Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1940, Page 139

THE VINLAND VOYAGES
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that it may have preserved certain details omitted, or forgotten,
by the Saga, and among them may be counted the information
about the length of the day in Vinland during the winter, and
the mention of the white beaches in Markland.
I may be permitted to say a few words here about the na-
tionality of these explorers, since there seems at times to be
certain misunderstanding with regard to it. Erik the Red, the dis-
coverer and founder of the Icelandic colony in Greenland, was
a Norwegian by birth who as an exile from this native country
settled in Iceland where he married and had children. Undoubted-
ly Leif and Thorstein, his sons by his Icelandic wife, were born in
Iceland and probably had reached the age of maturity when
they went with their father to Greenland. There seems to be
some doubt about the legitimacy of his two other children, Thor-
vald and Freydis, yet they doubtless were also born in Iceland.
All other persons mentioned in the sources in connection with
the voyages were Icelanders; we may disregard Tyrker the
German who probably is a fictitious character, unless he re-
presents the missionary, or priest, sent by King Olaf to christian-
ize the Greenlanders. And here an occasion offers itself to cor-
rect another misconception. One sees it often stated that King
Olaf Tryggvason sent Leif to Greenland and on that voyage
Leif accidentally discovered Vinland, hence the king is given
part of the credit for the discovery. This is not correct. It was
customary in those days that merchant-sailors left their home for
abroad one summer and returned home the following summer.
And this we may assume was what Leif did. He left Greenland
in the summer of 999, spent the next winter in Norway, and
intended to return next year to Greenland. Hence the king did
not send him thither, but seized the opportunity of his return
to send with him a message and a priest to the Greenlanders.
Whether, however, the king’s good wishes or the priest’s presence
aboard had any influence upon the discovery of Vinland, lies
beyond human power to ascertain.
II.
For an imaginative person it is very tempting to seek a
solution of the geographical problem presented by the Vinland
voyages. It is, as stated above, a most difficult problem to deal
v^ith because of the meagreness of the sources and the absence