The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503 | Page 6

the deeds and events of the
seething life of the heroic age were carried over into the age of
writing.[7-1] The general trustworthiness of this saga-telling period has
been attested in numerous ways from foreign records. Thus Snorri
Sturlason's "The Sagas of the Kings of Norway," one of the great
history books of the world, written in Iceland in the thirteenth century,
was based primarily on early tradition, brought over the sea to Iceland.
Yet the exactness of its descriptions and the reliability of its statements
have been verified in countless cases by modern Norwegian
historians.[7-2]
With reference to the Vinland voyages, there is proof of an unusually
strong tradition in the fact that it has come down from two sources, the
only case of such a phenomenon among the Icelandic sagas proper. It
does not invalidate the general truth of the tradition that these two
sources clash in various matters. These disagreements are not so serious
but that fair-minded American scholars have found it "easy to believe
that the narratives contained in the sagas are true in their general
outlines and important features." It lies within the province of Old
Norse scholarship to determine which of the two Vinland sagas has the
better literary and historical antecedents. After this point has been
established, the truthfulness and credibility of the selected narrative in
its details must be maintained on the internal evidence in conjunction
with the geographical and other data of early America. And here
American scholarship may legitimately speak.
These sagas have in recent years been subjected, especially by Dr.
Gustav Storm of Christiania,[8-1] to most searching textual and

historical criticism, and the result has been that the simpler narrative of
Hauk's Book and AM. 557 is pronounced the more reliable
account.[8-2] In respect to literary quality, it has the characteristics of
the Icelandic sagas proper, as distinguished from the later sagas by
well-known literary men like Snorri. Where it grazes facts of Northern
history it is equally strong. Thus, there is serious question as to the first
sighting of land by Biarni Herjulfson, who is mentioned only in the Flat
Island narrative, and nowhere else in the rich genealogical literature of
Iceland, although his alleged father was an important man, of whom
there are reliable accounts. On the other hand, the record of the "Saga
of Eric the Red," giving the priority of discovery to Leif Ericson, can
be collaterally confirmed.[8-3] The whole account of Biarni seems
suspicious, and the main facts, viewed with reference to Leif's
discovery, run counter to Northern chronology and history. There are,
however, two incidental touches in the Flat Island Book narrative,
which are absent from the other saga, namely, the observation
concerning the length of the day in Vinland, and the reference to
finding "three skin-canoes, with three men under each." The
improbabilities of the Flat Island Book saga are easily detected, if one
uses as a guide the simpler narrative of the "Saga of Eric the Red," the
only doubtful part of which is the "uniped" episode, a touch of
mediaeval superstition so palpable as not to be deceptive.
Aside from such things as picking grapes in the spring, sipping sweet
dew from the grass, and the presence of an apparition, the Flat Island
Book account, when read by itself, with no attempt to make it
harmonize with the statements of the "Saga of Eric the Red" or other
facts of Scandinavian history, is a sufficiently straightforward narrative.
The difficulty begins when it is placed in juxtaposition to these facts
and statements. It should not be and need not be discarded, but in
giving an account of the Vinland voyages it must be used with
circumspection. From an historical standpoint it must occupy a
subordinate place. If Rafn in his Antiquitates Americanæ had given
emphatic precedence to the saga as found in Hauk's Book and AM. 557,
had left to American scholars the Dighton Rock and the Newport
Tower, and had not been so confident in the matter of identifying the
exact localities that the explorers visited, he might have carried

conviction, instead of bringing confusion, to American scholars.
The general results of the work of the Norwegian scholar Dr. Storm,
together with a unique presentation of the original narratives, are
accessible in The Finding of Wineland (London, 1890 and 1895), by an
American scholar, the late Arthur Middleton Reeves. This work
contains a lucid account of the important investigations on the subject,
photographs of all the vellum pages that give the various narratives, a
printed text accompanying these, page by page and line by line, and
also translations into English. There is one phase of the subject that this
work does not discuss: the identifications of the regions visited by the
Northmen. Dr. Storm, however, has gone into this subject, and is