Thorfinn Karlsefni

Nickname

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

Family background

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

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

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. However, his ancestral trace before Karlsefni's great-grandfather Thord of Hofdi deviates from other sources, and the Landnámabók version is deemed more reliably accurate. Though not shown in the #Family tree below, Thorfinn also claims descent from the matriarch Aud the Deep-Minded through Thord Gellir.

History

Thorfinn's expeditions are documented in the Grœnlendinga saga ("Saga of the Greenlanders") and Eiríks saga rauða ("Saga of Eirik the Red"), which together are referred to as "The Vinland Sagas", but the details are at considerable variance (See under #Saga sources).

Greenland

Thorfinn Karlsefni met in Greenland Gudrid Thorbjorns-daughter (Guðríðr Þorbjarnardóttir), the widow of Thorstein Eiriksson and wedded her. She had been staying under the care of her brother-in-law Leif Eriksson, at Brattahlíð the estate left to Leif by Eirik the Red, who was dead by this point, having succumbed to an epidemic ca. 1003, even though Eir. has him still alive and playing host to her.

Vinland

Thorfinn reached the momentous decision to go to Vinland (ON and Icelandic Vínland), which according to Grl. happened at the insistence of Gudrid. And Leif agrees to lend the houses he built in Vinland, though unwilling to make a free gift of it. Among the other settlers into Vinland was Freydis sister or half-sister of Leif Eriksson, who may have accompanied Karlsefni's voyage (Eir.) or headed an expedition of her own that ended in carnage (Grl.).

According to Grl., Karlsefni left with 60 men and 5 women, trailing the path taken by Leif and Thorvald Eiriksson. Whereas Eir. he took three ships with 140 men aboard, describing the voyage in greater detail.

Gudrid bore Thorfinn a boy in Vinland, who was named Snorri, the first child of European descent known to have been born in the New World and to whom many Icelanders can trace their roots. The exact location of Thorfinn's colony is unknown but is believed to potentially be the excavated Norse camp at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland.

Family tree

(based on Landnámabók, up to Karsefni's father)

For further descendants, see under Snorri Karlsefnisson.

In modern art

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). 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. There is another casting of the statue in Reykjavík, Iceland.

In fiction

The protagonist in the manga Vinland Saga is loosely based on Thorfinn and his fictional connection to King Canute and Thorkell the Tall.