WINELAND THE GOOD 



For the rest, this feature too seems to have a connection 

 with the "Navigatio Brandani." It is there related that they 

 approach an island of smiths, where the inhabitants are filled 

 with fire and darkness. Brandan was afraid of the island; one 

 of the inhabitants came out of his house " as though on an 

 errand of necessity"; the brethren want to sail away and es- 

 cape, but 



" the said barbarian runs down to the beach bearing a long pair of tongs in 

 his hand with a fiery mass in a skin ^ of immense size and heat; he instantly 

 throws it after the servants of Christ, but it did not injure them, it went over 

 them about a stadium farther off, but when it fell ino the sea, the water began 

 to boil as though a fire-spouting mountain were there, and smoke arose from 

 the sea as fire from a baker's oven." The other inhabitants then rush out 

 and throw their masses of fire, but Brandan and the brethren escape [Schroder, 

 1871, p. 28]. 



In the narrative of Maelduin's voyage a similar story 

 is told of the smith who with a pair of tongs throws a fiery 

 mass over the boat, so that the sea boils, but he does not 

 hit them, as they hastily fly out into the open sea [cf. Zimmer, 

 1889, pp. 163, 329]. The resemblances to Karlsevne and 

 his people flying with all speed before the black ball of the 



women who are with child fall into sickness, and the others are smitten with 

 disease, so that the milk dries up in the breasts." But this " herbrestr " may 

 also be compared with the " vabrestr " spoken of in the Foster-brothers' Saga 

 [Grdnl. hist. Mind., ii. 334, 412], which M. Haegstad and A. Torp [Gamal- 

 norsk Ordbog] translate by " crash announcing disaster or great news " [cf. 

 I. Aasen, " vederbrest "]. Fritzner translates it by "sudden crash causing 

 surprise and terror," and K. Maurer by " Schadenknall." It would therefore 

 seem to be something supernatural that causes fear [cf. Gronl. hist. Mind., ii. 

 p. 198I. The " Gronlandske historiske Mindesmasrker " mention in the same 

 connection " isbrestr " or " jokulbrestr " in Iceland. I have myself had good 

 opportunities of studying that kind of report in glaciers, and my opinion is 

 that it comes from a starting of the glacier, or through the latter shrinking 

 from changes of temperature; similar reports, but less loud, are heard in the 

 ice on lakes and fjords. Burgomaster H. Berner tells me that the small boys 

 of Krodsherred make what they call " kolabrest," by heating charcoal on a flat 

 stone and throwing water upon it while simultaneously striking the embers 

 with the back of an ax, which produces a sharp report. 



1 " Scorium " (slag) is also used in mediaeval Latin for " corium," (animal's 

 skin, hide). 



9 



