[85] According to my experience the bear avoids the walrus, and I have never seen a sign of their fighting on land or on the ice.
[86] A complaint previously sent to the Pope, which, however, was false, as will be shown later.
[87] Mention should be made of two other factors, which Dr. Björnbo has suggested to me. It is possible that while the majority of the Norsemen were compelled more and more to adopt the Eskimo mode of life in order to support themselves, some more strong-minded individuals among them, and a few zealous priests, may have resisted stubbornly, and this may have led to fighting such as is spoken of in the legends. Nor must it be forgotten that the relentlessness of the Eskimo is usually accentuated when dealing with individuals who are only a burden to the community without benefiting it; and no doubt some among the Norsemen may have been reduced to such a position after the cessation of imports from abroad, since they were inferior to the Eskimo in skill as fishermen and sealers.
[88] It is true that Clavus mentions the warrior hosts of the infidel Karelians in Greenland; but this is evidently myth or invention (cf. [chapter xiii.]).
[89] According to another authority it was not till 1413. In any case it looks as if travelling took a good time in those days.
[90] As evidence of the state of things it may be mentioned that we read in the Icelandic Annals [Storm, 1888, p. 290] under 1412: “No tidings came from Norway to Iceland. The queen, Lady Margaret, died....” When communication even with Iceland had fallen off to this extent, we can understand its having ceased altogether with Greenland.
[91] Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. pp. 160, ff.
[92] See G. Storm, 1892, pp. 399-401. The letter was discovered some years ago in the papal archives by a priest from Dalmatia, Dr. Jelič. Cf. also Jos. Fischer, 1902, p. 49.
[93] Published by J. Metelka [1895].
[94] A. A. Björnbo, Berlingske Tidende, 1909; Björnbo and Petersen, 1909, p. 249.