review of "The Vinland Sagas - The Norse Discovery of America"

review of

"The Vinland Sagas - The Norse Discovery of America"

by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

2231. "review of "Vinland Sagas""

- complete review

- creditd to: tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

- uploaded to my Critic website April 7, 2024

- http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticVinland.html

review of

"The Vinland Sagas - The Norse Discovery of America"

by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - April 7, 2024

The complete review is here:

http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticVinland.html

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6409497637

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3342467-the-vinland-sagas

The only Icelandic saga I read before these was "Grettir's Saga" wch I found somewhat interesting & likened to a biker gang novel - brute force & outlawry. These 2 sagas were similar - w/o the depth of detail of "Grettir's Saga" (or, at least, as I very vaguely remember it). Of course, the thing most people (myself included) are likely to find of interest here is what's taken to be the accounts of the Norse stumbling across what's now known as North America 5 centuries before Christopher Columbus's celebrated 'discovery'. Like Columbus, the Norsemen took it for granted that slaughtering the inhabitants was their 'right' as 'superior' peoples. The best part of this bk, for me, was the scholarly intro.

"The two medieval Icelandic sagas translated in this volume tell one of the most fascinating stories in the history of exploration - the discovery and attempted colonization of America by Norsemen, five centuries before Christopher Columbus. In spare and vigorous prose they record Europe's first surprised glimpse of the eastern shores of the North American continent and the Red Indian natives who inhabited them." - p 7

The pre-European-invasion Native Americans (PEINAs) didn't have a written language. Too bad, I'd love to read their side of the story.

"What he and his crew of thirty-five found there delighted them: wild grapes in profusion, rolling grasslands, vast stretches of towering timber, an abundance of game of all kinds, rivers teeming with giant salmon, meadows rich with a harvest of wild wheat, and a climate so kind that winter frosts were hardly known; even the dew seemed to them sweeter than anything they had ever tasted before. And Leif the Lucky, exulting in his find, named the country Vinland : 'Wineland', the land of grapes." - p 7

It's interesting, I don't recall any accts of the PEINAs having alcoholism - did they not ferment grapes? Is North America still "Wineland"? Much to my surprise, the USA, Russia, & France don't even make it into the top 15:

#1: Romania

#2: Georgia

#3: Czech Republic

#4: Latvia

#5: Germany

#6: Uganda

#7: Seychelles

#8: Austria

#9: Bulgaria

#10: Lithuania

#11: Ireland

#12: Poland

#13: Luxembourg

#14: Laos

#15: Moldova

- https://www.alcoholrehabguide.org/blog/countries-highest-drinking-rates/

But, of course, different websites give different statistics:

Hungary - 21.2%

Russia - 20.9%

Belarus - 18.8%

Latvia - 15.5%

United States - 13.9%

South Korea - 13.9%

Slovenia - 13.9%

Poland - 12.8%

Slovakia - 12.2%

Estonia - 12.2%

- https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/alcoholism-by-country

That's a significantly different line-up, isn't it?! The United States is <i>tied</i> w/ South Korea & Slovenia! We'll have to do something about that. Maybe if the next president were a woman Viking it wd help.

"In 870 a Norwegian called Ingolf Arnarson, impelled to take hasty leave of his homeland because of a killing, became Iceland's first permanent settler, making his home on the site of the present capital, Reykjavik. A host of immigrants of Norse and Celtic stock followed him, and within sixty years the Age of Setllement, as it is called, was over. By 930, it has been estimated, Iceland had a population of perhaps 30,000 and had developed into a nation; in that year there was established a parliamentary commonwealth which lasted for over 300 years, a unique republican system of aristo-democratic government based on a national assembly (the Althing)." - p 13

I don't talk about it much but I have BIG PLANS too. After rents & house-purchasing become so prohibitively expensive in Pittsburgh that even millionaires can't afford it I'm going to declare my house the new center of the capital here, tENTjavik, &, well.. maybe I shdn't outline the rest - why spoil the surprise?! The assembly will be called, of course, the Nothing. The only thing I probably won't be able to iron out is that the local road work will still be ongoing w/ no end in sight.

"Iceland exported wool, tweed, sheepskins, hides, cheese, tallow, falcons, and sulphur in exchange for timber, tar, metals, flour, malt, honey, wine, beer, and linen.

"But Iceland also had a very important 'invisible' export at this time - court poetry. From the tenth century onwards, every single known court poet in Scandanavia came from Iceland." - p 14

I find that truly fascinating. What if things had gone differently & Iceland's main 'invisible' export had been, eg, dirty jokes about frigid polar bears? Wd there still be an alcoholism problem in the USA today?! I think not.

"prudently he named the country Greenland ('he said that people would be much more tempted to go there if it had an attractive name'). As a result of his account, he found no lack of volunteers in the western districts of Iceland to answer his call; and in the summer of 985 or 986 a fleet of twenty-five ships carrying several hundred prospective settlers who had sold up their farms in Iceland set sail for Greenland.

"Was it all just a confidence trick by a salesman eager to build himself an empire? 'Greenland' is a misnomer for the icy regions of the huge new country, and it is easy to suspect that Eirik the Red deliberately misled his countrymen" - p 18

I'm leaving out alot, there's no point in my telling you the whole story. There's a pattern: so'n'so kills somebody or another, is forced to leave, takes some people w/ him eventually who follow him probably b/c he's an energetic & convincing kindof a guy. They accidentally discover someplace that may or may not be a giant ice cube, & another place that may be Wineland & the next thing you know some alcoholic beverage w/ ice-cubes is born! More people get murdered. It's all so humdrum. Some people who get killed are Skraeling.

"The term Skraeling means something like 'wretch', a contemptuous term applied to the indigenous natives of a country, rather like 'savages'. It is quite clear from the Vinland Sagas that the Skraelings of North America were not the same as the Eskimoes of Greenland, however, but Red Indians" - p 27

The use of "Red Indians" seems quite strange. It was always my impression that the indigenous peoples of the Americas were called "Indians" b/c Columbus thought that he had landed in India - but that little boo-boo didn't happen until 500 yrs after the Vikings brought their axe culture to North America. Given that this intro by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson is from 1965 one wd expect that they might be able to come up w/ a more accurate name.

"But the Skraelings had the last word, evidently. Despite the Norsemen's superiority of weapons, it was the constant threat of attack by the natives that finally discouraged the attempt to colonize Vinland." - p 28

The sagas, of course, being over a thousand yrs old by the time of their publication in this form, had undergone various transformations at the hands of various interpreters & updaters. Just think of the King James version of "Candy".

"The Swedish scholar Sven B. F. Jansson, in his book Sagorna om Vinland (vol. I, Lund, 1944), made a detailed comparison of the two manuscripts which proved conclusively that Hauksbók, far from being the more faithful copy of the original, had been extensively edited and revised by Hauk Erlendsson and his two secretaries. He discovered that when Hauk Erlendsson himself wielded the pen, the saga had been drastically shortened (by twenty-five percent), and that when the handwriting of the second secretary took over, the saga had been considerably lengthened (by fifteen per cent); whereas in the passages for which the first secretary had been responsible very little tampering had taken place - only a lengthening by some three per cent." - p 30

You've heard of Writer's Impotence, but what about Writer's Tumescence & Writer's Detumescence?

"Saga-writing began early in the twelfth century as an adjunct to the writing of 'learned works' (froeoi)" [correct spelling on my part missing] "which was being fostered by the Icelandic Church. Sagas were encouraged as serious popular entertainment in an effort by the church authorities to discourage the grosser forms of popular amusement (such as dancing), and to combat the ignorance of the people. And because of the peculiar social conditions of medieval Iceland, saga-writing quickly devloped into a huge national literature."

[..]

""when Ari the Learned wrote the first vernacular history of Iceland, he had to make a decisive break with the European habit in which he had been trained; he had to write the history of a republic in which all the original settlers had been nominally equal. It was not the ancestors and the exploits of one exclusive ruling family of which he was writing, but the ancestors and exploits of every family in the country." - p 35

Again, fascinating. Encouraging reading over dancing. What about reading & dancing at the same time? This was obviously before the idea of car-sickness came along. I'm tempted to follow in the footsteps of Ari the Learned & to write a history of my neighborhood in wch every family gets their fair time.

"Secondly, Iceland had not yet had time to develop a rigid social and cultural caste system. Priests were farmers, aristocrats were priests, farmers were poets, and poets were peasants. Books were never the exclusive possession of any one class, nor was literacy. For instance, the school that was founded at Holar, in the north of Iceland, at the beginning of the twelfth century had a wide scatter of pupils, including women; and mention is specifically made of a church carpenter there, one Thorodd Gamlason, who became highly proficient in Latin. This policy of widespread general education meant that there was a large reservoir of literary capacity available for the conversion of oral material into written sagas." - p 36

I like the egalitarianism of that but if there were aristocrats who were priests who were farmers who were poets who were peasants does that mean that there were aristocrats who were peasants & did they tap the reservoir w/ axes? & then there's the question of what's authentic & what's not.

"But even when all this is said, we are still left with much of the historical value in the sagas. There can be no doubt that the characters who play the leading roles in them actually existed; they are well-authenticated historical figures. There can be no doubt that they made journeys along the northern rim of the Atlantic and came upon a series of landfalls far to the west of the edge of European civilization. And there can be no doubt that the place where they attempted to found a Norse colony was somewhere along the Atlantic seaboard of the North American continent." - p 41

Finally, we get to the "Graenlendinga Saga" itself.

"Eirik was banished from Haukadale after killing Eyjolf Saur and Hrafn the Dueller, so he went to Breidafjord and settled on Oxen Island, at Eirikstead. He lent his bench-boards3

to Thorgest of Beidabolstead, but when he asked for them back they were not returned, which gave rise to quarrelling and fights between them, as Eirik's Saga describes.4 Eirik was supported by Styr Thorgrimson, Eyjolf of Svin Island, Thorbjorn Vifilsson, and the sons of Thorbrand of Alptafjord; Thorgest was supported by Thorgeir of Hitardale, and the sons of Thord Gellir.

"Eirik was sentenced to outlawry at the Thorsness Assembly. He prepared his ship in Eiriksbay for a sea voyage, amd when he was ready, Styr and the others accompanied him out beyond the islands. Eirik told them he was going to search for the land that Gunnbjorn, the son of Ulf Crow, had sighted when he was driven westwards off course and discovered the Gunnbjarnar Skerries; he added that he would come back to visit his friends if he found this country."

"3. Bench-boards : presumably, carved decorative panels affixed to the front of the benches that ran down either side of the main room.

"4. A very debatable reference : it can hardly refer to Eirik's Saga in its present form, because its account of Eirik's adventures in Iceland (Chapter 2) is very little fuller than here. This first chapter of Graenlendinga Saga, and the first two chapters of Eirik's Saga, are interpolations borrowed from Landnámabók (see pp. 31-2); many scholars believe that there must have been a lost Eirik's Saga which told the story of Eirik's life much more fully, and that the brief account in Landnámabók may well have been a condensed summary of it." - pp 49-50

One might think that these Vikings did very little but rob & murder but there are some instances of their saving people as well.

"'I want to sail close into the wind in order to reach these people,' he said. 'If they need our help, it is our duty to give it; but if they are hostile, then the advantages are all on our side and none on theirs.'

"They approached the reef, lowered sail, anchored, and put out another small boat they had brought with them. Tyrkir asked the men who their leader was.

"The leader replied that his name was Thorir and that he was a Norwegian by birth. 'What is your name?' he asked.

"Leif named himself in return.

"'Are you the son of Eirik the Red of Brattahild?'

'Leif said that he was. 'And now,' he said. 'I want to invite you all aboard my ship, with as much of your belongings as the ship will take.'" - pp 58-59

"Leif rescued fifteen people in all from the reef. From then on he was called Leif the Lucky. He gained greatly in wealth and reputation." - p 59

Now Leif's brother Thorvald was a different sort.

"On their way back to the ship they noticed three humps on the sandy beach just in from the headland. When they went closer they found that these were three skin-boats, with three men under each of them. Thorvald and his men divided forces and captured all three of them except one, who escaped in his boat. They killed the other eight and returned to the headland, from which they scanned the surrounding country. They could make out a number of humps father up the fjord and concluded that these were settlements.

"Then they were overwhelmed by such a heavy drowsiness that they could not stay awake, and they all fell asleep - until they were awakened by a voice that shouted, 'Wake up, Thorvald, and all your men, if you want to stay alive! Get to your ship with all your company and get away as fast as you can!" - p 60

When in doubt, kill 'em all! I find the 2nd paragraph interesting since it seems to imply a supernatural agency: 1st, w/ the uncontrollable falling asleep, 2nd, w/ the being awakened by an unknown voice. They were, indeed, about to be attacked by the fellow tribesmen of the people they'd just killed.

Now, in Eirik's Saga, a similar acct of a 1st meeting w/ the indigenous peoples:

"But early one morning as they looked around they caught sight of nine skin-boats; the men in them were waving sticks which made a noise like flails, and the motion was sunwise.

"Karlsefni said, 'What can this signify?'

"'It could well be a token of peace,' said Snorri. 'Let us take a white shield and go to meet them with it.'

"They did so. The newcomers rowed towards them and stared at them in amazement as they came ashore. They were small and evil-looking, and their hair was coarse; they had large eyes and broad cheekbones. They stayed there for a while, marvelling, and then rowed away south round the headland." - p 98

That's quite a loaded passage! Imagine two cultures unknown to each other approaching each other. Imagine what gestures each wd make to signify whatever they thought best. It seems to me that "waving sticks which made a noise" wd be more likely an attempt to scare the other off than a "token of peace". Then it seems to me that a "white shield" wd hardly be a universal symbol of peace. Whatever. Neither of them killed each other, that seems like a good start to me. & what about this "evil-looking" business?! What possible 'objective' basis cd such a judgment call have?! But back to Graenlendinga Saga.

"Soon they had plenty of good supplies, for a fine big rorqual was driven ashore; they went down and cut it up, and so there was no shortage of food." - p 65

&, what?, pray tell, is a "rorqual"?

"Rorquals ([..]) are the largest group of baleen whales, comprising the family >Balaenopteridae, which contains ten extant species in three genera. They include the largest known animal that has ever lived, the blue whale, which can reach 180 tonnes (200 short tons), and the fin whale, which reaches 120 tonnes (130 short tons); even the smallest of the group, the northern minke whale, reaches 9 tonnes (10 short tons)." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorqual

That's what I figured.. but you never know, it might've meant a snake w/ TVs for eyes or some such.

& then there's Freydis. She manipulates a whole shipload of idiots into killing another shipload of suckers so that she can be richer. No femme fatale in noir has anything on her.

"Freydis returned to her farm, which had in no way suffered during her absence. She loaded all her companions with money, for she wanted them to keep her crimes secret; and then she settled down on her farm.

"But her companions were not all discreet enough to say nothing about these evil crimes and prevent them from becoming known. Eventually word reached the ears of her brother Leif, who thought it a hideous story. He seized three of Freydis' men and tortured them into revealing everything that had happened; their stories tallied exactly." - p 70

Was that really the only way "the Lucky" cd find out the truth?! Sheesh. Freydis doesn't get punished, Leif didn't have the heart to punish his sister. Well, moving onto the other saga about this biz, Eirik's Saga:

"Eirik's slaves started a landslide that destroyed the farm of a man called Valthjof, at Valthjofstead; so Eyjolf Saur, one of Valthjof's kinsmen, killed the slaves at Skeidsbrekkar, above Vatnshorn. For this, Eirik killed Ayjolf Saur; he also killed Hrafn the Dueller, at Leikskaler, Geirstein and Odd of Jorvi, who were Eyjolf's kinsmen, took action over his killing and Eirik was banished from Haukadale." - p 76

Yep, Eirik the Red comes across as one unpleasant fellow. I used to work w/ some guys like him.

One of the most fun things for me about "Grettir's Saga" was the supernatural. Same goes for parts of Eirik's Saga:

"There was a woman in the settlement who was called Thorbjorg; she was a prophetess, and was known as the Little Sybil." - p 81

"She was dressed like this : she wore a blue mantle fastened with straps and adorned with stones all the way down to the hem. She had a necklace of glass beads. On her head she wore a black lambskin hood lined with white cat's-fur. She carried a staff with a brass-bound knob studded with stones. She wore a belt made of touchwood, from which hung a large pouch, and in this she kept the charms she needed for her witchcraft. On her feet were hairy calfskin shoes with long thick laces which had large tin buttons on the ends. She wore catskin gloves, with the white fur inside." - pp 81-82

"Then Gudrid said, 'I am neither a sorceress nor a witch, but when I was in Iceland my foster-mother Halldis taught me spells which she called Warlock-songs.'

"Thorbjorg said, 'Then your knowledge is timely.'

"'This is the sort of knowledge and ceremony that I want nothing to do with,' said Gurdrid, 'for I am a Christian.'" - p 82

"Then Gudrid sang the songs so well and beautifully that those present were sure they had never heard lovelier singing. The prophetess thanked her for the song.

"'Many spirits are now present,' she said, 'which were charmed to hear the singing, and which previously had tried to shun us and would grant us no obedience. And now many things stand revealed to me which before were hidden both from me and others.[']" - p 83

In competition w/ this older way of doing things Christinanity had come along.

"Leif came across some shipwrecked seamen and brought them home with him and gave them all hospitality throughout the winter. He showed his great magnamimity and goodness by bringing Christianity to the country and by rescuing these men; he was known as Leif the Lucky.

"He made land at Eiriksfjord and went home to Brattahlid, where he was given a good welcome. He at once began preaching Christianity and the Catholic faith throughout the country; he revealed to the people King Olaf Tryggvason's message, telling them what excellence and what glory there was in the faith.

"Eirk was reluctant to abandon his old religion; but his wife, Thjodhild, was converted at once, and she had a church built not too close to the farmstead. This building was called Thjodhild's Church, and there she and many others who had accepted Christianity would offer up their prayers. Thjodhild refused to live with Eirik after she was converted, and this annoyed him greatly." - p 86

One wd think that ole Eirik the Red wd think of a solution to that one PDQ.

"On the morning that Eirik left home for the ship he took a chest full of gold and silver and hid it. Then he rode on his way; but before he had gone very far he was thrown from his horse, breaking some ribs and injuring his shoulder, and cried out 'A-aah!' As a result he sent a message to his wife telling her to remove the treasure he had hidden : he said that he had been punished for hiding it.1"

[..]

"1. The burying of money was illegal in Christian Iceland." - p 87

No doubt in the bible it says: Don't hide your money, the Catholic priests don't want any obstacle to stealing it. Furthermore, I was there & I distinctly remember Eirik shouting "Motherfucker!"

& then there're the visions:

"Gudrid said, 'We are being very careless; you should not have come out in the cold. We must hurry back inside.'

"'I am not going in now,' said Sigrid, 'for all the dead are lined up before the door. I can see your husband Thorstein amongst them, and I can also see myself. What a horrible sight!'

"But it passed off, and she said, 'I cannot see them now.'

"The dead overseer, who had seemed to her to be trying to flog the others with a whip, had also vanished. The women went back inside.

"Sigrid was dead by morning, and a coffin was made for her.

"That same day some men went out fishing, and Thorstein of Lysufjord accompanied them down to the landing-place; and at dusk he went down again to see the catch. Then Thorstein Eirikisson sent a message to him asking him to come back at once because there was trouble at home and Sigrid's corpse was tryng to rise and get into bed with him. When he returned, she had reached the edge of Thorstein Eiriksson's bed; his namesake seized hold of her and drove an axe into her breast." - p 89

Um, put that axe down before I say this, but.. um, maybe she wasn't actually dead? Maybe just in a coma or something?! There's one advantage to being an old man who'll die in his house & not have his corpse found for mnths: no chance of a premature burial.

Of course, anybody who was anybody had to have slaves back in those days. The thing is, I, the God Thor, disapproved, & came to the Vikings in disguise as the Jewish God Thorstein to tell the slaves to Scoot but my accent was misunderstood.

"When Leif Eiriksson had been with King Olaf Tryggvason and had been asked to preach Christianity in Greenland, the king had given him a Scottish couple, a man called Haki and a woman called Hekja. The king told Leif to use them if he ever needed speed, for they could run faster than deer. Leif and Eirik had turned them over to Karlsefni for this expedition." - p 95

Okay, so we get back to Vinland & the Skraelings.

"What the natives most wanted to buy was red cloth; they also wanted to buy swords and spears, but Karlsefni and Snorri forbade that. In exchange for the cloth they traded grey pelts." - p 99

Now, in Graenlendinga Saga what the natives wanted most was MILK. Whatever, get yr stories straight guys.

"The Skraelings found the other dead Norseman, with his axe lying beside him.3 One of them hacked at a rock with the axe, and the axe broke; and thinking it worthless now because it could not withstand stone, they threw it away."

[..]

"3. H adds : one of them picked it up and chopped at a tree with it, and then each one of them in turn tried it; they all thought it a wonderful find, because of its sharpness." - p 100

"One morning Karlsefni and his men saw something glittering on the far side of the clearing, and they shouted at it. It moved, and it proved to be a Uniped: it came bounding down towards where the ship lay. Thorvald, Eirik the Red's son, was sitting at the helm. The Uniped shot an arrow into his groin.

"Thorvald pulled out the arrow and said, 'This is rich country we have found; there is plenty of fat around entrails.' Soon afterwards he died of the wound." - pp 101-102

If you had to hop on one leg wdn't you be jealous of somebody who had a <i>third leg</i> & aim for that? Be honest now.

"They set sail before a Southerly wind and reached Markland, where they came upon five Skraelings - a bearded man, two women, and two children. Karlsefni and his men captured the two boys, but the others got away and sank down into the ground.

"They took the boys with them and taught them the language, and baptized them. The boys said that their mother was called Vaetild and their father Ovaegir: They said that the land of the Skraelings was ruled by two kings, one of whom was called Avaldamon and the other Valdidida. They said that there were no houses there and that people lived in caves or holes in the ground. They said that there was a country across from their own land where the people went about in white clothing and uttered loud cries and carried poles with patches of cloth attached. This is thought to have been Hyitramannaland." - pp 102-103

They were trying to surrender but their internationally recognized symbolism scared potential invaders away.

2 ships, one eaten away so that it'll sink. The whole crew can't be transferred to the other ship so they draw lots. Half get left behind to sink.

"'Are you going to leave me here, Bjarni?'

"'That is how it has to be,' replied Bjarni.

"The Icelander said, 'But that is not what you promised when I left my father's farm in Iceland to go with you.'

"'I see no other way,' said Bjarni. 'What do you suggest?'

"'I suggest we change places; you come up here and I shall go down there.'

"'So be it,' said Bjarni. 'I can see that you would spare no effort to live, and are afraid to die.'

"So they changed places. The Icelander stepped into the boat and Bjarni went back on board the ship; and it is said that Bjarni and all those who were on the ship with him there perished in the maggot sea." - p 104

Cdn't they have salvaged the ship somehow? Made it into a raft & towed it? Something?! One thing that comes across, to me at least, is that the Vikings might not've been as good as sailors as their reputation might suggest. They get blown around by the wind & end up.. wherever.

Well, the saga(s) end here but there is a last footnote:

"1. H reads : Snorri Karlsefnisson had another daughter, called Stenunn, who married Einar, the son of Grundar-Ketil, the son of Thorvold Hook, the son of Thorir of Espihill. Their son was Thorstein the Unjust; he was the father of Gudrun, who married Jorund of Keldur. Their daughter was Halla, the mother of Flosi, the father of Valgerd, the mother of Sir Erlend the Strong, the father of Hauk the Lawman. Another of Flosi's daughters was Thordis, the mother of Lady Ingigerd the Powerful; her daughter was Lady Hallbera, abbess at Stad, in Reyniness. Many other great people in Iceland are descended from Karlsefni and Gudrid, but not recorded here. May God be with us. Amen." - p 105

I think if I lived in an oral culture & I had kids I'd give them names that rhymed easily w/ as many praise-words in the language as possible. That way, in the sagas, their names wd keep popping up as heroes & whatnot.

In a list of proper names that functions as an appendix Freydis appears. I didn't really get into details about her spectacularly vicious & greedy crimes. So I'll add a little here.

"Finnbogi, an Icelandic merchant; sails with his brother Helgi, joins Freydis' expedition to Vinland, is murdered there at her instigation, Grl, 8.

"Freydis, daughter of Eirik the Red (illegitimate, Eir, 8), married to Thorvard of Gardar, Grl, 2, Eir, 8; joins Thorvard on Karlsefni's expedition to Vinland, Eir, 8; defies Skraelings when pregnant, Eir, 11; makes a separate expedition to Vinland with Finnbogi and Helgi, murders them, returns to Greenland, Grl, 8; her atrocities exposed, Grl, 9." - p 109

It's this "illegitimate" thing that gets to me. Obviously she takes after her father in her proneness to murder - isn't that enuf of a legitimation of parentage? I mean, were even the Vikings caught up in that legalized bonding crap? People fuck, they have kids, that's the natural way.

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