IN NORTHERN MISTS 



cording to sentence; nor was the woman ever after in her right mind, and 

 died a little later." 



In 1408 one of the Icelanders married in Greenland, which 

 is of interest from the fact that several documents bearing 

 witness to the marriage are extant. In 1410 " Thorstein 

 Helmingsson and Thorgrim Solvason and Snorre Thorvason 

 and the rest of their crew sailed to Norway." Whether this 

 was in their own ship we do not know; but as they sailed 

 to Norway and not to Iceland it is doubtless most probable 

 that their ship was destroyed and that they had to wait these 

 four years for a passage to Norway. In 141 1 ^ a small vessel 

 was wrecked on the coast of Iceland; on board her came 

 Snorre Thorvason from Norway. His wife, Gudrun, had 

 during his absence married another man, in 14 10. She 

 ** now rode to meet him. He received her kindly." " Snorre 

 took his wife to him again, but they only lived a little while 

 together before he died, and she then married Gisle [the other 

 man] again." 



This is the last certain information we have of any 

 voyage to the ancient settlements of Greenland. After that 

 time all notices cease. As Holberg says [Danm. Hist., i. 

 531], after the time of Queen Margaret the succeeding kings 

 had so much to do that they had no time to think of old 

 Greenland.^ 



In 1 43 1 King Eric of Pomerania complained to the 

 English king, Henry VI., of the illegal trading which the 

 English had carried on for the previous twenty years (that is, 

 since 141 1) with "Norway's Lands and Islands": Iceland, 

 Greenland, the Faroes, Shetland, the Orkneys, Helgeland 

 and Finmark; and of the acts of violence and piratical 



1 According to another authority it was not till 1413. In any case it looks 

 as if traveling took a good time in those days. 



2 As evidence of the state of things it may be mentioned that we read in the 

 "Icelandic Annals" [Storm, 1888, p. 290] under 1412: "No tidings came from 

 Norway to Iceland. The queen, Lady Margaret, died. . . ." When com- 

 munication even with Iceland had fallen off to this extent, we can understand 

 its having ceased altogether with Greenland. 



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