CHAPTER IX.

GREENLAND CONVERTED TO CHRISTIANITY.

Ir need not be remarked that the Northmen, faithfully paying St. Peter's Pence, were convinced and dutiful Christians.

1

This, however, could not be said of them during the first years of their settlements in Greenland, for the ancient sagas plainly state that the first colonists were pagans; and what we have read of the conversion of Iceland, the mother-country of nearly all the Greenlanders, strongly confirms the assertion. Yet there was at least one exception.

When Herjulf Bardharson, together with those first colonists, set sail for Greenland in the year 986,2 he had on board a man of the South Islands or Hebrides, a Christian, considered by many as a regular friar.3 While the tempest was raging which sunk or drove back more than one-half of the fleet, this pious Christian put his confidence in Almighty God and improvised a simple, beautiful hymn, called the " "Hafgerdhingar Drapu" or Song of the ocean's enclosure, which here means the dangerous breakers of the Greenland seas.* Ari Polyhistor speaks a second time of the ancient poet, and records the first lines of the hymn, the

1 Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 20. 2 Supra, p. 146.

'Landnámabók, pt. ii. ch. xiv. : "Sudhreyskr madhr Kristinn ;" Rafn. Antiq. Amer., p. 18; Beauvois, Origines, p. 8; Gaffarel, Histoire, t. i. p. 305; Moosmüller, S. II.-12

27; Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. iv. p. 17.

Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 18; Beauvois, Origines, p. 8, n. 1; Moosmüller, S. 170; Reeves, p.

62.

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last verse of which he had given before.1 Rafn copies both beginning and end:"

I pray the searcher of the pure monks

To assist me on my voyage.

*

He that sustains the vault of the world's expanse,
May He keep His hand over me!" 4

But for his poetry, the Christian of the Hebrides would not have been noticed by Ari Polyhistor; and it is not unlikely that a few more of the same faith may have accompanied the expedition, although, less talented and important, they are not spoken of in the sagas.

The next Christian in Greenland of whom mention is made was Thorbjörn Vivilson. His father, as already remarked, had been imported into Iceland as a thrall, but afterwards set free by Aeda, the princely Norwegian widow, and by her made the owner of the beautiful estate of Vivilsdale. Thorbjörn and his brother Thorgeir had married two sisters, daughters of Einar of Laugabrekka, probably Christians also, and of a prominent Scandinavian family. By his wife, Hallveiga, he had a daughter named Gudrida, a maiden of wonderful beauty, whom he imprudently allowed to be raised in the pagan family of the wealthy Orm and of his wife Halldise. Thorbjörn had long been a friend of Eric the Red, and when, through high life, he had lost

1 Landnámabók, pt. v. ch. xiv., and pt. ii. ch. xiv. ; cf. Heimskringla from Edda 49, in the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, ch. civ., also Flateyarbók, juxta Moosmüller, S. 28, and Reeves, p. 62.

2 Antiq. Amer., pp. 19, 188. 'See Document XLIV.

Cf. Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 19; Moosmüller, S. 170; Beamish, Discovery, p. 50; Amer. Cath. Quar. Rev., vol. xiv. p. 605. 5 Supra, p. 125.

"Herbermann, Torfason's Ancient Vinland, ch. ix. p. 43.

the greater part of his fortune, he followed him with all his family to Greenland in the year 999, where he accepted the hospitality of Thorkell, the richest man of Herjulfsnes.

а

When Thorbjörn landed there was dearth in the island; fish was unusually scarce. Thorkell, believing in the superstitions of Odinism, called to his house a soothsayer, Thorbiorga by name, and inquired from her how long the distress was still to last. The sorceress requested the women present to sing the song of spirit evocations, but none of them came forward. She asked, therefore, whether no one knew it. "I am neither magician nor enchantress," said Gudrida, Thorbjörn's daughter, "but my guardian, Halldise, has taught me in Iceland a lay which she called vardhlokkur," spirits evocation. "You are lucky," Thorkell said. "But that song is of such a nature," Gudrida replied, that I cannot sing it now, for I am a Christian woman." "And yet you might do a service to the company, and be no worse off after than before," the soothsayer rejoined. And Thorkell, Thorbjörn's host, insisted so strongly that finally the girl gave in and sang. As a matter of course, the spirits flocked by, and Thorbiorga foretold coming plenty for all and good fortune for each one. As might be expected, Thorbjörn had been more dutiful than his daughter: he had left the house before the superstitious rites had commenced, and returned only when they were over.1 Soon after he took his family to Brattalidha.

These few Christians exerted, no doubt, some little influence upon the religious convictions of their fellow

1 Herbermann, Torfason's Ancient Vinland, ch. xi. p. 46; Saga of Eric the Red, ap. Reeves, pp. 25, 34; Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefne,

ch. iii., ap. Rafn, Antiq .Amer., pp. 104-113, and Beauvois, Origines, p. 122, seq.

colonists, but it was a rather unexpected event which gave the effectual impulse to Greenland's conversion.

Olaf I. or Tryggvason had been expelled from Norway and had taken refuge in England, where he embraced Christianity, and was baptized in a monastery of the Scilly Islands, according to the saga of his name ; or at the hands of the bishop of Winchester, with King Ethelred as sponsor, in the city of London, if we are to believe English historians. In the year 995 he returned to his country as king and as apostle, and his foremost concern was the introduction of Christianity into Norway and its propagation among all the peoples of Norwegian descent. A saga written by Odd Snorason, a monk of Thingeyren, praises him for having Christianized five different countries,-Norway, the Orkneys with the Shetlands, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland.2 It is exaggeration to say that Olaf Tryggvason effected the conversion of Greenland, but it is true that Leif, son of Eric the Red, was influenced by him not only to introduce into his adoptive country a priest and several clerics, but also to exert all his power and eloquence towards bringing about this important event.

The Kristni saga or History of the introduction of Christianity into Iceland gives us the following brief information: "That summer,"-namely, of the year 1000,

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King Olaf went from the country southward to Vindland. Then he sent Leif Ericsson to Greenland to proclaim the faith there. Leif discovered then Vinland the Good; he also found men on a shipwreck in the sea; therefore was he called Leif the Fortunate.'

1 Depping, t. ii. p. 178. Some authors pretend that he was converted in Russia, others that he was baptized at Rouen, in France.

993

2 Pertz, t. vii. cap. lxxvii. p. 319; Beauvois, Origines, p. 12, n. 3; Chevalier, art. Olaf I.

See Document XLV.

The "Heimskringla" and the "Flateyarbók" give a more minute account of the first Christian missions in Greenland. When fifteen winters had passed after Eric the Red had first gone to live in Greenland, his son Leif left for Norway, where, in the autumn, he landed at Drontheim, shortly after King Olaf Tryggvason had returned. Upon the invitation of the monarch, Leif and his companions went at once to visit him. Olaf was not slow in inviting the sailors to renounce idolatry and profess the new religion; and, after duly considering all the arguments, actuated by God's grace and convinced of the truth of Christianity, Leif readily consented, and was solemnly baptised with all his men towards the end of the year 999. He passed that winter, a favorite guest, at the royal court, where he was more fully instructed in the tenets and practices of holy religion.1

In the spring of the year 1000, in which he fell," King Olaf sent the priests Gissur and Hjalti to further the conversion of Iceland, and at the same time induced Leif Ericsson to accept a similar charge for Greenland. Hearing that his guest intended to set sail for home, "I think," quoth he, "that it would be well if you should sail thither for the purpose of propagating Christianity." "You have but to command,' Leif replied, "but I think that it will be difficult to make a success of it in my country." "I know of no man better qualified for the undertaking," the king continued, "and you will succeed." "If I do," Leif rejoined, "it shall be through your assistance." And he accepted the mission."

1

4

Supra, p. 127.

3 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xvii. p. 127; Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 15; Reeves, p. 61.

2

Saga of Thorfinn, ¶ 4, ap. Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 117, and Beau

Reeves, p. 160, n. 5; Chevalier, vois, Origines, p. 13.

ad verbum Olaf I.