Viking Tales by Jennie Hall (books to read now txt) π
"'There, stand so!' I said, 'and glare and hiss at my foes.'
"In the stern I curved the tail up almost as high as the head. There I put the pilot's seat and a strong tiller for the rudder. On the breast and sides I carved the dragon's scales. Then I painted it all black and on the tip of every scale I put gold. I called her 'Waverunner.' There she sat on the rollers, as fair a ship as I ever saw.
"The night that it was finished I went to my father's feast. After the meats were eaten and the mead-horns came round, I stood up from my bench and raised my drinking-horn[3] high and spoke with a great voice:
"'This is my vow: I will sail to Norway and I will harry the coast and fill my boat with riches. Then I will get me a farm and will winter in that land. Now who will follow me?'
"'He is but a boy,' the men said. 'He has opened his mouth wider than he can do.'
"But others jumped to their feet with the
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"Yonder is some man of mark," he said to himself. "He is surely worth knowing. His face is not the face of a fool. He carries his head like a lord of men."
He sent a thrall and asked Leif to come to him. So Leif walked down the long hall and stood before the king.
"I am glad to have you for a guest," the king said. "What are your name and country?"
"I am Leif Ericsson, and I have come all the way from Greenland to see you and old Norway."
"From Greenland!" said the king. "It is not often that I see a Greenlander. Many come to Norway to trade, but they seldom come to the king's hall. I shall be glad to hear about your land. Come up and speak with me."
So Leif went up the steps of the high seat and sat down by the king and talked with him. When the feast was over the king said:
"You shall live at my court this winter, Leif Ericsson. You are a welcome guest."
So Leif stayed there that winter. When he started back in the spring, the king gave him two thralls as a parting gift.
"Let this gift show my love, Leif Ericsson," he said. "For your sake I shall not forget Greenland."
Leif sailed back again and had good luck until he was past Iceland. Then great winds came out of the north and tossed his ship about so that the men could do nothing. They were blown south for days and days. They did not know where they were. Then they saw land, and Leif said:
"Surely luck has brought us also to a new country. We will go in and see what kind of a place it is."
So he steered for it. As they came near, the men said:
"See the great trees and the soft, green shore. Surely this is a better country than Greenland or than Iceland either."
When they landed they threw themselves upon the ground.
"I never lay on a bed so soft as this grass," one said.
"Taller trees do not grow in Norway," said another.
"There is no stone here as in Norway, but only good black dirt," Leif said. "I never saw so fertile a land before."
The men were hungry and set about building a fire.
"There is no lack of fuel here," they said.
They stayed many days in this country and walked about to see what was there. A German, named Tyrker, was with Leif. He was a little man with a high forehead and a short nose. His eyes were big and rolling. He had lived with Eric for many years, and had taken care of Leif when he was a little boy. So Leif loved him.
Now one day they had been wandering about and all came back to camp at night except Tyrker. When Leif looked around on his comrades, he said:
"Where is Tyrker?"
No one knew. Then Leif was angry.
"Is a man of so little value in this empty land that you would lose one?" he said. "Why did you not keep together? Did you not see that he was gone? Why did you not set out to look for him? Who knows what terrible thing may have happened to him in these great forests?"
Then he turned and started out to hunt for him. His men followed, silent and ashamed. They had not gone far when they saw Tyrker running toward them. He was laughing and talking to himself. Leif ran to him and put his arms about him with gladness at seeing him.
"Why are you so late?" he asked. "Where have you been?"
But Tyrker, still smiling and nodding his head, answered in German. He pointed to the woods and laughed and rolled his eyes. Again Leif asked his question and put his hand on Tyrker's shoulder as though he would shake him. Then Tyrker answered in the language of Iceland:
"I have not been so very far, but I have found something wonderful."
"What is it?" cried the men.
"I have found grapes growing wild," answered Tyrker, and he laughed, and his eyes shone.
"It cannot be," Leif said.
Grapes do not grow in Greenland nor in Iceland nor even in Norway. So it seemed a wonderful thing to these Norsemen.
"Can I not tell grapes when I see them?" cried Tyrker. "Did I not grow up in Germany, where every hillside is covered with grapevines? Ah! it seems like my old home."
"It is wonderful," Leif said. "I have heard travelers tell of seeing grapes growing, but I myself never saw it. You shall take us to them early in the morning, Tyrker."
So in the morning they went back into the woods and saw the grapes. They ate of them.
"They are like food and drink," they cried.
That day Leif said:
"We spent most of the summer on the ocean. Winter will soon be coming on and the sea about Greenland will be frozen. We must start back. I mean to take some of the things of this land to show to our people at home. We will fill the rowboat with grapes and tow it behind us. The ship we will load with logs from these great trees. That will be a welcome shipload in Greenland, where we have neither trees nor vines. Now half of you shall gather grapes for the next few days, and the other half shall cut timber."
So they did, and after a week sailed off. The ship was full of lumber, and they towed the rowboat loaded with grapes. As they looked back at the shore, Leif said:
"I will call this country Wineland for the grapes that grow there."
One of the men leaped upon the gunwale and leaned out, clinging to the sail, and sang:
Wineland the green, the great, the fat.
Our dragon fed and crawls away
With belly stuffed and lazy feet.
How long her purple, trailing tail!
She fed and grew to twice her size."
Then all the men waved their hands to the shore and gave a great shout for that good land.
For all that voyage they had fair weather and sailed into Eric's harbor before the winter came. Eric saw the ship and ran down to the shore. He took Leif into his arms and said:
"Oh, my son, my old eyes ached to see you. I hunger to hear of all that you have seen and done."
"Luck has followed me all the way," said Leif. "See what I have brought home."
The Greenlanders looked.
"Lumber! lumber!" they cried. "Oh! it is better stuff than gold."
Then they saw the grapes and tasted them.
"Surely you must have plundered Asgard," they said, smacking their lips.
At the feast that night Eric said:
"Leif shall sit in the place of honor."
So Leif sat in the high seat opposite Eric. All men thought him a handsome and wise man. He told them of the storm and of Wineland.
"No man would ever need a cloak there. The soil is richer than the soil of Norway. Grain grows wild, and you yourselves saw the grapes that we got from there. The forests are without end. The sea is full of fish."
The Greenlanders listened with open mouths to all this. They turned and talked to Leif's ship-comrades who were scattered among them.
Leif noticed two strangers, an old man who sat at Eric's side and a young woman on the cross-bench. He turned to his brother Thorstein who sat next to him.
"Who are these strangers?" he asked.
"Thorbiorn and his daughter Gudrid," Thorstein answered. "They landed here this spring. I never saw our father more glad of anything than to see this Thorbiorn. They were friends before we left Iceland. When they saw each other again they could not talk enough of old times. In the spring Eric means to give him a farm up the fiord a way. It seems that this Thorbiorn comes of a good family that has been rich and great in Iceland for years. And Thorbiorn himself was rich when our father knew him, and was much honored by all men. But ill luck came, and he grew poor. This hurt his pride. 'I will not stay in Iceland and be a beggar,' he said to himself. 'I will not have men look at me and say, "He is not what his father was." I will go to my friend Eric the Red in Greenland.'
"Then he got ready a great feast and invited all his friends. It was such a feast as had not been in Iceland for years. Thorbiorn spent on it all the wealth that he had left. For he said to himself, 'I will not leave in shame. Men shall remember my last feast.' After that he set out and came to Greenland.
"Is not Gudrid beautiful? And she is wise. I mean to marry her, if her father will permit it."
Now Leif settled down in Greenland and became a great man there. He was so busy and he grew so rich that he did not think of going to Wineland again. But people could not forget his story. Many nights as men sat about the long fires they talked of that wonderful land and wished to see it.
On an autumn, a year or two after Leif came home, Eric and his men saw two large ships come to land not far down the shore from the house.
"They look like trading ships," Eric said. "Let us go down to see them."
"I will go, too," Gudrid said. "Perhaps they will have rich cloth and jewelry. It is long since I had my eyes on a new dress."
So they all went down and found two large trading ships lying in the water. A great many men were on the shore making a fire.
"Welcome to Greenland!" called Eric. "What are your names and your country?"
Then a fine, big man walked out from among the men and went up to Eric.
"I am Thorfinn," he said, "a trader. I sailed this summer from Iceland with forty men and a shipload of goods. On the sea I met this other ship from Iceland. The master is Biarni. Come and look at my goods."
So he rowed Eric and Gudrid out and they went aboard his boat. Thorfinn opened his chests and showed Eric gleaming swords and bracelets and axes and farm tools. But before Gudrid he spread beautiful cloth and gold embroidery and golden necklaces. As they looked, he told of doings in Iceland and asked of Greenland.
"We never see such things as these in this bare land," Gudrid said, as she smoothed a beautiful dress of purple velvet. "I envy the women of Iceland their fair clothes."
"There is no need of that," Thorfinn said, "for this dress is yours and anything else from my chests that you like. Here is a necklace that I beg you to take. It did not have a fairer mistress in Greece where I got it."
"You are a very generous trader," Gudrid said.
Then Thorfinn gave Eric a great sword with a gold-studded scabbard. After a while he took them to Biarni's ship. He also gave them gifts. They all talked and laughed much while they were together.
"You are merry comrades," Eric said. "I ask you both and all your men to spend the winter at my house. You can put your goods into my storehouses."
"By my sword! a generous offer," said Thorfinn. "As for me, I am happy to come."
Biarni and all the rest said the same thing. Thorfinn walked to the house with Eric and Gudrid, while the other men sailed to the ship-sheds and pulled their boats under
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