Norwegian Viking trader Ohthere recited an account of some of his travels, including a brief voyage to the region lying north of his homeland. Referring to himself and companions in the third person, he said:
He was determined to find out.. . how far this country extended northward, or whether any one lived to the north of the waste. With this intent he proceeded northward along the coast, leaving all the way the wasteland on the starboard [the vessel's right side], and the wide sea on the backboard [the vessel's left side], for three days. He was then as far north as the whale-hunters ever go. He then continued his voyage, steering yet northward, as far as he could sail within three other days.... He sailed thence along the coast southward, as far as he could in five days. There lay then a great river a long way up in the land, in to the mouth of which they entered. ... All the land to his right during his whole voyage, was uncultivated and without inhabitants, except a few fishermen, fowlers, and hunters, all of whom were Finlanders; and he had nothing but the wide sea on his left all the way.
Amanda Graham, "The Voyage of Ohthere from King Alfred's Orosius," Yukon College, 2001. http: / /ycdl4 .yukoncoUege. yk. ca/~agraham//nost202/ottar. htm.
Snorri Sturluson. A thirteenth-century historian and poet, he composed the Heimskringla, a collection of sagas about the kings of Norway who reigned from about A. D. 850 to 1177. In his preface Snorri writes:
In this book I have had old stories written down, as I have heard them told by intelligent people, concerning chiefs who have held dominion in the northern countries, and who spoke the Danish tongue [as well as Norwegian]; and also concerning some of their family branches, according to what has been told me. Some of this is found in ancient family registers, in which the pedigrees of kings and other personages of high birth are reckoned up, and part is written down after old songs and ballads which our forefathers had for their amusement. Now, although we cannot just say what truth there may be in these, yet we have the certainty that old and wise men held them to be true.7
Perhaps the most talked-about Viking sagas in the past few decades have been
Erik the Red's Saga and the Greenlanders' Saga, which describe Viking voyages from colonies in Greenland to nearby North America. At one time these were thought to have dealt mostly with legendary events and deeds. Beginning in the 1960s, exciting physical evidence confirming these voyages was discovered in Newfoundland. Today these stories, though not taken completely at face value by experts, are viewed as quasihistorical documents.
World History
