The Norse Discovery of America

by Arthur Middleton Reeves, North Ludlow Beamish, Rasmus Bjorn Anderson

Overview

Like most Scandinavian sagas the question regarding their accuracy centers on an examination of what part of the saga is based on historical fact and what part is a fanciful retelling. A thorough examination of the "Vinland Sagas" by scholars seems to support the claim that Norse explorers discovered the New World hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus. The so-called "Vinland Sagas" consist of two independently written sagas, "The Saga of Erik the Red" and "The Saga of the Greenlanders". Preserved in several 14th and 15th century manuscripts, believed to be copies of manuscripts originally penned sometime in the 13th century, the "Vinland Sagas", describe the voyages of Erik the Red and his son Leif Erikson from Norway to Greenland sometime near the end of the 10th century or beginning of the 11th century. This claim is additional supported by contemporary Papal records and the recent archeological discovery of an early 11th century Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada. "The Norse Discovery of America" includes a compilation of both these sagas and other important related documents along with extensive scholarly analysis. Students of the history of the discovery of the New World will find this work an invaluable resource on the subject. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798880918720
Publisher:	Start Classics
Publication date:	03/26/2024
Pages:	194
Sales rank:	672,215
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.45(d)

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER II. THE SAGA OP ERIC THE RED. The clearest and most complete narrative of the discovery of Wineland, preserved in the ancient Icelandic literature, is that presented in the Saga of Eric the Red. Of this narrative two complete vellum texts have survived. The eldest of these texts is contained in the Arna- Magnsean Codex, No. 544, 4to, which is commonly known as Hauk's Book [Hauksbok]. This manuscript has derived its name from its first owner, for whom the work was doubtless written, and who himself participated in the labour of its preparation. This man, to whom the manuscript traces its origin, has, happily, left, not only in the manuscript itself, but in the history of his time, a record which enables us to determine, with exceptional accuracy, many dates in his life, and from these it is possible to assign approximate dates to that portion of the vellum which contains the narrative of the discovery. This fact possesses the greater interest since of no one of those who participated in the conservation of the elder sagas, have we data so precise as those which have been preserved to us of Hauk Erlendsson, to whose care, actual and potential, this manuscript owes its existence. We know that Jorunn, the mother of this man, was the direct descendant of a famous Icelander. His paternal ancestry is not so clearly established. It has been conjectured that his father, Erlend Olafsson, surnamed theTHE SAGA OF HAUK ERLENDSSON Stout [Erlendr sterki Olafsson], was the son of a man of humble parentage, and by birth a Norwegian. This view has been discredited, however, and the fact pretty clearly established that Erlend's father, Olaf, was no other than a certain Icelander called OlafTot. Hauk's father, Erlend, was probably the "Ellindr bondi" of a letter addressed by cert...