It furnishes besides, in the present writer’s opinion, proof positive that a land inhabited by savages had been visited by the Norsemen at a time when no such people had actually been met with in Greenland itself. The Eskimo of Greenland, it will be observed, had, so far as Ari’s information went, come and gone before the Norse occupation (_farit_), and their existence was only inferred from the traces above described, while the natives of Wineland had at the same date ‘a local habitation (_bygt_) and a name’. ‘Skrælings’ was not therefore a title transferred from known inhabitants of Greenland to savages figuring in tales of Wineland; the reverse was the case. This point will be developed later, and certain objections which have been raised to this interpretation of the passage will be fully dealt with, but it will at once be seen that it is of considerable importance in its bearing upon the accuracy of the saga and the fact of the Norse discovery. _The Landnámabók._ Another work of high authority, in which it is certain that the conscientious hand of Ari played a large part, is the Landnámabók or history of the settlement of Iceland. Hauk Erlendson, in his edition of this classic, expressly acknowledges the authorship of the master, saying that it is ‘according to that which first priest Ari the Learned, Thorgil’s son, has written, and Kolskegg the Wise’. Kolskegg was a contemporary of Ari’s, and Vigfusson[65] thinks that his share in the collaboration was confined to supplying the genealogies of the Eastern district. Judging from its uniformity of style, this great authority[66] has no hesitation in ascribing the sole authorship of the Landnámabók to Ari and Kolskegg. The authoritative character of this work has a direct bearing upon our subject, for it is evident that the writers of both versions of the story drew largely from its pages, indeed both versions contain a great deal of absolutely literal quotation. As regards Wineland itself, however, the Landnámabók has but little to say. It was in fact foreign to the purpose of a book whose whole scope was confined to Iceland, and we ought not therefore to expect more than we actually find. The only reliable mention of the place is in the passage relating to Ari Marsson, who is there said to have been cast upon Hvítramannaland, ‘which some call Ireland the Great, it lies westward in the sea near Wineland the Good’. The importance attaching to this passage is that Wineland is casually mentioned as a well-known locality from which the position of Hvítramannaland could be approximately fixed, without the necessity of further explanation. Another passage, relating to ‘Karlsefni who found Wineland the Good’, is of less value, as it is in all probability an interpolation by Hauk, which consequently affords no independent corroboration of the discovery. _Adam of Bremen._