But there may easily be a different interpretation. ‘Hjálm’ in its primary meaning is a conical helm, then a stack or cock of similar shape, and so finally a building used to cover such a stack of corn. Two possible explanations occur to me. One is that what was seen and originally reported was a structure of poles and bark of conical shape, and that the explorers, being unfamiliar at this time with savage architecture, assumed that it was intended to cover a rick of corn, which in shape it resembled. Alternatively it may be that originally the reference was solely to its shape, and not to its purpose, and that the first report mentioned a conical ‘stack’ of poles. In either case what was actually seen may well have been a deserted wigwam of poles and bark such as the Micmacs and other Indians build at the present day. In the earliest records similar dwellings are described, while in some cases those observed by Champlain appear to have been roughly dome-shaped at the top; this, as a glance at those illustrated in the sketch-maps of that writer will show, would give them even more exactly the form of a cock of hay or corn. It seems to me that the knowledge of the wild corn mentioned in Eric’s Saga and by Adam of Bremen has alone diverted the minds of previous commentators from this, the most probable explanation. §9. THORSTEIN’S UNSUCCESSFUL VENTURE Translation from the Flatey Book. It had happened in Greenland, meanwhile, that Thorstein of Ericsfjord had taken in marriage Thorbjörn’s daughter Gudrid, who, as has already been mentioned, had been the wife of Thori Eastman. Now Thorstein Ericson wished to go to Wineland for the body of Thorvald his brother, so he made ready the same ship, choosing his crew for their strength and size; and with twenty-five men and Gudrid his wife they put to sea when they were ready, and lost sight of land. All the summer they tossed about in the open, and did not know where they went, and in the first week of winter they made the land at Lysefjord in Greenland in the Western Settlement.