NO. 19 NORSE VISITS TO NORTH AMERICA BABCOCK 87 



rid the Skrasling woman &quot; ; but is contradicted by the items of per 

 sonal appearance which are given. Some have suggested a white 

 woman in Wineland before these Norse visitors and certainly she is 

 described as having blonde hair and Icelandic apparel, but the prodi 

 gious eyes and invisibility seem rather to mark a non-human messen 

 ger of warning, proper to the fancy of the time. We are not told, 

 however, that the visitation helped Gudrid or her companions in any 

 way, for the warning came too late ; so perhaps the purpose, as con 

 ceived by the saga-writer, was merely to alarm, either malignantly or 

 as testing her constancy of mind. Whether there were any truth in 

 this story or not, the attack seems to have been real, and one of the 

 many ordeals through which Gudrid had to bring her little son. She 

 saw him grow to manhood in Iceland, worthily filling his father s 

 place after Thorfinn died. 



It will be seen that this little Snorri Thorfinnson, probably born on 

 or near Passamaquoddy Bay, is no vanishing figure of history, like 

 pretty Virginia Dare, who came so much later to the lost colony of 

 Roanoke, and has left us only the pathetic mystery of her fate. 

 His descendants have been numerous in all succeeding centuries, 

 including bishops, notable scholars, and other eminent men. 



Gudrid s later career has been touched upon. It seems that she 

 made a pilgrimage to Rome and also lived for a time the life of a 

 religious recluse, both according to the tenets and customs of that 

 period. She was widely known also for the aid she gave to churches, 

 convents, and charities. At every stage of her life we find her a 

 woman of great helpfulness, power of attraction, force of character, 

 and upright, kindly, unsparing effort. Let us trust that this picture 

 is as true to historic fact as to the saga-writer s ideal of a noble 

 feminine nature. 



12. LEIF AND HIS VOYAGES 



Tradition gives us likewise the year 1000 for Leif s 1 unintended 

 exploit, the finding of Wineland. The time is fixed also by the simul 

 taneous conversion of Iceland in that memorable year of &quot; the change 

 of faith.&quot; He stands a &quot; wise and stately &quot; figure of history, says 

 Dr. Fiske, but his earlier adventures were neither exalted nor 

 generous. 



Leif sailed from Greenland for Norway, perhaps early in 999. 

 by the direct route, skipping Iceland an unprecedented attempt, 



1 G. Storm : Studies on the Vineland Voyages. Memoires Societe Royale des 

 Antiquaires du Nord, 1888. 



