used as material for the fabrication of pitchers, cups, knife-handles, and precious furniture.1 In the year 1016 he settled at Glaumboe in the North of Iceland, and lived honored and wealthy the rest of his life. At his death Gudrida took charge of his estates, but after the marriage of Snorre, her son, she made a pilgrimage to Rome, where the account of her voyages attracted great attention, and, not unlikely, caused or confirmed the suppositions of the medieval Italian cosmographers as to the proximity of Asia's eastern coast to the shores of northern Europe. Returning to Iceland, the noble widow joined a society of religious women, and ended her days as a solitary nun near the church of Glaumboe, or in a convent close to that place.❜ Thorfinn Karlsefne and Gudrida left a numerous and eminent posterity. Among their descendants figure two bishops of Holar-Björn Gillsson and Brand Saemundarson-and the learned bishop of Skalholt, Thorlak Runolfson, the author of the oldest ecclesiastical code of laws in Iceland.3 The celebrated historian Snorre Sturluson was proud to reckon them among his ancestors, and, according to Rafn, Magnus Stephenson, the late supreme judge of Iceland, was the last of their descendants in a direct line.* Freydisa and her husband, Thorvard, had safely accompanied Thorfinn Karlsefne on their homewardbound voyage from Vinland. It happened that the very year of their return to 1 Beauvois and Rafn translate "mausur" by broom or broomhandle; but Snorre Sturluson Heimskringla, Kap. cvii. S. 311, n. d, says, "Masur-tre' veteres dixere aceris quandam speciem, sive betulæ nodosæ, quæ magni apud eos pretii habebatur, cantharis, poculis, cultrorum manubriis aliisque rebus fabricandis apta." (Gravier, p. 54, n. 4.) 2 Supra, pp. 134, 135. 3 Supra, pp. 136, 138. 4 Gravier, p. 107; Moosmüller, S. 103; Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 76. . Greenland there landed in Eiriksfjord an Icelandic ship commanded by the two brothers, Helge and Finnboge. Neither the warlike nor the moral difficulties of the American expedition had left deep impressions upon Eric the Red's illegitimate daughter; she boasted of her facile victory over the Skraelings, and was anxious to double the great profits which she had made. Her worthless husband stood at her bidding ready to embark again, but she needed stronger men to assist her. She, therefore, prevailed upon the strangers, Helge and Finnboge, to join their ship to hers, on the condition of equally dividing all the emoluments of the undertaking. It was further agreed that each vessel should carry thirty men able to bear arms, besides some women. After this she went to Leif, her brother, asking him for his booths or buildings in Vinland. Whatever his intentions may have been, perhaps of selling them to other colonists, Leif refused her the ownership, but allowed her the use of them. All the preparations for the new colonial expedition were made during the winter, and all was in readiness in the spring of 1012. Freydisa, however, who anticipated strife, to be superior in strength, hid in her vessel five more men than she was allowed by the contract. The two brothers were the first to land at Leifsbudhir, and were taking their baggage to the buildings when Freydisa arrived. After producing her thirtyfive men, she haughtily asked the Icelanders why they pretended to make use of these buildings? "Because," Helge said, "we think that so it is agreed between us." "Not at all," the woman replied; "to me, but not to you, did Leif allow the use of them." "Thou shalt easily overcome us in shrewdness," Helge rejoined. And the two brothers removed their packages and erected new cabins at a small distance. Freydisa ordered her men to fell timber and load the ship. When winter came, Helge and Finnboge organized games to while away the time, but disputes soon arose between the two crews and the amusements came to an end. The rest of the season was tedious. "How Early one morning Freydisa left her bed and, covered with her husband's mantle, went barefooted to the residence of the two brothers. Finding the door left half open by one of their men who was gone out, she entered and stood silent for a few moments. But Finnboge recognized her and said, "What dost thou want, Freydisa?" "I want to have a talk with thee," she answered; "get up and come with me." Finnboge followed her and sat down on a log beside her. dost thou like this country," she asked. "I like its fertility," he replied, "but I dislike the estrangement that has come between us, without any reason, it seems." "Thou art right, so at least I think," she rejoined. "But I have requested this interview because I wish to exchange ships with thee, thine being larger than mine." "We shall willingly let thee have our ship if such be thy pleasure," he said. Thereupon they parted. Finnboge went to bed again, and Freydisa returned home and to her bed, also. But the contact of her cold, wet feet awoke Thorvard, who asked for explanations. "I went," Freydisa exclaimed, with feigned indignation, "to the brothers to buy their ship, because it is larger than mine. And behold, they became enraged, beat me, and used violence. But thou, caitiff, thou canst not revenge me, although my insult be thine also. If thou dost not punish them, I shall at our return in Greenland separate from thee!" Thorvard ought not to have wondered at his wife's imposture, but he believed her upon her word; or, if he entertained any suspicion, he had not the courage to resist her evil suggestions. He called upon his crew, long since embittered by Freydisa against the Icelanders, stated the injuries done their mistress, and went with them to the house of the brothers. Helge, Finnboge, and their men, still asleep, were in a moment tied up and dragged before Freydisa. She ordered their massacre on the spot. The five women of the Icelanders were still alive. Freydisa's men refused to kill them; but she called for an axe, and the last victims sank down under her pitiless blows. Thorvard's men soon felt that they had acted as cowardly savages; they stood horror-stricken and ashamed of themselves. Freydisa alone was wild with joy; but the countenances of her countrymen forboded nothing good; a sudden fear of indiscretion and of her consequent ruin in Greenland disturbed her soul; and then, more frantic and haughty than ever, she erected herself before them, exclaiming, "If we may reach Greenland again, and one of you should tell what happened here, I shall cut him down, as I did these women! We all shall say that we left them here." Then she loaded the ship of the dead brothers and sailed back to Greenland, where she arrived late in the spring of 1013, when Thorfinn Karlsefne was just on the point of setting sail for Norway. Here her fears increased, and she distributed among the crew the greater part of her profits to buy their silence. Yet rumors at first, and afterwards a full account, of the horrible drama went forth among the people. When Leif Ericsson heard it, "I cannot," he said, "punish my own sister, as she deserves, but I foresee that her posterity will be unlucky." 1 Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 65, seq., and Mémoire, p. 14; Moosmüller, S. 100, seq.; Gravier, p. 109, ref. to 1 Snorre Sturluson's Heimskringla, Thorvard and his avaricious, inhuman wife finished their days crushed by each other's contempt and the abhorrence of their countrymen. A reader of the Icelandic sagas may feel inclined to think that the crime of Freydisa and her lasting disgrace extinguished in the heart of her contemporaries all desire of glory and riches to be gained on the American continent; for no further expedition to our coast is spoken of until we reach the third decade of the following century. When, however, we hear Adam of Bremen relate that Vinland had been found "a multis," by a great number of sailors, and state that he had before A.D. 1072-received his knowledge of Vinland and of its grape-vines and wheat from a king of Denmark who, himself, had been informed by reliable reports of his subjects,1 "relatione Danorum," we have sufficient reasons to believe that our eastern shores were much frequented by the northern nations of Europe during the course of the eleventh century. 1 Supra, p. 233; Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 338. |