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Updated: June 11, 2025
Here was plainly to be another mother soon, as they did not fail to tell each other. Then nothing would do but her husband must be found for her. His friends dragged him out and put him beside her, no more willing to go than she was to have him. "Handfast her, you dog," said Karlsefne. "How else will they believe you?" So that was done.
"I remember," she said, "what was foretold of me when first I came to Greenland, and all of it has been fulfilled but two things. Now I am afraid again, though it was so long ago." Karlsefne laughed. "And one was that you should end your days in Iceland?" She nodded, fearing the rest; but he went on "And the other was that you should outlive me?"
Nobody caring to stop alone out there without some chieftain over them, it came to it that all must go home in one ship. They killed what stock they could not take alive, and sailed out of the river at the beginning of summer. Gudrid's boy Snorre was just two years old, and Karlsefne was anxious to be safe at home before he had a brother or sister.
The winter, to call it so, was well advanced before the savages came; but one day they were reported in large numbers on the lake, and Karlsefne gave orders how they were to be received. None were to be let inside the stockade; all the men were to have their weapons; such stuff as they had for barter was to be held up from within the defences and thrown over in exchange.
There was nothing that was not possible if Charlie's detestable memory only held good. I might rewrite the Saga of Thorfin Karlsefne as it had never been written before, might tell the story of the first discovery of America, myself the discoverer. But I was entirely at Charlie's mercy, and so long as there was a three-and-six-penny Bohn volume within his reach Charlie would not tell.
The present is bad enough." "You are treating me nobly," said Karlsefne. "I should be a churl if I did not tell you so. What else do you need?" Then Eric said that he was aware how his house was diminished by misfortune. "I had a wife, but she has cut herself adrift; I have a daughter, but she has turned sour to me. Two of my sons are dead, look you.
Altogether there were some hundred and forty people to be carried, of whom five only were women, and goods in proportion. Karlsefne, saying that you never knew how things would go, carried livestock in the holds of both ships. He took ten head of cows, a score sheep, some goats, and a bull. He took ducks and hens, a dog or two, and some ponies for the women to ride.
The hide-boats came in and in, each of them holding five or six men. In one at least he saw a woman with a baby. "If they bring their babies out to see us, it's no more than I have done," Karlsefne said. "They mean peace, and they shall have it." He invited them forward with open arms, and all signs of friendliness, and presently they were all crowded about.
He was a good poet, and sang his own songs; he told tales, he made jokes but was always good-tempered. Towards Christmas Eric Red, who was now very much aged and apt to worry himself over trifles, became sad and depressed. They thought that he was grieving for the two sons he had lost, but he would not talk to any of them of his troubles. Karlsefne asked Gudrid what was the matter with his host.
So then she kissed him. Eric looked rather chap-fallen. "You are asking me for the jewel on my breast," he said. "That I know very well," said Karlsefne. "She is not only a fair woman, but a wise and good woman. She is sweet-mannered, and sweet-natured. The soothsay about her is that she will rear a great race." "She shall, if I have anything to do with it," said Karlsefne.
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