NO. 19 NORSE VISITS TO NORTH AMERICA BABCOCK 55 



land, sailed from that country to seek Wineland, and vanished utterly. 

 At least there is no later mention of him, and two years afterward his 

 flock, who should know best, are found demanding a new shepherd. 

 The latter was accordingly consecrated (in 1124) in the person of 

 Bishop Arnold. Bishop Eric remains a lost heroic figure of history. 

 It is true that the Danish poet Lyschander of 1608, and Professor 

 Horsford in 1889, agree concerning his later prosperity in the isolated 

 Wineland diocese ; but we do not know of anything behind their 

 assertions more substantial than a cheery hopefulness. Most writers 

 have supposed with Dr. Storm that he was on a missionary errand 

 (though Dr. Nansen doubts this also), and that he died in trying to 

 make the latter part of his title represent something real. However, 

 nothing is positively known, except his passage from Iceland to 

 Greenland in 1112, followed by his attempt, nine years later, to reach 

 Wineland also. 



Whosoever will is of course at liberty to believe that " Eric Gnup- 

 son " was really the " first bishop " of Wineland, or with the poet that : 



Eric of Greenland did the deed ; 



He carried to Wineland both folk and creed; 



Which are there e'en now surviving. 



We see, full fledged, in these verses of the early seventeenth 

 century the conception of a settled, organized, self-supporting Wine- 

 land, a thriving offshoot, which was to Greenland what we know 

 Greenland to have been to Iceland or Iceland to Norway. The 

 picture has its fascinations and seems to dominate many minds even 

 yet. Nothing but proof is lacking, or at least some little glimmer of 

 evidence in its favor. The real Wineland was a wild land, visited 

 once by accident for a few weeks only; and once more intentionally, 

 not long afterward, with three years' exploration and temporary 

 abode at two points, by a party of colonists who abandoned the 

 attempt and returned to Greenland and Iceland. That is all that we 

 find positively recorded until 1347. This distinction, if clearly 

 grasped, would have saved some misunderstanding and wasted work. 



We have shown already that circumstances about the year 1000 

 favored and almost ensured the discovery of America from Green- 

 land ; also that the house of Eric Raudi would naturally take a leading 

 part in the work. There is evidence that this happened ; but as in 

 most matters of remote history, the evidence is not absolutely first- 

 hand. We must be content with copies of copies. The world, with 

 due caution and corrections, rightly accepts and believes many things 



