4 DANIEL BRUUN. 
Further away lay Greenland, the existence of which the new 
inhabitants of Iceland surmised at once. It was a man named GUNN- 
BIÖRN who had discovered that there were some islands to the west of 
Iceland, the so called Gunnbiörns-skerries most probably on the east 
coast of Greenland about where the present trading-station Angmags- 
salık is. 
As the longing for freedom had driven the Norsemen from their 
native country to the islands of Faroe and Iceland, thus was Greenland 
searched and discovered by the freeborn, courageous, indomitable, and 
quarrelsome man, Eric the Red, who as an outlaw, was obliged to find 
a refuge for three years. 
He came to Iceland from Norway in his childhood with his father 
Thorvald (“son of Osvald, son of Ulf, son of Öxna-Thori”) from whom 
he seems to have inherited his trait of character. 
In the Saga of Eric the Red we read: 
“Thorvald and his son, Eric the Red left Jæderen for Iceland on 
account of manslaughter; Iceland was then vastly inhabited. They 
first lived in Drangar on Hornstrand’s (coasts of Horn, Hornebeach), 
Thorvald died there, Eric married Thiodhild, Jörund’s and Thorbiörg 
Knarrarbringa’s daughter who then was married to Thorbiörn from 
Haukadal. 
Eric then proceeded northwards and lived at Zricsstad by Vainshorn». 
Jæderen was one of the few places in Norway where agriculture, 
on account of the eountry’s level surface, could be carried on to some 
extent. 
If one goes southwards on an excursion from Stavanger or from any 
of the other Stations on the line on the way to Egersound, to Jæderen, 
one gets at once the impression that the country resembles certain parts 
of Jutland (in Denmark): big flat ranges alternating with undulating 
heights; here and there one finds steeper ranges which for the greater 
part consisted of pebbles. Heaths and downs are not wanting; but 
between these lay cultivated tracts, on which one sees farms and cul- 
tivated fields, showing that the earth’s fertility was not inconsiderable. 
We discover, on our expedition through Jæderen, which coast is 
washed by the turbulent North Sea, and through which Hafrsfiord cuts, 
and memorable for the before mentioned naval battle, many places 
with reminicenses of the time of the Vikings, in form of stone monuments, 
still standing. Here we find sites of ancient farms which completely 
resemble those in Iceland and Greenland. In the graves of the Vikings 
is found rich property, showing, that these parts belonged to them, 
where culture long before the beginning of history had taken root. People 
ol the stone age already had lived there and in the time of the Vikings 
Jæderen was a flourishing country. 
Eric the Red was probably born here in the middle of the 10th 
century, and as his father had to leave the country on account of man- 
