lO SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IO7 



Mythic formulas of this kind may be introduced into narratives 

 without altogether destroying their historicity. 



The Biarni narrative has been condemned for very opposite rea- 

 sons — because of Biarni's alleged attempt to reach Greenland which 

 neither he nor any of his men had seen, and because of the assertion 

 that he was driven so far out of his course. It will be noticed that he 

 himself anticipated the first criticism. But Greenland is only about 

 200 miles from Iceland, and the direction in which it lay was well 

 known. Biarni's venture seems to me no more foolhardy than that 

 of Thorstein Ericsson, who set out to cross Davis Strait to a land 

 visited but once before by any Norseman, or that of Thorhall in 

 sailing for Greenland from Streamfirth with a crew of nine men, or 

 more particularly the voyages of Leif from Greenland to Norway and 

 return, but of those more presently. As to the second, it should be 

 recalled that when Greenland was settled, of 25 or 35 vessels setting 

 out from Iceland only 14 arrived in spite of the fact that they were 

 guided by Eric. Also that Thorbiorn and his friends in attempting 

 the same passage experienced "great gales," "lost their way," and did 

 not arrive until "the very eve of winter." Thorstein's failure to 

 reach his objective, which some of his men had visited, was much 

 more monumental than that of Biarni to arrive at once in Greenland, 

 where no one on his ship had been. Yet these adventures are all 

 described in the supposedly authentic Saga of Eric the Red. As 

 to the distances to which Thorstein and Biarni were driven, there is 

 not much to choose between them if Biarni actually reached the New 

 England coast, which there is reason to doubt, and Thorstein, who 

 knew presumably where he was going, deserves more blame for his 

 failure than Biarni who merely had the general direction. However, 

 as we have already seen, it is not necessary to imagine that Biarni 

 went so far. If Biarni's voyage is "incredible," Thorstein's is still 

 more so. 



It is also held up against the Biarni narrative that its hero is made 

 to come upon the coast of Greenland exactly in front of his father's 

 home which neither he nor any of his crew had visited. This may 

 very well be an item in the build-up of his hero by the compiler of the 

 tale. Still, accidents of the kind have happened, and it may be men- 

 tioned as a possible explanation that Heriulfsness lay "below" two 

 high mountains called Hvidserk and Hvarf, the latter a landmark for 

 vessels voyaging between Greenland and Iceland or Greenland and 

 Norway, and that near it was a harbor called Sand "which was a 

 universal harbor for Norwegians and merchants." There is still 



