﻿NO. 19 NORSE VISITS TO NORTH AMERICA — BABCOCK 20, 



above, though Vigfusson in Origines Islandicse treats the events as 

 different, while reckoning both disappearances to be a little earlier 

 than Leif s voyage to Wineland. The ship of one Gudleif, it seems, 

 having sailed out of Dublin, was driven by storms to a western land 

 where, after some risk from the inhabitants, they were greeted by 

 Biorn, who was now a chief in his new country, but who warned 

 them away as from a place of danger. Without giving his name, he 

 inquired particularly about a certain woman, who was the cause of 

 his exile, and about their son, sending messages to both. In con- 

 clusion, the saga tells us that there was no proof of their story, but 

 that most people believe they went to Great Ireland. Vigfusson * 

 appears to accept this guarded statement as presenting a fact ; but 

 Reeves 2 does not feel the identification at all certain ; and doubtless 

 it is not. As to internal evidence, Biorn was on horseback, banners 

 were carried before him and his people spoke a language like Irish : 

 so wherever Gudleif went, if there be any truth in the details, it was 

 not to America. We may most safely treat this story as adding no 

 data to the material in hand, but merely borrowing from the better 

 authenticated legend of Ari Marsson, in developing an edifying 

 sequel to a well known Icelandic romance of reckless and lawless love. 

 Taking the passages above quoted with the Sigurdr Stefansson 

 map, hereafter more fully treated — which shows Helluland, Mark- 

 land and the upper part of Wineland, and bears traditional notes 

 of the latter's extension southward to the " wild sea " and to a 

 " fiord," separating it from the " America of the Spaniards " — we 

 might conjecture Great Ireland to be New Jersey, or the eastern shore 

 of Maryland, or Virginia south of the Chesapeake, according to our 

 choice among the " fiords." All are in the deep concavity of the 

 coast line between Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras ; all consequently 

 lie below and behind the southern sea front of New England and 

 Long Island. But precision can not really be insisted on ; for Stefans- 

 son must have had very vague ideas of everything below Cape Breton, 

 or else his drawing would have been extended in that direction. The 

 notes are perhaps by another hand, but if so represent equally well 

 the national tradition. However, Beauvois's conjecture locates 

 Great Ireland on the St. Lawrence. Others have located it in the 

 Mississippi Valley, or some part of Ireland itself. Storm thought it 

 a sort of reflection or adumbration of Iceland. But all non-American 

 identifications of this region seem rather far-fetched. 



1 Vigfusson and Powell: Origines Islandicae, p. 23. 

 2 A. M. Reeves: The Finding of Wineland the Good. Final Notes. 

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