INTRODUCTION 3 



year 1000, the annus mirabilis of mediaeval history, when 

 Leif, the wise and stately son of Eric the Red, "made up 

 his mind to go and see what the coasts to the south of 

 Greenland were like." He sailed from Brattahlid with a 

 crew of thirty-five men. " First they found the land which 

 Bjarni had found last. Then sailed they to the land and 

 cast anchor, and put off a boat and went ashore, and saw 

 there was no grass. Mickle glaciers were over all the 

 higher parts: but it was like a plain of rock from the 

 glaciers to the sea, and it seemed to them that the land 

 was good for nothing." Leif gave the place the name of 

 Helluland (flat stone land) . He then sailed on to countries 

 which he names Markland and Vinland. The location 

 of these places has been a subject of the warmest contro- 

 versy. Helluland, however, it is perhaps safe to say, was 

 either Labrador or the northern coast of Newfoundland. 



This is not the place to describe the expeditions of the 

 Northmen to Vinland, which took place after the return 

 of Leif Ericson. At first there were several attempts to 

 found a colony, but the hostility of the Indians and the 

 jealousies of the settlers brought them to naught. In 

 1121 Eric Gnupsson, who was appointed by Paschal II 

 " bishop of Greenland and Vinland in partibus infidelium," 

 went in search of Vinland; it is so recorded in at least six 

 vellums. His is the last Viking expedition of which we 

 have authentic information. But it is extremely probable 

 that there were voyages of which we have no record. To 

 these daring sea-farers the sea had no terrors; in their 

 beautiful open ships, which were probably stronger and 

 certainly swifter than the Spanish vessels of the time of 

 Columbus, they were accustomed to traverse long stretches 



