Discovery of Vinland.
“Now it is related that Bjarni Herjúlfsson came from Greenland to Eirek Jarl (son of the great Hákon, 1000–1015) who received him well. Bjarni described his voyage and the lands that he had seen. People thought he had shown a lack of interest as he had nothing to tell about them, and he was somewhat blamed for it. He became the Jarl’s hirdman, and went to Greenland the following summer. Now there was much talk about land discoveries. Leif, son of Eirek the Red, of Brattahlid, went to Bjarni Herjúlfsson and bought his ship, and gathered together thirty-five sailors. He asked his father Eirek to lead the expedition as before. Eirek declined it, saying he was too old, and was less able to bear hardship than formerly. Leif answered that even were this so he would still have with him more luck than the rest of his kinsmen. Eirek yielded, and when ready they rode from home. Not far from the ship Eirek’s horse stumbled,[[445]] and he fell and hurt his foot. Then he said: ‘It cannot be my fate to be the discoverer of any other lands than the one on which we now live. I will follow you no further.’ Eirek went home to Brattahlid and Leif with his thirty-five companions went on board. There was a man from the south with them called Tyrker. When they had made their ship ready they set out to sea. The first land they found was that which Bjarni had found last. They sailed towards it, cast anchor, put out a boat and went ashore, but saw no grass. The whole interior consisted of glaciers, and the land between them and the sea was like a plain of ice, and this seemed to them barren of good things. Leif said: ‘Now we have not acted with this land like Bjarni, who did not come ashore. I will give a name to the land and call it Helluland.[[446]] Then they went on board and sailed out to sea, and found another land. They approached it, cast anchor, pushed off a boat, and went ashore. This land was flat and forest-clad, and the beach was low, and covered with white sand in many places. Leif said: ‘This land shall be named after its properties, and be called Markland (Woodland). They then went on board again as quickly as they could. They sailed thence out to sea with a north-east wind for two days before they saw land. They sailed towards it, and came to an island lying north of it, and went ashore in fine weather and looked round. They found dew on the grass, and touched it with their hands, and put it into their mouths, and it seemed to them they had never tasted anything so sweet as this dew. Then they went on board and sailed into the channel, which was between the island and the cape, which ran north from the mainland. They passed the cape sailing in a westerly direction. There the water was very shallow, and their ship went aground, and at ebb-tide the sea was far out from the ship. But they were so anxious to get ashore that they could not wait till the high-water reached their ship, and ran out on the beach where a river flowed from a lake. When the high-water set their ship afloat they took their boat and rowed to the ship, and towed it up the river into the lake. There they cast anchor, and took their leather-bags (hudfat) ashore, and there built booths. They resolved to stay there over winter, and built large houses. There was no lack of salmon in the river and lake, and they were larger than any they had seen before. The land was so fertile that it seemed to them that no barns would be needed to keep fodder for the cattle during the winter. There was no frost there during the winter, and the grass lost little of its freshness. The length of night and day was more equal than in Greenland or Iceland. The sun set there at eykt[[447]] and rose at dagmál[[448]] on the shortest day. When they had finished building their houses, Leif said to his men: ‘I will divide you into two parties, as I wish to explore the land. One half shall stay in the skali (house), and the other explore the country, but not go so far that they cannot get home in the evenings, and not separate from each other. They did this for some time. Leif sometimes went with them, but at other times remained in the skali. He was a large and strong man, of imposing looks, and wise and moderate in everything.
“One evening it happened that they missed one of their men, Tyrker, the southerner. Leif was much grieved at this, for Tyrker had long been with him, and his foster father had been very fond of Leif in his childhood. He upbraided his men harshly, and made ready to go and search for him with twelve men. A short way from the house Tyrker met them, and was welcomed back. Leif soon saw that his foster father was in high spirits. He had a projecting forehead, unsteady eyes, a tiny face, and was little and wretched, but skilled in all kinds of handicraft. Leif said to him: ‘Why art thou so late, foster father, and why hast thou parted from thy followers?’ He then spoke for a long time in Thyrska, and rolled his eyes in many directions and made wry faces. They did not understand what he said. After a while he spoke in the northern tongue (Norrœna), and said: ‘I did not go much farther than you, but I can tell some news. I found a vine and grapes.’ ‘Is this true, foster-father?’ Leif asked. ‘Certainly it is,’ he answered, ‘for I was born where there was neither lack of vine nor grapes.’ They slept there that night, and in the morning Leif said to his sailors: ‘Now we will do two kinds of work, one day you shall gather grapes or cut vines, the other you shall fell trees so that I may load my ship.’ This they did, and their boat is said to have been filled with grapes, and a ship’s load of timber was cut. When spring came they made ready and left, and Leif named the land after its fruits, and called it Vinland. They sailed out to sea and got fair winds till they saw Greenland and its glaciers. Then a man said to Leif: ‘Why dost thou steer the ship so close to the wind?’ Leif answered: ‘I am attending to my steering, but I am also looking at something else; do you see anything remarkable?’ They answered they did not. Leif said: ‘I do not know whether it is a ship or a rock which I see.’ Then they saw it, and said it was a rock. His sight was so much better than theirs that he saw men on the rock. He said: ‘Now I want to keep closer to the wind, so that we may get to them, and we must give them help if they need it. If they are not peaceful they are in our power, but we are not in theirs.’ They approached the rock, cast anchor, lowered their sail, and set out a little boat which they had with them. Then Tyrker asked these men who their leader was. The leader answered that his name was Thórir, and he was a Norwegian, but what, he said, is thy name? Leif told his name. ‘Art thou the son of Eirek, the Red, of Brattahlid?’ Leif answered: ‘I am. Now I offer to you all to come on board my ship with as much cargo as it can hold.’ They accepted the offer, and sailed to Brattahlid, in Eiriksfjord, with the cargo, where they unloaded the ship. Leif invited Thórir to stay with him, and also his wife Gudrid and three other men, and for his own sailors and those of Thórir he got quarters. Leif took fifteen men from the rock, and was afterwards called Leif the Lucky. He was now rich and respected; that winter a disease came among the men of Thórir, and he and the greater part of his men, and also Eirek, the Red, died. There was much talk about Leif’s Vinland journey, and his brother Thorvald thought the land had been explored too little. Leif then said to him: ‘Thou shalt go with my ship, brother, if thou likest, to Vinland, but it shall first fetch the timber of Thórir from the rock. This was done” (Flateyjarbók, i. 538).
Third Voyage.
“Now Thorvald made ready (in Greenland, where his father Eirek lived), with the help of his brother Leif, for this voyage with thirty men. They prepared their ship and sailed to sea, and nothing is told of their journey till they came to Vinland, to the booths of Leif.... They sat quiet that winter and caught fish for food. In the spring Thorvald told them to make the ship ready, and sent the boat with some men to go west and explore the land during the summer. The country seemed to them fair and covered with forests; there was a short space between the forest and the sea, and the sands were white. There were shallows and many small islets. They found no abodes of men or animals, except in a westerly island, where they found a corn barn of wood. They found no other traces of men, and went back and came to the booths of Leif in the autumn. The next summer Thorvald went with his ship north-east along the coast. A strong gale burst on them off a cape, where they were driven ashore, and the keel of the ship was broken. They stayed there long and repaired it. Thorvald said to his followers: ‘I want you to raise the keel upright here on the ness, and call it Kjalarnes (Keel cape). This they did. Then they sailed thence in an easterly direction off the land, into the fjord mouths nearest the cape, which projected there, and which was covered with trees. They cast anchor and took their gangways ashore, and Thorvald walked up with all his followers. He said: ‘This is a fine country, and here I should like to raise my bœr.’ Then they walked down to the ship, and saw three marks on the sand inside the cape, where they found three skin-boats (canoes) with three men under each. They divided their men and took them all, except one who escaped with his boat. They killed the other eight, and then again went to the cape and looked round, and saw some eminences in the inner part of the fjord, which they thought were houses. Thereupon such drowsiness came over them that they could not keep awake, and all fell asleep. Then they heard a voice shouting which roused them all, saying: ‘Wake Thorvald and all thy men if thou wishest to save thy life. Go on board thy ship with all thy men, and leave the land as quickly as you can.’ Innumerable skin-boats came out along the fjord and attacked them. Thorvald said: ‘Let me put war hurdles on the sides, and defend ourselves as best we can, but kill few of them.’ This they did, and the Skrœlingjar[[449]] shot at them for a while, and then fled, each one as quickly as he could. Thorvald asked his men if they were wounded. They said they were not. ‘I have got a wound under my arm,’ he said, ‘an arrow flew between the gunwale and the shield under my arm, and here is the arrow; this will cause my death. I advise you to prepare to go back as soon as you can, but you shall take me to the cape, which appeared to me to be the most habitable. It may be that truth has come out of my mouth, and that I shall live there for a while. You shall bury me there, and put crosses at my head and feet, and henceforward call it Krossanes’ (Cross Cape). Greenland was then Christian, though Eirek, the Red, died before the introduction of Christianity. Thorvald died, and they carried out his wish, and then went to their other companions,[[450]] and told each other the tidings they knew. They lived there that winter, and took grapes and vines on board with them. In the spring they made ready for Greenland, and landed in Eireksfjord, and had great tidings to tell Leif” (Flateyjarbók, i. 541).
“Thorstein, son of Eirek, the Red, desired to go to Vinland to fetch the body of his brother Thorvald. He made the same ship ready, and took on board picked men as to strength and size, twenty-five men, and his wife, Gudrid. They sailed to sea when ready, and the land disappeared. They were thrown hither and thither all the summer, and knew not where they were. When a week had passed of the winter they landed in Lysufjord, in the western settlement of Greenland. Thorstein searched for houses, and got lodgings for all his men, while he and his wife had no lodgings. They two remained on board for some nights. Christianity was then still young in Greenland.”
Thorstein the Black, a heathen man, offered them lodgings.
“Early in the winter a disease came among the men of Thorstein, and many of them died. He had coffins made for the corpses, and had them brought on board and prepared, ‘for I want to take them all to Eireksfjord in the summer,’ said he. After a short time the disease came into the house of Thorstein the Black, and first his wife Grimhild fell sick. She was very large and strong, like men, but nevertheless the disease laid her up. Soon after Thorstein Eireksson fell sick, and they were in their beds, and Grimhild died. When she was dead, Thorstein the Black walked out of the room to fetch a board, and lay the body on it. Gudrid said: ‘Do not be long away, my good Thorstein.’ He answered he would not. Thorstein Eireksson said: ‘Strange does our housewife look now, for she rises on her elbow, draws up her feet, and searches for her shoes with her hand.’ Then Thorstein came in, Grimhild lay down, and every timber of the room creaked. Thorstein made a coffin for the body, took it away, and prepared it. He was large and strong, but needed it to take it away. Thorstein Eireksson’s illness grew worse, and he died. His wife, Gudrid, did not like it well. They were all in one room. Gudrid sat on a chair in front of the bench on which lay her husband, Thorstein. Thorstein the Black took her off the chair in his arms, and sat on another bench with her opposite Thorstein’s body. He talked much, and consoled her, and promised to go with her to Eireksfjord with the bodies of her husband and his men, and to have more people stay there for her entertainment and consolement. She thanked him. Then Thorstein Eireksson rose and said: ‘Where is Gudrid?’ Three times he said this, but she was silent, and said to Thorstein: ‘Shall I answer or not.’ He said, ‘Do not.’ He walked across the floor and sat on the chair with Gudrid on his knee. He said: ‘What dost thou want, namesake?’ Thorstein answered after a while: ‘I long to tell her fate.’”
The dead man proceeds to tell that he is in heaven himself, and that she will be married in Iceland. Thereupon these two who were alive, Thorstein the Black and Gudrid, went home to Eirek the Red.[[451]]