*He thinks for a moment, and then responds* All right, I’ll tell of the battle against the Skrælings.

 ....

Karlsefni sailed south along the land with Snorri and Bjarni and the rest of their company. They journeyed a long time till they reached a river which flowed down from the land into a lake and so to the sea. There were such extensive bars off the mouth of the estuary that they were unable to get into the river except at full flood. Karlsefni and his men sailed into the estuary, and called the place Hop, Landlock Bay. There they found self-sown fields of wheat where the ground was low-lying, and vines wherever it was hilly. Every brook there was full of fish. They dug trenches at the meeting point of land and high water, and when the tide went out there were halibut in the trenches. There were vast numbers of animals of every kind in the forest. They were there for a fortnight enjoying themselves and saw nothing and nobody. They had their cattle with them.

Then early one morning when they looked about them they saw nine [H. a great multitude of] skin-boats, on board which staves were being swung which sounded just like flails threshing --and their motion was sunwise.
'What can this mean?' asked Karlsefni.
'Perhaps it is a token of peace,' replied Snorri. 'So let us take a white shield and hold it out towards them.'
They did so, and those others rowed towards them, showing their astonishment, then came ashore. They were small [H. dark], ill favoured men, and had ugly hair on their heads. They had big eyes and were broad in the cheeks. For a while they remained there, astonished, and afterwards rowed off south past the headland.

Karlsefni and his men built themselves dwellings up above the lake; some of their houses stood near the mainland, and some near the lake. They now spent the winter there. No snow fell, and their entire stock found its food grazing in the open. But once spring came in they chanced early one morning to see how a multitude of skin-boats came rowing from the south round the headland, so many that- the bay appeared sown with coals, and even so staves were being swung on every boat. Karlsefni and his men raised their shields, and they began trading together. Above all these people wanted to buy red cloth [H. adds in return for which they had furs to offer and grey pelts]. They also wanted to buy swords and spears, but this Karlsefni and Snorri would not allow. They had dark unblemished skins to exchange for the cloth, and were taking a span's length of cloth for a skin, and this they tied round their heads. So it continued for a while, then when the cloth began to run short they cut it up so that it was no broader than a fingerbreadth, but the Skrælings gave just as much for it, or more.

The next thing was that the bull belonging to Karlsefni and his mates ran out of the forest bellowing loudly. The Skrælings were terrified by this, raced out to their boats *laughs at this part of the story before continuing* and rowed south past the headland, and for three weeks running there was neither sight nor sound of them. But at the end of that period they saw a great multitude of Skræling boats coming up from the south like a streaming torrent. This time all the staves were being swung anti-sunwise, and the Skrælings were all yelling aloud, so they took red shields and held them out against them. [H. adds The Skrælings ran from their boats and with that] they clashed together and fought. There was a heavy shower of missiles, for the Skrælings had warslings too. Karlsefni and Snorri could see the Skrælings hoisting up on poles [H. a pole] a big ball-shaped object [H. adds more or less the size of a sheep's paunch], and blue-black in colour, which they sent flying [H. adds from the pole] inland over Karlsefni's troop, and it made a hideous noise where it came down. Great fear now struck into Karlsefni and all his following, so that there was no other thought in their heads than to run away up along the river [H. adds for they had the impression that the Skræling host was pouring in upon them from all sides. They made no stop till they came] to some steep rocks, and there put up a strong resistance.

Freydis came out-of-doors and saw how they had taken to their heels. 'Why are you running from wretches like these?' she cried. 'Such gallant lads as you, I thought for sure you would have knocked them on the head like cattle. Why, if I had a weapon, I think I could put up a better fight than any of you!'

They might as well not have heard her. Freydis was anxious to keep up with them, but was rather slow because of her pregnancy. She was moving after them into the forest when the Skrælings attacked her. She found a dead man in her path, Thorbrand Snorrason--he had a flat stone sticking out of his head. His sword lay beside him; she picked it up and prepared to defend herself with it. The Skrælings were now making for her. She pulled out her breasts from under her shift and slapped the sword on them, at which the Skrælings took fright, and ran off to their boats and rowed away. Karlsefni's men came up to her, praising her courage. Two of Karlsefni's men had fallen, and four [H. a great many] Skrælings, but even so they had been overrun by sheer numbers. They now returned to their booths [H. adds and bandaged their wounds], puzzling over what force it was which had attacked them from the land side. For now it looked to them as though there had been only the one host, which came from the boats, and that the rest of the host must have been a delusion.

Further, the Skrælings had found a dead man whose axe lay beside him. One of them [H. adds picked up the axe and cut at a tree with it, and so they did one after the other, and thought it a great treasure, and one which cut well. Afterwards one of them set to and] cut at a stone, the axe broke, and then he thought it useless because it could not stand up to the stone, so threw it down.

It now seemed plain to Karlsefni and his men that though the quality of the land was admirable, there would always be fear and strife dogging them there on account of those who already inhabited it. So they made ready to leave, setting their hearts on their own country, and sailed north along the coast and found five Skrælings in fur doublets asleep near the sea, who had with them wooden containers in which was animal marrow mixed with blood. They felt sure that these men would have been sent out from that country, so they killed them. Later they discovered a cape and great numbers of animals. To look at, this cape was like a cake of dung, because the animals lay there the nights through.

And now Karlsefni and his followers returned to Straumsfjord [H. adds where there was abundance of everything they had need of]. It is some men's report that Bjarni and Freydis [H. Gudrid] had remained behind there, and a hundred men with them, and proceeded no farther, while Karlsefni and Snorri had travelled south with forty men, yet spent no longer at Hop than a bare two months, and got back again that same summer. Then Karlsefni set off with one ship to look for Thorhall the Hunter, while the rest of their party stayed behind. They went north past Kjalarnes, and then bore away west, with the land on their port side. There was nothing but a wilderness of forest-land [H. adds to be seen ahead, with hardly a clearing anywhere]. And when they had been on their travels for a long time, there was a river flowing down off the land from east to west. They put into this river-mouth and lay at anchor off the southern bank. It happened one morning that Karlsefni and his men noticed up above the clearing a kind of speck as it were glittering back at them, and they shouted at it. It moved--it was a uniped--and hopped down to the river-bank off which they were lying. Thorvald Eirik the Red's son was sitting by the rudder, and the uniped shot an arrow into his guts. He drew out the arrow. 'There is fat round my belly!' he said. 'We have won a fine and fruitful country, but will hardly be allowed to enjoy it.' Thorvald died of this wound a little later. The uniped skipped away and back north, and Karlsefni and his men gave chase, catching sight of him every now and again. The last glimpse they had of him, he was leaping for some creek or other. Karlsefni and his men then turned back. [557. It happened one morning Karlsefni and his men noticed up above a clearing a kind of speck as it were glittering back at thern. It moved--it was a uniped--and hopped down to where they were lying [scil. Karlsefni and] Thorvald Eirik the Red's son. Then said Thorvald: 'We have won a fine country.' The uniped then skipped away and back north, and shot an arrow into Thorvald's guts. He drew out the arrow and 'There is fat round my belly!' he said. They gave chase to the uniped, catching sight of him every now and again, and it looked as if he was getting away. He leaped out to a creek.] Then one of the men sang this ditty:

Men went chasing,
I tell you no lie,
A one-lagger racing
The seashore by:
But this man-wonder,
Curst son of a trollop,
Karlsefni, pray ponder,
Escaped at a gallop.

Then they moved away and back north, believing they had sighted Einfætingaland, Uniped Land. They were unwilling to imperil their company any longer. They proposed to explore all the mountains, those which were at Hop and those they discovered. [H. They concluded that those mountains which were at Hop and those they had now discovered were one and the same (range), that they therefore stood directly opposite (in line with?) each other, and lay (or extended) the same distance on both sides of Straumfjord.]

They went back and spent that third winter in Straumsfjord. There was bitter quarrelling [H. adds on account of the women], for the unmarried men fell foul of the married [H. adds which led to serious disturbances]. Karlsefni's son Snorri was born there the first autumn and was three years old when they left.

[H. When they sailed from Vinland] they got a south wind and reached Markland, where they found five Skrælings, one of them a grown man with a beard, two women, and two children. Karlsefni captured the boys but the others escaped and sank down into the ground. These boys they kept with them, taught them their language, and they were baptized. They gave their mother's name as Vætilldi, that of their father as Uvægi. They said that kings ruled over Skrælingaland? one of whom was called Avalldamon and the other Valldidida. There were no houses there, they said: the people lodged in caves or holes. A country lay on the other side, they said, opposite their own land, where men walked about in [H. lived who wore] white clothes and whooped loudly, and carried poles and went about with [H. carried] flags. They concluded that this must be Hvitramannaland [H. adds or Ireland the Great].[But Bjarni GrimolLsson was carried into the Greenland [H. Ireland] Sea and came into wormy waters, and before they knew it the ship grew worm-eaten under them. They talked over what plan they should adopt. They had a tow-boat which was coated with seal-tar, and it is common knowledge that the shell-worm does not bore into timber which is coated with seal-tar. The voice of the majority was to man this boat with as many of the men as she would take. But when it came to the point, the boat would not take more than half the ship's company. Then Bjarni proposed that they should go into the boat, but go by lot, and not by rank. But every living soul wanted to go into the boat, and she just could not take them all, which was why they adopted this plan of transferring men from ship to boat by lot. And the way the lot fell out, it fell to Bjarni to go into the boat, and roughly half the crew with him.]

And now they came to Greenland and spent the winter with Eirik the Red.

So those who had drawn lucky transferred from ship to boat. When they had got into the boat, a young Icelander who had been Bjarni's shipmate, called out: 'D'you mean to leave me here, Bjarni?'
'That is the way of it,' replied Bjarni.
'This', said he, 'is not what you promised me when I followed you from my father's house in Iceland.'
'I see nothing else for it,' said Bjarni. 'But answer me, what do you suggest?'
'I suggest we change places. That you come here, and I go there.'
'So be it,' replied Bjarni. 'For I see you are greedy for life, and think it a hard thing to die.'
Then they changed places. This man went into the boat, and Bjarni aboard ship, and men reckon that Bjarni perished there in the wormy sea, and those men who remained on board with him. But the boat and those who were in her went their ways till they reached land [H. adds at Dublin in Ireland], where they afterwards told this story.

Two summers later Karlsefni returned to Iceland, and Snorri [H. Gudrid] with him, and went home to his place at Reynisnes. His mother considered he had made a poor marriage and did not stay in the same house with them that first winter. But once she found Gudrid to be so remarkable a woman, she returned home, and they lived happily together.

(Source: Eirik the Red’s Saga, National Library of Canada)