THE lorse DisGOverij of JimeiiGH WITH Some Reference to Its True Significance. AN HISTORICAL THESIS. BY HAROLD W. FOGHT, A. M., Professor of History and Political Science in Blair College, DANISH LUTHERAN PUBLISHING HOUSE, BLAIR, NEBRASKA. 1901. Copyrighted 1901. By Harold W. Foght. Blair, Nebraska. ^ocaitfod from Copyrtght OfPicQ. WB23I910 TO MY •*• WIFE Who, tho' American-born, Is a True Norsewoman, Having- Descended, on Mother's Side, from the Haskells, Who Sprang-, in Many Generations, from the Yorkshire Hascarls and Hus- carls, and These again from the Early-day Tor- kel Huskarl of Norway I Dedicate This Little Book. Introductory. The following pages contain, in substance, my Thesis for the degree of A. M. in Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois. A handful of copies were printed for the library of this school and, upon the solicitation of friends, a number of addi- tional copies were prepared for general distribu- tion. The paper lays no claims whatsoever to having exhausted this very important and in- teresting subject. It represents the work of a few leisure moments of a busy teacher — nothing more. It is my earnest hope, in the near future, to find the time necessary to complete a more pretentious volume on this subject, the beginnings of which have already been made. The typographical errors that have found their way into these pages are much deplored by the author, who asks the kind indulgence of his readers. Blair, Nebr., June, 1901. H. W. F. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE YIKIXG AGE. PAGES. The Battle of Braavalla, ca. 700 A. D.— The Vik- ings— Causes of the Viking Expeditions— The Three Kinds of Vikings— Contributions of the Northmen to the Political Life of Europe- Extent of the Viking Conquests 1-10 CHAPTER II. THE EXODUS TO 1CELA:XD. Norway— The Exodus of 872— The Settlement of Iceland, 874— Rejkjavik Founded, 877— Iceland- ic Law Courts— The Government of Iceland- Iceland, a Literary Center 11-22 CHAPTER III. THE RhLIABILITY OF ICELANDIC LITERATURE. How the Sagas Originated— The Sagas Committed to Writing, between lOCO and 1200 A. D.— John Fiske's Defence of the Word "Sagas"— Erik the Red's Saga— Thorfinn Karlsefni's Saga— The Historical Agreement of the Two Versions- Incidental References to Vmland from Other Sources 23-32 CHAPTER IV. THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. Hvitramannaland Discovered, 928— Greenland Set- tled, 986— Greenland, the Anti-Chamber to the American Mainland— B jar ni Herjulfsson and the New West Land— Leif Eriksson's Expedi- tion Sets Sail, 1000— Helluland, Its Location— Markland, Its Location— Leif Eriksson's Win- ter in Vinland the Good— Unavailing Attempts to Seek the Exact Latitude of Vinland— Vin- land Named 33-48 CHAPTER V. ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORATION AND COLONI- ZATION. Thorvald Eriksson's Expedition, 1002— Thorstein Eriksson's Attempts to Reach Vinland, 1005— Thorfinn Karlsefni's Colony, 1007-10- A Bloody Chapter of Vinland History, 1011-12 49-60 CHAPTER VI. ALLUSIONS TO VINLAND FROM OTHER SOURCES. "Libellus Islandorum"— T h e Heimskringla— The Eyrbyggja Saga— Grettis Saga— Other Mention of Vinland— Early Geographical Treatises 61-69 CHAPTER Vll. THE DECLINE AND LOSS OF THE GRELNLAND COLONIES. Development of the Greenland Settlements— The Northernmost Limit of Norse Exploration in America— Causes Leading to the Destruction of the Greenland Colonies — Nicolo Zeno in Greenland, 1394— The Great Missionary Hans Egede in Greenland, 1721— The Greenland Ruins 70-80 CHAPTER VIII. THE LAST OF YINLAND. Antonio Zeno's Voyage of Discovery, ca. 1400— Ad- ventures in Estotiiand— Norambega, or Norvega — Prof. Horsford's Summary — The Stony Brook Inscription — A Kesume of Prof. Horsford's Ar- guments — The Fisherman's Description of Drogio— A Summary on Estotiiand, Norum- bega and Drogio 81-96 CHAPTER IX. A GENERAL SUMMAEY OF THE QUESTION. What Has Been Established beyond a Shadow of Doubt— What Overzealous Antiquarians Have Accomplished for the Cause — The Ridiculous Attacks upon Columbus— The Keal Truth— Ir- respective of Results the Norse Discovery of America Was Every Bit as Much a i rue Dis- covery as Was that of Columbus — Leif Eriksson Holds the Priority Claim to the Discovery of America — The True Light in Which to View the Norse Discovery 97-110 CHAPTER X. THK DISCOVERY VIEWED IN ITS RELATIONS TO THE GREAT AVORLD MIGRATIONS. The Aryan Migration— The Aryan Migration not yet Ended— The Teutonic vs. the Romance Nations— The Genesis of the English-Speaking Nations — The Northern Sailors Lead the Teu- tonic World Movement across the Atlantic 111-117 CHAPTER XL SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. Danish and Norwegian Place Names— Tabular View of Some of the Most Important Danish- Norwegian Xames of Places in Kngland— An Explanation of Dr. Worsaae's Table— Auster- tield and Scrooby Mark the Starting Point from Which the Puritan Exodus Went forth— Exist- ing Ties of Good Will between Englishmen and Scandinavians— Featural Likenesses of English- men and Scandinavians — The Danish-Norwe- gian Element in English— A Short List of Words Taken from the Provincial English, with Danish Equivalents— Scandinavian Surnames Ending in son or sen— The Case of Admiral Horatio Nelson— The Northmen, and English Love for the Sea— Norse Law in England— The Norse Origin of the Jury System— The North- men in Scotland and Ireland— The Isle of Man; Its Place Names, Kunes, TniNG-hill, etc.— A Re-capitulation 118-142 CHAPTER XII. SCANDI:N AVIAN ELEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES. The Importance of the Eastern Counties in the Puritan Revolution; the Part They Played in the Puritan Exodus— The Sailing of the May- flower, 1620 — The Probable Scandinavian Origin of George Washington— Modern North- men in the L^nited States — Scandinavian-Amer- icans as Citizens— To Sum up Our Arguments. . 143-152 A Bibliography OF Some cP the Chief Works Referred to in the Following Pages with Other Impor- tant Books on the Discovery . Question. 1076. Adam von Bremen. "Historia Ecclesiastica Ecclesiarum Hamburgensis et Bremensis.'' Copenhagen. Before 1334. Hank Erlendsson. '*The Hauks- bok." Iceland. Between 1388 and 1395. JonThordharsson. ''The Flate3^ar-b6k." Iceland. 1642. Hugo Grotius. "Dissertatio de Origine Gentium Americanarum." Paris. 1643. Arngrim Jonsson. "Specimen Islandiae His- toricum." Amsterdam. 1*^05. Thormodus Torfeus. "Historia Vinlandiae Anticpiae. Havniae. 1706. Thormodus Torlseus. ' Historia Gronlan- diae Antiquae." Havniae. 1817. Conrad Malte-Brun. "Histoire de la Geographie." Paris. 1820. David Cranz. "The History of Greenland'' (best edition). Pondon. 1833. Finn Magnussen. "Nordisk Tidsskrift for Oldkyndighed." Copenhagen. 1834. T. Campanius. "Description of the Prov- ince of New Sweden." Philadelphia. 1836. Zahrtmann. "Journal of Geographical Societ3^" London. 1837. Karl Christian Rafn. "Antiquitates Amer- icanae." Copenhagen. 1837. Alex. Humbolt. "Examen Critique/' etc. Paris. 1838. "The Royal Geographical Society." London. 184L Augustin Thierr3^ "Conquest of England b3^ the Normans." London. 1842. K. Wilhelmi. "Island, Hvitramannaland, Gronland und Yinland, oder, der Normanner Leben auf Island und Gronland und deren Fahrten nach America schon iiber 500 Jahre vor Columbus." 1844. Samuel Laing. "Translation of the Heims- kringla." London. 1852. Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae. "The Danes and Northmen in England, Scotland and Ire- land." London. 1860. Schoolcraft. "Archives of Aboriginal Know- ledge." Philadelphia. 1862. N. M. Petersen. "Historiske Fbrtaellinger om Islaendernes Fasrd ude og hjemme." Copen- hagen. 1866. Paul Sinding. "History- of Scandinavia." etc. London. 1868. B. F. De Costa. "The Pre-Columbian Dis- covery of America by the Northmen." Alban3^ 1873. Richard H. Major. "The Voyages of the Venetian Brothers, Nicolo and Antonio Zeno." London. 1876. G. W. Dasent. ''Des Antiquaires du Nord." London. 1876. WilHam Cullen Brj^ant and Sidney Howard Gaj. "A Popular History of the United States," etc. New York. 1877. Thomas Wentworth Higginson. "A Book of American Explorers . ' ' Boston. 1877. E. F. Slafter, Editor. ''Voyages of the Northmen in America." Boston. 1879. Albert Welles. "The Pedigree and History of the Washington Family." New York. 1880. F. Metcalfe. ''Tne Englishman and the Scandinavian." London. 1887. Gnstav Storm. "Studier over Vinlandsrei- seme." Copenhagen. 1888. Marie Brown (Shipley). ''The Icelandic Discoverers of America." Boston. 1889. John Fiske. "The Beginnings of New Eng- land." Boston. 1889. Paul Du Chaillu. "The Viking Age." Lon- don. 1890. Rasmus B. Anderson. "America not Dis- covered by Columbus" (revised edt.). Chicago. 1890. E. Norton Horsford. "The Problem of the Norsemen." Boston. 1890. Arthur M. Reeves. "The Finding of Wine- land the Good." London. 1891. E. Norton Horsford. "Defences of Norum- bega." Boston. 1892. Harrisse. ''The Discovery of North America." 1893. Joh. A. Enander. "Nordmannen i Amer- ika." Rock Island. 1895. Hjalmar H. Bojesen. ''The Story of Nor- way." New York. 1895. Sarah Orne Jewett. "The Story of the Normans." New York. 1897. OHver Farrar Emerson. "The History of the English Language." New York. 1900. John Fiske. "The Discover^^ of America" (last edition). Boston. 1900. O. N. Nelson. "History of Scandinavians and Biographies." (second revised edition). Minneapolis. 1900. Gustav Storm. "Snorre Sturlasons Kon- gesagaer." Christiania,. Some Characteristics of the Viking Age. "No more The raven from the northern shore Hails the bold crew to push for pelf, Through fire and blood and slaughtered kings 'Neath the black terror of his wings." —Francis Turner Palgraye. During the early part of the eighth centur\',* say the saga-men, f the hosts of Sweden and Denmark met on Braavalla Heath to fight for the , supremacy of the North. This Trojan plain of Scandinavian myth lay close by the river Bra a in East Gautland on the Baltic. $ Gods and demi-gods took a hand in the struggle. Yal- *The exact date is uncertain; it was probabl^^ about the year 700 A. D . tOur best references are to the Hervarar Saga and the SOGUBROT. JThe battle here iought marks the beginning of the end of the Mythic Age in the North. After this gov- ernments become better organized and many unrul}' spirits are forced to seek foreign climes in quest of such lawless adventures as they can no longer hope to encounter at home. With this mile-stone we maj^ con- sider the Viking Age to begin. Some authorities, as for example Du Chaillu, argue that it commenced away back in the second century. Cf. Paul Chaillu The Viking Age, Vol. I., page 26. SOME CHARACTERIvSTICS OF THE VIKIXG AGE. kA'Hes* dashed through the misty heavens^ choosing their victims. Heroes fought one anoth- Tlie Battle ^^ ^^^^ died, and \vere car- of Braavaila, ca. ried home to the jo3^s of Valhal. Odin, with his own hands, slew the aged and bHnd Harald Hildetand, king of Danes, and gave victory to the youthful King Sigurd Ring. Throughout the plain the dead lay heaped to the axles of the chariot wheels, and the shades of night sank upon the exhausted earth. This, say the skalds, was the last time Odin ap- peared among men. From this time forth, our forefathers must needs depend on their owai per- sonal valor and good brawn for victory. For the gods returned to Yalhal and their mead- feasts, and were satisfied with watching the battle from afar.t Before this time the Northmen were strang- ers to the histor^^ of civilized Europe. But now they commenced to pour their devastating hordes over the continent and the islands, spreading terror before them as they advanced and leaving naught save desolation and death in their wake. These were unruh^ times, fit only for men of blood. So terrible was the Northern scourge that the terrorized Christian nations daily prayed the *These were the hand-maidens of Odin, who were sent bj^ him to decide the battles of men. . tXhis indicates that the Northmen w^ere already be- ginning to disbelieve in the gods of Valhalla. It was common, from this time on, to hear of heroes who re- lied on nothing save their own strength and courage. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VIKING AGE. 3 Lord to deliver them.* But back of all their brutal impulses the invaders hid manj^ noble quali- ties, which later put such an indelible stamp up- on their progeny in England and America. Even their enemies, and their monkish chroniclerst who hated them so well, agreed in this, that the Northern robbers were ''faithful ^** to their oaths and kept their promises." It is also worthy of notice, that wherever the Vikings settled they became the most law-abiding citizens of the land;t and when they chanced to return to their native home, they gen- erally rose to the rank of influencial, respected citizens. The seed of civilization was in them; but, as ''religion in those days was tribal, and moral- it3^ had no application outside the tribe," we should hardly expect to find this morality prac- ticed to any extent beyond tlieir own kinsmen. ♦The French church litany has it: "A furore North- mannoruni libera nos, o Doinine!" f'li we tty to get the story of the Northmen from the French or British chroniclers it is one long dreary complaint of their barbarous customs and their heath- en religion. In England the monks, shut up in their monasteiies, could find nothing bad enough to say about the marauders who ravaged the shores of the country and did so much mischief. If we believe them we shall mistake the Norwegians and their com- panions for wild beasts and heathen savages." — Sarah Orne Jewett, The Story of the Normans, p. 9. JPerhaps no other one characteristic is so marked in the Scandinavian as his respect for authoritJ^ And this is not through cringing fear, as so often manifest- ed among baser peoples, but through voluntary sub- ordination for the common welfare. 4 SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VIKING AGE. The belief that only the brave, dying with sword in hand, would find a seat among the Einherjer,* coupled with the crowded condition of the North- ern lands, w^hich were as yet but poorh^ developed economicalh^ was the chief cause of these Viking ex- peditions. War wdth the Northmen v^as a pro- fession, considered b3^ them honorable beyond all other occupations. By degrees as the "small ^ ^ ^. kiners" at home became more Causes of the r -, ■, i • r Viking- poweriul, many lesser chiefs Expeditions. ^ycre left in a cramped condition. At last there remained but the choice between vassalage and the friendly sea. But as freedom was dearer to the Northmen's heart than life itself, thQj spread their square sails to the storm- wind, and trusting to the kind fates of the deep, set out in quest of adventures and new fire-sides. They w^ere never lost: "Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam, Purvey our empire and behold our home." The3^ were as much at home in Britain as in France, in Sicily as in Miklagaard.t The Viking sword w^as turned against all men. In turn they *i. e. great champions. Fallen heroes chosen by Odin to be his guests. ti. e. Byzantium, or Constantinople. "In Byzantium they are the leaders of the Greek emperor's body guard, and the main support of his tottering throne. From France, led by Kollo, they tear away her fairest province and found a long line of kings. In Saxon England they are the bosom friends of such kings as Athelstane, and the sworn foe of Ethelred the Unreaay. In Danish England they are the foremost SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VIKING AGE. 5 were regarded a universal enemy. Under the struggle lor survival, it was give and take — no favor was asked, no quarter was granted. Such men knew no fear save the fear of pale Hel; they rejoiced in the storm-wind, and laughed aloud in the face of certain death. The Viking cruises were at first hardly more than sea-robbery, pursued for the booty to be gained. Small bands attacked and plundered iso- lated towns and monasteries, and then made good a hasty retreat v/ith the ill-gotten spoil. Later on, as they became more skilled in military arts, the Vikings sailed in larger companies, led by he- roes of noble birth. Commanding points on the invaded shore were seized and fortified, and from these places of vantage harrying expeditions were sent into the adjacent country. By degrees Viking life took on a nobler form. Men of high rank, of- ten of ro3^al blood, gathered renowned fighters under their banners, and abandoning pirac3^ as The Three Kinds tinworthy of their attention, as- of Vikings. sumed the role of conquerors and colonizers. Peaceable merchants and traders among the thanes of Canute, Swein and Hardicanute, and keep down the native population with an iron heel. Jn Normnn England the most serious opposition the conquer- or meets with is from the colonists of his own race settled in Xorthumbria, He wastes their lands with fire and sword, and drives them across the border, where we still find their energy, their perseverance, and their speech ex- isting in the lowland .Scotch."— G. W. Dasent, Des An- TIQUAIKES DU NORD. 6 SOME CHARACTERISTICS OE THE YIKIXG AGE. were spared ; and they sometimes even fought and exterminated their less scrupulous, plundering brethren. With such heroes wealth was deemed of smaller consequence than a name renowned for prowess in war. During this period of the Viking- Age, knightly valor became very marked. A cer- tain code of honor* was enforced as rigidly then as later among the knightly Normans, who were direct descendents of our sea-kings. The last period of the age was marked by ex- tended conquest. The existence of entire nations was threatened, and in many instances whole provinces were seized and placed under the iron rule of the invaders. Now the breath of Northern vigor was infused into continental and insular political and social institutions. In- vigorated blood coursed through the impoverish- ed veins of the South, and foundations to modem nations were l.iid. * 'It is these conquering vikings," sa3's Boyesen? *A\^e are told that the royal youth Half forbade the use among his men of swords over two feet long. The glory of the combat lay, said he, not in the advantage of weapons, bat in personal valor. His men were not allowed to cap- ture women and children; and insults ottered women were punished with death. He never reefed his dragons under the hurricane blast; but sought the most exposed and storm- beaten cape where he would anchor and laugh at the ele- ments' important rage. Once when his ship was on the point of sinking, being filled by the angry waves, it became necessary to lighten its burden. As volunteers were called for, half the crew leaped to their watery graves, laughing and jesting as they sank! SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE YIKIXG AGE. 7 ^'who have demonstrated the historic mission of the North, and doubly indemnified the world for the miser3' they brought upon it. - The ability to endure discipline without loss of self-respect, voluntary subordination for mutual benefit, and ^ t 'b f ^^^ power of orderly organiza- of the Northmen tion, based upon these qualities, to the Pohti- these were contributions of cal Ivif e of Kurope. ^ ^ -,..-, the Northmen to the political life of Europe."* A strong democratic spirit was from the earliest time fostered in the North. Re- sistance to tyraniw and freedom of thought and speech were very marked. The accused were tried by a jury of their peers ;t for personal rights were esteemed above all else. These too were contribu- tions to the political life of Europe — contributions which eventualh' found their way into the Eng- lish Magna Charta and the American Declaration of Independence. ? *Hjalmar H. Boyesen, The Story of Norway, p, 30. tWhile all the Teutonic people had law-courts where the accused might appear and make pubhc defence, it was the Scandinavians that first broucfht into England what was later called the jury system. With them men were from a very early day tried by a "jury of their peers." It is la- mentable, indeed, that our learned EngUsh, and more especially our learned American writers, are so lax in trac- ing the real origin of their own institutions and— family tree Even such an erudite scholar as Forsyth in his His- tory OF Jury Trial, is unable to distinguish between what in our law is Scandinavian and what is Anglo-Saxon. Jin this connection it is interesting to note that John Morton who cast the Pennsylvania vote in favor of the Declaration of Independence, was a Delaware Swede. 8 SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VIKIXG AGE. The Northmen rapidty spread over a vast extent of territory. The Swedes turned their attention to the cotintries lying to the south and east of the Baltic. These Vaeringar, as they were called, pene- trated Gardarike, the present Russia, on their way to Miklagaard, where we hear of them in the service of the Greek emperors. It fell to the lot of Rurik the Swede* to name, and to lay the founda- tion of modern Russia, which took place in the 3^ear 862. During the same age the Danes were making themselves very much at home in England, and penetrating far inland through the river-mouths of Germam^ and Gaul. In England they seized upon the best lands and there established them- selves as masters. For many generations fully one-third of all England was governed by Danish laws, and from 1017 to 1042 Danish kings held sway over the entire realm. "The Danes," sa3^s Laing,t ''must be the forefathers of as large a pro- *Thomsen telis us in his entertaining way the story of three brothers, Rurik, JSineus, and Truvor, who were invited from Sweden, and settled at Novgorod in 862. Says he, "according to some accounts these brothers were summon- ed by Gostomisl, a prominent Novgorodian; but the invita- tion of Rurik, Sineus, and Truvor is o: ly a Russian ex- planation of a Swedish invasion. The names are Scandi- navian. Rurik is the Old-Xorse for Ilraerekr; Sineus stands for Signiutr, and Truvor for Thorvardr."— Of. Thomson, The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandi- navia. •f-Samuel Laing, Preface to his translation of the Heims- kringla. SOME characte:ristics of thp: viking age. 9 portion of the present English nation as the Sax- ons themselves."* While their brothers were in this manner occupied in the East and South, the Norwegians were not idle. With an inborn love Extent of the ^^'^ adventure they struck boldly Vikino: out into the unknown western Conquests. ^^^^^ ^^^ pushed their way to every island and shore in the North Atlantic. They groped their wa^^ to the Orkneys, to the Shetlands and the Faroes; the^- settled the coasts of Scotland and founded kingdoms in Ireland. Later the^^ discoAxred Iceland and Greenland, and in the year 986 stumbled upon the mainland of America. Under Rolf GangerI' thev seized and *Du Chaillu inclines to the opinion that the early Saxon tribes in England were in reality tribes of iSucones (Swedes),. Danes and ^Norwegians; and that the Romans through ignorance mistook them for Saxons. His argument is based chiefly on the fact that the Scandinavians were from a very early day sea-farers. They scoured the North Sea and English Channel with their mighty fleets long before Charlemagne's time. And during his reign the Saxons and Franks were absolutely without naval protection. The Saxons had not a single vessel to retire to, or by help of which to hinder the Frankish conqueror from crossing their streams. "Though hardly more than three hundred years had elasped since the time when, according to the Roman writers, the fleets of the Franks and Saxons swarmed over every sea of Europe, not a vestige of their former maritime power remained in the time of Charlemagne, and the Sax- ons were still occupying the same country as in the days of Ptolomy."— Paul Du Chaillu, The Viking Age, Vol. I. p. 22. tit should be distinctly understood that Rolf was a Nor- wegian, though many of his followers were Danes and Swedes. He, like so many others, tell under the displeasure of Harold IIaakfager, and was forced to flee from Nor„ 10 SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VIKING AGE. settled fertile Normandy-, which soon took its place as one of the formidable powers of Europe. These Normans, as they were called in France, set up a Norman nation in Italy, and in the year 1060, crossed the Channel and conquered all Eng- land. way. In the Hebrides he was joined by many of his coun- trymen, and together they rounded the coast of Scotland and steered for Holland. From these already thoroughly devastated coasts, the expedition continued through the Channel, and soon we see them sailing up the Seine and sounding their challenge under the very walls of Paris. Af- ter Rolf had taken Rouen, Bayeux and some other places, the helpless French king, Charles the Simple, made the fol- lowing offer which was accepted: "King Charles offers you his daughter in marriage, with the hereditary lordship of all the country situated between the river Epte and Brit- tany, if you consent to become a Christian, and to live in peace with his kingdom."— Mandans, si christianus efficere- tur, terram maritimam ab Epte flumine usque ad britan- nicos limites, cum sua filia nomine Gisla, se ei daturum fore— Willelmi Gemeticensis, Hist. Normann., apud SCRIPT. RER. Norm ANN., p. 231. The Exodus to Iceland. "Hail, Isle! with mist and snowstorms girt around, Where fire and earthquake rend the shattered ground, — Here once o'er furthest ocean's icy path The Northmen fled a tyrant monarch's wrath: Here, cheered by song and story, dwelt they free, And held unscathed their laws and liberty." — YiGA Glum's Saga. The earlj^ Norwegians, or Norsemen, were a re- markable race! They were restive, often violent daring in the extreme, and above all else, inde- pendent. They were like the elements that strug- gled about them, like their hardy motherland. An immense ridge of rocks heaped up by the early Jotuns,* pierced to its very heart by innumerable arms of the ocean. Lying high up under the polar star it has a wonderful, changeable nature. * "The ocean roars along its rock-bound coast, and dur- ing the long, dark winter the storms howl and rage, and hurl the waves in white showers of spraj^ against the sk3^ Great swarms of sea-birds drift like sno^^ over the waters and circle screaming around the loneh" cliffs. The aurora borealis flashes like a huge shining fan *The gods of Jotunheim, between whom and the Yalbal gods the bitterest enmity existed. A parallel to the Titans and Olympian gods of Greek mythology. 12 THE EXODUS TO ICELAND. over the northern heavens, and the stars glitter with a keen, frosty splendor. But in summer all this is changed as by a miracle. Then the sun shines warmh^, even within the polar circle; in- numerable wild flowers sprout forth, the swell- ing rivers dance singing to the sea, and the birches mingle their light-green foliage with the darker green of the pine, the ocean spreads like a great burnished mirror under the cloudless sky, the fishes leap, and the gulls and eider ducks rock tranquilly upon the shin^^ waters."* On account of the phj^sical characteristics of the soil, Norway was early divided into a number of small, independent districts, each ruled by its independent ''small king," or jarl. Halftan SvARTE of the renowned Ynglinge family ruled Yestfold and other small districts on the modern Christiania Fjord. Upon his death, in the year 863, he was succeeded by his ten-year-old son Harold. But, ill-content with his heritage, this youthful ruler took a solemn oath never to cut his hair nor to comb his long, flaxen locks before he had gathered all Norway under his scepter. Ten years of war was required to complete the task. And King Harold, released from his oath, had leisure enough to tonsure his hair and beard — henceforth he was surnamed Haarfager, i. e. Fairhair. ♦Hialmar H. Boyesen, The Story of Norway, p. 4. THE EXODUS TO ICELAND. 13 The great sea fight at HafrsQord made Harold master of Norway. Here a number of chiefs had assembled with all their retainers and arma- ments,^ vainly hoping by one united effort to crush the usurper of their ancient liberties. But Harold prevailed and "small king" rule was for- ever dead in Norway. The harshness of the new laws that were now imposed, together with heavy taxation, and Harold's confiscation of all odel, or public domain, were more than many of the The Exodus proud old chieftains cared to en- of 872. dure; so choosing freedom with- out a home-land in preference to thraldom under an upstart king, they embarked with their fami- lies and followers, and after solemn sacrifice to the gods, set sail to the westward. Many of the noblest and most renowned clans of the land thus went into voluntary exile,— here begins the great exodus of the year 872. The earliest inhabitants of Iceland appear to ♦Thjodolf , one of King Harold's skalds, who was presen t describes the advent of the enemy in the following song: "Ladle var de med Haulder og hvide Skjolde, med vesterlandske Spyd og med valske Sv?erd. Berserker brolede, Kamp de haabede, Ulfhedner hylede, og Jernene gjaldede." 14 THE EXODUS TO ICELAND. have been Irish monks and anchorites,* who may have taken up their abode in the island soon after 725. The first Scandinavians to visit Iceland were the Swede Gardar and the Norwegian Nadd- odd, or Nadod. The former, whose father at this time resided in Denmark, attempted a voyage to Scotland, round about the year of 860. In the dangerous Pentland Firth his ship w^as caught by a hurricane and carried far to the northw^ard. However, he made land on the east coast of Ice- land Avhere he found a safe haven. Gardar, who soon afterwards visited Norw^ay, is said to have been ver\^ laud in his praise of the island, ^vhich from him was called Gardarsholm. Nadod, Gar- dar's contemporary and rival for first honors, was also carried to Iceland by a gale. With his men he made an inland voyage, and scaled a lofty mountain wherefrom barren, uninhabited stretch- es of waste could be seen. This snowland, as he called it, had no charms for a Viking of Nadod 's caliber, and he too returned home soon. The navigator who next discovered the island, and who first called it by its present name, was the bold Floki Vilgerdson. He sailed from Raga- land in Norway and steered withotit hesitation into the unknown sea, depending for guidance on *Authorities from various sources agree in this, that Iris h religious orders dwelled in the Island when the Norsemen arrived. These papas, as the new-comers called them, left Iceland immediately upon the coming of the Scandinavians THE EXODUS TO ICELAND. 15 his consecrated ravens.* These were turned loose the one after the other; and the last one finding its bearings, led him to the land of his seeking. ^u^ c^*+i 4- Floki spent two winters on the The Settltriiient ^ of Iceland, island, exploring and fishing. ^'^' But ill content with the coun- tr}^ he abandoned his contemplated colonization and set sail for Norwa^^ Other participants in this expedition, on the contrary, were well pleased Avith Iceland, and declared the soil so rich that butter oozed from every straw in the land.t In this way the North became acquainted with the great Thule; though no efforts were made to settle it before after the battle of Hafrsfjord. The foster-brothers Ingolf and Hjorleif were forced to flee from Norway about this time, as a result of blood-feud and subsequent murder. They embark- ed at Fjordefylke with their families and thralls, and as many of their personal effects as could be con- veniently moved,*! and reached the eastern coast *The compass and astrolabe were of course unknown to the Northmen of the Viking Age. They depended for guidance solely upon the sun and the stars, and in cloudy weather, upon the flight of birds, usually ravens. jAn excellent discription of Iceland's physical appear- ance, accessible to readers of the Scandinavian languages, is found in N. M. Petersen's Hi storike Fort.ellinger OM ISL.ENDEKNEs F.EHD lIjKMME OG Ude. Copenhagen, 18^.2. :}:The immigrants brought with them to Iceland not only personal effects but even such real estate as temples, etc., carried in sections. So thorough was this removal that the settlements are often spoken of as "det udflyttede Norge." 16 THE EXODUS TO ICELAND. of Iceland late in the j^ear 874. Within sight of land the ships carrying the foster-brothers became separated. Hjorleif was carried to the westward and landed at a headland which he called, after himself Hjorleifshofde. Here he was murderd the following spring by his Irish thralls. Ingolf was more fortunate than Hjorleif; it fell to his lot to become Iceland's real founder. On ap- proaching the shore, he threw overboard his conse- crated high-seat posts,* vowing to set up his abode wherever the gods might choose to cast them ashore. After spending the first winter at the socalled Ingolfshofde, he began the search for his posts. While thus engaged he came upon the bodies of his murdered kinsmen. As soon as he had buried the dead, one of the most sacred duties of the ancients, he hunted down the assasins and slew them all without mercy. The high-seat posts meanwhile drifted ashore at Rejkjanes, where the *Called Andveges-suler, or Set-stokker. They were the two carved wooden posts placed before the high-seat in the banquet hail and were symbolic of the chieftain's rank. "Through the whole length of the hall shone forth the table of oak wood, Brighter than steel, and polished; the pillars twain of the high seats Stood on each side thereof; two gods deep carved out of elm wood: Odin with glance of a king, and Frey with the sun on his forehead." — Frithiof's Saga, Ch. III., p. IS. THE EXODUS TO ICELAND. 17 owner found them after a search of three years. Rejkjavik In fulfilment of his vow Ingolf Founded, ^77. settled a place which he named Rejkjavik, now Iceland's thriftiest hamlet. The fame of the island's richness and great size soon drew other malcontents from Norwa\^, and betw^een the 3^ears 874 and 934, the famous Land- namstid,'^ all the habitable districts were peo- pled. Whole clans arrived, carrying with them the old Norse usages, traditions and laws. These emigrants w^ere among Norway's proudest sons, high born chiefs, many of them descended from kings and earls, bringing with them great wealth and culture. His own dwelling completed, a chief's first duty was to erect a temple, or Hoy, to his household gods. It was common enough to hear of Hoy-men w-ho brought along from Nor- -way portions of the temple wood-work, together with hallowed earth scraped from the spot where the altar had stood. Near the temple it was cus- tomary to locate the Thing,! or general assise. For man^^ years the most renowned ol these as- sises w^as the Kjalarnes-thing. Thither throng- *At the close of these sixty years, the island's population was larger than it has been at any period since that time. tThe Thing was both legislative and judicial. All free- holders had a voice in the deliberations. In Iceland Tpiing was held twice a year — a four days' session in the spring of the year, and a short autumn session. The Althing, or general Thing, convened during the summer and lasted, generally, fourteen days. 18 THE EXODUS TO ICELAND. ed the colonists to have their differences adjusted, and to sit as jurors or to act as witnesses. But its fame vaned for one reason and another, and the Icelanders began to clamor for some authorized common court. To mend this want, the aged wise-man Ulfljot undertook a voyage to Norw^ay, where he remained three 3^ears, stud3^ing the laws Icelandic of that countrA^ under the guid- Law Courts, ^^^^ ^^ Thorleif the Wise. The code — the Ulfljot lav^^ — was read to the assembled people at the Althing,* located henceforth at Thingvalla,t in the year 928. Within the first half century succeeding the creation of the Al- thing, Iceland became organized under a uniform civil government. The whole island was divided into Quarters, these Quarters again into Things and each Thing in turn embraced three or more Godords, or temple districts, constituting a sort of lower coLirt, while thirt3''-six judges elected in each Quarter constituted its district court. The Fifth-court, an organization resembling our *"The Althing was placed where it is now, according to the advise of Ulfljot and all the men of the land. Before this the Thing was at Kjalarnes, established by Thorstein, son of Ingolf, the (first) settler, and father of Thorkel Mani (moon), lawman, and other chiefs."--Islendingabok. jThingvalle, or Thingvalla (Thing-plain) is situated on the OxAR-AA (Ox river) in southwestern Iceland, not far from Rejkjavik. THE EXODUS TO ICELAND. 19 modern supreme court, sat as a tribunal of last appeal.* As the Icelanders had left their Norwegian fire- sides in search of polical freedom, the government the^^ established was from the first very demo- cratic. It could hardly be said to be a republic in our modern sense of the word, but rather a patri- archal aristocracy. For the power was centered in a few families, each retaining its patriarchal organization unaffected by higher government. Nor was the state at any time very peaceful. Bloody feuds and wars were continually carried The Government ^^ ^J ^he haughty, restless of Iceland. chiefs, who individually strove to set up tyrannies as absolute as any that Nor- wegian kings had ever attempted. Even after the introduction of Christianity in the3''ear 1000 cruel feuds were common. As late as 1262, the year in which the island declared fealty to Norway, we hear of entire families perishing in their homes fired bv some remorseless enemv.t *It is very interesting to note the similitude of these ear- ly Icelandic courts and our modern Er.glish and American courts. Take for instance an American state district court; in all its essentials — the jury, the judge, the bar — it reminds one of the ancient Quakter-court. Again, while our modern law-system is greatly indebted to Justinian for his code, let us not underestimite the Common Law; and then bear in mind, that the most important principles laid down in this are of Northern origin. •fSee Burnt N jal's Saga, which is accessible through sev- eral good English translations; or lead P. ^I. Petersen's NjALS Saga, Kobenliavn, 1862. 20 THE EXODUS TO ICELAND. Our forefathers' religion did not appeal to the no- bler instincts of man exactl}^ rather, I should sa^-, to his baser. So it was not till the teachings of the White Christ prevailed in the North, and the old AYorshippers of Odin began to live b3^ Christian precept, that ancient laws and customs lost much of their harshness. The advent of Christianity' put a summary end to Viking cruises, and with them passed man3f an opportunity for heroic deeds. But the memory of ancestral achievements were not to perish. They were cherished by the people who gloried in their ancestors* greatness. Unerring skalds* and saga-ment handed down the events from age to age, in one unbroken chain, till *The skalds, or singing poets, were heM in the highest es- teem in the Korth. Their muse was reckoned the gift of God, which all, even great chiefs and kings, were eager to attain. A renowned skald was as dear to the people, high and low, as the greatest hero of the land. He feasted at the royal table; sang the king's deeds at the banquet; fought by his side in battle; and chanted his praises when death had closed his eyes. It is remarkable to what a degree of per- fection they had developed their memories, for they were as apt at extemporanious verse as at repeating old songs. Like the Homeric rhapsodists of old, they could repeat, word for word, scores of songs. Of the blind skald Stuf, it was said that he could rehearse between two and three hundred songs without pausing. To show how very com- mon it was in those days to cultivate the memory, we may repeat what Halmund (in the Grettir Saga) says to his young daughter: 'Thou shalt now listen whilst I relate my deeds, and sing thereof a song, which thou shalt after- wards cut upon a staff." tPersons who recited from memory the sagas, or narrative writings. Their office was to preserve the family and gen- eral history of the Northmen. (See below, The liEUABiLiTY OF Icelandic Literature). THE EXODUS OF ICELAND. 21 they were at length committed to writing about the year 1000. In the tw^elfth century, while the continent of Europe was shrouded in intellectual darkness, save for the feeble rays of light emanat- ing from monasteries scattered here and there, dili- gent scholars were hard at v^ork in Iceland, lay- ing up such stores of prose and verse as have been the marvel of the whole world. The Icelanders were especially fond of history and of working out geneologies. In trustworthi- ness and accuracy these works were far in ad- vance of their age; some of them could, as far as details are concerned, be used as models even in our da3^ of mechanical perfection in book making. One of the most voluminous and erudite of these scholars was the priest Ari Thorgilsson Hinn Frodhi.* Born in 1067, he lay the foundation Iceland, a Liter- ^^ history writing on the island, ary Center. He was the chief author of the celebrated Landnama-bok, or geneological table of the early Icelandic settlers, a book which we shall have occasion to refer to later in our discus- sion. Some of his other important works were the Islandinga-bok, which contained the his- tory of Iceland from its discovery down to Ari's own da3^, and the Konunga-bok, or chronicle of the kings of Norway. Another writer of special interest to us in our present relation was Snorri *HiNN Frodhi, i. e. the wise. 22 THE EXODUS TO ICELAND. Sturlason, who counted suclf famous men as Egil Skallagrimsson* and Thorfinn Karlsefni among his ancestors. He was born in 1178 and like Ari Frodhi, at an early age became both chief and priest. His fame as a skald aud historian extend- ed far beyond the limits of Iceland. To Snorri are we indebted for the great Heimskringla, or his- tory of the kings of Norway, and very likely also for the Younger or Prose Edda, which is a skaldic manual of Norse mythology. Such his- torical chronicles as mentioned above, and many others yet to be named, are our chief sources from which we draw the stor3^ of the Norse discovery of America. *Egil Skallagrimsson, a great Icelandic chief and the hero of one of the greatest of the Iceland Sagas.— See K. M. Pe- tersen, HiSTORISKE FORT^LLINGER OM ISL^NDEKNES The Reliability of Icelandic Literature. "The Icelandic poems have no parallel in all the treasures of ancient literature; they are the expressions of the souls of poets existing in the primeval and unefteminated earth." —The Howitts. A striking trait of the Scandinavians and the Icelanders of the earl3^ period, and a trait which is just as marked in their present day decendents up under the polar circle, was their unsatiable crav- ing for news-happenings from the outer world. The Northern kingdoms were, as stated above, cut up into innumerable districts by mountain and sea, forming practicalh^ separate states, each occupied, as it were, by one large family. What happened within this family group was cherished as com- mon history and preserved in song and story, and told from generation to generation by the saga men. When a stranger arrived from a neighbor- ing fjord or island, or from foreign lands, he was carried in triumph to a chieftain's hall and benched opposite the high seat. Having partaken of the best the house provided, it was meet that he in 24 THE RELIABILITY OF ICELANDIC LITERATURE. turn tell all that had happened where he came from, and the news he had heard in his travels. How the Deeds of extraordinary merit Sagas Originated. ^^.^^^ repeated from place to place — at the Thing, and at the games and the baths. In this way such events became part of both local and national histor3^ Nor was their interest confined to home history. Foreign nev^s was listened to as eagerh^ as an}', and incorporated with the rest into one great historic fabric. Let it be understood then, that these narratives were no mere fables and yarns spun to entertain the masses; but truthful recitals b\' men who had heard and seen, and in man}- instances been participants in w^hat they told!* To be sure, the narratives were not always entirely reliable. Some would natur- aWj enough be distorted for one reason or an- other. Oftime false conce^Dtions of the truth or even personal prejudice found their Avay into re- citals that otherwise were entirely sound in their ground-Avork. But what ^vritten histor^^ even in our day and time, is entirely free from personal bias and misconceijtionlf *It must be remarked here that this statement refers only to the socalled historical sagas for a discussion of which see below. tAs De Costa says, " The relation of prodigies in no wise destroys the credibility of historical statement. If this were not so, we should be obliged to discard the greater por- tion of well kncwn history, and even suspect plain matters of fact in the writings of such men as Dr. Johnson because that great scholar fully believed in the reality of an appari. THE RELIABILITY OF ICELANDIC LITERATURE. 25 The oral narratives were in course of time re- duced to writing. With the advent of Christianity the Roman alphabet was substantially substituted for the inconvenient and incomplete system of runes* which had hitherto been the only means of writing known in the North. The use of letters extended so rapidh^ that the saga-men, like the runes, w^ere speedily relegated to the past. Throughout the whole of Iceland, industrious scribes set to work to gather up and reduce to writing the literature of ages. In 1116 the whole law code was committed to writ- Committ?d to ing; and in 1112 the major part Writing, between of the Church law was written. 1000 and 1200 A. D, . . ^ ^. ^. ,.^ About the same time history writing commenced, and by the opening of the Thirteenth centurj^ many of the sagas were already written. The Augustan Age of Icelandic literature had commenced. Both in quantity and quality did the island's productions excel those of any other European nation at that time. In fact, as De Costa states, " the sagas formed the first prose tion known in London as the Cock Lane Ghost. "—The Pre- Columbian Discovery OF America BY the Northmen. ♦Derived from ryn, signifying a furrow. It should b^ noted that while the Roman alphabet did supplant the runes, some of the letters were retained because the Icelanders had certain sounds unknown to the Romans. A glance at an Icelandic book will verity this. 26 THE RELIABILITY OF ICELANDIC LITERATURE. literature in an\^ modern language spoken by the people."* If some of the historians who hove declared the sagas incredible and niythological were half as familiar with these as they are with the history- of Greece and Rome, their denunciation would never have been penned. Such statements display an utter ignorance of the real nature of the sagas. No person giving the subject con- scientious thought could possibly bring in such a verdict. And if Bancroft and other American his- torians are doubters, it is plainly because they are very unfamiliar with the subject, or because it suits their purpose to ignore all Northern claims to discovery. It is w4th unmixed pleasure, therefore, that we turn to such a broad-minded, modern scholar as John Fiske to hear a really logical in- terpretation of the difficulty. He strikes the key- note when he states that the ^' misapprehension is due to the associations with which the word ^sagas' has been clothed." For, as he says, ''we John Fiske's ^^^ ^^ ^^^ hahit of using the w^ord Defense of the in English as equivalent to Word "Sagas." Iegendar3^ or semi-mj^thical nar- ratives. And to cite a ' saga ' as authority for a statement, seems therefore to some people as inad- *In this connection, Sir Edmund Head says, " Xo doubt there were translations in Anglo-Saxon from the J.atin, by Alfred, of an early date, but there was in truth no vernacu- lar literature. 1 cannot name, " he continues, " any work in THE RELIABILITY OF ICELANDIC LITERATURE. 27 missible as to cite a fairy-tale. " From this he goes on to refute in part and jDarticle the grotesquely ridiculous comparison made between Leif Eriksson and Agamemnon by a committee of the Massachu- setts Historical Society. And after a careful com- parison he concludes that ''the Trojan War and its heroes, as we have it in Homer and the Athen- ian dramatists, is pure folk-lore as regards form, and chiefly folk-lore as regards contents; " but, ''it would be hard to find anything more unlike such writings than the class of Icelandic sagas to which that of Erik the Red belongs. Here we have quiet sober narrative, not in the least like a fairy-tale, but often much more like a ship's log, whatsoever such narrative may be, it is not folk-lore. " Much of the misapprehension apparently rests upon the fact that the Icelanders did not classify their var- ious narrative- writings under separate heads, as '• history " and " story; " but merely used the term " sagas " in common for all. This fact understood, it only remains to classify the sagas. And this Fiske accomplishes most admirably by dividing them into iiiFthical sagas ^nd historical sagas * high or low German prose which can be carried back to this period. In France, prose writing cannot be said to have begun before the time of Villehardouin (1204). and Joinville (1202). CaetiUan prose certainly did not commence before the time of Alfonso X (1252)." *For a complete discussion of the word " sagas " as misin- terpreted by scholars and others in this country, see John Fiske, The Disco vehy of America. Vol. I, pp. 194-198. 28 THE RELIABILITY OF ICELANDIC LITERATURE. In the first class are of course placed such m3^thical narratives as the Eddas and the like, together with the folk-love elements. The second class Includes that large mass of purely historical narratives which comprise the sagas of Egil and Njal, the Eyrbyggja, the Laxdaela, the Storlunga, with a host of others, besides biographies and chronologi- cal writings galore. As we pass from this part of the subject, then, let us keep in mind the distinction betw^een the two kinds of sagas. With this, we may dwell for a brief time upon those particular histori- cal sagas which are our chief sources on the ques- tion of the Norsemen in America, and make note why they are perfectly reliable. In the famous Anni Magnussen collection of manuscripts in the University Library at Copen- hagen are to be found two celebrated skin-books, brought thither from their repositories in Iceland. They are the Codex Flatoensis or Flateyar-bok, found at Flato, and the Hauks-bok, often spoken of as the western version. Of these invaluable manuscripts, the Flateyar-bok w^as completed sometime between the years 1388 and 1395 by the erudite priest Jon Thordharsson. The work is really a history of the Norwegian king Olaf Tr^^gvas- son, in the course of writing which the thorough- going Jon saw an opportunity to dilate upon the career of Leif Eriksson, who as an intimate friend of King Olaf could not be passed without notice, and thus he came to tell the storv of Greenland THE RELIABILITY OE ICELANDIC LITERATURE. 29 and Yinland the Good. This chapter of the Fla- Erik the Red'8 TEYARBOK is generally spoken Sag-a. of as Erik the Red's Saga. There can be no doubt that the historian made use of the original of the saga in his compilation. The original manuscript is now unfortunately lost, but it would appear from internal evidence, based on language and style, that it was the production of the twelfth century. The Hauks-bok, which is the older and, upon the whole, the more complete of the two versions, is the work of Governor Hauk Erlendsson, who died in Iceland in 1334. Hauk was one of the greatest scholars that the island has produced; and what was more, he could boast lineal descent from Snorri Thorfinnsson, the first white child born on the American mainland. A great lover of books, he spent many years of his life copjdng manuscripts and reducing oral traditions to writ- ing. The major part of his work is found in the several hundred skins of the artistically finished Hauks-bok which contains among others the Thorfinn story of Thorfinn Karlsefni's Karlsefni's Saga, colonization of Yinland. This narrative is generalh^ known under the name of Thorfinn Karlsefni's Saga. Mr. Slafter appears to be unable to decide in his mind whether Hauk copied the Saga from an older manuscript or whether he reduced it to writing 30 THE EELIABILITY OF ICELANDIC LITERATURE. from oral tradition.* Fiske is very positive, on the other hand, that it would be utterly impossi- ble to have preserved the Saga in its integrity for such a long time, had it been handed down in oral tradition. For, as he argues, 'the many marks of truthfulness in detail foreign to ordinary Ice- landic experience would have been lost, and some extravagant statements necessarily interpolat- ed. 'f This certainly is the only national view to be taken. And it allows of but one conclusion— that the Hauks-bok, as well as the Flateyar- BOK, was copied from some older manuscript no longer known to exist. The ver3^ fact that there survive two written versions, displaying a sub- stantial agreement, though differing considerably in detail, is in itself rather Tlie Historical , r r j^i • x c Ao-reement strong prooT oi the existence of of the earlier manuscripts. A careful Two Versions. ^ , r ^t, • t Study of their divergencies furthermore shows that the Codex Flatoensis *He says, "Whether it had been committed to writing at an earlier period, and copied by him from a manuscript, or whether he took the narrative from oral tradition and re- duced it himself to writing for the first time, is not known." —Voyages Or the Norihmen to America, K. F. Slafter, Editor. Now, is the author's indecision of mind noc traceable to certain statements of the saga itself? As, "Karlsefni has accurately reated to all men the occurrences on all these voyages, of which somewhat is now related here." Any rational being will, however, see at a glance that this statement need not decide the case— it may be made to read two ways. tJohn Fiske, Discovery of America, Vol. I. p. 20!. THE RELIABILITY OF ICELANDIC LITERATURE. 31 could impossibly have been copied from the older Hauks-bok; and should prove to the satisfaction of even the rankest doubter, the utter impossibility of the two writers "having banded together for the purpose of historical fraud."* Although the originals of the two great narra- tives can no longer be produced, their truthfulness is attested to by incidental references to the heroes and actors of these very sagas, throughout the entire mass of Icelandic literature, and in some *Some writers are slow to accept the truth of the Sagas because, as we have stated heretofore, instances of the mar- velous and super-natural do occur occasionally — such peo- ple are to be pitied. But what is stranger, it occurs that writers ivf use to accept them because they show too many sabstaiitial agreements! Because the sagas are too true, too accurate; because they have been finit^hed in such a pains- taking manner — these writers shout, "put up job!" — sucti people are not to be pardoned. From such authorities as these one may even ex])ect to hear, 'that the manuscripts describing the Viniand voyages like as not belong to the post-Columbian age!" With statements of this sort we should have no patience. Let these over-zealous and, with- al, ignorant worshippers of the Genoese navigator get to work and study the narratives; this task ended, we challenge them to produce any evidence whatever to substantiate their claim. What with the innumerable "thumb-marks' of truth — the straight forward way of telling the story, sparing neither friend nor foe, the entire absence of any anxiety to prove the connection of the Northmen with the new contin- ent or of any wish to prove priority of discovery — these narratives must be accepted to be as trustworthy, as entire- ly indepentent of each other, as two such works as Irving's Life of Columbus and Wiasor's Chkistohher Colum- bus. The writers alluded to above are happily few, and becom- ing fewer every day. The rai,k and tile of the world's historians in our d «y accept the Sagas as entirely reliable^ 32 THE RELIABILITY OF ICELANDIC LITERAURE. writers who were not Icelandic * And, to again quote Fiske, "such incidental references imph^ the existence, during the interval between the Yinland voyages and Hauk's manuscript, of many inter- T -J . , -r. r tnediate links of sound testimo- Incidental Refer- - 1 , i . -, ences to ^J that have smce dropped out ,^'ijiland from of sight; and therefore they 20 Other Sources, r ., . -. lar toward removing whatever presumption may be alleged against Hauk's man- uscript because of its distance from the events, "t AU these ' 'intermediate links," as they appear in the whole body of Icelandic history, furnish indis- putable evidence that no literary fraud could have been committed. accept also the discovery of America by Leif Eriksson in year 1000, though many do maintain that the DiscovERy HAD NO REAL SIGNIFICENCE. *ror a discussion of these references see below. tJohn Fiske, The Discovery of America, Yol. I., p. 203. The Story of the Discovery. 'Tar had I wandered from this northern shore,. Far from the bare heights and the wintry seas, Dreaming of these No more." —A. F. The earliest narrative* we have of the Icelanders on the American continent is, that one Ari Maarsson of Rejkjanes was, in the 3^ear 728, car- ried by storms westward across the sea to a strange land which w^as named Hvitramanna- land,t or Great Ireland. The stor^^ of this half- mythical country some five or six years later Hvitramannaland induced the hot-headed Erik Discovered, 928. Thorvaldsson the Red, who had been outlawed in Norway on account of a murder of which he had been found guilty, to start *This is taken from the Landnama-bok and is without the least shadow of doubt authentic history. The only point in doubt is the location of Ari's discovery. tHvitramannaland (the white men's land) according to the narrative lay "six days' sail west of Ireland." The ques- tion now rises, could this in any probability have been the . merican mainland? A six days' voyage, even with high winds, could hardly have carried the fleetest dragon mo^e than half way across the space intervening between Ireland and the American coast. Hvitramannaland is more likely to have been an island or group of islands lying to the west or southwest of Ireland— say the Azores. Professor Kafn persists in believing that the Roman numeral VI. in the very indistinct manuscript is intended for XX. or XI. (a 34 THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. on a search for those shores. He Y03^aged no farther, however, than to Oxney, or Ox-island, at the mouth of BreidaQord in Iceland, and there took up his abode. Here again he straightway became entangled in a blood-feud, and ended it all by sla^^ing his neighbor, the powerful E3^olf Saur. Erik was now a second time outlavv^ed, and found it expedient to seek some more remote asylum. One of his kinsmen, Gunnbjorn, had meanwhile in the year 876 chanced upon some outl_ving islands* on Greenland's east coast, and thither Erik now decided to flee. With a handful of comrades he set sail in the dangerous hypothesis) and that the land in question should be sought in Florida or Georgia. To strengthen his view he cites an old Shawanese tradition which has it, that these Indians' ancestors came from over the sea. Dr. Enander, too, in his Nordmannen i Amerika. rests his case entirely too much on such Indian deductions. While the Indians very likely did receive a slight infusion of Norse blood, it is dangerous in the extreme to find old Norse words in the Dakotah dialects, to see marked likenesses between Scandi- navian and Iroquois law-systems, and to quote such sweep- ing statements, as: "Det var Nordmannablod, som flot i rner iln en indianstams adror, Oet var Nordmannakaraktar, som afspeglade sig i manga af deras handlingar, seder och bruk i krig och i fred." It is just as risky to assert, that the Aztecs of Mexico learned their ''Old Testament truths, ' as they have been called by the Spaniards, from the North- men; for let us bear in mind, there live people in the South Sea Islands now who have traditions of a Noaic Flood and of a sort of a Tower of Babel. It is my opinion that lovers of the discovery question do their cause inestimable harm by ven- turing on such insecure ground. We bave no need of so many theories and hypotheses— the case is won without them, and only bemuddled with them. ♦These were called Gannbjorn's S'^erries, and for years, THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. 35 year 983 and soon sighted land at the pro- montory which later was called Herjulfsnes. Fol lowing thence the broken shoreline southwardly he arrived at the socalled EriksQord and wintered there. Three years were now spent in exploring the numerous inlets of the southern coast. The vast stretch east of Cape Farewell was found to be worthless for settlement^ with its ice-locked harbors and its seemingly endless waste of ice and snow. Thenceforth the explorers expended their energies in examining the deep fjords farther to the west. At length, in the year 986, a suita- ble place was found at the head of Igaliko Fjord, not far from the present Julianeshaab. The land settled, though girth about with ice and snow, seems upon the whole to haVe pleased these hardy home- seekers, who found there an abundance of meadows and hay-lands.* Erik call- Greenland Settled ^^ i^ Greenland, "for," quoth he, 986. "people will be attracted hither if the land has a good name." Nor was he wrong down to 1456, they were familiar mile-stones to Greenland- farers; but in that year they were destroyed by a volcanic eruption and to this day form dangerous shoals, sbunned by navigators of those waters. On liuysch's map of the world we read: "Insula haec anno Donimi 1456 fuit TOTALITER COMBUSTA." *The indications are, that some slight change has taken place in the climate of Greenland during the past 900 years —not so great a change, however, that Erik the Red could have called it "a green land" on account of its verdure. The various descriptions have it that in those days it had mea- dows and hay-lands; but as for that, these may be seen even 36 THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. in his mode of reasoning; for, venturing back to Iceland, he found it easy to induce a great number of Icelanders to sell their homesteads and try their fortunes in the highly praised Greenland. A fleet numbering twenty-five ships left the island during the same year. But so rough was the Vi^eather and so dangerous the coast that only fourteen ships, all told, made harbor in safety. These early comers settled, for the most part, the district in the immediate neighborhood of Brattalid, and there founded what they called (isT Bygd, or East Settlement. In the course of a short time additional colonists flocked over from Iceland, and a second settlement called Vest Bygd, or West Settlement, sprang up in the vicinity of the present-day Godthaab. Thus, in a few years, today. Now t rik, as we have learned, sought an attractive name for the land purposely to draw colonists. It certainly does appear from the testimony of Ivar Baardsen (Gronlandiae Descriptio), who lived during the last half of the 14th century, that there was already in his day a southward drift of the ice-sheet along the eastern coast of Greenland, so much so that ships sailing from Iceland were beginning to follow a more southern route, x hat this polar ice-sheet is still continuing its downward flow is testified to by modern scientists. See Zahrtmann, Journal of Royal Geographical Society, Vol. Y. p. 102. Such an accumula- tion of ice. we may readily believe, has had sufficient in- fluence on the climate to shorten the hay crops and make the growing of cereal grains impossible. Thormodus Torfaeus, the author of Historia Gronlandiae An- tiquae, has the following to say: "The air is more calm and settled in Greenland, and the cold less intense than in Iceland and Norway. An excessive frost, indeed, some- times sets in, and the tempests rage more furiously than in any other part of the world; but they are of rare occurrence THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. 37 all that portion of Greenland, lying west of Cape Farewell, between the modern Frederiksdal and Bredefjord, was colonized.* A brisk traffic in whale oil and pelts sprang up with the mother country and Norway, and Greenland seemed in a fair way to prosperity. Such, in brief, is the story gleaned from the pages of Erik the Red's Saga, describing the first known settlement of America by Europeans. Thus that part of the New World which we are accustomed to call Danish America began to play its part in European history. All this happened just five hundred and six years before Columbus set foot on San Salvador. That it constitutes a and short duration, and are never so violent as to kil^ cattle." Again, "People of property have made several at- tempts to grow corn, but the quantity grown has been very inconsiderable, the seed being destroyed by the severe frosts. The common people have never seen corn, nor do they know what bread is. In other respects the land is de- scribed as very fertile, abounding" in rich pastures, and pro- ducing very large, fat oxen, cows, sheep and goats, which supply large dairies with butter and cheese." From Crantz, who writes on modern Greenland, we learn that "grass is found not only on boggy, sandy, or turf land, where it is commonly very poor and diminutive, but also in clefts of rocks filled with earth, and particularly near human habita- tions where it grows very luxuriantly Several at- tempts have been made to grow oats and barley. They send up as high a blade as in other countries, but seldom come into ear, and are in the very warmest situations prevented from ripening by the night frosts."— David Cranz, The His- tory OF Greenland, Vol. I. pp. 60 and 61. *After the destruction of the dreenland colonies people, mislead by the names Ost Bygd and Ve-st Bygd, came to think that the settlements must have stood to the east and 38 THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. discoven^ and colonization of America, at least Greenland, the geographically speaking, there Anti-Chamber to can, of course, be no disputing. ^^M^^nl^nd^^ As for being a discovery ''in the true sense of the word," it is at any rate as truly a discovery as the landing of the Genoese navigator upon the outljdng islands of America in 1492.* Let us accept the coloniza- tion of Greenland, then, in the sense ''of reaching the vestibule or anti-chamber of the Western Hemisphere," bearing well in mind that once upon the threshold, it is a natural sequence to enter the chamber. And this the Norsemen did as truly as ever did the Spaniards. One of Erik the Red's follov^^ers was the Iceland- er Herjulf Baardsson, who built his home on Herjulfsfjord, near the present Narksamiut. Now this Herjulf had a young and promising son, west of Cape Farewell. Mr. Crantz, as late as the eigh- teenth century, voices this notion in his History of Green- land. Yet Ivar Baardsen, four centuries earlier, gave to the world a description of Greenland, wherein he locates both the settlements on the western coast. This work found little credence in tiie eyes of early scholars, though it has lately been veritled as a result of the explorations under- taken by the Danish government. Captain Graah, in 1827— 31, headed an expedition, which carefully explored the coasts of Greenland, mapping the shoreline and locating the ruins of the lost settlements. *No opponent of the Norse discovery in our day denies that the Icelanders, centuries before Columbus as born, set- lied Greenland, or Danish America, building there colonies that lasted 400 years — a period of time as long as all post- Columbian history— or that they lived under a perfectly THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. 39 Bjarni b3'' name, who at the time of his father's departure chanced to be in Norway on a trading tour. Returning to Iceland and finding the home- stead in strange hands and the entire household gone, Bjarni determined to follow, not even taking time to unload his cargo. With a crew as imdaunt- ed as himself, he set sail and was soon on an un- known sea, swallowed up by fogs and foul weather. ''Formanydays"he sailed by guess, and when land was finally sighted it was a country "covered with woods, without mountains, and with small hills inland." This, Bjarni thought, could not be Greenland, a land which he had been told was full of fjords and *'ice hills," and entirely devoid of forests. So without stopping he ''left the land on his larboard side, and let the stern turn from the land." Chased b3^ a stifi* breeze our voyagers kept on northward, several times seeing land in the distance; but as Bjarni repeatedl^^ maintained, *'this is not the land that we want," it was not approached an3^ closer. Ten days had passed -when the icy shoreline of Greenland came in view. **This," said Bjarni, "is most like what has been organized civil and ecclesiastical government. But what they do deny is, that this constitutes a r i-: a l discov- ery. It is, of course, a perfect enough discovery geo- ORAPHTCALLY consideied, but it mus r not be consider- ed A RKAL DISCOVERY in the TRUE SENSE, for that would needs knock the pegs from under the Columbian pedestal! 40 THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. told me of Greenland, and here we shall take to BjarniHerjulfs- land."* Nowasgood fortune son and the would have it, the icv crasrs New West Land , , ' ^i "^ ^i ahead were none other than Herjulfsnes, the home of the long sought father. Our weather tossed mariners were received with much rejoicing; and we may rest assured that the Yule-mead was measured out by no "stinting hand at the festivities following close upon the reunion of father and son. We are told that Bjarni was frequently blamed for not having explored the wonderful land he had stumbled upon. But so busy were the Scandi- navians in other parts of the world, and so ordin- ary an affair was it in those daj's with them to find new shores, that the story did not excite very much curiosity. One person, however, was much taken up with the talk, and that was the illustri- ous Leif, son of Erik the Red. This young man, who is described as "large and strong, of noble aspect, prudent and moderate in all things," spent *The straightforward narrative of Bjarni's voyage is found in the Codex Flotoiensis. The student taking the trouble to read it in detail will readily agree that the story describes the first coasting voyage made by an European along the mainland of America. And he will as readily agree that the voyage covers' some portion of the continent lying between IS! ew England and Newfoiindland or Labrador. As De Costa remarks, "the discovery was accidental, something like the discovery of America by Columbus, who, in looking for the East Indies, stumbled upon a new world." But it was very important in results, insomuch as it pointed out a path for Leif the Lucky to follow. THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. 41 some ver^' stirring months in the service of Olaf Trjgvasson, king of Norway. About the year 998 he was converted to the Christian faith, and be- came a wilHng instrument for its propogation in the New World. When he returned home to Greenland, he brought along priests, who convert- ed and baptized man^^ of the people there. A church was established, and a bishop came out from Norway to take charge of it. All this hap- pened in the early part of the year 1000 — the same year in which Iceland accepted Christianity. Leif s mind was now so far releaved of responsibility that he could begin to think of affairs other than Leif Eriksson's the spreading of the Gospel. His Expedition one desire was to see with his Bets cail, ItUO. ,, , -t n- • i j own e^^es the land Bjarm had found. Accordingly he sought out this voyager and bought of him the dragon now famous for the voyage it had made. Then he set about to equip the ship and collect a crew of trusty seamen. Old Erik agreed to accompany the expedition in compacity of commander; but being in feeble health, he went to the place of embarkation on horseback. On the way, however,the horse stum- bled and threvv him, and regarding this as a bad omen, he declined to go any farther, saying, ''I do not believe it is given to me to discover more lands, and here I will abide." With a crew of thirty -five men, all told, the ex- pedition sailed from Brattalid, and, retracing in 42 THK STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. an inverted order the route taken b3^ Bjarni, soon came in sight of land. It turned out to be a great barren plain, from the shore to the distant moun- tains covered with big, flat rocks, with not a vestige of vegetation, the whole covered with ice and snow. After landing and beholding the deso- Helluland, late Waste stretching before his Its Location. eyes, Erik exclaimed, ''we have not at any rate done like Bjarni about this land, that we have not been upon it; now will I give the land a name, and call it Helluland^" From the description given in the saga, this land cannot fail to have been some point on the American coast opposite Greenland — the coast of Labrador, or very possibly the northern coast of Newfound- land. Some days later our explorers arrived at a w^ell wooded country, where pine trees ''fit for masts" grew in great abundance. Long, low beaches covered \vith white, glistening sand Markland, stretched as far as the e3^e cottld Its Location. reach; and, inland, lost them- selves in flat plains on which the forests grew. Then Leif said, "We shall give this land a name according to its kind and call it Markland. "f Critics now sreneralh^ asrree that this was some ♦From Hella, a flat stone. tMarkland (i. e. wood-land) is described in the saga as flat and low. This agrees admirably with the country near the present Halifax, which is so low that it is "not visible tweuty miles off; except from the quarter deck of a seventy- four. Apostogon Hills have a long, level appearance, be- THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. 43 part of the coast of Nova Scotia or possibly, of Cape Breton Island. The early belief that it should be sought on the southern coast of New- foundland is now for the most part discredited. Again they put to sea and, spreading their square sail before a brisk northeaster, scudded merrily along, and two days later again drew neariand. That this was New England there is hardly a doubt, though the precise locality cannot, with an^^ accuracy, be pointed out. They landed on an island* which some believe was Nantucket. From this place thcA' continued along the coast to where a river emptied into the sea. This stream proved tween Cape Le Have and Port Medway, the coast to the seaward being level and low, and the shores with white rocks and low, barren points; from thence to Shelburne and Port Roseway, are woods." In Mariiland a later voyager, Thortinn Karlsefni, slew a bear, an adventure remarkable only tor the fact that it is one of the many instances where animals are introduced into the narrative, becoming an aid in limiting the localities of the several discoveries. To be sure this case is of no aid in limitimg Markland, for al- though bears do abound in Nova Scotia, so do they all along our northeastern coast; but the point to be made here is, that the narrator did slay an animal found today upon the shores which they claim to have visited. Had they, to quote Fiske, "been drawing upon their imagina- tions or dealing with semi-mythical materials, they would as likely as not have lugged into the story elephants from Africa or hippogriffs from Dreamland; mediaeval writers were blissfully ignorant of all canons of probability in such matters." *While this may or may not have been Nantucket Island, the concensus of opinion'is, that this was some island off the Massachusetts coast. It is not so sure, however, that the island is now in existence. N ine hundred years have made many changes in our coast lines; so many, indeed, 44 THE STORY, OF THE DISCOVERY. to be the outlet of a lake*, pleasantly situated and teeming with all manner of fresh fish.f So well did Leif like the place that he concluded to spend the winter there. Wooden booths were erected near the beach and the winter stores transferred to them. Our voyagers encountered many ad- T -rT- -i ' ventures that must have been Leif Kriksson s Winter In Vinland more than marvelous to them, the Good. as they appear almost incredu- lous to us at first sight. But, after all, they are only such as to strengthen a simple account of actual events. We hear, for example, that where they first landed "there was dew upon the grass; and having accidentally gotten some of the dew upon their hands and put it in their mouths, they thought they had never tasted anything as sweet as it was." This ma^'- sound just a mite as though that it is futile now to determine, with any decree of cer- tainty, the exact location of Yinland by comparing the de- scriptions of the coasts, as we have them in the saga, with the New England coasts as we know them. *De Costa says, *'The river was evidently Seaconnet Pass- age and Pocasset River; and the lake was Mount Hope Bay." See also below Horsford's Norumbega. tHere we again encounter one of the undeniable "thumb- marks" of the truthfulness of the narrative. In Prof. Rafn's Antiquitates American.^, p. 32, we find the fol- lowing in the original Icelandic: "Hvorki skorti thar lax i anni ne i vatninu, ok staerra lax enn their hefdhi fyrr sedh," i. e., Neither was there a lack of salmon in the river and in the lake, and larger salmon than they had before seen. Salmon is not now so plentiful on the New England coast; but in the colonial times it was quite different. De Costa even maintains "a rule was made providing that masters should not oblige their apprentices to eat this flsh more than twice a week." THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. 45 the Norse adventurers had found a land abound- ing in a sort of manna, sweeter, if not so substantial as that which the Lord let fall for the hungry Israelites in the desert; and yet, it is nothing at all unheard of on the New England coast.* They were especially struck with the length of day in this strange land. According to their de- scription, the sun could be seen just nine hours at winter solstice. Then, said they, it rose at Unavailing At. 7:30 A.M. and set at 4:30 P. tempts to cieek the M.f This would fix the latitude Exact Latitude ^^ 41 Deg. 24 Min. 10 Sec. of Vmland. ° which places Leifs winter- quarters above Point Judith, on Narragansett Bay. But no great reliance can be placed on such statements as here made; for, as Fiske sa3^s, ''remember that they (our voyagers) had no accurate instruments for measuring time, and that a difference of about fourteen minutes be- *This is the socalled "honey dew" mentioned by Dr. Webb and others, and which actually tastes sweet. tThis statement may not be sufficient to settle the exact position of Vinland; but it certainly does show that the Norsemen had reached a latitude low enough to be consid- ered remarkable. As their trading voyages reached every part of the British Isles and Normandy, the latitude of either of these countries was so well known to them that only a much more southernly position could have called forth comment. Now it happens that latitude 41 Deg. 24 Min. 10 Sec. lies a few miles to the south of Portugal's northern boundary. This would be several hundred miles farther south than tha Norsemen's accustomed stamping grounds, and as such, the difference in the length of day, sufficient to be noticed by them. 46 THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. tween sunrise and sunset on the shortest winter day would make all the difference between Boston and Halifax."* The climate too was so mild as to draw comment from the hardy Greenlanders. Said the^' : "There was no frost in winter, and the grass was not much withered."! The country seemed so good to them that cattle would hardly need house-feeding — a fact calculated to appeal to people coming, as the Norsemen, from regions of rigorous winters, where fodder was scarce and hard to secure. Leif divided his crew into two divisions, which took day about exploring the countr3^ On one of these expeditions a German named Tyrker, and who was Leif s foster-father, became separated from his companions and lost in the woods. The foster-son began to get uneasy on the old man's ♦Fiske's Discovery Vol. I. p. 166. tSome writers argue that the climate of the United States must have undergone the same changes as have taken place in Greenland since the discovery, and that the mildness of the Vinland winters should be explained on these grounds. Such argument hardly appears reasonable when the causes leading to the changes in Greenland are rightly understood, and it is born in mind that these causes are yet at work up in the North. We need only remember, too, that Thorfinn Karlsefni, only seven years later, found the American win- ters severe and hard to endure. It is much more likely that the winter of lOOO-Ol in Yinland was one of those mild, open winters that are liable to occur in most any part of the United States. The winter of 1889-90, says Fiske, was so mild around Boston, that had the Greenlanders ar- rived in that year, they might very naturally have described it as a winter "without frost and with grass hardly withered.'* THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. 47 account, when this person reappeared in a state of wildest excitement, grimacing and talking to himself in his own "south-country" tongue. As soon as he was quieted do\vn — "for Leif saw that his father was not in his right mind" — and ques- tioned as to what had befallen him, he answered: "I did not go much farther than they; and 3^et I have something altogether new to relate, for I found vines and grapes."* This was great news to our explorers. For surely no better proofs were wanted that the land was a good one than that grapes abundant enough for wine-making were known to grow there! So Leif named ,,. , , XT •, thelandViNLAND; that is, the land Vmland Naiiied. . ' of wine. The forests were now more systematical^ explored, and a tree called massurt found. But more important still, they *Dt. Storm, in his Studies on the vinland Voyages, points out that the wild grape is unknown north of 47 ® — the latitude ot Kent, New Brunswick. In Newfoundland, he says, it is entirely unknown. Here again we have a reference aiding us to limit Vinland to the north. We may ■positively assert that Leif's discovery lay south of the parallel of 47 ® north latitude, i. e. south of Cape Breton Island. And then how far south? As grapes are not very plentiful north of Halifax, the very fact that the discover- ers found them in great abundance, indicates that Nova Scotia must be passed by. In Massachusetts and Rhode Island they are, on the other hand, found growing luxuri- antly down to the very shoreline. Here, surely, Vinland must be sought! tBy some wiseacres it is maintained that the Norsemen hereby meant mahogany! Now there is nothing whatso- ever in the statement to base such a ridiculous assertion upon. Being anything but accustomed to judge of differ- ent sorts of wood, we should expect them to tind in a New 48 THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY. came Upon *'selfsown wheat fields."* After this the whole crew set to work cutting -timber with which they filled the hold of the ship. Then great quantities of grapes— it is said the whole stern- boatt full— were carried aboard; after that they set sail lor Greenland. On the homeward voyage Leif had the good fortune to rescue a crew of fif- teen ship- wrecked sailors. Erik the Red thought his son lucky in finding Yinland and in saving the ship-crew. But now^ whether it was for the one reason or the other, Leif was ever after known as Leif THE LucKY.t Yinland, too, from the glow- ing accounts about it, took the name of Yinland THE Good. II England forest more than one kind of tree striking them as curious and valuable, and worthy of being carried home to Greenland as samples of the new land's productions. *If these "self-sown" fie'ds were in reality the patches of maize, or Indian corn, as Fiske believes, we have in them a further help to aid in limiting Yinland's whereabouts. For maize requires long and very hot seasons to mature, and such conditions can hardly be said to be met with north of parallel 44 o, which passes through southern Maine. Here again our presumption must favor Massachusetts or Rhode Island. tThe saga has it: "Sva er sagt at eptirbatr theirra var fylddr af vinberjam," i. e. so it is said that their stern-boat was filled with wine berries. J" After that time people called him, Leif the Fortunate; but his father Erik said that these two things went against one another; that Leif had saved the crew of the ship, and delivered them from death, and that he had [brought] that bad man into Greenland, that is what he called the priest." — De Costa's translation of Rafn's Antiquitates Ameri- CANAF. ||The whole of the story of Leif 's voyage is told in the Codex Flatoiensis. Attempts at Exploration and Colonization, "From shores where Torfinn set thy banner Their latest children seek thee now." — Bayard taylor. Soon after their home-coming hoary old Erik departed this Hfe for the joys of boisterous Valhalla. He at least was steadfast in the faith of his fathers to the very last.* Leif, as eldest son and legal head of the household, found his time too much occupied with personal concerns to give further attention to Vinland. This duty then fell upon his younger brother Thorvald, who set out in the year 1002 with a crew of thirty men and Thorvald Eriks- I^eif's ship. He found Vinland son's Expediticn, without any trouble and winter- 1002. ^^ there, spending the time alter- nately in exploring and in fishing the fat salmon which he found in abundance. The following spring ♦Authorities differ on this point. It is certain that only a few months before his death Erik had nothing but evil to speak of the priests. On the other hand the saga has it that his WAS finally baptized. It says: "But after much urging Erik was baptized, as well as all the people of Green- land." At best this conversion could hardly have been of the heart. 50 ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORATION. he sent some men in the long-boat westward along the coast— some writers think it probable that they reached as far east as the present New York harbor. ''They found no abode for man or beast; but on an island far towards the west, they found a corn barn constructed of wood."* In the au- tumn they returned to Leifs Booths. In the spring of the year 1004, Thorvald undertook a more extended expedition to the "eastward, and towards the north along the land."t "Opposite to a cape," they were driven ashore by foul weather, and their vessel wrecked. Thorvald and his men spent much time in repairing the damaged dragon, after which they set up the broken keel as a landmark on the cape, and called the place Kialarnes, or Keel Cape. From here he seems to have crossed Cape Cod Bay to the Plymouth side and proceeded up the coast to the vicinitv of Boston. Here the Norse- *The term "corn" with the Norsemen meant any kind of cereal grain; as, rye, barley, wheat, etc. The expression 'corn barn" could therefore embrace a variety of grain,.not neces- sarily Indian corn; but since maize was the only great staple raised by the Indians, the chances are, that is what is meant. This is "thumb mark" number two indicating the location of Vinland within the corn belt. tDe Costa, Eafn and others believe that this indicates a voyage northward around Cape Cod, where they were blown ashore and left their broken keel standing upon the beach as a land-mark to be found later by the Karlsefni expedition. This is, as stated above, treading on dangerous ground, with nothing to gain; so we may pass it without discussion. ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORATION. 51 men had their first experience with the natives, scornfully spoken of as Skraellings.^* Thorvald and his men surprised and captured eight of these despised American Red Men — which the^^ of course were — and without any cause whatever, put them to death. This ill-starred act was speedily aveng- ed by their enraged kinmen, who made a furious onslaught on the bloody invaders. They were, however, repulsed; but not before the chieftain, Thorvald , fell mortally wounded. f "I have got- ton an arrow under my arm," said he, ''for an arrow fled between the ship and the shield, in *Skr^lling in Norwegian signifies a weakling, a person of inferior physical build. The epithet as used in the pres- ent connection was later extended to the puny Eskimos, who were as yet unknown to the Norsemen, not yet having emerged from the interior of Greenland. See below "Libel- Lus Islandokum" in chapter on Allusions to Vinland FROM Other Sources. Crantz, llafn, De Costa and other writers are of the opinion that these people were Eskimos. They saw in them an inferior people, gradually pushed northward by the Indians, who had entirely dis- placed them when Columbus arrived. The only reason put forward in defence of such an argument is, that Thorvall called the people he found by the name which later was uniformly used in Greenland, when speaking of the natives there* Just as though he should be expected to waste his time in ethnological classifications of "weaklings" in Yin- land! In Norse eyes, they [Eskimos and Indians alike] certainly must have appeared with many points in common, a mighty poor set— ''Skrjiellings" all of them. The Eskimos appear for ages to have lived as a sub-polir race; and as for the Vinland natives, they undoubtedly were Algonquin Indians. jThough Thorvald and many of his men had been bap- tized, the religion of the "White Christ" does not seem to have had any specially softening influence upon their 52 ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORATION. under my arm, and there is the arrow, and it will prove a mortal wound to me." Speaking thus, the bold son of Erik died ; and his comrades gave him a Christian burial at a promontory which they dubbed Krossanes, or Cross Cape, from the cross erected above the grave. Thorvald's crew later returned to Greenland, having but a sorry tale to tell Leif. Yet another son of Erik, Thorstein, with his wife Gudrid and a crew of twenty-five men, made an attempt to overcome perverse fate and colon- ize Vinland. This was in the 3^ear 1005. His primary object was undoubtedly to find Thor- vald's body and carry it home for burial in con- secrated soil. However this maj^ be, so sore was his ship beset by storm and foul weather that . -^ ., neither Vinland nor Krossanes Thorstein Eriks- r ^ n^v, ^i. ^ i sou's Attempt was lound. The weather-tossed ^.. \^ ^/^^- mariners at lene^th sought ref- Vinland, lOOo. ^ ^ uge on the Greenland coast, at LysiQord in the western settlement, where Thors- tein and many of his crew were carried oif by an cruel mode of warfare. Human life sat as easy upon their hands as in days of yore. It is decidedly gratifying at this point to hear how Thorvald ordered the defence of his ship. "We shall put up our war screens al;)ng the gun- wales of the ship," he said, "and defend ourselves as best we can, but not use our weapons much against them." The darli mood seems to have been dispelled, and pity for an inferior people lighting at a disadvantage, stays the bloody hand. ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORATION. 53 unknown epidemic. The sorrowing Gudrid later returned with her husband's body to their late home on Eriksfjord. But such discouraging beginnings by no means put an end to Norse colonization in Vinland. The most serious attempt, and withal the most im- portant, was yet to be made under the leadership of the illustrious Thorfinn Karlsefni. He was a merchant prince of Iceland, a man of many noble qualities, descended from one of the proudest fami- lies there. A trading voyage brought him to Brattalid in 1006, where he spent the winter at the hospitable family-seat of the departed Erik. Here he met and immediately fell in love with Gudrid of our former acquaintance, who was a "grave and dignified woman, and therewith sensi- ble, and knew well how to carry herself among strangers." The marriage was celebrated the same winter, and in this way Thorfinn inherited whatever right or claim the deceased Thorstein might have had to Vinland. "The conversation often turned, at Brattalid, on the discovery of Vinland the Good, and they said that a voyage there had great hope of gain." Thorfinn, a pro- fessional trader and merchant, could not let such a chance for increasing his wealth pass unheeded; and so concluded to lead a coIoua^ thither. This new expedition, which sailed earl\- in 1007, in- 54 ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORATION. eluded besides Karlsefni and Gvidrid with their re- ThorfinnKarls- ^^^^^^^: ^ ^^^^^^ company of efni's Colony determined colonists,* number- 1007—10. -j^g upwards of 160 souls, all told, carrjnng with them cattle and seed, and im- plements for tilling the soil. The little flotilla retraced the now historic shores of .Helluland where "there was a great number of foxes, "t and of Markland where they encountered many wild animals and "slew a bear." After some days Kialarnes hove in view and was recognized by the broken keel still stand- ing erect on the sandy beach. A little later a landing was effected and the crew given a well- earned rest. Meanwhile Thorfinn sent two Scotch thralls, Haki and Hekia, inland on a scout- ing expedition, with orders to return as soon as they should discover the true nature of the land. Their report was extremely favorable and in their estimation the land flowed with milk and honey. $ A permanent landing was made at a *There were in the company three hardy sea-captains who had accompanied Thorfinn from Iceland; namely, Snorri Thorbrandsson of Alptafjord, Bjarni Grimolfsson of Breidafjord, and Thorhall Gamlason of Austfjord. Oth- ers of special mention were, the man Thorvard and his wife Freydis, who was a natural daughter of Erik the Red. tThese animals are found throughout ail the northw^est- ern part of the American continent, and as such the state- ment is not in itself at all limiting; but the fact remains that they found foxes and not fairyland fal'NA in Hel- luland. J"When they returned one had in his hand a bunch of ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORATION. 55 place called Stream Baj^, where they wintered. Fish was scarce that winter and by spring some few dissatisfied spirits deserted the colony and set out for Greenland.* But the main body, still undaunted, set a southward course and ''sailed along till they came to a river flowing out from the land through a lake into the sea, where there were sandy shoals, where it was impossible to pass up, except with the highest tide."t Thorfinn's perseverance was well repaid. For here were grapes, and the other an ear of corn.— De Costa, p. 53. Here again, a mention of corn. *The colonists had depended on finding abundant supplies of fish in the New World. However, the winter passed, and touch of the summer with it, and no fish. Let the early Viking have all the food and drink he cared for, and he would be content almost anywhere; but without these in abundance, he could see no virtue in the fairest of lauds. Thorhall the hunter, one of Erik the Red's liegemen, headed the malcontents. One day he sang as he carried water to the ship; "People said when hither I Came, that I the best Drink would have, but the land It justly becomes me to blame; 1, a warrior, am now obliged To bear the pail; Wine touches not my lips. But I bow down to the spring." Later in the summer, together with some seven or eight of his satellites, he sailed for home; but storm drove the ship ashore on the Irish coast, where they were all enslaved. During the first year out, a son was born unto Thorfinn and Gudrid. This child Snorro became the ancestor of a multitude of Norwegian and Danish great men; such as, the antiquarian Finn Magnussen and the sculptor Bertel Thorwaldsen . tSome antiquarians take this to mean Mount Hope Bay. 56 ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORATION. '^self-sown wheat" in patches in the lowlands along the shore; while in the higher places grapes were abundant. The streams too teemed with fish and the woods were full of game.* Above the lake a place was chosen "where houses w^ere erected in anticipation of winter; but this second winter turned out to be so mild that'* there was no snow, and all their cattle fed themselves on the grass."! A profitable barter sprang up with the Skraell- ings, who were eager to exchange valuable pelts for worthless bits of red cloth and other trink- ets. But thej^ soon came to blows. For one day ' 'a great number of Skraellings' ships v^ere seen coming from the south like a rushing torrent, all the polest turned from the sun, and they all yelled The TauntoDv River passes through it, and reaches the sea by way of Pocasset River and Seaconnet Passage. *"They dug pits where the land began, and where the land was highest; and when the tide went down, there were sacred fish in the pits." The sag-a here describes an ingenious method adopted by the colonists to catca Kew England halibut. The Icelandic word was "helgir fiskar," i. e. holy fish. The modern Dano-Norwegian is Helleflyndre. jThis seems to be a parallel to Leif Eriksson's winter in Vinland and the explanation given for that instance will apply here. The winter may indeed have appeared much milder to these people coming from regions of almost per- petual ice and snow than the case really warranted. But it does not seem in the least surprising that their cattle could "rough it" through winter; for the cattle of Iceland and Greenland must have been inured to much lower temper- atures than they auffered in New England. :|:The "poles" here referred to were strange weapons— the "deamon's head"— spoken of by Mr. Schoolcraft in his Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge, used by the old ATTEMPTS AT EXPlvORATION. 57 very loud." The colonists rallied around their chiefs and a furious hand to hand struggle ensued. We are told that the Norsemen, who usually knew no fear, were for once seized by panic, and actually left the battlefield ignominiously routed, when they were rallied by the undaunted Freydis , who by her *'baerserker"* actions so terrified the superstitious natives that they fled headlong to their canoes. The colonists were not a second time molested ; but such inroads had the SkrasU- ings made on their strength that it was conclud- ed to abandon the 3^oung colony. On this return voyage occurred the much lamented loss of noble Bjarni Grimolfsson and a great part of his crew.f Karlsefni reached Greenland in safety, wherefrom he proceeded to his old home in Iceland. There his son Snorro, who was three years old when they left Vinland, became a man of much import- ance. time Algonquins. This consisted of a heavy mass of rock sewed up in a skin and attached to a pole. At close quar- ters it could be plunged with disastrous results into an enemy's boat or upon his head, causing both confusion and death. One of our most remarkable "thumb-marks." ♦From bferserk, or bare-shirt. Many of the bravest and wildest of the early Northmen had a strange fashion of working themselves up into a frenzy before engaging in battle. They would blindly strike away at any obstacle in their way, and soon became oblivious to pain, heat or c^ld. As shirts were stripped on such occasions, we may readily see the significance of the word. tBjarni's ship was attacked by worms (the teredo) and began to sink. "They had a boat which was smeared with 58 ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORATION. The next chapter of Yinland history is written in blood, and Frej^dis acts the part of the evil genius. As the story goes, the brothers Helgi and Finnbogi arrived from Norway about the time that Karlsefni returned to Greenland. The restless Freydis planned a nevsr expedition in which she induced the brothers to take part. An agreement was reached specifying that each (Freydis and the brothers) should have thirty fighting men, besides w^omen. **But Freydis broke this, and had five men more, and concealed them; and the brothers knew nothing of it until they arrived at Yinland." The brothers arrived sea oil, for worms do not attack that. They went into the boat, and then saw that it could not hold them all. Then said Bjarni, «as the boat will not hold more than half of our men, it is my counsel that lots should be drawn for those to go into the boat, for it shall not be according to rank.' This, they all thought so generous an offer, that none would op- pose it. They then did so that lots were drawn, and it f e 1 to Bjarni to go into the boat, and the half of the men with him, for the boat had not room for more. But when they had gotten into the boat, an Icelandic man that was in the ship, said: 'Dost thou mean Bjarni to leave me here?' Bjarni said: 'So it seems.' Then said the other: 'Very different was the promise to my father, when I went with thee from Iceland, than thus to leave me, for thou said we shall both share the same fate.' Bjarni said: Tt shall not be thus; go down into the boat and I will go up into the ship, since I see that thou art so anxious to live.' Then Bjarni went up into the ship and this man down into the boat, and after that they went on their voyage, until they came to Dublin in Ireland, and there told these things; but it is most people's belief that Bjarni and his companions were lost in the worm sea, for nothing was heard of them after that time." Narrative of Thorfinn Karlsefni, De Costa's Version, pp. 63-64. ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORATION. 59 at Leifs booths in advance of Freydis, and natur- ally enough took posession of the huts. They were busily engaged carrying in their winter stores when she appeared upon the scene. "Then said Freydis, 'why are you carrying your things in here?' 'Because we thought/ said they, 'that the whole of the agreement with us should be held.' She said, 'Leif lent the houses to me, not to you.' Then said Helgi, 'in evil, w^e brothers can- not stive with thee.' " With this they bore their goods away with them, and erected new huts farther from the beach. The little community spent the autumn months in cutting timber for their cargo, and but little time was given for a A Bloody Chap, ^^newal of the quarrel. But ter of with the coming of winter all ^'"'Ttii-J2^''^^' these things were changed. "The brothers proposed to have some games lor amusement to pass time. So it was done for a time, till discord came among them, and the games were given up and none went from one house to the other; and things w^ent on so during a great part of the winter." Fre3^dis now determined the destruction of Finnbogi and Helgi w4th all their followers. She complained to her husband "that the brothers had given her evil words and struck her," and demanded their blood in atonement for the insult. The weak-minded Thorvard, stung to exasperation by his violent spouse, made a dastardly night attack upon the 60 ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORATION. unsuspecting brothers; seized them together with all their men, and put them all to death in cold blood. To cap the tragedy, Freydis with her own hand brained five women whom even Thorvard had not the heart to slay. This deed of blood ac- complished, she seized the murdered ones' staunch ship and goods and returned home to Eriks^ord, where she lived detested by all who knew the story and forsaken by even her kinsmen. For, so concludes the saga, w^hen Leif learned the w^hole truth he said: ** 'I do not care to treat my sister as she deserves; but this I wdll foretell them, that their posterity w411 never thrive.' And it went so that nobody thought anything of them but evil, from that time." With this deed of blood end what are called the Major Narratives; but, before we take final leave of this part of our discussion, something should be said about the allusions made to Vin- land by other writers. Allusions to Vinland from Other <. Sources. ** 'They called the country Vinland.' 'We know it,' said I, *! am a Yinlander.' " —Bayard Taylor. It is difficult to pick up a single Icelandic work on history, written within the range of two to three hundred years after Leif s discovery, which does not contain some reference to Vinland. The whole body of Icelandic history from this period is full of such allusions. The people generally ap- pear to have been so well acquainted with the details of the discovery that historians, incidental- ly touching upon the subject in the course of their writings, found it unnecessary to pause for ex- planation. Greenland and Vinland were localities as matter-of-fact to them as Japan and China now are to us. As Ari Thorgilsson Frodhi was born in the year 1067, his Landxama-bok* and Islendinga-bok were written while the memory of Vinland was still fresh in the minds of all. Nothing, therefore, ♦Several references to America appear in this work. One describing the adventures of Ari.Maarsson in Hvitraraanna" land has been mentioned above. Of more importance is the following passage taken from part III., ch. X. of this 62 AL.1.USIONS TO YINLAND FROM OTHER SOURCES. could be more significant than the testimony that they bear. The Islendinga-bok, unfortunate- ly, is no longer in existence. This is of great re- gret to scholars who feel pretty certain that it contained much valuable material pertaining to Yinland. For there remains, from Ari's pen, an abridgement of the work "Libelous Islandorum" — which makes very pertinent mention of that "Libel 1 us country. Speaking of Erik the Islandorum." Red and his followers in Green- land, Ari says: ''They found there, both in the east and the w^est part of the land, -vestiges of human habitations, fragments of boats and stone implements; so from this one might draw the con- clusion that the people of the race which inhabited Yinland, and which theGreenlanders(i. e.the Norse discoverers) called Skraellings, must have roamed there."* This passage is important indeed! For the vsrriter certainly had in mind the ferocious American natives of Karlsefui's day, stories of whose prowess were still fresh in the people's minds. If we are to take the historian Thorfaeus as authority, the Skraellings, or Eskimos, did not make their appearance in the Norse settle- ments in Greenland much before the vear 1349. entirely reliable genealogical table: "Their son was Thordr Hest-hofdhi, father of Karlsefni, who found Vinland the Good." *Rafn in his Antiquitates Americans p. 207, says that they "fun'do thar manna vister bathi austr ok vestr a ALLUSIONS TO YINLAND FROM OTHER SOURCES. 63 This would give Ari ample grounds for inferring that these remains had been left by a people akin to the natives known to live in Yinland. Snorri Sturlason wrote his Heimskringla near- ly a hundred years after Ari's Islendinga-bok appeared. He devotes a brief chapter of this great work to the introduction of Christianity in Green- land, wherein he finds occasion to tell how Leif Eriksson received the cognomen "the Lucky." In the words of Snorri: ''That same spring, King The Olaf (Trygvasson) sent Leif to- Heimskringla gether with a priest and other book-learned men to Greenland, there to proclaim Christianity; but Leif did not alone arrive safe in Greenland that summer, he found also on the YOjage Yinland the Good, and saved some ship- w^recked folk, who were driven about helpless in a wreck. Afterward they called him Leif the Lucky, for", etc.* Another document, the Kristni Saga, supplementing the Landnama-bok, and also assign- ed to Ari Frodhi, contains in substance the same story. And it is not at all unlikely that Snorri 's statement is borrowed from it. landi ok k?eiplabrot ok steiosmithi, that es af thvi ma seilja, at thar hafdhi thessconar thjoth farith es Vinland heter bygt, ok Grsenlendinger calla Skrelinga." *Heimskringla, chapter LI. Snorri writes as though he believed Leif discovered Vinland and saved the ship- wrecked sailors on his voyage to Greenland. This is of course a mistake; but does not weaken the statement as far as the existence of Vinland is coaceroed. Again, in a 64 ALLUSIONS TO YINLAND FROM OTHER SOURCES. The Eyrbyggja Saga, written round about the year 1250, furnishes a good picture of early Ice- land. It dwells upon the settlement of Breida- ijord and other sections of the island; but is especi- ally interesting because of the inside view it gives of the tenth-century Icelander's home-life, his feuds with his neighbors, his relations with for- eign lands, and finally his religious tenets. The The Eyrbyg-gja Eyrbyggja mentions the Ice- -aga. lander Thorbrand, whose two sons Snorri and Thorleif went to Greenland. And concludes by saying, that Snorri later went to Vinland the Good with Karlsefni, and was killed in a battle with the Skraellings.* From the nar- rative of Karlesfni's Saga we will remember the flight of Karlesfiii and his men from the Skraell- ings. Freydis brought up the rear of the panic- stricken Norsemen and followed them into the woods. Here she found the body of Snorri Thor- brandsson, who had been killed by the Skraellings, for ''there stood a flat stone stuck in his head." Another early document, Grettis Saga, makes broader sense, he may have considered the expedition to Vinland as a part of Leif's Greenland voyage, since it was a direct consequence of the latter. ♦'Efter forliget imellem Eyrbyggerne og Alftfjordingerne toge T. orbrands sunner, Snorre og Thorleif, til Gronland. Efter den sidste er Kimbevaag imellem joklerne opkaldt, og han boeJe i Gronland til s n alderdom, men Snorre tog til Vinland hint Gode med Karlsefne, og faldt der 1 en strid med Skrsellingerne."— N. M. Petersen, Fort.elling om Eyrbyggerne, p. 82, ALLUSIONS TO YLNLAND FROM OTHER SOURCES. 65 mention of the sturdy old sea-captain Thorhall Gamlason who, it will be bom in mind, came ^ ... c, with Karlsefni from Iceland and Grettis Saga. accompanied him to Vmland. After the colony ^vas abandoned, says the saga, this worthy returned to Iceland, settled on his old home-stead there, and was ever after known as Thorhall the Yinlander.* Nor was the knowledge of the discovery limited to the people of Greenland and Iceland. Before 1073, its fame was spoken throughout the whole Scandinavian North. For in that year Adam von Bremen published his ^'Historia Ecclesiastica" in which he gave an account of the conversion of the Northern kiitgdoms. While compiling this w^ork, Adam made a trip to Denmark, and was well received at the court of King Svend Estridsen. As this monarch came to the throne in 1047, the visit must have taken place between that year and 1073. Adam heard some marvelous stories up there in the North; and, like the scholar that he was, wrote them down. All these fragments of history and geography were brought together under the title ''De situ Danl^" and appended to his church history. The account abounds in Adam von statements that often sound Bremen's "I)e situ almost incredible; he accord- ingly hastens to inform his read- ers that no part of it is guess-work, but ''based *Grettis Saga. pp. 22, TO. 66 Ai^i^USIONS TO VINLAND FROM OTHER SOURCES. Upon the trustworthy reports of the Danes."* Adam speaks of Yinland as an island (region), so called from the wild grapes growing there. King Svend told him, he continues, that these grapes made excellent w4ne. Furthermore, corn grew in that strange region without cultivation. f These things must have sounded marvelous in European ears; especially as he adds: *' After this island nothing inhabitable is met with in that ocean, but everything beyond is covered with unendur- able ice and boundless darkness."! Adam von Bremen's account becomes very significant when we consider that he got his information from men who stood very close to the \;oyagers, and who may even have had it from the mouth of some sur- vivor of these expeditions. With the Publication of the*'HiSTORiA EccLESi- astica" the Holy See's attention was drawn to the Scandinavian North, and we read that new dioceses in "the islands of the ocean" wxre estab- lished. In 1112 Erik Upssi (Gnupsson) was ap- pointed "bishop of Greenland and Yinland in * — "noQ fabulosa opinione, sed certa comperimus rela- tione Danorum."— Descriptio insularum aquilonis, cap. 38 apud HiSTORiA Ecclesiastica. t'Traeterea uDam adhuc insulam (regionam) recitavit a multis in eo repertam oceano, quae dicitur Vinland, eo quid ibi vites sponte nascantur, vinum bonum gerentes; nam et fruges ibi seminatas abundare."— Id. cap. 38. JPost quam insulam terra nulla invenitur habitabilis in illo oceano, sed omnia quae ultra sunt glacie intolerabili ac caligine immensa plena sunt.— Id. cap. 38. ALLUSIONS TO VIXLAND FROM OTHER SOURCES. 67 parti bus infideliuniy The Annales Islan- DORUM Regi I and several other histories mention Other Men t on that Bishop Erik left his bishop- of Vinland ric in Greenland and went to Vinland, ostensibly for the purpose of converting the. heathen.* After this, from time to time through the twelfth, thirteenth and first half of the fourteenth century, mention is made of the New World. As late as 1347 there came "a ship from Greenland, which had sailed to Markland, and there were eighteen men aboard." This ves- sel wras doubtless one of the many making regu- lar trips to Markland after timber. 'And had it not been driven from its course and forced to seek shelter in Iceland, ^ 'the probability is,*' as Reeves says, ''that this voyage would never have found mention in Icelandic chronicles, and all knowlege of it must have vanished as completely as did the colony to which the Markland visitors belonged. "f *Dr. Enander says that Bishop Erik "went to Vinland to strengthen the Norsemen there in their Christian faith." Nothing should please us more than to have this statement substantiated with proof ; for that would, of course, as the writer asserts, definitely prove that the discoverers had suc- ceeded in maintaining colonies for 114 years, at the least. But, alas! this appears only to be another of the specula- tions that have done so much to discredit the whole story. Colonies may have been attempted and established after Ereydis' day; and may even have lingered down to 1121. One thing, however, is certain, and that is, that no proof to this effect has yet been forthcoming. See Horsford on NORUMBEGA. t^See Reeves, Finding of Yinland the Good. 1900. 6* 68 ALLUSIONS TO YINLAND FROM OTHER SOURCES. Accounts of this nature show that voyages be- tween Greenland and the mainland were continu- ed well into the fourteenth century. Finally, there are still extant several Icelandic treatises on geography, written between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, describing- the earth according to the notions ofthose early days. Though faultj^ in many particulars, these docu- ments do show that the Icelanders had a pretty clear understanding of Yinland's w^hereabouts. In what professes to be *'A Brief Description of THE Whole Earth" we read: * 'Beyond Green- land, southward, is Helluland; beyond that is Early Geograph- Markland; from thence it is not ical Treatises, ^^^ ^^ Vinland," etc. Again in the collection of manuscripts called the ''Gripla:" "South from thence (i. e. Greenland) is Helluland, which is called Skraellings' land. Thence it is not far to Vinland the Good, which some think goes out to Africa. Between Vinland and Greenland, is Ginnungagah, w^hich runs from the sea called Mare Oceanum, and surrounds the whole earth."* The historical and geographical fragments enumerated above, while neither any too full nor any too numerous, are yet sufficient to convince all fair-minded scholars of the existence of a well- *These documents may be found in Rafn's Antiquitates Americanae respectively on page 283 and page 292. ALLUSIONS TO VINLAND FROM OTHER SOURCES. 69 grounded general knowledge of the discovery all the way from Adam von Bremen down to and long after the life-time of Hauk Erlendsson, cover- ing a period of something like three centuries. The Decline and Loss of the Greenland Colonies. "In that drear spot, grim Desolation's lair. No sweet remain of life encheers the sight: The dancing heart's blood in an instant there Would freeze to marble. Mingling day and night (Sweet interchange which makes our labors light,) Are there unknown; while in the summer skies 1 he sun rolls ceaselessly round his heavenly height, Nor ever sets till from the scene he flies, And leaves the long bleak night of half the year to rise.'* —Henry Kirke White. The development, decline and loss of the Green- land colonies may be told in a very few words. The two settlements gradually enlarged their boundaries till all the best lands between modern Frederiksdal and Bredefjord had been incorporat- ed. Thorfaeus Thormodus is authority for the statement that early in the fourteenth century the OsT Bygd embraced nineteen peopled fjords, num- bering in all one hundred and ninety villae, or farmsteads. These were distributed into twelve church districts, eleven having small local churches, the twelfth, being the seat of the Gardar bishop- ric, having a cathedral church. In all, the settle- ment seems to have contained between thirty-five hundred and four thousand souls. The Vest Bygd DECLINE AND LOSS OF THE GREENLAND COLONIES. 71 was smaller and more sparsely settled, embracing Development ^^ more than nine peopled of the Gree iland fjords with about one hundred farmsteads, distributed into four parishes. Its population, very probably, never exceeded two thousand souls. The four hundred years of Greenland history are little else than a tedious account of feuds and murders — in this respect very similar to Icelandic history. The early colonists carried on a lucra- tive trade with the mother-country and Norway, and became both thrifty and well-to-do. The :Qord-districts supported large numbers of cattle, sheep and goats, while the waters along the shore abounded in fish, whales and many species of seals. The islands and inland, moreover, teemed with white bears, foxes, sables, martins and other important fur-bearing animals. Valuable pelts v^hale oil, skins, eider dowm and, according to some, butter and cheese were exported in exchange for other necessaries of life. Just how far north- ward the Greenlanders penetrated in their explor- ing and hunting expeditions is difficult to say. The explorations of Sir Edw^ard Parry and Cap- tain Graah have, however, thrown some interest- ing light on this question. Upon the island of Kingitorsook in Baffin's Bay, Avith a north lati- tude of 56 Deg. 55 Min., these explorers found several artificial earth-mounds surmounted by stones bearing runic inscriptions. One of these 72 DECLINE AND LOSS OF THE GREENLAND COLONIES. reads: — ''Erling Sigh vats on and Bjarni Thordar- son and Eindrid Oddson raised these marks and cleared ground* on Saturday before Ascension week, 1135.t But Prof. Rafn narrates still great- er achievements in the way of polar exploration, The Northernmost which go far tO show that Limit of Norse Scandinavian Nansens and Exploration iQ America. Nordenskjolds are not con- fined to our generation. He describes an expedi- tion made in the year 1166 under the auspices of the Gardar priests. ^'Thej made their way into the most distant portion of the sea, and sav^ glaciers south of them as far as the eye could reach. They also saw indications of the Skrasllings, but did not land, on account of the number of the bears.."! It would appear from calculations made at the time, that the expedition attained the surprisingly high latitude of 75 Deg. 46 Min. The first mention we have of Skrasllings in Green- land dates back to a hundred years before this expedition, when hunters occasionally encounter- ed them in the course of distant hunting-trips. But we hear of no serious conflicts with them prior to the middle of the fourteenth century. In *Some writers draw the conclusion from this expression— "cleared ground"— that Greenland was formerly densely wooded. Now to my mind it appears much more probable that they referred to an article both troublesome and num- erous on those shores— stones. tLaing, Heimskringla, i, 152. JQuoted by me from DeCosta, p. XXX, iii. DECLINE AND LOSS OF THE GREENLAND COLONIES. 73 the year 1339, according to Thorfasus, they sud- denly made their appearance in the Vest Bygd, where they killed eighteen of the colonists and carried off two boys and much cattle. This is our last report of the ill-fated settlement, which must have been destroyed shortly after this time. The emboldened Skr^Uings rapidly extended their limits, destroying all outlying farmsteads. In 1379 they made a concerted attack upon the OsT Bygd, causing a terrible destruction of life and property. The invaders were aided in this work of extermination by a chain of unfortunate circum- stances. The ravages of the Black Death began to be felt throughout Europe in 1348. The dread scourge was everywhere present — on the sea as Causes Leading well as on land. Ships drifted stru?tion?Mhe aimlessly about the high seas, Greenland Colo- their crews dead and putrifying nies. Q^ deck, carrying ruin to the shores they chanced to strike. In this way the disease reached the Scandinavian North and Ice- land, where it was virulant beyond all power of description. Though Greenland appears to have escaped the plague, she could not avoid the conse- quences that it carried in its wake.* For years sea-faring was almost paralyzed in the North, and *Crantz is of the opinion that the Black Death did reach Greenland, and that it carried away many of the popula- tion. Many other good authorities, however, positively aflBrm the contrary. 74 DECLINE AND LOSS OF THE GREENLAND COLONIES. nowhere were the attendant evils felt more keen- ly than in Greenland. Poverty took the place of almost opulence, and ruin seemed imminent to the ill-starred 6sT Bygd, already hard pressed by the Eskimos. About the same time the home govern- ment of Norway-Denmark committed a blunder that did much to hasten the impending doom. Queen Margarete, our 'Northern Semiramis,' daughter of Yaldemar III, king of Denmark, and wife of King Haakon VIII of Norway, succeeded to the rule of these countries in 1380 and 1387. Discreet though she generally was, Margarete made the traffic with Iceland, the Fseroes and Greenland *'a royal monopoly which could only be carried on in ships belonging to, or licensed by, the sovereign."* Merchants not lessees of the govern- ment were prosecuted by the Crown and forced to abandon their trade with Greenland altogether. The forlorn colony sank gradually into wretched- ness, and fell an easy prey to the swarms of Eski- mos who completed its ruin during the first or second decade of the fifteenth century. Before we leave Greenland clying for Greenland dead, a more than passing interest demands a brief halt for a final gUmpse at the OsT Bygd, as re- corded in a narrative of northern exploration, published at Venice in 1558. This work contains the voyages of the celebrated Zeno brothers, and *Laing, Heim-kringla I. 147. DECLINE AND LOSS OF THE GREENLAND COLONIES. 75 is published under the rather lengthy title, ^'De i conimentarii i del Viaggio in Persiadi M- Caterine Zeno il K. et dello scoprimento dell' Isole Frislanda, Eslanda, Engronelandar Estotilanda et Icaria, fatto sot to il Polo Artico de due fratelli Zeni^'* etc. Now the Zen OS were men of quality at Venice. The father of this particular generation, Pietro Dracone, is famous in history as a commander of the Christian Ivcague in its struggle against the Turks during- the fourteenth century. The sons. Carlo, Nicolo and Antonio, were likewise of great renown. They added much to their familj^ glory in the war with Gonoa (1378-80), and Carlo in particular became an object of worship by his countrymen. About the j^ear 1390 Nicolo fitted out a vessel and started to see the world. Soon after entering the Atlantic he was caught in a storm and driven: along northward, until at length the ship was cast upon the Faeroes and wrecked. Only the timely arrival of Sir Henry Sinclair, King Haakon VI 's representative in Scottish waters,, saved the Venetians from the fate of shipwrecked mariners, usual in those barbarous times — plun- der and death. The grateful Nicolo entered this high-born noble's service, soon rising to the posi- tion of commander of Sinclair's entire fleet. This new life was pleasing to the adventurous Vene- tian, who sent such stirring descriptions of North- ern life to his brothers that Antonio also conclud 76 DECLINE AND LOSS OF THE GREENLAND COLONIES. ed to voyage thither. He too was well received and remained in Sinclair's pay fourteen 3'ears, re- turning to Venice in 1406. Nicolo, meanwhile, ^was seized with a desire to visit Greeland of which he had heard so much from his conversations with the island Norse. The voyage to the OsT Bygd occurred in the month of July in what appears to have been 1394. This, it will be recollected, was many years after the Eskimos had destro3^ed the Vest Bygd and some years after the Greenland trade was declared a royal monopol3^ Nicolo Nicolo Zeno in remained there only a short Greenland, time as the climate of this high 1394 latitude proved too much for his constitution; his death occurred in the Faeroes the very next year. Antonio nov;^ succeeded to his deceased brother's office; and he, too, made a voy- age of discovery in the Atlantic Ocean, which will be mentioned later on. Suffice it here to say, that letters and charts describing these voyages were sent from time to time to their brother Carlo at home in Venice. These were placed away among the family archives, and more than a century' lat- er, in 1558, such as had not been destroyed were published by Nicolo Zeno, a direct descendant of Antonio. Of great interest is the brothers' saiHng chart, upon which we find the Faeroes designated as Frislanda, the Shetlands as Estlanda and Greenland as Engronlant, or Groxlanda. The stor>' of Nicolo's visit is accepted by the critics as DECLINE AND LOSS OF THE GREENLAND COLONIES. 77 entirely authentic. In man^^ details it is corrobor- ated by a description of Greenland from the pen of Ivar Baardsen, written late in the fourteenth centur3% but which did not find its way into Eu- rope till two hundred years later. Among other surprising things in Nicolo's book, we read that "he found there amonastery and a church, dedicat- ed to St. Thomas(for St. Olaus), close by a hill, which vomits smoke like Vesuvius and Etna.* Here is found a hot spring, used in heating the church and the friars' dwellings." He further states that the water came into the kitchen hot enough for cooking purposes. It was even used in heating greenhouses, which supplied the monks with an abundance of succulent vegetables and southern fruits. Such statements as the above would never occur to a person fabricating his *To talk about volcanoes in Greenland vomiting smoke and fire like a Vesuvius and an Etna, sounds at first read- ing as passing strange. But, after all, there is nothing surprising about such a statement. Iceland has for ages been noted for her volcanoes, geysers and hot springs; the whole island is in reality nothing more nor less than one large lava field. We bear in mind how Gunnbjorn's Sker- ries, lying between Iceland and Greenland were totally de- stroyed by volcanic action in 1456. Then Greenland in our day is not without thermal waters. One of the most inter- esting of these groups of hot springs is situated on an island at the -mouth of Ounartok Fjord. As far as we know, Greenland has no active volcanoes now; but there is evidence of past activity to a marked degree, in the compo- sition of the soil. A careful exploration of the interior would undoubtedly bring to light extinct craters, their real character hidden by mantles of ice and snow. 78 DECLINE AND LOSS OF THE GREENLAND COLONIES. story out of whole cloth. For who, never having seen such things, would have thought of placing volcanoes and hot springs in icy Greenland! They 1 rr ^i, thieves.* But to be done. The The Real Truth. . in-, truth m a nutshell is, that neither Columbus nor anyone else in those days dreamed of Vinland as anything more than an outl^dng country, or island, of Europe. It is only as we come down to the seventeenth century that the truth dawns upon Northern scholars. Then (1606) Amgrim Jonsson first connected Vinland wdth the new continent, by speaking of it as *'an island of America." What can be more significant than this century -long silence of the Scandinavian ginning to end, with a learned interpreter at his elbow, could have gained from it a knowledge of the width of the Atlantic Ocean, is simply preposterous. It would be im- possible to extract any such knowledge from that document to-day without the aid of our modern maps. The most diligent critical study of all the Icelandic sources of in- formation, with all the resources of modern scholarship, enables us with some confidence to place Vinland some- where between Cape Breton and Point Judith, that is to say, somewhere between two points distant from each other more than four degrees in latitude and more than eleven degrees in longitude! When we have got thus far, knowing as we do that the coast in question belongs to the same continental system as the West Indies, we can look at our map and pick up our pair of compasses and measure the width of the ocean at the twenty-eis:hth parallel. But it is not the Mediaeval document, but our modern map that guides us to the knowledo^e."— Discovery, Vol. I, pp. 388 and 389. *"The fault we find with Columbus is, that he was not honest and frank enough to tell where and how he had obtained his previous information about the lands which he pretended to discover."— Rasmus B. Anderson, America NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS, p. 90. 106 A GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE QUESTION. North! In case Iceland had furnished the neces- sary information and pointed out the path for Columbus in 1477, surely she would not have been so slow to proclaim to the world after 1492, that the Genoese navigator was trespassing on her right-of-wa3^! As a Scandinavian and a Norwegian I feel it my duty to put the facts just as they are. Not that this will detract in the least from the true signifi- cance of the Norse discovery. It is neither for me to add to nor to detract from Christopher Colum- bus' achievements. Let them that will, set up an idol and worship him; such can never diminish our hero's fame. Now that our hands are washed of the Columbus accusations, let us return again for a few moments to the main question. The arguments used in the foregoing pages have been sufficiently complete, I believe, to convince the fair-minded student, that the Norsemen discovered America in the year 1000. And that they made several attempts at coloni- zation between that year and 1010. This much is as firmly established as any event in history. But still, there are those w^ho say that this does not constitute a real discovery. Let us see. Greenland was settled in 986. In speaking of this event Fiske says: "For four hundred A^ears the for- tunes of the Greenland colony formed a part, al- beit a ver\'' humble part, of European histor3^ Geographic all3^ speaking, Greenland is reckoned as A GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE QUESTION. lOT part of America, of the western hemisphere, and not of the eastern. The Northmen who settled in: Greenland had, therefore, in this sense found their way to America."* Very well, in the ^'geo- graphical sense,^^ then. ''But," he continues^ "the story does not end here. Into the world of the red men the voyagers from Iceland did assured^ ly come, as indeed, after once getting a foothold upon Greenland, they could hardly fail to do."t Shall this be called a disco verj^ in the legitimate serjse," then? Fiske cannot see it in that light- To him, and many others with him, it does not constitute a discovery ''in any legitimate sense of the phrase.'^ And the explanation of 'legitimate sense' ^ seems to lie in the word re- sult. Surely no Scandinavian enthusiast has 3^et been so bold as to claim that Reluhfthe No?se ^^^ Norse discoverv^ in results. Discovery Was was as important as the discov- Ever3^ Bit as Much x^ r^ ^ i, i -d 4. i^ ^ a True Discovery ery by Columbus! But what as Was that of we do claim is, that, irrespec- Columbus. ^.^^ ^^ results, the Norse dis> CO very was every bit as much a true discovery as^ that of Columbus. The latter first touched uport the Bahama Islands. Does this constitute a dis- covery of America? As much so, though no more so, than the discoverv of Greenland 506 vear& *Fiske's Discovery, Vol. I, pp. 159 and 162. tld. p. 162. 108 A GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE QUESTION. earlier. How would it do to call it also a discov- ery in the "^eo^ra/^Aica/ se/2se?" Fiske would, likely enough, in this instance, call it a discovery hoth geographically and historically. But we must bear in mind our Umitati on— '^irres/^ec^iVe of results.'' Later, Columbus beheld the main- land at the mouth of the Orinoco River, in Central America and in Yucatan. How does this answer to the requirements of a discovery in the ^^true sense?" Well enough, it seems to me; but surely no better than does the case of Vinland, 400 years earlier! But the Norsemen did not realize that they had discovered a new continent. Neither did Columbus; he died ignorant of his great achieve- ment. Thus far, all must agree that the case of Columbus is only a parallel to that of Leif Eriks- son. And here too, as far as the two discoverers are concerned, the story ends. For at this point they both pass from the stage of activity. Now, because those who came after Columbus used his discovery to better advantage than did the sea- rovers who followed in Leif Eriksson's wake, should this constitute a rationable grounds for deifying the former? While the latter, who in point of character far outshone his rival, is permitted to fall into obscurity! Such treatment rankles the heart of ever3^ true Norseman. Nor without cause, for our demand for fair plaj^ is indeed reasonable. The w^hole dispute (and w^hy dispute!) hinges on ±he question of priority. No sane person ever did A GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE QUESTION. 109 dispute the greater direct influence of the re-dis- covery hj Columbus. But when it comes to priority, to being the first European to find Amer- ca, etc., we certainly do call a halt. Here we can see but one man in the field, and that is Leif Eriks- Leif Eriksson ^on. All we ask is, that Ameri- Hoids the Priority can writers and students return Claim to the Dis- . .1 , .1 • • , ,. ,-, ^ coverv '^^ ^"^ truth m mterpetmg that of Amer o «. remarkable ebb and flow of the human race which is called history. That they rise from their blind worship at the shrine of their one popular hero long enough to do obeisance to another, just as deserving though so long neg- lected. It has been stated repeatedly that nothing whatever of consequence resulted from the Norse discover3\ Here we have it — ever this same pure- 13^ commercial side — held up to our gaze. Is it ab- solutely impossible, then, for the American people to understand and appreciate any of a nation's loftier possibilities! Can they not understand^ that no mere vaingloriousness, but rather an hon- est endeavor to claim ties ot kinship where they do by nature exist, is the cause of the Scandina- vian peoples' demand? When amends for past neglect shall have been made, we all will come to see The True Li^ht in consequences enough resultant Which to View of the discovery. But some I>ilco\^e?y. work is necessary— a painstak- ing study of our own American family tree. It will therein be demonstrated how 110 A GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE QUESTION. very essential a part in developing the re-disco v- -ered country belongs to the Norsemen. It was the great swarms of Scandinavians who settled in the different parts of Great Britian and Ireland, ^engrafting on the population a love for the sea and a skill in seamanship before unknown, to- gether v^dth a daring spirit of enterprise,' that in the fullness of time enabled England *to solve the problem of closely knitting together lands separat- ed from each other by the Atlantic in all its Ijreadth and vastness.' It was the love for relig- ious and civil freedom, engrafted by them on the population of East Anglia and Northunderland, i:hat determined the great Puritan exodus to America; and so in course of time bore fruit on this continent in the shape of the noblest democ- racy of all history! This rightly understood, the true significance of the Norse discovery will not be slow to dawn upon us. The Discovery Viewed in Its Relations To The Great World Migrations. "The overflow of the population of Europe into the dif- ferent regions of the New World is simply a continuance of the outpourings of the primitive Aryan household into the surrounding countries/'~P. Y. N. Myers. The Northmen comprise one of the great divi- sions of the Teutonic branch of the Aryan family, w^hose original home was, it is conjectured, an- cient Bactria in Central Asia. Thousands of years ago an extreme pressure . of population, coupled perhaps with other economic changes, caused the Aryan Folk to leave their ancient abodes, and seek more hospitable climes. Of these, the clans of the socalled Hindu-Persian branch, after advancing southw^ard for some time, for reasons unknown to us, split up into two different bands, the one pouring down over the table-land of Iran, where they laid the foundations of the future Medo-Persian nation; the other, meanwhile, scaling the lofty Hindu Cush, swept down into the rich valleys of the Indus and Ganges, there becoming the pregenitors of the Hindus. 112 THE GREAT WORLD MIGRATIONS. At the same time, a migration towards the The Aryan west, of greatest consequence to Migration, history, had been initiated by the other Aryan clans. The movement diverged, it would seem, at the Black Sea, one current follow- ing its southern shore and pouring into Europe by way of the Hellespont, thence down through the Balkan and Italian peninsulas, laying the foundation to the future glory of Greece and Rome; the other current, after passing northward around the Black Sea, spread, wave upon wave, over Cen- tral Europe. First came the Celts, or Kelts, who were shortly crowded into the westernmost parts of the continent by a second wave of their broth- ers, called Teutons. The modern representatives of the Celts are the Bretons of Bretagne, the Welsh, the Irish and the Highland Scotch. The Teutons, after having urged the weaker Celts as far as they could to the west, settled Central and Northern Europe, where they became known as West Germans, Norse and Goths. Of these, the Goths, who settled along the shores of the Baltic — according to some authorities, peopling all of the southern portion of Sweden — at an early date swept southward, and under the distinct names of Ostro- Goths, Visi-Goths, Lombards, Vandals, etc., overturned the crumbling civilization of the West Roman Empire. The West Germans and the Nor«e were satisfied to remain where they first set up their abode. On the plains and rivers of THE GREAT WORLD MIGRATIONS. 113 Low Europe they became Germans, Dutch and Flemmings; farther to the north, Danes, Swedes and Norwegians; while in Great Britain they call- ed themselves English. The Aryan migration, although it commenced thousands of j^ears ago while the history of man was young, has not yet come to an end. There is noticeable, even in our day, a shifting and drifting The Aryan Mi- ^^ nationahties in m.any direc- g-ration not tions, though the main flow is a >e n e , steady westward one. And the overflow is being dispersed over the whole earth, peopling America and Australia, setting up there and elsewhere, a new and powerful dominion over the aborigines. Wherever they go the Ar^^ans carry with them their enlightenment— their arts and sciences. European history, since the close of the Middle Ages, has been, in reality, one continuous struggle between the Romance nations which sprang up on the ruins of the Roman Empire, and the two divisions of the Teutons— the West Germans and the Norse. For ages past have they divided Europe into two diametrically opposite camps. And the crest of the mountain axis of Central Eu- rope may be said, in a general way, to be the line of demarkation between them. Two distinct civilizations have been produced. The South, priest-ridden and superstitious, is not able to keep pace with the free, protestant North. The Teu- 8 114 THE GREAT WORLD MIGRATIONS. tons are winning out. The seat of empire, first established in Greece and on the Tiber, has long been on the Rhine and Thames, and is even now getting read^^ for a kap across the broad Atlantic. In the New World the struggle has been taken up, The Teutonic 2>s. ^^^ dividing Hne, roughly speak- the Romance ing, Iving between the United Nations. ^^^^^^ ^^^ Mexico. Should this fest of comparative qualities continue indefinitely without Slav interference, the weakening Romance nations would speedily yield the crown of victory to the more progressive Teutons. But such w^ould hardly be compatible with existing political al- liances and balances, and may be left out of con- sideration. At any rate, as the situation now is, the Teutonic people, because of the real true per- sonalitj^ oiits members, has set the pace in win- ning the world to enlightenment. They came from a sterling stock, unrivalled by any other race di- vision; they have a capacity for civilization, and for civiHzing, as none other; and their unbounded love for free institutions and their chivalric spirit alone have made possible the growth, wnthin our time, of democracies which, unjike southern re- publics, are neither bureaucratic nor militar\' in their administration, but representative republi- can pure and simple. In this great Teutonic world movement the English-speaking nations easily take the first rank. We may add— in all world movements— for never THE GREAT WORLD MIGRATIONS. 115 did nation in antiquity reach such attainments, nor so marvelously influence the history of all the world. Rome, mighty in decaj- though she is through the heritage left behind her, would lose her sublimitj- in contrast, should Old Albion, through some perverse decree of fate, at this mo- ment sink below the entombing Atlantic deep, carrying all her burden of civilization along with her. For her work cannot be outlived, cannot be outgrown. The nations that she fostered and endowed with free institutions now in their strength bespeak the mother's glory; the Hberal democratic commonwealths that are even now springing up out of her colonies, shall bear wit- ness, through C3xles to come, to the universality of her triumph. But whence all this strength, all these character- The Genesis of istics which made her the undis- the English-Speak- p^ted mistress of the sea, and ing Aations. \ 11.-1 r 1 the establisher oi the greatest of maritime empires? The thinker, freed from the bias of a misshapen past, gives the answer: "From its natural fountain-head— /ro^ii the Glorious Old North. ^^ The English people is a product of cir- cumstances. Not the result of an age, but of many ages. Its Celtic progenitors at an early day received a slight infusion of Roman blood, and with it, all the enervating luxuries and vices consequent on Roman modes of life. Then there are the Teutons. The Jutes swarmed over from 8* 116 THE GREAT WORLD MIGRATIONS. the upper part of the Danish Peninsula, the Angles from Schles wig-Hols tein, and the Saxons from the German river-mouths. Their conquest of Celtic Britain was complete and no later invader has been able to disposses them; though later comers have furnished the elements that were required to make English life and character what it now is. The Viking Age began, and in conformity to a great, unchangeable law of nature, the Scandina- vian nations poured outward and worldward streams of their best blood. The3^ furnished, as we shall see, the ver3' elements just mentioned above. They, more than the Saxons,* may claim the progenitorship to the finished Englishman. When the Normans crossed the Channel in the eleventh centur3^, it was merely to add to the characteristics already implanted by their broth- ers, the Danes and the Norwegians. In the following pages, it shall be our endeavor to point out just what elements of the English national make-up are traceable to the Northm^en, and to suggest the influence these have had in *This term Saxon is often used indiscriminately for all the Teutonic invaders. Such a misnomer has effected that Englishmen from sheer force of habit term themselves Saxons or Anglo-Saxons. The truth is, the Saxon element in the English nation has always been over-estimated. Many of the nation's characteristics, by German scholars claimed as Anglo-Saxon, are in reality Scandinavian. THE GREAT WORLD MIGRATIONS. 117 moulding the American Nation. Of all European The Northern sailors the Northmen were the Sailors Lead the boldest. As the great Teutonic Teutonic World • 4.- x- j ^ i Movement across migration continued westward the Atlantic. it was to be expected that its sailor-folk should lead the van; and this the North- men did. They pushed their beaks into the sea, and were soon at home in England, there convert- ing the land-loving Anglo-Saxons into a nation of sailors. While this reformation was taking place, other Northern bands, unable longer to delay, con- tinued westward and found America in j^ear 1000. This avant-guard was small and too feeble long to hold their find; but the main bod3^ in Great Britain at length gave the signal for a gen- eral advance. This took place in 1620. The Norse discovery of America is not to be con- sidered as an accidental happening; but as the first weak pulsation of the great Teutonic trans- oceanic movement, of which the coming of Eng- lish Vikings formxcd the second and stronger pul- sation. In such a light considered, its true signi- ficance will readily be apparent to all. Scandinavian Elements In Old England* "Amongst the many wonders of this world, there is none greater than the blindness of the writers of this and other countries to the transcendent influence of the blood and spirit of ancient Scandinavia on the English character." —The Howitts. '•It is back to the Northern Vikings we must look for the hardiest elements of progress in the United States." —Benjamin Lossing. A careful stud^^ of place names as they appear on any good map of Great Britian and Ireland would furnish one the necessary key to the dis- tricts most thickh^ settled by the Danes and Nor. wegians. It would lay bare the fact that a great many names, especially in the north of England, are Scandinavian in termi.nation, and, often, in entire form. In the south of England, where the bulk of the population was of Anglo-Saxon ex- traction, we meet with place names ending in -ham, -bur3% -borough, -ton, -ford, or forth, etc. But once we enter the Thames River districts a gradual change occurs. The above become mix- ed to a degree with names of Northern origin; and the nearer we approach the Wash, the more numer- ous these become. There are the names ending in —by (Scandinavian for town), -thorpe (Scan., thorp or torp, a cluster of homes, a hamlet). SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. 119 -thwaite (Scan., thveit or tved, a detached piece of land), and many others. What is more, not Danish and Nor- alone are the terminations Scan- wegian Place dinavian; but the compound words themselves, of which theJ form a part, are in most instances traceable to a northern origin and significance. With reference to geographical or natural peculiarities, take for example Haidenby (Scan., Hedeby — heath vil- lage), Mickleby (Scan., Magleby— large village), Askwith (Scan., Askved— Ashwood), Stonegarth (Scan., Steengaard — stone farm), Fieldgarth (Scan., Fjeldgaard — mountain farm), etc. Person- al names, too, appear very frequently in the make- up of such names. Here could be mentioned, Grimsdale, Thoresb3% Asserb)^, RoUesb}^, Haconby, Grimsthorpe, and a host of similar ones. Then there are the names of animals, names introduced with Christianity, and names taken from the trades of their first inhabitants; as, for instance: Kirkby (Scan., Kirkeby— churchtown), Derby (Scan., Dyreby— deer town), Copmanthorpe (Scan., Kjobmandstorp — merchants' hamlet), and the like. It is difficult in these few pages to give anything like a satisfactory idea of the surprising abund- ance of Danish-Norwegian place names, in any other way than by some systematically arranged table. The one here included, is the work of that erudite Danish scholar J. J. A. Worsaae, who has Northumberland in all n Kent, northeast of Watling Street n Essex Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire.... Suffolk Norfolk Huntingdonshire Northamptonshire... Warwickshire Leicestershire Rutland Lincolnshire Nottinghamshire .... Derbyshire Cheshire Yorkshire East Riding West Riding North Riding Lancashire Westmorland Cumberland , Diirharn B CD (t a 5" 5' 1 1 : ^&^oi^^ o-.o.fe^5: Sto^h-^wM? to^ ^ ^ H» .' ^'- zc'- o 1 1 si „ tci^ '. '• :;:.■; : : : : : i : : : : : : : : : : : : o ^i*»i_i : i_ioc: : : : : H^- • • • : ' ^ 5i ! : ■ tc — to^ : i-i : : : ^: : : : : ^: : co4^ 3 en ,i i ■ • • IN5- • • ::::!:::: : : : : 1 ^ : : : : CO- \ ^ tc cow-iStS^woIctc : : : oir-i-»: : : •■ ^ ; i ; • ! a OT • to^s-. 4^: ^^ ::::::::: 1 1 w 1 -Usswtc-J^ir i3 • ■ «5^ h-M 1 r^ H| 1 1 i 1 c ^1 ^1 fiSiSsSii o.^S?goo23:^g^tSw*.tl=, 1 SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. 121 contributed so much to our knowledge of the monuments and memorials of the Danes and Nor- wegians in Great Britain and Ireland. Such a ta- ble will, as the author declares, *'with all its de- ficiencies, clearly and incontestably prove the cor- rectness of the historical accounts, w^hich state that the new population of Danes and Norwe- gians that emigrated into England during the Dan- ish expeditions, settled almost exclusively in the districts to the north and west of the Watllnga Street, and there chiefly to the west and north of the Wash."* The table shows that the Northmen have been the strongest near the coast and north An Explanation of the Humber in old Northum- of Dr. Worsaae's berland. Modern Yorkshire heads the list with a total of 405 place names; Lincolnshire, lying directl)^ south of the Humber, stands second with a total of 292; while little Westmorland, the home of the Wash- ingtons, is third on the list with a total 158. *'The same table further shows that the names end- ing in by, thorpe, beck, n^es, and ey, appear chief- ly in the flat midland counties of England, where- as, farther to the north, in the more mountainous districts, these terminations mostl3' gi^'^ place to those in thwaite, and more particularly to those in dale, force, tarn, fell and haugh."t The latter *J. J. A. Worsaae. An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland and Ireland London, 1852. p. 72. tid. p. 72. 122 SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. are in most instances of Norwegian derivation and may be met with in the mountain regions of that country in great numbers to this day. Such are, Langdale, Westdale, (Norw., Dal, valley), Highforce, Lowforce (Norw., Fos, a waterfall), Micklefell, Crossfell (Norw. Fjaeld or old Norw., Fjall), Kirkhaugh, Greenhaugh (Norw., Haug, a hill), etc. At the very juncture of the two strong Norwe- gian shires of York and Lincoln wath Nottingham lie, on the river Idle, Austerfield (Scan., Osterijaeld — east of the mountain) and Scrooby (Scan., Skraaby— sloping town). These small towms mark the point from -which the Puritan Exodus to Austerfield and America was begun. This signifi- Scrooby Mark the cant historic fact becomes the Starting Point • . . • i i from Which the T^ort mterestmg wmen we learn as Puritan Exodus later shown, that these very Went forth. ^ x- ^ ^-u -xi. xt east counties, together with Nor- folk, Suffolk, and Essex, formed the core of the Com- monwealth, and won the victory for Parliament over Charles I. Here again, the ancient Norse love for freedom, political and religious, rescued England from the dangers of unconstitutional rule at the hands of a tyrant king. Warm ties of kinship and brotherly feeling have from the earliest time existed between the English and the Scandinavians. Englishmen are usually read}^ enough to boast of their descent from the Vikings bold Thej' displa}^ a degree of interest SCANDINAA^AN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. 123 and good will for the welfare of the North, such as is not to be met \vith in the case of an unrelated, alien people. And when in past history the Eng- lish government, forced by the flow of world politics, has interfered in Northern aifairs and levied unjust w^ar, none were louder in their con- demnation of the ministry than the English peo- ple. Blood-ties are sure to tell, be the3^ ever sa weak. It is the case in the present instance; the English are drawn by unseen bonds to the Scandi- navians much more than they are, for example, to the Germans and the French. And this is so not Existino- Ties of n^^rely on the ground of an ex- Good Will be- isting political antipathy to- tween English- j ^i i xx ^- -i x men and wards the latter nations; but Scandinavians, because the Northmen were sa fortunate as to infuse the British people with those characteristics which came to the surface more than those furnished from Germany or from France — which were strong enough to place a lasting stamp upon the nation — w^hich made Eng- land the carrier of democratic institutions — which made her people, along with the Scandinavians^ the sailors of the world. If we should make a careful study of the English people's physiognomy — make a journey for that purpose from south to north — we w^ould again meet with infallible marks of the corrobora- tion of historical accounts with the existing truth. In the south of England the people are decidedly 124 SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. unlike the flaxen-haired Scandinavians. They are rather black of hair, with dark eyes, and clear-cut features; such as would "remind one either of re- lationship with the Romans, whose chief seat in England was in the south, or rather, perhaps, of a strong compound between the ancient Britons and the Anglo-Saxons and Norman races, which afterwards immigrated into England." As we Featural Likeness- draw nearer the Wash a remark- '\ndtcf nd^,Sf" able Change occurs; the oval vians. face gives way to one more rounded, the nose is flattened somewhat, and the ej^es and hair are much lighter. In build, too, the people change; the Yorkshireman is hard- ly so tall, though more compactly set than his brother farther south. Mr. Worsaae, in speaking of the people he made such a careful study of, sa^'s: "In the midland, and especialh^ in the northern part of England, I saw every moment, and particularly in the rural districts, faces exactly resembling those at home. Had I met the same persons in Denmark or Nor- way, it would never have entered mj^ mind that they were foreigners. Now and then I also met with some whose sharper features reminded me of the inhabitants of South Jutland, or Sleswick, and particularly of Angeln; districts of Denmark which first sent colonists to England. I adduce it only as a striking fact, which will not escape the atten- tion of at least an^- observant Scandinavian trav- vSCANDINAYIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. 125 eiler, that the inhabitants of the north of England bear, on the whole, more than those of any other part of that country, an iinmistakeable personal resemblance of the Danes and Norwegians. "'^ But if the Northmen of a truth did leave such indelible marks upon the ph^^siognomy of so large a percent of the English people, could one not, with some reason, expect to find other traces of their influence as well? Most assuredly. While, in the main, as was generally the case wherever the3^ went, the Vikings were ready to give up their speech for the veracular of those they found in control of the soil, so powerful Vv^as their influence that many words were adopted by the English, and are to the present time found in our standard language. Skeats, in his Etymological Diction- ary, gives a list of over five hundred such words. These do not indeed compare in number with the Latin or French element; but, as Mr. Emerson declares, "from no other foreign source have we received so large a portion of simple, every-day words, as from the language of the Danish invad- o^i. T^ . I, XT ers.t Again, so near akin was The Danish-Nor- ', ^^ ' .^, _ wegianEle- their language with bng- ment in English. Hsh, that it is impossible now to determine, with anything like exactness, how *Worsaae, The Danes and Northmen, pp. 79—80. tOliver Farrar Emerson, The History of the English Language, p. 156, 126 SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. great the Danish-Norwegian element really was. But this will never be denied, that, where the origin of a w^ord was in doubt, English and German philologists have never tumbled over one another in their haste to accredit it to the Scandinavians. Indeed is the Danish-Norwegian element large in the class of words daily on our tongues. And so powerful, that 'not only nouns, adjectives and verbs were borrowed, but even pronominal forms, as they, their, and possibly them.' Among the commonest of Danish-Norwegian words, descended to us from the Old English period, are call, crave, fellovr, haven, husband, hustings, knife, lau^, take and wrong .* This much for the Standard English as we know it. Were we, on the other hand, to wander into the remote mountain regions in the north of England, say into the fastnesses of Yorkshire, Westmorland, Cumberland or Lancashire, we should find there *Says Emerson: "Many common Teutonic words in Eng- lish which have an sk combination of sounds are of Norse origin. Examples are scald, scare, skill, skin, sky, SCORE, BASK, BUSK. Sucli words if -bng-lish in origin, would now have sh instead of sk. On tne other hand, some French words and a few of low German origin also have the sound combination sk, as scape, scan, scarce, SKIPPER. Similarly Norse words have g, k, as in gun, kid, instead of y, ch, the corresponding English sounds. Ex- amples are gift, get, guest, drag, egg, flag, hug, leg, LOG, and keg, kid, kilt, kirtle. Of Norse origin also are many words with ai, ei, as bait, hail, "greet," said, raise, swain, they, their, wail."— a Brief History of THE English Language, p. 98. SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. 127 still a vernacular full of terms almost un- inteligible to the modern Englishman, though not at all strange-sounding to Scandinavians.* Our space is too brief in this paper to discuss at great- er length this interesting subject. Below is ap- pended, hov^-ever, a list of words taken from the provincial English, which will clearh^ enough il- lustrate the remarkable influence of Norse upon the popular dialect. *Dr. Worsaae, who spent some time among these quaint mountain folk, gives some exceedingly interesting illustrations of this vernacular. He says: "On enter- ing the house there one will And the housewife sitting with her ROCK (Dan., Rok; £ng., distaff) and spoele (Dan., Spole; Eng., spool, a small wheel in the spindle); or else she has set both her rock and her garnwindle (Dan., Garnvinde; Eng., reel, or yarn winder) aside whilst stand- ing by her back-board (Dan., Bagebord; Eng., baking board) she is about to knead dough (Dan., Deig), in order to make the oaten bread commonly used in these parts, at times also barleybread; for CLAP-BREAD(Dan., Klappebrod, or thin cakes beaten out with the hand) she lays the dough on the clap-board (Dan., Klappebord). One will also find the board claith spread (Dan., Bord-kl^de, Eng., table cloth); the people of the house then sit on the bank or bink; (Dan., B^NK; Eng., bench), and eat aandorn (English afternoon's repast, or, as called in Jutland and Funen, Onden. dinner). The chimney, lower, stands in the room; which name may be connected with the Scandi- navian Lyre] Icelandic Ljori; viz., the smokehole in the roof of thatch (thack), out of which in olden times, before the houses had regular chimneys and lofts" (Dan., Loft; Eng., roof and upper room), the smoke (reek reik Dan., RoG,) left the dark (mirk or mork, Dan., mork) room. Within is the bower or bur (Eng., bed chamber), in Danish, Buur; as for instance in the old Danish w^ord Jomfrubuur (the maiden's chamber),and in the modern word Fadebuur (the pantry.)"— The Danes and Norsemen, pp. 81-82. A Short List of Words Taken from the Provincial English, with Danish Equivalents. (Extracted from Worsaae, Danes and Northmen.) ENGLISH. PROVINCIAL ENGLISH. DANISH. Ar Edderkop banke " Barn bede bie blande klamres, fast- kiamre klavre selte Eestepenge Ira Eremmede Eolk Gammen gar [Norw.] Gjerde grede, Graad Haandklsede Htekke [til Ho] Kjernemelk kilte [op] nappe Potteskaar Qu?ern ristet Sserk skrige Smuthul Tang torn uredt, urede Vadmel Vaerk Ysenge *A few of these words are also found in the Scotch, scar arr spider attercop to beat bank child bairn,* beam to pray bede to stay bide to mix blend to quarrel, grasp clammer to climb claver to knead elt earnest-money festing-penny from fra strangers I'rem folks merriment gammon hedge gar to weep, tears ;jreit, greets towel land clout hayrack heck buttermilk kern-milk to tuck up kilt to catch nab 30t-sherd pot-scar land-mill quern toasted reasty shirt serk to cry, shriek skrike hiding-place smooth-hole sea-weed tang empty toom disorderly, filthy unrid homespun woolen wadmal, woadmel ache, pain wark a field. wong, vaecge SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. 129 According to Worsaae, it was not at all uncom- mon formerly at least, to find many old Norse names, such as Thorkil, Erik, Harald, Else and many others, in North England. But of more importance are the surnames ending in son or sen (Scan., Son— a son). This ending is distinctively Norse, being unknown in early English, whose corresponding patron3^mic suffix is ino-^ as in HastiJtt^s, Steyning-, Gillirj^ham, and Notting^ ham. Names of this kind are Adamson, Benson, Gibson, Jackson, Johnson, Nelson, Thomson, Scandinavian Stevenson, etc. They are now en- Surnames End- countered in every quarter of the inginSONorSEN. ^T i, i, x • i. • ^ i ^ Globe; but m each instance where they are traceable to the Scandinavian North, or to Middle and Northern England, Scotland, and the Teuton Irish, they maybe safely set down as of Norse origin. It is interesting to sit down and in one's mind run over the long Hst of prominent names ending in son. In England and America it includes great sailors and soldiers, statesmen and presidents. Highest on the scroll of fame among English naval heroes, we read the name of Admiral Horatio Nelson. His name is undeniably Scandi- navian (Scan., Neilsen); his birthplace is the old Norse settlement Bumham Thorpe, Norfolk; bet- ter still, his family tree points to his Northern descent, and his deeds affirm it. The bloodiest and most stubbornly fought action of Nelson^s 10 130 SCANDIXAVIAX ELEMENTS IX OLD EXGLAXD. whole career was the battle of Copenhagen Roads, The Case of Ad- "the second of April, 1801. There miral Boratio finally, the great seacock met e son. j^.g equals. It was a case of Dane fight Dane, with honors evenly divided; *'for the battle was neither won bv the English nor lost b}^ the Danes." The Nelson type of men, in whose veins the blood of generations of Vikings coursed, were the men that made England all povv^erfnl on the sea. The early Celtic inhabitants of England were but indifferent sailors. Their ships were small and un3eaworth3% and the3' appear never to have undertaken arA^ extended voyages. When the Romans invaded the island, the Britons were ut- terly unable to cope with them on the water; and yet, the Romans had never been particularly^ at nome on the treacherous deep! The Saxons, on the river-mouths of German3% vrere no better off. As mentioned above (page 9); they could not even use ships successfulh' to hinder Charlemagne in crossing the Rhine and the Elbe. In England, where they mixed with the Jutes, the conditions ^vere much better, and seafaring and commerce held a position of some importance. At length the Viking deluge broke on English shores and the transformation, destined to make England great, was begun. These sea-rovers built the first really seaworthy- ships on record. Nations of antiquity had acquired a greater or SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. 131 lesser degree of skillin seacraft in proportion as the geographical position of their shorelines per- mitted; and the Phoenecians even held the proud distinction of being the first to circumnavigate the continent of Africa. But for all that their galle\^s were built for alongshore carrying-trade and for sailing on inland waters rather than to endure the storm and tempest of the open ocean. Not so the dragons in which the Vikings sailed. They Avere large and strong, well suited for furrowing the broad Atlantic. The Northmen laid the foundation of 'modern The Northmen, navigation, by extending com- and English mercial intercourse to a degree Love for the ttea. ^ r i i i xi beiore unknown; and by thus uniting parts of the globe which were previotisly separated, they in a manner changed the face of the whole world.' When they swept down upon England, the Anglo-Saxon inhabitants there could offer but little resistance. We read of King Alfred building fleets— which, by the way, he was forced to man, in part at least, w^ith Frisians — in the vain hope to cope with the invaders. The islands were conquered, the new nation imbued wdth an unbounded love for the sea, and in a few short generations England had taken her place at the head of the maritime powers. This Norse leaven worked that now, — •'l^rittania needs no bulwarks, No towers along the steep. Her march is o'er the raonntain wave Her home is on the deep." 10* 132 SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. The sea-rovers who scoured the sea with Haw- kins, Drake and Raleigh, and whose chief dehght it was to chase the Spaniard from his Main, and burn his shipping in the Great King's own ports, were Vikings of the blood descended. When in 1588 the Invincible Armada appeared in the Channel, England's only safety lay in her *^vood- en walls." And the battling s^Dirits who on that CA^entful day so skillfully outsailed and outfought the Spaniard, and thereby determined that Pro- testantism and freedom, and not Popery and despotism, should rule the half of Europe and the whole of future America, were — English Vikings. We have had occasion earlier in these pages to make mention of the influence upon England of Danish law. This is the time to dwell a little more in full upon that subject. In the Old North every freeman was "lord of his own castle." The household, including kin, retainers and thralls, must needs" abide by his w^ll. In his home-dis- trict, he voiced his will at the Thing and cast his vote in the manner he deemed best. At the Gen- eral Thing of the kingdom, where all freemen, great and small, would assemble, he chose his king or dethroned him, as the case might be. There he voted war and peace, made treaties w4th the neighboring small-kings, settled disputes, made national laws, etc. He loved dearly these institutions of freedom and wherever he w^ent into the world he took SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. 133 them with him. He might to a degree give up the tongue he spoke, but his laws and free institutions, Norse Law in never! The beginning of the England. tenth century'' marks the intro- duction of Norse, or Danish, laws into England. At that time, the Scandinavian settlers in East Anglia, and of the coast lying to the northward, concluded a treaty with their English neighbors which placed the two nations on an equal legal footing, by providing for the punishment of crime and the payment of fines, each nationality according to its own laws.* A decade or two later, King Edgar granted further important law privileges to the Danes who by that time had forced their waj- into the ver^^ heart of England.! B3^ degrees Danish law supplanted the Anglo- Saxon code in the whole of the country north of Watlinga-Straet— the socalled Danelag, i. e. ^'Danes-law." When the Danish king Knud the Great seized the throne he encouraged its intro- duction to other sections of England as well. Af- *Thus the English were to pay "wite," or fines, according to the English law, in pounds and shillings; while the Danes were to make compensation for "lah-slit" [i. e. infkac- TiON OF THE LAW, from the old Norsk log, law, and .^-lita, to rend in two, break], according to the Danish law in "marks" and "ores." — Worsaae, pp. 156-157. f'Then will I that with the Danes such good laws stand as they may best choose, and as I have ever permitted to them, and will permit so long as life shall last me, for their fidelity, which they have ever shown me." — Edgar's Laws, ch. 12. 134 SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. ter the Conquest William the Conqueror ''com- manded that these laws should be in force throughout the kingdom and consequenth^ even in the purely Anglo-Saxon districts, as both his own forefathers and those of almost all his barons, had been Northmen, who had formerly emigrated from Norwa}'."* In the north of England the newcomers divided the country into TniNG-districts precisely the same w^a3^ as in Scandinavia. Memorials irom those times may be seen in such names as Thing- wall in Cheshire and Tingwall in the Shetlands and in the Isle of Man (Scan., Thingvoll, or Thing- void — the Thing mound). The towns too had their Things, where municipal laws — the By-Love (Eng., town-lavvs, from which is derived our mod- ern word by-laws) — were enacted. In the days of Henry I (1100-1135) England was divided into three general law circuits, each with a system peculiarh^ its own. They were, Wessex, Mercia, and the Danelag.t This might appear to contradict what is said of William the Conquer- or in relation to the Danish law; but the truth is, that in the fourth year of his reign that monarch *Worsaae, p. 1^6. tin the IL Heury, paragraph I, we read: "Regnum An- glie trifarium dividitur in regno Britannie, in AYestsexiam, et Mireenos, et Danorum provinciam." And further, in para- graph 2: "Legis eciam Anglice trina est particio, ad super- iorurn modum; alia enine Westsexie, alia Mircena, alia Danelaga est." SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. 1 35 was persuaded to reinstate Edward the Confess- or's laws wherever the people preferred them to the new system. Nevertheless, the laws of Wes- sex and Mercia had by the beginning of the twelfth century become so colored by the influence of the Danish law, that numerous judicial terms and words of Scandinavian origin could never be eradicated. In course of time the Great hnglish Common Law w^as moulded, embodying all the important law customs and usages that had been in vogue in the different judicial circuits. And a careful, impartial analysis of that famous codex illustrates be3^ond a shadow of doubt the very extraordinary influence of Scandinavian laws up- on England. As an instance, may be taken tlie institution of the jury SA'Stem. This system has for centuries been a pOAverfu agent in preserving popular freedom in L-^n gland, and is today as potent an agent in the comnion- wealths that have sprung from her. Much has The Norse Ori^'-in ^^^^ written variouly explain- of the Jury ing its introduction to England. ^}to em. A few students assert that it is' of Anglo-Saxon origin, ascribing its introduction to the great King Alfred. Another class, and this more numerous, maintains that the Anglo-Saxons knew absolutely nothing about trial by jury that its original home was Scandinavia, wdience it was carried by Rolf Ganger to Normandy, and from the latter countrj^ came to England as one 136 SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. of the fruits of the Norman Conquest. Yet others aver that it was introduced direct from the North; that it came as an inevitable result of the Danish Invasion. And to none other than to the old Scandinavians should the honor be ascribed. We might argue, wdth some effect, that if the Normans were able to introduce trial by jur3' to sections of France, and later carry it with them to Eng- land, was it not to be expected that their brothers who invaded England in much greater numbers, coming in continuous streams for several centu- ries, should have accomplished as much as they? As a matter of tact, we have very definite proofs of the existence of jur3^ trial before the Norman Conquest,* a /2G? this ejcistence of it in the Dane- lag, while it was yet entireh^ unknown in the Saxon districts. The adherents of the Anglo-Sax- on theory of origin have long been in the habit of pointing to a certain passage in King Ethelred's *Says Worsaae, in speaking of the question: ''It must now be regarded as a point quite decided that the earliest posi- tive traces of a jury in England appear in the Danelag, '^among the Danes established there, and that long before William the Conqueror's time, they had brought over from their old home the Scandinavian N^VN, or jury, into the districts northeast of Watlinga-Straet, colonized by them, just as their kinsmen and brothers introduced that power- ful safeguard of popular freedom into Iceland and Nor- mandy. It would, indeed, have been quite inexplicable that the Danes should have given up their peculiar Scandinavian N^VN in a country like England, where the Danish law obtained by degrees so extensive a footing that, during the reign of the first Norman kings, it was still in force in one- half of the kingdom."— pp. 164-165. SCANDIXAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. 137 laws b3^ way of proving their assertions. But this last peg seems now to have been so effectually knocked from under their hobby, by the learned English editor of those laws, Mr. Thorpe, that there can no longer be any room for argument. The particular passage so oft-quoted (found in Ethelredlll. If 3 and 13; and Ordinance gov- erning the Dun-Setas, ^ 3) ordains *'that every Wapentake shall have its Thing; that a 'Gemot' be held in every Wapentake, and the XII. senior Thanes go out, and the reeve with them, and swear on the relic that is given to them in hand, that they will accuse no innocent man, nor con- ceal any guilty one."— "And let doom stand where Thanes are of one voice; if they disagree let that stand which VIII of them say; and let those who are outvoted pay each of them, YI half marks. "— *'XII lahmen shall explain the law to the Wealas and the English, VI English, and VI Wealas. Let them forfeit all they possess if they explain it wrongly; or clear themselves that they knew no better." Says Worsaae: "A highly remarkble cir- cumstance has been too much overlooked, namely, that Ethelred's above-mentioned regulation as to the composition of the jury is contained onlr in the law just cited; which according to its latest English editor was intended onh^ for the five Burghs and the surrounding Danish districts." Again, "that it cannot have been intended for the Anglo-Saxon part of England ma^- be immediate- 133 SCAXDXAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. ly seen from the circumstance that all the fines mentioned in it are, without exception, fixed ac- cording to the Danish custom in marks and ores, and not, after the Anglo-Saxon custom, in pounds and shillings."* The twelve lahmen (Old Norse, logmandr; Dan., Lagmasnd), as mentioned in this law, are conceded to have been of Norse orgin. It is worthy of notice that the old Eng- lish Domesda^^-Book mentions lahmen only in Danish England. What is more, states that the lahmen were always Thanes or men of equally high rank. Thetext of the law, lastly, makes use of a great man^^ judicial terms of Scandinavian origin. There are such as, "thrinna XII," (Dan., trende T^dvter Eed" — i, e. three times tvv^elve oaths); "lahcop," (Old Norse, logkaup); etc. etc.t Both Scotland and Ireland received their share of the swarming Northmen, here mostl3^ Norwe- gians; and, like England, their modern population carry not a little infusion of Norse blood. Caithness, comprising the northeast portion of Scotland, was for ages a Norwegian earldom; and the western coast and the outlying islands there, *Worsaae, pp. 163-164. tit is absolutely impossible in this brief exposition to do the subject trial by jury the justice which its importance right y demands. Nowhere, it seem to me, have we a bet- ter nor a more interesting treatment of it, than in J. J. A. Worsaae, The Danes and the Northmen, pp. 151-179. SCANDINAVIAx\ ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. 139 were strongly peopled b\^ the Norwegians. The The Northmen ^ea lying between Great Britain in Scotland and and Ireland was, practicallv Ireland. . . ^. . . , ' speaking, a Aorwegian lake, girth about by settlements, which were especially strong in Ireland, where they for ages held undis- puted sway over much of the eastern and south- ern coasts. There are families in the ancient city of Dublin, where a Norwegian dj'nasty of kings reigned uninterruptedh^ from 855 until about 1200, who to this day claim descent in direct line from these earl3^ lords of the coast. If one should run across an Irishman bearing the name of An- derson or some such similar surname ending in —son, he may immediately be singled out as of Scandinavian extraction. We have, however, no space for a lengthy digression upon these nation- alities. But, before leaving the present discussion ot the Scandinavian Elements in Old Eng- land for good, a few words in exposition of the remarkable old-time civilization 3'et traceable in the Isle of Man, seem not altogether out of place. This Manx stronghold lies about midway be- tween Cumberland and Ireland. While the G^lic tongue has entirely supplanted the Norse once spoken there, the island's present inhabitants \^et retain their old Scandinavian heritage of customs and laws so nearly perfect as to make them our best model of the ancient plan of the North. A passing survey of the island's geography is suf- 140 SCANDIXAVLAN ELEMENTS IX OLD ENGLAND. ficient to prove the Scandinavian origin of its many place names. There are Snasfell (Norw., Sneefl eld— snow-mountain), the highest mountain on the island, and, as seen by tracing the coast- line, beginning at the southeast point and moving west and north, Lang Naze (Langnes), Dalby, lurby ( Ivarb^^) Point, A^^r Point, Ramsey, Sulby, Laxey (Laxaa), Derby Haven, etc. That the Norsemen were at one time absolute in ^, ^ , ^ ^ the island many things be- The Isle of Man— ^ r ^i. Its Place Names, speak. The assertions of the Runes, Thing- sagas are here entirely super- ' ' fluous. Geographical and other monuments are so numerous on Man that it might almost be mistaken for a bit of Iceland or some comer of Nor\va3^ Thirty-nine grave monu- ments in the shape of stone crosses, generally bearing runic inscriptions, have been found near the old stone kirks, chiefly in the the northern section. Many of the inscriptions have been de- ciphered as simple Norse epitaphs. At Kirk Brad- dan, one reads: "Thurlabr Neaki risti krus thana aft Fiaks— bruthur sun Jabrs" ("Thorlaf Neaki erected this cross to Fiak — brother, a son of Jabr"); or at Kirk Andreas: ''Sandulf ein suarti raisti krus thana aftir Arin Biaurg kuinu sina" ("Sandulf the Swarthy erected this cross to Arn- bjorg, his wife.") These and numerous other monumental inscriptions of a similar nature con- tribute in a high degree to strengthen the chronicled SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. 141 accounts that a purely Norwegian civilization flourished here for hundreds of A^ears. But this is of the past. Something, however, of enduring influence and utility remains over — the old Norse constitution and the ancient custom of holding annual Things. And these, strange as it may sound, are held ''on the identical Thing-hill, T^mwald, from which, about a thousand years ago, the Nor- wegians governed the Sudreyar." (the South Is- lands) . When the Isle of Man fell under English rule Parliament allowed it to retain its ancient law-customs. Under existing conditions, while this law-making body enacts laws for every other part of the Kingdom, they are of no validity whatsoever in the island, should they happen to be out of accord with the ancient, existing law! Here appears an interesting example of "home rule." The organization of the government is strikingly similar to that of the Norwegian earl- doms which were found in those w^aters at an ear- ly date. It acknowledges the supreme authority of the English sovereign, as in days of yore, the King of Norway. A governor assisted by a council of nine comprise the upper house, and in a manner correspond to the Norwegian jarl and his advis- ers. The lower house, or ''house of ke^^s," con- sists of twenty-six members, holding life member- ship, and with influence as great as had any Nor- wegian Thane. T3^nwald Hill, which stands in a 142 SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN OLD ENGLAND. beautiful vale on the west coast, marks the last Thing-place existing of all set up by the Scandi- navians abroad. It lies there a beautiful green mound, rising in terraces, four in all, the top one with a circumference of about 200 feet. From this summit the old jarls of the "South Islands" were accustomed to make their annual proclama- tions. Now, 3'early, on St. John the Baptist's day, these proclamations are made by the governor, w^ho, upon that day, declares all the bills passed b3^ the "three estates" of the island to be good "Tjmwald Acts," or laws. Thus, the Norwegians may be said to have disappeared from the Isle of Man; but that love of freedom and that political superiority which marked them as unlike other men remain and have a lasting monument in — Tynwald Hill. To recapitulate: The Danes and Norwegians, w^ho settled in Great Britain and Ireland, came in A Ee-capitu- such numbers as to materially lation. influence the future existence of the English people. This they accomplished partl^^ by developing trade and fostering a love for the sea and for navigation; partty by weakening the Anglo-Saxon hold upon the countr}^, thtis prepar- ing for the advent of their brothers, the Normans; and j)artly by upholding certain inherited free civil and political institutions. Vv^hich in time be- came bulwarks against tyrant kings and their creatures, laying the cornerstone to English and, later, to American free institutions. Scandinavian Elements in the United States. The eastern counties of England, from the Thames northward, have been remarkable in his- tory as the British litus haereticam. No other section of the country could boast such a vigorous growth of Puritan heresy; none, such a readiness for strife at threatened freedom's call. The struggle between Parliament and King w^as in reality a test of strength between East England and West England. And the victories at Naseby and Mars- ton Moor were won by men from the eld Norse shires of York, Lincoln and Norfolk, the Norse- Anglican shires of Suffolk and Essex, with Cam- bridge, Huntingdon and a few^ others. The Puritan The Importance Revolution has been termed ''the of the Eastern most critical struggle in all his- Countiesinthe „ tt j -^ r -i j • -i- Puritan Revolu- tory. Had it failed, civihza- ticc; the Part tion would have received a set- They Plaj^ed in the Puritan Ex- back of most serious consequen- cdu8, ^gg^ jjQ-j- alone to England and Ameiica but the whole world. ''Had it not been for the Puritans," declares an eminent American historian, "political liberty would probabh^ have disappeared from the world." In this connection the Danish conquest of England is seen in one of 144 SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES. its most interesting and important faces. For, as reiterated time and again above, the Scandi- navian counties along the eastern coast v^'^ere the back-bone and main-stay of the entire movement. And when, in fulness of time, the all important exodus to America began, these selfsame counties not alone initiated the migration, but they poured forth one continuous stream of well-born men and women, who settled Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. The year 1604 marks the beginning of the struggle between James Stuart and the non- conformists. About that time, at a conference of leading Puritan clergymen, the king exclaimed, '*I will make them conform, or I wnll harry them out of the land." The former, no tyrant Stuart could ever do; as to the latter threat, here he suc- ceeded—but little as he dreamed it— to the better- ment of the whole world. At the old Norse village ot Scrooby the conflict w^as begun. There William Brew^ster, the government postmaster, took up the dangerous fight in behalf of Puritanism. He was materially aided in all his undertakings by the non- church Puritan minister John Robinson, a worthy of good Scandinavian ancestry, w^ho later became the famous Pilgrim pastor. A nota- ble third party to this conflict w^as William Brad- ford from old Austerfield in Scandinavian York- shire; he was destined to become the virtual fath- er of the Pilgrim colony in North America. With SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES 145 the help of these men Brewster organized the first independent, or * 'separatist," congregation in England. This was in 1606. So bitterly did the king persecute the daring heretics, that, following Robinson's advice, they fled to Le3^den, Holland, which they reached in 1609. It is of no use here to repeat the story of the Mayflower voyage. This much only w^ould I call ^, ^ .,. ^ attention to; namely, that out of TheSailing^ of , , -, ^ -, -, the Mayflower, the hundred odd men and women 1620. Qjj board the Pilgrim carrier, a great many must have been of Scandinavian des- cent, for did they not come from the heart of the Old Norse settlements! As much ma^^ be said of the passengers of the Fortune, 1521, and of the Anne and the Little James, 1623; they, likewise, were chiefly from the same region. It has been truly said that no mere accident gave the name of Boston to the present metropolis of Massa chusetts, nor named near-lying counties by such names as Norfolk, Suffolk, etc. It is of signifi- cance, too, that many New England personal names of historic prominence are of a purely Norse origin and can be traced to the Scandinavian section of England. Among these are such well- known names as Wenlock Christison, Francis Hig. ginson, Anne Hutchinson, Alexander Johnson, Abraham Pierson, William Robinson, Marm- aduke Stevenson and others. 11 146 SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES A hopeless task would it be now to seek out the actual influence exerted by Norse blood in laying the foundations to our great American Comnion- ■wealth. Suffice it to say, that it must have been extremely great. Thus we see the importance of the Danish invasion of England viewed in a new light. For by throwing forward, across the sea, a secondary migratory wave, it played a part in preparing the North American soil and people for Freedom's call. This influence is national therefore. Thanks are due to the Norsemen for many of our most import- ant civil and political institutions. For New Eng. land more than Virginia shaped the course to be followed by the American people. But even Vir- ginia could boast some good Norse blood. Take for instance the family -tree of George Washington, the foremost personage produced by this free American soil. The uncertainty long existing in The Probable regard to the EngHsh progeni- ^candinaviaii tors of the Washington Family, George^^^shing- which led to numberless and ton. fruitless controversies among genealogists, was practically cleared up by the publication, in 1879, of The Pedigree and His- torj^ of the Washington Faniilj^, by Albert Wells, President of the American College for Genealogical Registry and Heraldrj^. This eminent scholar's position enabled him to obtain what without a doubt is the correct pedigree. SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES 147 His correspondent, a lineal descendant of the Eng- lish progenitor, who spent thirty years in gather- ing evidence for his work, writes: "If I had not taken upon myself the great labor of examining those inestimable records, the 'Common Pleas Rolls,' the truth of that great man's lineage would not have been revealed. They are of immense value, and I hope you will make them known to 3^our countrymen by the publication of a Wash- ington History. The pedigree I now send I can establish by legal evidence." The Family-tree, as recorded in Welles' book has its root away back in Danish History. It origin- ates, in fact, with an early 'Royal Line of Den- mark and is traced through thirty -two genera- tions to Thorfinn the Dane, who settled in York- shire long before the Norman Conquest.' "The descent is traced in Denmark and England, from father to son, down through the centuries, includ- ing branches in different shires, to John Washing- ton, the great grandfather of George Washington in twenty generations from Thorfinn; with inter- esting personal matter regarding nearly 500 members of the family and their alliances in England and America." George Washington, a Dane! This certainly must sound strange to many of our American countrymen; and especial- ly to those who never think of tracing their own family history farther back than to some English shire or village. Here, what a field of hidden 11* 148 SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES possibilities lies ready for exploration.* Let the American people make a careful study of their pedigrees and marvelous will be the results! Yes, establish be3^ond a doubt that many of the nation's greatest men had their origin in that old fountain head — the Scandinavian North. The great Teutonic migration is still going on. With other peoples, the Scandinavians are yet today doing their share of changing the national complexion of the United States. At an early day, in obedience to a mandate of the immortal Gus- tavus Adolphus, the Swedes first turned their faces toward America. Since 1638 a continuous stream of Norwegians, Swedes and Danes have flocked to our w^estern shores. The tide of immigration hardty as yet shows any indication of abatement. Thus, beginning with the Viking Age centuries Modern Nor h- ^S^f '^^^ North has poured its men in the best blood in ceaseless streams westward into the world, to better the world. The scum of a people is not in the habit of immigrating. In the case of the Scandinavians only the great middle class of work- ing people have gone out; for the Northern gov- ernments have generally been careful to keep their pauper and criminal classes at home, and the upper classes, with few exceptions, are too well ♦For a complete discussion of this interesting subject see Albert Welles,THE Pedigree and History of the Wash- ington Family, New York, 1879. SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES 149 contented to think of leaving. In 1900 there were in the United States about 3,500,000 Scandi- navians. This is counting the immigrated parents and their first American-born generation. While found in every state in the Union, they are es- pecially numerous in the great Northwest, includ- ing the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, the two Dakotas, Ilhnois, Iowa and Nebraska. They are, upon the whole, a conservative class, inclined somewdiat toward clannishncss. But they are honest and progressive, making the very best citizens. Coming, as they do, from the most liter- ate countries of Europe, they cannot but exert a very great elevating influence in the states where they settle. Like the New Englanders of old, their faith in school and church is unbounded. Institutions of Scandinavian- learning, as good as the best in Americans as the land. Sprint up where they Citizens. . , , . ^ , , . ^ . , settle, and their church-sprres point heavenward in every settlement. It is our proud boast that the Scandinavians in the United States have abetter record when it comes to moral depravity, than any other nationality represented. In 1890 1 out of 1,999 persons in this country was a criminal; 1 out of 860 Irish; 1 out of 1,103 English; 1 out of 2,013 American; 1 out of 2,715 German; and 1 out ol 5,933 Scandinavian.* *See O. N. Nelson. History or the Scandinavians and Successful Scandinavian's in the United States, Minneapolis, 19.0. 150 SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES This certainl3^ speaks well for the latter as law- abiding and as disinclined to vicioiisness. Used to a great measure of self-government at home they take kindly to our democratic form of govern- ment, are early naturalized, and take an active interest in politics. They fill offices of trust and honor, both state and national; and it ma}^ be said that no more scrupulous and honorable men have served as chief executives in their home states or as members of the national house or senate than the Scandinavian-Americans. Colonel Hans Mattson, in his Storv of an Emi- grant, makes use of the following language, which is worthy of repetition in full: "It is very true that the Scandinavian immigrants, from the early colonies of 1638 to the present time, have furnished strong hands, clear heads, and loyal hearts to the Republic. They have caused the wilderness to blossom like a rose; they have planted schools and churches on the hills and in the valleys; they have honestly and ably ad- ministered the affairs of town, count\^ and state; they have helped to make wise laws for their respective commonwealths and in the halls ot congress; they have with honor and ability repre- sented their adopted country abroad; the3^ have sanctified the American soil with their blood, shed in freedom's cause on the battlefields of the revolu- tionary and civil wars; and though proud of their SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES 151 Sc^iiidinavian ancestr3^, they love America and American institutions as deeply and as truly as the descendants of the Pilgrims, the starry emblem of liberty meaning as much to them as to any other citizen."* The modern Norse immigration to the United States must by us be viewed as a continuation of that important movement initiated so long ago. In this wise interpreted, the Norse discovery of America ceases to be accidental, and of no conse- quence, and is seen to conform to certain laws of humanity as natural as an^^ governing the move- ments of the planets in their course around the sun. The true significance of the discovery of America, it seems to me, lies in this that the Northmen were fate's chosen agents in preparing To Slim up Our Western Europe for the passage Arguments. q£ ^j^^ hitherto unsurpassable ocean, by inculcating in those people a love for the very element they^ formerly held in such abject fear; in this that they were strong enough and virtuous enough to put that distinguishing stamp upon l^vUgland which has made her what she is, and which subsequently^ decided the course for the United States to follow; in this that they not alone were the pioneers on the American coast and that *Colonel Hans Mattson, The Stoky of an Immigrant, St. Paul, 1890. 152 SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES they prepared the waj^ but that the great move- ment which ended in the estabhshment, on the new continent, of a nation "conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal," can be explained wholly ^nd solely in the fortunate blending of the early English and men from the Scandinavian North. FINIS. e^-J> LE 10