[Footnote A:  The word “alendu” is a difficulty.  Perhaps we ought to read “allidnu,” or “allidinu.”]

Now, in the spring, Thorbjorn made a feast to his friends, and a goodly banquet was prepared.  There came many guests, and the banquet was of the best.  Now, at the banquet, Thorbjorn called for a hearing, and thus spake:—­“Here have I dwelt a long time.  I have experienced the goodwill of men and their affection towards me, and I consider that our dealings with one another have been mutually agreeable.  But now do my money matters begin to bring me uneasiness, although to this time my condition has not been reckoned contemptible.  I wish, therefore, to break up my household before I lose my honour; to remove from the country before I disgrace my family.  So now I purpose to look after the promises of Eirik the Red, my friend, which he made when we separated at Breidafjordr.  I purpose to depart for Greenland in the summer, if events proceed as I could wish.”  These tidings about this design appeared to the guests to be important, for Thorbjorn had long been beloved by his friends.  They felt that he would only have made so public a declaration that it might be held of no avail to attempt to dissuade him from his purpose.  Thorbjorn distributed gifts among the guests, and then the feast was brought to an end, and they departed to their own homesteads.  Thorbjorn sold his lands, and bought a ship which had been laid up on shore at the mouth of the Hraunhofn (harbour of the lava field).  Thirty men ventured on the expedition with him.  There was Orm, from Arnarstapi, and his wife, and those friends of Thorbjorn who did not wish to be separated from him.  Then they launched the ship, and set sail with a favourable wind.  But when they came out into the open sea the favourable wind ceased, and they experienced great gales, and made but an ill-sped voyage throughout the summer.  In addition to that trouble, there came fever upon the expedition, and Orm died, and Halldis, his wife, and half the company.  Then the sea waxed rougher, and they endured much toil and misery in many ways, and only reached Herjolfsnes, in Greenland, at the very beginning of winter.  There dwelt at Herjolfsnes the man who was called Thorkell.  He was a useful man and most worthy franklin.  He received Thorbjorn and all his ship’s company for the winter, assisting them in right noble fashion.  This pleased Thorbjorn well and his companions in the voyage.

At that time there was a great dearth in Greenland; those who had been out on fishing expeditions had caught little, and some had not returned.  There was in the settlement the woman whose name was Thorbjorg.  She was a prophetess (spae-queen), and was called Litilvolva (little sybil).  She had had nine sisters, and they were all spae-queens, and she was the only one now living.  It was a custom of Thorbjorg, in the winter time, to make a circuit, and people invited her to their houses, especially those who had any curiosity