36 DANIEL Bruun. 
The colonists in Greenland soon agreed to regulate their associa- 
tion in the same way as in Iceland. To judge from this, Greenland's 
constitution, was the same as over there, an aristocratic republic. One 
accepted mainly, the laws of Iceland, and once a year they gathered 
in court at Gardar the present Igaliko, which lay on the tongue of land 
(Eid) between Ericsfiord and Einarsfiord. Here the judicial proceedings 
took place, according to ancient Icelandic-Norwegian fashion. Firstly the 
assembly of lawgivers, consisting of chiefs and their assessors, secondly 
the tribunal and lastly the "lawspeaker” who pronounced and inter- 
preted the laws. 
Eric the Red had no particular command over the other Greenland 
well-to-do-farmers, but they willingly subordinated themselves to his 
capacity, intellect and his administrative talent, so that it can be said 
that he had been the highest chief in the republic, the lawspeaker of 
which he probably had been. 
We shall now go over, according to the Saga, to relate events which 
took place, during his, his son's and his son's son's time, for through 
them we get a glimpse of the conditions which stamped the flourishing 
and wrestling age of the country. 
We shall begin with: 
The Saga about Eric the Red. 
It relates first about a Norwegian king of the Vikings Olaf the 
White, who undertook an expedition in westerly direction to Irland, 
where he was made king in Dublin, and where later on he was killed. 
He was married to Aud the “deep-minded” who was a Norwegian woman 
of a great family. Their son, Thorstein the Red was as proud a Viking 
as his father. He ended his life as king over a part of Scotland; after 
which Aud built a ship in which she sailed to Iceland. Here she took 
land in the Dales on the west coast, and established herself on the farm 
Hvam by Hvamsfiord, therefore in the same region where Eric the Red 
came to live. 
“She was wont to pray on "Krossholar” (the crossheights) here she 
raised a cross, for she was christened and a devout woman”. 
At Hvam the place is still shown where she said her prayers. When 
she came to Iceland she had twenty free-born men in her suite, to them 
she gave land, but there were also some high born men who had 
been taken prisoners on a Viking expedition, and who therefore were 
called thralls. Amongst them was Vifil whom she gave free, and who 
lived at Vifilstad. He was a man of great presence, and his sons Thor- 
biörn (a friend of Eric the Red) and Thorgeir resembled their father. 
The Saga here relates how Eric the Red found Greenland, as we have 
already heard. 
We now turn to Snæfellsness, on whose extremest point to the west, 
the ice-covered mountain Snæfell lies, at the foot of which there lay 
