Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 3.djvu/357

 KINGS OF NORWAY. 345 called Thorvald; and they dwelt at Gardar, which is now a appendix. bishop's seat. She was a haughty proud woman ; and he was but a mean man. She was much given to gathering wealth. The people of Greenland were heathen at this time. Biarne came the same summer with his ship to the strand * which his father had sailed abroad from in spring. He was much struck with the news, and would not unload his vessel. When his crevv asked him Avhat he intended to do, he replied, that he was resolved to follow his old custom of taking up his winter abode with his father. " So I will steer for Greenland, if ye will go with me." They one and all agreed to go with him. Biarne said, " Our expedition will be thought foolish, as none of us have ever been on the Green- land sea before." Nevertheless they set out to sea as soon as they were ready, and sailed for three days, until they lost sight of the land they had left. But when the wind failed, a north wind with fog set in, and they knew not where they w^ere sailing to ; and this lasted many days. At last they saw the sun, and could distinguish the quarters of the sky ; so they hoisted sail again, and sailed a whole day and night, when they made land. They spoke among themselves about what this land could be, and Biarne said that, in his opinion, it could not be Greenland. On the question, if he should sail nearer to it, he said, " It is my advice that we sail close up to this land." They did so ; and they soon saw that the land was without mountains (fielde), was covered with wood, and that there were small hills inland. They left the land on the larboard side, and had their sheet on the land side. Then they sailed two days and nights before they got sight of land again. They asked Biarne if he thought this would be Greenland ; but he gave his opinion that this land was no more Greenland than the land they had seen before. " For on Greenland, it is said, there are great snow-mountains." They Iceland at a place called Dropstock,— but of a natural feature of ground; Eyri, still called an ayre in the Orkney Islands, being a flat sandy tongue of land, suitable for landing and drawing up boats upon. All ancient dwellings in those islands, and probably in Iceland also, are situated so as to have the advantage of this kind of natural wharf; and the spit of land called an ayre very often has a smaU lake or pond inside of it which shelters boats.
 * iEyrar. This is not the name of a place, — for Heriulf dwelt in