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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of
Edith and Maude Wetmore
in memory of their father
George Peabody Wetmore
b.a. 1867

RHODE ISLAND

Historlcal Tracts.

NO. 2.

PEOVIDENCE :
SIDNEY S. RIDER.
1877.

Copyright by
SIDNEY S. EIDEE.
1877.

VISITS

NOETHMEN

RHODE ISLAND.

ALEXANDER FARNUM.

PEOVIDENCE :
IIDNEY S . RIDER.
1877.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE.

The following essay, prepared originally to be read before
a private club of gentlemen in this city, appeared subsequently
in the Providence Daily Journal of December 2nd, 1869. The
publisher of this tract can in no better way introduce it than by
quoting from the paragraphs of the editor of the Journal in
presenting the essay to his readers : " The question whether
the Northmen discovered America in the tenth century will
always have a peculiar fascination for the natives of this State,
for if the Sagas which recount their adventurous voyages are to
be accepted as essentially historic it was in all probability by
the shores of Narragansett Bay that they built their booths, and
found the grapes of which they give such marvellous accounts.
The truth of these narratives has been defended on grounds
which only exposed them to additional criticism, and the
merited ridicule heaped upon Dighton Rock and the Old Stone
Mill has stood in the way of the acceptance of much that rested
on secure historic credence. The elaborate discussion of the
subject on our first page was read by a gentleman of this city
before a private literary club, and in compliance with our urgent
solicitation he allows us to print an essay which by its acute
dissection of evidence and thoroughness of research amply
merits publication in a more permanent form than the columns
of a daily newspaper. We feel assured that no one can give a
careful reading to this essay without yielding assent to its
conclusions."

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND.

It is generally assumed that the authentic history
of the Western Hemisphere begins on that day in
October, 1492, when Christopher Columbus first
stepped upon its soil. For upwards of a century,
however, we have had access to a body of evidence
which, candidly and carefully examined, creates at
least a strong probability that the hardy adventurous
Northman anticipated the discovery by nearly five
hundred years. In this vindication of the North
man's claim to priority, we by no means dim the
brightness of Columbus's fame, nor in any degree
lessen the merit which all accord to the bold enter
prise of the Genoese navigator. Blind chance first
threw the Northman on the shores of this new world,
and he conceived that he had but extended the limits

8 HISTORICAL TRACT.
of Europe. Columbus, despite all previous experi
ence, turned the prows of his vessels due west in
search of the east, and ploughed the waters of a sea
of unknown extent and danger in obedience to his
firm conviction that the earth was a navigable
sphere. Nothing can diminish the homage which all
men gladly pay to the genius and character of one
who could reach such a conclusion in the dim light
of the fifteenth century, and who, in the face of
doubt and ridicule and every sort of discouragement,
would stake his life on the truth of his convictions.
That he unexpectedly added a new continent to the
map of the world was a just reward, and we can
only lament that he died in ignorance of the real
grandeur of his achievement.
It has been suggested that Columbus himself was
to some degree indebted to the Northman for his
belief in the existence of land beyond the sea, because
in 1477, while revolving in his own mind the prob
lem of a new route to Asia, he visited Iceland
where the Saga narratives of the Vinland voyages
were carefully preserved. That Columbus knew of
the traditions of Leif and Thorfinn, or even saw the

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 9
manuscript accounts of them is possible, but not the
faintest trace of such knowledge appears in any word
or act of his subsequent career, when certainly he
was not likely to neglect any argument which could
strengthen his appeal for assistance.
By the historians of this country the traditions of
its ante-Columbian discovery have been deemed of
too little importance to merit a careful investigation,
and their truth has consequently been doubted or
altogether denied.
Robertson confines his observations on the subject
to a note in which he states his belief, that the claims
of the Norwegians in this regard are better founded
than those of the Spanish, Germans, or Welsh ; but
adds that he "has not sufficient acquaintance with
the literature of the north to examine into the case."
Irving also dismisses the matter in a note, in which
he states that the " subject appears still to be wrapped
in much doubt and obscurity," and that so far as " he
has had experience in tracing these early discoveries
of portions of the New World, he has generally
found them very confident deductions from very
vague and questionable facts, that most of these

10 HISTORICAL TRACT.
accounts when divested of the erudite comments of
their editors, prove little better than the traditionary
fables respecting the imaginary islands of St.
Borondon and of the seven cities." He admits,
however, that the accounts of the Scandinavian
voyages have no inherent improbability. Hildreth,
with great brevity and greater inaccuracy, saj's
simply, that "it is conjectured on the strength of an
old Icelandic ballad, that Danish adventurers from
Iceland reached the North American coasts, but that
the alleged visit rests on evidence of too mythic a
character to find place in authentic history." Palfrey
gives the substance of the Saga narratives, but
advances no decided opinion as to their truthfulness ;
and adds, that "their antiquity and genuineness
appear to be well established, nor is there anything
to bring their credibility into question, beyond the
general doubt which always attaches to what is new
or strange : " a somewhat inconsistent statement, for
if they are of well 'established antiquity they can
hardly be called new, and if they are characterized
by no inherent incredibility, one would scarcely say
they were strange. Mr. Bancroft, however, has no

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 11
hesitation in giving an opinion on the question. He
attributes the claim of the Northmen to the pride of
an Icelandic historian, and adds, in his first edition,
that " the belief rests only on a narrative traditional
in form and obscure in meaning ; that the geographi
cal details are so vague that they cannot even sustain
a conjecture," and more "to the same effect ; closing
with this remarkable statement : " The first discov
eries in Greenland were in a high northern latitude.
Vinland was but another and more southern portion
of the same extensive territory." A most extraor
dinary conclusion, but one which he states in a note
" was forced upon him by a perusal of the Saga
itself in the Latin version." Probably his next
perusal of the Saga rose to the dignity of an exami
nation, for this paragraph disappears from the later
editions of his history ; in which also some other
changes are made in his remarks on this subject, not
altering their general character and not increasing
their accuracy, as for instance, when he substitutes
" mythological in form " for " traditional in form," in
characterizing the accounts in which there is not the
slightest mythological element.

12 HISTORICAL TRACT.
We do not now consider the question whether the
Northmen were the first, or the only ante-Columbian
discoverers of America. Vague allusions to the
existence of a western continent are pointed out in
the writings of the ancients, and in the works of
Arabian geographers. On the authority of tradi
tions equally vague, it has been argued that Spanish,
Venetian, German, Welsh, and Irish navigators
made trans- Atlantic voyages. Of almost every dis
covery or invention, it is safe to premise that some
authority or reason can be found or suggested for
supposing that the Chinese had therein anticipated
the rest of the world by several centuries ; and
recently an essay has appeared which attempts to
prove, on the authority of the records of Buddhist
priests, that as early as the sixth century our Pacific
coasts were well known to the Chinese, and that dis
tinct traces of Asiatic civilization exist among some
of the nations and tribes of South America. That
in pre-historic times there must have been an exten
sive emigration from northwestern Europe to Amer
ica, which stretched down the valleys of the Ohio
and Mississippi, has been inferred from the close

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 13
resemblances which exist between numerous earth
works, sepulchral tumuli, implements of flint, stone
and pottery, found in those localities, and similar
structures and fragments which are met with espe
cially in the countries bordering on the German
Ocean and Baltic Sea. But Mr. E. G. Squier,
whose studies make him an authority in such matters,
is of the opinion that such similarities are no greater
than will always be found between the monuments
and works of all peoples, however widely they may
be separated, at corresponding periods of develop
ment. On all these points the evidence is of too
indefinite a character to enable us to reach any satis
factory conclusion. We propose to discuss briefly
the nature, reliability, and extent of the evidence
which indicates that five hundred years before the
first expedition of Columbus, voyagers from Iceland
and Greenland reached the northeastern shores of
this continent, explored its coasts, and established
short-lived colonies probably within the borders of
Rhode Island.
As to the nature of the evidence, we may accept
Mr. Bancroft's statements that it is traditional in
2

14 HISTORICAL TRACT.
form, but not that it is obscure in meaning, except in
minor details. The beginnings of history are neces
sarily traditional, and within proper limits, tradition
is a safe basis for historical discussion. To eliminate
from our knowledge of the past all that we derive
from tradition, and to accept as trustworthy only
what rests upon contemporaneous record, would
essentially narrow the limits of our information con
cerning the earliest condition of mankind, and would
render many historical problems insoluble. The
value of a tradition must be estimated from the
nature of the events of which it tells and of the
channels through which it is transmitted, and from
the time which elapsed before it became written his
tory. If we find a distinct, coherent account of an
event in no way improbable in itself, transmitted
through a people to whom no motive for falsifying .
the account can be attributed and among whom cer
tain classes cultivated to an extraordinary degree the
art of memory, which was recorded in a manuscript
of undoubted authenticity long before there could
have existed any reason for inventing fictitious state
ments, a manuscript now open to our inspection and

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 15
giving this particular account in connection with
many others of accepted historical truth, we shall
certainly run little hazard in receiving the main
features of such an account as absolute facts. All
these conditions are fully satisfied by the Saga narra
tives of the voyages to Vinland of the sons of Eric
the Red, and of Thorfiun Karlsefne.
At first sight it seems a remarkable circumstance
that nine centuries ago, when the literature of conti
nental Europe presents so little of value or interest,
we should find on the remote inhospitable shores of
Iceland, a body of men who carefully studied the
past and closely observed the present, and whose
recollections when committed to record on the intro
duction of Christianity and the art of writing
became at once an historical literature such as hardly
any contemporary nation of Europe could rival.
Outside that isolated region it was the clergy who
taught and wrote of saint, martyr or miracle, or the
romancist, with the sole intent to amuse, who told of
chivalric knight, or sang of fairies and enchantments.
In Iceland a different demand created a different
supply. An explanation of this curious character-

16 HISTORICAL TRACT.
istic of the people of this island may be found in
the history of its settlement. The earliest recorded
discovery of Iceland is dated about 860. A few
years later in order to escape the tyranny of Harald
Haarfager, some of the petty chiefs of Norway
sought for themselves, their families, and retainers,
a new home in that distant island. The example
was contagious, and so great was the exodus, that
King Harald issued an edict forbidding farther emi
gration. But the daring impetuous Viking, accus
tomed to a roving life, and unused to restraint, was
not to be stopped by kingly mandates, and in the
course of half a century Iceland became quite gen
erally colonized. The great expense attending the
outfit for so long a voyage prevented all but the more
wealthy, and such as chose to follow in their train,
from attempting to escape the imperious sway of
Harald. Thus Iceland was settled by a body of rich
independent chiefs, each the peer of the others, and
each establishing himself in such portion of unoccu
pied territory as best pleased him. Contrary to the
general rule, these emigrants were of the best blood
of Norway, and were as a whole superior to those

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 17
who remained in the mother country, a circumstance
to be distinctly kept in mind, if we would under
stand the subsequent political, social, and intellectual
history of the island. A republic at once patriarchal
and aristocratic was established, but the dissensions
naturally arising where there were so many of equal
pretensions to rule soon compelled the infant State
to elect one of supreme authority in dispensing law.
One having been chosen, he was sent to Norway,
where for three years he studied the laws and cus
toms of the parent country. On his return he was
elected presiding officer of the great annual assembly
of the people, called the Thing, under the title of
the Promulgator of Laws, and it was part of his
duty to recite annually from memory the entire
legal code. In a State so constituted disputed
points were mainly settled by precedent, and for
nearly two centuries the art of memory was the
chief reliance in enacting administering and trans
mitting laws.
In the amusements of the people of Iceland that
art played an important part. The little that was
transpiring within their own narrow borders offered

18 HISTORICAL TRACT.
but a meagre field for intellectual exercise, and com
munication with the great world they had left being
difficult and dangerous, they had little knowledge of,
or interest in, its constantly changing scenes. In
their peaceful pursuits of agriculture and fishing,
they found more opportunity than reason for mental
activity, and the monotonous life of their island
home stood in marked contrast with the stirring
events of which the fathers of the colony could tell.
Thus amid this isolation their thoughts naturally
reverted to the events of the past, and almost inevit
ably there sprung up a fondness for hearing of its
glories. At the various gatherings of the people,
and on the long winter evenings in the family circle,
it soon came to be the chief amusement to listen to
the story of the exploits of their ancestors, which
some one of their number was deputed to pronounce.
So thoroughly did a love for this species of enter
tainment become ingrained in the life of this people,
that modern civilization with its printing press has
failed to eradicate it. In 1809 William Jackson
Herker, Fellow of the Wernerian Society of Edin
burgh, travelled through Iceland, and in 1811

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 19
printed for private circulation a Journal of his tour.
In that volume appears this paragraph: "With
regard to the amusements of the Icelanders they are
not of a kind to dispel the gloomy habit which con
tinually hangs about them, and indeed they are
almost entirely confined to the reading or repeating
to one another their ancient Sagas." So Henderson
in the account of his travels in Iceland tells us, that
" no sooner does the day close, than the whole patri
archal family, domestics and all, are seated on their
couches in the principal apartment, from the ceiling
of which the reading and working lamp is suspended,
and one of the family reads some favorite Sagas ;"
and that, "from the scarcity of printed books, in
some families the Sagas are recited by those who
have committed them to memory, and there are still
instances of itinerant orators who gain a livelihood
during the winter by going from house to house and
repeating the stories they have learned."
Thus naturally did the Icelanders become imbued
with a love of history, and there being no means of
gratifying this taste except through the recitations of
others, we see how inevitably did there spring into

20 HISTORICAL TRACT.
existence that celebrated race of Icelandic Skalds
and Sagamen, the most favored associates of Scandi
navian Kings, through whose unerring memories the
traditions of the past and the story of the present
were transmitted from generation to generation with
wonderful accuracy. We, who are accustomed to
the methods of modern civilization, can hardly
appreciate the power of oral tradition in transmitting
through a succession of ages accurate accounts of
important events. But when we consider the origin,
character and surroundings of the Icelanders, and
that they had this established order of men whose
sole business it was to observe, remember, and
relate, and who thus brought their mnemonic powers
to the highest possible state of perfection, it is not
too much to expect that in the local traditions of this
people we have genuine historical truths.
With the introduction of Christianity into Iceland
in the year 1000, came a knowledge of the Roman
alphabet and of the art of writing, As was natural,
among a people with the tastes of the Icelanders,
almost the first use made of the new art was to
record the songs and stories of the Skald and Saga-

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 21
man, and within two centuries Iceland had an histori
cal literature which, in the words of another, " even
now imparts a lustre to that barren land." It was
within this period, that is from the middle of the
eleventh to the middle of the thirteenth century,
that the Sagas on which we rely in this investigation
emerged from their traditionary state in the memory
of the Sagamen, into that of written history as we
find them recorded in manuscripts which have come
down to our own age ; a period long anterior to the
time when the discoveries of Columbus startled all
Europe, and when no conceivable motive could have
existed for inventing accounts of fictitious voyages.
Nor could bare fictions have gained credence among
a people and during an age which produced the
Landnamabok, the Islendingabok, and the Heims-
kringla. With these few observations on the nature and the
genera] trustworthiness of the Sagas, we pass to the
third point, namely, the extent of the evidence in
support of the claim of the Northmen to be consid
ered the discoverers of America, with such incidental
observations as to its authenticity as the examination
may suggest.

22 HISTORICAL TRACT.
It is neither possible nor desirable to give all the
accounts which have come to us relating to these
Vinland voyages. Two Sagas stand in especial
prominence, those of Leif the son of Eric, and of
Thorfinn Karlsefne. These two are much the most
interesting in many respects, aside from their greater
fullness of detail. Leif, though not the discoverer,
was the first to land on these shores and attempt a
settlement, while Thorfinn, though later, led a larger
and more important expedition, remained longer,
and is moreover a well known historical personage
of illustrious descent, whose family in our own time
is represented in the persons "of Finn Magnusson
the Icelandic scholar, and Thorwaldsen the sculptor.
Another consideration which gives especial import
ance to the Saga of Thorfinn is that it was written
in Iceland, while those of the sons of Eric originated
in Greenland, thus giving us independent accounts
of certain events, agreeing in all main particulars,
but with certain discrepancies in minor details which
would not have appeared in fabricated accounts, but
which have a most simple and natural explanation in
their different origin. In the Royal Library of

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 23
Copenhagen is preserved the Codex Flatoiensis, a
vellum manuscript executed between the years 1387
and 1395. On its first page is a table of contents
from which we learn that it contains, "first, songs;
then how Norway was inhabited or settled ; then of
Eric Vidforla ; thereafter of Olaf Tryggvesson and
all his deeds ; then next the Saga of King Olaf the
saint and all his deeds, and therewith the Sagas of
the Orkney Earls ; then the Saga of Leverrer ; and
thereafter the Saga of Hakon the Old, with the Sagas
of King Magnus and his son ; then are the deeds of
Einar Sokkesson of Greenland, thereafter of Helge,
and Ulf the Bad ; then begin annals from the time
the world was -made, showing all to this present time
that is come." Included in the Saga of Olaf
Tryggvesson are the Sagas of Eric the Red, and his
sons Leif, Thorwald and Thorstein. From these we
learn that Eric and his father fled from Norway to
Iceland in consequence of murder. In Iceland Eric
married and had sons. Becoming involved in some
conflicts he was outlawed by the Thing in 982 and
determined to go westward in search of the land
which, a century before, had been seen by one Gunn-

24 HISTORICAL TRACT.
biorn. Fitting out a vessel he sailed for the
unknown region, which he found and called Green
land, hoping by its attractive name to induce settle
ments. After remaining three years in Greenland
he revisited Iceland, and in 985 again sailed for
Greenland, inducing a large number to follow to his
new country. Among his companions was one
Heriulf, whose son Biarne was at the time absent in
Norway. During the same summer Biarne returned
to Iceland, and hearing of his father's departure
determined to seek him in this new country called
Greenland. The account proceeds, Biarne speak
ing : " Our expedition will be thought foolish, as
none of us have ever been on the Greenland sea
before. Nevertheless they set out to sea as soon as
they were ready, and sailed for three days until they
had lost sight of the land they had left. But when
the wind failed a north wind set in with a fog, and
they knew not where they were sailing to, and this
lasted many days. At last they saw the sun, and
could distinguish the quarters of the sky ; so they
hoisted sail again and sailed a whole day aud night
when they made land." In this simple statement we

THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. 25
conclude that the Western Hemisphere makes its
first appearance in history. If the account stopped
here, it would of course be impossible to locate
these wandering mariners on the map of the world,
but the details of their subsequent movements enable
us to form a reasonable conjecture as to their posi
tion. The narrative proceeds : " They spoke
among themselves about what land this could be,
and Biarne said that in his opinion it could not be
Greenland. They sailed close up to the land and
saw that it was without mountains, covered with
wood and small hills inland. They left the land on
the larboard side and sailed two days aud nights
before they got sight of land again. This land
being flat and covered with trees, Biarne also
thought could not be Greenland." Refusing to go
on shore, Biarne ordered the sails to be hoisted, and
turning the ship's bow from the land, they sailed for
three days and nights with a fine breeze from the
south west. Then they saw a third land which was
high and mountainous. Coasting along this shore
they found that it was an island. Then they turned
from the land and stood out to sea with the same
3

26 HISTORICAL TRACT.
breeze. But the gale increased and Biarne ordered
a reef to be taken and not to sail harder than the
ship and her tackle could bear. After sailing four
days, for the fourth time they made land. This
shore seeming to answer the descriptions of Green
land, they came to anchor and found themselves
among their friends." Now whoever will trace the
course of Biarne ou the map, bearing in mind that
he sailed from the southern part of Iceland in a
westerly direction, that after losing sight of land a
northerly breeze sprung up, before which, still
struggling westward he ran many days, until he
saw a coast without mountains covered with woods,
that turning the ship about and keeping the land on
his left, or in other words laying his course to the
northeast, and sailing two days and nights until he
saw another land, flat and covered with trees, again
turning the ship's bow out to sea and sailing three
days and nights with a fine southwest breeze when
he saw a third shore along which he coasted until it
proved to be an island, turning again to the open
sea with a wind from the same quarter but of
increased violence, before which he ran four days

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 27
until he reached Greenland, can hardly resist the
conclusion that the first land seen was some point on
the coast of New England, the second, Nova Scotia,
and the third the island of Newfoundland. The
description of the countries seen, their distances
and directions from each other, correspond very
accurately with the real conditions and situations of
those localities, and cannot well be referred to any
other headlands on our coast, unless we are greatly
deceived in the distance accomplished in a day's sail,
which we have the best reasons for believing to be,
with a fair wind, not far from one hundred miles.
This account of Biarne however has its chief inter
est and importance in the expeditions to which it
gave rise. Without the testimony of subsequent
explorers, its statements would have attracted little
attention and Columbus would have been left alone
in his glory. And in turn without this account of
Biarne's voyage, we should have much less confi
dence in the supposed identification of the points at
which Leif, Thorwald and Thorfinn made their land
ings. The reports of Biarne and his companions of
the unknown lands they had seen excited much com-

28 HISTORICAL TRACT.
ment, but for nearly fifteen years no attempt was
made to revisit them. About the year 1000, how
ever, Leif, the eldest son of Eric, determined upon
a voyage of exploration, and having bought the
vessel of Biarne, with a company of thirty-five men
among whom were undoubtedly some who had been
engaged in the earlier expedition, sailed in the direc
tion in which the mysterious lands had been seen.
The account of this voyage, which we condense as
much as possible, proceeds as follows : " They sailed
out into the sea when they were ready and found
that land first which Biarne had found last. On
landing they found a country destitute of attractions,
and calling it Helluland, or the land of flat stones,
they returned to their ship and sailed out to sea and
saw another land. Going on shore they found this
territory flat, well wooded, with white sands far
around where they went, and a low shore. Then
said Leif, this land shall be named for its qualities,
and it shall be called Markland or Woodland. Then
they returned to the ship and sailed into the open
sea with a northeast wind and were two days at sea
before they saw land, and they sailed thither and

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 29
came to an island which lay to the eastward of the
mainland. Returning from the island to their ship
they sailed into a channel between the island and a
promontory which ran out to the eastward from the
mainland. Holding on their course they saw much
ground laid dry at ebb tide, and at last went on
shore at a place where " a river, which came from a
lake, fell into the sea. They brought the ship
through the river into the lake and anchored. Here
they resolved to remain for the winter and built
booths." That Leif and his companions were now in Mount
Hope Bay we have fair grounds for believing, if we
may receive the statement of the Saga that the first
land seen by Leif was that which was last seen by
Biarne, and which we found good reason to suppose
was Newfoundland. If this be true, the Markland
of Leif was Nova Scotia. Thence two days' sail
brings him to Cape Cod, by which he sails to the
island of Nantucket, thence through Nantucket Bay,
over the shoals, through Vineyard Sound, across the
mouth of Buzzard's Bay to the mouth of Pocasset
River, up which they work the vessel into Mount

30 HISTORICAL TRACT.
Hope Bay. * * * Plenty of fish were found in
the river and lake, and the nature ofthe country was
so good that cattle would not require house feeding,
for there came no frost, and little did grass wither ;
facts which none but a native of Greenland would
be likely to predicate of a Rhode Island winter.
The narrative continues : " Day and night were
more equal than in Greenland or Iceland, for on the
shortest day the sun was above the horizon between
the Eyktarstad and Dagmalastad." The true mean
ing of this expression is somewhat doubtful, but
Prof. Rafn and Finn Magnussen, than whom none
are better qualified to judge, interpret it as saying
that the sun rose at 7 J a. m. , and set at 4j p. m. , and
consequently the latitude of the spot at which the
observation was made is nearly that of Mount Hope
Bay. But though these Sagas are undoubtedly sub
stantially true, it may not be safe to accept their
statements as the basis of an accurate astronomical
calculation. Leif divided his command into two companies, to
be in turn employed in exploring the surrounding
country. One day the exploring party returned

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 31
without one of their number named Tyrker. He
was soon found, but he appeared uuder some strange
influence, as he was talking German, rolling his eyes
and twisting his mouth. The cause of his excite
ment was soon found to be that he had found vines
and grapes, and was overcome with joy at the sight
of a fruit which so strongly reminded him of the
land of his birth in southern Europe. This discov
ery gave to this fair region the name Vinland. In
the spring of 1002 Leif with all his company
returned to Greenland, where in the following
winter, the Saga informs us, his father Eric died,
leaving Leif at the head of the family.
Following the account of Leif's voyage is an
account of an expedition commanded by Thorvald, a
younger brother of Leif, from which we extract a
few incidents for the sake of their connection with
the more important subsequent expedition of Thor
finn. Thorvald thinking that Vinland had been too little
explored borrowed Leif's ship and with thirty men
sailed for that country. Nothing is told of their
voyage until they arrived at Leif's booths where

32 HISTORICAL TRACT.
they passed the winter of 1002-3. The following
spring and summer were spent in exploring, retiring
in the autumn to the booths where they lived during
the winter of 1003—4. The next summer, the narra
tive says : " Then went Thorvald eastward with the
ship and round the land to the northward. Here
came a heavy storm upon them when off a ness, so
that they were driven on shore, where they remained
a long time and repaired their ship. Then said
Thorvald, now will I, that we fix up the keel here
upon the ness and call it Kialarness, and so did
they." Supposing them to have started from Mount
Hope Bay, their eastward and northward course
would bring them on Cape Cod, which is believed to
be the ness or promontory on which Thorvald
repaired his vessel. Leaving this spot Thorvald
coasted round to the eastern shores where in a con
flict with natives called by the Northmen, Skrellin-
gers, he lost his life, an arrow having penetrated
under his arm. His companions returned to their
comrades and in the spring of 1005 the entire com
pany returned to Greenland. An account of an
unsuccessful attempt of Thorstein, a third son of

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 33
Eric, to reach Vinland and bring away the body of
his brother, closes the record of the sons of Eric.
We come now to the story of Thorfinn Karlsefne,
the most interesting and important of the Sagas
relating to Vinland, but of whose voyages we can
here give onty the briefest account. The manu
script from which this Saga is taken is believed with
good reason to be a genuine autograph of Hank
Erlendson, chief governor of Iceland in 1295, one
of the compilers of the Landnama Bok, and ninth in
descent from Karlsefne himself. It was found in
the early part of the seventeenth century by Prof.
Arnas Magnussen, a learned and patriotic Icelander,
who devoted his labors and fortune to the accumu
lation of manuscripts illustrative of the early his
tory of his country. It is especially important to
our inquiry, in that having been written in Iceland
it is an independent witness in the matter of these
Vinland voyages, and in that in speaking of some
persons to whom we have before been introduced,
it makes some mistakes which, when we remem
ber its origin, really become strong proofs of its
authenticity.

34 HISTORICAL TRACT.
This Saga, after giving the genealogy of Thorfinn,
states that one summer he proposed a voyage to
Greenland and sailed with two ships and eighty men.
"Nothing is told about how long they were at sea,
but it is to be related that both these ship., came to
Eriksfiord in the autumn. Erik rode to the ship
together with several of the inhabitants and " they
began to deal in a friendly manner." We have in
this opening sentence an error which would not
have occurred in a fabricated account, or in any
Greenland manuscript. Eric died nearly four years
before the arrival of Thorfinn, a circumstance of
which the Icelandic narrator was ignorant, who sup
posed him to be still the head' of his family, the
chief man of Greenland, and the first to extend hos
pitality to the stranger. Throughout the Saga we
must substitute Leif for Eric. The winter was
spent in the interchange of courtesies, during which
season Thorfinn became enamored of, and was
wedded to Gudrid, the widow of Thorstein. In the
spring, excited by the glowing accounts of the
climate and products ot Vinland the good, and
probably prompted by his wife, who had accompanied

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 35
Thorstein in his unsuccessful attempt to recover his
brother's body, Thorfinn determined on a voyage
thither. An expedition was fitted out, comprising
three ships and one hundred and sixty men. The
Saga says that in one of the ships went Thorvald,
the son of Eric, another error, since we know that
Thorvald Ericson lost his life some years previous in
a conflict with the natives of Vinland. In another
brief account of . Thorfinn's voyage, prepared in
Greenland, we are told that he was accompanied by
one Thorvald, who was the husband of a natural
daughter of Eric, thus giving a ready explanation of
this confusion of names. Furthermore, later in the
Saga of Thorfinn it is related that Thorvald Ericson
was killed in Vinland by an arrow shot into his
bowels by a uuiped, thus agreeing with the former
accounts in the main fact that there was a Thorvald
killed in Vinland, and by an arrow.
" They sailed south two days, then saw they land,
and put off boats and explored the land, and
found there great flat stones. They gave the land a
name and called it Helluland. Then sailed they and
turned from the south to the southeast, and found a

36 HISTORICAL TRACT.
land covered with wood and many wild beasts upon
it ; an island lay there out from the land to the
southeast ; there killed they a bear and called the
place afterward Bear Island, but the land Markland."
It will be seen that the Icelandic writer was not
aware that these places had been visited by Leif
who had given them these names of Helluland and
Markland, but supposed them to be so first desig
nated by Thorfinn and his associates. Pursuing
their voyage far to the southward, they came to a
ness, the land lay upon the right, there were long
sandy strands. They rowed to land and found there
upon the ness the keel of a ship, and called the place
Kialarness," thus reaching the spot where four years
before Thorvald Ericson had repaired his ship and
set up a keel and gave to it the name Kialarness, of
all of which the writer of the Saga of Thorfinn was
ignorant. The conjecture that this place was Cape
Cod is strongly confirmed by the details of Thorfinn's
subsequent movements and the description of its
long sandy shores. Any further particular account
of the expedition of Thorfinn and of his doings we
are obliged to omit. The voyage was pursued

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 37
along coasts, by islands and . headlands, through
currents which correspond very perfectly with the
true location and condition of Cape Cod, Nantucket,
Martha's Vineyard, Vineyard Sound, Buzzard's Bay,
Seaconnet Passage, Pocasset River, and Mount Hope
Bay. Thorfinn and his companions remained some
three years in the neighborhood, occupied in hunt
ing, exploring and fishing, sometimes trading and
sometimes fighting with the native Skrellingers,
with great variety of incident and experience. At
the end of that time they returned to Greenland,
laden with the products of the country and with
furs which they had obtained in trade with the
natives. In the accounts of expeditions subsequent to the
time of Thorfinn, we find little that increases our
knowledge of the subject, and enough has been told
to enable us to form an opinion as to the reported
discovery by the Northmen of portions of the New
World. One can hardly read these ancient Sagas
without being struck with the simplicity and appar
ent truthfulness of their contents? There is no
attempt at speculation, no fondness for the marvel-
i

38 HISTORICAL TRACT.
ous appears, but a simple setting down of facts with
an air of candor which it is difficult to resist. It is
apparent that we refer only to the historical Sagas.
There is another class composed solely to gratify the
Icelandic love of story telling and story hearing, in
which the imagination is the only authority consulted,
and the most marvellous tales are related ; and still
another, in which gods and heroes are the actors,
which paints the delights and glories of Valhalla,
recounts the fights and describes the feasts of Odin
and his warriors, and lays all Scandinavian mythol
ogy under contribution for incident. These, though
a natural outgrowth of Icelandic tastes, tempera
ment and occupations, were composed for a distinct
purpose, and make no claim to place as authentic
history. In the examination of these Vinland Sagas,
quite too much ingenuity has been expended in dis
cussing trivial incidents of not the slightest import
ance to the general narrative. Whether the strange
demeanor of Tyrker when met by the searching
party was really due to intoxication, or why a
whole band of* hostile Skrellingers should flee in
terror when faced by a single woman of Thorfinn's

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 39
company, are questions which it is not especially
important for the present generation to have settled.
The whole case is weakened also by an attempt to
link the visit of the Northmen with Dighton Rocks
and Old Stone Mills. If such supports were neces
sary, the whole inquiry might well be abandoned.
The allusion to this newly discovered land called
Vinland in the writings of Adam of Bremen and
others affects the case neither way. The existence
of the traditions is a palpable fact and we are only
concerned with the truthfulness of the facts they
relate. Claiming at the outset that there is nothing
improbable in the Saga narratives of these voyages
of discovery, we have stated some of the considera
tions to be taken into account in forming an opinion
on their authenticity. From their nature, from the
peculiar circumstances affecting the channels through
which they reach us, from their internal evidence of
truthfulness in their structure and relations to each
other, we cannot avoid the conclusion that they are,
in the main, an authentic account of actual events.
That the localities visited by the Northmen are
accurately identified can not be so absolutely asserted.

40 HISTORICAL TRACT.
But thus much we think it safe to say, that no reason
has ever been suggested why Newfoundland, Nova
Scotia, and the coasts of New England may not be the
identical spots explored, that these places do fully
answer the conditions required by the Saga narra
tives, and that great difficulties of interpretation at
once face us if we attempt to locate the Northman
elsewhere on American shores. We are conscious
that to all conclusions reached in reasoning on these
Sagas, there may be raised the fundamental objec
tion that the premises are inherently weak, and that
little reliance can be placed on statements of time,
distance, direction and the like, which perhaps for
a century existed only in tradition. Under ordinary
circumstances this defect might be fatal, but for rea
sons which we have stated we believe that this objec
tion has not all the weight to which at first sight it
seems entitled, though it is always to be borne in
mind, and no judicious investigator of this subject
will indulge in anything like dogmatic statements.
It is well to remember too that modern researches in
Greenland have vindicated the accuracy of the Sagas
on many points on which their testimony had previ
ously been doubted.

THE NORTHMEN IN RHODE ISLAND. 41
Eliminating from these curious narratives all to
which the skeptical inquirer can reasonably object,
enough remains to entitle the Northman to our most
honorable remembrance. Braving the dangers of an
unknown sea, without chart or compass, in the
beginning of the eleventh century, he made repeated
visits to these coasts, which we must believe he was
the first to discover, where a nation of kindred
descent has since wrought so glorious a chapter in
the history of mankind.

RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL TRACTS.

It is the hope of the publisher to issue a series of papers of
historic interest relating to Rhode Island or emanating there
from in a style uniform with the present, and the preceding
number. The price of each tract will depend upon its size and
the number of illustrations contained in it.
PART l. Diman's Address at Centenary of Capture of Prescott,
with the Ballads relating to the Affair. Illustra-
tions and a Map. Price, $1.00.
PART 2. Visits of the Northmen to Rhode Island, by Alexander
Farnum, ESQ. Price, 40 cents.
PART 3. Journal of Lieut. Hadden, of Burgoyne's Army. In press.

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