Chapter 5

It so happened, that a bull,[37-2] which belonged to Karlsefni and his people, ran out from the woods, bellowing loudly. This so terrified the Skrellings, that they sped out to their canoes, and then rowed away to the southward along the coast. For three entire weeks nothing more was seen of them. At the end of this time, however, a great multitude of Skrelling boats was discovered approaching from the south, as if a stream were pouring down, and all of their staves were waved in a direction contrary to the course of the sun, and the Skrellings were all uttering loud cries. Thereupon Karlsefni and his men took red shields and displayed them. The Skrellings sprang from their boats, and they met then, and fought together. There was a fierce shower of missiles, for the Skrellings had war-slings. Karlsefni and Snorri observed, that the Skrellings raised up on a pole a great ball-shaped body, almost the size of a sheep's belly, and nearly black in color, and this they hurled from the pole up on the land above Karlsefni's followers, and it made a frightful noise, where it fell. Whereat a great fear seized upon Karlsefni, and all his men, so that they could think of nought but flight, and of making their escape up along the river bank, for it seemed to them, that the troop of the Skrellings was rushing towards them from every side, and they did not pause, until they came to certain jutting crags, where they offered a stout resistance. Freydis came out, and seeing that Karlsefni and his men were fleeing, she cried: "Why do ye flee from these wretches, such worthy men as ye, when, meseems, ye might slaughter them like cattle. Had I but a weapon, methinks, I would fight better than any one of you!" They gave no heed to her words. Freydis sought to join them, but lagged behind, for she was not hale;[38-1] she followed them, however, into the forest, while the Skrellings pursued her; she found a dead man in front of her; this was Thorbrand, Snorri's son, his skull cleft by a flat stone; his naked sword lay beside him; she took it up, and prepared to defend herself with it. The Skrellings then approached her, whereupon she stripped down her shift, and slapped her breast with the naked sword. At this the Skrellings were terrified and ran down to their boats, and rowed away. Karlsefni and his companions, however, joined her and praised her valor. Two of Karlsefni's men had fallen, and a great number of the Skrellings. Karlsefni's party had been overpowered by dint of superior numbers. They now returned to their dwellings, and bound up their wounds, and weighed carefully what throng of men that could have been, which had seemed to descend upon them from the land; it now seemed to them, that there could have been but the one party, that which came from the boats, and that the other troop must have been an ocular delusion. The Skrellings, moreover, found a dead man, and an axe lay beside him. One of their number picked up the axe, and struck at a tree with it, and one after another [they tested it], and it seemed to them to be a treasure, and to cut well; then one of their number seized it, and hewed at a stone with it, so that the axe broke, whereat they concluded that it could be of no use, since it would not withstand stone, and they cast it away.

It now seemed clear to Karlsefni and his people, that although the country thereabouts was attractive, their life would be one of constant dread and turmoil by reason of the [hostility of the] inhabitants of the country, so they forthwith prepared to leave, and determined to return to their own country. They sailed to the northward off the coast, and found five Skrellings, clad in skin-doublets, lying asleep near the sea. There were vessels beside them, containing animal marrow, mixed with blood. Karlsefni and his company concluded that they must have been banished from their own land. They put them to death. They afterwards found a cape, upon which there was a great number of animals, and this cape looked as if it were one cake of dung, by reason of the animals which lay there at night. They now arrived again at Streamfirth, where they found great abundance of all those things of which they stood in need. Some men say, that Biarni and Freydis remained behind here with a hundred men, and went no further; while Karlsefni and Snorri proceeded to the southward with forty men, tarrying at Hop barely two months, and returning again the same summer. Karlsefni then set out with one ship, in search of Thorhall the Huntsman, but the greater part of the company remained behind. They sailed to the northward around Keelness, and then bore to the westward, having land to the larboard.[40-1] The country there was a wooded wilderness, as far as they could see, with scarcely an open space; and when they had journeyed a considerable distance, a river flowed down from the east toward the west. They sailed into the mouth of the river, and lay to by the southern bank.

_The Slaying of Thorvald, Eric's son._--It happened one morning, that Karlsefni and his companions discovered in an open space in the woods above them, a speck, which seemed to shine toward them, and they shouted at it: it stirred, and it was a Uniped,[40-2] who skipped down to the bank of the river by which they were lying. Thorvald, a son of Eric the Red, was sitting at the helm, and the Uniped shot an arrow into his inwards. Thorvald drew out the arrow, and exclaimed: "There is fat around my paunch; we have hit upon a fruitful country, and yet we are not like to get much profit of it." Thorvald died soon after from this wound. Then the Uniped ran away back toward the north. Karlsefni and his men pursued him, and saw him from time to time. The last they saw of him, he ran down into a creek. Then they turned back; whereupon one of the men recited this ditty:[40-3]

Eager, our men, up hill down dell, Hunted a Uniped; Hearken, Karlsefni, while they tell How swift the quarry fled!

Then they sailed away back toward the north, and believed they had got sight of the land of the Unipeds; 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.[41-1] 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,[41-2] 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 Vaetilldi, and their father's Uvaegi. They said, that kings governed the Skrellings, one of whom was called Avalldamon, and the other Valldidida.[41-3] 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;[42-1] and people believe that this must have been Hvitramanna-land [White-men's-land], or Ireland the Great.[42-2] 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,[42-3] 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,[43-1] Runolf's son. They had a son named Thorbiorn, whose daughter's name was Thorunn, [she was] Bishop Biorn's[43-2] 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!

FOOTNOTES:

[14-1] The translation that follows, by Arthur Middleton Reeves, is based on the text of Hauk's Book, No. 544 of the Arna-Magnaean Collection, collated with No. 557 of the same collection. In _Origines Islandicae_, II. 610, this saga is called "The Story of Thorfinn Carlsemne."

[14-2] The rubrics here given in italics are found in the original manuscript.

[14-3] In eastern Norway.

[14-4] From 853 to 871.

[15-1] A blank in the original manuscript.

[15-2] 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.

[15-3] In southwestern Norway.

[16-1] Movable planks used in constructing the lock-beds of the sleeping apartment. They were often beautifully carved, and hence valuable.

[16-2] 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.

[17-1] 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.

[17-2] On the western coast of Greenland, about 70 deg. N. Lat.

[17-3] 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.

[20-1] "Winter-night-tide" was about the middle of October.

[23-1] The home of Eric the Red, in the Eastern Settlement.

[24-1] This was evidently the first time that the voyage from Greenland to Norway was accomplished without going by way of Iceland, and was a remarkable achievement. The aim was evidently to avoid the dangerous passage between Greenland and Iceland.

[24-2] A reference to some strange happenings in the winter of 1000-1001 at the Icelandic farmstead Froda, as related in the Eyrbyggja Saga.

[25-1] Of the year 999. See next note.

[25-2] King Olaf ruled from 995 to 1000. He fell at the battle of Svolder (in the Baltic) in September, 1000. It was in the same year that Leif started out as the King's missionary to Greenland. See p. 43, note 1.

[25-3] A wild cereal of some sort. Fiske is convinced that it was Indian corn, while Storm thinks it was wild rice, contending with much force that Indian corn was a product entirely unknown to the explorers, and that they could not by any possibility have confused it with wheat, even if they had found it. There is, moreover, no indication in this saga that they found cultivated fields. Storm cites Sir William Alexander, _Encouragement to Colonies_ (1624), who, in speaking of the products of Nova Scotia, refers, among other things, to "some eares of wheate, barly and rie growing there wild." He also cites Jacques Cartier, who, in 1534, found in New Brunswick "wild grain like rye, which looked as though it had been sowed and cultivated." See Reeves, p. 174, (50).

[25-4] Supposed to be maple.

[26-1] Also called Thorhild.

[27-1] That is, were near Ireland.

[28-1] The display of an axe seems to have been thought efficacious in laying fetches. See Reeves, p. 171, (39), citing a passage from another saga.

[30-1] Thorfinn Karlsefni, the explorer of the Vinland expeditions, was of excellent family. His lineage is given at greater length in the _Landnama-bok_ (Book of Settlements).

[31-1] Usually called Gudrid.

[32-1] There is doubt as to why the expedition sailed northwest to the Western Settlement. Possibly Thorfinn desired to make a different start than Thorstein, whose expedition was a failure. See Reeves, p. 172, (45).

[32-2] _Doegr_ was a period of twelve hours. Reeves quotes the following from an old Icelandic work: "In the day there are two _doegr_; in the _doegr_ twelve hours." A _doegr's_ sailing is estimated to have been about one hundred miles. There is evidently a clerical error in this passage after the number of days' sailing. The words for "two" and "seven" are very similar in old Norse.

[33-1] The language of the vellum AM. 557 is somewhat different in this and the previous sentence. It does not say that "they sailed southward along the land for a long time, and came to a cape," but, "when two _doegr_ had elapsed, they descried land, and they sailed off this land; there was a cape to which they came. They beat into the wind along this coast, having the land upon the starboard side. This was a bleak coast, with long and sandy shores. They went ashore in boats, and found the keel of a ship, so they called it Keelness there; they likewise gave a name to the strands and called them Wonderstrands, because they were long to sail by."

[33-2] AM. 557 says _biafal_. Neither word has been identified.

[33-3] Hauk's Book says "eider-ducks."

[34-1] The god Thor.

[35-1] The prose sense is: "Men promised me, when I came hither, that I should have the best of drink; it behooves me before all to blame the land. See, oh, man! how I must raise the pail; instead of drinking wine, I have to stoop to the spring" (Reeves).

[35-2] The prose sense is: "Let us return to our countrymen, leaving those who like the country here, to cook their whale on Wonder-strand." From an archaic form in these lines it is apparent that they are older than either of the vellums, and must have been composed at least a century before Hauk's Book was written; they may well be much older than the beginning of the thirteenth century (Reeves). The antiquity of the verses of the saga is also attested by a certain metrical irregularity, as in poetry of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh centuries (Storm).

[35-3] In the next sentence the authority for this doubtful statement seems to be placed upon "traders."

[36-1] Note the word "hollows" with reference to the contention that "wild wheat" is "wild rice." See p. 25, note 3.

[36-2] "Skin-canoes," or kayaks, lead one to think of Eskimos. Both Storm and Fiske think that the authorities of the saga-writer may have failed to distinguish between bark-canoes and skin-canoes.

[36-3] The vellum AM. 557 says "small men" instead of "swarthy men." The explorers called them _Skraelingar_, a disparaging epithet, meaning inferior people, _i.e._, savages. The name is applied, in saga literature, to the natives of Greenland as well as to the natives of Vinland. Storm thinks the latter were the Micmac Indians of Nova Scotia.

[36-4] "Lescarbot, in his minute and elaborate description of the Micmacs of Acadia, speaks with some emphasis of their large eyes. Dr. Storm quite reasonably suggests that the Norse expression may refer to the size not of the eyeball but of the eye-socket, which in the Indian face is apt to be large." Fiske, _The Discovery of America_, p. 190.

[37-1] This would seem to place Vinland farther south than Nova Scotia, but not necessarily. Storm cites the Frenchman Denys, who as colonist and governor of Nova Scotia passed a number of years there, and in a work published in 1672 says of the inner tracts of the land east of Port Royal that "there is very little snow in the country, and very little winter." He adds: "It is certain that the country produces the vine naturally,--that it bears a grape that ripens perfectly, the berry as large as the muscat."

[37-2] An animal unknown to the natives. As Fiske suggests, "It is the unknown that frightens."

[38-1] A euphemism for pregnant; the original is _eigi heil_.

[40-1] Thus reaching the western coast of Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia, according to Storm.

[40-2] The Norse word is _Ein-foetingr_, one-footer. The mediaeval belief in a country in which there lived a race of unipeds was not unknown in Iceland. It has been suggested by Vigfusson that Thorvald being an important personage, his death must be adorned in some way. It is a singular fact that Jacques Cartier brought back from his Canadian explorations reports of a land peopled by a race of one-legged folk. See Reeves, _The Finding of Wineland_, p. 177, (56).

[40-3] The literal translation is: "The men drove, it is quite true, a one-footer down to the shore. The strange man ran hard over the banks. Hearken, Karlsefni!"

[41-1] As skilled mariners the explorers were undoubtedly competent to make such a deduction as this. If Storm and Dieserud are correct, the explorers saw from the north coast of Nova Scotia the same mountains that they had seen from the south coast.

[41-2] The Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland, according to Storm.

[41-3] Nothing can with certainty be extracted from these names. The chances that they were incorrectly recorded are of course great. Storm contends that they cannot be Eskimo. Captain Holm of the Danish navy, an authority on the Eskimos, says, "It is not _impossible_ that the names may have been derived from Eskimo originals." Fiske says, p. 189, note: "There is not the slightest reason for supposing that there were any Eskimos south of Labrador so late as nine hundred years ago." In this connection Captain Holm says: "It appears to me not sufficiently proven that the now extinct race on America's east coast, the Beothuk, were Indians. I wish to direct attention to the possibility that in the Beothuk we may perhaps have one of the transition links between the Indians and the Eskimo." See Reeves, p. 177, (57).

[42-1] The description is clearly suggestive of processions of Christian priests, in white vestments, with banners, and singing (Storm).

[42-2] Vellum AM. 557 has not the words "Ireland the Great." As to "White-men's-land" (mentioned also once in the _Landnama-bok_), Storm traces its quasi-historical origin to the Irish visitation of Iceland prior to the Norse settlement. See _Studies on the Vineland Voyages_, p. 61. The explanation is, however, hardly convincing. See _Origines Islandicae_, Vol. II., p. 625.

[42-3] AM. 557 says "Iceland's sea" (_i.e._, between Iceland and Markland), and Hauk's Book, "Greenland's sea" (_i.e._, between Iceland and Greenland).

[43-1] Thorlak was born in 1085, consecrated bishop in 1118, and died Feb. 1, 1133. These dates are definitely known, and are important. "The bishop's birth-year being certainly known, one can reckon back, and according to the regular allowances, we shall have Hallfrid born about 1060, and her father about 1030, in Vinland, and Karlsefni as far back as 1000." Vigfusson in _Origines Islandicae_, Vol. II., p. 592. Vigfusson seeks to corroborate the above by other allied lineages. If his deductions are correct, they are revolutionary with reference to the generally accepted chronology of the Vinland voyages. He is convinced that Leif belongs to an older generation than Karlsefni and his wife, and that Leif's declining years coincide with Karlsefni's appearance on the scene. The expeditions would then stand in the year 1025-1035, or 1030-1040, while Leif may have headed the first expedition, say in 1025. And he thinks that various things outside of the genealogies point to this. See Introduction, p. 12, of this volume.

[43-2] Biorn was consecrated bishop in 1147, and died in 1162. His successor was Bishop Brand "the Elder," who died in 1201. Both Hauk's Book and AM. 557 refer to him as "the Elder"; hence the originals could not have been written before the accession of the second bishop Brand, which was in 1263. He died the following year. AM. 557 concludes with the words "Bishop Brand the Elder." But in Hauk's Book the genealogical information is carried down to Hauk's own time. He was a descendant of Karlsefni and Gudrid, through Snorri, born in Vinland.

THE VINLAND HISTORY OF THE FLAT ISLAND BOOK[45-1]