The Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen Part 8

[18] As the tradition of a Welch voyage to America under Prince Madoc, relates to a period _following_ the Icelandic voyages, the author does not deem it necessary to discuss the subject. This voyage by the son of Owen Gwyneth, is fixed for the year 1170, and is based on a Welch chronicle of no authority. See _Hackluyt_, vol. III, p. 1.

[19] _Turkish Spy_, vol. VIII, p. 159.

[20] See "Northmen in Iceland," _Societa des Antiquaires du Nord, Seance du 14 Mai_, 1859, pp. 12-14.

[21] It is sometimes, though improperly, called the _Norse_.

[22] In the time when the Irish monks occupied the island, it is said that it was "covered with woods between the mountains and the sh.o.r.es."

[23] _Setstakkar._ These were wooden pillars carved with images usually of Thor and Odin. In selecting a place for a settlement these were flung overboard, and wherever they were thrown up on the beach, there the settlement was to be formed. Ingolf, the first Norse settler of Iceland, lost sight of the seat-posts after they were thrown into the water, and was obliged to live for the s.p.a.ce of three years at Ingolfshofdi. In another case a settler did not find his posts for _twelve_ years, nevertheless he changed his abode then. In Frithiof's Saga (American edition) chap. III, p. 18, we find the following allusion:

"Through the whole length of the hall shone forth the table of oak wood, Brighter than steel, and polished; the pillars twain of the high seats Stood on each side thereof; two G.o.ds deep carved out of elm wood: Odin with glance of a king, and Frey with the sun on his forhead."

[24] Ari Hinn Frode, or the Wise. The chief compiler of the famous _Landnama Book_, which contains a full account of all the early settlers in Iceland. It is of the same character, though vastly superior to the English _Doomsday Book_, and is probably the most complete record of the kind ever made by any nation.

It contains the names of 3000 persons, and 1,400 places. It gives a correct account of the genealogies of the families, and brief notices of personal achievements. It was begun by Frode (born 1067, died 1148), and was continued by Kalstegg, Styrmer and Thordsen, and completed by Hauk Erlandson, Lagman, or Governor of Iceland, who died in the year 1334.

[25] "Thus saith the holy priest Bede.... Therefore learned men think that it is Iceland which is called Thule.... But the holy priest Bede died DCCx.x.xV. years after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, more than a hundred years before Iceland was inhabited by the Northmen."--_Antiquitates Americanae_, p. 202. This extract is followed by the statement of Ari Frode, and shows that the Irish Christians retired to Iceland at a very early day. The Irish monk Dicuil also refers to this solitary island, which, about the year 795, was visited by some monks with whom he had conversed.

[26] All the information which we possess relating to the discovery by Gunnbiorn is given in the body of this work, in extracts from _Landanamabok_.

[27] Claudius Christophessen, the author of some Danish verses relating to the history of Greenland, supposes that Greenland was discovered in the year 770, though he gave no real reason for his belief. _M. Peyrere_ also tells us of a Papal Bull, issued in 835, by Gregory IV, which refers to the conversion of the Icelanders and Greenlanders. Yet this is beyond question fraud. Gunnbiorn was undoubtedly the first to gain a glimpse of Greenland.

[28] The Northmen reckoned by _winters_.

[29] See the Saga of Eric the Red.

[30] The statement, found in several places, that he discovered Vinland while on his way to Greenland, is incorrect. The full account of his voyages shows that his Vinland voyage was an entirely separate thing.

[31] The author designs shortly to give some full account of the early Christianity on the Western Continent in a separate work, now well advanced towards completion. It will include both the _Pre_ and _Post_-Columbian eras.

[32] Gissur the White and Hialte, went on the same errand to Iceland in the year 1000, when the new religion was formally adopted at the public Thnig.

[33] It will be seen hereafter that he went and established himself in Vinland.

[34] See _Memoires des Antiquaires du Nord_, p. 383.

[35] The location of Gardar is now uncertain. At one time it was supposed to have been situated on the eastern coast; but since it became so clear that the east coast was never inhabited, that view has been abandoned, though the name appears in old maps.

[36] See Crantz's _Greenland_, vol. I, p. 252.

[37] These inscriptions are all in fair runic letters, about which there can be no mistake, and are totally unlike the imaginary runes, among which we may finally feel obliged to cla.s.s those of the Dighton rock.

[38] See Egede's _Greenland_, p. xxv; Crantz's _Greenland_, vol. I, pp.

247-8; Purchas, _His Pilgrimes_, vol. III, p. 518; _Antiquitates Americanae_, p. 300.

[39] _Antiquitates Americanae_, p. x.x.xix.

[40] For the account of the ma.n.u.scripts upon which our knowledge of Greenland is founded, see _Antiquitates Americanae_, p. 255.

[41] In that year parties are known to have contracted marriage at Gardar, from whom Finn Magnussen and other distinguished men owe their descent.

[42] Egede's _Greenland_, p. xlvii.

[43] Ibid., xlviii.

[44] Crantz's _Greenland_, vol. I, p. 264.

[45] Crantz's _Greenland_, p. 274.

[46] Ibid., p. 279.

[47] Hans Egede was a clergyman in priest's orders, and minister of the congregation at Vogen in the northern part of Norway, where he was highly esteemed and beloved. He spent fifteen years as a missionary in Greenland, and died at Copenhagen, 1758.

[48] The motto on the sword of Roger Guiscard was:

"_Appulus et Calaber Siculus mihi Servit et Afer._"

[49] See Laing's _Heimskringla_, vol. II, p. 450. This refers to his swimming match with Kiarten the Icelander, in which the king was beaten.

[50] See Saga of Saint (not king) Olaf.

[51] _Des Antiquaires du Nord_, 1859.

[52] Ledehammer. The point of land near the house of Lede, just below Drontheim.

[53] Laing's _Heimskringla_, vol. I, p. 457. It is related that while they were planking the s.h.i.+p, "it happened that Thorberg had to go home to his farm upon some urgent business; and as he stayed there a long time, the s.h.i.+p was planked upon both sides when he came back. In the evening the king went out and Thorberg with him, to see how the s.h.i.+p looked, and all said that never was seen so large and fine a s.h.i.+p of war. Then the king went back to the town. Early the next morning the king came back again to the s.h.i.+p, and Thorberg with him. The carpenters were there before them, but all were standing idle with their hands across. The king asked, 'What is the matter?' They said the s.h.i.+p was ruined; for somebody had gone from stem to stern, and cut one deep notch after another down the one side of the planking. When the king came nearer he saw that it was so, and said with an oath, 'The man shall die who has thus ruined the s.h.i.+p out of malice, if he can be found, and I will give a great reward to him who finds him out.' 'I can tell you, king,' says Thorberg, 'who has done this piece of work.' 'I don't think that any one is so likely to find it out as thou art.' Thorberg says: 'I will tell you, king, who did it, I did it myself.' The king says, 'Thou must restore it all to the same condition as before, or thy life shall pay for it.' Then Thorberg went and chipped the planks until the deep notches were all smoothed and made even with the rest; and the king and all present declared that the s.h.i.+p was much handsomer on the side of the hull which Thorberg had chipped, and bade him shape the other side in the same way and gave him great thanks for the improvement."

[54] A few years ago two very ancient vessels which probably belonged to the seventh century were exhumed on the coast of Denmark, seven thousand feet from the sea, where they were scuttled and sunk. The changes in the coast finally left them imbedded in the sand. One vessel was seventy-two feet long, and nine feet wide amid s.h.i.+ps. The other was forty-two feet long, and contained two eight-sided spars, twenty-four feet long. The bottoms were covered with mats of withes for the purpose of keeping them dry. Among the contents was a Damascened sword, with runes, showing that the letter existed among the Northmen in the seventh century.

[55] The people of Iceland were always noted for their superiority in this respect over their kinsmen in Denmark and Norway. There is one significant fact bearing on this point, which is this: that, while a few of the people of Iceland went at an early period to engage in piratical excursions with the vikings of Norway, not a single pirate s.h.i.+p ever sailed from Iceland. Such ways were condemned altogether at an early day, while various European nations continued to sanction piracy down to recent periods. Again it should be remembered that in Iceland duelling was also solemnly declared illegal as early as 1011, and in Norway the following year; while in England it did not cease to be a part of the judicial process until 1818. See Sir Edmund Head's _Viga-Glum Saga_, p.

120.

[56] Those who imagine that these ma.n.u.scripts, while of pre-Columbian origin, have been tampered with and interpolated, show that they have not the faintest conception of the state of the question. The accounts of the voyages of the Northmen to America form the _framework_ of Sagas which would actually be destroyed by the elimination of the narratives.

There is only one question to be decided, and that is the _date_ of these compositions.

[57] The fact that Mr. Bancroft has in times past expressed opinions in opposition to this view will hardly have weight with those persons familiar with the subject. When that writer composed the first chapter of his _History of the United States_, he might have been excused for setting down the Icelandic narratives as shadowy fables; but, with all the knowledge shed upon the subject at present, we have a right to look for something better. It is therefore unsatisfactory to find him perpetuating his early views in each successive edition of the work, which show the same knowledge of the subject betrayed at the beginning.

He tells us that these voyages "rest on narratives _mythological_ in form, and _obscure_ in meaning," which certainly cannot be the case.

Furthermore they are "not contemporary;" which is true, even with regard to Mr. Bancroft's _own_ work. Again, "The chief doc.u.ment is an interpolation in the history of Sturleson." This cannot be true in the sense intended, for Mr. Bancroft conveys the idea that the princ.i.p.al narrative _first_ appeared in Sturleson's history when published at a _late day_. It is indeed well known that one version, but _not_ the princ.i.p.al version, was interpolated in Peringskiold's edition of Sturleson's _Heimskringla_, printed at Copenhagen. But Bancroft teaches that these relations are of a modern date, while it is well known that they were taken _verbatim_ from _Codex Flatoiensis_, finished in the year 1395. He is much mistaken in supposing that the northern Antiquarians think any more highly of the narratives in question, because they once happened to be printed in connection with Sturleson's great work. He tells us that Sturleson "could hardly have neglected the discovery of a continent," if such an event had taken place. But this, it should be remembered, depends upon _whether or not the discovery was considered of any particular importance_. This does _not_ appear to have been the case. The fact is nowhere dwelt upon for the purpose of exalting the actors. Besides, as Laing well observes, the discovery of land at the west had nothing to do with his subject, which was the history of the kings of Norway. The discovery of America gave rise to a little traffic, and nothing more. Moreover the kings of Norway took no part, _were not the patrons of the navigators_, and _had no influence whatever in inst.i.tuting a single voyage_. Mr. Bancroft's last objection is that Vinland, the place discovered, "has been sought in all directions from Greenland and the St. Lawrence to Africa." This paragraph also conveys a false view of the subject, since the location of Vinland was as well known to the Northmen as the situation of Ireland, with which island they had uninterrupted communication. It is to be earnestly hoped that in the next edition, Mr. Bancroft may be persuaded to revise his unfounded opinions.

Was.h.i.+ngton Irving has expressed the same doubt in his Life of Columbus, _written before the means of examining this question were placed within his reach_, and in the appendix of his work he mixes the idle tales of St. Brandan's Isle with the authentic histories of the Northmen. A very limited inquiry would have led him to a different estimate.

[58] The word rune comes from _ryn_, a furrow. Odin has the credit of the invention, yet they are probably of Phenician origin. They were sometimes used for poetical purposes. Halmund, in the Grettir Saga (see Sabing Baring Gould's _Iceland_), says to his daughter: "Thou shalt now listen whilst I relate my deeds, and sing thereof a song, which thou shalt afterwards cut upon a staff." This indicates the training the memory must have undergone among the Northmen.

[59] For a list of many Icelandic works, see the Introduction of Laing's _Heimskringla_.

[60] See Sir Edmund Head's _Viga Glum Saga_, pp. viii and ix.