SOME YEARS AGO I came upon the historical story of the discovery of America by Leif Ericsson in A (9 page)

THORGUNNA No. I am not coming with you.

LEIF Is that your firm decision?

THORGUNNA Yes.

LEIF Then I say this to you. (He
takes a gold ring from his finger and gives it to her.
) Take my ring, and when your child is born show them this ring and say that I, Leif Ericsson, am father
of
your child, and I acknowledge it.

THORGUNNA I will do that, Leif. This child that I shall bear for you will be a son. When he is old enough to travel I will send him to you in Greenland.

LEIF I will treat him as my very son. (
He turns to one of his packs and produces a belt of walrus tusks and shows it to her.
) My father sent this belt as one of the presents that I was to give to King Olaf. Walrus tusks have a strong charm; a belt like this makes the wearer valiant and manly. I think it is a better present for my son. Give it to him, and let him wear it when he comes to me in Greenland, so that I may know it is my own son and no other.

THORGUNNA (
Taking the belt) I
will do that, Leif. Some day when I can get away from here, I will come to you in Greenland myself.

LEIF My dear, I shall be waiting for you.

(
They kiss.
)

—You are shivering.

THORGUNNA It has turned cold.

LEIF (
Taking off his cloak and putting it around her shoulders.
) Take this coat of mine. It is good Greenland frieze, woven at home; we have cold winters there.

THORGUNNA
(Gratefully)
You are a good man, Leif. Before the end, I shall come to you in Greenland.

[FADE TO:

The Classroom

CALLENDER She did have a son, and she sent the boy to Leif

in Greenland as soon as he was old enough to travel; he was called Thorgils, and Leif acknowledged him as his son and brought him up. Thorgunna did not get away for a long time. Many years later, when she was growing old, she started out to go to Leif in Greenland. Travelling was hard and difficult for people in those days. Thorgunna died in Iceland, while she was waiting for a ship to take her on to Greenland to her lover. She never saw Leif again. (
He turns to the map and indicates.
) Leif sailed away from the Hebrides, here, and round the north of Scotland, and over to the coast of Norway, here. And so he came to the court of King Olaf.

[CUT TO:

The Next Room

(
In the next classroom the
Headmaster
is looking very glum.
) HEADMASTER All this is quite unsuitable for boys.

[FADE TO:

King Olaf's Hall

(
The scene is a vast wooden hall, with a high, pitched roof, rather like a college hall. It should be a busy place, full of people going about domestic tasks. There may be a long sleeping bench at one end; near this would be an enormous fireplace with a huge log fire. The body of the hall may be occupied by a couple of tables running the full length, with benches. At the end remote from the dais these tables may be used for various domestic tasks; thus there may be a man sharpening a scythe, another repairing harness, a third making some article of wooden furniture, etc. Later on, the two Scotch slaves will be seen eating at this end of the hall amongst all this litter, indicating their debased social position.)

(
King Olaf
may be a middle-aged, intelligent man, seated in a richly carved wooden chair before the fire. Behind him there stand one or two of his counsellors, amongst them a monk.
Leif
stands before the
King,
and behind him is
Tyrker
with one or two other men from the ship. They have brought with them a number of sacks of furs and odd parcels,)

KING OLAF You are the son of Eric the Red?

LEIF Yes, King.

KING OLAF I know all about your father. He was outlawed from this country for manslaughter, and again from North Iceland, and a third time from South Iceland. Then he sailed away and settled somewhere far over to the west. Is that right?

LEIF It is quite right, King. He sent me to you, to tell you about the affairs of our country.

KING OLAF I shall be glad to hear them. Does your father still fight as much as ever?

LEIF No—he's getting a bit old for that. He went back once to Iceland and had a fight with Thorgest and got beaten up. After that he gave up fighting.

KING OLAF I dare say. It's not so much fun fighting when you can't win any longer. What has he to say to me?

LEIF King, we are living on our farms in a vast country. There are two hundred of us there, but we all live together in one corner; no man knows how big the country is. We know this; in length it is at least six days' sailing from north to south with a fair wind. It is probably nearly as wide.

KING OLAF
(Impressed)
I had no idea it was as big as that.

LEIF It is an enormous country, King. We run it properly, too. Technically, sir, we are an outlaw settlement, and we have no rights. But we have lived now for fifteen years upon our farms in this new country; we have lived peaceably, with few quarrels and no murder. We are as clean and decent a crowd as any others in your domains.

KING OLAF I expect that's true enough. I don't suppose that anybody cares to start an argument with your father.
(He looks at
Leif
thoughtfully
) Or with you, either.

LEIF My father rules the country well, without violence; men are happy under him.

KING OLAF
(Laughing)
All right; I'll take your word for it. What did he send you to say to me?

LEIF King, he sent me to ask if you would accept our country as a formal colony. We cannot carry on upon our own. We have used up the few manufactured things we brought with us from Iceland, sir; we need your support. We need iron goods, ploughshares, nails, axe heads, and things like that, and we need timber, for our country grows no trees. We can give you in exchange furs of every sort, and walrus hides, and sea ivory, and sometimes we find ambergris. I have samples of these things here with me. May I show them to you?

KING OLAF Have them unwrapped.

(Leif
motions to
Tyrker,
who begins to undo the parcels with the men from the ship.)

—You have stated your case clearly and well, Ericsson. Are you an educated person? Can you read and write?

LEIF No. We can none of us do that in Greenland.

(
King Olaf
gets up and crosses over to the goods which are being unpacked.
)

KING OLAF Why do you call your country Greenland? Is it so green and fertile?

LEIF Well, as a matter of fact, it's not. Most of it is covered in snow all the year round, and although it's not particularly mountainous the middle of it is certainly very high. We can just rub along by hunting and farming in the corner where we are; it would be easier if we had more people. My father says that Iceland was called by a bad name, because nobody wants to go to a place where it's all ice and snow. He said that we should call our country Greenland, so that people would want to come and settle there.

KING OLAF (
Laughing
) Well, that makes sense. You are more intelligent than most of my subjects.

LEIF I am honoured, sir.

KING OLAF
(Examining the goods)
These things are quite good quality. We can take all that you can send us of these—and we can sell these for you in France, and get good prices. It's all quite useful stuff, if you can make delivery in big enough quantities to make it worth while. What exactly do you want me to do?

LEIF We want you to send out a ship each year loaded with iron goods and timber in exchange for a cargo of these things.

KING OLAF
(Thoughtfully)
I see.
(He muses for a moment, and then looks at
Leif.)
And I suppose you want me to cancel your outlawry, and to confirm you as the rulers of your Greenland?

LEIF Yes, King.

KING OLAF I will think it over and discuss it with my council. What are your plans? Can you get back this year?

LEIF No. I shall have to stay in this country now until the wind blows east in the spring.

KING OLAF You may stay in my court as my guest. You are an intelligent, fellow; I shall want to have more talk with you during the winter.

LEIF You are gracious to an outlaw, sir.

KING OLAF I'll do something about that, anyway.

[FADE TO:

A Room in a Shipwright's House

(Little need be shown of this room except a table with a bench or two.
Leif
is sitting deep in study with a master shipwright; there are parchment drawings on the table, and a model of a knorr, or merchant ship; there may be one or two samples of woollen sail fabric, and cordage.
)

LEIF
(Handling the model)
Our difficulty will be with the keel; we shall never have timber of that length. Can we joint it?

SHIPWRIGHT I have a drawing here; you can joint it only in this way. If you join keel members any other way than this, your ship will break in a rough sea.

(
They bend together over the design.
A
Man
comes in at the door behind them; his clothing is lightly powdered with snow.)

MAN Is Leif Ericsson here?

LEIF I am Ericsson.

MAN King Olaf wants you. He is in the Great Hall.

[DISSOLVE TO:

King Olaf's Hall

(
The
King
is sitting by the fire; there is a vacant chair beside him. There are no other people near at hand, though the hall is busy as before.
Leif
comes in wearing a cloak, which is lightly powdered with snow. He stands before the
King.
)

KING OLAF Sit down, Ericsson.

(
Leif
throws off his cloak and sits down on the vacant chair.)

KING OLAF I have thought over your matter for some weeks now, and I have discussed it with my council. Before I tell you what we have decided, I want you to answer a few more questions.

LEIF Everything I know is at your service, King.

KING OLAF First, do you know of any other countries, westward again from you, beyond the land you live in now?

LEIF (Slowly) I do not know of any. Yet . . .

KING OLAF Yet what?

LEIF I did once meet a woman who believed in such a place. She called it Hy Breasail.

KING OLAF (
Smiling
) I know that one. Hy Breasail, the Happy Land, the land where it is summer all the time and nobody grows old?

LEIF Sir, that is what she said.

KING OLAF Do you believe in such a place?

LEIF
(Slowly)
No. I do not think that we shall ever find a land like that. But just as our land lies to the west of Iceland, so there may quite well be another land, westwards again from us.

KING OLAF I think so, too. Frankly, Leif Ericsson, I do not like what I have heard of this Greenland that you come from.

It was a bold venture to go there, and your father has done well. I do not think that you will ever work it up into an important colony; the country is too much against you. If I help you now and send the ship each year that you have asked me for, it is because I look upon you as an outpost of my Empire, as a spearhead.
(Earnestly)
There
must
be new lands, westwards of you again. The world does not come to an end at a sharp edge, as these crackpot philosophers try to tell me. There are other lands beyond the sea, westwards of you. They may be better ones than any that we know.

LEIF If so, they would lie somewhat to the south of us. Our land is too darned cold. That's all there is against it.

KING OLAF South, or southwest of you. I am going to support your colony, and I will send the ship each year. But if I do so, you must mind my word. As opportunity occurs you are to venture further to the west and south. I do not think that you will find Hy Breasail in your travelling, till that last travel that we all must take. But you may find good countries, nonetheless.

LEIF I will remember all that you have said, and I will tell my father your commands. He's getting a bit old, but it will be no burden to me to adventure further into the unknown.

KING OLAF No—you are still young. Now, if I give you my support, there are certain changes that I shall require. First, do you know this sign?

(
He shows a wooden cross, not a crucifix. It is quite plain, but very well made.)