A. D. 996-1000. 279 



known iu thole remote regions, appears from the following defcription. 

 Sigurd Syr, the ftepfathcr of King Olaf the Saint, who is noted as a 

 plain man, a good farmer, and a lover of peace, could on extraordinary 

 occafjons drefs in breeches, or troufers, of Cordovan leather, and clothes 

 made of filk, with a fcarlet cloak over them. His fword was richly 

 adorned with carving in gold, and his helmet and Ipurs were gilded. 

 His horle had a faddle embelliflied with golden ornaments, and a bridle 

 fliining with gold and gems. Thofe articles of finery were not, how- 

 ever, fo often acquired by fair trade as by piracy, then the chief trade 

 of all the northern nations ; for, though fome of the Vikveriar (people 

 of the fouth part of Norway) are faid to have been confiderable traders 

 (according to the eftimation of their age and country) to England, Ire- 

 land, Saxony, Flanders, and Denmark, yet their attachment to trade did 

 not prevent them from fometimes amuling themfelves with piracy when 

 they found an opportunity, and taking free winter quarters in the coun- 

 tries of the Cbriftians *. ISnorro, HiJL Qlafi Saricti, cc. 31, 32, 62.] 



About this time periodical public markets, or feirs, were eflabliflied 

 in feveral towns of Germany and the northern kingdoms ; and a prin- 

 cipal part of the merchandize brought to them in thefe days of rapine 

 confifted of flaves taken in the wars, which were indeed often made 

 merely for the purpofe of carrying off captives^ Helmold relates that 

 he fow feven thoufand Danilli flaves at one time expofed to fale in the 

 market at Meklenburg. The common price of ordinary flaves of either 

 fex was about a mark (or eight ounces) of filver ; but fome female flaves, 

 for their beauty or qualifications, were rated as high as three marks. 

 Ifthorkeliji's EJfay on the Jltive t?-ade, pp. 4-9.] 



1000 or 1 00 1— -It was in the lafl: year of the tenth century, or the firfl 

 year of the eleventh, that the adventurous fpirit of the northern navigators 

 of Iceland carried them to a country fituated fouth-weft from Greenland,, 

 and having in the fliortefl: day the fan eight hours above the horizon, 

 which infers that it was about the forty-ninth degree of latitude. The 

 fertile foil was covered with wood, whence they called the country Merk- 

 land ; but having difcovered that it produced grapes fpontaneoufly, they 

 altered the name to Winland. The rivers were well fl:ored with fifti, and 

 efpecially with Large falmon. The natives, whom the Icelanders never" 

 faw till the third year of their voyages to the country, were a diminu- 

 tive race, who ufed boats covered with leather, and fought with bows 

 and arrows. Thefe people, after having a flsiirmifli with the Icelanders, 

 traded with them, giving them fine furs in exchange for their goods. 



Several of the fhips, which failed from Iceland for this new-found land, 

 carried a number of families in order to eftabliili a permanent fettle- 

 ment, which appears to have fubfifted at leaft above a century, as we 



_ * For the fake of conneding the detached parts of Norwegian commercial hillory, this paragraph is 

 introduced a few years earlier than its proper date. . 



