﻿NO. 19 NORSE VISITS TO NORTH AMERICA — BABCOCK ©5 



and icy front of Greenland. Soon afterward her father died and 

 she went to live with her father-in-law Eric, who took charge for her 

 of the property that she inherited and managed it well. His own 

 death was not so very far away. 



That year two ships came out together from Iceland, one being 

 from the eastern side, partly owned and commanded by Biarni, an 

 historic figure ; the other from the western side, belonging to Thorfinn 

 Karlsefni, an experienced navigator and man of affairs, notable for 

 success in his undertakings. He was prosperous, too, and able to 

 reinforce the supply of good things very acceptably for the Yule- 

 time entertainment at Brattahlid. 



Icelanders were particular as to ancestry, and erudite in pedigree, 

 although some of the ancestral nicknames of their records have a 

 wild-Indian-like sound to our modern ears. Thord Horsehead, 

 Thord the Yeller, Fiddle Mord, Biorn Chestbutter and an extravagant 

 curiosity-shop of names developed from noses, breeches, and the like, 

 seem more at home in the tepees of Rain-in-the-Face and Sitting 

 Bull than as indicating eminent white men of a country which 

 produced great literature. Omitting such uncouthness, Thorfinn 

 Karlsefni, besides notable Danish and Norwegian lines of descent, 

 had for father, Thord the son of Snorri, who was the son of Thord 

 and his wife Fridgerd, daughter of Kiarval (Carroll) a "king of 

 the Irish " — the active and formidable Cearbhall of Ossory contem- 

 porary with Alfred the Great. 1 We have already taken note of 

 Gudrid's Gaelic descent. 



It is a curious reflection that the first recorded white American was 

 partly Celtic, both paternal and maternal. Perhaps it would be 

 stranger were this otherwise. Iceland was Irish and otherwise 

 Celtic to a degree rarely understood. Even the brother of the first 

 settler brought Irish slaves with him, who revolted, leaving their 

 name to the Westmanna (Westmen, Irishmen) islands, where they 

 found a temporary refuge. Others were brought in afterward at 

 every stage, perhaps the most distinguished being Melkorka, 2 the 

 kidnapped daughter of another Irish " King " Kiartan (perhaps 

 Cartan) . She was bought by an Icelandic chief on the site of Bergen, 

 Norway, passed for dumb through all the earlier years of her humilia- 

 tion, but died at last, respected, in her home, the ruins of which were 

 shown centuries afterward as " Melkorka-stead." Her grandson 



1 Eleanor Hull : Irish Episodes of Icelandic History. Saga Book of the Viking 

 Club, vol. 3, p. 337. 

 2 Laxd3ela Saga. Proctor's transl., p. 27. 



