could not be kept long. A peaceful religious ceremony soon became the occasion of hostile demonstrations and bloodshed. A church was to be consecrated at the country seat of Langanes on Einarsfjord, at a short distance from Gardar. A great number of Greenlanders had gathered to witness the solemn rite. Özsur, well armed, had also come to Langanes with his Norwegians, and we may conjecture that their attitude was far from being placid, from the fact that a common friend of both parties, Brand Thordarson, went to Özsur and besought him to yield to the prelate, adding that, if he did, the issue would be favorable; but, as matters stood, danger might be apprehended. Yet Özsur refused. Bishop Arnold sang the Mass himself, and, when the whole ceremony was over, walked with Einar and other friends to the house to partake of a banquet. When they came to the door of the hall, Einar turned suddenly back from the crowd, and, returning alone to the church-yard, he took an axe from the hand of a man who had assisted at Mass, and proceeded to the south side of the church, where Brand Thordarson stood with Özsur, who was leaning upon his axe. Einar struck the latter a fatal blow, and went as suddenly back to the house where the feast was ready. He went to the table and took a seat opposite the bishop, but spoke not a word. Then came in Brand Thordarson, who went up to the prelate and said, "Hast thou heard aught new, my lord?" The bishop replied, "I have heard nothing, but hast thou ?" "There is one that has fallen outside and needs thy blessing," quoth Brand. "Who has done this?" the bishop exclaimed, "and to whom?" Brand answered, that they were near him who could tell all. "Hast thou, Einar, caused the death of Özsur?" demanded Arnold. He answered, "Truly, I did so." The bishop

observed, says the saga, "Such deeds are, indeed, evil, but this one may be excused." Brand then besought that the body might be washed and have a Christian burial; but the bishop said there was time enough for that. They still continued at table, and heeded little more of the matter, nor would the prelate give orders for singing over the dead body, till Einar himself begged that it might be done. Then the bishop said, "It were but just that Özsur's body should not be buried near the church; but for thy prayer, Einar, he shall be buried near this church of Langanes, for it has no priest attached to it."

Bishop Arnold is here represented in a most unfavorable light, and severe judgments have been rendered against his character and memory; but the question remains, to which party the reporter belonged. The reader has, moreover, noticed already that Özsur was unjust and defying the laws and the sentence of the whole country; and the sequel proves that he, with his men, was justly considered as dangerous to a peaceable community. Smaller reasons than these justified homicide among the uncouth and violent descendants of a hard-hearted piratical nation.

Özsur's companions, driven to flight by the sudden fall of their leader, soon rose to avenge his death. They first appealed to the supreme court for justice against Einar. When both parties were before the people's general assembly, the old Sokke, Einar's father, attempted to compromise the matter, offering a pecuniary compensation, but the proposition was responded to by the murder of Einar on the spot. A confused affray instantly ensued, in which several lives were lost on both sides. Sokke Thorerson proposed to attack the three ships of the Norwegians, but was persuaded by Hall, a discreet old farmer, to lay aside his

ers of his son.

man than the

purpose and rather enter into a treaty with the murderÖzsur's party having lost one more Greenlanders, Sokke paid a sum of money to make up the difference, on condition that the intruders should immediately weigh anchor and leave the country to return no more. Such was the umpire's award, to which both parties submitted with reluctance.

The story is told at length by Torfæus, but this brief abstract will be sufficient to illustrate the manners and government of the old Norwegians in Greenland.1

Bishop Arnold was not unfortunate enough in having such a people to govern; gratuitous remarks must still be added to the narrative of an unfriendly reporter, in order to charge his memory with the crimes of subjects and strangers. He was a missionary! 2

We know that the prelate became discouraged at the broils and bloody scenes of his adopted country, yet it is stated that he held out for twenty years altogether in Greenland, and it is reasonably presumed that the church of Langanes was not the only one which he consecrated during that time. Few particulars of his ministry have been recorded, but there is another event which took place during his reign and deserves well our attention. This was a bold exploration of Greenland's northern

tracts.

After the Scandinavian colonists had established their settlements and trading-posts on the American continent, as far south as the fortieth degree and probably farther, they steered their good ships up Davis'

1 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxvii., xxviii., xxix. p. 222; seq.; Thorleif Gudmundson Repp, in Mémoires des Antiq., 1840-44, p.

81, seq.; Amer. Cath. Quar. Rev., vol. xv. p. 252, seq.

2 Cf. Clarke, in Amer. Cath. Quar. Rev., vol. xv. p. 255.

Strait and Baffin's Bay in quest of whales, walrus, and bears, reaching seventy-two degrees and fifty-five minutes of northern latitude, past the modern post of Upernavik, and as far as Tessuisak, the northernmost house of the earth to-day.

The sagas give no account of this daring expedition, but the courageous navigators, justly proud of their achievement, took care to preserve its memory.

1

In the year 1824 a rune-stone was found on the summit of a rocky elevation of the islet "Kingiktorsoak" by a Greenlander named Pelinut. The Moravian minister Kragh gave notice of it to the learned world, and Captain Graah deposited it in the rich Museum of the Northern Antiquaries. Rask and Magnussen deciphered the inscription and read it as follows: "Erlingr Sigvatson and Bjarne Thordson and Endride Oddson, on Saturday before triumph day, have erected these bourns and cleared ground, MCXXXV." Dr. Gislius Brynjulvson, a minister of the church of Holar in Iceland, known for his Essay on Runology, gave, independently of the learned of Copenhagen, the same interpretation. In 1833 von Humboldt wrote that doubts had been expressed by runic scholars as to the signification of the characters representing the date; 3 but a few years later he stated that Brynjulvson and Graah had, from comparison with other monuments, established that the stone of Kingiktorsoak certainly belonged to the eleventh or to the twelfth century. Since that time several inscriptions have been discovered at Egegeit, Upernavik, and on the Igalikko that afford important points of comparison with that of

2

1 Gravier, pp. 151, 152; von Humboldt, Kosmos, S. 271, and Examen, t. ii. p. 97; Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 354; Mémoires des Antiq., 1845-49, p. 433; Peschel, Zeitalter,

S. 83; Gaffarel, Histoire, t. i. pp. 337, 409.

'MS. Antiquariske Annaler, Bd. iv. S. 309, ap. Moosmüller, S. 193. Examen, t. ii. p. 97.

Women's Island; and there is no doubt any longer that the Greenlanders were close to the seventy-third degree of latitude on their western coast in the year 1135.1 Triumph day, the "Gagndag" of the inscription, was celebrated on the 21st of April. According to the chronological Hand-calendar of Steinbeck 2 the 20th of April, 1135, fell, indeed, on a Saturday.3

This and similar glorious feats of navigation, not inferior to the memorable third polar expedition of John Davis in the year 1587, may, by some historians, be considered as a compensation for the lawless conduct of the Greenland colonists of the time; but they were not appreciated as such by their bishop. Arnold, who had lost his main support in the person of Einar Sokkeson, felt every day his burdens grow heavier and at last unbearable. He resigned the episcopal see of Gardar and went back to his native country, with the intention of returning to Greenland no more; in what year is uncertain. His long-suffering and other virtues were afterwards rewarded by his appointment as first bishop again of a diocese erected, it seems, for him in the kingdom of Norway.*

This transfer of Bishop Arnold is connected with important events which, although they took place in Norway, greatly affected the religious affairs of Greenland, and, in the course of time, exercised considerable influence upon its social and political condition.

We have observed already that, for a number of years, there existed some confusion and interference of jurisdiction between the Scandinavian archbishop of Lund and the German metropolitan of Hamburg-Bremen."

1 Gravier, p. 153.

2 S. 33.

'Moosmüller, S. 193.

Torfæus, Hist. Rerum Norveg.,

t. i. lib. ii. cap. vii. p. 46; Gronl. Ant., cap. xxix. p. 239; Moosmüller, S. 59.

'Supra, p. 344.