23 



settlements (Norörseta) for hunting and fishing; they had huts 

 up north, partly in Greipar and partly in Krôksfjarôar- 

 heiöi (Kroks Fjord's Heath); up there they got train-oil, for the 

 sealing was better there than in South Greenland; melted seal- 

 fat was poured into the skin-boats and further prepared; drift 

 timber came in great quantities from the bays of Markland*). 

 I shall give the letter in an English rendering: 



"This account wrote the priest Haldor from Greenland 

 to the former Greenlandic priest Arnaldr, who had then become 

 king Magnus Hakonson's court-priest on board the knar (large 

 ship), on which Bishop Olafr traveled to Greenland. That 

 summer ivhen the priest Arnald left Greenland and they suffered 

 shipwreck at Hitarnes on the (western**)) coast of Iceland, there 

 were found out in the sea some pieces of timber which had been 

 hewn with small hatchets or adzes, and among them one in 

 ivhich there sat tooth-wedges and bone-wedges. This summer 

 there also came people from Norörseta, ivho had traveled farther 

 north than there had ]iitherto been any account of. They 

 found no indications that Skrcelings had stayed there, except 

 at Kf'ôksfjarôarheiôi , and people are of the opinion that it 

 must be the shortest way for them (the Skrcelings) to go, no 

 matter ivhere they come from. Thereupon the priests sent a 

 ship toward the north, in order to have investigations made 

 with regard to conditions north of the most distant region which 

 they Jiad yet visited; bid tliey sailed away from Krôksfjarâar- 

 heidi, until they lost sight of the coast. Then there came a south 

 wind against them together with darkness, and they had to let 

 Ute ship drift with the tvind; but when the storm had passed 

 and it became light again, they satv many islands and all kinds 

 of game, both seals and tvhales and a large number of bears. 

 Tliey came right into the bay (hafsbotninn), and then they 



•) Gröril. hist. Mindesmærker Vol. Ill, pp. 243—244. 



*•) K. Kaalund: Historisk-topograflsk Beskrivelse af Island (Kbh. 1870—1882) 

 vol.1, p. 401. 



