At that time Eric had a wife named Thjodhild, and by her two sons, one called Thorstein and the other Leif. They were both likely men. Thorstein lived at home with his parents, and no man in Greenland was considered so promising as he. Leif had sailed to Norway, and was with king Olaf Tryggvason. But when Leif sailed from Greenland in the summer they were driven by storms to the Hebrides. It was a long time before they had a fair wind thence, and they made a protracted stay there in the summer. Leif was attracted by a woman there, named Thorgunna.[17] She was a woman of good family, and Leif formed the opinion that she was gifted with supernatural knowledge. Now when Leif prepared to go away Thorgunna asked to go with him. Leif asked whether this would have the approval of her kin. She said that as to that she did not care. Leif replied that he could not carry off a lady of such high birth in an unknown country, especially considering how small a force he had. ‘It is not certain that the course which appeals to you is best,’ said Thorgunna. ‘I must risk that,’ said Leif. ‘Then I tell you’, said Thorgunna, ‘that I shall not suffer alone. I am with child, and I say that the child is yours. I prophesy that it will be a boy when it is born. And though you will not pay any heed still I will bring up the boy, and send him to Greenland as soon as he can go with other men. And I prophesy that the possession of this son will turn out such a joy as befits our parting. And I intend myself to come to Greenland before the end.’ Leif gave her a gold ring, and a cloak of Greenland homespun, and a belt of (walrus) ivory. This boy came to Greenland, and was named Thorgils. Leif accepted paternity; some men say that this Thorgils came to Iceland in the summer of the Froda miracle. But anyhow Thorgils came to Greenland, where it was thought that there was something uncanny about him up to the last.

Leif and his men sailed away from the Hebrides, and reached Norway in the autumn. Leif joined the court of king Olaf Tryggvason. The king treated him with honour, evidently recognizing that he must be a man of good breeding.

One day the king spoke to Leif, and said, ‘Do you mean to go out to Greenland this summer?’ ‘Yes,’ said Leif, ‘with your consent.’ ‘I think it will be well,’ replied the king, ‘you shall go with my mission, and preach Christianity in Greenland.’ Leif said he would consider it, but added that he thought such a mission would have a difficult task in Greenland. The king, however, said that he knew no fitter person for it than he, adding, ‘you will bring it good luck.’ ‘If so, the luck will be solely derived from you,’ said Leif.[18]

Leif landed in Ericsfjord, and went home afterwards to Brattahlid, where he was well received. He soon started preaching about the country Christianity and the Catholic Faith, and published the message of King Olaf Tryggvason, and told how great glory and treasure accompanied this creed. Eric was slow to abandon his religion, but Thjodhild was soon won over, and she had a church built, though not in the immediate neighbourhood of the houses, which was called Thjodhild’s Church: there she, and her fellow-converts, who were many, used to offer up their prayers. Thjodhild would not live with Eric after her conversion, and this he took very much to heart.

Note. Thorgunna and the Froda Miracle. From the mention of the Froda miracle it is clear that this must be the same Thorgunna who is mentioned in the Eyrbyggja Saga (R. L. Stevenson’s Waif Woman). On the other hand, neither the chronology nor the description of Thorgunna can be reconciled in the two sagas. According to Eyrbyggja (chap. 50) Thorgunna came to Iceland in the summer in which Christianity was legally established (a.d. 1000), and the Froda miracle, which was concerned with her death, followed immediately afterwards; Thorgils, her son, could not therefore have come to Iceland at this time unless he accompanied her as an infant, and he is not stated to have done so. Again, though the Eyrbyggja Saga agrees in describing Thorgunna as a Hebridean, and states that she had valuable dresses and other property with her, it gives the following account of her personal appearance, which does not suggest the maiden victim of Leif’s early passion:—‘Thorgunna was a woman of great size, broad and tall and very fat, swarthy and with eyes set close together, with a quantity of brown hair; most men considered that she would have reached the sixties.’ The words in Eric’s Saga, ‘some men say’, suggest that there were various accounts of the matter. As the whole story of the Froda miracle is obviously incredible, there may well be some inaccuracy about the date of her arrival in Iceland, which is really all that is required to reconcile the two stories.