The Saga of Erik the Red

The Saga of Erik the Red is not about Erik the Red. Erik is in it, as well as his son Leif Ericsson, but it focuses more on the actions of Thorfinn Karlsefni and his wife, Gudrid, with references to exploration and the spread of Christianity.

The first few chapters are background, explaining how Erik the Red gets banished from Iceland and discovers an island he calls Greenland, hoping the name would attract colonists—which it does. A difficult and famine-laced winter causes them to ask a seiðr worker (magician/prophet) to prophesy when their fortunes will change. She needs someone to sing warding songs. A young girl, Gudrid, knows the songs even though she has converted to Christianity. She sings the songs, the prophet predicts the famine will soon end and that Gudrid will make two marriages, one in Iceland and one in Greenland.

Gudrid marries a son of Erik the Red, but he dies in an epidemic. He appears to Gudrid after his death, asking her to make sure asking her to make sure Greenland starts to bury their dead in consecrated ground., tells her to not marry another Greenlander, and says she should give their money to the Church.

A few chapters (and several years) later, Thorfinn Karlsefni visits Greenland as a wealthy merchant, for the purposes of trade. He stays the winter and helps co-host a Yule feast with Erik the Red which becomes a wedding feast when he asks Gudrid's hand in marriage. The newly married couple, with 160 others in two boats, set out for Vinland.

One of the boats goes astray and has several difficulties. Thorfinn's and Gudrid's group reach Vinland where they find plenty of game and fish, and where grapes and wheat grow. They encounter the natives, called the Skrælings, who use boats made of animal skins. When the Skrælings bring a delegation and appear to want to trade, the Norse trade red cloth for animal pelts but refuse the Skrælings' desire for swords and spears. The Skrælings later return in a large group and fling arrows and large stones at the Norse.

The final chapter relates that Thorfinn realizes the hostility will not end, and he and Gudrid eventually return to Iceland and raise their family. Their grandchildren will become the parents of three bishops.

The saga reads like a travel documentary, but is also seen as a glimpse into the non-Christian beliefs of the Norse in Iceland and Greenland. For more on the seidworker and similar figures, come back tomorrow.