THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 30, 1939 TO-DAY'S STRANGE STORY OF REAL PEOPLE
MYSTERY OF LEIF ERICSSON
By VINCENT TOWNE
No one seems to have doubted the assurance of our schoolbooks that Columbus discovered America until some bookworm, delving into certain musty records of Norway, came across a collection of manuscripts known as "The Sagas." These writings, handed down from father to son in a few Scandinavian familles, remained tuck- ed away in the libraries of Norway and Sweden until first translated into English for the United States Colum- bian Exposition, where they were exhibited.
that
From the Sagas we learn about the year 984, a young Norse- man, "Eric the Red," so-called be- cause of the colour of his hair, killed a man in his native land and fled to Iceland. There he lived for some years until banished for a similar crime, when he sailed westward to Greenland.
The next year, after having re- turned to Iceland, he revisited Green- land with a large fleet of ships filled with immigrants; but one of these vessels was driven far off her course and Bjarni Herjulfson, her com- mander, coasted on a strange land to the south-west which on his final arrival at Greenland he reported to be a long and level coast country from which it took him nine days to return.
In the the meantime, Leif, a son of Eric (whence his name Ericsson) sailed back to Norway, the forbidden land of his father, and found that country just in the act of embracing the Christian creed, which he also ac- cepted. Returning to Greenland with a priest, he introduced the religion Into that island, where he establish- ed churches.
Leif, upon hearing of the view which Biarni had had of the land to the southwest, took with him а group of his companions, set sail for the new continent about the year 1,000, and, after having been on his way for a number of days, found a country whose barren shore stretch- ed back to ice-covered mountains. This place, now thought by some to have been Labrador or Newfound- land, he called "Helluland," on ac- count of the number of stones on the beach,
. Further south he came to a sandy coast with a level forest country back of it, and this, supposed to have been Nova Scotia, he called "Markland," on óccount of its trees. Proceeding fur- ther southward he found flowing into a large expanse of water a river, up which he sailed and on whose shores He built huts to lodge in during the winter.
He sent out exploring parties and, because these found an abundance of grapes in the surrounding country, he called the place "Vinland."
The whole region which he explor- ed after this last landing is thought to be that extending from Boston to Providence, Rhode Island, and irregu- larly to the west, touching about the neighbourhood of Woonsocket.
The next year, Thorwald, a brother of Leif, is said to have gone to Vin- land with a single ship, passing three winters there, making explorations south and west and. discovering a race of broad-faced natives, who of- *****fered "furs in exchange for coloured
cloth.
Later still, according to the Sagas, Thorfin Karlsefne, another Norseman, arrived in Greenland. and married Gudrid, a widow, who induced him to make explorations in Vinland, whi- ther they embarked, taking with them live, stock and other necessities and their son, called "Snorre," is believed by some to have been the first white child born on the American continent. A colony, known as Norumbega, is said to have been founded by Thorfin, but within, a few years it was abandoned, the early settlers being unable to en- dure the attacks of the natives.
The river up which Laif sailed after leaving "Markland" is now supposed by some ethnologists to have been the Charles, in Massachusetts, and the colony of "Norunbega" is believed by these to have been upon the present
WIGLEY-
Thorwald Discovered a Race of Broad-Faced Natives.
Page 15:
the Sagas, and some ethnologists ar- rived at the conclusion that one of them was the house of Leif Ericsson himself and the other of Thorbrand- son, one of his companions. They are built of rough boulders without mor- tar, and their very roughness and un- eveness bear indications of their hav- ing been heaped one on top of the other without the use of metal tools for shaping them in any way,
An ancient stone tower in Touro Park, Newport, R. I., is alleged by some archeologists to have been a Norse temple erected by Ericsson's colonists, while other authorities have branded it as but a windmill tower erected by the English during the
seventeenth century.
A skeleton found near Fall River, Mass., in 1835, lay within fragments of armour which some of our anti- quarians have classed as Scandinavian, But while all of these ruins and relics have convinced certain scientists that the Sagas are true, many other authorities brand the statements con- tained in these records as mere myths. The great historian, George Bancroft, was one who denied that the Norse- men ever reached America before the coming of Columbus.
site of Watertown. Ruins exhumed formed and that they were most close- at Watertown some 45 years ago were ly' paralleled by the ancient architec- at first thought to have been of In- ture of the Norsemen. dian origin, but Prof. Gerard Fowke Among them were the foundations of Cambridge arrived at the conclusion of two structures, 15 feet wide by 40 that they differed from any work feet long, fitting the description of or which the American Indian ever per- certain "long houses". mentioned
66
FRIDAY
EXTRA SPECIAL
1st
Whether Leif Ericsson was a myth the discoverer of America or in neither will probably never be known.
DECEMBER
ST. ANDREW'S NIGHT “GALA”
IN THE
GRIPPS" HONGKONG
THREE ACTS
HOTEL
INTRODUCING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HONG KONG ON THIS SPECIAL OCCASION
JUNE WEST & KAY
ARISTOCRATS OF THE DANCE
MIGNONE
AMAZING ACROBATIC DANCER
AND
THE EVER POPULAR
DAVE HARVEY AND THE DYER SISTERS
WITH
NICK KORIN and HIS BAND
A
EXTENSION 2 a.m. ———— SCOTTISH MENUS DINNER $5 NO EXTRA COVER CHARGE. EARLY RESERVATIONS SUGGESTED
PHONE: 30281
THE HONGKONG & SHANGHAI HOTELS, LTD.
7
Page 15Page 16