l6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 10/ 



use to which their fruit was put by him. According to the Flat Island 

 Book, however, quantities were brought back by every explorer. 

 Here apparently the reputation of the country has overbalanced the 

 chronicler's judgment. At the same time he should be cleared of a 

 false accusation to the effect that he describes grape gathering as 

 taking place in the spring. The translation runs : "A cargo sufficient 

 for the ship was cut, and when the spring came, they made their 

 ship ready, and sailed away." 



If there is any truth in either of the stories of how grapes were 

 found as above given, they belong to Leif's explorations and not 

 to Karlsefni's. The attempt to find in Tyrker a distorted version of 

 Thorhall the Huntsman appears to me far-fetched. Except that both 

 are said to have lived with Eric, I find no resemblance between them 

 whatever. 



On his way back from Wineland to Greenland, according to both of 

 our narratives, Leif rescued some people who had been shipwrecked 

 and brought them to Greenland to spend the winter with him. The 

 Saga places this event, of course, at the end of his voyage from 

 Norway, but the other during his return from a special voyage to 

 Wineland. The Flat Island Book has confounded the voyage of Thor- 

 biorn and his daughter Gudrid from Iceland to Greenland with the 

 story of this wreck, probably because the hospitality of Eric was ex- 

 tended to both parties involved and they arrived about the same time. 

 Holand (1940, p. 29) has supplied a satisfactory explanation of the 

 confusion by calling attention to the fact that another Gudrid, "the 

 daughter of one Ingjald in Iceland, went to Norway where she mar- 

 ried and about this time came to Greenland." 



According to the Flat Island Book, Leif's brother Thorvald 

 voyaged to Wineland after Leif returned, but the next expedition 

 detailed by the Saga was led by another brother, Thorstein, who is 

 highly praised. The explorers urged Eric to accompany them be- 

 lieving that it would bring them luck, and though the old man 

 demurred, he finally consented. Before setting out he carefully hid 

 a little chest containing gold and silver, but on his way to the 

 vessel the horse on which he was riding threw him, "broke his ribs 

 and dislocated his shoulder," and he attributed this accident to the 

 fact that he had hidden his treasure and therefore he sent word to 

 his wife to go and get it. He was not, however, deterred from accom- 

 panying the explorers, but they had a very stormy voyage and were 

 driven in sight of Iceland "and likewise saw birds from the Irish 

 coast." "In the autumn they turned back, worn out by toil, and ex- 



