The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503 by Various
page 61 of 584 (10%)
page 61 of 584 (10%)
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_dÅgr_ had elapsed, they descried land, and they sailed off this land;
there was a cape to which they came. They beat into the wind along this coast, having the land upon the starboard side. This was a bleak coast, with long and sandy shores. They went ashore in boats, and found the keel of a ship, so they called it Keelness there; they likewise gave a name to the strands and called them Wonderstrands, because they were long to sail by." [33-2] AM. 557 says _biafal_. Neither word has been identified. [33-3] Hauk's Book says "eider-ducks." [34-1] The god Thor. [35-1] The prose sense is: "Men promised me, when I came hither, that I should have the best of drink; it behooves me before all to blame the land. See, oh, man! how I must raise the pail; instead of drinking wine, I have to stoop to the spring" (Reeves). [35-2] The prose sense is: "Let us return to our countrymen, leaving those who like the country here, to cook their whale on Wonder-strand." From an archaic form in these lines it is apparent that they are older than either of the vellums, and must have been composed at least a century before Hauk's Book was written; they may well be much older than the beginning of the thirteenth century (Reeves). The antiquity of the verses of the saga is also attested by a certain metrical irregularity, as in poetry of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh centuries (Storm). [35-3] In the next sentence the authority for this doubtful statement |
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