The Norsemen in the West

The Norsemen in the West, by
R.M. Ballantyne

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Title: The Norsemen in the West
Author: R.M. Ballantyne
Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21753]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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NORSEMEN IN THE WEST ***

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THE NORSEMEN IN THE WEST, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.
CHAPTER ONE.
THE NORSEMEN IN THE WEST; OR AMERICA BEFORE

COLUMBUS.
THE CURTAIN RISES AND THE PLAY BEGINS.
One fine autumn evening, between eight and nine hundred years ago,
two large hairy creatures, bearing some resemblance to polar bears,
might have been seen creeping slowly, and with much caution, toward
the summit of a ridge that formed a spur to one of the ice-clad
mountains of Greenland. The creatures went on all-fours. They had
long bodies, short legs, shorter tails, and large round heads.
Having gained the top of the ridge they peeped over and beheld a
hamlet nestled at the foot of a frowning cliff; and at the head of a
smiling inlet. We use these terms advisedly, because the cliff, being in
deep shadow, looked unusually black and forbidding, while the inlet,
besides being under the influence of a profound calm, was lit up on all
its dimples by the rays of the setting sun.
The hamlet consisted of one large cottage and half a dozen small cots,
besides several sheds and enclosures wherein were a few
sleepy-looking sheep, some lean cattle, and several half-starved horses.
There was active life there also. Smoke issued from the chimneys;
fresh-looking women busied themselves about household work; rosy
children tumbled in and out at the doors, while men in rough garments
and with ruddy countenances mended nets or repaired boats on the
shore. On a bench in front of the principal cottage sat a sturdy man,
scarcely middle-aged, with shaggy fair and flowing locks. His right
foot served as a horse to a rapturous little boy, whose locks and looks
were so like to those of the man that their kinship was obvious--only
the man was rugged and rough in exterior; the boy was round and
smooth. Tow typified the hair of the man; floss silk that of the boy.
Everything in and around the hamlet bore evidence of peace and thrift.
It was a settlement of Norsemen--the first Greenland settlement,
established by Eric the Red of Iceland about the year 986--nearly
twenty years before the date of the opening of our tale--and the hairy
creatures above referred to had gone there to look at it.

Having gazed very intently over the ridge for a considerable time, they
crept backwards with extreme caution, and, on getting sufficiently far
down the hill-side to be safe from observation, rose on their hind-legs
and began to talk; from which circumstance it may be concluded that
they were human beings. After talking, grinning, and glaring at each
other for a few minutes, with gestures to correspond, as though on the
point of engaging in mortal combat, they suddenly wheeled about and
walked off at a rapid pace in the direction of a gorge in the mountains,
the head of which was shut in by and filled up with cliffs and masses
and fields of ice that overtopped the everlasting hills, and rested like a
white crest on the blue sky. Vast though it seemed, this was merely a
tongue of those great glaciers of the mysterious North which have done,
and are still doing, so much to modify the earth's economy and puzzle
antiquarian philosophy; which form the fountain-head of influences
that promote the circulation of the great deep, and constitute the cradle
of those ponderous icebergs that cover the arctic seas.
From out that gloomy gorge a band of more than a hundred hairy
creatures issued with wild shouts and upraised arms to welcome back
the adventurous two. They surrounded them, and forthwith the
nation--for the entire nation was evidently there--held a general
assembly or parliament on the spot. There was a good deal of uproar
and confusion in that parliament, with occasional attempts on the part
of several speakers to obtain a hearing at one and the same time--in
which respects this parliament bore some resemblance to civilised
assemblies of the present day. There was also an immense amount of
gesticulation and excitement.
At last there uprose a man clad in garments that had once belonged to a
seal, and with a face that was quite as