ESKIMO AND SKRiELING 



ers arrived there may also possibly be concluded from the mention, in the list 

 of fjords of the Eastern Settlement in Bjorn Jonsson's " Vetus Chorographia," 

 of an " Utibliks fjord" [Gronl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 228; F. Jonsson, 1899, p. 319], 

 which does not sound Norwegian and may recall the Eskimo " Itiblik," a 

 tongue of land. As Finnur Jonsson [1899, p. 276] points out, the name of the 

 fjord in Arngrim Jonsson's copy of the same list is " Makleiksf jorSr," 

 and both names may be misreadings of a man's name ending in " -leikr," 

 from which the fjord was called (in the same way as Eiriks-fjorSr, 

 etc.) ; but as " tJtiblik " has such a pronounced Eskimo sound, it appears to me 

 more probable that " Makleik-" may have arisen through a misreading of this 

 name, which was incomprehensible to Arngrim Jonsson and may have been 

 indistinctly written, rather than that both names should be corruptions, of 

 what? In that case it would afford strong evidence, not only that there were 

 Eskimo in the Eastern Settlement when the Icelanders established themselves 

 there, but also that they had intercourse with them. 



The " Historia Norvegiae " (thirteenth century) shows that a 

 hundred years later the Skraelings of Greenland were known in 

 Norway and perhaps it is because they there seemed stranger 

 that the Norwegian author mentions them. He says [Storm, 

 1880, pp. 76, 205] : 



" On the other side of the Greenlanders towards the north [i.e., on the 

 northern west coast of Greenland] there have been found by hunters certain 

 small people whom they call Skraelings; when these are struck while alive by 

 weapons, their wounds turn white without blood, but when they are dead the 

 blood scarcely stops running. But they have a complete lack of the metal 

 iron; they use the tusks of marine animals [' dentibus cetimes,' here walrus 

 and narwhale tusks] for missiles and sharp stones for knives." 



The curiously correct mention of the Skraelings' weapons 

 must be derived from a well-informed source, and the 

 statement established the fact that the Norsemen met with 

 the Eskimo of Greenland at any rate in the thirteenth 

 century, while at the same time it may imply that at that 

 time the Skraelings were not generally seen in the set- 

 tlements of Greenland. The statement as to their wounds, 

 although connected with myth, may further point to there hav- 

 ing been conflicts between them and the Norse hunters, who in 

 viking fashion dealt with them with a heavy hand; but at the 

 same time it discloses the view of the Skraelings as troll-like be- 

 ings (seep. 17). 



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