Boundaries of Difference in the Vinland Sagas

E.A. Williamsen Indiana University

osTTWENTiETH-CENTURY study ofthe Vinland sagas, lendinga saga and Eiriks safa rauda, has been historical and archaeological in nature; scholars have been very concerned with the veracity ofthe narratives the sagas relate. Paleographers have compared the manuscriptsand even their contentto determine which ofthe two is older. Most scholars now seem to accept Jon Johannesson's assertion that Grxnlendinga saga is the older of the two dating from c. I2OO.' Historians have delved into chronicles to study more dryly factual accounts ofthe saga characters' doings to determine the historical probability of these characters' undertaking the voyages related in the sagas.^ Ever since Gustav Storm's 1887 assertion that Vinland must have been in Nova Scotia, archaeologists have reconstruaed ships, retraced voyage routes, and tried somewhat obsessively to determine where Vinland actually is and what actual Native American tribes the Norsemen encountered. The proposed locations range from Maryland to Labrador and all points in between, and the natives are associated with either the Micmac or the Boethuk depending in part on the scholar's idea ofthe location in question.^

1. Helgi I>orlaksson provides a succina overview ofthe dating debate with his own reasons for agreeing with J6hannesson in his "The Vinland Sagas in a Gantemporary Light." 2. Notably, Erik Wahlgren's "Fact and Fancy in the Vinland Sagas" attempts to verify the probable factuality ofthe main episodes ofthe sagas. 3. Mats G. Larsson recendy examined the saga details in an exhaustive comparison with the known facts about the shape ofthe Nova Scotia coastline, native inhabitants, climate and vegetation c. 1000. He concludes that the sagas probably cannot help us determine whether the L'Anse aux Meadows site is a settlement referred to in the sagas. Birgitta Linderoth Wallace suggests the L'Anse aux Meadows site "marks the northern entrance to Vinland and is the gateway to the riches of Vinland" (231).

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In the shadow ofthe overwhelming concern with determining what parts ofthe sagas are factual and what partsfictional,scholars have given surprisingly little attention to these texts as literary rather than historical artifacts. These sagas are ripe for such interpretation and offer the reader interesting characters and high adventure. The narrative of exploration of the unknown and encounters with unfamiliar peoples are perhaps among the most striking features of these sagas. The heroes boldly enter the new lands they discover, expecting a paradise that lures them because of its difference from what they know. These differences and the route are the main foci of the two sagas, but the route ultimately does not lead to paradise. The Norsemen's often violent interactions with Native Americans mar their explorations and attempts to settle; the travelers react to the natives' racial Otherness by constructing boundaries, both physical and mental, to keep the natives away. The boimdaries of difference constructed by the Norsemen finally push them away from this land of plenty. The Vinland sagas are narratives of travel and exploration in which the charaaers take leave ofa familiar land to investigate a new one. According to Casey Blanton's genre study Travel Writing: The Selfand the World, travel writing's main purpose in narrating such events throughout the history ofthe genre has been to introduce the other to the narrative's readers (xi). However, he states, early travel accounts, such as those of the Middle Ages, are so tightly bound by their objects of devotion or economics that they obscure the narrator's thoughts about his experiences and fail properly to introduce otherness to the reader (3). Not until the Renaissance, he claims, does a personal voice emerge in travel literature to allow the important interplay between observer and observed that characterizes the mature form ofthe genre (9). Meanwhile, Stephen Greenblatt argues that the real difference between a medieval text like the fourteenth-century Mandeville's Travels and those of Renaissance and Enlightenment explorers is that Mandeville's text is not interested in personal ownership ofthe lands described, although he would not mind their "possession" by a Christian empire (27-8). While Greenblatt's assessment of the diflference between medieval and later travel narratives is problematic, his interpretation of Mandeville is made possible by the interplay between observer and observed, which Blanton finds important to the genre, even if the traveler's voice does not use quite the same formulas as a nineteenth-century traveler might employ. The medieval text becomes interpretable because ofthe specific feature that

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Blanton asserts does not exist in travel texts before the eighteenth century. Although a medieval travel narrative might indeed be bound by a religious or economic agenda, the text nonetheless presents otherness to the reader. Even an encyclopedic compiler like "Sir John Mandeville" depicts such interplay through his fictional eyewitness accounts that allow the reader to see how a "selT' or the perception of the "same" might be affected by cross-cultural encounters in the particular climate ofthe Middle Ages. The "self" ofthe travel narrative is removed from its familiar context and placed into strange or even dangerous situations that may call for a rethinking of assumptions, whether about the foreign culture or about its own.* Despite all the possibilities offered by medieval travel literature, few scholars have applied themselves to its study. Meanwhile, travel scholarship is burgeoning in other periods ofstudy, particularly eighteenth- and nineteenth-century studies, when the popularity ofthe Grand Tour was at its height and literary travel journals abounded. Scholars like Mary Lxjuise Pratt and Caren Kaplan have made interesting connections between travel writing and imperialism, but often such scholars' focus on particularly modern or postmodern aspects of travel has led them to overlook pre-Enlightenment travel literature. Some early modern scholars like Stephen Greenblatt are beginning to follow suit, though they focus almost exclusively on material relating to the discovery and exploration of the New World. In medieval studies, only a handful of scholars have focused their attentions on travel narratives, and not many among this small group have achieved studies of any length; the
4. Mary B. Campbell observes that the genre of travel narrative "is a genre that confronts, at their extreme limit, representational tasks proper to a number of literary kinds: the translation of experience into narrative and description, ofthe strange into the visible, of observation into the verbal construction of fact; the deployment of personal voice in the service of transmitting information (or the creation of devotional texts); the manipulation of rhetorical figures for ends other than ornament. Some of these demands are familiar to the 'participant-observers' of ethnography, others to writers and critics of fiaional realism or historiography. All of them are important to the analysis of travel writing" (6). Although the Vinland sagas largely lack the personal voice important to Campbell in defining the genre, there is no doubt that the characters ofthe sagas have personalities, as we can see through their reactions to the events that befall them in the new lands. The sagas most definitely fulfill Campbell's first genre feature, the descriptive narrative that translates observation into fact (or something very like faa). For an interesting analysis of rhetorical figures in the sagas, see Jerold C. Frakes's "Vikings, Vinland, and the Discourse of Eurocentrism," in which Frakes identifies some ofthe ways in which the sagas's representation of North America draws upon Latin tradition.

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collections of essays to which they have contributed, however, show the range of the literature of travel, as they cover material from maps to itineraries to romances to histories.' Although the Vinland sagas lack the first-person, reflective narrative that defines the genre in the eighteenth century and beyond, the sagas are representations of travel that, as Blanton finds so important, do indeed introduce the other to the reader through their descriptions of both the new lands themselves and ofthe inhabitants of these lands. In the study of travel literature, the narrative in its simplest form relates the events arising from traveling through space. According to Syed Manzurul Islam, "the presumed departure and arrival, in the very process of their movement, paradoxically stages the threshold to be crossed, and enacts 'the between' that divides and joins spatial locations" {Ethics 5). In order to leave one place and enter another, the traveler must cross some sort of border that delineates the home space from the destination. This border may be a physical boundary, such as a mountain range or an ocean, or it may be an imaginary, constructed boundary of difference that divides the spaces identified as home and non-home (Islam, Ethics 61). As Islam puts it, "before a narrative of difference can begin, the text must establish points of departure, lines of boundary, whose crossing enables the very possibility of representing otherness" ("Marco Polo" 2). All travel narratives are inherendy narratives of difference, in that the destination described is not perceived as identical to the homelandif it were, it would not be a destination. If there exist no physical bovindaries to be crossed, then boundaries must be constructed, for without crossing boundaries, the traveler cannot arrive at his destination. In Grwnlendinga saga and Eiriks sa^a rat^a,, the North Adantic Ocean functions as a conspicuous physical boundary separating the Greenland explorers from the North American continent, which is their goal. The texts, however, construct additional boundaries to separate the new lands from familiar Greenland. In Grxnlendinga saga, Bjarni Herjolfsson discovers the North American continent accidentally on his way to Greenland when he is blown off course and disoriented by

5. See Mary B. Campbell's JJie Witness and the Other World: Exotic European Travel Writing 400-1600:, Sylvia Tomasch and Sealy Gilles's Text and Territory: Geographical Imagination in the European Middle Ages; Scott Westrem's Discovering New Worlds: Essays on Medieval Exploration and Imagination.

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fog: "En ^a tok af byrina, ok lagdi a norrcenur ok ^okur, ok vissu jjeir eigi, hvert at J)eir foru, ok skipti ^at mprgum doegrum" (246) [and dien the wind died down and they were beset by storm and fog, and they did not know where they were going for many days].* In Eirtks sa^a rauda, Leifr Eiriksson experiences a similar disorientation on his way from Norway to Greenland: "Lstr Leifr 1 haf ok er lengi liti ok hitti a l9nd J3au, er hann vissi aflr enga van til" (211) [Leifr set out to sea was tossed around for a long time and hit on lands where he did not know there were any]. Bjarni can perhaps be forgiven for getting lost since "engi var hefir komit 1 Groenlandshaf' (246) [none of us have come to Greenland's sea], but Leifr is more familiar with the route to Greenland. Still, neither can help the weather, and both discover hitherto unknown lands. Jonathan Wooding has compared the fog Bjarni experiences to mystical clouds that often befuddle adventurers in Irish voyage stories (HI). It seems just as logical to read Bjarni's and Leifr's dual disorientation on the seas as the boundary each must initially cross in order to reach the unknown lands of North America. If each had been able to keep to his course through familiar waters, he would have reached Greenland none the wiser, but the loss of direction each experiences separates him from the known and opens up the unfamiliar. The disorienting storm, however, appears to work only once in this fashion; subsequent storms do not bring would-be explorers any closer to the new lands. In each saga, I>orsteinn Eiriksson attempts a journey to the west and finds himself blown back to Greenland. The surest way to reach the lands discovered by Bjarni or Leifr seems to be to get good directions. Non-fiction travel narratives, especially pilgrimage guides, are notorious for step-by-step instructions delineating the path: as Paul Zumthor observes, "every Christian is called to join ... and those who already belong exhort others to follow the szmepath. It is a question, in fact, of a path, important only by virtue ofthe holy places that mark the route" (810). Similarly, in Granlendin^a saga, Bjarni's discovery ofthe North American coast is described in terms of landmarks and distances. When the crew first sights land after the period of disorientation, Bjarni advises them to sail close to the shore so that they can see if the land looks like Greenland:
Ok svAgera, peir ok sd pat brdtt, at landit var djjgldu ok skdgi vaxit, ok smdr hiedir d landinu, ok letu landit d bakborda ok letu skaut horfa d land.
6. The text of both sagas is taken from the Islenzk fomrit edition. Translations are my own unless otherwise indicated.

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Sidcm stglapeir tvau Aocgr, dirpeirsA land, annat. Peirspyrja., hvdrtBjami iHtlaSipat enn Greenland. Hann kvazk eigi heldr tlapetta Greenland en it fyrra,"pn atjgklar eru mjgk miklir sagdir a Granlandi." PeirnAlgudusk hrdttpetta land ok sdpat vera slett land ok vidi vaxit.... Hann badpd vinda se^l, ok svd vargqrt, ok settu framstafh frd landi ok sigla i haf utsynnings byrprjii docgr ok sdpd land itpridja; en pat land var hdtt okfglldtt okjgkull d; peir spyrjapd, efBjami vildi at landi Idtapar, en hann kvazk eigipat vilja,"pvi at mer Uzkpetta land dgagnvnligt." Nti Iggdupeir eigi segl sitt, halda med landinufram ok sd, at pat var eyland; settu enn stafn vid pvi landi ok heldu i haf inn sama byr.... Sigldu nu fggur dwgr. Pd sd peir land itforda. (246-7)

(And so they did and saw at once that the land was not mountainous and grown with forests and had small hills in the land, and they kept the land on their port side and sailed along the shore. Then they sailed for two days before they saw another land. They asked Bjarni if he thought it was Greenland. He said it did not seem more like Greenland than thefirst"becausethere are said to be many large glaciers in Greenland." They approached the land quickly and saw that it was aflatand wooded land.... He bade them to hoist the sail, and they did so and turned the stern towards the land and sailed seawards with a southwesterly wind for three days and saw the third land; and that land was high and mountainous with a glacier on it; they asked then, if Bjarni would stop at this land, but he said that he would not,"because this land seems unprofitable to me." Now they did not lower the sail, but sailed against the shore and saw that it was an island; they set the stern along the land and sailed out to sea on the same wind.... Now they sailed for four days. Then they saw the fourth land.) This,finally,is Greenland. This description of Bjarni's experiences along the unfamiliar coast provides fairly useful directions for travel. The text here describes each landwooded, mountainous, an islandthe distance between the lands in dtegr of sailing,'' and also the orientation ofthe ship to the coast. It is no wonder that Leifr Eiriksson is able to
7. According to the Rim, a thirteenth-cenmry Scandinavian navigational manual, nautical distance was measured in terms ofthe distance that could be rowed in a given duration of time. A vikur was the distance that could be covered in two hours of rowing, and twelve vikur equaled one degree of latitude or longitude. One dcegr was equal to twenty-four vikur or 144 nautical miles. In nautical contexts, the term dosgr seems to be used exclusively to indicate sailing distance, when dagr is used to express the amount of time in a day. See Roald Morcken, "Old Norse Nautical Distance Tables in the Mediterranean Sea" and Thorsteinn Vilhjalmsson, "Time and Travel in Old Norse Society."

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retrace Bjarni's route backwards, "ok fundu J>a J)at land fyrst, er Jjeir Bjarni fimdu si3ast" (249) [and found that land first which Bjarni and his men found last]. I>orvaldr Eiriksson makes the third voyage in this saga, but only after "umraQ" [consultation] with his brother; this guidance seems to consist of good directions, for "er engi frasQgn um fer3 J)eira, fyrr en {)eir koma til Vinlands, til Leifsbiifla" (254) [nothing is told of their journey until they came to Vinland, to Leifr's booths]. The voyage is apparently uneventful enough that no stories need be told, and Leifr's guidance has directed his brother unerringly to the booths Leifr constructed in the new land. I>orfinnr Karlsefni also arrives in Vinland without mishap; he may have gotten directions when asking Leifr for the use of his booths (261). In Eiriks saga rauda, the description of Leifr's discovery provides no details like those in the narrative about Bjarni. Leifr simply chances upon land (and a shipwreck), and goes home to Brattahh'3 (211-2). It is not surprising, then, that his brother I>orsteinn is unable to find this new place, running so far off course that he winds up closer to Ireland than to America (213). Karlsefni, on the other hand, has less trouble. Perhaps in spending the winter with Eirikr the Red, Karlsefni has garnered directions to the western lands; he apparently has grown friendly enough with Leifr that the former explorer presents him with the two Scots, Haki and Hekja, and he may have gotten detailed directions as well (222-3). The narrative about Karlsefni provides many more details about the nature ofthe journey:
Peir sigldu til Vestri-byggdar ok paban til Bjameyjar. Padan sigldu peir tvau dagr isudr. Pd sdpeir land ok skutu bdti ok kgnnudu landit, fundu par hellur storar, ok margar tolfdlna vtdar. FjgWi var par melrakka. Peir gdfu par nafh ok kglludu Helluland. Padan sigldu peir tvau dcegr, ok brd til landsudrs dr sudri, ok fundu land skdgvaxit ok mgrg dyr d. Ey Id par undan i landsudr; par drdpu peir einn bjgm ok kglludu par sipan Bjamey, en landitMarkland. (222)

(They sailed to the western settlement and thence to Bjamey. From there they sailed two days to the south. Then they saw land and launched the boat and explored the land and found there large flat slabs and many twelve ells wide. There were many foxes there. They gave the land a name and called it Helluland (Stone-slab land). From there they sailed two days and set off to the south-east from the south, and found a forested land with many animals in it. An island lay there to the south of the land; there they killed a bear and called it then Bjamey [Bear Island] and the land Markland [Forest land].)

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The narrative continues in this fashion, providing names and the reasoning behind them, compass direaions, and distances in dagr of sailing. Karlsefni's route could conceivably be retraced as Bjarni's was. torsteinn Eiriksson fails to reach the new lands in both sagas, apparentiy due to lack of direction. Granlendinga saga gives no indication that I>orsteinn receives or attempts to get directions from Bjarni or Leifr; unlike other travelers in this saga, who consult more experienced explorers, I>orsteimi simply wishes to go, "ok sigla l haf, t>egar |)au em buin, ok or landsyn" (257) [and sail out to sea, as soon as they were prepared, and out of sight of land]. This method of traveling does not pay off because I>orsteinn's ship spends the summer tossing on the seas until it luckily reaches the Western Settlement of Greenland, not far from where the party began the abortive journey (257). I>orsteinn has no better luck in Einhsaga rauda, especially since his brother has apparently failed to record any navigational aids for posterity (212-3). It is perhaps Leifr's lack of directions that in this text renders Vinland a seemingly unattainable goal; significantly, the verb leita (to search) is most often used to launch departures for Vinland in this saga (Barnes, "Reinventing" 20). Certainly, only two voyages are attempted after Leifr's lucky accident, but both Porsteinn and Karlsefni have plans merely to leita for Leifr's lands (212; 221). A traveler needs checkpoints along his journey in order to know that he is traveling in the right direction; those who follow Bjarni's route in Granlendinga saga can be reasonably certain that they will arrive in the lands he found. These route markers help subsequent travelers construct the boundary between Greenland and the new lands; by reaching each of these points, they know that they are leaving familiarity behind and entering a new and different place. Since such route markers are not known, in Eiriks saga rauda it is never certain whether the boundaries have been crossed, and travelers after Leifr can merely look for what they have been told is out there. Not just the method of travel, but the object of a traveler's quest also defines that traveler and the way the destination is perceived: "They do not all travel the same route: there are as many routes as there are travelers. A commercial traveler might take the same track as a pilgrim but they would be traveling along different routes" (Islam, Ethics 55). When Bjarni arrives in Greenland with his tale of discovery in Granlendinga saga, his story sparks "mikil umroeSa um landaleitan" (248) [much discussion about land discovery]; this interest in new lands seems to be purely curiosity. When Leifr retraces Bjarni's route, though, his focus

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seems to be profit. Helluland, with its rocks and glaciers, "syndisk J>eim ... vera goeSalaust" (249) [seemed to them to be unprofitable]: it is useless. Similarly, Markland is designated as such for its rich forests (250), and Vinland for its grapes (253).* These "images of plenitude" reflect a motivation toward exploitation ofthe lands' resources (Wooding 98). The final voyage described in this saga is also motivated by profit.
Nu teksk umrada at nyju um Vinlandsferd, pvi at suferdpykkir btedi^dd til jjdr ok virdin^ar... Par er nu til at taka, atFreydis Eirtksdottirer6i ferd sina heiman or Ggrdum ok for tilfundar vidpd bradr, Helgia ok Finnbo^a, ok beiddipd, atpeirfwri til Vtnlands mc&farkostsinn, ok hafa helminggaia allra vid hana, peira er parfengisk. (264)

(Now talk began anew about a Vinland voyage, because this journey seemed good for both wealth and honor.... It must now be told that Freydis Eiriksdottir made a trip from her home in Gardar and went to meet with the brothers Helgi and Finnbogi and proposed to them that they all should go to Vinland with the brothers' ship and share with her half of all the goods which they might take there.) The trip has been profitable to all the others who have attempted it, as witnessed by the loads of wood and grapes brought back by Leifr and I>orvaldr's men (253; 257). Now their sister is ready to cash in, though agreeing to split the profits with these two brothers. Freydis is portrayed as "not a colonist but a seeker after wealth on a wild frontier" (Wahlgren 59), and she is willing to take great risks to achieve that wealth. This profit motive is typical; as Wooding notes, "most explorations [by medieval North Europeans] did not lead to settlement, but to short-term exploitation.... The desire for short-term extractive use of paradisaical lands explains the transient character of the Vinland settlements" (98). Most ofthe Vinland voyages related in these sagas are nothing if not transient. Some ofthe voyagers in the sagas, however, do seem at least somewhat interested in settling. In Grankndinga saga, I>orvaldr Eiriksson and his crew explore the land until they reach a forested cape of which I>orvaldr says, "her er fagrt, ok her vilda ek boe minn reisa" (255) [it is fair here, and here I will set up my farm]. Geraldine Barnes sees ^orvaldr's setting
8. There is, of course, much argument on the length of the "i" in Vinland, and thus whether the name refers to vines or to meadows, both of which seem to be features of the land Leifr explores. This ongoing discussion will be addressed at greater length later in this paper.

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up the damaged keel of his ship in this area as "enacting a variation on such rituals of settlement as the claiming of land where the high-seat pillars are washed ashore," such as that na.mted'm Landndmabdk (Viking II). Similarly, when he is mortally wounded by the skrdingar whom he finds on what is now "his" land, I>orvaldr asks that his men bury him where he wanted his farm to be (256). The land-taking ritual is again to be modified with the crosses he asks to be erected on his grave (Barnes, Viking 13). In the same saga, I>orfinnr Karlsefni expresses an interest in settlement, though without enacting any rituals to claim his land. The description of his exploration is introduced with the statement that, although the men are not averse to profit, "{)eir hpfSu me3 ser alls konar fenaS, ^vi at |)eir etlu3u at byggja landit, ef J)eir msetti |)at" (261) [they had with them all kinds of livestock, because they intended to settle the land if they could do it]. Karlsefni's group stays in Vinland for three years, and at least one child is born there (Karlsefni and Gudridr's son Snorri) before the expedition decides to return to Greenland. In Eiriks saga rauda, Karlsefni is again the one expedition leader who expresses an interest in settling the new lands. In this saga he takes with him a much larger group than any other mentioned in either saga"^ora tigu manna ok hundraQ" (222) [forty men and a'hundred'], which seems to be one hundred sixty in all.' As in Granlendinga saga, the travelers "h9f9u me3 ser alls konar fenaS" (224) [they had with them all kinds of livestock], which they move about the area with them as they look for an ideal location: "Fe sitt hpfQu Jieir med ser" (227) [they had their livestock with them]. Again, they spend three winters in the new land before they depart for home. Although Karlsefni himself shows interest in settling, the same is not true of all his companions. I>6rhallr the Huntsman is disappointed in what he sees in the new lands, apparently because they lack the scope for profit he expected. Frustrated by a hard winter and a rotten whale, I>6rhallr recites a bitter verse to the land:
Hafa kvgdu mik meidar malmpings, es komk hingat, mer samir Iddfyr lydum lasta, drykk inn bazta; Bilds hattar verdr byttu

9. This figure is according to the footnote in the fslenzkfbmrit edition of Eirtks saga rauda (222). The word hundra normaily means one hundred twenty.

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(With promises of fine drinks the war-trees wheedled, spurring me to journey to these scanty shores. War-oak ofthe helmet god, I now wield but a bucket. No sweet wine do I sup stooping at the spring.)'" After hearing tales of the grapes and self-sown wheat found by Leifr (211), I>6rhallr understandably expects to find such things in this land himself and probably to be able to turn a profit on them. Instead of wine, however, he finds himself drinking water. Barnes suggests that in Eiriks saga rauda 'Finland is not so much 'lost' as never decisively found. Neither the reader nor Leifr's successors ever lay eyes directly upon it" (Viking 25). It can be argued that Hop, the plenteous land which Karlsefni discovers after parting from I>6rhallr, is that which provided Leifr with his souvenirs, but even it has only "vinvidr" [vines], and not actual grapes (227). Admittedly, Haki and Hekja do return from their three-day sprint with a handful of grapes, but the Norsemen never seem to follow them back to the grapes' vines, rather simply sailing away down the coast (223). I>6rhallr is perhaps justifiably grumpy because this land does not live up to expectations. In Eiriks saga rauda, the same souvenirs that make I>6rhallr so unhappy are also concrete proof that Leifr has discovered a land very different from Greenland and Iceland. In Granlendinga saga, even the rather distant descriptions Bjarni gives ofthe wooded lands he sees are enough to spark interest at home. His crew wants to go ashore onto the wooded land right away: "Pa roeddu hasetar fiat, at {)eim J)6tti Jiat rad, at taka {)at land; en Bjarni vill ^at eigi. I>eir |)6ttusk bsSi ^urfa vi5 ok vatn. At engu eru J)er J)vi obirgir,' segir Bjarni; en {)6 fekk hann af {5V n9kkut amaeli af hasetum smum" (246-7) [Then the crew suggested 1 that it seemed advisable to take that land; but Bjarni would not. They claimed to need both wood and water. "You are not unprovided with these," said Bjarni; but he took for this some reproach from his crew].
10. The translation of this skaldic verse is Keneva Kunz's (668).

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Bjarni's lack of adventure is similarly criticized when he reports his find to Earl Eirikr: "I>6tti mgnnum harm verit hafa oforvititin, er harm hafSi ekki at segja af J)eim l9ndum, ok fekk harm af Jjvi npkkut amseli" (248) [Men thought he had been uncurious since he had nothing to say of those lands, and he took some reproach for this]. The sight of such richly wooded lands must have been irresistible to the two groups of Icelanders who criticize Bjarni's lack of curiosity. These new lands are vasdy different from the Icelanders' own homeland; in Bjarni's understated phrase, "J)at myndi eigi Greenland" (246) [that could not be Greenland]. Later in Granlendinga saga, Leifr Eiriksson emphasizes the Otherness ofthe new lands by giving them names descriptive of their natural features. Helluland is not so different from Greenland, except that it does not even have any grass and so can only be named after its stones. Markland "var slett ok skogi vaxit" [was flat and forested] and can thus be named attractively"afkostum" [according to its good qualities] (250). Vfnland is named is a similar fashion. Erik Wahlgren suggests that Leifr names lands as his father does by singling out the best features ofthe lands in order to attract potential settlers (32). Certainly lands covered in forests, meadows, and vines would sound most attractive to dwellers ofthe far north. In the context of land naming, it seems appropriate to discuss the nature ofthe ongoing linguistic argument about the meaning of "vin-" in the word "Vi'nland." For some sixty years, scholars have been trading opinions on the length ofthe "i" in this word. If a short "i," the land of plenty is, in fact a "Meadow-land," while the long "i" would indicate a "Wine-land" or "Vine-land."" The discussion is moot here; either way, Leifr names the land for a distinctive feature that would seem attractive to potential settlers, though meadows are not, perhaps, as spectacular as grapevines to the prospective ex-Icelander. In addition to trees, meadows, and vines, Leifr also finds sweet dew on the grasses, an abundance offish in the lakes and rivers, warm weather, and a long period of daylight in the wintertime (251): "With its honey-sweet dew, choice land ... plentiful streams, frost-free winter, and barely withered grass, LeiPs Vinland in [Grcenlendinga saga] ...
u. Wahlgren discusses this debate on pages 44-53 of his article, though he seems fairly certain that the "i" is long, since he argues that the simplex vin was archaic well before AD 1000, when the voyages would have taken place (44). The muddled debate continues, however, and an updated summary ofthe arguments can be found in Alan Crozier, "The *Vtnland Hypothesis: A Reply to the Historians."

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contains echoes of descriptions of the Earthly Paradise in a number of classical and medieval sources" (Barnes, "Vinland" 84-5). Karlsefni discovers the bounty ofthe land on his own voyage later in the saga, and the providential stranding ofa reasonably fresh whale on the beach seems to emphasize the paradisaical state ofthe land: "I>eir h9f9u 9II goedi af landkostum, [jeim er par varu, bsQi af vinberjum ok alls konar vei3um ok gcecSum" (261) [They had all good things from the land's bounty which was there, both from grapes and from all kinds of hunting and other good things]. The land provides for its visitors, and even the skittish natives are obliging enough to bring some rich furs to the Norsemen. In Einh saga rauda, Leifr expresses more curiosity than Bjarni and goes ashore on at least one ofthe strange shores he discovers: "Varu J)ar hveitiakrar sjalfsanir ok vinvidr vaxinn. I>ar varu {)au tre, er m9surr heita, ok hpfSu peir af {)essu 9IIU ngkkur merki, sum tre sva mikil, at 1 hus vani l9g3" (211) [There were self-sown wheatfields and vines growing. There were those trees that are called maples, and they took from all of these some samples; some trees were so great that they could make a whole house]. The adventurer takes samples ofthe native flora away with him as tangible evidence ofthe bounty of this new land. Neither the self-sown wheat, nor the grapevine, nor the huge maple tree is usual in Greenland botany. In this saga, it is Karlsefni who names the lands, but he follows the same pattern as Leifr in Grcenlendingasaga in naming the lands for the resources they offer. At Hop, the land of plenty he discovers, he does not seem to be able to decide what natural feature should be emphasized, so he apparendy names the place after the "tidal pool" trenches he and his men dig to catch halibut (227). This area has the traditional wheat and grapevines as well as an abundance of fish and deer, and in the winter, there is no snow at all. Nothing covild be more different from Greenland and Iceland. Perhaps the biggest difference the Vinland voyagers discover in North America is the native peoples. In Eirtks saga rauda, the natives are just as astonished as the Norsemen at their first meeting (227). In each saga, of course, the Norsemen bring marked Otherness with tliem into the new lands. In Grcenlendinga saga this Otherness is embodied in Tyrkir, Leifr's southern-born foster-father. When Tyrkir discovers grapes in the new land, he "taladi pi fyrst lengi a pfzhx ok skaut marga vega augunum ok gretti sik, en pcxx skil3u eigi, hvat er hann sag3i" (252) [spoke a long time in German, and his eyes darted in all directions and

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he frowtied, and they could not understand what he said]. Although sotne critics have concluded that Tyrkir's strange behavior is an indication of drunkenness, Madelaine Brown and Francis P. Magoun suggest that he is tnerely excited at seeing plants like those in his homeland (549-50). Tyrkir, cotning from the south, brings odd mannerisms and incomprehensible speech to the episode, marking his difference, but his ethnic difference also allows him to verify what he has seen: "'At vfsu er pzt satt,' kva3 hann, "pvi at ek var |3ar foeddr, er hvarki skorti vi'nviQ ne vinber"' (252) ["It is certain," said he, "because I was born where there is no lack of vines or grapes"]. Similarly, in Eiriks saga rauda the two Scots Haki and Hekja are sent along with Karlsefni. This pair is described in animalistic terms: "J)au varu dynim skjotari" (223) [they were swifter than deer]. We also receive an ethnographic description of their odd attire, which must be very different from the Norsemen's, if so much attention is paid to it. This pair, like Tyrkir, discovers the grapes and self-sown wheat when Karlsefni turns them loose on the land. While Tyrkir may have been invented in order to verify the existence of such plants (Wahlgren 53), it is not clear what special knowledge the two Scots might have about grapes. Perhaps these European Others are simply better able to cross the boundaries that enable them to find the bounty of this land. The skrdingar who populate the new lands are even more Other than Tyrkir, Haki, and Hekja. The very term used by the Norsemen to designate these people is pejorative in indicating the "wretched" Otherness ofthe natives' way of life. Granlendinga saga offers little in the way of physical description ofthe natives; we have only Karlsefni's brief evaluation that "einn ma3r var mikill ok vjenn f Ii3i Skrslinga, ok {)6tti Karlsefni, sem hann myndi vera h9f9ingi J)eira" (263) [one man among the people of the skrdingar was tall and attractive, and it seemed to Karlsefni that he must be their leader] suggesting that most ofthe natives are not tall and handsome. In contrast, Eiriks saga rauda offers much more description of the natives' appearance: "I>eir varu svartir menn ok illiligir ok hpfSu illt har a hpfSi; {)eir varu mjpk eygdir ok breidir 1 kinnum" (227) [They were dark men and ugly and had bad hair on their heads; they were big-eyed and broad in the cheeks]. The tall, fair Norsemen instinctively find these people to be "illiligir" [ugly] in their difference. The physical difference between the ethnic groups becomes outlandish in this saga when I>orvaldr Eiriksson is killed not merely by a native as in Granlendinga saga, but by a imiped:

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Pat var einn morgin, erpeir Karlsefni sd.fyrirofan rjoBitfiekk ngkkum, sem glitradi vid peim, ok cep8u peir a pat. Pat hrarSisk, ok var pat einfatingr ok skauzk ofan a pann drbakkann, sem peir Idgu vid. Porvaldr Eiriksson rauba sat vid styri, ok skaut einfaetingr gr ismdparma honum... Pd hleypr einfatingr d braut ok sudr aptr. (231-2)

(It was one morning, when Karlsefni and his men saw above the clearing something that glittered, and they shouted at it. It moved, and it was a uniped; it hurried down to the bank ofthe river where they (and their ship) lay. torvaldr the son of Eirikr the Red sat at the helm, and the uniped shot him in the gut with an arrow.... Then the uniped leapt away to the south.) This one-footed person, glimpsed only fleetingly, mortally injures I>orvaldr and then speeds away, disappearing before the Norsemen can catch up to him.^^ Whatever this creature may actually be, its marvelous appearance and violent contact with the Norsemen emphasize the Otherness ofthe land's inhabitants. The natives' difference is highlighted through aspeas other than appearance, as well. When the Norsemen under Karlsefni first encounter the skrdingar in GrcEnlendinga saga, the narrative emphasizes that "hvarigir skildu annars mal" (262) [neither understood the others' speech]. This does not seem to be much ofa problem, though, since the two groups are able to begin trading shortly after this statement is made. Though Eirtks saga rauda does not specifically mention the spoken language ofthe natives, much is made ofthe semiotics ofthe communications attempted between the natives and the Norsemen. When the natives first approach Karlsefni and his men, communication takes place through the waving of poles (on the natives' part) and shields (on the Norse part):

12. It is not clear whether this uniped is running or leaping away from the scene ofthe crime. Perhaps this creature is meant to resemble the unipeds mentioned in John of Piano Carpini's thirteenth-century//trtonAfo^o/an( and other such texts, who are able to leap on their single feet more quickly than two-legged men can run. Paul Schach opines that "the introduction ofa bellicose uniped into Erik's Saga suggests that its author was acquainted with the belief that Greenland was a peninsula of Vinland, which extended southward to Africa, the home ofthe unipeds" (42-3). On a perhaps less fantastical note, Howlett has deduced that this uniped might in faa be a female Inuit clad in a traditional long, dose-fitting garment that, from a distance, would give her a one-legged appearance. William Sayers sees this uniped as a native on snow-shoes, but this is unlikely since it seems to be summer at the time.

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SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES Ok einn morgin snimma, erpeir lituSusk um, sdpeir mikinnffglda hiidkeipa, ok var veift trjdm d skipunum, ok let pvi likast sem ihdlmpiist, ok var veift solarsinnis. Pd mslti Karlsefni: 'Hvat mun petta hafa at teikna?' Snorri Porbrandsson svaradi honum: "Vera kann, atpetta se'fridarmark, ok tgkum skjgld hvitan ok berum at mdti." Ok svdgerdu peir. (227)

(And one morning early, when they looked around, they saw a great multitude of skin canoes and poles being waved from them, and this made a noise like aflail,and the poles were waved in the direction of the sun's movement. Then Karlsefni said: 'What could this betoken?' Snorri l?orbrandsson answered him: 'It could be that this is a sign of peace, and we should take a white shield and bear it against them.' And they did so.) The sunwise swishing ofthe natives' poles is taken as a sign of peace, and the Norsemen use white shields to signal their own peaceftil intentions. The signs involved in these interchanges are significantly those of peace and war (Sayers, "Psychological Warfare" 237). This episode is repeated later in the saga, when the natives return with the intention of trading: "Var J)a ok veift af hverju skipi trjanum. I>eir Karlsefni brugSu J)a skjpldum upp, ok er jjeir ftindusk, toku J)eir kaupstefnu sfn a milli" (228) [then poles were again waved from each ship. Karlsefni and his men lifted up shields, and when they met, they began to trade]. This sort of exchange, perhaps accompanied by pantomime, seems to be enough to allow the two groups to carry on trade for some time. When the natives are angered by the explorers' inconvenient bull, their message changes accordingly: the natives now wave their poles against the movement of the sun, and the Norsemen signify aggression with red shields (228). In both sagas the Norsemen reftise to trade weapons with the skrdingar, but it is obvious that the natives are fascinated with the unfamiliar metal implements. In Granlendinga saga, "Karlsefni bannaQi J^eim at selja vapnin" [Karlsefni forbade them to sell weapons], and later a native is killed by the Norse "J)vi at hann hafSi viljat taka vapn |)eira" [because he had wanted to take their weapons] (262-3). In the battle that follows, an axe is lost or abandoned by the Norse with disastrous (but somewhat comical) results:
Nu hafdi einn peira Skrdinga tekit upp 0xi eina ok leit d um stund ok reiddi atfelaga sinum ok hfd til bans; sdfellpegar daudr. Pd tok sd inn mikli madr vid exinni ok leit d um stund ok varp henni sidan d sjdinn, sem lengst mdtti hann; en sidanfiyja peir d skdginn, svd hverr semfara mdtti, ok lykrpar nu peira vidskiptum. (263-4)

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(Now one ofthe skrdingar had taken up an axe and looked at it for a time, and swung it at his fellow and cut into him; he fell dead at once. Then the big man [presumed to be the leader] took the axe and looked at it for a while and then threw it into the sea., as far as he could; then they fled into the forest, whoever could go, and there ended their dealings.) The natives are so tuifamiliar with the axe that one of them accidentally kills his companion, and the leader wastefully reacts by hurling the axe into the sea. Clearly, these natives are not weapon-sawy. A version of this incident is repeated in Eiriks saga rauba, in which Karlsefni again bans the trading of weapons with the natives and instead distracts them with red cloth (perhaps significantly the color the Norse will use to signal their aggression against ^e. skrdingar) (228). In the course ofthe inevitable battle, this one instigated by the bull rather than by a murder, the natives have another adventure with an unfamiliar axe;
Peir Skrdingar fundu ok mann daudan, ok Id ex ihjd. Einn peira tok upp 0xina ok hoggr med tre ok pd hverr at gdrum, ok pdtti peim veragersimi ok bita vel. Sidan tdk einn ok hjd i stein, svd at brotnadi exin, ok pd pdtti peim engu nyt, er eigi stdzkgrjdtit, ok kgstudu nidr (230)

(The skrdingar also found a dead man, and an axe lay nearby. One of them took up the axe and hewed against a tree, and then one aft:er another tried it; it seemed to be a treasure and to bite well. Then one took it and hewed at a stone so that the axe broke, and then they thought it was not useful, since it did not withstand the stone, and they threw it down.) This time, the natives are not foolish enough to kill one another through their simplicity, but they do manage to break the axe on a stone, demonstrating their ignorance about the properties of metal. The repetition of this axe theme in both sagas seems to be an important way of defining the Other in comparison with the war-like Norsemen, who wield weapons skillfully before the age often. The ignorance ofthe natives is also repeatedly demonstrated in their fear ofthe Norsemen's bull, which appears at least once in each saga. In Grcenlendingasaga the natives are frightened away from their first visit to Karlsefni's camp, "en graSungr tok at belja ok gjalla akafliga hatt" (261) [when the btill took to bellowing, and it resotmded very loudly]. Their unfamiliarity with European livestock is emphasized by their willingness to spend their trade goods on milk products; "Ok J)egar er {)eir sa biinyt, pi vildu J)eir kaupa J)at, en ekki annat. Nu var su kaupfpr Skrxlinga, at

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|)eir bam sinn vaming l brott l mpgum sinum" (262) [and at once when they saw the milk of sheep and cattle, then they wanted to buy that and nothing else. Such was the trading ofthe skrdingar that they carried their acquisitions away in their bellies]. Milk must have been a fascinating delicacy for a people unused to domesticated mammals and their uses. Once the natives tum hostile (tinderstandably, when one of their number has been killed by the strangers), Karlsefni tises this unfamiliarity as a weapon. "Ver skultmi ok taka gridting vam ok lata hann fara fyrir oss," he advises (263) [We shall also take our bull and let him go before us]. When the foolish skrdingar see the fearsome bull charging toward them, they will presumably flee in conilision, making them easier targets for the Norsemen. In Eiriks sc^a rauda a similar fear ofthe btill is revealed, again when the natives first approach Karlseftii's camp; "Pat bar til, at gridungr hljop or skogi, er J)eir Karlsefni attu, ok gellr hatt. I>etta fselask Skrcclingar ok hlaupa lit a keipana ok rem siQan su5r fyrir landit" (228) [It happened that the btill which Karlsefni and his men owned leapt from the forest and bellowed loudly. This frightened the skrdingar, and they ran to their boats and rowed south along the land]. In this saga, however, the bull is the impems behind the skrdingar's hostility, for die next time the natives approach the camp, it is with counter-sunwise poles and loud shrieking (228). Though the Norsemen in this saga do not utilize the bull specifically to frighten the natives, Freydis's famous breast-slapping has a similar efFea. When the pregnant woman smacks a sword against her breast, the natives fleeapparently all of them, for at this point "J)eir Karlsefni finna hana ok lofa happ hennar" (229) [Karlsefiii and his men found her and praised her good luck], and the battle seems to be over. The skrdingar, then, seem inordinately skittish, rumiing from loud noises and pregnant women. Even if they do not have courage and weaponry comparable to those ofthe Norsemen, the natives possess one usefiil and singular tactic for defining the Other in battle; magic. When the skrdingar attack in Eiriks saga rauda they bring with them a weapon very unlike those used by the explorers;
Pat sdpeir Karlsefni, at Skrdingarfmrdu upp d stgng kngttstundar mikinn, pvinar til atjafha sem saudarvgmb, ok helzt bldn at lit, okfkygdu afstgnginni upp d landityfir lid peira Karlsefhis, ok let illiliga vid, par sem nidr kom. Vid petta sU dtta miklum d Karlsefni ok allt lid hans, svd atpdfysti einskis annars enfiyja ok halda undan upp med dnni, pvi at peim pdtti lid Skrdinga drifa at ser gllum megin.... Synisk peim nu sem pat eina mun lidit verit hafa, er af skipunum kom, en hittfdlkit mun verit hafa sjdnhverfingar. (228-30)

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(Karlsefni and his men saw the skrdingar lift up on a pole a very large ball, very like a sheep's stomach and extremely blue in color, and this was thrown from the stafFup onto the land over Kadsefni and his host of men, and it made a horrible sound when it came down. This struck great fear into Karlscfni and all his host, so that they wanted nothing other thanflight,and they went up the river, because it seemed that the skrding host drove at them from all sides.... Later it appeared to them that there had been only one group, that which came from the boats, and the other people had been an illusion.) Whatever is in the large blue ball the natives fling seems to disorient the Norsemen, causing them to see another party oi skrdingar attacking them from a diflFerent direction. Not knowing which group to face, the explorers mtist flee to a more defensible position. While such overdy magical techniques are not seen in Granlendinga saga, it is possible that the "brestr mikinn" [great crash] heard by Gu6ri9r at the disappearance ofthe second Gu3ri3r (and the onset of violence between the two groups) could indicate a similar device (263). According to Sayers, "we find again, apparendy projected from the native side, deceptive visual phenomena associated with noise and aggressive intentions" ("Psychological Warfare" 244).'^ Sayers identifies the ball in Eiriks saga rauda as a type of "war medicine" with which the Norsemen may have been familiar; Closer to home, the paraphemaUa of Sami sorcery in Norse eyes included the sorcerer's staflF (gandr)., which could be sent out to reconnoiter as well as serving as a mount for spirit travel, andgand-zivows.... It then seems legitimate to conclude that the Norsemen in Vinland may have preserved a historically accurate impression of indigenous supplements to hand-to-hand warfare because they recognized the pole and its charge as compatible with magically endowed objects in their own or neighboring cultures that were intended to have a destabilizing, disorienting, even expulsive effect. ("Psychological Warfare" 258) It is perhaps dubious whether a group of explorers from Iceland and Greenland would have much experience with the Sami, who even in mainland Scandinavia were a somewhat isolated and ostracized group. John Lindow's comment on similar lines may be more useful; "The magic

13. If the second Gudridr is the "deceptive visual phenomena" to which Sayers refers, then it seems odd that in this saga the illusion should appear before the loud crash and that only one person seems to be afFeaed by the natives' magic.

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bag of the skrdingar is a supernatural artifice rather like Odin's spear, which paralyzes an opposing army with fear when thrown over them. Once again, then, different ethnicity is endowed with the supernatural" (13). Whether associated in the Norse mind with gods or with Sami, the apparent magic of the skrdingar quite effectively serves to distance them from the Europeans, emphasizing their Otherness to an extreme. AU these differencesappearance, language, cultural sophistication, and magicaUow the Norsemen in the sagas to place negative values on the natives, values that motivate their treatment ofthe skrdingar. In Granlendinga saga, I>orvaldr Eiriksson is ready to kiU the natives he meets with no compunctions; perhaps this is because they are on "his" land or perhaps because their hide-covered boats mark them as alien (255-6). In a cognate episode in Eiriks saga rauda, Karlsefni's men "tinhesitatingly impose Norse values of social organization upon the aboriginal population by kiUing, without provocation, five menprestimably on a hunting expeditionwhom they find asleep along the coast, on the assumption that such an isolated company must be oudaws" (Barnes, Viking 17). Because these natives are away from others and with no apparent dweUings, the Norse automatically assume that "J)essir menn myndi hafa verit ggrvir brott af landinu" (230) [these men must have been sent away from the land], as happens to Norse criminals like Eirikr the Red. This, of course, occurs after a number of encounters between the two cultures, in which the skrdingar have shown themselves to be inferior beings who might as weU be kiUed. Similarly, in both sagas Karlsefni is perfecdy wiUing to cheat the natives who come to trade. In Granlendinga saga the natives are seduced by milk into leaving their valuable furs behind in a very uneven trade (262). In Eiriks saga rauda the Norsemen also fleece the natives;
vildi pat fdlk helzt hafa rautt sknid. Peir hgfdu mdti atgefa skinnavgru ok algrd skinn.... Peir Skrdingar tdku spannarlangt rautt sknid fyrir dfglvan belg ok bundu um hgfud ser. Gekk svd kaupstefha peira um hrid. Pd tdk at fattask skrudit med peim Karlsefni, ok skdru peir pd svd smdtt i sundr, at eigi var breidara en pversfingrar, ok gdfu Skrdingar pdjafhmikit fyrir sem ddr eda meira. (228)

(most of all those people wanted red cloth. In return they had fiirs and grey skins to give.... The skrdingar took a hand-span of red cloth for a pale skin and bound them around their heads. Thus went their trading for a while. Then the cloth began to run out for Karlsefni and his men, so they cut it into smaller pieces that were not wider than the width ofa finger, and the skrdingar gave just as much for it as before, if not more.)

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Not only are the natives easily distracted by the bright red cloth, which the Norsemen have luckily brought with them, but they are also apparendy too foohsh to realize that the lengths of cloth for which they trade furs are getting progressively shorter. In this saga, Freydis offers a pithy evaluation ofthe nadves' worth when she scornfuUy asks her feUows, "Hvi renni per undan Jjessum auvirdis-mpnnum, sva gildir menn sem per erud, er mer Jjoetti sem per m^ttifl drepa nidr sva sem biife.^" (229) [Why do you rtm from such wretched men, such worthy men as you are, when it seems to me that you might kill them just Uke catde.'']. Such miserable creatures should be killed easily by the strapping Norsemen. Again, the natives prove themselves to be not merely different, but inferior in their difference. The constructed differences separating the nadves and the explorers in these sagas fimcdon to maintain a social order that empowers the Norsemen; as Syed Manzuml Islam remarks, "The boundary that affeas the inside/outside disdnction creates the binary of order/disorder to sustain the very fabric of the social and moral laws of society. Moreover, the embodied botindaries are the basic techniques of power which help to fashion the subject in its own image" (Islam, Ethics 25). By characterizing theskrdingar as wretchedly different in their ugliness, stupidity, and cowardliness, the Norsemen emphasize the opposite in their own characters. In order for them to maintain this opposition and the power it gives them over the nadves, the Norsemen must ascertain that the boundary between themselves and the Other is a strong one. As Islam observes. The Manichean order rests both on the spacing of difference and the staging of opposition.... In other words ... it creates clearly demarcated spaces from within which their identities emerge in resplendent isolation. It provides a space without the troublesome middle term so that the purity of each identity is never endangered through the leakage of its difference or each other's identity. Each demarcated space of identity is rigorously protected from its other by an uncrossable chasm between them. It says: there is a boundary between us and them and it must not be crossed. If it is crossed the world will be plagued with disorder, and we would no longer know with clarity who 'Ve are" and who "they are." (Islam, Ethics 43-4) As long as the Norse can maintain the skrdingar as whoUy Other, they are in no danger; but as soon as they begin to make concessions, the waU of binary opposition wiU begin to crumble, and their own coUecdve idendty and the power contained therein wiU be in danger. Perhaps it is an innate understanding ofthe need to maintain the power of difference

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that leads Kadsefni in both sagas to forbid the trading of weapons to the nadves; providing these people with European military technology wotild act as an equalizer by bringing the nadves closer to the sameness that only the Norsemen should have. Stephen Greenblatt's discussion of New World exhibidons brings more insight into the Norse treatment of the skrdingar: "the viewers carry with them to the exhibits, as to the lands from which the exhibits have been seized, a powerflil set of mediating concepdons by which they assimilate exodc representadons to their own culture. These concepdons are at once agents and obstacles in the drive to possess a secure knowledge ofthe aUen" (122). Knowledge ofthe aUen is, of course, power over the alien, and the knowledge ofthe skrdingar communicated through these sagas repeatedly establishes the Norsemen's supedority over this race. The sagas themselves fimcdon like the exhibits Greenblatt discusses in that they portray the skrdingar to the reader, aUowing the same unfavorable comparisons drawn by the saga heroes. Even the name assigned to the nadves, "skrseling," meaning "wretched," passes judgment on the nadves and their culture, as compared to that ofthe Norsemen. According to John Lindow, "the existence of any group automadcaUy impliesperhaps requiresthe existence of one or more others, for such definidon is a matter of contrast, of marking boundaries" (18). The evaluadons made about the natives exist to emphasize the contrast between the two groups in quesdon by creating the necessary boundary that keeps otherness separate from sameness. In Granlendinga saga, these botindaries momentarily become physical as well as ctiltural, as "Karlsefni let verja dyrrnar" (262) [Karlsefni had the doors defended] between his people and the skrselingar when the nadves first visit the camp. Even when this first encounter concludes in peacefiil trading of fiiirs for milk products, Karlsefni stiU wants to erect boundaries; "Karlsefni \xti gera. ski3gar3 rammligan um bee sinn" (262) [Karlsefni had a strong wooden fence built around his farm]. His instinct is to keep these people separate from his own, precisely the funcdon perfonned by the descripdons ofthe cross-cultural encounters throughout the two sagas. Lured by the differences between this land their own, the Norsemen come to Vinland out of a desire for the Other. In the comparadvely frozen North, self-sown wheat, grapes, and huge maple trees like those from which Leifr coUects souvenirs are objects of fantasy, possible only in an other place. The paradisiacal nature ofthe land, however, is

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flawed, partly by the presence of natives, and partly by the Norsemen's own perceptions ofthe place. According to Islam, "when these figures of absolute otherness are pressed into the play of difference they map an impossible relationship between the 'Same' and the 'Other.' Hence, the Other appears as the forbidden world of desire with its attendant pleasure and dread" ("Marco Polo" 7). As the explorers spend increasingly more time in their newfound paradise, they begin to discover that its pleasures of material bounty are deceptive and that this land is also dangerous. In Einks saga rauda, Karlsefni's expedition discovers a plenteous land, where "^eir gaQu einskis, litan at kanna landit" (224) [they heeded nothing except to explore the land]. Their dependence on the summer bounty of this place backfires, however, for winter comes and "tokusk af veiSarnar, ok gerSisk illt til matar" (224) [the hunting tapered off, and provisions ran short]. Even when the poor explorers think they are saved by a whale they find washed up on the beach, they are deceived because the whale turns out to have rotted beyond safe consumption. The bountiful Otherness of this new land causes the Norsemen to forget simple preparations for winter, thus revealing that danger lurks beneath the attractive surface. Largely, the dangers ofthe land are embodied in the charaaers ofthe skrdingar, who, while unattractive, initially seem peaceful in both sagas. In each saga, attempts at settlement are foiled by the hostile actions of the natives. In Granlendinga saga I>orvaldr Eiriksson wishes to settle the ideal headland he has found, but he is prevented from so doing by a fatal arrow from a native bow, and his fellows return to Greenland without further thought of settlement (255-6). Later in the same saga, Karlsefni's expedition is also driven away following attacks by the natives; Karlsefni suddenly packs up his camp and departs as soon as the seas are safe: "En at vari, ^a lysir Karlsefni, at hann vill eigi {)ar vera lengr ok vUl fara til Groenlands" (264) [And in the spring, Karlsefni proclaims that he does not want to stay there longer and wants to go to Greenland]. In Einks saia rauda, Karlsefni's group similarly decides that settlement in this land is untenable: "I>eir Karlsefni {)6ttusk nu sja, j^ott [^ar vxri landskostir g66ir, at {)ar myndi jafnan otti ok ofriSr a liggja af J)eim, er fyrir bjuggu" (230) [Karlsefni and his men now seemed to see that though there were good features ofthe land, that equal amounts of fear and enmity lay there from those who had already settled it]. If they stay in these bountiful lands, they will always be in danger of attack from the skrdingar, who in this saga have the advantage over the intruders.

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I>orvaldr Eiriksson's dying words in this saga offer a poignant statement ofthe effects ofthe native presence: "Gott land h9fu ver fengit kostum, en}p6megu ver varla njota" (231-2) [We have taken a land with good qualities, but we may hardly have the use of it]. However abundant the land may seem, it is impossible for the Norsemen to enjoy it when fantastic unipeds can appear from nowhere and kill their leaders: as Zumthor notes, "always lurking... in such texts is an astonishment and even a terror of that space which man would no longer master" (820). For the Norse, the realization that the human part of these new lands is not under their control creates a fear that forces them to withdraw. Repeatedly throughout the sagas, the skrdingar are shown to be an unavoidable part of these new lands, sometimes through the Norse perception that the natives have already settled the land and have some prior right to it. Just as often, however, the skrdingar are perceived as physically a part ofthe land itself. In Granlendingasaga, iJorvaldr initially mistakes the natives under their canoes for hillocks: "Sja a sandinum inn fra h^fSanum firjar hxdir ok foru til J)angat ok sja J>ar hudkeipa J)rja ok |)rja menn under hverjum" (255) [They saw on the shore against the headland three hillocks and went up there and saw three hide canoes and three men under each]. In both sagas the natives suddenly appear from and disappear into the forests, and the Norsemen are unable to find them. In Eirtks saga rauda, the Norsemen learn more about the skrdingar when they capture, baptize, and interrogate two native boys: "Toku {)eir Karlsefni sveinana, en hinir komusk undan, ok sukku ^eir Skrjelingar 1 jgrS ni5r" (233) [Karlsefni and his men caught the boys, but the others escaped, and those skrdingar sank down into the earth]. The ability ofthe natives to disappear into the ground in this way suggests both a fantastical otherness and a oneness with the land itself. The interrogation ofthe boys (who seem to learn the Norse language in a very short time) reveals that "lagu menn J)ar 1 helium eda holum" (234) [men there sleep in caves or holes]. These animalistic natives dwell in the ground, thus emphasizing their inseparability from these lands: according to Islam, "the relation between the same and the other, more often than not, is grounded in spatial locations, as if space has the natural propensity to entwine individual bodies inhabiting it, shaping them in its very image" (Ethics 5). As the natives and their land are part of one another, their individual othernesses leak through, the natives' negative characteristics beginning to taint the Norsemen's perception ofthe land as the land swallows up its original inhabitants.

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Significantly, the Norse seem unwilling to return to Vmland once they have spent time there; in both sagas, not a single explorer makes a repeat voyage to the new lands, though interest remains high among those who have not made the trip. In Eiriks saga rauda, Karlsefni's foiled settlement is the last trip to the new lands. In Granlendinga saga, however, one more expedition is attempted after Karlsefni's group gives up. Freydis's expedition also ends in bloodshed as Freydis's greed for the resources of Vinland prompts her to effect the murder of half of her companions so that her share ofthe voyage's profits will be that much larger (264-7). The paradisiacal nature ofthe land is deceptive if it can foster such evil. Vinland must be abandoned, for both its natives and its bounty are dangerous. In both sagas, therefore, the final chapters take place in Iceland. In Granlendinga saga, after the narrative of Freydis's voyage, the saga follows Karlsefni on a journey to Norway, where he sells ofFa "hiisasnotra" (268) [ornament for a ship, probably a figurehead]'* made of Vinland maple, as though severing his last des with the new lands. Karlsefni then returns to Iceland, where he and Gudridr produce a string of famous descendants. Eiriks saga rauda ends similarly: Karlsefni returns to Iceland, where his mother becomes reconciled to Gu6ridr, and descendants are listed (236-7). In neither saga are further voyages to Vinland mentioned.'^ In constructing boundaries ofdifference between themselves and the new lands they encounter, the Norsemen have achieved a difference so great that it becomes threatening. Though boundaries are necessary to travel in order to create a separation between the homeland and that which one intends to reach, the Norse in these sagas have created ones that are impossible to cross. The fabled lands of boimty are elusive and deceptive; they do not live up to the expectations generated by early tales so that subsequent explorers cannot feel they have reached the new lands. Similarly, the necessary boundaries of difference created between the Norsemen and the skrdingarv/ho are inevitably equated with the landengender hostility, contempt, and violence. T'he Norsemen are
14. William Sayers suggests in his recent article "Karlsefni's htisasnotra: The Divestment of Vinland" that the hiisasnotra is a wind vane rather than an ornamental figurehead. 15. Although the sagas mention no further voyages to these lands, travel to North America apparently continued. As many scholars have noted, an entry for the year 1347 in the Skdlholtsanndll records the arrival in Iceland of a ship which had been to Markland, suggesting that this wooded land continued to be a relatively common destination for Icelandic ships well after the period covered by the sagas.

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forced to conclude that the land is dangerous, as the boundaries they have set up to separate themselves from the Other funcdon to push them away. Because ofthe extreme and insurmountable otherness of Vinland, the Norsemen find it impossible to stay, and the sagas end with the heroes defeated, barred from Paradise by the boundaries they have constructed.^*

i6.1 would like to thank Kari Ellen Gade and Angela Florschuetz for their feedback on earlier versions of this essay.

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