Lögberg-Heimskringla - 26.09.1963, Page 5

LÖGBERG-HEIMSKRINGLA, FIMMTUDAGINN 26. SEPTEMBER 1963
5
Leif Erikson and His
Discovery of Americo
Excerpts from an address by
Dr. Richard Beck, Professor of
Scandinavian Languages and
Literatures at the University
of North Dakota, at annual
Leif Erikson Day Observance
of The Norwegian National
League, Minneapolis, October
9, 1962.
The central fact to remem-
ber in connection with Leif
Erikson’s discovery of Ameri-
ca is simply this: In or about
the year 1000 of our era Leif
landed on the eastern coast of
the North American contin-
ent, the first European, accord-
ing to dependable sources, to
discover the New World. On
this fact historians now gener-
ally agree, at any rate all
those who have made a study
of the subject.
Now it may be asked: What
manner of man was Leif Erik-
son and what were the circum-
stances surrounding his dis-
covery of America? Leif was
b o r n in western Iceland
around the year 965. The blood
of advenfurers flowed in his
veins. His father, Eric the Red
was born in Norway, but mi-
grated to Iceland at an early
age. Leif, on the other hand,
made his home with his father
in Greenland after the latter
had settled there permanently
in 986. At an early age Leif
showed his spirit of enterprise
and adventure.
In the year 999 he set out on
a voyage to Norway. Instead
of following the customary
route which was by way of
Iceland, he struck boldly
across the Atlantic, reaching
the Hebrides and sailing from
there to Norway. This was, as
far as is known, the first voy-
age directly across the Atlan-
tic. Commenting on t h i s
achievement, Dr. Fridtjof Nan-
sen says: “This was an exploit
equal to the greatest in his-
tory; it is the beginning of
ocean navigation.” Even if Leif
Erikson had not discovered
America, this first Atlantic
crossing would have entitled
him to a prominent place in
the annals of ocean navigation.
During the following winter
(999-1000) Leif remained at
the court of King Olav Tryg-
gvason, where he was held in
high honor. This gifted and
energetic missionary king was
then zealously engaged in
Christianizing Norway a n d
also desired to bring within
the realm of Christianity the
other lands settled by the Nor-
wegians. Through his efforts,
Leif Erikson was converted to
the Christian faith and under-
took the difficult task of
Christianizing the Icélanders
in Greenland. According to
the Saga of Eric the Red (In
Hauksbok), generally regarded
as the most trustworthy of the
Icelandic sources, Leif set out
for his home in Greenland in
the summer of the year 1000,
carrying on board his ship one
or more priests along with his
crew of seamen.
Leifr Eiricsson
On his return voyage he was
driven out of his course and
came to a land which he had
not seen before, where he
found self-sown wheat fields
and grapevines. Scholars are
agreed that this must have
been the eastern coast of North
America; appropriately the
Norsemen named this country
“Vinland.” Another important
Icelandic source, The Flatey-
jarbok, tells of Leif’s discovery
in a somewhat different and
more detailed manner, and
mentions several landfalls he
had made. Both sources men-
tioned are, however, in agree-
ment on the central fact of our
inquiry: they credit Leif Erik-
son with the actual discovery
of the North American contin-
ent. Let it be added that the
accounts of the discovery in
the sources mentioned are
supported by a number of
briefer references in early Ice-
landic and non-Ioelandic writ-
ings. The location of “Vin-
Iand” is a matter of some
disagreement, but the histori-
cal evidence points to the New
England Coast.
When Leif Erikson dis-
covered America, he was, as
we saw, returning to his home
in Greenland, commissioned
to Christianize that country.
According to our sources he
was largely successful in that
undertaking. His father, Eric
the Red, refused, however, to
accept the new faith. Here is
the way the saga source puts
it: “Eric was reluctant about
giving up his old beliefs. But
his wife Thjodhild quickly
went over to Christianity and
had a church built some dis-
tance from their home. The
church was named Thjodhild’s
church after her. There she
used to say her prayers, along
with all the rest who accepted
the faith, and they were
many.” (Einar Haugen’s trans-
lation). Because of his success-
ful efforts in Christianizing
the Norse settlers in Green-
land, Leif, therefore, is entitled
to a place in the history of the
church and its missionary
work.
Leif Erikson’s story after his
discovery of America can be
briefly told. Upon the death of
his father, he became the lead-
er of the colony in Greenland
—a place which he filled with
distinction until the end of his
days; he died around the year
1020. He had, therefore, as far
as can be ascertained, only
reached the age of 55 or 60
years. But it can be truly said
of him that he lived in deeds,
not years. He had achieved
what the Norsemen looked
upon as the most desirable
thing in life: “The fame that
is the reward of great deeds.”
With the historical events
concerning the Norse settle-
ment of Greenland and the
discovery of America as a
background, let us briefly view
these events in the light of the
most recent and highly im-
portant archeological discover-
ies concerning them. Last fall,
when the foundation was be-
ing dug for a new school in
the Julianchaab district in
Greenland, the very locality
where Eric the Red built his
home, Bratahlid, in ancient
times, a human skull was un-
earthed. Fortunately, thanks
to the local deacon and teacher,
a Greenlander by the name of
Lars Motzfeld, who happened
to be present at the time, fur-
ther digging was stopped, and
the skull was sent to the Na-
tional Museum in Copenhagen,
where specialists, upon careful
examinations, declared that
the skull was unquestionably
that of a Norseman and not of
an Eskimo.
Within a short time Magister
Jorgen Melgaard, an archeolo-
gist from the Danish National
Museum, flew to Greenland to
examine the site and conduct
further excavations. He soon
found the foundation of a
small church, and has shown
that these are the remains of
the church built by Thjodhild,
the wife of Eric the Red and
mother of Leif Erikson. Magis-
ter Melgaard further discover-
e_d a small graveyard by the
church, where he quickly un-
earthed 16 skeletons, but esti-
mated that there may be as
many as one hundred.
Let us now pinpoint the sig-
nificance of this discovery,
which also corroborates the
evidence of the saga, previous-
ly referred to, with regard to
the Christianization of Green-
land and Thjodhild’s building
of the church near Brattahlid.
But in order not to affend her
husband Eric, who refused to
embrace the Christian faith,
she built the church some dis-
tance from the homestead at
Brattahlid, and that accounts
for the fact that the remains of
the church have not been
found before.
Thjodhild’s church, now dis-
covered, is doubtless the oldest
church in Greenland, and
thereby also the oldest church
in the Western World. Further,
it is safe to assume that both
Thjodhild and Leif are buried
in the graveyard by t'he
church, although their in-
dividual graves cannot be de-
finitely identified, unless head-
stones inscribed with their
names in runes should be dis-
covered. On the other hand, it
is uncertain whether Eric the
Red was buried in the grave-
yard in question, as he had
not, according to the saga
sources, as already mentioned,
accepted the Christian faith.
Excavations on the site have
been continued by archeolo-
gists and other specialists dur-
ing the past summer, and
several additional skeletons
have been unearthed, but such
Það er nú svo komið fyrir
okkur að allar stjórnir, hvort
heldur fylkisstjórn eða sam-
bandsstjórn, segjast ekki hafa
tekjur til að mæta útgjöldum.
Allar verða því að fá lán og
safna skuldum. Það er því dá-
lítið hressandi að minnast þess
að einu sinni var hér í norðvest-
urlandinu sjálfstætt ríki sem
aldrei skuldaði — tekjur og út-
gjöld stóðust altaf á.
Þetta var lýðveldi sem stofnað
var af manni sem hét Thomas
Spence. Það var stofnað fyrir
nærri hundrað árum — 1868.
Thomas Spence hafði verið í
Winnipeg (Fort Garry) og tekið
talsverðan þátt í almennum mál-
um. Hann var því fylgjandi að
nýlendurnar forezku sameinuð-
ust en eftir að fylkjasambandið
var stofnað fanst honum alt of
lítið gert úr ýmsum tillögum
sínum, svo hann flutti sig vestur
bil Portage la Prairie og gerði
þar almenningi heyrumkunnugt
að þar væri stofnað sjálfstætt
ríki sem ætti að vera lýðveldi og
hann sjálfur forseti þess. Þetta
átti ekki að vera neitt smáríki;
það átti að ná norður að Ishafi,
vestur að Klettafjöllum og suður
að merkjalínu milli Canada og
Bandaríkjanna — en aðeins
skamt í austur frá Portage la
Prainie svo Winnipeg og þeim,
sem ekki höfðu fylgt Spence í
ýmsum málum, væru fyrir utan
það frelsi og fágæti sem þetta
nýja ríki hefði annars veitt
þeim.
Tekjur fengust með því að
leggja toll á innfluttar vörur,
hverjar sem þær voru. Fyrstu
embættismenn voru nokkrir
lögregluþjónar og aðalverk
þeirra var að heimta tolla. —
Fyrsta, og eina hús sem stjórnin
lét byggja var dýflissa, þeim til
dvalarstaðar sem höfðu sig á
móti stjórninni — en þó helzt
þeim til ráðningar sem þrjósk
excavations and related re-
search take their time, and we
shall, therefore, have to await
further results.
The central figure, however,
in the fascinating and histori-
cal story of the Norse dis-
covery of America, is of course,
Leif Erikson, and we shall,
therefore, return to him and
summarize why he should be
remembered and his achieve-
ments commemorated, as we
are doing here this evening.
.. Leif Erikson deserves to be
remembered as the discoverer
of America, as a pioneer in
ocean navigation, as a crusader
of the church, and as a suc-
cessful leader of men. He
stands as a symbol of the love
of high adventure and high
endeavor; he is the embodi-
ment of the spirit of pioneer-
ing.
—Son of Norway, Sepiember
1963.
uðust við að borga toll af vörum
sem þeir fluttu inn í ríkið. Þó
stjórnin skuldaði aldrei neitt þá
var það líka satt að aldrei var
eyrir til í landsjóði. Það var álit
flestra að Spence og emfoættis-
menn hans, og þó helzt lög-
regluþjónarnir, keyptu og
drykkju, brennivín fyrir hvern
pening sem innheimtist.
Þetta gekk svona þar til um
veturinn að Skoti einn — Mc-
PherSon að nafni — sem bjó við
High Bluff, nokkuð fyrir suð-
austan Portage la Prairie, neit-
aði að borga toll á vörum sem
hann hafði keypt utan að.
Spence sendi tvo lögreglumenn
til að stefna McPherson og koma
með hann til Portage-la-Prairie
og mæta fyrir rétti. Þegar þeir
komu þangað sáu þeir að Mc-
Pherson var að hreinsa og fægja
byssu sína, en eftir að hafa feng-
ið sér góða hressingu fouðu þeir
McPherson að koma með þeim
til Portage því þar yrði réttar-
haldið. Þegar til Portage kom
og til réttarhalds kom, settist
Spence í dómara sætið en sem
aðal embættismaður og forseti
ríkisins, vildi hann einnig sækja
málið á hendur McPhersons. —
Þetta þótti þeim, nágrönnum og
kunningjum McPhersons of
langt gengið og lenti alt í alvar-
legu handalögmáli. Spence og
félagar hans biðu mikinn ósigur
og lofuðu öllu góðu. — þar með
að hætta við alt stjómmála-
brask — og þar með leið þetta
ríloi, eins og hefir komið fyrir
svo mörg önnur, undir lok.
Mikið er skraddarans pund.
* * *
Mörgum kemur makleg
hefnd.
* * *
Með harðneskjunni hafa
menn það.
* * *
Margt á við mörgu.
J. G. JÓHANNSON:
Lýðveldið ##Caledonia#1