THE NORSEMEN IN AMERICA.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 13, 23 December 1911, Page 14

THE NORSEMEN IN AMERICA.

DH. HANSEN'S CONCLUSIONS. Earl Curzon of Kodlcston presided at a Iccturo given by Dr. Fridtjof Nanscn on November (I on "Tho Norsemen in America" to tho members of tho Royal Goographic.il Society at the Burlington Theatre, Loudon. Among the largo company prosent wero Sir Clements H. Jlarkham, Admiral Sir Albert Markhnm, Admiral tho Hon. Sir E, I!. I'rcmantle, Admiral Sir Lewis Beaumont, the Marquis do Sovcral, Lord Glenconncr, tho Norwegian Minister, Major Leonard Darwin, Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich, Colonel Sir Charles AVatson, Sir E. Shackleton, Sir K. Im Thuni, Captain 11. 11. I'. Dcasy, Dr. Stein, and Colonel C. F. Close. The chairman said ho understood Dr. Nniisen was going to endeavour to penetrate and to dispel some of those clouds °t !r T = tcl '. v 'hat overhung the movements of those great navigators of his own raco who in centuries long ago were believed by somo to have made their way across the oceans to the mainland of America, lossibly, in doing so. ho would upset some accepted theories of history; it so, so much tho better, tor that was the object of tho geographers and scholars. But whatever records he gave them of the great and varied explorations of his ancestors of tho past, there would not l>o one among them who would reflect more credit upon the race from which he had sprung than their distinguished guest, Dr. Nansen._ (Cheers.) Dr. N'ansen, in the course of his lecture said that in tho early Middle Ages northern England was near the border of the known world. A new epoch was introduced by tho Norsemen, who, with their romarkable capacity for expansion, extended their wanderings over Western and Southern Europe, penetrating into tho vast unknown regions iu the North. Tho first English information as to these discoveries of tho Norsemen was met with in King Alfred s Anglo-Saxon edition of Orosius's history at tho close of tho Ninth Cen'l' c ky far the most important part of our knowledge of the discoveries of the Norsemen was derived from the Norse-Icelandic literature of the Twelfth, thirteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. Ho proposed to discuss what tho old literature had to tell them about the !\orse discoveries, and especially what that wonderful land called \\ ineland the Good." Whilst most liistorinns were agreed that Hoetramanna;nnd, or Great Ireland, and the account ot Arc Marston's voyage thither were merely legendary, it had been universally accepted as an established fact that Ninehind was some part of America, and that the accounts of the discovery of that country and voyages thither were historical. His researches had, however, led liiiu to very different views. According to what was considered to be the most trustworthy accounts, AYincyas discovered by I.eif, the son of I'.no the Red, who discovered Grecnland. Loif had set out to Greenland to lntroducis Christianity, but lie was driven *! u Ti°'i ''i s S"" 1 '* 0 ' nn( ' " fo1 ' a long time "rilled about in the sea, and came upon countries of which before lie had no suspicion. There were self-sown wheatnckw. and vines grew there." He also found largo trees, which ho look home to Greenland, where ho introduced Christianity. Ho was afterwards called Loif the Lucky. The saga of Eric tho Red, in which tho story was told, was generally considered to bo the most trustworthy o-A rCo, nn J'"' s was ,lot written till -at) or 300 years after the events had occurred, and, unfortunately, earlier literal uro contained hardly anv indication of Ulos ,f "AVinelund" or <V ineland Ihe Good" was mentioned, mil. nothing was told about its discovery, u .. "Flakvjarbok," written about 13Sf. they found quite a different •s ory about the. voyages to AVineland, stating: IJinv Hie. land ivns Hiscovcml I>r a man called Bjarnc Horialfsson. It seemed to him to bo weakening their, I*!}', > a - ( h« story. But if one's faith in the accounts of the AVincland voyages was seriously shaken bv HcU sueh as I hose, he thought it onld bo still more so bv studying the details of the accounts in the saga of Frio the Red. Tho oldest known description of AVineland was Adam of Bremen s. ~,,,1 ,| resembled closelv the legendary ideas met with in earlier I'ilerature. In Icelandic literature AVinoland mn if I mcn , ( . i l ono< l, >>>" -Vrn Frodo in iiin, but he did not mention what, and ( , v,„ ! i rr » , wa f- T,l ° probability ',= CS ,. Mlnclllm ' ,« s 11 fairyland nf ii V supported by tho mention of it in ho Landnamabok" as Ivimr near nootramannaland. a mythical land from Irish legends. In Erie (he Red's wiea they got a description of the land, and the likeness between it and Isidore's writincs Oil tho Fortunate Isles was so close that ho did not think it could be explained away as fortuitous. The lee. landers midit have taken their descrip"Welly from Isidore's "Ilispalensls - . , Tllis seemed probable, esporiallv as Isidore was well known in Iceland. IJiero seemed little doubt that there was a. close connection between some of tho Irish hv*<?nds and tho Tcolundio tal<\s of voyages to AVineland and the other hinds in tho Wfst. After detailing tho points Oi resoinblanco ho oamo to tho ronoluwon that tho whole narrafivn of the \\ ineland voyages was a mosaic, of one after another gathered from East and A\cst. ■ But even if tho romnnco of the voyages was for the most part invented, the chief persons themselves might be more or less historical, and thero wero various features* in the description which seemed to indicate a certain knowledge of the rea.l conditions in the north-east coast of America. This Fcomcd to be borno out by the siniilarity belwepn tho ball gamo of lacrosse which was played by tho Indians of the north-east of North America and the aneiont Norse ball-game "knatt-leike." The results of those investigations would be, then, that tho Norsemen discovered America and had intercourse with the land and tho natives, .probably durin." somo long period; but the narratives of the discovery and of 1 the voyages to AVineland wero 'legendary.