NO. 12 THE WINELAND VOYAGES — SWANTON 9 



colonists. Both went to America, but under very different conditions, 

 the one driven by accident, the other as a companion of Karlsefni on 

 a purposeful voyage. Both were caught in a storm on the ocean, 

 but the experience was too common to have any significance, and 

 while Heriulfson seems to have made his home in Greenland and 

 died peacefully there, Grimolfsson was drowned at sea. 



Again, it does not follow, as has been assumed, that the first of the 

 three lands seen by Biarni was identical with Wineland. The third 

 land he came upon before reaching Greenland is known to have been 

 Helluland, for it is distinctly stated, and the identity of the second 

 with Markland, although not stated, is to be inferred rather clearly, 

 but the connection of the first with Wineland is by no means evident. 

 It was "level, and covered with woods," and "there were small hillocks 

 upon it." Only by the "hillocks" does it differ from the description of 

 Markland. What is said later on regarding Wineland by the writers 

 of both narratives does not emphasize the forests particularly, though 

 they are often noted incidentally, and the only approach to a mention 

 of "hillocks" is in the Saga, where it says "wherever there was hilly 

 ground, there were vines." This is a rather slender thread to hang 

 an identification upon. The two wooded lands might have been 

 Newfoundland and southern Labrador or Newfoundland and Nova 

 Scotia. 



Another point may be added in connection with Helluland. If the 

 two narratives were taken from the same source, we should expect 

 a closer resemblance between the descriptions of that country. The 

 Saga says of it: "They .... found there large flat stones (hellur) 

 and many of these were twelve ells wide." According to the Biarni 

 narrative, however, "this land was high and mountainous, with ice- 

 mountains upon it," and later, in describing Leif's supposed visit to 

 the same country, the Flat Island Book says they "saw no grass there ; 

 great ice mountains lay inland back from the sea, and it was as a 

 (tableland) of flat rock all the way from the sea to the ice mountains." 

 One further point may be significant. When Biarni and his fellow 

 voyagers turned their prow away from Helluland and filled away for 

 Greenland, the chronicler says that they "saw that it was an island." 

 This is an incident of which there was no particular need in a made-up 

 narrative, and it is improbable that this island has any connection 

 with the Blarney Island or Islands that Karlsefni sailed past when he 

 crossed from Greenland to Helluland. 



The intervals of 1,2, 3, and 4 "doegr" in making the passages from 

 land to land is admittedly highly suspicious, but so is the use of 2 

 "doegr" two or three times in succession in the Saga of Eric the Red. 



