WINELAND THE GOOD 



of Leif Ericson is mentioned, unconnected with Wineland 

 or its discovery. 



(3) It is not till well on in the thirteenth century that Leifs 

 surname of Heppni, his discovery of Wineland (" Vinland " or 

 " Vindland "), and his christianizing of Greenland are mentioned 

 (in the " Kristni-saga " and " Heimskringla "), but still there is 

 nothing about wine. 



(4) It is not till the close of the thirteenth century that 

 any information occurs as to what and where Wineland 

 was, with statements as to the wine and wheat there, and 

 a description of voyages thither (in the Saga of Eric the Red), 

 But still the accounts omit to inform us who gave the name 

 and why. 



(5) The second and later principal narrative of voyages to 

 Wineland (the Flateyjarbok's " Gronlendinga-['attr ") gives a 

 very different account of the discovery, by another, and likewise of 

 the later voyages thither. 



(6) The first of the two sagas, and the one which is regarded 

 as more to be relied on, contains scarcely a single feature that is 

 not wholly or in part mythical or borrowed from elsewhere ; both 

 sagas have an air of romance. 



(7) Even among the Greeks of antiquity we find myths 

 of fortunate isles far in the western ocean, with the two 

 characteristic features of Wineland, the wine and the 

 wheat. 



(8) The most significant features in the description of 

 these Fortunate Isles, or Isles of the Blest, in late classical 

 times and in Isidore are the self-grown or wild-growing 

 vine (on the heights) and the wild-growing (uncultivated, 

 self-sown or unsown) corn or wheat or even cornfields (Isi- 

 dore). In addition there were lofty trees (Pliny) and mild win- 

 ters. Thus a complete correspondence with the saga's descrip- 

 tion of Wineland. 



(9) The various attempts that have been made to bring 

 the natural conditions of the North American coast into 

 agreement with the saga's description of Wineland are more 



59 



