Yet they bore out to sea as soon as they were bound,[3] and sailed three days,till the land was sunk.[4] Then the fair wind fell off, and there arose north winds and fogs, and they knew not whither they fared; and so it went for many days. After that, they saw the sun, and could then get their bearings. Then they hoisted sail, and sailed that day before they saw land; and they counselled with themselves what land that might be. But Biarni said he thought it could not be Greenland. They asked him whether he would sail to the land, or not. “This is my counsel, to sail nigh to the land,” said he. And so they did,and soon saw that the land was without fells,[5] and wooded, and small heights on the land; and they left the land to larboard,and let thefoot of the sail look towards land.[6] After that, they sailed two days before they saw another land. They asked if Biarni thought this was Greenland. He said he thought it no more Greenland than the first; “for the glaciers are very huge, as they say, in Greenland.”They soon neared the land, and saw that it was flat land, and overgrown with wood.[7] Then the fair wind fell. Then the sailors said that it seemed prudent to them to land there; but Biarni would not. They thought they needed both wood and water. “Of neither are you in want,” said Biarni; but he got some hard speeches for that from his sailors. He bade them hoist sail, and so they did; and they turned the bows from the land, and sailed out to sea with a west-south wind three days, and saw a third land;but that land was high, mountainous, and covered with glaciers.[8] They asked then if Biarni would put ashore there; but he said he would not, “for this land seems to me not very promising.” They did not lower their sails, but held on along this land, and saw that it was an island; but they turned the stern to the land, and sailed seawards with the same fair wind. But the wind rose; and Biarni bade them shorten sail, and not to carry more than their ship and tackle would bear. They sailed now four days, then saw they land the fourth. Then they asked Biarni whether he thought that was Greenland, or not. Biarni answered, “That is likest to what is said to me of Greenland; and we will put ashore.” So they did,and landed under a certain ness[9] at evening of the day. And there was a boat at the ness, andthere lived Heriulf, the father of Biarni, on this ness; and from him has the ness taken its name, and is since called Heriulfsness.Now fared[10] Biarni to his father, and gave up sailing, and was with his father whilst Heriulf lived, and afterwards lived there after his father.
II.—The Voyage of Leif the Lucky.
[After Biarni had reached the Greenland settlement, and told his story, he was blamed for not having explored these unknown lands more carefully; and Leif the Lucky bought Biarni’s vessel, and set sail with thirty-five companions, to see what he could discover.]
(A.D. 999.) First they found the land which Biarni had found last. Then sailed they to the land, and cast anchor, and put off a boat, and went ashore, and saw there no grass.Mickle[11] glaciers were over all the higher parts; but it was like a plain of rock from the glaciers to the sea, and it seemed to them that the land was good for nothing. Then said Leif, “We have not done about this land like Biarni, not to go upon it:now I will give a name to the land, and call it Helluland (flat-stone land).”[12] Then they went to their ship. After that they sailed into the sea, and found another land, sailed up to it, and cast anchor; then put off a boat, and went ashore. This land was flat, and covered with wood and broad white sands wherever they went, and the shore was low. Then said Leif,“From its make[13] shall a name be given to this land;and it shall be called Markland (Woodland).”[14] Then they went quicklydown to the vessel. Now they sailed thence into the sea with a north-east wind, and were out two days before they saw land; and they sailed to land, and came to an island that lay north of the land; and they went on to it, and looked about them in good weather,and found that dew lay upon the grass;[15] and that happened that they put their hands in the dew, and brought it to their mouths, and they thought they had never known any thing so sweet as that was. Then they went to their ship,and sailed into that sound that lay between the island and a ness[16] which went northward from the land, and then steered westward past the ness. There were great shoals at ebb-tide;and their vessel stood up;[17] and it was far to see from the ship to the sea. But they were so curious to fare to the land, that they could not bear to bide till the sea came under their ship, and ran ashore where a river flows out from a lake. But, when the sea came under their ship, then took they the boat, and rowed to the ship, and took it up into the river, and then into the lake, and there cast anchor,and bore from the ship their skin-cots,[18] and made their booths.
Afterwards they took counsel to stay there that winter, and made there great houses. There was no scarcity of salmon in the rivers and lakes, and larger salmon than they had before seen. There was the land so good, as it seemed to them, that no cattle would want fodder for the winter. There came no frost in the winter, and little did the grass fall off there. Dayand night were more equal there than in Greenland or Iceland.… But when they had ended their house-building, then said Leif to his companions, “Now let our company be divided into two parts,and the land kenned;[19] and one half of the people shall be at the house at home, but the other half shall ken the land, and fare not further than that they may come home at evening, and they shall not separate.” Now so they did one time. Leif changed about, so that he went with them (one day) and (the next) was at home at the house.Leif was a mickle[20] man and stout, most noble to see, a wise man, and moderate in all things.
III.—Leif finds Vines, and goes back to Greenland.
One evening it chanced that a man was wanting of their people;and this was Tyrker, the Southerner.[21] Leif took this very ill; for Tyrker had been long with his parents, and loved Leif much in his childhood. Leif now chid his people sharply, and made ready to fare forth to seek him, and twelve men with him. But when they had gone a little way, there came Tyrker to meet them, and was joyfully received. Leif found at once that his old friend was somewhat out of his mind: he was bustling and unsteady-eyed, freckled in face, little and wizened in growth, but a man of skill in all arts. Then said Leif to him,“Why wert thou so late, my fosterer,[22] and separated from the party?” Hetalked at first a long while in German, and rolled many ways his eyes, and twisted his face; but they skilled not what he said. He said then in Norse, after a time, “I went not very far; but I have great news to tell. I have found grape-vines and grapes.”—“Can that be true, my fosterer?” quoth Leif. “Surely it is true,” quoth he; “for I was brought up where there is no want of grape-vines or grapes.” Then they slept for the night; but in the morning Leif said to his sailors, “Now we shall have two jobs: each day we will either gather grapes, or hew grape-vines, and fell trees, so there will be a cargo for my ship;” and that was the counsel taken. It is said that their long boat was filled with grapes. Now was hewn a cargo for the ship; And when spring came they got ready, and sailed off; and Leif gave a name to the land after its sort, and called it Vinland (Wine-Land). They sailed then afterwards into the sea, and had a fair wind until they saw Greenland,and the fells[23] under the glaciers.… After that he was called Leif the Lucky. Leif was now both well to do and honored.…
Now there was a great talk about Leif’s Vinland voyage; and Thorvald, his brother, thought the land had been too little explored. Then said Leif to Thorvald, “Thou shalt go with my ship, brother,if thou wilt, to Vinland.”[24]