The Discoveries of America to the Year 1525

by Arthur James Weise

Here on Furdustrand,

Far from Fatherland.’ ...

“It is now to be told of Karlsefne that he with Snorro and Bjarni and their people sailed southward along the coast. They sailed a long time until they came to a river, which ran out from the land and through a lake into the sea. The river was quite shallow, and no ship could enter it without high water. Karlsefne sailed with his people into its mouth and called the place Hóp (ok kölludu i Hópi).[56] They found fields of wild wheat (sjálfsana hveitiakra) where the ground was low, and wine-wood where it was higher.... There was a great number of all kinds of wild animals in the woods. They remained at this place a half-month and enjoyed themselves, but did not find any thing novel. They had their cattle with them. Early one morning, when they were viewing the country, they saw a great number of skin boats on the sea.... The people in them rowed nearer and with curiosity gazed at them.... These people were swart (svartir) and ugly, and had coarse hair, large eyes, and broad cheeks. They remained a short time and watched Karlsefne’s people. They then rowed away to the southward beyond the cape.

“Karlsefne and his people had erected their dwellings above the lake. Some of the houses were near the water and others were farther away. They remained here during the winter.[57] There was no snow, and their cattle subsisted on the grass.”

It is further related that when spring drew near the natives again visited the Northmen and trafficked with them. “The people preferred red cloth, and for this they gave skins and all kinds of furs. They also wanted to purchase swords and spears, but Karlsefne and Snorro would not sell them any weapons. For a whole skin the Skraelings (Skraelingar) took a piece of red cloth a span long, and bound it around their heads.”[58] In this way they bartered for a time. Then the cloth began to diminish, and Karlsefne and his men cut it into small strips not wider than one’s finger, and still the Skraelings gave as much for these as they had for the larger pieces, and often more. “It happened that a bull, which Karlsefne had with him, ran out from the wood and bellowed loudly. This frightened the Skraelings so much that they rushed to their boats and rowed away to the southward around the coast.”

Three weeks afterward a large number of Skraelings returned in their boats uttering loud cries. “Karlsefne’s men took a red shield and held it toward them. The Skraelings leaped from their boats and attacked them. Many missiles fell among them, for the Skraelings used slings (valslöngur). Karlsefne’s men saw that they had raised on a pole something resembling an air-filled bag of a blue color. They hurled this at Karlsefne’s party, and when it fell to the ground it exploded with a loud noise. This frightened Karlsefne and his men so much that they ran and fell back to the river, for it seemed to them that the Skraelings were inclosing them on all sides. They did not stop until they reached a rocky place where they stoutly resisted their assailants. Freydis [the wife of Thorvard] came out, and seeing Karlsefne’s people retreating, cried out: ‘Why do you run, stout men as you are, before these miserable wretches, whom I thought you could knock down as you do cattle! If I had weapons I know that I could fight better than you!’ They did not heed her words. Freydis then attempted to keep up with them but could not. She followed them to the woods. The Skraelings pursued her. She found a dead man in the way. It was Thorbrand Snorrason. A flat stone was sticking in his head. His sword was by his side. She grasped it and prepared to defend herself. The Skraelings came toward her. She exposed her bosom and struck her breast with the sword. The Skraelings were frightened and ran to their boats and rowed away. Karlsefne and his men then came and praised her courage. Karlsefne lost two men but the Skraelings many more....

“Karlsefne and his men now perceived that notwithstanding the country was fruitful they would be exposed to many dangerous incursions of its inhabitants if they should remain in it. They therefore determined to depart and return to their own land. They sailed northward along the coast and found five Skraelings clothed in skins sleeping on the sea-shore. They had with them vessels containing marrow mixed with blood. Karlsefne’s men believed that they had been banished from the country and they killed them. After that they came to a cape and there were many wild animals on it.... Then they reached Straum fjörd, where there was an abundance of every thing which they desired. It is said by some that Bjarni and Gudrid remained behind with one hundred men, and did not go farther, but that Karlsefne and Snorro went southward and forty men with them, and that they were not longer in Hóp than two months, and that they returned from there the same summer.... They inspected the mountains at Hóp, which they thought belonged to a range which extended in two directions to the same distance from Straum fjörd. The third winter they were in Straum fjörd.... Snorro, the son of Karlsefne, was born here the first autumn, and he was three years old when they went away from Vinland. When they sailed from Vinland they had a south wind and came to Markland.”[59]

The Northmen it seems continued their visits to Vinland as late as the fourteenth century. In the geographical treatise of Adam of Bremen, written in 1073, the author says that it was told him by Sveyn Estrithson, King of Denmark, that Vinland was an island: “Moreover he said that an island had been discovered by many in that ocean, which is called Vinland, because vines grow spontaneously there, producing excellent wine. For that fruits abound there not having been sown, we are assured not by any vague rumor but by the trustworthy report of the Danes.”[60]

The island of Vinland is described in an old geographical document as lying on the opposite side of a channel, between it and Greenland: “Now is to be told what lies opposite Greenland, out from the bay already mentioned. Furdustrandir is the name of a land. There are such hard frosts there that it is not habitable as far as is known. South of it is Helluland, which is called Skraeling’s land. From there it is not far to Vinland the good, which some think goes out from Africa. Between Vinland and Greenland is Ginnungagap which flows from the sea called Mare Oceanum that encompasses the whole earth.”[61] On a map made by Sigurd Stephanius, an Icelander, in 1570, Helluland, Markland, Skraeling’s land, and the promontory of Vinland are represented as parts of the country now called Greenland.[62]