Small additions to the Vinland Problem. 29 
However, as the ancient Icelandie geography AM. 194 (p. 17) says 
that to the south of Greenland lies Helluland, this must be right. Mean- 
while we must remember how uncertain the Northmen’s statement of 
direction was, and I will refer to Bjørnbo's declaration in “Cartographia 
Groenlandica’’!). If one takes the given turning of 45 degrees, in the 
stated direction “south” the direction from Vestri Bygd would just 
coinside with the northern part of Labrador. 
COASTING FROM HELLULAND. — Concerning the next point, 
namely the mistake in Karlsefni’s voyage being considered as a “coasting 
voyage throughout, with no intervals of open sea between the different 
lands visited”, Gathorne-Hardy’s idea is that the Northmen were just 
navigating pioneers. He writes that the first discovery of Vinland was 
accidental, and that the open sea had to be crossed so as to be able 
to return to Greenland again. He therefore thinks that the following 
expeditions would, as far as possible, follow their predecessors route 
until they had reached Vinland, the only place considered worth visiting 
and exploring. 
It may be correct, but can be very difficult for a sailor to carry 
out. Thorstein Ericsson (p. 20) whose expedition was the first to start 
from Greenland in search of Vinland, steered out to sea in all likeli- 
hood in the direction from which Leif came, but they drifted 
about on the sea eastwards and could not steer west towards land, 
presumably on account of prevalent, strong north-west winds?). Taught 
by this expedition’s unfortunate experiences Karlsefni, as already men- 
tioned by Hovgaard, went northwards so as to get a good height before 
he sailed across Davis Strait with the prevalent north-westerly winds, 
1) А. A. Bjornbo: Cartographia Groenlandica (Medd. om Gronl. Vol. XLVIII 
р. 83). “Independant of each other Finnur Jonsson and Fridtjof Nansen, with 
whom we have had the chance of discussing the question, have expressed that in 
the individual country the trend of the coast was the determinative of the con- 
ception of direction; thus landnorör (north-east) means in reality the direction 
in which Norway’s coast runs northwards, utsudr (south-west) the way in which 
one sails from Norway to the British Islands, and the southern countries. Nansen’s 
opinion is that this naturally cohers to the inclination of only using the four main 
directions and when giving a direction only using the terms North and South, until 
the deviation is beyond 45 degrees after which one said Hast and West. Nansen 
thinks that one ought to explain the names Eystri- and Vestribygd in this manner, 
which presupposes a turning of about 45 degrees westward; in the same direction as 
in Knytlingasaga and in King Alfred’s accounts. Finnur Jønsson has furthermore 
drawn one’s attention to the fact that the indications of direction were without 
doubt introduced into Iceland from Norway uncriticised; which easily can have 
misled the Icelandic authors in their statements.” i 
2) V. Garde: Windcharts of the northernmost part of the Atlantic and of 
Davis-Strait. Copenhagen. 1900. 
