In The Same Year Thorstein, The Third Son Of Eric-Raude, Set Sail For
Winland, Taking With Him His Wife,
Gudridthe daughter of Thorbern, with his
children and servants, amounting in all to twenty-five persons; but they
were forced
By a storm on the western coast of Greenland, where they were
obliged to spend the winter, and where Thorstein died, with a large
proportion of his retinue, probably of the scurvy. Next spring Gudrid took
the dead body of her husband home; and Thorfin, surnamed Kallsefner, an
Icelander of some consequence, descended from King Regner-Lodbrok, married
the widow of Thorstein, from which he considered himself entitled to the
possession of the newly discovered country. He accordingly sailed for
Winland with a vast quantity of household furniture, implements of all
kinds, and several cattle, and accompanied by sixty-five men and five
women, with whom he began to establish a regular colony. He was immediately
visited by the Skraellingers, who bartered with him, giving the most
valuable furs for such wares as the Icelanders had to give in exchange. The
natives would willingly have purchased the weapons of the Icelanders, but
this was expressly and judiciously forbidden by Thorfin. Yet one of them
found means to steal a battle-ax, of which he immediately made a trial on
one of his countrymen, whom he killed with one blow; on which a third
person seized the mischievous weapon and threw it into the sea. During a
stay of three years, Thorfin acquired a large stock of rich furs and other
merchandize, with which he returned to Greenland; and at length removing to
Iceland, he purchased an estate in the northern part of Syssel, and built a
very elegant house which he called Glaumba.
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