Note 611 — Chapter II

When, however, Peringskiöld edited the Heimskringla, in 1697, he interpolated eight chapters of a more particular account of the Vinland voyages, which drew forth some animadversions from Torfæus in 1705, when he published his Historia Vinlandiæ. It was later found that Peringskiöld had drawn these eight chapters from the Codex Flatoyensis, which particular MS. was unknown to Torfæus. When Laing printed his edition of the Heimskringla, The Sea Kings of Norway (London, 1844), he translated these eight chapters in his appendix (vol. iii. 344). Laing (Heimskringla, i. 27) says: “Snorro Sturleson has done for the history of the Northmen what Livy did for the history of the Romans,”—a rather questionable tribute to the verity of the saga history, in the light of the most approved comments on Livy. Cf. Horn, in Anderson’s translation, Lit. of the Scandinavian North (Chicago, 1884), p. 56, with references, p. 59.