The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1967, Page 32

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Summer 1967
ashore. This country was flat and wooded, with white sandy beaches wherever
they went, and the land sloped gently down to the sea.
Leifr said, This country shall be named after its natural resources: it
shall be called Markland’.
They hurried hack to their ship as quickly as possible and sailed away
to sea in a north-east wind for two days until they sighted land again. They
sailed towards it and came to an island which lay to the north of it.
They went ashore and looked about them. The weather was fine.
There was dew on the grass, and the first thing they did was to get some of it
on their hands and put it to their lips, and to them it seemed the sweetest thing
they had ever tasted. Then they went back to their ship and sailed into the
sound that lay between the island and the headland jutting out to the north.
They steered a westerly course round the headland. There were
shallows there and at low tide their ship was left high and dry, with the sea
almost out of sight. But they were so impatient to land that they could not
bear to wait for the rising tide to float the ship; they ran ashore to a place
where a river flowed out of a lake. As soon as the tide had refloated the ship
they took a boat and rowed out to it and brought it up the river into the lake,
where they anchored it. They carried their hammocks ashore and put up
booths; then they decided to winter there, and built some large houses.
There was no lack of salmon in the river or the lake, bigger salmon
than they had ever seen. The country seemed to them so kind that no winter
fodder would be needed for livestock; there was never any frost all winter
and the grass hardly withered at all.
In this country, night and day were of more even length than in
either Greenland or Iceland; on the shortest day of the year, the sun was al-
ready up by 9 a,m. and did not set until after 3 p.m.
When they had finished their houses, Leifr said to his companions,
‘Now I want to divide our company into two parties and have the country
explored. Half of the company are to remain here at the houses while the other
half go exploring, but they must not go so far that they cannot return the
same evening, and they are not to become separated.’
They carried out these instructions for a time. Leifr himself took
turns at going out with the exploring party and staying behind at the base.
Leifr was tall and strong and very impressive in appearance. He was
a shrewd man and always moderate in his behaviour.
They slept for the rest of the night, and next morning Leifr said to
his men, ‘Now we have two tasks on our hands, on alternate days we must gather
grapes and cut vines, and then fell trees, to make a cargo for my ship.’
This was done. It is said that the tow-boat was filled with grapes;
they took on a full cargo of timber; and in the spring they made ready to leave
and sailed away. Leifr named the country after its natural qualities and called
it Vinland.