The Norsemen in the West | Page 6

they are a stout race, and fight like very wild-cats, as Biarne and I can testify; as to their being well-favoured, there can be no question about that; though they are rather more rugged than the people farther south, and--yes, they are good traders, and exceedingly cautious men. They think well before they speak, and they speak slowly--sometimes they won't speak at all. Ha! ha! Here, I drink to the land of the Scot. It is a grand good land, like our own dear old Norway."
"Brother-in-law," exclaimed Gudrid, reproachfully, "do you forget that you are an Icelander?"
"Forget!" exclaimed Leif, tossing back his yellow locks, and raising the tankard again to pledge his native land; "no, I shall only forget Iceland when I forget to live; but I don't forget, also, that it is only about 130 years since my great-grandfather and his companions came over from Norway to Iceland. Before that it was an unpeopled rock in the Northern Sea, without name or history. [Iceland was colonised by Norsemen about the year 874.] 'Twas as little known then as Vinland is known now."
"By the way, Biarne," said Karlsefin, turning to his friend, "the mention of Vinland reminds me that, when you and I met last, you did not give me a full account of that discovery, seeing that you omitted to mention your own share in it. Tell me how was it, and when and where was it? Nay, have I unintentionally touched on a sore point?" he added, on observing a slight shade of annoyance pass over Biarne's usually cheerful countenance.
"He is a little sore about it," said Leif, laughing. "Come, Biarne, don't be thin-skinned. You know the saying, A dutiful son makes a glad father. You had the best of reasons for acting as you did."
"Ay, but people don't believe in these best of reasons," retorted Biarne, still annoyed, though somewhat mollified by Leif's remarks.
"Never mind, 'tis long past now. Come, give us the saga. 'Tis a good one, and will bear re-telling."
"Oh yes," exclaimed Olaf, with sparkling eyes, for the boy dearly loved anything that bore the faintest resemblance to a saga or story, "tell it, Biarne."
"Not I," said Biarne; "Leif can tell it as well as I, if he chooses."
"Well, I'll try," said Leif, laying his huge hand on the table and looking earnestly at Karlsefin and Thorward. The latter was a very silent man, and had scarcely uttered a word all the evening, but he appeared to take peculiar interest in Vinland, and backed up the request that Leif would give an account of its discovery.
"About twenty summers ago," said Leif, "my father, Eric the Red, and his friend Heriulf, Biarne's father, came over here from Iceland. [A.D. 986.] Biarne was a very young man at the time--little more than a boy-- but he was a man of enterprise, and fond of going abroad, and possessed a merchant-ship of his own with which he gathered wealth, and, I will say it, reputation also--though perhaps I should not say that to his face.
"He was a good son, and used to be by turns a year abroad and a year with his father. He chanced to be away in Norway when Heriulf and my father Eric came over to Greenland. On returning to Iceland he was so much disappointed to hear of his father's departure that he would not unload his ship, but resolved to follow his old custom and take up his winter abode with his father. `Who will go with me to Greenland?' said he to his men. `We will all go,' replied the men. `Our expedition,' said Biarne, `will be thought foolish, as none of us have ever been on the Greenland sea before.' `We mind not that,' said the men--so away they sailed for three days and lost sight of Iceland. Then the wind failed; after that a north wind and a fog set in, and they knew not where they were sailing to; and this lasted many days. At length the sun appeared. Then they knew the quarters of the sky, and, after sailing a day and a night, made the land.
"They saw that it was without mountains, was covered with wood, and that there were small hills inland. Biarne saw that this did not answer to the description of Greenland; he knew he was too far south, so he left the land on the larboard side, and sailed two days and nights before they got sight of land again. The men asked Biarne if this was Greenland, but he said it was not, `For on Greenland,' he says, `there are great snowy mountains, but this is flat and covered with trees.' Here the wind fell and the men wanted to go ashore, `Because,' said they, `we have need of wood and