The Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen: Illustrated by Translations from Icelandic SagasDeCosta, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin)
History
The Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen: Illustrated by Translations from Icelandic Sagas
DeCosta, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin)
America -- Discovery and exploration -- Norse
Bork the Fat, and Thordis, daughter of Sur, had a daughter named Thurid,
who married Thorbiörn the Fat, living on the estate of Froda. He was a
son of Orne the Lean, who held and tilled the farm of Froda. Thorbiörn
had before been married to Thurid, daughter of Asbrand, of Kamb, in
Breidavik, and sister of Biörn Breidaviking the Athlete, soon to be
mentioned in this Saga, and of Arnbiörn the Handy. The sons of Thorbiörn
and Thurid, were Ketil the Champion, Gunnlaug and Hallstein.
Now this must be related of Snorre the Priest,[226] that he undertook
the suit for the slaying of Thorbiörn, his kinsman. He also caused his
sister to remove to his own home, at Helgefell, because it was reported
that Biörn Asbrand, of Kamb, had come to pay her improper attention.
There was a man named Thorodd, of Medalfells Strand, an upright man and
a good merchant. He owned a trading vessel in which he sailed to distant
lands. Thorodd had sailed to the west,[227] to Dublin, on a trading
voyage. At that time, Sigurd[228] Hlodverson, Earl of the Orkneys, had
made an expedition towards the west, to the Hebrides and the Man, and
had laid a tribute upon the habitable part of Man. Having settled the
peace, he left men to collect the tribute; the earl himself returned to
the Orkneys. Those who were left to collect the tribute, got all ready
and set sail with a southwest wind. But after they had sailed some time,
to the southeast and east, a great storm arose, which drove them to the
northward as far as Ireland, and their vessel was cast away on a barren,
uninhabited island. Just as they reached the island, Thorodd the
Icelander came sailing by from Dublin. The shipwrecked men begged for
aid. Thorodd put out a boat and went to them himself. When he reached
them, the agents of Sigurd promised him money if he would carry them to
their home in the Orkneys. When he told them that he could by no means
do so, as he had made all ready to go back to Iceland, they begged the
harder, believing that neither their money nor their liberty would be
safe in Ireland or the Hebrides, whither they had just before been with
a hostile army. At length Thorodd came to this, that he would sell them
his ship's long-boat for a large sum of the tribute money; in this they
reached the Orkneys, and Thorodd sailed to Iceland without a boat.
Having reached the southern shores of the island, he laid his course
along the coast to the westward, and entered Breidafiord, and came to
the harbor at Dögurdarness. The same autumn he went to Helgefell to
spend the winter with Snorre the Priest; and from that time he was
called Thorodd the Tribute Taker. This took place just after the murder
of Thorbiörn the Fat. During the same winter, Thurid, the sister of
Snorre the Priest, who had been the wife of Thorbiörn the Fat, was at
Helgefell. Thorodd made proposals of marriage to Snorre the Priest, with
respect to Thurid. Being rich, and known by Snorre to be of good repute,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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