Eirik the Red's Saga

A TRANSLATION

READ BEFORE THE
LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
OF LIVERPOOL,

JANUARY 12TH, 1880,

BY
THE REV. J. SEPHTON.

1880.

CONTENTS.

1. How Vifil, Gudrid's grandfather, came to Iceland.

2. Of Eirik the Red, and his discovery of Greenland.

3. Gudrid's parentage, and the emigration of her father, Thorbjorn,
and his family to Greenland.

4. Eirik's family, and his son Leif's discovery of Vinland.

5. Gudrid marries Thorstein, son of Eirik the Red. [Sickness and
death of Thorstein.]

6. Gudrid marries Karlsefni.

7. Karlsefni's expedition to Vinland. The first winter is passed at
Straumsfjordr.

8. Fate of Thorhall the Sportsman.

9. The second winter is passed at Hop.

10. Dealings with the Skroelingar.

11. Fight with the Skroelingar.

12. Return to Straumsfjordr.

13. The slaying of Thorvald by a One-footer. The colonists return
to Greenland after passing the third winter at Straumsfjordr.

14. Heroic magnanimity and fate of Bjarni.

15. Gudrid's descendants.

[Olaf, who was called Olaf the White, was styled a warrior king. He
was the son of King Ingjald, the son of Helgi, the son of Olaf, the
son of Gudred, the son of Halfdan Whiteleg, king of the Uplands (in
Norway). He led a harrying expedition of sea-rovers into the west, and
conquered Dublin, in Ireland, and Dublinshire, over which he made
himself king. He married Aud the Deep-minded, daughter of Ketil
Flatnose, son of Bjorn the Ungartered, a noble man from Norway. Their
son was named Thorstein the Red. Olaf fell in battle in Ireland, and
then Aud and Thorstein went into the Sudreyjar (the Hebrides). There
Thorstein married Thorid, daughter of Eyvind the Easterling, sister of
Helgi the Lean; and they had many children. Thorstein became a warrior
king, and formed an alliance with Earl Sigurd the Great, son of
Eystein the Rattler. They conquered Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, and
Moray, and more than half Scotland. Over these Thorstein was king
until the Scots plotted against him, and he fell there in battle. Aud
was in Caithness when she heard of Thorstein's death. Then she caused
a merchant-ship to be secretly built in the wood, and when she was
ready, directed her course out into the Orkneys. There she gave in
marriage Thorstein the Red's daughter, Gro, who became mother of
Grelad, whom Earl Thorfinn, the Skullcleaver, married. Afterwards Aud
set out to seek Iceland, having twenty free men in her ship. Aud came
to Iceland, and passed the first winter in Bjarnarhofn (Bjornshaven)
with her brother Bjorn. Afterwards she occupied all the Dale country
between the Dogurdara (day-meal river) and the