AJ-056: Saga of Eric the Red

              


    THE SAGA OF ERIC THE
RED    33

keel of a ship, and
they called it there Kialarnes [Keelness];
they also
called the strands Furdustrandir
[Wonder-strands],
because they were so long to sail by.'
Then the country be-
came indented with bays, and they
steered their ships into a
bay. It was when Leif was with
King Olaf Tryggvason, and he
bade him proclaim
Christianity to Greenland, that the king
gave him two
Gaels; the man's name was Haki, and the wom-
an's Haekia.
The king advised Leif to have recourse to these
people,
if he should stand in need of fleetness, for they
were
swifter than deer. Eric and Leif had tendered
Karlsefni
the services of this couple. Now when they had
sailed past
Wonder-strands, they put the Gaels ashore,
and directed them
to run to the southward, and
investigate the nature of the
country, and return again
before the end of the third half-day.
They were each clad
in a garment, which they called ""kiafal,"" 2
which was
so fashioned, that it had a hood at the top, was open
at
the sides, was sleeveless, and was fastened between the
legs
with buttons and loops, while elsewhere they were
naked.
Karlsefni and his companions cast anchor, and lay
there dur-
ing their absence; and when they came again,
one of them
carried a bunch of grapes, and the other an
ear of new-sown
wheat. They went on board the ship,
whereupon Karlsefni
and his followers held on their way,
until they came to where
the coast was indented with
bays. They stood into a bay
with their ships. There was
an island out at the mouth of
the bay, about which there
were strong currents, wherefore
they called it Straumey
[Stream Isle]. There were so many
birds 3 there, that it
was scarcely possible to step
between
    1 The language of the
vellum AM. 557 is somewhat different in this and
the
previous sentence. It does not say that ""they sailed
southward along
the land for a long time, and came to a
cape,"" but, ""when two doegr had
elapsed, they descried
land, and they sailed off this land; there was a cape
to
which they came. They beat into the wind along this coast,
having the
land upon the starboard side. This was a bleak
coast, with long and sandy
shores. They went ashore in
boats, and found the keel of a ship, so they
called it
Keelness there; they likewise gave a name to the strands and
called
them Wonderstrands, because they were long to sail
by.""
    2 AM. 557 says biafal.
Neither word has been
identified.
    3 Hauk's Book says
""eider-ducks.""