NO. 12 THE WINELAND VOYAGES — S WANTON T.'J 



According to both narratives the SkrelHngs traded with furs, but 

 according to the Saga the Norsemen purchased them with red cloth, 

 while the Flat Island Book maintains it was with the milk of their 

 cows. The Saga says nothing of the stockade which Karlsefni put 

 up around his house after the first visit. Both agree that the Skrel- 

 Hngs wanted to buy weapons but that Karlsefni and Snorri forbade 

 the sale. According to the Saga the Norsemen were at first put to 

 flight but were saved by an act of heroism on the part of Freydis, al- 

 though only two Norsemen were killed while many enemies died. 

 The Flat Island Book, however, indicates that Karlsefni arranged 

 what must have been an ambuscade, lO men showing themselves on 

 a point of land near the sea while the remainder, fortified behind 

 the redoubtable bull, concealed themselves in the forest. It seems 

 that the attackers approached by land along the shore of the lake, 

 between that and the forest, and were caught in flank by the Norse- 

 men concealed in the woods and many of them were slain. This 

 narrative implies, however, that they were ultimately frightened away 

 by observing the effects of a Norse ax which the Skrelling chief, or 

 one of the Skrelling chiefs, tested upon a companion with fatal 

 effects. This episode, in somewhat different form, appears in the 

 Saga. In that tale, however, the Skrelling wielding the ax is not 

 said to have been a chief. He and his companions tried it out on a 

 tree with satisfactory results, but when they attempted to use it on a 

 stone it broke and they threw it away as of no value. In either form 

 of this tale we have simply a Norse joke such as Indians often tell 

 regarding the reactions of their own ancestors on first attempting to 

 use European implements. But the Indians had axes and knew what 

 to do with them, and they knew enough not to try them on stones or 

 human beings, unless the human beings happened to be enemies or 

 slaves. 



During this encounter, as related by the Saga, the SkrelHngs re- 

 sorted to a peculiar weapon the nature of which has caused much 

 fruitless discussion. "The SkrelHngs raised up on a pole a great 

 ballshaped body, almost the size of a sheep's belly, and nearly black in 

 color, and this they hurled from the pole up on the land above 

 Karlsefni's followers, and it made a frightful noise, where it feU." 

 It was the fear which this aroused in the Norse which made them 

 flee, so it would seem that the flight of both parties was based on 

 superstitious dread. This aboriginal bomb finds representation in the 

 Flat Island Book only in "a great crash" heard by those inside of the 

 palisade during the second visit of the SkrelHngs, The Flat Island 

 Book gives no intimation of the kinds of weapons used by these 



