3.3—Read the Accounts of Vineland

ASSIGNMENT: 

1. Read the accounts of Vineland (Wineland) from Arguments and Proofs that Support the Claim of Norse Discovery of America by Arthur M. Reeves.
2. Write a short essay or discuss with your instructor: What do you notice about the nature of the founding of Vineland?

SELECTION: From Arguments and Proofs that Support the Claim of Norse Discovery of America by Arthur M. Reeves.

ACCOUNT 1: Leif, a son of Eric the Red, passed this same winter, in good repute, with King Olaf, and accepted Christianity. And that summer, when Gizur went to Iceland, King Olaf sent Leif to Greenland to proclaim Christianity there. He sailed that summer to Greenland. He found men upon a wreck at sea and succored them. Then, likewise, he discovered Wineland the Good, and arrived in Greenland in the autumn. He took with him thither a priest and other spiritual teachers, and went to Brattahlid to make his home with his father, Eric. People afterwards called him Leif the Lucky. But his father, Eric, said that one account should balance the other, that Leif had rescued the ship’s crew, and that he had brought the trickster to Greenland. This was the priest.

ACCOUNT 2: King Olaf then sent Leif to Greenland to proclaim Christianity there. The king sent a priest and other holy men with him, to baptize the people there, and to instruct them in the true faith. Leif sailed to Greenland that summer, and rescued at sea the men of a ship’s crew, who were in great peril and were clinging to [lit. lay upon] the shattered wreckage of a ship; and on this same voyage be found Wineland the Good, and at the end of the summer arrived in Greenland, and betook himself to Brattahlid, to make his home with his father, Eric. People afterwards called him Leif the Lucky, but his father, Eric, said that the one [deed] offset the other, in that Leif had on the one hand rescued and restored the men of the ship’s crew to life, while on the other he had brought the trickster to Greenland, for thus he called the priest.