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Observations on the Discoreries of the Norsemen 181
on p. 3 of his book. Collisions of various kinds occurred
between the English and the Icelanders, and it is probable
that similar collisions occurred in the fifteenth century in
Greenland, and that strife of this kind contributed towards
the destruction of the settlements. The angagok says that
the Greenlanders who escaped the attack of the pirates
fled to the Eskimoes.
The disappearance of the ancient colony in Greenland
must have been the result of many factors. We lack all
kinds of evidence, and the lack is most seriously felt in the
field of Eskimo archaeology, where our knowledge is still
no more than rudimentary. It is certain that the riddle
of the fate of the Greenland settlements will not finally be
solved until that archaeology is built on much more
extensive and solid foundations than at present.
Vinland the good.
In his history of Hamburg (written c. II7o), Adam of
Bremen says that many men had found an island out in
the ocean which they called Vinland, because vines
flourished there and fields gave crops without being sown.
This information reached him from the court of the Danish
king, Sveinn Ulfsson, and it is the earliest mention of
Vinland.
When Ari the Wise wrote his j slendingab6k about II30,
Vinland was so well known in Iceland that, when he
describes Eskimo dwellings in Greenland, he can say that
they are the sort of people "who lived in Vinland, and
whom the Greenlanders call 'Sknelings'" Every Icelander
would know what he was talking about.
But the Greenlanders of Ari's day were not so knowledgeable
about the location of the land as to make
unnecessary the journey in IIZI of Eirik, Bishop of
Greenland, "to look for Vinland". This much we know
from Icelandic annals, though they unfortunately neglect
to add whether he succeeded. Three years later a new
bishop of Greenland was consecrated, and this suggests