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On returning to Iceland he called the discovered country “Greenland,” saying to his confidential friends, “A name so inviting will induce men to emigrate thither.” Finally, he went again to Greenland, accompanied by “twenty-five ships” filled with emigrants and stores, and his colony was established. “This happened,” says the chronicle, “fifteen winters before the Christian religion was introduced into Iceland;” that is to say, Eirek made this second voyage to Greenland fifteen years previous to 1000 A.D. Biarni, son of Heriulf, a chief man among these colonists, was absent in Norway when his father left Iceland.
The “Account of Eirek the Red and Greenland” tells of an expedition planned by Eirek’s youngest son, Thorstein, which was prevented by Thorstein’s death. It relates the particulars of a voyage to Vinland made by Eirek’s daughter, Freydis, with her husband and his two brothers.
Eirek, being unjustly treated by some of his neighbors, committed another homicide, and the narrative relates what followed: “Having been condemned by the court, he resolved to leave Iceland. His vessel being prepared, and every thing ready, Eirek’s partisans in the quarrel accompanied him some distance.
He told them he had determined to quit Iceland and settle somewhere else, adding that he was going in search of the land Gunniborn had seen when driven by a storm into the Western Ocean, and promising to revisit them if his search should be successful. Sailing from the western side of Iceland, Eirek steered boldly to the west. At length he found land, and called the place Midjokul.
Scrattels, Skretles, often figure in the Norse tales as hopping dwarfs, half magical . The Norse discoverers of America recognized the Skraellings in the Esquimaux, and fled from them in panic terror; till that furious virago Freydisa, Thorvard's wife, and Eirek the Red's daughter, caught up a dead man's sword, and put to flight, single-handed, the legion of little imps.
One is entitled “An Account of Eirek the Red and Greenland.” This appears to have been written in Greenland, where Eirek settled, and where the Northmen had a colony consisting of two hundred and eighty settlements. The other record is an “Account of Thorfinn Karlsefne.” This was written in Iceland by a bishop, one of Thorfinn’s immediate descendants.
The Norse narrative introduces Eirek’s voyage of discovery as follows: “There was a man of noble family, whose name was Thorvald. They went to Iceland, which, at that time, was thoroughly colonized.” Thorvald died soon after reaching Iceland, but Eirek inherited his restless spirit. The record says he was at length involved in another feud in Iceland.
Leif and his people were much pleased with “the mildness of the climate and goodness of the soil.” The next spring they loaded their vessels with timber and returned to Greenland, where, Eirek the Red having died, Leif inherited his estate and authority, and left exploring expeditions to others.
Biarni’s report of his discoveries was heard with great interest, and caused much speculation; but the settlers in Greenland were too busy making their new homes to undertake voyages in that direction immediately. Fourteen years later, Leif, a son of Eirek the Red, being in Norway, was incited to fit out an expedition to go in search of the strange lands Biarni had seen.
Out of such wild feats as these; out of dim reports of fairy islands in the west; of the Canaries and Azores; of that Vinland, with its wild corn and wild grapes which Leif, the son of Eirek Rauda, had found beyond the ocean a thousand years and one after the birth of Christ; of icebergs and floes sailing in the far northern sea, upon the edge of the six-months' night; out of Edda stories of the Midgard snake, which is coiled round the world; out of reports, it may be, of Indian fakirs and Buddhist shamans; out of scraps of Greek and Arab myth, from the Odyssey or the Arabian Nights, brought home by "Jorsala Farar," vikings who had been for pilgrimage and plunder up the Straits of Gibraltar into the far East; out of all these materials were made up, as years rolled on, the famous legend of St.
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