Below him, on the rowing-benches, sat his hardy crew, their arms—­spears, axes, bows, and slings—­beside them, ready for any deed of daring they might be called upon to perform.  Their dress consisted of trousers of coarse stuff, belted at the waist; thick woollen shirts, blue, red, or brown in color; iron helmets, beneath which their long hair streamed down to their shoulders; and a shoulder belt descending to the waist and supporting their leather-covered sword-scabbards.  Heavy whiskers and moustaches added to the fierceness of their stern faces, and many of them wore as ornament on the forehead a band of gold.

They numbered thirty-five in all, this crew who had set out to brave the terrors and solve the mysteries of the great Atlantic.  Their leader, Leif by name, was the son of Eirek the Red, the discoverer of Greenland, and a Viking as fierce as ever breathed the air of the north land.  Outlawed in Norway, where in hot blood he had killed more men than the law could condone, Eirek had made his way to Iceland.  Here his fierce temper led him again to murder, and flight once more became necessary.  Manning a ship, he set sail boldly to the west, and in the year 982 reached a land on which the eye of European had never before gazed.  To this he gave the name of Greenland, with the hope, perhaps, that this inviting name would induce others to follow him.

Such proved to be the case.  Eirek returned to Iceland, told the story of his discovery, and in 985 set sail again for his new realm with twenty-five ships and many colonists.  Others came afterwards, among them one Biarni, a bold and enterprising youth, for whom a great adventure was reserved.  Enveloped in fogs, and driven for days from its course by northeasterly winds, his vessel was forced far to the south.  When at length the fog cleared away, the distressed mariners saw land before them, a low, level, thickly-wooded region, very different from the ice-covered realm they had been led to expect.

“Is this the land of which we are in search?” asked the sailors.

“No,” answered Biarni; “for I am told that we may look for very large glaciers in Greenland.

“At any rate, let us land and rest.”

“Not so; my father has gone with Eirek.  I shall not rest till I see him again.”

And now the winds blew northward, and for seven days they scudded before a furious gale, passing on their way a mountainous, ice-covered island, and in the end, by great good fortune, Biarni’s vessel put into the very port where his father had fixed his abode.

Biarni had seen, but had not set foot upon, the shores of the New World.  That was left for bolder or more enterprising mariners to perform.  About 995 he went to Norway, where the story of his strange voyage caused great excitement among the adventure-loving people.  Above all, it stirred up the soul of Leif, eldest son of Eirek the Red, then in Norway, who in his soul resolved to visit and explore that strange land which Biarni had only seen from afar.