have
a smack of falsehood, he adds that it is based not upon fable and
guess-work, but upon "trustworthy reports (_certa relatione_) of the
Danes."

[Sidenote: Adam's misconception of the situation.]

Scanty as it is, this single item of strictly contemporary testimony is
very important, because quite incidentally it gives to the later
accounts such confirmation as to show that they rest upon a solid basis
of continuous tradition and not upon mere unintelligent hearsay.[253]
The unvarying character of the tradition, in its essential details,
indicates that it must have been committed to writing at a very early
period, probably not later than the time of Ari's uncle Thorkell, who
was contemporary with Adam of Bremen. If, however, we read the whole
passage in which Adam's mention of Vinland occurs, it is clear from the
context that his own information was not derived from an inspection of
Icelandic documents. He got it, as he tells us, by talking with King
Swend; and all that he got, or all that he thought worth telling, was
this curious fact about vines and self-sown corn growing so near to
Greenland; for Adam quite misconceived the situation of Vinland, and
imagined it far up in the frozen North. After his mention of Vinland,
the continental character of which he evidently did not suspect, he goes
on immediately to say, "After this island nothing inhabitable is to be
found in that ocean, all being covered with unendurable ice and
boundless darkness." That most accomplished king, Harold Hardrada, says
Adam, tried not long since to ascertain how far the northern ocean
extended, and plunged along through this darkness until he actually
reached the end of the world, and came near tumbling off![254] Thus the
worthy Adam, while telling the truth about fox-grapes and maize as well
as he knew how, spoiled the effect of his story by putting Vinland in
the Arctic regions. The juxtaposition of icebergs and vines was a little
too close even for the mediaeval mind so hospitable to strange yarns.
Adam's readers generally disbelieved the "trustworthy reports of the
Danes," and when they thought of Vinland at all, doubtless thought of it
as somewhere near the North Pole.[255] We shall do well to bear this in
mind when we come to consider the possibility of Columbus having
obtained from Adam of Bremen any hint in the least likely to be of use
in his own enterprise.[256]

[Footnote 253: It is further interesting as the only