NO. 12 THE WINELAND VOYAGES — SWANTON 3I 



bearded, two were women, and two were children. Karlsefni and his people 

 took the boys, but the others escaped, and these Skrellings sank down into the 

 earth. They bore the lads away with them, and taught them to speak, and they 

 were baptized. They said, that their motlier's name was Vastilldi, and their 

 father's Uvsegi. They said, that kings governed the Skrellings, one of whom 

 was called Avalldamon, and the other Valldidida. They stated, that there were 

 no houses there, and that the people lived in caves or holes. They said, that 

 there was a land on the other side over against their country, which was in- 

 habited by people who wore white garments, and yelled loudly, and carried 

 poles before them, to which rags were attached; and people believed that this 

 must have been Hvitramannaland (White-men's-land), or Ireland the Great.^ 



Except for the finding of five Skrellings, this differs so much from 

 the encounter just mentioned that it is not surprising that its real 

 character has failed of detection. All the more as the event is placed 

 in Markland, between Streamfirth and Greenland, and it has been 

 assumed that Streamfirth was part of Wineland. But except in this 

 one place the Saga never makes this last assumption. When Karlsefni 

 was at Streamfirth, Thorhall is said to have left "in search of Wine- 

 land," and Karlsefni went south shortly afterward in quest of the 

 same region. Although the Flat Island Book confuses the two to 

 some extent, it is the southern region, where "Leif's booths" were 

 erected, that is constantly called Wineland. The name is never used 

 for a region farther north. The name "Markland" may have been 

 employed in this episode because the event occurred in a wooded 

 country — Markland may have been a general term covering Stream- 

 firth and the territories north and south of it, or — and I believe this 

 is the principal explanation — there has also been some confusion 

 between this event and Karlsefni's later expedition in search of 

 Thorhall during which Thorvald was killed. 



It is to be noted that, if this episode and that regarding the two 

 Gaels are removed from the Saga, little of the miraculous is left 

 except for the events at Lysufirth in Greenland, and the adventure 

 with the Uniped which itself is under some suspicion. We shall take 

 that up below. The names reported as given by the Skrelling children 

 look more like myth names than names of Indian or Eskimo extrac- 

 tion though the latter explanation is possible. 



Reverting to the Saga, we find it noted next that, having killed 

 the five Skrellings, Karlsefni's people "afterwards found a cape. 



2 "Or Ireland the Great" is omitted in one manuscript. For a careful discus- 

 sion of Hvitramannaland or Ireland the Great see L. D. Scisco, "The Tradi- 

 tion of Hvitramannaland," in the American Historical Magazine, vol. 3, 

 PP- 379-388 and 515-524, 1908. He concludes rather plausibly that the region 

 originally intended was western Ireland. 



