IN NORTHERN MISTS 



the son of a chief and naturally required a more honorable 

 death than other men. The Foster-brothers' Saga and Snorre 

 have the same thing about Thormod Kolbrunarskald at the 

 battle of Stiklestad, when he drew out the arrow and said: 

 " Well hath the king nourished us, there is still fat about 

 the roots of my heart." But of course there had to be a 

 slight difference; while Thormod receives the arrow in the 

 roots of his heart and has been well treated by the king, 

 Thorvald gets it in his small intestines and has been well nour- 

 ished by the country. Similar features are found in other Ice- 

 landic sagas. 



It is a characteristic point that both in the " Navigatio Bran- 

 dani " and in the " Imram Maelduin " three of the companions 

 perish, or disappear, either through demons or mythical beings. 

 With this the circumstance that in Karlsevne's voyage three 

 of his companions fall, two by the Skraelings and one by 

 a Uniped, seems to corespond. We may also compare 

 the incident in the " Imram Brenaind " where Brandan and his 

 companions come to a large, lofty, and beautiful island, where 

 there are dwarfs (" luchrupan ") like monkeys, who instantly 

 fill the beach and want to swallow them, and devour one of 

 the men (Crosan) (cf. the circumstance that in the fight with 

 the Skraelings two men fell, of whom only one is mentioned by 

 name). 



When it is related first that Karlsevne found five Skraelings 

 asleep near Wineland, whom they took for exiles (!) and 

 therefore slew, and that in the following year they again found 

 five Skraelings, of whom, however, they only took two boys, 

 while the others escaped, we may probably regard these as two 

 variants of the same story. This feature also has an air of 

 being borrowed in its dubious form, especially in the for- 

 mer passage ; but I have not yet discovered from whence it may 

 be derived. 



In the " Gronlendinga-l'attr " there is yet another variant. There Thorvald 

 Ericson and his men see three hide-boats on the beach, and three men under 

 each. " Then they divided their people, and took them all except one who got 



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