cord of this was discovered by Bjornbo and L. Bobe in Copenhagen 

 1909. The accompanying maps are reproduced from Nansen's Taa- 

 keheimen, pag. 380 and 381. 



I In Gourmont's map we see Iceland with Hekla and Snefellsnas, 

 the usual starting point for Greenland and right opposite the mountain 

 Hvitserk carrying a compas-star and the inscription »Mons excel- 

 sus Withzerc appellatus in en jus summitate index Marinus factus est 

 a duobus piratis Pininge & Porthorst in nautarum protectionem a 

 Grundtlandia. » 



De Gourmonts chart. 



Pining and Porthorst are called pirates because later they too 

 were suspected of piracy and condemned. 



Geographers and historians have never been able to agree as to 

 the exact situation of the mountain Hvitserk. This mountain is al- 

 ways given as the first landmark on the way to Greenland. Finnur 

 Jonsson who has been most active in localising the ancient colonies 

 holds Mount Hvitserk to be identic with Cape Farewell. I do not 

 share his view because Hvitserk, which may be the »Blaserk» men- 

 tioned by the oldest Sagas, is expressly described as a high moun- 

 tain and in later records as a »j6kel» i. e. an ice-clad mountain. In 

 my opinion the name should apply to one of the lofty nunatakes 

 that rise out of the ice north of Cape Farewell. I will go more ful- 

 ly into this matter when discussing the ancient records containing 

 the directions for navigation between Iceland, Norway and Green- 

 land. It seems important, however, that Finnur Jonsson too thinks 

 to locate Hvitserk in the vicinity of the old straits that led to the 

 »Osterbygd». 



There is a tendency now to underrate the intercourse and me- 

 ans of communication in bygone ages. Professor 0. Montelius has 

 caused this view to be modified by bringing facts to light which show 

 that even a thousand years before the Viking-age an eager intercourse 

 was kept up between England, Sweden and Denmark across the North Sea 

 Eric Rode's Saga shows the national character to have been the 

 same then as now at least as regards the tendency to emigrate. 

 In the tenth and eleventh centuries a strong emigration took place 

 to Iceland and Greenland. It was to the interest of Eric Rode to 

 encourage this tendency. The year after his return a Viking-fleet num- 

 bering some 25 ships with colonists on board sailed for Greenland. 

 They carried cattle, building material and householdgoods. Pro- 

 bably each ship carried 30 — 40 human beings. By and by the sett- 

 lement of Osterbygden numbered 190 farms, 12 churches, 2 mona- 

 s tries and one bishop-see. The less important settlement of Vester- 

 bygden numbered 90 farms. At the end of the 13th and the 

 beginning of the 14th century the European civilisation in Green- 

 land was wiped out by an invasion of the aboriginal population. 

 The colonists in the Vesterbygd were driven from their homes and 

 probably migrated to America lieving behind their cattle in the fi- 

 elds. So they were found by Ivar Bardsson steward to the bishop 

 of Gardar on his official journey thither in 1342. The colonists of 

 the Osterbygd succumbed after a hard struggle some time after the 

 year 1418. Their houses and churches were destroyed by fire as the 

 ruins still testify. (Finnur Jonsson). According to Escimoe tradi- 

 tions the last of the colonists fled to the east-coast and there suc- 

 cumbed. After the destruction of the colonies the Escimoes appear 

 to have taken up piracy attacking and sinking the English, Portu- 

 guese and Dutch whalers that visited the south-coast. 



The Escimoe-invasion must not be regarded as a common raid. 

 It was the transmigration of a people and like other big movements 

 of this kind impelled by altered conditions of nature, in this case the. 

 alterations of climate caused by the advance of the ice. For their hunt- 

 ing and fishing the Escimoes require an at least partially open arc- 

 tic sea. The seal, their principal prey, cannot live where the surface of 

 the sea is entirely frosen over. The cause of the favourable climatic 

 and ice-conditions in the Viking-age was, according to my hypothe- 

 sis, that the ice then melted at a higher lat, in the arctic seas. 



The Escimoes then lived further north in Greenland and North- 

 America. When the climate deteriorated and the sea which gave them 



their living was closed by ice the Escimoes had to find a more suitable 

 neighbourhood. This they found in the land colonised by the Nor- 

 semen whom they attacked and finally annihilated. The description 

 in the old records of the cruelties of the Escimoes Nansen simply 

 rejects because the disposition of this people for the two centuries 

 past since the time of Hans Egede has been noted for its mildness 

 and gentleness. A glance at the Olai Magni map, however, shows 

 that they were regarded in quite another light in the 15th and 16th 

 centuries. La Peyrere in his Relation de Groenland (1647) charac- 



De Pygmxis Gruntlandiae, & rupe HuitfarK. 



Olai Magni chart. 



terises them as being treacherous and wild. Their conquest in the 

 14th century appears to have brought out quite different qualities 

 in them. The survivors of Hudson's third expedition 1610 — 1612 

 were treacherously assaulted and murdered on an island by the 

 Escimoes. In the reign of Christian I they were regarded as pirates 

 who in their canoes stod up to foreign fishingvessels and sunk them. 



Certain passages by Bjorn Jonsson indicate that the colonists 

 looked with apprehension and suspicion on the advance of the 

 Escimoes in North Greenland. 



The governor of Iceland attempted to warn sailors of their piracy 

 by erecting a star-shaped beacon on mount Hvitserk. The Escimoes 

 appear to have made use of the old water-ways on the east-coast for 

 their piracy. Thus these sounds became doubly dangerous both on 

 account of the ice and of the pirates. The Escimoes in their kay- 

 aks even went as far as Europe. Now and again it happened that an 

 Escimoe with his kayak and fishing-gear was captured off the Nor- 

 wegian or Scottish coast. Reliques of these strange visitors are still 

 to be seen in museums. 



Such is the testimony of the chronicles when taken literally with 

 no alterations of their text. The only explanation of such a situa- 

 tion would be to admit that the ice-conditions have changed signally 

 in historic time. 



Reading the old passage literally or substituting »stjorn a 

 for »stjarna», the result will be the same in both cases, viz: that the 

 passage describes the route taken by Eric Rode on his voyage of disco- 

 very, the same course being taken afterwards by all vessels in the first 

 centuries after the colonisation of Greenland. 



The »Eriksstefna» guided the sailor to make the land at the 

 big glacier Blasark (later Hvitserk), to put into the archipelago at the 

 extreme south-end, where the great Maelstroms, »the Hafhverf », were 

 met with and guided by the star-shaped beacon find his way to the 

 eastern settlements Skage and Solvadal on the Iluafjord, by Spalsund 

 (Ikek) past Drango, then by Tofafjord to the chief port and trading- 

 place of Greenland, Sand by Herjulfsnas; then onwards past the 

 towering headland of Hvarfsgnipa on the island Semersok where 

 the route branched off to the big fjords of the interior, the Ericsfjord 

 a. o. into the very heart of the colony. 



I will now show how the local names mentioned in the an- 

 cient records can be identified with those of the present from » Haf- 

 hverf a austanverdu landi » up to » Hvarfsgnipa » which Finnur Jons- 

 son has proved to be the Cape Egede or Kangek of the present day. 

 In order to do this I must refer you to the map by Finnur Jonsson 

 of the Eystribygd in Greenland contained in part 20 of Medd. from 

 Greenland. 



In the Viking-age there were two navigable sounds used by ves- 

 sels coming from the east or northeast. One is the present Allumlen- 

 gri, 9 danish miles in length, which owing to its name is easily iden- 

 tified as the present Ikerasarsuak. The second to which the vessel com- 

 es having made Hafhverf must correspond to the broad Ikek sound 

 which thus is identical with the Spalsund of the Eriksstefna. Then 

 came Drango. This Finnur Jonsson thinks should be easy to iden- 

 tify because of its name, Drangey=high peaked island, which is hardly 

 possible to mistake when studying the topographic curves of the islands 

 in these sounds from the Danish admiralty charts. I will also quote 

 Nordenskiolds description of these sounds in his »Den andra Dick- 

 sonska Expeditionen till Gronland 1883 » pag 404. 



»The scenery was here very grand. The narrow straits were sur- 



— 11 — 



