NO. 12 THE WINELAND VOYAGES — S WANTON I9 



summer, the summer of 1002 apparently, he equipped his ship for 

 a voyage to Greenland accompanied by a man named Snorri, Thor- 

 briand's son, of Alptafirth. In a second vessel having the same 

 destination sailed Biarni, Grimolf's son, a man from Breidafirth, and 

 Thorhall, an East-firth man. They landed in Ericsfirth, drove a 

 brisk trade that autumn and, at Eric's invitation, spent the winter 

 with him. During that winter Gudrid and Karlesfni were married. 

 Regarding these events the two narratives are in accord. 



"About this time," runs the Saga, "there began to be much talk at 

 Brattahlid, to the effect that Wineland the Good should be explored, 

 for, it was said, that country must be possessed of many good quali- 

 ties." Karlsefni and the other commanders of the two Icelandic 

 vessels agreed to go thither, and a third vessel was added, manned 

 by Greenlanders from Ericsfirth, among whom were Eric's son 

 Thorvald, his daughter Freydis, her husband Thorvard, and a man 

 named Thorvall the Huntsman who "had been for a long time with 

 Eric as his hunter and fisherman during the summer, and as his 

 steward during the winter." "He was a poor Christian," the Saga 

 continues, but "had a wide knowledge of the unsettled regions," 

 which would be those along the northwest Greenland coast. They 

 sailed in the ship Thorbiorn had brought out, according to the same 

 authority, and 160 men went along, besides cattle. Although the Flat 

 Island Book mentions only one vessel in which went 60 men and 5 

 women, it adds, "they took with them all kinds of cattle, as it was 

 their intention to settle the country, if they could." One wonders how 

 many kinds of cattle could be accommodated in one vessel besides 

 the 65 human beings. 



When Karlsefni and his companions set out upon this voyage — 



they sailed to the Western Settlement, and thence to Bear Island (or the 

 Bear Islands). From that point they bore away to the southward for two 

 doegr. Then they saw land and launched a boat, and explored the land, and 

 found there large flat stones (hellur), and many of these were twelve ells wide; 

 there were many Arctic foxes there. They gave a name to the country, and 

 called it Helluland (the land of flat stones). 



The several landfalls of Karlsefni between Greenland and Wineland 

 are not mentioned in the Flat Island Book, having already been de- 

 scribed in the accounts it gives of the supposed voyages of Biarni 

 from south to north and Leif from north to south. Neither of these 

 is said to have touched the Western Settlement, and there is no note 

 of Bear Island unless it could be identical with the Helluland Island 

 in the account of Biarni's expedition. The descriptions of Helluland 

 in the Saga and in the Flat Island Book have been compared already. 



