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Footnotes:

[1] Cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. pp. 216, 220; G. Storm, 1888, p. 12. The latter part (in parenthesis) does not occur in the oldest MS.

[2] Storm thinks that Sir William Alexander’s “red wineberries” from the south-east coast of Nova Scotia (in 1624) would be grapes, but this is uncertain.

[3] “Vínber” (grapes) are mentioned in the whole of Old Norse literature only in the translation of the Bible called “Stjórn,” in the “Grönlendinga-þáttr,” and in a letter (Dipl. Norv.) where they are mentioned as raisins or dried grapes. In addition, “vínberjakǫngull” (a bunch of grapes) occurs in the Saga of Eric the Red.

[4] Schübeler, Christiania Videnskabs-Selskabs Forhandlinger for 1858, pp. 21, ff.; Viridarium Norvegium, i. pp. 253, f.

[5] It should be mentioned that the American botanist, M. L. Fernald, has recently [1910] made an attempt to locate the Icelanders’ Wineland the Good in southern Labrador, explaining the “vínber” of the Icelandic sagas as a sort of currant or as whortleberry, the self-sown wheat as the Icelanders’ lyme-grass (Elymus arenarius), and the “másurr” as “valbirch.” By assuming “vinber” to be whortleberries he even thinks he can explain how it was that Leif in the “Grönlendinga-Þáttr” was able to fill the ship with “grapes” in the spring (and what of the vine-trees that he cut down to load his ship, were they whortleberry-bushes?). Apart from the surprising circumstance of the Icelanders having called a country Wineland the Good because whortleberries grew there, the explanation is inadmissible on the ground that whortleberries were never called “vinber” (wineberries) in Old Norse or Icelandic. Currants have in more recent times been called “vinbær” in Norway and Iceland, but were not known there before the close of the Middle Ages. In ancient times the Norse people did not know how to make wine from any berry but the black crowberry; but there are plenty of these in Greenland, and it was not necessary to travel to Labrador to collect them. Fernald does not seem to have remarked that the sagas most frequently use the expression “vínviðr,” or else “vínviðr” and “vínber” together, and this can only mean vines and grapes. His explanation of the self-sown wheat-fields does not seem any happier. That the Icelanders should have reported these as something so remarkable in Wineland is not likely, if it was nothing but the lyme-grass with which they were familiar in Iceland. On the other hand, it is possible that the “másurr” of the sagas only meant valbirch. But apart from this, how can the sagas’ description of Wineland—where no snow fell, where there was hardly any frost, the grass scarcely withered, and the cattle were out the whole winter—be applied to Labrador? Or where are Markland or Helluland to be looked for, or Furðustrandir and Kjalarnes? Nor do we gain any more connection in the voyage as a whole. It will therefore be seen that, even if Professor Fernald had been right in his interpretation of the three words above mentioned, this would not help us much; and when we find that these very features of the vine and the wheat are derived from classical myths, such attempts at explanation become of minor interest.

[6] Professor Alexander Bugge has pointed out to me that Schoolcraft [1851, i. p. 85, pl. 15] mentions a tradition among the Algonkin Indians that they had used as a weapon of war in ancient times a great round stone, which was sewed into a piece of raw hide and fastened thereby to the end of a long wooden shaft. The resemblance between such a weapon with a shaft for throwing and the Skrælings’ black ball is distant; but it is not impossible that ancient reports of something of the sort may have formed the nucleus upon which the “modernised” description of the saga has crystallised; although the whole thing is uncertain. This Algonkin tradition has a certain similarity with some Greenland Eskimo fairy-tales [cf. Rink, 1866, p. 139].

[7] As arquebuses or guns had not yet been invented at that time, this strange name may, as proposed by Moltke Moe, come from “fusillus” or “fugillus” (an implement for striking fire) and mean “he who makes fire,” “the fire-striker.”

[8] Evidently saltpetre has been forgotten here, and so we have gunpowder, which thus must have been already employed in war at that time, and perhaps long before.

[9] Moltke Moe has found a curious resemblance to the description of the “herbrestr” given above in the Welsh tale of Kulhwch and Olwen [Heyman: Mabinogion, p. 78], where there is a description of a war-cry so loud that “all women who are with child fall into sickness, and the others are smitten with disease, so that the milk dries up in their breasts.” But this “herbrestr” may also be compared with the “vábrestr” spoken of in the Fosterbrothers’ Saga [Grönl. hist. Mind., ii. pp. 334, 412], which M. Hægstad and A. Torp [Gamalnorsk Ordbog] translate by “crash announcing disaster or great news” [cf. I. Aasen, “vederbrest”]. Fritzner translates it by “sudden crash causing surprise and terror,” and K. Maurer by “Schadenknall.” It would therefore seem to be something supernatural that causes fear [cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., ii. p. 198]. The “Grönlandske historiske Mindesmærker” mention in the same connection “isbrestr” or “jökulbrestr” in Iceland. I have myself had good opportunities of studying that kind of report in glaciers, and my opinion is that it comes from a starting of the glacier, or through the latter skrinking from changes of temperature; similar reports, but less loud, are heard in the ice on lakes and fjords. Burgomaster H. Berner tells me that the small boys of Krödsherred make what they call “kolabrest,” by heating charcoal on a flat stone and throwing water upon it while simultaneously striking the embers with the back of an axe, which produces a sharp report.

[10] Scorium (slag) is also used in mediæval Latin for “corium,” animal’s skin, hide.

[11] The poles that are swung the way of the sun or against it seem incomprehensible, and something of the meaning must have been lost in the transference of this incident from the tale from which it was borrowed. It may be derived from the kayak paddles of the Greenland Eskimo, which at a distance look like poles being swung, with or against the sun according to the side they are seen from. It may be mentioned that in the oldest MS. of Eric the Red’s Saga, in the Hauksbók, the reading is not “trjánum” as in the later MS., but “triom” and “trionum.” Now “triónum” or “trjónum” might mean either poles or snouts, and one would then be led to think of the Indians’ animal masks, or again, of the trolls’ long snouts or animal trunks, which we find again in fossil forms in the fairy-tales, and even in games that are still preserved in Gudbrandsdal, under the name of “trono” (the regular Gudbrandsdal phonetic development of Old Norse “trjóna”), where people cover their heads with an animal’s skin and put on a long troll’s snout with two wooden jaws. But that snouts were waved with or against the sun does not give any better meaning; there may be some confusion here.

[12] It is worth remarking that Gustav Storm, although he did not doubt that the Skrælings of Wineland were really the natives, seems nevertheless to have been on the track of the same idea as is here put forward, when he says in his valuable work on the Wineland voyages [1887, p. 57, note 1]: “It should be remarked, however, that this inquiry [into ‘the nationality of the American Skrælings’] is rendered difficult by the fact that in the old narratives the Skrælings are everywhere enveloped, wholly or in part, by a mythical tinge; thus even here [in the Saga of Eric the Red] they are on the way to becoming trolls, which they really become in the later sagas. No doubt it is learned myths of the outskirts of the inhabited world that have here been at work.” In a later work [1890a, p. 357] he says that it is “certain enough that in the Middle Ages the Scandinavians knew no other people in Greenland and the American countries lying to the south of it than ‘Skrælings,’ who were not accounted real human beings and whose name was always translated into Latin as ‘Pygmæi.’” If Storm had remarked the connection between the classical and Irish legends and the ideas about Wineland, the further step of regarding the Skrælings as originally mythical beings would have been natural.

[13] This is the same word as the Old Norse “skratti” or “skrati” for troll (poet.) or wizard. “Skræa,” “sickly shrunken and bony person,” in modern Norwegian, from north-west Telemarken [H. Ross], is evidently the same word as Skræling; cf. also “skræaleg” and “skræleg”; further, “Skreda” (Skreeaa), “sickly, feeble person, poor wretch,” from outer Nordmör [H. Ross].

[14] It is, perhaps, of importance, as Professor Torp has mentioned to me, that the word “blá” is more often used than “svart” (black), when speaking of trolls and magic, as an uncanny colour. This may have been a common Germanic trait; cf. Rolf Blue-beard.

[15] Grönl. hist. Mind., i. p. 242; G. Storm, 1891, p. 68.

[16] W. Thalbitzer’s attempt [1905, pp. 190, ff.] to explain the words, not as originally names, but as accidental, misunderstood Eskimo sentences, which are supposed to have survived orally for over 250 years, does not appear probable (see next chapter).

[17] Moltke Moe has called my attention to the possibility of a connection between “Avalldamon” and the Welsh myth of the isle of “Avallon” (the isle of apple-trees; cf. vol. i. pp. 365, 379), to which Morgan le Fay carried King Arthur. It is also possible that it may be connected with “dæmon” and “vald” (== power, might). The possibility suggested above seems, however, to be nearer the mark.

The Skrælings of Markland having kings agrees, of course, neither with Indians nor Eskimo, who no more had kings than the Greenlanders and Icelanders themselves. On the other hand, it exactly fits elves and gnomes. The Ekeberg king and other mountain kings are well known in Norway. The elves of Iceland had a king who was subject to the superior elf-king in Norway. The síd-people in Ireland, the pygmies and gnomes in other lands (such as Wales) also have kings. This feature again points, therefore, in the direction of the fairy-nature of the Skrælings, like the name “Vætthildr.”

[18] It might be objected that when it is so distinctly stated that “it was there more equinoctial [i.e., the day and night were more nearly equal in length] than in Greenland or Iceland, the sun there had ‘eykt’ position and ‘dagmål’ position [i.e., was visible between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.] on the shortest day” [cf. Gr. h. Mind., i. p. 218; G. Storm, 1891, p. 58; 1887, pp. 1, ff.], this shows that the Greenlanders were actually there and made this observation. In support of this view it might also be urged that it was not so very long (about forty years) before the Flateyjarbók was written that the ship from Markland (see later) arrived at Iceland in 1347, and through the men on board her the Icelanders might have got such information as to the length of days. This can hardly be altogether denied; but it would have been about Markland rather than Wineland that they would have heard, and Markland is only once mentioned in passing in the “Grönlendinga-þáttr.” Moreover, it was common in ancient times to denote the latitude by the length of the longest or shortest day (cf. vol. i. pp. 52, 64), and the latter in particular must have been natural to Northerners (cf. vol. i. p. 133). The passage quoted above would thus be a general indication that Wineland lay in a latitude so much to the south of Greenland as its shortest day was longer; they had no other means of expressing this in a saga, nor had they perhaps any other means of describing the length of the day than that here used. It appears from the Saga of Eric the Red that Kjalarnes was reckoned to be in the same latitude as Ireland (see vol. i. p. 326); as a consequence of this we might expect that Wineland would lie in a more southern latitude than the south of Ireland, the latitude of which (i.e., the length of the shortest day) was certainly well known in Iceland. If, therefore, in a tale of the fourteenth century, the position of Wineland is to be described, it is natural that its shortest day should be given a length which according to Professor H. Geelmuyden [see G. Storm, 1886, p. 128; 1887, p. 6] would correspond to 49° 55′ N. lat. or south of it; in other words, the latitude of France, and that was precisely the land that the Icelanders knew as the home of wine, and that they would therefore naturally use in the indication of a Wineland.

[19] Cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 220; Storm, 1887, p. 12. “Húsa-snotra” is explained as a vane or similar decoration on the gable of a house or a ship’s stern [cf. V. Guðmundsson, 1889, pp. 158, ff.]. The statement given above shows that a “húsa-snotra” was something to which great importance was attached, otherwise attention would not have been called to it in this way. And in the “Grönlendinga-Þáttr” [Gr. hist. Mind., i. p. 254] we read that Karlsevne, when he was in Norway, would not sell his “húsa-snotra” (made of “mausurr” from Wineland) to the German from Bremen, until the latter offered him half a mark of gold for it. One might suppose that this ornament (vane-staff) on the prow of a ship or the gable of a house was connected with religious or superstitious ideas of some kind, like the posts of the high seat within the house, or the totem-poles of the North American Indians, which stood before the house.

[20] On the initiative of Professors Sophus Bugge and Gustav Storm, a thorough examination of the spot was made in 1901, the first-named being himself present; but the stone was not to be found.

[21] I cannot accept the conjectures that Professor Yngvar Nielsen thinks may be based upon this inscription [1905].

[22] It is true that only a portion of this work has been preserved, and that Wineland may have been mentioned in the part that has not come down to us (if indeed the work was ever finished); but this is not likely.

[23] Cf. Storm’s edition, 1888, pp. 19, 59, 112, 252, 320, 473.

[24] “Upsi” (or “ufsi”) would mean “big coalfish” or “coalfish.”

[25] It has been generally considered that it was not until 1124, when Bishop Arnaldr was consecrated at Lund. In any case this is the first ordination of which we have any information.

[26] Cf. G. Storm, 1887, p. 26; Reeves, 1895, p. 82.

[27] Cf. Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Eccles., iii. 1, x. c. 5; Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 428; Rafn, 1837, pp. 337, 460, ff.; A. A. Björnbo, 1909, p. 206.

[28] In a similar fashion Torfæus [1705] confused Vinland and Vindland.

[29] Cf. Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, etc. Rerum Britanicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores, London, 1865, i. p. 322; Eulogium Historiarum, etc. Rer. Brit. Script., 1860, ii. pp. 78, f.; W. Wackernagel, 1844, pp. 494, f.

[30] Cf. Nordenskiöld, 1889, p. 3; A. A. Björnbo, 1909, pp. 197, 205, 240.

[31] Cf. Hammershaimb, 1855, pp. 105, ff.; Rafn, Antiqu. Americ., pp. 330, ff.

[32] This image of blood upon snow is taken from Irish mediæval texts, as Moltke Moe informs me.

[33] Cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. pp. 516, ff.; Storm, 1887, pp. 37, ff.

[34] G. Storm [1890, P. 347] thinks that something is omitted in Gripla and that it should read: “suðr frá er Helluland, þá er Markland, þat er kallat Skrælingaland” (to the South is Helluland, then there is Markland, which is called Skrælingaland). But this seems doubtful; it would not in any case explain why Furðustrandir is placed to the north of Helluland. When Storm alleges as a reason that Helluland is never mentioned as a place of human habitation, but only for trolls (in the later legendary sagas), he forgets that the Skrælings were trolls, or, as he himself puts it elsewhere [1890a, p. 357], that the Skrælings were not accounted “true human beings.”

[35] The Menomini Indians, Fourteenth Ann. Rep. of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1892-1893. Washington, 1896, vol. i. pp. 127, ff.; cf. also “American Anthropologist,” vol. iii. pp. 134, f., Washington, 1890.

[36] “Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris,” 1905, No. 2, p. 319.

[37] Storm’s explanation [1887, pp. 68, ff.]: that it was Dicuil’s account of the discovery of Iceland by Irish monks (see vol. i. p. 164) which formed the basis of the myth of Hvítramanna-land, may appear very attractive and simple; but Storm does not seem to have noticed the connection that exists between the Irish mythical islands in the west and those of classical literature. When he points out the similarity between the six days’ voyage west of Ireland and Dicuil’s statement of six days’ voyage to Iceland (Thule) northward from Britain, it must be remembered that in Dicuil this is merely a quotation from Pliny, and, further, that the six days’ voyage has Britain and not Ireland for its starting-point. In the Saga of Eric the Red Wineland lies six “dœgr’s” sail from Greenland. Cf. that in Plutarch [“De facie in orbe Lunæ,” 941] Ogygia lies five days’ voyage west of Britain, and to the north-west of it are three islands, to which the voyage might thus be one of six days. Let us suppose, merely as an experiment, that Ogygia, the fertile vine-growing island of the “hulder” Calypso, was Wineland, then the other three islands to the north-west might be Hvítramanna-land, Markland and Helluland, which would fit in. The northernmost would then have to be the island on which the sleeping Cronos is imprisoned, with “many spirits about him as his companions and servants” (cf. vol. i. pp. 156, 182). Dr. Scisco [1908, pp. 379, ff., 515, ff.] and Professor H. Koht [1909, pp. 133, ff.] think that Are Mársson may have been baptized in Ireland and have been chief of a Christian tribe on its west coast, where Hvítramanna-land may have been a district inhabited by fair Norsemen.

[38] Since the above was printed in the Norwegian edition of this book, Professor Moltke Moe has found a “Tír na Fer Finn,” or the White Men’s Land, mentioned in Irish sagas of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The white men (fer finn) are evidently the same as the “Albati” (i.e., the baptized dressed in white). Tír na Fer Finn and Hvítramanna-land are consequently direct renderings of the “Terra Albatorum” (i.e., the land of the baptized dressed in white), which is mentioned in earlier Irish literature. The origin of the Icelandic legend about Hvítramanna-land seems thus to be quite clear.

[39] Hermits like this, covered with white hair, also occur outside Ireland. Three monks from Mesopotamia wished to journey to the place where heaven and earth meet, and after many adventures, which often resemble those of the Brandan legend, they came to a cave, where dwelt a holy man, Macarius, who was completely covered with snow-white hair, but the skin of his face was like that of a tortoise [cf. Schirmer, 1888, p. 42]. The last feature might recall an ape.

[40] The resemblance to the hairy women (great apes ?) that Hanno found on an island to the west of Africa and whose skin he brought to Carthage (cf. vol. i. p. 88) is doubtless only accidental. The hair-covered hermits may be connected with stories of hermits and the hairy wild man, “wilder Mann,” “Silvanus,” who, in the opinion of Moltke Moe, is the same that reappears in the Norwegian tale of “Villemand og Magnhild” (== der wilde Mann and Magdelin).

[41] White and snow-white women and maidens are, moreover, of common occurrence also in Germanic legends [cf. J. Grimm, 1876, ii. pp. 803, ff.]. Expressions like white or snow-white to depict the dazzling beauty of the female body also occur in Icelandic literature, just as the lily-white arms are already found in Homer. Cf. further such names as Snjófriðr, Snelaug, Schneewitchen (Snow-white), etc. [Cf. Moltke Moe’s communications in A. Helland, 1905, ii. pp. 641, f.]

[42] Before the convent on this island Brandan and his companions were met by the monks “with cross, and cloaks [white clothes ?], and hymns”; cf. the men in white clothes who cried aloud and carried poles in Eric the Red’s Saga. On the “Strong Men’s Island” they also sang psalms, and one generation wore white clothes.

[43] Cf. Dozy and de Goeje, 1866, p. 223, ff.; de Goeje, 1891, pp. 56, 59. Moltke Moe has called my attention to this resemblance.

[44] The stench may be connected with ideas like those in the “Meregarto,” the sailors stuck fast and rotted in the Liver-sea, see vol. i. p. 181.

[45] As Portugal was at that time under the Moors, Arabic must be regarded as these men’s mother-tongue.

[46] They first drifted to the north-west in the outer ocean, and after three days suffered intolerable thirst; but Christ took pity on them and brought them to a current which tasted like tepid milk. Zimmer’s explanation [1889, p. 216] of this current as the Gulf Stream to the west of the Hebrides is due to modern maps, and is an example of how even the most acute of book-learned inquirers may be led astray by formal representations. That the Irish should have possessed such comprehensive oceanographical knowledge as to regard this ocean-drift as a definitely limited current is not likely, and still less that they should have regarded it as so much warmer than the water inshore as to be compared to tepid milk. The difference in temperature on the surface is in summer (August) approximately nil, and in spring and autumn perhaps three or four degrees; and of course the Irish had no thermometers. Last summer I investigated this very part of the ocean without finding any conspicuous difference. The feature may be derived from Lucian’s Vera Historia, where the travellers come to a sea of milk [Wieland, 1789, iv. p. 188].

[47] It is doubtless due to this communication that an unknown Arabic author (of the twelfth century) relates that the “Fortunate Isles” lie to the north of Cadiz, and that thence come the northern Vikings (“Maǵûs”), who are Christians. “The first of these islands is Britain, which lies in the midst of the ocean, at a great distance to the north of Spain. Neither mountains nor rivers are found there; its inhabitants are compelled to resort to rain-water both for drinking and for watering the ground” [Fabricius, 1897, p. 157]. It is clear that there is here a confusion of rumours of islands in the north—of which Britain was the best known, whence the Vikings were supposed to come—with Pliny’s Fortunate Isles: “Planaria” (without mountains) and “Pluvialia” (where the inhabitants had only rain-water). That the Orkneys in particular should have been intended, as suggested by R. Dozy [Recherches sur l’Espagne, ii. pp. 317, ff.] and Paul Riant [Expéditions et Pèlerinages des Scandinaves en Terre Sainte, Paris, 1865, p. 236] is not very probable. We might equally well suppose it to be Ireland, which through Norse sailors (“Ostmen”) and merchants had communication with the Spaniards from the ninth till as late as the fourteenth century [cf. A. Bugge, 1900, pp. 1, f.]. The Arabic name “Maǵûs” for the Norman Vikings comes from the Greek μάγος; (Magian, fire-worshipper), and originally meant heathens in general.

[48] In one of his lays Björn Breidvikinge-kjæmpe also, as it happens, speaks of Thurid as the snow-white (“fannhvít”) woman.

[49] See D. Brauns: Japanische Märchen und Sagan. Leipzig, 1885, p. 146, ff.

[50] Cf. the resemblance to the second voyage of Sindbad, to the tales in Abû Hâmid, Qaswînî, Pseudo-Callisthenes’ romance of Alexander, Indian tales, etc. [cf. E. Rohde, 1900, p. 192].

[51] The Ringerike runic stone is not given here, as its mention of Wineland is uncertain.

[52] It should be remarked that the beginning of this saga, dealing with the discovery of Greenland by Eric the Red, is taken straight out of the Landnámabók, and is thus much older.

[53] It would be otherwise on the west coast of Greenland, with its excellent belt of skerries; but as the Eskimo could not reach this coast without having developed, at least in part, their peculiar maritime culture, it is, of course, out of the question that this can have been their cradle.

[54] Cf. on this subject H. Rink [1871, 1887, 1891]; F. Boas [1901]; cf. also H. P. Steensby [1905], Axel Hamberg [1907] and others. These authors hold various views as to the origin of the Eskimo, which, however, are all different from that set forth here. While Rink thought the Eskimo came from Alaska and first developed their sea-fishing on the rivers of Alaska, Boas thinks they come from the west coast of Hudson Bay, and Steensby that they developed on the central north coasts of Canada. Since the above was written W. Thalbitzer has also dealt with the question [1908-1910].

[55] This has been definitely and finally proved by the researches of Dr. O. Solberg [1907], referred to in vol. i. (p. 306). It results from these that the oldest stone implements of the Eskimo from the districts round Disco Bay must be of very great age—far older, indeed, than I was formerly [1891, pp. 6, f.; Engl. ed., pp. 8, ff.] inclined to suppose. It results also from Solberg’s researches that, while the Eskimo occupied the districts from Umanak-fjord southward to Egedesminde and Holstensborg (from 71° to 68° N. lat.) during long prehistoric periods, they do not appear to have settled in the more southern part of Greenland until much later. As will be pointed out later (p. 83), it was especially in the districts around Kroksfjarðarheidr that according to the historical authorities the Skrælings were to be found. Since we may assume, as shown in vol. i. p. 301, that this was Disco Bay, the conclusion from historical sources agrees remarkably well with the archæological finds.

[56] Solberg, however, in the researches referred to, has been able to show some development in Eskimo sealing appliances in the course of the period since their first arrival in Greenland, but perhaps chiefly after they had come in contact with the Norsemen and learnt the use of iron.

[57] As will be seen (cf. p. 72), this agrees surprisingly well with the conclusions which Dr. Solberg has reached in another way in the work already mentioned [1907], which was published since the above was written.

[58] Cf. also William Thalbitzer’s valuable work on the Eskimo language [1904].

[59] Cf. Gualteri Mapes, De nugis curialium. Ed. by Thomas Wright, 1850, pp. 14, ff.

[60] If it was the tradition of Karlsevne’s encounter with the Skrælings that was referred to, then of course neither he nor the greater part of his men were Greenlanders, but Icelanders, so that it might equally well have been said that the Icelanders called them Skrælings.

[61] Cf. Christian Koren-Wiberg: “Bidrag til Bergens Kulturhistorie,” Bergen, 1908, pp. 151, f. I owe it to Professor A. Bugge that my attention was drawn to this interesting find.

[62] Jón Egilsson’s continuation of Húngurvaka, Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 469.

[63] It is striking how accurately this agrees with what we have arrived at in an entirely different way with regard to the places inhabited by the Eskimo in ancient times (see p. 73).

[64] From this it cannot, of course, be concluded that they were not living there too at that time; it only shows that the voyagers did not meet with them in the most northerly regions, although they saw empty sites. As the Eskimo leave their winter houses in the spring and lead a wandering life in tents, this need not surprise us.

[65] Cf. Björnbo and Petersen, 1904, pp. 179, 236.

[66] Jacob Ziegler (circa 1532), who probably made use of statements from Walkendorf, confuses the Norsemen and Eskimo in Greenland together into one people, who breed cattle, have two episcopal churches, etc.; but “on account of the distance and the difficulty of the voyage the people have almost reverted to heathendom, and are ... especially addicted to the arts of magic, like the Lapps....” They use light boats of hides, with which they attack other ships [cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 499].

[67] In the account attributed to Ivar Bárdsson, first written down in Norway, the Skrælings also receive a good deal of attention.

[68] William Thalbitzer, the authority on the Eskimo, has lately [1909, p. 14] adduced the silence of the “King’s Mirror” and of the Icelandic Annals on the subject of the Skrælings of Greenland as evidence that the Norsemen had not met with them on their northern expeditions to Nordrsetur; but what has been brought forward above shows that nothing of the kind can be concluded from the silence of the “King’s Mirror” (which, moreover, says nothing about the Nordrsetur expeditions); and why in particular the Icelandic Annals should allude to the Skrælings in Greenland seems difficult to understand. This is no evidence, especially as we see that the Skrælings are mentioned in other contemporary authorities, such as the Historia Norwegiæ, Ivar Bárdsson’s description, the account of the voyages in 1266 and 1267, etc. Besides, in the last authority it is expressly stated that there were Skrælings in Nordrsetur (Kroksfjardarheidr, cf. p. 83).

[69] E. Beauvois, 1904, 1905; Y. Nielsen, 1904, 1905; W. Thalbitzer, 1904, 1905.

[70] As so much weight has been attached to single words in order to prove the similarity of culture between the Skrælings in Wineland and Markland and those in Greenland, it is strange that no notice has been taken of points of difference such as this, that the Skrælings in Markland are said to dwell in caves, while the Greenlanders must have known, at any rate from the dwelling-sites they had found, that the Skrælings in Greenland lived in houses and tents.

[71] If we might suppose (which is not probable) that the missile mentioned on p. 7, note, from a myth of the Algonkin Indians has any connection with the Skrælings’ black ball which frightened Karlsevne’s people, this would be another feature pointing to knowledge of the Indians. Hertzberg’s demonstration that the Indian game of lacrosse is probably the Norse “knattleikr” (pp. 38, ff.) may point in the same direction; for it seems less probable that the transmission, if it occurred, should have been brought about by the Eskimo.

[72] That it was due to changes in the climate, as some have thought, is not the case. The ancient descriptions of the voyage thither and of the drift-ice (cf. for instance, the “King’s Mirror,” vol. i. p. 279) show exactly the same conditions as now.

[73] The driftwood that was washed ashore along the coasts could not possibly suffice for shipbuilding; but they doubtless obtained timber also from Markland (cf. pp. 25, 37).

[74] Existing royal documents show that the prohibition of trade with these tributary countries was again strictly enforced by Magnus Smek in 1348, and by Eric of Pomerania in 1425.

[75] Cf. Islandske Annaler, ed. by Storm, 1888, p. 228.

[76] It is shown by Solberg’s [1907] researches that they did so.

[77] As stated on p. 86, Jacob Ziegler (circa 1532) also says that the people of Greenland “have almost lapsed to heathendom,” etc. Although mythical, this shows a similar tradition.

[78] Cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 258; F. Jónsson, 1899, p. 328.

[79] This seems very doubtful, as it is not known that a bishop ever resided in the Western Settlement.

[80] It is true that this is not stated in the narrative; it is only said that the Skrælings possessed the whole Western Settlement, and that Ivar and his companions found no people there, either Christian or heathen, but only wild cattle; and it may, of course, be doubtful whether the meaning was that the whole settlement had been destroyed by a predatory incursion.

[81] This explanation offers, of course, the difficulty that it would not be applicable to dairy cattle; but in this way of life the settlers may have had to give up milking.

[82] These last ideas may well be supposed to have originated in a confusion with the tales about Wineland.

[83] We find conceptions of the Skrælings as dangerous opponents or assailants in Michel Beheim in 1450 [Vangensten, 1908, p. 18], Paulus Jovius in 1534, Jacob Ziegler in 1532, Olaus Magnus in 1555, and others. But it is evident that these conceptions are to a great extent due to myth and superstition.

[84] Cf. Islandske Annaler, ed. by Storm [1888], pp. 365, f., 414, f. Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. pp. 135, ff., 436, ff.

[85] According to my experience the bear avoids the walrus, and I have never seen a sign of their fighting on land or on the ice.

[86] A complaint previously sent to the Pope, which, however, was false, as will be shown later.

[87] Mention should be made of two other factors, which Dr. Björnbo has suggested to me. It is possible that while the majority of the Norsemen were compelled more and more to adopt the Eskimo mode of life in order to support themselves, some more strong-minded individuals among them, and a few zealous priests, may have resisted stubbornly, and this may have led to fighting such as is spoken of in the legends. Nor must it be forgotten that the relentlessness of the Eskimo is usually accentuated when dealing with individuals who are only a burden to the community without benefiting it; and no doubt some among the Norsemen may have been reduced to such a position after the cessation of imports from abroad, since they were inferior to the Eskimo in skill as fishermen and sealers.

[88] It is true that Clavus mentions the warrior hosts of the infidel Karelians in Greenland; but this is evidently myth or invention (cf. chapter xiii.).

[89] According to another authority it was not till 1413. In any case it looks as if travelling took a good time in those days.

[90] As evidence of the state of things it may be mentioned that we read in the Icelandic Annals [Storm, 1888, p. 290] under 1412: “No tidings came from Norway to Iceland. The queen, Lady Margaret, died....” When communication even with Iceland had fallen off to this extent, we can understand its having ceased altogether with Greenland.

[91] Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. pp. 160, ff.

[92] See G. Storm, 1892, pp. 399-401. The letter was discovered some years ago in the papal archives by a priest from Dalmatia, Dr. Jelič. Cf. also Jos. Fischer, 1902, p. 49.

[93] Published by J. Metelka [1895].

[94] A. A. Björnbo, Berlingske Tidende, 1909; Björnbo and Petersen, 1909, p. 249.

[95] Cf. L. Daae, 1882. Besides the authorities mentioned by Daae, See “Scriptores rerum Danicarum,” ii. 563, where “Puthorse” is mentioned as “pirata Danicus” together with “Pynning.” Cf. also Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. pp. 473, ff.

[96] This was the usual representation at that time; cf. Ziegler’s map of 1532.

[97] A. A. Björnbo, Berlingske Tidende, Copenhagen, July 17, 1909; Björnbo and Petersen, 1909, p. 249.

[98] Monumenta Historiæ Danicæ, ed. Holger Rördam, i. Copenhagen, 1873, p. 28; L. Daae, 1882.

[99] Cf. G. Storm [1886]. B. T. de Costa [1880, p. 170] points out that Hakluyt says that the voyage of this navigator is mentioned by Gemma Frisius and Girava. Gemma Frisius published amongst other works a revised edition of Petrus Apianus’s “Cosmographicus Liber” in 1529. Girava published in 1553 “Dos Libros de Cosmographia,” Milan, 1556. I have not had an opportunity of referring to these authorities; the former, if this be correct, may have given information about Scolvus earlier than Gomara. De Costa also says that on the Rouen globe [i.e., the L’Ecuy globe, see p. 131] in Paris, of about 1540, there is an inscription near the north-west coast of Greenland stating that Skolnus [Scolvus] reached that point in 1476.

[100] Cf. R. Collinson, 1867, pp. 3, f.

[101] Lelewel’s conjecture [1852, iv. p. 106, note 50, 52] that Scolvus’s name was Scolnus and that he came from a little Polish inland town near the frontier of East Prussia, is, as shown by Storm [1886, p. 400], improbable.

[102] Storm [1886, p. 399] thought that Wytfliet might have borrowed from Gomara, and himself invented and added the date 1476, in order to disparage the Spaniards and Portuguese as discoverers; but Storm was not aware that this date, as we have seen, is mentioned in an earlier English source.

[103] Cf. Harrisse, 1892, pp. 286, ff., 658. The inscription reads: “Quii populi ad quos Johannes Scovvus danus pervenit. Ann. 1476.”

[104] Just as the above is at press, I have received a sheet of Dr. Björnbo’s new work [1910, pp. 256, ff.], from which it appears that the inscription mentioned above is already found on Gemma Frisius’s globe engraved by Gerard Mercator, probably 1536-1537 (found at Zerbst, and reproduced for the first time in Björnbo’s work). The inscription is placed on the polar continent, to the north-west of Greenland, and reads: “Quij populi ad quos Jōēs Scoluss danus peruenit circa annum 1476.” Björnbo translates it: “Quij, the people to whom the Dane Johannes Scolvuss (Scolwssen ?) penetrated about the year 1476.” (The interpretation of the word “Quij” as the name of a people may be probable, especially as the same word occurs, as pointed out by Björnbo, as the name of a people on Vopell’s map of the world of 1445.) This is therefore the oldest notice of Scolvus’s voyage at present known, and it may seem possible, though not very probable, that he reached a land to the west of Greenland. The L’Ecuy or Rouen globe (of copper) is evidently a copy of the Frisius-Mercator globe, and has the same inscriptions. It may be to the same source (or to a contemporary work of Gemma Frisius) that Hakluyt referred (cf. above, p. 129, note 2), and several statements in the English document of about 1575 (p. 129) seem also to be derived from it. As Gomara calls Joan Scolvo “piloto,” which is not on the globe (but on the other hand is found in the English document!), and as, further, he has not the dates, he may possibly have had a somewhat different authority. It is interesting to note, as shown by Björnbo, that the Frisius-Mercator globe seems to betray Portuguese associations, and thus its information about Scolvus may also have come from Portugal.

[105] G. Storm [Mon. hist. Norw., 1880, p. 78] thought that “Vegistafr” might be “Sviatoi Nos” at the entrance to Gandvik (the White Sea).

[106] This was the market-place on the bank of the Dvina, presumably the same that the Russians afterwards called Kholmogori, and that lay a little higher up the river than Archangel (founded in 1572).

[107] This is Karelian for heaven or the sky-god; the Kvæns (Finlanders) called their god “Jumala,” and the Finns (Lapps) theirs “Ibmel,” which is the same word. [Cf. G. Storm’s translation of Heimskringla, 1899, p. 322.]

[108] From the account it would look as though Thore Hund was already well acquainted with the country. Even if the tale as a whole is not historical, a feature like this may point to the Norwegians having been in the habit of visiting Bjarmeland, and therefore looking upon it as natural that a man like Thore knew the country.

[109] Håkon Håkonsson’s Saga in Fornmanna-sögur, ix. p. 319.

[110] The Russian chronicles in translation, “Suomi” for 1848.

[111] Professor Alexander Seippel has given me valuable help in the translation of the Arabic authors.

[112] The Volga was often called Itil after the town of that name, but was later named after Bulgar (Bolgar == Volga).

[113] Cf. Frähn, 1823, p. 218.

[114] Chronica Nestoris, ed. Fr. Miklosisch, Vindobonæ, 1860, pp. 9, f.; Nestors russiske Krönike, overs, og forkl. af C. W. Smith, Copenhagen, 1869, p. 29.

[115] Cf. T. Mommsen, 1882, pp. 88, 166.

[116] Jaqut, 1866, i. p. 113; cf. also Mehren, 1857, p. 171.

[117] Ibn Fadhlân’s mission as ambassador from the Caliph al-Muktadir billâh of Bagdad to Bulgar took place, according to his own statements, reproduced by Jaqût (ob. 1229), in the years 921 and 922 A.D. Ibn Fadhlân, like Jaqût, was a Greek by birth.

[118] Jaqut, 1866, iv. p. 944; i. p. 113.

[119] This agrees with reality. Along the Volga one can reach the land of the Vesses on Lake Byelo-ozero.

[120] Al-Qazwînî, 1848, ii. p. 416.

[121] Ibn Batûta, Voyages, etc., par Defrémery et Sanguinetti, ii. pp. 399, ff.

[122] This is doubtless an expression for a conveyance of some kind, which must here have been a sledge.

[123] Cf. Frähn, 1823, pp. 230, ff.

[124] Cf. Peschel, 2nd ed., 1877, p. 107. There has also been found a metal mirror with an Arabic inscription of the tenth or eleventh century at Samarovo in the land of the Ostyaks, where the Irtysh and the Ob join.

[125] Cf. on this subject G. Storm, 1890, pp. 340, ff.; A. A. Björnbo, 1909, pp. 234, ff.

[126] Saxo also has conceptions of half-awake or half-dead (“semineces”) giants in the underworld in the north as guardians of treasures (cf. Gorm’s and Thorkel’s voyage). Moltke Moe thinks they may be derived from ancient notions of the giants as the evil dead, who guard treasures.

[127] Kohl [1869, pp. 11, ff.] supposes that they may have carried on piracy, and invented their story to explain to the bishop how they had come by the booty they brought home and how they had lost their companions, who may have been killed in fighting.

[128] Giraldus Cambrensis also mentions the dangerous whirlpool north of the Hebrides.

[129] Cf. Amund Helland, Lofoten og Vesteraalen. Norges geologiske Undersögelse. No. 23. Christiania, 1897, p. 106.

[130] Hakluyt: Principal Navigations, Glasgow, 1903, ii. p. 415.

[131] Cf. Storm, 1895, pp. 190, f.

[132] It is not impossible that it was of this Norwegian king Harold’s voyage that Adam heard from the Danes; in that case he may readily be supposed to have made a mistake and connected it with the King Harold who was then living, to whom he also attributes a voyage in the Baltic; it is a common experience that many similar incidents in which different persons were engaged collect about one of them. The circumstance that Harold is here mentioned without any term of abuse, with which Adam is elsewhere in the habit of accompanying any mention of him, is perhaps, as already said (vol. i. p. 195, note), of no particular significance. Harold Gråfeld was much in Denmark, and reports of his expedition to Bjarmeland may well have lived there, as in Iceland. If it is this to which Adam’s words refer, this would also explain the curious silence of the Icelandic authorities about Harold Hardråde’s alleged voyage in the Arctic Ocean.

[133] Professor Yngvar Nielsen [1904, 1905] thinks that Adam’s description cannot be explained otherwise than as referring to a voyage to the west, and probably a Wineland voyage. The Icelandic historian Tormodus Torfæus regarded it in the same way two hundred years ago. Professor Nielsen even thinks he can point to the Newfoundland Banks with their “surf caused by the current” (?) as a probable place where King Harold turned back to avoid the gulf of the abyss. I will not here dwell on the improbability of so daring a man as Harold, whom we are to suppose to have sailed across the Atlantic in search of Wineland, being frightened by a tide-race (of which he knew worse at home) on the Newfoundland Banks, so as to believe that he was near the abyss (“Ginnungagap”), and therefore making the long voyage home again without having accomplished his purpose, without having reached land, and without having renewed his supplies—of fresh water, for instance. I can only see that all this is pure guesswork without any solid foundation and far beyond the limits of all reasonable possibility. But in addition, as Dr. A. A. Björnbo [1909, pp. 121, 234, ff.] has clearly shown, the whole of this view becomes untenable if we pay attention to the universal cartographical representation of that time, by which Adam of Bremen was obviously also bound, and in particular it is impossible to conclude from his words that Harold’s voyage should have been made to the west.

[134] Suhm (Historie af Danmark, 1790) was the first to think that the gulf of the abyss was the maelstrom by Mosken.

[135] A peculiarity of the account in the “King’s Mirror” is that whales, seals and walruses are mentioned only in the seas of Iceland and Greenland, and not off Norway, although the Norwegian author most undoubtedly have heard of most of them in his native land. In the same way the northern lights are only spoken of as something peculiar to Greenland. Of the six species of seal that are mentioned, one (“örknselr”) must be the grey seal or “erkn” (Halichoerus grypus), which is common on the coast of the northern half of Norway, but is not found in Greenland.

[136] One might receive a different impression from Bede’s Statement that in Britain “seals are frequently taken (‘capiuntur’), and dolphins, as also whales (‘balenæ’)” [Eccles. hist. gent. Angl. i. c. 1]. But it is uncertain whether this refers to regular hunting of great whales with harpoons in the open sea, or whether it does not rather refer to stranded whales, which must have been of frequent occurrence in those days, to judge from the Norman and later English regulations regarding them.

[137] He belonged to the South Arabian tribe ’Udhra, “die da sterben, wann sie lieben.”

[138] This is exactly what is still done with the whale on the west coast of Norway.

[139] Cf. G. Jacob, 1896, pp. 23, ff.

[140] Louis the Gentle confirms a division of the property of the abbey of St. Dionysius, which the abbot Hilduien had made in 832 [cf. Bouquet, Historiens de France, vi. p. 580]. He says in this document that “we give them this property ... on the other side of Sequana the chapel of St. Audoenus for repairing and clearing fishing nets ... in Campiniago two houses for fish ... the water and fish in Tellis ... and Gabaregium in Bagasinum with all the manorial rights and lands attached, of which part lies in the parish of Constantinus [Coutances] for taking large fish (‘crassus piscis’).” It is probable that “crassus piscis” means Biscayan whale (Balœna Biscayensis or glacialis), which at that time was common on these shores. In that case the people of Côtantin would have carried on whaling as early as the beginning of the ninth century, but of their methods we can form no conclusions.

[141] It is possible that the peoples on the shores of the Indian Ocean (and Red Sea) even in early antiquity caught whales and ate whales’ flesh [cf. Noel, 1815, p. 23]. Strabo [xv. 725, f.; xvi. 767, 773] tells of the great numbers of whales, 23 fathoms long, that Nearchus is said to have seen in this ocean, and says that the Ichthyophagi (fish-eaters) used whales’ bones for beams and rafters in their huts. Strabo thinks [i. 24] that the mention of the monster Scylla (who catches dolphins, seals, etc.) in the Odyssey [xii. 95, ff.] would point to large marine animals having been taken in ancient times; but all this may be very doubtful.

[142] Cf. M. P. Fischer, 1872, pp. 3, ff. In 1202 the merchants of Bayonne bound themselves to pay King John Lackland ten pounds sterling a year for permission to catch whales between St. Michael’s Mount (in Normandy) and a place called Dortemue [cf. Delisle, 1849, p. 131]. This may point to a connection in the whale-fishery between the south of France and Normandy.

[143] Cf. Johannes Steenstrup, 1876, vol. i. p. 188. Professor Steenstrup puts forward the view that it was the Danes who developed this whaling in Normandy. This is scarcely possible. There cannot be much doubt that it was the comparatively valuable Biscay whale or nord-caper that was the chief object of the active whaling on the coast of Normandy, and that was specially called “crassus piscis”; for it was precisely this species of whale which then at certain times of the year appeared in great numbers along the whole French coast, and which the Basques also pursued so actively along the shores of the Bay of Biscay, Brittany and Normandy. The name “crassus piscis” (i.e., the thick or fat fish) would also exactly describe this species, which is remarkable beyond all other whales that occur on the coasts of France for its striking breadth and bulk in proportion to its length, which is about fifty feet. This whale was more valuable than the other great whales that occurred along these coasts, and was in addition much easier to catch. But this species certainly never regularly frequented the shallow Danish waters, any more than other great whales that might be an object of hunting. There is, therefore, scarcely a possibility that Danish Vikings should have brought with them from their native land any experience in hunting great whales. If we may assume that the Normans were already acquainted with the hunting of great whales before they came to Normandy, then it may have been Norwegians who possessed this experience, which, in fact, agrees with the statement of Qazwînî (see above).

[144] Muratori: Script. rer. Ital., v. p. 265. Cf. also Joh. Steenstrup, 1876, i. p. 188.

[145] The text has “culmi” (literally, straw), which gives no sense. We must suppose that something has been omitted in the MS. of Albertus that was used in the printed edition; or else he has taken the description from an older source, which had it correctly, and from which later authors have taken the same expression; for otherwise it is difficult to understand their using it in a reasonable way. Erik Walkendorf (circa 1520) says of the walrus in Finmark: “They have a stiff and bristly beard as long as the palm of a hand, as thick as a straw (‘crassitudine magni culmi’), they have rough bristly (‘hirsuta’) skin, two fingers thick, which has an incredible strength and firmness”; but he says nothing about the method of catching them [Walkendorf, 1902, p. 12]. Olaus Magnus [I, xxi. c. 25] says that walruses (“morsi” or “rosmari”) appear on the northern coast of Norway. “They have a head like an ox, have rough (bristly, ‘hirsutam’) skin, and hair as thick as straw (‘culmos’) or the stalks of corn (‘calamos frumenti’) which stands in all directions. They heave themselves up by their tusks to the tops of rocks as with ladders, in order to eat the grass bedewed with fresh water, and roll themselves back into the sea, unless in the meantime they are overcome by very deep sleep and remain hanging.” Then follows the same story of catching them as in Albertus Magnus. This is done, he says, chiefly for the sake of the tusks, “which were highly prized by the Scythians, Rutens and Tartars,” etc. “This is witnessed also by Miechouita.” This description of Olaus is evidently put together from older statements which we find in Albertus Magnus, in Walkendorf, and in Russian sources, of which he himself quotes Mikhow (who is also mentioned in Pistorius; see below).

[146] This was very valuable on account of its strength, and was much used for ships’ cables, mooring-hawsers, and many other purposes.

[147] Saxo, viii. 287, f.; ed. by H. Jantzen, 1900, pp. 447, ff.; ed. by P. Herrmann, 1901, pp. 385, ff.

[148] In the description of Greenland attributed to Ivar Bárdsson we read: “Item from Langanes, which lies uppermost (or northernmost) in Iceland by the aforesaid Hornns it is two days’ and two nights’ sail to Sualberde in haffsbaane (or haffsbotnen).” [F. Jónsson, 1899, p. 323.]

[149] Monumenta hist. Norv., ed. G. Storm, 1880, pp. 74. f., 79.

[150] In the “Rymbegla” [1780, p. 350] is mentioned, together with other fabulous beings in this part of the world, “the people called ‘Hornfinnar,’ they have in their foreheads a horn bent downwards, and they are cannibals.”

[151] Cf. also A. Bugge, 1898, p. 499; G. Isachsen, 1907.

[152] True north of Langanes there is no land: Jan Mayen lies nearest, N.N.E., and Greenland W.N.W. As the “leidar-stein” (compass) was known in Iceland when Hauk’s Landnámabók was written (cf. vol. i. p. 248), magnetic directions might be meant here, and the variation of the compass may at that time have been great enough to make Greenland lie north (magnetic) of Langanes. In that case it is perhaps strange that Langanes should be mentioned as the starting-point, and not some place that lay nearer; but it might be supposed that this was because one had first to sail far to the east to avoid the ice, when making for the northern east coast of Greenland. A large eastern variation would also agree with Jolldulaup in Ireland lying south of Reykjanes, the uninhabited parts of Greenland lying north of Kolbeins-ey (Mevenklint, see vol. i. p. 286), and the statement in the Sturlubók that from Snæfellsnes it was “four ‘dœgr’s’ sea west to Greenland” [i.e., Hvarf]. But it does not agree with this that from Bergen (or Hennö) the course was “due west” to Hvarf in Greenland; and still less does it agree with its being, according to the Sturlubók, “seven ‘dœgr’s’ sail west from Stad in Norway to Horn in East Iceland.” If these are courses by compass, we must then suppose a large eastern variation between Norway and Iceland, which indeed is not impossible, but which will not accord with a large western variation between Reykjanes and Ireland. The probability is, therefore, that magnetic courses are not intended.

[153] As already mentioned, a “dœgr” was half a day of twenty-four hours, and a “dœgr’s” sail is thus the distance sailed in a day or in a night. One might, perhaps, be tempted to think that here, where it is a question of sailing over the open sea, and where it would therefore be impossible to anchor for the night, as on the coast, a “dœgr’s” sail might mean the distance covered in the whole twenty-four hours [cf. G. Isachsen, 1907]; but it appears from a passage in St. Olaf’s Saga (in “Heimskringla”), amongst others, that this was not the usual way of reckoning; for we read there (cap. 125) that Thorarinn Nevjolfsson sailed in eight “dœgr” from Möre in Norway to Eyrar in south-western Iceland. Thorarinn went straight to the Althing and there said that “he had parted from King Olaf four nights before....” The eight “dœgr” mean, therefore, four days’ and four nights’ sailing. Precisely the same thing appears from the sailing directions given above (p. 166) from Ivor Bárdsson’s description, where four “dœgr’s” sea is taken as two days’ and two nights’ sail.