This description need not be taken to indicate that the Gunnbjörnskerries were supposed to lie in the midst of the sea between Iceland and Greenland; some place on the east coast of Greenland (e.g., at Angmagsalik) may rather be intended, which was sighted on the voyage between Iceland and the Eastern Settlement (taking “Greenland” to mean only the settled districts of the country). The direction “due west, etc.,” for the voyage to the Eastern Settlement is too westerly, unless it was a course by compass, which, although possible, is hardly probable. But as we shall see later there is much that is untrustworthy in the description attributed to Ivar Bárdsson.
A later tradition of Gunnbjörn’s voyage also deserves mention; it is found in the “Annals of Greenland” of the already mentioned Björn Jónsson of Skardsá (1574-1656), which he compiled from older Icelandic sources, with corrections and “improvements” of his own. He says there (“Grönl. hist. Mind.,” i. p. 88) that the reason why Eric the Red
“sailed to Greenland was no other than this, that it was in the memory of old people that Gunnbjörn, Ulf Kråka’s son, was thought to have seen a glacier in the western ocean (‘til annars jökulsins i vestrhafnu’), but Snæfells-glacier here, when he was carried westward on the sea, after he sailed from the Gunnbjörn’s islands. Iceland was then entirely unsettled, and newly discovered by Gardar, who sailed around the country from ness to ness (‘nesjastefnu’), and called it Gardarsholm. But this Gunnbjörn, who came next after him, he sailed round much farther out (‘djúpara’), but kept land in sight, therefore he called the islands skerries in contradistinction to the holm [i.e., Gardarsholm]; but many histories have since called these islands land, sometimes large islands.”
This last statement is in any case an explanatory “improvement” by Björn Jónsson himself, and doubtless this is also true of the rest. According to this the Gunnbjörnskerries lay even within sight of Iceland. In this connection it is worth remarking that his contemporary Arngrim Jónsson imagines (“Specim. Island.,” p. 34) the Gunnbjörnskerries as a little uninhabited island north of Iceland. This would agree best with the little Meven-klint, which lies by itself in the Polar Sea fifty-six nautical miles north of land, and perhaps it is not wholly impossible that it was rumours of this in later times that gave rise to the ideas of the Gunnbjörnskerries, which however by confusion were transferred westward.
It was long before any attempt was made, according to the narratives, to search for the land discovered by Gunnbjörn. In Hauk’s Landnámabók [c. 122] we read:
Snæbjörn Galti and Rolf of Raudesand
“Snæbjörn [Galti, Holmsteinsson] owned a ship in Grimså-os, and Rolf of Raudesand bought a half-share in it.[243] They had twelve men each. With Snæbjörn were Thorkel and Sumarlide, sons of Thorgeir Raud, son of Einar of Stafholt. Snæbjörn also took with him Thorodd of Thingnes, his foster-father, and his wife, and Rolf took with him Styrbjörn, who quoth thus after his dream:
‘The bane I see
of both of us,
all dolefully
north-west in the sea,
frost and cold,
all kinds of anguish;
from such I foresee
the slaying of Snæbjörn.’
“They went to seek for Gunnbjörnskerries, and found land. Snæbjörn would not let any one land at night. Styrbjörn went from the ship and found a purse of money in a grave-mound [‘kuml,’ a cairn over a grave], and hid it. Snæbjörn struck at him with an axe, and the purse fell. They built a house, and covered it all over with snow [‘ok lagdi hann i fonn’]. Thorkel Raudsson found that there was water on the fork that stuck out at the aperture of the hut. That was in the month of Goe.[244] Then they dug themselves out. Snæbjörn made ready the ship. Of his people Thorodd and his wife stayed in the house; and of Rolf’s Styrbjörn and others, and the rest went hunting. Styrbjörn slew Thorodd, and both he and Rolf slew Snæbjörn. Raud’s sons and all the others took oaths [i.e., oaths of fidelity] to save their lives. They came to Hálogaland, and went thence to Iceland, and arrived at Vadil.” There both Rolf and Styrbjörn met their death.
