Had been
interpolated in a later period; as St Rembert, the immediate successor of
Ansgar, and who wrote his life, only mentions the Sueones, Danes, and
Sclavonians, together with other nations in the north; and even Adam of
Bremen only mentions these three, and other neighbouring and surrounding
nations[2]. Hence the authority of St Rembert and Snorro Sturleson remains
firm and unshaken, in spite of these falsified copies of the papal bull and
imperial patent; and we may rest assured that Iceland was not discovered
before 861, nor inhabited before 874; and that Greenland could hardly have
been discovered previous to 982, or 983, and was not inhabited before 985
or 986. - Forst.
[1] Forster, Voy. and Disc. 79.
[2] Vit. S. Anscharii, ap. Langeb. Script. Dan. I. 451. Ad.
Brem. Hist. Eccles. Lib. I. cap. 17.
CHAP. III.
Early Discovery of Winland by the Icelanders, about A.D. 1001.[1]
The passion which the Nordmen or Normans had always manifested for maritime
expeditions, still prevailed among them in the cold and inhospitable
regions of Iceland and Greenland. An Icelander, named Herjolf, was
accustomed to make a trading voyage every year to different countries, in
which latterly he was accompanied by his son, Biorn. About the year 1001,
their ships were separated by a storm, and Biorn learned on his arrival in
Norway that his father had sailed for Greenland, to which place he resolved
to follow his father; but another storm drove him a great way to the
south-west of his intended course, and he fell in with an extensive flat
country covered all over with thick woods; and just as he set out on his
return, he discovered an island on the coast.
