184 DESCRIPTION OF GREENLAND. 



of Captain Munck, a most intelligent navigator^ is sixty de- 

 grees thirty minutes. The other parts are much more elevated 

 as they approach nearer the Pole. I have no fixed datura as to 

 the elevation of Spitzbergen, which the Danes reckon as part 

 of Greenland, and say that it is in seventy-eight degrees or 

 thereabouts. I say nothing of the longitude of this country, 

 because my accounts do not mention it, and because I have 

 learned nothing more definite than Avhat our maps tell us. 

 It will suffice for me to remark, that Cape Farewell is be- 

 yond the Canaries and our first meridian, I have chiefly 

 used for the history of Greenland two chronicles, the one 

 Icelandic and the other Danish ; the former ancient, the 

 latter modern ; the former in prose, the latter in verse, and 

 both in the Danish language. The original of the Icelandic 

 one, however, is in Icelandic, composed by Snorro Storlu- 

 son, a native of Iceland, who was Nomophylax, as Angrimus 

 Jonas calls him, that is, sovereign judge of Iceland in the 

 year 1215. This is the same who compiled the Edda, or 

 the fables of Icelandic poetry, of which I have at other times 

 spoken to you. The Danish Chronicle was composed in 

 Danish verse, by a priest named Claudius Christopherson, who 

 died fifteen years ago or thereabouts. This chronicle states 

 that some Armenians, driven by a tempest, Avere carried into 

 the Northern Ocean, and landed by chance in Greenland, 

 where they remained for some time and passed from thence 

 into Xorway, where they inhabited the rocks of the Hyper- 

 borean Sea. That, however, is only founded on fable, and 

 the old habit of making people come from remote countries 

 to establish colonies. A more authentic and certain account 

 is that the Norwegians discovered Greenland, and that they 

 went over thither and dwelt there in the manner described. 

 A gentleman of Norway named Torwald, and his son Eric, 

 surnamed the E.ed, having committed murder in Norway, 

 fled to Iceland, where Torwald died. His son Eric, who 

 was of an impatient and fiery temper, shortly after killed 



