This narrative is found in _Antiquitates Americanæ_, p. 65. It shows
that history, among the Icelanders, was not made subservient to family
interests. At the conclusion we have a (supplementary) notice of
Thorfinn and Gudrid, after their return to Iceland.
* * * * *
Now the conversation began again to turn upon a Vinland voyage, as the
expedition was both gainful and honorable. The same summer [A. D. 1010.]
that Karlsefne returned from Vinland, a ship arrived in Greenland from
Norway. Two brothers commanded the ship, Helge and Finboge; and they
remained that winter in Greenland. The brothers were of Icelandic
descent from Earlfiord. It is now to be told, that Freydis, Eric's
daughter, came home from Garda,[207] and went to the abode of Finboge
and Helge, and proposed to them that they should go to Vinland with
their vessel, and have half with her of all the goods they could get
there. They agreed to this. Then she went to the abode of her brother
Leif, and asked him to give her the houses he had built in Vinland; and
he answered as before, that he would lend, but not give the houses. It
was agreed upon between the brothers and Freydis, that each should have
thirty fighting men, besides women. But Freydis broke this, and had five
men more, and concealed them; and the brothers knew nothing of it until
they arrived in Vinland.[208] They went to sea, and had agreed
beforehand to sail in company, if they could do so: and the difference
was little, although the brothers came a little earlier, and had carried
up their baggage to Leif's houses. And when Freydis came to the land,
her people cleared the ship, and carried her baggage also up to the
house. Then said Freydis: "Why are you carrying your things in here?"
"Because we thought," said they, "that the whole of the agreement with
us should be held." She said, "Leif lent the houses to me, not to you."
Then said Helge, "In evil, we brothers cannot strive with thee:" and
bore out their luggage and made a shed, and built it farther from the
sea, on the borders of a lake,[209] and set all about it in order.
Freydis let trees be cut down for her ship's cargo. Now winter set in,
and the brothers proposed to have some games for amusement to pass the
time. So it was done for a time, till discord came among them, and the
games were given up, and none went from one house to the other; and
things went on so during a great part of the winter. It happened one
morning that Freydis got out of her berth, and put on her clothes, but
not her shoes; and the weather was such that much dew had fallen. She
took the cloak of her husband over her, and went out, and went to the
house of the brothers, and to the door. A man had gone out a little
before and left the door behind him, half shut. She opened the door, and
stood in the doorway a little, and was silent. Finboge lay the farthest
inside the hut, and was awake. He said: "What wilt thou have here,
Freydis?" She said, "I want thee to get up and go out with me, for I
would speak with thee." He did so: they went to a tree that was lying
under the eaves of the hut, and sat down. "How dost thou like this
place?" said she. He said, "The country, methinks, is good; but I do not
like this quarrel that has arisen among us, for I think there is no
cause for it." "Thou art right," says she, "and I think so too; and it
is my errand to thy dwelling, that I want to buy the ship of your
brothers, as your ship is larger than mine, and I would break up from
hence." "I will let it be so," said he, "if that will please thee." Now
they parted so, and she went home, and Finboge to his bed. She went up
into her berth, and with her cold feet awakened Thorvard, who asked why
she was so cold and wet. She answered with great warmth, "I went to
these brothers," said she, "to treat about their ship, for I want a
larger ship;[210] and they took it so ill, that they struck and abused
me. And, thou, useless man! wilt neither avenge my affront, nor thy own;
and now must I feel that I am away from Greenland, but I will
separate[211] from thee if thou dost not avenge this." And now he could
not bear her reproaches, and told his men to rise as fast as possible,
and take their weapons. They did so, and went to the tents of the
brothers, and went in as they lay asleep, and seized them all, bound
them, and led them out bound, one after the other, and Freydis had each
of them put to death, as he came out. Now all the men were killed; but
the women were left, and nobody would kill them. Then said Freydis,
"Give me an axe in my hand." This was done, and she turned on those five
women, and did not give over until they were all dead. Now they returned
to their own hut after this evil deed; and the people could only observe
that Freydis thought she had done exceedingly well; and she said to her
comrades, "If it be our lot to return to Greenland, I shall take the
life of the man who speaks of this affair; and we shall say that we left
them here when we went away." Now they got ready the ship early in
spring [A. D. 1011.] which had belonged to the brothers, with all the
goods they could get on, that the ship would carry, sailed out to sea,
and had a good voyage; and the ship came early in the summer to
Ericsfiord. Karlsefne was there still,[212] and had his ship ready for
sea, but waited a wind; and it was a common saying that never a richer
ship sailed from Greenland than that which he steered.
Freydis went home now to her house, which had stood without damage in
the meanwhile. She bestowed many gifts on her followers, that they might
conceal her wickedness; and she remained now on her farm. All were not
so silent about their misdeeds and wickedness, that something did not
come up about it. This came at last to the ears of Leif, her brother,
and he thought this report was very bad. Leif took three men of
Freydis's followers, and tortured them to speak, and they acknowledged
the whole affair, and their tales agreed together. "I do not care," says
Leif, "to treat my sister as she deserves; but this I will foretell
them, that their posterity will never thrive." And it went so that
nobody thought anything of them but evil, from that time.[213] Now we
have to say that Karlsefne got ready his ship, and sailed out to
sea.[214] He came on well, and reached Norway safely, and remained there
all winter and sold his wares; and he, and his wife, were held in
esteem by the best people in Norway. Now in the following spring, he
fitted out his ship for Iceland, and when he was quite ready, and his
ship lay outside the pier waiting a wind, there came to him a
south-country man, from Bremen, in Saxon land, who would deal with him
for his house-bar.[215] "I will not sell it," said he. "I will give thee
half a mark of gold for it," said the south-country man. Karlsefne
thought it was a good offer, and sold it accordingly. The south-country
man went away with his house-bar, and Karlsefne did not know what wood
it was. It was massur-wood[216] from Vinland. Now Karlsefne put to sea,
[A. D. 1012.] and his ship came to land north at Skagafiord,[217] and
there he put up his vessel for winter. In spring he purchased
Glambæirland,[218] where he took up his abode, and dwelt there as long
as he lived, and was a man of great consideration; and many men are
descended from him and his wife Gudrid, and it was a good family. When
Karlsefne died, Gudrid took the management of his estates, and of Snorre
her son, who was born in Vinland. And when Snorre was married, Gudrid
went out of the country, and went to the south,[219] and came back again
to Snorre's estate, and he had built a church at Glambæ. Afterwards
Gudrid became a nun, and lived a hermit's life, and did so as long as
she lived.[220] Snorre had a son called Thorgeir, who was father to
Bishop Brand's mother, Ingveld. The daughter of Snorre Karlsefnesson was
called Halfrid. She was mother of Runolf, the father of Bishop Thorlak.
Karlsefne and Gudrid also had a son called Biörn. He was father of
Thoruna, the mother of Bishop Biörn. Many people are descended from
Karlsefne, and his kin have been lucky; and Karlsefne has given the most
particular accounts of all these travels, of which something is here
related.