nd other lawless characters.
Among these was a young Viking called Erik the Red. He was too lawless
even for Iceland, and, being banished for three years, he sailed away
in 985 in search of new lands. At the end of his three years he returned
and reported that he had discovered land with rich meadows, fine woods,
and good fishing, which he had named Green-land. So glowing was his
description that soon a party of men and women, with household goods
and cattle, started forth in twenty-five ships to colonise the new
land. Still the passion for discovery continued, and Erik's son Lief
fitted out a vessel to carry thirty-five men in quest of land already
sighted to the west.

It was in the year 1000 that they reached the coast of North America.
It was a barren and rocky shore to which Lief gave the name of Rock-land.
Sailing farther, they found a low coast wooded to its edge, to which
they gave the simple name of Woody-land. Two days later an island
appeared, and on the mainland they discovered a river up which they
sailed. On low bushes by the banks of the river they found sweet berries
or wild grapes from which a sort of wine was made, so Lief called the
land Vin-land. It is now supposed that Vinland and Woodyland are really
Newfoundland and Labrador on the shores of North America. After this,
shipload followed shipload from Iceland to colonise Vinland. But
without success.

So the Viking discoveries in these cold and inhospitable regions were
but transitory. The clouds lifted but for a moment to settle down again
over America, till it was rediscovered some five hundred years later.

Before leaving these northern explorers let us remind ourselves of
the old saga so graphic in its description of their ocean lives--

"Down the fiord sweep wind and rain;
Our sails and tackle sway and strain;
Wet to the skin
We're sound within.
Our sea-steed through the foam goes prancing,
While shields and spears and helms are glancing
From fiord to sea,
Our ships ride free,
And down the wind with swelling sail
We scud before the gathering gale."

Now, while these fierce old Vikings were navigating unknown seas,
Alfred the Great was reigning over England. Among his many and varied
interests he was deeply thrilled in the geography of the world. He
was always ready to listen to those who had been on voyages of discovery,
and in his account of the geography of Europe he tells us of