SOME YEARS AGO I came upon the historical story of the discovery of America by Leif Ericsson in A (4 page)

SON Father, the bull is out! He got past me while I was cleaning out the stall. He's out upon the cliff, where Ivar has his cows. I couldn't help it, Father—really.

(
Father
and
Son
run out of the house, and
Eric
and
Leif
are left alone.
Eric
goes to the door and watches for a moment; then he goes to the dais and removes the boards, and hurries off with them across the fields. Little
Leif
has to run to keep up with him.
)

[DISSOLVE TO:

Eric's Farm—Exterior

(Eric
is showing the boards to his wife,
Thorhild. Leif
is present, and there is another smaller child grubbing about on the ground;
Thorhild
has a baby in her arms.
)

THORHILD Eric, they really are beautiful. They must have spent months carving them.

ERIC They spent all winter on it. He didn't want to let me have them at first, but he saw it my way in the end. After all, they are our boards.

THORHILD I think it was very clever of you to persuade him to let you have them back.

(
Over the hill four or five men come running furiously towards the farm; they are armed.
Leif
plucks his father's arm to call attention to them.
Eric
turns, sees them, and grunts in a

32

resigned manner. He calls his
Thralls
from the barn;
Thorhild
hurries the children indoors.
)

(
Thorgest
comes up with his
Two
Sons
and
Three Thralls;
all are armed.
Eric
meets them at the head of
Four Thralls,
similarly armed.
)

THORGEST
(Furiously)
You've got my dais boards! You stole them when I was out of the house.

ERIC
(Loftily)
What's all this nonsense? You said yourself that the boards were mine.

THORGEST You stole them when my back was turned!

ERIC You boys, your father's drunk. You'd better take him away and put him to bed.

SON We'll show you if he's drunk. Are you going to give up those boards?

ERIC
(Whipping the axe out of his belt)
I've had enough of you. Get off my land now, all the lot of you, before I do you a mischief.

SON I spent all winter on those boards, but not so that a dirty thief like you might take them, and then bully his way out of it.

(
He rushes at
Eric
with a drawn sword.
Eric
steps back and stops him with a powerful upwards swing of his axe. The
Son
falls to the ground, mortally wounded, and
All
join in battle. This is a violent, bloody scene.
Eric
wades through them, fighting with his axe in a mad fury; man after man goes down before him.
Thorgest
runs for his life, with
One Thrall.
His
Two
Sons
and
Two
Thralls
are left lying dead upon the field.)

[ DISSOLVE TO: 33

Thingplain in South Iceland

(
This scene is generally similar to the previous Things, with changes in the detail of the setting to indicate another locality. The assembled people are divided into two groups, the smaller of which stands compactly behind
Eric.
His wife is present, with the three children.)

GODI This was a quarrel which would have been settled peaceably by a peace-holy man. Instead of that you have killed the two sons of Thorgest and two thralls. Our country is divided, because some support you and some support Thorgest. There are two armies in our land, so that we live at war between ourselves and not at peace.

ERIC I can't help it if people side with me.

GODI It is for the Thingmen to decide what is to be done, so that we may have peace in our country. Thingmen, is it your will that I should tell you what I think?

(
The
Thingmen
signify assent.
)

GODI I think this. I think that this man makes trouble wherever he goes, wherever he lives. He lived at Jaederen in Norway, and was outlawed for manslaughter. He lived at Haukadal in the north, and he was banished from there for killing men in a quarrel over a stream. Now he has killed men here, in a quarrel about dais boards. I think that if he stays in our country he will kill more men, and we shall have no peace ever again. I say that we should declare him an outlaw, and that he should get away from here in one month from now, with all his people. Thingmen, that is my advice. What do you say?

A THINGMAN If we kick him out, where can he go to? He seems to have used up most of the places.

34

ERIC
(Loftily)
Don't worry your head over that, little man. There are other worlds beyond the limits of the pigsty, though the pig may not know much about them.

(
There are angry murmurs from the crowd.)

—You'll be doing me no harm. There is no place in this country for a man who is a man with red blood in his veins, and not a little crawling dog licking the Godi's boots.

(
More angry murmurs.)

—There is a new land over to the west, the land that Gunnbiorn saw, the son of Ulf the Crow. A new land, where a man can spread himself.

THINGMAN You're welcome to that. It's all ice and snow and glaciers. Gunnbiorn said so.

GODI Thingmen, the decision rests with you. If anybody speaks in favour of this man, let him speak up now.

STYR (
Stepping forward. He is the spokesman for the little group standing behind
Eric.
) Well, I'm for Eric, and so is Heriulf here, and Eyiolf of Sviney, and the two Thorbrandssons; I speak for all of them, and for their people. We aren't satisfied with this at all. We like Eric, and we think that in this quarrel he was right. The dais boards were his, and a man can claim his own stuff; you're just picking on him because he's been in trouble before.

(
There is a murmur of assent from the small group behind him.)

—If Eric goes to look for the new land that Gunnbiorn saw, I'm going with him, with my people; so will we all. There are too many people in this country anyway; there isn't enough decent land to go round, so that most of us are hungry half the time.

THINGMAN That's nothing to do with this Thing. The man

35

has killed four men in a quarrel which a reasonable person would have settled peaceably, and he will do it again if he stays here. We say that he should be outlawed in one month from now.

ERIC That's all right with me. Only a fool would want to stay in a poor land like this, where a man can't even get his rights. (
Turning to his friends)
Let me go first this year, alone with my own people to the Gunnbiorn-land. If we survive the winter in the place of rocks and glaciers, and if so many can exist in such a place, I will come back for you next year, and we'll make a new colony far from this stinking hole.

(
He turns and spits upon the plain, and stalks away, his family following behind him, Little
Leif,
following behind his father, turns and spits in exactly the same way.
)

[DISSOLVE TO:

The Harbour

(
This is a scene in a small, rocky cove with a sandy beach.
Eric
is setting off in a small ship of the same general design as the previous one; he is going to the new land, which was subsequently known as Greenland. His friends are all there to see him off. The ship is heavily laden with all his farm goods; there are cattle and sheep and pigs and poultry on board, and ploughs and farm implements, and a farm sledge or two, and a stack of hay, and a pile of manure, and carved household furniture, and piles of bedding and pots and pans, all in a glorious mixture. His wife and children are on board; the ship is manned by his
Thralls
and a few other men. One very ugly, small man,
Tyrker,
should be noticed. There are perhaps fifteen persons in the ship all told.)

ERIC
(To his friends)
Well, boys, good health to all the lot of

36

you, and thanks for all you've done to help me. Look for me next summer; if it's anything like reasonable over there, I'll be back to tell you all about it.

HERIULF Good luck, you old redheaded rascal. If you don't turn up next year, I'll come and look for you; I'm fed up with this place. Tell me, when you reach the Gunnbiorn-land, which way will you turn, north or south?

ERIC I shall go south. In the south a little land goes further. Tyrker here comes from a place far south of Norway; he says they get two crops in the same year there, off the same land.

STYR It's a good story, but I bet it's a lie.

TYRKER Lord, it is quite true.

ERIC
(Laughing)
I'll come back and tell you if it's true or not next year. Good health to all of you.

(
He goes on board the ship, which pushes off from the land and makes towards the open sea.)

EYIOLF There goes the best chap in this country. I hope he gets away with it.

HERIULF I shall join him if it's possible at all. I'm quite serious about that. It may be a hard life over there, but there'd be never a dull moment in a place with Eric.

STYR
(Laughing)
He'll get away with it all right.

[ DISSOLVE TO:

The Ship

(The ship is sailing forward over a rough sea, littered with small ice. It is a misty, rainy scene.
Eric
stands at the steering

37

oar at the stern, peering anxiously ahead;
Tyrker
is beside him. In the body of the ship
Thorhild
is cooking a meal over a fire made upon the rough stone slabs which are the ballast. One or two of the men are sleeping in their leather sleeping bags. An iceberg passes slowly by, half seen in the murk.
)

[FADE TO:

The Classroom

(
Callender
is indicating on the map. The attention of the class is utterly fixed; they sit intent upon him.
)

CALLENDER They sailed due west along the latitude of southern Iceland, taking an observation by the mark upon their thwart whenever the sun shone. They hit the coast of Greenland somewhere south of Angmagsalik—here. It's a rocky, desolate country, that, with no sort of vegetation—hopeless for farming.

[CUT TO:

The Ship

(
They are sailing down the coast of Greenland, southwards, in fine weather. The barren nature of the coast should be shown, with the glaciers running down from the icecap. There is floating ice in the sea.
)

[CUT TO:

The Classroom

CALLENDER So they sailed on down the coast, hoping to find 38

a warmer and a better country further to the south. And presently they came to the end of the land, Cape Farewell, here, and rounded it, and came to the south-west corner of Greenland—here.

[ DISSOLVE TO:

The Next Room

(
The
Headmaster
is looking exceedingly dissatisfied.
)

HEADMASTER All this is very interesting, but it's nothing to do with the History of the United States.

[DISSOLVE TO:

South-west Greenland

(
The ship is sailing into a wide fiord; there are mountains in the far distance at the head of the fiord. The land on each side of the fiord is fairly flat moorland, bleak and desolate, and without trees.
Callender's
voice continues as a commentary.
)

CALLENDER It was possible farming country, this—not good, but as good as some that they had left in Iceland. It was possible for them to settle here and live; cattle could graze here in the summer, and they could raise crops. Eric settled here at a place that they called Brattahlid in Ericsfiord. They built stone houses in this place, roofing them over with driftwood; wood was very scarce, because there were no trees. Their houses are still there to-day, after nearly a thousand years.

[DISSOLVE TO: 39

LEIF I'll remember that, Father. I'm glad you're going to let me take old Tyrker.

[DISSOLVE TO: