982. THE SCANDINAVIANS. 5 



of its fishermen might have been driven thither, and 

 left behind them these rehcs of Christianity ;* or, 

 as Forster supposes, some of the Norman pirates, 

 with their booty, after plundering Ireland, may 

 have directed their course to the westward, and 

 left there these articles of their booty, j 



Towards the close of the tenth centuiv, a man 

 of the name of Thorw^ald, being obliged to fly on 

 account of a murder, set sail for Iceland. His sou, 

 Eric Rauda, or Eric the Redhead, having also been 

 guilty of murder and many irregularities, soon fol- 

 lowed. The latter set out from hence on an expe- 

 dition to the westw ard in 982, and fell in with that 

 part of the east coast of Greenland called lierjolfs 

 Ness, and standing to the southward, entered a 

 large inlet, which was called by him, or after him, 

 Eric's Sound.:}: He passed the winter on a pleasant 

 island in this sound, explored the coast in the fol- 

 lowing year, and in the third year returned to Ice- 

 land ; and by a lively description and the most 

 lavish praises of its green and pleasant meadows, 

 and the abundance of fine fish on the coast, he 

 induced a number of settlers to accompany him to 

 this newly discovered country, to which, in com- 

 parison of its appearance with Iceland, he gave 

 the name of Greenland. Such is the account of 

 this discovery, as given by the northern historian 



* INIallet's Northern Antiquities. 

 . t Forster's Northern Voyages. 

 X Tarfei Green. Ant. 



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