“Our men chased (all true it is) a One-footer down to the shore; but the wonderful man strove hard in the race....[D] Hearken, Karlsefni.”

Then they journeyed away back again northwards, and saw, as they thought, the land of the One-footers.  They wished, however, no longer to risk their company.  They conjectured the mountains to be all one range; those, that is, which were at Hop, and those which they now discovered; almost answering to one another; and it was the same distance to them on both sides from Straumsfjordr.  They journeyed back, and were in Straumsfjordr the third winter.  Then fell the men greatly into backsliding.  They who were wifeless pressed their claims at the hands of those who were married.  Snorri, Karlsefni’s son, was born the first autumn, and he was three winters old when they began their journey home.  Now, when they sailed from Vinland, they had a southern wind, and reached Markland, and found five Skroelingar; one was a bearded man, two were women, two children.  Karlsefni’s people caught the children, but the others escaped and sunk down into the earth.  And they took the children with them, and taught them their speech, and they were baptized.  The children called their mother Voetilldi, and their father Uvoegi.  They said that kings ruled over the land of the Skroelingar, one of whom was called Avalldamon, and the other Valldidida.  They said also that there were no houses, and the people lived in caves or holes.  They said, moreover, that there was a land on the other side over against their land, and the people there were dressed in white garments, uttered loud cries, bare long poles, and wore fringes.  This was supposed to be Hvitramannaland (whiteman’s land).  Then came they to Greenland, and remained with Eirik the Red during the winter.

[Footnote D:  in this lacuna occur the words “af stopi,” which Dr. Vigfusson translates, in his notes, “over the stubbles.”]

14.  Bjarni, Grimolf’s son, and his men were carried into the Irish Ocean, and came into a part where the sea was infested by ship-worms.  They did not find it out before the ship was eaten through under them; then they debated what plan they should follow.  They had a ship’s boat which was smeared with tar made of seal-fat.  It is said that the ship-worm will not bore into the wood which has been smeared with the seal-tar.  The counsel and advice of most of the men was to ship into the boat as many men as it would hold.  Now, when that was tried, the boat held not more than half the men.  Then Bjarni advised that it should be decided by the casting of lots, and not by the rank of the men, which of them should go into the boat; and inasmuch as every man there wished to go into the boat, though it could not hold all of them; therefore, they accepted the plan to cast lots who should leave the ship for the boat.  And the lot so fell that Bjarni, and nearly half the men with him, were chosen for the boat.  So then those left the ship and went into the boat