Saga of the Greenlanders

Like the Saga of Erik the Red, it is one of the two main sources on the Norse colonization of North America.

The saga recounts events that purportedly happened around 1000[1] and is preserved only in the late 14th century Flateyjarbók manuscript.

Later, Thorvald, Leif's brother, sets sail to Vinland and lives there until he gets killed by the natives in a combat.

The final expedition is made by Freydís, who sails to Vinland with the brothers Helgi and Finnbogi but eventually slaughters their crew and returns to Greenland.

The current consensus is that although certain parts of the saga are fanciful, much appears to be based on historical truth.

Erik the Red emigrates from Norway to Iceland with his father, Thorvald Asvaldsson, to avoid murder charges.

Erik departs Iceland near Snæfellsjökull and arrives at the glacial coast of Greenland where he then sails south searching for habitable areas.

After two years of exploring, he returns to Iceland and tells of his discoveries, giving Greenland its name as a way to attract settlers.

A man named Bjarni Herjólfsson has the custom of spending alternate winters in Norway and in Iceland with his father.

After sailing for three days from Iceland, Bjarni receives unfavorable weather, north winds, and fog and loses his bearing.

Bjarni finds two more lands, but neither of them matches the descriptions he has heard of Greenland, and therefore, despite the curiosity of his sailors, he does not go ashore.

Setting sail from Brattahlid, Leif and his crew find the same lands Bjarni has discovered earlier but in the reverse order.

In the spring, the expedition sets sail back to Greenland with a ship loaded with wood and grapes.

Setting sail with a crew of 30, Thorvald arrives in Vinland where Leif has previously made camp.

The natives, called Skraelings by the Norsemen, return with a larger force to attack Thorvald and his men.

The expedition never reaches Vinland, and after sailing the whole summer, the ship ends up back at the coast of Greenland.

During the winter, Thorstein falls ill and dies but speaks out of his dead body and tells the fortune of his wife Gudrid.

He predicts that Gudrid will marry an Icelander and have a long line of "promising, bright and fine, sweet and well-scented" descendants.

Thorstein foresees that once her husband passes she will travel abroad once again, going south on a pilgrimage, and then return to her farm in Iceland.

Freydís Eiríksdóttir, daughter of Erik the Red, proposes a voyage to Vinland with the brothers Helgi and Finnbogi, offering to share the profits fifty-fifty.

This agreement is made to ensure that neither side has an unfair advantage against the other, but Freydis quickly double-crosses her partners by bringing along 5 extra men.

Finnbogi explains his dislike for the ill feelings between the two parties and hopes to clear the air with Freydis.

Once back home, Freydis returns to the farm and ensures that her crew is well rewarded for the trip to Vinland in order to keep them quiet about her dastardly deeds.

The saga ends with what seems to be an attempt to establish its credibility: "Karlsefni has accurately related to all men the occurrences on all these voyages, of which somewhat is now recited here.

[16] Later, in 1978, Ólafur Halldórsson argued that the two Icelandic sagas were written independently in the early thirteenth century, holding that Jóhannesson's analyses and conclusions were quite debatable.

Ólafur Halldórsson argued in 1986 that the story about how Gudrid first appeared in Greenland was entirely fictitious despite her prominent role in the saga.

[26] Moreover, Helgi Þorláksson pointed out that toward the end of the saga, it is mentioned that Gudrid became a nun and a hermit at Glaumbær in Skagafjörðr, while in fact the referenced nunnery was constructed at a different place named Reynisnes.

[28] The story in the Saga of Erik the Red of Leif's visit to Norway and later evangelization in Greenland under the commission of King Óláfr is considered to be concocted by the monk Gunnlaugr Leifsson,[29][30] as early historical accounts show that neither King Óláfr nor Leif seems to have actually engaged in the conversion of Greenland; the absence of such a story in the Saga of the Greenlanders thus makes it appear more reliable than the Saga of Erik the Red .

[34] Another noteworthy discrepancy between the two sagas lies in their different versions of the story of Erik's tumbling from his horse and injuring his foot before his voyage.

It has been argued by Sven B. F. Jansson that this distinction exemplifies how the Saga of the Greenlanders "preserves an older mode of thought.