174 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
it may have been determined before.” The conversation 
is concluded by an agreement on the part of Bjorn to 
leave the country, as lie feels it impossible to abstain 
from paying visits to Thured a3 long as be remains in 
tlie neighbourhood. Having manned a ship, Bjorn put 
to sea in the summer-time. “ When they sailed away, 
a north-east wind was blowing, which wind lasted long 
during that summer; but of this ship was nothing heard 
since this long time.” And so we conclude it is all over 
with the poor Champion of Breidavik ! Not a bit of it. 
He turns up, thirty years afterwards, safe and sound, in * 
the uttermost parts of the earth. 
In the year 1029, a certain Icelander, named Gudlief, 
undertakes a voyage to Limerick, in Ireland. On his 
return home, he is driven out of his course by north¬ 
east winds, heaven knows where. After drifting for 
many days to the westward, he at last falls in with 
land. On approaching the beach, a great crowd of 
people came down to meet the strangers, apparently 
with no very friendly intentions. Shortly afterwards, 
a tall and venerable chieftain makes his appearance, 
and, to Gudlief’s great astonishment, addresses him in 
Icelandic. Having entertained the weary mariners very 
