34 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 59 



all done he brought back his astonishing report to the elder colony, 

 calling for settlers to people this new Greenland. What he had found 

 justified the name as to the region chiefly intended, but the native 

 shrewdness and humor of the man come out in his announcement 

 presumably among friends that by giving it a good name they 

 would get settlers more easily. 



All at once he had become a popular hero. The tidings went 

 over Iceland, awakening an eager spirit of enterprise. Here was a 

 new realm won for them by a man whom they had expelled. Out- 

 lawry was disregarded and died out, hardly needing a formal rescind- 

 ing. One perfunctory duel for honor's sake ended the feud. We 

 are told that Eric had the worst of it, and can see that he might feel 

 able to afford such a settlement, having graver matters in hand. 

 Perhaps he was beginning to feel the claims of a continent. Then 

 a large fleet, for the time and country, set out under his leadership, 

 losing eleven vessels by the way, although the major part won through 

 and safely established themselves in their new home about the year 

 985. The center of this colony was at Eric's home, Brattahlid, near 

 one of the branches of what is now known as Igalico inlet. Appar- 

 ently he was the first judge as well as chief personage. Not far 

 away, toward the other branch, the Cathedral of Gardar was built 

 a hundred and forty years later. It still stands, though perhaps 

 an early fifteenth century restoration, as the ruined " Kakortok 

 church." In all that region Eskimo names have supplanted Norse, 

 except a few added by Danes in the last two centuries. Yet from 

 Greenland came the Lay of Atli and possibly Edda poems * and Dr. 

 Nansen supposes that a special school of versification had its origin 

 there. 



No one who follows the career of Eric, as outlined by the often 

 unsympathetic saga-men, will grudge him this hardly won triumph. 

 Few characters, if any, are more clearly presented in history ; few are 

 stronger and more interesting. A sea-king who never marauded ; 

 a just man, careful of what was confided to him, yet insisting 

 promptly on his rights at every cost ; a conservative, who could turn 

 explorer off hand with better results than the work of the very best ; 

 a deadly fighter who fought defensively only ; a man of hospitality, 

 cordiality, cheerfulness, who never complained except when his 

 Christian wife turned against him for remaining a pagan. 



He made the Norse Greenland, which stood as his monument for 

 nearly five hundred years. He gave the name by which we know it 



1 G. Vigfusson : Prolegomena to the Sturlunga Saga. p. 191. 



