Discovering the New World. Julius E. Olson
nor were they disposed to risk the lives of their men any longer. They concluded that the mountains of Hop, and those which they had now found, formed one chain, and this appeared to be so because they were about an equal distance removed from Streamfirth, in either direction.45 They sailed back, and passed the third winter at Streamfirth. Then the men began to divide into factions, of which the women were the cause; and those who were without wives, endeavored to seize upon the wives of those who were married, whence the greatest trouble arose. Snorri, Karlsefni’s son, was born the first autumn, and he was three winters old when they took their departure. When they sailed away from Wineland, they had a southerly wind, and so came upon Markland, where they found five Skrellings,46 of whom one was bearded, two were women, and two were children. Karlsefni and his people took the boys, but the others escaped, and these Skrellings sank down into the earth. They bore the lads away with them, and taught them to speak, and they were baptized. They said, that their mother’s name was Vætilldi, and their father’s Uvægi. They said, that kings governed the Skrellings, one of whom was called Avalldamon, and the other Valldidida.47 They stated, that there were no houses there, and that the people lived in caves or holes. They said, that there was a land on the other side over against their country, which was inhabited by people who wore white garments, and yelled loudly, and carried poles before them, to which rags were attached;48 and people believe that this must have been Hvitramanna-land [White-men’s-land], or Ireland the Great.49 Now they arrived in Greenland, and remained during the winter with Eric the Red.
Biarni, Grimolf’s son, and his companions were driven out into the Atlantic,50 and came into a sea, which was filled with worms, and their ship began to sink beneath them. They had a boat, which had been coated with seal-tar; this the sea-worm does not penetrate. They took their places in this boat, and then discovered that it would not hold them all. Then said Biarni: “Since the boat will not hold more than half of our men, it is my advice, that the men who are to go in the boat, be chosen by lot, for this selection must not be made according to rank.” This seemed to them all such a manly offer, that no one opposed it. So they adopted this plan, the men casting lots; and it fell to Biarni to go in the boat, and half of the men with him, for it would not hold more. But when the men were come into the boat, an Icelander, who was in the ship, and who had accompanied Biarni from Iceland, said: “Dost thou intend, Biarni, to forsake me here?” “It must be even so,” answers Biarni. “Not such was the promise thou gavest my father,” he answers, “when I left Iceland with thee, that thou wouldst thus part with me, when thou saidst, that we should both share the same fate.” “So be it, it shall not rest thus,” answers Biarni; “do thou come hither, and I will go to the ship, for I see that thou art eager for life.” Biarni thereupon boarded the ship, and this man entered the boat, and they went their way, until they came to Dublin in Ireland, and there they told this tale; now it is the belief of most people, that Biarni and his companions perished in the maggot-sea, for they were never heard of afterward.
Karlsefni and his Wife Thurid’s Issue. — The following summer Karlsefni sailed to Iceland and Gudrid with him, and he went home to Reyniness. His mother believed that he had made a poor match, and she was not at home the first winter. However, when she became convinced that Gudrid was a very superior woman, she returned to her home, and they lived happily together. Hallfrid was a daughter of Snorri, Karlsefni’s son, she was the mother of Bishop Thorlak,51 Runolf’s son. They had a son named Thorbiorn, whose daughter’s name was Thorunn, [she was] Bishop Biorn’s52 mother. Thorgeir was the name of a son of Snorri, Karlsefni’s son, [he was] the father of Ingveld, mother of Bishop Brand the Elder. Steinunn was a daughter of Snorri, Karlsefni’s son, who married Einar, a son of Grundar-Ketil, a son of Thorvald Crook, a son of Thori of Espihol. Their son was Thorstein the Unjust, he was the father of Gudrun, who married Jorund of Keldur. Their daughter was Halla, the mother of Flosi, the father of Valgerd, the mother of Herra Erlend the Stout, the father of Herra Hauk the Lawman. Another daughter of Flosi was Thordis, the mother of Fru Ingigerd the Mighty. Her daughter was Fru Hallbera, Abbess of Reyniness at Stad. Many other great people in Iceland are descended from Karlsefni and Thurid, who are not mentioned here. God be with us, Amen!
1 The translation that follows, by Arthur Middleton Reeves, is based on the text of Hauk’s Book, No. 544 of the Arna-Magnæan Collection, collated with No. 557 of the same collection. In Origines Islandicae, II. 610, this saga is called “The Story of Thorfinn Carlsemne.”
2 The rubrics here given in italics are found in the original manuscript.
3 In eastern Norway.
4 From 853 to 871.
5 A blank in the original manuscript.
6 This introductory paragraph, giving at the end the ancestry of Gudrid, the daughter of Thorbiorn Vifilson and a prominent figure in the Vinland voyages, seems to come first on account of the earlier historical allusions that it contains. The account of Gudrid is continued in the third paragraph.
7 In southwestern Norway.
8 Movable planks used in constructing the lock-beds of the sleeping apartment. They were often beautifully carved, and hence valuable.
9 An island midway between Iceland and Greenland, discovered in the latter part of the ninth century. Gunnbiorn was a Norwegian. This island is no longer above the surface. See Fiske, The Discovery of America, p. 242.
10 This should read Eastern Settlement, evidently a clerical error in an original manuscript, as both Hauk’s Book and AM. 557 reproduce it. There were two settlements in Greenland, the Eastern and Western, both, however, to the westward of Cape Farewell, and between that cape on the south and Disco Island on the north. Ericsey (i.e., Eric’s Island) was at the mouth of Ericsfirth, near the present Julianshaab. For further details on the geography of these settlements, see Reeves, The Finding of Wineland the Good, p. 166, (25), and Fiske, The Discovery of America, I. 158, note.
11 On the western coast of Greenland, about 70° N. Lat.
12 The saga up to this point is taken from Landnama-bok, the great Icelandic authority on early genealogy and history. It might well have included one more paragraph (the succeeding one), which gives an approximate date to the colonization of Greenland: “Ari, Thorgil’s son, says that that summer twenty-five ships sailed to Greenland out of Borgfirth and Broadfirth; but fourteen only reached their destination; some were driven back, and some were lost. This was sixteen [S: fifteen] winters before Christianity was legally adopted in Iceland.” That is, in about 985, as Christianity was accepted in 1000 (or 1001). There is a possible variation of a year in the usually accepted date. See Origines Islandicae, I. 369.