In Northern Mists Volume I Part 20

virar attu via hvar veiiskapar at leita ar.

Skeggi enn prui skip sitt bjo, skutunni rendi norr um sjo, holdum ekki hafit vannst, hvarf i burtu, en aldri fannst."[270]

Men went north to Greipar, There was the end of Greenland's habitations.

Men might there far and wide Seek for hunting.

Skegge the Stately fitted out his s.h.i.+p, With his vessel he sailed north in the sea, By the men the sea was not conquered, They were lost, and never found.

It appears from Hkon Hkonsson's Saga that the Norrsetur were a well-known part of Greenland; for we read of the submission of the Greenlanders to the Norwegian Crown that they promised

"to pay the king fines for all manslaughter, whether of Nors.e.m.e.n or Greenlanders, and whether they were killed in the settlements or in Norrsetur, and in all the district to the north under the star [i.e., the pole-star] the king should have his weregild" ["Gronl. hist.

Mind.," ii. p. 779].

In Bjorn Jonsson's "Gronlands Annaler" (cf. above, p. 263) these expeditions to the Norrsetur are mentioned in more detail, as well as a remarkable voyage to the north in 1267 ["Gronl. hist. Mind.," iii. pp. 238 ff.]. We there read:

"All the great franklins of Greenland had large s.h.i.+ps and vessels built to send to the 'Norrsetur' for seal-hunting, with all kinds of sealing gear ('veiiskap') and cut-up wood ('telgum vium'); and sometimes they themselves accompanied the expeditions--as is related at length in the tales, both in the Skald-Helga saga and in that of Thordis; there most of what they took was seal-oil, for all seal-hunting was better there than at home in the settlements; melted seal-fat was poured into sacks of hide [literally boats of hide], and hung up against the wind on boards, till it thickened, then it was prepared as it should be. The Norrsetu-men had their booths or houses ('skala') both in Greipar and in Kroksfjararheir [Kroksfjords-heath]. Driftwood is found there, but no growing trees.

This northern end of Greenland is most liable to take up all the wood and other drift that comes from the bays of Markland...."

In an extract which follows: "On the voyage northward to the uninhabited regions" (probably from a different and later source) we read:

"The Greenlanders are constantly obliged to make voyages to the uninhabited regions in the northern land's end or point, both for the sake of wood [i.e., driftwood] and sealing; it is called Greipar and Kroksfjararheir; it is a great and long sea voyage thither;[271] as the Skald-Helga saga clearly bears witness, where it is said of it:

"'Garpar kvomu i Greypar norr. The men came to Greipar in the north, Gronlands er ar bryggju sporr.'[272] There is the bridge-spur (end) of Greenland.

"Sometimes this sealing season ('verti') of theirs in Greipar or Kroksfjardarheidr is called Norrseta."

[Sidenote: Greipar and Kroksfjardarheidr. Their situation]

According to this description we must look for Nordrsetur, with Greipar and Kroksfjardarheidr, to the north of the northern extremity of the Western Settlement, which from other descriptions must have been at Straumsfjord, about 66-1/2 N. lat. (see map, p. 266). There in the north, then, there was said to be driftwood, and plenty of seals. The latter circ.u.mstance is especially suited to the districts about Holstensborg and northward to Egedes Minde (i.e., between 66 and 68-1/2 N. lat.), and further to Dis...o...b..y and Vaigat (see map, p. 259). Besides abundance of seals there was also good walrus-hunting, and this was valuable on account of the tusks and hide, which were Greenland's chief articles of export [cf. for instance, "The King's Mirror," above, p. 277]. There was also narwhale, the tusk or spear of which was even more valuable than walrus tusks. "Greipar"[273] may have been near Holstensborg, about 67 N. lat.

"Kroksfjararheir" may have been at Dis...o...b..y or Vaigat.[274] It also agrees with this that the northern point of Greenland ("essi norskagi Grnlands") was in Norrsetur, and that "Greipar" was at the land's end ("bygar sporr") of Greenland. For what the Greenlanders generally understood by Greenland was the Eastern and Western Settlements, and the broad extent of coast lying to the north of them, which was not covered by the inland ice, and which reached to Dis...o...b..y. It was the part where human habitation was possible, and where there was no inland ice; it was therefore natural for them to call Greipar the northern end of the country.

In an old chorography, copied by Bjorn Jonsson under the name of "Gronlandiae vetus chorographia"[275] (in his "Gronlands Annaler"), there is mention of the Western Settlement and of the districts to the north of it. After naming the fjords in the Eastern Settlement it proceeds: "Then it is six days' rowing, six men in a six-oared boat, to the Western Settlement (then the fjords are enumerated),[276] then from this Western Settlement to Lysefjord it is six days' rowing, thence six days' rowing to Karlsbua [Karl's booths], then three days'

rowing to Biarneyiar [Bear-islands or island], twelve days' rowing around ... ey,[277] Eisunes, aedanes in the north. Thus it is reckoned that there are 190 dwellings [estates] in the Eastern Settlement, and 90 in the Western." This description is obscure on many points. From other ancient authorities it appears that Lysefjord was the southernmost fjord in the Western Settlement [now Fiskerfjord, cf. G.

Storm, 1887, p. 35; F. Jonsson, 1899, p. 315], but how in that case there could be six days' rowing from this Western Settlement to Lysefjord seems incomprehensible. It might be supposed that it is the distance from the southern extremity of the Western Settlement that is intended, and thus the pa.s.sage has been translated in "Gronl. hist.

Mind.," iii. p. 229; but then it is strange that in the original MS.

the fjords of the settlement should have been enumerated before the distance to the first fjord was given. If this, however, be correct, it would then have been twelve days' rowing from the northernmost fjord in the Eastern Settlement to Lysefjord in the Western. This might perhaps agree with Ivar Bardsson's description of Greenland, where it is stated that "from the Eastern Settlement to the Western Settlement is twelve sea-leagues, and all uninhabited." These twelve sea-leagues may be the above-mentioned twelve days' rowing, repeated in this form. It was a good two hundred nautical miles (forty ancient sea-leagues) from the northernmost fjord of the Eastern Settlement to the interior of Lysefjord. With twelve days' rowing, this would be at the rate of eighteen miles a day; but if we allow for their keeping the winding course inside the islands, it will be considerably longer.

If we put a day's rowing from Lysefjord northward at, say, twenty nautical miles, then "Karlsbuir" would lie in about 65, and "Biarneyiar" in about 66; but there is then a difficulty about this island, together with Eisunes and aedanes, which it is said to have taken twelve days to row round. On the other hand, it is a good two hundred miles round Disco Island, so that this might correspond to twelve days' rowing at eighteen miles a day. And if this island is intended, then either the number of days' rowing northward along the coast must be increased, or the starting-point was not the Lysefjord (Fiskerfjord) that lay on the extreme south of the Western Settlement.

But the description is altogether too uncertain to admit of any definite conclusion. It is not mentioned whether the northern localities, Karlsbuir and farther north, were included in Nordrsetur, but it seems probable that they were.

In this connection the statement in Ivar Bardsson's description must also be borne in mind:

[Sidenote: Himinra and Hunenrioth]

"Item there lies in the north, farther from the Western Settlement, a great mountain that is called Himinrazfjall,[278] and farther than to this mountain must no man sail, if he would preserve his life from the many whirlpools which there lie round all the ocean."

It is true that Ivar's description as a whole does not seem to be very trustworthy as regards details, nor do the whirlpools here spoken of tend to inspire confidence, suggesting as they do that it was near the earth's limit, where the ocean ends in one or more vast abysses; but it is nevertheless possible that the mountain in question may have been an actual landmark in the extreme north, on that part of the west coast of Greenland to which voyages were habitually made, and in that case it must have been situated in "Nordrsetur."

Mention may also be made of a puzzling scholium to Adam of Bremen's work [cf. Lappenberg, 1838, pp. 851 f.]; it was added at a late period, ostensibly from "Danish fragments," but the form of the names betrays a Norse origin, and we must suppose that it is derived from ancient Norwegian or Icelandic sources. The following is a translation of the Latin text:

"From Norway to Iceland is fourteen dozen leagues ('duodene leucarum') across the sea (or XIII. dozen sea-leagues, that is, 168 leagues).[279] From Iceland as far as the green land ('terram viridem') Gronlandt is about fourteen dozen ('duodenae'). There is a promontory and it is called 'Huerff' [i.e., Hvarf], and there snow lies continually and it is called 'Hwideserck.' From 'Hwideserck' as far as 'Sunderbondt' is ten dozen leagues ('duodenae leucarum'); from 'Sunderbondt' as far as 'Norderbondt' is eleven dozen leagues (d. l.).

From 'Nordbundt' to 'Hunenrioth' is seventeen dozen leagues, and here men resort in order to kill white bears and 'Tauwallen'" ["tandhvaler"

(?)--"tusk-whales"--i.e., walrus and narwhale (?)].[280]

This pa.s.sage is difficult to understand. "Sunderbondt" and "Norderbondt" are probably to be regarded as translations of the Norwegian "Syd-botten" and "Nord-botten." The latter might be the Polar Sea, or "Hafsbotn," north of Iceland and Norway; on Claudius Clavus's map this is called "Nordhindh Bondh" (Nancy map) and "Nordenbodhn" (Vienna text).[281] But in that case we should have to suppose that the distances referred to a voyage from Norway to Iceland, from thence to Hvarf and Hvitserk, and then back again northward along the east coast of Greenland. It seems more probable that the direction of the voyage was supposed to be continued round Hvarf and up along the west coast; but where "Sunderbondt" and "Norderbondt" are to be looked for on that coast is difficult to say; the names would most naturally apply to two fjords or bays, and in some way or other these might be connected with the Eastern and Western Settlements; "Norderbondt" might, for instance, have come to mean the largest fjord, G.o.dthaabs-fjord, in the Western Settlement.

Since "hun" in Old Norse means a bear-cub or young bear, one might be inclined to connect "Hunenrioth" with Bjarn-eyar, where perhaps bears were hunted; but in that case "-rioth" must be taken to be the Old Norse "hrjotr" (growl, roar), which would be an unlikely name for islands or lands. It is more reasonable to suppose that it means the same as the above-mentioned mountain "Himinra," from Ivar Bardsson's description. It might then be probable that this was called "Himinro"

(i.e., flus.h.i.+ng of the sky, sun-gold, from the root-form "rioa") a natural name for a high mountain;[282] by an error in writing or reading this might easily become "Hunenrioth," as it might also become "Himinra." Thus it is possibly a mountain in Nordrsetur (see above).

But in any case the distances are impossible as they stand, and until more light has been thrown upon this scholium, we cannot attach much importance to it.

[Sidenote: Nordrsetur not beyond Baffin's Bay]

For many reasons it is unreasonable to look for "Greipar" and "Kroksfjardarheidr" so far north as Smith Sound or Jones Sound (or Lancaster Sound), as, amongst others in recent times, Professor A. Bugge [1898] and Captain G. Isachsen [1907] have done:[283]

(1) In the first place this would a.s.sume that the Greenlanders on their Nordrsetu expeditions sailed right across the ice-blocked and difficult Baffin's Bay and Melville Bay every summer, and back again in the autumn, in their small clinker-built vessels, which were not suited for sailing among the ice. We are told indeed (see above, p. 299) that the franklins had large s.h.i.+ps and vessels for this voyage; but this was written in Iceland by men who were not themselves acquainted with the conditions in Greenland, and the statement doubtless means no more than that these vessels, or rather boats, were large in comparison to the small boats (perhaps for the most part boats of hides) which they usually employed in their home fisheries. Timber for s.h.i.+pbuilding was not easy to obtain in Greenland. Drift-wood would not go very far in building boats, to say nothing of larger vessels, and they must have depended on an occasional cargo of timber from Norway, or perhaps what they could themselves fetch from Markland. They could hardly have got the material for building vessels suited for sailing through the ice of Baffin's Bay in this way.

Moreover, we know from several sources that there was great scarcity of rivets and iron nails in Greenland; so that vessels were largely built with wooden nails. In 1189 a Greenlander, Asmund Kastanrasti, came with twelve others from Kross-eyjar in Greenland to Iceland "in a s.h.i.+p that was fastened together with wooden nails alone, save that it was also bound with thongs.... He had also been in Finnsbuir." He did not sail from Iceland till the following year, and was then s.h.i.+pwrecked.[284] This s.h.i.+p must have been one of the largest and best they had in Greenland. It is therefore impossible that they should have been able to keep up any constant communication with the countries on the north side of Baffin's Bay.

(2) Then comes the question: what reason would they have had for exposing themselves to the many dangers involved in the long northward voyage through the ice? Their purpose may have been chiefly to kill seals and collect driftwood. But where there is much ice for the greater part of the year, the driftwood is prevented from being thrown up on sh.o.r.e; and it is the fact that in Baffin's Bay there is unusually little of it, so that the Eskimo of Cape York and Smith Sound are barely able to get enough wood for making weapons and implements. In addition to the ice the reason for this is that no current of importance bearing driftwood reaches the north of Baffin's Bay. Consequently, this again is conclusive proof that the Nordrsetur of the descriptions is not to be looked for there, nor was sealing particularly good; they had better sealing-grounds in the districts about Holstensborg, Egedes Minde and Dis...o...b..y.[285]

[Sidenote: Nordrsetur at and south of Dis...o...b..y]

Everything points to the Nordrsetur having been situated in the districts either in or to the south of Dis...o...b..y,[286] which must have been a natural hunting-ground for the Greenlanders, just as the Norwegians sail long distances to Lofoten for fis.h.i.+ng. Moreover, one of the objects of the voyages to Nordrsetur was to collect driftwood; now the driftwood comes with the Polar Current round Cape Farewell and is thrown up on sh.o.r.e along the whole of the west coast northward as far as this current washes the land--that is to say, about as far north as Dis...o...b..y. In the south of Greenland, the ancient Eastern Settlement, there is drift-ice for part of the year, and not so much driftwood comes ash.o.r.e as farther north, in the ancient Western Settlement (especially the G.o.dthaab district) and to the north of it. Besides, in the settlements there were many to find it and utilise it, while in the uninhabited regions there were only the Eskimo, of whom perhaps there were as yet few south of 68 N. lat. On their way to and from the Nordrsetur, therefore, the Greenlanders travelled along the sh.o.r.e and collected driftwood wherever they found it. In Iceland this was misunderstood in the sense that driftwood was supposed to be washed ash.o.r.e chiefly in Nordrsetur; and they believed it to come from Markland, perhaps because the Greenlanders sometimes went there for timber, and it was thus regarded by them as a country rich in trees. It is, however, also possible that the name Markland, i.e., woodland, itself may have created this conception. In reality most of the driftwood comes from Siberia, which was unknown to them, and it is brought with the drift-ice over the Polar Sea and southward along the east coast of Greenland.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Driftwood. From an Icelandic MS., fifteenth century]

[Sidenote: Voyage to Baffin's Bay in 1267]

The following is the account of the voyage of about 1267, given by Bjorn Jonsson (taken, according to his statement, from the Hauksbok, where it is no longer to be found):

"That summer [i.e., 1266] when Arnold the priest went from Greenland, and they were stranded in Iceland at Hitarnes, pieces of wood were found out at sea, which had been cut with hatchets and adzes ('exlum'), and among them one in which wedges of tusk and bone were imbedded.[287] The same summer men came from Nordrsetur, who had gone farther north than had been heard of before. They saw no dwelling-places of Skraelings, except in Kroksfjardarheidr, and therefore it is thought that they [i.e., the Skraelings] must there have the shortest way to travel, wherever they come from.... After this [the following year ?] the priests sent a s.h.i.+p northward to find out what the country was like to the north of the farthest point they had previously reached; and they sailed out from Kroksfjardarheidr, until the land sank below the horizon ('laegi'). After this they met with a southerly gale and thick weather ('myrkri'), and they had to stand off [i.e., to the north]. But when the storm pa.s.sed over ('i rauf') and it cleared ('lysti'), they saw many islands and all kinds of game, both seals and whales [i.e., walrus ?], and a great number of bears. They came right into the gulf [i.e., Baffin's Bay] and all the land [i.e., all the land not covered by ice] then sank below the horizon, the land on the south and the glaciers ('jokla'); but there was also glacier ('jokull') to the south of them as far as they could see;[288] they found there some ancient dwelling-places of Skraelings ('Skraelingja vistir fornligar'), but they could not land on account of the bears. Then they went back for three 'dgr,' and they found there some dwelling-places of Skraelings ('nokkra Skraelingja vistir') when they landed on some islands south of Snaefell. Then they went south to Kroksfjardarheidr, one long day's rowing, on St. James's day [July 25]; it was then freezing there at night, but the sun shone both night and day, and, when it was in the south, was only so high that if a man lay athwarts.h.i.+ps in a six-oared boat, the shadow of the gunwale nearest the sun fell upon his face; but at midnight it was as high as it is at home in the settlement when it is in the north-west. Then they returned home to Gardar" [in the Eastern Settlement].

Bjorn Jonsson says that this account of the voyage was written by Halldor, a priest of Greenland (who did not himself take part in the expedition, but had only heard of it), to Arnold, the priest of Greenland who was stranded in Iceland in 1266. It was then rewritten in Iceland (or Norway ?), perhaps by one of the copyists of the Hauksbok, who was unacquainted with the conditions in Greenland; and afterwards it was again copied, and perhaps "improved," at least once (by Bjorn Jonsson himself).

Unfortunately, the leaves of the Hauksbok which must have contained this narrative have been lost. There is therefore a possibility that errors and misunderstandings may have crept in, and such an absurdity as that "they could not land on account of the bears" (though they nevertheless saw ancient Eskimo dwellings!) shows clearly enough that the narrative is not to be regarded as trustworthy in its details; but there is no reason to doubt that the voyage was really made, and it must have extended far north in Baffin's Bay. It cannot have taken place in the same year (1266) in which the men spoken of came from Norrsetur, but at the earliest in the following year (1267).

We may probably regard as one of the objects of the expedition the investigation of the northward extension of the Eskimo. The voyagers sailed out through Vaigat (Kroksfjord), in about 70-1/2 N. lat.; they met with a southerly gale and thick weather, and were obliged to keep along the coast; the south wind, which follows the line of the coast, also swept the ice northwards, and in open sea they came far north in the Polar Sea; but, if the statements are exact, they cannot have gone farther than a point from which they were able to return to Kroksfjardarheidr in four days' sailing and rowing.[289] If we allow at the outside that in the three days they sailed on an average one degree, or sixty nautical miles, a day, which is a good deal along a coast, and if we put a good day's rowing at forty miles, we shall get a total of 220 miles; or, if they started from the northern end of Vaigat in 70-1/2, they may have been as far north as 74 N. lat., or about Melville Bay. In any case there can be no question of their having been much farther north. Here the land is low, and the inland ice ("jokull") comes right down to the sea, with bare islands outside (see map, p. 259). Here they found old traces of Eskimo.

Then they returned south to Vaigat, but on the way thither they found Eskimo dwellings (that is, in this case tents) on some islands at which they put in.[290] It may be objected to this explanation that it does not agree with the statement as to the sun's alt.i.tude. But here there must be a misunderstanding or obscurity in the transmission of the text.

Kroksfjardarheidr is always mentioned elsewhere as a particularly well-known place in Nordrsetur, to which the Greenlanders resorted every summer for seal-hunting, and it is far from likely that the statements as to the midnight sun being visible, as to the frosts at night, and the detailed information as to the sun's alt.i.tude (in a description otherwise so concise), referred to so generally familiar a part of the country. It is obvious that it must refer to the unknown regions, where they were farthest north; but we thus lose the information as to the date on which the sun's alt.i.tude was observed; it must in any case have been four days before St. James's day, and it may have been more. Moreover, the information given is of no use for working out the lat.i.tude. The measurement of the shadow on a man lying athwarts.h.i.+ps does not help us much, as the height of the gunwale above the man's position is not given.

The statement as to the sun's alt.i.tude at midnight might be of more value; but whether "at home in the settlement" means the Western Settlement, or whether it does not rather mean Gardar (in the Eastern Settlement) to which they "returned home," we do not now know for certain, nor do we know on what day it was that the sun was at an equal alt.i.tude in the north-west. If St. James's day (July 25) is meant, then it is unfortunate that the sun would not be visible above the horizon at Gardar when it was in the north-west. According to the Julian Calendar, which was then in use, July 25 fell seven or eight days later than now. If Midsummer Day is intended, of which, however, there is no mention in the text, then the sun would be about 3 41' above the horizon in the north-west at Gardar. If it is meant that on July 20 the sun was at this alt.i.tude, then the lat.i.tude would be 74 34' N. [cf. H. Geelmuyden, 1883a, p. 178]. But all this is uncertain. We only know that the travellers saw the sun above the horizon at midnight. If we suppose that at least the whole of the sun's disc was above the horizon, and that it was St. James's day, then they must at any rate have been north of 71 48' N. lat. (as the sun's declination was about 17 54' on July 25 in the thirteenth century).[291] If the date was earlier, then they may have been farther south.

[Ill.u.s.tration: From an Icelandic MS., fourteenth century]

CHAPTER IX

WINELAND THE GOOD, THE FORTUNATE ISLES, AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA