A Book of American Explorers - Thomas Wentworth Higginson

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“The Norsemen:”—

      “What sea-worn barks are those which throw

      The light spray from each rushing prow?

      Have they not in the North Sea’s blast

      Bowed to the waves the straining mast?

      Their frozen sails the low, pale sun

      Of Thule’s night has shone upon;

      Flapped by the sea-wind’s gusty sweep,

      Round icy drift and headland steep.

      Wild Jutland’s wives and Lochlin’s daughters

      Have watched them fading o’er the waters,

      Lessening through driving mist and spray,

      Like white-winged sea-birds on their way.

      Onward they glide; and now I view

      Their iron-armed and stalwart crew:

      Joy glistens in each wild blue eye

      Turned to green earth and summer sky:

      Each broad, seamed breast has cast aside

      Its cumbering vest of shaggy hide:

      Bared to the sun, and soft warm air,

      Streams back the Norseman’s yellow hair.

      I see the gleam of axe and spear;

      The sound of smitten shields I hear,

      Keeping a harsh and fitting time

      To Saga’s chant and Runic rhyme.”

      THE LEGENDS OF THE NORTHMEN.

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      [About the year 860, a Danish sailor named Gardar was driven upon the shores of Iceland, after which that island was settled by a colony from Norway. About a hundred years later, Greenland was settled from Iceland; Eirek the Red being the first to make the voyage. With him went one Heriulf, whose son Biarni had been in the habit of passing every other winter with his father, and then sailing on distant voyages. Then happened what follows.]

      THAT same summer (985 or 986) came Biarni with his ship to Eyrar (Iceland), in the spring of which his father had sailed from the island. These tidings seemed to Biarni weighty, and he would not unload his ship. Then asked his sailors1 what he meant to do. He answered, that he meant to hold to his wont,2 and winter with his father; “and I will bear for Greenland, if you will follow me thither.” All said they would do as he wished. Then said Biarni, “Imprudent they will think our voyage, since none of us has been in the Greenland Sea.”

      A NORSE SHIP.

      Yet they bore out to sea as soon as they were bound,3 and sailed three days, till the land was sunk.4 Then the fair wind fell off, and there arose north winds and fogs, and they knew not whither they fared; and so it went for many days. After that, they saw the sun, and could then get their bearings. Then they hoisted sail, and sailed that day before they saw land; and they counselled with themselves what land that might be. But Biarni said he thought it could not be Greenland. They asked him whether he would sail to the land, or not. “This is my counsel, to sail nigh to the land,” said he. And so they did, and soon saw that the land was without fells,5 and wooded, and small heights on the land; and they left the land to larboard, and let the foot of the sail look towards land.6 After that, they sailed two days before they saw another land. They asked if Biarni thought this was Greenland. He said he thought it no more Greenland than the first; “for the glaciers are very huge, as they say, in Greenland.” They soon neared the land, and saw that it was flat land, and overgrown with wood.7 Then the fair wind fell. Then the sailors said that it seemed prudent to them to land there; but Biarni would not. They thought they needed both wood and water. “Of neither are you in want,” said Biarni; but he got some hard speeches for that from his sailors. He bade them hoist sail, and so they did; and they turned the bows from the land, and sailed out to sea with a west-south wind three days, and saw a third land; but that land was high, mountainous, and covered with glaciers.8 They asked then if Biarni would put ashore there; but he said he would not, “for this land seems to me not very promising.” They did not lower their sails, but held on along this land, and saw that it was an island; but they turned the stern to the land, and sailed seawards with the same fair wind. But the wind rose; and Biarni bade them shorten sail, and not to carry more than their ship and tackle would bear. They sailed now four days, then saw they land the fourth. Then they asked Biarni whether he thought that was Greenland, or not. Biarni answered, “That is likest to what is said to me of Greenland; and we will put ashore.” So they did, and landed under a certain ness9 at evening of the day. And there was a boat at the ness, and there lived Heriulf, the father of Biarni, on this ness; and from him has the ness taken its name, and is since called Heriulfsness. Now fared10 Biarni to his father, and gave up sailing, and was with his father whilst Heriulf lived, and afterwards lived there after his father.

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      [After Biarni had reached the Greenland settlement, and told his story, he was blamed for not having explored these unknown lands more carefully; and Leif the Lucky bought Biarni’s vessel, and set sail with thirty-five companions, to see what he could discover.]

      (A.D. 999.) First they found the land which Biarni had found last. Then sailed they to the land, and cast anchor, and put off a boat, and went ashore, and saw there no grass. Mickle11 glaciers were over all the higher parts; but it was like a plain of rock from the glaciers to the sea, and it seemed to them that the land was good for nothing. Then said Leif, “We have not done about this land like Biarni, not to go upon it: now I will give a name to the land, and call it Helluland (flat-stone land).”12 Then they went to their ship. After that they sailed into the sea, and found another land, sailed up to it, and cast anchor; then put off a boat, and went ashore. This land was flat, and covered with wood and broad white sands wherever they went, and the shore was low. Then said Leif, “From its make13 shall a name be given to this land; and it shall be called Markland (Woodland).”14 Then they went quickly down to the vessel. Now they sailed thence into the sea with a north-east wind, and were out two days before they saw land; and they sailed to land, and came to an island that lay north of the land; and they went on to it, and looked about them in good weather, and found that dew lay upon the grass;15 and that happened that they put their hands in the dew, and brought it to their mouths, and they thought they had never known any thing so sweet as that was. Then they went to their ship, and sailed into that sound that lay between the island and a ness16 which went northward from the land, and then steered westward past the ness. There were great shoals at ebb-tide; and their vessel stood up;17 and it was far to see from the ship to the sea. But they were so curious to fare to the land, that they could not bear to bide till the sea came under their ship, and ran ashore where a river flows out from a lake. But, when the sea came under their ship, then took they the boat, and rowed to the ship, and took it up into the river, and then into the lake, and there cast anchor, and bore from the ship their skin-cots,18 and made their booths.

      Afterwards they took counsel to stay there that winter, and made there great houses. There was no scarcity of salmon in the rivers and lakes, and larger salmon than they had before seen. There was the land so good, as it seemed to them, that no cattle would want fodder for the winter. There came no frost in the winter, and little did the grass fall off there. Day and night were more equal there than in Greenland or Iceland. … But when they had ended their house-building, then said Leif to his companions, “Now let our company be divided into two parts, and the land kenned;19

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