Thorfinn Karlsefni

“ Thorbiorn's and Thorgeir's father was the same Vifil, who came out to Iceland with Queen Aud, and who received from her the land on which he settled, Vifilsdale, as has been narrated in this saga, and is thus told in Landnáma: 'Vifil was the name of a freeman of Aud's... She gave him Vifilsdale, where he dwelt... His son was Thorbiorn, father of Gudrid, who married Thorstein, the son of Eric the Red, and afterwards Thorfinn Karlsefni, from whom are descended Bishops Biorn, Thorlak, and Brand. Another son of Vifil's was Thorgeir, who married Arnora,' &c. ”

“ Skalholt, Bishop of, ordered to inquire into affairs of Gardar bishopric, 73. Skalholt annals, extract, 69. Skrellings, 11; appearance, 36; trade with Northmen, 37; attack Northmen, 38-39; of Markland, 41; attack Thorvald, 55; trade with Thorfinn Karlsefni, 60; attack Thorfinn Karlsefni, 61-62. Slave-trade, Indian, 378. Slavery, Indian, and Columbus, 344. Snaefell, Eric sails to, 17, 46. Snaefells-iokul, Eric sails from, 17, 46. Snaefellsness, 18. Snorri, son of Thorfinn Karlsefni, 41, 43, 60, 66. Snorri, Thorbrand’s son, 30; accompanies Thorfinn Karlsefni to Greenland, 30 ”

“ King Olaf, Harald’s son, received no homage from Earl Thorfinn after he made the treaty with him and Brúsi.
Earl Thorfinn now became a powerful chief. He was a man of very large stature, uncomely, sharp-featured, dark-haired, and sallow and swarthy in his complexion. Yet he was a most martial-looking man, and of great energy; greedy of wealth and of renown; bold and successful in war, and a great strategist. ”

“ Thorfinn, however, was aware of the trap laid for him, and retired to the Islands. There Kali came up with him off Deerness, in Orkney, and a fierce battle took place, in which Kali was defeated. He fled southwards, and Thorfinn, following him, obliged him again to give battle at Baefiord, where he was again defeated, while Thorkel Fóstri fell upon Moddan at Thurso and slew him. Then, say the Sagas, Earl Thorfinn overran Scotland as far south as Fife, burning and slaying, and subduing the land wherever he went. By these conquests he became the most powerful of all the Earls of Orkney. ”

“ In the summer of 1006, according to the narrative of the “settlement effected in Vinland by Thorfinn,” “there arrived in Greenland two ships from Iceland; the one was commanded by Thorfinn, having the very significant surname of Karlsefn (i.e. who promises, or is destined to be an able or great man) , a wealthy and powerful man, of illustrious lineage, and sprung from Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Irish and Scottish ancestors, some of whom were kings of royal descent. ”

“ Thorkel left the islands suddenly, and went to Ness (Caithness) . He told Earl Thorfinn that he had become aware that Earl Einar had intended to kill him, if his relatives and friends had not given him warning. “And now,” he added, “I will avoid the risk of having such a meeting with the Earl as shall bring matters to a crisis between us, and I will go farther away, where his power does not reach me.”
Thorfinn persuaded him to go to King Olaf, in Norway, and spend the winter with him in great friendship; “for you will,” he said, “be highly esteemed wherever you come among noble men ”

“ After Thorstein rose and spoke, Christian burial was always used in Greenland. Next year came Karlsefni from Iceland, with two ships, and Eric received him kindly, and gave all his crew winter quarters. In summer nothing would serve Karlsefni but to search again for Vineland the Good. They took three ships and one hundred and sixty men, and south they sailed. They passed Flat Stone Land, where there were white foxes, and Bear Island, where they saw a bear, and Forest Land, and a cape where they found the keel of a wrecked ship, this they named Keelness. ”

“ Thorfinn next claimed two trithings of Orkney from his nephew Ragnvald, who demurred to giving up what the Norse king had conferred on him, but, finding he could not cope with Thorfinn's Orkney, Caithness and Scottish forces, Ragnvald fled to King Magnus, who gave him a force of picked men, and bade Kalf Arnason also to help him, although Kalf was Thorfinn's friend, and near connection by marriage. ”

“ Every day some men rowed out to sea and fished. There was an island in the bay where thousands of birds had their nests. The men gathered eggs here. [182]
"We have more to eat than we had in Greenland or Iceland," Thorfinn said, "and need not work at all. It is all play."
Near the end of summer Thorfinn spoke to his comrades.
"Have we not seen everything here? Let us go to a new place. We have not yet found grapes."
Thorfinn and Biarni and all their men sailed south again. But some of Eric's men went off in their boat another way. ”

“ EARL THORFINN SUBDUES THE ISLANDS. Now it is to be told of Earl Thorfinn that on the morning after the battle he sent boats to all the islands to search for the fugitives. Many were killed, and some were pardoned. Earl Thorfinn subdued all the Islands, and made all the inhabitants his subjects, even those who had sworn allegiance to Earl Rögnvald. Thorfinn then fixed his residence in the Orkneys, keeping a great number of men about him; he imported provisions from Caithness, and sent Kálf Arnason to the Sudreyar (Hebrides) , and ordered him to remain and maintain his authority there. ”

“ OF THE FAMOUS DEEDS OF EARL THORFINN. Earl Thorfinn made himself famous in the Orkneys by entertaining his own men and many other men of note throughout the winter, so that no one had to go to inns—providing food and drink at his own charges, in the same manner as chiefs in other countries, Kings, and Earls entertain their henchmen and guests at Christmas time. About this time Earl Brúsi died, and Earl Thorfinn took possession of all the islands. But of Rögnvald, Brúsi’s son, it is said that he was in the battle of Stiklestad [257] when King Olaf was killed. ”

“ He and his crew were driven to Ireland, where they were captured and sold as slaves, and that was all Thorhall got by worshipping the Red Beard. Karlsefni sailed south and reached a rich country of wild maize, where also was plenty of fish and of game. Here they first met the natives, who came in a fleet of skin-canoes. 'They were swarthy men and ill-looking, and the hair of their heads was ugly. They had great eyes and were broad of cheek.'
The Icelanders held up a white shield in sign of peace, and the natives withdrew. They may have been Eskimo or Red Indians. ”

“ King Karl then made his nephew, Moddan, Jarl of Caithness; he gathered many men in Sutherland (Sudrland) . When this news reached Thorfinn, he gathered warriors in Caithness, and Thorkel came to his assistance with a large force from the Orkneys. The Scots now found that Thorfinn had more men than they, and retreated; whereupon Thorfinn Jarl subjugated Sutherland and Ross, and ravaged widely in Scotland, and returned to Dungalsbæ (Duncansby) in Caithness. Moddan returned to King Karl in Berwick, who became very angry when informed of the treatment his nephew had received. ”

“ It signifies liberty, it signifies every thing that ennobles man. [Applause.] We find in the recent discoveries concerning his ancestors, that they came over in a ship, but that his ancestors’ name was Thorfinn. Well, Thorfinn is a Norwegian name, and it is not very easy to see how Thorfinn could be changed to Washington. But we see every day that strangers come here, and after some little time they change their names to some other taken from the new surroundings. We see it in Norway, often, that a man who has taken a new farm takes his name, not from the ancient farm but the new farm. ”

“ While they were in Vinland, Thorfinn and his companions had many battles with the natives, or Skraellings, and once Freydis, being with them, fought fiercely, killing many natives with her own hand. After spending three years in Vinland, Thorfinn and Gudrid went to Iceland, and remained there the rest of their lives, and the little boy, Snorri, lived and grew to manhood, and among his descendants was the great Danish sculptor, Thorwaldsen. ”

“ They then sailed south to Breidafiord in pursuit of King Karl, and when they came to Scotland they began to plunder. Then they were told that Earl Moddan was at Thurso, in Caithness, with a large army. He had sent to Ireland for men, because he had there many relatives and friends, and he was waiting for these troops. Then it was thought advisable that Thorkel should go to Caithness with a portion of the army; but Thorfinn remained in Scotland, and plundered there. Thorkel went secretly, because all the inhabitants of Caithness were true and faithful to him ”

“ Under heaven a braver leader
Ne’er was found than Einar’s brother. Earl Thorfinn was greatly supported by the King of Scots. This assistance being so near, it much increased his power in the Orkneys.
The King of Scots died after the reconciliation of the brothers. Karl Hundason [252] took the kingdom in Scotland. He considered Caithness to belong to him, as to the former kings, and demanded tribute from it as from other places. Thorfinn, however, did not think his inheritance from his mother’s father large, though he had Caithness ”

“ But this compact was thought unfair, as Brúsi had a son, by name Rögnvald, and Einar had no son. Thorfinn appointed his own deputies to manage his possessions in the islands, but he himself lived for the most part in Caithness.
In the summer Einar went on expeditions to Ireland, Scotland, and Bretland (Wales) . One summer, when ravaging Ireland, he fought in Ulfreksfiord [241] with Konufögr, [242] an Irish king, and was defeated, with a heavy loss of men. ”

“ Concerning Karlsefni and Thorhall.—It is said, that Thorhall wished to sail to the northward beyond Wonder-strands, in search of Wineland, while Karlsefni desired to proceed to the southward, off the coast. Thorhall prepared for his voyage out below the island, having only nine men in his party, for all of the remainder of the company went with Karlsefni. ”

“ He afterwards became the founder of a great family in Iceland, which gave the island several of its first bishops. Thorfinn finally left Vinland because he found it difficult to sustain himself against the attacks of the natives. The next to undertake a voyage was a wicked woman named Freydis, a sister to Leif Ericson, who went to Vinland in 1011, where she lived for a time with her two ships, in the same places occupied by Leif and Thorfinn. Before she returned, she caused the crew of one ship to be cruelly murdered, assisting in the butchery with her own hands. ”

“ Thorfinn said. "No house could feed eighty men [178] so long and not feel it. I never knew so generous a host before. But I have flour and grain and mead in my boat. You are welcome to all of it. You have only to open the doors of your own storehouses. It is a little gift."
So Eric used those things, and there was never a merrier Yule feast than in his house that winter.
When Yule was over, Thorfinn said to Eric:
"Gudrid is a beautiful and wise woman. I wish to have her for my wife."
"You seem to be a man worthy of her," Eric said. ”

“ Theodosius the younger becomes Emperor, i. 104104. Thorfinn ‘the Skull-cleaver,’ son of Einar, Norwegian earl of Orkney,—his wife Grelauga and their sons, i. 374-5374-5. Thorfinn, son of Sigurd the Stout, by the daughter of Malcolm II., i. 386386, 389389; war between him and his cousin Duncan, king of Scotia, 401401 seq.; iii. 31, 52, 54. See Caithness, Ingibiorg. Thorkell Fostri, leader of the Orkneymen in the war between Thorfinn and Duncan, i. 401-2401-2. See Thorfinn, son of Sigurd. Thorkell, Jarl, i. 420420. Thorstein the Red (Ostin) , attacks the northern provinces of Scotland, i. ”

“ Thus to meet the son of Brúsi.
When these Earls so fierce in battle
Close in fight, then will our case be
Hard beyond the case of most men
In this trial of our friendship. Earl Thorfinn selected the ablest of his men to man his ship, and then he went to see Kálf Arnason, and asked his assistance. He said that Kálf would not be able to buy king Magnus’s friendship, since he had already been banished, and was therefore unable to keep the king’s favour, even when they were once reconciled. ”

“ Then he called Earl Thorfinn’s messengers, and told them that he had received that portion of the Islands which they claimed as a fief from King Magnus, and that the King called it his patrimony. “It was therefore,” he said, “in the power of King Magnus to decide which of them should have it; and he would not give it up if the King wished him to retain it.”
The messengers went away, and told these words to Earl Thorfinn, adding that the third portion [which he had demanded] would certainly not be got without trouble. ”

“ Then there was mooted the project that Vinland, discovered some years before by Leif, should be explored and settled. Thorfin Karlsefni and his friend Snorri fitted out their ship for the adventurous voyage and Bjarni Grimolfson and Thorhall also joined with their ship. Thorhall had long served Red Erik as his huntsman. He was a man of great strength and gigantic stature. Erik’s third son Thorwald accompanied him. There was a third ship, the one in which Thorbjörn and Gudrid had arrived in Greenland. ”

“ After Thorfinn and Biarni had sailed for many days they landed on a low, green place. There were hills around it. A little lake was there.
"What is growing on those hillsides?" Thorfinn said, shading his eyes with his hand.
He and some others ran up there. The people on shore heard them shout. Soon they came running back with their hands full of something.
"Grapes! Grapes!" they were shouting. [183]
All those people sat down and ate the grapes and then went to the hillside and picked more.
"Now we are indeed in Wineland," they said. "It is as wonderful as Leif's stories. ”