,4 -r. xO c V^^ "^^ '■-^. " ■> s ^ f \0 O^ -^^-^ ' i' '^.S,^ ^^ .x^^' >^„ o>' ,\'^-' ^-js' -S' .X^^ \ . O N c ^^- '^ \^' O^^ <■'/ <-^ *^ * .s? --^> .,V^^ A^^' ^^.- .0 ^ -'->. ^0. ■0- ^^ o>' ^ - ^>• ./ •^^ nV^''^. aN .\ r. .0 o ..s^^' "^^ ^^" "^^ ^^% ,0' 'o v>\^ ,^^''^^. #'^, ^^ ''/ ■,o •^^v.». -^ '" ^ \^^^' c°^'^'f/^b/ ■ ,(y'.<^^'"*-. '^ ''^^ V^^ r^ -^-^^ ..O ,,'?-' ci-. ^ * s ' .c;^ .^'' '^-. --^- .-^'^■• %.<^ <^^ c^- s^^' > -J'. .orgilsson, usually referred to as Ari Frode {ennfrbdi^ " the wise"), wrote his IslendingaBook^ and, according to some, was also one of the first authors of the Landnama Book. The old lawbook, the Grdgds, was written in 1117. Saga-writ- THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 11 ing was at its height about the year 1200. The sagas, even the historical ones, were essentially biographies, whether of kings, chieftains, or prominent families, the historical, politi- cal, or personal events being related largely as incidents in the life of each person whose ' ' saga ' ' was given . Sometimes these sagas were not written down till several hundred years after the occurrence of the events which they relate, but they give the names and genealogies of numer- ous men and women, and describe scenes with such mi- nuteness and detail as to leave little doubt in the mind of the reader as to their essential truth and accuracy. The sagas are composed in a simple, terse style, avoid- ing all attempts at adornment, yet presenting to us in a remarkably vivid manner the actors, their characters, and their deeds. They bear no trace of sentimentalism or striving for effect. A realistic description of facts, often comprising minute and apparently insignificant details, brings clearly before the mind of the reader, in a few sentences, the feel- ings and actions of the participants. The authors of most sagas of families and prominent men are unknown, and in some cases it can only be conjec- tured in what part of the island they originated. Certain sagas, however, of more general historic interest were com- posed by celebrated men. Iceland's greatest writer was Snorri Sturluson, whose most important books are the Eclda and the Heimskringla. The former deals with ancient myths and poems. The latter gives the history of Norway from the earliest times to 1177, and is one of the most remark- able historical productions of the world. The sagas that tell of the Vinland voyages will be fully dealt with in later chap- ters. After the year 1300 Icelandic literature shared in the 12 THE VOYAGES OF general decline, and no great or original works were created, but the copying and collecting of existing sagas were con- tinued with great industry. In Norway, however, a highly interesting book, the Khig''s Mirror^ was produced in the thirteenth century ; it gives an insight into the social condi- tions, the geographical knowledge, etc., of that time. Like their kinsmen in Norway and Ireland, the Iceland- ers were great merchants. The physical conditions of the is- land necessitated a lively trade with other countries, from which they obtained necessities of life, such as grain and timber, besides weapons, coins, and many luxuries. As a consequence of this trade, and also because the Icelanders took an active part in sea-roving expeditions during the Viking Period, they were in constant communication with foreign countries and much influenced by the civilization of western Europe. Seafaring served to maintain among the Icelanders the peculiar aptitude of the Norsemen as sailors and navigators. The viking life, as well as the numerous feuds in Iceland and the fact that many Icelanders took military service in Europe, especially in the bodyguards of certain princes, kept up the military spirit. Hence, about the year 1000 and in the period immediately following, when the CAcnts took place with which we are here concerned, Ave find in Ice- land a nation teeming with physical and mental energy, possessing in a high degree the qualities of sailors, navi- gators, and fighters, well fitted for exploration and coloni- zation. Every great farm or estate in Iceland formed a fairly in- dependent economic unit. The population consisted of free- men and thralls, but while the freemen performed the more THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 13 skilled labor and the thralls did the rougher kind of work, there appears otherwise to have been little division of labor or specialization. Each freeman might be a farmer, smith, merchant, fisherman, carpenter, etc. The thralls would grind the mill, spread the manure, perhaps milk the cows. The women baked, brewed, wove, and the like. The houses were built chiefly of sod, which ensured warmth. In the founda- I .^^1M#^^^ Ruins of the House of Eric the Red in Haukadalur^ Dala Syssel^ Iceland By courtesy of Capt. D. Bruun tion of the walls stones were laid, with sod interposed. Wood was used more sparingly, and entered chiefly into the con- struction and support of the roof and in the gables. The sod walls were from five to six feet thick and, generally, only about five feet high. An Icelandic farm* was made up of a number of build- ings scattered over the home enclosure {tun). The dwell- ing-houses were built near together, comprising ordinarily at least one house {stofa) where the meals were eaten and which also served as living-room, one house {eldhus) which served as kitchen and bedroom, and one provision store- house and pantry {bur, or matbur). Later, particularly in larger farms, the bedroom was separated from the kitchen, and a separate house {skdli) was built, which served as *See Valtyr GuSmvmdsson, Prvvatboligen paa Island i Sagatiden. 14 THE VOYAGES OF sleeping-room for the whole household. Often a bathroom [babsiofa) and a separate house for the women {dyngja) were added to the group of buildings formed by the dwell- ing-houses. Near by were found a smithy and storehouse for Ruins of the Farm Aslakstunga h'ln Innri in pjbrsardalur A, Lkvellin g- House ; B, Cmv-Barn ; C, Storehouse. These ruins date from a period not later than the beginning of the fourteenth century By courtesy of Capt. D. Bruun the winter provisions {skemma, or uUhur). Scattered over the tun., at smaller or greater distances from the dwelling-house, were the cow-barn {fjos)., the stable {hesthus)., the houses for the sheep and goats, and the hay-barns. In the outlying part of the tmi were pens for milking the cattle. The house that served as living and dining room con- tained one large hall, generally of rectangular form. Tw^o rows of w^ooden posts to carry the roof divided the hall lengthwise into three parts. The floor of the middle portion was about a foot lower than that of the side portions, and was covered with clay ; here were placed a series of fires {iongeido?-), surrounded by flat stones placed on edge. The smoke escaped through holes or louAres in the roof, which openings also served for the admission of light. The raised floor along the walls was often lined with planks. On it benches were placed, with tables in front of them. A high THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 15 seat (ondvegt) on one side was reserved for the chieftain who owned the house, and by it stood sacred pillars. A high seat on the other side was for the most honored guest. In large houses there was a dais at the end of the hall with cross benches for the women. The fireplaces were of different types, but always open. The /angeidar are found in most of the ruins from the Mid- dle Ages. They consisted either of flat stones, which covered the floor, or else the fire was built directly on the floor. Some- times the bottom of the fireplace was formed as a shallow pit. In certain langeldar, or close to them, has been found a small box-shaped hole, lined with stones for preserving a smouldering fire during the night. In some cases fire-pits were placed near the walls. The fireplace in the kitchen was often raised from the floor, and was built of large stones. Captain Daniel Bruun* has advanced the opinion that the segmental pits filled with ashes, charcoal, and stones, found in the ruins of temples and in the booths of trading stations, etc., in Iceland, were fireplaces used for preparing food. These fireplaces were particularly suited for temporary use, where a great number of men were gathered together and had to be fed at once, as at religious feasts and at trad- ing-posts during summer. Meat and bread were baked in the ashes or on heated stones placed in the pit. They were first wrapped in leaves and placed on the hot stones; other hot stones were then laid on top of them ; and the whole was covered with sod, ashes, or leaves, to hold the heat. This method of preparing food was generally used all over * Ka/itain Daniel Bruun og Professor Finnur Jonssons Undersogelser og Udgravninger fiaa Island, 1907-1909 {Geograjisk Tidsskrift) , Copenha- gen, 1910. 16 THE VOYAGES OF the North and probably elsewhere under earlier, primitive conditions, and is here of considerable interest. If such pits should be found on the coasts of America likely to have been visited by the Norsemen, they might be considered as evi- dence of such visits, and further investigations should be made on the spot. Clothing was chiefly of frieze, dyed or undyed. Imported stuffs of silk and cotton or red wool were used only by the rich. Great care was bestowed on the hair, which was worn long by both sexes; only thralls had to cut their hair short. The women were socially on an equality with the men, and had extensive property rights. Young maidens were highly respected and associated freely with young men, but had to guard their reputations very carefully. Breach of promise was in heathen times punished very severely, whether with men or women. Marriage was essentially a civil contract, and was generally arranged chiefly with regard to the social and economic standing of the bride and bridegroom and of their families. Ordinarily it was not allowed unless the parties together possessed sufficient means to live in reasonable comfort. The sagas give nu- merous instances of difficulties arising from these customs. The Icelandic wife was highly honored, and her counsel car- ried weight, but she often had to submit to her husband maintaining illegitimate relations with other Avomen of the household. Song, music, and saga-telling formed an important part of the entertainment of the Icelanders, but of all pastimes, it appears, athletic sports and games occupied the most prom- inent place. THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 17 It was customary for the men, except when working on the farm, always to carry arms. The commonest weapons were the axe, the sword, and the spear, although bows and arrows were often used. The axe seems to have been almost Axe from the Viking Period the national weapon. For defence a helmet and shield were worn, but these were not ordinarily carried about. The moral code or precepts of the Norsemen, as apparent from the old Eddie poem Hdvamdl^ maintained as the prin- cipal virtues, bravery and endurance, kindness, hospitality, and generosity to others, faithfulness to the given word or oath, fidelity in friendship or love, respect for old age, and care for the bodies of the dead . This code fostered cau- tion in establishing new connections, and, in fact, caution in all words and deeds. Suspicion of those who were not known to be one's friends was common, but an unavoid- able result of the state of unrest, strife, and feuds in which people then lived. The sagas, however, tell of many cases where help and protection were given under dangerous cir- cumstances to strangers in distress. Although wealth was much esteemed and sought after, freedom and a good name in life, but particularly after death, were valued as the high- est prize. The Icelanders were jealous of their rights, pugnacious, and often passionate in temper, which qualities frequently 18 THE VOYAGES OF led to quarrels, involving manslaughter and prolonged feuds. As already stated, the code of honor imposed as a sa- cred duty revenge for the killing of relatives or near friends, and no injury or insult could be left unatoned. On the other hand, the Icelanders possessed in a marked degree a sense of law and justice which found its expression in their highly organized judiciary system. In fact, their vindictive- ness was largely based on their sense of justice and honor. Their conception of the ideal man is reflected in the fol- lowing description of Gunnar of Lithend from the Story of Burnt Njal: * "He was a tall man in growth, and a strong man — best skilled in arms of all men. He could cut or thrust or shoot if he chose as well with his left as with his right hand, and he smote so swiftly m' ith his sword that three seemed to flash through the air at once. He was the best shot with the bow of all men, and never missed his mark. He could leap more than his own height, with all his war-gear, and as far back- wards as forwards. He could swim like a seal, and there was no game in which it was any good for anv one to strive with him ; and so it has been said that no man was his match. He was handsome of feature, and fair-skinned. His nose was straight, and a little turned up at the end. He was blue-eyed and bright-eyed, and ruddy-cheeked. His hair thick, and of good hue, and hanging down in comely curls. The most courteous of men was he, of sturdy frame and strong will, bountiful and gentle, a fast friend, but hard to please when making them. He was wealthv in goods." The high esteem of the Icelanders for wisdom and good- ness is revealed in the description of Njal in the same saga : *Trans. G. W. Dasent, Edinburgh, 1861, I, 60, 61. THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 19 "Njal was wealthy of goods, and handsome of face; no beard grew on his chin. He was so great a lawyer, that his match was not to be found. Wise too he was, and fore- knowing and foresighted. Of good counsel, and ready to give it, and all that he advised men was sure to be the best for them to do. Gentle and generous, he unravelled every man's knotty points who came to see him about them." G CHAPTER II GREENLAND AND THE OLD NORSE SETTLEMENTS REENLx\ND extends from the Arctic rearions south ^fc)^ to Cape Farewell, which lies in lat. 60° N., the same as Kristiania. The east coast is washed by the East-Greenland or Polar current, which carries with it huge masses of heavy ocean ice, the so-called East Pack, from twenty to thirty feet thick, accompanied by numerous icebergs. This current turns round Cape Farewell and sets first west and then northwest up along the west coast of Greenland; but above lat. 63° to 64° it swings to the west and joins the Labrador current, to be mentioned below. A weaker branch of the Polar cur- rent seems, however, to continue north along the coast be- yond lat. 64° . The speed of the Polar current is from fifteen to twenty miles a day round Cape Farewell, but off Godt- haab, in about lat. 64°, only from three to four miles a day. It is not felt more than from forty to sixty miles offshore on the west coast. North of lat. 66° ships are set westward. In Julianehaab Bay, where the old Norse Eastern Settle- ment was found, and up to Frederikshaab, icebergs from East-Greenland are so numerous that seven hundred may be counted from one spot, and they may be met as far as the latitude of Godthaab, where the old Western Settlement was found. Beyond Godthaab the coast is fairly free of ice- bergs until north of Holstensborg in lat. 67°, where we en- ter the northern districts for icebergs. These icebergs come from North-Greenland, and when, on their drift southward, they reach near lat. 67° they pass across Baffin Bay. The Vaigat inside Disko Island is densely covered with ice- 22 THE VOYAGES OF bergs, and a bank of them is formed oif Jakobshavn in Disko Bay. On the west side of Davis Strait we find the south-bound Labrador current, which is filled with the so-called West Pack, consisting of screwed and broken sea-ice, likewise accompanied by icebergs. These are due chiefly to the glaciers on the western coast of North-Greenland, but are probably in some measure derived from the East-Greenland current. In the summer the West Pack is from forty to sixty miles off the west coast of Greenland. Besides the East-Greenland and the Labrador currents, a warm Atlantic current flows northward into Davis Strait, trying to fight, as it were, the East-Greenland current. It is generally traceable by the existence of warm water further out at sea in the Davis Strait, but occasionally it may reach the coast and displace the Polar current, melting the rim of ice, the so-called "ice-foot," which forms along the shore of the Greenland coast. The East-Greenland current carries driftwood from the Siberian rivers, or possibly from the most western of the North American rivers, and deposits it along the coast up to Holstensborg, but no farther north. Also the warm At- lantic current may at times carry with it smaller quantities of driftwood. It follows from these conditions that the east coast of Greenland is blocked by ice the greater part of the year. The East Pack makes its appearance west of Cape Farewell in January or the beginning of February, but the principal masses come in April or later. From that time the ice lies generally more or less tightly packed round Cape Farewell, oflf Julianehaab, and off" the adjacent parts of the west coast, Month of Agdliutsok Fiord^ Eastern Settlement By courtesy of M. Clemmensen Month of Tasermiut Fiord^ Eastern Settlement By courtesy of Justitsraad F. Froda, Photograph by A. H. Jessen THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 23 until September, but for the last three months of the year the Cape is usually free from ice. OflF Julianehaab the ice may extend to about one hundred and twenty miles from land. It usually drifts up along the west coast as high as lat. 63°, where it begins to swing westward, but may be found as high as lat. 66°. The navigation on Julianehaab Bay is difficult and dan- gerous. Ships bound thither from Europe should steer past Cape Farewell and follow the boundary of the ice westward, at least as far as Cape Desolation, before they attempt to steer towards land. The farther up the coast a vessel makes land, the easier it is for it to find a passage through the ice. Just west of Cape Desolation, however, where the direc- tion of the Polar current changes rather abruptly from west to northwest, a local spreading-out of the ice takes place, which, often permits ships to pass through at that point. If we take Cape Desolation to be the former Hvarf , we can thus understand the old sailing directions, which seem to recommend that ships should steer past, or at least up to, Hvarf before trying to make land. In the King's Mirror we read : ' ' Everybody who \\'ishes to reach the land should sail round it towards the southwest and west, until he has passed all the places where ice may be expected, and then he should make directly for land. But it has frequently hap- pened that mariners have tried to make land too early, and have, therefore, been caught in the ice. Some of these people perished, others escaped ; of these latter we have met some, and heard their tales. All of those who came into this drift ice dragged their small boats up on the ice and thus tried to reach land, but the ship with all the goods remained *GHM, III, 316. 24 THE VOYAGES OF behind and was lost. Some had to spend four or five days on the ice before they reached land, some even longer." Before leaving the description of the seas surrounding Greenland, we should consider a natural phenomenon, the so-called haj'gerdingar, which is described in x\\e King^ s Mir- ror^ and also mentioned in iMudndma in connection with Herjulf's voyage to Greenland. Herjulf's ship, it appears, was surrounded by hafgerdingar^ and a poem, Hafgerd'inga Drdpa, was composed about the event. According to the somewhat vague account in the Iiing''s Mirror^ '"''hafger- dingar look as if all the storm-waves of the sea were gath- ered together in three continuous combers ; the three a'v ave- crests surround the whole sea in such a way that there is no escape [opening] ; they are higher than big mountains and as steep as precipices, so that in but few cases have people escaped from the sea when this has occurred." It may be conjectured that hafgerbmgar were a phe- nomenon similar to what is now given the name of tidal waves, probably, in most cases, a misnomer for earthquake waves. In modern sailing directions we find a notice that in the vicinity of long. 28°-32° W. and lat. 60° N., that is, nearly midway between Cape Reykjaness and Cape Fare- well, but somewhat to the south of the line bet\\'een these points, the sea is said to break very strongl}^, and it is be- lieved that submerged skerries or else volcanic forces are the cause. Earthquakes, which are reported to have occurred in this vicinity, may formerly have been more pronounced, and may perhaps have caused the hafgerdingar. Not only is Greenland generally surrounded by ice, but a huge cap of ice covers the interior, leaving only a narrow fringe of bare land along the coasts, consisting of islands, By courtesy of Capt. D. Bruun Encsvog on Oxnb^ Hvammsjiord^ Iceland Here Eric the Red dhvelt while banished, before going to Greenland By courtesy of M. Clemmenien Vidvfrom BratUthlid over Ericsford In the back-ground Igdlerfigsalik Mountain THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 25 mountains, and promontories. On the west coast, below lat. 73°, this strip of land has an average width of about fifty miles, and extends with little interruption from Melville Bay to Cape Farewell, a distance of more than one thousand miles. Everywhere this mountainous belt is penetrated by deep fiords, which reach to the inland ice and terminate abruptly with great glaciers. It was on this strip of land that the Icelanders settled at the end of the tenth century. Though barren on the outer shores and islands and on the hills, it is covered at the inner part of the fiords on the low level by a rich growth of grass together with stunted birch trees and various bushes, par- ticularly willows. On the north side of the valleys crowber- ries {empetnim nigrum) may be found. In Ari Erode' s Islen- dinga Book we, find a brief but important note on Greenland, from which, as well as from the Saga of Eric the Red and other sources, we learn that it was first explored by Eric the Red, the son of a Norwegian chieftain who settled on the west coast of Iceland while Eric was still a child. At the Thorness Thing Eric was convicted of manslaughter and banished from Iceland for three years. He decided to seek the region discovered by one Gunnbjorn, who, being driven by gales westward from Iceland, had found some islands, Gunn- bjorn 's Skerries, probably on the east coast of Greenland. When Eric was banished, he lived on an island in Hvamms- fiord, where ruins of his house may still be seen. He fitted out his ship in Ericsvog on BreiSifiord and sailed west from Snsefellsness. He soon sighted the glaciers of Greenland, and explored the coast, particularly around Julianehaab Bay, during the years from 982 to 985, in order to find the places most suitable for colonization. On his return, Eric 26 THE VOYAGES OF induced many other Icelanders to go with him and settle in Greenland, and it is said that twenty-five ships sailed from Iceland, of which, however, only fourteen reached their des- tination. Some of the ships were driven back to Iceland, but others were probably lost at sea or in the ice from the lack of experience of their crews in this dangerous navigation. Eric settled in Ericsfiord, the present Tunugdliarfik, at a place which he called Brattahlid, now Kagsiarsuk, in 985 or 986. Two distinct colonies were founded, the Eastern Set- tlement, extending from about Cape Farewell to a point well beyond Cape Desolation, comprising the whole of Juliane- haab Bay and the coast past Ivigtut, and the Western Set- tlement, beginning about one hundred and seventy miles farther north at Lysufiord, the present iVmeralikfiord, com- prising the district of Godthaab. The fiord next Ericsfiord in the Eastern Settlement was Einarsfiord, now Igalikofiord. These fiords were separated at their head by a low and narrow strip of land, the present Igaliko Isthmus. It was here, at GarSar, that the Althing of Greenland met, and here was also found the bishop's seat, established at the beginning of the twelfth century. There were as many as sixteen churches in Greenland, for almost every fiord had its own church on account of the long distances and difficult travelling between the fiords. The headland referred to in the sagas and in the old sail- ing directions as Hvarf, that is, the point about which the ships rounded, is believed to be Cape Desolation (Nunar- suit), the most southwestern point of Greenland. The total population in the two settlements hardly ever exceeded two thousand, and of these by far the greater part lived in the Eastern Settlement. This is manifest from the B)' courtesy of M.L Brattahlid The ruins are found where the Greenlander stands in the middle of the picture, but are hidden from vie^v by the tall grass By courtesy of M. Clt Fierv of the Plain at Igaliko. MG, XL VII On the left are houses of the modern Greenlanders and the place where the ' ' Thing- ' ' 7s beliex'ed to have been held. To the right the ruins of Gardar Ca- thedral and the bisho/i's house. In the bac/cground Igdlerfigsalik Mountain THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 27 number of ruins now left, and from the known distribution of the churches, of which there were twelve in the Eastern Settlement and only four in the Western Settlement. Thanks to the work of Captain Gustav Holm of the Dan- ish Navy and Captain Daniel Bruun of the Danish Army, B^ courtesy of M, Clemmensen Map of the Plain at Igaliko. MC, XLVII After suTvey by Cafit. G. Holm and Capt. D. Bruun, showing ruins of Gardar Cathedral and the bisho/i's house carried out under the auspices of the Danish Greenland Committee,* the remains of the Norse colony in Greenland have to a considerable extent been investigated, and much light has been thrown on the life and history of the early set- * Kommissionen for Ledelsen af Geologiske og Geograjiske Undersogelser i Gronland, MG, VI, XVI, XLVII. 28 THE VOYAGES OF tiers, as well as on the old topography. Finnur Jonsson* has, in particular, made a study of this latter question, and has succeeded in identifying many of the churches, fiords, etc. The Norsemen setded chiefly at the inner part of a fiord, on the low lands, where there were good pastures and woods, and near a river or brook, rich in salmon. Each farm con- sisted of a number of buildings, sometimes as many as Large Pen at Kakortok. MG^ VI twenty. The general lay-out of the farm, as well as the con- struction of the houses, was much on the same plan as in Iceland. The dwelling-houses ^vere built on a well-drained spot; if the farm was located on a fiord, it was built near a landing-place. Not far from the dwelling-houses were found scattered various smaller detached buildings, used as storehouses, smithy, and barns for the milch cows, each barn generally containing a division for the storage of hay. * Gronlands Gamle Tojiogra/ihi efter Kilderne , MG, 1898. This farm is of middle size, and is situated at the bottom of Ser- 7nilik Fiord. Directly north of the ruins is a steefi mountain side couerednvith dense willow bushes, and good fiasture is found on the terraces. Cows as well as sheep, or goats were kept on the farm . Ruin N'o. 1 is the dwelling-house with its kitchen midden. J\''o. 2 is a small house attached to the dwelling. JVos. 3 and 5 are cow- barns with haybarns attached. Jfos. 4, 7, and 9 are storehouses. jSfo. 6 is a house for sheep or goats, divided into sex'eral com- partments. Ab. 8 is a pen for sheep or goats. A''o. 10 is a hay- barn. Ruins of a Farm in the Eastern Settlement. MG.^ XVI THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 29 At a greater distance from the dwelling-house were found other barns and houses for cows, sheep, and goats, as well as stone cattle-pens for use in the summer. Some pens were built at a distance from the farms in more remote pastures, often on a high level, corresponding to the sseters in Norway. The oldest type of dwelling-house consisted in its simplest form of a rectangular structure with one or two rooms, to Ruins of the House at Brattahlid. The home of Eric the Red which was added an annex at the back . In larger farms were found, as in Iceland, several houses built side by side on one line, often with an annex at the back. Later structures were more complex; the houses were grouped one behind the other, being usually separated by a central passage or cor- ridor. The ordinary length of a house with two rooms was about fifty feet; the breadth rarely exceeded twelve to eighteen feet. The walls were of only a man's height, and were from three to four feet thick. They were constructed of sod and stones, but chiefly of sod. Often the foundation was of stones; the walls were entirely of sod. Storehouses were generally built wholly of stones, or with but little sod in- terposed. As a result, the ruins of storehouses and barns 30 THE VOYAGES OF are usually better preserved than those of dwelling-houses. In the Eastern Settlement good building material was available in a red sandstone which is abundant in that local- ity, and of this stone the best preserved ruins are constructed. In the Western Settlement building materials were scarce and the houses were made of sod and earth. Floors, even in the dwelling-houses, appear to have been made of clay. No trace of wooden floors has been found, unless the layer of charcoal, which is seen on the ground inside many of the houses, is due not only to the roof, but also to the floor . Roofs were constructed of a framework of wood covered with sod; their slope appears to have been moderate. The narrowness of the houses was probably required by the dimensions of Eldhiis xvith Fireplace in a DxvelUng- House in the Eastern Settlement By courtesy of Capt. D. Bruun the spars available for construction of the roofs. These spars were obtained chiefly from the native scrub birches or from pieces of driftwood, which were generally of small size. Holes in the roof provided for the escape of smoke, and for the admission of light. X ><> s ->-^-* ^ (^ ^ THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 31 Fireplaces were either built of flat stones above the floor, often in the middle of the room, or consisted of round pits, lined with stones. Fire-pits were not, however, used as much as in Iceland, probably because the Greenlanders could easily obtain vessels for cooking food from the soapstone which they could get in abundance. Along the walls were raised benches of earth or sod, which probably served as beds. Gutters were fitted for drainage of water. Near the ruins of old dwelling-houses are still found dump heaps, often several feet deep, containing ashes, refuse from the meals, and fragments of dishes, vessels, and other im- plements made of soapstone. Among the refuse have been unearthed numerous bones of seal, oxen, goats, sheep, and other animals. Seal bones were most common. Stables and barns were built of stones and sod. Cow-barns had an average breadth of from thirteen and a half to four- teen feet. The cows stood in two rows, one against each side wall, but overlapping each other, as the structure was too narrow for the rows to clear each other. The stables had stalls on one side only. The houses for sheep and goats were rarely more than from eight and one-half to ten and one- half feet wide, interior measure. Churches were erected in the old Irish style, generally of granite, except that the cathedral at GarSar was of red sandstone. Of this cathedral, which was eighty-two feet long, nothing save the foundation is now left, but the neigh- boring Eskimo houses contain sandstones taken from the old structure. The best preserved ruin is of the church at Kakortok in the Eastern Settlement. In many places the Norsemen constructed houses on prominent points near the coast and on islands. For what 32 THE VOYAGES OF purpose these houses were buih is uncertain. Thus, on top of Igdlerfigsalik, a mountain 5500 feet high, to the north of Igaliko, may be seen the ruins of two small stone houses, which are generally believed to have been used for lookouts. It seems not unlikely that a lookout was kept in the season when the arrival of the trading-ship from Norway was ex- pected. This was an event of the utmost importance to the colony, and the ship might often need help because of the difficult navigation through the ice. Numerous beacons were Beacon, MG, XVI erected at suitable points to serve as landmarks to people travelling overland from one fiord to another. Life on Greenland must have clearly been very monoto- nous and narrowing. The hard struggle for existence was varied only by the arrival of ships from Europe, but these events became rarer as time went on. On the whole, the col- ony was very poor and the arts wtvQ primitive. The women spun yarn from the wool of the sheep and wove woolen stuifs on their handlooms. All dishes, jars, and other vessels were made of soapstone, as mentioned above. Sketches* are here given of some of the objects found *ilfG, XVI and XLVII. THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 33 among the ruins in different localities in Greenland, It is hoped that these sketches, as well as those in the chap- ter on Iceland, will prove useful in the investigation and Spinning Stone Pe^-f orated Piece of Soapstone Checker of Bone Half size Half size Tivo-thirds size Perforated Piece of Soapstoyie -with Runic Inscription Half size Perforated Pieces of Soapstone Half size [MG, xr/1 Drawn by Capt. D. Bruun 34 THE VOYAGES OF xn ei iji Wooden Cross from Graveyard at Ikigint Halfi Axe found at Ericspord. MG^ XL FIT By courtesy of M. Ckmmenscn THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 35 Flat Soapstone -with Ornaments. MG^ XFI Drawn hy Capt. D. Bruun identification of ruins and objects which may be found on the coasts of America. For the sake of completeness, the later runic alphabet used by the Norsemen in the Viking Period is inserted u \> (o) h n 1 a s g Tlie Later Runic Alphabet t P d b 1 m R (y) here. It will be noticed that there are only sixteen symbols, whence some of the runes signify two different sounds, and several vowels are not expressed. Thus each pair of the let- ters k and g^ t and of, p and b is expressed by the same sym- bol. The runic inscriptions cannot, therefore, be properly read without an intimate knowledge of the Old Norse (Ice- landic) language and its development. The Norsemen in Greenland lived chiefly by sealing, stock-raising, and fishing. Seal were caught in the fiords and salmon in the streams. Cows, sheep, and goats were 36 THE VOYAGES OF kept in great number; the cattle were a small breed. The Greenland Norsemen made much butter and cheese. They also hunted or trapped the greater mammals, such as polar bears and reindeer, as well as foxes and wolves. They had no kind of native grain, and for this, as well as for lumber of even moderate size, they depended entirely on importation. The principal fishing and hunting grounds were at a con- siderable distance to the north on the west coast of Green- land, at the so-called "Nordrseta." From the Greenland Annals of Bjom Jbnsson we learn that the leading farmers in Greenland had large vessels, built to send north along the coast for hunting seal, wolves, and perhaps whale. At Nordrseta was good fishing ; there also were the breeding- places of the eider-duck ; and driftwood was gathered. The men who thus went north were called Nordrseta-men ; they had their huts in the northern regions at certain places, of which Greipar and Krogfiordsheath {Krbksjiardarheidr) are mentioned in the sagas. We do not know how far north the Nordrseta-men ordi- narily went, and we are unable with certainty to gi\e the location of the places just named. It appears, however, that the name Krogfiordsheath applied to the district between Disko Bay and Holstensborg. North Stromfiord and adja- cent inlets, or Disko Bay with the Vaigat, may with their crooked form have given rise to the term ' ' Krogfiord. ' ' The land uncovered by glaciers is here wider than at an}" other part of the coast, and is much lower than farther south ; in former times it furnished the best of all pastures for the rein- deer in Greenland. In the district between Holstensborg and Svartenhook there was excellent hunting of ^^'olves and seal. As driftwood was found at Nordrseta, this place cannot THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 37 have been far north of the Holstensborg district. At Grey- par "seal-tar" was made. The blubber was melted and poured into skin-bags, which were suspended in the wind in drying-houses. After it had congealed, it was prepared. That the Greenland Norsemen at times ventured much farther north than Disko seems, however, certain. In the Annals of Bjorn Jonsson we find the following remarkable account, written by a priest in Greenland, of an exploring expedition undertaken by the Norse Greenlanders to the Arctic regions in the year 1266: "That summer came also people from Nordrseta, who had travelled farther north than we have formerly heard of. They saw no sign that Skraslings had lived there except at Krogfiordsheath, and it is thought that this must be the shortest way for them [the Skrcelings] to go, from wherever they get there. Thereupon the priests sent a ship northward in order to explore the regions north of the farthest point which they had hitherto visited; but they sailed out from Krogfiordsheath, until they lost sight of the land. Then they had a south wind against them and darkness, and they had to let the ship go before the wind; but when the storm ceased and it cleared up again, they saw many islands and all kinds of game, both seals and whales and a great number of bears. They came right into the sea-bay {allt i hafsbotninn) ^ and lost sight of all the land, both the southern coast and the glaciers; but south of them were also glaciers, as far as they could see. They saw signs that the Skrselings had dwelt there in former times, but on account of the bears they could not land. Thereafter they sailed back in three days, and found some remains of Skrselings on some islands south of Snsefell. Then they sailed southward to Krogfiordsheath, 38 THE VOYAGES OF one good day's rowing, St. James's Day [July 25th]. It was frosty at night, but the sun shone both night and day, and was not higher in the south than that, when a man placed himself athwartships in a six-oared boat [with his head] up against the railing [or gunwale] on one side of the boat, the shadow of that side [gunwale] which was near- est to the sun would strike his face; but at midnight the sun was as high as at home in the settlement when it is in northwest. Thereafter they travelled home to GarSar." The object of this expedition is not clear, but it looks as if it was sent out to discover where the Skraslings came from and where they lived. It is impossible to determine where the explorers got, but they must have penetrated far north or west into Baffin Bay. Possibly they passed through the so-called ' ' middle water ' ' to the ^\'estern shores of Baffin Bay. The glaciers that they saw to the south of them would then have been on the northeastern part of Baffin Land. In the Annals of Bjom J bnsson is found an old chorogra- phy, in which it is stated that it took six days' rowing with six men in a six-oared boat from the Eastern to the Western Settlement (here the names of the fiords in this latter place are given), thence from the beginning of the Western Set- tlement to Lysufiord six days' rowing, from there six days' rowing to Karlsbooths {Karlbudir), then three days' rowing to Bjarney, and twelve days' rowing round Bjarney,Eisu- ness, and Aedaness north. Since the Bjarney here men- tioned may be the same as that which is given as the start- ing-point of Karlsefni's voyage {ER)^ it would be of inter- est to know where this island was located. Unfortunately, the above statements are not clear, since Lysufiord is known to have been at the beginning of the Western Settlement. THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 39 Perhaps the passage in question should read : ' ' thence from the beginning of the Western Settlement at Lysufiord six days' rowing to Karlsbooths." In that case Bjarney might be Disko Island in lat. 69 °-70° . The description is too con- fused, however, to permit any definite opinion on the point. Positive evidence of the Norsemen's explorations of North Greenland is found in a small runic stone, discovered in 1824 near the ruins of some beacons on the island of Kin- giktorsuak in lat. 72° SS\ north of Upernivik.* This stone. Runic Stone found at Kingiktorsuak^ Lat. 72° 55' . MG., XL VIII of which an exact picture is given in Antiqvariske Annaler^ volume iv, was later lost, but a copy of it is preserved in the National Museum in Copenhagen. The inscription, which Professor Rask and other authorities have declared to be genuine, seems to indicate that it dates from about 1300. It has been read as follows: '"''Ellingr. Sigvaps: son: r. ok. Bjanne: Tbrtarson : ok Enridi. Osson: Laugardag. inn:fyrir. Gagndag hlbdu. varda te. ok ruddu {jj. ritii) MCXXXV (.^) , " and has been thus translated : ' ' Erling Sigvatsson and Bjarne Thordarson and Endride Oddson built this (or these) beacon(s) Saturday after 'Gagnday' (April 25th) and * GHM, III, aiid Antiq-variske Annaler , 1827, by Professor Rasmus Rask and Professor Finn Magnusen. 40 THE VOYAGES OF cleared (the place) (or made the inscription) 1135 (?)." The reading of the year is uncertain. Trade in Greenland was based on the export of hides, in particular sealskins, ropes of walrus hide, and walrus tusks. Imports consisted of lumber, iron, grain, and innumerable other articles of necessity and luxury which could not be produced or manufactured at home. The Greenland colony seems to have enjoyed its highest prosperity in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. During the thirteenth century it may have held its own, but in the four- teenth it was decidedly on the decline, and in the fifteenth it was completely extinct. For our knowledge of the colony, especially during the last centuries of its existence, we are largely indebted to the Church. We have an almost com- plete list of the bishops of Greenland to the end of the four- teenth century. Later also, even up to the beginning of the sixteenth century, bishops were nominated for Greenland, but they never reached the country. From a papal bull of 1282 we learn that the Greenland-tithes were paid in ox- hides, sealskins, and walrus tusks. One of the latest facts to come to light is a papal letter, dating from 1492, which was recently found in the papal archives by a Dalmatian priest. Dr. Jelic. Speaking of Greenland, this letter says (in abstract) : ' ' The inhabitants have no bread, wine, or oil, but live on dried fish and milk. Navigation is very rare, and land- ing can take place only in August, after the ice is melted. Therefore it is believed that during the last eighty years no ship has reached there, and no bishop or priest has resided there. The consequence has been that most of the inhabit- ants have abandoned the Christian faith . ' ' These statements correspond well with what we know from other sources. THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 41 / By the year 1500 Greenland was practically a lost coun- try, but its position had been then recorded pretty correctly on the maps of Claudius Clavus, and the old sailing direc- tions preserved in Icelandic manuscripts were tolerably ac- curate and complete. In 1576 Greenland was rediscovered by Frobisher. Several concurrent causes appear to have contributed to the pathetic ending of this outpost of European civilization. In 1261 the colony came under the crown of Norway, and its trade was soon after monopolized by the king, which probably made for disaster. From then on, its only, or at least its chief, connection with the rest of the world was the Norwegian trading-ship, the so-called ' ' Greenland Knorr, ' ' which sailed from Bergen at very irregular and long inter- vals, generally of several years' duration. The last time we hear about the Knorr was in 1410, when it sailed from Greenland to Norway, but it is possible that there was con- nection between the two countries later in that century. It appears that during the era of decline of the Norse col- ony a southward advance of the Eskimos along the west coast of Greenland took place. It began perhaps as early as in the thirteenth century, and may have been caused by the pressure of an immigration of other tribes from the north, across Smith Sound. While the Eskimos increased, the Norse population declined in number and vigor. Fights, we know, occurred between the two races, but probably friendly intercourse also existed, perhaps for prolonged periods. Evidence of fighting is found in a note in the report of Ivar Baardson,* according to which the Western Settle- ment was harried and destroyed by the Skrselings some time *GHM, 111,259. 42 THE VOYAGES OF after 1341. Further, according to ihe^ I eel midic Annals * the . /Skraehngs, in 1379, made an attack, probably on the East- ern Settlement, in which they killed a number of the Norse- men and took many prisoners. Among the tales and traditions of the Eskimos collected by Dr. Henry Rinkf occur five that deal with the relations between the Kaladlit (plural oi Kalaleq, as the South-Green- land Eskimos called themselves) and the Kavdlunait^ as the Norsemen were called by the Eskimos. They chiefly concern the feuds between the Eskimos and the Norsemen, but they also tell of friendly relations. The most striking of Rink's tales narrates how the Es- kimos sneaked into the fiord w here the Norsemen lived with whom they wxre at war, and set fire to their house. The Norse chieftain, Ungortok, escaped through a window with his son in his arms, but, being followed by the Eskimos, he had to throw his child into a lake. He succeeded in reach- ing Igaliko, where he took refuge with another chieftain, Olave, but, still pursued by his special enemy, the Eskimo Kaisape, he fled from fiord to fiord until he was finally o^er- taken and killed. Another of these tales deals with the first meeting between the Eskimos and the Norsemen. A boat's crew of Eskimos landed at Nook (Godthaab, in the Western Settlement). They traversed the fiord, and near Kangiusak they came upon a large house; but on getting closer to it, they did not know what to make of the people, seeing that they were not Kaladlit. In this manner they had quite unexpectedly come across the Kavdlunak settlers. These likewise for the first time saw the natives of the country, and treated them kindly *GHM, III, 33. t Tales and Traditior^s of the Eski77io, 1875. THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 43 and civilly ; but the Eskimos nevertheless feared them and made for the boats. On getting farther up the fiord, they found many Kavdlunait stationed. However, they did not put in anywhere, but hastened away as fast as possible. Later on, in the summer, intercourse was established and all went well. A third tale relates how two Norse women were kid- napped by the Eskimos and lived with them. The occurrence of the Norse name Olav in the first-men- tioned tale, as well as other internal evidence, leaves hardly any doubt that in these tales we have traditions which actu- ally refer to the old Norse colony. / Nansen believes that the Norsemen , being more and more deprived of the products of civilization, must have gradu- ally approached the Eskimo mode of living, which was bet- ter adapted to the existing natural conditions. He suggests that during the peaceful periods which must have existed, close intercourse established itself and was accompanied by a gradual fusion of the two peoples. Thus, the final disap- pearance of the Norsemen was due, in part , to their absorp- tion by the more numerous Eskimo population. This theory is most important, since it opens up fresh possibilities and a new field of research as to the ultimate fate of the Norse colony in Greenland. It might be objected that if such a fusion had actually taken place, we should have heard more about it; but this does not follow. The comparative silence of the reports on this point may be due to the fact that in- tercourse with the heathen was strictly prohibited by the Church. Such intercourse was regarded with the greatest abhorrence by all good Christians, and every effort must have been made to prevent reports of it from reaching the ^/ 44 THE VOYAGES OF outside world, especially the ecclesiastical authorities in Nor- way and Rome. Judging from the Eskimo traditions, the Norsemen did actually associate with the Eskimos, and even took pains to learn their language. Little by little, since the Church no longer infused new religious life in the col- ony by sending out priests, the Norsemen relinquished the Christian faith and merged completely with the Eskimo population. In spite of all efforts to conceal the fact, reports of it reached Iceland, as is seen from the annals of Bishop Gisle Oddson,* written in Iceland before 1637. At the year 1342 we read: "The inhabitants of Greenland voluntarily forsook the true faith and the Christian religion, after hav- ing abandoned all good morals and true virtues, and were converted to the peoples of America \ad America populos se converterunt] . ' ' This statement has been interpreted by some to mean that the Norsemen emigrated to America, but it seems more likely that it simply asserts that they associated with the Eskimos and adopted their mode of living. When Greenland was rediscovered in the sixteenth century, it was found that many of the Eskimos exhibited traits which in- dicated admixture with European blood. Nansen's view, which appears to be fairly well substantiated by these and other facts, leads to an entirely new theory, according to which the mixed tribes resulting from the fusion of the Norsemen with the Eskimos migrated westward across Smith Sound to the American Arctic archipelago in the centuries following the extinction of the Norse colony. This theory is supported by various bits of evidence, some of which are of old date or traditional, while others have quite recently come to light. * GHM, III, 594. THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 45 Cesar de Rochefort* gives an account of the voyage of a ship from Flushing, commanded by Nicolas Tunes, who, in the summer of 1656, reached lat. 75° in Baffin Bay. Tunes describes two distinct types of natives, who seemed to live together in harmony. Of these one kind was very tall of stature, well built, and of blond complexion. The other was shorter, of olive complexion, and had short, thick legs. The men of the former tribe were good runners and lived by hunting, the latter tribe lived by fishing. Dr. Franz Boas, in his work on The Central Eskimo ^"^ relates the following interesting tradition of the Baffin Land Eskimos about a certain tribe which he calls the ' ' Tornit ' ' people : ' ' In olden times the Inuit [the American Eskimos] were not the only inhabitants of the country in which they live at the present time. Another tribe similar to them shared their hunting-ground. But they were on good terms, both tribes living in harmony in the villages. The Tornit were much taller than the Inuit and had very long legs and arms. Almost all of them were blear-eyed. They were extremely strong and could lift large boulders, which were by far too heavy for the Inuit. But even the Inuit of that time were much stronger than those of to-day, and some large stones are shown on the plain of Miliaqdjuin, in Cumberland Sound, with which the ancient Inuit used to play, throwing them great dis- tances. Even the strongest men of the present generation are scarcely able to lift them, much less to swing them or throw them any distance. "The Tornit lived on walrus, seals, and deer, just as * Histoire des Isles Antilles de V Amerique, Bk. I, ch. xviii. t Sixth Refiort of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washm^ton, 1888, p. 634. 46 THE VOYAGES OF the Eskimos do nowadays, but their methods of hunting were different. The principal part of their winter dress was a long and wide coat of deerskins, similar to the jumper of the Eskimo, but reaching down to the knees and trimmed with leather straps. When sealing in winter they wore this garment, the lower edge of which was fastened on the snow by means of pegs. Under the jacket they carried a small lamp, called tumiujang (literally, resembling a footprint) or quming^ over which they melted snow in a small pot. Some Eskimo say that they opened the seals as soon as they were caught and cooked some meat over these lamps. When the seal blew in the hole they whispered, '' Kapatipara' (I shall stab it), and, when they had hit it, '' I gdluilik ."^ Frequently they forgot about the lamp, and in throwing the harpoon upset it and burned their skin. "All their weapons were made of stone. For the blades of their knives they used green slate {uluqsaq^ literally, ma- terial for women's knives), which was fastened by ivory pins to a bone or ivory handle. The points of their harpoons were made of bone, ivory, or slate ; those of their lances, of flint or quartz, which was also used for drillheads ; but they made neither kayaks nor bows. "Their method of hunting deer was remarkable. In a deer pass, where the game could not escape, they erected a pile of cairns across the valley and connected them by ropes. Some of the hunters hid behind the cairns, while others drove the deer towards them. As the animals were unable to pass the rope they fled along it, looking for an exit, and while attempting to pass a cairn were lanced by the wait- ing hunter, who seized the body by the hind legs and drew it behind the line. This tale is related as a proof of their ^5= I tt. ^ 5^ THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 47 enormous strength and it is said that they were able to hold a harpooned walrus as the Eskimo hold a seal. The Tornit could not clean the sealskins so well as the Inuit, but worked them up with part of the blubber at- tached. Their way of preparing meat was disgusting, since they let it become putrid, and placed it between the thigh and the belly to warm it. The old stone houses of the Tornit can be seen every- where. Generally they did not build snow houses, but lived the whole winter in stone buildings, the roofs of which were frequently supported by whale ribs. Though the Eskimo built similar structures, they can be easily distinguished from one another, the bed of their huts being much larger than that of the Tornit. Though both tribes lived on very good terms, the Inuit did not like to play at ball with the Tornit, as they were too strong and used large balls with which they hurt their playfellows severely. "A remarkable tradition is told w^th reference to the emigration of this people. The Tornit did not build any kayaks, but as they were aware of the advantages afforded by their use in" hunting, they stole the boats from the Inuit, who did not dare to de- fend their property, the Tornit being by far their superiors in strength. Once upon a time a young Tuniq (Tornit) had taken the kayak of a young Inung without asking him and had injured it by knocking in the bottom. The Inung got very angry and ran a knife into the nape of the Tuniq's neck while he was sleeping. (According to another tradition he drilled a hole into his head; this form is also recorded in Labrador.) The Tornit then became afraid that the Inuit 48 THE VOYAGES OF would kill them all and preferred to leave the country for good. They assembled at Quernivtung (a place in Cumber- land Sound, Baffin Land), and in order to deceive any pur- suers they cut off the tails of their jumpers and tied their hair into a bunch protruding from the crown of the head. "In another form of the tradition it is said that while playing with the Tornit a young Inung fell down and broke his neck. The Tornit feared that the Inuit might take re- venge upon them and left the country. ' ' Many old ditties are sung which either treat of the Tornit or are reported to have been sung by them. Some of them will be found in the linguistic account connected with my [Dr. Boas's] journey." According to Dr. Boas, the tradition as here given, which is the Baffin Land version, is found in a similar form in Lab- rador. It exists also in Greenland,* but there the tribe is entirely fabulous, each individual being of enormous size, living inland, and seldom hunting in the upper parts of the fiords. While in the western part of the Eskimo country a more historical form of the tradition is preserved, it is entirely mythical in Greenland. Though the reports of the Tornit people are mere tradi- tions, they nevertheless point to the existence in Baffin Land, in perhaps not very remote times, of a hybrid tribe of Eskimos, who might well, according to the description, be descend- ants of the old Norse-Eskimo tribes of Greenland. The stay of this tribe in Baffin Land may mark one of the stages in its westward migration. There are numerous reports of Eski- mos of mixed origin, presumably of European type, seen by the explorers of Arctic North America in the nineteenth cen- *Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 469. ■-^'^ijjy-^ ^ t^l 2 ^ ^ S' s ? o ^-v o. ^ 2 d 5? THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 49 tury, but the most recent and most important fact which has come to light is the discovery by Dr. Vilhjahnur Stefans- son of the so-called ' ' Blond Eskimos ' ' in the region of the Coronation Gulf.* On Victoria Island, in the Arctic archi- pelago, about midway between Baffin Land and Alaska, Stefansson found, in 1910, several tribes of Eskimos, among whom a great number of individuals possessed more or less resemblance to white men. These people could not in recent times have had any contact with whites that would have changed their physical type. Stefansson says : ' ' Of something less than a thousand per- sons, ten or more have blue eyes (no full-blooded Eskimo has a right to have blue ej^es, as far as we know — his eyes should be as brown and his hair as black as those of the typical Chinaman) ; some of the men eradicate their beards (pull out the hairs by the roots, as many Indian tribes do also), but of those who have beards a good many have light- brown ones ; no one seen has light hair of the golden Scandi- navian type, but some have dark-brown and rusty-red hair, the redness being usually more pronounced on the forehead than on the back of the head, and perhaps half the entire population have eyebrows ranging from a dark brown to a light brown or nearly white. A few have curly hair. "It is, however, not only the blondness of the Victoria- Islanders that suggests the European, but also the form of their heads, as shown by measurements of adult males." The accompanying pictures (facing pages 46 and 48) give a good idea of the type. The great height of some of *My Life with the Eskimo, New York, 1913, pp. 191-202; National Geo- grafihical Magazine, December, 1912; Greely, Origin of Stefansson' a Blond Eskiyno. 50 VOYAGES OF THE NORSEMEN the men is very striking, and some of the faces unquestion- ably remind one of typical Scandinavians. It is of interest to note that the Eskimos of northern Alaska, who have been exposed to strong European influ- ence for over a hundred years, have preserved their Eskimo characteristics. Many American whalers have married Es- kimo women and have settled in the country, but even this mixing of the races has not, according to Stefansson, pro- duced in northern Alaska such a blond type as found in Victoria Island. In fact, most of the individuals of mixed descent cannot be distinguished offhand from full-blooded Eskimos, and they do not as a whole present an appear- ance so North-European as the three tribes in southwest Victoria Island. The widespread nature of the European characteristics among these tribes seems to show that the mixture took place at a very remote period, and their persistence indicates that European women as well as European men must have been partners in the admixture. Since no intercourse be- tween Eskimos and Europeans appears to have occurred in post-Columbian times, which could account for such thorough mixing of the races, the only, or at least the most plausible, explanation of the facts recorded by Stefansson seems to be that the Blond Eskimos, as suggested above, are related to the Norse Greenlanders. Further study of these tribes is needed to throw light on this question, but Stefansson has at least shown that the language and cus- toms of the Blond Eskimos point to a closer relation to the eastern than to the western tribes of America. CHAPTER III THE SHIPS OF THE NORSEMEN BEFORE discussing the navigation of the Norsemen, we shall consider briefly the means at their disposal for making their extended voyages across the ocean. It is fortunate that we have tolerably complete informa- tion on this point, thanks to the remarkable finds of vessels from the Viking Period made in Norway during recent years. We shall base our description on the so-called Gok- stad ship,* the largest of the vessels discovered, which, although probably built chiefly as a warship, approaches in type and size the seagoing trading-ships of that time. Afterwards we shall discuss the essential points of differ- ence between the two types. The Gokstad ship, which dates probably from the ninth century, was found in 1880 near Sandefiord, at the entrance to the Kristiania fiord. A chieftain or king had been buried in it, and we owe its preservation to the circumstance that there was thrown up over it a mound of blue clay, which prevented the access of air and thus kept the wood and other materials from decay. The principal dimensions of the ship are as follows : Length over all 101 feet Length in water-line about 85 feet Breadth, extreme 16 feet 7 in. Draft 3 feet 8 in. Freeboard amidships 3 feet Displacement about 30 tons Complement about 40 men *N. Nicolaysen, Langskibet fra Gokstad, Kristiania, 1882. 52 THE VOYAGES OF As seen from Plate I, the lines of the Gokstad ship were very fine ; the broad and shallow form secured great stiff- ness. The ship had one mast with a square sail, and could, moreover, be propelled by oars, of which there were thirty- two, sixteen on each side. By Avay of comparison, it may be stated that by statute the smallest size of the ships which the various districts in Norway must place at the king's disposal in time of war had forty oars. The hull was of oak, clinker built on frames thirty-nine inches apart. The frames were not continued to the gunwale, but stopped at the beams, which rested on top of them. Above the beams the place of the frames was taken by knees, to which the upper planks were fastened. The lower limb of the knees rested on the upper side of the beams. In addition short intermediate frames were fitted, which went down from the gunwale between each alternate pair of knees, constituting the chief connection betM^een the lower and the upper part of the ship. Plate II shows the midship section. Bottom boards, or flooring placed lengthwise from beam to beam, formed a complete platform or deck, which sepa- rated the lower part of the ship from the upper. The oars- men were probably seated on small portable seats, of which, however, no remains have been found. It is known that in larger ships seats were fitted on each side above the beams. While the planks of the bottom were fastened to each other by iron rivets, the connection between the planks and the frames, as well as between the keel and the frames, was ef- fected by withies, probably the roots of birch trees. These withies were passed through holes in the under side of the frames and corresponding holes in cleats carved out of the wood on the inner surface of the planks. (See sketch on a: X (D O i O U5 UJ X V- L- O UJ 00 X CO o THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 53 Plate II.) This mode of fastening the planks to the frames is of particular interest. It involved great labor, but it gave to the hull a high degree of flexibility or yielding capacity, which enabled it to stand the great strains incidental to the movements in a seaway and in the surf, better than would have been the case with a more rigid fastening. It seems, in- deed, doubtful whether it would be possible, with such light scantlings as were used in these vessels, to have attained sufficient strength if metal bolts had been used instead of withies. Above the beams the planks were fastened to the aforesaid knees by treenails. It appears that the Norsemen had no hemp ropes. Their ropes, light and heavy, were made of bast, cattle hair, leather, or withies. In the Gokstad ship there were found many pieces of ship's rope, all of bast, which was prob- ably the material most commonly used. Water tightness was obtained by inserting cattle hair, spun in three-stranded cords, between the bottom planks. Probably these cords were laid between the planks while the vessel was being built, and not calked in afterwards. In the Nydam boat,* the oldest Scandinavian vessel so far discovered, dating probably from the third century a. d., the calking is effected by a woolen stuff" and a pitchy, sticky substance. In some ships the bottom was paid with tar, but in the Gokstad ship it appears that the bottom was unpainted. The rudder was hung on the starboard quarter and was shaped like a large oar ; at its upper end it had a transverse tiller. It was suspended in a heavy rope, fixed about the height of the water-line to a heavy wooden block or cushion of conical * See George H. Boehmer, Prehistoric JVaval Architecture of the JVorth of Eurofie. 54 THE VOYAGES OF shape on the side of the ship. Another block or wooden pillow was fitted outside the ship at the height of the sheer strake; it had a semi-cylindrical, vertical groove in which the rudder head rested, held in place by a loop or grommet. When the ship came into shallow water, where the rudder, projecting below the keel, would take the ground, it could be raised or tilted to a nearly horizontal position by means of a line fixed at its lower end. As late as the fourteenth cen- tury, rudders were thus hung on the right-hand side of the ship (looking forward) , whence the term starboard {stjojn- 6or<5?, rudder side ; Danish and Norwegian , ^^'z/r/^rof) for this side of the ship, while the side to which the helmsman turned his back was called hakhordi. The mast, which could be raised and lowered, stood in u step formed in a long oaken block slotted over the frames and resting on the keel. The mast was, moreover, supported by another long and very heavy block of oak, the ' 'fish, ' ' fitted on top of the beams. It extended over six frame spaces, and was fixed to the beams by knees of crooked timber heads. Both ends were carved or shaped to represent roughly the tail of a fish. In Denmark and Norway the mast partners are still called Jisken (the fish) . Along the middle of the fish there was a rectangular slot, through the forward end of which the mast projected. A heavy portable slab closed this slot like a lid and held the mast in an erect position. (See Plates I and II.) When this slab was removed the mast could be lowered and raised again , for which purpose the anchor winch found in the bow was probably used. The anchor itself was of iron Avith wooden stock, quite like the later "navy" or "admiralty" type. The rowlocks consisted of holes in the sheer strake. The THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 55 oars were of spruce, about twenty feet long, but diminished in length from amidships towards the ends ; they were passed into the rowlocks from the inside. The rowlocks could be closed with sliding shutters. No less than three smaller boats were found in the Gok- stad ship; they were, respectively, twenty-five feet, eigh- teen feet, and thirteen and a half feet long on the keel, and, like the big ship, were provided with oars. At least two of them carried a mast and a square sail. A tent, of a rather fine woolen texture with red stripes sewed across, was used for shelter. It was supported by stanchions and a ridgepole. In the fore part of the ship were found the remains of five berths. Along the sides were placed the shields, painted alter- nately yellow and black, overlapping each other, and thus, in some measure, increasing the freeboard. The shields were circular of about three feet diameter, made of thin boards with a plate of iron on the middle to protect the hand. A stiffening rib on the inside formed a handle at the centre. A heavy plank with steps cut in it served as a landing. The inventory preserved with the ship throws much light on the mode of living of a seafaring man in those days. Wooden dishes and wooden drinking-cups were used. A large copper cauldron with a chain for suspending it over the fire was used for cooking food, but probably only on shore, since there is no evidence that a fire had been or could be built on board the ship. Probably salt meat, pork, and dried or salt fish formed the chief provisions when at sea. Pieces of dark woolen cloth, of silk interwoven with gold thread, and ornaments of bronze, lead, and iron, bear wit- ness to the advanced civilization of the Norsemen of the day. 56 THE VOYAGES OF The bilges were emptied by buckets or large dippers ; pumps were probably not introduced till the twelfth cen- tury. The weight of the hull, with inventory, stores, and equipment, of the Gokstad ship hardly exceeded eighteen tons. If we reckon a crew under war conditions of some sev- enty men, and allow two hundred and twenty-five pounds per man with effects, the weight of crew and effects would be about seven tons, leaving some five tons for carrying arms and other extra load. It appears that the load, if any, was placed principally on top of the beams, in the upper part of the ship, the beams being to this end supported at their middle by props stepped in the throats of the floors. The Gokstad ship was a so-called ' ' longship, ' ' built prin- cipally for war purposes. Such ships were relatively long and narrow and were designed for high speed, with oars as their principal means of propulsion. Their freeboard was generally small ; they were not ocean-going craft, but were frequently used for crossing the Baltic and the North Sea. The biggest longship ever built in Norway up to a.d. 1000, the "Long Serpent" [Ormrinn langi)^ was 160 feet long overall, and is said to have had thirty-four pairs of oars. According to Heimskr'mgla^ the bulwarks of the Long Ser- pent were as high as in a ship built for sailing on the ocean, showing that ordinarily longships had less freeboard than seagoing ships. The so-called ' ' knorrs ' ' \^ ere relatively shorter and of higher freeboard than warships ; they could stand better than longships the strains to which they were exposed when working in a seaway, and were on the whole more sea- worthy and more strongly constructed. They depended chiefly on sail power, and would, therefore, often have to The Gokstad Ship Photograph by 0. Faring THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 57 wait for a favorable wind. They had, however, some oars as auxiliary power, rigged forward and aft of the cargo, which occupied the central portion of the ship. Trading-ships had generally only a partial deck or floor- ing forward and aft, and sometimes a narrow passage along the sides, connecting the decks at the ends. The remainder of the hold was open, and here the cargo was stowed, often piled high above the gunwale. A ceiling was fitted on the frames in order to prevent the cargo from resting directly on the outer planks, and for keeping it clear of the bilge water. No heavy load could safely be placed directly on the bottom planks, since their connection to the frames, if of the same character as in the Gokstad ship, was too weak for this purpose. On the other hand, as long as there was no direct load on the planks from the inside, there could be no great stress on the ties connecting the planks to the frames, since the external pressure of the water would force the planks against the frames. Sometimes the decks forward and aft were raised, and a deck was laid on the low-lying beams amidships, on which, in such cases, the cargo was stowed. The cargo was covered with skins or some other substitute for tarpaulins, which were tied around it. The mode of construction of the hull, with the exceptions here noted, was essentially the same as in the warships. As in the longships, the sail in the trading-ships was square, but generally the mast was higher and the sail larger. The mast always remained in place. The sail was often of frieze, but in high-class vessels it was probably of canvas. Sometimes the sailM^as decorated with stripes of dif- ferent colors, a feature quite common in warships. The gen- eral appearance of trading-ships was probably very much 58 THE VOYAGES OF like that of the so-called "Northland" boats {Nordlands- jaegter)^ now used in the northern part of Norway. Generally they were supplied with one large boat, called the "after- boat, " because it was often towed behind the ship, but during long sea voyages this boat was placed on top of the cargo aft of the mast. Frequently a smaller boat was carried in addition to the after-boat. The crew in trading-ships consisted usually of only ten to twelve men, but sometimes it was more numerous. On the exploring expeditions to Vinland there must have been about fifty men on board one ship in some cases. The seagoing capacity of these vessels was hardly infe- rior to that of later sailing-vessels of much larger size. Their great beam, their flat bottom, and their extremely light con- struction made them follow the wave slope without any ac- cumulation of rolling. They would rise readily to the waves and be little liable to ship great quantities of water under ordinary conditions of wind and sea. When they were not in use, they were generally drawn ashore on rollers and placed in a shed. The vessels used in the Vinland voyages during the early prosperous times of the Greenland colony were probably somewhat larger in general than the Gokstad ship, and may in several cases have been of about fifty tons displacement. This would give a cargo-carrying capacity of some fif- teen tons, or about thirty-three thousand pounds. On this weight there could be carried a crew of some forty to fifty men with provisions for about four weeks, besides live cattle with feed, tools, weapons, effects, etc., as was necessary for expeditions like those to Vinland. Due to the general decline of the Greenland settlements THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 59 in the centuries following the early colonization, and also to the difficulties of obtaining timber and iron for the construc- tion of ships in Greenland, which difficulties increased with the decline of trade, it is likely that the vessels possessed by the Greenlanders during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fif- teenth centuries were fewer in number, smaller, and of less perfect construction than those used in the Vinland voyages, which took place at the beginning of the eleventh century. Thus we learn that in 1189 a ship with fourteen men that came to Iceland from Greenland was fastened almost entirely by tree-nails and held together by cords, probably made from sinews or hides. Another ship, which is reported to have sailed to Markland as late as 1347, was not as large as the small Icelandic trading- vessels. CHAPTER IV THE NAVIGATION OF THE NORSEMEN THE ships of the Norsemen, having both sail and oar power, were really in a far better position in certain re- spects than the much larger sailing-vessels of later days, the propulsion of which was entirely dependent on the wind. The longships of the Norsemen were, in fact, much on the same footing as the modern fishing-cutter provided with some form of auxiliary motor. The Norse merchant ships suffered a disadvantage from their smaller number of oars; but these oars, nevertheless, enabled them to navigate with impunity near land under circumstances where modern sail- ing-ships would be exposed to great danger. The square rig would hardly permit much beating up against the wind, although it is likely that these vessels could sail with the wind somewhat forward of the beam . It appears that a boom with sheet was often used in such cases. It is of interest to examine what distance should be reck- oned for a day's [dsegr) sail, so often referred to in the sagas. Evidently, this was the way in which distances on the sea were indicated, for nowhere do we find distances given as such ; they are indicated either by so many days' sail or so many days' rowing. In the old sailing directions for voyages between Nor- way, Iceland, and Greenland, as given in Landndma Book, we find the following statements : ' ' From Stad in Norway is seven days' sail to Horn [Eystrahorn] on the east coast of Iceland." Stad is at the mouth of Nordfiord, and Horn is the southeastern cape of Iceland. The distance between these points is about five hundred and sixty miles, which 62 THE VOYAGES OF gives a rate of eighty miles per day. "From Snsefellsness in Iceland to the nearest point of Greenland is four days' sail across the sea to the westward." The distance from Snaefellsness to Dan Cape (Kalerajuek) is three hundred and thirty miles, which gives eighty-three miles per day. "From Langaness in northern Iceland there are four days' sail northward to Svalbar5i in the sea-bay." By the term "sea-bay" {hafsbotn) is here meant the Arctic Sea between Greenland and Norway, for it was thought that Greenland was connected with and extended from northern Europe or Asia. (See Bjornbo's map of the world in Chapter V.) Whether we take Svalbar8i to mean Jan Mayen, or Cape Brewster on the coast of Greenland, we have a distance from Cape Langaness of about two hundred and eighty-five miles, which gives a day's sail equal to seventy-one miles. These statements give the location of Iceland relative to the nearest land to the east, west, and north. The number of days' sail southward to Ireland is also given, but as the statements on this point differ in various manuscripts (five days and three days), they will not here be used. In the Saga of Ola f the Sa'mt, it is told that Thorarin Nefjolfsson, in the year 1024, sailed from More in Norway to Eyrar (the present Eyrarbakki) in Iceland in eight days. The distance between these points being seven hundred and fifty miles, he must have made ninety-four miles a day. This was re- lated, however, as an exceptional and extraordinary achieve- ment. In order to determine the speed of the ships, wq must ex- amine the meaning of the word "day," which is a trans- lation of clsegr in the Icelandic text. We know positively that the dsegr on Thorarin's voyage, referred to above, M-as THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 63 only twelve hours, and it is clearly so defined in Rymbegla. This would give a speed of 7.8 knots per hour for Tho- rarin's voyage, which is certainly a high average for such small ships as were used at that time, but not improbable. If we put the same interpretation upon the word daegr in the other cases above-mentioned, we arrive at an average speed of 6.7 knots. Even this speed is high and must cor- respond to very favorable conditions, but it is not unlikely that the Icelanders would use the ordinary maximum of a day's sail, about seventy-five miles, as a unit distance, since such a maximum is far more definite than the actual average of a day's sail on different voyages. Unfortunately, the meaning of the word daegr is not alto- gether certain, for there are some cases where it is meant to comprise twentj^-four hours. Thus, according to the man- uscripts AM 194 and AM 281, it took seven days to sail round Iceland, and the distance was reckoned to be four- teen tilfts.This gives two tilfts, or about one hundred and twenty miles, per day. Evidently, a day of twenty-four hours is meant in this case, which gives a speed of five knots per hour. On the whole, then, it seems reasonable to reckon a day's sail as about seventy-five miles for a daegr of twelve hours, and one hundred and fifty miles for a dsegr of twenty-four hours. The maximum average speed would thus be about six and one-quarter knots per hour. Since the Norse skip- pers used to indicate distances by the number of days' sail, it seems quite Hkely that the same mode of expression was used in the accounts of the Vinland voyages. When, there- fore, it is stated in these accounts that the explorers sailed a certain number of days from one point to another, such 64 THE VOYAGES OF a statement should probably not be taken literally as a meas- ure of time, but should be understood to indicate a distance, as in the sailing directions. The ships of the Norsemen must have been liable to rapid drifting in heavy gales. Floating, as they did, like nutshells on the water, a drift of from fifty to eighty miles in twenty- four hours must have been of frequent occurrence in heavy weather. It appears, moreover, that the Norsemen of the eleventh and twelfth centuries did not use the compass. Directions on the sea were estimated by the sun in the daytime, and by the pole-star {leidarstjama) at night. Such determination, es- pecially by the sun, must have been very crude, and when the sky was overcast or the weather foggy, they could have had little or no notion of the direction in which they sailed. We have no account that they used any instruments for measuring the speed of the ship. Since, moreover, they seem to have had no charts, they cannot have attempted any accurate or systematic dead-reckoning. Any combination of courses and distances, where such w as attempted, was probably made by a purely mental process, but it is likely that they attained great skill in this respect. In the sagas we simply find it recorded that a ship sailed a certain num- ber of days in a certain direction, and frequently the direc- tion of the wind was given instead of the course. The direction, when indicating a course, was generally given only to the nearest cardinal point; thus, a southerly direction might mean anything from SW to SE. More- over, a confusion in the conception of the north-south direc- tion, or perhaps rather in its naming, is traceable in several cases. In at least two cases the Icelanders placed their north THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 65 in the direction of our northeast. This might explain why the Greenlanders used the terms Eastern and Western Set- tlement about the two colonies, which were actually located on a line NNW-SSE. To judge from a passage in the Historia JVor'wegiae^ the Norsemen made some use of the lead. So far as we know, they did not attempt any accurate measurement of the height of the sun and the stars or their azimuth, but several statements in the sagas show that they were able to form a rough idea of the latitude by a crude ob- servation of the heavenly bodies, the significance of which they in any case appreciated. Thus, in the description of Leif's voyage in the Grsenlendinga pdttr, we find a remark which plainly shows that the Norsemen realized that a con- nection existed between the latitude and the azimuth of the sun at sunrise and sunset. This observation, and the terms eyktarstadrMiddagmdlastadr^ which occur in connection with it, will be discussed in a later chapter. It was recorded on the same voyage that night and day were in Vinland more nearly of equal length than was the case in Greenland and Iceland. We have already mentioned the crude observation of the sun's altitude which was made on the remarkable voyage of exploration to the northern part of Baffin Bay, undertaken by the Norsemen in 1266. It seems certain that the Norsemen were entirely without means of determining the longitude by astronomical obser- vations. We know from the sagas that in many cases ships drifted about on the ocean for several months, and under such circumstances it is clear that whatever dead-reckon- ing may have been attempted would soon become quite con- fused and useless, as would, for that matter, have been the 66 THE VOYAGES OF case even had they possessed our modern means of deter- mining and recording courses and distances. Hence, while the Norsemen may have had some crude idea of latitude, they could have had no notion of whether they were in the western or the eastern part of the Atlantic Ocean. Occa- sionally they might obtain some guidance in this respect from the appearance of certain birds, the presence of ice, or perhaps the color and temperature of the water. If the Norsemen were thus poorly equipped for navigat- ing on the high sea, they were the better fitted for navigating along the coasts. As has been explained above, their ships could, without great danger, approach the land; by their shallow draft they would generally avoid sunken dangers, and their oar-power enabled them to explore the fiords and bays without difficulty, and to seek shelter or go to sea when on a lee shore. In the exploration of unknown regions the Norsemen would, therefore, naturally prefer coastwise navi- gation wherever possible. As soon, however, as a knowledge of courses and distances had been acquired, they would not hesitate to sail across the sea. In fact, as pointed out by Nansen,* the Norsemen are the first on record in the his-i tory of the world to sail out deliberately on the open ocean.' They went first from Denmark and Norway to England and Scotland, then from Norway to Iceland, from Iceland to Greenland, until finally they achieved crossing the ocean directly from Norway to Greenland four or five centuries before such a feat was accomplished by any other people. The first voyage of this nature of which we have any know- ledge is that of Leif, who, probably in the year 1000, sailed from Norway to Greenland, on which voyage it appears *In Korthern Mists, New York, 1911, II, 233. THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 67 that he incidentally touched on the coast of America. Dur- ing the following centuries the direct navigation between Norway and Greenland, although always considered as difficult and dangerous, became firmly established, and crude sailing directions were developed. Thus we find in JIauk'' s Book the foWowing directions: "FromHernar [near Bergen] in Norway sail due West to Hvarf [near Cape Farewell] in Greenland, and then you will sail north of Het- land [Shetland] , still so that you can just see it in clear weather; but south of the Faroe Islands, so that only half the height of the mountains are visible above the sea [hori- zon] ; but go south of Iceland so [?.6rdarson, who wrote the account here given. The first pas- sage about Leif, as well as the account of Bjarni's voyage, are found under the heading "Story of Eric the Red." f Leif the Lucky is Baptized % When sixteen wdnters had passed after the time when Eric the Red went over to settle Greenland, then Eric's son Leif went from Greenland to Norway; he arrived in Trondhjem [district] the same fall that King Olaf Tryggvason came from the north, from Halogaland. Leif went with his ship to Nidaros (the city of Trondhjem) , and went at once to King Olaf. The King preached the faith for Leif as for other heathens who caiTie to him. It was easy for the King to influence Leif , who was christened together with all his men. Leif spent the winter with the King and was well treated. Bjarni's Voyage § Bjarni was a young, promising, and successful merchant. He owned his own ship and traded in foreign lands. He used to spend every second winter with his father, Herjulf, in Iceland, but the last winter that Bjarni was in Norway Herjulf prepared to go to Greenland with Eric the Red. *Ed. Vigfusson and Unger, Kristiania, 1860-68; cf. GHM. \ Flatey jarbok, pp. 429-432. X GHM, I, 206. § Ibid., I, 208. 82 THE VOYAGES OF Upon the ship with Herjulf was a Christian man from the Hebrides. He composed the H afgerdinga Drdpa, which con- tains this stave : "My voyage to the Meek One, Monk-heart-searcher [Christ], I commit now; The Lord of Heaven shall hold the hawk's seat [the hand] Over me forever 1 ' ' Herjulf settled in Herjulfness in Greenland and was a very distinguished man. When Bjarni came to Eyrar in Iceland in the summer, he learned that his father had already gone in the spring to settle in Greenland. Bjarni now determined not to unload his ship, and when his men asked him what he was going to do, he answered that he intended as usual to spend the winter with his father, and "I will," he said, " go to Greenland with myship,if you are willing to go with me." They all said that they were ready to do as he advised, whereupon he said : "Unwise may our voyage appear, since none of us have been in the Greenland Sea before. ' ' Nevertheless, they sailed out on the sea as soon as they were ready, and sailed for three days, until the land disappeared under the water ; but then they got a calm and thereafter they got northerly winds and fogs. They did not know where they were, and so it went on for many days. Finally, they saw the sun again, and they could tell the direc- tions ; they hoisted their sail and sailed that day, before they saw land. Bjarni did not think that this land was Green- land ; they sailed close up to the land and saw that it had no mountains, and that it was covered with woods and had low hills. They left the land on their port side, and let the sheet turn towards the land. After that {sidan) they sailed two days, before they saw a second land. Bjarni did not be- THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 83 lieve this land to be Greenland either, since there were said to be great glaciers in Greenland. They soon approached this land and saw that it was flat and wooded. Then they were becalmed, and the crew thought it most advisable to land, but Bjarni refused. The men pretended that they lacked both fuel and water. Bjarni said : " You do not lack any of these things ; ' ' but he was blamed for this by his men. They hoisted the sail, turned the stern from the shore, and sailed out on the open sea with a southwesterly wind for three days. Then they saw a third land, and this land was high, covered with mountains and glaciers. The men asked if Bjarni would land here, but he said that he would not, ' ' for this land does not appear to me to be good to live in." Hence they did not lower their sail, but kept going along the coast, and saw that it was an island. They turned again the stern to the land, and sailed out on the sea with the same wind; but the wind increased in strength, and Bjarni ordered that the sail should be shortened, and they should not sail harder than their ship and rigging could stand. They now sailed on for four days, when they sighted a distant land. The men asked Bjarni if he thought this was Greenland or not. Bjarni said: "This is most like Green- land, according to what I have been told of it, and here we will steer to the land. ' ' They did so, and landed in the even- ing on a headland (ness) where there was a boat. On this headland lived Bjarni's father, Herjulf ; from whom it was given the name Herjulfness. Bjarni went now to his father, gave up sailing, and remained with his father during the latter's lifetime, and lived there afterwards. 84 THE VOYAGES OF , Leif's Vofage from Norway to Greenland The account of this voyage is inserted in the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason* and is entirely disconnected from Bj ami's voyage, which is found earlier in the Flatey Book, as w^ell as from the Grsenlendinga pdttr, which is found later. The pas- sage is practically identical with that given in the long Saga of Olaf Tryggvason quoted above, except that the sentence, and on that same voyage he found Finland the Good, ' ' is here omitted. Leif Ericsson's Voyage of Exploration to Vinland The following account of the whole series of the Vinland voyages is inserted in the Flatey Book in the Saga of Earl Enc.'\ Here begins Grsenlendinga pdttr It is now next to this j that Bjarni Herjulfsson came from Greenland [to Norway] and visited Earl Eric, and the Earl received him well. Bjarni told about his voyages and about his discovery of unknown lands. People thought he had not been keen, as he had nothing to tell about these lands, and for this he was blamed. Bjarni became a yeoman {hirdmadr) of the earl, and returned to Greenland the following sum- mer. There was now much talk of explorations. Leif, a son of Eric the Red, from Brattahlid, went to Bjarni Herjulfs- son, bought his ship, and hired a crew for it, so that they were in all thirty-five men. Leif vainly attempted to make his father join the expedition. § On the expedition was a German, by name Tyrker. After having fitted out the ship * Flateyjarbok, p. 448. f Ibid., pp. 538-549; GHM, I, 214. X pat er nu pessu mest. § This event is described at lengtli in the saga. ^^-it^ nortr ^wt hOftfl^ cr-tna- ^to'^pwy pafidiirr (hr tt «^*r e^ itin tuwir*jr§a^^ dfcrtnA dr ike fe«rm"a ^, ^mfMi^'j(^^|>o?vcjJn1t!te-»rm^c^ 6 ^ l^diid^ l>li^ ^oj Aftmh l»iirne^ ^wilpf l&n ^>4!»pcr ^ -ma t^'lcif tfbi^ifef o^ttrcm* dtj iSi^ en ^i^k ^4 wc^ltcill tojra dte^U Irttdu 3^J>ffift let oni^cpt if 3. wdj 1> i^r*^ Page of the Grxnlendinga pattr THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 85 for the voyage, they sailed out on the sea, and found first the land which Bjarni had seen last. They sailed to the land, anchored, put out the boat, and went ashore. No grass grew there, and great glaciers were seen inland, while the coast between the glaciers and the sea looked like one large, flat stone,* and this land did not seem to them to have any value. Then said Leif : ' ' Now it has gone better with us than with Bjarni, who came here and did not go ashore ; noM^ I will give this land a name and call it Helluland." After that they went on board the ship, sailed out on the sea, and found another land. They sailed again to the land, anchored, put out the boat, and went ashore. This land was flat and covered with woods, and there were extensive white sands, wherever they went, and the beach was not steep. f Then said Leif: " This land shall be named according to its nature and it shall be called Markland." After that they went as soon as possible to the ship, and sailed out on the open sea with a northeast wind, and were on the sea two days before they saw land. They went ashore on an island to the north of the land. It was fine weather. They looked round and noticed that there was dew on the grass. This dew was found to have a very sweet taste. After that they went on board the ship and sailed into the sound between the island and a cape which stretched northward from the coast, and steered westward past the cape. The water was so shallow there that the ship ran aground and stood dry at ebb-tide ; the sea was then visible only at a great distance. But Leif and his men were so anxious to get ashore that they did not care to wait till the water rose again under their * En sem ein hella veeri allt til joklanna frd sjonum. t Ok sandar h-vitir -vida, par sem peirforu, ok osaebratt. 86 THE VOYAGES OF ship, and they ran ashore at once where a river flowed out from a lake. At next high tide they took the boat, pulled to the ship, and took it up through the river into the lake, anchored, and carried their leather bags ashore. They first built wooden huts (sheds), but later they decided to prepare to remain there during the winter, and they built then large houses. Salmon, larger than they had seen before, were plentiful in the river and the lake. The land seemed to them so good that there would be no need of storing fodder for the cattle for the winter; there came no frost in the winters and the grass withered but little. Day and night were there more nearly of equal length than is the case in Greenland and Iceland; the sun had there eyktarstadr and dagnidlastaJbr* oxi the shortest day of the year. When they had built the house, Leif said to his men: "Now I will divide our party into two halves and explore the land; and one half of the men shall remain at the house, while the other half shall exam- ine the country, but shall not go farther than to let them be back in the evening, and they must never part from one another." They did so for some time, and Leif was alter- nately one day with the exploring party, the other day at the house. Leif was a fine, strong man, of impressive per- sonality, and moreover intelligent and wise. It was found one night that one of their men was miss- ing, and that was Tyrker Southman.f Leif was much troubled by this, for Tyrker had been for a long time with him and his father, and had been very fond of Leif in his childhood. Leif now reprimanded his men severely, and pre- * These terms are explained and discussed in Chapter XI. t Sudrniadr, i.e., a. German. THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 87 pared to go in search of him with twelve men. But when they were only a short distance from the house, they were met by Tyrker, whom they received with great joy. Leif saw at once that his foster-father was queer. Tyrker had a high forehead and restless eyes ; he was freckled in the face and small of stature, but adept in all sorts of handi- craft. Then Leif said to him: " Why were you so late, fos- ter-father, and why did you part from the others? ' ' Then at first he spoke in German for a long time, and rolled his eyes, and twisted his mouth when they did not understand what he said. After some time he spoke in the Norse tongue: "I did not go much farther, and yet I have discovered some- thing new; I found vinvid and vinher* "Can this be true, foster-father?" said Leif. "Certainly, this is true," said he, "for I was born where there is no lack of either vinvid or vinber.'*'' They now slept that night, but in the morning Leif said to his men: ' ' We will now divide our labors, and each day we will either gather vinber or cut vinvid and fell trees, so as to obtain a cargo of these for my ship."f This advice was followed. It is said that their after-boat was filled with vinber. A cargo was now cut for the ship, and when the spring came, they made ready and sailed away, and Leif gave the land a name in accordance with its products, and called it Finland. Then they sailed out on the sea, and had a fair wind, until they sighted Greenland and the mountains below the glaciers. Then one of the men spoke up and said to Leif: "Why do you steer the ship so much into the wind?" * These terms are discussed in a later chapter. \ JVu skal hafa tvennar syslur fram, ok skal sinn dag Irvort, lesa -vinber, edr hoggva vinvid ok fella morkina, sva at pat verdi farmr til skifis mins. 88 THE VOYAGES OF Leif answered: "I have my mind upon my steering, but on other matters as well. Do you not see something out of the common?" They said that they did not see anything strange. "I do not know," said Leif, "whether I see a ship or a skerry." Now they discovered it, and said that it was a skerry; but he was so much keener of sight than they that he could see men on the skerry. "Now I will keep close to the wind," said Leif, "so that we can get nearer to them, in case they should need our assistance; but if they should not be peaceably disposed, we are still in a better position than they are, since we are able to do as we please. ' ' They now sailed up to the skerry, lowered their sail, an- chored, and put out a second small boat, which they had brought with them. Then Tyrker asked them who was their chieftain. He said his name was Thorer, and that he was a Norwegian. "But what is your name?" Leif gave his name. "Are you son of Eric the Red, from Brattahlid?" asked he. Leif said that he was. "I will now," said Leif, "take you all on board my ship, and as much of the goods as the ship can hold." They accepted this offer, and then sailed with this cargo to Ericsfiord and up to Brattahlid, where they unloaded the ship. Then Leif invited Thorer and his wife Gudrid, together with three others, to stay with him, and procured quarters for all the other men. Leif res- cued fifteen persons from the skerry; he was afterwards called Leif the Lucky [hinn heppni) . Leif had thus gained both wealth and honor. That winter serious illness broke out in Thorer's party, and Thorer and a great many of his people died. Eric the Red died also that winter. Now there was much talk of Leif's Vinland voyage, and his brother Thorvald thought that the land had not been suf- THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 89 ficiently explored. Then said Leif to Thorvald : "You may go with my ship, brother, if you so wish, to Vinland, but I wish to have the ship fetch first the timber w^hich Thorer had on the skerry." And so it was done. Thorvald's Voyage Now Thorvald, with thirty men, prepared for this voyage, and consulted with his brother Leif about it. Thereafter they made the ship ready, and sailed out to sea ; and nothing is told of their voyage before they came to Leifsbooths in Vin- land. They laid up their ship there, and remained quietly during the winter, and lived by fishing. But in the spring Thorvald said that they should put their ship in order, and that some men should take the after- (large) boat and sail along the western coast (or west of the land),* and explore there during the summer. They found the country beau- tiful and wooded, and there was only a short distance be- tween the woods and the sea, and there were white sands. There were many islands, and the water was very shallow. They found nowhere any human dwellings or animals, except on an island to the west, where they found a wooden shed (or screen) for the storage of grain. f They found no other trace of human work, and returned to Leifsbooths in the fall. The following summer Thorvald sailed eastward (or along the east coast) with the ship and northward along the coast (or north of the land). J They were struck by a heavy gale off a cape, the ship was driven ashore there, and the keel broke under the ship. They stayed there a long time * Fara fyrir -vestan landit. t Kornhjdlm aftri. X En atsumri odru for porvaldr fyrir austan med kaufiskip.it, ok hitnyrdra fyrir landit. 90 THE VOYAGES OF and repaired their ship. Then Thorvald said to his men: "Now we shall raise the keel here on the cape and call it Kj alar n ess." Thence they sailed east of the land (or eastward along the coast),* into the mouths of the fiords in the vicinity, and to a headland which stretched out there, and which "v\ as covered all over with woods. Here they laid the ship along- side the shore and put out the gang-plank. Thorvald went ashore with all his men, and said : "Here it is beautiful, and here I should like to build my house." Then they returned to the ship, and discovered on the sands inside the headland three hillocks {/ixdi?'). They went there and saw three skin- boats, and three men under each boat. Thorvald divided his crew into parties and caught all of them (the natives), except one, who escaped with his skin -boat. They killed the other eight men, and then went back to the headland, looked around, and discovered several hillocks further up the fiord, and they supposed these to be human dwellings. They now became so sleepy that they could not keep awake, and all fell asleep. They were awakened by a loud voice, shouting, " Wake up, Thorvald, with all your men, if you will preserve your life ; go on board your ship with all your men and leave the country as soon as possible." Then came from the bottom of the fiord a countless num- ber of skin-boats, and approached them. Thorvald said: "We shall put up the shields (or w^arboards) along the sides, so as to defend ourselves as well as possible, but we shall not attack." This they did, but the Skrselings shot at them for a while, and then they fled, each one as fast as he could. Thorvald then asked his men whether any of * Austr fyrir landit. THE NORSEMEN TO AMERICA 91 them had been wounded ; they said they were not wounded. "I have got a wound under my arm," said he, "for an arrow flew in between the gunwale and the shield ; here is the arrow, and this will be my death. Now I give you the advice that you prepare to return as soon as possible ; but you shall take me to the headland, where I thought it best to settle; it may prove true what I said, that I should stay there awhile. There you shall bury me, and place a cross at my head, and another at my feet, and the headland shall be called Crossness ever after." Greenland was then Christianized, but yet Eric the Red died before the introduction of Christianity. Now Thor- vald died, but they did all as he had told them ; and went afterwards to their companions and told one another of their experiences. They remained there during that winter, and gathered vinber and vinvid for a cargo for their ship. In the spring they made their ship ready and returned to Greenland. They came with their ship to Ericsfiord, and they could now tell Leif great news. Thorstein's Voyage In the meantime, Thorstein, another son of Eric the Red, had married Gudrid, after the death of her husband, Thorer, who, as told above, was shipwrecked and was saved by Leif. Thorstein decided to go to Vinland for the body of his brother Thorvald. He fitted out the same ship for the voy- age, and chose twenty-five large and strong men for a crew. Also his wife, Gudrid, went with him. They sailed out on the open sea, out of sight of land. They drifted about on the sea all the summer, and did not