The important fact is, that the Norsemen applied the term "Lapp" to a dwarfish people, inhabiting cayes and underground retreats on the northwestern shores of the Atlantic, just as they did to a people of similar characteristics, living on its northeastern shores. In short, they regarded the words "Lapp" and "Skroeling," otherwise "pigmy," as synonyms. And this is what Professor Nilsson contends.
But the identification may be made still more complete. Not only were those North Americans of the eleventh century referred to as "Lapps" and "pigmies"; they were also styled "trolls." This will be seen from the following extracts from the monograph of Monsieur E. Beauvois, entitled "Les Skroelings, Ancétres des Esquimaux dans les temps pre-colombiens,"[1] to which I am indebted for much information upon that subject.
M. Beauvois points out that when Ari Frodi, writing in the twelfth century, described Eric the Red's first visit to Greenland (in 985), he mentions that Eric observed, both on the eastern and western coasts, various relics which showed that these places had been visited by men of the race inhabiting Vinland (understood to be the modern New England) whom the Greenlanders (that is the twelfth century Norsemen in Greenland), call Skroelings."[2] As M. Beauvois remarks, the home of the Eskimos was still on the American continent at this period, and although they had paid several visits to Greenland, they had not yet begun to settle there in sufficient numbers to displace the Norsemen. Thirteen years after Eric the Red's visit, his fellow-countryman, Thorgils, (the step-son of Orrabeen), was shipwrecked on the eastern coast of Greenland, He and his companions were without food, until Thorgils happened to find a stranded whale beside which were two "troll" women. They had cut off a quantity of the meat, and one of them was stooping to pick up her bundle, when Thorgils made a slash at her with his sword and cut off her hand. The "troll" woman, thereupon, let the bundle fall, and fled with her friend.[3] That
- ↑ Paris. 1879; extracts from the Revue Orientale et Americaine.
- ↑ Quoted by M. Beauvois (op., cit. p. 39) from the Islendingalok. 5.
- ↑ Quoted by M. Beauvois (op. cit. p. 30) from Greenlands Historske. Mindesmaerker, Copenhagen, 1838-1845. Vol. iii. p. 108. See, also, pp. 93-98 of Thorgils' Historie (the Floamanna Saga), Copenhagen, 1809,
