Greenland – GANTOB blog

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In the year of our lord 992 The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu

Set sail in their longboats on a voyage to rediscover the lost continent.

After many months on perilous stormy seas, their search was fruitless.

Just when all seemed lost they discovered… America!

The tale you are about to hear is a celebration of their founding of this great nation.

In the lands of the north, where the black rocks stand guard against the cold sea, there was a man called Leif Eiriksson. He was the son of Eirik The Red of Brattahlid and was a representative of The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu.

One day, Leif was returning from Norway to Greenland when he rescued some men clinging to the wreck of a ship in the middle of the ocean. These men had travelled with a trader named Bjarni Herjolfsson. They told Leif they had intended to sail from Iceland to Greenland but were driven off course by north winds and fog.

They told Leif that, when the storms had cleared, their ship had sighted a land of small hills covered in forests. Bjarni said this did not match what he had heard tell of Greenland and told his ship to sail north. They then sighted land that was flat and wooded. Bjarni said this could not be Greenland either, so they sailed north again.

They finally saw land with high glaciers sitting on nothing but flat rock with no trees. Bjarni said he did not believe this to be Greenland and that it offered them nothing of use, so they steered a course back out into the open sea. Bjarni’s men were frustrated not to have been allowed to explore any of these lands.

They told Leif their ship had then entered the Sea Of Worms and sank, killing Bjarni and all the men except those who Leif rescued. The survivors sailed with Leif back to Brattahlid and from then on Leif was known as Leif The Lucky.

Leif was anxious to explore the new lands Bjarni’s men had sighted and he told his father Eirik that he believed that they had discovered The Lost Continent Of Mu.

At the same time, in Iceland there was a beautiful, fiery haired woman named Gudrid. Gudrid lived with her father Thorbjorn Vifilsson, a friend of Eirik The Red, and her mother Hallveig in Laugarbrekka.

One spring, Thorbjorn Vifilsson decided to leave Iceland and join his friend Eirik in Brattahlid. He took Hallveig and Gudrid and thirty men and women to settle in Greenland with him. Times were lean in Brattahlid, however, and the leading farmer of the district, a man named Thorkel, called upon Thorbjorg The Prophetess to see what fortunes lay ahead.

After Thorbjorg had eaten a feast prepared by Thorkel, she asked if any woman in the district knew the warlock songs needed to carry out the magic rites. Only Gudrid knew the songs, as she had been taught them by a woman named Halldis, wife of Orm the farmer and an old friend of her family, but as a good Christian woman, she was reluctant to take part in the ritual.

Thorkel and the other farmers pleaded for her help and she relented, reciting the chants in a sweet and fair voice that Thorbjorg The Prophetess claimed had brought forth the assistance of many spirits.

The spirits told the Prophetess that the hardship on the land would soon cease. As a reward Thorbjorg told Gudrid of her own fate. “You will marry the most honourable of men in Greenland,” she told her. “He is another representative of The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu and you will know him by his name, which carries the sounds of the K, the L and the F. You will travel widely together and your descendants will be many and will create a great and worthy line.”

The words of the spirits were true and the farming at Brattahlid was abundant over the summer. In the autumn, a merchant of good standing, a man from Skagafjord in Iceland called Thorfinn Karlsefni sailed into Greenland where he was warmly met by Eirik The Red and invited to settle with him at Brattahlid.

Soon Gudrid caught the eye of Karlsefni and he asked Eirik for her hand in marriage. Eirik approved of the match and Gudrid also, for she recognised Karlsefni’s name from the prediction of Thorbjorg The Prophetess.

Over the winter, Leif asked Karlsefni, a well-travelled man, if he would accompany him on a voyage in the spring to The Lost Continent Of Mu. He agreed and preparations were made for the journey, with two ships and forty men each, livestock and food to sustain them and goods to trade with the people of Mu.

Leif also asked his father Eirik The Red to join him. Eirik felt he was getting too old in years for such adventures but Leif entreated him. However, on the spring morning that they rode to the fjord, Eirik was thrown from his horse. “This is punishment for me for hiding my money,” Eirik exclaimed. “I have more money that I need or know what to do with and, as I cannot burn it, I decided to bury it. I will send my wife to retrieve it from its hiding place and return to Brattahlid. You must carry on without me.”

Leif bid farewell to his father and joined his forty men on his ship. Karlsefni and Gudrid and their forty men took another ship. They sailed west but strong winds arose and the fog descended upon them. Weeks passed at sea and they were thrown this way and that across the ocean with no idea where they were.

Eventually they sighted the flat land with glaciers described by Bjarni’s men. They rowed across and set foot on this barren land, which Leif called Helluland, but it was not a good place to settle.

Further south for two days they sailed, until they sighted the flat and forested land seen by Bjarni’s men. They landed here and saw many animals and named the land Markland.

Then they sailed further south in search of the land of small hills and forests. When they reached it they discovered a shoreline so long it amazed them, with sand flats and many inlets. This seemed to Leif to be the most promising land so they cast anchor and rowed ashore to explore.

They soon discovered wheat and wild grapes and named the land Vinland. The rivers around them were full of salmon and Leif named them The Rivers Of Life. The weather was warmer than Greenland, never dropping below freezing at night, and there was limitless fodder for the cattle. Leif decided that, if this was The Lost Continent Of Mu, it was indeed an excellent land to settle so he began to supervise building a camp.

Leif Eiriksson statue in Reykjavik. Credit: Stuart Huggett

Before the camp had been finished, a large group of native men came out of the woods near to where Leif’s livestock was grazing. Leif’s bull began to snort, frightening the men who picked up their weapons and retreated back into the woods.

“I do not now believe this to be The Lost Continent Of Mu,” Leif said, “For I am told the people of that land wear robes and study in temples. They do not have tangled hair and hide in forests. I name these people Skraelings. We must be on our guard.”

Leif’s men built a wooden palisade around the camp in case the Skraelings returned but the spring and summer months passed in peace. Gudrid gave birth to Karlsefni’s son in the autumn and they named the boy Snorri.

One day in early winter, Gudrid was cradling Snorri in their hut when a cry went up. The Skraelings were outside the camp in great numbers, whirling their weapons around their heads.

Gudrid rose to her feet but just then a strange woman appeared at the door of the hut. She wore a dress of blue and gold, with waves of blonde hair and a gold crown upon her head. “Dear Gudrid, this is not The Lost Continent Of Mu,” the stranger said. “It is a great country but not the land you seek. You must return home and one day, in a thousand years’ time, Mu will be revealed to the children of your children.”

Suddenly there was a crash at the gate as the battle began. Gudrid stood up but could no longer see the stranger. Carrying Snorri, she approached the Skraelings outside the camp. She bore her breasts, picked up a sword and began to mimic their war cries.

Astounded, they turned around and were faced with Leif and Karlsefni and their men, leading their bull ahead of them. Leif and Karlsefni began chanting with the bellowing of the livestock and once again, the Skraelings fled.

Gudrid told the men of the stranger she had spoken to. No-one else in camp had seen her but they agreed they should begin to return home, as the threat of attack from this new land’s inhabitants would always pose danger to them.

Once their ships had been loaded with grain, grapes and fish, they set sail, leaving the remains of their camp behind. Fair weather accompanied them as they headed north, away from Vinland, past Markland and Helluland, until a strong breeze carried them across the seas to Greenland.

Leif settled in Brattahlid while Karlsefni, Gudrid and Snorri returned to Iceland. Both families had descendants of great renown, chieftains and bishops among them, but never did they find The Lost Continent.

STUART HUGGETT

23 March 2024

#GANTOB2024 Pamphlet 20

Tag: Greenland

THE SAGA OF THE JUSTIFIED ANCIENTS OF MU MU (by STUART HUGGETT)