[143] Thorhild's Church. See _Antiquitates Americanæ_, p. 119.
[144] Literally, Biarne _Butter-tub_, from which we may, perhaps, infer his personal peculiarity.
[145] Throughout this narrative of Thorfinn, the name of Eric occurs where that of Leif should be given. Eric died five years before Thorfinn came over to Greenland. This account having been written in Iceland, the author made a very natural mistake in supposing that Eric was still at the head of the family. The proper change has been made in the translation, to avoid confusion.
[146] _Yule_ was a pagan festival, held originally in honor of Thor, the god of War, at the beginning of February, which was the opening of the Northman's year. But as Christianity had been established in Greenland for five years, the festival was now probably changed to December, and held in honor of Christ.
[147] Widow of Thorstein Ericson. Rafn thinks, as she is mentioned in this Saga by two names, Gudrid and Thurid, that one was her name in childhood, and the other in her maturer years, when Christianity came to have a practical bearing. Her father's name was Thorbiorn, derived from Thor. It was supposed that those who bore the names of gods would find in these names a charm or special protection from danger.
[148] This is a mistake, Eric's son was dead. It must have been another Thorvald.
[149] The Northmen had two ways of reckoning a hundred, the short and the long. The long hundred was a hundred and twenty. We read in Tegner's _Frithiof's Saga_:
"But a house for itself was the banquet hall, fashioned in fir wood; Not five hundred, though told _ten dozen_ to every hundred, Filled that chamber so vast, when they gathered for Yule-tide carousing."
Professor Rafn infers that the long hundred was here meant, because he thinks that the inscription on Dighton Rock indicates CLI., the number of men Karlsefne had with him, after losing nine.
[150] The present island of Disco, also called by the Northmen, Biarney, or Bear island.
[151] The northern coast of America was called Helluland the Great, and Newfoundland, Helluland, or Little Helluland.--_Antiquitates Americanæ_, p. 419.
[152] Supposed from the distance to be the Isle of Sable.
[153] Leif had left the keel of his vessel here on the point of this cape, which was Cape Cod. In calling it by this name, they simply followed his example.