The Thrall of Leif the Lucky - A Story of Viking Days

THE Anglo-Saxon race was in its boyhood in the days when the Vikings
lived. For every heroic vice, the Vikings laid upon the opposite scale
an heroic virtue. They plundered and robbed, as most men did in the
times when Might made Right. Yet the heaven-sent instinct of hospitality
was in the marrow of their bones. No beggar went from their doors
without alms; no traveller asked in vain for shelter. As cunningly false
as they were to their foes, just so superbly true were they to their
friends. Above all, they were a race of conquerors, whose knee bent only
to its proved superior. Their allegiance was not given to the man who
was king-born, but to the man who showed himself their leader in courage
and their master in skill. Leif Ericsson, also known as "Leif the
Lucky," was the second son of Erik the Red and certainly displayed the
Viking spirit of adventure and exploration.