[14-1] The translation that follows, by Arthur Middleton Reeves, is based
on the text of Hauk's Book, No. 544 of the Arna-Magnaean Collection,
collated with No. 557 of the same collection. In _Origines Islandicae_,
II. 610, this saga is called "The Story of Thorfinn Carlsemne."
[14-2] The rubrics here given in italics are found in the original
manuscript.
[14-3] In eastern Norway.
[14-4] From 853 to 871.
[15-1] A blank in the original manuscript.
[15-2] This introductory paragraph, giving at the end the ancestry of
Gudrid, the daughter of Thorbiorn Vifilson and a prominent figure in the
Vinland voyages, seems to come first on account of the earlier historical
allusions that it contains. The account of Gudrid is continued in the
third paragraph.
[15-3] In southwestern Norway.
[16-1] Movable planks used in constructing the lock-beds of the sleeping
apartment. They were often beautifully carved, and hence valuable.
[16-2] An island midway between Iceland and Greenland, discovered in the
latter part of the ninth century. Gunnbiorn was a Norwegian. This island
is no longer above the surface. See Fiske, _The Discovery of America_, p.
242.
[17-1] This should read _Eastern_ Settlement, evidently a clerical error
in an original manuscript, as both Hauk's Book and AM. 557 reproduce it.
There were two settlements in Greenland, the Eastern and Western, both,
however, to the westward of Cape Farewell, and between that cape on the
south and Disco Island on the north. Ericsey (_i.e._, Eric's Island) was
at the mouth of Ericsfirth, near the present Julianshaab. For further
details on the geography of these settlements, see Reeves, _The Finding
of Wineland the Good_, p. 166, (25), and Fiske, _The Discovery of
America_, I. 158, note.
[17-2] On the western coast of Greenland, about 70 deg. N. Lat.
[17-3] The saga up to this point is taken from Landnama-bok, the great
Icelandic authority on early genealogy and history. It might well have
included one more paragraph (the succeeding one), which gives an
approximate date to the colonization of Greenland: "Ari, Thorgil's son,
says that that summer twenty-five ships sailed to Greenland out of
Borgfirth and Broadfirth; but fourteen only reached their destination;
some were driven back, and some were lost. This was sixteen [S: fifteen]
winters before Christianity was legally adopted in Iceland." That is, in
about 985, as Christianity was accepted in 1000 (or 1001). There is a
possible variation of a year in the usually accepted date. See _Origines
Islandicae_, I. 369.
[20-1] "Winter-night-tide" was about the middle of October.
[23-1] The home of Eric the Red, in the Eastern Settlement.
[24-1] This was evidently the first time that the voyage from Greenland
to Norway was accomplished without going by way of Iceland, and was a
remarkable achievement. The aim was evidently to avoid the dangerous
passage between Greenland and Iceland.
[24-2] A reference to some strange happenings in the winter of 1000-1001
at the Icelandic farmstead Froda, as related in the Eyrbyggja Saga.
[25-1] Of the year 999. See next note.
[25-2] King Olaf ruled from 995 to 1000. He fell at the battle of Svolder
(in the Baltic) in September, 1000. It was in the same year that Leif
started out as the King's missionary to Greenland. See p. 43, note 1.
[25-3] A wild cereal of some sort. Fiske is convinced that it was Indian
corn, while Storm thinks it was wild rice, contending with much force
that Indian corn was a product entirely unknown to the explorers, and
that they could not by any possibility have confused it with wheat, even
if they had found it. There is, moreover, no indication in this saga that
they found cultivated fields. Storm cites Sir William Alexander,
_Encouragement to Colonies_ (1624), who, in speaking of the products of
Nova Scotia, refers, among other things, to "some eares of wheate, barly
and rie growing there wild." He also cites Jacques Cartier, who, in 1534,
found in New Brunswick "wild grain like rye, which looked as though it
had been sowed and cultivated." See Reeves, p. 174, (50).
[25-4] Supposed to be maple.
[26-1] Also called Thorhild.
[27-1] That is, were near Ireland.
[28-1] The display of an axe seems to have been thought efficacious in
laying fetches. See Reeves, p. 171, (39), citing a passage from another
saga.
[30-1] Thorfinn Karlsefni, the explorer of the Vinland expeditions, was
of excellent family. His lineage is given at greater length in the
_Landnama-bok_ (Book of Settlements).
[31-1] Usually called Gudrid.
[32-1] There is doubt as to why the expedition sailed northwest to the
Western Settlement. Possibly Thorfinn desired to make a different start
than Thorstein, whose expedition was a failure. See Reeves, p. 172, (45).
[32-2] _Doegr_ was a period of twelve hours. Reeves quotes the following
from an old Icelandic work: "In the day there are two _doegr_; in the
_doegr_ twelve hours." A _doegr's_ sailing is estimated to have been
about one hundred miles. There is evidently a clerical error in this
passage after the number of days' sailing. The words for "two" and
"seven" are very similar in old Norse.
[33-1] The language of the vellum AM. 557 is somewhat different in this
and the previous sentence. It does not say that "they sailed southward
along the land for a long time, and came to a cape," but, "when two
_doegr_ had elapsed, they descried land, and they sailed off this land;
there was a cape to which they came. They beat into the wind along this
coast, having the land upon the starboard side. This was a bleak coast,
with long and sandy shores. They went ashore in boats, and found the
keel of a ship, so they called it Keelness there; they likewise gave a
name to the strands and called them Wonderstrands, because they were
long to sail by."
[33-2] AM. 557 says _biafal_. Neither word has been identified.
[33-3] Hauk's Book says "eider-ducks."
[34-1] The god Thor.
[35-1] The prose sense is: "Men promised me, when I came hither, that I
should have the best of drink; it behooves me before all to blame the
land. See, oh, man! how I must raise the pail; instead of drinking wine,
I have to stoop to the spring" (Reeves).
[35-2] The prose sense is: "Let us return to our countrymen, leaving
those who like the country here, to cook their whale on Wonder-strand."
From an archaic form in these lines it is apparent that they are older
than either of the vellums, and must have been composed at least a
century before Hauk's Book was written; they may well be much older than
the beginning of the thirteenth century (Reeves). The antiquity of the
verses of the saga is also attested by a certain metrical irregularity,
as in poetry of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh centuries
(Storm).
[35-3] In the next sentence the authority for this doubtful statement
seems to be placed upon "traders."
[36-1] Note the word "hollows" with reference to the contention that
"wild wheat" is "wild rice." See p. 25, note 3.
[36-2] "Skin-canoes," or kayaks, lead one to think of Eskimos. Both Storm
and Fiske think that the authorities of the saga-writer may have failed
to distinguish between bark-canoes and skin-canoes.
[36-3] The vellum AM. 557 says "small men" instead of "swarthy men." The
explorers called them _Skraelingar_, a disparaging epithet, meaning
inferior people, _i.e._, savages. The name is applied, in saga
literature, to the natives of Greenland as well as to the natives of
Vinland. Storm thinks the latter were the Micmac Indians of Nova Scotia.
[36-4] "Lescarbot, in his minute and elaborate description of the Micmacs
of Acadia, speaks with some emphasis of their large eyes. Dr. Storm quite
reasonably suggests that the Norse expression may refer to the size not
of the eyeball but of the eye-socket, which in the Indian face is apt to
be large." Fiske, _The Discovery of America_, p. 190.
[37-1] This would seem to place Vinland farther south than Nova Scotia,
but not necessarily. Storm cites the Frenchman Denys, who as colonist and
governor of Nova Scotia passed a number of years there, and in a work
published in 1672 says of the inner tracts of the land east of Port Royal
that "there is very little snow in the country, and very little winter."
He adds: "It is certain that the country produces the vine
naturally,--that it bears a grape that ripens perfectly, the berry as
large as the muscat."
[37-2] An animal unknown to the natives. As Fiske suggests, "It is the
unknown that frightens."
[38-1] A euphemism for pregnant; the original is _eigi heil_.
[40-1] Thus reaching the western coast of Cape Breton Island and Nova
Scotia, according to Storm.
[40-2] The Norse word is _Ein-foetingr_, one-footer. The mediaeval
belief in a country in which there lived a race of unipeds was not
unknown in Iceland. It has been suggested by Vigfusson that Thorvald
being an important personage, his death must be adorned in some way. It
is a singular fact that Jacques Cartier brought back from his Canadian
explorations reports of a land peopled by a race of one-legged folk. See
Reeves, _The Finding of Wineland_, p. 177, (56).
[40-3] The literal translation is: "The men drove, it is quite true, a
one-footer down to the shore. The strange man ran hard over the banks.
Hearken, Karlsefni!"
[41-1] As skilled mariners the explorers were undoubtedly competent to
make such a deduction as this. If Storm and Dieserud are correct, the
explorers saw from the north coast of Nova Scotia the same mountains that
they had seen from the south coast.
[41-2] The Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland, according to Storm.
[41-3] Nothing can with certainty be extracted from these names. The
chances that they were incorrectly recorded are of course great. Storm
contends that they cannot be Eskimo. Captain Holm of the Danish navy, an
authority on the Eskimos, says, "It is not _impossible_ that the names
may have been derived from Eskimo originals." Fiske says, p. 189, note:
"There is not the slightest reason for supposing that there were any
Eskimos south of Labrador so late as nine hundred years ago." In this
connection Captain Holm says: "It appears to me not sufficiently proven
that the now extinct race on America's east coast, the Beothuk, were
Indians. I wish to direct attention to the possibility that in the
Beothuk we may perhaps have one of the transition links between the
Indians and the Eskimo." See Reeves, p. 177, (57).
[42-1] The description is clearly suggestive of processions of Christian
priests, in white vestments, with banners, and singing (Storm).
[42-2] Vellum AM. 557 has not the words "Ireland the Great." As to
"White-men's-land" (mentioned also once in the _Landnama-bok_), Storm
traces its quasi-historical origin to the Irish visitation of Iceland
prior to the Norse settlement. See _Studies on the Vineland Voyages_, p.
61. The explanation is, however, hardly convincing. See _Origines
Islandicae_, Vol. II., p. 625.
[42-3] AM. 557 says "Iceland's sea" (_i.e._, between Iceland and
Markland), and Hauk's Book, "Greenland's sea" (_i.e._, between Iceland
and Greenland).
[43-1] Thorlak was born in 1085, consecrated bishop in 1118, and died
Feb. 1, 1133. These dates are definitely known, and are important. "The
bishop's birth-year being certainly known, one can reckon back, and
according to the regular allowances, we shall have Hallfrid born about
1060, and her father about 1030, in Vinland, and Karlsefni as far back as
1000." Vigfusson in _Origines Islandicae_, Vol. II., p. 592. Vigfusson
seeks to corroborate the above by other allied lineages. If his
deductions are correct, they are revolutionary with reference to the
generally accepted chronology of the Vinland voyages. He is convinced
that Leif belongs to an older generation than Karlsefni and his wife, and
that Leif's declining years coincide with Karlsefni's appearance on the
scene. The expeditions would then stand in the year 1025-1035, or
1030-1040, while Leif may have headed the first expedition, say in 1025.
And he thinks that various things outside of the genealogies point to
this. See Introduction, p. 12, of this volume.
[43-2] Biorn was consecrated bishop in 1147, and died in 1162. His
successor was Bishop Brand "the Elder," who died in 1201. Both Hauk's
Book and AM. 557 refer to him as "the Elder"; hence the originals could
not have been written before the accession of the second bishop Brand,
which was in 1263. He died the following year. AM. 557 concludes with the
words "Bishop Brand the Elder." But in Hauk's Book the genealogical
information is carried down to Hauk's own time. He was a descendant of
Karlsefni and Gudrid, through Snorri, born in Vinland.