The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2004, Page 44

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 59 #1
Francisco transvestites.
The native Greenlanders, whom the
Icelanders called skraelings, were believed
to be trolls.Vollmann uses his knowledge
from his visit to Greenland to describe
Greenland of the present and to retell the
myth of the relative sizes of the
Greenlanders and the Icelanders, (both
exaggerated) He follows the sagas to relate
the story of Erik the Red’s stay in
Greenland, the birth of his three sons, and
bastard daughter, Freydis. We learn about
one of the sons, Leif the Lucky’s explo-
ration in Vinland, about Gudrid, the
widow of one of Erik’s sons, who marries
Thorfinn Karlsefni and their journey to
Vinland and about Freydis and her wealthy
husband, Thorvard of Gardar, and their
settlement in Vinland.
Freydis dreams a dream of the great
blue glacier and then begins her treacher-
ous journey to find the Blue-Shirt,
Amortortak. (a demon) The descriptive
passages of this journey are some of the
best in the book. e.g. "The wind sounded
like women laughing together riding down
a waterfall" and "In the moss was a perfect
lemming skull. A flower grew through its
II
eye.
Freydis, with her husband and a
household of thralls, sails to Vinland and
inhabits the place where Leif the Lucky
had settled. As she had pledged her duty to
Blue-Shirt, she becomes more and more
cold and unfriendly as to the feelings of
others. She wears an Ice-Shirt. The
Skraelings, (perhaps Micmac Indians) come
to trade. They brought packs of furs which
they traded for bits of red cloth and cows
milk which they had never tasted.
Gudrid and Karlsefni were in Vinland
at the same time as Freydis. Gudrid gave
birth to the first white child in America.
Freydis was now even colder to Gudrid
than before and her jealousy made her want
to "chop her guts out". Although Freydis
was a Christian woman she prayed to
Amortorak, a pagan god, and when she
heard of Glooskap, the shape changing
Person with power of the Micmac people,
she believed he was also cruel. She prayed
to him to make her richer promising in
return to bring frost seed to Vinland. When
Freydis became richer, she brought the
frost seed from Greenland to Vinland and
the climate became colder.
A redeeming feature for readers is the
several pages of glossaries, source material
and historical date lines of such a wide
scope that the reader has a quick reference.
The many sketches and maps dispersed
throughout the book are very helpful as the
writing sometimes feels convoluted and
moves quickly from time and place.