NO. 12 THE WINELAND VOYAGES SWANTON 23 



route is very greatly condensed and is incorporated with the Wine- 

 land visit so closely that it is not at first easy to separate them. Never- 

 theless, it is evident that — treated as an expedition under command 

 of Leif — it is covered in the following sentences : 



They .... came to an island which lay to the northward off the land. There 

 they went ashore and looked about them, the weather being fine, and they ob- 

 served that there was dew upon the grass, and it so happened that they touched 

 the dew with their hands, and touched their hands to their mouths, and it seemed 

 to them that they had never before tasted anything so sweet as this. They went 

 aboard their ship again and sailed into a certain sound, which lay between the 

 island and a cape, which jutted out from the land on the north, and they stood 

 in westering past the cape. 



Instead of a story of supernatural food-charming we have one of 

 honey dew grass, drawn presumably from the wonder stories of the 

 period, but the geography corresponds. It does not correspond when 

 transferred to Wineland to which the Flat Island Book immediately 

 hitches it. Resuming the narrative as told in the Saga, we find that 

 Thorhall decided to leave his companions at this time, and, taking 

 nine men, all who would go with him, he sailed "northward beyond 

 Wonder-strands," and past Keelness, but was driven to Ireland by 

 westerly gales. There all were enslaved, and merchants reported that 

 Thorhall lost his life. 



This narrative presents us with two difficulties. We are told that 

 Thorhall was going "in search of Wineland," and yet in a ditty he 

 is said to have composed he expresses an intention to return home. 

 Another difficulty is the identity of this Thorhall. He is called, not 

 here but at a later point in the narrative, Thorhall the Htmtsman. 

 But there was another Thorhall, Gamli's son, an East-firth man, who 

 had come from Iceland as co-commander with Biarni, Grimolf's son, 

 on the vessel which accompanied that of Karlsefni. Nothing more is 

 heard of him, though Biarni is mentioned several times and his fate by 

 drowning at sea carefully recorded. Thorhall the Huntsman went to 

 Streamfirth in the same ship as Eric's son Thorvald, Eric's daughter 

 Freydis, and Thorvard, the latter's husband. Only three vessels are 

 enumerated, but which of these was taken by Thorhall and which 

 Thorhall took it? From what we know of the redoubtable character 

 of Freydis it would seem unlikely that anyone would desert lightly 

 with her vessel, and Biarni, in subsequent parts of the Saga, appears 

 still in command of a vessel, the same in which he was ultimately lost. 

 Again, on the face of it, it does not seem probable that a body of 

 160 men, more than 50 to the vessel, would have allowed one ship to 

 be carried away to suit the whim of 10. Nor does it seem likely 



