176 DANIEL BBUUN. 
namely Heriolfsness, which lay west of Narssak near Ikigait (Ostproven) 
of which we shall speak presently. 
Biörn mentions Melrakkaness (1. e. fox point) as the first mainland 
peninsula which stretches as far as the sea, west of Cape Farewell. Sand- 
höfn (now Narssak) lay to the west of it. East of Melrakkanes a narrow 
fiord (now Torssukatak) cuts inland; it joins an interior fiord (lua) with 
two arms (Kangikitsok and the creek into Zgdlorssuit, the latter most 
easterly). On both these arms ruins are found. 
This interior fiord must be Skagafjordr. Biörn as well as Ivar declare 
Sölvadalr to be “the most eastern settlement”, and in “Landnama” it 
is said, that “Sölvi took Sölvadalr”. Therefore, it seems to me reasonable 
to assume that Skagafiord and Sölvadalr are the two fiord arms mentioned. 
Finnur Jönsson’s opinion is, that Töfafiord, mentioned by Biörn, is the 
same as Torssukdtak. An ancient church inventory says that there was 
a church at Heriolfsfiord — Biörn calls it Heriolfsness church. Heriolfs- 
fiord is evidently that fiord (now Amitsuarssuk) which cuts into the 
country west of Melrakkanes. 
There is absolutely no doubt of Heriolfness being the present /kigait 
(Ostproven), as one has found ruins there of an ancient church and 
churchyard. They lie on a low tongue of land, which is overgrown with 
grass and heather. Close behind rises a very steep mountain and beyond 
the coast lie several low islands. Holm mentions, besides the church, 
two very dilapidated and indistinct Norse ruins, and added to which a 
number of remains of ancient Greenlandic houses. 
Through the washing away of the ground along the coast a great 
many things have been found at different times, which originate from 
the Norse churchyard, where at one time excavations were undertaken, 
when wooden coffins were found with the remains of skeletons, either 
clothed in woollen garments or without grave-clothes, besides which 
small wooden crosses which evidently had been laid in the graves. 
A tombstone with an inscription in majuscules (refer to page 109) dates 
hkewise from this churchyard, which the sea continues to diminish, by 
washing more and more away. 
The Landnam-man Heriolf lived at Heriolfsness. We find written 
in “Landnama”: 
“A man named Него, son of Bard, son of Heriolf, a kinsman of 
the Landnam-man Ingolf [in Iceland], who gave [the last mentioned] 
Heriolf the tract of land lying between Vaag and Reykianess. The 
younger Heriolf went to Greenland when Eric the Red began to colonize 
it. On his ship was a christian man from Syderé [Hebrides], who wrote 
the poem Hafgerdingadrapa. — — Heriolf took Heriolfsfiord into pos- 
session and became a very excellent man”. 
Bjarni Heriolfsson is mentioned as his son, whose expedition 
to north America's east coast is spoken of in Flateybook, and whose 
existence as a historical person is doubted (refer to page 52). The farm 
