NO. 12 THE WINELAND VOYAGES — S WANTON 35 



deavored to seize upon the wives of those who were married, whence trouble 

 arose. Snorri, Karlsefni's son, was born the first autumn, and he was three 

 winters old [when they left]. 



After this comes the second story of the five Skrellings which, as I 

 have already said, I beHeve to be a later insertion, and the Saga con- 

 cludes the account of this voyage by saying, "Now they arrived in 

 Greenland, and remained during the winter with Eric the Red." From 

 the above it would appear that Snorri was born in the autumn of 

 1003 and it was in 1006 when they returned to Greenland. The Flat 

 Island Book tells us that Snorri was born during the second summer 

 his parents passed in Wineland which, following that document, 

 would be in 1009, and the return to Greenland in loio. 



The Flat Island Book brings Karlsefni and his party directly to 

 Greenland from Wineland the summer after their battle with the 

 Skrellings. The Saga has nothing more to say regarding Wineland 

 voyages. The rest of it is taken up with the fate of Biarni, Grimolf's 

 son, who lost his life at sea in the foundering of his vessel, and an 

 account of Karlsefni's return to Iceland with Gudrid and an enumera- 

 tion of his descendants. 



The fate of Grimolf's son has no particular bearing on our attempts 

 to locate the several landfalls of the Norsemen in America except as 

 it tends strongly to support the credibility of the Saga of Eric the Red 

 in which it is related, for it tells us that his ship foundered because 

 they "came into a sea, which was filled with worms." These "worms" 

 were of course the teredo, and those who are now concerned with 

 proofing timber against them will be interested in reading: "They 

 had a boat, which had been coated with seal-tar; this the sea-worm 

 does not penetrate." 



The Flat Island Book, however, tells of another expedition to 

 Wineland, one which had a tragic ending. According to this, during 

 the summer in which Karlsefni returned from that country, a vessel 

 came to Greenland from Norway commanded by two brothers named 

 Helgi and Finnbogi. Freydis, Eric's daughter, induced them to under- 

 take a voyage to Wineland the summer following. Both vessels 

 arrived safely but during the winter Freydis compassed the death of 

 the brothers and all their companions, male and female, and returned 

 to Greenland the summer after that in their ship, laden with the 

 products of the country. Freydis attempted to frighten those with 

 her into silence regarding what had taken place, but Leif finally dis- 

 covered it. He had no heart to punish her, it is said, perhaps on 

 account of the service she had rendered Karlsefni and his men during 



