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
"I saw a boy run
With fearful eyes,
The woman's image, to
The wolf's well[237] in the wood;
People will say,
That his true father [was]
He that ploughed the sea,
This the boy does not know."
Thord said: "What will Thorodd say when he hears that the boy belongs to
you?" Then Biörn sung:
"Then will the noble born woman [make]
Thorodd's suspicion
Come true, when she gives me
The same kind of sons;
Always the slender,
Snow-white woman loved me,
I still to her
Am a lover."
Thord said, it will he best for you not to have anything to do with each
other, and that you turn your thoughts. "It is certainly a good idea,"
said Biörn, "but it is far from my intention; though there is some
difference when I have to do with such men as her brother Snorre." "You
must take care of your own business," said Thord, and that ended their
talk. Biörn afterwards went home to Kamb, and took the affairs of the
family into his own hands, for his father was now dead. The following
winter he determined to make a journey over the hills, to Thurid.
Although Thorodd disliked this, he nevertheless saw that it was not easy
to prevent its occurrence, since before he was defeated by him, and
Biörn was much stronger, and more skilled in arms than before. Therefore
he bribed Thorgrim Galdrakin to raise a snow storm against Biörn when he
crossed the hills. When a day came, Biörn made a journey to Froda. When
he proposed to return home, the sky was dark and the snow storm began.
When he ascended the hills, the cold became intense, and the snow fell
so thickly that he could not see his way. Soon the strength of the storm
increased so much that he could hardly walk. His clothes, already wet
through, froze around his body, and he wandered, he did not know where.
In the course of the night he reached a cave, and in this cold house he
passed the night. Then Biörn sung:
"Woman that bringest
Vestments,[238] would
Not like my
Dwelling in such a storm
If she knew that
He who before steered ships,
Now in the rock cave
Lay stiff and cold."
Again he sang:
"The cold field of the swans,
From the east with loaded ship I ploughed,
Because the woman inspired me with love;
I know that I have great trouble suffered,
And now, for a time, the hero is,
Not in a woman's bed, but in a cave."
Biörn stayed three days in the cave, before the storm subsided; and on
the fourth day he came home from the mountain to Kamb. He was very
weary. The domestic asked him where he was during the storm. Biörn sung:
"My deeds under
Styrbiörn's proud banner are known.
It came about that steel-clad Eric
Slew men in battle;
Now I on the wide heath,
Lost my way [and],
Could not in the witch-strong
Storm, find the road."[239]
Biörn passed the rest of the winter at home; the following spring his
brother Arnbiörn fixed his abode in Bakka, in Raunhafn, but Biörn lived
at Kamb, and had a grand house....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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