﻿NO. 19 NORSE VISITS TO NORTH AMERICA — BABCOCK 6 



in the task. There is no evidence that he or they composed any part 

 of the saga except his genealogical pendant ; but the contrary appears 

 from the occurrence of every passage, excepting it only, in the parallel 

 but verbally independent saga of Eric the Red. This fact causes also 

 a very general belief that the latter was the title of the saga which he 

 transcribed, but for some reason the copy in the Hauksbook began 

 in the middle of one of the parchment pages with a blank space above 

 it, as though the title had not been determined upon. Possibly he 

 grudged the supremacy, even in title, of the founder of Greenland, 

 believing his own ancestor's achievements more important still ; yet, 

 finding the usage well settled, he may have hesitated to disturb it. 

 In the eighteenth century " The Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefni and 

 Thorbrand Snorrason " was written in for title by Arne Magnusson. 

 the greatest of Icelandic collectors and an authority whose every 

 action or utterance is held significant; but whether there were any 

 better warrant for this than convenience and completeness remains 

 unknown. It is usually styled The Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefni ; and 

 must obviously have been copied between 1305 and 1334; but not 

 from the same copy as the above mentioned saga of Eric the Red, for 

 the differences between them, although slight, run through every 

 part of the story, making everywhere for rather less archaic and 

 graphic diction in the former saga and, when there is any difference in 

 matter of substance, for less exact statement — a policy hardly to be 

 carried out by three men in the same way through a whole saga. 

 Hauk's close supervision might account for such changes, if we could 

 suppose any sufficient motive for making the story everywhere a little 

 less good as literature and in some places a little less serviceable as his- 

 tory. His career and his choice of material for the compilation do not 

 favor the hypothesis of carelessness or lack of discrimination. Since 

 these variations, then, can hardly be due to accident or to editing, we 

 must suppose two slightly different antecedent copies — one being a 

 little nearer the original than the other — from which the two surviving 

 sagas were independently made. For convenience of distinction we 

 adhere to the two names, but believe that the remote original bore 

 Eric's name only. 



The Flateybook's title-page recites that it was copied by two priests, 

 whose names are given, for John Haconsson, known in other instances 

 as a patron of such labors, the relevant parts of it being finished, as 

 supposed, about 1387 or certainly before 1400; though there have 

 been later additions, which do not concern us. This makes the 

 transcription about three-quarters of a century later than that of the 

 Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefni, roughly stated. 



