﻿NO. 19 NORSE VISITS TO NORTH AMERICA — BABCOCK 169 



fiord and their much warmer southern home Hop with its loch and 

 river, marsh-grain and grape-covered hills; though the saga makes 

 the distinction clear, if read without misconception. 



His elaborate treatment of the insular myths and legends will 

 find its most abiding value as a study toward elucidating the problem 

 of the Mythical Islands of the Atlantic, closely allied to such questions 

 as those of Great Ireland and Wineland and calling aloud at the 

 present time for a more thorough investigation than has ever yet 

 been attempted. 



But we must insist that the Icelanders could never have borrowed 

 from the mass of Irish and antique myths and northern fairy stories 

 such a log-book-like narrative as that of Thorfinn Karlsefni, hitting 

 without fail such a great number of items accurately distinctive 

 of the Atlantic coastline of North America with practically no 

 introduction of European elements except possibly one or two arms 

 and gestures from Norse experience. And if we find the narratives 

 accurate in so very many items, why cannot we believe the voyagers 

 in the reasonable statement that they gave the name of Wineland to a 

 country which surprised them by its luxuriance of grapevine growth 

 and its abundance of large fine grapes good for wine making? Since 

 wild grain in plenty was also there, with plentiful fish and game, 

 shore-birds and their eggs, great trees for house-building and ship- 

 building, wood of finely veined and dotted grain for ornamental work, 

 tall grass excellent for hay and grazing, and, in the more southern 

 parts, a climate so mild as to remind them of the Canaries and Mauri- 

 tania, why should not they call it " good," even if that word had come 

 to especially imply something supernally fortunate and blessed, as in 

 the case of Teneriffe, Porto Santo, and Madeira? 



Such an instance as the sea currents of Straumey and Straumfiord, 

 found nowhere on our coast except in and near Grand Manan, of 

 such notable volume and power and nowhere corroborated by so many 

 coincidences of fact and statement, ought surely to show Dr. Nansen 

 (who expresses no doubt of them) that this saga-narrative can not be 

 mainly the product of old legendary lore and the same is at least 

 equally true of the emphatically and almost exclusively American 

 Wonderstrands. 



18.— GENERAL SURVEY 



We find, then, that there is no trustworthy record of any Norse 

 settlement in America existing continuously for more than one year ; 

 nor of any Norse voyages to America, excepting those of Leif and 

 Thorfinn and the visit of a small vessel more than three hundred and 

 forty years afterward. We may suspect what we will of that long 



