Read The Sagas of the Icelanders Online
Authors: Jane Smilely
A welcome addition to the evidence of the sagas was provided when Helge and Anne Ingstad found remains of buildings in Newfoundland in the early 1960s, which were of the same character as Viking Age buildings in Iceland and Greenland. This eliminated any remaining scepticism about what we also know from the sagas: that the explorers built a camp referred to as Leif’s Camp, on the northern tip of Newfoundland, at a site now known as L’Anse aux Meadows, as a stopping place for their voyages farther south to Vinland.
Eirik the Red’s Saga
is preserved in two Icelandic vellum manuscripts,
Hauksbók
(early fourteenth century) and
Skdlholtsbok
(early fifteenth century), which was published in
Íslensk fornrit IV
(supplement, Reykjavik, 1985) and is translated by
Keneva Kunz
. Both manuscripts were based on an original written after 1263 – which in turn was based on an older text from the early thirteenth century. It hardly tells anything about Eirik, but exalts the memory of the first European couple to have a child in North America: Thorfinn Karlsefni (descended from Aud the Deep-minded, a Viking queen in Dublin and settler in west Iceland in the opening of
The Saga of the People of Laxardal
, and from Kjarval, King of Ireland); and Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir (descended from a Gaelic slave brought to Iceland by the same Aud), who was born and raised in Iceland, then emigrated to Greenland and later went to North America before she finally settled in Iceland again, becoming a nun after a subsequent pilgrimage to Rome.
The conflict between the old pagan culture and Christianity is prominent in the saga; Leif Eiriksson is commissioned by King Olaf Tryggvason to convert the heathen settlers of Greenland to Christianity. More than once, conflicting beliefs struggle to gain the upper hand: in the figure of the Christian Gudrid, who agrees to take part in sorcery to help people in need, for instance, and in the prayers of the voyagers to North America for God’s help after rejecting succour from Thor.
The abrupt beginning of
The Saga of the Greenlanders
is explained by its preservation as a part of a larger work about King Olaf Tryggvason, from around 1387. For prefatory details of Eirik the Red’s settlement in Iceland and Greenland can be found in the second chapter of
Eirik the Red’s Saga
. The original
Saga of the Greenlanders
was written much earlier, very likely in the beginning of the thirteenth century. The saga focuses on Leif the Lucky’s leading role in the Vinland voyages and includes a striking and memorable account of his vicious half-sister Freydis. It is translated by
Keneva Kunz
from Olafur Halldoŕsson’s
Gralandi miSaldaritum
(Reykjavik, 1978).
Both
The Vinland Sagas
reflect a genuine family tradition and mention that three bishops in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries could trace their family back to Gudrid and Thorfinn Karlsefni through their son Snorri, the first ‘Vinlander’.
Eirik the Red fled from Norway with his father and settled in Iceland where he married a local woman, Thjodhild, in Breidafjord (west Iceland). He seems to have had a nose for trouble, was soon driven out of his district and eventually outlawed. During his exile he explored a land which he had heard of to the west of Iceland, and returned with news about ‘Greenland’, as he named it to attract others to join him in settling there. This is said to have happened fifteen years before Christianity was adopted by law in Iceland, i.e. in 985.
When it comes to the Vinland voyages themselves, the sagas have two versions to tell – which can nevertheless be matched in many instances (highlighted in bold face in the columns on
pp. 632–5
). A comparison between the two
Vinland Sagas
shows that their similarities are more striking than their contradictions, most of which can be explained by the oral tradition behind them. By collating them a reasonable sequence of events can be established (see also maps on
pp. 627–9
with suggested routes for the respective voyages):
Gudrid arrives in Greenland with her
father in a group of
30 people who leave Iceland. Half of them fall sick and die
on the way, but the rest are rescued. A seeress tells Gudrid’s fortune, and she goes to Eirik the Red’s residence. Leif is instructed by King Olaf of Norway to convert Greenland to Christianity.
Leif
is blown off course and finds unknown land west from Greenland where self-sown wheat, grapes and maple trees grow.
He rescues some people who have been shipwrecked and is given the nickname ‘Lucky’.
Thorstein
, Eirik’s son, gets a ship from Gudrid’s father and talks
Eirik into coming along. Eirik hides his gold before he leaves, then falls off his horse on the way to the ship and refuses to go. The others sail around in the Atlantic for the whole summer
.
Thorstein marries Gudrid and they settle down in Lysufjord in the western settlement of Greenland. Thorstein falls ill and dies, but rises briefly from the dead to tell Gudrid’s fortune. His remains are taken to consecrated ground in Brattahlid. Gudrid’s father dies and she lives as a widow at Brattahlid.
Bjarni Herjolfsson is blown off course and sees unknown, forested land west of Greenland.
Leif buys Bjarni’s ship and asks
Eirik to come along, but Eirik claims he is too old and not fit for sailing any more. Eventually, he gives in but falls off a horse on the way to the ship and returns to his farm without going anywhere.
Leif finds
Helluland, Markland
and
Vinland,
and on his way back he rescues
Thorir and his crew, who are shipwrecked on a skerry, 15 people in all.
They all get
sick
the following winter and Thorir and many others die, leaving Thorir’s wife Gudrid a widow.
Leif is nicknamed ‘the Lucky’ after rescuing these people.
Thorvald
, Leif’s brother, explores west and east from Leif’s camp and eventually
his ship is driven ashore and damaged on a peninsula, Kjalarnes
.
He says he wants to settle nearby, but then they see nine men under three hide-covered boats and kill all but one, who escapes. They are attacked by a huge number of natives who eventually withdraw.
Thorvald is fatally wounded by an arrow
and is buried on a point of land called Krossanes.
Thorstein Eiriksson marries Gudrid
, Thorir’s widow, and they set out for Vinland
but go astray at sea and end up in Lysufjord, where Thorstein dies, only to rise briefly from the dead to tell Gudrid’s fortune. His remains are taken to consecrated ground in Brattahlid. Gudrid goes to Brattahlid
.
Thorfinn Karlsefni arrives in Greenland and marries Gudrid. There is much talk about going to Vinland
and
Karlsefni and Gudrid decide to set off
, with
Eirik’s daughter, Freydis, and her husband, Thorvard
, and Eirik’s son Thorvald. They find
Helluland, Markland
and Bjarney as well as
a keel from a ship at Kjalarnes
.
They pass Furdustrandir (Wonder Beaches) and stay in Straumsfjord where
they find a beached whale
. One ship goes north around Kjalarnes in search of
Vinland
but is blown off course. Karlsefni continues south to Hop, taking his own
livestock
with him.
Here they meet the natives (Skraelings) and
Karlsefni and his men trade with them
, selling them red cloth
for pieces of skin. Karlsefni prevents his men from selling their own weapons. A bull eventually scares the natives away
.
The natives fight Karlsefni and his men – the men flee, but the pregnant Freydis scares the natives away by baring her breasts and slapping them with a sword.
The natives find a dead man with an iron axe in his head, pick up the axe and try it successfully on wood, but when it breaks on stone they throw it away.
On his way back, Karlsefni kills five natives who are sleeping in skin sacks.
Karlsefni sails around Kjalarnes and reaches a river where a uniped appears and shoots Thorvald, Eirik the Red’s son, with an arrow. He draws it out and before dying, jests about how fat the paunch was that it struck.
Back in Straumsfjord, they begin to
quarrel about women. Snorri, son of Gudrid and Karlsefni
, is three years old. They take hostages on the way back and lose still another ship.
Back in Iceland, Karlsefni and Gudrid settle on Reynines in Skagafjord. His mother dislikes Gudrid (because she feels Gudrid’s family is not a match for Karlsefni’s) but accepts her in the end.
Three bishops are counted among the descendants of Snorri, son of Karlsefni and Gudrid.
Thorfinn Karlsefni arrives in Greenland and marries Gudrid. There is much talk about going to Vinland and Karlsefni and Gudrid decide to go, intending to settle since they take livestock over with them.
They reach Leif’s camp where there is plenty of fresh
beached whale
, and they also live off the land, collect grapes and hunt.
After one winter they become aware of
natives, who turn out to be afraid of Karlsefni’s bull. They trade with the natives
who offer furs and want weapons in exchange, which
Karlsefni forbids. Gudrid gives birth to Snorri
and sees a phantom. Karlsefni plans to use their bull to scare off the natives. They attack, many natives die and one of them
tries an iron axe on one of his companions, killing him. Their chief picks it up and throws it into the sea.
The following spring Karlsefni decides to return to Greenland, taking plenty of wood, berries and skins with him.
Freydis
Eiriksdottir leads a voyage with her husband,
Thorvard
from Gardar. The members of the expedition end up fighting among themselves in Leif s camp, incited by Freydis. She kills the women herself and the survivors all go back to Greenland, where she is condemned by Leif.
Karlsefni goes to Norway and sells his goods before returning to Glaumbaer in
Skagafjord
where he and Gudrid settle down with their son
Snorri
. She goes on a pilgrimage to Rome, builds a church and becomes a nun.
Three bishops are counted among their descendants
.
1
Herjolf was the son of Bard Herjolfsson and a kinsman of Ingolf, the settler of Iceland. Ingolf gave to Herjolf the land between Vog and Reykjanes.
At first, Herjolf farmed at Drepstokk. His wife was named Thorgerd and their son was Bjarni; he was a promising young man. While still a youthful age he longed to sail abroad. He soon earned himself both a good deal of wealth and a good name, and spent his winters alternately abroad and with his father. Soon Bjarni had his own ship making trading voyages. During the last winter Bjarni spent in Norway, Herjolf decided to accompany Eirik the Red to Greenland and left his farm. One of the men on Herjolf’s ship was from the Hebrides, a Christian, who composed the drapa of the Sea Fences (Breakers). It has this refrain:
| I ask you, unblemished monks’ tester, |
|
| to be the ward of my travels; | |
| may the lord of the peaks’ pane |
|
| shade my path with his hawk’s perch. |
|
Herjolf farmed at Herjolfsnes. He was the most respected of men.
Eirik the Red farmed at Brattahlid. There he was held in the highest esteem, and everyone deferred to his authority. Eirik’s children were Leif, Thorvald, Thorstein and a daughter, Freydis. She was married to a man named Thorvard, and they farmed at Gardar, where the bishop’s seat is now. She was a domineering woman, but Thorvard was a man of no consequence. She had been married to him mainly for his money.
Heathen were the people of Greenland at that time.
Bjarni steered his ship into Eyrar in the summer of the year that his father had sailed from Iceland. Bjarni was greatly moved by the news and would not have his cargo unloaded. His crew then asked what he was waiting for, and he answered that he intended to follow his custom of spending the winter with his father – ‘and I want to set sail for Greenland, if you will join me’.
All of them said they would follow his counsel.
Bjarni then spoke: ‘Our journey will be thought an ill-considered one, since none of us has sailed the Greenland Sea.’
Despite this they set sail once they had made ready and sailed for three days, until the land had disappeared below the horizon. Then the wind dropped and they were beset by winds from the north and fog; for many days they did not know where they were sailing.
After that they saw the sun and could take their bearings. Hoisting the sail, they sailed for the rest of the day before sighting land. They speculated among themselves as to what land this would be, for Bjarni said he suspected this was not Greenland.
They asked whether he wished to sail up close into the shore of this country or not. ‘My advice is that we sail in close to the land.’
They did so, and soon saw that the land was not mountainous but did have small hills, and was covered with forests. Keeping it on their port side, they turned their sail-end landwards and angled away from the shore.
They sailed for another two days before sighting land once again.
They asked Bjarni whether he now thought this to be Greenland.
He said he thought this no more likely to be Greenland than the previous land – ‘since there are said to be very large glaciers in Greenland’.
They soon approached the land and saw that it was flat and wooded. The wind died and the crew members said they thought it advisable to put ashore, but Bjarni was against it. They claimed they needed both timber and water.
‘You’ve no shortage of those provisions,’ Bjarni said, but he was criticized somewhat by his crew for this.
He told them to hoist the sail and they did so, turning the stern towards shore and sailing seawards. For three days they sailed with the wind from the south-west until they saw a third land. This land had high mountains, capped by a glacier.
They asked whether Bjarni wished to make land here, but he said he did not wish to do so – ‘as this land seems to me to offer nothing of use’.
This time they did not lower the sail, but followed the shoreline until they saw that the land was an island. Once more they turned their stern landwards and sailed out to sea with the same breeze. But the wind soon grew and Bjarni told them to lower the sail and not to proceed faster than both their ship and rigging could safely withstand. They sailed for four days.
Upon seeing a fourth land they asked Bjarni whether he thought this was Greenland or not.
Bjarni answered, ‘This land is most like what I have been told of Greenland, and we’ll head for shore here.’
This they did and made land along a headland in the evening of the day, finding a boat there. On this point Herjolf, Bjarni’s father, lived, and it was named for him and has since been called Herjolfsnes (Herjolf’s point). Bjarni now joined his father and ceased his merchant voyages. He remained on his father’s farm as long as Herjolf lived and took over the farm after his death.