The reader will occasionally find in these narratives instances of a
marvelous and supernatural character, but there is nothing at all
mythological, as persons ignorant of their nature have supposed. Besides
there are multitudes of narratives of a later date, to be found in all
languages, which contain as many statements of a marvelous nature as
these Sagas, which are nevertheless believed to contain a substantial
and reliable ground-work of truth. All early histories abound in the
supernatural, and these things are so well known that illustrations are
hardly needed here. The relation of prodigies in no wise destroys the
credibility of historical statement. If this were not so, we should be
obliged to discard the greater portion of well known history, and even
suspect plain matters of fact in the writings of such men as Dr.
Johnson, because that great scholar fully believed in the reality of an
apparition known in London as the Cock-Lane Ghost. The Sagas are as free
from superstition and imagination as any other reliable narratives of
that age, and just as much entitled to belief.
There will also, in certain cases, be found contradictions. The
statements of the different narratives do not always coincide. The
disagreements are, however, neither very numerous nor remarkable. The
discrepancies are exactly what we should expect to find in a series of
narratives, written at different times and by different hands. The men
who recorded the various expeditions to New England in the eleventh
century agree, on the whole, quite as well as the writers of our own
day, who, with vastly greater advantages, undertake to narrate the
events of the second colonization in the seventeenth century.[65]
Therefore these marvelous statements and occasional contradictions in
nowise detract from the historic value of the documents themselves,
which, even in their very truthfulness to the times, give every evidence
of authenticity and great worth. To this general appearance of
truthfulness we may, however, add the force of those undesigned
coincidences between writers widely separated and destitute of all means
of knowing what had been already said. The same argument may be used
with the Sagas which has been so powerfully employed by Paley and others
in vindicating the historical character of the New Testament. In these
narratives, as in those of Paul and John, it may be used with
overwhelming effect. Yet we do not fear to dispense with all auxiliary
aids. We are willing _to rest the whole question of the value of these
narratives upon their age_; for if the Sagas date back to a period long
prior to the voyage of Columbus, then the Northmen are entitled to the
credit of having been the first Europeans to land upon these shores. But
the date of these narratives has now been settled beyond reasonable
question. The doubts of the ablest critical minds, both in Europe and
America, have been effectually laid to rest, and the only reply now
given to the Northern Antiquarian is some feeble paragraph pointed with
a sneer.
We need not, therefore, appear before the public to cry, Place for the
Northmen. They can win their _own_ place, as of old. They are as strong
to-day in ideas, as anciently in arms.