Read Ebook: In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times (Volume 2 of 2) by Nansen Fridtjof Chater Arthur G Translator

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The form of the runes makes it probable, according to Bugge, that the inscription dates from the eleventh century, and perhaps from the period between 1000 and 1050; scarcely before that, though it may be later. The inscription would thus acquire a value as possibly the earliest document in which Wineland is mentioned. What kind of expedition the inscription records we cannot tell; there is nothing to show that it was a real Wineland voyage; the words seem rather to point to their having been driven against their will out to sea in the direction of "Wineland," whether we are to regard this as the Wineland of myth or as a historical country; it might well be used figuratively in an epitaph to describe more graphically how far they went from the beaten track. It may equally well have been on a voyage to Ireland, the Faroes, Iceland, or merely to the north of Norway that the disaster occurred, and they were driven by storms to the Greenland ice; but since it cannot be denied that, as the verse has been translated, the expressions appear somewhat unnatural, it is difficult to form any opinion as to this.

If this runic inscription from Ringerike has been correctly copied and interpreted--which, as has been said, is uncertain--then this and Adam of Bremen's information from Denmark would show that Wineland was known and discussed in various parts of the North in the eleventh century, long before Icelandic literature began to be put into writing. But strangely enough, in the Norwegian thirteenth-century work, "Historia Norwegiae," no mention is made of Wineland, although in other respects the author has made extensive use of Adam of Bremen's work; he merely states that Greenland approaches the African Islands, by which, as pointed out above , he shows clearly enough that Wineland was regarded as belonging to the African Islands, or Insulae Fortunatae. The "King's Mirror," which gives a detailed description of Greenland, does not mention Wineland, although the author evidently held the view that Greenland approached the universal continent on the south. The knowledge of it must soon have been forgotten in Norway, or it was regarded as a mythical country, while the tradition persisted longer in Iceland.

The last time we meet with the name of Wineland in connection with a voyage is in the "Islandske Annaler," where it is related in the year 1121 that "Eirikr, bishop of Greenland , went out to seek Wineland." But we are not told anything more of this expedition. The use of "leita" shows that Wineland was not a known country, it can only apply to lands about which legends or reports are current; just in the same way Gardar in the Sturlub?k "went to seek Snaelandz" on the advice of his mother, who had second sight , or Ravna-Floki "f?r at leita Gardarsh?lms" , and Eric the Red "aetla?i at leita lands ?ess" which Gunnbj?rn had seen, etc. . As soon as the way was known, it was no longer necessary to "leita" countries. If the voyage is historical, it may have been to seek for the mythical country, the happy Wineland that Bishop Eric set out, as St. Brandan in the legend sought for the Promised Land, and as, 359 years later, the city of Bristol actually sent men out to look for the happy isle of Brazil; but as the coast of America seems to have been known, it may apply to a country there, of which reports had come, and to which the name of the mythical country had been transferred. As Eric is called a bishop, it has been thought that this was a missionary voyage, which met with disaster ; but who was there to be converted in an unknown land, for which one had first to "seek"? It would have to be the unknown Skraelings; but is this really likely, when we hear of no mission to the Skraelings of Greenland? There must have been enough of the latter to convert for the time being, if it had been thought worth the trouble. Nor do we know much more about this Eric Upsi. Probably he was the same man who is called in the Landn?mab?k "Eirikr Gnupssonr Gr?nlendinga-byskup." It is possible that the see of Greenland was founded as early as 1110, and that Eric was the first bishop of Greenland, and went out there in 1112, but he cannot have been solemnly consecrated at Lund, like later bishops after 1124. It is possible that Eric was lost, for we hear no more of him, and in 1122 and 1123 the Greenlanders made efforts to obtain a new bishop, who was consecrated at Lund in 1124; but it is curious that nothing is then said about any earlier bishop; moreover, the entry in the annals about Eric dates at the earliest from the thirteenth century.

Some years ago it was asserted that a stone with a runic inscription had been found in Minnesota, the so-called Kensington stone. On this is narrated a journey of eight Swedes and twenty-two Norwegians from Wineland as far as the country west of the Great Lakes. But by its runes and its linguistic form this inscription betrays itself clearly enough as a modern forgery, which has no interest for us here .

"set seas and winds in motion through their incantations, change themselves into what animal they please, cure sickness ... know the future and foretell it, but they only assist those sailors who come to ask counsel of them."

But the wind-selling wizards of the Polychronicon have also evidently been confused with the Finns of Finmark, whom Adam of Bremen had already described as particularly skilled in magic. The Polychronicon is a free revision of an earlier English work, the "Geographia Universalis," of the thirteenth century. In this "Winlandia" and its inhabitants, who sell winds, are described at greater length; it is there placed on the continent on the sea-coast and borders on the mountains of Norway on the east. It is therefore Finland, or perhaps rather the country of the Lapp wizards, Finmark. Thus through similarity of sound three countries may have been confused in the Polychronicon: Wineland, Vindland, and Finland . Evidently the "Vinland" to be found on the continent in the map of the world in the "Rudimentum Novitiorum" of L?beck refers to Finland, and likewise the "Vinlandia" mentioned in a L?beck MS. of 1486-1488, which is an extensive island reaching as far as Livonia. Whether we regard Wineland as merely a mythical country, or as a country actually discovered to which the name of the mythical land was transferred, this limited dissemination of it in literature and on maps is striking. It shows that knowledge of the myth, or of the country with the mythical name, belonged to older times, was not very widely spread outside the Scandinavian countries and Ireland, and was afterwards forgotten, in spite of the frequent communication that existed between the intellectual world of the North and that of the South .

While probably the name of Hv?tramanna-land is still preserved in the fairy-tale of Hvittenland, it is possibly the name of Wineland that has been preserved in that "Vinland" which is mentioned in the Faroese lay of "Finnur hinn Fr??i"; but if so, it is the only known instance of its occurrence in popular poetry. The Norwegian jarl's son, Finnur hinn Fr??i , courts Ingebj?rg, the daughter of an Irish king; she is beautiful as the sun, and the colour of her maiden cheeks is like blood dropped upon snow. She makes answer: "Hadst thou slain the Wine-kings, then shouldst thou wed me." To Wineland is a far voyage, with currents and mighty billows. But Finn begs his brother, Halfdan, to go with him over the Wineland sea. They hoist their silken sail, and never lower it till they arrive at Wineland. There they found the three Wine-kings. Thorstein, the first, came on a black horse, but Finn tore him off at the navel; the second, Ivint, also came on a black horse. But the third transformed himself into a flying dragon; arrows flew from each of his feathers, and he killed many of their men. The worst was that he shot venom from his mouth under Finn's coat of mail, who, though he could not be killed by arms, had to die. He then drew a golden ring from his arm and sent it by Halfdan to Ingebj?rg, bidding her live happily. But Halfdan sprang into the air, seized the third Wine-king, and tore him off at the navel. Halfdan sailed back to Ireland, brought Ingebj?rg these tidings and the ring, and slept three nights with her, but on the fourth she dies of grief, since she can love no chieftain after Finn. Halfdan had a castle built for himself and passed his years in Ireland, but all his days he mourned for his brother. Although the whole of this legend seems to have no connection with what we know about Wineland, it is most probable that it is the same name, but that--like the tale itself of the Irish king's daughter whose cheek was as blood upon snow--it came from Ireland. The name may thus be a last echo of the Irish mythical ideas from which the Wineland of the Icelanders arose.

Curiously enough Helluland is the only one of the names of the western lands that has been widely adopted in Icelandic fairy-tales and legendary sagas. It has to some extent become a complete fairyland, with trolls and giants, and it is located in various places, usually far north, even to the north of Greenland, and sometimes on its north-east coast. In this fairyland was the fjord "Skuggi" ; it is mentioned in ?rvarodds Saga , where the hero departs to seek his enemy, the wizard ?gmund, in Helluland, and again in B?r?arsaga Snaefells?ss , in the "??ttr" of Gunnari Keldugn?psf?fl, in the H?lfdanarsaga Br?nuf?stra, in the Saga of H?lfdani Eysteinssyni, and in Gest B?rdsson's Saga.

In the geography which under the name of "Gripla" was included in Bj?rn J?nsson's "Gr?nland's Annaler," it is said of the countries opposite Greenland:

"Fur?ustrandir is the name of a land, where is severe frost, so that it is not habitable, so far as people know; south of it is Helluland, which is called Skraelingja-land; thence it is a short distance to Wineland the Good, which some people think goes out from Africa...."

With this may be compared another MS. of the seventeenth century, where we read:

"West of the great ocean from Spain, which some call Ginnungagap, and which goes between lands, there is first towards the north Wineland the Good, next to it is called Markland farther north, thereafter are the wastes where Skraelings live, then there are still more wastes to Greenland."

From this it looks as if Helluland was regarded as inhabited by Skraelings, which agrees with the reality, if it is Labrador. But these MSS. belong to the seventeenth century, and may be influenced by the geographical knowledge of later times. In Gripla there is evident confusion, as Fur?ustrandir has been confounded with Helluland, and the latter with Markland.

No record is found of any voyage to Wineland after 1121; but on the other hand there is mention more than two hundred years later of the voyage, referred to above, to Markland from Greenland in 1347. Of this we read in the Icelandic Annals for that year: "Then came also a ship from Greenland, smaller in size than the small vessels that trade to Iceland. It came to Outer Straumfjord ; it was without an anchor. There were seventeen men on board , and they had sailed to Markland, but afterwards were driven hither."

As the Sk?lholts-Annals were written not many years after this , it must be regarded as quite certain that this ship had been to Markland; but on the homeward voyage, perhaps while she lay at anchor, was overtaken by a storm, so that the cable had to be cut, and was driven out to sea past Cape Farewell right across to the west coast of Iceland. It is not likely that they sailed so far as Markland simply to fish, which they might have done off Greenland; the object was rather to fetch timber or wood for fashioning implements, which was valuable in treeless Greenland; the driftwood which came on the East Greenland current did not go very far. It is true that they could not carry much timber on their small vessel; but they had to make the best of the craft they possessed, and they could always carry a sufficient supply of the more valuable woods for the manufacture of tools, weapons and appliances. They must for instance have had great difficulty in obtaining wood for making bows; driftwood was of little use for this.

But if this voyage took place in 1347, and we only hear of it through the accident of the vessel getting out of her course and being driven to Iceland, we may be sure that there were many more like it; only that these were not the expeditions of men of rank, which attracted attention, but everyday voyages for the support of life, like the sealing expeditions to Nordrsetur, and when nothing particular happened to these vessels, such as being driven to Iceland, we hear nothing about them. We must therefore suppose that, even if they had to give up the idea of forming settlements in the west, the Greenlanders occasionally visited Markland , perhaps chiefly to obtain wood of different kinds.

In the so-called Greenland Annals, put together from old sources by Bj?rn J?nsson of Skards? , it is said of the districts on the west coast of Greenland, to the north of the Western Settlement, that they "take up trees and all the drift that comes from the bays of Markland" . This shows that it was customary to regard Markland as the region from which wood was to be obtained. The name itself may have contributed to this view; but the fact that it survived long after all mention of Wineland had ceased may probably be due to communication with the country having been kept up in later times, and to this name being the really historical one on the coast of America.

According to the Icelandic Annals the voyagers from Markland who came to Iceland in 1347, proceeded in the following year to Norway. This was no doubt with the idea of getting back to Greenland, as there was no sailing to that country from Iceland, and they would not trust their vessel on another ocean voyage. But in Norway, where they arrived at Bergen, they had a long while to wait. "Knarren," the royal trading ship, seems to have been the only vessel that kept up communication with Greenland at that time. We know that "Knarren" returned to Bergen in 1346, and did not sail again until 1355. From a royal letter of 1354, which has been preserved, it appears that extraordinary preparations were made for the fitting-out and manning of this expedition, to prevent Christianity in Greenland from "falling away." Perhaps the presence in Norway of these Markland voyagers from Greenland had something to do with the awakening of interest in that distant country, and perhaps it is not altogether impossible that the intention was not only to secure and strengthen the possessions in Greenland, but also to explore the fertile countries farther west. It cannot be remarked, however, that it brought about any change in the fading knowledge of these valuable regions, and we hear no more of them until their rediscovery at the close of the fifteenth century.

Ebbe Hertzberg, Keeper of the Public Records of Norway, has shown that there is a remarkable and interesting similarity between the game of lacrosse, which is played by the Indians of the north-east of North America, and the ancient Norse game, "knattleikr" , so far as we know it from the sagas. It was greatly in favour in Iceland. If Hertzberg is right in his supposition that the Indians may have got this game from the Norsemen, this would lend strong support to the view that the latter had considerable intercourse with America and its natives.

According to Hertzberg's acute interpretation of the accounts of "knattleikr" in the various sagas, it was played on a large level piece of ground , or on the ice, usually by many players. These were divided into two sides, in such a way that those most nearly equal in strength on each side were paired as opponents and stood near to each other, and the two teams were thus spread in pairs over the whole ground. Each player had a club with which he either struck or caught and "carried" the ball. The club had a hollow or a net in which the ball could be caught and lie. When the ball was set going, the game was for the one who was nearest to seize or catch it, preferably with his club, and to run off with it and try to "carry it out," i.e., past a goal or mark; but in this his particular opponent tried to hinder him with all his strength and agility. The other players might not interfere directly in the struggle of the two opponents for the ball. If the one who had the ball was so hard pressed by his opponent that he had to give it up, he tried to throw it to one of his own side, who then again had to reckon with his own opponent in his attempt to "carry it out." This game was much played by the Icelanders; it was apt to be rough, and men were often disabled, or even killed, by their opponents.

Hertzberg shows how the Canadian Indians' game of lacrosse, which has become the national game of Canada, completely resembles in all essentials this peculiar Norse ball-game from Iceland. The game of lacrosse is, as Professor Y. Nielsen has pointed out , more widely diffused among the Indian tribes of North America than Hertzberg was aware. Dr. William James Hoffman has described it among the Menomini Indians in Wisconsin, the Ojibwa tribe in northern Minnesota, the Dakota Indians on the upper Missouri, and among the Chactas, Chickasaws and kindred tribes farther south. Hoffmann also mentions that opponents are picked and that the game is played in pairs . Among the Ojibwas, he says, the player who is carrying the ball is often placed hors de combat by a blow on the arm or leg; serious injuries only occur when the stakes are high, or when there is enmity between some of the players. Among the more southern tribes, on the other hand, the game is much more violent, the crosse is longer, made of hickory, and it is often sought to disable the runner. This, then, is even more like the Icelandic game.

Hoffmann thinks that the game is undoubtedly derived from one of the eastern Algonkin tribes, possibly in the valley of the St. Lawrence. Thence it reached the Huron Iroquois, and later it spread farther south to the Cherokees, etc. In a similar way it was carried westwards and adopted by many tribes. This then points to its having originated in just those districts where one would have expected it to come from, if it was brought by the Norsemen, as Hertzberg thinks. That the game is so widely diffused in America and has become so much a part of the Indians' life, even of their religious life, shows that it is very ancient there, and this too supports Hertzberg's assumption that it is derived from the Norsemen. It is true that Eug. Beauvois has pointed out the possibility of the game having been introduced into Canada by people from Normandy after the sixteenth century; but before such an objection could carry weight, it would have to be made probable that the characteristic Norse game was really played in Normandy; but this is not known. In support of Hertzberg's view it may also be adduced--a point that he himself has not noticed--that the Icelanders appear to have introduced the same ball-game to another American people with whom they came in touch, namely, the Eskimo of Greenland. Hans Egede says:

"Playing ball is their most usual game, especially by moonlight, and they have two ways of playing: When they have divided themselves into two sides, one throws the ball to another who is on his own side. Those of the other side must endeavour to get the ball from them, and thus it goes on alternately among them...."

This description, together with Egede's drawing, from which it appears, amongst other things, that the opponents are arranged in pairs, seems to show that the Eskimo game was very like the Icelanders' "knattleikr" and the Indians' "lacrosse"; but with the difference that according to Egede's account the Eskimo did not use any club or crosse; moreover, from Egede's drawing it looks as if both men and women took part, as with certain Indian tribes. That there is a connection here appears natural. The most probable explanation may be that the Eskimo as well as the Indians got this ball-game from the Norsemen. That the Eskimo should have learnt it from the whalers after the rediscovery of Greenland in the sixteenth century is unlikely, as also that it should have come to the Indians from the Eskimo round the north of Baffin Bay and through Baffin Land and Labrador; nor is it any more likely that the Icelanders should have learnt it of the Eskimo in Greenland, who again had it from America.

It is in itself a strange thing that the discovery of a country like North America, with conditions so much more favourable than Greenland and Iceland, should not have led to a permanent settlement. But there are many, and in my judgment sufficient, reasons which explain this. We must remember that such an outpost of civilisation as Greenland offered poor opportunities for the equipment of such settlements; the settlers would have to be prepared for continual conflicts with the Indians, who with their warlike capacity and their numbers might easily be more than a match for a handful of Greenlanders, even though the latter had some advantage in their weapons of iron--and of these too the Greenlanders never had a very good supply, as appears from several narratives. There would also be need of ships, which were costly and difficult to procure in Greenland; the few that were there certainly had enough to do, and could hardly manage more than an occasional trip to Markland for timber. Moreover, as the Greenland settlements themselves and their oversea communications declined after the close of the thirteenth century, so also of course did their communication with America decrease, until it finally ceased altogether.

It would thus appear, from all that has been put forward in this chapter, that Wineland the Good was originally a mythical country, closely connected with the happy lands of Irish myths and legends--which had their first source in the Greek Elysium and Isles of the Blest, in Oriental sailors' myths, and an admixture of Biblical conceptions. The description of the country has acquired important features from Isidore's account of the Insulae Fortunatae and from older classical literature. This mythical country is to be compared with "Hv?tramanna-land" , "which some call Ireland the Great ." Of this the Landn?ma tells us that it lay near Wineland, in the west of the ocean, six "doegr's" sail west of Ireland ; the Icelandic chief Are M?rsson was driven there by storms, was not allowed to depart, but was baptized there and held in great esteem. Furthermore, the same land is mentioned in the Saga of Eric the Red as lying opposite Markland . Finally, in the Eyrbyggja Saga there is a tale of a voyage which evidently had the same country as its object, though it is not mentioned by name. Since Thorkel Gellisson is given as the authority for the story in the Landn?ma, the legend may have reached Iceland about the close of the eleventh century.

This Irish land may also be derived from an adaptation of the ancients' myth of the western Isles of the Blest, and it evidently corresponds to one of the mythical countries of the Christianised Irish legends. It bears great resemblance in particular to "the Island of Strong Men" in the Navigatio Brandani, which is also called there "the Isle of Anchorites" . Three generations dwelt there: the first generation, the children, had clothes white as driven snow, the second of the colour of hyacinth, and the third of Dalmatian purple. The name itself, which in Old Norse would become "Starkramanna-land," shows much similarity of formation; besides which it is the Isle of Anchorites that is in question, and one of the three generations wears white garments; we are thus not far from the formation of a name "Hv?tramanna-land." There is yet another point of agreement, in that, just as Are M?rsson was not allowed to leave Hv?tramanna-land, so one of Brandan's companions had to stay behind on the Isle of Anchorites. It may also be supposed that the name of the White Men's Land is connected with the White Christ and with the white garments of the baptized; the circumstance of Are M?rsson being baptized there points in the same direction. But to this it may be added that various myths and legends show it to have been a common idea among the Irish that aged hermits and holy men were white. The old man who welcomes Brendan to the promised land in the "Imram Brenaind" has no clothes, but his body is covered with dazzling white feathers, like a dove or a gull, and angelic is the speech of his lips. In the Latin account of Brandan's life the man is called Paulus, he is again without clothes, but his body is covered with white hair, and in both tales the man came from Ireland . The cave-dweller Paulus on an island in the Navigatio Brandani is without clothes, but wholly covered by the hair of his head, his beard and other hair down to the feet, and they were white as snow on account of his great age. It is evident that the whiteness is often attributed, as in the last instance, to age; but it is also the heavenly colour, and the white clothing of hair may also have some connection with the white lamb in the Revelation. In the tale of Maelduin's voyage, which is older than those of Brandan's, Maelduin meets in two places, on a sheep-island and on a rock in the sea, with hermits wholly covered with the white hair of their bodies--they too were both Irish--and on two other islands, the soil of one of which was as white as a feather, he meets with men whose only clothing was the hair of their bodies . In the Navigatio Brandan also meets on the island of Alibius an aged man with hair of the colour of snow and with shining countenance.

Among the Irish the white colour again forms a conspicuous feature in the description of persons, especially supernatural beings, in ancient non-Christian legends and myths. The name of their national hero Finn means white. To Finn Mac Cumaill there comes in the legend a king's daughter of unearthly size and beauty, "Bebend" , from the Land of Virgins in the west of the sea, and she has marvellously beautiful white hair . The corresponding maiden of the sea-people, in the "Imram Brenaind," whom Brandan finds, is also whiter than snow or sea-spray . The physician Libra at the court of Manann?n, king of the Promised Land, has three daughters with white hair. When Midir, the king of the s?d , is trying to entice away Et?in, queen of the high-king of Ireland, he says: "Oh, white woman, wilt thou go with me to the land of marvels?... thy body has the white colour of snow to the very top," etc. etc. . A corresponding idea to that of the Irish s?d-people, especially the women, being white, is perhaps that of the Norse elves being thought light , or even white. The elf-maiden in Sweden is slender as a lily and white as snow, and elves in Denmark may also be snow-white .

It seems natural that these ideas--of whiteness as specially beautiful, and mostly applied to the "s?d" or elves, to the garments of baptism, and to holy men and hermits--led to a name which, in conformity with the Strong Men's Island of the Navigatio, would become the White Men's Land, for the mythical western land oversea, where Are M?rsson was baptized, but which he could not leave again, and where, according to the Eyrbyggja Saga, the language resembled Irish. This, then, is precisely the "Isle of Anchorites." The country may have originated through a contact of ideas from the religious world and the profane, original conceptions from the latter having become Christianised. Doubtless the white garments, which were connected with the other world, and which became the heavenly raiment of the Christians, have also played a part. In Plato a white-clad woman comes to Socrates in a dream and announces to him that in three days he is to depart. During the transfiguration on the mountain Jesus' face "did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light" , or "his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow" . On the basis of this Christian conception the image of the world beyond the grave has taken the form of a fair, shining land, as in the immense literature of visions; and thus too in the Floamanna Saga , where Thorgils's wife Thorey sees in a dream a "fair country with shining white men" , and Thorgils interprets it to mean "another world" where "good awaits her" and "holy men would help her."

There is further a possibility that some of the conceptions attached to Hv?tramanna-land may be connected with ancient Celtic tales which in antiquity were associated with the Cassiterides ; in any case there is a remarkable similarity between the mention in Eric the Red's Saga of men who went about in white clothes, carried poles before them, and cried aloud , and Strabo's description of the men in the Cassiterides in black cloaks with kirtles reaching to the feet, who wander about with staves, like the Furies in tragedy. That Strabo should see a resemblance to the Eumenides and therefore make his men black, while the Northern author has the Christian ideas and in agreement with the name of Hv?tramanna-land gives them white clothes, need not surprise us. Even if Storm is correct in his supposition that the white men's banners, or "poles to which strips were attached" , are connected with ecclesiastical processions, this may be a later popular modification, just as the white hermits out in the ocean may be a modification of pre-Christian, or at any rate non-religious, conceptions in Ireland.

Reference has been made to the resemblance between the accounts of the inhabitants of Wyntlandia , who were versed in magic, and of the Celtic priestesses in the island of Sena off Brittany. One might be tempted to think that here again there is some connection or other between these Breton priestesses and, on the one hand the Irishmen in Hv?tramanna-land, on the other the men of the Cassiterides who were like the Furies. Dionysius Periegetes relates that on this island of Sena women crowned with ivy conducted nocturnal bacchanals, with shrieks and violent noise . No male person might set foot on the island, but the women went over to the men on the mainland, and returned after having had intercourse with them . Exactly the same thing is related by Strabo of the Samnite women on a little island in the sea, not far from the mouth of the Liger ; inspired by Bacchus they honour that god in mysteries and other unusually holy actions. The druids had their sanctuaries on islands, and Mona was their headquarters. Tacitus tells of their fanatical women who, in white clothes , with dishevelled hair and flaming torches, conducted themselves altogether like Furies on the arrival of the Romans.

The circumstance of Hv?tramanna-land being, according to the Eyrbyggja Saga, a forbidden land may correspond to that of men being prohibited from setting foot on the priestesses' island, or again to the way to the Cassiterides being kept secret and to the precautions taken to prevent people from reaching them . Something similar, it may be added, is told of the rich, fertile island which the Carthaginians discovered in the west of the ocean, and which, under pain of death, they forbade others to visit . That in late classical times there was a confusion between the Cassiterides and the mythical isles in the west appears further from Pliny's saying that the Cassiterides were also called "Fortunatae," and from Dionysius Periegetes making tin, the product of the Cassiterides, come from the Hesperides.

It was mentioned above that the name of the promised land, "the Land of Marvels," was also called in Irish legend the "Great Strand" , or the "Great Land" ; "two or three times as large as Ireland" . It does not seem unlikely that the Icelanders, hearing from Ireland of this great land, should come to call it "Irland hit Mikla" ; and this seems to be a more natural explanation than Storm's interpretation of the name as meaning "the Irish colony," like "Magna Graecia" and "Sv??j?d it Mikla" ; on the other hand, he gives an obvious parallel in "Great Han," the mythical land in the Great Ocean beyond China .

In the Eyrbyggja Saga we read of Bj?rn Asbrandsson, called Breidvikinge-kjaempe, and his exploits. He bore illicit love to Snorre Gode's sister, Thurid of Fr???, the wife of Thorodd, and had by her an illegitimate son, Kjartan. Finally he had to leave Iceland on account of this love; but his ship was not ready till late in the autumn. They put to sea with a north-east wind, which held for a long time that autumn. Afterwards the ship was not heard of for many a day.

Gudleif Gudlaugsson was the name of a great sailor and merchant; he owned a large merchant vessel. In the last years of St. Olaf's reign he was on a trading voyage to Dublin; "when he sailed westward from thence he was making for Iceland. He sailed to the west of Ireland, encountered there a strong north-east wind, and was driven far to the west and south-west in the ocean," until they finally came to a great land which was unknown to them. They did not know the people there, "but thought rather that they spoke Irish." Soon many hundred men collected about them, seized and bound them, and drove them up into the country. They were brought to an assembly and sentence was to be pronounced upon them. They understood as much as that some wanted to kill them, while others wanted to make slaves of them. While this was going on, a great band of men came on horseback with a banner, and under it rode a big and stately man of great age, with white hair, whom they guessed to be the chief, for all bowed before him. He sent for them; when they came before him he spoke to them in Norse and asked from what country they came, and when he heard that most of them were Icelanders, and that Gudleif was from Borgarfjord, he asked after nearly all the more important men of Borgarfjord and Breidafjord, and particularly Snorre Gode, and Thurid of Fr???, his sister, and most of all after Kjartan, her son, who was now master there. After this big man had discussed the matter at length with the men of the country, he again spoke to the Icelanders and gave them leave to depart, but although the summer was far gone, he advised them to get away as soon as possible, as the people there were not to be relied upon. He would not tell them his name; for he did not wish his kinsmen such a voyage thither as they would have had if he had not helped them; but he was now so old that he might soon be gone, and moreover, said he, there were men of more influence than he in that country, who would show little mercy to foreigners. After this he had the ship fitted out, and was himself present, until there came a favourable wind for them to leave. When they parted, this man took a gold ring from his hand, gave it to Gudleif, and with it a good sword, and said: "If it be thy lot to reach Iceland, thou shalt bring this sword to Kjartan, master of Fr???, and the ring to Thurid, his mother." When Gudleif asked him who he was to say was the sender of these costly gifts, he answered: "Say he sent them who was more a friend of the mistress of Fr??? than of the 'gode' of Helgafell, her brother...." Gudleif and his men put to sea and arrived in Ireland late in the autumn, stayed that winter at Dublin, and sailed next summer to Iceland .

It is clear that Bj?rn Breidvikinge-kjaempe here is the same as Are M?rsson in the Landn?ma, who was also driven by storms to Hv?tramanna-land, had to stay there all his life, and according to the report of Thorfinn earl of Orkney had been recognised , and was much honoured there. This incident of the travellers coming to an unknown island and there finding a man who has been absent a long while has parallels in many Irish legends. Thus it may be mentioned that Brandan, in the Navigatio, comes to the convent-island of Alibius, with the twenty-four Irish monks of old days, and meets there the old white-haired man who was prior of the convent and had been there for eighty years, but who does not tell his name. Brandan asks leave to sail on, but this is not permitted until they have celebrated Christmas there .

The resemblance between the two names "Gu?-Leifr" and "Leifr hinn Heppni" also deserves notice, as perhaps it is not merely accidental. One sails during the last years of St. Olaf from Ireland to Iceland and is carried south-westwards to Hv?tramanna-land; the other sails during the last years of Olaf Tryggvason from Norway to Greenland and is carried south-westwards to Wineland the Good.

It might also be thought to be more than a mere coincidence that, while Leif Ericson is given the surname of "hinn heppni," a closely related surname is mentioned in connection with Gudleif in the Eyrbyggja Saga, where he is called "Gu?leifr Gu?laugsson hins au?ga" . In the one case, of course, it is the man himself, in the other the father, who bears the surname. "Au?igr" means rich, but originally it had the meaning of lucky, and the rich man is he who has luck with him . Gudleif Gudlaugsson also occurs in the Landn?mab?k, but this surname is not mentioned, nor is anything said about this voyage, in exactly the same way as Leif Ericson is named there, but without a surname and without any mention of a voyage or a discovery; in both cases this is an addition that occurs in later sagas. In spite of the difference alluded to, one may suspect that there is here some connection or other. Possibly it might be that, as Gu?ri?r is the Christian woman among all the names beginning with Thor- and Frey?is, so the name of Gu?leifr, which was placed in association with the Christian Hv?tramanna-land, was used because it had a more religious stamp than "happ" and "heppen," which in any case are as nearly allied to popular belief as to religiosity, and which were associated with the non-Christian Wineland.

The following tale in Edrisi, the Arabic geographer, whose work dates from 1154, bears considerable resemblance to the remarkable story of Gudleif's voyage.

Eight "adventurers" from Lisbon built a merchant ship and set out with the first east wind to explore the farthest limits of the ocean. They sailed for about eleven days and came to a sea with stiff waves and a horrible stench, with many shallows and little light . Afraid of perishing there, they sailed southward for twelve days and reached the Sheep-island , with innumerable flocks of sheep and no human beings . They sailed on for twelve days more towards the south and found at last an inhabited and cultivated island. On approaching this they were soon surrounded by boats, taken prisoners, and brought to a town on the coast. They finally took up their abode in a house, where they saw men of tall stature and red complexion, with little hair on their faces, and wearing their hair long , and women of rare beauty. Here they were kept prisoners for three days. On the fourth day a man came who spoke to them in Arabic and asked them who they were, why they had come, and what country they came from. They related to him their adventures. He gave them good hopes, and told them that he was the king's interpreter. On the following day they were brought before the king, who asked them the same questions through the interpreter. On their replying that they had set out with the object of exploring the wonders of the ocean and finding out its limits, the king began to laugh and told the interpreter to explain that his father had once ordered one of his slaves to set out upon that ocean; this man had traversed its breadth for a month, until the light of heaven failed them and they were obliged to renounce this vain undertaking. The king further caused the interpreter to assure the adventurers of his benevolent intentions. They then returned to prison and remained there until a west wind came. Then they were blindfolded and taken across the sea in a boat for about three days and three nights to a land where they were left on the shore with their hands tied behind their backs. They stayed there till sunrise in a pitiable state, for the cords were very tight and caused them great discomfort. Then they heard voices, and upon their cries of distress the natives, who were Berbers, came and released them. They had arrived on the west coast of Africa, and were told that it was two months' journey to their native land.

As points of similarity to Gudleif's voyage it may be pointed out that the Portuguese sail for thirty-five days altogether, to the west and afterwards to the south, and arrive at a country which thus lies south-south-west. Gudleif is carried before a north-east wind towards the south-west and reaches land after a long time. Both the Portuguese and the Icelanders are taken prisoners shortly after arrival; the former are surrounded by boats, the latter by hundreds of men. The Portuguese saw red-complexioned men of tall stature with long hair, the Icelanders saw a tall, stately man with white hair coming on horseback. They had to wait awhile before they were addressed in a language they could understand; the Portuguese being first spoken to by an interpreter in Arabic who gave them good hopes, and afterwards brought them before the king, who assured them of his benevolent intentions; while the Icelanders were sent for by the great chief, who, when they came before him, spoke to them in Norse and was friendly towards them, and after long deliberations spoke to them again, and gave them leave to depart. The Portuguese had to wait in prison for a west wind before they could get away; the Icelanders had to wait for a favourable wind, which was again a west wind. The Portuguese were led away blindfold, obviously in order that they should not find their way back; when the Icelanders left it was enjoined upon them never to return. The Portuguese came to the west coast of Africa, from whence they afterwards had to sail northward to Lisbon; the Icelanders arrived in Ireland, and sailed thence the next summer northward to Iceland. It seems reasonable to suppose that there is some connection between the two tales; the same myth may in part form the foundation of both, and this again may be allied to the myth alluded to above of the Carthaginians' discovery of a fertile island out in the ocean to the west of Africa. But there are also striking resemblances between Edrisi's tale and the description in the Odyssey of Odysseus's visit to the Phaeacians in the western isle of Scheria. On his arrival there Athene warns Odysseus to be careful, as this people is not inclined to tolerate foreigners, and no other men come to them. Odysseus is brought before the king, Alcinous, who receives him in friendly fashion, and tells him that no Phaeacian shall "hold him back by force," and Odysseus relates his many adventures. Finally the Phaeacians convey him while asleep across the sea in a boat, carry him ashore at dawn, and go away before he awakes ; this corresponds to the Portuguese being taken blindfold across the sea and left bound on the shore, until they are released at sunrise. The promise of the Phaeacians, after Poseidon's revenge for their helping Odysseus, never again to assist any seafarer that might come to them, may bear some resemblance to the incident of Bj?rn Breidvikinge-kjaempe trying to prevent Icelanders from seeking a land which "would show little mercy to foreigners."

Moreover, the tales, both of Gudleif's voyage and of Edrisi's Portuguese adventurers, resemble ancient Irish myths.

In the "Imram Snedgusa acus meic Riagla" , the men of Ross slay King Fiacha Mac Domnaill for his intolerable tyranny. As a punishment, sixty couples of the guilty were sent out to sea, and their judgment and fate left to God. The two monks, Snedgus and Mac Riagail, afterwards set out on a voluntary pilgrimage on the ocean--while the sixty couples went involuntarily--and, after having visited many islands, reached in their boat a land in which there were generations of Irish, and they met women who sang to them and brought them to the king's house . The king received them well and inquired from whence they came. "We are Irish," they replied, "and we belong to the companions of Columcille." Then he asked: "How goes it in Ireland, and how many of Domnaill's sons are alive?" They answered: "Three Mac Domnaills are alive, and Fiacha Mac Domnaill fell by the men of Ross, and for that deed sixty couples of them were sent out to sea." "That is a true tale of yours; I am he who killed the King of Tara's son , and we are those who were sent out to sea. This commends itself to us, for we will be here till the Judgment comes, and we are glad to be here without sin, without evil, without our sinful desires. The island we live on is good, for on it are Elijah and Enoch, and noble is the dwelling of Elijah...."

The similarity to the meeting of Gudleif and the Icelanders with the likewise exiled great man and chief, who did not give his name but hinted at his identity, is evident. If we suppose that the island Gudleif reached was originally the white men's, or the holy men's land, then it may be possible that the great man's words to Gudleif about there being men on the island who were greater than he is connected with the mention of Elijah and Enoch.

Thus we see a connection between Gudleif's voyage and Irish myths and legends, the Arabic tale, and finally the Odyssey. What the mutual relationship may be between Edrisi's tale and the Irish legends is to us of minor importance. As the Norse Vikings had much communication with the Spanish peninsula it might be supposed that the Norse tale, derived from Irish myths, had reached Portugal; but as the Arabic tale has several similarities to the voyages of Brandan and Maelduin, and to Dicuil's account of the Faroes , which are not found in the Norse narrative, it is more probable that the incidents in the experiences of the Portuguese adventurers are derived directly from Ireland, which also had close connection with the Spanish Peninsula, chiefly through Norse ships and merchants. We must in any case suppose that the Icelandic tale of Gudleif's voyage came from Ireland; but it may have acquired additional colour from northern legends.

There is a Swedish tale of some sailors from Getinge who were driven by storms over the sea to an unknown island; surrounded by darkness they went ashore and saw a fire, and before it lay an uncommonly tall man, who was blind; another equally big stood beside him and raked in the fire with an iron rod. The old blind man gets up and asks the strangers where they come from. They answer from Halland, from Getinge parish. Whereupon the blind man asks: "Is the white woman still alive?" They answered yes, though they did not know what he meant. Again he asks: "Is my goat-house still standing?" They again answered yes, though ignorant of what he meant. He then said: "I could not keep my goat-house in peace because of the church that was built in that place. If you would reach home safely, I give you two conditions." They promised to accept these, and the blind old man continued: "Take this belt of silver, and when you come home, buckle it on the white woman; and place this box on the altar in my goat-house." When the sailors were safely come home, the belt was buckled on a birch-tree, which immediately shot up into the air, and the box was placed on a mound, which immediately burst into flame. But from the church being built where the blind man had his goat-house the place was called Getinge . Similar tales are known from other localities in Sweden and Norway. The old blind man is a heathen giant driven out by the Christian church or by the image of Mary ; sometimes again he is a heathen exile.

Here we have undeniable parallels to the storm-driven Icelanders' meeting with the exiled Breidvikinge-kjaempe, who asks after his native place and his woman, Thurid, and who also sends two gifts home, though with very different feelings and objects. It may be supposed that the Swedish-Norwegian tale is derived from ancient myths, and the Icelandic narrative may have borrowed features, not, of course, from this very tale, but from myths of the same type.

Remarkable points of resemblance both to the voyages of the Irish to the Fortunate Isles in the west, and to those of Gudleif and of the eight Portuguese , are found in a Japanese tale of the fortunate isles of "Horaisan," to which Moltke Moe has called my attention.

The old Japanese wise man, Vasobiove, who had withdrawn from the world and passed his days in contemplative peace, was one day out fishing by himself , when he was driven out to sea by a violent storm; he then rowed about the sea, keeping himself alive by fishing. After three months he came to the "muddy sea," which nearly cost him his life, as there were no fish there. But after a desperate struggle, and finally twelve hours' hard rowing, he reached the shore of Horaisan. There he was met by an old man whom he understood, for he spoke Chinese. This was Jofuku, who received Vasobiove in friendly fashion and told him his story. Vasobiove was overjoyed on hearing where he was. He stayed there for a couple of hundred years, but did not know how long it was; for where all is alike, where there is neither birth nor death, no one heeds the passing of time. With dancing and music, in conversation with wise and brilliant men, in the society of beautiful and amiable ladies, he passed his days.

But at last Vasobiove grew tired of this sweet existence and longed for death. It was hopeless, for here he could not die, nor could he take his own life, there were no poisons, no lethal weapons; if he threw himself over a precipice or ran his head against a sharp rock, it was like a fall on to soft cushions, and if he threw himself into the sea, it supported him like a cork. Finally he tamed a gigantic stork, and on its back he at last returned to Japan, after the stork had carried him through many strange countries, of which the most remarkable was that of the Giants, who are immensely superior to human beings in everything. Whereas Vasobiove was accustomed to admiration wherever he propounded his philosophical views and systems, he left that country in humiliation; for the Giants said they had no need of all that, and declared Vasobiove's whole philosophy to be the immature cries of distress of the children of men.

A connection between the intellectual world of China and Japan and that of Europe in the Middle Ages may well be supposed to have been brought about by the Arabs, who penetrated as far as China on their trading voyages, and who, on the other hand, had close communication with Western Europe. Furthermore, it must be remembered how many of our mythical conceptions and tales are more or less connected with India, just as many of the Arabian tales evidently had their birthplace there ; while on the other side there was, of course, a close connection between India and the intellectual world of China and Japan, as shown by the spread of Buddhism. A transference of the same myths both eastward to Japan and westward to Europe is thus highly probable, whether these myths originated in Europe or in India and the East. It is striking, too, that even a secondary feature such as the curdled, dead sea is met with again here as the "muddy sea" without fish .

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