Leif discovered the land that had earlier been seen by Bjarni Herjolfsson. He passed new lands that he named Helluland (‘Stone-slab Land’), Markland (‘Forest Land’) and eventually Vinland (‘Vine Land’ or ‘Wine Land’).
Leif rowed ashore to explore the first land that they reached. Helluland had no grass and glaciers covered the high ground. Between them and the sea the land was a flat sheet of rock. They decided that such a barren land was of no use to them.
So they sailed on until they reached a second land. Once more they went ashore. Markland had white sandy beaches and was flat and wooded, and this was why he called it Markland (‘Forest Land’) because it was so different to the barren shores that he had come across so far as he sailed past Helluland.
They sailed on for a further two days. And then he came to the most fertile land of all. North of it was an island on which they landed. There was dew on the grass, which was sweet to the taste. Returning to their ship, they sailed into the sound that was between that island and the mainland. After sailing along the coast their ship beached in the shallows, and the sea seemed far off. They wanted to explore this new land and so they left their ship stranded near where a river flowed into the sea from a lake. At last, the returning tide lifted their ship and they returned to it and sailed it up the river and into the lake. There they dropped anchor.
They went ashore and built shelters. They decided to spend the winter there and built proper houses. There was plenty of salmon in the lake and river and these were larger fish than they had ever seen before. They were of the opinion that livestock would not need fodder stored in order to survive the winter months since the weather remained mild and the grass hardly died back. Compared with both Greenland and Iceland, the days and nights were of more equal length; even in midwinter the sun was clearly visible by the middle of the morning and could still be seen in the middle of the afternoon.
It was at this spot that they built shelters and began to explore the surrounding territory. In order to keep safe they divided into two groups: one always remained at the camp and those out exploring always kept together. It was on one of these explorations that Leif’s foster-father became separated from the others and, when they eventually found him, he excitedly told them that he had discovered grapes and grapevines growing. It was from that discovery that the land became known as ‘Vinland’. As a result, the settlers picked the grapes and felled wood to carry back with them onto their ships.
Later explorers also reached this point and called it ‘Leif’s Camp’. From that base these later travellers explored further.
The next spring, on his way home to Greenland, Leif rescued the Norwegian Thorir and his crew who had been shipwrecked and were surviving on a skerry: a low rock island. There were fifteen trapped there when Leif arrived. After this, people called him ‘Leif the Lucky’. Thorir then spent the winter (along with Gudrid his wife) at the farm of Leif. That winter, Thorir fell ill and died, as did Leif’s father, Eric the Red. Gudrid would later be one of the first settlers in Vinland.
Another account of the exploration of Vinland . . . the voyage of Thorvald
Leif the Lucky’s brother was named Thorvald. He too sailed to Vinland and reached ‘Leif’s Camp’. There they settled for the winter and fished.
From there, in the spring, he explored to the west. They were impressed by the well-forested land (on Greenland there was a great shortage of wood) and the white-sand beaches.
The second summer they explored the land to the east. After some time of exploring, his ship was driven ashore in a storm and badly damaged. This happened at a place that he named Kjalarnes (‘Keel Point’).
While they were there they came across nine of the natives (whom the Norse call ‘skraelings’, meaning ‘barbarians’ or ‘yelling ones’) hiding under three boats made from animal hide. Thorvald and his men killed all but one, who escaped. He sounded the alarm and many more appeared and attacked the Norse with bows and arrows.
Thorvald and his men had fallen asleep and were woken by a voice warning them of danger. It was then that they saw huge numbers of hide-covered boats coming towards them. Warned by the mysterious voice, they defended their ship against attack. After a while, the attackers withdrew. But one of their arrows had mortally wounded Thorvald and he was buried at a place that his companions named Krossanes (‘Cross Point’). It was named from the crosses that Thorvald ordered to be placed at the head and foot of his grave. Thorvald was a Christian but his father, Eric the Red, had died before the conversion of Greenland had occurred.
The next spring the surviving settlers sailed back to Greenland and brought the news of Thorvald’s death to Leif, his brother.
Another account of the exploration of Vinland . . . the voyage of Thorstein and Gudrid
Thorstein (son of Eric the Red) married Gudrid, who was one of the early settlers of Greenland with her first husband, the Norwegian who was named Thorir. It was this Thorir who had been rescued from the skerry by Leif the Lucky.
Together, Thorstein and Gudrid set up home on Greenland at Lysufjord in the area of Greenland known as the Western Settlement. They had been forced there by bad weather when attempting a voyage to Vinland in order to retrieve the body of Thorvald. There they settled at a local farm for the winter. Now Thorstein and Gudrid were Christians but the people with whom they stayed were still believers in the old gods such as Odin and Thor.
It was there that Thorstein fell ill and died. After that he briefly rose from the dead and told Gudrid’s fortune. It came about in this way. Disease struck down many on the farm at which Thorstein and Gudrid were staying for the winter. Even before they died, the spirits of the dead were seen standing outside the door, in the yard between the farmhouse and the outhouse. In this way, those who were soon to die were seen as if they were already dead. When Thorstein eventually died near sunset, Gudrid went to sleep while the farmer kept watch over the dead. But during the night he called Gudrid to tell her that her dead husband had risen and wanted to speak with her. Because Gudrid was a Christian she put her trust in God for her protection and went to where her husband was. There he spoke privately to her and asked that he and the dead from the farm should be buried in consecrated ground at a church. At that time, it was the practice on Greenland to bury the dead in unconsecrated ground and drive a pole down onto the chest of the dead. Then, often much later, the pole was pulled out and holy water poured down the hole and the burial service recited. But Thorstein asked for immediate burial in church ground for all the dead. All, that is, except Gardi the farm foreman who had been the first to die. For Thorstein told Gudrid that it was down to him that the dead were haunting the living; his body should be burned on a funeral pyre. Then Thorstein counselled her not to marry a Greenlander, and to donate their money to the church or the poor. After this, he sank down and was at peace.
This was the second time that Gudrid had had her fortune told. After this, Thorstein’s body was taken to the churchyard at Brattahlid (though some say it was to the church at Ericsfjord) and Gudrid lived there as a widow afterwards.
After this, she eventually married Thorfinn Karlsefni who arrived in Greenland. All were talking of going to Vinland and so Gudrid and Thorfinn Karlsefni set off there in the company of Freydis, the (illegitimate) daughter of Eric the Red, and Thorvard, her husband. They were also joined by Eric’s son, who was named Thorvald. They took livestock with them since they intended to settle in Vinland. They passed Helluland and saw many foxes there. Sailing on for two days they passed the forested land of Markland and discovered a bear on an offshore island that they called Bjarney (‘Bear Island’). After a further two days of sailing, they passed an area that they called Furdustrandir (‘Wonderful Beaches’) because of its long stretches of sand. It was then that they put ashore two Scots who had been given to them by Olaf Tryggvason, the king of Norway. These were a man named Haki and a woman named Hekja. They could run faster than a deer and were given the task of exploring the country. After three
days, they returned with grapes and self-sown wheat. And so Thorfinn Karlsefni pronounced that the land was good for settlement.
They took the Scots back on board and sailed on and into Straumsfjord and eventually they settled at Leif’s Camp, where some say that there was plenty of food in the form of a freshly beached whale and grapes growing and game to hunt. But others say that the winter caught them by surprise and that they went hungry at first. So they prayed to God for food as they were Christians but still they were hungry. It was then that one of their number – Thorhall the huntsman – went missing. He was a difficult man and had little regard for Christianity. He was, though, a close companion of Eric the Red. After Thorhall went missing, it took three days to find him and Thorfinn Karlsefni discovered him on the edge of a cliff in a disturbed state. It was soon afterwards that they found a beached whale of a type that they had never seen before and ate its meat, although it made them ill. It was then that Thorhall the huntsman declared that the discovery of the whale was his reward for reciting a poem to Thor, who was his guardian, and that ‘Old Redbeard [Odin] had been more use to them than Christ’. When they heard this, the others threw the whalemeat off the cliff and cried out to God for mercy. Then it was that the weather improved, they could go fishing and had plenty of food. Moving further along the fjord they found plenty of game to hunt, eggs to gather and fish to catch.
With regard to Thorhall the huntsman, he continued to recite poems to Odin, whom he named ‘the helmet-god’. Eventually he and his ship set out on their own but they were driven by a storm far away and onto the shore of Ireland where they were badly treated and forced into slavery.
Back in Vinland, one of the remaining ships went north around Kjalarnes where they discovered the keel of a ship that had been abandoned at Kjalarnes. Their ship was blown off course and ended up further south at a place they called Hop (‘Tidal Pool’). This was so called because there a river flowed out of a lake into the sea. But the sandbars at the mouth of the river meant that they could only sail into it at high tide. This ship was the one under the command of Thorfinn Karlsefni. At Hop they discovered fields of self-sown wheat, vines growing on the hills and rivers full of fish. By digging trenches along the high-water mark they caught flatfish in them when the tide receded. That winter there was no snow and their livestock could graze outside.
It was at Hop that Thorfinn Karlsefni and Gudrid first met skraelings. These people were short in stature, with threatening looks and hair that was wild and tangled; they had large eyes and broad cheekbones. The Norse traded with them. The Norse gave them milk and dairy products and red cloth and the skraelings traded animal hide. The skraelings also wanted to trade for weapons but Thorfinn Karlsefni would not allow his men to do this. The skraelings were afraid of the bull that Thorfinn Karlsefni and Gudrid had brought with them, and so Thorfinn Karlsefni decided that, if need be, he would use the bull to frighten off the skraelings.
While they were there, Gudrid gave birth to a son and she named him Snorri. He was the first of the Norse who was born in Vinland. Soon after this, Gudrid saw a ghost. It was a woman with huge eyes. The strange woman said that her name too was Gudrid. But before they could speak further they were disturbed by a loud noise as one of the skraelings attempted to steal a weapon and was killed.
Eventually the skraelings attacked the settlement. Many were killed and one of them was killed by one of his own companions who had seized an iron axe – which he had found embedded in the head of a dead skraeling – and used it on him to see what it would do to him. At this, the chief of the skraelings took the axe and hurled it into the sea. Another tale tells this as being used by the skraelings on wood, but thrown away when they tried it on stone and the blade shattered.
During the fight there was a point at which the Norse men fell back in the face of the attack by the skraelings but the situation was saved by Freydis, the daughter of Eric the Red. Though she was pregnant, she frightened the attackers off by baring her breast and slapping it with the flat of a sword blade.
After this, Thorfinn Karlsefni decided that they could not remain there, for they would be under constant danger of attack. So they sailed back up the coast and killed five of the skraelings that they discovered sleeping in animal-hide sleeping bags.
They sailed back around Kjalarnes to a point where a river flowed into the sea. There he and his crew were attacked by a one-legged creature who killed Thorvald, the son of Eric the Red, with an arrow. Thorvald pulled the arrow out of his body and joked with his companions about how fat his stomach was, into which the arrow had sunk. After this, he died.
Once back at Straumsfjord, the men fell out over women. Those men who had no wives tried to take those of the married men. By this time, they had been in Vinland for three years, for that was the age of Thorfinn Karlsefni’s and Gudrid’s son, Snorri (the one who was the first Norse born in Vinland). Sailing on, they reached Markland, where they came upon five of the skraelings: a bearded man, two women and two children. They caught the children, taught them the Norse language and baptised them; so these were the first of the natives of Vinland to become Christians. There, they lost another of their ships.
Next spring, Thorfinn Karlsefni and Gudrid decided to return to Greenland. With them they took a heavy load of wood – for there was none but driftwood on Greenland – wild berries and animal skins.
From there, they went on back to Iceland and then on to Norway to sell the things they had brought back from Vinland. This included the carved wooden prow of their ship. It was purchased for a good price in gold by a trader from Bremen in Saxony who had travelled to Norway. The prow, it was later said, was made of maple wood from Vinland, although at the time Thorfinn Karlsefni did not know what kind of wood he had brought back with him.
From Norway they returned to Iceland. There, in Iceland, Thorfinn Karlsefni and Gudrid eventually settled at Reynines in Skagafjord, northern Iceland. At first, Gudrid was not accepted by her mother-in-law as she felt that Gudrid’s family was not worthy of her son. In the end, though, she came round and accepted her.
From Thorfinn Karlsefni’s and Gudrid’s son, Snorri, are descended many Icelanders, including three who became bishops in the Icelandic church. Most of what we know of the voyages to Vinland comes from the reports of Thorfinn Karlsefni.
Gudrid herself later travelled to Rome as a pilgrim. Returning to Iceland, she built a church at Glaumbaer and became a nun and lived there as a hermit, an anchorite, until she died.
Another account of the exploration of Vinland . . . the voyage of Freydis Ericsdottir with Thorvard her husband
It was later that Freydis, the daughter of Eric the Red, returned to Vinland along with Thorvard her husband. She travelled in the company of two brothers, Helgi and Finnbogi, who came from the eastern fjords of Iceland and owned a ship that they had sailed to Greenland. It was this woman who had terrified the skraelings by beating her naked breast with the flat of a sword. But this expedition ended very badly indeed, for Freydis was devious and could not be trusted.
They reached ‘Leif’s Camp’, but there the members of this expedition fell out with each other. Freydis refused to allow Helgi and Finnbogi to use the longhouses at ‘Leif’s Camp’ for she said that Leif – her brother – had loaned their use to her and not to them. So they set up camp further from the sea, beside a lake.
In the winter, the two groups of settlers competed in sports but disagreements soon divided them and that continued through the winter.
Incited by the actions of Freydis, they fought each other. Freydis lied to her husband, telling him that she had been badly treated by Finnbogi and inciting him to revenge. This he and his men did and fell on the other settlers – Helgi and Finnbogi and their followers – while they slept. The men they tied up and these were then killed on the orders of Freydis. But nobody in the group led by Freydis was willing to kill the five women among the followers of Helgi and Finnbogi. In the end it was Freydis, herself, who killed the women who had trav
elled there with them. She did so with an axe.
After this, the survivors returned to Greenland and Freydis told them to be silent about what had happened or be killed. They were to tell others that the remaining members of the expedition had stayed behind in Vinland.
However, news of the atrocity that Freydis had committed in Vinland leaked out. She was condemned by Leif the Lucky, her own brother; but, as she was of his family, she escaped punishment for the killings that she had caused and had also personally carried out in Vinland.
Notes
Chapter 1: Who were the ‘Norse’?
1C. Balbirnie, ‘The Vikings at home’, BBC History Magazine, vol. 13, no. 9 (September 2012), p. 25.
2An overview of the use of the term ‘Viking’ can be found in: M. Arnold, The Vikings: Culture and Conquest (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2006), pp. 7–8; A. Somerville and R. A. McDonald, The Viking Age: A Reader (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010), p. xiii.
3K. Kunz, in Ö. Thorsson (ed.), The Sagas of Icelanders (London: Penguin, 2000), p. 640.
4For an accessible account of this discovery, see: H. Ingstad and A. Stine Ingstad, The Viking Discovery of America: The Excavation of a Norse Settlement in L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland (St John’s, NF: Breakwater Books, 2000).
5P. B. Taylor, ‘The Hønen runes: A survey’, Neophilologus, vol. 60, no. 1 (January 1976), pp. 1–7. See also: C. Cavaleri, ‘The Vínland Sagas as Propaganda for the Christian Church: Freydís and Gudríd as Paradigms for Eve and the Virgin Mary’, Master’s thesis, University of Oslo, 2008.
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