﻿98 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 59 



Eastern Greenland, pointed out nearly a century ago. But this was a 

 common name, readily applied; indeed our narrative presents later 

 another and very distant Biarney. Disco is unreasonably far north, 

 involving unnecessary struggles with icy currents ; and the flight from 

 it could hardly have been made in the time given by the sagas, though 

 perhaps this item need not be insisted on. An island, 1 off Baffin-land, 

 on the American shore has been suggested, bidding us assume not 

 only that this coast had been seen, as it may have been, but that it had 

 grown familiar enough for recognized nomenclature in details. We 

 have no warrant to go so far. A more moderate conjecture points to 

 the Greenland islands near the present Godthaab, where Davis was 

 attacked by Eskimo nearly six centuries afterward. They would make 

 a good taking-ofT point. It was only necessary to await a strong 

 steady wind from the north. Having this behind them, like migratory 

 birds of long travel, Karlsefni and his company sped down " south- 

 ward," or a little west of southward, on their way. 



One hundred and sixty men and several women besides Gudrid went 

 with him — perhaps children, too, as did Snorri in returning — for 

 families took all manner of chances in those reckless days. " All 

 kinds of live stock " owned by Greenlanders accompanied these 

 colonists in three, or possibly four, large vessels. Clearly they 

 intended permanent settlement. 



We must not call them viking-ships, which never sailed out of 

 Iceland or Greenland ; though Dr. Fiske 2 inadvertently styles Eric 

 the Red " a viking," in praising his explorations, and Colonel Higgin- 

 son 3 devotes much space to an account of Norse marauders, to make 

 us acquainted with the people who tried at great risk and through 

 much hardship to settle America. The only enlightenment is col- 

 lateral, and the general effect is misleading. 



Such utterances grow out of a confusion like that between sea-king 

 and viking, which gives the first syllable of the latter its broad current 

 mispronunciation. Three types must be distinguished : the sea-king, 

 the viking and the settled man of the north who created what 

 prosperity was going and offered the best hope for the future. The 

 first — for example Olaf the White Queen Aud's husband — made 

 conquests by his navy, and differed from other navy-wielders only in 



J J. T. Smith: The Discovery of America by the Norsemen in the Tenth 

 Century. Also the Minn. Hist. Soc. Report, already cited p. 13. (His map 

 with additions.) 



2 The Discovery of America. 



3 Higginson and MacDonald : History of the United States. Ed. 1905, pp. 

 25 et seq. 



