IN NORTHERN MISTS 



might easily be more than a match for a handful of Green- 

 landers, even though the latter had some advantage in their 

 weapons of iron^ — and of these, too, the Greenlanders never 

 had a very good supply, as appears from several narratives. 

 There would also be need of ships, which were costly and diffi- 

 cult to procure in Greenland; the few that were there certainly 

 had enough to do, and could hardly manage more than an occa- 

 sional trip to Markland for timber. Moreover, as the Greenland 

 settlements themselves and their oversea communications 

 declined after the close of the thirteenth century, so also did 

 their communication with America decrease, until it finally ceased 

 altogether. 



It would thus appear, from all that has been put for- 

 ward in this chapter, that Wineland the Good was originally a 

 mythical country, closely connected with the happy lands of 

 Irish myths and legends — which had their first source in the 

 Greek Elysium and Isles of the Blest, in Oriental sailors' 

 myths, and an admixture of Biblical conceptions. The 

 description of the country has acquired important features 

 from Isidore's account of the Insulas Fortunatas and from 

 older classical literature. This mythical country is to be 

 compared with " Hvitramanna-land " (the white men's land) 

 "which some call Ireland the Great (' Irland hit Mikla')." 

 Of this the " Landnama " tells us (cf. Vol. I, p. 353) that it 

 lay near Wineland, in the west of the ocean, six " dcegrs' " 

 sail west of Ireland (according to the " Eyrbyggja Saga " it lay 

 to the south-west) ; the Icelandic chief, Are Marsson, was 

 driven there by storms, was not allowed to depart, but was 

 baptized there and held in great esteem. Furthermore, the 

 same land is mentioned in the Saga of Eric the Red as lying 

 opposite Markland (cf. Vol. I, p. 330). Finally, in the " Eyrbyggja 

 Saga " there is a tale of a voyage (see later) which evidently 

 had the same country as its object, though it is not 

 mentioned by name. Since Thorkel Gellisson is given as 

 the authority for the story in the " Landnama," the legend 

 42 



