CH. VI] 
The Norsemen in Greenland 
39 
King of Norway, in which two narratives are interpolated, 
the story of Erik the Red and the story of the Green- 
landers. 
The two versions in the Hauk book and the Flatey 
book differ materially in the details, bnt the main facts 
are the same. The version of the Hauk book is the 
older and appears to be the more reliable, and in the 
days of Hauk there was still communication with the 
Greenland colony. Two complete vellum texts of the 
Hauk book survive. The work, in addition to the Saga of 
Erik the Red, contains the Saga of Thorfin Karlsefni. 
Hauk, who was a descendant of Karlsefni, one of the 
Greenland heroes, died in 1334. 
We learn from the Hauksbok that there was a man 
named Thorwald, living in the district of Stavanger, in 
the south of Norway, with his son Erik the Red. They 
had killed a man, and in consequence fled to Iceland 
and settled at Hornstrandir in Haukadal, on the north 
shore of Iceland's north-west peninsula. Here Thorwald 
died, and his son married a widow named Thorhild who 
bore him three sons, Thorstein, Leif, and Thorwald. 
He also had a natural daughter named Freidis. 
Erik soon got into trouble again. His thralls caused 
a landslide on Valthiof s farm, for which a kinsman of 
Valthiof, named Eyulf the Foul, killed them. Erik 
retaliated by slaying Eyulf, as well as his friend Hrafn 
"the duellist/' and being attacked by the friends of the 
men he had killed, was driven from Haukadal. He then 
went to settle on two small islands, called Oxney and 
Sudrey, at the mouth of Breidifjord, naming his dwelling- 
place Erikstad. Here he was soon again in trouble with 
a neighbour named Thorgest, with whom he quarrelled. 
Two of the sons of Thorgest with some others were killed, 
and the two enemies began to keep large bodies of men 
at their homesteads. 
The people of Iceland were divided, but the adherents 
of Erik the Red were the weakest. When the Court 
met at Thorsness-thing, in spite of the efforts of his 
friends, Erik and his people were condemned to out- 
lawry. 
While Erik was concealed from his enemies who were 
seeking for him, a ship was equipped by his friends, for he 
