THE 
 
 PRE-COLUMBIAN 
 
 DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, 
 
 THK NORTHMEN, 
 
 TRANSLATIONS FROM THE ICELANDIC SAGAS. 
 
 B. F. DE COSTA. 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 ALBANY, N. Y.: 
 
 JOEL MUNSELI/S SONS, PUBLISHERS. 
 1890. 
 
 85533
 
 E 
 
 DS' 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. Preface. 
 
 II. General Introduction. Historic Fancies; The Sea of Darkness; 
 Juba's Expedition; Traditions; The Northmen; The Coloniza- 
 tion of Iceland; Settlement of Greenland; Organization of the 
 Church; Monuments and Ruins; Explorations in Greenland; 
 The Decline of Greenland; Lost Greenland Found; The Char- 
 acter and Achievements of the Northmen; The Ships of the 
 Northmen; The Literature of Iceland; The Manuscripts; The 
 Truthfulness of the Narratives; Early Voyages from England 
 to Iceland. 
 
 III. Gunnbiorn and his Rocks. 
 
 IV. Eric the Red's voyages to Greenland and settle- 
 
 ment, - - - A. D. 983-986. 
 
 V. Biarne Heriulfsson's voyage to the coast of 
 
 America, A. D. 986. 
 
 VI. Leif Ericson's voyage to Vinland, - A. D. 1000-1001. 
 
 VII. Thorvald Ericson's voyage to Vinland, A. D. 1002. 
 
 VIII. Thorstein Ericson's attempt to Seek Vinland, A. D. 1005. 
 
 IX. Thorfinn Karlsefne's settlement in Vinland, A. D. 1006-1009. 
 
 \. Freydis's voyage and settlement in Vinland, A. D. 1010-1012. 
 
 MINOR NARRATIVES. 
 I. Are Marson's Sojourn in Hvitramannaland, 
 II. Voyage of Biorn Asbrandson, - 
 
 III. Gudleif Gudlaugson's voyage, 
 
 IV. Allusions to Voyages found in Ancient Manuscripts. 
 V. Geographical Fragments. 
 
 A. D. 983. 
 A. D. 999. 
 A. D. 1027.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The chief aim of this work is to place within the reach of 
 the English-reading public every portion of the Icelandic- 
 Sagas relating to the Pre-Columbian Discovery of America 
 by the Northmen, and to the steps by which that dis 
 covery was preceded. The reader will, therefore, find in 
 this volume material from the Sagas not to be found in any 
 other work in an English form. 
 
 The Sagas have been left, in the main, to tell their own 
 story, though the necessary notes and explanations have 
 been added. 
 
 So long ago as the year 1838, a distinguished writer in 
 the North American Review, in closing a valuable and 
 apiireciative article on the Sagas relating to America, said : 
 " We trust that some zealous student of these subjects will 
 be immediately found, who will put the Icelandic authorities 
 into an English dress, and prepare them, with proper literary 
 apparatus, for the perusal of the general reader." 
 
 More than twenty years ago this suggestion was acted 
 upon by the writer. Availing himself of the studies of 
 those who had preceded him, he brought out a volume 
 devoted to the subject. That work, however, owing to an 
 unexpected demand, soon went out of print; while the 
 progress of discussion, and the nearness of the proposed 
 Columbian Celebration, seem to justify a new publication.
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 In treating the Sagas, the writer has not felt called upon 
 to modify his views on any important point, and, substan- 
 tially, his interpretation of these documents is the same as 
 that undertaken in the original work. Time has only served 
 to strengthen his belief in the historical character of the 
 Sagas, while all his geographical studies point now as form- 
 erly to New England as the scene of the Northman's 
 exploits, many of which have left no record, though val- 
 uable traces of Icelandic occupation may yet be found 
 between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia. 
 
 The author is strengthened in his opinions, not only by his 
 own studies, but by the growing favor with which the pro- 
 foundest scholars in Europe regard the Icelandic historical 
 literature. Everywhere societies, as well as distinguished 
 students of history, are in one way or another expressing 
 their belief in the authenticity of the Sagas relating to the 
 Pre-Columbian Discovery of America. Speaking of the 
 Icelandic voyagers, and their acquaintance with America, 
 Professor Max Muller says : " I have met with nothing to 
 shake my belief in the fact that the Northmen possessed 
 such knowledge." * 
 
 This work is not issued with any intention of seeking to 
 detract from the glory of the achievements of Columbus, 
 though we should remember that the time is rapidly ap- 
 proaching when history will summon us to honor the 
 Cabots, the great fellow countrymen of the Genoese, who 
 saw the Continent of America before Columbus himself 
 viewed it. The desire is to place before the reader the 
 story which precedes that of 1492, and which is so interest- 
 ing and important. 
 
 The author hopes that the text of the Sagas has not been 
 
 * Letter to the Author, August 14, 1889.
 
 PREFACE. 7 
 
 misinterpreted, or left obscure, especially as the Sagas relat- 
 ing to the Pre-Columbian voyages are given in Professor 
 Rafn's work on the Antiquities of America, accompanied 
 by helpful notes and versions in Latin and Danish. In 
 every thing relating to the latter tongue, the author has had 
 the invaluable assistance and advice of one who has spoken 
 it from childhood. He has also had most important and 
 indispensable aid in connection with the Icelandic. 
 
 The grammatical structure of the Icelandic is simple, and 
 the aim has been throughout to maintain this simplicity in 
 the translations, so far as the genius of our own tongue 
 would permit. This work being strictly historical, both in 
 spirit and design, the poetical extracts which occur here and 
 there are translated as literally as possible, without any 
 attempt to garnish them with metre and rhyme. Neverthe- 
 less examples in rhyme are given in the Notes. 
 
 It will be seen that the author differs on some points 
 from Professor Rafn ; yet it is believed that if that great 
 student of Northern Antiquities could have gone over the 
 subject again, studying it on the ground, and amid the 
 scenes in which so many of the exploits of the Northmen 
 were performed, he would have modified some of his views. 
 
 On the other hand, the author has sought to strengthen 
 several of the conclusions of that noble and laborious inves- 
 tigator, and particularly by bringing out more fully the 
 truthfulness of the Icelandic descriptions of the coast of 
 Cape Cod, which centuries ago presented an aspect that it 
 does not now possess. 
 
 Let us remember, too, that in vindicating the Northmen 
 we honor those who not only gave us the first knowledge 
 possessed of the American Continent, but to whom we are 
 indebted for much beside that we esteem valuable. In
 
 8 PREFACE. 
 
 reality we fable in a great measure when we speak of our 
 " Saxon inheritance." It is rather from the Northmen that 
 we have derived our vital energy, our freedom of thought, 
 and, in a measure that we do not yet suspect, our strength 
 of speech. Yet, happily, the people are fast becoming con- 
 scious of their indebtedness ; so that it is to be hoped that 
 the time is not far distant when the Northmen may be 
 recognized in their right social, political and literary char- 
 acters, and at the same time, as navigators, assume their 
 true position in the Pre-Columbian Discovery of America.
 
 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY. 
 
 GENEKAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 HI8TOKIO FANCIES. 
 
 Before the plains of Europe rose above the primeval seas, 
 the Continent of America emerged from the watery waste 
 that encircled the whole globe, and became the scene of ani- 
 mate life. The so-called New World is in reality the Old, 
 and bears abundant proofs of hoary age. But at what 
 period it became the abode of man we are unable even to 
 conjecture. Down to the close of the tenth century of the 
 Christian era it had no written history. Traces of a rude 
 civilization that suggest a high antiquity are by no means 
 wanting. Monuments and mounds remain that point to 
 periods the contemplation of which would cause Chronos 
 himself to grow giddy ; yet among all these great and often 
 impressive memorials there is no monument, inscription or 
 sculptured frieze that satisfactorily explains their origin. 
 Tradition itself is dumb, and the theme chiefly kindles 
 when brought within the realm of imagination. We can 
 only infer that age after age nations and tribes rose to great- 
 ness and then fell into decline, barbarism and a rude culture 
 holding alternate sway. 1 
 
 Nevertheless, men have enjoyed no small degree of satis- 
 faction in conjuring up theories to explain the origin of the 
 early races on the Western Continent. What a charm 
 lingers around the supposed trans-Atlantic voyages of the 
 
 1 Of course we must not overlook the recent researches into 
 the history of Central America, and especially the studies in 
 connection with Yucatan. 
 2
 
 10 PBE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 hardy Fhenician, the luxurious sailors of Tyre, and, later, 
 of the bold Basque. What stories might the lost picture- 
 records of Mexico and the chronicles of Dieppe tell. Now 
 we are presented with the splendid view of great fleets, the 
 remnant of some conquered race, bearing across the ocean 
 to re-create in new and unknown lauds the cities and monu- 
 ments they were forever leaving behind; and now it is 
 simply the story of some storm-tossed mariner, who blindly 
 drives across the sea to the western strand, and lays the 
 foundation of empire. Again it is the devotee of mammon, 
 in search of gainful traffic or golden fleece. How romantic 
 is the picture of his little solitary bark setting out in the 
 days of Roman greatness, or in the splendid age of Charle- 
 magne, sailing trustingly away between the pillars of Her- 
 cules, and tossing toward the Isles of the Blessed and the 
 Fountains of Eternal Youth. In time the Ultima Thule 
 of the known world is passed, and favoring gales bear the 
 merchant-sailor to new and wondrous lands. We see him 
 coasting the unknown shores, passing from cape to cape, 
 and from bay to inlet, gazing upon the marvels of the New 
 World, trafficking with the bronzed Indian, bartering curious 
 wares for barbaric gold ; and then shaping his course again 
 for the markets of the distant East, to pour strange tales 
 into incredulous ears. Still this may not be all fancy. 1 
 
 THE SEA OF DABKNE8S. 
 
 In early times the Atlantic ocean, like all things without 
 known bounds, was viewed by man with mixed feelings 
 of fear and awe. It was called the Sea of Darkness. Yet, 
 nevertheless, there were those who professed to have some 
 knowledge of its extent, and of what lay beyond. The 
 earliest reference to this sea is that by Theopompus, in the 
 
 'Proceedings of "The United States Catholic Historical 
 Society," 1886, for October 29, 1885. The Rev. Joshua P. 
 Bodfish has a paper on " The Discovery of America by the 
 Northmen," in which (pp. 2-3-4-5) he helps himself to the 
 author's Introduction without giving due credit.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 11 
 
 fourth century before the Christian era, given in a frag- 
 ment of JEliau, 1 where a vast island is described, lying far 
 in the west, and peopled by strange races. To this we may 
 add the reference of Plato 2 to the island called Atlantis, 
 which lay west of the Pillars of Hercules, and which was 
 estimated to be larger than Asia and Africa combined. 
 Aristotle 3 also thought that many other lands existed beyond 
 the Atlantic. Plato supposed that the Atlantis was sunk 
 by an earthquake, and Grantor declares that he found the 
 same account related by the Priests of Sais three hundred 
 years after the time of Solon, from whom the grandfather of 
 Critias had his information. Plato says, that after the Atlantis 
 disappeared, navigation was rendered too difficult to be at- 
 tempted on account of the slime which resulted from the 
 sinking of the land. It is probable that he had in mind the 
 immense fields of drifting sea-weed found in that locality, 
 estimated by Humboldt to cover a portion of the Atlantic 
 ocean six times as large as all Germany. 
 
 It is thought that Homer 4 obtained the idea of his Ely- 
 sium in the Western ocean from the voyages of the Phe- 
 nicians, who, as is well known, sailed regularly to the Brit- 
 ish Islands. They are also supposed by some to have pushed 
 their discoveries as far as the Western Continent. Cadiz, 
 situated on the shore of Andalusia, was established by the 
 Tyrians twelve centuries before the birth of Christ ; and 
 when Cadiz, the ancient Gadir, was full five hundred years 
 old, a Greek trader, Colaeus, there bought rare merchandise, 
 a long and severe gale having driven his ships beyond the 
 Pillars of Hercules. 
 
 THE PHENICIANS. 
 
 In the ninth century before the Christian era, the Phe- 
 nicians had established colonies on the western coast of 
 
 1 Var. Hist. lib. in, cap. xvm. 
 8 See Plato's " Critias and Timceas." 
 
 3 De Mundo, cap. in. See " Prince Henry the Navigator," 
 chap, vn, by Major, London, 1868. 
 "'Odyssey," book iv, 1. 765.
 
 12 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 Africa ; and three hundred years later, according to Herod- 
 otus, Pharaoli Necho, son of Psammiticus, sent an expedi- 
 tion, manned by Phenician sailors, around the entire coast 
 of Africa. Vivien de St. Martin fixes the date of this ex- 
 pedition at 570 before Christ. St. Martin, in his account 
 of the voyage, improves slightly upon the views of Carl 
 Muller, and is followed by Bougainville. 1 A notice of this 
 voyage, performed by Hanno under the direction of Pha- 
 raoh, was inscribed in the Punic language on a Carthage- 
 nian temple, being afterward translated into Greek. 
 
 That the Canary Islands were discovered and colonized 
 by the Phenicians, there 'need be no doubt. Tradition had 
 always located islands in that vicinity. Strabo speaks of 
 the Islands of the Blessed, as lying not far from Mauritania, 
 opposite Gadir or Cadiz. He distinctly says, " That those 
 who pointed out these things were the Phenicia/iis, who, 
 before the time of Homer, had possession of the best part 
 of Africa and Spain." 2 "When we remember that the Phe- 
 nicians sought to monopolize trade, and hold the knowledge 
 of their commercial resorts a secret, it is not surprising that 
 we should hear no more of the Fortunate Isles until about 
 eighty-two years before Christ, when the Roman Sertoriu& 
 met some Lusitanian sailors on the coast of Spain who had 
 just returned from the Fortunate Isles. They are described 
 as two delightful islands, separated by a narrow strait, dis- 
 tant from Africa five hundred leagues. Twenty years after 
 the death of Sertorius, Statins Sebosus drew up a chart of a 
 group of five islands, each mentioned by name, and which 
 Pliny calls the Hesperides, including the Fortunate Isles. 
 This mention of the Canaries was sixty-three years before 
 Christ. 
 
 JTTBA'S EXPEDITION. 
 
 When King Juba II returned to Mauritania, he sent an 
 expedition to the Fortunate Isles. A fragment of the nar- 
 ratives of this expedition is found in the works of Pliny. 
 
 1 See "Prince Henry the Navigator," p. 90. 
 9 Strabo, lib. in.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 13 
 
 The islands are described as lying south-west, six hundred 
 and twenty -five miles from Purpurarise. To reach them 
 from the latter place, they first sailed two hundred and fifty 
 miles westward, and then three hundred and seventy-five 
 miles eastward. Pliny says: "The first is called Ombrios, 
 and affords no traces of buildings. It contains a pool in 
 the midst of mountains, and trees like ferules, from which 
 water may be pressed. It is bitter from the black kinds, 
 but from the light kinds pleasant to drink. The second is 
 called Junonia, and contains a small temple built entirely of 
 stone. Near it is another smaller island having the same 
 name. Then comes Capraria, which is full of large lizards. 
 Within sight of these is Nivaria, named from the snow and 
 fogs with which it is always covered. Not far from Ni- 
 varia is Canaria, called thus on account of the great number 
 of large dogs therein, two of which were brought to King 
 Juba. There were traces of buildings in these islands. 
 All the islands abound in apples, and in birds of every 
 kind, and in palms covered with dates, and in the pine nut. 
 There is also plenty of fish. The papyrus grows there, and 
 the silurus fish is found in the rivers." 1 
 
 The author of Prince Henry the Navigator? says that in 
 Ombrios, we recognize the Pluvialia of Sebosus. Con- 
 vallis of Sebosus, in Pliny, becomes Nivaria, the Peak of 
 Teneriffe, which lifts itself up to the majestic height of 
 nine thousand feet, its snow-capped pinnacle seeming to 
 pierce the sky. Planaria is displaced by Canaria, which 
 term, first applied to the great central island, now gives the 
 name to the whole group. Ombrios or Pluvialia, evidently 
 means the island of Palma, which had " a pool in the midst 
 of mountains," now represented by the crater of an extinct 
 volcano. This the sailors of King Juba evidently saw. 
 Major says : " The distance of this island [Palma] from 
 Fuerteventura, agrees with that of the two hundred and 
 fifty miles indicated by Juba's navigators as existing be- 
 
 1 Pliny's " Natural History," lib. vi, cap. xxxvu. 
 1 See p. 137.
 
 14 PRE-COLUMBIAN" DISCOVERY OF 
 
 tween Ombrios and the Purpurariae. It has already been 
 seen that the latter agree with Lancerote and Fuerteven 
 tura, in respect of their distance, from the Continent and 
 from each other, as described by Plutarch. That the Pur- 
 purariae are not, as M. Bory de St. Vincent supposed, the 
 Madeira group, is not only shown by the want of inhab- 
 itants in the latter, but by the orchil, which supplies the 
 purple dye, being derived from and sought for especially 
 from the Canaries, and not from the Madeira group, although 
 it is to be found there. Juuonia," he continues, "the near- 
 est to Ombrios, will be Gromera. It may be presumed that 
 the temple found therein was, like the island, dedicated to 
 Juno. Capraria, which implies the island of goats, agrees 
 correctly with the island of Ferro, . . . for these animals were 
 found there in large numbers when the island was invaded 
 by Jean de Bethen court, in 1402. But a yet more striking 
 proof of the identity of this island with Capraria, is the 
 account of the great number of lizards found therein. 
 Bethencourt's chaplains, describing their visit to the islands, 
 in 1402, state : ' There are lizards in it as big as cats, but 
 they are harmless, although very hideous to look at.' ' 
 
 We see, then, that the navigators of Juba visited the 
 Canaries* at an early period, as did the Phenicians, who 
 
 1 "Prince Henry the Navigator," p. 137. 
 
 9 After this mention by Pliny, the Canaries, or Fortunate 
 Isles, are lost sight of for a period of thirteen hundred years. 
 In the reign of Edward III of England, at the beginning of 
 the fourteenth century, one Robert Machin sailed from Bris- 
 tol for France, carrying away a lady of rank, who had eloped 
 with him, and was driven by a storm to the Canaries, where 
 he landed, and thus re-discovered the lost Fortunate Isles. 
 This fact is curiously established by Major, in the " Life of 
 Prince Henry," so that it can no longer be regarded as an 
 idle tale (see pp. 66-77). In 1341, a voyage was also made to 
 the Canaries, under the auspices of King Henry of Portugal. 
 The report, so widely circulated by De Barros, that the 
 islands were re-discovered by Prince Henry is, therefore, incor- 
 rect. His expedition reached Porto Santo and Madeira in 
 1418-1420.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 15 
 
 doubtless built the temple in the island of Junonia. For 
 aught we know, early navigators may have passed over 
 to the Western Continent and laid the foundation of those 
 strange nations whose monuments still remain. Both Phe- 
 nician and Tyrian voyages to the Western Continent have 
 been advocated; while Lord Kingsborough published his 
 magnificent volumes on the Mexican Antiquities, to show 
 that the Jews settled this Continent at an early day. 1 If it 
 is true that all the tribes of the earth sprang from one cen- 
 tral Asiatic family, it is more than likely that the original 
 inhabitants of the American Continent crossed the Atlantic, 
 instead of piercing the frozen regions of the north, and com- 
 ing in by the way of Behring Straits. From the Canaries to 
 the coast of Florida, it is a short voyage, and the bold sailors 
 of the Mediterranean, after touching at the Canaries, need 
 only spread their sails before the steady-breathing monsoon, 
 to find themselves wafted safely to the western shore. 
 
 TRADITIONS. 
 
 There was even a tradition that America was visited by 
 St. Columba, 2 and also by the Apostle St. Thomas, 3 who 
 penetrated even as far as Peru. This opinion is founded 
 on the resemblance existing between certain rites and doc- 
 trines which seem, to have been held in common by Chris- 
 tians and the early inhabitants of Mexico. The first Spanish 
 missionaries were surprised to find the Mexicans bowing in 
 adoration before the figure of the cross, and inferred that 
 these people were of a Christian origin. Yet the inference 
 has no special value, when we remember that Christianity 
 is far less ancient than the symbol of the cross, which ex- 
 isted among the Egyptians and other ancient people. 
 
 1 He also speculates upon the probability of this Continent 
 having been visited by Christian missionaries. The Hebrew 
 theory is hardly tenable, and must be classed with the specu- 
 lations of the famous Major Noah. See vol. vi, p. 410. 
 
 8 Kingsborough's "Mexican Antiquities," vol. vi, p. 285. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 332.
 
 16 
 
 Claims have also been made for the Irish. Broughton 
 brings forward a passage in which St. Patrick is repre- 
 sented as sending missionaries to the Isles of America. 1 
 Another claim has been urged of a more respectable 
 character, which is supported by striking, though not con- 
 clusive allusions in the chronicles of the North, in which 
 a distant land is spoken of as " Ireland the Great." The 
 Irish, in the early times, might easily have passed over to 
 the "Western Continent, for which voyage they undoubtedly 
 had the facilities. Professor Rafn, after alluding to the 
 well-known fact that the Northmen were preceded in 
 Iceland by the Irish, says, that it is by no means im- 
 probable that the Irish should also have anticipated them 
 in America. The Irish were a sea-faring people, and have 
 been assigned a Pheuician origin by Moore and others who 
 have examined the subject. 2 If this is so, the tradition 
 would appear to be somewhat strengthened. Even as early 
 as the year 296, the Irish are said to have invaded Denmark 
 with a large fleet. In 396, Niall made a descent upon the 
 coast of Lancashire with a considerable navy, where he was 
 met by the Roman, Stilicho, whose achievements were 
 
 1 "Monastikon Britannicum," pp. 131-132, 187-188. The 
 fact that the word America is here used, seems quite suffi- 
 cient to upset the legend. Speaking of the claims to Pre- 
 Columbian discovery at the west by the various eastern 
 peoples, Mr. Winsor admits that "there is no good reason 
 why any one of them may not have done all that is claimed." 
 "Narrative and Critical History of America," vol. i, p. 59. 
 
 8 The Irish were early known as Scots, and O'Halloran de- 
 rives the name from Scota, high priest of Phoenius, and 
 ancestor of Mileseuis. 
 
 Me quoque vicins pereuntem gentibus, inquit, . 
 Munivit Stilicho. Totam cum Scotus lernem, 
 Movit et infesto spumavit remige Thetys. 
 
 By him defended, when the neighboring hosts 
 Of warlike nations spread along our coasts; 
 When Scots came thundering from the Irish shores, 
 And the wild ocean foamed with hostile oars.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 17 
 
 celebrated by Claudian in the days of the Roman occupation 
 of England. At that period the Irish were in most respects 
 in advance of the Northmen, not yet having fallen into de- 
 cline, and quite as likely as any people then existing to 
 brave the dangers of an ocean voyage. 1 The Icelandic docu- 
 ments, clearly referring to the Irish, will be given in their 
 proper place, and, in the meanwhile, it need only to be added, 
 that the quotation given by the rather credulous Beamish 
 from such an authority as the Turkish Spy will hardly tend 
 to strengthen their claims, especially where its author, John 
 Paul Marana, says that in Mexico " the British language is 
 so prevalent," that " the very towns, bridges, beasts, birds, 
 rivers, hills, etc., are called by the British or Welsh 2 names." 3 
 
 1 Speaking of Britain and Ireland, Tacitus says of the latter, 
 that "the approaches and harbors are better known, by rea- 
 son of commerce and the merchants." Vit. Agri., c. 24. 
 The Irish, doubtless, mingled with the Carthagenians in mer- 
 cantile transactions, and from them they not unlikely received 
 the rites of Druidism. 
 
 3 There is a tradition of a Welsh voyage to America under 
 Prince Madoc, which relates to a period following the Icelandic 
 voyages. This voyage by the son of Owen Gwyneth is fixed 
 for the year 1170, and is based on a Welsh chronicle of no 
 authority. See Hackluyt, vol. in, p. 1. See, also, "America 
 Discovered by the Welsh in 1170," by Bowen, Philadelphia, 
 1876; "An Enquiry into the Truth of the Tradition, concern- 
 ing the Discovery of America by Prince Madog ab Owen 
 Gwyneth, about the year 1170, by John Williams," etc., Lon- 
 don, 1791, p. 85; and "Farther Observations on the Discovery 
 of America by Prince Madog ab Owen Gwyneth," etc., 1792, 
 p. 51. The following from the London Standard, September 
 6, 1888, is timely: "Great interest was excited yesterday 
 in North Wales by the announcement that the tomb of Madoc 
 ap Gryffyddmaelor, a great Welsh warrior in the eleventh 
 and twelfth centuries, grandson of Owen Gwynedd, Prince 
 of Wales, had been discovered in the ruins of Valle Crucis 
 Abbey, Llangollen. The Kev. H. T. Owen, warden of the 
 
 8 Turkish Spy, vol. vin, p. 159. 
 3
 
 18 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 In truth, as the wish is so often father to the thought, it 
 would be an easy task to find resemblance in the languages 
 of the aborigines to almost any language that is spoken in 
 our day so far as mere sounds may be concerned. 
 
 But, notwithstanding the probabilities of the case, we 
 have no solid reason for accepting any of these alleged 
 voyages as facts. Much labor has been given to the sub- 
 ject, yet the early history of the American Continent is still 
 veiled in mystery, and it is not until near the close of the 
 tenth century of the present era that we can point to a 
 genuine trans-Atlantic voyage. 
 
 THE NORTHMEN. 
 
 The first voyage to America, of which we have any 
 account, was performed by Northmen. But who were the 
 Northmen ? 
 
 abbey, who is now engaged upon some excavations, was 
 searching for old stained glass in the dormitory, when he dis- 
 interred a large stone slab, bearing the name of Madoc, and 
 an inscription, which has not yet been fully deciphered. 
 Down the center of the stone is an incised sword in sheath. 
 Further excavations led to the discovery of four other stones, 
 each about five feet by eighteen inches; two bear floriated 
 crosses, one an inscribed spear, and the other a Grecian orna- 
 ment. The stones form part of the vaulting of the corridor 
 leading to the old burial ground of the monks. Madoc ap 
 Gryffydd founded the abbey, which was a Cistercian Monas- 
 tery, about the year 1200. After the venerable building be- 
 came a ruin, the chapter-house and scriptorium were used 
 for several generations as a farmstead, and were practically 
 destroyed by fire. During the repairs it is conjectured that 
 the stones of Madoc's tomb were used to complete the vault- 
 ing. In 1851 the debris covering the area of the abbey was 
 removed by Lord Dungannon, and the tombs of benefactors 
 buried in front of the high altar, the figure of a knight in chain 
 armour, and a stone coffin were laid bare. During the exca- 
 vations of last year the monk's well and spring were discov- 
 ered. Sir Theodore and Lady Martin and many others visited 
 the ruins yesterday."
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 19 
 
 The Northmen were the descendants of a race that in 
 early times migrated from Asia and traveled toward the 
 north, settling down in what is now the kingdom of Den- 
 mark. From thence they overran Norway and Sweden, 
 and afterward colonized Iceland and Greenland. Their 
 language was the old Danish (Donsk tunga) once spoken 
 all over the north. 1 but which is now preserved in Iceland 
 alone, being called the Icelandic or old Northern, 2 upon 
 which is founded the modern Swedish, Danish and Norse or 
 Norwegian. 
 
 After the Northmen had pushed on from Denmark to 
 Norway, the condition of public affairs gradually became 
 such that a large portion of the better classes found their 
 life intolerable. In the reign of Harold Harfagr (the Fair- 
 haired), an attempt was made by the king to deprive the 
 petty jarls of their ancient udal or feudal rights, and to 
 usurp all authority for the crown. To this the proud jarls 
 would not submit ; and, feeling themselves degraded in the 
 eyes of their retainers, they resolved to leave those lands 
 and homes which they could now hardly call their own. 
 "Whither, then, should they go ? 
 
 THE COLONIZATION OF ICELAND. 
 
 In the cold North sea, a little below the Arctic circle, lay 
 a great island. As early as the year 860, it had been made 
 known to the Northmen by a Dane of Swedish descent 
 named Gardar, who called it Gardar's Island, and four years 
 later by the pirate Nadodd, who sailed thither in 864 and 
 called it Snowland. Presenting in the main the form of an 
 irregular ellipse, this island occupies an area of about one 
 hundred and thirty-seven thousand square miles, affording 
 the dull diversity of valleys without verdure and mountains 
 
 1 See " Northmen in Iceland," Societe des Antiquaries du 
 Nord, Seance du 14 Mai, 1859, pp. 12-14. 
 
 9 It is sometimes, though improperly, called the Norse. 
 Societe des Antiquaries, etc., 1840-44, p. 165.
 
 20 PBE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 without trees. 1 Desolation has there fixed its abode. It 
 broods among the dells, and looks down upon the gloomy 
 fiords. The country is threaded with streams and dotted 
 with tarns, yet the geologist finds but little evidence in the 
 structure of the earth to point to the action of water. On 
 the other hand, every rock and hillside is covered with signs 
 that prove their igneous origin, and indicate that the entire 
 island, at some distant period, has already seethed and bub- 
 bled in the fervent heat, in anticipation of the long prom- 
 ised Palingenesia. Even now the ground trembles in the 
 throes of the earthquake, the Geyser spouts scalding water, 
 and the plain belches mud; while the great joknll, clad in 
 white robes of eternal snow true priest of Ormuzd 
 brandishes aloft its volcanic torch, and threatens to be the 
 incendiary of the sky. 
 
 The greater portion of the land forms the homestead of 
 the reindeer and the fox, who share their domain with the 
 occasional white bear that may float over from Greenland 
 on some berg. Only two quadrupeds, the fox and the 
 moose, are indigenous. Life is here purchased with a strug- 
 gle. Indeed the neighboring ocean is more hospitable than 
 the dry laud. Of the thirty-four species of mammalia, 
 twenty- four find their food in the roaring main. The same 
 is true of the feathered tribes, fifty- four out of ninety being 
 water-fowl. Here and there may be seen patches of meadow 
 and a few sheep pastures and tracts of arable land warmed 
 into fruitfulness by the brief summer's sun ; yet, on the 
 whole, so poor is the soil that man, like the lower orders, 
 must eke out a scanty subsistence by resorting to the sea. 
 
 It was toward this land, which the settlers called Ice- 
 land, that the proud Norwegian jarl turned his eyes, and 
 there he resolved to found a home. The first settler was 
 Ingolf. He approached the coast in the year 875, threw 
 
 1 In the time when the Irish monks occupied the island, it 
 is said that it was " covered with woods between the moun- 
 tains and the shores."
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 21 
 
 overboard his sea-posts, 1 and waited to see them touch the 
 land. But in this he was disappointed, and those sacred 
 columns, carved with the images of the gods, drifted away 
 from sight. He nevertheless landed on a pleasant promon- 
 tory at the south-eastern extremity of the island, and built 
 his habitation on the spot which is called Ingolfshofdi to 
 this day. Three years after, his servants found the sea- 
 posts in the south-western part of the island, and hither, in 
 obedience to what was held to be the expressed wish of the 
 gods, 2 he removed his household, laying the foundation of 
 Reikiavik, the capital of this ice-bound isle. He was rapidly 
 followed by others, and in a short time no inconsiderable 
 population was gathered here. 
 
 But the first Scandinavian settlers did not find this barren 
 country entirely destitute of human beings. Ari Frode, 3 
 
 1 Setstakkar. These were wooden pillars carved with 
 images, usually of Thor and Odin. In selecting a place for 
 a settlement these were flung overboard, and wherever they 
 were thrown up on the beach, there the settlement was to be 
 formed. 
 
 s ln another case a settler did not find his posts for twelve 
 years, nevertheless he changed his abode then. lu Frithiof's 
 Saga (American edition) chap, in, p. 18, we find the fol- 
 lowing allusion: 
 
 ' ' Through the whole length of the hall shone forth the table of oak 
 
 wood, 
 
 Brighter than steel, and polished; the pillars twain of the high seats 
 Stood on each side thereof; two gods deep carved out of elm wood: 
 Odin with glance of a king, and Frey with the sun on his forehead." 
 
 3 Ari Hinn Frode, or the Wise. The chief compiler of the 
 famous Landanama Book, which contains a full account of all 
 the early settlers in Iceland. It is of the same character, 
 though vastly superior to the English "Doomsday JBook," 
 and is probably the most complete record of the kind ever 
 made by any nation. It contains the names of 3,000 per- 
 sons, and 1,400 places. It gives a correct account of the 
 genealogies of the families, and brief notices of personal
 
 22 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 than whom there is no higher authority, says : " Then 
 were here Christian people whom the Northmen called 
 papas, but they afterward went away, because they would 
 not be here among heathens ; and left behind them Irish 
 books, and bells, and croziers, from which it could be seen 
 that they were Irishmen." He repeats substantially the 
 same thing in the Landanama Book, the authority of 
 which, no one acquainted with the subject, will question, 
 adding that books and other relics were found in the island 
 of Papey and Papyli, and that the circumstance is also men- 
 tioned in English books. The English writings referred to 
 are those of the venerable Bede. 1 This is also stated in an 
 
 achievements. It was begun by Frode (born 1067, died 1148), 
 and was continued by Kalstegg, Styrmer and Thorsden, and 
 completed by Hauk Erlandson, Lagman, or Governor of Ice- 
 land, who died in the year 1334. 
 
 '"Thussaith the holy priest Bede. . . . Therefore learned 
 men think that it is Iceland which is called Thule. . . . But 
 the holy priest Bede died DCCXXXV years after the birth of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, more than a hundred years before 
 Iceland was inhabited by the Northmen." Antiqui fates 
 Americana, p. 202. This extract is followed by the state- 
 ment of Ari Frode, and shows that the Irish Christians retired 
 to Iceland, at a very early day. The Irish monk Dicuil also 
 refers to this solitary island, which, about the year 795, was 
 visited by some monks with whom he had conversed. 
 
 The earliest known movement northward from England 
 was that inaugurated by King Arthur, about the year 505. 
 The authority on this subject is Geoffrey of Monmouth, who 
 was bishop of Saint Asaph in 1152, and who wrote the His- 
 toria Britonum, a work which afforded a basis for the fables 
 and romances of the "Knights of the Round Table." Never- 
 theless, whoever inclines to turn from all the statements of 
 Geoffrey, for the reason that they contain much that is untrue, 
 should ponder the well-considered words of Hume (" Eng- 
 land," i, 38, ed. 1822), who says of the Prince of Silures: 
 " This is that Arthur so much celebrated in the songs of 
 Thaliessin and the other British bards, and whose military
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 23 
 
 edition of King Olaf Tryggvesson's Saga, made near the 
 end of the fourteenth century. 
 
 The monks or Culdees, who had come hither from Ire- 
 land and the Isles of lona, to be alone with God, took their 
 departure on the arrival of the heathen followers of Odin 
 and Thor, and the Northmen were thus left in undisputed 
 possession of the soil. In about twenty years the island 
 became quite thickly settled, though the tide of immigra- 
 tion continued to flow in strongly for fifty years, so that at 
 the beginning of the tenth century Iceland possessed a popu- 
 
 achievements have been blended with so many fables as even 
 to give occasion for entertaining a doubt of his real existence. 
 But poets," he continues, "though they disfigure the most 
 certain history of their fictions, and use strange liberties with 
 truth, where they are the sole historians, as among the Brit- 
 ons, have commonly some foundation for their wildest exag- 
 gerations." The Bishop of Saint Asaph, who was not a poet, 
 may be credited, therefore, when he states such simple facts 
 as that, about the year 505, King Arthur, after the conquest 
 of Ireland, received the submission of the Orkneys and sailed 
 to Iceland, " which he also subdued;" at a subsequent period 
 overcoming his foes in Norway. (B. ix, c. 10.) The con- 
 quest of Ireland cost much bloodshed, but that of Iceland, if 
 he went there, must have been made without a struggle, since 
 at that period there could not have been men enough to make 
 any great resistance. 
 
 Hakluyt (i, 1), treating this matter, quotes from Galfridus 
 Monumetensis, who says that, after subduing Ireland, Ar- 
 thur went to Iceland, and " brought it and the people thereof 
 under his subjection." The same author mentions " Malua- 
 sius " as "King" of Iceland, and tells of soldiers that he 
 furnished. 
 
 The " King," however, may be reduced to a figure of 
 speech, while there could have been no soldiers, unless, in- 
 deed, Arthur, as elsewhere stated, transported people to the 
 north. See " Invent io Fortunata. Arctic Exploration, 
 with an account of Nicholas of Lynn," etc. By B. F. De 
 Costa, New York, 1861, p. 5.
 
 24 . PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 lation variously estimated from sixty to seventy thousand 
 souls. But few undertook the voyage who were not able to 
 buy their own vessels, in which they carried over their own 
 cattle, thralls, and household goods. So great was the num- 
 ber of people who left Norway, that King Harold tried to 
 prevent emigration by royal authority, though, as might 
 have been predicted, his efforts were altogether in vain. 
 Here, in Iceland, therefore, was formed a large community, 
 taking the shape of an aristocratic republic, which framed 
 its own laws, and for a long time maintained a genuine inde- 
 pendence, in opposition to all the assumptions and threats 
 of the Norwegian king. 
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF GREENLAND. 
 
 But as time passed on, the people of Iceland felt a new 
 impulse for colonization in strange lands, and the tide of 
 emigration began to tend toward Greenland in the west. 
 This was chiefly inaugurated by a man named Eric the Red, 
 born in Norway in the year 935. On account of man- 
 slaughter, he was obliged to flee from Jardar and take up 
 his abode in Iceland. The date of removal to Iceland is not 
 given, though it is said that at that time the island was very 
 generally inhabited. Here, however, he could not live in 
 peace, and early in the year 982, he was again outlawed for 
 manslaughter by the Thing, and condemned to banishment. 
 He accordingly fitted out a ship, and announced his deter- 
 mination to go in search of the land lying in the ocean at 
 the west, which it was said, Gunnbiorn, 1 Ulf Krage's son, 
 saw when, in the year 876, he was driven out to sea by a 
 storm. Eric sailed westward and found land, where he re- 
 mained and explored the country for three years. At the 
 end of this period he returned to Iceland, giving the newly- 
 
 the information which we possess relating to the dis- 
 covery by Gunnbiorn is given in the body of this work, in ex- 
 tracts from Landanama Book.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 25 
 
 discovered land the name of Greenland, 1 in order, as he said, 
 to attract settlers, who would be favorably impressed by so 
 pleasing a name, which, however, did not originate witli 
 him. 
 
 The summer after his return to Iceland, he sailed once 
 more for Greenland, taking with him a fleet of thirty-five 
 ships, only fourteen of which reached their destination, the 
 rest being either driven back or lost. This event took place, 
 as the Saga says, fifteen winters 2 before the introduction of 
 Christianity into Iceland, which we know was accomplished 
 in the year A. D. 1000. The date of Eric's second voyage 
 must, therefore, be set down at 985. 3 
 
 But, before proceeding to the next step in Icelandic ad- 
 venture, it will be necessary to give a brief sketch of the 
 progress of the Greenland colony, together with a relation 
 
 of the circumstances which led to its final extinction. 
 < 
 
 THE PROGRESS OF THE GREENLAND COLONIES. 
 
 There is but little continuity in the history of the Ice- 
 landic occupation of Greenland. We have already seen that 
 the second voyage of Eric the Red took place in the year 
 985. Colonists appear to have followed him in considerable 
 numbers, and the best porti&ns of the land were soon appro- 
 priated by the principal men, who gave the chief bays and 
 capes names that indicated the occupants, following the ex- 
 ample of Eric, who dwelt in Brattahlid, in Ericsfiord. 
 
 In the year 999, Leif, son of Eric, sailed out of Greenland 
 to Norway, and passed the winter at the court of King Olaf 
 Tryggvesson, where he accepted the Christian faith, which 
 
 1 Claudius Christophessen, the author of some Danish 
 verses relating to the history of Greenland, supposes that 
 Greenland was discovered in the year 770, though he gave no 
 real reason for his belief. M. Peyrere also tells us of a Papal 
 Bull, issued in 835, by Gregory IV, which refers to the con- 
 version of the Icelanders and Greenlanders. 
 
 8 The Northmen reckoned by winters. 
 
 1 See the Saga of Eric the. Ked. 
 4
 
 26 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 was then being zealously propagated by the king. He was 
 accordingly baptized, and, when the spring returned, the 
 king requested him to undertake the introduction of Chris- 
 tianity in Greenland, urging the consideration that no man 
 was better qualified for the task. Accordingly he set sail 
 from Norway, with a priest and several members of a re- 
 ligious order, arriving at Brattahlid, in Greenland, without 
 any accident. 1 His pagan father was incensed by the bring- 
 ing in of the Christian priest, which act he regarded as 
 pregnant with evil ; yet after some persuasion on the part 
 of Leif, he renounced heathenism and nominally accepted 
 Christianity, being baptized by the priest. His wife Thor- 
 hild made less opposition, and appears to have received the 
 new faith with much willingness. One of her first acts was 
 to build a chnrch, which was known far and wide as Thor. 
 hild's church. These examples appear to have been very 
 generally followed, and Christianity was adopted in both 
 Iceland and Greenland at about the same period, 2 though its 
 acceptance did not immediately produce any very radical 
 change in the spiritual life of the people. In course of time 
 a number of churches were built, the ruins of which remain 
 down to our day. 3 
 
 In the year 1003. the Greenlanders became tributary to 
 Norway. The principal settlement was formed on the 
 western coast. What was known as the eastern district did 
 not extend farther than the southern extremity toward 
 Cape Farewell. For a long time it was supposed that the 
 east district was located on the eastern coast of Greenland ; 
 
 1 The statement, found in several places, that he discovered 
 Vinland while on his way to Greenland, is incorrect. The 
 full account of his voyages shows that his Vinland voyage was 
 an entirely separate thing. 
 
 * Gissur the White and Hialte went on the same errand to 
 Iceland in the year 1000, when the new religion was formally 
 adopted at the public Thing. 
 
 3 See Bradford's work on Greenland with an introduction by 
 the present writer.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 27 
 
 but the researches of Captain Graah, whose expedition went 
 out under the auspices of the Danish government, proved 
 very conclusively that no settlement ever existed on the east- 
 ern shore, which for centuries has remained blocked up by 
 vast accumulations of ice that floated down from the Arctic 
 seas. In early times, as we are informed by the Sagas, the 
 eastern coast was more accessible, yet the western shores 
 were so superior in their attractions that the colonist fixed 
 his habitation there. The site of the eastern settlement is 
 that included in the modern district of Julian's Hope, now 
 occupied by a Danish colony. The western settlement is 
 represented by the habitation of Frederikshab, Godthaab, 
 Sukkertoppen and Holsteinborg. 
 
 THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 In process of time the Christians in Greenland multiplied 
 to such an extent, both by conversions and by the immigra- 
 tion from Iceland, that it was found necessary, in the be- 
 ginning of the twelfth century, to take some measures for 
 the better government of the church, especially as they 
 could not hope much for regular visits from the bishops of 
 Iceland. They, therefore, resolved to make an effort to se- 
 cure a bishop of their own. Eric Gnupson, of Iceland, was 
 selected for the office, and proceeded to Greenland about the 
 year 1112, without being regularly consecrated. He re- 
 turned to Iceland in 1120, and afterward went to Denmark, 
 where he was consecrated in Lund, by Archbishop Adzer. 
 Yet he probably never returned to his duties in Greenland, 
 but soon after resigned that bishopric and accepted an- 
 other, 1 thus leaving Greenland without a spiritual director. 
 
 In the year 1123, Sokke, one of the principal men of 
 Greenland, assembled the people and represented to them 
 that both the welfare of the Christian faith and their own 
 honor demanded that they should follow the example of 
 other nations and maintain a bishop. To this view they 
 
 i It will be seen hereafter that he went and established him- 
 self in Vinland.
 
 28 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 gave their unanimous approval ; and Einar, son of Sokke, 
 was appointed a delegate to the court of King Sigurd, of 
 Norway. He carried a present of ivory and fur, and a 
 petition for the appointment of a bishop. His mission was 
 successful, and in the year 1126 Arnald, the successor of 
 Eric, 1 came into Greenland, and set ap the Episcopal seat at 
 Gardar. 2 Torfaeus and Baron Holberg 3 give a list of sev- 
 enteen bishops who ruled in Greenland, ending with An- 
 drew. The latter was consecrated and went thither in 1408, 
 being never heard of afterward. 
 
 The history of Old Greenland is found in the Ecclesiasti- 
 cal Annals, and consists of a mere skeleton of facts. As in 
 Iceland and Norway there was no end of broils and blood- 
 shed. A very considerable trade was evidently carried on 
 between that country and Norway, which is the case at the 
 present time with Denmark. As the land afforded no 
 materials for ships, they depended in a great measure upon 
 others for communication with the mother countries, which 
 finally proved disastrous. 
 
 MONUMENTS AND RUINS IN GREENLAND. 
 
 The villages and farms of the Northmen in Greenland 
 were numerous. They probably numbered several hun- 
 dred, the ruins now left being both abundant and extensive. 
 Near Igaliko, supposed to be the same as the ancient Einars- 
 liord, are the ruins of a church, probably the Cathedral of 
 Gardar. It is called the Kakortok Church. It was of 
 simple but massive architecture, and the material was taken 
 from the neighboring cliffs. The stone is rough hewn, and 
 but few signs of mortar are visible. It is fifty -one feet long 
 
 1 See " Memoir -es des Antiquaires du Nord," p. 383. 
 
 2 The location of Gardar is now uncertain. At one time 
 it was supposed to have been situated on the eastern coast; 
 but, since it became so clear that the east coast was never in- 
 habited, that view has been abandoned, though the name 
 appears in old maps. 
 
 3 See Crantz's " Greenland," vol. I, p. 252.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 29 
 
 and twenty-five wide. The north and south walk are over 
 four feet thick, while the end walls are still more massive. 
 Nor are other monuments wanting. At Igaliko, nine 
 miles from Julian's Hope, a Greenlander being one day 
 employed in obtaining stones to repair his house, found 
 among a pile of fragments a smooth stone that bore, what 
 seemed to him, written characters. He mentioned the cir- 
 cumstance to Mr. Mathieson, the colonial director at Julian's 
 Hope, who inferred that it must be a runic stone. The 
 man was so fortunate as to find it afterward, and Mr. 
 Mathieson accordingly sent it to Copenhagen, where it 
 arrived in the year 1830. The runes, which were perfectly 
 distinct, showed that it was a tombstone. The inscription 
 was translated as follows : 
 
 " VIGDIS MARS DAUGHTER RESTS HERE. 
 MAY GOD GLADDEN HER SOUL." 
 
 Another, found in 1831, by the Rev. Mr. De Fries, prin- 
 cipal of the Moravian Mission, bore the following inscrip- 
 tion in the runic letter : 
 
 " HERE RESTS HROAR KOLGRIMSSON." 
 
 This stone, now in the museum at Copenhagen, was found 
 built into the wall over the entrance of a Greenland house, 
 having been taken for that purpose from a heap of ruins, 
 about two miles north of Friederichsthal. The stone is 
 more than three feet long, being eighteen inches wide in 
 the narrowest part, and about five inches thick. It bears 
 every sign of a high antiquity. 
 
 One of the most interesting remains proving the Ice- 
 landic occupation of Greenland, is the runic stone found 
 by Parry, in 1824, in the island of Kingiktorsoak, lying in 
 72 55' N. and 56 51' W. It contained a somewhat lengthy 
 inscription. Copies of it were sent to three of the first 
 scholars of the age, Finn Magnusson, Professor Rask, and 
 Dr. Bryniulfson, who, without consulting one another, at 
 once arrived at the same conclusion, and united in giving 
 the following translation :
 
 30 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 "EfiLING SlGHVATSON AND BlORN THORDAR8ON AND 
 
 EINDRID ODDSON, ON SATURDAY BEFORE 
 
 ASCENSION WEEK, RAISED THESE 
 
 MARKS AND CLEARED 
 
 GROUND. 1135. 1 
 
 The Icelandic colonists in Greenland do not appear to 
 have been confined to a small portion of territory. We find 
 considerable relating to this subject in the chronicle attrib- 
 uted to Ivar Bardseu, 2 the steward of one of the bishops 
 of Greenland ; yet, though used extensively by Torfseus in 
 his "Greenlandia" 3 modern researches in the country prove 
 
 1 These inscriptions are all in fair runic letters, about which 
 there can be no mistake, and are totally unlike the imaginary 
 runes. 
 
 8 See Egede's " Greenland," p. xxv; Crantz's " Greenland," 
 vol. i, pp. 247-8; Purchas, "His Pilgrimes" vol. in, p. 518; 
 f< Antiquitates Americana," p. 300. See the Chronicle in 
 " Sailing Directions of Henry Hudson," Munsell, 1869. 
 
 3 Historia Vinlandice Antiques seu Paries America Septen- 
 trionalis, ubi Nominis ratio recenfetur situs terrce ex dierumbiu 
 malium Spatio expenditur, Soli fertilatis & nicolarum 
 barbaries, peregrinorum temporarius incolatus & gesta, 
 vicinarum terrarum nomina and fades Antiquitatibus Is- 
 landicis in lucem producta exponunta per TJiormodum Tor- 
 fceum Rerum Norvegicarum Historiographum Regium. Hav- 
 ni(B Ex Typographeo Regicv Magist, and Universit 1705. Im- 
 pensis Authoris. 
 
 Gronlandia Antiqua seu Gronlandice descriptio, ubi coeli 
 marisqve natura, terrce, locorum & villarum situs, anima- 
 lum terrestrium aqvatilivmqve varia genera, Gentis origo & 
 incrementaj status Politicus & Ecclesiasticus, gesta memo- 
 rabilia & vicissitudines, ex antiqvis memoriis, prcecipue 
 Islandicis qva fieri potuit industria collecta exponuntur, 
 authore Thornio Torfceo, Rerum Norvegicarum Historiographo 
 Regio, HavicB iapud Hieron; Christ: Paulli Reg: Universit: 
 Bibliopolam. Anno 1715.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 31 
 
 that it is in some minor respects faulty. In this chronicle, 
 as in the Sagas, the colonists are spoken of as possessing 
 horses, sheep and oxen; and their churches and religious 
 houses appear to have been well supported. 
 
 EXPLOEATION8 IN GREENLAND. 
 
 Much was done, it appears, in the way of exploring the 
 extreme northern portions of the country known as Nordr- 
 setur. In the year 1266, a voyage was made under the 
 auspices of some of the priests, and the adventurers pene- 
 trated north of Lancaster Sound, reaching about the same 
 latitude that was attained by Parry in 1827. This expedi- 
 tion was of sufficient importance to justify some notice of 
 it here. The account is found in Antiquitates Americans 
 (p. 269), and it sets out with the statement, that the narrative 
 of the expedition was sent by Haldor, a priest, to Arnald, 
 the Chaplain of King Magnus in Norway. They sailed out 
 of Kroksfiardarheidi in an open boat, and met with southerly 
 winds and thick weather, which forced them to let the boat 
 drive before the wind. When the weather cleared, they 
 saw a number of islands, together with whales and seals 
 and bears. They made their way into the most distant 
 portion of the sea, and observed glaciers south of them as 
 far as the eye could reach. They also saw indications of the 
 natives, who were called Skrsellings. but they did not land, 
 on account of the number of the bears. They, therefore, 
 put about, and laid their course southward for nearly three 
 days, finding more islands, with traces of the natives. They 
 saw a mountain which they called Snsefell, and on St. James' 
 day, July 25, they had a severe weather, being obliged to 
 row much and very hard. It froze during the night in that 
 region, but the sun was above the horizon both day and night. 
 When the sun was on the southern meridian, and a man lay 
 down crosswise in a six-oared boat, the shadow of the gunwale 
 toward the sun would reach as far as his feet, which, of 
 course, indicates that the sun was very low. Afterward they
 
 32 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 all returned in safety to Gardar. 1 Rafn fixes the position 
 of the point attained by the expedition in the parallel of 
 75 4-6'. Such an achievement at that day indicates a de- 
 gree of boldness quite surprising. 
 
 THE DECLINE OF GREENLAND. 
 
 Of the reality and importance of the Greenland colony 
 there exists no doubt, notwithstanding the records are so 
 meagre and fragmentary. 4 It maintained its connection 
 with the mother countries for a period of not less than four 
 hundred years ; yet it finally disappeared and was almost 
 forgotten. 
 
 Many causes led to the suspension of communication, 
 though it is difficult to account for the extinction of the 
 colony, if it actually became extinct. It does not appear 
 ever to have been in much danger from the Skrsellings, 
 though, on one occasion, in 1349 or later, the natives at- 
 tacked the western settlement, it is said, and killed eighteen 
 Greenlanders of Icelandic lineage, carrying away two boys 
 captives. 3 
 
 We hear from the eastern colony as late as the middle 
 of the fifteenth century. Trade was carried on with Den- 
 mark until nearly the end of the fourteenth century, although 
 the voyages were not regular. The last bishop, Andreas, 
 was sent out in 1406, and Professor Finn Magnussen has 
 established the fact that he oth'ciated in the cathedral at 
 Gardar in 1409. 4 
 
 1 " Antiquitates American" p. xxxix. 
 
 8 For the account of the manuscripts upon which our knowl- 
 edge of Greenland is founded, see "Antiquitates Ameri- 
 cance," p. 255. 
 
 3 "Islenzkir Annaler" 
 
 4 In that year parties are known to have contracted marriage 
 at Gardar, from whom Finn Magnussen and other distin- 
 guished men owe their descent. Hakluyt quotes Lambord, to 
 the effect that Arthur made his way to Greenland; but we 
 can understand how the statement originated, since the map
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 33 
 
 From this time the trade between Norway and Green- 
 land appears to have been given up, though Wormius told 
 Peyrere of his having read in a Danish manuscript, that 
 down to the year 1484, there was a company of more than 
 forty sailors at Bergen, in Norway, who still traded with 
 Greenland. 1 But as the revenue at that time belonged to 
 Queen Margaret of Denmark, no one could go to Greenland 
 without the royal permission. One company of sailors who 
 were driven upon the Greenland coast, came near suffering 
 the penalty of the law on their return. Crantz 2 says, that 
 "about the year 1530, Bishop Amund of Skalholtin Iceland 
 is said to have been driven by a storm, on his return from 
 Norway, so near the coast of Greenland by Heriulfness, that 
 he could see the people driving in their cattle. But he did 
 not land, because just then a good wind arose, which carried 
 the ship the same night to Iceland. The Icelander, Bisernvon 
 Skardfa, who relates this, also says further, that a Ham- 
 burgh mariner, Jon Greenlander by name, was driven three 
 times on the Greenland island, where he saw such fisher's 
 huts for drying fish as they have in Iceland, but saw 
 no men ; further, that pieces of shattered boats, nay, in 
 the year 1625, an entire boat, fastened together with sinews 
 
 of Ptolemy made Greenland a western extension of Norway, the 
 position of the country being misunderstood. The Icelandic 
 chronicles distinctly say that, half a century before the voyage 
 of Eric, a great country was known at the west, being called 
 " Ireland the Great." It would seem that this country was first 
 reached by the Irish, whose prior discovery was conceded by the 
 Icelanders. The Irish had described it, evidently, as a land 
 of verdure, while the Saga says that Eric applied the name 
 of " Greenland " to the part he visited, not from any peculiar 
 fitness but from motives of policy, saying that " men would 
 be persuaded to go to a land with so good a name." Possibly 
 the term "Greenland" was originally applied to the whole 
 of North America, as were other names that finally came to 
 have a local meaning. See " Verrazano the Explorer." 
 
 'Egede's "Greenland," p. xlvii. 
 
 *Ibid., xlviii. 
 5
 
 34 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 and wooden pegs, and pitched with seal blubber, have been 
 driven ashore at Iceland from time to time ; and since then 
 they found once an oar with a sentence written in Runic 
 letters: 'Oft var ek dasa, dur elk drothikj that is, ' Oft 
 was I tired when I drew thee.' " * 
 
 LOST GREENLAND FOUND. 
 
 But, whatever may be the value of the preceding state- 
 ments of Skardfa, it is clear that Greenland was never 
 wholly forgotten. The first person who proposed to re- 
 open communication was Eric Walkendorf, Archbishop of 
 Drontheim, who familiarized himself with the subject, and 
 made every preparation necessary in order to re-establish 
 the colony ; but, having fallen under the displeasure of King 
 Christian II, he left the country and went to Rome, where 
 he died in the year 1521. Thus his plans came to nothing. 2 
 Christian III abrogated the decree of Queen Margaret, pro- 
 hibiting trade with Greenland without the royal permission, 
 and encouraged voyages by fitting out a vessel to search for 
 Greenland, which, however, was not found. In 1578, Fred- 
 eric II sent out Magnus Henningsen. He came in sight of 
 the land, but does not appear to have had the courage to 
 proceed further. Crantz, in his work on Greenland, gives 
 an account of a number of voyages undertaken to the coast, 
 but says that " at last Greenland was so buried in oblivion 
 that one hardly would believe that such a land as Green- 
 land was inhabited by Christian Norwegians." 3 
 
 It remained, therefore, for Hans Egede, 4 in 1721, to re- 
 
 1 Crantz's " Greenland," vol. I, p. 264. 
 
 'Crantz's " Greenland," p. 274. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 279. 
 
 * Hans Egede was a clergyman in priest's orders, and min- 
 ister of the congregation at Vogen in the northern part of 
 Norway, where he was highly esteemed and beloved. He 
 spent fifteen years as a missionary in Greenland, and died at 
 Copenhagen, 1758. Reference here is exclusively to the 
 Scandinavians, as we remember voyages like those of Davis 
 and Frobisher from England.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 35 
 
 open communication. Columbus himself did not endure much 
 greater mortification than did this good man for the space of 
 eleven years, during which period he labored to persuade the 
 Danish and Norwegian authorities to undertake the re-dis- 
 covery. But his faith and zeal finally overcame all hostility 
 and ridicule. On the 2d day of May, 1721, he went on 
 board the Hope, with his wife and four young children, 
 and landed at Ball's river in Greenland on the third of the 
 following month. Here he spent the best portion of his 
 life in teaching the natives Christianity, which had been 
 first introduced seven centuries before, and in making those 
 explorations the results of which filled the mind of Europe 
 with surprise, and afforded a confirmation of the truthful- 
 ness of the Icelandic Sagas. 
 
 THE CHARACTER AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE NORTHMEN. 
 
 Let us now return to the consideration of the Icelandic 
 voyages to the American Continent, though not without first 
 seeking a better acquaintance with the men by whom they 
 were performed. 
 
 We have already seen that the Northmen were a people 
 of no inferior attainments. Indeed, they constituted the 
 most enterprising portion of the race, and, on general prin- 
 ciples, we should, therefore, view them as fitted, even above 
 all the men of their time, for the important work of explo- 
 ration beyond the seas. They had made themselves known 
 in every part of the civilized world l by their daring as sol- 
 diers and navigators. Straying away into the distant east 
 whence they originally came, we see them laying the founda- 
 tion of the Russian empire, swinging their battle-axes in 
 the streets of Constantinople, carving their mystic ruins upon 
 the Lions of the Areopagus, and filling the heart of even 
 the great Charlemagne with dismay. Says Dasent, when 
 summing up their achievements : " In Byzantium they are 
 the leaders of the Greek emperor's body guard, and the 
 
 1 The motto on the sword of Roger Guiscard was: 
 
 " Appulus et Calaber Siculus mihi Servit et Afer."
 
 36 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 main support of his tottering throne. From France, led by 
 Rollo, they tear away her fairest province and found a long 
 line of kings. In Saxon England they are the bosom friends 
 of such kings as Athelstane, and the sworn foes of Ethelred 
 the Unready. In Danish England they are the foremost 
 among the thanes of Canute, Swein and Hardicanute, and 
 keep down the native population with an iron heel. In 
 Norman England," he continues, " the most serious opposi- 
 tion the conqueror meets with is from the colonists of his 
 own race settled in Northumbria. He wastes their lands 
 with fire and sword, and drives them across the border, 
 where we still find their energy, their perseverance, and 
 their speech existing in the lowland Scotch. In Norway 
 they dive into the river with King Olaf Tryggvesson, the 
 best and strongest champion of his age, and hold him down 
 beneath the waves so long that the bystanders wonder 
 whether either king or Icelander will ever reappear on the 
 the surface. 1 Some follow Saint Olaf in his crusades against 
 the old [pagan] faith. 2 Some are his obstinate foes and as- 
 sist at his martyrdom. Many follow Harold the Stern to 
 England when he goes to get his ' seven feet ' of English 
 earth, and almost to a man they get their portion of the 
 same soil, while their names grow bright in song and story." 
 Finally, " From Iceland as a base, they push on to Green- 
 land and colonize it : nay, they discover America in those 
 half-decked barks." 3 
 
 THE SHIPS OF THE NORTHMEN. 
 
 The Northmen were excellent navigators. They were, 
 moreover, it has been claimed, the first to learn the art of 
 sailing on the wind. They had good sea-going vessels, some 
 of which were of large size. We have an account in the 
 
 1 See Laing's Heimskringla, vol. n, p. 450. This refers to 
 his swimming match with Kiarten the Icelander, in which 
 the king was beaten. 
 
 * See Saga of Saint (not king) Olaf. 
 
 3 Des Antiquaires du Nord, 1859.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 37 
 
 Saga of Olaf Tryggvesson of one that in some respects was 
 remarkable. It is said that " the winter after King Olaf 
 Tryggvesson came from Halegoland, he had a great ship 
 built at Ledehammer, 1 which was larger than any ship in 
 the country, and of which the beam-knees are still to be 
 seen. The length of the keel that rested upon the grass was 
 seventy-four ells. Thorberg Skafting was the man's name 
 who was the master builder of the ship, but there were many 
 others besides ; some to fell the wood, some to shape it, some 
 to make nails, some to carry timber, and all that was 
 used was the best. The ship was both long and broad 
 
 and high sided, and strongly timbered The ship 
 
 was a dragon, built after the one that the king had cap- 
 tured in Halegoland, but it was far longer and more care- 
 fully put together in all her parts. The Long Serpent [her 
 name] had thirty-four benches for rowers. The head and 
 arched tail were both gilt, and the bulwarks were as high 
 as in sea-going ships. This ship was the best and most 
 costly ever built in Norway." 2 
 
 1 Ledehammer. The point of land near the house of Lede, 
 just below Drontheim. 
 
 "Laing's Heimskringla, vol. I, p. 457. It is related that 
 while they were planking the ship, "it happened that Thor- 
 berg had to go home to his farm upon some urgent business; 
 and as he stayed there a long time, the ship was planked upon 
 both sides when he came back. In the evening the king 
 went out and Thorberg with him, to see how the ship looked, 
 and all said that never was seen so large and fine a ship 
 of war. Then the king went back to the town. Early the 
 next morning the king came back again to the ship, and 
 Thorberg with him. The carpenters were there before them, 
 but all were standing idle with their hands across. The king 
 asked, 'What is the matter?' They said the ship was 
 ruined; for somebody had gone from stem to stern, and cut 
 one deep notch after another down the one side of the plank- 
 ing. When the king came nearer he saw that it was so, and 
 said with an oath, * The man shall die who has thus ruined 
 the ship out of malice, if he can be found, and I will give a 
 
 85533
 
 38 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 Laing computes the tonnage of this ship at about nine 
 hundred and forty-two tons, thus giving a length of about 
 one hundred feet, which is nearly the size of a forty-two 
 gun ship. By steam tonnage it would give a capacity of a 
 little less than three hundred tons, and one hundred and 
 twenty horse power. We apprehend, however, that the 
 estimate is sufficiently large ; yet we are not concerned to 
 show any gre*at capacity for the Icelandic ships. All the 
 vessels employed in the early times on the American coasts 
 were small. The Anna Pink, a craft that accompanied 
 Lord Anson in his expedition around the world, measured 
 only sixteen tons. 1 The vessels of the Northmen were 
 every way adapted for ocean voyages. 
 
 great reward to him who finds him out.' '1 can tell you, 
 king,' says Thorberg, ' who has done this piece of work.' ' I 
 don't think that any one is so likely to find it out as thou art.' 
 Thorberg says: 'I will tell you, king, who did it, I did it 
 myself.' The king says, * Thou must restore it all to the 
 same condition as before, or thy life shall pay for it.' Then 
 Thorberg went and chipped the planks until the deep notches 
 were all smoothed and made even with the rest; and the king 
 and all present declared that the ship was much handsomer 
 on the side of the hull which Thorberg had chipped, and 
 bade him shape the other side in the same way and gave him 
 great thanks for the improvement." 
 
 1 A few years ago two very ancient vessels which probably 
 belonged to the seventh century, were exhumed on the coast 
 of Denmark, seven thousand feet from the sea, where they 
 were scuttled and sunk. The changes in the coast finally 
 left them imbedded in the sand. One vessel was seventy-two 
 feet long, and nine feet wide amidships . The other was forty- 
 two feet long, and contained two eight-sided spars, twenty- 
 four feet long. The bottoms were covered with mats of 
 withes for the purpose of keeping them dry. Among the 
 contents was a Damascened sword, with runes, showing that 
 the letter existed among the Northmen in the seventh cen- 
 tury. See Horsford's notice of an ancient ship, " Address 
 at the unveiling of the Statue of Lief Erickson" p. 21. Also 
 illustrations in "Narrative and Critical History," I, 62-4.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 39 
 
 In nautical knowledge, also, they were not behind the 
 age. The importance of cultivating the study of naviga- 
 tion was fully understood. The Raudulf of Oesterdal, in 
 Norway, taught his son to calculate the course of the sun 
 and moon, and how to measure time by the stars. In 1520 
 Olaus Magnus complained that the knowledge of the people 
 in this respect had been diminished. In that noble work 
 called Speculum Regale, the Icelander is taught to make an 
 especial study of commerce and navigation, of the divisions 
 of time and the movements of the heavenly bodies, together 
 with arithmetic, the rigging of vessels and morals. 1 With- 
 out a high degree of knowledge they could never have 
 achieved their many voyages. 
 
 THE SAGAS AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 We find that the Northmen were well acquainted with 
 other parts of the world, and that they possessed all the 
 means of reaching the Continent in the west. We come, 
 therefore, to the question : Did the Northmen actually dis- 
 cover and explore the coast of the country now known as 
 America ? 
 
 No one can say that the idea wears any appearance of 
 improbability ; for there is certainly nothing wonderful in 
 the exploit. After conceding the fact that colonies of the 
 
 1 The people of Iceland were always noted for their superi- 
 ority in this respect over their kinsmen in Denmark and Nor- 
 way. There is one significant fact bearing on this point, 
 which is this: that, while a few of the people of Iceland 
 went at an early period to engage in piratical excursions with 
 the vikings of Norway, not a single pirate ship ever sailed 
 from Iceland. Such ways were condemned altogether at an 
 early day, while various European nations continued to sanc- 
 tion piracy down to recent periods. Again it should be re- 
 membered that in Iceland duelling was also solemnly declared 
 illegal as early as 1011, and in Norway the following year; 
 while in England it did not cease to be a part of the judicial 
 process until 1818. See Sir Edmund Head's " Viga-Glum 
 Saga," p. 120.
 
 40 FEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 Northmen existed in Greenland for at least three hundred 
 years, we must prepare ourselves for something of this 
 kind. Indeed it is well nigh, if not altogether unreasonable, 
 to suppose that a sea-faring people like the Northmen could 
 live for three centuries within a short voyage of this Conti- 
 nent, and never become aware of its existence. A supposi- 
 tion like this implies a rare credulity, and whoever is ca- 
 pable of believing it must be capable of believing almost 
 any thing. 
 
 But on this point we are not left to conjecture. The de- 
 cision, in the absence of proofs like those furnished by 
 Greenland, turns upon a question of fact. The point is 
 this : Do the manuscripts which describe these voyages be- 
 long to the pre-Columbian age? If so, then the North- 
 men are entitled to the credit of the prior discovery of 
 America. That these manuscripts belong to the pre-Co- 
 lumbian age is as capable of demonstration as the fact that 
 the writings of Homer existed prior to the age of Christ. 
 Before intelligent persons deny either of these points they 
 must first succeed in blotting out numberless pages of well- 
 known history. The manuscript in which we have versions 
 of all the Sagas relating to America is found in the cele- 
 brated Codex Flatoiensis, a work that was finished in the 
 year 1387, or 1395 at the latest. This collection, made with 
 great care and executed in the highest style of art, is now 
 preserved in its integrity 1 in the archives of Copenhagen. 
 These manuscripts were for a time supposed to be lost, but 
 were ultimately found safely lodged in their repository in 
 the monastery library of the island of Flato, from whence 
 
 1 Those who imagine that these manuscripts, while of pre- 
 Columbian origin, have been tampered with and interpolated, 
 show that they have not the faintest conception of the state 
 of the question. The accounts of the voyages of the North- 
 men to America form the framework of Sagas which would 
 actually be destroyed by the elimination of the narratives. 
 There is only one question to be decided, and that is the date 
 of the compositions.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 41 
 
 they were transferred to Copenhagen with a large quantity 
 of other literary material collected from various localities. 
 If these Sagas which refer to America were interpolations, 
 it would have early become apparent, as abundant means 
 exist for detecting frauds ; yet those who have examined 
 the whole question do not find any evidence that invalidates 
 their historical statements. In the absence, therefore, of 
 respectable testimony to the contrary, we accept it as a fact 
 that the Sagas relating to America are the productions of 
 the men who gave them in their present form nearly, if not 
 quite, an entire century before the age of Colnmbns. 
 
 It might also be argued, if it were at all necessary, that, 
 if these Sagas were post-Columbian compositions drawn 
 up by Icelanders who were jealous of the fame of the 
 Genoese navigator, we should certainly be able to point 
 out something either in their structure, bearing, or style by 
 which it would be indicated. Yet such is not the case. 
 These writings reveal no anxiety to show the connection of 
 the Northmen with the great land lying at the west. The 
 authors do not see any thing remarkable or meritorious in 
 the explorations, which were conducted simply for the pur- 
 pose of gain. Those marks which would certainly have 
 been impressed by a more modern writer forging a historical 
 composition designed to show an occupation of the country 
 before the time of Columbus, are wholly wanting. There 
 is no special pleading or rivalry, and no desire to show prior 
 and superior knowledge of the country to which the navi- 
 gators had from time to time sailed. We only discover a 
 straightforward, honest endeavor to tell the story of certain 
 men's lives. This is done in a simple, artless way, and with 
 every indication of a desire to mete out even-handed justice 
 to all. Candid readers who come to the subject with minds 
 free from prejudice will be powerfully impressed with the 
 belief that they are reading authentic histories written by 
 honest men. 1 
 
 1 The fact that Mr. Bancroft has in times past expressed 
 opinions in opposition to this view will hardly have weight 
 6
 
 42 FEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 THE LITERATURE OF ICELAND. 
 
 Before speaking particularly of the substance of the 
 Sagas it will be necessary to trace briefly the origin and 
 history of Icelandic literature in general. 
 
 We have already mentioned the fact that Iceland was 
 mainly settled by Norwegians of superior qualities. This 
 superiority was always maintained, though it was some- 
 what slow in manifesting itself in the form of literature. 
 Prior to the year 1000, the Runic alphabet had existed in 
 
 with those familiar with the subject. When that writer com- 
 posed the first chapter of his History of the United States. 
 he might have been excused for setting down the Icelandic 
 narratives as shadowy fables; but, with all the knowledge shed 
 upon the subject at present, we have a right to look for some- 
 thing better. It is, therefore, unsatisfactory to find him per- 
 petuating his early views in each successive edition of the 
 work, which show the same knowledge of the subject betrayed 
 at the beginning. He tells us that these voyages " rest on 
 narratives mythological in form, and obscure in meaning/' 
 which certainly cannot be the case. Furthermore they are 
 " not contemporary; " which is true, even with regard to Mr. 
 Bancroft's own work. Again, " The chief document is an 
 interpolation in the history of Sturleson." This cannot be 
 true in the sense intended, for Mr. Bancroft conveys the idea 
 that the principal narrative first appeared in Sturleson's his- 
 tory when published at a late day. It is indeed well known 
 that one version, but not the principal version, was interpo- 
 lated in Peringskiold's edition of Sturleson's Heimskringla, 
 printed at Copenhagen. But Bancroft teaches that these re- 
 lations are of a modern date, while it is well known that they 
 were taken verbatim from Codex Flatdiensis, finished in the 
 year 1395. He is much mistaken in supposing that the north- 
 ern antiquaries think any more highly of the narratives in 
 question, because they once happened to be printed in con- 
 nection with Sturleson's great work. He tells us that Sturle- 
 son "could hardly have neglected the discovery of a conti- 
 nent," if such an event had taken place. But this, it should
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 43 
 
 Iceland, bnt it was generally used for the simplest purposes. 1 
 History and literature derived no advantage, as the runes 
 were used chiefly for monumental inscriptions, and for mot- 
 toes and charms on such things as drinking cups, sacrificial 
 vessels and swords. Yet the people were not without a 
 kind of intellectual stimulus. It had long been the custom 
 to preserve family and general histories, and recite them 
 
 be remembered, depends upon rohether or not the discovery 
 was considered of any particular importance. This does 
 not appear to have been the case. The fact is nowhere 
 dwelt upon for the purpose of exalting the actors. Besides, 
 as Laing well observes, the discovery of land at the west had 
 nothing to do with his subject, which was the history of the 
 kings of Norway. The discovery of America gave rise to a 
 little traffic, and nothing more. Moreover the kings of Nor- 
 way took no part, were not the patrons of the navigators, and 
 had no influence whatever in instituting a single voyage. Mr. 
 Bancroft's last objection is that Ylnland, the place dis- 
 covered, "has been sought in all directions from Greenland 
 and the St. Lawrence to Africa." This paragraph also con- 
 veys a false view of the subject, since the location of Vinland 
 was as well known to the Northmen as the situation of Ireland, 
 with which island they had uninterrupted communication. 
 
 Washington Irving has expressed doubt in his Life of Co- 
 lumbus, written as he says, before the means of examining this 
 question ivere placed within his reach, and in the appendix 
 of his work he mixes the idle tales of St. Brandan's Isle with 
 the authentic histories of the Northmen. A very limited in- 
 quiry would have led him to a different estimate. 
 
 1 The word rune comes from ryn, a furrow. Odin has the 
 credit of the invention of runes, yet they are probably of Phe- 
 nician origin. They were sometimes used for poetical pur- 
 poses. Halmund, in the Grettir Saga (see Sabing Baring 
 Gould's Iceland], says to his daughter: "Thou shalt now 
 listen whilst I relate my deeds, and sing thereof a song, which 
 thou shalt afterward cut upon a staff." This indicates the 
 training the memory must have undergone among the North- 
 men.
 
 44 FEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 from memory as occasion seemed to warrant. This was 
 done with a wonderful degree of accuracy and fidelity, by 
 men more or less trained for the purpose, and whose 
 performances at times were altogether surprising. They 
 also had their scalds or poets, who were accustomed 
 both to repeat the old songs and poems and extemporize 
 new ones. Every good fighter was expected to prove him- 
 self a poet when the emergency required it. The poet was 
 strongly encouraged. When Ey vind Skialdespilder sang his 
 great song in praise of Iceland every peasant in the island, 
 it is said, contributed three pieces of silver to buy a clasp 
 for his mantel of fifty marks weight. These scalds were 
 sometimes employed by the politicians, and on one occasion 
 a satire so nettled Harold, king of Denmark, that he sent a 
 fleet to ravage Iceland, and made the repetition an offense 
 punishable with death. The Icelandic poets also went to 
 England, to the Orkneys and to Norway, where, at the 
 king's court, they were held in the highest estimation, fur- 
 nishing poetical effusions on every public or private occasion 
 which demanded the exercise of their gifts. The degree to 
 which they had cultivated their memories was surprising. 
 Old Blind Skald Stuf could repeat between two and three 
 hundred poems. The Saga-men had the same power of 
 memory. This we know may be improved to almost any 
 extent by cultivation. But with the advent of Christianity 
 came the Roman alphabet, which proved an easy method of 
 expressing thought. Christianity, however, did not stop 
 here. Its service was a reasonable service, and demanded 
 of its votaries a high intelligence. The priest of Odin need 
 do no more than to recite a short vow, or mutter a brief 
 prayer. He had no divine records to read and to explain. 
 But the minister of the new religion came with a system 
 that demanded broader learning and culture than that im- 
 plied in extemporaneous songs. His calling required the 
 aid of books, and the very sight of such things proved a 
 mental stimulus to this hard-brained race. Besides, Chris- 
 tianity opened to the minds of the people new fields of
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 45 
 
 thought. These rude sons of war soon began to understand 
 that there were certain victories, not to be despised, that 
 might be gained through peace, and erelong letters came to 
 be somewhat familiar to the public mind. The earliest writ- 
 ten efforts very naturally related to the lives of the Saints, 
 which on Sundays and holy days were read in public for the 
 edification of the people. During the eleventh century 
 these exercises shared the public attention with those of the 
 professional Saga-man, who still labored to hand down the 
 oral versions of the national history and traditions. In 
 the beginning of the twelfth century the use of letters was 
 extended, and at last the Saga-man found his occupation 
 gone, the national history now being diligently gathered up 
 by zealous students and scribes and committed to the more 
 lasting custody of the written page. Among the writers 
 was Ari Frode, who began the compilation of the Icelandic 
 Dooms-day Book^ which contained a record of the early 
 settlers. Scarcely less useful was Ssemund the Wise, who 
 collected the poetical literature of the North and arranged 
 it in a goodly tome. The example of these great men was 
 followed, and by the end of the twelfth century all the 
 Sagas relating to the pagan period of the country had been 
 reduced to writing. This was an era of great literary ac- 
 tivity, and the century following showed the same zeal. 
 Finally Iceland possessed a body of prose literature supe- 
 rior in quantity and value to that of an}' other modern 
 nation of its time. 1 Indeed, the natives of Europe at this 
 period had no prose or other species of literature hardly 
 worthy of the name ; and, taken altogether, the Sagas 
 formed the first prose literature in any modern language 
 spoken by the people. 2 Says Sir Edmund Head, " No 
 
 1 For a list of many Icelandic works, see the Introduction 
 of Laing's " Heimskringla." See also Horn's "History of 
 the Literature of the Scandinavian North." Translated by 
 Anderson, Chicago, 1884. Also the work of William and 
 Mary Howitt. 
 
 2 See Sir Edmund Head's Viga Glum Saga, pp. viii and ix.
 
 46 PfiE-CoLUMBiAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 doubt there were translations in Anglo-Saxon from the 
 Latin, by Alfred, of an earlier date, but there was in truth 
 no vernacular literature. I cannot name," he says, " any 
 work in high or low German prose which can be carried 
 back to this period. In France, prose writing cannot be 
 said to have begun before the time of Villehardouin (1204), 
 and Joinville (1202). Castilian prose certainly did not com- 
 mence before the time of Alfonso X (1252). Don Juan 
 Mauvel, the author of the Conde Lucanor, was not born till 
 1282. The Cronica General de Espana was not composed 
 till at least the middle of the thirteenth century. About 
 the same time the language of Italy was acquiring that 
 softness and strength which was destined to appear so con- 
 spicuously in the prose of Boccaccio, and the writers of the 
 next century." x 
 
 Thus, while other nations were without a literature, the 
 intellect of Iceland was in active exercise, and works were 
 produced like the Eddas and the Heimskringla, works in- 
 spired by a lofty genius and which will rank with the 
 writings of Homer and Herodotus while time endures. 
 
 In the beginning of the sixteenth century, however, the 
 literature of Iceland reached the period of its greatest ex- 
 cellence, and began to decline. Books continued to be writ- 
 ten, but works of positive genius were wanting. Yet in 
 Iceland there has never been an absence of literary industry, 
 while during the recent period the national reputation has 
 been sustained by Finn Magnussen and similar great names. 
 One hundred years before the Plymouth colonists, following 
 in the track of Thorwald Ericson, landed on the sands of 
 Cape Cod, the people of Iceland had set up the printing 
 press, and produced numerous works both in the native 
 language and the Latin tongue. 
 
 It is to this people, whom Saxo Grammaticus points out 
 
 1 Ibid. Of course there was more or less poetry, yet poetry 
 is early developed among the rudest nations, while good prose 
 proves that a people have become highly advanced in mental 
 culture.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 47 
 
 as a people distinguished for their devotion to letters, that 
 we are indebted for the narratives of the pre-Columbian 
 voyages to America. Though first arranged for oral recita- 
 tion, the Sagas, as we have seen, were afterward committed 
 to manuscript, the earliest of which do not now exist, while 
 the latest were those preserved in the celebrated Flato col- 
 lection nearly a century before the re-discovery of America 
 by Columbus. 
 
 It is no longer necessary to spend much time in this con- 
 nection, since the character and value of the Icelandic writ- 
 ings have come to be generally acknowledged, and especially 
 since scholars and antiquaries like Humboldt and Max 
 Muller have fully acknowledged their authenticity and 
 authority. 
 
 COLUMBUS AND THE NORTH. 
 
 It is proper to notice here the fact that not a few have 
 imagined that the claims of the Northmen have been brought 
 forward to detract from the fame of Columbus ; yet, nothing 
 could be farther from the truth, since no one denies that it 
 was by the discovery of America by Columbus that the Con- 
 tinent became of great value to the Old World, though we 
 must always remember that North America is chiefly in- 
 debted to the Cabots, who led the way for English supremacy. 
 
 EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES TO ICELAND. 
 
 But nothing should deter us from inquiring into the re- 
 lation held by Columbus to the pilots and geographers of the 
 North, 1 especially since so many fancy that the northern 
 regions were little visited at the period of his activity. Still 
 we find that in the fourteenth century the fisheries were 
 commonly pursued around Iceland, whose people were in 
 
 1 Bulletin de Geographic, 1858, p. 177. Are Frode, in 1608, 
 speaking of the visit paid to Iceland by Floke Vilgerderson, 
 says that in those times seamen had no loadstone in the north- 
 ern countries. The Bible Guyot, 1150, speaks of the load- 
 stone as "un pierre laida et brumiere."
 
 48 FEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 regular communication with Greenland. The English also 
 must have known of Greenland at the time, though, in com- 
 mon with the people of Iceland and Norway, they did not 
 appreciate the importance of this knowledge. In the four- 
 teenth century, proof is found both in the Icelandic and 
 English annals, of the connection between the two countries. 
 The Icelandic contains indications of the arrival of English 
 ships, but it is clear that their coming was so well known as 
 to gain only a casual allusion, the interest standing connected 
 with the news brought. The entries were made at the time, 
 and are now set down in chronological order in accordance 
 with the language of the original. Let us, therefore, notice 
 these entries. 
 
 In 1348, news reached Iceland that in England the mor- 
 tality was so great that 200,000 persons had died. 1 The 
 next year the death of English sailors at Bergen, in Norway, 
 opposite Iceland, was reported, and recorded in the Sagas. 2 
 This is all that we find at present in connection with the 
 fourteenth century in Iceland ; but the reference of the 
 Saga to the great mortality in England is confirmed by 
 Stow's " Annales," which state that the plague reached Eng- 
 land in 1348, touching the seaports first. Thence, no doubt, 
 the news was at once carried by fishermen to Iceland. 3 If 
 the voyages of the English to Iceland had possessed greater 
 interest, there would have been some more definite notice 
 in the Sagas. We are free, however, to admit that, early 
 in this century, the merchant trade may have been small, as 
 in 1328 Edward III does not mention Iceland in his '''Pro 
 Mercatoribus ExtraneisT Nor does he mention Denmark 
 or Norway, but these are included in the general language, 
 "Omnium aliarum Terrarutn et looorum extranorunt"* 
 
 1 " Islenzkir Anndlar," Hafniae, 1847, p. 276. The Icelandic 
 is as follows : " Mannfall ogurlegt d Englendi sva at tvo 
 hundred thousand datt nidr." 
 
 8 Ibid., 278. 
 
 8 Stow's " Anndlar," p. 245, Ed. 1631. 
 
 *EymerV Fcedera, iv, 361.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 49 
 
 Nevertheless, the mandate of Edward III, dated March 
 18, 1354, recognizes the fact that the king maintained a 
 fleet for service in the " parts Boreal," John de Haddon 
 being the Admiral. 1 It was probably designed to protect 
 the fishermen and merchants from pirates around the north 
 of Britain. 
 
 In the Icelandic annals of the fifteenth century, the first 
 clear entry is that of 1407, when news was received of 
 the death of the Archbishop of York. 2 In 1412, it was re- 
 corded that five English sailors had separated from their 
 ship and wintered in the island. 3 In 1413, "thirty more 
 fishing vessels came from England." Some of them were 
 blown to the northern part of Iceland, and possibly to the 
 Greenland coast. 4 
 
 In 1415, six English ships sailed to Iceland, and made 
 their port in the Westmann Islands. 5 In 1416, six ships 
 anchored in Hafnafiord, in the south-west of Iceland. 6 In 
 1419, many English ships were wrecked on the coast of Ice- 
 land, and a large number of lives were lost. 7 The "Annals," 
 in the present compilation, end with the year 1430, and 
 these six entries are all that we find. If carefully consid- 
 ered, however, it will appear that these mentions really 
 form memorabilia. This will be seen by turning to the 
 English annals for the corresponding period. The first 
 reference to Iceland in the Fcedera is that of 1415, when 
 Henry Y, for the satisfaction of the King of Denmark, 
 ordered that during the year none of his subjects should 
 presume to visit any of " the coasts of the islands belonging 
 
 'Ibid., v, 778. 
 
 J Annular, p. 382. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 386. 
 
 4 Ibid., p. 388. 
 
 5 Ibid., p. 390. 
 
 5 Ibid., p. 392. 
 
 'Ibid., p. 394. In this connection the author employs 
 material given by him in his " Inventio Fortunata," devoted 
 to the subject of Arctic Discovery. 
 7
 
 50 PKE-COLUMBIAtf DISCOVERY OF 
 
 to Denmark and Norway, and especially to the island of 
 Iceland," for the purpose of fishing or trading, "otherwise 
 than according to the ancient custom " (aliter quani anti- 
 quitus fieri consuevit." l This notice was served upon the 
 authorities of the various seaports of England. Here, then, 
 we learn, in connection with 1415, that in the ancient times 
 voyages to Iceland had become frequent. It is clear from, 
 the complaint of the Danish king that the old rules respect- 
 ing traffic had been broken habitually, and that they were 
 now to be observed, at least for one year. Of the exact 
 nature of the ancient law we cannot speak, but it would ap- 
 pear as though the prohibition related to the shore fisheries, 
 which they were not to intrude upon, and hence, when the 
 English went to Iceland, in 1415, they harbored off the 
 coast of the Westmann Islands. The arrival of the ships, 
 under the circumstances, formed a noticeable event, and for 
 this reason it was recorded. The Icelandic Annals add, im- 
 mediately after mentioning their arrival, that " the ships 
 brought letters from the King of England to the people and 
 the chief men of Iceland." 
 
 There is, then, a complete agreement between the Eng- 
 lish and the Icelandic Annals, both showing that an English 
 fleet visited Iceland in 1415 a circumstance which should 
 go very far to establish the general value and credibility of 
 those records of a distant age. 2 
 
 In 1416, the English were again in Iceland, but the 
 Fwdera does not mention voyages until 1436, when Henry 
 VI issued a license to John, the Icelandic Bishop of Holem, 
 then in London, authoriziug him to engage John May, with 
 his ship " Catherine," for a voyage to Iceland, where May, 
 evidently an old voyager, was to act as his attorney, and 
 transact certain business for him, the Bishop himself not 
 wishing to undertake the voyage. 3 In 1436, Richard 
 
 1 "Fadera," ix, 322. 
 
 * This agreement between the English and Icelandic au- 
 thorities was pointed out now for the first time, iu "Inventio 
 Fortunata" 
 
 3 "Fcedera," x, 645 and 659, Ed. 1877.
 
 AMEEICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 51 
 
 Weston, of London, a " stockfishmonger," was well known 
 by the Icelanders. 1 In 1440, Henry YI sent two ships to 
 Iceland, with supplies. It was feared that without this aid 
 from England, the sacraments even would be omitted, there 
 being neither wine nor salt in the country, and only milk 
 and water (lac et aquarri)? 
 
 In connection with the year 1445, another voyage is in- 
 dicated by the Admiralty " Black Book," action having 
 been taken against William Byggeman, and two men of 
 Lynn, who visited Iceland in a " dogger," called the " Trin- 
 ity." They kidnapped a boy whom they brought to Swete- 
 sham and held in servitude, contrary to law. 3 
 
 In 1450, a treaty was made between the Kings of Den- 
 mark and England, which prohibited trading in Iceland ; 
 but a special provision of Parliament exempted Thomas 
 Canynges, Mayor of Bristol, from the prohibition, in con- 
 sideration of his great services to Iceland. He was accord- 
 ingly allowed to send two ships thither to load with fish or 
 other commodities. His trade with Iceland was a matter of 
 general knowledge, and throws additional light upon a cer- 
 tain remark by Columbus. 
 
 It should be remembered also, that the Zeno Brothers 
 made their voyage to Greenland, and a part of the Ameri- 
 can coast called Estotiland, and Drogeo, in 1400 ; but it is 
 
 'Ibid., x, 762. These supplies were sent to the Bishop 
 of Skalholt, who alone was authorized by the Synod of Den- 
 mark to supply the elements of the sacraments to the 
 churches. See " Kirchengefcliichte von Danemark und Nor- 
 wegan " (Hunter), in, 16. 
 
 4 Ibid., x, 645. 
 
 3 " Item quod Willelums Byggemane de Suetesham magister 
 cujusdem navis vocatae le Trinyte, dictae vulgariter dogger, 
 Johannis Pigot et Henrici Sorysbi de Lenna Episcopi, circa 
 festum Exultacionis Sanctae Crucis anno dicti regis vicesimo 
 tertio, cepit unum pueram in partibus de Islandia, et ipsum 
 duxit in dicta navi ad ibidem usque Suetsham, adsibi servien- 
 dum, contra statuta regia in hoc parte facta." Monumenta 
 Juridicia (Black Book), i, 273.
 
 52 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 not desirable to dwell upon such a familiar theme here. It 
 suffices to say : The Zeno Map, published with the narra- 
 tive in 1558, shows that the Zeno family had a knowledge 
 of Greenland that could have been obtained only during the 
 pre-Columbian times. 1 
 
 In this connection the investigator must not overlook the 
 voyage of Skoluus the Pole, which took place in 1476. 
 Hakluyt says that this voyage is mentioned by Gemma 
 Frisius and Girava. 2 It is certainly referred to on an ancient 
 globe of about 1540, preserved in Paris, and known as 
 " The Rouen Globe," whereon, near the north-west coast of 
 Greenland, is a legend declaring that Skolnus reached that 
 point in 1476. This globe seems to antedate Gomara (1553), 
 the earliest author that the writer has been able to consult. 
 
 Next, attention should be directed to the voyage of Co- 
 lumbus, of which the Genoese himself gives the following 
 account : 
 
 "In the month of February, 1477, I sailed a hundred 
 leagues beyond the island of Thyle, the southern part of 
 which is distant from the equinoctial 73 degrees, and not 63 
 as some wish it to be ; nor does it lie upon the line where 
 Ptolemy's west begins, but much more toward the west. And 
 to this island, which is as large as England, the English 
 come for traffic, and especially those of Bristol. And at 
 the time I was there the sea was not frozen, but in some 
 
 1 On Zeno, see " TJie Sailing Directions of Henry Hudson," 
 p. 5; " TJie Northmen in Maine," p. 30. Also a full dis- 
 cussion of the subject in the Hakluyt Society's edition of the 
 voyage, edited by Major. 
 
 9 Hakluyt makes his reference in a general way, giving 
 neither chapter nor page. Frisius published " De Principius 
 Astronomiae & Cosmographiae," &c., in 1530. The " Cosmo- 
 graphaim," of Hieronimo Girava was printed 1556. Gomara 
 mentions Skolnus in his " Historia/' c, xxxvii, Ed. 1553. See 
 "The Sailing Directions of Henry Hudson " p. 23, in con- 
 nection with Wytfliet and Pontanus. For Hakluyt, see 
 Maine Coll., S. 2, vol. n, p. 148.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 53 
 
 places the tide rose 26 fathoms [feet], and fell the same." 1 
 Whoever wrote the life of the Admiral, there is no question 
 but that he made the voyage. Finn Magnussen has pointed 
 out an interesting confirmation of the statement of Columbus 
 respecting the mild weather in 1477, where he shows from 
 the " Annals," the remarkable fact, that, in 1477, snow had 
 not been seen at Eyaf jord, in the north of Iceland, as late 
 as March. 2 
 
 1 The Italian runs as follows: " lo navigai 1'anno 1477, nel 
 mese di Febraio oltra Tile isola cento leghe, la ciu parte Aus- 
 trale e lontana dalF Equinottiale settantatre gradi, et non ses- 
 santra, come alcuni vogliono: negiace dentro della linea, che 
 include 1'Occidente di Tolomeo, ma 6 molto piu Occidentale. 
 Et a quest' isola, che tanto grande come 1'Inghilterra, vanno 
 gPInglesi con le loro mercatantie, specialmente quelli di 
 Bristol. Et al tempo, che io vi andai, non era congelelate il 
 mare che in alcuni luoghi ascendena ventesi braccia, et dis- 
 cendena altro tanti in altezza." (Historia del S. D. Fernando 
 Colombo, 1571, c. iv.) "Braccia" is evidently a clerical 
 error, as the original Spanish will doubtless show, if ever 
 found. That Columbus was familiar with the map in the 
 Ptolemy of 1486, showing the northern regions, with Green- 
 land as an extension of Europe, can hardly be doubted. His 
 remark respecting Thyle appears to be intended almost as a 
 correction of that map, on which the Orcades and Thyle are 
 laid down north of Scotland, Thyle being in 63 N"., while it 
 appears again further north as "Islandia." This double 
 representation of Iceland on the map was a blunder, the 
 island being laid down first according to Ptolemy, and then 
 according to the prevailing ideas of the day. This peculiar- 
 ity of the map entitles it to interest as a Columbian map, 
 though the feature referred to does not appear to have been 
 remarked upon hitherto by any except the writer. 
 
 2 The fact was produced from the Annals by Finn Magnus- 
 sen, in " Nordish Tidskrift for Olkyndighed" vol. n, p. 
 128. It has been suggested, though without reason, that the 
 voyage of Columbus was made in 1467. See Barrow's " Chro- 
 nological History," p. 26. Columbus gives the wrong lati-
 
 54 PRE-COLUMBIAN" DISCOVERY OF 
 
 To this period belongs the voyage of Robert Alcock, of 
 Hall, who, in 1478, was commissioned by Edward IY to 
 send a ship of 240 tons to Iceland, which was " to reload 
 with fish or other goods." 1 He was licensed again in 1483. 
 
 Chaucer in the prologue to the Canterbury Tales, shows 
 by his " Shipman " something of the activity of the British 
 sailor at this period. 
 
 An indication more to our present purpose is found in 
 the poem on " The Policie of Keeping the Sea," which be- 
 longs to the middle of the fifteenth century. At that time 
 the northern region was so well known that the author of 
 the poem disposes of the subject briefly : 
 
 " Of Island to write is little nede, 
 Save of stockfish; yet forsooth, indeed, 
 Out of Bristowe, and costea many one, 
 Men have practiced by needle and stone 
 Thider wardes within a little while 
 Within twelve yere, and without perill 
 Qon and come, an men were wont of old 
 Of Scarborough unto the costes cold." 2 
 
 Thus, at the time when the poet wrote, Bristol had re- 
 vived her old enterprise. The maritime enterprise of this 
 period is greatly underrated by Mr. Froude. The sketch 
 now given of voyages toward the north, especially during 
 the fourteeth and fifteenth centuries, is quite general. 
 It would be easy to swell the citations from various sources, 
 among which may be mentioned the voyages to the west of 
 Ireland so well known to Columbus, as his biography 
 proves. Yet enough has been said to show the real charac- 
 ter of the period. The times, both before and after the 
 general date assigned to the voyage of Columbus, were 
 
 tudes for the places visited, but this may be the fault of the 
 editor ; while Humboldt says that they were not the result of 
 his own observations during a rough wintry voyage. See 
 " Examen Critique," n, 115, and v, 214, n. In 1550 a 
 Bristol ship was lost at Iceland. See Barrett's Bristol. 
 
 1 " Fcedera," xn, 94. 
 
 * Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 201. Ed. 1599-1600.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 55 
 
 marked by great activity, and expeditions to the north were 
 so common that neither the English nor the Icelanders took 
 the trouble to mention them, except when they stood con- 
 nected with circumstances of particular interest. The inter- 
 course between Iceland and England was so frequent, that 
 sailors like John May, who served as the representative of 
 the Bishop of Holem, must have acquired a fair knowledge 
 of the language spoken in that distant isle. Indeed, at one 
 time, under the Normans, the Icelandic tongue gave a per- 
 son the advantage at the courts of both England and 
 France. 1 
 
 But enough has been said to prove that the voyage of 
 Columbus, in 1477, formed no novelty. His actions take 
 their place with entire naturalness in the annals of his age, 
 there being nothing in the nature of the voyage to challenge 
 belief. 
 
 Columbus had the most ample opportunities for learning 
 of the voyages of the Northmen. He could not associate 
 with the English sailors without hearing more or less about 
 Iceland, and presumably of Greenland. He must have 
 known that voyages were made to the west, though it is 
 probable that he did not appreciate the importance of the 
 information and failed to put it to use in the traditional con- 
 nections. He argued, no doubt, that the land at the west 
 visited by the Icelanders, was not the Indies, of which he 
 was in search." This led him to take the Southern route 
 
 1 Laing's " Heimskringla," vol. I, chap, viii, p. 61. 
 
 2 When at the western end of Cuba on his second voyage, 
 so certain was Columbus that he had reached the eastern 
 coast of Asia that he required his companions, under oath, to 
 declare that Cuba was not an island but the continent, under 
 penalty of 30,000 maravedis, and having their tongues cut 
 out. See document in Navarrete's " Collecion," vol. n, p. 
 155. See, also, Gravier's translation of the Author's 
 Treatise on the Lenox Globe, " Le Globe Lenox de 1511. 
 Traduit de Anglaies par Gabriel Gravier" Kouen, 1880, 
 p. 25.
 
 56 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 across the Atlantic. 1 In this connection, however, the 
 author has no interest in the work of lessening the 
 deserved fame of Columbus. That Columbus knew of the 
 westward voyages of the Icelanders is sufficiently evident. 
 He clearly believed, as the Northmen did, namely, that Green- 
 land was an extension of Norway, and that Yinland lay 
 contiguous, while what he desired was to reach the eastern 
 coast of Asia. 2 
 
 THE PRESENT STATE OF THE DISCUSSION. 
 
 About fifty years have passed since the publication of 
 
 1 See the author's " Columbus and the Geographers of the 
 North." Hartford, 1872. Those who are interested in belit- 
 tling the work of Columbus can consult Goodrich's " Life of 
 Columbus." See, also, "An Inglorious Columbus," by Ed. 
 P. Vining, New York, 1885, a somewhat remarkable book; 
 together with "America not Discovered by Columbus." "An 
 Historical Sketch of the Discovery of America by the Norse- 
 men, in the Tenth Century, by .Rasmus B. Anderson, A. M., 
 with an Appendix on the Historical, Linguistic and Scientific 
 Value of the Scandinavian Languages. New and Improved 
 Edition. Chicago, 1877." On the routes across the Atlan- 
 tic, see "Narrative and Critical History," in, 172. 
 
 2 The author does not find evidence of any plan or even any 
 desire on the part of the authorities of the Koman church to 
 suppress knowledge of the Icelandic voyages, in order to ex- 
 alt Columbus. When invited to canonize Columbus, the body 
 to which the subject was referred, reported adversely, one rea- 
 son being that they had " grave doubts " concerning the private 
 character of Columbus, a subject that historical writers do not 
 care to concern themselves about. Besides, in this country 
 writers of the Eoman church incessantly use the establish- 
 ment of the Icelanders in New England as a ground of their 
 own ecclesiastical priority. See Roman Catholic writers in 
 general, and especially Dr. John Gilmary Shay and Dr. 
 Clarke. On this point see the work of Miss Marie A. Brown on 
 the Northmen, and the four numbers of her Journal, " Leif 
 Ericson."
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 57 
 
 Rafn's work on the antiquities of America, which gives the 
 Icelandic text of the Sagas, accompanied by translations in 
 Latin and Danish. The appearance of that remarkable 
 work excited surprise in many intelligent circles, though a 
 general knowledge of the Icelandic voyages had long been 
 in the possession of scholars, especially through the writings 
 of Torfaeus. The volume was favorably reviewed by Edward 
 Everett, and, both in America and Europe, at once com- 
 manded the attention of historians and antiquaries. 1 While 
 some of the more enthusiastic conclusions of Prof. Rafn 
 have been disallowed, his main proposition has steadily 
 gained favor, it being conceded that voyages were made by 
 the Northmen to New England in the eleventh centurj'. 
 
 On this subject Humboldt speaks most emphatically, say- 
 ing with regard to " the undoubted first discovery of Amer- 
 ica, in its northern portion by the Northmen," that, "whilst 
 the Caliphate still nourished under the Abassidesat Bagdad, 
 and Persia was under the dominion of Samanides, whose age 
 was so favorable to poetry, America was discovered in the 
 year 1000 by Leif, son of Eric the Red, by the northern 
 route and as far 41 30' north latitude." 2 
 
 Turning to our own country we have the testimony of a 
 laborious and painstaking investigator like Palfrey, who 
 examined the whole subject, and gives us as his final conclu- 
 sion respecting the Sagas, that " their antiquity and genu- 
 ineness appear to be well established, nor is there any thing 
 to bring their credibility into question beyond the general 
 doubt which always attaches to what is new or strange." 3 
 
 As the result, historical writers in general accept the 
 Sagas as authority, and usually locate Leif Ericson's settle- 
 ment in New England. 4 
 
 American Review." 
 2 "Cosmos," vol. n, p. 603. "Examen Critique." 
 8 History of New England, vol. n, p. 53. 
 4 See such works as the Bryant-Gay " History of the United 
 States/' 
 
 8
 
 58 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 A large proportion of the American school histories give 
 the voyages of the Northmen to America, and there is now 
 being raised up a generation that will be free from that old 
 bias, which formerly gave Columbus the field, to the exclu- 
 sion not only of the Northmen, but of the Cabots, who saw 
 the American Continent before Columbus could possibly 
 have done so. 1 
 
 In New England the study of the Icelandic Sagas has 
 resulted in the erection of a statue to Leif Ericson in the 
 City of Boston. This was not accomplished without oppo- 
 sition, the movement having been opposed by a class of 
 men, small in numbers, but whose general attainments and 
 devotion to the study of historical subjects entitle any opin- 
 ion they may present to respectful consideration. They 
 represent what, in some respects, may, perhaps, be regarded 
 as a conservative element, an element of value in connection 
 with historical study, even as when joined to politics, 
 theology and sociology. It often, however, misses its aim, 
 and helps forward, rather than hinders, the progress of a new 
 line of thought. Certain it is in the present case, that op- 
 position has stimulated investigation and advanced the 
 influence of the Sagas as historical documents. It is, there- 
 fore, in vain that those to whom reference is made under- 
 take to declare, that " There is the same sort of reason for 
 believing in the existence of Leif Ericson that there is for 
 believing in the existence of Agamemnon ; they are both 
 traditions accepted by later writers." 
 
 It is sufficiently evident that local feeling, which often 
 vitiates the studies of the most accomplished men, enters 
 into this singular declaration. It serves no special pur- 
 pose, beyond proving a feeling of irritation on the part of 
 men accustomed to have every utterance received with 
 deference, but who have discovered a certain inability to 
 
 1 See author's article on the Claim of Cabot in the Independ- 
 ent, and Dr. Deane's discussion of the Cabot question, Nar- 
 rative and Critical History, vol. in, and separate, Cambridge, 
 1888.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 59 
 
 control public opinion in connection with historical monu- 
 ments. The people have moved on, and left them behind. 
 But, notwithstanding their opposition, the study of the 
 whole subject of Pre-Columbian Discovery is indebted to 
 their efforts, and the student of the Sagas should regard it 
 as fortunate, that the opposition has come from so influen- 
 tiau a source, since, in the future, when these compositions 
 shall have gained unanimous belief, it may prove a source of 
 satisfaction to know that the veracity of the old Icelandic 
 chronicler was established in the face of persevering and 
 determined organized opposition. 1 The future of the Ice- 
 landic Sagas relating to America is plain. Their simple, 
 unaffected statements, all uncolored either by personal 
 vanity or national ambition, will more and more win the 
 confidence of historians, who find in these statements, 
 committed to writing, as all the testimony proves, in 
 Pre-Columbian times, convincing and unanswerable proof 
 of the fact that Leif Ericson and other adventurers found 
 America and visited New England during the times and 
 under the circumstances described. 2 
 
 1 Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, December, 
 1887. The opinion of so distinguished an Icelandic scholar 
 as Professor Dasent alone would be accepted in critical circles 
 as disposing of any opinion propounded by the Committee 
 responsible for the above statement. 
 
 8 Pp. 76-132, vol. i, "Narrative and Critical History," con- 
 tain a large amount of matter relating to this subject, and 
 the contribution is one of much value; though it is to be re- 
 gretted that the labor should be employed, largely, it would 
 seem, for the purpose of belittling the subject. Yet, with 
 unequalled facilities at the Editor's command, it cannot be 
 said that the authority of the Sagas has been shaken. We 
 find, substantially, opinion arrayed against argument, and the 
 wealth of bibliography and illustration simply renders more 
 apparent the weakness of the Editor's cause. Adverse criti- 
 cism cannot grapple successfully with the subject, and may 
 be considered as having done its worst, while unfortunately
 
 60 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 THE ICELANDIC NARRATIVES. , 
 
 It now remains to give the reader some general account 
 of the contents of the narratives which relate more or less 
 to the discovery of the Western continent. It may be well 
 first, however, to notice an attempt at criticism made in the 
 North American Review]- which assumes that the Sagas are 
 simply reductions of old ballads, because Sturleson admits 
 that & part of his " Heimskringla " was so produced. As it 
 happens, however, the Yinland Sagas contain only four 
 poetical fragments, while in the Heimskringla they abound. 
 A few verses are also found in Landanama, in its second part, 
 the origin of which is absolutely known. The first part was 
 composed in the eleventh century and the second in the 
 fourteenth, when the ballad theory becomes positively ab- 
 surd. This work likewise contains two more extracts from 
 the poem " Havgerdinger," which is also quoted in the Saga 
 relating to the first voyage of Biarne to America, proving 
 clearly that it was a well-known and popular song, quoted by 
 the different writers just as Shakespere is quoted to-day. 
 Sometime, too, these quotations have no real relation to the 
 subject, having been introduced on the principle which 
 governs the introductions of songs and hymns on oratorical 
 occasions in our times. 
 
 Nevertheless empty theories like this are devised, showing 
 that the critic has no proper conception of the nature of 
 Icelandic literature, either in prose or verse. 2 
 
 In speaking of these records the order followed will be 
 that which is indicated by the table of contents at the be- 
 ginning of the volume. 
 
 the effect leaves behind on the pages of a noble work what in 
 the future will be recognized not only as a useful and stimu- 
 lating contribution, but a scar. 
 
 1 July, 1869, -pp. 265-72. 
 
 2 The critic in question was replied to by the author in 
 " Notes on a Review of the Pre-Columbian Discovery of 
 America by the Northmen" Charlestown, Mass., 1869.
 
 AMEBICA BY THE NOBTHMEN. 61 
 
 The first extracts given are very brief. They are taken 
 from the Landanama Book, and relate to the report in 
 general circulation, indicating one Gunnbiorn as the 
 discoverer of Greenland, an event which has been fixed at 
 the year 876. These fragments also give an account of a 
 voyage to what was called Gunnbiorn's Rocks, where the 
 adventurers passed the winter, and found in a hole, or exca- 
 vation, a sum of money, which indicated that others had 
 frequented the place before them. 
 
 The next narrative relates to the re-discovery of Greenland 
 by the outlaw, Eric the Red, in 983, who there passed three 
 years in exile, and afterward returned to Iceland. About 
 the year 986, he brought out to Greenland a considerable 
 colony of settlers, who fixed their abode at Brattahlid, in 
 Ericsfiord. 
 
 Then follow two versions of the voyage of Biarne Heriulf - 
 son, who, in the same year, 986, when sailing for Greenland, 
 was driven away during a storm, and saw a new land at the 
 southward, which he did not visit. He was complained of, 
 because he did not describe it carefully, so that Leif had only 
 the most vague reports for his guidance. 
 
 Next follows three accounts of the voyage of Leif, son 
 of Eric the Red, who, in the year 1000, sailed from Brattah- 
 lid to find the land which Biarne saw. Two of these ac- 
 counts are hardly more than notices of the voyage, but the 
 third is of considerable length, and details the successes of 
 Leif, who found and explored this new land, where he spent 
 the winter, returning to Greenland the following spring. 
 With his descriptions we find ourselves on solider ground 
 than the voyage of Biarne. 
 
 After this follows the voyage of Thorvald Ericson, brother 
 of Leif, who sailed to Yinland from Greenland, which was 
 the point of departure in all these voyages. This expedition 
 was begun in 1002, and it cost him his life, as an arrow 
 from one of the natives pierced his side. 
 
 Thorstein, his brother, went to seek Vinland, with the 
 intention of bringing home his body, but failed in the at-
 
 62 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 tempt, and was driven back, passing the winter in a part of 
 Greenland remote from Brattahlid, where he died before the 
 spring fully opened. 
 
 The most distinguished explorer was the great Thorfinu 
 Karlsefne, an Icelander whose genealogy runs back in the 
 old Northern annals, through Danish, Swedish, and even 
 Scotch and Irish ancestors, some of whom were of royal 
 blood. In the year 1006 he went to Greenland, where he 
 met Gudrid, widow of Thorstein, whom he married. Ac- 
 companied by his wife, who urged him to the undertaking, 
 he sailed for Yinland in the spring of 1007, with three vessels 
 and one hundred and sixty men. He remained in Yinland 
 three years. Here his son Snorre was born. This Snorre 
 afterwards became the founder of a great family in Iceland, 
 which gave the island several of its earlier bishops. Thorfinn 
 finally left Vinland because he found it difficult to sustain 
 himself against the attacks of the natives. He seems to 
 have spent the most of the time in the vicinity of Mount 
 Hope Bay in Rhode Island. Of this expedition we have 
 three narratives, all of which are given. 
 
 The next to undertake a voyage was a wicked woman 
 named Freydis, sister of Leif Ericson, who went to Vinland 
 in 1011, where she lived for a time with her two ships' crews 
 in the same places occupied by Leif and Thorfinn. Before 
 she returned, she caused the crew of one ship to be cruelly 
 murdered, assisting in the butchery with her own hands. 
 
 After this we have what are called the Minor Narratives, 
 which are not essential, yet they are given, that the reader 
 may be in the possession of all that relates to the subject. 
 The first of these refers to a voyage of Are Marson to a 
 land south-west of Ireland, called Hvitrarnmana-land, or 
 Great Ireland. This was prior to Leif's voyage to Yinland, 
 or New England, taking place in the year 983. Biorn As- 
 brandson is supposed to have gone to the same place in 999. 
 The voyage of Gudleif, who went thither, is assigned to the 
 year 1027. The narrative of Asbrandson is given for the 
 sake of the allusion at the close.
 
 AMEBICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 63 
 
 Finally we have a few scraps of history which speak of 
 a voyage of Bishop Eric to Vinland in 1121, of the re-dis- 
 covery of Helluland (Newfoundland) in 1285, and of a voy- 
 age to Markland (Nova Scotia) in 1347, whither the North- 
 men came to cut timber. With such brief notices the ac- 
 counts come to an end. 
 
 THE TRUTHFULNESS OF THE NARRATIVES. 
 
 The reader will occasionally find in these narratives in- 
 stances of a marvelous and supernatural character, but there 
 is nothing at all mythological, as persons ignorant of their 
 nature have supposed. Besides there are multitudes of nar- 
 ratives of a later date, to be found in all languages, which 
 contain as many statements of a marvelous nature as these 
 Sagas, which, nevertheless, contain a substantial ground-work 
 of truth. All early histories abound in the supernatural, 
 and these things are sowell known that illustrations are 
 hardly needed here. The relation of prodigies in nowise 
 destroys the credibility of historical statement. If this were 
 not so, we should be obliged to discard the greater portion 
 of well-known history, and even suspect plain matters of 
 fact in the writings of such men as Dr. Johnson, because 
 that great scholar fully believed in the reality of an appari- 
 tion known in London as the Cock- Lane Ghost. The Sagas 
 are as free from superstition and imagination as most other 
 narratives of that age, and are just as much entitled to belief. 
 
 There will also, in certain cases, be found contradictions. 
 The statements of the different narratives do not always 
 coincide. The disagreements are, however, neither very 
 numerous nor remarkable. The discrepancies are ex- 
 actly what we should expect to find in a series of nar- 
 ratives written at different times and by different hands. 
 The men who recorded the various expeditions to New 
 England in the eleventh century agree, on the whole, 
 quite as well as the writers of our own day, who, with 
 vastly greater advantages, undertake to narrate the events
 
 64 FEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 of the colonization of America in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, i 
 
 Therefore these marvelous statements and occasional con- 
 tradictions in nowise detract from the historic value of the 
 documents themselves, which, even in their very truthful- 
 ness to the times, give every evidence of authenticity and 
 great worth. To this general appearance of truthfulness 
 we may, however, add the force of those undesigned coin- 
 cidences between writers widely separated and destitute of 
 all means of knowing what had been already said. The 
 same argument may be used with the Sagas which had been 
 so powerfully employed by Paley and others in vindicating 
 the historical character of the New Testament. 2 In these 
 narratives, as in those of SS. Paul and John, it may be 
 used with overwhelming effect. Yet we should not fear to 
 dispense with all auxiliary aids. We are willing to rest 
 the whole question of the value of these narratives upon 
 their age; for if the Sagas date back to a period long 
 prior to the voyage of Columbus, then the Northmen 
 are entitled to the credit of having been the first Euro- 
 peans to land upon these shores. But the date of these 
 
 1 The liability of the best historians to fall into error is 
 illustrated by Paley, who shows the serious blunders in the 
 accounts of the Marquis of Argyle's death, in the reign of 
 Charles II: "Lord Clarendon relates that he was con- 
 demned to be hanged, which was performed the same day; on 
 the contrary, Burnet, Woodrow, Heath and Echard concur in 
 stating that he was beheaded, and that he was condemned 
 upon Saturday and executed on Monday." Evidences of 
 Christianity, pare in, chap. i. So Mr. Bancroft found it im- 
 possible to give with any accuracy the location of the French 
 colony of St. Savior, established on the coast of Maine, by 
 Saussaye, in 1613. Bancroft tells us that it was on the north 
 bank of the Penobscot, while it is perfectly well known that 
 it was located on the island of Mount Desert, a long way off, 
 in the Atlantic ocean. 
 
 * This is the language held in the first edition of the work,
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 65 
 
 narratives has now been settled beyond reasonable ques- 
 tion. The doubts of the ablest critical minds, both in 
 Europe and America, have been effectually laid to rest, and 
 at the end of all the years that have passed since the first 
 edition of this work came from the press, we are obliged to 
 repeat that the reply now given to the Northern Antiquary 
 is often " some feeble paragraph pointed with a sneer." 
 
 We need not, therefore, appear before the public to cry, 
 " Place for the Northmen ! " They can win their own 
 place, as of old. They are as strong to-day in ideas, as an- 
 ciently in arms. 
 
 MONUMENTS AND REMAINS. 
 
 That the Northmen left no pronounced architectural re- 
 mains in New England may be true. Professor Rafn sup- 
 posed that he found in the celebrated Dighton Rock 1 and 
 
 though one might infer from the language employed by 
 Diman in his review of the book in the North American Re- 
 vieiv (July, 1869) that the author was at that time wholly 
 unacquainted with the fact. Our language seems to have 
 escaped the attention of the reviewer. 
 
 1 Dighton Kock, known as the Writing Rock, is situated 
 six and a half miles south of Taunton, Mass., on the east side 
 of Taunton river, formed by Assonnet Neck. It lies in the 
 edge of the river, and is left dry at low water. It is a boul- 
 der of fire graywack, twelve feet long and five feet high, and 
 faces the bed of the river. Its front is now covered with 
 chiseled inscriptions of what appear to be letters and outlines 
 of men, animals and birds. As early as the year 1680, Dr. 
 Danforth secured a drawing of the upper portion; Cotton 
 Mather made a full copy in 1712; and in 1788, Professor 
 Winthrop, of Harvard College, took a full-sized impression 
 on prepared paper. Various other copies have been made at 
 different times, all of which present substantially the same 
 features. Yet in the interpretation of the inscription there 
 has been little agreement. The old rock is a riddle. A copy 
 of the inscription was shown to a Mohawk chief, who decided 
 9
 
 66 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 the stone mill at Newport, evidences of the Icelandic occu- 
 pation. Any serious efforts to identify the Dighton in- 
 scription and the Newport Mill with the age of the North- 
 
 that it was nothing less than the representation of a triumph 
 by Indians over a wild beast, which took place on this spot. 
 Mr. Schoolcraft also showed a copy to Chingwank, an Algon- 
 quin well versed in picture-writing, who gave a similar inter- 
 pretation. The Eoman characters in the central part of the 
 composition he was finally induced to reject, as having no 
 connection with the rest. Whoever compares this inscription 
 with those of undeniably Indian origin found elsewhere, 
 cannot fail to be impressed with the similarity. Neverthe- 
 less, members of the Eoyal Society of Antiquaries, to whose 
 notice it was brought by the Khode Island Historical Society, 
 felt strongly persuaded that the rock bore evidence of .the 
 Northman's visit to these shores. Mr. Laing, the accom- 
 plished translator of the Heimskringla, in discussing the 
 theories in regard to the inscription, says, that the only 
 resemblance to letters is found in the middle of the stone, in 
 which antiquaries discover the name of Thorfinn, that is, 
 Thorfinn Karlsefne, the leader of the expedition which came 
 to New England in 1007. Just over these letters is a charac- 
 ter, supposed to be Roman also, which may signify NA, or 
 MA, the letter A being formed by the last branch of M. Now 
 MA in Icelandic is used as an abbreviation of Madr, which 
 signifies the original settler of a country. Close to these two 
 letters are several numerals, construed to mean one hundred 
 and fifty-one. According to the account of the voyage, Thor- 
 finn lost nine of the one hundred and sixty men with whom 
 it is presumed he started, and therefore one hundred and fifty- 
 one would exactly express the number with him at the time 
 he is supposed to have cut the inscription. This, then, 
 would mean altogether, that Thorfinn Karlsefne established 
 himself here with one hundred and fifty-one men. Yet, as 
 the testimony of this rock is not needed, we may readily 
 forego any advantage that can be derived from its study. 
 Besides, the history of similar cases should serve to temper 
 our zeal. In the time of Saxo G-rammatticus (1160), there
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 67 
 
 men can only serve to injure a good cause. If Professor 
 Rafn could have seen these memorials himself, he would 
 doubtless have been among the first to question the truth of 
 the theory which he set forth. 
 
 was a stone at Hoby, near Runamoe, in the Swedish province 
 of Bleking, which was supposed to be sculptured with runes. 
 At a late day copies were furnished the antiquary, who came 
 to the conclusion, as Laing tells us, that it was a genuine in- 
 scription, referring to the battle of Braaville, fought in the 
 year 680. It afterward turned out that the apparent inscrip- 
 tion was made by the disintegration of veins of a soft material 
 existing in the rock. Yet the Dighton inscription is beyond 
 question the work of man. Mr. A. E. Kendal, writing in 
 1807, says that there was a tradition that Assonnet Neck, on 
 which tongue of land the rock is situated, was once a place 
 of banishment among the Indians. He states, further, that 
 the Indians had a tradition to the effect that in ancient times 
 some white men in a bird landed there and were slaughtered 
 by the aborigines. They also said thunder and lightning 
 issued from the bird, which fact indicates that this event, if 
 it occurred at all, must be referred to the age of gunpowder, 
 suggesting the visit made by Verrazano to New England, but 
 very likely pointing to some later navigator. Mr. Kendal 
 mentions the story of a ship's anchor having been found there 
 at an early day. In former years the rock was frequently dug 
 under by the people, in the hope of finding concealed treas- 
 ures. It is said that a small rock once existed near by, which 
 also bore marks of human hands. The Portsmouth and 
 Tiverton Eocks, described by Mr. Webb (Antiquitates Ameri- 
 cans, pp. 355-71), are doubtless Indian inscriptions; while 
 that on the island of Monhegan, off the coast of Maine, may 
 perhaps be classed with the rock of Hoby. After all, it is 
 possible that the central portion of the inscription on the 
 Dighton Rock may be the work of the Northmen. That two 
 distinct parties were concerned in making the inscription is 
 clear from the testimony of the Indians, who did not pretend 
 to understand the portion thought to refer to Karlsefne. For 
 the full discussion, see Antiquitates Americana, p. 378, et seq.
 
 68 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 In regard to the structure at Newport, Professor Rafu 
 says that he is inclined to believe " that it had a sacred des- 
 tination, and that it belonged to some monastery or Chris- 
 tian place of worship of one of the chief parishes in Vin- 
 land. In Greenland," he says, " there are to be found ruins 
 of several round buildings in the vicinity of the churches. 
 One of this description, in diameter about twenty-six feet, 
 is situated at the distance of three hundred feet to the east- 
 ward of the great church in Igalliko ; another of forty -four 
 feet in diameter, at the distance of four hundred and forty 
 feet to the eastward of the church in Karkortok ; 
 a third, of thirty-two feet in diameter amongst the ruins of 
 sixteen buildings at Kanitsok.' ' l He supposes that all these 
 ancient remains of the Icelanders, which are to be seen in 
 Greenland to-day, are baptisteries, similar to those of Italy. 
 
 According to this view, there must have been a consider- 
 able ecclesiastical establishment in Yinland, which is not 
 clearly indicated by the Sagas, from which we learn no more 
 than the simple fact that Bishop Eric sailed on a voyage to 
 this place in the year 1121. But is it probable that the 
 Northmen would have erected a baptistery like this, and, at 
 the same time, left no other monument? It seems hardly 
 reasonable. Besides, whoever examines this ancient struct- 
 ure must be impressed by its modern aspect, so especially 
 apparent in the mortar, which has been analyzed and found 
 to be substantially the same as the mortar used in some of 
 the early structures of Newport. The displacement of a 
 portion of the masonry might perhaps reveal some peculiarity 
 that would effectually settle the question of its antiquity to 
 the satisfaction of all if any question remains. 2 
 
 1 Memoirs des Antiquaires du Nord, 1839-9, p. 377. 
 
 2 See Mag. American History, vol. in, p. 541. The old 
 mill at Newport stands on an eminence in the center of the 
 town, being about twenty-four feet high, and twenty- three 
 feet in diameter. It rests upon eight piers and arches. It 
 has four small windows, and, high up the wall, above the 
 arches, was a small fireplace. It is first distinctly mentioned
 
 AMEKICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 69 
 
 In Greenland the evidences of the Northmen's occupa- 
 tion are abundant, because they were regularly established 
 
 in the will of Governor Benedict Arnold, of Newport, where 
 it is called, "my stone-built wind mill." It is known that 
 during the eighteenth century it served both as a mill and 
 powder-house. Edward Pelham, who married Governor 
 Arnold's grand-daughter, in 1740 also called it "an old stone 
 mill." Peter Easton, who early went to live in Newport, 
 wrote in 1663, that "this year we built the first windmill; " 
 and August 28, 1675, he says, " a storm blew down our wind- 
 mill." What Eastoii relates occurred before Governor Arnold 
 writes about his stone windmill, and it is not unreasonable to 
 suppose that when the one spoken of by Easton was destroyed 
 he built something more substantial. Yet we cannot say that 
 this was actually the case. Some old tower may have been 
 adapted by him for the purposes of a mill, when the one 
 mentioned by Easton was destroyed. The family of the Gov- 
 ernor is said to have come from Warwickshire, England. One 
 of his farms was called the Leamington Farm, as is supposed, 
 from the place by that name near Warwick. In addition to 
 this, in the Chesterton Parish, three miles from Leamington, 
 there is an old windmill similar in construction to that at 
 Newport. It is supposed that it was erected on pillars for 
 pneumatic reasons, and, also, that carts might thus go under- 
 neath to be loaded and unloaded with greater ease. It has 
 been suggested, that if Gov. Arnold came from Warwick- 
 shire, of which the proof is not given, and if the Chesterton 
 Mill was standing at the time of his departure for New Eng- 
 land, he might have built a mill at Newport after the same 
 model. Yet this is something we know little about. 
 Whence came the Chesterton Mill itself? There was a tradi- 
 tion that it was built after a design by Inigo Jones, but this 
 is only a tradition. That structure also might have belonged 
 to the class of Towers, of which one at least was built by 
 Northmen in Greenland. All is. therefore, in a measure, 
 doubtful. It will hardly help the Northmen to class this 
 Newport relic with their works. See Palfrey's New England, 
 vol. i, pp. 57-59. Berliner's Monthly, March, 1879.
 
 70 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERT OF 
 
 on the ground for generations, and formed their public and 
 private edifices of the only material at hand, which was well 
 nigh imperishable. But their visits to New England were 
 comparatively few, and were scattered over many years. 
 Owing to the weakness of their numbers, they found perma- 
 nent colonies impracticable. Thorfinn Karlsefne deliber- 
 ately gave up the attempt at the end of a three years' ex- 
 periment, saying that it would be impossible to maintain 
 themselves against the more numerous bands of natives. 
 Their habitations were temporary. The various companies 
 that came into Yinland, instead of building stone houses 
 occupied temporary huts or booths, like Leif's booths, and 
 simply added others similar to them when they afforded in- 
 sufficient quarters. To ask for monumental proofs of the 
 occupation of the Northmen is, therefore, unreasonable, 
 since their wooden huts and timber crosses must soon have 
 disappeared. The memorial we have a right to expect is 
 some relic, a coin or amulet, perhaps, that chance may yet 
 throw in the antiquary's way, 1 or some excavation, it may 
 
 1 Many have supposed that the skeleton in armor, dug 
 up near Fall River, was a relic of the Northmen, being the 
 remains of one of those men killed by the natives in the bat- 
 tle with Karlsefne. But it would be far more reasonable to 
 look for traces of the Northmen among the Indians of Gaspe, 
 who, at an early day, were distinguished for an unusual de- 
 gree of civilization. Malte Brun tells us that they wor- 
 shiped the sun, knew the points of the compass, observed the 
 position of some of the stars, and traced maps of their coun- 
 try. Before the French missionaries went among them they 
 worshiped the figure of the cross, and had a tradition that a 
 venerable person once visited them, during an epidemic, 
 curing many by the use of that symbol. See Malte Brun's 
 Geography (English edition), vol. v, p. 135. Malte Brun's 
 authority is Father Leclerc's "Nouvelle Relation de la Gas- 
 pesie," Paris, 1672. See on the Skeleton in Armour Mass. 
 Hist. Coll 1837; also Williamson, " the Northmen in Maine/' 
 Hist. Mag., Jan., 1869, p. 30. At Pittston, Me., trees three
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 71 
 
 be a trench, conduit, cellar or incipient fortress. In the 
 meanwhile, among scholars, the Icelandic narratives are 
 steadily winning their way to unquestioned belief. This is 
 all the more gratifying in an age like the present, in which 
 large portions of history are being dismissed to the realms 
 of hoary fable, and all the annals of the past are being 
 studied in a critical spirit, with true aims and a pure 
 zeal. 
 
 feet in diameter and with six hundred annular rings, were 
 found associated with brick work, which, so far as appear- 
 ances went, antedated the trees. In connection with things 
 of this sort we may also consult such curious compositions as 
 " Traces of the Northmen in America," 1861, by Abner 
 Morse .
 
 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY. 
 
 I. FRAGMENTS FROM LANDANAMA-BOOK. 
 
 The following extracts from the Landanama, 1 give us 
 the earliest information on record, in regard to the west- 
 ward movements of the Icelanders. The men referred to 
 were well known, and the mention of their names and ex- 
 ploits in this great work, than which no higher authority 
 could be produced, is gratifying. These extracts, which 
 are given in the order in which they stand in vol. i, of 
 Gronland's Historiske Mindesmc&rker, " The Historical 
 Monuments of Greenland," the greater portion of which 
 work is the labor of Finn Magnnssen, have probably never 
 appeared before in an English dress. The first extract 
 simply mentions Gunnbiorn and his Rocks ; the second shows 
 that Eric the Red obtained at least a portion of his knowl- 
 edge of Greenland through this person ; the third again 
 gives the name of Gunnbiorn ; while the fourth furnishes a 
 brief account of an early voyage to the Rocks. It appears 
 
 1 The Landanama-booTc. This is probably the most complete 
 record of the kind ever made by any nation. It is of the 
 same general character as the English Doomsday Book, but 
 vastly superior in interest and value. It contains the names 
 of three thousand persons and one thousand four hundred 
 places. It gives a correct account of genealogies of the first 
 settlers, with brief notices of their achievements. It was 
 commenced by the celebrated Frode, the Wise, who was born 
 1067, and died 1148, and was continued by Kalstegg, Styr- 
 mer and Thordsen, being completed by Hauk Erlendson, 
 Lagman, or Governor of Iceland, who died in the year 1334. 
 10
 
 74 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 from these references, that, previous to the sailing of Eric 
 the Red, the existence of land at the west was well under- 
 stood. The report of Gunnbiorn's adventure was quite 
 generally circulated amongst the people. Are Mason's voy- 
 age to the West, we shall see, was 983, or three years earlier. 
 
 1. There was a man named Grimkel [A. D. 876], son of 
 Ulf Hreiparson, called Krage, and brother to Gunubiorn, 1 
 after- whom Gunnbiorn's Rocks 1 are named. He took pos- 
 session of that piece of land that extends from Berevigs 
 Roin to Ness Roin, and out round the point of the cape. 
 He lived on Saxahval. He drove away Saxe, a son of 
 Alfarin Yaleson, and he lived on the Roin of Saxahval. 
 Alfarin Valeson had first taken possession of the cape be- 
 tween Berevigs Roin and Enne. 
 
 2. Eric Red [A. D. 983] said that he intended to find 
 
 1 Gunnbiorn appears to have been a Northman who settled 
 in Iceland at an early day. Nothing more is known of him. 
 
 * Torfaeus says that these rocks lie six sea miles out from 
 Geirfuglesker, out from Reikiavek, and twelve miles sotith of 
 Garde in Greenland, yet they cannot now be found. It is 
 not too much to suppose that they have been sunk by some 
 of those fearful convulsions which have taken place in Ice- 
 land; yet it is quite as reasonable to conclude that these rocks 
 were located elsewhere, probably nearer the east coast, which 
 was formerly more accessible than now. In the version of the 
 Account of Greenland, by Ivar Bardson (see " Antiquitates 
 Americana" p. 301), given from a Faroese Manuscript, and 
 curiously preserved by Purchas, " His Pilgrimgae," vol. ill, 
 p. 518, we read as follows: "Item, men shall know, that, be- 
 tween Island and Greenland, lyeth a Risse called Gornbornse- 
 Skare. There were they wont to haue their passage for Gron- 
 land. But as they report there is Ice upon the same Risse, 
 come out of the Long North Bottome, so that we cannot use 
 the same old Passage as they thinke." See " Sailing Direc- 
 tions of Henry Hudson."
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 75 
 
 the land that was seen by Gunnbiorn, 1 Ulf Krage's son, 
 when he was driven by a storm west from Iceland, and 
 found Gunnbiorn's Rocks. [A. D. 876.] At the same time 
 he said if he did not find the laud he would return to his 
 friends. 
 
 3. Two sons of Gunnbiorn, Ulf Krage's son, after whom 
 Gunnbiorn's Rocks were named, were called Gunstein and 
 Haldor. They took possession of Skotufiorden, Loigardelen 
 and Ogursvigen to Mjorfiord. Berse was Haldor's son, 
 
 father to Thormod Kalbrunarskald. 
 
 
 
 4. Snsebiorn (Holmstein's son), called Galte, owned a ship 
 [A. D. 970], that lay in the mouth of Grimsar (in Bor- 
 gafiorden). Rolf, from Rodesand, bought a half of the ship. 
 Each of the parties mustered twelve men. "With Snsebiorn 
 was Thorkel and Sumarlide, sons of Thorgier Red, son of 
 Einar, from Stafholdt. 
 
 Snsebiorn also took Thorod from Thingness, his step- 
 father and his five sons, and Rolf took Staerbiorn. The last 
 named recited the following verse, after he had a dream: 
 
 Both ours 
 dead I see; 
 all empty 
 
 in Northwestern Sea; 
 cold weather 
 great suffering, 
 I expect 
 Snsebiorn's death.2 
 
 They sought Gunnbiorn's Rocks and found land. Snsebiorn 
 would not permit any one to go ashore in the night. Staer- 
 biorn landed, notwithstanding, and found a purse' with 
 
 1 Torfaeus says (Greerilandia, p. 73) that "Eric the Red 
 first lived in Greenland, but it was discovered by the man 
 called Gunnbiorn. After him Gunnbiorn's Rocks are called" 
 (3d ed. 1755). 
 
 2 The translation is literal or nearly so, and the sense is ob- 
 scure. 
 
 3 The place of concealment appears to have been an excava-
 
 76 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 money in an earth hole, and concealed it. Snaebiorn hit 
 him with an axe so that the purse dropped. 
 
 They built a cabin to live in, and it was all covered with 
 snow. Thorkel Red's son found that there was water on 
 a shelf that stood out of the cabin window. This was 
 in the month of Goe. 1 They shoveled the snow away. 
 Snsebiorn rigged the ship; Thorod and five of his party 
 were in the hut, and Staerbiorn and several men of Rolf's 
 party. Some hunted. 2 Stserbiorn killed Thorod, but both 
 
 tion covered with stone or wood. That the people were some- 
 times accustomed to hide money in this way is evident. This 
 was hidden there by Irishmen or Icelanders who may have 
 been on their way to Greenland, though possibly hidden by 
 pirates who early sailed the northern seas. We read in the Saga 
 of Eric the Red, that Eric at first intended to go with his 
 son, Leif, on his voyage to discover the land seen by Heriulf, 
 and which Leif named Vinland. On his way to the ship, 
 Eric's horse stumbled, and he fell to the ground seriously in- 
 jured, and was obliged to abandon the voyage. He accepted 
 this as a judgment for having, as one preparation for his ab- 
 sence, buried his money, where his wife, Thorhild, would not 
 be able to find it. 
 
 1 This is believed to have been about February, affording 
 one of many indications that the climate of that region has 
 become more rigorous than formerly. The fact that water 
 did not freeze indicates mild weather, which we might infer 
 from the fact of their rigging their vessels, and from the 
 preparation made for sea. In regard to the term " Goe," 
 " Gronland's Historiske Mindesmcerker " (vol. I, p. 7), says: 
 "This name was before used in Denmark, which Etatsraad 
 Werlauf has discovered on the inscription of a Danish Rune- 
 Stone." 
 
 2 The facts that they engaged in hunting, and that they 
 built a cabin to live in, might at first lead some to suppose 
 that the place contained a forest or more or less trees, to sup- 
 ply wood. Yet this does not follow, as driftwood supplied 
 all wants for building purposes where they could not obtain 
 or use stone. Regarding driftwood, Crantz says, in speaking
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 77 
 
 he and Rolf killed Snaebiorn. Red's sons and all the rest 
 were obliged to take the oath of allegiance to save their 
 lives. They arrived on their return at Helgoland, Norway, 
 and later at Vadil in Iceland. 1 
 
 II. THE COLONIZATION OF GREENLAND. 
 
 The first document relating to the settlement of Green- 
 land by the Northmen, is taken from the Saga of Eric the 
 Red, as given in Professor Rafn's " Antiquitatee Ameri- 
 
 of Greenland: "For as He has denied this frigid, rocky re- 
 gion the growth of trees, He has bid the storms of the ocean 
 convey to its shores a great deal of wood, which accordingly 
 comes floating thither, part without ice, but the most part 
 along with it, and lodges itself between the islands. Were it 
 not for this, we Europeans should have no wood to burn 
 there Among this wood are great trees torn up by the roots, 
 which by driving up and down for many years and dashing 
 and rubbing on the ice, are quite bare of branches. A small 
 part of this driftwood are willows, alder and birch trees, 
 which come out of the bays in the south; also large trunks 
 
 of aspen trees, but the greatest part is pine and fir. We 
 
 find, also, a good deal of a sort of wood, finely veined, and 
 
 with few branches; this, I fancy, is larchwood There 
 
 is also a solid, reddish wood of a more agreeable fragrancy 
 than the common fir, with visible cross veins, which I take to 
 be the same species as the beautiful silver firs, or zirbel, that 
 have the smell of cedar, and grow on the high Orison hills, 
 and the Switzers wainscot their rooms with them." "History 
 of Greenland," vol. i, p. 37. 
 
 1 If any confirmation were needed of the truth of this nar- 
 rative, or of the killing of Snaebiorn and Thorod, we might 
 look for it in the equally well-known fact, that after the 
 return of the voyagers to Iceland, the death of these two men 
 was fearfully revenged by their friends.
 
 78 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 cance" Besides the history of Eric and his sons, that Saga 
 contains notices of other voyages. The following are simply 
 extracts. The whole Saga does not necessarily apply to the 
 subject under examination the Discovery of America. 
 The second extract, which gives more of the particulars, is 
 from "GronlancTs Historiske JMindesmarker" vol. n, p. 
 201. The third is also taken from the same great historical 
 depository. 
 
 FIRST NARRATIVE. 
 
 There was a man named Thorvald, son of Osvald, son 
 of Ulf-Oexna Thorerissou. Thorvald and his son were ob- 
 liged to leave Jardar 1 and go to Iceland, on account of 
 manslaughter. At that time Iceland was generally colo- 
 nized. 2 They first lived in Drangey, where Thorvald died. 
 Then Eric married Thorhild, daughter of Jorund and 
 Thorbiarg Knarrabringa, whom afterward Thorbiorn of 
 Haukdale married. Eric moved from the north, and fixed 
 his abode in Ericstad opposite Yatshorn. The son of Eric 
 and Thorhold was named Leif. But after Eyulf Soers and 
 Holm-Gang Rafn's murder, Eric was banished from Hauk- 
 dale. Eric went westward to Breidafiord and lived at Oex- 
 ney in Ericstad. He lent Thorgest his seat-posts, 3 and he 
 could not get them again. He then demanded them. Then 
 came disputes and hostility between him and Thorgest, which 
 is told in the history of Eric. Styr Thorgrim's son, Eyulf 
 of Svinoe, the sons of Brand of Aptelfiord and Thorbiorn 
 Yifilsson plead the cause of Eric ; Thorder Gellurson and 
 Thorgeir of Hitardale plead for Thorgest. Eric was declared 
 outlawed by the Thing, and prepared his ship for sea in 
 Eric's Bay. Styr and the others went with him beyond the 
 island. [A. D. 982.] Then Eric declared it to be his reso- 
 lution to seek the land which Gunnbiorn, Ulf Krage's son, 
 
 1 South-west of Norway. 
 
 2 See Colonization of Iceland, in the Introduction. 
 $ See notes to Introduction.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 79 
 
 saw [A. D. 876] when driven into the Western Ocean, 
 where he found Gunnbiorn's Rocks, saying, that if he did 
 not find the land he would return to his friends. Eric set 
 sail from Snaefellsjokul, and found knd which from its 
 height he called Midjokul, now called Blaaserk. Thence he 
 sailed along the shore in a southerly direction, seeking for 
 the nearest habitable land. The first winter he passed in 
 Ericseya, 1 near the middle of the east district. The follow- 
 ing year he came into Ericsfiord, where he fixed his 
 seat. 
 
 The same summer he explored the western desert, and 
 gave names to many places. The following winter he 
 passed on a holm opposite Rafnsgnipa, and the third year 
 he came into Iceland and brought his ship into Breidafiord. 
 The land which he found, he named Greenland, saying that 
 men would be persuaded to go to a land with so good a 
 name. 2 Eric stayed in Iceland that winter, and the summer 
 after he went over to the land which he had found, and 
 fixed his abode in Brattalilid in Ericsfiord. [A. D. 986.] 
 Men acquainted with affairs, say that this same summer in 
 which Eric went to settle in Greenland, thirty-five ships 
 sailed from Breidafiord and Bogaf jord, of which only four- 
 teen arrived, and the rest were driven back or lost. This 
 event took place fifteen winters' before the Christian re- 
 ligion was established in Iceland. The same summer, 
 Bishop Frederick and Thorvold Kodranson went from Ice- 
 
 1 It is now impossible to identify these localities. The old 
 view, that what is called the East-bygd, or District, was on 
 the eastern coast of Greenland, is now abandoned. It is 
 probable that no settlement was ever effected on the east 
 coast, though formerly it was evidently more approachable 
 than now. See Graah's "Expedition." 
 
 * As we certainly know that Christianity was established in 
 Iceland in the year A. D. 1000, the final settlement of Eric 
 and his followers must have taken place during the year as- 
 signed, viz. : 985. 
 
 3 See "Antiquitates Americana" p. 15, note a.
 
 80 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 land. 1 Among those who emigrated with Eric and estab- 
 lished themselves, were Heriulf Heriulfsn'ord who took 
 Heriulfsness, and abode in Heriulfsness, Ketil Ketilsfiord, 
 
 1 Evidently an error. See "Antiquitates Americana," p. 
 15, note 3. On the state of society in Greenland at this period 
 the reader may consult Prof. Keyser, from whose work on the 
 Religion of the Northmen we may give the following, which is 
 a translation of a part of the Saga of Eric that is given in 
 Eafn's work: 
 
 ''At that time there was a great famine in Greenland. 
 Those who had gone to the wild districts (hunting and fish- 
 ing) had met with little success, on account of the storms and 
 bad paths. Some had never returned. There was a woman 
 living in the settlement, whose name was Thorbjorg; she was 
 a Spae-wife, and was called the little Vala or Prophetess. 
 She had nine sisters, of whom she was the only survivor. 
 Thorbjorg was in the habit of going around to the festivals, 
 and she was invited chiefly by those who wished to learn their 
 fate and the coming seasons. As Thorkel was the best man of 
 the settlement, it seemed to be incumbent upon him to gain 
 some information when the prevailing famine should cease. 
 Thorkel, therefore, invites the Spae-wife to his house and pre- 
 pares for her a good reception, such as was customary when a 
 woman of her standing was expected. A cushion was pre- 
 pared for her; it had to be stuffed with hen feathers. It was 
 laid upon a high seat in the evening, when she came in with 
 the man who had been sent out to receive her. She was 
 dressed, on this occasion, as follows : She wore a blue cloak 
 with fastenings of cords, set with stones around the border 
 from top to bottom. Around her neck she had glass beads ; 
 upon her head a black lambskin hood, lined with white cat- 
 skin. She carried a staff mounted with brass, with the head 
 inlaid with stones. She was girded with a young bearskin 
 belt, and to this hung a large pouch in which she kept the 
 instruments of magic belonging to her occupation. On her 
 feet she wore shaggy calfskin shoes with long, heavy thongs, 
 on the ends of which were large brass buttons. She had cat- 
 skin gloves upon her hands, white within, and shaggy. When
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 81 
 
 Rafn Rafnsfiord, Solvi Solvidale, Helgi Thorbrandson Alpta- 
 fiord, Thorbjornglora Siglefjord, Einar Einarsfiord, Haf 
 grim, Hafgrirnsfiord and Vatnahver, Arnlaug, Arnlaugs- 
 fiord and other men went to the west district. 
 
 she entered, every one felt it a duty to greet her with rever- 
 ence; she returned their salutations, according to what she 
 thought of each individually. Thorkel took the wise woman 
 by the hand, and conducted her to the seat prepared for her. 
 He requested her to cast her eyes over his herds, and property 
 and house. She said but little concerning this. In the even- 
 ing the tables were set, and now it shall be told what dishes 
 were made ready for the Spae-wife. There were groats made 
 of goat's milk; but her food was prepared from the heart of 
 every animal in the neighborhood. She had a brass spoon and 
 a knife of copper with a shaft of walrus tooth, and a double 
 sheath, the point of which was broken off. When the tables 
 were cleared Thorkell Bondi goes up to Thorbjorg and asks 
 what she thinks of the house and the appearance of the people, 
 and also how soon she will have a revelation concerning the 
 things he has asked her about and which the people are all 
 anxious to know. She answers that she cannot make this 
 known before morning, after she has slept there over night. 
 Early in the morning all the arrangements were made for her 
 which belong to the incantation of Seidr. She then asked 
 them to furnish her with women who knew the magic formulas 
 of that ceremony, and who are called Vardlokur, i. e., the 
 watch-guard; but none could be found who knew it, although 
 inquiry was made at all the neighboring houses. Then Gudrid, 
 a young girl who was present, said, * I am not skilled in magic, 
 nor any wise woman; but my foster-mother in Iceland taught 
 me a formula, which she called Vardlokur/ Thorkel said, 
 ' Thou art wiser than I thought.' Gudrid answered, * This 
 formula and the proceedings connected with it are of such a 
 character that I cannot be present to assist with them; for I 
 am a Christian.' Thorkel replied, 'Thou couldst help us in 
 this matter without harming thyself thereby; I should be glad 
 to furnish Thorbjorg what is necessary.' He then persuaded 
 Gudrid so long that she at length promised to fulfill his wishes. 
 11
 
 82 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 The Baptism of Leif the Fortunate. 
 
 Jfr 
 When the sixttf winter had passed [A. D. 999], since 
 
 Eric Red went to live in Greenland, Leif, son of Eric, went 
 over from Greenland to Norway, and in the autumn arrived 
 in Throndheim, and came north to King Olaf Trygvesson, 1 
 from Hegeland. He brought his ship to Nidaros and went 
 at once to King Olaf. The king commanded Leif and 
 some other pagan men to come to him. They were ex- 
 horted to accept religion, which the king easily arranged 
 with Leif, when he and all his sailors were baptized, and 
 passed the winter with the king, being liberally enter- 
 tained. 
 
 Now Thorbjorg sat upon the witch seat, and the women formed 
 a circle around her. Gudrid sang the song so beautifully and 
 well that no one of the bystanders thought that they had ever 
 heard a fairer song. Even th'e Spae-wife thought the song 
 was beautiful to hear, and thanked her for it when done. 
 * Now/ says Thorbjorg, ' I have reflected upon the matter, 
 how it will be both with the sickness and the seasons; and 
 much has now been made clear to me that before was hidden 
 from me and from others.' She then foretold that the famine 
 and sickness, that were raging, should both disappear in the 
 spring. To Gudrid she prophesied, in return for the services 
 she had rendered, a very happy fate in the future, and also 
 that a renowned family should be descended from her. After- 
 ward, all the company went one after another to consult her 
 about the future matters that they wished to know, and she 
 gave them definite answers. Soon afterward she was invited 
 to another house, and went hither; and her prophesies con- 
 cerning the coming events of the year were entirely fulfilled." 
 " The Religion of the Northmen" by Rudolph Keyser, p. 292. 
 1 This king propagated Christianity by physical force, and 
 marked the course of his missionary tours with fire and blood; 
 which might have been expected from a barbarian just con- 
 verted from the worship of Odin and Thor.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 83 
 
 SECOND NARRATIVE. 
 
 Thorvold the son of Usvold, son of Ulf, son of Oexne- 
 Thorer, and his son, Eric Red, left Jardar in Norway on ac- 
 count of manslaughter, and took possession of a piece of 
 land on Hornastrand [Iceland], and lived there at Drangey. 
 There Thorvold died. Eric then married Thorhild, daughter 
 of Jorund Atleson and Thorbiarg Knarrabringa, whom 
 Thorbiorn of Haukdale afterward married. Then Eric went 
 from the north and ploughed the fields in Hankdale. 
 Then he lived in Ericstadt by Yatshorn. There his 
 thralls 1 let a piece of rock tumble down over Yalthiof s 
 house in Yalthiosfstadt. But his relation, Eyulf Soirs, 
 killed the thralls at Kneide-Briuke above Yatshorn. For 
 this cause, Eric killed Eyulf Soirs. He also killed Holm- 
 Gang Rafn at Leikskaale. Geirstein and Odd at Jorund. 
 
 1 These thralls were slates, though slavery in Iceland as- 
 sumed peculiar features. The following, from the " Saga of 
 Gisli the Outlaw," shows the relation that slaves held to free- 
 men. We read, that on one occasion, Gisli had borrowed a 
 famous sword of Koll, and the latter asked to have it back, 
 but Gisli in reply asks if he will sell it, receiving a negative 
 reply. Then he says: " I will give thee thy freedom and 
 goods, so that thou mayest fare whither thou wilt with other 
 men." This is also declined, when Gisli continues: "Then 
 I will give thee thy freedom, and lease, or give thee land, and 
 besides I will give thee sheep, and cattle and goods, as much 
 as thou needest." This he also declines, and Kol, when Gisli 
 asks him to name a price, offering any sum of money, be- 
 sides his freedom, and "a becoming match, if thou hast a 
 liking for any one." But Kol refused to sell it at any price, 
 which refusal led to a fight, and in the first onset, the slave's 
 axe sank into Gisli's brain, while the disputed sword, Gray- 
 steel, clove the thick skull of Kol. See the " Saga of Gisli 
 the Outlaw," p. 6, Edinburgh, 1866. Also the Saga of Eric 
 Red, where Thorbiorn thinks it an indignity that Einar 
 should ask for the hand of his daughter in marriage, Einar 
 being the son of a slave.
 
 84 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 Eyulf Soirs' relations brought a suit against the slayer. Eric 
 was then banished from Haukdale and took possession of 
 the islands, Broko and Oexno, but lived in Todum at Sy- 
 dero, the first winter. Then he loaned Thorgest his seat- 
 posts. Eric moved to Oexno and lived in Ericstadt. Then 
 he demanded his seat-posts, but did not get them. Eric 
 took them thereafter from Bredobolstad, but Thorgest fol- 
 lowed him. They fought near the house at Drangey. Two 
 sons of Thorgest fell, and some other men. Thereafter 
 they both kept their followers with them. Styr, Eyulf of 
 Svino, Thorbrand's sons of Alptefiord, and Thorbion Vifils- 
 son, were of Eric's party. But Thord Gelleirson, Thorgeir 
 from Hitardale, Aslak of Langedale, and Illuge's son helped 
 Thorgest. Eric and his party were sentenced to be ban- 
 ished at Thorsness Thing. He fitted out a ship in Erics- 
 fiord, but Eyulf concealed him in Dimonsvaag, while 
 Thorgest and his men sought after him on the highlands. 
 Thorbioru, Eyulf and Styr followed with Eric out to sea 
 beyond the islands. He said that he meant to seek the land 
 Gunnbiorn, Ulf Krage's son, saw [A. D. 876] when he 
 was driven by a storm west from Iceland and found Gunn- 
 biorn's Hocks ; though he said at the same time if he dis- 
 covered the land he would return to his friends. [A. D. 
 982.] Eric laid his course to the west from Snaefieldness, 
 and approached [Greenland] from the sea to land at Midjo- 
 kul, in that place that is called Blaesark. 1 From thence he 
 went along the coast to the south, to see if the land was fit 
 to live in. The first year he stayed all winter in Erickso, 
 nearly in the middle of the west bygd. The next spring 
 [A. D. 983] he went to Ericsfiord and there found a dwell- 
 ing. Next summer he went to the west bygd and gave cer- 
 tain names to many places. The second winter he lived in 
 Ericsholm, at Hvarfo Fiedspidse, and at the third summer 
 [A.. D. 984] he went north to Snsefield, inside of Rafnsfiord. 
 He thought then that the place where Ericsfiord bent was 
 opposite the place where he came. He then returned and 
 
 1 Blue shirt.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 85 
 
 spent the third winter in Erickso opposite the mouth of 
 Ericsfiord. The next summer [A. D. 985] he went to Ice- 
 land and landed at Breidafiord. The next winter he stayed 
 at Holmstater with Ingolf. Next spring he fought with 
 Thorgest and lost the battle. That summer Eric began to 
 settle the land which he had discovered [A. D. 986], and 
 which he called Greenland, because he said that the people 
 would not like to move there if the land did not have a 
 good name. 1 Learned men say that twenty-five ships went 
 that summer to Greenland from Breidafiord and Borgafjord, 
 but only fourteen arrived. Of the rest, some were driven 
 back and others were wrecked. This happened fifteen win- 
 ters before Christianity was introduced into Iceland. 
 
 THIRD NARKATTVE. 
 
 The land some call Greenland, was discovered and 
 settled from Iceland. Eric the Red was the name of the 
 Breidafiord man who [A. D. 986] went from here [Iceland] 
 to there, and took possession of that part of the land which 
 later was called Ericsfiord. He named the land and called 
 it Greenland," and said it would encourage people to come 
 there if the land had a good name. They found there 
 both east and west, ruins of houses and pieces of boats, and 
 begun stonework. 3 From which it is to be seen what kind 
 of people have lived in Vinland, and which the Greenlanders 
 call Skrselings and who had been there. He [Eric] began 
 to settle the land fourteen or fifteen years before the intro- 
 duction of Christianity in Iceland. Afterward this was told 
 of Greenland to Thorkel Gelleirson, by a man who had 
 himself followed Eric Red. 
 
 Ante, p. 61. 
 
 2 Cartier in the Gulf of St. Lawrence gave names that had 
 been used before. 
 
 3 The stonework would point to Europeans, say the Irish, 
 as stonework was not the characteristic of the Skraellings. 
 On the latter see later.
 
 86 FEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 III. THE VOYAGE OF BIAKNE. 
 
 The voyage of Biarne to Greenland was attended by 
 many hardships. His vessel was blown away from the 
 course during a storm, at which time he saw the shores of 
 the American Continent, yet he made no attempt to land. 
 Of this voyage we have two versions. The first is a trans- 
 lation of a passage from Codex Flatoiensis, given in Anti- 
 quitates Americans, p. 1Y. The second is taken from 
 Gronland's Historiske Mindesmcerker, or " Greenland's 
 Historical Monuments, i, 180-1." The date of this voyage 
 is fixed by the fact that Biarne sailed the same season that his 
 father settled in Greenland, which, as we learn from the 
 narrative of Eric, was in the year 985. There is a complete 
 agreement, in, the main points, between this account and the 
 preceding. 
 
 FIRST NARRATIVE. 
 
 Heriulf was the son of 'Bard, Heriulf's son. who was a 
 relation of Ingolf the Landnamsman. 1 Ingolf gave Heriulf 
 land between Vog and Reikianess. Heriulf dwelt first at 
 Dropstock. His wife was called Thorgird, and their son 
 was called Biarne. 2 He was a promising young man. In 
 his earliest youth he had a desire to go abroad, and he soon 
 gathered property and reputation ; and was by turns a year 
 abroad, .and a year with his father. Biarne was soon in pos- 
 session of a merchant ship of his own. The last winter 
 [A. D. 985] while he was in Norway, Heriulf prepared to 
 go to Greenland with Eric, and gave up his dwelling. There 
 was a Christian man belonging to the Hebudes along with 
 Heriulf, who composed the Lay called the Hafgerdingar* 
 Song, in which is this stave : 
 
 1 Original settler or freeholder, whose name and possessions 
 were recorded in the Landanama-book. 
 3 Bear. 
 8 This poem no longer exists. Its subject, the Hafgerdingar,
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 87 
 
 May he whose hand protects so well 
 The simple monk in lonely cell, 
 And o'er the world upholds the sky, 
 His own blue hall, still stand me by. 1 
 
 Heriulf settled at Heriulfness [A. D. 985] and became a 
 very distinguished man. Eric Red took up his abode at 
 Bratthalid, and was in great consideration, and honored by 
 all. These were Eric's children : Leif, Thorvold, and Thor- 
 stein ; and his daughter was called Freydis. She was married 
 to a man called Thorvald, and they dwelt at Gardar, which 
 is now a bishop's seat." She was a haughty, proud woman ; 
 and he was but a mean man. She was much given to 
 gathering wealth. The people of Greenland were heathen 
 at this time. Biarne came over the same summer [A. D. 
 985] with his ship to the strand * which his father had 
 
 is described as a fearful body of water, " which sometimes 
 rises in the sea near Greenland in such a way that three large 
 rows of waves inclose a part of the sea, so that the ship, inside, 
 is in the greatest danger/' Gronland's Historiske Mindis- 
 mcerker, vol. I, p. 264. There does not appear to be any bet- 
 ter foundation for this notion of the Hafgerdingar than for 
 the old accounts of the Maelstrom, once supposed to exist on 
 the coast of Norway. The Hafgardingar may have originated 
 from seeing the powerful effect of a cross sea acting on the 
 tide. 
 
 1 To this translation may be added another in metre, by 
 
 Beamish : 
 
 O thou who triest holy men ! 
 
 Now guide me on my way; 
 Lord of the earth's wide vault, extend 
 
 Thy gracious hand to me. 
 
 This appears to be the earliest Christian prayer thus far 
 found in connection with this period of American history. 
 
 * See later on this subject. 
 
 3 jffiyrar. This is not the name of a place for Heriulf 
 dwelt in Iceland at a place called Dropstock but of a nat- 
 ural feature of ground; eyri, still called an ayre in the Ork-
 
 88 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 sailed abroad from in the spring. He was much struck 
 with the news, and would not unload his vessel. When his 
 crew asked him what he intended to do, he replied that 
 he was resolved to follow his old custom by taking up his 
 winter abode with his father. " So I will steer for Green- 
 land if ye will go with me." They one and all agreed to go 
 with him. Biarne said, " Our voyage will be thought fool- 
 ish, as none of us have been on the Greenland sea before." 
 Nevertheless they set out to sea as soon as they were ready, 
 and sailed for three days, until they lost sight of the land 
 they left. But when the wind failed, a north wind with 
 fog set in, and they knew not where they were sailing to ; 
 and this lasted many days. At last they saw the sun, and 
 could distinguish the quarter of the sky ; so they hoisted sail 
 again, and sailed a whole day and night, when they made 
 land. They spoke among themselves what this land could 
 be, and Biarne said that, in his opinion, it could not be Green- 
 land. On the question, if he should sail nearer to it, he said, 
 " It is my advice that we sail up close to the land." They 
 did so ; and they soon saw that the land was without moun- 
 tains, was covered with woods, and that there were small 
 hills inland. 1 They left the land on the larboard side, and 
 
 ney islands, being a flat, sandy tongue of land, suitable for 
 landing and drawing up boats upon. All ancient dwellings 
 in those islands, and probably in Iceland also, are situated so 
 as to have the advantage of this kind of natural wharf, and 
 the spit of land called an ayre, very often has a small lake or 
 pond inside of it, which shelters boats. Laing. 
 
 1 This we will accept as Labrador, and in the account we 
 notice that in this Saga the inland elevations are not consid- 
 ered mountains, though Leif in his account as we shall see 
 speaks of them as " large snowy mountains of the country." 
 The main feature of a high region characterizes both ac- 
 counts, and this undesigned coincidence will have more effect 
 upon the mind than the narratives would have afforded, if 
 both had used the same language. Besides we are not to 
 suppose that Biarne and Leif saw the land in the same
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 89 
 
 had their sheet on the land side. Then they sailed two days 
 and nights before they got sight of land again. They asked 
 Biarne if he thought this would be Greenland ; but he gave 
 his opinion that the land was no more Greenland than the 
 land they had seen before. " For on Greenland, it is said, 
 there are great snow mountains." They soon came near to 
 the land, and saw that it was flat and covered with trees. 1 
 Now, as the wind fell, the ship's people talked of its being ad- 
 visable to make for the land ; but Biarne would not agree to 
 it. They thought that they would need wood and water ; 
 but Biarne said : " Te are not in want of either." The men 
 blamed him for this. He ordered them to hoist the sail, 
 which was done. They now turned the ship's bow from 
 the land, and kept the sea for three days and nights, with 
 a tine breeze from south-west. Then they saw a third land, 
 which was high and mountainous, and with snowy moun- 
 tains. Then they asked Biarne if he would land here ; but 
 he refused altogether : " For in my opinion this land is not 
 what we want." 2 Now they let the sails stand and kept 
 
 place, and at same point the inland hills would deserve the 
 name of mountains more than others. Leif's narrative in- 
 correctly calls this the last point visited by Biarne before 
 reaching Greenland. Helluland the " Great " and the " Lit- 
 tle " were names applied to Labrador and Newfoundland. 
 The Sagas furnish the correction. See the notes on the 
 voyage of Leif which follow. Still it must be confessed 
 that the statements are obscure, like many English narra- 
 tions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
 
 1 The " Markland " of Leif. 
 
 4 The details of this voyage are very simple, yet whoever 
 throws aside his old time prejudices, and considers the whole 
 subject with the care which it deserves, cannot otherwise than 
 feel persuaded that Biarne was driven upon this Continent, 
 and that the land seen was the coast of that great territory 
 which stretches between Massachusetts and Newfoundland, 
 for there is no other land to answer the description. Of 
 course no particular merit can be claimed for this discovery.
 
 90 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 along the land and saw it was an island. 1 Then they 
 turned from the land and stood out to sea with the 
 same breeze ; but the gale increased, and Biarne ordered 
 a reef to be taken in, and not to sail harder than the 
 ship and her tackle could easily bear. After sailing 
 three days and nights, they made, the fourth time, land ; 
 and when they asked Biarne if he thought this was Green- 
 land or not, Biarne replied : " This is most like what has 
 been told me of Greenland ; and here we shall take to the 
 land." They did so, and came to the land in the evening, 
 under a ness, where they found a boat. On this ness dwelt 
 Biarne's father, Heriulf ; and from that it is called Heriulf - 
 ness. Biarne went to his father's, gave up sea-fearing, and 
 after his father's death, continued to dwell there when at 
 home. 
 
 SECOND NARRATIVE. 
 
 A man named Heriulf, son of Bard, son of Heriulf, 8 a 
 relation to Landnamsman Ingolf, who gave the last-named 
 Heriulf the piece of land that lies between Vaag and Rei- 
 kianess. The younger Heriulf went to Greenland, when 
 Eric Red began to settle there, and on his ship was a 
 Christian man from the South Islands [the Hebrides] who 
 was the author of the poem, Havgerdingar^ in which was 
 the following verse : 
 
 I to the monk's protector pray 
 That he will give my voyage luck ! 
 The heaven's great Ruler 
 Save me from danger. 
 
 It was also accidental, something like the discovery of Amer- 
 ica by Columbus, who, in looking for the East Indies, 
 stumbled upon a new world. Yet Biarne's discovery soon led 
 to substantial results. 
 
 1 The present Island of Disco, called in the Saga of Karl- 
 sefne " Biarney." 
 
 8 This piece makes no reference to the voyage of Biarne, 
 but confirms important statements in the first narrative.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 91 
 
 Heriulf took possession of Heriulfsfiord, and became one 
 of the chief men. Eric Eed took to himself Ericsfiord, and 
 lived in Brattahlid, and Leif, his son, after his death. Those 
 men who at the same time went away with Eric took pos- 
 session of the following pieces of land : Heriulf Heriulfs- 
 fiord, and he lived in Heriulfness, Ketil Ketilsfiord, Kafn 
 Rafnsfiord, Solve Solvedale, Snorro Thorbrandson Alpte- 
 fiord, Thorbiornglora Siglefiord, Einar Einarsfiord, Hav. 
 grim Havgrimsfiord arid Yatnahverfe, Arnlaug Arnlaugfiord ; 
 but some went to the west bygd. A man named Thorkel 
 Farserk, cousin to Eric Red on their mother's side, went to 
 Greenland with Eric, and took possession of Hvalsofiord, 
 together with the greater part of the piece of land between 
 Eyulfsfiord and Einarsfiord, and lived in Hvalosofirde. From 
 him came the Hvalsofiord people. He was very strong. 
 Once Eric Red visited him, and he would welcome his 
 guest in the best way possible, but he had no boats at hand 
 which he could use. He had to swim out to Hvalso, and 
 get a full-grown sheep, 1 and carry it on his back home 
 to his house. It was a good half mile. Thorkel was buried 
 in a cave in the field of Hvalsofiord. 
 
 IY. LEIF'S YOYAGE TO YINLAND. 
 
 This voyage is recorded in the Flato Manuscript, and is 
 given in Antiquitates Americans, pp. 26-40. It contains the 
 account of the voyage of Leif, son of Eric the Red, who, 
 following out the hints of Biarne, sailed to discover the 
 
 1 Considerable has been said at various times in opposition 
 to these accounts, because cattle and sheep, and sometimes 
 horses, are mentioned in connection with Greenland. Some 
 have supposed that, for these reasons, the Saga must be in- 
 correct. Yet, in more modern times, there has been nothing 
 to prevent the people from keeping such animals, though it 
 has been found better to substitute dogs for horses. Crantz
 
 92 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 new land, which he called Vinland, on account of the quan- 
 tity of vines that he found growing wild. Several extracts 
 are appended, because of interest in connection with the 
 subject. The Saga of Eric was written in Greenland, a 
 fact not to be overlooked, that of Thorfinn having been 
 composed in Iceland. 1 
 
 [A. D. 984.] It is next to be told that Biarne Heriulfson 
 caine over from Greenland to Norway, on a visit to Earl 
 Eric, who received him well. Biarne tells of this expedition 
 of his, in which he had discovered unknown land ; and peo- 
 ple thought he had not been very curious to get knowledge, 
 as he could not give any account of those countries, and he 
 
 says, that in "the year 1759, one of our missionaries brought 
 three sheep with him from Denmark to new Herrnhuth. 
 These have so increased by bringing some two, some three 
 lambs a year, that they have been able to kill some every year 
 since, to send some to Lichtenfels, for a beginning there, and, 
 after all, to winter ten at present. We may judge how vastly 
 sweet and nutritive the grass is here, from the following 
 tokens: that tho' three lambs come from one ewe, they are 
 larger, even in autumn, than a sheep of a year old in Ger- 
 many." He says that in the summer they could pasture two 
 hundred sheep around New Herrnhuth; and that they form- 
 erly kept cows, but that it proved too much trouble. His- 
 tory of Greenland, vol. i, page 74. 
 
 1 There are discrepancies between the Saga of Eric and his 
 son's, and those relating to Thorfinn, of such a nature as to 
 leave no doubt that they must have come to us from two 
 wholly distinct sources. Torfaeus was the first to direct at- 
 tention to these discrepancies, at the same time remarking 
 that they were of a nature to confirm rather than to disprove 
 the statements. The Eric Sagas were evidently composed in 
 Greenland, while those relating to Thorfinn had their origin 
 in Iceland. The discrepancies are in themselves of very little 
 consequence, but they serve to establish the important fact 
 that the Sagas of Eric and of Thorfinn must be received as 
 two independent authorities." North American Review, vol. 
 cxix, pp. 265-72. See ante, p. 63.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 93 
 
 was somewhat blamed on this account. [A. D. 986.] Biarne 
 was made a Court man of the earl, and the summer after he 
 went over to Greenland ; and afterward there was much 
 talk about discovering unknown lands. Leif, a son of Eric 
 Red of Brattahlid, went over 1 to Biarne Heriulfson, and 
 bought the ship from him, and manned the vessel, so that 
 in all, there were thirty-five men on board. Leif begged his 
 father Eric to go as commander of the expedition ; but he 
 excused himself, saying he was getting old, and not so able 
 as formerly to undergo the hardship of a sea voyage. Leif 
 insisted that he among all their relations was the most likely 
 to have good luck on such an expedition ; and Eric con- 
 sented, and rode from home with Leif, when they had got 
 all ready for sea ; but as they were getting near the ship, 2 
 the horse on which Eric was riding, stumbled, and he fell 
 from his horse 3 and hurt his foot. " It is destined," said 
 Eric, that I should never discover more lands than this of 
 Greenland, on which we live ; and now we must not run 
 hastily into this adventure." 4 Eric accordingly returned 
 
 1 He must have gone over to Greenland from Norway then, 
 as in the year 1000, he returned and introduced Christianity 
 into Greenland. The language used is indefinite. 
 
 9 One recension of the Saga of Eric the Red, states that he 
 went with Leif on his voyage to Vinland. Finn Magnussen 
 says that the error arose from a change of one letter in 
 a pair of short words. See Gronland's Historiske Mindes- 
 mmrker, vol. I, p. 471. In a similar way the change may 
 have been made which incorrectly represents Leif as coming 
 first to the last point visited by Biarne. 
 
 3 Horses could be kept in Greenland now, only with much 
 expense. It appears that anciently it was not so. Un- 
 doubtedly there has been more or less of change in climate, 
 during the last thousand years by the procession of the 
 equinox. Geologists find evidence that at one period, a highly 
 tropical climate must have existed in the northern regions. 
 Fossil figs and tropic trees are among the wonders of Green- 
 land. 
 
 4 Superstition was the bane of the Northman's life. He
 
 94 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 home to Brattahlid, but Leif, with his comrades, in all 
 thirty-five men, rigged out their vessel. There was a man 
 from the south country called Tyrker, 1 with the expedition. 
 [A. D. 1000.] They put the ship in order, and went to sea 
 when they were ready. They first came to the land which 
 Biarne had last [first] discovered," sailed up to it, cast 
 anchor, put out a boat and went on shore ; but there was no 
 grass to be seen. There were large snowy mountains 3 up 
 the country ; but all the way from the sea up to these snowy 
 ridges, the land was one field of snow, and it appeared to 
 them a country of no advantages. Leif said : " It shall not 
 be said of us, as it was of Biarne, that we did not come upon 
 the land ; for I will give the country a name, and call it Hel- 
 luland. 4 Then they went on board again and put to sea, and 
 found another land. They sailed in toward it, put out a boat 
 and landed. The country was flat, and overgrown with 
 wood ; and the strand far around, consisted of white sand, 
 and low toward the sea. Then Leif said : " We shall give 
 this land a name according to its kind, and called it Mark- 
 land/ Then they hastened on board, and put to sea again 
 
 was also a firm believer in Fate. The doctrines of Fate held 
 the finest Northern minds in a vice-like grasp, so that in 
 many cases their lives were continually overshadowed by a 
 great sorrow. One of the saddest illustrations of this belief 
 may be found in the Saga of Grettir the Strong (given in 
 Baring-Gould's work on Iceland), a Saga in which the doc- 
 trine appears with a power that is well nigh appalling. 
 
 1 Some suppose that he was a German, others claim that he 
 was a Turk, as his name might indicate. 
 
 9 Ante, p. 86. 
 
 8 Snowy mountains, JoTclar miklir, such as Chappell men- 
 tions having been seen on the coast, June 14, 1818. 
 
 * Helluland, from Hella, a flat stone, an abundance of which 
 may be found in Labrador and the region round about. But 
 it should be noted that the country between the sea and the 
 mountains or hills was level. Ante, p. 89, note 2. 
 
 6 This agrees with the general features of Nova Scotia. The
 
 AMERICA BY THE NOBTHMEN. 95 
 
 with the wind from the north-east, and were out for two days 
 and made land. They sailed toward it, and came to an 
 island 1 which lay on the north side of the land, where they 
 
 North American Pilot describes the land around Halifax, as 
 " low in general, and not visible twenty miles off; except 
 from the quarter-deck of a seventy-four. Apostogon hills 
 have a long, level appearance, between Cape Le Have and Port 
 Medway, the coast to the seaward being level and low, and the 
 shores with white rocks and low, barren points; from thence 
 to Shelburne and Port Roseway, are woods. Near Port Haldi- 
 man are several barren places, and thence to Cape Sable, 
 which makes the south-west point into Barriugton Bay, a low 
 and woody island/' Antiquitates Americana, p. 423. Mark- 
 land is therefore supposed, with great reason, to be Nova Scotia, 
 so well described, both in the Saga, and in the Coast Pilot. 
 Markland means woodland. Two days sail thence, brought 
 them in view of Cape Cod, though very likely the sailing time 
 is not correct. 
 
 1 This island has given the interpreters considerable trouble, 
 from the fact that it is said to lie to the northward of the land. 
 Professor Rafn, in order to identify the island with Nan- 
 tucket, shows that the north point of the Icelandic compass 
 lay toward the east. But this does not fairly meet the case. 
 There would, perhaps, have been no difficulty in the interpre- 
 tation, if the Northern Antiquaries had been acquainted with 
 the fact, that in early times an island existed northward from 
 Nantucket, on the opposite coast of Cape Cod. This island, 
 together with a large point of land, which now has also disap- 
 peared, existed in the times of Gosnold, who sailed around 
 Cape Cod, in 1602. At one time some doubt existed in regard 
 to the truthfulness of the accounts of this island, for the 
 reason that those portions of land described, no longer existed. 
 Yet their positions were laid down with scientific accuracy; 
 the outer portion of the island being calied Point Care, while 
 the other point was called Point Gilbert. Neither Archer nor 
 Brereton in their accounts of Gosn old's voyage, give any name 
 to the island; but Captain John Smith, in 1614, calls it "Isle 
 Nawset." Smith's History of Virginia, vol. n, p. 183. This
 
 96 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 disembarked 1 to wait for good weather. There was dew 
 upon the grass ; and, having accidently gotten some of the 
 dew upon their hands and put it in their mouths, they 
 
 island was of the drift formation, and, as late as half a century 
 ago, a portion of it still remained, being called Slut Bush. 
 The subject has been very carefully gone over by Mr. Otis, in 
 his pamphlet on the Discovery of an Ancient Ship on Cape 
 Cod. Professor Agassiz, writing December 17, 1863, says: 
 " Surprising and perhaps incredible as the statements of Mr. 
 Amos Otis may appear, they are nevertheless the direct and 
 natural inference of the observations which may be easily made 
 along the eastern coast of Cape Cod. Having of late felt a 
 special interest in the geological structure of that remarkable 
 region, I have repeatedly visited it during the past summer, 
 and, in company with Mr. Otis, examined, on one occasion, 
 with the most minute care, the evidence of the former ex- 
 istence of Isle Nauset and Point Gilbert. I found it as satis- 
 factory as any geological evidence can be. Besides its scientific 
 interest/' he adds, " this result has some historical import- 
 
 1 In speaking of the immediate vicinity of Wonder -sir and, 
 the second account of Thorfiun's expedition, says : " There 
 were places without harbors," which has always been the case, 
 this coast being dangerous; yet it is said above that " they 
 landed to wait for good weather." This would be impractica- 
 ble now, except at Chatham; yet at that day, notwithstand- 
 ing the absence of harbors, they would find accommodation 
 for their small vessel somewhere between the island and the 
 mainland. From Bradford's History, p. 217, we learn that 
 in 1626-7, there was at this place " a small blind harbore " 
 that "lyes aboute y e -middle of Manamoyake Bay," which to- 
 day is filled up by recently formed sandy wastes and salt 
 meadows. This " blind harbore," had at its mouth a treach- 
 erous bar of sand. If this harbor had existed in the days of the 
 Northmen, they would not of necessity discover it; and hence 
 while Leif might have landed here and found protection, 
 Thorfinn, in his much larger ship, might have found it need- 
 ful to anchor, as he appears to have done, in the grounds be- 
 tween Isle Nauset and Point Gilbert, while explorations were 
 being made on the land.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 97 
 
 thought that they had never tasted any thing so sweet as it 
 was. 1 Then they went on board and sailed into a sound 2 
 
 ance. At all events it fully vindicates Archer's account of 
 the aspect of Cape Cod, at the time of its discovery in 1602, 
 and shows him to have been a truthful and accurate observer." 
 But possibly the vindication may extend back even to the 
 Northmen, whom the learned professor and his co-laborers did 
 not have in mind; especially as this discovery will help very 
 materially to explain their descriptions. Now, in the accounts 
 of Thorfinn Karlsefne's passage around this part of the Vin- 
 land, it is said that they called the shore Wonder-strand, " be- 
 cause they were so long going by." Any one in sailing past 
 the coast to-day will be struck with its length. But by 
 glancing at a reconstructed map of Cape Cod, the reader will 
 find that the coast line is greatly increased, so that in order to 
 pass around the cape, the navigator must sail a longer distance 
 than now. Comparing the distance travelled with the distance 
 gained, the Northmen might well grow weary, and call it 
 " Wonder-strand." Our knowledge of this island quite re- 
 lieves the difficulty that was felt by Professor Rafn, who 
 labored to show that the island in question was Nantucket, 
 notwithstanding the fact that it lay too far east. For a fuller 
 knowledge of Isle Nauset, see New-England Historical and 
 Genealogical Register, vol. xvm, p. 37; and Massachusetts 
 Historical Collections, vol. vin, series in, pp. 72-93. " Webb's 
 Island," which existed at the close of the last century, was 
 the remains of Gosnold's "Point Gilbert." The people of 
 Nantucket formerly used to cut wood there. See Morse's 
 Universal Gazetteer, vol. I, p. 357, Ed. 1783. Capt. Vetch 
 anchored under Webb's Island Nov. 16, 1701. See O'Cal- 
 laghan's curious and interesting monograph: "The Voyage 
 of the Sloop Mary," Munsell, Albany, 1866. O'Callaghan 
 says that " it has since been swallowed up by the Sea." " Sloop 
 Mary," pp. ix and 27, also Mass. Mag. (111-151), which says, 
 " The water is six fathoms deep on this spot." 
 
 1 " Honey dew," says Dr. Webb, " occurs in this neighbor- 
 hood." Antiquitates Americana), p. 443. 
 
 8 This sound may have been the water between Point Gil- 
 bert and Isle Nauset. 
 13
 
 98 FEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 that was between the island and a ness 1 that went out 
 northward from the land, and sailed westward" past the 
 ness. There was very shallow 3 water in ebb tide, so that 
 their ship lay dry ; and there was a long way between their 
 ship and the water. They were so desirous to get to the 
 land that they would not wait till their ship floated, but ran 
 to the land, to a place where a river comes out of a lake. 
 As soon as their ship was afloat they took the boats, rowed 
 to the ship, towed her up the river, 4 and from thence into 
 the lake, 5 where they cast anchor, carried their beds out of 
 the ship, and set up their tents. They resolved to put 
 things in order for wintering there, and they erected a large 
 
 1 Archer says in his account of Gosnold's voyage: " Twelve 
 leages from [the end of] Cape Cod, we descried a point 
 [Point Gilbert] with some breach, a good distance off." It 
 is said that the ness, or cape, went out northward but we 
 must remember that eastward is meant. 
 
 * This is precisely the course they would steer after doub- 
 ling that ness or cape which existed in Gosnold's day, and 
 which he named Point Gilbert. The author does not agree 
 with Professor Bafn, in making this point to be at the 
 eastern entrance to Buzzard's bay. If he had known of the 
 existence of the Isle Nauset, he would not have looked for 
 the ness in that neighborhood. At that time Cape Malabar 
 probably did not exist, as we know how rapidly land is 
 formed in the vicinity; yet it would not have attracted 
 notice in comparison with the great broad point mentioned 
 by Archer. 
 
 1 After passing Point Gilbert, shoal water may almost any- 
 where be found, which appears to have been the case 
 anciently. 
 
 4 The river may have been Seaconnet passage and Pocasset 
 river. 
 
 6 This lake is thought to answer Mount Hope Bay. The 
 writer of the Saga passes over that part of the voyage imme- 
 diately following the doubling of the ness. The tourist in 
 traveling that way by rail will at first take Mount Hope Bay 
 for a lake.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 99 
 
 house. They did not want for salmon, 1 both in the river 
 and in the lake ; and they thought the salmon larger than 
 any they had ever seen before. The country appeared to 
 them of so good a kind, that it would not be necessary to 
 gather fodder for the cattle for winter." There was no frost in 
 winter, 8 and the grass was not much withered. Day and night 
 were more equal than in Greenland and Iceland ; for on the 
 shortest day the sun was in the sky between Eyktarstad 4 
 
 1 Salmon were formerly so plentiful in this vicinity, that it 
 is said a rule was made, providing that masters should not 
 oblige their apprentices to eat this fish more than twice a 
 week. Still I may repeat a quotation from Henry V (1st A., sc. 
 4, 5): "I warrant you shall find in the comparisons between 
 Macedon and Monmouth that the situation, look you, is both ^ 
 alike. There is a river at Macedon, and there is also more- 
 over 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 alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and 
 there is salmon in both." 
 
 8 It is well known that cattle in that vicinity can pass the 
 winter with little or no shelter, and the sheep on Nantucket, 
 can, when necessary, take care of themselves. 
 
 3 This is an exaggeration, or, possibly the writer, who was 
 not with the expedition, meant to convey the idea that there 
 was no frost, compared with what was experienced in Green- 
 land and Iceland. The early narrator of the voyage unques- 
 tionably tried to make a good impression as regards the 
 climate. In so doing, he has been followed by nearly all who 
 have come after him. Eric the Eed told some almost fabu- 
 lous stories about the climate of Greenland; and yet, because 
 his accounts do not agree with facts, who is so foolish as to 
 deny that he ever saw Greenland ? With as much reason we 
 might deny that Leif came to Vinland. With equal reason, 
 too, we might deny that Morton was ever at Merry Mount; 
 for he tells us, in his New English Canaan, that coughs and 
 colds are unknown in New England. Lieutenant-Governor 
 Dudley of Massachusetts complained of false representations 
 in his day. " Footprints of Miles Standish," p. 24. 
 
 4 This passage was misunderstood by Torfgeus, the earliest
 
 100 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 and the Dagmalastad. Now when they were ready with 
 their house building, [A. D. 1001] Leif said to his fellow 
 travelers : " Now I will divide the crew into two divisions 
 and explore the country. Half shall stay at home and do 
 
 writer who inquired into these questions. He was followed 
 by Peringskiold, Malte-Brun and others, who, by their reckon- 
 ing, made the latitude of Vinland somewhere near Nova 
 Scotia. Yet the recent studies of Rafn and Finn Magnus- 
 sen, have elucidated the point: " The Northmen divided the 
 heavens or horizons into eight principal divisions, and the 
 times of the day according to the sun's apparent motion 
 through these divisions, the passage through each of which 
 they supposed to occupy a period of three hours. The day 
 was therefore divided into portions of time corresponding 
 with these eight divisions, each of which was called an eykt, 
 signifying an eighth part. This eykt was again divided, like 
 each of the grand divisions of the heavens, into two smaller 
 and equal portions, called stund or mal. In order to deter- 
 mine these divisions of time, 'the inhabitant of each place 
 carefully observed the diurnal course of the sun, and noted 
 the terrestrial objects over which it seemed to stand. Such 
 an object, whether artificial or natural, was called by the Ice- 
 landers dagsmark (daymark). They were also led to make 
 these daymarks by a division of the horizon according to the 
 principal winds, as well as by the wants of their domestic 
 economy. The shepherd's rising time, for instance, was 
 called Hirdis rismdl, which corresponds with half -past four 
 o'clock, A. M., and this was the beginning of the natural day 
 of twenty-four hours. Reckoning from Hirdis rismdl the eight 
 stund or eighth half eykt ended at jnst half-past four P. M.; and 
 therefore this particular period was called xar' stzoxrfv, EYKT. 
 This eykt, strictly speaking, commenced at three o'clock, P.M,. 
 and ended at half-past four p. M., when it was said to be in 
 eyktarstadr or the termination of the eykt. The precise mo- 
 ment that the sun appeared in this place indicated the termina- 
 tion of the artificial day (dagr) and half the natural day (dagr) 
 and was therefore held especially deserving of notice; the hours 
 of labor, also, are supposed to have ended at this time. Six 
 o'clock, A. M., was called midr morgun ; half -past seven A.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 101 
 
 the work, and the other half shall search the land ; but so 
 that they do not go farther than they can come back in the 
 evening, and that they do not wander from each other." 
 This they continued to do for some time. Leif changed 
 about, sometimes with them and sometimes with those at 
 home. Leif was a stout and strong man and of manly ap- 
 pearance, and was, besides, a prudent and sagacious man in 
 all respects. 
 
 It happened one evening that a man of the party was 
 missing, and it was the south countryman, Tyrker. Leif 
 was very sorry for this because Tyrker had long been in 
 his father's house, and he loved Tyrker in his childhood. 
 Leif blamed his comrades very much, and proposed to 
 go with twelve men on an expedition to find him ; but 
 they had gone only a short way from the station when Tyr- 
 ker came to meet them, and he was joyfully received. Leif 
 soon perceived that his foster father 1 was quite merry. 
 
 M., Dagmal ; nine A. M., Dagverdarmal. Winter was consid- 
 ered to commence in Iceland about the seventeenth of October, 
 and Bishop Thorlacius, the calculator of the astronomical 
 calendar, fixes sunrise in the south of Iceland on the seven- 
 teenth of October, at half-past seven A. M. At this hour, 
 according to the Saga, it rose in Vinland on the shortest day, 
 and set at half past four P. M., which data fix the latitude of 
 the place at 41 43' 10* being nearly that of Mount Hope 
 Bay." See Mem. Antiq. du Nord, 1836-7, p. 165. Rafn's 
 calculations make the position 41 24' 10'. It is based on 
 the view that the observation was made in Vinland when only 
 the upper portion of the disc had appeared above the horizon. 
 The difference, of course, is not important. Thus we know 
 the position of the Icelandic settlement in New England. See 
 Antiquitates, Americans, p. 436. Also a different view in 
 Cleasby's Icelandic Dictionary, p. 135. 
 
 1 In those turbulent times children were not brought up at 
 home, but were sent to be trained up in the families of trusty 
 friends. This was done to preserve the family line. Often, 
 in some bloody feud, a whole household would be destroyed, 
 yet the children being out at foster, would be preserved and
 
 102 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 Tyrker had a high forehead, sharp eyes, with a small face, 
 and was little in size, and ugly ; but was very dexterous in all 
 feats. 1 Leif said to him, ' ' Why art thou so late, my foster 
 
 in due time come to represent the family. In Leif's day 
 heathenism and lawlessness were on the decline. We have a 
 true picture given us by Dasent, of the way in which children 
 were treated in the heathen age. He says : " With us, an 
 old house can stand upon a crooked as well as upon a straight 
 support. But in Iceland, in the tenth century, as in all the 
 branches of that great family, it was only healthy children 
 that were allowed to live. The deformed, as a burden to 
 themselves, their friends and to society, were consigned 
 to destruction by exposure to the violence of the elements. 
 This was the father's stern right, and though the mothers 
 of that age were generally blest with robust offspring, still 
 the right was often exercised. As soon as it was born, 
 the infant was laid upon the bare ground, and, until the father 
 came and looked at it, heard and saw that it was strong in 
 lung and limb, took it up in his arms and handed it over 
 to the nurse, its fate hung in the balance and life or death 
 depended upon the sentence of its sire. That danger over, 
 it was duly washed, signed with the Thunderer's [Thor's] 
 holy hammer the symbol of all manliness and strength 
 and solemnly received into the family as the faithful cham- 
 pion of the ancient gods. When it came to be named there 
 was what we should call the christening ale. There was 
 saddling, mounting and riding among kith and kin. Cousins 
 came in bands from all points of the compass: dependents, 
 
 1 There is nothing in this to indicate that Tyrker was in- 
 toxicated, as some have absurdly supposed. In this far off 
 land he found grapes, which powerfully reminded him of his 
 native country, and the association of ideas is so strong, that 
 when he first meets Leif, he breaks out in the language of his 
 childhood, and, like ordinary epicures, expresses his joy, 
 which is all the more marked on account of his grotesque 
 appearance. Is not this a stroke of genuine nature, something 
 that a writer, framing the account of a fictitious voyage, 
 would not dream of ? Similar cases are found in literature.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 103 
 
 father ? and why didst thou leave thy comrades ? " He spoke 
 at first long in German, rolled his eyes and knit his brows ; 
 but they could not make out what he was saying. After a 
 while, and some delay, he said in Norse, " I did not go much 
 further than they ; and yet I have something altogether new 
 to relate, for I found vines and grapes." 1 " Is that true, my 
 foster father ? " said Leif. " Yes, true it is," answered he, 
 " for I was born where there was no scarcity of grapes." 
 They slept all night, and the next morning Leif said to his 
 men, " Now we shall have two occupations to attend to, and 
 day about ; namely, to gather grapes or cut vines, and to fell 
 wood in the forest to lade our vessel:" This advice was 
 followed. It is related that their stern boat was filled with 
 grapes, and then a cargo of wood was hewn for the ves- 
 sel. 11 Towards spring they made ready and sailed away, and 
 
 freedmen and thralls all mustered strong. The ale is broached, 
 the board is set, and the benches are thronged with guests; 
 the mirth and revelry are at the highest, when in strides into 
 the hall a being of awful power, in whom that simple age set 
 full faith. This was the Nome, the wandering prophetess, 
 sybil fortune teller, a woman to whom it was given to know 
 the weirds of men, and who had come to do honor to the 
 child, and tell his fortune .... After the child was named, 
 he was often put out to foster with some neighbor, his father's 
 inferior in power, and there he grew up with the children of 
 the house, and contracted those friendships and affections 
 which were reckoned better and more binding than the ties 
 of blood." Antiquaires du Nord, 1859, pp. 8-9. 
 
 1 Grapes grow wild almost everywhere on this coast. They 
 may be found on Cape Cod ripening among the scrub oaks, 
 even within the reach of the ocean spray, where the author 
 has often gathered them. 
 
 2 In Peringskiold's Heimskringla, which Lai ng has folio wed 
 in translating Leif's voyage for his appendix, this statement 
 of the cutting of wood is supplemented by the following 
 statement : " There was also self-sown wheat in the fields, 
 and a tree which is called massur. Of all these they took 
 samples; and some of the trees were so large that they were
 
 104 PBE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 Leif gave the country a name from its products, and called 
 it Yinland. 1 They now sailed into the open sea and had a 
 fair wind until they came in sight of Greenland and the 
 lands below the ice mountains. Then a man put in a word 
 and said to Leif, " Why do you steer so close on the wind ?" 
 Leif replied : " I mind my helm and tend to other things 
 too ; do you notice any thing ? " They said that they saw 
 nothing remarkable. " I do not know," said Leif, " whether 
 I see a ship or a rock." Then they looked and saw that it 
 was a rock. But he saw so much better than they, that he 
 discovered men upon the rock. " Now I will, ' said Leif, 
 " that we hold to the wind, that we may come up to them 
 if they should need help ; and if they should not be friendly 
 inclined, it is in our power to do as we please and not 
 theirs." Now they sailed under the rock, lowered their 
 sails, cast anchor, and put out another small boat which they 
 had with them. Then Tyrker asked who their leader was. 
 He said his name was Thorer, and said he was a Northman ; a 
 
 used in houses/' It is thought that the massur wood was a 
 species of maple. Others have declared that it must have 
 been mahogany, and that therefore the account of Leif's dis- 
 covery is false. They forget that even George Popham, in 
 writing home to his patron from Sagadahoc, in 1607, says 
 that among the productions of the country are "nutmegs 
 and cinnamon." Yet shall we infer from this that Popham 
 never saw New England ? 
 
 1 Olaus Magnus, who wrote 1075, after he had made a 
 visit to the King of Denmark, at whose court he heard of the 
 exploits of the Icelanders, says : "Besides it was stated [by 
 the King] that a region had been discovered by many in that 
 [Western] ocean which was called Winland, because vines 
 grow there spontaneously, making excellent wine ; for that 
 fruits, not planted grow there of their own accord, we know 
 not by false rumors, but by the certain testimony of the 
 Danes." See, also, Bafn's Antiquitates, etc., p. 319. 
 
 3 They were evidently Norwegian traders who were ship- 
 wrecked while approaching the coast and sailing for the 
 Greenland ports. Here attention may be called to the truth-
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 105 
 
 1 ' But what is your name ? " said he. Leif told his name. 
 " Are you the son of Eric the Ked of Brattahlid ? " he 
 asked. Leif said that was so. " Now I will," said Leif, 
 
 ful description of the Sagas as one proof of their authenticity 
 and historical value. We employ the well-considered words 
 of Henry Cabot Lodge, who says : 
 
 "The Sagas may then be accepted as authentic historical 
 records. A detailed examination of them would result 
 in almost complete proof of Norse visits to America. Such 
 an examination would be impossible within the limits of a 
 notice, but some of the most striking portions are worth at- 
 tention. If one takes a map of North America, it will be 
 seen at once that a vessel starting from Cape Farewell and 
 steering almost due south would make the coast of New- 
 foundland, possibly Labrador. The first land made by the 
 Northmen after leaving Greenland was Helluland, distin- 
 guished by its rocky appearance, like the northern Newfound- 
 land coast. Further to the south, the next shores would be 
 that of Nova Scotia, a thickly wooded country, and called by 
 the Northmen Markand. Several days of open water and 
 Cape Cod or Cape Kiarlarness would be reached. The de- 
 scription of the cape in the Sagas, where it is frequently 
 mentioned, corresponds perfectly with Cape Cod. The fea- 
 tures of the shore are accurately described, long stretches 
 of flats and sand dunes rising up behind them. To the south 
 of this cape a bay was entered by the Norsemen, and named 
 from its numerous currents, for which Buzzards' Bay is re- 
 markable. The large island covered with the eggs of sea- 
 birds lies in the southern part of the bay. The long beaches 
 of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are famous to-day, as in 
 the tenth century, for large quantities of sea-fowFs eggs. In 
 this country wild grapes grew in great profusion. Even sup- 
 posing great changes of climate, this fact may be fairly taken 
 to exclude Greenland and Labrador, in both of which coun- 
 tries wild grapes would be an anomaly. Grapes do grow, 
 however, in Rhode Island. Examples might be multiplied. 
 It is a very strong case of cumulative evidence. Vinland must 
 have been some portion of the eastern coast of the American 
 Continent. Nothing then is more likely than that the Norse- 
 14
 
 106 PiiE-COLTJMBIAN DISCOVERT OF 
 
 " take ye and all on board ray ship, and as ranch of the 
 goods as the ship will store." They took up this offer, and 
 sailed away to Ericfiord with the cargo, and from thence to 
 Brattahlid, where they unloaded the ship. Leif offered 
 Thorer and his wife, Gudrid, and three others, lodg- 
 ing with himself, and offering lodging elsewhere for the rest 
 of the people, both of Thorer 1 s crew and his own. Leif 
 took fifteen men from the rock, and thereafter was called, Leif 
 the Lucky. After that time Leif advanced greatly in wealth 
 and consideration. That winter, sickness came among 
 Thorer's people, and he himself, and a great part of his 
 crew, died. The same winter Eric Red died. This expe- 
 dition to Vinland was much talked of, and Leif's brother, 
 Thorvald, thought that the country had not been explored 
 enough in different places. Then Leif said to Thorvald, 
 " You may go, brother, in my ship to Yinland if you like ; 
 but I will first send, the ship for the timber which Thorer 
 left upon the rock." So it was done. 
 
 SECOND NAKRATTVE. 
 
 The same spring King Olaf, as said before, sent Gissur 1 
 and Hialte" to Iceland. The king also sent Leif to Green- 
 
 men visited New England. The description of the Sagas co- 
 incide exactly with the south-eastern coast of Rhode Island 
 and Massachusetts. The Sagas are in the main certainly ac- 
 curate and truthful. If these premises are admitted, and it 
 seems impossible to deny them, the visits of the Norsemen 
 are sufficiently well proved." North American Review, vol. 
 cxix, p. 177. 
 
 1 Gissur, called the "White, was one of the greatest lawyers 
 of Iceland. We read that " there was a man named Gissur 
 White, he was Teit's son, Kettlebiarne the Old's son, of 
 Mossfell [Iceland]. Bishop Isleif was Gissur's son. Gissur 
 the White kept house at Mossfell, and was a great Chief." 
 Saga of Burnt Nial, vol. I, p. 146. 
 
 9 Hialte was doubtless the same person who entered the 
 swimming match with King Olaf. See Saga of Olaf Trygg- 
 vesson.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN'. 107 
 
 land to proclaim Christianity there. The king sent with him 
 a priest and some other religions men, to baptize the people 
 and teach them the true faith. Leif sailed the same sum- 
 mer to Greenland ; he took up out of the ocean the people 
 of a ship who were on a wreck completely destroyed, and in a 
 perishing condition. On this same voyage he discovered 
 Vinland the Good, 1 and came at the close of summer to 
 Brattahlid, to his father Eric. After that time the people 
 called him, Leif the Fortunate ; but his father Eric said 
 that these two things went against one another ; that Leif 
 had saved the crew of the ship, and delivered them from 
 death, and that he had [brought] that bad man into Green- 
 land, that is what he called the priest ; but after much urging, 
 Eric was baptized, 2 as well as all the people of Greenland. 
 
 THIRD NARRATIVE. 
 
 The same winter, Leif, the son of Eric the Red, was in 
 high favor with King Olaf, and embraced Christianity. But 
 the summer that Gissur went to Iceland, King Olaf sent 
 Leif to Greenland, to proclaim Christianity. He sailed the 
 same summer foi* Greenland. He found some men in the 
 sea on a wreck, and helped them ; the same voyage,' he dis- 
 covered Vinland the Good, and came at harvest time to 
 Greenland. He brought with him a priest and other re- 
 ligious 4 men, and went to live at Brattahlid with his father 
 Eric. He was afterward called, Leif the Fortunate. But 
 his father Eric said, that these two things were opposed to 
 one another, because Leif had saved the crew of the ship, 
 and brought evil men to Greenland, meaning the priests. 
 
 1 This is au error, unless the writer means that the voyage 
 to Vinland, afterward undertaken, was a part of the same 
 general expedition. Leif went to Greenland first, as we have 
 already seen. 
 
 2 These pagans did not always yield even so readily as Eric. 
 Some in Norway became martyrs to the faith of Odin. See 
 Saga of Olaf Tryggvesson (passim) in vol. I, of Heimskringla. 
 
 3 See note to foregoing account. 
 
 4 These appear to have been married men or secular clergy.
 
 108 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 V. THORVALD ERICSON'S EXPEDITION. 
 
 The greater portion of this voyage appears to have been 
 performed during two summers, the expedition, after visiting 
 the Bay of Boston, finally returning to Greenland on account 
 of the death of their leader. The narrative is taken from 
 Codex Flatoiensis, as given in Antiquitates Americans. 
 
 Now Thorvald [A. D. 1002] made ready for his voyage 
 with thirty men, after consulting his brother Leif. They 
 rigged their ship, and put to sea. Nothing is related of this 
 expedition until they came to Vinland, to the booths put up 
 by Leif, where they secured the ship and tackle, and re- 
 mained quiet all winter and lived by fishing. In the spring 
 [A. D. 1003] Thorvald ordered the vessel to be rigged, and 
 that some men should proceed in the long-boat westward 
 along the coast, and explore it during the summer. 1 They 
 thought the country beautiful and well wooded, the distance 
 small between the forest and the sea, and the strand full of 
 white sand. There were also many islands and very shallow 
 water. They found no abode for man or beast, but on an 
 island far toward the west, they found a corn barn con- 
 structed of wood. 2 They found no other traces of human 
 work, and came back in the autumn to Leif s booths. The fol- 
 lowing spring [A. D. 1004] Thorvald, with his merchant 
 ship, proceeded eastward, and toward the north along the 
 land. Opposite to a cape* they met bad weather, and drove 
 
 1 Assuming that the expedition was located in Rhode Island, 
 this westward exploration would indicate a movement along 
 the shore of Connecticut, which answers well enough to the 
 description. 
 
 9 A building of this character would point to Europeans, 
 who, according to the minor narratives, preceded the Iceland- 
 ers in America. 
 
 3 This cape was not Point Gilbert, but the terminus of Cape 
 Cod, known as "Race Point," a dangerous place for uaviga-
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN . lt)9 
 
 upon the land and broke the keel, and remained there a long 
 time to repair the vessel. Thorvald said to his companions : 
 " We will stick up the keel here upon the ness, and call the 
 place Kialarness ;" which they did. Then they sailed away 
 eastward along the country, entering the mouths of the 
 bays, to a point of land which was every where covered with 
 woods. They moored the vessel to the land, laid out gang- 
 ways to the shore, and Thorvald, with all his ship's company, 
 landed. He said, " Here it is so beautiful, and I would 
 willingly set up my abode here." 1 They afterward went 
 
 tion. It would seem that this was the place referred to, for 
 the reason that the next place mentioned is the shore near 
 Plymouth, which is readily seen from the end of Cape Cod 
 in a clear day. Here is a hiatus. It was the vicinity of 
 Kace Point that they called " Kialarness," or Keel Cape. 
 From Cape Cod it would seem they crossed to Plymouth, 
 whose heights were in view of the cape in clear weather, and 
 then worked along eastward, though the passage across the 
 mouth of Cape Cod Bay is not mentioned, reaching the mouth 
 of Boston Harbor, where Thorvald said, " Here it is beauti- 
 ful," even as John Smith wrote of it as "the Paradise of all 
 these parts," and where evidently the French had been be- 
 fore him. Indeed every thing goes to prove, that from the 
 time of Allefonsce, 1542, down to Bellinger, 1583, the French 
 must often resorted thither. If we are correct in this view, 
 Boston is a singularly appropriate place for a monument 
 to the Northmen. Afterward they speak of "the bay" 
 and habitations, all of which is in keeping with Boston 
 Harbor. Whoever takes the trouble to analyze the language, 
 will discover by the occasional hiatus that the writer speaks 
 from a fullness of knowledge, and that he could have added 
 many particulars, showing that he was writing about actual 
 events. 
 
 1 Here, Antiquitates Americans, p. 42, is followed, instead 
 of Peringskiold, whose version does not mention the point of 
 land. This place is regarded as Point Alderton, below Boston 
 Harbor. Thorvald evidently sailed along the shore to this 
 point, which is the most remarkable on the east coast.
 
 110 PfiE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 on board, and saw three specks upon the sand within the 
 point, and went to them and found there were three skin 
 boats with three men under each boat. They divided their 
 men and took all of them prisoners, except one man, who 
 escaped with his boat. They killed eight of them, and then 
 went to the point and looked about them. Within this 
 bay they saw several eminences, which they took to be habi- 
 tations. Then a great drowsiness came upon them and they 
 could not keep themselves awake, but all of them fell 
 asleep. 1 A sudden scream came to them, and they all awoke ; 
 and mixed with the scream they thought they heard the 
 words : "Awake, Thorvald, with all thy comrades, if ye 
 will save your lives. Go on board your ship as fast as you 
 can, and leave this land without delay." In the same mo- 
 ment an innumerable multitude, from the interior of the 
 bay, came in skin boats and laid themselves alongside. Then 
 said Thorvald, " We shall put up our war screens 2 along the 
 gunwales and defend ourselves as well as we can, but not 
 use our weapons much against them." They did so ac- 
 cordingly. The Skrsellings 3 shot at them for a while, and 
 
 1 Nothing supernatural is here intended, simply the result 
 of fatigue. 
 
 8 These screens were made of planks which could be quickly 
 arranged above the bulwarks, thus affording particular pro- 
 tection against arrows and stones. 
 
 8 These people are sometimes called Smaellingar, or small 
 men. Others deduce their name from skrcela, to dry, allud- 
 ing to their shriveled aspect ; and others from skrmkia to 
 shout. It is evident from the accounts of Egede and Crantz, 
 that they formerly inhabited this part of the country, but 
 were gradually obliged to go northward. It is well known 
 that in other parts of America, these migrations were com- 
 mon. These people were more likely to take refuge in 
 Greenland than the Northmen themselves. Critics have been 
 concerned to know how it comes that the people met by the 
 Northmen in New England appeared to be Esquimaux, and 
 not Red Indians. This is because the Red Indians had not 
 then become masters of the coast, which was held by a littoral
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. Ill 
 
 then fled away as fast as they could. Then Thorvald asked 
 if anyone was wounded, and they said nobody was hurt. He 
 said : " I have a wound under the arm. 1 An arrow flew 
 between the gunwale and the shield under my arm : here 
 is the arrow, and it will be my death wound. Now I ad- 
 vise you to make ready with all speed to return ; but ye 
 shall carry me to the point which I thought would be so 
 convenient for a dwelling. It may be that it was true what 
 I said, that here would I dwell for a while. Ye shall bury 
 me there, and place a cross at my head and one at my feet, 
 and call the place Crossness." Christianity had been estab- 
 lished in Greenland at this time ; 2 but Eric Red was dead 3 
 
 people who once occupied the coast from Florida to Green- 
 land, being the descendants of what may be called the " gla- 
 cial man." The Indian who said that the Great Spirit gave 
 him the country, simply wrested it from the Skraellings, whose 
 stone implements are now found in the Trenton gravels. See 
 author's "Glacial Man in America;" Pop. Science Review, 
 vol. xvin, p. 31. The skin boats of the Skraellings were in 
 keeping with habits of the littoral people. The Bed man 
 who followed used bark, or fashioned canoes out of solid logs, 
 as described by Sebastian Cabot, Verrazano and Lescarbot. 
 
 1 The conduct of Thorvald indicates magnanimity of char- 
 acter, thinking first of his men, and afterward of himself. 
 
 9 Christianity was introduced by Leif, Thorvald's brother, 
 in 1001-2. 
 
 8 This is evidently an error, for Christianity was introduced 
 by Leif, before he sailed on his voyage to Vinland. Errors 
 like this abound in all early annals, and why should Icelandic 
 chronicles be free from them? Every such case will be im- 
 partially pointed out. The treatment of this passage by 
 Smith, in his Dialogues on the Northmen, p. 127, is far from 
 being candid. He translates the passage thus: "But Eric 
 the Red had died without professing Christianity," and refers 
 the English reader to the Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefne, An- 
 tiquitates Americana, pp. 119-20, as if he would there find a 
 reason for his rendering of the text, which is unequivocal, and 
 is translated literally above. On turning to the authority in
 
 112 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 before Christianity was introduced. Now Thorvald died, 
 and they did everything as he had ordered. Then they went 
 away in search of their fellow voyagers, 1 and they related to 
 each other all the news. They remained in their dwelling 
 all winter, and gathered vines and grapes, 2 and put them on 
 board their ships. Toward spring, they prepared to return 
 to Greenland, where they arrived with their vessel, and 
 landed at Ericsfiord, bringing heavy tidings to Leif. 
 
 VI. THORSTEIN ERICSON'S ATTEMPT TO FIND 
 VINLAND. 
 
 This version is from Codex Flatbiensis, and is given in 
 Antiquitates Americana, pp. 47-55. The expedition was 
 wholly unsuccessful, and the leader finally died without 
 reaching the desired land. One cannot help believing, not- 
 withstanding the marvellous events recorded, that the basis 
 of this account is formed of solid fact. The narrative is 
 not one likely to have been invented by an impostor, espec- 
 cially as there was no motive suggesting imposture. 
 
 In the meantime it had happened in Greenland that 
 Thorstein of Ericsfiord had married and taken to wife [A. 
 
 question, we find nothing more said than that " Eric was 
 slow to give up his [pagan] religion/' and that the affair 
 caused a separation between him and his wife. That he was 
 slow to give up his pagan belief, would seem to indicate that 
 he did give it up eventually. Moreover we have the direct 
 statement that he was baptized. See second Narrative of Leif, 
 p. . 
 
 1 That is, they returned around Cape Cod to the rendezvous 
 in Ehode Island. 
 
 - Gathering and drying them evidently.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 113 
 
 D. 1005] Gudrid, 1 the daughter of Thorbiorn, who had been 
 married, as before related, to Thorer, the Eastman. 2 Thor- 
 stein Ericson bethought him now that he would go to Fin- 
 land for his brother Thorvald's body. He rigged out the 
 same vessel and chose an able and stout crew. He had with 
 him twenty five men and his wife Gudrid, and as soon as 
 they were ready he put to sea. They quickly lost sight of 
 the land. They drove about on the ocean the whole sum- 
 mer without knowing where they were, 3 and in the first week 
 of winter 4 they landed at Lysifiord in Greenland, in the 
 western settlement. Thorstein looked for lodgings for his 
 men and got his whole ship's crew accommodated, but not 
 himself and wife, so that for some nights they had to sleep 
 on board. At that time Christianity was but recent in 
 Greenland. One day, early in the morning, some men came 
 to their tent and the leader asked them what people were in 
 the tent ? Thorstein replies, " Two ; who is it that asks ? " 
 " Thorstein," was the reply, " and I am called Thorstein 
 the Black, and it is my errand here to offer thee and thy 
 wife lodging beside me." Thorstein said he would speak 
 to his wife about it, and as she gave her consent he agreed 
 to it. " Then I shall come for yon to-morrow with my 
 horses, 6 for I do not want means to entertain you ; but few 
 care to live in my house ; I and my wife live lonely, and I 
 
 1 This Gudrid who was rescued from the rock in the sea by 
 Leif Ericson, is now married the second time, and as we 
 shall see later on, was married a third time, and became the 
 head of a most important family, afterward going to Eome. 
 
 2 Norway lay east of Iceland, and hence the people of that 
 country were sometimes called Eastmen. 
 
 3 If Vinland had been situated in Labrador, it would be 
 rather idle to suppose that they could have lost the summer 
 in trying to find it. This expedition aimed at reaching the 
 place called " Crossaness " near the Bay of Boston. 
 
 4 Winter began October 17. 
 
 5 They probably had, at least, diminutive horses or ponies 
 in Greenland like those of Iceland to-day. 
 
 15
 
 114 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 am very gloomy. I have also a different religion 1 from 
 yours, although I think the one you have the best." Now 
 the following morning he came for them with horses, and 
 they took up their abode with Thorstein Black, who was 
 very friendly toward them. Gudrid had a good outward ap- 
 pearance and was knowing, and understood well how to 
 behave with strangers. Early in the winter a sickness pre- 
 vailed among Thorstein Ericson's people, and many of his 
 ship-men died. He ordered that coffins should be made for 
 the bodies of the dead and that they should be brought on 
 board and stowed away carefully, for he said, " I will trans- 
 port all the bodies to Ericsfiord in summer." 2 It was not 
 long before sickness broke out in Thorstein Black's house, 
 and his wife, who was called Grimhild, fell sick first. She 
 was very stout and as strong as a man, but yet she could 
 not bear up against the illness. Soon after Thorstein Eric- 
 son also fell sick and they both lay ill in bed at the same 
 time ; but Grimhild, Thorstein Black's wife, died first. 
 When she was dead, Thorstein went out of the room for a 
 skin to lay over the corpse. Then Gudrid said, " My dear 
 Thorstein, be not long away," which he promised. Then said 
 Thorstein Ericson, " Our housewife is wonderful, for she 
 raises herself up with her elbows, moves herself forward 
 over the bed-frame, and is feeling for her shoes." In the 
 same moment, Thorstein the Goodman, came back, and in- 
 stantly, Grimhild laid herself down, so that it made every 
 beam that was in the house crack. Thorstein now made a 
 coffin for Grimhild's corpse, removed it outside, and buried 
 it. He was a stout and strong man, but it required all his 
 strength to remove the corpse from the bouse. Now Thor- 
 stein Ericson's illness increased upon him, and he died, 
 which Gudrid his wife took with great grief. They were 
 all in the room, and Gudrid had set herself upon a stool be- 
 fore the bench on which her husband Thorstein' s body lay. 
 
 1 Thorstein Black was a pagan, who nevertheless saw the 
 superior value of the new faith. 
 * See The Graves of The Northmen, Church Monthly, 1865
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 115 
 
 Now Thorstein the Goodman took Gudrid from the stool in 
 his arms, and set himself with her upon a bench just oppo- 
 site to Thorstein's body, 1 and spoke much with her. He con- 
 soled her, and promised to go with her in summer to 
 Ericsfiord, with her husband Thorstein's corpse, and those 
 of his crew. " And," said he, " I shall take with me many 
 servants to console and assist." She thanked him for this. 
 Thorstein Ericson then raised himself up and said, " Where 
 is Gudrid?" And thrice he said this ; but she was silent. 
 Then she said to Thorstein the Goodman, " Shall I give 
 answer or not ? " He told her not to answer. Then went 
 Thorstein the Goodman across the room, and sat down in a 
 chair, and Gudrid set herself on his knee; and Thorstein 
 the Goodman said: " "What wilt thou make known ?" After 
 a while the corpse replies, " I wish to tell Gudrid her fate 
 beforehand, that she may be the better able to bear my 
 death ; for I have come to a blessed resting place. This I 
 have now to tell thee, Gudrid, that thou wilt be married to 
 an Iceland man, and ye will live long together and from 
 you will descend many men, brave, gallant and wise, and 
 a well-pleasing race of posterity. Ye shall go from Green- 
 land to Norway, and from thence to Iceland, where 
 ye shall dwell. Long will ye live together, but thou wilt 
 survive him ; and then thou shalt go abroad, and go south- 
 ward, 2 and shall return to thy home in Iceland. And 
 there must a church be built, and thou must remain there 
 and be consecrated a nun, and there end thy days." 3 And 
 
 1 We must here remember the simplicity of manners, which 
 then (as now) prevailed among the Icelanders. The tourist 
 in Iceland ]s always surprised by the absence of all prudery. 
 
 9 That is, visit Italy and especially Home . 
 
 3 "Whoever inclines to dismiss this narrative as an idle 
 fiction, must remember that all history is more or less per- 
 vaded by similar stories. The Kev. Cotton Mather, in his 
 Magnolia of New England, gives the account of a great num- 
 ber of supernatural events of no better character than this re- 
 lated in the Saga. Some are ludicrous in the extreme, and
 
 116 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERT OF 
 
 then Thorstein sank backward, and his corpse was put in 
 order and carried to the ship. Thorstein the Goodman did 
 all that he had promised. He sold in spring [A. D. 1006] 
 
 others are horrible, both in their inception and end. Among 
 other stories, is that of Mr. Phillip Smith, deacon of the 
 church at Hadley, Mass., and a member of the General Court, 
 who appears to have been bewitched. He was finally obliged 
 to keep his bed. Then it is said that the people "beheld fire 
 sometimes on the bed ; and when the beholders began to dis- 
 course of it, it vanished away. Divers people actually felt 
 something often stir in the bed, at a considerable distance 
 from the man ; it seemed as big as a cat, but they could never 
 grasp it. Several trying to lean on the bed's head, tho' the 
 sick man lay wholly still, the bed would shake so as to knock 
 their heads uncomfortably. A very strong man could not 
 lift the sick man, to make him lie more easily, tho' he ap- 
 ply'd his utmost strength unto it ; and yet he could go pres- 
 ently and lift the bedstead and a bed, and a man lying on it, 
 without any strain to himself at all. Mr. Smith dies ... 
 After the opinion of all had pronounced him dead, his counte- 
 nance continued as lively as though he had been alive 
 
 Divers noises were heard in the room where the corpse lay ; 
 as the clattering of chairs and stools, whereof no account 
 could be given." Magnolia, ed. 1853, vol. i, p. 455. The 
 account is vouched for by the author, who was one of the 
 most learned divines of his day. Another is given, among 
 the multitude of which he had the most convincing proof. He 
 writes: "It was on the 2d day of May, in the year 1687, that 
 a most ingenious, accomplish'd and well-dispos'd young gen- 
 tleman, Mr. Joseph Beacon by Name, about 5 o'clock in the 
 morning, as he lay, whether sleeping or waking he could not 
 say (but he judged the latter of them), had a view of his 
 brother, then at London, although he was himself at our Bos- 
 ton, distanc'd from him a thousand leagues. This his brother 
 appear'd to him in the morning (I say) about 5 o'clock, at 
 Boston, having on him a Bengale gown, which he usually 
 wore, with a napkin ty'd about his head; his countenance was 
 very pale, ghastly, deadly, and he had a bloody wound on the 
 side of his forehead. ' Brother/ says the affrighted Joseph,
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 117 
 
 his land and cattle, and went with Gudrid and all her goods ; 
 made ready the ship, got men for it, and then went to Erics- 
 fiord. The body was buried at the church. 1 Gudrid went 
 to Leif s at Brattahlid, and Thorstein the Black took his 
 abode in Ericstiord, and dwelt there as long as he lived ; 
 and was reckoned an able man. 
 
 VII. THORFINN KARLSEFNE'S EXPEDITION TO 
 VINLAND. 
 
 This was in many respects the most important expedition 
 to New England, both as regards the numbers engaged, and 
 
 ' Brother,' answered the apparition. Said Joseph, ' What's 
 the matter Brother ? how came you here ? ' The apparition 
 replied: 'Brother I have been most barbarously and in- 
 humanly murdered by a debauch'd fellow, to whom I never 
 did any wrong in my life/ Whereupon he gave a particular 
 description of the murderer ; adding, ' Brother, this fellow, 
 changing his name, is attempting to come over to New Eng- 
 land in Foy or Wild ; I would pray you on the arrival of 
 either of these, to get an order from the governour to seize the 
 person whom I now have describ'd, and then do you indict 
 him for the murder of your brother.' And so he vanished." 
 Mather then adds an account, which shows that Beacon's 
 brother was actually murdered as described, dying within the 
 very hour in which his apparition appeared in Boston. He 
 says that the murderer was tried, but, with the aid of his 
 friends, saved his life. Joseph himself, our author says, died 
 "a, pious and hopeful death/' and gave him the account 
 written aud signed with his own hand. While New England 
 history abounds with stories like this, men incline to question 
 an Icelandic writer, because he occasionally indulges in fan- 
 cies of the same sort. Rather should we look for them, as 
 authentic contemporary signs. These things seem to be 
 more or less akin to what are called the " spiritual manifesta- 
 tions " of our modern times, and suggest the well-attested 
 marvels that disturbed the Wesley family. 
 
 1 Thorhild's Church. See Antiquitates Americana, p. 119.
 
 118 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERT OF 
 
 the information and experience derived. We have three 
 different accounts of the expedition. The first is from the 
 somewhat lengthy Saga of Thorfinn Karlsef ne, in the Arnce- 
 Magncean Collection ; the second is from the Saga of Eric 
 thV Red, being called " The Account of Thorfinn ; " while 
 the third is a briefer relation from Codex Flatoiensis. The 
 first two may be found in Rafn's Antiquitates Americana, 
 pp. 75-200 ; while the last is also given in the same work, 
 on pp. 55-64. 
 
 The Saga of Karlsefne is occupied largely at the begin- 
 ning with accounts of various matters connected with social 
 life ; yet, as such subjects are not essential to the treatment 
 of the voyage, they are all omitted, except the account of 
 Thorfinn's marriage with the widow of Thorstein Ericson. 
 
 The notes to the narrative of Leif s expedition, which 
 precede this Saga in the chronological order, do away with 
 the necessity of treating a number of important points sug- 
 gested again in the present narrative. 
 
 It is believed that the principal manuscript of Thorfinu 
 Karlsefne is an autograph by one of his descendants, the 
 celebrated Hauk Erlander, the Governor or Lagman of Ice- 
 land, in 1295, who also was one of the compilers of the 
 Landnama-bok. Erlander was the ninth in descent from 
 Thorfinn. Torfaeus, who supposed that this manuscript was 
 lost, knew it only through corrupt extracts in the collection 
 of Biorn Johnson. 
 
 There will be found a substantial agreement between the 
 different accounts, notwithstanding they may not have been 
 composed by eye witnesses. The differences are evidently 
 such as would not appear in the case of three writers who 
 had banded together for the purpose of carrying out a his- 
 torical fraud. The Saga of Thorfinn, we may again remind 
 the student, was written in Iceland, while that of Eric was 
 composed in Greenland. The account from the Plato 
 Manuscript was, of course, written in the island which 
 bears that name, and is extremely brief, wanting many essen- 
 tial particulars. Indeed it is time that we had done talking
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 119 
 
 about fraud in connection with the work of the Icelanders, 
 who knew no spirit of rivalry and were not competing with 
 any foreign claimants. 
 
 NARRATIVE OF THORFINN KARL8EFNE. 
 
 There was a man named Thord who dwelt at Hofda, in 
 Hofda-Strand. He married Fridgerda, daughter of Thorer 
 the Idle, and of Fridgerda the daughter of Kiarval, King 
 of the Irish. Thord was the son of Biarne Butter-Tub, 
 son of Thorvald, son of Aslak, son of Biarne Ironsides, son 
 of Ragnar Lodbrok. They had a son named Snorre, who 
 married Thorhild the Partridge, daughter of Thord Geller. 
 They had a son named Thord Horsehead. Thorfinn Karl- 
 sefne 2 was his son, whose mother's name was Thornna. 
 Thorfinn occupied his time in merchant voyages and was 
 thought a good trader. One summer he fitted out his ship 
 for a voyage to Greenland, attended by Snorre Thorbrand- 
 son of Alptafiord, and a crew of forty men. There was a 
 man named Biarne Grimolfson of Breidafiord, and another 
 named Thorhall Gamlason of Austfiord. These men fitted 
 out a ship at the same time to voyage to Greenland. They 
 also had a crew of forty men. This ship and that of Thor- 
 finn, as soon as they were ready, put to sea. It is not said 
 how long they were on the voyage ; it is only told that both 
 ships arrived at Ericsfiord in the autumn of that year. 
 Leif 3 and other people rode down to the ships and friendly 
 
 1 " Byrdusmjor." 
 
 2 " Karl is the equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon " Carl," signi- 
 fying a " Man." " Efni " finds its equivalent in the Latin 
 Materia, signifying "Stuff." "Mannsefni" stood for a 
 " promising man," and " Karlsefni " for a "real " or "sterling" 
 man. The name was often used in the sense of a nickname, 
 and indicated that the person to whom it was applied was 
 made of " good stuff." 
 
 3 Throughout this narrative of Thorfinn, the name of Eric 
 occurs where that of Leif should be given. Eric died five 
 years before Thorfinn came over to Greenland. This account
 
 120 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 exchanges were made. The captains requested Leif to take 
 whatever he desired of their goods. Leif, in return, enter- 
 tained them well and invited the principal men of botli ships 
 to spend the winter with him at Brattahlid. The merchants 
 accepted his invitation with thanks. Afterward their goods 
 were moved to Brattahlid, where they had every entertain- 
 ment that they could desire ; therefore their winter quarters 
 pleased them much. When the Yule feast began, Leif was 
 silent and more depressed than usual. Then Karlsefne 
 said to Leif : "Are you sick, friend Leif? you do not seem 
 to be in your usual spirits. You have entertained us most 
 liberally, for which we desire to render you all the service 
 in our power. Tell me what it is that ails you." " You have 
 received what I have been able to offer you,' ' said Leif, " in 
 the kindest manner and there is no idea in my mind that you 
 have been wanting in courtesy ; but I am afraid lest when 
 you go away it may be said that you never saw a Yule 1 feast 
 so meanly celebrated as that which draws near at which you 
 will be entertained by Leif of Brattahlid." " That shall never 
 be the case, friend," said Karlsefne, " we have ample stores 
 in the ship ; take of these what you wish and make a feast as 
 splendid as you please." Leif accepted this offer and the Yule 
 began. So well were Leif's plans made, that all were sur- 
 prised that such a rich feast could be prepared in so poor a 
 country. After the Yule feast, Karlsefne began to treat 
 with Leif, as to the marriage of Gudrid, Leif being the per- 
 son to whom the right of betrothal belonged. Lief gave a 
 
 having been written in Iceland, the author made a very natu- 
 ral mistake in supposing that Eric was still at the head of the 
 family. The proper change has been made in the translation 
 to avoid confusion. 
 
 1 Yule was a pagan festival held originally in honor of Thor, 
 the God of War, at the beginning of February, which was 
 the opening of the Northman's year. But as Christianity 
 had been established in Greenland for five years, the festival 
 was now probably changed to December, and held in honor 
 of Christ,
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 121 
 
 favorable reply, and said she must fulfill that destiny which 
 fate had assigned, 1 and that he had heard of none except a 
 good report of him ; and in the end it turned out that 
 Karlsefne married Gudrid, and their wedding was held at 
 Brattahlid, this same winter. 
 
 [A. D. 1007.] The conversation often turned at Brattah- 
 lid, on the discovery of Yinland the Good, and they said 
 that a voyage there had great hope of gain. 2 After this 
 Karlsefne and Snorre made ready for going on a voyage 
 there the following spring. Biame and Thorhall Gamla- 
 son, before mentioned, joined him with a ship. There was 
 a man named Thorvard, who married Freydis, natural 
 daughter of Eric Red, and he decided to go with them, as 
 did also Thorvald, son 3 of Eric. Thorhall, commonly 
 called the Hunter, who had been the huntsman of Eric in 
 the summer, and his steward in the winter, also went. This 
 Thorhall was a man of immense size and of great strength, 
 and dark complexion and taciturn, and when he spoke, it was 
 always jestingly. He was always inclined to give Leif evil 
 advice. He was an enemy to Christianity. He knew much 
 about desert lauds ; and was in the same ship with Thorvord 
 and Thorvald. These used the ship which brought Thor- 
 biorn from Iceland. There were in all, forty men and a 
 hundred. 4 They sailed to the West district [of Greenland], 
 
 1 Ante, p. 115. Widow of Thorstein Ericson. Rafn thinks, 
 as she is mentioned in this Saga by two names, Gudrid and 
 Thurid, that one was her name in childhood, and the other 
 in her maturer years, when Christianity came to have a practi- 
 cal bearing. Her father's name was Thorbiorn, derived from 
 Thor. It was supposed that those who bore the names of 
 gods would find in these names a charm or special protection 
 from danger. 
 
 2 It was gain, not glory. They never boasted of their 
 voyages. 
 
 3 This is a mistake, Eric's son was dead and buried at Cros- 
 saness in Vinland. It must have been another Thorvald. 
 
 * The Northmen had two ways of reckoning a hundred,the 
 16
 
 122 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 and thence to Biarney ; l hence they sailed south a night and 
 a day. Then land was seen, and they launched a boat and 
 explored the land ; they found great flat stones, many of 
 which were twelve ells broad. There were a great number 
 of foxes there. They called the land Helluland 2 Then 
 they sailed a day and a night in a southerly course, and came 
 to a land covered with woods, in which there were many 
 wild animals. Beyond this land to the south-east, lay an 
 island on which they slew a bear. They called the island 
 Bear island, 3 and the land, Markland. Thence they sailed 
 long south by the land and came to a cape. The land lay on 
 the right [starboard] side of the ship, and there were long 
 shores of sand. They came to land, and found on the cape, 
 the keel of a ship, from which they called the place Kiarlar- 
 ness, 4 and the shores they also called Wonder-strand, because 
 
 short and the long. The long hundred was a hundred and 
 twenty. We read in Tegner's Frithiof's Saga : 
 
 " But a house for itself was the banquet hall, fashioned in fir wood; 
 Not five hundred, though told ten dozen to every hundred, 
 Filled that chamber so vast, when they gathered for Yule-tide 
 carousing." 
 
 American ed. , chap, in, p. 13. 
 
 Professor Rafii infers that the long hundred was here 
 meant, because he thinks that the central inscription on 
 Dighton Rock indicates CLI., the number of men Karlsefne 
 had with him, after losing nine. 
 
 1 The present island of Disco, also called by the Northmen, 
 Biarney, or Bear island. 
 
 2 The northern coast of America was called Helluland the 
 Great, and Newfoundland, Helluland, or Little Helluland. 
 Antiquitates Americana, p. 419. The sailing time is put too 
 short. 
 
 3 Supposed to be the Isle of Sable, but probably not. 
 
 4 Thorvald had left the keel of his vessel here on the point 
 of this cape, which was Cape Cod. In calling it by this name, 
 they simply followed his example, as in the case of Helluland 
 and Markland.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 123 
 
 it seemed so long sailing by. 1 Then the land became in- 
 dented with coves, and they ran the ship into a bay, 2 whither 
 they directed their course. King Olaf Tryggvesson had 
 given Leif two Scots," a man named Haki and a woman 
 named Hekia ; they were swifter of foot than wild animals. 
 
 1 Ante, p. 96, n. 
 
 2 This bay was probably the bay then situated between Point 
 Gilbert and Isle Nauset, which Professor Agassi z proves to 
 have existed. The writers do not mention this island in 
 either of the accounts of Thorfinn's voyage; but it has been 
 shown that Isle Nauset lay close to the shore, so that they 
 might not know that it was an island without par- 
 ticular examination; and, if they were aware of its existence, 
 it was not necessary to speak of it. Leif landed upon it and, 
 therefore, it was mentioned by the author who wrote the ac- 
 count of his voyage. Yet Thorfinn's chroniclers help to 
 prove its existence, by showing that beyond Wonder-strand 
 there was a bay where they rode at anchor for three days. It 
 must be noticed that the events are not set down in their ex- 
 act order, for, after the writer gets the vessels into the bay, he 
 goes back to speak of the landing of the Scots, which is often 
 the case where a writer is full of his subject. Gosnold an- 
 chored in the same place in the night, and in the morning he 
 remarked the number of coves, or as he calls them " breaches," 
 in the land. The Saga mentions the same thing, saying, that 
 the land "became indented with coves." These coves have 
 now disappeared, yet the testimony of Gosnold shows how 
 accurately the Northmen observed this part of the coast. 
 Like Gosnold, they found it convenient and safe to lie here 
 for a while. See Ante, p. 97, on " Sloop Mary." 
 
 3 This is the first we hear of slaves in Vinland. We have 
 already seen that among the proud Northmen, slavery, 
 "thralldom," was a reality. One of the near relations of 
 Ingolf, the first Northman who settled in Iceland, was mur- 
 dered by his Scotch (Irish) slaves. See on their dress, Eafn, 
 p. 140, note a. The grain found was called "Hveiti," wheat, 
 or in general language " corn," not meaning the Indian 
 maise.
 
 124 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 These were in Karlsefne's ship. When they had passed be- 
 yond Wonder-strand, they put these Scots ashore, and told 
 them to run over the land to the south-west, three days, and 
 discover the nature of the land, and then return. They 
 had a kind of garment that they called kiafal, that was so 
 made that a hat was on top, and it was open at the sides, 
 and no arms ; fastened between the legs with a button and 
 strap, otherwise they were naked. When they returned, 
 one had in his hand a bunch of grapes, and the other a 
 spear of wheat. They went on board, and afterward the 
 course was obstructed by another bay. Beyond this bay 
 was an island, 1 on each side of which was a rapid current, 
 that they called the Isle of Currents. 2 There was so great 
 a number of eider ducks 3 there, that they could hardly step 
 without treading on their eggs. They called this place 
 Stream Bay. 4 Here they brought their ships to land, 
 and prepared to stay. They had with them all 
 kinds of cattle. The situation of the place 5 was pleasant, 
 but they did not care for any thing, except to explore the 
 land. Here they wintered without sufficient food. The 
 next summer [A. D. 1008], failing to catch fish, they began 
 to want food. Then Thorhall the Hunter diappeared. 
 
 They found Thorhall, whom they sought three days, on 
 the top of a rock, where he lay breathing, blowing through 
 his nose and mouth, and muttering. They asked why he 
 had gone there. He replied that this was nothing that 
 concerned them. 6 They said that he should go home with 
 
 1 This, if we are correct, was Nantucket or Martha's Vine- 
 yard, then peThaps united, forming one island, as great 
 changes have taken place. 
 
 * Straumey, or Straum Isle, which indicates the powerful 
 currents in this region. 
 
 * The gull, or some similar bird is here referred to. 
 
 * Buzzard's Bay. See note to p. 98. 
 
 6 The shore opposite Martha's Vineyard. 
 
 * It would appear from what follows that he was engaged in 
 a heathen invocation. This is the only instance on record of
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 125 
 
 them, which he did. Afterward a whale was cast ashore 1 
 in that place ; and they assembled and cut it up, not 
 knowing what kind of a whale it was. They boiled it with 
 water, and ate it, and were taken sick. Then Thorhall 
 said : " Now you see that Thor 2 is more prompt to give 
 aid than your Christ. This was cast ashore as a reward for 
 the hymn which I composed to my patron Thor, who rarely 
 forsakes me." 3 When they knew this, they cast all the re- 
 
 honor being paid to this heathen god on the shores of New 
 England, yet we unwittingly recognize him every time we say 
 "Thursday," that is, " Thor's Day." 
 
 1 In olden times a certain portion of every whale cast ashore 
 on Cape Cod, formed a perquisite of the clergy. Drift whales 
 were set apart to swell the fund in aid of building Trinity 
 church, New York. 
 
 9 Literally the Red-beard, as Thor, the Thunderer, was 
 supposed to have had a beard of that color. The principal 
 deity of the Northmen was Odin, a king who died in his bed 
 in Sweden, and was afterward apotheosized. He was called 
 the " Terrible god." The souls ot men slain in battle were 
 received by him into the hall of the gods. Next was Frey, 
 considered a god of earth. Thor the Red-beard was synony- 
 mous with Jupiter. These three composed the supreme 
 council of the gods. Afterward came the good and gentle 
 Balder, with him came Brage, patron of eloquence and 
 poetry, and his wife Iduna, charged with the care of certain 
 apples. Also Heimdal the porter of the gods and builder of 
 the rainbow, and Loke, a kind of Satan or evil principle aided 
 by his children, the Wolf Fenris, the Serpent Midgard, and 
 Hela or Death. The American red-breasted Robin is sacred 
 to the red-bearded Thunderer; which explains the belief in 
 some quarters, that whoever injures a robin will be struck by 
 lightning. 
 
 s The Saga has already stated (ante, p. 121) that Thorhall 
 " knew much about desert lands." He appears as a stubborn 
 and pronounced character, full of his own opinions. Now, 
 therefore, we have an illustration of the man. The critic 
 should place the man's character and attainments in coimec-
 
 126 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 mains of the whale into the sea, and commended their affairs 
 to God. After which the air bei'-arne milder, and oppor- 
 tunities were given for fishing. From that time there was 
 an abundance of food ; and there were beasts on the land, 
 eggs in the island, and fish in the sea. 
 
 They say that Thorhall desired to go northward around 
 Wonder-strand to explore Yinland, but Karlsefne wished to 
 go along the shore south. Then Thorhall prepared himself 
 at the island, 1 but did not have more than nine men in his 
 whole company, and all the others went in the company of 
 Karlsefne. When Thorhall was carrying water to his ship, 
 he sang this verse : 
 
 " People said when hither I 
 Came, that I the best 
 Drink would have, but the land 
 It justly becomes me to blame; 
 I, a warrior, am now obliged 
 To bear the pail; 
 Wine touches not my lips, 
 But I bow down to the spring." 
 
 When they had made ready and were about to sail, Thor- 
 hall sang : 
 
 " Let us return 
 
 Thither where [our] country -men rejoice, 
 Let the ship try 
 The smooth ways of the sea; 
 While the strong heroes 
 Live on Wonder-strand 
 And there boil whales, 
 Which is an honor to the land." 4 
 
 tion with this performance and note how thoroughly they are 
 in keeping. These statements are of the nature of undesigned 
 coincidences, and show here, as a multitude of instances else- 
 where demonstrate, that the writer was treating well-known 
 characters in connection with a well known voyage. These 
 are the points which should be dwelt upon by the student. 
 1 This is obscure about the " island," but the statement 
 
 This is ThorhalFs sarcasm.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 127 
 
 Afterward he sailed north to go around Wonder-strand 
 and Kiarlarness, but when he wished to sail westward, they 
 were met by a storm from the west and driven to Ireland, 
 where they were beaten and made slaves. As merchants 1 
 reported, there Thorhall died. 
 
 It is said that Karlsefne, with Snorre and Biarne and his 
 comrades, sailed along the coast south. They sailed long 
 until they came to a river flowing down from the land 
 through a lake into the sea, where there were sandy shoals, 
 where it was impossible to pass up, except with the highest 
 tide. Karlsefne sailed up to the mouth of the river with 
 his folk, and called the place Hop. 2 Having come to the 
 land, they saw that where the ground was low corn 3 grew, 
 
 when duly considered proves again that we are reading a 
 genuine narrative, and that there was a well-known island at 
 this point. Every hiatus in the narrative must prove sug- 
 gestive to the critical mind. 
 
 1 We shall see from another part of this work, that the 
 trade at that period between Ireland and Iceland, was very 
 large. 
 
 s This may correspond to Mount Hope Bay. The Taunton 
 river runs through it, and thence flows to the sea by Pocasset 
 river and Seaconnet passage. Hop is from the Icelandic / 
 Hopi, to recede, hence to form a bay. The coincidence in the 
 name is curious. The fact that there is no lake here has been 
 pointed out by one who appeared to have a fair equipment for 
 criticism ; but who, nevertheless, failed to recognize the fact 
 that words equivalent to " Lake " were applied by Scandi- 
 navians to arms and branches of the sea, as well to waters 
 entirely enclosed by land. In Scotland, where the Northmen 
 colonized, and so generally employed their own nomenclature, 
 the popular usage is that of the Scandinavians, arms of the sea 
 being, like the lakes, designated as " Lochs," while the Irish 
 have the word "Lough." The Icelandic, in this case, is 
 "vatn" generally meaning "water," but in the present con- 
 nection it means a lake, like the English " Derwent Water." 
 Rafn translates it lacus. 
 
 3 Wheat. " Sialfsana hveitiakrar."
 
 128 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 and where it was higher, vines were found. Every river 
 was full of fish. 
 
 They dug pits where the land began, and where the land 
 was highest ; and when the tide went down, there were 
 sacred fish l in the pits. There were a great number of all 
 kinds of wild beasts in the woods. They stayed there half 
 a month and enjoyed themselves, and did not notice any 
 thing ; they had their cattle with them. Early one morning, 
 when they looked around, they saw a great many skin boats, 
 and poles were swung upon them, and it sounded like reeds 
 shaken by the wind, and they pointed to the sun. 2 Then 
 said Karlsefne, "What may this mean?" Snorre Thor- 
 brandson replied, " It may be that this is a sign of peace, so 
 let us take a white shield and hold it toward them." They 
 did so. Thereupon they rowed toward them, wondering at 
 them, and came to land. These people were swarthy and 
 fierce, and had bushy hair on their heads ; they had very 
 large eyes and broad cheeks. They stayed there for a time, 
 and gazed upon those they met, and afterward rowed away 
 southward around the ness. 
 
 Karlsefne and his people had made their houses above the 
 lake, and some of the houses were near the lake, and others 
 more distant. They wintered there, and there was no snow, 
 
 1 In Iceland the halibut is called the sacred fish. Pliny uses 
 the same name, which indicates that the water is safe where 
 they were found. The halibut and most of the flat fish, such 
 as flounders, are plentiful in that vicinity. The flounders are 
 easily taken, and those who know how, often find them in 
 very shoal water, burrowing just under the surface of the sand 
 like a king crab. The Icelandic name of the fish is "Helgis 
 fiskar," and the Danish Heleflyndre," which Rafn (p. 148) 
 exhibits as Pleornectes Hippoglossus. Professor Horsford 
 points out what he believes to have been ancient pits to catch 
 fish, on the Charles river. 
 
 * Davis, speaking of the natives in Greenland, in his voy- 
 age of 1585, says, that, to indicate peaceful intentions, they 
 pointed to the sun with their hands, after striking their breasts,
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 129 
 
 and all their cattle fed themselves on the grass. 1 But when 
 spring came [A. D. 1009] they saw one morning early, that 
 a number of canoes rowed from the south around the ness ; 
 so many, as if the sea were sown with coal ; poles were also 
 swung on each boat. Karlsefne and his people then raised 
 up the shield, and when they came together they began to 
 trade. These people would rather have red cloth ; for this 
 they offered skins and real furs. They would also buy 
 swords and spears, but this, Karlsefne and Snorre forbade. 
 For a whole fur skin, the Skraellings took a piece of red 
 cloth, a span long, and bound it round their heads. Thus 
 went on their traffic for a time. Next the cloth began to be 
 scarce with Karlsefne and his people, and they cut it up into 
 small pieces, which were not wider than a finger's breath, 
 and yet the Skraellings gave just as much as before, and 
 more. 
 
 It happened that a bull, which Karleefne had, ran out of 
 the wood and roared aloud ; this frightened the Skraellings, 
 and they rushed to their canoes and rowed away toward the 
 
 refusing to trust themselves to the English until they had 
 done the same, through one of their number appointed for the 
 purpose, " who stroke his breast and pointed to the snnne 
 after their order." This pointing to the sun in token of 
 peace, taken with the description of the people, shows con- 
 clusively that the people seen by Karlsefne and Davis were of 
 the same tribe or race, and formerly occupying a more south- 
 erly locality. 
 
 1 This is language that might be employed by an Icelander, 
 to indicate the difference between the new country and his 
 own. It may have been an intentional exaggeration, similar 
 to those of Eric in describing Greenland. Yet even if it were 
 a serious attempt at history, it could not be regarded as farther 
 from the truth, than Dr. Cotton Mather's description of the 
 climate of New England, where he tells us, in his Christian 
 Philosopher, that formerly water, tossed up in the air, came 
 down ice ; and that in one place in Massachusetts it actually 
 snowed wool, some of which he preserved in a box in his study. 
 17
 
 130 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 south. After that they were not seen for three whole weeks. 
 But at the end of that time, a great number of Skrselling's 
 ships were seen coming from the south like a rushing torrent, 
 all the poles turned from the sun, and they all yelled very 
 loud. Then Karlsef ne's people took a red l shield and held 
 it toward them. The Skaellings leaped out of their vessels, 
 and after this, they went against each other and fought. 
 There was a hot shower of weapons, because the Skrsellings 
 had slings. 2 Karlsefne's people saw that they raised npon a 
 pole, a very large ball, something like a sheep's paunch, and 
 of a blue color ; this they swung from the pole over Karl- 
 sefne's men, upon the ground, and it made a great noise as 
 it fell down. 3 This caused great fear with Karlsefne and 
 his men, so that they only thought of running away ; and 
 they retreated along the river, for it seemed to them that 
 the Skraellings pressed them on all sides. They did not stop 
 until they came to some rocks where they made a bold stand. 
 
 1 The red shield was the sign of war, and the white, of peace. 
 
 * Davis mentions their slings, and his general description of 
 the people agrees with that of the Icelanders. See "Inventio 
 Fortunata." 
 
 8 This can be explained. These people, doubtless, had their 
 own ideas of the best method of conducting a fight. They 
 were evidently Esquimaux, and formerly, according to Crantz, 
 appear to have lived on this coast before it was occupied by 
 the Indians, who, being a superior race, soon drove them away. 
 But by referring to Schoolcraft's work on the Indians (vol. 
 i, p. 83) we find that such an instrument was actually em- 
 ployed in this country at a very early period. Schoolcraft 
 says that many generations ago the natives used to sew up a 
 round boulder in the skin of an animal and hang it upon a 
 pole which was borne by several warriors, and when brought 
 down suddenly upon a group of men produced consternation 
 and death. This mode of warfare, learned perhaps by the 
 Indians from the Skraelliugs, has not been practiced for the 
 last three hundred years, but prevailed at the period when the 
 Northmen were in America.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 131 
 
 Freydis came out and saw that Karlsef ne's people fell back, 
 and she cried out, " Why do you run, strong men as you 
 are, before these miserable creatures whom I thought you 
 would knock down like cattle ? If I had arms, methinks I 
 could fight better than any of you." They gave no heed to 
 her words. Freydis would go with them, but she was 
 slower because she was pregnant ; still she followed after 
 them in the woods. She found a dead man in the woods ; 
 it was Thorbrand Snorreson, and there stood a flat stone 
 stuck in his head ; the sword lay naked by his side. This 
 she took up and made ready to defend herself. Then came 
 the Skraeliings toward her ; she drew out her breasts from 
 under her clothes and dashed them against the naked sword. 
 By this the Skrsellings became frightened and ran off to 
 their ships and rowed away. 1 Karlsef ne and his men then 
 came up and praised her courage. Two men fell on Karl- 
 sefne's side, but a number of the Skrsellings. Karlsefne's 
 band was overmatched. Next they went home to their 
 dwellings and bound up their wounds, and considered what 
 crowd that was that pressed upon them from the land side. 
 It now seemed to them that it could have hardly been real 
 people from the ships, but that these must have been opti- 
 cal illusions. The Skraellings also found a dead man and an 
 axe lay by him ; one of them took up the axe and cut wood 
 with it, and then one after another did the same and thought 
 it was a tine thing and cut well. After that one took it and 
 cut at a stone so that the axe broke, and then they thought 
 that it was of no use because it would not cut stone, and 
 they cast it away. 2 
 
 1 This appears to have been some piece of feminine bravado 
 that does not appear to have gained a correct representation, 
 though, in the woman's condition, the Skraelleings seemed to 
 understand her. 
 
 2 Now the narrator goes back to mention what appeared to 
 him curious incidents. These Skrsellings were still in the 
 Stone Age, and evidently did not know the use of iron. Stone 
 was their standard of excellence, and when the iron would
 
 132 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 t Karlsefne and his people now thought they saw, that 
 although the land had many good qualities, they still would 
 always be exposed to the fear of attacks from the original 
 dwellers. They decided, therefore, to go away and to re- 
 turn to their own land. They coasted northward along the 
 shore 1 and found five Skraellings clad in skins, sleeping near 
 the sea. They had with them vessels containing animal 
 marrow mixed with blood. 2 Karlsefne's people thought that 
 these men had been banished from the land ; they killed 
 them. After that they came to a ness, and many wild beasts 
 were there, and the ness was covered all over with dung 
 from the beasts which had lain there during the night. Now 
 they came back to Straumfiord, and there was a plenty of 
 everything that they wanted to have. [It is thus that some 
 men say that Biarne and Gudrid stayed behind and one hun- 
 dred men with them, and did not go farther ; but that Karl- 
 sefne and Snorre went southward and forty men with them, 
 and were no longer in Hop than barely two months, arid the 
 same summer came back.] 3 Karlsefne then went with one 
 ship to seek Thorhall the Hunter, but the rest remained 
 behind, and they sailed northward past Kiarlarness, and 
 thence westward, and the land was upon their larboard 
 
 not cut the stone they threw it away. From the third account 
 of Karlsefne's expedition we shall see that the man killed was 
 a Skraelling. Abbott's researches show, beyond question, that 
 the Indian was preceded by a people like the Esquimaux, 
 whose stone implements are found in the Trenton gravel, 
 large numbers of which are shown in the Peabody Museum, 
 Cambridge. See Abbott's work on the Trenton Valley Stone 
 Implements. 
 
 1 This may have been a short exploration up Narragansett 
 Bay. 
 
 * The ancient Mexicans mixed human blood with bread of- 
 fered on the altar of their deities. 
 
 3 The lines inclosed in brackets, convey what the writer 
 understood to be a mere rumor. This report was evidently 
 untrue, yet it shows his honest intentions.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 133 
 
 hand. There were wild woods over all, as far as they could 
 see, and scarcely any open places. When they had sailed 
 long a river ran out of the land east and west. They 
 sailed into the mouth of the river, and lay by its bank. 1 
 
 It chanced one morning that Karlsefne and his people 
 saw opposite in an open place in the woods, a speck which 
 glittered in their sight, and they called out towards it, and 
 it was a Uniped, 2 which thereupon hurried down to the 
 
 'They appear to have sailed around Cape Cod, then steered 
 across to Plymouth, coasted up the shore and entered Boston 
 harbor, or some other river mouth. 
 
 * Einfoetingr , from ein, one, and fotr, foot. This term 
 appears to have been given by some old writers, to one of the 
 African tribes, on account of a peculiarity of dress, which 
 Wormskiold describes as a triangular cloth, hanging down so 
 low, both before and behind, that the feet were concealed. 
 In an old work called Rimbigla, a tribe of this class, dwell- 
 ing in Blaland, Ethiopia, are thus described. Beamish, p. 
 101. We do not say how far the Saga writer employs his 
 fancy on the Uniped, yet he is quite excusable, considering 
 the weakness of modern writers. In 1634, Hans Egede wrote 
 as follows about a hideous monster: "July 6, a most hideous 
 sea monster was seen, which reared itself so high above the 
 
 water, that its head overtopped our mainsail Instead of 
 
 fins, it had broad flaps like wings; its body seemed to be over- 
 grown like shell work ... It was shaped like a serpent be- 
 hind, and when it dived, raised its tail above the water, 
 
 a whole ship's length." Egedtfs Greenland, p. 85; Crantz's 
 Greenland, vol. in, p. 116. Hudson even describes a mer- 
 maid. St. Augustine in one place refers to Unipeds. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Cotton Mather, who has before been quoted, 
 gives among other notable facts in his Magnolia, the state- 
 ment, that in June, 1682, Mary Hortado, of Salmon Falls, 
 was going with her husband " over the river in her canoe, 
 when they saw the head of a man, and about three foot off,
 
 134 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 bank of the river, where they lay. Thorvald Ericson stood 
 at the helm, and the Uniped shot an arrow into his bowels. 
 Thorvald drew out the arrow and said : " It has killed me ! 
 To a rich land we have come, but hardly shall we enjoy 
 any benefit from it." Thorvald soon after died 1 of his 
 wound. Upon this the Uniped ran away to the northward. 
 Karlsefne and his people went after him, and saw him now 
 and then, and the last time they saw him, he ran out into a 
 bay. Then they turned back, and a man sang these verses: 
 
 The people chased 
 A uniped 
 
 Down to the beach. 
 Behold he ran 
 Straight over the sea 
 Hear thou, Thorfinn ! 
 
 They drew off to the northward, and saw the country of 
 the Unipeds, but they would not then expose their men any 
 longer. They looked upon the mountain range that was 
 at Hop, and that which they now found, 2 as all one, and it 
 
 the tail of a cat, swimming before the canoe, but no body to 
 join them .... A stone thrown by an invisible hand after this, 
 caus'd a swelling and a soreness in her head; and she was 
 bitten on both arms black and blue, and her breast scratch'd. 
 The impression of the teeth, which were like a man's teeth, 
 were seen by many." Magnolia, vol. i, p. 454. 
 
 'Evidently this name is wrongly given; Thorvald Ericson 
 had been killed in a previous expedition. The second narra- 
 tive of Karlsefne says that this Thorvald was a relation of 
 Eric. 
 
 2 Probably the Blue Hills of Milton, which are considered 
 as extending almost if not quite, to Mount Hope, in Rhode 
 Island. The distance is given conjecturally, but it shows 
 that the writer was describing a veritable voyage, reminding 
 one of some of the statements with regard to hills in Wey- 
 mouth's voyage to Kennebec. Some critics demand from the 
 Northmen more exact descriptions of the coast than are given 
 by many navigators of the seventeenth century.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NOKTHMEN. 135 
 
 also appeared to be of equal length from Straumfiord to 
 both places. The third winter they were in Straumfiord. 
 They now became much divided by party feeling, and the 
 women were the cause of it, for those who were unmarried 
 would injure those who were married, and hence arose 
 great disturbance. There was born the first autumn, 
 Snorre, Karlsefne's son, and he was three years old when 
 they went away. When they sailed from Yinland they 
 they had a south wind, and then came to Markland, and 
 found there, five Skraellings, and one was bearded ; two were 
 females, and two boys ; they took the boys, but the others 
 escaped, and the Skraellings sank down in the ground. 1 
 These boys they took with them ; they taught them the 
 language, and they were baptized. They called their mother 
 Yathelldi, and their father, Uvaege. They said that two 
 kings ruled over the Skraellings, and that one was named 
 Avalldania, but the other Yalldidia. 2 They said that no 
 houses were there. People lived in caves or in holes. They 
 said there was a land on the other side, just opposite their 
 country, where people lived who wore white clothes, and 
 carried poles before them, and to these were fastened flags, 
 and they shouted loud ; and the people think that this was 
 White-man's land, or Great Ireland. 3 
 
 1 That is, they fled into hiding places or got into under- 
 ground abodes. 
 
 2 If we are correct in supposing that there was a glacial 
 man, and that the Skraellings were descendants of such a 
 glacial man, it follows that we have in the Sagas four of his 
 words, which may be the oldest known words of human 
 speech: Vathelldi, Uvaege, Avalldania, and Valldidia, the 
 names of the parents of the Skraelling boys, and of the two 
 kings. At least, in a recent note addressed to the writer, 
 Prof. Max Muller says, that there is nothing in the language 
 of the Esquimaux to prevent us from assigning it to an an- 
 tiquity as high as that of the supposed glacial man. See 
 "Glacial Man," etc. Popular S. Rev., xvm, p. 39. 
 
 3 The location of this place will be discussed in the Minor 
 Narratives.
 
 136 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 Biarne Grimolfson was driven with his ship into the Irish 
 ocean, and they came into a worm sea, 1 and soon the ship 
 began to sink under them. They had a boat which was 
 smeared with sea oil, for the worms do not attack that. 
 They went into the boat, and then saw that it could not hold 
 them all. Then said Biarne : "As the boat will not hold 
 more than half of our men, it is my counsel that lots should 
 be drawn for those to go in the boat, for it shall not be ac- 
 cording to rank." This, they all thought so generous an 
 offer, that no one would oppose it. They then did so that 
 lots were drawn, and it fell to Biarne to go in the boat, 
 and the half of the men with him, for the boat had not 
 room for more. But when they had gotten into the boat, 
 an Icelandic man that was in the ship, and had come with 
 Biarne from Iceland, said : " Dost thou mean, Biarne, to 
 leave me here ? " Biarne said : " So it seems." Then said 
 the other : " Very different was the promise to my father, 
 when I went with thee from Iceland, than thus to leave 
 me, for thou said that we should both share the same fate." 
 Biarne said, " It shall not be thus ; go down into the 
 boat, and I will go up into the ship, since I see that 
 thou art so anxious to live." 2 Then Biarne went up into 
 
 1 This was the teredo, which is often so destructive, and 
 which caused Columbus to abandon a ship at Puerto Bello, 
 because he could not keep her afloat. See Irving's "Columbus," 
 p. 287. 
 
 2 This was truly in accordance with the noble spirit of the 
 great Northmen, who had no fear of death, which to heroes, 
 is the shining gate of Valhalla. Biarne joined Karlsefne 
 with a ship. Ante, p. 121. There may be some confusion here 
 so far as relates to the statement that the survivors reached 
 Dublin. Thorhall, the Hunter, we are elsewhere told, was 
 driven to Ireland, but Biarne was not with him. The first 
 narrative states distinctly that he remained with Thorfinu 
 Karlsefne, and only two ships are mentioned, his own and 
 Biarne's. It appears, however, that there was a third, prob- 
 ably a small one, in which Thorhall, the Hunter, went north-
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 137 
 
 the ship, and this man down into the boat, and after that 
 they went on their voyage, until they came to Dublin, in 
 Ireland, and there told these things ; but it is most people's 
 belief that Biarne and his companions were lost in the worm 
 sea, for nothing was heard of them after that time. 
 
 THE ACCOUNT OF THOBFINN. 
 
 That same winter [A. D. 1006-7], there was much dis- 
 cussion about the affairs of Brattahlid ; and they set up the 
 game of chess, and sought amusement in the reciting of his- 
 tory, 1 and in many other things, and were able to pass life 
 joyfully. Karlsefne and Snorre resolved to seek Vin- 
 land, but there was much discussion about it. It turned out 
 that Karlsefne and Snorre prepared their ships to seek Yin- 
 land the following summer. [A. D. 1007]. In this enterprise 
 Biarne and Thorhall joined as comrades with their own ship 
 and crew, who were their followers. There was a man named 
 Thorvald, a relation 2 of Eric. Thorhall was called the 
 Hunter. He long had hunted with Eric in summer, and 
 had the care of many things. Thorhall was of great stature, 
 large and swarthy face, of a hard nature, taciturn, saying 
 little of affairs, and nevertheless crafty and malicious, always 
 inclined to evil, and opposed in his mind to the Christian 
 religion, from its first introduction into Greenland. Thor- 
 hall indulged in trifling, but nevertheless Eric was used to 
 his familiarity. He went in the ship with Thorvald, and 
 
 ward around Vinland. It may be perfectly true, however, 
 that two parties from Karlsefne's expedition finally brought 
 up in Ireland, as the annals of shipwreck furnish multitudes 
 of most curious and remarkable incidents which outdo the 
 creations of romance. See the recent case of the woman 
 carried alone in a small fishing vessel from the coast of Eng- 
 land in a severe gale, and cast upon the coast of Norway. 
 
 1 Here we have a distinct evidence of the fact that history 
 was cultivated in Greenland. 
 
 2 Here, the writer is correct. See ante, p. 121. 
 
 18
 
 138 FEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 was well acquainted with uninhabitable places. He used the 
 ship in which Thorbiorn came ; and Karlsef ne engaged com- 
 rades for the expedition ; and the best part of the sailors of 
 Greenland were with him. They carried in their ships, forty 
 and a hundred men. Afterward they sailed to West bygd 
 and Biarney-isle. They sailed from Biarney-isle with a north 
 wind, and were on the sea a day and night, when they found 
 land, and, sending a boat to the shore, explored the land, 
 where they found many flat stones of such great size, that 
 they exceeded in length the size of two men. There were 
 foxes there. They gave the land a name, and called it Hellu- 
 land. After this, they sailed a night and a day with a north 
 wind. They came to a land in which were great woods and 
 many animals. South-west, opposite the land, lay an island. 
 Here they found a bear, and called the island, Bear island. 
 This land, where there were woods, they called Markland. 
 After a voyage of a day and a night, they saw land, and 
 they sailed near the land and saw that it was a cape ; they 
 kept close to the shore with the wind on the starboard side, 
 and left the land upon the right side of the ship. There 
 were places without harbors, long shores and sands. 1 When 
 they went to the shore with a boat, they found the keel of 
 a ship, and they called the place, Kiarlarness ; 2 and they 
 gave the shore a name, and called it Wonder-strand, be- 
 cause they were so long going by. Then another bay ex- 
 tended into the land, and they steered into the bay. 3 When 
 
 1 Disco. 
 
 * See on all these passages, ante, p. 109. It is rather ab- 
 surd to suppose that the Northmen would have staid three 
 years at a point only three days' sail from Greenland, which is 
 the time given to the Keel Cape, without communicating with 
 home. We must extend the distance. 
 
 3 The same bay referred to in the previous account, and 
 which lay between Point Gilbert and Isle Nauset. Archer, 
 in his account of Gosnold's voyage, says, that when they 
 rounded Point Care, the extremity of Isle Nauset, "We bore 
 up again with the land, and in the night, came with it anchor-
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 139 
 
 Leif was with King Olaf Tryggvesson, he sent him to es- 
 tablish the Christian religion in Greenland ; then the king 
 gave him two Scots-folk, a man named Hake, and a woman 
 named Hekia. The king told Leif to take them with his 
 men, if he would have his commands done quickly, as they 
 were swifter than beasts. These folk, Leif and Eric gave 
 to Karlsefne, as followers. "When they were come opposite 
 Wonder-strand, they put the Scots on the shore, and told 
 them to run southward and explore the country, and return 
 before the end of three days. They were thus clothed, 
 having a garment called a Biaf al ; l it was made so that a 
 hat was on top, open at the sides, without arms, buttoned 
 between the legs, and fastened with a button and a strap ; 
 and the rest was bare. 
 
 They came to anchor and lay by, until the three days 
 passed, 2 when they returned, one having in his hand a vine, 
 and the other, self-sown wheat. Karlsefne said that they 
 had found a fruitful land. Afterward they were received 
 into the ship, and they went on their way until a bay inter- 
 sected the land. They steered the ship into the bay. On 
 the outside was an island, 3 and there was a great tide around 
 the island. This they called Straumey. 4 There was a great 
 number of birds, and it was scarcely possible to find a place 
 for their feet among the eggs. Then they steered into a 
 long bay which they called Strauinn'ord, where they landed 
 from their ships and began to prepare habitations. 8 They 
 
 ing in eight fathoms, the ground good." Here it will be seen 
 that the Northmen lay safely for three days. Ante, p. 123. 
 
 1 In the first account it is called a Kiafal. 
 
 3 The Sloop Mary delayed under similar circumstances. 
 Ante, p. 97, note. 
 
 3 The agreement with the first account is substantial. 
 
 4 This island may have been the modern Nantucket. See 
 ante, p. 105. 
 
 6 The identification of particular localities may be interest- 
 ing, but it is not essential so long as we are able to show the 
 general agreement of a description with some unmistakable
 
 140 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 brought with them all kinds of cattle, and they found suf- 
 ficient pasturage. There were mountains and the prospect 
 was pleasant ; but they cared for nothing except to explore 
 the land ; there was a great abundance of grass. Here they 
 wintered, and the winter was severe, and they did not have 
 stores laid up, they began to be in want of food and failed 
 to catch fish. So they sailed over to the island, 1 hoping that 
 they might find means of subsistence either on what they 
 could catch or what was cast ashore. But they found but 
 little better fare though the cattle were better off. [A. D. 
 1008]. Afterward they prayed to God to send them food, 
 which prayer was not answered as soon as desired. Then 
 Thorhall disappeared and a search was made which lasted 
 three days. On the morning of the fourth day Karlsefne 
 and Biarne found him lying on the top of a rock ; there he 
 lay stretched out, with open eyes, blowing through his 
 mouth, and muttering to himself. They asked him why he 
 had gone there. He replied that it did not concern them 
 and not to wonder as he was old enough to take care of him- 
 
 region. Torfaeus found, in the various accounts, a region 
 which he expressed by a drawing, showing a large promontory 
 extending northward similar to Cape Cod, the general features 
 of which, ill connection with the coast south and south-west, 
 are well delineated in all the Saga descriptions of " Vinland." 
 The temperature and productions of the country likewise 
 agree, and though the sailing distance in reaching the Keel 
 Cape (Kiarlarness) may be too short, we can easily under- 
 stand how that came about and can add to the time what may 
 be needed; but we cannot modify the general description of 
 the country with its great cape, the passage around which is 
 so many times described. These general features are distinct 
 and indestructible, and show conclusively that the Northmen 
 in their various expeditions were accustomed to sail around 
 Cape Cod, finding a rendezvous at the south or south-west not 
 far from the heel of the cape. 
 
 x This incident is not mentioned in the first narrative. We 
 repeat that the island may have been Martha's Vineyard.
 
 AMEKICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 141 
 
 self without their troubling themselves with his affairs. 
 They asked him to go home with them ; this he did. After 
 that a whale was cast up and they ran down to cut it up ; 
 nevertheless they did not know what kind it was. Neither 
 did Karlsefne, though acquainted with whales, know this 
 one. Then the cooks dressed the whale and they all ate of 
 it and it made them all sick. Then Thorhall said, " It is 
 clear now that the Red-beard is more prompt to give aid 
 than your Christ. This food is a reward for a hymn which 
 I made to my god Thor, who has seldom deserted me." 
 When they heard this none would eat any more, and threw 
 what was left from the rock, committing themselves to God. 
 After this the opportunity was given of going after fish, 
 and there was no lack of food. They sailed into Straum- 
 fiord 1 and had abundance of food and hunting on the main- 
 land, with many eggs and fish from the sea. 
 
 Now they began to consider where they should settle 
 next. Thorhall, the Hunter, wished to go northward around 
 Wonder-strand and Kiarlarness to explore Yinland, but Karl- 
 sefne wished to go south-west, thinking likely that there 
 would be larger tracts of country the further they went 
 south. Thorhall made ready at the island 2 and only nine 
 men went with him ; all the rest of the ship folk went with 
 Karlsefne. One day Thorhall was carrying water to his 
 ship ; he drank it and sang this verse : 
 
 1 Observe that it is not said that they left the " island/' 
 but that they went to Straumfiord and hunted on the main- 
 land, which is another of the many coincidences agreeing with 
 the first narrative which mentions their leaving the island. 
 Such unexpected agreements should not be lost with students 
 really bent upon knowing the nature of these composi- 
 tions. 
 
 2 These narratives were originally recited, and doubtless in 
 the hearing of some of those who had taken part in the ex- 
 pedition, and what island was intended must have been clear 
 to them. These little omissions prove much to a critical 
 mind. Ante, p. 109, note.
 
 142 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 ' ' People promised me when hither I 
 Came, then the best drink 
 I should have; but the country 
 I must denounce to all; 
 Here you are forced by hand 
 To bear the pail to the water, 
 I must bend me down to the spring; 
 Wine did not come to my lips." 
 
 Afterward they left the land and Karlsefne went with 
 them to the island. Before they hoisted sail, Thorhall 
 sang these verses : 
 
 " Let us return 
 Home to our countrymen, 
 Let the vessel try 
 The broad path of the sea ; 
 While the persevering 
 Men who praise the land 
 Are building 1 and boil the whales 
 Here on Wonder- strand." 
 
 Thereupon they sailed northward around Wonder-strand 
 and Kialarness. But when they wished to cruise westward, 
 a storm came against them, and drove them to Ireland, 
 where they were beaten and made slaves. There Thorhall 
 passed his life. 2 
 
 Karlsefne, with Snorre and Biarne and the rest of his 
 comrades, sailed south. They sailed long until they came 
 to a river, which flowed from the land through a lake, and 
 passed into the sea. Before the mouth of the river were 
 great islands, and they were not able to enter the river ex- 
 cept at the highest tide. 3 Karlsefne sailed into the mouth 
 
 1 Notice the word building. Karlsefne evidently erected some 
 kind of structures as well as Leif, and their enterprise seeks to 
 excite the ridicule of Thorhall. This version of his song varies 
 from the previous (p. 126) which does not mention the building. 
 
 * The first narrative says substantially the same thing, that 
 Thorhall died in Ireland. Ante, p. 127. 
 
 3 The first narrative speaks of the shoals. Since that time 
 changes have taken place in the physical aspects of the 
 region. On the lake. See ante, p. 127, n. 2.
 
 AMEEICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 143 
 
 of the river, and called the land Hop. There they found 
 fields, where the laud was low, with wild corn, and where 
 the land was high, were vines. Every river was full 
 of fish. They made pits in the sand, where the tide rose 
 highest, and at low tide, sacred fish were found in these 
 pits, and in the woods was a great number of all kinds of 
 beasts. Here they stayed half a month, enjoying them- 
 selves, but observing nothing new. Early one morning, on 
 looking around, they saw nine skin boats, in which were 
 poles that, vibrating toward the sun, gave ont a sound like 
 reeds shaken by the wind. Then Karlsefne said : " What, 
 think you, does this mean ? " Snorre said : " It is possible 
 that it is a sign of peace ; let us raise up a white shield and 
 hold it toward them : " this they did. Then they rowed 
 toward them, wondering at thetn, and came to land. These 
 men were small of stature and fierce, having a bushy head 
 of hair, and very great eyes and wide cheeks. They re- 
 mained some time wondering at them, and afterward rowed 
 southward around the cape. 1 They built dwellings beyond 
 the lake, others made houses near the mainland, and others 
 near the lake. Here they spent the winter. No snow fell, 2 
 and all their cattle fed under the open sky. They decided 
 to explore all the mountains 3 that were in Hop ; which 
 done, they [A. D. 1009] went and passed the third winter 
 in Strauni bay. At this time they had much contention 
 among themselves, and the unmarried women vexed the 
 married. The first autumn, Snorre, Karlsefne's son, was 
 born, and he [was three years old] when they went away. 
 
 1 This narrative wholly omits the battle with the Skraellings. 
 Each writer, as in the Gospel narratives, seems to dwell upon 
 the points in which he or others felt a particular interest. 
 
 3 This might have been the case on some remarkable season, 
 like one well-known season in Iceland. 
 
 "This range extends to the Blue Hills of Massachusetts, which 
 indicates considerable activity in exploration (ante, p. 134). This 
 Saga says distinctly that they expected to explore the land. Dur- 
 ing the three years spent here Karlsefne must have done much.
 
 144 FEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 They had a south wind, and came to Markland, and found 
 five Skrsellings, of whom one was a man, and two women, 
 and two were boys. Karlsefne took the boys, and the 
 others escaped and sank down into the earth. They carried 
 the boys away with them, and taught them the language, 
 and they were baptized. The name of their mother was 
 Yatheldi, and their father, Uvaege. They said that two 
 kings ruled over the Skraellinger's land ; one was named 
 Avalldania, and the other, Yalldidia; 1 that they had no 
 houses, but lived in dens and caves. In another part of the 
 country, there was a region where the people wore white 
 clothes, and shouted loud, and carried poles with flags. This 
 they thought to be Whito-man's land. 
 
 After this they came into Greenland, and passed the 
 winter with Leif, son of Eric Red. Biarne Grimolfson 
 was carried out into the Greenland 2 sea, and came into a 
 worm sea, which they did not observe, until their ship 
 was full of worm holes. They considered what should 
 be done. They had a stern boat, smeared with oil. They 
 say that wood covered with oil, the worms will not 
 bore. The result of the council was, that as many should 
 go into the boat as it would hold. It then appeared 
 that the boat would not hold more than one-half of the men- 
 Then Biarne ordered that the men should go in the boat by 
 lot, and not according to rank. As it would not hold all, 
 they accepted the saying, and when the lots were drawn, the 
 men went out of the ship into the boat. The lot was, that 
 Biarne should go down from the ship to the boat with one- 
 half of the men. Then those to whom the lot fell, went 
 down from the ship to the boat. When they had come into 
 the boat, a young Icelander, who was the companion of 
 Biarne, said : " Now thus do you intend to leave me, 
 Biarne?" Biarne replied, "That now seems necessary." 
 He replied with these words : " Thou art not true to the 
 promise made when I left my father's house in Iceland." 
 
 1 See ante, p. 135, n. 2. 
 
 * Also called the Irish sea, and the sea before Vinland.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NOETHMEN. 145 
 
 Biarne replied : u In this thing I do not see any other way ; '' 
 continuing, " What course can you suggest ? " He said, " I 
 see this, that we change places and thou come up here and 
 I go down there." Biarne replied : " Let it be so, since I 
 see that you are so anxious to live, and are frightened by the 
 prospect of death." Then they changed places, and he de- 
 scended into the boat with the men, and Biarne went up 
 into the ship. It is related that Biarne, and the sailors with 
 him in the ship, perished in the worm sea. Those who went 
 in the boat, went on their course until they came to land, 
 where they told all these things. 1 
 
 After the- next summer, Karlsefne went to Iceland with 
 his son Snorre, and he went to his own home at Reikianess. 
 The daughter of Snorre, son of Karlsefne, was Hallfrida, 
 mother to Bishop Thorlak Runolfson. They had a son 
 named Thorbiorn, whose daughter was named Thoruna, 
 mother of Bishop Biarne. Thorgeir was the name of the 
 other son of Snorre, Karlsefne's son, father to Ingveld, and 
 mother of the first bishop of Brand. And this is the end 
 of the history. 
 
 THEED NARRATIVE. 
 
 That same summer came a ship from Norway to Green- 
 laud. The man was called Thorfinn Karlsefne who steered 
 the ship. He was a son of Thord Hesthofde, a son of 
 Snorre Thordarson, from Hofda. Thorfinn Karlsefne was 
 a man of great wealth, and was in Brattahlid with Leif 
 Ericsson. Soon he fell in love with Gudrid, and courted 
 her, and she referred to Leif to answer for her. Afterward 
 she was betrothed to him, and their wedding was held the 
 same winter. At this time, as before, much was spoken 
 about a Yinland voyage ; and both Gudrid and others per- 
 
 1 The first narrative (ante, p. 137) says that they reached 
 Dublin. We have suggested that this statement was con- 
 fused with the case of Thorhall, who was carried there. 
 The statement of this narrative allows us to suppose that the 
 survivors reached Greenland. 
 19
 
 146 PRE-COLUMBIAK DISCOVERY OF 
 
 suaded Karlsefne much to that expedition. Now this ex- 
 pedition was resolved upon, and they got ready a crew of 
 sixty men, and five women ; J and then they made the 
 agreement, Karlsefne and his people, that each of them 
 should have equal share in what they made of gain. They 
 had with them all kinds of cattle, 2 having the intention to 
 settle in the land, if they could. Karlsefne asked Leif for 
 his houses in Vinland, bat he said he would lend them, 
 but not give them. Then they put to sea with the ship, 
 and came to Leif s houses 3 safe, and carried tip their goods. 
 They soon had in hand a great and good prize, for a whale 
 had been driven on shore, both large and excellent. 4 They 
 
 1 This account leaves out Biarne and Thorhall, who evidently 
 had two ships. Ante, p. 137. 
 
 2 These could be easily carried, especially as their cattle were 
 small. All the early Portuguese expeditions carried their live 
 stock with them. See Prince Henry the Navigator. 
 
 3 The different events are here stated with some rapidity, 
 and we seem to reach Leif 's booths or huts sooner than neces- 
 sary. According to the two previous accounts, they did not 
 reach the locality of Leif's booths until the summer after they 
 found the whale . These booths, it would appear, were at Mt. 
 Hope Bay. This is either the result of confusion in the mind 
 of the writer, or else it is founded on the fact that Leif erected 
 habitations at both places. In the first two accounts of Thor- 
 finn Karlsefne's expedition, Leif s booths are not alluded to. 
 There may be no real contradiction after all. 
 
 4 The other accounts say that the whale made them sick; 
 but that was not because the flesh of the whale was spoiled. 
 Beamish, in his translation of the song of Thorhall, indeed 
 makes that disagreeable pagan tell his comrades, that, if they 
 wish, they 
 
 " Fetid whales may boil 
 Here on Furdustrand 
 Far from Fatherland; " 
 
 but there is nothing in the text to throw suspicion upon the 
 whale. The trouble was, perhaps, that a sudden overfeeding
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 147 
 
 went to it and cut it up, and had no want of food. Their 
 cattle went up into the land; but soon they were unruly, 
 and gave trouble to them. They had one bull with them. 
 Karlsefne let wood be felled and hewed for shipping it, and 
 had it laid on a rock to dry . They had all the good of the 
 products of the land, which were these : both grapes and 
 wood, and other products. After that first winter, and when 
 summer came [A. D. 1008], they were aware of Skrsellings 
 being there ; and a great troop of men came out of the woods. 
 The cattle were near to them, and the bull began to bellow 
 and roar very loud. With that the Skrsellings were fright- 
 ened, and made off with their bundles, and these were of 
 furs and sables and all sorts of skins ; and they turned and 
 wanted to go into the houses, but Karlsefne defended the 
 doors. Neither party understood the language of the other. 
 Then the Skraellings took their bundles and opened them, 
 and wanted to have weapons in exchange for them, but 
 Karlsefne forbade his men to sell weapons. Next he 
 adopted this plan with them, that he told the women to 
 bear out milk and dairy products to them. When they saw 
 these things, they would buy them and nothing else. 1 Now 
 
 caused nausea, and the whale was thrown away after- 
 ward in religious disgust. Yet the event is out of its chron- 
 ological order, and properly belongs in the account of the 
 next year, and gives only the favorable aspect of the case. 
 
 1 The second narrative makes no mention of the barter, 
 while the first speaks of the anxiety of the natives to secure 
 red cloth (ante, p. 129). But this reference is perfectly con- 
 sistent with the first, the red cloth being exhausted, as appears 
 from the statement. Then, naturally, though it is not men- 
 tioned in the first account, the Northmen resorted to their 
 dairy products, which the natives, having no cattle, and not 
 knowing of such things, received with avidity. One writer 
 was thus more interested in the dairy, while the other was 
 struck by what had been told him respecting barter in red 
 cloth. Thus, wherever we turn in the Sagas, we find the state- 
 ments agreeing with one another at unexpected points, and sup-
 
 148 PJIE-COLTTMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 the trade for the Skraellings was such, that they carried 
 away their winnings in their stomachs ; and Karlsef ne and 
 his comrades got both their bags and skin goods, and so 
 they went away. Next it is to be told, that Karlsefne let a 
 good strong fence be made around the habitation, and 
 strengthened it for defense.! At this time Gudrid, 2 Karl- 
 sef ne's wife, lay in of a male child, and the child was called 
 Snorre. In the beginning of the next winter, came the 
 Skraellings again to them, and in much greater numbers 
 than before, and with the same kind of wares. Then said 
 Karlsefne to the women, " Now ye shall carry out the same 
 kind of food as was best liked the last time, and nothing 
 else. Then they saw that they threw their bundles in over 
 the fence, while Gudrid sat in the door within, by the cra- 
 dle of Snorre, her son. There came a shadow to the door, 
 and a woman went in with a black kirtle on, rather short, 
 with a snood around her head ; clear, yellow hair ; pale, with 
 large eyes, so large that none ever saw such eyes in a human 
 head. She went to where Gudrid was sitting, and said : 
 " What art thou called ? " "I am called Gudrid ; and 
 what art thou called ? " "I am called Gudrid," said she. 
 Then the goodwife, Gudrid, put out her hand to her, that 
 she might sit down beside her. At the same time Gudrid 
 
 plementing one another, showing that there was a full and true 
 story of which each, with some slight differences, gave a part. 
 We repeat again, that this is the line on which the Sagas 
 should be studied. This internal evidence has been neg- 
 lected. 
 
 1 Possibly all evidences of this defense may have disappeared, 
 yet it is not improbable that such remains may yet be discov- 
 ered on Mount Hope Bay or in regions on the Massachusetts 
 and Maine coasts. Possibly camps of the ^Northmen were 
 utilized by the Indians. 
 
 4 This event belongs to the previous year. These facts are 
 not given in the other accounts, the writer appearing to have 
 different information.
 
 AMEEICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 149 
 
 heard a great noise, and the woman had vanished. 1 
 At the same time one of the Skraellings was killed by 
 one of Karlsefne's house men, because he was about to 
 take one of their weapons ; and they made off as soon as 
 possible, leaving behind them goods and clothes. No one 
 had seen this woman but Gudrid. "Now," says Karlsefne, 
 " we must be cautious, and take counsel ; for I think they 
 will come the third time with hostility and many people. 
 We shall now take the plan, that ten men go out to the 
 ness and show themselves there, and the rest of our men 
 shall go into the woods and make a clearance for our cattle 
 against the time the enemy comes out of the forest ; and we 
 shall take the bull before us, and let him go in front." So 
 it happened, that at the place where they were to meet, 
 there was a lake on the one side, and the forest on the other. 
 The plan which Karlsefne had laid down was adopted. The 
 Skrasllings came to the place where Karlsefne proposed to 
 fight ; and there was a battle there, and many of the Skrael- 
 lings fell. There was one stout, handsome man among the 
 Skraelling people, and Karlsefne thought that he must be 
 their chief. One of the Skraellings had taken up an axe and 
 looked at it a while, and wielded it against one of his com- 
 rades and cut him down, so that he fell dead instantly. Then 
 the stout man took the axe, 2 looked at it awhile, and threw 
 it into the sea as far as he could. They then fled to the 
 woods as fast as possible, and so ended the tight. Karl- 
 sefne stayed there with his men the whole winter ; but to- 
 ward spring he made known that he would not stay there 
 
 'This is another somewhat marvelous occurrence, similar to 
 those with which Cotton Mather and others were accustomed 
 to embellish New England history. It does not explain it- 
 self. 
 
 9 For the previous versions of this affair of the axe, see p. 131. 
 This last account appears a little plainer, but is in agreement 
 with the first narrative, and also shows that Karlsefne had a 
 plan of campaign.
 
 150 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 any longer, and would return to Greenland. 1 Now they 
 prepared for their voyage and took much goods from thence 
 vines, grapes and skin wares. They put to sea, and their 
 ship carne to Ericsfiord, and they there passed the winter. 
 
 The following summer 2 [A. D. 1011], Karlsefne went to 
 Iceland and Gudrid with him, and he went home to Reiki- 
 aness. His mother felt that he had made a poor match, 
 and for this reason Gudrid was not at home the first winter. 
 But when she saw that Gudrid was a noble woman, she went 
 home, and they got on well together. Halfrid was the 
 daughter of Snorre Karlsefneson, mother to Bishop Thor- 
 lak Runolfson. Their son was named Thorbiorn, and his 
 daughter, Thoruna, mother to Bishop Biorne. Thorgeir 
 was the son of Snorre Karlsefneson, father to Ing veld, 
 mother of the first Bishop Brand. Snorre Karlsefneson 
 had a daughter, Steinun, who married Einar, son of Grun- 
 darketil, son of Thorvald Krok, the son of Thorer, of Espi- 
 hol ; their son was Thorstein Rauglatr. He was father to 
 Gudrun, who married Jorund of Keldum. Halla was their 
 
 1 It is true that he decided to leave the country, but he did 
 not carry out his intention until the following year, 1010. 
 This narrative skips over all the events of the third year. It 
 is nevertheless given, in order that the reader may have the 
 fullest possible knowledge of any shortcomings that may exist 
 in the manuscripts. This is done with the more confidence, 
 for the reason that there is no doubt but that all the narra- 
 tives contain a broad substratum of solid historical facts which 
 there should be no difficulty in interpreting. 
 
 8 From the statement at the end of the voyage of Freydis 
 (see p. 155), we learn that the summer in which he returned 
 from Iceland, Karlsefne went to Norway, and from thence 
 the following spring to Iceland. This does not conflict with 
 the statement in the above narrative, though at first it may 
 appear to. It does not say that he went the following sum- 
 mer from Greenland to Iceland, but that on that summer, he 
 went to Iceland, which is perfectly true, though poorly stated, 
 and his previous voyage to Norway being ignored.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NOBTHMEN. 151 
 
 daughter, and she was mother to Flose, father of Yalgerda, 
 who was mother of Herr Erland Sterka, father of Herr 
 Hauk, the Lagman. 1 Another daughter of Flose was Thor- 
 dis, mother of Fru Ingigerd the Rich ; her daughter was 
 Fru Hallbera, Abbess of Stad, in Reikianess. Many other 
 distinguished men in Iceland are the descendants of Karl- 
 Be fne and Thurid, 2 who are not here mentioned. God be 
 with us. Amen. 3 
 
 VIII. THE VOYAGE OF FREYDIS, HELGE AND 
 FINBOGE. 
 
 This narrative is found in Antiquitates Americans, p. 
 65. It shows that history, among the Icelanders, was not 
 made subservient to family interests, and the truth was told 
 without respect to persons. At the conclusion we have a 
 (supplementary) notice of Thorfinn and Gudrid, after their 
 return to Iceland. 
 
 Now the conversation began again to turn upon a Vin- 
 land voyage, as the expedition was both gainful and honor- 
 
 1 Ante, p. 118. 
 
 2 Raf n says that " Thurid " was another name for Gudrid. 
 Ante, p. 121, n. 2. 
 
 3 In view of the facts of the case, the notion that any one 
 of these Icelandic characters is to be viewed as mythical, or 
 in the category with that of "Agamemnon/' appears simply 
 preposterous. The history of the times proves that they are, 
 in the truest sense, historical characters. No genealogies, 
 apart from the Hebrew records, are better known than those 
 of prominent Icelandic families. There can be no reasonable 
 doubt cast upon the record which attests the family line of 
 Gudrid, the foundation of which was begun in New England, 
 furnishing an important part of the Episcopal succession 
 in Iceland. The attempt to question the records suggests, in a 
 feeble way, the method used to prove that no such person as 
 Napoleon Bonaparte ever existed.
 
 152 FEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 able. The same summer [A. D. 1010] that Karlsefne re- 
 turned from Yinland, a ship arrived in Greenland from 
 Norway. Two brothers commanded the ship, Helge and 
 Finboge; and they remained that winter in Greenland. 
 The brothers were of Icelandic descent, from Earlfiord. It 
 is now to be told, that Freydis, Eric's daughter, came home 
 from Garda, 1 and went to the abode of Finboge and Helge, 
 and proposed to them that they should go to Yinland with 
 their vessel, and have half with her of all the goods they 
 could get there. They agreed to this. Then she went to 
 the abode of her brother Leif, and asked him to give her 
 the houses he had built in .Yinland. He answered as be- 
 fore, that he would lend, but not give the houses. 2 It was 
 agreed upon between the brothers and Freydis, that each 
 should have thirty fighting men, besides women. But 
 Freydis broke this, and had five men more, and concealed 
 them. The brothers knew nothing of it until they arrived 
 in Yinland. 3 They went to sea, and had agreed beforehand 
 to sail in company, if they could do so. The difference 
 was little, although the brothers came a little earlier, and 
 had carried up their baggage to Leif s houses. When Frey- 
 dis came to the land, her people cleared the ship, and carried 
 her baggage also up to the house. Then said Freydis : 
 " Why are you carrying your things in here ? " " Because 
 we thought," said they, " that the whole of the agreement 
 with us should be held." She said, " Leif lent the houses 
 to me, not to you." Then said Helge, " In evil, we brothers 
 cannot strive with thee : " and bore out their luggage and 
 made a shed, and built it farther from the sea, on the borders 
 
 1 Garda was the Episcopal seat of Greenland. Freydis and 
 her husband went to'Vinland with Karlsefne. It was she 
 who frightened the Skraellings. 
 
 9 It would appear from this that the buildings were of a 
 durable character. 
 
 3 It appears that the route to Yinland had become so well 
 known, that the Saga writers no longer thought it necessary 
 to describe it.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 153 
 
 of a lake, 1 and set all about it in order. Freydis had trees 
 cut down for her ship's cargo. Now winter set in, and the 
 brothers proposed to have some games for amusement to 
 pass the time. So it was done for a time, till discord came 
 among them, and the games were given up, and none went 
 from one house to the other; and things went on so during 
 a great part of the winter. It happened one morning that 
 Freydis got out of her berth, and put on her clothes, but 
 not her shoes ; and the weather was such that much dew had 
 fallen. She took the cloak of her husband over her, and 
 went out, and went to the house of the brothers, and to the 
 door. A man had gone out a little before and left the door 
 behind him, half shut. She opened the door, and stood in 
 the doorway a little, and was silent. Finboge lay the farthest 
 inside the hut, and was awake. He said : " What wilt thou 
 have here, Freydis ? " She said, " I want thee to get up 
 and go out with me, for I would speak with thee." He did 
 so ; they went to a tree that was lying under the eaves of 
 the hut and sat down. " How dost thou like this place '{ " 
 said she. He said, " The country, methinks, is good, but I 
 do not like this quarrel that has arisen among us for I think 
 there is no cause for it." " Thou art right," says she, " and 
 I think so too, and it is my errand to thy dwelling that I 
 want to buy the ship of your brothers as your ship is larger 
 than mine and I would break up from hence." " I will let 
 it be so," said he, "if that will please thee." Now they 
 parted so and she went home, and Finboge to his bed. She 
 went up into her berth and with her cold feet awakened 
 Thorvard, who asked why she was so cold and wet. She 
 answered with great warmth, " I went to these brothers," 
 said she, u to treat about their ship, for I want a larger 
 
 1 Mount Hope Bay often appears like a lake. Brereton, in 
 his account of Gosnold's voyage, calls these same bays, lakes. 
 He writes: "From this [Elizabeth] island, we went right 
 over to the mayne, where we stood a while as ravished at the 
 beautie and dilicacy of the sweetnesse, besides divers cleare 
 lakes, whereof we saw no end." 
 20
 
 154 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 ship, 1 and they took it so ill that they struck and abused 
 me. And thou, useless man ! will neither avenge my affront 
 nor thy own. Now must I feel that I am away from 
 Greenland, but I will separate 2 from thee if thou dost not 
 avenge this." Then he could not bear her reproaches and 
 told his men to rise as fast as possible and take their weap- 
 ons. They did so and went to the huts of the brothers and 
 went in as they lay asleep and seized them all, bound them, 
 and led them out bound, one after the other, and Freydis 
 had each of them put to death as he came out. Now all 
 the men were killed, but the women were left and nobody 
 would kill them. Then said Freydis, " Give me an axe in 
 my hand." This was done, and she turned on those five 
 women and did not give over until they were all dead. Now 
 they returned to their own hut after this evil deed, and the 
 people could only observe that Freydis thought she had done 
 exceedingly well, and she said to her comrades, " If it be 
 our lot to return to Greenland I shall take the life of the 
 man who speaks of this affair, and we shall say that we left 
 them here when we went away." Now they got ready the 
 ship early in spring [A. D. 1011], which had belonged to 
 the brothers, with all the goods they could get on that the 
 ship would carry, sailed out to sea, and had a good voyage, 
 and the ship came early in the summer to Ericsfiord. Karl- 
 sefne was there still 3 and had his ship ready for sea, but 
 waited a wind ; and it was a common saying that never a 
 richer ship sailed from Greenland than that which he steered. 
 Freydis went home now to her house which had stood with- 
 out damage in the meanwhile. She bestowed many gifts on 
 her followers that they might conceal her wickedness, and 
 she remained now on her farm. All were not so silent 
 
 'Freydis was evidently the principal in most things. 
 
 2 By the Icelandic law a woman could separate from her 
 husband for a slight cause. 
 
 3 According to this statement, the expedition returned very 
 early, as Karlsefne went to Norway the same season, as pre- 
 viously told.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 155 
 
 about their misdeeds and wickedness that something did not 
 come up about it. This came at last to the ears of Leif , her 
 brother, and he thought this report was very bad. Leif 
 took three men of Freydis's followers and tortured them to 
 speak, and they acknowledged the whole affair and their 
 tales agreed together. " I do not care," says Leif, " to treat 
 my sister as she deserves ; but this I will foretell them that 
 their posterity will never thrive." So it went that nobody 
 thought any thing of them save evil, from that time. 1 Now 
 we have to say that Karlsefne got ready his ship and sailed 
 out to sea. 2 He came on well, reached Norway safely, and 
 remained there all winter and sold his wares. He and his 
 wife were held in esteem by the best people in Norway. In 
 the following spring, he fitted out his ship for Iceland, and 
 when he was quite ready, and his ship lay outside the pier 
 waiting a wind, there came to him a south-country man, 
 from Bremen, in Saxon land, who would deal with him for 
 his house-bar. 3 " I will not sell it," said he. " I will give 
 thee half a mark of gold for it," said the south country 
 man. Karlsefne thought it was a good offer, and sold it ac- 
 cordingly. The south-country man went away with his 
 house-bar, and Karlsefne did not know what wood it was. 
 It was massur-wood 4 from Vinland. Now Karlsefne put to 
 
 1 If this transaction had occurred during the previous cen- 
 tury, when paganism universally prevailed, this atrocious act 
 of the cold-blooded Freydis would have been the prelude to 
 almost endless strife. 
 
 2 This account is supplementary to the foregoing and is 
 taken from the same work. Karlsefne, of course, sailed from 
 Greenland. 
 
 3 Husasnotru has been translated u house-besom." The 
 exact meaning is not known. A besom-shaft would be too 
 small, however rare the wood, to be made into any thing of 
 great value. The bar for securing the house door was as com- 
 mon as necessary in every house, and this, perhaps, is what is 
 referred to. 
 
 * See note, p. 103.
 
 156 FEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 sea [A. D. 1012], and his ship came to land north of Skaga- 
 fiord, 1 and there he put up his vessel for winter. In spring 
 he purchased Glambseirland, 2 where he took up his abode, 
 and dwelt there as long as he lived, and was a man of great 
 consideration. Many men are descended from him and his 
 wife Gudrid, and it was a good family. When Karlsefne 
 died, Gudrid took the management of his estates, and of 
 Snorre, her son, who was born in Yinland. When Snorre 
 was married, Gudrid went out of the country, and went to 
 he south, 3 and came back again to Snorre's estate, and he 
 
 1 In the north of Iceland. 
 
 * Not far from Skagafiord, in Iceland. 
 
 8 It is understood that she went to Home. It may be asked 
 why she did not spread the news of her son's voyage in those 
 parts of Europe whither she went, and make known the dis- 
 covery of the New World. To this it may again be replied, 
 that the Icelanders had no idea that they had found a New 
 World, and did not appreciate the value of their geographical 
 knowledge. Besides, there is nothing to prove that Gudrid, 
 and others who went to Europe at this period, did not make 
 known the Icelandic discoveries. At that time no interest 
 was taken in such subjects, and therefore we have little right 
 to expect to find traces of discussion in relation to what, 
 among a very small class, would be regarded, at the best, as a 
 curious story. See note on Adam of Bremen, p. 14, n. 1. That 
 some knowledge was possessed by Rome of the Icelandic voy- 
 ages is highly probable, and, possibly, some fragments relating 
 to the subject may still exist in the Vatican or some other col- 
 lection. That any ancient records relating to the subject are 
 known to the Librarians of Rome is rather unlikely, while it 
 appears altogether improbable to the author, who has some 
 knowledge respecting the condition of the Libraries in Rome, 
 that any such knowledge would be suppressed. The Church 
 of Rome, as we have already seen (Ante, p. 56), has always 
 been prompt to use the Episcopal Icelandic voyages to de- 
 monstrate the priority of her occupation in America, while 
 the proposition to canonize Columbus has been brusquely 
 brushed aside. If there are any records at the Vatican relat-
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 157 
 
 had built a church at Glambae. Afterward Gudrid became 
 a nun, and lived a hermit's life, and did so as long as she 
 lived. 1 Snorre had a son called Thorgeir, who was father to 
 Bishop Brand's mother, Ingveld. The daughter of Snorre 
 Karlsefneson was called Halfrid. She was mother of Ru- 
 nolf, the father of Bishop Thorlak. Karlsefne and Gudrid 
 also had a son called Biorn. He was father of Thoruna, the 
 mother of Bishop Biorn. Many people are descended from 
 Karlsefne, and his kin have been lucky ; and Karlsefne has 
 given the most particular accounts of all these travels, of 
 which something is here related. 
 
 ing to the subject, they will no doubt be found and published. 
 Of charts bearing upon the Icelandic discoveries, it is per- 
 haps certain that there are none. 
 
 1 It will be remembered that all this was foretold by her 
 former husband, Thorsteiu Ericson, when life was revived 
 in the house of Thorstein Black, in Greenland ; from which 
 we must infer that the voyage of Thorstein Ericson was com- 
 posed after, or during, the second widowhood of Gudrid, and 
 that circumstance, connected with Thorstein's prophecy, 
 were in accordance with the spirit of the age, imagined in 
 order to meet the circumstances of the case (see p. 115). That 
 is to say: Thorstein knew all about his wife's deep religious 
 feeling and of her favorable opinion of conventual life, and, 
 in his last hours, spoke of the probabilities of the case, as 
 many have done before, while some circumstances connected 
 with his "prophecy" were magnified, and some things were 
 imagined. The entire matter bears the stamp of the age, and 
 agrees with many superstitions that found a place in New 
 England. Ante, p. 115, n. 3.
 
 MINOR NARRATIVES. 
 
 I. AKE MARSON IN HVITRAMANNA-LAND. 
 
 This narrative is from the Landnamarbolc^ No. 107. 
 Folio ; collated with Hauksbok, Melabok, and other manu- 
 scripts, in the Amce-Magncen Collection. 
 
 It has frequently been observed that the I/andnama-bok 
 is of the highest historical authority. It proves the fact, 
 that Rafn, the Limerick merchant, conveyed the narrative 
 relating to Marson, to Iceland from Ireland, where the cir- 
 cumstances of his voyage were well known. The Land- 
 nama-boky while it gives a tacit approval of the statements 
 of the narrative, does not enter upon the question of the lo- 
 cality of the place to which Are Marson went. Therefore, 
 while we accept the narrative as genuine history, we should 
 exercise due caution in determining the locality of Hvitra- 
 m anna-land. Nothing is to be gained by making any forced 
 deductions from the narrative ; especially as the pre-Colum- 
 bian discovery of America is abundantly proved, without 
 the aid of this, or any other of the Minor Narratives. 
 
 Ulf the Squinter, son of Hogni the White, took the 
 whole of Reikianess between Thorkafiord and Haf rafell ; l 
 he married Biorg, daughter of Eyvind the Eastman, 2 sister 
 
 1 In Iceland the care bestowed upon genealogies is well il- 
 lustrated by the pains here taken to give the line of Marson. 
 It must be remembered again that Landnama-bolc cor- 
 responds with the English Doomsday Book, being devoted 
 to a matter-of-fact account of the people and their lands in 
 Iceland. 
 
 2 That is, the Norwegian.
 
 160 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 to Helge the Lean. They had a son named Atli the Red, 
 who married Thorbiorg, sister of Steinolf the Humble. 
 Their son was named Mar of Holum, who married Thor- 
 katla, daughter of Hergil Neprass. She had a son named 
 Are, who [A. D. 928] was driven by a storm to White- 
 man's land, 1 which some call Ireland the Great, which lies 
 
 1 Hvitramanna-land. It will be remembered that in the 
 Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefne (p. 135), this land was referred 
 to by the Skraelling boys whoni he took prisoners and brought 
 up. They described it as a land inhabited by a people who 
 wore white clothes, carried poles before them, and shouted. Yet 
 the Saga writer there says no more than that the people think 
 that this was the place known as Ireland the Great. What 
 the Skraellings say does not identify it with the land of Are 
 Marson; yet, in order to allow Professor Rafn, who held that 
 this country was America, the full benefit of his theory, we 
 give the following extract from Wafer's Voyage, which shows 
 that, in the year 1681, when he visited the Isthmus of Da- 
 rien, there were people among the natives who answered 
 tolerably well to the description given in Karlsefne's narra- 
 tive. Wafer says: " They are white, and there are them of 
 both sexes; yet there were few of them in comparison of the 
 copper colored, possibly but one, to two or three hundred. 
 They differ from the other Indians, chiefly in respect of color, 
 though not in that only. Their skins are not of such a 
 white, as those of fair people among Europeans, with some 
 tincture of a blush or sanguine complexion; neither is their 
 complexion like that of our paler people, but 'tis rather a 
 milk-white, lighter than the color of any Europeans, and 
 much like that of a white horse .... Their bodies are beset all 
 over, more or less, with a fine, short, milk-white down .... 
 The men would probably have white bristles for beards, did 
 they not prevent them by their custom of plucking the young 
 beard up by the roots .... Their eyebrows are milk-white also, 
 and so is the hair of their heads/' p. 107. He also adds, that 
 " The men have a value for Cloaths, and if any of them had 
 an old shirt given him by any of us, he would be sure to wear 
 it, and strut about at no ordinary rate. Besides this, they
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 161 
 
 in the Western ocean opposite Yiulaud, six 1 days' sail west 
 of Ireland. Are was not allowed to go away, and was 
 
 have a sort of long cotton garments of their own, some white, 
 and others of a rusty black, shaped like our carter's frocks, 
 hanging down to their heels, with a fringe of the same of 
 cotton, about a span long, and short, wide, open sleeves, 
 
 reaching but to the middle of their arms They are worn 
 
 on some great occasions When they are assembled, 
 
 they will sometimes walk about the place or plantation where 
 they are, with these, their robes on. And once I saw Ta- 
 centa thus walking with two or three hundred of these at- 
 tending him, as if he was mustering them. And I took no- 
 tice that those in the black gowns walked before him, and the 
 white after him, each having their lances of the same color 
 with their robes." These resemblances are at least curious, 
 but historians will ask for more solid proof of the identity of 
 the two people. 
 
 1 Professor Kafn in, what seems to the author, his needless 
 anxiety to fix the locality of the White-man's land in America, 
 says that, as this part of the manuscript is difficult to deci- 
 pher, the original letters may have gotten changed, and vi in- 
 serted instead of xx or xi, which numerals would afford time 
 for the voyager to reach the coast of America, in the vicinity 
 of Florida. Smith, in his Dialogues, "has suppressed the term 
 six altogether, and substituted " by a number of days' sail un- 
 known." This at least is trifling with the subject. In Gron- 
 land's Historiske Mindesmarker, chiefly the work of Finn 
 Magnussen, no question is raised on this point. The various 
 versions all give the number six, which limits the voyage to 
 the vicinity of the Azores. Schoning, to whom we are so 
 largely indebted for the best edition of Heimskringla, lays 
 the scene of Marson's adventure at those islands, and suggests 
 that they may at that time have covered a larger extent of 
 territory than the present, and that they may have suffered 
 from earthquakes and floods, adding "It is likely, and all cir- 
 cumstances show, that the said land has been a piece of North 
 America." This is a bold, though not very unreasonable 
 hypothesis, especially as the volcanic character of the islands 
 21
 
 162 PfiE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 baptized 1 there. This was first told by Rafn, the Lime- 
 rick trader, who lived for a long time in Ireland. So also 
 Thorkel, son of Geller, tells that certain Icelanders said, 
 
 is well known. In 1808, a volcanic mountain rose to the 
 height of 3,500 feet. Yet Schoning's suggestion is not needed. 
 The fact that the islands were not inhabited when discovered 
 by the Portuguese does not, however, settle any thing against 
 Schoning, because, in the course of five hundred years, the 
 people might either have migrated, or been swept away by 
 pestilence. Gronland's Historiske Mindesmcerker (vol. I, p. 
 150) says simply, that " It is thought that he (Are Marson) 
 ended his days' in America, or at all events in one of the 
 larger islands of the west. Some think that it was one of the 
 Azore islands." Upon the whole, we ourselves believe to the 
 contrary. The proper method seems to be that of Eafn, who 
 would correct the text. 
 
 1 The fact that Are Marson is said to have been baptized in 
 Ireland the Great does not prove that the place, wherever lo- 
 cated, was inhabited by a colony of Irish Christians. Yet 
 this view was urged by Professor Rafn and others, who held 
 that Great Ireland was situated in Florida. A Shawanese 
 tradition is given to prove that Florida was early settled by 
 white men from over the sea. We read that in 1818, " the 
 Shawanese were established in Ohio, whither they came from 
 Florida. Black Hoof, then eighty-five years old, was born 
 there, and remembered bathing in the sea. He told the In- 
 dian Agent, that the people of his tribe had a tradition, that 
 their ancestors came over the sea, and that for a long time 
 they kept a yearly sacrifice for their safe arrival." Archceo- 
 logia Americana, vol. I, p. 273. Yet these Indians, the sup- 
 posed descendants of eminently pious Christians from Ire- 
 land, were bitterly opposed to Christianity, and had no Chris- 
 tian traditions. It is more reasonable, to allow that six, 
 should mean eleven or twenty days' sail, notwithstanding 
 there is difficulty in finding the white men for the land in 
 question. It will be found by the study of the subject of 
 complexion in historical narratives that the terms ''white," 
 " black " and " red " are used comparatively. See Verrazano 
 the Explorer, p. 27.
 
 AMEBICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 163 
 
 who heard Thorfinn, Earl of the Orkneys, say, that Are 
 had been seen and known in White-man's land, and that, 
 though not allowed to leave, he was held in much honor. 
 Are had a wife named Thorgeir, daughter of Alf of Dolum. 
 Their sons were Thorgils, Gudleif and Illuge, which is the 
 family of Reikianess. Jorund was the son of Ulf the 
 Squinter. He married Thorbiorg Knarrabringa. They 
 had a daughter, Thorhild, whom Eric the Eed married. 
 They had a son, Leif the Fortunate of Greenland. Jorund 
 was the name of the son of Atli the Eed ; he married 
 Thordis, daughter of Thorgeir Suda ; their daughter was 
 Thorkatla, who married Thorgils Kollson. Jorund was also 
 the father of Snorre. 1 
 
 II. BIORN ASBRANDSON. 
 
 This narrative is taken from Eyrbyggia Saga, which 
 contains the early history of that part of Iceland lying 
 around Snaefells, on the west coast. The Saga is not of a 
 later date than the thirteenth century. It is given here, not 
 because it applies largely to the main question under consider- 
 ation, the pre-Columbian discovery of America, but rather, 
 because it will make the reader fully acquainted with the 
 hero, who afterward appears. 
 
 1 It will appear from this genealogical account, that Are 
 Marson was no obscure or mythological character. In 981 
 he was one of the principal men of Iceland, and is highly 
 spoken of. Yet his connection with Ireland the Great, 
 though undoubtedly real, hardly proves, what may neverthe- 
 less be true a pre-Scandinavian discovery of America by 
 the Irish. This, not improbable view, demands clearer proof, 
 and will repay investigation. The other characters mentioned 
 are equally well known. See Antiquitates Americana, pp. 
 211-12.
 
 164 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 Bork the Fat, and Thordis, daughter of Sur, had a daugh- 
 ter named Thurid. who married Thorbiorn the Fat, living 
 on the estate of Froda. He was a son of Orne the Lean, 
 who held and tilled the farm of Froda. Thorbiorn had be- 
 fore been married to Thurid, daughter of Asbrand, of Kamb, 
 in Breidavik, and sister of Biorne Breidaviking the Athlete, 
 soon to be mentioned in this Saga, and of Arnbiorn the 
 Handy. The sons of Thorbiorn and Thurid were Ketil the 
 Champion, Gunnlaug and Hallstein. 
 
 Now this must be related of Snorre the Priest,! that he 
 undertook the suit for the slaying of Thorbiorn, his kins- 
 man. He also caused his sister to remove to his own home, 
 at Helgefell, because it was reported that Biorn Asbrand, 
 of Kamb, had come to pay her improper attention. 
 
 There was a man named Thorodd, of Medalfells Strand, 
 an upright man and a good merchant. He owned a trading 
 vessel in which he sailed to distant lands. Thorodd had 
 sailed to the west, 2 to Dublin, on a trading voyage. At 
 that time, Sigurd 3 Hlodverson, Earl of the Orkneys, had 
 made an expedition toward the west, to the Hebrides and 
 the Man, and had laid a tribute upon the habitable part of 
 Man.* Having settled the peace, he left men to collect the 
 
 1 Priest or Oode. This was the heathen priest of Iceland, 
 whose duty was to provide the temple offerings, for which pur- 
 pose a contribution was made by every farm in the vicinity. 
 This office was also united with that of chief judge and advo- 
 cate, and for the cases conducted by him at the Thing, he re- 
 ceived the customary fees; yet he was obliged to depend for 
 his support, mainly, upon the products of his farm. The of- 
 fice was hereditary, but could be sold, assigned, or forfeited, 
 though men of character and ability, could, independently of 
 such means, establish themselves in the priesthood. 
 
 'Ireland was regarded as the "west," the people being ac- 
 customed to use this expression. 
 
 3 Killed in Ireland in a battle, 1013. 
 
 4 Probably the present " Isle of Man," which still retains 
 " Manx " law.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 165 
 
 tribute ; the earl himself returned to the Orkneys. Those 
 who were left to collect the tribute, got all ready and set 
 sail with a south-west wind. But after they had sailed some 
 time, to the south-east and east, a great storm arose, which 
 drove them to the northward as far as Ireland, and their 
 vessel was cast away on a barren, uninhabited island. Just 
 as they reached the island, Thorodd the Icelander came sail- 
 ing by from Dublin. The shipwrecked men begged for aid. 
 Thorodd put out a boat and went to them himself. When 
 he reached them, the agents of Sigurd promised him money 
 if he would carry them to their home in the Orkneys. 
 When he told them that he could by no means do so, as he 
 had made all ready to go back to Iceland, they begged the 
 harder, believing that neither their money nor their liberty 
 would be safe in Ireland or the Hebrides, whither they had 
 just before been with a hostile army. At length Thorodd 
 came to this, that he would sell them his ship's long-boat for 
 a large sum of the tribute money ; in this they reached the 
 Orkneys, and Thorodd sailed to Iceland without a boat. 
 Having reached the southern shores of the island, he laid 
 his course along the coast to the westward, and entered 
 Breidafiord, and came to the harbor at Dogurdarness. The 
 same autumn he went to Helgefell to spend the winter with 
 Snorre the Priest, and from that time he was called Thorodd 
 the Tribute Taker. This took place just after the murder 
 of Thorbiorn the Fat. During the same winter Thurid, the 
 sister of Snorre the Priest, who had been the wife of Thor- 
 biorn the Fat, was at Helgefell. Thorodd made proposals 
 of marriage to Snorre the Priest, with respect to Thurid. 
 Being rich and known by Snorre to be of good repute and 
 that he would be useful in supporting his administration of 
 affairs, he consented. Therefore their marriage was cele- 
 brated during this winter at Snorre's house, at Helgefell. 
 In the following spring Thorodd set himself up at Froda 
 and was thought an upright man. But when Thurid went 
 to Froda, Biorn Asbrandson often paid her visits, and it was 
 commonly reported that he had corrupted her chastity.
 
 166 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 Thorodd vainly tried to put an end to these visits. At that 
 time Thorodd Wooden Clog lived at Arnahval. His sons, 
 Ord and Val, were men grown and youths of the greatest 
 promise. The men blamed Thorodd for allowing himself 
 to be insulted so greatly by Biorn, and offered him their aid 
 if desired, to end his coming. It chanced one time when 
 Biorn came to Froda, that he sat with Thurid talking. It 
 was Thorodd's custom when Biorn was there to sit in the 
 house. But he was now nowhere to be seen. Then Thurid 
 said, " Take care, Biorn, for I fear Thorodd means to put 
 a stop to your visits here ; I think he has secured the road 
 and means to attack you and overpower you with unequal 
 numbers." Biorn replied, " That is possible," and then 
 sang these verses : 
 
 O Goddess 1 whom bracelet adorns, 
 This day (I linger 
 In my beloved's arms) 
 Stay longest in the heavens, 
 As we both must wish; 
 For I this night am drawn 
 To drink myself the parentals 9 
 Of my oft-departing joys. 
 
 Having done this, Biorn took his weapons and went to 
 return home. As he went up the hill Digramula five men 
 jumped out upon him from their hiding place. These were 
 Thorodd and two of his men, and the sons of Thoror 
 Wooden Clog. They attacked Biorn, but he defended him- 
 self bravely and well. The sons of Thoror pressed him 
 sharply, but he slew them both. Thorodd then fled with 
 his men, though he himself had only a slight wound, and 
 the others not any. Bioru went on until he reached home 
 and entered the house. The lady of the house 3 ordered a 
 maid to place food before him. When the maid catne into 
 
 1 Literally, woman, with reference to Jord, the Earth, one 
 of the wives of Odin, and also mother of Thor. 
 * Funeral cups. 
 8 Biorn's mother.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 167 
 
 the room with the light and saw Biorn wounded, she went 
 and told Asbrand his father that Biorn had returned covered 
 with blood. Asbrand came into the room and inquired what 
 was the cause of his wounds. He said, "Have you and 
 Thorodd had a fight ? " Biorn replied that it was so. As- 
 brand asked how the affair ended. Biorn replied with these 
 verses : 
 
 Not so easy against a brave man 
 
 It is to fight; 
 
 (Wooden Clog's two sons 
 
 Now I have slain). 
 
 As for the ship's commander, 
 
 A woman to embrace, 
 
 Or for the cowardly, 
 
 A golden tribute to buy. 1 
 
 Asbrand bound up his son's wounds, and his strength was 
 soon restored. Thorodd went to Snorre the Priest, to talk 
 with him about setting a suit on foot against Biorn, on ac- 
 count of the killing of Thoror's sons. This suit was held 
 in the court of Thorsnesthing. It was settled that Asbrand, 
 who became surety for his son, should pay the usual fines. 
 Biorn was exiled for three years, 2 and went abroad the same 
 summer. During that summer, a sou was born to Thurid 
 who was called Kiarten. He grew up at home in Froda, 
 and early gave great hope and promise. 
 
 When Biorn crossed the sea he came into Denmark, and 
 went thence to Jomsberg. At that time Palnatoki was cap- 
 tain of the Jomsberg 3 Vikings. Biorn was admitted into 
 
 1 This is a fling at Thorodd the Tribute Taker. 
 
 8 This shows, that while Biorn killed the men in self-de- 
 fense, it was the opinion of the court that he did not get 
 what he deserved. 
 
 'Jomsberg was the head-quarters of an order of vikings or 
 pirates, where a castle was also built by King Harold Blaat- 
 and of Denmark. It was situated on one of the outlets of the 
 Oder, on the coast of Pomerania, and was probably identical 
 with Julian, founded by the Wends, being recognized as the 
 island of Wallin, which Adam of Bremen, in the eleventh
 
 168 FEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 the crew, and won the name of the Athlete. He was at 
 Jomsberg when Styrbiorn the Hardy assaulted it. He went 
 into Sweden, when the Jomsberg Vikings aided Styrbiorn ; : 
 he was in the battle of T} 7 nsvall, in which Styrbiorn was 
 killed, and escaped with the other Jomsvikings into the 
 woods. While Palnatoki lived, Biorn remained with him, 
 distinguished among all, as a man of remarkable courage. 
 
 century, described as the largest and most flourishing com- 
 mercial city in Europe. Burislaus, king of the Wends, sur- 
 rendered the neighboring territory into the hands of Palna- 
 toki, a great chief of Fionia, who was pledged to his support. 
 Accordingly he built a stronghold here, and organized a band 
 of pirates, commonly called vikings, though it must be ob- 
 served, that while every viking was a pirate, every pirate was 
 not a viking. Only those pirates of princely blood were 
 properly called vikings, or sea-kings, who haunted the vicks, 
 or bays, and thus derived their name. The Jomsvikings 
 were distinguished for their rare courage, and for the fear- 
 lessness with which they faced death. They were governed 
 by strict laws, hedged about by exact requirements, and were 
 also, it is said, pledged to celibacy. Jomsberg was destroyed 
 about the year 1175, by Waldemar the Great, of Denmark, 
 aided by the Princes of Germany and the King of Barba- 
 rossa. Those of the pirates who survived, escaped to a place 
 near the mouth of the Elbe, where a few years after, they 
 were annihilated by the Danes, who in the reign of Canute 
 VI completely destroyed their stronghold. Accounts of their 
 achievements may be found in the Saga of King Olaf Tryg- 
 gvesson (vol. I of Laing's Heim.skringla). The Icelanders 
 sometimes joined the Norway pirates, as was the case with 
 Biorn, but they did not send out pirate ships from Icelandic 
 ports. Palnatoki died in the year 993. 
 
 1 Styrbiorn, son of King Olaf, ruled Sweden in connection 
 with Eric, called the Victorious. Styrbiorn's ambition, to 
 which was added the crime of murder, led to his disgrace. 
 He joined the vikings, adding sixty ships to their force. He 
 was killed, as stated, in 984, in a battle with his uncle near 
 Upsula.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 169 
 
 The same summer [A. D. 996], the brothers, Biorn and 
 Arnbiorn returned into Iceland to Ronhavnsos. Biorn was 
 always afterward called the Athlete of Breidavik. Arnbiorn, 
 who had gotten much wealth abroad, bought the Bakka 
 estate in Raunhavn, the same summer. He lived there with 
 little show or ostentation, and, in most affaire, was silent, 
 but was, nevertheless, a man active in all things. Biorn, 
 his brother, after his return from abroad, lived in splendor 
 and elegance, for during his absence, he had truly adopted 
 the manners of courtiers. He much excelled Arnbiorn 
 in personal appearance, and was none the less active in 
 execution. He was far more expert than his brother in 
 martial exercises, having improved much abroad. The 
 same summer, after his return, there was a general meet- 
 ing near Headbrink, 1 within the bay of Froda. All the 
 merchants rode thither, clothed in colored garments, and 
 there was a great assembly. Housewife Thurid of Froda, 
 was there, with whom Biorn began to talk ; no one censur- 
 ing, because they expected their conversation would be long, 
 as they had not seen each other for a great while. On the 
 same day there was a fight, and one of the Nordenfield men 
 was mortally wounded, and was carried down under a bush on 
 the beach. So much blood flowed out of the wound that there 
 was a large pool of blood in the bush. The boy Kiarten, 
 Thurid of Froda's son, was there. He had a little axe in 
 his hand, and ran to the bush and dipped the axe in the 
 blood. When the Sondensfield's men rode from the beach 
 south, Thord Blib asked Biorn how the conversation be- 
 tween him and Thurid of Froda ended. Biorn said that he 
 was well satisfied. Then Thord asked if he had seen the 
 boy Kiarten, their and Thorodd's son. "I saw him," said 
 Biorn. " What is your opinion of him ? " asked Thord. 
 Biorn answered with the following song : 
 
 1 Dasent says in describing the coast : ' ' Now we near the 
 stupendous crags, of Hofdabrekka, Headbrink, where the 
 mountains almost stride into the main." 
 22
 
 170 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERT OF 
 
 "I saw a boy run 
 With fearful eyes, 
 The woman's image, to 
 The wolf's well ' in the wood; 
 People will say, 
 That his true father [was] 
 He that ploughed the sea, 
 This the boy does not know." 
 
 Thord said : " What will Thorodd say when he hears 
 that the boy belongs to you ? " Then Biorn sung : 
 
 " Then will the noble born woman [make] 
 Thorodd's suspicion 
 Come true, when she gives me 
 The same kind of sons; 
 Always the slender, 
 Snow-white woman loved me, 
 I still to her 
 Am a lover." 
 
 Thord said, it will be best for you not to have any thing 
 to do with each other, and that you turn yonr thoughts. 
 " It is certainly a good idea." said Biorn, " but it is far from 
 my intention ; though there is some difference when I have 
 to do with such men as her brother Snorre." " You must 
 take care of your own business," said Thord, and that ended 
 their talk. Biorn afterward went home to Kamb, and took 
 the affairs of the family into his own hands, for his father 
 was now dead. The following winter he determined to 
 make a journey over the hills, to Thurid. Although Tho- 
 rodd disliked this, he nevertheless saw that it was not easy 
 to prevent its occurrence, since before he was defeated by 
 him, and Biorn was much stronger, and more skilled in 
 arms than before. Therefore he bribed Thorgrim Galdra- 
 kin to raise a snow storm against Biorn when he crossed the 
 hills. When a day came, Biorn made a journey to Froda. 
 When he proposed to return home, the sky was dark and the 
 snow-storm began. When he ascended the hills, the cold 
 became intense, and the snow fell so thickly that he could 
 
 1 Keferring to the dead man's blood.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 171 
 
 not see his way. Soon the strength of the storm increased 
 so much that he could hardly walk. His clothes, already 
 wet through, froze around his body, and he wandered, he 
 did not know where. In the course of the night he reached 
 a cave, and in this cold house he passed the night. Then 
 Biorn sung : 
 
 " Woman that bringest 
 Vestments, 1 would 
 Not like my 
 
 Dwelling in such a storm 
 If she knew that 
 He who had before steered ships, 
 Now in the rock cave 
 Lay stiff and cold." 
 
 Again he sang : 
 
 " The cold field of the swans, 
 From the east with loaded ship I ploughed, 
 Because the woman inspired me with love; 
 I know that I have great trouble suffered, 
 And now, for a time, the hero is 
 Not in a woman's bed, but in a cave." 
 
 Biorn stayed three days in the cave, before the storm sub- 
 sided ; and on the fourth day he came home from the 
 mountain to Kamb. He was very weary. The servant 
 asked him where he was during the storm. Biorn sung : 
 
 " My deeds under 
 
 StyrbiOrn's proud banner are known. 
 It came about that steel-clad Eric 
 Slew men in battle; 
 Now I on the wide heath, 
 Lost my way [and], 
 Could not in the witch-strong 
 Storm, find the road." 9 
 
 1 In Iceland the women are accustomed to bring travelers 
 dry clothes. 
 
 2 All of these verses are extremely obscure and elliptical, 
 though far more intelligible to the modern mind than the 
 compositions which belonged to a still older period. All the
 
 172 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 Biorn passed the rest of the winter at home ; the following 
 spring his brother Arnbiorn fixed his abode in Bakka, in 
 Raunhafn, but Biorn lived at Kauib, and had a grand 
 house. . . . 
 
 This same summer, Thorodd the Tribute Taker invited 
 Snorre the Priest, his kinsman, to a feast at his house in 
 Froda. Snorre went there with twenty men. In the 
 course of the feast, Thorodd told Snorre how much he was 
 hurt and disgraced by the visits of Biorn Asbrandson, to 
 Thurid, his wife, Snorre's sister, saying that it was right for 
 Snorre to do away with this scandal. Snorre after passing 
 some days feasting with Thorodd went home with many 
 presents. Then Snorre the Priest rode over the hills and 
 spread the report that he was going down to his ship in the 
 bay of Raunhafn. This happened in summer, in the time 
 of haymaking. When he had gone as far south as the Kam- 
 biau hills, Snorre said : " Now let us ride back from the hills 
 to Kamb ; let it be known to you," he added, " what I wish 
 to do. I have resolved to attack and destroy Biorn. But I 
 am not willing to attack and destroy him in his house, for it 
 is a strong one, and Biorn is stout and active, while our num- 
 ber is small. Even those who with greater numbers, have 
 attacked brave men in their houses, have fared badly, an ex- 
 ample of which you know in the case of Gissur the White ; 
 who, when with eighty men, they attacked Gunnar 1 of 
 Lithend, alone in his house, many were wounded and many 
 were killed, and they would have been compelled to give up 
 the attack, if Geir the Priest had not learned that Gunnar 
 was short of arrows. Therefore," said he, "as we may ex- 
 pect to find Biorn out of doors, it being the time of haymak- 
 ing, I appoint you my kinsman, Mar, to give him the first 
 wound ; but I would have you know this, that there is no 
 
 chief men of Iceland practiced the composition of verse. 
 Chaucer makes his parson apologize for his inability to imi- 
 tate the practice. It was believed that certain women had 
 power over storms. 
 
 1 See the Saga of "Burnt Nidi," translated by Dasent.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 173 
 
 room for child's play, and you must expect a contest with 
 a hungry wolf, unless your first wound shall be his death 
 blow." As they rode from the hills toward his homestead, 
 they saw Biorn in the fields; he was making a sledge, 1 
 and no one was near him. He had no weapon but a small 
 axe, and a large knife in his hand of a span's length, which 
 he used to round the holes in the sledge. Biorn saw Snorre 
 riding down from the hills, and recognized him. Snorre 
 the Priest had on a blue cloak, and rode first. The idea 
 suddenly occurred to Biorn, that he ought to take his knife 
 and go as fast as he could to meet them, and as soon as he 
 reached them, lay hold of the sleeve of Snorre with one 
 hand, and hold the knife in the other, so that he might be 
 able to pierce Snorre to the heart, if he saw that his own 
 safety required it. Going to meet them, Biorn gave them 
 hail, and Snorre returned the salute. The hands of Mar 
 fell, for he saw that if he attacked Biorn, the latter would 
 at once kill Snorre. Then Biorn walked along with Snorre 
 and his comrades, asked what was the news, keeping his 
 hands as at first. Then he said : " I will not try to conceal, 
 neighbor Snorre, that my present attitude and look seem 
 threatening to you, which might appear wrong, but for that 
 I have understood that your coming is hostile. Now I de- 
 sire that if you have any business to transact with me, you 
 will take another course than the one you intended, and 
 that you will transact it openly. If none, I will that you 
 make peace, which when done, I will return to my work, as 
 I do not wish to be led about like a fool." Snorre replied : 
 " Oar meeting has so turned out that we shall at this time 
 part in the same peace as before ; but I desire to get a pledge 
 from you, that from this time you will leave off visiting 
 Thurid, because if you go on in this, there can never be any 
 real friendship between us." Biorn replied : " This I will 
 promise, and will keep it ; but I do not know how 1 shall 
 
 1 These sledges were used in drawing hay, as the roads were 
 then, as now, too poor for carts.
 
 174 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OP 
 
 be able to keep it, so long as Thurid and I live in the same 
 land." " There is nothing so great binding yon here," said 
 Snorre, " as to keep you from going to some other land." 
 " What you now say is true," replied Biorn, " and so let it 
 be, and let our meeting end with this pledge, that neither 
 you nor Thorodd shall have any trouble from my visits to 
 Thurid, in the next year." "With this they parted. Snorre 
 the Priest rode down to his ship, and then went home to 
 Helgefell. The day after, Biorn rode south to Raunhafn, 
 and engaged his passage in a ship for the same summer [A. 
 D. 999]. When all was ready they set sail with a north- 
 east wind which blew during the greater part of that sum- 
 mer. Nothing was heard of the fate of the ship for a very 
 long time. 1 
 
 III. GUDLEIF GUDLAUGSON. 
 
 This narrative, which shows what became of Biorn As- 
 brandsou, whose adventures are partially related in the pre- 
 vious sketch, is from the Eyrbyggia Saga. Notwithstanding 
 the somewhat romantic character of these two narratives, 
 there can be no doubt but that, in the main, they are true 
 histories. Yet that they relate to events in America, is not, 
 perhaps, altogether so certain. 
 
 There was a man named Gudleif, the son of Gudlaug the 
 Rich, of Straumfiord and brother of Thorfinn, from whom 
 
 1 This is the only paragraph which applies directly to the 
 subject in hand. The following narrative will bring Biorn to 
 notice again. Note, however, that the north-east wind, long 
 continued, would drive a ship toward the south-west, which, 
 as we shall see, was the case with the ship in which Biorn 
 sailed. This forms a curious and unexpected agreement with 
 what follows.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 175 
 
 the Sturlingers are descended. Gudleif was a great mer- 
 chant. He had a trading vessel, and Thorolf Eyrar Loptson 
 had another, when they fought with Gyrid, son of Sigvald 
 Earl. Gyrid lost an eye in that fight. It happened near 
 the end of the reign of King Olaf the Saint, that Gudleif 
 went on a trading voyage to the west of Dublin. On 
 his return to Iceland, sailing from the west of Ireland, he 
 met with north-east winds, and was driven far into the ocean 
 west, and south-west, so that no land was seen, the summer 
 being now nearly gone. Many prayers were offered that 
 they might escape from the sea. At length they saw land. 
 It was of great extent, but they did not know what land it 
 was. They took counsel and resolved to make for the land, 
 thinking it unwise to contend with the violence of the sea. 
 They found a good harbor, and soon after went ashore. A 
 number of men came down to them. They did not recog- 
 nize the people, but thought that their language resembled 
 the Irish. 1 In a short time such a number of men had 
 gathered around them as numbered many hundred. These 
 attacked them and bound them all and drove them inland. 
 Afterward they were brought before an assembly, and it 
 was considered what should be done with them. They 
 thought that some wished to kill them, and that others were 
 for dividing them among the villages as slaves. While this 
 was going on, they saw a great number of men riding 2 toward 
 them with a banner lifted up, whence they inferred that 
 some great man was among them. When the company 
 drew near, they saw a man riding under the banner. He 
 
 1 Few will infer much from this, since nothing is easier than 
 to find resemblances between languages. 
 
 2 The language may indicate that they were horseback, 
 though it is not conclusive. At the period referred to, there 
 may have been no horses in America. They were introduced 
 by the Spaniards, after the discovery by Columbus. At least, 
 such is the common opinion. This statement is made without 
 reference to the proofs offered of the existence of the horse at 
 an earlier period, the remains of which are said to be found.
 
 176 FEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 was tall and had a martial air, and was aged and grayhaired. 
 All present treated this man with the utmost honor and 
 deference. They soon saw that their case was referred to 
 his decision. He commanded Gudleif and his comrades to 
 be brought before him. Coming into his presence, he ad- 
 dressed them in the Northern tongue, and asked what land 
 they came from. They replied that the chief part were 
 Icelanders. The man asked which of them were Icelanders. 
 Gudleif declared himself to be an Icelander, and saluted 
 the old man, which he received kindly, and asked what part 
 of Iceland he came from. He replied that he came from 
 the district some called Bogafiord. He asked who lived in 
 Bogafiord, to which Gudleif replied at some length. After- 
 ward this man inquired particularly about all the principal 
 men of Bogafiord and Breidafiord. He inquired with special 
 interest into every thing relating to Snorre the Priest, and 
 to his sister Thurid, of Froda, and for the great Kiarten, 
 her son. In the meanwhile the natives grew impatient 
 about the disposition of the sailors. Then the great man 
 left him, and took twelve of the natives apart, and conferred 
 with them. Afterward he returned. Then the old man 
 spoke to Gudleif and his comrades and said : " We have had 
 some debate concerning you, and the people have left the 
 matter to my decision ; I now permit you to go where you 
 will, and although summer is nearly gone, I advise you to 
 leave at once. These people are of bad faith, and hard to 
 deal with, and now think they have been deprived of their 
 right." Then Gudleif asked, "Who shall we say, if we 
 reach our own country again, to have given us our liberty ? " 
 He replied : " That I will not tell you, for I am not willing 
 that any of my friends or kindred should come here, and 
 meet with such a fate as you would have met, but for me. 
 Age now comes on so fast, that I may almost expect any hour 
 to be my last. Though I may live some time longer, there are 
 other men of greater influence than myself, now at some dis- 
 tance from this place, and these would not grant safety or 
 peace to any strange men.'' Then he looked to the fitting out
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 177 
 
 of their ship, and stayed at this place until a fair wind sprang 
 up, so that they might leave the port. Before they went 
 away, this man took a gold ring from his hand and gave 
 it to Gudleif, and also a good sword. Then he said to 
 Gudleif : " If fortune permits you to reach Iceland, give 
 this sword to Kiarten, hero of Froda, and this ring to 
 Thurid, his mother." Gudleif asked, " Who shall I say 
 was the sender of this valuable gift ? " He replied : " Say 
 that he sent it who loved the lady of Froda, better than her 
 brother, the Priest of Helgafell. Then if any man desires 
 to know who sent this valuable gift, repeat my words, that 
 I forbid any one to seek me, for it is a dangerous voyage, 
 unless others should meet with the same fortune as you. 
 This region is large, but has few good ports, and danger 
 threatens strangers on all sides from the people, unless it 
 shall fall to others as yourselves." After this they separated. 
 Gudleif, with his comrades, went to sea, and reached Ireland 
 the same autumn, and passed the winter in Dublin. The 
 next spring they sailed to Iceland, and Gudleif delivered the 
 jewel into the hand of Thurid. It was commonly believed 
 that there was no doubt but that the man seen, was Biorn 
 Breidaviking Kappa, but there is no other reliable report to 
 prove this. 
 
 IY. ALLUSIONS TO VOYAGES FOUND IN 
 ANCIENT MANUSCKIPTS. 
 
 Professor Kafn, in Antiquitates Americans, gives brief 
 notices of numerous Icelandic voyages to America, and other 
 lands to the west, the particulars of which are not recorded. 
 The works in which these notices appear are of the 
 highest respectability. It is only necessary here to give the 
 facts, which have been collected with much care. They 
 show that the pre-Columbian discovery of America left 
 its recollection scattered throughout nearly the entire body 
 23
 
 178 FEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 of Icelandic history. The existence of a great land south- 
 west of Greenland is referred to, not as a matter of specu- 
 lation, but as something perfectly well known. All these 
 references combine to furnish indisputable proof of the 
 positions maintained in this work, showing as they do, 
 beyond all reasonable question, that the impression which 
 so generally prevailed in regard to the discovery of this 
 land, could not have been the result of a literary fraud. Some 
 of the facts are given below: 
 1121 . Eric, Bishop of Greenland, 1 went to search out Vinland. 
 
 Bishop Eric Upse sought Yinland. 
 1285. A new land is discovered west from Iceland. 
 
 New land is found 2 
 
 Adalbrand and Thorvald, the sous of Helge, found 
 the new land. 
 
 Adalbrand and Thorvald found new land west of Ice- 
 land. 
 
 The Feather 3 Islands are discovered. 
 
 1 This is found in Annales Islandorum Regii, which gives 
 the history of Iceland from the beginning down to 1307. Also 
 in Annales Flateyensis, and in Annales Reseniini. Eric was 
 appointed Bishop of Greenland, but performed no duties 
 after his consecration, and eventually resigned that See, in 
 order to undertake the mission to Vinland. He is also spoken 
 of in two works as going to Vinland with the title of Bishop 
 of Greenland, a title which he had several years before his 
 actual consecration. 
 
 2 The manuscript is deficient here, but we must remember 
 that Greenland had at this time, 1285, been known and ex- 
 plored for three hundred years, and, therefore, that the land 
 west of Iceland was beyond Greenland. Otherwise the 
 entry would have possessed no significance. 
 
 3 The Feather Islands are mentioned in the Logmanns An- 
 nall, or, Annals of the Governors of Iceland, and Annales 
 SkaUioltini, or Annals of the Bishopric of Skalholt, written 
 in the middle of the fourteenth century, long before Colum- 
 bus went to Iceland. Beamish suggests that these are the 
 Penguin and Bacaloa Islands.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 179 
 
 1288. Eolf is sent by Kiug Eric to search out the new land, 1 
 
 and called on people of Iceland to go with him. 
 
 1289. King Eric sends Rolf to Iceland to seek out the new 
 
 land. 
 
 1290. Rolf traveled through Iceland, and called out men 
 
 for a voyage to the new land. 
 
 1295. Landa-Rolf died. 
 
 13^7. There came thirteen large ships to Iceland. Eindride- 
 suden was wrecked in East Borgafiord, near Lan- 
 geness. The crew and the greater part of the cargo 
 were saved. Bessalangen was wrecked outside of 
 Sida. Of its crew, Haldor Magre and Gunthorm 
 Stale, and nineteen men altogether, were drowned. 
 The cargo suffered also. There were also six ships, 
 driven back. There came likewise a ship from 
 Greenland, 2 smaller than the smallest of Iceland 
 ships, that came in the outer bay. It had lost its 
 anchor. There were seventeen men on board, who 
 had gone to Markland, 3 and on their return were 
 drifted here. But here altogether that winter, 
 were eighteen large ships, besides the two that 
 were wrecked in the summer. 4 
 
 1 " The notices of Nyja land and Duneyjar, would seem to 
 refer to a re-discovery of some parts of the eastern coast of 
 America, visited by earlier voyagers. The original appellation 
 of Nyjaland, or Nyjufundu-land, would have led naturally to 
 the modern English name of Newfoundland, given by Cabot, 
 to whose knowledge the discovery would [might] have come 
 through the medium of the commercial intercourse between 
 England and Iceland in the fifteenth century." Beamish. 
 
 2 See the Decline of Greenland, in Introduction. 
 
 3 Markland (Woodland) was Nova Scotia, as we know from 
 the description of Leif and others. These vessels doubtless 
 went to get timber. All these accounts show that the 
 Western ocean was generally navigated in the middle of the 
 fourteenth century. 
 
 4 March 12, 1888, the " W. L. White" was abandoned near
 
 180 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERT OF 
 
 1357. There came a ship from Greenland that had sailed to 
 Markland, and there were eight men on board. 
 
 V. GEOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 The first of these documents is from a work which pro- 
 fesses to give a description of the earth in the middle age. 
 From this it appears that the Icelanders had a correct idea 
 of the location of Vinland in New England, though they 
 did not comprehend the fact that they had discovered a new 
 Continent. The account is found in Antiquitates Ameri- 
 cana, p. 283. In the appendix of that work may be seen a 
 fac simile of the original manuscript. The second account 
 is from Antiquitates Americanos,, p. 292. It was found 
 originally in the miscellaneous collection called the Gh'ipla. 
 The failure to recognize modern discoveries shows that the 
 description is Pre-Columbian. 
 
 A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE WHOLE EARTH. 
 
 The earth is said to be divided into three parts. 1 One of 
 these is called Asia, and extends from north-east to south- 
 west, and occupies the middle of the earth. In the eastern 
 part are three separate regions, called Indialand. In the 
 farthest India, the Apostle Bartholomew preached the faith ; 
 and where he likewise gave up his life (for the name of 
 Christ). In the nearest India, the Apostle Thomas preached, 
 and there also he suffered death for the cause of God. In 
 that part of the earth called Asia, is the city of Nineveh, 
 greatest of all cities. It is three days' journey in length and 
 one day's journey in breadth. There is also the city of 
 
 Cape May and drifted in a zig-zag course across the Atlantic, 
 some 5,050 miles, and brought up in the harbor of Stornoway, 
 November 29, following. 
 
 1 This is in accordance with the maps of that early period, 
 some of which, undoubtedly, were before the writer's eye.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 181 
 
 Babylon, ancient and very large. There King Nebuchad- 
 nezzar formerly reigned, but now that city is so thoroughly 
 destroyed that it is not inhabited by men, on account of 
 serpents and all manner of noxious creatures. In Asia is 
 Jerusalem, and also Antioch ; in this city Peter the Apostle 
 founded an Episcopal seat, and where he, the first of 
 all men, sang Mass. Asia Minor is a region of Great 
 Asia. There the Apostle John preached, and there also, in 
 the city of Ephesus, is his tomb. They say that four rivers 
 flow out of Paradise. 1 One is called Pison or Ganges; 
 this empties into the sea surrounding the world. Pison 
 rises under a mountain called Orcobares. The second 
 river flowing from Paradise, is called Tigris, and the third, 
 Euphrates. Both empty into the Mediterranean (sea), near 
 Antioch. The Nile, also called Geon, is the fourth river 
 that runs from Paradise. It separates Asia from Africa, 
 and flows through the whole of Egypt. 2 In Egypt is New 
 Babylon (Cairo), and the city called Alexandria. 
 
 The second part of the earth is called Africa, which ex- 
 tends from the south-west to the north-west.' There are 
 Serkland, and three regions called Blaland (land of black- 
 men or negroes). The Mediterranean sea divides Europe 
 from Africa. 
 
 1 This is a confused geography, based on Genesis n, 10-15. 
 
 2 The modern discoveries in connection with the source of 
 the Nile are all shown in the maps of Ptolemy, proving 
 that the great lakes which serve as feeders were well known 
 at a very early period. Still the old northern geographer's 
 ideas were confused. 
 
 8 This is the way\ Africa was represented at that early pe- 
 riod. That continent had been circumnavigated by Hanno, 
 though the maps did not show it, bat indicated usually the 
 northern part of Africa, which was made to appear longest 
 from east to west. This fact, taken with the fact that the wri- 
 ter has only a few words to say about Africa, proves that he 
 wrote at a very early period, even before the date of pre-Col- 
 umbian sketches like those of Fra Mauro and Behaim. See 
 the Atlases of Lelewell and Santarem. Ante, p. 12.
 
 182 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 
 
 Europe is the third part of the earth, extending from 
 west and north-west to the north-east. In the east of 
 Europe is the kingdom of Russia. There are Holmgard, 
 Palteskia and Smalenskia. South of Russia lies the king- 
 dom of Greece. Of this kingdom, the chief city is Con- 
 stantinople, which our people call Miklagard. In Mikla- 
 gard is a church, which the people call St. Sophia, but the 
 Northmen call it ^Egisif. 1 This church exceeds all the 
 other churches in the world, both as respects its structure 
 and size. Bulgaria and a great many islands, called the 
 Greek islands, belong to the kingdom of Greece. Crete 
 and Cyprus are the most noted of the Greek islands. Sicily 
 is a great kingdom in that part of the earth called Europe. 
 Italy is a country south of the great ridge of mountains, 
 called by us Mundia [Alps]. In the remotest part of Italy 
 is Apulia, called by the Northmen, Pulslaud. In the mid- 
 dle of Italy is Rome. In the north of Italy is Lornbardy, 
 which we call Lombardland. North of the mountains on 
 the east, is Germany, and on the south-west is France. 
 Hispania, which we call Spainland, is a great kingdom that 
 extends south to the Mediterranean, between Lombardy and 
 France. The Rhine is a great river that runs north from 
 Mundia, between Germany and France. Near the outlets 
 of the Rhine is Friesland, northward from the sea. North 
 of Germany is Denmark. The ocean runs into the Baltic 
 sea, near Denmark. Sweden lies east of Denmark, and 
 Norway at the north. North of Norway is Finnmark. 
 The coast bends thence to the north-east, and then toward 
 the east, until it reaches Perrnia, which is tributary to 
 Russia. From Permia, desert tracts extend to the north, 
 reaching as far as Greenland. 2 Beyond Greenland, south- 
 
 1 The Northmen were familiar with Constantinople. 
 
 3 Greenland appears in Ptolemy as au extension of Nor- 
 way but was not placed sufficiently far west, showing that 
 the map makers did not fully understand the accounts they 
 had received. The Northmen understood that a great isth- 
 mus extended from Norway to Greenland, through the high
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 183 
 
 ward, is Helluland ; beyond that is Markland ; from thence 
 it is not far to Yinland, which some men are of the opinion 
 extends to Africa. 1 England and Scotland are one island ; 
 but each is a separate kingdom. Ireland is a great island. 
 Iceland is also a great island north of Ireland. All these 
 countries are situated in that part of the world called 
 Europe. Next to Denmark is Lesser Sweden ; then is 
 Oeland, then Gottland, then Helsingeland, then Yermeland, 
 and the two Kvendlands, which lie north of Biarmeland. 
 From Biarmeland stretches desert land toward the north, 
 until Greenland begins. South of Greenland is Helluland ; 
 next is Markland, from thence it is not far to Yinland the 
 Good, winch some think goes out to Africa ; and if this is 
 so, the sea must extend between Yinland and Markland/ 
 
 ice region, making the two lands one ; while Greenland 
 extended to Vinland, which in turn went southward and 
 turned eastward until it nearly reached Africa. In fact 
 South America pushes eastward within 20 degrees of Cape 
 Verde, Africa. On the Lenox globe, 1508-9, these two 
 points are placed in the same longitude, Africa and South 
 America overlapping. So much for the old northern geog- 
 raphy. 
 
 1 In the face of this and a multitude of similar statements, 
 Mr. Bancroft endeavored to make his readers believe that the 
 locality of Vinland was uncertain. He might, with equal 
 propriety, tell us that the location of Massachusetts itself was 
 uncertain, because, according to the original grant, it ex- 
 tended to the Pacific ocean, or that Virginia and Florida 
 were uncertain localities, because both at one time included 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 a This writer did not appear to be familiar with the narratives 
 of Karlsefne. The writer's argument is not plain, where 
 he says, "if this is so," etc.; but as Markland was Nova Sco- 
 tia and Vinland was Massachusetts, we may perhaps accept 
 this as a recognition of the Gulf of Maine and Massachusetts 
 Bay. When, in 1542, Allefonsce reached this region he did 
 not know whither the sea extended : " I have been at a bay
 
 184 PHE-COLUMBIA]* DISCOVERY OF 
 
 It is told that Thorfinn Karlsefne cut wood here [in Mark- 
 land] to ornament bis house, 1 and went afterward to seek 
 out Vinland the Good. He came there where they thought 
 the land was, but did not reach it, 2 and got none of the 
 wealth of the land. Leif the Lucky first discovered Vin- 
 land, and then he met some merchants in distress at sea, 
 and by God's grace, saved their lives. He introduced Chris- 
 tianity into Greenland, and it flourished so much that an 
 Episcopal seat was set up in the place called Gardar. Eng- 
 land and Scotland are an island, and yet each is a separate 
 kingdom. Ireland is agreat island. These countries are all 
 in that part of the world called Europe. 
 
 FROM GEIPLA. 
 
 Bavaria is bounded by Saxony ; Saxony is bounded by 
 Holstein, and next is Denmark. The sea runs between the 
 eastern countries. Sweden is east of Denmark. Norway 
 is to the north. Finmark is east of Norway, and from thence 
 the land extends to the north-east and east until you come 
 to Biarmeland. This land is under tribute to Gardaridge. 
 From Biarmeland desert places lie all northward to the land 
 which is called Greenland [which, however, the Greenland- 
 ers do not affirm, but believe to have seen it otherwise, both 
 from drift timber that is known and cut down by men, and 
 also from reindeer which have marks upon their ears, or 
 bands upon their horns, likewise from sheep which stray 
 here, of which there are some remaining in Norway, for 
 one head hangs in Throndheim, and another in Bergen, and 
 many others are to be found.] 3 But there are bays, and the 
 
 as far as forty-two degrees between Norumbega [Markland] 
 and Florida [Massachusetts] but I have not seen the end and 
 I do not know whether it extends any farther." "The 
 Northmen in Maine/' p. 94. 
 
 1 See ante, p. 155, n. 1. 
 
 2 This is erroneous. See Saga of Thorfinn, ante, p. 135. 
 
 3 The part inclosed in brackets is an interpolation of a re- 
 cent date.
 
 AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 185 
 
 land stretches out toward the south-west ; there are ice 
 mountains, and bays, and islands lie out in front of the ice 
 mountains ; one of the ice mountains cannot be explored, 
 and the other is half a month's sail ; to the third, a week's 
 sail. This is nearest to the settlement called Hvidserk. 
 Thence the land trends north ; but he who desires to go by 
 the settlement steers to the south-west. Gardar, the bishop's 
 seat, is at the bottom of Ericsfiord ; there is a church conse- 
 crated to holy Nicholas. There are twelve churches in the 
 eastern settlement and four in the western. 
 
 Now it should be told what is opposite Greenland, out 
 from the bay, which was before named. Furdustrandur 1 is 
 the name of the land ; the cold is so severe that it is not 
 habitable, so far as is known. South from thence is Hellu- 
 land, which is called Skraellings land. Thence it is not far 
 to Vinland the Good, which some think goes out to Africa. 2 
 Between Vinland and Greenland is Ginnungagah, which 
 runs from the sea called Mare Oceanum, and surrounds the 
 whole earth. 3 
 
 1 Not to be confounded with the place of the same name at 
 Cape Cod. 
 
 2 This is another passage upon which Bancroft absurdly de- 
 pended to prove that the locality of Vinland was unknown, 
 when in the Sagas the position is minutely described, the 
 situation being as well known as that of Greenland. See 
 sketches designed to illustrate this statement in the Narra- 
 ratioe and Critical History, vol. i, pp. 117-132. 
 
 3 This may perhaps be viewed as an indication of the " north- 
 west passage/' which in post-Columbian times was supposed 
 to be a navigable body of water leading to the Pacific, though 
 in this account the name Vinland is loosely applied, whereas 
 Vinland lay south of Markland, the present Nova Scotia. 
 The student should compare these geographical fragments 
 with the geography of Orosius (A. D. 416), translated and 
 improved by King Alfred the Great (Cir. 890), and found in 
 the "Jubilee Edition" of his works, marking the one-thou- 
 sandth year from his birth. London, 1858, vol. n, 17-61. 
 
 24
 
 186 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Page 46, contains the only reference to Iceland, but Alfred 
 speaks as though the country were well known at the time he 
 made his translation. This translation is of special interest, 
 as Alfred adds much knowledge belonging to his own time, 
 and narrates the facts about Ohthere, the Northman, who 
 was the most northern inhabitant of his race on the west 
 coast of Norway, north of him being the Finns. Ohthere 
 made a voyage, the first on record, around the north cape 
 into the sea at the eastward. 'Grardar, the Dane, had seen 
 Iceland in 860. On Ohthere, see Hakluyt's " Navigations," 
 vol. n, pp. 4-5. Neither Orosius or Alfred could say more 
 about the southern part of Africa, than that a land of " bar- 
 ren whirling-sand" extended southward to the ocean. It is 
 clear that they knew that Africa had been circumnavigated.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abbott, 
 
 Adam of Bremen, 104, n. 1. 
 
 Adzer, Archbishop, 27. 
 
 Agamemnon, 58. 
 
 ^Elian, 10. 
 
 Africa, 181. 
 
 Agassiz, Prof., 96, n. 
 
 Alcock, Robert, 54. 
 
 Alfred, King, 46, 185, n. 3. 
 
 Alfonso, King, 46. 
 
 Alps, 182. 
 
 Allefonsce, 109, n., 183, n. 2. 
 
 Amund, Bishop, 33. 
 
 Anderson, E., 45, n., 56, n. 
 
 Andreas, 32. 
 
 Annales Islandorum Regii, 
 
 47, 48. 
 Annales Regii, 178 ; Flatey- 
 
 enses, 178 ; Reseniini, 
 
 178. 
 
 Anson, Lord, 38. 
 Antioch, 181. 
 Antiquitates Americans, 22, 
 
 n., 30, n. 2. 
 Apostogon Hills, 95, n. 
 Apulia, 107. 
 Arthur, King, 22, n. 
 Archeeologia, Americana, 88, 
 
 n. 
 
 Archer, 97, n., 98, n. 
 Argyle, Marquis of, 64, n. 
 Aristotle, 11. 
 Arnold, Bishop, 28. 
 Arnold, Gov. Benedict, 69, n. 
 
 A s bra nd, ; Biorn, of 
 
 Kamb, 163. 
 Asia, 180; Minor, Arthur, 
 
 23, n. 
 Aslak, 
 
 Assonet Neck, 67. 
 Athelstane, 36. 
 Atlantis, 11. 
 Avalldania, 135, 144. 
 Azore, Island, 162, n. 
 
 Babylon, 181. 
 
 Bacaloa, Islands of, 178, n. 3. 
 
 Balder, 125, n. 
 
 Ball's River, 35. 
 
 Bavaria, 184. 
 
 Bancroft, George, 41, 42, 43, 
 
 64, n. 1. 
 Bardarson, Ivar, 30, 74, see 
 
 Ivar Bert. 
 Bartholomew, the Apostle, 
 
 180. 
 
 Beacon, Mr. Joseph, 116, n. 
 Beamish, 87. 
 Blarney Island, 90. 
 Bede, the Venerable, 22, n. 
 Bergen, 184. 
 Bellinger, 109, n. 
 Behaim, 181, n. 
 Bert, Ivar, xxxi, 12, n. 
 Bethencourt, 14. 
 Bible, Guyot, 46. 
 Biarne, Heriulfson. 60, 86, 88, 
 
 89.
 
 188 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Biarne, Bishop, 145. 
 
 Biarney, Isle, 122. 
 
 Biorn, Asbrandson Breidavi- 
 
 king, 163; exiled, 163; 
 
 returns, 164 ; goes 
 
 abroad, 174. 
 Biarmeland, 184. 
 Blaesark, 84. 
 
 Blue Hills, 132, n. 2, 143, n. 3. 
 Boccaccio, 46. 
 Bork, the Fat, 164. 
 Bodfish, J. P., 10. 
 Boston Harbor, 109, n. 
 Bougainville, 12. 
 Bory, de St. Vincent, 14. 
 Bradford, 26, n. 
 Brage, 125, n. 
 Brattahlid, 25. 
 Brereton, 95, n. 
 Bristol, 51. 
 
 Brown, Marie A., 56, n. 2. 
 Broughton, 16. 
 Bnm, Malte, 70, n. 
 Bulgaria, 182. 
 Bull, Papal, 25, n. 1. 
 Burnet, 64, n. 
 Brynirlfson, Dr., 29. 
 Buzzard's Bay, 98, n. 2, 124, 
 
 n. 4. 
 Byggemane, William, 51. 
 
 Cabot, 46, 111, n. 
 
 Cadiz, 11, 12. 
 
 Canaria, 13. 
 
 Canary Islands, 12. 
 
 Canute, 36. 
 
 Canynges, 51. 
 
 Cape Cod, 46, 95 ; old ship 
 
 at, 96. 
 
 Cape Sable, 95, n. 
 Cape Malabar, 98. 
 Capraria, 13. 
 Cartier, 85, n. 
 Chaplains, 14. 
 Chatham, 96. 
 
 Chaucer, 54. 
 
 Christian III, 34. 
 
 Christ, 12. 
 
 Christophersen, Claudius, 25. 
 
 Claudian, 17. 
 
 Clarendon, Lord, 64, n. 
 
 Cleasby, 101, n. 
 
 Cock Lane Ghost, 63. 
 
 Colseus, 11. 
 
 Colonization of Greenland, 
 
 24 ; of Iceland, 19. 
 Columbus, 41, 47, 53, 54, 56, 
 
 90, n., 136, n. 1, 156, n. 3. 
 Constantinople, 35. 
 Grantor, 11. 
 Crantz, 33, 34, 110, n. 
 Crete, 182. 
 Cronica General de Espana, 
 
 46. 
 
 Cross, worshiped, 70, n. 
 Crossness, 110, 113, n. 3. 
 Cuba, 55, n. 
 Culdees, 23. 
 Cyprus, 182. 
 
 Dagmalstad, 99, n. 4. 
 Danforth, Dr., 65, n. 
 Darien, Isthmus of, 160. 
 Dasent, 35, 59, n. 1, 102, n. 
 Deane, Dr., 58. 
 De Barros, 14, n. 
 De Costa, 23, n. 
 De Fries, Rev., 29. 
 Denmark, 182. 
 Dicuil, 22, n. 
 Dighton Kock, 65, 122. 
 Diman, Prof., 65, n. 1. 
 Disco, 90, n. 1. 
 Discrepancies, in Sagas, 92, n. 
 
 1. 
 
 Donsk tunga, 19. 
 Doomsday Book, 45, 73, 195. 
 Drapstock, 21, 23. 
 Drift-wood, 76, n. 
 Drogeo, 51.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 189 
 
 Dublin, 164. 
 
 Dudley, Lieut. Gov., 99, n. 3. 
 
 Dungannon, Lord, 18, n. 
 
 Eddas, 46. 
 
 Early Christianity in Amer- 
 ica, traces of, 15. 
 
 Earth, brief description of, 
 180. 
 
 Easton, Peter, 69, n. 
 
 Edward III, 14, n., 48. 
 
 Egede, Rev. Hans, 33, n., 
 110, n. 
 
 Egypt, 181. 
 
 Einar, son of Sokke, 28. 
 
 Eindridesuden, the ship, 179. 
 
 Elysium, 12. 
 
 England, 183. 
 
 English, 48, 49, 50. 
 
 Ephesus, 181. 
 
 Eric, Bishop, 28, 64. 
 
 Eric, the Ked, 24, 25; goes 
 to Greenland, 79, 85, 87 ; 
 resolves to seek new 
 land, 78; banished, 78; 
 returns to Greenland, 79 ; 
 accident, 93. 
 
 Ericsfiord, 25. 
 
 Ericson, Thorvald, 46 ; goes to 
 Yinland, 108 ; his death, 
 110 ; Thorstein sails for 
 Yinland, 112 ; returns, 
 113; his death, 116. 
 
 Erie, Bishop Upse, 178. 
 
 Erlandson, 22, 73, 118. 
 
 Esquimaux, 130, n. 3. 
 
 Estotilaud, 51, 110, n. 
 
 Euphrates, 181. 
 
 Europe, 180. 
 
 Eyktarstad, 99, 100. 
 
 Eyrbyggia Saga, 163. 
 
 Feather Islands, 178. 
 Fenris, 125, n. 2. 
 Finboge, 151-153. 
 
 Finn mark, 182. 
 
 Fish, Sacred, 128. 
 
 Flato, island of, 40. 
 
 Florida, 162-184, n. 
 
 Forsark, Thorkel, swims for 
 a sheep, 91. 
 
 Fortunate Isles, 121. 
 
 Foster-father, 101, n. 
 
 Fossils, 93, n. 3. 
 
 Fragments, geographical, 180. 
 
 France, Ib2. 
 
 Frederick, bishop, 79. 
 
 Frey, 125, n. 
 
 Freydis, 151 ; sails for Yin- 
 land, 152 ; quarrels with 
 the company, 153 ; mur- 
 ders the brothers and 
 their company, 154; re- 
 turns to Greenland, 154. 
 
 Friesland, 182. 
 
 Frithiof s Saga, 21, n., 122, n. 
 
 Frobisher, 34, n. 
 
 Fronde, 54. 
 
 Frode, the Wise, 73. 
 
 Froda, 21. 
 
 Frode, Ari, 45. 
 
 Fuerteventura, 14. 
 
 Galfidus, 23, n. 
 Galdrakin, Thorgrim, 170. 
 Ganges, 181. 
 Gardar, 19, 28, 185. 
 Gaspe, 70, n. 
 
 Geographical Fragments, 180. 
 Geoffrey, of Monmouth, 23, 
 
 n. 
 
 Germany, 182. 
 Genesis, Book of, 181, n. 1. 
 Ginnungagah, 185. 
 Girava, 52, n. 2. 
 Gisli, the Outlaw, 83. 
 Gissur, the White, 26, n. 
 Glacial man, 111, n. 
 Globe, of Rouen, 52. 
 Gnupson, Bishop Eric, 27.
 
 190 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Goodrich, 56, n. 1. 
 
 Godthaab, 27. 
 
 Goe, Month of, 76. 
 
 Gomera, 14. 
 
 Gornbornese-Skare, 74, n.; 
 see Gunnbioru's Rocks. 
 
 Gosnold, 95, n. 1, 123, n. 2. 
 
 Gould, Sabine-Baring, 43, n. 
 
 Graah, Captain, 27. 
 
 Grammaticus, Saxo, 46, 66. 
 
 Grapes, 54. 
 
 Gravier, Gabriel, 55. 
 
 Greece, 182. 
 
 Greenland, discovery of, 25 ; 
 progress of , 25 ; tributary 
 to Norway, 26 ; church 
 organized in, 27 ; monu- 
 ments and ruins, 28, 85 ; 
 explorations in, 31; trade 
 of, 32; last bishop of, 
 32 ; decline of, 32 ; lost 
 Greenland found, 34 ; 
 Queen Margaret prohib- 
 its trade, 34; Christi- 
 anity introduced, 85. 
 
 Greenlander, Jon., 33. 
 
 Gregory, 25, n. 1. 
 
 Grettir, Saga, 43, n. 
 
 Grimhild, 114. 
 
 Grimolfson, Biarne, 137 ; lost 
 in the Worm Sea, 137, 
 145. 
 
 Gripla, 184. 
 
 Gudlaugson, Gudleif, 174 ; 
 carried to sea, 175. 
 
 Gudrid, 81 ; second mar- 
 riage, 113, 115; goes to 
 Vinland, 51, 64, 72; 
 goes to Rome, 156, n. 
 
 Guiscard, Roger, 35, n. 1. 
 
 Gwyneth, Owen, 17, n. 
 
 Gunnbiorn, 24, 25, 73, 74, 
 79 ; his rocks, 61, 74, n. 
 2, 75; money found at, 
 75. 
 
 Hafgerdingar, 60, 86, 90. 
 
 Hake, 123, 139. 
 
 Haldor, 31. 
 
 Halifax, 95. 
 
 Hallbera, Fru, Abbess of 
 Stad, 151. 
 
 Hallfrid, 150. 
 
 Halmund, 43, n. 
 
 Hackluyt, 23, n. t 33, n. 4. 
 
 Haddon, John de, 49. 
 
 Hanno, 12. 
 
 Harfagr, Harold, 19, 24. 
 
 Hardicanute, 36. 
 
 Harold, The Stern, 36. 
 
 Harvard College, 65, n. 
 
 Head-brink, 169, n. 
 
 Head, Sir Edmund, 39, n. , 145. 
 
 Hebrides, 165. 
 
 Heimdal, 125, n. 2. 
 
 Hekia, 123, 139. 
 
 Heimskringla, 36, 37, 45, 46. 
 
 Hela, 125, n. 2. 
 
 Helge, 151; sailed for Yin- 
 land, 152; murdered, 153. 
 
 Helluland, 89, n., 94, 122. 
 
 Henry V, 49. 
 
 Henningson, Magnus. 34. 
 
 Heriulfson, Biarne, 86 ; goes 
 to Norway, 86 ; goes to 
 Greenland, 87 ; sees new 
 land, 88. 
 
 Hesperides, 12. 
 
 Hialte, 26, n. 2, 106. 
 
 Hiatus, 109, n. 
 
 Hispania, 182. 
 
 History, Nar. and Grit, 16, 
 n. 1. 
 
 Historiske Mindesmgerker, 
 Gronland's, 73. 
 
 Horsford. Prof., 38, n. 
 
 Hoby, 66. 
 
 Homer, 11. 
 
 Honey Dew, 97, n. 
 
 Hop, 127-143 ; see Mt. Hope. 
 
 Horn, 45, n.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 191 
 
 Horses, 113, n. 5. 
 Hortado, 133, n. 2. 
 Howitt. W. and M., 45, n. 
 Hume/22, n., 155. 
 Husasnotru, 81, n. 
 Hvalso, 91. 
 Humboldt, 47, 54, 57. 
 Hvalsofiord, 91. 
 Hudson, Henry, 74, n. 2. 
 Hvidserk, 185. 
 Hymn to Thor, 125. 
 
 Iceland, discovery, 19 ; col- 
 onization, 20; birds of, 
 20 ; mammalia, 20 ; date 
 of manuscripts, 40 ; the 
 Saga-men, 44; The Ed- 
 das, 46. 
 
 Iduna, 125, n. 
 
 Igalliko, 29, 68. 
 
 Indians, Gaspe, 71, n., 110. 
 
 Ingigerd, 76. 
 
 Ingolf, 20. 
 
 Inventio Fortnnata, 23, n., 
 49, n. 
 
 lona. Isles of, 23. 
 
 Ireland, 165. 
 
 Ireland the Great, 33, n., 135. 
 
 Irish Monks, 22 ; books, bells 
 and croziers of, 22, 162. 
 
 Irving, Washington, 43, n. 
 
 Islands, Blessed, 12. 
 
 Island, the, 95, 141. 
 
 Islands, Greek, 181. 
 
 Isle of Currents, 139; Nau- 
 set, 95, n. 1, 96, 123, n.; 
 of Sable, 122, n. 
 
 Isles, of America, 16 ; of the 
 Blessed, 10. 
 
 Isleif, 106. 
 
 Italy, 182. 
 
 Jardar, 24. 
 
 Jerusalem, 181. 
 
 John, the Apostle, 181. 
 
 Johnson, Biorn, 118. 
 Johnson, Dr., 63. 
 Jomsberg, Vikings, 164. 
 Jones, Inigo, 69, n. 
 Juba II, 12, 13. 
 Julian's Hope, 29. 
 Juno, Temple of, 14. 
 Junonia, 13. 
 Jupiter, 125, n. 2. 
 John, Bishop, 150. 
 
 Kalbrunarskald, Thormod,75. 
 
 Kallstegg, 22, n. 
 
 Kanitsok, 68. 
 
 Karkortok, 28, 68. 
 
 Karlsefne, ; Thornfinn, 62, 
 66, 119, n. goes to 
 Greenland, 49; marriage, 
 121, 145 ; sails for Vin- 
 land, 117,137; sails past 
 Wonderstrand, 124, 138 ; 
 trades, 129, 147; battle 
 with natives, 130 ; kills 
 some Skraellings, 132 ; 
 returns to Greenland, 
 144; goes to Iceland, 
 150 ; family line, 150. 
 
 Kendal, A. E., 67. 
 
 Keyser, Prof., 80, n. 
 
 Kialarness, 105, 141, n. 
 
 Kiarten, 167. 
 
 King, Christian II, 34 ; 
 Christian III, 34 ; Fred- 
 eric II, 34; Harold, 36, 
 44, Juba II, 13; Mag- 
 nus, 31 ; Olaf the Saint, 
 36 ; Olaf Tryggvesson, 
 25 ; his swimming match, 
 36; ship of, 37; Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, 181. 
 
 Kingiktorsoak, 29. 
 
 Kingsborough, 15. 
 
 Kodranson, Thorvold, 79. 
 
 Kolgrimssou, Hroar, 29. 
 
 Krage, Ulf, 24.
 
 192 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Kroksfiardarheidi, 31. 
 
 Labrador, 88, n. 
 
 Laing, 38, 55, 66. 
 
 Lake, 98 ; houses built at, 98. 
 
 Lancerote, 14. 
 
 Landa-Rolf, 179. 
 
 Landnama Book, 20, 21, 61, 
 73. 
 
 Llangollen, 17, n. 
 
 Lancaster, Sound of, 31. 
 
 Lakes, 127, n. 2. 
 
 Law of matrimony, 154, n. 2. 
 
 Leamington, 69. 
 
 Leclerc, Father, 70, n. 
 
 Lescarbot, 111, n. 
 
 Ledehammar, 37. 
 
 Leif, 26, 58, 82; goes to 
 Vinland, 91; returns to 
 Greenland, 103 ; finds 
 shipwrecked sailors, 105, 
 107 ; sent to proclaim 
 Christianity in Green- 
 land, 107 ; his Booths, 
 70, 108, 147, n.; his 
 judgment on Frevdis, 
 152 ; the Lucky, 107. 
 
 Lelewell, 181, n. 
 
 Literature of Iceland, 42; 
 Anglo-Saxon, 46 ; of 
 France, 46 ; Castilian, 46. 
 
 Lizards, 14. 
 
 Lodge, Henry Cabot, 105, n. 
 
 Lodbrok, Rognar, 49. 
 
 Logman's Annall, 178, n. 3. 
 
 Loke, 125, n. 2. 
 
 Lombardland, 182. 
 
 Lombardy, 182. 
 
 Long Serpent, 37. 
 
 Lynn, Nicholas of, 23, n. 
 
 Madoc, 17, 18, n. 
 Machin, Robert, 14, n. 
 Madeira, 14. 
 Madr, 66. 
 
 Maelstrom, 87, n. 
 
 Magnus, Olaus, 31, 39, 104. 
 
 Magnussen, Prof. Finn, 29, 
 
 46, 53, 73, 93, n. 2, 161. 
 Magnolia, 116, n. 
 Maine, 52, n. 
 Major, 13, 14. 
 Malte Brun, 70, n., 100, n. 
 Manamoyake Bay, 96, n. 
 Manuscripts, date of, 64. 
 Manvel, Juan, 46. 
 Mare Oceanum, 185. 
 Martin, Sir Thos. and Lady, 
 
 18, n. 
 
 Margaret, Queen, 33. 
 Mauro, Fra, 181, n. 3. 
 Marana, John Paul, 17. 
 Markland, 14, 122, 138. 
 Mars, Vigdis, 29. 
 Marson, Are, 62, 73, 159. 
 Martha's Yineyard, 105, 124, 
 
 n. 5. 
 
 Massachusetts, 108, n. 
 Massur "Wood, 103. 
 Mather, Dr. Cotton, 65, n. 1, 
 
 115, n. 3, 129, w., 133. 
 Mathieson, 29. 
 May, John, 50, 55. 
 Mauritania, 12. 
 Mediterranean, 181. 
 Merry Mount, 99, n. 3. 
 Mexico, British Language in, 
 
 17. 
 
 Midgard, 125, n. 
 Miklagard, 182. 
 Milesieus, 16, n. 
 Mill, Newport, 66, 67, 68; 
 
 Chesterton, 69. 
 Mindesmserker, Greenland's, 
 
 78, 86. 
 
 Minor Narratives, 159. 
 Missionaries, French, 70, n. 
 Money found, 75. 
 Morse, Abner, 71, n. 
 Monhegan, 67, n.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 193 
 
 Moore, 16. 
 
 Morton, New-English Cana- 
 an, 99, n. 3. 
 
 Mount Desert, 64, n. 
 
 Mount Hope Bay, 98, n. 3, 
 146, n. 2, 153, n. 
 
 Monumenta Juridica, 51, n. 
 
 Muller, Max, 6, 47, 135, n. 2. 
 
 Nadodd, 19. 
 
 Nantucket, 139, n. 4. 
 
 Navarrete, 55, n. 2. 
 
 Neprass, Hergill, 160. 
 
 Newfoundland, 89, n. 
 
 Newport, 69, n. 
 
 Niall, 16. 
 
 Nicholas of Lynn, 23, n. 
 
 Nile, 181. 
 
 Nineveh, 180. 
 
 Nivaria, 13. 
 
 Noah, M., 15, n. 
 
 Nome, the, 103, n. 
 
 Nordrsetur, 31. 
 
 North American Review, 5, 
 
 60, n., 65, 92, n. 1. 
 Northmen, 18; character and 
 
 achievements of, 35 ; 
 
 ships of, 36 ; colonize 
 
 Greenland, 36 ; discover 
 
 America, 39. 
 
 Northmen, in Maine, 52, n. 
 Nova Scotia, 105. 
 Norombega, 184, n. 
 Norway, 182. 
 Nutmegs, 104. 
 Nyja, 179, n. 
 Nyja Land, 104, n. 
 Nyjafundu-land, 178. 
 
 Ohthere, 186. 
 Odyssey, 11, n. 4. 
 Oddson, Eindrid, 30. 
 Odin, 125, n. 2. 
 O'Halloran, 16, n. 2. 
 , Olaf, the King, 25, 36, 37, 82. 
 25 
 
 Olaf, the Saint, 36. 
 Old Mill, 69, n. 
 Ombrios, 13. 
 Orosius, 185, n. 3. 
 Orkneys, 23, n., 165. 
 Otis, Amos, 96, n. 
 Owen, Rev. H. T., 17, n. 
 1. 
 
 Paley, Dr. 64, n. 
 
 Palfrey, 57, 69. 
 
 Palma", 13. 
 
 Papey, Island of, 22. 
 
 Papyli, Island of, 22. 
 
 Paradise, 181. 
 
 Parentals, 166. 
 
 Parry, 29, 31. 
 
 Peak of Teneriffe, 13. 
 
 Pelham, Edward, 69, n. 
 
 Penguin Islands, 178, n. 
 
 Peringskiold, 42, n., 100, n., 
 
 103, n. 2. 
 
 Peter, the Apostle, 181. 
 Peyrere, 25, 33. 
 Pharaoh Necho, 12. 
 Phenicians, 11. 
 Pigot, John, 51. 
 Phcenius, 16, n. 2. 
 Pittston, 
 
 Pillars of Hercules, 11. 
 Pison, 181. 
 Plato, 11. 
 
 Pliny, 13, 128, n. 1. 
 Pluviala, 13. 
 Plutarch, 14. 
 Plymouth Colonists, 46. 
 Point Alderton, 109. 
 Point Care, 95, n. 1. 
 Point Gilbert, 95, n. 1, 96, 
 
 109, 123, n. 
 
 Popham, George, 104, n. 
 Port Haldiman, 29. 
 Porto Santo, 14. 
 Priests of Sais, 11. 
 Portsmouth Rocks, 67.
 
 194 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Pluviala, 13. 
 
 Prince of Wales, 17, n. 
 
 Prince Henry the Navigator, 
 
 11, 13, 14. 
 
 Prince Madoc, 17, 18, n. 
 Ptolemy, 33, n., 53, 182, n. 2. 
 Purpurariae, 13. 
 Purchas, 20, n. 2, 74, n. 
 
 Qneen Margaret, 34. 
 
 Race Point, 40, n. 
 
 Rafn, Prof., 7^16,33,57,68; 
 
 the Limerick merchant, 
 
 163. 
 
 Rask, Professor, 29. 
 Randulf, 39. 
 Red, Thorkell, 76. 
 Red-beard ; see Thor. 
 Reikiavik, 21, 74, n. 2. 
 Rhine, 182. 
 Robin, the, 125, n. 2. 
 Rimbegla, 133, n. 2. 
 Roger Guiscard, 35. 
 Rollo, 36. 
 Rome, 115, n. 2. 
 Round Table, 2. 
 Runic Letters, on an oar, 34 ; 
 
 age of Alphabet, 42 ; in 
 
 Grettir Saga, 43, n. 
 Ruins, in Greenland, 68. 
 Runolfson, Bishop Thorlak, 
 
 145, 150. 
 Russia, 182. 
 Rymer, 48. 
 
 Santarem, 181, n. 2. . 
 Saemund the Wise, 45. 
 Sagadahoc, 104, n. 
 Sagas, 40. 
 
 St. Asaph, Bishop of, 23, n. 
 St. Augustine, 133, n. 
 St. Brandon, 42. 
 St. Columba, 10; St. Pat- 
 rick, 16. 
 
 St. John, 64. 
 
 St. Martin, Vivien, 12. 
 
 St. Nicholas, 185. 
 
 St. Paul, 64. 
 
 St. Thomas, 15. 
 
 Salmon, 99. 
 
 Saxony, 184. 
 
 Schoning, 162, n. 
 
 Schoolcraft, Henry. 66, n. 
 
 Scotland, 183. 
 
 Scots, 16, n. 2, 123, 139. 
 
 Sea of Darkness, 10. 
 
 Seaconnet, 127. 
 
 Seat, Episcopal, 184 ; of Gar- 
 
 dar, 185. 
 Sebosus, 12. 
 Sertorius, 12. 
 Setstakkar, 21, n. 
 Shay, J. G., 56, n. 2. 
 Shawanese Indians, 162, n. 
 Shields, 128, 130, 143. 
 Sicily, 182. 
 
 Sighvatson, Erling, 30. 
 Skafting, 37. 
 Skalhot, Bishop of, 33. 
 Skardfa, Biaeren von, 33. 
 Skeleton in armor, 70, n. 
 Skialdespilder, Eyvind, 44. 
 Society, Cath. His., 10, n. 
 Skolnus, 52. 
 Skrsellings, 31, 85, 110, n. 2, 
 
 129. 
 
 Slaves, 123, 139. 
 Sloop Mary, 97, n. 
 Slut Bush, 96. 
 Srnaellingar, 41, n. 
 Smalenskia, 110. 
 Smith, Capt. John, 95, n.; 
 
 Joshua Toulmin, 161 ; 
 
 Mr. Philip, 116, n. 
 Smith's Dialogues, 111, n. 
 Snsebiorn, Galte, 75 ; killed, 
 
 77. 
 
 Snow, 143. 
 Snowland, 19.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 195 
 
 Sorysbi, Henry, 51. 
 
 South Islands, 90. 
 
 Sokke, 27. 
 
 Solon, 11. 
 
 Speculum Regali, 39. 
 
 Staerbiorn, 75. 
 
 Stafholt, 13. 
 
 Standish, Miles, 99, n. 3. 
 
 Standard, London, 17, n. 
 
 Statius Sebosus, 12. 
 
 Stllicho, 16, n. 1. 
 
 Stone age, 131, 149. 
 
 Strabo, 12. 
 
 Sturlesori, 42, n. 
 
 Styrbiorn, 171. 
 
 Stream Bay, 132, 139, 143. 
 
 Stow, 48. 
 
 Stuf, the Skald, 44. 
 
 Styrmer, 73. 
 
 Sukkeroppen, 27. 
 
 Superstition, -115, n. 3. 
 
 Sweden, 103. 
 
 Tacitus, 17. 
 
 Taunton, 127. 
 
 Thaliessin, 21, n. 
 
 Thor, 102, 125, 141. 
 
 Thorberg, 37, n. 
 
 Thorbrandsou, 131. 
 
 Thorbjorg, 81, n. 
 
 Thorer the Eastman, 113. 
 
 Thorfinn, Earl of the Ork- 
 neys, 163; 
 
 Thorhall the Hunter, 124, 
 137, 141. 
 
 Thorhild, her church, 26. 
 
 Thorlacins, Bishop, 101, n. 
 
 Thorod, 76. 
 
 Thorstein Black, 114. 
 
 Thor, son of Eric, 108. 
 
 Theopompus, 10. 
 
 Thurid, 121; of Fro da, 
 165. 
 
 Timber cut, 103. 
 
 Tiverton Rock, 67. 
 
 Torfceus, works of, 30, n. 3, 
 
 57, 99, n. 3. 
 
 Tradition, Indian, 67, n. 
 Traditions, 15. 
 Turkish Spy, 17. 
 Tyrians, 15. 
 Tyrker, 94, 102. 
 Thyle, Ultima, 53. 
 
 Ulf Krage, 78, 84. 
 Unipeds, 133. 
 Uvaege, 135, 144. 
 
 Yalldidia, 135, 144. 
 
 Valgerda, 151. 
 
 Vathelldi, 135. 
 
 Vardlokur, 81, n. 
 
 Vatican, 156, n. 
 
 Verrazauo, 33, n., 67, n. 
 
 Yikings, 39, n. 
 
 Vilgerdson, Flokke, 47. 
 
 Villehardouin, 46. 
 
 Vinland, 26, 104, 107, 108, 
 121, 141, 185. 
 
 Vivien de St. Martin, 12. 
 
 Voyages Eric the Red, 77 ; 
 Biarne, 86; Leif's, 91; 
 Thorald's, 108; Thor- 
 stein's, 112; Karlsefne's, 
 117; Freydis, 151; 
 Helge, 151 ; Finboge, 
 151; Marson's, 139; As- 
 brandson's, 163; Gud- 
 laugson's, 100-13; noti- 
 ces of, 177. 
 
 Wafer, 160, n. 
 Walkendorf, Archbishop 
 
 Eric, 35. 
 
 Webb's Island, 97, n. 
 Webb, Dr., 67, n. 
 Westmann Islands, 49, 50. 
 Weston, Richard, 51. 
 Winter, 113, n. 5. 
 White, the W. L., 179, n.
 
 196 
 
 INDEX . 
 
 Winsor, Justin, 16, n. 1 ; 
 
 History, 59, n. 2. 
 Whales, 125, 141. 
 Wheat, 103, 123, 127, 147. 
 White-man's land, 135, 159, 
 
 160. 
 
 Williams, John, 17. 
 Williamson, 70, n. 
 Winland, 104, n. 1. 
 Wine, 104, n. 1. 
 Winthrop, Prof., 65, n. 
 Wonder-strand, 96, n., 97. 
 
 Woodrow, 64, n. 
 Wormius, 33. 
 Worm Sea, 136, 144. 
 Writing Rock; see Dighton 
 Rock. 
 
 Yule, 120, n. 
 
 Yucatan, 9, n. 
 
 York, Archbishop of, 49. 
 
 Zeno, 51 ; map, 52. 
 
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