, singulis cruribus, mirae
pernicitatis ad saltum." Cf. Aulus Gellius, _Noctes Atticae_,
viii. 4.]

[Footnote 234: Between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, June 15,
1608. For the description, with its droll details, see _Purchas
his Pilgrimes_, iii. 575.]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Misleading associations with the word "saga."]

[Sidenote: Unfortunate comparison between Leif Ericsson and Agamemnon.]

[Sidenote: The story of the Trojan War, as we have it, is pure
folk-lore.]

It is now time for a few words upon the character of the records upon
which our story is based. And first, let us remark upon a possible
source of misapprehension due to the associations with which a certain
Norse word has been clothed. The old Norse narrative-writings are called
"sagas," a word which we are in the habit of using in English as
equivalent to legendary or semi-mythical narratives. To cite a "saga" as
authority for a statement seems, therefore, to some people as
inadmissible as to cite a fairy-tale; and I cannot help suspecting that
to some such misleading association of ideas is due the particular form
of the opinion expressed some time ago by a committee of the
Massachusetts Historical Society,--"that there is the same sort of
reason for believing in the existence of Leif Ericsson that there is for
believing in the existence of Agamemnon. They are both traditions
accepted by later writers, and there is no more reason for regarding as
true the details related about the discoveries of the former than there
is for accepting as historic truth the narrative contained in the
Homeric poems." The report goes on to observe that "it is antecedently
probable that the Northmen discovered America in the early part of the
eleventh century; and this discovery is confirmed by the same sort of
historical tradition, not strong enough to be called evidence, upon
which our belief in many of the accepted facts of history rests."[235]
The second of these statements is characterized by critical moderation,
and expresses the inevitable and wholesome reaction against the rash
enthusiasm of Professor Rafn half a century ago, and the vagaries of
many an uninstructed or uncritical writer since his time. But the first
statement is singularly unfortunate. It would be difficult to find a
comparison more inappropriate than that between Agamemnon and Leif,
between the Iliad and the Saga of Er