It is clear that Björn Breidvikinge-kjæmpe here is the same as Are Mársson in the Landnáma, who was also driven by storms to Hvítramanna-land, had to stay there all his life, and according to the report of Thorfinn earl of Orkney (ob. circa 1064) had been recognised (by travellers like Gudleif ?), and was much honoured there. This incident of the travellers coming to an unknown island and there finding a man who has been absent a long while has parallels in many Irish legends. Thus it may be mentioned that Brandan, in the Navigatio, comes to the convent-island of Alibius, with the twenty-four Irish monks of old days, and meets there the old white-haired man who was prior of the convent and had been there for eighty years, but who does not tell his name. Brandan asks leave to sail on, but this is not permitted until they have celebrated Christmas there [Schröder, 1871, pp. 15, ff].[42]
[Sidenote: Guð-Leifr and Leifr hinn Heppni]
The resemblance between the two names "Guð-Leifr" (Gudleif == God-Leif) and "Leifr hinn Heppni" (Leif the Lucky) also deserves notice, as perhaps it is not merely accidental. One sails during the last years of St. Olaf from Ireland to Iceland and is carried south-westwards to Hvítramanna-land; the other sails during the last years of Olaf Tryggvason from Norway to Greenland and is carried south-westwards to Wineland the Good.
It might also be thought to be more than a mere coincidence that, while Leif Ericson is given the surname of "hinn heppni," a closely related surname is mentioned in connection with Gudleif in the Eyrbyggja Saga, where he is called "Guðleifr Guðlaugsson hins auðga" (i.e., son of Gudlaug the rich). In the one case, of course, it is the man himself, in the other the father, who bears the surname. "Auðigr" means rich, but originally it had the meaning of lucky, and the rich man is he who has luck with him (cf. further "auðna" == luck, "auðnu-maðr" == favourite of fortune). Gudleif Gudlaugsson also occurs in the Landnámabók, but this surname is not mentioned, nor is anything said about this voyage, in exactly the same way as Leif Ericson is named there, but without a surname and without any mention of a voyage or a discovery; in both cases this is an addition that occurs in later sagas. In spite of the difference alluded to, one may suspect that there is here some connection or other. Possibly it might be that, as Guðriðr is the Christian woman among all the names beginning with Thor- and Freyðis, so the name of Guðleifr, which was placed in association with the Christian Hvítramanna-land, was used because it had a more religious stamp than "happ" and "heppen," which in any case are as nearly allied to popular belief as to religiosity, and which were associated with the non-Christian Wineland.