SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

The Date of the Saga of the Greenlanders 55
which, alas, too many of those who presume to write on
the Vinland voyages are unacquainted or read at best
with difficulty, I have ventured to translate Aldur
Gra:nlendinga sogu into English so that its conclusions
may reach a wider circle both of scholars and of the many
who possess an intelligent interest in the subject. My
translation is also intended as a tribute to one of the
finest historians Iceland has been fortunate enough to
possess, although unfortunately for so short a space of
time.
ProfessorJon Johannessori's widow, Guorun Helgadottir,
has graciously given her permission for the publication of
this translation.
My only addition is the genealogical table on p. 60.
The translation follows.
In volume IV of islenzk fornrit (1935) Matthias
I>or6arson edited the saga which he called Saga of the
Greenlanders (Gra:nlendinga saga) and which has since
then been known by that name. It does not exist in
a complete form or in anyone manuscript, but consists
of three parts found in the Great Saga of Oldfr Tryggvason
(Oldfs saga Tryggvasonar hin mikla) in Flateyjarb6k
(chs. 340, 342 and 427-433). Hereafter for the sake of
convenience the three parts will be referred to as A, B
and C. Part A (ch. I in Matthias :Por6arson's edition) is
found for the most part in other manuscripts of the Great
Saga of Oldfr, and these portions derive from the accounts
of the discovery of Greenland and its settlement recorded
in the Landndmab6k of Sturla :Por(5arson (died 1284). It
is thus clear that A cannot be the original beginning of the
saga, and we can say nothing about that with certainty
now. The closing passage in A, which lists the men who
went to Greenland with Eirikr and settled there, together
with Band C (chs. 2 and 3-9 in Matthias :Por6arson's