Page:The Finding of Wineland the Good.djvu/235

 the latter group]. It may be, that the first or Godthaab ruins, are upon the site of the Western Settlement, and the second, or Julianehaab group, upon that of the Eastern Settlement. It is not apparent, however, whether the Western uninhabited region was between Godthaab and Julianehaab or beyond Godthaab to the north, but it seems clear, that Erics-firth, Hrafns-firth, Snowfell, Hvarfsgnipa, and Ericsey, were all situated upon the western coast of Greenland.

(26) This Ingolf was called Ingolf the Strong [hinn sterki]. There is some confusion in Landnáma concerning his genealogy; he was probably a son of one of the Icelandic colonists, named Thorolf Sparrow [spǫrr]. His home, Hólmslátr [Holm-litter], was on the southern side of Hvamms-firth.

(27) Thorbiorn's and Thorgeir's father was the same Vifil, who came out to Iceland with Queen Aud, and who received from her the land on which he settled, Vifilsdale, as has been narrated in this saga, and is thus told in Landnáma: 'Vifil was the name of a freeman of Aud's... She gave him Vifilsdale, where he dwelt... His son was Thorbiorn, father of Gudrid, who married Thorstein, the son of Eric the Red, and afterwards Thorfinn Karlsefni, from whom are descended Bishops Biorn, Thorlak, and Brand. Another son of Vifil's was Thorgeir, who married Arnora,' &c. [Landnáma, pt. ii, ch. xvii.] The estate which Thorbiorn received with his wife, and upon which he lived after his marriage, called Laugarbrekka [Warm-spring-slope] on Hellisvellir [Cave-fields], is situated on the southern side of Snowfells-ness, near the outer end of that cape. Arnarstapi [Eagle-crag], where Gudrid's foster-father lived, was a short distance to the north-east of Laugarbrekka.

(28) Thorgeirsfell was upon the southern side of Snowfells-ness, to the eastward of Arnarstapi.

(29) The simple fact, that Thorgeir was a freedman, would seem to have offered no valid reason for Thorbiorn's refusal to consider his son's offer for Gudrid's hand, since Thorbiorn was himself the son of a man who had been a thrall; the real ground for his objection was, perhaps, not so much the former thraldom of Einar's father, as the fact that he was a man of humble birth, which Thorbiorn's father, although a slave, evidently was not.

(30) Hraunhöfn [Lava-haven] was on the southern side of Snowfells-ness, nearly midway between Laugarbrekka and Thorgeirsfell. It was this harbour from which Biorn Broadwickers'-champion set sail, as narrated in Eyrbyggja.

(31) Lítil-vǫlva. The word vǫlva signifies a prophetess, pythoness, sibyl, a woman gifted with the power of divination. The characterization of the prophetess, the minute description of her dress, the various articles of which would seem to have had a symbolic meaning, and the account of the manner of working the spell, whereby she was enabled to forecast future events, form one of the most complete pictures of a heathen ceremony which has been preserved in the sagas.

(32) The expression 'Leif had sailed' ['Leifr hafði siglt'], would seem to refer to an antecedent condition, possibly to the statement concerning the arrival of Thorbiorn and his daughter at Brattahlid; i.e. 'Leif had sailed,' when they arrived. If this be, indeed,