In Northern Mists Volume I Part 23

That the runners in Eric's Saga have become a man and woman may be due to a natural connection with Thor's swift-footed companions, Tjalve and Roskva. But there seems here to be another possible connection, which Moltke Moe has suggested to me. The strange garment they wore is called in one MS. "kiafal" and in another "biafal." No word completely corresponding to this is known in Celtic; but there is a modern Irish word "cabhail"

(p.r.o.nounced "caval" == "a body of a shirt"), which shows so much similarity both in meaning and sound that there seems undoubtedly to be a connection here. That "caval," corrupted to "kiafal" (through the influence of similar-sounding names ?), has been transformed into "biafal"

may be due to the influence of the Norse "bjalfi" or "bjalbi" (== a fur garment without sleeves). As their costume plays such an important part in the description of the runners, and special stress is laid upon the Celtic word for it, it is probable that this word was originally used as a name for the runners themselves--in legend and epic poetry there are many examples of people being named from their dress. But gradually the Celtic word used as a name has been replaced by the corresponding Old Norse "hakull" (or "hokull" == sleeveless cloak open at the sides; cf.

"messe-hagel," chasuble) and its feminine derivative "hekla" (== sleeveless cloak, with or without a hood). The use of these two words of masculine and feminine gender may be due to conceptions of them as man and woman, derived from Tjalve and Roskva. In course of time it was natural that a personal name formed from the costume, like Hakull, should easily be replaced by a real man's name of similar sound, like "Haki," specially known in legend and epic poetry as a name of sea-kings, berserkers and troll-children. Then "Hekja" was derived from "Haki," in the same way as "Hekla" from "Hakull." Hekja as a name is not met with elsewhere.[323]

That the whole of this story of the runners in the Saga of Eric the Red has been borrowed from elsewhere appears also from its being badly fitted in; for the narrative of the saga continues without taking any notice of the finding of the sure tokens of Wineland: the self-sown wheat and the vine; and in the following spring there is even a dispute as to the direction in which the country is to be sought. Furthermore, after the discoveries of the runners Karlsevne continues to sail southward, at first, the same autumn, to Straumsfjord, and then still farther south the following summer, before he arrives at the country of the wheat and grapes that the runners had reached in a day and a half in a roadless land.

[Sidenote: Mythical figures: Thorhall and Tyrker]

The description of the stay in Straumsfjord also contains purely mythical features, such as Thorhall the Hunter's being absent for the stereotyped three days ("dgr"), and having, when they find him, practised magic arts with the Red-Beard (Thor), as the result of which a whale is driven ash.o.r.e (see p. 325). There is further a striking resemblance between the description of Thorhall's state when found and that of Tyrker after he had eaten the grapes. When, in Eric's Saga, they sought and found Thorhall on a steep mountain crag,

"he lay gazing up into the air with wide-open mouth and nostrils, scratching and pinching himself and muttering something. They asked why he lay there. He answered that that did not concern anybody, and told them not to meddle with it; he had for the most part lived so, said he, that they had no need to trouble about him. They asked him to come home with them, and he did so."

In the Flateyjarbok's "Gronlendinga-attr" Tyrker was lost in the woods, and when Leif and his men went in search and found him again, he too behaved strangely.

"First he spoke for a long time in 'rsku,' and rolled his eyes many ways and twisted his mouth; but they could not make out what he said.

After a while he said in Norse: I did not go much farther, and yet I have a new discovery to tell of; I have found vines and grapes ('vinvi ok vinber')."

This shows how features taken from legends originally altogether different are mingled together in these sagas, in order to fill out the description; and it shows too how the same tale may take entirely different forms. Of Tyrker we hear further that "he was 'brattleitr' (with a flat face and abrupt forehead), had fugitive eyes, was freckled ('smaskitligr') in the face, small of stature and puny, but skilful in all kinds of dexterity."

Thorhall, on the other hand, "was tall of stature, dark and troll-like,"

etc. (see p. 320), but he was also master of many crafts, was well acquainted with the uninhabited regions, and altogether had qualities different from most people. Both had long been with Eric the Red. There can scarcely be a doubt that these two legendary figures, perhaps originally derived from wholly different spheres, have been blended together.

[Sidenote: The stranded whale]

The whale that is driven ash.o.r.e and that they feed on resembles the great fish that is cast ash.o.r.e and that the Irish saint Brandan and his companions live on in the tale of his wonderful voyage (see below). This resemblance is confirmed by the statement in the Icelandic story that no one knew what kind of whale it was, not even Karlsevne, who had great experience of whales. There are, of course, no whales on the north-eastern coast of America that are not also found on the coasts of Greenland and Iceland; the incident therefore appears fict.i.tious. The great whale in the legend of Brandan, on the other hand, is a fabulous monster. There is this distinction, it is true, that Karlsevne's people fall ill from eating the whale,[324] while it saves the lives of the Irish voyagers; but in both cases it is driven ash.o.r.e after G.o.d, or a G.o.d, has been invoked in their need, and disappears again immediately (in the tale of Brandan it is devoured by wild beasts; in the saga it is thrown over the cliff). This difference can easily be explained by the whale in the Norse story having been sent by a heathen G.o.d, so that it was sacrilege to eat of it. In the tale of Brandan the whale is perhaps derived from Oriental legends [cf. De Goeje, 1891, p. 63]; it may, however, be a common northern feature.

[Sidenote: Eggs in the autumn and egg-gathering]

When it is stated of Straumsfjord that there were places where eggs could be gathered, and of Straumsey that "there were so many birds that one could scarcely put one's foot down between the eggs," this is evidently an entirely northern feature, brought in to decorate the tale, and brought in so infelicitously that they are made to find all this ma.s.s of eggs there in the _autumn_ (!) when they arrive. If Straumsfjord was in Nova Scotia there could not be eider-ducks nor gulls either[325] in sufficient number to form breeding-grounds of importance, and among sea-birds one would be more inclined to think of terns, as Professor R. Collett has suggested to me. As the coast is not described as one with steep cliffs, and there is mention of stepping between the eggs, auks, guillemots and similar sea-birds are out of the question, even if they occurred so far south.

[Sidenote: Wineland the equivalent of Fortunate Isles]

But then comes the most important part of the saga, the description of the country itself, where grew self-sown fields of wheat, and vines on the hills, where no snow fell and the cattle were out the whole winter, where the streams and the sea teemed with fish and the woods were full of deer.

Isidore says [in the "Etymologiarum," xiv. 6, 8] of the Fortunate Isles:

"The Insulae Fortunatae denote by their name that they produce all good things, as though fortunate ('felices') and blessed with fertility of vegetation. For of their own nature they are rich in valuable fruits ('poma,' literally tree-fruit or apples). The mountain-ridges are clothed with self-grown ('fortuites') vines, and cornfields ('messis'

== that which is to be cut) and vegetables are common as gra.s.s [i.e., grow wild like gra.s.s, are self-sown]; thence comes the error of the heathen, and that profane poetry regarded them as Paradise. They lie in the ocean on the left side of Mauritania [Morocco] nearest to the setting sun, and they are divided from one another by sea that lies between." He also mentions the Gorgades, and the Hesperides.

These ideas of the Fortunate Isles were widely current in the Middle Ages.

In the English work, "Polychronicon," by Ranulph Higden, of the fourteenth century, Isidore's description took the following form:

"A good climate have the Insulae Fortunatae that lie in the western ocean, which were regarded by the heathen as Paradise by reason of the fertility of the soil and of the temperate climate. For there the mountain ridges are clothed with self-grown vines, and cornfields and vegetables are common as gra.s.s [i.e., grow wild]. Consequently they are called on account of the rich vegetation 'Fortunatae,' that is to say, 'felices' [happy, fertile], for there are trees that grow as high as 140 feet...."

The resemblance between this description and that of Wineland is so close that it cannot be explained away as fortuitous; the most prominent features are common to both: the self-sown cornfields, the self-grown vines on the hills, and the lofty trees (cf. Pliny, below, p. 348), which are already present in the narrative of Leif's voyage (see above, p. 317).

If we go back to antiquity and examine the general ideas of the Fortunate Land or the Fortunate Isles out in the ocean in the west, we find yet more points of resemblance. Diodorus [v. 19, 20] describes a land opposite Africa, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, as fertile and mountainous, but also to a large extent flat. (Wineland also had hills and lowlands.) It invites to amus.e.m.e.nts and delights.[326] The mountainous country has thick forests and all kinds of fruitful trees, and many streams; there is excellent hunting with game of all sorts, big and small, and the sea is full of fish (precisely as Wineland). Moreover, the air is extremely mild (as in Wineland), and there is plenty of fruit the whole year round, etc.

The land was not known in former times, but some Phnicians on a voyage along the African coast were overtaken by a storm, were driven about the ocean for many days, until they came thither (like Leif).

It is said of Wineland, in the Saga of Eric the Red, that "no snow at all fell there, and the cattle were out (in winter) and fed themselves," and in the Flateyjarbok we read that "there was no frost in the winter, and the gra.s.s withered little." These, we see, are pure impossibilities. As early as the Odyssey [iv. 566] it is said of the Elysian Fields in the west on the borders of the earth:

"There is never snow, never winter nor storm, nor streaming rain, But Ocean ever sends forth the light breath of the west wind To bring refreshment to men."

In the early civilisation of Babylon and Egypt this fortunate land seems to have been imagined as lying in the direction of the rising sun; but the ideas are always the same. An ancient Egyptian myth puts "Aalu" or "Hotep"

(== place of food, land of eating), which is the abode of bliss and fortune, far in the east, where light conquers darkness.

"Both texts and pictures bear witness to the beauty which pervades this abode of life; it was a Paradise as splendid as could be imagined, 'the store-house of the great G.o.d'; where 'the corn grows seven cubits high.' It was a land of eternal life; there, according to the oldest Egyptian texts, the G.o.d of light, and with him the departed, acquire strength to renew themselves and to arise from the dead."[327]

In the same colours as these the Odyssey describes many fortunate lands and islands, such as the nymph Calypso's beautiful island Ogygia, far in the west of the ocean; and again "Scheria's delightful island" [vii. 79 ff.], where the Phaeacians, "a people as happy as G.o.ds," dwell "far away amid the splashing waves of the ocean," where the mild west wind, both winter and summer, ever causes the fruit-trees and vines to blossom and bear fruit, and where all kinds of herbs grow all the year round (remark the similarity with Isidore's description). The fortunate isle of Syria, far in the western ocean, is also mentioned [xv. 402],

"North of Ortygia, towards the region where the sun sets; Rich in oxen and sheep, and clothed with vines and wheat,"

where the people live free from want and sickness. These are the same ideas which were afterwards transferred to the legend of the Hyperboreans (cf. pp. 15 ff.).[328] It is natural that among the Greeks wine and the vine took a prominent place in these descriptions. In post-Homeric times the "Isles of the Blest" (?a?a??? ??s??) are described by Hesiod (and subsequently by Pindar) as lying in the western ocean--

"there they live free from care in the Isles of the Blest, by the deep-flowing Ocean, the fortunate heroes to whom the earth gives honey-sweet fruits three times a year."

It is these ideas--perhaps originally derived from the Orient--that have developed into the Insulae Fortunatae.

These islands are described by many writers of later antiquity. Pliny says [Nat. Hist., vi. 32 (37)] that according to some authors there lie to the west of Africa

"the Fortunate Isles and many others, whose number and distance are likewise given by Sebosus. According to him the distance of the island of Junonia from Gades is 750,000 paces; it is an equal distance from this island westward to Pluvialia and Capraria. In Pluvialia there is said to be no water but that which the rain brings. 250,000 paces south-west of it and over against the left side of Mauritania [Morocco] lie the Fortunate Isles, of which one is called Invallis on account of its elevated form, the other Planaria on account of its flatness. Invallis has a circ.u.mference of 300,000 paces, and the trees on it are said to attain a height of 140 feet."

But as usual Pliny uncritically confuses statements from various sources, and he here adds information collected by the African king Juba about the Fortunate Isles. According to this they were six in number: Ombrios, two islands of Junonia, besides Capraria, Nivaria, and Canaria, so called from the many large dogs there, of which two were brought to Juba. Solinus mentions in one place [c. 23, 10] that there are three Fortunatae Insulae, but in another place [c. 56] he gives Juba's statement from Pliny. That these islands were located to the west of Africa is certainly due to the Phnicians' and Carthaginians' knowledge of the Canary Islands, and Ptolemy also places them here (see above, p. 117). Strabo [i. 3] thinks that the Isles of the Blest lay west of the extremity of Maurusia (Morocco), in the region where the ends of Maurusia and Iberia meet. Their name shows that they lie near to the holy region (i.e., the Elysian Fields).

In his biography of the eminent Roman general Sertorius ("imperator" in Spain for several years, died in 72 B.C.), Plutarch also mentions the Isles of the Blest. He tells us that when Sertorius landed as an exile on the south-west coast of Spain (Andalusia),

"he found there some sailors newly arrived from the Atlantic Isles.

These are two in number, separated only by a narrow strait, and they are 10,000 stadia (1000 geographical miles) from the African coast.

They are called the 'Isles of the Blest.' Rain seldom falls there, and when it does so, it is in moderation; but they usually have mild winds, which spread such abundance of dew that the soil is not only good for sowing and planting, but produces of itself the most excellent fruit, and in such abundance that the inhabitants have nothing else to do but to abandon themselves to the enjoyment of repose. The air is always fresh and wholesome, through the favourable temperature of the seasons and their imperceptible transition.... So that it is generally a.s.sumed, even among the barbarians, that these are the Elysian Fields and the habitations of the blest, which Homer has described with all the magic of poetry. When Sertorius heard of these marvels he had a strong desire to settle in these islands, where he might live in perfect peace and far from the evils of tyranny and war."

But this remarkable man soon had fresh warlike under-takings to think about, so that he never went there. It appears too from the fragments that have come down to us of Sall.u.s.t's Histories[329] that Sertorius did not visit these islands, but only wished to do so. In fragment 102 we read:

"It is related that he undertook a voyage far out into the ocean," and Maurenbrecher adds that a scholium to Horace [Epod. 16, 42] says: "The ocean wherein are the Insulae Fortunatae, to which Sall.u.s.t in his Histories says that Sertorius wished to retire when he had been vanquished."

But in L. Annaeus Florus, who lived under Hadrian (117-138 A.D.), we read [iii. 22]:[330]

"An exile and a wanderer on account of his banishment, this man [i.e., Sertorius] of the greatest but most fatal qualities filled seas and lands with his misfortunes: now in Africa, now in the Balearic Isles he sought fortune, was sent out into the ocean and reached the Fortunate Isles: finally he raised Spain to conflict."

It thus appears that by Florus's time the idea had shaped itself that Sertorius really had sought and found these islands; which, besides, in part at all events, were thought to be the same as those said to have been already discovered by the Carthaginian Hanno on the west coast of Africa about 500 B.C.

Of great interest is the description which Horace gives in his Epodes [xvi. 39 ff.] of the Fortunate Isles in the ocean, though he does not mention them by name. He exhorts the Romans, who were suffering from the civil wars, to abandon the coast of Italy (the Etruscan coast) and sail thither, away from all their miseries. Lord Lytton[331] gave the following metrical translation of the poem:

Ye in whom manhood lives, cease woman wailings, Wing the sail far beyond Etruscan sh.o.r.es.

Lo! where awaits an all-circ.u.mfluent ocean-- Fields, the Blest Fields we seek, the Golden Isles Where teems a land that never knows the ploughshare-- Where, never needing pruner, laughs the vine-- Where the dusk fig adorns the stem it springs from, And the glad olive ne'er its pledge belies-- There from the creviced ilex wells the honey; There, down the hillside bounding light, the rills Dance with free foot, whose fall is heard in music; There, without call, the she-goat yields her milk, And back to browse, with unexhausted udders, Wanders the friendly flock; no hungry bear Growls round the sheepfold in the starry gloaming, Nor high with rippling vipers heaves the soil.

These, and yet more of marvel, shall we witness, We, for felicity reserved; how ne'er Dark Eurus sweeps the fields with flooding rain-storm, Nor rich seeds parch within the sweltering glebe.

Either extreme the King of Heaven has tempered.

Thither ne'er rowed the oar of Argonaut, The impure Colchian never there had footing.

There Sidon's trader brought no l.u.s.t of gain; No weary toil there anch.o.r.ed with Ulysses; Sickness is known not; on the tender lamb No ray falls baneful from one star in heaven.

When Jove's decree alloyed the golden age, He kept these sh.o.r.es for one pure race secreted; For all beside the golden age grew bra.s.s Till the last centuries hardened to the iron, Whence to the pure in heart a glad escape, By favour of my prophet-strain is given.