This Country Of Ours | Page 8

twenty tall, strong
men Thorstein set forth, taking with him his wife Gudrid.
But Thorstein never saw Vineland the Good. For storms beset his ship,
and after being driven hither and thither for many months, he lost all
reckoning, and at last came to land in Greenland once more. And there
Thorstein died, and Gudrid went home to Leif.
Now there came to Greenland that summer a man of great wealth
named Thorfinn. And when he saw Gudrid he loved her and sought her
in marriage, and Leif giving his consent to it, Thorfinn and Gudrid
were married.

At this time many people still talked of the voyages to Vineland, and
they urged Thorfinn to journey thither and seek to find out more about
these strange lands. And more than all the others Gudrid urged him to
go. So at length Thorfinn determined to undertake the voyage. But it
came to his mind that he would not merely go to Vineland and return
home again. He resolved rather to settle there and make it his home.
Thorfinn therefore gathered about sixty men, and those who had wives
took also their wives with them, together with their cattle and their
household goods.
Then Thorfinn asked Leif to give him the house which he had built in
Vineland. And Leif replied, "I will lend the house to you, but I will not
give it."
So Thorfinn and Gudrid and all their company sailed out to sea, and
without adventures arrived safely at Leif's house in Vineland.
There they lived all that winter in great comfort. There was no lack of
food either for man or beast, and the cattle they had brought with them
roamed at will, and fed upon the wide prairie lands.
All winter and spring the Norsemen dwelt in Vineland, and they saw no
human beings save themselves. Then one day in early summer they saw
a great troop of natives come out of the wood. They were dark and little,
and it seemed to the Norsemen very ugly, with great eyes and broad
cheeks. The cattle were near, and as the savages appeared the bull
began to bellow. And when the savages heard that sound they were
afraid and fled. For three whole weeks nothing more was seen of them,
after that time however they took courage again and returned. As they
approached they made signs to show that they came in peace, and with
them they brought huge bales of furs which they wished to barter.
The Norsemen, it is true, could not understand the language of the
natives, nor could the natives understand the Norsemen; but by signs
they made known that they wished to barter their furs for weapons.
This, however, Thorfinn forbade. Instead he gave them strips of red
cloth which they took very eagerly and bound about their heads.

Thorfinn also commanded his men to take milk to the savages. And
when they saw it they were eager to buy and drink it. So that it was said
many of them carried away their merchandise in their stomachs.
Thus the days and months passed. Then one summer day a little son
was born to Thorfinn and Gudrid. They called him Snorri, and he was
the first white child to be born on the Continent which later men called
the New World. Thus three years went past. But the days were not all
peaceful. For quarrels arose between the newcomers and the natives,
and the savages attacked the Norsemen and killed many of them.
Then Thorfinn said he would no longer stay in Vineland, but would
return to Greenland. So he and all his company made ready their ship,
and sailed out upon the seas, and came at length safely to Greenland.
Then after a time Thorfinn sailed to Iceland. There he made his home
for the rest of his life, the people holding him in high honour. Snorri
also, his son who had been born in Vineland, grew to be a man of great
renown.
Such are some of the old Norse stories of the first finding of America.
The country which Leif called Helluland was most likely Labrador,
Markland Newfoundland, and Vineland Nova Scotia.
Besides these there were many other tales of voyages to Vineland. For
after Leif and his brothers many other Vikings of the North sailed, both
from Greenland and from Norway, to the fair western lands. Yet
although they sailed there so often these old Norsemen had no idea that
they had discovered a vast continent. They thought that Vineland was
merely an island, and the discovery of it made no stir in Europe. By
degrees too the voyages thither ceased. In days of wild warfare at home
the Norsemen forgot the fair western land which Leif had discovered.
They heard