SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

188 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
various continents and countries were disposed within this
circle. 6 An Icelandic description of the world preserved
in a manuscript from c. 1300 says that waste lands lie
from Bjarmaland to Greenland, after which come
Helluland, Markland and, farthest south, Vinland. It
says that some people think that this projects from
Africa. In order to abide by the classical geographical
scheme, medieval geographers in Norway and Iceland
were obliged to make the Atlantic a kind of inland sea,
arrange the newly discovered lands around its edges and
make them connect with the old known world of Europe
and Africa. The author of the Eiriks saga was a man of
learning who took the opportunity of correcting old
misconceptions in the light of new knowledge. With his
grasp of geography he saw that Vinland could not be as
far north as the Gramlendinga saga would suggest - four to
five days' (some 108 hours') sail to the southwest of
Herj6lfsnes. He made his Vinland voyagers first sail
north past Vestribygg6 and Bjarneyjar (Disco). From
there they sail south. The author of the saga knew
something of the disposition of the lands of western
Europe, and in consequence he must doubtless have
realised that, if Vinland was connected to Africa, then
the distance to be sailed to Vinland by men starting from
Disco (about 70° N) must have been at least as great as
the distance between Trondheim and Portugal. This was
not to be covered in a mere five days or so, as in the
Grcenlendinga saga. The author of the Eiriks saga thus
finds it essential to make enormous increases in the
distances given in the older saga, his principal source.
His Vinland voyagers find long beaches in Markland which
they called Furoustrandir. Marvelstrands, - "it was such
a long business sailing past them" (Jones, p. 179). After
a rather hard winter in Straumfjoror the expedition
continues in the following summer "south around the
coast. " They sailed a long way and on until they
• See j on ]ohannesson, "Urn haf innan', Saga 1960, 17-28.