BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES FROM

AMERICAN HISTORY

FOR THE FIFTH AND SIXTH GRADES

Leif the Lucky

From the northwestern coast of Europe projects the rock-ribbed Scandinavian peninsula. The scenery is grand and picturesque, but the soil is sterile and the climate severe. In this bleak, beautiful country and on the adjacent islands of the Baltic Sea, there lived, a thousand years ago, the people called the Norsemen or Northmen.

Their houses were usually long wooden structures a hundred or two hundred feet in length. Sometimes these houses were divided into several rooms, but often the dwelling consisted of only one large hall or livingroom. On the floor of stone or hard-trampled earth, was kindled a fire, the smoke from which found its way upward and out through the crevices of the highpitched roof. On three sides of the room were built beds, shelf-like structures of boards, with skins for bedding and blankets.

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The Norsemen did not even attempt to wrest a living from the reluctant soil. At home their days were given to hunting and fishing, their evenings to feasting in the hall. While they sat at table, the scalds, as their poets were called, sang or recited tales of battles, conquests, voyages,— the daring deeds of the vikings or sea-robbers and the sea-kings of their race.

Thus in hunting, fishing, and feasting passed the winter. When summer unlocked the storm- and ice-bound harbors, the Norsemen put forth in their ships. Their long-ships, or ships of war, were long, narrow vessels; on each side were benches for rowers and over the sides hung the shining shields of the Norsemen. Hundreds of these little vessels pushed off boldly from the shores of Scandinavia every summer. The Norsemen knew nothing of the mariner's compass, and they directed their course on the pathless seas by means of the stars. This was a dangerous undertaking, and in stormy, foggy weather, many a boat lost its bearings and went down with all on board.

The

Fleets of the long-boats, however, braved the rough seas and sought distant lands- the coasts of England, France, Spain, Italy, even of Greece and Africa. What was their object? Plunder and always plunder. fierce, merciless sea-soldiers descended on a land suddenly, like a thunder-cloud from the blue summer sky. They laid it waste; then, with stores of gold and silver, household goods and provisions, they sailed back

home. Year after year, century after century, the Norsemen made these summer raids and were a terror to all the western and southern coasts of Europe. But in the course of time, the character of the Norse invasions changed. The men did not sail forth alone for summer raids. Instead, men, women, and children

went together and wintered on the coasts which they plundered. Sometimes they remained summer and winter and made the stolen lands their own. They were so strong and fierce in battle that few people could withstand them.

They overran the coasts of England, and it seemed as if they would take possession of the land. But a brave, wise king, Alfred the Great, defeated them on land, and built boats, the beginning of the English navy, to defend the coasts. Thus the Norse people in England became subjects instead of masters.

France, however, did not have an Alfred the Great. In the ninth century Rolf, a bold Norseman, established himself on the fair coast-land of France. In course of time, the people there were called Normans instead of Norsemen, and the land they had seized was known as Normandy. These Normans, like their Norse ances- · tors, were fond of battle and conquest. One of them, Duke William, went to England, took possession of the land, and made himself King William.

The Norsemen went west as well as south, and in the ninth century, they settled in Iceland. Thence they

pushed on to Greenland, where they established a colony. Farther west than Greenland it is said that they went, to the continent of America, hundreds of years before Columbus was born.

Here is the story as the Sagas, or old Scandinavian tales, tell it.

In 985, Bjarni, a merchant and ship-master who was traveling from Iceland to Greenland, was driven out of his course by a storm and foggy weather. "They were borne before the wind for many days, they knew not whither.' When at last calm and sunshine came, they reached a low wooded shore, probably Cape Cod. Leaving this land on the left, Bjarni sailed northward, with a favoring wind. Two days later, he again came near land, low and wooded. This is supposed to have been Nova Scotia. Again Bjarni turned from the coast which he felt sure was not the land that he sought, "because they told me," he said, "that there are great mountains of ice in Greenland." Three days later, he reached a rocky, snow-covered shore. He coasted along this till he found that it was an island,- probably Newfoundland,- and then again he turned away. A storm from the south drove him on his course and in four days he reached Greenland.

He told the story of his wanderings on the western seas, but he did not attempt to revisit the lands he had found. At last the tale came to the ears of Leif

Eriksen, " a man strong and of great stature, of dignified aspect, wise and moderate in all things." Leif bought Bjarni's ship and in 999 sailed forth with about twenty-five men to find the new land. He reached the snow-covered island- Newfoundland -which he called Helluland, "land of broad stones," and he went ashore to see its "frozen heights and bare flat rocks." Next he visited the "low wooded land of white sandy shore"- Nova Scotia - which he called "Markland, land of woods." At last he reached the third promontory Cape Cod,- the first which Bjarni had beheld; there he landed and passed the winter. From the wild grapes, then as now plentiful on the coast of Massachusetts Bay, the Norsemen gave the land the name "Vinland," land of wine. The next spring they returned to Greenland, rescuing on the way a crew of shipwrecked men. From this time Leif was called "Leif the Lucky."

Two years later Leif said to his brother Thorvald, "Go brother, take my ship to Vinland." Thorvald with thirty men spent the winter in the dwellings Leif had erected two years before; the next summer they explored the surrounding country and wintered again in "Leif's booths." In the summer of 1004, the Norsemen coasted along the shore exploring the country. At one time when they landed, they were attacked by natives, supposed to be Esquimaux, whom they called