﻿NO. 19 NORSE VISITS TO NORTH AMERICA BABCOCK 6l 



Southward from Greenland is Helluland, then comes Markland; thence it is 

 not far to Wineland the Good, which some men believe extends from Africa, 

 and, if this be so, then there is an open sea flowing in between Wineland and 

 Markland. It is said, that Thorfinn Karlsefni hewed a "house-neat-timber" 

 and then went to seek Wineland the Good, and came to where they believed this 

 land to be, but they did not succeed in exploring it, or in obtaining any of its 

 products. Leif the Lucky first found Wineland, and he then found merchants 

 in evil plight at sea, and restored them to life by God's mercy ; and he intro- 

 duced Christianity into Greenland, which waxed there so, that an episcopal 

 seat was established there at a place called Gardar. England and Scotland are 

 one island, * * * 



Dr. Storm attributed, not too positively, the unique and perfectly 

 warranted hypothesis of an " open sea (the strait of Cabot) flowing 

 in' between Wineland and Markland " to a certain geographically 

 minded Abbot Nicholas x of Thingeyri, who died in 1 159. This would 

 imply still greater antiquity for the accepted statement about Africa, 

 which it accompanies as an after-thought and corollary. Note also 

 that the passage preserves a tradition of disappointment hardly so 

 clearly stated elsewhere. Apparently the carven door-post, or what- 

 ever else the doubtful name house-neat-timber may convey, was cut 

 in Markland ; and their next move, according to the saga of Thorfinn 

 Karlsefni, took them that spring into temporarily pleasing quarters, 

 where they afterward underwent a trying winter and nearly lost 

 heart. This timber must be that which the Flateybook saga represents 

 him as carrying to Europe and selling at a good price, then learning 

 that it was mosur or mauser wood and worth far more — on all 

 accounts a very doubtful anecdote. We shall have more to say of 

 this material. 



From 1285 to 1295 there are a series of entries in the Icelandic 

 Annals concerning a certain new land west of Iceland, apparently 

 including " the feather islands." This land and islands were found 

 in the first year above given, and Land-Rolf, the zealous advocate 

 of an expedition to thoroughly explore them, died in the later year 

 named. During the interval he had been authorized and sent out 

 by King Eric and had traveled through Iceland, gathering volunteers. 

 If he had lived a little longer, something more might have come of 

 it. We must not insist over-precisely on direction, which these and 

 later people used very loosely. That it should be Markland, found 

 again from another point and believed to be a new discovery, may 

 seem strange, but to suppose with Reeves that the entries mean a 

 part of Greenland — so much nearer and so long and well known — 



*More emphatically credited with the same in J. Fischer : The Discoveries of 

 the Northmen in America. 



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