'(e) It is not impossible, that the names may have been derived from Eskimo originals. I would mention of Uvœgi, the father's name, for instance, which name, as recorded, follows that of the mother. "Uve" with the suffix "uvia," signifies in Danish, "hendes Ægtefælle" [i.e. her husband], [vide Kleinschmidt's Grønlandske Ordbog, p. 403]. That "Uvœgi" should have any connection with the Greenland word "uve"[1] is, as a matter of course, a mere guess, by which I have sought to point out, that the possibility of Eskimo origin may not be rashly rejected.'2. The description of the Skrellings would apply to the Eskimo, with the exception that their eyes cannot be called large, but neither can this be said of the eyes of the North American Indians.
'Even as there are on the north-western coast of North America races which seem to me to occupy a place between the Indian and the Eskimo, so it appears to me not sufficiently proven, that the now extinct race on America's east coast, the Beothuk, were Indians. Their mode of life and belief have many points of resemblance, by no means unimportant, with the Eskimo and especially with the Angmagsalik. It is not necessary to particularize these here, but I wish to direct attention to the possibility, that in the Beothuk we may perhaps have one of the transition links between the Indian and the Eskimo.'
It will be seen that Captain Holm, while he differs from Professor Storm in many of his views, still arrives at much the same conclusion.
(58) The sum of information which we possess concerning White-men's-land or Ireland the Great, is comprised in this passage and in the quotation from Landnáma (ante, p. II). It does not seem possible from these very vague notices to arrive at any sound conclusions concerning the location of this country. Rafn [Grönlands historiske Mindesmærker, vol. iii. p. 886] concludes that it must have been the southern portion of the eastern coast of North America. Vigfusson and Powell [Icelandic Reader, p. 384] suggest that the inhabitants of this White-men's-land were 'Red Indians;' with these, they say, 'the Norsemen never came into actual contact, or we should have a far more vivid description than this, and their land would bear a more appropriate title.' Storm in his 'Studier over Vinlandsreiserne' (l. c. p. 355–363) would regard 'Greater Ireland' as a semi-fabulous land, tracing its quasi-historical origin to the Irish visitation of Iceland prior to the Norse settlement. No one of these theories is entirely satisfactory, and the single fact which seems to be reasonably well established is that 'Greater Ireland' was to the Icelandic scribes terra incognita.
(59) Staðr í Reynines, the modern Reynistaðr, is situated in Northern Iceland, a short distance to the southward of Skaga-firth. Glaumbœr, as it is still called, is somewhat farther south, but hard by.
(60) Thorlak Runolfsson was the third bishop of Skálholt. He was consecrated bishop in the year 1118, and died 1133 [Jón Sigurðsson, 'Biskupa tal á Íslandi,' in Safn til Sögu Íslands, vol. i. p. 30]. Biorn Gilsson was the third bishop of Hólar, the episcopal seat of northern Ireland; he became bishop in 1147, and died in the year 1162. Bishop Biorn's successor was Brand Sæmundsson, 'Bishop Brand the Elder,' who died in the year 1201 [Jón Sigurðsson, Biskupa tal á Íslandi, ubi sup. p. 4]. As AM. 557, 4to, refers to this
- ↑ Cf. in this connection, Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, Edinb. and London, 1875, p. 13, where we find; 'uviga=my husband,' and again, p. 74: 'Uvœge, probably the Greenlandish uvia, signifying husband.'
