HAT belief of the ages, according to which Hebrew literature

guage was the most original gift of God, has only within a comparatively recent period passed away. The superior antiquity of the Sanscrit tongue was at the outset the subject of grave European doubts; while one of the ablest British critics found in the venerable literary treasures of India nothing but the results of an "arch forger's" fraud. It is therefore not at all remarkable that scholars felt a certain degree of surprise, when the Old Northern or Icelandic literature was drawn out from its obscure alcoves, and presented to the world, marked with all those grand characteristics of lofty genius which constitute the Edda and Heimskringla, like the Iliad and Eneid, works of world-wide interest and importance for all time. Aye, more. Iceland possessed not only a literature, but an historical literature; and now, having learned that there were letters before Moses, students were called to acknowledge the fact that there were navigators before Columbus; and sailors in American waters, even, long before the Genoese had seen the sea. At first there was a stout revolt. The Sagas of Eric, like the Vedas of India, were "modern frauds." Yet, in the end, reason prevailed, and no respectable historical writer to-day disfigures his page with doubts, all being utterly

at loss to explain why the broad Atlantic should have remained so many ages, without ever once having its blue bosom furrowed by a keel.

Yet we are nevertheless surprised to find that even down to the ténth century the American continent remained a mystery; especially since what we call the New World is, in reality, the Old, this continent being the scene of life while the present area of Europe was a watery waste. But those primeval days bear no date, and the mountains alone are their monuments. Down to the tenth century the American continent boasted no written history. Concerning earlier ages, tradition itself is almost dumb. Of events that transpired after this portion of the globe became the habitation of man, no one can speak with any certainty. We can only infer that age after age families and tribes rose to greatness, and then fell into decline; barbarism and a rude civilization holding alternate sway. We do not even know how the continent was peopled, though the imagination of the ethnologist has often kindled over the theme. For instance, what a charm lingers around the supposed voyages of the Phoenician and Tyrian. Sometimes they appear sailing forth from the Pillars of Hercules with splendidly equipped fleets, steering confidently for the golden West; and again it is the story of the solitary bark driven by storms across the sea. Others tell us the story of Asiatic emigrations by the way of Behring's Straits, while a bolder theory presents the picture of a less venturesome people passing over the Atlantic to the West on a bridge of beautiful isles, long since drowned beneath the waves. Afterward, coming down into the days of Roman greatness, or later, into the splendid age of Charlemagne, we are told of those who sail trustingly for the Isles of the Blessed, and the Fountains of Eternal Youth. In due time the then Ultima Thule itself is passed, and favoring gales bear the mariner to wondrous lands, where he coasts from cape to cape, and from sheltered inlet to sunny bay, everywhere gazing upon marvels, trafficking with bronzed natives, and giving curious wares for barbaric gold, and then shaping his course again for the distant East, to pour the strange tale into incredulous ears.

The ancients appear to have been in as much doubt as ourselves. The great Atlantic was to them the Sea of Darkness, along whose mysterious border was stretched an impenetrable pall. In the fourth century, B.C., Theopompus thought that there might be a vast island lying far to the west. Plato was familiar with the idea of the Atlantis, which, according to the Priests of Isis, had sunk beneath the sea; and Homer sang of the Elysium in the West. We touch the solid

ground, however, when we come to the Phoenician communication with the British Isles; yet a long period intervenes before we reach the history of Scandinavian enterprise, .which carried the Northmen to Iceland and Greenland, and afterward to the coast of America. But when this point is reached, there can be no room for doubt.

Of the Northmen themselves we need to say but little here. Much less shall we be obliged to speak of their general literature1, though it will be necessary to discuss the character of the historical Sagas. As regards the Old Northern race, we need only to remember the fact of their early eastern origin, and their great force of character; for the bold and enterprising spirit of these Scandinavians made them everywhere known. In the East they founded the empire of Russia; in Constantinople they supported the Greek Emperor's tottering throne; and in England they dictated language to a court that might have perished but for the prestige which it won from their swords. The Northmen, whose descendants but recently threatened to reduce all France to ashes, were a hardy, progressive, and enlightened race, who in times of peace could set no bounds to their maratime activity, and, consequently, were seen throwing their flag to the breeze on every sea. Nevertheless, we ought to state the special reasons which led them to carry their power so far into the frozen North.

It appears that, in Norway, King Harold Harfagr (the Fairhaired) attempted to deprive the petty jarls of certain ancient feudal rights, and usurp them for the benefit of the crown. But to this degradation they would not submit. In the eyes of their retainers, they would appear as slaves. Many, therefore, resolved to leave the lands and homes which they could no longer call their own. But where should they go?

This point was quickly settled; for as early as the year 860 a great island had been found by the mariner, named Gardar, whose discovery, four years later, was reaffirmed by the pirate Nadodd. Toward this wild and inhospitable land, with a surface of ice and bowels of fire, the first Northmen, led by one Ingolf, took their way. Approaching the coast in the year 875, he threw overboard his seat-posts (Setstakkar), carved with the images of Odin and Thor. To these seat-posts or pillars, we find an allusion in Frithiof's Saga: "Through the whole length of the hall shone forth the table of oak wood, Brighter than steel, and polished; the pillars twain of the high seats Stood on each side thereof; two gods deep carved out of Elm wood: Odin with glance of a King, and Frey with the Sun on his forehead."

'This subject was treated by the writer, in "The American Church_Review" for April, 1872.

It was understood by the Northmen, that wherever these twin pillars landed, they were to form the settlement. But in the present case, the gods were not propitious, for the sacred pillars drifted away from sight. The colonists, nevertheless, landed on a pleasant promontory, in the southeast part of the island, where they remained three years. At the end of this time the pillars were found, and they removed to the location thus indicated by the tardy supernals, laying the foundations of Reikiavik, the present capital of Iceland.

At their approach, the pious monks from Ireland, who had previously come here to be alone with God, fled in great haste, forsaking both bell and book, and leaving to the Northmen the undisputed possession of the soil. Here this liberty-loving people formed a community, which gradually shaped itself into an aristocratic republic, framed its own laws, and for a long period maintained a genuine independence.

In the beginning of the tenth century, Iceland possessed a population of many thousand souls, the descendants, for the most part, of the best Norwegian and Danish families, and not of pirates and robbers, as some have imagined to be the case. Indeed, a pirate flag probably never flew in an Icelandic port, whatever may be said of the vikings and plunderers of the mainland; while, in respect to mere combative propensities, it may also be remembered that the duel was abolished by law in Iceland eight hundred and six years before England had erased it from her statutes, where it was recognized as a part of the judicial process.

¿But even in Iceland these men could not be idle, for, in the year 876, Gunnbiorn, Ulf Krage's son, found land at the west. Thither one Eric, called the Red, took his way, in the year 983, having been banished from Iceland on account of a crime. The land to which he went, and where he remained in exile three years, he called Greenland, as he said, to attract people thither.1

On his return to Greenland, A.D. 985, he carried with him a numerous body of emigrants, who founded those colonies which maintained their existence for several hundred years. These colonies were

1 It is a curious fact, at the present time unexplained, that in the work of Pontanus, entitled "Rerum Danicorum Historia," there is given a copy of a Papal Bull of the date of A.D. 835, which makes a distinct allusion to the Greenlanders. In the third narrative of Eric the Red, who has always been credited with the naming of Greenland, we find it told that, on his arrival, he saw "ruins of houses and pieces of boats, and begun stone work." These remains were attributed to the savage people of the land, whom they called "Skrællings." Possibly, these were the remains of previous European visitors, whose voyages had been overlooked. See "Pre-Columbian Discovery of America," p. 21.

located on the west shore of that continent, and not upon the east, and formed the base of all operations in connection with the explorations of America.

Having thus briefly disposed of these preliminaries, let us next glance at the character of the writings which contain the accounts of their explorations along our coasts.

In connection with this point, however, we have to remark, that there is no inherent improbability as regards the alleged voyages to America. It is true, as we have already seen, that a class of minds biassed by early and superficial geographical teaching, and dazed by the story of Columbus, incline almost instinctively to regard any prior voyages as quite impossible, if not absurd. Yet when we are assured that the Northmen dwelt in Greenland for more than three hundred years, and that, in going hither from Norway and Iceland, they passed within a few days' sail of the American coast, the subject appears in a very different light; and, on the whole, we incline to believe that these roving, adventurous people not only may, but that they must have discovered the land lying toward the south. A failure in this respect would have been something surprising.

But in the present case much depends upon the age and authenticity of the manuscripts. Are these, then, reliable, and do they belong to the Pre-Columbian age?

That this is so, has been abundantly proved, especially as we have duplicate narratives of the most important voyage, one of which was compiled in Greenland, and the other in Iceland; while at the same time they abound in those delicate and yet undesigned coincidences which have the greatest weight with critical minds. The narratives are not "mythological in form," as one early and prejudiced writer affirmed, nor are they of the same class as the stories of St. Brandan's Isle, as Washington Irving imagined, when writing his life of Columbus, prior to the publication of the Sagas by the Northern antiquaries. Nor, again, are they prose versions of old historical songs, as another writer suggested. The highest critical ability has pronounced them genuine historical compositions. Indeed, the time for scepticism on these points has now passed away.1

1

Any one desiring to look into the aspect of the question may consult a monograph by the present writer, entitled "Notes on a Review of the Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen, in the North American Review," Advertiser Press, 1869. This little publication forms the only treatment of the subject of which the writer has any knowledge. It may be remarked here, however, that while many early prose histories of different countries existed originally in the form of verse, such was not the case with those Icelandic Sagas, which tell the story of Pre-Columbian discovery. Icelandic prose is the earliest modern vernac