SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Saga-Book of the Viking Society
radically the episode about Leifrs search for lands and
strike out everything which could not be reconciled with
the story that Leifr found Vinland on his homeward
voyage from Norway. Some details he ascribed to
Porfinnr Karlsefni and his companions, such as the
naming of the new lands. Indeed he seems to have been
very partial to Karlsefni and Gu6ritir, even more so than
the author of the Saga of the Greenlanders, although the
difference between the two is not great in that matter.
Most significant, however, is his displacement of the
account of Eirikr the Red. According to the Saga of the
Greenlanders Leifr asked his father, Eirikr, to head the
exploratory expedition. After some hesitation Eirikr
agreed to this, but changed his mind when his horse
stumbled, throwing him and hurting his foot, as he was on
his way to the ship. This tale could not be used by the
author of the Saga of Eirikr, for he believed that Leifr
sailed from Norway while Eirikr was in Greenland. He,
therefore, chose to connect this tale about Eirikr with the
exploratory voyage of the latter's son, Porsteinn. These
differences clearly illustrate the author's method, and they
cannot be explained in any acceptable way if one believes
that the Saga of Eirikr preserves older traditions than the
Saga ofthe Greenlanders. In the second place, the author of
the Saga of Eirikr has added some details. He relates that
Eirikr, on the morning he was to depart on the voyage,
took a chest containing gold and silver and hid it. Then,
when Eirikr was thrown from his horse and hurt, the
author has him blame his fall on the fact that he hid the
chest. Sven B. F. Jansson has, however, pointed out
that in this matter the Saga of the Greenlanders preserves
an older mode of thought, in that it relates that it was the
fall from his horse that caused Eirikr to change his mind.!"
It would be instructive to continue this comparison of
the two sagas, but more will not be attempted here.
One must, however, remember that it may well be that
18 Sagorna om Vinland I, 130-132.