3. The one person who appeared pleased with the whale, and indeed claimed the credit for its appearance, was the author of the poem. The rest were made ill by it, and on hearing of its supposed origin refused altogether to eat it. These differences are clearly quite irreconcilable, and, the poem being the more reliable authority, the version in the text at this point must be abandoned. As Storm says, the fact that the author has plainly misunderstood the verses quoted is in itself evidence of the greater age of the latter. But in the Flatey Book, though, the account being much condensed, no mention is made of Thorhall or his verses, the whale is given a perfectly natural origin, and is eaten without any contretemps by the whole body of the explorers. We may, however, reasonably assume that such fare would not be relished by a fastidious person, and might well provoke the utterance of the sentiments embodied in the old song. There is at all events no inconsistency between the text of the Flatey Book and the poem. There are one or two minor discrepancies which must now be considered. Leif’s visit to Norway is said in the Flatey Book to have taken place sixteen years after Eric’s colonization of Greenland. This would date his arrival after Olaf’s death in September 1000. But Eric had explored Greenland with an eye to the colony three years before it was actually inaugurated, and if we take it that the date of the first visit is referred to as part of the same transaction this point disappears. _Thori Eastman._ In no other account in Icelandic literature do we find Gudrid mentioned as the widow or wife of Thori Eastman, i.e. the Norwegian, whom Leif rescued from the wreck. It is still not improbable that she was so. Gudrid apparently arrived in Greenland about the time that Leif was absent on his voyage of discovery, and Thori, from his remarks as reported in the Flatey Book, seems to have been acquainted with Brattahlid before his shipwreck, which was not far from the coast of Greenland. Supposing him to have married Gudrid about this time, we are told that he died the same winter, and Gudrid would almost immediately be free to be married, as we are told she was, to Thorstein Ericson; consequently when Karlsefni married her, which was the important incident in her career from the point of view of the saga genealogists, she would be, as all accounts make her, Thorstein’s widow, and the brief episode of her marriage with the comparatively insignificant Thori would soon be forgotten, particularly as Thori was a Norwegian, and therefore of no interest to Icelanders. _Death of Eric the Red._