.

'^W^'.

PROFESSOR ANDERSON'S WORKS.

NORSE MYTHOLOGY;

ok,

The Religion of Our Forefa-

thers. Containing all the Myths of the Eddae, carefully systematized and interpreted. With an Introduction, Vocabulary,

and Index.

47-3

pages, crown 8vo; cloth, $2.50; cloth, gilt edges,

$3; half calf, $5.

"Prof. Anderson's work is incomparably superior to the already

books of this order. '"Sa^ibner's Monthly.
"We have never seen so complete a view of the religion of the
Norsemen." ^iS^io^^eca Sacra.
"No such account of the old Scandinavian Mythology has
hitherto been given in the English language. It is full, and elucidates the subject from all points of \iew."Presbyterian Qtiarterly and Princeton Review.
"The exposition, analysis, and interpretation of the Norse
Mythology leave nothing to be desired. The whole structure and
framework of the system are here; and, in addition to this, copious literal translations from the Eddas and Sagas show the
reader something of the literary form in which the system found
permanent record. Occasionally entire songs or poems are presented, and, at every point where they could be of service, illustrative extracts accompany the elucidations of the text.
" Prof. Anderson, indeed, has left little to be performed by
future workers in the special field covered by his present work.
* * His work is very nearly perfect." A^j^^^eto/i's Journal.
existing

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. A

Historical

Sketch of the Discovery of America by the Norsemen in the

10th century; with an Appendix on the Historical, Literary and
Scientific value of the Scandinavian Languages. $1.00.
"

The book

is full

of surprising statement, and will be read with

something like wonderment."iVo^es and

VIKING TALES OF THE NORTH.

DEN NORSKE MAALSAG.

Queries.,

London.

Price $2.00.

Price $1.00.

IN PREPARATION.
THE ELDER EDDA;
2 vols.,

OB,

Cub Old Nobthebn Geandmother.

crown 8vo.

THE YOUNGER EDDA.

For further

1 vol.

notices see back

part of

this volume.

America not Discovered by Columbus.

AN HISTOEICAL SKETCH

IN THE

TENTH CENTURY.
si

By RASMUS

B.

ANDERSON,

A.M.,

PKOFKSSOR OF THB SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES IN THK UNIVERSITY OF WISCONBIN HONOBARY

UEMBEB OP THE ICELANDIC LITERARY SOCIETY AUTHOR OF " NORSE MYTHOLOGY,"
"VIKING TALE3 OF THK NORTH:" " DEN NORSKK MAALSAG," ETC. ETC.
;

WITH AN APPENDIX
ON THE

HISTORICAL, LINGUISTIC, LITERARY

AND SCIENTIFIC VALUE

OP THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

^V.

NEW AND IMPROVED

S.

C.

EDITION.

CHICAGO:
GRIGGS AND COMPANY

LONDON: TRttBNER
187

7.

& CO.

COPTRIGHT,

By

S. C.

1874,

GRIGGS AND COMPANY.

KNIQHT & LEONARD, PRINTERS, CHIOAQO.

PEEFACE.
"TN
-^

the author has freely

preparing this sketch,

made

use

such

of

material

he considered

as

valuable for his purpose from the works of Torfseus,

C. C. Kafn, J. T. Smith,
vier,

B. F.

M.

R.

others,
S.

De

Costa, A. Davis,

Ballantyne, P. A.

and he

N. L. Beamish, G. Gra-

is

Washington Irving,

Munch, R. Keyser, and

under special obligations to Dr.

H. Carpenter, of the University of Wisconsin,

for

valuable suggestions.

This sketch does not claim to be without

may seem

The

style

that

the reader will be generous in

author
the

dull and heavy, but

who now makes

American

public.

it is

faults.

hoped

criticising

an

his first appearance before

The

of

object

this

sketch

has been to present a readable and truthful narrative

of the Norse discovery of America, to create some
interest in the people, the literature,
institutions of

Norway, and

and the early

especially in

that lonely and weird island,

the

Iceland,

Ultima Thule

PREFACE.
of the

Greek Philosophers; and of the good or

ill

performance of the task, a generous public must be

the judge

University of Wisconsin,
June 18, 1874.

CONTENTS,
CHAPTER

I.

The Norsemen, and other Peoples, interested

in
35

THE Discovery of America,

CHAPTER

n.

Norse Literature has been Neglected by the

Learned Men of the Great Nations,

CHAPTER

in.
45

Antiquity op America,

CHAPTER
Phenician, Greek, Irish, and

IV.

Welsh

CHAPTER

Who Were

41

47

V.

the Norsemen?

CHAPTER

Claims,

49

VI.
52

Iceland,

CHAPTER

VII.

58

Greenland,

CHAPTER
The Ships of the Norsemen,

VIII.
61

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

IX.

The Sagas and Documents are Genuine,

CHAPTER
Bjarne Herjulfson,

64

X.
68

986,

CHAPTER XL
Leif Erikson,

71

1000,

CHAPTER
Thorvald Erikson,

75

1003,

CHAPTER
Thorstein Erikson,

XII.

XIII.

78

1005,

CHAPTER

XIV.

Thorfinn Karlsefne and Gudrid,

1007,

79

84

85

CHAPTER XV.
Other Expeditions by the Norsemen,

CHAPTER

XVI.

The Discovery of America by Columbus,

CHAPTER

XVII.
93

Conclusion,

APPENDIX.
The Scandinavian Languages,

95

NEW

PREFACE TO THE

SINCE

the

EDITION.

edition of this little

first

book was

published, the discovery of America has received

much

The

attention.

Irish, the

claims of the l^orsemen, the

Welsh, and even of the Chinese, have

all

been warmly advocated.

new

In presenting this

er's attention to

edition of

"America not

we

desire to call the read-

some of the

literature that has ap-

discovered by Columbus,"

We

pass

the newspaper and magazine

arti-

peared since the publication of our volume.

over in silence

all

cles and reviews, confining ourselves to what has been

put in book form.

1.

Immediately

after the publication of our book,

in 1874, appeared a very remarkable work, by Aaron

Goodrich, entitled, "

Achievements of the

so-called Christopher

History of the Character and

Columbus,

with numerous Illustrations and an Appendix " {New

York, D. Appleton

Columbus

a fraud,

&

Co.).

Goodrich pronounces

and denounces him

perfidious and cruel.

He

careful study of the life

as

mean,

selfish,

has evidently

made

a very

of Columbus, and we have

looked in vain for a satisfactory refutation of his

state-

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

In Mr. Goodrich's book

ments.

will

be found a brief

but tolerably accurate sketch of the Norse discovery

of this continent.
2.

In 1875 appeared the following books

{a) "

The

Island of Fire," by P. C. Headley.

Its

ninth chapter treats of the discovery of America bythe ]^or semen.

{h) "

Young

Folks' History of the United States,"

by Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

ter treats of the
(c)

Its fourth chap-

Norse discovery.

"A

States,"

Grammar School History of the United

by John J. Anderson (New York). The first

section gives a synopsis of the

Norse discovery.

{d) "Lectures delivered in America," by Charles

Kingsley.

The

third lecture

is

upon the

first

discov-

ery of America.
{e)

"Fusang, or the

Discovery of America by

Chinese Buddhist Priests, in the Fifth Century," by

Charles G. Leland.

This work recognizes, on page

32, the claims of the

Norsemen, but presents an older

claim by the Chinese, showing that a Buddhist

or missionary,

named

monk

Hoei-shin, returned in the year

499 A.D. from a long journey to the East.

country that Hoei-shin visited

is

The

claimed to be Old

and }^ew Mexico, and was called by him Fusang.

The monk had found

in this

new and

strange country

PREFACE TO THE
an abundance of the

which he

maguey

EDITION.

plant, or great cactus,

called fusang, after a Chinese plant slightly

resembling

and

it,

country

the

NEW

this

name (Fusang) he
book

Leland's

itself.

applied to

worth

well

is

reading.

(/) In July, 1875, was held, in Nancy, France,

the first meeting of the Congres International des
Americanistes, a society which has been organized for
the sole purpose of thoroughly investigating the pre-

Columbian history of the American continent.

The

Gompte rendu of this session has been published in

two large octavo volumes, by Maisonneuve

Paris.

In the

first

ble papers on the discovery of

cians, Chinese, Irish,

et

many

volume will be found

Cie.,

valua-

America by the Pheni-

Norsemen, "Welsh

and on the

relation of these discoveries to the transatlantic voy-

ages
will

by Columbus. The second meeting

of this society

be held, September, 1877, in Luxembourg, and

there can be

no doubt that

will in course of time

it

produce a unique library of papers and discussions on

pre-Columbian America.
the savans

We

who assembled

are glad to notice that

Nancy

in

in

1875 fully

recognized the claims of the Norsemen.*

*To
Caton's
S. C.

this

list

"Summer

might be added Bayard Taylor's "Egypt and Iceland;"

in

Norway;"

Griffin's

"My

Abbott's "Christopher Columbus;" in

are vindicated.

Aaron QoodricU.

The

all

Danish Days;" and John

of which the Norse claims

last is in part a reply to the

above-mentioned worl? of

PREFACE TO THE

10

(a) "

An

American in Iceland," by Samuel Knee-

Its fourteenth chapter is

land.

and discussion of the

(h) "

min

EDITION.

In 1876 appeared

3.

tion

NEW

discovery of America.

America discovered by the Welsh," by Benja-

Bowen

F.

devoted to a presenta-

ISTorse

(Lippincott, publisher).

The voyages

of the Norsemen, in the tenth and eleventh centuries,

are set down, on page 23, as being too well authenti-

cated to admit of any doubt, and the book gives an

interesting

and elaborate discussion of the Welsh

covery of America, in

and his
assign

tlie

year 1170, by Prince

followers, in order, as the author says,

them

their rightful place in

American

dis-

Madoc
"to

history."

And, indeed, these various pre-Columbian discoverers

are gradually receiving recognition in

tory

American

his-

It used to be the custom to pass over these

early visitors to our continent in utter silence or with

a contemptuous fling at them, as though they were

mere myths, created only

for the purpose of tickling

the vanity of the different nationalities.

It gives us great pleasure to

none of the recent

neglected to
coverers.

call

be able to state that

histories of the

United States have

attention to the pre-Columbian dis-

Mr. John Clark Eidpath writes the

page of his work as follows

"

title-

History of the

United States of America, from the aboriginal times

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

day

to the present

origines
coveries
etc.

"

embracing an account of the Ab-

Norsemen

the

11

in the

New World

the dis-

by the Spaniards, English, and French,

etc.

and part II of the work begins with a detailed

account of the Norse discoveries.

In William Cullen Bryant's large history of the

United

States,

now being

published,

of the United States, from the

we

find the fol-

"A Popular

lowing very interesting title-page:

History

discovery of the

first

Western Hemisphere by the Northmen

to the

end of

of the States;" and a

the First Century of the

Union

large portion of the first

volume of that great work

is

devoted to an elaborate account of the discovery of

the American

Welsh,
it

etc.

continent

This

is

right,

and are glad of

will rise again,"

the claims of the

it.

by the

Norsemen,

Irish,

and therefore we approve

"Truth crushed

to earth

and in the growing recognition of

Norsemen

to the

honor of having

discovered America in the tenth century

is

a beautiful

illustration of the truth contained in this sentence.

While the various

admit the

fact that

writers here alluded to freely

the Norsemen, as

w^ell as others,

discovered and explored parts of America long before

Columbus, they are unwilling to believe that there

is

any historical connection between the discovery of the

Norsemen and

that of

Columbus

or, in

other words.

PREFACE TO THE

12
that

Colnmbus

profited in

NEW

EDITION.

any way by the Norsemen's

knowledge of America.
This

the

is all

more

singular, since

none of them

even try to deny the statement made by Fernando

Columbo,* his

son, that

he (Christopher Columbus)

not only spent some time in Iceland, in 1477, but

sailed three

hundred miles beyond, which must have

"We

brought him nearly within sight of Greenland.

are informed that he

was an earnest student and the

He

best geographer and map-maker of his day.

was

a diligent reader of Aristotle, Seneca

Why

not also of

Adam

of Bremen,

and Strabo.

who

in his vol-

ume, published in the year 1076, gave an accurate

and well authenticated
England)

account of Yinland

Is it not fair to say that

Adam

(New

Columbus must have read

of Bremen's book, and that he in 1477

went

explore and reconnoitre the old northern route by

and Helluland

of Iceland, Greenland, Markland

Yinland ?

We

must

insist that it

is,

to

way
to

to say the least,

highly probable that he had in some

way

obtained

knowledge of the discoveries of the Norsemen in the

western ocean, and that he thought their Yinland to
The statement

is

found in Chapter

iv of the biography,

which the son

of Christopher Columbus. Fernando, wrote of his father, and which was

published in Venice in 1571.

Columbo."

Its title is,

"Vita

dell'

admiraglio Chrisophoro

PREFACE TO THE

NEW

13

EDITION.

But no matter what

be the eastern shores of Asia.

We know

induced him to go to Iceland."^

positively

went there and even three hundred miles

beyond it. The last Norse voyage to America of
which we have any account was in the year 1347, and
that he

possible,

is it

we

ask, that

Columbus could

visit Ice-

land only 130 years later and learn nothing of the

famous Yinland the Good

We

firmly believe in evolution so far as the dis-

covery of America

is

We believe

concerned.

that the

voyages of the Phenicians and of the Greek Pytheas

^/

were the germ that budded in the explorations of Irish

Welshmen and Norsemen, and culminated

in the dis-

Columbus added

covery of America by Columbus.

the last link of the golden chain that was to unite the

two

continents.

scholar,

who

We

believe that

industriously studied

scripts that contained

Columbus was a

all

books and manu-

any information about voyages

and discoveries that his searching mind sought out the

;

writings of Adam of Bremen, that well-known historian

who

in the most unmistakable

and emphatic language

speaks of the ISTorse discovery of Yinland; that the

The

famous geographer Malte-Brun suggests, iu his Histoire de

G^ographie,

ii,

pp. 395, 499, that Columbus,

the Norse discoveries beyond Iceland, for

and

all

Paschal

when

Rome was

in Italy,

then the world's center,

information of importance was sent there; and

II

we know

appointed Erik Upsi Bishop of Viuland in the year

that Erik Upsi

went personally to Vinland

in 1121.

la

had heard of

that

Pope

1112,

and

NEW

PREFACE TO THE

14

EDITION.

information thus gathered induced

voyage to Iceland.

And

conviction

the firm

we

thus

that

him

to

make

his

are able to explain

Columbus invariably

ex-

we

can

pressed in reference to land in the west

thus

account for the absolute certainty and singular firmness with which he talked of land across the ocean

and thus we can account

for his accurate

knowledge

of

the breadth of the ocean.

Many have

Columbus never

objected that

tained an idea of discovering a

was

new world, but

Why

that he

What

in search of a western route to India.

enter-

of

it?

could not Columbus have supposed that the

Yinland, which the Norsemen had found, and which

Adam

of

Bremen wrote

about,

was the very India

which he wanted to find a western route?

all

he wanted to

know

if

he ever had such an

opinion he must certainly have gotten

cific

Grant that

was, whether land could be

found by sailing westward,

Iceland.

to

The Norsemen had not

it

confirmed in

discovered the Pa-

Ocean, and Columbus might well have believed

that the
If

Norsemen had

discovered India.

Columbus had learned

in Iceland,

why

did he not

of Yinland

sail

when he was

farther north instead

of going so far to the south that he reached the

In(iia Islands instead of

New England?

has frequently been urged,

West

This question

and we reply, that the

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

Icelanders

have told him,

must
that

their Sagas,

far

they state

as

in

Yinland was

to the south of

Irland-it-Mikla, or Great Ireland

16

that this Great Ire-

land extended certainly as far south as the present

and hence his shortest and most pleasant

Florida,

route would be to

sail

about due-west from Spain.

Granting that America had not yet been found, any

South European navigator,

who had examined

IS'orse

in described,

would

feel sure

of reaching Irland-it-Mikla

by taking about the same course

as did

In presenting these arguments,

ment

the Old

Sagas, and wanted to re-discover the lands there-

that

detracting

ing him as a

dinary

man

all

fruit

that

his

of patient

discovery

of

and persevering

the geographical information within his

and not a matter of chance, baseless specula-

tion, or as

We

thorough scholarship, great

by showing

America was the

reach,

of

"We are rather vindicat-

good judgment, in short a man of extraor-

ability,

study of

Columbus.

repeat a state-

we have made elsewhere, that we are not

in any way from the great and well-de-

served fame of Columbus.

research,

we

some would

like to

have

it,

inspiration.

examined carefully the

traditions

found in Plato of an island Atlantis, that

had been

believe he

swallowed

up by the waves; we believe he read

what Dioduros says about Phenician merchants who

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

16

were driven by storms out of their course and found

a fertile land to the west of Africa

had read

Adam

we

believe

rest satisfied, before

he had undertaken that perilous

voyage to Iceland and heard from the very

Norsemen themselves, the

the

he

of Bremen, and that he could not

lips of

sagas relating to Yin-

land and Great Ireland.

We

neglected

mention in our

to

the two remarkable visitors

to

first

America,

edition

Are

Mar-

son and Bjorn, the Champion of Breidavik; and

we

gave Gudleif Gudlaugson but a passing notice, for the

reason that their voyages are in no really historical

connection with the voyages of

Leif and Thorvald

Erikson and Thorfinn Karlsefne.

The Landnamabok

and Eyrbyggja Sagas give elaborate accounts of these

adventurers, the substance of which

The powerful

chieftain,

in Iceland, was,

in

is

as follows

Are Marson,

of Reykjanes,

the year 983, driven to Great

Ireland (the country around the Chesapeake Bay) by

storms, and

was there baptized.

this account

was

The

first

author of

his contemporary, Rafn,

surnamed

the Limerick-trader, he having long resided in Limerick, in Ireland.

Frode, the
self a

son,

first

The

illustrious Icelandic sage.

compiler of Landnama,

Are

who was him-

descendant in the fourth degree from Are Marstates

on

this subject that

his

uncle, Thorkel

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

17

Gellerson, (whose testimony he on another occasion

declares to be

worthy of

all credit,)

had been informed

by Icelanders, who had their information from Thorhnn

Sigurdson, jarl of Orkney, that

Are had been

recog-

nized in Great Ireland, and could not get away from

there, but

ment

was there held

This

in great respect.

therefore shows that in those times (A.

state-

D. 983)

there was an occasional intercourse between the w^est-

ern part of Europe (the Orkneys and Ireland) and the

The

Great Ireland or Whiteman's Land of America.

Saga

(Landnamabok, Landtaking Book, Domesday

Book) expressly

states that

Great Ireland

sailing west

from Ireland

some mistake or

YI

and Professor Rafn

the opinion that the figures

YI

the

lies to

west, in the sea, near to Yinland the Good,

days'

w^as of

have arisen through

carelessness of the transcriber of the

original manuscript,

which

roneously written for

XX,

is

now

lost,

and were

XI, or perhaps

would better correspond with the

XY,

distance.

er-

which

The

mis-

take might easily have been caused by a blot or defect

in the manuscript.
It

must have been

in this

same Great Ireland that

Bjorn Asbrandson, surnamed the Champion of Breidavik, spent the latter part of his

life.

He

had been

adopted into the celebrated band of Jomsborg warriors, that

Dr. G.

W.

Dasent describes in his " Yikings

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

18

of the Baltic," under Palnatoke, and took part with

them

in the battle of Fyrisval, in

Sweden.

His

illicit

amatory connection with Thurid of Froda (River Frod)

in Iceland, a sister of the powerful Snorre

Gode, drew

upon him the enmity and persecution of the

latter, in

consequence of which he found himself obliged to quit

the country for ever, and in the year 999 he set

sail

from Iceland with a northeast wind.

'

Gudleif Gndlaugson, brother of Thoriinn, the anSnorre Sturleson,

cestor of the celebrated historian,

had, as related in Chapter I of this volume,

trading voyage to Dublin, in Ireland; but

left

made

when he

that place again, with the intention of sailing

round Ireland and returning to Iceland, he met with

long-continuing northeasterly winds, which drove him
far to

the southwest in the ocean, and late in the

summer he and

his

company came

tensive country, but they

was.

On

their landing, a

knew

at last to

an ex-

not what country

crowd of the

hundreds in number, came against them, and

hands on them, and bound them.

anybody

in the crowd, but

their language resembled

it

Irish.

it

natives, several
laid

They did not know

seemed to them that

The

natives

now

counsel whether they should kill the strangers or

took

make

While they were

deliberating, a large

company approached, displaying

a banner, close to

slaves of them.

NEW

PREFACE TO THE
which rode a

was

far

man

19

EDITION.

of distinguished appearance,

advanced in years, and had gray

who
The

hair.

matter under deliberation was referred to his decision.

He was

He

above-named Bjorn Asbrandson.

the

caused Gudleif to be brought before him, and, address-

ing him in the I^orse language, he asked him whence

On

he came.

Bjorn made

his replying that

many

he was an Icelander,

inquiries about his acquaintance in

Iceland, particularly about his beloved

Thurid of Frod

Kiver, and her son Kjartan, supposed to be his

son,

and who

estate of

at that

Frod River.

In the meantime, the natives

becoming impatient and demanding a

selected twelve of his

them

company

cision.

decision,

as counselors,

Bjorn

and took

some time afterward he

aside with him, and

went toward Gudleif and

them

own

time was the proprietor of the

his

companions and told

that the natives had left the matter to his de-

He

thereupon gave them their liberty, and

advised them, although the

summer was

already far

advanced, to depart immediately, because the natives

were not to be depended on, and were

difficult to deal

with, and, moreover, conceived that an infringement

on their laws had been committed

tage.

He

sword

for Kjartan,

to their disadvan-

gave them a gold ring for Thurid and a

and told them to charge his friends

and relations not to come over to him, as he had now

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

20

become

old,

and might daily expect that old age would

get the better of him; that the country was large,

having but few harbors, and that strangers must every-

where expect a

hostile reception.

company accordingly

'

Gudleif and his

and found their

set sail again,

way back

to Dublin,

the next

summer they

where they spent the winter but

;

repaired to Iceland, and de-

livered the presents, and everybody was convinced

that

it

was

Bjorn Asbrandson, the Champion of

really

Breidavik, that they had

met with

in

that

far-off

country.

An

American

poet, G(eorge) E. O(tis), published

poem based on the

Bjorn Asbrandson. The name of the

in 1874, in Boston, a very pleasant

saga narrative of

poem

is

" Thurid."

The above

"Antiquitates Americanse,"

is

narrative, taken

from

merely a brief abstract

of the sagas which, in the case of Bjorn, as the reader

may

easily imagine, is brimful of dramatic

interest.

The Landnamabok and

and poetic

the Eyrbyggja Saga

are of vital importance to every one

who would make

a study of the discovery of America by the Irish, but

as

we

expect at some future day to be able to give

to the public a complete translation of all the old

Norse sagas treating of voyages

tinent,

we must

Anent

to the western con-

pass on to another subject.

the Dighton Eock,

we have had some

corre-

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

spondence with

Elislia Slade, Esq., of Somerset, Bristol

Before giving his letters

county, Massachusetts.
will

say,

general,

in

21

that

until

sufficient

we

proof of

some other origin of the Newport Tower and the

Dighton Rock inscriptions are given, we

them

in claiming

as relics of the

shall persist

Now

Norsemen.*

please read the following letters:

Somerset, Bristol County, Massachusetts,

December 17, 1875.

Dear

Sir,

take pleasure in forwarding to your

address a stereoscopic view of the celebrated Dighton

Rock, situated in Taunton River,

at

low water mark,

three miles north of Somerset, on the eastern bank

of the river.

As you
much

the subject of

well know, the rock has been

learned

discussion

various

at

times since the landing of the Pilgrims.

Dighton Rock

Geologically,

is

silicious

stone of the upper Silurian period,

and,

sand-

think,

belongs to the Helderberg group, stratified as you

see in the picture, the stratifications at right angles
to the face

and

deposited in

parallel to the surface

still

water;

is

was probably

a boulder and not in situ.

I have carefully measured the rock, and the following is the result of my work:
The face of the rock, on which are the inscriptions,
* We are fully aware that the Copenhagen runologists do not regard the
Dighton Rock Inscription as a work of the Norsemen. But in the first place
the writing is not claimed to be runic, but Roman. Prof. Rafn himself did
not try to show more than two or three runic letters in it. And in the second
place we are not aware that either Stephens or Worsaae have ever made any
careful examination of the inscription. When they have made a thorough
study of it and reported, we are willing to accept their decision on the subject.

NEW

PREFACE TO THE

22

EDITION.

has an angle of 47 to the horizon, and the surface

(not seen in the picture) as
is

it

slopes toward the shore

mean 25 to the horizon.

The mean height of the rock on

in the

the ground
Its

Its

mean length on its surface is

mean width is 3,384 meters.

Its contents
Its

weight

its

face

above

1,293 meters.

is

is

1,768 meters.

above ground is 3,871 cubic meters.

9,071,023 kilogrammes.

In viewing the rock, you are looking in a southmore nearly SS.E. by

easterly direction, or, perhaps,

compass, but the magnetic needle here has a

the

variation of 11 03' west of north.

The rock

is almost covered with water at high

and can only be seen to advantage at low tide.
The inscriptions on the rock are from one-eighth

tide,

to

three-eighths of an inch

made

deep.

At

the time

nearly

all

it

of the chalk

was photographed
marks myself, and no chalking was made where
I

was not j^lainly visihle to

and many marhings ])artly obscure were not

cutting in the roch

the

the eye^

touched^

thus giving the roch the benefit of all possible douht.

Captain A. M. Harrison, in charge of the United

work on Taunton
was present when the photograph was taken,
and he is engaged upon a history of the Norsemen's
discovery of America, in connection with Dighton
Eock, by request of the United States government.
His report, when completed, will be a valuable

States Coast Survey, engaged in

River,

work.

I am,

my

dear

Your obedient

sir,

very respectfully.

servant,

Elisha Slade.

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

It has so frequently

23

been claimed that the inscrip-

on Dighton Kock are nothing but " Indian

scrawls," hence we WTote to Mr. Slade, asking him
tions

whether they could,

in his opinion,

with stone implements.

Here

is

have been made

his

answer:

Somerset, Bristol County, Massachusetts,

March

Dear

Sir,

You

ask

my

13, 1876.

opinion as to the instru-

ments used in cutting the inscriptions on Dighton

Eock.
I think they were iron implements, and
that they were in the )iands of a skilled mechanic
a JS'orseman worthy of the name.
I do not know
that my opinion on this question is of any consequence, still I have seen work undoubtedly performed
by an aboriginal American with flint and stone tools,
but the characters were not nicely edged, as these

are.

I cannot believe they were

made by

the lazy

Indian of Schoolcraft.
I have a decided interest in the JSTorsemen's visit

New

England, for Thorfinn must have been well

with Somerset, my native town.
He
must have seen Taunton Eiver as I see it, with
Mount Hope and JSTarragansett bay, and seen the
same sun rise over the same hills and set behind
fhe same ridge 865 years ago.
It is not impossible
that Snorre was born in Somerset.
to

acquainted

Ever truly yours,

Elisha Slade.

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

24

In reference to

this

curious rock

only refer the reader to Chapter

we

XIY

will

now

of this book.

From Joseph Story Fay, Esq., of Wood's Holl,

Massachusetts, we have received the following very
interesting paper on "The Track of the Norsemen,"
which we recommend to the careful perusal of our
Before presenting it, however, we will rereaders.
mark that the name Hope is found in Thorfinn Karl" Karlsefne sailed with
sefne's Saga, where we read
:

people into the mouth of the river (Taunton

his

River),

Hope)."

and

and

they

Hope

signifies a

is

called

the

Hop (Mount

place

from the Icelandic

hojpa^ to recede,

bay or the mouth of a

The

river.

description in the saga corresponds exactly with the

present situation of

Fay's paper.

(We

Mount Hope Bay.

publish

it

Here

is

Mr.

by permission of the

author.)
It is

now

well established that in the tenth cent-

ury the Norsemen visited this country, and coasting

down from Greenland, passed along Cape Cod, through
Vineyard Sound to Narragansett Bay, where it is beIn the neighborhood of Assonet
lieved they settled.
and Dighton, inscriptions upon the rocks have been

and traditions exist that there were others,

which have been destroyed. The name of Mount
Hope is supposed to have been given to the Indians
by them, and it is a little curious that those antiquaries

found,

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

who have
Bay with

26

names in J^arragansett
Norsemen did not look elsewhere on

tried to identify the

the

their route.

The Rev.

Isaac

"

Words and

the author of

Taylor,

published by Macmillan

&

Co., of

work

London, entitled

upon the tenacity with

which the names of places adhere to them, " throwing
light upon history when other records are in doubt."
He shows the progress and extent of the Celtic, Norwegian and Saxon migration over Europe, by the
names and terminals which still exist over that continent and even on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea,
and says, ''the knowledge of the history and migrations of such tribes must be recovered from the study
Places," dilates

of the names of

the* places

they once inhabited, but

which now know them no more, from the names of

the hills which they fortified, of the rivers by which
they dwelt, of the distant mountains upon which they
gazed."

He

says,

without exception

"In the Shetlands, every local name

is Norwegian.
The names of the

and the hills are

and yet he also says,
is the only one left to remind
us of the Scandinavian settlements which were made
in America in the tenth century."
Would the autlioi*
have made this exception to his axiom as to the durability of names, had he remembered that the Norsemen called the southern coast of Massachusetts Yinland, and then had seen that we still have " Martin's "
or "Martha's Yineyard ?" Had he sighted Cape Cod
farms end in

seter or

hoy and
" the name of Greenland

called

holl

ster,

"

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

26

and entered Vineyard Sound as the i^orsemen

rounding

Monomoy

did, in

Point, the southeast extremity of

the cape, he would have seen on his right a high

on or near which is the light-house, overlooking a land-locked anchorage on the inside called
sandy

hill,

Powder Hole

a score or

across the sound, on his

more of miles farther along,

he would have seen the

left,

now called Oak Bluffs and the Highlands, and

under their lee a deep bay and roadstead long known
as Holmes' Hole, unfortunately changed to Vineyard
Haven crossing over to the mainland again, a little
farther west, he would have come to the bold but
prettily rounded hills forming the southwestern extremity of the cape, and behind them the sheltered
hills

and picturesque harbor of Wood's Hole.

Proceeding thence toward Narragansett Bay,
along the south coast of Naushon, prominent hills on
the west end of that island slope down to a roadstead
for small craft, and a passage through to Buzzard's
Bay, called Kobinson's Hole; the next island is
and between its high hills and those of
Basque
;

ISTashawena

is

a passage called Quick's Hole.

Now

these several localities are unlike each other except

that

all

have

hills in

guishing landmarks.
as applied

word
is

holl,

them
meaning
to

their vicinity, serving as distin-

And why

is

not the word hole

a corruption of
hill

The

the Norwegian

descriptive term hole

not applicable to any of them, but the word holl

to the adjacent hills, while there

mon between

them.

The

is little else in

localities

now

is

com-

called Quick's

PKEFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

27

and Robinson's Hole are passages between Elizabeth

Islands; Wood's Hole is a passage and a harbor;
Holmes' Hole, now known as Yinejard Haven, is a
deep bay or anchorage; and Powder Hole was formerly a capacious roadstead, now nearly filled with
sand.

may seem

It

to militate with the theory advanced,

or Monomoy Point is a
on the chart Butler's Hole, which lies
in the course from Handkerchief Shoal to Pollock
Rip, where there is now^ not only no hill but no land.
But it is to be considered that almost within the
memory of man there was land in that vicinity, which
has been washed away by the same strong and eccen-

that south of

Powder Hole

locality called

current that has nearly filled

tric

harbor and made

it

a sand-flat, and

np Powder Hole
which still casts

up on the shore large roots and remains of trees.

With this in mind it is not wild to suppose that
Butler's Hole marks a spot where once was an island
prominent hill, which the sea kings called a
and which has succumbed to the powerful abrasion of the tides which have moved Pollock Rip many
yards to the eastward, and w^hich every year make and
unmake shoals in the vicinity of J^antucket and Cape
w^ith a
holl,

Cod.
It

men,

would seem
their

after

when once

a matter of course that the IS^orse-

long and perhaps rough voyages,

arrived in the sheltered waters and harbors

of Vineyard

Sound should have become

familiar with

them, and should have lingered there to recruit and

PREFACE TO THE

28

NEW

EDITION.

before proceeding westward or on their return,

have waited there to gather up resources before
venturing out on the open ocean. Indeed, it is rerefit,

to

corded in their sagas that thej brought off boat loads

of grapes from

What more

those pleasant shores.

probable than that they cultivated friendly relations

with the natives, and in coming to an understanding

with them on subjects in common, should have told

them the Norwegian terms

for the hills

and headlands

of their coast, and that the Indians, in the paucity of

own

language, should have adopted the appellawhich they were told signified hill, so important as a landmark to these wandering sea kings!
Why may not the I^orsemen have called them so,
until the natives adopted the same title, and handed it
down to the English explorers under Bartholomew
Gosnold, who gave their own patronymics to those
their

tive holl,

several holls, or holes, as

now

of " the oldest inhabitant " of

called

The statement

Wood's Hole, on being

asked where the word hole came from,

" always understood that

is,

that he

came from the Indians."

There being no harbor on the shores of Martha's
Yineyard island west of Holmes' Hole, the voyagers
would naturally follow the north shore of the sound
and become familiar with the Elizabeth Islands, and
be more likely to give names to the localities on that
side than on the other.
Between Wood's Hole and
Holmes' Hole the sound is narrowest, and they would
be apt to frequent either harbor as the winds and tide
might make it safe or convenient for them.
it

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

seems to confirm the views here
no other part of this continent or
where the English have settled, is to
found the local name of hole, and yet
It

29

advanced that

in

of the world,

be commonly
here in a

dis-

tance of sixty miles, the thoroughfare of these bold

navigators, there are no less than five such still extant.

be explained except because it is "the

track of the Norsemen"? It is not natural or proba-

How

can

it

ble, w^ith their

imperfect means of navigation, that

they should have passed from Greenland to Narraganand yet to

sett Bay, leaving distinct traces in each,
have ignored the whole intervening space, and not to
have lingered awhile on the shores where they found
grapes by the boat load, and which must have been as
It is
fair and pleasant in those days as they are now.
in
be
not
will
people
our
least
at
that
to be hoped
haste to wipe out the local names of Yineyard Sound,
when it is so likely that they are the oldest on the
continent, and give to Massachusetts a priority of

discovery and settlement over her sister States. Only

significance
let us correct the spelling, and give proper
to

them by

appropriate

calling the places

title

now named Hole by

of Holl.

Before closing this preface

facts

the

we wish

to

add a few

about the plans of the distinguished violinist

Ole Bull in reference to a monument in honor of

the Norse discoverers of America.

At

the close of a complimentary reception given

to the distinguished artist in the

Music Hall, Boston,

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

30

Massachusetts, on the 8th of December, 1876, the

Rev. Edward Everett Hale rose in his place on the

and said* he supposed

floor

it

was known

person present that the distinguished

almost the whole of his active

which connected

ties

hoped that

life

to every

had spent

artist

in knotting those

his country with ours.

It

was

some future time there would be

in

erected a physical memorial to the early discoverers

of

whom

he had spoken.

It

was the wish of those

about him [Mr. Hale], at whose request he spoke,

that Boston should not be behind in

of

gratitude

to

him [Ole Bull]

any expression

for

work, as

his

well as in expressing interest in our I^^orse ancestors.

He
the

was sure he expressed the sentiment, not only of

audience,

but of

all

]^ew England, when he

spoke of the interest with which he regarded his

countrymen,

He

whom

they regarded as almost

remembered, although

ago,

when

much

such

it

was nearly

an

audience

theirs.

forty years
as

he

saw

about him cheered and applauded Edward Everett,

when
when

the early discoveries had just been made, and

in

one of the

last

of his public

poems he

expressed the wish that the great discoveries of Thorvald might be

commemorated by Thorvald's great

descendant, the Northern artist Thorwaldsen.

*From

report in Boston daily -'Advertiser."

The

NEW

PREFACE TO THE

31

EDITION.

words of that poem as they died upon the ear

last

were
Thorvald

shall live for

He [the speaker]
New England that

aye in Thorwaldsen.

thought

it

was a misfortune

the great Northern artist died

before he could accomplish

this

Englanders had never forgotten

forgotten

their

for

Norse

ancestors.

New

But

wish.

and had never

it,

It

was an

enter-

which ought to engage Massachusetts men

prise

the preservation of a physical memorial of Thorvald,

Leif and Thorfinn;

and he suggested that the com-

mittee which had arranged the meeting should bea committee of

come

New

England, in conjunction

with Mr. Appleton, to take this matter in special

charge.
it

was

Mr. Hale put a motion to

carried,

this effect,

and

and the committee constituted.

The committee

of the

Norsemen Memorial includes

the highest civic officers of Boston and Massachusetts,

many men renowned throughout the world in

science, in letters, and in art, that we cannot refrain
from ornamenting our pages with their names. They

and

so

are,

Thomas G. Appleton, Alexander H.

uel

W.

C. Cobb,

Wm.

Kice,

Sam-

Gaston, Otis Norcross, Frederic

Lincoln, Marshall P. Wilder,

H.

W.

Paine,

Henry

A. Whitney, Franklin Haven, Geo. C. Eichardson,

NEW

PREFACE TO THE

32

Alpheus Hardy,

Jos. B. Glover,

EDITION.

John

E. H. Sampson, James R. Osgood,

"W. Candler,

Oliver Ditson,

W. W. Clapp, Jerome
Jones, George O. Carpenter, Clias. W. Wilder, Dexter
Smith, Wm. Emerson Baker, James W. Bartlett, Jos.
H. Danforth, Curtis Guild,

Jas.

"W. Bobbins, Ole Bull,

John G. Whittier, E.

W. Holmes, J.
W. Eliot, G. W.

ford, O.

Chas.

JN".

Hors-

E. Lowell, James T. Fields,

Blagden, Edward E. Hale,

B. C. Waterston, William B. Bogers, John D. Bunkle,

Ezra Farnswortli, Charles M. Clapp, Joseph Bur-

John F. Spaulding, Henry B. Beed, W. A.

nett,

Simmons,

Wm.

H. Baldwin, Fercival

L. Everett,

A.

Thomas Sherwin, Benjamin Kimball,

Moses H. Sargent, W. B. Sears, J. Watson Taylor,
B. Underwood,

Francis L. Hills, secretary.

This committee
First,

To

is.

take measures to erect a

honor of the l^orsemen who

first

monument

in

discovered the Con-

tinent of America, about a.d. 1000.

Second, For the protection of the Dighton Bock,

now

in

Taunton Biver.

The committee

issued,

January

12,

cular, of

which the following, relating

Bock,

an extract

is

The

origin of

have been,

1877, a

to the

cir-

Dighton

the inscriptions cut on this rock

for several centuries, the

study of histo-

PKEFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

33

and others, of the Royal

Northern Antiquaries, of Copenhagen,
Denmark, were so decided in their belief that the
Dighton Rock was inscribed by the Norsemen, that
Ole Bull requested Neils Arnzen to purchase it for
that society, of which the King of Denmark is the
This committee regard the Dighton Rock,
president.
whatever its origin, as a valuable historic relic of
American antiquity, and have taken measures to
obtain the title to it, in order to protect and remove
Professor Rafn,

rians.

Society of

it

to

Boston.

historic

They

researchers

invite
to the

as

the deductions of

all

authenticity of these

inscriptions.^

Thus

will be seen that the

it

wdll provide for a

monument

in

Boston committee

honor of the Norse

discoverers and for the preservation of Dighton Rock,

and

informed that a handsome sum of money

w^e are

At

has already been raised for these purposes.

events,

it

is

now

certain that

ished plans will be realized

all

Ole Bull's long cher-

and the people of Boston

are doing themselves and their great city great credit

in

reviving and perpetuating the

*An

memory

of those

impression of the Dighton Rock inscriptions, taken in 1790,

preserved in Harvard University.

the ''Antiguitates Amencance.''''

and describes

it

Drawings made

in 1680 can

is

be found in

This work records the inscriptions as Norse,

as conforming to Icelandic Sagas account of " Thorfinn's

Expedition to Viuland" (Massachusetts).

[Copies of the photograph of Dighton Rock, taken in 1876 by order
of the special agent of the United States government,

the office of the secretary of the committee, No. 13

may be

West

obtained at

street,

Boston.]

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

34:

who
the

first

of

Christians

all

planted their feet

of Massachusetts, and built the

soil

(Leif's Booths) in

New

first

on

cabins

England.

In sending out this second edition of our book

we may
of

be pardoned for again pleading the cause

Norsemen and hoping

the

that

time

the

may

soon come when the names of Leif Erikson, Bjarne

Herjulfson, Thorvald Erikson (who, by the way, has
recently been immortalized in Longfellow's " Skele-

ton in Armor"), Thorfinn Karlsefne, Gudrid, Erik

Upsi,

Are Marson, Bjorn Asbrandson

of Breidavik)

and Gudleif Gudlaugson

become household words

in these
stories

(the

United

States.

in every house

champion

shall

have

and hamlet

Let every child learn the

about the Norse discoverers of Yin! and the

Good.
University of Wisconsin,
Madison, Wis., April

3, 1877.

CHAPTER

I.

THE NORSEMEN, AND OTHER PEOPLES, INTERESTED

IN THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

iHE

object of the following

pages

to present

is

-*-

the reader with a brief account of the discovery

of early voyages to and settlements in the

Western

Continent by the Norsemen, and to prove that Co-

lumbus must have had knowledge of

by the Norsemen before he started

this discovery

to find

and the author will not be surprised,

pages, he should

which

will

formed

conflict

to

with

The

historical

interest manifested

if,

in

these

throw out some thoughts

the

reader's

convictions about matters

and about

erally,

is

happen

America

previously-

and things gen-

facts especially.

by the reader of history

always greater the nearer the history which he

reads
his

is

own

connected with his

country or with

ancestors.

The American
to dwell

own

student, on

the

one hand, loves

upon the pages of American

history.

He

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

36

admires the resolution, the fortitude and perseverance of the Pilgrim Fathers as they passed through
scenes of hardship and adversity

their varied

they made

their

England shores;

first

settlement

upon

and his whole soul

is

when

our

New

filled

with

transporting emotions of delight or sympathy as he

reads the

the

of

incidents

thrilling

the victories of his countrymen

who

and

sufferings

fought for his

their own freedom during the Revolu-

as well as for

tionary war.

The Norse
das,

student,

on the other hand,

takes

pleasure in perusing the old Sagas and Ed-

special

and following the Yikings on their daring but

victorious expeditions through

European waters

and

he draws inspiration from those beautiful and poetancient

ical

Baldur,

myths and

Loke,

the

stories

Giant

about Odin, Thor,

Ymer,

Ragnarok,

Yg-

and that innumerable host of godlike heroes

drasil,

that illuminate
history,

and

the

glitter

pages of his people's

like

brilliant

ancient

diamonds in the

dust and darkness of bygone ages.

The
the

subject to

which your attention

Discovery of America^

is,

if

is

invited,

properly presented,

of equal interest to Americans and Norsemen.

those
soil

who

are born

and brought up on the

For
fertile

of Columbia, under the shady branches of the

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

noble tree of American

liberty,

of progress and education

must
facts

naturally

may

where the banner

unfurled to the breeze,

deep

feel

is

87

interest

whatever

in

be presented in relation to the

first dis-

covery and early settlement of this their native land;

while

who

those

among

the rugged,

Norway, and can

saw the

first

snow-capped
feel

still

mountains

veins, must,

equally

deep

interest

ancestors, the intrepid

faced

men who

its

in

old

way through

matter of course,

as

of

any of the heroic blood

of their dauntless forefathers course

their

beaming

sunlight

learning

that

Norsemen, were the

planted their feet on this

ocean, and

an

interest, too, I

the claims

of

their

native

dare

say,

country to

feel

their

an

own

first pale-

gem

of the

in

having

this

honor

vindicated.

The

subject

Germans^

as

is

it

not without special interest to the

will

appear in

sketch that a German,^

men on
is

their first expedition to this

and there

is

course of

who accompanied

intimately connected with the

country;

the

this

the Norse-

Western World,

first

name

of this

no doubt that a German,t

through his writings about the Norsemen, was the

means of bringing

to

Columbus valuable information

about America.

The Welsh

also

* Tyrtcer.

have an interest
t

Adam

in this subject;
of Bremen.

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

38
for

is

it

generally believed, and not without reason,

that their ancestors, under the leadership of Madoc,

made
1170

a settlement in
thus,

this

than the ISTorsemen

country about the year

they were

although

170

making the

in

years

later

discovery, they

322 years ahead of Columbus, and E"orse-

were

still

men,

therefore, claim

in

this

Welshmen's

question,

sympathies against Columbus.

We

[i

the

might

enlist the interest of Irishmen, too, in

presentation

of

this

subject;

in

for,

(according to an account in the

1029,

Saga, Chapter

64,)

Eyrbyggja

Norse navigator,

the year

by name

GuDLEiF GuDLAUGSoN, undcrtook a voyage to Dublin,

and on leaving Ireland again he intended

sail

to Iceland

and was driven

the sea,

far

to the west

sea.

was.

and southwest
be seen.

It

in

was

And

it

came

Then they

they might escape

that

to pass, says the Saga,

they saw land, but they

that

to

the summer, and Gudleif, with his

made many prayers

from the

it

but he met with northeast winds

where no land was

already late in
party,

to

knew not what

resolved to

sail to

land

the land, for

they were weary with contending longer with the

violence of the sea.
bor,

They found

there a good

har-

and when they had been a short time on shore,

there

came some people

to them.

They knew none

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

of the people, but

" rather appeared to

it

39

them that

'

they sjpoke Irish^

This portion of America, supposed to be situated

south of the Chesapeake Bay, including

North and

South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida,

the Saga of

Thorfinn Karlsefne, chapter

" Irland-it-MiMa^'^

claimed

that

that

is,

the name,

Great

is

in

13, called

Ireland.

It is

Great Ireland^ arose from

the fact that the country had been colonized, long

before

Gudlaugsoii^ s

visit,

by the

Irish,

and

that,

own green island to a vast

many of the fertile qualities of

they coming from their

continent possessing
their

own

native

There

appropriate.

the appellation was natural and

soil,

is

nothing improbable in this

conclusion; for the Irish,

who

visited

and inhabited

Iceland toward the close of the eighth century, to

accomplish which they had to traverse a stormy ocean

to the extent of eight
as 725,

hundred miles

were found upon the Faroe

who, early
and whose
as

Isles

voyages between Ireland and Iceland, in the tenth

century, were

of ordinary occurrence

familiar with the sea

people so

were certainly capable of making

a voyage across the Atlantic ocean.

''

I cannot here enter

"

upon any further discussion

of the claims of the Irish, but you observe that this

subject

of

discovering

America cannot be treated

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

4:0

exhaustively

without

bringing

back

fond recollections of the Emerald

to

Isle,

tlie

mind

which was

once the School of Western Europe, and her brave

sons
*'

as

Inclyta gens hominuiu, milite, pace, fide,"

Bishop Donatus somewhere has

it.

CHAPTER

II.

NORSE LITERATURE HAS BEEN NEGLECTED BY THE

LEARNED MEN OF THE GREAT NATIONS.

TT^NLIGHTENED men
-^-^

New

the

all

over

the

world are

with astonishment and admiration,

watching,

World, from which great revolutions have

proceeded, and

which great problems

in

in

human

government, human progress and enterprise, are yet

to be

worked out and demonstrated.

People are everywhere eagerly observing every

event that takes place in America, making
subject of the most

wonderful as they

it

the

results,

everywhere awaken the most

travel in England, in Ger-

in ]^orway, or in

any of the North-European

is

it

common

interesting

better than

to

observe how^ familiar

people are with matters and things per-

They not only know America

taining to America.

they

know

their

there also are found not a few

better

and the

you

countries,

the

are,

If

intense interest.

many,

careful scrutiny,

posted

those of their

on

own

the

aifairs

country.

border countries, but

who keep
of

themselves

America

tlian

on

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

,42
V

Until
that

recently,

it

has generally been

America was wholly unknown

tions previous to the time of

supposed

European

Columbus; but

men have made

gations by learned

to

it

na-

investi-

beyond

certain,

the shadow of a doubt, that the Europeans did have

knowledge of

country long before the time of

this

Columbus, and

has even been claimed, on quite

it

plausible grounds, that

some of the nations

living

here at the time of Columbus' discovery of this continent were descendants of Europeans.

As
tion

yet but few scholars have turned their atten-

to

the

IN^orth

of

Europe

in

relation

to

this

subject,

and

portion

of the globe could give has hitherto been,

in a great

hence the

measure, neglected

of the great nations

North furnish
the

coast

latter

part

light

of

which

this

extreme

by the learned men

and yet the antiquities of the

a series of incontestable evidence that

North America was discovered

of the

in the

tenth century, immediately after

the discovery of Greenland by the

Norsemen

fur-

thermore, that this same coast was visited repeatedly

by the Norsemen

in the eleventh century;

it

was

visited

century; nay,

also,

that

more, that

it

in the thirteenth century,

teenth century.

further-

by them in the twelfth

was found again by them

and revisited in the

But even

this

is

not

all.

four-

These

43

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

Northern antiquities

also

show that Christianity had

been introduced in America, not only among the

Norsemen, who formed a settlement here, bnt

among

the aborigines, or native population, that the

Norsemen found

The

also

learned

here.

men

y'

of the

not

has

that this matter

North are not

previously

to

blame
due

received

attention, for Torfj^us published an account thereof

as

the

early as

year

1705, and

and Wormskjold

and

ScHCENiNG and

Lagerbring

and

ScHRCEDER,

say nothing

have

all

many

Not

until

1837,

when

the

of

celebrated

and important work,* could

the claims of the Norsemen.

and

other one

Pro-

Northern Antiquities, published

scholars outside of Scandinavia be induced to

ceeded,

to all

enterprise of the

through the laudable

Society

his learned, interesting

to

others,

presented the main facts in their historical

fessor Kafn,

Koyal

of

But other nations paid no attention

works.
this.

to

him Suhm

besides

examine

Professor Kafn suc-

he has perhaps done more than any

man

to call the attention of other nations

the importance

of studying the Old Norse

rature.

Thus

recently

have begun to direct

it

is

that

scholars

lite-

of other nations

their

attention

to

Northern Antiquities, Northern Languages and His* Antiquitates Americanse, Hafnise, 1837.

44

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

tory.

Germany and England, and

add America,

much

are

valuable

material

is

would

now beginning

to

like to

realize

how

be found in these

to

sources for elucidating the history and institutions

of other contemporary nations

and especially do the

throw much important light

early Sagas of the JSTorth

on the character of English and German

The English and Germans

during the middle ages.

are

institutions

translating the Sagas as fast as they can.

KoNRAD Maurer and Th. Moebius

fessors

work

excellent

Germany

at

their

respective

Pro-

are doing

Universities

in

Oxford and Cambridge in England have

each an Icelandic Professor,

give instruction

Universities

and several American

Korthern

the

in

lan-

guages.
It is

indeed an encouraging fact that these great

nations

becoming

gradually

are

conscious

of

the

importance of studying the E^orthern languages and

literature,

and we may

when

not far distant

nized

in

character,
their

true

their

and

right

at the

safely

the

hope that the time

Norsemen

social,

will

political

same time

is

be recog-

and

as navigators

literary

assume

position in the pre-Columbian discovery

of America.

CHAPTER

III

ANTIQUITY OF AMERICA.

T3EF0IIE

the plains of Europe rose above the

-*

^ primeval seas, the continent of America, accord-

ing

to

Louis

emerged

Agassiz,

waste that encircled the whole

the scene of animal

World

in

is

reality

abundant proof of

But who
period
close

it

is

its

able

life.

the so-called IS'ew

and Agassiz

Old,

of the

tenth

gives

hoary age.

even

to

conjecture

became the abode of man?

vague and uncertain.

watery

the

globe and became

Hence

the

from

century

We

civilization that suggest a

its

at

Down

written

what
the

to

history

is

can find traces of a rude

very high antiquity.

We

can show mounds, monuments, and inscriptions, that

point to periods, the contemplation of which would

make Chronos himself grow giddy

these
is

great

yet

among

all

and often impressive memorials there

no monument, mound, or

satisfactorily the

inscription, that solves

mystery of their

origin.

There are

but few traditions even to aid us in our researches.

46

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

and we can only

and

tribes

infer

that age

have continued

and then decline and

fall,

to

after

rise

age nations

into

and that barbarism and

a rude culture have held alternate sway.*

*

Compare De

greatness

Costa, page

11.

CHAPTER

IT,

PHENICIAN, GREEK, IRISH AND

"TN

early times the Atlantic

WELSH

CLAIMS.

Ocean, like

all

other

-^ things without known bounds, was viewed by

man with mixed

feelings of fear

The Phenician, and

the Western

especially

Continent, in

warml}^ advocated

and awe.

was

It

Sea of Darkness.

usually called the

and

it is

Tyrian voyages

to

have been

early times,

more than probable

that

the original inhabitants of the American continent

crossed

the

Atlantic

regions of the north

Behring's Strait.

instead

of

piercing

to

icy

and coming by the way of

From

the Canaries, which were

discovered and colonized by the Phenicians,

short voyage

the

America, and the bold

it

is

sailors

of

the Mediterranean, after touching at these islands,

could

easily

and

safely

be wafted

to

the

western

shore.

That the Greek philosopher, Pytheas, whose

coveries about

the different length

of the days

dis-

in

various climates appeared so astonishing to the other

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

4:8

philosophers of his age, traversed the Atlantic Ocean

about 340 years before Christ, can scarcely be doubted.

He

certainly discovered

mined

its

Thule ^

and we may

latitude,

discovery he opened

this

the

(Iceland),

and deter-

at least say that

way

to

America

by
foi*

Norsemen.

the

Claims have been made, as I have already shown,

both

by the

crossed

it

is

claims

these

learned discussion

tlie

and

Atlantic

the

Columbus, but

upon

and by

Irish

not
in

Welsh, that they

found

my

this

America

before

purpose to comment
short

sketch.

Much

has been devoted to the subject,

but the early history of the American continent

still,

until

to a great extent,

era

can

we

point,

with absolute certainty,

genuine transatlantic voyage.

*

and not

century of the

near the close of the tenth

present
to a

veiled in mystery,

is

See Strabo's Geography, Book

^
II,

6.

CHAPTER

Y,

WHO WERE THE NORSEMEN?

/
1/

rr^HE
-^

first

voyage

any perfectly

to

America, of which we have

account, was

reliable

performed

by the Norsemen.

But who were the Norsemen?

answer

Permit

me

to

this question briefly.

The Norsemen were the descendants

of a branch

of the Teutonic race that, in early times, emigrated

and northward,

from Asia and traveled westward

finally settling
tral

part of

down

what

in

is

now

guage was the Old Norse, which

and spoken

the west cen-

kingdom of Norway.

the

in Iceland,

and upon

is
it

still

Their lanpreserved

are founded the

modern Norse, Danish and Swedish languages.

The

Norsemen were

ancient

pendent people.
rulers

They were

were elected

assembled, and

all

a free

by the people

bold

and inde-

people.
in

Their

convention

public matters of importance were

decided in the assemblies, or open parliaments of

the people.

Abroad

they

became

the

most

daring

adven-

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBtTS.

50

made themselves known

They

turers.

part of the

world by their daring as

civilized

sol-

They spread themselves along

and navigators.

diers

every

in

making conquests and

the shores of Europe,

plant-

ing colonies.

In their conquering expeditions they subdued a

large portion

of

England, wrested IsTormandy, the

province of France, from the French king,

fairest

conquered a considerable portion of Belgium, and

made

Under Robert

extensive inroads into Spain.

Guiscard

they made

themselves masters

of

Sicily

and lower Italy in the eleventh century, and maintained their

power there

for a long time.

During

Crusades they led the van of the chivalry of

the

Europe
over

in rescuing the

Antioch

and

Holy Sepulchre, and ruled

Tiberias

under

Harald.

They

passed between the pillars of Hercules, they desolated the classic fields of Greece

and penetrated the

walls of Constantinople.

Straying away into the distant

they

originally

came,

we

find

east,

from where

them laying the

foundations of the Russian Empire, swinging their

'

two-edged battle-axes in the streets of Constantinople,

where they served

as

the leaders of the Greek

Emperor's bod3^-guard, and the main support of his

tottering

throne.

They carved

their

mystic runes

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

61

upon the marble lion* in the harbor of Athens

commemoration of

in

The

their

conquest of

this

city.

old Norse Yikings sailed up the rivers Rhine,

Seine and Loire,

Schelde, the

conquering Cologne

and Aachen, where thej turned the emperor's palace

into

stable,

the

filling

heart

of even

the great

Charlemagne with dismay.

The

Norsemen.

England are descendants of the

Ganger

name

by the
friend,

of

rulers

Rolf,

Rollo,

known
son of

in

English history

Harald Haarfagr's

Ragnvald Morejarl, invaded France

year 912 and took possession of

the

in

Normandy; and

in

1066, at the battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror, a great-grandson of

England

and

Ganger

Rolf, conquered

proper to add, that from this con-

it is

quest the pride and glory of Great Britain descended.

It is also a noticeable fact, that the

that

came from

colonists of his

tled
fire

but

in

most

William the Conqueror

opposition

Northumbria.

He

own

race,

serious

met with

who had

set-

wasted their lands with

and sword, and drove them beyond the border;

still

we

find

their

energy,

their

perseverance

and their speech existing in the north English and

lowland Scotch
*

The marble

lion

dialects.

upon which they carved

their runes

was afterward

taken to Venice and erected at the entrance of the arsenal, where

be seen at the present time.

it

may

CHAPTER

VI

ICELAND.

"OUT

Europe did not

bounds to the voyages

set

-*^ and enterprises of the Norsemen.

In the year

860 they discovered Iceland, and soon afterward (874)

established

upon

this island

ished four hundred

a republic, which flour-

The

years.

Icelandic republic

furnishes the very best evidence of the independent

spirit

which characterized the Norsemen.

Political

circumstances

in

Norway urged many

of the boldest and most independent people in the

country to- seek an asylum of freedom.

HaarfactR

{i.

e.

Harald

the Fair-haired) had determined to

make himself monarch of all Norway. He was

instigated to unite Norway under his scepter by
the ambition of the

DATTEK (daughter),

and proud

fair

whom

but she declared that the

have to be king of
the conditions;
ing, during

and

all

he

loved

man

and

Adils-

courted;

she married would

Norway.

after

Pagna

Harald accepted

twelve years' hard

fight-

which time he neither cut nor combed

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

hair

his

once,* in

Hafersfjord, ISTorway

53

the year 872, at the battle of

became united into one king-

dom, instead of being divided into thirty-one small

republics, as

had been the

Harald had subdued or

case before that time.

slain the

and had passed a law abolishing

of property,f

usurping

it

for

numerous

all

leaders,

freehold tenure

To

the crown.

the proud freemen of l^orway would

this

not submit.

Disdaining to yield their ancient independence and

be degraded, they resolved to leave those lands and

homes, which they could

and

set out

now

scarcely call their

own,

with their families and followers in quest

new seats. There were as great emigrations from

Norway in those days as there are now. The Norse
of

spirit of enterprise is a& old as their history.

Whither then should they

Some went
Isles

went

some

as

go,

was the question.

Orkney

to the Hebrides, others to the

to the Shetland and Faroe Isles

many

Vikings to England, Scotland and France;

but by far the greater number went to the more

distant

and therefore

more secure

Iceland,

which

had been discovered by the celebrated Norse Yiking

*

He made

a pledge to

Ragna that he would neither

hair until he had subjugated all

cut nor

comb

his

Norway.

t This Bo-called udal, [Icel, 6dal,

Norse

odel, allodium,]

i.

e.

independent

tenure of property, was given back to the Norsemen by King

Hakon

Gtood in the year 935, and has never since been taken away from them.

the

54

AMEKICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

Naddodd

in 860,

and

by him Snowland;

called

re-

discovered by Gardar, of Swedish extraction, in 864,

after

and

whom

870, by

in

This emigration from

and thus

Norsemen,

whom

it

Norway

now more than

the year 874,

Holm

Gardar's

called

two

by

visited

(Hjorleifr)

was

it

before

You must

began in

a thousand years ago

and

few years peopled to a surprising extent.

long

Leif

Iceland.

called

to Iceland

was peopled

this strange island

and

Ingolf

was

(island),

It

in a

was not

had upward of 50,000 inhabitants.

it

mind

bear in

that this colonization

on an island in the cold North Sea, a

the Arctic Circle.

It

was

in a climate

refused to ripen, and where

little

was

below

where grain

the people often were

obliged to shake the snow oif the frozen hay before

they could carry

the people,

it.

island presented a

But

main support of

was often obstructed by

polar regions filling

tion.

Fishing, the

still

their

harbors,

ice

from the

and the whole

most melancholy aspect of desola-

the people continued to flock thither

and become attached to the

soil.

They were

sur-

rounded the whole year by dreary ice-mountains, the

glare of volcanic flames, and the roaring of geysers

or boiling springs.
try,

Still

they loved this wild coun-

because they were free;

winters,

when

and through the long

the sun nearly or entirely disappeared

AMERICA NOT DISCOVEJRED BY COLUMBUS.

65

from above the horizon, and nothing but northern

lights flickered over their heads, they

more thrown npon

the

and passed the time

seemed only

their intellectual resources,

Eddas and Sagas

in reciting the

of their ancestors.
(/ Perhaps I ought to beg your pardon for dwelling

upon the

so long

ogy

subject of Iceland

exceedingly interesting country

place,

it

really the

is

swings

which

island

had been

Christ

It

apol-

America

opened
visited

and,

the next

in

to

Europe.

This

by Pytheas 340 years before

monk

a geography in the year 825,

by some Irish

an

hinge upon which the door

and, according to the Irish

who wrote
visited

my

but

that, in the first place, Iceland is of itself

is

priests in the

Dicuu^rs,

had been

it

summer

of 795.* ^

was the settlement of Iceland by the E"orsemen,

and the constant voyages between

Norway, that led

island

this

to the discovery, first of

and then of America; and

intellectual standing

and

it

is

and

Greenland

due to the high

fine historical

taste of

the

Icelanders that records of these voyages were kept,

first

to instruct

Columbus how

to find America,

and

afterward to solve for us the mysteries concerning

the discovery of this continent.

Iceland

is

a small island, in the 65th deg. north

*Vid. Dicuilus,

De Meusura

Orbis Terrae, ed. Latronne,

p. 38.

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

56

latitude,

are

Its

without

almost

mountains without

trees.

the present time,

no

who

square miles.

1,800 geographical

of about

valleys

live a peaceable

Still,

less

and

verdure,

it

its

contains, even at

than 70,000 inhabitants,

and contented

life,

cling-

still

ing to their ancient language, and studying foreign

we do

languages, science, philosophy, and history, as

who

live in milder

the earthquake,

the

geysers

spout

still

while the grand old jokul,"^

white robes of eternal

volcanic

torch,

as

if

Mount Hekla,

snow, brandishes
threatening to set

their

mud,

scalding water, and the plain belches forth

heavens on

l^ow,

times, the earth trembles in the throes

as in olden

of

and more favored climes,

clad in
aloft

the

its

very

fire.

For ages Iceland was destined

to

become the

sanc-

tuary and preserver of the grand old literature of the

North.

Paganism prevailed there more than a

tury after the island became inhabited

ditions

were cherished and committed

and shortly

after

the introduction

of

cen-

the old trato

memory,

Christianity

the Old Norse literature was put in writing.

The

ancient literature and

traditions of Iceland

excel anything of their kind in

middle ages.

The

Icelandic

Europe during the

poems have no

*Mouutaiu8 covered with perpetual snow are called -jdlvuls"

parallel
in Iceland.

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

57

There are

in all the treasures of ancient literature.

gigantic proportions about them, and great and over-

whelming
Greece.

tragedies in

The

them, which rival those

early literature of Iceland

becoming recognized

equal

as

to

that

now

is

of

ot
fast

ancient

Greece and Eome.

The

original Teutonic life lived longer

and more

independently in Norway, and especially in Iceland,

than elsewhere, and had more favorable opportunities to grow^
is

and mature

the full-blown

and the Icelamdic literature

flower of Teutonic

This Teutonic heathendom, with

poetical mythology,
priests in
ited

and

Germany, and the other countries inhab-

sufficiently to

it

had developed

produce blossoms, excepting in Eng-

where a kindred branch of the Gothic race

rose to

Saxon

beautiful

was rooted out by superstitious

by Teutonic peoples, before

land,

its

heathendom.

eminence in
literature.

letters,

and produced the Anglo-

CHAPTER

VII.

GREENLAND.

"13 UT,
-^-^

time passed on, the people of Iceland

as

felt

new impulse

for

colonizing

new and

strange lands, and the tide of emigration began to

tend with irresistible

force

toward

Greenland, in

the west, which country also became settled in spite

of

its

w^retched climate.

The

discovery of Greenland was a

natural

con-

sequence of the settlement of Iceland, just as the

discovery of America afterward was a natural con-

sequence of the settlement of Greenland.

Between

the western part of Iceland and the eastern part of

Greenland

there

is

of

only forty-live

Iceland, at the time of the settlement of

to

this island

and

wind, which
scarcely

distance

Hence, some of the ships that

geographical miles.
sailed

is

later,

could in case of a violent east

no rare occurrence

in those regions,

avoid approaching the coast of Greenland

sufficiently

to catch a glimpse of its

even to land on

its

islands

jokuls,

and promontories.

nay,
Thus

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

it is

said that

59

Gunnbjorn, Ulf Krage's son, saw land

lying in the ocean at the west of Iceland, when, in

the year 876, he was driven

out to the sea by a

Similar reports were heard,

storm.

About

time, by other mariners.

certain

from time to

a century

man, by name Erik the Red, had

later

fled

from

the Jader, in ISTorway, on account of manslaughter,

had

and

Here he

settled

in

western

the

was outlawed

also

part

of

Iceland.

manslaughter, by

for

the public assembly, and condemned to banishment.

He

therefore fitted

and

out his ship,

resolved

to

go in search of the land in the west that Gunnbjorn

and others had seen.

and found the

He

set

sail

land as he had

in the year 984,

expected,

mained there exploring the country

At

and

two

re-

years.

the end of this period he returned to Iceland,

giving the newly-discovered

Greenland,

who would
a

for

in order, as

he

country the

name

of

said, to attract settlers,

be favorably impressed with so pleasing

name.

The

men

result

was that many Icelanders and Norse-

emigrated

to

Greenland,

colony was established, with

city,

which

in the year 1261,

crown of Norway.
tained

its

and

Gardar

flourishing

for its capital

became subject

to the

The Greenland colony main-

connection with the mother countries for

60

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBrS.

a period of

disappeared,
gives a

list

Greenland.

no

less

and
of

than 400 years

was

almost

seventeen

yet

forgotten.

bishops

who

it

finally

Torfseus

ruled

in

CHAPTER

VIII

THE SHIPS OF THE NORSEMEN.

"OEFOEE
-*-^

their

following

the

westward course,

Norsemen
it

may

not be out of

place to say a few words about their ships.

crossed

the briny deep four times myself,

seen something of what

is

Having

is

one of the old

have

required in order to ven-

ture with safety on so long watery journeys.

also seen

on

farther

iJ^orse

Yiking

I have

ships,

which

preserved at the University of ^N'orway, and

seemed to
form and
old

me

an excellent one both in respect to

Now,

size.

do not mean to say that the

^Norsemen possessed such ocean

plow the deep between

but what I mean to say

were then,

as they are

New York
is this,

sea-going vessels,

of large size.

We

able.

crafts

as

now

and Liverpool;

that the

Norsemen

now, very excellent navigators.

They had good

son's Saga, of

it

some of which were

have an account, in Olaf Trygve-

one that was in many respects remark-

That part of the keel which rested on the

ground was 140

feet

long.

None but

the choicest

AMEEICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

62

material

was used in

thirty-four

construction.

its

rowing-benches,

were overlaid with gold.^

and

It contained

stem and stern

its

Their vessels would com-

pare favorably with those of other nations, which have

been used in later times in expeditions around the

world, and were in every

voyage.

They

certainly

way adapted

were

for

an ocean

as well fitted to cross

the Atlantic as were the ships of Columbus.

the Sagas

we

also

learn

From

the E'orsemen fully

that

understood the importance of cultivating the study

of navigation

they

of the sun and

the stars.

knew how

to calculate the course

moon, and how to measure time by

Without a high degree of

nautical knowl-

edge they could never have accomplished their voyFrance, Spain, Sicily, Greece, and

ages to England,
those

more

still

difficult

voyages

to

and

Iceland

Greenland.
I have

now

given a brief historical sketch of the

voyages and enterprises of the E^orsemen.

done

this

to

have

show that they were capable of the

*This ship of Olaf Trygveson was called the Long Serpent, and was
built

by the ship-carpenter Thorberg, who

the North for his ship-building.

forty rowing-benches.

celebrated in the annals of

King Canute had one containing

Olaf, the saint, possessed

each.

is

The Earl Hakon had a dragon containing

The Norse dragons

sixty,

and King

two ships capable of carrying two hundred

glided

on the waters as gracefully

swans, of which they also had the form.

Compare

men

as ducks or

also " Saga Fridthjofs

ens Frsekna," (the Saga of Fridthjof the Bold, in ''Viking Tales of the
North,") chapter

1,

where his good ship Ellida

is

described.

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

exploit of discovering
fact

America

nay,

that

63

was

it

in

an unavoidable result of their constant seafaring

life-

so

that

even

takable language
able

to

assert,

if

we

of the

did not have the unmisSagas,

we might

still

with a considerable degree of

be
cer-

tainty, that the JS'orsemen

must have been aware of

the existence of the American continent.
Yes, the
JSTorsemen were truly a great people

found

its

way

into the

Their

spirit

Magna Charta*

of England
and into the Declaration of Inependence in America.
The spirit of the Yikings still survives in the bosoms
of Englishmen, Americans and l^orsemen,
extending

commerce, taking bold positions against tyranny, and producing wonderful internal
improvetheir

ments

in these countries.
*

Compare William and Mary Howitt.

CHAPTER

IX

THE SAGAS AND DOCUMENTS ARE GENUINE.

"TTT^E have now

^

themselves

'

civilized

seen

made

the I^orsemen

that

known

every

in

part

of

world; that they had excellent ships, that

they were well trained seaman, and a highly

ilized

possessing

nation,

necessary

for

in

fact

reaching the continent in the west;

Did the Norsemen

actually

the coast of the country

is

Open an
or at the

civ-

means

the

all

and we are thus prepared for the

There

the

certainly
atlas

maps

at

no.

the

of the

discover

now known

improbability

map

question,

vital

and

America?

as

in

explore

the

of the Atlantic

two hemispheres.

idea.

Ocean,

Observe

the distance between ISTorway and Iceland, and the

distances between Iceland

land and ^Newfoundland.

and Greenland and Green-

You

perceive

it

is

more

than twice the distance between JSTorwaj^ and Iceland that

it is

between Iceland and Greenland, and

not far from twice the distance that

it

is

between

Greenland and Labrador, and thence on to New-

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

Now,

foundland.

Norse

colonies

conceding

after

existed

the

Greenland

in

65

fact

that

at

least

for

three hundred years, which every student of Norse

history
selves

knows
by

covered

be a

to

the

for

we must prepare

fact,

proposition

gether

unreasonable

people

like

suppose

to

would

It

that

who

Norsemen,

the

America was

that

Norsemen.

the

be

ourdis-

alto-

seafaring

traversed

the

broad western ocean to reach Iceland and Greenland, could

voyage of

for three

live

vast

this

aware of

and

become

never

existence.

its

But fortunately on
conjecture.

centuries within a short

continent

We

this point

we

are not left to

have a complete written record of

men must

the discovery.

Intelligent

in blotting out

innumerable pages of well authen-

history

ticated

they undertake to deny or

before

dispute the facts of this discovery.

While

darkness

the

overspread

continent for
letters
is

many

succeed

first

whole

the

of

centuries following

literary

European
the

tenth,

were highly cultivated in Iceland; and

the very time and

containing a record

That

originated.

Columbus

is

as

country in which the Sagas

of

they
easy

this

the

were
to

discovery
written

demonstrate

of

America

long
as

before

the

fact

that Herodotos wrote his history before the era of

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

QQ

J
The

Christ.

authenticity and authority of the Ice-

Alex-

landic Sagas has been fully acknowledged by

ander VON Humboldt

Cosmos,^ by Malte-

in his

BRUNjf and many other distinguished

therefore

further discussion

is

scholars

at

time

this

and
un-

necessary on this point.

The

manuscripts,

relating

Codex
tlie

preserved in

in

the

celebrated

This work, written with great care

the highest

in

Cosmos, Vol.

"We

style

of art,

now

is

integrity in the archives of Copen-

its
ii.,

on

are here

where

269-272,

pp.

discussing the pre-Columbian

says:

found

Flatceensis, a skin-book that was finished in

year 138Y.

and executed

which we have the Sagas

in

America, are

to

discovery

historical

Von

Alexander

Humboldt,

America by the Norsemen,

of

By

gi'ound.

the critical and highly

praiseworthy efforts of Professor Eafn and the Royal Society of Northern

documents

Antiquaries in Copenhagen, the Sagas and

in regard

to the

expeditions of the Norsemen to Helluland (Newfoundland), to Markland

mouth

(the

of

the St. Lawrence river and

Nova

Scotia),

The discovery

cannot be disputed.

of the northern part of America

The length

and

to

Vinland

commented upon.

(Massachusetts), have been published and satisfactorily

by the Norsemen

of the voyage, the direction in

which

they sailed, the time of the sun's rising and setting, are accurately given.

While the Chalifat of Bagdad was

still

flourishing under the Abbasides.

and while the rule of the Samanides, so favorable to poetry,

still

flour-

ished in Persia, America was discovered, about the year 1000, by Leif. sou
of Erik the Red, at about 4H/2 N. L."
t Vid. Nouvelles annales des voyages, de la geographic, de I'histoire
et

de I'archeologie, r^igees par M. V.-A. Maltb-Bkun, secretaire de la

commission centrale de

la

plusieurs societes savantes.

societe de

Aout,

geographic de

1858, p. 253.

Paris,

member de

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

hagen, and a carefully printed copy- of

found in Mimer's library

consin.

men,

We

at the

it

is

67
to be

University of Wis-

gather from this work that the I^orse-

after discovering

and settling Greenland, and

then keeping a bold southwestern course, discovered

America more than 500 years before Columbus; and

I

shall

in

the following chapters present some of

the main circumstances of this discovery.

*

Flateyarbok, Christiania (Norway),

1860-1868.

"

CHAPTER

X.

BJARNE HERJULFSON,

<v

"TK

the year 986, the same year that he returned

from
E-ED

Greenland,

moved from
numerous

his

986.

above-named

the

Erik the

Iceland to Greenland, and

among

accompanied him, was

v^ho

friends,

an Icelander by name Hekjulf.

Herjulf had a son by name Bjarne,

man
who

of

enterprise

possessed a merchant-ship, with which he gath-

and reputation.

ered wealth

turns a year abroad and

father.

He

his father

He

to Greenland,

he was so much

hearing of his

father's

he would

unload

not

ship,

follow his old custom and take

''

Who

will

he to his men.

replied the

men.

go with

"We

by

be

and on returnon

disappointed

departure with
his

to

home with his

Norway when

chanced to be away in

moved over

his father.

used

year at

ing to Iceland

said

who was

and fond of going abroad, and

but

up

me

will all

his

Erik,

that

resolved

to

abode with

to Greenland

go with you,"

"But we have none

of us

ever

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

been on the Greenland
"

We

mind not
for

the wind

and

days

three

sailed

sailing

so

sight

lost

After

failed.

that

Bjarne.

said

away they
of

Iceland.

north wind

and they knew not where they were

set in,

many

This lasted

to.

men,

that," said the

Then

and fog

Sea before,"

69

days,

the sun

until

length appeared again, so that they could

at

mine the quarters of the

sky, and lo

detei--

in the horizon

they saw, like a blue cloud, the outlines of an un-

known
it

They approached

land.

They saw

it.

that

was without mountains, was covered with wood,

and

there were

that

small

hills

Bjarne

inland.

saw that this did not answer to the description of

Greenland
left

he knew he was too

far south

so

he

the land on the larboard side and sailed north-

ward two

when they

days,

The men asked Bjarne

he said

it

was

if this

"For

not,

got sight of land again.

in

was Greenland

flat

ashore,

and covered with

but

turning the

Greenland," he

"there are great snowy mountains;

is

but
said,

but this land

They did not go

trees."
bow from the land, they

kept the sea with a fine breeze from the southwest

for three

when

days,

Bjarne would

not

what had been

sailed on, driven

a third land

go ashore,

reported

of

for

was
it

seen.

Still

was not

like

Greenland.

So

they

by a violent southwest wind, and

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

70

after four days they reached a land wliich suited the

description of Greenland.
for

it

close to the place

It

Bjarne was not deceived,

was Greenland, and

be

cannot

parts of the

where

he

his father

determined

American

happened
had

with

coast Bjarne

to

land

settled.

certainty

saw

what

but from

the circumstances of the voyage, the course of the

winds, the direction of the currents,

sumed

distance between each sight of land, there

reason to believe that the

in

and the pre-

the year

first

986 was the present Nantucket, one

degree south of Boston

the second

and the third Newfoundland.

JULFSON was the

first

Nova

European whose eyes beheld

European who saw the American

whose name

He went

is

Scotia,

Thus Bjarne Her-

The

first

continent,

and

any part of the present N'eio England.

\^

is

land that Bjarne saw

recorded, was

Are Marson

to Great Ireland (the

(see p. 18).

Chesapeake country),

which had undoubtedly been discovered by the

Irish

even long before Are visited there in the year 983

CHAPTER

XT.

LEIF ERIKSON,

Xr/^HEK
later,

censured

Bjarne

and

visited

told

of

1000.

JS'orway,
his

few years

adventure,

was

he

strong terms by Jarl (Earl) Erik and

others, because he had manifested so little
interest
that

in

he had not even

these lands,
definite

was

and

gone

ashore and

because he could

account of them.

Still,

sufficient to arouse in the

explored

give no

more

what he did say

mind of Leif Eeik-

SON, son of Erik the Eed, a determination

to solve

the problem and find out what kind

of lands these
were that were talked so much about.
He bought
Bjarne's ship from him, set sail with a
good crew
of

thirty-five

men,

and

found

the

lands just

as

Bjarne had described them, far away to the

southwest of Greenland.
They landed in

Helluland

(JS'ewfoundland) and in

Markland

(J^ova Scotia),

explored these countries somewhat, gave them

names,
and proceeded from the latter into the open
sea

with a northeast wind, and were two days at

sea

AMERK^A NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

72

sound.

was very shallow

It

ship

But

the water.

to

ebb-tide,

at

into

sailed

that

so

dry and there was a long way from

their ship stood

their

They

saw land again.

before they

desire to land

that

so

they did not

much

did they

give themselves

time to wait until the water rose again under their

ship, but ran at

river

out

flows

once on shore, at a place where a

of a

But

lake.*

as

soon as the

water rose up under the ship, they rowed out

their boats, floated the ship

into the lake,

skin

where they
of the

out

cots

up the

river

cast anchor,

ship,

in

and thence

brought their

and raised their

tents.

After this they took counsel, and resolved to remain

There

through the winter, and built a large house.

was no want of salmon,

lake,

The

either in the river or in the

and larger salmon than they had before

seen.

nature of the country was, as they thought, so

good that

cattle

would not require house-feeding

Day and

winter.

night were more equal

Greenland or Iceland,

for

till

than

in

on the shortest day the sun

was above the horizon from

forenoon

in

half-past four in

half-past seven

the

afernoon

in
;

the

which

circumstance gives for the latitude of the place 41

24'

10"

hence Leif 's booths are thought to have

*This lake
rail, will at first

is

Mount Hope Bay. The tourist,

Mount Hope Bay for a lake.

take

in traveling that

way by

B. F. DeCosta. p, 32.

AMERICA NOT DI8C0VEKED BV

COLUMBUS.

73

been situated at or near

Fall Eiver, Massachusetts.
Lnkson called the country
Vinland, and the

i^eif

cause of this was the

following interesting incident:
lliere was a German
in Leif Erikson's party

by
was a prisoner of war, but
had
become Leif s special favorite.
He was missing one
day after they came back
from an exploring expedi-

name Tykker.

tion

He

Leif

Eriksou became very

anxious about
lyrker, and fearing that
he might be killed by wild
beasts or by natives,*
he went out with a few
men
to search for him.
Toward

evening he was found

but in a very excited
state of mind
cause of his excitement
was some fruit

eommg home,
The

which
he had found and which
he held up i his hands
shouting: "Weintrauben!
Weintrauben
Weintrauben
" The sight and
taste of this fruit,
to which
he had been accustomed
in his own native
land
had excited him to such
an extent that he seemed
drunk, and for some
time he would do
nothing
but laugh, devour
grapes and talk German,
whicli
language our Norse
discoverers
!

At

last

did not understand

he spoke Norse, and
explained that he, to

0r Norse

t. eTr

Z
which

colonists i Vinland
had frequent intercourse
with

ZT:JT Tr

""" '""

and Shriveled aspect.

means slim,
4

lean

Compare

the

'''""'" *^="^) """- '

also

the adjective "skral,"

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

74:

his

great joy and

surprise,

the land got the

name

the interesting fact

had found vines and

From

grapes in great abundance.

this circumstance

of Yinland, and history got

German was along with

that a

the daring argonauts of the Christian era.

Here
tion to

then a short account of the

is

'New England.

1000, and Leif Erikson was the

of

whom

it

is

lirst

first

pale-faced

end sought,

tion, the

his

The nature

own mind, and

avowed

His was no discovery

purpose of seeking for land.

accident.

man

recorded that he undertook a voyage

across the Atlantic Ocean, with the definitely

by

expedi-

took place in the year

It

of Leif Erikson's expedi-

etc.,

was

as clearly defined in

as well understood

by

his coun-

trymen, as in the case of the expedition undertaken

by Columbus

in 1492.

set

heaven

and earth

in

commotion

in reference to the

matter

of going

across

the

Ocean.

bought

seamen
father,

Bjarne's
like

and

But Leif did not

Atlantic

engaged

ship,

himself,

set sail

said
//

He

thirty-five

good-bye

to

simply
fearless

his

aged

CHAPTER

XII,

THORVALD ERIKSON,

1003.

T"]^ the spring, when the winds were favorable,

The

Leif Erikson returned to Greenland.

much

pedition to Yinland was

WALD, Leif's

Thorvald

Yinland,

if

"

fitted out, in the

who went
it

And

like."

so

of,

Then

ex-

and Thor-

the land

that

You may go with my

you

was

but

explored.

little

son,

years;

thought

brother,

been much too

talked

said

had

Leif to

ship, brother, to

another expedition

year 1002, by Thorwald Erik-

to Yinland and remained there three

him

cost

his

life,

for in a battle

with

the Skrsellings an arrow from one of thd natives of

America pierced

his

side,

causing

death.

He

was

buried in Yinland, and two crosses were erected on

his grave,

one

dust of the

who

first

his

at

Hallowed ground,

this,

Christian

died in America!

gains interest in

head and one

at

his

feet.

beneath whose sod rests the

and the

first

European

His death and burial

another respect, for

in

also

the year

1831 there was found in the vicinity of Fall River,

Massachusetts,

skeleton

in

armor

the circumstances connected with

it

and many of

are so wonderful

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

76
that

might indeed seem almost as though

it

the skeleton of this very Thorvald Erikson

armor attracted much attention

skeleton in

was the subject of much learned

time,

year 1841, a

poem about

fearful

After which he makes the skeleton

his

the

at the

in

the

guest!"

adventures as a viking, about the

about

This

beginning:

it,

"Speak! speak! thou

Norway, about

were

discussion,

and our celebrated poet Longfellow wrote,

and

it
!

tell

about his

pine forests of

voyage across the stormy deep,

discovery

America,

of

concerning

which he says:
"Three weeks we westward

And when
Cloudlike

bore,

the storm was o'er,

we saw

the shore

Stretching to leeward;

my

There, for

lady's bower,

Built I the lofty tower,*

Which

to this very

hour

Stands looking seaward."

The

following are

the

two verses of the

last

poem:
"Still

grew

Still as

my

bosom, then.

a stagnant

me

Hateful to

The sunlight

The
Island,

tower here referred to

which undoubtedly was

in claiming

it,

is

fen,

were men.
hateful

landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in

Newport tower in Rhode

Norsemen; at least we persist

the famous

built by the

until it can be clearly

shown

1620.

that

it

has been built since the

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

77

In the vast forest here,

Clad in
Fell I

my

upon

warlike gear,

my

spear,

Oh, death was grateful!

"Thus, seamed with many

scars,

Bursting these prison bars,

Up

to its native stars

My

soul ascended.

There, from the flowing bowl,

Deep drinks the

warrior's soul:

Skaal! to the Northland, skaal!

Thus the

The
a part

tale

ended."

great Swedish chemist Berzelius analyzed*

of the breastplate which was found on the

and

skeleton,

found

that

in

composition

sponded with metals used in the

ISTorth

it

corre-

during the

tenth century; and comparing the Fall Eiver

breastplate with

old

to correspond

When
wald,

J^orthern armors,

with these in

it

was

found

also

style.

the JS'orsemen had buried their chief, Thor-

they returned

to

Leifsbudir

(Leif's

booths),

loaded their ships with the products of the land,

and
returned to Greenland in the year 1005.

*A

bronze article found in Denmark, and dating with

certainty back

to the tenth century,

was also analyzed, and the annexed

table

shows the

result of the analysis:

Breastvlate

from
America.

Copper

70.29

^!^

28.03.

Tin
^^^^

0.74

Iron

0.03-

Bronze Article

from
Denmark.
6713
-;;;;2o!39

0.91

924
____^

o OQ
0.11

CHAPTER

XIII

THORSTEIN ERIKSON,

rr^HEN

the

youngest

Sagas
son

us

tell

of

Erik

1005.

Thoestein, the

that

Red, was

the

seized

with a strong desire to pass over to Yinland

fetch

the body of his brother Thorvald.

married to GrDRiD, a w^oman remarkable

beauty,

it

all

Thorstein

stature,

fitted

men

with twenty-five

and

prudence, and

her dignity, her

discourse.

they

were

driven they
land,

knew not

several

of

Eriksfjord.

his

on

to

Greenland.

men

the

her

manned

their strength

When

Gudrid.

and were soon

died,

deep,

and were

Finally they

whither.

which they found

western coast of

for

Through the whole summer

about

tossed

sea,

was

her good

vessel,

for

and

was ready they put out to

out of sight of land.

selected

himself

besides

out

to

He

be

Lysefjord,

made

on

the

Here Thorstein and

and Gudrid returned

to

CHAPTER

XIY.

THORFINN KARLSEFNE AND GUDRID,

rr^HE

most

distinguished

explorer

-- wa^ Thorfinn Karlsefne.

and

He

man.

influential

He

1007.

Yinland

of

was a wealthy

was descended from the

most famous families in the North.

Several of his

ancestors had

In the

two

been elected

Karlsefne

ships.

Erikson, and

festival

whom

of

Erikstjord

with

presents to

Leif

during winter.

After the

Thorfinn began to treat with Leif as

to the marriage
to

fall

Leif offered the Norse navigator the

hospitalities of Brattahlid

Yule

kings.

Norway to
made rich

came from

1006 he

of

Gudrid, Leif being the person

the right of betrothment belonged.

Leif

gave a favorable ear to his advances, and in the

course of

tlie

winter their nuptials were celebrated

with due ceremony.

The

conversation

frequently

turned at Brattahlid upon Yinland the Good,

saying

that

an

expedition

prospects of gain.

accompanied

by

undertaking,

sailed

his

The

result

wife,

to

thither

held

fair

was that Thoriinn,

who urged him

Yinland

many

out

in

to

the

the spring of

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

80

The Sagas

1007, and remained there three years.

considerable

lay

persuaded him
appears

also

Imagine

sefne taking a walk

taken a prominent

She

part in

Imagine yourself way

the whole enterprise.

Gudrid talking

Gudrid

that

fact

undertake this expedition.

have

to

Greenland.

upon the

stress

to

Gudrid

and

off in

Thorfinn

Karl-

together on the sea-beach, and

to her

husband in

this wise;

wonder that you, Thorfinn, with good

'^I

ships

and many stout men, and plenty of means, should

choose

remain

to

must

of

be,

leafy

woods

Norway, instead of these rugged

Fields

hills.

moss-covered

enough

to

those

like
cliffs

for all

of old

and snow-clad

of waving grass and rye instead

and

rocks

sandy

Trees

soil.

of

large

build houses and ships instead of willow

bushes, that are

cattle

of

making

and what a desirable change

Thick and

us.

barren spot instead

Just think what a splendid coun-

settlement there.
it

this

famous Yinland and

the

searching out

try

in

fit

for

nothing except to save our

from starvation when the hay-crop runs out

besides

longer sunshine in winter, and more genial

warmth

all

and

and snow.

ice

the year round, instead of howling winds

wofully misnamed

You

can

easily

Truly I think

when they

this

called

it

country was

Greenland."

imagine that Thorfinn was con-

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

81

vinced by such persuasive arguments, and he resolved

to follow his wife's advice.

The

now

expedition which

was on a much larger

tions that

any of the expedi-

scale than

had preceded

out for Yinland

set

That Leif and Thorvald

it.

and Thorstein had not intended to make their per-

manent abode

Yinland was

in

they brought neither

that

herds with them.

went

forth

plain,

women nor
on

Karlsefne,

equipped

fully

for

party consisted of one hundred

and seven women.

were

there in

and

safety,

up

Skrsellings

fact

nor

the other

hand,

colonization.

The

and

men

number of

been stated, three years, when

them and the

flocks

fifty -one

cattle

and sheep

They

on this occasion to Yinland.

also carried

arrived

all

from the

remained,

compelled

as

has

between

hostilities

them

to give

their colony.

The Saga
enterprises

all

sketch.

Yinland

in

Skrsellings;
etc.

gives a very full account of Thorfinn's

of
I

which

must

interesting fact

and

Gudrid

about the

traffic

with the

about the development of the colony,

I

that

the

am

compelled to omit in this

attention,

call

year

son was
after

however,

Bay).

the

born to Thorfinn

they had

established

themselves in their quarters at Straumfjord

zard's

to

(Buz-

His name was Snorre Thorfinnson.

AMERICA NOT DISCOVEKED BY COLUMBUS.

82

He

was bora

in the present State of Massachusetts,

in

the year

1008,

and

European blood of whose birth

From him

any record.
Thorwaldsen,

lineally

is

in

first

the famous sculptor, Albert

descended,

a long

besides

men who have

and distinguished

of learned

train

man of
America we have

he was the

flourished during the last eight centuries in Iceland

and Denmark.
In the
inscription

next place, attention

is

invited

to

an

on a rock, situated on the right bank of

the Taunton river, in Bristol county, Massachusetts.

It

familiarly called the

is

Inscription.

in

Korsemen frequented.

the

acters

the very region which

It

is

written

in

which the natives have never used nor

tured.
as

stands

It

Dighton Writing Rock

charsculp-

This inscription was copied by Dr. Danforth

early

as

1680,

by Cotton Mather

in

1712;

it

was copied by Dr. Greenwood in 1730, by Stephen

Sewell in 1768, by James Winthrop in 1788, and
has been copied at least four times in the present
century.

The rock was seen and

first settlers in

was

said about

talked of by the

'New England, long before anything

the l^orsemen

before Columbus.

discovering America

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

Near the center of the

Roman

tinctly, in

we

scription

83

read dis-

characters,

CXXXI,
which

Then

is

M(en)."

of Thorfinn's party.

an N, a boat, and the Runic character

interpreted " N(orse) seafaring

M, which may be

for

number

151,* the exact

w^e find

Besides

we have

the word

NAM took

(took possession), and the whole of Thorfinn's name,

with the exception of the

first

letter.

Repeating

we have

these characters

^^^fe

ORFIN, CXXXI,

M,

NAM,

which has been interpreted by Prof. Rafn

as

fol-

"Thorfinn, with one hundred and fifty-one

lows:

Norse seafaring men took possession of

this

land

(landnam)."

In the lower

which

is

corner of the inscription

left

woman and

figure of a

the letter

of Gudrid and

S,

is

a child, near the latter

of

reminding us most forcibly

her son, Snorre.

the Dighton Writing Rock,

if

Upon
Prof.

the whole,

Rafn's plates

and interpretations can be relied upon, removes

all

doubt concerning the presence of Thorfinn Karlsefne

and the Norsemen

at

Taunton River,

in the begin-

ning of the eleventh century.f

*
it

The

stort

Icelanders reckoned twelve

hundrad

t See page

(great hundred),

22.

decades to the hundred and called

CHAPTER

XY.

OTHER EXPEDITIONS BY THE NORSEMEN.

rXlHE
-*-

Sagas

give

Thus

there

is

elaborate

by

expeditions

accounts

Norsemen

the

one by Freydis in the

to

other

of

Yinland.

year 1011

and in the year 1121 the Bishop Erik Upsi went

as a missionary to Yinland.

Then

there are Sagas that give accounts of expe-

ditions

by I^orsemen

South

Carolina,

Great Irland (North and

to

Georgia and Florida), but

omit these in the present

The

last

will

sketch.'^^

expedition mentioned was in

the year

1347, but this was in the time of the Black Plague,

which raged throughout Europe with unrelenting fury

from 1347

to 1351,

and

also reached Iceland,

land and Yinland, and cut off

these countries.
lation of

The Black Plague reduced

Norway

Green-

communication between
the popu-

alone from two millions to three

hundred thousand, and

this fact gives us

some idea of

the terrible ravages of this fearful epidemic.

evident that the Black Plague

tion for expeditions to
*

left

America or elsewhere.
See page

18.

It

is

no surplus popula

CHAPTER XVT
THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY COLUMBUS.

WILL now

-*-

of

devote a few pages to poincing out

some of the threads

that connect this discovery

America by the J^orsemen with the more recent

and better-known discovery by Columbus.

From

1.

a letter

which Columbus himself wrote,

and which we find quoted

Washington Irving's

in

Columbus,^ we know^ positively that while the design of attempting the

maturing in

the

mind

discovery in the west was

of

Columbus,

made

he

voyage to the north of Europe, and visited Iceland.

This was in February, 1477, and in his conversation

with the Bishop and other learned

men

of Iceland,

he must have been informed of the extraordinary

fact,

that their

country beyond

countrymen had discovered a great

the western

ocean,

which seemed

to extend southward to a great distance.

circumstance

active

not

likely

to

and speculative mind of

* Vol.

1.

p. 59.

rest
tlie

This was

quietly

in

the

great geographer

AMEEICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

86

The

and navigator.

Columbus was

America, only one hun-

years before he discovered

dred and

edly

thirty

years had elapsed

people
the

crossed

still

whose

living

Atlantic,

and

it

the

since

last

There were undoubt-

expedition to Yinland.

^N^orse

when

reader will observe that,

in Iceland, in the year 1477, fifteen

unreasonable to suppose that he,

had

grandfathers

would

be

who was

altogether

constantly

studying and talking about geography and navigation,

possibly could visit Iceland and not hear anything of

the land in the west.

Gudrid, the wife of Thorfinn and mother of

2.

made

Snorre,

a pilgrimage to

of her husband.

It

Rome

related

is

that

death

after the

she was well

and she certainly must have talked there

received,

of her ever memorable trans-oceanic voyage to Yinland, and

paid

much

took pains

her three years' residence there.

attention to geographical discoveries, and

to

collect

new

all

that were brought there.

charts

and reports

Every new discovery was

an aggrandizement of the papal

field for

Kome

dominion,

the preaching of the Gospel.

might have heard of Yinland

new

The Romans

before, but she

brought

personal evidence.
3.

clearly

That Yinland was known

proved

by the

fact

that

at

the Yatican

Pope Paschal

is

II,

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

in

appointed Erik Upsi, Bishop of

the year 1112,

Iceland,

Erik Upsi

Yinland in the year 1121.

to

Recent developments in relation to Columbus

4.

tend to prove that

map

and

Greenland and Yinland,

went personally

87

and

opportunity to see a

procured from the Yatican for the

of Yinland,

Pinzons,

had

he

would indeed astonish us more

it

to

learn that he, with his nautical knowledge, did not

We

hear of America than that he did.

bear in

mind

Columbus

that

England,

discovery;

were vying

with

France,

each

lived

and

Spain

discovering

in

also

an age of

in

Portugal

other

must

new

lands and extending their territories.

5.

But in addition

Writing Rock,

the

Indians told the

built

tainly

by the

early

giants,

the

to

Sagas, the Dighton

Newport Tower (which

I^ew England

the skeleton in armor,

record

was
cer-

looked like giants to the natives, since the

former called the latter Skrsellings)

to

settlers

and the Norse discoverers

the

of

Norsemen

the

early

in the

and

we have

discovery of America by the

writings of

Adam

of Bremen, a

canon and historian of high authority,

the year 1076.
Estridson, a
his return

He

nephew

in addition

a remarkable

visited the

of

who

died in

Danish king Svend

Canute the Great, and on

home he wrote

a book

''

On

the

Propa-

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

88

gation of the Christian Religion in the

Eurojpe^^ and

the end

at

geographical treatise

and

''

North of

of this book he added a

On

the

Position of Denmarlt

Having given

other regions heyond DenvfiarhP

an account of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland

that, " hesides these there is

and Greenland, he says

still

another region, lohich has heen visited hy many,

lying in that Ocean {the Atlantic), which is called

YiNLAND,

hecause

grow

vines

spontaneously,

there

producing very good wine; corn likewise springs

up there without
Bremen closes his
remarkable words

heing sown

" This

of

from

throughout

as

Adam

of

we Tcnow not hy fabu-

positive statements of the

Bremen's work was

lished in the year 1073,

men

and

account of Yinland he adds these

:

lous conjecture, hut

DanesP
Now, Adam

first

pub-

and was read by intelligent

Europe,

and Columbus being an

educated man, and so deeply interested in geographical

studies,

especially

when they

treated

of

the

Atlantic Ocean, could he be ignorant of so important

a

work?
I

must

have here given jive reasons

why Columbus

have known the existence of the American

continent before he started on his voyage of discovery.

1.

Gudrid's

visit

to

Rome.

2.

The

appoint-

AMEKICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

ment, by Pope Pascal
Yinland.
in

3.

Adam

Erik Upsi as Bishop of

II, of

of Bremen's account of Yinland,

book published in 1073.

his

89

4.

The map

pro-

cured from the Vatican for the Pinzons, which

fact
I

have not, however, jet been able to establish with

absolute

certainty;

Columbus' own

and,

visit to

These are stubborn

5,

which caps the climax,

Iceland in the year 1477.

facts,

and,

if

you read the

biography of Columbus, you will find that he always

maintained a firm conviction that there was land in
the west.
viction
stated,

He

says himself

that he

based this con-

on the authority of the learned writers.

before he left Spain, that he expected to

He
find

land soon after sailing about seven hundred leagues;

hence he knew the breadth of the ocean, and must,

have had a pretty definite knowledge of

therefore,

the situation of Yinland and Great Ireland.

or

two before coming

in

sight of the

new

day

world, he

capitulated with his mutinous crew, promising,

if lie

did not discover land within three days, to abandon

the voyage.
In fact, the whole history of his

dis-

covery proves that he either must have possessed

previous knowledge of America, or, as some have

had the audacity to maintain, been inspired. We

do not believe in that sort of inspiration. It makes

Columbus

a greater

man,

in

our estimation, that he

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

90

formed

his opinion

by a chain of

based upon thorough

the credit of Columbus,

the nature of things

learned writers;

logical deductions

study and research.

we

knowledge

his theory

mind with singular

We

eyes had already beheld

say,

if

he held

this

the

enviable

firm

name

We

certainty as

is

to

to

possessed

til is

and good

him by Wash-

claim to be vindicating the great

of Columbus, by showing that he must have

the ability and

and the keenness of

of

only

not entitled

based his certainty upon equally certain

lie

on

for

scholarship

for

land."

due respect

all

judgment that has been accredited

ington Irving.

much

conviction

he

biographer,

reputation

never spoke

the promised

presumptive evidence, then, with

his distinguished

fixed in

He

firmness.

in doubt or hesitation, but with as

if his

upon

"When

became

it

all

those scat-

all

that fell ineffectually

Washington Irving says:

Columbus had formed

his

to

he investigated

say, that

he paid close attention to

that

ordinary minds.

is

that he diligently searched the

reports of navigators, and gathered up

tered gleams of

It

gives historical

patience

intellect

facts,

to put together,

importance to the

America by the Norsemen.

which

to study out,

The

fault

and

discovery
that

we

Hud with Columbus

is,

frank enough to

where and how he had obtained

tell

that he

was not honest and

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

91

about the lands which

his previous information

he

pretended to discover; that he sometimes talked of

make

himself as chosen by Heaven to

and that he made the

to the

dominion of inquisition.

If our theory, then, does not

as true

and good a man

sidered him,

we

as the

still insist

of extraordinary ability.

America by study and

dicate great

that

It

make Columbus out

reader may have conit proves him a man

shows that he discovered

research,

and not by accident

Care should always be taken to vin-

or inspiration.

names from accident or

defeats one of the

inspiration.

It

most salutary purposes of history

and biography, which

human

this discovery,

fruits of his labors subservient

is

to furnish

examples of what

genius and laudable enterprise can accomplish. ^

That the Spanish and more recent colonies

in

America could become more permanent than the

Norse colonies,
superiority that

the natives.

is

chiefly

fire-arms

to

be

attributed

to

the

gave the Europeans over

The Norsemen had no

their higher culture could not

fire-arms,

and

defend them against

the swarms of savages that attacked

them.

In the

next place, the Black Plague reduced the population of

Norway and

Iceland beyond the necessity or

even possibility to emigrate.

*

Washington

If the
Irving.

communication

92

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.

between Yinland and the North could have been

maintained say one hundred years longer, that
the middle of the fifteenth century,

it

is

instead of English.

to

difiicult to

determine what the result would have been.

bly this sketch would

is,

Possi-

have appeared in Icelandic

Undoubtedly the Norse colonies

would have become firmly rooted by that time, and

Norse language, nationality and institutions might
have played as conspicuous a part in America as the
English and their posterity do now-a-days.

CHAPTER

XVII.

CONCLUSION.

"T^UT

it

-^-^

discuss

not within the scope of this sketch

is

subject

any

farther.

remember Leif Erikson, the

first

white

to

bow

turned the
pose

America.

Let

Thorvald Erikson, the

man who

remember

us
first

his

European and

Christian w^ho w^as buried beneath Ameri-

first

Let us not forget Thorfinn and Gud-

can sod!

who

RiD,

Let us

of his ship to the west for the pur-

finding

of

brother,

the

this

established

New

England

man

of European

the ]^ew

World

the

first

nor their

European colony

little son,

blood whose

Snorre, the

birthplace

in

first

was

in

Let us erect a monument to Leif

Erikson worthy of the

man and

the cause

and

while the knowledge of this discovery of America

lay for a long time hid in the unstudied literature

of

Iceland,

crushed
often

that

some

to

lie
it

is

far

let

us

take

this

lesson,

earth uill rise again; " that

darkened

and

like the

beam

distant

region

that

" truth

truth

may

hid for a long time, but

of
of

light

from a

star

the

universe

in

after

AMERICA NUT DISCOViiKED BY COLUMBUS.

94

thousands of years

and gives

it

it

reaches some heavenly body

light.

In the language of Mr. Davis:

Erikson for his courage,

Leif

for his zeal, let us respect

let

him

''Let us praise

him

us applaud

for his motives, for

he was anxious to enlarge the boundaries of knowl-

He

edge.

reached the wished-for land,

"

'

Where now

the western sun,

O'er fields and floods,

O'er every living soul

Diffuseth glad repose.'

He

opened

to the

view a broad region, w^here smil-

hope invites

ing

successive

generations

from the

old world.

" Such

men

as

an Alexander, or a Tamerlane,

conquer but to devastate countries.

new

Discoverers add

regions of fertility and beauty to those already

known.

"And

are

not the

the briny deep,

more

hardy adventurers, plowing

attractive than

the troops of

Alexander, or JN^apoleon, marching to conquer the

world,

with plumes waving in the gentle breeze,

and with arms glittering in the sunbeams?

can

tell

mankind
"

all

the benefits that discoverers confer on

To count them

Who

all

demands a thousand tongues,

throat of brass and adamantine lungs.'

"

WHAT SCHOLARS SAT

ABOUT THE

Value

Historical, Linguistic and Literary

OF THE

SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.
"Der

mast och den visar at norr, och

iiorr ar den alskade jord

ar flagga pji

jag

vill folja

de himmelska vindarnas gang, jag

styra tillbaka mot Nord."

vill

Tegner.
ENGLISH VERSION.
'

There's the flag on the mast, and it points to the North,

And the North holds the land that I love.

back to northward, the heavenly course

Of the winds guiding sure from above."

I will steer

VERY

little

attention has hitherto been given in

this country to the study of Scandinavian history,

languages and literatures.

study would not be so
generally
lectual

much

known what an

pleasure

quainted with

it.

it

affords

We

We

think this branch of

neglected, if

it

were more

extensive source of intelto

the scholar

who

is

ac-

hope, therefore, to serve a good

cause by calling your attention to a few quotations from

American, English, German, and French scholars, who

have given much time and attention to the above named
subject, in order that it may be known what they, who

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

96

may

justly be considered

competent

to judge, say of their

importance.
I will

add that

have not found a scholar, who has

devoted himself to this field of study and research, that

has not at the same time become an enthusiastic admirer
of Scandinavian and particularly Icelandic history, lan-

guages and literatures.

To

scientific students it is sufficient to say, that a

knowledge of the Scandinavian languages at once introduces them to several writers of great eminence in the
I will briefly mention a few.
scientific world.

Hans Christian Oersted won

for himself one of

His discovery, in 1820, of
the identity of electricity and magelectro-magnetism
which he not only discovered, but demonnetism

the greatest names of the age.

strated incontestably, placed

him

at once in the highest

rank of physical philosophers, and has led to all the

wonders of the electric telegraph. His great work, " The
Soul of Nature," in which he promulgates his grand
doctrine of the universe, abundantly repays a careful
perusal.

Carl von Linne

botany.

He was

died in 1788, and

of botany.

(Linngeus)

is

the polar star in

professor at the University of Sweden,

is

the founder of the established system

As Linnaeus

is

the father of botany, so

Ber-

ZELius might be called the father of the present system

of chemistry. He is one of the greatest ornaments of
He devoted his whole life sedulously to the
science.

promotion and extension of his favorite science, and to

liim is the world indebted for the discovery of many
new elementary principles and valuable chemical com-

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

biiiations

now

in general

use.

He

filled

97
the chair of

chemistry in the University of Stockholm for forty-two

years,

and died

Haksteen, and

in

1848.

Scheele, Michael Saes,

several others, are

men who have

tinguished themselves by their labors in the

science, natural history

And now

and astronomy.

the following quotations, which

dis-

field of

read

we have promised

to

present.

Mr. North Ludlow Beamish

says

"

The

national

and eminent position

in the literature of Europe.
In that remote and cheer*
*
*
less isle
religion and learning took up their
tranquil abode, before the south of Europe had yet
emerged from the mental darkness which followed the
fall of the Roman Empire.
There the unerring memories of the Skalds and Sagamen were the depositories of
past events, which, handed down from age to age, in one
unbroken line of historical tradition, were committed to
writing on the introduction of Christianity, and now
come before us with an internal evidence of their truth,
which places them amongst the highed order of historical
literature of Iceland holds a distinct

records.

"

To

investigate the origin of this remarkable ad-

vancement in mental culture, and trace the progressive

steps by which Icelandic literature attained an eminence
which even now imparts a lustre to that barren land, is
an object of interesting and instructive inquiry.
"Among no other people of Europe can the conception and birth of historical literature be more clearly
traced than amongst the people of Iceland. Here it can
be shown how memory took root, and gave birth to
5

tHE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

98
narrative

liov/

narrative multiplied

and increased until

was committed to writing, and how the written relation eventually became sifted and arranged in chrono-

it

logical order."

Samuel Laing,

Esq.

"All

that

men hope

for of

good government and future improvement in their

all that civilized men
physical and moral condition,
enjoy at this day of civil, religious and political liberty

the

British

constitution,

representative

legislature,

mind
by
and person, the influence of public opinion over the conthe

jury, security of property, freedom of

trial

duct of public

affairs,

the Reformation, the liberty of the

press, the spirit of the age,

value to

man

either in

spark

left

in

all

that

is

or has been of

member of society,
America, may be traced to the

modern times

as a

Europe or in
burning upon our shores by the Norwegian

barbarians.

"There seem no good grounds for the favorite and

hackneyed course of all who have written on the origin
of the British constitution and trial by jury, who un-.
riddle a few dark phrases of Tacitus concerning the
institutions of the ancient Germanic tribes, and trace up
to that obscure source the origin of all political institu-

modern Europe.

In
immediately
preceding the first traces of free institutions in our
history, the rude but very vigorous demonstrations of
tions connected with freedom in

the (Norwegian) Sagas

we

find, at a period

in great activity among

who were masters of the country
Great, who for two generations before

similar institutions

existing

those northern people,

under Canute the

had occupied and inhabited a very large portion

his time

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

99

of it, and of whom a branch under William of Normandy

became its ultimate and permanent conquerors. It may
be more classical to search in the pages of Tacitus for
allusions to the customs of the tribes wandering in his
day through the forests of Germany, which may bear
some faint resemblance to modern institutions, or to
what we fancy our modern institutions may have been
in their infancy
but it seems more consistent with
;

correct principles of historic research to look for the

origin of our institutions at the nearest, not at the

remote, source

most

not at what existed 1,000 years before

woods of Germany, among people whom we must

upon supposition to have been the ancestors of
the invaders from the north of the Elbe, who conquered
England, and must again believe upon supposition, that
when this people were conquered successively by the
Danes and Normans, they imposed their own peculiar
institutions upon their conquerors, instead of receiving
institutions from them
but at what actually existed,
in the

believe

when

the

first

notice of assemblies for legislative pur-

poses can be traced in English history

among

the con-

querors of the country, a cognate people, long established

by previous conquests in a large portion of it, who used,

not the same, at least a language common to both,
and who had no occasion to borrow, from the conquered,
institutions which were flourishing at the time in their
mother country in much greater vigor. It is in these
(Norwegian) Sagas, not in Tacitus, that we have to look
for the origin of the political institutions of England.
if

The

reference of

of the people
Sagas.

is

all

matters to the legislative assemblies

one of the most striking facts in the

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

100
'

The

land, are

Sagas, although

composed by natives of

properly Norwegian literature.

The

Ice-

events,

persons, manners, language, belong to Norioay;

and they
productions which, like the works of Homer, of
Shakespeare, and of Scott, are strongly stamped with

are

nationality of character and incident.

portion of that attention, which has exhausted

mythology, and which has too long dwelt in the
Pantheons of Greece and Rome, and is wearied with
fruitless efforts to learn something more, where, perhaps,
nothing more is to be learned, may very profitably, and
'-

classic

very successfully, be directed to the vast field of Gothic

For we are Goths and the descendants of

research.

Goths

" 'The men,

Of

And it

earth's best blood, of titles manifold.'

well becomes us to ask,

what has Zeus

to

do with

the Brocken, Apollo with Effersburg, or Poseidon with

the Northern Sea

The gods

of our lathers were neither

Jupiter, nor Saturn, nor Mercury, but Odin, Brage, or

we marvel at tlie pictures of heathen divinities

by classical hands, let us not forget that our
ancestors had deities of their own
gods as mighty in
Eger.

If

as painted

their attributes, as refined in their tastes, as heroic in

their doings, as the gods worshiped in the

Parthenon or

talked about in the forum."

M. Mallet

says

annals of a people

" History has not recorded the

who have occasioned

greater,

more

sudden, or more numerous revolutions in Europe than

the Scandinavians, or whose antiquities, at the same
time, are so

little

known.

Had, indeed,

their emigra-

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

101

which all
and remembrance are soon effaced, the indifference
that has been shown to them would have been sufficiently justified by the barbarism they have been ap-

tions been only like those sudden torrents of

traces

proached with.

But, during those general inundations,

the face of Europe underwent so total a change, and

during the

confusion they occasioned, such different

new societies were formed,

animated so entirely by the new spirit, that the history
of our own manners and institutions ought necessarily
to ascend back, and even dwell a considerable time upon
a period which discovers to us their chief origin and
establishments took place;

source.

"

ought not barely to assert this. Permit me

by proof. For this purpose
let us briefly run over all the different revolutions which
this part of the world underwent during the long course
of ages which its history comprehends, in order to see
what share the nations of the North have had in producing them. If we recur back to the remotest times,
we observe a nation issuing step by step from the forests
of Scythia, incessantly increasing and dividing to take
possession of the uncultivated countries which it met
with in its progress. Very soon after, we see the same
people, like a tree full of vigor, extending long branches

But

to support the assertions

over all Europe ; we see them also carrying with them

wherever they came, from the borders of the Black Sea

and of Greece, a
and martial as themselves, a form of
government dictated by good sense and liberty, a restless
unconquered spirit, apt to take fire at the very mention
of subjection and constraint, and a ferocious courage
to the extremities of Spain, of Sicily,

religion simple

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

102

nourished by a savage and vagabond

While the

life.

gentleness of the climate softened imperceptibly the fero-

who settled in the South, colonies of Egypand Phenicians mixing with them upon the coasts
of Greece, and thence passing over to those of Italy,
taught them at last to live in cities, to cultivate letters,
Thus their opinions, their customs
arts and commerce.
and genius, were blended together, and new states were
formed upon new plans. Rome, in the meantime, arose
and at length carried all before her. In proportion as
city of those

tians

manand destroyed, among the nations whom she overpowered, the original spirit with which they were animated. But this spirit continued unaltered in the colder
countries of Europe, and maintained itself there like the
she increased in grandeur, she forgot her ancient
ners,

independency of the inhabitants.

Scarce could fifteen

or sixteen centuries produce there any change in that

spirit.

There

it

renewed

itself

the whole of that long interval,

continually from
trod

upon the

the original

for,

during

new adventurers

issuing

incessantly

inexhaustible

country,

heels of their fathers toward the north,

and, being in their turn succeeded by

followers,

new

troops of

they pushed one another forward like the

waves of the sea. The northern countries, thus overstocked, and unable any longer to contain such restless
inhabitants, equally greedy of glory and plunder, discharged at length upon the Roman Empire the weight
that oppressed them. The barriers of the empire, ill
defended by a people whom prosperity had enervated,
were borne down on all sides by torrents of victorious
armies. We then see the conquerors introducing, among
the nations they vanquished,

viz.,

into the very

bosom

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

of slaveiy

and

sloth, that spirit of

103

independence and

equality, that elevation of soul, that taste for rural

and
which both the one and the other had
originally derived from the same common source, but
which were then among the Romans breathing their last.
Dispositions and principles so opposite, struggled long
with forces sufficiently equal, but they united in the end,
they coalesced together, and from their coalition sprung
those principles and that spirit which governed afterward almost all the states of Europe, and which, notwithstanding the differences of climate, of religion, and
particular accidents, do visibly reign in them, and retain,
to this day, more or less, the traces of their first common
military

life,

origin.

" It is easy to see, from this short sketch, how greatly

the nations of the earth have influenced the different
fates of Europe ; and if it be worth while to trace its
revolutions to their causes;

if

the illustration of

institutions, of its police, of its customs, of its

of

its

it

must be allowed that the

that

laws, be a subject of useful

is

to say, everything

quainted with

its

its

manners,

and interesting inquiry,

antiquities of the North,

which tends

to

make

us ac-

ancient inhabitants, merits a share in

the attention of

thinking men.
obvious by a particular example
:

But
is

it

to render this

not well

known

that the most flourishing and celebrated states of Europe

owe
they

originally to the northern nations whatever liberty

now

enjoy, either in their constitution or in the

government ? For although the Gothic

form of government has been almost everywhere altered
or abolished, have we not retained, in most things, the
opinions, the customs, the manners which that governspirit of their

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

104

ment had

a tendency to produce

Is

not

this, in fact,

the principal source of that courage, of that aversion to

slavery, of that

empire of honor which characterized in

general the European nations; and of that moderation,

of that easiness of access, and peculiar attention to the
rights of humanity,

which

so happily distinguish

our

sovereigns from the inaccessible and superb tyrants of

Asia

The immense extent

rendered

of the

Eoman Empire had

many

constitution so despotic and military,

its

of its emperors were such ferocious monsters,

its

senate

was become so mean-spirited and vile, that all elevation

of sentiment, everything that was noble and manly,
seems to have been forever banished from their hearts
and minds; insomuch that if all Europe had received
the yoke of Rome in this her state of debasement, this
fine part of the world reduced to the inglorious condition of the rest could not have avoided falling into
that kind of barbarity, which is of all others the most
incurable; as, by making as many slaves as there are
men, it degrades them so low as not to leave them even
a thought or desire of bettering their condition.
But
nature has long prepared a remedy for such great evils,
in that unsubmitting, unconquerable spirit with which
she has inspired the people of the North; and thus she

made amends

to the

human

race for all the calamities

which, in other respects, the inroads of these nations

and the overthrow of the Roman Empire produced.

"The

great prerogative of Scandinavia (says the ad-

mirable author of the Spirit of Laws*), and what ought

to

recommend

earth,

is,

its

inhabitants beyond every people upon

that they afforded the great resource to the

*

Baron

cle

MoiUesquieu (L'Esprit

cle

Lois),

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

liberty of Europe, that
is

among men.

is,

105

to almost all the liberty that

The Goth Jornande, adds

North of Europe the forge of mankind.

he, calls the

I should ratlicr

those instruments which broke the

manufactured in the South. It was there those
valiant nations were bred who left their native climes to
destroy tyrants and slaves, and so to teach men that
nature having made them equal, no reason could be
assigned for their becoming dependent but their mutual
call it the forge of

fetters

happiness."

H. W. Longfellow is an enthusiastic admirer of the

Scandinavian languages.
Of the Icelandic he says:
^^
The Icelandic is as remarkable as the Anglo-Saxon for
its

abruptness,

metaphors.

obscurity and the boldness of

its

Poets are called Songsmiths;

poetry,

its

the

gold, the Daylight of Dwarfs;

Ymer; the rainbow, the
Bridge of the Gods a
a Bath of Blood, the Hail
of Odin, the Meeting of Shields the tongue, the Sword
of Words a
the Sweat of Earth, the Blood of the
Valleys; arrows, the Daughters of Misfortune, the
Hailstones of Helmets; the earth, the Vessel that
on the Ages the
the Field of Pirates
Language of the Gods;

the

heavens, the Scull of

battle,

river,

floats

sea,

a ship, the Skate of Pirates, the Horse of the Waves.

The ancient Skald

(Bard) smote the strings of his harp

with as bold a hand as the Berserk smote his

heroes

fell

in battle he sang to

them

foe.

When

in his Drapa, or

death-song, that they had gone to drink ^divine

mead

and tranquil palaces of the gods,' in that

Valhalla upon whose walls stood the watchman Heimdal, whose ear was so acute that he could hear the grass
in the secure

106

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

grow

the

in

meadows of

He

backs of sheep.

dim

and the wool on the

in

the

He was

twilight of the past.

'

earth,

lived in a credulous age,

The sky-lark in the dawu

The poet of the morn.'

of years,

In the vast solitudes around him, the heart of Nature

From

beat against his own.

groves,

the

deep-voiced

voiced and neighboring

the midnight

gloom of

answered the deeperTo his ear, these were not

pines
sea.

the voices of dead, but living things.

Demons

rode the

ocean like a weary steed, and the gigantic pines flapped

sounding wings to smite the spirit of the storm.

and fiercer were these influences of
Nature in desolate Iceland, than on the mainland of
their

"Still wilder

Scandinavia.

Fields of lava, icebergs, geysers and vol-

canoes were familiar sights.

When

the long winter

came, and the snowy Heckla roared through the sunless

and the flames of the Northern Aurora flashed along

phantoms from Valhalla, the soul of the
poet was tilled with images of terror and dismay. He
bewailed the death of Baldur, the sun and saw in each
eclipse the horrid form of the wolf, Maanegarm, who
swallowed the moon and stained the sky with blood."
air,

the sky, like

Professor W. Fiske, of Cornell University, who is

undoubtedly the most learned northern scholar in this
country, who has spent several years in the Scandinavian
countries, and who is an enthusiastic admirer of Iceland

and

its

Sagas, has sent

me

the following lines for inser-

tion in this appendix

" It

is

to those

not necessary to dwell on the value of Icelandic

who

desire to investigate the early history of the

THE SCANDIN AVIAN LANGUAGES.

107

Teutonic race. The religious belief of our remote ancestors, and very many of their primitive legal and social
customs, some of which still influence the daily life of
the people, find their clearest and often their only eluci-

dation in the so-called Eddie and Shaldic lays, and in the

Sagas.
The same writings form the sole sources of

Scandinavian history before the fourteenth century, and

they not infrequently shed a welcome ray on the obscure
annals of the British Islands, and of several continental

They

nations.

furnish, moreover, an almost unique ex-

ample of a modern

The

nous.

literature

which

is

completely indige-

old Icelandic literature, which

Mobius

truly

Phiinomen vom Standpunkte der

allgemeinen Cultur und Literaturgeschichte,' and beside which the literatures of all the other early Teutonic
dialects
Gothic, Old High German, Saxon, Frisian,
are as a drop to a bucket of water,
and Anglo-Saxon
developed itself out of the actual life of the people under
little or no extraneous influence.
In this respect it deserves the careful study of every student of letters.
For
characterizes as 'ein

the English-speaking races especially there

so near

home, a field^romising

a harvest.
tions,

The few

which

is

nowhere,

to the scholar so rich

translations, or attempted transla-

are to be

found in English, give merely

a faint idea of the treasures of antique wisdom and

sublime poetry which exist in the Eddie

lays, or of the

quaint simplicity, dramatic action, and striking realism

which characterize the historical Sagas.
ISTor is the

modern literature of the language, with its rich and

abundant stores of folk-lore, unworthy of regard."
Beis^jamin Lossing says: "It is back to the ]^orwegian Vikings we must look for the hardiest elements
of progress in the United States."

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

108
B. F.

De

cating the

us the

first

Costa.

" Let

us remember that in vindi-

Northmen we honor

those

who not

only give

knowledge possessed of the American conti-

nent, but to whom we are indebted for much besides that

we esteem valuable. For we fable in a great measure
when we speak of our Saxon inheritance; it is rather from
the Northmen that we have derived our vital energy, our
freedom of thought, and, in a measure that we do not yet
suspect, our strength of speech.
are fast

Yet, happily, the people

becoming conscious of their indebtedness so that

be hoped that the time is not far distant when
;

it is

to

the

Northmen may be recognized

and

in their right social,

and

at the same time,

assume their true position in the Pre-Columbian Discovery of America.
"The twelfth century was an era of great literary
activity in Iceland, and the century following showed
the same zeal. Finally Iceland possessed a body of prose
literature superior in quantity and value to that of any

political

literary characters,

as navigators,

other

modern nation of

its

Indeed, the natives of

time.

Europe, at this period, had no prose literature in any

modern language spoken by the people.
**Yet while other nations w^ere without a literature,
the intellect of Iceland was in active exercise and works

were produced like the Eddas and Heimskeingla,

works which, being inspired by a lofty genius, will rank
with the writings of Homer and Herodotus while time
itself

endures."

Says Sir

Edmund Head, in

translations in

regard to the Norwegian

" No doubt there were

Anglo-Saxon from the Latin, by Alfred,

literature of the twelfth century

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

1<)9

was in truth no vernacular

says,
any work in high
or low German jirose which can be carried back to this
period.
In France, prose writing cannot be said to have
begun before the time of Villehardouin (1204) and Joinof an earlier date, but there

literature.

ville

(1202)

cannot name/' he

^'

Castilian prose certainly did not begin before

the time of Alfonso

(1252);

Don Juan

Cronica General
least the

cle

middle of

Manvel, the

1282.
The
Espana was not composed till at
the thirteenth century. About the

author Concle Lucanor, was not born

till

same time the language of Italy was acquiring that softness and strength which were destined to appear so conspicuously in the prose of Boccaccio and the writers of
the next century.
" Of course there was more or less poetry, yet poetry
is

something that

is

early developed

among

the rudest

nations, while goodi prose tells that a people have

become

highly advanced in mental culture."

William and Mary Howitt.

besides the Bible,

which

sits

" There

is

nothing

in a divine tranquillity of

unapproachable nobility, like a King of Kings amongst

other books, and the poem of Homer itself, which can

all

compare in all the elements of greatness with the Edda.

There is a loftiness of stature and a growth of muscle
about it which no poets of the same race have ever since
reached. The obscurity which hangs over some parts of
it, like the deep shadows crouching mid the ruins of the
but, amid
past, is probably the result of dilapidations
this, stand forth the boldest masses of intellectual masonry. We are astonished at the wisdom which is shaped
into maxims, and at the tempestuous strength of passions
;

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

110
tu

which

all

modern emotions appear puny and con-

Amid

strained.

the bright sunlight of a far-off time,

surrounded by the densest shadows of forgotten ages,

we come at once into the midst of gods and heroes, goddesses and fair women, giants and dwarfs, moving about
in a world of wonderful construction, unlike any other
has founded or man
beyond conception.
"The Icelandic poems have no parallel in all the

worlds or creations which G-od

has imagined, but

still

beautiful

They

treasures of ancient literature.

are the expressions

and unThey are limnings of men and women

godlike beauty and endowments, full of the vigor of

of the souls of poets existing in the primeval

effeminated earth.
of

There are gigantic proThere are great and overwhelming

tragedies in them, to which those of Greece only present
any parallels.
" The Edda is a structure of that grandeur and imsimple but impetuous natures.

portions about them.

portance that

it

generally than

deserves to be far better

it is.

The

spirit in it is

known

to us

sublime and

colossal."

Plikt Miles.

"The

literary history of Iceland in

the early ages of the Republic

character.

When we

the country, and the

many

they labored, their literature

record.

The

is

of a most interesting

consider the limited population of

old Icelanders,

disadvantages under which

the most remarkaUe on
from the tenth to the six-

is

teenth century, through a period of the history of the

when little intellectual light beamed from the surrounding nations, were as devoted and ardent workers in
the fields of history and poetry as any community in the

eWorld

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

Hi

world under the most favorable circumstances.

Springing from the Old J^orse or Norwegian stock,
they carried
the language and habits of their ancestors
with them to
their highland home.
Though a very large number of
our English words are derived direct from
the Icelandic,

most learned and indefatigable of our lexicographers, both in England and America,
have acknowl-

yet the

edged their ignorance of this language.

"The Eddas abound in mythological machinery to

an extent quite equal to the writings of Homer
and
Virgil."

The
thetics

learned Grerman writer Schlegel, in his "

Esand Miscellaneous Works," says " If any monu:

ment

of the primitive northern world deserves a

place
amongst the earlier remains of the South, the Icelandic

Edda must

be deemed worthy of that distinction.

The

spiritual veneration for ]N"afcure, to

which the sensual

Greek was an entire stranger, gushes forth in the
mysterious language and prophetic traditions of
the Northern Edda with a full tide of enthusiasm and
inspiration
sufficient to endure for centuries, and to
supply a whole
race of future bards and poets with a precious
and animating elixir. The vivid delineations, the rich, glowing
abundance and animation of the Homeric pictures

of
the world, are not more decidedly superior
to the misty
scenes and shadowy forms of Ossian, than the

Northern

Edda

is

in

its

sublimity to the works of Hesiod."

Prof. Dr. Deitrich asserts that the Scandinavian

literature is extraordinarily rich in all
kinds of writings."

"It

Hon. George P. Marsh.

mark that, in the opinion of

must

suffice to re-

those most competent to

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

112

judge, the Icelandic literature has never been surpassed,

if

equaled, in

all

that gives value to that portion of his-

tory which consists of spirited delineations of character

and

faithful

and

among

lively pictures of events

nations

in a rude state of society.

" That the study of the Old Northern tongue may

have an important bearing on English grammar and
etymology, will be obvious, when it is known that the
is most closely allied to the Anglo-Saxon, of
which so few monuments are extant
and a slight
examination of its structure and remarkable syntactical

Icelandic

character will satisfy the reader that

it

may

well deserve

the attention of the philologist."

The

excellent writer,

ing of Iceland, says

the Icelanders, had

"

Charles L. Brace, in speakThe Congress, or Althing,' of

many

'

of the best political features

which have distinguished parliamentary government in

branches of the Teutonic race since. Every freeholder voted in it, and its decisions governed all inferior
courts.
It tried the lesser magistrates, and chose the
all

presiding officers of the colony.

" To this remote island (Iceland) came, too, that re-

markable profession, who v/ere at once the poets, hisand moralists of the Norse race,
the Skalds. These men, before writing was much in
use, handed down by memory, in familiar and often
alliterative poetry, the names and deeds of the brave
Norsemen, their victories on every coast of Europe,
their histories and passions, and wild deaths, their
family ties, and the boundaries of their possessions,
their adventures and voyages, and even their law and
torians, genealogists

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

113

their mythology.

In fact, all that history and legal documents, and genealogical records and poetry transmit
now, was handed down by these bards of the Norsemen.
Iceland became their peculiar center and home. Here,
bold and vivid language, they recorded in works,
which posterity will never let die, the achievements of
the Vikings, the conquest of almost every peo2)le in
in

Europe hij these vigorous pirates; their wild ventures,

their contempt of pain and death, their absolute joy in
danger, combat and difficulty. In these, the oldest records of our {L

e.,

the Americans') forefathers, will be

found even among these wild rovers the respect for law
which has characterized every branch of the Teutonic
here, and not in the Sioiss cantons, is the
beginning of Parliament and Congress ; here, and not
with the Anglo-Saxons, is the foundation of trial by jury;

race since;

and

here,

among

their

most ungoverned wassail,

is that

high reverence for woman, which has again come forth by

i7iheritance

among

the

Anglo- Norse Americans.

The

ancestors (at least morally) of Ealeigh and Nelson, and

Kane and Farragut, appear in these records, among
these sea-rovers, whose passion was danger

on the waters.
*Eaven Floki,'
pioneers

who

Here, too,
is

the

and venture

among such men

prototype of

those

as

the

American

follow the wild birds into pathless wilder-

found new republics.

A^id it is the Norse
''udaV property, not the European feudal property,
which is the model for the American descendants of the
ancient Norseman.
" In these Icelandic Sagas, too, is portrayed the deep
moral sentiment which characterizes the most ancient
mythology of the Teutonic races. Here we have no
nesses

to

5*

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

114
dissolute

Pantheon, with gods revelling eternally in

and the evils and wrongs of humanity

earthly vices,

continued forever.

Even the ghosts

of the

Northmen

have the muscle of the race ; they are no pale shadows

flitting through the Orcus. The dead fight and eat with
the vigor of the living. But there comes a dread time
when destiny overtakes all, both human and divine
beings, and the universe with its evil and wrong must
perish (Eagnarokr).
Yet even the crack of doom finds
not the Norsemen timid or fearing. Gods and men die
in the heat of the conflict

and there survives

God of Love,' who

heaven and a new earth.
" It is from Iceland that we get
Baldur,

the

'

shall

alone,

create

new

the wonderful poetic

and mythologic collections of the Elder and Younger

Eddas. In this remote island the original Norse language was preserved more purely than it was in Norway
or Denmark, and the Icelandic literature shed a flood of
light over a dark and barbarous age.
Even now the
modern Icelanders can read or repeat their most ancient
Sagas with but little change of dialect.
*'
But to an Americcm, one of the most interesting
gifts of

Iceland to the world

is

the record of the dis-

covery of Northern America by Icelandic rovers

(?)

near

the year 1000.

"We think few scholars can carefully read these

and the accompanying

Sagas,

in regard to Greenland, without

a conviction that the Icelandic

and Norwegian Vikings

did at that early period discover and land on the coast

of our eastern States. * * * The shortest winter

day

is

stated with

such precision as to

fix

the

lati-

tude near the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

115

* * * Iceland, then, has the honor of having discovered

America.
"

That volcanic-raised island, with its mountains of

and valleys of lava and ashes, has played no mean
part in the world's history."
Christian Union^ July 15
ice

1874.

The famous George Stephens, in his elaborate work

on "Runic Monuments," having discussed the importance of studying the Scandinavian languages in order
that many of our fine old roots may again creep into
circulation, says " Let us (the English) study the Scandinavian languages, and ennoble and restore our mother
tongue.
Let the Scandinavians study Old English as
well as their own ancient records, give up mere provincial
views, and melt their various dialects into one* shining,
rich, sweet and manly speech, as w^e have done in England.
Their High Northern shall then live forever, the
home language of eight millions of hardy freemen, our
brothers in the east sea, our Warings and Guardsmen
against the grasping clutches of the modern Hun and
The time may come when the
the modern Vandal.
kingdom of Canute may be restored in a nobler shape,
when the bands of Sea-kings shall rally round one
Northern Union standard, when one scepter shall sway
the seas and coasts of our forefathers from the Thames
to the North Cape, from Finland to the Eider.
" We have watered our mother tongue long enough
with bastard Latin let us now brace and steel it with
the life-water of our own sweet and soft and rich and
shining and clear ringing and manly and world-ranging,
:

ever dearest

English

'

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

116

In his preface to his Icelandic grammar, Dr. G. W.

Dasent says " Putting aside the study of Old Norse
for the sake of its magnificent literature, and considering it merely as an accessory help for the English student,
:

we

shall find

it

immense advantage, not only in tracstill more in clear-

of

of words and idioms, but

ing the

rise

ing up

many dark

points in our early history; in fact,

cannot

so highly

do

imagine

possible to write a satisfactory history of the

it

I value it in this respect, that I

Anglo-Saxon period without a thorough knowledge of

the Old Norse literature."

Dr. Dasent,

in his introduction to Oleasby's

Vigfusson's Icelandic Dictionary, says of Iceland

and
"

No

other country in Europe possesses an ancient vernacular

to be

compared with

this."

And

again:

"Whether

in

a literary or in a philological point of view, no literature

middle ages can compete in interest

It is not certainly
forma pauperis that she appears at the tribunal of learning." In
" In it (the Dictionary) the
another place he remarks
English student now possesses a key to that rich store of
in

Europe

in the

with that of Iceland.

knowledge which the early literature of Iceland possesses.

He may read the Eddas and Sagas, which contain sources
of delight and treasures of learning such as no other
language but that of Iceland possesses.'

The

distinguished

German

scholar,

Ettmuller,

in

Anglo-Saxons with that

of the Icelanders, says: "Neither the Goths, nor the
Germans, nor the French, can be compared with the
Anglo-Saxons in the cultivation of letters. By the Scandmavians alo?ie, they are not only equaled, but also sur-

comparing the

literature of the

THP:

SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

passed in literature."

And

KT

again: " If the Scandinavians

excel in lyric poetry, the Anglo-Saxons can boast of their

famous island in the remote Northwith distinguished honor to historical studies, the isle of the Anglo-Saxons is especially
entitled to praise from the fact that it produced orators,
who, considering the time in which they lived, were de-

epic poetry.

If the

ern Sea applied

itself

cidedly excellent."

Max

MtJLLER, in his "Science of Language," says:

a third stream of Teutonic speech, which it
v/ould be impossible to place in any but a co-ordinate
" There

is

position with regard to Grothic,

This

Low and High German.

the Scandinavian branch."

In Wheaton's "History of the Northmen," we find

the following passages

"

cultivated the language

The

and

Icelanders cherished and

literature of their ancestors

*
*
*
jj^
Iceland an

remarkable success.
independent literature grew up, flourished, and was
brought to a certain degree of perfection hefoi^e the rewith

vival of learning in the south of Europe.^'

Robert Buchakan,

the eminent English writer, in

reviewing the modern Scandinavian

literature,

says:

While German literature darkens under the malignant

star of Deutschthum, while French art, sickening of its
long disease, crawls like a leper through the light and
wholesome world, while all over the European continent
one wan influence or another asserts its despair-engendering sway over books and men, whither shall a bewildered student fly for one deep breath of pure air and
wholesome ozone ? Goethe and Heine have sung their
"

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAG-E8.

118
best

and worst

Hugo

Alfred de Miisset

turned politician.

is

criticism.

scendentalism rises

uncommon

From

like a Phoenix,

a bird too

comprehension, but to

and purposes an anomaly

tents

a mystery,

of Carlyle's

the ashes of Teutonic tran-

Wagner

for ordinary

dead, and Victor

is still

medium

thanks partly to the darkening

hostile

is

Grillparzer

One

at best.

all in-

tires of

anomalies, one sickens of politics, one shudders at the

Weimar and looking

and west, ranging with a true invalid's hunger the
literary horizon, one searches for something more natural, for some form of indigenous and unadorned loveliness, wherewith to fleet the time pleasantly, as they
petticoat literature first created at

east

did in the golden world.

" That something may be found without traveling
very

far.

Turn northward,

in the footsteps of Teufels-

drochk, traversing the great valleys of Scandinavia, and

not halting until, like the philosopher, you look upon

'that slowly heaving Polar Ocean, over which in the

utmost north the great sun hangs

ful

Norway yet as in
of summer tourists

lies

flocks

low.'

Quiet and peace-

the world's morning.

alight

upon her

shores,

The
and

scatter themselves to their numberless stations, without

disturbing the peaceful serenity of her social life. * * *

The government is a virtual democracy, such as would

gladden the heart of Gambetta, the Swedish monarch's
Norway being merely

There are no
titular.
no 'gag' on the press.
Science and poetry alike flourish on this free soil. The
science is grand as Nature herself, cosmic as well as
microscopic.
The poetry is fresh, light, and pellucid,
worthy of the race, and altogether free from Parisian
rule over

hereditary nobles.

taint."

There

is

THE SCANDINAVIAN

LANC^HJAGES.

119

"

Bjornstjerne Bjornson,* one of the most eminent of living Norwegian authors, is something more
than even the finest pastoral taleteller of this generation.

He

is

He

a dramatist of extraordinary power.

does not

power of imaginative fancy shown by Wergesuch pieces as Jan van Huysums Blomster-

possess the

landf (in

stykhe), nor Welhaven's]; refinement of phrase, nor the

wild, melodious

of Peer

Gyut ;\\

abandon of
but, to

as a poet in a far higher

" In

more than one

his greatest rival, the author

my

thinking at least, he stands

rank than any of these writers.
respect, particularly in the loose,

disjointed structure of the piece, 'Sigurd Slembe' re-

minds one of Goethe's Goetz/ but it deals with materials

far harder to assimilate, and is on the whole a finer
picture of romantic manners. Audhild (a prominent
character in 'Sigurd Slembe') is a creation worthy of
Goethe at his best worthy, in my opinion, to rank with
Olaerchen, Marguerite and Mignon as a masterpiece of
'

delicate characterization.

And

here I

may

observe, inci-

dentally, that Bjornson excels in his pictures of delicate

* Bjornstjerne Bjornson was born in 1832; has written several novels,
dramas and epic poems. 'Sigurd Slembe'''' is a drama, published in 1863, of
which Robert Buchanan says: "It is, besides being a masterpiece by its
author, a drama of which any living European author might be justly proud."

Several of his novels, including ''Arne,"

"A

Happy

Boy,"' --The Fisher-

maiden." have been translated into English.

t Henrik Arnold Wergeland was born in 1808, and died in 1845. He is
the Byron of the North. His works comprise nine ponderous volumes. He
excelled in lyrics.
X John Sebastian Welhaven, born in 1807, died in 1873. Remarkable for
the elegance and chasteness of his style. No poet has more beautifully and
correctly described the natural scenery of Norway.
The author of "-Peer Gyuf' is Henrik Ibsen, born in 1828. Was en1!

gaged by Ole Bull as instructor at the theatre in Bergen, which position he

occupied six years. He has written several dramatic works, chiefly of a
polemic and exceedingly satirical nature.
Many of his countrymen prefer
Ibsen to Bjornson. His last work is "Reiser og Oalilcter.''''

THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES.

120

feminine types,
is

worthy

a proof,

if proof were wanting, that he

rank with the highest class of poetic

to take

creators."

might add to the above quotations from Max MillGrimm and many other eminent writers
but in the first place this article is long enough, and in
the next place the works of the last named authors are
I

ler,

the brothers

accessible to all
ject further.

who may wish

My

opinion of those

to investigate this sub-

object has been to

who have

show

that, in the

studied the subject, the North

has a history, language and literature deserving and

amply rewarding some attention from American stuOf the good or ill performance of this task the

dents.

reader,

whom

I earnestly request carefully to consider

the contents of these pages, must be the judge.

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ANDERSON'S NORSE MYTHOLOGY; or The

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Religion

Myths of the Eddas carefullywith an Introduction, Vocabulary and Index. By

Our Forefathers. Containing

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I sincerely wish it a wide
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"I

like

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A mythologist must be not only a scholar but

decidedly.

a bit of a

poet, otherwise he will never understand that petrified poetry out of

mythology of every nation

is built

You seem

up.

me

to

to

have that

which the

gift

of poetic

whenever I approach the dark runes of the Edda, I shall

gladly avail myself of your help and guidance."
Yours truly,
F. Max Midler, University of Oxford.
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Prof. Anderson has translated for us are characterized by a wild
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The Myths which

and he
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It is full, and elucidates the
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It contains abundant illustrations in literal and
"Professor Anderson

is

imparts his enthusiasm to his readers.

Professor Anderson's interEddas and Sagas,

myths throw new light upon them, and are valuable additions (as is
It deserves to
the whole work) to the history of religion and of literature.
.
be welcomed, not only as most creditable to American scholarship, but also as an
indication of the literary enterprise which is surely growing up in our North-western
States."
The Presbyterian Quarterly and Princeton Review.

poetic translations from the

pretations of the

AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS.-A

America by the Norsemen in the loth centAnderson, of the University of Wisconsin, with an Appendix

Historical Sketch of the Discovery of

By Prof. R.

ury.

B.

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title

full

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The

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Notes

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Queries, London.

described in

its

The book is
wonderment."
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VIKING TALES OF THE NORTH.-The Sagas of Thorstein,Vikand Fridthjof the Bold. Translated from the Icelandic by Prof. R. B.
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The quaintly,

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is

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New

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of thought and feeling which

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Thorstein, Viking's Son,'

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* teems with magnificently dramatic situations, the

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The

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and an enthusiastic appreciation of its epigrammatic pith and vigor. * * TegneVs celebrated poem 'Fridthjof's Saga,' is sufficiently novel in its theme and abounding in melody and rhythm
The Nation, New York.
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FRIDTHJOF'S SAGA. A
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One volume, 12mo,

Cloth, $1.50.

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Norse Romance.

Translated from the Swedish by Thos. A. E.

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Longfellow styles

it

to the literary history of the

" 'Fridthjof s Saga'

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is

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Sweden has yet

the noblest poetic contribution which

world."

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an interesting story,

New

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told with great skill, tenderness

and

picturesque language, while the characters are discriminated with a talent worthy
of the most observant student of human nature. * * * Sweden in the person of

Bishop Tegner, offers the true poet, who, in describing the struggles of souls, has
* The Holcomb translation is so well done that
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* *
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does

high-toned, correctly toned throughout.

an earnestness and even eloquence

in this

the author appear to speak to us from the living page.

volume which makes

It reads like

a speech.

There is an electric fire about every sentence." Episcopal Register, Philadelphia.

" There is no danger of speaking in too high terms of praise of this volume.

As

work

teacher

it

of art

it is

a gem.

As

a counselor

it

speaks the wisdom of the ages.

As a

philosophy of life by the experience of eminent men of

warns by the story of signal failures, and encourages by

illustrates the true

every class and calling. It

the record of triumphs that seemed impossible.

It is a

book of

facts

and not of

The men who have succeeded in life are laid under tribute, and made to
thej'^
divulge the secret of their success. They give vastly more than hints
make a revelation. They show that success lies not in luck, but in pluck.
Instruction and inspiration are the chief features of the work which Prof. Mathews
theories.

has done in this volume."

;'

Christian Era, Boston.

THE GREAT CONVERSERS, and Other Essaysauthor of " Getting On in the World."
-fi 75
volume, i2mo., 306 pages, with Map, price

By Wm. Mathews, LL.D.,

I

" As fascinating as anything in fiction." Concord Monitor.

" These pages are crammed with interesting facts about literary men and
rary work." New York Evening Mail.
''

They

are written in that charming and graceful style, which

in this author's writings,

and the reader

is

is

lite-

so attractive

continually reminded by their ease and

grace of the elegant compositions of Goldsmith and Irving."

Boston Transcript.

" Twenty essays, all treating lively and agreeable themes, and in the easy,
*
*
polished and sparkling style that has made the author famous as an essayist.
The most striking characteristic of Prof. Mathews' writing is its wonderful wealth
of illustration. * * One will make the acquaintance of more authors in the
course of a single one of his essays than are probably to be met with in the same
limited space anywhere else in the whole realm of our literature." 77/^ Chicago
Tribune.

PUBLISHED BY

S.

GRIGGS

C.

6- CO.,

WORDS; THEIR USE AND ABUSE,

Author of "Getting on

in the

"A book of rare

"A

literary

Wm.

Mathews,

Etc.,

$2

00.

xuterent.^^ Brooklyn Eagle.

literary

interesting, well-written

"Every

Prof.

"The Great Conversers,"

World,"

"Every page sparkles with

"An

By

CHICAGO.

gems,"

and instructive

man and woman

The Interior,
\o\viV[i&." Independent^

should read

it.''

N.

V.

Sunday Times, N. V.

valuable companion for writers, talkers and people gQnGvaWy." Boston

journal.

"Although written

popular reading, they are scholarly and instructive, and

No one can turn to a single pag of the book without finding something worth reading and worth remembering. It is a book both for
for

in a very high degree entertaining.

Mbraries and general reading, as scholars will not disdain

ions, while the rising writer will find in

its

many

valuable illustra-

a perfect wealth of rules and suggestions

to help him form a good style of ^x.-pr&s%\ovi." Publishers' Weekly, New York.

"To
and

(the great body of our people in every rank, occupation

prove a most entertaining recreation and useful study. Young

this large class,

profession)

men

it

it

will

in higher schools,

academies and colleges will also find it a useful and helpful

them from committing vulgar solecisms and awkward
verbal improprieties, but from contracting vicious habits that will stick to them, if
once suffered to be formed, like the shirt of Nessus." Christian hitelligencer ,New
guide, which will not only save

York.

"The

chapter on

final

tract form.

'Common

Improprieties of Speech' should be printea in

We should like to put a copy of this book into the hands

oi every
using or intends to use, our good old Anglo-Saxon with
voice or pen for any public service. It is a textbook, full of information, and con.

man and woman

wi\io is

tains hints, rules, criticisms

and

illustrations,

whichauthenticatetheir

own value."

Christian at Work, Ne%v York

TWO YEARS
engravings, a

"One

map of

ir^

CALIFORNIA,

California,

By Mary Cone.

and a plan of the Yosemite Valley.

of the most reliable and authentic works on California yet issued."

day Times,

New

"One of the

Sun-

best descriptions of the Golden State that has met our eye,

diiiRcult to

justice to

compress within the same limits more really valuable

information on the subject treated than

is

here given."

Morning Star^ Boston.

"Will be of much value to every one who contemplates either

garting to California."

Christian at Work, Neiv York.

"This is a book of absorbing interest. .

No description can do
Every page deserves to be read and studied." Albany jlournal,
"It would be

fine

^1.75

York.

unbiassed, impartial, and intelligent."

it.

With 15
Cloth

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visiting or

emi-

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PRE-HISTORIC RACES OF THE UNITED STATES.

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Valley,"

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of "

The

Physical Geography of the Mississippi

415 pages, crown 8vo, with a large

Price, cloth

number

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$3 50

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London Saturday Review.

of a forgotten race."

" The reader

will find it

Eclectic Magazine^

"The book

is

N,

more fascinating than

his last favorite novel."

Y.

literally

crowded with astonishing and valuable facts,"

Boston Post.

"

It is

an elegant volume and a valuable contribution to the subject. * * *

in clear, compressed and intelligible form,

Contains just the kind of information

which is adapted to the mass of readers." Appyton''s Popular Science Monthly.

" The book is typographically perfect, and with its admirable illustrations and
convenient index is really elegant and a sort of luxury to possess and read. * *
Dr. Foster's style reminds us of Tyndall and Proctor, at their best. * * He
goes over the ground, inch by inch, and accumulates information of surprising
interest and importance, bearing on this subject, which he gives in his crowded but
most instructive and entertaining chapters in a thoroughly scientific but equally
popular way. We have marked whole pages of his book for quotation, and finally
from sheer necessity have been compelled to put the whole volume in quotation
marks, as one of the few books that are indispensable to the student, and scarcely
Golden
less important for the intelligent reader to have at hand for reference."
Age.,

New

York.

A MANUAL OF GESTURE.- With

over

loo

Figures,

embracing a complete system of Notation, with the Principles of Interpretation

and Selections for Practice, By Prof. A. M. Bacon.
Price

$1 75

" Prof. Bacon has given us a work that, in thoroughness and practical value,
deserves to rank among the most remarkable books of the season. There has in
fact, been no work on the subject yet offered to the public which approaches it for
*
*
exhaustiveness and completeness of detail.
It is of the utmost value,
not merely to students, but to lawyers, clergymen, teachers, and public speakers,
and its importance as an assistant in the formation of a correct and appropriate
style of action can hardly be over-ostimated."
The PKiladelphia Inquirer.
''Prof. Bacon's

Manual seems

expressly arranged for the help of those

who

study alone and have undertaken self-instruction in the art of persuasive delivery.
The work in the hands of our ministry, well studied, would have the effect of

emphasizing the living words of the Gospel all over the land, and making them
two-edged with meaning." The Chicago Pulpit.

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ROBERT'S RULES OF ORDER,

By Major H. M,
This book
language.

&- CO.,

For Deliberative Assemblies.-

Robert, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A.

is far

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superior to any other parliamentary manual in the English

It gives in the

simplest form possible all the various rules or points of

of any lodge, grange, debating

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contains the answers to more than two hundred questions on parliamentary law,
which will be of the greatest value to every member of an assembly.

law or order that can arise

in the deliberations

club, literary society, convention, or other organized body,

"

It

all who wish to become familiar with the correct

E. O, Haven, D. D., Chancellor of Syracuse Unu

should be studied by

usages of public meetings."

versity.

"It seems much better adapted to the use of societies and assemblies than
Manual or Cushing's." J. M. Gregory, LL. D., late President

either Jefferson's

of the

Illinois

Industrial University.

"

I shall

"

After carefully examining

be very glad to see your Manual brought into general use, as I am

sure it must be, when its great merit and utility become generally known. Hon. 7.
author of Cooley's Blackstone,' " etc.
M. Cooley, LL.

'

it and comparing it with several other books having

same object in view, I am free to say that it is, by far, the best of all. The
'Table of Rules is worth the cost of the work." Thomas Bowtnan, D. Z?.,
Bishop of Baltimore M. E. Conference.

the

'

"This

capital

little

manual

will

be found exceedingly useful by

all

concerned in the organization or management of societies of various kinds.

If

we mistake

not,

the

parliamentary usages."

book

will displace all its

New York

who
.

are
.

predecessors, as an authority on

World,

"I admire the plan of your work, and the simplicity and fidelity with which
you have executed it. It is one of the best compendiums of Parliamentary Law
that I have seen, and exceedingly valuable, not only for the matter usually
embraced in such a book, but for its tables and incidental matter, which serve
greatly to adapt it to common use." Dr. D, C. Eddy, Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

MISHAPS OF MR. EZEKIEL

PELTER.-Hiustrated.

l?mo, cloth

$1.50.

" So ludicrous are the vicissitudes of the much-abused Ezekiel, and so much of
human nature and every-day life intermingle, that it will be read with a hearty zest
for its morals, while the humor is irresistible.
If you want to laugh at something
new, a regular side-plitter, get this book." The Evangelist, St. Louis.

"

We have read

Ezekiel.

We have laughed and cried over its pages.

in interest to the last sentence.

we

decidedly like and

commend

The

story

is

well told,

iX.''' Pacific

Baptist,

It grows
and the moral so good, that

San Francisco.

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PH-ILOSOPHY OF THE PLAN OF SALVATION.By Rev.

Introductory Essay b}^ Calvin E. Stowe,

supplementary chapter by the author. Sixty-seventh

Walker, D.D., with an

J. B.

A new edition, with

D.D.

thousand,

nmo.

vol.

Price, $1.50.

" Though written with great simplicity, it is evidently the production of a

mastermind. * * and few works are more adapted to bring skeptics of a certain
It is the disclosure of the actual process of mind through
class to a stand. * *

which the author passes, from the dark regions of doflbt and infidelity to the clear
and conviction of a sound and heartfelt belief of the truth as it is in Jesus.
" There is in many parts of this treatise, a force of argument and a power of

light

conviction almost resistless.

"It
lods^e

is

We think it is more likely to

favor of the divine authority
modern ^r ess.'' London Evangelical

a work of extraordinary power.

an impression

in the

human

consciettce, in

Christianity., than any work of the

Magazine, England.
" No single volume we ever read has been so satisfactory a demonstration of
the truth of religion, or has had so strong a controlling influence over our habits
of thought. * * No better book can be put into the hands of the honest and
It is overwhelmingly convincing to reason, and leaves the
intellectual skeptic.
doubter nothing but his passions and prejudices to bolster him up. * * Every
minister's library siiould have a copy." Z/z^ Methodist Protestant., Baltimore.

of

"

a place in theological literature which no other book does. It is the

argument which gives power, impressiveness, and perennial freshness
to this production. * * We have found in pastoral experience that we could
place no better uninspired book than this in the hands of intelligent doubters, or
It fills

style of the

hands of new converts, for their aid and guidance. Those who are not
It is worth
it, will do well to procure a copy and study it carefully.
more than some large libraries to those who read for their profiting." The Christian at Work, New York.

in the

familiar with

THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLYSPIRIT; Or Phih

in the Redemption
Man. Being volume second of" The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."

osophy of the Divine Operation

of

By Rev.

J.

B.

Walker, D.D.

Fourth edition, revised and enlarged.

Price,

$1.50.

" The author's former able works have prepared the public for the rich treasIt is a book of foundation principles, and deals in
the verities of the gospel as with scientific facts. It is an unanswerable argument
in behalf of Christ's life, mission, and doctrine, and especially rich in its teachings
concerning the office and work of the Spirit. No volume has lately issued from the
ures of thought in this volume.

press which brings so

many

metaphysical and thorough,

timely truths to the public attention.

it is

also clever, forceful,

winning

for its

While

it

is

grand truth's

readable. The author has wrought a great work for the

and every minister atid teacher should arm himself with
strong weapons by perusing the arguments of this book. It is printed and bound

sake,

and every

way

Christian Church,

which issue from Messrs.

establishment." iJ/^//i^^zj/ Recorder Pittsburgh,
in the exquisite style of all publications

.^

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& Co.'s

t,s