Page:The Finding of Wineland the Good.djvu/74

and he dwelt first at Drepstokk. Heriulf's wife's name was Thorgerd, and their son, whose name was Biarni, was a most promising man. He formed an inclination for voyaging^[1] while he was still young, and he prospered both in property and public esteem. It was his custom to pass his winters alternately abroad and with his father. Biarni soon became the owner of a trading-ship, and during the last winter that he spent in Norway, [his father], Heriulf determined to accompany Eric on his voyage to Greenland, and made his preparations to give up his farm^[2]. Upon the ship with Heriulf was a Christian man from the Hebrides^[3], he it was who composed the Sea-Rollers' Song (63), which contains this stave:

Mine adventure to the Meek One,
Monk-heart-searcher^[4], I commit now^[5];
He, who heaven's halls doth govern^[6],
Hold the hawk's-seat^[7] ever o'er me!

Heriulf settled at Heriulfsness, and was a most distinguished man. Eric the Red dwelt at Brattahlid, where he was held in the highest esteem, and all men paid him homage^[8]. These were Eric's children: Leif, Thorvald, and Thorstein, and a daughter whose name was Freydis; she was wedded to a man named Thorvard, and they dwelt at Gardar, where the episcopal seat now is. She was a very haughty woman, while Thorvard was a man of little force of character, and Freydis had been wedded to him chiefly because of his wealth^[9]. At that time the people of Greenland were heathen.

Biarni arrived with his ship at Eyrar [Iceland]

1. 'fýstisk utan:' lit. hankered to go abroad.
2. 'brá búi sínu,' broke up his home.
3. 'Suðreyskr maðr,' a Sodor man, a man from the Suðreyjar, or Southern Islands, as the Hebrides were called.
4. 'meinalausan múnka reyni:' lit. the faultless monk prover; meina-lauss, faultless; múnka reynir, lit. prover of monks, or searcher of monks; the faultless or innocent search of monks, a poetical epithet for Christ.
5. Arranged in prose order, the passage would read: I bid the faultless monk-prover forward my travels.
6. 'dróttinn foldar hattar haller:' lit. the lord of the halls of the earth's hood: foldar hǫttr, earth's hat, or hood, i.e. the sky; hallar foldar hattar, the halls of the sky, i.e. the heavens; dróttinn foldar hattar hallar, the lord of the heavens, i.e. Christ.
7. 'heiðis stallr,' the seat of the hawk, i.e. the hand. Haldi heiðis stalli yfir mér, hold the hand above me, i.e. protect me.
8. 'lutu allir til hans,' all bowed down [louted] to him.
9. 'var hon mjǫk gefin til fjár:' lit. she was chiefly given for money.