Page:The Finding of Wineland the Good.djvu/250

 182 THE FIXDIXG OF WINELAXD THE GOOD.

With the addition of a few minor details as to authorities, cited by Professor Storm, which additions are here itahcized, his summary is as follows:

' The first WTÍter in modern times to seek to determine Wineland's geographical situation was Arngrim Jonsson in " Gronlandia; " he, as well as all subsequent investigators, has employed to this end the passage in the Grœnlendinga-þáttr of the Flatey Book, in which mention is made of the duration of the shortest day in Wineland the passage under consideraiion']; but as to the significance of this passage many different opinions have been advanced, and, as far as I can see, there seem to be strong objections to them all. Arngrim Jonsson translated " sol in ipso solstitio hyberno, circiter 6 plus minus supra horizontem commorat; " he writes by way of caution " plus minus " [about], since he adds " sciotericiis enim destituebantur " [Gronlandia, ch. ix, p. jj of the Latin MS., gl. kg/. Sam/. [Royal Library of Copenli.] No. 2S-j6, 4to, but at p. J}, of the Icelandic printed text, heretofore cited, fromwhichlatter, however, all qualification is omitted, and the statement reads simply, " the sun could be seen fully six hours on the shortest day," " sva par matte sol sia urn skanidcigid sialft vel sex stundcr"]. This explanation was, doubtless, only known to the few Danish scholars of the seventeenth centur}', who had access to Arngrim's " Gronlandia; " it first became more widely disseminated in the Icelandic translation, which was published at Skálholt in 1688. Arngrim's explanation was also accepted bj' Torfæus in his " Vinlandia " [1705]: " Brumales dies ibi qvam vel in Islandia, vel Gronlandia longiores, ad horam nonam circa solstitia sol oriebatur, tertiam occidit " [Vinlandia, 1. c. pp. 6 and 7], although Torfæus remarks that this observation must, on account of the fruitfulness of the country, be regarded as inaccurate, since it points to a latitude of 58' 26'. While his work was in the press Torfæus became acquainted with Peringskiöld's—or more correctly the Icelander, Gudmund Olafsson's—translation in the printed edition of Heimskringla, which he properly enough rejected, but which caused him to undertake a renewed consideration of the subject. With the passage from Grágás [i. e. the passage defining " eyki"} as a basis, he now arrived at the following interpretation of this: " spatium qvod sol á meridie in occidentem percurrit, sex horas reqvirit, ex qvibus singuli trientes duas constituunt, bes desinit in horam qvartam pomeridianam." [Vinlandia, Addenda, pp. 6 and 7]. Now if " eykt " be four o'clock, p.m.— and the shortest day accordingly eight hours—Wineland's latitude becomes 49°, i. e. Newfoundland, or the corresponding Canadian coast. This new interpretation became, by reason of the attention which Torfæus' writings attracted in the learned world, most widely disseminated in the last century; thus we find it accepted by the German investigator, J. R. Forster, who concludes that Wineland was either Gander Bay or the Bay of Exploits, in Newfoundland, or on the coast of the northern side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence [ 49"] [Joh. Reinh. Forster, Geschichte der Entdeckungen und Schiff"fahrten im Norden, Frankf. 1784, p. 112]; the same interpretation is also accepted by Make Brun, Precis de la Géographie universelle, Paris, 1812, I. 394. Meanwhile, early in this century, Icelandic scholars began to advance a new view, which has gradually forced its way into general recognition. This view was first suggested by Vice-lawman Pall Vidah'n in his unpublished Skyringar, subsequently adopted by Bishop Finnr Jonsson [1772] in his Hist.