Gudleif Gudlaugsson was the name of a great sailor and merchant; he owned a large merchant vessel. In the last years of St. Olaf's reign he was on a trading voyage to Dublin; "when he sailed westward from thence he was making for Iceland. He sailed to the west of Ireland, encountered there a strong north-east wind, and was driven far to the west and south-west in the ocean," until they finally came to a great land which was unknown to them. They did not know the people there, "but thought rather that they spoke Irish." Soon many hundred men collected about them, seized and bound them, and drove them up into the country. They were brought to an assembly and sentence was to be pronounced upon them. They understood as much as that some wanted to kill them, while others wanted to make slaves of them. While this was going on, a great band of men came on horseback with a banner, and under it rode a big and stately man of great age, with white hair, whom they guessed to be the chief, for all bowed before him. He sent for them; when they came before him he spoke to them in Norse and asked from what country they came, and when he heard that most of them were Icelanders, and that Gudleif was from Borgarfjord, he asked after nearly all the more important men of Borgarfjord and Breidafjord, and particularly Snorre Gode, and Thurid of Fróðá, his sister, and most of all after Kjartan, her son, who was now master there. After this big man had discussed the matter at length with the men of the country, he again spoke to the Icelanders and gave them leave to depart, but although the summer was far gone, he advised them to get away as soon as possible, as the people there were not to be relied upon. He would not tell them his name; for he did not wish his kinsmen such a voyage thither as they would have had if he had not helped them; but he was now so old that he might soon be gone, and moreover, said he, there were men of more influence than he in that country, who would show little mercy to foreigners. After this he had the ship fitted out, and was himself present, until there came a favourable wind for them to leave. When they parted, this man took a gold ring from his hand, gave it to Gudleif, and with it a good sword, and said: "If it be thy lot to reach Iceland, thou shalt bring this sword to Kjartan, master of Fróðá, and the ring to Thurid, his mother." When Gudleif asked him who he was to say was the sender of these costly gifts, he answered: "Say he sent them who was more a friend of the mistress of Fróðá than of the 'gode' of Helgafell, her brother...." Gudleif and his men put to sea and arrived in Ireland late in the autumn, stayed that winter at Dublin, and sailed next summer to Iceland [cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., i. pp. 769, ff.].