Thorfinn Karlsefni

The byname Karlsefni means "makings of a man" according to the preface of Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson,[1] although the Cleasby-Vigfusson dictionary glosses it as "a thorough man",[2] elaborated elsewhere as a "real man", a "sterling man".[3]

Thorfinn's expeditions are documented in the Grœnlendinga saga ("Saga of the Greenlanders" henceforth Grl.) and Eiríks saga rauða ("Saga of Eirik the Red" Henceforth Eir.),[lower-alpha 1] which together are referred to as "The Vinland Sagas",[4] but the details are at considerable variance (See under #Saga sources).[5]

It has been pointed out that Eiríks saga rauða (Eir.) distorts the facts by giving undue credit to Thorfinn.[11]

For instance, it denies that Thorvald Eiriksson ever led his own voyage to reach Vinland (as Grl. records), even before Thorfinn. Although Thorvald had met his death by Native American arrows in Vinland before Karlsefni embarked, Eir. postponed Thorvald's death so he can be made to accompany Karlsefni to Vinland,[12] ultimately to suffer a more fantastical death from a shot fired by a Uniped.[13] Eir. shifts over to Karlsefni the credit for naming numerous bits of geographic features, from Helluland and Markland to Kjalarnes "Keel Ness", though "this flatly contradicts the Grœnlendinga saga and is assuredly wrong".[14] Helluland (Baffin Island) and Markland were named by Leif; Kjalarness was where Thorvald had wrecked his ship, and the keel was left to stand as a monument,[15] and not an anonymous shipwreck as Eir. puts it.

Thorfinn Karlsefni's father was Thord Horsehead (Þórðr hesthöfði Snorrason),[6][18] and his mother was named Thorunn (Þórunn).[18] Thord Horsehead was son of Snorri, son of Thord of Hofdi.[6]

Thorfinn was presumably raised at his father's estate called Stad (Stað) in Reyniness (Reynistaður).[18] This estate was located in the Skagafjord bay area,[18] which is also where Thorfinn's great-grandfather established roots, at his farm of Hofdi in Hofdastrand.[lower-alpha 4] Thorfinn himself also retired in the area in his later years; while Eiríks saga says "he went (back) to his farm in Reyniness,"[19] Grænlendinga saga states he bought new lands at Glaumby.[6]

A more detailed genealogy (under Eiríks saga rauða, ch. 7) is interpolated in the H or Hauksbók text of Haukr Erlendsson. Haukr had particular interest since he himself claimed descent from Thorfinn.[11] However, Haukr's ancestral trace before Karlsefni's great-grandfather Thord of Hofdi deviates from other sources, and the Landnámabók version[17] is deemed more reliably accurate.[16]

Though not shown in the family tree (right), Thorfinn also claims descent from the matriarch Aud the Deep-Minded through Thord Gellir.[20]

In the early twentieth century, Icelandic sculptor Einar Jónsson was commissioned by Joseph Bunford Samuel to create a statue of Thorfinn Karlsefni through a bequest that his wife, Ellen Phillips Samuel, made to the Fairmount Park Art Association (of Philadelphia, now the Association for Public Art).[21] Her bequest specified that the funds were to be used to create a series of sculptures "emblematic of the history of America." Thorfinn Karlsefni (1915–1918) was installed along Philadelphia's Kelly Drive near the Samuel Memorial and unveiled on November 20, 1920.[22][23] There is another casting of the statue in Reykjavík, Iceland.

As reported on October 1, 2018, vandals did severe damage to the statue. They toppled the statue and then dragged it into the near-by Schuylkill River.[24] "It appeared the statue was pulled off its massive stone base, which measures 12-by-12 feet wide. Bits of stone were scattered across drag marks on the ground and the bronze could be seen bubbling underwater in the river." - NBC Philadelphia[25]

The 1967 comedic science fiction novel The Technicolor Time Machine by Harry Harrison reveals at its ending that the character named Ottar—an 11th-century Viking hired by a film studio as consultant and actor—is indeed Thorfinn Karlsefni.

A fictionalized version of Thorfinn Karlsefni is the protagonist of the Japanese Manga series Vinland Saga by author Makoto Yukimura. The popular manga also received a 24-episode anime television series adaptation by Wit Studio which aired on NHK General TV in Japan from July to December 2019 and released worldwide on Prime Video.[26]

Texts

• Storm, Gustav, 1845-1903, ed. (1891), Eiríks saga rauða og Flatøbogens Grænlendingaþáttr: samt uddrag fra Ólafssaga Tryggvasonar, S. L. Møllers bogtr., OCLC 64689433

Translations

• Magnusson, Magnus; Pálsson, Hermann (1965), The Vinland Sagas, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-044154-9, with indices for Personal Names and Place Names.
• Kunz, Keneva (tr.), ed. (2001), Jane Smiley (gen. ed.), "The Vinland Sagas", The Sagas of the Icelanders, Viking Penguin, pp. 626–676, ISBN 0-14-100003-1
• Ellwood, T. (Thomas), 1838-1911 (1898), "Part III, Ch. X", The Book of the Settlement of Iceland: translated from the original Icelandic of Ari the Learned, Kendal: T. Wilson, p. 136
• Pálsson, Hermann (2007), "§208. Thord", Landnámabók, Univ. of Manitoba Press, p. 93, ISBN 978-0-887-55370-7

Studies

• DeCosta, Benjamin Franklin (1901), The pre-Columbian discovery of America, by the Northmen: With Translations from the Icelandic Sagas, J. Munsell's son
• Jones, Gwyn (1989) [1968]. A history of the Vikings (Open Library). Oxford University Press. p. 300. ISBN 978-0-19-285139-0.

• Biography Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• James C. Brogan (1889). "Thorfinn" . In Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J. (eds.). Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Thorfinn Karlsefni" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.