The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2000, Qupperneq 23

Vol. 56 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
21
as well as by Gu3ri3ur, who had encouraged
him in his desire to sail to Vinland. This voy-
age however, was beset with tragedy. Their
ship was tossed about by storms, sometimes
shrouded in fog through which the ship was
becalmed or else lost all sense of direction.
They wandered far off course. Finally, with
winter approaching, they landed at LysuijorS
in Greenland, Porsteinn was able to provide
lodging for the crew. Then illness befell them,
from which Porsteinn and many of his crew
died. GudriSur survived this tragedy and
arrangements were made to have the bodies
buried at Pjoclhildar's churchyard. As
GuSriSur's father, Porbjorn had died, she was
invited to live at BrattahliS with the Eiriksson
family.
One day in late summer, after these
events had taken place, two ships sailed into
EiriksfjorS. The captain of one of these ships
was a wealthy, high-born trader by the name
of Porfinnur Karsefni, from Por<3arhof3i in
SkagafjorSur, Iceland. He was of a noble lin-
eage, a man renowned for his courage and
accomplishments.
Porfinnur Karlsefni, his co-pilots and
crew members spent that winter at BrattahliS,
where Porfinnur and Gu3ri5ur met and fell in
love. They were married at BrattahliS with
Eirik The Red's blessing. During the winter
there was a great deal of talk about Vinland,
its bounty and the need to explore it further.
Porfinnur was encouraged by his friends and
crew members, as well as by Gu3ri5ur, to
plan an expedition to Vinland. As a result
three ships were prepared for a journey of set-
tlement, with Port! nnur in charge of the expe-
dition. One hundred and forty men, as well as
Gu5ri5ur accompanied Porfinnur. Their
cargo included all kinds of livestock as this
would be a journey of settlement in a new
land.
The three ships sailed past Helluland and
Markland, south into a fjord which they called
Straumfjord (fjord of streams), which is
believed to be the present site of L'Anse Aux
Meadows in Vinland. They spent their first
winter at this location, but were ill prepared
for the winter as they had not put in a suffi-
cient supply of food due to time spent on fur-
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