1000, and Karlsefni's attempt at colonization within the decade
following. On the basis of genealogical records (so often treacherous)
some doubt has recently been cast on this chronology by Vigfusson, in
_Origines Islandicae_[12-1] (1905). Vigfusson died in 1889, sixteen years
before the publication of this work. He had no opportunity to consider
the investigations of Dr. Storm, who accepts without question the first
decade of the eleventh century for the Vinland voyages. Nor do Storm's
evidences and arguments on this point appear in the work as published.
Therefore we are obliged to say of Vigfusson's observations on the
chronology of the Vinland voyages, that they stand as question-marks
which call for confirmation.

We are surprised, moreover, to find that _Origines Islandicae_ prints the
Flat Island Book story first, apparently on account of the belief that
this story contains the "truer account of the first sighting of the
American continent" by Biarni Herjulfson.[12-2] It is impossible to
believe that this would have been done, if the editors (Vigfusson and
Powell) had known the results of Dr. Storm's work, which is not
mentioned. There is, furthermore, no attempt in the _Origines Islandicae_
to refute or explain away an opinion on AM. 557 expressed by the same
authorities, in 1879,[12-3] to the effect that "it is free from grave
errors of fact which disfigure the latter [the Flat Island Book saga]."
We are almost forced to the conclusion that a hand less cunning than
Vigfusson's has had to do with the unfinished section of the work.

In regard to the extract from Adam of Bremen, which we print, it should
be observed that its only importance lies in the fact that it
corroborates the Icelandic tradition of a land called Vinland, where
there were grapes and "unsown grain," and thus serves to strengthen faith
in the trustworthiness of the saga narrative. The annals and papal