WINELAND THE GOOD 



The Portuguese came to the west coast of Africa, from whence 

 they afterwards had to sail northward to Lisbon; the 

 Icelanders arrived in Ireland, and sailed thence the next 

 summer northward to Iceland. It seems reasonable to 

 suppose that there is some connection between the two 

 tales; the same myth may in part form the foundation of 

 both, and this again may be allied to the myth alluded to 

 above of the Carthaginians' discovery of a fertile island out 

 in the ocean to the west of Africa. But there are also 

 striking resemblances between Edrisi's tale and the descrip- 

 tion in the " Odyssey " of Odysseus's visit to the Phseacians in the 

 western isle of Scheria. On his arrival there Athene warns 

 Odysseus to be careful, as this people is not inclined to tolerate 

 foreigners, and no other me^i come to them. Odysseus is 

 brought before the king, Alcinous, who receives him in 

 friendly fashion, and tells him that no Phaeacian shall "hold 

 him back by force," and Odysseus relates his many adven- 

 tures. Finally the Phaeacians convey him while asleep across 

 the sea in a boat, carry him ashore at dawn, and go away 

 before he awakes [Od. xiii. 79 f.] ; this corresponds to the 

 Portuguese being taken blindfold across the sea and left 

 bound on the shore, until they are released at sunrise. The 

 promise of the Phaeacians, after Poseidon's revenge for their 

 helping Odysseus, never again to assist any seafarer that 

 might come to them, may bear some resemblance to the inci- 

 dent of Bjom Breidvikinge-kjaempe trying to prevent Iceland- 

 ers from seeking a land which "would show little mercy to 

 foreigners." 



Moreover, the tales, both of Gudleif's voyage and of 

 Edrisi's Portuguese adventurers, resemble ancient Irish 

 myths. 



In the " Imram Snedgusa ocus Mac Riagla " (of the tenth or close of 

 the ninth century), [cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 213 f., 216], the men of Ross slay King 

 Fiacha Mac Domnaill for his intolerable tyranny. As a punishment, sixty 

 couples of the guilty were sent out to sea, and their judgment and fate left to 

 God. The two monks, Snedgus and Mac Riagail, afterwards set out on a vol- 

 untary pilgrimage on the ocean — while the sixty couples went involuntarily — 



53 



