Sturdy Viking ships sailed throughout the seas of northern Europe in the ninth century, and in 860 reached Iceland, where a few Irish monks who had crossed the sea in skin boats lived in isolated huts. Thousands of settlers followed, and by 930 Iceland had a population of about thirty thousand. Having few natural resources, it depended on trade, exporting wool and sheepskins in exchange for grain, timber, and many other products. It also exported poetry, for the Icelanders developed a rich oral tradition of stories about kings, heroes, and ordinary people, known as sagas, which were written down later in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries.

The sagas, full of violence, jealousy, sex, and ambition, relate events from the first generations after Iceland was settled. These include the settlement of Greenland in the 980s by Eirik the Red and the establishment of two villages on its west coast. Here the Vikings came into contact with indigenous Inuit people, whom they called Skraelings. Sailing farther westward brought them to the east coast of Canada, which they named Vinland because of wild grapes or grapelike vines growing there.

The voyages to Vinland are described in two sagas, but for centuries these were discounted as myth, thought to be merely one of the many legends contained in sagas. However, archaeological finds in the 1960s proved that the Vikings really were in Newfoundland, although debates continue about the location of various landscape features mentioned in the sagas. But there is no debate that the sagas present a vivid picture of the men and women who sailed and settled the northern seas, as well as glimpses of the people they encountered.

There was a man called Thorvald, who was the father of Eirik the Red. He and Eirik left their home [in Norway] because of some killings and went to Iceland…. Eirik’s slaves started a landslide that destroyed the farm of a man called Valthjof, so Eyjolf Saur, one of Valthjof’s kinsmen, killed the slaves…. For this Eirik killed Eyjolf Saur…. Eyjolf’s kinsmen took action over his killing, and Eirik was banished.

[After killing several more people in disagreements over property, Eirik was sentenced to outlawry, and set out from Iceland in search of land he had heard about.] He put out to sea past Snaefells Glacier . . . and in the spring went to Eiriksfjord [in Greenland], where he decided to make his home. That summer he explored the wilderness to the west and gave names to many landmarks there. [The next] summer Eirik set off to colonize the country he had discovered; he named it Greenland, for he said that people would be much more tempted to go there if it had an attractive name….

Eirik was married to a woman called Thjodhild, and had two sons, Thorstein and Leif; they were both promising young men…. Leif sailed to Norway, [and on sailing back to Greenland] ran into prolonged difficulties at sea, and finally came upon lands whose existence he had never suspected. There were fields of wild wheat growing there, and vines, and among the trees there were maples. They took some samples of all these things….

[The next year] there was great discussion at Brattahild [Eirik’s farm in Greenland] about going in search of Vinland, where, it was said, there was excellent land to be had. The outcome was that Thorfinn Karlsefni [Leif’s brother-in-law] and Snorri Thorbrandsson prepared their ship and made ready to search for Vinland that summer…. Altogether there were 160 people taking part in this expedition. [They sailed west and after sighting land] unloaded their ships and settled down [in this place], which they named Straumfjord. They had brought with them livestock of all kinds and they looked around for natural produce…. They stayed there that winter, which turned out to be a very severe one…. [In the spring] they sailed south for a long time and eventually came to a river that flowed down into a lake and from the lake into the sea…. Here they found wild wheat growing in fields on all the low ground and grape vines on all the higher ground…. They stayed there for a fortnight, enjoying themselves and noticing nothing untoward. They had their livestock with them. But early one morning as they looked around they caught sight of nine skin-boats. The men in them were waving sticks which made a noise like flails . . . then they rowed away south round the headland….

They stayed there that winter. There was no snow at all, and all the livestock were able to fend for themselves. Then early one morning in spring, they saw a great horde of skin-boats approaching from the south, so dense it looked as if the estuary were strewn with charcoal; and the sticks were being waved from every boat. Karlsefni’s men raised their shields and the two parties began to trade. What the natives wanted most to buy was red cloth; they also wanted to buy swords and spears, but Karlsefni and Snorri forbade that. In exchange for the cloth they traded grey fur pelts. [Several weeks later] Karlsefni’s men saw a huge number of boats coming in from the south, pouring in like a torrent. There was a fierce battle and a hail of missiles came flying over, for the Skraelings were using catapults. This terrified Karlsefni and his men so much that their only thought was to flee, and they retreated farther up the river. They did not halt until they reached some cliffs, where they prepared to make a resolute stand.

Freydis [the daughter of Eirik the Red, who was on the expedition with her husband] came out and saw the retreat. She shouted, “Why do you flee from such pitiful wretches, brave men like you? You should be able to slaughter them like cattle. If I had weapons, I am sure I could fight better than any of you.”

The men paid no attention to what she was saying. Freydis tried to join them but could not keep up because she was pregnant. She was following them into the woods when the Skraelings closed in on her. In front of her lay a dead man, Thorbrand Snorrason, with a flintstone buried in his head, and his sword beside him. She snatched up the sword and prepared to defend herself. When the Skraelings came rushing toward her she pulled one of her breasts out of her bodice and slapped it with the sword. The Skraelings were terrified at the sight of this and fled back to their boats and hastened away. Karlsefni and his men came over to her and praised her for her courage….

Karlsefni and his men had realized by now that although the land was excellent they could never live there in safety or freedom from fear, because of the native inhabitants. So they made ready to leave the place and return home…. They returned to Straumfjord, and spent the third winter there. But now quarrels broke out frequently; those who were unmarried kept pestering the married men….

They set sail before a southerly wind and reached Markland, where they came upon five Skraelings — a bearded man, two women, and two children. Karlsefni and his men captured the two boys, but the others got away…. They took the boys with them and taught them the language, and baptized them…. Finally they reached Greenland, and spent the winter with Eirik the Red.

Source: Excerpts from pp. 76–78, 84–86, 93–95, 98–100, 102–103 in The Vinland Sagas, translated with an Introduction by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson (Penguin Classics, 1965). Copyright © Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson, 1965. Used with permission of Penguin Group (UK).

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