IN NORTHERN MISTS 



In another passage of this description Thorgils saw two 

 " women," which must mean the same. It is stated that 

 "they vanished in an instant" (" [^aer hurfu skjott"), just like 

 the underground beings. In the description of the voyage of 

 Bjorn Einarsson Jorsalafarer (given in Bjorn Jonsson's " An- 

 nals of Greenland ") it is related that when, in 1385, the same 

 Bjorn (together with three other vessels) on his way 

 to Iceland was driven out of his course to Greenland, and had 

 to stay there till 1387, he rescued on a skerry two "trolls," 

 a young brother and sister, who stayed with him the whole 

 time [Gronl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 438]. These, then, were Skrae- 

 lings in the Eastern Settlement; but the designation troll is 

 here used as a matter of course, although nothing troll-like is re- 

 lated of them. 



It may further be mentioned that in legendary tales and in many of the fan- 

 ciful sagas we hear of trolls in Greenland, who may originally have been de- 

 rived from the Skraelings, but who have acquired more of the troll- or giant- 

 nature of fairy-tale. In the tale of the shipwreck of the Icelandic chief, Bjorn 

 Thorleifsson and his wife on the coast of Greenland,^ the two were saved by 

 a troll man and a hag who each took one of them in panniers on their shoul- 

 ders and carried them to the homestead enclosure at Gardar. In the " Pattr 

 af Jokli Buasyni " Jokul is wrecked in the fjord " OUum Lengri " on the east 

 coast of Greenland, which was peopled by trolls and giants, and where a 

 friendly troll woman helps him to slay King Skramr, etc. [Gronl. hist. Mind., 

 iii. p. 521]. It will be seen that here there is nothing left of the Skraelings' 

 nature, but the usual Norse ideas of trolls and giants predominate. 



The most important records of Skraelings in Greenland in older times, in 

 addition to the works named above and the Islendingabok, are : the " Icelandic 

 Annals," where they are mentioned in one year, 1379, besides the allusion to 

 the voyage from Nort^rsetur in 1267 (cf. Vol I, p. 308), Ivar Bardsson's descrip- 

 tion of Greenland [Gronl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 259], and finally Gisle Oddsson's 

 Annals, where they are called " the people of America " [GronL hist. Mind., 

 iii. p. 459; G. Storm, iSgca, p. 355]. 



As the Norsemen, at all events during early days In Green- 

 land, were to a great extent dependent on keeping cattle, as 

 they had been in Iceland, they must have stayed a good deal at 

 their homesteads within the fjords; while the Eskimo, being en- 

 gaged in fishing and sealing, kept to the outer coast. And even 



1 Jon Egilsson's continuation of Hungurvaka, Gronl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 469. 



