It is clear that Björn Breidvikinge-kjæmpe here is the same as Are Mársson in the Landnáma, who was also driven by storms to Hvítramanna-land, had to stay there all his life, and according to the report of Thorfinn earl of Orkney (ob. circa 1064) had been recognised (by travellers like Gudleif ?), and was much honoured there. This incident of the travellers coming to an unknown island and there finding a man who has been absent a long while has parallels in many Irish legends. Thus it may be mentioned that Brandan, in the Navigatio, comes to the convent-island of Alibius, with the twenty-four Irish monks of old days, and meets there the old white-haired man who was prior of the convent and had been there for eighty years, but who does not tell his name. Brandan asks leave to sail on, but this is not permitted until they have celebrated Christmas there [Schröder, 1871, pp. 15, ff].[42]
Guð-Leifr and Leifr hinn Heppni
The resemblance between the two names “Guð-Leifr” (Gudleif == God-Leif) and “Leifr hinn Heppni” (Leif the Lucky) also deserves notice, as perhaps it is not merely accidental. One sails during the last years of St. Olaf from Ireland to Iceland and is carried south-westwards to Hvítramanna-land; the other sails during the last years of Olaf Tryggvason from Norway to Greenland and is carried south-westwards to Wineland the Good.
It might also be thought to be more than a mere coincidence that, while Leif Ericson is given the surname of “hinn heppni,” a closely related surname is mentioned in connection with Gudleif in the Eyrbyggja Saga, where he is called “Guðleifr Guðlaugsson hins auðga” (i.e., son of Gudlaug the rich). In the one case, of course, it is the man himself, in the other the father, who bears the surname. “Auðigr” means rich, but originally it had the meaning of lucky, and the rich man is he who has luck with him (cf. further “auðna” == luck, “auðnu-maðr” == favourite of fortune). Gudleif Gudlaugsson also occurs in the Landnámabók, but this surname is not mentioned, nor is anything said about this voyage, in exactly the same way as Leif Ericson is named there, but without a surname and without any mention of a voyage or a discovery; in both cases this is an addition that occurs in later sagas. In spite of the difference alluded to, one may suspect that there is here some connection or other. Possibly it might be that, as Guðriðr is the Christian woman among all the names beginning with Thor- and Freyðis, so the name of Guðleifr, which was placed in association with the Christian Hvítramanna-land, was used because it had a more religious stamp than “happ” and “heppen,” which in any case are as nearly allied to popular belief as to religiosity, and which were associated with the non-Christian Wineland.
Voyage of eight adventurers in Edrisi
The following tale in Edrisi, the Arabic geographer, whose work dates from 1154, bears considerable resemblance to the remarkable story of Gudleif’s voyage.[43]
Eight “adventurers” from Lisbon built a merchant ship and set out with the first east wind to explore the farthest limits of the ocean. They sailed for about eleven days [westwards] and came to a sea with stiff (thick) waves [the Liver-sea] and a horrible stench,[44] with many shallows and little light (cf. precisely similar conceptions, vol. i. pp. 38, 68, 181, 182, note 1). Afraid of perishing there, they sailed southward for twelve days and reached the Sheep-island (“Djazîrato ’l-Ghanam”), with innumerable flocks of sheep and no human beings (cf. Dicuil’s account of the Faroes, and Brandan’s Sheep-island, vol. i. pp. 163, 362). They sailed on for twelve days more towards the south and found at last an inhabited and cultivated island. On approaching this they were soon surrounded by boats, taken prisoners, and brought to a town on the coast. They finally took up their abode in a house, where they saw men of tall stature and red complexion, with little hair on their faces, and wearing their hair long (not curled), and women of rare beauty. Here they were kept prisoners for three days. On the fourth day a man came who spoke to them in Arabic and asked them who they were, why they had come, and what country they came from. They related to him their adventures. He gave them good hopes, and told them that he was the king’s interpreter. On the following day they were brought before the king, who asked them the same questions through the interpreter. On their replying that they had set out with the object of exploring the wonders of the ocean and finding out its limits, the king began to laugh and told the interpreter to explain that his father had once ordered one of his slaves to set out upon that ocean; this man had traversed its breadth for a month, until the light of heaven failed them and they were obliged to renounce this vain undertaking. The king further caused the interpreter to assure the adventurers of his benevolent intentions. They then returned to prison and remained there until a west wind came. Then they were blindfolded and taken across the sea in a boat for about three days and three nights to a land where they were left on the shore with their hands tied behind their backs. They stayed there till sunrise in a pitiable state, for the cords were very tight and caused them great discomfort. Then they heard voices, and upon their cries of distress the natives, who were Berbers, came and released them. They had arrived on the west coast of Africa, and were told that it was two months’ journey to their native land.
Resemblance between Edrisi’s tale and Gudleif’s voyage
As points of similarity to Gudleif’s voyage it may be pointed out that the Portuguese sail for thirty-five days altogether, to the west and afterwards to the south, and arrive at a country which thus lies south-south-west. Gudleif is carried before a north-east wind towards the south-west and reaches land after a long time. Both the Portuguese and the Icelanders are taken prisoners shortly after arrival; the former are surrounded by boats, the latter by hundreds of men. The Portuguese saw red-complexioned men of tall stature with long hair, the Icelanders saw a tall, stately man with white hair coming on horseback. They had to wait awhile before they were addressed in a language they could understand; the Portuguese being first spoken to by an interpreter in Arabic[45] who gave them good hopes, and afterwards brought them before the king, who assured them of his benevolent intentions; while the Icelanders were sent for by the great chief, who, when they came before him, spoke to them in Norse and was friendly towards them, and after long deliberations spoke to them again, and gave them leave to depart. The Portuguese had to wait in prison for a west wind before they could get away; the Icelanders had to wait for a favourable wind, which was again a west wind. The Portuguese were led away blindfold, obviously in order that they should not find their way back; when the Icelanders left it was enjoined upon them never to return. The Portuguese came to the west coast of Africa, from whence they afterwards had to sail northward to Lisbon; the Icelanders arrived in Ireland, and sailed thence the next summer northward to Iceland. It seems reasonable to suppose that there is some connection between the two tales; the same myth may in part form the foundation of both, and this again may be allied to the myth alluded to above of the Carthaginians’ discovery of a fertile island out in the ocean to the west of Africa. But there are also striking resemblances between Edrisi’s tale and the description in the Odyssey of Odysseus’s visit to the Phæacians in the western isle of Scheria. On his arrival there Athene warns Odysseus to be careful, as this people is not inclined to tolerate foreigners, and no other men come to them. Odysseus is brought before the king, Alcinous, who receives him in friendly fashion, and tells him that no Phæacian shall “hold him back by force,” and Odysseus relates his many adventures. Finally the Phæacians convey him while asleep across the sea in a boat, carry him ashore at dawn, and go away before he awakes [Od. xiii. 79, ff.]; this corresponds to the Portuguese being taken blindfold across the sea and left bound on the shore, until they are released at sunrise. The promise of the Phæacians, after Poseidon’s revenge for their helping Odysseus, never again to assist any seafarer that might come to them, may bear some resemblance to the incident of Björn Breidvikinge-kjæmpe trying to prevent Icelanders from seeking a land which “would show little mercy to foreigners.”
Moreover, the tales, both of Gudleif’s voyage and of Edrisi’s Portuguese adventurers, resemble ancient Irish myths.