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Thorhall was heard of long afterwards in Ireland, as having fought and died there. But Karlsefne, the prosperous man, did well. He sailed along the land in and out of beautiful wooded islands until he came to the mouth of a great river. He entered that on the flood and sailed up for many days. It was a broad and noble river which came, as they discovered, out of a lake.
Thence with a north wind they came into the ocean and were two days without sight of land. But on the morning of the third day they saw land ahead, and came within reach of it, and cast anchor in a broad bay. This was the country to which Leif had been before and called Helloland. Karlsefne had boats manned from either ship, and stayed a couple of days to explore.
Karlsefne would exchange no weapons; but milk he offered, and that they drank greedily and on the spot, and cloth too, of which he had a good store. Red cloth took their fancy most; they seemed as if they must have it, it was a kind of lust. The breadths he could spare them grew narrower and narrower; they pushed out their furs for it with no consideration of what they got in exchange.
South-east of it, at no great distance, there was a large island. They saw a great bear prowling the shore, and gave his dwelling-place the name of Bear Island, out of compliment to him. Karlsefne did not stay to explore it. They ran on still before the wind for another two days or three, saw land again, and made for it.
Now it is written in the Saga of Eric the Red or that of Thorfin Karlsefne, that nine hundred years ago when Karlsefne's galleys came to Leif's booths, which Leif had erected in the unknown land called Markland, which may or may not have been Rhode Island, the Skroelings and the Lord He knows who these may or may not have been came to trade with the Vikings, and ran away because they were frightened at the bellowing of the cattle which Thorfin had brought with him in the ships.
There is also a romantic story of Thorstein’s widow, Gudrid, an exceedingly beautiful and noble-minded woman, which tells how she was courted and married by Thorfinn Karlsefne, a man of distinguished character and rank, who came from Iceland with ships, and was entertained by Leif.
Her colour was high, her eyes shone. His own, narrowed and intense, held them. "Do you know the name I give you in my private mind?" he asked her. She shook her head. "I call you Constant-Kind." "And why do you call me that? Do you think I am kind to every one?" "I think that you have been," said Karlsefne, "and I believe that you would not willingly deny a service if you could do it."
Some of the eaters were ill already, and many were to be so; but Karlsefne was obeyed. The cauldrons were emptied over the cliffs, and the birds gathered from all quarters. They went hungry, and suffered much that winter; but by leading the cattle far into the woods they managed to keep them alive, and Gudrid did not fail of milk.
Do you trust me?" "Yes," she said, "I do trust you." "Why then," said Karlsefne, "will you give yourself to me?" She thought. "You shall ask Eric if he is willing," she told him. "He loves me, and he is an old man. Since my father died he has been father to me. I have had nothing but love and kindness from him and his family.
And because you gave me this. A woman must love her child's father." "Ask Freydis that," said Karlsefne; and she answered him; "Freydis loves more than she chooses to say. When Freydis has a child, you will see that she will love it." "But not her man on that account," he said. "It is only a heart like yours, my Gudrid, that can love because it loves.
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