lum in which there occurs some mention, along the shore, and, his preparations being more or less, of the Good Vinland-as the completed, he embarked (in 983) with a few part of the North American continent visit-resolute followers, and stood out to sea from ed by the Northmen was called-to say the Snæfellsyökel, a towering promontory nothing of various copies of the same man- pointing directly to the west. His friends uscript. Thorbiorn, Eyolf, and Styr, accompanied In the rear of the documentary array of him beyond the rocks. In taking leave of which the two historical pieces above-men- them he announced his intention of looking tioned form the van and main division, M. for Gunbiorn's rocks, as some islets were Rafn has disposed a number of extracts from called which had been discovered in the the Landnámabók, the Heimskringla, and western seas a short time before, and the other ancient Sagas of high authority. He situation of which geographers have never has also found a foreign auxiliary of great been able to conjecture: it is not improbable weight in Adam of Bremen, a German that they were the islands near the southern ecclesiastic, who, being attracted to the Da- extremity of Greenland. The conspicuous nish court in the latter half of the eleventh feature of the first land made by him, was century by the reputation of King Swein a glacier (Snæfellsyökel) to which he gave for liberality and knowledge, learned there the name of Blaserk, or Blackrock: he the discovery of Vinland by the Northmen, then sailed southwards, until he at length to which he subsequently alluded in his arrived at a habitable shore where he spent writings. But to these fragments, as well the winter. During two summers he exas the poems and geographical treatises of plored the newly discovered country, to those times in which some mention is made which he gave the flattering name of Greenof Vinland, we shall return hereafter; and shall now terminate our preliminary disqui. sition with the acknowledgment that the learning and critical sagacity of Rafn, Finn Magnusen, and the other eminent scholars who have lent their aid in preparing this volume of American Antiquities for the press, appear to us to have effectually pre vented any objections that might be raised against the genuineness of the pieces entering into the collection; and to confine the question respecting the early discovery of America simply to the discussion of the meaning and intrinsic merits of the evidence. We shall now proceed to narrate the history of the discovery of America by the Northmen, not omitting those circumstances which, though not immediately connected with our object, yet throw a forcible and characteristic light on the men and times which fall under our consideration. Erik the Red, with whom our narrative begins, appears to have been conspicuous even among Northmen for turbulence of spirit and love of adventure. He was twice obliged to change his residence in Iceland owing to feuds with his neighbours, in which he committed homicide. In his new abode on the western shores of the island he was equally unfortunate, and became involved in disputes with a powerful individual named Thorgest; in consequence of which, being arraigned before the Thing, or Assembly, convened at Thorsness, and knowing probably that his enemy's adherents outnumbered his own, he felt that he had no chance of escape but in quitting the island. He lay some time in concealment, while his foes sought him on all the rocks land, in order that its designation might encourage men to settle in it; and in the course of the third summer he returned to Iceland according to promise, to acquaint his friends with his success. He remained there but one winter, during which time, after a renewal of his quarrel with Thorgest, a reconciliation was effected between them and in the following summer he returned to settle in Greenland. Of five and thirty vessels which set sail with him from Iceland only fourteen reached their destination; of the remainder some were lost, and others driven back by the winds. One of the companions of Erik was Heriulf, whose son, Biarne, at the time of the migration to Greenland, was absent on a trading voyage to Norway. Surprised, on his return to Iceland, to find his family all gone, he determined at once to follow them, and, as he expressed it, to spend his winter, as he had been always used to do, at his father's fire.side. In this he uttered the characteristic sentiments of the north, where the length and severity of winter give double value to the comforts of home and social intimacy, and where domestic attachments seem to gain strength from the rigour of the season. He set sail accordingly, though unacquainted with the Greenland sea, and for many days was driven by tempestuous north winds, accompanied by thick fogs, he knew not whither. At length, when the weather cleared up, he saw a land moderately elevated and overgrown with wood. As this did not correspond with the description he had received of Greenland, he left it to larboard; and standing out to sea, in two days more again de scried land lower than the former, but like of the discovery of America. Of the nait covered with wood. He then continued ture of the country in the vicinity of this stahis course with a south-west wind, and tion, the old historian gives us the following after three days descried an island, the description. lofty shores of which were beset by icebergs, or, as it should perhaps be understood, covered with glaciers. Bearing away from this island, and sailing for four days with fresh gales, he arrived at Heriulfsnes in Greenland, where his father was settled. There is no reason to doubt that the wellwooded land first descried by Biarne was some, we shall not at present venture to de. cide what, part of the American continent, which thus appears to have been discovered by the Northmen as early as 986. The It happened one day that they missed one discovery of the continent was in fact, by a of their companions, a Suderman, that is, a natural accident, made contemporaneously Southern or German named Tyrker, an old with the colonization of Greenland. "In that place there was no want of salmon either in the river or the lake, and of a So good was the land, that it might be easily greater size than they had ever seen before. seen that the cattle could never want for food, there being no severe cold in the winter, and the grass never losing its freshness. The days were more equal there than in Iceland or Greenland; and at the time of the shorthorizon."-p. 32. est day, the sun was nine hours above the servant and favourite of Leifs. A party A few years later, when Erik, Earl of was immediately despatched into the woods Norway, heard Biarne relate the incidents of in quest of him. After some time spent in his voyage, he expressed his surprise and search, he was geen staggering towards his dissatisfaction at the absence of any endeav- friends with an air of extravagant joy, and our to examine the newly discovered coun- having first accosted them in German, much try. The earl's comments, when carried to to their surprise, he at length went on to acGreenland, did not fail to operate at once on quaint them in staggering accents with the the adventurous spirit of the colonists. Leif, fact that he had been feasting on grapes. It the son of Erik the Red, bought Biarne's must be confessed that the northern histovessel, and in the year 1000 proceeded on a rian, in describing a German inebriated by voyage of discovery towards the south-west. eating wild grapes, drew too much on his He first came to the island of snow-clad imagination; yet the amount of fiction in mountains, formerly seen by Biarne, and this instance does not exceed what may be went on shore with some of his companions to examine. There was no herbage of any kind upon it, but a bare and rugged plain of slate (hella) extended from the feet of the glaciers down to the sea-side. Hence they gave to this country the name of Helluland. Continuing their voyage, they next arrived at a low coast thickly covered with wood, and having hillocks or banks of white sand near the shore. This country they called Markland, or Woodland. They then stood out to sea and sailed for two days before they again made land, when, passing between an island and the main, which here stretched out eastwards so as to form a long peninsula, they held their course westward along the shores of the latter, where they observed that a great extent of ground was left dry at ebb-tide. They explored in their small boat a river which is sued from a lake, and being pleased with the appearance of the country, they brought their vessel up into the lake when the tide rose, and moored her in it. They proceeded forthwith to erect themselves some temporary log-huts, which, as soon as they had made up their minds to winter in the place, they enlarged in comfortable houses, and called them Leifs-booths; a name which recurs frequently in the Scandinavian history allowed for as the inevitable colouring of facts preserved by tradition; and indeed the anecdote regarding Tyrker, if closely examined, will be found to furnish strong evidence of the genuineness of the narrative. The circumstance so carefully related, that the finder of the grapes was a Southern, in whose native country the vine abounded, and who was consequently well acquainted with that fruit, cannot fail to suggest to the reader how unlikely it is that such exotic productions should have presented themselves to the imagination of Icelanders in the twelfth century, or that grapes and vines should adorn regions in the fancy of that people who vol untarily settled on the frozen shores of Greenland. To the country in which the vines were discovered Leif gave the name of Vinland, and freighting his vessel with grapes and timber he returned homeward in the following spring. When near the coast of Greenland he saw a party of shipwrecked people on a rock: they were fifteen in all, including Thorer, the chief, and his wife, Gudrida. Leif took them on board and conveyed them to Greenland, and from this circumstance he obtained the appellation of the Lucky or Fortunate. The account which Lief gave of his winter's sojourn in Vinland was calculated to in. cite others to visit that country; and his connection however with the discoveries in brother Thorwald borrowed his vessel for Vinland, we shall not allow them at present this purpose, under the engagement that he to interrupt our narrative; but if space perwould first convey to Greenland the proper- mit, we may return to this episode hereafter, ty which Thorer, when shipwrecked, had and endeavour to show that it has a signifileft upon the rock. This being effected, he cance not adverted to by M. Rafn, although sailed for Vinland, and arrived without acci- strongly tending to confirm his conjecture dent at Leifsbooths. He spent the first respecting the authorship of the historical winter in fishing. The following spring fragments in which it is introduced. (1003) he sent a party southwards to exam- The year 1006 was rendered memorable ine the coasts; they were absent for some in Greenland by the arrival of two vessels months, and reported on their return, that from Iceland, one of which was commanded the country explored by them was every. by Thorfinn, better known by the auspicious where extremely beautiful, the woods ex- designation of Karlsefne; that is to say, tending down to within a short distance of having the materials of a man, or, promising the fine sandy beach which formed the shore. great things. The chief person in the other They saw no signs of human beings, ex- vessel was Biarne, the son of Grimolf. cept a wooden shed (literally in the language Karlsefne was a rich and powerful man, of of the Icelandic historians, a corn-shed or a distinguished family, and traced his degranary) on one of the numerous islands scent from some who were in those days near the coast. In the followwing year called kings, but must not be ranged in the (1004) Thorwald sailed eastward from Leifs- same line with the crowned heads of modern booths, and then went northward past a re-times. As genealogies and whatever remarkable headland which enclosed a bay, lates to descent and kindred had great imand was opposite to another headland. Here, portance in the eyes of the Icelandic writers, driven by a tempest into shoal water, the and are indeed always valuable to the critivessel struck and injured her keel; the cal inquirer from offering so many points of damage was soon repaired, and Thorwald contact by which the accuracy or authenticiordered the broken keel to be erected on the ty of history may be tried, we shall here headland, which he named from the circum- present to our readers a short specimen of stance Kialarnes, or Keel-Point. They came this kind in order to show how diligent a soon after to a promontory covered with chronicler is family pride, and how well diswood, where, for the first time, they saw posed it is, notwithstanding all its prolixity, some of the natives. There were three ca- to give a firm and well-jointed form to hisnoes drawn up on the shore, near each of tory. which were three Skrællings, as the northern writers call the Esquimaux. Of the nine natives they murdered eight, but found them selves in a short time surrounded by a great multitude, hastening from all sides to avenge the death of their fellows. The Northmen beat them off, but Thorwald received a mortal wound in the combat. His admiration of the woody promontory where he had expressed a wish to abide, then seemed to him prophetic; and as he expired he told his companions to bury him on the shore of the headland, and, planting a cross over his grave, to call the place Krossanes, or Cross Point. They returned to Greenland in 1005. In the spring of the following year, Thorstein, third son of Erik, accompanied by his wife Gudrida, set sail with the intention of bringing home his brother Thorwald's body; but after being tossed about the whole sum. The arrival of a man of such eminent mer by adverse winds, he regained Green- abilities and high family who could trace land at the beginning of winter, without back his ancestry through eight generations, having even seen Vinland, and died soon was an event well calculated to call forth after. The circumstances of Thorstein's all the hospitality of the Greenland colonists, death are related by the Icelandic historians and the festivities of Yule or Christmas were at ample length, and with much simplicity observed by the family of Erik the Red, who and pathos. As they have no immediate entertained Karlsefne and his companion "There was a man named Thord, who dwelt in Hofdestrand (in the district of Skagafiord, on the northern coast of Iceland): he was married to Fridgerda, daughter of Thorer Hima (the Lazy) and of Fridgerda, the daughter of Kiarval one of the kings of Ireland. Thord was the son of Biorne Byrdusmior (the Buttercask), son of of Biorne Yarnsid (Ironside), son of RagThorwald Ryg (Backbone), son of Asleikson nar Lodbrok (Hairy-breeches). They (Thord and Fridgerda) had a son named Snorre, who married Thorhilda Riupe (the Patridge), daughter of Thord Geller (the Loud-voiced), and the son of these was Thord Hesthöfde (Horse-head). Thorfinn Karlsefne was the son of Thord; his mother was named Thorunna. Thorfinn travelled about as a merchant and he was accounted a clever seaman and tradesman."-p. 130. ૨ to him. with a splendour, we are told, which had valleys and dwelt at Hwam. She used to say never been witnessed before "in that poor her prayers at Krosholum, where she had a country." This splendour however was in cross erected, for she was baptized and very devout. With her, there came to Iceland great measure due to the liberality of Karlsefne, who, reading in the downcast looks many men of rank, who had been taken captive during the wars in the west, and were of his host the confession of poverty, said therefore called serfs. One of these was nam"We have in our ship plenty both ed Vifil, a man of high birth, who had been of malt and corn, take of it what you will, made prisoner in the west and was called a and make as great a feast as your heart serf until Auda gave him his liberty. When desires.' During this season of pleasure she was bestowing dwelling-places on her Karlselne became enamoured of Gudrida, followers, and was asked by him why he the widow of Thorstein, who is represented that the omission was of no consequence, for alone was passed by unheeded, she replied as a lady possessing matchless endowments all knew him to be noble. She then gave him both of body and mind, and married her. Vifilsdale, where he afterwards lived."—p, 84 The lineage of Gudrida is not communica--89, ted to us in as ample a manner as her husThe historian then goes on to state that band's, but it is introduced by a genealogical preamble of so curious a kind, and depict- Gunbiorne, son of Vifil, was the father of ing so vididly the roving habits of the North- Gudrida, for whose sake alone, it is obvious, men in the tenth century, that we cannot re- the account of the war-kings was introduced. The noble extraction of Vifil, Gudrida's fuse to give it a place here as a counterpart to the genealogy which we have already ex-grandfather, was the point which the histracted. These family traditions carry with torian had really at heart; and as his sole authority for the fact was the comthem such an air of reality, and shed so much light on individuals, as cannot fail to plimentary assertion of Auda that all the inspire us with confidence in the history of world knew it, he deemed it expedient to which they form the connecting links. They raise the credit of her warranty by enlarging on the achievements of her kinsman in the are haloes spread round the heads of patriarchs, which irradiate more or less all the west. From these specimens our readers events in which their subjects have a share. will at once perceive how little romance, and how much plain, homely, matter-of-fact enBut to proceed with our extract. ters into the composition of Icelandic history, to which we shall now return, to resume the narrative of discoveries in Vinland. "There was a war-king (or pirate) named Olave the White; he was the son of King Ingiold, son of Helge, son of Olave, son of GuThe feasts of Yule could interrupt but for dred, son of Halvden Whitefoot, King of the a short time the tedious gloom of a GreenHighlands (in Norway). Olave carried on piracy (literally harried) in the west, and land winter, which disposes the mind to look conquered Dublin in Ireland, with the coun- forward with passionate eagerness to the ac. try round about, whereof he remained king. tive employments of a cheerful season. He married Auda the Generous, daughter of When Karlsefne and his friends beguiled Ketil the Flat-nosed, son of Biorne the Splay- their long evenings by recounting their adfooted, a rich Norwegian. They had a son ventures, the conversation often turned on named Thorstein the Red. When Olave fell in battle in Ireland, Auda and Thorstein fled the newly-discovered country in the South. west; and as this grew more interesting the to the Hebrides. There Thorstein married Thorida, daughter of Eyvind and sister of more it was talked of, they at length resolved Helge the Lean. They had many children. to examine it thoroughly and to attempt found. Thorstein became a war-king and made an ing a colony there. Accordingly, there alliance with Earl Sigurd the powerful, son of were three vessels fitted out in spring; one Eystein the Loud. They seized upon Caith-commanded by Karlsefne himself, another ness Sutherland, Ross and Moray, and more by Biarne Grimolfson, and in the third was than half of Scotland, which Thorstein ruled Thorward, who had married Freydisa, a naas king, until being surprised by the Scots in an ambuscade, he died on the field of battle. tural daughter of Erik the Red. Thorhall, Auda was in Caithness at the time when she a retainer of the same chieftain and an exheard of his death. She immediately had a pert hunter, with many other colonists, and vessel built secretly and escaped to the Ork- some Icelanders of distinction, joined the exneys. There she placed Groa, the daughter pedition, which, we are informed, was expect. of Thorstein the Red and mother of Grelada, ed to afford very lucrative results. It inwhom the chief Thorfinn the Skull-cleaver cluded in all one hundred and sixty persons, had in marriage. She afterwards went her- with cattle and lesser live stock in abundance. self to Iceland, having in her vessel a crew of twenty free men. In Iceland she spent her first winter with her brother Biorne. She subsequently took possession of some of the They set sail in the spring of the year 1007, and touched at the Westbygd, or western district of Old Greenland, and at Biarney, or as it ts now called, Disco Island. They his appearance again for three days, when held a southerly course for a day and night, he appeared in an abstracted mood and muttill they reached Helluland, where they land- tering verses. During his absence a whale ed and found nothing but great flat stones, of a species not known to the Northmen had some of which were twelve ells in width, and been thrown on shore, and they, pressed by a multitude of foxes. They then steered hunger, had cut it in pieces and eaten of it. more to the south-east for another day and As soon as Thorhall discovered this piece of night, till they reached the woody shores of good fortune, as he deemed it, he exclaimed Markland. They killed a bear on the island that it was all due to Red-Beard, that is, to near the shore, which was named from the Thor, in honour of whom he had been comcircumstance Biarney, or Bear Island. Re- posing a song. The rest of the company, suming their southerly course, they sailed who appear to have been chiefly Christians for a long time keeping the land on their were shocked at the suggestion, and threw right hand, till they came to a point on which what remained of the whale into the sea, It they found the keel of a ship, and which thus is piously added that what they had eaten obtained the name of Kialarnes, or Keel- sickened them, and that as soon as they threw Point. Here we shall stop to observe, that Thor's gift away, the weather cleared up we have set down the distances and courses and fish were taken in abundance. Christisailed just as we find them in the original anity was introduced into Greenland in the historians, not attempting to disguise the dif- year 1000, by Leif son of Eric; and it is ficulties of the narrative, to the discussion of curious to observe, in the anecdote above rewhich we shall return hereafter. lated and some others scattered through M. Rafn's volume, with what a strange and very rare union of tolerance and scrupulosity the followers of the new, regarded the adherents of the old religion. Beyond Kialarnes extended sandy shores of such a length as to obtain the name of Furthustrand; after which the coast became much indented with bays and inlets. Here Karlsefne landed a man and women, natives Thorhall soon afterwards sailed northwards of Scotland, whom he had with him, and who with eight others in quest of Vinland; but were remarkably swift of foot. These peo- being carried westward by violent gales, he ple, we are told, went nearly naked, their was thrown on the coast of Ireland, where, only clothing being a garment which they as the merchants reported, he was kept in called kiaval, (obviously the Anglo-Saxon servitude. The historian who cites the oral ceaval, a cowl or caul,) open at the sides, testimony of traders for this fact, reveals to without sleeves; fastened between the legs us another of his sources when he recites by a button, and having a hood attached to some of the verses of Thorhall, whose attachit. The fact that these Scots gave an An- ment to pagan usages is very naturally assoglo-Saxon or foreign name to their clothing, ciated with his love of poetry. These verses seems to confirm the imputation of compara- were doubtless preserved by popular traditive barbarousness thrown on them by the tion, and may therefore be regarded as conNorthmen, who indeed go so far as to say temporaneous records of the events to which that they were more like apes than men. they make allusion. Skaldic rhapsodies are However, Hake and Hakia, as the Scottish in general too wild and fragmentary to bear pair were named, were desired to run across translation; but as a peculiar interest attachthe country, and explore it southwards for es to these earliest transatlantic verses, esthree days, at the end of which time they pecially when they contain any reference to were taken on board, bringing with them the scenes or circumstances which gave birth grapes and ears of corn, probably maize. to them, we shall here endeavour to present The ships soon after entered a bay, in which our readers with a short specimen, being was an island so crowded with eider-ducks, Thorhall's effusion when, tired of his adventhat it was impossible to walk over it without tures, he was about to leave Karlsefne's partreading on the eggs. The bay, from the ty, and to sail northward. strength of the currents in it, was called Straumfiord, and the island Straumey. Here they unloaded the ships and spent the first winter. It was probably during this autumn that Gudrida gave birth to a son, named Snorre, the first of European race who was born in America. In the following spring there were no fish taken,andour adventurersbegan to experience a scarcity of food. Thorhall the hunter then wandered into the woods, and did not make "Home let us wend to our father's shore; The billows bound with crowded sail. |