{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_40633/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_40633","id":"gutenberg_40633","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40633","summary":null,"tags":["America -- Discovery and exploration -- Norse","Arctic regions -- Discovery and exploration","Arctic regions -- Discovery and exploration -- Scandinavian","Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - Other","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Travel Writing","Discoveries in geography -- Scandinavian"],"text":"IN NORTHERN MISTS\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration:\n\n \"THE GOLDEN CLOUDS CURTAINED THE DEEP WHERE IT LAY,\n AND IT LOOKED LIKE AN EDEN AWAY, FAR AWAY\"]\n\n\n\n\n IN NORTHERN MISTS\n\n ARCTIC EXPLORATION IN EARLY TIMES\n\n\n BY FRIDTJOF NANSEN\n G.C.V.O., D.Sc., D.C.L., Ph.D., PROFESSOR OF OCEANOGRAPHY\n IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHRISTIANIA, ETC.\n\n\n TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR G. CHATER\n\n ILLUSTRATED\n\n VOLUME ONE\n\n LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN: MCMXI\n\n\n\n\n PRINTED BY\n BALLANTYNE & COMPANY LTD\n AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS\n TAVISTOCK STREET COVENT GARDEN\n LONDON\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThis book owes its existence in the first instance to a rash promise made\nsome years ago to my friend Dr. J. Scott Keltie, of London, that I would\ntry, when time permitted, to contribute a volume on the history of arctic\nvoyages to his series of books on geographical exploration. The subject\nwas an attractive one; I thought I was fairly familiar with it, and did\nnot expect the book to take a very long time when once I made a start with\nit. On account of other studies it was a long while before I could do\nthis; but when at last I seriously took the work in hand, the subject in\nreturn monopolised my whole powers.\n\nIt appeared to me that the natural foundation for a history of arctic\nvoyages was in the first place to make clear the main features in the\ndevelopment of knowledge of the North in early times. By tracing how ideas\nof the Northern World, appearing first in a dim twilight, change from age\nto age, how the old myths and creations of the imagination are constantly\nrecurring, sometimes in new shapes, and how new ones are added to them, we\nhave a curious insight into the working of the human mind in its endeavour\nto subject to itself the world and the universe.\n\nBut as I went deeper into the subject I became aware that the task was far\ngreater than I had supposed: I found that much that had previously been\nwritten about it was not to be depended upon; that frequently one author\nhad copied another, and that errors and opinions which had once gained\nadmission remained embedded in the literary tradition. What had to be done\nwas to confine one's self to the actual sources, and as far as possible to\nbuild up independently the best possible structure from the very\nfoundation. But the more extensive my studies became, the more riddles I\nperceived--riddle after riddle led to new riddles, and this drew me on\nfarther and farther.\n\nOn many points I arrived at views which to some extent conflicted with\nthose previously held. This made it necessary to give, not merely the bare\nresults, but also a great part of the investigations themselves. I have\nfollowed the words of Niebuhr, which P. A. Munch took as a motto for \"Det\nnorske Folks Historie\":\n\n\"Ich werde suchen die Kritik der Geschichte nicht nach dunkeln Gef\u00fchlen,\nsondern forschend, auszuf\u00fchren, nicht ihre Resultate, welche nur blinde\nMeinungen stiften, sondern die Untersuchungen selbst in ihrem ganzen\nUmfange vortragen.\"\n\nBut in this way my book has become something quite different from what was\nintended, and far larger. I have not reached the history of arctic voyages\nproper.\n\nMany may think that too much has been included here, and yet what it has\nbeen possible to mention here is but an infinitesimal part of the mighty\nlabour in vanished times that makes up our knowledge of the North. The\nmajority of the voyages, and those the most important, on which the first\nknowledge was based, have left no certain record; the greatest steps have\nbeen taken by unknown pioneers, and if a halo has settled upon a name here\nand there, it is the halo of legend.\n\nMy investigations have made it necessary to go through a great mass of\nliterature, for which I lacked, in part, the linguistic qualifications.\nFor the study of classical, and of medi\u00e6val Latin literature, I found in\nMr. Amund Sommerfeldt a most able assistant, and most of the translations\nof Greek and Latin authors are due to him. By his sound and sober\ncriticism of the often difficult original texts he was of great help to\nme.\n\nIn the study of Arabic literature Professor Alexander Seippel has afforded\nme excellent help, combined with interest in the subject, and he has\ntranslated for me the statements of Arab authors about the North.\n\nIn the preparation of this work, as so often before, I owe a deep debt of\ngratitude to my old friend, Professor Moltke Moe. He has followed my\nstudies from the very beginning with an interest that was highly\nstimulating; with his extensive knowledge in many fields bordering on\nthose studies he has helped me by word and deed, even more often than\nappears in the course of the book. His intimate acquaintance with the\nwhole world of myth has been of great importance to the work in many ways;\nI will mention in particular his large share in the attempt at unravelling\nthe difficult question of Wineland and the Wineland voyages. Here his\nconcurrence was the more valuable to me since at first he disagreed with\nthe conclusions and views at which I had arrived; but the constantly\nincreasing mass of evidence, which he himself helped in great measure to\ncollect, convinced him of their justice, and I have the hope that the\ninquiry, particularly as regards this subject, will prove to be of value\nto future historical research.\n\nWith his masterly knowledge and insight Professor Alf Torp has given me\nsound support and advice, especially in difficult linguistic and\netymological questions. Many others, whose names are mentioned in the\ncourse of the book, have also given me valuable assistance.\n\nI owe special thanks to Dr. Axel Anthon Bj\u00f6rnbo, Librarian of the Royal\nLibrary of Copenhagen, for his willing collaboration, which has been of\ngreat value to me. While these investigations of mine were in progress, he\nhas been occupied in the preparation of his exhaustive and excellent work\non the older cartography of Greenland. At his suggestion we have exchanged\nour manuscripts, and have mutually criticised each other's views according\nto our best ability; the book will show that this has been productive in\nmany ways. Dr. Bj\u00f6rnbo has also assisted me in another way: I have, for\ninstance, obtained copies of several old maps through him. He has,\nbesides, sent me photographs of vignettes and marginal drawings from\nancient Icelandic and Norwegian MSS. in the Library of Copenhagen.\n\nMr. K. Eriksen has drawn the greater part of the reproductions of the\nvignettes and the old maps; other illustrations are drawn by me. In the\nreproduction of the maps it has been sought rather to bring before the\nreader in a clear form the results to which my studies have led than to\nproduce detailed facsimiles of the originals.\n\nIn conclusion I wish to thank Mr. Arthur G. Chater for the careful and\nintelligent way in which he has executed the English translation. In\nreading the English proofs I have taken the opportunity of making a number\nof corrections and additions to the original text.\n\nFRIDTJOF NANSEN\n\nLysaker, August 1911\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n CHAP. PAGE\n\n INTRODUCTION 1\n\n I. ANTIQUITY, BEFORE PYTHEAS 7\n\n II. PYTHEAS OF MASSALIA: THE VOYAGE TO THULE 43\n\n III. ANTIQUITY, AFTER PYTHEAS 74\n\n IV. THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 125\n\n V. THE AWAKENING OF MEDI\u00c6VAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE NORTH 168\n\n VI. FINNS, SKRIDFINNS [LAPPS], AND THE FIRST SETTLEMENT\n OF SCANDINAVIA 203\n\n VII. THE VOYAGES OF THE NORSEMEN: DISCOVERY OF ICELAND\n AND GREENLAND 233\n\n VIII. VOYAGES TO THE UNINHABITED PARTS OF GREENLAND IN\n THE MIDDLE AGES 279\n\n IX. WINELAND THE GOOD, THE FORTUNATE ISLES, AND THE\n DISCOVERY OF AMERICA 312\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n \"For my purpose holds\n To sail beyond the sunset and the baths\n Of all the Western stars until I die.\"\n Tennyson, \"Ulysses.\"\n\n\nIn the beginning the world appeared to mankind like a fairy tale;\neverything that lay beyond the circle of familiar experience was a\nshifting cloudland of the fancy, a playground for all the fabled beings of\nmythology; but in the farthest distance, towards the west and north, was\nthe region of darkness and mists, where sea, land and sky were merged into\na congealed mass--and at the end of all gaped the immeasurable mouth of\nthe abyss, the awful void of space.\n\nOut of this fairy world, in course of time, the calm and sober lines of\nthe northern landscape appeared. With unspeakable labour the eye of man\nhas forced its way gradually towards the north, over mountains and\nforests, and tundra, onward through the mists along the vacant shores of\nthe polar sea--the vast stillness, where so much struggle and suffering,\nso many bitter failures, so many proud victories, have vanished without a\ntrace, muffled beneath the mantle of snow.\n\nWhen our thoughts go back through the ages in a waking dream, an endless\nprocession passes before us--like a single mighty epic of the human\nmind's power of devotion to an idea, right or wrong--a procession of\nstruggling, frost-covered figures in heavy clothes, some erect and\npowerful, others weak and bent so that they can scarcely drag themselves\nalong before the sledges, many of them emaciated and dying of hunger, cold\nand scurvy; but all looking out before them towards the unknown, beyond\nthe sunset, where the goal of their struggle is to be found.\n\nWe see a Pytheas, intelligent and courageous, steering northward from the\nPillars of Hercules for the discovery of Britain and Northern Europe; we\nsee hardy Vikings, with an Ottar, a Leif Ericson at their head, sailing in\nundecked boats across the ocean into ice and tempest and clearing the\nmists from an unseen world; we see a Davis, a Baffin forcing their way to\nthe north-west and opening up new routes, while a Hudson, unconquered by\nice and winter, finds a lonely grave on a deserted shore, a victim of\nshabby pilfering. We see the bright form of a Parry surpassing all as he\nforces himself on; a Nordenski\u00f6ld, broad-shouldered and confident, leading\nthe way to new visions; a Toll mysteriously disappearing in the drifting\nice. We see men driven to despair, shooting and eating each other; but at\nthe same time we see noble figures, like a De Long, trying to save their\njournals from destruction, until they sink and die.\n\nMidway in the procession comes a long file of a hundred and thirty men\nhauling heavy boats and sledges back to the south, but they are falling in\ntheir tracks; one after another they lie there, marking the line of route\nwith their corpses--they are Franklin's men.\n\nAnd now we come to the latest drama, the Greenlander Br\u00f6nlund dragging\nhimself forward over the ice-fields through cold and winter darkness,\nafter the leader Mylius-Erichsen and his comrade, Hagen, have both\nstiffened in the snow during the long and desperate journey. He reaches\nthe depot only to wait for death, knowing that the maps and observations\nhe has faithfully brought with him will be found and saved. He quietly\nprepares himself for the silent guest, and writes in his journal in his\nimperfect Danish:\n\n Perished,--79 Fjord, after attempt return over the inland ice, in\n November. I come here in waning moon and could not get farther for\n frost-bitten feet and darkness.\n\n The bodies of the others are in the middle of the fjord opposite the\n glacier (about 2-1/2 leagues).\n\n Hagen died November 15 and Mylius about 10 days after.\n\n J\u00d6RGEN BR\u00d6NLUND.\n\nWhat a story in these few lines! Civilisation bows its head by the grave\nof this Eskimo.\n\nWhat were they seeking in the ice and cold? The Norseman who wrote the\n\"King's Mirror\" gave the answer six hundred years ago: \"If you wish to\nknow what men seek in this land, or why men journey thither in so great\ndanger of their lives, then it is the threefold nature of man which draws\nhim thither. One part of him is emulation and desire of fame, for it is\nman's nature to go where there is likelihood of great danger, and to make\nhimself famous thereby. Another part is the desire of knowledge, for it is\nman's nature to wish to know and see those parts of which he has heard,\nand to find out whether they are as it was told him or not. The third part\nis the desire of gain, seeing that men seek after riches in every place\nwhere they learn that profit is to be had, even though there be great\ndanger in it.\"\n\nThe history of arctic discovery shows how the development of the human\nrace has always been borne along by great illusions. Just as Columbus's\ndiscovery of the West Indies was due to a gross error of calculation, so\nit was the fabled isle of Brazil that drew Cabot out on his voyage, when\nhe found North America. It was fantastic illusions of open polar seas and\nof passages to the riches of Cathay beyond the ice that drove men back\nthere in spite of one failure after another; and little by little the\npolar regions were explored. Every complete devotion to an idea yields\nsome profit, even though it be different from that which was expected.\n\nBut from first to last the history of polar exploration is a single mighty\nmanifestation of the power of the unknown over the mind of man, perhaps\ngreater and more evident here than in any other phase of human life.\nNowhere else have we won our way more slowly, nowhere else has every new\nstep cost so much trouble, so many privations and sufferings, and\ncertainly nowhere have the resulting discoveries promised fewer material\nadvantages--and nevertheless, new forces have always been found ready to\ncarry the attack farther, to stretch once more the limits of the world.\n\nBut if it has cost a struggle, it is not without its joys. Who can\ndescribe his emotion when the last difficult ice-floe has been passed, and\nthe sea lies open before him, leading to new realms? Or when the mist\nclears and mountain-summits shoot up, one behind another farther and\nfarther away, on which the eye of man has never rested, and in the\nfarthest distance peaks appear on the sea-horizon--on the sky above them a\nyellowish white reflection of the snow-fields--where the imagination\npictures new continents?...\n\nEver since the Norsemen's earliest voyages arctic expeditions have\ncertainly brought material advantages to the human race, such as rich\nfisheries, whaling and sealing, and so on; they have produced scientific\nresults in the knowledge of hitherto unknown regions and conditions; but\nthey have given us far more than this: they have tempered the human will\nfor the conquest of difficulties; they have furnished a school of\nmanliness and self-conquest in the midst of the slackness of varying ages,\nand have held up noble ideals before the rising generation; they have fed\nthe imagination, have given fairy-tales to the child, and raised the\nthoughts of its elders above their daily toil. Take arctic travel out of\nour history, and will it not be poorer? Perhaps we have here the greatest\nservice it has done humanity.\n\nWe speak of the first discovery of the North--but how do we know when the\nfirst man arrived in the northern regions of the earth? We know nothing\nbut the very last steps in the migrations of humanity. What a stretch of\ntime there must have been between the period of the Neanderthal man in\nEurope and the first Pelasgians, or Iberians, or Celts, that we find there\nin the neolithic age, in the earliest dawn of history. How infinitesimal\nin comparison with this the whole of the recent period which we call\nhistory becomes.\n\nWhat took place in those long ages is still hidden from us. We only know\nthat ice-age followed ice-age, covering Northern Europe, and to some\nextent Asia and North America as well, with vast glaciers which\nobliterated all traces of early human habitation of those regions. Between\nthese ice-ages occurred warmer periods, when men once more made their way\nnorthward, to be again driven out by the next advance of the ice-sheet.\nThere are many signs that the human northward migration after the last\nice-age, in any case in large districts of Europe, followed fairly close\nupon the gradual shrinking of the boundary of the inland ice towards the\ninterior of Scandinavia, where the ice-sheath held out longest.\n\nThe primitive state--when men wandered about the forests and plains of the\nwarmer parts of the earth, living on what they found by chance--developed\nby slow gradations in the direction of the first beginnings of culture; on\none side to roving hunters and fishers, on the other to agricultural\npeople with a more fixed habitation. The nomad with his herds forms a\nlater stage of civilisation.\n\nThe hunting stage of culture was imposed by necessity on the first\npioneers and inhabitants of the northernmost and least hospitable regions\nof the earth. The northern lands must therefore have been first discovered\nby roving fishermen who came northwards following the rivers and seashores\nin their search for new fishing-grounds. It was the scouting eye of a\nhunter that first saw a sea-beach in the dreamy light of a summer night,\nand sought to penetrate the heavy gloom of the polar sea. And that\nfar-travelled hunter fell asleep in the snowdrift while the northern\nlights played over him as a funeral fire, the first victim of the polar\nnight's iron grasp.\n\nLong afterwards came the nomad and the agriculturist and established\nthemselves in the track of the hunter.\n\nThis was thousands of years before any written history, and of these\nearliest colonisations we know nothing but what the chance remains we find\nin the ground can tell us, and these are very few and very uncertain.\n\nIt is not until we come far down into the full daylight of history that we\nfind men setting out with the conscious purpose of exploring the unknown\nfor its own sake. With those early hunters, it was doubtless new ground\nand new game that drew them on, but they too were attracted, consciously\nor unconsciously, by the spirit of adventure and the unknown--so deep in\nthe soul of man does this divine force lie, the mainspring, perhaps, of\nthe greatest of our actions. In every part of the world and in every age\nit has driven man forward on the path of evolution, and as long as the\nhuman ear can hear the breaking of waves over deep seas, as long as the\nhuman eye can follow the track of the northern lights over silent\nsnow-fields, as long as human thought seeks distant worlds in infinite\nspace, so long will the fascination of the unknown carry the human mind\nforward and upward.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Ship of the Egyptian Punt expedition, 17th century B.C. (J.\nD\u00dcMICHEN)]\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nANTIQUITY, BEFORE PYTHEAS\n\n\nThe learned world of early antiquity had nothing but a vague premonition\nof the North. Along the routes of traffic commercial relations were\nestablished at a very early time with the northern lands. At first these\nran perhaps along the rivers of Russia and Eastern Germany to the Baltic,\nafterwards along the rivers of Central Europe as well. But the information\nwhich reached the Mediterranean peoples by these routes had to go through\nmany intermediaries with various languages, and for this reason it long\nremained vague and uncertain.\n\nWhat the people of antiquity did not know, they supplied by poetical and\nmythical conceptions; and in time there grew up about the outer limits of\nthe world, especially on the north, a whole cycle of legend which was to\nlay the foundation of ideas of the polar regions for thousands of years,\nfar into the Middle Ages, and long after trustworthy knowledge had been\nwon, even by the voyages of the Norsemen themselves.\n\n[Sidenote: Origin of the word Arctic]\n\nLong before people knew whether there were lands and seas far in the\nnorth, those who studied the stars had observed that there were some\nbodies in the northern sky which never set, and that there was a point in\nthe vault of heaven which never changed its place. In time, they also\nfound that, as they moved northwards, the circle surrounding the stars\nthat were always visible became larger, and they saw that these in their\ndaily movements described orbits about the fixed point or pole of the\nheavens. The ancient Chaldeans had already found this out. From this\nobservation it was but a short step to the deduction that the earth could\nnot be flat, as the popular idea made it, but must in one way or another\nbe spherical, and that if one went far enough to the north, these stars\nwould be right over one's head. To the Greeks a circle drawn through the\nconstellation of the Great Bear, which they called \"Arktos,\" formed the\nlimit of the stars that were always visible. This limit was therefore\ncalled the Bear's circle, or the \"Arctic Circle,\" and thus this\ndesignation for the northernmost regions of the earth is derived from the\nsky.\n\n[Illustration: The world according to Hecat\u00e6us (BUNBURY)]\n\n[Sidenote: \u0152cumene and Oceanus]\n\n[Sidenote: Herodotus on the ocean]\n\nAccording to the common Greek idea it was the countries of the\nMediterranean and of the East that formed the disc of the earth, or\n\"\u0153cumene\" (the habitable world). Around this disc, according to the\nHomeric songs (the Iliad was put into writing about 900 B.C.), flowed the\nall-embracing river \"Oceanus,\" the end of the earth and the limit of\nheaven. This deep, tireless, quietly flowing river, whose stream turned\nback upon itself, was the origin and the end of all things; it was not\nonly the father of the Oceanides and of the rivers, but also the source\nwhence came gods and men. Nothing definite is said of this river's farther\nboundary; perhaps unknown lands belonging to another world whereon the sky\nrested were there; in any case we meet later, as in Hesiod, with ideas of\nlands beyond the Ocean, the Hesperides, Erythea, and the Isles of the\nBlest, which were probably derived from Ph\u0153nician tales. Originally\nconceived as a deep-flowing river, Oceanus became later the all-embracing\nempty ocean, which was different from the known sea (the Mediterranean)\nwith its known coasts, even though connected with it. Herodotus (484-424\nB.C.) is perhaps the first who used the name in this sense; he definitely\nrejects the idea of Oceanus as a river and denies that the \"\u0153cumene\"\nshould be drawn round, as though with a pair of compasses, as the Ionian\ngeographers (Hecat\u00e6us, for example) thought. He considered it proved that\nthe earth's disc on the western side, and probably also on the south, was\nsurrounded by the ocean, but said that no one could know whether this was\nalso the case on the north and north-east. In opposition to Hecat\u00e6us[1]\nand the Ionian geographers (the school of Miletus) he asserted that the\nCaspian Sea was not a bay of the northern Oceanus, but an independent\ninland sea. Thus the \"\u0153cumene\" became extended into the unknown on the\nnorth-east. He mentions several peoples as dwelling farthest north; but to\nthe north of them were desert regions and inaccessible mountains; how far\nthey reached he does not say.\n\n[Illustration: The world according to the ideas of Herodotus (J. MURRAY)]\n\nHe thus left the question undetermined, because, with the sound\ncool-headedness of the inquirer, which made him in a sense the founder of\nphysical geography, he trusted to certain observations rather than to\nuncertain speculations; and therefore he maintained that the geographers\nof the Ionian school had not provided adequate proofs that the world was\nreally surrounded by sea on all sides. But nevertheless, it was, perhaps,\nhis final opinion that the earth's disc swam like an island in Oceanus.\n\n[Sidenote: Division of the ocean]\n\nThis common name for the ocean was soon dropped, and men spoke instead of\nthe Outer Sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules in contradistinction to the\nInner Sea (i.e., the Mediterranean). The Outer Sea was also called the\nAtlantic Sea after Atlas. This name is first found in Herodotus. South of\nAsia was the Southern Ocean or the Erythr\u00e6an Sea (the Red Sea and Indian\nOcean). North of Europe and Asia was the Northern Ocean; and the Caspian\nSea was a bay of this, in the opinion of the majority. Doubtless, most\npeople thought that these various oceans were connected; but the common\nname Oceanus does not reappear as applied to them until the second century\nB.C.[2]\n\n[Sidenote: Homeric ideas of the universe]\n\nAccording to the Homeric conception the universe was to be imagined\nsomewhat as a hollow globe, divided in two by the disc of the earth and\nits encircling Oceanus; the upper hemisphere was that of light, or the\nheaven; the lower one Tartarus, hidden in eternal darkness. Hades lay\nbeneath the earth, and Tartarus was as far below Hades as the sky was\nabove the earth. The solid vault of heaven was borne by Atlas, but its\nextremities certainly rested upon Oceanus (or its outer boundary), or at\nleast were contained thereby. According to Hesiod (about 800 B.C.) an\nanvil falling from heaven would not reach earth till the tenth day, and\nfrom the earth it would fall for nine days and nine nights and not reach\nthe bottom of Tartarus until the tenth. This underworld is filled to the\nbrim with triple darkness, and the Titans have been hurled into it and\ncannot come out. On the brink the limits of the earth, the waste Oceanus,\nblack Tartarus, and the starry heaven all coincide. Tartarus is a deep\ngulf at which even the gods shudder; in a whole year it would be\nimpossible to search through it.[3]\n\nSo early do we find three conceptions which two thousand years later still\nformed the foundation of the doctrine of the earth's outer limits,\nespecially on the north: (1) the all-embracing Oceanus or empty ocean; (2)\nthe coincidence of sky, sea, land and underworld at the uttermost edge;\nand lastly (3) the dismal gulf into which even the gods were afraid of\nfalling.\n\n[Sidenote: Spherical form of the earth]\n\nThese or similar ideas still obtained long after the mathematical\ngeographers had conceived the earth as a sphere. Pythagoras (568-about 494\nB.C.) was probably the first to proclaim the doctrine of the spherical\nform of the earth. He relied less upon observation than upon the\nspeculative idea that the sphere was the most perfect form. Before him\nAnaximander of Miletus (611-after 547 B.C.), to whom are attributed the\ninvention of the gnomon or sun-dial, and the first representation of the\nearth's disc on a map, had maintained that the earth was a cylinder\nfloating in space; the inhabited part was the upper flat end. His pupil\nAnaximenes (second half of the sixth century B.C.) thought that the earth\nhad the form of a trapezium, supported by the air beneath, which it\ncompressed like the lid of a vase; while before him Thales of Miletus\n(640-about 548 B.C.) was inclined to hold that the earth's disc swam on\nthe surface of the ocean, in the middle of the hollow sphere of heaven,\nand that earthquakes were caused by movements of the waters.[4]\n\n[Sidenote: Doctrine of zones]\n\n[Sidenote: The abyss]\n\nParmenides of Elea (about 460 B.C.) divided the earth's sphere into five\nzones or belts, of which three were uninhabitable: the zone of heat, or\nthe scorched belt round the equator, and the two zones of cold at the\npoles. Between the warmth and the cold there were on either side of the\nhot zone two temperate zones where men might live. This division was\noriginally derived from the five zones of the heavens, where the Arctic\nCircle formed the boundary of the northern stars that are always visible,\nand the tropics that of the zone dominated by the sun. Pythagoras seems to\nhave been the first to transfer it to the globe, the centre of the\nuniverse.[5] This idea of the earth's five habitable and uninhabitable\nzones was current till nearly the end of the Middle Ages; but at the same\ntime one finds, often far on in the Middle Ages, the former conceptions of\nthe empty ocean encircling all, and of the \"\u0153cumene\" swimming in it as an\nisland. Occasionally we meet with a vast unknown continent beyond this\nocean, belonging to another world, which no one can reach.[6] Together\nwith these theories, though not very conspicuously, the belief in the\nimmeasurable gulf at the edge of the world also persisted; and this became\nthe \"Ginnungagap\" of our forefathers.\n\nThe conception of the earth's form and of its uttermost limits was thus by\nno means consistent, and on some points it was contradictory. We must\nalways, and especially in dealing with past times, distinguish between the\nviews of the scientific world and those of ordinary people, two aspects\nwhich were often hopelessly mixed together. And again in the scientific\nworld we must distinguish between the mathematical-physical geographers\nand the historical, since the latter dealt more with descriptions and were\napt to follow accounts and legends rather than what was taught by physical\nobservations.\n\n[Sidenote: The Rhip\u00e6an Mountains]\n\n[Sidenote: L\u00e6strygons and Cimmerians]\n\nThe world which the Greeks really knew was bounded in the earlier period\non the north by the Balkans. These again gave rise to the mythical Rhip\u00e6an\nMountains, which were soon moved farther to the north or north-east[7] as\nknowledge increased, and so they and the Alps were made the northern\nboundary of the known world. As to what lay farther off, the Greeks had\nvery vague ideas; they seem to have thought that the frozen polar\ncountries began there, where it was so cold that people had to wear\nbreeches like the Scythians; or else it was a good climate, since it lay\nnorth of the north wind which came from the Rhip\u00e6an Mountains. But that\nsome genuine information about the North had reached them as early as the\ntime of the Odyssey seems to be shown by the tale of the L\u00e6strygons--who\nhad the long day, and whose shepherds, driving their flocks in at evening,\ncould call to those who were setting out in the morning, since the paths\nof day and night were with them so close to one another--and of the\nCimmerians at the gates of the underworld, who lived in a land of fog, on\nthe shores of Oceanus, in eternal cheerless night. It is true that the\npoet seems to have imagined these countries somewhere in the east or\nnorth-east, probably by the Black Sea; for Odysseus came from the\nL\u00e6strygons to the isle of \u00c6\u00e6a \"by the mansions and dancing-places of the\nDawn and by the place where the sun rises.\" And from \u00c6\u00e6a the Greek hero\nsteered right out into the night and the mist on the dangerous waters of\nOceanus and came to the Cimmerians,[8] who must therefore have dwelt\nbeyond the sunrise, shrouded in cloud and fogs. It might be supposed that\nit was natural to the poet to believe that there must be night beyond the\nsunrise and on the way to the descent to the nether regions; but it is,\nperhaps, more probable that both the long day and the darkness and fog are\nan echo of tales about the northern summer and the long winter night, and\nthat these tales reached the Greeks by the trade-routes along the Russian\nrivers and across the Black Sea, for which reason the districts where\nthese marvels were to be found were reported to lie in that direction. A\nfind in the passage-graves of Mycen\u00e6 (fourteenth to twelfth century B.C.)\nof beads made of amber from the Baltic,[9] besides many pieces of amber\nfrom the period of the Dorian migration (before the tenth century) found\nduring the recent English excavations of the temple of Artemis at\nSparta,[10] furnish certain evidence that the Greek world had intercourse\nwith the Baltic countries long before the Odyssey was put into writing in\nthe eighth century, even though the northern lands of this poem seem to\nhave been limited by a communication by sea between the Black Sea and the\nAdriatic, running north of the Balkan peninsula. Perhaps this imaginary\ncommunication may have been conceived as going by the Ister (Danube),\nwhich, at any rate later, was thought to have another outlet in the\nAdriatic. We may also find echoes of tales about the dark winter and light\nsummer of the North in Sophocles's tragedy, where we are told that\nOrithyia was carried off by Boreas and borne over\n\n ... the whole mirror of the sea, to the edge of the earth,\n To the source of prim\u00e6val night, where the vault of heaven ends,\n Where lies the ancient garden of Ph\u0153bus[11]\n\n--though images of this sort may also be due to an idea that the sun\nremained during the night beyond the northern regions.\n\n[Sidenote: The Hyperboreans]\n\nAccording to a comparatively late Greek conception there was in the far\nNorth a happy people called the Hyperboreans. They dwelt \"under the\nshining way\" (the clear northern sky) north of the roaring Boreas, so far\nthat this cold north wind could not reach them, and therefore enjoyed a\nsplendid climate. They did not live in houses, but in woods and groves.\nWith them injustice and war were unknown, they were untouched by age or\nsickness; at joyous sacrificial feasts, with golden laurel-wreaths in\ntheir hair, and amid song and the sound of the cithara and the dancing of\nmaidens, they led a careless existence in undisturbed gladness, and\nreached an immense age. When they were tired of life they threw\nthemselves, after having eaten and drunk, joyfully and with wreaths in\ntheir hair, into the sea from a particular cliff (according to Mela and\nPliny, following Hecat\u00e6us of Abdera). Among other qualities they had the\npower of flying, and one of them, Abaris, flew round the world on an\narrow. While some geographers, especially the Ionians, placed them in the\nnorthern regions, beyond the Rhip\u00e6an Mountains,[12] Hecat\u00e6us of Abdera\n(first half of the third century B.C.), who wrote a work about the\nHyperboreans, collected from various sources, and more like a novel than\nanything else, declares that they dwelt far beyond the accessible regions,\non the island of Elix\u0153a in the farthest northern Oceanus, where the tired\nstars sink to rest, and where the moon is so near that one can easily\ndistinguish the inequalities of its surface. Leto was born there, and\ntherefore Apollo is more honoured with them than other gods. There is a\nmarvellous temple, round like a sphere,[13] which floats freely in the air\nborne by wings, and which is rich in offerings. To this holy island Apollo\ncame every ninth year; according to some authorities he came through the\nair in a car drawn by swans. During his visit the god himself played the\ncithara and danced without ceasing from the spring equinox to the rising\nof the Pleiades. The Boreads were hereditary kings of the island, and were\nlikewise keepers of the sanctuary; they were descendants of Boreas and\nChione. Three giant brothers, twelve feet high, performed the service of\npriests. When they offered the sacrifice and sang the sacred hymns to the\nsound of the cithara, whole clouds of swans came from the Rhip\u00e6an\nMountains, surrounded the temple and settled upon it, joining in the\nsacred song.\n\nTheopompus (Philip of Macedon's time) has given us, if we may trust\n\u00c6lian's account [\"Varia,\" iii. c. 18; about 200 A.D.], a remarkable\nvariation of the Hyperborean legend in combination with others:\n\n Europe, Asia, and Africa were islands surrounded by Oceanus; only that\n land which lay outside this world was a continent; its size was\n immense. The animals there were huge, the men were not only double our\n size, but lived twice as long as we. Among many great towns there\n were two in particular greater than the rest, and with no resemblance\n to one another; they were called Machimos (the warlike) and Eusebes\n (the pious). The description of the latter's peaceful inhabitants has\n most features in common with the Hyperborean legend. The warlike\n inhabitants of Machimos, on the other hand, are born armed, wage war\n continually, and oppress their neighbours, so that this one city rules\n over many peoples, but its inhabitants are no less than two millions.\n It is true that they sometimes die of disease, but that happens\n seldom, since for the most part they are killed in war, by stones, or\n wood [that is, clubs], for they are invulnerable to iron. They have\n such superfluity of gold and silver that with them gold is of less\n value than iron is with us. Once indeed they made an expedition to our\n island [that is, Europe], came over the Ocean ten millions strong and\n arrived at the land of the Hyperboreans. But when they learned that\n these were the happy ones of our earth, and found their mode of life\n bad, poverty-stricken and despicable, they did not think it worth\n while to proceed farther.\n\n Among them dwell men called Meropians, in many great cities. On the\n border of their country is a place which bears the significant name\n Anostos (without return), and resembles a gulf (\"chiasma\"). There\n reigns there neither darkness nor light, but a veil of mist of a dirty\n red colour lies over it. Two streams flow about this place, of which\n one is called Hedone (the stream of gladness), the other Lype (the\n stream of sorrow), and by the banks of each stand trees of the size of\n a great plane-tree. The fruit of the trees by the river of sorrow has\n the effect that any one who eats of it sheds so many tears that for\n the rest of his life he melts away in tears and so dies. The other\n trees that grow by the river of gladness bear fruit of a quite\n different kind. With him who tastes it all former desires come to\n rest; even what he has passionately loved passes into oblivion, he\n becomes gradually younger and goes once more through the previous\n stages of his existence in reverse order. From an old man he passes to\n the prime of life, becomes a youth, a boy, and then a child, and with\n that he is used up. \u00c6lian adds: \"And if the Chionian's [that is,\n Theopompus of Chios] tale appears credible to any one, then he may be\n believed, but to me he seems to be a mythologist, both in this and in\n other things.\"\n\nThere can be no doubt that the regions which we hear of in this story,\nwith the Hyperboreans, the enormous quantities of gold, the gulf without\nreturn, and so on, were imagined as situated beyond the sea in the North;\nand in the description of the warlike people of Machimos who came in great\nhordes southward over the sea, one might almost be tempted to think of\nwarlike northerners, who were slain with stones and clubs, but not with\niron, perhaps because they had not yet discovered the use of iron.[14]\n\nThe legend of the happy Hyperboreans in the North has arisen from an error\nof popular etymology, and it has here been treated at some length as an\nexample of how geographical myths may originate and develop.[15] The name\nin its original form was certainly the designation of those who brought\nofferings to the shrine of Apollo at Delphi (perhaps also in Delos). They\nwere designated as \"perpheroi\" or \"hyper-pheroi\" (bringers over), which\nagain in certain northern Greek dialects took the forms of \"hyper-phoroi\"\nor \"hyper-boroi;\" this, by an error, became connected in later times with\n\"Boreas,\" and their home was consequently transferred to the North, many\ncustoms of the worship of Apollo being transferred with it [see O.\nCrusius, 1890, col. 2830]. This gives at the same time a natural\nexplanation of their many peculiarities, their sanctity, their power of\nflight and the arrow (Apollo's arrow), their ceremonial feasts, and their\nthrowing themselves from a certain cliff,[16] and so on, all of which is\nderived from the worship of Apollo. Apollonius of Rhodes (about 200 B.C.)\nrelates that according to the legends of the Celts (in North Italy ?)\namber originated from the tears of Apollo, which he shed by thousands when\nhe came to the holy people of the Hyperboreans and forsook the shining\nheaven.\n\nWhen, after the conquests of Alexander, the Greeks became acquainted with\nthe mythical world of India, they naturally connected the Indians'\nlegendary country, \"Uttara Kuru,\" beyond the Himalayas, with the country\nof the Hyperboreans. \"This land is not too cold, not too warm, free from\ndisease; care and sorrow are unknown there; the earth is without dust and\nsweetly perfumed; the rivers run in beds of gold, and instead of pebbles\nthey roll down pearls and precious stones.\"\n\nThe mythical singer Aristeas of Proconnesus (sixth century ?)--to whom was\nattributed the poem \"Arimaspeia\"--is said (according to Herodotus) to have\npenetrated into the country of the Scythians as far as the northernmost\npeople, the Issedonians. The latter told him of the one-eyed, long-haired\nArimaspians, who lived still farther north, at the uttermost end of the\nworld, before the cave from which Boreas rushes forth. On their northern\nborder dwelt the Griffins, lion-like monsters with the wings and beaks of\neagles;[17] they were the guardians of the gold which the earth sends\nforth of itself. But still farther north, as far as the sea, were the\nHyperboreans.\n\nBut the learned Herodotus (about 450 B.C.) doubted that the Hyperboreans\ndwelt to the north of Boreas; for, said he, if there are people north of\nthe north wind, then there must also be people south of the south wind.\nNeither did he credit the Scythians' tales about goat-footed people[18]\nand Sleepers far in the North. Just as little did this sceptic believe\nthat the air of Scythia was full of feathers which prevented all seeing\nand moving; it was, he thought, continuous snowfall that the Scythians\ndescribed thus. On the other hand, he certainly believed in the Amazons,\nthough whether they dwelt in the North, as later authors considered, he\ndoes not say.\n\nThe idea of the Sleepers, who slept for six months, may very probably be\ndue to legendary tales of the long northern winter-night, the length of\nwhich was fixed at six months by theoretical speculations, these tales\nbeing confused with reports that the people of Scythia slept a great part\nof the winter, as even to-day the peasants are said to do in certain parts\nof Russia, where they almost hibernate. Nor must the possibility be\noverlooked of stories about the winter's sleep of animals, bears, for\nexample, being transferred to men.\n\nLater learned geographers, in spite of the scepticism of Herodotus,\noccupied themselves in assigning to the Hyperboreans a dwelling-place in\nthe unknown. The founder of scientific geography, Eratosthenes of Cyrene\n(275-195 B.C.), declared that Herodotus's method of disproving the\nexistence of the Hyperboreans was ridiculous. [Cf. Strabo, i. 61.]\n\nEven so long as five hundred years after Herodotus, Pliny declared the\nHyperboreans to be a historical people, whose existence could not be\ndoubted; and on the maps of the Middle Ages we always find them in the\nmost northern inhabited regions, together with the Amazons and other\npeoples; we even find the Hyperborean Mountains (\"Hyperborei Montes\") in\nNorthern Europe and the Hyperborean Sea (\"Oceanus Hyperboreus\") to the\nnorth of them. Adam of Bremen (eleventh century) thought that the\nScandinavians were the Hyperboreans.\n\n[Illustration: Trade-routes between the Mediterranean and the North]\n\n[Sidenote: Trade-routes between the Mediterranean and the North]\n\nArch\u00e6ological finds show that as long ago as the Scandinavian Bronze Age,\nor before, there must have been some sort of communication between the\nMediterranean and the northern lands. One of the earliest trade-routes\nbetween the Mediterranean and the Baltic certainly went from the Black Sea\nup the navigable river Borysthenes (Dnieper), of which early mention is\nmade by the Greeks, thence along its tributary the Bug to the Vistula, and\ndown the latter to the coast. We also find this route in common use in\nlater antiquity. When we first meet with the Goths in history they are\nestablished at both ends of it, by the mouths of the Vistula and of the\nBorysthenes. The Eruli, who came from the North, are also mentioned by the\nside of the Goths on the Black Sea. What the wandering nation of the\nCimmerians was we do not know, but, as before remarked (p. 14), they may\nhave been Cimbri who in those early times had migrated to the northern\nshore of the Black Sea by this very route. This trade-route was well known\nin its details to our forefathers in Scandinavia, which likewise points to\nan ancient communication. Somewhat later it is probable that men travelled\nfrom the Baltic up the Vistula and across to the March, a tributary of the\nDanube, and so either down this river to the Black Sea or overland to the\nAdriatic. A similar line of communication certainly ran between the North\nSea and the Mediterranean along the Elbe to the Adriatic, and up the\nRhine across to the Rhone and down this to the coast, or across the Alps\nto the Po.\n\n[Illustration: Cromlechs: on the right, in Portugal (after Cartailhac); on\nthe left, in Denmark (after S. M\u00fcller)]\n\nBut very early there was also communication by sea along the coasts of\nwestern Europe between the Mediterranean and the North. This is shown\namongst other things by the distribution, about 2000 B.C., of cromlechs\nover Sicily, Corsica, Portugal and the north of Spain, Brittany, the\nBritish Isles, the North Sea coast of Germany, Denmark and southern\nScandinavia as far as Bohuslen [cf. S. M\u00fcller, 1909, p. 24 f.], and\nperhaps farther. Somewhat later, in the middle of the second millennium\nB.C., the passage-graves or chambered barrows followed the same route\nnorthward from the Mediterranean. That this sea-communication was\ncomparatively active in those far-off times is proved by the fact that\ncromlechs, which originated in the grave-chambers of the beginning of the\nMycen\u00e6an period in the eastern Mediterranean, reached Denmark, by this\nmuch longer route round the coast, before the single graves, which were an\nolder form in the Mediterranean countries, but which spread by the slower\nroute overland, through Central Europe.\n\n That as far back as the Stone Age there was communication by one way\n or another, perhaps along the coast between Spain and the shore of the\n North Sea or the Baltic, appears probable from the fact that amber\n beads have been found in the Iberian peninsula containing 2 per cent.\n of succinic acid, a proportion which is taken to indicate its northern\n (Baltic) origin [cf. L. Siret, 1909, p. 138].\n\nOn account of the many intermediaries, speaking different languages,\nthrough which it passed, the information which reached the Mediterranean\nby these various routes was very defective. According to Herodotus [iv.\n24] the Scythians on their trading journeys to the bald-headed Agripp\u00e6ans\nrequired no fewer than seven different interpreters to enable them to\nbarter with the peoples on the way. Their first more direct knowledge of\nnorthern and western Europe must certainly have reached the Mediterranean\npeoples through the tin trade and the amber trade. It is worth remarking\nthat it was precisely these two articles, representing two powerful sides\nof human nature, utility and the love of ornament, that were to be of such\ngreat importance also as regards knowledge of the North.\n\n[Illustration: Ancient Egyptian ship; from a grave in western Thebes\n(after R. Lepsius)]\n\n[Sidenote: Tin in antiquity]\n\nWe do not know when, where, or how tin first came into use, the metal\nwhich, together with copper, was as important in the Bronze Age as iron is\nin our time. In Egypt it is found in the oldest pyramid-graves, and in the\nthird millennium B.C. bronze was in general use there, though we know not\nwhence the tin came to make it. Tin-ore occurs in comparatively few places\non the earth, and if China, which formed a world by itself, be excluded,\nthe only places where we know that the metal was obtained in ancient times\nare north-west Spain, the Cassiterides (probably in Brittany) and\nCornwall,[19] which still possesses rich deposits; and as far as we can\ntrace history back, the civilised peoples of the Mediterranean and the\nOrient obtained their tin from western Europe.[20] If the first tin in\nEgypt and in the valley of the Euphrates also came from there, the\ncivilisation of western Europe, implied by regular working of mines, would\nbe given a venerable age which could almost rival the oldest civilisations\nof the Mediterranean. But this is difficult to believe, as we should\nexpect to find traces of this early connection with Egypt along the\ntrade-routes between that country and the place of origin of the tin; and\nno arch\u00e6ological evidence to prove this is at present forthcoming.[21]\n\n This possibility is nevertheless not wholly excluded: finds of beads\n of northern (?) amber in Egyptian graves of the Fifth Dynasty (about\n 3500 B.C.) may point to ancient unknown communication with the\n farthest parts of Europe. In Spain, too, neolithic objects have been\n found, of ivory and other substances, which may have come from Egypt\n [cf. L. Siret, 1909]. It is certain that the earliest notices of tin\n in literature mention it as coming from the uttermost limits of\n Europe. In his lament over Tyre the prophet Ezekiel says [xxvii. 12]:\n \"Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of\n riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.\"\n Herodotus [iii. 115] says that it came from the Cassiterides. As\n Tarsis was the starting-point of the tin-trade with the\n Cassiterides,[22] these two statements are in agreement.\n\n Figures and thin rods of tin have been found in association with stone\n implements on the sites of pile-dwellings in Switzerland. Tin rings\n have also been found at Hallstatt. In barrows (of the Bronze Age ?) in\n the island of Anrum, on the west coast of Sleswick, there were found\n a dagger or arrowhead and several other objects of tin, besides a lump\n of the metal, and in Denmark it is known that tin was used for\n ornament on oak chests of the earliest Bronze Age, which again points\n to coastal traffic with the south-west.\n\nIn the Iliad tin is spoken of as a rare and costly metal, used for the\ndecoration of weapons, and it appears that arms were then made of copper,\nbronze not being yet in general use, as was the case in the later time of\nthe Odyssey. But in the excavations at Troy, curiously enough, bronze\nobjects were found immediately above the neolithic strata, which would\nseem to show that the Bronze Age reached the Greeks from Egypt without any\nintervening copper age.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe Homeric songs do not allude to tin as a Ph\u0153nician commodity, like\namber. This may mean that the Greeks even in the earliest times obtained\nit through their own commercial relations with Gaul, without employing the\nPh\u0153nicians as middlemen.\n\nPossibly the Greek word for tin, \"kassiteros,\" and the name of the\ntin-islands, \"Kassiterides,\" themselves point to this direct connection.\nThe same word is also found in Sanscrit, \"kast\u00eera,\" and in Arabic,\n\"qazdir.\" Professor Alf Torp thinks that the word both in Greek and in\nSanscrit \"must be borrowed from somewhere, but whence or when is not\nknown. 'Kassiteros,' of course, occurs as early as Homer, 'kast\u00eera' is in\nIndian literature much later, but as far as that goes it may well be old\nin Sanscrit. I do not know of any Celtic word one could think of; a\n'cassit\u00edr' (woodland) is hardly to the point; it is true that 't\u00edr' means\n'land,' but no other 'cass' is known to me except one that means 'hair'\"\n(in a letter of November 9, 1909). We may therefore look upon it as\ncertain that \"kassiteros\" is not an original Greek word; it must in all\nprobability have come from the country whence the Greeks first obtained\ntin (analogous cases are the name of copper from the island of Cyprus,\nthat of bronze from Brundisium, etc.). That this country was India, as\nsome have thought, is improbable, since it is stated in the \"Periplus\nMaris Erythr\u00e6i\" [xlix.], confirmed by Pliny [xxxiv. 163], that tin was\nimported into India from Alexandria in exchange for ivory, precious stones\nand perfumes; we must therefore suppose that the name reached India with\nthe tin from the Greeks, and not vice vers\u00e2. It is very possible that the\nword consists of two parts, of which the second \"-teros\" may be connected\nwith the Celtic word \"t\u00edr\" for land (Latin \"terra\"). The first part,\n\"kassi,\" occurs in many Celtic words and names. Ptolemy [ii. 8] mentions\nin Gaul, in or near Brittany: \"Bidu-kasioi,\" \"Uenelio-kasioi,\"\n\"Tri-kasioi,\" and \"Uadi-kasioi.\" As mentioned by Reinach [1892, p. 278],\nthere was a people in Brittany called \"Cassi\" (a British king,\n\"Cassi-vellaunos,\" an Arvernian chief, \"Ver-cassi-vellaunos,\" etc.). It\nmay be supposed that the country was named after these people, or was in\nsome other way referred to by such a word and called \"Kassi-t\u00edr.\" In this\ncase the Cassiterides might be sought for in Brittany, and this agrees\nwith what we have arrived at in another way. But this would entail the\nassumption that the Celts were already in Gaul at the time of the Iliad.\n\nProfessor Alf Torp has called attention to the remarkable circumstance\nthat \"the Cymric word for tin, 'ystaen,' resembles 'stannum,' which cannot\nbe genuine Latin. I am inclined to think that both words are derived from\nan Iberian word; the Romans would in that case have got it from Galicia,\nand the Cymri doubtless from a primitive Iberian population in the British\nIsles. In some way or other our word 'tin' must be connected with this\nword, though the 'i' is curious in the face of the Cymric 'a'\" (letter of\nNovember 9, 1909). In connection with this hypothesis of Professor Torp,\nit may be of interest to notice that in the tin district of Morbihan in\nBrittany, by the mouth of the Vilaine, is \"Penestin,\" where the deposits\nstill contain much tin, and the name of which must come from the Celtic\n\"pen\" (== head, cape) and \"estein\" (== tin).[23] It is conceivable that\nthe Latin \"stannum\" was derived from Brittany rather than from Galicia.\n\nIn ancient Egyptian there is no word for tin; as in early Latin, it is\ndescribed as white lead (dhti hs), which may point to a common western\norigin for these two metals.\n\nThere has been great diversity of opinion as to where the Cassiterides of\nthe Greeks were to be found. Herodotus [iii. 115] did not know where they\nwere: \"in spite of all his trouble, he had not been able to learn from any\neye-witness what the sea is like in that region [that is, on the north\nside] of Europe. But it is certain that tin comes from the uttermost end,\nas also amber.\" Posidonius mentioned the islands as lying between Spain\nand Britain (see above, p. 23). Strabo says [iii. 175]:\n\n \"The Cassiterides are ten, and lie near to one another, in the midst\n of the sea northwards from the harbour of the Artabri [Galicia]. One\n of them is unoccupied, while the others are inhabited by people in\n black cloaks, with the robe fastened on the breast and reaching down\n to their feet, who wander about with staves in their hands like the\n Furies in tragedy. They live for the most part as herdsmen on their\n cattle; but as they also have mines of tin and lead they barter these\n metals and hides for pottery, salt, and articles of copper with the\n merchants. Formerly the Ph\u0153nicians alone carried on this trade from\n Gadir and kept the sea-route secret from every one else; but as the\n Romans once sailed in pursuit of one of their vessels with the object\n of finding out the position of their markets, the captain\n intentionally allowed his ship to be stranded on a sandbank and\n brought the same destruction upon his pursuers; but he saved himself\n from the wreck, and was compensated by the State for the value of his\n loss. Nevertheless the Romans discovered the sea-route after repeated\n attempts, and when Publius Crassus [under C\u00e6sar] had also traversed it\n he saw the metals dug out from near the surface and that the\n inhabitants were peaceful, and he proved this sea-passage to be\n practicable, if one wished to make it, although it is longer[24] than\n that which divides Britain [from the continent].\"\n\n[Illustration: Places where tin is found in western Europe (marked with\ncrosses), and routes of the tin-trade in ancient times (after L. Siret,\n1908)]\n\nIt is unlikely that the Cassiterides were Cornwall, as has been commonly\nsupposed, since this peninsula can with difficulty be regarded as a group\nof islands; moreover this would not agree with the descriptions which\nalways mention them as separate from Britain, and usually farther south.\nThe Scilly Isles, lying far out in the sea, where tin has never been\nworked to any great extent, and whose waters are dangerous to navigate,\nare out of the question. On the other hand, it may almost be regarded as\ncertain that the Cassiterides are the same as the \"\u0152strymnides\" (see\nbelow), and these must be looked for on the coast of Gaul. Furthermore tin\nis mentioned as \"Celtic\" by several Greek authorities; in the \"Mirabiles\nauscultationes\" of Aristotle or Pseudo-Aristotle [i. 834, A. 6] it is so\ncalled, and Ephorus (about 340 B.C.) speaks [in Scymnus of Chios] of\nTartessus [i.e., Gadir], \"the famous city,\" as \"rich in alluvial tin from\nCeltica [Gaul], in gold, as also in copper.\"[25] It may further be\nmentioned that Mela referred to the Cassiterides[26] as \"Celtican,\" which\nwould mean that they belonged to the north-west coast of Spain, unless it\nis confused with Celtic; and in his description of the islands of Europe,\ngoing from south to north, he puts them immediately before \"Sena,\" or the\n\u00cele de Seine at the western extremity of Brittany, which means in any case\nthat they would be to the south of that island. Everything points to the\nislands being situated on the south coast of Brittany, and there is much\nin favour of Louis Siret's assumption [1908] that they are the islands of\nMorbihan (\"Les \u00celes du Morbraz\"), west of the mouth of the Loire, exactly\nwhere \"Penestin\" is situated. This agrees very well, as we shall see\nlater, with the description of Himilco's voyage to the \u0152strymnides. The\nfree alluvial deposits along the shore in this district, near the mouth of\nthe Vilaine, still contain a good deal of tin, together with gold and\nother precious metals; but in those distant times they may have been very\nrich in tin, and as they lie on the very seashore they were naturally\ndiscovered early and became the most important source of tin until they\nwere partly exhausted. In the meantime the rich tin deposits of Cornwall\nhad begun to be utilised, and they became in turn the most important,\nwhile the Cassiterides were gradually forgotten.\n\n Diodorus [v. 22] alludes to the tin trade in the following terms: \"On\n that promontory of Prettanike [Britain] which is called 'Belerion,'\n the inhabitants are very hospitable, and they have become civilised by\n intercourse with foreign merchants. They produce tin, by actively\n working the land which contains it. This is rocky and contains veins\n of earth, and by working and smelting the products they obtain pure\n metal. This they make into the form of knuckle-bones and bring it to\n an island which lies off the coast of Britain and is called 'Ictis.'\n For when the intervening space becomes dry at ebb-tide they bring a\n quantity of tin to the island in waggons. A curious thing happens with\n the islands near the coast between Europe and Britain; for when the\n dividing strait is filled at high water they appear as islands, but\n when the sea recedes at the ebb and leaves a great space of dry land,\n they look like part of the mainland. Here the merchants buy it from\n the natives and bring it across to Gaul; but finally they journey on\n foot through Gaul, and bring the goods on horses to the mouth of the\n river Rhone.\" In another place [v. 38] he says that the tin is\n conveyed on horseback to Massalia and to the Roman commercial town of\n Narbo.\n\n Bunbury [1883, ii. p. 197] thinks that \"this characteristic account\n leaves no reasonable doubt that Ictis was St. Michael's Mount in\n Cornwall (Belerion), to which the description precisely answers, and\n which contains a small port such as would have been well suited to\n ancient traders.\" The description decidedly does not fit, as some have\n thought, the island of Vectis (Wight); moreover the tin would in any\n case have had to be brought to the latter by sea from Cornwall, and\n not in waggons. It is, however, also possible that we have here some\n confusion with the original tin district in Brittany, where such\n places as Ictis, with the change between flood and ebb tide, are well\n known, from C\u00e6sar's description among others. But as Diodorus did not\n know the tin-mines of Brittany, which in his time had lost their\n importance, and had heard of tin-mines in Belerion, he transferred to\n the latter the whole description which he found in earlier writers.\n This supposition may be confirmed by Pliny's statement [Hist. Nat. iv.\n 16, 104]: \"The historian Tim\u00e6us says that in six days' sailing inwards\n from Britain the island of 'Mictis' is reached, in which white lead\n (tin) occurs. Thither the Britons sail in vessels of wicker-work,\n covered with hides.\" Originally the passage doubtless read \"insulam\n Ictis,\" which by transference of the \"m\" became \"insula Mictis,\" and\n this again has been amended to \"insulam Mictis.\" It is impossible to\n identify the description with Vectis, which moreover has just been\n mentioned by Pliny, and it is also difficult to understand how it\n could be a place in Cornwall, but it is consistent with the tin\n district of Brittany.\n\nWe do not know how or at what period this tin industry first developed.\nPerhaps it was as early as the end of the neolithic period; but it is\nimprobable that it should have been independently developed by the Iberian\naborigines who lived in the tin districts of Iberia, and doubtless also of\nBrittany; it is far more likely to be due to communication with the\nMediterranean through a seafaring, commercial people, and we know of none\nother than the Ph\u0153nicians. How early they began their widespread commerce\nand industry is unknown; but they must have reached this part of the world\nlong before Gadir was founded by the Tyrians about 1100 B.C. It is\nconceivable that in their search for gold and silver they discovered these\ndeposits of tin and knew how to take advantage of them. As already\nremarked, there was as early as 2000 B.C. a continuous communication by\nsea along the coasts of western Europe, and it is probable that there\narose at a very early time efficient navigators on the coasts of northern\nSpain and Brittany, just those districts which are rich in tin, where\nthere are many good harbours. For a long time the tin trade was carried on\nby sea, southward along the coast to Tarsis in southern Spain; but by\ndegrees an overland trade-route also came into use, going up the Loire and\ndown the Rhone to the Mediterranean. This route became known to the\nGreeks, and the Phoc\u00e6an colony Massalia was founded upon it about 600\nB.C.; later the Greek colony of Corbilo was possibly founded at its other\nextremity, by the mouth of the Loire (?). Later still another trade-route\nran along the Garonne overland to the Roman Narbo (Narbonne). On the\ndevelopment of the Cornish tin industry, the same routes by sea and land\ncontinued to be used. Thus it was that the tin trade furnished one of the\nfirst and most important steps in the path of the exploration of the\nNorth.\n\n[Sidenote: Amber in ancient times]\n\nWhen Pha\u00ebthon one day had persuaded his father Helios to let him drive the\nchariot of the sun across the sky, the horses ran away with him and he\nfirst came too near the vault of heaven and set fire to it, so that the\nMilky Way was formed; then he approached too near the earth, set the\nmountains on fire, dried up rivers and lakes, burned up the Sahara,\nscorched the negroes black, until, to avoid greater disasters in his wild\ncareer, Zeus struck him down with his thunderbolt into the river Eridanus.\nHis sisters, the daughters of the sun, wept so much over him that the gods\nin pity changed them into poplars, and their tears then flowed every year\nas amber on the river's banks. \"For this reason amber came to be called\n'electron,' because the sun has the name of 'Elector.'\" In this way the\nGreeks, in their poetry, thought that amber was formed. The mythical river\nEridanus, which no doubt was originally in the north (cf. Herodotus), was\nlater identified sometimes with the Rhone, sometimes with the Po.\nHerodotus [iii. 115] says of northern Europe: \"I do not suppose that\nthere is a river which the barbarians call Eridanus, and which flows into\nthe sea to the northward, from whence amber may come.... For in the first\nplace the name Eridanus itself shows that it is Hellenic and not\nbarbarian, and that it has been invented by some poet or other\"; and in\nthe second, he was not able to find any eye-witness who could tell him\nabout it (cf. p. 27); but in any case he thought that amber as well as tin\ncame from the uttermost limits of Europe.\n\n[Illustration: Places where amber is found (marked with crosses)]\n\nThe most important sources of amber in Europe are the southern coast of\nthe Baltic, especially Samland, and the west coast of Jutland with the\nNorth Frisian islands. It is also found in small quantities in many places\nin western and central Europe, on the Adriatic, in Sicily, in South\nAfrica, Burmah, the west coast of America, etc. Northern amber, from the\nBaltic and the North Sea, is distinguished from other kinds that have been\ninvestigated, by the comparatively large proportion of succinic acid it\ncontains, and it seems as though almost all that was used in early\nantiquity in the Mediterranean countries and in Egypt was derived from the\nnorth. Along the coasts of the Baltic and North Sea the amber is washed by\nthe waves from the loose strata of the sea-bottom and thrown up on the\nbeach. When these washed-up lumps were found by the fishers and hunters of\nearly times they naturally attracted them by their brilliance and colour\nand by the facility with which they could be cut. It is no wonder,\ntherefore, that amber was used as early as the Stone Age for amulets and\nornaments by the people on the Baltic and North Seas, and spread from\nthence over the whole of the North. In those distant times articles of\namber were still rare in the South; but in the Bronze Age, in proportion\nas gold and bronze reach the north, they become rarer there, but more\nnumerous farther south. In the passage-graves of Mycen\u00e6 (fourteenth to\ntwelfth centuries B.C.) there are many of them, as also in Sparta at the\ntime of the Dorian migration (twelfth to tenth centuries B.C.; cf. p. 14).\nIt is evident that amber was the medium of exchange wherewith the people\nof the North bought the precious metals from the South, and in this way it\ncomes that the two classes of arch\u00e6ological finds have changed their\nlocalities. The neolithic ornaments of amber at Corinth, already referred\nto, the amber beads of the Fifth Dynasty in Egypt, and those of the\nneolithic period in Spain, show, however, if they are northern, that this\nconnection between South and North goes back a very long way. But the\nGreek tribes among whom the Iliad originated do not appear to have known\namber, as it is not mentioned in the poem, and it is first named in the\nmore recent portions of the Odyssey (put into writing in the eighth\ncentury B.C.). Among the jewels which the Ph\u0153nician merchant offered to\nthe Queen of Syria was \"the golden necklace hung with pieces of amber\"\n[Od. xv. 460]. We must therefore believe that the Ph\u0153nicians were the\nmiddlemen from whom the Greeks obtained it at that time. But it was not so\nmuch esteemed by the Greeks of the classical period as it became later,\nand they rejected it in their art industries, for which reason it is\nseldom mentioned by Greek authors. Thales of Miletus (600 B.C.) discovered\nthat when rubbed it attracted other bodies, and from this important\ndiscovery made so long ago has sprung the knowledge of that force which\ndominates our time, and which has been named from the Greek word for\namber, \"electron.\"\n\nAmong the Romans of the Empire this substance was so highly prized that\nPliny tells us [xxxvii., chap. 12] that \"a human likeness made of it,\nhowever small, exceeds the price of a healthy living person.\" This was\nboth on account of its beauty and of its occult properties; when worn as\nan amulet it was able to ward off secret poisons, sorcery and other evils.\nIt therefore naturally became an article that was in great demand, and for\nwhich merchants made long voyages.\n\nIt has been thought that the North Sea amber came into the southern market\nbefore that of the Baltic, and as the Eridanus of the myth was sometimes\ntaken for the Rhone and sometimes for the Po, it was believed that in\nearly times amber was carried up the Rhine and across to both these\nrivers, later also up the Elbe to the Adriatic [cf. Schrader, 1901,\n\"Bernstein\"]. It was thought that the arch\u00e6ological finds also favoured\nthis theory; but it must still be regarded as doubtful, and it is scarcely\nprobable that the Ph\u0153nicians obtained it from the mouths of the Rhone and\nthe Po, while they may have brought it by sea at an early period. By what\nroutes amber was distributed in the earliest times is still unknown.\n\n[Illustration: Ph\u0153nician warship, according to an Assyrian representation]\n\n[Sidenote: Voyages of the Ph\u0153nicians]\n\nEven though the Ph\u0153nicians were for the most part a commercial and\nindustrial people, who were not specially interested in scientific\nresearch, there can be no doubt that by their distant voyages they\ncontributed much geographical knowledge to their age, and in many ways\nthey influenced Greek geography, especially through Miletus, which from\nthe beginning was partly a Ph\u0153nician colony, and where the first Greek\nschool of geographers, the Ionian school, developed. Thales of Miletus was\nhimself probably a Semite. How far they attained on their voyages is\nunknown. Hitherto no certain relics of Ph\u0153nician colonies have been found\nalong the coasts of western Europe farther north than south-west Spain\n(Tarsis), and there is no historically certain foundation for the\nsupposition that these seafaring merchants of antiquity, the Ph\u0153nicians,\nCarthaginians and Gaditanians, on their voyages beyond the Pillars of\nHercules and northwards along the coasts of western Europe, should have\npenetrated beyond the tin country and as far as the waters of northern\nEurope, even to Scandinavia and the Baltic, whence they themselves might\nhave brought amber.[27] But a hypothesis of this sort cannot be disproved,\nand is by no means improbable. Everything points to the Ph\u0153nicians having\nbeen uncommonly capable seamen with good and swift-sailing ships; and a\nseafaring people who achieved the far more difficult enterprise of\ncircumnavigating Africa, and of sailing southwards along its west coast\nwith whole fleets to found colonies, cannot have found it impossible to\nsail along the west and north coast of Europe, where there are plenty of\nnatural harbours. It would then be natural for them to try to reach the\nNorth Sea and the Baltic, if they expected to find the precious amber\nthere, and on this point they certainly had information from the merchants\nwho brought it either by land or by sea. It has already been remarked that\nit is first mentioned in history as a Ph\u0153nician article of commerce.[28]\nIt may be supposed that the Ph\u0153nicians at an early period obtained amber\nfrom their harbours on the Black Sea;[29] but after having pursued this\nprosperous carrying-trade from their harbours here and in the west, it is\nnot improbable that they themselves tried to penetrate to the amber\ncountries with their ships.[30] The Ph\u0153nicians, however, tried to keep\ntheir trade-routes secret from their dangerous and more warlike rivals the\nGreeks, and it is therefore not surprising that no mention of these routes\nshould be extant, even if they really undertook such voyages; but it is\nundeniably more remarkable still that no certain trace of them has been\nfound along the coasts of western Europe.\n\n[Sidenote: Himilco's voyage, 500 B.C.]\n\nThe only thing we know is that about the year 500 B.C. the Carthaginians\nare said to have sent out an expedition under Himilco through the Pillars\nof Hercules and thence northwards along the coast. This is the first\nnorthern sea voyage of which mention is to be found in literature. At that\ntime Tyre, the mother-city of Gadir, had been destroyed. Until then she\nhad controlled the trade of the west. It was natural that Gadir in her\nisolated position should seek support from Carthage, which was now rising\ninto power. To strengthen her trade communications, therefore, this\nflourishing city sent out Hanno's great expedition along the west coast of\nAfrica, and Himilco to the tin country in the north. Himilco seems to have\nwritten an account of the journey; but of this all that has been preserved\nis a few casual pieces of information in a poem (\"Ora Maritima\") by the\nlate Roman author Rufus Festus Avienus[31] (of the end of the fourth\ncentury A.D.). The only other place where Himilco's name is mentioned is\nin Pliny [Hist. Nat. ii. 67, 169], who merely says that he made a voyage\nto explore the outer coast of Europe, contemporary with Hanno's voyage to\nthe south along the west coast of Africa, and in addition he names him in\nthe list of his authorities. But Pliny himself probably never saw his\nwork; it cannot be seen that he has made use of it.\n\nIt is true that Avienus makes a pretence of having used Himilco's original\naccount, but certainly he had never seen it. He may have utilised a Greek\nauthority of about the time of the Christian era [cf. Marx, 1895]. This\nagain was a compound of Greek tales, of which a part may have been taken\nfrom a Punic source, but of the latter no trace is found in any other\nknown classical writer, with the exception of Pliny. Unfortunately the\ninformation given us by Avienus shows little intelligence in the use of\nhis authorities, and his poem is often obscure.\n\nIn the description of the coast of western Europe [vv. 90-129] we read:\n\n \"And here the projecting ridge raises its head--the older age called\n it '\u0152strymnis'--and all the high mass of rocky ridge turns mostly\n towards the warm south wind. But beneath the top of this promontory\n the \u0152strymnian Bay opens out before the eyes of the inhabitants. In\n the midst of this rise the islands which are called \u0152strymnides,\n scattered widely about, and rich in metals, in tin and in lead. Here\n live a multitude of men with enterprise and active industry, all\n having continually commercial interests; they plough in skilful\n fashion far and wide the foaming sea ['fretum,' literally, strait],\n and the currents of monster-bearing Ocean with their small boats. For\n these people do not know how to fit together [literally, weave] keels\n of fir or maple; they do not bend their craft with deal, in the usual\n way; but strange to say, they make their ships of hides sewed\n together, and often traverse the vast sea with the help of hides. Two\n days' voyage from thence lay the great island, which the ancients\n called 'the Holy Island,'[32] and it is inhabited by the people of\n Hierne [i.e., Ireland] far and wide, and near to it again extends the\n island of Albion. And it was the custom of the men of Tartessus to\n trade to the borders of the \u0152strymnides, also colonists from Carthage\n and the many who voyage between the Pillars of Hercules visited these\n seas. The Carthaginian Himilco assures us that these seas can scarcely\n be sailed through in four months, as he has himself related of his\n experience on his voyage; thus no breeze drives the ship forward, so\n dead is the sluggish wind of this idle sea. He also adds that there is\n much seaweed among the waves, and that it often holds the ship back\n like bushes. Nevertheless he says that the sea has no great depth, and\n that the surface of the earth is barely covered by a little water. The\n monsters of the sea move continually hither and thither, and the wild\n beasts swim among the sluggish and slowly creeping ships.\"\n\nIt may be difficult to decide how much of this is really derived from\nHimilco. The name \"\u0152strymnis\" is not found elsewhere in literature, and\nmay be taken from him.[33] The supposition that it was Cape Finisterre and\nthat the \u0152strymnic Bay (\"sinus \u0152strymnicus\") was the Bay of Biscay is\nimprobable; a bay so open and wide could scarcely have been described in\nterms which a Latin author would have rendered by \"sinus\"; besides which\nthere would be difficulties with the \u0152strymnides which were widely spread\ntherein. \u0152strymnis is certainly in Brittany, and since it \"turns chiefly\ntowards the warm south wind,\" we may suppose it to be a headland on the\nsouth coast. That the \u0152strymnic Bay opens out beneath this headland (\"sub\nhujus\") agrees with all that we know of it. As already stated, the\ntin-producing \u0152strymnides are undoubtedly the Cassiterides, which may\nprobably be the islands in the bay by the mouth of the Vilaine and\nQuiberon, on the south side of Brittany, where tin occurs.\n\n It is just in this district, at the mouth of the Loire, that we find\n the Veneti as the only people famous for seamanship in ancient times\n in these parts. But, according to C\u00e6sar's valuable description, they\n had strong, seaworthy ships, built wholly of oak and with leather\n sails. This seems scarcely to tally with the statement that the people\n of the \u0152strymnides sailed the sea in boats of hide, the coracles of\n the Celts, which is also confirmed by Pliny's statement [xxxiv. c. 47]\n that \"according to fabulous tales tin was brought in ships of\n wicker-work sewed round with hides from islands in the Atlantic\n Ocean.\" Either the Veneti must have acquired the art of shipbuilding\n after the voyage of Himilco--perhaps, indeed, through their\n intercourse with Carthaginians and Gaditanians--or else we must\n believe that the statement in Avienus rests upon a misinterpretation\n of the original authorities, and that the flowery language really\n means that the ships were not built of fir, maple or spruce, but of\n oak, the omission of which is striking.\n\nThus a comparison of the various statements points definitely to Brittany\nas the place where we must look for the tin-bearing islands. That it was\ntwo days' voyage thence to the holy island of Hierne, and that near to it\nlay the land of Albion, also agrees; but too much weight must not be laid\nupon this, as we do not know for certain whether this is really derived\nfrom Himilco.\n\nThe sea-monsters may be taken as accessories put in to make the voyage\nterrible; but on the other hand they may be the great whales of the Bay of\nBiscay, of which there were many in those days, before whaling was\nundertaken there. The exaggerated description of the length and\ndifficulties of the voyage fits in badly with the information that the men\nof Tartessus and the Carthaginians were in the habit of trading there. How\nmuch of this is due to misunderstanding of the original, or to downright\ninterpolation, we do not know. With the universal desire of the\nCarthaginians and Ph\u0153nicians to keep the monopoly of their trade-routes,\nHimilco may have added this to frighten others. It is also possible that\nhe made a longer voyage in four months, but that Avienus's authority gave\nan obscure and bungled account of it.\n\nThe description of the shallow water, and of the seaweed which holds the\nships back, etc., seems to correspond to the actual conditions. In another\npart of the poem something similar occurs, where we read [v. 375]:\n\"Outside the Pillars of Hercules along the side of Europe the\nCarthaginians once had villages and towns. They were in the habit of\nbuilding their fleets with flatter bottoms, since a broader ship could\nfloat upon the surface of a shallower sea.\"[34] One is reminded of the\nshallow west coast of France, where the tide lays large tracts alternately\ndry (covered with seaweed) and under water, so that it might well be said\nthat \"the surface of the earth is barely covered by a little water.\" Ebb\nand flood were, of course, an unknown phenomenon in the Mediterranean. In\nthis respect also the description suits the voyage to Brittany, where the\nsea is shallow. It has been asserted that the expression \"seaweed among\nthe waves\" might show that Himilco had been near to or in the Sargasso\nSea; but there is no reason whatever for supposing this; the explanation\ngiven above is more natural, besides which the Sargasso Sea could hardly\nbe described as shallow and as lying on the way to \u0152strymnis.[35]\n\nOn the Atlantic Ocean Avienus has the following [vv. 380-389]:\n\n \"Farther to the west from these Pillars there is boundless sea.\n Himilco relates that the ocean extends far, none has visited these\n seas; none has sailed ships over these waters, because propelling\n winds are lacking on these deeps, and no breeze from heaven helps the\n ship. Likewise because darkness ['caligo' == darkness, usually owing\n to fog] screens the light of day with a sort of clothing, and because\n a fog always conceals the sea, and because the weather is perpetually\n cloudy with thick atmosphere.\"\n\nIf we may believe Avienus that this description is derived from Himilco,\nit possesses great interest, since here and in the description (above) of\nthe voyage to \u0152strymnis we find the same ideas of the western sea and of\nthe uttermost sea which appear later, after Pytheas's time, in the\naccounts of the thick and sluggish sea without wind round Thule, and in\nthis case it shows that already at that early period ideas of this sort\nhad developed. M\u00fcllenhoff [1870, pp. 78, 93 f.], it is true, takes it for\ngranted that these descriptions in Avienus cannot be derived from Himilco,\nbut his reasons for so doing do not appear convincing. Aristotle says\n[\"Meteorologica,\" ii. 1, 14] that the sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules\nwas muddy and shallow, and little stirred by the winds. This shows clearly\nenough that ideas of that kind were current among the Greeks even before\nPytheas, and they must doubtless have got them from the Ph\u0153nicians.\n\nThat some very ancient authority is really the basis of the description of\nthe west coast of Europe as far as the \u0152strymnides, which we find in\nAvienus, is proved again by the fact that the regions farther to the north\nor north-east are clearly enough represented as entirely unknown, when we\nread [vv. 129-145]:\n\n \"If any one dares to steer his boat from the \u0152strymnic Islands in the\n direction where the air is cold at the axis of Lycaon,[36] he will\n arrive at the country of the Ligurians, which is void of inhabitants.\n For by the host of the Celts and by numerous battles it has lately\n been rendered void. And the expelled Ligurians came, as fate often\n drives people away, to the districts where there is hardly anything\n but bush. Many sharp stones are there in those parts, and cold rocks,\n and the mountains rise threateningly to heaven. And the refugees lived\n for a long time in narrow places among rocks away from the sea. For\n they were afraid of waves [i.e., afraid to come near the coast] by\n reason of the old danger. Later, when security had given them\n boldness, peace and quietness persuaded them to leave their high\n positions, and now they descended to places by the sea.\"\n\nM\u00fcllenhoff thinks [1870, pp. 86 f.] that this mention of the expulsion of\nthe Ligurians by the Celts is necessarily a late addition by a man from\nthe district of Massalia where the Ligurians lived; but it seems more\nprobable that the name is here used as a common designation for the\npre-Celtic people who dwelt in these north-western regions; and if it is\nthe north side of Brittany which is here spoken of, the Ligurians of\nsouthern Gaul will not be so far away after all. It is clear that in\nancient times the people of west and north-west Europe were called\n\"Ligyans.\" Hesiod mentioned them as the people of the west in\ncontradistinction to the Scythians of the east [cf. Strabo, vii. 300], and\nin the legend of Pha\u00ebthon occurs the Ligyan king Cycnus at the mouth of\nthe amber-producing river Eridanus, which doubtless was originally\nsupposed to fall into the sea on the north or north-west. We may interpret\nit as meaning that the aborigines, Ligyans or Ligurians, were driven by\nthe immigrant Celts up into the bush-covered mountainous parts of\nBrittany. In any case this passage in Avienus, which assumes that the\ndistricts farther north are unknown, is a strong proof that his\ninformation is ancient and derived from Himilco, and that the latter\npenetrated as far as the north coast of Brittany, or the south of Britain,\nbut no farther.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nPYTHEAS OF MASSALIA\n\nTHE VOYAGE TO THULE\n\n\nAmong all the vague and fabulous ideas about the North that prevailed in\nantiquity, the name of Pytheas stands out as the only one who gives us a\nfirmer foothold. By his extraordinary voyage (or voyages ?) this eminent\nastronomer and geographer, of the Phoc\u00e6an colony of Massalia (now\nMarseilles), contributed a knowledge of the northern countries based upon\npersonal experience, and set his mark more or less upon all that was known\nof the farthest north for the next thousand or fifteen hundred years. Even\nthough later writers like Polybius and Strabo declared themselves\nunwilling to believe in his \"incredible\" statements, they could not\nneglect him.[37]\n\nPytheas wrote at least one work, which, if we may believe Geminus of\nRhodes, was called \"On the Ocean\"; but all his writings have been lost for\nages, and we only know him through chance quotations in much later\nauthors (chiefly Strabo and Pliny) who have not even read his work\nthemselves, but quote at second hand; and several of them (especially\nPolybius and Strabo) tried to represent him as an impostor and laid stress\nupon what they thought would make him ridiculous and lessen his\nreputation.[38] The scraps of information we possess about him and his\nvoyages have thus come down on the stream of time as chance wreckage,\npartly distorted and perverted by hostile forces. It is too much to hope\nthat from such fragments we may be able to form a trustworthy idea of the\noriginal work, but nevertheless from the little we know there arises a\nfigure which in strength, intelligence, and bold endurance far surpasses\nthe discoverers of most periods.\n\n[Sidenote: Personal circumstances and date of the voyage]\n\nOf Pytheas's personal circumstances we have no certain information, and we\ndo not even know when he lived. As he was unknown to Aristotle, but was\nknown to his pupil Dic\u00e6archus (who died about 285 B.C.), he was probably a\ncontemporary of Aristotle and Alexander, and his voyage may have been\nundertaken about 330-325 B.C. So little do we know about the voyage that\ndoubts have been raised as to whether it was really a sea-voyage, or\nwhether a great part of it did not lie overland. Nor do we know whether\nPytheas made one or several long journeys to the North. According to a\nstatement of Polybius, Pytheas was a poor man: for he finds it (according\nto Strabo, ii. 104) \"incredible that it should be possible for a private\nindividual without means to accomplish journeys of such wide extent.\" If\nit be true that he was poor, which is uncertain, we must doubtless suppose\nthat Pytheas either had command of a public expedition, fitted out by the\nmerchants of the enterprising city of Massalia, or that he accompanied\nsuch an expedition as an astronomer and explorer. At that time the city\nwas at the height of its prosperity, after it had expelled the\nCarthaginians, as the result of the successful war with them, from the\nrich fisheries of the Iberian coast, and had also succeeded in\nestablishing commercial relations there, whereby its ships were able to\nsail out beyond the Pillars of Hercules; a thing which cannot have been so\neasy for them during the former sea-supremacy of Carthage in the western\nMediterranean, which was re-established in 306 B.C., whereby the western\nocean again became more or less closed to the Massalians. It is very\nprobable that the flourishing city of Massalia desired to send out an\nexpedition to find the sea-route to the outer coasts of the continent,\nfrom whence it was known that the two important articles of commerce, tin\nand amber, were obtained. But it is evident that Pytheas had more than\nthis business motive for his journey. From all that we know it appears\nthat with him too the object was to reach the most northern point\npossible, in order to find out how far the \"\u0153cumene\" extended, to\ndetermine the position of the Arctic Circle and the Pole, and to see the\nlight northern nights and the midnight sun, which to the Greeks of that\ntime was so remarkable a phenomenon.\n\n[Sidenote: Astronomical measurements]\n\nWe know that Pytheas was an eminent astronomer. He was the first in\nhistory to introduce astronomical measurements for ascertaining the\ngeographical situation of a place; and this by itself is enough to give\nhim a prominent position among the geographers of all times.\n\nBy means of a great gnomon he determined, with surprising accuracy, the\nlatitude of his own city, Massalia,[39] which formed the starting-point of\nhis journey, and in relation to which he laid down the latitude of more\nnortherly places.\n\n[Illustration: Gnomon]\n\n[Illustration: Sundial]\n\nPytheas also made other astronomical measurements which show him to have\nbeen a remarkably good observer. He found that the pole of the heavens did\nnot coincide, as the earlier astronomer Eudoxus had supposed, with any\nstar; but that it made an almost regular rectangle with three stars lying\nnear it.[40] The pole of the heavens was naturally of consequence to\nPytheas, who steered by the stars; but it is nevertheless striking that he\nshould have considered it necessary to measure it with such accuracy, if\nhe had not some other object in doing so. He may have required the pole\nfor the adjustment of the equinoctial sun-dial (\"polus\"), whose pointers\nhad to be parallel with the axis of the heavens;[41] but it is also\npossible that he had discovered that by measuring the altitude of the\npole above the horizon he obtained directly the latitude of the spot on\nthe earth, and that this was a simpler method of determining the latitude\nthan by measuring the altitude of the sun by a gnomon. Nor is it likely\nthat he possessed the requisite knowledge for calculating gnomon\nmeasurements unless they were taken either at the solstice or the equinox.\nTo judge by quotations in various authors he must have given the latitude\nof several places in numbers of parts of a circle north of Massalia.[42]\nThese results of his may perhaps be partly based on measurements of the\npolar altitude. Whether Pytheas was acquainted with any instrument for the\nmeasurement of angles we do not know; but it is not unlikely, since even\nthe Chaldeans appear to have invented a kind of parallactic rule, which\nwas improved upon by the Alexandrians, and was called by the Romans\n\"triquetrum\" (regula Ptolemaica). The instrument resembled a large pair of\ncompasses with long straight rods for legs, and the angle was determined\nby measuring, in measure of length, the distance between these two\nlegs.[43] As the pole of the heavens did not coincide with any star,\nsuch measurements cannot have been very accurate, unless Pytheas took the\ntrouble to measure a circumpolar star in its upper and lower culmination;\nor, indeed, in only one of them, for he may easily have found the distance\nof the star from the pole by his earlier observations to determine the\nposition of the pole itself. It is also quite possible that by the aid of\nthe rectangle formed by the pole with three stars, he was able to obtain\nan approximate measurement of the altitude of the pole. Another indication\nused by the Greeks to obtain the latitude of a place was the length of its\nlongest day. To determine this Pytheas may have used the equinoctial dial\n(\"polus\"), or the water-clock, the \"clepsydra\" of the Greeks.\n\n[Illustration: Greek trading-vessel and longship (warship), from a vase\npainting (about 500 B.C.)]\n\n[Sidenote: Pytheas's ship]\n\nIt is not known what kind of ship he had for his voyage; but if it was\nequal to the best that Massalia at that time could afford, it may well\nhave been a good sea-craft. As it was necessary to be prepared for\nhostilities on the part of the Carthaginians and Gaditanians, he doubtless\nhad a warship (longship), which sailed faster than the broader\nmerchantmen, and which could also be rowed by one or more banks of oars.\nIt may have been considerably over 100 feet long, and far larger than\nthose in which later the Norsemen crossed the Atlantic. It has been\nasserted that Pytheas must have gone on foot for the greater part of his\njourney, since, according to Strabo [ii. 104], he is said to have stated\n\"not only that he had visited the whole of Britain on foot, but he also\ngives its circumference as more than 40,000 stadia.\" But, as Professor Alf\nTorp has pointed out to me, it is not stated that he \"traversed\" it, but\n\"visited\" it on foot. The meaning must be that he put in at many places on\nthe coast, and made longer or shorter excursions into the country. That a\nman should be able to traverse such great distances alone on foot, through\nthe roadless and forest-clad countries of that period, seems impossible.\n\n[Illustration: Pytheas's probable routes]\n\nWe do not know what previous knowledge Pytheas may have had about the\nregions visited by him; but it is probable that he had heard of the tin\ncountry through the merchants who brought the tin overland through Gaul\nand down the Rhone to Massalia. In a similar way he had certainly also\nheard of the amber country. Besides this, he may have been acquainted with\nthe trading voyages of the Ph\u0153nicians and Carthaginians along the west\ncoast of Europe, and with the voyage of Himilco. Although it is true that\nthe Ph\u0153nician sailors tried to keep the secret of their routes from\ntheir dangerous rivals the Greeks and Massalians, they cannot have been\naltogether successful in the long run, whether their intercourse was\nhostile or friendly; a few sailor prisoners would have been enough to\nbring the information.\n\n[Sidenote: The voyage northward]\n\nWhen Pytheas sailed out through the Pillars of Hercules he soon arrived,\nin passing the Sacred Promontory (Cape St. Vincent), at the limit of the\nworld as known to the Greeks. He sailed northward along the west and north\ncoast of Iberia (Portugal and Spain). He made observations of the tides,\nthat remarkable phenomenon to a man from the Mediterranean, and their\ncause, and was the first Greek to connect them with the moon. He proceeded\nfarther north, and found that the north-western part of Celtica (Gaul)\nformed a peninsula, Cab\u00e6um (Brittany), where the Ostimians lived. He\nsupposed that it extended farther west than Cape Finisterre; but errors of\nthat sort are easily understood at a time when no means existed of\ndetermining longitude.\n\n[Sidenote: Britain]\n\nFarther north he came to Brettanice (Britain), which he appears to have\ncircumnavigated. The Sicilian historian Diodorus, an elder contemporary of\nStrabo, says [v. 21]: \"Britain is triangular in form like Sicily; but the\nsides are not of equal length; the nearest promontory is Kantion [Kent],\nand according to what is reported it is 100 stadia distant (from the\ncontinent). The second promontory is Belerion [Cornwall], which is said to\nbe four days' sail from the continent. The third lies towards the sea\n[i.e., towards the north] and is called Orkan.[44] Of the three sides\nthe one which runs parallel to Europe is the shortest, 7500 stadia; the\nsecond, which extends from the place of crossing [Kent] to the point\n[i.e., Orkan], is 15,000 stadia; but the last is 20,000 stadia, so that\nthe circumference amounts to 42,500 stadia.\"\n\nThese statements must originally have been due to Pytheas, even though\nDiodorus has taken them at second hand (perhaps from Tim\u00e6us). But Pytheas\ncannot very well have acquired such an idea of the shape of the island\nwithout having sailed round it. It is true that the estimate attributed to\nhim of the island's circumference is more than double the reality,[45] a\ndiscrepancy which is adduced by Strabo as a proof that Pytheas was a\nliar;[46] but neither Strabo nor Diodorus was acquainted with his own\ndescription, and there are many indications that the exaggeration cannot\nbe attributed to himself, but to a later writer, probably Tim\u00e6us. Pytheas\nin his work can only have stated how many days he took to sail along the\ncoasts, and his day's sail in those unknown waters was certainly a short\none. But the uncritical Tim\u00e6us, who was moreover a historian and not a\ngeographer, may, according to the custom of his time, have converted\nPytheas's day's journeys into stadia at the usual equation of 1000 stadia\n(about 100 geographical miles) for one day's sailing.[47] Tim\u00e6us served to\na great extent as the authority for later authors who have mentioned\nPytheas, and it is probably through him that the erroneous information as\nto the circumference of Britain reached Polybius, Strabo, Diodorus,\nPliny, and Solinus. In this way geographical explorers may easily have\ngross errors attributed to them, when their original observations are\nlost.\n\n[Sidenote: Astronomical measurements in Britain]\n\nFrom statements of Hipparchus, preserved by Strabo [ii. 71, 74, 75, 115,\n125, 134], we may conclude that Pytheas obtained astronomical data at\nvarious spots in Britain and Orkan. Hipparchus has made use of these in\nhis tables of climate, and he was able from them to point out that the\nlongest day in the most northern part of Britain was of eighteen\nequinoctial hours,[48] and in an inhabited country, which according to\nPytheas lay farther north than Britain, the longest day was of nineteen\nequinoctial hours. If the length of day is fixed in round numbers of\nhours, a longest day of eighteen hours fits the northernmost part of\nScotland,[49] while the country still farther north with a longest day of\nnineteen hours agrees exactly with Shetland.[50] These data are important,\nas they show that Pytheas must have been in the most northerly parts of\nthe British Isles, and reached Shetland.[51]\n\n[Sidenote: Thule]\n\nBut the bold and hardy explorer does not seem to have stopped here. He\ncontinued his course northward over the ocean, and came to the uttermost\nregion, \"Thule,\" which was the land of the midnight sun, \"where the tropic\ncoincides with the Arctic Circle.\"[52]\n\nOn this section of Pytheas's voyage Geminus of Rhodes (1st century B.C.)\nhas an important quotation in his Astronomy [vi. 9]. After mentioning that\nthe days get longer the farther north one goes, he continues:\n\n To these regions [i.e., to the north] the Massalian Pytheas seems also\n to have come. He says at least in his treatise \"On the Ocean\": \"the\n Barbarians showed us the place where the sun goes to rest. For it was\n the case that in these parts the nights were very short, in some\n places two, in others three hours long, so that the sun rose again a\n short time after it had set.\"\n\nThe name of Thule is not mentioned, but that must be the country in\nquestion. It does not appear from this whether Pytheas himself thought\nthat the shortest night of the year was of two or three hours, or whether\nthat was the length of the night at the time he happened to be at these\nplaces; but the first case is doubtless the more probable. At any rate\nGeminus seems to have understood him thus, since in the passage\nimmediately preceding he is speaking of the regions where the longest day\nis of seventeen or eighteen hours, and he goes on to speak of those where\nthe longest day is of twenty-three hours. If on the other hand it is the\nlength of the night at the time Pytheas was there that is meant, then it\nseems strange that he should require to be shown by the barbarians where\nthe sun rose and set, which he could just as well have seen for himself;\nfor it is scarcely credible that after having journeyed so far his stay\nshould have been so brief that the sky was overcast the whole time.[53]\n\nIf the longest day of the year was determined by direct observations of\nthe points at which the sun first appeared and finally disappeared in\nplaces with a free horizon to the north, then days of twenty-one and\ntwenty-two hours at that time will answer to 63\u00b0 39' and 64\u00b0 39' N. lat.\nCalculated theoretically, from the centre of the sun and without taking\nrefraction into account, they will be 64\u00b0 32' and 65\u00b0 31' N. lat.\nrespectively.[54]\n\nIn addition to this there are two things to be remarked in the passage\nquoted in Geminus. First, that the country spoken of by Pytheas was\ninhabited (by barbarians). Secondly, that he himself must have been there\nwith his expedition, for he says that \"the barbarians showed us,\" etc.\nConsequently he cannot, as some writers think, have reported merely what\nhe had heard from others about this country (Thule). Statements in Strabo\nalso show clearly that Pytheas referred to Thule as inhabited.\n\nOther pieces of information derived from Pytheas establish consistently\nthat Thule extended northwards as far as the Arctic Circle. Eratosthenes,\nStrabo, Pomponius Mela, Pliny, Cleomedes, Solinus, and others, all have\nstatements which show clearly that Pytheas described Thule as the land of\nthe midnight sun.\n\nIf we now sum up what is known of Pytheas's voyage to the North, we shall\nfind that it all hangs well together: he first came to the north of\nScotland, where the longest day was of eighteen hours, thence to Shetland\nwith a longest day of nineteen hours, and then to a land beyond all,\nThule, where the longest day was in one place twenty-one hours and in\nanother twenty-two, and which extended northwards as far as the midnight\nsun and the Arctic Circle (at that time in 66\u00b0 15' N. lat.). There is\nnothing intrinsically impossible in the supposition that this remarkable\nexplorer, who besides being an eminent astronomer must have been a capable\nseaman, had heard in the north of Scotland of an inhabited country still\nfarther to the north, and then wished to visit this also. We must remember\nhow, as an astronomer, he was specially interested in determining the\nextent of the \"\u0153cumene\" on the north, and in seeing with his own eyes\nthe remarkable phenomena of northern latitudes, in particular the midnight\nsun. It is not surprising that he was prepared to risk much to attain this\nend; and he had already shown by his voyage to the northernmost point of\nBritain that he was an explorer of more than ordinary boldness, and equal\nto the task.\n\nNevertheless it has seemed incredible to many--not only in antiquity, but\nin our own time as well--that Pytheas should have penetrated not only so\nfar into the unknown as to the islands north of Scotland, but that he\nshould have ventured yet farther into the absolutely unexplored Northern\nOcean, and found an extreme country beyond this. He would thus have\npushed back the limit of the learned world's knowledge from the south\ncoast of Britain to the Arctic Circle, or about sixteen degrees farther\nnorth. As a feat of such daring and endurance has appeared superhuman, a\ngreat deal of ingenuity has been employed, especially by M\u00fcllenhoff [1870,\ni., pp. 392 f.], to prove that Thule was Shetland, that Pytheas himself\ndid not get farther than the Orkneys or the north of Scotland, and that he\nheard from the natives of the country still farther north, which he never\nsaw. But in order to do this almost all the statements that have been\npreserved on this part of Pytheas's voyage must be arbitrarily distorted;\nand to alter or explain away one's authorities so as to make them fit a\npreconceived opinion is an unfortunate proceeding. Unless, like Polybius\nand Strabo, we are willing to declare the whole to be a freely imaginative\nwork, which however is remarkably consistent, we must try to draw our\nconclusions from the statements in the authorities as they stand, and in\nthat case it must for the following reasons be regarded as impossible that\nThule means Shetland:\n\n[Sidenote: Thule is not Shetland]\n\n(1) It is improbable that (as M\u00fcllenhoff asserts) so capable an astronomer\nas Pytheas should have made a mistake of several hours when he gave the\nlength of the night as two or three hours. There is little intrinsic\nprobability in the conjecture that he had overcast weather all the time he\nwas in the north of Scotland and Orkney, and therefore relied on the\napproximate statements of the natives, which he did not fully understand,\nand which when translated into Greek measures of time might produce gross\nerrors. But it is worse when we look at it in connection with Hipparchus's\nstatements from Pytheas, that in Britain the longest day was of eighteen\nhours, and nineteen hours in a region (i.e., Shetland) farther north,\nwhere the sun at the winter solstice stood less than three cubits above\nthe horizon. Unless he has given the latter region a long extension to the\nnorth, he must have made several conflicting statements about the same\nregion. It will be seen that this leads us to a violent and arbitrary\nalteration of the whole system of information, which is otherwise\nconsistent.\n\n(2) The assertion that Pytheas did not himself say that he had been in the\ncountry where the night was two and three hours long, conflicts with the\nwords of Geminus. Cleomedes also tells us that Pytheas is said to have\nbeen in Thule.\n\n(3) The definite statements in a majority of the authorities that Thule\nlay within the Arctic Circle and was the land of the midnight sun, also\nexclude the Shetland Isles. The astronomer Pytheas cannot have been so far\nmistaken as to the latitude of these islands.\n\n(4) That it was six days' sail to Thule from Britain[55] will not suit\nShetland, even if we make allowance for the frequently obscure statements\nas to the day's journeys that are attributed to Pytheas (e.g., by Strabo).\n\n(5) That Strabo in one place [ii. 114] calls Thule \"the northernmost of\nthe British Isles\" cannot be used, as M\u00fcllenhoff uses it, as a proof of\nits belonging to these islands and having a Celtic population. There is\nnot a word to this effect. To Strabo, who also placed Ierne (Ireland) out\nin the sea north of Britain, it must have been natural to call all the\nislands in that part of the world British. Indeed, he says himself in the\nsame breath that Thule, according to Pytheas, lay within the Arctic\nCircle. How little weight he attached to the expression British is\nadditionally apparent from another passage [ii. 75], where he says that\n\"Hipparchus, relying on Pytheas, placed these inhabited regions [Shetland]\nfarther north than Britain.\"\n\n(6) Pliny [Nat. Hist. iv. 104] mentions among islands north of Britain as\n\"the greatest of all, 'Berricen,' which is the starting-place for Thule.\"\nBerricen, which in some MSS. is written \"Nerigon,\" has been taken for\nMainland of Shetland,[56] while others have seen in the form Nerigon the\nfirst appearance in literature of the name of Norway (\"Noregr\"),[57]\nthough with doubtful justification, since this name was hardly in\nexistence at that time. But whether the island be Shetland or Norway, this\npassage in Pliny puts Thule outside the Scottish islands. And the\nreference to that country makes it probable that the statements, in part\nat any rate, are derived from Pytheas.\n\n(7) Finally, it may perhaps be pointed out that Thule is nowhere referred\nto as a group of islands; the name rather suggests the idea of a\ncontinuous land or a single island. To this it may be objected that\nneither is Orkan referred to as an archipelago in the oldest authorities;\nbut it is uncertain whether in Pytheas, as in Diodorus, Orkan was not used\nof the northern point of Brettanice, and only later transferred to the\nislands lying to the north of this. Thule, on the other hand, always\nappears as a land far out in the ocean, and it is moreover uncertain\nwhether Pytheas ever expressly described it as an island.\n\n[Sidenote: Thule is not Iceland]\n\nBut if none of the statements about Thule answers to Shetland, it becomes\na question where we are to look for this country.[58] The Irish monk\nDicuil, who wrote about 825 A.D., regarded it as self-evident that\nIceland, which had then been discovered by Irish monks, must be Thule, and\ncalled it so. After him Adam of Bremen and many others have looked upon\nIceland as the Thule of the ancients. The objections to this hypothesis\nare: first, that Thule was inhabited (cf. Geminus, Strabo, and others, see\npp. 54-55), while Iceland probably was not at that time. Even in Dicuil's\ntime only a few monks seem to have lived there (see below on the discovery\nof Iceland). Nor is it likely that Pytheas should have continued his\nvoyage at haphazard across the ocean, unless he had heard that he would\nfind land in that direction. To this must be added that Iceland lies so\nfar away that the distance of six days' sail will not suit it at all.\nFinally, if Pytheas had sailed northward at haphazard from Scotland or\nfrom Shetland, the least likely thing to happen was for him to be carried\ntowards Iceland; neither the currents nor the prevailing winds bear in\nthat direction; but, on the other hand, they would carry him towards\nNorway, and it would be natural for him to make the land there, perhaps\njust between 63\u00b0 and 64\u00b0 N. lat. or thereabouts.\n\n[Sidenote: Thule is Norway]\n\nAll the statements about Thule which have been preserved answer to\nNorway,[59] but to no other country; and even if it may seem a bold idea\nthat there should be communication over the North Sea between the Scottish\nislands and Norway 300 years before Christ, or 1000 years before the age\nof the Vikings, we are compelled to accept it, if we are to rely upon our\nauthorities as they stand, without arbitrarily altering them; and Pytheas\nwill then be the first man in history to sail over the North Sea and\narrive on our coasts.[60]\n\nThat Thule, according to Strabo, lies six days' sail \"north of\" Brettanice\nis no objection to its being Norway. \"North of\" can only mean \"farther\nnorth than,\" in the same way that Brittany and places in Britain are\ndescribed as being so many stadia north of Massalia. It also looks as\nthough Eratosthenes, according to the latitudes and distances which he has\ntaken from Pytheas, actually puts Thule to the north-east of Britain (see\nhis map, p. 49), or precisely where Norway lies. Besides, Pytheas had no\nmeans of determining his course in overcast weather, or of fixing the\nlongitude, for which reasons he supposed, for instance, that Cab\u00e6um (the\nextreme point of Brittany) lay farther west than Cape Finisterre.\n\nThat Thule is often referred to as an island by later authors is of little\nweight. In the first place we do not know whether Pytheas himself so\ndescribed it; according to all the geographical ideas of the ancients\nabout the north a land in the ocean farther north than the British Isles\nmust necessarily have been an island, even if Pytheas did not say so. In\nthe next place, if a traveller sails northwards, as he did, from one\nisland to another, and then steers a course over the sea from Shetland and\narrives at a country still farther north, it would be unlikely that he\nshould believe himself back again on the continent. Besides, Pytheas made\nanother voyage eastwards along the north coast of Germany, past the mouth\nof the Elbe, and then he had the sea always to the north of him in the\ndirection of his Thule. In order to discover that this land was connected\nwith the continent, he would have had to sail right up into the Gulf of\nBothnia. It would therefore have been illogical of Pytheas if he had not\nconceived Thule as a great island, as in fact it was spoken of later. It\nis mentioned indeed as the greatest of all islands. When the Romans first\nheard of Sweden or Scandinavia (Sk\u00e5ne) in the Baltic, they likewise called\nit an island, and so it was long thought to be.\n\nAccording to what has been advanced above we must then believe that\nPytheas had already received information in northern Brettanice or in the\nScottish islands about Thule or Norway across the sea. But from this it\nfollows that in his time, or more than a thousand years before the\nbeginning of the Viking age, there must have been communication by sea\nbetween North Britain and Norway. It may seem that this is putting back\nthe Norsemen's navigation of the high seas to a very remote period; but as\nwe shall see in a later chapter on the voyages of the Norsemen, there are\ngood reasons for thinking that their seafaring is of very ancient date.\n\nPytheas may have sailed from Shetland with a south-westerly wind and a\nfavourable current towards the north-east, and have arrived off the coast\nof Norway in the Romsdal or Nordm\u00f6re district, where the longest day of\nthe year was of twenty-one hours, and where there is a free outlook over\nthe sea to the north, so that the barbarians may well have shown him where\nthe sun went to rest. From here he may then have sailed northwards along\nthe coast of Helgeland, perhaps far enough to enable him to see the\nmidnight sun, somewhere north of D\u00f6nna or Bod\u00f6; this depends upon how\nearly in the summer he reached there. On midsummer night he would have\nbeen able to see a little of the midnight sun even at about 65-1/2\u00b0 N.\nlat.; or south of Vega.[61]\n\nIt is nowhere expressly stated that Pytheas himself saw the midnight sun;\nbut a passage in Pomponius Mela [iii. 6, 57] may perhaps point to this. He\nsays of Thule: \"but at the summer solstice there is no night there, since\nthe sun then no longer shows merely a reflection, but also the greater\npart of itself.\" It is most reasonable to suppose that this statement is\ndue to actual observation; for if it were only a theoretical conclusion it\nseems extraordinary that he should not rather mention that the whole of\nthe sun is above the horizon in northern regions, which was clearly enough\ngrasped long before his time (cf. for instance Geminus of Rhodes). Now it\nmay, of course, be thought that such an observation was made by people who\ncame from northernmost Europe later than Pytheas's time and before Mela\nwrote; but so long as we do not know of any such authority it is doubtless\nmore reasonable to suppose that like so many other pieces of information\nit is derived from Pytheas.\n\n[Sidenote: The inhabitants of the northern regions]\n\nStrabo has a statement about what Pytheas said of the peoples of the\nnorthernmost regions. In a special section wherein he is speaking of\nThule, and, as usual, trying to cast suspicion on Pytheas's veracity, he\nsays:\n\n \"Yet as far as celestial phenomena and mathematical calculations are\n concerned, he seems to have handled these subjects fairly well. [Thus\n he says not inappropriately that] in the regions near the cold zone\n the finer fruits are lacking and there are few animals, and that the\n people live on millet [i.e., oats] and other things, especially green\n vegetables, wild fruits and roots; but among those that have corn and\n honey they make a drink thereof. But because they have no clear\n sunshine they thresh the corn in large buildings after the ears have\n been brought thither; for it becomes spoilt on the open\n threshing-floors by reason of the want of sunshine and the heavy\n showers.\"\n\nAs Diodorus [v. 21] says something similar about the harvest in Britain,\nit seems possible that Strabo is here thinking rather of what Pytheas had\nsaid in a more general way about the peoples near the cold regions, than\nof his observations on the actual inhabitants of Thule, though, as already\nremarked, the passage occurs in a section devoted to the latter. The\nmention of honey may strengthen this view; for even though bee-keeping is\nnow practised in Norway as far north as Hedemarken, and also on the west\ncoast, it is doubtful whether such was the case at that time, though it is\nnot impossible. That wild honey is alluded to, or honey imported from\nabroad, is improbable.\n\nIn the MSS. of Solinus there is a statement about the people of Thule\nwhich will be referred to later. Even if the passage were genuine it could\nhardly, as some have thought, be derived from Pytheas; in any case it does\nnot agree with what he is said by Strabo to have related of the people of\nthe North. In particular it may be pointed out that while the inhabitants\nof Thule according to the Solinus MSS. lived principally as herdsmen, and\nare not spoken of as agriculturists, Strabo says nothing about cattle, but\non the contrary calls them tillers of the soil. In both accounts they also\nlive on herbs and wild fruits; but, in spite of that, these two passages\ncannot be derived from the same description. It is true that Strabo was\nnot acquainted with Pytheas's original work, in which other northern\npeoples may have been referred to; but this is not very likely.\n\n[Sidenote: Length of the voyage]\n\nMost writers have thought that Pytheas completed his voyage in\ncomparatively few months, and that he was only some few days in Thule;\nwhile others have considered that he spent many years over it.[62] There\nis no cogent reason for assuming this. As regards the first hypothesis, it\nis by no means impossible that he should have sailed from Spain to\nHelgeland in Norway and back again in one summer. But as the greater part\nof the voyage lay through unknown regions, and as he frequently stopped to\ninvestigate the country and the people, he cannot have proceeded very\nrapidly. To this must probably be added that he often had to barter with\nthe natives to obtain the necessary provisions, since he certainly cannot\nhave carried stores for so long a time. It therefore seems doubtful\nwhether he was ready to return the same summer or autumn, and it is more\nreasonable to suppose that he wintered at some place on the way.\n\nWhether it be Thule or Britain that is referred to in the passage quoted\nabove from Strabo, it seems to imply that he was in one of these countries\nat the harvest, and saw there the gathering in of the corn; but, of\ncourse, there is also the possibility that the people may have told him\nabout it (through interpreters): and more than that we can scarcely say.\nIt might be objected that if Pytheas had spent a winter in Norway it is\nprobable that he would have furnished many details, remarkable at that\ntime, about the northern winter, of which we hear nothing in any of our\nauthors. But it must always be remembered how utterly casual and defective\nare the quotations from him which have been preserved, and how little we\nknow of what he really related.\n\n[Sidenote: The sea beyond Thule]\n\nPytheas also furnished information about the sea on the other side of\nThule. This may be concluded from the following passages in particular:\n\nStrabo says [i. 63]: \"Thule, which Pytheas says lies six days' sail north\nof Brettanice, and is near to the congealed sea (\u03c0\u03b5\u03c0\u03b7\u03b3\u03bf\u03b9\u03b1 \u03b8\u03b1\u03bb\u03b1\u03c4\u03c4\u03b1, i.e.,\nthe Polar Sea).\"\n\nPliny [iv. 16 (30)]: \"After one day's sail from Thule the frozen sea\n('mare concretum') is reached, called by some 'Cronium.'\"[63]\n\nSolinus [22, 11]: \"Beyond[64] Thule we meet with the sluggish and\ncongealed sea ('pigrum et concretum mare').\"\n\nFinally we have a well-known passage in Strabo [ii. 104] which says that\nPytheas asserted that in addition to having visited the whole of Britain\n...\n\n \"He had also undertaken investigations concerning Thule and those\n regions, in which there was no longer any distinction of land or sea\n or air, but a mixture of the three like sea-lung, in which he says\n that land and sea and everything floats, and this [i.e., the mixture]\n binds all together, and can neither be traversed on foot nor by boat.\n The substance resembling lung he has seen himself, as he says; the\n rest he relates according to what he has heard. This is Pytheas's\n tale, and he adds that when he returned here, he visited the whole\n ocean coast of Europe from Gadeira to Tanais.\"\n\nThis much-disputed description of the sea beyond Thule has first passed\nthrough Polybius, who did not believe in Pytheas and tried to throw\nridicule upon him. Whether Polybius obtained it directly, or at second\nhand through some older writer, we do not know. From him it came down to\nStrabo, who had as little belief in it, and was, moreover, liable to\nmisunderstand and to be hasty in his quotations. The passage is evidently\ntorn from its context and has been much abbreviated in order to accentuate\nits improbability. It is, therefore, impossible to decide what Pytheas\nhimself said. As it has come down to us the passage is extremely obscure,\nand it does not even appear clearly how much Pytheas asserted that he had\nhimself seen, and how much he had heard; whether he had only heard of the\nstiffened and congealed sea (the Polar Sea), while he had really seen the\ncondition that he compared to a lung. As to the meaning of this word there\nhave been many and very different guesses. Some have thought that a common\njelly-fish may have been called a sea-lung in the Mediterranean countries\nat that time, in analogy to its German designation, \"Meerlunge.\" It may\nalso be thought that Pytheas merely wished to describe a spongy, soft\nmass, like an ordinary lung.[65] In both cases the description may mean a\ngelatinous or pulpy mass, and what Pytheas himself saw may have been the\nice sludge in the sea which is formed over a great extent along the edge\nof the drift ice, when this has been ground to a pulp by the action of\nwaves. The expression \"can neither be traversed on foot nor by boat\" is\nexactly applicable to this ice-sludge. If we add to this the thick fog,\nwhich is often found near drift ice, then the description that the air is\nalso involved in the mixture, and that land and sea and everything is\nmerged in it, will appear very graphic. But that Pytheas should have been\nfar enough out in the sea north of Norway to have met with drift ice is\nscarcely credible.[66] If, on the other hand, he wintered in Norway, he\nmay well have seen something similar on a small scale. Along the Norwegian\ncoast, in the Skagerak, there may be ice and ice-sludge enough in the late\nwinter, and in the fjords as well; but in that case it is probable that he\nwould also have seen solid ice in the fjords, and would have been able to\ngive a clearer description of the whole, which would have left no room for\nsuch misunderstandings on the part of Polybius and Strabo. It may also\nappear unlikely that Pytheas should not have known ice before; he must,\none would think, have seen it on pools of water in the winter even in\nMassalia, and from the Black Sea ice was, of course, well known to the\nGreeks. But then it is strange that he should have given such an obscure\ndescription of such a condition, and have said that the land was also\ninvolved in the mixture; unless we are to regard the whole passage as\nfigurative, in which case the word land may be taken as an expression for\nthe solid as opposed to the liquid form (the sea) and the gaseous (the\nair).\n\nIt appears most probable that Pytheas himself never saw the Polar Sea, but\nheard something about it from the natives,[67] and his description of the\nouter ocean has then been coloured by older Greek, or even Ph\u0153nician,\nideas.[68] It may suggest the old conception, which we find even in Homer,\nthat at the extreme limits of the world heaven, earth, ocean, and Tartarus\nmeet. To this may possibly have been added Platonic ideas of an\namalgamation of the elements, earth, sea, and air; and this may have led\nto a general supposition that in the outer ocean everything was merged in\na primeval chaos which was neither solid, liquid, nor gaseous. It is\nfurther legitimate to suppose that Pytheas in the course of his voyage in\nnorthern waters may have thought in some way or other that he had found\nindications of such a state of things as pointed out by K\u00e4hler [1903], for\nexample, when he arrived at the flat coasts of Holland and North Germany\n(die Wattenzone), where the sea at high water pours in over the swampy\nland through a network of innumerable channels, which might suggest the\nidea of a lung, and where the peat bogs are sometimes impossible to\ntraverse, being neither land nor sea. If Pytheas said that this was like a\nlung, he can only have used the word as a figure of speech, for it is\nincredible that he should have really regarded this as the lung of the\nsea, whose breathing was the ebb and flood, as he had discovered the\nconnection between the tides and the moon.\n\nOther interpretations are also possible; but as we do not know what\nPytheas really said, a true solution of the riddle is unattainable, and it\nis vain to speculate further upon it. In any case one thing is certain:\nhis description of the outer ocean gave rise to an idea in the minds of\nothers that it was sluggish and stiffened, or congealed, a conception\nwhich is current with most later authors who have written on it, far down\ninto the Middle Ages. It is the same idea which we recognise as the\ncongealed (\"geliber\u00f4t\") sea in the \"Meregarto\" and under the name of\n\"Lebermeer\" in German medi\u00e6val poetry, \"la mar bet\u00e9e\" in French, and \"la\nmar betada\" in Proven\u00e7al poetry. Seafaring peoples between the Red and the\nYellow Seas have similar tales,[69] but whether they are due to Greek\ninfluence or the reverse is not easy to decide.\n\n[Sidenote: The voyage along the coast of Germany]\n\nSince Pytheas, as mentioned above, was probably acquainted with both the\neast and west coasts of Britain, we must assume either that on his way\nback from Norway he sailed southwards along the side which he had not seen\non his voyage northwards, or else that he made more than one voyage to\nBritain. From Strabo (see above, p. 66) we know that Pytheas also asserted\nthat he had visited \"the whole ocean coast of Europe from Gadeira to\nTanais,\" and that he had furnished information \"about the Osti\u00e6i[70] and\nthe countries beyond the Rhine as far as the Scythians,\" all of which\nStrabo looks upon as imaginary. As Thule is never alluded to as lying\nnorth of these regions, but always as north of Britain, we cannot believe\nthat he went straight from Norway south or south-eastwards to Jutland or\nthe north coast of Germany. The meaning of Strabo's words must be that he\nclaimed to have sailed along the west and north-west coast of Europe\n(which looks towards the ocean) as far as the borders of Asia, since\nTanais (the Don) was generally used as defining the frontier of the two\ncontinents.\n\nWe do not know when Pytheas undertook this voyage; but the passage quoted\nfrom Strabo [ii. 104] points to some time after the journey to Thule.\nThere is no sufficient reason for believing that it was all accomplished\nat one time, or even in one year, as some will have it. It is more\nprobable that a discoverer and explorer like Pytheas made several voyages,\naccording as he had opportunity; and the rich commercial city of Massalia\nwas greatly interested in the communications with the tin and amber\ncountries, and in hearing about them.\n\n[Sidenote: Abalus and Balcia]\n\nOn his voyage along the coast beyond the Rhine, Pytheas must have come to\nan island where there was amber, for according to Pliny [Nat. Hist.,\nxxxvii. 2, 11]: \"Pytheas relates that the 'Gutones,' a Germanic people,\ndwelt on a bay of the sea ('\u00e6stuarium') called 'Metuonidis,'[71] the\nextent of which was 6000 stadia. From thence it was one day's sail to the\nisland of 'Abalus.' Here in the spring the waves cast up amber, which is\nwashed out of the congealed sea ['mare concretum,' the Polar Sea]. The\nnatives use it instead of wood for fire, and sell it to the neighbouring\nTeutons. This was also believed by Tim\u00e6us, but he calls the island\n'Basilia.'\"\n\nIt is possible that this island, Abalus, is the same as the amber island\nmentioned in another passage of Pliny [iv. 13, 27], where he says of the\nScythian coast that there are reports of \"many islands without a name, and\nTim\u00e6us relates that among them is one off Scythia, a day's sail away,\nwhich is called 'Baunonia,' and on which the waves cast up amber in the\nspringtime.\" In any case they are both mentioned in very similar terms\n[cf. Hergt, 1893, pp. 31 f.]. In the same place we read that \"Xenophon, of\nLampsacus [about 100 B.C.], mentions that three days' sail from the\nScythian coast there is an island called 'Balcia,' of immense size.\nPythias calls it 'Basilia.'\" This conflicts with the passage quoted above\nfrom Pliny, and here there must be a misunderstanding or confusion of some\nkind, either on the part of Pliny or of his authority. A possible\nexplanation may be that Pytheas referred to his island of Abalus as a\n\u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u03bd\u03b7\u03c3\u03bf\u03c2, i.e., an island with a king [cf. Detlefsen, 1904, p. 18].\nThis would agree with the statement of Diodorus Siculus (1st century B.C.)\n[v. 23], which he gives without quoting any authority: \"Just opposite\nScythia, above Galatia [Gaul], an island lies in the ocean called\n'Basilia'; upon it amber is cast up by the waves, which is otherwise not\nfound in any place on the earth.\" It is probable that this is taken from\nTim\u00e6us and originally derived from Pytheas, and that the island is the\nsame as Abalus. It is to be noticed that in Pytheas's time the name\nGermania was not yet used; northern Europe, east of the Rhine, was counted\nas Scythia, whereas the name Germania was well known in the time of\nDiodorus.\n\nPytheas may also have heard of, or visited, a country or a large island\n(Jutland ?), which lay three days' sail from the coast he was sailing\nalong, and he may likewise have referred to it as a king's island\n(\u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1). Tim\u00e6us, or others, may have taken this for a name, both for\nAbalus and for this larger and more distant island, which has later been\nassumed to be the same as Balcia, a name that may be derived either from\nPytheas or from some later writer.\n\nAs the Gutones resemble the Gytoni (Goths) of Tacitus, who lived on the\nVistula, and as further Basilia and Balcia were the same country, the name\nof which was connected with that of the Baltic Sea, and as this country\nwas identified with the south of Sweden, it was thought that Pytheas must\nhave been in the amber country on the south coast of the Baltic, and even\nin Sk\u00e5ne. This view may appear to be supported by the fact that Strabo\nsays he lied about the \"Osti\u00e6i,\" who might then be the Esthonians. But as\nalready remarked this word may be an error for \"Ostimians\"; and Gutones\nmay further be an error for Teutones, since a carelessly written \u03a4\u03b5\u03c5 may\neasily be read as \u0393\u03bf\u03c5 [cf. Hergt, 1893, p. 33], and immediately afterwards\nit is stated that the Teutones (not Gutones) lived near Abalus. Whether\nPytheas really mentioned \"Balcia\" or \"Baltia\" is, as already remarked,\nextremely doubtful; but even if he did so, and even if it lay in the\nBaltic, it is not certain that he was there, and he may only have been\ntold about it. We need not therefore believe that he went farther than the\ncoast of the North Sea. \"Abalus\" may have been Heligoland [cf. Hergt], or\nperhaps rather one of the islands of Sleswick,[72] where beach-washed\namber is common, as along the whole west coast of Jutland. The statement\nthat the natives used amber as fuel is a misunderstanding, which may be\ndue to a discovery of Pytheas that amber was combustible. If he had really\nsailed past the Skaw and through the Belts into the Baltic, it is unlikely\nthat he should only have mentioned one amber island Abalus, and another\nimmense island farther off. We should expect him to have changed the ideas\nof his time about these regions to a greater extent than this. It is true\nthat he might have travelled overland to the south coast of the Baltic;\nbut neither is this very probable. It must nevertheless be borne in mind,\nas will be pointed out later, that until Strabo's time no other voyages in\nthese regions were known in literature, and it is, therefore, possible\nthat much of what we find in Mela and Pliny on the subject was originally\nderived from Pytheas. If we did not possess this one chance passage in\nPliny about Abalus and the amber, we should not know that Pytheas had said\nanything about it. But of how much more are we ignorant for want of\nsimilar casual quotations?\n\n[Sidenote: Importance of Pytheas]\n\nLittle as we know of Pytheas himself, he yet appears to us as one of the\nmost capable and undaunted explorers the world has seen. Besides being the\nfirst, of whom we have certain record, to sail along the coasts of\nnorthern Gaul and Germany, he was the discoverer of Great Britain, of the\nScottish isles and Shetland, and last, but not least, of Thule or Norway,\nas far north as to the Arctic Circle. No other single traveller known to\nhistory has made such far-reaching and important discoveries.\n\nBut Pytheas was too far in advance of his time; his description of the new\nlands in the North was so pronouncedly antagonistic to current ideas that\nit won little acceptance throughout the whole succeeding period of\nantiquity. His younger contemporary, Dic\u00e6archus, doubted him, and Polybius\nand Strabo, who came two hundred and three hundred years later,\nendeavoured, as we have seen, to throw suspicion upon Pytheas and to stamp\nhim as an impostor. The two eminent geographers and astronomers,\nEratosthenes and Hipparchus, seem to have valued him more according to his\ndeserts. Polybius's desire to lessen the fame of Pytheas may perhaps be\nexplained by the fact that the former, a friend of Scipio, had taken part\nin many Roman campaigns, and claimed to be more widely travelled than any\nother geographer. But as his farthest north was the south of Gaul, he did\nnot like the idea that an earlier traveller, who enjoyed great renown,\nshould have penetrated so much farther into regions which were entirely\nunknown to himself. Men are not always above such littleness.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The World according to Strabo (K. Kretschmer, 1892)]\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nANTIQUITY, AFTER PYTHEAS\n\n\nThere was a long interval after the time of Pytheas before the world's\nknowledge of the North was again added to, so far as we can judge from the\nliterature that has come down to us. The mist in which for a moment he\nshowed a ray of light settled down again. That no other known traveller\ncan have penetrated into these northern regions during the next two or\nthree centuries appears from the unwillingness of Polybius and Strabo to\nbelieve in Pytheas, and from the fact that Strabo pronounces him a liar\n[i. 63], because \"all who have seen Britain and Ierne say nothing about\nThule, though they mention other small islands near Britain\"; furthermore,\nhe says expressly [vii. 294] that \"the region along the ocean beyond Albis\n[the Elbe] is entirely unknown to us. For neither do we know of any one\namong the ancients who made this voyage along the coast in the eastern\nregions to the opening of the Caspian Sea, nor have the Romans ever\npenetrated into the countries beyond Albis, nor has any one yet traversed\nthem by land.\" If any other traveller had been currently mentioned in\nliterature it is incredible that the well-read Strabo should not have\nknown it. He therefore ascribed all that he found about these regions to\nPytheas.\n\nThere are nevertheless indications that the Greeks had commercial\nrelations with the coasts of the Baltic and North Sea, and fresh obscure\nstatements, which may be derived from such a connection, appear later in\nPliny, and to some extent also in Mela. It may be supposed that\nenterprising Greek traders and seamen, enticed by Pytheas's accounts of\nthe amber country, attempted to follow in his track, and succeeded in\nreaching the land of promise whence this costly commodity came. And if\nthey had once found out the way, they would certainly not have\nrelinquished it except upon compulsion. But it must be remembered that the\nvoyage was long, and that they had first to pass through the western\nMediterranean and the Pillars of Hercules, where the Carthaginians had\nregained their power and obtained the command of the sea. The overland\nroute was easier and safer; it ran through the country of tribes which in\nthose distant times may have been comparatively peaceful. The trade\ncommunication between the Black Sea and the Baltic countries seems, as\nmentioned above, to have developed early, and it may be thought that the\nactive Greek traders would try it in order to reach a district where so\nmuch profit was to be expected; but no certain indication of this\ncommunication can be produced from any older author of note after\nPytheas's time, so far as we know them, and even so late an author as\nPtolemy has little to tell us of the regions east of the Vistula.\n\n[Sidenote: Eratosthenes, c. 200 B.C.]\n\nThe founder of scientific geography, Eratosthenes (275-circa 194\nB.C.),[73] librarian of the Museum of Alexandria, based what he says of\nthe North chiefly on Pytheas. He divided the surface of the earth into\nclimates (zones) and constructed the first map of the world, whereon an\nattempt was made to fix the position of the various places by lines of\nlatitude and meridians. He started with seven known points, along the old\nmeridian of Rhodes. They were: Thule, the Borysthenes, the Hellespont,\nRhodes, Alexandria, Syene, and Meroe. Through these points he laid down\nlines of latitude (see the map). He also made an attempt to calculate the\ncircumference of the globe by measurement, and found it 250,000 stadia (==\n25,000 geographical miles), which is 34,000 stadia (== 3400 geographical\nmiles) too much. He placed the island of Thule under the Arctic\nCircle,[74] far out in the sea to the north of Brettanice. This was to him\nthe uttermost land and the northern limit of the \"\u0153cumene,\" which he\ncalculated to be 38,000 stadia (== 3800 geographical miles) broad,[75]\nwhich according to his measurement of the circumference of the earth is\nabout 54\u00b0 17', since each of his degrees of latitude will be about 700\nstadia. His \"\u0153cumene\" thus extended from the latitude of the Cinnamon\nCoast (Somaliland) and Taprobane (Ceylon), 8800 stadia north of the\nequator, to the Arctic Circle. South of it was uninhabitable on account of\nthe heat, and north of it all was frozen.\n\nEratosthenes was especially an advocate of the island-form of the\n\"\u0153cumene,\" and thought that it was entirely surrounded by the ocean, which\nhad been encountered in every quarter where the utmost limits of the world\nhad been reached. By a perversion of the journey of Patrocles to a voyage\nround India and the east coast of the continent into the Caspian Sea, he\nagain represented the latter as an open bay of the northern ocean, in\nspite of the fact that Herodotus, and also Aristotle, had asserted that it\nwas closed. The view that the Caspian Sea was a bay remained current until\nthe time of Ptolemy. Eratosthenes also held that the occurrence of tides\non all the outer coasts was a proof of the continuity of the ocean. He\nsaid that \"if the great extent of the Atlantic Ocean did not make it\nimpossible, we should be able to make the voyage from Iberia to India\nalong the same latitude.\" This was 1700 years before Columbus.\n\n[Illustration: Reconstruction of Eratosthenes' map of the world (K.\nMiller, 1898)]\n\nWith the scientific investigator's lack of respect for authorities, he had\nthe audacity to doubt Homer's geographical knowledge, and gave offence to\nmany by saying that people would never discover where the islands of\n\u00c6olus, Circe, and Calypso, described in the Odyssey, really were, until\nthey had found the tailor who had made the bag of the winds for \u00c6olus.\n\n[Sidenote: Hipparchus, 190-125 B.C.]\n\nHipparchus (circa 190-125 B.C.) also relies upon Pytheas, and has nothing\nnew to tell us of the northern regions. Against Eratosthenes' proof of the\ncontinuity of the ocean, to which allusion has just been made, he objected\nthat the tides are by no means uniform on all coasts, and in support of\nthis assertion he referred to the Babylonian Seleucus.[76] But it is not\nclear whether Hipparchus was an opponent of the doctrine of the\nisland-form of the \"\u0153cumene,\" as has been generally supposed; probably he\nmerely wished to point out that the evidence adduced by Eratosthenes was\ninsufficient. Hipparchus calculated a continuous table of latitude, or\nclimate-table, for the various known localities, as far north as Thule. He\nintroduced the division into degrees. It is also probable that he was the\nfirst to use a kind of map-projection with the aid of converging\nmeridians, which he drew in straight lines; but as he was more an\nastronomer than a geographer it is unlikely that he constructed any\ncomplete map of the world.\n\n[Illustration: Terrestrial globe, according to Crates of Mallus (K.\nKretschmer)]\n\n[Sidenote: Polybius, 204-127 B.C.]\n\nPolybius (circa 204-127 B.C.), as we have seen, pronounced against the\ntrustworthiness of Pytheas, and declared that all the country north of\nNarbo, the Alps, and the Tanais was unknown. Like Herodotus, he left the\nquestion open whether there was a continuous ocean on the north side; but\nhe appears to have inclined to the old notion of the \"\u0153cumene\" as\ncircular.\n\n[Sidenote: Crates of Mallus, 150 B.C.]\n\nThe Stoic and grammarian Crates of Mallus (about 150 B.C.), who was not a\ngeographer, constructed the first terrestrial globe, in which he made the\nAtlantic Ocean extend like a belt round the world through both the poles,\nand with the Stoic's worship of Homer he thought he could follow in this\nocean Odysseus's voyage to the regions of the L\u00e6strygons' long day and\nthe Cimmerians' polar night. Since the school of the Stoics considered it\nnecessary that there should be ocean in the torrid zone, so that the sun\nmight easily keep up its warmth by the aid of vapours from the sea--for\nwarmth was supported by moisture--Crates placed a belt of ocean round the\nearth between the tropics, which formed the limits of the sun's path.\nThese two belts of water left four masses of land of which only one was\nknown to men.\n\n[Sidenote: Posidonius, 135-51 B.C.]\n\nThe physical geographer Posidonius of Apamea in Syria (135-51 B.C.), who\nlived for a long time at Rhodes, took the Rhip\u00e6an Mountains for the Alps,\nand speaks of the Hyperboreans to the north of them. He thought that the\nOcean surrounded the \"\u0153cumene\" continuously:\n\n \"for its waves were not confined by any fetters of land, but it\n stretched to infinity and nothing made its waters turbid.\"\n\nA ship sailing with an east wind from the Pillars of Hercules must reach\nIndia after traversing 70,000 stadia, which he thought was the\nhalf-circumference of the earth along the latitude of Rhodes. The greatest\ncircumference he calculated at 180,000 stadia. These erroneous\ncalculations were adopted by Ptolemy, and were afterwards of great\nsignificance to Columbus.\n\nHe made a journey as far as Gadir in order to see the outer Ocean for\nhimself, to measure the tides and to examine the correctness of the\ngenerally accepted idea that the sun, on its setting in the western ocean,\ngave out a hissing sound like a red-hot body being dipped into water. He\nrightly connected the tides with the moon, finding that their monthly\nperiod corresponded with the full moon; whereas others had thought, for\ninstance, that they were due to changes in the rivers of Gaul.\n\n[Sidenote: C\u00e6sar, 55-45 B.C.]\n\nC\u00e6sar's Gallic War and his invasion of Britain (55-45 B.C.) contributed\nfresh information about these portions of Western Europe; but it cannot be\nseen that they gave anything new about the North. C\u00e6sar describes Britain\nas a triangle. This is undoubtedly the same idea that we find in his\ncontemporary Diodorus Siculus, and is derived from Pytheas. C\u00e6sar merely\ngives different proportions between the sides from those of Diodorus. He\nputs Hibernia to the west of Britain, not to the north like Strabo, and\nmakes its size about two-thirds of the latter, from which it is separated\nby a strait of about the same breadth as that between Gaul and Britain.\nBetween Ireland (Hibernia) and Britain is an island, \"Mona\" (Anglesey),\nand scattered about it many other islands. In some of them there was said\nto be a month of unbroken night at the winter solstice; but of this C\u00e6sar\nwas unable to obtain certain information. This must be an echo of the\ntales about Thule, which he had got from older Greek or Roman authors.\n\nC\u00e6sar is a good example of the Romans' views of and sense for geography.\nIn spite of this military nation having extended their empire to the\nbounds of the unknown in every direction, they never produced a scientific\ngeographer, nor did they send out anything that we should call a voyage of\nexploration, as the Ph\u0153nicians, Carthaginians, and Greeks had done. They\nwere above all a practical people, with more sense for organisation than\nfor research and science, and in addition they lacked commercial interests\nas compared with those other peoples. But during their long campaigns\nunder the Empire, and by their extensive communications with the most\ndistant regions, they brought together an abundance of geographical\ninformation hitherto unknown to the classical world. It is natural that it\nshould have been a Greek who, in one of the most important geographical\nworks that have come down to us from ancient times, endeavoured to collect\na part of this information, together with the knowledge already acquired\nby the Greeks, into a systematic statement.\n\n[Sidenote: Strabo, Christian era]\n\nThis man was the famous geographer Strabo, a native of Asia Minor (about\n63 B.C.-25 A.D.). But unfortunately this critic has nothing to tell us\nabout the North, and in his anxiety to avoid exaggeration he has, like\nPolybius, been at great pains to discredit Pytheas, of whose statements he\nwill take no account; nor has he made use of the knowledge of the\nnorthernmost regions which we see, from Pliny among others, that other\nGreek authors possessed. He has not even made use of the geographical\nknowledge which was gained in his own time during the Roman campaign in\nNorthern Germania under Augustus, if indeed he knew of it. To him the\nIster (Danube), the mountainous districts of the Hercynian Forest, and the\ncountry as far as the Tyreget\u00e6 formed, roughly, the northern boundary of\nthe known world. He thinks it is only ignorance of the more distant\nregions that has made people believe the fables \"of the Rhip\u00e6an Mountains\nand the Hyperboreans, as well as all that Pytheas of Massalia has invented\nabout the coast of the ocean, making use of his astronomical and\nmathematical knowledge as a cloak.\" \"Ierne\" (Ireland) was placed by Strabo\nout in the ocean to the north of Britain. He took it for the most northern\nland, and thought that its latitude (which would have to be about 54\u00b0 N.)\nformed the boundary of the \"\u0153cumene.\"\n\n \"For,\" he says [ii. 115], \"living writers tell us of nothing beyond\n Ierne, which lies near to Britain on the north, and is inhabited by\n savages who live miserably on account of the cold.\" He says further\n [iv. 201] of this island at the end of the world: \"of this we have\n nothing certain to relate, except that its inhabitants are even more\n savage than the Britons, as they are both cannibals and omnivorous [or\n grass-eaters ?], and consider it commendable to devour their deceased\n parents,[77] as well as openly to have commerce not only with other\n women, but also with their own mothers and sisters. But this we relate\n perhaps without sufficient authority; although cannibalism at least is\n said to be a Scythian custom, and the Celts, the Iberians, and other\n peoples are reported to have practised it under the stress of a\n siege.\"\n\nStrabo evidently attributes to a cold climate a remarkable capacity for\nbrutalising people, and he considers that the reports of the still more\ndistant Thule must be even more uncertain.\n\nThe breadth of the \"\u0153cumene,\" from north to south, he made only 30,000\nstadia, and thought that Eratosthenes, deceived by the fables of Pytheas,\nhad put the limit 8000 stadia (== 11\u00b0 26') too far north. Of the countries\nbeyond the Albis (Elbe), he says, nothing is known. Nevertheless he\nmentions the Cimbri as dwelling on a peninsula by the northern ocean; but\nhe has no very clear idea of where this peninsula is.\n\n No one can believe, he thinks [vii. 292], that the reason for their\n wandering and piratical life was that they were driven out of their\n peninsula [which must be Jutland] by a great inundation, for they\n still have the same country as before, and it is ridiculous to suppose\n that they left it in anger at a natural and constant phenomenon, which\n occurs twice daily [i.e., the tides], etc. But it appears from\n Strabo's statements that there had been many reports of a great\n storm-flood in Denmark, which the Cimbri escaped from with difficulty.\n\n Of the customs of these people Strabo relates among other things that\n they were accompanied on their expeditions by priestesses with gray\n hair, white clothes, and bare feet. \"They went with drawn swords to\n meet the captives in the camp, crowned them with garlands and led them\n to a sacrificial vessel of metal, holding twenty amphor\u00e6 [Roman cubic\n feet]. Here they had a ladder, upon which one of them mounted and,\n bent over the vessel, they cut the throat of the prisoner, who was\n held up. They made auguries from the blood running into the vessel;\n while others opened the corpse and inspected the entrails, prophesying\n victory for their army. And in battle they beat skins stretched upon\n the wicker-work of their chariots, making a hideous noise.\" This is\n one of the first descriptions of the customs of the warrior-hordes\n roving about Europe, who came in contact with the classical world from\n the unknown north, and who in later centuries were to come more\n frequently. But the description is certainly influenced by Greek\n ideas.\n\nStrabo thought that besides the world known to the Greeks and Romans,\nother continents or worlds, where other races of men dwelt, might be\ndiscovered.\n\n[Sidenote: Albinovanus Pedo]\n\nIn a work called \"Suasori\u00e6\" (circa 37 A.D.) of the Spanish-born\nrhetorician Seneca there are preserved fragments of a poem, written by\nAlbinovanus Pedo (in the time of Augustus), which described an expedition\nof Germanicus in the North Sea. It has been thought that this may have\nbeen the younger Germanicus's unfortunate campaign in 16 A.D., when he\nsailed out from the Ems with a fleet of a thousand ships. This supposition\nis strengthened by the fact that Tacitus mentions a cavalry leader,\nAlbinovanus Pedo, under the same commander in 15 A.D., and it is easy to\nbelieve that he was the poet.[78] But as this unhappy fleet did not get\nfar from the coast, and the poem describes a voyage into unknown regions,\nothers have thought that it might be an expedition undertaken by Drusus,\nthe elder Germanicus, in some year between 12 and 9 B.C.[79] How this may\nbe is of less importance to us, as the poem does not mention any fresh\ndiscoveries. It is interesting because it gives us a picture of the ideas\ncurrent at that time about the northern limits of the world. Where the\nfragments commence, the travellers have long ago left daylight and the sun\nbehind them, and, having passed beyond the limits of the known world,\nplunge boldly into the forbidden darkness towards the end of the western\nworld. There they believe that the sea, which beneath its sluggish\n(\"pigris\") waves is full of hideous monsters, savage whales (\"pistris\"),\nand sea-hounds (\"\u00e6quoreosque canes\" == seals ?), rises and takes hold of\nthe ship--the noise itself increases the horror--and now they think the\nships will stick in the mud, and the fleet will remain there, deserted by\nthe winds[80] of the ocean--now that they themselves will be left there\nhelpless and be torn to pieces by the monsters of the deep. And the man\nwho stands high in the prow strives with his eyes to break through the\nimpenetrable air, but can see nothing, and relieves his oppression in the\nfollowing words: \"Whither are we being carried? The day itself flees from\nus, and uttermost nature closes in the deserted world with continual\ndarkness. Or are we sailing towards people on the other side, who dwell\nunder another heaven, and towards another unknown world?[81] The gods call\nus back and forbid the eyes of mortals to see the boundary of things. Why\ndo we violate strange seas and sacred waters with our oars, disturbing the\npeaceful habitations of the gods?\"\n\nThis last conception is clearly derived from the \"Isles of the Blest\" of\nthe Greeks (originally of the Ph\u0153nicians), which were situated in the deep\ncurrents of Oceanus and are already referred to in Hesiod.\n\nSeneca, on the other hand, says of the outer limits of the world: \"Thus is\nnature, beyond all things is the ocean, beyond the ocean nothing\" (\"ita\nest rerum natura, post omnia oceanus, post oceanum nihil\"), and Pliny\nspeaks of the empty space (\"inane\") that puts an end to the voyage beyond\nthe ocean.\n\n[Sidenote: Augustus, 5 A.D.]\n\nIn the year 5 A.D. the emperor Augustus, in connection with Tiberius's\nexpedition to the Elbe, sent a Roman fleet from the Rhine along the coast\nof Germania; it sailed northward by the land of the Cimbri (Jutland), past\nits northern extremity (the Skaw), probably into the Cattegat, and perhaps\nto the Danish islands. Augustus himself, in the Ancyra inscription, tells\nus of the voyage of this fleet, and says that it came \"even to the people\nof the Cimbri, whither before that time no Roman had penetrated either by\nland or sea,[82] and the Cimbri and the Charydes (Harudes, Horder), and\nthe Semnones, and other Germanic peoples in those districts sent\nambassadors to ask for my friendship and that of the Roman people.\"[83]\nVelleius [ii. 106] also gives an account of this voyage, and Pliny [ii.\n167] gives the following description of it: \"The Northern Ocean has also\nbeen in great part traversed; by the orders of the divine Augustus a fleet\nsailed round Germania to the Cimbrian Cape, and saw therefrom a sea that\nwas immeasurable, or heard that it was so, and came to the Scythian region\nand to places that were stiff [with cold] from too much moisture. It is\ntherefore very improbable that the seas can run short where there is such\nsuperfluity of moisture.\" M\u00fcllenhoff thinks [iv., 1900, p. 45] that on\nthis voyage they saw the Norwegian mountains, the immense \"Mons S\u00e6vo\" (see\nlater under Pliny), rising out of the sea. This is not impossible, but we\nread nothing about it; nor indeed is it very probable. On the other hand,\nit is likely that the voyage resulted in fresh knowledge about the North,\nand that at any rate some of the statements in Mela and Pliny may be\nderived from this source.\n\n[Sidenote: Mela, c. 43 A.D.]\n\nThe oldest known Latin geography, \"De Chorographia,\" was written about 43\nA.D. by an otherwise unknown Pomponius Mela, of Tingentera, in Spain.\nWith the strange mental poverty of Roman literature, Mela bases his work\nchiefly on older Greek sources (e.g., Herodotus and Eratosthenes) which\nare several centuries before his time; but in addition he gives much\ninformation not found elsewhere. Whether this is also for the most part\ntaken from older writers it is impossible to say, as he nowhere gives his\nauthorities. His descriptions, especially those of more distant regions,\nare sometimes made obscure and contradictory by his evidently having drawn\nupon different sources without combining them into a whole.\n\n[Illustration: The world according to Mela]\n\nHe begins with these words of wisdom: \"All this, whatever it is, to which\nwe give the name of universe and heaven, is one and includes itself and\neverything in a circle ('ambitu'). In the middle of the universe floats\nthe earth, which is surrounded on all sides by sea, and is divided by it\nfrom west to east [that is, by the equatorial sea, as in Crates of Mallus]\ninto two parts, which are called hemispheres.\" Whether one is to conclude\nfrom this that the earth in his opinion was a sphere or a round disc, he\nseems to leave the reader to determine. He divides the earth into the five\nzones of Parmenides. The two temperate or habitable zones seem, according\nto Mela, to coincide with the two masses of land, while the uninhabitable\nones, the torrid and the two frigid zones, are continuous sea. On the\nsouthern continent dwell the Antichthons, who are unknown, on account of\nthe heat of the intervening region. On the northern one we dwell, and this\nis what he proposes to describe.\n\nEurope is bounded on the west by the Atlantic, and on the north by the\nBritish Ocean. Asia has on the north the Scythian Ocean.\n\n [iii. c. 5.] In proof of the continuity of these oceans he appeals not\n only to the physicists and Homer, but also to Cornelius Nepos, \"who is\n more modern and trustworthy,\" and who confirms it and \"cites Quintus\n Metellus Celer as witness thereto, and says that he has narrated the\n following: When he was governing Gaul as proconsul the king of the\n Boti[84] gave him some Indians,\" who \"by stress of storm had been\n carried away from Indian waters, and after having traversed all the\n space between, had finally reached the shores of Germania.\"\n\nMela has many ancient fables to tell of the peoples in the northern\ndistricts of Germania, Sarmatia and Scythia, which last was his name for\nwhat is now Russia and for the north of Asia. It appears that he too was\nof the opinion that a cold climate develops savagery and cruelty.\n\n He says of Germania [iii. c. 3]: \"The inhabitants are immense in soul\n and body; and besides their natural savagery they exercise both, their\n souls in warfare, their bodies by accustoming them to constant\n hardship, especially cold.\" \"Might is right to such an extent that\n they are not even ashamed of robbery; only to their guests are they\n kind, and merciful towards suppliants.\" The people of Sarmatia were\n nomads. [iii. c. 4.] \"They are alike warlike, free, unconstrained, and\n so savage and cruel that the women go to war together with the men. In\n order that they may be fitted thereto the right breast is burned off\n immediately after birth, whereby the hand which is drawn out [in\n drawing a bow] becomes adapted for shooting [by the breast not coming\n in the way or because the arm grew stronger] and the breast becomes\n manly.[85] To draw the bow, to ride and to hunt are employments for\n the young girls; when grown up it is their duty to fight the foe, so\n that it is held to be a shame not to have killed some one, and the\n punishment is that they are not allowed to marry.\"[86] It would appear\n that the northern countries, according to the view of Mela, had a\n tendency to \"emancipate\" women, even though he always regards it as a\n severe punishment for them to have to live as virgins.[86] Among the\n Xamati in his western Asia, at the mouth of the Tanais [i. c. 19],\n \"the women engage in the same occupations as the men.\" \"The men fight\n on foot and with arrows, the women on horseback, not using swords, but\n catching men in snares and killing them by dragging them along.\" Those\n who have not killed an enemy must live unmarried. Amongst other\n peoples the women do not confine themselves to this snaring of men;\n the M\u00e6otides who dwell in the country of the Amazons are governed by\n women; and farthest north live the Amazons; but he does not tell us\n whether the latter could dispense with men altogether, and reproduce\n themselves like the women he tells us of on an island off the coast of\n Africa, who were hairy all over the body. \"This is related by Hanno,\n and it seems worthy of credit, because he brought back the skin of\n some he had killed.\" [iii. c. 9.]\n\nBut this increasing savagery towards the north had a limit, as in the\nearly Greek idea, after which things became better again; for beyond the\ncountry of the Amazons [i. c. 19] and other wild races, like the\nThyssaget\u00e6 and Turc\u00e6 who inhabited immense forests and lived by\nhunting,[87] there extended, apparently towards the north-east (?), a\n\"great desert and rugged tract, full of mountains, as far as the\nAremph\u00e6ans, who had very just customs and were looked upon as holy.\"[88]\n\"Beyond them rise the Rhip\u00e6an Mountains and behind them lies the region\nthat borders on the Ocean.\" In addition, the happy \"Hyperboreans\" dwelt in\nthe north. In his description of Scythia he says of them [iii. c. 5]:\n\"Then [i.e., after Sarmatia] come the neighbouring parts of Asia [or the\nparts bordering on Asia ?]. Except where continual winter and unbearable\ncold reigns, the Scythian people dwell there, almost all known by the name\nof 'Belc\u00e6' (?). On the shore of Asia come first the Hyperboreans, beyond\nthe north wind and the Rhip\u00e6an Mountains under the very pivot of the\nstars\" [i.e., the pole]. In their country the sun rose at the vernal\nequinox and set at the autumnal equinox, so that they had six months day\nand six months night. \"This narrow [or holy ?] sunny land is in itself\nfertile.\" He goes on to give a description of the happy life of the\nHyperboreans, taken from Greek sources.\n\n[Illustration: Europe according to the description of Mela]\n\nOn north-western Europe Mela has much information which is not met with in\nearlier authors. The tin-islands, the Cassiterides, lay off the north-west\nof Spain, where the \"Celtici\" lived [iii. c. 6]. \"Beyond ('super')\nBritain is Juverna [Ireland], nearly as large, with a climate unfavourable\nto the ripening of corn, but with such excellent pastures that if the\ncattle are allowed to graze for more than a small part of the day, they\nburst in pieces. The inhabitants are rude and more ignorant than other\npeoples of all kinds of virtue. Religion is altogether unknown to them.\"\n\n\"The Orcades are thirty in number, divided from each other by narrow\nstraits; the H\u00e6mod\u00e6 seven, drawn towards Germany\" (\"septem H\u00e6mod\u00e6 contra\nGermaniam vect\u00e6\"). This is the first time, so far as is known, that these\ntwo groups of islands are mentioned in literature. Diodorus, it is true,\nhad already spoken of \"Orkan\" or \"Orkas,\" but not as a group of islands.\nAs this name is probably derived from Pytheas, it is likely that the\nother, \"H\u00e6mod\u00e6,\" is also his. Possibly the groups were re-discovered under\nthe emperor Claudius (about 43 A.D.) or more definite information may have\nbeen received about them; but on the other hand, Mela says that the\nknowledge of Britain that was acquired during this campaign would be\nbrought back by Claudius himself in his triumph. It will be most\nreasonable to suppose that Mela's thirty Orcades are the Orkneys--the\nnumber is approximately correct--and not the Orkneys and Shetlands\ntogether. The seven H\u00e6mod\u00e6, on the other hand, must be the latter, and can\nhardly be the Hebrides, as many would believe, since Mela mentions the\nislands off the west coast of Europe in a definite order, and he names\nfirst \"Juverna,\" then the \"Orcades,\" and next the \"H\u00e6mod\u00e6,\" which are\n\"carried ('vect\u00e6') towards Germany\"[89] (cf. also Pliny later).\n\nIn his description of Germania [iii. c. 3] Mela says:\n\n \"Beyond ('super') Albis is an immense bay, Codanus, full of many great\n and small islands. Here the sea which is received in the bosom of the\n shore is nowhere broad and nowhere like a sea, but as the waters\n everywhere flow between and often go over [i.e., over the tongues of\n land or shallows which connect the islands] it is split up into the\n appearance of rivers, which are undefined and widely separated; where\n the sea touches the shores [of the mainland], since it is held in by\n the shores of the islands which are not far from each other, and since\n nearly everywhere it is not large [i.e., broad], it runs in a narrow\n channel and like a strait ('fretum'), and turning with the shore it is\n curved like a long eyebrow. In this [sea] dwell the Cimbri and the\n Teutons, and beyond [the sea, or the Cimbri and Teutons ?] the extreme\n people of Germania, namely the Hermiones.\"\n\nThe meaning of this description, which seems to be as involved as the many\nsounds he is talking about, must probably be that in the immense bay of\nCodanus there are a number of islands with many narrow straits between\nthem, like rivers. Along the shore of the mainland there is formed, by the\nalmost continuous line of islands lying outside, a long curving strait,\nwhich is nearly everywhere of the same narrowness. In this sea--that is to\nsay, on the peninsulas and islands in this bay--dwell the Cimbri and\nTeutons, and farther away in Germania the Hermiones.\n\n[Illustration: Island with Hippopod or horse-footed man (from the Hereford\nmap)]\n\nIn his account of the islands along the coast of Europe, Mela says further\n[iii. c. 6]:\n\n[Sidenote: Codanus]\n\n \"In the bay which we have called Codanus is amongst the islands\n Codanovia, which is still inhabited by the Teutons, and it surpasses\n the others both in size and in fertility. The part which lies towards\n the Sarmatians seems sometimes to be islands and sometimes connected\n land, on account of the backward and forward flow of the sea, and\n because the interval which separates them is now covered by the waves,\n now bare. Upon these it is asserted that the \u0152neans dwell, who live\n entirely on the eggs of fen-fowl and on oats, the Hippopods with\n horses' feet, and the Sanalians, who have such long ears that they\n cover the whole body with them instead of clothes, since they\n otherwise go naked. For these things, besides what is told in fables,\n I find also authorities whom I think I may follow. Towards the coast\n of the Belg\u00e6[90] lies Thule, famous in Greek poems and in our own;\n there the nights in any case are short, since the sun, when it has\n long been about to set, rises up; but in the winter the nights are\n dark as elsewhere.... But at the summer solstice there is no night at\n all, because the sun then is already clearer, and not only shows its\n reflection, but also the greater part of itself.\"\n\nThus we see here, as in so many of the classical authors, and later in\nPliny, old legends and more trustworthy information hopelessly mixed\ntogether. The legends, whose Greek origin is disclosed by the form of the\nnames, may be old skippers' tales, or the romances of merchants who went\nnorthward from the Black Sea, but they may also in part be derived from\nPytheas. A fable like that of the long-eared Sanali (otherwise called\nPanoti) originally came from India and is later than his time. The\nstatement about the \u0152ne\u00e6, or, doubtless more correctly, \u0152on\u00e6 (i.e.,\negg-eaters), who live on eggs and oats, may, on the other hand, have\nreached him from the north, where the eggs both of fen-fowl (plovers'\neggs, for example) and of sea-birds were eaten from time immemorial. C\u00e6sar\nhad heard or read of people who lived on birds' eggs and fish on the\nislands at the mouth of the Rhine, but he may indeed have derived his\nknowledge from Greek sources [cf. M\u00fcllenhoff, i., 1870, p. 492].\n\n[Illustration: Island with long-eared man (from the Hereford map)]\n\nWhat Mela says about Thule probably comes from Pytheas, as already\nmentioned (p. 90), and it is very possible that the remarkable statements\nabout the immense bay of Codanus are likewise derived from him, although\nthey may also be ascribed to the circumnavigation of the Skaw under\nAugustus, or to other voyages in these waters of which we have no\nknowledge.\n\n[Sidenote: Codanovia]\n\nWhether Codanovia (which is not found in any other known author) is the\nsame name as the later Scadinavia in Pliny, must be regarded as uncertain.\nIt is the first time that such an island or that the bay of Codanus is\nmentioned in literature. This \"immense bay\" must certainly be the Cattegat\nwith the southern part of the Baltic; and the numerous islands which close\nit in to a curved strait or sound must be for the most part the Danish\nislands and perhaps southern Sweden. Whence the name is derived we do not\nknow for certain.[91]\n\n Ptolemy mentions three peoples in southern Jutland, and calls the\n easternmost of them \"Kobandoi.\" It is not likely that three peoples\n can have lived side by side in this narrowest part of the peninsula,\n and we must believe that some of them lived among the Danish islands,\n where Ptolemy does not give the name of any people. The \"Kobandoi\"\n would then be on the easternmost island, Sealand [cf. Much, 1893, pp.\n 198 f.]. Now it will easily be supposed that \"Codanus\" and \"Kobandoi\"\n have some connection or other; the latter might be a corruption of the\n name of a people, \"Kodanoi\" or \"Kodanioi.\" But as precisely these\n islands and the south of Sweden were inhabited by tribes of the\n Danes--of whom several are mentioned in literature: South Danes, North\n Danes, Sea Danes, Island Danes, etc.--it may be further supposed that\n \"Kodanioi\" is composed of \"ko\" or cow[92] and \"Daner\" (that is,\n Cow-Danes), and means a tribe of the latter who were remarkable for\n the number of their cows, which would be probable enough for a people\n in fertile Sealand (or in Sk\u00e5ne).[93] In this case \"Codanus\" must be\n derived from the name of this people, just as most of the names of\n seas and bays in these regions were taken from the names of peoples\n (e.g., \"Oceanus Germanicus,\" \"Mare Suebicum,\" \"Sinus Venedicum,\"\n \"Qu\u00e6ns\u00e6\"). The name \"Daner\" is one of those names of peoples that are\n so ancient that their derivation must be obscure.[94] Procopius uses\n it as a common name for many nations (\"ethne\"), in the same way as he\n names the \"ethne\" of the Slavs (see later, p. 146). It is also used in\n the early Middle Ages as a common name for the people of the North,\n like Eruli, and later Normans. It is therefore natural that there\n should have been special names for the tribes, like Sea-Danes,\n Cow-Danes, etc. \"Kodan-ovia\" (\"ovia,\" equivalent to Old High German\n \"ouwa\" or \"ouwia\") for island, Gothic \"avi,\" Old Norse \"ey\" [cf.\n Grimm, 1888, p. 505], must be the island on which this tribe lived,\n and this might then be Sealand (though Sk\u00e5ne is also possible).\n\nThat the Cimbri lived in Codanus suits very well, as their home was\nJutland;[95] on the other hand, we know less about the country inhabited\nby the Teutons. They must have been called in Germanic \"*\u00feeodonez\" (Gothic\n\"*\u00feiudans\" means properly kings), and the name has been connected with\nOld Norse \"\u00fei\u00f3d,\" now Thy (Old Danish \"Thythesyssel\") with its capital\nThisted, and the island Thyholm, in north-western Jutland [cf. Much, 1893,\npp. 7 ff.; 1905, p. 100].\n\nWhether the Vistula had its outlet into Codanus or farther east Mela does\nnot say, nor does he tell us whether Sarmatia was bounded by this gulf;\nbut this is not impossible, although Codanus is described at the end of\nthe chapter on Germania. Strangely enough, he says, according to the MSS.\n[iii. c. 4], that \"Sarmatia is separated from the following [i.e.,\nScythia] by the Vistula\"; it would thus lie on the western side of the\nriver, which seems curious. It might be possible that the islands off the\ncoast of Sarmatia are among the many which lay in Codanus (?). As Sarmatia\nlay to the east of Germania, these islands would in any case be as far\neast as the Baltic, if not farther; but there is no ebb and flood there by\nwhich the connecting land between them might be alternately covered and\nleft dry; on the other hand, the description suits the German North Sea\ncoast. Either Mela's authority has heard of the low-lying lands--the\nFrische Nehrung and the Kurische Nehrung, for instance--off the coast of\nthe amber country, and has added the tidal phenomena from the North Sea\ncoast, or, what is more probable, the Frisian islands, for example, may by\na misunderstanding have been moved eastwards into Sarmatia, since older\nwriters, who as yet made no distinction between Germania, Sarmatia and\nScythia, described them as lying far east, off the Scythian coast (perhaps\ntaken from the voyage of Pytheas).[96]\n\n[Sidenote: Voyage to Samland, circa 60 A.D.]\n\nThe emperor Nero's (54-68 A.D.) love of show led, according to Pliny [Nat.\nHist., xxxvii. 45], to the amber coast of the Baltic becoming \"first known\nthrough a Roman knight, whom Julianus sent to purchase amber, when he was\nto arrange a gladiatorial combat for the emperor Nero. This knight visited\nthe markets and the coasts and brought thence such a quantity that the\nnets which were hung up to keep the wild beasts away from the imperial\ntribune had a piece of amber in every mesh; indeed the weapons, the biers,\nand the whole apparatus of a day's festival were heavy with amber. The\nlargest piece weighed thirteen pounds.\" This journey must have followed an\nundoubtedly ancient trade-route from the Adriatic to Carnuntum (in\nPannonia), the modern Petronell on the Danube, where the latter is joined\nby the March, and from whence Pliny expressly says that the distance was\n600,000 paces to the amber coast, which agrees almost exactly with the\ndistance in a straight line to Samland. From Carnuntum the route lay along\nthe river March, thence overland to the upper Vistula, and so down this\nriver to Samland. It may easily be understood that much fresh knowledge\nreached Rome as a result of this journey.\n\n[Sidenote: Pliny 23-79 A.D.]\n\nThe elder Pliny's (23-79 A.D.) statements about the North, in his great\nwork \"Naturalis Historia\" (in thirty-seven books), are somewhat obscure\nand confused, and so far are no advance upon Mela; but we remark\nnevertheless that fresh knowledge has been acquired, and it is as though\nwe get a clearer vision of the new countries and seas through the northern\nmists. He himself says, moreover, that he \"has received information of\nimmense islands which have recently been discovered from Germania.\" His\nwork is in great part the fruit of an unusually extensive acquaintance\nwith older writers, mostly Greek, but also Latin. He repeats a good deal\nof what Mela says, or draws from the same sources, probably Greek.\n\nHis information about the North must have been obtained, so far as I can\nsee, mainly in three different ways: (1) Directly through the Romans'\nconnection with Germania and through their expeditions to its northern\ncoasts (under Augustus and Nero, for example). Pliny himself lived in\nGermania for several years (45-52 A.D.) as a Roman cavalry commander, and\nmay then have collected much information. (2) He has drawn extensively\nfrom Greek sources, whose statements about the North may have come partly\nby sea, chiefly through Pytheas (perhaps also through later trading\nvoyages); partly also by land, especially through commercial intercourse\nbetween the Black Sea and the Baltic.[97] (3) Finally he received\ninformation from Britain about the regions to the north. This may be\nderived partly from Greek sources, partly also from later Roman connection\nwith Britain. Mela expressly says of this country that new facts will soon\nbe known about it, \"for the greatest prince [the Emperor Claudius] is now\nopening up this country, which has so long been closed ... he has striven\nby war to obtain personal knowledge of these things, and will spread this\nknowledge at his triumph.\" The information obtained by Pliny through these\ndifferent channels is often used by him uncritically, without remarking\nthat different statements apply to the same countries and seas.\n\nHis theory of the universe was the usual one, that the universe was a\nhollow sphere which revolved in twenty-four hours with indescribable\nrapidity. \"Whether by the continual revolution of such a great mass there\nis produced an immense noise, exceeding all powers of hearing, I am no\nmore able to assert than that the sound produced by the stars circulating\nabout one another and revolving in their orbits, is a lovely and\nincredibly graceful harmony.\" The earth stood in the centre of the\nuniverse and had the form of a sphere. The land was everywhere surrounded\nby sea, which covers the greater part of the globe.\n\nIn his description of the North [iv. 12, 88 f.] Pliny begins at the east,\nand relies here entirely on Greek authorities.\n\n Far north in Scythia, beyond the Arimaspians, \"we come to the 'Rip\u00e6an'\n Mountains and to the district which on account of the ever-falling\n snow, resembling feathers, is called Pterophorus. This part of the\n world is accursed by nature and shrouded in thick darkness; it\n produces nothing else but frost and is the chilly hiding-place of the\n north wind. By these mountains and beyond the north wind dwells, if we\n are willing to believe it, a happy people, the Hyperboreans, who have\n long life and are famous for many marvels which border on the\n fabulous. There, it is said, are the pivots of the world, and the\n uttermost revolution of the constellations.\" The sun shines there for\n six months; but strangely enough it rises at the summer solstice and\n sets at the winter solstice, which shows Pliny's ignorance of\n astronomy. The climate is magnificent and without cold winds. As the\n sun shines for half the year, \"the Hyperboreans sow in the morning,\n harvest at midday, gather the fruit from the trees at evening, and\n spend the night in caves. The existence of this people is not to be\n doubted, since so many authors tell us about them.\"\n\nHaving then mentioned several districts bordering on the Black Sea, Pliny\ncontinues [iv. 13, 94 f.]:\n\n \"We will now acquaint ourselves with the outer parts of Europe, and\n turn, after having gone over the Rip\u00e6an Mountains, towards the left to\n the coast of the northern ocean, until we arrive again at Gades. Along\n this line many nameless islands are recorded. Tim\u00e6us mentions that\n among them there is one off Scythia called Baunonia, a day's sail\n distant, upon which the waves cast up amber in the spring. The\n remaining coasts are only known from doubtful rumours. Here is the\n northern ocean. Hecat\u00e6us calls it Amalcium, from the river\n Parapanisus[98] onwards and as far as it washes the coast of Scythia,\n which name [i.e., Amalcium] in the language of the natives means\n frozen.[99] Philemon[100] says that it was called by the Cimbri\n Morimarusa, that is, the dead sea; from thence and as far as the\n promontory Rusbeas, farther out, it is called Cronium. Xenophon of\n Lampsacus says that three days' sail from the Scythian coast is an\n island, Balcia, of enormous size; Pytheas calls it Basilia.\" He goes\n on to mention the \u0152on\u00e6, Hippopods, and Long-eared men in almost the\n same terms as Mela.\n\nThis mention of lands and seas in the North is of great interest. But in\nattempting to identify any of them in Pliny's description we must always\nremember that to him and his Greek authorities, and to all writers even in\nmuch later times, all land north of the coasts of Scythia, Sarmatia and\nGermania was nothing but islands in the northern ocean. Further, it must\nbe remembered that the ancient Greeks did not know the name Germania,\nwhich was not introduced until about 80 B.C. To them Scythia and Celtica\n(Gaul) were conterminous, and their Scythian coast might therefore lie\neither on the Baltic or the North Sea.\n\nIt has not been possible to decide where the name \"Rusbeas\" (called by\nSolinus \"Rubeas\") comes from;[101] but it is best understood if we take it\nto be southern Norway or Lindesnes. As the description begins at the east\non the Scythian coast, it follows that \"Amalcium\" is the Baltic as far as\nthe Danish islands and the land of the Cimbri. \"Morimarusa,\"[102] which\nextends from Amalcium to Lindesnes, will be the Cattegat (in part, at any\nrate) and the Skagerak. Cronium will be the North Sea and the Northern\nOcean beyond Lindesnes.[103] We must believe that Philemon has obtained\nhis information about the Cimbri (at the Skaw), about Morimarusa, and\nabout Rusbeas either from Pytheas--whose mention thereof we must then\nsuppose to have been accidentally omitted by other authors--or else from\nlater Greek merchants. In the same way Xenophon must have got his Balcia,\nwhich is here named for the first time in literature. As these two Greek\nauthors (probably of about 100 B.C.) are expressly mentioned as\nauthorities, the statements cannot be derived from the circumnavigation of\nthe Skaw in the time of Augustus, nor from any other Roman expedition. It\nis clear enough that Pliny himself did not know where Rusbeas and Balcia\nwere, but simply repeated uncritically what he had read. On the other\nhand, he knew from another source that the sea he calls Cronium lay far\nnorth of Britain, and must therefore be sought for to the north-west of\nthe Scythian coast.\n\nBalcia must be looked for most probably in the Baltic. As already\nmentioned (p. 72) it may be Jutland; but as it is described as an island\nof immense size and three days' sail from the Scythian coast, it suits\nsouthern Sweden better, although Pliny has also the name Scadinavia for\nthis from another source.\n\nAfter these doubtful statements about the north coast of Scythia, taken\nfrom Greek sources and interwoven with fables, Pliny reaches firmer ground\nin Germania, when he continues [iv. 13, 96]:\n\n \"We have more certain information concerning the Ing\u00e6vones people who\n are the first [that is, the most north-eastern] in Germania. There is\n the immense mountain S\u00e6vo, not less than the Riph\u00e6an range, and it\n forms a vast bay which goes to the Cimbrian Promontory [i.e.,\n Jutland], which bay is called Codanus and is full of islands, amongst\n which the most celebrated is Scatinavia, of unknown size; a part of it\n is inhabited, as far as is known by the Hilleviones, in 500 cantons\n ('pagis'), who call it [i.e., the island] the second earth. \u00c6ningia is\n supposed to be not less in size. Some say that these regions extend as\n far as the Vistula and are inhabited by Sarmatians [i.e., probably\n Slavs], Venedi [Wends], Scirri, and Hirri; the bay is called\n Cylipenus, and at its mouth lies the island Latris. Not far from\n thence is another bay, Lagnus, which borders on the Cimbri. The\n Cimbrian Promontory runs far out into the sea and forms a peninsula\n called Tastris.\" Then follows a list of twenty-three islands which are\n clearly off the North Sea coast of Sleswick and Germany. Among them is\n one called by the soldiers \"Gl\u00e6saria\" on account of the amber\n (\"glesum\"),[104] but by the barbarians \"Austeravia\" [i.e., the eastern\n island], or \"Actania.\"\n\nHere are a number of new names and pieces of information. The form of some\nof the names shows that here too Pliny has borrowed to some extent from\nGreek authors; but his information must also partly be derived from Roman\nsources, and from Germany itself. His \"Codanus\" must be the same as that\nof Mela, and is the sea adjacent to the country of the Cimbri, which is\nhere for the first time clearly referred to as a promontory\n(promunturium). It is the Cattegat, and, in part at any rate, the\nSkagerak. The enormous mountain \"S\u00e6vo\" will then be most probably the\nmountains of Scandinavia, especially southern Norway, which forms the bay\nof Codanus in such a way that the latter is bounded on the other side by\nthe Cimbrian Promontory.[105] It will then be in the same mountainous\ncountry that we should look for the promontory of Rusbeas (see above).\n\n[Sidenote: Scandinavia]\n\nThe name \"Scatinavia\" or \"Scadinavia\" (both spellings occur in the MSS. of\nPliny) is found here certainly for the first time; but, curiously enough,\nwe also find the name \"Scandia\" in Pliny; it is used of an island which is\nmentioned as near Britain (see below, p. 106). \"Scandia\" has often been\ntaken for a shortened form of \"Scadinavia\"; but if we consider the\noccurrence of both names in Pliny in conjunction with the fact that Mela\nhas not yet heard either, but has, on the other hand, a large island,\n\"Codanovia,\" in the bay of Codanus, then it may seem possible that\noriginally there were two entirely different names: \"Codanovia,\" for\nSealand (and perhaps for south Sweden), and \"*Sk\u00e2novia\" (\"Sk\u00e1ney,\"\nlatinised into \"Scandia\") for Sk\u00e5ne. By a confusion of these two the form\n\"Scadinavia\" for south Sweden may have resulted in Pliny, instead of\nMela's \"Codanovia,\" while at the same time he got the name \"Scandia\" from\nanother source. The latter is the only one used by Ptolemy both for south\nSweden and the Danish islands; he has four \"Scandi\u00e6,\" three smaller ones\nand one very large one farther east, \"Scandia\" proper (see below, p. 119).\nBy further confusion of the two names, \"Scadinavia\" has become\n\"Scandinavia\" in later copyists and authors.[106]\n\n In conflict with this is the hitherto accepted opinion among\n philologists that the name \"Sk\u00e5ne\" must be derived from \"Scadinavia,\"\n which would regularly become by contraction \"*Skadney,\" and this by\n losing the \"d\" would become \"Sk\u00e1ney.\" But this similarity may after\n all be accidental, and it is difficult to reconcile the hypothesis\n with the fact that the form \"Scandia\" (and not \"*Skadnia\") already\n appears in Pliny and later in Ptolemy. To this must be added that the\n form \"*Skadney,\" or a similar one, is not known; the first time we\n find the word Sk\u00e5ne in literature is in the story of Wulfstan the Dane\n to King Alfred (about 890, see later), where it takes the form \"Sc\u00f4n\n eg,\" which is the same as \"Sk\u00e1ney.\" \"Skania,\" which is a latinised\n form of \"Sk\u00e1ney,\" is found in a Papal letter of 950, and a Swedish\n runic inscription of about 1020 reads \"\u0105 Sk\u0105nu,\" which also is the\n same as \"Sk\u00e1ney.\" It therefore appears probable that this is the\n original form, the same as the Norwegian name \"Sk\u00e1ney,\" and that it\n has not resulted from a contraction of \"Skadinavia.\" Professor Torp\n agrees that a form \"*Sk\u00e2novia\" might possibly be the original.\n\nWhat may be the meaning of the name \"Hilleviones\" in Scadinavia is\ndifficult to make out; it does not occur in any other writer, but is in\nall likelihood a common term for all Scandinavians. One is reminded of the\n\"Hermiones\" who occur in Mela in the same connection, but a little later\nPliny mentions these also. \"\u00c6ningia,\" which is said to be no smaller than\nScadinavia, is a riddle. Could it be a corruption of a Halsingia or\nAlsingia (the land of the Helsingers), a name for northern Sweden, which\nthus lay farther off and was less known than Scadinavia?[107] When we read\nthat these regions were supposed to extend as far as the Vistula, this\nmight indicate a vague idea that Scadinavia and \u00c6ningia were connected\nwith the mainland, whereby a bay of the sea was formed, called\n\"Cylipenus,\"[108] which will thus be yet another name for the Baltic,\ntaken from a new source; but the whole may be nothing more than an obscure\nstatement.\n\n\"Latris,\" which lay at the mouth of Cylipenus, may be one of the Danish\nislands, and one may perhaps be reminded of Sealand with the ancient royal\nstronghold of \"Lethra\" or Leire, Old Norse \"Hleidrar.\" The bay of\n\"Lagnus,\"[109] which borders on the Cimbri, must then be taken as a new\nname for the Cattegat, while \"Tastris\" may be Skagen. According to the\nsources Pliny has borrowed from, we thus get the following names for the\nsame parts: for the Baltic or parts thereof, \"Amalcium\" and \"Cylipenus,\"\nand perhaps in part \"Codanus\"; for the Cattegat, \"Lagnus\" and \"Codanus\";\nfor the Skagerak, \"Morimarusa,\" in part also \"Codanus\"; for south Sweden,\n\"Scadinavia\" and \"Balcia\"; for Jutland or Skagen, \"Promunturium Cimbrorum\"\nand \"Tastris.\" At any rate, this superfluity of names discloses increased\ncommunication, through many channels, with the North. Communication with\nthe North is also to be deduced from Pliny's mention [viii. c. 15, 39] of\nan animal called \"achlis,\" as a native of those countries.\n\n It had \"never been seen among us in Rome, though it had been described\n by many.\" It resembles the elk [alcis], \"but has no knee-joint, for\n which reason also it does not sleep lying down, but leaned against a\n tree, and if the tree be partly cut through as a trap, the animal,\n which otherwise is remarkably fleet, is caught. Its upper lip is very\n large, for which reason it goes backwards when grazing, so as not to\n get caught in it if it went forward.\" It might be thought that this\n elk-like animal was a reindeer; but the mention of the long upper lip\n and the trees suits the elk better, and it may have been related of\n this animal that it was caught by means of traps in the forest. The\n fable that it slept leaning against a tree may be due to the\n similarity between the name \"achlis\" (which may be some corruption or\n other, perhaps of \"alces\") and \"acclinis\" (== leaning on).\n\nFinally, Pliny had a third source of knowledge about the North through\nBritain, which to him was a common name for all the islands in that\nocean. Some of the statements from this quarter originated with Pytheas;\nbut later information was added; Pliny himself mentions Agrippa as an\nauthority. Among the British Isles he mentions [iv. 16, 103]: \"40\n'Orcades' separated from each other by moderate distances, 7 'Acmod\u00e6,' and\n30 'Hebudes.'\" His 7 \"Acmod\u00e6\" (which in some MSS. are also called\n\"H\u00e6cmod\u00e6\") are, clearly enough, Mela's 7 H\u00e6mod\u00e6, and probably the Shetland\nIslands, while the 30 \"Hebudes\" are the Hebrides, which are thus mentioned\nhere for the first time in any known author.\n\nAfter referring to a number of other British islands \"and the 'Gl\u00e6si\u00e6,'\nscattered in the Germanic Ocean, which the later Greeks call the\n'Electrides,' because amber (electrum) is found in them,\"[110] Pliny\ncontinues [iv. 16, 104]: \"The most distant of all known islands is 'Tyle'\n(Thule), where at the summer solstice there is no night, and\ncorrespondingly no day at the winter solstice.\"[111]... \"Some authors\nmention yet more islands, 'Scandia,' 'Dumna,' 'Bergos,' and the largest of\nall, 'Berricen,' from which the voyage is made to Tyle. From Tyle it is\none day's sail to the curdled sea which some call 'Cronium.'\" We do not\nknow from what authors Pliny can have taken these names, nor where the\nislands are to be looked for; but as Thule is mentioned, we must suppose\nthat in any case some of them come originally from Pytheas. As Scandia\ncomes first among these islands, one is led to think that Dumna and the\ntwo other enigmatical names are of Germanic origin. \"Dumna\" might then\nremind us of Scandinavian names such as Duney, D\u00f6nna (in Nordland), or\nthe like; but it is more probable that it comes from the Celtic \"dubno\" or\n\"dumno\" (== deep), and may be the name of an island off Scotland. \"Bergos\"\nmay remind us of the Old Norse word \"bjarg\" or \"berg.\"[112] It is not so\neasy with the strange name \"Berricen,\" which in some MSS. has the form\n\"Verigon\" or \"Nerigon\" (cf. above, p. 58). If the first reading is the\ncorrect one, it suggests an origin in an Old Norse \"ber-ig\" (\"ber\" ==\nbear; the meaning would therefore be \"bear-y,\" full of bears), not an\nunsuitable name for southern Norway, whence the journey was made to Thule\nor northern Norway; but this is doubtful. If \"Nerigon\" is the correct\nreading, it will not be impossible, in the opinion of Professor Torp, that\nthis, as Keyser supposed, may be the name Norway, which in Old Norse was\ncalled, by Danes for example, \"*Nor\u00feravegaR\" (like \"AustravegaR\" and\n\"VestravegaR\"). If any of the names of these islands are really Germanic,\nlike Scandia, then they cannot, as some have thought, refer to islands off\nScotland or to the Shetlands, as these were not yet inhabited by Norsemen.\nThe islands in question must therefore be looked for in Norway. It is\nimportant that Scandia is mentioned first among them in connection with\nBritain, and that at the same time another is described as the largest of\nthem all, and as lying on the way to Thule. This again points to\ncommunication by sea between the British Isles and Scandinavia, of which\nwe found indications four hundred years earlier.\n\n[Sidenote: Agricola, 84 A.D.]\n\nIn 84 A.D. Agricola, after his campaign against the Caledonians, sent his\nfleet round the northern point of Scotland, \"whereby,\" Tacitus[113] tells\nus, \"it was proved that Britain is an island. At the same time the\nhitherto unknown islands which are called 'Orcadas' (the Orkneys) were\ndiscovered and subdued. Thule also could be descried in the distance; but\nthe fleet had orders not to go farther, and winter was coming on. Moreover\nthe water is thick and heavy to row in; it is said that even wind cannot\nstir it to much motion. The reason for this may be the absence of land and\nmountains, which otherwise would give the storms increased power, and that\nthe enormous mass of continuous ocean is not easy to set in motion.\" This\nThule must have been Fair Island or the Shetland Isles, and this is the\nmost northern point reached by the Romans, so far as is known. The idea of\nthe heavy sea, which is not moved by the winds, is the same that we met\nwith in early antiquity (see pp. 40, 69).\n\n In the preceding summer some of Agricola's soldiers--a cohort of\n Usippii, enlisted in Germania and brought to Britain--had mutinied,\n killed their centurion and seized three ships, whose captains they\n forced into obedience. \"Two of them aroused their suspicions and were\n therefore killed; the third undertook the navigation,\" and they\n circumnavigated Britain. \"They were soon obliged to land to provide\n themselves with water and to plunder what they required; thereby they\n came into frequent conflict with the Britons, who defended their\n possessions; they were often victorious, but sometimes were worsted,\n and finally their need became so great that they took to eating the\n weakest; then they drew lots as to which should serve the others as\n food. Thus they came round Britain [i.e. round the north], were driven\n out of their course through incompetent navigation, and were made\n prisoners, some by the Frisians and some by the Suevi, who took them\n for pirates. Some of them came to the slave-markets and passed through\n various hands until they reached Roman Germania, becoming quite\n remarkable persons by being able to relate such marvellous\n adventures.\"[114] It is possible that certain inaccurate statements\n may have found their way to Rome as the result of this voyage.\n\n[Sidenote: Tacitus, 98 A.D.]\n\nCornelius Tacitus, who wrote his \"Germania\" in the year 98 A.D., was a\nhistorian and ethnographer, not a geographer. His celebrated work has not,\ntherefore, much to say of the northern lands; he has not even a single\nname for them. On the other hand, he has some remarkable statements about\nthe peoples, especially in Sweden, which show that since the time of Pliny\nfresh information about that part of the world must have reached Rome.\n\n[Illustration: The nations of Tacitus (after K. Miller)]\n\nTacitus makes the \"Suebi,\" or \"Suevi,\" inhabit the greater part of Germany\nas far as the frontier of the Slavs (Sarmatians) and Finns on the east\n(and north ?). The name, which possibly means the \"hovering\" people and is\ndue to their roving existence, is perhaps rather to be regarded as a\ncommon designation for various Germanic tribes. After them he called the\nsea on the eastern coast of Germany, i.e., the Baltic, the Suebian Sea\n(\"Suebicum mare\"). On its right-hand (eastern) shore dwelt the \"\u00c6stii\"\n(i.e., Esthonians; perhaps from \"aistan\" == to honour, that is, the\nhonourable people [?]). \"Their customs and dress are like those of the\nSuevi, but their language more nearly resembles the British\" (!). \"The use\nof iron is rare there, that of sticks [i.e., clubs, fustium] common. They\nalso explore the sea and collect amber in shallow places and on the shore\nitself. But they do not understand its nature and origin, and it long lay\ndisregarded among things cast up by the sea, \"until our luxury made it\nesteemed.\" \"They have no use for it,[115] they gather it in the rough,\nbring it unwrought, and are surprised at the price they receive\" [c. 45].\nFrom this it may be concluded that there was constant trading\ncommunication between the Mediterranean and the Baltic, and that Roman\nmerchants had probably penetrated thither.\n\n[Illustration: Boat found at Nydam, near Flensburg. Third century A.D. 70\nfeet long (after C. Engelhardt)]\n\n\"In the Ocean itself (ipso in Oceano) lie the communities of the Suiones,\na mighty people not only in men and arms, but also in ships.\" The Suiones,\nwho are first mentioned by Tacitus, are evidently of the same name as the\nSvear (Old Norse \"sv\u00edar,\" Anglo-Saxon \"sveon\") or Swedes.[116] Their ships\nwere remarkable for having a prow, \"prora,\" at each end (i.e., they were\nthe same fore and aft); they had no sail, and the oars were not made fast\nin a row, but were loose, so that they could row with them now on one\nside, now on the other, \"as on some rivers.\"[117] In other words, they had\nopen rowlocks, as in some of the river boats of that time, and as is\ncommon in modern boats; the oars were not put out through holes as in the\nRoman ships, and as in the Viking ships (the Gokstad and Oseberg ships).\nThe boat of the Iron Age which was dug up at Nydam had just such open\nrowlocks.\n\nThe Suiones (unlike the other Germanic peoples) esteemed wealth, and\ntherefore they had only one lord; this lord governed with unlimited power,\nso much so that arms were not distributed among the people, but were kept\nlocked up, and moreover in charge of a thrall,[118] because the sea\nprevented sudden attacks of enemies, and armed idle hands (i.e., armed men\nunemployed) are apt to commit rash deeds [c. 44].\n\nThe neighbours of the Suiones, probably on the north, are the \"Sitones\"\n[c. 45], whom Tacitus also regards as Germanic. \"They are like the Suiones\nwith one exception, that a woman reigns over them; so far have they\ndegenerated not only from liberty, but also from slavery. Here Suebia ends\n(Hic Suebi\u00e6 finis).\" Suebia was that part of Germany inhabited by the\nSuevi. It looks as though Tacitus considered that courage and manliness\ndecreased the farther north one went. The Suiones allow themselves to be\nbullied by an absolute king, who sets a thrall to guard their weapons, and\nthe Sitones are in a still worse plight, in allowing themselves to be\ngoverned by a woman. The Sitones are not mentioned before or after this in\nliterature, and it seems as though the name must be due to some\nmisunderstanding.[119] It has been supposed that they were Finns\n(\"Kv\u00e6ns\")[120] in northern Sweden, and their name may then have been taken\nas the word for woman (\"kv\u00e6n,\" or \"kv\u00e1n,\" mostly in the sense of wife [cf.\nEnglish queen]), and from this the legend of womanly government may have\nbeen formed[121] in the same way as Adam of Bremen later translates the\nname Cvenland (Kv\u00e6nland) by \"Terra feminarum,\" and thus forms the myth of\nthe country of the Amazons. But this explanation of the statement of\nTacitus may be doubtful.[122] We have already seen that Mela mentions a\npeople in Scythia, the \"M\u00e6otides,\" who were governed by women, and, as we\nhave said, it would not have seemed unreasonable to him that the\ngovernment of women increased farther north.\n\nOf the regions on the north Tacitus says: \"North of the Suiones lies\nanother sluggish and almost motionless sea (mare pigrum ac prope\nimmotum); that this encircles and confines the earth's disc is rendered\nprobable by the fact that the last light of the setting sun continues\nuntil the sun rises again, so clearly that the stars are paled thereby.\nPopular belief also supposes that the sound of the sun emerging from the\nocean can be heard, and that the forms of the gods are seen and the rays\nbeaming from his head. There report rightly places the boundaries of\nnature.\" As mentioned above (see p. 108), he thought that even to the\nnorth of the Orkneys the sea was thick and sluggish.\n\nTacitus is the first author who mentions the Finns (Fenni), but whether\nthey are Lapps, Kv\u00e6ns or another race cannot be determined. He says\nhimself: \"I am in doubt whether to reckon the Peucini, Venedi and Fenni\namong the Germans or Sarmatians (Slavs).\" He speaks of the Fenni\napparently as dwelling far to the north-east, beyond the Peucini, or\nBastarn\u00e6, from whom they are separated by forests and mountains, which the\nlatter overrun as robbers.\n\n \"Among the Fenni amazing savagery and revolting poverty prevail. They\n have no weapons, no horses, no houses ['non penates,' perhaps rather,\n no homes];[123] their food is herbs, their clothing skins, their bed\n the ground. Their only hope is in their arrows, which from lack of\n iron they provide with heads of bone. Hunting supports both men and\n women; for the women usually accompany the men everywhere and take\n their share of the spoils. Their infants have no other protection from\n wild beasts and from the rain than a hiding-place of branches twisted\n together; thither the men return, it is the habitation of the aged.\n Nevertheless this seems to them a happier life than groaning over\n tilled fields, toiling in houses and being subject to hope and fear\n for their own and others' possessions. Without a care for men or gods\n they have attained the most difficult end, that of not even feeling\n the need of a wish. Beyond them all is fabulous, as that the\n 'Hellusii' and 'Oxion\u00e6' have human heads and faces, but the bodies and\n limbs of wild beasts, which I leave on one side as undecided.\"\n\nThese Fenni of Tacitus consequently live near the outer limits of the\nworld, where all begins to be fable. The name itself carries us to\nnorthern Europe, or rather Scandinavia, for it was certainly only the\nNorth Germans, especially the Scandinavians, who used the word as a name\nfor their non-Aryan neighbours. No doubt it appears from the description\nthat they lived in northern Russia, and were only separated from the\nPeucini by forests and mountains; but, as was said above, Tacitus had\nneither sense for nor interest in geography. If he heard of a savage and\nbarbarous Finn-people far in the North, and if it suited him on other\ngrounds to bring them in beyond the Peucini or Bastarn\u00e6, but before the\nHellusii and Oxiones, who not only led the life of beasts, but even had\ntheir bodies and limbs, then certainly no geographical difficulties would\nstop him. It is of interest that these Fenni are described as a typical\nrace of hunters, using the bow as their special weapon. As Tacitus only\nstates that they had no horses, he had doubtless heard of no other\ndomestic animals amongst them. Consequently it is not likely that they\nwere reindeer-nomads. The interweaving of branches that the children were\nhidden in, to which the men returned, and which was the dwelling of the\nold men, must be the tent of the Finns, which was raised upon branches or\nstakes. As early as Herodotus [iv. 23] we read of the Argipp\u00e6ans, who were\nalso Mongols, that \"every man lived under a tree, over which in winter he\nspread a white, thick covering of felt.\" It is clearly a tent that is\nintended here also [cf. M\u00fcllenhoff, ii., 1887, pp. 40, 352]. The idea that\namong the barbarians men and women frequently did the same work does not\nseem to have been uncommon in antiquity, and it can scarcely have been\nregarded as something peculiar to the Finns; in this connection it is no\ndoubt derived from the legends of the Amazons. Herodotus, and after him\nMela (see above, pp. 87 f.), describes such a similarity between men and\nwomen among the Scythian people and the Sauromatians; and Diodorus [iv.\n20, v. 39] says of the Ligurians that men and women shared the same hard\nlabour.\n\n[Sidenote: Dionysius Periegetes, 117-138 A.D.]\n\nThe so-called Dionysius Periegetes wrote in the time of the emperor\nHadrian (117-138 A.D.) a description of the earth in 1187 verses, which\nperhaps on account of its simple brevity and metrical form was used in\nschools and widely circulated [cf. K. Miller, vi., 1898, p. 95]. But\nunfortunately the author has merely drawn from obsolete Greek sources,\nsuch as Homer, Hecat\u00e6us, Eratosthenes and others, and has nothing new to\ntell us. The whole continent was surrounded by ocean like an immense\nisland; it was not quite circular, but somewhat prolonged in the direction\nof the sun's course (i.e., towards the east and west).\n\nAfter Greek scientific geography had had its most fruitful life in the\nperiod ending with Eratosthenes and Hipparchus it still sent out such\npowerful shoots as the physical-mathematical geographer Posidonius and the\ndescriptive geographer Strabo; but after them a century and a half elapses\nuntil we hear of its final brilliant revival in Marinus of Tyre and\nClaudius Ptolemy, whose work was to exercise a decisive influence upon\ngeography thirteen centuries later.\n\n[Sidenote: Marinus of Tyre]\n\nMarinus's writings are lost, and we know nothing more of him than is told\nus by his younger contemporary Ptolemy, who has relied upon him to a\nconsiderable extent, and whose great forerunner he was. He must have lived\nin the first half of the second century A.D. He made an exhaustive attempt\nto describe every place on the earth according to its latitude and\nlongitude, and drew a map of the world on this principle. He also adopted\nPosidonius's insufficient estimate of the earth's circumference (instead\nof that of Eratosthenes), and his exaggerated extension of the \"\u0153cumene\"\ntowards the east; and as this was passed on from him to Ptolemy he\nexercised great influence upon Columbus, amongst others, who thus came to\nestimate the distance around the globe to India at only half its real\nlength. In this way Marinus and Ptolemy are of importance in the discovery\nnot only of the West Indies, but also of North America by Cabot, and in\nthe earliest attempts to find a north-west passage to China. Thus\n\"accidental\" mistakes may have far-reaching influence in history.\n\n[Sidenote: Ptolemy, circa 150 A.D.]\n\nClaudius Ptolem\u00e6us marks to a certain extent the highest point of\nclassical geographical knowledge. He was perhaps born in Egypt about 100\nA.D. He must have lived as an astronomer at Alexandria during the years\n126 to 141, and perhaps longer; and he probably outlived the emperor\nAntoninus Pius, who died in 161 A.D., but we do not know much more of him.\nIn his celebrated astronomical work, most generally known by its Arabic\ntitle of \"Almagest\" (because it first reached medi\u00e6val western Europe in\nan Arabic translation), he gave his well-known account of the universe and\nof the movements of the heavenly bodies, which had such great influence in\nthe later Middle Ages, and on Columbus and the great discoveries. His\ncelebrated \"Geography\" in eight books (written about 150 A.D.) is, as he\nhimself tells us, for the most part founded upon the now lost work of\nMarinus, and shows a great advance in geographical comprehension upon the\npractical but unscientific Romans. With the scientific method of the\nGreeks an attempt is here made to collect and co-ordinate the geographical\nknowledge of the time into a tabulated survey, for the most part dry, of\ncountries, places and peoples, with a number of latitudes and longitudes,\nmostly given by estimate. His information and names are in great part\ntaken from the so-called \"Itineraries,\" which were tabular and consisted\nchiefly of graphic routes for travellers with stopping-places and\ndistances, and which were due for the most part to military sources\n(especially the Roman campaigns), and in a less degree to merchants and\nsailors.\n\nCartographical representation was by him radically improved by the\nintroduction of correct projections, with converging meridians, of which a\ncommencement had already been made by Hipparchus. His atlas, which may\noriginally have been drawn by himself, or by another from the detailed\nstatements in his geography, gives us the only maps that have been\npreserved from antiquity, and thus has a special interest.\n\nAs to the North, we find remarkably little that is new in Ptolemy, and on\nmany points he shows a retrogression even, as it seems, from Pytheas; but\nthe northern coast of Europe begins to take definite shape past the\nCimbrian Peninsula to the Baltic. His representation of Britain and\nIreland (Ivernia), which is based upon much new information,[124] was\ncertainly a great improvement on his predecessors, even though he gives\nthe northern part of Scotland (Caledonia) a strange deflection far to the\neast, which was retained on later maps (in the fifteenth century). He\nmentions five Ebudes (Hebrides) above Ivernia, and says further [ii. 3]:\n\n \"The following islands lie near Albion off the Orcadian Cape; the\n island of Ocitis (32\u00b0 40' E. long., 60\u00b0 45' N. lat.), the island of\n Dumna (30\u00b0 E. long., 61\u00b0 N. lat.), north of them the Orcades, about\n thirty in number, of which the most central lies in 30\u00b0 E. long., 61\u00b0\n 40' N. lat. And far to the north of them Thule, the most western part\n of which lies in 29\u00b0 E. long., 63\u00b0 N. lat., the most eastern part in\n 31\u00b0 40' E. long., 63\u00b0 N. lat., the most northern in 30\u00b0 20' E. long.,\n 63\u00b0 15' N. lat., the most southern in 30\u00b0 20' E. long., 62\u00b0 40' N.\n lat., and the central part in 30\u00b0 20' E. long., 63\u00b0 N. lat.\"\n\nPtolemy calculates his degrees of longitude eastwards from a meridian 0\nwhich he draws west of the Fortunate Isles (the Canaries), the most\nwestern part of the earth. It will be seen that he gives Thule no very\ngreat extent. His removing it from the Arctic Circle south to 63\u00b0 is\ndoubtless due to the men of Agricola's fleet having thought they had\nsighted Thule north of the Orkneys. In his eighth book [c. 3] he says:\n\n Thule has a longest day of twenty hours, and it is distant west from\n Alexandria two hours. Dumna has a longest day of nineteen hours, and\n is distant westward two hours.\n\nIt is evident that these \"hours\" are found by calculation, and are merely\na way of expressing degrees of latitude and longitude; they cannot\ntherefore be referred to any local observation of the length of the\nlongest day, etc. It is curious that Ptolemy only mentions Ebudes and\nOrcades, and not the Shetland Isles; perhaps they are included among his\nthirty Orcades.\n\n[Illustration: The northern part of Ptolemy's map of the world, Europe and\nAsia. From the Rome edition of Ptolemy of 1490 (Nordenski\u00f6ld, 1889)]\n\nHe represents the Cimbrian Peninsula (Jutland) with remarkable\ncorrectness, though making it lean too much towards the east, like\nScotland. Upon it \"dwelt on the west the Sigulones, then the Sabalingii,\nthen the Cobandi, above them the Chali, and above these again and farther\nwest the Phundusii, and more to the east the Charudes [Harudes or Horder;\ncf. p. 85], and to the north of all the Cimbri.\" It was suggested above\n(p. 94) that possibly the name Cobandi might be connected with the Codanus\nof Mela and Pliny. The Sabalingii, according to Much [1905, p. 11], may be\nthe same name as Pytheas's Abalos (cf. p. 70), which may have been written\nSabalos or Sabalia, and may have been inhabited by Aviones. To the north\nof the Cimbrian Chersonese Ptolemy places three islands, the \"Aloci\u00e6,\"\nwhich may be taken from the Halligen islands, properly \"Hallagh\" [cf.\nDetlefsen, 1904, p. 61], off the coast of Sleswick.[125]\n\n To the east of the peninsula are the four so-called \"Scandi\u00e6,\" three\n small [the Danish islands], of which the central one lies in 41\u00b0 30'\n E. long., 58\u00b0 N. lat.; but the largest and most eastern lies off the\n mouths of the Vistula; the westernmost part of this island lies in\n 43\u00b0 E. long., 58\u00b0 N. lat., the easternmost in 46\u00b0 E. long., 58\u00b0 N.\n lat., the northernmost in 44\u00b0 30' E. long., 58\u00b0 30' N. lat., the\n southernmost in 45\u00b0 E. long., 57\u00b0 40' N. lat. But this one [i.e.,\n south Scandinavia] is called in particular Scandia, and the western\n part of it is inhabited by the Ch\u00e6dini, the eastern by the Phavon\u00e6 and\n Phiresii, the northern by the Phinni, the southern by the Gut\u00e6 and\n Dauciones, and the central by the Levoni.\n\nIt will be seen that Scandia would not be much larger than Thule: 20'\nlonger from west to east, and only 10' longer from north to south.\n\n[Illustration: The Scandinavian North according to Ptolemy. The most\nnorthern people in Scandinavia, the Phinni, are omitted in this map, as in\nmost MSS.]\n\nThe \"Ch\u00e6dini\" must be the Norwegian \"Hei\u00f0nir\" or \"Heinir,\" whose name is\npreserved in Hei\u00f0m\u01ebrk, Hedemarken [cf. Zeuss, 1837, p. 159; Much, 1893, p.\n188; M\u00fcllenhoff, 1900, p. 497]. This is the first time that an undoubtedly\nNorwegian tribe is mentioned in known literature. \"Phinni\" (Finns) is only\nfound in one MS.; but as Jordanes (Cassiodorus) says that Ptolemy mentions\nseven tribes in Scandia, it must have been found in ancient MSS. of his\nwork, and it occurs here for the first time as the name of a people in\nScandinavia. Ptolemy also mentions \"Phinni\" in another place as a people\nin Sarmatia near the Vistula (together with Gythones or Goths); but these\nmust be connected with the \"Fenni\" of Tacitus, and doubtless also belong\noriginally to Scandinavia. The \"Gut\u00e6\" must be the Gauter or G\u00f6ter, unless\nthey are the Guter of Gotland (?). The \"Dauciones,\" it has been supposed,\nmay possibly be the Danes, and the \"Levoni\" might perhaps be the\nHilleviones mentioned by Pliny, whose name does not otherwise occur. Thus\na knowledge of Scandinavia slowly dawns in history.\n\n[Illustration: Ptolemy's map of Europe, etc., compared with the true\nconditions (in dotted line)]\n\nTo the north of the known coasts and islands of Europe there lay,\naccording to Ptolemy and Marinus, a great continuous ocean, which was a\ncontinuation of the Atlantic. On the extreme north-west was \"the\nHyperborean Ocean, which was also called the Congealed (\u03c0\u03b5\u03c0\u03b7\u03b3\u03bf\u03c2) or\n'Cronius' or the Dead (\u03bd\u03b5\u03ba\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2) Sea.\" North of Britain was the\nDeucaledonian Ocean, and east of Britain the Germanic Ocean as far as the\neastern side of the Cimbrian Chersonese, that is, the North Sea and a part\nof the Baltic. This was joined by the Sarmatian Ocean, with the Venedian\n(i.e., Wendish) Gulf, from the mouths of the Vistula north-eastwards. The\nBaltic was still merely an open bay of the great Northern Ocean. But\nwhether the latter extended farther to the east, round the north of the\n\u0153cumene, making it into an island, was unknown. Ptolemy and Marinus\ntherefore put the northern boundary of the known continent at the latitude\nof Thule, and made this continent extend into the unknown on the\nnorth-east and east; they thus furnish the latest development of the\ndoctrine that the \u0153cumene was not an island in the universal ocean, since\nthey considered that guesses about the regions beyond the limits of the\nreally known were inadmissible, and no one had reached any coast in those\ndirections; for the Caspian Sea was closed and not connected with the\nNorthern Ocean. In the same way the extent of Africa towards the south was\nuncertain, and they connected it possibly with south-eastern Asia, to the\nsouth of the Indian Ocean, which thus also became enclosed.\n\n[Illustration: Ptolemy's tribes in Denmark and South Sweden]\n\nPtolemy wrote at a time when the Roman Empire was at its height, and he\nhad the advantage of being able, as a Greek, to combine the scientific\nlore of the older Greek literature with the mass of information which must\ninevitably have been collected from all parts of the world by the\nextensive administration of this gigantic empire. His work, like that of\nMarinus, was therefore a natural fruit which grew by the stream of time.\nBut the stream had just then reached a backwater; he belonged to a\nlanguishing civilisation, and represents the last powerful shoot which\nGreek science put forth. Some thirteen centuries were to elapse before, by\nthe changes of fate, his works at last made their mark in the development\nof the world's civilisation. In the centuries that succeeded him the Roman\nEmpire went steadily backwards to its downfall, and literature degenerated\nrapidly; it sank into compilation and repetition of older writers, without\nspirit or originality. It is therefore not surprising that the literature\nof later antiquity gives us nothing new about the North, although\ncommunication therewith must certainly have increased.\n\n[Sidenote: Solinus, 3rd century A.D.]\n\nThe geographical author of antiquity most widely read in the Middle Ages\nwas C. Julius Solinus (third century A.D.), who for the most part repeated\npassages from Pliny, with a marked predilection for the fabulous. All that\nis to be found in the MSS. of his works about Thule, the Orcades and the\nHebudes, beyond what we read in Pliny, consists, in the opinion of Mommsen\n[1895, p. 219], of later additions by a copyist (perhaps an Irish monk) of\nbetween the seventh and ninth centuries, and as this has a certain\ninterest for our country it will be dealt with later under this period.\n\n[Sidenote: Avienus, circa 370 A.D.]\n\nRufus Festus Avienus lived in the latter half of the fourth century A.D.\nand was proconsul in Africa in 366 and in Ach\u00e6a in 372. His poem \"Ora\nMaritima\" is mainly a translation of older Greek authors and, as mentioned\nabove (p. 37), is of interest from his having used an otherwise unknown\nauthority of very early origin. His second descriptive poem is a free\ntranslation of Dionysius Periegetes.\n\n[Sidenote: Macrobius, Orosius, Capella, etc.]\n\nAmongst other authors who in this period of literary degeneration compiled\ngeographical descriptions may be named: Ammianus Marcellinus (second half\nof the fourth century) in his historical works, Macrobius[126] (circa 400\nA.D.), the Spaniard Paulus Orosius, whose widely read historical work\n(circa 418 A.D.) has a geographical chapter, Marcianus of Heraclea\n(beginning of the fifth century), Julius Honorius (beginning of the fifth\ncentury), Marcianus Capella (about 470 A.D.), Priscianus C\u00e6sariensis\n(about 500 A.D.) and others.\n\nTheir statements about the northern regions are repetitions of older\nauthors and contain nothing new.\n\n[Sidenote: Itineraries]\n\nMuch of the geographical knowledge of that time was included in the\nalready mentioned (p. 116) \"Itineraries,\" which were probably illustrated\nwith maps of the routes. Partial copies of one of them are preserved in\nthe so-called \"Tabula Peutingeriana\" [cf. K. Miller, vi. 1898, pp. 90\nff.], which came to be of importance in the Middle Ages.\n\nThus at the close of antiquity the lands and seas of the North still lie\nin the mists of the unknown. Many indications point to constant\ncommunication with the North, and now and again vague pieces of\ninformation have reached the learned world. Occasionally, indeed, the\nclouds lift a little, and we get a glimpse of great countries, a whole new\nworld in the North, but then they sink again and the vision fades like a\ndream of fairyland. It seems as though no one felt scientifically impelled\nto make an effort to clear up these obscure questions.\n\nThen followed restless times, with roving warlike tribes in Central\nEurope. The peaceful trading communication between the Mediterranean and\nthe northern coasts was broken off, and with it the fresh stream of\ninformation which had begun to flow in from the North. And for a long time\nmen chewed the cud of the knowledge that had been collected in remote\nantiquity. But Greek literature was more and more forgotten, and it was\nespecially the later Roman authors they lived on.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Map of the World from a ninth-century MS. (in the Strasburg\nLibrary)]\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE EARLY MIDDLE AGES\n\n\nThus it came about that the geographical knowledge of later antiquity\nshows nothing but a gradual decline from the heights which the Greeks had\nearly reached, and from which they had surveyed the earth, the universe\nand their problems with an intellectual superiority that inclines one to\ndoubt the progress of mankind. The early Middle Ages show an even greater\ndecline. Rome, in spite of all, had formed a sort of scientific centre,\nwhich was lost to Western Europe by the fall of the Roman Empire. To this\nmust be added the introduction of Christianity, which, for a time at any\nrate, gave mankind new values in life, whereby the old ones came into\ndisrepute. Knowledge of distant lands, or of the still more distant\nheavens, was looked upon as something like folly and madness. For all\nknowledge was to be found in the Bible, and it was especially commendable\nto reconcile all profane learning therewith. When, for instance, Isaiah\nsays of the Lord that He \"sitteth upon the circle of the earth\" (i.e.,\nthe round disc of the earth), and \"stretcheth out the heavens as a\ncurtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in\" [xl. 22], and that\nHe \"spread forth the earth\" [xlii. 5, xliv. 24], and when in the Book of\nJob [xxvi. 10] it is said that \"He has compassed the waters with bounds,\nwhere light borders on darkness,\" such statements did not agree with the\ndoctrine of the spherical form of the earth; this was therefore regarded\nwith disfavour by the Church; the circular disc surrounded by Ocean, which\nwas the idea of the childhood of Greece, was more suitable, and according\nto Ezekiel [v. 5-6] Jerusalem lay in the centre of this disc. It was\ninevitable that knowledge of the earth and of its farthest limits should\nbe still more crippled in such an age, and this is especially true of\nknowledge of the North.\n\n[Illustration: Cosmas's Map of the World. The surface of the earth is\nrectangular and surrounded by ocean, which forms four bays: the\nMediterranean on the west (with the Black Sea), the Caspian above on the\nright, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf below on the right. The Nile\n(below), the Euphrates and the Tigris flow from the outer world under the\nocean to the earth's surface]\n\nThose writers who in the early part of the Middle Ages occupied themselves\nwith such worldly things as geography, confined themselves mostly to\nrepeating, and in part further confusing, what Pliny and later Latin\nauthors had said on the subject. The most widely read and most frequently\ncopied were Solinus and Capella, also Macrobius and Orosius. This was the\nintellectual food which replaced the science of the Greeks. Truly the\ncourse of the human race has its alternations of heights and depths!\n\n[Illustration: Cosmas's representation of the Universe, with the mountain\nin the north behind which the Sun goes at night. The Creator is shown\nabove]\n\nBut even if the migrations had for a time interrupted peaceful trading\nintercourse with the North, they were also the means of new facts becoming\nknown, and it was inevitable that in the long run these migrations, and\nsubsequent contact with the northern peoples, should leave their mark on\nthe science of geography. The knowledge of the North shown in the\nliterature of the early Middle Ages is thus to be compared with two\nstreams, often quite independent of one another; the one has its source in\nclassical learning and becomes ever thinner and more turbid; the other is\nthe fresh stream of new information from the North, which we find in a\nCassiodorus or a Procopius. Sometimes these two streams flow together, as\nin an Adam of Bremen, and they may then form a mixture of like and unlike,\nin which it is often hopeless to find one's way.\n\n[Sidenote: Cosmas Indicopleustes, 6th century]\n\nIt is true that some were found, even in the early Middle Ages, who\nmaintained the doctrine of the earth's spherical form, whereas early\nChristian authors, such as Lactantius (ob. 330) and Severianus (ob. 407),\nhad asserted that it was a disc; the latter also thought that the heaven\nwas divided into two storeys, an upper and a lower, with the visible\nheaven as a division; the earth formed the floor of this celestial house.\nOne ancient notion (in Empedocles, Leucippus, Democritus) was that this\ndisc of the earth stood on a slant, increasing in height towards the\nnorth, which was partly covered by high mountains, the Rhip\u00e6an and\nHyperborean ranges (as in Ptolemy's map). These childish ideas took their\nmost remarkable shape in the \"Christian Topography,\" in twelve books, of\nthe Alexandrine monk, Cosmas Indicopleustes (sixth century). In his\nyounger days he had travelled much as a merchant and seen many wonderful\nthings, amongst others the wheel-ruts left by the Children of Israel\nduring their wanderings in the wilderness. The Jews' tabernacle, he\nthought, was constructed on the same plan and in the same proportions as\nthe world. Consequently the earth's disc had to be made four-cornered,\nwith straight sides, and twice as long as it was broad. The ocean on the\nwest formed a right angle with the ocean on the south. On the north was a\nhigh mountain; behind it the sun was hidden in its course during the\nnight.[127] As the sun in winter traverses the sky in a lower orbit, it\nappears to us as though it receded behind the mountain near its foot, and\nit stays away longer than in summer, when it is higher. The whole vault of\nheaven was like a four-cornered box with a vaulted lid, which was divided\nby the firmament into two storeys. In the lower one were the earth, the\nsea, the sun, moon and stars; in the upper one the waters of the sky. The\nstars were carried round in circles by angels, whom God at the creation\nappointed to this heavy task. It was impossible for the earth to revolve,\nsimply because its axle must be supported by something, and of what kind\nof material could it be made? He had nothing else worth mentioning to say\nabout the North. But notions such as these had their influence on the\nearliest medi\u00e6val maps.\n\n[Sidenote: Cassiodorus, 468-570 A.D.]\n\nThe first medi\u00e6val author who, so far as we know, definitely gave new\ninformation of value about the countries and peoples of the North, was the\nRoman senator and historian Cassiodorus (born at Scylaceum, it is supposed\nabout 468), who was an eminent statesman under Theodoric, King of the\nGoths (493-526). After the victories of Belisarius in Italy, Cassiodorus\nretired into a monastery in southern Italy (Bruttium), which he himself\nhad founded, and died there, perhaps 100 years old (about 570). He wrote\nseveral valuable works, amongst them, probably by order of Theodoric, one\nin twelve books on \"The Origin and Deeds of the Goths,\" which was perhaps\ncompleted about 534. This work has unfortunately been lost, and we only\nknow it through the Goth Jordanes, who has made excerpts from it. There is\nreason to believe [cf. Mommsen, 1882, Pro\u0153mium, p. xxxvii.] that\nCassiodorus's knowledge of Gothic was defective, and that he has borrowed\nhis information about the North, especially Scandinavia, from a\ncontemporary, or perhaps somewhat older writer, Ablabius, who is referred\nto in Jordanes' book as \"the distinguished author of a very trustworthy\nhistory of the Goths,\" but who is otherwise unknown. Through the Norwegian\nking Rodulf and his men (see below, under Jordanes), or other Northerners\nwho visited Theodoric, and who were \"mightier than all the Germans in\ncourage and size of body,\" first-hand information was brought concerning\nthe countries of the North, which Ablabius, who certainly knew Gothic, may\nhave written down, and from him Cassiodorus has thus derived his\nstatements, which again are taken from him by Jordanes. In addition to\nvarious classical authors, some Latin and some Greek, of whom Jordanes\nmentions many more than he has made use of, it is probable that\nCassiodorus has also drawn upon the maps of Roman itineraries [cf.\nMommsen, 1882, Pro\u0153mium, p. xxxi.], and perhaps also Greek maps.\n\n[Sidenote: Jordanes, circa 552]\n\nThe Gothic monk (or priest) Jordanes lived in the sixth century, and wrote\nabout 551 or 552 a book on \"The Origin and Deeds of the Goths\" (\"De\norigine actibusque Getarum\"), which for the most part is certainly a poor\nrepetition of the substance of Cassiodorus's great work on the same\nsubject; and in fact he tells us this himself, with the modest addition\nthat \"his breath is too weak to fill the trumpet of such a man's mighty\nspeech.\" It is true that Jordanes asserts in his preface that he has only\nhad the loan of the work to read for three days, for which reason he\ncannot give the words but only the sense, and thereto, he says, he has\nadded what was suitable \"from certain histories in the Greek [which he did\nnot understand] and Latin tongues,\" and he has mixed it with his own\nwords. But this is only said to hide his lack of originality; for the book\nevidently contains long literal excerpts from the work of Cassiodorus,\nwhile Jordanes' Latin becomes markedly worse when he tries to walk alone.\nNot even the preface to the work is original; this is copied from\nRufinus's translation of Origines' commentary on the Epistle to the\nRomans.\n\nOf the uttermost ocean we read in Jordanes:\n\n \"Not only has no one undertaken to describe the impenetrable uttermost\n bounds of the ocean, but it has not even been vouchsafed to any one to\n explore them, since it has been experienced that on account of the\n resistance of the seaweed and because the winds cease to blow there,\n the ocean is impenetrable and is known to none but Him who created\n it.\" This conception has a striking resemblance to Avienus's \"Ora\n Maritima\" (see above, pp. 37-40), and may very probably be derived\n from it.\n\nOf the western ocean he says, amongst other things:\n\n \"But it has also other islands farther out in the midst of its waves,\n which are called the Balearic Isles, and another Mevania; likewise the\n Orcades, thirty-three in number, and yet not all of them are\n cultivated [inhabited]. It has also in its most western part another\n island, called Thyle, of which the Mantuan [i.e., Virgil] says: 'May\n the uttermost Thule be subject to thee.' This immense ocean has also\n in its arctic, that is to say, northern, part, a great island called\n Scandza, concerning which our narrative with God's help shall begin;\n for the nation [the Goths] of whose origin you inquired, burst forth\n like a swarm of bees from the lap of this island, and came to the land\n of Europe.\"\n\nAfter having spoken of Ptolemy's (also Mela's) mention of this island,\nwhich according to his version of the former had the shape of \"a citron\nleaf, with curved edges and very long in proportion to its breadth\" (this\ncannot be found in Ptolemy), and lay opposite the three mouths of the\nVistula, he continues:\n\n \"This [island] consequently has on its east the greatest inland sea in\n the world, from which the River Vagi discharges itself, as from a\n belly, profusely into the Ocean.[128] On the western side it [the\n island of Scandza] is surrounded by an immense ocean and on the north\n it is bounded by the before-mentioned unnavigable enormous ocean, from\n which an arm extends to form the Germanic Ocean ('Germanicum mare'),\n by widening out a bay. There are said to be many more islands in it,\n but they are small,[129] and when the wolves on account of the severe\n cold cross over after the sea is frozen, they are reported to lose\n their eyes, so that the country is not only inhospitable to men but\n cruel to animals. But in the island of Scandza, of which we are\n speaking, although there are many different peoples, Ptolemy\n nevertheless only gives the names of seven of them. But the\n honey-making swarms of bees are nowhere found on account of the too\n severe cold. In its northern part live the people Adogit, who, it is\n said, in the middle of the summer have continuous light for forty days\n and nights, and likewise at the time of the winter solstice do not see\n the light for the same number of days and nights; sorrow thus\n alternating with joy, so are they unlike others in benevolence and\n injury; and why? Because on the longer days they see the sun return to\n the east along the edge of the axis [i.e., the edge of the pole, that\n is to say, along the northern horizon], but on the shorter days it is\n not thus seen with them, but in another way, because it passes through\n the southern signs, and when the sun appears to us to rise from the\n deep, with them it goes along the horizon. But there are other people\n there, and they are called Screrefenn\u00e6, who do not seek a subsistence\n in corn, but live on the flesh of wild beasts and the eggs of\n birds,[130] and such an enormous number of eggs [lit., spawn] is laid\n in the marshes that it serves both for the increase of their kind\n [i.e., of the birds] and for a plentiful supply for the people.\"\n\n[Sidenote: Screrefenn\u00e6 or Skridfinns]\n\nThe \"Screrefenn\u00e6\" of Jordanes (in other MSS. \"Crefenne,\" \"Rerefenn\u00e6,\"\netc.) are certainly a corruption of the same word as Procopius's\n\"Scrithifini\" (Skridfinns), and were a non-Germanic race inhabiting the\nnorthern regions (see later). The mention of these people, together with\ntheir neighbours the \"Adogit,\" who had the midnight sun and a winter night\nof forty days (cf. also Procopius), shows without a doubt that Jordanes',\nor rather Cassiodorus's, authority had received fresh information from the\nmost northern part of Scandinavia, possibly through the Norwegian king\nRodulf and his men.\n\n[Sidenote: Adogit]\n\nThe mysterious name \"Adogit\" is somewhat doubtful. P. A. Munch [1852, p.\n93], and later also M\u00fcllenhoff [ii., 1887, p. 41], thought that it might\nbe a corruption of H\u00e1logi (\"H\u00e1leygir,\" or Helgelanders) in northern\nNorway. Sophus Bugge [1907] does not regard this interpretation as\npossible, as this name cannot have had such a form at that time; he (and,\nas he informs us, Gustav Storm also independently) thinks that \"adogit\" is\ncorrupted from \"\u0101dogii,\" i.e., \"andogii,\" meaning inhabitants of And or\nAnd\u00f6 in Vester\u00e5len.[131] The termination -ogii he takes to be a medi\u00e6val\nway of writing what was pronounced -oji, i.e., islanders.[132] But it\nshould be remembered how much the name \"Screrefenn\u00e6\" has been corrupted,\nand that it is very possible that other names may have been so equally.\n\n[Sidenote: Impossibility of forty days' daylight in summer and night in\nwinter]\n\nThe statement that the Adogit had forty days' daylight in summer and a\ncorresponding period of night in winter is, unfortunately, of no\nassistance in the form in which it is given for deciding the locality\ninhabited by them, for no such phenomenon occurs anywhere on the earth. If\nwe suppose that the Adogit people themselves observed the rising and\nsetting of the sun above a free horizon, then we must believe that they\nreckoned the unbroken summer day from the first to the last night on which\nthe upper limb of the sun did not disappear below the edge of the sea. And\nthey would have reckoned the unbroken winter night from the first day on\nwhich the sun's upper limb did not appear above the horizon at noon, until\nthe first day when it again became visible.\n\nIf we reckon in this way, and take into account the horizontal refraction\nand the fact that the obliquity of the ecliptic about the year 500 was\napproximately 11' greater than now, we shall find that at that time the\nmidnight sun was seen for forty days (i.e., from June 2 to July 12) in\nabout 66\u00b0 54' N. lat., or in the neighbourhood of Kunna, south of Bod\u00f6;\nbut at the same place more than half the sun's disc would be above the\nhorizon at noon at the winter solstice; it was therefore not hidden for a\nsingle day, much less for forty days. But, on the other hand, it was not\nuntil 68\u00b0 51' N. lat., or about Harstad on Hinn\u00f6, that they had an\nunbroken winter night, without seeing the rim of the sun, for forty days\n(from December 2 to January 11); but there they had the midnight sun in\nsummer for about sixty-three days. The fable of a summer day of the same\nlength as the unbroken winter night cannot therefore have originated with\nthe Northerners; it must have been evolved in an entirely theoretical way\nby astronomical speculations (in ignorance of refraction) which were a\nsurvival of Greek science, where the length of the northern summer day was\nalways assumed to be equal to that of the winter night. But that\ninformation had been received at this time from the Northerners is\nprobable, since the statement of a forty days' summer day and winter night\nis not found in any known author of earlier date,[133] and Jordanes'\ncontemporary, Procopius, has an even more detailed statement, especially\nof this winter night (see later). The probability is that what the\nNortherners took particular notice of was the long night, during which, as\nProcopius also relates, they kept an accurate account of the days during\nwhich they had to do without the light of the sun, a time in which \"they\nwere very depressed, since they could not hold intercourse.\" This must\nalso have been what they told to the Southerners, while they did not pay\nso much attention to the length of the summer day, when of course they\nwould in any case have plenty of sunlight. We must therefore suppose that\nthe latitude worked out according to the winter night of forty days is the\ncorrect one, and this gives us precisely Sophus Bugge's And--And\u00f6, or,\nbetter still, Hinn\u00f6.\n\n[Illustration: The more important tribal names in Southern Scandinavia,\naccording to Jordanes]\n\n[Sidenote: Northern Tribal Names]\n\nJordanes counts about twenty-seven names of tribes or peoples in Sweden\nand Norway; a number of them are easily recognised, while others must be\nmuch corrupted and are difficult to interpret.[134] He mentions first the\npeoples of Sweden, then those of Norway. \"Suehans\" is certainly the\nSvear.\n\n They, \"like the Thuringians, have excellent horses. It is also they\n who through their commercial intercourse with innumerable other\n peoples send for the use of the Romans sappherine skins ('sappherinas\n pelles'), which skins are celebrated for their blackness.[135] While\n they live poorly they have the richest clothes.\"\n\nWe see then that at this time the fur trade with the North was well\ndeveloped, as the amber trade was at a much earlier date. Adam of Bremen\ntells us of the \"proud horses\" of the Svear as though they were an article\nof export together with furs. In the Ynglinga Saga it is related [cf.\nSophus Bugge, 1907, p. 99] that Adils, King of the Svear at Upsalir,\n\n \"was very fond of good horses, he had the best horses of that time.\"\n He sent a stallion \"to H\u00e5logaland to Godgest the king; Godgest the\n king rode it, and could not hold it, so he fell off and got his death;\n this was in \u01eamd [Amd] in H\u00e5logaland.\"\n\nThe original authority for the statement in Jordanes was probably King\nRodulf, who perhaps came from the northern half of Norway, and it looks as\nthough the Norwegians even at that time were acquainted with Swedish\nhorses.\n\nJordanes further mentions five tribes who \"dwell in a flat, fertile land\n[i.e., south Sweden], for which reason also they have to protect\nthemselves against the attacks of other tribes ('gentium').\" Among the\ntribes in Sweden are mentioned also the \"Finnaith\u00e6\"--doubtless in\nFinn-heden or Finn-veden (that is, either Finn-heath or Finn-wood), whose\nname must be due to an aboriginal people called Finns--further, the\n\"Gautigoth,\" generally taken for the West G\u00f6ter, who were a specially\n\"brave and warlike people,\" the \"Ostrogoth\u00e6\" [East G\u00f6ter] and many more.\n\nThen he crosses the Norwegian frontier and mentions\n\n \"The 'Raumarici'[of Romerike] and 'Ragnaricii' [of Ranrike or\n Bohuslen], the very mild [peaceful] 'Finns' ('Finni mitissimi'), who\n are milder than all the other inhabitants of Scandza;[136] further\n their equals the 'Vinoviloth'; the 'Suetidi' are known among this\n people ['hac gente' must doubtless mean the Scandinavians] as towering\n above the rest in bodily height, and yet the 'Danes,' who are\n descended from this very race [i.e., the Scandinavians ?] drove out\n the 'Heruli' from their own home, who claimed the greatest fame [i.e.,\n of being the foremost] among the peoples ['nationes'] of Scandia for\n very great bodily size. Yet of the same height as these are also the\n 'Granii' [of Grenland, the coast-land of Bratsberg and Nedenes], the\n 'Augandzi' [people of Agder],[137] 'Eunix' [islanders, Holmryger in\n the islands ?], '\u00c6telrugi' [Ryger on the mainland in Ryfylke],\n 'Arochi' [== 'arothi,' i.e., Harudes, Horder of Hordaland], 'Ranii'\n [in other MSS. 'Rannii' or 'Rami,' Sophus Bugge (1907) and A. Bugge\n see in this a corruption of '*Raumi,' that is, people of Romsdal],\n over whom not many years ago Roduulf was king, who, despising his own\n kingdom, hastened to the arms of Theodoric king of the Goths, and\n found what he had hankered after. These people fight with the\n savageness of beasts, more mighty than the Germans in body and soul.\"\n\nThe small (?), \"very mild\" Finns must, from the order in which they are\nnamed, have lived in the forest districts--Sol\u00f6r, Eidskogen, and perhaps\nfarther south--on the Swedish border. P. A. Munch [1852, p. 83] saw in\ntheir kinsmen the \"Vinoviloth\" the inhabitants of \"Vingulmark\" (properly\n\"vingel-skog,\" thick, impenetrable forest), which was the forest country\non Christiania fjord from Glommen to Lier. M\u00fcllenhoff agrees with this\n[ii., 1887, pp. 65 f.], but thinks that \"-oth,\" the last part of the word,\nbelongs to the next name, Suetidi, and that \"Vinovil\" may be a corruption\nof Vingvili or Vinguli (cf. Paulus Warnefridi's \"Vinili\" ?). But however\nthis may be, we must regard this people and the foregoing as \"Finnish\" and\nas inhabiting forest districts, as hunters, as well as a third Finnish\npeople, \"Finnaith\u00e6\" in Sm\u00e5land. We shall return later to these \"Finns\" in\nScandinavia. It has been thought that \"Suetidi\" may be from the same word\nas \"Svi\u00fejo\u00f0\"; but as Jordanes has already mentioned the Svear (\"Suehans\"),\nand as the name occurs among the Norwegian tribes, and there is evidently\na certain order in their enumeration, M\u00fcllenhoff may be right in seeing in\nit a corruption of a Norwegian tribal name. He thinks that \"Othsuetidi\"\nmay be a corruption of \"\u00c6ths\u00e6vii,\" i.e., \"Ei\u00f0sivar\" (cf. Eidsivathing),\n\"Hei\u00f0s\u00e6vir\" or \"Hei\u00f0nir\" in Hedemarken, who were certainly a very tall\npeople. The mention of the Norwegian warriors has a certain interest in\nthat it is due to the Roman statesman Cassiodorus (or his authority), who\nglorified the Goths and had no special reason for praising the\nNorthmen.[138] It shows that even at that time our northern ancestors were\nfamed for courage and bodily size, and that too above all other Germanic\npeoples, who were highly esteemed by the Romans. It is not clear whether\nRodulf was King of the \"Ranii\" (Raumer ?) alone, or of all the Norwegian\ntribes from Grenland to Romsdal. It may be supposed that he was a\nNorwegian chief who migrated south through Europe at the head of a band of\nwarriors, composed of men from the tribes mentioned, and that finally on\nthe Danube, hard pressed by other warlike people, he sought alliance and\nsupport from the mighty king of the Goths, Theodoric or Tjodrik (Dietrich\nof Berne). This may have been just before 489, when the latter made his\nexpedition to Italy. Many circumstances combine to make such a hypothesis\nprobable.[139]\n\nWe know that about 489 the Eruli were just north of the Danube, and were\nthe Goths' nearest neighbours. Now, as we shall see later, Eruli was\nperhaps at first a common name for bands of northern warriors, and these\nEruli on the Danube may therefore certainly have consisted to a greater\nor less extent of Norwegians. We know, further, that at this time there\nwas a king of the Eruli to whom Theodoric sent as a gift a horse, sword\nand shield, thereby making him his foster-son [cf. Cassiodorus, Varia iii.\n3, iv. 2]. Finally, we know from Procopius that the Eruli just at this\ntime had a king, Rodulf, who fell in battle against the Langobards (about\n493). When we compare this with what Jordanes says about the Norwegian\nking Rodulf, who hastened to Theodoric's arms and found there what he\nsought, it will be easy to conclude that this Norwegian chief is the same\nas the chief of Eruli here spoken of. Rodulf, or \"Hrodulfr,\" is a known\nNorwegian name. \"Rod-,\" or \"Hrod,\" is the same as the modern Norwegian\n\"ros\" (i.e., praise), and means probably here renowned.\n\nOne is further inclined to believe that it was from this Rodulf or his\nmen, of whom some may have come from And in H\u00e5logaland, that Cassiodorus\nor his authority obtained the information about Scandinavia and northern\nNorway, which is also partly repeated in Procopius.\n\n Sophus Bugge [cf. 1910, pp. 87 ff.; see also A. Bugge, 1906, pp. 35\n f.] has suggested that the \"R\u00e1\u00f0ulfr,\" who is mentioned in the runic\n inscription on the celebrated R\u00f6k-stone in \u00d6sterg\u00f6tland (of about the\n year 900), in which Theodoric (\"\u00deiaurikr\") is also mentioned, may be\n the same Norwegian chief Rodulf who came to Theodoric and who fell in\n battle with the Langobards. He even regards it as possible that it is\n an echo of this battle which is found in the inscription, where it is\n said that \"twenty kings lie slain on the field\"; in that case the\n battle has been moved north from the Danube to \"Siulunt\" (i.e.,\n Sealand). There are other circumstances which agree with this: it is\n said of the Eruli that they had peace for three years before the\n battle [cf. Procopius]; on the R\u00f6k-stone it is stated that the twenty\n kings stayed in Siulunt four winters; the latter must have been\n Norwegian warriors of different tribes: Ryger, Horder, and Heiner\n (from Hedemarken), perhaps under a paramount king R\u00e1\u00f0ulfr, who settled\n in Sealand--while the Eruli were bands of northern warriors, who under\n a king Rodulf had established themselves on the north bank of the\n Danube. Bugge's supposition may be uncertain, but if it be correct it\n greatly strengthens the view (see p. 145) that the Eruli were largely\n Norwegian warriors, since in that case the king of the Eruli, Rodulf\n (== R\u00e1\u00f0ulfr), would have been in command of tribes for the most part\n Norwegian: Ryger, Horder, and Heiner.\n\n[Sidenote: Procopius, circa 552 A.D.]\n\nThe Byzantine historian Procopius, of C\u00e6sarea (ob. after 562), became in\n527 legal assistant, \"assessor,\" to the general Belisarius, and\naccompanied him on his campaigns until 549, amongst others that against\nthe Goths in Italy. In his work (in Greek) on the war against the Goths\n(\"De bello Gothico,\" t. ii. c. 14 and 15), written about 552, he gives\ninformation about the North which is of great interest. He tells us of the\nwarlike Germanic people, the Eruli, who from old time[140] were said to\nhave lived on the north bank of the Danube, and who, with no better reason\nthan that they had lived in peace for three whole years and were tired of\nit, attacked their neighbours the Langobards, but suffered a decisive\ndefeat, and their king, Rodulf, fell in the battle (about 493).[141]\n\n \"They then hastily left their dwelling-places, and set out with their\n women and children to wander through the whole country [Hungary] which\n lies north of the Danube. When they came to the district where the\n Rogians had formerly dwelt, who had joined the army of the Goths and\n gone into Italy, they settled there; but as they were oppressed by\n famine in that district, which had been laid waste, they soon\n afterwards departed from it, and came near to the country of the\n Gepid\u00e6 [Siebenb\u00fcrgen]. The Gepid\u00e6 allowed them to establish themselves\n and to become their neighbours, but began thereupon, without the\n slightest cause, to commit the most revolting acts against them,\n ravishing their women, robbing them of cattle and other goods, and\n omitting no kind of injustice, and finally began an unjust war against\n them.\" The Eruli then crossed the Danube to Illyria and settled\n somewhere about what is now Servia under the eastern emperor\n Anastasius (491-518). Some of the Eruli would not \"cross the Danube,\n but decided to establish themselves in the uttermost ends of the\n inhabited world. Many chieftains of royal blood now undertaking their\n leadership, they passed through all the tribes of the Slavs one after\n another, went thence through a wide, uninhabited country, and came to\n the so-called Varn. Beyond them they passed by the tribes of the Danes\n [in Jutland], without the barbarians there using violence towards\n them. When they thence came to the ocean [about the year 512] they\n took ship, and landed on the island of Thule [i.e., Scandinavia] and\n remained there. But Thule is beyond comparison the largest of all\n islands; for it is more than ten times as large as Britain. But it\n lies very far therefrom northwards. On this island the land is for the\n most part uninhabited. But in the inhabited regions there are thirteen\n populous tribes, each with a king. Every year an extraordinary thing\n takes place; for the sun, about the time of the summer solstice, does\n not set at all for forty days, but for the whole of this time remains\n uninterruptedly visible above the earth. No less than six months\n later, about the winter solstice, for forty days the sun is nowhere to\n be seen on this island; but continual night is spread over it, and\n therefore for the whole of that time the people are very depressed,\n since they can hold no intercourse. It is true that I have not\n succeeded, much as I should have wished it, in reaching this island\n and witnessing what is here spoken of; but from those who have come\n thence to us I have collected information of how they are able [to\n count the days] when the sun neither rises nor sets at the times\n referred to,\" etc. When, during the forty days that it is above the\n horizon, the sun in its daily course returns \"to that place where the\n inhabitants first saw it rise, then according to their reckoning a day\n and a night have passed. But when the period of night commences, they\n find a measure by observation of the moon's path, according to which\n they reckon the number of days. But when thirty-five days of the long\n night are passed, certain people are sent up to the tops of mountains,\n as is the custom with them, and when from thence they can see some\n appearance of the sun, they send word to the inhabitants below that in\n five days the sun will shine upon them. And the latter assemble and\n celebrate, in the dark it is true, the feast of the glad tidings.\n Among the people of Thule this is the greatest of all their festivals.\n I believe that these islanders, although the same thing happens every\n year with them, nevertheless are in a state of fear lest some time the\n sun should be wholly lost to them.\n\n \"Among the barbarians inhabiting Thule, one people, who are called\n Skridfinns [Scrithifini], live after the manner of beasts. They do not\n wear clothes [i.e., of cloth] nor, when they walk, do they fasten\n anything under their feet, [i.e., they do not wear shoes], they\n neither drink wine nor eat anything from the land, because they\n neither cultivate the land themselves nor do the women provide them\n with anything from tilling it, but the men as well as the women occupy\n themselves solely and continually in hunting; for the extraordinarily\n great forests and mountains which rise in their country give them vast\n quantities of game and other beasts. They always eat the flesh of the\n animals they hunt and wear their skins, and they have no linen or\n anything else that they can sew with. But they fasten the skins\n together with the sinews of beasts, and thus cover their whole bodies.\n The children even are not brought up among them as with other peoples;\n for the Skridfinns' children do not take women's milk, nor do they\n touch their mothers' breasts, but they are nourished solely with the\n marrow of slain beasts. As soon therefore as a woman has given birth,\n she winds the child in a skin, hangs it up in a tree, puts marrow into\n its mouth, and goes off hunting; for they follow this occupation in\n common with the men. Thus is the mode of life of these barbarians\n arranged.\n\n \"Nearly all of the remaining inhabitants of Thule do not, however,\n differ much from other peoples. They worship a number of gods and\n higher powers in the heavens, the air, the earth and the sea, also\n certain other higher beings which are thought to dwell in the waters\n of springs and rivers. But they always slay all kinds of sacrifice and\n offer dead sacrifices. And to them the best of all sacrifices is the\n man they have taken prisoner by their arms. Him they sacrifice to the\n god of war, because they consider him to be the greatest. But they do\n not sacrifice him merely by using fire at the sacrifice; they also\n hang him up in a tree, or throw him among thorns, and slay him by\n other cruel modes of death. Such is the life of the inhabitants of\n Thule, among whom the most numerous people are the Gauti (G\u00f6ter), with\n whom the immigrant Eruli settled.\"\n\n[Sidenote: Erulian sources of Procopius]\n\n[Sidenote: Common source of Procopius and Jordanes]\n\nThis description by Procopius of Thule (Scandinavia) and its people bears\nthe stamp of a certain trustworthiness. If we ask whence he has derived\nhis information, our thoughts are led at once to the Eruli, referred to by\nhim in such detail, who in part were still the allies of the Eastern\nEmpire, and of whom the emperor at Byzantium had a bodyguard in the sixth\ncentury. There were many of them in the army of the Eastern Empire both in\nPersia and in Italy; thus Procopius says that there were two thousand of\nthem in the army under the eunuch Narses, which came to Italy to join\nBelisarius. Procopius thus had ample opportunity for obtaining first-hand\ninformation from these northern warriors, and his account of them shows\nthat the Eruli south of the Danube kept up communication with their\nkinsmen in Scandinavia, for when they had killed their king \"Ochon\"\nwithout cause, since they wished to try being without a king, and had\nrepented the experiment, they sent some of their foremost men to Thule to\nfind a new king of the royal blood. They chose one and returned with him;\nbut he died on the way when they had almost reached home, and they\ntherefore turned again and went once more to Thule. This time they found\nanother, \"by name 'Datios' [or 'Todasios' == Tjodrik ?]. He was\naccompanied by his brother 'Aordos' [== Vard ?] and two hundred young men\nof the Eruli in Thule.\" Meanwhile, as they were so long absent, the Eruli\nof Singidunum (the modern Belgrade) had sent an embassy to the emperor\nJustinianus at Byzantium asking him to give them a chief. He sent,\ntherefore, the Erulian \"Svartuas\" (== Svartugle, i.e., black owl ?), who\nhad been living with him for a long time. But when Datios from Thule\napproached, all the Eruli went over to him by night, and Svartuas had to\nflee quite alone, and returned to Byzantium. The emperor now exerted all\nhis power to reinstate him; \"but the Eruli, who feared the power of the\nRomans, decided to migrate to the Gepid\u00e6.\" This happened in Procopius's\nown time, and may therefore be regarded as trustworthy; it shows how easy\ncommunication must have been at that time between Scandinavia and the\nsouth, and also with Byzantium, so that Procopius may well have had his\ninformation by that channel. But he may also have received information\nfrom another quarter. His description of Thule shows such decided\nsimilarities with Jordanes' account of Scandza and its people that they\npoint to some common source of knowledge, even though there are also\ndissimilarities. Among the latter it may be pointed out that Jordanes\nmakes a distinction between Thule (north of Britain) and Scandza, while\nProcopius calls Scandinavia Thule, which, however, like Jordanes, he\nplaces to the north of Britain, and he does not mention Scandia. It may\nseem surprising that Jordanes' authority, Cassiodorus (or Ablabius ?),\nshould have known Ptolemy better than the Greek Procopius. The explanation\nmay be that when Procopius heard from the statements of the Eruli\nthemselves that some of them had crossed the ocean from the land of the\nDanes (Jutland) to a great island in the north, he could not have supposed\nthat this was Scandia, which on Ptolemy's map lay east of the Cimbrian\npeninsula and farther south than its northern point; it would seem much\nmore probable that it was Thule, which, however, as he saw, must lie\nfarther from Britain and be larger than it was shown on Ptolemy's map; for\nwhich reason Procopius expressly asserts that Thule was much larger than\nBritain and lay far to the north of it. As it was not Procopius's habit\nto make a show of unnecessary names, he keeps the well-known name of\nThule and does not even mention Scandia. It may even be supposed that it\nwas to west Norway itself, or the ancient Thule, that the Eruli sailed. If\ntheir king Rodulf was a Norwegian, as suggested above, this would be\nprobable, as in that case many of themselves would have come from there\ntoo; besides which, we know of a people, the Harudes or Horder, who had\nformerly migrated by sea from Jutland to the west coast of Norway; there\nhad therefore been an ancient connection, and perhaps, indeed, Horder from\nNorway and Harudes from Jutland may have been among Rodulf's men, and\nthere may also have been Harudes among the Eruli whom the Danes, according\nto Jordanes, drove out of their home (in Jutland ?). There was also, from\nthe very beginning of Norwegian history, much connection between Norway\nand Jutland.\n\nAnother disagreement between the descriptions of Procopius and Jordanes is\nthat according to the former there were thirteen tribes, each with a king,\nin Thule, while Jordanes enumerates twice as many tribal names in Scandza,\nbut of these perhaps several may have belonged to the same kingdom.[142]\n\nA remarkable similarity between the two authors is the summer day forty\ndays long and the equally long winter night among the people of Thule as\nwith the Adogit, and the fact that in immediate connection therewith the\nScrithifini and Screrefenn\u00e6, which must originally be the same name, are\nmentioned. The description in Procopius of festivals on the reappearance\nof the sun, etc., points certainly to information from the North; but, as\nalready pointed out, the statement in this form, that the summer day was\nof the same length as the winter night, cannot be due to the Norsemen\nthemselves; it is a literary invention, which points to a common literary\norigin; for it would be more than remarkable if it had arisen\nindependently both with the authority of Procopius and with that of\nJordanes. An even more striking indication in the same direction is the\nresemblance which we find in the order of the two descriptions of Thule\nand of Scandza. First comes the geographical description of the island,\nwhich in both is of very great size and lies far out in the northern\nocean; then occurs the statement that in this great island are many\ntribes.[143] Next we have in both the curious fact that the summer day and\nthe winter night both last for forty days. Then follows in both a more\ndetailed statement of how the long summer day and winter night come about,\nand of how the sun behaves during its course, etc. Immediately after this\ncomes the description of the Skridfinns, who have a bestial way of life,\nand do not live on corn, but on the flesh of wild beasts, etc., with an\naddition in Jordanes about fen-fowl's eggs (perhaps taken from Mela),\nwhile Procopius has a more detailed description of their mode of life,\nwhich reminds one somewhat of Tacitus. Finally, there is a reference to\nthe Germanic people of Thule or Scandza; but while Procopius mentions\ntheir religious beliefs and human sacrifices, and only gives the name of\nthe most numerous tribe, the Gauti, Jordanes has for the most part a\nrigmarole of names.\n\nEven if the method of treating the material is thus very different in the\ntwo works, the order in which the material is arranged, and to some extent\nalso the material itself, are in such complete agreement that there must\nbe a historical connection, and undoubtedly a common literary source,\nthrough a greater or less number of intermediaries, is the basis of both\ndescriptions. One might think of the unknown Ablabius, or perhaps of the\nunknown Gothic scholar Aithanarit, whom the Ravenna geographer mentions in\nconnection with his reference to the Skridfinns, if indeed he did not live\nlater than Procopius. It is striking also that the passage about Thule in\nProcopius gives rather the impression of having been inserted in the\nmiddle of his narrative about the Eruli, without any very intimate\nconnection therewith, and it may therefore be for the most part taken from\nan earlier author, perhaps with alterations and additions by Procopius\nhimself; but it is not his habit to inform us of his authorities.\n\n[Sidenote: The Eruli are Norsemen]\n\nProcopius's description of the Eruli is of great interest. It is a\nremarkable feature in the history of the world that at certain intervals,\neven from the earliest times, roving warrior peoples appear in Europe,\ncoming from the unknown North, who for a time fill the world with dread,\nand then disappear again. One of these northern peoples was perhaps, as\nalready mentioned, the \"Cimmerians,\" who in the eighth century B.C. made\nan inroad into Asia Minor. Six hundred years later, in the second century\nB.C., bands of Cimbri and Teutones came down from northern Europe and were\npressing towards Rome, till they were defeated by Marius and gradually\ndisappeared. Five hundred years later still, in the third to the fifth\ncenturies A.D., the Eruli come on the scene, and after they have\ndisappeared come the Saxons and Danes, and then the Normans. We may\nperhaps suppose, to a certain extent at all events, that the races which\nformed these restless and adventurous bands were in part the same, and\nthat it is the names that have changed. The Eruli are also mentioned by\nJordanes and by many other authorities besides Procopius. Together with\nthe Goths they played a part in the \"Scythian\" war in the third century,\nbut afterwards disappear to the north of the Black Sea. They must have\nbeen the most migratory people of their time; we find them roaming over\nthe whole of Europe, from Scandinavia on the north to Byzantium on the\nsouth, from the Black Sea on the east to Spain on the west; from the third\nto the fifth century we find Eruli from Scandinavia as pirates on the\ncoasts of western Europe, and even in the Mediterranean itself, where in\n455 they reached Lucca in Italy [cf. Zeuss, 1837, p. 477 f.; M\u00fcllenhoff,\n1889, p. 19]. When we read in Procopius that some of the Eruli would not\n\"cross the Danube, but determined to establish themselves in the uttermost\nends of the world,\" this means, of course, that they had come from thence,\nand that rather than be subject to the Eastern Empire they would return\nhome to Scandinavia. The name also frequently appears in its primitive\nNorse form, \"erilaR,\" in Northern runic inscriptions.[144] Since \"erilaR\"\n(in Norwegian \"jarl,\" in English \"earl\") means leader in war, and is not\nknown in Scandinavia as the original name of a tribe which has given its\nname to any district in the North, we must suppose that it was more\nprobably an appellative in use in the more southern parts of Europe for\nbands of northern warriors of one or more Scandinavian tribes [cf. P. A.\nMunch, 1852, p. 53]. They may have called themselves so; it was, in fact,\ncharacteristic of the Scandinavian warrior that he was not disposed to\nacknowledge any superior; they were all free men and chiefs in\ncontradistinction to thralls. Gradually these bands in foreign countries\nmay have coalesced into one nation [cf. A. Bugge, 1906, p. 32]. But as\nexpeditions of Eruli are spoken of in such widely different parts of\nEurope, the name must, up to the end of the fifth century, have often been\nused for Norsemen in general, to distinguish them from the nations of\nGermany, like the designation Normans, and sometimes also Danes, in later\ntimes. That the latter was used as an appellative as early as the time of\nProcopius seems to result from his mentioning the tribes (\"ethne\") of the\nDanes in just the same way as he speaks of those of the Slavs. What is\nsaid about the Eruli suits the Scandinavians: they were very tall (cf.\nJordanes, above, p. 136) and fair, were specially famed for their\nactivity, and were lightly armed; they went into battle without helmet or\ncoat of mail, protected only by a shield and a thick tunic, which they\ntucked up into a belt. Their thralls, indeed, had to fight without\nshields; but when they had shown their courage they were allowed to carry\na shield [Procopius, De bello Pers., ii. 25]. \"At that time,\" says\nJordanes, \"there was no nation that had not chosen the light-armed men of\nits army from among them. But if their activity had often helped them in\nother wars, they were vanquished by the slow steadiness of the Goths,\" and\nthey had to submit to Hermanaric, King of the Goths by the Black Sea, the\nsame who is called J\u00f6rmunrek in the V\u00f6lsunga Saga. The people here\ndescribed can scarcely have been typical dwellers in plains, who are\nusually slow and heavy; we should rather think of them as tough and active\nScandinavian mountaineers, who by their hard life in the hills had become\nlight of foot and practised in the use of their limbs; but who, on the\nother hand, had been ill-supplied with heavier weapons and had had scant\nopportunities of exercise as heavy-armed men, for which indeed they had no\ntaste. This also explains their remarkable mobility. We are thus led once\nmore to think of Norway as the possible home of some of the Eruli. To sum\nup, we find then that they had a king with the Norse name Rodulf, and\nthere are many indications that he was the same as the Norwegian king\nRodulf (from Romsdal ?) who came to Theodoric. They returned through\nJutland and sailed thence to Thule, where they settled by the side of the\nGauti, i.e., to the west of them in Norway, which from old time had had\nfrequent communication with Jutland, from whence the Horder (and probably\nalso the Ryger ?) had immigrated. They are described as having\ncharacteristics which are typical of mountaineers, but not of lowlanders.\nAn Erulian name, \"Aruth\" (\u0391\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5\u03b8), mentioned by Procopius [De bello Goth.,\niv. 26], also points to Norway, since it appears to be the same as the\nNorwegian tribal name \"Horder\" (\"*Haru\u00f0r,\" gen. \"Haru\u00fes,\" on the\nR\u00f6k-stone [cf. S. Bugge, 1910, p. 98], or \"Arothi\" in Jordanes).\n\n Other Erulian names in Procopius may be common to the northern\n Germanic languages. In the opinion of Professor Alf Torp it is\n probable that \"Visandos\" is bison, \"Aluith\" is Alvid or Alvith\n (all-knowing); in \"Fanitheos\" the first syllable may be \"fan\" or \"fen\"\n (English, fen) and the second part \"-theos\" may be the Scandinavian\n termination \"-ther\"; \"Aordos\" may be Vard. The King's name \"Ochon\"\n seems to resemble the Norwegian H\u00e5kon; but the latter name cannot have\n had such a form at that time, it must have been longer.\n\nWhat Procopius tells us [De bello Goth., ii. 14] about the manners and\ncustoms of the Eruli agrees with what we know of the Norsemen generally.\nThey worshipped many gods, whom they considered it their sacred duty to\npropitiate with human sacrifices. Aged and sick persons were obliged to\nask their relatives to help them to get rid of life;[145] they were killed\nwith a dagger by one who did not belong to the family, and were burnt on a\ngreat pile, after which the bones were collected and buried, as was the\ncustom in western Norway amongst other places. \"When an Erulian died, his\nwife, if she wished to show her virtue and leave a good name behind her,\nhad to hang herself not long after with a rope by her husband's grave and\nthus make an end of herself. If she did not do this, she lost respect for\nthe future, and was an offence to her husband's family. This custom was\nobserved by the Eruli from old time.\" Their many gods and human sacrifices\nagree, as we see, with Procopius's description of the inhabitants of\nThule, and with what we know of the Scandinavians from other quarters. As\nhuman sacrifices with most peoples were connected with banquets, at which\nslain enemies were eaten,[146] the assertion that our Germanic ancestors\ndid not practise cannibalism rests upon uncertain ground. When, therefore,\nin finds of the Stone Age in Denmark, Sweden and Norway broken or scraped\nhuman bones occur, which point to cannibalism, it cannot be argued from\nthis, as is done by Dr. A. M. Hansen [1907], that the finds belong to a\nnon-Germanic people.\n\nFor the rest, Procopius paints the Eruli in crude colours; they are\ncovetous, domineering and violent towards their fellow men, without being\nashamed of it. They are addicted to the grossest debauchery, are the most\nwicked of men, and utterly depraved.\n\n[Sidenote: Skridfinns]\n\nThe \"Scrithifini\" of Procopius (and Jordanes' corrupted form,\n\"Screrefenn\u00e6\" or \"Scretefenn\u00e6\") are undoubtedly a people of the same kind\nas Tacitus's \"Fenni\" (Ptolemy-Marinus's \"Finni\"); but they have here\nacquired the descriptive prefix \"scrithi-,\" which is generally understood\nas the Norse \"skri\u00f0a\" (== to slide, e.g., on the ice, to glide; cf.\nSwedish \"skridsko,\" skate). The Norsemen must have characterised their\nFinnish (i.e., Lappish) neighbours on the north as sliding (walking) on\nski (\"skri\u00f0a \u00e1 ski\u00f0um\"), to distinguish them from other peoples in the\noutlying districts whom they also called Finns. If this is so, it is the\nfirst time that a reference to ski-running is found in literature. There\nis, moreover, considerable similarity between Procopius's description of\nthese hunters and Tacitus's account of the \"Fenni,\" who must certainly\nalso have lived in Scandinavia (see above, p. 113), and who may have been\nthe same people. They have many peculiar characteristics in common, e.g.,\nthat both men and women go hunting; and the statement that while the\nmothers go hunting, the children, in Tacitus, are hidden in a shelter of\nboughs (i.e., a tent), and in Procopius are hung up in a tree (perhaps\nthe Lapps' \"komse,\" i.e., a cradle made of wood to hang up in the tent).\nProcopius himself probably did not know Tacitus's \"Germania,\" but it is\npossible that his unknown authority did so, although this work was\ngenerally forgotten at that time. But even if the description of Procopius\nmay thus be partly derived from Tacitus, in any case fresh information has\nbeen added, the name Skridfinns itself to begin with, and certain correct\ndetails, such as their fastening the skins together with the sinews of\nbeasts. The fable that the children did not touch their mothers' breasts\nmay (like the masculine occupation of the women) be due to legends about\nthe Amazons, who were not brought up on their mothers' milk. That the\nchildren were given marrow instead may be due to the fact that this people\nof hunters, like the Lapps of the present day, ate much animal fat and\nmarrow. The Eskimo often give their children raw blubber to chew.\n\n[Illustration: Map of the world in the MS. of Isidore, tenth century, St.\nGallen (K. Miller)]\n\n[Illustration: The oldest known map of the world, from the MS. of Isidore\nof the end of the seventh century, St. Gallen (K. Miller)]\n\n[Sidenote: Isidorus Hispalensis, before 636 A.D.]\n\nThus while valuable information about the North is to be found in the\nearly medi\u00e6val authors we have mentioned, this is not the case with the\nwell-known Isidorus Hispalensis of Seville (ob. 636, as bishop of that\ncity), who, however, exercised the greatest influence on the geographical\nideas of the Middle Ages. His geographical knowledge was derived from late\nLatin authors, especially Orosius, Hieronymus and Solinus, and contributed\nnothing new of value. But as he was one of the most widely read authors of\nthe early Middle Ages, he is of importance for having in that dark time\ncontinued the thread of the learning of antiquity, even though that thread\nwas thin and weak. He was also to have an influence on cartography. With\nhis fondness for bad etymological interpretations he derived the word\n\"rotunditas,\" for the roundness of the earth, from \"rota,\" wheel, and he\ntaught that \"the word 'orbis' is used on account of the roundness of the\ncircumference, since it is like a wheel. For in every part the\ncircumfluent ocean surrounds its borders in a circle.\" Hence the\nconception of the earth's disc as a wheel came to be general in the early\nMiddle Ages, and hence the designation of wheel-maps. Isidore divided the\nearth's disc into three parts, Asia (including Paradise) at the top of the\nwheel-map, and Europe and Africa, also called Lybia, at the bottom; and\nthe boundaries between these continents formed a =T= with the rivers\nTanais and Nile horizontally at the top, and the Mediterranean (\"Mare\nMagnum\") below. Therefore maps of this type, which was maintained for a\nlong time, are also called =T=-maps.[147] Otherwise Isidore declared\nclearly enough in favour of the spherical form of the earth.\n\n[Sidenote: Bede, 673-735]\n\nThe Anglo-Saxon monk and scholar, Beda Venerabilis (673-735), who in his\nwork \"Liber de natura rerum\" also mentions the countries of the earth, but\nwithout making any fresh statement about the North, was strongly\ninfluenced by Isidore. He asserts, however, the spherical form of the\nearth in an intelligent way, giving, amongst other reasons, that of the\nancient Greeks, that earth and water are attracted towards a central\npoint. The form of a sphere was also the only one that would explain why\ncertain stars were visible in the north, but not in the south.\n\n[Illustration: Europe on the reconstructed map of the world of the Ravenna\ngeographer (after K. Miller)]\n\n[Sidenote: The Ravenna geographer, seventh century]\n\nA few new facts about the North are to be found in the anonymous author\nwho wrote a cosmography at the close of the seventh century. As, according\nto his own statement, he was born at Ravenna, he is usually known as the\nRavenna geographer, but otherwise nothing is known of him, except that he\nwas probably a priest. He bases his work on older authors; the Bible,\nsome Latin, some Greek, and some later writers; but he certainly had a\nRoman itinerary map like the Tabula Peutingeriana. His statements about\nthe North are in part taken from Jordanes, but he also quotes three other\n\"Gothic scholars,\" who are otherwise entirely unknown. One of them,\nAithanarit (or Athanaric ?), is mentioned particularly in connection with\nthe Skridfinns. The other two, Eldevaldus (or Eldebald ?) and Marcomirus\n(or Marcomeres ?), have also described western Europe; the latter is\nspecially used in the description of the countries of the Danes, Saxons\nand Frisians.\n\n The Ravenna geographer regarded the earth's disc as approximately\n round, and surrounded by ocean, but the latter was not entirely\n continuous, for it did not extend behind India. It was true that some\n cosmographers had described it so, but no Christian ought to believe\n this, for Paradise was in the extreme East, near to India; and as the\n pollen is wafted by the breath of the wind from the male palm to the\n female near it, so does a beneficent perfume from Paradise blow upon\n the aromatic flowers of India. Some thought that the sun in its course\n returned to the east under the depths of ocean; but the Ravenna\n geographer agreed with those who said that the sun moved all night\n along paths which cannot be traced, behind lofty mountains, in the\n north beyond the ocean, and in the morning it came forth again from\n behind them.\n\n [iv. 12.] \"In a line with Scythia and the coast of the ocean is the\n country which is said to be that of the 'Rerefeni' and 'Sirdifeni'\n ('Scirdifrini'). The people of this country, according to what the\n Gothic scholar Aithanarit says, dwell among the rocks of the\n mountains, and both men and women are said to live by hunting, and to\n be entirely unacquainted both with meat and wine. This land is said to\n be colder than all others. Farther on by the side of the Serdifenni on\n the coast of the ocean is the land which is called Dania; this land,\n as the above-mentioned Aithanaridus and Eldevaldus and Marcomirus, the\n Gothic scholars, say, produces people who are swifter than all\n others.\" [These must be the Eruli.] \"This Dania is now called the land\n of the Nordomanni.\" This is the first time the name Norman is used, so\n far as is known.\n\n [v. 30.] \"In the northern ocean itself, after the land of the\n Roxolani, is an island which is called Scanza, which is also called\n Old Scythia by most cosmographers. But in what manner the island of\n Scanza itself lies, we will with God's help relate.\"\n\nHe says, following Jordanes (see above, p. 130), that from this island\nother nations, amongst them the Goths and the Danes, besides the Gepid\u00e6,\nmigrated.\n\nIt will be seen that the Ravenna geographer's statements about the\nSkridfinns, whose name is varied and corrupted even more than in Jordanes,\nbear a striking resemblance to those of Procopius, although he says he\nderived them from the Goth Aithanarit; if this is correct, then the latter\nmust either have borrowed from Procopius, which is very probable, or he is\nolder and was the common authority both of Procopius and the Ravenna\ngeographer, and, if so, perhaps also of Cassiodorus (?).\n\n[Illustration: Cynocephali on a peninsula north-east of Norway (from the\nHereford map)]\n\n[Sidenote: \u00c6thicus Istricus, seventh century (?)]\n\n An enigmatical work, probably dating from about the seventh century,\n which was much read in the Middle Ages, professes to be a Latin\n translation, by a certain Hieronymus, from a Christian book of travel\n by a Greek commonly called \u00c6thicus Istricus.[148] He is said to have\n travelled before the fourth century. The translator asserts that\n \u00c6thicus had related many fabulous things, which he has not repeated,\n as he wished to keep to the sure facts; but among them we find many\n remarkable pieces of information, as that \u00c6thicus had seen with his\n own eyes on the north of the Caspian Sea the Amazons give the breast\n to Centaurs and Minotaurs, and when he was living in the town of\n Choolisma, built by Japhet's son Magog, he saw the sea of bitumen\n which forms the mouth of Hell and from which the cement for\n Alexander's wall of iron came. In Armenia he looked in vain for Noah's\n ark; but he saw dragons, ostriches, griffins, and ants as large and\n ferocious as dogs. He also mentioned griffins and treasures of gold in\n the north between the Tanais and the northern ocean. \"The Scythians,\n Griffins, Tracontians and Saxons built ships of wattles smeared over\n with pitch\" (perhaps it is meant that they were also covered with\n hides). These ships were extraordinarily swift. Among the Scythians\n there was said to be an able craftsman and great teacher, Grifo, who\n built ships with prows in the northern ocean. He was like the griffins\n or the flying fabulous birds. \u00c6thicus visited an island called Munitia\n north of Germania. There he found \"Cenocephali\" (dog-headed men). They\n were a hideous race. The Germanic peoples came to the island as\n merchants and called the people \"Cananei.\" They go with bare calves,\n smear their hair with oil or fat and smell foully. They lead a dirty\n life and feed on unclean animals, mice, moles, etc. They live in felt\n tents in the woods far away by fens and swampy places. They have a\n number of cattle, fowls and eggs.[149] They know no god and have no\n king. They use more tin than silver. One might be tempted to think\n that this fable of dog-headed people in the north had arisen from the\n word \"Kv\u00e6n\" (Finn), which to a Greek like \u00c6thicus would sound like\n \"cyon\" (dog). The name \"Cenocephali\" may have been introduced in this\n way, while that of \"Cananei\" may have arisen by a sort of corrupt\n similarity of sound between Kv\u00e6n and the Old Testament people of\n Canaan. It might thus be Kv\u00e6nland or Finland that is here spoken of.\n Their going with bare calves and living in felt tents may remind us of\n the Argipp\u00e6i of Herodotus, who were bald (while in Mela they went\n bare-headed) and had felt tents in winter.\n\n[Illustration: The Seven Sleepers in the Cave by the North Sea (from Olaus\nMagnus)]\n\n[Sidenote: Paulus Warnefridi, 720-790]\n\nThe Langobard author Paulus Warnefridi, also called Diaconus (about\n720-790), gives for the most part more or less confused extracts from\nearlier authors, but he seems besides to have obtained some new\ninformation about the North. Just as the Goth Jordanes (or Cassiodorus, or\nAblabius) makes the Goths emigrate from Ptolemy's Scandza, so Paulus,\nfollowing earlier authors,[150] makes the Langobards proceed from Pliny's\nisland Scatinavia, far in the north. It looks as though at that time a\nnorthern origin was held in high esteem. But Paulus describes the country,\nfrom the statements of those who have seen it, as not \"really lying in the\nsea, but the waves wash the low shores.\" This points to a confusion here\nwith a district called Scatenauge by the Elbe, which in a somewhat later\nMS. (about 807) of the Langobardic Law is mentioned as the home of the\nLangobards [cf. L\u00f6nborg, 1897, p. 27]. Paulus further relates that on the\ncoast \"north-west towards the uttermost boundaries of Germany\" there lie\nseven men asleep in a cave, for how long is uncertain. They resemble the\nRomans in appearance, and both they and their clothes are unharmed, and\nthey are regarded by the inhabitants as holy. The legend of the Seven\nSleepers is already found in Gregory of Tours, who has it from Asia Minor,\nwhere it arose in the third century and was located at Ephesus [cf. J.\nKoch, 1883]. The legend was very common in Germania, and we find it again\nlater in tales of shipwreck on the coast of Greenland.[151]\n\n \"Near to this place [i.e., the cave with the seven men] dwell the\n 'Scritobini';[152] thus is this people called; they have snow even in\n summer time, and they eat nothing but the raw flesh of wild beasts, as\n they do not differ from the beasts themselves in intelligence, and\n they also make themselves clothes of their skins with the hair on.\n Their name is explained from the word 'to leap' in the foreign tongue\n [i.e., Germanic], for by leaping with a certain art they overtake the\n wild beasts with a piece of wood bent like a bow. Among them is an\n animal which is not much unlike a stag, and I have seen a dress made\n of the hide of this animal, just as if it was bristling with hairs,\n and it was made like a tunic and reached to the knees, as the\n above-mentioned Scritobini wear it, as I have told. In these parts, at\n the summer solstice, there is seen for several days, even at night,\n the clearest light, and they have there much more daylight than\n elsewhere, as on the other hand, about the winter solstice, even if\n there is daylight, the sun itself is not seen there, and the day is\n shorter than in any other place, the nights also are longer; for the\n farther one goes away from the sun, the nearer the sun appears to the\n earth [the horizon], and the shadows become longer.\"...\n\n[Illustration: The oldest known picture of a ski-runner (from the Hereford\nmap's representation of Norway, thirteenth century)]\n\n \"And not far from the shore which we before spoke of [by the cave] on\n the west, where the ocean extends without bounds, is that very deep\n abyss of the waters which we commonly call the ocean's navel. It is\n said twice a day to suck the waves into itself, and to spew them out\n again; as is proved to happen along all these coasts, where the waves\n rush in and go back again with fearful rapidity. Such a gulf or\n whirlpool is called by the poet Virgil Caribdis, and in his poem he\n says it is in the strait by Sicily, as he says:\n\n 'Scilla lies on the right hand\n and the implacable Caribdis on the left.\n And three times it sucks the vast billows\n down into the abyss with the deep whirlpool\n of the gulf, and it sends them up again into the air,\n and the wave lashes the stars.'\n\n \"By the whirlpool of which we have spoken it is asserted that ships\n are often drawn in with such rapidity that they seem to resemble the\n flight of arrows through the air; and sometimes they are lost in this\n gulf with a very frightful destruction. Often just as they are about\n to go under, they are brought back again by a sudden shock of the\n waves, and they are sent out again thence with the same rapidity with\n which they were drawn in. It is asserted that there is also another\n gulf of the same kind between Britain and the Gallician province\"\n [i.e., northern Spain], whereupon there follows a description of the\n tides on the south coast of France and at the mouths of the rivers,\n after which there is a highly coloured account of the horrors of the\n Ebudes, where they can hear the noise of the waters rushing towards a\n similar Caribdis.\n\nPaulus Warnefridi evidently had a very erroneous idea of ski-running,\nwhich he made into a leaping instead of a gliding motion. He may have\nimagined that they jumped about on pieces of wood bent like bows. That the\nabyss of waters or navel of the sea is thought to be in the North may be\ndue to reports either of the current in the Pentland Firth or of the\nMosken-str\u00f6m or the Salt-str\u00f6m, which thus make their appearance here in\nliterature, and which were afterwards developed into the widespread ideas\nof the Middle Ages about maelstroms and abysses in the sea, perhaps by\nbeing connected with the ancient Greek conception of the uttermost abyss\n(Tartarus, Anostus, Ginnungagap; see pp. 11, 12, 17), and as here with the\ndescription of the current in the Straits of Messina.\n\n[Illustration: The Maelstrom near the Lofoten Islands (from Olaus Magnus)]\n\nViktor Rydberg [1886, pp. 318, 425, ff.] supposed Paulus's description of\nthe whirlpool to be derived from the Norse legends of the world's well,\n\"Hvergelmer\"--which causes the tides by the water flowing up and down\nthrough its subterranean channels--and of the quern \"Grotte\" at the\nbottom of the sea, which forms whirlpools when the waters run down into\nthe hole in the mill-stone.[153] But it is perhaps just as probable that\nit is the southern, originally classical ideas which have been localised\nin the Norse legends. As we have seen, we find in Virgil the same\nconception of a gulf in the sea which sucks the water into itself and\nsends it up again. Isidore says of the abyss (also repeated in Hrabanus\nMaurus):\n\n \"Abyssus is the impenetrable deep of the waters, or the caves of the\n hidden waters, from whence springs and rivers issue forth, but also\n those which run concealed beneath the ground. Therefore it is called\n Abyssus, for all streams return by hidden veins to their mother\n Abyssus.\"\n\nIt is credible that ideas such as this may have originated, or at any rate\ncoloured, the myth of \"Hvergelmer\" (i.e., the noisy or bubbling kettle).\nIsidore was early known in England, Ireland and Scandinavia. The whirlpool\nis also found among Orientals; thus Sindbad is drawn into it. Paulus's\nmention of whirlpools not only in the North, and off the Hebrides, but\nalso between Britain and Spain and in the Straits of Messina, does not\nshow that he derived the legend solely from the North. Later, on the other\nhand, in Adam of Bremen, the whirlpool becomes more exclusively northern,\nand later still we shall get it even at the North Pole itself.\n\nPaulus Warnefridi also mentions Greek fabulous people such as the\nDog-heads (Cynocephali) and the Amazons in North Germania. He says that\nthe Langobards fought with a people called \"Assipitti,\" who lived in\n\"Mauringa,\" and that they frightened them by saying that they had\nCynocephali in their army, who drank human blood, their own if they could\nnot get that of others. The Langobards were said to have been stopped by\nthe Amazons at a river in Germany. The Langobard king, Lamissio, fought\nwith the bravest of them, while he was swimming in the river, and slew\nher; and according to a prearranged agreement he thereby obtained for his\npeople the right of crossing unhindered. Paulus regards the story as\nuntrue, as the Amazons were supposed to have been destroyed long before;\nbut he had nevertheless heard that there was a tribe of such women in the\ninterior of Germany. The same idea of a female nation in Germany occurs\nagain later in literature (cf. King Alfred's \"M\u00e6g\u00f0a-land\").\n\n[Sidenote: Interpolation in Solinus, circa eighth century]\n\nIt has already been mentioned (p. 123) that in the MSS. of Solinus of the\nninth century and later there is found a mention of the Ebudes, the\nOrcades and Thule which in the opinion of Mommsen is a later addition; and\nas it is not found in Isidore Hispalensis, who made extensive use of\nSolinus, it must have been introduced after his time (seventh century),\nbut before the ninth century, when it occurs in a MS. As the addition\nabout Thule, so far as I can judge, must show that this country is\nregarded as Norway, and as there are many indications that it was made by\nan Irish monk, it is further probable that it belongs to the period before\nthe Irish discovery of Iceland, which then, according to Dicuil's book,\nbecame regarded as Thule. I think, therefore, we can place the addition at\nthe beginning of the eighth century, and it will then be evidence of the\nknowledge of Norway which prevailed in the British Isles at that time.\nAfter having mentioned Britain and the neighbouring islands the account\nproceeds [Solinus, c. 22]:\n\n \"From the Caledonian Promontory it is two days' sail for those who\n voyage to Tyle [Thule]. From thence begin the Ebudes islands\n [Hebrides], five in number [the five principal islands]. Their\n inhabitants live on fruits, fish and milk. Though there are many\n islands, they are all separated by narrow arms of the sea. They all\n together have but one king. The king owns nothing for himself alone,\n all is common property. Justice is imposed upon him by fixed laws, and\n lest he should be led away from the truth by covetousness, he learns\n righteousness by poverty, since he has no possessions; he is therefore\n supported by the people. No woman is given him in marriage, but he\n takes in turn her who pleases him at the moment. Thus he has neither\n the desire nor the hope of children. The second station for the\n voyager [to Thule] is provided by the Orcades. But the Orcades lie\n seven days' and the same number of nights' sail from the Ebudes, they\n are three in number [i.e., the three principal isles of the\n Shetlands]. They are uninhabited ('vacant homines'). They have no\n woods, but are rough with reeds and grass, the rest is bare sandy\n beach and rocks. From the Orcades direct to Thule is five days' and\n nights' sail. But Thule is fertile and rich in late-ripening fruits.\n The inhabitants there live from the beginning of spring with their\n cattle, and feed on herbs and milk; the fruits of the trees they keep\n for winter. They have women in common, regular marriage is not known\n among them.\"\n\nThis description cannot well be pure invention, and unless it may be\nthought to be transferred from another place, we must believe it to be\nderived from a distant knowledge of Norway. Their living with the cattle\nin spring is in accordance with this, but not their subsistence on the\nfruits of the trees. Here one would rather be led to think of the\nHesperides and their golden apples, unless we are to suppose that they\ncollected nuts and berries. That the inhabitants of Thule had women in\ncommon might be connected with the predilection of the Scandinavians for\npolygamy, of which we also hear from other sources; but this is uncertain.\nEven the Greeks and Romans saw in the absence of regular marriage a sign\nof barbarism, which brought man near to the beasts, and which they\ntherefore attributed to people at the extreme limits of the earth; cf.\nHerodotus, and Strabo's description of the Irish (p. 81). If the\nCaledonian Promontory means Scotland, it is surprising that it should be\ntwo days' sail to the Hebrides, and that these were the first and the\nOrcades the second station on the way to Thule. We must then suppose that\nthere has been a jumbling together of several authorities, which is not\nvery probable if this is a later interpolation, since we must doubtless\nbelieve the interpolating copyist to have thought himself possessed of\nknowledge of these matters. If, however, we suppose him to have been an\nIrishman, and to have looked upon the voyage to Thule with Ireland as a\nstarting-point, then it becomes more consistent. It is then two days' sail\nfrom Ireland to the Hebrides, seven days thence to the Shetlands, and then\nfive to Thule; that is, the whole voyage will last fourteen days; and\nthis may be about right. It is undeniably somewhat surprising that there\nshould be no inhabitants on the Orcades, or Shetland, at that time.\n\n\nTHE DISCOVERY OF THE FAROES AND ICELAND BY THE IRISH IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY\n\n[Sidenote: Dicuil, circa 825]\n\nThe earliest voyages northward to the Arctic Circle, of which there is\ncertain literary mention in the early Middle Ages, are the Irish monks'\nexpeditions across the sea in their small boats, whereby they discovered\nthe Faroes and Iceland, and, at all events for a time, lived there. Of\nthese the Irish monk Dicuil gave an account, as early as about the year\n825, in his description of the earth, \"De Mensura Orbis Terr\u00e6\" [cf.\nLetronne, 1814, pp. 38 f., 131 f.]. It is characteristic of the spiritual\ntendency of that period of the Middle Ages that these remarkable voyages\nwere not, like other voyages of discovery, undertaken from love of gain,\nthirst for adventure, or desire of knowledge, but chiefly from the wish to\nfind lonely places, where these anchorites might dwell in peace,\nundisturbed by the turmoil and temptations of the world.[154] In this way\nthe unknown islands near the Arctic Ocean must have seemed to satisfy all\ntheir requirements; but their joy was short-lived; the disturbers of the\nNorth, the Vikings from Norway, soon came there also and drove them out or\noppressed them.\n\nWhat Dicuil tells us of the Scandinavian North is chiefly derived from\nPliny, and contains nothing new. But of the unknown islands in the\nnorthern ocean he writes [7, 3]:\n\n[Sidenote: Discovery of the Faroes by the Irish]\n\n \"There are many more islands in the ocean north of Britain, which can\n be reached from the northern British Isles in two days' and two\n nights' direct sailing with full sail and a favourable wind. A\n trustworthy priest ('presbyter religiosus') told me that he had sailed\n for two summer-days and an intervening night in a little boat with two\n thwarts [i.e., two pairs of oars],[155] and landed on one of these\n islands. These islands are for the most part small; nearly all are\n divided from one another by narrow sounds, and upon them anchorites,\n who proceeded from our Scotia [i.e., Ireland], have lived for about a\n hundred years ('in centum ferme annis'). But as since the beginning of\n the world they had always been deserted, so are they now by reason of\n the Northman pirates emptied of anchorites, but full of innumerable\n sheep and a great number of different kinds of sea-birds. We have\n never found these islands spoken of in the books of authors.\"\n\n[Illustration: The Faroes]\n\nThis description best suits the Faroes,[156] where, therefore, Irish monks\nhad previously lived, and from whence they had been driven out by\nNorwegian seafarers, probably at the close of the eighth century. As,\nhowever, Dicuil is so well aware of the islands being full of sheep, the\nIrish may have continued to visit them occasionally, like the trustworthy\npriest referred to, who sailed there in a boat with two thwarts. Dicuil's\nstatement that they were then \"emptied of anchorites\" must doubtless be\ninterpreted to mean that they were uninhabited; but this does not sound\nvery probable. Rather, there are many indications that the islands had an\noriginal Celtic population, which continued to live there after the\nsettlement of the Norsemen.\n\n There are some Celtic place-names, such as \"D\u00edmon\" (the islands \"Stora\n D\u00edmon\" and \"Litla D\u00edmon,\" or \"D\u00edmun meiri\" and \"D\u00edmun minni\") from the\n Celtic \"dimun\" (== double neck, thus like Norwegian \"Tviberg\").[157]\n As such Celtic place-names cannot have been introduced later, the\n Norwegians must have got them from the Celts who were there before,\n and with whom they had intercourse. The language of the Faroes has\n also many loan-words from Celtic, mostly for agriculture and\n cattle-farming, and for the flora and fauna of the islands. These\n might be explained by many of the Norwegian settlers having previously\n lived in the Scottish islands or in Ireland, or having had frequent\n communication with those countries [cf. A. Bugge, 1905, p. 358]; but\n it seems more natural to suppose that the loan-words are derived from\n a primitive Celtic population. To this must be added that the people\n of the Southern Faroes are still dark, with dark eyes and black hair,\n and differ from the more Germanic type of the northern islands [cf. D.\n Bruun, 1902, p. 5]. The name \"F\u00e6r\u00f6ene\" (sheep-islands) shows that\n there probably were sheep before the Norsemen came, which so far\n agrees with Dicuil; these sheep must then have been introduced by the\n earlier Celts.\n\nAccording to this it seems possible that the Irish monks came to the\nislands not merely as anchorites, but also to spread Christianity among a\nCeltic population. The Norwegians arrived later, took possession of the\nislands, and oppressed the Celts.\n\n[Sidenote: Irish Discovery of Iceland]\n\nBut the bold Irish monks extended their voyages farther north. Dicuil has\nalso to tell us how they found Iceland, which he calls Thule, and lived\nthere. After having mentioned what Pliny, Solinus, Isidore (Hispalensis)\nand Priscianus say about Thule (Thyle), he continues [7, 2, 6]:\n\n \"It is now thirty years since certain priests, who had been on that\n island from the 1st of February to the 1st of August, told that not\n only at the time of the summer solstice, but also during the days\n before and after, the setting sun at evening conceals itself as it\n were behind a little mound, so that it does not grow dark even for\n the shortest space of time, but whatsoever work a man will do, even\n picking the lice out of his shirt (pediculos de camisia extrahere), he\n may do it just as though the sun were there, and if they had been upon\n the high mountains of the island perhaps the sun would never be\n concealed by them [i.e., the mountains]. In the middle of this very\n short time it is midnight in the middle of the earth, and on the other\n hand I suppose in the same way that at the winter solstice and for a\n few days on either side of it the dawn is seen for a very short time\n in Thule, when it is midday in the middle of the earth. Consequently I\n believe that they lie and are in error who wrote that there was a\n stiffened (concretum) sea around it [i.e., Thyle], and likewise those\n who said that there was continuous day without night from the vernal\n equinox till the autumnal equinox, and conversely continuous night\n from the autumnal equinox till the vernal, since those who sailed\n thither reached it in the natural time for great cold, and while they\n were there always had day and night alternately except at the time of\n the summer solstice; but a day's sail northward from it they found the\n frozen (congelatum) sea.\"\n\nThis description, written half a century before the Norwegians, according\nto common belief, came to Iceland, shows that the country was known to the\nIrish, at any rate before the close of the eighth century (thirty years\nbefore Dicuil wrote in 825), and how much earlier we cannot say. With the\nfirst-hand information he had received from people who had been there,\nDicuil may have blended ideas which he had obtained from his literary\nstudies. The sun hiding at night behind a little mound reminds us of the\nolder ideas that it went behind a mountain in the north (cf. Cosmas\nIndicopleustes and the Ravenna geographer); but of course it may also be\ndue to local observation. The idea that the frozen sea (\"congelatum mare\")\nhad been found a day's sail north of this island is precisely the same as\nin the Latin and Greek authors, where, according to Pytheas, the stiffened\nsea (\"concretum mare\") or the sluggish sea (\"pigrum\") lay one day's sail\nbeyond Thule (cf. p. 65). But this does not exclude the possibility of the\nIrish having come upon drift-ice north of Iceland; on the contrary, this\nis very probable.\n\nDicuil's statement of the Irish discovery of Iceland is confirmed by the\nIcelandic sagas. Are Frode (about 1130) relates that at the time the\nNorwegian settlers first came to Iceland,\n\n \"there were Christians here whom the Norwegians called 'papar'\n [priests]; but they afterwards went away, because they would not be\n here together with heathens, and they left behind them Irish books,\n bells and croziers, from which it could be concluded that they were\n Irishmen.\" In the Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k, which gives the same statement from\n Are, it is added that \"they were found east in Papey and in Papyli. It\n is also mentioned in English books that at that time there was sailing\n between the countries\" [i.e., between Iceland and Britain].\n\nIn many other passages in the sagas we hear of them,[158] and the\nNorwegian author Tjodrik Monk (about 1180) has a similar statement. Many\nplaces in south Iceland, such as \"Papafj\u00f6r\u00f0r\" with \"Papos,\" and the island\nof \"Papey,\" still bear names derived from these first inhabitants. A\nformer name was \"Pappyli,\" which is now no longer used. But besides these\nplace-names there are many others in Iceland which are either Celtic or\nmust be connected with the Celts. Thus, among the first that are mentioned\nin the Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k are \"Min\u00feakseyrr\" and \"Vestmanna-eyjar.\" \"Min\u00feak\" is an\nIrish word for a dough of meal and butter, and Westmen were the Irish. It\nis true that in the Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k [cf. F. J\u00f3nsson, 1900, pp. 7, 132, 265]\nthese names are placed in connection with the Irish thralls whom Hjorleif,\nthe associate of Ingolf, had brought with him, and who killed him; but, as\nthe more particular circumstances of the tale show, it is probable that it\nis the place-names that are original, and that have given rise to the tale\nof the thralls, and not the reverse. A. Bugge [1905, pp. 359 ff.] gives a\nwhole list of Icelandic place-names of Celtic origin, mostly derived from\npersonal names;[159] he endeavours to explain them as due to Celtic\ninfluence, through Irish land-takers; but the most natural explanation is\ncertainly here as with the Faroes, that there was a primitive Celtic\npopulation in Iceland, and not merely a few Irish monks, when the\nNorwegians arrived; and that from these Celts the Icelanders are in part\ndescended, while they took their language from the ruling class, the\nNorwegians, who also became superior in numbers. Future anthropological\ninvestigations of the modern Icelanders may be able to throw light on\nthese questions. The original Celtic population may have been small and\ndispersed, but may nevertheless have made it easier for the Norwegians to\nsettle there, as they did not come to a perfectly uncultivated country,\nand to subdue men takes less time than to subdue Nature. As to how, and\nhow early, the Celts first came to Iceland, we know in the meantime\nnothing.\n\n[Sidenote: Einhard, ninth century]\n\n[Sidenote: Hrabanus Maurus]\n\n[Sidenote: Rimbertus]\n\nEinhard (beginning of the ninth century), the biographer of Charlemagne,\nspeaks of the Baltic as a bay eastwards from the western ocean of unknown\nlength and nowhere broader than 100,000 paces (about ninety miles), and\nmentions the peoples of those parts: \"'Dani' and 'Sueones,' whom we call\n'Nordmanni,'\" live on the northern shore and on all the islands, while\nSlavs and Esthonians and other peoples dwell on the southern shore. The\nwell-known German scholar, Hrabanus Maurus (circa 776-856), Archbishop of\nMayence (847-856), bases his encyclop\u00e6dic work, \"De Universo\" (completed\nin 847), in twenty-two books, chiefly upon Isidore, from whom he makes\nlarge extracts, and has little to say about the North. Rimbertus (end of\nthe ninth century), on the other hand, in his biography of Ansgarius,\ngives much information about Scandinavia and its people, while the nearly\ncontemporary Bavarian geographer (\"geographus Bawarus\") describes the\nSlavonic peoples.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE AWAKENING OF MEDI\u00c6VAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE NORTH\n\n\nKING ALFRED, OTTAR, ADAM OF BREMEN\n\nIn the ninth century the increasingly frequent Viking raids, Charlemagne's\nwars and conquests in the North, and the labours of Christian\nmissionaries, brought about an increase of intercourse, both warlike and\npeaceful, between southern Europe and the people of the Scandinavian\nNorth. The latter had gradually come to play a certain part on the world's\nstage, and their enterprises began to belong to history. Their countries\nwere thereby more or less incorporated into the known world. Now for the\nfirst time the mists that had lain over the northern regions of Europe\nbegan to lift, to such an extent that the geographical knowledge of the\nMiddle Ages became clearer, and reached farther than that of the Greeks a\nthousand years earlier.\n\n[Sidenote: King Alfred, 849-901]\n\nBut while in the foregoing centuries the clouds had moved slowly, they\nwere now rapidly dispelled from large tracts of the northern lands and\nseas. This was due in the first place to the voyages of the\nScandinavians, especially of the Norwegians. By their sober accounts of\nwhat they had found they directed geographical science into new and\nfruitful channels, and freed it little by little from the dead weight of\nmyths and superstitions which it had carried with it through the ages from\nantiquity. We find the first decisive step in this direction in the\nAnglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great of England (849-circa 901 A.D.).\n\nKing Alfred had Orosius's Latin history done into Anglo-Saxon, and himself\ntranslated large portions of the work. By about 880 he was at peace with\nthe Danish Vikings, to whom he had been obliged to cede the north-eastern\nhalf of England. He died about 901. His literary activity must no doubt\nhave fallen within the period between these dates. Finding the\ngeographical introduction to Orosius's work inadequate, especially as\nregards northern Europe, he added what he had learnt from other sources.\nThus, from information probably obtained from Germans, he gives a survey\nof Germany, which he makes extend northwards \"to the sea which is called\n'Cw\u00ean-s\u00e6.'\" What is meant by this is not quite clear; it might be the\nPolar Sea or the White Sea; on the other hand, it may be the Baltic or the\nGulf of Bothnia; for the text does not make it certain whether King Alfred\nregarded Scandinavia as a peninsula connected with the continent or not.\nHe speaks of countries and peoples on the \"Ost-s\u00e6\",[160] and he mentions\namongst others the South Danes and North Danes both on the mainland\n(Jutland) and the islands--both peoples with the Ost-s\u00e6 to the north of\nthem--further the \"Osti\" (probably the Esthonians, who also had this arm\nof the sea, the Ost-s\u00e6, to the north), Wends and Burgundians (Bornholmers\n?), who \"have the same arm of the sea to the west of them, and the\nSveones (Svear) to the north.\" \"The Sveones have south of them the\nEsthonian ['Osti'] arm of the sea, and east of them the Sermende\n[Sarmatians ? or Russians ?]; and to the north, beyond the uninhabited\ntracts ['w\u00eastenni'], is 'Cw\u00ean-land'; and north-west of them are the\n'Scride-Finnas,' and to the west the Norwegians ('Nor\u00f0menn').\"\n\n[Illustration: Map of Northern Scandinavia and the White Sea]\n\n[Sidenote: Ottar's voyage to the White Sea, ninth century]\n\nKing Alfred's most important contribution to geographical knowledge of the\nNorth is his remarkable account of what the Norwegian Ottar (or \"Ohthere\"\nin the Anglo-Saxon text) told him about his voyage to the North. The brief\nand straightforward narrative of this sober traveller forms in its\nclearness and definiteness a refreshing contrast to the vague and confused\nideas of earlier times about the unknown northern regions. We see at once\nthat we are entering upon a new period.\n\n \"Ottar told his lord, Alfred the king, that he dwelt farthest north of\n all the Norwegians.[161] He said that he dwelt on the northern side of\n the land by the 'West-s\u00e6.' He said however that the land extends very\n far to the north from there; but that it is quite uninhabited\n ('weste'), except that in a few places the Finns[162] live, hunting\n in the winter and fishing in the sea in summer. He said that once he\n wished to find out how far the land extended due north, and whether\n any man lived north of the waste tracts. So he went due north[163]\n along the coast; the whole way he had the uninhabited land to\n starboard and the open sea to port for three days. Then he was as far\n north as the whalers go.[164] Then he went on due north as far as he\n could sail in the next three days. There the land turned due east, or\n the sea turned into the land,[165] he did not know which; but he knew\n that there he waited for a west wind, or with a little north in it,\n and sailed thence eastward, following the coast as far as he could\n sail in five days. Then he had to wait for a due north wind, because\n the land there turned due south, or the sea into the land, he did not\n know which.[166] Then he sailed thence due south along the coast, as\n far as he could sail in five days. There lay a great river going up\n into the land, so they turned up into the river, because they dared\n not sail past it for fear of trouble, since all the country was\n inhabited on the other side of the river. He had not met with\n inhabited country before, since he left his own home; but all the way\n there was waste land to starboard, except for fishermen, fowlers and\n hunters, and they were all Finns, and there was always sea to port.\n The land of the Beormas was well inhabited; but they [i.e., Ottar and\n his men] dared not land there; but the land of the Terfinnas was\n entirely waste, except where hunters or fishers or fowlers had their\n abode.\n\n \"The Beormas told him many stories both about their own country and\n the countries that were about it, but he knew not what was true,\n because he had not seen it himself. The Finns and the Beormas, as it\n seemed to him, spoke almost the same language. He went thither chiefly\n to explore the country, and for the sake of the walruses, for they\n have much valuable bone in their tusks--some such tusks he brought to\n the king--and their hide is very good for ships' ropes. This whale is\n much smaller than other whales, not more than seven cubits long; but\n in his own country is the best whaling, there they are forty-eight\n cubits, and the largest fifty cubits long; of them ('\u00feara'), said he,\n he with six others ('syxa sum') had killed sixty in two days.\"[167]\n\nSince King Alfred, as has been said, must have written between 880 and\n901, Ottar may have made his voyage about 870 to 890. This remarkable man,\nwho according to his own statement undertook his expedition principally\nfrom desire of knowledge, is the second northern explorer of whom we have\ndefinite information in history. The first was the Greek Pytheas, who went\nabout as far as the Arctic Circle. Some twelve hundred years later the\nNorwegian Ottar continues the exploration farther north along the coasts\nof Norway and sails right into the White Sea. He thereby determined the\nextent of Scandinavia on the north, and is the first known discoverer of\nthe North Cape, the Polar Sea (or Barents Sea), and the White Sea; but he\ndid not know whether the latter was a bay of the ocean or not. It is\nunlikely that Ottar was the first Norwegian to _discover_ the coasts along\nwhich he sailed. It is true that the expressions \"that he wished to find\nout how far the land extended due north, or whether any man dwelt to the\nnorth of the uninhabited tracts,\" might be taken to mean that this was\nhitherto unknown to the Norwegians; but it should doubtless rather be\nunderstood as a general indication of the object of the voyage: this was\nof interest to King Alfred, but not whether it was absolutely the first\nvoyage of discovery in those regions. The names Terfinnas and Beormas are\ngiven as something already known, and when Ottar reaches the latter he\nunderstands at once that he ought not to proceed farther, for fear of\ntrouble; it may be supposed that he knew them by report as a warlike\npeople. A. Bugge [1908, p. 409] quotes K. Rygh to the effect that the\nnames of fjords in Finmark must be very ancient, e.g., those that end in\n\"-angr.\" This termination is not found in Iceland, and would consequently\nbe older than the Norwegian colonisation of that country; nor does \"angr\"\n(== fjord) as an appellative occur in the Old Norse literary language. It\nmay therefore be possible that these names are older than Ottar. Bugge\nalso, from information given by Mr. Qvigstad, calls attention to the fact\nthat the Lapps call Magar\u00f6 \"Makaravjo,\" and a place on Kval\u00f6 (near\nHammerfest) \"Rahkkeravjo.\" The latter part of these names must be the\nprimary Germanic word \"awj\u00f4\" for island or land near the shore. According\nto this the Norsemen must have been as far north as this and have given\nnames to these places, while this form of the word was still in use, and\nthe Finns or Lapps have taken it from them.\n\nThe land of the Terfinnas, which was uninhabited, is the whole Kola\npeninsula. Its name was \"Ter\" (or \"Turja\"), whence the designation\nTer-Finns. The common supposition that the river Ottar came to was the\nDvina cannot be reconciled with Ottar's narrative given above, which\nexpressly states that he followed the coast round the peninsula all the\nway, \"and there was always open sea to port.\"[168] He cannot, therefore,\nhave left the land and sailed straight across the White Sea; moreover he\ncould not be aware that there was land on the other side of this wide bay\nof the ocean.[169] The river which \"went up into the land\" was\nconsequently on the Kola peninsula, and formed the boundary between the\nunsettled land of the Terfinnas and that of the Beormas with fixed\nhabitation. The river may have been the Varzuga, although it is also\npossible that Ottar sailed farther west along the southern coast of the\nKola peninsula, without this alteration of course appearing in Alfred's\ndescription. He may then have gone as far as the Kandalaks.\n\nWhat kind of people Ottar's Beormas[170] may have been is uncertain. We\nonly hear that they lived in the country on the other side of the river,\nthat their country was well settled (i.e., was permanently inhabited by an\nagricultural population ?), that they were able to communicate with Ottar,\nand that they spoke almost the same language as the Finns. The\ndescription may suit the East Karelians, whom we find, at any rate\nsomewhat later, established on the south and west side of the White Sea,\nas far north as the Kandalaks, perhaps also as far as the Varzuga. If this\nis correct, we must suppose that Ottar's Finns and Terfinns spoke a\nFinno-Ugrian language, very like Karelian. As Ottar knew the Finns well,\nhis statement about the language deserves consideration.\n\nThis view, that the Beormas were Karelians, agrees with Egil\nSkallagrimsson's Saga, which doubtless was put into writing much later,\nbut which mentions Ottar's contemporary, Thorolf Kveldulfsson, and his\nexpeditions among the Finns or Lapps to collect the Finnish or Lappish\ntribute (about 873 and 874). We read there: \"East of Namdal lies Jemtland,\nand then Helsingland, and then Kv\u00e6nland, and then Finland, then\nKirjalaland. But Finmark lies above all these countries.\" Kirjalaland is\nKarelia, which thus lies quite in the east upon the White Sea, and must be\nOttar's Bjarmeland (Beormaland). On his Finnish expedition of 874 Thorolf\ncame far to the east, and was then appealed to by the Kv\u00e6ns for help\nagainst the Kirjals (Karelians), who were ravaging Kv\u00e6nland. He proceeded\nnorthward against them and overcame them; returned to Kv\u00e6nland, went\nthence up into Finmark, and came down from the mountains in Vefsen. This\nmention of the ravages of the Kirjals agrees with the impression of\nOttar's Beormas, who were so warlike that he dared not pass by their\ncountry.\n\nOttar's account of himself was that\n\n \"he was a very rich man in all classes of property of which their\n wealth [i.e., the wealth of those peoples] consists, that is, in wild\n beasts ('wildrum'). He had further, when he came to the king, six\n hundred tame, unsold animals. These animals they called reindeer.\n There were six decoy reindeer ('st\u00e6l hranas'), which are very dear\n among the Finns, for with them they catch the wild reindeer. He was\n among the principal men in that country [H\u00e5logaland], although he had\n no more than twenty horned cattle, and twenty sheep, and twenty pigs;\n and the little ploughing he did was done with horses [i.e., not with\n oxen, as among the Anglo-Saxons]. But their largest revenue is the\n tribute paid them by the Finns; this tribute consists of pelts and\n birds' feathers [down] and whalebone [walrus tusks], and they gave\n ships' ropes made of whales' [walrus] hide, and of seals'. Each one\n pays according to his rank; the chiefs have to pay fifteen martens'\n skins, five reindeers' skins, one bear's skin, ten ankers of feathers,\n a kirtle of bear- or otter-skin, and two ships' ropes, each sixty\n cubits long, one made of whales' [i.e., walrus] hide, and the other of\n seals'.\"\n\nThis description gives a valuable picture of the state of society in\nnorthernmost Norway at that time. Ottar's Finns had tame and half-tamed\nreindeer, and their hunting even of such sea-beasts as walrus and seal was\nsufficiently productive to enable them to pay a considerable tribute.\nThese early inhabitants of the most northerly regions of the old world\nwill be treated of later in a separate chapter.\n\nOttar's mention of walrus-hunting is of great interest, as showing that it\nwas regularly carried on both by Norwegians and Finns even at that time.\nOf about the same period (about the year 900) is the well-known\nAnglo-Saxon casket, called the Franks Casket, of which the greater part is\nnow in the British Museum, one side being in Florence. The casket, which\non account of its rich decoration is of great historical value, is made of\nwalrus ivory. It has been thought that it might be made of the tusks that\nOttar brought to King Alfred. If this was so, it is in any case improbable\nthat so costly a treasure should be worked in a material the value and\nsuitability of which were unknown. We must therefore suppose that walrus\nivory sometimes found its way at that time to this part of Europe, and it\ncould come from no other people but the Norwegians. They certainly carried\non walrus-hunting long before Ottar's time. This appears also from his\nnarrative, for men who were not well practised could not kill sixty of\nthese large animals in a couple of days, even if we are to suppose that\nthey were killed with lances on land where they lie in big herds. If these\nsixty animals were really whales (i.e., small whales), and not walruses,\nit is still more certain evidence of long practice. We see, too, that\nwalrus ivory and ships' ropes of walrus hide had become such valuable\nobjects of commerce as to be demanded in tribute. So difficult and\ndangerous an occupation as this hunting, which requires an equipment of\nspecial appliances, does not arise among any people in a short time,\nespecially at so remote a period of history, when all independent\ndevelopment of a new civilisation, which could not come from outside,\nproceeded very slowly. It is therefore an interesting question whether the\nNorwegians developed this walrus-hunting themselves or learned it from an\nearlier seafaring people of hunters, who in these northern regions must\nconsequently have been Ottar's Finns. To find an answer to this, it will\nbe necessary to review the whole difficult question of the Finns and Lapps\nconnectedly, which will be done in a later section.\n\nThe walrus, called in Norwegian \"rosmal\"[171] or \"rosm\u00e5l\" (also \"rosmar,\"\nand in Old Norse \"rostungr\"), is an arctic animal which keeps by\npreference to those parts of the sea where there is drift-ice, at any rate\nin winter. It is no longer found in Norway, but probably it visited the\ncoasts of Finmark not unfrequently in old times, to judge from place-names\nsuch as \"Rosm\u00e5lvik\" at Loppen, and \"Rosm\u00e5len\" by Hammerfest. Even in the\nseventeenth and eighteenth centuries its visits to the northern coasts of\nthe country were frequent, perhaps annual [cf. Lillienskiold, 1698]. But\nas these places were certainly the extreme limit of its distribution, it\ncan never have been very numerous here; like the herds of seals in our own\ntime, it must have appeared only for more or less short visits. Curiously\nenough, so far as is known, walrus bones have not been observed in finds\nbelow ground in the North, while bones of other arctic animals, such as\nthe ring-seal (Phoca f\u0153tida), are found.\n\nSince, therefore, the walrus cannot be supposed to have been common on the\nnorthern coasts of Norway at any time during the historical period, and\nsince its hunting gave such valuable products, we must suppose that the\nNorwegian walrus-hunters were not long in looking for better and surer\nhunting-grounds eastward in the Polar Sea, where there is plenty of\nwalrus. It was there too that Ottar went, for this very reason (probably\nbecause there was not enough walrus in his home waters) and, as he says,\nto find out how far the land extended; but it is also probable that\nwalrus-hunters had been in these waters long before him. It is true that\nthe statement that after three days' sail from home he \"was as far north\nas the farthest point reached by whalers\" (\"\u00fe\u0101 hw\u00e6lhuntan firrest farra\u00fe\")\nmight mean that walrus-hunting was not carried on farther east than Loppen\n(where there is still a \"Rosm\u00e5lvik\"), that is, if by these whalers is\nmeant walrus-hunters; but doubtless these expressions are not to be taken\nso literally, and perhaps the meaning is rather that this was the usual\nlimit of their voyages. Unfortunately, we have no information as to\nOttar's own catch on the eastward voyage.\n\n[Sidenote: Norwegian whaling]\n\nFrom Ottar's statement that \"in his own country there is the best whaling,\nthey are forty-eight cubits long, and the largest are fifty cubits long,\"\nwe must conclude that the Norwegians, and perhaps the Finns also, carried\non a regular whaling industry, with great whales as well as small (see\nlater, chap. xii.).\n\n[Sidenote: Ottar's voyage to South Norway and Sleswick]\n\nOf Ottar's statements about Norway we read further in King Alfred:\n\n \"He said that Nordmanna-Land was very long and very narrow. All that\n is fitted either for grazing or ploughing lies on the sea, and that,\n however, is in some places very rocky, with wilderness [mountainous\n waste] rising above the cultivated land all along it. In the\n wilderness dwell the Finns. And the inhabited land is broadest\n eastward, and always narrower farther north. On the east it may be\n sixty leagues broad, or a little broader; and midway thirty or more,\n and on the north, he said, where it was narrowest, it may be three\n leagues to the waste land; and the wilderness in some places is so\n broad that it takes two weeks to cross it; and in others so broad that\n one can cross it in six days.\n\n \"There is side by side with the land in the south, on the other side\n of the wilderness, Sveoland, extending northwards, and side by side\n with the land in the north, Cw\u00eana-Land. The Cw\u00eanas sometimes make\n raids upon the Norsemen over the wilderness, sometimes the Norsemen\n upon them; and there are very great freshwater lakes in this\n wilderness; and the Cw\u00eanas carry their ships overland to these lakes,\n and from thence they harry the Norsemen. They have very small ships\n and very light.\n\n \"Ottar said that the part of the country where he lived was called\n Halgoland [H\u00e1logaland]. He said that no man [i.e., no Norseman] lived\n farther north than he. Then there is a harbour in the southern part of\n that country which men call 'Sciringes heale' [Skiringssal[172] in\n Vestfold]. Thither, said he, one could not sail in a month, anchoring\n at night, with a favourable wind every day; and all the while he must\n sail near the land: and to starboard of him would be first\n 'Iraland,'[173] and then the islands which lie between Iraland and\n this country [Britain ?]. Afterwards there is this country [to\n starboard] until he comes to Sciringesheal; and all the way on the\n port side there is Norway (Nor\u00f0weg).[174] South of Sciringesheal a\n very great sea [the Skagerak and Cattegat] goes up into the land; it\n is broader than any man can see across; and 'G\u00f4tland' [Jutland] is on\n the opposite side, and then 'Sill\u0119nde.'[175] This sea goes many\n hundred leagues up into the land.\n\n \"And from Sciringesheal he said that it was five days' sail to the\n harbour which is called 'H\u00e6\u00f0um' [Heidaby or Sleswick]; it lies between\n the Wends and the Saxons and the Angles, and belongs to the Danes.\n When he sailed thither from Sciringesheal, he had on the port side\n Denmark[176] [i.e., southern Sweden, which then belonged to Denmark],\n and on the starboard open sea for three days; and for the two days\n before he came to Heidaby he had to starboard G\u00f4tland and Sill\u0119nde,\n and many islands. In those countries dwelt the Angles before they came\n to this land. And for these two days he had on the port side the\n islands which belong to Denmark.\"\n\nThis account of Ottar's of his southward voyage is remarkable for the same\nsober lucidity as his narrative of the White Sea expedition; and as, on\nall the points where comparison is possible, it agrees well with other\nindependent statements, it furnishes strong evidence of his credibility.\n\n[Illustration: Anglo-Saxon Map of the World, \"Cottoniana,\" perhaps of the\neleventh century (from K. Miller)]\n\nAlfred next gives a description of Wulfstan's (== Ulfsten's) voyage from\nHeidaby eastward through the southern Baltic to Prussia, with references\nto Langeland, Laaland, Falster and Sk\u00e5ne (\"Sc\u00f3n\u0113g\"), which all belonged to\nDenmark and lay to port. After them came on the same side Bornholm\n(\"Burgenda land\"), which had its own king, then Blekinge, \"M\u0113ore,\" \u00d6land\nand Gotland, and these countries belonged to Sweden (\"Sw\u0113om\"). To\nstarboard he had the whole way Wendland (\"Weonodland\" == Mecklenburg and\nPomerania) as far as the mouths of the Vistula (\"Wislem\u016b\u00f0an\"). Then\nfollows a description of \"Estm\u0119re\" (Frisches Haff), Esthonia, which was\napproximately East Prussia, and the Esthonians. Henceforward we can count\nthese parts of Europe as belonging to the known world.\n\n[Sidenote: \"Meregarto,\" eleventh century]\n\nIn the old German poem \"Meregarto,\" which is a sort of description of the\nearth and probably dates from the latter half of the eleventh century\n[M\u00fcllenhoff and Scherer, 1892, ii. p. 196], we find the following\nremarkable statements about the \"Liver sea\" and about Iceland:[177]\n\n \"There is a clotted sea in the western ocean.\n When the strong wind drives ships upon that course,\n Then the skilled seamen have no defence against it,\n But they must go into the very bosom of the sea.\n Alas! Alas!\n They never come out again.\n If God will not deliver them, they must rot there.\n\n I was in Utrecht as a fugitive.\n For we had two bishops, who did us much harm.\n Since I could not remain at home, I lived my life in exile.\n When I came to Utrecht, I found a good man,\n The very good Reginpreht, he delighted in doing all that was good.\n He was a wise man, so that he pleased God,\n A pious priest, of perfect goodness.\n He told me truly, as many more there [also said],\n He had sailed to Iceland--there he found much wealth--\n With meal and with wine and with alder-wood.\n This they buy for fires, for wood is dear with them.\n There is abundance of all that belongs to provisions and to sport\n [pleasure]\n Except that there the sun does not shine--they lack that delight--\n Thereby the ice there becomes so hard a crystal,\n That they make a fire above it, till the crystal glows.\n Therewith they cook their food, and warm their rooms.\n There a bundle of alder-wood is given [sold] for a penny.\"\n\nWe find in this poem the same idea of a curdled or clotted sea--here\nprobably in the north-west near Iceland--as appeared early among the\nGreeks and Romans, perhaps even among the Carthaginians and Ph\u0153nicians\n(see pp. 40, 66 f.).[178] It is possible that it may have found its way\ninto this poem by purely literary channels from classical authors; but the\ndescription seems to bear traces of more life, and it rather points to a\nlegend which lived in popular tradition.\n\nIn this poem and in Adam of Bremen Iceland is mentioned for the first time\nin literature,[179] in both works as a country that was known, but of\nwhich strange things were told, which is natural enough, since it lay near\nthe borders of the unknown. The pious Reginbrecht may have travelled to\nIceland as a missionary or clerical emissary, which would not be\nunnatural, as the country was under the archbishopric of Hamburg. On the\nother hand, it is surprising that people as early as that time sailed\nthither from Germany with meal, wine and wood. But as these articles must\nhave been precisely those which would be valuable in Iceland, with its\nlack of corn and poverty in trees, it points to knowledge of the facts,\nand does not seem improbable. That there should be great wealth there does\nnot agree with Adam's description, which tends in the contrary direction;\nbut as immediately afterwards abundance of provisions is spoken of, it is\nprobable that the rich fisheries were meant, and perhaps the breeding of\nsheep, which was already developed at that time.\n\n[Illustration: Europe on the Anglo-Saxon Map of the World, \"Cottoniana\"\n(eleventh century ?)]\n\nThe strange idea that the ice becomes so hard that it can be made to glow,\nwhich occurs again in another form in Adam of Bremen, is difficult to\nunderstand. Can it have arisen, as Professor Torp has proposed to me, from\na misunderstanding of statements that the Icelanders heated stones for\ntheir baths? In some parts of Norway red-hot stones are also used for\nheating water for brewing and cooking [cf. A. Helland: Hedemarkens Amt].\nPerhaps tales of their sometimes using melted ice for drinking water may\nalso have contributed to the legend (?). In any case, as Adam's account\nshows still better, diverse statements about ice, fire (volcanoes), and\nsteam (boiling springs ?), etc., may have been confused to form these\nlegends about the ice in Iceland.\n\n[Sidenote: Adam of Bremen, about 1070]\n\nThe first author after King Alfred to make valuable contributions to the\nliterature of the North is Adam of Bremen, who not only gives much\ninformation about the Scandinavian North and its people, but mentions\nIceland, and for the first time in literature also Greenland and even\nWineland, as distant islands in the great ocean. Of the life of the\nlearned magister Adam we know little more than that he came to Bremen\nabout 1067 and became director of the cathedral school, and that he spent\nsome time at the court of the enlightened Danish king Svein Estridsson.\nThis king, who had spent twelve years campaigning in Sweden, \"knew the\nhistory of the barbarians by heart, as though it had been written down,\"\nand from him and his men Adam collected information about the countries\nand peoples of the North. On his return to Bremen he wrote his well-known\nhistory of the Church in the North under the archbishopric of Bremen and\nHamburg (\"Gesta Hammaburgensis,\" etc.), which in great part seems to have\nbeen completed before the death of Svein Estridsson in 1076. In the fourth\nbook of this work is a \"description of the islands [i.e., countries and\nislands] in the North\" (\"Descriptio insularum aquilonis\"). Adam's most\nimportant literary geographical sources seem to have been the following:\nbesides the Bible, Cicero and Sallust, he has used Orosius, Martianus\nCapella, Solinus, Macrobius and Bede; he was also acquainted with Paulus\nWarnefridi's history of the Langobards, and probably Hrabanus Maurus,\npossibly also with some of Isidore. In the archiepiscopal archives he was\nable to collect valuable materials from the missions to heathens in the\nNorth, and to these was added the verbal information he had obtained at\nthe Danish court.\n\nAdam's work has thus become one of the most important sources of the\noldest history of the North. It would carry us too far here to go into\nthis side of it, and we shall confine ourselves for the most part to his\ngeographical and ethnographical statements.\n\nHe describes Jutland, the Danish islands, and other countries and peoples\non the Baltic. This too he calls [iv. 10] the Baltic Sea, \"because it\nextends in the form of a belt ('baltei')[180] along through the Scythian\nregions as far as 'Grecia' [here == Russia]. It is also called the\nBarbarian or Scythian Sea.\" He quotes Einhard's description of the Baltic,\nand regards it as a gulf (\"sinus\"), which, in the direction of west to\neast, issues from the Western Ocean. The length of the gulf [eastwards]\nwas according to Einhard unknown. This, he says,\n\n \"has recently been confirmed by the efforts of two brave men, namely\n Ganuz [also Ganund] Wolf, Earl (satrap\u00e6) of the Danes, and Harald\n [Hardr\u00e5de], King of the Norwegians, who, in order to explore the\n extent of this sea, made a long and toilsome voyage, perilous to those\n who accompanied them, from which they returned at length without\n having accomplished their object, and with double loss on account of\n storms and pirates. Nevertheless the Danes assert that the length of\n this sea (ponti) has frequently been explored and by many different\n travellers, and even that there are men who have sailed with a\n favourable wind from Denmark to Ostrogard in Ruzzia.\"\n\nIt therefore looks as if Adam had understood that Scandinavia was\nconnected with the continent, which also appears from his words [iv. 15]:\n\n \"Those who are acquainted with these regions also declare that some\n have reached as far as Gr\u00e6cia [i.e., Russia] by land from Sueonia\n [Sweden]. But the barbarous people, who live in the intervening parts,\n are a hindrance to this journey, wherefore they rather attempt this\n dangerous route by sea.\"\n\n[Illustration: Adam of Bremen's geographical idea of the countries and\nislands of the North, as represented by A. A. Bj\u00f6rnbo (1910)]\n\nBut he nevertheless speaks of the countries of the North as islands, and\nhe seems to draw no sharp distinction between island and peninsula.\nKurland and Esthonia he seems to regard as true islands.\n\n The entrance to the Baltic, he says [iv. 11], \"between Aalborg, a\n headland of Denmark [i.e., the Skaw], and the skerries of Nortmannia\n [Norway], is so narrow that boats easily sail across it in one night.\"\n\n[Sidenote: The Land of Women]\n\n There are in the Baltic [iv. 19] \"many other islands, all full of\n savage barbarians, and therefore they are shunned by sailors. On the\n shores of the Baltic Sea the Amazons are also said to live in the\n country which is now called the Land of Women ('terra feminarum').\"\n\nThis designation is a translation of the name \"Kv\u00e6nland,\" which was\nthought to be formed of the Old Norse word for woman: \"kv\u00e6n\" or \"kv\u00e1n\"\n(chiefly in the sense of wife; modern English \"queen\"); and it is very\npossible that the name was really derived from this, and not from the\nFinnish \"Kainulaiset.\" We have seen that Alfred called it in Anglo-Saxon\n\"Cw\u00ean-Land\" or \"Cw\u00eana-Land,\" which also means woman-land. Here it is\nprobably Southern Finland. Adam probably took the idea from earlier\nauthors.[181] To him this name is a realisation of the Greeks' Amazons,\nwho have been moved northward to the Gulf of Bothnia, just as the\nScandinavians become Hyperboreans. In this way ancient geographical myths\ncome to life again and acquire new local colour. Of these Amazons, he\nsays:\n\n[Sidenote: Cynocephali]\n\n \"some assert that they conceive by drinking water. Others however say\n that they become pregnant through intercourse with seafaring\n merchants, or with their own prisoners, or with other monsters, which\n are not rare in those parts; and this appears to us more\n credible.[182] If their offspring are of the male sex, they are\n Cynocephali; but if of the female, beautiful women. These women live\n together and despise fellowship with men, whom indeed they repulse in\n manly fashion, if they come. Cynocephali are those who have their head\n in their breast; in Russia they are often to be seen as prisoners, and\n their speech is a mixture of talking and barking.\"\n\nIt has already been mentioned (p. 154) that the Greek writer \u00c6thicus had\nalready placed the Cynocephali on an island north of Germania. The\nrevival of the Greek-Indian fable of dog-headed men seems, on the one\nhand, to be due to Greeks who had understood the word \"Kv\u00e6n\" as Greek \u03ba\u03c5\u03c9\u03bd\n(dog), and either through \u00c6thicus or some other channel the idea thus\nformed must have reached Adam. On the other hand, the notion of them as\nprisoners in Russia may be due to Germanic-speaking peoples, who\nmisinterpreted the national name \"Huns,\" which was used both for Magyars\nand Slavs, and have taken it to mean Hund (dog).[183] But Adam himself did\nnot understand the Greek name's meaning of dog-heads, and confuses it with\nanother fable of men with heads in their breasts [cf. Rymbegla, 1780, p.\n350; Hauksb\u00f3k, 1892, p. 167]. Of the Scandinavians Adam says [iv. 12]:\n\n[Sidenote: Nortmanni or Hyperboreans]\n\n \"The Dani and Sueones and the other peoples beyond Dania are all\n called by the Frankish historians Normans ('Nortmanni'), whilst\n however the Romans similarly call them Hyperboreans, of whom Martianus\n Capella speaks with much praise.\"\n\nIt does not seem as though Adam made any distinction between the names\nNorman and Norseman.\n\n [iv. 21.] \"When one has passed beyond the islands of the Danes a new\n world opens in Sueonia [Sweden] and Nordmannia [Norway], which are two\n kingdoms of wide extent in the north, and hitherto almost unknown to\n our world. Of them the learned king of the Danes told me that\n Nordmannia can scarcely be traversed in a month, and Sueonia not\n easily in two. This, said he, I know from my own experience, since I\n have lately served for twelve years in war under King Jacob in those\n regions, which are both enclosed by high mountains, especially\n Nordmannia, which with its Alps encircles Sueonia.\"\n\nSweden he describes as a fertile land, rich in crops and honey, and\nsurpassing any other country in the rearing of cattle:\n\n \"It is most favoured with rivers and forests, and the whole land is\n everywhere full of foreign [i.e., rare ?] merchandise.\" The Swedes\n were therefore well-to-do, but did not care for riches. \"Only in\n connection with women they know no moderation. Each one according to\n his means has two, three or more at the same time; the rich and the\n chiefs have them without number. For they count also as legitimate the\n sons which are born of such a connection. But it is punished with\n death, if any one has had intercourse with another man's wife, or\n violated a virgin, or robbed another of his goods or done him wrong.\n Even if all the Hyperboreans are remarkable for hospitality, our\n Sueones are pre-eminent; with them it is worse than any disgrace to\n deny a wayfarer shelter,\" etc.\n\n [iv. 22.] \"Many are the tribes of the Sueones; they are remarkable for\n strength and the use of arms, in war they excel equally on horseback\n and in ships.\"\n\n[Illustration: Uniped (from the Hereford map)]\n\nAdam relates much about these people, their customs, religion, and so\nforth:\n\n[Sidenote: Finns and Skridfinns]\n\n [iv. 24.] \"Between Nordmannia and Sueonia dwell the Wermelani and\n Finn\u00e9di (or 'Finvedi') and others, who are now all Christians and\n belong to the church at Skara. In the borderland of the Sueones or\n Nordmanni on the north live the Scritefini, who are said to outrun the\n wild beasts in their running. Their greatest town ['civitas,' properly\n community] is Halsingland, to which Stenphi was first sent as bishop\n by the archbishop.... He converted many of the same people by his\n preaching.\" Helsingland was inhabited by Helsingers, who were\n certainly Germanic Scandinavians and not Skridfinns; but Adam seems to\n have thought that all the people of northern Sueonia or Suedia (he has\n both forms) belonged to the latter race.\n\n \"On the east it [i.e., Sweden] touches the Riph\u00e6an Mountains, where\n there are immense waste tracts with very deep snow, where hordes of\n monstrous human beings further hinder the approach. There are the\n Amazons, there are the Cynocephali, and there the Cyclopes, who have\n one eye in their forehead. There are those whom Solinus calls\n 'Ymantopodes' [one-footed men], who hop upon one leg, and those who\n delight in human flesh for food, and just as one avoids them, so is\n one rightly silent about them.[184] The very estimable king of the\n Danes told me that a people were wont to come down from the mountains\n into the plains; they were of moderate height, but the Swedes were\n scarcely a match for them on account of their strength and activity,\n and it is uncertain from whence they come. They come suddenly, he\n said, sometimes once a year or every third year, and if they are not\n resisted with all force they devastate the whole district, and go back\n again. Many other things are usually related, which I, since I study\n brevity, have omitted, so that they may tell them who assert that they\n have seen them.\"\n\nIt is probably the roving mountain Lapps that are here described.\nDescending suddenly into the plains with their herds of reindeer, they\nmust then, as now, have done great damage to the peasants' crops and\npastures; and the peasants were certainly not content with killing the\nreindeer, as they sometimes do still, but also attacked the Lapps\nthemselves. Although the latter are not a warlike people, they were forced\nto defend themselves, and that the Swedes and Norwegians are scarcely a\nmatch for them in strength and activity may be true even now.\n\n[Illustration: Cannibals in Eastern Europe (from the Hereford map)]\n\n[Sidenote: Nortmannia or Nordvegia]\n\n [iv. 30.] \"Nortmannia [Norway], as it is the extreme province of the\n earth, may also be suitably placed last in our book. It is called by\n the people of the present day 'Norguegia' [or 'Nordvegia'] ... This\n kingdom extends to the extreme region of the North, whence it has its\n name.\" From \"projecting headlands in the Baltic Sound it bends its\n back northwards, and after it has gone in a bow along the border of\n the foaming ocean, it finds its limit in the Riphean Mountains, where\n also the circle of the earth is tired and leaves off. Nortmannia is on\n account of its stony mountains or its immoderate cold the most\n unfertile of all regions, and only suited to rearing cattle. The\n cattle are kept a long time in the waste lands, after the manner of\n the Arabs. They live on their herds, using their milk for food and\n their wool for clothes. Thus the country rears very brave warriors,\n who, not being softened by any superfluity in the products of their\n country, more often attack others than are themselves disturbed. They\n live at peace with their neighbours, namely the Sveones, although they\n are sometimes raided, but not with impunity, by the Danes, who are\n equally poor. Consequently, forced by their lack of possessions, they\n wander over the whole world and by their piratical expeditions bring\n home the greater part of the wealth of the countries.\" But after their\n conversion to Christianity they improved, and they are \"the most\n temperate of all men both in their diet and their morals.\" They are\n very pious, and the priests turn this to account and fleece them.\n \"Thus the purity of morals is destroyed solely through the avarice of\n the clergy.\"\n\n[Illustration: Elles (elk) and Urus (aurochs) in Russia (from the Ebstorf\nmap, 1284)]\n\n \"In many parts of Nordmannia and Suedia people even of the highest\n rank are herdsmen,[185] living in the style of the patriarchs and by\n the labour of their hands. But all who dwell in Norvegia are very\n Christian, with the exception of those who live farther north along\n the coast of the ocean [i.e., in Finmark]. It is said they are still\n so powerful in their arts of sorcery and incantations, that they claim\n to know what is done by every single person throughout the world. In\n addition to this they attract whales to the shore by loud mumbling of\n words, and many other things which are told in books of the sorcerers,\n and which are all easy for them by practice.[186] On the wildest alps\n of that part I heard that there are women with beards,[187] but the\n men who live in the forests [i.e., the waste tracts ?] seldom allow\n themselves to be seen. The latter use the skins of wild beasts for\n clothes, and when they speak to one another it is said to be more like\n gnashing of teeth than words, so that they can scarcely be understood\n by their neighbours.[188] The same mountainous tracts are called by\n the Roman authors the Riphean Mountains, which are terrible with\n eternal snow. The Scritefingi [Skridfinns] cannot live away from the\n cold of the snow, and they outrun the wild beasts in their chase\n across the very deep snowfields. In the same mountains there is so\n great abundance of wild animals that the greater part of the district\n lives on game alone. They catch there uri [== aurochs; perhaps rather\n 'ursi' == bears ?], bubali [antelopes == reindeer ?], and elaces\n [elks] as in Sueonia; but in Sclavonia and Ruzzia bisons are taken;\n only Nortmannia however has black foxes and hares, and white martens\n and bears of the same colour, which live under water like uri\n (?),[189] but as many things here seem altogether different and\n unusual to our people, I will leave these and other things to be\n related at greater length by the inhabitants of that country.\"\n\nThen follows a reference to Trondhjem and the ecclesiastical history of\nthe country, etc.\n\n[Sidenote: The Western Ocean]\n\nOf the Western Ocean, from which the Baltic issues, Adam says [iv. 10]\nthat it\n\n \"seems to be that which the Romans called the British Ocean, whose\n immeasurable, fearful and dangerous breadth surrounds Britannia on the\n west ... washes the shores of the Frisians on the south ... towards\n the rising of the sun it has the Danes, the entrance to the Baltic\n Sea, and the Norsemen, who live beyond Dania; finally, on the north\n this ocean flows past the Orchades [i.e., the Shetlands, with perhaps\n the Orkneys], thence endlessly around the circle of the earth, having\n on the left Hybernia, the home of the Scots, which is now called\n Ireland, and on the right the skerries ('scopulos') of Nordmannia, and\n farther off the islands of Iceland and Greenland; there the ocean,\n which is called the dark ['caligans' == shrouded in darkness or mist],\n forms the boundary.\"\n\nLater [iv. 34], after the description of Norway, he says of the same\nocean:\n\n[Sidenote: The Orkneys]\n\n \"Beyond ('post') Nortmannia, which is the extreme province of the\n North, we find no human habitations, only the great ocean, infinite\n and fearful to behold, which encompasses the whole world. Immediately\n opposite to Nortmannia it has many islands which are not unknown and\n are now nearly all subject to the Norsemen, and which therefore cannot\n be passed by by us, since consequently they belong to the see of\n Hamburg. The first of them are the Orchades insul\u00e6 [the Shetlands and\n Orkneys], which the barbarians call Organas\" ... and which lie\n \"between Nordmannia and Britannia and Hibernia, and they look\n playfully and smilingly down upon the threats of the foaming ocean. It\n is said that one can sail to them in one day from the Norsemen's town\n of Trondhjem ('Trondemnis'). It is said likewise to be a similar\n distance from the Orchades both to Anglia [England] and to Scotia\n [Ireland ?].\"...\n\n[Sidenote: Thule or Iceland]\n\n [iv. 35.] \"The island of Thyle, which is separated from the others by\n an infinite distance, lies far out in the middle of the ocean and, as\n is said, is scarcely known. Both the Roman authors and the barbarians\n have much to say of it which is worth mentioning. They say that Thyle\n is the extreme island of all, where at the summer solstice, when the\n sun is passing through the sign of Cancer, there is no night, and\n correspondingly at the winter solstice no day. Some think that this is\n the case for six months at a time. Bede also says that the light\n summer nights in Britain indicate without doubt that, just as at the\n summer solstice they have there continuous day for six months, so it\n is nights at the winter solstice, when the sun is hidden. Pytheas of\n Massalia writes that this occurs in the island of Thyle, which lies\n six days' sail north of Britain, and it is this Thyle which is now\n called Iceland from the ice which there binds the sea. They report\n this remarkable thing about it, that this ice appears to be so black\n and dry that, on account of its age, it burns when it is kindled.[190]\n This island is immensely large, so that it contains many people who\n live solely upon the produce of their flocks and cover themselves with\n their wool. No corn grows there, and there is only very little\n timber,[191] for which reason the inhabitants are obliged to live in\n underground holes, and share their dwellings with their cattle. They\n thus lead a holy life in simplicity, as they do not strive after more\n than what nature gives; they can cheerfully say with the Apostle: 'if\n we have clothing and food, let us be content therewith!' for their\n mountains are to them in the stead of cities, and their springs serve\n them for pleasure. I regard this people as happy, whose poverty none\n covets, but happiest in that they have now all adopted Christianity.\n There is much that is excellent in their customs, especially their\n good disposition, whereby everything is shared, not only with the\n natives, but with strangers.\" After referring to their good treatment\n of their bishop, etc., he concludes: \"Thus much I have been credibly\n informed of Iceland and extreme Thyle, but I pass over what is\n fabulous.\"\n\n[Sidenote: Greenland]\n\n [iv. 36.] \"Furthermore there are many other islands in the great\n ocean, of which Greenland is not the least; it lies farther out in the\n ocean, opposite ('contra') the mountains of Suedia, or the Riphean\n range. To this island, it is said, one can sail from the shore of\n Nortmannia in five or seven days, as likewise to Iceland. The people\n there are blue ['cerulei,' bluish-green] from the salt water; and from\n this the region takes its name. They live in a similar fashion to the\n Icelanders, except that they are more cruel and trouble seafarers by\n predatory attacks. To them also, as is reported, Christianity has\n lately been wafted.\n\n[Sidenote: H\u00e1logaland]\n\n \"A third island is Halagland [H\u00e1logaland], nearer to Nortmannia, in\n size not unlike the others.[192] This island in summer, about the\n summer solstice, sees the sun uninterruptedly above the earth for\n fourteen days, and in winter it has to be without the sun for a like\n number of days.[193] This is a marvel and a mystery to the barbarians,\n who do not know that the unequal length of days results from the\n approach and retreat of the sun. On account of the roundness of the\n earth ('rotunditas orbis terrarum') the sun must in one place approach\n and bring the day, and in another depart and leave the night. Thus\n when it ascends towards the summer solstice, it prolongs the days and\n shortens the nights for those in the north, but when it descends\n towards the winter solstice, it does the same for those in the\n southern hemisphere ('australibus').[194] Therefore the ignorant\n heathens call that land holy and blessed, which has such a marvel to\n exhibit to mortals. But the king of the Danes and many others have\n stated that this takes place there as well as in Suedia and Norvegia\n and the other islands which are there.\"\n\n[Sidenote: Winland]\n\n [iv. 38.] \"Moreover he mentioned yet another island, which had been\n discovered by many in that ocean, and which is called 'Winland,'\n because vines grow there of themselves and give the noblest wine. And\n that there is abundance of unsown corn we have obtained certain\n knowledge, not by fabulous supposition, but from trustworthy\n information of the Danes. (Beyond ('post') this island, he said, no\n habitable land is found in this ocean, but all that is more distant is\n full of intolerable ice and immense mist ['caligine,' possibly\n darkness caused by mist]. Of these things Marcianus has told us:\n 'Beyond Thyle,' says he, 'one day's sail, the sea is stiffened.' This\n was recently proved by Harold, prince of the Nordmanni, most desirous\n of knowledge, who explored the breadth of the northern ocean with his\n ships, and when the boundaries of the vanishing earth were darkened\n before his face, he scarcely escaped the immense gulf of the abyss by\n turning back.)[195]\n\n[Sidenote: Frisian expedition to the North Pole]\n\n [iv. 39.] \"Archbishop Adalbert, of blessed memory, likewise told us\n that in his predecessor's days certain noblemen from Friesland,\n intending to plough the sea, set sail northwards, because people say\n there that due north of the mouth of the river Wirraha [Weser] no land\n is to be met with, but only an infinite ocean. They joined together to\n investigate this curious thing, and left the Frisian coast with\n cheerful song. Then they left Dania on one side, Britain on the other,\n and reached the Orkneys. When they had left these behind on the left,\n and had Nordmannia on the right, they reached after a long voyage the\n frozen Iceland. Ploughing the seas from this land towards the extreme\n axis of the north, after seeing behind them all the islands already\n mentioned, and confiding their lives and their boldness to Almighty\n God and the holy preacher Willehad, they suddenly glided into the\n misty darkness of the stiffened ocean, which can scarcely be\n penetrated by the eye. And behold! the stream of the unstable sea\n there ran back into one of its secret sources, drawing at a fearful\n speed the unhappy seamen, who had already given up hope and only\n thought of death, into that profound chaos (this is said to be the\n gulf of the abyss) in which it is said that all the back-currents of\n the sea, which seem to abate, are sucked up and vomited forth again,\n which latter is usually called flood-tide. While they were then\n calling upon God's mercy, that He might receive their souls, this\n backward-running stream of the sea caught some of their fellows'\n ships, but the rest were shot out by the issuing current far beyond\n the others. When they had thus by God's help been delivered from the\n imminent danger, which had been before their very eyes, they saved\n themselves upon the waves by rowing with all their strength.\n\n [iv. 40.] \"And being now past the danger of darkness and the region of\n cold they landed unexpectedly upon an island, which was fortified like\n a town, with cliffs all about it. They landed there to see the place,\n and found people who at midday hid themselves in underground caves;\n before the doors of these lay an immense quantity of golden vessels\n and metal of the sort which is regarded by mortals as rare and\n precious; when therefore they had taken as much of the treasures as\n they could lift, the rowers hastened gladly back to their ships. Then\n suddenly they saw people of marvellous height coming behind them, whom\n we call Cyclopes, and before them ran dogs which surpassed the usual\n size of these animals. One of the men was caught, as these rushed\n forward, and in an instant he was torn to pieces before their eyes;\n but the rest were taken up into the ships and escaped the danger,\n although, as they related, the giants followed them with cries nearly\n into deep sea. With such a fate pursuing them, the Frisians came to\n Bremen, where they told the most reverend Alebrand everything in order\n as it happened, and made offerings to the gentle Christ and his\n preacher Willehad for their safe return.\"\n\nAs will be seen, Adam obtained from the people of Scandinavia much new\ninformation and fresh ideas about the geography of the North, which add\nconsiderably to the knowledge of former times; but unfortunately he\nconfuses this information with the legends and ancient classical notions\nhe has acquired from reading the learned authors of late Roman and early\nmedi\u00e6val times; and this confusion reaches its climax in the last tale,\nwhich is chiefly of interest to the folk-lorist. The first part of it\n(section 39) is made up from Paulus Warnefridi's description of the\nearth's navel, to some extent with the same expressions (see above, p.\n157); the second part (section 40) is based upon legends on the model of\nthe Odyssey, of which there were many in the Middle Ages. While his\ndescription gives a fairly clear picture of his views regarding the\ncountries on the Baltic, it is difficult to get any definite idea of the\nrelative position of the more distant islands; but it is probable, as\nproposed by Gustav Storm, that he imagined them as lying far in the north.\n\n[Sidenote: Wineland]\n\nAs Wineland is mentioned last, and as it is added that beyond this island\nthere is no habitable land in this ocean, but that all is full of ice and\nmist, it might be thought that this is regarded as lying farthest out in a\nnorthern direction. But this would not agree with Adam's earlier statement\n[iv. 10], where Iceland and Greenland are given as the most distant\nislands, and \"there this ocean, which is called the dark one, forms the\nboundary.\" The explanation must be that, as already remarked (p. 195), his\nstatement about the ocean beyond Wineland is probably a later addition,\nthough possibly by Adam himself. It is obviously inserted somewhat\ndisconnectedly, and perhaps has been put in the wrong place, and this is\nalso made probable by the quotation from Marcianus about Thyle, which has\nnothing to do with Wineland, but refers on the contrary to Iceland (cf. p.\n193).[196] Omitting this interpolation, the text says of the geographical\nposition merely that the King of the Danes also mentioned the island of\nWineland, as discovered by many in that ocean, i.e., the outer ocean, and\nso far as this goes it might be imagined as lying anywhere. That no\nimportance is attached to the order in which the islands are named appears\nalso from the fact that Halagland is put after Iceland and Greenland,\nalthough it is expressly stated that it lay nearer Norway. That Adam,\nafter having described the last-named country a long while before, here\ngratuitously mentions Halagland (H\u00e1logaland) as an island by itself[197]\ntogether with Iceland and Greenland, shows how deficient his information\nabout the northernmost regions really was.\n\nAs will be further shown in the later chapter on Wineland, Adam's ideas of\nthat country, of the wine and the corn there, must be derived from\nlegends about the Fortunate Isles, which were called by the Norsemen\n\"V\u00ednland hit G\u00f3\u00f0a.\" This legend must have been current in the North at\nthat time, and possibly it may already have been connected with the\ndiscovery of countries in the west. But it is, perhaps, not altogether\naccidental that Wineland should be mentioned immediately after Halagland.\nFor as the latter name was regarded as meaning the Holy Land,[198] it may\nbe natural that Wineland or the Fortunate Isles, originally the Land of\nthe Blest, should be placed in its neighbourhood. To this the resemblance\nin sound between Vinland and Finland (or, more correctly, Finmark, the\nland of the Finns or Lapps) may, consciously or unconsciously, have\ncontributed; later in the Middle Ages these names were often confused and\ninterchanged.[199] Finns and Finland were sometimes spelt in German with a\nV; and V and F were transposed in geographical names even outside Germany,\nas when, in an Icelandic geographical tract attributed to Abbot Nikul\u00e1s\nBergsson of Thver\u00e1 (ob. 1159), Venice is transformed by popular etymology\nto \"Feneyjar\" [cf. F. J\u00f3nsson, 1901, p. 948]. It is particularly\ninteresting that the Latin \"vinum\" (wine) became in Irish legendary poetry\n\"f\u00edn,\" and the vine was called \"f\u00edne,\" as in the poem of the Voyage of\nBran [Kuno Meyer, 1895, vol. i., pp. xvii., 9, 21].\n\n[Illustration: The so-called St. Severus version, of about 1050, of the\nBeatus map (eighth century)]\n\n[Sidenote: Conception of the earth and the ocean]\n\nIt is not clear from Adam's description whether he altogether held the\nconception of the earth, or rather the \"\u0153cumene,\" as a circular island or\ndisc divided into three, surrounded by the outer ocean (the Oceanus of the\nGreeks, see p. 8), as represented on the wheel-maps of earlier times (cf.\np. 151, and the Beatus map); but his expression that the Western Ocean\nextends northwards from the Orchades \"infinitely around the circle of the\nearth\" (\"infinites orbem terr\u00e6 spaciis ambit\") may point to this. It is\ntrue that immediately afterwards he has an obscure statement that at\nGreenland \"ibi terminat oceanus qui dicitur caligans,\" which has usually\nbeen translated as \"there ends the ocean, which is called the dark one\"\n(?); but it is difficult to get any sense out of it. One explanation might\nbe that he imagined Greenland as lying out on the extreme edge of the\nearth's disc, near the abyss, and that thus the ocean (which in that\nregion was called dark ?) ended here in that direction (i.e., in its\nbreadth), while in its length it extended farther continuously around \"the\ncircle of the earth.\" This view would, no doubt, conflict with his\nstatement in another place that the earth was round, which can only be\nunderstood as meaning that it had the form of a globe. But this last idea\nhe took from Bede, and he has scarcely assimilated it sufficiently for it\nto permeate his views of the circle of the earth and the universal ocean,\nas also appears from his mention of the gulf at its outer limit. If we had\nbeen able to suppose that Adam really thought the Western Ocean on the\nnorth flowed past the Orchades, and thence infinitely towards the west\naround the globe of the earth (instead of the circle of the earth), this\nwould better suit the statement that Ireland lay to the left, Norway to\nthe right, and Iceland and Greenland farther out (also to the right ?).\nThis would agree with the statement that Norway was the extreme land on\nthe north, and that beyond it (i.e., farther north ?) there was no human\nhabitation, but only the infinite ocean which surrounds the whole world,\nand in which opposite (\"ex adverso\") Norway lie many islands, etc.\nAccording to this, these islands must be imagined as lying to the west,\nand not to the north of Norway. But besides the fact that such a view of\nthe extent of the ocean towards the west would conflict with the\nprevailing cartographical representation of that time, it is contradicted\nby his assertion that Greenland lies farther out in the ocean (than\nIceland) and opposite the mountains of Suedia and the Riphean range, which\nmust be supposed to lie on the continent to the north-east of Norway; this\ncannot very well be possible unless these islands are to be placed out in\nthe ocean farther north than Norway, and there is thus on this point a\ndifficult contradiction in Adam's work. The circumstance that H\u00e1logaland\nis spoken of as an island after Iceland and Greenland is also against the\nprobability that the ocean, in which these islands lay, was imagined to\nextend infinitely towards the west; the direction is, in this manner,\ngiven as northerly. The same thing appears from the description of the\nvoyage of the Frisian noblemen: when they steered northward with the\nOrkneys to port and Norway to starboard they came to the frozen Iceland,\nand when they proceeded thence towards the North Pole, they saw behind\nthem all the islands previously mentioned. Dr. A. A. Bj\u00f6rnbo has suggested\nto me that according to Adam's way of expressing himself \"terminat\" must\nhere mean \"forms the boundary,\" whereby we get the translation given above\n(p. 192), which seems to give better sense; but in any case Adam's\ndescription of these regions is not quite clear.\n\nWe are told that Magister Adam obtained information about the countries\nand peoples of the North from Svein Estridsson and his men; but as regards\nIceland he might also have had trustworthy information from the Archbishop\nof Bremen, Adalbert, who had educated an Icelander, Isleif Gissursson, to\nbe bishop. The latter (who is also mentioned by Are Frode) might also have\ntold him about Greenland and Wineland; but Adam says distinctly that he\nhad been informed about the latter country and the wine and corn there,\nwhich must have seemed very remarkable to him, if he imagined the country\nto be in the north, by the Danish king, and that the information had been\nconfirmed by Danes. We shall return later to these countries, to Adam's\nideas of Wineland, and to the alleged polar expeditions of King Harold and\nof the Frisian noblemen.\n\nJust as these pages are going to press I have received from Dr. Axel\nAnthon Bj\u00f6rnbo his excellent essay on \"Adam of Bremen's view of the North\"\n[1909]. By Dr. Bj\u00f6rnbo's exhaustive researches the correctness of the\nviews just set forth seems to be confirmed on many points; but he gives a\nfar more complete picture of Adam's geographical ideas. The reasons\nadvanced by Dr. Bj\u00f6rnbo for supposing that Adam imagined the ocean as\nsurrounding the earth's disc, with Iceland, Greenland, etc., in the north,\nare of much interest. His map of the North according to Adam's description\nis of great value, and gives a clear presentation of the main lines of\nAdam's conceptions. With his kind permission it is reproduced here (p.\n186). But, as will appear from my remarks above (pp. 197 f.), I am not\nsure that one is justified in placing Winland so far north, in the\nneighbourhood of the North Pole, as Dr. Bj\u00f6rnbo has done in his map.\nPossibly he has also put the other islands rather far north, and has\ncurved the north coast of Scandinavia somewhat too much in a westerly\ndirection.\n\nThrough Dr. Bj\u00f6rnbo's book I have become acquainted with another recently\npublished work on Adam of Bremen by Hermann Krabbo [1909], of which I have\nalso been unable to make use; it also has a map, but not so complete a one\nas Bj\u00f6rnbo's as regards the northern regions.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nFINNS, SKRIDFINNS (LAPPS), AND THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF SCANDINAVIA\n\n\nBefore we proceed to the Norwegians' great contributions to the\nexploration of the northern regions, we shall attempt to collect and\nsurvey what is known, and what may possibly be concluded, about the most\nnorthern people of Europe, the Finns, and the earliest settlement of\nScandinavia.\n\n[Sidenote: Earliest mention of the Finns]\n\nThe Finns are mentioned, as we have seen (p. 113), for the first time in\nliterature by Tacitus, who calls them \"Fenni,\" and describes them as\nexclusively a people of hunters. Procopius does the same, but calls them\n\"Skridfinns,\" and removes their home to the northernmost Thule or\nScandinavia. Cassiodorus (Jordanes) also mentions the \"Skridfinns\" as\nhunters in the same northern regions, but speaks moreover of \"Finns\" and\n\"Finaiti,\" and another people resembling the Finns (\"Vinoviloth\" ?)\nfarther south in Scandinavia. The Ravenna geographer also mentions the\n\"Skridfinns\" (after Jordanes). Then comes Paulus Warnefridi, who speaks of\nthe ski-running of the Skridfinns, though indeed in a way which shows he\ndid not understand it very well, and mentions a deer of whose skin they\nmade themselves clothes, but does not say that this deer was domesticated.\nNext King Alfred mentions \"Skridfinns,\" \"Finns,\" and \"Ter-Finns,\" and in\nthe information he obtained from Ottar he speaks of the hunting, fishing\nand whaling of the \"Finns,\" and of their keeping reindeer in the north of\nNorway. This description is in accordance with what we learn of the Lapps\nfrom later history, with this difference only, that on account of the\nkilling-off of the game their hunting in recent times became of small\nimportance. Lastly we have Adam of Bremen's description of the Finns,\nwhich contains nothing new of note. He mentions \"Finn\u00e9di\" or \"Finvedi\"\nbetween Sweden and Norway (near Vermeland) and \"Skridfinns\" in northern\nScandinavia. Besides these he speaks of a small people who come down at\nintervals, once a year or every three years, from the mountains, and who\nare probably the Mountain Lapps with their reindeer. He mentions also a\npeople skilled in magic on the shores of the northern ocean [Finmark], and\nskin-clad men in the forests of the north, who may be Fishing Lapps or\nForest Lapps. In connection with this we may also refer to the mention of\nthe Lapps in the \"Historia Norvegi\u00e6\":\n\n Norway \"is divided lengthways into three curved zones [i.e., parallel\n to the curved coast-line]: the first zone, which is very large and\n lies along the coast; the second, the inland zone, which is also\n called the mountain zone; the third, the forest zone, which is\n inhabited by Finns [Lapps], but is not ploughed.\" The Lapps, in the\n third zone, which was waste land, \"were very skilled hunters, they\n roam about singly and are nomads, and they live in huts made of hides\n instead of houses. These houses they take on their shoulders, and they\n fasten smoothed pieces of wood [literally, balks, stakes] under their\n feet, which appliances they call 'ondrer,' and while the deer [i.e.,\n reindeer] gallop along carrying their wives and children over the deep\n snow and precipitous mountains, they dash on more swiftly than the\n birds. Their dwelling-place is uncertain [it changes] according as the\n quantity of game shows them a hunting-ground when it is needed.\"\n\nFrom the earliest accounts referred to, especially from that of Adam of\nBremen, it looks as though there were Fishing Lapps and Reindeer Lapps in\nnorthern Scandinavia in those remote times, as there are now, and they\nwere called Finns or Skridfinns; but besides these there were people who\nwere called Finns in southern Scandinavia, from whence they have since\ndisappeared. This has led to the hypothesis that the primitive population\nin southern Scandinavia also was composed of the same Finns (Lapps) as are\nnow found in the northern part, to which they were compelled to retreat by\nthe later Germanic immigrants [cf. Geijer, 1825, pp. 411 ff.; Munch, 1852,\npp. 3 ff.; Sven Nilsson]. But for various reasons this hypothesis has had\nto be abandoned, and the question has become difficult.\n\n[Illustration: Men of the Woods in Northern Scandinavia (from Olaus\nMagnus)]\n\n[Sidenote: The name \"Finn\"]\n\nThe word \"Finn\" as the name of a people does not occur, so far as is\nknown, outside Scandinavia. The only place farther south where there are\nplace-names which remind one of it is in Friesland, where we find a\nFinsburg. The origin of the national name \"Finn\" is unknown. Some have\nthought that it might be connected with the word \"finna\" (English, to\nfind), and that it means one who goes on foot.\n\nSince in Swedish and Norwegian the name has come to be applied to two such\nentirely different peoples as, in Norway, the Fishing Lapps and Reindeer\nLapps and, in Sweden, the people of Finland, we must suppose that in the\nprimitive Norse language it was a common designation for several\nnon-Germanic races, whom the later Germanic immigrants in south\nScandinavia drove into the wastes and forest tracts, where they lived by\nhunting and fishing. This would provide a natural explanation of the\ncurious circumstance that Jordanes, as well as Adam of Bremen (later also\nSaxo), mentions Finns, Finvedi, and other Finn-peoples in many parts of\nsouth Scandinavia; in our saga literature there are also many references\nto Finns far south. But the most decisive circumstance is, perhaps, that\nthe word Finn occurs in many place-names of south Scandinavia, from\nFinnskog and Finnsj\u00f6 in Uppland, and Finnheden or Finnveden in Sm\u00e5land, to\nFinn\u00f6 in the Bokn-fjord [cf. M\u00fcllenhoff, ii. 1887, p. 51; A. M. Hansen,\n1907]. It may be quoted as a strong piece of evidence that a people called\nFinns must have lived in old times in south Norway, that the oldest\nChristian laws, of about 1150, for the most southern jurisdictions, the\nBorgathing and Eidsivathing, visit with the severest penalty of the law\nthe crime of going to the Finns, or to Finmark, to have one's fortune told\n[cf. A. M. Hansen, 1907, p. 79]. It may seem improbable that here (e.g.,\nas far south as Bohuslen) this should have referred to Finns (Lapps) in\nthe north, in what is now called Finmark; and we should be rather inclined\nto believe it to refer to the Finns (and Finn\u00e9di) mentioned by Jordanes\nand Adam of Bremen nearer at hand, in the forest tracts between Norway and\nSweden, where we still have a Finnskog, which, however, is generally\nconnected with the later immigration of Kv\u00e6ns or Finns from Finland (the\nso-called wood-devils; compare also Finmarken between Lier and Modum). But\nit might be thought that these Christian laws were compiled more or less\nfrom laws enacted for northern Norway, and thus provisions of this kind,\nwhich were only adapted for that part of the country, were included. And\nit must be borne in mind that the northern Finns (Lapps) in particular had\nan ancient reputation for proficiency in magic and soothsaying, and,\nfurther, that Finmark in those times was often regarded as extending much\nfarther south than now, as far as Jemteland and Herjedalen.\n\n[Sidenote: Immigration to Scandinavia]\n\nIt is difficult to decide with certainty what kind of people the \"Finns\"\nwho were found in many parts of south Scandinavia may have been. The\nsupposition that they were the same people as the Finns (Lapps) of our\ntime has had to be abandoned, as we have said, in the face of more recent\narch\u00e6ological, anthropological and historical-geographical researches.\nM\u00fcllenhoff [ii. 1887, pp. 50 ff.] has proposed that the word \"Finn\" may\noriginally have been a Scandinavian common name for several peoples who\nwere diffused in south Scandinavia, but who in his opinion were\nUgro-Finnish, like the Kv\u00e6ns, Lapps and others [cf. also Geijer, 1825, pp.\n415 f.]. He even goes so far as to suppose that the very name of\nScandinavia may be due to them (like that of the ski-goddess \"Ska\u00f0i,\"[200]\nwho was a Finn-woman, cf. p. 103). But it has not been possible to point\neither to linguistic or anthropological traces of any early Finno-Ugrian\npeople in any part of south Scandinavia, and there are many indications\nthat the southern diffusion of the Mountain Finns (Reindeer Lapps) is\ncomparatively late.\n\nDr. A. M. Hansen, therefore, in his suggestive works, \"Landn\u00e1m\" [1904] and\n\"Oldtidens Nordm\u00e6nd\" [\"The Norsemen of Antiquity,\" 1907], has put forward\nthe hypothesis that the Finns of earliest history, whom he would include\nunder the common designation of \"Skridfinns,\" were a non-Aryan people,\nwholly distinct both from the Finno-Ugrian tribes and from the Aryan\nScandinavians, who formed the primitive population of northern Europe and\nwere related to the primitive peoples of southern Europe, the Pelasgians,\nEtruscans, Basques and others. In Scandinavia they were forced northwards\nby the Germanic tribes, and have now disappeared through being partly\nabsorbed in the latter. In the east and north-east they were displaced by\nthe Finno-Ugrian peoples who immigrated later. The last remnants of them\nwould be found in the Fishing Lapps of our time, and in the so-called\nYenisei Ostyaks of north-western Siberia. This bold hypothesis has the\ndisadvantage, amongst others, of forcing us to assume the existence of a\nvanished people, who are otherwise entirely unknown. In the next place,\nDr. Hansen, in arbitrarily applying the name of Skridfinns to all the\n\"Finns\" in Scandinavia, does not seem to have laid sufficient weight on\nthe difference which early writers make between Skridfinns in the north\nand the other Finns farther south.\n\nIn earlier times there was a strong tendency, due to old Biblical notions,\nto imagine all nations as immigrants to the regions where they are now\nfound. But when a zoologist finds a particular species or variety of\nanimal distributed over a limited area, he makes the most natural\nassumption, that it has arisen through a local differentiation in that\nregion. The simplest plan must be to look upon human stocks and races in\nthe same way. When we have tried in Europe to distinguish between Celts,\nGermans, Slavs, Ugro-Finns, etc., the most reasonable supposition will be\nthat these races have arisen through local \"evolution,\" the home of their\ndifferentiation being within the area in which we find them later. As such\ncentres of differentiation in Europe we might suppose: for the Celts,\nwestern Central Europe; for the Germans, eastern Central Europe; for the\nSlavs, Eastern Europe; for the Ugro-Finns, northern East Europe and\nwestern Siberia, etc.\n\n[Sidenote: Southern Finns in Scandinavia]\n\nThis is doubtless a linguistic division, but to a certain extent it\ncoincides with anthropological distinctions. Since the North was covered\nwith ice till a comparatively recent period, we cannot expect any local\ndifferentiation of importance there since that time, but must suppose an\nimmigration to the north and to Scandinavia of already differentiated\nraces, from southern Europe. We may thus suppose that tribes belonging to\nthe parent-races of brachycephalic Celts and Slavs, and dolichocephalic\nGermans, came in from the south and south-east, and Ugro-Finns and\nMongoloid tribes immigrated from the south-east and east. In this way we\nmay expect, at the commencement of the historical period, to find\nCelto-Slavs and Germans in southern and central Scandinavia, and Mongoloid\nand Finno-Ugrian people in the northernmost regions and towards the\nnorth-east and east (Finland and North Russia). This agrees fairly well\nwith what is actually found. If we except the northernmost districts,\nanthropological measurements (principally by Brigade-Surgeon Arbo) show\nthat the people of Norway are descended not only from the tall, fair, and\npronouncedly dolichocephalic Germanic race, but also from at least one\nbrachycephalic race, which was of smaller stature and dark-haired.[201]\nMeasurements in Sweden and Denmark show a similar state of things, but in\nDenmark and the extreme south of Sweden the short-skulls are more numerous\nthan in the rest of Scandinavia. In order to explain these anthropological\nconditions, we must either suppose that the various Germanic tribes which\nhave formed the people of Scandinavia were more or less mixed with\nbrachycephalic people, even before they immigrated,[202] in proportions\nsimilar to those now obtaining, or that tribes immigrated to Scandinavia\nbelonging to at least two different races, one specially dolichocephalic\nand one specially brachycephalic. The latter hypothesis will be, to a\ncertain extent at all events, the more natural, and as it is not probable\nthat the short-skulls arrived later than the long-skulled Germanic tribes,\nit is most reasonable to suppose that there was at least one short-skulled\nprimitive people before they came. These primitive people were hunters and\nfishermen, and must therefore in most districts have wandered over a wide\narea to find what was necessary to support life. It was only the more\nfavourable conditions of life in certain districts--for instance, the\nabundance of fish along the west coast of Norway--that allowed a denser\npopulation with more permanent habitation. As the taller and stronger\nGermanic tribes spread along the coasts, the older short-skulled hunters,\nwho may have been Celts,[203] were in most districts forced towards the\nforest tracts of the interior, where there was abundance of game and fish.\nIn districts where they lived closer together and had more permanent\nsettlements, as on the west coast of Norway, they were not altogether\ndisplaced. For this dark primitive people, who were shorter of stature\nthan themselves, and who hunted and fished in the outlying districts, the\nGermanic tribes may, in one way or another, have found the common name of\n\"Finns,\" whether the people called themselves so or the name arose in some\nother way.[204] When the Germanic people then came across another short,\ndark-haired people of hunters and fishermen in the north, they applied the\nname of \"Finn\" to them too, although they belonged to an entirely\ndifferent linguistic family, the Finno-Ugrian, and to an even more\ndifferent Mongoloid race. But to distinguish them from the southern Celtic\npeople of hunters, the northern were sometimes called \"Skridfinns.\"\nGradually, as the southern Finns became absorbed into the Germanic\npopulation and disappeared as a separate people, the name in Norway\nremained attached to the other race and country (Finmark) in the north,\nand in Sweden to the very different people and country (Finland) in the\nnorth-east.\n\nThe southern Finns were an Aryan people, and as the Aryan languages at\nthat remote time, when they became detached from the more southern\nshort-skulls of Europe, the Celts and Slavs, did not vary very much, it\nis easily explicable that scarcely a single ancient place-name can be\nfound in southern Norway which can be said with certainty to bear a\nnon-Germanic character. If, on the other hand, the southern Finns, who are\nmentioned so late as far on in the Middle Ages, had been a Finno-Ugrian or\nother non-Aryan people, it is incredible that we should not be able easily\nto point to foreign elements in the place-names, which would be due to\ntheir language.\n\n[Illustration: Skridfinns hunting (from Olaus Magnus)]\n\nScandinavian finds of skulls of the Stone Age, and later, are so few and\nso casual that we can conclude very little from them as regards the race\nto which the primitive population belonged. Further, it must be remarked\nthat the early people of hunters, the short-skulled \"Finns,\" must have\nbeen very few in number, and have lived scattered about the country, in\ncontrast to the later Germanic tribes who had a fixed habitation. That\namong the earliest skulls found there should only be a few short ones is,\ntherefore, what we should expect. It must also be remembered, of course,\nthat the proportion of skulls left by each people depends in a great\ndegree on its burial customs.\n\n[Sidenote: Northern \"Finns\" in Finmark]\n\nWe now come to the northern Finns, of whom Ottar gives a sufficiently\ndetailed description to enable us to form a fairly accurate picture of\ntheir culture. Since they were able to pay a heavy annual tribute in\nwalrus-tusks, ropes of walrus-hide and seal-hide, besides other skins and\nproducts of fishery, we must conclude that they were skilled hunters and\nfishermen even at sea, and such skill can only have been acquired through\nthe slow development and practice of a long period, unless they learned it\nfrom the Norsemen. But on the other hand they also kept reindeer,\nresembling in this the eastern reindeer nomads. These two ways of living\nare so distinct that they can scarcely have been originally developed in\none and the same people, and we must therefore conclude that a concurrence\nof several different cultures has here taken place.\n\nNow as regards whaling and sealing, it is remarkable that along the whole\nnorthern coast of Europe and Asia there is no trace of any other race of\nseafaring hunters. Not until we come to the Chukches, near Bering Strait,\ndo we find a sea-fishery culture, but this is borrowed from the Eskimo\nfarther east, and originally came from the American side of Bering Strait.\nIn Novaya Zemlya, it is true, there is a small tribe of Samoyeds who live\nby hunting both on sea and land, and who do not keep reindeer, but on the\nother hand use dogs for sleighing; but their sea-hunting is primitive,\nlike the more casual sealing and walrus-hunting I have seen practised by\nthe reindeer Samoyeds along the shores of the Kara Sea, with firearms, but\nwithout special appliances and with extremely clumsy boats. It is\ndifficult to see in this the remains of an older, highly developed people\nof hunters.\n\nThis sealing culture which was found in Ottar's time in northernmost\nNorway and on the Murman coast cannot, therefore, have come from the east\nalong the coast of Siberia, but must have been a local development,\nperhaps arising from the amalgamation of the original hunting culture of\nthese \"Finns\" with a higher European culture from the south.\n\n[Sidenote: Arch\u00e6ological relics of \"Finns\" in Varanger]\n\nIt fortunately happens that at Kjelm\u00f6, on the southern side of the\nVaranger Fjord, a rich find of implements has been made, which must belong\nto the very same people of \"Finns\" who, as Ottar says, lived here and\nthere along the coast (of Finmark and Terfinna Land) as hunters, fishermen\nand fowlers. Dr. O. Solberg in particular has in the last few years made\nvaluable excavations on this island.[205] The many objects found lay\nevenly distributed in strata, the thickness of which shows that they must\nbe the result of many centuries of accumulation. Solberg refers them to\nthe period between the seventh and about the eleventh centuries.\n\nIn North Varanger many heathen graves containing implements have been\nfound. By the help of the latter Solberg has been able to show that the\ngraves are partly of the same age and partly of a somewhat later time than\nthe Kjelm\u00f6 find, and certainly belong to the same people. By comparing\nthese various finds we can form a picture of this people's culture and its\nassociations.\n\n[Illustration: 7-9, Fish-hooks (of reindeer-horn); 10, potsherds; 1-6,\nharpoon-points (of reindeer-horn), from Kjelm\u00f6; less than half natural\nsize (after O. Solberg, 1909)]\n\nIn addition to a number of bones of fish, birds and mammals, the Kjelm\u00f6\nfind contains a variety of implements, mostly made of reindeer-horn and\nbone, which have been remarkably well preserved in the lime-charged sand,\nwhile on the other hand the iron, with few exceptions, has rusted entirely\naway. There are also many fragments of pottery, baked at an open fire and\nmade of clay found on the island. These hunters and fishermen, therefore,\nunderstood the art of the potter as well as that of the smith, and thus\nthe culture of this northern district on the shores of the Polar Sea was\nnot on such a very low level. But it was not of independent growth; the\npottery shows a connection with that of the older Iron Age in south\nScandinavia; while on the other hand a couple of bronze objects,\nespecially the small figure of a bear, found in a grave in North Varanger,\nare typically representative of the early part of the Permian Iron Age in\neastern Russia (from the eighth century). Many other objects found in the\ngraves also point to connection with the south-east, partly with Russia or\nOttar's Beormaland, and perhaps with Finland; while on the other side\nthere may have been communication westwards and south-westwards (Ottar's\nroute) with Norway. Solberg has found marks of ownership on the Kjelm\u00f6\nimplements which he shows to have much resemblance to those still in use\namong the Skolte-Lapps.[206] But the use of owner's marks was an ancient\nand universal custom among the Germanic peoples, and the Finns probably\nderived it from them. The owner's marks found by Solberg bear a\nresemblance to many ancient Germanic ones [cf. Hofmeyer, 1870; Michelsen,\n1853], and seem rather to point to cultural connection with the Norsemen.\n\n[Illustration: Probable mode of using the harpoon-points from Kjelm\u00f6]\n\nAmong the implements of reindeer-horn and bone in the Kjelm\u00f6 find there\nare especially many fish-hooks, which show that fishing played an\nimportant part in the life of these people on the island, probably mostly\nin the summer months. Possibly there are also some stone sinkers which\nwould show that they had nets. There are also fish-spears of\nreindeer-horn, which were used for salmon-fishing in the rivers. Further,\nthere is a quantity of arrow-heads; but of special interest to us are a\nnumber of harpoon-points of various form, which doubtless do not show so\nhighly developed a sealing culture as that of the Eskimo, but which are\nnevertheless quite ingenious and bear witness to much connection with the\nsea. It is worth mentioning that, while some of these harpoon-points\n(Figs. 2 and 3 above) resemble old, primitive Eskimo forms, which are\nfound in Greenland, another still more primitive form (Fig. 1 above) bears\na striking resemblance to harpoon-points of bone which are in use, amongst\nother places, in Tierra del Fuego, and which are also known from the Stone\nAge in Europe. This proves how the same implements may be developed quite\nindependently in different places.\n\nIt is curious that among the same people such different forms of\nharpoon-points should be found, from the most primitive to more ingenious\nones. This may tend to show that their sealing culture was not so old as\nto have acquired fixed and definite forms like that of the Eskimo.\n\nIt is remarkable that by far the greater number of harpoon-points were\nmade entirely of reindeer-horn, without any iron tip. Only on two of them\n(see Fig. 2, p. 214) are there marks of such a tip, which was let in round\nthe fore-end, but which has rusted completely away. There is nowhere a\nsign of the use of any blade of iron (or stone), such as is used by the\nEskimo. All these harpoon-points were made fast to a thong by deep notches\nat the base, or by a hole; and they have either a tang at the base which\nwas stuck into a hole in the end of the harpoon-shaft, or else they have a\nhole or a groove at the base, which was surrounded by an iron ring, and\ninto which a tang at the end of the shaft was inserted. As no piece of\nreindeer-horn or bone has been found which might serve as a tang for\nfixing the harpoon-points, it is possible that these were fastened\ndirectly on to the wooden shaft. With the help of the thong, which was\nprobably made tightly fast (on a catch ?) to the upper part of the shaft,\nthe point was held in its place. But when the harpoon was cast into the\nanimal, the point remained fixed in its flesh and came away from the\nshaft, which became loose, and the animal was caught by the thong, the end\nof which was either made fast to the boat or held by the hunter; for it is\nimprobable that it was made fast to a buoy or bladder, which is an\ninvention peculiar to the Eskimo. All the harpoons found at Kjelm\u00f6 are\nremarkably small, and cannot have been used for any animal larger than a\nseal. Among the objects found there is only one piece cut off a\nwalrus-tusk, and none of the implements were made of this material,\nexcept, perhaps, one arrow-head. The explanation of this cannot be merely\nthat the walrus was not common in the neighbourhood of Kjelm\u00f6; it shows\nrather that these Finns did not practise walrus-hunting at all; for if\nthey had done so, we should expect their weapons and implements to be\nmade to a large extent of walrus-tusk, which has advantages over\nreindeer-horn.\n\nWhether the harpoons, which we know to have been used later by the\nNorsemen, resembled those from Kjelm\u00f6, and whether they learned the use of\nthem from the Finns, or the Finns had them from the Norsemen, are points\non which it is difficult to form an opinion. Nothing has been found which\nmight afford us information as to the kind of boats these northern sealers\nused. It is possible that they were light wooden boats, somewhat like the\nLapps' river-boats, and that they used paddles. Nor do the Kjelm\u00f6 finds\ntell us whether these people kept tame reindeer. It is true that bones of\ndogs have been found, like the modern Lapp-hound; but whether they were\nused for herding reindeer cannot be determined, nor can they have been\ncommon on the island, since otherwise the animal bones would have shown\nmarks of having been gnawed by dogs.\n\nThe masses of bones found show that the people lived on fish to a great\nextent, many kinds of birds, among them the great auk (Alca impennis),\nreindeer, fjord-seal (Phoca vitulina), the saddleback seal (Ph.\ngr\u0153nlandica), grey-seal (Halich\u0153rus grypus),[207] porpoise, beaver, etc.\n\nIt will be seen that everything we learn from this find agrees in a\nremarkable way with the statements of Ottar, with the single exception\nthat there are no indications of walrus-hunting, beyond the one piece of\ntusk mentioned.[208]\n\nAs has been said, this sealing of the Finns must be regarded as a locally\ndeveloped culture, which was not diffused farther east than Ter or the\nKola peninsula. But with their reindeer-keeping the opposite is the case;\nthis has its greatest predominance in Asia and north-eastern Europe, and\nis specially associated with the Samoyeds. It seems, therefore, most\nprobable that it was brought to north Scandinavia from the east.\n\n[Sidenote: Ottar's \"Finns\"]\n\nIf, then, Ottar's description of his Finns' and Terfinns' diffusion\ntowards the east (as well as the description in Egil's Saga) tallies\nalmost exactly with the diffusion of the Fishing Lapps and Reindeer Lapps\nof our time, and if what he tells us of the Finns' manner of life agrees\nin all essentials with what we know of the life of the Lapps long after\nthat time, down to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, then this in\nitself points to Ottar's \"Finns\" having been essentially the same people\nas the present-day Lapps. But to this may be added the statement of Ottar,\nwho must have known the Finns and their language well: that they and the\nBeormas spoke approximately the same language. Since, then, the Lapps of\nour time--who live in the same district as Ottar's Finns--and the East\nKarelians--who live in the same district, on the western side of the White\nSea, as Ottar's Beormas--speak closely related languages, and since,\nfurther, the Karelians are a people with fixed habitation like the\nBeormas, then it will be more natural to suppose that they are the same\ntwo peoples who lived in these districts at that early time, instead of\nproposing, like Dr. A. M. Hansen, to replace them both by an unknown\npeople, who spoke an unknown language.[209]\n\nThe correctness of this hypothesis is also supported, as we have seen, by\nthe rich Kjelm\u00f6 find, which shows that in Ottar's time there was in the\nVaranger Fjord a well-developed sealing culture, to which we know no\nparallel from finds farther south, and which both in date and\ncharacteristics is distinct from the Arctic Stone Age. Through grave-finds\nin North Varanger, belonging to later centuries, we have, as Solberg shows\n[1909], a possible transition from the Kjelm\u00f6 culture to that of the Lapps\nof our own time, and there is thus a connected sequence.\n\n[Sidenote: Ancient Lappish skulls]\n\nIn old heathen burial-places on the islands of Sj\u00e5holmen and Sandholmen,\nin the Varanger Fjord, Herr Nordvi found a number of skulls and portions\nof skeletons, which probably belonged to the same people as the dwellers\non Kjelm\u00f6. Some of these skulls are in the collection of the Anatomical\nInstitute at Christiania, and have been described by Professor J. Heiberg\n[1878]. They are brachycephalic with a cephalic index between 82 and 85;\none was mesocephalic with an index of 78. Dr. O. Solberg has also found a\nfew such skulls. Time has not permitted me to subject these heathen\nskulls at the Anatomical Institute to a detailed examination; I have only\nmade a purely preliminary comparison between them and half a dozen skulls\nof modern Reindeer Lapps and Skolte-Lapps, and found that in certain\nfeatures they differ somewhat from the latter. Doubtless the Lapps and\nSkolte-Lapps of our time are very mixed, partly with the Finns (Kv\u00e6ns) and\npartly with Norwegians and others; but the typical Reindeer Lapp skulls\nare nevertheless quite characteristic, and as they are somewhat more\nbrachycephalic than the skulls from the heathen graves, it is difficult to\nsuppose that this is due to any such recent mixture of race. As possible\ndifferences the following may be noted: the heathen skulls as compared\nwith the Reindeer Lapp skulls are not quite so typically brachycephalic;\nseen from the side they are somewhat lower (i.e., the length-height index\nis less, according to Heiberg's measurements it would be about as 77 to\n86); the forehead recedes somewhat more from the brow-ridges, which are\nmore prominent than in the typical Reindeer Lapp skulls. The Skolte-Lapp\nskulls examined were of more mixed race, and were more mesocephalic; but\nthey bore most resemblance to the Reindeer Lapp skulls, although some of\nthem also showed a transition to the heathen skulls. According to this it\ndoes not look as though the heathens to whom these graves belonged can be\naccepted offhand as the ancestors of our Reindeer Lapps. They may have\nbeen an earlier, kindred race who, to judge by Ottar's statements, spoke a\nsimilar language, closely related to Karelian. The Reindeer Lapps must in\nthat case have immigrated later.\n\n[Sidenote: Place-names of the Lapps]\n\nIt remains to examine what place-names can tell us. It is remarkable, as\nQvigstad [1893, p. 56 f.] has pointed out, that while the Lapps have\ngenuine Lappish names for the inner fjord coasts--e.g., Varanger, Tana,\nLakse, Porsanger, and Alten fjords--all their place-names for the outer\nsea-coasts, even in Finmark, are of Norwegian origin, if we except the\nnames of a few large islands, such as \"Sallam,\" for S\u00f6r\u00f6 in West Finmark\nand for Skoger\u00f6 in Varanger, and \"Sievjo,\" for Seiland in West Finmark. It\nwould therefore seem as though the Norwegians arrived on the outer coasts\nbefore either the Fishing Lapps or Reindeer Lapps, while the latter came\nfirst to the inner fjord coasts. This conclusion may be supported by the\nfact that the Lapps' names for sea-fish and sea-birds are throughout\nloan-words from Norwegian, as also are their words for appliances\nbelonging to modern boats and sailing, which may indicate that they\nlearned fishing and navigation from the Norwegians. Their name for walrus\nhas probably also originally come from Norwegian, but on the other hand,\nthe names of river fish, and their numerous names for seals, are as a rule\ngenuine Lappish [Qvigstad, 1893, p. 67]. This conclusion, however, does\nnot agree with Ottar's description, which distinctly says that \"Finns,\"\nwho were hunters and fishermen, lived scattered along the coasts of\nFinmark and the Kola peninsula, while the Norwegians (i.e., Norwegian\nchiefs) did not live farther north than himself, and did not practise\nwhaling farther north than, probably, about Loppen. Dr. Hansen therefore\nthought to find in this a support for his theory, that the \"Finns\" of that\ntime, whom he called Skridfinns, were a non-Aryan primitive people\nentirely distinct from the Reindeer Lapps of our day. But this bold\nhypothesis is little adapted to solve the difficulties with which we are\nhere confronted. Thus, in order to explain the Lappish loan-words from\nNorwegian, one is obliged to assume that these Skridfinnish ancestors of\nthe Fishing Lapps first lost their own language and their own place-names\nand words for the implements they used and the animals they hunted, etc.,\nand adopted the Norwegian language entirely; and then again lost this\nlanguage and adopted that of the later immigrant Reindeer Lapps, who\nchiefly lived in the mountainous districts of the interior. At this later\nchange of language, however, they retained a number of Norwegian words,\nespecially those used in navigation and place-names; but strangely enough\nthey acquired new, genuinely Lappish names for certain large islands, and\nmoreover they adopted the many names for seals, which were the most\nimportant object of their fishery, from the nomadic Reindeer Lapps, who\npreviously had known nothing about such things. The question arises of\nitself: but if these Skridfinns were capable of undergoing all these\nremarkable linguistic revolutions, why may they not just as well have\nbegun by speaking a language resembling Lappish, and gradually adopted\ntheir loan-words and place-names from Norwegian? This will be a simpler\nexplanation. Nor, as we have seen, is Dr. Hansen's assumption probable,\nthat the Beormas also belonged to these same Skridfinns, and spoke their\nlanguage, while they were not replaced by the Karelians until later;[210]\nbut still less so is the hypothesis which is thereby forced upon us, that\nthe Reindeer Lapps came as reindeer nomads from the district east of the\nWhite Sea, and learned their language, allied to Karelian, through coming\nin contact with the Karelians on their journey westward round the south of\nthe White Sea. This contact cannot have lasted very long, as the country\non the south side of the White Sea is not particularly favourable to\nreindeer nomads. And if in so short a time they lost their old language\nand adopted an entirely new one, it will seem strange that they have been\nable to keep this new language comparatively unchanged through their later\ncontact with the Norwegians, to whom moreover they were in a position of\nsubjection. In any case it must be considerably less improbable that an\noriginal people of hunters, established in Finmark, who from the beginning\nspoke Karelian-Lappish, should have adopted loan-words and place-names\nfrom the later immigrant and settled Norwegians, to whom they were\nsubject, and who were skilled sailors with better seagoing boats. In more\nor less adopting the Norwegians' methods of navigation and fishery, with\nbetter appliances, they also acquired many loan-words from them. But on\nthe whole we must not attach too much weight to such linguistic evidence,\nwhen we see that the Lapps have such a great quantity of loan-words from\nother languages.\n\n[Sidenote: Conclusions as to the origin of the Northern \"Finns\"]\n\nTo sum up what has been said here, the following explanation may be the\nmost natural: in prehistoric times the coasts and inland districts of\nnorth Scandinavia and the Kola peninsula were inhabited by a wandering\npeople of hunters, who belonged to the same race or family as the Fishing\nand Reindeer Lapps, and who were thus related to the Samoyeds farther\neast; but through long contact with the Karelians on the White Sea and\nwith the Kv\u00e6ns they had acquired a Karelian-Finnish language. Their\nlanguage, however, as Konrad Nielsen has shown, contains also many words\nwhich resemble Samoyed, whether this be due to original kinship or to\nlater influence. These people were called by the Norsemen Finns, or, to\ndistinguish them from the other sort of Finns farther south, Skridfinns,\nbecause they were in the habit of travelling on ski in the winter. People\nof this race of hunters learned the domestication of reindeer from contact\nwith reindeer nomads, the Samoyeds, farther east. Most of them continued\ntheir life of hunting, sealing and fishing, but adopted reindeer-keeping\nto some extent as an auxiliary means of subsistence. The Eskimo are a good\nexample of how, in northern regions, a wandering people of hunters may\nhave a fairly uniform culture and language throughout a much greater\nextent of territory than is here in question; for they have essentially\nthe same culture and language from west of Bering Strait to the east coast\nof Greenland. A tribe related to these hunter Finns, who spoke very nearly\nthe same language but lived farther east, where there was certainly\nhunting to be had on land but little at sea, gradually became transformed\nentirely into reindeer nomads, and diffused themselves at a comparatively\nlate period over the mountainous tracts westward, and along the Kj\u00f6len\nrange southward. As the Norsemen pressed northward along the coast of\nNordland they encountered the hunter Finns or Fishing Lapps. Through this\ncontact with a higher culture these Lapps learned much, but on the other\nhand the Norsemen learned something from their sealing and hunting\nculture, which was well adapted to these surroundings. Thus a higher\ndevelopment of sea-hunting arose. Originally the Lapps had a light boat,\nthe planks of which were fastened together with osiers, with a paddle,\nwhich was well adapted to sea-fishing, and for which they still have a\ngenuine Lappish word in their language. From the Norsemen they learned to\nbuild larger boats and to use sails, whence most of their words for the\nnew kind of navigation were Norse loan-words. We see from Peder Clauss\u00f6n\nFriis's description that in the sixteenth century the Fishing Lapps even\n\"had much profit of their shipbuilding, since they are good carpenters,\nand build all the sloops and ships for the northward voyage themselves at\ntheir own cost and to a considerable amount.... They also build many\nboats....\" In other words, we see that they had completely adopted the\nNorwegians' boat- and ship-building, and with it the words connected\ntherewith. In the same way they certainly acquired better appliances for\nsea-fishing than those they originally had; consequently in this too they\nlearned of the Norwegians, and it was therefore natural that they\ngradually adopted Norse names for sea-fish too, even if they had names for\nthem before; besides which they were always selling this fish to the\nNorwegians. It was otherwise, however, with sealing, which had previously\nbeen their chief employment on the sea. In this they were superior to the\nNorsemen, as the implements of the Kjelm\u00f6 find show, and here the Norsemen\nbecame their pupils. For this reason then they kept their own names for\nseal, and the many genuine Lappish words they have for them prove that\nthis was an important part of their original culture. If we should imagine\nthat the Lappish language came in at a comparatively late period with the\nReindeer Lapps, as Dr. Hansen thinks, we should be faced by incomparably\ngreater difficulties in explaining how they acquired these many genuine\nLappish words for seal, than would confront us in explaining how they got\nloan-words for reindeer-keeping from the Norwegians, or how the original\nFishing Lapps took Norse loan-words for sea-fishing and the use of boats.\nAnd now as regards place-names, it is not improbable that these were\ndetermined for later times principally by the permanent settlements of the\nNorsemen, along the outer sea-coast, and not by the scattered Finns\n(Lapps), who led a wandering life as hunters and fishermen, and who no\ndoubt were driven out by the Norsemen. If we suppose that these Finns were\nkept away from a place, a fishing-centre or a district, by the Norwegian\nsettlement, it would only require the passing of one or two generations\nfor them to forget their old place-names, and in future they would use\nthose of the Norwegians settled there. But that they once had names of\ntheir own is shown by the genuine Lappish names for some of the larger\nislands. Within the fjords, where the Norwegians were late in establishing\nthemselves, and where the Finns (Lapps) could live with less interference,\nit was different, and there they kept their own names.\n\nWe do not seem therefore to have any information or fact which is capable\nof disproving the unbroken connection between Ottar's Finns, along the\ncoasts of Finmark and Ter, and the Fishing Lapps of our time, although the\nlatter at present consist to a large extent of impoverished Reindeer\nLapps, especially in West Finmark. The original culture of the Fishing\nLapps and the distinction between it and that of the Reindeer Lapps who\nimmigrated later have been preserved to recent times in their broader\nfeatures. It is true that the Fishing Lapp no longer keeps reindeer; he\nonly has a poor cow or a few sheep to milk [cf. A. Helland, 1905, p.\n147]; but amongst other descriptions we see from that of the Italian\nFrancesco Negri of his travels in Norway in 1664-5 [L. Daae, 1888, p. 143]\nthat the Fishing Lapps of Nordland and Finmark still kept reindeer in the\nlatter part of the seventeenth century. He says of the Finns [i.e.,\nFishing Lapps] in Finmark that\n\n \"they live either along the coast or in the forests of the interior.\n They are, like their neighbours the Lapps, small in stature, and they\n resemble them in face, clothing, customs and language. The only way in\n which they differ from the Lapps is, that the latter are nomads, while\n the Finns of this part have fixed dwellings. They possess only a few\n reindeer and a little cattle. They are also called Sea Lapps, while\n the other nomads are called Mountain Lapps....\"\n\n[Sidenote: Fishing Lapps and Reindeer Lapps]\n\nThis distinction between Finns (i.e., Fishing Lapps) and Lapps (i.e.,\nReindeer Lapps) seems to have been common. Thus in the royal decree of\nSeptember 27, 1726, both Finns and Lapps are mentioned, and in medi\u00e6val\nmaps of the fifteenth century, beginning with that of Claudius Clavus, of\nabout 1426, we find on the Arctic Ocean in north-east Sweden \"Findhlappi,\"\nand farther north \"Wildhlappelandi,\" and in later Clavus maps\n[Nordenski\u00f6ld, 1889, Pl. xxx.] we find to the north-east of Norway a\n\"Finlappelanth,\" and farther north an extensive \"Pillappelanth,\" sometimes\nalso \"Phillappelanth,\" besides a \"Finlanth\" in the east. Pillappelanth is\nthe same as Claudius Clavus's \"Wildlappenland.\"[211] This word may be\nthought to have arisen through a misunderstanding of the word \"Fjeldlap\"\n(Mountain Lapp), which Clavus may have seen written as Viellappen and\ntaken to mean Wild Lapp (he calls them \"Wildlappmanni\"). But, as Mr.\nQvigstad has pointed out to me, the name \"Wild Lapps\" for Mountain\n(Reindeer) Lapps is also found in Russian. Giles Fletcher (English\nAmbassador to Russia in 1588) writes:[212]\n\n \"The Russe divideth the whole nation of the Lappes into two sortes.\n The one they call 'Nowremanskoy Lapary,' that is, the Norvegian\n Lappes.... The other that have no religion at all but live as bruite\n and heathenish people, without God in the worlde they cal 'Dikoy\n Lapary,' or the wilde Lappes.\"\n\nThere is, however, a possibility that this Russian name may have come from\nthe maps or in a literary way. In any case we have as early as the\nfifteenth century a distinction between Finnlapps (i.e., Fishing Lapps)\nand Mountain Lapps or Wild Lapps, besides Finns in Finland; but this shows\nat the same time that they must have been nearly akin, since both are\ncalled Lapps.\n\nOf great interest is Peder Clauss\u00f6n Friis's description of the Lapps,\nwhich is derived from the Helgelander, Judge Jon Simonss\u00f6n (ob. 1575). He\ndraws a distinction between \"Sea Finns,\" who live on the fjords, and\n\"Lappe-Finns\" or \"Mountain Finns,\" \"who roam about the great mountains,\"\n\n \"and both sorts are also called 'Gann-Finns' on account of the magic\n they use, which they call 'Gan.'\" \"The Finns [i.e., Lapps] are a thin\n and skinny folk, and yet much stronger than other men, as can be\n proved by their bows, which a Norse Man cannot draw half so far as the\n Finns can. They are very black and brown on their bodies, and are\n hasty and evil-tempered folk, as though they had the nature of bears.\"\n\n \"The Sea Finns dwell always on Fjords, where there is sufficient fir\n and spruce, so that they may have firing and timber to build ships of,\n and they live in small houses or huts, of which the half is in the\n ground, albeit some have fine houses and rooms.... They also row out\n to fish like other Northern sailors, and sell their fish to the\n merchants, who come there, for they do not sail to Bergen, and they\n are not fond of going where there are many people, nor do people wish\n to have them there, and they apply themselves greatly to shooting seal\n and porpoise, that they may get their oil, for every Finn must have a\n quart of oil to drink at every meal....\"\n\n \"They keep many tame reindeer, from which they have milk, butter, and\n cheese ... they also keep goats, but no sheep.\n\n \"They shoot both elks and stags and hinds, but for the most part\n reindeer, which are there in abundance; and when one of them will\n shoot reindeer, he holds his bow and arrow between the horns of a tame\n reindeer, and shoots thus one after another, for it is a foolish beast\n that cannot take care of itself.\"\n\n \"The Finns are remarkably good archers, but only with handbows, for\n which they have good sharp arrows, for they are themselves smiths, and\n they shoot so keenly with the same bows that they can shoot with them\n great bears and reindeer and what they will. Moreover they can shoot\n so straight that it is a marvel, and they hold it a shame at any time\n to miss their mark, and they accustom themselves to it from childhood,\n so that the young Finn may not have his breakfast until he has shot\n three times in succession through a hole made by an auger.\n\n \"They are called Gann-Finns for the witchcraft they use, which they\n call 'Gann,' and thence the sea or great fjord which is between Russia\n and Finmark, and stretches to Karelestrand, is called Gandvig.\n\n[Illustration: Skridfinn Archer (from Olaus Magnus)]\n\n \"They are small people and are very hairy on their bodies, and have a\n bear's nature....\"\n\n \"The Sea Finns can for the most part speak the Norse language, but not\n very well.... And they have also their own language which they use\n among themselves and with the Lapps, which Norse Men cannot\n understand, and it is said that they have more languages than one; of\n their languages they have however another to use among themselves\n which some[213] can understand, so it is certain that they have nine\n languages, all of which they use among themselves.\"[214]\n\n \"Of the Mountain Finns the same is to be understood as has now been\n noted of the Sea Finns; the others [i.e., the former] are small, hairy\n folk and evil, they have no houses and do not dwell in any place, but\n move from one place to another, where they may find some game to\n shoot.[215] They do not eat bread, nor do the Sea Finns either.... And\n he [the Mountain Finn] has tame reindeer and a sledge, which is like a\n low boat with a keel upon it....\"\n\nFrom this description it appears with all desirable clearness that, on the\none hand, there was no noticeable external difference in the sixteenth\ncentury between the small Fishing Lapps and the small Reindeer Lapps, and\non the other there was no essential difference between the Lapps of that\ntime and the Finns described by Ottar--we even find the decoy reindeer\nstill used in the sixteenth century; further, that the Lapps were\nunusually skilful hunters and archers, for which they were also praised\nby earlier authorities (we read in many places of Finn-bows, Finn-arrows,\netc. Some thought that the man who at the battle of Svolder shot and hit\nEinar Tambarskelve's bow so that it broke, was a Lapp). We see too that\nthe Reindeer Lapp was not exclusively a reindeer nomad, but practised\nhunting to such an extent that he moved about for the sake of game, and it\neven looks as if this was his chief means of livelihood, which is\ntherefore mentioned first. That the reindeer-keeping mentioned by Ottar\nshould have been so essentially different from that of the present day, as\nA. M. Hansen asserts, is difficult to see. That the decoy reindeer which\nOttar tells us were used for catching wild reindeer, and which were so\nvaluable, are no longer to be found in our day is a matter of course,\nsimply because the wild reindeer in northern Scandinavia has practically\ndisappeared from the districts frequented by the Lapps with their tame\nreindeer. Furthermore, with the introduction of firearms decoy reindeer\nbecame less necessary for getting within range of the wild ones; but we\nsee that they were still used in the sixteenth century, when the Lapps\ncontinued to shoot with the bow. So long as there was abundance of game,\nbefore the introduction of the rifle, the Reindeer Lapp also lived, as we\nhave seen, to a large extent by hunting; but then he was not able to look\nafter large herds of reindeer. It is therefore probable that a herd of 600\ndeer, as mentioned by Ottar, must then have been regarded as constituting\nwealth, although to the Reindeer Lapps of the present day, who live\nexclusively by keeping reindeer, it would be nothing very great.[216]\n\nThose of the modern Lapps whose manner of life most reminds us of Ottar's\n\"Finns\" are perhaps the so-called Skolte-Lapps on the south side of the\nVaranger Fjord. Helland [1905, p. 157] says of them: \"They have few\nreindeer and keep them not so much for their flesh and milk as for\ntransport. Their principal means of subsistence is salmon and trout\nfishing in the river, and a little sea-fishing in the fjord on Norwegian\nground. They are also hunters.\"\n\nWe must suppose that the \"Finns\" who according to Ottar, or to Alfred's\nversion of him, paid tribute in walrus-hide ropes, etc., lived by the sea\nand engaged in sealing and walrus-hunting, and in any case they cannot\nhave kept reindeer except as a subsidiary means of subsistence, like the\nFishing Lapps in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. But Alfred's\nexpressions do not exclude the possibility of there having been amongst\nthe \"Finns\" some who were reindeer nomads like the Reindeer Lapps of our\ntime. That they already existed at that time and somewhat later seems to\nresult from the statements in the sagas of the sheriffs of H\u00e2logaland\n(e.g., Thorulf Kveldulfsson), who in order to collect the \"Finn\" tribute\ntravelled into the interior and up into the mountains. It cannot have been\nonly wandering hunters who paid this tribute, and they must certainly also\nhave had herds of reindeer.\n\n[Sidenote: Decline of hunting]\n\nThat the Lapps have degenerated greatly as hunters and sealers in the last\nfew centuries, and that the Fishing Lapps no longer enjoy anything like\nthe same prosperity as they did in Ottar's time, and even as late as the\nseventeenth century, is easily explained. For on the one hand the game\nboth in the sea and on land has decreased to such an extent that it can no\nlonger support any one, and on the other it is a well-known fact that a\npeople originally of hunters loses its skill in the chase to a\nconsiderable extent through closer contact with European civilisation,\nwhile at the same time it becomes impoverished. How this comes about may\nbe accurately observed among the Eskimo of Greenland in our time. So long\nas the Lapps were heathens, as in Peder Clauss\u00f6n Friis's time, and were\nstill without firearms and, what is perhaps equally important, without\nfire-water, and not burdened with schooling and book-learning, they\nretained their old hunting culture and their hereditary skill in sealing\nand hunting; but with the new culture and its claims, the new objects,\ndemands and temptations of life, their old accomplishments suffered more\nor less; nor were they any longer held in such high esteem that the Lapp\nchild had to shoot three times running through an auger-hole before he\nmight have his breakfast. And just as the Eskimo of the west coast of\nGreenland have been obliged to take more and more to fishing and\nbird-catching, which were looked down upon by the old harpooners, so have\nour Fishing Lapps become more and more exclusively fishermen.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Sn\u00e6fells Glacier in Iceland]\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nTHE VOYAGES OF THE NORSEMEN: DISCOVERY OF ICELAND AND GREENLAND\n\n\nSHIPBUILDING\n\nThe discovery of the Faroes and Iceland by the Celts and the Irish monks,\nand their settlement there, give evidence of a high degree of intrepidity;\nsince their fragile boats were not adapted to long voyages in the open\nsea, to say nothing of carrying cargoes and keeping up any regular\ncommunication. Nor did they, in fact, make any further progress; and\nneither the Irish nor the Celts of the British Isles as a whole ever\nbecame a seafaring people. It was the Scandinavians, and especially the\nNorwegians, who were the pioneers at sea; who developed an improved style\nof shipbuilding, and who, with their comparatively good and seaworthy\ncraft, were soon to traverse all the northern waters and open up a\nprospect into a new world, whereby the geographical ideas of the times\nshould undergo a complete transformation. It has been asserted that the\nPh\u0153nicians in their day ventured out into the open ocean far from land;\nbut this lacks proof and is improbable. The Norwegians are the first\npeople in history who definitely abandoned the coast-sailing universally\npractised before their time, and who took navigation away from the coasts\nand out on to the ocean. From them other people have since learnt.\n\nFirst they crossed the North Sea and sailed constantly to Shetland, the\nOrkneys, North Britain and Ireland; then to the Faroes, Iceland and\nGreenland, and at last they steered straight across the Atlantic itself,\nand thereby discovered North America. We do not know how early the passage\nof the North Sea originated; but probably, as we have seen, it was before\nthe time of Pytheas and much earlier than usually supposed. J. E. Sars\n[1877, i. (2nd ed.), p. 191] concluded on other grounds that it was at a\nvery remote period, and long before the Viking age.\n\n[Sidenote: The First Viking Expeditions]\n\n[Sidenote: Earliest navigation of the Scandinavians]\n\nThe beginning of the more important Viking expeditions is usually referred\nto the end of the eighth century, or, indeed, to a particular year, 793.\nBut we may conclude from historical sources[217] that as early as the\nsixth century Viking voyages certainly took place over the North Sea from\nDenmark to the land of the Franks, and doubtless also to southern\nBritain,[218] and perhaps by the beginning of the seventh century the\nNorwegians had established themselves in Shetland and even plundered the\nHebrides and the north-west of Ireland (in 612).[219] We know further from\nhistorical sources that as early as the third century and until the close\nof the fifth century the roving Eruli sailed from Scandinavia, sometimes\nin company with Saxon pirates, over the seas of Western Europe, ravaging\nthe coasts of Gaul and Spain, and indeed penetrating in 455 into the\nMediterranean as far as Lucca in Italy.[220] From these historical facts\nwe are able to conclude that long before that time there had been\nintercommunication by sea between the countries of Northern Europe.\nScandinavia, and especially Norway, was in those days very sparsely\ninhabited, and all development of culture that was not due to direct\ninfluence from without must have taken place with extreme slowness at such\nan early period of history, even where intercourse was more active than in\nthe North. As we are not acquainted with any other European people who at\nthat time possessed anything like the necessary skill in navigation to\nhave been the instructors of the Scandinavians, we are forced to suppose\nthat it was after centuries of gradual training and development in\nseamanship that the latter attained the superiority at sea which they held\nat the beginning of the Viking age, when they took large fleets over the\nNorth Sea and the Arctic Ocean as though these were their home waters.\nWhen we further consider how, since that time, the type of ships, rigging\nand sails has persisted almost without a change for eleven hundred years,\nto the ten-oared and eight-oared boats of our own day--which until a few\nyears ago were the almost universal form of boat in the whole of northern\nNorway--it will appear improbable that the type of ship and the\ncorresponding skill in seamanship required a much shorter time for their\ndevelopment.[221]\n\n[Illustration: Rock-carvings in Bohuslen]\n\n[Sidenote: The Ships of the rock-carvings]\n\nThe first literary mention of the Scandinavians' boats occurs in Tacitus,\nwho speaks of the fleets and rowing-boats without sails of the Suiones\n(see above, p. 110). But long before that time we find ships commonly\nrepresented on the rock-carvings which are especially frequent in Bohuslen\nand in the districts east of Christiania Fjord. If these were naturalistic\nrepresentations they would give us valuable information about the form and\nsize of the ships of those remote times. But the distinct and\ncharacteristic features which are common to all these pictures of ships,\nfrom Bohuslen to as far north as Beitstaden, show them to be conventional\nfigures, and we cannot therefore draw any certain conclusions from them\nwith regard to the appearance of the ships.\n\n Dr. Andr. M. Hansen [1908], with his usual imaginativeness, has\n pointed out the resemblance between the rock-carvings and the\n vase-paintings of the Dipylon period in Attica, and thinks there is a\n direct connection between them. It appears highly probable that the\n style of the rock-carvings is not a wholly native northern art, but is\n due more or less to influence from the countries of the Mediterranean\n or the East, in the same way as we have seen that the burial customs\n (dolmens, chambered barrows, etc.) came from these. Dr. Hansen has,\n however, exaggerated the resemblance between the Dipylon art and the\n rock-carvings; many of the resemblances are clearly due to the fact\n that the same subjects are represented (e.g., spear-throwing,\n fighting with raised weapons, rowers, horsemen, chariots, etc.); it\n may also be mentioned that such signs as the wheel or the solar symbol\n (the eye) are common to wide regions of culture. On the other hand,\n there are differences in other important features; thus, the mode of\n representing human beings is not the same, as asserted by Hansen; the\n characteristic \"Egyptian\" style of the men depicted in the Dipylon\n art, with broad, rectangular shoulders and narrow waists, is just what\n one does not find in the rock-carvings, where on the contrary men are\n depicted in the more naturalistic style which one recognises among\n many other peoples in a savage state of culture. Hansen also lays\n stress upon resemblances to figures from Italy. But what most\n interests us here is the number of representations of ships in the\n rock-carvings, which for the most part show a remarkable uniformity as\n regards their essential features, while they differ from all pictures\n of ships, not only in the art of the Dipylon and of the Mediterranean\n generally, but also in that of Egypt and Assyria-Babylonia. The boats\n or ships depicted in the rock-carvings are so strange-looking that\n doubts have been expressed whether they are boats or ships at all, or\n whether it is not something else that is intended, sledges, for\n instance. There is no indication of the oars, which are so\n characteristic of all delineations of ships in Greece, Italy, Egypt\n and Assyria; nor is there any certain indication of sails or rudders,\n which are also characteristic of southern art. Moreover, the lowest\n line, which should answer to the keel, is often separated at both ends\n from the upper line, which should be the top strake. On the other hand\n the numerous figures in the \"boats\" can with difficulty be regarded as\n anything but men, and most probably rowers, sometimes as many as fifty\n in number, besides the unmistakable figures of men standing, some of\n them armed; and it must be added that if these pictures represented\n nothing but sledges, it is inconceivable that there should never be\n any indication of draught animals. But one remarkable point about\n these numerous carvings is the typical form both of the prow and of\n the stern-post. With comparatively few exceptions the prow has two\n turned-up beaks, which are difficult to understand. It has been\n attempted to explain one of these as an imitation of the rams of Greek\n and Ph\u0153nician warships; but in that case it ought to be directed\n forward and not bent up. The shape of the stern-post is also curious:\n for what one must regard as the keel of the ship has in all these\n representations a blunt after end, curiously like a sledge-runner;\n while the upper line of the ship, which should correspond to the top\n strake, is bent upward and frequently somewhat forward, in a more or\n less even curve, sometimes ending in a two- or three-leaved ornament,\n somewhat like the stern-post of Egyptian ships (see p. 23). This mode\n of delineation became so uniformly fixed that besides occurring in\n almost all the rock-carvings it appears again in an even more\n carefully executed form in the knives of the later Bronze Age. Such a\n type of ship, with a keel ending bluntly aft, is not known in ancient\n times in Europe, either in the Mediterranean or in the North.[222]\n Egyptian, Assyro-Ph\u0153nician, Greek and Roman representations of ships\n (see pp. 7, 23, 35, 48, 241, 242), all show a keel which bends up to\n form a continuously curved stern-post; and both the Nydam boat from\n Sleswick (p. 110) and the Norwegian Viking ships that have been\n discovered agree in having a similar turned-up stern-post, which forms\n a continuous curve from the keel itself (pp. 246, 247); it is the same\n with delineations of the later Iron Age (p. 243). Even Tacitus\n expressly says that the ships of the Suiones were alike fore and aft.\n The only similar stern-posts to be found are possibly the abruptly\n ending ones of the ship and boats on the grave-stone from Novilara in\n Italy; but here the prows are quite unlike those of the rock-carvings.\n\n[Illustration: Rock-carving at Bj\u00f6rnstad in Skjeberg, Sm\u00e5lenene. The\nlength of the ship is nearly fifteen feet (from a photograph by Professor\nG. Gustafson)]\n\n[Illustration: Bronze knife with representation of a ship, of the later\nBronze Age. Denmark]\n\n[Illustration: Carvings on a grave-stone at Novilara, Italy]\n\n As therefore this representation of the ship's stern-post does not\n correspond to any known type of ancient boat or ship, as it is also\n difficult to understand how the people of the rock-carvings came to\n represent a boat with two upturned prows, and as further there is a\n striking similarity between the lowest line of the keel and a\n sledge-runner, one might be tempted to believe that by an association\n of ideas these delineations have become a combination of ship and\n sledge. These rock-carvings may originally have been connected with\n burials, and the ship, which was to bear the dead, may have been\n imagined as gliding on the water, on ice, or through the air, to the\n realms of the departed, and thus unconsciously the keel may have been\n given the form of a runner. It may be mentioned as a parallel that in\n the \"kennings\" of the far later poetry of the Skalds a ship is called,\n for instance, the \"ski\" of the sea, or, vice versa, a ski or sledge\n may be called the ship of the snow. The sledge was moreover the\n earliest form of contrivance for transport. In this connection there\n may also be a certain interest in the fact that in Egypt the mummies\n of royal personages were borne to the grave in funereal boats upon\n sledges. That the rock-carvings were originally associated with\n burials may also be indicated by the fact that the carved stones of\n the Iron Age, which in a way took the place of the rock-carvings,\n frequently represent the dead in boats on their way to the underworld\n or the world beyond the grave (see illustration, p. 243). That ships\n played a prominent part in connection with the dead appears also from\n the remarkable burial-places formed by stones set up in the form of a\n ship, the so-called ship-settings, in Sweden and the Baltic provinces,\n as well as in Denmark and North Germany. These belong to the early\n Iron Age. The usual burial in a ship covered by a mound, in the later\n Iron Age, is well known. We seem thus to be able to trace a certain\n continuity in these customs. A certain continuity even in the\n representation of ships may also be indicated by the striking\n resemblance that exists between the two- or three-leaved, lily-like\n prow ornament on the rock-carvings, on the knives of the later Bronze\n Age, on the grave-stone of Novilara, and on such late representations\n as some of the ships of the Bayeux tapestry. The upturned prows of the\n ships of the rock-carvings also frequently end in spirals like the\n stern-post on the stone at Stenkyrka in Gotland (p. 243), and both\n prows and stern on other stones of the later Iron Age from Gotland.\n\n[Illustration: Ship from the Bayeux tapestry (eleventh century), and\nrock-carving]\n\nAll are agreed in referring the rock-carvings to the Bronze Age; but while\nO. Montelius, for example, puts certain of them as early as between 1450\nand 1250 B.C., A. M. Hansen has sought to bring them down to as late as\n500 B.C. In any case they belong to a period that is long anterior to the\nbeginning of history in the North. From whence and by what route this art\ncame it is difficult to say. Along the same line of coasts by which the\nmegalithic graves, dolmens and chambered barrows made their way from the\nMediterranean to the North (see p. 22) rock-carvings are also to be found\nscattered through North Africa, Italy (the Alps), Southern France, Spain,\nPortugal, Brittany, England, Ireland and Scotland. It may be reasonable to\nsuppose that this practice of engraving figures on stone came first from\nEgypt at the close of the Stone Age; but the rock-carvings of the west\ncoast of Europe and of the British Isles are distinct in their whole\ncharacter from those of Scandinavia, and do not contain representations of\nships[223] and men, which are such prominent features of the latter; but\ncommon to both are the characteristic cup-markings, besides the wheel, or\nsolar signs (with a cross), foot-soles, and also spirals. There may thus\nbe a connection, but we must suppose that the rock-carvings underwent an\nindependent development in Scandinavia (like the Bronze Age culture as a\nwhole)--if it could not be explained by an eastern communication with the\nsouth through Russia, which however is not probable--and as the\nrepresentation of ships came to be so common, we must conclude it to be\nhere connected with a people of strong seafaring tendencies. Since the\nships depicted on the rock-carvings cannot, so far as we know at present,\nhave been direct imitations of delineations of ships derived from\nabroad--even though they may be connected with forms of religion and\nburial customs that were more or less imported--we are, as yet at least,\nbound to believe that the people who made the rock-carvings had boats or\nships which furnished the models for their conventional representations.\nAnd when we see that these people went to work to engrave on the rocks\npictures of ships which are fifteen feet in length, and have as many as\nfifty rowers,[224] we are bound to believe that in any case they were able\nto imagine ships of this size. It is also remarkable that rock-carvings\nare most numerous precisely in those districts, Viken and Bohuslen, where\nwe may expect that the seamanship of the Scandinavians first attained a\nhigher degree of perfection if it was first imported from the south-east.\nWith this would also agree Professor Montelius's theory: that at a very\nmuch earlier time, about the close of the Stone Age, direct communication\nalready existed between the west coast of Sweden and Britain, which he\nconcludes from remarkable points of correspondence in stone cists with a\nhole at the end, and other features.\n\n[Illustration: Shipment of tribute. From the bronze doors from Babavat,\nAssyria (British Museum)]\n\n[Illustration: Warship of Ramses III., circa 1200 B.C.]\n\n[Sidenote: The earliest boats of Northern Europe]\n\nIt is difficult to say how the Scandinavians at the outset arrived at\ntheir boats and ships, such as we know them from the boats found at Nydam\nin Sleswick and the Viking ships discovered in Norwegian burial-mounds.\nThey are of the same type that in Norway, in the districts of Sunnm\u00f6r and\nNordland, has persisted to our time, and they show a mastery both in their\nlines and in their workmanship that must have required a long period for\nits development. From the accounts of many contemporaries, as well as from\narch\u00e6ological finds, we know that even so late as the first and second\ncenturies A.D. large canoes, made of dug-out tree trunks, were in common\nuse on the north coast of Germany between the Elbe and the Rhine, and\nthere can be no doubt that this was the original form of boat in the north\nand west of Central Europe. In England similar canoes made of the dug-out\ntrunks of oaks have been found with a length of as much as forty-eight\nfeet; they have also been found in Scotland, in Bremen and in\nSleswick-Holstein (in many cases over thirty-eight feet long), with holes\nfor oars. It is related of the Saxons north of the Elbe, who at an early\nperiod made piratical raids on coasts to the south of them, that they\nsailed in small boats made of wicker-work, with an oaken keel and covered\nwith hides. Besides these they clearly had dug-out canoes; but in the\nthird century A.D. it is recorded that they built ships on the Roman\nmodel. The only people north of the Mediterranean of whom we know with\ncertainty that they had their own well-developed methods of shipbuilding\nare, as already mentioned (p. 39), the Veneti at the mouth of the Loire,\nwhose powerful and seaworthy ships of oak are described by C\u00e6sar. That the\nScandinavians should have derived their methods from them cannot be\nregarded as probable, unless it can be proved that the intervening peoples\npossessed something more than primitive canoes and coracles. We must\ntherefore believe, either that the Scandinavians developed their methods\nof shipbuilding quite independently, or that they had communication with\nthe Mediterranean by some other route than the sea. Now in many important\nfeatures there is such a great resemblance between the Norwegian Viking\nships and pictorial representations of Greek ships, and of even earlier\nEgyptian and Assyrian ships, that it is difficult to avoid the conclusion\nthat some connection must have existed. For instance, the resemblance\nbetween the strikingly lofty prows and stern-posts, sometimes bent back,\nwith characteristic ornamentation, and animal heads, which are already to\nbe found in Egyptian and Assyrian representations, cannot be explained\noffhand as coincidences occurring in types independently developed. They\nare decorations, and cannot have contributed to the seaworthiness of the\nboats or had any practical purpose, unless the animal heads were intended\nto frighten enemies (?). It is true that lofty and remarkable prows are to\nbe found in boats from such a widely separated region of culture as\nPolynesia; but in the first place it is not impossible that here too there\nmay be a distant connection with the Orient, and in the second, the\nMediterranean and Scandinavian forms of ship are so characteristic,\ncompared with those of other parts of the world, that we necessarily place\nthem apart as belonging to a distinct sphere of culture. Another\ncharacteristic of these boats and ships is the oars with rowlocks (open or\nclosed), instead of paddles. The rudder of the Viking ship (see\nillustrations, pp. 246, 247, 248, 250) is also in appearance and mode of\nuse so remarkably like the Egyptian rudder of as early as circa 1600 B.C.\n(see illustrations, pp. 7, 23), and the Greek (p. 48),[225] that it is not\neasy to believe that this, together with all the other resemblances, were\nindependent discoveries of the North. The square sail and mast of the\nScandinavian boat also closely resemble those of Egyptian, Ph\u0153nician,\nGreek and Italian ships as depicted.\n\n[Illustration: Stone from Stenkyrka in Gotland (ninth century)]\n\nIt may be supposed that the communication which originally produced these\nresemblances did not take place by the sea-route, round the coasts of\nwestern Europe, but overland between the Black Sea and the Baltic. It is\nthus possible that the Scandinavian type of boat first began to be\ndeveloped in the closed waters of the Baltic. It is here too that the\nboats of the Scandinavians (Suiones) are first mentioned in literature by\nTacitus, and it is here that the earliest known boats of Scandinavian type\nhave been found; these are the three remarkable boats of about the third\ncentury A.D. which were discovered at Nydam, near Flensburg. The best\npreserved of them (p. 110) is of oak, about seventy-eight feet long, with\nfourteen oars on each side, and it carried a crew of about forty men. The\nboats terminated in exactly the same way fore and aft, agreeing with what\nTacitus says of the boats of the Suiones; and they could be rowed in both\ndirections. They had rowlocks with oar-grummets like those in use on the\nwest coast and in the northern part of Norway. There is no indication of\nthe boats having had masts and sails, which also agrees with Tacitus.\nThere can be no doubt that we have here the typical Scandinavian form of\nboat, with such fine lines and such excellent workmanship that it can only\nbe due to an ancient culture the development of which had extended over\nmany centuries.\n\nFrom the Baltic this form of boat may have spread to Norway, where it\ngradually attained its greatest perfection; and it is worth remarking that\nin that very district where the Baltic type of boat derived from the\nsouth-east reached a coast with superior harbours, richer fisheries, and\nbetter opportunities for longer sea voyages, namely, in Bohuslen and\nViken, we find also the greater number of rock-carvings with\nrepresentations of ships. It is moreover a question whether the very name\nof \"Vikings\" is not connected with this district, and did not originally\nmean men from Viken, Vikv\u00e6rings; as they were specially prominent, the\nname finally became a common designation for all Scandinavians, as had\nformerly been the case with the names Eruli, Saxons, Danes.[226] In the\ncourse of their voyages towards the south-west the Scandinavians may also\nhave met very early with ships from the Mediterranean, which, for\ninstance, were engaged in the tin trade with the south of England, or may\neven have reached the amber coast, and thus fresh influence from the\nMediterranean may have been added. When we see how in the fifth century\nroving Eruli reached as far as Italy in their ships, this will not appear\nimpossible; and if there is any contrivance that we should expect to show\na certain community of character over a wide area, it is surely the ship\nor boat.\n\nTacitus says that the fleets of the Suiones consisted of row-boats without\nsails. It is difficult to contest the accuracy of so definite a statement,\nespecially as it is supported by the Nydam find, and by the circumstance\nthat the Anglo-Saxons appear to have crossed the sea to Britain in nothing\nbut row-boats; but Tacitus is speaking of warships in particular, and it\nis impossible that sails should not have been known and used in\nScandinavia, and especially in Norway, at that time. There are possibly\nindications of sails even in the rock-carvings (see the first example in\nillustration, p. 236), and in the ornaments on the knives of the Bronze\nAge (see illustration, p. 238). In the case of a people whose lot it was\nto live to so great an extent on and by the sea, it is scarcely to be\nsupposed that any very long time should elapse before they thought of\nmaking use of the wind, even if they did not originally derive the\ninvention of sails from the Mediterranean.\n\nJust as the Ph\u0153nicians and the Greeks had swift-sailing longships for war\nand piracy, and other, broader sailing-ships for trade (see p. 48), so\nalso did the Scandinavians gradually develop two kinds of craft: the swift\nlongships, and the broader and heavier trading-vessels, called \"bosses\"\nand \"knars.\"\n\n[Sidenote: Shipbuilding in Norway]\n\nBut even if northern shipbuilding exhibits a connection with that of the\nMediterranean, and thus was no more spontaneous in its growth than any\nother form of culture in the world, the type of ship produced by the\nScandinavians was nevertheless undoubtedly superior to all that had\npreceded it, just as they themselves were incontestably the most skilful\nseamen of their time. The perfection and refinement of form, with fine\nlines, which we find in the three preserved boats from Nydam, and in the\nthree ships of the beginning of the Viking age, or about the year 800,\ngive evidence in each case of centuries of culture in this province; and\nwhen we see the richness of workmanship expended on the Oseberg ship and\nall the utensils that were found with it, we understand that it was no\nupstart race that produced all this, but a people that may well have\nsailed the North Sea even a thousand years earlier, in the time of\nPytheas.\n\n[Illustration: The preserved portion of the Viking ship from Gokstad, near\nSandefjord (ninth century)]\n\nThe immigration to Norway of many tribes may itself have taken place by\nsea. Thus the Horder and Ryger are certainly the same tribes as the\n\"Harudes\" (the \"Charudes\" of the emperor Augustus and of Ptolemy),\ndwelling in Jutland and on the Rhine (cf. C\u00e6sar), and the \"Rugii\" west of\nthe Vistula on the south coast of the Baltic (from whom possibly R\u00fcgen\ntakes its name).[227] They came by the sea route to western Norway\nstraight from Jutland and North Germany, and there must thus have been\ncommunication between these countries at that time; but how early we do\nnot know; it may have been at the beginning of our era, and it may have\nbeen earlier.[228] But the fact that whole tribes were able to make so\nlong a migration by sea indicates in any case a high development of\nnavigation, and again it is on the Baltic that we first find it.\n\n[Illustration: The Viking ship from Oseberg, near T\u00f6nsberg (ninth\ncentury)]\n\nThe shipbuilding and seamanship of the Norwegians mark a new epoch in the\nhistory both of navigation and discovery, and with their voyages the\nknowledge of northern lands and waters was at once completely changed. As\npreviously pointed out (p. 170), we notice this change of period already\nin Ottar's communications to King Alfred, but their explorations of land\nand sea begin more particularly with the colonisation of Iceland, which\nin its turn became the starting-point for expeditions farther west.\n\nWe find accounts of these voyages of discovery in the old writings and\nsagas, a large part of which was put into writing in Iceland. A sombre\nundercurrent runs through these narratives of voyages in unknown seas;\neven though they may be partly legendary, they nevertheless bear witness\nin their terseness to the silent struggle of hardy men with ice, storms,\ncold and want, in the light summer and long, dark winter of the North.\n\n[Illustration: Ships from the Bayeux tapestry (eleventh century)]\n\n[Sidenote: The Norwegians' appliances for navigation]\n\nThey had neither compass, nor astronomical instruments, nor any of the\nappliances of our time for finding their position at sea; they could only\nsail by the sun, moon and stars, and it seems incomprehensible how for\ndays and weeks, when these were invisible, they were able to find their\ncourse through fog and bad weather; but they found it, and the open craft\nof the Norwegian Vikings, with their square sails, fared north and west\nover the whole ocean, from Novaya Zemlya and Spitsbergen to Greenland,\nBaffin's Bay, Newfoundland and North America, and over these lands and\nseas the Norsemen extended their dominion. It was not till five hundred\nyears later that the ships of other nations were to make their way to the\nsame regions.\n\n[Illustration: Landing of William the Conqueror's ships in England. Bayeux\ntapestry (eleventh century)]\n\nThe lodestone, or compass, did not reach the Norwegians till the\nthirteenth century.[229] As to what means they had before that time for\nfinding their course at sea, Norse-Icelandic literature contains extremely\nscanty statements. We see that to them, as to the Ph\u0153nicians before them,\nthe pole-star was the lodestar, and that they sometimes used\nbirds--ravens--to find out the direction of land; but we also hear that\nwhen they met with fog or cloudy weather they drifted without knowing\nwhere they were, and sometimes went in the opposite direction to that they\nexpected, as in Thorstein Ericson's attempt to make Wineland from\nGreenland, where they arrived off Iceland instead of off America. Even\nwhen after a long period of dull weather they saw the sun again, it could\nnot help them to determine their direction at all accurately, unless they\nknew the approximate time of day; but their sense of time was certainly\nfar keener than ours, which has been blunted by the use of clocks. Several\naccounts show that on land the Scandinavians knew how to observe the sun\naccurately, in what quarter and at what time it set, how long the day or\nthe night lasted at the summer or winter solstice, etc. From this they\nformed an idea of their northern latitude. Amongst other works a treatise\nof the close of the thirteenth century or later included in the fourth\npart of the collection \"Rymbegla\" [1780, pp. 472 ff.] shows that they may\neven have understood how to take primitive measurements of the sun's\naltitude at noon with a kind of quadrant. But they can scarcely have been\nable to take observations of this kind on board ship during their long\nvoyages in early times, and they still less understood how to compute the\nlatitude from such measurements except perhaps at the equinoxes and\nsolstices. It is true that from the narrative, to be mentioned later, of a\nvoyage in the north of Baffin's Bay, about 1267, it appears that at sea\nalso they attempted to get an idea of the sun's altitude by observing\nwhere the shadow of the gunwale, on the side nearest the sun, fell on a\nman lying athwartships when the sun was in the south. With all its\nimperfection this shows that at least they observed the sun's\naltitude.[230] In order to form some idea of their western or eastern\nlongitude they cannot have had any other means than reckoning; and so long\nas the sun and stars were visible, and they knew in what direction they\nwere sailing, they undoubtedly had great skill in reckoning this. In thick\nweather they could still manage so long as the wind held unaltered; but\nthey could not know when it changed; they were then obliged to judge from\nsuch signs as birds, of what country they were, and in what direction they\nflew; we hear occasionally that they had birds from Ireland, or from\nIceland, and so on. The difference in the fauna of birds might give them\ninformation. In their sailing directions it is also stated that they\nobserved the whale; thus in the Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k (Hauksb\u00f3k) we read that when\nsailing from Norway to Greenland one should keep far enough to the south\nof Iceland to have birds and whales from thence. This is more difficult to\nunderstand, as the whale is not confined to the land, and the same whales\nare found in various parts of the northern seas. But drift-ice or\nice-bergs, if they met them, might serve to show their direction, as might\noccasionally driftwood or floating seaweed. The colour of the sea may\ncertainly have been of importance to such keen observers, even though we\nhear nothing of it; it cannot have escaped them, for instance, that the\nwater of the Gulf Stream was of a purer blue than the rather\ngreenish-brown water of the coastal current near Norway and in the North\nSea, or in the East Iceland Polar Current; the difference between the\nwater of the East Greenland Polar Current and in the Atlantic is also\nstriking. It may likewise be supposed that men who were dependent to such\na degree on observing every sign may have remarked the distribution in the\nocean of so striking a creature as the great red jelly-fish. If so, it may\noften have given them valuable information of their approximate position.\nThey used the lead, as appears, amongst other authorities, from the\n\"Historia Norwegi\u00e6,\" where we read that Ingolf and Hjorleif found Iceland\n\"by probing the waves with the lead.\"\n\n[Illustration: Seal of the town of Dover, 1284]\n\nBut that it was not always easy to find their course is shown, amongst\nother instances, by the account of Eric the Red's settlement in Greenland,\nwhen twenty-five ships left Iceland, but only fourteen are said to have\narrived. Here, as elsewhere, it was the more capable commanders who came\nthrough.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nTHE NORWEGIAN SETTLEMENT IN ICELAND\n\n[Sidenote: Oldest authorities]\n\nThe island of Iceland is mentioned, as we have seen, for the first time in\nliterature by Dicuil, in 825, who calls it Thyle and speaks of its\ndiscovery by the Irish. As he says nothing about \"Nortmannic\" pirates\nhaving arrived there, whereas he mentions their having expelled the Irish\nmonks from the Faroes, we may conclude that the Norsemen had not yet\nreached Iceland at that time. The first certain mention of the name\nIceland is in the German poem \"Meregarto\" (see p. 181),[231] and in Adam\nof Bremen, where we find the first description of the island derived from\na Scandinavian source (see p. 193).\n\nNarratives of its discovery by the Norsemen and of their first settlement\nthere are to be found in Norse-Icelandic literature; but they were written\ndown 250 or 300 years after the events. These narratives of the first\ndiscoverers mentioned by name and their deeds, which were handed down by\ntradition for so long a time, can therefore scarcely be regarded as more\nthan legendary; nevertheless they may give us a picture in broad outlines\nof how voyages of discovery were accomplished in those times.\n\nAs the Norwegians visited the Scottish islands and Ireland many centuries\nbefore they discovered Iceland, it is highly probable that they had\ninformation from the Irish of this great island to the north-west; if so,\nit was natural that they should afterwards search for it, although\naccording to most Norse-Icelandic accounts it is said to have been found\naccidentally by mariners driven out of their course.\n\n[Sidenote: Are Frode on the settlement of Iceland]\n\nAccording to the sagas a Norwegian Viking, Grim Kamban, had established\nhimself in the Faroes (about 800 A.D.) and had expelled thence the Irish\npriests; but possibly there was a Celtic population, at any rate in the\nsouthern islands (cf. p. 164). After that time there was comparatively\nactive communication between the islands and Norway, and it was on the way\nto the Faroes or to the Scottish islands that certain voyagers were said\nto have been driven northward by a storm to the great unknown island. The\nearliest and, without comparison, the most trustworthy authority, Are\nFrode,[232] gives in his \"\u00cdslendingab\u00f3k\" (of about 1120-1130) no\ninformation of any such discovery, and this fact does not tend to\nstrengthen one's belief in it. Are tells us briefly and plainly:\n\n \"Iceland was first settled from Norway in the days of Harold Fairhair,\n the son of Halfdan the Black; it was at that time--according to Teit,\n Bishop Isleif's son, my foster-brother, the wisest man I have known,\n and Thorkel Gellisson, my uncle, whose memory was long, and Thorid,\n Snorre Gode's daughter, who was both exceeding wise and truthful--when\n Ivar, Ragnar Lodbrok's son, caused St. Edmund, the king of the Angles\n [i.e., the English king], to be slain. And that was 870 winters after\n the birth of Christ, as it is written in his saga. Ingolf hight the\n Norseman of whom it is truthfully related that he first fared thence\n [from Norway] to Iceland, when Harold Fairhair was sixteen winters\n old, and for the second time a few winters later; he settled south in\n Reykjarvik; the place is called Ingolfsh\u00f6vde; Minthakseyre, where he\n first came to land, but Ingolfsfell, west of \u00d6lfoss\u00e5, of which he\n afterwards possessed himself. At that time Iceland was clothed with\n forest [i.e., birch forest] from the mountains to the strand. There\n were Christian men here, whom the Norsemen called 'Papar' ...\" and who\n were Irish, as already mentioned, pp. 165 f. \"And then there was great\n resort of men hither from Norway, until King Harold forbade it, since\n he thought that the land [i.e., Norway] would be deserted,\" etc.\n\nWe may certainly assume that this description of Are's is at least as\ntrustworthy as the later statements on the same subject; but as Are\nprobably also wrote a larger \u00cdslendingab\u00f3k, which is now lost, there is a\npossibility that he there related the discovery of Iceland in greater\ndetail, and that the later authors have drawn from it.\n\n[Illustration: Dragon-ship with a king and warrior (from the Flateyjarb\u00f3k,\ncirca 1390)]\n\n[Sidenote: Tjodrik Monk on the discovery of Iceland]\n\nThe next written account of the discovery of Iceland is found in the\n\"Historia de Antiquitate regum Norwagiensium\"[233] of the Norwegian monk\nTjodrik (written about 1180), where we read:\n\n \"In Harold's ninth year--some think in his tenth--certain merchants\n sailed to the islands which we call 'Phari\u00e6' ['F\u00e6reyjar' == the\n Faroes]; there they were attacked by tempest and wearied long and\n sore, until at last they were driven by the sea to a far distant land,\n which some think to have been the island of Thule; but I cannot either\n confirm or deny this, as I do not know the true state of the matter.\n They landed and wandered far and wide; but although they climbed\n mountains, they nowhere found trace of human habitation. When they\n returned to Norway they told of the country they had found and by\n their praises incited many to seek it. Among them especially a chief\n named Ingolf, from the district that is called Hordaland; he made\n ready a ship, associated with himself his brother-in-law Hjorleif and\n many others, and sought and found the country we speak of, and began\n to settle it together with his companions, about the tenth year of\n Harold's reign. This was the beginning of the settlement of that\n country which we now call Iceland--unless we take into account that\n certain persons, very few in number, from Ireland (that is, little\n Britain) are believed to have been there in older times, to judge from\n certain books and other articles that were found after them.\n Nevertheless two others preceded Ingolf in this matter; the first was\n named Gar\u00f0ar, after whom the land was at first called Gar\u00f0arsholmr,\n the second was named Floki. But what I have related may suffice\n concerning this matter.\"\n\n[Sidenote: \"Historia Norwegi\u00e6\"]\n\nIt is probable that Tjodrik Monk was acquainted with Are Frode's\n\u00cdslendingab\u00f3k, or at least had sources connected with it. In the \"Historia\nNorwegi\u00e6\" by an unknown Norwegian author (written according to G. Storm\nabout 1180-1190, but probably later, in the thirteenth century)[234] we\nread of the discovery of Iceland [Storm, 1880, p. 92]:\n\n \"Next, to the west, comes the great island which by the Italians is\n called Ultima Tile; but now it is inhabited by a considerable\n multitude, while formerly it was waste land, and unknown to men, until\n the time of Harold Fairhair. Then certain Norsemen, namely Ingolf and\n Hjorleif, fled thither from their native land, being guilty of\n homicide, with their wives and children, and resorted to this island,\n which was first discovered by Gardar and afterwards by another (?),\n and found it at last, by probing the waves with the lead.\"\n\n[Sidenote: The Landn\u00e1ma on the discovery of Iceland]\n\nIn Sturla's Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k, called the Sturlub\u00f3k, of about 1250, we find\nalmost the same story of the first discovery as in Tjodrik Monk. It runs:\n\n \"Thus it is related that men were to go from Norway to the\n Faroes--some mention Naddodd the Viking among them--but were driven\n westward in the ocean and there found a great land. They went up a\n high mountain in the East-fjords and looked around them, whether they\n could see smoke or any sign that the land was inhabited, and they saw\n nothing. They returned in the autumn to the Faroes. And as they sailed\n from the land, much snow fell upon the mountains, and therefore they\n called the land Snowland. They praised the land much. It is now called\n Reydarfjeld in the East-fjords, where they landed, so said the priest\n S\u00e6mund the Learned. There was a man named Gardar Svavarsson, of\n Swedish kin, and he went forth to seek Snowland, by the advice of his\n mother, who had second sight. He reached land east of East Horn, where\n there was then a harbour. Gardar sailed around the country and proved\n that it was an island. He wintered in the north at Husavik in\n Skialfanda and there built a house. In the spring, when he was ready\n for sea, a man in a boat, whose name was Nattfari, was driven away\n from him, and a thrall and a bondwoman. He afterwards dwelt at the\n place called Natfaravik. Gardar then went to Norway and praised the\n land much. He was the father of Uni, the father of Hroar Tungugodi.\n After that the land was called Gardarsholm, and there was then forest\n between the mountains and the strand.\"\n\n In Hauk's Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k (of the beginning of the fourteenth century)\n Gardar's voyage is mentioned as the first, and Naddodd's as the\n second, and it is said of Gardar that he was \"son of Svavar the Swede;\n he owned lands in Sealand, but was born in Sweden. He went to the\n Southern isles [Hebrides] to fetch her father's inheritance for his\n wife. But as he was sailing through Pettlands firth [Pentland, between\n Orkney and Shetland] a storm drove him back, and he drifted westward\n in the ocean, etc.\" The Sturlub\u00f3k was doubtless written some fifty\n years before Hauk's Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k, and was the authority for the latter\n and for the lost Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k of Styrmir enn fro\u00f0i[235] (ob. 1245); but\n as the copy that has come down to us of the Sturlub\u00f3k is later (about\n 1400), many have thought that on this point the Hauksb\u00f3k is more to be\n relied upon, and have therefore held that according to the oldest\n Icelandic tradition the Swedish-born Dane Gardar was the first\n Scandinavian discoverer of Iceland. Support for this view has also\n been found in the fact that in another passage of the Sturlub\u00f3k we\n read: \"Uni, son of Gardar who first found Iceland.\" It has therefore\n been held that it was not till after 1300 that a transposition was\n made in the order of Gardar's and Naddodd's voyages at the beginning\n of the book [cf. F. J\u00f4nsson, 1900, p. xxx.]. But this assertion may be\n doubtful; it seems rather as though the Icelandic tradition itself was\n uncertain on this point. We have seen above that the Norwegian work\n \"Historia Norwegi\u00e6\" mentions Gardar as the first; while the yet\n earlier Tjodrik Monk [1177-1180] has a tale of a first accidental\n voyage to Iceland, which is the same, in parts word for word, as the\n stories of both the Sturlub\u00f3k and the Hauksb\u00f3k of Naddodd's voyage,\n only that Tjodrik mentions no name in connection with it. He certainly\n says later that Gardar and Floki went there before Ingolf; but this\n must mean that all three came after the first-mentioned nameless\n voyage. If we compare with this the vague expression of the Sturlub\u00f3k\n that \"some mention Naddodd the Viking\" in connection with that first\n accidental voyage, the logical conclusion must be that there was an\n old tradition that some one, whose identity is uncertain, had been\n long ago driven by weather to this Snowland, in the same way as there\n was a tradition in Iceland that Gunnbj\u00f6rn had been driven long ago to\n Gunnbj\u00f6rnskerries, before Greenland was discovered by Eric the Red.\n Some have then connected this first storm-driven mariner with a\n Norwegian Viking-name, Naddodd. Thus are legends formed. But the first\n man to circumnavigate the country and to become more closely\n acquainted with it was, according to the tradition, Gardar, whose name\n was more certainly known; for which reason he was also readily named\n as the first discoverer of the country (just as Eric the Red and not\n Gunnbj\u00f6rn was named as the discoverer of Greenland). Hauk Erlendsson\n then, in agreement with this, amended the Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k by placing\n Gardar's voyage first, while at the same time he made the mention of\n Naddodd more precise, which was necessary, since his was to be a later\n and therefore equally well-known voyage. He also gives Naddodd's kin,\n which is not alluded to in the Sturlub\u00f3k. This hypothesis is\n strengthened by the latter's vague expression, above referred to,\n about Naddodd, and by the fact that only Gardar's and Floki's names\n are mentioned by Tjodrik Monk, and only Gardar and another (Floki ?)\n in the \"Historia Norwegi\u00e6.\" If Naddodd's voyage had come after\n Gardar's, and consequently was equally well known, it would be strange\n that it should not be mentioned together with his and with the third\n voyage that succeeded them. But the whole question is of little\n importance, since, as we have said, these narratives must be regarded\n as mere legends.\n\nThe third voyage, according to both the Hauksb\u00f3k and Sturlub\u00f3k, was made\nby a great Viking named Floki Vilgerdarson. He fitted out in Rogaland to\nseek Gardarsholm (or Snowland). He took with him three ravens which\n\n \"were to show him the way, since seafaring men had no 'leidarstein'\n [lodestone, magnetic needle] at that time in the North....\" \"He came\n first to Hjaltland [Shetland] and lay in Floka-bay. There Geirhild,\n his daughter, was drowned in Geirhilds-lake.\" \"Floki then sailed to\n the Faroes, and there gave his [other] daughter in marriage. From her\n is come Trond in Gata. Thence he sailed out to sea with the three\n ravens.... And when he let loose the first it flew back astern [i.e.,\n towards the Faroes]. The second flew up into the air and back to the\n ship. The third flew forward over the prow, where they found the land.\n They came to it on the east at Horn. They then sailed along the south\n of the land. But when they were sailing to the west of Reykjanes and\n the fjord opened up, so that they saw Sn\u00e6fellsnes, Faxi [a man on\n board] said, 'This must be a great land that we have found; here are\n great waterfalls.' This is since called Faxa-os. Floki and his men\n sailed west over Breidafjord, and took land there which is called\n Vatsfjord, by Bardastrond. The fjord was quite full of fish, and on\n account of the fishing they did not get in hay, and all their cattle\n died during the winter. The spring was a cold one. Then Floki went\n northward on the mountain and saw a fjord full of sea-ice. Therefore\n they called the country Iceland.... In the summer they sailed to\n Norway. Floki spoke very unfavourably of the country. But Herjolf said\n both good and evil of the country. But Thorolf said that butter\n dripped from every blade of grass in the country they had found;\n therefore he was called Thorolf Sm\u00f6r [Butter].\"\n\nThese three voyages of discovery are supposed to have taken place about\n860-870. A few years after that time began the permanent settlement of the\ncountry by Norwegians; according to the chronicles this was initiated by\nIngolf Arnarson with his establishment at Reykjarvik (about the year 874),\nwhich is mentioned as early as Are Frode (see above, p. 253), and this\nestablishment may be more historical. Harold Fairhair's conquest of the\nwhole of Norway, of which he made one kingdom, and his hard-handed\nprocedure may have been partly responsible for the emigration of\nNorwegians to the poorer island of Iceland; many of the chiefs preferred\nto live a harder life there than to remain at home under Harold's\ndominion. A larger part of the settlers, and among them many of the best,\nhad first emigrated from Norway to the Scottish isles and to Ireland, but\non account of troubles moved once more to Iceland.[236] As has been\nsuggested already (p. 167), there was probably, besides the Irish priests,\nsome Celtic population before the Norwegians arrived, which gave Celtic\nnames to various places in the country. The omission of any mention of\nthese Celts, with the exception of the \"Papar,\" in the Landn\u00e1ma is no more\nsurprising than the strange silence about the primitive people of\nGreenland, whom we now know with certainty to have been in the country\nwhen the Icelanders came thither.\n\n\nTHE DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF GREENLAND BY THE NORWEGIANS\n\n[Sidenote: Oldest authority on Greenland]\n\nThe earliest mention of Greenland known in literature is that found in\nAdam of Bremen (see above, p. 194). It was written about a hundred years\nafter the probable settlement of the country, and shows that at least the\nname had reached Denmark at that time. In another passage of his work Adam\nsays that \"emissaries from Iceland, Greenland and the Orkneys\" came to\nArchbishop Adalbert of Bremen \"with requests that he would send preachers\nto them.\"\n\n[Illustration: Greenland. The shaded parts along the coast are not covered\nby the inland ice, which otherwise covers the whole of the interior]\n\n[Sidenote: Are Frode, circa 1120]\n\nThe oldest Icelandic account of the discovery of Greenland, and of the\npeople settling there, is found in Are Frode's \u00cdslendingab\u00f3k (c. 1130). He\nhad it from his uncle, Thorkel Gellisson, who had been in Greenland and\nhad conversed with a man who himself had accompanied Eric the Red\nthither. Thorkel lived in the second half of the eleventh century, and\n\"remembered far back.\" Are's statements have thus a good authority, and\nthey may be regarded as fairly trustworthy, at all events in their main\noutlines; for the events were no more remote than a couple of generations,\nand accounts of them may still have been extant in Iceland. Unfortunately\nthe records that have come down to us, from the hand of Are himself, are\nvery brief. He says:\n\n \"The land which is called Greenland was discovered and settled from\n Iceland. Eirik Raude [Eric the Red] was the name of a man from\n Breidafjord, who sailed thither from hence and there took land at the\n place which is since called Eiriksfjord. He gave the land a name and\n called it Greenland, and said that having a good name would entice men\n to go thither. They found there dwelling-sites of men, both in the\n east and the west of the country, and fragments of boats\n ('keiplabrot') and stone implements, so that one may judge from this\n that the same sort of people had been there as inhabited Wineland,\n whom the Greenlanders[237] call Skr\u00e6lings.[238] Now this, when he\n betook himself to settling the country, was fourteen or fifteen\n winters before Christianity came here to Iceland,[239] according to\n what Thorkel Gellisson was told in Greenland by one who himself\n accompanied Eric the Red thither.\"\n\nIt is strange that we only hear of traces left by the primitive people of\nGreenland, the Skr\u00e6lings or Eskimo. This looks as though Eric the Red did\nnot come across the people themselves, though this seems improbable. We\nshall return to this later, in a special chapter on them.\n\nIt is probable that in other works, which are now lost, Are Frode wrote in\ngreater detail of the discovery of Greenland and its first settlement by\nthe Icelanders, and that later authors, whose works are known to us, have\ndrawn upon him; for where they speak of other events that are mentioned in\nAre's \u00cdslendingab\u00f3k, the same expressions are often used, almost word for\nword. The oldest of the later accounts known to us, which give a more\ncomplete narrative of the discovery of Greenland, were written between\n1200 and 1305. The Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k may be specially mentioned; upon this is\nbased the Saga of Eric the Red (also called Thorfinn Karlsevne's Saga),\nwritten, according to the opinion of G. Storm, between the years 1270 and\n1300, while Finnur J\u00f3nsson [1901] assigns it to the first half of the\nthirteenth century. By collating these various accounts we can form a\npicture of what took place; even though we must suppose that traditions\nwhich have been handed down orally for so long must in course of time have\nbeen considerably transformed--especially where they cannot have been\nbased on well-known geographical conditions--and that they have received\nmany a feature from other traditions, or from pure legend.\n\n[Sidenote: Gunnbj\u00f6rn Ulfsson]\n\nMany accounts, both in Hauk's Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k and in the Sturlub\u00f3k, and in\nother sagas, mention that Greenland was first discovered by the Norwegian\nGunnbj\u00f6rn, son of Ulf Kr\u00e5ka, shortly after the settlement of Iceland. On a\nvoyage to Iceland, presumably about the year 900, he was carried out of\nhis course to the west, and saw there a great country, and found certain\nislands or skerries, which were afterwards called \"Gunnbj\u00f6rnskerries.\"\nThese must have been off Greenland, most probably near Cape Farewell; but\nif it was late in the summer, in August or September, when there is little\nice along the east coast, he may even have come close to the land farther\nnorth, and there found islands, at Angmagsalik, for instance. It is,\nhowever, of no great importance where it was; for when he saw that it was\nnot Iceland that he had made, but a less hospitable country which did not\nlook inviting for winter quarters, he probably sailed again at once, in\norder to reach his destination before the ice and the late season stopped\nhim, without spending time in exploring the country. Whether Gunnbj\u00f6rn\nestablished himself in Iceland we do not know; but it is recorded that his\nbrother, Grimkell, took land at Sn\u00e6fellsnes and was among the first\nsettlers, and his sons, Gunnstein and Halldor, took land in the north-west\non Isafjord.\n\nVarious later writers have interpreted this to mean that Gunnbj\u00f6rnskerries\nlay to the west of Iceland, and far from the great land that Gunnbj\u00f6rn\nsaw; but the earliest notices (in the Hauksb\u00f3k and Sturlub\u00f3k) do not\nwarrant such a view. It has even been suggested as possible that\nGunnbj\u00f6rnskerries lay in the ocean between Iceland and Greenland, but\nwere destroyed later by a volcanic outbreak. In the Dutchman Ruysch's\nmap of 1508 an island is marked in this ocean, with the note that: \"This\nisland was totally consumed in the year 1456 A.D.\"[240] It is\ninconceivable that such an island midway in the course between Iceland and\nGreenland should have entirely escaped mention in the oldest accounts of\nthe voyages of Eric the Red and later settlers in Greenland, to say\nnothing of the circumstance that it would certainly have been mentioned in\nthe ancient sailing-directions (e.g., in the Hauksb\u00f3k and Sturlub\u00f3k) for\nthe voyage from Iceland to Greenland. Nor are there any known banks in\nthis part of the ocean which might indicate that such an island had\nexisted. It is in itself not the least unlikely that Gunnbj\u00f6rn reached\nsome islands of the Greenland coast, and that these in later tradition\nreceived the name of Gunnbj\u00f6rnskerries.\n\nThat they were gradually transferred by tradition to a place where islands\nwere no longer to be met with, or which in any case was unapproachable on\naccount of ice, appears from the description of Greenland ascribed to Ivar\nB\u00e1rdsson (probably written in the fifteenth century), where we read:[241]\n\n \"Item from Sn\u00e6fellsnes in Iceland, which is shortest to Greenland, two\n days' and two nights' sail, due west is the course, and there lie\n Gunnbj\u00f6rnskerries right in mid-channel between Greenland and Iceland.\n This was the old course, but now ice has come from the gulf of the sea\n to the north-east ['landnorden botnen'] so near to the said skerries,\n that none without danger to life can sail the old course, and be heard\n of again.\"\n\nLater in the same statement we read:\n\n \"Item when one sails from Iceland, one must take his course from\n Sn\u00e6fellsnes ... and then sail due west one day and one night, very\n slightly to the south-west[242] to avoid the before-mentioned ice\n which lies off Gunnbj\u00f6rnskerries, and then one day and one night due\n north-west, and thus he will come straight on the said highland Hvarf\n in Greenland.\"\n\nThis description need not be taken to indicate that the Gunnbj\u00f6rnskerries\nwere supposed to lie in the midst of the sea between Iceland and\nGreenland; some place on the east coast of Greenland (e.g., at\nAngmagsalik) may rather be intended, which was sighted on the voyage\nbetween Iceland and the Eastern Settlement (taking \"Greenland\" to mean\nonly the settled districts of the country). The direction \"due west,\netc.,\" for the voyage to the Eastern Settlement is too westerly, unless it\nwas a course by compass, which, although possible, is hardly probable. But\nas we shall see later there is much that is untrustworthy in the\ndescription attributed to Ivar B\u00e1rdsson.\n\nA later tradition of Gunnbj\u00f6rn's voyage also deserves mention; it is found\nin the \"Annals of Greenland\" of the already mentioned Bj\u00f6rn J\u00f3nsson of\nSkards\u00e1 (1574-1656), which he compiled from older Icelandic sources, with\ncorrections and \"improvements\" of his own. He says there (\"Gr\u00f6nl. hist.\nMind.,\" i. p. 88) that the reason why Eric the Red\n\n \"sailed to Greenland was no other than this, that it was in the memory\n of old people that Gunnbj\u00f6rn, Ulf Kr\u00e5ka's son, was thought to have\n seen a glacier in the western ocean ('til annars j\u00f6kulsins i\n vestrhafnu'), but Sn\u00e6fells-glacier here, when he was carried westward\n on the sea, after he sailed from the Gunnbj\u00f6rn's islands. Iceland was\n then entirely unsettled, and newly discovered by Gardar, who sailed\n around the country from ness to ness ('nesjastefnu'), and called it\n Gardarsholm. But this Gunnbj\u00f6rn, who came next after him, he sailed\n round much farther out ('dj\u00fapara'), but kept land in sight, therefore\n he called the islands skerries in contradistinction to the holm [i.e.,\n Gardarsholm]; but many histories have since called these islands land,\n sometimes large islands.\"\n\nThis last statement is in any case an explanatory \"improvement\" by Bj\u00f6rn\nJ\u00f3nsson himself, and doubtless this is also true of the rest. According to\nthis the Gunnbj\u00f6rnskerries lay even within sight of Iceland. In this\nconnection it is worth remarking that his contemporary Arngrim J\u00f3nsson\nimagines (\"Specim. Island.,\" p. 34) the Gunnbj\u00f6rnskerries as a little\nuninhabited island north of Iceland. This would agree best with the little\nMeven-klint, which lies by itself in the Polar Sea fifty-six nautical\nmiles north of land, and perhaps it is not wholly impossible that it was\nrumours of this in later times that gave rise to the ideas of the\nGunnbj\u00f6rnskerries, which however by confusion were transferred westward.\n\nIt was long before any attempt was made, according to the narratives, to\nsearch for the land discovered by Gunnbj\u00f6rn. In Hauk's Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k [c.\n122] we read:\n\n[Sidenote: Sn\u00e6bj\u00f6rn Galti and Rolf of Raudesand]\n\n \"Sn\u00e6bj\u00f6rn [Galti, Holmsteinsson] owned a ship in Grims\u00e5-os, and Rolf\n of Raudesand bought a half-share in it.[243] They had twelve men each.\n With Sn\u00e6bj\u00f6rn were Thorkel and Sumarlide, sons of Thorgeir Raud, son\n of Einar of Stafholt. Sn\u00e6bj\u00f6rn also took with him Thorodd of Thingnes,\n his foster-father, and his wife, and Rolf took with him Styrbj\u00f6rn, who\n quoth thus after his dream:\n\n 'The bane I see\n of both of us,\n all dolefully\n north-west in the sea,\n frost and cold,\n all kinds of anguish;\n from such I foresee\n the slaying of Sn\u00e6bj\u00f6rn.'\n\n \"They went to seek for Gunnbj\u00f6rnskerries, and found land. Sn\u00e6bj\u00f6rn\n would not let any one land at night. Styrbj\u00f6rn went from the ship and\n found a purse of money in a grave-mound ['kuml,' a cairn over a\n grave], and hid it. Sn\u00e6bj\u00f6rn struck at him with an axe, and the purse\n fell. They built a house, and covered it all over with snow ['ok lagdi\n hann i fonn']. Thorkel Raudsson found that there was water on the fork\n that stuck out at the aperture of the hut. That was in the month of\n Goe.[244] Then they dug themselves out. Sn\u00e6bj\u00f6rn made ready the ship.\n Of his people Thorodd and his wife stayed in the house; and of Rolf's\n Styrbj\u00f6rn and others, and the rest went hunting. Styrbj\u00f6rn slew\n Thorodd, and both he and Rolf slew Sn\u00e6bj\u00f6rn. Raud's sons and all the\n others took oaths [i.e., oaths of fidelity] to save their lives. They\n came to H\u00e1logaland, and went thence to Iceland, and arrived at\n Vadil.\" There both Rolf and Styrbj\u00f6rn met their death.\n\n[Illustration: The Eastern Settlement of Greenland. The black points mark\nruins of the homesteads of the ancient Greenlanders (from Finnur J\u00f3nsson,\n1899)]\n\nIt is possible that this strange fragmentary tale points back to an actual\nattempt at settlement in Greenland, due to Sn\u00e6bj\u00f6rn and Rolf having to\nleave Iceland on account of homicide. The attempt may have been abandoned\non account of dissensions, or because the country was too inhospitable.\nFrom the genealogical information the voyage may possibly be placed a\nlittle earlier than Eric the Red's first voyage to Greenland [cf. K.\nMaurer, 1874, p. 204]. Whereabouts in Greenland they landed and spent the\nwinter is not stated; but the fact that the snow first began to thaw in\nthe month of \"Goe\" would point to a cold climate, and this agrees best\nwith the east coast of Greenland. But the story is so obscure that it is\ndifficult to form any clear opinion as to its general credibility; the\ngrave-mound and the purse of money must in any case have come from\nelsewhere. The circumstance that on their return they sailed first to\nNorway and thence to Iceland may be derived from a later time, when there\nwas no direct communication between Greenland and Iceland, but the\ncommunication with Greenland took place by way of Norway.\n\n[Illustration: The Western Settlement of Greenland. The black points mark\nruins of the homesteads of the ancient Greenlanders (from F. J\u00f3nsson,\n1899)]\n\n[Sidenote: Eric the Red]\n\nThe greatest and most important name connected with the discovery of\nGreenland is without comparison that of Eirik Raude (Erik the Red). The\ndescription of this remarkable man (in the Landn\u00e1ma and in the Saga of\nEric the Red) forms a good picture; warlike and hard as the fiercest\nViking, but at the same time with the superior ability of the born\nexplorer and leader to plan great enterprises, and to carry them out in\nspite of all difficulties. He was a leader of men. He was born in Norway\n(circa 950); but on account of homicide he and his father Thorvald left\nJ\u00e6deren and went to Iceland about 970. They took land on the Horn-strands,\neast of Horn (Cape North). There Thorvald died. Eric then married\nTjodhild, whose mother, Thorbj\u00f6rg Knarrar-bringa (i.e., ship's breast),\nlived in Haukadal. Eric therefore moved south and cleared land in Haukadal\n(inland of Hvamsfjord, north of Sn\u00e6fellsnes) and lived at Eirikstad by\nVatshorn. Eric quarrelled with his neighbours and killed several of them.\nHe was therefore condemned to leave Haukadal. He took land on Brok\u00f6 and\n\u00d6ksn\u00f6, islands outside Hvamsfjord; but after fresh conflicts and slaughter\nhe and his men were declared outlaws for three years, at the Thorsnes\nthing, about 980. Eric then fitted out his ship, and a friend concealed\nhim, while his enemies went all round the islands looking for him.\n\n \"He told them [i.e., his friends] that he meant to seek the land that\n Gunnbj\u00f6rn, Ulf Kr\u00e5ka's son, saw when he was driven west of Iceland and\n found Gunnbj\u00f6rnskerries. He said he would come back for his friends,\n if he found the land. Eric put to sea from Sn\u00e6fells-glacier;[245] he\n arrived off Mid-glacier, at the place called Bl\u00e1serk. [Thence he went\n south, to see whether the land was habitable.] He sailed westward\n round Hvarf [west of Cape Farewell] and spent the first winter in\n Eiriksey near [the middle of] the Eastern Settlement. Next spring he\n went to Eiriksfjord [the modern Tunugdliarfik, due north of\n Julianehaab; see map, p. 265] and gave names to many places. The\n second winter he was at Eiriksholms by Hvarfsgnipa [Hvarf Point]; but\n the third summer he went right north to Sn\u00e6fell[246] and into\n Ravnsfjord.[247] Then he thought he had come farther into the land\n than the head of Eiriksfjord. He then turned back, and was the third\n winter in Eiriksey off the mouth of Eiriksfjord. The following summer\n he went to Iceland, to Breidafjord. He passed that winter at Holml\u00e5t\n with Ingolf. In the spring they fought with Thorgest [Eric's former\n enemy], and Eric was beaten. After that they were reconciled. That\n summer Eric went to settle the land that he had found, and he called\n it Greenland; because, said he, men would be more willing to go\n thither if it had a good name.\"\n\n \"[Eric settled at Brattalid in Eiriksfjord.] Then Are Thorgilsson says\n that that summer twenty-five ships sailed to Greenland from\n Borgarfjord and Breidafjord; but only fourteen came there--some were\n driven back, others were lost. This was sixteen winters before\n Christianity was made law in Iceland.\"[248] This would therefore be\n about 984.\n\n[Illustration: View from the mountain Igdlerfigsalik (see map, p. 271)\nover Tunugdliarfik (Eiriksfjord and Brattalid), farther to the left\nSermilik (Isafjord and the Mid-fjords) into which a glacier falls; in the\nright centre Korok-fjord, with a glacier falling into it. The whole\nbackground is covered by the inland ice; behind it on the right the\nNunataks near the east coast. (After D. Bruun, 1896)]\n\nEric the Red's first voyage to Greenland is one of the most remarkable in\nthe history of arctic expeditions, both in itself, on account of the\nmasterly ability it shows, and for the vast consequences it was to have.\nWith the scanty means of equipment and provisioning available at that time\nin the open Viking ships,[249] it was no child's play to set out for an\nunknown arctic land beyond the ice, and to stay there three years.\nPerhaps, of course, he did it from necessity; but he not only came through\nit alive--he employed the three years in exploring the country, from Hvarf\nright up to north of Davis Strait, and from the outermost belt of skerries\nto the head of the long fjords. This was more than 500 years before the\nPortuguese came to the country, and exactly 600 before John Davis thought\nhimself the discoverer of this coast.\n\nBut not only does Eric seem to have been pre-eminent, first as a fighter\nand then as a discoverer; as the leader of the colony founded by him in\nGreenland he must also have had great capabilities; he got people to\nemigrate thither, and looked after them well; and he was regarded as a\nmatter of course as the leading man and chief of the new free state, whom\nevery one visited first on arrival. His successors, who resided at the\nchief's seat of Brattalid, were the first family of the country.\n\n[Illustration: Part of the interior of Eiriksfjord, at Brattalid and\nbeyond. The mountain Igdlerfigsalik in the background (after D. Bruun,\n1896)]\n\nImmigration to Greenland must according to the saga have gone on rapidly;\nfor in the year 1000 there were already so many inhabitants that Olaf\nTryggvason thought it worth while to make efforts to Christianise them,\nand sent a priest there with Eric's son Leif. Eric's wife, Tjodhild, at\nonce received the faith; but the old man himself did not like the new\ndoctrine, and found it difficult to give up his own. Tjodhild built a\nchurch at some distance from the houses; \"there she made her prayers, and\nthose men who accepted Christianity, but they were the most. She would not\nlive with Eric, after she had taken the faith; but to him this was very\ndispleasing.\" In Snorre's Heimskringla we read that men called Leif \"the\nLucky [see Chap. ix.]; but Eric, his father, thought that one thing\nbalanced the other, that Leif had saved the shipwrecked crew and that he\nhad brought the hypocrite ['sk\u00e6mannin'] to Greenland, that is, the\npriest.\"\n\nThe Norsemen established themselves in two districts of Greenland. One of\nthese was the \"Eastern Settlement\" [\u00d6sterbygden], so called because it lay\nfarthest to the south-east on the west coast, between the southern point,\nHvarf, and about 61\u00b0 N. lat. It corresponds to the modern Julianehaab\nDistrict. It was the most thickly populated, and it was here that\nEiriksfjord and Brattalid lay. In the whole \"Settlement\" there are said to\nhave been 190 homesteads [\"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" iii. p. 228]. Ruins of\nthese have been found in at least 150 places [cf. D. Bruun, 1896; G. Holm,\n1883].\n\n[Illustration: The central part of the Eastern Settlement. Black points\nmark ancient ruins, crosses mark churches]\n\n[Sidenote: The Western Settlement]\n\nThe other district, the \"Western Settlement\" [Vesterbygden], lay farther\nnorth-west between 63\u00b0 and 66-1/2\u00b0 (see map, p. 266), for the most part in\nthe modern Godthaab District, and its population was densest in\nAmeralik-fjord and Godthaabsfjord. There are said to have been ninety\nhomesteads in this settlement. Many ruins of Norsemen's stone houses are\nstill found in both districts, and they show with certainty where the\nsettlements were and what was their extent.\n\nOn the east coast of Greenland, which is closed by drift-ice for the\ngreater part of the year, the Norsemen had no permanent settlement, and it\nwas only exceptionally that they were able to land there, or they were\nsometimes wrecked in the drift-ice off the coast and had to take refuge\nashore. Several places are, however, mentioned along the southern part of\nthe east coast, where people from the Eastern Settlement probably went\nhunting in the summer.\n\n[Illustration: The plain by Igaliko (Gar\u00f0ar) with ruins. In the background\nthe peaks of Igdlerfigsalik, and in front of them Iganek (after N. P.\nJ\u00f6rgensen)]\n\n[Sidenote: Population]\n\n[Sidenote: Bishops]\n\nThe population of the two settlements in Greenland can scarcely have been\nlarge at any time; perhaps at its highest a couple of thousand altogether.\nIf we take it that there were 280 homesteads, and on an average seven\npersons in each, which is a high estimate, then the total will not be more\nthan 1960. But the long distances caused the building, after the\nintroduction of Christianity, of a comparatively large number of churches,\nnamely, twelve in the Eastern Settlement (where the ruins of only five\nhave been found) and four in the Western Settlement, besides which a\nmonastery and a nunnery are mentioned in the Eastern Settlement. About\n1110 Greenland became an independent bishopric, although it is said in the\n\"King's Mirror\" that\n\n \"if it lay nearer to other lands it would be reckoned for a third part\n of a bishopric. But now the people there have nevertheless a bishop\n of their own; for there is no other way, since the distance between\n them and other people is so great.\"\n\nThe chief's house Gar\u00f0ar in Einarsfjord (Igaliko) became the episcopal\nresidence. There is a fairly complete record of the bishops of Greenland\ndown to the end of the fourteenth century. During the succeeding century\nand even until 1530 a number of bishops of Greenland are also mentioned,\nwho were appointed, but never went to Greenland.\n\n[Sidenote: Norse literature in Greenland]\n\nEven if the conditions of life in the Greenland settlements were not\nluxurious, they were nevertheless not so hard as to prevent the\ndevelopment of an independent art of poetry. Sophus Bugge points out in\n\"Norr\u0153n Fornkv\u00e6di\" [Christiania, 1867, p. 433] that the \"Atlam\u00e1l en\ngr\u0153nlenzku\" of the Edda is, as its title shows, from Greenland, and was\nmost probably composed there. Finnur J\u00f3nsson [1894, i. pp. 66, 68 ff.;\n1897, pp. 40 ff.] would even refer four or five other Edda-lays to\nGreenland, namely: \"Oddr\u00fanargr\u00e1tr,\" \"Go\u00f0r\u00fanarhvot,\" \"Sigur\u00f0arkvi\u00f0a en\nskamma,\" \"Helgakvi\u00f0a Hundingsbana,\" perhaps also \"Helrei\u00f0 Brynhildar.\" As\nregards the two last-named, the assumption is certainly too doubtful, but\nin the case of the other three it is possible. The \"Nor\u00f0rsetu-dr\u00e1pa,\" to\nbe mentioned later (p. 298), was composed in Greenland; and the so-called\n\"Hafger\u00f0inga-dr\u00e1pa\" may be derived thence; in the Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k, where one\nor two fragments of it are reproduced, it is said to have been composed by\na \"Christian man (monk ?) from the Southern isles\" (Hebrides), on the way\nthither. The fragments of lays on Fur\u00f0ustrandir and Wineland, which are\ngiven in the Saga of Eric the Red, may possibly also be from Greenland.\nThe fact that the \"Snorra-Edda\" gives a particular kind of metre, called\n\"Gr\u00f6nlenzkr h\u00e1ttr,\"[250] agrees with the view that Greenland had an\nindependent art of poetry.\n\nThe Greenland lays like the Atlam\u00e1l are perhaps not equal to the best\nNorse skald-poetry; but there runs through them a weird, gloomy note\nthat bears witness of the wild nature and the surroundings in which they\nwere composed.\n\n[Illustration: View from the mountain Iganek, looking south over\nIgalikofjord (Einarsfjord) and on the right Tunugdliarfik (Eiriksfjord)\nwith the isthmus at Igaliko (Gar\u00f0ar) between them (after N. P. J\u00f6rgensen,\nsee D. Bruun, 1896)]\n\n[Sidenote: Ruins]\n\n[Sidenote: Food]\n\nWithin the fjords of both the ancient Greenland settlements many ruins of\nformer habitations have been found (see maps, pp. 265, 266, 271); most of\nthese are found in the Eastern Settlement or Julianehaab District [cf.\nespecially D. Bruun, 1896; also G. Holm, 1883]. In a single homestead as\nmany as a score of scattered houses have been found; among them was a\ndwelling-house, and around it byres and stables for cattle, horses, sheep\nand goats, with adjoining hay-barns, or else open hay-fences (round stone\nwalls within which the hay was stacked and covered with turf), besides\nlarders, drying-houses, pens for sheep, fenced fields, etc. There were\nalso fenced outlying hayfields with barns and with summer byres for sheep\nand goats, for they had even mountain pastures and hayfields. Near the\nshore are found sheds, possibly for gear for boats, sealing and fishing,\nbut, on the other hand, there are no actual boathouses. Ruins of several\nchurches (five in the Eastern Settlement) have also been found. The\ndwelling-houses were built of stone and turf, like the Icelandic\nfarmhouses; in exceptional cases clay was also used, while the outhouses\nwere mostly built with dry stone walls. For the timber work of the roofs\ndrift-wood must have been usually employed. The winter byres were of\ncourse made weatherproof. The size of the byres shows that the numbers of\ntheir stock were not inconsiderable, mostly sheep and goats; only where\nthe level lands near the fjords offered specially good pasture was there\nany great number of horned cattle. Everywhere in the neighbourhood of the\nruins stone traps are found which show that the Greenlanders occupied\nthemselves in trapping foxes; a few large traps have been thought to have\nbeen intended for wolves (?), which are now no longer to be found in\nsouthern Greenland. Near the main buildings are found great refuse heaps\n(\"kitchen middens\"), which give us much information as to the life they\nled and what they lived on. Great quantities of bones taken from five\ndifferent sites in the Eastern Settlement (among them the probable sites\nof Brattalid and Gardar) have been examined by the Danish zoologist,\nHerluf Winge [cf. D. Bruun, 1896, pp. 434 ff.]. The great predominance of\nbones of domestic animals, especially oxen and goats, and of seals,\nespecially the Greenland seal or saddle-back (Phoca gr\u0153nlandica), and the\nbladder-nose or crested seal (Cystophora cristata), show that\ncattle-rearing and seal-hunting were the Greenlanders' chief means of\nsubsistence; and the latter especially must have provided the greater part\nof their flesh food, since as a rule the bones of seals are the most\nnumerous. Curiously enough, few fish-bones have been found. As we know\nwith certainty that the Greenlanders were much occupied in fishing, this\nabsence now is accounted for by fish-bones and other offal of fish being\nused for fodder for cattle in winter. Various reindeer bones show that\nthis animal was also found in ancient times in the Eastern Settlement,\nwhere it is now extinct. Besides these, bones of a single polar bear and\nof a few walrus have been found, which show that these animals were\ncaught, though in small numbers; a few bones of whale have also been\nfound. There are, strangely enough, comparatively few bones of birds. The\nbones of horses that have been found belong to a small race and the cattle\nwere of small size and horned.\n\n[Illustration: Remains of a sheep-pen at Kakortok. On the right the ruined\nchurch (after Th. Groth)]\n\n[Sidenote: Life and conditions]\n\nIn the otherwise very legendary tale, in the Saga of the Foster Brothers\n(beginning of the thirteenth century), of Thormod Kolbrunarskald's voyage\nto Greenland and sojourn there, to avenge the death of his friend\nThorgeir, we get here and there sidelights on the daily life of the\ncountry, which agree well with the information afforded by the remains. We\nhear that they often went to sea after seals, that they had harpoons for\nseals (\"selskutill\"), that they cooked the flesh of seals, etc. From the\n\"King's Mirror\" (circa 1250) we get a good glimpse of the conditions of\nlife in Greenland in those days:\n\n \"But in Greenland, as you probably know, everything that comes from\n other lands is dear there; for the country lies so distant from other\n lands that men seldom visit it. And everything they require to assist\n the country, they must buy from elsewhere, both iron (and tar) and\n likewise everything for building houses. But these things are brought\n thence in exchange for goods: buckskin and ox-hides, and sealskin and\n walrus-rope and walrus-ivory.\" \"But since you asked whether there was\n any raising of crops or not, I believe that country is little assisted\n thereby. Nevertheless there are men--and they are those who are known\n as the noblest and richest--who make essay to sow; but nevertheless\n the great multitude in that country does not know what bread is, and\n never even saw bread.\"...\n\n \"Few are the people in that land, for little of it is thawed so much\n as to be habitable.... But when you ask what they live on in that\n country, since they have no corn, then [you must know] that men live\n on more things than bread alone. Thus it is said that there is good\n pasture and great and good homesteads in Greenland; for people there\n have much cattle and sheep, and there is much making of butter and\n cheese. The people live much on this, and also on flesh and all kinds\n of game, the flesh of reindeer, whale, seal and bear; on this they\n maintain themselves in that country.\"\n\nWe see clearly enough from this how the Greenlanders of the old\nsettlements on the one hand were dependent on imports from Europe, and on\nthe other subsisted largely by hunting and fishing. It appears also from a\npapal bull of 1282 that the Greenland tithes were paid in ox-hides,\nseal-skins and walrus-ivory.\n\nIt has been asserted that Greenland at that time possessed a more\nfavourable climate, with less ice both on land and sea than at present;\nbut, amongst other things, the excellent description in the \"King's\nMirror,\" to be mentioned directly, shows clearly enough that such was not\nthe case. Many will therefore ask what it was that could attract the\nIcelanders thither. But to one who knows both countries it will not be so\nsurprising; in many ways South Greenland appeals more to a Norwegian than\nIceland. It lies in about the same latitude as Bergen and Christiania, and\nthe beautiful fjords with a number of islands outside, where there are\ngood channels for sailing and harbours everywhere, make it altogether like\nthe coast of Norway, and different from the more exposed coasts of\nIceland. Inside the fjords the summer is quite as warm and inviting as in\nIceland; it is true that there is drift-ice outside in early summer, but\nthat brings good seal-hunting. There was, besides this, walrus-hunting and\nwhaling, reindeer-hunting, fishing in the sea and in the rivers, fowling,\netc. When we add good pasturage on the shores of the fjords, it will be\nunderstood that it was comparatively easy to support life.\n\nThe grass still grows luxuriantly around the ruins on the Greenland\nfjords, and might even to-day support the herds of many a homestead.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nVOYAGES TO THE UNINHABITED PARTS OF GREENLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES\n\n\nTHE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND\n\n[Sidenote: Drift-ice]\n\nThe sagas give us scanty information about the east coast of\nGreenland--commonly called, in Iceland, the uninhabited regions\n(\"ubygder\") of Greenland. The drift-ice renders this coast inaccessible by\nsea for the greater part of the year, and it was only very rarely that any\none landed there, and then in most cases through an accident. As a rule\nsailors tried as far as possible to keep clear of the East Greenland ice,\nand did not come inshore until they were well past Hvarf, as appears from\nthe ancient sailing-directions for this voyage. The \"King's Mirror\" (circa\n1250) also shows us clearly enough that the old Norsemen had a shrewd\nunderstanding of the ice conditions off these uninhabited regions. It\nsays:\n\n \"Now in that same sea [i.e., the Greenland sea] there are yet many\n more marvels, even though they cannot be accounted for witchcraft\n ('skrimslum'). So soon as the greater part of the sea has been\n traversed, there is found such a mass of ice as I know not the like of\n anywhere else in the world. This ice [i.e., the ice-floes] is some of\n it as flat as if it had frozen on the sea itself, four or five cubits\n thick, and lies so far from land [i.e., from the east coast of\n Greenland] that men may have four or five days' journey across the\n ice [to land]. But this ice lies off the land rather to the north-east\n ('landnor\u00f0r') or north than to the south, south-west, or west; and\n therefore any one wishing to make the land should sail round it [i.e.,\n round Cape Farewell] in a south-westerly and westerly direction, until\n he is past the danger of [encountering] all this ice, and then sail\n thence to land. But it has constantly happened that men have tried to\n make the land too soon, and so have been involved in these ice-floes;\n and some have perished in them; but others again have got out, and we\n have seen some of these and heard their tales and reports. But one\n course was adopted by all who have found themselves involved in this\n ice-drift ['\u00edsav\u00f6k' or '\u00edsav\u00e1lkit'], that is, they have taken their\n small boats and drawn them up on to the ice with them, and have thus\n made for land, but their ship and all their other goods have been left\n behind and lost; and some of them have passed four or five days on the\n ice before they reached land, and some even longer. These ice-floes\n are strange in their nature; sometimes they lie as still as might be\n expected, separated by creeks or large fjords; but sometimes they move\n with as great rapidity as a ship with a fair wind, and when once they\n are under way they travel against the wind as often as with it. There\n are indeed some masses of ice in that sea of another shape, which the\n Greenlanders call 'fallj\u00f6kla.' Their appearance is that of a high\n mountain rising out of the sea, and they do not unite themselves to\n other masses of ice, but keep apart.\"\n\nThis striking description of the ice in the polar current shows that\nsailors were sometimes wrecked in it, and reached land on the east coast\nof Greenland.\n\nThe story of Sn\u00e6bj\u00f6rn H\u00f3lmsteinsson and his companions, who may have\nreached East Greenland (?), has been given above (p. 264).\n\n[Sidenote: Thorgils Orrabeinsfostre]\n\nAn early voyage,[251] which is said to have been made along this coast, is\ndescribed in the \"Floamanna-saga.\" The Icelandic chief, Thorgils\nOrrabeinsfostre, is said to have left Iceland about the year 1001, with\nhis wife, children, friends and thralls--some thirty persons in all--and\nhis cattle, to join his friend, Eric the Red, who had invited him to\nGreenland. During the autumn they were wrecked on the east coast; and it\nwas not till four years later, during which time they lived by whaling,\nsealing and fishing, and after adventures of many kinds, that Thorgils\narrived at the Eastern Settlement. The saga is of late date, perhaps about\n1400; it is full of marvels and not very credible. But the description of\nthe country, with glaciers coming down to the sea, and ice lying off the\nshore for the greater part of the year, cannot have been invented without\nsome knowledge of the east coast of Greenland; for the inhabited west\ncoast is entirely different. The narrative of Thorgils' expedition may\ntherefore have a historical kernel [cf. Nansen, 1890, p. 253; Engl. ed. i.\n275]; and moreover it gives a graphic description of the difficulties and\ndangers that shipwrecked voyagers have to overcome in arctic waters; but\nat the same time it is gratuitously full of superstitions and dreams and\nthe like, besides other improbabilities: such as the incident of the\ntravellers suffering such extremities of thirst that they were ready to\ndrink sea-water (with urine) to preserve their lives,[252] while rowing\nalong a coast with ice and snow on every hand, where there cannot have\nbeen any lack of drinking water. Thorgils, or the man to whom in the first\nplace the narrative may be due, may have been wrecked in the autumn on the\neast coast of Greenland, near Angmagsalik, or a little to the south of it,\nand may then have had a hard struggle before he reached Cape Farewell\nalong the shore, inside the ice; but that it should have taken four years\nis improbable; I have myself in the same way rowed in a boat the greater\npart of the same distance along this coast in twelve days. It is hardly\npossible that the voyagers should have lost their ship much to the north\nof Angmagsalik, as the ice lies off the coast there usually the whole year\nround; nor is it credible that they should have arrived far north near\nScoresby Sound, north of 70\u00b0 N. lat., where the approach is easier; for\nthey had no business to be there, if they were making for the Eastern\nSettlement.\n\nIn the Icelandic Annals there are frequent mentions of voyagers to\nGreenland being shipwrecked, and most of these cases doubtless occurred\noff East Greenland. In the sagas there are many narratives of such wrecks,\nor of people who have come to grief on this coast.\n\n[Sidenote: \"Lik-Lodin\"]\n\nIn Bj\u00f6rn J\u00f3nsson's version of the somewhat extravagant saga of Lik-Lodin\nwe read:[253]\n\n \"Formerly most ships were always wrecked in this ice from the Northern\n bays, as is related at length in the Tosta \u00fe\u00e1ttr; for 'Lika-Lo\u00f0inn'\n had his nickname from this, that in summer he often ransacked the\n northern uninhabited regions and brought to church the corpses of men\n that he found in caves, whither they had come from the ice or from\n shipwreck; and by them there often lay carved runes about all the\n circumstances of their misfortunes and sufferings.\"\n\nThe Northern bays here must mean \"Hafsbotn,\" or the Polar Sea to the north\nof Norway and Iceland; the ice will then be that which thence drifts\nsouthward along the east coast of Greenland. According to another ancient\nMS. of the Tosta-\u00fe\u00e1ttr,[254] Lik-Lodin had his name (which means\n\"Corpse-Lodin\") \"because he had brought the bodies of Finn Fegin and his\ncrew from Finn's booths, east of the glaciers in Greenland.\" This also\nshows that the east coast is referred to; it is said to have happened a\nfew years before Harold Hardr\u00e5da's fall in 1066.\n\n[Sidenote: Einar Sokkason]\n\nIn the Flateyjarb\u00f3k's narrative of Einar Sokkason, who sailed from\nGreenland to Norway in 1123 to bring a bishop to the country, it is\nsaid[255] that he was accompanied on his return from Norway by a certain\nArnbj\u00f6rn Austman (i.e., man from the east, from Norway) and several\nNorwegians on another ship, who wished to settle in Greenland; but they\nwere lost on the voyage. Some years later, about 1129, they were found\ndead on the east coast of Greenland, near the Hvitserk glacier, by a\nGreenlander, Sigurd Nj\u00e1lsson. \"He often went seal-hunting in the autumn to\nthe uninhabited regions [i.e., on the east coast]; he was a great seaman;\nthey were fifteen altogether. In the summer they came to the Hvitserk\nglacier.\" They found there some human fire-places, and farther on, inside\na fjord, they found a great ship, lying on and by the mouth of a stream,\nand a hut and a tent, and there were corpses lying in the tent, and some\nmore lay on the ground outside. It was Arnbj\u00f6rn and his men, who had\nstayed there.\n\n[Sidenote: Ingimund the priest]\n\nIn Gudmund Arason's Saga and in the Icelandic Annals [Storm, 1888, pp.\n22, 120, 121, 180, 181, 324, 477] it is related that in 1189 the ship\n\"Stangarfoli,\" with the priest Ingimund Thorgeirsson and others on\nboard--on the way from Bergen to Iceland--was driven westwards to the\nuninhabited regions of Greenland, and every man perished,\n\n \"but it was known by the finding of their ship and seven men in a cave\n in the uninhabited regions fourteen winters[256] later; there were\n Ingimund the priest, he was whole and uncorrupted, and so were his\n clothes; but six skeletons lay there by his side, and wax,[257] and\n runes telling how they lost their lives. And men thought this a great\n sign of how God approved of Ingimund the priest's conduct that he\n should have lain out so long with whole body and unhurt.\" [Cf. \"Gr\u00f6nl.\n hist. Mind.,\" ii. p. 754; Biskupa S\u00f6gur, 1858, i. p. 435].\n\nWe see that the legend of the Seven Sleepers, perhaps from Paulus\nWarnefridi (see above, p. 156), has been borrowed; but here it is only one\nof the seven who is holy and unhurt. The shipwreck itself may nevertheless\nbe historical.[258] The craft was doubtless lost on the southern east\ncoast of Greenland, near Cape Farewell, which part was commonly\nfrequented, and where the remains were found.\n\n[Sidenote: Einar Thorgeirsson]\n\nIt is also related in Gudmund Arason's Saga that, some time before this,\nanother ship was lost in the uninhabited regions of Greenland, with the\npriest Ingimund's brother, Einar Thorgeirsson, on board; but the crew\nquarrelled over the food. Einar escaped with two others and made for the\nsettlement (i.e., the Eastern Settlement) across the glaciers (i.e., the\ninland ice). There they lost their lives, when only a day's journey from\nthe settlement, and they were found one or two winters [i.e., years ?]\nlater (Einar's body was then whole and unhurt). The shipwreck may\nconsequently be supposed to have taken place on the southernmost part of\nthe east coast.\n\n[Sidenote: New Land]\n\nIn the Icelandic Annals it is mentioned (in various MSS.) that a new land\nwas discovered west of Iceland in 1285. A MS. of annals, of about 1306\n(written, that is, about twenty years after the event), says that in 1285:\n\"fandz land vestr undan Islande\" (a land was found to the west of\nIceland). A later MS. (of about 1360) says of the same discovery: \"Funduz\nDuneyiar\" (the Down Islands were found). In another old MS. of annals\nthere is an addition by a later hand: \"fundu Helga synir nyia land\nAdalbrandr ok \u00deorvalldr\" (Helge's sons Adalbrand and Thorvald found the\nnew land). Finally we read in a late copy of an old MS. of annals: \"Helga\nsynir sigldu i Gr\u0153nlandz obyg\u00f0ir\"[259] (Helge's sons sailed to the\nuninhabited regions of Greenland). According to this last statement, this\nwould refer to the discovery of land on the east coast of Greenland, west\nof Iceland.[260] It may have been at Angmagsalik or farther south on the\neast coast that Helge's sons--two Icelandic priests--landed.[261] In the\nlate summer this part is usually free from ice. From other Icelandic\nnotices it may be concluded that they returned to Iceland the same autumn.\nWe see that some years later the Norwegian king Eric attempted to get\ntogether an expedition to this new land under the so-called Landa-Rolf,\nwho was sent to Iceland for the purpose in 1289. In 1290 Rolf went about\nIceland, inviting people to join the Newland expedition; but it is\nuncertain whether it ever came to anything, and in 1295 Landa-Rolf died.\nAll this points to the east coast of Greenland having been little known at\nthat time, otherwise a landing there could not be spoken of as the\ndiscovery of a new land; and it is not easy to see why the king should\nsend Rolf to Iceland to get up an expedition to a country which, as they\nmust have been aware, was closed by ice for the greater part of the year.\nAs to the situation on this coast of islands to which the name of Down\nIslands might be appropriate, I shall not venture to offer an opinion.\n\n[Illustration: The southern glacier (Hvitserk) in 62\u00b0 10' N. lat.; seen\nfrom the drift-ice in July 1888]\n\n[Sidenote: The northern east coast]\n\nIn the introduction to Hauk's Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k we read: \"en d\u0153gr sigling er til\nvbygda a Gr\u0153nalandi or Kolbeins ey i nor\u00f0r\" (it is a day's sail to the\nuninhabited regions of Greenland northward from Kolbein's island).\nKolbein's island is the little Mevenklint, out at sea to the north of\nGrim's island and 56 nautical miles (100 kilometres) north of Iceland. The\nuninhabited regions here referred to are most probably East Greenland at\nabout 69\u00b0 N. lat. (Egede Land), which lies to the north-west (to the north\nthere is no land, unless the magnetic north is meant). But it is scarcely\ncredible that the Icelanders ever reached land on this part of the coast,\nwhich is nearly always closed by ice. It may be supposed that they often\nsailed along the edge of the ice when seal-hunting, as the bladder-nose is\nabundant there in summer; they may then have seen the land inside, and so\nknew of it, without having reached it. In this way the statement as to the\ndistance may have originated, and the day's sail may mean to the edge of\nthe ice, whence the land is visible.\n\n According to statements in the fourth part of the \"Rymbegla\" [1780, p.\n 482], a \"d\u0153gr's\" sail (d\u0153gr == half a day of twenty-four hours) was\n equivalent to a distance of two degrees of latitude. But even if we\n accept this large estimate, it will not suffice for the distance\n between Mevenklint and the coast of Greenland to the north-west of it,\n which is about equal to three degrees of latitude (180 geographical\n miles).\n\nIt has been assumed that the Icelanders and Norwegians were acquainted\nwith the east coast of Greenland north of 70\u00b0 N. lat., and visited it for\nhunting seals, etc. But in order to reach it, it is nearly always\nnecessary to sail through ice, and during the greater part of the summer\none has to go as far north as Jan Mayen, or farther, to find the ice\nsufficiently open to allow one to reach the land. It is a somewhat tricky\npiece of sailing, which requires an intimate knowledge of the ice\nconditions; and it is not to be expected that any one should have acquired\nit without having frequently been among the ice with a definite purpose.\nThat storm-driven vessels should have been accidentally cast ashore on\nthis coast is unlikely; as a rule they would be stopped by the ice before\nthey came so far. We may doubtless believe that the Norwegians and\nIcelanders sailed over the whole Arctic Ocean, along the edge of the ice,\nwhen hunting seals and the valuable walrus; but that on their sealing\nexpeditions they should have made a practice of penetrating far into the\nice is not credible, since their clinker-built craft were not adapted to\nsailing among ice; nor have we any information that would point to this.\nIt is nevertheless not entirely impossible that they should have reached\nthe northern east coast, since it may be comparatively free from ice in\nlate summer and autumn. There would be plenty of seals, and especially of\nwalrus, and on land there were reindeer and musk ox, which latter,\nhowever, is nowhere mentioned in Norse literature.\n\n[Sidenote: Glaciers on the east coast]\n\nThe old sea-route, the so-called \"Eiriks-stefna,\" from Iceland to\nGreenland (i.e., the Greenland Settlements) went westward from Sn\u00e6fellsnes\nuntil one sighted the glaciers of Greenland, when one steered south-west\nalong the drift-ice until well past Hvarf, etc. This is the route that\nEric followed, according to the oldest accounts in the Landn\u00e1ma, when he\nsailed to Greenland, and the glacier he first sighted in Greenland is\nthere called \"Mi\u00f0j\u01ebkull\" (see above, p. 267). This name (the middle\nglacier) shows that two other glaciers must have been known, one to the\nnorth and one to the south, as indeed is explained in a far later work,\nthe so-called \"Gripla\" (date uncertain, copied in the seventeenth century\nby Bj\u00f6rn J\u00f3nsson), where we read:[262]\n\n \"From Bjarmeland [i.e., northern Russia] uninhabited regions lie\n northward as far as that which is called Greenland. But there are bays\n (botnar g\u00e1nga \u00fear fyrir) and the land turns towards the south-west;\n there are glaciers and fjords, and islands lying off the glaciers; as\n far as [or rather, beyond] the first glacier they have not explored;\n to the second is a journey of half a month, to the third a week's; it\n is nearest the settlement; it is called Hvitserk; there the land turns\n to the north; but he who would not miss the settlement, let him steer\n to the south-west\" [that is, to get round and clear of the drift-ice\n that lies off Cape Farewell].\n\n[Illustration: The mountains from Tingmiarmiut Fjord northward in 62\u00b0 35'\nN. lat. Seen from the drift-ice in July 1888]\n\nNot taking the distances into account, a sail of half a month and of a\nweek, this is an admirable description of East Greenland from about 69\u00b0 N.\nlat. southwards. By \"glaciers\" is obviously meant parts of the inland ice,\nwhich is the most noticeable feature of this coast, and which could not\neasily be omitted in a description of it. When we read that there are\nglaciers and fjords, and that islands lie off the glaciers, then every one\nwho is familiar with this part of Greenland must be reminded of what\ncatches the eye at the first sight of this coast from the sea: the dark\nstretches of land, not covered by snow, and the islands, lying in front of\nthe vast white sheath of the inland ice, which is indented by bays and\nfjords. The three glaciers mentioned cannot, in my opinion, be three\nseparate mountain summits covered with snow or ice, as has frequently been\nsupposed. There is such a number of high summits in this country that,\nalthough I have sailed along the greater part of it, I am unable to name\nthree as specially prominent. If one has seen from the sea the white\nsnow-sheet of Vatnaj\u00f6kel in Iceland (compare also, on a smaller scale, the\nHardangerj\u00f6kel and others in Norway), then perhaps it will be easier to\nunderstand what the ancient Icelanders meant by their three glaciers on\nthe east coast of Greenland, where the mass of glacier has a still\nmightier and more striking effect. Now, on that part of it which they and\nthe Greenlanders knew, or had seen from the sea--and which extends towards\nthe south-west (as we read) from about 70\u00b0 N. lat.[263]--there are\nprecisely three tracts where the inland ice covers the whole country and\nreaches to the very shore, so that the glacier surface is visible from the\nsea, and forms the one conspicuous feature that must strike every one who\nsails along the outer edge of the ice (or drifts in the ice, as I have\ntwice done). The northernmost tract is to the north of 67\u00b0 N. lat. (see\nmap, p. 259); there the inland ice covers the coast down to the sea\nitself. This was the \"northern glacier,\" which no one was able to\napproach on account of the drift-ice, but which was only seen from a great\ndistance. It was not until a few years ago that Captain Amdrup succeeded\nin travelling along this part of the country in boats, inshore of the ice.\n\n[Illustration: The northern part of the \"Mi\u00f0j\u01ebkull\" (to the left) and the\ncountry to the west of Sermilik-fjord, in 65\u00b0 40' N. lat. Seen from the\ndrift-ice in July 1888]\n\nThe second tract is the coast by Pikiutdlek and Umivik, south of\nAngmagsalik, between Sermilik-fjord (65\u00b0 36' N. lat.) and Cape M\u00f6sting\n(63\u00b0 40' N. lat.), where the inland ice covers the whole coast land, and\nonly a few mountain summits, or \"Nunataks,\" rise up, and bare, scattered\nislands and tongues of land lie in front. This was the \"Mi\u00f0j\u01ebkull\" (middle\nglacier), which was the first land made in sailing west from Sn\u00e6fellsnes,\nand which was a good and unmistakable sea-mark. In some MSS. it is called\n\"hinn mikla J\u01ebkull\" (the great glacier). There the sea is often\ncomparatively free of ice in August and September, but we may be sure that\nthe voyagers to Greenland did not as a rule try to land there; in the\nwords of Ivar B\u00e1rdsson's directions, they were to \"take their course from\nSn\u00e6fellsnes and sail due west for a day and a night, but then to steer to\nthe south-west, in order to avoid the above-mentioned ice\" (cf. above, p.\n262).\n\nThe third tract is the coast south of Tingmiarmiut and Mogens Heinesen's\nFjord (62\u00b0 20' N. lat.), where again the inland ice is predominant, and\nthe only conspicuous feature that is first seen from the sea. This was the\nthird or \"southern glacier\"; it lay nearest to Hvarf and was the sure\nsea-mark before rounding the southern end of the country. It appears to me\nthat in this way we have a natural explanation of what these disputed\nglaciers were. Between them lay long stretches of mountainous coast.\nNorthward from Cape Farewell to the \"southern glacier\" are high mountains,\nso that one does not see the even expanse of the inland ice from the sea.\nNorth of the \"southern glacier\" is the fjord-indented mountainous country\nabout Tingmiarmiut, Umanak and Skjoldungen, and so northward as far as\nCape M\u00f6sting; there the mighty white line of the inland ice is wholly\nconcealed behind a wall of lofty peaks. On the north side of the\n\"Mi\u00f0j\u01ebkull\" again is the mountain country about Angmagsalik, from\nSermilik-fjord north-eastwards, with a high range of mountains, so that\nneither is the inland ice seen from the sea there. The most conspicuous\nsummit of this range is Ingolf's Fjeld.\n\n[Illustration: The mountains near Angmagsalik, east of Sermilik-fjord.\nSeen from the drift-ice in July 1888]\n\n[Sidenote: Bl\u00e1serkr]\n\nThus, according to my view, the statements as to the glaciers on the east\ncoast of Greenland are easily explained. It is a different matter when we\ncome to the two names \"Bl\u00e1serkr\" and \"Hv\u00edtserkr,\" which, in later times\nespecially, were those most frequently used. They have often been confused\nand interchanged, and while \"Bl\u00e1serkr\" is found in the oldest authorities,\nthe name \"Hv\u00edtserkr\" becomes more and more common in later writers. More\nrecent authors have frequently regarded them as standing in a certain\nopposition to each other, one meaning a dark glacier or summit, and the\nother a white one, which may indeed seem natural. But it is striking that,\nwhile \"Bl\u00e1serkr\" alone is mentioned in the oldest authorities, such as the\nLandn\u00e1ma (and the Saga of Eric the Red, in the Hauksb\u00f3k), it soon\ndisappears almost entirely from literature, and is replaced by\n\"Hv\u00edtserkr,\" which is first mentioned in MSS. of the fourteenth century\nand later; and in the fifteenth century MS. (A.M. 557, qv.) of the Saga of\nEric the Red (as in other late extracts from the same saga) we find\n\"Hv\u00edtserkr\" instead of \"Bl\u00e1serkr.\"[264] I have not found the two names\nused contemporaneously in any Icelandic MS.; it is either one or the\nother, and nowhere are both names found as designating two separate places\non the coast of Greenland. It may therefore be somewhat rash to assume, as\nhas been done hitherto, that they were two \"mountains,\" one of them lying\na certain distance to the north on the east coast of Greenland, and the\nother near Cape Farewell. The view that they were mountains is not a new\none. In Ivar B\u00e1rdsson's description Hv\u00edtserk is called \"a high mountain\"\nnear Hvarf; while Bj\u00f6rn J\u00f3nsson of Skards\u00e1 says that it is a \"fuglabiarg i\nlandnordurhafi\" (i.e., a fowling cliff in the Polar Sea).\n\n[Illustration: The inland ice at \"Mi\u00f0j\u01ebkull.\" In the centre the mountain\nKiatak, 64\u00b0 20' N. lat. Seen from the drift-ice in July 1888]\n\nFrom the meaning of the names--the dark (\"bl\u00e1\") sark and the white\nsark--we should be inclined to think that they were applied to\nsnow-fields, or glaciers, like, for instance, such names as Sneh\u00e6tta and\nLodalsk\u00e5pa in Norway. But another possibility is that it was the _form_ of\nthe sark that was thought of, and that the names were applied to mountain\nsummits; in a similar way \"stakk\" (stack, or gown) is used for peaks in\nNorway (cf. L\u00f6vstakken near Bergen); and in Shetland corresponding names\nare known for high cliffs on the sea: Blostakk (== Bl\u00e1stakkr), Grostakk\n(== Gr\u00e1stakkr), Kwitastakk (== Hv\u00edti stakkr), Gronastakk and Gronistakk\n(== Gr\u0153ni stakkr, cliffs with grass-grown tops), etc. [cf. J. Jakobsen,\n1901, p. 151].\n\n[Illustration: The mountains about Ingolf's Fjeld, seen from a distance in\nJune 1888]\n\nIn the Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k (both Hauksb\u00f3k and Sturlub\u00f3k) we read: \"Eirekr sigldi\nvndan Sn\u00e6fells nese. En hann kom utan at Midiokli \u00fear sem Bl\u00e1serkr\nheitir.\" (Eric sailed from Sn\u00e6fellsnes, and made the Mid-Glacier at a\nplace called Blue-Sark.) In Eric the Red's Saga this has been altered to\n\"hann kom utan at j\u01ebkli \u00fee\u00edm er Bl\u00e1serkr heitir.\" (He made the glacier\nthat is called Blue-Sark.) It is obvious that the Landn\u00e1ma text is the\nmore original, and thus two explanations are possible: either Bl\u00e1serkr is\na part of the glacier, or it is a dark mountain seen on this part of the\ncoast. I cannot remember any place where the inland ice of this district,\nseen at a distance from the drift-ice, had a perceptibly darker colour;\nits effect is everywhere a brilliant white. On approaching an ice-glacier,\nas, for instance, the Colberger Heide (64\u00b0 N. lat., cf. Nansen, 1890, p.\n370; Engl. ed., i. 423), it may appear somewhat darker and of a bluish\ntinge; but this can never have been a recognisable landmark at any\ndistance. One is therefore tempted to believe that Bl\u00e1serkr was a black,\nbare mountain-peak. But the peaks that show up along the edge of the\n\"Mi\u00f0j\u01ebkull\" (between Sermilik and Cape M\u00f6sting) are all comparatively low;\nthe mountain-summit Kiatak, near Umivik [see Nansen, 1890, pp. 370, 374,\n444; Engl. ed., i. 423, 429, ii. 13], answers best as regards shape, and\nis conspicuous enough, but it is only 2450 feet high. It is possible that\nBl\u00e1serkr did not lie in Mi\u00f0j\u01ebkull itself, but was the lofty Ingolf's\nFjeld (7300 feet high), which is the first mountain one sees far out at\nsea, on approaching East Greenland from Iceland; and it is seen to the\nnorth in sailing past Cape Dan and in towards Mi\u00f0j\u01ebkull. It may then have\nbeen confused with the latter in later times. But this supposition is\ndoubtful. The most natural way for the Icelanders when making for\nGreenland must in any case have been first to make the edge of the ice,\nwest-north-west from Sn\u00e6fellsnes, when they sighted Ingolf's Fjeld (or\nBl\u00e1serkr ?); then they followed the ice west or west-south-west, and came\nstraight in to Mi\u00f0j\u01ebkull, at about 65\u00b0 N. lat., or the same latitude as\nSn\u00e6fellsnes. Here the edge of the ice turns southward, following the land,\nand the course has to be altered in order to sail past the southern\nglacier and round Hvarf. This agrees well with most descriptions of the\nvoyage, and among them the most trustworthy. But the names have often been\nconfused; Hv\u00edtserk and Bl\u00e1serk especially have been interchanged;[265] and\nthis is not surprising, since the men who wrote in Iceland in the\nfourteenth and fifteenth centuries were themselves unacquainted with these\nwaters.\n\n[Sidenote: Hv\u00edtserkr]\n\nThe name \"Hv\u00edtserkr\" would appear most appropriate to a glacier, and in\nreviewing the various contexts in which it is mentioned in the narratives,\nmy impression is rather that in later times it was often used as a name\nfor the inland ice itself on the east and south coasts of Greenland; and\nas, on the voyage to the Eastern Settlement, the inland ice was most seen\non the southern part of the east coast, which was also resorted to for\nseal-hunting, the name Hv\u00edtserk became especially applied to the southern\nglacier, as in the tale of Einar Sokkason (see above, p. 283); but it\nmight also be the mid-glacier. This view is supported by, for instance,\nthe so-called Walkendorff addition to Ivar B\u00e1rdsson's description, where\nthe following passage occurs about the voyage from Iceland to Greenland\n[\"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" iii. p. 491]:\n\n \"Item when one is south of Breedefjord in Iceland, then he must steer\n westward until he sees Hvidserch in Greenland, and then steer\n south-west, until the above mentioned Hvidserch is to the north of\n him; thus may one with God's help freely seek Greenland, without much\n danger from ice, and with God's help find Eric's fjord.\"\n\nIt is clearly enough the inland ice itself, the most prominent feature on\nthe east coast, that is here called Hvidserch. It is first seen at\nMi\u00f0j\u01ebkull, in coming westwards from Iceland; and one has the inland ice\n(ice-blink) on the north when about to round Cape Farewell. No single\nmountain can possibly fit this description; but this does not exclude the\npossibility of others having erroneously connected the name with such a\nmountain, in the same way as Danish sailors of recent times have applied\nit to a lofty island, \"Dadloodit,\" in the southernmost part of Greenland\n[\"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" i. p. 453]. The fact that Hv\u00edtserk in Ivar\nB\u00e1rdsson's description is called \"a high mountain,\" which is seen one day\nbefore reaching Hvarf, must be due to a similar misunderstanding. As\nBl\u00e1serk, although originally it may have been a mountain, was confounded\nwith the Mid-Glacier, it is comprehensible that the name Bl\u00e1serk should be\ngradually superseded by Hv\u00edtserk.\n\nIn one or two passages of the old narratives it is related that when one\nwas half-way between Iceland and Greenland one could see at the same time,\nin clear weather, Sn\u00e6fells glacier in Iceland and Bl\u00e1serk (or\nHv\u00edtserk)[266] in Greenland. According to my experience this is not\npossible, even if we call in the aid of a powerful refraction, or even\nmirage; but, on the other hand, one can see the reflections of the land or\nthe ice on the sky, and when sailing (along the edge of the ice) eastwards\nor westwards, one can very well see the top of the Sn\u00e6fells glacier and\nthe top of Ingolf's Fjeld on the same day.\n\n[Sidenote: Place-names on the east coast]\n\nThe Icelandic accounts mention several places in East Greenland, such as\n\"Kross-eyjar,\" \"Finnsbu\u00f0ir,\" \"Berufjord\" (\"bera\" == she-bear), and the\nfjord \"\u00d6llum-Lengri.\" Frequent expeditions for seal-hunting were made to\nthese places from the Eastern Settlement, and they must have lain near it,\njust north of Cape Farewell.\n\n\nVOYAGES TO THE NORTHERN WEST COAST OF GREENLAND, NOR\u00d0RSETUR, AND BAFFIN'S\nBAY IN THE MIDDLE AGES\n\n[Sidenote: Runic stone from 72\u00b0 55' N. lat.]\n\nTo the north of the northernmost inhabited fjords of the Western\nSettlement lay the uninhabited regions. Thither the Greenlanders resorted\nevery summer for seal-hunting; there lay what they called the \"Nor\u00f0rsetur\"\n(\"seta\" == place of residence; the northern stations or fishing-places),\nand it is doubtless partly to these districts that reference is made in\nEric the Red's Saga, where it is said of Thorhall the Hunter that \"he had\nlong been with Eric hunting in summer,\" and that \"he had a wide\nacquaintance with the uninhabited regions.\" We have no information as to\nhow far north the longest expeditions of the Greenlanders extended, but we\nknow that they reached the neighbourhood of the modern Upernivik; for,\ntwenty-eight miles to the north-west of it--on a little island called\nKingigtorsuak, in 72\u00b0 55' N. lat.--three cairns are said to have been\nfound early in the nineteenth century (before 1824); and in one of them a\nsmall runic stone, with the inscription: \"Erling Sigvathsson, Bjarne\nThordarson, and Endride Oddson on the Sunday before 'gagndag' [i.e., April\n25] erected these cairns and cleared ...\"[267] Then follow six secret\nrunes, which it was formerly sought to interpret, erroneously, as a date,\n1135. Professor L. F. L\u00e4ffler has explained them as meaning ice;[268] it\nwould then read \"and cleared away ice.\" Judging from the language, the\ninscription would be of the fourteenth century;[269] Professor Magnus\nOlsen (in a letter to me) thinks it might date from about 1300, or perhaps\na little later. Why the cairns were built seems mysterious. It is possible\nthat they were sea-marks for fishing-grounds; but it is not likely that\nthe Greenlanders were in the habit of going so far north. One would be\nmore inclined to think they were set up as a monument of a remarkable\nexpedition, which had penetrated to regions previously unknown; but why\nbuild more than one cairn? Was there one for each man? The most remarkable\nthing is that the cairns are stated to have been set up in April, when the\nsea in that locality is covered with ice. The three men must either have\nwintered there in the north, which seems the more probable alternative;\nthey may then have been starving, and the object of the cairns was to call\nthe attention of possible future travellers to their bodies--or they may\nhave come the same spring over the ice from the south, and in that case\nthey most probably travelled with Eskimo dog-sledges, and were on a\nhunting expedition, perhaps for bears. But they cannot have travelled\nnorthwards from the Eastern or Western Settlement the same spring. In any\ncase they may have been in company with Eskimo, whom we know to have lived\non Disco Bay, and probably also farther south at that time. From them the\nNorsemen may have learnt to hunt on the ice, by which they were able to\nsupport themselves in the north during the winter.\n\n[Illustration: Runic stone from Kingigtorsuak (after A. A. Bj\u00f6rnbo)]\n\nThe earliest mention of hunting expeditions to the northern west coast of\nGreenland is found in the \"Historia Norwegi\u00e6\" (thirteenth century), where\nit is said that hunters \"to the north\" (of the Greenlanders) come across\n\"certain small people whom they call Skr\u00e6lings\" (see later, chapter x.).\n\n[Sidenote: Nor\u00f0rsetur]\n\nThere are few references to the \"Nor\u00f0rsetur\" in the literature that has\nbeen preserved. A lay on the subject, \"Nor\u00f0rsetudr\u00e1pa,\" was known in the\nMiddle Ages, written by an otherwise unknown skald, Sveinn. Only a few\nshort fragments of it are known from \"Sk\u00e1lda,\" Snorra-Edda [cf. \"Gr\u00f6nl.\nhist. Mind.,\" iii. pp. 235 ff.]. It is wild and gloomy, and speaks of the\nugly sons of Fornj\u00f3t [the storms] who were the first to drift [i.e., with\nsnow], and of \u00c6gi's storm-loving daughters [the waves], who wove and drew\ntight the hard sea-spray, fed by the frost from the mountains.\n\nReference is also made to these hunting expeditions to the north in\n\"Sk\u00e1ld-Helga Rimur,\" where we read [\"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" ii. p. 492]:\n\n \"Gumnar f\u00f3ru i Greipar nor\u00f0r\n Gr\u00f6nlands var \u00fear byg\u00f0ar spor\u00f0r.\n vir\u00f0ar \u00e1ttu vi\u00f0a hvar\n vei\u00f0iskapar at leita \u00fear.\n\n Skeggi enn pr\u00fa\u00f0i skip sitt bj\u00f3,\n sk\u00fatunni rendi nor\u00f0r um sj\u00f3,\n h\u00f6ldum ekki hafit vannst,\n hvarf i burtu, en aldri fannst.\"[270]\n\n\n Men went north to Greipar,\n There was the end of Greenland's habitations.\n Men might there far and wide\n Seek for hunting.\n\n Skegge the Stately fitted out his ship,\n With his vessel he sailed north in the sea,\n By the men the sea was not conquered,\n They were lost, and never found.\n\nIt appears from H\u00e5kon H\u00e5konsson's Saga that the Nor\u00f0rsetur were a\nwell-known part of Greenland; for we read of the submission of the\nGreenlanders to the Norwegian Crown that they promised\n\n \"to pay the king fines for all manslaughter, whether of Norsemen or\n Greenlanders, and whether they were killed in the settlements or in\n Nor\u00f0rsetur, and in all the district to the north under the star [i.e.,\n the pole-star] the king should have his weregild\" [\"Gr\u00f6nl. hist.\n Mind.,\" ii. p. 779].\n\nIn Bj\u00f6rn J\u00f3nsson's \"Gr\u00f6nlands Annaler\" (cf. above, p. 263) these\nexpeditions to the Nor\u00f0rsetur are mentioned in more detail, as well as a\nremarkable voyage to the north in 1267 [\"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" iii. pp. 238\nff.]. We there read:\n\n \"All the great franklins of Greenland had large ships and vessels\n built to send to the 'Nor\u00f0rsetur' for seal-hunting, with all kinds of\n sealing gear ('vei\u00f0iskap') and cut-up wood ('telg\u00f0um vi\u00f0um'); and\n sometimes they themselves accompanied the expeditions--as is related\n at length in the tales, both in the Sk\u00e1ld-Helga saga and in that of\n Thordis; there most of what they took was seal-oil, for all\n seal-hunting was better there than at home in the settlements; melted\n seal-fat was poured into sacks of hide [literally boats of hide], and\n hung up against the wind on boards, till it thickened, then it was\n prepared as it should be. The Nor\u00f0rsetu-men had their booths or houses\n ('sk\u00e1la') both in Greipar and in Kr\u00f3ksfjar\u00f0arhei\u00f0r\n [Kroksfjords-heath]. Driftwood is found there, but no growing trees.\n This northern end of Greenland is most liable to take up all the wood\n and other drift that comes from the bays of Markland....\"\n\nIn an extract which follows: \"On the voyage northward to the uninhabited\nregions\" (probably from a different and later source) we read:\n\n \"The Greenlanders are constantly obliged to make voyages to the\n uninhabited regions in the northern land's end or point, both for the\n sake of wood [i.e., driftwood] and sealing; it is called Greipar and\n Kr\u00f3ksfjar\u00f0arhei\u00f0r; it is a great and long sea voyage thither;[271] as\n the Sk\u00e1ld-Helga saga clearly bears witness, where it is said of it:\n\n \"'Garpar kvomu i Greypar nor\u00f0r. The men came to Greipar in the north,\n Gr\u00f6nlands er \u00fear bryggju spor\u00f0r.'[272] There is the bridge-spur (end)\n of Greenland.\n\n \"Sometimes this sealing season ('verti\u00f0') of theirs in Greipar or\n Kr\u00f3ksfjardarheidr is called Nor\u00f0rseta.\"\n\n[Sidenote: Greipar and Kr\u00f3ksfjardarheidr. Their situation]\n\nAccording to this description we must look for Nordrsetur, with Greipar\nand Kr\u00f3ksfjardarheidr, to the north of the northern extremity of the\nWestern Settlement, which from other descriptions must have been at\nStraumsfjord, about 66-1/2\u00b0 N. lat. (see map, p. 266). There in the north,\nthen, there was said to be driftwood, and plenty of seals. The latter\ncircumstance is especially suited to the districts about Holstensborg and\nnorthward to Egedes Minde (i.e., between 66\u00b0 and 68-1/2\u00b0 N. lat.), and\nfurther to Disco Bay and Vaigat (see map, p. 259). Besides abundance of\nseals there was also good walrus-hunting, and this was valuable on account\nof the tusks and hide, which were Greenland's chief articles of export\n[cf. for instance, \"The King's Mirror,\" above, p. 277]. There was also\nnarwhale, the tusk or spear of which was even more valuable than walrus\ntusks. \"Greipar\"[273] may have been near Holstensborg, about 67\u00b0 N. lat.\n\"Kr\u00f3ksfjar\u00f0arhei\u00f0r\" may have been at Disco Bay or Vaigat.[274] It also\nagrees with this that the northern point of Greenland (\"\u00feessi nor\u00f0skagi\nGr\u0153nlands\") was in Nor\u00f0rsetur, and that \"Greipar\" was at the land's end\n(\"byg\u00f0ar spor\u00f0r\") of Greenland. For what the Greenlanders generally\nunderstood by Greenland was the Eastern and Western Settlements, and the\nbroad extent of coast lying to the north of them, which was not covered by\nthe inland ice, and which reached to Disco Bay. It was the part where\nhuman habitation was possible, and where there was no inland ice; it was\ntherefore natural for them to call Greipar the northern end of the\ncountry.\n\n In an old chorography, copied by Bj\u00f6rn J\u00f3nsson under the name of\n \"Gronlandi\u00e6 vetus chorographia\"[275] (in his \"Gr\u00f6nlands Annaler\"),\n there is mention of the Western Settlement and of the districts to the\n north of it. After naming the fjords in the Eastern Settlement it\n proceeds: \"Then it is six days' rowing, six men in a six-oared boat,\n to the Western Settlement (then the fjords are enumerated),[276] then\n from this Western Settlement to Lysefjord it is six days' rowing,\n thence six days' rowing to Karlsbu\u00f0a [Karl's booths], then three days'\n rowing to Biarneyiar [Bear-islands or island], twelve days' rowing\n around ... ey,[277] Eisunes, \u00c6danes in the north. Thus it is reckoned\n that there are 190 dwellings [estates] in the Eastern Settlement, and\n 90 in the Western.\" This description is obscure on many points. From\n other ancient authorities it appears that Lysefjord was the\n southernmost fjord in the Western Settlement [now Fiskerfjord, cf. G.\n Storm, 1887, p. 35; F. J\u00f3nsson, 1899, p. 315], but how in that case\n there could be six days' rowing from this Western Settlement to\n Lysefjord seems incomprehensible. It might be supposed that it is the\n distance from the southern extremity of the Western Settlement that is\n intended, and thus the passage has been translated in \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist.\n Mind.,\" iii. p. 229; but then it is strange that in the original MS.\n the fjords of the settlement should have been enumerated before the\n distance to the first fjord was given. If this, however, be correct,\n it would then have been twelve days' rowing from the northernmost\n fjord in the Eastern Settlement to Lysefjord in the Western. This\n might perhaps agree with Ivar B\u00e1rdsson's description of Greenland,\n where it is stated that \"from the Eastern Settlement to the Western\n Settlement is twelve sea-leagues, and all uninhabited.\" These twelve\n sea-leagues may be the above-mentioned twelve days' rowing, repeated\n in this form. It was a good two hundred nautical miles (forty ancient\n sea-leagues) from the northernmost fjord of the Eastern Settlement to\n the interior of Lysefjord. With twelve days' rowing, this would be at\n the rate of eighteen miles a day; but if we allow for their keeping\n the winding course inside the islands, it will be considerably longer.\n If we put a day's rowing from Lysefjord northward at, say, twenty\n nautical miles, then \"Karlsbu\u00f0ir\" would lie in about 65\u00b0, and\n \"Biarneyiar\" in about 66\u00b0; but there is then a difficulty about this\n island, together with Eisunes and \u00c6danes, which it is said to have\n taken twelve days to row round. On the other hand, it is a good two\n hundred miles round Disco Island, so that this might correspond to\n twelve days' rowing at eighteen miles a day. And if this island is\n intended, then either the number of days' rowing northward along the\n coast must be increased, or the starting-point was not the Lysefjord\n (Fiskerfjord) that lay on the extreme south of the Western Settlement.\n But the description is altogether too uncertain to admit of any\n definite conclusion. It is not mentioned whether the northern\n localities, Karlsbu\u00f0ir and farther north, were included in Nordrsetur,\n but it seems probable that they were.\n\nIn this connection the statement in Ivar B\u00e1rdsson's description must also\nbe borne in mind:\n\n[Sidenote: Himinra\u00f0 and Hunenrioth]\n\n \"Item there lies in the north, farther from the Western Settlement, a\n great mountain that is called Himinra\u00f0zfjall,[278] and farther than to\n this mountain must no man sail, if he would preserve his life from the\n many whirlpools which there lie round all the ocean.\"\n\nIt is true that Ivar's description as a whole does not seem to be very\ntrustworthy as regards details, nor do the whirlpools here spoken of tend\nto inspire confidence, suggesting as they do that it was near the earth's\nlimit, where the ocean ends in one or more vast abysses; but it is\nnevertheless possible that the mountain in question may have been an\nactual landmark in the extreme north, on that part of the west coast of\nGreenland to which voyages were habitually made, and in that case it must\nhave been situated in \"Nordrsetur.\"\n\n Mention may also be made of a puzzling scholium to Adam of Bremen's\n work [cf. Lappenberg, 1838, pp. 851 f.]; it was added at a late\n period, ostensibly from \"Danish fragments,\" but the form of the names\n betrays a Norse origin, and we must suppose that it is derived from\n ancient Norwegian or Icelandic sources. The following is a translation\n of the Latin text:\n\n \"From Norway to Iceland is fourteen dozen leagues ('duodene leucarum')\n across the sea (or XIII. dozen sea-leagues, that is, 168\n leagues).[279] From Iceland as far as the green land ('terram\n viridem') Gronlandt is about fourteen dozen ('duoden\u00e6'). There is a\n promontory and it is called 'Huerff' [i.e., Hvarf], and there snow\n lies continually and it is called 'Hwideserck.' From 'Hwideserck' as\n far as 'Sunderbondt' is ten dozen leagues ('duoden\u00e6 leucarum'); from\n 'Sunderbondt' as far as 'Norderbondt' is eleven dozen leagues (d. l.).\n From 'Nordbundt' to 'Hunenrioth' is seventeen dozen leagues, and here\n men resort in order to kill white bears and 'Tauwallen'\" [\"tandhvaler\"\n (?)--\"tusk-whales\"--i.e., walrus and narwhale (?)].[280]\n\n This passage is difficult to understand. \"Sunderbondt\" and\n \"Norderbondt\" are probably to be regarded as translations of the\n Norwegian \"Syd-botten\" and \"Nord-botten.\" The latter might be the\n Polar Sea, or \"Hafsbotn,\" north of Iceland and Norway; on Claudius\n Clavus's map this is called \"Nordhindh Bondh\" (Nancy map) and\n \"Nordenbodhn\" (Vienna text).[281] But in that case we should have to\n suppose that the distances referred to a voyage from Norway to\n Iceland, from thence to Hvarf and Hvitserk, and then back again\n northward along the east coast of Greenland. It seems more probable\n that the direction of the voyage was supposed to be continued round\n Hvarf and up along the west coast; but where \"Sunderbondt\" and\n \"Norderbondt\" are to be looked for on that coast is difficult to say;\n the names would most naturally apply to two fjords or bays, and in\n some way or other these might be connected with the Eastern and\n Western Settlements; \"Norderbondt\" might, for instance, have come to\n mean the largest fjord, Godthaabs-fjord, in the Western Settlement.\n Since \"h\u00fan\" in Old Norse means a bear-cub or young bear, one might be\n inclined to connect \"Hunenrioth\" with Bjarn-eyar, where perhaps bears\n were hunted; but in that case \"-rioth\" must be taken to be the Old\n Norse \"hrjotr\" (growl, roar), which would be an unlikely name for\n islands or lands. It is more reasonable to suppose that it means the\n same as the above-mentioned mountain \"Himinra\u00f0,\" from Ivar B\u00e1rdsson's\n description. It might then be probable that this was called \"Himinro\u00f0\"\n (i.e., flushing of the sky, sun-gold, from the root-form \"rio\u00f0a\") a\n natural name for a high mountain;[282] by an error in writing or\n reading this might easily become \"Hunenrioth,\" as it might also become\n \"Himinra\u00f0.\" Thus it is possibly a mountain in Nordrsetur (see above).\n But in any case the distances are impossible as they stand, and until\n more light has been thrown upon this scholium, we cannot attach much\n importance to it.\n\n[Sidenote: Nordrsetur not beyond Baffin's Bay]\n\nFor many reasons it is unreasonable to look for \"Greipar\" and\n\"Kr\u00f3ksfjardarheidr\" so far north as Smith Sound or Jones Sound (or\nLancaster Sound), as, amongst others in recent times, Professor A. Bugge\n[1898] and Captain G. Isachsen [1907] have done:[283]\n\n(1) In the first place this would assume that the Greenlanders on their\nNordrsetu expeditions sailed right across the ice-blocked and difficult\nBaffin's Bay and Melville Bay every summer, and back again in the autumn,\nin their small clinker-built vessels, which were not suited for sailing\namong the ice. We are told indeed (see above, p. 299) that the franklins\nhad large ships and vessels for this voyage; but this was written in\nIceland by men who were not themselves acquainted with the conditions in\nGreenland, and the statement doubtless means no more than that these\nvessels, or rather boats, were large in comparison to the small boats\n(perhaps for the most part boats of hides) which they usually employed in\ntheir home fisheries. Timber for shipbuilding was not easy to obtain in\nGreenland. Drift-wood would not go very far in building boats, to say\nnothing of larger vessels, and they must have depended on an occasional\ncargo of timber from Norway, or perhaps what they could themselves fetch\nfrom Markland. They could hardly have got the material for building\nvessels suited for sailing through the ice of Baffin's Bay in this way.\nMoreover, we know from several sources that there was great scarcity of\nrivets and iron nails in Greenland; so that vessels were largely built\nwith wooden nails. In 1189 a Greenlander, Asmund Kastanrasti, came with\ntwelve others from Kross-eyjar in Greenland to Iceland \"in a ship that was\nfastened together with wooden nails alone, save that it was also bound\nwith thongs.... He had also been in Finnsbu\u00f0ir.\" He did not sail from\nIceland till the following year, and was then shipwrecked.[284] This ship\nmust have been one of the largest and best they had in Greenland. It is\ntherefore impossible that they should have been able to keep up any\nconstant communication with the countries on the north side of Baffin's\nBay.\n\n(2) Then comes the question: what reason would they have had for exposing\nthemselves to the many dangers involved in the long northward voyage\nthrough the ice? Their purpose may have been chiefly to kill seals and\ncollect driftwood. But where there is much ice for the greater part of the\nyear, the driftwood is prevented from being thrown up on shore; and it is\nthe fact that in Baffin's Bay there is unusually little of it, so that the\nEskimo of Cape York and Smith Sound are barely able to get enough wood for\nmaking weapons and implements. In addition to the ice the reason for this\nis that no current of importance bearing driftwood reaches the north of\nBaffin's Bay. Consequently, this again is conclusive proof that the\nNordrsetur of the descriptions is not to be looked for there, nor was\nsealing particularly good; they had better sealing-grounds in the\ndistricts about Holstensborg, Egedes Minde and Disco Bay.[285]\n\n[Sidenote: Nordrsetur at and south of Disco Bay]\n\nEverything points to the Nordrsetur having been situated in the districts\neither in or to the south of Disco Bay,[286] which must have been a\nnatural hunting-ground for the Greenlanders, just as the Norwegians sail\nlong distances to Lofoten for fishing. Moreover, one of the objects of the\nvoyages to Nordrsetur was to collect driftwood; now the driftwood comes\nwith the Polar Current round Cape Farewell and is thrown up on shore along\nthe whole of the west coast northward as far as this current washes the\nland--that is to say, about as far north as Disco Bay. In the south of\nGreenland, the ancient Eastern Settlement, there is drift-ice for part of\nthe year, and not so much driftwood comes ashore as farther north, in the\nancient Western Settlement (especially the Godthaab district) and to the\nnorth of it. Besides, in the settlements there were many to find it and\nutilise it, while in the uninhabited regions there were only the Eskimo,\nof whom perhaps there were as yet few south of 68\u00b0 N. lat. On their way to\nand from the Nordrsetur, therefore, the Greenlanders travelled along the\nshore and collected driftwood wherever they found it. In Iceland this was\nmisunderstood in the sense that driftwood was supposed to be washed ashore\nchiefly in Nordrsetur; and they believed it to come from Markland, perhaps\nbecause the Greenlanders sometimes went there for timber, and it was thus\nregarded by them as a country rich in trees. It is, however, also possible\nthat the name Markland, i.e., woodland, itself may have created this\nconception. In reality most of the driftwood comes from Siberia, which was\nunknown to them, and it is brought with the drift-ice over the Polar Sea\nand southward along the east coast of Greenland.\n\n[Illustration: Driftwood. From an Icelandic MS., fifteenth century]\n\n[Sidenote: Voyage to Baffin's Bay in 1267]\n\nThe following is the account of the voyage of about 1267, given by Bj\u00f6rn\nJ\u00f3nsson (taken, according to his statement, from the Hauksb\u00f3k, where it is\nno longer to be found):\n\n \"That summer [i.e., 1266] when Arnold the priest went from Greenland,\n and they were stranded in Iceland at Hitarnes, pieces of wood were\n found out at sea, which had been cut with hatchets and adzes\n ('\u00feexlum'), and among them one in which wedges of tusk and bone were\n imbedded.[287] The same summer men came from Nordrsetur, who had gone\n farther north than had been heard of before. They saw no\n dwelling-places of Skr\u00e6lings, except in Kr\u00f3ksfjardarheidr, and\n therefore it is thought that they [i.e., the Skr\u00e6lings] must there\n have the shortest way to travel, wherever they come from.... After\n this [the following year ?] the priests sent a ship northward to find\n out what the country was like to the north of the farthest point they\n had previously reached; and they sailed out from Kr\u00f3ksfjardarheidr,\n until the land sank below the horizon ('l\u00e6g\u00f0i'). After this they met\n with a southerly gale and thick weather ('myrkri'), and they had to\n stand off [i.e., to the north]. But when the storm passed over ('i\n rauf') and it cleared ('lysti'), they saw many islands and all kinds\n of game, both seals and whales [i.e., walrus ?], and a great number of\n bears. They came right into the gulf [i.e., Baffin's Bay] and all the\n land [i.e., all the land not covered by ice] then sank below the\n horizon, the land on the south and the glaciers ('j\u00f6kla'); but there\n was also glacier ('j\u00f6kull') to the south of them as far as they could\n see;[288] they found there some ancient dwelling-places of Skr\u00e6lings\n ('Skr\u00e6lingja vistir fornligar'), but they could not land on account of\n the bears. Then they went back for three 'd\u0153gr,' and they found there\n some dwelling-places of Skr\u00e6lings ('n\u00f6kkra Skr\u00e6lingja vistir') when\n they landed on some islands south of Sn\u00e6fell. Then they went south to\n Kr\u00f3ksfjardarheidr, one long day's rowing, on St. James's day [July\n 25]; it was then freezing there at night, but the sun shone both\n night and day, and, when it was in the south, was only so high that if\n a man lay athwartships in a six-oared boat, the shadow of the gunwale\n nearest the sun fell upon his face; but at midnight it was as high as\n it is at home in the settlement when it is in the north-west. Then\n they returned home to Gardar\" [in the Eastern Settlement].\n\nBj\u00f6rn J\u00f3nsson says that this account of the voyage was written by Halldor,\na priest of Greenland (who did not himself take part in the expedition,\nbut had only heard of it), to Arnold, the priest of Greenland who was\nstranded in Iceland in 1266. It was then rewritten in Iceland (or Norway\n?), perhaps by one of the copyists of the Hauksb\u00f3k, who was unacquainted\nwith the conditions in Greenland; and afterwards it was again copied, and\nperhaps \"improved,\" at least once (by Bj\u00f6rn J\u00f3nsson himself).\nUnfortunately, the leaves of the Hauksb\u00f3k which must have contained this\nnarrative have been lost. There is therefore a possibility that errors and\nmisunderstandings may have crept in, and such an absurdity as that \"they\ncould not land on account of the bears\" (though they nevertheless saw\nancient Eskimo dwellings!) shows clearly enough that the narrative is not\nto be regarded as trustworthy in its details; but there is no reason to\ndoubt that the voyage was really made, and it must have extended far north\nin Baffin's Bay. It cannot have taken place in the same year (1266) in\nwhich the men spoken of came from Nor\u00f0rsetur, but at the earliest in the\nfollowing year (1267).\n\nWe may probably regard as one of the objects of the expedition the\ninvestigation of the northward extension of the Eskimo. The voyagers\nsailed out through Vaigat (Kr\u00f3ksfjord), in about 70-1/2\u00b0 N. lat.; they met\nwith a southerly gale and thick weather, and were obliged to keep along\nthe coast; the south wind, which follows the line of the coast, also swept\nthe ice northwards, and in open sea they came far north in the Polar Sea;\nbut, if the statements are exact, they cannot have gone farther than a\npoint from which they were able to return to Kr\u00f3ksfjardarheidr in four\ndays' sailing and rowing.[289] If we allow at the outside that in the\nthree days they sailed on an average one degree, or sixty nautical miles,\na day, which is a good deal along a coast, and if we put a good day's\nrowing at forty miles, we shall get a total of 220 miles; or, if they\nstarted from the northern end of Vaigat in 70-1/2\u00b0, they may have been as\nfar north as 74\u00b0 N. lat., or about Melville Bay. In any case there can be\nno question of their having been much farther north. Here the land is low,\nand the inland ice (\"j\u00f6kull\") comes right down to the sea, with bare\nislands outside (see map, p. 259). Here they found old traces of Eskimo.\nThen they returned south to Vaigat, but on the way thither they found\nEskimo dwellings (that is, in this case tents) on some islands at which\nthey put in.[290] It may be objected to this explanation that it does not\nagree with the statement as to the sun's altitude. But here there must be\na misunderstanding or obscurity in the transmission of the text.\nKr\u00f3ksfjardarheidr is always mentioned elsewhere as a particularly\nwell-known place in Nordrsetur, to which the Greenlanders resorted every\nsummer for seal-hunting, and it is far from likely that the statements as\nto the midnight sun being visible, as to the frosts at night, and the\ndetailed information as to the sun's altitude (in a description otherwise\nso concise), referred to so generally familiar a part of the country. It\nis obvious that it must refer to the unknown regions, where they were\nfarthest north; but we thus lose the information as to the date on which\nthe sun's altitude was observed; it must in any case have been four days\nbefore St. James's day, and it may have been more. Moreover, the\ninformation given is of no use for working out the latitude. The\nmeasurement of the shadow on a man lying athwartships does not help us\nmuch, as the height of the gunwale above the man's position is not given.\nThe statement as to the sun's altitude at midnight might be of more value;\nbut whether \"at home in the settlement\" means the Western Settlement, or\nwhether it does not rather mean Gardar (in the Eastern Settlement) to\nwhich they \"returned home,\" we do not now know for certain, nor do we know\non what day it was that the sun was at an equal altitude in the\nnorth-west. If St. James's day (July 25) is meant, then it is unfortunate\nthat the sun would not be visible above the horizon at Gardar when it was\nin the north-west. According to the Julian Calendar, which was then in\nuse, July 25 fell seven or eight days later than now. If Midsummer Day is\nintended, of which, however, there is no mention in the text, then the sun\nwould be about 3\u00b0 41' above the horizon in the north-west at Gardar. If it\nis meant that on July 20 the sun was at this altitude, then the latitude\nwould be 74\u00b0 34' N. [cf. H. Geelmuyden, 1883a, p. 178]. But all this is\nuncertain. We only know that the travellers saw the sun above the horizon\nat midnight. If we suppose that at least the whole of the sun's disc was\nabove the horizon, and that it was St. James's day, then they must at any\nrate have been north of 71\u00b0 48' N. lat. (as the sun's declination was\nabout 17\u00b0 54' on July 25 in the thirteenth century).[291] If the date was\nearlier, then they may have been farther south.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: From an Icelandic MS., fourteenth century]\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nWINELAND THE GOOD, THE FORTUNATE ISLES, AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA\n\n\n[Sidenote: The oldest authorities on Wineland]\n\nIcelandic literature contains many remarkable statements about countries\nto the south-west or south of the Greenland settlements. They are called:\n\"Helluland\" (i.e., slate- or stone-land), \"Markland\" (i.e., wood-land),\n\"Fur\u00f0ustrandir\" (i.e., marvel-strands), and \"V\u00ednland\" (also written\n\"Vindland\" or \"Vinland\"). Yet another, which lay to the west of Ireland,\nwas called \"Hv\u00edtramanna-land\" (i.e., the white men's land). Even if\ncertain of these countries are legendary, as will presently be shown, it\nmust be regarded as a fact that in any case the Greenlanders and\nIcelanders reached some of them, which lay on the north-eastern coast of\nAmerica; and they thus discovered the continent of North America, besides\nGreenland, about five hundred years before Cabot (and Columbus).\n\nWhile Helluland, Markland and Fur\u00f0ustrandir are first mentioned in\nauthorities of the thirteenth century, \"Vinland\" occurs already in Adam of\nBremen, about 1070 (see above, pp. 195 ff.). Afterwards the name occurs in\nIcelandic literature: first in Are Frode's \"Islendingab\u00f3k,\" about 1130,\nwhere we are only told that in Greenland traces were found of the same\nkind of people as \"inhabited Wineland\" (\"V\u00ednland hefer bygt\"; see above,\np. 260); it is next mentioned together with Hv\u00edtramanna-land in the\n\"Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k,\" where it may have been taken from Are Frode, as the\nlatter's uncle, Thorkel Gellisson, is given as the authority. It has been\nthought that the original statement was contained in a lost work of Are's;\nin any case it must belong to the period before his death in 1148. We are\nonly told that Hv\u00edtramanna-land lay to the west in the ocean near\nVin(d)land; but the passage is important, because, as will be discussed\nlater, it clearly shows that the statements about Wineland in the oldest\nIcelandic authorities were derived from Ireland. The next mention of\nWineland is in \"Kristni-saga\" (before 1245) and \"Heimskringla,\" where it\nis only said that Leif the Lucky found Wineland the Good. It should be\nremarked that while thus in the oldest authorities Wineland is only\nmentioned casually and in passing, it is not until we come to the Saga of\nEric the Red, of the thirteenth century, and the Flateyjarb\u00f3k's\n\"Gr\u00f6nlendinga-\u00fe\u00e1ttr,\" of the fourteenth, that we find any description of\nthe country, and of voyages to it and to Helluland and Markland. But two\nverses, reproduced in the first of these sagas, are certainly considerably\nolder than the saga itself; and they speak of the country where there was\nwine to drink instead of water, and of Fur\u00f0ustrandir where they boil\nwhales' flesh.\n\n It may be added that in the \"Eyrbyggja-saga\" (of about 1250) it is\n said that \"Snorre went with Karlsevne to Wineland the Good, and when\n they fought with the Skr\u00e6lings there in Wineland, Snorre's son\n Thorbrand fell in the fight.\" In the \"Grettis-saga\" (about 1290),\n Thorhall Gamlason, one of those who took part in this expedition, is\n called \"Vindlendingr\" or \"Vi\u00f0lendingr\" (which should doubtless be\n \"Vinlendingr\" in each case). If we add to this that in the Icelandic\n geography which is known from various MSS. of the fourteenth and\n fifteenth centuries, but which is attributed in part (although hardly\n the section about Greenland, Wineland, etc.) to Abbot Nikul\u00e1s Bergsson\n of Thver\u00e1 (ob. 1159), Helluland, Markland and Vinland are mentioned as\n lying to the south of Greenland (see later), then we shall have given\n all the certain ancient authorities in which Wineland occurs [cf. G.\n Storm, 1887, pp. 10 ff.]; but possibly the runic stone from Ringerike\n is to be added (see later).\n\n[Sidenote: The formation of the saga]\n\nBefore I recapitulate the most important features of these voyages, as\nthey are described more particularly in the Saga of Eric the Red, I must\npremise that I look upon the narratives somewhat in the light of\nhistorical romances, founded upon legend and more or less uncertain\ntraditions. Gustav Storm in his critical review of the Wineland voyages\n[1887] has separated the older authorities, which he regarded as\naltogether trustworthy, from the later narratives in the Flateyjarb\u00f3k's\n\"Gr\u00f6nlendinga-\u00fe\u00e1ttr,\" which he thought were to be rejected. The last-named\nwas written about 1387, while Eric the Red's Saga, which we are to regard\nas trustworthy, must according to Storm have been written between 1270 and\n1300.[292] The accounts of the discovery of Wineland and of the voyages\nthither are very conflicting in these two authorities; while the latter\nhas only two voyages (after the discovery), the former has divided them\ninto five; while one mentions Leif Ericson as the discoverer of the\ncountry, the other gives Bjarne Herjulfsson, and so on. We are led to ask\nwhether it is reasonable to suppose that the traditions should have been\nhanded down by word of mouth in such a remarkably unaltered and\nuncorrupted state during the first 250 or 300 years, when they have been\ntransformed and confused to such an extent scarcely a hundred years later.\nThis must rather prove that there was no fixed tradition, but that the\ntales became split up into more and more varying forms. Perhaps it will be\nanswered that the Saga of Eric the Red was composed in the golden age of\nsaga-writing, whereas the Flateyjarb\u00f3k belongs to the period of\ndecline.[293] But it cannot be psychologically probable that human nature\nin Iceland should suddenly have undergone so great a change, that while\nthe saga-tellers of the fourteenth century were disposed to invent\nromances, they should not have had any tendency thereto throughout the\nthree preceding centuries. It is particularly natural that many\nalterations and additions should be made when, as here, the narratives are\nconcerned with distant waters which lay so far out of the ordinary course\nof voyages, and which for a long time had ceased to be known in Iceland\nwhen the sagas were put into writing. Features belonging to the\ndescription of other quarters of the globe were also inserted. Tales which\nin this way live in oral tradition and gradually develop into sagas,\nwithout any written word to support them, and to some extent even without\nany known localities to which they can be attached, are to be regarded as\nliving organisms dependent on accidental influence, which absorb into\nthemselves any suitable material as they may find it; a resemblance of\nname between persons may thus contribute, or a similarity of situations,\nor events which bear the same foreign stamp. The narratives of the\nWineland voyages exhibit, as we shall see, sure traces of influences of\nthis kind.\n\n[Sidenote: Leif Ericson]\n\nIn the year 999, according to the saga, Leif, the son of Eric the Red,\nsailed from Greenland to Norway. This is the first time we hear of so long\na sea-voyage being attempted,[294] and it shows in any case that this long\npassage was not unknown to the Icelanders and Norwegians. Formerly the\npassage to Greenland had been by way of Iceland, thence to the east coast\nof Greenland, southwards along the coast, and round Hvarf. But capable\nseamen like the intrepid Leif thought they could avoid so many changes of\ncourse and arrive in Norway by sailing due east from the southern point of\nGreenland. Thereby Leif Ericson becomes the personification of the first\nocean-voyager in history, who deliberately and with a settled plan steered\nstraight across the open Atlantic, without seeking to avail himself of\nharbours on the way. It also appears clearly enough from the sailing\ndirections for navigation of northern waters, which have come down to us,\nthat voyages were made across the ocean direct from Norway to Greenland.\nIt must be remembered that the compass was unknown, and that all the ships\nof that time were without fixed decks. This was an exploit equal to the\ngreatest in history; it is the beginning of ocean voyages.\n\n[Illustration: From an Icelandic MS. (J\u00f3nsb\u00f3k), sixteenth century]\n\nLeif's plan of reaching Norway direct was not wholly successful according\nto the saga; he was driven out of his course to the Hebrides. They stayed\nthere till late in the summer, waiting for a fair wind. Leif there fell in\nlove with a woman of high lineage, Thorgunna. When he sailed she begged to\nbe allowed to go with him; but Leif answered that he would not carry off a\nwoman of her lineage in a strange country, when he had so few men with\nhim. It was of no avail that she told him she was with child, and the\nchild was his. He gave her a gold ring, a Greenland mantle of frieze, and\na belt of walrus ivory, and sailed away from the Hebrides with his men and\narrived in Norway in the autumn (999). Leif became Olaf Tryggvason's man,\nand spent the winter at Nidaros. He adopted Christianity and promised the\nking to try to introduce the faith into Greenland. For this purpose he was\ngiven a priest when he sailed. In the spring, as soon as he was ready, he\nset out again to sail straight across the Atlantic to Greenland. It has\nundoubtedly been thought that he chose the course between the Faroes (61\u00b0\n50' N. lat.) and Shetland (60\u00b0 50' N. lat.) to reach Cape Farewell, and\nafterwards this became the usual course for the voyage from Norway to\nGreenland. But he was driven out of his course, and\n\n \"for a long time drifted about in the sea, and came upon countries of\n which before he had no suspicion. There were self-sown wheat-fields,\n and vines grew there; there were also the trees that are called\n 'masur' ('m\u01ebsurr'),[295] and of all these they had some specimens\n (some trees so large that they were laid in houses\" [i.e., used as\n house-beams]).\n\nThis land was \"V\u00ednland hit G\u00f3\u00f0a.\" As it was assumed that the wild vine\n(Vitis vulpina) grew in America as far north as 45\u00b0 N. lat. and along the\neast coast, the historians have thought to find in this a proof that Leif\nEricson must have been on the coast of America south of this latitude;\nbut, as we shall see later, these features--the self-sown wheat-fields,\nthe vines and the lofty trees--are probably borrowed from elsewhere.\n\n \"On his homeward voyage Leif found some men on a wreck, and took them\n home with him and gave them all shelter for the winter. He showed so\n much nobility and goodness, he introduced Christianity into the\n country, and he rescued the men; he was then called 'Leifr hinn\n Heppni' [the Lucky]. Leif came to land in Eric's fjord, and went home\n to Brattalid; there they received him well.\" This was the same autumn\n [1000].\n\nSo concise is the narrative of the voyage by which the first discovery of\nAmerica by Europeans is said to have been made.[296]\n\n[Sidenote: Thorstein Ericson]\n\nCuriously enough, the saga tells us nothing more of Leif as a sailor. He\nappears after this to have lived in peace in Greenland, and he took over\nBrattalid after his father's death. On the other hand, we hear that his\nbrother Thorstein made an attempt to find Wineland, which Leif had\ndiscovered. After Leif's return home \"there was much talk that they ought\nto seek the land that Leif had found. The leader was Thorstein Ericson, a\ngood man, and wise, and friendly.\" We hear earlier in the saga, where\nLeif's voyage to Norway is related, that both of Eric's sons \"were capable\nmen; Thorstein was at home with his father, and there was not a man in\nGreenland who was thought to be so manly as he.\" We hear nothing about\nLeif's taking part in the new voyage; it looks as if it had been\nThorstein's turn to go abroad. But\n\n \"Eric was asked, and they trusted in his good fortune and foresight\n being greatest. He was against it, but did not say no, as his friends\n exhorted him so to it. They therefore fitted out the ship which\n Thorbj\u00f6rn [Vivilsson] had brought out to Greenland;[297] and twenty\n men were chosen for it; they took little goods with them, but more\n arms and provisions. The morning that Eric left home, he took a little\n chest, and therein was gold and silver; he hid this property and then\n went on his way; but when he had gone a little distance he fell from\n his horse, broke his ribs and hurt his shoulder, and said, 'Ah yes!'\n After this accident he sent word to his wife that she should take up\n the property that he had hidden; he had now, said he, been punished\n for hiding it. Then they sailed out of Eric's fjord with gladness, and\n thought well of their prospects. They drifted about the sea for a long\n time and did not arrive where they desired. They came in sight of\n Iceland, and they had also birds from Ireland; their ship was carried\n eastwards over the ocean. They came back in the autumn and were then\n weary and very worn. And they came in the late autumn to Eric's fjord.\n Then said Eric: 'In the summer we sailed from the fjords more\n light-hearted than we now are, and yet we now have good reason to be\n so.' Thorstein said: 'It would be a worthy deed to take charge of the\n men who are homeless, and to provide them with lodging.' Eric\n answered: 'Thy words shall be followed.' All those who had no other\n place of abode were now allowed to accompany Eric and Thorstein.\n Afterwards they took land and went home.\"\n\nIn the autumn (1001) Thorstein celebrated his marriage with Thorbj\u00f6rm\nVivilsson's daughter Gudrid, at Brattalid, and it \"went off well.\" They\nafterwards went home to Thorstein's property on the Lysefjord, which was\nthe southernmost fjord in the Western Settlement; probably that which is\nnow called Fiskerfjord (near Fiskernes) in about 63\u00b0 N. lat. There\nThorstein died during the winter of an illness (scurvy ?) which put an end\nto many on the property, and Gudrid next summer returned to Eric, who\nreceived her well. Her father died also, and she inherited all his\nproperty.\n\n[Sidenote: Karlsevne in Greenland]\n\nThat autumn (1002) Thorfinn Karlsevne came from Iceland to Eric's fjord in\nGreenland, with one ship and forty men. He was on a trading voyage, and\nwas looked upon as a skilful sailor and merchant, was of good family and\nrich in goods. Together with him was Snorre Thorbrandsson. Another ship,\nwith Bjarne Grimolfsson and Thorhall Gamlason and a crew likewise of forty\nmen, had accompanied them from Iceland.\n\n \"Eric rode to the ships, and others of the men of the country, and\n there was a friendly agreement between them. The captains bade Eric\n take what he wished of the cargo. But Eric in return showed great\n generosity, in that he invited both these crews home to spend the\n winter at Brattalid. This the merchants accepted and went with Eric.\"\n\n \"The merchants were well content in Eric's house that winter, but when\n Yule was drawing nigh, Eric began to be less cheerful than was his\n wont.\" When Karlsevne asked: \"Is there anything that oppresses thee,\n Eric?\" and tried to find out the reason of his being so dispirited, it\n came out that it was because he had nothing for the Yule-brew; and it\n would be said that his guests had never had a worse Yule than with\n him. Karlsevne thought there was no difficulty about that; they had\n malt, and meal, and corn in the ships, and thereof, said he, \"thou\n shalt have all thou desirest, and make such a feast as thy generosity\n demands.\" Eric accepted this. \"The Yule banquet was prepared, and it\n was so magnificent that men thought they had scarcely ever seen so\n fine a feast.\"\n\nEven if the tale is unhistorical, it gives a glimpse of the life and the\nhard conditions in Greenland; they only had grain occasionally when a ship\narrived; for the most part they lived on what they caught, and when that\nfailed, as we are told was the case in 999, there was famine. But to be\nwithout the Yule-brew was a misfortune to an Icelander; nevertheless we\nlearn from the Foster-brothers' Saga that \"Yule-drink was rare in\nGreenland,\" and that a man might become famous by holding a feast, as did\nThorkel, the grandson of Eric the Red, in 1026.\n\nAfter Yule, Karlsevne was married to Eric's daughter-in-law, Gudrid.\n\n \"The feast was then prolonged, and the marriage was celebrated. There\n was great merry-making at Brattalid that winter; there was much\n playing at draughts, and making mirth with tales and much else to\n divert the company.\"\n\n[Illustration: From an Icelandic MS. (J\u00f3nsb\u00f3k), fifteenth century]\n\n[Sidenote: Karlsevne's voyage to Wineland]\n\nThere was a good deal of talk about going to look for Wineland the Good,\nand it was said that it might be a fertile country. The result was that\nKarlsevne and Snorre got their ship ready to search for Wineland in the\nsummer. Bjarne and Thorhall also joined the expedition with their ship and\nthe crew that had accompanied them. Besides these, there came on a third\nship a man named Thorvard--married to Eric the Red's illegitimate daughter\nFreydis, who also went--and Thorhall, nicknamed Veidemand (the Hunter).\n\n \"He had been on hunting expeditions with Eric for many summers and was\n a man of many crafts. Thorhall was a big man, dark and troll-like; he\n was well on in years, obstinate, silent and reserved in everyday life,\n but crafty and slanderous, ever rejoicing in evil. He had had little\n to do with the faith since it came to Greenland. Thorhall had little\n friendship for his fellow men, yet Eric had long associated with him.\n He was in the same ship with Thorvald and Thorvard, because he had\n wide knowledge of the uninhabited regions. They had the ship that\n Thorbj\u00f6rn [Vivilsson] had brought out to Greenland [and that Thorstein\n Ericson had used for his unlucky voyage two years before]. Most of\n those on board that ship were Greenlanders. On their ships there were\n altogether forty men over a hundred.\"[298]\n\nEric the Red and Leif were doubtless supposed to have assisted both\nactively and with advice during the fitting-out, even though they would\nnot take part in the voyage. It is mentioned later that they gave\nKarlsevne two Scottish runners that Leif had received from King Olaf\nTryggvason.\n\nThe three ships sailed first \"to the Western Settlement and thence to\nBjarneyjar\" (the Bear Islands).[299] The most natural explanation of the\nsaga making them begin their expedition by sailing in this direction (to\nthe north-west and north)--whereas the land they were in search of lay to\nthe south-west or south--may be that the Icelandic saga-writer (of the\nthirteenth century), ignorant of the geography of Greenland, assumed that\nthe Western Settlement must lie due west of the Eastern; and as the\nvoyagers were to look for countries in the south-west, he has made them\nbegin by proceeding to the farthest point he had heard of on this coast,\nBjarneyjar, so that they might have a prospect of better luck than\nThorstein, who had sailed out from Eric's fjord. When it is said that\nThorhall the Hunter accompanied Eric's son and son-in-law because of his\nwide knowledge of the uninhabited regions, it must be the regions beyond\nthe Western Settlement that are meant, and the saga-writer must have\nthought that these extended westward or in the direction of the new\ncountries. It must also be remembered that in the spring and early summer\nthere is frequently drift-ice off the Eastern Settlement, from Cape\nFarewell for a good way north-westward along the coast. The course would\nthen naturally lie to the north-west of this ice--that is, towards the\nWestern Settlement. But it may also be supposed that they had to begin by\ngoing northward to get seals and provision themselves with food and oil\n(fuel), which might be necessary for a long and unknown voyage. This\nexplanation is, however, less probable.\n\nFrom Bjarneyjar they put to sea with a north wind. They were at sea,\naccording to the saga, for two \"d\u0153gr.\"[300]\n\n \"There they found land, and rowed along it in boats, and examined the\n country, and found there [on the shore] many flat stones so large\n that two men might easily lie stretched upon them sole to sole. There\n were many white foxes there.[301] They gave the land a name and called\n it 'Helluland.'\"\n\nIt may be the coast of Labrador that is here intended, and not Baffin\nLand, since the statement that they sailed thither with a north wind must\ndoubtless imply that the coast lay more or less in a southerly and not in\na westerly direction from Bjarneyjar. From Helluland\n\n \"they sailed for two 'd\u0153gr' towards the south-east and south, and then\n a land lay before them, and upon it were great forests and many\n beasts. An island lay to the south-east off the land, and there they\n found a polar bear,[302] and they called the island 'Bjarney'; but the\n country they called 'Markland' [i.e., Wood-land] on account of the\n forest.\"\n\nThe name Markland suits Newfoundland best; it had forests down to the\nsea-shore when it was rediscovered about 1500, and even later.\n\nWhen they had once more sailed for\n\n \"two 'd\u0153gr' they sighted land and sailed under the land. There was a\n promontory where they first came. They cruised along the shore, which\n they kept to starboard [i.e., to the west]. It was without harbours\n and there were long strands and stretches of sand. They went ashore in\n boats, and found there on the promontory a ship's keel, and called it\n 'Kjalarnes' [i.e., Keel-ness]; they also gave the strands a name and\n called them 'Fur\u00f0ustrandir' [i.e., the marvel-strands or the\n wonderful, strange strands], because it took a long time to sail past\n them.\"[303]\n\nThis may apply, as Storm points out, to the eastern side of Cape Breton\nIsland; but in that case they must have steered west-south-west from the\nsouth-eastern promontory of Markland (Newfoundland). Kjalarnes must then\nbe Cape Breton itself. That they should have found a ship's keel there\nsounds strange; if this is not an invention we must suppose that it was\ndriven ashore from a wreck; no doubt it happened often enough that vessels\nwere lost on the voyage to Greenland. When Eric, according to the\nLandn\u00e1mab\u00f3k, sailed with twenty-five ships, many of them were lost.\nWreckage would be carried by the currents from Greenland into the Labrador\ncurrent, and by this southward past Markland. But it is more probable that\nthe origin of the name was entirely different; that, for example, the\npromontory had the shape of a ship's keel, and that the account of the\nkeel found has been developed much later.[304] This is confirmed by the\nfact that the \"Gr\u00f6nlendinga-\u00fe\u00e1ttr\" gives a wholly different explanation of\nthe name from that in Eric's Saga.\n\n South of Fur\u00f0ustrandir \"the land was indented by bays ('v\u00e1gskorit'),\n and they steered the ships into a bay.\" Here they landed the two Scots\n (the man \"Haki\" and the woman \"Hekja\") whom Karlsevne had received\n from Leif and Eric, and who ran faster than deer. They \"bade them run\n southward and examine the condition of the country, and return before\n three 'd\u0153gr' were past. They had such garments as they called 'kiafal'\n [or 'biafal']; it was made so that there was a hood above, and it\n [i.e., 'the kiafal'] was open at the sides, and without sleeves, and\n caught up between the legs, fastened there with a button and a loop;\n otherwise they were bare. They cast anchor and lay there a while; and\n when three days were past they came running down from the land, and\n one of them had grapes in his hand, the other self-sown wheat.\n Karlsevne said that they seemed to have found a fertile country.\"\n\nThey then sailed on until they came to a fjord, into which they steered\nthe ships.\n\n \"There was an island outside, and round the island strong currents.\n They called it 'Straumsey.' There were so many birds there that one\n could hardly put one's foot between the eggs. They held on up the\n fjord, and called it 'Straumsfjord,' and unloaded the ships and\n established themselves there. They had with them all kinds of cattle,\n and sought to make use of the land. There were mountains there, and\n fair was the prospect. They did nothing else but search out the land.\n There was much grass. They stayed there the winter, and it was very\n long; but they had not taken thought of anything, and were short of\n food, and their catch decreased. Then they went out to the island,\n expecting that there they might find some fishing or something might\n drift up [i.e., a whale be driven ashore ?]. There was, however,\n little to be caught for food, but their cattle throve there. Then they\n made vows to God that He might send them something to eat; but no\n answer came so quickly as they had hoped.\" The heathen Thorhall the\n Hunter then disappeared for three \"d\u0153gr,\" and doubtless held secret\n conjurations with the red-bearded One (i.e., Thor). A little later a\n whale was driven ashore, and they ate of it, but were all sick. When\n they found out how things were with Thorhall and Thor, \"they cast it\n out over the cliff and prayed to God for mercy. They then made a catch\n of fish, and there was no lack of food. In the spring [1004] they\n entered Straumsfjord and had catches from both lands [i.e., both sides\n of the fjord], hunting on the mainland, eggs on the island, and fish\n in the sea.\"\n\nThis description gives a good insight both into the Norsemen's manner of\nequipping themselves for voyages to unknown countries, and into their\nsuperstition.\n\nIt looks as if a dissension now arose between the wayward Thorhall the\nHunter and the rest, since he wanted to look for Wineland to the north of\nFur\u00f0ustrandir, beyond Kjalarnes.\n\n \"But Karlsevne wished to go south along the coast and eastward. He\n thought the land became broader the farther south it bore;[305] but\n it seemed to him most expedient to try both ways\" [i.e., both south\n and north].\n\nThorhall then parted from them; but there were no more than nine men in\nhis company. Perhaps they were desirous of going home; for from an old\nlay, which the saga attributes to Thorhall, it appears that he was\ndiscontented with the whole stay there: he abuses the country, where the\nwarriors had promised him the best of drinks, but where wine never touched\nhis lips, and he had to take a bucket himself and fetch water to drink.\nAnd before they hoisted sail Thorhall quoth this lay:\n\n \"Let us go homeward,\n where we shall find fellow-countrymen:\n let us with our ship seek\n the broad ways of the sea,\n while the hopeful\n warriors (those who praise\n the land) on Fur\u00f0ustrandir\n stay and boil whales' flesh.\"\n\n \"Then they parted [from Karlsevne, who had accompanied them out] and\n sailed north of Fur\u00f0ustrandir and Kjalarnes, and then tried to beat\n westward. Then the westerly storm caught them and they drifted to\n Ireland, and there they were made slaves and ill-treated. There\n Thorhall lost his life, as merchants have reported.\"\n\nThe last statement shows that according to Icelandic geographical ideas\nthe country round Kjalarnes lay directly opposite Ireland and in the same\nlatitude.\n\nKarlsevne, with Snorre, Bjarne, and the rest, left Straumsfjord and sailed\nsouthward along the coast [1004].\n\n \"They sailed a long time and until they came to a river, which flowed\n down from the interior into a lake and thence into the sea. There were\n great sandbanks before the mouth of the river, and it could only be\n entered at high water. Karlsevne and his people then sailed to the\n mouth of the river and called the country 'H\u00f3p' [i.e., a small closed\n bay]. There they found self-sown wheat-fields, where the land was\n low, but vines wherever they saw heights ('en v\u00ednvi\u00f0r allt \u00fear sem\n holta kendi'). Every beck ('l\u00f6kr') was full of fish. They dug trenches\n on the shore below high-water mark, and when the tide went out there\n were halibuts in the trenches. In the forest there was a great\n quantity of beasts of all kinds. They were there half a month amusing\n themselves, and suspecting nothing. They had their cattle with them.\n But early one morning, when they looked about them, they saw nine\n hide-boats ('hu\u00f0keipa'), and wooden poles were being waved on the\n ships [i.e., the hide-boats], and they made a noise like\n threshing-flails and went the way of the sun. Karlsevne's men took\n this to be a token of peace and bore a white shield towards them. Then\n the strangers rowed towards them, and wondered, and came ashore. They\n were small [or black ?][306] men, and ugly, and they had ugly hair on\n their heads; their eyes were big, and they were broad across the\n cheeks. And they stayed there awhile, and wondered, then rowed away\n and went south of the headland.\"\n\nThis then would be the description of the first meeting in history between\nEuropeans and the natives of America. With all its brevity it gives an\nexcellent picture; but whether we can accept it is doubtful. As we shall\nsee later, the Norsemen probably did meet with Indians; but the\ndescription of the latter's appearance must necessarily have been coloured\nmore and more by greater familiarity with the Skr\u00e6lings of Greenland when\nthe sagas were put into writing. The big eyes will not suit either of\nthem, and are rather to be regarded as an attribute of trolls and\nunderground beings; gnomes and old fairy men have big, watery eyes. The\nugly hair is also an attribute of the underground beings.\n\n \"Karlsevne and his men had built their houses above the lake, some\n nearer, some farther off. Now they stayed there that winter. No snow\n fell at all, and all the cattle were out at pasture. But when spring\n came they saw early one morning a number of hide-boats rowing from the\n south past the headland, so many that it seemed as if the sea had been\n sown with coal in front of the bay, and they waved wooden poles on\n every boat. Then they set up shields and held a market, and the people\n wanted most to buy red cloth; they also wanted to buy swords and\n spears, but this was forbidden by Karlsevne and Snorre.\" The\n Skr\u00e6lings[307] gave them untanned skins in exchange for the cloth, and\n trade was proceeding briskly, until \"an ox, which Karlsevne had, ran\n out of the wood and began to bellow. The Skr\u00e6lings were scared and ran\n to their boats (keipana) and rowed south along the shore. After that\n they did not see them for three weeks. But when that time was past,\n they saw a great multitude of Skr\u00e6ling boats coming from the south, as\n though driven on by a stream. Then all the wooden poles were waved\n against the sun ('rangs\u00f6lis,' wither-shins), and all the Skr\u00e6lings\n howled loudly. Then Karlsevne and his men took red shields and bore\n them towards them. The Skr\u00e6lings leapt from their boats and then they\n made towards each other and fought; there was a hot exchange of\n missiles. The Skr\u00e6lings also had catapults ('valslongur'). Karlsevne\n and his men saw that the Skr\u00e6lings hoisted up on a pole a great ball\n ('knottr') about as large as a sheep's paunch, and seeming blue[308]\n in colour, and slung it from the pole up on to the land over\n Karlsevne's people, and it made an ugly noise when it came down. At\n this great terror smote Karlsevne and his people, so that they had no\n thought but of getting away and up the river, for it seemed to them\n that the Skr\u00e6lings were assailing them on all sides; and they did not\n halt until they had reached certain crags. There they made a stout\n resistance. Freydis came out and saw that they were giving way. She\n cried out: 'Wherefore do ye run away from such wretches, ye gallant\n men? I thought it likely that ye could slaughter them like cattle, and\n had I but arms I believe I should fight better than any of you.' None\n heeded what she said. Freydis tried to go with them, but she fell\n behind, for she was with child. She nevertheless followed them into\n the wood, but the Skr\u00e6lings came after her. She found before her a\n dead man, Thorbrand Snorrason, and a flat stone ('hellustein') was\n fixed in the head of him. His sword lay unsheathed by him, and she\n took it up to defend herself with it. Then the Skr\u00e6lings came at her.\n She takes her breasts out of her sark and whets the sword on them. At\n that the Skr\u00e6lings are afraid and run away back to their boats, and go\n off. Karlsevne and his men meet her and praise her happy device. Two\n men of Karlsevne's fell, and four of the Skr\u00e6lings; but nevertheless\n Karlsevne had suffered defeat. They now go to their houses, bind up\n their wounds, and consider what swarm of people it was that came\n against them from the land. It seemed to them now that there could\n have been no more than those who came from the boats, and that the\n other people must have been glamour. The Skr\u00e6lings also found a dead\n man, and an axe lay beside him; one of them took up the axe and struck\n at a tree, and so one after another, and it seemed to delight them\n that it bit so well. Then one took and smote a stone with it; but when\n the axe broke, he thought it was of no use, if it did not stand\n against stone, and he cast it from him.\"\n\n \"Karlsevne and his men now thought they could see that although the\n land was fertile, they would always have trouble and disquiet with the\n people who dwelt there before. Then they prepared to set out, and\n intended to go to their own country. They sailed northward and found\n five Skr\u00e6lings sleeping in fur jerkins ('skinnhj\u00fapum'), and they had\n with them kegs with deer's marrow mixed with blood. They thought they\n could understand that they were outlaws; they killed them. Then they\n found a headland and a multitude of deer, and the headland looked like\n a crust of dried dung, from the deer lying there at night. Now they\n came back to Straumsfjord, and there was abundance of everything. It\n is reported by some that Bjarne and Gudrid remained behind there, and\n a hundred men with them, and did not go farther; but they say that\n Karlsevne and Snorre went southward with forty men and were no longer\n at H\u00f3p than barely two months, and came back the same summer.\"\n\n[Illustration: From an Icelandic MS. (J\u00f3nsb\u00f3k), fourteenth century]\n\nKarlsevne went with one ship to search for Thorhall the Hunter. He sailed\nto the north of Kjalarnes, westwards, and south along the shore (Storm\nthought on the eastern side of Cape Breton Island to the northern side of\nNova Scotia), and they found a river running from east to west into the\nsea.\n\n Here Thorvald Ericson was shot one morning from the shore with an\n arrow which they thought came from a Uniped [legendary creature with\n one foot] whom they pursued but did not catch. The arrow struck\n Thorvald in the small intestines. He drew it out, saying: \"There is\n fat in the bowels; a good land have we found, but it is doubtful\n whether we shall enjoy it.\" Thorvald died of this wound a little\n later. \"They then sailed away northward again and thought they sighted\n 'Einf\u00f6tinga-land' [the Land of Unipeds]. They would no longer risk the\n lives of their men,\" and \"they went back and stayed in Straumsfjord\n the third winter. Then the men became very weary [so that they fell\n into disagreement]; those who were wifeless quarrelled with those who\n had wives.\"[309]\n\nThe fourth summer [1006] they sailed from Wineland with a south wind and\ncame to Markland.\n\n There they found five Skr\u00e6lings, and caught of them two boys, while\n the grown-up ones, a bearded man and two women, \"escaped and sank into\n the earth. The boys they took with them and taught them their\n language, and they were baptized. They called their mother 'V\u00e6tilldi'\n and their father 'V\u00e6gi.' They said that kings governed in\n Skr\u00e6linga-land; one of them was called 'Avalldamon,' the other\n 'Valldidida.' They said that there were no houses, and the people lay\n in rock-shelters or caves. They said there was another great country\n over against their country, and men went about there in white clothing\n and cried aloud, and carried poles before them, to which strips were\n fastened. This is thought to be 'Hvitramanna-land' [i.e., the white\n men's land] or Great-Ireland.\" Then Karlsevne and his men came to\n Greenland and stayed the winter with Eric the Red [1006-1007].\n\n \"But Bjarne Grimolfsson [on the other ship] was carried out into the\n Irish Ocean [the Atlantic between Markland and Ireland] and they came\n into the maggot-sea ('ma\u00f0k-sj\u00e1'); they did not know of it until the\n ship was worm-eaten under them,\" and ready to sink. \"They had a\n long-boat ('eptirb\u00e1t') that was coated with seal-tar, and men say that\n the sea-maggot will not eat wood that is coated with seal-tar.\" \"But\n when they tried it, the boat would not hold more than half the ship's\n company.\" They all wanted to go in it; but Bjarne then proposed that\n they should decide who should go in the boat by casting lots and not\n by precedence, and this was agreed to. The lots fell so that Bjarne\n was amongst those who were to go in the boat. \"When they were in it, a\n young Icelander, who had accompanied Bjarne from home, said: 'Dost\n thou think, Bjarne, to part from me here?' Bjarne answers: 'So it must\n be.' He says: 'This was not thy promise when I came with thee from\n Iceland....' Bjarne answers: 'Nor shall it be so; go thou in the boat,\n but I must go in the ship, since I see that thy life is so dear to\n thee.' Bjarne then went on board the ship, and this man in the boat,\n and they kept on their course until they came to Dyflinar [Dublin] in\n Ireland, and there told this tale. But most men believe that Bjarne\n and his companions lost their lives in the maggot-sea, since they were\n not heard of again.\"\n\nThorfinn Karlsevne returned in the following summer (1007) to Iceland with\nGudrid and their son Snorre, who was born at Straumsfjord in Wineland the\nfirst winter they were there. Karlsevne afterwards lived in Iceland.\n\n[Sidenote: The composite and legendary character of the whole saga]\n\nIf we now review critically the Saga of Eric the Red and the whole of this\ntale of Karlsevne's voyage, together with the other accounts of Wineland\nvoyages, we shall find one feature after another that is legendary or that\nmust have been borrowed from elsewhere. If we examine first of all the\nrelation of the various authorities to the events they narrate, we must be\nstruck by the fact that in the oldest authorities, such as the Landn\u00e1ma,\nEric the Red has only two sons, Leif and Thorstein, whereas in Eric's\nSaga and in the \"Gr\u00f6nlendinga-\u00fe\u00e1ttr,\" for the sake of the trilogy of\nlegend, he has begotten three sons, besides an illegitimate daughter. In\nthe oldest MS., Hauk's Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k, Leif is only mentioned in one place,\nand nothing more is said of him than that he was Eric's son and inherited\nBrattalid from his father; he is not given the nickname \"heppni\" (the\nlucky), and it is not mentioned that he had discovered Wineland, nor that\nhe had introduced Christianity. In the Sturlub\u00f3k he is again mentioned in\none place as the son of Tjodhild and Eric, and there has the nickname \"en\nhepni\"; but neither is there here any mention of the discovery of Wineland\nor the introduction of Christianity [cf. Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k, ed. F. J\u00f3nsson,\n1900, pp. 35, 156, 165]. As this passage is not found in Hauk's Landn\u00e1ma,\nit may be an addition in the later MS., which was wanting in the original\nLandn\u00e1mab\u00f3k. In the great saga of St. Olaf[310] (chapter 70)--where King\nOlaf asks the Icelander Thorarinn Nevjolfsson to take the blind king R\u00f6rek\nto Greenland to \"Leif Ericson\"--the latter again is not called the Lucky,\nnor is Wineland or its discovery mentioned. This saga was written,\naccording to the editors, about 1230. As neither this nickname nor the\ntales of Leif's discovery of Wineland are found earlier than in the\nKristni-saga and Heimskringla, it looks as if these features did not\nappear till later. There is a similar state of things with regard to the\nmention of Thorfinn Karlsevne; only in one passage in Hauk's Landn\u00e1ma is\nit mentioned that he found \"Vin(d)land hit G\u00f3\u00f0a\"; but as this does not\noccur in the Sturlub\u00f3k, it may be an addition due to Hauk Erlendsson, who\nregarded Thorfinn as his ancestor. The silence of the oldest authorities\non the voyages to Wineland becomes still more striking when we compare\nwith it the fact that the Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k contains statements (with careful\ncitation of authorities, showing that they are derived from Are Frode\nhimself) about Are M\u00e1rsson, his voyage to Hv\u00edtramanna-land, and his stay\nthere, which have generally been regarded as far less authentic than the\ntales of the Wineland voyages. If Are M\u00e1rsson's voyage is a myth, then one\nwould be still more inclined to regard the latter as such. The objection\nthat it would have been beside the plan of the brief and concise earlier\nworks (\u00cdslendingab\u00f3k and Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k) to include these things, scarcely\nholds good. If Are has room in the \u00cdslendingab\u00f3k for a comparatively\ndetailed account of the discovery, naming and natives of Greenland, and\nfurther for a description of the introduction of Christianity into\nIceland; if the Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k also gives details, derived, as we have said,\nfrom him, of Are M\u00e1rsson's voyage to Hv\u00edtramanna-land, then it is\ndifficult to understand why neither Are Frode nor the authors of the\nLandn\u00e1mab\u00f3k, when mentioning Eric the Red and Leif, should have found room\nfor a line about Leif's having discovered Wineland and Christianised\nGreenland--two not unimportant pieces of information--if they had known of\nit. At any rate, the Christianising of Greenland must have been of\ninterest to the priest Are and to the priest-taught authors of\nLandn\u00e1mab\u00f3k. This silence is therefore suspicious.\n\nThe personal names in the Saga of Eric the Red are also striking. With the\nexception of Eric himself, his wife Tjodhild and his son Leif, and a few\nother names in the first part, which is taken almost in its entirety from\nthe Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k, almost all the names belonging to this saga are connected\nwith those of heathen gods, especially Thor. Eric has got a third son,\nThorvald, who is not mentioned in Landn\u00e1ma, besides his daughter Freydis,\nand his son-in-law Thorvard. The name Freydis is only known from this one\nwoman in the whole of Icelandic literature, and several names in Norse\nliterature compounded of Frey- seem, according to Lind,[311] to belong to\nmyths (e.g., Freygar\u00f0r, Freysteinn and Freybj\u01ebrn). Other names connected\nwith the Wineland voyages in this saga are: Thor-bj\u00f6rn Vivilsson (his\nbrother was named Thor-geir and his daughter's foster-father Orm\nThor-geirsson) came to Thor-kjell of Herjolfsnes, where the prophetess was\ncalled Thor-bj\u00f6rg. Leif's woman in the Hebrides was called Thor-gunna, and\ntheir illegitimate son Thor-gils. Thor-stein Ericson had a property\ntogether with another Thor-stein in Lysefjord.[312] We have further\nThor-finn Karlsevne (son of Thord and Thor-unn), Snorre Thor-brandsson,\nThor-hall Gamlason, Thor-hall Veidemand (who also had dealings with the\nred-bearded Thor), and Thor-brand Snorrason who was killed. An exception,\nbesides Bjarne Grimolfsson (and the runners Haki and Hekja; see below), is\nThorfinn Karlsevne's wife Gu\u00f0ri\u00f0r,[313] daughter of Thorbj\u00f6rn Vivilsson,\nand mother of Snorre. But perhaps one can guess why she is given this name\nif one reads through the description of the remarkable scene of\nsoothsaying--at Thorkjell's house on Herjolfsnes--between the fair Gudrid,\nwho sang with such a beautiful voice, and the heathen sorceress Thorbj\u00f6rg,\nwhere the former as a Christian woman refuses to sing the heathen charms\n\"Var\u00f0lokur,\" as the sorceress asks her to do. These numerous\nThor-names--with the two women's names, the powerful Freydis and the fair\nGudrid--which are attributed to a time when heathendom and Christianity\nwere struggling for the mastery (cf. the tale of Thorhall the Hunter and\nthe whale), have in themselves an air of myth and invention. To this must\nbe added mythical descriptions like those of the prophetess of\nHerjolfsnes, the ghosts at Lysefjord the winter Thorstein Ericson died,\nand others.\n\nThe Saga of Eric the Red tells of two voyages in search of Wineland, after\nLeif's accidental discovery of the country. The first is Thorstein\nEricson's unfortunate expedition, when they did not find the favoured\nWineland, but were driven eastward into the ocean towards Iceland and\nIreland. In the Irish tale of Brandan (\"Imram Brenaind,\" of the eleventh\ncentury), Brandan first makes an unsuccessful voyage to find the promised\nland, and arrives, it seems, most probably in the east of the ocean,\nsomewhere about Brittany (cf. Vita S. Brandani; and Machutus's voyage);\nbut he then makes a fresh voyage in which he finally reaches the land he\nis in search of [cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 135 ff.]. This similarity with the\nIrish legend is doubtless not very great, but perhaps it deserves to be\nincluded with many others to be mentioned later.\n\n[Illustration: The relative distances between the countries. The scale\ngives \"d\u0153gr's\" sailing (== 2 degrees of latitude), according to the\n\"Rymbegla.\" A white cross marks the valley of the St. John]\n\nIf we now pass to the tale itself of Karlsevne's voyage, we have already\nseen (p. 321) that its beginning with the journey to the Western\nSettlement is doubtful; next, the feature of his sailing to three\ndifferent countries in turn (Helluland, Markland and Fur\u00f0ustrandir), with\nthe same number of days' sail between each, must be taken directly from\nthe fairy tales.[314] Such a voyage is in itself improbable; in the saga\nthe countries are evidently imagined as islands or peninsulas, but nothing\ncorresponding to this is to be found on the coast of America. It is\ninconceivable that a discoverer of Labrador and of the coast to the south\nof it should have divided this into several countries; it was not till\nlong after the rediscovery of Newfoundland and Labrador that the sound\nbetween them was found. If we suppose that Karlsevne was making southward\nand came first to Labrador (== Helluland ?), with a coast extending\nsouth-eastward, it is against common sense that he should voluntarily\nhave lost sight of this coast and put to sea again in an easterly\ndirection, and then sight fresh land to the south of him two days later;\non the other hand, this is the usual mode of presentment in fairy tales\nand myth. But let us suppose now that he did nevertheless arrive in this\nway at Newfoundland (== Markland ?), and then again put to sea instead of\nfollowing the coast, how could he know that this time instead of sailing\neastward he was to take a westward course? But this he must have done, for\notherwise he could not have reached Cape Breton or Nova Scotia; and he\nmust have got there, if we are to make anything out of the story. The\ndistances given, of two \"d\u0153gr's\" sail to each of the countries, as\nremarked on p. 322, are also foreign to reality.[315] This part of the\ndescription has therefore an altogether artificial look. It reminds one\nforcibly of many of the old Irish legendary tales of wonderful voyages; in\nparticular the commencement of one of the oldest and most important may be\nmentioned: \"Imram Maelduin\" (the tale of Maelduin's voyage), which is\nknown in MSS. of the end of the eleventh century and later, but which was\nprobably to a great extent first written down in the seventh, or at the\nlatest in the eighth century [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 289].\n\n When Maelduin and his companions put to sea from Ireland in a coracle\n with three hides (while Karlsevne has three ships), they came first to\n two small islands (while Karlsevne came to Bjarneyjar). After this for\n three days and three nights the Irishmen came upon no land; \"on the\n morning of the third day\" they heard the waves breaking on a beach,\n but when daylight came and they approached the land, swarms of ants,\n as large as foals, came down to the beach and showed a desire to eat\n them and the boat (these are the gold-digging ants of Indo-Greek\n legend). This land is the parallel to Helluland, where there were a\n number of arctic foxes (cf. the description of the arrival there, p.\n 323).--After having fled thence for three days and three nights, the\n Irishmen heard \"on the morning of the third day\" the waves breaking on\n a beach, and when daylight came they saw a great, lofty island with\n terraces around it and rows of trees, on which there were many large\n birds; they ate their fill of these and took some of them in the boat.\n This island might correspond to the wooded Markland, with its many\n animals, where Karlsevne and his people killed a bear.--After another\n three days and three nights at sea, the Irish voyagers \"on the morning\n of the fourth day\" saw a great sandy island; on approaching the shore\n they saw there a fabulous beast like a horse with dog's paws and\n claws. For fear of the beast they rowed away without landing. This\n great sandy island may be compared with Fur\u00f0ustrandir, where there\n were no harbours and it was difficult to land.--The Irishmen then\n travelled \"for a long time\" before they came to a large, flat island,\n where two men landed to examine the island, which they found to be\n large and broad, and they saw marks of horses' hoofs as large as a\n ship's sail, and nutshells as large as \"c\u014dedi\" (a measure of capacity\n ?), and traces of many human beings. This bears a resemblance to\n Karlsevne's having \"a long way\" to sail along Fur\u00f0ustrandir before he\n came to a bay, where the two Scots went ashore to examine the country,\n were absent three days, and found grapes and wheat.--After that the\n Irishmen travelled for a week, in hunger and thirst, until they came\n to a great, lofty island, with a great house on the beach, with two\n doors, \"one towards the plain on the island and one towards the sea\";\n and through the latter the waves of the sea threw salmon into the\n middle of the house. They found decorated couches and crystal goblets\n with good drink in the house, but no human being, and they took meat\n and drink and thanked God. Karlsevne proceeded from the bay and came\n to Straumsey, which was thick with birds and eggs, and to\n Straumsfjord, where they established themselves (i.e., built houses).\n And there were mountains and a fair prospect and high grass; and they\n had catches from two sides, \"hunting on the land, and eggs and fish\n from the sea\"; and where, to begin with, they did nothing but make\n themselves acquainted with the land.--From the island with the house\n Maelduin and his men travelled about \"for a long time,\" hungry and\n without food, until they found an island which was encompassed by a\n great cliff (\"alt mor impi\"). There was a very thin and tall tree\n there; Maelduin caught a branch of it in his hand as they passed by;\n for three days and three nights the branch was in his hand, while the\n boat was sailing past the cliff, and on the third day there were three\n apples at the end of the branch (cf. Karlsevne's runners who returned\n after three days with grapes and wheat in their hands), on which they\n lived for forty days. Karlsevne and his men suffered great want during\n the winter at Straumsfjord; and from that place, where they lived on\n land in houses, they sailed \"for a long time\" before they came to the\n country with the self-sown wheat and vines, where there were great\n sandbanks off the mouth of the river, so that they had a difficulty in\n landing.\n\nIt is striking that in the voyage of Maelduin, the distance is only given\nas three days' and three nights' sail in the case of the three first\npassages to the three successive islands, after the first two small\nislands, while between the later islands we are told that they sailed \"a\nlong way,\" \"for a week,\" \"for a long time,\" etc.; just as in the Saga of\nEric the Red, where, after Bjarneyjar, they sail for two \"d\u0153gr\" to each of\nthe three lands in turn, and then they had \"a long way\" to sail along\nFur\u00f0ustrandir, to a bay, after which \"they went on their way\" to\nStraumsfjord, and thence they went \"for a long time\" to Wineland, etc. I\ndo not venture to assert that there was a direct connection between the\ntwo productions, for that there are perhaps too many dissimilarities; but\nthey seem in any case to have their roots in one and the same cycle of\nideas, and the original legend certainly reached Iceland in the shape of\noral narrative.\n\n The number three plays an important part in Eric's Saga. Three voyages\n are made to or in search of Wineland, Karlsevne has three ships, three\n countries are visited in turn, three winters are spent away (as with\n Eric the Red on his first voyage to Greenland, but there this was due\n to his exile), they meet with the Skr\u00e6lings three times, three men\n fall (two in the fight with the Skr\u00e6lings, and afterwards Thorvald\n Ericson)--just as Maelduin (and also Brandan) loses three men--the\n expedition finally resolves itself into three separate homeward\n voyages, Thorhall the Hunter's, Karlsevne's and Bjarne Grimolfsson's,\n etc. etc.[316] In the Irish legends and tales, e.g., those of Maelduin\n or of the Ua Corra, the repetition of the number three is even more\n conspicuous.\n\n We may regard it as another feature of fairy tale that Eric the Red\n has three sons who set out one after another, first Leif, then\n Thorstein, and lastly Thorvald, who finds the land and takes part in\n the attempt to settle it. But this feature is not conspicuous enough\n to allow of our attaching much importance to it, especially as here it\n is the first son who is the lucky one, while it is not so in fairy\n tale.\n\n[Sidenote: Sweet dew and manna]\n\nIn Leif's voyage in the \"Gr\u00f6nlendinga-\u00fe\u00e1ttr\" (which voyage partly\ncorresponds to Karlsevne's), when they came to a country south-west of\nMarkland, they landed on an island, to the north of the country,\n\n \"looked around them in fair weather, and found that there was dew on\n the grass, and it happened that they touched the grass with their\n hands and put them in their mouths, and they thought they had never\n tasted anything so sweet as it was.\"\n\nThis reminds one forcibly of Moses' manna in the wilderness, which\nappeared like dew [Exodus xvi. 14]. In the Old Norwegian free rendering of\nthe Old Testament, called \"Stj\u00f3rn,\"[317] of about 1300, therefore much\nearlier than the \"Gr\u00f6nlendinga-\u00fe\u00e1ttr,\" the account of this says that dew\ncame from heaven round the whole camp, \"it stuck like slime on the hands\nas soon as they touched it\" ... \"they found that it was sweet as honey in\ntaste....\" But here again we come in contact with Irish legendary ideas.\nIn the tale of the Navigation of the Sons of Ua Corra (of the twelfth\ncentury) the voyagers come to an island with a beautiful and wonderful\nplain covered with trees, full of honey, and a grass-green glade in the\nmiddle with a glorious lake of agreeable taste. Later on they come to\nanother marvellous island, with splendid green grass, and honeydew lay on\nthe grass [cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 194, 195].\n\n[Sidenote: Fur\u00f0ustrandir]\n\nThe name \"Fur\u00f0ustrandir\" (marvel-strands), as we shall see later (p. 357),\nmay come from the \"T\u00edrib Ingnad\" (lands of marvel) and \"Tr\u00e1g M\u00f3r\" (great\nstrand) of Irish legend, far in the western ocean.\n\n[Sidenote: Mythical figures: the Scottish runners]\n\nWhen Karlsevne arrived off Fur\u00f0ustrandir he sent out his two Scottish\nrunners, the man \"Haki\" and the woman \"Hekja,\" and told them to run\nsouthwards and examine the condition of the country and come back in three\ndays. This is evidently another legendary trait; and equally so the\ncircumstance that King Olaf had given these runners to Leif and told him\n\"to make use of them if he had need of speed, for they were swifter than\ndeer.\" We know of many such features in fairy tale and myth. Then, after\nthe traditional three days, the man and woman come running from the\ninterior of the country, one with grapes, the other with self-sown wheat\nin their hands. We are tempted to think of the spies Moses sent into\nCanaan, with orders to spy out the land, whether it was fat or lean, and\nwho came back with a vine-branch and a cluster of grapes, which they had\ncut in the vale of Eshcol (i.e., the vale of grapes).[318]\n\nBut there are other remarkable points about this legend. Professor Moltke\nMoe has called my attention to a striking resemblance between it and the\nlegends of the two runners or spies who accompanied Sinclair's march\nthrough Norway in 1612. They are called \"wind-runners\" or \"bloodhounds,\"\nor again \"weather-calves\" or \"wind-calves\"; others called them \"Wild\nTurks.\"\n\n \"They were ugly folk enough. Sinklar used them to run before and\n search out news; in the evening they came back with their reports.\n They were swifter in running than the stag; it is said that the flesh\n was cut out of their thighs and the thick of their calves. It is also\n said that they could follow men's tracks.\"[319]\n\n We are told elsewhere that \"these 'Ver-Kalvann' ('wind-calves') were\n more active than farm-dogs, swift as lightning, and did not look like\n folk. The flesh was cut out of the thick of their calves, their thighs\n and buttocks; their nostrils were also slit up. People thought this\n was done to them to make them so much lighter to run around, and every\n one was more frightened of them than of the Scots themselves. They\n could get the scent of folk a long way off and could kill a man before\n he could blow his nose: they dashed up the back and broke the necks of\n folk.\"[320]\n\nThe trait that the wind-runners \"did not look like folk\" is expressed in\nanother form in H. P. S. Krag's notes; he thinks that they\n\n \"were nothing else but Sinclair's bloodhounds, which we may assume\n both from the description and from its being related of the one that\n was shot at \u00d6degaard that it ran about the field and barked.\"\n\nSomething similar also occurs about the runners in Wineland in a late form\nof the legend of Karlsevne's voyage, where we read that\n\n \"he sailed from Greenland south-westward until the condition of the\n country got better and better; he found and visited many places that\n have never been found since; he found also some Skr\u00e6lings; these\n people are called in some books Lapps. In one place he got two\n creatures ('skepnur') more like apes than men, whom he called Hake and\n Hekja; they ran as fast as greyhounds and had few clothes.\" [MS. A.\n M., old no. 77oc, new no. 1892, 3; cf. Rafn: \"Antiquitates American\u00e6,\"\n 1837, p. 196.]\n\nIt may be mentioned in addition that in the Flateyjarb\u00f3k's saga of the\nWineland voyages no runners appear, but on the other hand, in the tale of\nLeif's voyage, which has features in common with Karlsevne's, there is a\n\"Southman\" (\"su\u00f0rma\u00f0r,\" most frequently used of Germans)[321] of the name\nof \"Tyrker,\" who was the first to find the wild vine in the woods (like\nKarlsevne's runners) and intoxicated himself by eating the grapes.[322] As\nMoltke Moe observes, there is a remarkable resemblance between the rare\nname Tyrker and the fact that Sinclair's runners were called Wild Turks.\n\nBoth in the legend of Karlsevne and in that of Sinclair the two runners\nare connected with Scots or Scotland. One is therefore inclined to suppose\nthat some piece of Celtic folklore is the common source of both. Now there\nis a Scottish mythical creature called a \"water-calf\"; and the\nunintelligible Norwegian name \"weather-calf\" or \"wind-calf\" (\"veirkalv\")\nmay well be thought a corruption of this. It is true that this creature\ninhabits lakes, but it also goes upon dry land, and has fabulous speed and\nthe power of scenting things far off. It can also transform itself into\ndifferent shapes, but always preserves something of its animal form.\n\nThat the runners in Eric's Saga have become a man and woman may be due to\na natural connection with Thor's swift-footed companions, Tjalve and\nR\u00f6skva. But there seems here to be another possible connection, which\nMoltke Moe has suggested to me. The strange garment they wore is called in\none MS. \"kiafal\" and in another \"biafal.\" No word completely corresponding\nto this is known in Celtic; but there is a modern Irish word \"cabhail\"\n(pronounced \"caval\" == \"a body of a shirt\"), which shows so much\nsimilarity both in meaning and sound that there seems undoubtedly to be a\nconnection here. That \"caval,\" corrupted to \"kiafal\" (through the\ninfluence of similar-sounding names ?), has been transformed into \"biafal\"\nmay be due to the influence of the Norse \"bjalfi\" or \"bjalbi\" (== a fur\ngarment without sleeves). As their costume plays such an important part in\nthe description of the runners, and special stress is laid upon the Celtic\nword for it, it is probable that this word was originally used as a name\nfor the runners themselves--in legend and epic poetry there are many\nexamples of people being named from their dress. But gradually the Celtic\nword used as a name has been replaced by the corresponding Old Norse\n\"hakull\" (or \"hokull\" == sleeveless cloak open at the sides; cf.\n\"messe-hagel,\" chasuble) and its feminine derivative \"hekla\" (==\nsleeveless cloak, with or without a hood). The use of these two words of\nmasculine and feminine gender may be due to conceptions of them as man and\nwoman, derived from Tjalve and R\u00f6skva. In course of time it was natural\nthat a personal name formed from the costume, like Hakull, should easily\nbe replaced by a real man's name of similar sound, like \"Haki,\" specially\nknown in legend and epic poetry as a name of sea-kings, berserkers and\ntroll-children. Then \"Hekja\" was derived from \"Haki,\" in the same way as\n\"Hekla\" from \"Hakull.\" Hekja as a name is not met with elsewhere.[323]\n\nThat the whole of this story of the runners in the Saga of Eric the Red\nhas been borrowed from elsewhere appears also from its being badly fitted\nin; for the narrative of the saga continues without taking any notice of\nthe finding of the sure tokens of Wineland: the self-sown wheat and the\nvine; and in the following spring there is even a dispute as to the\ndirection in which the country is to be sought. Furthermore, after the\ndiscoveries of the runners Karlsevne continues to sail southward, at\nfirst, the same autumn, to Straumsfjord, and then still farther south the\nfollowing summer, before he arrives at the country of the wheat and grapes\nthat the runners had reached in a day and a half in a roadless land.\n\n[Sidenote: Mythical figures: Thorhall and Tyrker]\n\nThe description of the stay in Straumsfjord also contains purely mythical\nfeatures, such as Thorhall the Hunter's being absent for the stereotyped\nthree days (\"d\u0153gr\"), and having, when they find him, practised magic arts\nwith the Red-Beard (Thor), as the result of which a whale is driven ashore\n(see p. 325). There is further a striking resemblance between the\ndescription of Thorhall's state when found and that of Tyrker after he had\neaten the grapes. When, in Eric's Saga, they sought and found Thorhall on\na steep mountain crag,\n\n \"he lay gazing up into the air with wide-open mouth and nostrils,\n scratching and pinching himself and muttering something. They asked\n why he lay there. He answered that that did not concern anybody, and\n told them not to meddle with it; he had for the most part lived so,\n said he, that they had no need to trouble about him. They asked him to\n come home with them, and he did so.\"\n\nIn the Flateyjarb\u00f3k's \"Gr\u00f6nlendinga-\u00fe\u00e1ttr\" Tyrker was lost in the woods,\nand when Leif and his men went in search and found him again, he too\nbehaved strangely.\n\n \"First he spoke for a long time in '\u00fe\u00fdrsku,' and rolled his eyes many\n ways and twisted his mouth; but they could not make out what he said.\n After a while he said in Norse: I did not go much farther, and yet I\n have a new discovery to tell of; I have found vines and grapes\n ('v\u00ednvi\u00f0 ok v\u00ednber').\"\n\nThis shows how features taken from legends originally altogether different\nare mingled together in these sagas, in order to fill out the description;\nand it shows too how the same tale may take entirely different forms. Of\nTyrker we hear further that \"he was 'brattleitr' (with a flat face and\nabrupt forehead), had fugitive eyes, was freckled ('sm\u00e1skitligr') in the\nface, small of stature and puny, but skilful in all kinds of dexterity.\"\nThorhall, on the other hand, \"was tall of stature, dark and troll-like,\"\netc. (see p. 320), but he was also master of many crafts, was well\nacquainted with the uninhabited regions, and altogether had qualities\ndifferent from most people. Both had long been with Eric the Red. There\ncan scarcely be a doubt that these two legendary figures, perhaps\noriginally derived from wholly different spheres, have been blended\ntogether.\n\n[Sidenote: The stranded whale]\n\nThe whale that is driven ashore and that they feed on resembles the great\nfish that is cast ashore and that the Irish saint Brandan and his\ncompanions live on in the tale of his wonderful voyage (see below). This\nresemblance is confirmed by the statement in the Icelandic story that no\none knew what kind of whale it was, not even Karlsevne, who had great\nexperience of whales. There are, of course, no whales on the north-eastern\ncoast of America that are not also found on the coasts of Greenland and\nIceland; the incident therefore appears fictitious. The great whale in the\nlegend of Brandan, on the other hand, is a fabulous monster. There is this\ndistinction, it is true, that Karlsevne's people fall ill from eating the\nwhale,[324] while it saves the lives of the Irish voyagers; but in both\ncases it is driven ashore after God, or a god, has been invoked in their\nneed, and disappears again immediately (in the tale of Brandan it is\ndevoured by wild beasts; in the saga it is thrown over the cliff). This\ndifference can easily be explained by the whale in the Norse story having\nbeen sent by a heathen god, so that it was sacrilege to eat of it. In the\ntale of Brandan the whale is perhaps derived from Oriental legends [cf. De\nGoeje, 1891, p. 63]; it may, however, be a common northern feature.\n\n[Sidenote: Eggs in the autumn and egg-gathering]\n\nWhen it is stated of Straumsfjord that there were places where eggs could\nbe gathered, and of Straumsey that \"there were so many birds that one\ncould scarcely put one's foot down between the eggs,\" this is evidently an\nentirely northern feature, brought in to decorate the tale, and brought in\nso infelicitously that they are made to find all this mass of eggs there\nin the _autumn_ (!) when they arrive. If Straumsfjord was in Nova Scotia\nthere could not be eider-ducks nor gulls either[325] in sufficient number\nto form breeding-grounds of importance, and among sea-birds one would be\nmore inclined to think of terns, as Professor R. Collett has suggested to\nme. As the coast is not described as one with steep cliffs, and there is\nmention of stepping between the eggs, auks, guillemots and similar\nsea-birds are out of the question, even if they occurred so far south.\n\n[Sidenote: Wineland the equivalent of Fortunate Isles]\n\nBut then comes the most important part of the saga, the description of the\ncountry itself, where grew self-sown fields of wheat, and vines on the\nhills, where no snow fell and the cattle were out the whole winter, where\nthe streams and the sea teemed with fish and the woods were full of deer.\n\nIsidore says [in the \"Etymologiarum,\" xiv. 6, 8] of the Fortunate Isles:\n\n \"The Insul\u00e6 Fortunat\u00e6 denote by their name that they produce all good\n things, as though fortunate ('felices') and blessed with fertility of\n vegetation. For of their own nature they are rich in valuable fruits\n ('poma,' literally tree-fruit or apples). The mountain-ridges are\n clothed with self-grown ('fortuites') vines, and cornfields ('messis'\n == that which is to be cut) and vegetables are common as grass [i.e.,\n grow wild like grass, are self-sown]; thence comes the error of the\n heathen, and that profane poetry regarded them as Paradise. They lie\n in the ocean on the left side of Mauritania [Morocco] nearest to the\n setting sun, and they are divided from one another by sea that lies\n between.\" He also mentions the Gorgades, and the Hesperides.\n\nThese ideas of the Fortunate Isles were widely current in the Middle Ages.\nIn the English work, \"Polychronicon,\" by Ranulph Higden, of the fourteenth\ncentury, Isidore's description took the following form:\n\n \"A good climate have the Insul\u00e6 Fortunat\u00e6 that lie in the western\n ocean, which were regarded by the heathen as Paradise by reason of the\n fertility of the soil and of the temperate climate. For there the\n mountain ridges are clothed with self-grown vines, and cornfields and\n vegetables are common as grass [i.e., grow wild]. Consequently they\n are called on account of the rich vegetation 'Fortunat\u00e6,' that is to\n say, 'felices' [happy, fertile], for there are trees that grow as high\n as 140 feet....\"\n\nThe resemblance between this description and that of Wineland is so close\nthat it cannot be explained away as fortuitous; the most prominent\nfeatures are common to both: the self-sown cornfields, the self-grown\nvines on the hills, and the lofty trees (cf. Pliny, below, p. 348), which\nare already present in the narrative of Leif's voyage (see above, p. 317).\nIf we go back to antiquity and examine the general ideas of the Fortunate\nLand or the Fortunate Isles out in the ocean in the west, we find yet more\npoints of resemblance. Diodorus [v. 19, 20] describes a land opposite\nAfrica, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, as fertile and mountainous,\nbut also to a large extent flat. (Wineland also had hills and lowlands.)\nIt invites to amusements and delights.[326] The mountainous country has\nthick forests and all kinds of fruitful trees, and many streams; there is\nexcellent hunting with game of all sorts, big and small, and the sea is\nfull of fish (precisely as Wineland). Moreover, the air is extremely mild\n(as in Wineland), and there is plenty of fruit the whole year round, etc.\nThe land was not known in former times, but some Ph\u0153nicians on a voyage\nalong the African coast were overtaken by a storm, were driven about the\nocean for many days, until they came thither (like Leif).\n\nIt is said of Wineland, in the Saga of Eric the Red, that \"no snow at all\nfell there, and the cattle were out (in winter) and fed themselves,\" and\nin the Flateyjarb\u00f3k we read that \"there was no frost in the winter, and\nthe grass withered little.\" These, we see, are pure impossibilities. As\nearly as the Odyssey [iv. 566] it is said of the Elysian Fields in the\nwest on the borders of the earth:\n\n \"There is never snow, never winter nor storm, nor streaming rain,\n But Ocean ever sends forth the light breath of the west wind\n To bring refreshment to men.\"\n\nIn the early civilisation of Babylon and Egypt this fortunate land seems\nto have been imagined as lying in the direction of the rising sun; but the\nideas are always the same. An ancient Egyptian myth puts \"Aalu\" or \"Hotep\"\n(== place of food, land of eating), which is the abode of bliss and\nfortune, far in the east, where light conquers darkness.\n\n \"Both texts and pictures bear witness to the beauty which pervades\n this abode of life; it was a Paradise as splendid as could be\n imagined, 'the store-house of the great god'; where 'the corn grows\n seven cubits high.' It was a land of eternal life; there, according to\n the oldest Egyptian texts, the god of light, and with him the\n departed, acquire strength to renew themselves and to arise from the\n dead.\"[327]\n\nIn the same colours as these the Odyssey describes many fortunate lands\nand islands, such as the nymph Calypso's beautiful island Ogygia, far in\nthe west of the ocean; and again \"Scheria's delightful island\" [vii. 79\nff.], where the Ph\u00e6acians, \"a people as happy as gods,\" dwell \"far away\namid the splashing waves of the ocean,\" where the mild west wind, both\nwinter and summer, ever causes the fruit-trees and vines to blossom and\nbear fruit, and where all kinds of herbs grow all the year round (remark\nthe similarity with Isidore's description). The fortunate isle of Syria,\nfar in the western ocean, is also mentioned [xv. 402],\n\n \"North of Ortygia, towards the region where the sun sets;\n Rich in oxen and sheep, and clothed with vines and wheat,\"\n\nwhere the people live free from want and sickness. These are the same\nideas which were afterwards transferred to the legend of the Hyperboreans\n(cf. pp. 15 ff.).[328] It is natural that among the Greeks wine and the\nvine took a prominent place in these descriptions. In post-Homeric times\nthe \"Isles of the Blest\" (\u039c\u03b1\u03ba\u03b1\u03c1\u03c9\u03bd \u03bd\u03b7\u03c3\u03bf\u03b9) are described by Hesiod (and\nsubsequently by Pindar) as lying in the western ocean--\n\n \"there they live free from care in the Isles of the Blest, by the\n deep-flowing Ocean, the fortunate heroes to whom the earth gives\n honey-sweet fruits three times a year.\"\n\nIt is these ideas--perhaps originally derived from the Orient--that have\ndeveloped into the Insul\u00e6 Fortunat\u00e6.\n\nThese islands are described by many writers of later antiquity. Pliny says\n[Nat. Hist., vi. 32 (37)] that according to some authors there lie to the\nwest of Africa\n\n \"the Fortunate Isles and many others, whose number and distance are\n likewise given by Sebosus. According to him the distance of the island\n of Junonia from Gades is 750,000 paces; it is an equal distance from\n this island westward to Pluvialia and Capraria. In Pluvialia there is\n said to be no water but that which the rain brings. 250,000 paces\n south-west of it and over against the left side of Mauritania\n [Morocco] lie the Fortunate Isles, of which one is called Invallis on\n account of its elevated form, the other Planaria on account of its\n flatness. Invallis has a circumference of 300,000 paces, and the trees\n on it are said to attain a height of 140 feet.\"\n\nBut as usual Pliny uncritically confuses statements from various sources,\nand he here adds information collected by the African king Juba about the\nFortunate Isles. According to this they were six in number: Ombrios, two\nislands of Junonia, besides Capraria, Nivaria, and Canaria, so called from\nthe many large dogs there, of which two were brought to Juba. Solinus\nmentions in one place [c. 23, 10] that there are three Fortunat\u00e6 Insul\u00e6,\nbut in another place [c. 56] he gives Juba's statement from Pliny. That\nthese islands were located to the west of Africa is certainly due to the\nPh\u0153nicians' and Carthaginians' knowledge of the Canary Islands, and\nPtolemy also places them here (see above, p. 117). Strabo [i. 3] thinks\nthat the Isles of the Blest lay west of the extremity of Maurusia\n(Morocco), in the region where the ends of Maurusia and Iberia meet. Their\nname shows that they lie near to the holy region (i.e., the Elysian\nFields).\n\nIn his biography of the eminent Roman general Sertorius (\"imperator\" in\nSpain for several years, died in 72 B.C.), Plutarch also mentions the\nIsles of the Blest. He tells us that when Sertorius landed as an exile on\nthe south-west coast of Spain (Andalusia),\n\n \"he found there some sailors newly arrived from the Atlantic Isles.\n These are two in number, separated only by a narrow strait, and they\n are 10,000 stadia (1000 geographical miles) from the African coast.\n They are called the 'Isles of the Blest.' Rain seldom falls there, and\n when it does so, it is in moderation; but they usually have mild\n winds, which spread such abundance of dew that the soil is not only\n good for sowing and planting, but produces of itself the most\n excellent fruit, and in such abundance that the inhabitants have\n nothing else to do but to abandon themselves to the enjoyment of\n repose. The air is always fresh and wholesome, through the favourable\n temperature of the seasons and their imperceptible transition.... So\n that it is generally assumed, even among the barbarians, that these\n are the Elysian Fields and the habitations of the blest, which Homer\n has described with all the magic of poetry. When Sertorius heard of\n these marvels he had a strong desire to settle in these islands, where\n he might live in perfect peace and far from the evils of tyranny and\n war.\"\n\nBut this remarkable man soon had fresh warlike under-takings to think\nabout, so that he never went there. It appears too from the fragments that\nhave come down to us of Sallust's Histories[329] that Sertorius did not\nvisit these islands, but only wished to do so. In fragment 102 we read:\n\n \"It is related that he undertook a voyage far out into the ocean,\" and\n Maurenbrecher adds that a scholium to Horace [Epod. 16, 42] says: \"The\n ocean wherein are the Insul\u00e6 Fortunat\u00e6, to which Sallust in his\n Histories says that Sertorius wished to retire when he had been\n vanquished.\"\n\nBut in L. Ann\u00e6us Florus, who lived under Hadrian (117-138 A.D.), we read\n[iii. 22]:[330]\n\n \"An exile and a wanderer on account of his banishment, this man [i.e.,\n Sertorius] of the greatest but most fatal qualities filled seas and\n lands with his misfortunes: now in Africa, now in the Balearic Isles\n he sought fortune, was sent out into the ocean and reached the\n Fortunate Isles: finally he raised Spain to conflict.\"\n\nIt thus appears that by Florus's time the idea had shaped itself that\nSertorius really had sought and found these islands; which, besides, in\npart at all events, were thought to be the same as those said to have been\nalready discovered by the Carthaginian Hanno on the west coast of Africa\nabout 500 B.C.\n\nOf great interest is the description which Horace gives in his Epodes\n[xvi. 39 ff.] of the Fortunate Isles in the ocean, though he does not\nmention them by name. He exhorts the Romans, who were suffering from the\ncivil wars, to abandon the coast of Italy (the Etruscan coast) and sail\nthither, away from all their miseries. Lord Lytton[331] gave the following\nmetrical translation of the poem:\n\n Ye in whom manhood lives, cease woman wailings,\n Wing the sail far beyond Etruscan shores.\n Lo! where awaits an all-circumfluent ocean--\n Fields, the Blest Fields we seek, the Golden Isles\n Where teems a land that never knows the ploughshare--\n Where, never needing pruner, laughs the vine--\n Where the dusk fig adorns the stem it springs from,\n And the glad olive ne'er its pledge belies--\n There from the creviced ilex wells the honey;\n There, down the hillside bounding light, the rills\n Dance with free foot, whose fall is heard in music;\n There, without call, the she-goat yields her milk,\n And back to browse, with unexhausted udders,\n Wanders the friendly flock; no hungry bear\n Growls round the sheepfold in the starry gloaming,\n Nor high with rippling vipers heaves the soil.\n These, and yet more of marvel, shall we witness,\n We, for felicity reserved; how ne'er\n Dark Eurus sweeps the fields with flooding rain-storm,\n Nor rich seeds parch within the sweltering glebe.\n Either extreme the King of Heaven has tempered.\n Thither ne'er rowed the oar of Argonaut,\n The impure Colchian never there had footing.\n There Sidon's trader brought no lust of gain;\n No weary toil there anchored with Ulysses;\n Sickness is known not; on the tender lamb\n No ray falls baneful from one star in heaven.\n When Jove's decree alloyed the golden age,\n He kept these shores for one pure race secreted;\n For all beside the golden age grew brass\n Till the last centuries hardened to the iron,\n Whence to the pure in heart a glad escape,\n By favour of my prophet-strain is given.\n\nRendered into prose, Horace's poem will run somewhat as follows:\n\n \"Ye who have manliness, away with effeminate grief, and fly beyond the\n Etruscan shore. There awaits us the all-circumfluent ocean: Let us\n steer towards fields, happy fields and rich islands, _where the\n untilled earth gives corn every year, and the vine uncut_ [i.e.,\n unpruned, growing wild] _continually flourishes_, and the\n never-failing branch of the olive-tree blossoms forth, and the fig\n adorns its tree, honey flows from the hollow ilex, the light stream\n bounds down from the high mountain on murmuring foot,\" etc.\n\nWe thus find here in Horace precisely the same ideas of the Elysian Fields\nor the Fortunate Isles that occur later in Isidore and in the saga's\ndescription of the fortunate Wineland; especially striking are the\nexpressions about the corn that each year grows wild (on the unploughed\nearth) and the wild vine which continually yields fruit (blossoms,\n\"floret\").\n\n These myths of the Fortunate Isles--originally derived from\n conceptions of the happy existence of the elect after death (in the\n Elysian Fields), for which reason they were called by the Greeks the\n Isles of the Blest--have also, of course, been blended with Indian\n myths of \"Uttara Kuru.\" Among the Greeks they were sometimes the\n subject of humorous productions; several such of the fifth century\n B.C. are preserved in Athen\u00e6us. Thus Teleclides says: \"Mortals live\n there peacefully and free from fear and sickness, and all that they\n need offers itself spontaneously. The gutter flows with wine, wheat\n and barley bread fight before the mouths of the people for the favour\n of being swallowed, the fish come into the house, offer themselves and\n serve themselves up, a stream of soup bears warm pieces of meat on its\n waves,\" etc. Cf. also Lucian's description of the Isle of the Blest in\n Vera Historia (second century A.D.): \"The vines bear fruit twelve\n times a year ... instead of wheat the ears put forth little loaves\n like sponges,\" etc. [Wieland, 1789, iv. p. 196].\n\n[Sidenote: Schlaraffenland and Fyldeholm]\n\n In the Middle Ages the tale of the land of desire was widespread: in\n Spain it took the name of \"Tierra del Pipirip\u00e1o\" or \"Dorado\" (the land\n of gold), or again \"La Isla de Jauja,\" said to have been discovered by\n the ship of General Don Fernando. In it are costly foods, rich stuffs\n and cloths in the fields and on the trees, lakes and rivers of Malmsey\n and other wines, springs of brandy, pools of lemonade, a mountain of\n cheese, another of snow, which cools one in summer and warms in\n winter, etc. In the Germanic countries this took the form of the\n legend of Schlaraffenland.[332] This mythical country has in Norway\n become \"Fyldeholmen\" (i.e., the island of drinking),[333] which shows\n that to the Norwegians of later days wine or spirits were the most\n important feature in the description of the land of desire, as the\n wine was to the ancient Norsemen in the conception of Wineland.\n\nTo sum up, it appears to me clear that the saga's description of Wineland\nmust in its essential features be derived from the myth of the Insul\u00e6\nFortunat\u00e6. The representations of it might be taken directly from Isidore,\nwho was much read in the Middle Ages, certainly in Iceland (where a\npartial translation of his work was made) and in Norway (he is often\nquoted in the \"King's Mirror\"), or orally from other old authorities, who\ngave still more detailed descriptions of these islands. But the difficulty\nis that the name of Wineland, connected with the ideas of the self-grown\nvine and the unsown wheat, is already found in Adam of Bremen (circa 1070,\nsee above, pp. 195 ff.). We might therefore suppose that it was his\nmention of the country which formed the basis of the Icelandic\nrepresentation of it, although his fourth book (the description of the\nisles of the North) seems otherwise to have been little known in the North\nat that time; but here again the difficulty presents itself that the later\ndescription, that of the saga, is more developed and includes several\nfeatures which agree with the classical conceptions, but which are not yet\nfound in Adam of Bremen. I think therefore that the matter may stand thus,\nthat \"V\u00ednland hit G\u00f3\u00f0a\" was the Norsemen's name for \"Insul\u00e6 Fortunat\u00e6,\"\nand was in a way a translation thereof; and oral tales about the\ncountry--based on Isidore and later on other sources as well--may have\nformed the foundation of the statements both in Adam and in Icelandic\nliterature. In the latter, then, an ever-increasing number of features\nfrom the classical conceptions have crystallised upon the nucleus, when\nonce it was formed, especially through the clerical, classically educated\nsaga-writers.\n\n[Sidenote: Irish happy lands and Wineland]\n\nAs Norway, and still more Iceland (cf. pp. 167, 258), were closely\nconnected in ancient days with Ireland, and as Norse literature in many\nways shows traces of Irish influence, one is disposed to think that the\nideas of Wineland may first have reached Iceland from that quarter. This\nexactly agrees with what was said at the beginning of this chapter, that\nthe statements (in the Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k) from the oldest Icelandic source, Are\nFrode, point directly to Ireland as the birthplace of the first reports of\nWineland. We read in the Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k:\n\n \"Hv\u00edtramanna-land, which some call 'Irland hit Mikla' [Ireland the\n Great], lies westward in the ocean near Wineland (Vindland) the Good.\n It is reckoned six 'd\u0153gr's' sail from Ireland.\"\n\nNothing more is said about Wineland.[334] As it is added that Are\nM\u00e1rsson's voyage to Hv\u00edtramanna-land\n\n \"was first related by Ravn 'Hlymreks-farer,' who had long been at\n Limerick in Ireland,\"\n\nwe see that Ravn, who was an Icelandic sailor of the beginning of the\neleventh century, must have heard of both Hv\u00edtramanna-land and Wineland in\nIreland, since otherwise he could not have known that one lay near the\nother.[335] But as Hv\u00edtramanna-land or \"Great Ireland\" is an Irish\nmythical country (see later), it becomes probable that Wineland the Good,\nat any rate in this connection, was one likewise. The old Irish legends\nmention many such fortunate islands in the western ocean, which have\nsimilar names, and which to a large extent are derived from the classical\nmyths of the Elysian Fields and the Insul\u00e6 Fortunat\u00e6. Voyages to them form\nprominent features of most of the Irish tales and legends. In the heathen\ntale of the Voyage of Bran (\"Echtra Brain maic Febail,\" preserved in\nfifteenth and fourteenth century copies of a work of the eleventh century,\nbut perhaps originally written down in the seventh century)[336] there are\ndescriptions of: \"Emain\" or \"T\u00edr na-m-Ban\" (the land of women), with\nthousands of amorous women and maidens, and \"without care, without death,\nwithout any sickness or infirmity\" (where Bran and his men live\nsumptuously each with his woman);[337] \"Aircthech\" (== the beautiful\nland); \"Ciuin\" (== the mild land), with riches and treasures of all\ncolours, where one listens to lovely music, and drinks the most delicious\nwine; \"Mag Mon\" (== the plain of sports); \"Imchiuin\" (== the very mild\nland); \"Mag Mell\" (== the happy plain, the Elysium of the Irish), which\nis described as lying beneath the sea, where without sin, without crime,\nmen and loving women sit under a bush at the finest sports, with the\nnoblest wine, where there is a splendid wood with flowers and fruits and\ngolden leaves, and the true scent of the vine; there is also \"Inis Subai\"\n(the isle of gladness), where all the people do nothing but laugh.[338] It\nis said in the same tale that \"there are thrice fifty distant islands in\nthe ocean to the west of us, each of them twice or thrice as large as\nErin.\"\n\nThat western happy lands in the Irish legends (even in the Christian\n\"Imram Maelduin\") should often be depicted as the Land of Women (\"T\u00edr\nna-m-Ban\") or Land of Virgins (\"T\u00edr na-n-Ingen\"), with amorously longing\nwomen, might be thought to have some connection with Mahomet's Paradise\nand the Houris; but the erotically sensuous element is everywhere so\nprominent in medi\u00e6val Irish literature that this feature may be a genuine\nIrish one.[339] It must, by the way, be this \"T\u00edr na-n-Ingen\" that we\nmeet with again in the Faroese lay \"Gongu-R\u00f3lv's kv\u00e6\u00f0i,\" where the giant\nfrom Trollebotten carries Rolv to \"M\u00f6yaland\" (cf. Sm\u00e5m\u00f6yaland); there Rolv\nslept three nights with the fair \"Lindin mj\u00e1\" (== the slender lime-tree,\ni.e., maid), and on the third night she lost her virginity. But the other\nmaidens all want to see him, they all want to torment him, some want to\nthrow him into the sea,\n\n \"Summar vildu hann \u00e1 g\u00e1lgan f\u00f6ra Some would carry him to the gallows,\n summar r\u00edva hans h\u00e1r, some would tear his hair,\n uttan fr\u00fagvin Lindin mj\u00e1, except the damsel Lindin the slender,\n hon fellir fyri hann t\u00e1r.\" she shed tears for him.\n\nShe sends for the bird \"Sk\u00fagv,\" which carries him on its back for seven\ndays and six nights across the sea to the highest mountain in Trondhjem.\n[Cf. Hammershaimb, 1855, pp. 138 ff.]\n\n[Illustration: From a MS. of the thirteenth century (Royal Library,\nCopenhagen)]\n\nThe \"Promised Land\" (\"T\u00edr Tairngiri\") with the \"Happy Plain\" (\"Mag\nMell\")[340] became in the Christian Irish legends the earthly Paradise,\n\"Terra Repromissionis Sanctorum\" (the land of promise of the saints).\nOther names for the happy land or happy isles in the west are: \"Hy\nBreasail\" (== the fortunate isle), \"T\u00edr na-m-Beo\" (== the land of the\nliving), \"T\u00edr na-n-\u00d3g\" (== the land of youth), \"T\u00edr na-m-Buadha\" (== the\nland of virtues), \"Hy na-Beatha\" (== the isle of life). The happy isle of\n\"Hy Breasail,\" which was thought to be inhabited by living people, was\nalso frequently called the \"Great Land\" (which when translated into Old\nNorse might become \"V\u00ed\u00f0land\"); just as the \"Land of the Living,\" where\nthere were only enticing women and maidens, and neither death nor sin nor\noffence, was called the \"Great Strand\" (\"Tr\u00e1g M\u00f3r\").[341] There is also\nmention of \"T\u00edr n-Ingnad\" (land of marvels) and \"T\u00edrib Ingnad\" (lands of\nmarvels). This Irish series of names and conceptions for the same\nwonderful land (or strand) may well be thought to have been the origin of\nthe name \"Fur\u00f0ustrandir.\"[342] The Irish often imagined their Promised\nLand, with \"Mag Mell\" and also the land of women, as the sunken land\nunder the sea (cf. p. 355), and called it \"T\u00edr fo-Thuin\" (== the land\nunder the wave).\n\n[Sidenote: Brandan's Grape-Island]\n\nIt is not surprising that a name like \"V\u00ednland hit G\u00f3\u00f0a\" should have\ndeveloped from such a world of ideas as this. But Moltke Moe has drawn my\nattention to yet another remarkable agreement, in the Grape-Island\n(\"Insula Uvarum\"), one of the fortunate isles visited by the Irish saint\nBrandan. In the Latin \"Navigatio Sancti Brandani\"--a description of\nBrandan's seven years' sea voyage in search of the \"Promised Land\"--it is\nrelated that one day a mighty bird came flying to Brandan and the brethren\nwho were with him in the coracle; it had a branch in its beak with a bunch\nof grapes of unexampled size and redness[343] [cf. Numbers xiii. 23],[344]\nand it dropped the branch into the lap of the man of God. The grapes were\nas large as apples, and they lived on them for twelve days.\n\n \"Three days afterwards they reached the island; it was covered with\n the thickest forests of vines, which bore grapes with such incredible\n fertility that all the trees were bent to the earth; all with the same\n fruit and the same colour; not a tree was unfruitful, and there were\n none found there of any other sort.\"\n\nThen this man of God goes ashore and explores the island, while the\nbrethren wait in the boat (like Karlsevne and his men waiting for the\nrunners), until he comes back to them bringing samples of the fruits of\nthe island (as the runners brought with them samples of the products of\nWineland). He says: \"Come ashore and set up the tent, and regale\nyourselves with the excellent fruits of this land, which the Lord has\nshown us.\" For forty days they lived well on the grapes, and when they\nleft they loaded the boat with as many of them as it would hold, exactly\nlike Leif in the \"Gr\u00f6nlendinga-\u00fe\u00e1ttr,\" who loaded the ship's boat with\ngrapes when they left Wineland; and like Thorvald at the same place, who\ncollected grapes and vines for a cargo [cf. \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" i. pp.\n222, 230].\n\n[Sidenote: The river at H\u00f3p and the Styx]\n\nThe fortunate island on which the monk Mernoc lived (at the beginning of\nthe \"Navigatio\") was called \"Insula Deliciosa.\" The great river that\nBrandan found in the Terra Repromissionis, and that ran through the middle\nof the island, may be compared to the stream that Karlsevne found at H\u00f3p\nin Wineland, which fell into a lake and thence into the sea, and where\nthey entered the mouth of the river. But the river which divided the Terra\nRepromissionis, and which Brandan could not cross, was evidently\noriginally the river of death, Styx or Acheron in Greek mythology\n(\"Gj\u01ebll\" in Norse mythology). One might be tempted to suppose that, in\nthe same way as the whole description of Wineland has been dechristianised\nfrom the Terra Repromissionis, the realistic, and therefore often\nrationalising, Icelanders have transformed the river in the Promised Land,\nthe ancient river of death, into the stream at H\u00f3p.\n\nOther passages also of the descriptions of the Wineland voyages present\nsimilarities with Brandan's voyage; and similar resemblances are found\nwith other Irish legends, so many, in fact, that they cannot be explained\nas coincidences. The \"Navigatio Sancti Brandani\" was written in the\neleventh century, or in any case before 1100[345] (but parts of the legend\nof Brandan may belong to the seventh and eighth centuries). The work was\nwidely diffused in Europe in the twelfth century, and was also well known\nin Iceland; we still possess an Old Norse translation of parts of it in\nthe \"Heilagra Manna s\u01ebgur\" [edited by Unger, Christiania, 1877, i.].\nThrough oral narratives the mythical features which are included in this\nlegend have evidently helped to form the tradition of the Wineland\nvoyages.\n\n[Sidenote: Wine-fruit and wine in Irish legend]\n\nIn the tale of the voyage of Maelduin and his companions (\"Imram\nMaelduin,\" see above, p. 336),[346] it is related that they came to an\nisland where there were many trees, like willow or hazel, with wonderful\nfruit like apples, or wine-fruit, with a thick, large shell; its juice had\nso intoxicating an effect that Maelduin slept for a day and a night after\nhaving drunk it; and when he awoke, he told his companions to collect as\nmuch as they could of it, for the world had never produced anything so\nlovely. They then filled all their vessels with the juice, which they\npressed out of the fruit, and left the island. They mixed the juice with\nwater to mitigate its intoxicating and soporific effect, as it was so\npowerful.[347] This reminds us of Tyrker in the \"Gr\u00f6nlendinga-\u00fe\u00e1ttr,\" who\ngets drunk from eating the grapes he found.[348]\n\n Wine is, moreover, a prominent feature in many of the Irish legends of\n sea-voyages. The voyagers often find intoxicating drinks, which make\n them sleep for several days, and they are often tormented by burning\n thirst and come to islands with springs that give a marvellously\n quickening drink. In the tale of the voyage of the three sons of Ua\n Corra (twelfth century ?) they arrive at an island where a stream of\n wine flows through a forest of oaks, which glitters enticingly with\n juicy fruits. They ate of the apples, drank a little of the stream of\n wine, and were immediately satisfied and felt neither wounds nor\n sickness any more. In the tale of Maelduin there is an island with\n soil as white as a feather and with a spring which on Wednesdays and\n Fridays gives whey or water, on Sundays and the days of martyrs good\n milk, but on the days of the Apostles, of Mary and of John the\n Baptist, and on the great festivals it gives ale and wine [cf. Zimmer,\n 1889, pp. 163, 189].\n\n[Sidenote: Resemblances to Lucian]\n\n Brandan's Grape-island, Maelduin who intoxicates himself by eating the\n wine-fruit, and the stream of wine flowing through the oak forest, all\n bear a remarkable resemblance to what the Greek sophist and satirist\n Lucian (second century A.D.) relates in his fables in the \"Vera\n Historia\" about the seafarers who came to a lofty wooded island. As\n they wandered through the woods they came to a river, which instead of\n water ran with wine, like Chios wine. In many places it was broad and\n deep enough to be navigable, and it had its source in many great\n vines, which hung full of grapes. In the river were fish of the colour\n and taste of wine. They swallowed some so greedily that they became\n thoroughly intoxicated. But afterwards they had the idea of mixing\n these wine-fish with water-fish, whereby they lost the too-powerful\n taste of wine and were a good dish. After wading through the river of\n wine they came upon some remarkable vines, the upper part of which\n were like well-developed women down to the belt. Their fingers ran out\n into twigs full of grapes, their heads were covered with\n vine-branches, leaves and grapes, instead of hair. \"The ladies kissed\n us on the mouth,\" says Lucian, \"but those who were kissed became drunk\n on the spot and reeled. Only their fruit they would not allow us to\n take, and they cried out in pain if we plucked a grape or two off\n them. On the other hand, some of them showed a desire to pair with us,\n but two of my companions who complied with them had to pay dearly for\n it; for ... they grew together with them in such a way that they\n became one stem with common roots.\" After this strange experience the\n voyagers filled their empty barrels partly with ordinary water, partly\n with wine from the river, and on the following morning they left the\n island. In the Isle of the Blest, at which they afterwards arrived,\n there were, in addition to many rivers of water, of honey, of\n sweet-scented essences and of oil, seven rivers of milk and eight of\n wine. We even find a parallel in Lucian to Maelduin's white island\n with the springs of milk and wine, as the travellers come to a sea of\n milk, where there was a great island of cheese, covered with vines\n full of grapes; but these yielded milk instead of wine [cf. Wieland,\n 1789, iv. pp. 150 ff., 188 f., 196]. A direct literary connection\n between Lucian and the Irish myths can hardly be probable, as he is\n not thought to have been known in Western Europe before the fourteenth\n century; but he was much read in Eastern Europe, and oral tales\n founded on his stories may have reached the Irish. The resemblances\n are so pronounced and so numerous that it does not seem very probable\n that they should be wholly accidental. Such an oral connection might,\n for instance, have been brought about by the Scandinavians, who had\n much intercourse with Miklagard (Byzantium), or by the Arabs, who in\n fact preserved a great part of Greek literature, and who were in\n constant communication both with Celts and with Scandinavians.\n\n[Sidenote: Connection of the Brandan legend with northern waters]\n\nThat a mythical island like the Isle of Grapes--or perhaps others as well,\nsuch as the \"Insula Deliciosa\"--might be the origin of the \"Vinland hit\nG\u00f3\u00f0a\" of the Icelanders, to which one sailed from Greenland (and of Adam\nof Bremen's Winland), appears natural also from the fact that many of the\nislands and tracts that are mentioned in the \"Navigatio,\" and that for the\nmost part are also mentioned in the older tale of Maelduin, are\nundoubtedly connected with northern and western waters. That this must be\nso is easily understood when one considers the voyages of Irish monks to\nthe Faroes and Iceland. The Sheep Island, which was full of sheep, and\nwhere Brandan obtained his paschal lamb, must be the Faroes, where the\nsheep are mentioned even by Dicuil (see p. 163), just as the island with\nthe many birds also reminds us of Dicuil's account of these islands; the\nisland on the borders of Hell, whose steep cliffs were black as coal,\nwhere one of Brandan's monks, when he set foot ashore, was instantly\nseized and burnt by demons, and which at their departure they saw covered\nwith fire and flames, may have some connection with Iceland.[349] But it\nalso bears some resemblance to the Hell Island that Lucian's voyagers\ncome to, surrounded by steep cliffs, where there were stinking fumes of\nasphalt, sulphur, pitch, and roasted human beings. When Brandan arrives at\nthe curdled sea (\"mare quasi coagulatum\"), and has to sail through\ndarkness before he comes to the Land of Happiness, or when we hear of a\nthick fog like a wall about the kingdom of Manannan, we again think of the\nnorthern regions where the Liver Sea lay, and where Adam of Bremen had his\ndark or mist-filled sea.\n\n[Sidenote: Classical roots of the Brandan legend]\n\n While thus many features connect the legend of Brandan with northern\n waters, it has, on the other hand--like many other Irish myths--its\n roots far down in the mythical conceptions of the classics. Above all,\n Brandan's Paradise or \"Promised Land of the Saints,\" Terra\n Repromissionis Sanctorum, is nothing but the Greeks' Isles of the\n Blest, blended with ideas from the Bible. As shown by Zimmer [1889,\n pp. 328 ff.], the Imram Maelduin (which to a large extent forms the\n foundation of the Navigatio St. Brandani) and other Irish tales of\n sea-voyages have great similarity to Virgil's \u00c6neid, and are composed\n on its model. We have already said that Brandan's Grape-island may\n have some connection with Lucian. From him is possibly also derived\n Brandan's great whale, \"Iasconicus,\" on whose back they live and\n celebrate Easter. But similar big fishes are known from old Indian\n legends, from the legends about Alexander, etc. It may also be\n mentioned that in the Breton legend corresponding to Brandan's, that\n of St. Machutus (written down by Bili, deacon at Aleth, ninth\n century), the latter and Brandan came to an island where they find the\n dead giant \"Mildu,\" whom Machutus awakens and baptizes and who, wading\n through the sea, tries to draw their ship to the Paradise-island of\n \"Yma,\" which he says is surrounded by a wall of shining gold, like a\n mirror, without any visible entrance. But a storm raises the sea and\n bursts the cable by which he is towing them. Humboldt already saw in\n this giant the god Cronos, who, according to Plutarch, lay sleeping on\n an island in the Cronian Sea to the north-west of Ogygia, which lay\n five days' voyage to the west of Britain (see above, p. 156). It is\n probably the same giant who in the tale of Brandan written in Irish\n (\"Imram Brenaind\") has become a beautiful maiden, whiter than snow or\n sea-spray; but a hundred feet high, nine feet across between the\n breasts, and with a middle finger seven feet long. She is lying\n lifeless, killed by a spear through the shoulder; but Brandan awakens\n and baptizes her. She belongs to the sea-people, who are awaiting\n redemption. As, in answer to Brandan's question, she prefers going\n straight to heaven to living, she dies again immediately without a\n sigh after taking the sacrament [cf. Schirmer, 1888, pp. 30, 72;\n Zimmer, 1889, p. 136; De Goeje, 1891, p. 69]. This maiden is evidently\n connected with the supernaturally beautiful, big, and white king's\n daughter from the Land of Virgins (\"T\u00edr na-n-Ingen\") who seeks the\n protection of Finn MacCumaill, and who is also pierced by a spear [cf.\n Zimmer, 1889, pp. 269, 325]. Thus do mythical beings transform\n themselves till they become unrecognisable. The same woman is found\n again in Iceland as late as the seventeenth century.[350]\n\n[Sidenote: The Brandan legend and Norse literature]\n\n In many of its features the Brandan legend, or similar Irish legends,\n may be shown to have had influence on Norse literature. The theft of\n the neck-chain (or bridle ?) by one of the brethren, who comes to\n grief thereby, in the Navigatio and in other Irish tales, is found\n again, as Moltke Moe points out to me, in the story of Thorkel Adelfar\n in Saxo Grammaticus, as a theft of jewels and of a cloak, through\n which the thieves also come to grief. The great fish (whale)\n \"Iasconicus,\" of which Brandan relates that it tries in vain to bite\n its own tail, is evidently the Midgardsworm of Norse literature. In\n the same way the little, apparently innocent, but supernatural cat in\n the \"Imram Maelduin\" which suddenly destroys the man who steals the\n neck-chain may be connected with the cat that Thor tries to lift in\n Utgard. It is doubtless the same little cat that three young priests\n took with them on their voyage in another Irish legend [in the Book of\n Leinster, of the beginning of the twelfth century]. In the \"Imram\n Brenaind\" this little cat they took with them has grown into a monkey\n as large as a young ox, which swims after Brandan's boat and wants to\n swallow it [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 139]. Again, quite recently Von Sydow\n [1910, pp. 65 ff.] has shown that the Snorra-Edda's myth of Thor's\n journey to Utgard is based on Irish myths and tales.\n\n[Sidenote: The happy land in the west known in Northern Europe]\n\nLegends of a happy land or an island far over the sea towards the sunset\nwere evidently widely diffused in Northern Europe in those days, outside\nIreland. In Anglo-Saxon literature there is a dialogue between Adrianus\nand Ritheus (probably of the tenth century), where we read:\n\n \"Tell me where the sun shines at night.\"... \"I tell you in three\n places: first in the belly of the whale that is called 'Leuiathan';\n and the second season it shines in Hell; and the third season it\n shines upon the island that is called 'Gli\u00f0,' and there the souls of\n holy men repose till doomsday.\"[351]\n\nThis Gli\u00f0 (i.e., the glittering land) is evidently the Land of the Blest,\nBrandan's Terra Repromissionis, that lies in dazzling sunshine, after one\nhas passed through darkness and mist; but whether the myth reached the\nAnglo-Saxons from the Irish seems doubtful.\n\nPseudo-Gildas's description (twelfth century) of the isle of \"Avallon\"\n(the apple-island of Welsh myth) is also of interest; it is connected with\nexactly the same ideas as the Irish happy isles:\n\n \"A remarkable island is surrounded by the ocean, full of all good\n things; no thief, no robber, no enemy pursues one there; no violence,\n no winter, no summer rages immoderately; peace, concord, spring last\n eternally, neither flower nor lily is wanting, nor rose nor violet;\n the apple-tree bears flowers and fruit on the selfsame branch; there\n without stain youths dwell with their maidens, there is no old age and\n no oppressive sickness, no sorrow, all is full of joy.\"[352]\n\n[Sidenote: The name of Wineland derived from Ireland]\n\nIt results, then, from what has here been quoted, that a Grape-island\n(\"Insula Uvarum\") makes its appearance in Irish literature in the eleventh\ncentury, at about the same time when Adam of Bremen mentions, from Danish\ninformants, an island called \"Winland.\" Of the same century again is the\nNorwegian runic stone from H\u00f6nen in Ringerike, on which, as we shall see\nlater, Wineland is possibly mentioned (?) From the form of the runes, S.\nBugge ascribes it to the first half of the eleventh century, hardly older,\nthough it may be later. \"Insula Uvarum\" translated into the Old Norse\nlanguage could not very well become anything but V\u00ednland (or V\u00edney), since\nV\u00ednberjarey or V\u00ednberjarland would not sound well. We thus have the\nremarkable circumstance that an island with the same name and the same\nproperties makes its appearance almost simultaneously in Ireland and in\nDenmark (and possibly also in Norway). That these Wine-islands or\nWinelands should have originated entirely independently of one another, in\ncountries which had such close intellectual connection, would be a\ncoincidence of the kind that one cannot very well assume, since it must be\nregarded as more probable that there was a connection. But Brandan's\nGrape-island can scarcely be derived from a Wineland discovered by the\nNorsemen, since, as has been mentioned, the wine and wine-fruit play such\na prominent part in the older Irish legends, and the ancient tale of Bran\n(\"Echtra Brain\") describes the Irish Elysium (\"Mag Mell\") as a land with\nmagnificent woods and the true scent of the vine, etc. (see p. 355). In\nthe next place, as has been mentioned, Brandan's Grape-island bears a\nresemblance to Lucian's Grape-island; but as Lucian's descriptions seem\nalso to have influenced, among others, the tale of the intoxicating\nwine-fruit in the \"Imram Maelduin,\" it looks as though Lucian's stories\nhad reached Ireland (e.g., by Scandinavian travellers or through Arabs ?)\nlong before the Navigatio Brandani was written. As thus the Irish\nwine-island cannot well be due to a Norse discovery, it becomes probable\nthat Adam's name Winland (as well as the possible Norwegian name) was\noriginally derived from Ireland, and that it reached the northern\ncountries orally. If the Danes did not get the name from the Norwegians\nthey may have brought it themselves, as they also had direct communication\nwith Ireland.[353] This conclusion, that the name of Wineland came from\nIreland, is again strengthened from an entirely different quarter, namely,\nthe Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k, where it is said that Great-Ireland lay near Wineland. As\nsuggested on p. 354, this shows that the Icelanders must have heard both\nlands spoken of in Ireland. As Ravn Hlymreks-farer is given as the\noriginal authority, and after him Thorfinn, earl of Orkney (ob. circa\n1064), this may have been at the beginning of the eleventh century; but as\nthe statement came finally from Thorkel Gellisson (and consequently was\nwritten down by Are Frode) it may also have been in the second half of\nthat century. In this way we seem to have a natural explanation of the\nsimultaneous appearance of the name in the North.[354]\n\nAs the statement in the Landn\u00e1ma is due to Thorkel Gellisson, it is\ndoubtless most probable that the Wineland that is mentioned for the first\ntime in Icelandic literature in a gloss in Are Frode's \u00cdslendingab\u00f3k also\nhas Thorkel (who is mentioned immediately afterwards) for its authority\n(cf. p. 258), although the sentence might be by Are himself. Thorkel may\nhave heard of this Wineland in Greenland; but it is more likely to be the\ncountry he heard of in connection with the mythical Hv\u00edtramanna-land from\nIreland, and he may have heard that there were said to dwell there wights\n(or trolls) that were called Skr\u00e6lings. Two possibilities suggest\nthemselves: either this Wineland with its Skr\u00e6lings was nothing but the\nwell-known mythical land with its mythical people, which required no\nfurther description. It cannot be objected that the sober, critical Are\nwould not have mentioned a mythical country in this way; for, if he was\ncapable of believing in a Hv\u00edtramanna-land, he could also believe in such\na Wineland. Or, on the other hand, it was a land which had actually been\ndiscovered and to which the name of the mythical country had been\ntransferred. The latter hypothesis might be strengthened by other things\nthat point to the Greenlanders having really found land in the west. But,\non the other hand, if a country actually discovered is meant, it is\ncurious that neither Are nor the Landn\u00e1ma makes any mention of the\ndiscovery, whereas the discovery of Greenland is related at some length,\nand also that of Hv\u00edtramanna-land. Again, when Eric the Red came to\nGreenland, such a land had in any case not been discovered, so that it\ncould not have been he who named the Eskimo after the inhabitants of that\nland, whereas Are might readily suppose that he had taken the name of\nSkr\u00e6lings from the people of the mythical country; thus Are's words, as\nthey now stand, would have a clearer meaning.\n\nIt may also be worth mentioning that in the only passage of the Sturlub\u00f3k\nwhere Wineland is alluded to, it is called \"Irland et Goda.\" This has\ngenerally been regarded as a copyist's error; but that it was due to\nmisreading of an indistinctly written \"Vinland\" is not likely; it might\nrather be due to a careless repetition, since \"Irland et Mikla\" is\nmentioned just before. This is most probable. It may, however, be supposed\nthat it is not an error, and that just as the latter is an alternative\nname for Hv\u00edtramanna-land, so \"Irland et G\u00f3\u00f0a\" may be a corresponding\nalternative name for Wineland, which was situated near it. We should thus\nagain be led to Ireland as the home of the name. In any case the\nuncertainty which prevails in the versions of the name of Wineland given\nin the oldest authorities is striking (as discussed in the last note).\nNothing of the same sort occurs in the transmission of other geographical\nnames, and a form such as Vindland in Hauk's Landn\u00e1ma cannot be explained\nas merely a copyist's error. Again, Eric's Saga in the Hauksb\u00f3k has the\nname correctly, although this saga as well as the Landn\u00e1ma was to a great\nextent copied by Hauk Erlendsson himself. This may point to the form\nVindland having occurred in the original from which the Landn\u00e1ma was\ncopied. This discloses uncertainty in the very reading of the name, and it\nseems also to point to its having been a mythical country and not the name\nof a known land that had been discovered.\n\n[Sidenote: Landit G\u00f3\u00f0a, Fairyland]\n\nTo any one who is familiar with Norse place-names, the addition \"hit g\u00f3\u00f0a\"\nto Wineland must appear foreign and unusual. It is otherwise only known in\nthe northern countries from the name \"Landegode\" (originally \"Landit\nG\u00f3\u00f0a\") on the coast of Norway, for an island west of Bod\u00f6. The same name\nwas also used (and is still used in Stad and Her\u00f6) for Svin\u00f6i, a little\nisland off Sunnm\u00f6r, and for Jomfruland (south of Langesund). It has been\ngenerally taken for a so-called tabu-name;[355] but the explanation\nsuggested to me by Moltke Moe seems more probable, that it was a\ndesignation of fairylands, which lay out in the ocean, and which were\nthought to sink into the sea as one approached them. The above-mentioned\nNorwegian islands would quite answer to such conceptions, especially when\nthey loom up and seem larger, and all three islands were formerly\nfairylands (\"huldrelande\"). The original germ of the belief in fairies\n(\"huldrer\") is the worship of the departed. \"Hulder\" means \"hidden\" (i.e.,\nthe hidden people). Fairylands are therefore the islands of the hidden, or\nof the departed, and these again are the Fortunate Isles or the Isles of\nthe Blest. A parallel to this is that \"Hades\" in Greek means the\ninvisible. And, as we have seen (p. 356), the nymph Calypso (== the hidden\none) answers to our \"hulder.\" When Bran, in the Irish legend alluded to,\nmeets on the sea Manann\u00e1n mac Lir (i.e., son of the Sea), king of the\nsea-people, lord of the land of the dead, he tells Bran that without being\nable to see it he is sailing over Mag Mell (the happy plain), where happy\npeople are sitting drinking wine, and where there is a splendid forest\nwith vines, etc.; and the Irish happy land \"T\u00edr fo-Thuin\" is, as we have\nsaid (p. 358), the land under the wave. The lands or islands of the\ndeparted in course of time became the habitations of the invisible ones\n(spirits), of those who possess more than human wisdom, and have a\nspecially favourable lot; by this means the idea of a fortunate land with\nfavoured conditions, far surpassing the ordinary lot of men, became more\nand more emphasised. This development may be followed both with regard to\nclassical ideas of the Fortunate Islands and to Norse conceptions of\nfairylands.\n\nThat the Greeks connected the happy land with the hidden people who move\nupon the sea may perhaps be concluded even from the Odyssey's description\nof the Ph\u00e6acians, who dwelt in the happy land, the glorious Scheria, far\nin the western ocean (see above, p. 347). That they may be compared with\nour fairies (\"huldrefolk\") appears perhaps from the name itself, which may\ncome from \u03c6\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 (== dark) and mean \"dark man,\" \"the hidden man\" [cf.\nWelcker, 1833, p. 231].[356] They sail at night, always shrouded in clouds\nand darkness, in boats as swift \"as wings and the thoughts of men\" [Od.\nvii. 35 f.]. The \"huldrefolk\" also travel by night (cf. p. 378). In\nIreland and in Iceland the way to fairyland is through darkness and mist,\nor sea or water [cf. Gr\u00f6ndal, 1863, pp. 25, 38]; and it is the same in\nNordland. A blending of the fairies (\"s\u00edd\"-people) and the inhabitants of\nthe happy land or promised land is particularly observable in the Irish\nlegends [cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 276 f.]. The people of the \"s\u00edd\" dwell\npartly in grave-mounds (and are thus like our \"haugebonde,\" or mound-elf),\nthey may also live in happy lands far west in the sea or under the sea,\nand are thus sea-elves, but on the whole they most resemble our\n\"huldrefolk.\" The \"s\u00edd\"-woman entices men like our \"hulder\"; in the tale\nof \"Condla Ruad\" [Connla the Fair; cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 262] she comes\nfrom the Land of the Living (\"T\u00edr na-m-Be\u00f3\"), far across the sea, and\nentices Connla to go with her in a glass boat to the \"Great Strand,\" where\nthere only were women and maidens. This Irish paradise of women out in the\nocean has, as we have said (p. 355), much in common with the German\nVenusberg, and with the invisible country of our \"huldrefolk.\" But the\n\"huldrefolk\" dwell now in mountains and woods, now on islands in the sea\nor under the sea. As will be seen, the ideas of the Fortunate Isles or of\nthe Promised Land and those of fairyland thus often coincide. It may be\nadded that among many peoples the souls of the dead are carried across the\nsea in a boat or ship to a land in the west.\n\n This is evidently connected with the river of death, Styx, Acheron or\n Cocytus, of the Greeks, over which Charon ferried the souls to the\n lower regions in a narrow two-oared boat. Procopius [De bello Goth.,\n iv. 20] relates that according to legends he himself heard from the\n natives, all the souls of the departed are carried every night at\n midnight from the coast of Germania to the island of Brittia (i.e.,\n Britain) which lies over against the mouth of the Rhine between\n Britannia (i.e., Brittany) and Thule (Scandinavia). He whose turn it\n is among the dwellers on the coast to be ferryman hears at midnight a\n knocking at his door and a muffled voice. He goes down to the beach,\n sees there an empty, strange boat, into which he gets and begins to\n row. He then notices that the boat is filled so that the gunwale is\n only a finger's breadth above the water, but he sees nothing. As soon\n as he arrives at the opposite shore, he notices that the boat is\n suddenly emptied, but still he sees no one, and only hears a voice\n announcing the names and rank of the arrivals. The invisible souls,\n who always move in silence, answer to the elves.\n\n In many ways the connection between the dead and the sea is apparent.\n Balder's body was laid in a ship on which a pyre was kindled, and it\n was abandoned to the currents of the sea. The body of the hero Scild\n in the lay of Beowulf was borne upon a ship, which was carried away by\n the sea, no one knows whither. Fiosi in Nj\u00e1l's Saga has himself\n carried on board a ship and abandoned to the sea, and afterwards the\n ship is not heard of again, etc.[357]\n\nThat the fairylands should be called \"Landit G\u00f3\u00f0a\" may be due to their\nexceeding fertility (cf. the huldreland's waving cornfields); but it may\nalso, as Moltke Moe has pointed out, have a natural connection with the\ntendency the Germanic peoples in ancient times seem to have had of\nattaching the idea of \"good\" to the fairies and the dead. In Nordland the\n\"huldrefolk\" are called \"godvetter\" (\"good wights\") [cf. I. Aasen]; this\namong the Lapps has become \"g\u00favitter,\" \"gufihter,\" \"gufittarak,\" etc., as\na name for supernatural beings underground or in the sea;[358] the Swedes\nin North Sweden use the word \"goveiter.\" The mound-elf (\"haugebonden\"),\nOld Norse \"haugbui\" (the dweller in the mound), who was the ancestor of\nthe clan, or the representative of the departed generations, is called in\nNordland \"godbonden.\"[359]\n\n The underground people are called in Iceland \"lj\u00faflingar,\" in German\n \"die guten Leute,\" in English-speaking Ireland, Scotland and the Isle\n of Man \"the good people,\" \"good neighbours,\" or \"the men of\n peace.\"[360] In Highland Gaelic they are called \"daoine sith,\" in\n Welsh \"dynion mad.\" In Swedish and Danish we have the designation\n \"nisse god-dreng\" (\"nisse good boy\") or \"goda-nisse,\" in Norwegian\n \"go-granne\" (\"good neighbour\"); (in Danish also \"k\u00e6re granne,\" \"dear\n neighbour\"); in German \"Guter (or lieber) Nachbar,\" or \"Gutgesell\" is\n used of a goblin; in Thuringia \"G\u00fctchen,\" \"G\u00fctel\"; in the Netherlands\n \"goede Kind,\" and in England \"Robin Goodfellow.\"\n\nThat the epithet \"good\" applied to supernatural beings, especially\nunderground ones, is so widely spread, even among the Lapps, shows it to\nhave been common early in the Middle Ages.\n\n It is of minor interest in this connection to inquire what the origin\n of the epithet may have been. We might suppose that it was the thought\n of the departed as the happy, blest people; but on the other hand it\n may have been fear; it may have been sought to conciliate them by\n giving them pet-names, for the same reason that thunder is called in\n Swedish \"gobon\" (godbonden), \"gofar,\" \"gogubben,\" \"gomor,\" \"goa\" (goa\n g\u00e5r),[361] which is also Norwegian.\n\n\"Hit g\u00f3\u00f0a\" is the altogether good, the perfect, therefore the fortunate\nland. When the legend of the \"Insul\u00e6 Fortunat\u00e6\" and of the Irish happy\nlands--one of which was the sunken fairyland \"T\u00edr fo-Thuin,\" the land\nunder-wave--reached the North, it was quite natural that the Northerners\nshould translate the name by one well known to them, \"Landit G\u00f3\u00f0a\"\n(fairyland, the land of the unseen); indeed, the name of Insul\u00e6 Fortunat\u00e6\ncould not well have been translated in any other way. But as wine was so\nconspicuous a feature in the description of this southern land of myth,\nboth in Isidore and among the Irish, and as wine more than any other\nfeature was symbolical of the idea of happiness, it is natural, as we have\nseen, that the Northerners came very soon to call this country, like\nBrandan's Grape-island, \"V\u00ednland\"; thus \"V\u00ednland hit G\u00f3\u00f0a\" may have arisen\nby a combination of \"V\u00ednland\" and \"Landit g\u00f3\u00f0a,\" to distinguish it from\nthe native \"Landit G\u00f3\u00f0a,\" the fairyland of the Norwegians. A combination\nof \"hit g\u00f3\u00f0a\" with a proper name is otherwise unknown, and thus points to\n\"Landit G\u00f3\u00f0a\" as the original form.[362]\n\n[Sidenote: Laudatory names for fairyland]\n\n Moltke Moe has given me an example from Gotland of a fairyland having\n received a laudatory name answering to Wineland, in that the popular\n fairyland \"Sj\u00f3haj\" or \"Fl\u00e5jgland,\" out at sea, is called\n Sm\u00f6rland.[363] Sj\u00f3haj is a mirage on the sea; and \"Fl\u00e5jgland\" comes\n from \"fljuga,\" to fly, i.e., that which drifts about, floating land.\n It now only means looming, but it may originally have been fairyland,\n and it is evident that it is here described as particularly fertile.\n With \"Sm\u00f6rland\" may be compared Norwegian place-names compounded with\n \"sm\u00f6r\": \"Sm\u00f6rtue,\" \"Sm\u00f6rberg,\" \"Sm\u00f6rklepp.\" O. Rygh includes these\n among \"Laudatory names ... which accentuate good qualities of the\n property or of the place.\"[364] Similarly in the place-names of\n Shetland: \"Smerrin\" (== \"smj\u01ebr-vin,\" fat, fertile pasture),\n \"Smernadal\" (== \"smj\u01ebr-vinjar-dalr,\" valley with fat pasture), \"de\n Smerr-meadow\" (== originally: \"smjor-eng\" or \"smj\u01ebr-vin\"), \"de\n Smerwel-park\" (probably == \"smjor-vollr\"), \"de Smorli\" (probably ==\n \"smjor-hli\u00f0\"). J. Jakobsen [1902, p. 166] says that \"'smer(r)' (Old\n Norse 'smj\u01ebr' or 'sm\u0153r,' Norwegian 'sm\u00f6r,' butter) means here\n fertility, good pasture, in the same way as in Norwegian names of\n which the first syllable is 'sm\u00f6r.'\" With this may be compared the\n fact that even in early times the word \"sm\u00f6r\" was used to denote a fat\n land, as when Thorolf in the saga said that \"it dripped butter from\n every blade of grass in the land they had found\" (i.e., Iceland, see\n above, p. 257, cf. also \"smj\u01ebr-tisdagr\" == \"Fat Tuesday,\" \"Mardi\n gras\"). That the fairylands were connected with fertility appears\n also from a Northern legend. Nordfugl\u00f6i, to the north of Karls\u00f6i, was\n once a troll-island, hidden under the sea and invisible to men, thus a\n \"huldre\" island. But then certain troll-hags betook themselves to\n towing it to land; a Lapp hag who happened to cast her eye through the\n door-opening saw them come rowing with the island, so that the spray\n dashed over it, and cried: \"Oh, what a good 'food-land' we have now\n got!\" And thereupon the island stopped at the mouth of the sea, where\n it now is.[365] The fertility of fairyland is doubtless also expressed\n in the incident of the sow that finds it (see later), usually having a\n litter there. Its fertility appears again, perhaps, in H. Str\u00f6m's\n [1766, p. 436] mention of \"Buskholm\" (i.e., Bush-island) in Her\u00f6\n (Sunnm\u00f6r), which was inhabited by underground beings and protected,\n therefore wholly overgrown with trees and bushes. The Icelandic\n elfland \"is delightful, covered with beautiful forests and sweet\n smelling flowers\" [cf. Gr\u00f6ndal, 1863, p. 25], and the Irish is the\n same.\n\n[Sidenote: Floating islands]\n\n Legends of islands and countries that disappeared or moved, like the\n fairylands, are widely diffused. To begin with, the Delos (cf. \u03b4\u03b7\u03bb\u03bf\u03c9,\n become visible) of the Greeks floated about in the sea for a long\n time, as described by Callimachus [v.]; now the island was found, now\n it was away again, until it was fixed among the Cyclades. Ireland,\n which also at a very early time was the holy island (cf. p. 38),\n floated about in the sea at the time of the Flood. Lucas Debes [1673,\n pp. 19 ff.] relates that \"at various times a floating island is said\n to have been seen\" among the Faroes; but no one can reach it. \"The\n inhabitants also tell a fable of Svin\u00f6e,[366] how that in the\n beginning it was a floating island: and they think that if one could\n come to this island, which is often seen, and throw steel upon it, it\n would stand still.... Many things are related of such floating\n islands, and some think that they exist in nature.\" Debes does not\n believe it. \"If this was not described of the properties of various\n islands, I should say that it was icebergs, which come floating from\n Greenland: and if that be not so, then I firmly believe that it is\n phantoms and witchcraft of the Devil, who in himself is a thousandfold\n craftsman.\" Erich Pontoppidan [1753, ii. p. 346] defends the devil and\n protests against this view of Debes, that it is \"phantasmata and\n sorcery of the devil,\" and says: \"But as, according to the wholesome\n rule, we ought to give the Devil his due, I think that the devil who\n in haste makes floating islands is none other than that Kraken, which\n some seamen also call 'S\u00f6e-Draulen,' that is, the sea troll.\"\n\n Of Svin\u00f6i in the Faroes precisely the same legend exists as of similar\n islands in Norway (see p. 378), that they came \"up,\" or became\n visible, through a sow upon which steel had been bound [cf.\n Hammershaimb, 1891, p. 362].\n\n In many places there are such disappearing islands. Honorius\n Augustodunensis makes some remarkable statements in his work \"De\n imagine mundi\" [i. 36], of about 1125. After mentioning the Balearic\n Isles and the Gorgades, he says: \"By the side of them [lie] the\n Hesperides, so called from the town of Hesperia. There is abundance of\n sheep with white wool, which is excellent for dyeing purple. Therefore\n the legend says that these islands have golden apples ('mala'). For\n 'miclon' [error for 'malon'] means sheep in Greek.[367] To these\n islands belonged the great island which according to the tale of Plato\n sank with its inhabitants, and which exceeded Africa and Europe in\n extent, where the curdled sea ('Concretum Mare') now is.... There lies\n also in the Ocean an island which is called the Lost ('Perdita'); in\n charm and all kinds of fertility it far surpasses every other land,\n but it is unknown to men. Now and again it may be found by chance; but\n if one seeks for it, it cannot be found, and therefore it is called\n 'the Lost.' Men say that it was this island that Brandanus came to.\"\n It is of special interest that thus as early as that time a\n disappearing island occurred near the Fortunate Isles.\n\n Columbus says in his diary that the inhabitants of Ferro and Gomera\n (Canary Isles) assert that every year they see land to the west.\n Afterwards expeditions were even sent out to search for it. The\n Dutchman Van Linschoten speaks in 1589 of this beautiful lost land\n under the name of \"San Borondon\" (St. Brandan), a hundred leagues to\n the west of the Canaries. Its inhabitants are said to be Christians,\n but it is not known of what nation they are, or what language they\n speak;[368] the Spaniards of the Canaries have made many vain attempts\n to find it. The same island, which sometimes shows itself near the\n Canaries, but withdraws when one tries to approach it, still lives in\n Spanish folk-lore under the name of \"San Morondon.\"[369]\n\n On the coast of the English Channel sailors have stories of floating\n islands, which many of them have seen with their own eyes. They always\n fly before ships, and one can never land there. They are drawn along\n by the devil, who compels the souls of drowned men who have deserved\n Hell and are damned, to stay there till the Day of Judgment. On some\n of them the roar of a terrible beast is heard; and sailors look upon\n the meeting with such an island as a sinister warning.[370]\n\n Curiously enough, there is said to be a myth of \"a floating island\"\n among the Iroquois Indians. In their mythology the earth is due to the\n Indian ruler of a great island which floats in space, and where there\n is eternal peace. In its abundance there are no burdens to bear, in\n its fertility all want is for ever precluded. Death never comes to its\n eternal quietude--and no desire, no sorrow, no pain disturbs its\n peace.[371] These ideas remind one strikingly of the Isles of the\n Blest, and are probably derived from European influence in recent\n times. Again, at Boston, in America, there is found a myth of an\n enchanted green land out in the sea to the east; it flies when one\n approaches, and no white man can reach this island, which is called\n \"the island that flies.\" An Indian, the last of his tribe, saw it a\n few times before his death, and set out in his canoe to row, as he\n said, to the isle of happy spirits. He disappeared in a storm the like\n of which had never been known, and after this the enchanted island was\n never seen again [cf. S\u00e9billot, 1886, p. 349].\n\n Even the Chinese have legends of the Isles of the Blest, which lie 700\n miles from the Celestial Kingdom out in the Yellow Sea, and gleam in\n everlasting beauty, everlasting spring and everlasting gladness. The\n wizard Sun-Tshe is said once to have extorted from a good spirit the\n secret of their situation, and revealed the great mystery to the\n emperor Tshe-Huan-Ti (219 B.C.). Then the noblest youths and the most\n beautiful maidens of the Celestial Kingdom set out to search for\n Paradise, and lo! it suddenly rose above the distant horizon, wrapped\n in roseate glow. But a terrible storm drove the longing voyagers away\n with cruel violence, and since then no human eye has seen the Isles of\n the Blest [after Paul d'Enjoy, in \"La Revue\"].[372]\n\n This is the same conception of the floating mirage that we meet with\n again in the Norse term \"Villuland\" (from \"villa\" == illusion, mirage,\n glamour), which is found, for instance, in Bj\u00f6rn J\u00f3nsson of Skards\u00e1\n applied to the fabulous country of Frisland (south of Iceland); it is\n called in one MS. \"Villi-Skotland,\" which is probably the mythical\n \"Irland it Mikla\" (Great-Ireland), since the Irish were called Scots.\n Are M\u00e1rsson, according to the Landn\u00e1ma, reached this \"Villuland\" and\n stayed there. It is remarkable that his mother Katla, according to the\n Icelandic legend in the poem \"K\u01ebtlu-draumr\" (Katla's dream), was\n stolen by an elf-man, who kept her for four nights.[373] It may be\n this circumstance that led to its being Are who found the elf-country\n to the west of Ireland, although it is true that according to the\n K\u01ebtlu-draumr it was his one-year-older brother Kar who was the\n offspring of the four nights; but the elf-man had asked that his son\n should be called Are.\n\n[Sidenote: Fairylands which rise and fall]\n\n There are many such fairylands along the coast of Norway, which used\n to rise up from the sea at night, but sank in the daytime.[374] If one\n could bring fire or steel upon them, then the spell was broken and\n they remained up; but the huldrefolk avenged themselves on the person\n who did this, and he was turned to stone; therefore it was usually\n accomplished by domestic animals which swam across to these islands.\n Many of them have come up in this way, and for this reason they\n frequently bear the names of animals. The most probable explanation is\n doubtless that they were originally given the names of animals from a\n similarity in shape, or some other reason; and the myth is a later\n interpretation of the name. It was often a pig, preferably a sow, that\n had acquired the habit of swimming over to the fairyland, and it\n frequently had litters there; the people of the farm, who noticed that\n it occasionally stayed away, bound steel upon it, and the island was\n hindered from sinking; \"therefore such fairy islands are often called\n Svin\u00f6i.\" In this way Svin\u00f6i in Br\u00f6n\u00f6i (in Nordland, Norway) came up,\n as well as Svin\u00f6i in the Faroes, and doubtless it was the same with\n Svin\u00f6i or Landegode in Sunnm\u00f6r. It was also through a sow that Tautra,\n in Trondhjemsfjord, was raised, besides Jomfruland, and the\n north-western part of And\u00f6i (in Vester\u00e5len). Nay, even Oland in\n Limfjord (Jutland) became visible through a sow with steel bound on\n it, which had a litter. Other islands, like Vega and S\u00f6len, were\n raised by a horse or an ox, etc. Gotland was also a fairyland, but it\n stayed up through a man bringing fire to it.[375] Some fairy islands\n lie so far out at sea that no domestic animal has been able to swim\n over to them, and therefore they have not yet come up; such are\n Utr\u00f6st, west of Lofoten, Sandflesa, west of Tr\u00e6nen, Utvega, west of\n Vega, Hillerei-\u00f6i, and Ytter-Sklinna, in Nordre Trondhjems Amt, and\n hidden fairylands off Utsire, off Lister, and to the south-west of\n Jomfruland.[376]\n\n It is interesting that the notion of a sow being the cause of people\n coming into possession of fertile islands can also be illustrated from\n medi\u00e6val England. William of Malmesbury relates in his \"De antiquitate\n Glastoniensis ecclesi\u00e6\" [cap. 1 and 2], which belongs to the twelfth\n century before 1143, that Glasteing \"... went in search of his sow as\n far as Wellis, and followed her from Wellis by a difficult and boggy\n path, that is called 'Sugewege,' that is to say, 'the sow's way'; at\n last he found her occupied in suckling her young beneath the\n apple-tree beside the church of which we are speaking; from this are\n derived the names that have come down to our time, that the apples of\n this tree are called 'ealdcyrcenes epple,' that is to say, 'the apples\n of the old church,' and the sow 'ealdcyrce suge.' While other sows\n have four feet, this one, strangely enough, has eight. This Glasteing,\n then, who came to this island and saw that it was flowing with all\n good things, brought all his family and established himself there and\n dwelt there all his life. This place is said to be populated from his\n offspring and the race that sprang from him. This is taken from the\n ancient writings of the Britons.\n\n \"Of various names for this island. This island, then, was first called\n by the Britons 'Ynisgwtrin'; later, when the Angles subdued the\n island, the name was translated into their language as 'Glastynbury'\n or Glasteing's town, he of whom we have been speaking. The island also\n bears the famous name of 'Avallonia.' The origin of this word is the\n following: as we have related, Glasteing found his sow under an\n apple-tree by the old church; therefore he called ... the island in\n his language 'Avallonia,' that is 'The isle of apples' (for 'avalla'\n in British means 'poma' in Latin).... Or else the island has its name\n from a certain Avalloc, who is said to have dwelt here with his\n daughters on account of the solitude of the place.\"[377]\n\n This Somerset sow with its young and with eight legs, like Sleipner,\n must be Norse. The Norse myth of the sow must have found a favourable\n soil among the Celts, as according to the ideas of Celtic mythology\n the pig was a sacred animal in the religion of the Druids, specially\n connected with Ceridwen, the goddess of the lower world. The Celts\n must have heard of the pig that by the help of steel causes fairylands\n to remain visible; but regarded this as being connected with the\n animal's sacred properties. It cannot have been an originally Celtic\n conception, otherwise we should meet with it in other Celtic legends.\n Moreover the island in this case is not invisible, nor has the sow any\n steel upon her; these are features that have been lost in\n transmission. On the other hand the incident of the sow becoming\n pregnant in the newly found land has been preserved.\n\n In the ocean to the west of Ireland there lay, as already mentioned\n (p. 354), many enchanted islands. They are in part derived from\n classical and oriental myths; but the native fairies (the s\u00edd-people)\n and fairylands have been introduced here also (p. 371). Even in the\n lakes of Ireland there are hidden islands, marvellously fertile with\n beautiful flowers.[378] Giraldus Cambrensis (twelfth century) says\n that on clear days an island appeared to the west of Ireland, but\n vanished when people approached it. At last some came within bowshot,\n and one of the sailors shot a red-hot arrow on to it, and the island\n then remained fixed. The happy island \"O'Brasil\" (\"Hy-Breasail,\" see\n p. 357) west of Ireland appears above the sea once in every seventh\n year--\"on the edge of the azure sea ...\" and it would stay up if any\n one could cast fire upon it.[379]\n\nIt is no doubt possible that myths of \"villulands\" or \"huldrelands\" far\naway in the sea may have arisen in various places independently of one\nanother;[380] they may easily be suggested by mirage or other natural\nphenomena, and ideas about happiness are universal among men. But through\nmany of these myths may be traced features so similar that we can discern\na connection with certainty and can draw conclusions as to a common origin\nof the same conceptions.\n\n[Sidenote: The epithet \"the Lucky\"]\n\nThat Leif of all others, the discoverer of the fortunate land, should have\nreceived the unusual surname of \"hinn Heppni\" (the Lucky) is also\nstriking. There is only one other man in the sagas who is called thus:\nH\u01ebgni hinn Heppni, and he belongs to the period of the Iceland\nland-taking, but is only mentioned in a pedigree. Just as according to\nancient Greek ideas and in the oldest Irish legends it was only vouchsafed\nto the chosen of the gods or of fortune to reach Elysium or the isle of\nthe happy ones, so Leif, who according to tradition was the apostle of\nChristianity in Greenland, must have been regarded by the Christians of\nIceland as the favourite of God or of destiny, to whom it was ordained to\nsee the land of fortune. It is just this idea of the chosen of fate that\nlies in the words \"happ\" and \"heppinn.\" That the name has such an origin\nis also rendered probable by the fact that the saga-tellers were evidently\nnot clear as to the reason of Leif's being so called, and it is sometimes\nrepresented as due to his having saved the shipwrecked crew (cf. pp. 270,\n317), which is meaningless, since in that case it would be the rescued and\nnot Leif who were lucky, and moreover rescue of shipwrecked sailors must\nhave been an everyday affair. The saga-writers therefore knew that Leif\nhad this surname, but the reason for it had in course of time been\nforgotten.\n\nAn interesting parallel to \"Leifr hinn Heppni\" has been brought to my\nnotice by Moltke Moe in the Nordland \"Lykk-Anders,\" the name of the lucky\nbrother who came to the fairyland Sandflesa, off Tr\u00e6nen in Helgeland.[381]\nIt is important that this epithet of Lucky is thus only known in Norway in\nconnection with fairyland.[382] That the underground people, \"huldrefolk,\"\nbring luck appears also in other superstitions.[383] He who is born with\nthe cap of victory (Gl\u00fcckshaube, -helm, sigurkull, holyhow), which often\nseems to have the same effect as the fairy hat, is predestined to fortune\nand prosperity, like a Sunday child.\n\nAnother possible parallel to the lucky name is the monk \"Felix\" (i.e.,\nhappy, corresponding to \"heppinn\") who occurs in widely diffused medi\u00e6val\nlegends. He has a foretaste of the joys of heaven through hearing a bird\nof paradise; he thinks that only a few hours have passed, from morning to\nmidday, while he is listening to it in rapture, though in reality a\nhundred years have gone by.[384] Moltke Moe considers it probable that in\nthis case the name Felix may be due to a Germanic conception of the lucky\none.\n\n Moltke Moe sees another parallel--a literary one, to be sure--to Leif\n the Lucky and Lykk-Anders in the Olaf \u00c1steson of the \"Draumkv\u00e6de\"\n (Dream-Lay) which he explains as \"\u00c1stsonr\" == the son of love, God's\n beloved son. He is so called because he is so beloved that God has\n given him a glimpse of the future, so that he sees behind the gate of\n death.[385]\n\nAll this, therefore, points in the same direction.\n\n[Sidenote: The oldest authority, Adam of Bremen, untrustworthy]\n\nEven Adam of Bremen's brief mention of Wineland (cf. pp. 195, 197) bears\nevident traces of being untrustworthy; thus he says that the self-grown\nvines in Wineland \"give the noblest wine.\" Even if wine could be produced\nfrom the small wild grapes, it would scarcely be noble, and who should\nhave made it? It is not very likely that the Icelanders and Greenlanders\nwho discovered the country had any idea of making wine. If we except this\nfable of the wine, and the name itself, which seems to be derived from\nIreland (cf. p. 366), but may have been confused with the name of\nFinland[386] (cf. p. 198), then Adam's statements about Wineland\ncorrespond entirely to Isidore's description of the Insul\u00e6 Fortunat\u00e6, and\ncontain nothing new. Adam's statement that the island was discovered by\nmany (\"multis\") does not agree with the Saga of Eric the Red, which only\nknows of two voyages thither, but agrees better with its being a\nwell-known mythical country, to which many mythical voyages had been made,\nor with its being Finmark.[386] Although it may be uncertain whether Adam\nthought the ice- and mist-filled sea lay beyond Wineland (cf. p. 199),\nthis bears a remarkable resemblance to similar Arab myths of islands that\nlay near the \"Dark Sea\" in the west (cf. chapter xiii.); while in any case\nit shows how myth is introduced into his description of distant regions,\nand there also he places the mythical abyss of the sea. If one reads\nthrough the conclusion of his account (pp. 192 ff.), it will be seen how\nhe takes pains to get a gradual increase of the fabulous: first Iceland\nwith the black inflammable ice and the \"simple\" communistic inhabitants;\nthen, opposite to the mountains of Svedia, Greenland, with predatory\ninhabitants who turn blue-green in the face from the sea-water; then\nHalagland, which is made into an island in the ocean, and which is called\nholy on account of the midnight sun, of which he gives erroneous\ninformation taken from older authors (cf. p. 194, note 2); then Wineland\n(the Fortunate Isles), with Isidore's self-grown vines and unsown corn;\nand then finally he reaches the highest pitch (unless in Harold's voyage\nto the abyss of the sea) in the tale of the Frisian noblemen's voyage to\nthe North Pole, which does not contain a feature that is not borrowed from\nfables and myths (cf. chapter xii.); now this expedition started from\nBremen, where he lived; and he mentions two archbishops as his authorities\nfor it. When we find that all these statements about the northern islands\nand countries, both before and after the mention of Wineland, are more or\nless fables or plagiarisms; when we further see what he was capable of\nrelating about countries that lay nearer, and about which he might easily\nhave obtained information--for instance, his Land of Women on the Baltic,\nto which he transfers the Amazons and Cynocephali of the Greeks (cf. p.\n187), and his Wizzi or Albanians or Alanians (sic) with battle-array of\ndogs (!) in Russia [iv. 19][387]--is it credible that what he says about\nthe most distant country, Wineland, should form the only exception in this\nconcatenation of fable and reminiscence, and suddenly be genuine and not\nborrowed from Isidore, to whom it bears such a striking resemblance? It\nmust be more probable that he had heard a name, Wineland, perhaps confused\nwith Finland, and in the belief that this meant the land of wine, he\nthen, quite in harmony with what he has done in other places (cf.\nKv\u00e6nland), transferred thereto Isidore's description of the \"Insul\u00e6\nFortunat\u00e6.\"\n\nWhen therefore Norsemen (like a Leif Ericson) really found new countries\nin the west, precisely in the quarter where the mythical \"V\u00ednland hit\nG\u00f3\u00f0a\" (or \"Insul\u00e6 Fortunat\u00e6\") should be according to Irish legend, this\nwas simply a proof that the country did exist; and the tales and ideas\nabout it were transferred to the newly discovered land.\n\n\nEND OF VOL. I.\n\n\n PRINTED BY\n BALLANTYNE & COMPANY LTD\n TAVISTOCK ST. COVENT GARDEN\n LONDON\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Hecat\u00e6us of Miletus (549-after 486 B.C.) was the best-known geographer\nof the Ionian school. He made a map of the world, and summarised the\ncontemporary Greek ideas of geography.\n\n[2] Cf. Kretschmer, 1892, pp. 41-42.\n\n[3] Berger, 1894, p. 13.\n\n[4] Men like Empedocles, Leucippus, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, and even\nHerodotus entertained the naive view that the earth was a disc.\n\n[5] Cf. Kretschmer, 1892, p. 99; Berger ii., 1889, p. 36.\n\n[6] Cf. Theopompus (about 340 B.C.) in \u00c6lian, \"Varia,\" iii. c. 18.\n\n[7] The celebrated physician Hippocrates (470-364 B.C.) makes Scythia\nextend on the north to the Rhip\u00e6an Mountains, which stretch far enough to\nbe just below the Great Bear. From them comes the north wind, which\ntherefore does not blow farther north, so that there must be a milder\nclimate where the Hyperboreans dwell. The Rhip\u00e6an Mountains had become\naltogether mythical, but seem often to have been connected with the Ural\nand placed north of Scythia; sometimes also they were connected with the\nAlps, or with the mountains farther east.\n\n[8] The Cimmerians of the Odyssey (xi. 14) are undoubtedly the same as the\nhistorical Cimmerians of the districts north of the Black Sea, who made\nseveral inroads into Asia Minor in the eighth century, and whose name was\nlong preserved in the Cimmerian Bosphorus. Cf. Niese, 1882, p. 224, and K.\nKretschmer, 1892, p. 7. W. Christ [1866, pp. 131-132] connects the name\nwith the Cimbri of Jutland, whose name is alleged to have been somewhat\nmodified under the influence of the Ph\u0153nician \"kamar,\" dark, which may be\ndoubtful; but Posidonius seems to have been the first to take Cimmerii and\nCimbri for the same name [cf. Strabo, vii. 293], and there is nothing\nimprobable in the supposition that the wandering Cimbri may have reached\nthe Black Sea and been the same people as the Cimmerians, who were\nremarkable just in the same way for their migrations. Similarly, we find\nthe Goths both on the shores of the Baltic and by the Black Sea, where we\nfirst meet with them in literature.\n\n[9] O. Helm of Danzig has shown by chemical analysis that the amber of the\nMycen\u00e6 beads contains 8 per cent. of succinic acid, and is thus similar to\nthat found on the Baltic and the North Sea, and unlike all known amber\nfrom districts farther south, Sicily, Upper Italy or elsewhere. Cf.\nSchuchhardt, 1890, p. 223, f., and Kretschmer, 1892, p. 10.\n\n[10] \"The Times\" of Sept. 28, 1909, pp. 9-10. A. W. Br\u00f6gger [1909, p. 239]\nmentions a find from a grave at Corinth of six necklaces of amber, of the\nneolithic period, which is preserved in the Museum f\u00fcr V\u00f6lkerkunde at\nBerlin. Br\u00f6gger informs me that nothing has been published about this\nfind, which was bought in 1877 from Prof. Aus'm Weerth of Kessenich, near\nBonn. Prof. Schaafhausen briefly mentioned it at the congress at Stockholm\nin 1874 [Congr\u00e8s internat. d'anthrop. et d'arch\u00e9ol. de Stockholm, Compte\nrendu, 1874, ii. p. 816]. Assuming that this is Baltic or North Sea amber,\nit points to an intercourse of even far greater antiquity, which is also\nprobable.\n\n[11] Strabo, vii. 295.\n\n[12] Damastes of Sigeum (about 450 B.C., and contemporary with Herodotus)\nsays that \"beyond the Scythians dwell the Issedonians, beyond these again\nthe Arimaspians, and beyond them are the Rhip\u00e6an Mountains, from which the\nnorth wind blows, and which are never free from snow. On the other side of\nthe mountains are the Hyperboreans who spread down to the sea.\"\n\n[13] Since the form of the sphere was the most perfect according to the\nopinion of the Pythagoreans.\n\n[14] It was, moreover, a common belief in medi\u00e6val times that people who\nwere connected with the other world could not be killed by iron.\n\n[15] \"Hyperboreans\" are first mentioned in certain poems doubtfully\nattributed to Hesiod, but which can scarcely be later than the 7th century\nB.C. The full development of the myth is first found in Pindar (about 470\nB.C.); but his Hyperboreans cannot be considered as dwelling especially in\nthe north; their home, to which \"the strange path could be found neither\nby sea nor by land,\" lay rather beyond the sea in the far west, and\nthither came Perseus borne by wings on his way to Medusa.\n\n[16] This idea can be traced back to Delphi, where any one who had\nincurred the god's displeasure was thrown from a cliff. Something similar\nhappened at the annual festivals of Apollo at Leucas, where he who was\nchosen as a victim to ward off evil threw himself from the Leucadian rock\ninto the sea. It is true that all sorts of feathers and birds were\nfastened to the victims to act as a parachute, and after their fall they\nwere rescued by boats and taken beyond the frontier, as bearers of a\ncurse. According to some it was the priests themselves who made this leap.\n\nAmong the Germanic peoples, if we may believe \"Gautrek's Saga\" [cf. J.\nGrimm, 1854, p. 486; Ranisch, 1900, p. lxxvii. f.], there existed the\ncustom that the elders of the tribe, when tired of life, used to cast\nthemselves down from a high crag, called \"\u00e6tternis stapi\" (the tribal\ncliff), so as to die without sickness and go to Odin. As a reward for\nfaithful service the head of the house took his thrall with him in the\nleap, so that he too might come thither. After Skapnartungr had divided\nthe inheritance, he and his wife were conducted to the cliff by their\nchildren, and they went joyfully to Odin. This reminds one strongly of the\nhappy Hyperboreans. Thietmar of Merseburg (about A.D. 1000) has a similar\nlegend about the tribal cliff. It is probable that the Germanic peoples in\nvery early times, like other peoples--the Eskimo, for example--may have\nhad the custom of taking the lives of the old and useless, or that these\nmay have taken their own lives, by throwing themselves into the sea, for\ninstance, as occurs among the Eskimo. On the other hand, it seems very\ndoubtful that there should have been such tribal cliffs; and it is more\nprobable that this legend is of literary origin and derived from the\ncliffs of Delphi and Leucas, which through the Hyperborean legend came\ndown to the Roman authors Mela and Pliny, and from them was handed on to\nthe writers of the Middle Ages and to the scribe of the \"Gautrek Saga.\" It\nhas been thought that many such \"\u00e4tte-stupar\" can be pointed out in\nsouthern Sweden, but they seem all to be of recent date, and may have been\nsuggested by this saga.\n\n[17] These may be the architectonical figures on the roof of the temple of\nDelphi, transferred to the North together with the Hyperboreans. At Delphi\nthey were no doubt regarded as guardians of the temple's treasures.\n\n[18] This idea has been explained as being derived from stories of people\ndressed in breeches of goats' skin.\n\n[19] Strabo [iii. 147] and Diodorus [v. 38], following Posidonius, mention\nthese three districts as the places where tin was found.\n\n[20] In the three districts named tin oxide (SnO_{2}) occurs in lodes in\nthe solid rock, as well as (sometimes in conjunction with gold and silver)\nin the gravel or sand of streams, and it was certainly in the latter form\nthat tin was first extracted, after its discovery by some accident or\nother.\n\n[21] It is possible, of course, that the first bronze, like silk, may have\nreached the people of the Orient and Egypt from China, without their\nknowing from whence it was originally derived. Bronze articles have been\nfound at Troy which may indicate a connection with China, and it has even\nbeen asserted that Chinese characters have been found there [cf.\nSchliemann, 1881, p. 519]. Tin is also known to occur in Persia, but it\nhas not been ascertained that it was worked there in ancient times. Strabo\n[xv. 724] says, however, that the Drang\u00e6 in Drangiana, near the Indus,\n\"suffer from want of wine, but tin occurs with them.\" Tin is found in the\nFichtelgebirge, and it has been thought possible to identify prehistoric\ntin-mines there [cf. O. Schrader, 1901, article \"Zinn\"].\n\n[22] The Ph\u0153nicians' \"Tarsis\" (or Tarshish), rich in silver, called by the\nGreeks \"Tartessos,\" was on the south-west coast of Spain between the\nPillars of Hercules and the Guadiana. About 1100 B.C. Tyre established\nthere the colony \"Gadir\" (i.e., \"fortress\"), called by the Greeks\n\"Gadeira,\" and by the Romans \"Gades\" (now Cadiz).\n\n[23] Cf. S. Reinach, 1892, p. 277. In Breton tin is called \"sten,\" a name\nwhich is certainly not borrowed from the Latin \"stannum,\" as Reinach\nthinks; according to the above-quoted opinion of Professor Torp we must\nbelieve that the borrowing has been in the opposite direction.\n\n[24] The explanation of this statement may be that Crassus sailed to the\nCassiterides from the mouth of the Garonne, up which river the route ran\nto Narbo. What is alluded to here would then be the sea-passage from the\nGaronne.\n\n[25] Pliny [xxxiv. 162] mentions the tinning of copper objects as a\nGaulish invention.\n\n[26] Strabo's repeated statement [ii. 120 and 175] that the Cassiterides\nlay north of the land of the Artabri [north-west Spain] also points\ndecisively to Brittany. The idea must be derived from Eratosthenes, who\nborrowed from Pytheas, and the latter placed Cab\u00e6um, the promontory of\nBrittany, farther west than Cape Finisterre. Diodorus [v. 38] says that\nthe islands lay opposite Iberia in the Ocean. That they are always\nmentioned in connection with the Artabri or north-west Spain shows that\nthe voyage to them was made from that country.\n\n[27] Georg Mair [1899, p. 20, f.] has allowed himself to be led astray by\nSven Nilsson's fanciful pictures [1862, 1865] into regarding it as a\nhistorical fact that the Ph\u0153nicians had permanent colonies in Skane and\nregular communication with Scandinavia, even so far north as the Lofoten\nisles, whose rich fisheries are supposed to have attracted them.\n\n[28] In a translation of the cuneiform inscription on the obelisk of the\nAssyrian king Asurnasirabal (885-860 B.C.) the Assyriologist J. Oppert has\nthe following remarkable passage, which is taken as referring to this\nking's great predecessor Tiglath Pileser I., of about 1100 B.C.: \"In the\nseas of the trade-winds his fleets fished for pearls, in the seas where\nthe pole-star stands in the zenith they fished for the saffron which\nattracts.\" [Cf. Schweiger-Lerchenfeld, 1898, p. 141.] Oppert has since\naltered the latter part of his translation to \"fished for that which looks\nlike copper.\" Both interpretations might mean amber, and if the\ntranslation were correct this inscription would furnish a remarkable piece\nof evidence for direct communication between Assyria and the Baltic as\nearly as the ninth century B.C., and in that case we might suppose it\nestablished by means of the Ph\u0153nicians. But unfortunately another eminent\nAssyriologist, Professor Schrader, has disputed the correctness of the\ntranslation given above, which he thinks is the result of a false reading\nof the inscription. According to Schrader there is no mention of pearls,\nor amber, or fleets, or pole-star, or zenith; the whole refers merely to\nthis ancient king's hunting in the mountains of Assyria which took place\n\"in the days when the star Sukud shone, gleaming like bronze.\" [Cf.\nVerhandl. d. Berliner Gesellsch. f. Anthrop. Ethnol. u. Urgesch, 1885, pp.\n65, 66, 306, 372; and Mair, 1903, p. 47.] The last interpretation is\nundeniably more probable than the first, and it may well be thought that\nthe bronze-coloured star which shone may have been Venus.\n\n[29] That amber may have followed this route in early times is made\nprobable by the finds of ornaments of amber in graves of the Bronze Age\n(Halstatt period) in the Caucasus, at Koban and Samthavro.\n\n[30] Franz Mathias [1902, p. 73] draws attention to the statement of Von\nAlten [\"Die Bohlwege im Gebiet der Ems und Weser,\" p. 40 and Pl. V.; this\npaper has not been accessible to me] that in 1818 there was found a piece\nof amber with a Ph\u0153nician inscription on one of the oldest and\ndeepest-lying bog causeways (\"Moorbr\u00fccken\") on the prehistoric trade-route\nfrom the district of the Weser and Ems to the Rhine. As one would expect\namber to be carried from the countries in the north-east towards the\nsouth, and not in the reverse direction, this find, if properly\nauthenticated, might show that there were Ph\u0153nicians on the coast to the\nnorth. But the piece, if it be Ph\u0153nician, may also have come from the\nsouth by chance.\n\n[31] See on this subject specially M\u00fcllenhoff, 1870, i. pp. 73-203. Also\nW. Christ, 1866; Marx, 1895; G. Mair, 1899; and others.\n\n[32] This epithet, which constantly recurs when Ireland is mentioned, may\nperhaps in ancient times be due to the resemblance between the Greek words\n\"hieros\" (holy) and \"Hierne\" (Ireland), which latter may be derived from\nthe native name of the island, \"Erin.\" In later times, of course, it is\ndue to Ireland's early conversion to Christianity and its monastic system.\n\n[33] In spite of M\u00fcllenhoff's contrary view [1870, p. 92], it does not\nappear to me altogether impossible that it may have arisen through a\ncorruption of the name of the people whom Pytheas calls \"Ostimians\" or\n\"Ostimnians,\" and which in some manuscripts of Strabo [iv. 195] also takes\nthe forms \"Osismians\" [cf. also Mela, iii. 2, 7; Pliny, iv. 32; Ptolemy,\nii. 8, 5; Orosius, 6, 8] and \"Ostidamnians\" [i. 64], and who lived in\nBrittany.\n\n[34] In C\u00e6sar's description [B.G., iii. 13] of the ships of the Veneti it\nis also stated that \"the keels were somewhat flatter than in our ships,\nwhereby they were better able to cope with the shallows and the falling\ntides.\"\n\n[35] It has been alleged as a proof that the Ph\u0153nicians really knew of the\nSargasso Sea that Sargasso weed is mentioned by Theophrastus [\"Historia\nPlantarum,\" iv. 6, 4], but I have not been able to find anything of the\nsort in this author; nor can I find any statement in Aristotle [Miral.\nAuscult.] which can be thus interpreted, as some have thought.\n\n[36] Lycaon was the father of Callisto, and the latter became a she-bear\nand was placed among the stars as the constellation of the Great Bear. At\nthe axis of Lycaon means, therefore, in the north.\n\n[37] As to Pytheas, see in particular: M\u00fcllenhoff, 1870, pp. 211 f.;\nBerger, iii., 1891, pp. 1 f.; Hergt, 1893; Markham, 1893; Ahlenius, 1894;\nMatthias, 1901; K\u00e4hler, 1903; Detlefsen, 1904; Callegari, 1904; Mair,\n1906.\n\n[38] The principal authorities on Pytheas are: Strabo (1st century A.D.),\nwho did not know his original works, but quotes for the most part from\nPolybius (2nd century B.C.), who was very hostile to Pytheas, and from\nErastosthenes, Hipparchus, and Tim\u00e6us. Pliny has derived much information\nfrom Pytheas, though he does not know him directly, but chiefly through\nTim\u00e6us, Isidorus of Charax, who again knew him through Erastosthenes, &c.\nDiodorus Siculus (1st century B.C.) knows him chiefly through Tim\u00e6us.\nGeminus of Rhodes (1st century B.C.), who has a quotation from him,\npossibly knew his original work, \"On the Ocean,\" but he may have quoted\nfrom Crates of Mallus. Solinus (3rd century A.D.), who has much\ninformation about Pytheas, knows him chiefly through Pliny and Tim\u00e6us.\nFurther second-hand quotations and pieces of information derived from\nPytheas occur in Pomponius Mela (1st century A.D.), Cleomedes (2nd century\nA.D.), Ptolemy (3rd century A.D.), Agathemerus (3rd century A.D.),\nscholiasts on Apollonius of Rhodes, Ammianus Marcellinus (4th century\nA.D.), Orosius (5th century A.D.), Isidorus Hispaliensis (7th century\nA.D.), and others.\n\n[39] A \"gnomon\" was the pillar or projection which cast the shadow on the\nvarious Greek forms of sun-dial. In the case mentioned above the gnomon\nwas a vertical column raised on a plane. By measuring the length of the\nshadow at the solstice, Pytheas found that it was 41-4/5 : 120 or 209/600\nthe height of the column. According to that the altitude of the sun was\n70\u00b0 47' 50\". From this must be deducted the obliquity of the ecliptic,\nwhich was at that time 23\u00b0 44' 40\", and the semi-diameter of the sun\n(16'), as the shadow is not determined by the sun's centre but by its\nupper edge, besides the refraction, which however is unimportant. When the\nequatorial altitude thus arrived at is deducted from 90\u00b0, we get the\nlatitude of Massalia as 43\u00b0 13' N. The new observatory of Marseilles is at\n43\u00b0 18' 19\"; but it lies some distance to the north of the ancient city,\nwhere Pytheas's gnomon probably stood in the market-place. It will be seen\nthat this is an accuracy of measurement which was not surpassed until very\nmuch later times.\n\n[40] It has been supposed that these three stars were \u03b2 of the Little\nBear, \u03b1 and \u03ba of Draco. The pole was at that time far from the present\npole-star, and nearer to \u03b2 of the Little Bear.\n\n[41] Both \"gnomon\" and \"polus\" are mentioned as early as Herodotus; and\nAthen\u00e6us [v. 42] describes the polus in the library on board the ship\n\"Hiero\" which was built by Archimedes.\n\n[42] It is not probable that Pytheas divided the earth's circumference\ninto degrees. Even Eratosthenes (275-194 B.C.) still divided the\ncircumference of the earth into sixty parts, each equal to 4200 stadia,\nand the division into degrees was first universally employed by\nHipparchus. But Aristarchus of Samos, and perhaps even Thales, had already\nlearnt that the sun's diameter was 2 \u00d7 360 or 720 times contained in the\ncircle described by them. It is possible that they originally had this\nfrom the Chald\u00e6ans.\n\n[43] When it is brought forward as a proof of Pytheas having made such\nangle-measurements [cf. Mair, 1906, p. 28], that Hipparchus is said to\nhave given the sun's height (in cubits) above the horizon at the winter\nsolstice for three different places in north-west Europe [cf. Strabo, ii.\n75], it must be remembered that if these altitudes were direct\nmeasurements by Pytheas himself, he must have been at each of these three\nplaces at the winter solstice, that is to say, in three different winters,\nwhere he found that in one place the sun stood six cubits, in another four\ncubits, and in the third less than three cubits above the horizon. This is\nimprobable, and it is more reasonable to suppose that these altitudes are\nthe result of calculations either by Pytheas himself or by Hipparchus from\nhis data.\n\n[44] In Diodorus it is called Orkan, but this may be the accusative of\nOrkas, as in later writers, also in Ptolemy (M\u00fcllenhoff, 1870, p. 377,\nthinks that Orkan is the real form), and from which the name Orcades has\nbeen formed for the group of islands immediately to the north. Orkneyar or\nOrkneys certainly comes from the same word, which must presumably be of\nCeltic origin. P. A. Munch [1852, pp. 44-46] thought that the name came\nfrom the Gaelic word \"orc\" for the grampus (the specific name of which in\nLatin was therefore \"Delphinus orca,\" now called \"Orca gladiator\"). This\nspecies of whale is common on the coasts of Norway, the Shetlands and\nOrkneys, the F\u00e6roes and farther west. It usually swims in schools, and is\nthe great whale's deadliest enemy, attacking it in numbers and cutting\nblubber out of its sides. The Eskimo in Greenland assert that it is\nsometimes dangerous to kayaks; I myself have only once seen a grampus\nattack a boat; but in any case it is a species which easily draws\nattention to itself wherever it appears.\n\n[45] Allowing for the greater bays, and putting a degree of latitude at\n700 stadia, the sides of Great Britain are about 4000, 7800 and 12,000\nstadia; altogether 23,800 stadia, or about 2375 miles.\n\n[46] Strabo erred just as much on his side in making the circumference of\nBritain much too small.\n\n[47] Cf. Hergt, 1893, p. 44. This hypothesis is supported by the round\nnumbers which answer to 7-1/2, 15, and 20 days' sail.\n\n[48] The Greeks divided the day into twelve hours at all times of the\nyear; it was thus only at the equinoxes, when the day was really twelve\nhours long, that the hours were of the same length as ours. These are,\ntherefore, called equinoctial hours.\n\n[49] A similar statement in Cleomedes [i. 7], after Eratosthenes and\nPosidonius [i. 10], may also be derived from Pytheas: \"the longest day in\nBritain has eighteen hours.\"\n\n[50] If we assume that the length of the day was found by a theoretical\ncalculation of the time between the rising and setting of the sun's centre\nabove the horizon, without taking account of refraction, then a longest\nday of nineteen hours answers to 60\u00b0 52' N. lat.; but if we suppose that\nthe length of the day was found by direct observation and was calculated\nfrom the first appearance of the sun's limb in the morning until its final\ndisappearance in the evening, then horizontal refraction will be of\nimportance (besides having to take the sun's semi-diameter into account),\nand a longest day of nineteen hours then answers to 59\u00b0 59' N. lat. Now\nthe Shetland Isles lie between 59\u00b0 51' and 60\u00b0 51' N. lat.; while the\nnorthern point of the Orkneys lies in 59\u00b0 23' N. lat., and has a longest\nday, theoretically of 18 hours 27 minutes, and actually of 18 hours 36\nminutes. A longest day of 18 hours answers theoretically to 57\u00b0 59',\nactually to fully 57\u00b0 N. lat. Professor H. Geelmuyden has had the kindness\nto work out several of these calculations for me. Hipparchus said that at\nthe winter solstice the sun attained to a height of less than three cubits\nabove the horizon in the regions where the longest day was of nineteen\nhours. If we take one cubit as equal to two degrees these regions will\nthen lie north of 60\u00b0 N. lat.\n\n[51] It may be possible, as many think, that it was the Shetlands that he\ncalled Orkan (or Orkas); but the more reliable of the known quotations\nfrom him seem rather to show that it was really the northernmost point of\nBritain, or the neighbouring Orkneys that were thus called by him, and\nhave thenceforward been known by that name; while it is later authors who\nhave extended the name also to Shetland. If this supposition be correct:\nthat the islands north of Britain mentioned by Pliny [Nat. Hist. iv. 104]\nare originally derived from Pytheas, which may be doubtful, and that\nBerricen (or Nerigon) is Mainland of Shetland, then Orkan cannot apply to\nthese. But, as we shall see later, it is very doubtful what Pliny's\nislands may have been originally.\n\n[52] Cf. Strabo [ii. 114] and Cleomedes [i. 7]. The Arctic Circle (or\nCircle of the Bear) was, as already mentioned, the circle round the\ncelestial pole which formed the limit of the continuously visible\n(circumpolar) stars, and it had been given this name because in Asia Minor\n(and Greece) it ran through the Great Bear (Arctus). Its distance in\ndegrees from the north celestial pole is equal to the latitude of the\nplace of observation, and consequently increases as one goes farther\nnorth. At the polar circle, as mentioned above, it coincides with the\nTropic of Cancer, and at the North Pole with the Equator. Cleomedes has\nalso the remarkable statement that the latitude for a summer day of one\nmonth in length runs through Thule.\n\n[53] It may be thought that Pytheas is merely relating a legend current\namong the barbarians that the sun went to its resting-place during the\nnight, a myth which is moreover almost universal. But it seems more\nprobable that as an astronomer he had something else in his mind. If he\nhad had the two points accurately indicated to him, where the sun set and\nrose on the shortest night of the year, he must easily have been able, by\nmeasuring the angle between them, to ascertain how long the sun was down.\n\n[54] These figures are kindly supplied by Professor H. Geelmuyden.\n\n[55] According to existing MSS. of Solinus [c. 22] it was five days' sail\nto Thule from the Orcades, which must here be Shetland, and which are\nmentioned as the second station on the way to Thule; the Ebudes (Hebrides)\nwere the first station. Mommsen [1895, p. 219] regards the passage as\ncorrupt, and considers it a later interpolation of between the 7th and 9th\ncenturies.\n\n[56] Cf. Brenner, 1877, pp. 32, 98.\n\n[57] Cf. Keyser (1839), 1868, p. 92.\n\n[58] If we were able to make out the etymological origin of the name\nThule, it would perhaps give us some indication of where we ought to look\nfor the country. But the various attempts that have been made to solve\nthis riddle have been without success. It has been asserted by several\nauthors that it comes from an old Gothic word \"tiele,\" or \"tiule,\" which\nis said to mean limit [cf. Forbiger, 1842, iii. p. 312], or an Old Saxon\nword \"thyle,\" \"thul,\" \"tell\" (or \"tell,\" \"till,\" \"tiul\"), said to mean the\nsame [cf. Markham, 1893, p. 519; and Callegari, 1904, p. 47]; but\nProfessor Alf Torp, whom I have consulted, says that no such word can be\nfound in either of these languages. The word has been further erroneously\nconnected with the name Telemarken, which accordingly would mean\nborderland, but which in reality must be derived from the Norwegian word\n\"tele,\" Old Norse \"\u00feeli,\" frozen earth, and it is by no means impossible\nthat Thule should be a Greek corruption of such a word. E. Benedikson has\nsupposed that Thule might come from a Gallic word \"houl,\" for sun [cf.\nCallegari, 1904, p. 47], which with a preposition \"de\" (or other prefix)\nmight have been thus corrupted in Greek; but Professor Torp informs me in\na letter that no such Gallic word exists, though there is a Cymric \"haul,\"\n\"which in Gallic of that time must have sounded approximately 'h\u00e2vel,'\"\nand it \"is quite impossible that a preposition or prefix 'de' could have\ncoalesced with initial 'h' so as to result in anything like Thule.\" The\nIrish \"temel\" (Cymric \"tywyll\") for dark, which has also been tried\n[Keyser, 1839, p. 397; 1868, p. 166], or \"tawel\" for silent, still\n[M\u00fcllenhoff, 1870, i, p. 408], are of no more use, according to Torp,\nsince both words at that time had \"m,\" which has later become \"w.\" The\nonly Celtic root which in his opinion might be thought of is \"'tel' (==\nraise, raise oneself), to which the Irish 'telach' and 'tulach' (== a\nheight, mound); but this does not seem very appropriate. The Germanic form\nof this root is 'thel' (modification 'thul'); but in Germanic this is not\napplied to soil or land which rises. I cannot find anything else, either\nin Celtic or Germanic; it is thus impossible for me to decide to which of\nthe languages the word may belong; I can only say that the Greek \u03b8 (th)\nrather points to Germanic. For no Celtic word begins with an aspirate,\nwhereas Germanic, as you know, has transmutation of consonants\n(Indo-germanic 't' to 'th,' etc.), and it is not impossible that this\nsound-change goes as far back as the time of Pytheas.\" Professor Torp has\nfurther drawn my attention to the fact that from the above-mentioned\n\"thel,\" raise oneself, is formed the Old Norse \"\u00feollr,\" tree (cf. \"\u00fe\u01ebll\"\n== fir-tree), which in early times was \"\u00feull\" as radical form. There might\nbe a bare possibility of Thule being connected with this word.\n\nIf it should appear, as hinted here, that the word Thule is of Germanic\norigin, then the probability of the country lying outside the British\nIsles would be greatly strengthened; for Britain and the Scottish Islands\nwere at that time not yet inhabited by a Germanic race, and the native\nCelts can only have known a Germanic name for a country from its own\nGermanic inhabitants. This land farther north must then be Norway.\n\nIt has been pointed out [cf. Cuno, 1871, i. p. 102; Mair, 1899, p. 15]\nthat the name Thule reminds one of \"Tyle,\" the capital of the Celtic\ncolony which was established in Thrace in the 3rd century B.C. But we know\nnothing of the origin of this latter name, and here again there is the\ndifficulty that it begins with \"t\" and not \"th.\"\n\nIt may be further mentioned that C. Hofmann [1865, p. 17] has suggested\nthat Thule may come from such a name as \"Thumla,\" which in the Upsala Edda\n[ii. 492] is the name of an unknown island, but which was also the name of\nan island at the mouth of the G\u00f6ta river (cf. Thumlaheide in Hising). He\nthinks that a Greek could not pronounce such a combination of sounds as\n\"ml\" (\u03bc\u03bb), but would pronounce it as \"l\" (\u03bb). The word would therefore\nbecome \"Thula,\" or according to the usual form of the declension \"Thule.\"\nMeanwhile we know of no name resembling Thumla for any district which\nPytheas could have reached from Britain.\n\n[59] That Thule was Norway or Scandinavia was assumed as early as\nProcopius. In the last century this view was supported by Geijer, 1825;\nSven Nilsson, 1837; R. Keyser, 1839; Petersen; H. J. Thue, 1843, and\nothers. In recent years it has been especially maintained by Hergt, 1893.\n\n[60] M\u00fcllenhoff's reasons for supposing that Thule cannot have been Norway\nare of little weight, and in part disclose an imperfect knowledge of the\nconditions. That Pytheas, if he came to Norway, must have found new\nspecies of animals and new races of men, especially the Lapps with their\nreindeer, which, according to M\u00fcllenhoff, he evidently did not find, is,\nfor instance, an untenable assertion; for in the first place it is very\nuncertain whether the reindeer-Lapps had reached Norway so early as that\ntime, since they appear to be a comparatively late immigration. In the\nsecond place, if they were really already living in Finmarken and the\nnorthern part of Helgeland (H\u00e1logaland), it is unreasonable to suppose\nthat a seafarer who went along the coast as far as to the neighbourhood of\nthe Arctic Circle should have met with these Lapps. Finally, it is\nimpossible to take it for granted that Pytheas did not mention all the\nthings that are not to be found in the chance quotations of later writers.\n\n[61] The Arctic Circle at that time lay in 66\u00b0 15' 20\". If we put the\nhorizontal refraction plus the sun's semi-diameter at 50' in round\nfigures, then the upper edge of the sun would be visible at midnight at\nthe summer solstice a little north of 65\u00b0 25'.\n\n[62] Cf. Markham, 1893. If the longest day of the year is given in the\ndifferent authorities (Strabo, Geminus, etc.) at various places as\nseventeen, eighteen, nineteen hours, etc., after the statements of\nPytheas, it must not, of course, be assumed that Pytheas was at each of\nthese places precisely on Midsummer Day. It was only one of the Greek\nmethods of indicating the latitude of places.\n\n[63] The origin of this name for the northernmost or outer sea, which\noccurs in several authors, is somewhat uncertain. It is usually supposed\n[cf. Hergt, 1893, p. 71] that it comes from the Greek god \"Cronos\" (Latin\n\"Saturn\"). R. Keyser [1839, p. 396, 1868, p. 165] thought (after Toland in\n1725) that it was of Celtic origin and cognate with the Welsh \"croni,\" to\ncollect together; \"Muir-croinn\" was supposed still to be Irish for the\nPolar Sea, and to have some such meaning as the curdled sea; but no such\nword is to be found in Irish or Old Irish [cf. M\u00fcllenhoff, 1870, p. 415].\n\n[64] Hergt [1893, p. 71] lays stress on the use of \"ultra\" here and not\n\"trans,\" and thinks that this does not indicate an immediate connection\nwith Thule, but that we must rather suppose an intervening space (?).\n\n[65] Perhaps it is worth while to remark in this connection that on its\nsecond occurrence in the quotation the word is simply \"lung\" and not\n\"sea-lung.\" If this is not to be looked upon merely as an abbreviation, it\nmay indicate that the writer was really thinking of a bodily lung [cf.\nHergt, 1893, p. 74].\n\n[66] It has occurred that drift-ice has been brought as far as the\nneighbourhood of Shetland by the East-Icelandic Polar current; but this is\nso entirely exceptional that it cannot be argued that Pytheas might have\nseen drift-ice there.\n\n[67] It is difficult to understand how he was able to converse with the\nnatives; but probably he took interpreters with him. In the south of\nEngland, for instance, he may have found people who had come in contact\nthrough the tin-trade with the Mediterranean peoples and understood their\nlanguages, and who could thus act as interpreters with the Celts. It would\nnot be so easy with the Germanic people of Thule. But in Scotland he may\nhave found Celts who understood the speech of Thule, and who could act as\ninterpreters through the more southern Celtic people.\n\n[68] It has already been mentioned that Avienus ascribes even to Himilco\nsome similar ideas of the extreme parts of the ocean; and that Aristotle\nthought that the sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules was muddy and shallow\nand little stirred by the winds.\n\n[69] According to a communication from Professor Moltke Moe.\n\n[70] It has been supposed by some that this name, which may remind one of\nthe \"\u00c6stii\" (Esthonians) mentioned by Tacitus, is really a clerical error\nfor \"Ostimii.\"\n\n[71] The more usual spelling \"Mentonomon\" (after some MSS.) can hardly be\nright [cf. Detlefsen, 1904, p. 9]. The name may be connected with the\nFrisian \"meden\" (Old Frisian \"mede\" or \"medu,\" English \"meadow\") for\nlow-lying, swampy pasture, and in that case would suit the German North\nSea coast well, between the Rhine and Sleswick-Holstein.\n\n[72] The name may have some connection with those of Habel and Appeland\namong the Halligen Islands on the west coast of Sleswick [cf. Detlefsen,\n1904, p. 60]. It also has some resemblance to \"Sabalingii,\" which is given\nby Ptolemy as the name of a tribe in Jutland. The name Abalus (Greek,\nAbalos) has a remarkable likeness to Avalon (the apple-island) of Welsh\nfolk-lore, and it is possibly originally the same word (?).\n\n[73] As to what we know of the work of this important geographer see in\nparticular Berger [1880].\n\n[74] According to Eratosthenes' accurate calculation the Arctic Circle lay\nin 66\u00b0 9' N. lat.\n\n[75] Cf. Strabo, i. 63, ii. 114. More accurately it should be 37,400\nstadia.\n\n[76] Cf. Strabo, i. 5-6. Seleucus of Selucia on the Tigris lived in the\nmiddle of the 2nd century B.C., and was one of the few who (like\nAristarchus of Samos, c. 260 B.C.) held the doctrine of the earth's\nrotation and movement round the sun.\n\n[77] Herodotus [iv. 26] says of the Issedonians in Scythia that \"when a\nman's father dies, all the relatives bring cattle; and when they have\nslain them as a sacrifice and cut the flesh in pieces, they also cut up\ntheir host's deceased father; then they mix all the flesh together and\nserve it for the meal; but the head they decorate with gold, after having\ntaken the hair off and washed it; and afterwards they treat it as an idol\nand bring offerings to it every year.\" Such a cannibal custom, if it\nreally existed, may have been connected with religious ideas. But\nHerodotus [i. 216] attributes to the Massaget\u00e6 the following still more\nhorrible custom: \"when a man grows very old, all his relatives assemble\nand slay him, and together with him several kinds of cattle; then they\nboil the flesh and hold a banquet. This is accounted among them the\nhappiest end.\"\n\n[78] Cf. M. Schanz: \"Geschichte der R\u00f6mischen Literatur,\" ii. p. 241,\n1899; in I. M\u00fcller: \"Handb. Klass. Altert.-Wiss.,\" bd. viii. See also\nM\u00fcllenhoff, iv., 1900, p. 47.\n\n[79] Cf. Detlefsen, 1897, p. 197; 1904, p. 45. By his voyage in 12 B.C.\nwith his fleet along the coast of the North Sea from the mouth of the\nRhine and the Zuyder Zee to the mouth of the Ems, Drusus won fame as the\nfirst general who had sailed in the North Sea. The Romans, of course, were\nnot great seafarers.\n\n[80] The MSS. have \"flamine\" (winds); but it has been thought that\n\"flumine\" (streams) gives a better meaning [cf. Detlefsen, 1897, p. 198].\n\"Flamine\" (winds) might, however, suit the ideas of the earth's limits\n(cf. the description of Himilco's voyage in Avienus, see above, p. 37).\n\n[81] The text has here \"alium liberis (or 'libris') intactum qu\u00e6rimus\norbem,\" which might be: \"towards another world untouched by books,\" that\nis, of which no book has said anything. As such an expression is quite at\nvariance with the generally pompous style of the poem, Detlefsen [1897, p.\n200, 1904, p. 47] has thought that \"libris\" here was \"libra\" == \"libella,\"\nthat is, the level used by builders, with two legs and a plumb hanging in\nthe middle, and the meaning would then be that this part of the earth's\ncircumference was not touched by the plumb of the level, but that the\nlatter was obliquely inclined over the abyss at the end of the world. This\nexplanation seems to make Pedo's poem even more artificial than it is, and\nDetlefsen appears to think [1897, p. 200] that the builder's level is used\nto find perpendicular lines, instead of horizontal. It is probable,\nhowever, that such an idea of a gulf or abyss at the end of the world was\ncurrent at that time, as it was much later (cf. Adam of Bremen, and also\nthe Ginnungagap of the Norsemen), even if it does not appear in this poem.\nIt might be thought that \"libris\" was here used in the sense of\nsounding-lead, so that the meaning would be, \"untouched by soundings,\" in\nother words, a sea where no soundings had been made; but this meaning of\n\"libris\" would be unusual, and besides one would then expect some word for\nsea, and not \"orbem.\"\n\n[82] I cannot, with Detlefsen [1904, p. 48], find anything in this\nexpression to show that Augustus gives the Greeks the credit for having\npenetrated beyond the Cimbrian Cape earlier.\n\n[83] Cf. M\u00fcllenhoff, ii., 1887, p. 285, and iv., 1900, p. 45; Holz, 1894,\np. 23; Detlefsen, 1904, p. 47.\n\n[84] K. Miller [vi., 1898, p. 105] proposes to read \"Gotorum rex\" (the\nking of the Goths) instead of the \"Botorum rex\" of the MSS. The last name\nis otherwise unknown, and has also been read \"Boiorum.\" Pliny, who has the\nsame story almost word for word [Nat. Hist., ii. c. 67, 170] says that the\nsame Celer had the Indians from the king of the Suevi.\n\n[85] This was a common idea among the Greeks about the Amazons [cf.\nHippocrates, \u03a0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b9 \u03b1\u03b5\u03c1\u03c9\u03bd, etc., c. 17; Strabo, xi. 504; Diodorus, ii. 45];\nit has even been sought to derive the name itself from this, since \"mazos\"\n(\u03bc\u03b1\u03b6\u03bf\u03c2) means breast, and \"a\" (\u03b1) is the negative particle; this would\ntherefore be \"without breasts.\" But other explanations of the origin of\nthe name have been given, e.g., that they were not suckled at the breast.\nIt is possible that the name meant something quite different, but that\nowing to its resemblance to the Greek word for breast it gave rise to the\nlegend, and not vice versa. In Latin the Amazons were sometimes called\n\"Unimammia\" (one-breasted), but in Greek art they were always represented\nwith well-developed breasts. Hippocrates says that the right breasts of\nthe Scythian women were burned off by the mother with a special bronze\ninstrument, while the girls were quite small, because \"then the breast\nceased to grow, and all force and development were transmitted to the\nright shoulder and the arm.\"\n\n[86] Cf. Herodotus, iv. cc. 116, 117.\n\n[87] Cf. Herodotus, iv. c. 22.\n\n[88] These are Herodotus's \"Argipp\u00e6i\" or \"Argimp\u00e6i\" [iv. c. 23], who lived\nin tents of felt in winter. They were bald, whereas those of Mela go\nbare-headed.\n\n[89] To understand [like K. Miller, vi., 1898, p. 105] \"vect\u00e6\" as the name\nof an island (\"Vectis\" == the Isle of Wight) seems in itself somewhat\nimprobable, and is moreover excluded by Mela's rhetorical style, which\ndemands a clause following H\u00e6mod\u00e6 to balance that attached to Orcades just\nbefore.\n\n[90] These \"Belg\u00e6\" are, of course, the same as the \"Belc\u00e6\" already\nmentioned by Mela as the Scythian people in the northernmost part of\nScythia (see above, p. 89). What people is meant is uncertain.\n\n[91] Sophus Bugge [1904, pp. 156 f.] thinks that Codanus may come from an\nOld Norse word \"K\u014d\u00f0,\" which meant a shallow fjord or a shallow place in\nthe water (equivalent to old Indian \"g\u0101dh\u00e1-m\") and which according to him\nis akin to the root \"Ka\u00f0\" in some Norwegian place-names. \"Codanus sinus\"\n(\"K\u014dda,\" accus. \"K\u014ddan\") is then the shallow sea, or Cattegat, especially\nnear the Belts. \"Codan-ovia\" is the island in \"K\u014ddan.\" M\u00fcllenhoff [1887,\nii. p. 284] and Much [1893, p. 207] have connected \"Codanus\" with Old High\nGerman \"quoden\" (== femina, interior pars cox\u00e6) from the same root as the\nAnglo-Saxon \"codd\" (== serpent, sack, bag), Middle Low German \"koder\" (==\nbelly, abdomen), Old Norse \"ko\u00f0ri\" (== scrotum). It would then mean a\nsack-inlet or sack-bay, equal to the Frisian \"J\u00e2de,\" or else a narrower\ninlet to an extended bay of the sea (the Baltic ?). The explanation does\nnot seem quite natural. R. Keyser [1868, p. 82] derives the name from\n\"Godanus,\" i.e., the Gothic, although the Goths at that time were usually\ncalled \"Gutones\" by the Romans. Ahlenius's suggestion [1900, p. 24] that\nCodanus might be an old copyist's error for \"Toutonos\" (Teutons), because\none MS. reads Thodanus, does not sound probable. Detlefsen [1904, p. 31]\nthinks that the name Codanus is preserved in Katte(n)-gat, which would\nmean the inlet (gat) to Codanus, which would then come to include the\nwhole of the Baltic. If Bugge's explanation given above is correct, it\nmight however mean the shallow gat or inlet.\n\n[92] Professor Alf Torp calls my attention to R. Much's [1895, p. 37]\nexplanation of \"Kobandoi\" as a Germanic \"*K\u014dwand\u014dz,\" a derivation from the\nword cow. This should therefore be divided \"K\u014dw-and-,\" where \"and\" is a\nsuffix, and the meaning would be a cow-people.\n\n[93] I have proposed this explanation to Professor Alf Torp; he finds that\nit \"might indeed be possible, but not altogether probable.\"\n\n[94] It has been sought to derive \"Daner\" from an original Germanic word,\nequivalent to Anglo-Saxon \"denu\" (Gothic \"*danei\") and \"dene\" for dale,\nand its meaning has been thought to be \"dwellers in dales or lowlands\"\n[cf. Much, 1895, p. 40; S. Bugge, 1890, p. 236].\n\n[95] That they lived in the sea or bay must, of course, mean that they\nlived on islands; and the northern part of Jutland, north of the Limfiord,\nwas probably looked upon as an island; but the Cimbrian Promontory is not\nmentioned; it occurs first in Pliny. The Germanic form of the name,\n\"himbr\u014dz,\" perhaps still survives in the Danish district of Himmerland,\nthe old Himbersyssel, with the town of Aalborg [cf. Much, 1905, p. 100].\n\n[96] There is a resemblance of name which may be more than accidental\nbetween Mela's \"\u0152ne\u00e6,\" or Pliny's \"\u0152on\u00e6,\" and Tacitus's \"Aviones\"\n[\"Germania,\" c. 40], who lived on the islands of North Frisia and the\nneighbouring coast. \"Aviones\" evidently comes from a Germanic \"*awjonez,\"\nGothic \"*aujans,\" Old High German \"ouwon\" (cf. Old Norse \"ey,\" Old High\nGerman \"ouwa\" for island), which means islanders. In the Anglo-Saxon poem\n\"Widsid\" they are called \"eowe\" or \"eowan\" [cf. Grimm, 1880, p. 330 (472),\nMuch, 1893, p. 195; 1905, p. 101]. It is possible that the Greeks, on\nhearing the Germanic name, connected it with the Greek word \"\u0152on\u00e6\" (==\negg-eaters), and thereby the whole idea of egg-eating may have arisen,\nwithout anything having been related about it.\n\n[97] To this it might be objected that he ought in that case to have\nobtained much information also about the interior of Scythia and Sarmatia;\nbut in the first place this is not certain, as the special goal of the\nmerchants was the amber countries, and they would therefore keep to the\nknown routes and travel rapidly through--and in the second, Pliny actually\nmentions a good many tribes in the interior. He says, it is true [iv. 26,\n91], of Agrippa's estimate of the size of Sarmatia and Scythia, that he\nconsiders such estimates too uncertain in these parts of the earth; but to\nconclude from this, as Detlefsen [1904, p. 34] has done, that Pliny's\nGreek authorities cannot have received their information by the land\nroute, seems to me unreasonable, since Pliny perhaps did not even know how\nhis authorities had obtained their knowledge.\n\n[98] This river is not mentioned elsewhere and must be invented, Hecat\u00e6us\nof Abdera (circa 300 B.C.) having imagined that it rose in mountains of\nthis name in the interior of Asia and fell into the northern ocean.\n\n[99] This is certainly wrong. The name \"Amalcium\" cannot come from any\nnorthern language, but must come from the Greek \"malkios\" (\u03bc\u03b1\u03bb\u03ba\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2), which\nmeans \"stiffening,\" \"freezing\"; \"a\" must here be an emphatic particle.\n\n[100] This Greek is given as an authority in several passages of Pliny; he\nis also mentioned by Ptolemy, but is not otherwise known. He may have\nlived about 100 B.C. [cf. Detlefsen, 1904, pp. 23-25].\n\n[101] On account of the syllable \"rus,\" which is found in Ph\u0153nician names\n(e.g., Rusazus, Ruscino, Ruspino) and which means headland, cape, it has\nbeen sought to derive it from the Semitic; but Detlefsen [1904, p. 24]\nthinks it more reasonable to suppose it Germanic. Not the smallest trace\nof Ph\u0153nician names has been found in the north. R. Keyser [1868, p. 165]\nthinks the name, which he reads \"Rubeas,\" \"is without doubt the Welsh\n'rhybyz'\" (rhybudd == sign, warning); but the word cannot have had this\nform in Pliny's time.\n\n[102] The name may be either Celtic or Old Germanic. In Celtic \"mori,\"\nIrish \"muir,\" Cymric \"m\u00f4r,\" is sea; but R. Much [1893, p. 220] thinks that\nGermanic \"mari\" and Gothic \"marei\" (German \"Meer,\" Latin \"mare\") may also\nhave been pronounced formerly with \"o.\" \"Marusa\" is related to Irish\n\"marb,\" Cymric \"marw\" for dead; but according to Much it may be of\nGermanic origin and have had the form \"*marusaz\" (cf. \"*marwaz\") with the\nmeaning of motionless, lifeless. \"Morimarusa\" would thus be the\n\"motionless sea,\" which reminds one of Pytheas's kindred ideas of the\nsluggish, congealed sea (\"mare pigrum, prope immotum mare\"). If the name\nis of Germanic origin, this does not debar its being derived from Pytheas\n(and taken from him by Philemon); he may have got it from Norway. If\nRusbeas is southern Norway, this would point in the same direction. But it\nis doubtless more reasonable to suppose that the name is derived from the\nCimbri, who are mentioned in connection with it, while Pliny does not\nmention any people in Norway.\n\n[103] Hergt [1893, p. 40] thinks that \"Morimarusa\" would be the Baltic\n(and the Cattegat), which was called dead because it had no tides and was\nfrozen in winter. \"Rusbeas\" would thus be the point of the Skaw. In this\nway he has two names for the Baltic, and two, if not three, for the Skaw.\nThis interpretation seems to be even less consistent than that given\nabove. Pliny in another passage mentions (see pp. 65, 106) that the sea\ncalled \"Cronium\" was a day's sail beyond Thule, which lay to the north of\nBritain and within the Arctic Circle. This in itself makes it difficult\nfor Cronium to begin at Lindesnes, but if it has to begin at Skagen, and\nthus be the Skagerak, it becomes still worse.\n\n[104] This must come from an Old Germanic word \"*glez,\" Anglo-Saxon\n\"gl\u00e6r,\" for amber. It is the same word as the Norwegian \"glas\" or Danish\n\"glar,\" which has come to mean glass.\n\n[105] The origin of the name \"S\u00e6vo\" cannot be determined with certainty.\nForbiger [1848, iii. p. 237] thinks it is Kj\u00f6len, and asserts that it is a\nNorwegian name which is still found in the form of \"Seve,\" ridge; but no\nsuch name is known in Norway. It seems possible that the name may be\nconnected with the Gothic \"saivs\" for sea (cf. Old Norse \"s\u00e6r\"); but it\nmay also be supposed to have arisen from a corruption of \"svevus\"; in any\ncase it was so regarded in the Middle Ages. Solinus says [c. 20, 1],\nfollowing Pliny, that \"Mons S\u00e6vo ... forms the commencement of Germany,\"\nbut Isidore Hispalensis says that \"Suevus Mons\" forms the north-east\nboundary of Germany, and on the Hereford Map (about 1280) a mountain\nchain, \"Mons Sueuus,\" runs in north-east Germany to a bay of the sea\ncalled \"Sinus Germanicus,\" which may be the Baltic. On the Ebstorf map\n(1284) \"Mons Suevus\" has followed the Suevi southwards to Swabia. It is\nalso possible that Ptolemy's mountain chain \"Sy\u0113ba\" (\u03a3\u03c5\u03b7\u03b2\u03b1, vi. c. 14) in\nnorthernmost Asia (62\u00b0 N. lat.) has something to do with Pliny's \"S\u00e6vo.\"\nThere has been much guessing as to where the latter is to be sought: some\n[cf. Detlefsen, 1904, p. 28] think it was Kj\u00f6len, although it is quite\nincomprehensible how this far northern range could be connected with\nCodanus; others [cf. L\u00f6nborg, 1897, p. 20] that it was in Mecklenburg or\nPomerania or even in Jutland [Geijer, 1825, p. 77], where no mountain is\nto be found, least of all an immense one (\"inmensus\"). Pliny's words could\nbe most simply connected with the Norwegian mountains [cf. Holz, 1894, p.\n25]. It may indeed be supposed, as M\u00fcllenhoff [iv., 1900, p. 600] thinks,\nthat the men of Augustus's fleet, in 5 A.D., may have seen in the Cattegat\nor heard of the \"Sea-mountains\" of the Scandinavian (or rather, Swedish)\ncoast, \"*Saivabergo\" or \"*Saivagab\u00ebrgia,\" which rose up over the sea, and\nthe same of which became in Latin \"Mons S\u00e6vo\"; but perhaps it is just as\nreasonable to suppose that the information may be derived from the Germans\nof Jutland, who had communication with Norway and knew its high\nmountainous country, and that therefore it did not originate with the low\nwest coast of Sweden.\n\n[106] One might be tempted to connect the name \"Scadinavia\" with the old\nNorse goddess Skade or Ska\u00f0i, who was of Finnish race; she was\nblack-haired, lived in the mountains in the interior of the country, and\nwas amongst other things the goddess of ski-running. The name Scadinavia\nwould then be of Finnish origin. This derivation has also been put forward\n[cf. M\u00fcllenhoff, ii., 1887, pp. 55 f., 357 f.]. The termination \"avi,\"\n\"avia,\" must then be the same as \"ovia\" (see p. 94). This explanation\nwould take for granted an original non-Germanic, so-called \"Finnish\"\npopulation in south Sweden (which does not appear impossible; see below);\nbut it will then be difficult to explain why the name should have survived\nonly in the most southern part, Sk\u00e5ne. Sophus Bugge [1896, p. 424] thought\nthat \"Scadinavia\" (later \"Scadanavia\") is related to the common Norwegian\nplace-name \"Sk\u01eb\u00f0vin\" or Sk\u00f6ien (\"vin\" == pasture) and may come from a lost\nOld Norse word \"*ska\u00f0a\" (old Slavonic \"skot\u016d\") for cattle. \"Sk\u01eb\u00f0vin\" would\nthen be cattle-pasture. From \"*ska\u00f0a\" the word \"*ska\u00f0anaz\" may be\nregularly derived, with the meaning of herdsman; and \"Skadan-avia\" or\n\"Skadinavia\" will be herdsman's pastures, since the termination \"avia\" may\nhave the same meaning as the German \"Au\" or \"Aue\" (good pasture, meadow).\nThe Old Norse \"Sk\u00e1ney\" (\"Sk\u00e1ni,\" now \"Sk\u00e5ne\") would then come from\nSka\u00f0ney, where the \"\u00f0\" has been dropped as in many similar instances.\nBugge himself afterwards [1904, p. 156] rejected this explanation and\nderived \"Scadinavia\" from the same word as \"Codanus\" (see p. 93), taking\nit to mean the island or coast-land by \"K\u014ddan,\" which has had a prefixed\n\"s,\" while the long \"o\" has been changed into short \"a.\" This explanation\nmay be very doubtful. In many parts of Norway a name \"Sk\u00e5ney\" is known,\nwhich comes from \"sk\u00e1n\" (meaning crust), and it may therefore not be\nimprobable that the Swedish \"Sk\u00e1ney\" or Sk\u00e5ne is the same name.\n\n[107] Ahlenius [1900, p. 31] has tried to explain the name as a copyist's\nerror for \"\u00c6stingia,\" which he connects with the \"\u00c6stii\" (Esthonians) of\nTacitus; but the people would then have been called \u00c6stingii rather than\n\u00c6stii. One might then be more inclined to think of Jordanes' \"Astingi\" or\n\"Hazdingi,\" the same as the Old Norse Haddingjar (Hallinger).\n\n[108] R. Keyser [1868, p. 89] explains the name as the same as in the Old\nNorse name for a people, \"Kylpingar,\" in northern Russia, neighbours of\nthe Finns. He thinks that there may have been an Old Norse name\n\"Kylpinga-botn\" for the Baltic; but it is not likely that this word\nKylpingar existed at that time.\n\n[109] Keyser [1868, p. 80] derives the word from Gothic \"lagus\"\n(corresponding to Old Norse \"logr\") for sea.\n\n[110] The same islands which are here spoken of as British, have been\npreviously referred to (see above, p. 101) by Pliny as Germanic, or rather\nas a single island with the name \"Gl\u00e6saria.\" This is another proof of how\nhe draws directly from various sources without even taking the trouble to\nharmonise the statements. In this case he has probably found the islands\nmentioned in connection with facts about Britain, or a journey to that\ncountry. And it may be supposed that the original source is Pytheas.\n\n[111] In his ignorance of astronomy Pliny adds that \"this is said to\ncontinue alternately for six months.\"\n\n[112] Some MSS. read \"Vergos.\"\n\n[113] Tacitus, \"Agricola,\" c. 10; see also c. 38. Cf. also Bunbury, 1883,\nii. p. 342.\n\n[114] Tacitus, \"Agricola,\" c. 28.\n\n[115] Here Tacitus is mistaken, as amber was extensively employed for\namulets and ornaments even in the Stone Age (see above, p. 32).\n\n[116] Much [1905, p. 133] connects the name with \"ge-swio\" == \"related by\nmarriage.\" It may be just as reasonable to suppose that the name means\n\"burners\" (\"svier\"), since they cleared the land by setting fire to the\nforests [cf. M\u00fcllenhoff, iv., 1900, p. 499].\n\n[117] Cf. M\u00fcllenhoff, iv., 1900, p. 502.\n\n[118] This might be thought to show that arms of metal, especially of\niron, were still rarities in Scandinavia, which only rich and powerful\nchiefs could obtain, and this might agree with the statement about the\nesteem in which wealth was held among this particular people. But perhaps\nthe more probable explanation is that the idea may have arisen through\nforeign merchants (South Germans or Romans) having been present at the\ngreat annual \"things\" and fairs at some well-known temple, e.g., Upsala\n[cf. M\u00fcllenhoff, 1900, p. 503], where for the sake of peace and on account\nof the sacredness of the spot it was forbidden to carry arms, and where\narms were therefore left in a special \"weapon-house,\" like those which\nwere later attached to churches in Norway, and there guarded by a thrall.\nThe foreigners may have seen this without understanding its meaning, and\nTacitus may have given his own explanation.\n\n[119] The name \"Sitones\" reminds one forcibly of the \"Sidones\" mentioned\nby Strabo and Ptolemy [cf. Geijer, 1825, p. 82]; but the difficulty is\nthat Strabo includes the latter among the Bastarni, with the Peucini who\nlived on the north and east of the Carpathians and therefore far to the\nsouth of the Baltic [cf. Ahlenius, 1900, p. 36]. Ptolemy's \"Sidones\" also\nlived in the neighbourhood of the Carpathians, and to the north of them.\nBut it is nevertheless possible that Tacitus may have heard a similar word\nand confused it with this name, or he may have heard a story of a reigning\nwoman or queen among Strabo's Sidones, somewhere north of the Carpathians,\nand thought that anything so unheard of could only be found in the\nfarthest north. It is also to be noted that Tacitus himself mentions\n\"Peucini\" or \"Bastarn\u00e6\" as neighbours of the \"Fenni\" (Finns), and\ntherefore inhabiting some distant tract bordering on the unknown in the\nnorth-east; on the other hand he does not mention the Sidones in this\nconnection, though they are spoken of in conjunction with the Bastarn\u00e6\nboth by Strabo before him and by Ptolemy after him. Add to this the\nsimilarity of names between Sitones and Suiones, and it seems likely that\nhe thought they must be near one another. M\u00fcllenhoff [ii., 1887, p. 9]\nsupposes that the word \"Sitones\" may have been an appellative which has\nbeen mistaken for the name of a people, and he connects it with Gothic\n\"*sitans,\" Old Norse \"*setar,\" from the same root as the Norwegian \"sitte\"\n(to sit, occupy). If this is correct we might suppose it to be used in the\nsense of colonists (cf. Norwegian \"opsitter\"). Much [1905, p. 31] suggests\nthat perhaps it may be derived from Old Norse \"si\u00f0a\" == to practise\nwitchcraft (cf. \"seid\"), and mean sorcerers. On the \"Sidones\" cf. Much,\n1893, pp. 135, 187, 188; M\u00fcllenhoff, 1887, pp. 109, 325.\n\n[120] Wiklund [1895, pp. 103-117] thinks that the \"Kv\u00e6ns\" in north Sweden\nwere not Finns, but colonists from Svearike (middle Sweden).\n\n[121] Cf. Zeuss, 1837, p. 157; M\u00fcllenhoff, ii., 1887, p. 10.\n\n[122] Cf. L\u00f6nborg, 1897, p. 136; Ahlenius, 1900, p. 37.\n\n[123] Cf. Baumstark, 1880, p. 329; M\u00fcllenhoff, iv., 1900, p. 516.\n\n[124] Many of his place-names in Ireland especially point to frequent\ncommunication, probably due to trade, between this island and the\ncontinent, perhaps with Gaul.\n\n[125] Much [1895, a, p. 34] thinks that the \"Aloci\u00e6\" may have been some\nsmall rocky islands which have now disappeared. Upon them he supposes\nthere may have been colonies of auks, which have given them their name, as\nin Gothic, for instance, they may have been called \"*alak\u00f4.\" The\nhypothesis is improbable; even if any such rocky islets had been washed\naway by the sea they must have left behind submerged rocks, and none such\nare known in the sea off Jutland.\n\n[126] Macrobius's division of the earth into zones after Parmenides with\nan equatorial ocean like Mela, in graphic representation, had great\ninfluence during the Middle Ages.\n\n[127] Similar conceptions are to be found in Avienus (\"Ora Maritima,\" vv.,\n644-663), and are derived from ancient Greek geographers (Anaximenes, cf.\nM\u00fcllenhoff, i., 1870, p. 77).\n\n[128] This description would best suit the Baltic (and the Belts) as\nforming the eastern side of Scandza; but the term inland sea (\"lacus\")\ndoes not agree well with Scandza being an island and lying just opposite\nthe Vistula, which \"with its three mouths discharged itself into the\nOcean\"; and in the rear of the Vidivarii at the mouths of the Vistula\n\"dwelt likewise on the Ocean the \u00c6stii, that very peace-loving people\" [v.\n36, cf. Tacitus]. Besides which Jordanes' Germanic Ocean may be the\nBaltic, although his very obscure description may equally well suit the\nNorth Sea, or both together. The supposition that the great inland sea and\nthe River Vagi might be Lake Ladoga and the Neva [cf. Geijer, 1825, p.\n100] or Lake Vener and the G\u00f6ta River [cf. L\u00f6nborg, 1897, p. 25, and\nAhlenius, 1900, p. 44] does not agree with the description of Jordanes,\nwhich distinctly asserts that it lay on the east side of Scandza in\ncontradistinction to the immense ocean on the west and north. The fact\nmust be that Jordanes had very obscure ideas on this point, and this has\nmade his description confusing.\n\n[129] These small islands have been taken to be the Danish islands [cf.\nAhlenius, 1900, p. 43]; but as we hear in immediate connection with them\nof severe cold and of the wolves losing their eyes on crossing the frozen\nsea (\"congelato mari\"), our thoughts are led farther north and we would be\ninclined to take them for the \u00c5land islands.\n\n[130] This reminds us of Mela's statement respecting the \u0152neans, who lived\non fen-fowl's eggs (see above, pp. 91, 95).\n\n[131] And or Amd was used formerly not only for the island of And (And\u00f6),\nbut for a great part of Vester\u00e5len and Hinn\u00f6.\n\n[132] I will mention as yet another possibility a corruption of Ptolemy's\nislands, the \"Aloci\u00e6,\" which lay at the extreme north of his map, north of\nthe Cimbrian Chersonese and farther north than the island of Scandia (see\nabove, pp. 119 f.). A Greek capital lambda, \u039b, may easily be mistaken for\na capital delta, \u0394, especially in maps, and in such corrupted form may\nhave been transferred to Roman maps, and thence have been used for the\nname of a people who were said to live specially far north. L\u00e4ffler [1894,\np. 4] thinks that \"Adogit\" was a Lappish people, and that the name\ncertainly cannot be of Scandinavian-Germanic origin, but he does not say\nwhy.\n\n[133] Cleomedes says that the summer day in Thule lasted a month, while\nthe astronomically ignorant Pliny puts it at six months.\n\n[134] As to these tribal names see especially L\u00e4ffler [1894, 1907] and\nSophus Bugge [1907], besides P. A. Munch [1852], M\u00fcllenhoff [1887], and\nothers.\n\n[135] The origin of the word \"sappherinas\" is uncertain. L\u00f6nborg [1897, p.\n26] proposes that it may have meant deep sapphire blue, and have been used\nof the skins of blue foxes. Probably it is rather a northern word, not\nGermanic, but either Slavonic or Finnish (?).\n\n[136] M\u00fcllenhoff, Mommsen, L\u00e4ffler, and others think that the \"mitiores\"\n(milder) of the MSS. may be an error for \"minores\" (smaller), which gives\nbetter sense, in contradistinction to the \"Suetidi\" who come just after\nand were taller than all the rest. Sophus Bugge proposes that \"mitissimi\"\nand \"mitiores\" may be errors for \"minutissime\" and \"minutiores,\" and that\nit should therefore be translated \"the very small Finns who are smaller\nthan all the other, etc.\" [cf. also A. Bugge, 1906, p. 18]; but the\nnecessity for so great a change is doubtful [cf. L\u00e4ffler, 1907, p. 109].\n\n[137] S. Bugge thought [1907, p. 101] at one time that these might be\npeople of Gond or Gand, i.e., H\u00f6iland, south of Stavanger, but afterwards\nchanged this view [cf. 1910, p. 97].\n\n[138] Jordanes, who was a Goth, had even less reason for glorifying the\nNorthmen at the expense of the Germans or Goths.\n\n[139] Cf. Mommsen, 1882, p. 154; A. Bugge, 1906, pp. 21, 33 f.\n\n[140] This is certainly incorrect; probably they came from the north and\nestablished themselves near the Danube in the neighbourhood of the\nLangobards.\n\n[141] Paulus Warnefridi gives a mythical account of the cause of the war\nand of the battle and death of king Rodulf [Bethmann and Waitz, 1878, pp.\n57 ff.]; the fight and king Rodulf are also referred to in the \"Origo\nGentes Langobardorum\" (of about 807). In both these works it is stated\nthat it was the Langobards (and not the Eruli) who had lived in this\ncountry (by the Danube ?) in peace for three years.\n\n[142] It is probable that the mention of the tribes in Jordanes is taken\nfrom two different sources; for he begins by saying that Ptolemy only has\nthe names of seven, without mentioning any of these, and later on he gives\na whole series of others, which may have been added from another author\nwho supplemented the one from whom the mention of Ptolemy is taken.\n\n[143] Jordanes here repeats Ptolemy, from whom the name of Scandza, ==\nScandia, is taken (and the statement as to the shape of the island ?),\nwhile Procopius has nothing about it.\n\n[144] The name appears in the runic inscriptions to be often a designation\nof the author of the inscription. Sophus Bugge thought that the Eruli had\nobtained their knowledge of runes from the Goths, and that they kept them\na secret (this reappears in the word \"run\" itself, which means secret),\nespecially in the leading families, who turned them to account. During\ntheir centuries of roving life they carried the knowledge of runes with\nthem to various parts of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In this way the\nuniformity of language in the inscriptions from widely separated places\nmay also be explained.\n\n[145] It appears to have been a general custom among the Germans to put\nold people to death (cf. p. 18). Herodotus [i. 216] relates of the\nMassaget\u00e6, who may have been a Germanic tribe, that \"when any one has\ngrown very old all his relatives come together and slaughter him, and with\nhim other small cattle; they then cook the flesh and hold a banquet. This\nis considered by them the happiest end. But they do not eat one who dies\nof sickness, but bury him underground, and lament that he did not live to\nbe slaughtered.\"\n\n[146] This widespread form of anthropophagy is due to the superstition\nthat by eating something of another, beast or man, or particular parts,\ne.g., the heart (cf. Sigurd Favnesbane), one acquired the peculiar\nproperties of the other, such as strength, courage, goodness, etc. It is\nthus a similar idea to that in the Christian sacrament.\n\n[147] They were also called =O T= maps; =O T= being the initials of Orbis\nTerrarum.\n\n[148] Cf. Wuttke, 1854.\n\n[149] The text has \"ovium\" (== sheep), but this is doubtless a copyist's\nerror for \"ovum\" (== egg). This may remind us of the \u0152on\u00e6 of Mela and\nPliny, who lived on the eggs of fen-fowl (see above, p. 92).\n\n[150] Cf. the \"Origo Gentis Langobardorum\" (of the second half of the\nseventh century), where the \"Winnilians,\" who were later called\nLangobards, live originally on an island called \"Scadanan,\" or in another\nMS. \"Scadan.\" The latter name, with the addition of a Germanic word for\nmeadow or island, might become Scadanau, Scadanauge, or Scadanovia. Cf.\nalso Fredegar Scholasticus's abbreviated history after Gregory of Tours,\nwhere it is related that the Langobards originated in \"Schatanavia,\" or in\none MS. \"Schatanagia.\"\n\n[151] It is difficult to understand how Paulus has managed to transfer the\nlegend to the North. It might be thought that the idea, which already\nappears in Herodotus, that the people of the North sleep for the six\nwinter months (see p. 20), is connected with it. Plutarch [\"De defectu\noraculorum,\" c. 18] relates that in the ocean beyond Britain there was\naccording to the statement of Demetrius an island \"where Cronos was\nimprisoned and guarded, while he slept, by Briareus. For sleep had been\nused as a bond, and there were many spirits about him as companions and\nservants.\" According to another passage in Plutarch [\"De facie in orbe\nLun\u00e6,\" 941] this island was north-west of the isle of Ogygia, which was\nfive days' sail west of Britain. It is possible that this myth of the\nsleeping Cronos has also helped to locate the legend of the Seven Sleepers\non the north-west coast of Europe. Viktor Rydberg [1886, i. pp. 529 ff.]\nthought that the legend and its localisation in the North might be\nconnected with Mimer's seven sons, who in the V\u01eblosp\u01eb's description (st.\n45) of Ragnarok were to spring up at the sound of the horn Gjallar, after\nhaving lain asleep for long ages. But this interpretation of the strophe:\n\"Leika Mims synir\" is improbable.\n\n[152] In other MSS. Scridowinni and Scritofinni, etc.\n\n[153] According to the \"Grottas\u01ebngr,\" Mysing carried off the quern and the\ntwo female thralls, Fenja and Menja, on his ship and bade them grind salt,\nand they ground until the ship sank (according to some MSS. it was in the\nPentland Firth), and there was afterwards a whirlpool in the sea, where\nthe water falls into the hole in the quern. Thus the sea became salt. This\nis the same legend which is repeated in the tale of the mill which grinds\nat the bottom of the sea.\n\n[154] As will be mentioned later, the islands were possibly inhabited by\nCelts before the arrival of the monks. In that case the latter must\ndoubtless have visited them with the additional object of spreading\nChristianity.\n\n[155] It has also been translated: \"two rows of oars,\" which is\nimprobable.\n\n[156] Some writers have thought that they might be the Shetlands; but this\nseems less probable.\n\n[157] Cf. A. Bugge, 1905, pp. 55 f. Several names of fishing-banks, which\nA. Bugge gives from Dr. Jakobsen, are also of interest. Off Sandey is a\nfishing-bank called \"Knokkur\" (or \"\u00e1 Knokki\"), and one of the same name\nlies west of Syd-Straumsey. West of Sudrey is a fishing-place called\n\"Knokkarnir.\" The fishing-banks are called after the landmarks; \"cnoc\" is\nCeltic for hill, and must have been the name of the heights that formed\nlandmarks for the fishing-places in question; on land these names have\ngiven way to more modern Norse ones, but have held their own out to sea.\nA. Bugge thinks that the Celtic place-names may be due to Norwegians who\nbefore they came to the Faroes had lived with Irish-speaking people in the\nScottish islands or in Ireland; but it nevertheless seems very improbable\nthat they should have used a foreign language to give names to their new\nhome. A more natural explanation is that they had the names from the\nearlier Celtic inhabitants, whether these were only the Irish monks, or\nwhether there were others. Names of islands and hills are usually among\nthe most ancient of place-names.\n\n[158] Cf. Landn\u00e1ma, Prologue. Further on in the Landn\u00e1ma places are\nfrequently mentioned where priests had formerly lived, and where in\nconsequence heathens dared not settle.\n\n[159] It is explicable that places and estates may be called after the\npersonal names of Irish land-takers; but it is more difficult to\nunderstand how the Norwegians should have come by Celtic names, derived\nfrom appellatives, for mountains, fjords, and rivers--which are everywhere\namong the earliest of place-names--if the Celts had not been there before\nthey came. Among such place-names of Celtic origin, or which indicate a\nCeltic population, may be mentioned: \"D\u00edmunarv\u00e1g, Dimunar-klakkar\" (an\ninlet and two rocky islets in Breidifjord); \"D\u00edmon,\" in many places as the\nname of a ridge, a mountain, and an islet; \"Katanes\"; \"Katadalr\";\n\"K\u00fa\u00f0aflj\u00f3t,\" the name of a confluence of several rivers into a large piece\nof water, in Vester-Skaftarfells district, from Irish \"cud\" (== head).\n\"Min\u00feakseyrr\" is mentioned above. Further, there are many names after\nIrishmen: a river \"Ir\u00e1,\" two places \"Irager\u00f0i,\" a channel into Hvammsfjord\n\"Irska lei\u00f0,\" \"Irsku b\u00fa\u00f0ir,\" a hill \"Irski h\u00f3ll,\" besides\n\"Vestmanna-eyjar,\" etc.\n\n[160] The \"Ost-s\u00e6\" is the southern and western part of the Baltic with the\nCattegat and a part of the Skagerak, as distinguished from the sea to the\nwest of Jutland (the land of the South Danes), which is \"the arm of the\nsea which lies round the country of Britain.\" The sea west of Norway he\nalso calls the \"West-s\u00e6.\" As the Ost-s\u00e6 is called an arm of the sea, it\nmight be urged that King Alfred therefore regarded Scandinavia as a\npeninsula; but we see that he also calls the sea round Britain, which he\nknew better, an arm of the sea.\n\n[161] In another passage somewhat later he says that \"no men [i.e.,\nNorsemen, Norwegian chiefs] lived to the north of him.\" This may have been\nsomewhere about Malangen or Senjen, which arch\u00e6ological remains show to\nhave formed the approximate northern boundary of fixed Norwegian\nhabitation at that time. Norwegians may have lived here and there farther\nnorth to about Loppen [cf. A. Bugge, 1908, pp. 407 ff.]; but Ottar\ndoubtless means that no nobles or people of importance lived to the north\nof him.\n\n[162] It may be explained that the Lapps are called \"Finns,\" both in Old\nNorse and modern Norwegian. As it is not absolutely certain to what race\nthese ancient \"Finns\" belonged, it has been thought best to retain Ottar's\nname for them here.\n\n[163] It is clear Ottar reckoned north and south according to the\ndirection of the land, and not according to the meridian; this is a common\nhabit among coast-dwellers who live on a coast that lies approximately\nnorth and south. Ottar's north is consequently nearly north-east.\n\n[164] This would be, according to the number of days' sail given, about\nmidway between Malangen and the North Cape, that is, about Loppen.\n\n[165] That is to say, made a bay of the sea into the land. Ottar has now\nreached the North Cape.\n\n[166] This was at the entrance to the White Sea, near Sviatoi Nos, or a\nlittle farther south-east. If Ottar took as much as six days on the voyage\nfrom Malangen to the North Cape, but only four from the North Cape to the\nentrance to the White Sea, which is nearly double the distance, this may\npossibly be explained by his sailing the first part within the skerries,\namong islands, thus making the distance longer and stopping oftener, while\non the latter part of the voyage, where there are no islands, he may have\nsailed much faster with open sea and a favourable wind, and have had less\ntemptation to stop.\n\n[167] The most reasonable way of reading this last much-contested\nstatement is to take \"of them\" as referring to the walruses, which were\nseven cubits long, and to understand the sentence about the Norwegian\nwhales, which are larger, as an inserted parenthesis [cf. Japetus\nSteenstrup, 1889]; for it is impossible that six men could kill sixty\nlarge whales in two days, and the sobriety of Ottar's narrative makes it\nvery improbable that he made boasts of this sort. King Alfred evidently\ndid not grasp the essential difference between walrus and whale. Another\nexplanation might be that these sixty were a school of a smaller species\nof whale, which were caught by nets in a fjord, so that King Alfred has\nonly confused their size with that of the larger whales of which he had\nalso heard Ottar speak. An attempt has been made to save the sense by\nproposing that instead of \"with six others\" we should read \"with six\nharpoons\" (\"syx asum\") or \"with six ships\" (\"syx ascum\"); but even if such\nan emendation were permissible, it does not make the statement more\ncredible. What should Ottar do with sixty large whales, even if he could\ncatch them? It must have been the blubber and the flesh that he wanted,\nbut he and his men could not deal with that quantity of blubber and flesh\nin weeks, to say nothing of two days. Even a large whaling station at the\npresent time, with machinery and a large staff of workmen, would have all\nit could do to deal with sixty large whales (\"forty-eight\" or \"fifty\"\ncubits long) before they became putrid, if they were all caught in two\ndays.\n\n[168] Cf. G. Storm, 1894, p. 95. S. E. L\u00f6nborg's reasons [1897, p. 37] for\nrejecting Storm's view and maintaining the Dvina as the river in question\nhave little weight. L\u00f6nborg examines the statements of direction, south,\nnorth, etc., as though King Alfred and Ottar had had a map and a modern\ncompass before them during the description. He has not remarked that Ottar\nhas merely confined himself to the chief points of the compass, north,\neast, and south, and that he has not even halved them; how otherwise\nshould we explain, for instance, that he sailed \"due north along the\ncoast\" from Senjen to the North Cape? This course is no less incorrect\nthan his sailing due south, for example, from Sviatoi Nos to the Varzuga.\nTo one sailing along a coast, especially if it is unknown, the\ncircumstance that one is following the land is far more important than the\nalterations of course that one makes owing to the sinuosities of the\ncoast. The statement that they had the uninhabited land to starboard all\nthe way is consequently not to be got over.\n\n[169] His own words, that he did not know whether the land (at Sviatoi\nNos) turned towards the south, or whether the sea made a bay into the\nland, show also that Ottar cannot have sailed across the White Sea and\ndiscovered the land on the other side.\n\n[170] Alfred's word \"Beormas\" is perhaps linguistically of the same origin\nas \"Perm\" or \"Perem,\" which the Russians, at any rate in later times,\napply to another Finno-Ugrian people, the Permians, of Kama in north\nRussia [cf. Storm, 1894, p. 96].\n\n[171] \"Rosmal\" comes from Old Norse \"rosm-hvalr\"--horse-whale, of the same\nmeaning therefore as \"hval-ross.\"\n\n[172] Sciringesheal had a king's house and a well-known temple; it may\nhave been situated on the Viksfjord, east of Larvik, where the name\nKaupang (i.e., \"kj\u00f6pstad\" == market town) still preserves its memory [cf.\nMunch, 1852, pp. 377, 380]. Possibly the name may be connected with the\nGermanic tribe of \"Skirer,\" who are mentioned on the shores of the Baltic,\nnear the Ruger (or Ryger). Connected with Sciringesheal was a kingdom in\nSouth Jutland, with the port of \"Sliesthorp\" (mentioned by Einhard about\n804), \"Sliaswic\" [Ansgarii Vita, c. 24] or \"Slesvik,\" also called\n\"Heidaby.\" It is possible that Sciringesheal may have been originally\nfounded by Skirer who had immigrated from South Jutland (?). Another\nhypothesis has been put forward by S. A. S\u00f6rensen, who thinks that\nSciringesheal may be a translation into Norse of \"baptisterium\" (\"sk\u00edra\"\n== to baptize); and that the place was situated near Sandefjord. In that\ncase we should look for a church rather than a heathen temple, and we\nshould have to suppose that attempts had been made to introduce\nChristianity even before Ottar's time.\n\n[173] Dr. Ingram, in 1807, and Rask [1815, p. 48] propose to read\n\"Isaland\" (i.e., Iceland, which was discovered by the Norsemen just at\nthis time), but this does not improve the sense. Besides which, the form\n\"Isaland\" for Iceland is not known, and it would mean the land of \"ices\"\nand not of ice. That the true Ireland should be intended would seem to\nbetray greater geographical ignorance than we are disposed to attribute to\nOttar or Alfred. Alfred himself mentions \"Ibernia\" or \"Igbernia\" (i.e.,\nIreland) as lying west of Britain, and says that \"we call it Scotland.\" He\ndoes not use the name Ireland elsewhere; but here he is quoting Ottar, and\nthe latter may possibly have meant Scotland (?) [cf. Langebek, Porthan and\nForster], which was colonised by Irishmen, although it would then be\ndifficult to understand the reference which follows to islands lying\n\"between Iraland and this country\" (i.e., Britain). Meanwhile it must be\nremembered that it was not unusual at that time to place Ireland to the\nnorth of Britain (cf. later Adam of Bremen), and there may here be a\nconfusion of this sort. The simplest supposition would be to take\n\"Iraland\" for Shetland; but it is difficult to understand how the islands\ncould have received such a designation.\n\n[174] So far as I can discover this is the first time this name for Norway\noccurs in literature. L\u00f6nborg [1897, p. 142] is consequently incorrect in\nsaying that the name \"Norvegia\" first occurs in the eleventh century.\n\n[175] Einhard calls it \"Sinlendi,\" and it was a part of South Jutland or\nSleswick [cf. Munch, 1852, p. 378].\n\n[176] \"D\u0119nemearc\" is mentioned by Alfred for the first time in literature.\n\n[177] Professor Alf Torp has kindly given me a [Norwegian] translation of\nthe poem.\n\n[178] It may be of interest in this connection to remind the reader that\nPlutarch [\"De facie in orbe Lun\u00e6,\" 941] mentions that the island of Ogygia\nlay five days' sail west of Britain, and that upon one of the islands in\nthe north-west lay Cronos imprisoned (cf. above, p. 156), for which reason\nthe sea was called Cronium. According to the statements of the barbarians\n\"the great continent [i.e., that which lies beyond the ocean, cf. above,\np. 16] by which the great ocean is enclosed in a circle\" lies nearer to\nthese islands, \"but from Ogygia it is about five thousand stadia when one\ntravels with rowing-boats; for the sea is heavy to pass through, and muddy\non account of the many currents; but the great land sends out the streams\nand they stir up the mud, and the sea is heavy and earthy, for which\nreason it is held to be curdled.\" These are similar conceptions to those\nwe have already found in Aristotle's Meteorologica (cf. above, p. 41), and\nPlutarch is also inclined to place this sluggish sea towards the\nnorth-west. Moreover, it seems as though the ancients imagined the\nstiffened sea (usually in connection with darkness) everywhere on the\nouter limits of the world. Curtius (of the time of Augustus) in a speech\nmakes Alexander's soldiers (when they try to force him to turn back) use\nsuch expressions as that this leads to nowhere, all was covered with\ndarkness and a motionless sea, and dying Nature disappears. Similar\nconceptions of a curdled and stinking sea and an ocean of darkness near\nthe outer limits of the world are also found in Arabic literature [cf.\nEdrisi, 1154 A.D.].\n\n[179] On maps the name possibly appears earlier. On an English map of the\nworld (Cottoniana), possibly of the close of the tenth century (992-994),\nthere is an \"Island\" (see p. 183); but the possibility is not excluded\nthat the existing copy of this map may be later, and may have taken some\nnames from Adam of Bremen [cf. K. Miller, iii. 1895, p. 37].\n\n[180] This name appears here for the first time in literature (cf.\n\"Balcia\" in Pliny, pp. 71, 99, above). It has also been sought to derive\nit from the Old Prussian (Lettish and Lithuanian) \"baltas,\" white; it\nwould then mean the white sea, and the name would be due to the sandy\ncoasts of the south-east [cf. Schafarik, Slav. Alt., i. pp. 451 ff.].\n\n[181] We may compare with this the tale of the Arab author Qazw\u00een\u00ee, of the\nthirteenth century [cf. G. Jacob, 1896, pp. 9, 37]: \"The City of Women is\na great city with a wide territory on an island in the western ocean.\nAt-Tart\u00fbsh\u00ee says: its inhabitants are women, over whom men have no\nauthority. They ride horses, and themselves wage war. They show great\nbravery in conflict. They have also slaves. Every slave in turn visits his\nmistress at night, remains with her all night, rises at dawn, and goes out\nsecretly at daybreak. If then one of them gives birth to a boy she kills\nhim on the spot; but if a girl she lets her live. At-Tart\u00fbsh\u00ee says: the\nCity of Women is a fact of which there is no doubt.\" This, as we see, is\nan adaptation of the Greek legend of the Amazons, and of the Scythian\nwomen who had children by their slaves [cf. Herodotus, vi. 1]. As a\nsimilar story of the City of Women, \"west of the Russians,\" is attributed\nto the Jew Ibr\u00e2h\u00eem ibn Ja'q\u00fbb (of the tenth century), which he says he had\nfrom the emperor Otto (the Great), it probably dates from the tenth\ncentury. Jacob thinks the legend here was due to the name of Magdeburg,\nwhich was translated \"civitas virginum\"; but as the women lived in an\nisland in the ocean it is more probable that it may be derived from\nKv\u00e6nland. Similar legends seem to have been common in the Middle Ages, and\noccur in many authors. (Cf. Paulus Warnefridi, above, p. 160). Isidore is\nsaid to have made Sweden the original home of the Amazons.\n\n[182] Cf. Plutarch, Thes. 26; Strabo, xi. 504; and others.\n\n[183] Adam's statement (immediately afterwards in the same section) that\nthe land of the Alani or Wizzi was defended by an army of dogs, must be\ndue to a similar misinterpretation of the name \"Huns.\"\n\n[184] This passage is undoubtedly taken from Solinus, and we see how\nMagister Adam confuses together what he has heard and what he finds in\nclassical authors.\n\n[185] It seems very probable, as Mr. F. Schiern [1873, s. 13] suggests,\nthat this conception of even the noblest men (nobilissimi homines) being\nherdsmen may be due to a misunderstanding of the old Norse word\n\"fehir\u00f0ir,\" which might mean herdsman, but was also the usual word for\ntreasurer, especially the king's treasurer.\n\n[186] This description refers, probably, to the Lapps and their magic\narts.\n\n[187] This must be another misunderstanding of tales about Kv\u00e6ns, whom\nAdam took for women.\n\n[188] These skin-clad hunters, who spoke a language unintelligible to the\nNorwegians, were certainly Lapps.\n\n[189] It might be thought that \"uri\" was here a corruption for \"lutr\u00e6\"\n(otters); but as \"uri\" is found in two passages without making sense in\nits proper meaning, aurochs, it may also be supposed that it is here used\nas a name for walrus, as proposed by A. M. Hansen; and then the last\nsentence will be quite simple, that the white bear lives under water like\nthe walrus. The confusion may have arisen through a belief that the tusks\nof the walrus were aurochs' horns. The horns in the picture of the \"Urus\"\non the Ebstorf map (1284) are very like walrus tusks. But it is striking\nthat the common land bear is not mentioned, while the white bear is spoken\nof. As the latter seldom comes to Finmark, its mention points to the\nNorwegians having hunted it in the Polar Sea; if it be not due to the\nconnection of Norway with Iceland and Greenland, but as these lands are\nmentioned separately this seems less probable.\n\n[190] This idea may possibly be due on the one hand to the mist, which may\nhave been regarded as brought about by heat; for in a scholium (possibly\nby Adam himself, or not much later) we read: \"By Iceland is the Ice Sea,\nand it is boiling and shrouded in mist ('caligans').\" On the other hand it\nmay be due to statements about volcanoes and boiling springs which have\nbeen confused with it. The black colour and dryness of the ice may be due\nto confusion with lava or with floating pumice-stone in the sea, and\nstatements about the lignite of Iceland (\"surtarbrand\") may also have\ngiven rise to this idea [cf. Baumgartner, 1902, p. 503]. L\u00f6nborg's\nsuggestion [1897, p. 165] that it may be due to driftwood is less\nprobable. Compare also the idea in the \"Meregarto\" (above, p. 181) of the\nice as hard as crystal, which is heated. In two MSS. of Solinus, of which\nthe oldest is of the twelfth century [cf. Mommsen's edition of Solinus,\n1895, pp. xxxiv., xxxvii., 236; Lappenberg, 1838, pp. 887 f.], there is an\naddition about the northern islands in which we read of Iceland: \"Yslande.\nThe sea-ice on this island ignites itself on collision, and when it is\nignited it burns like wood. These people also are good Christians, but in\nwinter they dare not leave their underground holes on account of the\nterrible cold. For if they go out they are smitten by such severe cold\nthat they lose their colour like lepers and swell up. If by chance they\nblow their nose, it comes off and they throw it away with what they have\nblown out.\" This passage cannot be derived from Adam of Bremen (nor has it\nany resemblance to the Meregarto); it may indicate that similar ideas of\nthe ice of Iceland were current at that time. Saxo's remarkable allusion\nto this ice (in the introduction to his work) also shows that it was\nconnected with much superstition.\n\n[191] The woods consisted then as now solely of birch-trees, which were\nhowever larger at that time.\n\n[192] In a scholium, possibly by Adam himself, there is this correction:\n\"According to what others report, Halagland is the extreme part of Norway,\nwhich borders on the Skridfinns and is inaccessible by reason of the\nforbidding mountains and the harshness of the cold.\"\n\n[193] This statement that the summer day and the winter night were of the\nsame length cannot here, any more than in Jordanes and Procopius, be due\nto direct observation on the part of Northerners, but must be an echo of\nclassical astronomical speculations (cf. above, pp. 134, 144). It is\nstrange, too, that while in Jordanes (and Procopius) the length of the\nsummer day and winter night was forty days (among the \"Adogit\" in\nH\u00e1logaland), it is here given as fourteen days in H\u00e1logaland. Possibly the\nnumber fourteen may be due to a confusion or a copyist's error for forty.\n\n[194] Probably Adam has taken this explanation from Bede [cf. Kohlmann,\n1908, pp. 45 ff.].\n\n[195] This passage, from \"Beyond this island,\" is not found in all the\nMSS., whence Lappenberg [1876, p. xvii.] thinks it is a later\naddition--but by Adam himself, as the style resembles his. To this latter\nreason it may be objected that when Adam mentions Harold Hardr\u00e5de earlier\nin his work, he is disposed to disparage him, which is not the case here.\nBut since he does not disparage him either in his mention of the Baltic\nvoyage (see p. 185), this is of little importance.\n\n[196] While this sheet is in the press I happen to see that the same\nopinion has been advanced, almost in the same words, by Sven L\u00f6nborg\n[1897, p. 168].\n\n[197] Adam's idea of H\u00e1logaland (Halagland) as an island may be due to its\nsimilarity of sound to the \"Heiligland\" (Heligoland) mentioned by him. As\none of these lands was an island it must have been easy to suppose that\nthe other was one also. The interpretation of the name as meaning holy may\ncome from the same source. Heiligland was regarded as holy on account of\nthe monastery established there. A corresponding name, \"Eyin Helga,\" is\napplied in the sagas to two islands: Helge\u00f6 in Mj\u00f6sen, and the well-known\nIona in the Hebrides [Magnus Barfot's Saga, cap. 10]. The latter was holy\non account of Columcille's church.\n\n[198] See note 2, p. 197.\n\n[199] Adam did not apparently know the name \"Finn,\" he only mentions\nFinn\u00e9di and Scritefini. It might then seem natural that he should intermix\nthe names Vinland and Finland, and believing that this Fin- or Vin- had\nsomething to do with Wine, he may have applied to this land Isidore's\ndescription of the Fortunate Isles, in a similar manner as he applied the\nGreek story about the Amazons to Kv\u00e6nland with the Cynocephali, etc.\n\n[200] S. Bugge has since maintained the probability that the name \"Ska\u00f0i\"\nis of Germanic origin.\n\n[201] We shall not here enter into the difficult question of the blond\nshort-skulls, as it has no bearing on our argument.\n\n[202] It might, for instance, be supposed that the Ryger and Horder, who\ncame from north-eastern Germania, were already mixed with short-skulled\nSlavs before their immigration to western Norway.\n\n[203] Among the known brachycephalic peoples of Europe we have the Celts\nand the western Slavs, Poles, Czecks, etc. These are linguistically far\napart, but it is a question whether the brachycephalic element in both is\nnot originally the same. It must be borne in mind that, at the remote\nperiod of which we are now speaking, the linguistic difference between\nthem was certainly small, and for that matter it is of little importance\nfrom which of them the first immigration into Scandinavia came.\n\n[204] As Professor Alf Torp has pointed out to me, the word \"Fin\" must, on\naccount of the Germanic mutation of sounds, be expected to have sounded\nsomething like \"Pen\" at that remote time. \"Pen\" in Celtic means head, and\nit is not altogether impossible that such a word might have been\ntransformed into a national name.\n\n[205] Cf. O. Solberg, 1909. The particulars here given of this remarkable\nfind are for the most part taken from Solberg's interesting paper, the\nproofs of which he has allowed me to see. He has also been kind enough to\ngive me an opportunity of examining the objects.\n\n[206] Lapps belonging to the Greek Church, who live in a Russian enclave\non the Pasvik, Varanger Fjord. (Tr.)\n\n[207] Curiously enough, no bones of the great bearded seal (Phoca barbata)\nare mentioned; but its absence may perhaps be accidental.\n\n[208] In a grave in North Varanger some fragments were found, probably of\nwalrus-tusk [cf. Solberg, 1909, p. 93].\n\n[209] Professor G. Storm [1894, s. 97] and others have thought that the\nKarelian-Finnish name \"Kantalaksi\" (\"Kandalaks\") and \"Kantalahti\" for the\nnorth-western bay of the White Sea, and the town at its inner end, may be\na corrupted translation of the Norwegian name \"Gandvik\" for the White Sea,\nas \"kanta\" (\"kanda\") might be the Finnish-Karelian pronunciation of the\nNorwegian \"gand,\" and the Finnish-Karelian \"lahti\" or \"laksi\" has the same\nmeaning as the Norwegian \"vik\" (bay). Dr. Hansen, considering this\nexplanation probable, takes it as proof that the Karelians must have come\nto the region later than the Norwegians, and later than the Beormas of\nOttar's time. But if the Karelians had immigrated thither after the\nNorwegians had given it this name, it would be equally incomprehensible\nthat they should not have taken their place-names from the settled Beormas\ninstead of from the casually visiting Norwegians. Storm's explanation of\nthe name \"Kandalaks\" is, however, in my opinion highly improbable; the\ncasually visiting Norwegians cannot possibly have given the settled\nBeormas or Karelians the name of their own home. It is then, according to\nmy view, much more probable that the Norwegian \"Gandvik\" is some kind of\n\"popular etymological\" translation of \"Kantalaksi,\" which must then be a\nname of Finnish-Karelian origin. I have asked Professor Konrad Nielsen, of\nChristiania, about this, and he has also discussed the question with\nProfessor E. Set\u00e4l\u00e4, and Professor Wichmann, of Helsingfors. All three are\nof my opinion. The meaning of \"Kantalaksi\" (or \"Kannanlaksi,\" from an\nolder word \"Kan\u00f0anlaksi,\" where the first part is genitive) seems to\nNielsen to be quite certain: \"kanta\" (genitive, \"kannan\") is heel, basis.\nThe name should, according to Set\u00e4l\u00e4, be translated, \"the broad bay.\" The\nNorwegians must consequently have corrupted the first part of the name in\na \"popular etymological\" manner to their \"gand\" (which means sorcery), and\nthe latter part of the name they have translated by \"vik\" (bay). The name\n\"Gandvik\" may already have been known in Norway in the tenth century, as\nit is mentioned by the heathen skald, Eilif Gudrunsson, in Thorsdr\u00e1pa.\nThis seems to prove that the Beormas of the tenth century (and then\nevidently also of Ottar's time) were Karelians, using the Karelian name\n\"Kantalaksi\" for the White Sea. This name consequently leads to\nconclusions contrary to those of Dr. Hansen, and it goes against the\ncorrectness of his views.\n\n[210] Dr. Hansen seeks to explain the difficulty that the Beormas near the\nDvina, according to the name of the goddess \"Jomale\" in the tale of Tore\nHund's journey to Beormaland, must have spoken Karelian, by supposing that\nthe Beormas on the Dvina and those on the Gulf of Kandalaks were two\nentirely different peoples, although in the old narratives no support for\nsuch an assertion is to be found. Besides, we have above found evidence\nthat the Beormas at Kandalaks also spoke Karelian, because this name is a\nKarelian word, which was used already in the tenth century.\n\n[211] Cf. Bj\u00f6rnbo and Petersen, 1904, p. 178. In Michel Beheim's travels\nin Norway in 1450 \"Wild lapen\" are also mentioned, cf. Vangensten, 1908,\npp. 17, 30 f.\n\n[212] Hakluyt: \"The Principal Navigations, etc.\" (1903), iii. p. 404.\n\n[213] Gustav Storm [1881, p. 407] altered \"some\" to \"none,\" evidently\nthinking it would make better sense of this obscure passage; following him\ntherefore Magnus Olsen, J. Qvigstad and A. M. Hansen have recently\ndiscussed the passage as though it read: \"which none can understand.\" It\nappears to me that \"which some [i.e., a few] can understand\" gives clearer\nsense.\n\n[214] This passage seems somewhat confused and it is difficult to find a\nlogical connection in it. The first part is simple; most of the Sea Finns\n(Fishing Lapps) speak Norwegian, but badly. Among themselves and with the\nMountain Finns (Reindeer Lapps) they do not use this, but their own\nlanguage. The language of the latter people must consequently have been\nthe same, unless we are to make the improbable assumption that the Fishing\nLapps had a language different from that of the Reindeer Lapps, which the\nlatter however had learned, although they are still in our time very bad\nlinguists, and speak imperfect Norwegian. So far there cannot be much\ndoubt of the meaning, but it is different when we come to the statement\nthat they had more languages than one, and that of \"their languages they\nhave however another to use among themselves.\" It seems to me that the\ncertain examples mentioned by Qvigstad [1909] of the Lapps having been in\nthe habit of inventing jargons at the beginning of the eighteenth century\ngive a natural explanation of this passage [cf. also Magnus Olsen, 1909].\nA. M. Hansen's interpretation [1907 and 1909], that the original\nmother-tongue of the Fishing Lapps (called by him \"Skridfinnish\"), which\nwas quite different from that which they spoke with the Reindeer Lapps, is\nhere meant, cannot be reconciled with the words of the text, for in that\ncase they must have had two mother-tongues; it is expressly said that the\nsecond language was \"their own,\" which they spoke among themselves; if it\nwas only the language of the Reindeer Lapps, then it was precisely _not_\ntheir own, nor would they have any reason to speak it among themselves. I\nunderstand the passage thus: \"of their [own] language they have also\nanother [i.e., another form, variant, or jargon] to use among themselves,\nwhich [only] some [of them] can understand.\" But how it should result from\nthis that \"it is certain that they have nine languages\" is difficult to\nexplain; for even if we assume with Hansen that nine is an error for\nthree, it does not improve matters; for in any case they did not use all\nthree languages, including Norwegian, \"among themselves.\" It is probable\nenough, as indeed both Hansen and Magnus Olsen have assumed, that there is\na reference here to the magic arts of the Lapps; and we must then suppose\nthat this mention of the nine languages was an expression commonly\nunderstood at the time, which did not require further explanation, to be\ncompared with the nine tongue-roots of the poisonous serpent [cf. M.\nOlsen, 1909, p. 91]. Nine was a sacred number in heathen times, cf. Adam\nof Bremen's tale of the festivals of the gods every ninth year at Upsala,\nwhere nine males of every living thing were offered, etc. Thietmar of\nMerseburg mentions the sacrificial festival which was held every ninth\nyear at midwinter at Leire, etc.\n\n[215] Remark the resemblance between this passage and the mention of the\nLapps in the \"Historia Norvegi\u00e6\" (above, p. 204).\n\n[216] Ottar's statement that he owned 600 reindeer is, as pointed out by\nO. Solberg [1909, p. 127], evidence against the correctness of A. M.\nHansen's assumption that the Finns mentioned by Ottar had learned to keep\nreindeer by imitating the Norwegian's cattle-keeping, and that they kept\ntheir reindeer on the mountain pastures in summer, but collected them\ntogether for driving home in winter; it would have been a difficult matter\nto manage several hundred reindeer in this fashion, unless they were\ndivided up into so many small herds that we cannot suppose them all to\nhave been the property of one man. Large herds of many deer must have been\nhalf wild and have been kept in a similar way to the Reindeer Lapps'\nreindeer now.\n\n[217] Gregory of Tours; \"Gesta Francorum\"; the Anglo-Saxon poems \"Beowulf\"\nand \"W\u00eeds\u00ee\u00f0,\" etc.\n\n[218] Zeuss, 1837, p. 501; M\u00fcllenhoff, 1889, pp. 18 f., 95 f.; A. Bugge,\n1905, pp. 10 f.\n\n[219] Cf. H. Zimmer [1891, 1893, p. 223] and A. Bugge [1905, pp. 11 f.].\nIn a life of St. Gildas, on an island off the Welsh coast [\"Vita Gild\u00e6,\nauctore Carodoco Lancarbanensi,\" p. 109], we read that he was plundered by\npirates from the Orcades islands, who must be supposed to have been\nNorwegian Vikings. This is said to have taken place in the sixth century,\nbut the MS. dates from the twelfth. The island of Sark, east of Guernsey,\nwas laid waste by the Normans, according to the \"Miracula Sancti\nMaglorii,\" cap. 5. [A. de la Borderie, \"Histoire de Bretagne,\" Critique\ndes Sources, iii. 13, p. 236.] This part of the \"Miracula\" was composed,\naccording to Borderie, before 851; but even in the saint's lifetime (sixth\ncentury) the \"Miracula\" places an attack by the \"Normans\" (cap. 2). It has\nbeen suggested [cf. Vogel, \"Die Normannen und das Fr\u00e4nkische Reich,\" 1896,\np. 353] that this might refer to Saxon pirates; but doubtless incorrectly.\n\n[220] Cf. Zeuss, 1837, pp. 477 f.; M\u00fcllenhoff, 1889, p. 19.\n\n[221] What an enormous time such a development requires is demonstrated by\nthe history of the rudder. The most ancient Egyptian boats were evidently\nsteered by two big oars aft, one on each side. These oars were later, in\nEgyptian and Greek ships, transformed into two rudders or rudder oars, one\non each side aft (see illustrations, pp. 7, 23, 35, 48). On the Viking\nships we find only one of these rudders on the starboard side, but fixed\nexactly in the same way. Then at last, towards the end of the Middle Ages,\nthe rudder was moved to the stern-post. But the rudder of the boats of\nNorthern Norway has still a \"styrvold\" (instead of an ordinary tiller),\nwhich is a remnant of the rudder of the Viking ships.\n\n[222] The types of Scandinavian craft it most reminds one of are the fjord\nand Nordland \"jagt,\" in western and northern Norway, and the \"pram,\" which\nis now in use in south-eastern Norway. It is conceivable that it\nrepresents an ancient boat type resembling the form of the \"jagt.\"\n\n[223] Professor Gustafson informed me that in the summer of 1909 he saw in\na megalithic grave in Ireland a representation of a ship, which might have\nsome resemblance to a Scandinavian rock-carving; but he regarded this as\nvery uncertain.\n\n[224] Professor G. Gustafson has in recent years examined and figured many\nNorwegian rock-carvings for the University of Christiania. The\nillustration reproduced here (p. 237) is from a photograph which he has\nkindly communicated to me.\n\n[225] The Viking ships had, however, only one rudder on the starboard\nside, while the ancient Egyptian, Ph\u0153nician and Greek ships had two\nrudders, one on each side.\n\n[226] But \"Viking\" is also explained as derived from a Celtic word, and is\nsaid to mean warrior [cf. A. Bugge].\n\n[227] Cf. P. A. Munch, i., 1852; M\u00fcllenhoff, ii., 1887, p. 66; iv., 1900,\npp. 121, 467, 493, etc.; Much, 1905, pp. 124, 135; Magnus Olsen, 1905, p.\n22; A. Bugge, 1906, p. 20.\n\n[228] H. Koht [1908] has suggested the possibility that the name\n\"H\u00e5l\u00f6iger\" (H\u00e1leygir) from H\u00e5logaland (Northern Norway) may be the same as\nthe Vandal tribe Lugii, which about the year 100 inhabited the region\nbetween the upper course of the Elbe and Oder. With the prefix \"h\u00e1\" they\nare distinguished as the high Lugii. Moltke Moe thinks that \"Hallinger\" or\n\"Haddingjar\" may come from another Vandal tribe, the \"Hasdingi\" (Gothic\n\"Hazdigg\u00f4s\"), which had its name from the Gothic \"*hazds,\" long hair [cf.\nM\u00fcllenhoff, iv., 1900, p. 487; Much, 1905, p. 127]. It may also be\npossible that the name of Skiringssal in Vestfold was connected with the\nSciri in eastern Germany [cf. Munch, 1852].\n\n[229] O. Irgens [1904] thinks the Norwegians may have had the compass very\nearly (lodestone on a straw or a strip of wood floating on water in a\nbowl), perhaps even in the eleventh century; indeed, he considers it not\nimpossible that the lodestone may have been brought to the North even much\nearlier than this by Arab traders. But the expression often used in the\nsagas that they drifted about the sea in thick and hazy weather (without\nseeing the heavenly bodies), and did not know where they were, seems to\ncontradict this.\n\n[230] O. Irgens [1904] has suggested the possibility that they might\nmeasure the length of the shadow of the gunwale by marks on the thwart,\nand determine when the boat lay on an even keel by a bowl of water, and\nthat thus they might obtain a not untrustworthy measurement of the sun's\naltitude even at sea. He further supposed that the Norwegians might have\nbecome acquainted with the hour-glass from Southern Europe or from the\nplundering of monasteries, and that thus they were able to measure the\nlength of the day approximately at sea. But no statements are known that\ncould prove this.\n\n[231] Presuming that King Alfred's \"Iraland\" is not an error for \"Isaland\"\nand does not mean Iceland (see p. 179).\n\n[232] The priest Ari Thorgilsson, commonly called Ari hinn Fr\u00f3\u00f0i or Are\nFrode (i.e., the learned), lived from 1068 to 1148.\n\n[233] G. Storm, \"Monumenta Historica Norvegi\u00e6,\" 1880, pp. 8 f.\n\n[234] R. Meissner [1902, pp. 43 f.] thinks it was written between 1260 and\n1264.\n\n[235] The original Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k, which was the source of both Styrmir's and\nSturle's versions, must have been written at the beginning of the\nthirteenth century.\n\n[236] Cf. Vigf\u00fasson, 1856, i. p. 186; P. A. Munch, 1860; J. E. Sars, 1877,\ni. p. 213; A. Bugge 1905, pp. 377 ff. Finnur J\u00f3nsson, 1894, ii. p. 188, is\nagainst this view.\n\n[237] Thus the Norsemen settled in Greenland are always described in the\nIcelandic sagas, while the Eskimo are called Skr\u00e6lings.\n\n[238] Opinions have been divided as to the origin of this name; but there\ncan be no doubt that the word is Germanic, and is the same as the modern\nNorwegian word \"skr\u00e6lling,\" which denotes a poor, weak, puny creature.\n\n[239] This took place, according to Are Frode's own statements, in the\nyear 1000.\n\n[240] It seems possible that this note may refer to an island which\nappeared in 1422 south-west of Reykjarnes, and later again disappeared\n[cf. Th. Thoroddsen, 1897, i. pp. 89 f.].\n\n[241] See \"Gr\u00f6nlands historiske Mindesm\u00e6rker,\" iii. p. 250; F. J\u00f3nsson,\n1899, p. 322.\n\n[242] Instead of the words \"very slightly ...\" some MSS. have: \"but then\nsteer south-west.\"\n\n[243] Both Sn\u00e6bj\u00f6rn and Rolf had to fly from Iceland for homicide. Rolf\nand Styrbj\u00f6rn fell in blood-feud when they returned.\n\n[244] Goe began about February 21. What is here related would thus show\nthat it was not till after that time that mild weather began, so that the\nsnow melted and there was water on the stick that stuck out through the\naperture.\n\n[245] It was, perhaps, not altogether by chance that Eric was supposed to\nhave sailed west from this point, as Gunnbj\u00f6rn's brother, Grimkell, lived\non the outer side of Sn\u00e6fellsnes; and it may have been on a voyage thither\nthat Gunnbj\u00f6rn was thought to have been driven westward [cf. Reeves, 1895,\np. 166].\n\n[246] Sn\u00e6fell lay far north on the west coast of Greenland. A Sn\u00e6fell far\nnorth is also mentioned in connection with the Nordrsetu voyages (see\nlater); it lay north of Kr\u00f3ksfjardarheidr; but whether it is the same as\nthat here mentioned is uncertain.\n\n[247] In the Eastern Settlement there was a Ravnsfjord (Hrafnsfj\u00f6r\u00f0r),\nwhich is probably the same as that intended here, as it is compared with\nEiriksfjord.\n\n[248] The above is for the most part a translation from Hauk's\nLandn\u00e1mab\u00f3k.\n\n[249] We know little of how the ancient Scandinavians were able to provide\nthemselves on their long voyages with food that would keep; they used salt\nmeat, and it is probable that when they were laid up for the winter they\noften died of scurvy, as indeed is indicated by the narratives. Meat and\nfish they could doubtless often obtain fresh by hunting and fishing; for\ngrain products they were in a worse position; these can never have been\nabundant in Iceland, and they certainly had no opportunity of carrying a\nlarge provision with them; but as a rule they can scarcely have got on\naltogether without hydro-carbons, which are considered necessary for the\nhealthy nourishment of a European. Milk may have afforded a sufficient\ncompensation, and in fact we see that they usually took cattle with them.\nIn the narrative of Ravna-Floki's voyage to Iceland it is expressly said\nthat the cattle died during the winter (see above, p. 257), and it must\nhave been for this reason that they thought they must go home again the\nnext summer, which shows how important it was. Probably Eric also took\ncattle with him on his first voyage to Greenland, and thus he was obliged\nbefore all to find a more permanent place of abode on the shores of the\nfjords where there was grazing for the cattle; but it is likely that he\nlived principally by sealing and fishing. In that case he must have been a\nvery capable fisherman.\n\n[250] Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, i. pp. 686, 688, Hafni\u00e6, 1848.\n\n[251] If the Gunnbj\u00f6rnskerries lay on the east coast, then Gunnbj\u00f6rn\nUlfsson was the first to reach it; but, as has been pointed out above (p.\n261), they are more likely to have been near Cape Farewell, assuming the\nvoyage to be historical.\n\n[252] This incident is obviously connected with Irish legends, with which\nthat same saga shows other points of resemblance. We read in the\nFloamanna-saga [cf. \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" ii. p. 118]: \"They were then\nmuch exhausted by thirst; but water was nowhere in the neighbourhood. Then\nsaid Starkad: I have heard it said that when their lives were at stake men\nhave mingled sea-water and urine. They then took the baler, ... made this\nmixture, and asked Thorgils for leave to drink it. He said it might indeed\nbe excused, but would not either forbid it or permit it. But as they were\nabout to drink, Thorgils ordered them to give him the baler, saying that\nhe wished to say a spell over their drink [or: speak over the bowl]. He\nreceived it and said: Thou most foul beast, that delayest our voyage, thou\nshalt not be the cause that I or others drink our own evacuation! At that\nmoment a bird, resembling a young auk, flew away from the boat, screaming.\nThorgils thereupon emptied the baler overboard. They then row on and see\nrunning water, and take of it what they want; and it was late in the day.\nThis bird flew northwards from the boat. Thorgils said: Late has this bird\nleft us, and I would that it may take all the devilry with it; but we must\nrejoice that it did not accomplish its desire.\"\n\nIn Brandan's first voyage, in the Irish tale, \"Betha Brenainn,\" etc., or\n\"Imram Brenaind\" (of about the twelfth century; cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 137,\n319), the seafarers one day suffered such thirst that they were near to\ndeath. They then saw glorious jets of water falling from a cliff. His\ncompanions asked Brandan whether they might drink of the water. He advised\nthem first to say a blessing over it; but when this was done, the jets\nstopped running, and they saw the devil, who was letting the water out of\nhimself, and killing those who drank of it. The sea closed over the devil,\nin order that thenceforth he might do no more evil to any one. The\nsimilarities are striking: both are perishing of thirst and about to drink\nurine, the Icelanders their own, the Irish the devil's. They ask their\nleaders--the Icelanders Thorgils, the Irish Brandan--whether they may\ndrink it. In both cases the leaders require a prayer to be said over it.\nThereupon in both cases they see the devil: the Icelanders in the form of\na bird that screams and finally leaves them to trouble them no more, and\nthe Irish in the form of the devil himself, who is passing water, and\ndisappears into the sea to do no more evil. The Icelandic tale is to some\nextent disconnected and incomprehensible, but is explained by being\ncompared with the Irish; one thus sees how there may originally have been\na connection between the bird (the Evil One) and the drink, which is\notherwise obscure. The Icelandic account may have arisen by a distortion\nand adaptation, due to oral transmission, of the Irish legend.\n\n[253] Cf. \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" ii. p. 656.\n\n[254] Cf. \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" ii. p. 662.\n\n[255] _Ibid._ pp. 684 ff.\n\n[256] According to the \"Islandske Annaler\" [pp. 121, 181, 477] it was in\n1200, therefore eleven years later, not fourteen; it is there related\nmerely that Ingimund the priest was found uncorrupted in the uninhabited\nregion, but the other six are not mentioned.\n\n[257] I.e., wax tablets to write on.\n\n[258] The Arab Qazw\u00een\u00ee (thirteenth century) tells a story, after Omar al\n'Udhri (eleventh century), of a cave in the west where lie four dead men\nuncorrupted [cf. G. Jacob, 1892, p. 168].\n\n[259] Cf. \"Islandske Annaler,\" edited by G. Storm, 1888, pp. 50, 70, 142,\n196, 337, 383.\n\n[260] Cf. G. Storm's arguments to this effect, 1888a, pp. 263 ff.; 1887,\npp. 71 f.\n\n[261] It is true that in Bishop Gissur Einarsson's (bishop from 1541 to\n1548) copy-book there is an addition to the ancient sailing directions for\nGreenland that \"experienced men have said that one must sail south-west to\nNew Land (Nyaland) from the Krysuvik mountains\" (on the Reykjanes\npeninsula) [see \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" iii. p. 215; and G. Storm, \"Hist.\nTidskr.,\" 1888, p. 264]; but it is impossible to attach much weight to a\nstatement of direction in a tradition 260 years old; it may easily have\nbeen altered or \"improved\" by later misconceptions.\n\n[262] \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" iii. pp. 222-224.\n\n[263] As we have said, they can scarcely have known anything of the coast\nto the north of this, which runs in a more northerly direction.\n\n[264] Cf. G. Storm, 1891, p. 71; \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" i. p. 361.\n\n[265] The mathematician and cosmographer Jacob Ziegler (ob. 1549) in his\nwork \"Scondia\" (printed at Strasburg, 1536) placed the promontory of\nHv\u00edtserk (\"Hvetsarg promontorium\") in 67\u00b0 N. lat. [cf. \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist.\nMind.,\" iii. pp. 500, 503]. This may be the usual confusion with Bl\u00e1serk.\nIt happens to be by no means ill suited to Ingolf's Fjeld, which lies in\n66\u00b0 25' N. lat.\n\n[266] In the Walkendorff additions to Ivar B\u00e1rdsson's description of\nGreenland it is called Hv\u00edtserk, which may be a confusion with Bl\u00e1serk;\nthe passage continues: \"And it is credibly reported that it is not thirty\nsea-leagues to land, in whichever direction one would go, whether to\nGreenland or to Iceland\" [see \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" iii. p. 491]. The\ndistance here given is remarkably correct. In Bj\u00f6rn J\u00f3nsson's \"Gr\u00f6nlands\nAnnaler\" (written before 1646) it is related that \"Sira Einar Snorrason,\"\npriest of Stadarstad, near Sn\u00e6fellsnes (he became priest there in 1502),\nowned a large twelve-oared boat, which, with a cargo of dried cod, was\ncarried away from \u00d6ndverdarnes (the western point of Sn\u00e6fellsnes) \"and\ndrifted out to sea, so that they saw both the glaciers, as Gunnbj\u00f6rn had\ndone formerly, both Sn\u00e6fells glacier and Bl\u00e1serk in Greenland; they had\nthus come near to Eric's course ('Eiriksstefnu')\" [\"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\"\ni. p. 123]. Here, then, we have the same idea that both glaciers can be\nseen simultaneously, as is also found in Bj\u00f6rn's work with reference to\nGunnbj\u00f6rn Ulfsson's voyage (see above, p. 263).\n\n[267] Cf. \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" iii. p. 843. Captain Graah brought the\nstone to Denmark in 1824.\n\n[268] In a paper read before the Arch\u00e6ological Society at Stockholm, March\n13, 1905. Cf. \"Svenska Dagbladet,\" March 14, 1905. I owe this reference to\nProfessor Magnus Olsen.\n\n[269] Cf. A. Bugge, 1898, p. 506. By a printer's error, seventeenth\ncentury is given instead of fourteenth.\n\n[270] See also the 5th and 6th cantos of the same poem, \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist.\nMind.,\" ii. pp. 522 ff., for the voyage to Greipar and its being the\nresort of outlaws.\n\n[271] Captain Isachsen [1907] has attached much weight to this expression\n(which he translates from \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.\" by \"long and dangerous\nsea-route\"; but the original is \"mikit og l\u00e1ngt sj\u00f3lei\u00f0i\") in order to\nprove that the Nordrsetur must lie far north. But it is seen from the text\nitself that this idea of a long sea voyage is taken from the Sk\u00e1ld-Helga\nlay (where also similar expressions are used), which is of late origin,\nand consequently an untrustworthy base for such conclusions. Moreover,\naccording to the lay itself, Skald-Helge belonged probably to the Eastern\nSettlement, and thence to Holstensborg, 67\u00b0 N. lat., was a long voyage.\n\n[272] This is obviously an error for \"byg\u00f0ar spor\u00f0r\" (end of the inhabited\ncountry), as in the \"Sk\u00e1ld-Helga Rimur\" (see above, p. 298).\n\n[273] \"Greipar,\" plural of \"Greip,\" would mean literally the grip or\ninterval between the fingers, but it may also be used of mountain ravines.\nThe name seems to point to a particularly rugged or fjord-indented coast,\nand would be appropriate to the whole country north of Straumsfjord, for\ninstance about Holstensborg, in about 67\u00b0.\n\n[274] \"Kr\u00f3ksfjar\u00f0ar-hei\u00f0r\" would literally mean the flat, waste mountain\ntract (\"hei\u00f0r\") by the crooked fjord, Kroksfjord. The latter name would be\nvery appropriate to Disco Bay and Vaigat. The flat plateaux of basalt,\nwhich form Disco on one side, and the Nugsuak Peninsula on the other side\nof Vaigat, might be called \"hei\u00f0r.\"\n\n[275] Cf. \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" iii. p. 226; F. J\u00f3nsson, 1899, p. 319.\n\n[276] Perhaps these names of fjords were so indistinct in the original MS.\nthat Bj\u00f6rn J\u00f3nsson could not read them, and therefore inserted these words\n(cf. \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" iii. p. 233).\n\n[277] The name of this island is left blank, and was doubtless illegible\nin the original.\n\n[278] So the mountain is called in an Icelandic translation, and this form\nmay be nearest to the name in the original Norwegian text. In the various\nDanish MSS. the mountain is called \"Hemeuell Radszfielt\" (oldest MS.),\n\"Hammelrads Fjeld,\" \"Himmelradsfjeld,\" etc. In a MS. which is otherwise\nconsidered trustworthy, it is called \"Hemelrachs Fjeld,\" and this has been\nfrequently supposed to mean the heaven-reaching mountain [cf. \"Gr\u00f6nl.\nhist. Mind.,\" iii. p. 259]. As will be mentioned later, the real name of\nthe mountain was possibly \"Himinro\u00f0\" (flushing of the sky), or perhaps\n\"Himinr\u01eb\u00f0\" (wall of heaven, i.e., wall reaching towards heaven).\n\n[279] The words in parenthesis are in German, and are certainly an\nexplanation added later. XIII. is evidently an error for XIIII.\n\n[280] It is also possible that it means whales from which \"tauer\" or ropes\nare obtained, i.e., the walrus; the ropes of walrus-hide being so very\nvaluable.\n\n[281] One might then suppose that \"Hunenrioth\" was connected with the\nNorwegian word \"hun\" for a giant (sometimes used in our day for the Evil\nOne). The name might then be applied to the mythical Risaland or\nJotunheim, in the Polar Sea, north-east of Greenland; but it would then be\ndifficult to explain the meaning of the latter part of the name, -rioth.\n\n[282] Professor Moltke Moe has suggested to me this explanation of the\nname. One might also suppose it to mean the western land of sunset, that\nis, America, but it would be unlike the Scandinavians to use such a name\nfor a country. There is a possibility that it was connected with \"r\u01eb\u00f0\"\n(gen. \"ra\u00f0ar,\" a ridge of land) and meant the ridge or wall of heaven,\ni.e., reaching toward heaven. It is, perhaps, less probable that \"-rioth\"\nor \"-ra\u00f0\" came from a word of two syllables like \"ro\u00f0a\" (a rod, later a\ncross, Anglo-Saxon \"rod,\" modern English \"rood\") or the poetical word\n\"r\u00f3\u00f0i\" (wind, storm). In O. Rygh: \"Norske Gaardnavne,\" xvi. Nordlands Amt\n[ed. K. Rygh, 1905, p. 334], there is the name of an estate \"Himmelstein\"\n(in Busknes), which in 1567 was written \"Himmelstand,\" \"Himmelstaa\" [from\n1610 on == \"sten\"]. K. Rygh remarks of this: \"Himmel occurs occasionally\nin names of mountains: thus, a little farther north we have the lofty\nHimmeltinder on the border of Busknes and Borge. One is disposed to regard\nthis name as similar to the Danish Himmelbjerg, meaning a very high\nmountain....\" Professor Torp has mentioned to me the similarity of name\nwith the giant Hymer's ox \"Himinhrjotr\" in the Snorra-Edda; but it is\ndifficult to think that a mountain should have been called after the\nproper name of an animal.\n\n[283] Rafn, in \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" iii. pp. 881-885, commits the\nabsurdity of separating these two places by the whole of Baffin's Bay, in\nspite of their being mentioned together in the old accounts under the\ncommon designation of \"Nordrsetur.\" He puts \"Greipar\" in about 67\u00b0 N.\nlat., but makes Kr\u00f3ksfjardarheidr into Lancaster Sound, 74\u00b0 N. lat., on\nthe other side of the ice-blocked Baffin's Bay.\n\n[284] Cf. \"Islandske Annaler,\" ed. Storm, p. 120, etc.; \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist.\nMind.,\" ii. pp. 754, 762. As is pointed out by Finnur J\u00f3nsson [1893, p.\n539], most of the coffins found in graves in Greenland are fastened\ntogether with wooden nails. We are also told how all the iron spikes and\nnails were carefully taken out of a stranded Norwegian ship (about 1129).\n\n[285] Since this chapter was written a few years ago, an excellent\ntreatise by O. Solberg on the Greenland Eskimo in prehistoric times has\nappeared [1907]. The author has here reached conclusions similar to the\nabove as regards the northward extension of the Nordrsetu voyages; but he\nproposes to place Kroksfjord south of Disco Bay, since he does not think\nthe Greenlanders came across the Eskimo who lived there. I do not consider\nthis view justified; on the contrary, it seems to me probable (as will be\nmentioned later) that the Greenlanders had intercourse with the Eskimo.\n\n[286] Otto Sverdrup found on two small islands in Jones Sound several\ngroups of three stones, evidently set up by human hands as shelters for\nsitting eider-ducks, similar to those with which he was acquainted in the\nnorth of Norway. Whether these stone shelters were very ancient could not\nbe determined. Captain Isachsen [1907] thinks they may be due to the\nancient Scandinavians of the Greenland settlements, and sees in them\npossible evidence of Jones Sound having been Kroksfjord. But too much\nimportance must not be attached to this: no other sign of Europeans having\nstayed in Jones Sound was discovered, whereas there were many signs of\nEskimo. Unless we are to believe that the latter set up the stones for\nsome purpose or other, it is just as likely that they may have been placed\nthere by chance hunters in recent times as that they were due to the\nancient Norsemen.\n\n[287] As these pieces of driftwood must have been carried by the East\nGreenland Polar Current, this seems to show that there were already Eskimo\non the east coast of Greenland at that time. As they are spoken of as\nsomething remarkable, the pieces, with wedges of tusk and bone, cannot\nhave been due to Norsemen, either in Greenland or Iceland. Their being\nshaped with \"hatchets\" or \"adzes\" (i.e., Eskimo tools) was looked upon as\nstrange.\n\n[288] This passage seems obscure, and there may be some error or\nmisunderstanding on the part of the various copyists. But as it now\nstands, it may be best taken to mean that all known land and all the known\nglaciers had disappeared beneath the horizon; but that the \"j\u00f6kull\" (i.e.,\nsnow-field or inland ice) which they saw to landward extended southward\nalong the coast as far as they could see. The expression \"to the south of\nthem\" is not, of course, to be interpreted as meaning due south of the\nspot where they were, but rather as southward along the coast, from the\npart off which they lay; this is confirmed by the addition \"as far as they\ncould see,\" which can only refer to a coast along which they were looking\nsouthward.\n\n[289] The text has three \"d\u0153gr\" (and one long day's rowing), that is,\nthree times twelve hours; but in this case it seems most natural to\nsuppose that days are meant, and that they put in to shore at night.\n\n[290] The text says that these islands were to the south of \"Sn\u00e6fell\"; but\nwhere this was we do not know. In the Saga of Eric the Red we read that in\nthe third summer Eric (see above, p. 267) \"went as far north as 'Sn\u00e6fell'\nand into 'Hrafns-fjord.'\" Whether this was the same Sn\u00e6fell is uncertain,\nbut quite possible; while Hrafns-fjord (Ravnsfjord) is most probably to be\nregarded as the Hrafnsfjord that lay in the Eastern Settlement, near\nHvarf.\n\n[291] Cf. \"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" iii. p. 885.\n\n[292] Finnur J\u00f3nsson [1901, ii. p. 648] thinks it was written about 1200.\n\n[293] Gudbrand Vigfusson [1878, i. pp. lix. f.] thinks that Eric the Red's\nSaga and the Flateyjarb\u00f3k's \"Gr\u00f6nlendinga-\u00fe\u00e1ttr\" are derived, in complete\nindependence of one another, from oral traditions, which were different in\nthe west, at Breidafjord, where the former was written, and in the north,\nfrom whence the latter is derived.\n\n[294] We cannot here take any account of Rolf Raudesand's having come to\nNorway on his return from Greenland (see p. 264); for even if this were\nhistorical, which is doubtful, and even if it be referred to a date\nanterior to Leif's voyage, which is not certain either, he was driven\nthere accidentally instead of to Iceland.\n\n[295] \"M surr\" (properly \"valbirch\") was probably a veined tree, like\n\"valbjerk,\" which was regarded as valuable material. \"Valbjerk\" is birch\ngrown in a special way so that it becomes twisted and gnarled in\nstructure. It is still much used in Norway, e.g., for knife-handles.\n\n[296] I do not mention here the fourteenth-century tale (in the\nFlateyjarb\u00f3k) of Bjarne Herjulfsson's discovery of Wineland as early as\n985, since, as G. Storm has shown, this account hardly represents the\ntradition which in earlier times was most current in Iceland.\n\n[297] Thorbj\u00f6rn Vivilsson came from Iceland to Greenland in 999, the same\nsummer that Leif sailed to Norway. His daughter was Gudrid, afterwards\nmarried to Thorstein Ericson. The exact statement as to which ship was\nused on this occasion, and as to those which were used later on Thorfinn\nKarlsevne's expedition, shows how few ships there were in Greenland (and\nIceland), and in what esteem the men were held who owned them. The Saga of\nEric the Red seems to assume that Leif's ship was no longer very fit for\nsea after his last voyage, as we hear no more about it. This may perhaps\nbe regarded as the reason for his not going again, if indeed there be any\nother reason than the patchwork character of the saga. In the\nFlateyjarb\u00f3k, on the other hand, we are told that it was Leif's ship, and\nnot Thorbj\u00f6rn Vivilsson's, that was used first by Thorvald and afterwards\nby Thorstein.\n\n[298] If the \"great hundred\" is meant, this will be 160 men.\n\n[299] From the context it would seem probable that these islands, or this\nisland (?), lay in the Western Settlement. If they had been near\nLysefjord, Karlsevne, as Storm points out, might be supposed to go there\nfirst because his wife, Gudrid, had inherited property there from\nThorstein, and there might be much to fetch thence. But the name\nBjarneyjar itself points rather to some place farther north, since the\nsouthern part of the Western Settlement (the Godthaab district) must have\nbeen then, as now, that part of the coast where bears were scarcest. In\nBj\u00f6rn J\u00f3nsson's \"Gronlandi\u00e6 vetus Chorographia\" a \"Biarney\" (or \"-eyiar\")\nis mentioned, to which it was twelve days' rowing from Lysefjord [cf.\nabove, p. 301], and as they are the only islands (or island ?) of this\nname mentioned on the west coast of Greenland, there is much in favour of\ntheir being the place here alluded to.\n\n[300] \"D\u0153gr\" was half a twenty-four hours' day [cf. Rymbegla]; but whether\ntwelve hours or twenty-four, the distance, like those given later, is\nimpossible. They cannot have sailed from Greenland to Labrador, or even if\nit was Baffin Land they made, in two days of twelve hours, and scarcely in\ntwo of twenty-four. According to the MS. in the Hauksb\u00f3k \"they sailed\nthence [i.e., from Bjarneyjar] two half-days [i.e., twenty-four hours in\nall] to the south. Then they sighted land.\" It might be supposed that this\nshould be taken to mean that the difference in latitude between this land\nand their starting-point was equivalent to two half-days' sail. It is true\nthat we read in the \"Rymbegla\" [1780, p. 482] there are two dozen\nsea-leagues, or two degrees of latitude, in a \"'d\u0153gr's' sailing,\" and two\n\"d\u0153gr\" would therefore be four degrees; but when we see later that from\nthis first land they found to Markland (Newfoundland ?) was also only two\nhalf-days' sail, then these distances become altogether impossible [cf. G.\nStorm, 1888, pp. 32-34; Reeves, 1895, p. 173]. Reeves proposes that \"tvau\"\nmight be an error for \"siau\" (i.e., seven; but in the MS. of the Hauksb\u00f3k\nwe have \"two\" in numerals: II). It is probable that this repetition of the\nsame distance, two \"d\u0153gr's\" sail, in the case of each of the three new\ncountries, has nothing to do with reality; it reminds us so much of the\nstereotyped legendary style that we are inclined to believe it to be\nborrowed from this. Storm thinks that as Iceland was supposed to lie in\nthe same latitude as the Western Settlement, and Wineland in the same\nlatitude as Ireland, there would naturally be the same distance between\nthe Western Settlement and Wineland as between Iceland and Ireland, and\nthe latter was put at five (or three ?) \"d\u0153gr.\" However, it is not five,\nbut six \"d\u0153gr\" between Bjarneyjar and Fur\u00f0ustrandir, according to the Saga\nof Eric the Red [cf. Storm's ed., 1891, p. 32]. In the copy in the\nHauksb\u00f3k, it is true, the distance is given as two \"d\u0153gr\" between\nBjarneyjar and Helluland, two \"d\u0153gr\" between this and Markland, and\n\"thence they sailed south along the coast a long way and came to a\npromontory ...\"; but this circumstance, that the distance is not given the\nthird time, again inclines one to think of the fairy-tale, and here again\nthere is no statement that the distance was five \"d\u0153gr\" from the Western\nSettlement to Kjalarnes.\n\n[301] The arctic fox is common in Labrador, but also in the northern\npeninsula of Newfoundland.\n\n[302] Polar bears come on the drift-ice to the north and east coasts of\nNewfoundland, but not farther south.\n\n[303] The name comes from \"fur\u00f0a.\" (warning, marvel, terror); \"fur\u00f0u\"\n(gen. sing.) placed before adjectives and adverbs has the meaning of\nextremely (\"fur\u00f0u g\u00f3\u00f0r\" == extremely good). As \"Fur\u00f0ustjarna\" (the\nwonder-star) surpassed the others in size and brilliance, these strands\nmay be supposed to surpass others in length, and thus to be endless; but\nit is doubtless more likely that it means marvel-strands, where there were\nmarvels and wonderful things. In \u00d6rskog, Sunnm\u00f6re, Norway, there is a\nplace-name \"F\u00farstranda\" (with long, closed \"u\"). K. Rygh [Norske\nGaardnavne, xiii., 1908, p. 155] remarks: \"The first syllable must be the\ntree-name \"fura\" [fir], though the pronunciation with a long, closed 'u'\nis strange....\"\n\n[304] In the Faroes (Kodlafjord in Straumsey) there is a \"Kjal(ar)nes,\"\nthe origin of which is attributed to a man's name: \"Kj\u00f6lur \u00e1 Nesi\" [J.\nJakobsen, 1898, p. 147]; but it is more probable that the name of the ness\nis the original one, and that the legend of Kj\u00f6lur is later. As to\nplace-names ending in \"-nes,\" O. Rygh [Norske Gaardnavne, Forord og\nIndledning, 1898, p. 68] says: \"Frequently the first part of the name is a\nword signifying natural conditions on or about the promontory.... Very\noften the first part has reference to the form of the promontory, its\noutline, greater or less height, length, etc.... Personal names are not\nusual in these combinations.\" In Norway names beginning with \"Kj\u00f6l-\"\n(\"-nes,\" \"-berg,\" \"-stad,\" \"-set,\" etc.) are very common; they may either\ncome from the man's name \"\u00dej\u00f3\u00f0lfr\" (which now often has the sound of\n\"Kj\u00f6lv,\" \"Kj\u00f6l,\" or \"Kj\u00f6le\"), or from the Old Norse poetical word \"kj\u00f3ll,\"\nm., \"ship,\" or from \"kj\u01eblr\" (gen. \"kjalar\"), \"keel of a vessel, and hence,\nmountain-ridge\" [cf. O. Rygh, Norske Gaardnavne, i., 1897, p. 269; iv. 2,\ned. A. Kj\u00e6r, 1902, p. 57; vi. ed. A. Kj\u00e6r, p. 237; xiii. ed. K. Rygh,\n1908, p. 344]. Our Kjalarnes above must undoubtedly be derived from the\nlast. In Tanen, east of Berlev\u00e5g, there is a \"Kj\u00f6lnes\"; in Iceland, just\nnorth of Reykjavik, outside Faxafjord, there is a \"Kjalarnes.\"\n\n[305] This idea, that the land became broader towards the south, and the\ncoast there turned eastward, must be the same that we meet with again in\nIcelandic geographies of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, where\nWineland is thought to be connected with Africa (see later).\n\n[306] \"Svart\" (i.e., black-haired and black-eyed) is the reading of\nHauksb\u00f3k, but the other MS. has \"small.\"\n\n[307] The word \"Skr\u00e6lingar\" here occurs for the first time in this saga,\nand seems to be used as a familiar designation for the natives, which did\nnot require further explanation; of this more later.\n\n[308] Blue (bl\u00e1) perhaps means rather dark or black in colour (cf.\n\"Blue-men\" for negroes), and is often used of something uncanny or\ntroll-like.\n\n[309] Nothing of the kind is related in the \"Gr\u00f6nlendinga-\u00fe\u00e1ttr\"; where,\nhowever, we are told of the first winter of Karlsevne's voyage that the\ncattle pastured upon the land, \"but the males ('gra\u00f0fe') soon became\ndifficult to manage and troublesome.\"\n\n[310] Ed. by P. Munch and C. R. Unger, Christiania, 1853, p. 75.\n\n[311] E. H. Lind: Norsk-Isl\u00e4ndska dopnamn, p. 283. I owe it to Moltke Moe\nthat my attention was drawn to this feature of the numerous heathen names.\n\n[312] His wife is called \"Sigr\u00ed\u00f0r,\" which is thus an exception; but in the\nGr\u00f6nlendinga-\u00fe\u00e1ttr she is called \"Gr\u00edmhildr,\" so that her name is\nuncertain. There is also mentioned a thrall \"Gar\u00f0i,\" but being a thrall\nperhaps he could not have the name of a god.\n\n[313] It is very curious that in the chapter-heading in the Hauksb\u00f3k she\nis called \"\u00deuri\u00f0r,\" but in the text \"Gu\u00f0ri\u00f0r\" [cf. Storm, 1891, p. 23;\n\"Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind.,\" i. p. 392].\n\n[314] It is perhaps more than a coincidence that in the classical legends\nthere were three groups of islands, the Gorgades, the Hesperides and the\nInsul\u00e6 Fortunat\u00e6, to the west of Africa. Marcianus Capella says that it\nwas two days' sail to the Gorgades, then came the Hesperides, and besides\nthe Insul\u00e6 Fortunat\u00e6. Pliny also has two days to the Gorgades; beyond them\nthere were two Hesperides; he mentions also that it was two days' sail to\nthe Hesperian \u00c6thiopians, etc. In the Flateyjarb\u00f3k's description of Bjarne\nHerjolfsson's voyage, which is still more purely fairy-tale, he sails for\ntwo days from the first land he found (== Wineland) to the second (==\nMarkland), then three days to the third (== Helluland) and finally four\ndays to Greenland.\n\n[315] If we assume that a \"d\u0153gr's\" sailing is equal to two degrees of\nlatitude or 120 nautical miles (twenty-four ancient sea-leagues), then, as\nshown on the map above, it will be about _four_ d\u0153gr's sail from Greenland\nto the nearest part of Labrador (not _two_). From Bjarneyjar to Markland\nshould be _four_ d\u0153gr according to the saga; but the map shows that it is\nbetween _eight_ and _ten_ d\u0153gr from the Western Settlement along the coast\nof Labrador to Newfoundland. On the other hand, between Newfoundland and\nCape Breton _two_ d\u0153gr's sail will suit better.\n\n[316] One must, of course, be cautious of seeing myth in all such\ntrilogies. As warning examples may be mentioned, that the Norwegians\nsettled in Hjaltland (Shetland), Orkney, and the Suder\u00f6er (Hebrides); they\ndiscover the Faroes, thence Iceland, and then Greenland, in the same way\nas they are said from the last-named to have discovered Helluland,\nMarkland and Wineland. On the east coast of Greenland there were three\nglaciers, etc. But in Eric's Saga the triads are so numerous and sometimes\nso peculiar, and the saga proves to be made up to such an extent of loans,\nthat one is disposed to regard the number three as derived from mythical\npoetry.\n\n[317] Cf. Unger's edition, Christiania, 1862, p. 292.\n\n[318] Cf. also Joshua's two spies, who by the advice of Rahab the harlot\nconcealed themselves in the mountains for three days, after which they\ndescended and came to Joshua.\n\n[319] Cf. Andreas Austlid: \"Sinklar-soga,\" p. 21 (Oslo, 1899). H. P. S.\nKrag: \"Sagn samlede i Gudbrandsdalen on slaget ved Kringlen den 26de\naugust 1612,\" p. 19 (Kristiania, 1838).\n\n[320] Ivar Kleiven: \"I gamle Daagaa, Forteljingo og Bygda-Minne fraa\nVaagaa,\" p. 63 (Kristiania, 1907).\n\n[321] We are told that he talked in \"\u00fe\u00fdrsku.\" Similarity of sound may here\nraise the question whether he was not originally supposed to be a Turk\n(cf. the Wild Turks above), to which the name itself would point.\n\n[322] It is noteworthy that we are told of this Tyrker that he was\n\"brattleitr\" (i.e. with a flat, abrupt face); this is the only passage in\nOld Norse literature where this rare expression is used. The only context\nin which Moltke Moe has found it used in our time is in connection with\nthe tale of the youngest son (Askeladden) in S\u00e6tersdal [cf. also H. Ross],\nwhere it is said that \"Oskefis was also brasslaitte\" (Ross thinks it means\nhere \"stiff in his bearing, full of self-esteem, self-sufficient\"). Can it\nbe merely a coincidence that this rare word is used of none other than the\nfairy-tale hero who is favoured by fortune, and of the lucky finder of the\nwild grapes, by eating which he intoxicates himself?\n\n[323] Professor Moltke Moe has called my attention to resemblances to\nthese runners in the Welsh tale of \"Kulhwch and Olwen.\" In this there\noccur two swift-footed knights, and Queen Gwenhwyvar's two servants\n(Yskyrdav and Yscudydd) \"as swift as thought,\" and finally Arthur's\nwonderfully swift hound \"Cavall\" (in older MSS. \"Cabal\") [cf. Heyman,\n\"Mabinogion,\" 1906, pp. 80, 82, 101, 103; J. Loth, \"Les Mabinogion,\" i.\nand ii.]. Of Tjalve it is related in the Snorra-Edda that he was\n\"f\u00f3thvatastr\" (the swiftest), and in Utgard he ran a race with thought\n(Hugi). This trait is Irish, as will be shown by Von Sydow [1910]. It\nresembles the two servants (\"swift as thought\") in the Welsh legend. The\nrunners in the Saga of Eric the Red are also Celtic, and this in itself\npoints to a connection.\n\n[324] In the \"Gr\u00f6nlendinga-\u00fe\u00e1ttr\" the whale they found was both large and\ngood; they cut it in pieces, and \"they had no lack of food.\"\n\n[325] According to information given by Professor R. Collett, the Larus\nargentatus is the only species of gull that occurs in Nova Scotia in\nsufficiently large numbers to make it seem probable that it might breed\nextensively on an island. Can it be possible that these close-lying eggs\nare derived from the white and red \"scalt\u00e6\" (?) which covered the\nAnchorites' Isle in the Navigatio Brandani (see below, p. 360)?\n\n[326] Cf. Karlsevne's people, who on arrival rested for half a month and\namused themselves.\n\n[327] W. Brede Kristensen: \"Een of twe boomen in het Paradijsverhaal.\"\nTheologisch Tijdschrift, 1908, p. 218.\n\n[328] Of less importance in this connection is the question how far these\nnames of islands in the Odyssey were originally connected with islands in\nthe Mediterranean [cf. V. B\u00e9rard, 1902, i.]; in the description in the\npoem they have in any case become wholly mythical.\n\n[329] C. Sallusti Crispi Historiarum Reliqui\u00e6. Ed. Bertoldus\nMaurenbrecher, Lipsi\u00e6, 1891, pp. 43 f.\n\n[330] L. Ann\u00e6us Florus, Epitome rerum Romanum, ex editione J. Fr. Fischeri\nLondini, 1822. Vol. i. pp. 278 f.\n\n[331] Lytton: The Odes and Epodes of Horace. London, 1869.\n\n[332] Cf. Johannes Peschel, 1878. Moltke Moe has called my attention to\nthis essay, but, as he says, Peschel is certainly wrong in assuming that\nancient notions like that of Schlaraffenland are the originals from which\nthe ideas of the happy abodes of the departed, the Isles of the Blest (the\nElysian Fields), have been developed. The reverse is, of course, the case.\n\n[333] Cf. J. N. Wilse: \"Beskrivelse over Spydeberg Pr\u00e6stegj\u00e6ld.\"\nChristiania, 1779-1780. In the appended Norwegian vocabulary, p. xiii.:\nFyldeholmen == Schlarafenland. I. Aasen [1873] has \"Fylleholm\" in the\nphrase \"go to Fylleholm\" (== go on a drinking bout), from Sogn, and other\nplaces. This may be derived from the same mythical country. H. Ross [1895]\ngives \"Fylleholm\" from Sm\u00e5lenene. From this it looks as if the idea was\nwidely spread in Norway.\n\n[334] In Hauk's Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k Vin(d)land is mentioned in one other passage\n[cap. 175], in connection with Karlsevne, who is said to have discovered\nit; but nothing is said about this in the Sturlub\u00f3k, and it may be a later\naddition (cf. p. 331).\n\n[335] Ravn told the story to Thorfinn, Earl of Orkney (ob. circa 1064),\nwho in turn told it to some Icelanders, and from them it reached Thorkel\nGellisson, Are Frode's uncle.\n\n[336] Cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 257, 261; Kuno Meyer, 1895, i.\n\n[337] This is evidently the land that in the Christian Breton legend of\nSt. Machutus (ninth century) has become the paradisiacal island of \"Yma,\"\ninhabited by heavenly angels.\n\n[338] In the Christian Irish legend \"Imram Maelduin,\" the voyagers arrive\nat two islands, that of the lamenting people with complaining voices, and\nthat of the laughing people. The same two islands are mentioned in the\nNavigation of the Sons of O'Corry, \"Imram Curaig Ua Corra\" [cf. Zimmer,\n1889, pp. 160, 171, 188, 189]. They are evidently connected with Greek\nconceptions, as we find them in Theopompus, of the rivers Hedone and Lype\nin the distant land of Meropis (see above, p. 17; cf. also the springs of\nvoluptuousness and laughter in Lucian's Isle of Bliss in the Vera\nHistoria). There may further be a connection with the island of the\nlamenting people in the statement of Saxo Grammaticus, in the introduction\nto his Danish history, that it was thought that in the noise of the\ndrift-ice against the coast of Iceland the lamenting voices of lost souls\ncould be heard, condemned to expiate their sins in that bitter cold.\n\n[339] These Irish ideas of a happy land of women have, it may be remarked,\nmany points of resemblance with our Norwegian belief in fairies (\"hulder\")\nand with the German Venusberg myth, since the \"hulder,\" like Frau Venus,\noriginally Frau Holle or Holda [cf. J. Grimm, 1876, ii. p. 780], kidnaps\nand seduces men, and keeps them with her for a long time; but the sensual\nelement is more subdued and less prominent in the Germanic myths. It may\nseem probable that the Irish land of women also has some connection with\nthe amorous, beautiful-haired nymph Calypso's island of Ogygia, far off in\nthe sea, in the Odyssey [v. 135 ff.; vii. 254 ff.]. Just as the men in the\nIrish legends neither grow older nor die when they come to the land of\nwomen, and as the queen of the country will not let the men go again (cf.\nMaelduin), so Calypso wished to keep her Odysseus, and to make him \"an\nimmortal man, ever young to eternity.\" In a similar way the men who come\nto the \"hulder\" in the mountain do not grow old, and they seem to have\neven greater difficulty in getting out again than kidnapped women. (It is\na common feature that they do not grow older, or that a long time passes\nwithout their noticing it in the intoxication of pleasure. Lucian also\nrelates that those who come to his Isle of Bliss grow no older than they\nare when they come.) Odysseus longs for his home, like one of Bran's men\n(and like Maelduin's men, the kidnapped men in the German myths, etc.),\nand at last receives permission to go, like Bran. Calypso means \"the\nhidden one\" (from \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03c5\u03c0\u03c4\u03c9 == hide by enveloping) and thus answers to our\n\"hulder\" (== the hidden one, cf. \"hulda,\" something which covers,\nconceals, envelops), and the German Frau Holle or Holda (== \"hulder\").\nThey are precisely the same beings as the Irish \"s\u00edd\"--people, who are\nalso invisible, and the women in \"T\u00edr na-m-Ban,\" the island in or under\nthe sea precisely like our \"huldreland\" (see later).\n\nIt may further be supposed that there is some connection between the ideas\nwhich appear in certain Irish legends of the land of virgins--where there\nare no men, and the virgins have to go to the neighbouring land of men\n(\"T\u00edr na-Fer\") to be married [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 269]--and the\nconceptions of Sena, the Celtic island of priestesses or women, off the\ncoast of Brittany, where according to Dionysius Periegetes there were\nBacchantes who held nightly orgies, but where no men might come, and the\nwomen therefore (like the Amazons) had to visit the men on the\nneighbouring coast, and return after having had intercourse with them.\nSimilar ideas of islands with women and men separated occur already in old\nIndian legends.\n\n[340] Cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 287; Whitley Stokes, Revue Celtique, xv. Paris\n1894, pp. 437 f.; F. Lot, Romania, xxvii. 1898, p. 559.\n\n[341] Cf. \"Lageniensis,\" 1870, p. 116; Zimmer, 1889, pp. 263, 279.\n\n[342] It is stated in an Irish legend that the hero Ciaban went as an\nexile to \"Tr\u00e1g in-Chairn\" (the strand of cairns) [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p.\n271]. This might remind us of Helluland (?).\n\n[343] In the tale of Maelduin's voyage, which is older than the\n\"Navigatio\" (see above, p. 336), there occurs a similar mighty bird\nbringing a branch with fruit like grapes, possessing marvellous\nproperties; but there is no grape-island [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 169].\n\n[344] In the Latin translation of the Bible in use at that time, the\nVulgate [Num. xiii. 24 f.], the passage runs: \"And they came to the valley\nof grapes, cut a branch with its cluster of grapes, and two men carried it\nupon a staff. They also took away pomegranates and figs from this place,\nwhich is called Nehel-escol, that is, the valley of grapes, because the\nchildren of Israel brought grapes from thence.\"\n\n[345] In France a poem on Brandan of as early as 1125, founded on the\n\"Navigatio,\" is known, dedicated to Queen A\u00e9lis of Louvain; cf. Gaston\nParis: La Litt\u00e9rature Fran\u00e7aise en Moyen Age, Paris, 1888, p. 214.\n\n[346] The Irish made a distinction in their tales of voyages between\n\"Imram,\" which was a voluntary journey, and \"Longes,\" which was an\ninvoluntary one, usually due to banishment. In Icelandic literature there\nseems to be no such distinction, but the voyages are often due to outlawry\nfor manslaughter or some other reason; cf. Ganger-Rolf's voyage, Ingolf's\nand Hjorleif's voyage to Iceland, Sn\u00e6bj\u00f6rn Galti's and Rolf of Raudesand's\nvoyage to the Gunnbj\u00f6rnskerries, Eric the Red's voyage with his father\nfrom Norway, and afterwards from Iceland, etc. Bj\u00f6rn Breidvikingekj\u00e6mpe\nwas also obliged to leave Iceland on account of his illicit love for\nSnorre Gode's sister. This agreement may, of course, be accidental, but\ntogether with the many other resemblances between Irish and Icelandic\nliterature, it may nevertheless be worth mentioning.\n\n[347] Cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 168; Joyce, 1879, p. 156.\n\n[348] To these wine-fruits in the \"Imram Maelduin\" correspond, perhaps,\nthe white and purple-red \"scalt\u00e6,\" which in the \"Navigatio Brandani\" cover\nthe low island, bare of trees, called the \"Strong Men's Island\" [Schr\u00f6der,\n1871, p. 24]. Brandan pressed one of the red ones, \"as large as a ball,\"\nand got a pound of juice, on which he and his brethren lived for twelve\ndays. It might be supposed that these white and red \"scalt\u00e6\" from the flat\nocean-island were connected with Lucian's water-fishes (which seem to have\nbeen white) and wine-fishes (which had the purple colour of wine) (see\nabove). The meaning of \"scalt\u00e6\" (\"scaltis\") is uncertain. Schr\u00f6der says\n\"sea-snails\"; Professor Alf Torp thinks it may be a Celtic word, and\nmentions as a possibility \"scalt\" (== \"cleft\"). In that case it might be a\nmussel, which is \"cleft\" in two shells.\n\n[349] D'Avezac's hypothesis [1845, p. 9] that it might be an echo of\nTeneriffe [cf. also De Goeje, 1891, p. 61], which in medi\u00e6val maps was\ncalled \"Isola dell' Inferno,\" is untenable, since the Ph\u0153nicians'\nknowledge of the Canaries had long been forgotten at that time, and it was\nonly after their rediscovery by the Italians, about 1300, that Teneriffe\nwas called on the Medici map of 1351 \"Isola dell' Inferno.\" In classical\nliterature there is no indication that any of the Canaries was regarded as\nvolcanic; on the contrary, Pliny's \"Nivaria\" (i.e., the snow-island) seems\nto be Teneriffe with snow on the summit.\n\n[350] Jens Lauritz\u00f6n Wolf's Norrigia Illustrata, 1651.\n\n[351] Cf. John M. Kemble: The Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus, London,\n1448, p. 198. Moltke Moe also called my attention to this remarkable\npassage.\n\n[352] W. Mannhardt: Germanische Mythen, Berlin, 1858, pp. 460 f. Cf. \"Vita\nMerlini,\" the verses on the \"Insula pomorum, qv\u00e6 Fortunata vocatur\" (the\napple-island which is called Fortunate) [San-Marte, 1853, pp. 299, 329].\n\"Avallon\" has a remarkable resemblance in sound to Pytheas's amber-island\n\"Abalus\" (p. 70).\n\n[353] Since the above was printed in the Norwegian edition of this book,\nProfessor Moltke Moe has called my attention to the fact that, according\nto Icelandic sources, the Icelandic chief Gellir Thorkelsson, grandfather\nof Are Frode, died at Roskilde, in Denmark, in 1073, after having been\nprostrated there for a long time. He was then on his way home from a\npilgrimage to Rome. Adam's book was written between 1072 and 1075, and he\nhad received the statements about Wineland from Danes of rank. The\ncoincidence here is so remarkable that there must probably be a\nconnection. It is Gellir Thorkelsson's son, Thorkel Gellisson, who is\ngiven as the authority for the first mention of Wineland in Icelandic\nliterature, and according to Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k he seems to have got his\ninformation from Ireland through other Icelanders.\n\n[354] It is not, however, quite certain that \"V\u00ednland\" (with a long \"\u00ed\")\nwas the original form of the name, though this is probable, as it occurs\nthus in the MSS. that have come down to us of the two oldest authorities:\nAdam of Bremen (\"Winland\") and Are Frode's \u00cdslendingab\u00f3k (\"Vinland\"). But\nit cannot be entirely ignored that in the oldest Icelandic MSS.--and the\noldest authorities after Are and Adam--it is called: in Hauk's Landn\u00e1mab\u00f3k\n\"Vindland hit go\u00f0a\" (in the two passages where it is mentioned), in the\nSturlub\u00f3k \"Irland et goda,\" in the Kristni-saga (before 1245) probably\n\"Vindland hit go\u00f0a\" [cf. F. J\u00f3nsson, Hauksb\u00f3k, 1892, p. 141], and in the\nGrettis-saga (about 1290, but the MS. dates from the fifteenth century)\nThorhall Gamlason, who sailed with Karlsevne, is called in one place a\n\"Vindlendingr\" and in another a \"Vi\u00f0lendingr.\" It is striking that the\nname should so often be written incorrectly; there must have been some\nuncertainty in its interpretation. Another thing is that in none of these\noldest sources is there any mention of wine, except in Adam of Bremen, who\nrepeats Isidore, and after him it is only when we come to the Saga of Eric\nthe Red that \"Vinland\" with its wine is met with. It might therefore be\nsupposed that the name was originally something different. The\nGreenlanders might, for instance, have discovered a land with trees in the\nwest and called it \"Vi\u00f0land\" (== tree-land). Influenced by myths of the\nIrish \"Great Land\" (\"T\u00edr M\u00f3r\"), this might become \"Vi\u00f0land\" (== the great\nland, p. 357): but this again through the ideas of wine (from the\nFortunate Isles), as in Adam of Bremen, might become \"V\u00ednland.\" We have a\nparallel to such a change of sound in the conversion of \"vi\u00f0bein\" (==\ncollar-bone) into \"vinbein.\" A form like \"Vindland\" may have arisen\nthrough confusion of the two forms we have given, or again with the name\nof Vendland. A name compounded of the ancient word \"vin\" (== pasture) is\nscarcely credible, since the word went out of use before the eleventh\ncentury; besides, one would then have to expect the form \"Vinjarland.\" In\nAre Frode's work, which we only know from late copies (of the seventeenth\ncentury), the original name might easily have been altered in agreement\nwith later interpretation. But it is nevertheless most probable that\n\"Vinland\" was the original form, and that the variants are due to\nuncertainty. It may, however, well be supposed that there were two forms\nof the name, in the same way as, for instance, the \"Draumkv\u00e6de\" is also\ncalled the \"Draug-kv\u00e6de\"; or that several names may have fused to become\none, similarity of sound and character being the deciding factor.\n\n[355] Cf. Peder Clauss\u00f6n Friis, Storm's edition, 1881, p. 298; A. Helland,\nNordlands Amt, 1907, i. p. 59, ii. pp. 467 f. Yngvar Nielsen [1905] has\nremarked the resemblance between the epithet \"hit G\u00f3\u00f0a,\" applied to\nWineland, and the name Landegode in Norway; but following Peder Clauss\u00f6n\nhe regards this as a tabu-name. K. Rygh [Norske Gaardnavne, xvi. Nordl.\nAmt, 1905, p. 201] thinks that P. Clauss\u00f6n's explanation of the name of\nJomfruland is right in all three cases, that \"Norwegian seamen 'from some\nsuperstition and fear' did not call it by the name of Jomfruland, which\nwas already common at that time, while under sail, until they had passed\nit.\" \"It is, or at any rate has been, a common superstition among sailors\nand fishermen that various things were not to be called by their usual\nnames while they were at sea, presumably a relic of heathen belief in evil\nspirits, whose power it was hoped to avoid by not calling their attention\nby mentioning themselves or objects with which their evil designs were\nconnected, while it was hoped to be able to conciliate them by using\nflattering names instead of the proper ones. The three islands are all so\nsituated in the fairway that they must have been unusually dangerous for\ncoasting traffic in former times.\" Hans Str\u00f6m in his Description of\nS\u00f6ndm\u00f6r [Sor\u00f6, 1766, ii. p. 441] thought, however, that \"Landegod\" in\nSunnm\u00f6r was so called because it was the first land one made after passing\nStad; and \"Svin\u00f6\" he thought was so called because pigs were turned out\nthere to feed, especially in former times (see below, p. 378); he gives in\naddition the name Storskj\u00e6r for the island.\n\n[356] V. B\u00e9rard's explanation [1902, i. p. 579] that Ph\u00e6acians (\u03a6\u03b1\u03b9\u03b1\u03ba\u03b5\u03c2)\nmeans Leucadians, the white people, and comes from the Semitic \"Beakim\"\n(from \"b.e.q.\" \"to be white\") does not seem convincing. Professor A. Torp\nfinds the explanation given above more probable.\n\n[357] Cf. J. Grimm, D. M., ii. 1876, pp. 692 ff., iii. 1878, pp. 248 f.\n\n[358] Cf. J. A. Friis: Ordbog for det lappiske Sprog, Christiania, 1887,\np. 254; J. Qvigstad, 1893, p. 182; Moltke Moe's communications in A.\nHelland: Finmarkens Amt, 1905, vol. ii. p. 261.\n\n[359] Cf. Moltke Moe's communications in A. Helland: Nordlands Amt, 1907,\nvol. ii. p. 430.\n\n[360] Cf. W. Grimm, Kleinere Schriften, i. p. 468.\n\n[361] Rietz: Svensk Dialekt-Lexikon, 1867.\n\n[362] It may also be worth mentioning that just as there is a Bj\u00f6rn\u00f6\n(Bj\u00f6rn\u00f6 Lighthouse) near Landegode off Bod\u00f6, so is there mention of a\nBjarn-ey near Markland on the way to \"Vinland hit G\u00f3\u00f0a.\" This may, of\ncourse, be purely a coincidence; but on the other hand there may be some\nconnection.\n\n[363] Cf. P. A. S\u00e4ve: Hafvets och Fiskarens Sagor, spridda drag ur\nGotlands Odlingssaga och Strandallmogens Lif. Visby, 1880.\n\n[364] Norske Gaardnavne. Forord og Indledning. 1898, p. 39.\n\n[365] O. Nicolayssen: Fra Nordlands Fortid. Kristiania, 1889, pp. 30 ff.\n\n[366] Remark that thus in the Faroes Svin\u00f6i is also a fairy island, as in\nSunnm\u00f6r and at Br\u00f6n\u00f6i in Norway.\n\n[367] This astonishing etymological explanation of the ancient Ph\u0153nician\nlegendary islands of the Hesperides is evidently due to a confusion of\nBrandan's sheep-island with Pliny's statements [Nat. Hist., vi. 36] about\nthe purple islands off Africa (near the Hesperides) which King Juba was\nsaid to have discovered, and where he learned dyeing with G\u00e6tulian purple.\nThe idea that the sunken land Atlantis was where the \"Concretum Mare\" now\nis may be connected with the Greek myth which appears in Plutarch (see\nabove, pp. 156 and 182) of Cronos lying imprisoned in sleep on an island\nin the north-west in the Cronian Sea (== \"Mare Concretum\"), where also the\ngreat continent was, and where the sea was heavy and thick.\n\n[368] This is the same myth as that of Hv\u00edtramanna-land in the Eyrbyggja\nSaga; see later.\n\n[369] Cf. A. Guichot y Sierra, 1884, i. p. 296; Dumont d'Urville: Voyage\nautour du monde, i. p. 27. The same idea that the island withdraws when\none tries to approach it appears also in Lucian's description (in the Vera\nHistoria) of the Isle of Dreams.\n\n[370] Cf. P. S\u00e9billot, 1886, p. 348.\n\n[371] Cf. Harriet Maxwell Converse: Iroquois Myths and Legends. Education\nDepartment Bulletin, No. 437, Albany, N.Y., December 1908, pp. 31 f.\n\n[372] My attention has been drawn to this by Mr. Gunnar Olsen. Similar\nmyths are found in Japan [cf. D. Brauns, Japanische M\u00e4rchen und Sagen,\n1885, pp. 146 ff.].\n\n[373] Gr\u00f6nl. hist. Mind., i. pp. 144 f., 157 ff.\n\n[374] This belongs to the same cycle of ideas as that of the dead rising\nfrom their graves or from the lower regions at night, but being obliged to\ngo down again at dawn, or of trolls having to conceal themselves before\nthe sun rises. In the same way, too, the fallen Helge Hundingsbane comes\nto Sigrun and sleeps with her in the mound; but when the flush of day\ncomes he has to ride back to the west of \"Vindhjelms\" bridge, before\nSalgovne awakes. It has been pointed out above (p. 371) that the Ph\u00e6acians\nof the Odyssey sail at night.\n\n[375] According to the \"Guta-saga\" of the thirteenth century.\n\n[376] Cf. Moltke Moe's communications in A. Helland, Nordlands Amt, 1907,\nii. pp. 512 ff. In Brinck's Descriptio Loufodi\u00e6 [1676, p. ii] it is stated\nthat the mythical land of Utr\u00f6st in Nordland was called \"Huldeland.\"\n\n[377] Cf. F. Lot, \"Romania,\" 1898, p. 530. Moltke Moe has also\ncommunicated to me this curious tale.\n\n[378] Cf. P. Crofton Croker, 1828, ii. p. 259 f.\n\n[379] Cf. \"Lageniensis,\" 1870, pp. 114 ff., 294; Joyce, 1879, p. 408. V.\nB\u00e9rard [1902, i. p. 286] explains the Roman name \"Ispania\" (Spain) as\ncoming from a Semitic (Ph\u0153nician) root \"sapan\" (== hide, cover) denoting\n\"the isle of the hidden one,\" which he thinks originally meant Calypso's\nisle; this he seeks to locate on the African coast near Gibraltar. The\nexplanation seems very doubtful; but if there be anything in it, it is\nremarkable that Spain, the land rich in silver and gold, should have a\nname that recalls the huldre-lands (lands of the hidden ones).\n\n[380] Cf. E. B. Tylor: Primitive Culture, 1891, ii. pp. 63 ff.\n\n[381] Asbj\u00f6rnsen: Huldre-Eventyr og Folke-Sagn, 3rd ed., pp. 343 ff.;\n\"Tufte-folket p\u00e5 Sandfl\u00e6sen.\" Cf. also Moltke Moe's note in A. Helland:\nNordlands Amt, i. pp. 519 f.\n\n[382] The name of \"Lycko-P\u00e4r\" in Sweden for one who \"has luck\" [Th.\nHielmqvist, Fornamn och Familjenamn med sekund\u00e4r anv\u00e4ndning i Nysvenskan,\nLund, 1903, p. 267] has come from the Danish \"Lykke-Per,\" which is a\npurely literary production, and does not concern us here.\n\n[383] In Norway the \"nisse\" brings luck. \"Lycko-nisse\" in Sm\u00e5land (Sweden)\nis a \"luck-bringing brownie. Also used occasionally of little friendly\nchildren\" [Th. Hielmqvist, 1903, p. 224].\n\n[384] Cf. Moltke Moe's communications in A. Helland: Nordlands Amt, 1907,\nii. pp. 596 f.\n\n[385] Conceptions of a somewhat similar nature appear in the legends of\nArthur, where only the pure, or innocent, are permitted to see the Holy\nGrail.\n\n[386] The names Finmark (the land of the Finns or Lapps) and Finland were\noften confused in the Middle Ages (cf. Geographia Universalis, Eulogium,\nPolychronicon, Edrisi), and the latter again with Wineland (cf. Ordericus\nVitalis, Polychronicon). It should be remarked that Adam does not know the\nname \"Finn,\" but only \"Finn\u00e9di\" and \"Scritefini.\"\n\n[387] It must be remembered that Kv\u00e6nland (Woman-land), like Norway and\n\"the island of Halagland\" (!), were neighbouring countries to Sweden,\nwhere King Svein had lived for twelve years, the same who is supposed to\nhave told Adam so much about the countries of the North; and between\nSweden and Russia (Gardarike) there was also active communication at that\ntime.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\nPassages in italics are indicated by _italics_.\n\nPassages in bold are indicated by =bold=.\n\nSubscripted characters are indicated by X_{subscript}.\n\nThe original text contains a few \u00e6 ligatures with circumflex diacritical;\nthese are not represented in this text version.\n\nSome of the Greek characters in the origianl text contain diacritical\nmarkings that are not represented in this text version.","title":"In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times (Volume 1 of 2)","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":146597}