ch. vij The Norsemen in Greenland 
43 
off a wreck in mid-ocean on his way. One of the ship- 
wrecked men may have been Bjarni the son of Herjulf, 
which perhaps accounts for the confused story in the 
Flatey book, about Bjarni being the discoverer. Leif 
arrived safely in his father's homestead and introduced 
Christianity 1 . 
Old Erik was unwilling to forsake the faith of his 
father. But his wife did so, and built a church near the 
homestead, called Thorhilda's Church, where those who 
embraced Christianity could come to offer their prayers. 
Settlers began to arrive in Greenland who were nominally 
Christians, though imbued with the deeply-rooted ideas 
of the old faiths. The change was gradual. 
Among the first Christian settlers were one Thorbjorn 
and his beautiful daughter Gudrid . This Thorbj orn 
received with his wife Hallveig an estate in Iceland 
called Langarbrekke or " the warm spring's slope/' on 
the southern side and near the outer end of the Cape 
called Snowfellsness. The wife died, and Thorbjorn's 
motherless child was fostered and brought up by Halldis 
and her husband, Orm of Arnastopi or the eagle's crag, 
a short distance to the north-east of Langarbrekke. 
Gudrid, the foster child of Orm and Halldis, acted 
such a prominent part in the history of the Greenland 
colony and the discovery of America, that her story 
cannot be passed over. Though converted to Chris- 
tianity Halldis had stored the child's mind with all the 
lore of the Asgard mythology. For various reasons her 
father Thorbjorn resolved to join his friend Erik the Red 
in Greenland, though he was blessed with many friends 
in Iceland. He therefore sold his land and bought 
a ship, which was fitted out in Hraunhavn, or the lava 
haven. Thirty persons formed the crew, including Orm 
and Halldis, who both died during the voyage. At length, 
on the verge of winter, the ship reached Herjulfsfjord, 
1 According to the Flatey book, Bjarni, the son of Herjulf, was in Norway 
when his father left Iceland to settle in Greenland. Hearing this when 
he came to Iceland, he continued his voyage to join his father. \\c is 
said to have discovered a new land before reaching his father's homestead 
in Herjulfsfjord. This led to the voyage of Leif to visit the newly-dis- 
covered land. The two stories in the Hauk book and the Flatey book are 
so different that they cannot be fitted together, and it is necessary to 
adopt one and reject the other. That in the Hauk book is the older, 
the more coherent, and probably nearer to the truth. 
