.tt.itODADV/1. vMt imn 'tor/ m* \tf l'NIVER ^UIBRARYOc -* 'UK/* THE fhifcitcations of ttje prince |s>octetp, Eftabliflied May 25th, 1858. VOYAGES OF THE NORTHMEN TO AMERICA. Boston: PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY, BY JOHN WILSON AND SON. 1877. TEN COPIES, LARGE PAPER. TWO HUNDRED COPIES, SMALL PAPER. fcC 105 ,963 VOYAGES OF THE NORTHMEN TO AMERICA. INCLUDING EXTRACTS FROM ICELANDIC SAGAS RELATING TO WESTERN VOYAGES BY NORTH- MEN IN THE TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES IN AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY NORTH LUDLOW BEAMISH; WITH A SYNOPSIS OF THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCE AND THE OPINION OF PROFESSOR RAFN AS TO THE PLACES VISITED BY THE SCANDINAVIANS ON THE COAST OF AMERICA. EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE REV. EDMUND F. SLAFTER, A.M. Boston: PRINTED FOR THE PRINCE SOCIETY. 1877- 31678 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by EDMUND F. SLAFTBR, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Suitor: THE REV. EDMUND F. SLAFTER, A.M. 03 H CD CO H HE hiftorical interefl which attaches to the voyages of the Northmen to America in the tenth and eleventh centuries has led the Coun- cil of the Prince Society to believe that the character of thefe voyages, as fet forth and delineated in the original Icelandic fagas, or ancient Scan- dinavian manufcripts, mould be rendered acceffible to the members of the Society in an Englifh tranflation. The excellent verfion of Mr. Beamifh, long fmce out of print, has been ufed for this purpofe. To this has been added Profeffor Rafn's fynopfis of the hiftorical evidence contained in the fagas, and his attempt to identify the places on our coaft vifited by the Northmen. The introduction contains an account of the firft publica- tion of the fagas by the Royal Society of Northern Anti- quaries, and the views of the editor as to the credibility of thefe manufcripts as hiftorical documents. As the text of this volume contains all that may be con- fidered as truftworthy evidence relating to the vifits of the Northmen to this country, it is confidently hoped that it will prove to be not the leaft valuable of the Society's publications. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PACK MAP OF VINLAND Frontifpiece. PREFACE 5 INTRODUCTION 9 GENERAL MAP OF NORTHERN EUROPE AND AMERICA .... 23 THE SAGA OF ERIK THE RED 23 EXTRACTS FROM THE HEIMSKRINGLA OF SNORRO STURLESON . . 44 THE SAGA OF THORFINN KARLSEFNE 45 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICES 70 MINOR NARRATIVES 72 PROFESSOR RAFN'S SYNOPSIS OF HISTORICAL EVIDENCE .... 98 OPINION OF PROFESSOR RAFN AS TO IDENTITY OF PLACES. . . 112 DIAL OF THE ANCIENT NORTHMEN, BY PROFESSOR MAGNUSEN . 126 NAMES GIVEN TO THE PARTS OF THE DAY BY THE NORTHMEN . 126 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL 127 OFFICERS OF THE PRINCE SOCIETY 143 THE PRINCE SOCIETY 144 PUBLICATIONS OF THE PRINCE SOCIETY 149 INDEX 153 IO Introduction. workers were appointed to each, felecled with reference to their fpecial taftes and learning. The fruits of thefe labors were prolific ; and in the progrefs of a few years more than forty volumes were iffued, befides gazettes and annual reports, dealing with early Scandinavian life, manners, and cuftoms, in their multiform conditions and phafes. In 1837, Profeffor Charles Chriftian Rafn, who had been placed at the head of the feclion on the voyages to America, publifhed, under the aufpices of the Society, an elaborate report, in a volume entitled " Antiquitates Americanae," an imperial quarto of 526 pages, richly embellimed with numerous illuftrations and maps, comprifmg fac-fimiles of the moft important parchment codices, which had been taken as the bafis of the work. In this volume, the treat- ment of the whole fubject is thorough and fcholarly. While it is never fafe to affume that the treatment of any hiftorical queftion is abfolutely complete and exhauftive, we apprehend that little or nothing more will ever be added to our knowledge of the voyages made to this country by the Northmen in the tenth century. The evidence relied upon by Profeffor Rafn is derived from two fources; viz., from ancient writings, known as Icelandic fagas, and from hiftorical monuments and remains illuftrating and confirming the narratives contained in the fagas. The hiftorical monuments were of courfe to be fought in O America. A correfpondence was accordingly opened with the Hiftorical Society of Rhode Ifland; and a very careful fearch was made for fuch remains as might in any way point to the Scandinavian voyages in queftion. The atten- tion IntroduElion. 1 1 tion was naturally directed to feveral objects of intereft, which had long been familiar to antiquaries, and whofe origin was at that time involved in doubt. Prominent among: thefe were the celebrated ftone ftruclure of arched O mafon-work in Newport, and the notorious but unintel- ligible writing upon the Dighton rock. Careful and elab- orate defcriptions and drawings of thefe were forwarded to the Committee at Copenhagen. The credulity of the Danifh favans led them to exprefs the opinion that both of thefe were the work of the Scandinavian voyagers. Whatever confidence may at firft have been felt or ex- preffed in this opinion, the forty years that have fmce elapfed have left no trace of fuch a belief, fo far as we are aware, in the minds of diftinguifhed antiquaries and hif- torians of the prefent day. The ground has been carefully furveyed, and the conclufion has been reached that no remains are to be found on the coafts of America, that can be traced to the vifits of the Northmen in the tenth cen- tury. The whole of the evidence, therefore, of thefe alleged voyages and difcoveries, is documentary, and is to be fought alone in the Icelandic fagas. All that is poffible for us to know on the fubject is contained in thefe ancient writings. The range of inveftigation is thus brought within a very narrow compafs. The documents, confifting of extracts from ancient fagas, are not numerous or extenfive. They are acceffible, through the report of Profeffor Rafn, in three different languages ; viz., in the donjk tunga, or old Ice- landic in which they were originally written, and in a Danifh and a Latin verfion. The Englifh tranflation con- tained in this volume, comprifing all that is important to a full 1 2 Introdu9ion m full knowledge of the fubjecl, places the contents of thofe ancient manufcripts within the reach of all ftudents of American hiftory. The fynopfis of the evidence, and the opinion of Profeffor Rafn, as to the identity of the places vifited on our coaft by the Northmen, conftitute a valuable commentary on the text. His opinion is valuable becaufe it is the refult of careful and fcholarly inveftigation, and fhould, doubtlefs, have weight with the reader. But, neverthelefs, it is only an opinion, and is fubjecl; to the ufual chances of error. It muft be regarded, therefore, as open to revifion on all points on which the reader may be better informed. This liberty mould be freely exercifed on all opinions which have been, or may be, expreffed on this fubjecl. They have widely differed in the paft, and it is not likely that they will altogether coincide in the future. The ftudent of thefe ancient writings will be able to form the beft judgment as to the places vifited by the Northmen, by a careful ftudy of the documents themfelves, regarding the opinions of others only as fubfidiary, and not permitting them to have any controlling influence upon his own mind, certainly not until he has thoroughly compaffed and weighed the force of the reafons on which they reft. No learning can juftify us in dogmatizing on the fubjecl:, or in criticising with afperky the deliberately formed opinions of others. For the beft opinion that may be formed, with all poffible facilities, can- not rife to the dignity of a hiftorical demonftration, or be held without fome deep fhadings of doubt. But an important queftion muft be fettled prior to that of the identity of the places vifited. This leads us to a brief Introduftion. 1 3 brief confideration of the credibility of the Icelandic fagas. From thefe ancient writings, as we have already intimated, we derive all our knowledge relating in any way to thefe voyages. It is from them that we firft learn that the alleged voyages were undertaken to the American coaft. Our be- lief in the narratives contained in thefe documents muft therefore depend upon what we know of the origin of the documents in queftion, the manner in which they have been preferved and handed down to us through a period of nearly nine hundred years. That we may comprehend this more fully, a few preliminary flatements will be neceffary. Towards the end of the ninth century, Iceland was difcovered and colonized by voyagers from Norway. A century later, the colonifts of Iceland continued their explorations to Greenland, where Chriftianity was fubfe- quently introduced, churches were planted, and continued to exift and flourifh for a period of more than two hundred and fifty years. The tide of emigration from Norway to Iceland became fo great that it was finally prohibited by royal proclamation. The government inftituted by the Icelanders was at firft patriarchal and informal, and was moulded moftly by the common law or ufages of their native land. Wealth, intellectual force, and enterprife foon gave importance to individuals, and by common confeiit they became magiftrates and chiefs in the little republic. Family pride naturally fprang up, and was foftered by ambition and love of power. The fame of their anceftors, their fortunes and their achievements, were cherifhed, and religioufly handed down by oral tradition from father to fon as a precious inheritance. To render the recital of them flow- ing 1 4 Introdu&ion. ing and eafy, as well as to aid the memory, many of them were turned into poetic meafure. Soon an order of poets, or fkalds, arofe, whofe office and vocation were to weave thefe poetic narratives, and recite them at feftivals, the general affizes, and on occafions of public gathering. At a later period, hiftorical narratives in profe, of wide and engroffing interefl, were fkilfully put together and poliflied for public recital. Thefe were called Sagas ; and thofe who moulded them into fuitable form, and repeated them on great occafions before the affembled nobles, were called Sagamen. 1 Chriflianity was planted in Iceland in the year 1000. Up to this time, written language, if we except Runic infcriptions, 2 had not been introduced ; nor afterward were hiftorical narratives or fagas committed to writing, until the middle of the twelfth century. About this period, the fagas, that had floated down on the tide of memory for many generations, began to be written out upon parch- ment. 1 " At all public meetings, and par- on Ancient Northern Literature, ticularly at the affembly of the Althing, Guide to Northern Archaeology, Lon- the fineft of the old traditions were re- don, 1848, p. 10. cited. . . . Every confiderable chief- * The Runic was a method of writ- tain had long had his fagaman. On ing. Rune, derived from ryn, means thefe occafions, he came forward before a furrow, or channel. The Runic char- the people, and the firft of the land a<5lers were moflly made up of ftraight were his auditors. The fong of the lines, cutting or meeting each other at Ikald and the narrative of the fagaman, certain angles, and were for this rea- when thus all eyes were fixed upon fon efpecially convenient for brief in- him, and all ears open to him, behooved fcriptions on wood or ftone, for which not only to be artiftical, lively, and at- they were exclufively ufed. They were tractive, but true. If the recital was employed to fix dates, the ownership of without life, it wearied ; if it varied property, to begin a paragraph in aid from fa<5ls with which every auditor of the memory, or where the whole was familiar, if it contained falfe- ftory could be told in a word or a line, hoods, the reciter was treated as a but were never ufed in writing books braggart and a liar." N. M. Peterfen or extended documents of any fort. Introduction. ment. 3 The difficulty of obtaining prepared fkins was great, and the procefs of writing was flow and expenfive, and few fagas were at firft elevated into the written form. But in the thirteenth century, the golden age of Icelandic literature, thefe writings accumulated to a vaft number. After the decline of Icelandic literature, during the feven- teenth century or early part of the eighteenth, moft, if not all, of thefe ancient documents, were collected together and transferred to the libraries of Stockholm and Copen- hagen. 4 Thefe 3 Snorro Sturlefon, a faga writer, who was born in the year 1178, the author of the Heimfkringla, or Chron- icle of the Kings of Norway, in his introduction to that work, gives us a very clear idea of how the fagas were written, and likewifeof their credibility. " In this book," he fays, " I have had old ftories written down, as I have heard them told by intelligent people, concerning chiefs who have held do- minion in the northern countries, and who fpoke the Danim tongue ; and, alfo, concerning fome of their family branches, according to what has been told me. Some of this is found in ancient family regifters, in which the pedigrees of kings and other perfonages of high birth are reckoned up ; and part is written down after old fongs and ballads, which our forefathers had for their amufement. Now, although we cannot juft fay what truth there may be in thefe, yet we have the certainty that old and wife men held them to be true." Again he fays.: "We reft the foundations of our ftory principally upon the fongs which were fung in the prefence of the chiefs themfelves, or of their fons, and take all to be true that is found in fuch poems about their feats and battles ; for although it be the famion with fkalds to praife moft thofe in whofe prefence they are ftand- ing, yet no one would dare to relate to a chief what he and all thofe who heard it knew to be falfe and imaginary, not a true account of his deeds ; becaufe that would be mockery, not praise." The Heimjkringla, translated by Samuel Laing, London, 1844, Vol. I. pp. 211-213. 4 " It was fortunate for hiftory, ^hat from the feventeenth century the atten- tion of the literati, both in Sweden and Denmark, was turned to the im- portance of Icelandic manufcripts. Arngrim Johnfon, author of Crymogaea, aflifted by King Chriftian IV. of Den- mark (1643), collected feveral of them ; and Bifhop Brynjulf Svendfon fent fome of the moft important Icelandic codices to Frederic III. (1670), who was a zealous promoter of all intel- lectual advancement. The Icelander Rugman, who, taken prifoner in the wars of Charles X. of Sweden, had awakened the attention of the Swedifh literati to the literary treafures of his own country, was fent to the ifland in 1 66 1 to purchafe manufcripts for the Antiquarian Mufeum of Stockholm, and 1 6 Introduction. Thefe manufcripts embrace a wide range of fubjects. Among them are poems, works of fiction, perfonal memoirs, hiftorical narratives, all more or lefs pervaded by the old Scandinavian mythology, or the teachings and fuperftitions of mediaeval Chriftianity. One clafs can be diftinguifhed from another, veritable hiftory from fiction, with the fame facility and moral certainty that we diftinguifh fimilar writ- ings of a modern date. The hiftorical faga differs from the faga that deals with fiction as clearly as the drefs and bear- ing of the Cavalier from the drefs and bearing of the Round- head, or the peafant. The purpofe of the writer fhines through his compofition as light through a tranfparent medium. The hiftorian cannot do his work after the man- ner of the novelift, nor the novelift in the ftyle of the hiftorian. Both are artifts, and neither defires to conceal his art. The work of the one can be diftinguifhed from the work of the other, as clearly as a landfcape in Nature from a landfcape on canvas, or as a living man from a likenefs in bronze or marble. Scandinavian fcholars, men of learning, difcrimination, and found judgment, have claf- fified thefe ancient writings after careful and prolonged ftudy, and no reafonable mind will defire to appeal from their verdict. Among and many were afterwards fent thither at the head of a royal commiffion in on the fame errand ; but Chriftian V. Iceland, which carried on its labors of Denmark, whofe dominion, includ- with unwearied affiduity from 1702 to ing Norway, extended to Iceland, iffued 1712, that the remaining manufcripts a prohibition in 1685 againft any manu- were collected and lodged in the libra- fcripts being difpofed of to ftrangers ; ries of Copenhagen." Beamiffl s Dif- nor was it until the eminent antiquary covery of America by the Northmen, Profeffor Arnas Magnuffen was placed p. xliii. Introduction. 1 7 Among this vaft number of Scandinavian manufcripts 5 there are two hiftorical fagas which defcribe weftern voyages, undertaken during the twenty-five years that intervened between 985 and ion. One of them is known as the Saga of Erik the Red, and the other as that of Thorfinn Karlfefne. On thefe two documents refts all the effential evidence which we have relating to the voyages of the Northmen to America. Allufions are found in feveral other Scandinavian writings, which may corroborate and confirm the narratives of the two important fagas to which we have juft referred, but add nothing to them really effential or important. The Saga of Erik the Red is taken from the Codex Flateyenfis, 6 containing a number of fagas, which were collected and written out in their prefent form at fome time between the years 1387 and 1395. The original faga, of which this is a copy, is not known to be now in exiflence, but is conjectured, from internal evidence drawn from its language 8 The Arnae-Magnaean Collection III. It was written, as may be clearly alone contains two thoufand volumes mown by ftatements contained in it, of Icelandic and old Northern manu- between 1387 and 1395. It contains fcripts. This collection was made by feveral fagas befide that of Erik the Arnas Magnuffen, a diftinguifhed anti- Red, which appear to have been writ- quary, between 1702 and 1712, and is ten by feveral hands. The following named in honor of him. Vide the is a part of the infcription on the firft Earl of Ellefmere's Guide to Old page: ''The prieft Ion Thordarfon has Northern Archaeology, London, 1848, written from Eric Vidforla, and the p. 128. two fagas of the Olafs ; and prieft 6 This manufcript, in large folio, Magnus ThorhalliTon has written from beautifully written on parchment, and thence, and alfo what is written before, illuminated, was found in a monaftery and has illuminated the whole. God on the illand Flatey, in Bredefiord in Almighty and the Holy Virgin Mary Iceland; and from this ifland takes its blefs thofe who wrote and him who name, Codex Flateyenfis. It was pur- dictated." Laing's Heimjkringla, chafed by Bifhop Swendfon of Skal- London, 1844, Vol. I. pp. 157, 158. holt, about 1650, for King Frederic 1 8 Introduction. language and ftyle, to have been originally compofed in the twelfth century. The Saga of Thorfinn Karlfefne in its prefent form is fuppofed to have been written, at leaft a part of it, by Hauk Erlendfon, for many years governor of Iceland, who died in 1334. Whether it had been committed to writing at an earlier period, and copied by him from a manufcript, or whether he took the narrative from oral tradition and re- duced it himfelf to writing for the firft time, is not known. Both of thefe documents are declared, by thofe qualified to judge of the character of ancient writings, to be authentic, and were clearly regarded by their writers as narratives of hiftorical truth. As the voyages to America recorded in the fagas took place near the beginning of the eleventh century, as is clearly mown by the documents themfelves, and written language was not introduced into Iceland till about the middle of the twelfth century, it obvioufly follows that the narratives of the alleged voyages to America remained only in the form of oral traditions at leaft one hundred and fifty, and probably two hundred years after the voyages were made. We have likewife already feen that the oldeft fagas now exifting, and containing the narrative of thefe voy- ages, were written from three hundred to four hundred years after the events recorded in them took place. With thefe facts clearly in mind, the reader will be able to form his own opinion, to determine for himfelf what degree of credibility ought to be accorded to thefe ancient writings. While there is no corroborating evidence outfide of Icelandic writings themfelves, no monuments in this country confirm- ing Introduction. \ 9 ing the truthfulnefs of the narratives, they have, neverthelefs, all the elements of truth contained in other fagas, which are clearly confirmed by monumental remains. Events occurring in Greenland, recorded in Icelandic fagas of equal antiquity, are eftablifhed by the undoubted teftimony of ancient monuments. This, together with the fact that there is no improbability that fuch voyages mould have been made, render it eafy to believe that the narratives contained in the fagas are true in their general outlines and important features. It is alfo to be obferved, that a denial that thefe voy- ages were made to this continent leaves, to thofe who are thus incredulous, an exceedingly difficult problem to folve. Thefe Icelandic narratives were written, undeniably, long before the difcoveries of Columbus in the Weft Indies, and of John Cabot- on our northern Atlantic coaft. The authors had, confequently, no information to guide them in fabricat- ing a probable, but neverthelefs fictitious, ftory. They defcribe, however, with extraordinary truthfulnefs the gen- eral outlines and characteriftics of our eaftern fhores, embracing foil, products, and climate; beginning in the northern regions of perpetual froft, and extending far down along the genial and fruitful coafts of the temperate zone. The accounts given by the voyagers were accepted as true by their contemporaries, and wrought into the permanent hiftorical literature of their country. To believe that the agreement of thefe narratives with the facts, as they are now known to us, was fortuitous, accidental, a mere matter of chance, is, under all the conditions and circumftances, impof- lible. In their general fcope at leaft, thefe narratives have therefore 2O Introduction. therefore been accepted by the molt judicious and difpaf- fionate hiflorical writers throughout the republic of letters. But when we defcend to minor ftatements and particu- lars unimportant to the general drift and import of the nar- ratives, we fhall doubtlefs find it difficult to accept them with an unhefitating belief. Narrations that have floated down on the current of oral tradition through many genera- tions are not only likely, but quite fure, to be warped and twifted, to fome extent, out of their original form and mean- ing. Events paffing from one narrator to another are fhaped and colored, efpecially in fubordinate particulars, by the laft mind through which they pafs. Each narrator deals with them after the manner of an artift, and, confcioufly or unconfcioufly, leaves upon them the imprefs of his own mind. The careful hiflorian receives, therefore, all tradi- tions, efpecially thofe of long ftanding, cum grano falis, and never vouches for their abfolute and entire truth. But it is to be obferved that the Icelandic fagamen, in whofe cuftody this Scandinavian lore remained for nearly two hundred years, were profeffional narrators of events. It was their office and duty carefully to commit to memory and tranfmit to others what they had themfelves received. The profeffional character of the fagaman was therefore, in fome degree, a guarantee for the prefervation of the truth. But it was neverthelefs impoffible that in the long chain of narrators errors mould not creep in ; that the memory of fome of them mould not falter at times ; and, more than this, that variations mould not have been introduced here and there, in obedience to the fagaman 's conception of an improved flyle and a better tafte. Few, probably, will be fo Introduction ^ 2 1 fo rafli as to deny that fuch variations as thefe have been incorporated into the text. What thefe variations were, whether they were many or few, it will be impoffible for us ever to determine. But a knowledge or belief that the text, as we read it to-day, is not -probably, in all minor particulars, precifely what it was as it was given by the Scandinavian voyagers themfelves, when they firft rehearfed the ftory of their difcoveries to their friends in Iceland eight hundred and fifty years ago, mould lead us to render our interpretations with a correfponding modefty and a re- flrained affurance. We have thus endeavored in thefe pages to prefent to the reader, in the moft abbreviated form poffible, the hiftory and character of the evidence which we poffefs that the Northmen came to the mores of America in the tenth and eleventh centuries. During the laffc few years, moft, if not all, of the writers who have touched upon our early Ameri- can hiftory, have recognized the voyages of the Northmen to America by ftatements and allufions more or lefs .ex- tended. The greater part of them have reiterated the conclufions of others, without having themfelves arrived at a full and comprehenfive knowledge of the fubjecl. To fome the means of forming an intelligent opinion have not been within their reach. Others have approached the fubjecl: under great difadvantages. The evidence has been prefented fo overloaded with the deductions of enthufiaftic editors, that their judgment has been embarraffed,.and their conclufions foreflalled. It has been our aim, in offering this collection to the members of the Prince Society, to prefent the entire evidence on the fubject iri fuch a manner that it can 2 2 Introduction. can be clearly underftood, and weighed difpaffionately and without embarraffment. Our annotations of the fagas are intended to elucidate the meaning of the text, but not to predetermine its appli- cation. Our knowledge of the points vifited on our coafl muft depend upon fubordinate and minor expreffions of the fagas, neceffarily fubjecl, as we have feen, to mutations ; and queflions of this fort may properly be left to the unbiaffed judgment and determination of the reader. The effay of Profeffor Rafn, in its fynopfis of the evidence contained in the fagas, and his attempt to identify localities, the refult of careful ftudy and ripe fcholarfhip, can hardly fail to be ufeful, if, indeed, we mall regard it only as a com- mentary upon the text, the expreffion of a perfonal opinion, but not as a final authority in fettling any important hif- torical queftion. With this view, and this only, it has been introduced into this volume. E. F. S. BOSTON, ii Beacon Street, 20 February, 1877. ICELANDIC SAGAS. around. 10 CONCERNING ERIK THE RED. 7 A. D. 985. HERE was a man named Thorvald, 8 a fon of Ofvald, a fon of Ulf-Oxne-Thorerffon. Thor- vald and his fon Erik the Red removed from Jaeder 9 to Iceland, in confequence of murder. At that time was Iceland colonized wide They lived at Drange on Hornftrand : there died 7 " This manufcript," known as the Saga of Erik the Red, " forms part of the celebrated Flatobogen, or Codex Flateyenfis ; and the language, con- ftruclion, and ftyle of the narrative, together with other unerring indica- tions, prove it to have been written in the twelfth century. " Although the main object of the writer of this narrative appears to have been to enumerate the deeds and ad- ventures of Erik and his fons, fhort accounts are alfo given of the difcov- eries of fucceeding voyagers, the moft diftinguifhed of whom was Thorfinn Karlfefne ; but as a more detailed nar- rative of the difcoveries of this remark- able perfonage is contained in the man- ufcript entitled 'The Saga of Thorfinn Karlfefne,' which is alfo tranflated, thefe feleclions are principally confined to the voyages of Erik and his immediate fol- lowers." We may here remark that under the head of Icelandic Sagas we com- prehend all written by the Icelanders or their defcendants, whether in Ice- land proper, in the neighboring iflands, Greenland or elsewhere. Vide Bea- miJJi's Dis. Am. by the Northmen, London, 1841, p. 46. 8 The old Icelandic hit, equivalent to the Latin nominatu s eft, is tranflated by Mr. Beamifh into the old Englifh word hight. This word has the active form while it is paffive in meaning, and is, moreover, obfolete. We have there- fore rendered it, was called or was named in all cafes. 9 In Norway. 10 " Iceland was colonized by Ingolf, a Norwegian, in 874. The difcovery of 24 Icelandic Sagas. died Thorvald. Erik then married Thorhild, the daughter of Jaerunda and Thorbjorg Knarrarbringa, who afterwards married Thorbjorn of Haukadal. Then went Erik from the north, and lived at Erikftad, near Vatfhorn. The fon of Erik and Thorhild was called Leif. But after Eyulf Soer's and Rafn the duellift's murder, was Erik banimed from Haukadal, and he removed weftwards to Breidafjord, and lived at GExney at Erikftad. He lent Thorgefl his feat-pofts, 11 and could not get them back again ; he then demanded them : upon this arofe difputes and frays between him and Thorgefl, as is told in Erik's faga. Styr Thorgrimfon, Eyulf of Svinoe, and the fons of Brand of Alptafjord, and Thorbjorn Vifilfon, affifted Erik in this matter; but the fons of Thorgeller and Thorgeir of Hitardal ftood by the Thorgeftlingers. Erik was declared outlawed by the Thorfnefthing, 12 and he then made ready his fliip in Erik's of the ifland has been erroneoufly great judgment by Mr. Beamim; and given to Nadodd in 862 ; but Finn we therefore need to offer no apology Magnufen and Rafn have mown that it for introducing them into this work. had been previoufly vifited by Gardar, " The Setftokka were carved pillars a Dane of Swedifh defcent, about the of wood attached to the refidence of year 860, and was firft called Gardarf- nobles, ornamented at the top with the holm (Gardar's Ifland) ; nor can the buft of their protecting deity, as Thor arrival of Nadodd, who called it Snee- or Odin. When the Northmen re- land (Snowland), be fixed at an earlier moved from one place to another, in period than 864." See Gr'6nland' l s obedience to a fmgular fuperftition, Hiftorijke Mindcfmcerker, Vol. I. pp. they caft their fetftokka into the fea ; 92-97. BeamiJJi. and wherever they were ftranded, there We may here remark that the text they made their abode, of Mr. Beamim's tranflation is eluci- 12 Ting, or Thing, fignifies, in the dated frequently by learned notes, old Scandinavian tongue, to fpeak; taken largely from the more elaborate and hence a popular affembly, or court work of Profeffor Rafn, entitled "An- of juftice. The national affembly of tiquitates Americanas," to which we Norway ftill retains the name of Stor- have already referred in the Intro- thing, or great meeting, and is divided duftion to this volume. The pith and into two chambers, called the Lag-thing general fcope of thefe notes, originally and Odels-thing. BeamiJIi. written in Latin, have been ftated with Icelandic Sagas. 25 Erik's creek; and when he was ready, Styr and the others followed him out paft the iflands. Erik told them that he intended to go in fearch of the land, which Ulf Krage's fon Gunnbjorn faw, when he was driven out to the weftward in the fea, the time when he found the rocks of Gunnbjorn. 13 He faid he would come back to his friends if he found the land. Erik failed out from Snasfellfjokul ; 14 he found land, and came in from the fea to the place which he called Midjokul ; it is now called Blaferkr. He then went fouth- wards to fee whether it was there habitable land. The firft winter he was at Erikfey, nearly in the middle of the eaftern fettlement ; the fpring after repaired he to Eriksfjord, and took up there his abode. He removed in fummer to the weftern fettlement, and gave to many places names. He was the fecond winter at Holm in Hrafnfgnipa; but the third fummer went he to Iceland, and came with his fhip into Breidafjord. He called the land which he had found Greenland, becaufe, quoth he, " people will be attracted thither, if the land has a good name." Erik was in Iceland for the winter, but the fummer after went he to colonize the land ; he dwelt at Brattahlid in Eriksfjord. Informed people fay that the fame fummer Erik the Red went to colonize Greenland ; thirty-five mips failed from Breidafjord and Borgafjord, but only fourten arrived ; fome were driven back, and others were loft. This was fifteen winters before Chriftianity 18 Gunnbjarnafker, flated by Bjorn by the defcent of Arctic ice. Antiq. Johnfon to have been about midway Am., p. n, note a. Beamijh. between Iceland and Greenland, but 14 Jbkul is ufed to defcribe a tnoun- now concealed, or rendered inacceffible tain of fnow or ice (glacier), fromja&i, a fragment of ice. Idem. 26 Icelandic Sagas. Chriftianity was eftablifhed by law in Iceland. 15 " The fame feafon Bifhop Frederick, and Thorvald the fon of Kodran, departed from Iceland." 16 The following men, who went out with Erik, took land in Greenland: Herjulf took Herjulfsfjord (he lived at Herjulfpnefs), Ketil Ketilf- fjord, Rafn Rafnsfjord, Scelve Scelvedal, Helge Thorbrandffon Alptafjord, Thorbjornglora Siglefjord, Einar Einarsfjord, Hafgrim Hafgrimsfjord and Vatnahverf, Arnlaug Arn- laugsfjord ; but fome went to the weftern fettlement. " After the lapfe of fixteen winters from the time Erik the Red went to inhabit Greenland, Leif, the fon of Erik, going from Greenland into Norway, came in the autumn to Drontheim, when King Olaf, the fon of Tryggvius, came thither from Hegeland. Leif brought his fhip to Nidaros, and repaired immediately to King Olaf. The king ex- horted him, as alfo the other pagan men who came to him, to accept religion. When the king had eafily effected this with Leif, he was baptized, and all his failors ; and he paffed the winter with the king, being liberally entertained." BJARNI SEEKS OUT GREENLAND. A. D. 986. HERJULF was the fon of Bard Herjulfson ; he was kinf- man to the colonift Ingolf. To Herjulf gave Ingolf land between 15 Chriftianity was eftablifhed in Ice- Beamifh's tranflation, but is found in land A.D. 1000. It consequently fol- Rafn's text, as alfo that relating to the lows that Erik the Red went to colo- baptifm of Leif and his party, which nize Greenland A.D. 985. we have placed under quotation-marks. 18 This paflage is omitted in Mr. Vide Antiq. Am., p 15. Icelandic Sagas. 27 between Vog and Reykjanefs. 17 Herjulf lived firfl at Drep- ftock. His wife was named Thorgerd, and Bjarni was their fon, a very hopeful man. He conceived, when yet young, a defire to travel abroad, and foon earned for himfelf both riches and refpect ; and he was every fecond winter abroad, every other at home with his father. Soon poffeffed Bjarni his own fhip ; and the laft winter he was in Norway, Herjulf prepared for a voyage to Greenland with Erik. In the fhip with Herjulf was a Chriftian from the Hebrides, 18 who made a hymn refpecling the whirlpool, 19 in which was the following verfe : " O Thou who trieft holy men ! Now guide me on my way ; Lord of the earth's wide vault, extend Thy gracious hand to me. " Herjulf lived at Herjulfsnefs ; he was a very refpeclable man. Erik the Red lived at Brattahlid ; he was the mofl looked up to, and every one regulated themfelves by him. Thefe were Erik's children : Leif, Thorvald, and Thorftein : but his daughter was called Freydis ; me was married to a man who was named Thorvard ; they lived in Garde, where is now the Bifhop's feat ; me was very haughty, but Thor- vard was narrow-minded ; me was married to him chiefly on account of his money. Heathen were the people in Green- land at this time. Bjarni came to Eyrar with his fhip the fummer 17 In Iceland. ancient Icelandic writer as a dangerous 18 The Latin verfion has vir Hebu- pafs in the Greenland ocean. Antiq. denfis. Amer., p. 18, note a. Beami/h. 19 Hafgerdingar, defcribed by an 28 Icelandic Sagas. fummer of the fame year in which his father had failed away in fpring. Thefe tidings appeared ferious to Bjarni, and he was unwilling to unload his fhip. Then his feamen afked him what he would do ; he anfwered that he intended to continue his cuftom, and pafs the winter with his father : " And I will," faid he, " bear for Greenland, if ye will give me your company." All faid that they would follow his counfel. Then faid Bjarni : " Imprudent will appear our voyage, fmce none of us has been in the Greenland ocean." However, they put to fea fo foon as they were ready, and failed for three days, until the land was out of fight under the water ; but then the fair wind fell, and there arofe north winds and fogs, and they knew not where they were ; and thus it continued for many days. After that faw they the fun again, and could difcover the fky ; they now made fail, and failed for that day, before they faw land, and counfelled with each other about what land that could be, and Bjarni faid that he thought it could not be Greenland. They afked whether he wifhed to fail to this land or not. " My advice is," faid he, " to fail clofe to the land ; " and fo they did, and foon faw that the land was without mountains, and covered with wood, and had fmall heights. Then left they the land on their larboard fide, and let the ftern turn from the land. Afterwards they failed two days before they faw another land. They afked if Bjarni thought that this was Greenland, but he faid that he as little believed this to be Greenland as the other ; " becaufe in Greenland are faid to be very high ice-hills." They foon approached the land, and faw that it was a flat land covered with wood. Then the fair wind fell, and the failors faid that it feemed to them moft Icelandic Sagas. 29 moft advifable to land there ; but Bjarni was unwilling to do fo. They pretended that they were in want of both wood and water. " Ye have no want of either of the two," fa id Bjarni ; for this, however, he met with fome reproaches from the failors. He bade them make fail, and fo was done ; they turned the prow from the land, and, failing out into the open fea for three days, with a fouth-weft wind, faw then the third land ; and this land was high, and covered with mountains and ice-hills. Then afked they whether Bjarni would land there, but he faid that he would not: " for to me this land appears little inviting." Therefore did they not lower the fails, but held on along this land, and faw that it was an ifland ; again turned they the Hern from the land, and failed out into the fea with the fame fair wind ; but the breeze frefhened, and Bjarni then told them to fhorten fail, and not fail fafter than their fhip and fhip's gear could hold out. They failed now four days, 20 when they faw the fourth land. Then afked they Bjarni whether he thought that this was Greenland or not. Bjarni an- fwered : " This is the moft like Greenland, according to what I have been told about it, and here will we fteer for land." So did they, and landed in the evening under a nefs ; and there was a boat by the nefs, and jufl here lived Bjarni's father, and from him has the nefs taken its name, and is fince called Herjulfsnefs. Bjarni now repaired to his father's, 20 A day's fail was eftimated by ments in the calculation are the direc- the Northmen at from twenty-feven to tion of the wind, the length of time thirty geographical miles. Beamijh. fpent in failing from one point to To determine what coafts were vifited, another, the diftance paffed over in a as the mariner's compafs had not then given time, and the general character been difcovered, the important ele- of the countries difcovered. 3 nar de famlats att fometimes alfo called Gudrid. Profeffor ** m ^ Fritkiofs Saga IIL| l8 . Rafn thinks it probable that me was called by the former in childhood, Not five hundred men (though ten twelves which was a pagan name derived from y u Y nt *? JJS^SS^ ~ j T-U u I ,,.,1 r~~ -ai:~ Could nil that wide hall, when they gathered the god Thor, but afterward for rehg- to ban at Yule> _2 Beamifh . lous reafons Gudrid was adopted in its place. Vide Beami/h. 50 Icelandic Sagas. ells broad : foxes were there. They gave the land a name, and called it HELLULAND. 49 Then failed they two days, and turned from the fouth to the fouth-eaft, and found a land covered with wood, and many wild beafts upon it : an ifland lay there out from the land to the fouth-eaft ; there killed they a bear, and called the place afterwards Bear ifland, 50 but the land MARKLAND. Thence failed they far to the fouthward along the land, and came to a nefs ; the land lay upon the right; there were long and fandy ftrands. They rowed to land, and found there upon the nefs the keel of a fhip, and called the place Kjalarnefs, 51 and the ftrands they called Furduftrands, for it was long to fail by them. Then became the land indented with coves ; they ran the fhip into a cove. King Olaf Tryggvafon had given Leif two Scotch people, a man called Haki, and a woman called Hekja ; they were fwifter than beafts. Thefe people were in the fhip with Karlfefne ; but when they had failed paft 49 The whole of the northern coaft contracted from Bjarnarey ; but the of America, weft of Greenland, was common pronunciation of the latter is called by the ancient Icelandic geogra- Bjadney or Bjanney. Antiq. Amer., phers Helluland it Mikla, or Great p. 138, note c. Beamijh. Helluland ; and the Ifland of New- M In the vifit of Thorvald, the fon foundland fimply Helluland, or Litla of Erik the Red, to Vinland, in 1002, Helluland. Beami/h. Helluland, ita four years before this prefent voyage, diftam aut ob ingentes pianos, qui ibi the keel of his fhip had been broken funt, lapides \hella, gen. hellu, pi. hel- off on a nefs, where he remained fome lur\, aut ea ratione, quod terras illius time to repair it. Was not the keel litora plana fuerint et dura. Reperi- found by Karlfefne the fame which had mus apud antiques duas terras hoc no- been broken off in the voyage of Thor- mine infignitas, quarum una appellata vald ? Does not the accident to the eft Helluland hit mikla, Hellulandia keel, and the repairs upon it at this Major, altera Litla Helluland, Hellu- place, furnifh fufficient reafon for nam- landia Minor. Antiq. Amer., p. 419. ing it Kjalarnefs ? Indeed it had been Vide Tab. XVI. Idem. fo named in the previous voyage. Vide 60 Bjanney, from Bjorn, a bear, gen. antea, p. 38. bjarnar, and ey, ifland : hence Bjarney Icelandic Sagas. 51 pad Furduftrands, then fet they the Scots on fhore, and bade them run to the fouthward of the land, and explore its qualities, and come back again within three days. They had a fort of clothing which they called kjafal, which was fo made that a hat was on the top, and it was open at the fides, and no arms to it ; fattened together between the legs with buttons and clafps, but in other places it was open. They flayed away the appointed time ; but when they came back, the one had in the hand a bunch of grapes, and the other, a new fowen ear of wheat : thefe went on board the fliip, and after that failed they farther. They failed into a frith ; there lay an ifland before it, round which there were ftrong currents, therefore called they it Stream ifland. There were fo many eider ducks on the ifland, that one could fcarcely walk in confequence of the eggs. They called the place Stream frith. 52 They took their cargo from the fliip, and prepared to remain there. They had with them all forts of cattle. The country there was very beautiful. They undertook nothing but to explore the land. They were there for the winter without having provided food beforehand. In the fummer the fifhing declined, and they were badly off for provifions; then difappeared Thorhall the huntfman. They had previoufly made prayers to God for food, but it did not come fo quick as they thought their necefflties required. They fearched after Thorhall for three days, 53 and found him on the top of a rock ; there he lay, and 82 Straumfjord and Straumey, from M 3 daegr. There feems to be con- ftraumr, a current; ey, ifland; and fiderable ambiguity about the Icelandic fjord, frith : alfo, Furduftrandir, from words dagr and dcegr, which are arbi- fnrda, gen. furdu, wonderful, and trarilyufed to exprefs either the natural ftrond, pi. ftrandir, beach. Beami/h. day of 24 hours or the artificial day of Icelandic Sagas. and looked up in the fky, and gaped both with nofe and mouth, and murmured fomething ; they afked him why he had gone there ; he faid it was no bufmefs of theirs ; they bade him come home with them, and he did fo. Soon after came there a whale, and they went thither, and cut it up, and no one knew what fort of whale it was; and when the cook dreffed it, then ate they, and all became ill in confequence. 54 Then faid Thorhall: "The red-bearded 55 was more helpful than your Chrift ; this have I got now for my verfes that I fung of Thor, my protector ; feldom has he deferted me." But when they came to know this, they caft the of 12 hours. Throughout this and the preceding narrative, dcegr is confidered by the editor to mean the artificial day, and dagr the natural day, hence 2 dcegr is rendered "a day and night" [Dan. "en Dag og en Nat," Lat. "noctem diemque,"] and 3 dcegr, "three half natural days" (36 hours) [Dan. "tre halve Dogn," Lat. "tria nychtheme- rium"]. But in a ftibfequent' narra- tive (De Ario Mario Filii, Antiq. Amer., p. 211) we find VI. dcegr rendered, in the Danifh verfion, " 6 Dogn," and, in the Latin, "fex die- rum," thus applying the word dcegr to the natural day of 24 hours. Finn Magnufen, alfo, expreffly ftates that the artificial day was called dagr, and the natural day dcegr. See Mem. de la Soc. Roy. des Antiq. du Nord, 1836, 1837, p. 165. Beamt/h. * 4 This whale was probably a fpe- cies of the Balcena phyfalis of Linnaeus, which was not edible, and, being rarely feen in the Greenland and Iceland feas, was unknown to the Northmen. A kind of whale called Balcena myftice- tus is mentioned by Ebeling, as having been formerly found on the coafts of Rhode Ifland and Mafiachufetts, re- vifiting the more fouthern latitudes in winter, and returning northwards in the fpring ; in after times, however, they difappeared altogether from the coafts ; and in the prefent day the number of whales in northern latitudes has much diminished. Idem. 66 Thor, the eldest fon of Odin and Frigga, the ftrongeft of the Afer, and next to Odin in rank. "There fits on golden throne Aloft the god of war, Save Odin, yields to none 'Mongft gods great Afer, Thor." Oehlenfchlager, Pigoit's Tran/lation. The introduction of Chriftianity be- ing but recent in Iceland, many of the Northmen ftill believed in Thor, or, em- bracing the new religion with a waver- ing faith, applied to the Afer gods in cafes of difficulty. " The remains of the worlhip of Thor lingered longer in the North than thofe of any of the other Scandinavian deities. In Nial's Saga, a female fkald fays to a Chrif- tian, ' Do you not know that Thor has challenged your Chrift to fingle com- bat, and that he dares not fight him ?' " Pigotfs Scandinavian Mythology^ p. 101. Idem. Icelandic Sagas. 53 the whole whale into the fea, and refigned their cafe to God. Then the weather improved, and it was poffible to row out fifhing ; and they were not then in want of pro- vifions, for wild beafts were caught on the land, and fifh in the fea, and eggs collected on the ifland. OF KARLSEFNE AND THORHALL. So is faid that Thorhall would go to the northward along Furduftrands, to explore Vinland, but Karlfefne would go fouthwards along the coaft. Thorhall got ready, out under the ifland, and there were no more together than nine men ; but all the others went with Karlfefne. Now when Thor- hall bore water to his fhip, and drank, then fung he this fong: People told me when I came Hither, all would be fo fine ; The good Vinland, known to fame, Rich in fruits, and choiceft wine ; Now the water pail they fend ; To the fountain I muft bend, Nor from out this land divine Have I quaffed one drop of wine. And when they were ready, and hoifted fail, then chaunted Thorhall : Let our trufty band Hafte to Fatherland ; Let our veffel brave Plough the angry wave, While thofe few who love Vinland, here may rove, Or, 54 Icelandic Sagas. Or, with idle toil, Fetid whales may boil, Here on Ferduftrand, Far from Fatherland. 56 After that, failed they northwards pad Furduftrands and Kjalarnefs, and would cruife to the weftward; then came againft them a flrong weft wind, and they were driven away to Ireland, and were there beaten, and made flaves, accord- ing to what the merchants have faid. Now is to be told about Karlfefne, that he went to the fouthward along the coaft, and Snorri and Bjarni, with their people. They failed a long time, and until they came to a river, which ran out from the land, and through a lake, out into the fea. It was very mallow, and one could not enter the river without high water. Karlfefne failed, with his people, into the mouth, and they called the place Hop. 57 They found there upon the land felf-fown fields of wheat, there where the ground was low, but vines there where it rofe fomewhat. Every ftream there was full of fim. They made holes there where the land commenced, and the waters rofe higheft; and when the tide fell, there were facred fifh 68 in the holes. There were a great number of all 68 Omnes has ftrophae antiquitatem M Helgir fifkar. This is fuppofed et genium fapiunt feculi lo"" 1 et 1 1 1 , to have been the fpecies of flounder or tarn quod attinet ad metaphoras, quam flat fifh, called by the Englifli halibut ceteram indolem. Rafn, Antiq. Amer., (Pleuroneftes hippoglajfus Linn., Hip- p. 144, note a. pogloffus vulgaris Cuv.), and which is 57 I Hdpi, from the Icelandic word ftill called in Iceland " holy fifh " (hei- h6pa, to recede, and may fignify here lagfifki), a name given, according to either the recefs formed by the conflu- Pliny, in confequence of the prefence ence of a river and the fea, or the of thefe fifh being confidered to denote mouth of the river, or merely the inlet fafe water. Speaking of the danger to of the fea into which the river falls. be apprehended from the dog-fifh, he Beami/h. adds : " Certiffima eft fecuritas vidiffe pianos Icelandic Sagas. 55 all kinds of wild beafts in the woods. They remained there a half month, and amufed themfelves, and did not perceive any thing [new] : they had their cattle with them. And one morning early, when they looked round, faw they a great many canoes, and poles were fwung upon them, and it founded like the wind in a ftraw-ftack, and the fwinging was with the fun. Then faid Karlfef ne : " What may this denote ? " Snorri Thorbrandfon anfwered him : " It may be that this is a fign of peace, fo let us take a white fliield, and hold it towards them ; " and fo did they. Upon this the others rowed towards them, and looked with wonder upon thofe that they met, and went up upon the land. Thefe people were black, and ill favored, and had coarfe hair on the head ; they had large eyes and broad cheeks. They remained there for a time, and gazed upon thofe that they met, and rowed afterwards away to the fouthward, round the nefs. Karlfefne and his people had made their dwellings above the lake, and fome of the houfes were near the water, others more diftant. Now were they there for the winter ; there came no fnow, and all their cattle fed themfelves on the grafs. But when fpring 59 approached, faw they one morn- ing early that a number of canoes rowed from the fouth round the nefs; fo many, as if the fea were fowen with coal : poles were alfo fwung on each boat. Karlfefne and his people then raifed up the fhield, and when they came together, they began to barter; and thefe people would rather pianos pifces, quia nunquam funt, ubi nantes facros appellant eos." Hifl. maleficae beftiae : qua de caufa uri- Nat., Lib. ix. Beamijh. 89 A.D. 1009. 56 Icelandic Sagas. rather have red cloth [than any thing elfe] ; for this they had to offer fkins and real furs. They would alfo pur- chafe fwords and fpears, but this Karlfefne and Snorri forbade. For an entire fur fkin the Skraelings took a piece of red cloth, a fpan long, and bound it round their heads. Thus went on their traffic for a time ; then the cloth began to fall fhort among Karlfefne and his people, and they cut it afunder into fmall pieces, which were not wider than the breadth of a ringer, and ftill the Skraelings gave juft as much for that as before, and more. 60 It happened that a bull, which Karlfefne had, ran out from the wood and roared aloud ; this frightened the Skrael- ings, and they rufhed to their canoes, and rowed away to the fouthward, round the coafl: after that they were not feen for three entire weeks. But at the end of that time, a great number of Skraelings' mips were feen coming from the fouth like a rufhing torrent ; all the poles were turned from the fun, and they all howled very loud. Then took Karl- fefne's people a red fhield, and held it towards them. The Skraelings jumped out of their mips, and after this went they againft each other, and fought. There was a fharp mower of weapons, for the Skraelings had flings. Karlfefne's people faw that they raifed up on a pole an enormous large ball, fomething like a fheep's paunch, and of a blue color ; this 60 The Saga of Erik the Red, in elfe. "Thus," fays the Saga, "the giving an account of this tranfaftion, traffic of the Skraelings was wound up adds that Karlfefne, on the cloth being by their bearing away their purchafes expended, hit upon the expedient of in their ftomachs, but Karlfefne and his making the women take out milk por- companions retained their goods and ridge to the Skraelings, who, as foon as fkins." Antiq. Amer., pp. 59, 60. they faw this new article of commerce, Beamijh. would buy the porridge and nothing Icelandic Sagas. 57 this fwung they from the pole over Karlfefne's men, upon the ground, and it made a frightful cram as it fell down. 61 This caufed great alarm to Karlfefne and all his people, fo that they thought of nothing but running away, and they fell back along the river, for it appeared to them that the Skraelings preffed upon them from all fides ; and they did not flop until they came to fome rocks, where they made a ftout refinance. Freydis came out and faw that Karlfefne's people fell back, and me cried out : ' : Why do ye run, ftout men as ye are, before thefe miferable wretches, whom I thought ye would knock down like cattle ? and if I had weapons, methinks I could fight better than any of ye." They gave no heed to her words. Freydis would go with them, but me was flower, becaufe me was pregnant ; how- ever me followed after them into the wood. The Skraelings purfued her; me found a dead man before her: it was Thorbrand Snorrafon, and there flood a flat flone fluck in his head ; the fword lay naked by his fide ; this took me up, and prepared to defend herfelf. Then came the Skraelings towards her; me drew out her breails from under her clothes, and darned them againfl the naked fword ; by this the Skraelings became frightened, and ran off to their mips, and rowed away. Karlfefne and his people then came up, and praifed her courage. Two men fell on Karlfefne's fide, but a number of the Skraelings. Karlfefne's band was over- matched 61 The nature of this miffile does marking its pofition after having been not exactly appear, but it probably had thrown. In the prefent inftance, ftones fome affinity with the harpoon ufed by would appear to have been added to the Efquimaux in fiming, and to which this contrivance. Antiq. Amer., p. is attached a bladder, as well for the 152, note b. Beami/h. purpofe of directing the weapon as of 8 58 Icelandic Sagas. matched, and they now drew home to their dwellings, and bound their wounds; and they thought over what crowd that could have been, which had preffed upon them from the land fide, and it now appeared to them that it could fcarcely have been real people from the mips, but that thefe muft have been optical illufions. The Skraelings found alfo a dead man, and an axe lay by him ; one of them took up the axe, and cut wood with it, and now one after another did the fame, and thought it was an excellent thing, and bit well ; after that one took it, and cut at a ftone, fo that the axe broke, and then thought they it was of no ufe, becaufe it would not cut ftone, and they threw it away. Karlfefne and his people now thought they faw, that although the land had many good qualities, ftill would they be always expofed there to the fear of hoftilities from the earlier inhabitants. They propofed, therefore, to depart, and return to their own country. They failed northwards along the coaft, and found five Skraelings clothed in fkins, fleeping near the fea. They had with them veffels contain- ing animal marrow mixed with blood. Karlfefne's people thought they underftood that thefe men had been banifhed from the land : they killed them. After that came they to a nefs, and many wild beafts were there ; and the nefs was covered all over with dung, from the beafts which had lain there during the night. Now came they back to Straumfjord, and there was abundance of every thing that they wanted to have. It is fome men's fay, that Bjarni and Gudrid remained behind, and a hundred men with them, and did not go further ; but that Karlfefne and Snorri went fouth- wards, and forty men with them, and were not longer in Hope Icelandic Sagas. 59 Hope than barely two months, and the fame fummer came back. 62 Karlfefne went then with one fliip to feek after Thorhall the hunter, but the reft remained behind, and they failed northwards paft Kjalarnefs, and thence weftwards, and the land was upon their larboard hand ; there were wild woods over all, as far as they could fee, and fcarcely any open places. And when they had long failed, a river fell out of the land from eaft to weft ; they put in to the mouth of the river, and lay by its fouthern bank. DEATH OF THORVALD, THE SON OF ERIK. IT happened one morning that Karlfefne and his people faw, oppofite an open place in the wood, a fpeck which gliftened in their fight, and they fhouted out towards it, and it was a uniped, 63 which thereupon hurried down to the bank of the river, where they lay. Thorvald Erikfon flood at the helm, and the uniped fliot an arrow into his bowels. Thor- vald drew out the arrow, and faid : " It has killed me ! to 62 This paflage is evidently the ftate- Wormfkiold defcribes as a triangular mentof an imperfeft tradition, to which cloth, hanging down fo low, both be- the writer of the Saga gave no credit ; fore and behind, that the feet were con- and, although only involving a queftion cealed. In an old mifcellaneous work, of time, it mud be rejected as incon- called "Rimbegla," published at Copen- fiftent with the previous details: its hagen in 1780, a people of this denomi- infertion, however, is flrongly charac- nation, inhabiting Blaland in Ethiopia, teriftic of the candor and honefty of are thus defcribed : "Einfoetingar hafa the writer, who is obvioufly defirous of fva mikinn f6t vid jord, at their fkyggja flating all that he has heard upon the fdr med honum vid folarhita i fvefni," fubject. Beamijh. i.e., fays Profeffor Rafn, " Unipedes 63 Einfoetingr, from ein, one, and plantam pedis tarn amplam habent, ut f6tr, foot. This term appears to have ipfis dormientibus fit umbraculi." been given by ancient writers to fome Antiq. Amer., p. 158, note a, of the Indian tribes, in confequence Idem. of the peculiarity of their drefs, which 60 Icelandic Sagas. a fruitful land have we come, but hardly fhall we enjoy any benefit from it." Thorvald foon after died of this wound. 64 Upon this the uniped ran away to the northward ; Karl- fefne and his people went after him, and faw him now and then, and the laft time they faw him, he ran out into a bay. Then turned they back, and a man chaunted thefe verfes : The people chafed A Uniped Down to the beach ; But lo ! he ran Straight o'er the fea. Hear thou, Thorfinn ! They drew off then, and to the northward, and thought they faw the country of the Unipeds ; they would not then expofe their people any longer. They looked upon the mountain range that was at Hope, and that which they now found, as all one, and it alfo appeared to be equal length from Straumfjord to both places. The third winter 65 were they in Straumfjord. They now became much divided by party feeling, and the women were the caufe of it, for thofe who were unmarried would injure thofe that were married, and hence arofe great difturbance. There was born the first autumn w Snorri, Karlfefne's fon, and he was three 64 Compare antea, p. 39. The dif- 66 Snorri was born in Vinland, A.D. crepancy in the two accounts of the 1007. From him, according to a gene- death of Thorvald is perhaps no more alogical table introduced into " Antiqui- than is to be expected, when we con- tates Americanae " by Profeffor Rafn, fider the mutations to which the fagas are lineally defcended a large number were expofed before they were reduced of diftinguifhed Scandinavians. Among to writing. them we note the following : Snorri 66 A.D. 1009, 1010. Sturlefon, the celebrated hiftorian, b. 1178; Icelandic Sagas. 61 three years old when they went away. When they failed from Vinland, they had a fouth wind, and came then to Markland, and found there five Skraelings, and one was bearded ; two were females, and two boys ; they took the boys, but the others efcaped, and the Skraslings fank down in the ground. Thefe two boys took they with them ; they taught them the language, and they were baptized. They called their mother Vathelldi, and their father Uvaege. They faid that two kings ruled over the Skraelings, and that one of them was called Avalldania, but the other Valldidida. They faid that no houfes were there; people lay in caves or in holes. They faid there was a land on the other fide, juft oppofite their country, where people lived who wore white clothes, and carried poles before them, and to thefe were faftened flags, and they fhouted loud; and people think that this was WHITE-MAN'S-LAND, OR GREAT IRELAND. 67 Bjarni Grimolfson was driven with his fhip into the Irifh ocean, and they came into a worm-fea, 68 and ftraightway began the fhip to fink under them. They had a boat which was fmeared with feal oil, for the fea-worms do not attack that: 1178; Bertel Thorvaldfon, the eminent conftant opposition of the winds and fculptor, b. 1770 ; Finn Magnufen, b. currents, and by the condition of the 1781 ; Birgen Thorlacius, profeffor in mips, which were pierced on all parts Copenhagen, b. 1775 ; Grim Thorkelin, by the teredo, or worm." Irving's profeffor in Copenhagen, and many Columbus, p. 287. " Continuing along others earlier in the line. the coaft eaftward, he was obliged to 67 Hvitramannaland eda Irland ed abandon one of the caravels in the har- mykla. bor of Puerto Bello, being fo pierced 88 Madkfjd. Probably waters in- by the teredo that it was impoffible to fefted with the Teredo navalis, from keep her afloat." /., p. 303. The which the mips of Columbus received Teredo navalis, and its deftrulive ef- fuch injury in a more fouthern latitude. fe6ls, may ftill be feen on the fouth " The leamen were difheartened by the coaft of Ireland. Beamijh. 62 Icelandic Sagas. that: they went into the boat, and then faw that it could not hold them all ; then faid Bjarni : " Since the boat can- not give room to more than the half of our men, it is my counfel that lots mould be drawn for thofe to go in the boat, for it mail not be according to rank." This thought they all fo high-minded an offer, that no one would fpeak againft it ; they then did fo that lots were drawn, and it fell upon Bjarni 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, then faid an Icelandic man, who was in the fliip, and had come with Bjarni from Iceland : " Doft thou intend, Bjarni, to feparate from me here ? " Bjarni anfwered : " So it turns out." Then faid the other : " Very different was thy promife to my father, when I went with thee from Iceland, than thus to abandon me, for thou faid'ft that we mould both mare the fame fate." Bjarni replied : " It mall not be thus ; go thou down into the boat, and I will go up into the fhip, fince I fee that thou art fo delirous to live." Then went Bjarni up into the fhip, but this man down into the boat, and after that continued they their voyage, until they came to Dublin in Ireland, 69 and told there thefe things ; but it is moft people's belief that Bjarni and his companions were loft in the worm-fea, for nothing was heard of them fmce that time. Pofterity 69 At this period the Northmen were of Dublin. See Moore, Vol. II. p. ftill numerous in the fea-port towns of 105. Beamifh. Ireland, Sitric the Dane being King Icelandic Sagas. 63 POSTERITY OF KARLSEFNE AND THURID HIS WIFE. THE next fummer 70 went Karlfefne to Iceland, and Gudrid with him, and he went home to Reynifnefs. His mother thought that he had made a bad match, and there- fore was Gudrid not at home the firil winter. But when me obferved that Gudrid was a diftinguifhed woman, went fhe home, and they agreed very well together. The daugh- ter of Snorri Karlfefneffon was Hallfrid, mother to Bifhop Thorlak Runolfson. They had a fon who was called Thorbjorn, his daughter was called Thorunn, mother to Bifhop Bjorn. The fon of Snorri Karlfefneffon was called Thorgeir, father to Yngvild, mother of Bifhop Brand the firft. A daughter of Snorri Karlfefneffon was alfo Steinum, who married Einar, fon of Grundarketil, fon of Thorvald Krok, the fon of Thorer, of Efpihol ; their fon was Thor- ftein Ranglatr; he was father to Gudrun, who married Jorund of Keldum ; their daughter was Halla, mother to Flofe, father of Valgerde, mother of Herr Erlend Sterka, father of Herr Hauk the Lagman. 71 Another daughter of Flofe was Thordis, mother of Fru Ingigerd the Rich ; her daughter was Fru Hallbera, Abbefs of Stad at Reinifnefs. Many other great men in Iceland are defcended from Karl- fefne and Thurid, who are not here mentioned. God be with us! Amen ! , r Voyage 70 A.D. ion. In another narrative Karlfefne parted the winter of 1010 at of Karlfefne, which follows the prefent Eriksfjord in Greenland. Compare in the " Antiquitates Americanae," as Antiq. Amer., pp. 64-183. Beamijh. well as in the fhort account of thefe 71 Hauk Erlendfon the laft contrib- farne occurrences contained in the utor to the Landnamab<5k. Idem. Saga of Erik the Red, it is ftated that 64 Icelandic Sagas. VOYAGE OF FREYDIS, HELGI, AND FINNBOGI. A. D. ion. Freydis caufes the brothers to be killed. 72 Now began people again to talk about expeditions to Vinland, for voyages thereto appeared both profitable and honorable. The fame fummer that Karlfefne came from Vinland, 73 came alfo a fhip from Norway to Greenland ; this fhip fleered two brothers, Helgi and Finnbogi, and they remained for the winter in Greenland. Thefe brothers were Icelanders by defcent, and from Auftfjord. It is now to be told that Freydis, Erik's daughter, went from her home at Garde to the brothers Helgi and Finnbogi, and bade them that they mould fail to Vinland with their veffels, and go halves with her in all the profits which might be there made. To this they agreed. Then went me to Leif, her brother, and begged him to give her the houfes which he had caufed to be built in Vinland ; but he anfwered the fame as before, that he would lend the houfes, but not give them. So was it fettled between the brothers and Freydis, that each mould have thirty fighting men in the fhip, befides women. But Freydis broke this agree- ment, and had five men more, and hid them ; fo that the brothers knew not of it before they came to Vinland. Now This narrative is contained in the more perfpicuous, as on account of the Saga of Erik the Red (Antiq. Amer., further particulars relating to Karlfefne p. 65, feq.), but has been transferred to and Gudrid, with which it concludes. this place, as well to make the chrono- Beamijh. logical order of the various voyages 73 A.D. 1010. Icelandic Sagas. 65 Now failed they into the fea, and had before arranged that they fhould keep together, if it could fo be, and there was little difference ; but ftill came the brothers fomewhat before, and had taken up their effects to Leif's houfes. But when Freydis came to land, then cleared they out their fhips, and bore up their goods to the houfe. Then faid Freydis : " Why bring ye in your things here ? " " Becaufe we be- lieved," faid they, " that the whole agreement fhould fland good between us." " To me lent Leif the houfes," quoth fhe, " and not to you." Then faid Helgi : " In malice are we brothers eafily excelled by thee." Now took they out their goods, and made a feparate building, and fet that building further from the ftrand, on the edge of a lake, and put all around in good order; but Freydis had trees cut down for her fhip's loading. Now began winter, and the brothers propofed to fet up fports, and have fome amufe- ment. So was done for a time, until evil reports and difcord fprung up amongft them, and there was an end of the fports ; and nobody came from the one houfe to the other, and fo it went on for a long time during the winter. It happened one morning early that Freydis got up from her bed, and dreffed herfelf, but took no Ihoes or ftockings ; and the weather was fuch that much dew had fallen. She took her hufband's cloak, and put it on, and then went to the brothers' houfe, and to the door ; but a man had gone out a little before, and left the door half open. She opened the door, and flood a little time in the opening, and was filent ; but Finnbogi lay infide the houfe, and was awake. He faid : " What wilt thou here, Freydis ? " She faid : " I wifh that thou wouldefl get up. and go out with me, for I will 9 66 Icelandic Sagas. will fpeak with thee." He did fo. They went to a tree, that lay near the dwellings, and fat down there. " How art thou fatisfied here ? " faid me. He anfwered : " Well think I of the land's fruitfulnefs, but ill do I think of the difcord that has fprung up betwixt us, for it appears to me that no caufe has been given." u Thou fayeft as it is," faid fhe, "and fo think I; but my bufmefs here with thee is that I wifh to change mips with thy brother, for ye have a larger fhip than I, and it is my wifh to go from hence." " That muft I agree to," faid he, " if fuch is thy wifh." Now with that they feparated. She went home, and Finnbogi to his bed. She got into the bed with cold feet, and thereby woke Thorvard, and he afked why fhe was fo cold and wet. She anfwered, with much vehemence : " I was gone," faid fhe, " to the brothers, to make a bargain with them about their fhip, for I wifhed to buy the large fhip ; but they took it fo ill, that they beat me, and ufed me fhamefully ; but thou ! miferable man ! wilt furely neither avenge my difgrace or thine own, and it is eafy to fee that I am no longer in Greenland, and I will feparate from thee if thou avengefl not this." And now could he no longer withftand her reproaches, and bade his men to get up with all fpeed, and take their arms ; and fo did they, and went ftraightway to the brothers' houfe, and went in, and fell upon them fleeping, and then took and bound them, and thus led out one after the other ; but Freydis had each of them killed, as he came out. Now were all the men there killed, and only women remained, and them would no one kill. Then faid Freydis : " Give me an axe ! " So was done ; upon which me killed the five women that were there, and did not flop until they were Icelandic Sagas. 67 were all dead. Now they went back to their houfe after this evil work, and Freydis did not appear otherwife than as if fhe had done well, and fpoke thus to her people : " If it be permitted us to come again to Greenland," faid fhe, " I will take the life of that man who tells of this bufmefs ; now mould we fay this, that they remained behind when we went away." Now early in the fpring made they ready the fhip that had belonged to the brothers, and loaded it with all the befl things they could get, and the (hip could carry. After that they put to fea, and had a quick voyage, and came to Eriksfjord with the fhip early in the fummer. Now Karlfefne was there, and had his fhip quite ready for fea, and waited for a fair wind ; and it is generally faid, that no richer fhip has ever gone from Greenland than that which he fleered. OF FREYDIS. FREYDIS repaired now to her dwelling, which, in the mean time, had flood uninjured ; me gave great gifts to all her companions, that they mould conceal her mifdeeds, and fat down now in her houfe. All were not, however, fo mindful of their promifes to conceal their crimes and wickednefs but that it came out at laft. Now finally it reached the ears of Leif, her brother, and he thought very ill of the bufmefs. Then took Leif three men of Freydif 's band, and tortured them to confefs the whole occurrence, and all their ftatements agreed. " I like not," faid Leif, " to do that to Freydis, my fifler, which fhe has deferved ; but 68 Icelandic Sagas. but this will I predict, that thy pofterity will never thrive." Now the confequence was, that no one, from that time forth, thought otherwife than ill of them. Now muft we begin from the time when Karlfefne got ready his fhip, and put to fea. He had a profperous voyage, and came fafe and found to Norway, and remained there for the winter, and fold his goods, and both he and his wife were held in great honor by the moft refpeclable men in Norway. But the fpring after, fitted he out his fhip for Iceland ; and when he was all ready, and his fliip lay at the bridge, waiting for a fair wind, then came there a fouthern to him, who was from Bremen in Saxony, and wanted to buy from Karlfefne his houfe broom. 74 " I will not fell it," faid he. " I will give thee a half mark gold for it," faid the German. Karlfefne thought this was a good offer, and they clofed the bargain. The fouthern went off with the houfe broom, but Karlfefne knew not what wood it was ; but that was maufur, 75 brought from Vinland. Now Karlfefne put to fea, and came with his fhip to Skagafjord, on the northern coaft, and there was the fliip laid up for the winter. But in fpring 74 Hdfafnotru. Some doubts have Haldorfon. See Antiq. Amer., p. arifen as to the meaning of this word, 441, note c, and Lexicon IJlandico- which Finn Magnufen thinks is here Latino- Danicum Bibrnonis Haldor- intended to exprefs a vane or weather- fonii ex manufcriptis Legati Arna cock, fuch appendages having been Magnceani cura, R. K. Raflcii editum. formerly ornamented by the North- Hafniae, 1814, 4to. Beamijh. men, at great coft, and placed on the 75 Mr. Beamifh fuggefts that this top of the houfe. The price given may be the bird's eye or curled maple, (about ;i6 fterling) is alfo more ac- and fays that the old German name cordant with this interpretation. Tor- of maple, maa/Jiolderbaum, and the faeus calls it "coronis domus," which Swedifli, mafur, fpeckled wood, and feems to imply fome ornamental appen- mafurerad, applied to knotty, or mar- dage of the kind : the editor (Profeflbr ble-like wood, tend to confirm this fup- Rafn) has followed the Lexicon of Bjorn pofition. Icelandic Sagas. 69 fpring bought he Glaumbseland, and fixed his dwelling there, and lived there, and was a highly refpecled man, and from him and Gudrid his wife has fprung a numerous and diftinguifhed race. And when Karlfefne was dead, took Gudrid the management of the houfe with her fon Snorri, who was born in Vinland. But when Snorri was married, then went Gudrid abroad, and travelled fouthwards, and came back again to the houfe of Snorri her fon, and then had he caufed a church to be built at Glaumbas. After this became Gudrid a nun and reclufe, and remained fo whilft fhe lived. Snorri had a fon who was named Thorgeir; he was father to Ingveld, mother of Bifhop Brand. The daughter of Snorri Karlfefneffon was called Hallfrid ; fhe was mother to Rimolf, father to Bifhop Thorlak. 76 Bjorn was a fon of Karlfefne and Gudrid ; he was father to Thorunn, mother of Bifhop Bjorn. A numerous race are defcended from Karlfefne, and diftinguifhed men ; and Karl- fefne has accurately related to all men the occurrences on all thefe voyages, of which fomewhat is now recited here. 77 Geographical 76 "To the learned Bifhop Thorlak 77 It would appear that Karlfefne Runolfson we are principally indebted himfelf narrated originally the events for the oldeft ecclefiaftical code of Ice- that occurred on thefe voyages, and land, publifhed in the year 1123 ; and that only the more important portions it is alfo probable that the accounts of were written out by the fagaman ; that thefe voyages were originally compiled it was not written till a numerous race by him." Vide Synopfis of Hiftorical of diftinguifhed men had defcended Evidence in this Volume, by Profeffor from Kalfefne. Vide Genealogical Rafn. Table in Appendix to Antiq. Amer. 7o Icelandic Sagas. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. FRAGMENTUM GEOGRAPHICUM. 78 NEXT to Denmark is the leffer Sweden, then is CEland, then Gottland, then Helfmgeland, then Vermeland, and the two Kvendlands, which lie to the north of Bjarmeland. From Bjarmeland ftretches uninhabited land towards the north, until Greenland begins. South of Greenland is Hellu- land ; next lies Markland ; thence it is not far to Vinland the Good, which fome think goes out from Africa; and if it be fo, the fea muft run in between Vinland and Markland. It is related that Thorfinn Karlfefne cut wood here to ornament his houfe, 79 and went afterwards to feek out Vin- land the Good, and came there, where they thought the land was, but did not effe<5l the knowledge of it, and gained none of the riches of the land. Leif the Lucky firft dif- covered Vinland, and then he met fome merchants in diftrefs at fea, and, by God's mercy, faved their lives; and he introduced Chriflianity into Greenland, and it fpread itfelf there, fo that a Bifhop's feat was eftablifhed in the place called Gardar. England and Scotland are an ifland, and yet each is a kingdom for itfelf. Ireland is a great ifland. Iceland is alfo a great ifland north of Ireland. Thefe coun- tries are all in that part of the world which is called Eur P e - Gripla 78 This is a fragment from Vellum end of the fourteenth century. Vide Codex, No. 192, fuppofed by Profeflbr Antiq. Amer., p. 279. Rafn to have been written near the TO Vide antea, note 74. Icelandic Sagas. 71 GRIPLA. 80 Codex, No. 115, 8z>0, Antiq. Amer., p. 293. BAVARIA is bounded by Saxony ; Saxony is bounded by Holftein, then comes Denmark ; the fea flows through the eaftern countries. Sweden lies to the eaft of Denmark, Norway to the north; Finmark north of Norway; thence ftretches the land out to the north-eaft and eaft, until you come to Bjarmeland; this land is tributary to Gardarige. From Bjarmeland lie uninhabited places all northward to that land which is called Greenland [which, however, the Greenlanders do not confirm, but believe to have obferved that it is otherwife, both from drift timber, which it is known is cut down by men, and alfo from reindeer, which have marks upon the ears, or bands upon the horns, likewife from fheep which ftray thither, of which there now are remains in Norway, for one head hangs in Throndhjem, another in Bergen, and many more befides are to be found]. 81 But there are bays, and the land ftretches out toward the fouth-weft ; there are jokels and fjords ; there lie iflands out before the jokels; one of the jokels cannot be explored; to the other is half a month's fail, to the third a week's fail ; this is neareft to the fettlement called Hvidferk ; thence ftretches the land toward the north ; but he who wifhes not to 80 This remarkable geographical being of a mifcellaneous character. fragment is contained in the cele- Antiq. Amer., pp. 280, 281. Bea- brated Greenlandic collection of Bjorn mijh. Johnfon, and was evidently written be- 81 This paflage is confidered by Pro- fore the time of Columbus. The name feffor Rafn to be an interpolation. is fuppofed to be derived from the Antiq. Amer., p. 294, note a. word gripa, to fnatch, the collection 72 Icelandic Sagas. to mifs the fettlement fleers to the fouth-weft. The Bifhop's feat at the bottom of Eriksfjord is called Gardar; there is a church dedicated to the holy Nicholas ; twelve churches are upon Greenland in the eaflern fettlement, four in the weftern. Now is to be told what lies oppoflte Greenland, out from the bay, which was before named : a land called Furdu- flrandir ; there are fo flrong frofts that it is not habitable, fo far as one knows ; fouth from thence is Helluland, which is called Skraelingfland ; from thence it is not far to Vinland the Good, which fome think goes out from Africa ; between Vinland and Greenland is Ginnungagap, which flows from the fea called Mare Oceanum, and furrounds the whole earth. Hcec verbotenus Gripla. MINOR NARRATIVES. FROM THE HISTORY OF KING OLAF TRYGGVASON. According to the Second Vellum Codex, No. 6r, Fol. Suppqfed to have been copied at the end of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth Century. Antiq. Amer., p. 202. THUS fays the holy priefl Bede, in the chronicles which he wrote concerning the regions of the earth: that the ifland MINOR NARRATIVES. Thefe brief in Iceland anterior to its occupation by relations are extracts and narratives the Norwegians, and of voyages to a from Icelandic manufcripts now depof- part of America which is fpoken of as ited in the libraries of Copenhagen. Great Ireland. The defcription of the They contain traces of Irifh fettlements coaft vifited is so flight and hazy, that it Icelandic Sagas. 73 ifland which is called Thule in the books lies fo far in the north part of the world, that there came no day in the winter, when the night is longer!, and no night in fummer, when the day is longefl. Therefore think learned men that it is Iceland which is called Thule, 82 for there are many places in that land where the fun fets not at night, when the day is longeft, and in the fame manner where the fun cannot be feen by day, when the night is longefl. But the holy priefl Bede died 735 years after the birth of our Lord Jefus Chrift, more than a hundred and twenty years before Iceland was inhabited by the Northmen. But, before Ice- land was colonized from Norway, men had been there whom the Northmen called Papas. 83 They were Chriftians ; for after them were found Irim books, bells, and croziers, and many other things, from whence it could be feen that they were it cannot be identified with any degree merating the warriors at the battle of of certainty. They ftrengthen the evi- Braavalle, he fpeaks of thofe from dence that Icelandic voyages to our Thyle, which name is ftill to be found coafts were made at that early period ; in that diflri6l. Again, the particulars but beyond this fact add very little to given of Thule by the Irim monk, what we have already learned from Dicuil, who wrote in the year 825, the fagas in the preceding pages, or identify it with Iceland; and it feems that can be of any hiftorical value or probable that different parts of the importance. North received the name, which, in the 82 The locality of Thule is ftill a Icelandic language, fignifies end, vexata quceftio with antiquaries, the extreme boundary (tili) according as fouth coaft of Norway and north and difcovery was extended. BeamT/h. north-weft coaft of Scotland having 83 Papa. The clerical order were been each affigned for its pofition, as called Papas by fome Latin writers well as Iceland. Bede fpeaks of Thule (see Du Frefnefs Glojfary ad fcript. according to the relation of Pytheas medics et infimce Latinitatis), and thus of Marfeilles, Solinus, and Pliny, but the Northmen may have adopted the makes it only fix days' fail from Brit- word from fouthern nations, "timidus ain, which ill accords with the then praeguftes pocula Papas" (Juv. Sat. ftate of navigation and nautical knowl- iv.). Du Frefnes mows alfo that the edge. Saxo would feem to refer Thule term was applied to Paedagogus. to the diftrict of Tellemark on the Idem. fouth coaft of Norway ; for, in enu- 74 Icelandic Sagas. were Chriftian men, and had come from the weft over the fea. 84 Englifh books 85 alfo fhow that, in that time, there was intercourfe between the two countries. From the Schedce of Art Frode, No. 54, Fol. AT that time was Iceland covered with woods, between the mountains and the fhore. Then were here Chriftian people, 84 Til veftan urn haf. Ireland lying to the weft of Norway, from whence the Icelanders had emigrated, was generally fpoken of by them with refer- ence to their fatherland, and for the fame reafon they called the Irifh "weft- men." According to a learned en- quirer into the origin of the Irifh, the literal meaning of the word " Ireland " is Weftland, the Celtic fyllable tar, or er, meaning the weft. This, however, is difputed by O'Brien, who maintains that the original interpretation of iar is "after," or "behind," and confiders Eirin to be compounded of * and erin, the genitive of ere, iron, fignifying the ifland of iron or mines, for which Ireland had formerly been famed, and hence ranked by ancient writers among the Caffiterides. See Wood's In- quiry concerning the Primitive In- habitants of Ireland, p. i ; O'Brien's Irijh Dift. in voce Eirin. Beami/h. 85 The ftrongeft teftimony on this point is given by Dicuil, in a work entitled " De Menfura Orbis Terras," wherein he mows that Iceland had been vifited by Irifh ecclefiaftics in 795, and the Faroe Iflands in 725. See Antiq. Amer., p. 204, note a. The particulars given of Thule by the Irifh monk, Dicuil, who wrote in the year 825, offer a remarkable con- firmation of the Icelandic manufcripts refpe&ing the refidence of the Irifh ecclefiaftics in that region, which, in his work, is evidently identified with Iceland. He fpeaks of Thule as an uninhabited ifland, which, however, in his lifetime, about the year 795, had been vifited by fame monks, with whom he himfelf had fpoken, and who had once dwelt upon the ifland from the firft of February to the firft of Auguft. They denied the exaggerated ftatements that had been made by an- cient writers reflecting the perpetual ice, continued day from the vernal to the autumnal equinox, and correfpond- ing interval of night, but ftated that a day's journey further northward the fea was really frozen, and that with refpefk to the length of the days and nights at, and a few days before and after, the fummer folftice, the fun fank fo little below the horizon during the night, that one could purfue their ordi- nary occupations as well as by day- light. The author further describes feveral iflands lying in the north part of the Britifh ocean, which, with a fair wind, might be reached from the north of Britain in two days and a night ; and ftates that here, nearly a hundred years before, namely A.D. 725, hermits from Ireland had taken up their abode, but, difturbed by the roving Northmen, had fince departed, leaving the place uninhabited. Thefe iflands are further defcribed as having upon them Icelandic Sagas. 75 people, whom the Northmen called Papas ; but they went afterwards away, becaufe they would not be here amongft heathens, and left after them Irifh books, and bells, and croziers, from which could be feen that they were Irifh- men. But then began people to travel much here out from Norway, until King Harold forbade it, becaufe it appeared to him that the land had begun to be thinned of inhabitants. From the Prologue to the Landndmabdk, No. 53, Fol. BUT before Iceland was colonized by the Northmen, the men were there whom the Northmen called Papas : they were Chriftians, and people think that they came from the weft over the fea, for there were found after them Irifh books, and bells, and croziers, and many more things, from which it could be feen that they were Weftmen ; fuch were found eaftwards in Papey and Papyli : it is alfo mentioned in Engliih books that, in that time, was intercourfe between the countries. CONCERNING ARI MARSON. A. D. 982. From the Landndmabdk, No. 107, Fol., collated with accounts of the fame tranfaftions in Haukfbdk, No. 105, Fol., Melabdk, No. 106 and 112, Fol., and other MSS. in the Arnce-Magnaan collection. ULF the Squinter, fon of Hogna the White, took all Reyk- janes, between Thorkafjord and Hafrafell; he married Bjorg, them a great number of fheep, which name of which is known to be derived circumftance leads to the conclufion from the original Icelandic term, Farey- that they were the Faroe Iflands, the jar, or sheep iflands. Beami/h. 76 Icelandic Sagas. Bjorg, daughter to Eyvind the Eaftman, fifter to Helge the Lean ; their fon was Atli the Red, who married Thorbjorg, fifter to Steindlf the Humble; their fon was Mar of Hdlum, who married Thorkatla, daughter of Hergil Neprafs ; their fon was Ari ; 86 he was driven by a tempeft to White Man's Land, which fome call GREAT IRELAND ; it lies to the weft in the fea, near to Vinland the Good, and fix days' failing weft from Ireland. 87 From thence could Ari not get away, and was there baptized. This ftory firft told Rafn the Limerick merchant, 88 who had long lived at Limerick in Ireland. 86 Ari Marfon is mentioned in the Kriftni Saga, c. I, p. 6, amongft the principal chiefs in Iceland in the year 981, at which time Bifhop Fridrick and Thorvald Kodranfon came there to promulgate Chriftianity. He and his kinfmenare highly lauded in feveral Icelandic hiftorical works {Sogujxzd- tir IJlandiga, Holum, 1756, 4, p. 105 ; Fdftbrczdra Saga, c. I, p. 6). His father, Mar, and mother, Katla, figure in an ancient poem, which is flill pre- ferved among the common traditions of the Icelanders, under the name of Kot- ludraumr, or Katla's dream, and may be feen in the Arnae-Magnaean collection, No. 154, 8vo. Antiq, Amer., p. 210, note a. Beamijh. 87 "VI. daegra figling veftr frd Ir- landi." Profeffor Rafn is of opinion that the figures VI. have arifen through miftake or careleflhefs of the tranfcriber of the original manufcript which is now loft, and were erroneoufly inferted in- ftead of XX., XL, or perhaps XV., which would better correspond with the distance : this miftake might have eafily arifen from a blot or defect in that part of the original MSS. Antiq. Amer., p. 447. Idem. It might alfo have arifen through the careleffnefs of fome fagaman while it remained in oral tradition. See antea, p. 60, note 64. 89 Hlymreksfari, a furname evidently given here to Rafn, in confequence of his trading to Limerick, with which, as well as the other principal Irifh fea- ports, the Northmen, called by the Irifh Danes, were accuftomed to hold fre- quent communication from the end of the eighth century. Dublin, Water- ford, and Limerick are called in the Icelandic, or old northern tongue, Dy- flin, Vaedrafjordr, and Hlimrek, which has probably led Cambrenfis and others to attribute the foundation of thefe cit- ies to the Northmen, Amelanus, Sitara- cus, and Ivarus, or Anlaf, Sitric, and Ivar, in the year 864, when they made a hoftile expedition to the country, and fettled in thefe three towns refpe<5lively; but O'Halloran fhows that Dublin, Waterford, and Limerick were cities of note long before that period, and that the trade of Dublin, in particular, was fo great at the clofe of the fecond century that a bloody war broke out between the monarch Con and the King of Munfter, to determine to whom the duties upon exports and imports mould belong. Hi/I. Ireland, Vol. 1 1 1 . p. 178. Icelandic Sagas. 77 Ireland. 89 Thus faid [alfo] Thorkell Gellerfon, 90 that Ice- landers p. 178. Moore, however, gives Sitric the credit of founding Waterford [II. p. 37], although its original Irifh name of Port Lairge would ieem to imply a place of fome commercial importance before the adoption of its northern title, from which the name of Water- ford is evidently derived [Vaedrafjord, the fordable frith]. Limerick, O'Hal- loran tells us, was fo noted for its com- merce from the earlieft times, that it is never mentioned by ancient Irifh writ- ers without the epithet Long, a mip; and we find Ceallachan Caifil, king of Munfter, calling it Luimneach na Luingas, or Limerick of the mips. Hijt. Ireland, I. p. 159, and III. p. 178. According to Archbifhop Ufher, the firft invafion of the Danes, or North- men, took place about the year 797, when the Annals of Ulfter notice a defcent on the ifle of Rechrin, or Ragh- lin, north of the county Antrim ; and their incurfions continued, with little intermiflion, until their final defeat by Brien Boirumhe, or Boru, in the cele- brated battle of Clontarff, April 23, 1014. The intervals of peace were naturally applied to commercial inter- courfe between the two nations ; and the Northmen became eftablifhed not only at the principal fea-ports, but in the interior of the country. Hence we find Irifh names of perfons in Ice- land, and names of places formed of Northern elements in Ireland : the Icelandic Niel or Njall is evidently the Irifh Neil ; Kjallach, Ceallach ; Kjaran, Kieran ; Bjarni, Barny, &c. Names of places are of a mixed origin : to the Irifh Laighean, Munhain, Ul- ladh, the Northmen added their fladr (place), which afterwards becamey&r, and thus arose Leinfter, Munfter, Ul- fter, &c. (See De ^Eldjle, toge fro. Norden til Irland of N. M. Peterfen, ap. Annaler for Nordijk Oldkyndighed, 1836, pp. 2, 3.) The general name of Danes could hardly have arifen from the invaders being confidered Danifh, as they were a mixed race of Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Saxons, Frifians, and other Gothic tribes from the Cim- bric peninfula and mores of the Baltic, and were diftinguifhed by the Irifh according to the color of their hair or complexion, as Fionne Gail, the white ftrangers, and Dubh Gail, the black ftrangers (hence, probably, Fingal and Donegal). The term Dane, which was fometimes applied, is, therefore, more likely to have been expreffive of the character than the country of the in- vaders, and to be derived from the Irifh words Dana, bold, impetuous, and Fear, man : hence Dan-oit, the impetuous river, as the Danube is called in ancient Celtic. See O^Hal- loran, Vol. III. p. 149, and O'Brien's IriJJi Difl. in voce Dana. BeamiJJi. 89 The pedigree of Rafn, the Limer- ick merchant, or Oddfon, is given in the Landndmabdk, II. 21, p. 98, from which it appears that he was defcended from Duke Rolf of Norway, and on the maternal fide from Stein<5f the Humble, being thus connected as well with Ari Marfon as Leif Erikfon, and lived about the middle or beginning of the eleventh century. In the Sturlunga Saga, I. c. 3, he is named amongft the anceftors of Skard-Snorri, from whom the mofl diftinguifhed Icelanders trace their de- fcent, and it is probable was the fame individual known fometimes by the name of Rafn the Red [Rafn hinn raudi\ who accompanied Sigurd, king of the Orkneys, to Ireland in 1014, and was prefent at the battle of Clontarff, April 23, of the fame year. Antiq. Awer., p. 211, note a. Idem. 90 Thorkell Gellerfon was great grandfon 78 Icelandic Sagas. landers had ftated, who had heard Thorfinn Jarl of the Orkneys relate that Ari was recognized in White Man's Land, and could not get away from thence, but was there much reflected. Ari married Thorgerd, daughter to Alf of Dolum, whofe fons were Thorgils, Gudleif, and Illugi : this is the family of Reykjanefs. A fon of Ulf the Squin- ter was called Jorund; he married Thorbjorg Knarrar- bringa ; their daughter was Thjodhild, who married Erik the Red ; their fon [was] Leif the Lucky of Greenland. The fon of Atli the Red was called Jorund ; he married Thordis, daughter of Thorgeir Suda; their daughter was Otkatla, who married Thorgill Kollfon. Jorund was alfo father to Snorri. FRAGMENTUM GEOGRAPHICUM. From the Manufcript Codex, 770, Antiq. Amer., p. 214. Now are there, as is faid, fouth from Greenland, which is inhabited, deferts, uninhabited places, and icebergs, then the Skraelings, then Markland, then Vinland the Good; next, and fomewhat behind, lies Albania, which is White Man's Land ; thither was failing, formerly, from Ireland ; there Irimmen and Icelanders recognized Ari the fon of Mar and Katla of Reykjanefs, of whom nothing had been heard grandfon of Ari Marfon, and uncle things to his kinfman, Ari Frode, who to Ari Frode, the writer of this narra- appears to have had the fulleft confi- tive. He refided at Helgafell in Ice- dence in his ftatements, and often gives land, and was well known as a wealthy, his exprefs words, together with his honorable, and brave yeoman, who, name, as a fecurity for the truth of the defirous of knowledge, had travelled narrative. Antiq. Amer., p. 212, note much in his youth. He related many a. BeamiJJi. Icelandic Sagas. 79 heard for a long time, and who had been made a chief there by the inhabitants. VOYAGE OF BJORN ASBRANDSON. 91 A. D. 999. BORK the Fat, and Thordis, Sur's daughter, had a daughter that was called Thurid, and me was married to Thorbjorn the Fat, who lived at Froda ; he was fon of Orm the Lean, who had taken and cultivated the farm of Froda. Thurid, daughter of Af brand of Kamb in Breidavik, had he formerly married ; (he was fifter to Bjorn Breidvikingakappa, who is hereafter mentioned in the Saga, and to Arnbjorn the Strong ; her fons by Thorbjorn were Ketill the Cham- pion, Gunnlaug, and Hallftein. . . . Now mall fomething be told about Snorri Godi, 92 that he took up the procefs about the murder of Thorbjorn his brother-in-law. 91 This remarkable narrative is taken real name was Thorgrim Thorgrimfon ; from the Eyrbyggja Saga, or early an- but, being rather unmanageable when nals of that diftric~l of Iceland lying a child, he obtained the cognomen of around the promontory of Snasfells on Snerrir, from the Icelandic word, fner- the weftern coaft. It is clearly mown rinn, pugnacious, which afterwards be- by Bifhop Miiller to have been writ- came Snorri. Miiller, Sag. Bib., V. i. ten not later than the beginning of the He was born in 964, and died in 1031 ; thirteenth century. Beamijh. Vide and hence it follows that the events Bifhop Miiller's account of this Saga, recorded in this and the following nar- in extenfo, in Beamiflfs Northmen, pp. rative, where he is mentioned as an 200-202. active participator, mult have occurred 92 Godi, prieft of the temple and pre- previous to the year 1030. Various fe6l of the province, from GWthe Deity, orthography has been followed by Eng- being fuppofed to hold the office by lifh writers with regard to the name, divine appointment. Snorri Godi occu- fome calling it Snorro and others pies a confpicuous place in Icelandic Snorre, but the final i feems to accord hiftory from the end of the tenth to the more with the Icelandic root. Idem. beginning of the eleventh century. His 8o Icelandic Sagas. brother-in-law. He alfo took his fifler home to Helgafell, becaufe there was a report that Bjorn, fon of Af brand from Kamb, began to come there to inveigle her. . . . There was a man from Medallfellftrand called Thorodd ; an honorable man ; he was a great merchant, and owned a trading fliip. Thorodd had made a trading voyage weft- wards to Ireland, 93 to Dublin. At that time had Jarl Sigurd Lodverffon, of the Orkneys, 94 fway to the Hebrides, and all the way weftward to Man : he impofed a tribute on the inhabitants of Man, and, when they had made peace, the Jarl left men behind him to coll eel: the tribute ; it was moftly paid in fmelted filver; but the Jarl failed away northwards to the Orkneys. But when they who had waited for the tribute were ready for failing, they put to fea with a fouth-weft wind ; but when they had failed for a time the wind changed to the fouth-eaft and eaft, and there arofe a great ftorm, and drove them northwards under Ireland, and the fhip broke there afunder upon an uninhab- ited ifland. And when they had gotten there, came, by chance, the Icelander Thorodd, on a voyage from Dublin. The Jarl's men called out to the merchantmen to help them. Thorodd put out a boat, and went into it himfelf, and, when it came up, the Jarl's men begged Thorodd to help 93 Kaupferd veftr til Irlands. Here their northern tafk-mafter. See Peter- we fee the nature of the voyage dif- fen in Annal. for Nord. Oldk. 2836. tinc"lly dated, and Ireland fpoken of as Comp. note 84. Beami/h. lying -we/awards from Iceland, which 94 The Orkneys are called in north- evidently arofe from its pofition with ern language Orkneyjar, from Orka, regard to Norway, the fatherland of a kind of feal, which is defcribed in the fettlers ; hence, alfo, Veftmannaey- "Speculum Regale," pp. 176, 177. jar (Weftman's Iflands), on the fouth Sigurd fell in battle in Ireland, 1013. coaft of Iceland, where fome Irifh cap- Antiq. Amer., p. 218, note b. Idem. tives took refuge after the murder of Icelandic Sagas. 81 help them, and offered him money to take them home to Sigurd Jarl in the Orkneys ; but Thorodd thought he could not do that, becaufe he was bound for Iceland ; but they preffed him hard, for they thought it concerned their goods and freedom, that they mould not be left in Ireland or the Hebrides, where they before had waged war, and it ended fo that he fold them the fhip's boat, and took there- fore a great part of the tribute ; they fleered then with the boat to the Orkneys ; but Thorodd failed without the boat to Iceland, and came to the fouth of the land ; then fleered he weftwards, and failed into Breidafjord, and landed, with all on board, at Dogurdarnefs, and went in autumn to win- ter with Snorri Godi at Helgafell ; he was fince then called Thorodd the Tribute-buyer. This happened a little after the murder of Thorbjorn the Fat. The fame winter was at Helgafell Thurid the filler of Snorri Godi, whom Thorbjorn the Fat had married. Thorodd afked Snorri Godi to give him Thurid his filler in marriage ; and becaufe he was rich, and Snorri knew him from a good fide, and faw that me required fome one to manage her affairs, with all this together refolved Snorri Godi to give him the woman, and their marriage was held there in the winter at Helgafell. But in the following fpring Thorodd betook himfelf to Froda, and became a good and upright yeoman. But fo foon as Thurid came to Froda, began Bjorn Albrandfon to vifit there, and there was fpread a general report that he and Thurid had unlawful intercourfe ; then began Thorodd to complain about his vifits, but did not obje6l to them feri- oufly. At that time dwelled Thorer Vidlegg at Arnarhvol, and his fons, Orn and Val, were grown up, and very prom- ifmg 82 Icelandic Sagas. ifmg men ; they reproached Thorodd for fubmitting to fuch difgrace as Bjorn put upon him, and offered Thorodd their affiftance, if he would forbid the vifits of Bjorn. It hap- pened one time that Bjorn came to Froda, and he fat talking with Thurid. Thorodd ufed always to fit within when Bjorn was there, but now was he nowhere to be feen. Then faid Thurid: "Take care of thy walks, Bjorn, for I fufpecl: that Thorodd thinks to put an end to thy vifits here ; and it looks to me as if they had gone out to fall upon thee by the way, and he thinks they will not be met by equal force." " That can well be," faid Bjorn, and chaunted this ftave : O Goddefs of the arm-ring gold, Let this bright day the longeft hold On earth ; for now I linger here In my love's arms, but foon muft fear Thefe joys will vanifh, and her breath Be raifed to mourn my early death. Thereafter took Bjorn his arms, and went away, intending to go home ; but when he had gotten up the Digramula, fprang five men upon him ; this was Thorodd and two of his fervants, and the fons of Thorer Vidlegg. They feized Bjorn, but he defended himfelf well and manfully ; Thorer's fons preffed in hardeft upon him, and wounded him, but he was the death of both of them. After that Thorodd went away with his men, and was a little wounded, but they not. Bjorn went his way until he came home, and went into the room ; the woman of the houfe 95 told a maid fervant to attend him ; 95 Husfreyja ; Dan., Hausfru ; Siued., ing, in this cafe, Bjorn's mother. Husfru ; Ger., Hausfrau : literally, the Beamijh. woman or lady of the houfe, and mean- Icelandic Sagas. 83 him ; and when (he came into the room with a light, then faw fhe that Bjorn was very bloody ; me went then in, and told his father Afbrand that Bjorn was come home bloody; Af- brand went into the room, and afked why Bjorn was bloody; " or have you, perhaps, fallen in with Thorodd ? " Bjorn anfwered that fo it was. Afbrand then afked how the bufmefs had ended. Bjorn chaunted: Eafier far it is to fondle, In the arms of female fair (Vidlegg's fons I both have (lain), Than with valiant men to wreftle, Or tamely purchafed tribute 96 bear. Then bound Afbrand his wounds, and he became quite reftored. Thorodd begged Snorri Godi to manage the matter about Thorer's fons' murder, and Snorri had it brought before the court of Thorfnefs; but the fons of Thorlak of Eyra affifled Breidvikinga in this affair, and the uplhot was that Afbrand went fecurity for his fon Bjorn, and undertook to pay a fine for the murder. But Bjorn was banifhed for three years, and went away the fame fummer. During the fame fummer Thurid of Froda was delivered of a male child, which received the name of Kjartan; he grew up at Froda, and was foon large and promifing. Now when Bjorn had croffed the fea [to Norway], he bent his way fouthwards to Denmark, and therefrom fouth to 96 In allufion to Thorodd's tranfac- the furname of " Tribute-buyer." tion with the crew of Sigurd. See Beamijfi. antea, p. 81, from which he obtained Icelandic Sagas. to Jomfborg. 97 Then was Palnatoki chief of the Jomfvikings. Bjorn joined their band, and was named Champion. 98 He was in Jomfborg when Styrbjorn the Strong took the caftle. Bjorn was alfo with them in Sweden, when the Jomfvikings aided Styrbjorn; he was alfo in the battle of Fyrifvall, where Styrbjorn fell, and efcaped in the wood with other Jomfvikings. And fo long as Palnatoki lived," was Bjorn with him, and was looked upon as a diftinguifhed man, and very brave in all times of trial. . . . The fame fummer 100 came the brothers Bjorn and Arnbjorn out to Iceland to Raunhafnarfos. Bjorn was afterwards called the Champion of Breidavik. Arnbjorn had brought much money out with him, and immediately, the 97 Jomfborg (or Jem's caftle), called alfo Julin, was built by the Danifh King Harold Blaatand, on one of the mouths of the Oder, on the coaft of Pomerania. It was afterwards gov- erned by Palnatoki, a powerful chief of Fionia (Fynen), to whom Buriflaus, king of the Wends, fearing his power, gave the neighboring territory, on con- dition that he would defend the mon- arch's kingdom from foreign aggref- fion. Palnatoki accepted the condi- tions, and became chief of a community of pirates called Jomfvikingr, who were diftinguimed, even in thofe days of brutal valor, for extraordinary perfonal bravery and contempt of death. He eftablimed the ftricteft laws, and ex- acted the moft rigid tefts from thofe who fought to enter the fociety : the rank of Kappi, or champion, given to Bjorn Afbrandfon, was, therefore, the ftrongeft evidence of his eminent quali- ties as a warrior. Antiq. Amer., p. 227, note a. Jomfvikinga Saga ; and for the particular locality of Jomfborg, which is fuppofed to be the prefent Wollin, fee De Danjkes Toge, til Ven- den of N. M. Peterfen, ap. Annalerfor Nordijk Oldkyndighed, Kjobenhavn, J 837, pp. 235-238. Beaml/h. 98 Styrbjorn was the fon of Olaf, who reigned in Sweden jointly with Erik the Victorious, but, in confequence of afpiring to the throne and the murder of a courtier named Aki, fell into dif- grace, and retired, with fixty mips given him by Erik, to Jomfborg, of which he became governor. Afterwards he made an expedition to Sweden, in con- junction with Harald Gormfon, and fell in battle againft the king, his uncle, in the plain of Fyrifvold near Upfala, A.D. 984. See Antiq. Amer., p. 227, note, Fornmanna Sb'gur, Vol. V., faffr Styrbjarnar Svia kappa in Cod. Flat.j and Jomfuikinga Saga, Miiller, Vol. 3. Idem. 99 Palnatoki died A.D. 993. Idem. 100 About the year 996. Antiq. Amer., p. 228, note a. Icelandic Sagas. 85 the fame fummer that he came, bought land at Bakke in Raunhofn. Arnbjorn made no difplay, and fpoke little on mofl occafions, but was however, in all refpecls, a very able man. Bjorn, his brother, was, on the other hand, very pompous, when he came to the country, and lived in great flyle, for he had accuftomed himfelf to the court ufages of foreign chiefs ; he was much handfomer than Arnbjorn, and in no particular lefs able, but was much more (killed in martial exercifes, of which he had given proofs in foreign lands. In the fummer, jufl after they had arrived, a great meeting of the people was held north of the heath, under Haugabret, near the mouth of the Froda ; and thither rode all the merchants, in colored garments ; 101 and when they had come to the meeting, was there many people affembled. There was Thurid, the lady of Froda, and Bjorn went up, and fpoke to her, and no one objected to this, for it was thought likely that their difcourfe would laft long, fince they, for fuch a length of time, had not feen each other. There arofe that day a fight, and one of the men from the northern mountains received a deadly wound, and was carried down under a bum on the bank of the river : much blood 101 " A fimilar fancy for party-colored Irifh monarch Achy, a law was enabled drefles," fays Moore, " exifled among regulating the number of colors by the Celts of Gaul, and Diodorus de- which the garments of the different fcribes the people as wearing garments clafles of fociety were to be diflin- flowered with all varieties of colors, guifhed, and from thefe party-colored Xpoytao-i iravToSdirois 8iijvdia-p.fvovs, Lib. dreffes, worn by the ancient Scots or 5. The braccae, or breeches, was fo Irifh, is derived the prefent national called from being plaided, the word coftume [ftill called brekan\ of their brae fignifying in Celtic any thing descendants in North Britain. Hift. fpeckled or party-colored." Accord- Ir., I. pp. 109, no; O'Brien, Irijft ing to O'Brien, the Hiberno-Celtic Did. in voce breac, Lluyd. Arch. Brit, word is breac. In the reign of the Beamijh. 86 Icelandic Sagas. blood flowed from the wound, fo that there was a pool of blood in the bufh. There was the boy Kjartan, fon of Thurid of Froda ; he had a fmall axe in his hand ; he ran to the bufh, and dipped the axe in the blood. When the men from the fouthern mountains rode fouthwards from the meeting, Thord Blig afked Bjorn how the difcourfe had turned out betwixt him and Thurid of Froda. Bjorn faid that he was well contented therewith. Then afked Thord, whether he had that day feen the lad Kjartan, her and Thorodd's united fon. " Him faw I," faid Bjorn. " What do you think of him ? " quoth Thord, again. Then chaunted Bjorn this Have : A ftripling, lo ! With fearful eyes And woman's image, Downwards ran To the wolf's lair. The people fay The youth knows not His Viking father. Thord faid: "What will Thorodd fay when he hears of your boy ? " Then fung Bjorn : Then will the noble lady, When preffing to her breaft The image of his father In her fair arms to reft, Admit Thorodd's conjecture ; For me me ever loved, And ever (hall I bear her Affection deep and proved. Thord Icelandic Sagas. 87 Thord faid : " It will be better for ye not to have much to do with each other, and that thou turn thy thoughts from Thurid." " That is furely a good counfel," replied Bjorn, " but far is that from my intention, although it makes fome difference when I have to do with fuch a man as Snorri her brother." " Thou wilt be forry for thy doings," faid Thord J and therewith ended the talk between them. Bjorn went home now to Kamb, and took upon himfelf the manage- ment of the place, for his father was then dead. In the winter he began his trips over the heath, to vifit Thurid ; and although Thorodd did not like it, he yet faw that it was not eafy to find a remedy, and he thought over with him- felf how dearly it had cofl him, when he fought to flop their intercourfe; but he faw that Bjorn was now much ftronger than before. Thorodd bribed, in the winter, Thor- grim Galdrakin to raife a tempeft againft Bjorn, when he was croffing the heath. Now it came to pafs one day, that Bjorn came to Froda, and in the evening, when he was going home, was there thick weather and fome rain ; and he fet off very late ; but when he had gotten up on the heath, the weather became cold, and it mowed ; and fo dark that he faw not the way before him. After that arofe a drift of mow, with fo much fleet that he could fcarcely keep his legs ; his clothes were now frozen, for he was before wet through, and he ftrayed about, fo that he knew not where to turn ; hit, at night, upon the edge of a cave, went in, and was there for the night, and had a cold lodging ; then fung Bjorn: Fair 88 Icelandic Sagas. Fair one ! who doft bring Veftments to the weary, 102 Little know'ft thou where, Hid in cavern dreary, I now fhelter feek : He that once on ocean Boldly fleered a bark, Now lies without motion In a cavern dark. And again he chaunted : The fwan's cold region I have crofled All eaftwards with a goodly freight, For woman's love, by tempeft toft And feeking danger in the fight ; But now no woman's couch I tread, A rocky cavern is my bed. Bjorn remained three days in the cave, before the weather moderated ; but on the fourth day came he home from the heath to Kamb. He was much exhaufted. The fervants afked him where he had been during the tempeft. Bjorn fang: Well my deeds are known Under Styrbjorn's banner, Steel-clad Erik flew Gallant men in battle ; Now on mountain wild, Met by magic fhower, Outlet 12 To the women of the Northern ments to the traveller who had fuf- family was more particularly entrufted fered from the tempeftuoufnefs of the the duties of hofpitality, among which weather. Antiq. Amer., p. 236, note was included that of bringing dry gar- a. Beami/h. Icelandic Sagas. 89 Outlet could not find From the Witches' power. K)3 Bjorn was now at home for the winter. In fpring his brother Arnbjorn fixed his refidence at Bakke in Raunhofn, but Bjorn lived at Kamb, and kept a fplendid houfe. . . . The fame fummer bade Thorodd the Tribute-buyer his brother-in-law Snorri Godi to a feaft at home at Froda, and Snorri betook himfelf thither with twenty men. And while Snorri was at the feafl, difclosed Thorodd to him how he felt himfelf both difgraced and injured by the vifits which Bjorn Afbrandfon made to Thurid his wife, but fifter to Snorri Godi : Thorodd faid that Snorri mould remedy this bad bufmefs. Snorri was there a few days, and Thorodd gave him coftly prefents when he went away. Snorri Godi rode from thence over the heath, and gave out that he was going to the fhip in the Bay of Raunhofn. This was in fummer, at the time of haymaking. But when they came fouth on Kamb's heath, then faid Snorri : " Now will we ride from the heath down to Kamb, and I will tell you," faid he, " that I will vifit Bjorn, and take his life, if opportunity offers, but not attack him in the houfe, for the buildings are flrong 108 Thefe poetical effufions of Bjorn "But trnfteth wel I am a Sotheme man, may, perhaps, appear fomewhat im- I cannot gefte rom, m f, by my letter proLbi to P Eng!gh readers, but the And God ^ J tf63SS Northmen of this period exhibited great readinefs in a fpecjes of rude Cette finguliere maniere de f'ex- verfification, the melody of which was primer Aoit pou rtant affez commune, chiefly formed on alliteration. "As et peut marquer feule combien ces late as the time of Chaucer," fays Sir peup i es faifoient de cas de la PoeTie." Walter Scott, "it was confidered as _ Mallet, Introd. d. VHtft. de Danne- the mark of a Northern man to 'affect marc n 24.7 Beami/h the letter.'" And his parfon thus apologizes for not reciting a piece of poetry : 12 go Icelandic Sagas. ftrong here, and Bjorn is flrong and hardy, and we have but little force ; and it is well known that men who have come, even fo, with great force, have, with little fuccefs, attacked fuch valiant men, infide in the houfe, as was the cafe with Geir Godi, and Giffur the white, when they attacked Gun- nar of Lidarend, in his houfe, with eighty men, but he was there alone, and neverthelefs were fome wounded, and others killed ; and they had flayed the attack, had not Geir Godi, with his heedfulnefs, obferved that he was fhort of arms. But forafmuch as," continued he, " Bjorn is now out, which may be expected, as it is good drying weather, fo appoint I thee, my kinfman Mar, to fetch Bjorn the firft wound ; but confider well that he is no man to trifle with, and that, wherever he is, you may expect a hard blow from a favage wolf, if he, at the onfet, receives not fuch a wound as will caufe his death." And now when they rode down from the moor to the farm, faw they that Bjorn was out in the homeftead, working at a fledge, 101 and there was nobody with him, and no weapons had he except a little axe, and a large knife, of a fpan's length from the haft, which he ufed for boring the holes in the fledge. Bjorn faw that Snorri Godi with his followers rode down from the moor into the field, and knew them immediately. Snorri Godi was in a blue cloak, and rode in front. Bjorn made an immediate refolve, and took the knife, and went ftraight towards them ; when they came together, he feized with the one hand the arm of Snorri's cloak, and with the other held he the knife in 104 Small wooden unfliod fledges are to the haggart, in the fummer feafon. ufed in Scandinavia for drawing in hay Beamijh. Icelandic Sagas. 91 in fuch a manner as was mofl eafy for him to flab Snorri through the breafl, if he mould think fit to do fo. Bjorn greeted them, as they met, and Snorri greeted him again ; but Mar dropped his hands, for it flruck him that Bjorn could foon hurt Snorri, if any injury was done to him. Upon this Bjorn went with them on their way, and afked what news they had, but held himfelf in the fame pofition which he had taken at the firfl. Then took up Bjorn the difcourfe in this manner : " It flands truly fo, friend Snorri, that I conceal not I have acted towards you in fuch wife that you may well accufe me, and I have been told that you have a hoftile intention towards me. Now it feems to me beft," continued he, " that if you have any bulinefs with me, other than paffing by here to the high road, you mould let me know it ; but be that not the cafe, then would I that you grant me peace, and I will then turn back, for I go not in leading firings." Snorri anfwered : " Such a lucky grip took thou of me at our meeting, that thou mufl have peace this time, however it may have been determined before ; but this I beg of thee, that from henceforth thou ceafe to inveigle Thurid, for it will not end well between us, if thou, in this refpec~l, continue as thou hall begun." Bjorn re- plied : " That only will I promife thee which I can perform, but I fee not how I can hold to this, fo long as Thurid and I are in the fame diflric"l." " Thou art not fo much bound to this place," anfwered Snorri, "but that thou couldefl eafily give up thy refidence here." Bjorn replied : " True is that which thou fayefl, and thus fhall it be ; fince you have yourfelf come to me, and as our meeting has thus turned out, will I promife thee that Thorodd and thou shalt have no 92 Icelandic Sagas. no more trouble about my vifits to Thurid for the next 3'ear." After this they feparated ; Snorri Godi rode to the fhip, and then home to Helgafell. The day following rode Bjorn fouthwards to Raunhofn to go to fea, and he got immediately, in the fummer, a place in a fhip, and they were very foon ready. They put to fea with a north-eaft wind, which wind lafled long during the fummer; but of this fhip was nothing heard fince this long time. VOYAGE OF GUDLEIF GUDLAUGSON. A. D. 1029. Eyrbyggja Saga, Cap. 64 ; Vellum Fragment, No. 4456, in 4/0. THERE was a man called Gudleif ; he was fon of Gudlaug the Rich, of Straumfjord, and brother of Thorfinn, from whom the Sturlungers are defcended. Gudleif was a great merchant, he had a merchant fhip, but Thorolf Eyrar Lopt- fon had another, that time they fought againfl Gyrd, fon of Sigvald Jarl : then loft Gyrd his eye. It happened in the laft years of the reign of King Olaf the Saint that Gudleif undertook a trading voyage to Dublin ; 105 but when he failed from the weft, intended he to fail to Iceland; he failed then from the weft of Ireland, and met with north- eaft winds, and was driven far to the weft and fouth-weft, in the fea, where no land was to be feen. But it was already far gone in the fummer, and they made many prayers 106 Some of the MSS. add "veflr," lying weftwards from Iceland. Bea- fhowing that Ireland was fpoken of as mi/h. Icelandic Sagas. 93 prayers that they might efcape from the fea ; and it came to pafs that they faw land. It was a great land, but they knew not what land it was. Then took they the refolve to fail to the land, for they were weary of contending longer with the violence of the fea. They found there a good harbor; and when they had been a fhort time on more, came people to them : they knew none of the people, but it rather appeared to them that they fpoke Irifh. 106 Soon came to them fo great a number that it made up many hundreds. Thefe men fell upon them and feized them all, and bound them, and drove them up the country. There were they brought before an affembly, to be judged. They underflood fo much that fome were for killing them, but others would have them diflributed amongft the inhabitants, arid made Haves. And while this was going on, faw they where rode a great body of men, and a large banner was borne in the midft. Then thought they that there muft be a chief in the troop ; but when it came near, faw they that under the banner rode a large and dignified man, who was much in years, and whofe hair was white. All prefent bowed down before the man, and received him as well as they could. Now obferved they that all opinions and refolutions concerning their bufmefs were fubmitted to his decifion. Then ordered this man Gudleif and his com- panions to be brought before him, and when they had come 106 "En helzt J>otti heim, fern )>eir the Irifh ports, might be fuppofed to maelti irfku." This is a very remark- have had juft fufficient knowledge of able paffage, and affords the ftrongeft the language to deteft its founds (here grounds for believing that the country probably corrupted), and underftand to which they were driven had been the general meaning of the words. previously colonized from Ireland. The Beamijh. Northmen, from their intercourfe with 94 Icelandic Sagas. come before this man, fpoke he to them in the Northern tongue, 107 and afked them from what country they came. They anfwered him that the moft of them were Icelanders. The man afked which of them were Icelanders ? Gudleif faid that he was an Icelander. He then faluted the old man, and he received it well, and afked from what part of Iceland he came. Gudleif faid that he was from that dif- tric~t which was called Borgafjord. Then inquired he from what part of Borgafjord he came, and Gudleif anfwered juft as it was. Then afked this man about almoft every one of the principal men in Borgafjord and Breidafjord; and when they talked thereon, inquired he minutely about every thing, firft of Snorri Godi, and his lifter Thurid of Froda, and moft about Kjartan her fon. The people of the country now called out, on the other fide, that fome decifion fhould be made about the feamen. After this went the great man away from them, and named twelve of his men with himfelf, and they fat a long time talking. Then went they to the meeting of the people, and the old man faid to Gudleif : " I and the people of the country have talked together about your bufinefs, and the people have left the matter to me ; but I will now give ye leave to depart whence ye will ; but although ye may think that the fum- mer is almoft gone, yet will I counfel ye to remove from hence, for here are the people not to be trufted, and bad to deal with, and they think befides that the laws have been broken to their injury." Gudleif anfwered : " What mail we fay, if fate permits us to return to our own country, who has given us this freedom ? " He anfwered : " That can I not tell you, 107 Norraenu. See antea, note 30. Icelandic Sagas. 95 you, for I like not that my relations and fofter-brothers fhould make fuch a journey hereto, as ye would have made, if ye had not had the benefit of my help ; but now is my age fo advanced that I may expect every hour old age to overpower me ; and even if I could live yet for a time, there are here more powerful men than me, who little peace would give to foreigners that might come here, although they be not juft here in the neighborhood where ye landed." Then caufed he their fhip to be made ready for fea, and was there with them, until a fair wind fprung up, which was favorable to take them from the land. But before they feparated took this man a gold ring from his hand, and gave it into the hands of Gudleif, and therewith a good fword ; then faid he to Gudleif : " If the fates permit you to come to your own country, then mail you take this fword to the yeoman, Kjartan of Froda, but the ring to Thurid his mother." Gudleif replied : " What mall I fay, about it, as to who fends them thefe valuables?" He anfwered : " Say that he fends them who was a better friend of the lady of Froda than of her brother, Godi of Helgafell ; but if any man therefore thinks that he knows who has owned thefe articles, then fay thefe my words, that I forbid any one to come to me, for it is the moft dangerous expedition, unlefs it happens as fortunately with others at the landing- place as with you ; but here is the land great, and bad as to harbors, and in all parts may flrangers expect hoftility, when it does not turn out as has been with you." After this, Gudleif and his people put to fea, and they landed in Ireland late in harveft, and were in Dublin for the winter. But in the fummer after, failed they to Iceland, and Gudleif delivered 96 Icelandic Sagas. delivered over there thefe valuables ; and people held it for certain that this man was BJORN, THE CHAMPION OF BREI- DAVIK, and no other account to be relied on is there in con- firmation of this, except that which is now given here. 108 108 The reader will no doubt come to the fame conclusion drawn by the Ice- landers refpecting the identity of the aged chief, to whofe generofity and friendly feeling Gudleif and his com- panions were fo much indebted, and unhefitatingly pronounce him to have been none other than BJORN ASBRAND- SON, THE CHAMPION OF BREIDAVIK, who, it will be remembered, had fet fail about thirty years before, with a north- eaft wind, and had not fince been heard of. The remarkable accordance of all the perfonal details, to which the writer evidently attaches the principal impor- tance, with the hiftorical events, which are only incidentally alluded to, enable us to determine dates and intervals of time with a degree of accuracy that places the truth of the narrative be- yond all queftion, and gives a high de- gree of intereft to thefe two voyages. The mention of Sigurd Jarl of the Ork- neys, Palnatoki, Styrbjorn the nephew of Erik of Sweden, the battle of Fyrif- vold, Snorri Godi, " the latter part of the reign of King Olaf the Saint," gives a chronological character to the narra- tives, and enables us to fix with confi- dence nearly the exact period of the principal events. Hence it appears that Gudleif Gudlaugfon,failing from the weft of Ireland in the year 1029, with a north- eaft wind, is driven far to the fouth and fouth-weft, where no land was to be feen, and that, after being expofed for many days to the violence of the winds and waves, he at length finds Shelter upon a coaft, where Bjorn Afbrandfon, who had left Iceland with north-eaft winds thirty years before, had become eftabliflied as chief of the inhabitants of the country. He finds him, as might naturally have been ex- pected, "Stricken in years," and "his hair was white ; " for Bjorn had left Ice- land for Jomfborg in the prime of life, had, after taking part in the achieve- ments of the Jomfvikings up to the death of Palnatoki in 993, returned to and refided in Iceland until 999, and now thirty winters had palled over his head fince his ultimate departure from his native land. The locality of the newly difcovered country is next to be determined. Now if a line be drawn running north-eaft and fouth-weft, the courfe of Bjorn Afbrandfon, from the weftern coaft of Iceland, and another in the fame direction (the courfe of Gudleif Gudlaugfon) from the weft coaft of Ireland, they would interfect each other on the fouthern mores of the United States, fomewhere about Carolina or Georgia. This pofition accords well with the defcription of the locality of their country, given by the Skraelings to Thorfinn Karlfefne, and which the Northmen believed to be White Man's Land, or GREAT IRE- LAND, as alfo with the geographical notices of the fame land which have been already adduced ; and when to thefe evidences be added the State- ments of Gudleif and his companions refpecting the language of the natives, ''which appeared to them to be Irifli" there is every reafon to conclude that this was the Hvitramannaland, Alba- nia, or Irland ed mikla of the North- men. The notices of the country contained in Icelandic Sagas. 97 in thefe two narratives are, doubtlefs, fcanty, and merely incidental, the ob- ject of the narrators being evidently to trace the romantic and adventurous career of the Champion of Breidavik, and the perilous voyage of his country- men, but this very circumftance is an argument in favor of the honefty of the ftatement as regards the fuppofed I rim fettlement ; and the fimple and unpre- tending character of both narratives, fupported as they are by hiftorical ref- erences, confirmatory of the principal events, gives to thefe incidental allu- fions a degree of importance to which they would not otherwife be entitled. Profeflbr Rafn is of opinion that the White Man's Land, or Great Ireland of the Northmen, was the country fit- uated to the fouth of Chefapeake Bay, including North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Eaft Florida. Beamijh. NOTE. There are intimations in Scandinavian manufcripts of other voyages made to the north and west, as that of Erik, Bifhop of Green- land, in 1 12 1, that of Adalbrand and Helgafon in 1285, and another in 1347, but of thefe the information is too indefinite to be in any degree fatisfac- tory, and accordingly they have not been included in this collection. A SYNOPSIS OF THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCE CONTAINED IN THE PRECEDING PAGES. 109 BY PROFESSOR CHARLES CHRISTIAN RAFN. BIARNE HERIULFSON'S VOYAGE IN THE YEAR 986. |RIK THE RED, in the fpring of 986, emigrated from Iceland to Greenland, formed a fettlement there, and fixed his refidence at Brattahlid in Eriksfiord. Among others who accompanied him was Heriulf Bardfon, who eflablifhed him- felf at Heriulfsnes. BIARNE, the fon of the latter, was at that time abfent on a trading voyage to Norway ; but in the courfe of the fummer returning to Eyrar, in Iceland, and finding that his father had taken his departure, this bold navigator refolved " ftill to fpend the following winter, like all the preceding ones, with his father," although neither he nor any of his people had ever navigated the Greenland fea. 109 From " Antiquitates Americans, " collated with the American reprint of 1838. Synopsis of the Rmdence. 99 fea. They fet fail, but met with northerly winds and fogs, and, after many days' failing, knew not whither they had been carried. At length, when the weather again cleared up, they faw a land which was without mountains, over- grown with wood, and having many gentle elevations. As this land did not correfpond to the defcriptions of Green- land, they left it on the larboard hand, and continued fail- ing two days, when they faw another land, which was flat, and overgrown with wood. From thence they flood out to fea, and failed three days with a fouth-weft wind, when they faw a third land, which was high and mountainous, and covered with icebergs (glaciers); they coafled along the fhore, and faw that it was an ifland. They did not go on fliore, as Biarne did not find the country to be inviting. Bearing away from this ifland, they flood out to fea with the fame wind, and, after four days' failing with frefh gales, they reached Heriulfsnes, in Greenland. DISCOVERIES OF LEIF ERIKSON, AND FIRST SETTLEMENT OF VINELAND. Some time after this, probably in the year 994, Biarne paid a vifit to Erik, Earl of Norway, and told him of his voyage, and of the unknown lands he had difcovered. He was blamed by many for not having examined thefe countries more accurately. On his return to Greenland, there was much talk about undertaking a voyage of difcovery. LEIF, a fon of Erik the Red, bought Biarne's fhip, and equipped it with a crew of thirty-five men, among whom was a Ger- man, of the name of TYRKER, who had long refided with his father, ioo Synopsis of father, and who had been very fond of Leif in his child- hood. In the year 1000 they commenced the projected voyage, and came firft to the land which Biarne had feen laft. They caft anchor and went on more. No grafs was feen ; but everywhere in this country were vaft ice-moun- tains (glaciers), and the intermediate fpace between thefe and the more was, as it were, one uniform plain of flate (hello) : the country appearing to them deftitute of good qualities, they called it HELLULAND. They put out to fea, and came to another land where they alfo went on more. The country was level (JTetf) and covered with woods, and, wherefoever they went, there were cliffs of white fand (fand-ar hvitir), and a low coaft (6-fce-bratf] ; they called the country MARKLAND (Woodland). From thence they again flood out to fea, with a north-eaft wind, and continued failing for two days before they made land again. They then came to an ifland which lay to the eaftward of the mainland, and entered a channel between this ifland and a promontory projecting in an eafterly (and northerly) direction from the mainland. They failed weftward in waters where there was much ground left dry at ebb-tide. Afterwards they went on more at a place where a river, iffuing from a lake, fell into the fea. They brought their fhip into the river, and from thence into the lake, where they caft anchor. Here they conftrucled fome temporary log-huts; but, afterwards, when they had made up their mind to winter there, they built large houfes, afterwards called LEIFSBUDIR (Leifsbooths). When the buildings were completed, Leif divided his people into two companies, who were by turns employed in keeping watch at the houfes, and the Evidence. 101 and in making fmall excurfions for the purpofe of exploring the country in the vicinity : his inftruclions to them were, that they mould not go to a greater diftance than that they might return in the courfe of the fame evening, and that they mould not feparate from one another. Leif took his turn alfo, joining the exploring party the one day, and re- maining at the houfes the other. It fo happened that one day the German, Tyrker, was miffing. Leif accordingly went out with twelve men in fearch of him, but they had not gone far from their houfes, when they met him coming towards them. When Leif inquired why he had been fo long abfent, he at firfl answered in German, but they did not underftand what he faid. He then faid to them in the Norfe tongue : " I did not go much farther, yet I have a difcovery to acquaint you with ; I have found vines and grapes." He added, by way of confirmation, that he had been born in a country where there was plenty of vines. They had now two occupations ; viz., to hew timber for loading the fhip, and collect grapes : with thefe laft they filled the fhip's long-boat. Leif gave a name to the coun- try, and called it VINLAND ( Vineland}. In the fpring they failed again from thence, and returned to Greenland. THORWALD ERIKSON's EXPEDITION TO MORE SOUTHERN REGIONS. Leif's Vineland voyage was now a fubjecl: of frequent converfation in Greenland, and his brother THORWALD was of opinion that the country had not been fufficiently ex- plored. He accordingly borrowed Leif's fhip, and, aided by IO2 Synopsis of by his brother's counfel and directions, commenced a voy- age in the year 1002. He arrived at Leifsbooths, in Vine- land, where they fpent the winter, he and his crew employing themfelves in riming. In the fpring of 1003 Thorwald fent a party in the fhip's long-boat on a voyage of difcovery fouthwards. They found the country beautiful and well wooded, with but little space between the woods and the fea; there were likewife extenfive ranges of white fand, and many iflands and mallows. They found no traces of men having been there before them, excepting on an ifland lying to the weftward, where they found a wooden med. They did not return to Leifsbooths until the fall. In the follow- ing fummer, 1004, Thorwald failed eaftward with the large fhip, and then northward paft a remarkable headland enclof- ing a bay, and which was oppofite to another headland. They called it KIALARNES (Keel-Cape}. From thence they failed along the eaftern coaft of the land, into the neareft firths, to a promontory which there projected, and which was everywhere overgrown with wood. There Thorwald went afhore with all his companions. He was fo pleafed with this place that he exclaimed : " This is beautiful ! and here I mould like well to fix my dwelling ! " Afterwards, when they were preparing to go on board, they obferved on the fandy beach, within the promontory, three hillocks, and repairing thither they found three canoes, under each of which were three Skraelings (Efquimaux) ; they came to blows with the latter, and killed eight, but the ninth efcaped with his canoe. Afterwards a countlefs number iffued forth againft them from the interior of the bay. They endeav- ored to protect themfelves by raifing battle fcreens on the mips the Evidence. 103 fhip's fide. The Skraelings continued fhooting at them for awhile, and then retired. Thorwald was wounded by an arrow under the arm ; and, finding that the wound was mortal, he faid : " I now advife you to prepare for your de- parture as foon as poffible, but me ye mail bring to the promontory, where I thought it good to dwell ; it may be that it was a prophetic word that fell from my mouth about my abiding there for a feafon ; there mall ye bury me, and plant a crofs at my head, and another at my feet, and call the place KROSSANES (Croffnefs) in all time coming." He died, and they did as he had ordered. Afterwards, they returned to their companions at Leifsbooths, and fpent the winter there; but, in the fpring of 1005, they failed again to Greenland, having important intelligence to communi- cate to Leif. UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT OF THORSTEIN ERIKSON. Thorftein, Erik's third fon, had refolved to proceed to Vineland to fetch his brother's body. He fitted out the fame fhip, and felecled twenty-five ftrong and able-bodied men for his crew : his wife, Gudrida, alfo went along with him. They were toffed about the ocean during the whole fummer, and knew not whither they were driven ; but at the clofe of the firft week of winter they landed at Lyfufiord, in the weftern fettlement of Greenland. There Thorftein died during the winter ; and, in the fpring, Gudrida returned again to Eriksfiord. Settlement Synopsis of SETTLEMENT EFFECTED IN VINELAND, BY THORFINN. In the following fummer, 1006, there arrived in Green- land two fhips from Iceland : the one was commanded by THORFINN, having the very fignificant furname of KARL- SEFNE (i.e., one who promifes, or is deftined to be an able or great man), a wealthy and powerful man, of illuftrious line- age, and fprung from Danifh, Norwegian, Swedifh, Irifh, and Scottifh anceftors, fome of whom were kings or of royal defcent. He was accompanied by SNORRE THORBRANDSON, who was alfo a man of diftinguifhed lineage. The other fhip was commanded by BIARNE GRIMOLFSON, of Breide- fiord, and THORHALL GAMLASON, of Auftfiord. They kept the feftival of Yule, or Chriftmas, at Brattahlid. Thorfmn became enamoured of Gudrida, and obtained the confent of her brother-in-law, Leif ; and their marriage was celebrated in the courfe of the winter. On this, as on former occafions, the voyage to Vineland formed a favorite theme of conver- fation, and Thorfinn was urged both by his wife and others to undertake fuch a voyage. It was accordingly refolved on. In the fpring of 1007, Karlfefne and Snorre fitted out their (hip, and Biarne and Thorhall likewife equipped theirs. A third fhip (being that in which Gudrida's father, Thor- biorn, had formerly come to Greenland) was commanded by THORWARD, who was married to FREYDISA, a natural daughter of Erik the Red ; and on board the fhip was alfo a man of the name of THORHALL, who had long ferved Erik as huntfman in fummer and as houfe-fteward in winter, and who had much acquaintance with the uncolonized parts of Greenland. the Evidence. 105 Greenland. The whole expedition confifted of one hundred and fixty men ; and they took with them all kinds of live ftock, it being their intention to eflablifh a colony, if pofli- ble. They failed firfl to the Wefterbygd, and afterwards to Biarney (Difco). From thence they failed in a foutherly direction to HELLULAND, where they found many foxes ; and again two days in a foutherly direction to MARKLAND, a country overgrown with wood, and plentifully flocked with animals. Leaving this, they continued in a fouth-weft direction for a long time, having the land to ftarboard, until they at length came to KIALARNES, where there were track- lefs deferts and long beaches and fands, called by them FURDUSTRANDIR. Faffing thefe, they found the land in- dented by inlets. They had two Scots with them, HAKE and HEKIA, whom Leif had formerly received from the Norwegian king, Olaf Tryggvafon, and who were very fwift of foot. They put them on more, recommending them to proceed in a fouth-weft direction, and explore the coun- try. After the lapfe of three days they returned, bringing with them fome grapes and fome ears of wheat, which grew wild in that region. They continued their courfe until they came to a place where a firth penetrated far into the coun- try. Off the mouth of it was an ifland, paft which there ran ftrong currents, which was alfo the cafe farther up the firth. On the ifland there were an immenfe number of eider-ducks, fo that it was fcarcely poffible to walk without treading on their eggs. They called the ifland STRAUMEY (Stream Ifle), and the firth STRAUMFIORDR (Stream Firt/i). They landed on the more of this firth, and made prepara- tions for their winter refidence. The country was extremely beautiful. 14 io6 Synopsis of beautiful. They confined their operations to exploring the country. Thorhall afterwards wifhed to proceed in a north direction in queft of Vineland. Karlfefne chofe rather to go to the fouth-weft. Thorhall, and eight men with him, quitted them, and failed paft Fursuftrandir and Kialarnes ; but they were driven by wefterly gales to the coaft of Ireland, where, according to the accounts of fome traders, they were beaten and made flaves. Karlfefne, together with Snorre and Biarne, and the reft of the mips' companies, in all one hundred and thirty-one (CXXXI.) men, failed fouthwards, and arrived at the place where a river falls into the fea from a lake. Oppofite to the mouth of the river were large iflands. They fleered into the lake, and called the place HOP (i Hope). On the low grounds they found fields of wheat growing wild ; and on the riling ground, vines. While looking about one morning, they obferved a great number of canoes. As they exhibited friendly fignals, the canoes approached nearer to them, and the natives looked with aftonifhment at thofe they met there. Thefe people were fallow, and ill-looking ; had ugly heads of hair, large eyes, and broad cheeks. After they had gazed at them for awhile, they rowed away again to the fouth-weft paft the cape. Karlfefne and his company had erected their dwelling- houfes a little above the bay, and there they fpent the win- ter. No fnow fell, and the cattle found their food in the open field. One morning early, in the beginning of 1008, they defcried a number of canoes coming from the fouth-weft paft the cape. Karlfefne having held up a white fhield as a friendly fignal, they drew nigh, and immediately commenced bartering. Thefe people chofe in preference red cloth, and gave the Evidence. 107 gave furs and fquirrel (kins in exchange. They would fain alfo have bought fwords and fpears, but thefe Karlfefne and Snorre prohibited their people from felling. In exchange for a fkin, entirely gray, the Skraelings took a piece of cloth of a fpan in breadth, and bound it round their heads. Their barter was carried on in this way for fome time. The North- men found that their cloth was beginning to grow fcarce, whereupon they cut it up in fmaller pieces, not broader than a finger's breadth ; yet the Skraelings gave as much for thefe fmaller pieces as they had formerly given for the larger ones, or even more. Karlfefne alfo caufed the women to make and pour out milk foup, and the Skraelings relifhing the tafte of it, they defired to buy it in preference to every thing elfe ; fo they wound up their traffic by carrying away their bargains in their ftomachs. Whilft this trade was going on, it happened that a bull, which Karlfefne had brought along with him, came out of the wood and bellowed loudly. At this the Skraelings became terrified, rufhed to their canoes, and rowed away fouthwards. About this time, Gudrida, Karlfefne's wife, gave birth to a fon, who received the name of SNORRE. In the beginning of the following winter the Skraelings came again in much greater numbers ; they fhowed fymptoms of hoftility, fetting up loud yells. Karlfefne caufed the red fhield to be borne againft them, whereupon they advanced againft each other, and a battle commenced. There was a galling difcharge of miffiles. The Skraelings had a fort of war flings ; they elevated on a pole a tremendoufly large ball, almoft the fize of a fheep's ftomach, and of a bluifh color ; this they fwung from the pole upon land over Karlfefne's people, and it defcended with io8 Synopsis of with a fearful crafh. This ftruck terror into the Northmen, and they fled along the river. Freydifa came out, and fee- ing them flying, fhe exclaimed : " How can ftout men like you fly from thefe miferable caitiffs, whom I thought you could knock down like cattle ! If I had only a weapon, I ween I could fight better than any of you ! " They heeded not her words. She tried to keep pace with them, but the advanced ftate of her pregnancy retarded her : she, however, followed them into the wood. There fhe encountered a dead body : it was THORBRAND SNORRASON ; a flat flone was flicking faft in his head, and his naked fword lay by his fide ; this fhe took up, and prepared to defend herfelf. She uncovered her bofom, and ftruck it with the naked fword. At this fight the Skraelings became terrified, and ran off to their canoes. Karlfefne and the reft now came up to her, and praifed her courage. They were now become aware that, although the country held out many advantages, ftill the life that they would have to lead here would be one of conftant alarm from the hoftile attacks of the natives. They therefore made preparations for departure, with the refolu- tion of returning to their own country. Sailing eaftward, they arrived in Streamfirth. Karlfefne then took one of the fhips, and failed in queft of Thorhall, while the reft remained behind. They proceeded northwards round Kialarnes, and, after that, were carried to the north-weft. The land lay to the larboard of them ; there were thick forefts in all direc- tions, as far as they could fee, with fcarcely any open fpace. They confidered the hills at Hope, and thofe which they now faw, as forming part of one continued range. They fpent the third winter at Streamfirth. Karlfefne's fon, Snorre, the Evidence. 109 Snorre, was now three years of age. When they failed from Vineland, they had foutherly wind, and came to Mark- land, where they met with five Skraelings. They caught two of them (two boys), whom they carried away with them, and taught them the Norfe language, and baptized them. Thefe children faid that their mother was called VETHILLDI, and their father UV/EGE ; they faid that the Skraelings were ruled by chieftains (kings), one of whom was called AVALL- DAMON, and the other VALDIDIDA ; that there were no houfes in the country, but that the people dwelt in holes and cav- erns. Biarne Grimolfson was driven into the Irim Ocean, and came into waters that were fo infefted with worms that their fhip was in confequence reduced to a finking ftate. Some of the crew, however, were faved in the boat, as it had been fmeared with feal-oil tar, which is a preventive againft the attack of worms. Karlfefne continued his voy- age to Greenland, and arrived at Eriksfiord. VOYAGE OF FREYDISA, HELGE, AND FINNBOGE | THORFINN SETTLES IN ICELAND. During the fame fummer, ion, there arrived in Green- land a fhip from Norway, commanded by two brothers, from Auftfiord in Iceland, HELGE and FINNBOGE, who paffed the following winter in Greenland. FREYDISA went to them, and propofed a voyage to Vineland, on the condi- tion that they mould mare equally with her in all the profits which the voyage might yield : to this they affented. Frey- difa and thefe brothers entered into a mutual agreement that each party mould have thirty able-bodied men on board their 1 1 o Synopsis of their fhip, befides women ; but Freydifa immediately devi- ated from the agreement, and took with her five additional men, whom me concealed. In 1012 they arrived at Leifs- booths, where they fpent the following winter. The con- duct of Freydifa occafioned a coolnefs and diftance between the parties ; and by her fubtle arts me ultimately prevailed on her hufband to maffacre the brothers and their followers. After the perpetration of this bafe deed, they, in the fpring of 1013, returned to Greenland, where Thorfinn lay ready to fail for Norway, and was waiting for a fair wind: the fhip he commanded was fo richly laden, that it was generally admitted that a more valuable cargo had never left Green- land. As foon as the wind became favorable he failed to Norway, where he fpent the following winter, and fold his goods. Next year, when he was ready to fail for Iceland, there came a German from Bremen, who wanted to buy a piece of wood from him : he gave for it half a mark of gold : it was the wood of the Mazer-tree, from Vineland. Karl- fefne went to Iceland, and in the following year, 1015, he bought the Glaumbce eflate, in Skagefiord, in the northland quarter, where he refided during the remainder of his life. His fon, Snorre, who had been born in America, was his fucceffor on this eflate. When the latter married, his mother made a pilgrimage to Rome, and afterwards returned to her fon's houfe at Glaumboe, where he had in the mean time ordered a church to be built. The mother lived long as a religious reclufe. A numerous and illuflrious race de- fcended from Karlfefne, among whom may be mentioned the learned bifhop Thorlak Runolfson, born in 1085, of Snorre's daughter, Halfrida, to whom we are principally indebted the Evidence. 1 1 1 indebted for the oldeft ecclefiaftical Code of Iceland, pub- lifhed in the year 1 123 ; it is alfo probable that the accounts of the voyages here mentioned were originally compiled by him. THE OPINION OF PROFESSOR RAFN AS TO THE IDENTITY OF THE PLACES VISITED ON THE AMERICAN COAST BY THE SCANDINAVIAN VOYAGERS. A SURVEY OF THE PRECEDING EVIDENCE. GEOGRAPHY AND HYDROGRAPHY. IT is a fortunate circumftance that thefe ancient accounts have preferved not only geographical, but alfo nautical and aftronomical fafls, that may ferve in fixing the pofition of the lands and places named. The nautical fafls are of fpe- cial importance, although hitherto they have not been fufri- ciently attended to ; thefe confift in ftatements of the courfe fleered and the diftance failed in a day./ From data in the Landnama and feveral other ancient Icelandic geographical works, we may gather that the diftance of a day's failing was eftimated at twenty-feven to thirty geographical miles (German or Danifh, of which fifteen are equal to a degree, each Identity of the Places Visited. 113 each of thefe being, accordingly, equal to four Englifh fea- miles). From the ifland of HELLULAND, afterwards called little Helluland, Biarne failed to Heriulfsnes (Ikigeit\ in Greenland, with ftrong fouth-wefterly gales, in four days. The diflance between that cape and Newfoundland is about one hundred and fifty miles, which will correfpond, when we take into conlideration the flrong gales. In modern defcriptions it is ftated that this land partly confifts of naked rocky flats, where no tree, nor even a fhrub, can grow, and which are therefore ufually called Barrens ; thus anfwer- ing completely to the hellur of the ancient Northmen, from which they named the country. MARKLAND was fituate to the fouth-weft of Helluland, dif- tant about three days' fail, or from eighty to ninety miles. Here, then, we have Nova Scotia, of which the defcriptions given by later writers anfwer to that given by the ancient Northmen of Markland : " the land is low in general ; " "the coaft to the fea-ward being level and low, and the mores marked with white rocks ; " " the land is low, with white fandy cliffs, particularly vifible at fea," fays the new " North American Pilot," by J. W. Norie, and another American failor : " on the more are fome cliffs of exceed- ingly white fand," Here " level" correfponds completely to the Icelandic "Jlett," "low to the fea-ward" to the fhort expreffion " 6-fce-bratt" and " white fandy cliffs " to the " hvit-ir fand-ar" of the Northmen. Nova Scotia, as alfo New Brunfwick and Lower Canada, fituate more in-land, which probably may be confidered as all belonging to the Markland of the Northmen, are almoft everywhere covered with immenfe forefts. VINLAND 15 1 14 Identity of the VINLAND was fituate at the diftance of two days' fail, con- fequently from fifty-four to fixty miles, in a fouth-wefterly direction from Markland. The diftance from Cape Sable to Cape Cod is ftated in nautical works as being weft by fouth about feventy leagues ; that is, about two hundred miles. Biarne's defcription of the coaft is very accurate, and in the ifland fituate to the eaftward (between which and the promontory that ftretches to eaftward and northward Leif failed) we recognize Nantucket. The ancient North- men found there many mallows (grunnftzfui mikit) ; modern navigators make mention at the fame place "of numerous reefs and other Ihoals," and fay " that the whole prefents an afpecl: of drowned land." KIALARNES (from kiolr, a keel, and nes, a cape, moft likely fo named on account of its ftriking refemblance to the keel of a fhip, particularly of one of the long fhips of the ancient Northmen) muft confequently be Cape Cod, the NAUSET of the Indians, which modern geographers have fometimes likened to a Horn, and fometimes to a Sickle, or Scythe. The ancient Northmen found here trac kiefs deferts (6r- <- LTTO/^JIO the Superintendent of the Coaft Survly, re- feffor Peirce, Supt. U. S. Coaft Sur- quefting certain information regarding the Gulf vev > Journal Am. Geog. and Stat. Stream off Cape Cod in lats. 41 to 42, has, Soc., Vol. II. p. cix. Its velocity can- in his abfence, been referred to this office for no t, therefore, be much over one mile re? rL actual obfervations of the Coaft Survey P er ^"F ? Ca P e od : and, if its weft- do not extend further north than lat. 40 ; but ern limit 1S one hundred and eighty in the Britifh Admiralty chart the velocity of miles diftant, it is vain to look to the the Gulf Stream off Cape Cod in lats. 41 and Gulf Stream for any explanation of 42 ^ > *. from - T to f. w k" 015 ? er hour > the currents in the region of Buzzard's and its dittance (weftern limit) as about one r> --ri. j U A ji hundred and eighty miles, it following generally ^ay. There are undoubtedly currents the one hundred fm. curve. I believe that all there, but they clearly anfe from other authorities agree in the fact that its pofition caufes. Places Visited. 1 1 7 the Indians term it, correfponds, through which the Taunton River flows, and, by means of the very narrow yet navi- gable Pocaffet River, meets the approaching water of the ocean at its exit at Seaconnet. It was at this Hdpe that Leifsbooths were fituate ; it was above it, and therefore moft probably on the beautiful elevation called afterwards by the Indians MONT HAUP, that Thorfinn Karlfefne erected his dwelling-houfes. CLIMATE AND SOIL. Concerning the climate of the country and the quality of the foil, and alfo concerning fome of its productions, the ancient writings contain fundry illuftrative remarks. The climate was fo mild that it appeared the cattle did not re- quire winter fodder ; for there came no fnow, and the grafs was but flightly withered. Warden ufes fimilar expreffions refpecting this region : " La temperature eft fi douce que la vegetation fouffre rarement du froid ou de la fecherejfe. On 1'appelle le paradis de rAnurique, parce qu'elle 1'em- porte fur les autres lieux par fa fituation, fon fol et fon climat." " An excurfion from Taunton to Newport, R.I., down Taunton River and Mount Hope Bay, conducts the traveller among fcenery of great beauty and lovelinefs," fays Hitchcock ; and when he adds, " that the beautiful appear- ance of the country, and the interefting hiftorical affocia- tions connected with that region, confpire to keep the attention alive, and to gratify the tafte," he will find that this laft remark is applicable to times much more remote than he thought of, when he gave expreffion to the above fentiment. A 1 1 8 Identity of the A country of fuch a nature might well deferve the appel- lation of " THE GOOD," which was the epithet the ancient Northmen beflowed on it ; efpecially as it yielded produc- tions whereon they fet a high value, and of which their colder native land was for the moft part deftitute. PRODUCE AND NATURAL HISTORY. Vines grew there fpontaneoufly ; a circumftance which Adam of Bremen, a foreign writer of the fame (that is of the eleventh) century, mentions that he had learned, not from conjecture, but from authentic accounts furnimed by Danes. As his authority on this occafion, he cites the Danim king, Sveyn Eftrithfon, a nephew of Canute the Great. It is well known that vines ftill grow in that region in great abundance. Spontaneoufly growing wheat (Jjdlfsdnir hveitiakrar). At the fubfequent arrival of the Europeans, Maize, or Indian corn, as it is called, was found growing here ; this the natives reaped without having fowed, 111 and they preferved it in holes in the earth, as it conftituted one of their moft valuable articles of food. Honeydew 112 was found on the ifland which lies off it, as is alfo ftill the cafe. Mazer (maufur\ a fpecies of wood of remarkable beauty, probably a fpecies of the Acer rubrum, or Acer faccha- rinum, 111 The maize of the Indians did not formed by the leaves of plants in hot grow fpontaneoujly, but the feed was weather. It appears to be fecreted by carefully preferved and planted by them Aphides, and is fometimes fo abundant annually. as to fall from the leaves in drops. 112 Honey-dew is a fugary, clammy Brande. fecretion, formerly regarded as being Places Visited. 1 1 9 rinum, which grows here, and which is called "bird's eye" or "curled maple." Wood for building was alfo obtained here. A great number of foreft animals of all kinds. It is underftood that the Indians chofe this region in preference, for their abode, chiefly on account of the excellent hunting. At prefent the forefts are for the mofl part cut down, and the animals have withdrawn to the interior and wood- land regions. From the natives the Northmen bought fquirrel fkins, and all kinds of peltries, which are ftill to be found in abundance in this diftricl:. Eider-ducks, and other birds, were found in great num- bers on the adjacent iflands, as is alfo at prefent the cafe, on which account fome of them have the name of Egg- Iflands. 113 Every river was full of fiJJi, among which are mentioned excellent falmon. On the coaft was alfo caught a great quantity of fifh. The Northmen dug ditches along the more, within the high water-mark, and when the tide re- ceded they found halibuts in the ditches. On the coaft they alfo caught whales, and among thefe the reidr (Ba- l COMPLETE DIAL OP THE ANCIENT NORTHMEN, ACCORDING TO THE PROJECTION AND EXPOSITION OF PROFESSOR FINN MAGNUSEN, VICB PKKBIDBNT OP THE ROYAL SOCIETY OP NORTHERN ANTIQUARIES. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL. T is not our intention to give under this head a full bibliography on the fubjecl of this vol- ume. The following works, relating directly or indirectly to the manners, cuftoms, hiftory, literature and language of the Scandinavians, and to their voyages to the coafl of America, will be ufeful to the reader who defires to give the fubjecl; a careful and extended examination : Antiqvitates American, five Scriptores Septentrionales Rerum ante- Columbianarum in America. Edidit Societas Regia Antiqvariorum Septentrionalium. Hafnias, 1837. This imperial quarto contains all the evidence, known to hiftorical fcholars, touching the vifits of the Northmen to the fliores of America. The hiftorical narratives, rehearfmg the ftory of the voyagers, are here given in the ancient Icelandic language. For the firft time, thefe old Scandinavian man- ufcripts of the fourteenth century appear in print. They are accompanied by a tranflation into the Latin, and like- wife into the Danifh language. We have fufficiently indicated 1 2 8 Bibliographical. indicated the character of this work in the Introduction, antea pp. 10-12, to which the reader is referred. M. Adami Gefta Hammenburgenfis Ecclefiae Pontificum. Edente M. Lap- penberg I. U. D. Reipublicae Hamburgenfis Tabulario. of Bremen wrote as early as the year 1075. In the work above-named occurs a paffage, which plainly mows that the voyages to Vineland were matters well underftood in his time among the Danes. This paffage was written long before the fagas were reduced to writing. His ftate- ment indicates that what was known at that time in regard to the voyages to Vineland was ftill in oral tradition, and is flrongly corroborative of the narratives of the fagamen as found in the Icelandic manufcriptsy' Adam of Bremen's hiftory is included in " Monumenta Germaniae Hiftorica," edited by George Henry Pertz. Tom. vii. Hannoverae, 1 846. The paffage referred to is as follows : " Praeterea unam adhuc infulam recitavit a multis in eo repertam occeano, quae dicitur Winland, eo quod ibi vites fponte nafcantur, vinum optimum ferentes. Nam et fruges ibi non feminatas habundare, non fabulofa opinione, fed certa comperimus relatione Danorum." It may be obferved that Adam of Bremen reports what he had received from Sveyn Eftrithfon, king of Denmark. We give the following tranflation : " Moreover, he (the king) ftated that an ifland had been found by many in that ocean, which is called Winland, becaufe vines grow there fpontaneoufly, producing excellent wine. For that fruits abound there, not having been fown, we Bibliographical. 129 we are affured not by any vague rumor, but by the truft- worthy report brought back by the Danes." The Heimfkringla, or Chronicle of the Kings of Norway. Tranflated from the Icelandic of Snorro Sturlefon, with a Preliminary DhTertation. By Samuel Laing, Efq. London, 1844. The author of the Heimfkringla, Snorro Sturlefon, was born in the year 1 178, and died in 1241, and his work was confequently written not later than the early part of the thirteenth century. He alludes to the difcovery of Vine- land, and is the next early writer after Adam of Bremen, who corroborates the teftimony of the fagas touching the Icelandic voyages to America. His reference to Vineland is contained in the body of this work. Antea, page 44. Mr. Laing's differtation is a thorough difcuffion of the whole fubjecl of Northern literature and hiftory, and is rendered not the lefs interefting by the frank and bold manner in which the author expreffes his opinions on fome important queftions. It contains a valuable memoir of Snorro Sturlefon. The Englifh reader of this tranflation can hardly fail to gain a better knowledge, in many refpecls, of the character and mode of life of the Northmen than in the more direct treatment of the fubjecl by the hiftorical writer. Hifloria Vinlandiae Antiquse, feu Partis Americas Septentrionalis, ubi Nom- inis ratio recenfetur, Situs terra? ex dierumbrumalium fpatio expenditur, foli fertilitatas et incolarum barbaries, peregrinorum temporarius inco- latus et gefta, Vicinarum terrarum nomina et facies ex Antiqvitatibus Iflandicis in lucem producla exponuntur. Per Thormodum Torfaeum. Rerum Norvegicarum Hiftorigraphum Regium. Havniae : et Typo- grapheo Regiae Majeft. et Univerfit. 1705. '7 Of 130 Bibliographical. Of this very rare work, there are copies bearing the imprint of a later date. On examination, we find the iffue of 1715 to be the fame letter-prefs as that of 1705, with the exception of two pages ; viz., the title-page and the reverfe page containing an " approbatio " by " P. Vin- dingius." The cancellation of title-pages and the fubfti- tution of new ones were common devices of publifhers of that period, to give a frefli impulfe to the fale of books that hung heavily upon their hands. We prefume this to be an example of the fame kind of enterprife. This little work is the earlieft printed volume relating to the voyages of the Northmen to America. As the reader paffes along over its pages, he will be furprifed to find how carefully this learned writer had ftudied the old Scandinavian manufcripts relating to thefe weftern voyages, and how fully he has incorporated into his narrative the facls now known relating to them. Had Torfasus given us a full tranflation of the fagas even into Latin, and rendered the complete narrative of the originals acceffible to fcholars, little would have remained to be done afterward. It is prefumed that the hiftorians, who alluded to this fubjecl anterior to the pub- lication of the " Antiquitates Americans " in 1837, derived their information from this little compendium. Not having the text of the fagas before them, they generally difmiffed the fubjecl: with a brief and not very explicit allufion, hefitating, perhaps, as to what degree of confidence they could fafely repofe in this then folitary authority. Hiftory of the Voyages and Difcoveries made in the North. Tranflated from the German of John Reinhold Forfter. Dublin, 1786. The Bibliographical. 1 3 1 The author traces with much detail the colonization of both Iceland and Greenland, obtaining his data from the two works of Thormond Torfaeus, " Veteris Groenlandise Defcriptio " and " Hiftoria Vinlandiae Antique." He refers to the teftimony of Adam of Bremen. He fuppofes Vine- land to be in latitude 49, and therefore in Newfoundland or in Labrador. This arofe from a very different fyftem of interpreting the method of calculating time among the Scan- dinavians from that adopted by later writers ; or, as fome fuppofe, from an error of interpretation. Hiftory of the Northmen or Danes and Normans from the Earlieft Times to the Conqueft of England by William of Normandy. By Henry Wheaton. London, 1831. fecond chapter in this work contains a fuccincl narrative of the voyages of the Northmen to America: befides this, the ftudent of the fagas will find in it an able and interefting expofition of the Icelandic literature and language. * Report addreffed by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries to its Britifh and American Members. Copenhagen, 1836. This volume in Englifh is full of important information on the fubjecl of which it treats. It deals with early Icelandic and Norwegian accounts of Ireland, the stone implements of the pagan Northmen, their gold and bronze antiquities, and the Anglo-Saxon Runes. The Difcovery of America by the Northmen. North American Review, 1838, pp. 161-203. By Edward Everett. This is a very able and interefting difcuflion of the whole fubjecl 132 Bibliographical. fubject as made known by Profeffor Rafn's Report. If the diftinguifhed writer were now living, and were to reflate his views, it is hardly probable that he would change them in any important particulars. Of the narratives contained in the fagas, he fays : " Thefe accounts are either founded on truth, or they are wholly falfe ; and thofe who hold to the latter opinion will, we think, find more difficulty in carrying out their hypothe- fis, than there is in admitting the fubftantial truth of the tradition." " We are decidedly of opinion that the ancient Icelandic accounts, to which we have called the attention of our readers, have a foundation in hiftorical truth, and that the coaft of North America, and very poffibly this portion of it, was vifited by the Northmen." But Mr. Everett did not find fatisfactory evidence of the Runic character of the writing on the Dighton rock. His own words will beft convey the impreffion which was made upon his mind by the proofs adduced in favor of their Scandinavian origin : " That the rock contains fome rude delineations of the figures of men and animals is apparent on the firffc infpec- tion. The import of the other delineations and characters is more open to doubt. By fome perfons the characters are regarded as Phoenician. The late Mr. Samuel Harris, of this city, a very learned Oriental ift, thought he found the Hebrew word melek (king) in thofe characters, which the editor of the work before us " (Profeffor Rafn) " regards as numerals fignifying cxxxi. Colonel Vallancey confiders them to be Scythian, and MefTrs. Rafn and Magnuffen think Bibliographical. 1 3 3 think them indubitably Runic. In this great diverfity of judgment, a decifion is extremely difficult. The prefent copies are too unlike each other to command entire confi- dence; and we are not prepared to fay whether, in the prefent flate of the rock, better can be taken." He adds : " We own that we remain wholly unconvinced in reference to its interpretation by the learned and ingenious commen- taries of our friends at Copenhagen." The writing on the Dighton rock has been copied at nine different dates. By Dr. Danforth, in 1680; Dr. Cotton Mather, in 1712; Dr. Greenwood, in 1730; Mr. Stephen Sewall, in 1768; Mr. James Winthrop, in 1788; Dr. Baylies and Mr. Goodwin, in 1790; Mr. Kendall, in 1807 ; Mr. Job Gardner, in 1812; the Rhode Ifland Hiftorical Society, in 1830. Copies of all of them are engraved, and appear in Pro- feffor Rafn's great work, the " Antiquitates Americanae." If the reader will caft his eye over them, he will obferve that the later copies are more diftincT; than the earlier ones, efpe- cially in thofe features which have been the fubjec~t of con- troverfy. This can only be accounted for on the fuppofition that the later fketches were more fkilfully and truthfully done, or elfe that the primitive cuttings have become gradu- ally deepened by atmofpheric and tidal influences, or poffibly fome ingenious idler may have undertaken, impelled by a generous impulfe, to improve what he conceived the Scan- dinavian fculptor left in an unfinished flate. The Northmen in New England, or America in the Tenth Century. By Jofhua Tolman Smith. Boston, 1839. The author difcuffes the whole fubjecl after a very care- ful 134 Bibliographical. ful fludy of the " Antiquitates Americanse." He is a flrenu- ous and enthufiaftic believer in the Scandinavian origin of the infcriptions on the Dighton rock, a theory which has now pretty much faded out. The work is written in the form of a dialogue, which gives it a popular call, but is not a very fatisfactory mode of prefenting hiftorical truth, efpe- cially if queftions of doubt enter into it. Objections to a theory can hardly be ftated and anfwered fairly by a devotee of the theory objected to. In the main, the work is a faithful and truftworthy report of the facts contained in the " Antiquitates Americanae." The Difcovery of America by the Northmen in the Tenth Century, with Notices of the Early Settlements of the Irifh in the Weftern Hemif- phere. By North Ludlow Beamifh, Fellow of the Royal Society, &c., &c. London, 1841. The reader will hardly find a better account, in the fame fpace, of Icelandic hiftorical literature, than is contained in the introduction to this work. The author has alfo given a tranflation of all the extracts from the fagas which defcribe the voyages of the Northmen to America. In the fecond part, he deals with monuments and infcriptions, which in his judgment corroborate the difcoveries of the Northmen. He accepts the theory of the Northern antiquaries as to the Scandinavian origin of the writing upon the Dighton rock, now generally difallowed. He gives an interefting account of the monuments in Greenland, which undoubtedly have a Scandinavian origin. Sele<5t Letters of Chriftopher Columbus, with other Original Documents relating to his Four Voyages to the New World. Tranflated and edited Bibliographical. 135 edited by R. H. Major, Efq., of the Britifh Mufeum. London. Printed for the Hakluyt Society. 1847. In the introduction, the editor gives the narrative of the difcovery of America by the Icelanders, as contained in the fagas, with much particularity and fulnefs, with interefting and valuable critical obfervations. Guide to Northern Archaeology. By the Royal Society of Northern Anti- quaries of Copenhagen. Edited for the ufe of Englifh readers. By the Right Honorable the Earl of Ellefmere. London, 1848. Befides a valuable introduction by the author, the vol- ume contains an interefting treatife on the extent and importance of Northern literature, the monuments and antiquities of the North, and a r'efume of the undertakings of the Society with fome account of its Cabinet and Library. Northern Antiquities ; or, An Hiflorical Account of the Manners, Cuftoms, Religion, and Laws, Maritime Expeditions and Difcoveries, Language and Literature of the Ancient Scandinavians. Tranflated from the French of Paul Henri Mallet by Bifliop Percy. London, 1847. This is not only an excellent treatife on this very wide fubject, but it likewife contains a brief but comprehenfive narrative of the difcovery of America by the Northmen. Cofmos : A Sketch of a Phyfical Defcription of the Univerfe. By Alex- ander Von Humboldt. Tranflated from the German by E. C. Otte'. London, 1849. In treating of the difcovery of America, the author refers to the voyages of the Northmen to this continent as a matter of fettled hiftory. He does not even offer an apology, or fuggeft a doubt. The reader will find his views fully ftated in Vol. II. pp. 602-608. The vafl learning, juft difcrimi- nation 1 3 6 Bibliographical. nation and found fenfe of this diftinguifhed fcholar, give great weight to his opinions on any fubjecl. Hiftory of Scandinavia from the Early Times of the Northmen, the Sea- kings and Vikings, to the Prefent Day. By Profeffor Paul C. Sinding. London, 1866. Twelve pages, from 74 to 86, relate to the voyages to America. The Hiftory of Greenland. By David Crantz. London, 1820. Vol. I. pp. 233-237. The narrative of the difcovery of America is evidently taken from Torfaeus. It is full and generally correct. There is much in this work which will caft light upon the Northern mode of life. The Private Life of the Old Northmen. By Profeffor Keyfer of the Royal Univerfity in Chriftiana, Norway. Tranflated by the Rev. M. R. Barnard, B.A. London, 1868. This little volume gives a detailed account of the man- ners and cuftoms of the Northmen at the period when their voyagers were vifiting the coafts of America. It will be found ufeful in illuftrating more or lefs the text of the fagas. The Pre-Columbian Difcovery of America by the Northmen. Illuftrated by tranflations from the Icelandic Sagas. Edited, with notes and a General Introduction, by B. F. De Costa. Albany, 1868. This valuable treatife will be read with intereft by thofe who accept the narratives of the fagamen, not only in their general fcope, but likewife in their details. It is a fpecial aim of the author to point out and identify the places defcribed Bibliographical. 1 3 7 defcribed in the fagas. With this view, he traces the courfe of the Northmen along the fliores of Cape Cod, identifying the places vifited by them with great ingenuity, if not with entire fatisfaction to his lefs credulous readers. The General Introduction contains much valuable informa- tion. America not Difcovered by Columbus. A Hiftorical Sketch of the Dif- covery of America by the Northmen in the Tenth Century. By R. B. Anderson, A.M., of the Univerfity of Wifconfm. Chicago, 1874. ' This is a compilation rather than an original work. Of the old mill at Newport, the author fays it was undoubtedly built by the Norfemen. Of the infcriptions upon the rock in Taunton River, he adds : " Upon the whole, the Dighton Writing Rock removes all doubt concerning the prefence of Thorfinn Karlfefne and the Norfemen at Taunton River, in the beginning of the eleventh century." Even the "fkeleton in armor," found at Fall River in 1831, capti- vates the too credulous author. .- The Early Kings of Norway. By Thomas Carlyle. New York, 1875. Something may be learned from this little volume of the fpirit of Northern life and fociety in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The author refers briefly to the difcovery of America. " Towards the end," he fays, " of this Hakon's reign it was that the difcovery of America took place (985). Aclual difcovery, it appears, by Eric the Red, an Icelander ; concerning which there has been abundant inveftigation and difcuffion in our time." Again he adds : " It appears to be certain that from the end of the tenth century to the early part of the fourteenth there was a dim knowledge of thole 18 1 3 8 Bibliographical. thofe diftant mores extant in the Norfe mind, and even fome ftraggling feries of vifits thither by roving Norfemen ; though as only danger, difficulty, and no profit refulted, the vifits ceafed, and the whole matter fank into oblivion, and, but for the Icelandic talent of writing in the long winter nights, would never have been heard of by pofterity at all." The following works will illuftrate the character of Scandinavian life and literature, and may incidentally and remotely throw light upon the text of the fagas. A Manual of Scandinavian Mythology, containing a Popular Account of the Two Eddas, and of the Religion of Odin. By Grenville Pigott. London, 1839. The Story of Burnt Njal ; or, Life in Iceland at the End of the Tenth Century. From the Icelandic of the Njal's Saga. By George Webbe Dafent, D.C.L. Edinburgh, 1861. Viga Glum's Saga : the Story of Viga-Glum. Tranflated from the Ice- landic, with notes and an introduction, by the Right Honorable Sir Edmund Head, Bart. K.C.B. London, 1866. Icelandic Legends. Collected by Jon Arnafon. Tranflated by George E. J. Powell and Eirfkur Magniiffon. London, 1864. Ballad Stories of the Affeclions. From the Scandinavian. By Robert Buchanan. London, 1869. The Story of Gifli the Outlaw. From the Icelandic by George Webbe Dafent, D.C.L. Edinburgh, 1866. The Story of Grettir the Strong. Tranflated from the Icelandic by Eirikr Magntiflbn and William Morris. London, 1869. As the geography, climate, and capabilities of the foil of Iceland have probably changed very little, on the whole, fince the tenth century, the defcriptions of modern travellers will Ihed more or lefs light upon the text of the fagas. The following Bibliographical. 139 following will be found interefting and valuable in that view : Iceland ; or, The Journal of a Reficlence in that Ifland in 1814 and 1815. By Ebenezer Henderfon. Bofton, 1831. A Vifit to Iceland. By John Barrow. London, 1835. A Journey to Iceland. By Ida Pfeiffer. New York, 1852. Nordurf arri or, Rambles in Iceland. By Pliny Miles. New York, 1854. Letters from High Latitudes. By Lord Dufferin. London, 1857. The Oxonian in Iceland. By the Rev. Frederick Metcalfe. London, 1861. An American in Iceland. An Account of its Scenery, People, and Hif- tory : with a defcription of its Millennial Celebration in Auguft, 1874, with notes on the Orkney, Shetland, and Faroe Iflands, and the Great Eruption of 1875. By Samuel Kneeland, A.M., M.D., Secretary and Profeffor of Zoology and Phyfiology in the MafTachufetts Inftitute of Technology. Bofton, 1876. The foregoing works contain fo full and ample a delinea- tion of thofe features of Iceland that are unchanging and characleriftic, that the ftudent of the fagas will be greatly aided by their perufal. The laft-named volume is the lateft on the fubjecl which has appeared. Its ftyle is clear, fimple, and graceful. It has enough of learning to be inftruclive without being obfcure or tedious. Its defcriptions are vivid, its pictures are fharply and clearly drawn and leave a fixed and permanent impreffion upon the mind. The views expreffed in the chapter on the difcovery of America, touching Icelandic remains in this country, will not probably be concurred in by all readers. We might add many other works to the number already referred to as relating more or lefs directly to the fubje<5l of this volume. The " Hiftory of New England," by Dr. Palfrey, 140 Bibliographical. Palfrey, contains a very full ftatement and recognition of the difcoveries of the Northmen, and a convincing refuta- tion of the claim for the Scandinavian origin of the writing on the Dighton rock, and of the old ftone mill at Newport. Mr. Bancroft, in the earlier! edition of his " Hiftory of the United States," treats the alleged Icelandic voyages to this continent as a myth, and, in his laft, has not in any degree modified his fweeping ftatements of diftruft. We are not aware that any other diftinguifhed hiftorian has reached the fame conclufion. Dr. J. G. Kohl, in his " Hif- tory of the Difcovery of Maine," traces with great minute- nefs the courfe of the Icelandic voyagers along the fliores of New England. But his views are controverted, efpecially with reference to the vifits of the Northmen to the coaffcs of Maine, by the Rev. B. F. De Cofta, in a volume entitled the " Northmen in Maine." The narratives of the fagas are in their outlines clear and diftincl:; and unprejudiced hiftorians and antiquaries, who have no theory to fuftain, will not, in our apprehenfion, differ as to their general interpretation. But, in minor features and leffer local defcriptions, they are exceedingly indefinite; and whoever aims to fix upon the exact move- ments of the Northmen on our coaft, and the particular localities which they occupied when here, will doubtlefs find himfelf confronted by the champion of fome other theory, armed poffibly with as many good reafons as he can render for his own. THE PRINCE SOCIETY. OFFICERS OF THE PRINCE SOCIETY. Prefident. JOHN WARD DEAN, A.M BOSTON, MASS. Vice-Preftdents. JOHN WINGATE THORNTON, A.M. . . . BOSTON, MASS. THE REV. EDMUND F. SLAFTER, A.M. . . BOSTON, MASS. WILLIAM B. TRASK, ESQ BOSTON, MASS. THE HON. CHARLES H. BELL, A.M EXETER, N. H. Correfponding Secretary. CHARLES W. TUTTLE, A.M BOSTON, MASS. Recording Secretary. DAVID GREENE HASKINS, JR., A.M. . . . CAMBRIDGE, MASS. Treafurer. ELBRIDGE H. GOSS, ESQ BOSTON, MASS. THE PRINCE SOCIETY. 1877. The Hon. Charles Francis Adams, LL.D. . . Bofton, Mafs. Samuel Agnew, Efq Philadelphia, Pa. Thomas Coffin Amory, A.M Bofton, Mafs. William Sumner Appleton, A.M Bofton, Mafs. Walter T. Avery, Efq New York, N.Y. George L. Balcom, Efq Claremont, N.H. Jofeph Ballard, Efq Bofton, Mafs. S. L. M. Barlow, Efq New York, N.Y. Nathaniel J. Bartlett, A.B Bofton, Mafs. The Hon. Charles H. Bell, A.M Exeter, N.H. John J. Bell, A.M Exeter, N.H. Samuel L. Boardman, Efq Augufta, Me. The Hon. James Ware Bradbury, LL.D. . . Augufta, Me. J. Carfon Brevoort, LL.D Brooklyn, N.Y. Sidney Brooks, A.M Bofton, Mafs. Mrs. John Carter Brown Providence, R.I. John Marfhal Brown, A.M Portland, Me. Jofeph O. Brown, Efq New York, N.Y. Philip Henry Brown, A.M Portland, Me. Thomas O. H. P. Burnham, Efq Bofton, Mafs. George Bement Butler, Efq New York, N.Y. George Bigelow Chafe, A.M Bofton, Mafs. The Hon. Mellen Chamberlain, A.M Chelfea, Mafs. William Eaton Chandler, A.M Concord, N.H. Lucius E. Chittenden, A.M New York, N.Y. Ethan N. Coburn, Efq Charleftown, Mafs. The Prince Society. 145 Jeremiah Colburn, A.M. . Boflon, Mafs. Jofeph J. Cooke, Efq Providence, R.I. Deloraine P. Corey, Efq Boflon, Mafs. Eraftus Corning, Efq Albany, N.Y. Ellery Bicknell Crane, Efq Worcefter, Mafs. Abram E. Cutter, Efq Charleftown, Mafs. The Rev. Edwin A. Dalrymple, S.T.D. . . . Baltimore, Md. William M. Darlington, Efq Pittfburg, Pa. Henry B. Dawfon, Efq Morrifania, N.Y. Charles Deane, LL.D Cambridge, Mafs. John Ward Dean, A.M Boflon, Mafs. The Rev. Henry Martyn Dexter, D.D. . . . Boflon, Mafs. Samuel Adams Drake Melrofe, Mafs. Harry H. Edes, Efq Charleftown, Mafs. Jonathan Edwards, A.B., M.D New Haven, Ct. Samuel Eliot, LL.D Boflon, Mafs. The Rev. George E. Ellis, D.D Boflon, Mafs. Alfred Langdon Elwyn, M.D Philadelphia, Pa. James Emott, Efq New York, N.Y. The Hon. William M. Evarts, LL.D New York, N.Y. Charles S. Fellows, Efq Chicago, 111. John S. H. Fogg, M.D Bofton, Mafs. The Rev. Henry W. Foote, A.M Bofton, Mafs. William F. Fowle, Efq Bofton, Mafs. Samuel P. Fowler, Efq Danvers, Mafs. The Hon. Richard Frothingham, LL.D. . . . Charleftown, Mafs. James E. Gale, Efq Haverhill, Mafs. Marcus D. Gilman, Efq Montpelier, Vt. The Hon. John E. Godfrey Bangor, Me. Abner C. Goodell, Jr., A.M Salem, Mafs. Elbridge H. Gofs, Efq Bofton, Mafs. The Hon. Horace Gray, LL.D Bofton, Mafs. George Frederick Gray, Efq Dover, N.H. William W. Greenough, A.B Bofton, Mafs. Ifaac J. Greenwood, A.M New York, N.Y. Charles H. Guild, Efq Somerville, Mafs. The Hon. Robert S. Hale, LL.D Elizabethtown, N.Y. 19 146 The Prince Society. C. Fifke Harris, A.M Providence, R.I. David Greene Haflcins, Jr. A.M Cambridge, Mafs. The Hon. Francis B. Hayes, A.M Bofton, Mafs. Francis S. Hoffman, Efq. . Philadelphia, Pa. James F. Hunnewell, Efq Charleftown, Mafs. Theodore Irwin, Efq Ofwego, N.Y. William Porter Jarvis, A.M Bofton, Mafs. John S. Jennefs, A.B New York, N.Y. Mr. Sawyer Junior Nafhua, N.H. Edward F. de Lancey, Efq New York, N.Y. William B. Lapham, M.D Augufta, Me. John J. Latting, A.M New York, N.Y. Thomas J. Lee, Efq Bofton, Mafs. Jofeph Leonard, Efq Bofton, Mafs. John A. Lewis, Efq Bofton, Mafs. William T. R. Marvin, A.M Bofton, Mafs. William F. Matchett, Efq Bofton, Mafs. Frederic W. G. May, Efq Bofton, Mafs. The Rev. James H. Means, D.D Bofton, Mafs. George H. Moore, LL.D New York, N.Y. The Hon. Henry C. Murphy Brooklyn, N.Y. The Rev. James De Normandie, A.M. . . . Portfmouth, N.H. The Hon. James W. North Augufta, Me. Charles Eliot Norton, A.M Cambridge, Mafs. George T. Paine, Efq Providence, R.I. The Hon. John Gorham Palfrey, LL.D. ... Cambridge, Mafs. Daniel Parifti, Jr., Efq New York, N.Y. Francis Parkman, LL.B Bofton, Mafs. Auguftus T. Perkins, A.M Bofton, Mafs. The Rev. William Stevens Perry, D.D. . . . Geneva, N.Y. William Frederic Poole, A.M Chicago, 111. George Prince, Efq Bath, Me. Capt. William Prince, U.S.A Springfield, Mafs. The Hon. John V. L. Pruyn, LL.D Albany, N.Y. Samuel S. Purple, M.D New York, N.Y. The Hon. John Phelps Putnam, A.M. . . . Bofton, Mafs. The Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, D.D Dover, N.H. The Prince Society. 147 Edward S. Rand, A.M. . . Bofton, Mafs. Edward S. Rand, Jr., A.M Bofton, Mafs. Edward Afliton Rollins, A.M Great Falls, N.H. The Rev. Carlos Slafter, A.M Dedham, Mafs. The Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, A.M Bofton, Mafs. Charles C. Smith, Efq Bofton, Mafs. Samuel T. Snow, Efq Bofton, Mafs. The Hon. Thomas Spooner Cincinnati, Ohio. Oliver Blifs Stebbins, Efq Bofton, Mafs. George Stevens, Efq Lowell, Mafs. Edwin W. Stoughton, Efq New York, N.Y. The Hon. Benj. F. Thomas, LL.D Bofton, Mafs. John Wingate Thornton, A.M Bofton, Mafs. William B. Trafk, Efq Bofton, Mafs. The Hon. William H. Tuthill Tipton, Iowa. Charles W. Tuttle, A.M Bofton, Mafs. Alexander Hamilton Vinton, D.D Bofton, Mafs. George W. Wales, Efq Bofton, Mafs. Jofeph B. Walker, A.M Concord, N.H. William Henry Wardwell, Efq Bofton, Mafs. Mifs Rachel Wetherill Philadelphia, Pa. Henry Wheatland, A.M., M.D Salem, Mafs. Edmund March Wheelwright Bofton, Mafs. William H. Whitmore, A.M Bofton, Mafs. Henry Auftin Whitney, A.M Bofton, Mafs. The Hon. Marfliall P. Wilder Bofton, Mafs. Henry Winfor, Efq Philadelphia, Pa. The Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, LL.D. . . . Bofton, Mafs. Charles Levi Woodbury, Efq Bofton, Mafs. Afhbel Woodward, M.D Franklin, Ct LIBRARIES. American Antiquarian Society Worcefter, Mafs. Amherft College Library Amherft, Mafs. Bofton Athenaeum Bofton, Mafs. 148 The Prince Society. Bofton Library Society Bofton, Mafs. Britifh Mufeum London, Eng. Concord Public Library Concord, Mafs. Eben Dale Reference Library Peabody, Mafs. Free Public Library Worcefter, Mafs. Grofvenor Library Buffalo, N.Y. Hiflorical Society of Pennfylvania Philadelphia, Pa. Library Company of Philadelphia Philadelphia, Pa. Long Ifland Hiflorical Society Brooklyn, N.Y. Maine Hiftorical Society Brunfwick, Me. Maryland Hiftorical Society Baltimore, Md. Maffachufetts Hiftorical Society Bofton, Mafs. Mercantile Library New York, N.Y. New England Hiftoric Genealogical Society . Bofton, Mafs. Newburyport Public Library, Peabody Fund . Newburyport, Mafs. Portfmouth Athenaeum Portfmouth, N.H. Public Library of the City of Bofton .... Bofton, Mafs. Redwood Library Newport, R.I. State Library of Maffachufetts Bofton, Mafs. State Library of New York Albany, N.Y. State Library of Rhode Ifland Providence, R.I. State Library of Vermont Montpelier, Vt. Williams College Library Williamftown, Mafs. Yale College Library New Haven, Ct. PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY. NEW ENGLAND'S PROSPECT. A true, lively and experimentall defcription of that part of America, commonly called New England : difcovering the State of that Countrie, both as it ftands to our new- come Engli/h Planters ; and to the old Natiue Inhabitants. By WILLIAM WOOD. London, 1634. Preface by Charles Deane, LL.D. THE HUTCHINSON PAPERS. A Collection of Original Papers relative to the Hiftory of the Colony of Maffachu- fetts-Bay. Reprinted from the edition of 1769. Edited by William H. Whitmore, A.M., and William S. Appleton, A.M. 2 vols. JOHN DUNTON'S LETTERS FROM NEW ENGLAND. Letters written from New England A.D. 1686. By John Dunton in which are defcribed his voyages by Sea, his travels on land, and the characters of his friends and acquaintances. Now firft publiflied from the Original Manufcript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Edited by William H. Whitmore, A.M. THE ANDROS TRACTS. Being a Collection of Pamphlets and Official Papers iffued during the period be- tween the overthrow of the Andros Government and the eftablifhment of the fecond Charter of Maffachufetts. Reprinted from the original editions and manufcripts. With a Memoir of Sir Edmund Andros, by the editor, William H. Whitmore, A.M. 3 vols. SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER AND AMERICAN COLONIZATION. Including three Royal Charters, iffued in 1621, 1625, 1628 ; a Tract entitled an Encouragement to Colonies, by Sir William Alexander, 1624; a Patent, from the Great Council for New England, of Long Ifland, and a part of the prefent State of Maine ; a Roll of the Knights Baronets of New Scotland ; with a Memoir of Sir William Alexander, by the editor, the Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, A.M. JOHN WHEELWRIGHT. Including his Faft-day Sermon, 1637 ; his Mercurius Americanus, 1645, an< ^ other writings ; with a paper on the genuinenefs of the Indian deed of 1629, and a Memoir by the editor, Charles H. Bell, A.M. VOYAGES OF THE NORTHMEN TO AMERICA. Including extracts from Icelandic Sagas relating to weftern voyages by North- men in the tenth and eleventh centuries, in an Englifh tranflation by North Ludlow Beamifh ; with a Synopfis of the hiftorical evidence and the opinion of Profeffor Rafn as to the places vifited by the Scandinavians on the coaft of America. Edited, with an Introduction, by the Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, A.M. VOLUMES IN PREPARATION. 1. CHAMPLAIN'S VOYAGES TO NEW FRANCE, including the Voyage of 1603, and all contained in the editions of 1613 and 1619. Tranflated into Englifh by CHARLES P. OTIS, Ph.D. Edited, with a Memoir and hiftorical illuftrations, by the Rev. EDMUND F. SLAFTER, A.M. 2. CAPTAIN JOHN MASON, the founder of New Hampfhire, including his Tract on Newfoundland, 1620, and the feveral American Charters in which he was a Grantee j with a Memoir and hiftorical illuftrations by CHARLES W. TUTTLE, A.M. 3. SIR FERDINANDO GORGES, including his Tract entitled A Brief Narration, 1658, American Charters granted to him, and other papers ; with hiftorical illuftrations and a Memoir by the Rev. EDMUND F. SLAFTER, A.M. 4. SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT, including his Difcourfe to prove a Paffage by the North-Weft to Cathaia and the Eaft Indies ; and his Letters Patent to difcover and poffefs lands in North America, granted by Queen Elizabeth, June n, 1578; with hiftorical illuftrations and a Memoir by CHARLES W. TUTTLE, A.M. It is the intention of the Council to iffue at leaft one volume annually, but not neceffarily in the order in which they are placed above. NOTE. Communications for officers of the Prince Society may be directed to 18 SOMERSET STREET, BOSTON. BOSTON, 20 February, 1877. INDEX. INDEX. ACHY, 85. Adalbrand, 97. Adam of Bremen, 118, 128, 129, 131. Africa, 70, 72. Albania, 78, 96. Albany, 136. Alf, 78. Alptafjord, 24, 26, 46. Amelanus, 76. America, 9, 10, n, 13, 16, 17, 18, 21, 46, 50, 72, 1 10, 125, 127, 129, 130, 131, 132, 134, 135, 136. Anderfon, R. B., 137, Anlaf, 76. Antiquarian Mufeum, 15. Antiquaries, Northern, Society of, 9, 34, 131, 135- Antiquitates Americanae, 127, 130, 133, 134- Antiquities, Northern, Illuftrations of, 43- Antiquities, Northern, 135. Archaeology, Northern, Guide to, 14, 17, 135- 20 Arctic, 25. Arnarhvol, 81. Arnafon, Jon., 138. Arnbjorn, 79, 84, 85, 89. Arnlaug, 26. Arnlaugsfjord, 26. Afbrand, 79, 83. Afbrandfon, Bjorn, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 96, 122. Afleik, 46. Atlantic, 19. Atli, 76, 78. Auftfjord, 64, 104, log. Avalldamon, 109. Avalldania, 61. B. Bahama Ifles, 115. Bakke, 85, 89. Baltic, 77. Barnard, Rev. R. M., 136. Barnftaple, 115. Barrow, John, 139. Bavaria, 71. 154 Index. Baylies, Dr., 133. Beamifh, North Ludlow, 16, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32, 34, 37, 39, 134- Bede, 72, 73- Bedouin Arabs, 115. Bergen, 71. Biarn or Bjarni, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 49, 54, 58, 62, 98, 99, 100, 113, 114. Bibliographical, 127. Biorn Afbrandfon, 123, 124. Bjanney, 49, 50, 105. Bjarmeland, 70, 71. Bjarni Grimolfson, 61, 109. Bjorn, 69, 80, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 9.1, 92, 96. Bjorn, Bp., 63. Bjorn Haldorfon, 68. Blaland, 59. Blaferkr, 25. Blig, Thord, 86. Blue Hills, 116. Borgafjord, 25, 94. Bork, 79. Boru. 77. Braavalle, 73. Brand, 24. Brand, Bp., 63, 69. Brande, 118, 120. Brattahlid, 25, 27, 31, 36, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48, 98, 104. Breidafjord, 24, 25, 8r, 94, 104. Breidavik, 79, 84, 95, 97. Breidavikingakappa, Bjorn, 79, 122. Breidvikinga, 83. Bremen, 68, no. Britain, 35, 73, 74. Bucanan, Robert, 138. Burislaus, 84. Buzzard's Bay, 116. Byrdufmjor, Bjarni, 46. Cabot, John, 19. Calendar, Julian, 40. Cambrenfis, 76. Canute, 118. Cape Cod, 114, 116, 119, 137. Cape Sable, 114. Carlyle, Thomas, 137. Carolina, 96, 97, 121. Caffiterides, 74. Ceallachan Caifil, 77. Celtic, 74. Celts, 85. Charles X., 15. Chatham, 115. Chaucer, 89. Chefapeake Bay, 97, 121. Chicago, 137. Chrift, 52, 73. Chriftiana, Univerfity of, 136. Chriftianity, 13, 14, 16, 25, 26, 39, 40, 44, 52, 7, 76. Chriftian IV., 15, 49. Chriftian V., 16. Chriftians, 73, 74, 75. Chriftmas, 104. Cimbric, 77. Clontarff, 77. Collection, Arnas-Magnaean, 17, 44, 46, 75, 76. Columbus, 19, 61, 71, 134, 137. Con, 76. Conannicut, 120. Connecticut, 121. Copenhagen, 11, 15, 59, 61, 72, 133, 135- Cofmos, 135. Crantz, David, 136. Cuba, 115. Cuvier, 54. Index. 155 D. Danes, Danifli, n, 15, 24, 37, 45, 76, 77, 104, 112, 118, 125, 127, 128, 129, 131- Danforth, Dr., 133. Danube, 77. Dafent, George Webbe, 138. Day, names of portions of by North- men, 126. De Cofta, B. F., 136. Delaware, 121. Denmark, 15, 16, 35, 70, 71, 83, 128. Dicuil, 73, 74. Dighton, ii, 132, 133, 134, 137. Digramula, 82. Diodorus, 85. Db'gurdarnefs, 8l. Dolum, 78. Drange, 23. Drepftock, 27. Drontheim, 26. Dublin, 62, 76, 80, 92, 95, 123, 124, 130. Dufferin, Lord, 139. Du Frefnes, 73. E. Eaftfjordifh, 47. Eaftman, 76. Ebeling, 52. Egg Ifland, 116, 119. Eider-ducks, 119. Einar, 26, 63, 98. Einarsfjord, 26. Eirin, 74. Ellefmere, Earl of, 17, 125, 135. England, 70, 131. Englifh, 113. Erik, Bp., of Greenland, 97. Erikfey, 25. Eriksfjord, 25, 36, 40, 41, 42, 43, 63, 67, 72, 98, 103, 109. Erikfon, Leif, 30. Erikftad, 24. Erik, the Red, 17, 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, 3i, 36, 39 44, 45, 46, 47, 49 5, 5 6 63, 64, 78, 88, 98, 99, 104, 137. Erlendfon, Hauk, 18, 46, 63. Erlend Sterka, 63. Efpihol, 63. Efquimaux, 39, 57, 102, 121. Ethiopia, 59. Europe, 70. Everett, Edward, 131, 132. Eyra, 83. Eyrar, 27. Eyrbyggia Saga, 43. Eyulf, 24. Eyulf Soer, 24. Eyvind, 76. F. Fall River, Skeleton in Armor at, 137. Faroe Iflands, 74, 75, 139. Finmark, 71. Finnbogi, 64, 65, 66, 109. Flateyenfis, Codex, 17, 23. Florida, 97, 121, 122. Florida, Straits of, 116. Flofe, 63. Forfter, John Reinhold, 130. Frederick, Bp., 26, 76. Frederic III., 15, 17. Freydis, or Frydifa, 27, 49, 57, 64, 65, 66, 67, 104, 108, 109, no. Fridgerda, 45, 46. Frigga, 52. Frifians, 77. 156 Index. Frithiof, 49. Froda, 79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 86, 87, 94, 95, 123, 124. Frode, Ari, 74, 78, 122. Fru Hallbera, 63. Fru Ingigerd, 63. Furduftrandir, 72, 105, 106, 114. Furduftrands, 51, 53. Fyrifvall, 84, 123. Fyrifvold, 96. G. Gamlafon, Thorhall, 47, 48. Gardar, 24, 70, 72. Garde, 27, 64. Gardner, Job, 133. Gaul, 85. Geir Godi, 90. Cellar, Thord, 46. Georgia, 96, 97, 121. German, 31, 35, 68, 99, 101, no, 112, 135. Ginnungagap, 72. Giffur, 44, 90. Glaumbae, 69, no. Glaumbaeland, 69. Goodwin, 133. Gormfon, Harald, 84. Gottland, 70. Great Ireland, 61, 121. Greeks, 32. Greenland, 13, 18, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 35, 39, 40, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, So, 52, 63, 64, 66, 67, 70, 71, 72, 78, 97, 98, 99, 101, 103, 105, 109, 1 10, 113, 120, 124, 134, 136. Greenwood, Dr., 133. Grimhild, 41, 42. Grimolfson, Bjarni, 47, 49, 104. Gripla, 71, 72. Grdnland, Hiftorifke Mindefmasrker, 24. Grundarketil, 63. Gudlaug, 92. Gudleif, 78, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96. Gudleif Gudlaugfon, 92, 96, 122, 123, 124. Gudrid, 36, 40, 41, 42, 43, 48, 49, 58, 63, 64, 69, 103, 104, 107. Gudrun, 63. Gulf-Stream, 115, 116. Gulf of Mexico, 115. Gunnar, 90. Gunnbjarnafker, 25. Gunnbjbrn, 25. Gunnlaug, 79. Gurnet Point, 1 16. Gyrd, 92. H. Hafgerdingar, 27. Hafgrim, 26. Hafgrimsfjord, 26. Hafrafell, 75. Haki, 50, 105. Hakluyt Society, 135. Hakon, 137. Halfrida, no. Halla, 63. Hallfrid, 63, 69. Hallftein, 79. Hannoverae, 128. Harold, King, 75, 84. Harris, Samuel, 132. Haugabret, 85. Haukadal, 24. Hauk Lagman, 63. Haukfbdk, 75. Head, Sir Edmund, 138. Hebrides, 27, 80, 81. Index. 157 Hegeland, 26. Heimfkringla, 15, 1 7, 44, 45, I 2 9- Hekja, 50, 105. Helgafell, 78, 80, 8 1, 92, 95. Helgafon, 97. Helge, 76. Helgi, 64, 65, 109. Helluland, 31, 50, 70, 72, loo, 105, 113. Helfingeland, 70. Henderfon, Ebenezer, 139. Hergil Neprafs, 76. Herjulf, 26, 27, 30, 98. Herjulfsfjord, 26. Herjulfsnefs, or Heriulfsnes, 26, 27, 29, 98. Herjulfson, Bard, 26. Hefthofdi, Thord, 46. Hitardal, 24. Hitchcock, 114, 117. Hjelte, 44. Hlymreksfari, 76. Hogna, 75. Holda, 45. Holm, 25. Holftein, 71. Hdlum, 76. Honeydew, 118. H<5p, 106, 116, 117. Hope, 59, 60, 108. Hornftrand, 23. Hrafnfgnipa, 25. Hraunhbfn, 123. Humboldt, Alex. Von, 135. Hvidferk, 71. Hvftramannaland, 96, 121, 122. Hyma, 46. I. Iceland and Icelandic, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 25, 26, 27, 33, 34, 35, 43, 44, 46, 47, 49, 50, 52, 54, 62, 63, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79> 80, 81, 84, 92, 94, 95, 96, 98, 109, no, III, Il6, 120, 122, 123, 124, 125, 131, 134, 138. Icelanders, 9, 13, 43, 64, 74, 78, 80, 93, 123, 135, 137- Illugi, 78. Indian, 59, 114, 117, 119, 122. Indian corn, nS. Ingolf, 23, 26. Ingveld, 69. Ireland, 62, 70, 76, 92, 95, 96, 106, 122, 131. Ireland, Great, 72, 76, 77, 96, 97. Irifh, 45, 46, 61, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 80, 93, 96, 104, 109, 122, 123, 134- Irving, 61. Ivar, 76. J- Jaeder, 23. Jaerunda, 24.. Jamiefon, 43. Jarnfid, Bjarni, 46. Johnfon, Anngrim, 15. Johnfon, Bjorn, 25, 46, 71. Jomfborg, 84, 96, 122. Jomfvikings, 84, 96. Jorund, 63, 78. Juvenal, 73. K. Kamb, 79, 80, 87, 88, 89. Karlfefne, Thorfinn, 17, 18, 23, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 63, 64, 67, 68, 69, 70, 96, 158 Index. 104, 106, 107, 108, 109, 1 10, 116, 117, 137- Katla, 76, 78. Keelnefs, 38. Keldum, 63. Kendall, 133. Ketil, 26, 79. Ketilsfjord, 26. Keyfer, Prof., 136. Kjalarnefs, or Kialarnes, 38, 50, 54, 59, 102, 105, 106, 108, 114, 116. Kjartan, 83, 86, 94, 95, 124. Kjarval, 46. Knarrarbringa, Thorbjb'rg, 24. Kneeland, Dr. Samuel, 139. Kodran, 26. Krage, Ulf, 25. Kroflanefs, 39, 103. Kvendlands, 70. Labrador, 131. Lag-thing, 24. Laing, Samuel, 15, 17, 44, 45, 129. Landna"mab<5k, 63, 75, 77. Lappenberg, M., 128. Latin, 11, 125, 127, 130. Laxdaela Saga, 32. Leif, 24, 26, 30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 37, 40, 43, 44, 45, 47, 64, 65, 67, 70, 77, 78, 99, 100, 101, 104, 105, 114. Leifsbooths, 102, 103, no, 117, 121. Leinfter, 77. Libyan, 115. Lidarend, 90. Limerick, 76, 77, 122. Linnaeus, 52, 54. Lodbrok, Ragnar, 46. Lodverflbn, Sigurd, 80. London, 129, 131, 134, 135, 136. Lower Canada, 113. Lull, Edward P., 116. Lyfefjord, 40, 103. M. Magnuffen, Prof. Arnas, 16, 17, 132. Magnuffbn, Eirikur, 138. Magnufen, Finn, 24, 33, 40, 52, 61, 68. Major, R. H., 135. Mallet, 89. Mallet, Paul Henri, 135. Man, 80. Mar, 76, 78, 90, 91. Markland, 31, 50, 61, 70, 78, 100, 105, 109, 113, 114. Mare Oceanum, 72. Marfeilles, 73. Marfon, Ari, 75, 76, 77, 78, 121, 122. Martha's Vineyard, 116. Mary, Holy Virgin, 17. Maryland, 121. Maffachufetts, 52. Mather, Dr. Cotton, 133. Mazer-tree, no, 118. Medallfellftrand, 80. Melabdk, 75. Metcalfe, F., 139. Midjokul, 25. Miles, Pliny, 139. Monomoy, 115. Mont Haup, 117. Moore, 62, 77. Morris, William, 138. Mount Hope's Bay, 116, 117, 120. Miiller, Bp., 79. Munfter, 76, 77. Mufeum, Britifh, 135. Index. N. Nadodd, 24. Nan tucket, 114, 120. Narratives, Minor, 72. Naufet, 114, 115. Neil, 77. New Brunfwick, 113. Newfoundland, 31, 50, 113, 131. New Jerfey, 121. Newport, n, 117, 137. New York, 121. Nial, 52. Nicholas, St., 72. Nidaros, 26. Njal's Saga, 138. Norie, J. W., 113. Norfe, 109, 123. Norfk, 35. North America, 115, 125. North American Pilot, 113. Northmen, 9, 10, n, 12, 16, 17, 21, 23, 24, 29, 32, 34, 36, 52, 62, 68, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 89, 96, 97, 107, 108, 109, 113, 114, 115, 118, 119, 125, 129, 13, 131- Norway, 13, 15, 16, 23, 24, 26, 27, 30, 35, 40, 45, 64, 68, 71, 73, 74, 75, 77, 80, 83, 98, 109, 1 10, 129, 131, 136, 137. Norwegians, 72, 77, 104. Notices, Geographical, 70. Nova Scotia, 31, 113. O. O'Brien, 74, 77, 85. Oddfon, 77. Odels-thing, 24. Oder, 84. Odin, 24, 52, 138. Oehlenfchlager, 52. CEland, 70. CExney, 24. O'Halloran, 76, 77. Ohio, 121. Olaf, King, 26, 44, 45, 50, 72, 84, 92, 96, 105. Olafs, 17. Orkneys, 77, 78, 80, 81, 96, 122, 139- Orleans, 115. Orm, 79, 81. Ofvald, 23. Otkatla, 78. Otte', E. C, 135. P. Palnatoki, 84, 96, 123. Papas, 73, 75. Papey, 75. Papyli, 75. Peirce, Prof., 116. Percy, Bp., 135. Pertz, Geo. Henry, 128. Peterfen, N. M., 14, 77, 80. Pfeiffer, Ida, 139. Phoenician, 132. Pigott, Grenville, 52, 138. Pliny, 54, 73. Pocaflet River, 1 1 7. Point Judith, 120. Pomerania, 84. Ponce de Leon, John, 122. Powell, Geo. E. J., 138. Prince Society, 21. Puerto Bello, 61. Pytheas, 73. i6o Index. R. Rafn, Charles Chriftian, 10, II, 12, 22, 24, 26, 30, 31, 32, 34, 54, 59, 60, 68, 69, 70, 71, 76, 97, 98, 112, 125, 132, 133- Rafn, the duellift, 24. Rafn, Limerick merchant, 76, 77, 122. Rafnsfjord, 26. Raghlin, 77. Raunhafnarfos, 84. Raunhofn, 85, 89, 92. Rechrin, 77. Reykjanefs, 27, 75, 78, 122. Reynifnefs, 63. Review, North American, 131. Rhode Ifland, 52. Rhode Ifland Historical Society, 10, ", 133- Rimbegla, 59. Rjupa, Thorhild, 46. Rolf, Duke, 77. Romans, 32. Rome, 43, no. Rugman, 15. Runic, Runes, 14, 131, 132, 133. Runolf, 69. Ryg, Thorvald, 46. S. Sagamen, 14. Sagas, 14, 23. Saxo, 73. Saxons, 77. Saxony, 68, 71. Scandinavian, 9, 10, n, 16, 17, 20, 21, 33, 34, 52, 60, 90, 127, 131, 132, 134, 135, 136- Schedae, 74. Scotland, 70, 73. Scots, 51, 85, 105. Scott, Sir Walter, 43, 89. Scottifh, 45, 104. Scythian, 132. Seaconnet, 117, 120. Seakings, 136. Setftokka, 24. Sewall, Stephen, 133. Shawanefe Indians, 121. Shetland Iflands, 139. Siglefjord, 26. Sigurd, 77, 81, 83, 96. Sigvald, 92. Sinding, Paul C, 136. Sitaracus, 76. Sitric, 62, 76, 77. Skagafjord, 68, no. Skalholt, 17. Skardfo, 46. Skraelings, 39, 56, 57, 58, 61, 78, 96, 1 02, 103, 107, 1 08, 109. Skraelingfland, 72. Slafter, Edmund F., 22, 116. Smith, Jofhua Tolman, 133. Snasfells, 79. Snaefellfjokul, 25. Sne eland, 24. Sniofelfnes, 123. Snorri or Snorre, 46, 48, 54, 55, 56, 58, 69, 73, 79, I0 4, 107, 109, 1 10, 123. Snorri Godi, 79, 81, 83, 87, 89, 90, 91, 92, 94, 96, 123. Snorri, Karlfefnefon, 60, 63, 69. Snorri, Skard, 77. Snorri Sturlefon, 60, 123. Snowland, 24. Scelve, 26. Soelvedal, 26. Soer, Eyulf, 24. Solinus, 73. Index. 161 Spaniards, 122. Stad, 63. Steindlf, 76, 77. Steinum, 63. Stockholm, 15. Straumey, 51, 105, 116. Straumfjord, 58, 60, 92, 105, 116. Streamfirth, 108. Sturlefon Snorro, 15, 60, 123, 129. Sturlunger, 77, 92. Styrbjorn, 84, 88, 96. Sur, 79. Svendfon, Brynjulf, Bp., 15. Sveyn Eftrithfon, 118, 128. Svinoe, 24. Sweden, 15, 35, 70, 71, 84, 96, 123. Swedes, 77. Swedifh, 24, 45, 68, 104. Swendfon, Bp., 17. T. Taunton, 117. Taunton River, 117, 137. Tegner, 49. Tellemark, 73. Thing, 24. Thjodhild, 78. Thor, 24, 49, 52. Thorbiorn, 24, 40, 49, 63, 79, 81, 104. Thorbjorg, 76, 78. Thorbjornglora, 26. Thorbrandfibn, Helge, 26. Thorbrandfon, Snorri, 46, 55, 104. Thorbrand Snorrafon, 57, 108. Thord, 45, 46, 86, 87. Thordarfon, Ion, 17. Thordis, 63, 78, 79. Thorer, 36, 40, 45, 63. Thorer Vidlegg, 81, 82, 83. Thoreffon, Ulf-Oxne, 23. 21 Thorfinn, 78, 92, 104, 123. Thorfinn Ligurdfon, 122. Thorgeir, 24, 63, 69, 78. Thorgeller, 24. Thorgerd, 27, 78. Thorgeft, 24. Thorgeftlingers, 24. Thorgill Kollfon, 78. Thorgils, 78. Thorgrim, 79. Thorgrim Galdrakin, 87. Thorgrirafon, Styr, 24, 25. Thorhall, 51, 52, 53, 59, 104, 106, 108. Thorhallflbn, Magnus, 17. Thorhild, 24. Thorkafjord, 75. Thorkell Gellerfon, 77, 122. Thorkelin, Grim, 61. Thorlacius, Bp., 34. Thorlacius, Birgen, 61. Thorlak, 83. Thorlak Runolfon, Bp., 63, 69, no. Thorodd, 80, 81, 82, 83, 86, 87, 89, 91. Thorolf Eyrar Loptfon, 92. Thorfnefs, 83. Thorfnefthing, 24. Thorftein, 27, 40, 41, 42, 43, 103. Thorftein Ranglatr, 63. Thorum, 46. Thorunn, 63, 69. Thorvald, 23, 24, 26, 27, 37, 38, 40, 49 So, 59. 6. I2 - Thorvald Kodranfon, 76. Thorvald Krok, 63. Thorvaldfon, Bertel, fculptor, 60. Thorwald, 101, 102, 103. Thorward, 104. Thule, 73, 74. Thurid, 32, 48, 49, 63, 79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 86, 87, 91, 92, 94, 95, 123, 124. Thyle, 73- 162 Index. Torfaeus, 46, 68, 129, 130, 131, 136. Tryggvius, 26, 105. Tyrker, 31, 33, 34, 35, 3^, 99, 101. U. Ulf, 75, 78. Ulfter, 77. Unipedes, 60. Upfala, 84. Uflier, Archb., 77. Uvaege, 61, 109. Vaedrafjordr, 76. Val, 81. Valgerde, 63. Vallancey, Col., 132. Valldidida, 61, 109. Vathelldi or Vethilldi, 61, 109. Vatnahverf, 26. Vatfhorn, 24. Venezuela, 115. Vermeland, 70. Vethilldi, 109. Vidforla, Eric, 17. Vifilfon, Thorbjorn, 24. Viga Glum's Saga, 138. Vikings, 136. Vindingius, P., 130. Vinland, 34, 35, 37, 40, 44, 45, 47, 48, 50, 53, 60, 61, 64, 68, 70, 72, 76, 78, 99, 101, 102, 103, 104, 1-06, 109, no, 114, 121, 124, 128, 129, 131. Vineyard Sound, 116. Vog, 27. W. Waterford, 76, 77. Weber, 43. Weft Indies, 19. Wefterbygd, 105. Weftland, 74. Weftmen, 75. Weftman's Iflands, 80. Whale-rock, 120. Wheaton, Henry, 131. White- Man's- Land, 61, 76, 78. William of Normandy, 131. Winland, 128. Vide Vinland. Winthrop, James, 133. Wifconfin, Univerlity of, 137. Wood, 74. Wormfkiold, 59. Y. Yule, 47, 48, 49, 104. A 001 237 043 3 \\ll um Tinu/yf^. CP University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY OT % ^ V- k CL_i > ? 5 2 5> V-l S Ci > 3 1158 01098 2832 S3 .^ oo 50 vr