The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1870-02-03
From the Educational Gazette.
LOST GREENLAND.


With mott poIsons, 10 mention Green
land is 10 suggest q patadox The name
is in ilsalf aw6ll enough, aud spleasanl
enoughlodhe eGr, sbut the associations
Rhiehit reealls are iSOmaNhSt chilly,
and altogether the reverse Of what the
meme would seem 10 lcSll fer Why
! Greenland hEailf 81 ge5F 6
Il rdceiyed iis name some eight hna'
dfed and SSysny-Gdd years age, +thei
lie TO say, & RaspdiscOS6red and ocepPi
ed 10 the year 8ss Of the 0briSIian era,
when the climate vas probably milder
thau il is to-day. We should, however,
rathsr say that iLWas TediScOvered, since,
years before thai time, ops Gunnbiorn,
Norwegian, having bsenadFiyen by Q
/ slorm 10 the west Of Iceland, discovered
come lksIiss, p sT6irh ne gRYa MS name
I-aud afterwards he saw an extensive
land, and lofty mountains covered with
snow, But nothing more was known
of it until 9S3
An old Morse saga, written 10 Iceland
about the year HOO, thus relates tue
story;--
THE land which is called Greenland
was discovered aud settled from Iceland.
Eric the Red was the man, from Brede.
ford, who passed thilher from hence
(IcOland, and took possession Of that
portion Of The country now called Erics-
ford. But the name be gave the whole
country was GreenISnd, For quoth be,
# the land have good name, it will
cause many 10 come tbither. He hrst
oolonized the land fourteen or fifteen
winters before Chrislianity was intro
duced into Iceland, us was told 10 Phor-
Kill Gelluson in Greenland, by one who
had himself accompanied Eric thither.
Eric The Red seems to have been q
high,sptriled outlaw, and in consequence
Of being somewhat TOO much addicted 10
the then popular pasIimo Of cutting
peoples tlroats, be wes banished from
Iceland for three years, and went 10
search of the land Of Guunbiorn. Pre-.
vious 10 this, both be and his father
who was an Earl Of Jadar in Norway.
bad been banished from their native
country, and it seems pretty hard now
that lbe red -hended son, who had sought
an asylum in Iceland, should be sent of
10 unknown regions merely for killing q
churlish knaye who would not return a
door-post he had borrowed. PelhOPs
if the borrowed article had been book
i1sleud Of door post, they would never
have banished him for the murder; for
Tho people Of Iceland, ,WsEe then, and
conthded 10 be tor seVGta cenluL
terwards, the freest; the most intellectu:
d, .tbe most highly cultivated Of any 10
the sorth Of Europe. 10 fact, they gave
| literature end laws 10 tho whole Of Scan
diuayia. The child was wiser than the
parent. Here writer's FIRST gave shape
10 the Morse mythology, and much Of
the best blood Of Denmark and Norway
is proudly traced TO ancient Iceland.
Eeic set sail from Brede6ord in a
small, half dooked ship, and in three
days he sighted Greenland, Not liking
the looks Of il, he coasted southwark
until be cume 10 a turning. place or
Haarf, now Cape Farewell, and thence
he made bis way nor:hward to what be
called Ericsford, the site Of the modern
Julionshaab, where he passed the three
years Of his forced exile.
Returning to Iceland, Eric was gts.
ciously received, and had no trouble in
obtOining twenty Eve shiplosd of Sdven'
Lurous men, with whom he set sail for
the country he had discovered. -Four.
teen only of these ships, however,
reached their destinnrion. The others
we're either lost OF sea or we're forced BY
bad weather 10 return to Iceland.
Eric was resolved 10 found q nation
for himself, and this was tho nucleus Of
bis empire. He took bis fourteen ships
into Ericsfiord, snd at once began a SET
tlemont. Others followed him, and the
settlement was cnlsrged; and some even
went ruhher north, beyond what is
known as tho aL1nd Of .DOsolatioo. !" 10
alter years theyoevcn penetrated so far
as tho isIands where Upsrnavik now
stands, in latitude 7e deg. so min, as
we kuo " from a Runio inscription on q
sto ne discovered by Sir Edward Parry
in 1924. The inscription is thus trans.
lated:-- di
"Erlig sighval0Ou and Bioru Thotd
yeson and Eindrid Oddson on Saturday
before Ascension week raised these
m srks Dnd cleared ground, 1856"
Think Of "cloaring ground" in Green:
lana up in latitude 72 dog. so min. !
But then il must be borne in mind that
ibis hsppsued more than seven hundred
years ago, when there was clearly less
ice then at The present time. & 7
The first people who migrated north-
unrd frnm Ericsforl, settled in the