In Northern Mists Volume I Part 32

[248] The above is for the most part a translation from Hauk's Landnamabok.

[249] We know little of how the ancient Scandinavians were able to provide themselves on their long voyages with food that would keep; they used salt meat, and it is probable that when they were laid up for the winter they often died of scurvy, as indeed is indicated by the narratives. Meat and fish they could doubtless often obtain fresh by hunting and fis.h.i.+ng; for grain products they were in a worse position; these can never have been abundant in Iceland, and they certainly had no opportunity of carrying a large provision with them; but as a rule they can scarcely have got on altogether without hydro-carbons, which are considered necessary for the healthy nourishment of a European. Milk may have afforded a sufficient compensation, and in fact we see that they usually took cattle with them.

In the narrative of Ravna-Floki's voyage to Iceland it is expressly said that the cattle died during the winter (see above, p. 257), and it must have been for this reason that they thought they must go home again the next summer, which shows how important it was. Probably Eric also took cattle with him on his first voyage to Greenland, and thus he was obliged before all to find a more permanent place of abode on the sh.o.r.es of the fjords where there was grazing for the cattle; but it is likely that he lived princ.i.p.ally by sealing and fis.h.i.+ng. In that case he must have been a very capable fisherman.

[250] Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, i. pp. 686, 688, Hafniae, 1848.

[251] If the Gunnbjornskerries lay on the east coast, then Gunnbjorn Ulfsson was the first to reach it; but, as has been pointed out above (p.

261), they are more likely to have been near Cape Farewell, a.s.suming the voyage to be historical.

[252] This incident is obviously connected with Irish legends, with which that same saga shows other points of resemblance. We read in the Floamanna-saga [cf. "Gronl. hist. Mind.," ii. p. 118]: "They were then much exhausted by thirst; but water was nowhere in the neighbourhood. Then said Starkad: I have heard it said that when their lives were at stake men have mingled sea-water and urine. They then took the baler, ... made this mixture, and asked Thorgils for leave to drink it. He said it might indeed be excused, but would not either forbid it or permit it. But as they were about to drink, Thorgils ordered them to give him the baler, saying that he wished to say a spell over their drink [or: speak over the bowl]. He received it and said: Thou most foul beast, that delayest our voyage, thou shalt not be the cause that I or others drink our own evacuation! At that moment a bird, resembling a young auk, flew away from the boat, screaming.

Thorgils thereupon emptied the baler overboard. They then row on and see running water, and take of it what they want; and it was late in the day.

This bird flew northwards from the boat. Thorgils said: Late has this bird left us, and I would that it may take all the devilry with it; but we must rejoice that it did not accomplish its desire."

In Brandan's first voyage, in the Irish tale, "Betha Brenainn," etc., or "Imram Brenaind" (of about the twelfth century; cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 137, 319), the seafarers one day suffered such thirst that they were near to death. They then saw glorious jets of water falling from a cliff. His companions asked Brandan whether they might drink of the water. He advised them first to say a blessing over it; but when this was done, the jets stopped running, and they saw the devil, who was letting the water out of himself, and killing those who drank of it. The sea closed over the devil, in order that thenceforth he might do no more evil to any one. The similarities are striking: both are peris.h.i.+ng of thirst and about to drink urine, the Icelanders their own, the Irish the devil's. They ask their leaders--the Icelanders Thorgils, the Irish Brandan--whether they may drink it. In both cases the leaders require a prayer to be said over it.

Thereupon in both cases they see the devil: the Icelanders in the form of a bird that screams and finally leaves them to trouble them no more, and the Irish in the form of the devil himself, who is pa.s.sing water, and disappears into the sea to do no more evil. The Icelandic tale is to some extent disconnected and incomprehensible, but is explained by being compared with the Irish; one thus sees how there may originally have been a connection between the bird (the Evil One) and the drink, which is otherwise obscure. The Icelandic account may have arisen by a distortion and adaptation, due to oral transmission, of the Irish legend.

[253] Cf. "Gronl. hist. Mind.," ii. p. 656.

[254] Cf. "Gronl. hist. Mind.," ii. p. 662.

[255] _Ibid._ pp. 684 ff.

[256] According to the "Islandske Annaler" [pp. 121, 181, 477] it was in 1200, therefore eleven years later, not fourteen; it is there related merely that Ingimund the priest was found uncorrupted in the uninhabited region, but the other six are not mentioned.

[257] I.e., wax tablets to write on.

[258] The Arab Qazwini (thirteenth century) tells a story, after Omar al 'Udhri (eleventh century), of a cave in the west where lie four dead men uncorrupted [cf. G. Jacob, 1892, p. 168].

[259] Cf. "Islandske Annaler," edited by G. Storm, 1888, pp. 50, 70, 142, 196, 337, 383.

[260] Cf. G. Storm's arguments to this effect, 1888a, pp. 263 ff.; 1887, pp. 71 f.

[261] It is true that in Bishop Gissur Einarsson's (bishop from 1541 to 1548) copy-book there is an addition to the ancient sailing directions for Greenland that "experienced men have said that one must sail south-west to New Land (Nyaland) from the Krysuvik mountains" (on the Reykjanes peninsula) [see "Gronl. hist. Mind.," iii. p. 215; and G. Storm, "Hist.

Tidskr.," 1888, p. 264]; but it is impossible to attach much weight to a statement of direction in a tradition 260 years old; it may easily have been altered or "improved" by later misconceptions.

[262] "Gronl. hist. Mind.," iii. pp. 222-224.

[263] As we have said, they can scarcely have known anything of the coast to the north of this, which runs in a more northerly direction.

[264] Cf. G. Storm, 1891, p. 71; "Gronl. hist. Mind.," i. p. 361.

[265] The mathematician and cosmographer Jacob Ziegler (ob. 1549) in his work "Scondia" (printed at Strasburg, 1536) placed the promontory of Hvitserk ("Hvetsarg promontorium") in 67 N. lat. [cf. "Gronl. hist.

Mind.," iii. pp. 500, 503]. This may be the usual confusion with Blaserk.

It happens to be by no means ill suited to Ingolf's Fjeld, which lies in 66 25' N. lat.

[266] In the Walkendorff additions to Ivar Bardsson's description of Greenland it is called Hvitserk, which may be a confusion with Blaserk; the pa.s.sage continues: "And it is credibly reported that it is not thirty sea-leagues to land, in whichever direction one would go, whether to Greenland or to Iceland" [see "Gronl. hist. Mind.," iii. p. 491]. The distance here given is remarkably correct. In Bjorn Jonsson's "Gronlands Annaler" (written before 1646) it is related that "Sira Einar Snorrason,"

priest of Stadarstad, near Snaefellsnes (he became priest there in 1502), owned a large twelve-oared boat, which, with a cargo of dried cod, was carried away from ondverdarnes (the western point of Snaefellsnes) "and drifted out to sea, so that they saw both the glaciers, as Gunnbjorn had done formerly, both Snaefells glacier and Blaserk in Greenland; they had thus come near to Eric's course ('Eiriksstefnu')" ["Gronl. hist. Mind.,"

i. p. 123]. Here, then, we have the same idea that both glaciers can be seen simultaneously, as is also found in Bjorn's work with reference to Gunnbjorn Ulfsson's voyage (see above, p. 263).

[267] Cf. "Gronl. hist. Mind.," iii. p. 843. Captain Graah brought the stone to Denmark in 1824.

[268] In a paper read before the Archaeological Society at Stockholm, March 13, 1905. Cf. "Svenska Dagbladet," March 14, 1905. I owe this reference to Professor Magnus Olsen.

[269] Cf. A. Bugge, 1898, p. 506. By a printer's error, seventeenth century is given instead of fourteenth.

[270] See also the 5th and 6th cantos of the same poem, "Gronl. hist.

Mind.," ii. pp. 522 ff., for the voyage to Greipar and its being the resort of outlaws.

[271] Captain Isachsen [1907] has attached much weight to this expression (which he translates from "Gronl. hist. Mind." by "long and dangerous sea-route"; but the original is "mikit og langt sjoleii") in order to prove that the Nordrsetur must lie far north. But it is seen from the text itself that this idea of a long sea voyage is taken from the Skald-Helga lay (where also similar expressions are used), which is of late origin, and consequently an untrustworthy base for such conclusions. Moreover, according to the lay itself, Skald-Helge belonged probably to the Eastern Settlement, and thence to Holstensborg, 67 N. lat., was a long voyage.

[272] This is obviously an error for "bygar sporr" (end of the inhabited country), as in the "Skald-Helga Rimur" (see above, p. 298).

[273] "Greipar," plural of "Greip," would mean literally the grip or interval between the fingers, but it may also be used of mountain ravines.

The name seems to point to a particularly rugged or fjord-indented coast, and would be appropriate to the whole country north of Straumsfjord, for instance about Holstensborg, in about 67.

[274] "Kroksfjarar-heir" would literally mean the flat, waste mountain tract ("heir") by the crooked fjord, Kroksfjord. The latter name would be very appropriate to Dis...o...b..y and Vaigat. The flat plateaux of basalt, which form Disco on one side, and the Nugsuak Peninsula on the other side of Vaigat, might be called "heir."

[275] Cf. "Gronl. hist. Mind.," iii. p. 226; F. Jonsson, 1899, p. 319.

[276] Perhaps these names of fjords were so indistinct in the original MS.

that Bjorn Jonsson could not read them, and therefore inserted these words (cf. "Gronl. hist. Mind.," iii. p. 233).

[277] The name of this island is left blank, and was doubtless illegible in the original.

[278] So the mountain is called in an Icelandic translation, and this form may be nearest to the name in the original Norwegian text. In the various Danish MSS. the mountain is called "Hemeuell Radszfielt" (oldest MS.), "Hammelrads Fjeld," "Himmelradsfjeld," etc. In a MS. which is otherwise considered trustworthy, it is called "Hemelrachs Fjeld," and this has been frequently supposed to mean the heaven-reaching mountain [cf. "Gronl.

hist. Mind.," iii. p. 259]. As will be mentioned later, the real name of the mountain was possibly "Himinro" (flus.h.i.+ng of the sky), or perhaps "Himinro" (wall of heaven, i.e., wall reaching towards heaven).

[279] The words in parenthesis are in German, and are certainly an explanation added later. XIII. is evidently an error for XIIII.

[280] It is also possible that it means whales from which "tauer" or ropes are obtained, i.e., the walrus; the ropes of walrus-hide being so very valuable.

[281] One might then suppose that "Hunenrioth" was connected with the Norwegian word "hun" for a giant (sometimes used in our day for the Evil One). The name might then be applied to the mythical Risaland or Jotunheim, in the Polar Sea, north-east of Greenland; but it would then be difficult to explain the meaning of the latter part of the name, -rioth.

[282] Professor Moltke Moe has suggested to me this explanation of the name. One might also suppose it to mean the western land of sunset, that is, America, but it would be unlike the Scandinavians to use such a name for a country. There is a possibility that it was connected with "ro"

(gen. "raar," a ridge of land) and meant the ridge or wall of heaven, i.e., reaching toward heaven. It is, perhaps, less probable that "-rioth"

or "-ra" came from a word of two syllables like "roa" (a rod, later a cross, Anglo-Saxon "rod," modern English "rood") or the poetical word "roi" (wind, storm). In O. Rygh: "Norske Gaardnavne," xvi. Nordlands Amt [ed. K. Rygh, 1905, p. 334], there is the name of an estate "Himmelstein"

(in Busknes), which in 1567 was written "Himmelstand," "Himmelstaa" [from 1610 on == "sten"]. K. Rygh remarks of this: "Himmel occurs occasionally in names of mountains: thus, a little farther north we have the lofty Himmeltinder on the border of Busknes and Borge. One is disposed to regard this name as similar to the Danish Himmelbjerg, meaning a very high mountain...." Professor Torp has mentioned to me the similarity of name with the giant Hymer's ox "Himinhrjotr" in the Snorra-Edda; but it is difficult to think that a mountain should have been called after the proper name of an animal.

[283] Rafn, in "Gronl. hist. Mind.," iii. pp. 881-885, commits the absurdity of separating these two places by the whole of Baffin's Bay, in spite of their being mentioned together in the old accounts under the common designation of "Nordrsetur." He puts "Greipar" in about 67 N.

lat., but makes Kroksfjardarheidr into Lancaster Sound, 74 N. lat., on the other side of the ice-blocked Baffin's Bay.

[284] Cf. "Islandske Annaler," ed. Storm, p. 120, etc.; "Gronl. hist.

Mind.," ii. pp. 754, 762. As is pointed out by Finnur Jonsson [1893, p.

539], most of the coffins found in graves in Greenland are fastened together with wooden nails. We are also told how all the iron spikes and nails were carefully taken out of a stranded Norwegian s.h.i.+p (about 1129).

[285] Since this chapter was written a few years ago, an excellent treatise by O. Solberg on the Greenland Eskimo in prehistoric times has appeared [1907]. The author has here reached conclusions similar to the above as regards the northward extension of the Nordrsetu voyages; but he proposes to place Kroksfjord south of Dis...o...b..y, since he does not think the Greenlanders came across the Eskimo who lived there. I do not consider this view justified; on the contrary, it seems to me probable (as will be mentioned later) that the Greenlanders had intercourse with the Eskimo.

[286] Otto Sverdrup found on two small islands in Jones Sound several groups of three stones, evidently set up by human hands as shelters for sitting eider-ducks, similar to those with which he was acquainted in the north of Norway. Whether these stone shelters were very ancient could not be determined. Captain Isachsen [1907] thinks they may be due to the ancient Scandinavians of the Greenland settlements, and sees in them possible evidence of Jones Sound having been Kroksfjord. But too much importance must not be attached to this: no other sign of Europeans having stayed in Jones Sound was discovered, whereas there were many signs of Eskimo. Unless we are to believe that the latter set up the stones for some purpose or other, it is just as likely that they may have been placed there by chance hunters in recent times as that they were due to the ancient Nors.e.m.e.n.