CANADA HISTORY

Karlsefri II

Freydis returned to her farm, which had in no way suffered during her absence. She loaded all her companions with money, for she wanted them to keep her crimes secret; and then she settled down on her farm.
But her companions were not all discreet enough to say nothing about these evil crimes and prevent them from becoming known. Eventually word reached the ears of her brother Leif, Who thought it a hideous Story. He seized three of Freydis' men and tortured them into revealing everything that had happened; their stories tallied exactly.
'I do not have the heart: said Leif, 'to punish my sister Freydls as she deserves. But I prophesy that her descendants will never prosper:
And after that no one thought anything but ill of her and her family.
Meanwhile Karlsefni had prepared his ship and sailed away. He had a good voyage and reached Norway safe and sound. He spent the winter there and sold his cargo, and he and his wife were made much of by the noblest in the country. Next spring he prepared his ship for the voyage to
; when he was
quite ready to sail and his ship lay waiting at the wharf for a favourable wind, a Southerner came to see him - a man from Bremen, in Saxony.
This man asked Karlsefni if he were willing to sell the carved gable-head he had on the ship.
'I do not want to sell it,' replied Karlsefni.
'I shall give you half a mark of gold for it,' said the Southerner.
Karlsefni thought this a good offer; the bargain was struck and the Southerner went away with the carved gable-head. Karlsefni did not know what kind of wood it was made from: it was maple, and had come from Vinland.
Karlsefni put to sea and reached the north of Iceland, making land in Skagafjord where he laid up his ship for the winter. Next spring he bought the lands at Glaumby and made his home there; he farmed there for the rest of his life, and was considered a man of great stature. Many people of high standing are descended from him and his wife Gudrid.
After Karlsefni's death Gudrid and her son Snorri, who had been born in Vinland
, took over the farm. When Snorri married,
Gudrid went abroad on a pilgrimage to Rome; when she returned to her son's farm he had built a church at Glaumby. After that Gudrid became a nun and stayed there as an anchoress for the rest of her life.
Snorri had a son called Thorgeir, who was the father of Yngvild, the mother of Bishop Brand. Snorri also had a daughter called Hallfrid, who was the wife of Runolf, the father of Bishop Thorlak.
Karlsefni and Gudrid had another son, who was called Bjorn; he was the father of Thorunn, the mother of Bishop Bjorn.
A great many people are descended from Karlsefni; he has become the ancestor of a prolific line.
It was Karlsefni himself who told more fully than anyone else the story of all these voyages, which has been to some extent recorded here.