Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/193

a ship's cargo; but let him look at No. 3.—the copy taken since the Icelandic origin of the inscription was broached,—and there to be sure he will see without spectacles a lozenge with a tail, and the Roman letters FINZ, making Thorfinz. In the tables of the various forms of Runic letters given by Wormius, in his "Literatura Runica," there is no such lozenge-shaped letter to express Th or Tho; but as in many districts Runic letters appear to have had different shapes from those used in other parts, this circumstance is of little importance. The letter R may have been com¬ mon to both alphabets, the Roman and Runic: the letters FIN are decidedly Roman; so that in this Runic inscription there is but one letter that may possibly be Runic, if it be a letter at all, and the rest are all Roman characters. In both copies, just over the lozenge letter, is a mark, also in Roman cha¬ racters, which may be N A, or M A; the letter A being formed by the last branch of the M. Either will do; because, if it be NA, it may be part of the word Landnam; and if it be M A, it will surely be part of the word Madr: and Landnammadr signifies the first settler of a country,—the origines gentis,—and is so used to denote the original settlers in Iceland, of whom the Landnamma Saga treats. Close to this N A, in both copies, are marks of three tens and a one, in Roman numerals, viz. XXXI.; and before the first is something like a Greek gamma, but which may possibly be intended for a Roman C. Now if this Roman C be intended for a hundred, it would not be for a Roman hundred or centum of five score, but a long hundred of six score, by which the Icelanders always counted; and CXXXI. would in reality mean 151, not 131. Now, Karlsefne had lost nine of his original party, who had gone northwards under Thorhall; and this number 9 added to the 151 so clearly and satisfactorily made out on the stone, just