was a bard, a traveler, and sometime envoy. I do not know how he happened to be in the court of the King of Sweden and Norway, but he was. It was 1354 and Magnus Ericcson was the king then.

According to my grandfather, the King was most concerned that the settlements of the far west were vanishing. He charged an explorer, named Paul or Peter or something, Knudtson being his last name, to go find out what had happened. Knudtson was also encouraged to bring the pagan vikings who lived in those distant settlements into the christian faith. For this, it was called a 'Holy Mission'.

My grandfather was at the court of Ericcson for a long time. He saw the expedition leave, and in the first few months after they left, the court received reports, brought by traders, from the expedition. The most detailed came from Iceland, and it came to the court more than a year after it had been sent. The holy mission was well suplied, and had been to Greenland. No trace of the settlement there had been found, but the harborage was good, and cattle had been found roaming wild. The mission had resupplied with salted meat, from said cattle, and fresh water. One of the ships had returned to Iceland, with all those who would not continue, for the mission was determined to continue on to the west to the long missing lands of Vinland.

Grandfather did not know what, if any, other messages came after that, for not long after he came back to the Isles, to dwell for a time in York, then to retire back home, to Cymru.