SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Saga-Book of the Viking Society
But this does not solve all the difficulties. Jon Johannesson's
essay was the beginning of the study of these sagas,
but he did not live to finish the work and much remains to
be done. His most significant conclusions were these:
that the author of Eiriks saga used the Grcenlendinga saga
as his chief source, but that he treated it very freely,
rearranging it and altering it in various places to fit in
with his predetermined aim. For example, he makes
Eirik the Red get into rough seas and be driven about the
"inner ocean" in order to display his knowledge of
geography: while in the Gra:nlendinga saga it is J:>orsteinn
Eiriksson who spends a whole summer tossing on the sea,
not knowing where he was going. An excellent example
of the author's method is seen in the chapter about
:Porfinn Karlsefni's trading with the Skrcelings. In the
Gra:nlendinga saga J:>orfinn and his men exchange food
for furs. "Now the Skrselings carried away their (newly
acquired) wares in their stomachs, while Karlsefni and
his companions kept their bags and their furs." In the
Eiriks saga the description is embellished further. The
settlers pay for the skins with finery. The trading of
Greenlanders with the Skrcelings and of Norwegians with
the Lapps could doubtless provide authority for such
a description; but the trading of the Skrselings with the
settler :Porfinn requires other terms. Food was easier for
him to barter with than finery, stuff he is in any case
unlikely to have had with him.
The two sagas differ chiefly in their handling of the
story of Leifr heppni. Gunnlaugr Leifsson, monk of
:Pingeyrar (died 1219), wrote a history in glorification of
the proselytizing monarch, Olafr Tryggvason. In it he
makes Leifr the discoverer of Vinland and the man who
converted the Greenlanders to Christianity. Gunnlaugr
had greater respect for the Church than for strict veracity,
and he is reckoned a rather unreliable historian. He sets
Leifr up as a champion of Christianity, and it may be that
Leifr quickly made himself a supporter of the faith in