116 DANIEL BRUUN. 
“Their ship came to Greenland's uninhabited districts, and the whole 
crew perished, which was discovered fourteen years later, when they 
found the ship and seven men in a cave in the rock. Amongst them was 
INGIMUND, his body was whole and undecayed, as well as his clothes; 
but beside him lay the skeletons of six men. There were also found 
wax and such runes, which related the incidents of their death. But 
this, people took to be a great sign that God being so well pleased 
with /ngimund’s behaviour, allowed him to lie so long in the air, with 
a whole and uninjured body. That summer when “the Stangarfoli” 
foundered, Asmund Kastanraze came (to Iceland) from Greenland.” 
Navigation between Greenland and foreign countries must, in those 
days, have been combined with great difficulties, not least on account 
of the Greenlanders only having few ships. They wanted both timber 
and iron. Ås time went on, and the conditions of life became worse, 
navigation had become less and less regular. Greenland merchants 
could hardly reckon upon selling their wares or getting new ones 
regularly imported. One got along as best one could. Characteristic 
in this respect is the tale of Asmund Kastanraze, who according to the 
annals in the year 1189 sailed from Greenland on a ship in which 
there was not a single iron nail, but only wooden nails, and the boards 
were wound about or fastened together with sinews. He wanted to go 
to Norway but was driven to Iceland, where he had to remain the fol- 
lowing winter. The year following the ship was wrecked. 
The dangers and difficulties of navigation are clearly expressed 
in a declaration from the year 1226, that it took five years to travel to 
Norway and back again. 
Saudafell in Iceland. (D. B.) 
