SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Observations on the Discoveries of the Norsemen 191
son The name Greenland was a carrot which Eirikr
the red dangled in front of the Icelanders to lure them to
that country; it was the first of the "Go west, young man!"
type of advertisement. The Fostbraora saga (ch. 22) tells
us that "drinking parties were rare in Greenland". This
is one of the most melancholy sentences in all the old
Icelandic writings. What name would sound so sweetly
in the ears of parched Greenlanders as "Wineland the
good"?
However this may be, the most important single result
of these observations is that the Eiriks saga must be
dismissed from the discussion of the Vinland problem, and
we must restrict ourselves to the Grcenlendinga saga alone.
But if anyone should still want to find the Straumfjoror
and the Hop mentioned in the Eiriks saga, he ought to
begin his search to the north of Faxafl6i in Iceland. That
should save him from crossing the brook to fetch water.