The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1852-09-28
/" Gou-a,ru cur lattoe Aa,pu.,'

.- - :
the old authors we're right, for tho
wild grape broke the promise Of
Tyrker.
Lief returned in the spring to
Greenland, the winter had been far
milder than his men had ever known
before, and 80 rapturous was the
general report that Thorwald Liefs
brother, embarked the same year
He passed his winter in the cabins of
Lief, and in the summer made excur.
sions into the country, discovering
an archipelago Of little islands with
leafy groves along the white shelving
beaches, but nowhere traces of man
or beast, excepting single strange
wood.pile, in form like q pyramid.
4 second winter was comfortable in
the old quarters, and when spring
came again the ship was found to be
80 much disabled that half of the
summer was required for repairing; q
new keel vas needed, and the place
of the sturdy ship-wrights was named
'Kiellarnaes'-the cape Of the keel.
At length all was ready, and the
helm wa' put up for cruise to the
eastward. They sailed along shore
in calm summer seas, and attracted
lone day by the beauty Of a deep ford
the ship was brought to anchored.
Thorwald pulled ashore with a boats
crew, and was amazed t. discover,
1noored in shady spot, three birch
Ell canoes, with red man sleeping
in each. Imprudently and barba.
rously, he gave instant orders for
their death. One, however, dashed
with swift paddle strokes across the
ford, swifter than the flight of Thor
wald's javelin; and when the North.
men rcposed in their turn, fleets of
the red men covered the little bay,
the cliff echoes rang. startled viii,
war songs, barbcd arrows and darts
hurled through the air, but fell harm,
less and blun.cd The Mortimer
-brave1 the Storm. with their. stout
bucklers Of hide.
The sayascs, whom Thorwald con
temptuously names SkrGlingues.
(puny men,O and who are thus
known in all the Norwegian ballads
and chronicles, believed it vain to
contend against invulnerable stran.
gers, and after an hours conAic,
were seized with panic and fed
They had done more mischief, how
ever, than was ever known to them.
selves. One fatal arrow revengcd
their murdered comrades, and st, uck
down Thorwald himself with mortal
wound. ''Let the cross" said the
dying rover, (the chroniclcrs thus
make him Christian,) "lct the
cross Of the Saviour be laii on my
grave" and his tomb was built OH,
the headland Kors-naes, the cape Of
the cross.
The survivors bore home the sad
news to Greenland, whereupon Thor
wald's son, Thorsten, (both names
are from the Scandinavian god of
war,') resolved to recover the body
of his father. He embarked early
in the year 1905, and took with him
his wife, the beauteous Gurida, who
was destined, but not with your
Thorsten, to be the first of European
"Inales to cross the ocean, and to
hear upon its farther shore Chris.
tian child. With Thorsten, however,
all was unfortunate. Tempesttossed
aud driven irrecovcrably northward,
his ship was thrown far back in BAT:
fins Bay, upon coast so far remote
that he was forced to winter in fa-
tai climate. ThoIsten himself, and
more than half Of his crew, fell VIC
tins to exposure; but happily Gudri-
da returned and laid her husbands
body in the Chris,ian's tomb in
Greenland.
Next year the most considerable
expedition of all was undertaken by
a wealthy Icelander, Thorfin, whose
gcncalogy is carefully preserved by
the chroniclers. He arrived in
Greenland with numerous retinue,
in 1907, and having espouscd the
disconsolate Gudrida, became pos,
sessed of Thorsten's right 20 all the
establishments in Narraganset Bay.
He sat sail propitiously' with bride
and five attendant bridenaids. His
cargo was o precious collection Of
domestic ANIMALS, cattle and sheep
and he had tools and weapons and
abundant provision. His ship, more.
over, was manned with sixty picked
Norwegians--men whose nerves
were strong amid the dangers of their
own Maelstorm, and whose restless
spirits could never brook King Olaf's
home reforms.
The voyage was in everything