In the series of lectures on DVD (The Teaching Company) on the Vikings,
Prof. Kenneth Harl says that travel by water was so easy for the Vikings and
generally speaking so arduous overland in Norway with its rugged terrain,
that in some cases the story goes, " they put out to sea and then they
arrived" - - poof!
And actually in the second part of the second chapter of Eirik, it was just
so.
Þeir Þorbjörn og Styr og Eyjólfur fylgdu Eiríki út um eyjar og skildu með
hinni mestu vináttu.
Next thing you know he has arrived in Greenland. In fact when I was
translating it, I had to double check because I thought at first he was
still milling around islands in Iceland.
Is the professor's theory right or is it the case that the writers had less
experience in sea travel than overland and didn't think to put in various
ordeals encountered at sea?