Chapter IX: Wineland the Good, the Fortunate Isles, and the Discovery of America (1)

[Sidenote: The oldest authorities on Wineland]

Icelandic literature contains many remarkable statements about countries to the south-west or south of the Greenland settlements. They are called: "Helluland" (i.e., slate- or stone-land), "Markland" (i.e., wood-land), "Furðustrandir" (i.e., marvel-strands), and "Vínland" (also written "Vindland" or "Vinland"). Yet another, which lay to the west of Ireland, was called "Hvítramanna-land" (i.e., the white men's land). Even if certain of these countries are legendary, as will presently be shown, it must be regarded as a fact that in any case the Greenlanders and Icelanders reached some of them, which lay on the north-eastern coast of America; and they thus discovered the continent of North America, besides Greenland, about five hundred years before Cabot (and Columbus).

While Helluland, Markland and Furðustrandir are first mentioned in authorities of the thirteenth century, "Vinland" occurs already in Adam of Bremen, about 1070 (see above, pp. 195 ff.). Afterwards the name occurs in Icelandic literature: first in Are Frode's "Islendingabók," about 1130, where we are only told that in Greenland traces were found of the same kind of people as "inhabited Wineland" ("Vínland hefer bygt"; see above, p. 260); it is next mentioned together with Hvítramanna-land in the "Landnámabók," where it may have been taken from Are Frode, as the latter's uncle, Thorkel Gellisson, is given as the authority. It has been thought that the original statement was contained in a lost work of Are's; in any case it must belong to the period before his death in 1148. We are only told that Hvítramanna-land lay to the west in the ocean near Vin(d)land; but the passage is important, because, as will be discussed later, it clearly shows that the statements about Wineland in the oldest Icelandic authorities were derived from Ireland. The next mention of Wineland is in "Kristni-saga" (before 1245) and "Heimskringla," where it is only said that Leif the Lucky found Wineland the Good. It should be remarked that while thus in the oldest authorities Wineland is only mentioned casually and in passing, it is not until we come to the Saga of Eric the Red, of the thirteenth century, and the Flateyjarbók's "Grönlendinga-þáttr," of the fourteenth, that we find any description of the country, and of voyages to it and to Helluland and Markland. But two verses, reproduced in the first of these sagas, are certainly considerably older than the saga itself; and they speak of the country where there was wine to drink instead of water, and of Furðustrandir where they boil whales' flesh.

It may be added that in the "Eyrbyggja-saga" (of about 1250) it is
said that "Snorre went with Karlsevne to Wineland the Good, and when
they fought with the Skrælings there in Wineland, Snorre's son
Thorbrand fell in the fight." In the "Grettis-saga" (about 1290),
Thorhall Gamlason, one of those who took part in this expedition, is
called "Vindlendingr" or "Viðlendingr" (which should doubtless be
"Vinlendingr" in each case). If we add to this that in the Icelandic
geography which is known from various MSS. of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, but which is attributed in part (although hardly
the section about Greenland, Wineland, etc.) to Abbot Nikulás Bergsson
of Thverá (ob. 1159), Helluland, Markland and Vinland are mentioned as
lying to the south of Greenland (see later), then we shall have given
all the certain ancient authorities in which Wineland occurs [cf. G.
Storm, 1887, pp. 10 ff.]; but possibly the runic stone from Ringerike
is to be added (see later).

[Sidenote: The formation of the saga]

Before I recapitulate the most important features of these voyages, as they are described more particularly in the Saga of Eric the Red, I must premise that I look upon the narratives somewhat in the light of historical romances, founded upon legend and more or less uncertain traditions. Gustav Storm in his critical review of the Wineland voyages [1887] has separated the older authorities, which he regarded as altogether trustworthy, from the later narratives in the Flateyjarbók's "Grönlendinga-þáttr," which he thought were to be rejected. The last-named was written about 1387, while Eric the Red's Saga, which we are to regard as trustworthy, must according to Storm have been written between 1270 and 1300.[292] The accounts of the discovery of Wineland and of the voyages thither are very conflicting in these two authorities; while the latter has only two voyages (after the discovery), the former has divided them into five; while one mentions Leif Ericson as the discoverer of the country, the other gives Bjarne Herjulfsson, and so on. We are led to ask whether it is reasonable to suppose that the traditions should have been handed down by word of mouth in such a remarkably unaltered and uncorrupted state during the first 250 or 300 years, when they have been transformed and confused to such an extent scarcely a hundred years later. This must rather prove that there was no fixed tradition, but that the tales became split up into more and more varying forms. Perhaps it will be answered that the Saga of Eric the Red was composed in the golden age of saga-writing, whereas the Flateyjarbók belongs to the period of decline.[293] But it cannot be psychologically probable that human nature in Iceland should suddenly have undergone so great a change, that while the saga-tellers of the fourteenth century were disposed to invent romances, they should not have had any tendency thereto throughout the three preceding centuries. It is particularly natural that many alterations and additions should be made when, as here, the narratives are concerned with distant waters which lay so far out of the ordinary course of voyages, and which for a long time had ceased to be known in Iceland when the sagas were put into writing. Features belonging to the description of other quarters of the globe were also inserted. Tales which in this way live in oral tradition and gradually develop into sagas, without any written word to support them, and to some extent even without any known localities to which they can be attached, are to be regarded as living organisms dependent on accidental influence, which absorb into themselves any suitable material as they may find it; a resemblance of name between persons may thus contribute, or a similarity of situations, or events which bear the same foreign stamp. The narratives of the Wineland voyages exhibit, as we shall see, sure traces of influences of this kind.

[Sidenote: Leif Ericson]

In the year 999, according to the saga, Leif, the son of Eric the Red, sailed from Greenland to Norway. This is the first time we hear of so long a sea-voyage being attempted,[294] and it shows in any case that this long passage was not unknown to the Icelanders and Norwegians. Formerly the passage to Greenland had been by way of Iceland, thence to the east coast of Greenland, southwards along the coast, and round Hvarf. But capable seamen like the intrepid Leif thought they could avoid so many changes of course and arrive in Norway by sailing due east from the southern point of Greenland. Thereby Leif Ericson becomes the personification of the first ocean-voyager in history, who deliberately and with a settled plan steered straight across the open Atlantic, without seeking to avail himself of harbours on the way. It also appears clearly enough from the sailing directions for navigation of northern waters, which have come down to us, that voyages were made across the ocean direct from Norway to Greenland. It must be remembered that the compass was unknown, and that all the ships of that time were without fixed decks. This was an exploit equal to the greatest in history; it is the beginning of ocean voyages.

Leif's plan of reaching Norway direct was not wholly successful according to the saga; he was driven out of his course to the Hebrides. They stayed there till late in the summer, waiting for a fair wind. Leif there fell in love with a woman of high lineage, Thorgunna. When he sailed she begged to be allowed to go with him; but Leif answered that he would not carry off a woman of her lineage in a strange country, when he had so few men with him. It was of no avail that she told him she was with child, and the child was his. He gave her a gold ring, a Greenland mantle of frieze, and a belt of walrus ivory, and sailed away from the Hebrides with his men and arrived in Norway in the autumn (999). Leif became Olaf Tryggvason's man, and spent the winter at Nidaros. He adopted Christianity and promised the king to try to introduce the faith into Greenland. For this purpose he was given a priest when he sailed. In the spring, as soon as he was ready, he set out again to sail straight across the Atlantic to Greenland. It has undoubtedly been thought that he chose the course between the Faroes (61° 50' N. lat.) and Shetland (60° 50' N. lat.) to reach Cape Farewell, and afterwards this became the usual course for the voyage from Norway to Greenland. But he was driven out of his course, and

"for a long time drifted about in the sea, and came upon countries of
which before he had no suspicion. There were self-sown wheat-fields,
and vines grew there; there were also the trees that are called
'masur' ('mǫsurr'),[295] and of all these they had some specimens
(some trees so large that they were laid in houses" [i.e., used as
house-beams]).

This land was "Vínland hit Góða." As it was assumed that the wild vine (Vitis vulpina) grew in America as far north as 45° N. lat. and along the east coast, the historians have thought to find in this a proof that Leif Ericson must have been on the coast of America south of this latitude; but, as we shall see later, these features--the self-sown wheat-fields, the vines and the lofty trees--are probably borrowed from elsewhere.

"On his homeward voyage Leif found some men on a wreck, and took them
home with him and gave them all shelter for the winter. He showed so
much nobility and goodness, he introduced Christianity into the
country, and he rescued the men; he was then called 'Leifr hinn
Heppni' [the Lucky]. Leif came to land in Eric's fjord, and went home
to Brattalid; there they received him well." This was the same autumn
[1000].

So concise is the narrative of the voyage by which the first discovery of America by Europeans is said to have been made.[296]

[Sidenote: Thorstein Ericson]

Curiously enough, the saga tells us nothing more of Leif as a sailor. He appears after this to have lived in peace in Greenland, and he took over Brattalid after his father's death. On the other hand, we hear that his brother Thorstein made an attempt to find Wineland, which Leif had discovered. After Leif's return home "there was much talk that they ought to seek the land that Leif had found. The leader was Thorstein Ericson, a good man, and wise, and friendly." We hear earlier in the saga, where Leif's voyage to Norway is related, that both of Eric's sons "were capable men; Thorstein was at home with his father, and there was not a man in Greenland who was thought to be so manly as he." We hear nothing about Leif's taking part in the new voyage; it looks as if it had been Thorstein's turn to go abroad. But

"Eric was asked, and they trusted in his good fortune and foresight
being greatest. He was against it, but did not say no, as his friends
exhorted him so to it. They therefore fitted out the ship which
Thorbjörn [Vivilsson] had brought out to Greenland;[297] and twenty
men were chosen for it; they took little goods with them, but more
arms and provisions. The morning that Eric left home, he took a little
chest, and therein was gold and silver; he hid this property and then
went on his way; but when he had gone a little distance he fell from
his horse, broke his ribs and hurt his shoulder, and said, 'Ah yes!'
After this accident he sent word to his wife that she should take up
the property that he had hidden; he had now, said he, been punished
for hiding it. Then they sailed out of Eric's fjord with gladness, and
thought well of their prospects. They drifted about the sea for a long
time and did not arrive where they desired. They came in sight of
Iceland, and they had also birds from Ireland; their ship was carried
eastwards over the ocean. They came back in the autumn and were then
weary and very worn. And they came in the late autumn to Eric's fjord.
Then said Eric: 'In the summer we sailed from the fjords more
light-hearted than we now are, and yet we now have good reason to be
so.' Thorstein said: 'It would be a worthy deed to take charge of the
men who are homeless, and to provide them with lodging.' Eric
answered: 'Thy words shall be followed.' All those who had no other
place of abode were now allowed to accompany Eric and Thorstein.
Afterwards they took land and went home."

In the autumn (1001) Thorstein celebrated his marriage with Thorbjörm Vivilsson's daughter Gudrid, at Brattalid, and it "went off well." They afterwards went home to Thorstein's property on the Lysefjord, which was the southernmost fjord in the Western Settlement; probably that which is now called Fiskerfjord (near Fiskernes) in about 63° N. lat. There Thorstein died during the winter of an illness (scurvy ?) which put an end to many on the property, and Gudrid next summer returned to Eric, who received her well. Her father died also, and she inherited all his property.

[Sidenote: Karlsevne in Greenland]

That autumn (1002) Thorfinn Karlsevne came from Iceland to Eric's fjord in Greenland, with one ship and forty men. He was on a trading voyage, and was looked upon as a skilful sailor and merchant, was of good family and rich in goods. Together with him was Snorre Thorbrandsson. Another ship, with Bjarne Grimolfsson and Thorhall Gamlason and a crew likewise of forty men, had accompanied them from Iceland.

"Eric rode to the ships, and others of the men of the country, and
there was a friendly agreement between them. The captains bade Eric
take what he wished of the cargo. But Eric in return showed great
generosity, in that he invited both these crews home to spend the
winter at Brattalid. This the merchants accepted and went with Eric."

"The merchants were well content in Eric's house that winter, but when
Yule was drawing nigh, Eric began to be less cheerful than was his
wont." When Karlsevne asked: "Is there anything that oppresses thee,
Eric?" and tried to find out the reason of his being so dispirited, it
came out that it was because he had nothing for the Yule-brew; and it
would be said that his guests had never had a worse Yule than with
him. Karlsevne thought there was no difficulty about that; they had
malt, and meal, and corn in the ships, and thereof, said he, "thou
shalt have all thou desirest, and make such a feast as thy generosity
demands." Eric accepted this. "The Yule banquet was prepared, and it
was so magnificent that men thought they had scarcely ever seen so
fine a feast."

Even if the tale is unhistorical, it gives a glimpse of the life and the hard conditions in Greenland; they only had grain occasionally when a ship arrived; for the most part they lived on what they caught, and when that failed, as we are told was the case in 999, there was famine. But to be without the Yule-brew was a misfortune to an Icelander; nevertheless we learn from the Foster-brothers' Saga that "Yule-drink was rare in Greenland," and that a man might become famous by holding a feast, as did Thorkel, the grandson of Eric the Red, in 1026.

After Yule, Karlsevne was married to Eric's daughter-in-law, Gudrid.

"The feast was then prolonged, and the marriage was celebrated. There
was great merry-making at Brattalid that winter; there was much
playing at draughts, and making mirth with tales and much else to
divert the company."

[Sidenote: Karlsevne's voyage to Wineland]

There was a good deal of talk about going to look for Wineland the Good, and it was said that it might be a fertile country. The result was that Karlsevne and Snorre got their ship ready to search for Wineland in the summer. Bjarne and Thorhall also joined the expedition with their ship and the crew that had accompanied them. Besides these, there came on a third ship a man named Thorvard--married to Eric the Red's illegitimate daughter Freydis, who also went--and Thorhall, nicknamed Veidemand (the Hunter).

"He had been on hunting expeditions with Eric for many summers and was
a man of many crafts. Thorhall was a big man, dark and troll-like; he
was well on in years, obstinate, silent and reserved in everyday life,
but crafty and slanderous, ever rejoicing in evil. He had had little
to do with the faith since it came to Greenland. Thorhall had little
friendship for his fellow men, yet Eric had long associated with him.
He was in the same ship with Thorvald and Thorvard, because he had
wide knowledge of the uninhabited regions. They had the ship that
Thorbjörn [Vivilsson] had brought out to Greenland [and that Thorstein
Ericson had used for his unlucky voyage two years before]. Most of
those on board that ship were Greenlanders. On their ships there were
altogether forty men over a hundred."[298]

Eric the Red and Leif were doubtless supposed to have assisted both actively and with advice during the fitting-out, even though they would not take part in the voyage. It is mentioned later that they gave Karlsevne two Scottish runners that Leif had received from King Olaf Tryggvason.

The three ships sailed first "to the Western Settlement and thence to Bjarneyjar" (the Bear Islands).[299] The most natural explanation of the saga making them begin their expedition by sailing in this direction (to the north-west and north)--whereas the land they were in search of lay to the south-west or south--may be that the Icelandic saga-writer (of the thirteenth century), ignorant of the geography of Greenland, assumed that the Western Settlement must lie due west of the Eastern; and as the voyagers were to look for countries in the south-west, he has made them begin by proceeding to the farthest point he had heard of on this coast, Bjarneyjar, so that they might have a prospect of better luck than Thorstein, who had sailed out from Eric's fjord. When it is said that Thorhall the Hunter accompanied Eric's son and son-in-law because of his wide knowledge of the uninhabited regions, it must be the regions beyond the Western Settlement that are meant, and the saga-writer must have thought that these extended westward or in the direction of the new countries. It must also be remembered that in the spring and early summer there is frequently drift-ice off the Eastern Settlement, from Cape Farewell for a good way north-westward along the coast. The course would then naturally lie to the north-west of this ice--that is, towards the Western Settlement. But it may also be supposed that they had to begin by going northward to get seals and provision themselves with food and oil (fuel), which might be necessary for a long and unknown voyage. This explanation is, however, less probable.

From Bjarneyjar they put to sea with a north wind. They were at sea, according to the saga, for two "dœgr."[300]

"There they found land, and rowed along it in boats, and examined the
country, and found there [on the shore] many flat stones so large
that two men might easily lie stretched upon them sole to sole. There
were many white foxes there.[301] They gave the land a name and called
it 'Helluland.'"

It may be the coast of Labrador that is here intended, and not Baffin Land, since the statement that they sailed thither with a north wind must doubtless imply that the coast lay more or less in a southerly and not in a westerly direction from Bjarneyjar. From Helluland

"they sailed for two 'dœgr' towards the south-east and south, and then
a land lay before them, and upon it were great forests and many
beasts. An island lay to the south-east off the land, and there they
found a polar bear,[302] and they called the island 'Bjarney'; but the
country they called 'Markland' [i.e., Wood-land] on account of the
forest."

The name Markland suits Newfoundland best; it had forests down to the sea-shore when it was rediscovered about 1500, and even later.

When they had once more sailed for

"two 'dœgr' they sighted land and sailed under the land. There was a
promontory where they first came. They cruised along the shore, which
they kept to starboard [i.e., to the west]. It was without harbours
and there were long strands and stretches of sand. They went ashore in
boats, and found there on the promontory a ship's keel, and called it
'Kjalarnes' [i.e., Keel-ness]; they also gave the strands a name and
called them 'Furðustrandir' [i.e., the marvel-strands or the
wonderful, strange strands], because it took a long time to sail past
them."[303]

This may apply, as Storm points out, to the eastern side of Cape Breton Island; but in that case they must have steered west-south-west from the south-eastern promontory of Markland (Newfoundland). Kjalarnes must then be Cape Breton itself. That they should have found a ship's keel there sounds strange; if this is not an invention we must suppose that it was driven ashore from a wreck; no doubt it happened often enough that vessels were lost on the voyage to Greenland. When Eric, according to the Landnámabók, sailed with twenty-five ships, many of them were lost. Wreckage would be carried by the currents from Greenland into the Labrador current, and by this southward past Markland. But it is more probable that the origin of the name was entirely different; that, for example, the promontory had the shape of a ship's keel, and that the account of the keel found has been developed much later.[304] This is confirmed by the fact that the "Grönlendinga-þáttr" gives a wholly different explanation of the name from that in Eric's Saga.

South of Furðustrandir "the land was indented by bays ('vágskorit'),
and they steered the ships into a bay." Here they landed the two Scots
(the man "Haki" and the woman "Hekja") whom Karlsevne had received
from Leif and Eric, and who ran faster than deer. They "bade them run
southward and examine the condition of the country, and return before
three 'dœgr' were past. They had such garments as they called 'kiafal'
[or 'biafal']; it was made so that there was a hood above, and it
[i.e., 'the kiafal'] was open at the sides, and without sleeves, and
caught up between the legs, fastened there with a button and a loop;
otherwise they were bare. They cast anchor and lay there a while; and
when three days were past they came running down from the land, and
one of them had grapes in his hand, the other self-sown wheat.
Karlsevne said that they seemed to have found a fertile country."

They then sailed on until they came to a fjord, into which they steered the ships.

"There was an island outside, and round the island strong currents.
They called it 'Straumsey.' There were so many birds there that one
could hardly put one's foot between the eggs. They held on up the
fjord, and called it 'Straumsfjord,' and unloaded the ships and
established themselves there. They had with them all kinds of cattle,
and sought to make use of the land. There were mountains there, and
fair was the prospect. They did nothing else but search out the land.
There was much grass. They stayed there the winter, and it was very
long; but they had not taken thought of anything, and were short of
food, and their catch decreased. Then they went out to the island,
expecting that there they might find some fishing or something might
drift up [i.e., a whale be driven ashore ?]. There was, however,
little to be caught for food, but their cattle throve there. Then they
made vows to God that He might send them something to eat; but no
answer came so quickly as they had hoped." The heathen Thorhall the
Hunter then disappeared for three "dœgr," and doubtless held secret
conjurations with the red-bearded One (i.e., Thor). A little later a
whale was driven ashore, and they ate of it, but were all sick. When
they found out how things were with Thorhall and Thor, "they cast it
out over the cliff and prayed to God for mercy. They then made a catch
of fish, and there was no lack of food. In the spring [1004] they
entered Straumsfjord and had catches from both lands [i.e., both sides
of the fjord], hunting on the mainland, eggs on the island, and fish
in the sea."

This description gives a good insight both into the Norsemen's manner of equipping themselves for voyages to unknown countries, and into their superstition.

It looks as if a dissension now arose between the wayward Thorhall the Hunter and the rest, since he wanted to look for Wineland to the north of Furðustrandir, beyond Kjalarnes.

"But Karlsevne wished to go south along the coast and eastward. He
thought the land became broader the farther south it bore;[305] but
it seemed to him most expedient to try both ways" [i.e., both south
and north].

Thorhall then parted from them; but there were no more than nine men in his company. Perhaps they were desirous of going home; for from an old lay, which the saga attributes to Thorhall, it appears that he was discontented with the whole stay there: he abuses the country, where the warriors had promised him the best of drinks, but where wine never touched his lips, and he had to take a bucket himself and fetch water to drink. And before they hoisted sail Thorhall quoth this lay:

"Let us go homeward,
where we shall find fellow-countrymen:
let us with our ship seek
the broad ways of the sea,
while the hopeful
warriors (those who praise
the land) on Furðustrandir
stay and boil whales' flesh."

"Then they parted [from Karlsevne, who had accompanied them out] and
sailed north of Furðustrandir and Kjalarnes, and then tried to beat
westward. Then the westerly storm caught them and they drifted to
Ireland, and there they were made slaves and ill-treated. There
Thorhall lost his life, as merchants have reported."

The last statement shows that according to Icelandic geographical ideas the country round Kjalarnes lay directly opposite Ireland and in the same latitude.

Karlsevne, with Snorre, Bjarne, and the rest, left Straumsfjord and sailed southward along the coast [1004].

"They sailed a long time and until they came to a river, which flowed
down from the interior into a lake and thence into the sea. There were
great sandbanks before the mouth of the river, and it could only be
entered at high water. Karlsevne and his people then sailed to the
mouth of the river and called the country 'Hóp' [i.e., a small closed
bay]. There they found self-sown wheat-fields, where the land was
low, but vines wherever they saw heights ('en vínviðr allt þar sem
holta kendi'). Every beck ('lökr') was full of fish. They dug trenches
on the shore below high-water mark, and when the tide went out there
were halibuts in the trenches. In the forest there was a great
quantity of beasts of all kinds. They were there half a month amusing
themselves, and suspecting nothing. They had their cattle with them.
But early one morning, when they looked about them, they saw nine
hide-boats ('huðkeipa'), and wooden poles were being waved on the
ships [i.e., the hide-boats], and they made a noise like
threshing-flails and went the way of the sun. Karlsevne's men took
this to be a token of peace and bore a white shield towards them. Then
the strangers rowed towards them, and wondered, and came ashore. They
were small [or black ?][306] men, and ugly, and they had ugly hair on
their heads; their eyes were big, and they were broad across the
cheeks. And they stayed there awhile, and wondered, then rowed away
and went south of the headland."

This then would be the description of the first meeting in history between Europeans and the natives of America. With all its brevity it gives an excellent picture; but whether we can accept it is doubtful. As we shall see later, the Norsemen probably did meet with Indians; but the description of the latter's appearance must necessarily have been coloured more and more by greater familiarity with the Skrælings of Greenland when the sagas were put into writing. The big eyes will not suit either of them, and are rather to be regarded as an attribute of trolls and underground beings; gnomes and old fairy men have big, watery eyes. The ugly hair is also an attribute of the underground beings.

"Karlsevne and his men had built their houses above the lake, some
nearer, some farther off. Now they stayed there that winter. No snow
fell at all, and all the cattle were out at pasture. But when spring
came they saw early one morning a number of hide-boats rowing from the
south past the headland, so many that it seemed as if the sea had been
sown with coal in front of the bay, and they waved wooden poles on
every boat. Then they set up shields and held a market, and the people
wanted most to buy red cloth; they also wanted to buy swords and
spears, but this was forbidden by Karlsevne and Snorre." The
Skrælings[307] gave them untanned skins in exchange for the cloth, and
trade was proceeding briskly, until "an ox, which Karlsevne had, ran
out of the wood and began to bellow. The Skrælings were scared and ran
to their boats (keipana) and rowed south along the shore. After that
they did not see them for three weeks. But when that time was past,
they saw a great multitude of Skræling boats coming from the south, as
though driven on by a stream. Then all the wooden poles were waved
against the sun ('rangsölis,' wither-shins), and all the Skrælings
howled loudly. Then Karlsevne and his men took red shields and bore
them towards them. The Skrælings leapt from their boats and then they
made towards each other and fought; there was a hot exchange of
missiles. The Skrælings also had catapults ('valslongur'). Karlsevne
and his men saw that the Skrælings hoisted up on a pole a great ball
('knottr') about as large as a sheep's paunch, and seeming blue[308]
in colour, and slung it from the pole up on to the land over
Karlsevne's people, and it made an ugly noise when it came down. At
this great terror smote Karlsevne and his people, so that they had no
thought but of getting away and up the river, for it seemed to them
that the Skrælings were assailing them on all sides; and they did not
halt until they had reached certain crags. There they made a stout
resistance. Freydis came out and saw that they were giving way. She
cried out: 'Wherefore do ye run away from such wretches, ye gallant
men? I thought it likely that ye could slaughter them like cattle, and
had I but arms I believe I should fight better than any of you.' None
heeded what she said. Freydis tried to go with them, but she fell
behind, for she was with child. She nevertheless followed them into
the wood, but the Skrælings came after her. She found before her a
dead man, Thorbrand Snorrason, and a flat stone ('hellustein') was
fixed in the head of him. His sword lay unsheathed by him, and she
took it up to defend herself with it. Then the Skrælings came at her.
She takes her breasts out of her sark and whets the sword on them. At
that the Skrælings are afraid and run away back to their boats, and go
off. Karlsevne and his men meet her and praise her happy device. Two
men of Karlsevne's fell, and four of the Skrælings; but nevertheless
Karlsevne had suffered defeat. They now go to their houses, bind up
their wounds, and consider what swarm of people it was that came
against them from the land. It seemed to them now that there could
have been no more than those who came from the boats, and that the
other people must have been glamour. The Skrælings also found a dead
man, and an axe lay beside him; one of them took up the axe and struck
at a tree, and so one after another, and it seemed to delight them
that it bit so well. Then one took and smote a stone with it; but when
the axe broke, he thought it was of no use, if it did not stand
against stone, and he cast it from him."

"Karlsevne and his men now thought they could see that although the
land was fertile, they would always have trouble and disquiet with the
people who dwelt there before. Then they prepared to set out, and
intended to go to their own country. They sailed northward and found
five Skrælings sleeping in fur jerkins ('skinnhjúpum'), and they had
with them kegs with deer's marrow mixed with blood. They thought they
could understand that they were outlaws; they killed them. Then they
found a headland and a multitude of deer, and the headland looked like
a crust of dried dung, from the deer lying there at night. Now they
came back to Straumsfjord, and there was abundance of everything. It
is reported by some that Bjarne and Gudrid remained behind there, and
a hundred men with them, and did not go farther; but they say that
Karlsevne and Snorre went southward with forty men and were no longer
at Hóp than barely two months, and came back the same summer."

Karlsevne went with one ship to search for Thorhall the Hunter. He sailed to the north of Kjalarnes, westwards, and south along the shore (Storm thought on the eastern side of Cape Breton Island to the northern side of Nova Scotia), and they found a river running from east to west into the sea.

Here Thorvald Ericson was shot one morning from the shore with an
arrow which they thought came from a Uniped [legendary creature with
one foot] whom they pursued but did not catch. The arrow struck
Thorvald in the small intestines. He drew it out, saying: "There is
fat in the bowels; a good land have we found, but it is doubtful
whether we shall enjoy it." Thorvald died of this wound a little
later. "They then sailed away northward again and thought they sighted
'Einfötinga-land' [the Land of Unipeds]. They would no longer risk the
lives of their men," and "they went back and stayed in Straumsfjord
the third winter. Then the men became very weary [so that they fell
into disagreement]; those who were wifeless quarrelled with those who
had wives."[309]

The fourth summer [1006] they sailed from Wineland with a south wind and came to Markland.

There they found five Skrælings, and caught of them two boys, while
the grown-up ones, a bearded man and two women, "escaped and sank into
the earth. The boys they took with them and taught them their
language, and they were baptized. They called their mother 'Vætilldi'
and their father 'Vægi.' They said that kings governed in
Skrælinga-land; one of them was called 'Avalldamon,' the other
'Valldidida.' They said that there were no houses, and the people lay
in rock-shelters or caves. They said there was another great country
over against their country, and men went about there in white clothing
and cried aloud, and carried poles before them, to which strips were
fastened. This is thought to be 'Hvitramanna-land' [i.e., the white
men's land] or Great-Ireland." Then Karlsevne and his men came to
Greenland and stayed the winter with Eric the Red [1006-1007].

"But Bjarne Grimolfsson [on the other ship] was carried out into the
Irish Ocean [the Atlantic between Markland and Ireland] and they came
into the maggot-sea ('maðk-sjá'); they did not know of it until the
ship was worm-eaten under them," and ready to sink. "They had a
long-boat ('eptirbát') that was coated with seal-tar, and men say that
the sea-maggot will not eat wood that is coated with seal-tar." "But
when they tried it, the boat would not hold more than half the ship's
company." They all wanted to go in it; but Bjarne then proposed that
they should decide who should go in the boat by casting lots and not
by precedence, and this was agreed to. The lots fell so that Bjarne
was amongst those who were to go in the boat. "When they were in it, a
young Icelander, who had accompanied Bjarne from home, said: 'Dost
thou think, Bjarne, to part from me here?' Bjarne answers: 'So it must
be.' He says: 'This was not thy promise when I came with thee from
Iceland....' Bjarne answers: 'Nor shall it be so; go thou in the boat,
but I must go in the ship, since I see that thy life is so dear to
thee.' Bjarne then went on board the ship, and this man in the boat,
and they kept on their course until they came to Dyflinar [Dublin] in
Ireland, and there told this tale. But most men believe that Bjarne
and his companions lost their lives in the maggot-sea, since they were
not heard of again."

Thorfinn Karlsevne returned in the following summer (1007) to Iceland with Gudrid and their son Snorre, who was born at Straumsfjord in Wineland the first winter they were there. Karlsevne afterwards lived in Iceland.

[Sidenote: The composite and legendary character of the whole saga]

If we now review critically the Saga of Eric the Red and the whole of this tale of Karlsevne's voyage, together with the other accounts of Wineland voyages, we shall find one feature after another that is legendary or that must have been borrowed from elsewhere. If we examine first of all the relation of the various authorities to the events they narrate, we must be struck by the fact that in the oldest authorities, such as the Landnáma, Eric the Red has only two sons, Leif and Thorstein, whereas in Eric's Saga and in the "Grönlendinga-þáttr," for the sake of the trilogy of legend, he has begotten three sons, besides an illegitimate daughter. In the oldest MS., Hauk's Landnámabók, Leif is only mentioned in one place, and nothing more is said of him than that he was Eric's son and inherited Brattalid from his father; he is not given the nickname "heppni" (the lucky), and it is not mentioned that he had discovered Wineland, nor that he had introduced Christianity. In the Sturlubók he is again mentioned in one place as the son of Tjodhild and Eric, and there has the nickname "en hepni"; but neither is there here any mention of the discovery of Wineland or the introduction of Christianity [cf. Landnámabók, ed. F. Jónsson, 1900, pp. 35, 156, 165]. As this passage is not found in Hauk's Landnáma, it may be an addition in the later MS., which was wanting in the original Landnámabók. In the great saga of St. Olaf[310] (chapter 70)--where King Olaf asks the Icelander Thorarinn Nevjolfsson to take the blind king Rörek to Greenland to "Leif Ericson"--the latter again is not called the Lucky, nor is Wineland or its discovery mentioned. This saga was written, according to the editors, about 1230. As neither this nickname nor the tales of Leif's discovery of Wineland are found earlier than in the Kristni-saga and Heimskringla, it looks as if these features did not appear till later. There is a similar state of things with regard to the mention of Thorfinn Karlsevne; only in one passage in Hauk's Landnáma is it mentioned that he found "Vin(d)land hit Góða"; but as this does not occur in the Sturlubók, it may be an addition due to Hauk Erlendsson, who regarded Thorfinn as his ancestor. The silence of the oldest authorities on the voyages to Wineland becomes still more striking when we compare with it the fact that the Landnámabók contains statements (with careful citation of authorities, showing that they are derived from Are Frode himself) about Are Mársson, his voyage to Hvítramanna-land, and his stay there, which have generally been regarded as far less authentic than the tales of the Wineland voyages. If Are Mársson's voyage is a myth, then one would be still more inclined to regard the latter as such. The objection that it would have been beside the plan of the brief and concise earlier works (Íslendingabók and Landnámabók) to include these things, scarcely holds good. If Are has room in the Íslendingabók for a comparatively detailed account of the discovery, naming and natives of Greenland, and further for a description of the introduction of Christianity into Iceland; if the Landnámabók also gives details, derived, as we have said, from him, of Are Mársson's voyage to Hvítramanna-land, then it is difficult to understand why neither Are Frode nor the authors of the Landnámabók, when mentioning Eric the Red and Leif, should have found room for a line about Leif's having discovered Wineland and Christianised Greenland--two not unimportant pieces of information--if they had known of it. At any rate, the Christianising of Greenland must have been of interest to the priest Are and to the priest-taught authors of Landnámabók. This silence is therefore suspicious.

The personal names in the Saga of Eric the Red are also striking. With the exception of Eric himself, his wife Tjodhild and his son Leif, and a few other names in the first part, which is taken almost in its entirety from the Landnámabók, almost all the names belonging to this saga are connected with those of heathen gods, especially Thor. Eric has got a third son, Thorvald, who is not mentioned in Landnáma, besides his daughter Freydis, and his son-in-law Thorvard. The name Freydis is only known from this one woman in the whole of Icelandic literature, and several names in Norse literature compounded of Frey- seem, according to Lind,[311] to belong to myths (e.g., Freygarðr, Freysteinn and Freybjǫrn). Other names connected with the Wineland voyages in this saga are: Thor-björn Vivilsson (his brother was named Thor-geir and his daughter's foster-father Orm Thor-geirsson) came to Thor-kjell of Herjolfsnes, where the prophetess was called Thor-björg. Leif's woman in the Hebrides was called Thor-gunna, and their illegitimate son Thor-gils. Thor-stein Ericson had a property together with another Thor-stein in Lysefjord.[312] We have further Thor-finn Karlsevne (son of Thord and Thor-unn), Snorre Thor-brandsson, Thor-hall Gamlason, Thor-hall Veidemand (who also had dealings with the red-bearded Thor), and Thor-brand Snorrason who was killed. An exception, besides Bjarne Grimolfsson (and the runners Haki and Hekja; see below), is Thorfinn Karlsevne's wife Guðriðr,[313] daughter of Thorbjörn Vivilsson, and mother of Snorre. But perhaps one can guess why she is given this name if one reads through the description of the remarkable scene of soothsaying--at Thorkjell's house on Herjolfsnes--between the fair Gudrid, who sang with such a beautiful voice, and the heathen sorceress Thorbjörg, where the former as a Christian woman refuses to sing the heathen charms "Varðlokur," as the sorceress asks her to do. These numerous Thor-names--with the two women's names, the powerful Freydis and the fair Gudrid--which are attributed to a time when heathendom and Christianity were struggling for the mastery (cf. the tale of Thorhall the Hunter and the whale), have in themselves an air of myth and invention. To this must be added mythical descriptions like those of the prophetess of Herjolfsnes, the ghosts at Lysefjord the winter Thorstein Ericson died, and others.

The Saga of Eric the Red tells of two voyages in search of Wineland, after Leif's accidental discovery of the country. The first is Thorstein Ericson's unfortunate expedition, when they did not find the favoured Wineland, but were driven eastward into the ocean towards Iceland and Ireland. In the Irish tale of Brandan ("Imram Brenaind," of the eleventh century), Brandan first makes an unsuccessful voyage to find the promised land, and arrives, it seems, most probably in the east of the ocean, somewhere about Brittany (cf. Vita S. Brandani; and Machutus's voyage); but he then makes a fresh voyage in which he finally reaches the land he is in search of [cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 135 ff.]. This similarity with the Irish legend is doubtless not very great, but perhaps it deserves to be included with many others to be mentioned later.

If we now pass to the tale itself of Karlsevne's voyage, we have already seen (p. 321) that its beginning with the journey to the Western Settlement is doubtful; next, the feature of his sailing to three different countries in turn (Helluland, Markland and Furðustrandir), with the same number of days' sail between each, must be taken directly from the fairy tales.[314] Such a voyage is in itself improbable; in the saga the countries are evidently imagined as islands or peninsulas, but nothing corresponding to this is to be found on the coast of America. It is inconceivable that a discoverer of Labrador and of the coast to the south of it should have divided this into several countries; it was not till long after the rediscovery of Newfoundland and Labrador that the sound between them was found. If we suppose that Karlsevne was making southward and came first to Labrador (== Helluland ?), with a coast extending south-eastward, it is against common sense that he should voluntarily have lost sight of this coast and put to sea again in an easterly direction, and then sight fresh land to the south of him two days later; on the other hand, this is the usual mode of presentment in fairy tales and myth. But let us suppose now that he did nevertheless arrive in this way at Newfoundland (== Markland ?), and then again put to sea instead of following the coast, how could he know that this time instead of sailing eastward he was to take a westward course? But this he must have done, for otherwise he could not have reached Cape Breton or Nova Scotia; and he must have got there, if we are to make anything out of the story. The distances given, of two "dœgr's" sail to each of the countries, as remarked on p. 322, are also foreign to reality.[315] This part of the description has therefore an altogether artificial look. It reminds one forcibly of many of the old Irish legendary tales of wonderful voyages; in particular the commencement of one of the oldest and most important may be mentioned: "Imram Maelduin" (the tale of Maelduin's voyage), which is known in MSS. of the end of the eleventh century and later, but which was probably to a great extent first written down in the seventh, or at the latest in the eighth century [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 289].

When Maelduin and his companions put to sea from Ireland in a coracle
with three hides (while Karlsevne has three ships), they came first to
two small islands (while Karlsevne came to Bjarneyjar). After this for
three days and three nights the Irishmen came upon no land; "on the
morning of the third day" they heard the waves breaking on a beach,
but when daylight came and they approached the land, swarms of ants,
as large as foals, came down to the beach and showed a desire to eat
them and the boat (these are the gold-digging ants of Indo-Greek
legend). This land is the parallel to Helluland, where there were a
number of arctic foxes (cf. the description of the arrival there, p.
323).--After having fled thence for three days and three nights, the
Irishmen heard "on the morning of the third day" the waves breaking on
a beach, and when daylight came they saw a great, lofty island with
terraces around it and rows of trees, on which there were many large
birds; they ate their fill of these and took some of them in the boat.
This island might correspond to the wooded Markland, with its many
animals, where Karlsevne and his people killed a bear.--After another
three days and three nights at sea, the Irish voyagers "on the morning
of the fourth day" saw a great sandy island; on approaching the shore
they saw there a fabulous beast like a horse with dog's paws and
claws. For fear of the beast they rowed away without landing. This
great sandy island may be compared with Furðustrandir, where there
were no harbours and it was difficult to land.--The Irishmen then
travelled "for a long time" before they came to a large, flat island,
where two men landed to examine the island, which they found to be
large and broad, and they saw marks of horses' hoofs as large as a
ship's sail, and nutshells as large as "cōedi" (a measure of capacity
?), and traces of many human beings. This bears a resemblance to
Karlsevne's having "a long way" to sail along Furðustrandir before he
came to a bay, where the two Scots went ashore to examine the country,
were absent three days, and found grapes and wheat.--After that the
Irishmen travelled for a week, in hunger and thirst, until they came
to a great, lofty island, with a great house on the beach, with two
doors, "one towards the plain on the island and one towards the sea";
and through the latter the waves of the sea threw salmon into the
middle of the house. They found decorated couches and crystal goblets
with good drink in the house, but no human being, and they took meat
and drink and thanked God. Karlsevne proceeded from the bay and came
to Straumsey, which was thick with birds and eggs, and to
Straumsfjord, where they established themselves (i.e., built houses).
And there were mountains and a fair prospect and high grass; and they
had catches from two sides, "hunting on the land, and eggs and fish
from the sea"; and where, to begin with, they did nothing but make
themselves acquainted with the land.--From the island with the house
Maelduin and his men travelled about "for a long time," hungry and
without food, until they found an island which was encompassed by a
great cliff ("alt mor impi"). There was a very thin and tall tree
there; Maelduin caught a branch of it in his hand as they passed by;
for three days and three nights the branch was in his hand, while the
boat was sailing past the cliff, and on the third day there were three
apples at the end of the branch (cf. Karlsevne's runners who returned
after three days with grapes and wheat in their hands), on which they
lived for forty days. Karlsevne and his men suffered great want during
the winter at Straumsfjord; and from that place, where they lived on
land in houses, they sailed "for a long time" before they came to the
country with the self-sown wheat and vines, where there were great
sandbanks off the mouth of the river, so that they had a difficulty in
landing.

It is striking that in the voyage of Maelduin, the distance is only given as three days' and three nights' sail in the case of the three first passages to the three successive islands, after the first two small islands, while between the later islands we are told that they sailed "a long way," "for a week," "for a long time," etc.; just as in the Saga of Eric the Red, where, after Bjarneyjar, they sail for two "dœgr" to each of the three lands in turn, and then they had "a long way" to sail along Furðustrandir, to a bay, after which "they went on their way" to Straumsfjord, and thence they went "for a long time" to Wineland, etc. I do not venture to assert that there was a direct connection between the two productions, for that there are perhaps too many dissimilarities; but they seem in any case to have their roots in one and the same cycle of ideas, and the original legend certainly reached Iceland in the shape of oral narrative.

The number three plays an important part in Eric's Saga. Three voyages
are made to or in search of Wineland, Karlsevne has three ships, three
countries are visited in turn, three winters are spent away (as with
Eric the Red on his first voyage to Greenland, but there this was due
to his exile), they meet with the Skrælings three times, three men
fall (two in the fight with the Skrælings, and afterwards Thorvald
Ericson)--just as Maelduin (and also Brandan) loses three men--the
expedition finally resolves itself into three separate homeward
voyages, Thorhall the Hunter's, Karlsevne's and Bjarne Grimolfsson's,
etc. etc.[316] In the Irish legends and tales, e.g., those of Maelduin
or of the Ua Corra, the repetition of the number three is even more
conspicuous.