Helluland in “Eirik the Red’s Saga”

[Karlsefni’s expedition]

Chapter 8

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[...] They sailed along the coast to the western settlement, then to the Bear Islands [thought to be Disko Island off the west coast of Greenland] and from there with a northerly wind. After two days at sea they sighted land and rowed over in boats to explore it. There they found many flat slabs of stone, so large that two men could lie foot-to-foot across them. There were many foxes there. They gave the land the name Helluland (Stone-slab land). [...]

Source: Keneva Kunz, trans., "[Helluland in] Eirik the Red's Saga" in The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection, preface by Jane Smiley, introduction by Robert Kellogg, (New York, London, Victoria (Australia), Toronto, Auckland: The Penguin Group, 2000), 653-674. Notes: Translations first published in "The Complete Sagas of Icelanders," volumes I-V (forty-nine tales), Leifur Eiriksson Publishing, Ltd., Iceland, 1997.

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