri ; nay, we are given to under
stand that Karlsefni had come from Norway, without
stopping on his way in Iceland to join forces with any
such companions. And the whole story of the voyage, \
unlike the other expeditions detailed in the Flatey
144 DISCREPANCIES OF
Book, is, when compared with the alternative account,
quite sketchy and meagre. It may well be accurate
as far as it goes, for Karlsefni evidently returned to
Greenland before proceeding home, and many of his
companions were Greenlanders, but it is, as one would
expect of a Greenland version of this story, compressed
into the briefest summary.
If the account of the Wineland voyages to be found
in the Flatey Book originated in Greenland, it is
evident that it was far less exposed than the Icelandic
sagas to literary and other influences derived from
communication with other countries. Intercourse
between Greenland and the outside world must always
have been rare, and the effect of the edict issued by the
King of Norway in 1294 creating trade relations with
Greenland a crown monopoly led very speedily to the
decline and disappearance of the colony, which appears
to have been completed about A. D. 1400. In particular,
the edict cut off communication from Iceland. Only
in one respect should we expect to find a Greenland
saga affected by modern developments. And this is
just what we actually do find in the present case.
Direct Voyages to Norway.
As Dr. Storm has pointed out in the preface to his
excellent edition of the Saga of Eric the Red, the
Flatey narrative contains an extraordinary number
of direct voyages between Greenland and Norway.
Apart from Bjarni Herjulfson, there is first Karlsefni's
arrival, which is here stated to be from Norway ; there
is his return, direct to Norway, where he sells his
* hiisa-snotra ' to a German from Bremen ; and finally
THE FLATEY BOOK 145
there is the arrival of the brothers, Helgi and Finnbogi,
from Norway, in the story of Freydis's expedition.
Now Dr. Storm sees in all this merely an additional
count in his indictment against the Flatey Book. This
talk of direct voyages between Greenland and Norway
smacks of the days of the royal monopoly ; Germans
from Bremen suggest a date subsequent to the establish
ment of the Hanseatic League in Bergen. I think these
anachronisms are established with some degree of cer
tainty ; but it also occurs to me that the mistake is more
suggestive of a Greenland than an Icelandic source. It
is difficult to suppose that the infrequent ships which
sailed to Greenland under the royal monopoly in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries did not in fact call
at Iceland, which lay directly in their track. If they did
so, they would not suggest to an Icelander the idea of
direct voyages between Norway and Greenland ; if they
did not, they would not be present to the Icelandic mind
at all. To a Greenlander of about the period of the
Flatey Book's composition, or even earlier, any ship
which arrived off Greenland would, on the other hand,
be '-a ship from Norway'; i.e. a ship bringing his
necessary supplies from the only available source.
And, as the original sagas handed down to him would
hardly be concerned very much with the origin or
destination of the ships which came to Greenland, the
error of introducing Norway might easily creep in.
So too with the episode of the Bremen merchant. It
smacks of the fourteenth century, and it is obvious that
the doings of Karlsefni after leaving Greenland would
not be accurately known to an inhabitant of that
country. But it seems not improbable that the Green-
landers, being without timber, continued to visit
2376 K
146 THE FLATEY BOOK
the new lands to obtain such commodities, especially
1 for use in ship-building, and indeed the Icelandic
Annals for 1347 contain an allusion to a ship coming
from Markland. It must be remembered that ' mosur '
wood is not elsewhere specifically mentioned in the
Flatey Book account, which makes it probable that
this passage is from a different source from the main
narrative. But, at a later date, some anonymous
Greenlander may well have sold a * hiisa-snotra ', which
appears to have been something connected with a ship,
to a German at Bergen or elsewhere, and, in conformity
with the tendency to which allusion has been made of
attributing the actions of lesser-known characters
to those more distinguished, the transaction may easily
have come to be associated with Karlsefni, as the
principal hero of the Wineland tradition, and the only
one who after his return left the coasts of Greenland.
All this points to Greenland as the country where
the Flatey Book version of the story originated, and if
this be so it not only accounts for several inconsist
encies in the rival versions, but renders it likely that
the account here preserved escaped the contamination
which affected the later Icelandic sagas, through the
influence of foreign literature.
III. THE STORIES AS HISTORY
IT has now, I think, been established that the Norse
discovery of America is an historical fact, and that the
broad lines of the story have a substantial claim to be
regarded as history. While so much has been and
must be generally admitted, there is still a considerable
difference of opinion as to how far the details of any
and which of the versions are to be treated as part of
an authentic record, and how far, if at all, the saga has
become contaminated with external and mythological
influences. Some writers, such as Rafn and Horsford,
have treated these records with a credulity to which
no early work of history is probably entitled ; others,
of whose views Dr. Nansen is perhaps the most
distinguished exponent, consider the admissible element
of truth to have been so overlaid with fiction and
imported mythology that the details can no longer
make any claim to be regarded as historical. ' It will
therefore be seen ', says the writer last referred to, ' that
the whole narrative of the Wineland voyages is a
mosaic of one feature after another gathered from
East and West. '*
Between these two schools of opinion it is necessary
for us to pick our way, and in doing so I propose to
devote the largest part of my attention to the argu-
1 In Northern Mists, vol. ii, pp. 20-21.
K 2
148 T H E S T O R I E S
ments of Dr. Nansen, which set out most skilfully, and
with a wealth of research which it would be difficult to
equal, the point of view which is most directly opposed
to my own.
Admixture of the Supernatural.
Of course in the writings of so primitive and
superstitious an age, based upon oral traditions of an
even earlier date, we cannot expect to find a standard
of historical accuracy equal to that of the present day.
The authors, however truthful in intention, had not
reached a stage of enlightenment enabling them to
winnow fact from myth, both elements appearing to
them to be equally credible. As Livy candidly
postulated in the case of Rome, some licence must be
conceded to antiquity in the dressing-up of early history
by an admixture of superstition with the facts it seeks
to record. ' To suppose ', says Dasent, in his admir
able introduction to the Njal Saga, ' that a story told in
the eleventh century, when phantoms, and ghosts, and
wraiths were implicitly believed in, and when dreams
and warnings and tokens were part of every man's
creed, should be wanting in these marks of genuineness,
is simply to require that one great proof of its truthful
ness should be wanting/ In other words, one would
be entitled to regard the authenticity of any history
alleged to be early with great suspicion, if no traces of
the supernatural were to be found in it. Such things
are to be seen in contemporary chronicles of early
times no less than in histories written long after the
events described ; the evidence might not be sufficient
to satisfy a member of the Psychical Research Society,
but it was good enough for those who lived in primi-
A S H I S T O R Y 149
tive and credulous times. The ghosts and miracles of
such history, not in Iceland alone but everywhere, are
not conscious inventions on the part of the historian,
and dp not really damage his credit.
It will be observed, in the narratives here under
consideration, that the great bulk of the supernatural
happenings is confined to the part dealing with Green
land, the part, that is, which is in the main most
conclusively established. Greenland of course was
intended to be a permanent colony, and consequently
for some time communication, of a more or less inter
mittent character, was maintained between that country
and Scandinavia. As a further result of this protracted
occupation of the country, traces were left which remain
at the present time. Ruins of houses and churches have
been discovered, together with the bones of horses,
cattle, and other animals. Had the circumstances been
different, had Greenland been merely the object of
fleeting visits such as those of the explorers of Wine-
land, it may well be doubted whether the scepticism
with which some have been disposed to regard the
alleged exploration of the latter would not have been
extended to the former. We should have had our
attention drawn to supernatural episodes such as that
of the apparitions in Lysefjord (see Thorstein's voyage),
the inclement climate of the locality and the inappro-
priateness of the name Greenland would have been
insisted on, and the mention of horses and cattle would
not improbably have been regarded as incredible. But
the successful colonization of Greenland is an historical
fact, and its story is chronicled in precisely those sagas
which are here under consideration with regard to
Wineland. It is therefore prima facie unlikely that
150 THE STORIES
writings found to be historical so far as it is possible
to test them, in one respect should suddenly develop
a character mainly fictitious, as alleged by Dr. Nansen
and others.
Character of Early History.
Still it must be admitted that the historians of these
early times, in Iceland as elsewhere, were not so
scientific in their methods as those of the present day.
The word History still retained its derivative kinship
with Story ; the Muse presiding over this branch of
literature had not yet settled down in the humdrum
manage of meticulous professors. Like the classical
and scriptural historians, the Icelandic chroniclers
considered themselves at liberty to clothe the dry
bones of their material, and even to present in the
lively form of dialogue speeches of which the substance
only could have been known. If, for example, the
saga-writer has to chronicle the discovery of wild
grapes, it is quite natural for him to assume that a
sailor who found the means of intoxication ready to his
hand did not neglect his opportunities. This explains
the conduct of the German, Tyrker, in the Flatey
Book, a great stumbling-block to some commentators.
In the same category comes Hauk's account of the
incantations of Thorhall the Hunter ; it is an expansion
of a stranded-whale episode from the hint given in
Thorhall's verses, and a very careless and inconsistent
one at that. Other absurdities can be explained in the
same way, and the names of such places as Keelness
may have suggested the conflicting stories told to
account for them.
Again, if the historian had ready to hand a
A S H I STO R Y 151
picturesque anecdote from a different source, but
manifestly connected with the principal theme, which
could be fitted into the main story, he would have little
hesitation in using it, though the unscientific joinery
would be often painfully evident. Hake and Hekja, for
instance, whether or no they have an historical basis,
are manifestly introduced in the wrong place, before
any vines had really been discovered, and the limits
of the inserted passage are made glaringly apparent
by the fact that the last words of the preceding matter
are substantially repeated immediately afterwards
(' gerftiz vagskorit lan$it ' . . . * er var$ fjar&skorit ').
Such interpolations are frequently of great interest, as
affording what really amounts to independent confirma
tion of the story : they show it to have been widely
discussed and accepted at an early date, but they
hardly redound to the credit of the first amalgamating
editor.
Dr. Nansens Position.
A certain degree of caution is necessary, therefore,
in the scientific investigation of this as of all early
historical documents. But Dr. Nansen is not content
with such reservations as these. He goes so far in
the direction of scepticism that the reader wonders
in the end that the frail remnants to which he clings
are sufficient to hold this author to any belief in the
Norse discovery of America. His arguments, if sound,
play havoc with the very foundations of the story, and
if he sits unmoved among the ruins it is fair to doubt
if he will find many to share his attitude, or to trust to
the tottering remains. It is advisable, therefore, to
examine Dr. Nansen's arguments rather closely, and
152 THE STORIES
to see whether the records which we are investigating
are really as unreliable as he has suggested.
Minor Objections.
It would take a disproportionate allowance of space
to deal in detail with all the smaller and more
incidental points in the argument. Some of them will
be found noticed elsewhere in the present volume, and
one or two may here be mentioned as typical.
Dr. Nansen suggests, for example, that the statement
in the Icelandic Annals for 1121 that Eric, Bishop of
Greenland, went out to seek (leita) Wineland, shows
that Wineland was at that date not a known but a
legendary country, for ' leita ' can only apply to a search
for that the existence of which is undetermined. For
instances of a use of the word which entirely upset such
an argument it is not necessary to look outside the
sagas dealing with the present subject, where we find
that Aud the Wealthy ' for at leita Islands ' (went to
seek Iceland), at a time when her own brother was
already settled there, and long after the foundation of
the Icelandic colony.
Again, Dr. Nansen asks us to see * an air of myth
and invention' in the numerous Thor-nimes —
Thorvald, Thorhall, Thorstein, Thorfin, &c. — which are
undoubtedly to be found in this story. To find, how
ever, such names conferred on men born in heathendom
seems to me to prove less than nothing, particularly
when we find in the index of names to the Landnama-
b6k no fewer than fourteen pages in double columns
devoted to men and women whose names began with
Thor.
A S H I S T O R Y 153
Occurrence of Number Three.
Of perhaps greater importance is the resemblance
to fairy-tale which Dr. Nansen seeks to establish from
the frequent occurrence of the number three. l This
feature is not conspicuous in the Flatey Book version,
which gives us no fewer than six voyages — Bjarni, Leif,
Thorvald, Thorstein, Karlsefni, and Freydis — while
the distances between the lands are not given as equal
in all cases. In the companion version it is true that the
figure three plays or can be made to play a consider
able part, yet it is doubtful if so much use can fairly be
made of the point as Dr. Nansen argues. There are
three voyages — Leif s, Thorstein's, Karlsemi's ; but
the fact that the second alone is unsuccessful robs the
number of the significance which we should expect in
fairy-tale. Karlsefni's expedition consists of three
ships, but this is explained by the circumstance that
two of these belonged to the visitors to Greenland,
while one was manned by the local contingent. Each
ship had two leaders — not one or three — and the crews
totalled 1 60 men, so that the figure three is here only
to be found by selection from other quite arbitrary
numbers. That three countries are visited is only
true if we take the nomenclature of the Flatey Book ;
in the companion account we may rather say that five
places are mentioned — Helluland, Markland, Furdu-
strands, Straumsfjord, and Hop. With regard to the
number of days' voyage between the different places
visited, no emphasis is laid on the number three ; the
figure recorded is two, and in some cases a long while.
If it is said that two days' voyage involves an arrival
1 In Northern Mists, vol. i, p. 335.
154 THE STORIES
on the third day, then no use can fairly be made of the
three days' search for Thorhall on the island, who was
found on the fourth day. Dr. Nansen draws attention
to the fact that three meetings with skraelings are
recorded, but this is only true of the skraelings at Hop ;
it omits the five skraelings found sleeping by the sea,
and those whose boys were captured in Markland.
If the episode at Hop is to be treated by itself, it is not
a fair argument to say that there were three casualties,
for only two men were killed at this time, with four of
the savages. If Thorvald's death at the hands of the
uniped is to be included, it would be reasonable to take
the total loss to the expedition from all causes, which
. would comprise Thorhall the Hunter and his eight or
nine companions, and Bjarni Grimolfson with about
half his crew. Altogether the uniformity of fairy-tale
seems conspicuously absent, and the mystic figure,
appearing as it does with other numbers which Dr.
Nansen ignores, is explicable on quite rational
hypotheses.
The Wild Grapes.
Turning now to the broader issues of Dr. Nansen's
argument, they may be summarized as follows.- The
wild grapes and corn are rejected altogether, and
traced to legends of the Insulae Fortunatae in Isidore
Hispalensis and classical sources. Most of the other
salient features of the narrative, the whale, the bird-
island, and above all the skraelings, are treated as
derived in the main from Irish legend.
The alleged classical and Celtic influences it will be
convenient to consider separately.
I may state at the outset that I believe there is
ASHISTORY 155
something in Dr. Nansen's argument from the unusual
form of the name Vinland hit Go8a, which however in
its complete form is hardly to be found in the text of
the sagas.
I think it quite possible that this is an Icelandic
form of the classical Insulae Fortunatae, but I differ
from the author under consideration in concluding, for
my part, that the Norsemen, or those who recorded
their achievements, identified the newly discovered
country with these legendary islands, or considered
that the name was appropriate, because of the
commodities actually found in America.
It seems to me that herein may have lain the great
importance attached to the discovery of the grapes, &c.,
things of which Scandinavians had little knowledge and
could make but little use.
That wild grapes, at all events, were discovered
I regard as indisputable. Before the introduction
of Christian learning into Iceland and Greenland,
which could hardly have been far advanced at the time
of the actual voyages, it cannot be said that any
knowledge of Isidore or the Insulae Fortunatae is
likely to have existed in these countries.
Now the verses of Thorhall the Hunter are admitted
by all authorities to bear the marks of contemporary
composition. And it cannot be disputed that the first
of these verses contains an allusion to the discovery of
the grape and is very strong evidence that information
of this discovery had penetrated to Greenland at a date
earlier than that of the voyage in which the author
took part. It is hardly possible, in my opinion, to
exaggerate the significance of a contemporary com
position which says in effect ' I had been told before
156 THE STORIES
I started that I should find vines, but I have not done
* JT so '. The latter part of the verse is immaterial, for it
may well have been the case, as indeed is stated in the
saga, that the vine region had not at this stage been
reached by the expedition ; the point is that such
a region appears to have been discovered by some
predecessor of Thorhall, who composed his verse at
a period when knowledge of the Fortunate Islands can
hardly have penetrated to the Icelandic or Greenland
Colonies. It is moreover not without importance that
the briefest accounts of Leif s voyage contain allusions
to the discovery of a ' Wineland ', showing that this
was in fact the salient feature of the discovery in the
minds of those who heard of it, even if the name was
not conferred by the explorers themselves.
Then too we have the evidence of Adam of Bremen,
to which allusion has been made in the chapter on
sources. Adam, indeed, is likely to have been well
acquainted with the classical allusions to the Fortunate
Isles, but the same can hardly be predicated of his
informant King Svein of Denmark, and the Danes
whose ' certa relatio ' is contrasted by this author, and as
I think purposely contrasted, with the 'fabulosa opinio '
on which the existence of such a country had hitherto
rested. Adam's testimony, dating from about 1070,
may therefore be regarded as very strong and practi
cally contemporary corroboration of the discovery of
the vines alluded to in these sagas.
Again, it is clear that by the time of Ari the Learned,
who was born in 1067, the name Wineland had become
definitely attached to a country discovered in the west
by the Norse explorers, whose existence and position
were well enough known to be understood in a casual
A S H I S T O R Y 157
allusion. It seems to me in the last degree improbable
that, by the time Ari wrote, so large an accretion of
legend should have collected round the story of the
discovery as to account for the name containing an
allusion to wine if grapes had not in fact been dis
covered there. The style of Ari's writings, as indeed
of all the earlier sagas, is the most independent and
natural to be found in the whole of literature ; this is
due to the absence in these times of almost all external
influence. It is clear too that Ari was well qualified
for the duties of an historian by a most discriminating
judgement as to the merits of his sources of information ;
he is constantly giving us the names and qualifications
of the persons from whom his statements are derived,
and their knowledge not infrequently goes back to the
period now under consideration ; hence it is impossible
to ignore the value of a mention of a land of vines or
wine in the work of this early and conscientious
authority.
But it is further to be observed that if the Norsemen
discovered America — and it is generally agreed that
they did — the commodities of which the sagas speak
were in fact there, waiting to be discovered. Precisely
the same two things— wild grapes and cereals — struck
almost every one of the rediscoverers and later ex
plorers of this continent. The coincidence of a mention
of wild vines and corn in the mythical lands of classical
writers is just as strong an argument against the truth
fulness of these later explorers as of the Norsemen,
yet no one doubts their word, corroborated as it is by
the facts known to us at the present day. The whole
force of Dr. Nansen's argument under this head rests
upon this coincidence ; in fact, he summarizes it in these
158 THE STORIES
words : ' The resemblance between this description
(Isidore's of the Fortunate Isles) and that of Wineland
is so close that it cannot be explained away as for
tuitous.' l Yet the resemblance is just as close between
the passage cited and many in the reports of later
explorers, where it is quite certainly fortuitous.
A few examples of such passages may here be given :
Car tier. — (Brion Island.) ' We found it full of goodly
trees, meadows, fields of wild corn.'
(North Point, Prince Edward Island.) ' We landed
there this day in four places to see the trees, which
are wonderfully fair, &c., — many others to us un
known. — The lands where there are no woods are very
fair, and all so full of wild corn, like rye, that it seems
to have been sown and cultivated there.'
(Baye de Chaleur.) ' Their land is more temperate
in heat than the land of Spain — and there is not here
any little spot void of woods and made up of sand,
which may not be full of wild grain, which has an ear
like rye, and the kernel like oats.'
(St. Lawrence River.) ' On both sides of it we
found the fairest and best lands to look at that it may
be possible to behold — full of the goodliest trees in the
world, and so many vines loaded with grapes along the
said river that it seems that they may rather have been
planted there by the hand of man than otherwise : but
because they are not cultivated nor pruned, the grapes
are not so big and sweet as ours.'
Again, * Finest trees in the world : to wit, oaks, elms,
&c., and, what are better, a great many vines, which
had so great abundance of grapes that the crew came
aboard all loaded down with them.'
1 In Northern Mists, vol. i, p. 346.
ASHISTORY 159
Champlain. — (Richmond Island.) ' Many vineyards
bearing beautiful grapes in their season.'
(Cape Anne.) ' We found in this place a great many
vines, ihe green grapes on which were a little larger
than peas.'
(Gloucester Bay.) ' We saw some very fine grapes
just ripe.'
Charles Leigh. — * Concerning the nature and fruit-
fulnesse of Brion's Island, Isle Blanche, and of Ramea,
they do by nature yeeld exceeding plenty of wood,
great store of wild corne like barley, &c.'
Hudson. — (Near Cape Cod.) * They went on land,
and found goodly grapes and rose-trees, and brought
them aboard with them.'
Denys. — (St. John's River.) ' There is found here
also a great quantity of wild grapes.'
It may further be noticed that both Champlain and
Cartier conferred on different places the name fie de
Bacchus, from the circumstance that grapes were found
there. This name, particularly as it is used of different
localities, seems quite as much open to Dr. Nansen's
attack as the Norsemen's Vinland hit Go5a. One can
imagine the force with which the eminent explorer
could point out the manifest connexion with classical
sources, and the close resemblance between this
nomenclature and that of the legendary islands from
which he thinks the Norsemen drew their vines. If
then the resemblance in these cases is fortuitous, as it
clearly is, what becomes of Dr. Nansen's argument ?
The Corn.
It will be noticed that in the passages above cited
not only the vine but the wild corn also makes its
i6o THE STORIES
appearance. It is clear, therefore, that any argument
based on analogy or resemblance to these features of
the Fortunate Islands is quite inconclusive. Never
theless the case for the vines is, it must be admitted,
considerably stronger than that for the corn. In the
first place, no mention of the latter commodity occurs
in the Flatey version, if the reference to ' a wooden
corn-barn ' be explicable on another hypothesis, as
I have endeavoured to indicate in treating of Thor-
vald's voyage.
In the second place, most of the later explorers
seem to have meant by ' wild corn ' something in the
nature of lyme-grass (Arundo arenaria). But there is
a difficulty in accepting this plant as the ' wild wheat '
of the Icelanders, since lyme-grass, under the name of
* melur ', was well known to this people ; a reference to
the method employed in comparatively recent times in
preparing flour from it will be found in Troll's Letters
on Iceland at page 105. It is true that Professor
Fernald of Boston, in his paper on the plants of
Wineland, identifies not only the corn, but the vines
and the mosur wood, with commodities known to the
Norsemen in their own countries, but this has always
seemed to me to add to the already insuperable
difficulties in the way of accepting his theories, to
which I shall have occasion to revert later on.
All the same, I am inclined to think that something
in the nature of lyme-grass may be indicated by the
wild corn, and if so perhaps we may here trace to
some extent the influence of the classical legends on
which Dr. Nansen lays stress. One may imagine,
without much straining of probability, that on hearing
of the vines learned people would ask leading questions
AS HISTORY 161
as to the existence of corn, and so the lyme-grass,
hitherto considered, as we see from the Flatey Book,
to be comparatively unimportant, might have re
appeared under a new name. One can certainly
imagine the schoolmaster, Adam of Bremen, in his
cross-examination of the Danes from whom his inform
ation was derived, on hearing of the vines, making
some inquiry as to the existence of some sort of wild
corn, and being quite truthfully told that it did
exist.
However this may be, the identification of the wild
corn will always be an insoluble problem. The older
commentators on these sagas used to consider that
maize was indicated, but this is not, properly speaking,
a wild plant, and moreover bears singularly little
resemblance to any European cereal. The later
school mostly identifies the corn of the sagas with wild
rice, but this is open to the objection that it is an
aquatic plant. On the whole, therefore, while I think
the discovery of the vine is indisputable, and was the
cause rather than the effect of any trace of the
influence of the legends of the Insulae Fortunatae to
be met with in the sagas, I confess, in spite of the
coincidence of the reports of later explorers, to regard
ing the corn as a more difficult problem.
In any case it seems to me that the absence of all
mention of wild corn in the Flatey Book version has a
most significant bearing on Dr. Nansen's argument.
I For in practically all references to the Fortunate
Islands the corn and the vines are so closely connected
that a borrower from such sources could hardly take
the one without the other.
E.g. Horace, Epodes, xvi. 41 :
162 THE STORIES
k Beata
petamus arva, divites et insulas ;
reddit ubi Cererem tellus inarata quotannis,
et imputata floret usque vinea ' ;
and Isidore, Etymologiarum xiv. 6 :
4 Fortuitis vitibus iuga collium vestiuntur ; ad
herbarum vicem messis?
The existence, therefore, of a circumstantial account
of Wineland, which contains no mention of wild corn,
makes any derivative connexion between the descrip
tions of this country and the Insulae Fortunatae, apart
from all other difficulties, exceedingly improbable.
Celtic Legends.
When we turn to the other features of the saga, we
find Dr. Nansen displaying even greater resource and
ingenuity in finding parallels in the folk-lore of other
lands. The argument from analogy is proverbially
untrustworthy, but it is at the same time rather
difficult to combat effectively where, as in the present
case, it is impossible to set out the full number of
alleged resemblances with which Dr. Nansen's industry
in research has provided him. Samples are open to
the charge of unfair selection. I should doubt, for
example, whether even Dr. Nansen himself, though he
emphasizes the parallel with a marginal heading, can
attach any real importance to such an instance as the
following :
* The great river that Brandan found in the Terra
Repromissionis, and that ran through the middle of
the island, may be compared to the stream that
Karlsefni found at Hop in Wineland, which fell into a
AS HISTORY 163
lake and thence into the sea. . . . But the river which
divided the Terra Repromissionis . . . was evidently
originally the river of death, Styx or Acheron in
Greek mythology (Gjoll in Norse mythology). One
might be tempted to suppose that, in the same way
as the whole description of Wineland has been
dechristianized from the Terra Repromissionis, the
realistic, and therefore often rationalizing, Icelanders
have transformed the river in the promised land, the
ancient river of death, into the stream at Hop/ ]
A striking parallel to this parallel leaps at once to
the mind of the irreverent. * There is a river in
Macedon, and there is also moreover a river at
Monmouth : it is called Wye at Monmouth ; but it is
out of my prains what is the name of the other river ;
but 'tis all one, 'tis so like as my fingers is to my
fingers, and there is salmons in both ' (Henry V, Act
IV, sc. vii).
In so far as there were 'salmons in both', it must
I think be conceded by the impartial reader that
Fluellen's analogy is more striking than Dr. Nansen's.
Before considering further examples of the re
semblances which Dr. Nansen has sought to establish,
a few words may be said which are of general applica
tion to the whole. As in the instance above cited, Dr.
Nansen's analogies are practically all drawn from the
mythical ' imramha ' or voyages which form a definite
class in early Irish literature. This class merges
gradually at a later period into vision literature, where
a vision of Paradise takes the place of a voyage into
the wonderlands of the unseen world. But in its
earlier form, with which Dr. Nansen is mainly
1 In Northern Mists, vol. i, p. 359.
L 2
1 64 THE STORIES
concerned, the imramh took the form of a kind of
Odyssey, in course of which the voyagers discovered
many new and wonderful countries. It is manifest
therefore that many elements must necessarily be
present from which analogies with any voyage of
discovery, however genuine, can be deduced. Unless,
then, the similarities to be found are more striking than
anything which can be explained from these necessary
coincidences, we should, I submit, attach but little
importance to them. We should remember also that
the Icelander, however realistic or rational, is not
likely to have been a discriminating borrower or to
have rejected fabulous elements quite credible in a
superstitious age. Thus we should expect, if extensive
loans were taken from a literature exceptionally rich
in the monstrous and marvellous, to find at any rate
a good many definite instances where these character
istics have been retained without much alteration.
I have said that Irish literature was exceptionally
rich in the monstrous and marvellous. This indeed
is a characteristic insisted upon by Mr. W. B. Yeats
in his admirable introduction to Lady Gregory's
Cuchulain of Muirthemne as the great distinction
between Celtic and Scandinavian writings, ' The
Irish story-teller', he says, 'could not interest himself
with an unbroken interest in the way men like himself
burned a house or won wives no more wonderful than
themselves. His mind constantly escaped out of daily
circumstance, as a bough that has been held down by
a weak hand suddenly straightens itself out. His
imagination was always running off to Tir-nan-Oge, to
the land of Promise, which is as near to the country-
people of to-day as it was to Cuchulain and his com-
ASHISTORY 165
panions.' 'Just so/ says Dr. Nansen, 'and therefore
when the Icelander borrowed he rationalized/ But
had he the necessary critical discrimination to enable
him to reject the fabulous ? Was he so free from
superstitious beliefs as to be able to discredit the
mythical ? By no means. Nothing is clearer than
that he was highly superstitious, believing intensely in
ghosts, and portents of all kinds : in fact, he believed
in them so thoroughly that they almost ceased to be
portentous from the matter-of-fact way in which he
thought of them. For all he knew, the wildest flights
of the Celtic imagination might be sober truth, and as
truth he would have set them down if they had con
cerned him. But if they were no part of the story he
was telling, they could be left out of it.
Now if we examine one of these Irish stories, we
shall find the marvellous elements to be the very bones
and sinews of the tale. Eliminate these and nothing
is left which it would not be easy to parallel from the
records of any voyage of discovery. There is nothing
characteristic to which any resemblance can be traced,
except these clearly mythical features. Take as an
example the summary of Maelduin's voyage given on
p. 336 of the first volume of Dr. Nansen's work. First
we hear how * swarms of ants, as large as foals, came
down to the beach and showed a desire to eat' the
crew and the boat.
'This land', says Dr. Nansen, 'is the parallel to
Helluland, where there were a number of Arctic foxes/
Now there seems to me no reason why an Icelandic
writer of the thirteenth century should have discredited
the possibility of these Brobdingnagian ants. Yet he
describes merely Arctic foxes, animals differing in every
1 66 THE STORIES
way about as widely from these ants as could well be
imagined. They are not insects, they are not large,
they are not dangerous or formidable. They are ani
mals actually to be found in the northern parts of the
American continent, and the locality where they are
found is correctly described as a land of rocks, and not
a beach at all. Is it credible that the one story, accu
rate in every particular, could have been derived by
the exercise of any amount of imagination from the
other ? Set your children to rationalize Maelduin's
story, and see if you will get the ants turned to foxes
in any single case.
Next we hear of ' a great lofty island with terraces
around it and rows of trees on which there were many-
large birds '. ' This island ', says Dr, Nansen, ' might
correspond to the wooded Markland, with its many
animals, where Karlsefni and his people killed a bear/
Then where is the island, or where are the terraces,
or the loftiness, or the birds, none of them features,
one would have thought, which the most rationalistic
need have hesitated to retain ? We have, on the con
trary, a low-lying land, apparently mainland, wooded
indeed, but otherwise unlike in every single particular.
Next we read of a sandy island, inhabited by a beast
like a horse with dog's paws and claws. Next a flat
island with marks of horses' hoofs as large as a ship's
sail, nutshells of marvellous size, and traces of human
occupation. Next comes a lofty island with a great
house sumptuously furnished, into which the waves of
the sea threw salmon. Here Dr. Nansen might claim,
with Fluellen, * salmons in both ', but this has not usually
been regarded as a convincing analogy. Lastly we
are told of an island encompassed by a great cliff with
A S H I STO R Y 167
a single tree growing on it. A branch of this Maelduin
caught, and held for three days while sailing by the
island, at the end of which time there were three apples
at the end of the branch. Not even grapes ! I am
not sure, in spite of some ambiguous phrases, that in
quoting this long passage Dr. Nansen wishes to em
phasize many similarities beyond the recurrence of
a certain number of periods of three days. But the
description is convenient for my purposes as affording
a characteristic example of the type of legend from
which it is suggested that most of the features of the
saga were derived. And I ask myself in vain where
is the slightest trace to be found of one story in the
other, except that both are voyages of discovery ?
Correspondence with actual Facts.
Or the case may be put thus : If the fauna and natural
products described are merely the monstrosities of
Celtic fiction taken with a grain of Icelandic salt, how
comes it that they invariably correspond with the actual
facts of the countries to which the earliest discoverers
of America would most probably have come ?
Indisputably this is the case until we come to
Straumsfjord, though not much stress can be laid on
the circumstance that descriptions so brief and general
as those of Helluland and Markland happen to be
accurate. The episode of the Irish runners appears
indeed to have been inserted out of its proper order,
and while not impossible may embody a distinct and
less reliable tradition, and in the case of the whale
incident the details given by Hauk may be rejected in
favour of the simpler account given in the Flatey Book.
But there seems no good reason to doubt that
i68 THE STORIES
a stranded whale did actually provide food for the
explorers, or to regard, as Dr. Nansen does, this
incident as borrowed from St. Brendan. The second
song of Thorhall the Hunter, generally admitted to be
a contemporary production, and anyhow the oldest part
of the existing story, makes a plain reference to such
an episode when it speaks of ' boiling whales '. Whales
moreover figure extensively in the legends collected
from the Algonquins and Micmac Indians of Nova
Scotia and New England by C. G. Leland, while
Douglas, in his Summary of the planting of the British
North American Settlements (1760), refers to whales
setting in along shore by Cape Cod, and records that
the back of Long Island, where small whales affect the
flats, was the first place of the English whale-fishery.
To eat whale-meat, even without the pressure of hunger,
was quite natural for an Icelander, for Troil writes in
his Letters on Iceland (1780), with special reference to
the ' reydur ', the name applied to the whale in question
in the Flatey Book, ' they are all considered very dainty
food ; and the Icelanders say that the flesh has the
taste of beef.' With regard to the whale incident,
therefore — at any rate as recorded in the simpler
version — it may be said, first, that it appears to be
corroborated by contemporary allusion, secondly that
it was perfectly consistent with the local natural history,
and lastly that there was at any rate no need for an
Icelander to go to Ireland for stories of whales being
used as food. Dr. Nansen's case accordingly breaks
down in regard to the whale. The other salient feature
mentioned in connexion with Straumsfjord is the bird-
island. This Dr. Nansen dismisses as 'evidently an
entirely Northern feature, brought in to decorate the
ASHISTORY 169
tale, and brought in so infelicitously that they are made
to find all this mass of eggs in the autumn'. He
further denies the existence of any breeding-grounds
of importance even so far south as Nova Scotia. Now,
in the" first place, the statement that the eggs were
gathered in the autumn is not the saga-writer's but
Dr. Nansen's. The expedition left Greenland — accord
ing to Hauk — in spring, according to the companion
text in summer. We may suppose therefore that the
start was made not later than the beginning of May.
No prolonged stay was made anywhere until Straums-
fjord was reached.
Even therefore if we reject all the distances recorded,
and assume a rate of sailing as low as one tylft a day,
(75 miles, or little over three knots), it is manifest that
wherever we place Straumsfjord the explorers would
have arrived there before the end of the nesting-season.
And though they stayed in this place for the winter,
when they suffered from great scarcity, no mention
is made of egg-collecting till the following spring, after
the first record of the discovery, immediately upon their
arrival in Straumsfjord.
Next, although the statement 'a man's feet could
hardly come down between the eggs ' is at first sight
startling, it is an easy task to find parallel passages
among the later records of exploration in or about
these latitudes.
For example, Charles Leigh (in Hakluyfs Voyages)
says of the Islands of Birds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence
that they * are sandy red, but with the multitude of
birds upon them they looke white. The birds sit there
as thicke as stones lie in a paved street.'
The same locality is described in language almost
170 T H E STO RI E S
equally striking by Jacques Cartier : ' These Islands
are as full of birds as a field is of grass, which nest
within these islands.'
If Dr. Nansen objects that the islands here alluded
to are not quite so far south as Nova Scotia, where
he denies the existence of large breeding-places, we
may refer him to Nicholas Denys, who writes of an
island off this coast which has been identified with
Sambro Island, near Halifax :
' I was once there with a boat, at the time when the
birds make their nests. We found so great an abun
dance of all the kinds I have named that all my crew
and myself, having cut clubs for ourselves, killed so
great a number, as well of young as of their fathers
and mothers, which were very sluggish in rising from
their nests, that we were unable to carry them all away.
And aside from these the number of those which were
spared and which rose into the air made a cloud so
thick that the rays of the sun could scarcely penetrate
through it/
Or again take Champlain (islands near Cape Sable,
Nova Scotia) :
' Thence we went to Cormorant island,a league distant,
so called from the infinite number of cormorants found
there, of whose eggs we collected a cask full. .*. . At
the two other islands there is such an abundance of
birds of different sorts, that one could not imagine it,
if he had not seen them/
Lastly we may turn to more modern times and still
more southerly latitudes, and refer to the * hundreds of
thousands ' of breeding sea-birds observed on and about
Muskegat Island as lately as iSyo.1 This after cen-
1 See Steam's New England Bird Life, Part II, p. 362.
ASHISTORY 171
turies of indiscriminate plunder by the hand of man
may well lead us to accept as practically literal fact the
birds' nests of Straumsey, wherever we may feel dis
posed to locate this island. In any case it would appear
rash to dismiss this detail as a purely northern feature,
and still more far-fetched to trace, as Dr. Nansen does,
a possible connexion between these eggs and the red
and white * scaltae' which covered the anchorite's island
in the kgend of St. Brendan.1
Among the remaining descriptions of the fauna of
Wineland there does not appear to be much calling
for any comment. As to the halibut — or ' holy fish '-
taken in pits dug at the tide-mark, it seems to me most
likely that the fish here alluded to was the American
plaice or chicken halibut. Of these it is said in Goode's
American Fishes (p. 316): 'Very shoal water seems
to be particularly attractive, and they are often found
at the water's edge, embedded in the sand, with only
their eyes in view.' Cf. the tract New English
Canaan : 2 ' There are excellent plaice and easily taken.
They (at flowing water) do almost come ashore, so that
one may step but half a foot deep, and prick them up
on the sands.'
In any case, all Dr. Nansen's researches have failed
to provide him with a mythical source for this feature.
We find, in short, wherever we look, in place of the
wild absurdities of Irish legend, sober descriptions
of places with their fauna and flora which are perfectly
natural. What is more important, we do not find in
these descriptions the sort of thing likely to occur to
an Icelander or Greenlander, who was rationalizing
1 In Northern Mists, vol. i, p. 345, and cf. p. 360.
2 Force's Tracts, vol. ii, p. 61.
172 STORIES AS HISTORY
a legend to make it fit the circumstances to which he
was accustomed. Apart from the wine and corn, we
have a temperate climate with woods and large trees,
low shores and sandy beaches; except for the intro
duction of glaciers into Helluland in the Flatey Book,
which may be an embroidery from local sources to
emphasize the desolate character of the landscape, we
trace a manifest attempt throughout to describe condi
tions, natural enough to us, but quite unlike anything
characteristic of Iceland or Greenland. With regard
to the vines in particular, one can see that the nature
of these things was imperfectly understood by the saga-
writers, so unlike were they to anything with which
they were acquainted at home. The most conspicuous
example of the description of something utterly foreign
to Icelandic conceptions is, however, the account of the
' Skraelings ' or savages. These, however, are so impor
tant an item in the consideration of the question that
they must be allotted a chapter to themselves.
IV. SKR^LINGS
THERE remains to be considered what is probably
the most important feature of all, the information
given in the sagas on the subject of the aborigines.
In this connexion it is important to observe that at
the time of the voyages themselves in all probability
a savage tribe was a complete novelty to the Norse
men. The only possible exceptions were the Eskimo
of Greenland, of whom probably something was known
by the time that the Wineland sagas were reduced to
writing. In so far, then, as the descriptions of the
Skrselings of Wineland are realistic, and differ materially
from anything which can have been derived from
Eskimo sources, these descriptions form probably the
most convincing proof of the historical accuracy of
these stories. The inquiry at this point falls therefore
under three heads : possible or probable Eskimo in
fluences, any traces which may be found of legendary
or mythical influences, and characteristics indisputably
Indian.
Testimony of the Islendingabok.
Now first of all it must be stated that we have no
evidence of any meeting between the Norsemen and
the Eskimo of Greenland until after the time of Ari
the Learned. And indeed we have some evidence
that no such meeting had up to this time taken place,
while it is clear that the existence of Skrselings in
Wineland had at this date been reported. In a previous
174 SKR^ELINGS
chapter (p. 95) I have drawn attention to Ari's testi
mony on the point, but in view of Dr. Nansen's
comments upon it some further reference must now be
made to these matters.
In Ari's Islendingabok, in the passage relating to
the colonization of Greenland (see Appendix and cf.
p. 95), it is stated that dwellings and fragments of
canoes had been discovered. And the writer goes on
explicitly : ' and stone smith-work (weapons) such that
from it (steinsmrSi J>at, es af J>vi) one may understand
that there that kind of folk had passed (farit) who
have settled in (bygt) Wineland, and the Greenlanders
call Skrselings.' One could hardly have a clearer state
ment that the deduction as to the former presence of this
people in Greenland was based on such traces as are here
mentioned, and on nothing else. It seems prima facie
most improbable that such guarded terms should be used
if the Greenlanders had at this time actually met the
Eskimo, and thus provided themselves with a much more
conclusive proof of their existence. Moreover we have,
besides the express terms used by Ari, the apparently in
tentional contrast to which I have alluded elsewhere be
tween the transitory and past movement of the Eskimo
through the one country (farit) and the permanent
residence of the savages in Wineland (bygt). And
it would seem a legitimate and almost irresistible infer
ence to draw from this passage that accounts of savages
with canoes and stone weapons (cf. the ' hellustein '
which slew Thorbrand Snorrison in Wineland) were
forthcoming at a time when the Norsemen had no
other source but America from which the existence of
such things could be known to them. Dr. Nansen
however concludes that Ari's silence as to the Eskimo
SKR^LINGS 175
themselves was due to the fact that ' they were super
natural beings of whom it was best to say nothing'.1
It is rather difficult to see, if this were so, why Ari
should have felt himself at liberty to mention the
existence of these people in Wineland any more than
in Greenland, or why he should have thought it any
better to speak of the inferred existence of the Eskimo
than to record their actual occurrence. Further, we
may fairly demand where it is that Dr. Nansen finds
in Icelandic literature any reluctance to mention
supernatural beings, where these are believed to have
existed. Altogether it appears to me an understate
ment of the case to say that no meeting between the
Norsemen and the Eskimo prior to the date of the
Islendingabok seems at all probable.
Dr. Nansen, however, writes (vol. ii, p. 77) : 'I am
unable to read Ari's meaning in this way. He uses
the present tense : " calla ", and what one " calls
Skraelings " must presumably be a people one knows,
and not one that one's ancestors had met with more
than a hundred years ago.' On this line of reasoning,
if I speak of ' the man whom Carlyle calls the Sea-
Green Incorruptible ', I mean to imply that Robes
pierre and Carlyle were contemporaries. Dr. Nansen
further refers (loc. cit.) to the parallel passage in Ari,
mentioning the Irish monks in Iceland * whom the Nor
wegians call (calla) Papar'.2 'From these words', he
says, ' it might be concluded, with as much justification
1 In Northern Mists, vol. ii, p. 75.
2 ' There were then Christian men here, those whom the Norsemen
call Papar, but they went away afterwards, because they would not
live here with heathen men, and they left behind them Irish books and
bells and croziers : from which it might be inferred that they were
Irishmen.'
i;6 S K R^E L I N G S
as from the statement about the traces of Skraelings,
that the newcomers did not come in contact with the
earlier people ; but in the latter case this is incredible,
and moreover conflicts with Ari's own words.' Let us
examine this statement. In the first place it is clear
from Ari's statement, ' they went away afterwards ', that
none were left at the time of writing, yet he still says,
in conformity with normal grammatical usage, that the
Norsemen 'call', i.e. speak of, them as Papar. It is
obvious, therefore, from the very passage to which Dr.
Nansen appeals, that the use of the present tense does
not denote the contemporary presence of the Irish
monks, and it need not therefore indicate in the other
passage the presence of any Skraelings in Ari's time in
the Greenland colony.
In the second place, whereas in the Skraeling passage
Ari only mentions traces from which their former
presence could be inferred, he begins his reference to
the ' Papar ' with the words, ' There were then Christians
here, those whom the Norsemen call " Papar ", but they
went away afterwards . . . and left behind ', &c. This
passage therefore cannot be taken as affording any
support to Dr. Nansen's construction of the statement
about the Skraelings.
In another place (vol. ii, p. 16) Dr. Nansen suggests
that the mention of traces of Skraeling occupation
without recording a meeting with the men themselves
has an uncanny significance, suggesting that the
Skraelings are treated as trolls. It seems more natural
on the whole to construe the passage as meaning
what it says — that the traces were there but not the
men.
While on this subject I may as well refer to an
S K Ry£ L I N G S 177
inaccuracy which appears in the note on page 77 of
Dr. Nansen's second volume. He says there, * If it
was the tradition of Karlsevne's encounter with the
Skraelings that was referred to, then of course neither
he nor the greater part of his men were Greenlanders,
but Icelanders, so that it might equally well have been
said that the Icelanders called them Skraelings.' This
is in direct conflict with the statement in the Saga of
Eric the Red, ' ok varu J>ar flestir Groenlendskir menn
a ' — ' and the majority of those there on (th^ expedition)
were Greenlanders.' Of course the real reason why
Ari says ' the Greenlanders call them Skraelings ' is
that he is here citing, as he tells us, a J3reenland
source, viz. the information obtained by his uncle,
Thorkel Gellison, in Greenland. The argument, there
fore, in Dr. Nanseh's note, like that of the text, falls
to the ground.
The Skrceling Canoes.
Conceding, however, that some knowledge of the
Eskimo may have prevailed at the time when our
sagas assumed their present form, though the ' King's
Mirror', composed about the middle of the thirteenth
century, says nothing of these people in its detailed
description of Greenland, the question next arises as
to how far the writers can have been indebted to such
knowledge for their realistic descriptions of the Wine-
land savages. These Skrselings, as they are called,
make their first appearance in the story during the
exploration of Thorvald, as narrated in the Flatey
Book. We are told how three canoes of skin (hu$-
keipar) were observed, with three men sleeping beneath
each. These canoes appear to have been so portable
2376 M
f;8 SKR^LINGS
that one man, the only survivor of the ensuing
slaughter, was enabled to escape with one. Now here
at first sight we have an Eskimo characteristic, in the
fact that the canoes are said to have been of skin.
And indeed it may well be that the word used is
simply the Greenlander's name for a kayak. This,
however, is not certain, for it would need a close
inspection of an Indian canoe, with its sewn ' skin ' of
birch-bark, to enable a people unfamiliar with the use
of this material in boat-building to distinguish between
such a covering and a hide. I prefer not to lay stress,
as some have done, on the fact that some Indian
tribes used skin coverings for their canoes, for the
natives of the latitudes with which we are concerned
are represented in the earliest authorities as using
birch-bark. Turning, however, from the name used to
the thing described, it is quite clear that we here have
neither kayaks nor umiaks, but Indian canoes. Three
men could not possibly sleep under a kayak, which is
a narrow craft covered in at all points but one, like a
Rob Roy canoe or a racing outrigger. Nor could one
man carry off an umiak, which is a large and clumsy
boat, usually manned (if this is not a bull) by women.
Both these forms of Eskimo boat were observed and
accurately described in the contemporary account of
Frobisher's second voyage (1577), given in Hakluyt,—
' The greater sort — wherein sixteen or twenty men
may sit : — the other boat is but for one man to sit and
row in with one oar ; ' and doubtless at a much earlier
time the Eskimo constructed their kayaks and umiaks
in practically the same manner as at the present day.
But an Indian canoe exactly and completely fulfils the
conditions required in both respects. It is exceedingly
SKR^E.LIN'GS
179
light and portable, yet it may be, and frequently is,
used as a shelter for its occupants. On this last point
one may compare the observation of Jacques Cartier
with regard to a tribe of Indians met with in the
course" of his explorations. ' They have no other
dwelling but their boats, which they turn upside down,
and under them they lay themselves all along upon the
bare ground/ (Hakluyt's translation.) Here, then, we
have a feature which, with the possible exception of
the word used for canoe, can only have been drawn
from an actual meeting with the North American
Indians, and of which the historical accuracy is indis
putable.
The 'Skrceling Food.
Another small point accurately observed and almost
certainly pointing to direct contact with the American
Indians is to be found in the passage relating to the
sleeping Skraelings discovered and slain by Karlsefni's
expedition. They had, we are told, cases containing
animal marrow mixed with blood, a description which
seems to refer to something in the nature of pemmican,
or the ' moose-butter ' of which Denys speaks in his work
on Nova Scotia, and Father Leclercq in his Relation of
Gaspesia. This was a cake of hard grease extracted
from the bones of the moose, and Denys tells us that
' it was this which they (the Indians) used as their
entire provision for living when they went hunting '.
Personal Appearance.
In the description of the personal appearance of the
Skraelings there is little that is decisive, but much that
is circumstantial. One of the two companion texts
describes them as 'swarthy', the other as 'small'.
M 2
i8o S K R /E L I N G S
k Small' sounds more like Eskimo than Indian, and
may be a corruption of the original text based on
knowledge derived from Greenland. Ugliness, un
kempt hair, and broad cheeks would apply to many
Indian tribes, e.g. Micmacs, as well as to Eskimo.
Large eyes would seem at first sight to apply to
neither, and Dr. Nansen therefore considers it to be
a trait showing the introduction of troll ideas. Yet
the eyes of Indians have struck many genuine observers
as large ; for example, Lescarbot tells us that these
features ' neantmoins ne sont petits, com me ceux des
anciens Scythes, mais d'une grandeur bien agreable'.
Carver, again (1779), says of the Indians, 'their eyes
are large and black.' Verezzano likewise speaks of
1 large black eyes and a fixed expression '. Another
characteristic claimed by Nansen as evidence of the
influence of the troll-idea is the beard which we are
told was possessed by one of the Skraelings discovered
in Markland : but this strikes me as telling rather the
other way, for all trolls are bearded, and the Norse
men were so commonly so as to be known to the
Greenland Eskimo as ' Long-beards '. The point
therefore appears to have been recorded precisely
because of its rarity among the Skraelings, and, while
Indians for the most part take care to remove all hair
from the face and body, the possibility of beards among
this people is recognized by almost all writers on the
subject (cf. Lescarbot, Schoolcraft, Carter, Catlin, &c.).
It may be admitted, however, that the personal appear
ance of the Skraelings is not a point from which any
very clear inference can be drawn either one way or
the other.
SKR^LINGS 181
The Waving Staves.
The savages whose appearance is described in these
ambiguous terms made their appearance in canoes on
board "of which — we are told — certain objects were
waved with a noise like threshing. The word used of
these objects is variously written ' trjanum ', ' trjom ',
and ' trjonum '. It has been usually translated * staves '
or ' poles ', but if ' trj6num ' be the correct reading it
would seem doubtful whether something more in the
nature of a totem-mask or movable figure-head is not
indicated. For 'trjona' means primarily a snout, and
then a* detachable figure-head ; cf. the interesting
passage in Landnama (TV. 7) referring to an old law
whereby men were enjoined to remove their figure-heads
before approaching Iceland, * and not to sail to land
with gaping heads or open-mouthed snouts (trjonum)
which might disturb the local spirits'. It might on
the one hand be argued that figure-heads are things
more intimately connected with the idea of boats than
staves are, but for that very reason a copyist would be
more likely to convert ' trjanum ' into ' trjonum ' in the
passage under consideration than to err in the opposite
direction.
Accepting the meaning ' staves ' or ' poles ', a recent
writer1 regards this as proof that the description is
drawn from Eskimo, and Dr. Nansen makes a similar
suggestion. To Mr. Gosling it is ' evident that this is
an attempt to describe the motion of the double-bladed
paddle used by the Eskimos, and it will be seen that
an Eskimo, sitting in his kayak, facing the direction
towards which he is paddling, when going east or
1 W. G. Gosling, Labrador, p. 17.
182 SKR^LINGS
north, will appear to wave his paddle contrary to the
motion of the sun in the heavens, but with it when
travelling west or south '. I must confess that this
attempt at an explanation is very far from satisfying
me. In the first place it seems to me most unlikely
that the Norsemen could observe a large number of
kayaks on three separate occasions without understand
ing that the waving paddle was merely the means of
propulsion. In the next place, though nothing explicit
is stated as to the direction from which the first visitors
arrived, the second and third visits, one peaceable and
the other hostile — one therefore in which the staves
moved with the sun and the other in which they
moved against it — both came * from the south ', so that
the movement of the paddles would be the same in
both cases. Again, a kayak paddle, having a blade
at each end, does not move continuously in one
direction, but from side to side, while, viewed broad
side, the motion is that of a stave rotated forward.
Finally, though perhaps of less importance, it may be
pointed out that on one occasion the language used
seems to imply more than one <trj6na> to each boat
(var veift a hverju skipi trjanum). Having regard to
the prevalence in America, as in most other countries,
of the ceremonial use of solar and contra-solar motion
(cf. Brinton's Myths of the New World], it seems to
me a more probable explanation that we have here
a genuine and interesting use of a sign correctly inter
preted by the Norsemen, which further research into
Indian customs and superstitions might succeed in
elucidating. For my part, I am inclined to think that
the ' trjona ' was a rattle-stick, such as is used by many
Indian tribes. No other explanation hitherto suggested
S K R & L I N G S 183
takes into account the * noise like threshing ' which is
a circumstantial part of the description. Rattles, being
normally an accompaniment to dancing, would be
likely to be swung with or against the sun according
to the'significance of the ceremony of which they were
a part.
With regard to the white and red shields used as
answering signals by the Norsemen, of course there is
no need to suppose that the Skrselings understood
them, as Dr. Nansen does, observing that these
features 'have an altogether European effect'. Yet
by a curious coincidence such signs would in fact have
probably been intelligible to American Indians, for it
is stated in Wood's Nat^tral History of Man that, * As
among us, white and red are the signs of peace and
war, and each leader carries with him two small flags,
one of white bison's hide and the other of reddened
leather.' But we may be content to observe that the
Norsemen would be likely to make their customary
attempts at signalling regardless of the fact that their
efforts might be unintelligible.1
Trading and Fighting.
The fur-trading of the savages will recall to any
student of the history of exploration numerous paral
lels in the writing of Jacques Cartier and others. In
particular one may claim as a genuine Indian charac
teristic the eager acquisition of red cloth to bind round
the head. Numerous parallels to this may be found
in the records of later explorers ; in particular one may
1 Cf. Frobisher's first voyage, in Hakluyt, 'And so with a white
cloth brought one of their boates with their men along the shoare,
rowing after our boate/
184 SKR^ELINGS
cite, from Juet's description of Hudson's third voyage
(ed. Hakluyt Society, p. 60), what reads almost like a
free translation of the saga : * They brought many
beaver skinnes and other fine furres, which they would
have changed for redde gownes.'
It does not appear likely that the seal-clad Eskimo
of Greenland, who seem to have kept out of the way
of the Norsemen as much as possible, could have
contributed such a feature to the story. Even more
certainly authentic is the account of the fights with the
natives. Eskimo, as Dr. Nansen points out, were
unused to war in Greenland, where indeed they had
no other nation to fight, while of course warfare has
always been a normal part of the Indian's existence.
(It must be conceded, however, that Frobisher found
the American Eskimo distinctly warlike and pugna
cious.) It is clear that the Skraelings were formidable
antagonists, since it was the fear of them which
ultimately drove Karlsefni to withdraw from the
country. Of their weapons only one seems to call for
comment, the large ball, resembling a sheep's paunch
and dark in colour, which was slung from a pole
towards Karlsefni's force, making a terrible noise
where it came down. Dr. Nansen has sought to
parallel this incident from a number of disconnected
sources, ranging from the use of catapults and even
gunpowder in European warfare to the fiery mass
thrown with tongs at St. Brendan's ship by the inhabi
tants of the Smith's Island, and a similar incident
in Mselduin's voyage, and through these last to the
Cyclops in the Odyssey.1 In all these suggested
sources, however, the differences seem quite as striking
1 See In Northern Mists, vol. ii, pp. 8-10.
S K R ./E L I N G S 185
as the resemblances. The pole is absent, the re
semblance to a sheep's paunch seems remote, the
missile in the case under consideration appears to have
been neither fiery nor explosive, and altogether it is
difficult to see that the incidents cited have more
in common than the presence of a large and in some
cases noisy missile. Bearing this in mind, let us see
whether a resemblance far more striking is not to be
found in a passage which Dr. Nansen passes by with a
half-contemptuous footnote. The passage in question,
which is to be found in Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes
of the United States, vol. i, p. 85, appears to me of
sufficient importance to be quoted in full.
' Algonquin tradition affirms that in ancient times,
during the fierce wars which the Indians carried on,
they constructed a very formidable instrument of attack,
by sewing up a large boulder in a new skin. To this
a long handle was tied. When the skin dried it became
very tight round the stone, and after being painted
with devices assumed the appearance and character
of a solid globe upon a pole. This formidable
instrument, to which the name of ' balista ' may be
applied, is figured (Plate 15, fig. 2) from the description
of an Algonquin chief. It was borne by several
warriors who acted as balisteers. Plunged upon
a boat or canoe it was capable of sinking it. Brought
down among a group of men on a sudden it produced
consternation and death.'
With all deference to Dr. Nansen, who regards the
resemblance as ' distant ', it seems to me that here we
have the very thing described. We have first of all
a weapon which Schoolcraft thinks of as a ' balista ',
and one which therefore could easily give rise to
the statement that the Skraelings had ' valslongur ', i.e.
1 86 SKR^ELINGS
war-slings or catapults. We have the pole on which
it was raised, we have several men to sling it, we have
in particular the resemblance to a sheep's paunch
accounted for by the fact that it was covered with
a stretched skin. In fact, to reject an explanation
of this passage, which fits every single fact recorded,
in favour of a suggested resemblance to an explosive
because it made a noise when falling, or to fiery masses
hurled at a ship because these, too, are large missiles,
seems to me to border on perversity. But the reader
will judge for himself whether it is necessary to impute
to the saga writer here any borrowing from mythical
sources, or whether the description of this weapon is
not in itself a very strong instance of the substantial
historical accuracy of the story.
Mr. Babcock, indeed,1 seems to me to have been
unnecessarily puzzled by this weapon. He seems to
regard the thing described by Schoolcraft as a ' club ',
whereas that author, by conferring on the implement
the name ' balista ', distinctly suggests that the stone was
discharged as a missile. He also searches, not very
conclusively, for evidence that the Indians in these
latitudes used slings ; but it is pretty clear that the
remark about ' valslongur ' (war-slings) has reference
exclusively to this weapon, the description of which
immediately follows. So at any rate I read the passage
(q. v., page 62).
Of the Skrselings, then, who are said to have been
seen in Wineland, we may say that the description
contains practically no statement which might not be
truly made of American Indians. It contains, moreover,
points, such as the canoes under which three men slept
1 Norse Visits to North America, p. 157.
SKRyELINGS 187
and the balista above referred to, which can hardly be
due to any other source but direct observation of the
American natives. Possibly derived from a knowledge
of the.Greenland Eskimo comes the word * huSkeipur ',
used for a canoe, and, as some have thought, the
incident of the waving poles on the boats, though the
latter strikes me as a quite unjustifiable inference. The
description of the personal appearance of the natives
will suit either Eskimo or Indian. On the whole,
however, we may say with confidence that we have
here a description of savages so realistic as to point
to direct and careful observation. In support of Dr.
Nansen's claim that the tale is mainly a potpourri
of borrowed folklore we have really nothing but the
double who appeared to Gudrid in the Flatey Book
version, the belated warning of the Skraeling attack
which came to Thorvald, and the uniped which in one
version is said to have caused the death of this son
of Eric the Red. Of these three incidents two are
typically Scandinavian and no more than we must
expect in the reports of an unscientific age. Did not
even Hudson have his mermaid ? The uniped inci
dent shows traces of importation from some separate
and later legend, e.g. the dying speech of Thorvald is
clearly plagiarized from that of Thormod Kolbrunar-
skald at Stiklestad. And the story, as I have
endeavoured to show, can quite well do without it.
When these fabulous elements are admitted we may
still ask in vain for a single clear instance of the
adoption or adaptation of Celtic legend with its
continuous insistence on the supernatural ; of the source,
that is, which Dr. Nansen claims as the chief con
tributor to the saga as we have it.
1 88 S K R A* L I N G S
The Markland Skr tilings.
There remains to be considered the episode of the
savages captured in Markland on the return voyage.
With the circumstance that one of the Skraelings
captured on this occasion is said to have been bearded
I have dealt already. The statement that those who
escaped disappeared into the ground appears to me to
mean no more than that, like good stalkers, they
contrived to take cover and creep away unseen.
There is therefore no clearer evidence of legendary
influence in this case than in the rest of the story.
The rest of what is reported is hearsay derived from
the captives themselves, after they had— possibly not
very effectually — been taught to speak Icelandic.
I therefore agree with Dr. Nansen that it is hopeless
to attempt, as some have done (notably Mr. Thalbitzer,
1905 and 1913), to trace the nationality of these
savages from the words preserved, Vsetilldi, Uvaegi,
Avalldamon, Valldidida.1 The explorers of a later age
were not very happy in their transliteration of native
words, and we cannot imagine that these names were
handed down through a period of oral transmission
without a fatal amount of transformation. That the
1 The most that can be said is that the ' lid ' sound occurring in
three of the four words was probably characteristic of the language.
Mr. Thalbitzer permits himself an unrestricted range through the
Eskimo vocabulary for words resembling in sound those cited in the
saga. This obviously leaves room for a considerable chance of merely
accidental resemblance. Mr. Thalbitzer's equivalents for * Vaetilldi '
and 'Uvaegi' are 'uwatille* and 'uwatje', meaning 'wait a little,
please ' and 'wait a little '. The ' 11 ' we are told is strongly aspirated,
and may be represented by ' tl '. By a curious coincidence, which
shows the danger of arguing on these lines, these Eskimo words have
almost the same sound as their English rendering — ' you wait a little ',
' you wait '.
SKR^LINGS 189
rest of what is reported is inaccurate in most particulars
is no more than we should expect under the cir
cumstances.
Hvitramannaland.
One statement, however, in this passage, to which
most commentators have devoted an abnormal amount
of attention, merely purports to be a conjecture on the
part of those who heard the story, and does not involve
any necessary inaccuracy in the reported utterance of
the captives. I refer to the allusion to Hvitramanna
land (White Man's Country) or Ireland the Great.
The existence or non-existence of such a place as this,
while it has exercised the ingenuity of almost all
writers on the present subject, has really nothing to do
with the authenticity of the Wineland stories. All that
appears from the passage is that certain persons,
on hearing an account of an adjacent land supposed to
have been described by these Skraeling children,
jumped to the conclusion that Hvitramannaland was
the place described, and the non-existence of such
a country would merely prove that these persons were
wrong in their conjecture, not that the story itself was
unworthy of credence. What the savages may have
been struggling to explain I will suggest later. Here,
the point having been made that it is quite irrelevant,
it may be interesting to follow the allusion a little
farther.
What was apparently in the minds of those who
made the conjecture referred to was a passage in
Landnama (i. 22) which tells how one Ari Marsson
was driven by storms to * Hvitramannaland, which
some call Ireland the Great; it lies westward in the
190 SKR^LINGS
ocean near Wineland the Good : it is called six days'
(daegra) sail west from Ireland : Ari did not succeed
in getting away from thence, and he was baptized
there. This story was first told by Rafn the Limerick -
farer, who had been long at Limerick in Ireland..
Thorkel Gellison (uncle of Ari the Learned) stated that
Icelanders say, who had heard it from (Earl) Thorfin
in the Orkneys, that Ari had been recognized in
Hvitramannaland, and did not succeed in getting
away from it, but was held in great honour there.'
In the Eyrbyggja Saga a similar story is told,
though the name of the strange country is omitted,
of one Bjorn Asbrandsson, who was cast in the same
way upon a land to the south-west of Ireland, where he
was subsequently recognized by an Icelander named
Gudleif Gudlaugson. This story does not appear
to me sufficiently relevant to the subject in hand
to warrant more detailed notice, though the curious
will find ample mention of it in other works on the
Wineland question.
Apart from the irrelevance of these stories, those
familiar with the laws of evidence will doubtless agree
that lands where a hero is said to have made his
final disappearance, reported as they must necessarily
be on hearsay testimony, are on a very different footing
from countries whose explorers returned to describe
them in person. The only value — either one way
or the other — of this passage from Landnatna lies
in the mention of Wineland the Good as a place
known and acknowledged to exist at a period long
antecedent to the date of any extant manuscript of
these voyages. The proximity of Hvitramannaland
to Wineland is presumably a conjecture by the authors
SKR^LINGS 191
of Landnama, who would naturally tend to connect
with one another any unknown lands reported in
a westerly direction. It seems to me highly improb
able that Wineland found any mention in the original
story told by Rafn from Limerick. At any rate, no one
can be justified in basing an argument on the assump
tion that it did, as does Dr. Nansen,1 when he says, in
support of his argument that the Celtic imagination
has played a large part in corrupting the traditions of
Wineland, ' Ravn must have heard of both Hvi'tra-
mannaland and Wineland in Ireland, since otherwise
he could not have known that one lay near the
other.'
Anyhow, if Hvitramannaland was but six 'daegra'
sail from Ireland it cannot really have been anywhere
near Wineland, assuming the latter to be in America.
If we follow the Eyrbyggja Saga in placing it to the
south-west rather than the west of Ireland the distance
is more suggestive of the Azores. Storm, however, is
of opinion that the stories of Ari Marsson and Bjorn
Asbrandsson are a perversion of Irish legends of the
Christian occupation of Iceland, which a knowledge
of the position and characteristics of that island had
shifted to a different locality, retaining the distance
(six * dsegra ' sail) which, in the form ' sex dierum
navigatione ', is recorded by Pliny and adopted by Bede
and Dicuil with reference to Thule. There seems
much to be said for such a view, particularly as
' Ireland the Great' seems intended to convey the idea
of an Irish colony (cf. Magna Grsecia, &c.), and, if so,
Hvitramannaland must be regarded as a mythical
region.
1 In Northern Mists, vol. i, p. 354.
i92 SKRJE L I N GS
It by no means follows, however, that the state
ments attributed to the captive Skraelings must be
placed in the same category. Whatever these state
ments may have conveyed to a Scandinavian audience,
either contemporary or subsequent, there seems no
reason for us to read into the description a procession
of Christian priests, as so many commentators seem to
have agreed in doing.
Of course such statements as these, even when the
captives had been 'taught speech', would be very
liable to misinterpretation. It is not difficult, among
the well-authenticated voyages of a later period, to
find instances of native reports which were understood
to convey notions the possibility of which must have
originated in the mind of the questioner. Thus we
find in the explorations of Jacques Cartier such passages
as the following : c Donnacona had told us that he
had been in the country of Saguenay, in which are
infinite Rubies, Gold, and other riches, and that there
are white men, who clothe themselves with woollen cloth,
even as we do in France' Misunderstanding of answers
o
to questions based on preconceived ideas may thus
account for much, but, farther than this, accounts in
themselves accurate may easily become coloured by
a false association of ideas as the tradition passes
from mouth to mouth. Thus in the present case it
may well be that those who gave us the saga in its
present form understood the statements of the Skrael-
ings to imply the existence of some such Christian
community as later commentators have imagined. But
the statements themselves are capable of an explanation
more consonant with fact. The dressed deerskin of
the Indians, before being treated with smoke, is as
SKR CLINGS 193
white as a kid glove, and robes of this unsmoked
material are not uncommon, particularly if intended for
ceremonial use. I have myself seen coats of the Indians
of Labrador decorated with a few unimportant lines
and patterns in red paint which would have led me to
say with perfect truthfulness of the wearer that he
' wore white clothes '. As for the ' uttering of loud
cries ', this is a trait far more easily reconciled with the
idea of an Indian than a Christian ceremony. What is
described as an ' Indian Flag', adorned it is true with
feathers in place of bunting, is figured in Schoolcraft 's
book at Plate 13 of vol. iii, and it is difficult to think
how else any one could describe it, while other instances
of poles and flags will occur to the reader of almost any
work on the North American Indians.
On the whole there seems no very violent improba
bility in thinking that some Indian ceremony on the
mainland might be referred to in some such language
as is here attributed to the Skraeling prisoners.
It will be convenient, before closing this chapter, to
sum up the conclusions at which we have arrived.
1 . At the time when savages, using stone implements
and canoes, had been described and reported in Iceland,
no meeting with the Greenland Eskimo had taken
place.
2. There was at the time no other source from
which descriptions of savages could be realistically
drawn, unless the Norsemen had found them in America.
3. The description of the personal appearance of the
Skraelings is neutral — it will suit either Indian or
Eskimo very well ; it is manifestly an accurate picture
of some sort of savage.
4. The canoes described resemble Indian canoes,
2376 N
194 SKR^ELINGS
except for the name (hudkeipar), ' skin-canoes '. This
point, however, can be explained, either by supposing
a natural misconception as to the material used, or by
taking the word employed to be that which the kayaks
of Eskimo in Greenland, by the time the sagas were
written, had brought into use as the natural word for
any form of canoe.
5. The trading with furs for red cloth, the beast's
marrow mixed with blood, the sleeping under canoes,
the yelling and fighting, are markedly Indian charac
teristics.
6. An Indian weapon in use in former times has
been independently described by Schoolcraft, which
exactly resembles something described in the saga.
7. The people described display terror at unfamiliar
sights and sounds, e. g. a domesticated bull ; they are
unacquainted with civilized weapons ; they are
unsophisticated but vindictive. All these are genuine
savage characteristics, some of them specially appro
priate to Indians.
8. The waving poles cannot be satisfactorily
explained as kayak paddles, and any attempt made
to identify the words ascribed to the Skraeling captives
as Eskimo, after they had been transcribed by- several
generations of copyists, must necessarily be very
inconclusive.
9. The * Hvitramannaland ' passage can be inter
preted in a sense consistent with Indian customs,
though any alleged statements by the savages must be
regarded as most untrustworthy and extremely liable
to misinterpretation.
10. The descriptions are accurate and life-like, and
show no clear traces of features borrowed from Celtic
S K Ry£ L I N G S 195
or other romantic sources. On the whole, then, we
may assert confidently that the sagas contain accurate
descriptions of American Indians, and that these, made
at a time when savages were otherwise unknown to
the Norsemen, constitute an unimpeachable confirma
tion of the essential historic accuracy of the story.
2
V. THE 'D^GR' AND ' EYKTARSTAD '
QUESTIONS
BEFORE passing on to examine the voyages them
selves, with a view to identifying so far as possible the
territory explored, it is advisable to clear the way by
the discussion of two questions, the first of which
provides by its solution an approximate standard for
the measurement of certain distances recorded, while
the second provides a rough northerly limit to the
possible situation of Wineland. The two questions
are not in any way connected, except as being pre
liminaries to any trustworthy inquiry : as such they
may conveniently be dealt with in one chapter, which
may be skipped by the unscientifically inclined.
' Dcegr sigling '.
In the early days with which the present volume
is concerned, the only method of measuring distances
at sea was necessarily by time. No astronomical
observations capable of giving results even approxi
mately exact can then have been understood, and it is
a curious fact in the history of navigation that even
the simplest form of log for calculating the rate of
progress was not introduced until comparatively
modern times. The most natural method of measuring
nautical distances in these circumstances would be by
means of units corresponding to the usual divisions of
time. We should therefore expect to find one unit
THE (D^GR' QUESTION 197
representing an hour's sail, another representing a
voyage of twelve hours, and for use over long tracts of
open sea possibly a unit based on the average progress
during. a period of twenty-four hours.
Now the standards of nautical measurement found
actually to have been used by the Icelanders are
primarily two — the ' vika ', and the ' tylft ' or dozen,
which, as its name implies, represented twelve of the
first-named units. It will be found useful for the
present inquiry to establish first of all, with as much
certainty as possible, the distances represented by the
' vika ' and the ' tylft '.
In a fifteenth-century manuscript incorporated in
the collection of scientific treatises known as Rim-
begla the following passage is to be found (p. 482) :
' Between Bergen and Nidaros (Trondhjem) there
are about four degrees, so one degree comes to
about a nautical "tylft".' Pausing here, we may
observe that the voyage from Bergen to Trondhjem
was evidently recognized to be four nautical 'tylfts'.
The passage continues : ' now a degree on land and a
" tylft " at sea are equal, and there are two " tylfts" in
a day's (daegur) sailing.' To the expression used for a
day's sailing attention will have to be directed later on,
but for the present it may be allowed to stand in the
non-controversial form into which it is translated
above. Taken as an accurate statement of the case,
this quotation from Rimbegla has given us the follow
ing table :
i vika = 5 nautical miles.
1 tylft = i degree (60 nautical miles).
2 tylfts = i day's sail (120 nautical miles).
Now if a day's sail be taken here as equivalent to
198 T H E <D JE G R' A N D
twenty-four hours, we have precisely the divisions of
distance which, as I said at the outset, we ought to
expect where the measurement is effected by time.
A * vika ' represents an hour's run, a ' tylft ' twelve
hours, and a day's sail twenty-four hours. Whether,
the geographical distances which they are alleged to
represent have been correctly stated is another matter,
into which we may now look a little more closely.
It is evident that the assumed correspondence be
tween a * tylft ' and a degree, which, having regard to
the state of navigation in the saga period, must in any
case have been accidental, rests upon the hypothesis
that the length of a voyage from Bergen to Trondhjem
is four degrees or 240 nautical miles. The difference
of latitude between the two places is in fact little more
than three degrees, and even the rhumb-line connecting
Bergen and Trondhjem is not 240 nautical miles in
length ; this error, however, need not necessarily have
any effect on the author's calculation. But on work
ing out the shortest distance covered by a ship sailing
from the one place to the other, it is apparent that in
calling this distance four degrees a serious under-state-
ment is made which vitiates the conclusion arrived at.
This distance as sailed at the present day is said to be
318 nautical miles, and calculation or inspection of
a chart will show that it is impossible to bring it much
below 300, so that if this represents four * tylfts ',
calculated by time, as it probably did, our table must
be revised as follows :
i vika = 6-25 miles,
i tylft = 75 miles.
. i day's sail = 1 50 miles.
This estimate is corroborated to some extent by the
'EYKTARSTAD' QUESTIONS 199
scale of Icelandic sea-miles (vikur) given in Troil's
Letters on Iceland (1780), where they are represented
as nine to a degree or equal to 6f miles each. Exact
correspondence is of course not to be expected in
standards of measurement arrived at by so rough a
method as the time occupied on an average voyage.
Another ' tylft ' capable of measurement is that
given in the Greenland sailing directions attributed to
Ivar Bardson. Here the distance so described is that
between Reykjanes (lat. 63° 24' N., long. 22° 40' W.)
and Snsefellsnes (lat. 64° 55' 30" N., long. 23° 59' 40"
W.). Calculation gives the length of a rhumb-line
between the two points as 73-54 miles, according to
which a ' vika ' would be about 6- 1 2 miles, which once
more justifies the assumption that something over six
rather than five miles must be the correct measurement
of this unit.
If the line of reasoning has been correct so far, it
follows that the average rate of speed on an Icelandic
voyage under favourable conditions would be some
thing over six knots. The next thing to ascertain is
the highest speed possible under exceptionally favour
able circumstances. Fortunately this point is also
capable of determination. It is unnecessary, and
probably misleading, to enter, as Mr. Babcock does,
into calculations based on the speed of modern ships.
In the saga of Olaf the Saint (see this saga in
Heimskringla, \ 125), one Thorar Nefjolfson accom
plished what was evidently regarded as a remarkable
feat by sailing from Norway (Moeri) to Eyrarbakki in
Iceland in the space of four days and four nights.
There is in this case no ambiguity about the meaning
of eight * daegra ', the period recorded, for Thorar
200 . THE ' D R G R ' AND
himself refers to the fact that four nights previously he
was with the King in Norway. The starting-point may
safely be taken as Stad, which lay in the Sondmore
district, since we know from other sources that it was
the usual place of departure for Iceland, as indeed its
geographical position at the extremity of the westerly
trend of the coast-line from Trondhjem would render
inherently probable. The geographical position of Stad
is 62° n' N., 5° 8' E. The distance to Eyrarbakki
(63° 51' 45" N., 21° 7' W.) round the most southern
point of Iceland (63° 23' 45" N., 19° 5' 5" W.) comes
in round figures to about 730 nautical miles. This
would represent a rate of about 7-6 knots, and though
this is probably too little, as the course can hardly have
been so direct and we know neither the precise place
of departure nor the exact times of start and finish, we
shall be safe in assuming that anything appreciably
over eight knots was beyond the extreme powers of
an Icelandic vessel.
According to our calculations, then, the average
distance covered in twelve hours with a fair breeze
would be about seventy-five miles, and having obtained
these important data we may now proceed to consider
more particularly the unit of distance uniformly em
ployed in the story of Wineland, namely the ' daegr sig-
ling ' or day's sail.
In its strictly scientific signification there can be no
doubt that a * dsegr ' is a period of twelve hours. The
Rimbegla (not the treatise already cited, but another
incorporated in the same collection) is explicit upon
the point. ' In a day there are two " dsegra ", in a
"dsegr" twelve hours ' (p. 6). In nautical phraseology,
in which the word most commonly occurs, it cannot be
'EYKTARSTAD' QUESTIONS 201
denied that it is sometimes used with the same
meaning. The passage already quoted, recording the
voyage of Thorar Nefjolfson, is a case in point. On
the other hand, the statement of the Rimbegla treatise
already cited, that there are * two tylfts in a " daegur "
sailing', must clearly be interpreted as meaning twenty-
four hours, since even 120 nautical miles could not be
covered in twelve hours at what we have found to be
the extreme speed of an Icelandic sailing ship, and we
should always hesitate to assume the identity of local
or technical usage with accurate scientific terminology.
One might, for example, be led seriously astray by
taking the length of a mile from a geographical text
book and applying it under all circumstances to any
distance called by the same name.
The author of the last-mentioned passage in the
Rimbegla seems indeed to use ' daegr ' and ' dag '
interchangeably, for he goes on to say that ninety
degrees of the earth's circumference would take forty-
five ' dag siglingar ', and the complete circumnavigation
of the globe would occupy 180 * dag siglingar '. If this
passage stood alone it would doubtless be possible to
explain the first * daegr ' as a mere verbal slip ; it is
accordingly necessary to examine the matter from a
different standpoint, and to investigate the distances
said to be covered by a given number of 'dsegra sigling'.
A convenient passage for this purpose occurs in
Landnama I, i. The writer is evidently endeavour
ing to fix the position of Iceland by reference to well-
known points on all sides of it. With this object he
makes the following statement :
' Wise men say that from Norway from Stad it is
seven "dsegra" sail west to Horn on the east of
202 THE 'D^GR' AND
Iceland ; but from Snaefellsnes where the distance is
shortest, there are four "daegra" of sea to Hvarf in
Greenland.1 . . . From Reykjanes in the south of Ice
land there are five "dsegra" of sea to Jolduhlaup in
Ireland, to the south, while from Langanes in the north
of Iceland there are four " dsegra " of sea to Svalbarda
in the Polar Sea (Hafsbotn) and it is a " dsegr " sail to
the uninhabited parts of Greenland from Kolbein's
island (Mevenklint) north.'
Let us examine these statements seriatim.
Horn in the east of Iceland may either mean the
modern Cape Horn, the most easterly point of the
country, or more probably East Horn a little further
to the south-west. My reason for preferring the latter
place is that it appears to have been the most easterly
Horn known as such to the authors of Landnama. It
is referred to shortly afterwards in describing the
discovery of the land by Gardar, and was evidently
not the most easterly point of the country, for Gardar
is said to have arrived to the east of it. The position
of the most easterly part of Cape Horn is 65° 5' N.,
13° 27' 45" W. ; that of East Horn is 64° 20' N,
14° 25' W. The distances from Stad to these two
places respectively are 524-67 and 543-46 miles. In
this case, therefore, it is clear that seven periods of
twelve hours are meant, and the distance covered in
each ' daegr ' corresponds closely with the average
* tylft ' at which we have already arrived, being from
74-9 to 77! miles according to the objective chosen.
It is clear from this that we are here dealing with
averages, and not, as Storm suggests, with records, for
the rate is but 6*4 knots at the outside, which apart
1 So Hauk : other texts have simply ' west to Greenland '.
'EYKTARSTAD' QUESTIONS 203
from what we know of Thorar Nefjolfson's voyage is
obviously nothing extraordinary, while the journey
between these two points must in all probability have
been traversed more frequently than any of the others
here referred to.
Hvarf (turning-point) in Greenland was either Cape
Farewell or one of the promontories such as Sermesok
lying immediately to the north-west of it, and for our
present purpose it will be fair enough to calculate the
distance to Cape Farewell.
This works out at about 631 miles in a direct line,
and it is at once evident that four periods of twelve
hours are quite insufficient to cover the voyage. On
the other hand, four days of twenty-four hours suit
remarkably well, the rate being about 6| knots.
Let me now deal with one or two possible objections.
First it may be urged that the version of the passage
which specifies Hvarf as the objective may be wrong,
and that the coast of Greenland immediately west of
Snaefellsnes is the point of measurement. The words
' west to Greenland ', which take the place of any men
tion of Hvarf in the alternative reading, may seem to
bear out this view, but a glance at the chart will show
that all the courses laid down must be interpreted with
considerable freedom, and that Hvarf answers as
closely to west of Iceland as, say, Ireland to south of
Reykjanes. The real answers to the objection,
however, are first that no one can ever have com
pleted an uninterrupted voyage to a point in Greenland
due west of Snaefellsnes, having regard to the ice
barrier which at this point intervenes between the
coast and the open sea ; and next that the distance to
Greenland due west of Snaefellsnes, about sixteen
204 THE <D^GR' AND
degrees of longitude, is at least 400 miles, and is there
fore an equally impossible distance to cover in forty-
eight hours sailing. Finally, it is surely more probable
that a point regularly passed on the voyage between
Iceland and Greenland should be chosen for measure
ment than an undefined locality in an unexplored
region hundreds of miles out of the track of practical
navigation. The next objection will possibly be that
I have measured the distance on the rhumb-line,
whereas it appears from the old sailing directions that
this was by no means the usual course adopted. The
course laid down in the directions attributed to Ivar
Bardson appears to lie west for a day and a night and
then in a south-westerly direction parallel to the belt
of ice. Now first of all it must be remembered that
a rhumb-line course is not actually the shortest, and if
a day and a night due west be laid down on the chart
and the remainder of the distance be calculated from
say longitude 29-45 W., the resulting distance will not
be very materially increased, but will come to some
where about 645 miles, which can still be covered in
four days, at a rate of about 6-7 knots. In point of
fact probably all the courses with which I am dealing
would in practice be longer than I have estimated
them, and the average rate which I have deduced
from them should be slightly increased, while the same
does not apply to the rate of eight knots which 1 have
tak,en as the maximum, since in this case a liberal
allowance for deviation has already been made. If it
be said that my maximum and average rates are in
such circumstances brought rather close together, I
reply that in fact a gale does not bring with it a very
great advantage in speed over a fair sailing breeze, as
'EYKTARSTAD' QUESTIONS 205
the effect of the sea raised is to neutralize much of
the gain which might otherwise be anticipated. If the
distance actually travelled between Snaefellsnes and
Hvarf be increased even to 700 miles, the rate is not
much over seven knots, or well within the limits
assigned. For these reasons the distance given in
Landnama between the two points seems to me to be
a correct statement, but ' dsegra sigling ' must here be
interpreted as days of twenty-four hours.
Similarly in the case of the voyage from Reykjanes
to Jolduhlaup in Ireland. This cannot by any means
be brought within the space of five * dsegra ' of twelve
hours each. Approximately the nearest points in Ireland
may be taken as about 688 miles distant. Malin Head
in the north and Erris Head in the west of Ireland
are almost equidistant from Reykjanes, the former
being some 685, the latter 690 miles from the starting-
point. There is no real reason to suppose that any
point in Ireland so near to Iceland is the true position
of Jolduhlaup. It is evident on the other hand that
a very few more miles will make the distance recorded
perfectly consistent with five days of twenty-four hours.
If we bring our ship into Sligo Bay the distance will
be 718-6 miles, or ten ' tylfts ' of 71-8. This would be
perfectly consistent with the standards of distance
already considered, but of course Jolduhlaup may
easily have lain even farther away than this from
Reykjanes. The name is generally taken to mean
* wave -run ', and is sometimes spelt Olduhlaup. Joyce l
attributes a Scandinavian origin to the name of
Olderfleet close to Larne Harbour, and as ' hlaup ' and
' fljot ' are both common terminations meaning ' stream',
1 Irish Place Names, vol. i, p. 106.
206 THE 'D/EGR' AND
this word in an Icelandic form (Oldufljot) would be
practically identical with Olduhlaup. The author
above quoted says that the first part of Olderfleet is
a Scandinavian corruption of Ollorbha, the Celtic name
of Larne water, but whether the true derivation be.
from this word or ' oldu ' a wave is a question which
applies equally to Olderfleet and Jolduhlaup and
affords no ground of distinction between them. As
far as names are concerned the two may well be
identical. Larne would be the first important harbour
after entering the North Channel between Scotland
and Ireland, and may well have been chosen therefore
as a well-known point for the measurements in
Landnama, From Reykjanes to Rathlin Island off
the entrance of the North Channel is about 713 miles,
thence to Larne would be about thirty-seven more,
making a distance, if there be anything in this conjecture,
of some 750 miles to be covered in the five ' daegra' —
ten * tylfts ' of seventy-five miles, which corresponds
exactly with our amended table.
It has been objected that some of the MSS. do not
read ' five daegra ' ; this is true, but the alternative
(three daegra) does not help those who contend for a
twelve hours ' daegr ', while even if we adopt the
arbitrary emendation of the version printed at Skalholt
in 1688 and read ' eight daegra ', the rate of travel, even
to the nearest point, would be too rapid to be normal.
We have therefore once more a statement remarkably
consistent with our data if we interpret a 'daegr' as
twenty-four hours, and wholly impossible if a ' daegr '
must universally be considered as only twelve.
In estimating the distance from Langanes to
Svalbarda we are confronted with the difficulty that
' E Y K TARS TAD' QUESTIONS 207
we do not know where the latter place can have been.
I am content, however, to admit that in this case a
dsegr of twelve hours seems to be indicated. Four
times ^twenty-four hours would penetrate too far into
the Arctic regions to be at all probable, while Jan
Mayen seems best to fulfil the conditions of a spot to
the north of Langanes, situated in the Polar Sea.
From the point of Langanes to the southern extremity
of Jan Mayen is about 296 miles, or 4 * tylfts ' of 74 miles,
the route in summer would at this point normally be
clear of ice, and altogether it seems probable that Jan
Mayen rather thanSpitzbergen,as sometimes suggested
(840 miles away), is the place described as Svalbarda.
The last distance recorded is from Kolbein's Island
(Mevenklint) to the uninhabited coast of Greenland
lying to the north. The position of Mevenklint is in
lat. 67° 10' N., long. 18° 30' W., and the nearest point
on the Greenland coast would be about lat. 69° 40' N.,
long. 2 2° 48' W. The distance would therefore be
177-45 nautical miles, and so it is evident that it
could not be covered by a voyage of twelve hours.
In .twenty-four hours, however, under exceptionally
favourable conditions, the whole distance could be
traversed, and in any case in that period of time a ship
would be likely to have got as close to the land as the
ice would permit. It is not likely that this particular
voyage, which is not included in all the texts of
Landnama, was sufficiently often accomplished to
enable a fair average to be taken ; the allusion is more
probably to a special case within the knowledge of the
authors, which would in all likelihood have taken place
on an exceptionally favourable opportunity.
Now the conclusions to which we are forced by the
208 THE < D ,£ G R ' AND
consideration of all these distances recorded in
Landnama are as follows :
1. Only two out of the five voyages are at all
compatible with a * dsegr sigling ' of twelve hours.
2. These two appear to be very accurately recorded,
which raises a presumption in favour of the correctness
of the other data. In the voyage from Stad to
C. Horn we have exactly seven 'tylfts' of 74-9 miles
to cover in seven daegra, in that from Langanes to
Svalbarda (if Jan Mayen is meant) four 'tylfts' of
seventy-four miles each in four daegra.
3. Either the remaining three are hopelessly inaccu
rate, or a ' dsegr sigling ' in these cases means twenty-
four hours.
4. If they are inaccurate, it is a most remarkable
coincidence that they can all be made accurate by
adopting the basis of twenty-four hours,
Thus, taking the average of seventy-five miles in
twelve hours at which we had previously arrived :
The distance from Stad to C. Horn would take 6-9
or practically seven days of twelve hours (given as
seven daegra).
If the alternative Horn be taken the voyage would
occupy 7-1 days.
From Snaefellsnes to Hvarf would be 4* i days of
twenty-four hours (given as four daegra).
In sailing from Reykjanes to any part of Ireland one
could not arrive before the fifth day of twenty-four
hours was well advanced, and it would be easy to find
a point which would occupy exactly the time prescribed.
From Langanes to Jan Mayen the distance is correct
within eight miles, which may easily be accounted for
by slight differences in the points of arrival or departure.
'EYKTARSTAD' QUESTIONS 209
From Mevenklint to Greenland would occupy 1-16
days of twenty-four hours.
Thus the discrepancies are so slight that even if the
rate had to be limited to this average, the statements
would fee as correct as so vague a unit as a day's journey
would permit, and of course the variation in speed
must have been greatly in excess of anything required
absolutely to justify these estimates in the smallest
detail.
That in the case of three out of five statements such
a correspondence should be fortuitous seems to me to
be out of the question.
It will doubtless be objected that I am not justified
in interpreting the same word in the same passage by
two different periods of time. The compilers of the
Landnamabok, however, expressly disclaim personal
responsibility for the statistics recorded. They are
based on the reports of ' vitrir menn ', men that is with
the requisite special knowledge, and once it is admitted
that the meaning of the expression * daegr ' may have
varied from place to place, there is nothing extra
ordinary in a discrepancy of this nature being
exemplified in a passage based on information gathered
from different informants in the east and west of
Iceland.
It is comparatively easy to see how such a dis
crepancy in nautical use may have arisen. Evidently
' daegr sigling ' was the usual nautical expression for a
day's sail. This is shown not only by the fact that it
is nearly always in a nautical context that the word
' daegr ' makes its appearance, but also by the opening
sentence of the Landnamabok's preface, which renders
Bede's words ' sex dierum navigatione ' by ' sex daegra
210 THE'D^EGR'AND
sigling' as the obvious equivalent. Now of course
until the exodus brought about in Scandinavia by the
policy of Harold Haarfagre, the vast majority of the
voyages undertaken by Norsemen were along the coast
of Norway and the adjacent countries, and were carried
on almost entirely by day, the ships putting into a
convenient haven almost every night. The coast of
Norway, before the days of lighthouses, cannot have
been a pleasant place to navigate in the dark, and
in fact we almost always find it recorded, as an
exceptional occurrence, when any motive induced the
seamen of this period to sail day and night without
stopping. A day's journey in a ship would therefore
in the normal course be equivalent to the distance
covered in a ' dsegr ' of twelve hours, and thus the appli
cation of this word to a nautical day's journey doubtless
began. Then, when colonial expansion and viking
enterprises made continuous open-sea voyages more
common, two courses would be open to those who
wished to record the distance travelled. They might
take the nautical expression ' dsegr ' as referring to
the twelve hours actually occupied in sailing under old
conditions, or they might take it as extending to the
period during which the ships of less venturous seamen
had usually lain at anchor. A man who had taken—
say — four ' daegra ' to sail between two points, stopping
at night, would actually have travelled but forty-eight
hours, but the time occupied from point to point would
have been four days of twenty-four hours. According
to the aspect of the question which struck a sailor
accustomed to this method of reckoning he would be
likely to call a continuous voyage of four days either
four or eight ' dsegra '. Thus a variety in local usage
'EYKTARSTAD' QUESTIONS 211
might quite naturally spring up which would account
for the discrepancy which has given rise to the
difficulties with which I have been endeavouring
to deaL
Of course it is but seldom in passages where this
expression is used that we have any data at all to
enable us to say which meaning should be attached to
the word. In the sagas of Wineland the word ' daegr '
occurs perhaps with unusual frequency, and to my mind
every passage where it is there employed might be
prayed in aid of the argument that a ' dsegr sigling '
was frequently twenty-four hours. But to use these
passages at this stage would be to argue in a circle, and
we must be content to rest the assumption that the
word was so used on the data of which use has been
made in the foregoing argument, reserving to ourselves
the right in subsequent investigation of the voyages to
accept what is there stated with regard to distances
sailed, even though on the hypothesis that a * dsegr '
can only mean twelve hours the statements made are
clearly incredible.
The ' eyktarstad ' problem.
In the account of Leif's sojourn in Wineland, con
tained in the Flatey Book, will be found a passsage
which has given rise to more acute controversy than
any other in the story. It runs as follows :
'Sol hafSe f>ar eyktarstad ok dagmalastad um
skamdegi ' — the sun had there eykt place and breakfast
place on the shortest day, or, as rendered in our
translation, p. 42, ' on the shortest day the sun was up
over the (Icelandic) marks for both nones and break
fast time '.
o 2
212 T H E 'D ;E G R' A N D
Now one may note in passing that, whatever the
significance of the words, they are evidently not the
sort of thing which a romanticizing saga-writer would
introduce from his own imagination. This is admitted
by the most adverse critics of the authority which
reproduces them.
In view of the attitude taken up by some modern
writers, it is important to point out their entire in
dependence of anything to be extracted from the rival
version. They go far to disprove, if disproof be
necessary, the theory that the Flatey Book account
is borrowed from the Saga of Eric the Red.
But at this point in the inquiry we are less con
cerned with this than with the precise significance of
the expression used, and though the question has
finally been solved, and nothing new can be added,
it is necessary, for the sake of readers unfamiliar
with the subject, to devote some space to the
matter.
The Icelanders, possessing no clocks or scientifically
constructed dials, were in the habit of estimating the
time of day by the position of the sun above the
horizon. With this object they marked eight points
upon the horizon, utilizing hills and natural ' objects
where such were conveniently situated, and erecting
cairns in places which were otherwise undistinguished.
This method of time-keeping, crude as it was, persisted
down to very recent times, if indeed it is not still in
use in some parts of the country. Henderson, who
visited Iceland in 1814-15, describes the method in
some detail (Iceland, vol. i, p. 186), and gives the
names and time-equivalents of the various points as
follows : —
'EYKTARSTAD' QUESTIONS 213
1. Midnaetti. About n p.m.
2. Otta. „ 2 a.m.
3. Midur-morgun
(or Hirdis-rismal). ,, 5 a.m.
4.' Dagmal. ,, 8 a.m.
5. Hadegi. ,, n a.m.
6. Non. ,, 2 p.m.
7. Midur Aptan. „ 5 p.m.
8. Nattmal. „ 8 p.m.
In an earlier work,1 the same divisions of time are
mentioned, but with some difference in the equivalents,
thus : — * Otta is with them three o'clock in the morning ;
Midur morgon or Herdis rismal, five o'clock ; Dagmal,
half past eight; Haadege, eleven; Nonn, three in the
afternoon ; Midur afton, six in the morning (sic :
obviously should be * afternoon ') ; nattmal, eight, and
midnatt twelve o'clock at night.' A little thought
will make apparent the reasons for these discrepancies
in time, for not only is the method exceedingly rough,
but of course the horizontal bearing or azimuth of the
sun at a particular time is not the same throughout
the year, and it also varies with the latitude. For
example, taking the latitude of Iceland as 65 , and
the obliquity of the ecliptic in A.D. 1000 as 23° 34',
which is substantially accurate, and calculating the
sun's bearing at three o'clock p.m. throughout the year,
we get : —
Midsummer: S. 57° 9' W.
Equinox : S. 47° 49' W.
Midwinter : S. 40° 36' W. (not visible)
while on shifting the latitude to 51° 30' (about that of
1 Troll's Letters on Iceland, 1780, p. 118.
214 T H E 'D AL G R' A N D
London) we get a bearing of 68° 1 7' for 3 p.m. at
midsummer.
It appears, however, from the fact that one of the
eight points was midnight, and another ' hadegi ' (high
day or noon), that the scheme would aim at dividing
the equinoctial day into three-hour intervals. Dagmal
would then be about 9 a.m. and N6n 3 p.m. The
latter word originally meant the ecclesiastical * nones '
(3 p.m.) and in old Icelandic 'eykt' is used as synony
mous with ' nones '.
In the Icelandic Ecclesiastical Code, or Kristinret,
instructions are given for the correct location of the
mark for * eykt '. ' It is eykt', says the law, * when the
south-west airt is divided into three, and the sun has
passed two divisions and has one to go.' This gives
us a bearing of S. 52° 30' W. for 'eykt' or nones,
which would be, in Iceland of the eleventh century,
pretty correct for 3 p.m. between the equinoxes and
the summer solstice, during nearly the whole time,
that is, when the sun would be visible at this hour
in these northerly latitudes. (See accompanying
diagram.)
Now the root error of all the earlier commentators
who attempted the elucidation of the passage, under
consideration consisted in treating ' eykt ' not as a solar
bearing, but as a definite clock time. Three o'clock
clearly would not do, for sunset at 3 p.m. on the
shortest day in winter indicates a latitude too far north
to correspond in any way with the climate indicated.
Torfaeus, the earliest writer on the subject, accordingly
interpreted ' the south-west airt ' as the whole quarter
between south and west, and dividing the time between
noon and 6 p.m. (equinoctial west) into thirds he
'EYKTARSTAD' QUESTIONS 215
arrived at 4 p.m. as the time of sunset, which with
8 a.m. for Dagmal gave an eight hours day, or a
latitude of approximately 49° N. Of course, for the
. 0A.M. EQUINOX
DIAGRAM OF SUN'S BEARINGS AT THREE-HOUR INTERVALS
LATITUDE 65. A. D. 1OOO
reasons already given, the bearing corresponding to
such a division of the horizon (S. 6o°W.), assuming
the latter to be justifiable, would not unalterably
2i6 THE 'D^EGR' AND
represent 4 p.m. even in Iceland, and the clock time
for which the bearing stood in Iceland would be
indicated by a wholly different position of the sun in
another latitude.
Next came what may be called the school of Rafn,
who claimed to have located the Wineland of the
sagas with certainty in the neighbourhood of Rhode
Island. For them an interpretation which resulted in
a latitude of 49° was unsatisfactory. They accordingly
prayed in aid a passage from Snorri's Edda, in which
the winter is said to begin at the point where the sun
sets in ' Eyktarstad '. It was known that winter,
according to the Icelandic calendar, began in the week
preceding the i8th of October, and observation in
the latitude of Snorri's home showed that the sun
set there on the iyth of October at 4.30 p.m. As the
passage is drawing a distinction between autumn and
winter it could hardly refer to the Icelandic winter
beginning about the i8th of October, for as Vigfusson
has pointed out with regard to this division of the
calendar, which persists in modern Iceland, it is a
division of the year into summer and winter only, and
leaves spring and autumn out of account.1 But it led
Rafn and his followers to assert, in the teeth of all
the other evidence, that 'eykt' was not a point but
a period of time, and that ' eyktarstad ' was a point
which could be interpreted as 4.30 p.m. apparently in
any latitude! This, with ' dagmalastad ' at 7.30 a.m.
gave a day of nine hours, from which Rafn claimed to
deduce the latitude — to a second of arc — as 41° 24' 10",
an observation which, accepting Rafn's theory as to
the locality visited, would be beyond the accuracy of
1 Corpus Poeticum Borcale, vol. i, p. 430.
'EYKTARSTAD' QUESTIONS 217
a modern sextant. Unfortunately for this surprising
result, the method of calculation was hardly so correct,
for, apart from the fallacy of treating the local time as
transferable, no correction was made for the effects of
refraction, &c., and the declination assumed was not
that of the eleventh but of the nineteenth century.
It remained for Dr. Gustav Storm to point out the
correct way of utilizing the data supplied. Assuming
the instructions in the Kristinret to apply to an
observation recorded of an earlier day, and assuming
the passage to mean that the sun set at the precise
moment of * eykt ', the amplitude, or distance from the
west at setting, of the sun on the shortest day in
Wineland was 37! . We may assume, as the observer
would have been looking across the land, that the
lower edge of the sun was at least 19' above the
actual horizon, and this being so no allowance for
refraction or dip of the horizon need be made before
working out the formula : — sec : lat : = sin : amp : cosec :
decl. Professor Turner, of the Oxford University
Observatory/has kindly supplied me with the corrected
declination for the year A.D. 1000, viz: 23° 34' 8".
We need not trouble about the seconds, as we know
neither the precise moment of the solstice nor even
the year with certainty; omitting these the problem
works out as follows : —
log sin : amplitude : 9-784447
log cosec : declination 10-398140
log sec : latitude: 10-182587
The latitude therefore would be about 48° 57' N.
This, however, correctly understood, gives only the
northern limit beyond which the observation could not
have been made.
218 THE <D & G R' AND
It might be argued that the refinements enjoined in
the Kristinret were not likely to have been in operation
in these primitive times. There seem to have been
eight day-marks, two of which represented midnight
and noon respectively, and it would seem more natural
therefore for men who attached no particular importance
to the hour of 3 p.m. such as was subsequently associ
ated with the time of nones, to divide their horizon
into equal parts, which would serve, at any rate at the
equinoxes, accurately for 6 a.m. and p.m. and mid-day,
while dagmal and eykt would occupy the points mid
way between the others, and stand, less accurately,
for 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. The answer to this criticism
probably is that it was found necessary to divide the
day into equal watches : anyhow, such an interpretation
cannot be correct, for an amplitude of 45° would give
a latitude of 55° 34' up to which this bearing would
be visible, and this would be too near the latitude of
Greenland to be remarkable, while nothing is clearer
than that the writer of the passage was endeavouring
to record a marked and surprising difference from the
length of the winter day to which Greenlanders were
accustomed.
This in fact, rather than a precise determination of
latitude, would seem to be the object of the statement,
taken as a whole. It is as if one were to say, ' I could
breakfast, or shave, by daylight all the year round.'
It by no means follows from the passage that dagma-
lastad and eyktarstad are meant to be understood as
sunrise and sunset ; in fact, it would involve an extra
ordinary coincidence if they were. There were only
eight points in general use by which the time of day
could be measured or expressed, and to say therefore
'EYKTARSTAD' QUESTIONS 219
that the sun was up at a particular time does not
indicate that at that precise moment it was on the
horizon. Indeed if Rafn had been content with proba
bilities instead of trying to make the passage support an
exact determination of latitude, he would have made out
a fairly strong case, so far as eyktarstad was concerned,
for the locality which he identified with the explorers'
camp. The chances are that, over a background of
wooded and hilly ground, actual sunrise and sunset were
invisible, and that the sun was well up at the time of
passing over the points recorded. I have calculated
roughly the altitude of the sun in eyktarstad at the
time in question, and I make out that even so far south
as 40° it would not be as much as 5 J°. Even assuming
that the time of sunset was meant, it would not require
any very great unevenness of the horizon to produce
the effect of sunset at this point in the latitude supported
by Rafn, and it is almost certain that the locality
indicated was much nearer to this latitude than to the
northern limit of the observation.
Taken with their context, the words seem to be an
illustration of the greater equality of day and night
referred to in the opening words of the sentence.
Their real value lies in the fact that they embody a
remark of a circumstantial and business-like character,
which goes far to support the historical authenticity
of the narrative. It is not the sort of thing that
a romancer would invent, it is the sort of thing that
a traveller would notice. Secondarily, though in all
probability the words indicate a much more southerly
latitude, they make it impossible that the site of the
observation was north of (roughly) 49°. To consider
them as a deliberate attempt to fix latitude is to lose
220 'EYKTARSTAD' QUESTION
sight of all probabilities. Let any who still adhere to
this interpretation go and fix marks for themselves,
and endeavour therefrom to ascertain the latitude.
The south point could of course be fixed accurately,
by the place of the shortest shadow or various other
well-known devices. The time equivalents given by
Henderson and Troil do not, however, suggest that it
was so fixed as a rule. But without instruments to
measure the angles for the other marks correctly to—
say — 2° would be very difficult indeed, while the
marks themselves would probably subtend an appreci
able angle. An error of one degree will be more
than reproduced in the latitude. Any change in the
exact position of the observer would be likely to cause
an inaccuracy of at least this extent ; so that if the
locality visited is to be identified at all it certainly will
not be by the use of this passage, on which so many
commentators have expended so much fruitless in
genuity.
VI. THE VOYAGES. GENERAL
CONSIDERATIONS
THE reader who has attentively followed the argu
ment so far will, I think, be convinced that the
discovery and exploration of some parts of America
by the Norsemen rests upon a solid historical
foundation.
It now becomes necessary to deal with a matter as to
which there is considerably more scope for controversy ;
the reconstruction, so far as is reasonably possible, of
the voyages themselves. No one acquainted with the
difficulties presented by the records of far later explorers,
such as Cabot and Corte Real, will expect this to be
a subject on which it is possible to dogmatize ; the
geographical details can probably never be settled with
absolute finality. We must advance cautiously and
by stages, eliminating the impossible and establishing
broad lines, before we embark on the fascinating task
of theorizing on points of detail.
Difficulties of the Task.
The principal difficulty lies in the fact that in the
primitive state of the science of navigation at the
period those particulars are naturally most vague and
unreliable on which we are most accustomed to
depend. There are no precise latitudes or longitudes,
and even the compass, though in use before the extant
manuscripts were written, was not known to these
222 T H E V O Y A G E S
early explorers. For distances we have .to depend on
periods of time which may have been inaccurately
copied, and the very meaning of which is a subject
of acute controversy. (See previous chapter, $ i.)
The courses set down are quite likely to have been
affected by the preconceived ideas of later editors, and
are in any case vague, often only roughly indicated by
the direction of the wind.
We have in fact to depend to a large extent on what
we are told of the appearance of the various coasts,
and of the different local products.
And so far as one version of the story is concerned,
we have to depend for these on the description of one
voyage only — Karlsefni's. With regard to the other
version, that of the Flatey Book, it must be borne in
mind that the writers of that saga considered all the
explorers to have made the same landfall. They
came to ' Leifs camp'. Now, while this was a natural
idea to those who had no notion of the size of the
country, it seems to me improbable that it represents
the actual facts. To the writer of the Flatey Book
version, ' Leifs camp ' and ' Wlneland ' were more or
less synonymous terms. But the more detailed
account of Karlsefni's voyage suggests that while the
later explorer was looking for the district visited
by Leif, he never in fact found it. Leif seems to
have hurried ashore on his first sight of the country,
and to have conducted a merely local exploration.
His brother, Thorvald, who, following immediately
after Leif, may have arrived at the same base, we are
told, ' thought that the exploration of the country had
been confined to too narrow an area'. Karlsefni, on
the other hand, after arrival at Keelness, conducted
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 223
a very protracted exploration, and apparently split
his party into two, one going north and the other south,
with the object of rediscovering Leif's Wineland. As
I hope presently to show, Leif cannot have penetrated
to Karlsefni's Hop. Yet the writer of the Flatey
Book, imbued with the idea that Leif and Karlsefni
occupied identical camps, has evidently felt himself at
liberty to draw his description of the scene of Leif's
landing from the fullest report available, which, as he
tells us, was Karlsefni's. Given the notion that all the
explorers made the same landfall, this was natural
and legitimate enough, but it adds an element of con
fusion to our already difficult task. There can,
I think, be little doubt that the combination of shoal,
river, and lake in the description of Leif's camp is
Karlsefni's Hop, but, as will be seen later, it is
improbable that Leif ever got there.
I am inclined to think that another instance of the
same sort of confusion is to be traced in H auk's version
of the story. After the resolve to return home on
account of the savages, the author brings the party
back to Straumsfjord. He then evidently wishes to
incorporate some matter from different sources. So
he first puts in a note of some information at variance
with that just given, ' Some men say', &c.,and then inter
polates his version of the death of Thorvald Ericson,
who, as has been pointed out in the chapter on the
Flatey Book (p. 1 26), has really no place in this saga up
to this point. It will be observed that in both versions
Thorvald is killed on a voyage north past Keelness,
where as one story has it, ' it was all covered with
wood ', while the other says, ' there was nothing but
desolate woods '. It seems most unlikely that Karlsefni's
224 T H E V O Y A G E S
party, after a definite resolve to return home, should
have embarked on a fresh voyage of discovery, so,
though the evidence may not be conclusive, I am
inclined to think that the matter here incorporated was
originally an account of an independent voyage under
taken by Thorvald, as given in the Flatey Book. The
verses about the uniped, which are old, certainly
mention Karlsefni, but, as Storm points out in his
edition of the saga, the verses seem but loosely fitted
to the context, and make no mention of the uniped's
ferocity. It seems probable therefore that the uniped
is made to kill Thorvald in order that the lay may be
worked in, just as the author works in the death-speech
of Thormod Kolbrunarskald, with very little alteration
and considerable infelicity, as the last words of
Thorvald Ericson.
Seeing, then, that we have reason to suspect con
fusions of this nature, it is plainly impossible to
discriminate as much as could be wished between the
different voyages, and we are thrown back mainly on
Karlsefni, though Bjarni Herjulfson's adventure is on
rather a different footing, and can be investigated
independently.
The Cardinal Points.
Faced with these difficulties, how are we to proceed ?
It is established that the Norsemen visited North
America : the map of that country lies before us,
awaiting the results of our survey. The evidence to
hand is plainly of unequal value ; we are in fact very
much in the position of the cartographer, whose
material ranges from the meticulously accurate work of
the professional expert with his theodolite to the hasty
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 225
compass traverses and sketches of the pioneer explorer
fighting his way through trackless and savage wilds.
The method by which the map-maker obtains the most
satisfactory results from his material is, I think, one to
be imitated here. To a framework made up of a
number of points fixed with the utmost certainty of
which science is capable, he adjusts the less trustworthy
material, rejecting altogether that which cannot be
brought into line with such facts as have been definitely
ascertained. Any haphazard selection of separate
items is bound to result in a considerable if not
a cumulative error.
So in the present case, unless we adhere inflexibly
to what may be regarded as our fixed points, adapting
that which fits, either wholly or in part, and inexorably
rejecting the remainder, we shall be apt to jump to
a conclusion and indulge in an arbitrary selection of
whatever pieces of evidence happen to support it.
A study of the results achieved by some earlier
investigators of the subject presses this danger very
forcibly upon one's attention.
Now perhaps some may be inclined to demur to
the use of such an expression as * fixed points ' in this
connexion, but there are really quite a number of
statements standing out from the rest as facts which
anyone who credits the sagas at all must regard as
reasonably certain. These I will endeavour to set out
before drawing any conclusions, in the hope that,
studied apart from any question of where they may
lead us, they may meet with general acceptance.
i. A line drawn about the 49th parallel of
north latitude is fixed by the ' eyktarstad ' observation
as the northern limit of the area in which Wineland is
2376
226 THE VOYAGES
to be sought. The passage, as we have seen, cannot
be interpreted to mean that the sun set on the shortest
day precisely at the point of eyktarstad. It would, in
fact, be a coincidence difficult to credit if the sunset on
a particular day corresponded with a mark arbitrarily
fixed in Iceland for a wholly different purpose. The
passage means, in fact, rather that the sun had not set
at the point in question ; consequently to the south of
this line we have an increasing probability for a con
siderable distance.
2. The scope of our inquiry is further restricted by
the limits within which the wild vine is to be found.
Omitting as irrelevant Jacques Carrier's discoveries of
this plant in the Gulf of St. Lawrence,1 this area may
be said to begin with the Annapolis Basin in western
Nova Scotia, excluding the rest of that peninsula, and
from thence to follow the coast of New England as far
south as we care to go. The discovery of the vine
by the Norsemen is, I think, conclusively established.
The name conferred on the country, which can be
traced back to the very inception of written history, in
itself goes far to prove it. It is corroborated by Adam
of Bremen at a still earlier date, and it is plain from
the apparently contemporary verses of Thorhall the
Hunter that before the time of Karlsefni's voyage it
had been alleged by some member of a prior expedi
tion that the vine flourished in the new country. The
corn is perhaps a little more doubtful, and its nature
more controversial ; it is accordingly excluded from our
cardinal points.
3. The area explored must be divided by stretches
1 This was written before the appearance of Professor Steensby's
monograph, which is dealt with in a postscript (p. 237).
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 227
of open sea into three independent land-forms. Dif
ferent parts of one unbroken coastline will not suit the
conditions required. All the accounts agree in
deferring any coasting voyage to the point where
Wineland is reached.
4. Helluland, Markland, Wineland, Furdustrands,
are all place-names drawn from natural characteristics.
Whatever form their attributes may have taken, we
are justified in treating Helluland as a land of stones,
Markland as one of woods, Wineland as a grape-
country, and Furdustrands as a coast with a beach of
extraordinary length. The last-named was not an
isolated point; the name survived into later Icelandic
geography as that of a district comparable with the
three main divisions of the country, though with most
erroneous ideas as to its situation. Thus the geo
graphical treatise known as Gripla :
1 Furdustrands is the name of a land where there
is hard frost, so that it is not habitable, so far as is
known ; south of it is Helluland, &c. '
Its existence is corroborated by a reference in the
very early verses ascribed to Thorhall the Hunter, —
'and boil their whales on Furdustrand' — and if we
accept the testimony of the saga as to the locality
where these verses were composed, the beaches in
question must have stretched at least from Keelness to
Straumsfjord.
5. Keelness, as a cape running in a more or less
northerly direction, and constituting the first point
touched at in Wineland, is established by the constant
references to such a feature in both the independent
versions of the story. The derivation of its name, in
p 2
228 THEVOYAGES
spite of statements in the sagas, may well be treated
as uncertain. Both Keelness and Bjarney (Bear
Island) are names existing elsewhere, and what we
are told of them may have been invented to account
for them. They may, in fact, owe their names to
a fancied resemblance to prototypes elsewhere.
6. Straumsfjord, with its island and strong currents,
is too circumstantially described to be an invention.
7. The topographical characteristics of H6p, apart
from the meaning of the name, which seems to be a
land-locked tidal estuary, are confirmed by the evidence
of both independent versions. We must therefore
accept its main features — extensive shoals, and a river
running through a lake into the sea.
These then are our points of departure. To these
we may safely add, as a general rule, points as to which
the independent versions agree. The savages, though
equally well authenticated, and valuable as evidence
of the general truthfulness of the story, are not in
cluded, since, whatever the opinion we ourselves
have formed, it may still be considered arguable by
some that they were Eskimo. In any case they do not
help us to fix any situation more closely than our other
data. If they were Indians they might occur any
where within the area of our inquiry, if Eskimo they
cannot carry Wineland with them north of the 4Qth
parallel, or away from the vines from which it derived
its name. Their existence, if established, would only
prove a more southerly migration of the Eskimo than
has been hitherto generally accepted.
The Labrador Theory.
In spite of all this some writers have strenuously
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 229
maintained that the full scope of all the voyages
recorded should be confined to the Labrador coast.
These are not generally to be found among those who
have specialized on the subject. They are more usually
those who, like Weise (Discoveries of America to 1525),
deal with the matter incidentally, as part of a wider
historical study. Their view, for the most part, seems
to be connected with a sceptical attitude towards the
sagas as a whole. It is, indeed, independent of the story
except in so far as this supplies some corroboration of
the bare fact that the Norsemen discovered America.
Its advocates mainly argue on independent grounds
that bold sailors like the Norsemen, having got so far
as Greenland, must occasionally have been driven to
Labrador. Nothing that is recorded of Wineland can
really be brought into line with such theory, except
possibly the skraelings, who are made the most of for
that purpose with very inconclusive results. The
' eyktarstad' observation (see previous chapter, p. 211),
a most circumstantial point in the story, rules out the
whole of Labrador.
The climate, too, is altogether inappropriate, and, of
course, the vines and corn become an absurdity. Apart
from these things one may ask where, on the Labrador
coast, we are to find three distinct land-forms, with
wholly different characteristics, and separated from one
another by days of open sea.
It is true that a Boston botanist, Professor Fernald,
has endeavoured to suggest that the vines, the corn,
and the mosur wood were all products of quite a different
order, which are to be found in Labrador. The vines,
according to him, are the ' partridge-berry ' of Canada
(the tyttebcer of Norway) ; the corn, lyme-grass (arundo
23o THE VOYAGES
arenaria) ; and the mosur a form of birch. If this were
so it is difficult to understand why things perfectly well
known in Iceland should have attracted so much
attention, or have been described by totally new
names ; or why a land containing nothing better than
partridge-berries should have been called Wineland.
As regards the vines, it may be further pointed out
that 'Vine- wood ' (vinvi'S) is more frequently mentioned
in the sagas than grapes, which seems to rule out
berries; lyme-grass (melur) is well known in Iceland,
and a kind of flour was prepared from it in that country
in quite recent times.1 Lastly, the mosur wood was
not anything .known to the Norsemen, for we are
expressly told, in the episode of the Bremen merchant,
that Karlsefni did not know what wood it was.
Altogether this, the latest variant of the Labrador
theory, must be discarded like its predecessors.
Storms theory — Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia.
The theory most generally accepted at the present
time is that put forward by Dr. Storm in Studier over
Vinlandsreiserne.
Before making any independent analysis of the
voyages, it will be useful to examine this theory, in the
light of the principles just laid down. According
to Storm, Helluland, Markland, and Wineland are
Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia respectively.
The identification of Labrador with Helluland is
based mainly upon the appearance of that barren coast,
and the presence there of arctic foxes in large numbers.
Certainly the little that we are told of Helluland suits
Labrador very well, and the name conferred is sug-
1 See Troil's Letters on Iceland, p. 105.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 231
gestive of the unflattering description of the country
written in later times by Jacques Cartier : — * It should
not be named the New Land, but the land of stones
and rocks, frightful and ill-shaped, for in all the said
North coast I did not find a cartload of earth, though
I landed in many places, — in short, I deem rather than
otherwise that it is the land God gave to Cain '.
Indeed, as I know from personal experience, the
bald, glaciated rocks of the Labrador coast are a feature
so striking that one must admit the probability of the
country deriving a name from them.
Yet it can hardly be disputed that at the date
under consideration all that we are told of Helluland
would suit Newfoundland as well as Labrador. No
doubt at the present day the arctic fox is more sug
gestive of Labrador, but in past times this animal seems
to have been quite common in Newfoundland. Thus
Antony Parkhurst writes to Hakluyt from that country
in 1578, — 'I had almost forgotten to speake of the
plentie of wolves, and to show you that there be
foxes, blacke, white and grey ', and in another passage
he speaks of the remarkable fearlessness of these
foxes — a trait more characteristic, even in a new
country, of the arctic than the red species. The red
fox, even where it is unaccustomed to the sight of man,
is easily scared and habitually cunning, but I myself
have found the arctic fox so fearless that it was
practically impossible to keep it away from meat lying
close to the camp. A handkerchief tied to the horn of
a dead caribou was of no use even as a temporary check.
Still, so far as all this goes, Helluland might well be
in Labrador. But even if Helluland be Labrador, can
we consider Newfoundland as Markland ? Accepting
232 THE VOYAGES
the only authority relied on by Storm and his school,
we do not get any positive clue from the description
given of the country. ' Much wood and many beasts '
is not distinctive, though, no doubt, it can be made
to apply to Newfoundland as well as any other place.
If we include the Flatey Book description, 'low-lying,
with wide stretches of white sand, the slope from the
sea was not abrupt', it is difficult any longer to look for
Markland along the bold, rocky coasts of Newfound
land. The description is certainly not characteristic.
But setting the question of local resemblance apart,
the identification is defended on the ground that
one text gives for the direction from Helluland, ' they
changed their course from south to south-east '. This
seems to me a most unreliable statement on which to
found a definite and positive conclusion. In the first
place, the change of course indicated is only given by
Hauk ; the purer companion version states merely that
the explorers had a north wind. Having regard to
the fact that the word ' south-east ' (landsuSr) occurs in
the very next sentence, — ' an island lay to the south
east' — there is here an obvious trap for the unwary
copyist. Supposing the word in the archetype of the
saga to have been originally south-west (utsuSr),
a course more consistent with the general direction of
Karlsefni's investigations, it is extremely likely to have
been mistranscribed with a word so like it close at
hand to catch the eye. Besides, the courses on the
whole are so manifestly wrong, or at best vague
approximations, that no one can be on sure ground
who relies on them. (Cf. Chapter II, p. 131.)
But, more than this, inherent probability is dead
; against a south-easterly course between Helluland and
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 233
Markland. The original discoverer, whoever he was,
would never have sailed into the open sea south-east
from Labrador. If return to Greenland was his object
he would turn north-east ; if exploration, he would hug
the coast. In the latter event he would either sail
through the Strait of Belle Isle, which he clearly did
not, or, regarding this as a mere inlet or fjord, would
treat Newfoundland and Labrador as one country. If
Karlsefni was navigating independently of the experi
ence of a predecessor, he would have acted in the same
way, and formed the same conclusion. If he were
making- use of another explorer's sailing directions, he
might, indeed, cut south-east from Labrador to Cape
F reels, but he would do so with a knowledge of what
lay before him, and would not therefore regard as a
separate country what his predecessor had decided to
be connected with Helluland. For these reasons I am
disposed to reject the identification of Markland with
Newfoundland, and to conclude that, whether the spot
visited in Helluland lay in Newfoundland or in
Labrador, the name must be regarded as including both
countries.
Still more unsatisfactory is the identification of Nova
Scotia with Wineland. Except in the Annapolis basin
on the west, which does not suit the requirements of
the saga, no wild grapes can be found there. The
temperature falls to 20° below zero in winter ; frost
generally continues from Christmas to April. Moreover,
the description of the coast in the sagas, at all events
in the neighbourhood of Keelness, the cape at its
northern extremity, insists upon long beaches and sands,
so remarkable in extent as to give rise to the name
FurSustrandir (The Wonderful Beaches). Nova Scotia
234 THE VOYAGES
shows nothing of the kind. This is a circumstance of
such importance that I shall return to it hereafter ;
here it will be sufficient to state that all authorities,
ancient and modern, agree in speaking of Nova Scotia
as a rocky coast, with numerous indentations. Of the
authorities who accept Storm's views in the main,
Mr. Dieserud and Mr. Babcock have realized this diffi
culty, though Mr. Babcock alone has made a serious
attempt to face it. His solution may be left for later
consideration ; here he shall merely be called as
an unwilling witness against Nova Scotia. ' These
people had swift ships. Beaches of ordinary length
must also have been familiar to all of them . . . They
would not marvel at a stretch of fifty miles'. 'The
palpable fact that Nova Scotia does not now supply
these wonderstrands . . . seems to have compelled Dr.
Storm to piece out this part of his theory with minor
beaches that the Icelanders would have hardly glanced
at as they swept by '. The objection could not be more
forcibly stated ; there let us leave it for the moment.
Again : Karlsefni was exploring for three years.
On more than one occasion he sailed * a long time '.
When the saga means a day or two, it says so ; nay,
it frequently seems, if anything, to understate the time
occupied. The extreme length of Nova Scotia is under
350 miles ; two days and nights at 7 knots would about
cover the distance. We need far more space than this
theory affords ; in fact, it needs Procrustean methods to
fit the Wineland of the sagas into the confines of Nova
Scotia. To compress the whole scope of the exploration,
from Keelness to H6p, as Mr. Dieserud does, into the
coast between Cape Breton and Halifax, seems incon
sistent both with the letter and the spirit of the story.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 235
Theories including New England.
Members of the older school of Wineland investi
gators are, at present, greatly discredited. Their
enthusiasm outran all bounds of scientific caution, and
they heaped ridicule on their theories by the attempt
to support them with evidence which was largely pure
rubbish. Alleged Norse remains in America have
justly become a byword ; although Mr. Babcock thinks
it worth while to review all that has been adduced of
this sort of testimony, he adopts without hesitation the
general verdict that, as was a priori probable, no
vestiges of Norse visits remain to the present day.
There can never have been more than the makeshifts
of a transient encampment; ' perierunt etiam ruinae\
As a result of their ill-judged and credulous enthusiasm,
no serious writer finds himself able to agree on a point
of detail with Rafn or Horsford without a preliminary
apology.
Yet there may be something to be said for the
adoption of the main lines of their identification of the
1 three lands ' : Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New
England standing for Helluland, Markland, and Wine-
land. It is the theory that leaps to the eye on looking
at a map with a view to discovering three separate
land-forms lying in the track of an exploration from
Greenland or Iceland. It is, perhaps, at its weakest in
its identification of Helluland, though, as has been
shown, Newfoundland is not excluded by the conditions
required. If, however, as I have suggested, Labrador
and Newfoundland were likely to have been regarded
as one and the same country, the identification of
Markland and Wineland is not affected.
The little we know of Markland fits Nova Scotia
236 THE VOYAGES
very well. ' Much wood and many beasts ' may, of
course, be descriptive of Newfoundland and its caribou,
but it would also be true of Nova Scotia. In the
voyage of Mr. Hill of Reclrife in 1593, given in
Hakluyt, a casual run ashore at Cape Breton is thus
described ; — * and as they viewed the country they saw
divers beastes and foules, as black foxes, deere, otters,
&c., &c'. It is apparent that as late as the sixteenth
century the fauna of Nova Scotia was sufficiently
plentiful to strike a ship's crew as soon as they went
ashore. The description of the country given in the
Flatey Book, which is unlike anything Icelandic and
consequently sounds genuine, will suit the southern
extremity of Nova Scotia, a very likely landfall, much
better than Newfoundland. It is low-lying and wooded,
as Champlain found between Port Mouton and Cape
Negro, — ' the shores which I saw, up to that point, are
very low, and covered with such wood as that seen at
the Cap de la Heve'. As to the white sand we may
compare Hudson's description, — 'The land by the water
side is low land, and white sandie banks rising, full of
little hills.'
While there is no sufficient extent of beach in Nova
Scotia to serve for Furdustrands, there is enough sand
as a local feature to suit the conditions required for
Markland.
In their identification of Wineland with New England
rather than Nova Scotia, the older school are on even
less questionable ground, however rash their specula
tions on points of detail. Indeed, there seems to be
a tendency at the present day, which is exemplified in
the conclusions of Mr. Babcock, to depart so far from
Storm's theories as to include a part of the New
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 237
England coast-line. The addition of New England
gets over the formidable difficulties before noticed, of
want of space for the whole of Karlsefni's expedition,
and almost entire absence of the wild vine. Whether
or no we must also include Nova Scotia in the * third
land ' visited by the Norsemen, we shall be well advised
to look for Hop, at any rate, along the coast of the
United States. Personally, I feel strongly that Nova
Scotia is needed for Markland, and that Wineland must
have been situated altogether to the west or south-west
of it.
Before entering upon the more detailed consideration
of the voyages which forms the subject of the ensuing
chapters, I would provisionally fix the broad lines of
our research in accordance with the arguments adduced
above. Helluland will then be in all probability New
foundland and Labrador considered as one country, or
perhaps Newfoundland alone ; Markland will be Nova
Scotia ; and Wineland, the most important area in the
inquiry, somewhere on the eastern seaboard of the
United States.
Postscript on two recent theories.
It will be convenient here to deal with the theories
advanced by two recent writers, whose works did not
come to my notice until all the chapters of the present
volume were written. These are :
1. Professor W. Hovgaard's Voyages of the Norse
men to America (New York, 1915), and
2. Professor H. P. Steensby's The Norsemen's route
from Greenland to Wineland (Copenhagen, 1918).
Of the two treatises the second is on the whole the
238 THE VOYAGES
more revolutionary. For Professor Steensby, after
locating both Helluland and Markland in Labrador,
and identifying Bjarney with Newfoundland, brings his
explorers into the gulf of St. Lawrence, with southern
Labrador for Furdustrands, Keelness (after Furdu-
strands) at Point Vaches by the mouth of the Saguenay,
Straumsey at Hare Island in the St. Lawrence river,
and Hop, still in the St. Lawrence, at St. Thomas on
the southern side.
Though entertaining widely different views as to
the relative value of the sources — Professor Steensby
altogether rejecting the Flatey Book, whose authority
the other author upholds — both writers agree in certain
respects which are somewhat novel. Both make
Karlsefni's first landing-place, in Helluland, at a point
in Labrador which is almost in the same latitude as
southern Greenland, involving a course very far to the
west of south ; and both insist on a coasting voyage
throughout, with no intervals of open sea between the
different lands visited. It seems to me that both these
theories rest on a substitution of what their authors
regard as inherent probabilities for the express language
of the sagas.
More especially is this the case with Professor
Hovgaard's treatment of Bjarni. He brings him first
to Newfoundland, and carries him back along the
Labrador coast to Resolution Island off Baffin Land,
in order to substantiate the ice {jokul, understood as
glaciers) of the story. The effect of this treatment,
when the author comes to consider Leifs and Thor-
vald's voyages, is to leave an enormous unexplained
stretch of coast between Helluland (Resolution Island)
and Markland, which he agrees cannot be reasonably
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 239
identified with any place north of Cape Sable in Nova
Scotia. (As regards Leif's Markland and Wineland,
indeed, Professor Hovgaard comes to substantially the
same conclusions as myself.) But, considered apart
from tliis difficulty, there are still formidable objections
to this reconstruction of Bj ami's voyage.
1. The text either expresses or implies an open sea
passage out of sight of land between the various land
falls. From the first to the second land this is implied
in the statement ' after sailing two days they saw
another (or the second) land*. From the second to
the third land it is expressly stated that the ship sailed
' out to sea for three days, when they saw the third
land '. In the remaining case ' they turned the bows
away from the land and held out to sea'.
2. The whole point of giving the direction of the
wind (south-west) is to supply an indication of the
course. To this course Professor Hovgaard pays no
attention : from Resolution Island to Herjulfsness the
bearing would actually be to the south of east, and the
rest of the voyage is to the west of north.
With regard to Karlsefni, Professor Hovgaard's
treatment of his authorities is even more arbitrary.
The previous expeditions, he agrees with me, had
found Wineland on the coast of the United States.
Now Wineland was Karlsefni's objective, and his
expedition, if somewhat cumbrous, was more elabo
rately equipped and took more time than any other.
Yet, according to the writer under consideration,
Karlsefni never got to Wineland at all. He first paid
a visit to Baffin Land or northern Labrador, then
coasted to Nain on the Labrador coast and conferred
on that locality a name (Markland) already allocated
24o THE VOYAGES
by his predecessor to a spot far to the south, l and next,
instead of following Leifs directions, went wandering
into Sandwich Bay, which is here identified with
Straumsfjord. True, as our author remarks, the winter
at Straumsfjord is described as severe. Still, the
expedition was evidently not frozen in, as it would
have been in Labrador, for even at this time the
Norsemen ' hoped for fishing or jetsam ', and actually
acquired a stranded whale. Captain Cartwright, who
settled in this region, thus describes the winter con
ditions : —
Ascend yon Mountain's top ; extend your view
O'er Neptune's trackless Empire, nor will you,
In all his vast Domain, an Opening have,
Where foams the Billow, or where heaves the Wave.
A dreary Desart all, of Ice and Snow.
In this spot, according to Professor Hovgaard,
maddened by mosquitoes in the summer, and hopelessly
frozen in during a long winter, the experienced Karlsefni,
far north of his objective, established his principal base.
And in all the three years of his exploration, according
to the same author, Karlsefni never penetrated farther
than a ' Hop' in Newfoundland, having failed to reach
even the Markland of his predecessor. The theory in
fact involves a wholesale readjustment and arbitrary
selection of the available material which must be read
to be appreciated. Of course Karlsefni found no vines
or corn, and the ' sands ' of Furdustrands are con
spicuously absent.
1 Though there are woods at Nain, and were formerly more,
it must be remembered that there is an intricate barrier of sterile
islands between the coast and the open sea, in and about these
latitudes.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 241
The minor point that this theory requires a coasting
voyage throughout may now be considered in conjunc
tion with Professor Steensby's conclusions. I do not
lay much stress on the evidence of the old maps, dealt
with later on in Chapter IX, though they show that there
was always understood to be open sea between the
three principal ' lands '. The Icelandic geography
referred to in the same chapter (p. 287) likewise assumes
sea at any rate between Markland and Wineland. I
would ask the impartial reader to refer to the text, and
see whether it conveys to him any idea of a coasting
voyage until Keelness is reached, except in one case
in Hauk's version, which is at variance with the purer
language of Eric's Saga. Let him further decide
whether, on a dispassionate reading of the evidence,
Helluland, Markland, and Wineland can be treated as
parts of one and the same unbroken coastline.
Professor Steensby (p. 32) argues that the Norsemen
habitually coasted on approaching land, saying, more-
ever, ' This applies in a quite especial degree when new
land was in question.' I should have thought it more
true to say that the Norsemen were the pioneers of
open-sea navigation, and the necessity for keeping
plenty of sea-room would be particularly cogent in the
case of a coast whose dangers were quite unknown.
Moreover, according to all accounts, the first discovery
was accidental, and open sea might well have been
crossed in the endeavour to get back to Greenland, as
we are told in the case of Bjarni : if this were so,
subsequent expeditions would keep as far as possible
to the track of their predecessors up to the point when
they arrived at the country (Wineland) which alone
was considered desirable to visit and explore. Along
242 THE VOYAGES
the shores of Wineland they would undoubtedly coast,
and this is exactly what we are told in the sagas.
I will not dwell on the modification of the courses
given, as this is not a point upon which much reliance
can, in the circumstances, be placed. The statement,
however, of the saga, that Helluland lay south of
Greenland, is corroborated by the old Icelandic geo
graphy (see,/^/ Chapter I X, p. 287), and in any case the
ultimate objective lay so far to the south that a ship,
limited in storage capacity, would naturally press in
that direction as quickly as possible. As I shall have
occasion to point out later (Chapter VIII, p. 262), a ship
coasting Labrador in the early summer would be liable
to be tremendously delayed by ice, of which we find no
mention, apart from other considerations, in thereport of
Karlsefni's expedition. If the manipulation of the courses
stood alone, however, this point would hardly be
conclusive.
But once we are in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the
objections to this theory are formidable indeed. In the
first place, Professor Steensby is compelled to keep
Karlsefni in Straumsfjord (the St. Lawrence) through
out, and to make Hop a point actually in the fjord.
This is quite inconsistent with our authority.- The
climatic conditions of Straumsfjord and Hop appear to
have been markedly different, and the language every
where implies that it was necessary to leave the one
place to reach the other.
Secondly, the author under consideration is forced
to place Keelness after Furdustrands and close to the
Straumsfjord base. The saga, however, before men
tioning Furdustrands, states ' there was a cape (Keel-
ness) where they arrived ', i, e. it was the first point
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 243
sighted after leaving Markland. Again, in reverse
order from Straumsfjord, * Thorhall wished to go north
by Furdustrands and past Keelness.' Straumsey is
identified with Hare Island, which even at the present
day is described as ' densely wooded ', an unlikely place,
one would think, for quantities of breeding sea-fowl,
and ill-adapted as a pasture land for cattle. Finally,
Professor Steensby's 'Hop', at St. Thomas, faces north,
which is in conflict with the saga, where we are told
more than once that the Sknelings came in from the
south. From the situation of Karlsefni's camp by the
' lake ' it is clear that the arrival of the savages could
only have been perceived after they had entered the
estuary, which must accordingly, if the authority is to
be trusted, have faced south rather than north.
St. Thomas, being slightly south of the 47th parallel,
is within the possible limits of the eyktarstad observa
tion. This, however, is only true if we understand
that the sun set at that precise point on the day in
question. As I have elsewhere pointed out, it would
be too strange a coincidence to be readily accepted if
the Norsemen settled at a spot where the sun, exactly
on the shortest day of the year, covered at the very
moment of setting one of the eight marks fixed in a
totally different latitude for the purpose of determining
three-hour intervals. We are therefore forced to the
conclusion that the sun had not set at the moment in
question, but was up at this point so as to be capable
of being used. This being so, a latitude far south of
the computed limit is indicated, and, as regards this
observation, Professor Steensby's H6p is within an
area too near this limit to be at all probable.
Q 2
VII. THE VOYAGES IN DETAIL:
BJARNI, LEIF, THORVALD
Bjarni Herjulfson.
As has been stated in a former chapter, poor Bjarni
has been severely handled by Storm and most of the
accepted authorities. The case for and against his
voyage has been already dealt with, and it is hoped
that some readers may have been persuaded that
Bjarni has a solid claim to be regarded as the first
seaman who sighted American shores. But, whether
or no the personal claims of Bjarni can be substantiated,
I submit that we have here a very clear and correct
account of the way in which America was discovered,
whether by Bjarni or another. The first discovery
must necessarily have been accidental, and must
almost certainly have been, as stated of Bjarni, from
south to north, as subsequent exploration in a southerly
direction would not otherwise have been encouraged.
The northern part of America offered few attractions to
the practical minds of early explorers, whose criterion
was ' that it would be a profitable country to visit ' ;
Labrador or Newfoundland from the sea would seem
at first sight to deserve Bjarni's epithet ' ogagnvaenligt '
—good-for-nothing. Storm-driven mariners, with stores
running short, would hardly have pursued investigations
from north to south, while in the reverse direction
discovery was forced upon them by circumstances, and
their experience might well prompt further exploration
B J A R N I 245
on the part of the inhabitants of Greenland. Whatever
criticisms have been passed upon Bj ami's voyage by
those who are unable to bring it into line with their
theories, it seems to me that if all the rest of our
material had been destroyed, this voyage would be
regarded as in itself sufficient to substantiate the fact
of Norse discovery.
Slight and sketchy as it is, it presents fewer real
difficulties than any other. The chronicler, like his
hero, was not interested in the lands seen, but in the
adventures of the ship, and both courses and distances
are given with perhaps greater precision and accuracy
than any others in these sagas. Probably this arises
from the fact that but few copies were ever made of
this narrative. It was, as has been already hinted,
of little interest to the general reader of a pre-Columbian
age ; it could appeal only to sailors and navigators,
who would be more interested in the accurate preser
vation of the data supplied by it than would a mere
scribe, wholly ignorant or misinformed as to the
actual topographical details.
It is worth while noticing how full the narrative is
of nautical phraseology and details of interest to sailors
only. This confirms one's impression of its genuine
ness, as of course the story, if true, must originally
have been told by Bjarni or one of his sailors. The
lowering and hoisting of sails, the necessity for reefing
on the voyage home, together with such expressions
as ' distinguish the airts ' or, as in our translation, * get
their bearings ', * left the land to port and let the sheet
turn towards it ', * turned the bows from the land ', ' the
land was laid', i.e. lost below the horizon (landit var
vattnat), give this part of the story an extremely
246 T H E V O Y A G E S
nautical colour, while they add little to the general
interest of the tale. Moreover we get course and
distance in the greatest detail, except during the period
I /( of fog, when the sailors themselves could have had no
knowledge of what was happening.
The simplest way of dealing with this voyage is to
plot it backwards from Greenland. The outward
journey is but vaguely indicated, as that of a ship
struggling unsuccessfully on a westerly course against
northerly gales, and confused by fogs and many days
of drifting. The ship was presumably provisioned for
a dangerous voyage into unknown seas, yet appears to
have been running short of water and other necessaries
before the end ; one is consequently justified in assuming
a really long period for the duration of these adverse
influences. The voyage home is, however, recorded
with the utmost precision.
Taking the data arrived at in Chapter V for the
length of a ' daegr sigling ', we may plot the distance
represented by this unit at about 150 miles. The
wind, we are told, was south-west. Plot from
Herjulfsness (Sermesok) in the south of Greenland
four ' dsegr ' units in a south-westerly direction and
then draw a land-form which will serve for the ' island '
which was the third land seen, follow its coast to
a point further south, to cover the coasting voyage
described, then plot five more ' dsegr ' units south-west.
Lastly mark land on the course at the end of the five
days and also two days from the end. The result
will be as shown on the shaded portions of the
sketch. These indications are quite near enough
to the truth to show pretty conclusively that the
' lands ' were the Barnstable peninsula (Massachusetts),
B J A RN I
247
Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland respectively. It is
true that if these lands are restored to their correct
positions on the map, the courses are only roughly
north-east, and the distance from Newfoundland to
Greenland is lengthened, but during the last part of
VOYAGE OF BJARNI HERJULFSON
the voyage it must be remembered that the wind was
much stronger, and the distance between either Cape
Freels or Cape St. John in Newfoundland and
Sermesok (Herjulfsness) in Greenland is under 720
miles, and could easily be covered in four days and
nights under conditions as favourable as those of
248 T H E V O Y A G E S
Thorar Nefjolfson's voyage to Iceland discussed in
Chapter V. The whole account so far is quite consis
tent and probable.
The problem may now be tackled in a different way.
Bjarni, before reaching Greenland, is met by a strong
northerly gale. He struggles against it for some time,
and, delaying too long the moment for heaving to, is
forced to run before the wind. He is driven to the
Newfoundland Banks, where he runs into fog, and
lowering sail, as we are told he did, he drifts for some
time. The set of the current is in the direction of
Cape Cod ; the wind, working round with the sun as
the weather improved, would tend to drive him in the
same direction. There is accordingly no difficulty in
supposing him to have first sighted land somewhere
on the Barnstable peninsula in the neighbourhood of
Cape Cod. The description given of this land, while
not distinctive, is certainly not inconsistent with the
conclusion arrived at.
Now Bjarni is entirely taken up with the idea of
getting back to Greenland. Where is he ? He has
been sailing for a long time in an attempt to get
westward ; he is probably to the west of his destination.
Moreover there is an unknown shore to the :west or
north of him, to which he must give a wide berth.
The visible change in the altitude of the Pole-star or
the mid-day sun, and the difference in the length of
the day, are data which show an experienced sailor
that he is a long way too far south. He must get away
from the unknown coast into the open sea, and he
must go east and north. Sailing therefore on a course
slightly to the north of east, he sights in two days
another land, the south-western projection of Nova
B J A R N I 249
Scotia, ' low-lying, and covered with wood.' This is
not the least like Greenland : he sails away again on
the same course. The shore, trending here to the
northward, sinks out of sight, but after about 500
miles of open sea covered in three ' daegr ' he sights
some part of the south coast of the Avalon peninsula
of Newfoundland. It is a bleak-looking coast, and
there are icebergs about ; moreover, though Bj ami's
reckoning still makes him too far south, the crew have
already been grumbling, and it must be proved to their
satisfaction that this is not Greenland. As regards
the ice, I am of course aware that the saga uses the
word ' jokul ', which suggests glaciers, and it may well
be that this is an embroidery on the part of the author,
accustomed to associate glaciers with any desolate
landscape. ' Jokul', however, can also mean merely
ice, and is so used in Gretti's Saga and elsewhere.
Icebergs, according to the King's Mirror, were known
to Greenlanders as ' falljoklar \ There may be some
confusion here. Still, there would be bergs about, and
the appearance of the country would be more Arctic ;
the place had better be explored a bit. Accordingly
Bjarni follows the coast till he convinces himself and
his crew that this place is merely an island. Probably
he came to this conclusion on rounding the Avalon
peninsula ; possibly he sailed as far as Cape Freels or
slightly further. It is less likely that he sailed through
the Strait of Belle Isle, and so conclusively demon
strated the insular character of Newfoundland, for, if
so, he could hardly have avoided sighting the Labra
dor coast, which he evidently never saw. That the
Norsemen, without carrying their investigation so far,
should have come to the conclusion that what they
250 THE VOYAGES
saw was an island is not in the least remarkable, when
it is remembered that for nearly 100 years after its
rediscovery Newfoundland was regarded, owing to the
broken and indented character of its coastline, as an
archipelago, and is so depicted on the earlier charts.1
Anyhow, Bjarni came to the conclusion that this
'third land' was an island. There is nothing con
ventional in the statement ; it is not suggested of the
other lands, and the fact that the island comes into the
story in its proper place is a strong confirmation of its
accuracy. Having satisfied himself and his crew that
this was not Greenland, Bjarni could fall back with
renewed confidence on his own reckoning, and so reach
his destination. That he did so with speed and pre
cision might give cause for surprise, were there not
many well-authenticated instances in Icelandic litera
ture of men who, after drifting about, the sport of
adverse winds and fogs for a long time, retained to the
last sufficient knowledge of their position to enable
them to return home. It was a creditable feat of
seamanship, and we may leave Bjarni with a greater
feeling of respect than his contemporaries seem to have
felt for him, whatever his shortcomings as an explorer
may have been. One point alone in Bj ami's voyage
may at first sight be regarded with suspicion. This is
the exact correspondence between the number of days
sailed and the number of the land reached. They sail
two days to the second land, three to the third, and
four to the fourth. As has been shown, however, in
working out the voyage, this is not an impossible
1 Cf. Hakluyt, A brief e relation of the New found lande : — ' That
which we doe call the New found lande ... is an iland, or rather,
after the opinion of some, it consisteth of sundry ilands and broken
lands/
B J A R N I 251
coincidence. I think it is not without importance to
note that what is called ' the fourth land ' is not a land
ejusdem generis with the others, but is Bjarni's original
objective, Greenland, which would naturally be so
called. This looks to me rather as if the coincidence
above referred to was noted, and used as a memoria
technical for the time occupied on the voyage.
Leif.
Leifs voyage may be dealt with shortly. The
description of Helluland is open to the suspicion that
it has been coloured by the imagination of the saga-
writer. Snowy hills in Labrador may account for the
' great glaciers ', but it looks like a feature borrowed
from Greenland to emphasize the forbidding character
of the landscape. The reason given for the name,
Helluland, may easily be founded upon the name itself.
However, as stated in the preceding chapter, it does
not much matter whether the landfall in Helluland was
Labrador or Newfoundland, as, before the discovery
of the Strait of Belle Isle, both would presumably
be regarded as one country by an explorer coasting
south. Leifs Markland, as already, suggested (p. 232)
sounds much more like Nova Scotia than New
foundland.
Now as to Wineland. The Flatey Book tells us
that Leif, having arrived on the shores of Wineland,
landed at once, and conducted no further exploration,
except in the immediate vicinity. The passage record
ing the eagerness of the men to get to shore is very
convincing, and we are probably justified in accepting
it. In any case we have no evidence that Leifs
expedition proceeded further along the coast of
252 THE VOYAGES
Wineland after his arrival. In fact, the statement that
it did not is to some extent confirmed by the opinion,
attributed to Thorvald, that the new country had been
insufficiently explored ; it is also borne out by the
circumstance that Karlsefni and his crew manifestly
expected to find the locality of Leif's camp somewhere
in the neighbourhood of Keelness, where they first
arrived, but were uncertain as to which side of this
promontory it was situated. (See account of Karlsefni's
voyage in the Saga of Eric the Red.) We are told
! that Karlsefni divided his forces, one party sailing
north of Keelness while the other proceeded in the
opposite direction. Clearly therefore Keelness, as the
point of departure selected, was supposed to be in
the neighbourhood of Leif s landfall, and this confirms
the view indicated by the Flatey Book that Leif stayed
at a point near that first sighted in Wineland.
It is difficult therefore to accept Mr. Babcock's view
that Leif conducted a long coasting voyage along the
shores of the United States ; at least it may be said
that there is no positive evidence to support such
a theory.
So far we may treat the Flatey account as correct.
The report brought home by Leif, however, seems to
have been more concerned with the discoveries made
on land than with the details of the coast in the neigh
bourhood of his camp. Hence, as has been pointed
1 out earlier, the Flatey Book, which erroneously supposed
all landfalls in Wineland to be the same, proceeds to
draw the description required from some abridged
account of Karlsefni's voyage. H6p is quite clearly
indicated, and this place we know was only reached by
Karlsefni after a long coasting voyage.
L E I F 253
When we come to the consideration of the situation
of Hop, in connexion with Karlsefni's expedition (see
next chapter), we shall, I think, be perfectly justified in
supplementing the description of this place from what
we are told of Leifs landfall. The two places are
obviously identical. But the fact that this is the case
puts a full stop to any attempt to identify Leifs camp
in Wineland. If, as I think is the case, Thorvald's
voyage took place as narrated in the Flatey Book, it
may throw some light on his predecessor's discoveries,
since Thorvald, having the benefit of his brother's
advice, and probably several members of the same
crew, would be very likely to arrive at the same
destination. If so, as will be seen later, some place in
the neighbourhood of Chatham harbour on the heel
of the Barnstable peninsula seems indicated. But of
course such an identification involves a good deal
of conjecture.
A word may be said here as to the account given of
the discovery of the vines, which has been severely
criticized. It may well have been touched up, but the
very ignorance of the nature of vines which is attributed
to the saga-writer makes part of the story inherently
probable. The Greenlanders knew nothing of vines,
and might not have recognized them on sight. If, on
the other hand, they had with them a native of a wine
country, the discovery is explained. This point has
impressed Neckel, who goes so far as to say that
Icelanders or Greenlanders of the period would
certainly not have recognized grapes on seeing them.
Preferring H auk's version to that of the Flatey
Book, he is forced to the hypothesis that the
original discoverer was the priest who accompanied
254 T H E V O Y A G E S
Leif on his missionary journey, and who may have
been a foreigner from a wine country, though as Olaf
drew largely for such men on the British Isles, Neckel's
conjecture is rather a wild one. Now the difficulty is
one which may strike a modern commentator, though
it does not seem to have troubled many of them, but
it does not appear to me at all likely that a writer of
the saga period considered the question so deeply as
to invent a German to account for the discovery.
Tyrker in fact meets a difficulty which is only apparent
to a critical type of mind not then in existence.
Tyrker is therefore probable ; in any case such a man
was better qualified than half-naked Scots like Hake
and Hekja, whose forte was rather activity than
botany.
As to Tyrker's drunkenness, the circumstance that
he spoke German, which happened to be his native
tongue, would not perhaps be considered conclusive at
Bow Street, yet possibly the saga-writer may have
meant to indicate intoxication. Nor is such intoxica
tion necessarily a figment of the historian. We
must remember that Thorhall the Hunter, as one
gathers from his satiric verses, had evidently been
promised a drink in Wineland, and it therefore seems
likely that some crude sort of wine was actually
made. This again calls for the presence of someone
with experience of wine-making, an art for which
the priest, one would think, would possess neither
the capacity nor the inclination. The task would
not, however, be difficult. As Mr. Babcock has
reminded us (p. 93), the His tor ie of Travaile into
Virginia asserts that at a later date ' twenty gallons
at one time have sometimes been made, without any
L E I F 255
other help than crushing the grapes in the hand, which
letting to settle five or six days hath in the drawing
forth proved strong and heady.' In further support of
the theory that wine was made, one may refer to the
words of Adam of Bremen, — ' producing the best
wine.' Who more likely to have tried the method
alluded to above than-Tyrker of the vineyards ? And
he may well have kept the experiment dark till he had
put his brew to a practical test.
But none of this really matters ; the bare fact of the
discovery of grapes, which is abundantly corroborated,
is the important thing.
Thorvald.
Whether or no Thorvald Ericson was the leader of
an independent expedition, as stated in the Flatey
Book, or a companion of Karlsefni, as the rival versions
make him, there can be no doubt that the voyage on
which he met with his death is described in all the
accounts in language which shows substantial agree
ment as to the topographical facts. It is therefore
possible, and even advisable, to deal with Thorvald's
explorations as if no question of their connexion with
Karlsefni's expedition had in fact arisen.
Thorvald's base appears to have been situated on
a coast facing approximately south, along which, we
are told, two voyages of exploration were conducted.
The first of these, according to the Flatey Book, was
carried out in a small boat, and lay to the west of the
camp. The expression used, 'fyrir vestan landit',
might also be understood to mean off or along a coast
facing west, but this interpretation is excluded by the
fact that an island lying to the west (vestarliga) was
256 THE VOYAGES
visited, and also by the absence of any coast fulfilling
the required conditions on the eastern seaboard of
America, except the Nova Scotian border of the Bay
of Fundy. This last does not suit in any way, for we
are told 'there were many islands and -many shoals',
a circumstantial statement unlikely to have been in
vented, and therefore reliable. Very shallow water
indeed is indicated in a report derived from persons
in a small boat, whose draught must have been in
significant. Now the name Bay of Fundy is said to
be a corruption of Baya Fonda (deep bay), and the
details given in the Coast Pilot confirm the appro
priateness of such a name. Champlain moreover
states explicitly, on passing Cape Fourchu northwards,
that * this coast is clear, without islands, rocks or shoals ;
so that in our judgment vessels can securely go there.'
The only other feature in the description of the
saga, * well-wooded sandy shores ', is hardly more appro
priate to a coast which is mainly bold and rocky.
We are safe, then, in assuming a starting-point on
a coast facing south. To the east of the base the land
must soon have turned towards the north, to fulfil the
conditions required by Thorvald's second voyage. So
far there are two possibilities presented by the
narrative : the south coast of Nova Scotia, and that
of the United States to the west of Cape Cod. The
latter exactly fulfils the conditions demanded by the
first or westerly voyage. In the words of the Coast
Pilot, 'from the southern and principal entrance to
Chatham harbour, the coast is low and sandy, with
well-wooded hills in the background, taking a generally
westward direction! It is, as the chart shows, a mass
of shoals, and there are a considerable number of quite
T H OR V ALD
257
important islands, including Nantucket, Martha's Vine
yard, and the Elizabeth Islands, in the vicinity. In fact
it would be hard to find a place more accurately fitting
the description given. The voyage, being conducted
THORVALD'S EXPEDITION
in a small boat, was probably not a very long one.
As regards Nova Scotia, there are along this coast
also many islands and a considerable number of shoals,
but the coast itself, treated as a whole, is decidedly less
appropriate to the description in the saga.
In considering Thorvald's final voyage, we may take
the descriptions of both authorities together. We
258 THE VOYAGES
should aim, in fact, at finding a locality embodying the
highest common factor of both versions. To the point
of Keelness both stories agree, the Flatey version
saying that Thorvald sailed * fyrir austan ', i. e. either
turned eastward from his camp or followed an
eastward-facing coastline. Both may be true if we
consider the starting-point to have lain somewhere
on the heel of the Barnstable peninsula. Thorvald
would first turn east and then follow the eastern coast
line of Cape Cod, to reach * the more northerly part of
the country ' which, we are told, was his next objective.
Eric's Saga says they sailed north to Keelness, which
comes to the same thing. Then, according to the
Flatey version, they were wrecked on the point of Keel-
ness, and, after a long stay to carry out the necessary
repairs, they turned eastward into a closely adjacent
fjord. The fact that it was closely adjacent is im
portant. Eric's Saga states that on rounding Keelness
they bore along to the west of it, which, as Dieserud
points out — though with a different intention — should be
taken with the phrase which follows, ' nordr aptr ' (back
north), and therefore means a voyage southwards along
the west coast of the promontory, not a voyage west
wards. Apart from the clue given by the expression
'back north', the Icelandic would bear either inter
pretation.
The same version of the narrative then mentions
that they came to a river flowing from east to west,
and lay by its southern bank. Now, if we consider
Keelness to be Cape Cod, both versions are roughly
correct, though the Flatey Book is slightly more so
than Eric's Saga. From the extreme point of Cape
Cod the course would lie eastward to the mouth of the
THORVALD 259
Pamet river, which flows westward, but, broadly speak
ing, the expedition would be following the west coast
of the peninsula. In the time of the Pilgrim Fathers
all this, coast was densely wooded. As to its being
a beautiful spot for a home, this may have been
Thorvald's opinion, or an embellishment by the story
teller, who has apparently introduced some fictitious
touches here of bodings and warnings. Such a detail
need not trouble us. The only objection to the theory
is that the Saga of Eric the Red says that they had
sailed a long time ; if this, however, means from
Straumsfjord and not merely from Keelness, it may
well be literally true.
The alternative theory, which carries this voyage
round Cape Breton Island, in addition to difficulties
about the scenery, and such objections as apply to
Nova Scotia generally, is open to the criticism that it
has altogether to reject the easterly course from the
end of the promontory which is mentioned in the
Flatey Book. As a rule, in spite of all that is alleged
by Storm, the Flatey version, as I have endeavoured
to show, is more accurate in its courses than the
alternative record ; the objection, however, if it stood
alone, would no doubt be of small weight. The re
jection of the Nova Scotia theory, in fact, involves
consideration of the arguments adduced against it
throughout, rather than those which apply to this
particular point.
It is perhaps worth while to draw attention here
to the inconsistency with which the uniped episode is
interpolated. The explorers are by the southern bank
of a river running from east to west. The uniped
comes from the north, and retires in that direction.
R 2
26o THE VOYAGES
Consequently the obstacle of a navigable river-mouth
lies between this creature and the pursuit which we
are told, both in the text and the incorporated verses,
immediately took place. The fact appears to be that
the river is part of one story (Thorvald's) and the uniped
belongs to another, which some one has tried to edit
into conformity, with but slender success.
There seems, in fact, to be a double interpolation
here. After Karlsefni has been brought to Straumsfjord
with the intention of returning home, the author feels
that it is his last chance of working in any odd scraps
which he has collected from various sources. Hence,
having a description of the death of a son of Eric not
previously or otherwise known to him, which seems to
have occurred in Wineland, he attributes it to Karlsefni's
expedition, and combines it with a separate anecdote,
properly belonging to Karlsefni — but no part of the
main saga — which refers to the pursuit of a supposed
uniped. Possibly the sole source referring to the
uniped on which the author's imagination worked was
the verse incorporated here.
The apparently corrupt but much-discussed passage
about the mountains at Hop and those seen elsewhere
will be dealt with later on : it is, I believe, part of the
original Karlsefni matter, and has no relation to the
voyage of Thorvald. (See next chapter, p. 277.)
VIII. KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION
Date.
As has been pointed out in the chapter on the Flatey
Book (p. 137), the expedition of Thorfin Karlsefni must
have followed those of Leif and the rest of Eric's
family at a considerable interval of time. Though
this has not been generally realized, it is not a mere
matter of opinion, but rests upon cogent and conclusive
evidence when once the known points of chronology
are closely examined. Apart from this, it is evident
on consideration that it would involve a very curious
coincidence if Karlsefni arrived in Greenland exactly
at the time when the efforts of Eric's sons at explora
tion were exhausted. It is therefore far more unlikely
in the case of Karlsefni than in that of Thorvald,
assuming the latter to have conducted an independent
expedition, that the landfalls were the same as those
made by Leif. If we accept Hauk's- version of the
story, Leif's voyage took place in A.D. 1000, and in
any case it cannot have been many years later, while
1 020 is as early as we can reasonably place Karlsefni's
expedition. For this reason, apart from any others,
it is right to assign to this voyage a separate chapter
and independent consideration.
Greenland to Helluland.
Karlsefni's starting-point, we are told, was not from
the neighbourhood of Eric's home at Brattahlid, but
262 KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION
from the Western Settlement (Godthaab), and the
'Bear Islands'. The latter name was apparently
applied to Disko, far to the northward, but it is difficult
to suppose that Thorfin sailed so far in the opposite
direction to his objective. It is more probable that
the name refers to some islands in the immediate
neighbourhood of Godthaab. One has only to remem
ber the frequent occurrence of such local names as
Bj0rnuren, Bj0rnlien, in Norway, to realize that nomen
clature of this character is often repeated, indeed one
need not go outside this saga for an instance of such
a repetition (in the neighbourhood of Markland).
Possibly the Western Settlement was visited for
recruiting purposes. The visitors from Iceland, as we
are told, only accounted for 80 men out of the 160
eventually taking part in the expedition ; the original
Icelandic crews, after a winter in Greenland, would
probably need to be brought up to strength, and the
better part of 100 volunteers must have been difficult to
collect in so small a colony.1 Mr. Babcock, p. 97, seems
to think that the shortest way to Labrador via the
north was already known in Greenland, and he also,
curiously enough, considers it the safest route. On
the question of danger there is room for difference of
opinion, but it may be pointed out that progress from
north to south or vice versa is frequently impeded by
ice till a late date in the summer. The very slow
Moravian mission ship, sailing from London, often
reaches the stations on the Labrador coast before the
Newfoundland steamer service, since, sailing from east
to west, she travels across instead of along the ice-
1 It is also possible, as Mr. Hovgaard suggests, that Karlsefni had
to sail north to penetrate the ice round the coast.
KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION 263
barrier. Karlsefni's ultimate and principal objective /
being to the south, he would hardly have deliberately
undertaken so dangerous, unexplored, and roundabout
a course, even if he had known of the possibility, which
seems extremely doubtful. As a basis for calculation
we may therefore safely put the point of departure
in the neighbourhood of Godthaab.
From this point we are told that the expedition
sailed for two days with a north wind, i. e. in a southerly
direction. It should be pointed out that the map
occurring opposite page 106 of Mr. Babcock's treatise
is very misleading as to the courses which it suggests.
It contains.no meridians, and is tilted westward at an
angle of nearly 40 degrees, with the result that the
Western Settlement of Greenland is brought almost
exactly north of the neighbourhood of Nain on the Lab
rador coast, which is the point selected by the author
for Karlsefni's landfall in Helluland. As a matter of
fact there are not far short of 10 degrees of longitude
between the two places, and the course between them
is very far to the west of south. Mr. Babcock appears
to have chosen this point on the coast of Labrador in
order to retain the statement made as to the voyage
having occupied but two days. The distance being
about 450 miles, the author is compelled to assume
a speed of nearly ten miles an hour, in support of which
he cites statistics as to the speed of yachts and other
modern sailing vessels. Now, as we have seen in
Chapter V, this seems far beyond the capacity of ancient
Icelandic ships, and, since on this point we have defi
nite evidence, it is impossible that the time can have
been correctly stated, even if we suppose the very
nearest point on the Labrador coast to have been the
264 KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION
land first sighted. It is moreover difficult to suppose
that Karlsefni made the nearest point ; he had no clue
to its position, and his ultimate objective, for which he
had a guide in the directions of his predecessor, Leif,
lay far to the south.
Nor is a long coasting voyage along the shores of
Helluland in any way suggested by the text ; in fact
it is inconsistent with it. In the summer, or still more
in the spring, Karlsefni would almost certainly have
been greatly impeded by ice off the Labrador coast,
but no mention is made of any such feature. We must
therefore either abandon the figure, two days, alto
gether, which — having regard to its repetition later
on — is possibly the right course, or we must substitute
some plausible alternative. Reeves suggests ' sjau '
(seven) for ' tvau ' (two), but in the manuscripts numbers
seem to be usually given in figures. A possible amend
ment would be five (u), as, if the light stroke connecting
the verticals in writing this figure had become erased
by time, ti and II would be almost identical in Icelandic
manuscript. This would be equivalent to 750 miles
at average speeds, and would bring land more nearly
to the south of the starting-point well within range.1
It is, however, safer on the whole to decide that we
have no reliable guide to the distance.
The question of the situation of Karlsefni's landfall
in Helluland has been already discussed (Chapter VI,
p. 230), and we can only adhere to the conclusion there
arrived at, viz. that there is a slight balance of pro
bability in favour of Labrador as against Newfoundland,
but that both countries would almost certainly have
1 Since writing this, I find that the same emendation has been
suggested by Fmnur J6nsson.
KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION 265
been assumed to be one and the same. Anyone who
doubts this probability has only to look at the maps
reproduced on p. 364 of vol. 2 of Dr. Nansen's In
Northern Mists, where the same confusion is shown
to have been made in the case of Corte Real.
Markland and Bjarney.
The question of Markland has also been treated at
an earlier stage, and the improbability of the south
easterly course on which the identification of this country
with Newfoundland mainly depends has been pointed
out. Whatever theories we adopt as to the situation
of the various lands, it is clear that the courses given
in the Saga of Eric the Red and Hauk's Book must at
some point be abandoned. For example, Storm identi
fies the coast of Nova Scotia with that followed by
Karlsefni after arrival at Keelness. The lie of this
coast is a great deal nearer west than south, which is
the direction given, and the same applies to the coast
of New England after passing Cape Cod, which seems
to be the alternative. A uniform southerly course is
excluded. Again, two days of open sea from New
foundland to Cape Breton, or from Cape Sable to Cape
Cod, especially the former, would indicate a westerly
rather than a southerly course for the expedition. If, on
the other hand, we assume the explorers to have coasted
Newfoundland to Cape Ray, the course to Nova Scotia
is corrected at the expense of the distance. The upshot
of all this is that, as already indicated, a course given
in this version of the saga is a most unsatisfactory piece
of evidence on which to found an important conclusion.
Moreover, Eric's Saga is silent as to this deflexion to
the south-east, which consequently rests upon H auk's
266 KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION
unsupported authority. This editor may merely have
thought that, as the island next mentioned lay to the
south-east, such a course was necessarily implied.
On this island off the shore of Markland to the south
east we are told that the explorers killed a bear, con^
ferring in consequence the name Bjarney (Bear Island)
on the place in question. It has been generally assumed
that this must necessarily mean a polar bear. But Karl-
sefni was acquainted with Norway, where the European
bear still exists and must then have been common, so
that one would think that a bear which was not white
would equally be called a bear. I would further sug
gest that this would be the case even if no bears other
than the polar species had previously been known to
members of the expedition. But secondly, supposing
a polar bear to be meant, there does not seem any violent
improbability in the idea that one should be found,
in the eleventh century, so far south as Nova Scotia.
At a far later date, Arctic fauna had a much more
southerly habitat than at present. Walrus were regu
larly hunted in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as is shown
by a number of passages in Hakluyt. As to the polar
bear itself, its restriction to its present northerly habitat
appears to be even more recent. In Labrador, as far
south and inland as Eagle River Falls, Sandwich Bay,
Captain Cartwright records in his diary under date July
22, 1778 : ' Numbers were in sight. I counted thirty-
two white bears, and three black ones ; but there were
certainly many more.' In earlier days Jacques Cartier
found a polar bear between Newfoundland and the
Funk Islands, while both Cabot and Corte Real found
the same animal on what was probably Newfoundland,
and cannot certainly have been far north of it. It may
KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION 267
further be pointed out that white bearskins are men
tioned more than once in the Algonquin Legends of New
England and Nova Scotia, collected by C. G. Leland.
As to. bears on islands, whether white or black, Cartier
found them on Brion Island, so there is no improbability
in this feature. If a polar bear is meant, Sable Island
seems a possible location for Bjarney, but in any case
there are many islands off the Nova Scotiari coast
which would fulfil the conditions.
Furdustrands.
Until, however, the expedition reaches Keelness, we
are on very uncertain ground, and it would be im
prudent to insist upon any definite conclusion. We may
in fact, at this stage, so far as our information hitherto
has taken us, be either at the north-eastern extremity
of Nova Scotia or in the vicinity of Cape Cod, according
as our identification of Helluland and Markland
agrees with Storm or otherwise. We may however
fairly say that the choice lies between these two
localities. Any other theory breaks down at the first
touch of criticism.
But when the description of Keelness given in the
saga is compared with what we know of the Nova
Scotian coastline, one meets at once with a very
formidable objection to Storm's theory. For here
began Furdustrands, the Wonderful Beaches, so called
from their great length, and thus described : — * It was
a desolate place, and there were long beaches and
sands there. . . . They gave the beaches a name, calling
them Furdustrands, because the sail past them was
long.' It appears too, as already hinted, that this
feature was sufficiently marked to give rise to the
268 KARLSEFNTS EXPEDITION
application of the name to a large district, extending
at least to Straumsfjord (cf. second song of Thorhall
the Hunter, see also p. 227).
Mr. Babcoc&s Theory.
Now the coast of Nova Scotia cannot, to an unpre
judiced eye, be said to comprise any continuous beach
of a really remarkable length. On the contrary, it is
both indented and rocky. Mr. Babcock clearly sees
this difficulty ; his remarks on the subject have been
already referred to (p. 234). He requires a continuous
stretch of at least 100 miles for Furdustrands, and this
estimate compares favourably with those put forward
by Storm and most of his adherents. Now, to meet
the objection which is here raised, Mr. Babcock postu
lates a rise in the Nova Scotian coastline since the
eleventh century sufficient to account for what is other
wise a fatal discrepancy in its present appearance. He
frankly admits that there is no direct evidence of such
a phenomenon, and indeed that ' locally there is some
scientific opinion that this probably has not occurred '.
But this is not the most that can be said. In the first
place, the early explorers who followed on the redis
covery of the country found the coast exactly as it is
to-day. The upheaval postulated must therefore have
taken place, if at all, within an even shorter period
than that allowed by Mr. Babcock. Thus Champlain
writes : * All the coast which we passed along from
Cape Sable to this place (Canso) is moderately high
and rocky, in -most places bordered by numerous
islands and breakers.' Of Cape Breton Denys says
(Green Island to Louisburg), ' All the coast is nothing
but rocks/ Thenceforward ' nothing but rocks ' is
KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION 269
a phrase constantly repeated, but one looks in vain
for any mention of a beach. Later on, ' leaving there
(St. Ann's harbour) and going to Niganiche (Ingonish)
one passes eight leagues of coast having shores of rock
extremely high and steep as a wall. . . . Niganiche is
not a bit better/ Similarly right on to Cape North.
We have not much room left for these long and
wonderful beaches, which so struck the Norsemen
immediately on their arrival at Keelness, and which
were so impressively long to sail past. It is true, as
we have seen, that there are white sands near the
south-western end of the peninsula, but the numerous
indentations break up the coastline, and besides, the
description requires a cape facing a ship approaching
from more northerly latitudes.
In the second place, had there been such a change
as that suggested by Mr. Babcock, at so recent a date,
there must necessarily have been positive geological
evidence of it. When a beach rises from the sea,
particularly if it be of such great extent as is required
in the present case, traces of the former sea-level
remain, in the form of raised beaches, water-worn rocks,
or remains of marine fauna. In Nova Scotia such
things are found indeed, but dating from a period far
antecedent to that with which we are at present con
cerned. The formation appears to be contemporaneous
with the existence of some form of mammoth, whose
remains have been found, and in many places the
course of these beach-deposits is cut through by river
valleys which have been formed since. (See Dawson,
Acadian Geology?) Now if these vestiges, dating from
a period antecedent to the existence of human remains,
are still to be traced, it is clearly impossible that no
270 KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION
evidence should survive of what is alleged to have
happened at a date which is, geologically speaking,
yesterday. Mr. Babcock's theory must accordingly be
abandoned, in spite of his careful, ingenious, and
elaborate argument, and, this being so, we are still
faced with an insuperable difficulty in the way of
associating Furdustrands with Nova Scotia.
Cape Cod as Keelness.
Now let us turn to the alternative suggested, and
consider Cape Cod to be Keelness. Karlsefni has
now indeed been brought to a coast meriting the name
bestowed, * a desolate place, with long beaches and
sands.' Not only does the Cape Cod or Barnstable
peninsula, as Horsford saw, comply with the descrip
tion, but beyond this point the name Furdustrands
might appropriately be applied to nearly the whole
Atlantic coastline of the United States. Passing the
shores and sand-hills of Cape Cod and Monomoy, from
Chatham at the heel of the promontory to Nobska
Point at the entrance to Buzzard's Bay, the coast, as
the United States Pilot describes it (p. 341), 'is low
and sandy.' If the course lay to the south of Nantucket
and Marthas Vineyard the same description .would
apply. Here there is a slight break formed by the
indentations of Buzzard's and Narragansett Bays, but
the former is masked from the sea, until passed, by the
Elizabeth Islands, and the latter by the islands at its
mouth ; the prospect throughout was an unattractive
one, and these bays, from the sea, might easily pass
unnoticed, while from Point Judith, west of Narra
gansett Bay, to the entrance of Long Island Sound, by
Watch Hill Point, there is still, in the words of the
KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION 271
Coast Pilot, 'a low beach with lagoons inside and
higher wooded land at the back.' Until arrival at
Straumsfjord, no attempt was made to land. As
Mr. Babcock notices, the episode of Hake and Hekja
is obviously an interpolation from another source, as
no vines had been found up to the time of Thorhall's
versified comments on the subject. We have con
sequently to look for but one indentation, that presented
by Straumsfjord. The answer to Mr. Dieserud's
objection to Cape Cod that the wild grape flourishes
there close to the sea, and must therefore have been
found, is that no landing was made there.1 Karlsefni,
unattracted by the prospect, sailed on, and consequently
the discovery was deferred. * They went their ways,
till interrupted by a fjord ', so one might almost in
terpret the language of the saga. In any case, the
likeliest fjord to attract attention on a coasting voyage
would be one lying right in the track of the ship. And
such a fjord, if my conjecture is right, was Straumsfjord.
Straumsfjord.
Dead in the course of a ship following the coast
westward from Cape Cod lies Long Island Sound.
Though not, strictly speaking, a fjord, it has, until the
East River channel, leading to New York, is explored,
exactly the appearance of one. It is very narrow at
each end, and its greatest breadth, fifteen to sixteen
miles, is only maintained for about twenty miles in its
central part. Until the sound was explored by Adriaan
Block in 1614, it was probably not known that Long
Island was separated from the mainland.
1 Unless we accept the story told to account for the name, Keelness.
Even this would only be a very temporary landing, on the beach.
272 KARLSEFNI'S. EXPEDITION
KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION 273
At the mouth of the sound is an important island,
Fisher's Island, with an extreme length of six miles,
between which and the less important Gull Islands runs
a strong tidal stream, appropriately known as the Race.
This is sufficiently formidable to necessitate the warning
of the Coast Pilot, — ' Sailing vessels in the vicinity of
the Race, or navigating along the southern side of the
Sound near Gull and Plum Islands, should give them
a wide berth when the ebb stream is running, or they
may be drawn into one of the passages before aware of
their danger/ ' There is always a strong tide-rip in
the Race except for a period of about thirty minutes
slack between the turn of the streams.'
Long Island is of interest to naturalists as a meeting-
place for equatorial and arctic species of birds, and was
a centre of the whaling industry as late as the first
part of the nineteenth century, and Douglas, as already
mentioned, in his Summary of the Planting of the
British North American Settlements (1760) mentions
specially that small whales affect the flats of Long
Island. Altogether this sound appears to fulfil in every
respect the requirements of Straumsfjord. The mainland
immediately to the north of Fisher's Island is hilly, though
the mention of mountains at Straumsfjord may have
another significance, which will be dealt with later on.
Now if we assume that the dispute between Karl-
sefni and the unruly Thorhall took place on Fisher's
Island or the mainland near it, the arguments of the
two men would run somewhat as follows : Thorhall
asserts that Leifs landfall in Wineland must lie to the
north of Keelness (Cape Cod), because Leif could not
possibly have arrived on the coast which the later
expedition had just explored, after leaving Markland,
274 KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION
without previously sighting land. Karlsefni, on the
other hand, regarding Keelness as the northernmost
extremity of the country, has observed that from that
narrow promontory the land has widened indefinitely
as its southern coast was explored, and his view ' that
the region which lay more to the south was the
larger ' may be paraphrased thus : the northern ex
tremity of the country was obviously so narrow that
Leifs landfall could hardly have passed unobserved,
whereas, here, to the south, the country is of enormous
extent, so that, while we know everything there is to
the north, to the south we may find anything. This
appears to me a more reasonable explanation of this
rather obscure passage than Dr. Nansen's, viz. that it
'was evidently due to the assumption that it (Wine-
land) was connected with Africa V Of such an assump
tion no real trace can be found, except in a later
Icelandic geography, * thence it is not far to Wineland
the Good, which some think is connected with Africa.'
To a geographer, anxious to place his countries within
the limits of the known world, such a theory would be
eminently natural. Confused by classical notions of
the all-encircling Mare Oceanum, and hampered by
the limitations imposed by early religious orthodoxy,
primitive science would tend to deny the possibility of
land connected with the known world on the farther
side of the Atlantic ; and to Africa, as the most
westerly part of the world to the south of Iceland, the
newly discovered lands would naturally be attributed ;
but it is hardly likely that Karlsefni would be hampered
by geographical theories — at any rate there is no real
trace of it in the saga.
1 In Nor I hern Mists, vol. ii, p. 24.
KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION 275
The Si (nation of Hop.
Coming now to the furthest limits of Karlsefni's
expedition, at Hop, it is obvious that we are provided
in this case with a description which affords us more
promising data than those with which we have hither
to been forced to be content. If we combine the
information given in Eric's Saga with that provided by
the Flatey Book account of Leif s camp, which clearly
refers to the same place, the description becomes even
more distinctive.
We need a land-locked bay, largely barred by shoals,
guarded on one side of the entrance by a cape facing
north, and on the other by an island, or something
which might pass for one on a hasty visit. Into this
bay a river must flow, which expands into a lake-
like widening near its mouth, and then narrows, so as
to divide the lake from the bay. This river must flow
in from the north, as the Skrselings who visited the
camp are said to have come from the south. A minor
point, which is not so reliable as the remainder, is the
mention of salmon in the river, which is included in
the Flatey Book description.
Now it is manifestly not every river-estuary or land
locked bay which will conform to such a description in
all, or even in nearly all, particulars. If therefore we
find, in a suitable part of the American coast, a place
which fulfils every one of these requirements, we may
make our identification with something approaching
certainty.
Now if the entrance of Long Island Sound be
accepted as the site of the Straumsfjord base, the
furthest limit of the exploration, at Hop, can be made to
fit the requirements of the story in a really remarkable
S 2
276 KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION
way. I am convinced that it is a mistake to look
for all the places mentioned in Karlsefni's voyage
within the restricted limits which seem to have con
tented other students of the subject. It seems to me
illogical, when we hear of voyages of two or three
days covering very considerable distances, to suppose
when the saga says, * they sailed a long time/ that we
can be content to look for all the places mentioned in
the course of a year's exploration within a few hours'
sail of one another. It took a long time to sail past
Furdustrands, and it was a long way from Straumsfjord
to Hop. The latter place is therefore to be sought
about as far on from Straumsfjord as Straumsfjord was
from Keelness. One has, moreover, to bear in mind, in
searching for likely landfalls, that it is by no means
every inlet which is likely to attract the notice of
sailors on a coasting voyage. Openings which lie
directly in their course, of which the situation selected
for Straumsfjord is an example, are really far more
likely to be explored. Now, about as far to the west of
the entrance to Long Island Sound as Cape Cod lies
to the east of it, the direction of the coast-line under
goes an abrupt change. And exactly in the angle
formed by this change of direction is a bay, fulfilling
all the requirements of Hop. It is a land-locked
estuary, largely barred by shoals, with a river running
into it from the north, which widens into a lake among
hills a short distance from the mouth. The approach
involves a westerly course between a cape running
north and an island. This is the bay or estuary of the
Hudson River, constituting the modern approach to
New York.
This was described by its first recognized discoverer,
KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION 277
Verezzano, in 1524, in the following words: 'We
found a very pleasant situation among some steep
hills, through which a very large river, deep at its
mouth, forced its way into the sea. . . . We passed up
this river, about half a league, when we found it
formed a most beautiful lake, three leagues in
circuit.'
Jtiet, in his account of Hudson's visit to the same
place, describes the estuary itself as a lake, and adds,
' the mouth of that land hath many shoalds, and the
sea breaketh on them as it is cast out of the mouth of
it. ... To the northward off us we saw high hills. . . .
This is a very good land to fall with, and a pleasant
land to see '.
De Laet, in his account of Hudson's discovery, states,
' he (Hudson) found there also vines and grapes, . . .
from all of which there is sufficient reason to conclude
that it is a pleasant and fruitful country.' Even the
salmon, reported in the Flatey account of Leifs
voyage, in which, as has been pointed out, the descrip
tion is largely borrowed from Karlsefni's Hop, appear
formerly to have existed here. At any rate, Hudson
is stated to have found them in this river, both by
Juet and De Laet.
The Mountains at Hop.
It is claimed that the analysis of Karlsefni's voyage
which has been attempted above presents no real
difficulty, and is open to far fewer objections than any
alternative theory. It is inconsistent with no fact
alleged in the saga with the exception of the southerly
course, and this, as has been shown, has to be aban
doned on any hypothesis. It is the only theory which
278 KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION,
really gets over the Furdustrands difficulty ; it pro
vides a Straumsfjord and a Hop which are both
inherently probable landfalls, and which correspond in
every particular with the details given. It does not
seem to me that nearly as much can be said for the
accepted theory of Nova Scotia, or for any other
alternative. One further point must now be referred
to. At the end of the section of Eric's Saga and
Hank's Book dealing with the last voyage and death
of Thorvald Ericson comes a sentence which is quite
differently rendered in the two versions. According
to the Saga of Eric the Red, it runs, ' They intended
to explore all the mountains, those which were at Hop,
and those which they found/ Hauk, however, gives
it as follows : ' They considered that the mountains
which were at Hop and those which they now found
were all one, and so were close opposite to one another,
and that the distance from Straumsfjord was the same
in both directions.' The word translated * intended '
in the first case, and * considered ' in the second, is the
same, and the first part of the sentence is therefore
nearly identical in the original, except for the omis
sion of the words 'at karma' (to explore) in H auk's
rendering.
From this passage, as given by Hauk, it has been
understood by Storm and some other authorities that
after rounding Keelness the explorers came upon
mountains which they imagined, rightly or wrongly, to
belong to the same range as others which they had
met with at Hop.
Now the first point which occurs to one in this con
nexion is that the passage in question had, at an
earlier date than that of any extant manuscript of the
KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION 279
text, already become so corrupt as to be unintelligible.
We can hardly regard the later half of the sentence as
a gloss by Hauk : it is not characteristic of his work to
make so considerable an addition to the matter copied.
Still less can we suppose that the compilers of Eric's
Saga, who never retained any prejudice in favour of
making sense of a passage, introduced the words ' to
explore '. It looks, in fact, as if at a very early date
two inconsistent attempts had been made to interpret
a phrase the meaning of which was already dubious.
It is therefore a very dangerous passage on which to
found any important conclusion.
Secondly, as has been already suggested, the pas
sage about Thorvald bears all the marks of an inter
polation. It comes between two sentences referring
to the return to Straumsfjord which lo'ok as if the
saga-writer were taking up the thread of his principal
theme after a digression. It follows immediately after
what is obviously information from a fresh source
—the passage beginning 'Some men say'. It intro
duces Thorvald suddenly for the first time, if we
accept the purer version of Eric's Saga (cf. p. 126).
It is embellished with a speech plagiarized from
elsewhere, a form of treatment without parallel in the
saga. Towards the end of the suggested interpolation
the words * they went back ' are twice repeated in
Eric's Saga. In these circumstances it seems fairly r
safe to regard this passage as having formed no part
of the original story.
But if this be so, the sentence now under considera
tion, which mentions Hop and Straumsfjord, cannot
belong to the interpolated matter, but must be part of
the original saga, and in this case it cannot refer to the
28o KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION
topography of Thorvald's voyage, but to the relation
between Straumsfjord and Hop.
In the third place, it seems unlikely that unscien
tific explorers would recognize two ends of a range of
mountains as belonging to one another if separated by.
a long sea-voyage ; the phrase ' J>at staediz mjok sva a '
(were therefore close opposite one another) seems to
refer to a closer connexion, such as that of two sides of
the same hill, which would be much more readily
recognized.
The conclusions to be drawn are therefore :
1. The passage is too corrupt to allow of any impor
tant argument being based on it.
2. It is at least doubtful whether it refers to Thor
vald's voyage at all.
What follows is therefore put forward rather as an
interesting suggestion than as a vital part of the main
argument. But assuming that the sentence under
consideration refers to the relation between Straums
fjord and Hop, we know that mountains or hills were
features of the landscape of both these places, and
such features are not elsewhere specifically mentioned.
If I am right in supposing Straumsfjord to be Long
Island Sound and Hop the estuary or lower waters of
the Hudson, it would be quite correct to say that hills
visible from the one place would also be visible from
the other. If, as seems probable, the camp or base at
Straumsfjord lay near the island at its mouth, it would
also be true to say that any such mountain would be
about the same distance from that camp, whether
approached via Long Island Sound or by a route to
the south of Long Island. As the explorers did noth
ing else, till the first winter at Straumsfjord, except
KARLSEFNI'S EXPEDITION 281
investigate their surroundings, it is more than likely
that they cruised sufficiently far up the sound to be
able to see hills also visible from the Hudson valley.
If this interpretation could be relied on it would there
fore afford a strong confirmation of the topography
suggested in this chapter, and I feel that this may be
the correct explanation of the passage. It is safer,
however, to treat the sentence as irremediably
corrupt, and to conclude that the information it
appears to contain may be a mere gloss, or may
express a mistaken notion of the explorers. It is one
of the many points as to which certainty is impossible,
but it equally cannot afford a valid argument against
theories which would otherwise be acceptable.
IX. AFTERMATH AND CONCLUSION.
' And here ', in the words of Eric's Saga, ' this story
ends.' The attempt at colonization had proved a
failure ; the snows of Iceland and Greenland were
thenceforward to be preferred to the chance of frequent
collision with the Wineland Skraslings. No further
attempt at a permanent settlement seems ever to have
been made.
It by no means follows that the newly-discovered
countries remained unvisited. A land full of timber,
lying but a few days' sail from Greenland, where such
a commodity was unobtainable, must almost certainly
have tempted the members of Eric's small colony at
any rate to occasional visits. Of these we could not,
in the nature of things, expect to hear much. Always
more or less isolated by its dangerous coast and the
little-known sea which separated it from Iceland,
Greenland became after 1294 almost entirely cut off
from the land of saga by the Norwegian royal edict
making trade with the former country a crown mono
poly. The minor enterprises of the colonists were,
moreover, of little or no interest to Icelandic audi
ences.1
1 In an article on the fauna of Greenland by Herluf Winge
(Meddelelser om Gronland, vol. xxi, p. 322), the author cites a list
of furs said by Archbishop Erik Walkendorff of Trondhjem (circa 1516)
to be obtained from Greenland. Many of the animals therein referred
to are not properly attributable to Greenland, and Winge suggests
that these skins may have found their way via Greenland to Trondhjem
from America.
AFTERMATH 283
Entries in the Annals.
From the prevailing obscurity two attempts at
revisiting the New World emerge in the Icelandic
Annals. The first of these may indeed have been
intended as a prelude to further efforts at coloniza
tion. In 1 1 21, Eric, bishop of Greenland, sailed
for Wineland. Of his intentions or subsequent fate
nothing is known, but we may imagine a bold resolve
to make an end of the one obstacle to settlement by
converting the Skraelings to Christianity. Anyhow,
Bishop Eric set out, and never returned, his episcopal
seat being filled in a few years' time. It is true that
the bishop is credited by the Danish poet Lyskander
(1609) with complete success both in his missionary
and his colonial enterprise, but of this there is no
evidence, and we must regard the statement as poetical
licence.
The second visit recorded is of less importance, but
may well have been more successful in its objects. In
1347, we are told in the Annals, there arrived in
Iceland from Greenland a ship, which struck the
Icelanders as being of exceptionally small size. She
had lost her anchor, but contained a crew of 17 or 1 8
men, who had been to Mark-land, but on the way back
to Greenland had been driven by stress of weather to
the harbour where they arrived.
Probably no very unique enterprise is here chronicled.
It was but the accident occasioning the visit of this ship
to Iceland which 'preserved this voyage from oblivion.
' Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona.'
77/6' New Land.
No other clear reference is to be found to subsequent
284 AFTERMATH
voyages to the lands named in the sagas of Wine-
land. In 1285, however, the Annals mention a dis
covery of ' New Land ', which is variously recorded in
different MSS. as follows, taken in order of date :
1. Land was discovered to the west of Iceland.
2. The Down Islands were discovered.
3. Helgi's sons Adalbrand and Thorvald discovered
the New Land.
4. Helgi's sons sailed to the uninhabited parts of
Greenland.
This discovery appears to have created no small stir
at the time. The King of Norway was interested, and
commissioned one Land- Rolf to go to Iceland and
organize an expedition for exploring purposes. Rolf,
according to the Annals, sailed to Iceland in 1290, and
endeavoured to carry out his instructions, but he does
not seem to have succeeded in obtaining the requisite
support, and his death in 1295 appears to have put an
end to the project.
Where was this New Land ?
Storm, following the fourth authority, declares em
phatically in favour of the east coast of Greenland.
But, if this be the correct solution, it is difficult to
understand the interest and excitement occasioned.
Voyages to the uninhabited parts of Greenland were
not unprecedented, but were bound to be quite
unprofitable ; we may doubt, moreover, whether an
isolated landfall on the east coast would have been
dignified with the title of discovery of a New Land.
What would be the object of further exploration ?
Down would hardly provide a sufficient incentive ; the
Iceland eiders must then as now have provided it in
plenty. With lapse of time the supposed position of
AND CONCLUSION 285
the New Land may have become displaced, as we
have seen was eventually the case with Furdustrands.
(See further, on this point, p. 294.) But even if we
accept it as true that Helgi's sons sailed in the direc
tion of Greenland, it is quite possible that they were
driven elsewhere. On the whole, then, there seems
more than a possibility that this allusion has reference
to some part of the American coast, though from the
very fact that it was treated as a new discovery it
seems improbable that the actual lands visited by
Karlsefni and his predecessors are here in question.
The Honen Runes.
There is another possible reference to a Wineland
voyage, though it must in any case have been an
unsuccessful one. At Honen in Ringerike there existed
in 1823 a stone with an undoubted runic inscription,
which was fortunately copied in that year. The stone
subsequently disappeared. As is the case with many
runic inscriptions, the interpretation is doubtful, but
it has been thus rendered by Professor Bugge, of
Norway :
' They came out and over wide expanses, and, need
ing cloth to dry themselves, and food, away towards
Wineland, up into the ice in the uninhabited country.
Evil can take away luck, so that one dies early.' (See
In Northern Mists, vol. ii, p. 2j.)1
1 It is perhaps rash for an amateur to criticize the interpretation
of an expert, but the numerous ' ands ' in the early part of the
inscription suggest to my mind that the words between them should
be names of persons. The stereotyped form for a memorial runic
inscription usually begins with a list of the persons responsible for it,
separated by ' and ' (auk = ok). The original, as read by Bugge,
runs ' lit ok vitt ok ]>urfa J>erru ok ats ', &c.
286 AFTERMATH
If this is indeed a reference to an expedition to the
Wineland with which we have hitherto been dealing, it
is plain that the luckless explorers must have been
driven far out of their course, probably to some part of
Greenland, or possibly the arctic regions of Canada.
They can never have revisited the temperate regions
recorded by Leif and Karlsefni.
Voyage of Harald Haardraade.
Adam of Bremen's allusion to Wineland, already re
ferred to (chapter i, p. 98), is immediately succeeded
by the following report of a voyage undertaken by
King Harald Haardraade, of which no other record is
preserved.
* After which island (Wineland) ', said he (King
Svein), 'no habitable land is found in that ocean, but
all that is beyond is full of intolerable ice and utter
darkness (immensa caligine). Of which matter Marci-
anus thus bears record, saying, " Beyond Thule, one
day's sail, the sea is frozen solid (concretum)" This
was lately tested by the most enterprising Harald,
prince of the Norsemen, who, when investigating
with his ships the breadth of the northern ocean,
hardly escaped with safety from the awful gulf of the
abyss, by turning back, when at length the bounds of
the earth where it ends (deficientis) grew dark before
his eyes.'
Professor Yngvar Nielsen, in an article entitled
Nordmaend og Skrae linger i Vinland (Norske Geogra-
fiske Selskabs Aarbog for 1904), argues that the
voyage here referred to was possibly another attempt
to find Wineland. He sees, too, a possible connexion
with the Honen runes, since Harald hailed from
AND CONCLUSION 287
Ringerike, from which district the unknown hero of
the inscription would seem also to have come. This
connexion is evidently too fanciful to be taken seriously,
though, if Harald's voyage had Win eland as its objec
tive, the possibility is not altogether excluded. It
is true that the voyage of the Norwegian king is
reported in a context which links it closely with Wine-
land, and it seems at first sight unlikely that Harald
would have organized an expedition of so unprofitable
a nature as a mere scientific exploration of the Arctic
Ocean. On the other hand, the words * latitudinem
scptentrionalis oceani perscriitatus ' do seem to suggest
that the object was arctic exploration, and, since Adam
considers Marcianus's remarks about the sea beyond
Thule as relevant, we are not justified in conclud
ing that Harald's voyage was any more intimately
connected with the question of Wineland. Of the
theory which associates Wineland with the arctic
regions something remains to be said later. (See p. 294).
Here we may merely observe that there does not
appear to be any reliable evidence to connect Harald's
voyage with the subject of Wineland, particularly as
the experiences related, if they amount to more than
a sailor's yarn, are suggestive of the ice-floes and long
night of the Polar regions.
Ideas of Icelandic Geography.
An Icelandic geography preserved in various manu
scripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contains
a reference to the lands discovered in America, which,
in its fullest form, runs as follows :
4 South from Greenland is Helluland, next to it is
Markland, thence it is not far to Wineland the Good,
288 AFTERMATH
which some men think is connected with Africa ; and, if
so, then the outer ocean must fall in between Wineland
and Markland. It is said that Thorfin Karlsefni cut
a tree for a " husa snotra " (cf. Flatey Book account,
p. 71), and after this went to seek for Wineland the
Good, and came where this land was believed to be,
but did not explore it or settle there. Leif the Lucky
was the first to discover Wineland, and on that
occasion he found merchantmen in danger on the sea,
and rescued them by God's mercy ; he also introduced
Christianity to Greenland, and it prospered so that an
episcopal seat was placed there, at Garda.'
Part of this account claims to be founded on the
information of Abbot Nicholas of Thingeyre, who died
in 1 1 59. The references to Karlsefni and Leif appear
rather to be confused summaries of the statements
contained in the sagas. They can hardly be relied on
to displace anything occurring in the records with which
we have been dealing.
As regards the relative position of the three
countries, the geography knows nothing precise, except
that Helluland lay to the south of Greenland, as stated
in the Saga of Eric the Red. Probably it was known,
or deduced from the information as to climate, that
Markland and Wineland belonged to lower latitudes,
and hence the error, reproduced in Eric's Saga, of
imagining the course between all the lands to be
uniformly south, was generally accepted. The writers
of the geography do not, however, commit themselves
to any such view. Apparently they knew more about
Helluland and Markland than about Wineland, which
looks as if the former had been more recently visited.
They evidently knew that Helluland and Markland
were not connected with Africa, while Wineland might
AND CONCLUSION 289
be. With the way in which such a theory as the
connexion between Wineland and Africa may have
arisen I have already dealt (p. 274). The theory, it will
be noticed, is mentioned in connexion with the ancient
hypothesis of the all-encircling ocean, which long
hampered geographical and cartographical science.
Early Maps.
We have to wait till a period subsequent to the
re-discovery of America for the earliest known attempt
to depict Wineland, and the two more northerly lands
known to the Norsemen, in the form of a map. There
exists, however, in the Royal Library at Copenhagen,
a copy, made apparently about 1590, of a map drawn
by Sigurd Stefansson, an Icelander, about one hundred
years previously. The map is dated 1570, but it has
been clearly proved that this is a mistake on the part
of the copyist, and that the date must probaUy have
been 1590 on the original map. The general lines of
this map are here reproduced. With regard to the
point marked A there is a note by the author
betraying a knowledge of Frobisher's voyage in 1576,
which is in itself sufficient to show the date, 1570, to
be an error.
A map drawn by Hans Poulson Resen in 1605 is
also in existence which covers the same ground, and is
so similar in most features that it has generally been
accepted as being a mere copy of Stefansson's work,
revised in the light of such information as more recent
voyages could provide. The relevant features of this
map are also here reproduced.
Now, in the first place, there arises on consideration
a very great difficulty in the way of adopting the
2QO
AFTERMATH
AND CONCLUSION 291
current view, maintained by Storm and others, that
the Eesen map is based on that of Stefansson.
The inscription on Resen's work runs as follows :
' Indicatio Groenlandiae et vicinarum regionum, ver
sus Septentrionem et Occidentem, ex antiqua quadam
mappa, rudi modo delineata, ante aliquot centenos annos,
SKETCH-MAP OF GREENLAND ETC.
ORIENTED AS IN EARLY SCANDINAVIAN
MAPS
ab Islandis, quibus tune erat ista terra notissima, et
nauticis nostri temporis observationibus.'
The error in the date on the extant copy of
Stefansson's map is manifestly the work of an
unintelligent copyist, which makes it practically certain
that the original was also dated ; moreover the note
on the point A, to which allusion has been made, is
T 2
292 AFTER M A T H
stated to be by Stefansson himself, and must therefore
in all probability have been attached to the original.
In any case it must have been made about the same
time, for the author of the map was drowned in Iceland
not long after the date of its production. It seems,
therefore, practically impossible that Resen, with such
evidence of recent composition before him, could have
described as a map made ' some centuries ago ' a work
so nearly contemporaneous with his own. He could
not have, in fact, formed any such conclusion, and there
would be no point in falsely ascribing to his source an
origin which detracts from its authority. Again, though
neither work is a masterpiece, Sigurd Stefansson's
production compares quite favourably in point of finish
with Resen's, and could therefore hardly be stigmatized
by the latter author as rudi modo delineata. The
form, moreover, of Hvitserk in Greenland is more
complicated in Resen's map than in the earlier work,
and, as the cartographer could have had no modern
source from which to correct this feature, it is difficult
to suppose that its form is borrowed from Stefansson.
Finally, Resen introduces in his map such place-names
as Ericsfjord, Vesterbygdsfjord, and Osterbygd, which
do not occur in Stefansson, and are not derived from
the work of later discoverers.
In fact, all the evidence confirms the probability that
both Resen and Stefansson worked, not one from the
other, but both from a common source, of earlier date,
which may well have been made, as Resen claims,
ante aliquot centenos annos, and was, if so, pre-
Columbian.
Now, if the two maps are independent of one another,
the common source must clearly have contained, not
AND CONCLUSION 293
only the representation of Greenland which is found in
both, but equally the representation of Helluland,
Markland, and Wineland, which shows, allowing for
revision in the light of later exploration, almost as
marked similarity. Unless, then, the mapping of these
lands is merely based on the contemporary interpreta
tion of the sagas, we have here fresh evidence of
subsequent voyages, if not to the lands explored by
Karlsefni, at least to some parts of North America
which became confused with them.
The hypothesis that the land-forms are merely
drawn from a reading of the sagas is that adopted by
Storm. It is difficult, however, to account in this way
for such a feature as the south-easterly trend from
Markland to Wineland, which distinctly conflicts with
the sources which we have been following. There is,
moreover, as will be seen by a comparison with the
map on p. 291, a striking resemblance to the actual
form of Baffin Land and northern Labrador, the shape
of the latter peninsula especially in Resen's map being
remarkably accurate in points not traceable to any map
of the period known to me. The indications of Ungava
Bay and Cape Chidley in particular are features
unrepresented by contemporary cartographers, and
though Labrador is much too small in proportion to
the two main peninsulas of Baffin Land, this is what one
would expect from crude and early representations,
which are apt to devote more space to well-known than
to less-known places. It is quite clear, in any case,
that both Stefansson and Resen considered that their
maps represented Baffin Land and Labrador, and this
argues a better knowledge of the appearance of these
localities than other cartographers of the period seem
294 AFTER M A T H
to have been able to derive from the reports of explorers.
On the whole, then, I incline to the view that these
maps are evidence of voyages to America subsequent
to those of which we have any record.
What then ? Must we discard all the conclusions
hitherto arrived at, and adopt those of the Labrador
school which we have rejected so unhesitatingly and
for such formidable reasons ? By no means. It is
quite in accordance with precedent that a confusion
should have arisen in the identification of places
visited by early explorers, and that Baffin Land and
Labrador, when visited by later Norsemen, should
have been wrongly assumed to be the lands discovered
and described by their predecessors. Thus Frobisher's
discoveries in Meta Incognita were for a long time
supposed to be situated in Greenland, while the latter
country, and not that which now bears the name, was
the original Labrador.
To suppose that the old Norsemen, with a possibly
imperfect recollection of the sagas, should have
identified Labrador with Wineland is to accuse them
of no grosser error than that committed by many
modern critics of the subject, to whom the whole of the
relevant evidence was readily accessible. The reader
can hardly have failed to notice that some such
confusion as is here suggested must, at a very early
date, have taken place. Whereas the sagas themselves
speak clearly of southerly latitudes and a temperate
climate, the later tradition and such records as we
have of. possible later voyages indicate an idea that
Wineland was to be found in the Arctic Regions.
Thus, the Honen runes speak of ' ice in the uninhabited
regions', Adam of Bremen associates Wineland with
AND CONCLUSION 295
' intolerable ice ' and frozen seas, the ' New Land ' is
identified in the later MSS. of the Annals with the
wilds of Greenland, and Furdustrands becomes a region
uninhabitable on account of frost (see p. 227).
It is not difficult to see how such ideas may have
arisen in Iceland and European Scandinavia. The
maps under consideration supply us with a probable
clue. Greenland is quite wrongly oriented, with its
southern extremity pointing south-east instead of south,
or, as a compass-chart would have represented it,
considerably to the west of south. The cartographer
has evidently been misled by the names Western and
Eastern Settlement, conferred on the colonies at
Godthaab and Julianehaab respectively, which are, in
fact, more or less north and south in relation to one
another. The confusion produced by this inappropriate
nomenclature persisted down to very recent times.
The effect of such an error is to suggest to intending
explorers that land which really lies to the west
of Greenland may be reached by sailing in a direction
which is actually north. Although I have suggested
another reason for Karlsefni's alleged visit to the
Western Settlement before setting out on his travels,
it is always possible, as Dr. Nansen says (vol. i, p. 321)
that this too is a mistake on the part of the saga-
writer, based on the not unnatural assumption that the
Western Settlement lay due west of the Eastern, and
was therefore the nearest point to Wineland instead
of the farthest from it. The unduly shortened distance
in the saga between Greenland and Helluland (two
daegr) may possibly be explained in the same way, and
in this case the Bear Islands may actually mean Disko.
(Cf. Chapter VIII, p. 262). If so, however, one would
296 A F T E R M A T H
have to suppose the saga-writer to have had access to
the report of some subsequent explorer, who, sailing
from Disko, had touched or sighted the Cumberland
peninsula of Baffin Land, and the earlier part of the
record of Karlsefni's voyage would have to be rejected,
in so far as it purported to represent historically the
experience of that explorer.
Now if, from a misunderstanding, of the true
orientation of the Greenland peninsula, Icelandic or
Norwegian sailors got the idea that it was necessary to
follow the Greenland coast in order to approach the
countries discovered in America, it is easy to see how
they might bring back reports of ice and arctic
conditions, and possibly of parts of Baffin Land and
northern Labrador, which might thus become identified
with the lands discovered by Leif and Karlsefni.
The Icelandic geography referred to above conveys,
as already stated, an impression that while countries
identified with Helluland and Markland had been
visited, Wineland had been sought for in vain, and its
exact situation was at the time of writing unknown.
This is quite intelligible if later explorers had, for the
reason suggested above, confined their search to more
northerly latitudes.
Whilst, then, these early maps are of no use as
authorities whereby we may unravel the problems of
the original Wineland voyages, I think that they are
of considerable interest both as affording evidence of
later Scandinavian voyages to America, and also as
providing a solution of the way in which the mistaken
idea which associated Wineland with the north may
have come into existence.
AND CONCLUSION 297
Conclusion.
The data being now exhausted, it only remains
to bid farewell to our explorers. Comparisons are
proverbially odious, and it is futile to bring Columbus
and his successors into the question. Karlsefni and his
contemporaries were — as discoverers — born out of due
time. With the general interest which was felt in explor
ation in the fifteenth and following centuries, with kings
to back them and states to develop their discoveries,
above all, with an armament immeasurably superior to
that of the natives, such as the later explorers
possessed, these simple Norse seamen might have
attained a far wider fame, or even have affected the
course of history. As it was their deeds were unim
portant, and soon almost if not quite forgotten. To-day
the man in the street looks incredulous or astonished
at the very mention of the Wineland voyages, however
well authenticated these are seen to be by the student
of the subject. A little less scepticism, a little less
complete oblivion is all that shall be asked for them
here.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anderson, R. B. A merica not discovered by Columbus. Chicago, 1874.
Babcock, W. H. Early Norse Discoveries in America. Smithsonian
miscellaneous collections, Washington, 1913.
Beamish, N. L. Discovery of North America by the Northmen.
Boston, 1841.
Beazley, C. R. Dawn of Modern Geography. London, 1901.
Articles ' Leif Eric son ' and ' Thorfinn Karlsefni' in Encyclo
paedia Britannica.
Bruun, D. Erik den Rode. Copenhagen, 1915.
Cornhill Magazine. Article in vol. xxvi. London, 1872.
De Costa, B. F. Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen.
Albany, 1901.
Dieserud, J. Norse Discoveries in America. Bulletin of the American
Geographical Society, 1901.
Du Chaillu, P. B. The Viking Age. London, 1889.
Fernald, M. L. Notes on the Plants of Wineland the Good.
Boston, 1910.
Fischer, J. Die Entdeckungen der Normannen in A merika. Freiburg i. B.,
1902. (English translation by B. Soulsby, 1903.)
Fiske, J. The Discovery of America. Boston, 1892.
Forster, J. B. History of voyages, 6°<r. made in the North. London,
1786.
Haliburton, R. G. Article in Proceedings of The Royal Geographical
Society, vol. vii. London.
Hewlett, M. Gudrid the Fair (fiction based on the sagas). London,
1917.
Horsford, E. N. Discovery of America by the Northmen. New York,
1888.
The Problem of the Northmen. Cambridge, Mass., 1889.
- The Landfall of Leif Eric son. Boston, 1892.
Hovgaard, W. The Voyages of the Norsemen to America. New York,
1915.
Howley, M. F. Vinland Vindicated. Proc. and Trans. Royal Society
of Canada, 1898.
Irving, Washington. Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus.
vol. iv. London, 1828.
Jonsson, Finnur. Erik den Rode's Saga og Vinland. Historisk
Tidskrift. Christiania, 1911.
Opdagelsen of og reiserne til Vinland. Aarbog for Nordisk
Oldkyndighed, &c. Copenhagen, 1915.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 299
Kolischer, K. A. Zur Entdeckungsgeschichte Amerikas. Mitt. K. K.
Geographischen Gesellschaft, Vienna, 1914.
Laing, S. Translation of Heimskringla. London, 1844.
Malte-Brun, C. Precis de la geographic universelle, vol. i, book 18.
Paris, 1831-7.
Moultoh and Yates. History of the State of New York. New York,
1824.
Nansen, F. In Northern Mists. London, 1911.
Neckel, G. Erste Entdeckung Amerikas. Leipzig, 1913.
Nielsen, Y. Nordmxndog Skr deling er i Vinland. Norske Geografiske
Selskabs Aarbog, 1905.
Olson, J. E. The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot. New York, 1906.
— Article ' Vinland' in Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Rafn, C. Antiquitates Americanae. Boston, 1837.
Reeves, A. M. The Finding of Wineland the Good. London, 1895.
Schroeder. Om Skandinav ernes fordna upptacktsresor till Nord
Amerika. Upsala, 1818.
Slafter, Rev. E. F. Voyages of the Northmen to America. Boston.
Smith, J. T. The Discovery of America bv the Northmen in the tenth
Century. London, 1839.
Steensby, H. P. The Norsemen s Route from Greenland to Wineland.
Copenhagen, 1918.
Storm, G. Studier over Vinlandsreiserne. Aarbog for Nordisk
Oldkyndighed og Historic, Copenhagen, 1887.
Islandske Annaler indtil 1578. Christiania, 1888.
Erik's Saga Rauda. Copenhagen, 1891.
Thalbitzer, W. Skrwlingerne i Markland og Grbnland, deres sprog og
nationalitet. Oversigt over det Kgl. Dariske Videnskabernes
Selskabs Forhandlinger, Copenhagen, 1905.
Four Skrseling Words from Markland in the Saga of Erik the
Red. London, 1913.
Torfaeus, T. Historia Vinlandiw Antiquw. Copenhagen, 1705.
Veteris Groenlandide Descriptio. Copenhagen, 1706.
Vigfusson, G. (and York Powell, F.) An Icelandic Prose Reader.
Oxford, 1879.
Vigfusson, G. (and York Powell, F.) Origines Islandicx. Oxford,
1905.
Weise, A. J. Discoveries of America to 1525. London, 1884.
Winsor, Justin. History of America (vol. i). London, 1889.
INDEX
Adam of Bremen, 49, 97, 156, 286.
Annals, Icelandic, no, 137, 146,
152,283-5,295.
Ari Marsson, 96, 189.
Ari the Learned, 74, 87, 93, 120,
156, 173-7-
Aud the Very Wealthy, 28, 87, 103,
152.
Avalldamon, 65, 188.
Babcock, W. H., 7, 103, 186, 199,
234, 235, 236, 252, 254, 262, 263,
268-70. A
Bacchus, lie de, 159.
Balista, 62, 184-6, 194.
Bardson, Ivar, sailing directions of,
199, 204.
Barn, discovered by Thorvald's
expedition, 46, 48, 160.
Barnstable Peninsula, 246, 248, 253,
257, 258, 270.
Bear, killed on Bjarney, 56, 266.
Bear Isles, 56, 262, 295.
Bede, the Venerable, 191, 209.
Birds, on Straumsey, 57, 154, 168-71.
Bjarney, 56, 228, 238, 265-7.
Bjarni Grimolfson, companion of
Karlsefni, 53, 55, 58, 60, 64 ; con
fused with Herjulfson, 105 ; not
mentioned in Flatey Book, 143.
Bjarni Herjulfson, discovers Ameri
ca, 25-8 ; in Norway, 40 ; sells
ship to Leif, 40; distinguished
from Grimolfson, 105 ; authen
ticity of voyage, 114-18; course
of voyage, 131; Mr. Hovgaard
on, 238 ; reconstruction of voyage,
244-51.
Bjorn Asbrandsson, 190.
Bjorn, Bishop, descendant of Karl
sefni, 19, 20, 72, 86.
Blaserk, 22, 112.
Brand I, Bishop, descendant of
Karlsefni, 72, 86, 101-2, in, 137.
Brattahlid, 25, 37, 39, 40, 44, 45,
52-5, 135, 138, 141-
j Brendan, Saint, voyage of, 162, 168,
171, 184.
Bull, Karlsefni's, frightens savages,
62, 83, 194.
Cabot, 9, 221, 266.
Canoes, 46, 61, 95, 107, 174, 177-9,
193-
Cartier, Jacques, 107, 158, 170, 179,
183, 192, 226, 231, 266, 267.
Cartvvright, Captain, 240, 266.
Celtic literature, influence discussed,
154, 162-72, 184, 187, 191.
Champlain, 48, 159, 170,236, 256,
268.
Charlemagne, character of traditions
concerning, 1 16.
Cloth, red, coveted by skra:lings,
61, 183-4, 194.
Cod, Cape, 248, 256-9, 265, 267,
270, 273, 276.
Corn, wild, 48, 57, 60, 76, 98, 107,
158, 159-62, 226, 229, 240.
Corte Real, 9, 221, 265, 266.
Courses, 107, 131, 222, 232, 239,
242, 258, 259, 265.
Crossness, 47.
Dcegr, meaning discussed, 196-211.
Dasent, Sir George, 148.
Dawson's Acadian Geology, 269.
De Laet : see Hudson.
Denys, Nicholas, 159, 170, 179,
268-9.
Dicuil, 191.
Dieserud, Juul, 104, 234, 258, 271.
Down Islands : see New Land.
Dublin, 28, 66.
Eggs, on Straumsey, 58, 168-71.
Eric, Bishop of Greenland, 18, 152,
283.
Eric the Far-Travelled, 1 10.
Eric the Red, adventures in Iceland
and discovery of Greenland, 21-
4; children, 25, 37; receives
INDEX
101
Thorbjorn Vifilson, 37 ; slow to
change faith, 39; asked to ac
company Leif, 40 ; accident to,
41, 78; death alleged, 45; un
converted, 47; entertains Karl-
sefni, 53 ; in Eyrbyggja, 73 ; Ari's
account of, 74, 94 ; bad opinion of
priest, 75, 136; conversion al
leged, 76 : accompanies Thor-
stein, 79 ; problem of his death,
135-
Eric the Red, Saga of, 14, 100, 101,
108, 141.
Eyktarstad observation, 42, 107,
123, 211-20, 225, 229, 243.
Eyrbyggja Saga, 39, 66, 73, 190.
Fern aid, Professor, 160, 229.
Fischer, Joseph, 106, 115.
Fisher's Island, 272, 273.
Flags, Indian, 65, 183, 193.
Flatey Book, 14, 100, 104-46, 238.
Floamanna Saga, 136.
Fortunate Islands : see Insulae For-
tunatae.
Fostbrae^ra Saga, 138.
Foxes, arctic, in Helluland, 56, 165,
230-1.
Freydis, daughter of Eric the Red,
25; illegitimate, 55; courage of,
62-3 ; second visit to Wineland,
67 ; crime of, 70 ; independence
of Flatey Book story of, 105 ;
probability of story, 127.
Frissbok, 74, 119.
Frobisher, 178, 183, 184, 289.
Froda miracle, 38-9.
Furdustrands, 56, 59, 60, 133, 227,
233, 234, 236, 238, 240, 242, 267-
71, 285, 295.
Fur-trading by skraelings ol, 84,
183, 194.
Garda, site of Greenland Cathedral,
25, 142, 288.
Genealogies, Icelandic love of, 10,
91.
Geography, Icelandic, 241, 274,
287-9-
Godthaab, 23, 262, 295.
Gosling, W., 181.
Greenland, 16, 22, 74, 94, 139-46,
149, 177, 261, 282, 284, 287, 288,
290-6.
Gretti's Saga, 53, 249.
Gripla, 227.
Gudrid, early history of, 30 ; helps
the sibyl, 36 ; marriage to Thori,
45, 134 ; to Thorstein Ericson,
49? 79 5 to Karlsefni, 54, 83 ; son
born in Wineland, 64 ; later his
tory and death of, 72; descen
dants, 86 ; heroine of Saga of
Eric, 142.
Gunnbjorn, 22, 117, 118.
Hake and Hekja, 57, 106, 151, 167,
254,271.
Hakluyt, 169, 178, 179, 231, 236,
250, 266.
Hahburton, R. G., 113.
Halibut, 60, 171.
Hallbera, Abbess of Reynisness, 19,
20, 87, 102.
Hall-beams (setstokkar), 21, 24.
Harald Haardraade, 90, 286.
Hauk Erlendson, 19, 20, 87, 96,
100-4.
Heimskringla, 94, 113, 120, 138,199.
Helgi Thorbrandson, 24, 116.
Helgi and Finnbogi, 67-70.
Helluland, 41, 56, 165, 167, 172,
227, 230-1, 235, 238, 251, 263-5,
287, 288, 290, 295, 296.
Henderson's Iceland, 212-13.
Herjulf, 1 6, 2-4, 25, 114.
Hewlett, Maurice, his Giidrid the
Fair, 7-8.
History, character of early, 150.
Honen runic stone, 285, 286, 294.
Hop, 60, 64, 108, 162, 223, 228, 234,
237, 238, 240, 242, 252, 272, 275-
81.
Horsford, E. N., 147, 235, 270.
Hovgaard, W., 7, 114, 237-40, 262.
Hudson, the Navigator, 48, 159,
184, 187, 277.
Hudson River, 272, 276.
Husa-snotra, 71, 144, 146, 288.
Hvarf, in Greenland, 202, 203-5,
208.
Hvitramannaland, 65, 97, 189-91,
194.
Hvitserk, 22, 290, 292.
Imramha: see Voyage literature,
Celtic.
Insulae Fortunatae, 98, 154-62.
Ireland, 28, 60, 66, 154, 162-72,
189-91.
302
INDEX
Isidore Hispalensis, 98, 154, 162.
Islendingabok, 74, 87, 94, 173-6.
Jan Mayen, 207, 208.
Jokul, 238, 249.
Jolduhlaup, 202, 205.
Jonsson, Finnur, 7,40, 102, 108,264.
Julianehaab, 23, 295.
Karlsefni, Thorfin, ancestors of, 52 :
comes to Greenland, 53 ; marries
Gudrid, 54; sails to Wineland,
55; expedition of, 52-67; in
Flatey Book, 82-6; trades with
Bremen merchant, 71 ; descen
dants, 72, 86, 87 ; related to Ari,
20, 93 ; mentioned in Landna-
rnab6k, 97 ; ancestor of Hauk, 20,
101, 103 ; an Icelandic hero, 116,
1 1 8, 122 ; courses of voyage, 131 ;
date of voyage, 18, 137, 261 ; Mr.
Hovgaard on, 239, 240; voyage
reconstructed, 261-81.
Kayaks, Eskimo, 178, 181, 182, 194.
Keelness, 46, 56, 59, 60, 77, 150,
227, 238, 242, 258, 267, 270, 273,
276, 278.
1 King's Mirror', 177, 249.
Kjafal, 57.
Kolbein's island : see Mevenklint.
Kolskegg, 96.
Kristinret, 214, 218.
Kristni Saga, 75, 120.
Labrador, 228-31, 238-40, 242, 244,
249, 25 1, 262-4, 290, 291 , 293, 294.
Lamg, Samuel, 113, 128.
Landnamabok, 21, 28, 96, 1 8 1, 189,
201, 209.
Land-Rolf, 284.
Leif Ericson, born, 21 ; seduces
Thorgunna, 37 ; converts Green
land, 39, 74-6 ; goes to Wineland,
40-5 ; alternative account, 76 ;
lends houses to Karlsefni, 83;
and to Freydis, 69 ; still a child
in 986, 117 ; Flatey Book account
of preferred, 1 1 8-25 ; course sailed
by, 131 ; date of visit to Norway,
134 ; Rorek sent to, 138 ; voyage
discussed, 251-5.
' Leita ', meaning of, 152.
Long Island Sound, 271-4.
Lyme-grass, 160, 161, 229.
Maelduin, voyage of, 165-7, 1^4.
Maize, 161.
Maps of Wineland, early, 241, 289-
96.
Markland, 41, 56, 65, 166, 180, 188
227,231-3,235,238,239,241,251
265, 283, 287, 288, 293, 296.
Mausur (or mosur) wood, 71, 76
146, 160, 229, 230.
Melur : see Lyme-grass.
Mevenklint, 207, 209.
Midjokul, 22, 112.
Milk, appreciated by sknelings, 84
' Moose-butter', 179.
Morris convention in translating
sagas, 12.
Moulton's History of New York, 8
Mountains at Straumsfjord anci
Hop, 58, 64, 260, 277-81.
Nansen, Dr. Fridtjof, 9, 133, 147-72,
174-7, 1 80, 181, 183-8, 191, 265:
274, 285, 295.
Natives : see Skraslings.
Neckel, G., 7, 106, 109, 253-4.
Newfoundland, 230-3, 235, 237,238,
240, 247, 249, 250, 264, 265.
New Land, the, 283-5.
Nicholas, Abbot of Thingeyre, 288.
Nielsen, Dr. Yngvar, 286-7.
NjaTs Saga, 90, 128, 148.
Norway, significance of direct voy
ages to, 144-5.
Nova Scotia, 170, 179, 230, 233-6,
247, 248, 251, 256, 257, 259, 265,
267-70.
Olaf the Holy, Saga of, no, 138,
199.
Olaf the White, 20, 28.
Olaf Tryggvason, 37-8, 40, 57, 67,
74-6, 109, 1 10, in, 118-22, 134,
!35-
Olderfleet, 205.
Oral tradition in Iceland, 88-93.
Pamet River, 257, 259.
1 Papar' (Irish monks), 175-6.
Parkhurst, Antony, on Newfound
land, 231.
Rafn, C., 147, 216, 219, 235.
Rafn the Limerick-Farer, 190-1.
Reeves, A. M., 10, in, 264.
INDEX
O^O
Remains, Norse, in America, alleged,
235-
Resen, Hans Poulson, map by, 289-
96.
' Reydur ' (see whale).
Rice, wild, 161.
Rimbegla, 197, 200-1.
Rolf: see Land- Rolf.
Saga, erroneous ideas concerning,
ii ; historical value of, 147-51;
in Greenland, 55, 141.
Saint Lawrence, Gulf of, 124, 266.
Salmon, in Wineland, 42, 166, 275,
277.
Savages : see Skraslings.
Scotland, partial conquest of, by
Norsemen, 28.
Seal-tar, specific against teredo, 65.
Shenachies, 89, 92.
Ships, Icelandic, speed of, 196-201,
263.
Sibyl, the, 11, 33-7, 142.
Skraslings, 46, 61-3, 65, 74, 83-6,
95, 154, 173-95-
Snorri Godi, 18, 20, 73, 136.
Snorri Karlsefnison, 18, 20, 64, 72,
84, 86, 87, 94, 137.
Snorri Thorbrandson, 22, 24, 53, 55,
60, 61, 62, 64, 66, 73, 143-
Steensby, H. P., 7, 124, 226, 237, 238,
241-3-
Stefansson, Sigurd, map by, 289-
96.
Storm, Gustav, 106, 113, 117, 124,
132, 134, 144, 191, 202, 217, 224,
230-4, 244, 259, 265, 267, 278,
284, 293.
Straumsey, 57, 168, 243, 273.
Straumsfjord, 58, 64, 133, 228, 238,
240, 242, 271-4, 279, 280.
Sturlunga Saga, 99.
Svalbarda, 202, 206, 207.
Svein Estridson, king of Denmark,
18,97, 156,286.
Teredo, 65.
Thalbitzer, W., 188.
Thjodhild, wife of Eric the Red, 21,
37, 39-
Thorar Nefjolfson, 138, 199, 201,
203, 248.
Thorbjorg : see Sibyl.
Thorbjb'rn Vifilson, 14, 15, 20, 22,
28-33,37, 55, 103,136.
Thorbrand Snorrison, 63, 67.
Thorgest, 21-3, 73, 100, 108.
Thorgunna, 37-40.
Thorhall Gamlison, 53 55.
Thorhall the Hunter, 55, 59, 60, 77,
107, 133, 155, 1 68, 226, 254, 268.
Thori Eastman, 44-5, 49, 134.
Thorkel Gellison, 20, 74, 93, 95,
177, 190.
Thorkel Leifson, 138.
Thorlak, Bishop, descendant of
Karlsefni, 18, 20, 72, 86, 87, 94,
137.
Thormod Kolbrunarskald, 77, 126,
138, 187, 224.
Thor-names, frequent occurrence of,
152.
Thorstein Ericson, 25, 37 ; marries
Gudrid, 49, 79; sails for Wine-
land, 40, 78 ; illness and death of,
50-2, 80-2 ; driven near Iceland
and Ireland,79, 125; supernatural
episodes connected with, 50-2,
80-2, 149.
Thorvald Ericson, mentioned among
Eric's children, 25 ; voyage of,
in Flatey Book, 45-8 ; alternative
account, 77 ; only mentioned by
Hauk as Karlsefni's companion,
55, 126, 279; accounts of death
compared, 125-7 ; voyage recon
structed, 255-60.
Thorvard, husband of Freydis, 25,
55, 69, 126, 129, 142.
Three, recurrence of number, 153,
167.
Time-keeping, Icelandic method of,
212.
Tir-nan-Oge, in Celtic myth, 164.
Torfaeus, 214.
'Trjona', meaning discussed, 181-
3, 194-
Troil's Letters on Iceland, 160, 168,
199, 213, 220, 230.
Tylft (Icelandic measure), 169,
197-200.
Tyrker, 41, 43, 44, 106, 150, 254.
Umiak (Eskimo boat), 178.
Uniped, 77, 126, 154, 187,224,259,
260.
Uvaegi, 65, 188.
304
INDEX
Vaetilldi, 65, 188.
Valldidida, 65, 188.
Var^Iokkur, 35.
Verses, incidental, in sagas, 13, 14,
25, 59.6o, 78, 133, 155, 168, 224,
226, 260, 268.
Verezzano, 180, 277.
Vifil, 20, 29, 103, 142.
Vigfusson, G., 90, 93, 96, 99, no,
113,216.
Vika (Icelandic measure), 197-8.
Vines, discovery of, 43, 48, 57, 60,
76, 97, 98, 154-9, 226, 253-5.
Voyage literature, Celtic, 163-5,
184.
Whale, episode of, 58, 83, 104, 107,
132-4, 150, 154, 167-8, 240.
Wineland, 44, 74, 75, 95, 97, 98,
155, 156, 159,225,227, 229,233,
235, 236, 237-43, 251-3, 255-60,
267-81, 283, 285, 287, 289-96.
Winter, Icelandic, 216.
Women, quarrels over, in Wineland,
64, 105 ; characteristics of, 130.
Yates : see Moulton.
Yeats, W. B., his comparison of
Celtic and Icelandic literature,
164.
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