In Northern Mists Volume I Part 24

Rendered into prose, Horace's poem will run somewhat as follows:

"Ye who have manliness, away with effeminate grief, and fly beyond the Etruscan sh.o.r.e. There awaits us the all-circ.u.mfluent ocean: Let us steer towards fields, happy fields and rich islands, _where the untilled earth gives corn every year, and the vine uncut_ [i.e., unpruned, growing wild] _continually flourishes_, and the never-failing branch of the olive-tree blossoms forth, and the fig adorns its tree, honey flows from the hollow ilex, the light stream bounds down from the high mountain on murmuring foot," etc.

We thus find here in Horace precisely the same ideas of the Elysian Fields or the Fortunate Isles that occur later in Isidore and in the saga's description of the fortunate Wineland; especially striking are the expressions about the corn that each year grows wild (on the unploughed earth) and the wild vine which continually yields fruit (blossoms, "floret").

These myths of the Fortunate Isles--originally derived from conceptions of the happy existence of the elect after death (in the Elysian Fields), for which reason they were called by the Greeks the Isles of the Blest--have also, of course, been blended with Indian myths of "Uttara Kuru." Among the Greeks they were sometimes the subject of humorous productions; several such of the fifth century B.C. are preserved in Athenaeus. Thus Teleclides says: "Mortals live there peacefully and free from fear and sickness, and all that they need offers itself spontaneously. The gutter flows with wine, wheat and barley bread fight before the mouths of the people for the favour of being swallowed, the fish come into the house, offer themselves and serve themselves up, a stream of soup bears warm pieces of meat on its waves," etc. Cf. also Lucian's description of the Isle of the Blest in Vera Historia (second century A.D.): "The vines bear fruit twelve times a year ... instead of wheat the ears put forth little loaves like sponges," etc. [Wieland, 1789, iv. p. 196].

[Sidenote: Schlaraffenland and Fyldeholm]

In the Middle Ages the tale of the land of desire was widespread: in Spain it took the name of "Tierra del Pipiripao" or "Dorado" (the land of gold), or again "La Isla de Jauja," said to have been discovered by the s.h.i.+p of General Don Fernando. In it are costly foods, rich stuffs and cloths in the fields and on the trees, lakes and rivers of Malmsey and other wines, springs of brandy, pools of lemonade, a mountain of cheese, another of snow, which cools one in summer and warms in winter, etc. In the Germanic countries this took the form of the legend of Schlaraffenland.[332] This mythical country has in Norway become "Fyldeholmen" (i.e., the island of drinking),[333] which shows that to the Norwegians of later days wine or spirits were the most important feature in the description of the land of desire, as the wine was to the ancient Nors.e.m.e.n in the conception of Wineland.

To sum up, it appears to me clear that the saga's description of Wineland must in its essential features be derived from the myth of the Insulae Fortunatae. The representations of it might be taken directly from Isidore, who was much read in the Middle Ages, certainly in Iceland (where a partial translation of his work was made) and in Norway (he is often quoted in the "King's Mirror"), or orally from other old authorities, who gave still more detailed descriptions of these islands. But the difficulty is that the name of Wineland, connected with the ideas of the self-grown vine and the unsown wheat, is already found in Adam of Bremen (circa 1070, see above, pp. 195 ff.). We might therefore suppose that it was his mention of the country which formed the basis of the Icelandic representation of it, although his fourth book (the description of the isles of the North) seems otherwise to have been little known in the North at that time; but here again the difficulty presents itself that the later description, that of the saga, is more developed and includes several features which agree with the cla.s.sical conceptions, but which are not yet found in Adam of Bremen. I think therefore that the matter may stand thus, that "Vinland hit Goa" was the Nors.e.m.e.n's name for "Insulae Fortunatae,"

and was in a way a translation thereof; and oral tales about the country--based on Isidore and later on other sources as well--may have formed the foundation of the statements both in Adam and in Icelandic literature. In the latter, then, an ever-increasing number of features from the cla.s.sical conceptions have crystallised upon the nucleus, when once it was formed, especially through the clerical, cla.s.sically educated saga-writers.

[Sidenote: Irish happy lands and Wineland]

As Norway, and still more Iceland (cf. pp. 167, 258), were closely connected in ancient days with Ireland, and as Norse literature in many ways shows traces of Irish influence, one is disposed to think that the ideas of Wineland may first have reached Iceland from that quarter. This exactly agrees with what was said at the beginning of this chapter, that the statements (in the Landnamabok) from the oldest Icelandic source, Are Frode, point directly to Ireland as the birthplace of the first reports of Wineland. We read in the Landnamabok:

"Hvitramanna-land, which some call 'Irland hit Mikla' [Ireland the Great], lies westward in the ocean near Wineland (Vindland) the Good.

It is reckoned six 'dgr's' sail from Ireland."

Nothing more is said about Wineland.[334] As it is added that Are Marsson's voyage to Hvitramanna-land

"was first related by Ravn 'Hlymreks-farer,' who had long been at Limerick in Ireland,"

we see that Ravn, who was an Icelandic sailor of the beginning of the eleventh century, must have heard of both Hvitramanna-land and Wineland in Ireland, since otherwise he could not have known that one lay near the other.[335] But as Hvitramanna-land or "Great Ireland" is an Irish mythical country (see later), it becomes probable that Wineland the Good, at any rate in this connection, was one likewise. The old Irish legends mention many such fortunate islands in the western ocean, which have similar names, and which to a large extent are derived from the cla.s.sical myths of the Elysian Fields and the Insulae Fortunatae. Voyages to them form prominent features of most of the Irish tales and legends. In the heathen tale of the Voyage of Bran ("Echtra Brain maic Febail," preserved in fifteenth and fourteenth century copies of a work of the eleventh century, but perhaps originally written down in the seventh century)[336] there are descriptions of: "Emain" or "Tir na-m-Ban" (the land of women), with thousands of amorous women and maidens, and "without care, without death, without any sickness or infirmity" (where Bran and his men live sumptuously each with his woman);[337] "Aircthech" (== the beautiful land); "Ciuin" (== the mild land), with riches and treasures of all colours, where one listens to lovely music, and drinks the most delicious wine; "Mag Mon" (== the plain of sports); "Imchiuin" (== the very mild land); "Mag Mell" (== the happy plain, the Elysium of the Irish), which is described as lying beneath the sea, where without sin, without crime, men and loving women sit under a bush at the finest sports, with the n.o.blest wine, where there is a splendid wood with flowers and fruits and golden leaves, and the true scent of the vine; there is also "Inis Subai"

(the isle of gladness), where all the people do nothing but laugh.[338] It is said in the same tale that "there are thrice fifty distant islands in the ocean to the west of us, each of them twice or thrice as large as Erin."

That western happy lands in the Irish legends (even in the Christian "Imram Maelduin") should often be depicted as the Land of Women ("Tir na-m-Ban") or Land of Virgins ("Tir na-n-Ingen"), with amorously longing women, might be thought to have some connection with Mahomet's Paradise and the Houris; but the erotically sensuous element is everywhere so prominent in mediaeval Irish literature that this feature may be a genuine Irish one.[339] It must, by the way, be this "Tir na-n-Ingen" that we meet with again in the Faroese lay "Gongu-Rolv's kvaei," where the giant from Trollebotten carries Rolv to "Moyaland" (cf. Smmoyaland); there Rolv slept three nights with the fair "Lindin mja" (== the slender lime-tree, i.e., maid), and on the third night she lost her virginity. But the other maidens all want to see him, they all want to torment him, some want to throw him into the sea,

"Summar vildu hann a galgan fora Some would carry him to the gallows, summar riva hans har, some would tear his hair, uttan frugvin Lindin mja, except the damsel Lindin the slender, hon fellir fyri hann tar." she shed tears for him.

She sends for the bird "Skugv," which carries him on its back for seven days and six nights across the sea to the highest mountain in Trondhjem.

[Cf. Hammershaimb, 1855, pp. 138 ff.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: From a MS. of the thirteenth century (Royal Library, Copenhagen)]

The "Promised Land" ("Tir Tairngiri") with the "Happy Plain" ("Mag Mell")[340] became in the Christian Irish legends the earthly Paradise, "Terra Repromissionis Sanctorum" (the land of promise of the saints).

Other names for the happy land or happy isles in the west are: "Hy Breasail" (== the fortunate isle), "Tir na-m-Beo" (== the land of the living), "Tir na-n-og" (== the land of youth), "Tir na-m-Buadha" (== the land of virtues), "Hy na-Beatha" (== the isle of life). The happy isle of "Hy Breasail," which was thought to be inhabited by living people, was also frequently called the "Great Land" (which when translated into Old Norse might become "Viland"); just as the "Land of the Living," where there were only enticing women and maidens, and neither death nor sin nor offence, was called the "Great Strand" ("Trag Mor").[341] There is also mention of "Tir n-Ingnad" (land of marvels) and "Tirib Ingnad" (lands of marvels). This Irish series of names and conceptions for the same wonderful land (or strand) may well be thought to have been the origin of the name "Furustrandir."[342] The Irish often imagined their Promised Land, with "Mag Mell" and also the land of women, as the sunken land under the sea (cf. p. 355), and called it "Tir fo-Thuin" (== the land under the wave).

[Sidenote: Brandan's Grape-Island]

It is not surprising that a name like "Vinland hit Goa" should have developed from such a world of ideas as this. But Moltke Moe has drawn my attention to yet another remarkable agreement, in the Grape-Island ("Insula Uvarum"), one of the fortunate isles visited by the Irish saint Brandan. In the Latin "Navigatio Sancti Brandani"--a description of Brandan's seven years' sea voyage in search of the "Promised Land"--it is related that one day a mighty bird came flying to Brandan and the brethren who were with him in the coracle; it had a branch in its beak with a bunch of grapes of unexampled size and redness[343] [cf. Numbers xiii. 23],[344]

and it dropped the branch into the lap of the man of G.o.d. The grapes were as large as apples, and they lived on them for twelve days.

"Three days afterwards they reached the island; it was covered with the thickest forests of vines, which bore grapes with such incredible fertility that all the trees were bent to the earth; all with the same fruit and the same colour; not a tree was unfruitful, and there were none found there of any other sort."

Then this man of G.o.d goes ash.o.r.e and explores the island, while the brethren wait in the boat (like Karlsevne and his men waiting for the runners), until he comes back to them bringing samples of the fruits of the island (as the runners brought with them samples of the products of Wineland). He says: "Come ash.o.r.e and set up the tent, and regale yourselves with the excellent fruits of this land, which the Lord has shown us." For forty days they lived well on the grapes, and when they left they loaded the boat with as many of them as it would hold, exactly like Leif in the "Gronlendinga-attr," who loaded the s.h.i.+p's boat with grapes when they left Wineland; and like Thorvald at the same place, who collected grapes and vines for a cargo [cf. "Gronl. hist. Mind.," i. pp.

222, 230].

[Sidenote: The river at Hop and the Styx]

The fortunate island on which the monk Mernoc lived (at the beginning of the "Navigatio") was called "Insula Deliciosa." The great river that Brandan found in the Terra Repromissionis, and that ran through the middle of the island, may be compared to the stream that Karlsevne found at Hop in Wineland, which fell into a lake and thence into the sea, and where they entered the mouth of the river. But the river which divided the Terra Repromissionis, and which Brandan could not cross, was evidently originally the river of death, Styx or Acheron in Greek mythology ("Gjoll" in Norse mythology). One might be tempted to suppose that, in the same way as the whole description of Wineland has been dechristianised from the Terra Repromissionis, the realistic, and therefore often rationalising, Icelanders have transformed the river in the Promised Land, the ancient river of death, into the stream at Hop.

Other pa.s.sages also of the descriptions of the Wineland voyages present similarities with Brandan's voyage; and similar resemblances are found with other Irish legends, so many, in fact, that they cannot be explained as coincidences. The "Navigatio Sancti Brandani" was written in the eleventh century, or in any case before 1100[345] (but parts of the legend of Brandan may belong to the seventh and eighth centuries). The work was widely diffused in Europe in the twelfth century, and was also well known in Iceland; we still possess an Old Norse translation of parts of it in the "Heilagra Manna sogur" [edited by Unger, Christiania, 1877, i.].

Through oral narratives the mythical features which are included in this legend have evidently helped to form the tradition of the Wineland voyages.

[Sidenote: Wine-fruit and wine in Irish legend]

In the tale of the voyage of Maelduin and his companions ("Imram Maelduin," see above, p. 336),[346] it is related that they came to an island where there were many trees, like willow or hazel, with wonderful fruit like apples, or wine-fruit, with a thick, large sh.e.l.l; its juice had so intoxicating an effect that Maelduin slept for a day and a night after having drunk it; and when he awoke, he told his companions to collect as much as they could of it, for the world had never produced anything so lovely. They then filled all their vessels with the juice, which they pressed out of the fruit, and left the island. They mixed the juice with water to mitigate its intoxicating and soporific effect, as it was so powerful.[347] This reminds us of Tyrker in the "Gronlendinga-attr," who gets drunk from eating the grapes he found.[348]

Wine is, moreover, a prominent feature in many of the Irish legends of sea-voyages. The voyagers often find intoxicating drinks, which make them sleep for several days, and they are often tormented by burning thirst and come to islands with springs that give a marvellously quickening drink. In the tale of the voyage of the three sons of Ua Corra (twelfth century ?) they arrive at an island where a stream of wine flows through a forest of oaks, which glitters enticingly with juicy fruits. They ate of the apples, drank a little of the stream of wine, and were immediately satisfied and felt neither wounds nor sickness any more. In the tale of Maelduin there is an island with soil as white as a feather and with a spring which on Wednesdays and Fridays gives whey or water, on Sundays and the days of martyrs good milk, but on the days of the Apostles, of Mary and of John the Baptist, and on the great festivals it gives ale and wine [cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 163, 189].

[Sidenote: Resemblances to Lucian]

Brandan's Grape-island, Maelduin who intoxicates himself by eating the wine-fruit, and the stream of wine flowing through the oak forest, all bear a remarkable resemblance to what the Greek sophist and satirist Lucian (second century A.D.) relates in his fables in the "Vera Historia" about the seafarers who came to a lofty wooded island. As they wandered through the woods they came to a river, which instead of water ran with wine, like Chios wine. In many places it was broad and deep enough to be navigable, and it had its source in many great vines, which hung full of grapes. In the river were fish of the colour and taste of wine. They swallowed some so greedily that they became thoroughly intoxicated. But afterwards they had the idea of mixing these wine-fish with water-fish, whereby they lost the too-powerful taste of wine and were a good dish. After wading through the river of wine they came upon some remarkable vines, the upper part of which were like well-developed women down to the belt. Their fingers ran out into twigs full of grapes, their heads were covered with vine-branches, leaves and grapes, instead of hair. "The ladies kissed us on the mouth," says Lucian, "but those who were kissed became drunk on the spot and reeled. Only their fruit they would not allow us to take, and they cried out in pain if we plucked a grape or two off them. On the other hand, some of them showed a desire to pair with us, but two of my companions who complied with them had to pay dearly for it; for ... they grew together with them in such a way that they became one stem with common roots." After this strange experience the voyagers filled their empty barrels partly with ordinary water, partly with wine from the river, and on the following morning they left the island. In the Isle of the Blest, at which they afterwards arrived, there were, in addition to many rivers of water, of honey, of sweet-scented essences and of oil, seven rivers of milk and eight of wine. We even find a parallel in Lucian to Maelduin's white island with the springs of milk and wine, as the travellers come to a sea of milk, where there was a great island of cheese, covered with vines full of grapes; but these yielded milk instead of wine [cf. Wieland, 1789, iv. pp. 150 ff., 188 f., 196]. A direct literary connection between Lucian and the Irish myths can hardly be probable, as he is not thought to have been known in Western Europe before the fourteenth century; but he was much read in Eastern Europe, and oral tales founded on his stories may have reached the Irish. The resemblances are so p.r.o.nounced and so numerous that it does not seem very probable that they should be wholly accidental. Such an oral connection might, for instance, have been brought about by the Scandinavians, who had much intercourse with Miklagard (Byzantium), or by the Arabs, who in fact preserved a great part of Greek literature, and who were in constant communication both with Celts and with Scandinavians.

[Sidenote: Connection of the Brandan legend with northern waters]

That a mythical island like the Isle of Grapes--or perhaps others as well, such as the "Insula Deliciosa"--might be the origin of the "Vinland hit Goa" of the Icelanders, to which one sailed from Greenland (and of Adam of Bremen's Winland), appears natural also from the fact that many of the islands and tracts that are mentioned in the "Navigatio," and that for the most part are also mentioned in the older tale of Maelduin, are undoubtedly connected with northern and western waters. That this must be so is easily understood when one considers the voyages of Irish monks to the Faroes and Iceland. The Sheep Island, which was full of sheep, and where Brandan obtained his paschal lamb, must be the Faroes, where the sheep are mentioned even by Dicuil (see p. 163), just as the island with the many birds also reminds us of Dicuil's account of these islands; the island on the borders of h.e.l.l, whose steep cliffs were black as coal, where one of Brandan's monks, when he set foot ash.o.r.e, was instantly seized and burnt by demons, and which at their departure they saw covered with fire and flames, may have some connection with Iceland.[349] But it also bears some resemblance to the h.e.l.l Island that Lucian's voyagers come to, surrounded by steep cliffs, where there were stinking fumes of asphalt, sulphur, pitch, and roasted human beings. When Brandan arrives at the curdled sea ("mare quasi coagulatum"), and has to sail through darkness before he comes to the Land of Happiness, or when we hear of a thick fog like a wall about the kingdom of Manannan, we again think of the northern regions where the Liver Sea lay, and where Adam of Bremen had his dark or mist-filled sea.

[Sidenote: Cla.s.sical roots of the Brandan legend]

While thus many features connect the legend of Brandan with northern waters, it has, on the other hand--like many other Irish myths--its roots far down in the mythical conceptions of the cla.s.sics. Above all, Brandan's Paradise or "Promised Land of the Saints," Terra Repromissionis Sanctorum, is nothing but the Greeks' Isles of the Blest, blended with ideas from the Bible. As shown by Zimmer [1889, pp. 328 ff.], the Imram Maelduin (which to a large extent forms the foundation of the Navigatio St. Brandani) and other Irish tales of sea-voyages have great similarity to Virgil's aeneid, and are composed on its model. We have already said that Brandan's Grape-island may have some connection with Lucian. From him is possibly also derived Brandan's great whale, "Iasconicus," on whose back they live and celebrate Easter. But similar big fishes are known from old Indian legends, from the legends about Alexander, etc. It may also be mentioned that in the Breton legend corresponding to Brandan's, that of St. Machutus (written down by Bili, deacon at Aleth, ninth century), the latter and Brandan came to an island where they find the dead giant "Mildu," whom Machutus awakens and baptizes and who, wading through the sea, tries to draw their s.h.i.+p to the Paradise-island of "Yma," which he says is surrounded by a wall of s.h.i.+ning gold, like a mirror, without any visible entrance. But a storm raises the sea and bursts the cable by which he is towing them. Humboldt already saw in this giant the G.o.d Cronos, who, according to Plutarch, lay sleeping on an island in the Cronian Sea to the north-west of Ogygia, which lay five days' voyage to the west of Britain (see above, p. 156). It is probably the same giant who in the tale of Brandan written in Irish ("Imram Brenaind") has become a beautiful maiden, whiter than snow or sea-spray; but a hundred feet high, nine feet across between the b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and with a middle finger seven feet long. She is lying lifeless, killed by a spear through the shoulder; but Brandan awakens and baptizes her. She belongs to the sea-people, who are awaiting redemption. As, in answer to Brandan's question, she prefers going straight to heaven to living, she dies again immediately without a sigh after taking the sacrament [cf. Schirmer, 1888, pp. 30, 72; Zimmer, 1889, p. 136; De Goeje, 1891, p. 69]. This maiden is evidently connected with the supernaturally beautiful, big, and white king's daughter from the Land of Virgins ("Tir na-n-Ingen") who seeks the protection of Finn Macc.u.maill, and who is also pierced by a spear [cf.

Zimmer, 1889, pp. 269, 325]. Thus do mythical beings transform themselves till they become unrecognisable. The same woman is found again in Iceland as late as the seventeenth century.[350]

[Sidenote: The Brandan legend and Norse literature]

In many of its features the Brandan legend, or similar Irish legends, may be shown to have had influence on Norse literature. The theft of the neck-chain (or bridle ?) by one of the brethren, who comes to grief thereby, in the Navigatio and in other Irish tales, is found again, as Moltke Moe points out to me, in the story of Thorkel Adelfar in Saxo Grammaticus, as a theft of jewels and of a cloak, through which the thieves also come to grief. The great fish (whale) "Iasconicus," of which Brandan relates that it tries in vain to bite its own tail, is evidently the Midgardsworm of Norse literature. In the same way the little, apparently innocent, but supernatural cat in the "Imram Maelduin" which suddenly destroys the man who steals the neck-chain may be connected with the cat that Thor tries to lift in Utgard. It is doubtless the same little cat that three young priests took with them on their voyage in another Irish legend [in the Book of Leinster, of the beginning of the twelfth century]. In the "Imram Brenaind" this little cat they took with them has grown into a monkey as large as a young ox, which swims after Brandan's boat and wants to swallow it [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 139]. Again, quite recently Von Sydow [1910, pp. 65 ff.] has shown that the Snorra-Edda's myth of Thor's journey to Utgard is based on Irish myths and tales.

[Sidenote: The happy land in the west known in Northern Europe]

Legends of a happy land or an island far over the sea towards the sunset were evidently widely diffused in Northern Europe in those days, outside Ireland. In Anglo-Saxon literature there is a dialogue between Adria.n.u.s and Ritheus (probably of the tenth century), where we read:

"Tell me where the sun s.h.i.+nes at night."... "I tell you in three places: first in the belly of the whale that is called 'Leuiathan'; and the second season it s.h.i.+nes in h.e.l.l; and the third season it s.h.i.+nes upon the island that is called 'Gli,' and there the souls of holy men repose till doomsday."[351]

This Gli (i.e., the glittering land) is evidently the Land of the Blest, Brandan's Terra Repromissionis, that lies in dazzling suns.h.i.+ne, after one has pa.s.sed through darkness and mist; but whether the myth reached the Anglo-Saxons from the Irish seems doubtful.

Pseudo-Gildas's description (twelfth century) of the isle of "Avallon"

(the apple-island of Welsh myth) is also of interest; it is connected with exactly the same ideas as the Irish happy isles:

"A remarkable island is surrounded by the ocean, full of all good things; no thief, no robber, no enemy pursues one there; no violence, no winter, no summer rages immoderately; peace, concord, spring last eternally, neither flower nor lily is wanting, nor rose nor violet; the apple-tree bears flowers and fruit on the selfsame branch; there without stain youths dwell with their maidens, there is no old age and no oppressive sickness, no sorrow, all is full of joy."[352]

[Sidenote: The name of Wineland derived from Ireland]

It results, then, from what has here been quoted, that a Grape-island ("Insula Uvarum") makes its appearance in Irish literature in the eleventh century, at about the same time when Adam of Bremen mentions, from Danish informants, an island called "Winland." Of the same century again is the Norwegian runic stone from Honen in Ringerike, on which, as we shall see later, Wineland is possibly mentioned (?) From the form of the runes, S.

Bugge ascribes it to the first half of the eleventh century, hardly older, though it may be later. "Insula Uvarum" translated into the Old Norse language could not very well become anything but Vinland (or Viney), since Vinberjarey or Vinberjarland would not sound well. We thus have the remarkable circ.u.mstance that an island with the same name and the same properties makes its appearance almost simultaneously in Ireland and in Denmark (and possibly also in Norway). That these Wine-islands or Winelands should have originated entirely independently of one another, in countries which had such close intellectual connection, would be a coincidence of the kind that one cannot very well a.s.sume, since it must be regarded as more probable that there was a connection. But Brandan's Grape-island can scarcely be derived from a Wineland discovered by the Nors.e.m.e.n, since, as has been mentioned, the wine and wine-fruit play such a prominent part in the older Irish legends, and the ancient tale of Bran ("Echtra Brain") describes the Irish Elysium ("Mag Mell") as a land with magnificent woods and the true scent of the vine, etc. (see p. 355). In the next place, as has been mentioned, Brandan's Grape-island bears a resemblance to Lucian's Grape-island; but as Lucian's descriptions seem also to have influenced, among others, the tale of the intoxicating wine-fruit in the "Imram Maelduin," it looks as though Lucian's stories had reached Ireland (e.g., by Scandinavian travellers or through Arabs ?) long before the Navigatio Brandani was written. As thus the Irish wine-island cannot well be due to a Norse discovery, it becomes probable that Adam's name Winland (as well as the possible Norwegian name) was originally derived from Ireland, and that it reached the northern countries orally. If the Danes did not get the name from the Norwegians they may have brought it themselves, as they also had direct communication with Ireland.[353] This conclusion, that the name of Wineland came from Ireland, is again strengthened from an entirely different quarter, namely, the Landnamabok, where it is said that Great-Ireland lay near Wineland. As suggested on p. 354, this shows that the Icelanders must have heard both lands spoken of in Ireland. As Ravn Hlymreks-farer is given as the original authority, and after him Thorfinn, earl of Orkney (ob. circa 1064), this may have been at the beginning of the eleventh century; but as the statement came finally from Thorkel Gellisson (and consequently was written down by Are Frode) it may also have been in the second half of that century. In this way we seem to have a natural explanation of the simultaneous appearance of the name in the North.[354]

As the statement in the Landnama is due to Thorkel Gellisson, it is doubtless most probable that the Wineland that is mentioned for the first time in Icelandic literature in a gloss in Are Frode's islendingabok also has Thorkel (who is mentioned immediately afterwards) for its authority (cf. p. 258), although the sentence might be by Are himself. Thorkel may have heard of this Wineland in Greenland; but it is more likely to be the country he heard of in connection with the mythical Hvitramanna-land from Ireland, and he may have heard that there were said to dwell there wights (or trolls) that were called Skraelings. Two possibilities suggest themselves: either this Wineland with its Skraelings was nothing but the well-known mythical land with its mythical people, which required no further description. It cannot be objected that the sober, critical Are would not have mentioned a mythical country in this way; for, if he was capable of believing in a Hvitramanna-land, he could also believe in such a Wineland. Or, on the other hand, it was a land which had actually been discovered and to which the name of the mythical country had been transferred. The latter hypothesis might be strengthened by other things that point to the Greenlanders having really found land in the west. But, on the other hand, if a country actually discovered is meant, it is curious that neither Are nor the Landnama makes any mention of the discovery, whereas the discovery of Greenland is related at some length, and also that of Hvitramanna-land. Again, when Eric the Red came to Greenland, such a land had in any case not been discovered, so that it could not have been he who named the Eskimo after the inhabitants of that land, whereas Are might readily suppose that he had taken the name of Skraelings from the people of the mythical country; thus Are's words, as they now stand, would have a clearer meaning.