] From these brief allusions,
and from the general relation in which Ari Frodhi stood to later
writers, I suspect that if the greater Islendinga-bok had survived to
our time we should have found in it more about Vinland and its
discoverers. At any rate, as to the existence of a definite and
continuous tradition all the way from Ari down to Hauk Erlendsson, there
can be no question whatever.[252]

[Footnote 249: _Landnama-bok_, part ii. chap. xxii.]

[Footnote 250: Id. part iii. chap. x.]

[Footnote 251: _Kristni Saga_, apud _Biskupa Soegur_,
Copenhagen, 1858, vol. i. p. 20.]

[Footnote 252: Indeed, the parallel existence of the
Flateyar-bok version of Eric the Red's Saga, alongside of the
Hauks-bok version, is pretty good proof of the existence of a
written account older than Hauk's time. The discrepancies
between the two versions are such as to show that Jon
Thordharson did not copy from Hauk, but followed some other
version not now forthcoming. Jon mentions six voyages in
connection with Vinland: 1. Bjarni Herjulfsson; 2. Leif; 3.
Thorvald; 4. Thorstein and Gudrid; 5. Thorfinn Karlsefni; 6.
Freydis. Hauk, on the other hand, mentions only the two
principal voyages, those of Leif and Thorfinn; ignoring Bjarni,
he accredits his adventures to Leif on his return voyage from
Norway in 999, and he makes Thorvald a comrade of Thorfinn, and
mixes his adventures with the events of Thorfinn's voyage. Dr.
Storm considers Hauk's account intrinsically the more probable,
and thinks that in the Flateyar-bok we have a later
amplification of the tradition. But while I agree with Dr.
Storm as to the general superiority of the Hauk version, I am
not convinced by his arguments on this point. It seems to me
likely that the Flateyar-bok here preserves more faithfully the
details of an older tradition too summarily epitomized in the
Hauks-bok. As the point in no way affects the general
conclusions of the present chapter, it is hardly worth arguing
here. The main thing for us is that the divergencies between
the two versions, when coupled with their agreement in the most
important features, indicate that both writers were working
upon the basis of an antecedent wri