THE FLATEY BOOK

AND RECENTLY DISCOVERED

VATICAN MANUSCRIPTS

CONCERNING AMERICA AS EARLY AS THE TENTH CENTURY

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DOCUMENTS NOW PUBLISHED FOR THE FIRST TIME, WHICH ESTABLISH BEYOND

CONTROVERSY THE CLAIM THAT NORTH AMERICA WAS SETTLED

BY NORSEMEN FIVE HUNDRED YEARS BEFORE

THE TIME OF COLUMBUS

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Sagas that Describe the Voyages to, and Character of, the New Country, and Letters

from several Popes directing Bishops in their Government

of the Church in the Western World.

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All reproductions are by

Royal Danish Sanction and the Papal Secretary of State

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Published by the

Norræna Society,

London Stockholm Copenhagen Berlin New york

1908

copyright by

T. H. Smart,

1906

******DISCLAIMER: THIS IS FOR PERSONAL AND/OR HISTORICAL RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY*********

THE FLATEY BOOK MANUSCRIPTS.

Stephen Hansen (Stephanius), who edited Saxo in 1644 and served as Royal historian in Denmark, died in 1650. Upon his death Frederick the Third appointed the Icelandic Bishop Brynjulf Sveinsson to succeed him as Royal Danish Historian. Brynjulf was born at Holt, Iceland, in 1605 and died in 1675. He declined to accept the post of honor offered to him, as he was indisposed to abandon various other literary works on which he was engaged; but he promised the king to do what he could to collect manuscripts and other monumental works in Iceland. This agreeable duty was accordingly assigned to him.

One of the first acts of the Bishop was to request all people residing in his diocese who owned manuscripts to turn them over to the King as a gift or for pay, either the original or a copy thereof. Many valuable manuscripts were secured in this way, but the most important as well as the most beautiful one was a magnificent parchment, of large folio size, which was owned by Jonas Torfason. Jonas Torfason resided on Flatey, (Flat Island), a fertile island in Breidafjord, where Bishop Klæng of Skalholt had established a cloister in the year 1172. This cloister was in 1184 removed by Klæng's successor to Helgafell, on the coast of Iceland. The owner was utterly unwilling to part with this parchment, until the bishop made a personal visit and appeal to him. As a result of this visit Jonas Torfason made a present of the parchment to the bishop, whereupon the latter in return exempted Jonas from paying ecclesiastical taxes on his land.

From the house of its owner the manuscript got the name Flateyjarbok, that is, the Flat Island Book. Presumably the manuscript had been in the possession of the Jonas Torfason family for some time; for the Saga of Olaf Trygvason, published at Skalholt, in Iceland, in 1688, contains an appendix copied from an old document, the date of which could not be later than the close of the 15th or at the beginning of the 16th century. At the end of this old document it is stated that Olaf was King when the Flatey book was known by this name before it came into the hands of Bishop Brynjulf Sveinsson. On the other hand it could not have been written in the Flatey cloister, as this had been moved long before and at the date mentioned was Helgafell cloister.

The parchment itself contains satisfactory information in regard to its origin both as to authorship and locality. On the first page we read: "The owner of this book is Jon. Hakonson." The work, which comprises 1700 folio pages, contains a variety of matter almost equal to a scrap book. The first pages introduce songs, followed by a historical description of how Norway was settled. At the conclusion of this account occurs personal reminiscences of Erik Vidforle and Olaf Trygvason, with short stories in which these two characters have a part. Thereupon follows the Saga of Olaf Haraldson the saint, with short stories, and the Saga of the Jarls of the Orkneys. Succeeding in regular order are Sagas of Kings Sverre, Hakon, the old, and the latter's son Magnus. Next following is a short story of Einar Sokkason, of Greenland, and of Helge, and of Ulf the bad.

Finally come the annals of the creation of the world down to our time. The priest Jon Thordson wrote the story of Erik Vidforle and both the Olaf Sagas; but the priest Magnus Thorhalson wrote what follows and also what goes before, and revised the whole, thus dedicating the work: "May God Almighty and the Virgin Mary bless both the one that wrote and the one that dictated!"

As the author of this dedication states that the annals written by the priest Magnus Thorhalson went down to the time of writing, he must have been a contemporary of the writers of the manuscript. The annals end with the year 1395. Thus we have an exact statement in regard to the time when the parchment was completed and we also have in the document itself pefect evidence as to when it was begun. In one of the first stories we read: "Hakon's son Olaf was King when this book was written and 1387 years had passed since the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ." This parchment was originally bound in a single volume, but is now in two volumes, for easier handling.

Selected from these are pages bearing upon the Greenland discoveries and Vinland settlement which are reproduced and translated in this work. They contain the story of Erik the Red's discovery and settlement of Greenland, of Bjarne Herjulfson's glimpses of America on his way to Greenland, and the voyages by Leif, Thorvald, and Thorstein Erikson, and also of Thorfin and Gudrid.

The Flateybook parchment is kept in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, where the writer has repeatedly seen and carefully examined it. It is one of the most beautiful manuscripts, on parchment, to be found anywhere. It is written by a master of penmanship, and the initials, as the reader will see, are rare examples of the penman's art.

The other manuscript which tells us of the Vinland voyages is the so-called Hauksbook, giving the story of Thorfin Karlsefne. This equally exquisite parchment is preserved in the so-called Arna-Magnæan collection in Copenhagen, which is a part of the Copenhagen University Library. The date of this manuscript is not older than 1299, or later than 1334. Hauk Erlendson died this latter year and there is substantial evidence that the manuscript was written partly by him and partly by his scribes, the parchment showing at least two other penmanships besids Hauk's, from whom an autograph letter is still preserved.

The Hauksbook takes its name from the powerful and distinguished Norwegian who lived in the early part of the 14th century. His father was Exlend Olafson the Strong, who had served as lawman and sysselman in Iceland, and whose death occurred about 1312. Hauk's mother was an Icelandic woman. In the year 1295 he was chosen lawman in Iceland, but about 1299 he moved to Norway where he held the office of lawman for a number of years. In 1302 he became a member of the King's cabinet; in 1304 he was knighted, and subsequently he made a number of voyages to Iceland on missions for King Hakon. In 1319 he was one of the Norwegian representatives who concluded a treaty of union between Norway and Sweden, making Magnus Erikson King of both countries. He died in Bergen, Norway, about the year 1334.

This Hauk Erlendson took a deep interest in Norse history and literature, and as a scholar he rendered most valuable service by making excellent and highly ciritical copies of laws and Sagas. Some of these are still extant in the so-called Hauksbook preserved in the Arne-Magnæan department of the Universtity Library in Copenhagen. This choice parchment contains the Landnamabok, the Kristnisaga, the Saga of Thormod Kolbrunarskald, the Thorgeirs Saga, parts of the Skjoldunga Saga and of the Trojumanna Saga, a Norse version of Merlin's Prophecies and, what is of special interest in this connection, the account we give in this volume in facsimile of Thorfin Karlsefne's voyage to Vinland. It will thus be seen that this precious manuscript dates back to the beginning of the 14th century.

Publication of these thoroughly authenticated documents, with translations, must compel acknowledgment of the truth of the claim that during the 10th and 11th centuries Norsemen discovered and visited a great extent of the eastern coasts of North America. These documents will doubtless also lead to the conviction that for four centuries, immediately following the discovery, intercourse between Greenland, Iceland, and Vinland was never entirely discontinued. The main fact is certain and undisputable. On the other hand, there are in them, as well as in all other ancient writings, certain portions of the narrative which are obscure, and which it will devolve upon future scholars to clear up. On this account we think we render a very important service in publishing the original sources of information, viz., the ancient manuscripts themselves, so that all may have the opportunity to consult them and to form their judgments as to the accuracy of the interpretations given. The evidence presented in this work proves beyond dispute that the coast of North America was discovered in the latter part of the 10th century, immediately after the discovery and settlement of Greenland by the Norsemen, and that this coast was visited repeatedly by men in the 11th century, and likewise by colonists and exploring expeditions in the 12th and 14th centuries.

But even this is not all. These Northern antiquities also show that Christianity was introduced in America, not only among the Norsemen, who settled in Vinland and other places, but probably also among the natives, that the Norsemen found there.

Finally there is a chain of evidence making it highly probable that Columbus had knowledge of the Norse voyages and was guided by this knowledge on his ever memorable voyage in 1492.

With regard to traces of the residence and settlement of the Norsemen on this side of the Atlantic in the 10th and succeeding centuries, we may content ourselves for the present by referring the reader to the facts as stated in the Vinland Volume of Norræna. The matter will doubtless never cease to be a subject for interesting study and investigation by both European and American scholars.

In the meantime our text books on American history will continue to tell our school children of Bjarne Herjulfson, the first European whose eyes beheld the New World. Our sons and daughters will be taught that Leif Erikson was the first white man who turned the prow of his ship to the west and landed upon the shores of this vast continent; nor shall Thorvald Erikson, the first European, and the first Christian buried beneath American sod, be forgotten. We shall not forget Thorfin and Gudrid, who established the first European colony in the western hemisphere, nor their infant son Snorre, the first child of European blood to open his eyes in the New World.

RASMUS B. ANDERSON