IN NORTHERN MISTS

  ARCTIC EXPLORATION IN EARLY TIMES


  BY FRIDTJOF NANSEN
  G.C.V.O., D.Sc., D.C.L., Ph.D., PROFESSOR OF OCEANOGRAPHY
  IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHRISTIANIA, ETC.


  TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR G. CHATER

  ILLUSTRATED

  VOLUME ONE

  LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN: MCMXI




  PRINTED BY
  BALLANTYNE & COMPANY LTD
  AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS
  TAVISTOCK STREET COVENT GARDEN
  LONDON




PREFACE


This book owes its existence in the first instance to a rash promise made
some years ago to my friend Dr. J. Scott Keltie, of London, that I would
try, when time permitted, to contribute a volume on the history of arctic
voyages to his series of books on geographical exploration. The subject
was an attractive one; I thought I was fairly familiar with it, and did
not expect the book to take a very long time when once I made a start with
it. On account of other studies it was a long while before I could do
this; but when at last I seriously took the work in hand, the subject in
return monopolised my whole powers.

It appeared to me that the natural foundation for a history of arctic
voyages was in the first place to make clear the main features in the
development of knowledge of the North in early times. By tracing how ideas
of the Northern World, appearing first in a dim twilight, change from age
to age, how the old myths and creations of the imagination are constantly
recurring, sometimes in new shapes, and how new ones are added to them, we
have a curious insight into the working of the human mind in its endeavour
to subject to itself the world and the universe.

But as I went deeper into the subject I became aware that the task was far
greater than I had supposed: I found that much that had previously been
written about it was not to be depended upon; that frequently one author
had copied another, and that errors and opinions which had once gained
admission remained embedded in the literary tradition. What had to be done
was to confine one's self to the actual sources, and as far as possible to
build up independently the best possible structure from the very
foundation. But the more extensive my studies became, the more riddles I
perceived--riddle after riddle led to new riddles, and this drew me on
farther and farther.

On many points I arrived at views which to some extent conflicted with
those previously held. This made it necessary to give, not merely the bare
results, but also a great part of the investigations themselves. I have
followed the words of Niebuhr, which P. A. Munch took as a motto for "Det
norske Folks Historie":

"Ich werde suchen die Kritik der Geschichte nicht nach dunkeln Gefühlen,
sondern forschend, auszuführen, nicht ihre Resultate, welche nur blinde
Meinungen stiften, sondern die Untersuchungen selbst in ihrem ganzen
Umfange vortragen."

But in this way my book has become something quite different from what was
intended, and far larger. I have not reached the history of arctic voyages
proper.

Many may think that too much has been included here, and yet what it has
been possible to mention here is but an infinitesimal part of the mighty
labour in vanished times that makes up our knowledge of the North. The
majority of the voyages, and those the most important, on which the first
knowledge was based, have left no certain record; the greatest steps have
been taken by unknown pioneers, and if a halo has settled upon a name here
and there, it is the halo of legend.

My investigations have made it necessary to go through a great mass of
literature, for which I lacked, in part, the linguistic qualifications.
For the study of classical, and of mediæval Latin literature, I found in
Mr. Amund Sommerfeldt a most able assistant, and most of the translations
of Greek and Latin authors are due to him. By his sound and sober
criticism of the often difficult original texts he was of great help to
me.

In the study of Arabic literature Professor Alexander Seippel has afforded
me excellent help, combined with interest in the subject, and he has
translated for me the statements of Arab authors about the North.

In the preparation of this work, as so often before, I owe a deep debt of
gratitude to my old friend, Professor Moltke Moe. He has followed my
studies from the very beginning with an interest that was highly
stimulating; with his extensive knowledge in many fields bordering on
those studies he has helped me by word and deed, even more often than
appears in the course of the book. His intimate acquaintance with the
whole world of myth has been of great importance to the work in many ways;
I will mention in particular his large share in the attempt at unravelling
the difficult question of Wineland and the Wineland voyages. Here his
concurrence was the more valuable to me since at first he disagreed with
the conclusions and views at which I had arrived; but the constantly
increasing mass of evidence, which he himself helped in great measure to
collect, convinced him of their justice, and I have the hope that the
inquiry, particularly as regards this subject, will prove to be of value
to future historical research.

With his masterly knowledge and insight Professor Alf Torp has given me
sound support and advice, especially in difficult linguistic and
etymological questions. Many others, whose names are mentioned in the
course of the book, have also given me valuable assistance.

I owe special thanks to Dr. Axel Anthon Björnbo, Librarian of the Royal
Library of Copenhagen, for his willing collaboration, which has been of
great value to me. While these investigations of mine were in progress, he
has been occupied in the preparation of his exhaustive and excellent work
on the older cartography of Greenland. At his suggestion we have exchanged
our manuscripts, and have mutually criticised each other's views according
to our best ability; the book will show that this has been productive in
many ways. Dr. Björnbo has also assisted me in another way: I have, for
instance, obtained copies of several old maps through him. He has,
besides, sent me photographs of vignettes and marginal drawings from
ancient Icelandic and Norwegian MSS. in the Library of Copenhagen.

Mr. K. Eriksen has drawn the greater part of the reproductions of the
vignettes and the old maps; other illustrations are drawn by me. In the
reproduction of the maps it has been sought rather to bring before the
reader in a clear form the results to which my studies have led than to
produce detailed facsimiles of the originals.

In conclusion I wish to thank Mr. Arthur G. Chater for the careful and
intelligent way in which he has executed the English translation. In
reading the English proofs I have taken the opportunity of making a number
of corrections and additions to the original text.

FRIDTJOF NANSEN

Lysaker, August 1911


INTRODUCTION

                    "For my purpose holds
  To sail beyond the sunset and the baths
  Of all the Western stars until I die."
                              Tennyson, "Ulysses."


In the beginning the world appeared to mankind like a fairy tale;
everything that lay beyond the circle of familiar experience was a
shifting cloudland of the fancy, a playground for all the fabled beings of
mythology; but in the farthest distance, towards the west and north, was
the region of darkness and mists, where sea, land and sky were merged into
a congealed mass--and at the end of all gaped the immeasurable mouth of
the abyss, the awful void of space.

Out of this fairy world, in course of time, the calm and sober lines of
the northern landscape appeared. With unspeakable labour the eye of man
has forced its way gradually towards the north, over mountains and
forests, and tundra, onward through the mists along the vacant shores of
the polar sea--the vast stillness, where so much struggle and suffering,
so many bitter failures, so many proud victories, have vanished without a
trace, muffled beneath the mantle of snow.

When our thoughts go back through the ages in a waking dream, an endless
procession passes before us--like a single mighty epic of the human
mind's power of devotion to an idea, right or wrong--a procession of
struggling, frost-covered figures in heavy clothes, some erect and
powerful, others weak and bent so that they can scarcely drag themselves
along before the sledges, many of them emaciated and dying of hunger, cold
and scurvy; but all looking out before them towards the unknown, beyond
the sunset, where the goal of their struggle is to be found.

We see a Pytheas, intelligent and courageous, steering northward from the
Pillars of Hercules for the discovery of Britain and Northern Europe; we
see hardy Vikings, with an Ottar, a Leif Ericson at their head, sailing in
undecked boats across the ocean into ice and tempest and clearing the
mists from an unseen world; we see a Davis, a Baffin forcing their way to
the north-west and opening up new routes, while a Hudson, unconquered by
ice and winter, finds a lonely grave on a deserted shore, a victim of
shabby pilfering. We see the bright form of a Parry surpassing all as he
forces himself on; a Nordenskiöld, broad-shouldered and confident, leading
the way to new visions; a Toll mysteriously disappearing in the drifting
ice. We see men driven to despair, shooting and eating each other; but at
the same time we see noble figures, like a De Long, trying to save their
journals from destruction, until they sink and die.

Midway in the procession comes a long file of a hundred and thirty men
hauling heavy boats and sledges back to the south, but they are falling in
their tracks; one after another they lie there, marking the line of route
with their corpses--they are Franklin's men.

And now we come to the latest drama, the Greenlander Brönlund dragging
himself forward over the ice-fields through cold and winter darkness,
after the leader Mylius-Erichsen and his comrade, Hagen, have both
stiffened in the snow during the long and desperate journey. He reaches
the depot only to wait for death, knowing that the maps and observations
he has faithfully brought with him will be found and saved. He quietly
prepares himself for the silent guest, and writes in his journal in his
imperfect Danish:

    Perished,--79 Fjord, after attempt return over the inland ice, in
    November. I come here in waning moon and could not get farther for
    frost-bitten feet and darkness.

    The bodies of the others are in the middle of the fjord opposite the
    glacier (about 2-1/2 leagues).

    Hagen died November 15 and Mylius about 10 days after.

    JÖRGEN BRÖNLUND.

What a story in these few lines! Civilisation bows its head by the grave
of this Eskimo.

What were they seeking in the ice and cold? The Norseman who wrote the
"King's Mirror" gave the answer six hundred years ago: "If you wish to
know what men seek in this land, or why men journey thither in so great
danger of their lives, then it is the threefold nature of man which draws
him thither. One part of him is emulation and desire of fame, for it is
man's nature to go where there is likelihood of great danger, and to make
himself famous thereby. Another part is the desire of knowledge, for it is
man's nature to wish to know and see those parts of which he has heard,
and to find out whether they are as it was told him or not. The third part
is the desire of gain, seeing that men seek after riches in every place
where they learn that profit is to be had, even though there be great
danger in it."

The history of arctic discovery shows how the development of the human
race has always been borne along by great illusions. Just as Columbus's
discovery of the West Indies was due to a gross error of calculation, so
it was the fabled isle of Brazil that drew Cabot out on his voyage, when
he found North America. It was fantastic illusions of open polar seas and
of passages to the riches of Cathay beyond the ice that drove men back
there in spite of one failure after another; and little by little the
polar regions were explored. Every complete devotion to an idea yields
some profit, even though it be different from that which was expected.

But from first to last the history of polar exploration is a single mighty
manifestation of the power of the unknown over the mind of man, perhaps
greater and more evident here than in any other phase of human life.
Nowhere else have we won our way more slowly, nowhere else has every new
step cost so much trouble, so many privations and sufferings, and
certainly nowhere have the resulting discoveries promised fewer material
advantages--and nevertheless, new forces have always been found ready to
carry the attack farther, to stretch once more the limits of the world.

But if it has cost a struggle, it is not without its joys. Who can
describe his emotion when the last difficult ice-floe has been passed, and
the sea lies open before him, leading to new realms? Or when the mist
clears and mountain-summits shoot up, one behind another farther and
farther away, on which the eye of man has never rested, and in the
farthest distance peaks appear on the sea-horizon--on the sky above them a
yellowish white reflection of the snow-fields--where the imagination
pictures new continents?...

Ever since the Norsemen's earliest voyages arctic expeditions have
certainly brought material advantages to the human race, such as rich
fisheries, whaling and sealing, and so on; they have produced scientific
results in the knowledge of hitherto unknown regions and conditions; but
they have given us far more than this: they have tempered the human will
for the conquest of difficulties; they have furnished a school of
manliness and self-conquest in the midst of the slackness of varying ages,
and have held up noble ideals before the rising generation; they have fed
the imagination, have given fairy-tales to the child, and raised the
thoughts of its elders above their daily toil. Take arctic travel out of
our history, and will it not be poorer? Perhaps we have here the greatest
service it has done humanity.

We speak of the first discovery of the North--but how do we know when the
first man arrived in the northern regions of the earth? We know nothing
but the very last steps in the migrations of humanity. What a stretch of
time there must have been between the period of the Neanderthal man in
Europe and the first Pelasgians, or Iberians, or Celts, that we find there
in the neolithic age, in the earliest dawn of history. How infinitesimal
in comparison with this the whole of the recent period which we call
history becomes.

What took place in those long ages is still hidden from us. We only know
that ice-age followed ice-age, covering Northern Europe, and to some
extent Asia and North America as well, with vast glaciers which
obliterated all traces of early human habitation of those regions. Between
these ice-ages occurred warmer periods, when men once more made their way
northward, to be again driven out by the next advance of the ice-sheet.
There are many signs that the human northward migration after the last
ice-age, in any case in large districts of Europe, followed fairly close
upon the gradual shrinking of the boundary of the inland ice towards the
interior of Scandinavia, where the ice-sheath held out longest.

The primitive state--when men wandered about the forests and plains of the
warmer parts of the earth, living on what they found by chance--developed
by slow gradations in the direction of the first beginnings of culture; on
one side to roving hunters and fishers, on the other to agricultural
people with a more fixed habitation. The nomad with his herds forms a
later stage of civilisation.

The hunting stage of culture was imposed by necessity on the first
pioneers and inhabitants of the northernmost and least hospitable regions
of the earth. The northern lands must therefore have been first discovered
by roving fishermen who came northwards following the rivers and seashores
in their search for new fishing-grounds. It was the scouting eye of a
hunter that first saw a sea-beach in the dreamy light of a summer night,
and sought to penetrate the heavy gloom of the polar sea. And that
far-travelled hunter fell asleep in the snowdrift while the northern
lights played over him as a funeral fire, the first victim of the polar
night's iron grasp.

Long afterwards came the nomad and the agriculturist and established
themselves in the track of the hunter.

This was thousands of years before any written history, and of these
earliest colonisations we know nothing but what the chance remains we find
in the ground can tell us, and these are very few and very uncertain.

It is not until we come far down into the full daylight of history that we
find men setting out with the conscious purpose of exploring the unknown
for its own sake. With those early hunters, it was doubtless new ground
and new game that drew them on, but they too were attracted, consciously
or unconsciously, by the spirit of adventure and the unknown--so deep in
the soul of man does this divine force lie, the mainspring, perhaps, of
the greatest of our actions. In every part of the world and in every age
it has driven man forward on the path of evolution, and as long as the
human ear can hear the breaking of waves over deep seas, as long as the
human eye can follow the track of the northern lights over silent
snow-fields, as long as human thought seeks distant worlds in infinite
space, so long will the fascination of the unknown carry the human mind
forward and upward.


CHAPTER I

ANTIQUITY, BEFORE PYTHEAS


The learned world of early antiquity had nothing but a vague premonition
of the North. Along the routes of traffic commercial relations were
established at a very early time with the northern lands. At first these
ran perhaps along the rivers of Russia and Eastern Germany to the Baltic,
afterwards along the rivers of Central Europe as well. But the information
which reached the Mediterranean peoples by these routes had to go through
many intermediaries with various languages, and for this reason it long
remained vague and uncertain.

What the people of antiquity did not know, they supplied by poetical and
mythical conceptions; and in time there grew up about the outer limits of
the world, especially on the north, a whole cycle of legend which was to
lay the foundation of ideas of the polar regions for thousands of years,
far into the Middle Ages, and long after trustworthy knowledge had been
won, even by the voyages of the Norsemen themselves.

Long before people knew whether there were lands and seas far in the
north, those who studied the stars had observed that there were some
bodies in the northern sky which never set, and that there was a point in
the vault of heaven which never changed its place. In time, they also
found that, as they moved northwards, the circle surrounding the stars
that were always visible became larger, and they saw that these in their
daily movements described orbits about the fixed point or pole of the
heavens. The ancient Chaldeans had already found this out. From this
observation it was but a short step to the deduction that the earth could
not be flat, as the popular idea made it, but must in one way or another
be spherical, and that if one went far enough to the north, these stars
would be right over one's head. To the Greeks a circle drawn through the
constellation of the Great Bear, which they called "Arktos," formed the
limit of the stars that were always visible. This limit was therefore
called the Bear's circle, or the "Arctic Circle," and thus this
designation for the northernmost regions of the earth is derived from the
sky.

According to the common Greek idea it was the countries of the
Mediterranean and of the East that formed the disc of the earth, or
"œcumene" (the habitable world). Around this disc, according to the
Homeric songs (the Iliad was put into writing about 900 B.C.), flowed the
all-embracing river "Oceanus," the end of the earth and the limit of
heaven. This deep, tireless, quietly flowing river, whose stream turned
back upon itself, was the origin and the end of all things; it was not
only the father of the Oceanides and of the rivers, but also the source
whence came gods and men. Nothing definite is said of this river's farther
boundary; perhaps unknown lands belonging to another world whereon the sky
rested were there; in any case we meet later, as in Hesiod, with ideas of
lands beyond the Ocean, the Hesperides, Erythea, and the Isles of the
Blest, which were probably derived from Phœnician tales. Originally
conceived as a deep-flowing river, Oceanus became later the all-embracing
empty ocean, which was different from the known sea (the Mediterranean)
with its known coasts, even though connected with it. Herodotus (484-424
B.C.) is perhaps the first who used the name in this sense; he definitely
rejects the idea of Oceanus as a river and denies that the "œcumene"
should be drawn round, as though with a pair of compasses, as the Ionian
geographers (Hecatæus, for example) thought. He considered it proved that
the earth's disc on the western side, and probably also on the south, was
surrounded by the ocean, but said that no one could know whether this was
also the case on the north and north-east. In opposition to Hecatæus[1]
and the Ionian geographers (the school of Miletus) he asserted that the
Caspian Sea was not a bay of the northern Oceanus, but an independent
inland sea. Thus the "œcumene" became extended into the unknown on the
north-east. He mentions several peoples as dwelling farthest north; but to
the north of them were desert regions and inaccessible mountains; how far
they reached he does not say.

He thus left the question undetermined, because, with the sound
cool-headedness of the inquirer, which made him in a sense the founder of
physical geography, he trusted to certain observations rather than to
uncertain speculations; and therefore he maintained that the geographers
of the Ionian school had not provided adequate proofs that the world was
really surrounded by sea on all sides. But nevertheless, it was, perhaps,
his final opinion that the earth's disc swam like an island in Oceanus.

This common name for the ocean was soon dropped, and men spoke instead of
the Outer Sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules in contradistinction to the
Inner Sea (i.e., the Mediterranean). The Outer Sea was also called the
Atlantic Sea after Atlas. This name is first found in Herodotus. South of
Asia was the Southern Ocean or the Erythræan Sea (the Red Sea and Indian
Ocean). North of Europe and Asia was the Northern Ocean; and the Caspian
Sea was a bay of this, in the opinion of the majority. Doubtless, most
people thought that these various oceans were connected; but the common
name Oceanus does not reappear as applied to them until the second century
B.C.[2]

According to the Homeric conception the universe was to be imagined
somewhat as a hollow globe, divided in two by the disc of the earth and
its encircling Oceanus; the upper hemisphere was that of light, or the
heaven; the lower one Tartarus, hidden in eternal darkness. Hades lay
beneath the earth, and Tartarus was as far below Hades as the sky was
above the earth. The solid vault of heaven was borne by Atlas, but its
extremities certainly rested upon Oceanus (or its outer boundary), or at
least were contained thereby. According to Hesiod (about 800 B.C.) an
anvil falling from heaven would not reach earth till the tenth day, and
from the earth it would fall for nine days and nine nights and not reach
the bottom of Tartarus until the tenth. This underworld is filled to the
brim with triple darkness, and the Titans have been hurled into it and
cannot come out. On the brink the limits of the earth, the waste Oceanus,
black Tartarus, and the starry heaven all coincide. Tartarus is a deep
gulf at which even the gods shudder; in a whole year it would be
impossible to search through it.[3]

So early do we find three conceptions which two thousand years later still
formed the foundation of the doctrine of the earth's outer limits,
especially on the north: (1) the all-embracing Oceanus or empty ocean; (2)
the coincidence of sky, sea, land and underworld at the uttermost edge;
and lastly (3) the dismal gulf into which even the gods were afraid of
falling.

These or similar ideas still obtained long after the mathematical
geographers had conceived the earth as a sphere. Pythagoras (568-about 494
B.C.) was probably the first to proclaim the doctrine of the spherical
form of the earth. He relied less upon observation than upon the
speculative idea that the sphere was the most perfect form. Before him
Anaximander of Miletus (611-after 547 B.C.), to whom are attributed the
invention of the gnomon or sun-dial, and the first representation of the
earth's disc on a map, had maintained that the earth was a cylinder
floating in space; the inhabited part was the upper flat end. His pupil
Anaximenes (second half of the sixth century B.C.) thought that the earth
had the form of a trapezium, supported by the air beneath, which it
compressed like the lid of a vase; while before him Thales of Miletus
(640-about 548 B.C.) was inclined to hold that the earth's disc swam on
the surface of the ocean, in the middle of the hollow sphere of heaven,
and that earthquakes were caused by movements of the waters.[4]

Parmenides of Elea (about 460 B.C.) divided the earth's sphere into five
zones or belts, of which three were uninhabitable: the zone of heat, or
the scorched belt round the equator, and the two zones of cold at the
poles. Between the warmth and the cold there were on either side of the
hot zone two temperate zones where men might live. This division was
originally derived from the five zones of the heavens, where the Arctic
Circle formed the boundary of the northern stars that are always visible,
and the tropics that of the zone dominated by the sun. Pythagoras seems to
have been the first to transfer it to the globe, the centre of the
universe.[5] This idea of the earth's five habitable and uninhabitable
zones was current till nearly the end of the Middle Ages; but at the same
time one finds, often far on in the Middle Ages, the former conceptions of
the empty ocean encircling all, and of the "œcumene" swimming in it as an
island. Occasionally we meet with a vast unknown continent beyond this
ocean, belonging to another world, which no one can reach.[6] Together
with these theories, though not very conspicuously, the belief in the
immeasurable gulf at the edge of the world also persisted; and this became
the "Ginnungagap" of our forefathers.

The conception of the earth's form and of its uttermost limits was thus by
no means consistent, and on some points it was contradictory. We must
always, and especially in dealing with past times, distinguish between the
views of the scientific world and those of ordinary people, two aspects
which were often hopelessly mixed together. And again in the scientific
world we must distinguish between the mathematical-physical geographers
and the historical, since the latter dealt more with descriptions and were
apt to follow accounts and legends rather than what was taught by physical
observations.

The world which the Greeks really knew was bounded in the earlier period
on the north by the Balkans. These again gave rise to the mythical Rhipæan
Mountains, which were soon moved farther to the north or north-east[7] as
knowledge increased, and so they and the Alps were made the northern
boundary of the known world. As to what lay farther off, the Greeks had
very vague ideas; they seem to have thought that the frozen polar
countries began there, where it was so cold that people had to wear
breeches like the Scythians; or else it was a good climate, since it lay
north of the north wind which came from the Rhipæan Mountains. But that
some genuine information about the North had reached them as early as the
time of the Odyssey seems to be shown by the tale of the Læstrygons--who
had the long day, and whose shepherds, driving their flocks in at evening,
could call to those who were setting out in the morning, since the paths
of day and night were with them so close to one another--and of the
Cimmerians at the gates of the underworld, who lived in a land of fog, on
the shores of Oceanus, in eternal cheerless night. It is true that the
poet seems to have imagined these countries somewhere in the east or
north-east, probably by the Black Sea; for Odysseus came from the
Læstrygons to the isle of Ææa "by the mansions and dancing-places of the
Dawn and by the place where the sun rises." And from Ææa the Greek hero
steered right out into the night and the mist on the dangerous waters of
Oceanus and came to the Cimmerians,[8] who must therefore have dwelt
beyond the sunrise, shrouded in cloud and fogs. It might be supposed that
it was natural to the poet to believe that there must be night beyond the
sunrise and on the way to the descent to the nether regions; but it is,
perhaps, more probable that both the long day and the darkness and fog are
an echo of tales about the northern summer and the long winter night, and
that these tales reached the Greeks by the trade-routes along the Russian
rivers and across the Black Sea, for which reason the districts where
these marvels were to be found were reported to lie in that direction. A
find in the passage-graves of Mycenæ (fourteenth to twelfth century B.C.)
of beads made of amber from the Baltic,[9] besides many pieces of amber
from the period of the Dorian migration (before the tenth century) found
during the recent English excavations of the temple of Artemis at
Sparta,[10] furnish certain evidence that the Greek world had intercourse
with the Baltic countries long before the Odyssey was put into writing in
the eighth century, even though the northern lands of this poem seem to
have been limited by a communication by sea between the Black Sea and the
Adriatic, running north of the Balkan peninsula. Perhaps this imaginary
communication may have been conceived as going by the Ister (Danube),
which, at any rate later, was thought to have another outlet in the
Adriatic. We may also find echoes of tales about the dark winter and light
summer of the North in Sophocles's tragedy, where we are told that
Orithyia was carried off by Boreas and borne over

  ... the whole mirror of the sea, to the edge of the earth,
  To the source of primæval night, where the vault of heaven ends,
  Where lies the ancient garden of Phœbus[11]

--though images of this sort may also be due to an idea that the sun
remained during the night beyond the northern regions.

According to a comparatively late Greek conception there was in the far
North a happy people called the Hyperboreans. They dwelt "under the
shining way" (the clear northern sky) north of the roaring Boreas, so far
that this cold north wind could not reach them, and therefore enjoyed a
splendid climate. They did not live in houses, but in woods and groves.
With them injustice and war were unknown, they were untouched by age or
sickness; at joyous sacrificial feasts, with golden laurel-wreaths in
their hair, and amid song and the sound of the cithara and the dancing of
maidens, they led a careless existence in undisturbed gladness, and
reached an immense age. When they were tired of life they threw
themselves, after having eaten and drunk, joyfully and with wreaths in
their hair, into the sea from a particular cliff (according to Mela and
Pliny, following Hecatæus of Abdera). Among other qualities they had the
power of flying, and one of them, Abaris, flew round the world on an
arrow. While some geographers, especially the Ionians, placed them in the
northern regions, beyond the Rhipæan Mountains,[12] Hecatæus of Abdera
(first half of the third century B.C.), who wrote a work about the
Hyperboreans, collected from various sources, and more like a novel than
anything else, declares that they dwelt far beyond the accessible regions,
on the island of Elixœa in the farthest northern Oceanus, where the tired
stars sink to rest, and where the moon is so near that one can easily
distinguish the inequalities of its surface. Leto was born there, and
therefore Apollo is more honoured with them than other gods. There is a
marvellous temple, round like a sphere,[13] which floats freely in the air
borne by wings, and which is rich in offerings. To this holy island Apollo
came every ninth year; according to some authorities he came through the
air in a car drawn by swans. During his visit the god himself played the
cithara and danced without ceasing from the spring equinox to the rising
of the Pleiades. The Boreads were hereditary kings of the island, and were
likewise keepers of the sanctuary; they were descendants of Boreas and
Chione. Three giant brothers, twelve feet high, performed the service of
priests. When they offered the sacrifice and sang the sacred hymns to the
sound of the cithara, whole clouds of swans came from the Rhipæan
Mountains, surrounded the temple and settled upon it, joining in the
sacred song.

Theopompus (Philip of Macedon's time) has given us, if we may trust
Ælian's account ["Varia," iii. c. 18; about 200 A.D.], a remarkable
variation of the Hyperborean legend in combination with others:

    Europe, Asia, and Africa were islands surrounded by Oceanus; only that
    land which lay outside this world was a continent; its size was
    immense. The animals there were huge, the men were not only double our
    size, but lived twice as long as we. Among many great towns there
    were two in particular greater than the rest, and with no resemblance
    to one another; they were called Machimos (the warlike) and Eusebes
    (the pious). The description of the latter's peaceful inhabitants has
    most features in common with the Hyperborean legend. The warlike
    inhabitants of Machimos, on the other hand, are born armed, wage war
    continually, and oppress their neighbours, so that this one city rules
    over many peoples, but its inhabitants are no less than two millions.
    It is true that they sometimes die of disease, but that happens
    seldom, since for the most part they are killed in war, by stones, or
    wood [that is, clubs], for they are invulnerable to iron. They have
    such superfluity of gold and silver that with them gold is of less
    value than iron is with us. Once indeed they made an expedition to our
    island [that is, Europe], came over the Ocean ten millions strong and
    arrived at the land of the Hyperboreans. But when they learned that
    these were the happy ones of our earth, and found their mode of life
    bad, poverty-stricken and despicable, they did not think it worth
    while to proceed farther.

    Among them dwell men called Meropians, in many great cities. On the
    border of their country is a place which bears the significant name
    Anostos (without return), and resembles a gulf ("chiasma"). There
    reigns there neither darkness nor light, but a veil of mist of a dirty
    red colour lies over it. Two streams flow about this place, of which
    one is called Hedone (the stream of gladness), the other Lype (the
    stream of sorrow), and by the banks of each stand trees of the size of
    a great plane-tree. The fruit of the trees by the river of sorrow has
    the effect that any one who eats of it sheds so many tears that for
    the rest of his life he melts away in tears and so dies. The other
    trees that grow by the river of gladness bear fruit of a quite
    different kind. With him who tastes it all former desires come to
    rest; even what he has passionately loved passes into oblivion, he
    becomes gradually younger and goes once more through the previous
    stages of his existence in reverse order. From an old man he passes to
    the prime of life, becomes a youth, a boy, and then a child, and with
    that he is used up. Ælian adds: "And if the Chionian's [that is,
    Theopompus of Chios] tale appears credible to any one, then he may be
    believed, but to me he seems to be a mythologist, both in this and in
    other things."

There can be no doubt that the regions which we hear of in this story,
with the Hyperboreans, the enormous quantities of gold, the gulf without
return, and so on, were imagined as situated beyond the sea in the North;
and in the description of the warlike people of Machimos who came in great
hordes southward over the sea, one might almost be tempted to think of
warlike northerners, who were slain with stones and clubs, but not with
iron, perhaps because they had not yet discovered the use of iron.[14]

The legend of the happy Hyperboreans in the North has arisen from an error
of popular etymology, and it has here been treated at some length as an
example of how geographical myths may originate and develop.[15] The name
in its original form was certainly the designation of those who brought
offerings to the shrine of Apollo at Delphi (perhaps also in Delos). They
were designated as "perpheroi" or "hyper-pheroi" (bringers over), which
again in certain northern Greek dialects took the forms of "hyper-phoroi"
or "hyper-boroi;" this, by an error, became connected in later times with
"Boreas," and their home was consequently transferred to the North, many
customs of the worship of Apollo being transferred with it [see O.
Crusius, 1890, col. 2830]. This gives at the same time a natural
explanation of their many peculiarities, their sanctity, their power of
flight and the arrow (Apollo's arrow), their ceremonial feasts, and their
throwing themselves from a certain cliff,[16] and so on, all of which is
derived from the worship of Apollo. Apollonius of Rhodes (about 200 B.C.)
relates that according to the legends of the Celts (in North Italy ?)
amber originated from the tears of Apollo, which he shed by thousands when
he came to the holy people of the Hyperboreans and forsook the shining
heaven.

When, after the conquests of Alexander, the Greeks became acquainted with
the mythical world of India, they naturally connected the Indians'
legendary country, "Uttara Kuru," beyond the Himalayas, with the country
of the Hyperboreans. "This land is not too cold, not too warm, free from
disease; care and sorrow are unknown there; the earth is without dust and
sweetly perfumed; the rivers run in beds of gold, and instead of pebbles
they roll down pearls and precious stones."

The mythical singer Aristeas of Proconnesus (sixth century ?)--to whom was
attributed the poem "Arimaspeia"--is said (according to Herodotus) to have
penetrated into the country of the Scythians as far as the northernmost
people, the Issedonians. The latter told him of the one-eyed, long-haired
Arimaspians, who lived still farther north, at the uttermost end of the
world, before the cave from which Boreas rushes forth. On their northern
border dwelt the Griffins, lion-like monsters with the wings and beaks of
eagles;[17] they were the guardians of the gold which the earth sends
forth of itself. But still farther north, as far as the sea, were the
Hyperboreans.

But the learned Herodotus (about 450 B.C.) doubted that the Hyperboreans
dwelt to the north of Boreas; for, said he, if there are people north of
the north wind, then there must also be people south of the south wind.
Neither did he credit the Scythians' tales about goat-footed people[18]
and Sleepers far in the North. Just as little did this sceptic believe
that the air of Scythia was full of feathers which prevented all seeing
and moving; it was, he thought, continuous snowfall that the Scythians
described thus. On the other hand, he certainly believed in the Amazons,
though whether they dwelt in the North, as later authors considered, he
does not say.

The idea of the Sleepers, who slept for six months, may very probably be
due to legendary tales of the long northern winter-night, the length of
which was fixed at six months by theoretical speculations, these tales
being confused with reports that the people of Scythia slept a great part
of the winter, as even to-day the peasants are said to do in certain parts
of Russia, where they almost hibernate. Nor must the possibility be
overlooked of stories about the winter's sleep of animals, bears, for
example, being transferred to men.

Later learned geographers, in spite of the scepticism of Herodotus,
occupied themselves in assigning to the Hyperboreans a dwelling-place in
the unknown. The founder of scientific geography, Eratosthenes of Cyrene
(275-195 B.C.), declared that Herodotus's method of disproving the
existence of the Hyperboreans was ridiculous. [Cf. Strabo, i. 61.]

Even so long as five hundred years after Herodotus, Pliny declared the
Hyperboreans to be a historical people, whose existence could not be
doubted; and on the maps of the Middle Ages we always find them in the
most northern inhabited regions, together with the Amazons and other
peoples; we even find the Hyperborean Mountains ("Hyperborei Montes") in
Northern Europe and the Hyperborean Sea ("Oceanus Hyperboreus") to the
north of them. Adam of Bremen (eleventh century) thought that the
Scandinavians were the Hyperboreans.

Archæological finds show that as long ago as the Scandinavian Bronze Age,
or before, there must have been some sort of communication between the
Mediterranean and the northern lands. One of the earliest trade-routes
between the Mediterranean and the Baltic certainly went from the Black Sea
up the navigable river Borysthenes (Dnieper), of which early mention is
made by the Greeks, thence along its tributary the Bug to the Vistula, and
down the latter to the coast. We also find this route in common use in
later antiquity. When we first meet with the Goths in history they are
established at both ends of it, by the mouths of the Vistula and of the
Borysthenes. The Eruli, who came from the North, are also mentioned by the
side of the Goths on the Black Sea. What the wandering nation of the
Cimmerians was we do not know, but, as before remarked (p. 14), they may
have been Cimbri who in those early times had migrated to the northern
shore of the Black Sea by this very route. This trade-route was well known
in its details to our forefathers in Scandinavia, which likewise points to
an ancient communication. Somewhat later it is probable that men travelled
from the Baltic up the Vistula and across to the March, a tributary of the
Danube, and so either down this river to the Black Sea or overland to the
Adriatic. A similar line of communication certainly ran between the North
Sea and the Mediterranean along the Elbe to the Adriatic, and up the
Rhine across to the Rhone and down this to the coast, or across the Alps
to the Po.

But very early there was also communication by sea along the coasts of
western Europe between the Mediterranean and the North. This is shown
amongst other things by the distribution, about 2000 B.C., of cromlechs
over Sicily, Corsica, Portugal and the north of Spain, Brittany, the
British Isles, the North Sea coast of Germany, Denmark and southern
Scandinavia as far as Bohuslen [cf. S. Müller, 1909, p. 24 f.], and
perhaps farther. Somewhat later, in the middle of the second millennium
B.C., the passage-graves or chambered barrows followed the same route
northward from the Mediterranean. That this sea-communication was
comparatively active in those far-off times is proved by the fact that
cromlechs, which originated in the grave-chambers of the beginning of the
Mycenæan period in the eastern Mediterranean, reached Denmark, by this
much longer route round the coast, before the single graves, which were an
older form in the Mediterranean countries, but which spread by the slower
route overland, through Central Europe.

    That as far back as the Stone Age there was communication by one way
    or another, perhaps along the coast between Spain and the shore of the
    North Sea or the Baltic, appears probable from the fact that amber
    beads have been found in the Iberian peninsula containing 2 per cent.
    of succinic acid, a proportion which is taken to indicate its northern
    (Baltic) origin [cf. L. Siret, 1909, p. 138].

On account of the many intermediaries, speaking different languages,
through which it passed, the information which reached the Mediterranean
by these various routes was very defective. According to Herodotus [iv.
24] the Scythians on their trading journeys to the bald-headed Agrippæans
required no fewer than seven different interpreters to enable them to
barter with the peoples on the way. Their first more direct knowledge of
northern and western Europe must certainly have reached the Mediterranean
peoples through the tin trade and the amber trade. It is worth remarking
that it was precisely these two articles, representing two powerful sides
of human nature, utility and the love of ornament, that were to be of such
great importance also as regards knowledge of the North.

We do not know when, where, or how tin first came into use, the metal
which, together with copper, was as important in the Bronze Age as iron is
in our time. In Egypt it is found in the oldest pyramid-graves, and in the
third millennium B.C. bronze was in general use there, though we know not
whence the tin came to make it. Tin-ore occurs in comparatively few places
on the earth, and if China, which formed a world by itself, be excluded,
the only places where we know that the metal was obtained in ancient times
are north-west Spain, the Cassiterides (probably in Brittany) and
Cornwall,[19] which still possesses rich deposits; and as far as we can
trace history back, the civilised peoples of the Mediterranean and the
Orient obtained their tin from western Europe.[20] If the first tin in
Egypt and in the valley of the Euphrates also came from there, the
civilisation of western Europe, implied by regular working of mines, would
be given a venerable age which could almost rival the oldest civilisations
of the Mediterranean. But this is difficult to believe, as we should
expect to find traces of this early connection with Egypt along the
trade-routes between that country and the place of origin of the tin; and
no archæological evidence to prove this is at present forthcoming.[21]

    This possibility is nevertheless not wholly excluded: finds of beads
    of northern (?) amber in Egyptian graves of the Fifth Dynasty (about
    3500 B.C.) may point to ancient unknown communication with the
    farthest parts of Europe. In Spain, too, neolithic objects have been
    found, of ivory and other substances, which may have come from Egypt
    [cf. L. Siret, 1909]. It is certain that the earliest notices of tin
    in literature mention it as coming from the uttermost limits of
    Europe. In his lament over Tyre the prophet Ezekiel says [xxvii. 12]:
    "Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of
    riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs."
    Herodotus [iii. 115] says that it came from the Cassiterides. As
    Tarsis was the starting-point of the tin-trade with the
    Cassiterides,[22] these two statements are in agreement.

    Figures and thin rods of tin have been found in association with stone
    implements on the sites of pile-dwellings in Switzerland. Tin rings
    have also been found at Hallstatt. In barrows (of the Bronze Age ?) in
    the island of Anrum, on the west coast of Sleswick, there were found
    a dagger or arrowhead and several other objects of tin, besides a lump
    of the metal, and in Denmark it is known that tin was used for
    ornament on oak chests of the earliest Bronze Age, which again points
    to coastal traffic with the south-west.

In the Iliad tin is spoken of as a rare and costly metal, used for the
decoration of weapons, and it appears that arms were then made of copper,
bronze not being yet in general use, as was the case in the later time of
the Odyssey. But in the excavations at Troy, curiously enough, bronze
objects were found immediately above the neolithic strata, which would
seem to show that the Bronze Age reached the Greeks from Egypt without any
intervening copper age.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Homeric songs do not allude to tin as a Phœnician commodity, like
amber. This may mean that the Greeks even in the earliest times obtained
it through their own commercial relations with Gaul, without employing the
Phœnicians as middlemen.

Possibly the Greek word for tin, "kassiteros," and the name of the
tin-islands, "Kassiterides," themselves point to this direct connection.
The same word is also found in Sanscrit, "kastîra," and in Arabic,
"qazdir." Professor Alf Torp thinks that the word both in Greek and in
Sanscrit "must be borrowed from somewhere, but whence or when is not
known. 'Kassiteros,' of course, occurs as early as Homer, 'kastîra' is in
Indian literature much later, but as far as that goes it may well be old
in Sanscrit. I do not know of any Celtic word one could think of; a
'cassitír' (woodland) is hardly to the point; it is true that 'tír' means
'land,' but no other 'cass' is known to me except one that means 'hair'"
(in a letter of November 9, 1909). We may therefore look upon it as
certain that "kassiteros" is not an original Greek word; it must in all
probability have come from the country whence the Greeks first obtained
tin (analogous cases are the name of copper from the island of Cyprus,
that of bronze from Brundisium, etc.). That this country was India, as
some have thought, is improbable, since it is stated in the "Periplus
Maris Erythræi" [xlix.], confirmed by Pliny [xxxiv. 163], that tin was
imported into India from Alexandria in exchange for ivory, precious stones
and perfumes; we must therefore suppose that the name reached India with
the tin from the Greeks, and not vice versâ. It is very possible that the
word consists of two parts, of which the second "-teros" may be connected
with the Celtic word "tír" for land (Latin "terra"). The first part,
"kassi," occurs in many Celtic words and names. Ptolemy [ii. 8] mentions
in Gaul, in or near Brittany: "Bidu-kasioi," "Uenelio-kasioi,"
"Tri-kasioi," and "Uadi-kasioi." As mentioned by Reinach [1892, p. 278],
there was a people in Brittany called "Cassi" (a British king,
"Cassi-vellaunos," an Arvernian chief, "Ver-cassi-vellaunos," etc.). It
may be supposed that the country was named after these people, or was in
some other way referred to by such a word and called "Kassi-tír." In this
case the Cassiterides might be sought for in Brittany, and this agrees
with what we have arrived at in another way. But this would entail the
assumption that the Celts were already in Gaul at the time of the Iliad.

Professor Alf Torp has called attention to the remarkable circumstance
that "the Cymric word for tin, 'ystaen,' resembles 'stannum,' which cannot
be genuine Latin. I am inclined to think that both words are derived from
an Iberian word; the Romans would in that case have got it from Galicia,
and the Cymri doubtless from a primitive Iberian population in the British
Isles. In some way or other our word 'tin' must be connected with this
word, though the 'i' is curious in the face of the Cymric 'a'" (letter of
November 9, 1909). In connection with this hypothesis of Professor Torp,
it may be of interest to notice that in the tin district of Morbihan in
Brittany, by the mouth of the Vilaine, is "Penestin," where the deposits
still contain much tin, and the name of which must come from the Celtic
"pen" (== head, cape) and "estein" (== tin).[23] It is conceivable that
the Latin "stannum" was derived from Brittany rather than from Galicia.

In ancient Egyptian there is no word for tin; as in early Latin, it is
described as white lead (dhti hs), which may point to a common western
origin for these two metals.

There has been great diversity of opinion as to where the Cassiterides of
the Greeks were to be found. Herodotus [iii. 115] did not know where they
were: "in spite of all his trouble, he had not been able to learn from any
eye-witness what the sea is like in that region [that is, on the north
side] of Europe. But it is certain that tin comes from the uttermost end,
as also amber." Posidonius mentioned the islands as lying between Spain
and Britain (see above, p. 23). Strabo says [iii. 175]:

    "The Cassiterides are ten, and lie near to one another, in the midst
    of the sea northwards from the harbour of the Artabri [Galicia]. One
    of them is unoccupied, while the others are inhabited by people in
    black cloaks, with the robe fastened on the breast and reaching down
    to their feet, who wander about with staves in their hands like the
    Furies in tragedy. They live for the most part as herdsmen on their
    cattle; but as they also have mines of tin and lead they barter these
    metals and hides for pottery, salt, and articles of copper with the
    merchants. Formerly the Phœnicians alone carried on this trade from
    Gadir and kept the sea-route secret from every one else; but as the
    Romans once sailed in pursuit of one of their vessels with the object
    of finding out the position of their markets, the captain
    intentionally allowed his ship to be stranded on a sandbank and
    brought the same destruction upon his pursuers; but he saved himself
    from the wreck, and was compensated by the State for the value of his
    loss. Nevertheless the Romans discovered the sea-route after repeated
    attempts, and when Publius Crassus [under Cæsar] had also traversed it
    he saw the metals dug out from near the surface and that the
    inhabitants were peaceful, and he proved this sea-passage to be
    practicable, if one wished to make it, although it is longer[24] than
    that which divides Britain [from the continent]."

It is unlikely that the Cassiterides were Cornwall, as has been commonly
supposed, since this peninsula can with difficulty be regarded as a group
of islands; moreover this would not agree with the descriptions which
always mention them as separate from Britain, and usually farther south.
The Scilly Isles, lying far out in the sea, where tin has never been
worked to any great extent, and whose waters are dangerous to navigate,
are out of the question. On the other hand, it may almost be regarded as
certain that the Cassiterides are the same as the "Œstrymnides" (see
below), and these must be looked for on the coast of Gaul. Furthermore tin
is mentioned as "Celtic" by several Greek authorities; in the "Mirabiles
auscultationes" of Aristotle or Pseudo-Aristotle [i. 834, A. 6] it is so
called, and Ephorus (about 340 B.C.) speaks [in Scymnus of Chios] of
Tartessus [i.e., Gadir], "the famous city," as "rich in alluvial tin from
Celtica [Gaul], in gold, as also in copper."[25] It may further be
mentioned that Mela referred to the Cassiterides[26] as "Celtican," which
would mean that they belonged to the north-west coast of Spain, unless it
is confused with Celtic; and in his description of the islands of Europe,
going from south to north, he puts them immediately before "Sena," or the
Île de Seine at the western extremity of Brittany, which means in any case
that they would be to the south of that island. Everything points to the
islands being situated on the south coast of Brittany, and there is much
in favour of Louis Siret's assumption [1908] that they are the islands of
Morbihan ("Les Îles du Morbraz"), west of the mouth of the Loire, exactly
where "Penestin" is situated. This agrees very well, as we shall see
later, with the description of Himilco's voyage to the Œstrymnides. The
free alluvial deposits along the shore in this district, near the mouth of
the Vilaine, still contain a good deal of tin, together with gold and
other precious metals; but in those distant times they may have been very
rich in tin, and as they lie on the very seashore they were naturally
discovered early and became the most important source of tin until they
were partly exhausted. In the meantime the rich tin deposits of Cornwall
had begun to be utilised, and they became in turn the most important,
while the Cassiterides were gradually forgotten.

    Diodorus [v. 22] alludes to the tin trade in the following terms: "On
    that promontory of Prettanike [Britain] which is called 'Belerion,'
    the inhabitants are very hospitable, and they have become civilised by
    intercourse with foreign merchants. They produce tin, by actively
    working the land which contains it. This is rocky and contains veins
    of earth, and by working and smelting the products they obtain pure
    metal. This they make into the form of knuckle-bones and bring it to
    an island which lies off the coast of Britain and is called 'Ictis.'
    For when the intervening space becomes dry at ebb-tide they bring a
    quantity of tin to the island in waggons. A curious thing happens with
    the islands near the coast between Europe and Britain; for when the
    dividing strait is filled at high water they appear as islands, but
    when the sea recedes at the ebb and leaves a great space of dry land,
    they look like part of the mainland. Here the merchants buy it from
    the natives and bring it across to Gaul; but finally they journey on
    foot through Gaul, and bring the goods on horses to the mouth of the
    river Rhone." In another place [v. 38] he says that the tin is
    conveyed on horseback to Massalia and to the Roman commercial town of
    Narbo.

    Bunbury [1883, ii. p. 197] thinks that "this characteristic account
    leaves no reasonable doubt that Ictis was St. Michael's Mount in
    Cornwall (Belerion), to which the description precisely answers, and
    which contains a small port such as would have been well suited to
    ancient traders." The description decidedly does not fit, as some have
    thought, the island of Vectis (Wight); moreover the tin would in any
    case have had to be brought to the latter by sea from Cornwall, and
    not in waggons. It is, however, also possible that we have here some
    confusion with the original tin district in Brittany, where such
    places as Ictis, with the change between flood and ebb tide, are well
    known, from Cæsar's description among others. But as Diodorus did not
    know the tin-mines of Brittany, which in his time had lost their
    importance, and had heard of tin-mines in Belerion, he transferred to
    the latter the whole description which he found in earlier writers.
    This supposition may be confirmed by Pliny's statement [Hist. Nat. iv.
    16, 104]: "The historian Timæus says that in six days' sailing inwards
    from Britain the island of 'Mictis' is reached, in which white lead
    (tin) occurs. Thither the Britons sail in vessels of wicker-work,
    covered with hides." Originally the passage doubtless read "insulam
    Ictis," which by transference of the "m" became "insula Mictis," and
    this again has been amended to "insulam Mictis." It is impossible to
    identify the description with Vectis, which moreover has just been
    mentioned by Pliny, and it is also difficult to understand how it
    could be a place in Cornwall, but it is consistent with the tin
    district of Brittany.

We do not know how or at what period this tin industry first developed.
Perhaps it was as early as the end of the neolithic period; but it is
improbable that it should have been independently developed by the Iberian
aborigines who lived in the tin districts of Iberia, and doubtless also of
Brittany; it is far more likely to be due to communication with the
Mediterranean through a seafaring, commercial people, and we know of none
other than the Phœnicians. How early they began their widespread commerce
and industry is unknown; but they must have reached this part of the world
long before Gadir was founded by the Tyrians about 1100 B.C. It is
conceivable that in their search for gold and silver they discovered these
deposits of tin and knew how to take advantage of them. As already
remarked, there was as early as 2000 B.C. a continuous communication by
sea along the coasts of western Europe, and it is probable that there
arose at a very early time efficient navigators on the coasts of northern
Spain and Brittany, just those districts which are rich in tin, where
there are many good harbours. For a long time the tin trade was carried on
by sea, southward along the coast to Tarsis in southern Spain; but by
degrees an overland trade-route also came into use, going up the Loire and
down the Rhone to the Mediterranean. This route became known to the
Greeks, and the Phocæan colony Massalia was founded upon it about 600
B.C.; later the Greek colony of Corbilo was possibly founded at its other
extremity, by the mouth of the Loire (?). Later still another trade-route
ran along the Garonne overland to the Roman Narbo (Narbonne). On the
development of the Cornish tin industry, the same routes by sea and land
continued to be used. Thus it was that the tin trade furnished one of the
first and most important steps in the path of the exploration of the
North.

When Phaëthon one day had persuaded his father Helios to let him drive the
chariot of the sun across the sky, the horses ran away with him and he
first came too near the vault of heaven and set fire to it, so that the
Milky Way was formed; then he approached too near the earth, set the
mountains on fire, dried up rivers and lakes, burned up the Sahara,
scorched the negroes black, until, to avoid greater disasters in his wild
career, Zeus struck him down with his thunderbolt into the river Eridanus.
His sisters, the daughters of the sun, wept so much over him that the gods
in pity changed them into poplars, and their tears then flowed every year
as amber on the river's banks. "For this reason amber came to be called
'electron,' because the sun has the name of 'Elector.'" In this way the
Greeks, in their poetry, thought that amber was formed. The mythical river
Eridanus, which no doubt was originally in the north (cf. Herodotus), was
later identified sometimes with the Rhone, sometimes with the Po.
Herodotus [iii. 115] says of northern Europe: "I do not suppose that
there is a river which the barbarians call Eridanus, and which flows into
the sea to the northward, from whence amber may come.... For in the first
place the name Eridanus itself shows that it is Hellenic and not
barbarian, and that it has been invented by some poet or other"; and in
the second, he was not able to find any eye-witness who could tell him
about it (cf. p. 27); but in any case he thought that amber as well as tin
came from the uttermost limits of Europe.

The most important sources of amber in Europe are the southern coast of
the Baltic, especially Samland, and the west coast of Jutland with the
North Frisian islands. It is also found in small quantities in many places
in western and central Europe, on the Adriatic, in Sicily, in South
Africa, Burmah, the west coast of America, etc. Northern amber, from the
Baltic and the North Sea, is distinguished from other kinds that have been
investigated, by the comparatively large proportion of succinic acid it
contains, and it seems as though almost all that was used in early
antiquity in the Mediterranean countries and in Egypt was derived from the
north. Along the coasts of the Baltic and North Sea the amber is washed by
the waves from the loose strata of the sea-bottom and thrown up on the
beach. When these washed-up lumps were found by the fishers and hunters of
early times they naturally attracted them by their brilliance and colour
and by the facility with which they could be cut. It is no wonder,
therefore, that amber was used as early as the Stone Age for amulets and
ornaments by the people on the Baltic and North Seas, and spread from
thence over the whole of the North. In those distant times articles of
amber were still rare in the South; but in the Bronze Age, in proportion
as gold and bronze reach the north, they become rarer there, but more
numerous farther south. In the passage-graves of Mycenæ (fourteenth to
twelfth centuries B.C.) there are many of them, as also in Sparta at the
time of the Dorian migration (twelfth to tenth centuries B.C.; cf. p. 14).
It is evident that amber was the medium of exchange wherewith the people
of the North bought the precious metals from the South, and in this way it
comes that the two classes of archæological finds have changed their
localities. The neolithic ornaments of amber at Corinth, already referred
to, the amber beads of the Fifth Dynasty in Egypt, and those of the
neolithic period in Spain, show, however, if they are northern, that this
connection between South and North goes back a very long way. But the
Greek tribes among whom the Iliad originated do not appear to have known
amber, as it is not mentioned in the poem, and it is first named in the
more recent portions of the Odyssey (put into writing in the eighth
century B.C.). Among the jewels which the Phœnician merchant offered to
the Queen of Syria was "the golden necklace hung with pieces of amber"
[Od. xv. 460]. We must therefore believe that the Phœnicians were the
middlemen from whom the Greeks obtained it at that time. But it was not so
much esteemed by the Greeks of the classical period as it became later,
and they rejected it in their art industries, for which reason it is
seldom mentioned by Greek authors. Thales of Miletus (600 B.C.) discovered
that when rubbed it attracted other bodies, and from this important
discovery made so long ago has sprung the knowledge of that force which
dominates our time, and which has been named from the Greek word for
amber, "electron."

Among the Romans of the Empire this substance was so highly prized that
Pliny tells us [xxxvii., chap. 12] that "a human likeness made of it,
however small, exceeds the price of a healthy living person." This was
both on account of its beauty and of its occult properties; when worn as
an amulet it was able to ward off secret poisons, sorcery and other evils.
It therefore naturally became an article that was in great demand, and for
which merchants made long voyages.

It has been thought that the North Sea amber came into the southern market
before that of the Baltic, and as the Eridanus of the myth was sometimes
taken for the Rhone and sometimes for the Po, it was believed that in
early times amber was carried up the Rhine and across to both these
rivers, later also up the Elbe to the Adriatic [cf. Schrader, 1901,
"Bernstein"]. It was thought that the archæological finds also favoured
this theory; but it must still be regarded as doubtful, and it is scarcely
probable that the Phœnicians obtained it from the mouths of the Rhone and
the Po, while they may have brought it by sea at an early period. By what
routes amber was distributed in the earliest times is still unknown.

Even though the Phœnicians were for the most part a commercial and
industrial people, who were not specially interested in scientific
research, there can be no doubt that by their distant voyages they
contributed much geographical knowledge to their age, and in many ways
they influenced Greek geography, especially through Miletus, which from
the beginning was partly a Phœnician colony, and where the first Greek
school of geographers, the Ionian school, developed. Thales of Miletus was
himself probably a Semite. How far they attained on their voyages is
unknown. Hitherto no certain relics of Phœnician colonies have been found
along the coasts of western Europe farther north than south-west Spain
(Tarsis), and there is no historically certain foundation for the
supposition that these seafaring merchants of antiquity, the Phœnicians,
Carthaginians and Gaditanians, on their voyages beyond the Pillars of
Hercules and northwards along the coasts of western Europe, should have
penetrated beyond the tin country and as far as the waters of northern
Europe, even to Scandinavia and the Baltic, whence they themselves might
have brought amber.[27] But a hypothesis of this sort cannot be disproved,
and is by no means improbable. Everything points to the Phœnicians having
been uncommonly capable seamen with good and swift-sailing ships; and a
seafaring people who achieved the far more difficult enterprise of
circumnavigating Africa, and of sailing southwards along its west coast
with whole fleets to found colonies, cannot have found it impossible to
sail along the west and north coast of Europe, where there are plenty of
natural harbours. It would then be natural for them to try to reach the
North Sea and the Baltic, if they expected to find the precious amber
there, and on this point they certainly had information from the merchants
who brought it either by land or by sea. It has already been remarked that
it is first mentioned in history as a Phœnician article of commerce.[28]
It may be supposed that the Phœnicians at an early period obtained amber
from their harbours on the Black Sea;[29] but after having pursued this
prosperous carrying-trade from their harbours here and in the west, it is
not improbable that they themselves tried to penetrate to the amber
countries with their ships.[30] The Phœnicians, however, tried to keep
their trade-routes secret from their dangerous and more warlike rivals the
Greeks, and it is therefore not surprising that no mention of these routes
should be extant, even if they really undertook such voyages; but it is
undeniably more remarkable still that no certain trace of them has been
found along the coasts of western Europe.

The only thing we know is that about the year 500 B.C. the Carthaginians
are said to have sent out an expedition under Himilco through the Pillars
of Hercules and thence northwards along the coast. This is the first
northern sea voyage of which mention is to be found in literature. At that
time Tyre, the mother-city of Gadir, had been destroyed. Until then she
had controlled the trade of the west. It was natural that Gadir in her
isolated position should seek support from Carthage, which was now rising
into power. To strengthen her trade communications, therefore, this
flourishing city sent out Hanno's great expedition along the west coast of
Africa, and Himilco to the tin country in the north. Himilco seems to have
written an account of the journey; but of this all that has been preserved
is a few casual pieces of information in a poem ("Ora Maritima") by the
late Roman author Rufus Festus Avienus[31] (of the end of the fourth
century A.D.). The only other place where Himilco's name is mentioned is
in Pliny [Hist. Nat. ii. 67, 169], who merely says that he made a voyage
to explore the outer coast of Europe, contemporary with Hanno's voyage to
the south along the west coast of Africa, and in addition he names him in
the list of his authorities. But Pliny himself probably never saw his
work; it cannot be seen that he has made use of it.

It is true that Avienus makes a pretence of having used Himilco's original
account, but certainly he had never seen it. He may have utilised a Greek
authority of about the time of the Christian era [cf. Marx, 1895]. This
again was a compound of Greek tales, of which a part may have been taken
from a Punic source, but of the latter no trace is found in any other
known classical writer, with the exception of Pliny. Unfortunately the
information given us by Avienus shows little intelligence in the use of
his authorities, and his poem is often obscure.

In the description of the coast of western Europe [vv. 90-129] we read:

    "And here the projecting ridge raises its head--the older age called
    it 'Œstrymnis'--and all the high mass of rocky ridge turns mostly
    towards the warm south wind. But beneath the top of this promontory
    the Œstrymnian Bay opens out before the eyes of the inhabitants. In
    the midst of this rise the islands which are called Œstrymnides,
    scattered widely about, and rich in metals, in tin and in lead. Here
    live a multitude of men with enterprise and active industry, all
    having continually commercial interests; they plough in skilful
    fashion far and wide the foaming sea ['fretum,' literally, strait],
    and the currents of monster-bearing Ocean with their small boats. For
    these people do not know how to fit together [literally, weave] keels
    of fir or maple; they do not bend their craft with deal, in the usual
    way; but strange to say, they make their ships of hides sewed
    together, and often traverse the vast sea with the help of hides. Two
    days' voyage from thence lay the great island, which the ancients
    called 'the Holy Island,'[32] and it is inhabited by the people of
    Hierne [i.e., Ireland] far and wide, and near to it again extends the
    island of Albion. And it was the custom of the men of Tartessus to
    trade to the borders of the Œstrymnides, also colonists from Carthage
    and the many who voyage between the Pillars of Hercules visited these
    seas. The Carthaginian Himilco assures us that these seas can scarcely
    be sailed through in four months, as he has himself related of his
    experience on his voyage; thus no breeze drives the ship forward, so
    dead is the sluggish wind of this idle sea. He also adds that there is
    much seaweed among the waves, and that it often holds the ship back
    like bushes. Nevertheless he says that the sea has no great depth, and
    that the surface of the earth is barely covered by a little water. The
    monsters of the sea move continually hither and thither, and the wild
    beasts swim among the sluggish and slowly creeping ships."

It may be difficult to decide how much of this is really derived from
Himilco. The name "Œstrymnis" is not found elsewhere in literature, and
may be taken from him.[33] The supposition that it was Cape Finisterre and
that the Œstrymnic Bay ("sinus Œstrymnicus") was the Bay of Biscay is
improbable; a bay so open and wide could scarcely have been described in
terms which a Latin author would have rendered by "sinus"; besides which
there would be difficulties with the Œstrymnides which were widely spread
therein. Œstrymnis is certainly in Brittany, and since it "turns chiefly
towards the warm south wind," we may suppose it to be a headland on the
south coast. That the Œstrymnic Bay opens out beneath this headland ("sub
hujus") agrees with all that we know of it. As already stated, the
tin-producing Œstrymnides are undoubtedly the Cassiterides, which may
probably be the islands in the bay by the mouth of the Vilaine and
Quiberon, on the south side of Brittany, where tin occurs.

    It is just in this district, at the mouth of the Loire, that we find
    the Veneti as the only people famous for seamanship in ancient times
    in these parts. But, according to Cæsar's valuable description, they
    had strong, seaworthy ships, built wholly of oak and with leather
    sails. This seems scarcely to tally with the statement that the people
    of the Œstrymnides sailed the sea in boats of hide, the coracles of
    the Celts, which is also confirmed by Pliny's statement [xxxiv. c. 47]
    that "according to fabulous tales tin was brought in ships of
    wicker-work sewed round with hides from islands in the Atlantic
    Ocean." Either the Veneti must have acquired the art of shipbuilding
    after the voyage of Himilco--perhaps, indeed, through their
    intercourse with Carthaginians and Gaditanians--or else we must
    believe that the statement in Avienus rests upon a misinterpretation
    of the original authorities, and that the flowery language really
    means that the ships were not built of fir, maple or spruce, but of
    oak, the omission of which is striking.

Thus a comparison of the various statements points definitely to Brittany
as the place where we must look for the tin-bearing islands. That it was
two days' voyage thence to the holy island of Hierne, and that near to it
lay the land of Albion, also agrees; but too much weight must not be laid
upon this, as we do not know for certain whether this is really derived
from Himilco.

The sea-monsters may be taken as accessories put in to make the voyage
terrible; but on the other hand they may be the great whales of the Bay of
Biscay, of which there were many in those days, before whaling was
undertaken there. The exaggerated description of the length and
difficulties of the voyage fits in badly with the information that the men
of Tartessus and the Carthaginians were in the habit of trading there. How
much of this is due to misunderstanding of the original, or to downright
interpolation, we do not know. With the universal desire of the
Carthaginians and Phœnicians to keep the monopoly of their trade-routes,
Himilco may have added this to frighten others. It is also possible that
he made a longer voyage in four months, but that Avienus's authority gave
an obscure and bungled account of it.

The description of the shallow water, and of the seaweed which holds the
ships back, etc., seems to correspond to the actual conditions. In another
part of the poem something similar occurs, where we read [v. 375]:
"Outside the Pillars of Hercules along the side of Europe the
Carthaginians once had villages and towns. They were in the habit of
building their fleets with flatter bottoms, since a broader ship could
float upon the surface of a shallower sea."[34] One is reminded of the
shallow west coast of France, where the tide lays large tracts alternately
dry (covered with seaweed) and under water, so that it might well be said
that "the surface of the earth is barely covered by a little water." Ebb
and flood were, of course, an unknown phenomenon in the Mediterranean. In
this respect also the description suits the voyage to Brittany, where the
sea is shallow. It has been asserted that the expression "seaweed among
the waves" might show that Himilco had been near to or in the Sargasso
Sea; but there is no reason whatever for supposing this; the explanation
given above is more natural, besides which the Sargasso Sea could hardly
be described as shallow and as lying on the way to Œstrymnis.[35]

On the Atlantic Ocean Avienus has the following [vv. 380-389]:

    "Farther to the west from these Pillars there is boundless sea.
    Himilco relates that the ocean extends far, none has visited these
    seas; none has sailed ships over these waters, because propelling
    winds are lacking on these deeps, and no breeze from heaven helps the
    ship. Likewise because darkness ['caligo' == darkness, usually owing
    to fog] screens the light of day with a sort of clothing, and because
    a fog always conceals the sea, and because the weather is perpetually
    cloudy with thick atmosphere."

If we may believe Avienus that this description is derived from Himilco,
it possesses great interest, since here and in the description (above) of
the voyage to Œstrymnis we find the same ideas of the western sea and of
the uttermost sea which appear later, after Pytheas's time, in the
accounts of the thick and sluggish sea without wind round Thule, and in
this case it shows that already at that early period ideas of this sort
had developed. Müllenhoff [1870, pp. 78, 93 f.], it is true, takes it for
granted that these descriptions in Avienus cannot be derived from Himilco,
but his reasons for so doing do not appear convincing. Aristotle says
["Meteorologica," ii. 1, 14] that the sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules
was muddy and shallow, and little stirred by the winds. This shows clearly
enough that ideas of that kind were current among the Greeks even before
Pytheas, and they must doubtless have got them from the Phœnicians.

That some very ancient authority is really the basis of the description of
the west coast of Europe as far as the Œstrymnides, which we find in
Avienus, is proved again by the fact that the regions farther to the north
or north-east are clearly enough represented as entirely unknown, when we
read [vv. 129-145]:

    "If any one dares to steer his boat from the Œstrymnic Islands in the
    direction where the air is cold at the axis of Lycaon,[36] he will
    arrive at the country of the Ligurians, which is void of inhabitants.
    For by the host of the Celts and by numerous battles it has lately
    been rendered void. And the expelled Ligurians came, as fate often
    drives people away, to the districts where there is hardly anything
    but bush. Many sharp stones are there in those parts, and cold rocks,
    and the mountains rise threateningly to heaven. And the refugees lived
    for a long time in narrow places among rocks away from the sea. For
    they were afraid of waves [i.e., afraid to come near the coast] by
    reason of the old danger. Later, when security had given them
    boldness, peace and quietness persuaded them to leave their high
    positions, and now they descended to places by the sea."

Müllenhoff thinks [1870, pp. 86 f.] that this mention of the expulsion of
the Ligurians by the Celts is necessarily a late addition by a man from
the district of Massalia where the Ligurians lived; but it seems more
probable that the name is here used as a common designation for the
pre-Celtic people who dwelt in these north-western regions; and if it is
the north side of Brittany which is here spoken of, the Ligurians of
southern Gaul will not be so far away after all. It is clear that in
ancient times the people of west and north-west Europe were called
"Ligyans." Hesiod mentioned them as the people of the west in
contradistinction to the Scythians of the east [cf. Strabo, vii. 300], and
in the legend of Phaëthon occurs the Ligyan king Cycnus at the mouth of
the amber-producing river Eridanus, which doubtless was originally
supposed to fall into the sea on the north or north-west. We may interpret
it as meaning that the aborigines, Ligyans or Ligurians, were driven by
the immigrant Celts up into the bush-covered mountainous parts of
Brittany. In any case this passage in Avienus, which assumes that the
districts farther north are unknown, is a strong proof that his
information is ancient and derived from Himilco, and that the latter
penetrated as far as the north coast of Brittany, or the south of Britain,
but no farther.


CHAPTER II

PYTHEAS OF MASSALIA

THE VOYAGE TO THULE


Among all the vague and fabulous ideas about the North that prevailed in
antiquity, the name of Pytheas stands out as the only one who gives us a
firmer foothold. By his extraordinary voyage (or voyages ?) this eminent
astronomer and geographer, of the Phocæan colony of Massalia (now
Marseilles), contributed a knowledge of the northern countries based upon
personal experience, and set his mark more or less upon all that was known
of the farthest north for the next thousand or fifteen hundred years. Even
though later writers like Polybius and Strabo declared themselves
unwilling to believe in his "incredible" statements, they could not
neglect him.[37]

Pytheas wrote at least one work, which, if we may believe Geminus of
Rhodes, was called "On the Ocean"; but all his writings have been lost for
ages, and we only know him through chance quotations in much later
authors (chiefly Strabo and Pliny) who have not even read his work
themselves, but quote at second hand; and several of them (especially
Polybius and Strabo) tried to represent him as an impostor and laid stress
upon what they thought would make him ridiculous and lessen his
reputation.[38] The scraps of information we possess about him and his
voyages have thus come down on the stream of time as chance wreckage,
partly distorted and perverted by hostile forces. It is too much to hope
that from such fragments we may be able to form a trustworthy idea of the
original work, but nevertheless from the little we know there arises a
figure which in strength, intelligence, and bold endurance far surpasses
the discoverers of most periods.

Of Pytheas's personal circumstances we have no certain information, and we
do not even know when he lived. As he was unknown to Aristotle, but was
known to his pupil Dicæarchus (who died about 285 B.C.), he was probably a
contemporary of Aristotle and Alexander, and his voyage may have been
undertaken about 330-325 B.C. So little do we know about the voyage that
doubts have been raised as to whether it was really a sea-voyage, or
whether a great part of it did not lie overland. Nor do we know whether
Pytheas made one or several long journeys to the North. According to a
statement of Polybius, Pytheas was a poor man: for he finds it (according
to Strabo, ii. 104) "incredible that it should be possible for a private
individual without means to accomplish journeys of such wide extent." If
it be true that he was poor, which is uncertain, we must doubtless suppose
that Pytheas either had command of a public expedition, fitted out by the
merchants of the enterprising city of Massalia, or that he accompanied
such an expedition as an astronomer and explorer. At that time the city
was at the height of its prosperity, after it had expelled the
Carthaginians, as the result of the successful war with them, from the
rich fisheries of the Iberian coast, and had also succeeded in
establishing commercial relations there, whereby its ships were able to
sail out beyond the Pillars of Hercules; a thing which cannot have been so
easy for them during the former sea-supremacy of Carthage in the western
Mediterranean, which was re-established in 306 B.C., whereby the western
ocean again became more or less closed to the Massalians. It is very
probable that the flourishing city of Massalia desired to send out an
expedition to find the sea-route to the outer coasts of the continent,
from whence it was known that the two important articles of commerce, tin
and amber, were obtained. But it is evident that Pytheas had more than
this business motive for his journey. From all that we know it appears
that with him too the object was to reach the most northern point
possible, in order to find out how far the "œcumene" extended, to
determine the position of the Arctic Circle and the Pole, and to see the
light northern nights and the midnight sun, which to the Greeks of that
time was so remarkable a phenomenon.

We know that Pytheas was an eminent astronomer. He was the first in
history to introduce astronomical measurements for ascertaining the
geographical situation of a place; and this by itself is enough to give
him a prominent position among the geographers of all times.

By means of a great gnomon he determined, with surprising accuracy, the
latitude of his own city, Massalia,[39] which formed the starting-point of
his journey, and in relation to which he laid down the latitude of more
northerly places.

Pytheas also made other astronomical measurements which show him to have
been a remarkably good observer. He found that the pole of the heavens did
not coincide, as the earlier astronomer Eudoxus had supposed, with any
star; but that it made an almost regular rectangle with three stars lying
near it.[40] The pole of the heavens was naturally of consequence to
Pytheas, who steered by the stars; but it is nevertheless striking that he
should have considered it necessary to measure it with such accuracy, if
he had not some other object in doing so. He may have required the pole
for the adjustment of the equinoctial sun-dial ("polus"), whose pointers
had to be parallel with the axis of the heavens;[41] but it is also
possible that he had discovered that by measuring the altitude of the
pole above the horizon he obtained directly the latitude of the spot on
the earth, and that this was a simpler method of determining the latitude
than by measuring the altitude of the sun by a gnomon. Nor is it likely
that he possessed the requisite knowledge for calculating gnomon
measurements unless they were taken either at the solstice or the equinox.
To judge by quotations in various authors he must have given the latitude
of several places in numbers of parts of a circle north of Massalia.[42]
These results of his may perhaps be partly based on measurements of the
polar altitude. Whether Pytheas was acquainted with any instrument for the
measurement of angles we do not know; but it is not unlikely, since even
the Chaldeans appear to have invented a kind of parallactic rule, which
was improved upon by the Alexandrians, and was called by the Romans
"triquetrum" (regula Ptolemaica). The instrument resembled a large pair of
compasses with long straight rods for legs, and the angle was determined
by measuring, in measure of length, the distance between these two
legs.[43] As the pole of the heavens did not coincide with any star,
such measurements cannot have been very accurate, unless Pytheas took the
trouble to measure a circumpolar star in its upper and lower culmination;
or, indeed, in only one of them, for he may easily have found the distance
of the star from the pole by his earlier observations to determine the
position of the pole itself. It is also quite possible that by the aid of
the rectangle formed by the pole with three stars, he was able to obtain
an approximate measurement of the altitude of the pole. Another indication
used by the Greeks to obtain the latitude of a place was the length of its
longest day. To determine this Pytheas may have used the equinoctial dial
("polus"), or the water-clock, the "clepsydra" of the Greeks.

It is not known what kind of ship he had for his voyage; but if it was
equal to the best that Massalia at that time could afford, it may well
have been a good sea-craft. As it was necessary to be prepared for
hostilities on the part of the Carthaginians and Gaditanians, he doubtless
had a warship (longship), which sailed faster than the broader
merchantmen, and which could also be rowed by one or more banks of oars.
It may have been considerably over 100 feet long, and far larger than
those in which later the Norsemen crossed the Atlantic. It has been
asserted that Pytheas must have gone on foot for the greater part of his
journey, since, according to Strabo [ii. 104], he is said to have stated
"not only that he had visited the whole of Britain on foot, but he also
gives its circumference as more than 40,000 stadia." But, as Professor Alf
Torp has pointed out to me, it is not stated that he "traversed" it, but
"visited" it on foot. The meaning must be that he put in at many places on
the coast, and made longer or shorter excursions into the country. That a
man should be able to traverse such great distances alone on foot, through
the roadless and forest-clad countries of that period, seems impossible.

We do not know what previous knowledge Pytheas may have had about the
regions visited by him; but it is probable that he had heard of the tin
country through the merchants who brought the tin overland through Gaul
and down the Rhone to Massalia. In a similar way he had certainly also
heard of the amber country. Besides this, he may have been acquainted with
the trading voyages of the Phœnicians and Carthaginians along the west
coast of Europe, and with the voyage of Himilco. Although it is true that
the Phœnician sailors tried to keep the secret of their routes from
their dangerous rivals the Greeks and Massalians, they cannot have been
altogether successful in the long run, whether their intercourse was
hostile or friendly; a few sailor prisoners would have been enough to
bring the information.

When Pytheas sailed out through the Pillars of Hercules he soon arrived,
in passing the Sacred Promontory (Cape St. Vincent), at the limit of the
world as known to the Greeks. He sailed northward along the west and north
coast of Iberia (Portugal and Spain). He made observations of the tides,
that remarkable phenomenon to a man from the Mediterranean, and their
cause, and was the first Greek to connect them with the moon. He proceeded
farther north, and found that the north-western part of Celtica (Gaul)
formed a peninsula, Cabæum (Brittany), where the Ostimians lived. He
supposed that it extended farther west than Cape Finisterre; but errors of
that sort are easily understood at a time when no means existed of
determining longitude.

Farther north he came to Brettanice (Britain), which he appears to have
circumnavigated. The Sicilian historian Diodorus, an elder contemporary of
Strabo, says [v. 21]: "Britain is triangular in form like Sicily; but the
sides are not of equal length; the nearest promontory is Kantion [Kent],
and according to what is reported it is 100 stadia distant (from the
continent). The second promontory is Belerion [Cornwall], which is said to
be four days' sail from the continent. The third lies towards the sea
[i.e., towards the north] and is called Orkan.[44] Of the three sides
the one which runs parallel to Europe is the shortest, 7500 stadia; the
second, which extends from the place of crossing [Kent] to the point
[i.e., Orkan], is 15,000 stadia; but the last is 20,000 stadia, so that
the circumference amounts to 42,500 stadia."

These statements must originally have been due to Pytheas, even though
Diodorus has taken them at second hand (perhaps from Timæus). But Pytheas
cannot very well have acquired such an idea of the shape of the island
without having sailed round it. It is true that the estimate attributed to
him of the island's circumference is more than double the reality,[45] a
discrepancy which is adduced by Strabo as a proof that Pytheas was a
liar;[46] but neither Strabo nor Diodorus was acquainted with his own
description, and there are many indications that the exaggeration cannot
be attributed to himself, but to a later writer, probably Timæus. Pytheas
in his work can only have stated how many days he took to sail along the
coasts, and his day's sail in those unknown waters was certainly a short
one. But the uncritical Timæus, who was moreover a historian and not a
geographer, may, according to the custom of his time, have converted
Pytheas's day's journeys into stadia at the usual equation of 1000 stadia
(about 100 geographical miles) for one day's sailing.[47] Timæus served to
a great extent as the authority for later authors who have mentioned
Pytheas, and it is probably through him that the erroneous information as
to the circumference of Britain reached Polybius, Strabo, Diodorus,
Pliny, and Solinus. In this way geographical explorers may easily have
gross errors attributed to them, when their original observations are
lost.

From statements of Hipparchus, preserved by Strabo [ii. 71, 74, 75, 115,
125, 134], we may conclude that Pytheas obtained astronomical data at
various spots in Britain and Orkan. Hipparchus has made use of these in
his tables of climate, and he was able from them to point out that the
longest day in the most northern part of Britain was of eighteen
equinoctial hours,[48] and in an inhabited country, which according to
Pytheas lay farther north than Britain, the longest day was of nineteen
equinoctial hours. If the length of day is fixed in round numbers of
hours, a longest day of eighteen hours fits the northernmost part of
Scotland,[49] while the country still farther north with a longest day of
nineteen hours agrees exactly with Shetland.[50] These data are important,
as they show that Pytheas must have been in the most northerly parts of
the British Isles, and reached Shetland.[51]

But the bold and hardy explorer does not seem to have stopped here. He
continued his course northward over the ocean, and came to the uttermost
region, "Thule," which was the land of the midnight sun, "where the tropic
coincides with the Arctic Circle."[52]

On this section of Pytheas's voyage Geminus of Rhodes (1st century B.C.)
has an important quotation in his Astronomy [vi. 9]. After mentioning that
the days get longer the farther north one goes, he continues:

    To these regions [i.e., to the north] the Massalian Pytheas seems also
    to have come. He says at least in his treatise "On the Ocean": "the
    Barbarians showed us the place where the sun goes to rest. For it was
    the case that in these parts the nights were very short, in some
    places two, in others three hours long, so that the sun rose again a
    short time after it had set."

The name of Thule is not mentioned, but that must be the country in
question. It does not appear from this whether Pytheas himself thought
that the shortest night of the year was of two or three hours, or whether
that was the length of the night at the time he happened to be at these
places; but the first case is doubtless the more probable. At any rate
Geminus seems to have understood him thus, since in the passage
immediately preceding he is speaking of the regions where the longest day
is of seventeen or eighteen hours, and he goes on to speak of those where
the longest day is of twenty-three hours. If on the other hand it is the
length of the night at the time Pytheas was there that is meant, then it
seems strange that he should require to be shown by the barbarians where
the sun rose and set, which he could just as well have seen for himself;
for it is scarcely credible that after having journeyed so far his stay
should have been so brief that the sky was overcast the whole time.[53]

If the longest day of the year was determined by direct observations of
the points at which the sun first appeared and finally disappeared in
places with a free horizon to the north, then days of twenty-one and
twenty-two hours at that time will answer to 63° 39' and 64° 39' N. lat.
Calculated theoretically, from the centre of the sun and without taking
refraction into account, they will be 64° 32' and 65° 31' N. lat.
respectively.[54]

In addition to this there are two things to be remarked in the passage
quoted in Geminus. First, that the country spoken of by Pytheas was
inhabited (by barbarians). Secondly, that he himself must have been there
with his expedition, for he says that "the barbarians showed us," etc.
Consequently he cannot, as some writers think, have reported merely what
he had heard from others about this country (Thule). Statements in Strabo
also show clearly that Pytheas referred to Thule as inhabited.

Other pieces of information derived from Pytheas establish consistently
that Thule extended northwards as far as the Arctic Circle. Eratosthenes,
Strabo, Pomponius Mela, Pliny, Cleomedes, Solinus, and others, all have
statements which show clearly that Pytheas described Thule as the land of
the midnight sun.

If we now sum up what is known of Pytheas's voyage to the North, we shall
find that it all hangs well together: he first came to the north of
Scotland, where the longest day was of eighteen hours, thence to Shetland
with a longest day of nineteen hours, and then to a land beyond all,
Thule, where the longest day was in one place twenty-one hours and in
another twenty-two, and which extended northwards as far as the midnight
sun and the Arctic Circle (at that time in 66° 15' N. lat.). There is
nothing intrinsically impossible in the supposition that this remarkable
explorer, who besides being an eminent astronomer must have been a capable
seaman, had heard in the north of Scotland of an inhabited country still
farther to the north, and then wished to visit this also. We must remember
how, as an astronomer, he was specially interested in determining the
extent of the "œcumene" on the north, and in seeing with his own eyes
the remarkable phenomena of northern latitudes, in particular the midnight
sun. It is not surprising that he was prepared to risk much to attain this
end; and he had already shown by his voyage to the northernmost point of
Britain that he was an explorer of more than ordinary boldness, and equal
to the task.

Nevertheless it has seemed incredible to many--not only in antiquity, but
in our own time as well--that Pytheas should have penetrated not only so
far into the unknown as to the islands north of Scotland, but that he
should have ventured yet farther into the absolutely unexplored Northern
Ocean, and found an extreme country beyond this. He would thus have
pushed back the limit of the learned world's knowledge from the south
coast of Britain to the Arctic Circle, or about sixteen degrees farther
north. As a feat of such daring and endurance has appeared superhuman, a
great deal of ingenuity has been employed, especially by Müllenhoff [1870,
i., pp. 392 f.], to prove that Thule was Shetland, that Pytheas himself
did not get farther than the Orkneys or the north of Scotland, and that he
heard from the natives of the country still farther north, which he never
saw. But in order to do this almost all the statements that have been
preserved on this part of Pytheas's voyage must be arbitrarily distorted;
and to alter or explain away one's authorities so as to make them fit a
preconceived opinion is an unfortunate proceeding. Unless, like Polybius
and Strabo, we are willing to declare the whole to be a freely imaginative
work, which however is remarkably consistent, we must try to draw our
conclusions from the statements in the authorities as they stand, and in
that case it must for the following reasons be regarded as impossible that
Thule means Shetland:

(1) It is improbable that (as Müllenhoff asserts) so capable an astronomer
as Pytheas should have made a mistake of several hours when he gave the
length of the night as two or three hours. There is little intrinsic
probability in the conjecture that he had overcast weather all the time he
was in the north of Scotland and Orkney, and therefore relied on the
approximate statements of the natives, which he did not fully understand,
and which when translated into Greek measures of time might produce gross
errors. But it is worse when we look at it in connection with Hipparchus's
statements from Pytheas, that in Britain the longest day was of eighteen
hours, and nineteen hours in a region (i.e., Shetland) farther north,
where the sun at the winter solstice stood less than three cubits above
the horizon. Unless he has given the latter region a long extension to the
north, he must have made several conflicting statements about the same
region. It will be seen that this leads us to a violent and arbitrary
alteration of the whole system of information, which is otherwise
consistent.

(2) The assertion that Pytheas did not himself say that he had been in the
country where the night was two and three hours long, conflicts with the
words of Geminus. Cleomedes also tells us that Pytheas is said to have
been in Thule.

(3) The definite statements in a majority of the authorities that Thule
lay within the Arctic Circle and was the land of the midnight sun, also
exclude the Shetland Isles. The astronomer Pytheas cannot have been so far
mistaken as to the latitude of these islands.

(4) That it was six days' sail to Thule from Britain[55] will not suit
Shetland, even if we make allowance for the frequently obscure statements
as to the day's journeys that are attributed to Pytheas (e.g., by Strabo).

(5) That Strabo in one place [ii. 114] calls Thule "the northernmost of
the British Isles" cannot be used, as Müllenhoff uses it, as a proof of
its belonging to these islands and having a Celtic population. There is
not a word to this effect. To Strabo, who also placed Ierne (Ireland) out
in the sea north of Britain, it must have been natural to call all the
islands in that part of the world British. Indeed, he says himself in the
same breath that Thule, according to Pytheas, lay within the Arctic
Circle. How little weight he attached to the expression British is
additionally apparent from another passage [ii. 75], where he says that
"Hipparchus, relying on Pytheas, placed these inhabited regions [Shetland]
farther north than Britain."

(6) Pliny [Nat. Hist. iv. 104] mentions among islands north of Britain as
"the greatest of all, 'Berricen,' which is the starting-place for Thule."
Berricen, which in some MSS. is written "Nerigon," has been taken for
Mainland of Shetland,[56] while others have seen in the form Nerigon the
first appearance in literature of the name of Norway ("Noregr"),[57]
though with doubtful justification, since this name was hardly in
existence at that time. But whether the island be Shetland or Norway, this
passage in Pliny puts Thule outside the Scottish islands. And the
reference to that country makes it probable that the statements, in part
at any rate, are derived from Pytheas.

(7) Finally, it may perhaps be pointed out that Thule is nowhere referred
to as a group of islands; the name rather suggests the idea of a
continuous land or a single island. To this it may be objected that
neither is Orkan referred to as an archipelago in the oldest authorities;
but it is uncertain whether in Pytheas, as in Diodorus, Orkan was not used
of the northern point of Brettanice, and only later transferred to the
islands lying to the north of this. Thule, on the other hand, always
appears as a land far out in the ocean, and it is moreover uncertain
whether Pytheas ever expressly described it as an island.

But if none of the statements about Thule answers to Shetland, it becomes
a question where we are to look for this country.[58] The Irish monk
Dicuil, who wrote about 825 A.D., regarded it as self-evident that
Iceland, which had then been discovered by Irish monks, must be Thule, and
called it so. After him Adam of Bremen and many others have looked upon
Iceland as the Thule of the ancients. The objections to this hypothesis
are: first, that Thule was inhabited (cf. Geminus, Strabo, and others, see
pp. 54-55), while Iceland probably was not at that time. Even in Dicuil's
time only a few monks seem to have lived there (see below on the discovery
of Iceland). Nor is it likely that Pytheas should have continued his
voyage at haphazard across the ocean, unless he had heard that he would
find land in that direction. To this must be added that Iceland lies so
far away that the distance of six days' sail will not suit it at all.
Finally, if Pytheas had sailed northward at haphazard from Scotland or
from Shetland, the least likely thing to happen was for him to be carried
towards Iceland; neither the currents nor the prevailing winds bear in
that direction; but, on the other hand, they would carry him towards
Norway, and it would be natural for him to make the land there, perhaps
just between 63° and 64° N. lat. or thereabouts.

All the statements about Thule which have been preserved answer to
Norway,[59] but to no other country; and even if it may seem a bold idea
that there should be communication over the North Sea between the Scottish
islands and Norway 300 years before Christ, or 1000 years before the age
of the Vikings, we are compelled to accept it, if we are to rely upon our
authorities as they stand, without arbitrarily altering them; and Pytheas
will then be the first man in history to sail over the North Sea and
arrive on our coasts.[60]

That Thule, according to Strabo, lies six days' sail "north of" Brettanice
is no objection to its being Norway. "North of" can only mean "farther
north than," in the same way that Brittany and places in Britain are
described as being so many stadia north of Massalia. It also looks as
though Eratosthenes, according to the latitudes and distances which he has
taken from Pytheas, actually puts Thule to the north-east of Britain (see
his map, p. 49), or precisely where Norway lies. Besides, Pytheas had no
means of determining his course in overcast weather, or of fixing the
longitude, for which reasons he supposed, for instance, that Cabæum (the
extreme point of Brittany) lay farther west than Cape Finisterre.

That Thule is often referred to as an island by later authors is of little
weight. In the first place we do not know whether Pytheas himself so
described it; according to all the geographical ideas of the ancients
about the north a land in the ocean farther north than the British Isles
must necessarily have been an island, even if Pytheas did not say so. In
the next place, if a traveller sails northwards, as he did, from one
island to another, and then steers a course over the sea from Shetland and
arrives at a country still farther north, it would be unlikely that he
should believe himself back again on the continent. Besides, Pytheas made
another voyage eastwards along the north coast of Germany, past the mouth
of the Elbe, and then he had the sea always to the north of him in the
direction of his Thule. In order to discover that this land was connected
with the continent, he would have had to sail right up into the Gulf of
Bothnia. It would therefore have been illogical of Pytheas if he had not
conceived Thule as a great island, as in fact it was spoken of later. It
is mentioned indeed as the greatest of all islands. When the Romans first
heard of Sweden or Scandinavia (Skåne) in the Baltic, they likewise called
it an island, and so it was long thought to be.

According to what has been advanced above we must then believe that
Pytheas had already received information in northern Brettanice or in the
Scottish islands about Thule or Norway across the sea. But from this it
follows that in his time, or more than a thousand years before the
beginning of the Viking age, there must have been communication by sea
between North Britain and Norway. It may seem that this is putting back
the Norsemen's navigation of the high seas to a very remote period; but as
we shall see in a later chapter on the voyages of the Norsemen, there are
good reasons for thinking that their seafaring is of very ancient date.

Pytheas may have sailed from Shetland with a south-westerly wind and a
favourable current towards the north-east, and have arrived off the coast
of Norway in the Romsdal or Nordmöre district, where the longest day of
the year was of twenty-one hours, and where there is a free outlook over
the sea to the north, so that the barbarians may well have shown him where
the sun went to rest. From here he may then have sailed northwards along
the coast of Helgeland, perhaps far enough to enable him to see the
midnight sun, somewhere north of Dönna or Bodö; this depends upon how
early in the summer he reached there. On midsummer night he would have
been able to see a little of the midnight sun even at about 65-1/2° N.
lat.; or south of Vega.[61]

It is nowhere expressly stated that Pytheas himself saw the midnight sun;
but a passage in Pomponius Mela [iii. 6, 57] may perhaps point to this. He
says of Thule: "but at the summer solstice there is no night there, since
the sun then no longer shows merely a reflection, but also the greater
part of itself." It is most reasonable to suppose that this statement is
due to actual observation; for if it were only a theoretical conclusion it
seems extraordinary that he should not rather mention that the whole of
the sun is above the horizon in northern regions, which was clearly enough
grasped long before his time (cf. for instance Geminus of Rhodes). Now it
may, of course, be thought that such an observation was made by people who
came from northernmost Europe later than Pytheas's time and before Mela
wrote; but so long as we do not know of any such authority it is doubtless
more reasonable to suppose that like so many other pieces of information
it is derived from Pytheas.

Strabo has a statement about what Pytheas said of the peoples of the
northernmost regions. In a special section wherein he is speaking of
Thule, and, as usual, trying to cast suspicion on Pytheas's veracity, he
says:

    "Yet as far as celestial phenomena and mathematical calculations are
    concerned, he seems to have handled these subjects fairly well. [Thus
    he says not inappropriately that] in the regions near the cold zone
    the finer fruits are lacking and there are few animals, and that the
    people live on millet [i.e., oats] and other things, especially green
    vegetables, wild fruits and roots; but among those that have corn and
    honey they make a drink thereof. But because they have no clear
    sunshine they thresh the corn in large buildings after the ears have
    been brought thither; for it becomes spoilt on the open
    threshing-floors by reason of the want of sunshine and the heavy
    showers."

As Diodorus [v. 21] says something similar about the harvest in Britain,
it seems possible that Strabo is here thinking rather of what Pytheas had
said in a more general way about the peoples near the cold regions, than
of his observations on the actual inhabitants of Thule, though, as already
remarked, the passage occurs in a section devoted to the latter. The
mention of honey may strengthen this view; for even though bee-keeping is
now practised in Norway as far north as Hedemarken, and also on the west
coast, it is doubtful whether such was the case at that time, though it is
not impossible. That wild honey is alluded to, or honey imported from
abroad, is improbable.

In the MSS. of Solinus there is a statement about the people of Thule
which will be referred to later. Even if the passage were genuine it could
hardly, as some have thought, be derived from Pytheas; in any case it does
not agree with what he is said by Strabo to have related of the people of
the North. In particular it may be pointed out that while the inhabitants
of Thule according to the Solinus MSS. lived principally as herdsmen, and
are not spoken of as agriculturists, Strabo says nothing about cattle, but
on the contrary calls them tillers of the soil. In both accounts they also
live on herbs and wild fruits; but, in spite of that, these two passages
cannot be derived from the same description. It is true that Strabo was
not acquainted with Pytheas's original work, in which other northern
peoples may have been referred to; but this is not very likely.

Most writers have thought that Pytheas completed his voyage in
comparatively few months, and that he was only some few days in Thule;
while others have considered that he spent many years over it.[62] There
is no cogent reason for assuming this. As regards the first hypothesis, it
is by no means impossible that he should have sailed from Spain to
Helgeland in Norway and back again in one summer. But as the greater part
of the voyage lay through unknown regions, and as he frequently stopped to
investigate the country and the people, he cannot have proceeded very
rapidly. To this must probably be added that he often had to barter with
the natives to obtain the necessary provisions, since he certainly cannot
have carried stores for so long a time. It therefore seems doubtful
whether he was ready to return the same summer or autumn, and it is more
reasonable to suppose that he wintered at some place on the way.

Whether it be Thule or Britain that is referred to in the passage quoted
above from Strabo, it seems to imply that he was in one of these countries
at the harvest, and saw there the gathering in of the corn; but, of
course, there is also the possibility that the people may have told him
about it (through interpreters): and more than that we can scarcely say.
It might be objected that if Pytheas had spent a winter in Norway it is
probable that he would have furnished many details, remarkable at that
time, about the northern winter, of which we hear nothing in any of our
authors. But it must always be remembered how utterly casual and defective
are the quotations from him which have been preserved, and how little we
know of what he really related.

Pytheas also furnished information about the sea on the other side of
Thule. This may be concluded from the following passages in particular:

Strabo says [i. 63]: "Thule, which Pytheas says lies six days' sail north
of Brettanice, and is near to the congealed sea (πεπηγοια θαλαττα, i.e.,
the Polar Sea)."

Pliny [iv. 16 (30)]: "After one day's sail from Thule the frozen sea
('mare concretum') is reached, called by some 'Cronium.'"[63]

Solinus [22, 11]: "Beyond[64] Thule we meet with the sluggish and
congealed sea ('pigrum et concretum mare')."

Finally we have a well-known passage in Strabo [ii. 104] which says that
Pytheas asserted that in addition to having visited the whole of Britain
...

    "He had also undertaken investigations concerning Thule and those
    regions, in which there was no longer any distinction of land or sea
    or air, but a mixture of the three like sea-lung, in which he says
    that land and sea and everything floats, and this [i.e., the mixture]
    binds all together, and can neither be traversed on foot nor by boat.
    The substance resembling lung he has seen himself, as he says; the
    rest he relates according to what he has heard. This is Pytheas's
    tale, and he adds that when he returned here, he visited the whole
    ocean coast of Europe from Gadeira to Tanais."

This much-disputed description of the sea beyond Thule has first passed
through Polybius, who did not believe in Pytheas and tried to throw
ridicule upon him. Whether Polybius obtained it directly, or at second
hand through some older writer, we do not know. From him it came down to
Strabo, who had as little belief in it, and was, moreover, liable to
misunderstand and to be hasty in his quotations. The passage is evidently
torn from its context and has been much abbreviated in order to accentuate
its improbability. It is, therefore, impossible to decide what Pytheas
himself said. As it has come down to us the passage is extremely obscure,
and it does not even appear clearly how much Pytheas asserted that he had
himself seen, and how much he had heard; whether he had only heard of the
stiffened and congealed sea (the Polar Sea), while he had really seen the
condition that he compared to a lung. As to the meaning of this word there
have been many and very different guesses. Some have thought that a common
jelly-fish may have been called a sea-lung in the Mediterranean countries
at that time, in analogy to its German designation, "Meerlunge." It may
also be thought that Pytheas merely wished to describe a spongy, soft
mass, like an ordinary lung.[65] In both cases the description may mean a
gelatinous or pulpy mass, and what Pytheas himself saw may have been the
ice sludge in the sea which is formed over a great extent along the edge
of the drift ice, when this has been ground to a pulp by the action of
waves. The expression "can neither be traversed on foot nor by boat" is
exactly applicable to this ice-sludge. If we add to this the thick fog,
which is often found near drift ice, then the description that the air is
also involved in the mixture, and that land and sea and everything is
merged in it, will appear very graphic. But that Pytheas should have been
far enough out in the sea north of Norway to have met with drift ice is
scarcely credible.[66] If, on the other hand, he wintered in Norway, he
may well have seen something similar on a small scale. Along the Norwegian
coast, in the Skagerak, there may be ice and ice-sludge enough in the late
winter, and in the fjords as well; but in that case it is probable that he
would also have seen solid ice in the fjords, and would have been able to
give a clearer description of the whole, which would have left no room for
such misunderstandings on the part of Polybius and Strabo. It may also
appear unlikely that Pytheas should not have known ice before; he must,
one would think, have seen it on pools of water in the winter even in
Massalia, and from the Black Sea ice was, of course, well known to the
Greeks. But then it is strange that he should have given such an obscure
description of such a condition, and have said that the land was also
involved in the mixture; unless we are to regard the whole passage as
figurative, in which case the word land may be taken as an expression for
the solid as opposed to the liquid form (the sea) and the gaseous (the
air).

It appears most probable that Pytheas himself never saw the Polar Sea, but
heard something about it from the natives,[67] and his description of the
outer ocean has then been coloured by older Greek, or even Phœnician,
ideas.[68] It may suggest the old conception, which we find even in Homer,
that at the extreme limits of the world heaven, earth, ocean, and Tartarus
meet. To this may possibly have been added Platonic ideas of an
amalgamation of the elements, earth, sea, and air; and this may have led
to a general supposition that in the outer ocean everything was merged in
a primeval chaos which was neither solid, liquid, nor gaseous. It is
further legitimate to suppose that Pytheas in the course of his voyage in
northern waters may have thought in some way or other that he had found
indications of such a state of things as pointed out by Kähler [1903], for
example, when he arrived at the flat coasts of Holland and North Germany
(die Wattenzone), where the sea at high water pours in over the swampy
land through a network of innumerable channels, which might suggest the
idea of a lung, and where the peat bogs are sometimes impossible to
traverse, being neither land nor sea. If Pytheas said that this was like a
lung, he can only have used the word as a figure of speech, for it is
incredible that he should have really regarded this as the lung of the
sea, whose breathing was the ebb and flood, as he had discovered the
connection between the tides and the moon.

Other interpretations are also possible; but as we do not know what
Pytheas really said, a true solution of the riddle is unattainable, and it
is vain to speculate further upon it. In any case one thing is certain:
his description of the outer ocean gave rise to an idea in the minds of
others that it was sluggish and stiffened, or congealed, a conception
which is current with most later authors who have written on it, far down
into the Middle Ages. It is the same idea which we recognise as the
congealed ("geliberôt") sea in the "Meregarto" and under the name of
"Lebermeer" in German mediæval poetry, "la mar betée" in French, and "la
mar betada" in Provençal poetry. Seafaring peoples between the Red and the
Yellow Seas have similar tales,[69] but whether they are due to Greek
influence or the reverse is not easy to decide.

Since Pytheas, as mentioned above, was probably acquainted with both the
east and west coasts of Britain, we must assume either that on his way
back from Norway he sailed southwards along the side which he had not seen
on his voyage northwards, or else that he made more than one voyage to
Britain. From Strabo (see above, p. 66) we know that Pytheas also asserted
that he had visited "the whole ocean coast of Europe from Gadeira to
Tanais," and that he had furnished information "about the Ostiæi[70] and
the countries beyond the Rhine as far as the Scythians," all of which
Strabo looks upon as imaginary. As Thule is never alluded to as lying
north of these regions, but always as north of Britain, we cannot believe
that he went straight from Norway south or south-eastwards to Jutland or
the north coast of Germany. The meaning of Strabo's words must be that he
claimed to have sailed along the west and north-west coast of Europe
(which looks towards the ocean) as far as the borders of Asia, since
Tanais (the Don) was generally used as defining the frontier of the two
continents.

We do not know when Pytheas undertook this voyage; but the passage quoted
from Strabo [ii. 104] points to some time after the journey to Thule.
There is no sufficient reason for believing that it was all accomplished
at one time, or even in one year, as some will have it. It is more
probable that a discoverer and explorer like Pytheas made several voyages,
according as he had opportunity; and the rich commercial city of Massalia
was greatly interested in the communications with the tin and amber
countries, and in hearing about them.

On his voyage along the coast beyond the Rhine, Pytheas must have come to
an island where there was amber, for according to Pliny [Nat. Hist.,
xxxvii. 2, 11]: "Pytheas relates that the 'Gutones,' a Germanic people,
dwelt on a bay of the sea ('æstuarium') called 'Metuonidis,'[71] the
extent of which was 6000 stadia. From thence it was one day's sail to the
island of 'Abalus.' Here in the spring the waves cast up amber, which is
washed out of the congealed sea ['mare concretum,' the Polar Sea]. The
natives use it instead of wood for fire, and sell it to the neighbouring
Teutons. This was also believed by Timæus, but he calls the island
'Basilia.'"

It is possible that this island, Abalus, is the same as the amber island
mentioned in another passage of Pliny [iv. 13, 27], where he says of the
Scythian coast that there are reports of "many islands without a name, and
Timæus relates that among them is one off Scythia, a day's sail away,
which is called 'Baunonia,' and on which the waves cast up amber in the
springtime." In any case they are both mentioned in very similar terms
[cf. Hergt, 1893, pp. 31 f.]. In the same place we read that "Xenophon, of
Lampsacus [about 100 B.C.], mentions that three days' sail from the
Scythian coast there is an island called 'Balcia,' of immense size.
Pythias calls it 'Basilia.'" This conflicts with the passage quoted above
from Pliny, and here there must be a misunderstanding or confusion of some
kind, either on the part of Pliny or of his authority. A possible
explanation may be that Pytheas referred to his island of Abalus as a
βασιλεια νησος, i.e., an island with a king [cf. Detlefsen, 1904, p. 18].
This would agree with the statement of Diodorus Siculus (1st century B.C.)
[v. 23], which he gives without quoting any authority: "Just opposite
Scythia, above Galatia [Gaul], an island lies in the ocean called
'Basilia'; upon it amber is cast up by the waves, which is otherwise not
found in any place on the earth." It is probable that this is taken from
Timæus and originally derived from Pytheas, and that the island is the
same as Abalus. It is to be noticed that in Pytheas's time the name
Germania was not yet used; northern Europe, east of the Rhine, was counted
as Scythia, whereas the name Germania was well known in the time of
Diodorus.

Pytheas may also have heard of, or visited, a country or a large island
(Jutland ?), which lay three days' sail from the coast he was sailing
along, and he may likewise have referred to it as a king's island
(βασιλεια). Timæus, or others, may have taken this for a name, both for
Abalus and for this larger and more distant island, which has later been
assumed to be the same as Balcia, a name that may be derived either from
Pytheas or from some later writer.

As the Gutones resemble the Gytoni (Goths) of Tacitus, who lived on the
Vistula, and as further Basilia and Balcia were the same country, the name
of which was connected with that of the Baltic Sea, and as this country
was identified with the south of Sweden, it was thought that Pytheas must
have been in the amber country on the south coast of the Baltic, and even
in Skåne. This view may appear to be supported by the fact that Strabo
says he lied about the "Ostiæi," who might then be the Esthonians. But as
already remarked this word may be an error for "Ostimians"; and Gutones
may further be an error for Teutones, since a carelessly written Τευ may
easily be read as Γου [cf. Hergt, 1893, p. 33], and immediately afterwards
it is stated that the Teutones (not Gutones) lived near Abalus. Whether
Pytheas really mentioned "Balcia" or "Baltia" is, as already remarked,
extremely doubtful; but even if he did so, and even if it lay in the
Baltic, it is not certain that he was there, and he may only have been
told about it. We need not therefore believe that he went farther than the
coast of the North Sea. "Abalus" may have been Heligoland [cf. Hergt], or
perhaps rather one of the islands of Sleswick,[72] where beach-washed
amber is common, as along the whole west coast of Jutland. The statement
that the natives used amber as fuel is a misunderstanding, which may be
due to a discovery of Pytheas that amber was combustible. If he had really
sailed past the Skaw and through the Belts into the Baltic, it is unlikely
that he should only have mentioned one amber island Abalus, and another
immense island farther off. We should expect him to have changed the ideas
of his time about these regions to a greater extent than this. It is true
that he might have travelled overland to the south coast of the Baltic;
but neither is this very probable. It must nevertheless be borne in mind,
as will be pointed out later, that until Strabo's time no other voyages in
these regions were known in literature, and it is, therefore, possible
that much of what we find in Mela and Pliny on the subject was originally
derived from Pytheas. If we did not possess this one chance passage in
Pliny about Abalus and the amber, we should not know that Pytheas had said
anything about it. But of how much more are we ignorant for want of
similar casual quotations?

Little as we know of Pytheas himself, he yet appears to us as one of the
most capable and undaunted explorers the world has seen. Besides being the
first, of whom we have certain record, to sail along the coasts of
northern Gaul and Germany, he was the discoverer of Great Britain, of the
Scottish isles and Shetland, and last, but not least, of Thule or Norway,
as far north as to the Arctic Circle. No other single traveller known to
history has made such far-reaching and important discoveries.

But Pytheas was too far in advance of his time; his description of the new
lands in the North was so pronouncedly antagonistic to current ideas that
it won little acceptance throughout the whole succeeding period of
antiquity. His younger contemporary, Dicæarchus, doubted him, and Polybius
and Strabo, who came two hundred and three hundred years later,
endeavoured, as we have seen, to throw suspicion upon Pytheas and to stamp
him as an impostor. The two eminent geographers and astronomers,
Eratosthenes and Hipparchus, seem to have valued him more according to his
deserts. Polybius's desire to lessen the fame of Pytheas may perhaps be
explained by the fact that the former, a friend of Scipio, had taken part
in many Roman campaigns, and claimed to be more widely travelled than any
other geographer. But as his farthest north was the south of Gaul, he did
not like the idea that an earlier traveller, who enjoyed great renown,
should have penetrated so much farther into regions which were entirely
unknown to himself. Men are not always above such littleness.


CHAPTER III

ANTIQUITY, AFTER PYTHEAS


There was a long interval after the time of Pytheas before the world's
knowledge of the North was again added to, so far as we can judge from the
literature that has come down to us. The mist in which for a moment he
showed a ray of light settled down again. That no other known traveller
can have penetrated into these northern regions during the next two or
three centuries appears from the unwillingness of Polybius and Strabo to
believe in Pytheas, and from the fact that Strabo pronounces him a liar
[i. 63], because "all who have seen Britain and Ierne say nothing about
Thule, though they mention other small islands near Britain"; furthermore,
he says expressly [vii. 294] that "the region along the ocean beyond Albis
[the Elbe] is entirely unknown to us. For neither do we know of any one
among the ancients who made this voyage along the coast in the eastern
regions to the opening of the Caspian Sea, nor have the Romans ever
penetrated into the countries beyond Albis, nor has any one yet traversed
them by land." If any other traveller had been currently mentioned in
literature it is incredible that the well-read Strabo should not have
known it. He therefore ascribed all that he found about these regions to
Pytheas.

There are nevertheless indications that the Greeks had commercial
relations with the coasts of the Baltic and North Sea, and fresh obscure
statements, which may be derived from such a connection, appear later in
Pliny, and to some extent also in Mela. It may be supposed that
enterprising Greek traders and seamen, enticed by Pytheas's accounts of
the amber country, attempted to follow in his track, and succeeded in
reaching the land of promise whence this costly commodity came. And if
they had once found out the way, they would certainly not have
relinquished it except upon compulsion. But it must be remembered that the
voyage was long, and that they had first to pass through the western
Mediterranean and the Pillars of Hercules, where the Carthaginians had
regained their power and obtained the command of the sea. The overland
route was easier and safer; it ran through the country of tribes which in
those distant times may have been comparatively peaceful. The trade
communication between the Black Sea and the Baltic countries seems, as
mentioned above, to have developed early, and it may be thought that the
active Greek traders would try it in order to reach a district where so
much profit was to be expected; but no certain indication of this
communication can be produced from any older author of note after
Pytheas's time, so far as we know them, and even so late an author as
Ptolemy has little to tell us of the regions east of the Vistula.

The founder of scientific geography, Eratosthenes (275-circa 194
B.C.),[73] librarian of the Museum of Alexandria, based what he says of
the North chiefly on Pytheas. He divided the surface of the earth into
climates (zones) and constructed the first map of the world, whereon an
attempt was made to fix the position of the various places by lines of
latitude and meridians. He started with seven known points, along the old
meridian of Rhodes. They were: Thule, the Borysthenes, the Hellespont,
Rhodes, Alexandria, Syene, and Meroe. Through these points he laid down
lines of latitude (see the map). He also made an attempt to calculate the
circumference of the globe by measurement, and found it 250,000 stadia (==
25,000 geographical miles), which is 34,000 stadia (== 3400 geographical
miles) too much. He placed the island of Thule under the Arctic
Circle,[74] far out in the sea to the north of Brettanice. This was to him
the uttermost land and the northern limit of the "œcumene," which he
calculated to be 38,000 stadia (== 3800 geographical miles) broad,[75]
which according to his measurement of the circumference of the earth is
about 54° 17', since each of his degrees of latitude will be about 700
stadia. His "œcumene" thus extended from the latitude of the Cinnamon
Coast (Somaliland) and Taprobane (Ceylon), 8800 stadia north of the
equator, to the Arctic Circle. South of it was uninhabitable on account of
the heat, and north of it all was frozen.

Eratosthenes was especially an advocate of the island-form of the
"œcumene," and thought that it was entirely surrounded by the ocean, which
had been encountered in every quarter where the utmost limits of the world
had been reached. By a perversion of the journey of Patrocles to a voyage
round India and the east coast of the continent into the Caspian Sea, he
again represented the latter as an open bay of the northern ocean, in
spite of the fact that Herodotus, and also Aristotle, had asserted that it
was closed. The view that the Caspian Sea was a bay remained current until
the time of Ptolemy. Eratosthenes also held that the occurrence of tides
on all the outer coasts was a proof of the continuity of the ocean. He
said that "if the great extent of the Atlantic Ocean did not make it
impossible, we should be able to make the voyage from Iberia to India
along the same latitude." This was 1700 years before Columbus.

With the scientific investigator's lack of respect for authorities, he had
the audacity to doubt Homer's geographical knowledge, and gave offence to
many by saying that people would never discover where the islands of
Æolus, Circe, and Calypso, described in the Odyssey, really were, until
they had found the tailor who had made the bag of the winds for Æolus.

Hipparchus (circa 190-125 B.C.) also relies upon Pytheas, and has nothing
new to tell us of the northern regions. Against Eratosthenes' proof of the
continuity of the ocean, to which allusion has just been made, he objected
that the tides are by no means uniform on all coasts, and in support of
this assertion he referred to the Babylonian Seleucus.[76] But it is not
clear whether Hipparchus was an opponent of the doctrine of the
island-form of the "œcumene," as has been generally supposed; probably he
merely wished to point out that the evidence adduced by Eratosthenes was
insufficient. Hipparchus calculated a continuous table of latitude, or
climate-table, for the various known localities, as far north as Thule. He
introduced the division into degrees. It is also probable that he was the
first to use a kind of map-projection with the aid of converging
meridians, which he drew in straight lines; but as he was more an
astronomer than a geographer it is unlikely that he constructed any
complete map of the world.

Polybius (circa 204-127 B.C.), as we have seen, pronounced against the
trustworthiness of Pytheas, and declared that all the country north of
Narbo, the Alps, and the Tanais was unknown. Like Herodotus, he left the
question open whether there was a continuous ocean on the north side; but
he appears to have inclined to the old notion of the "œcumene" as
circular.

The Stoic and grammarian Crates of Mallus (about 150 B.C.), who was not a
geographer, constructed the first terrestrial globe, in which he made the
Atlantic Ocean extend like a belt round the world through both the poles,
and with the Stoic's worship of Homer he thought he could follow in this
ocean Odysseus's voyage to the regions of the Læstrygons' long day and
the Cimmerians' polar night. Since the school of the Stoics considered it
necessary that there should be ocean in the torrid zone, so that the sun
might easily keep up its warmth by the aid of vapours from the sea--for
warmth was supported by moisture--Crates placed a belt of ocean round the
earth between the tropics, which formed the limits of the sun's path.
These two belts of water left four masses of land of which only one was
known to men.

The physical geographer Posidonius of Apamea in Syria (135-51 B.C.), who
lived for a long time at Rhodes, took the Rhipæan Mountains for the Alps,
and speaks of the Hyperboreans to the north of them. He thought that the
Ocean surrounded the "œcumene" continuously:

    "for its waves were not confined by any fetters of land, but it
    stretched to infinity and nothing made its waters turbid."

A ship sailing with an east wind from the Pillars of Hercules must reach
India after traversing 70,000 stadia, which he thought was the
half-circumference of the earth along the latitude of Rhodes. The greatest
circumference he calculated at 180,000 stadia. These erroneous
calculations were adopted by Ptolemy, and were afterwards of great
significance to Columbus.

He made a journey as far as Gadir in order to see the outer Ocean for
himself, to measure the tides and to examine the correctness of the
generally accepted idea that the sun, on its setting in the western ocean,
gave out a hissing sound like a red-hot body being dipped into water. He
rightly connected the tides with the moon, finding that their monthly
period corresponded with the full moon; whereas others had thought, for
instance, that they were due to changes in the rivers of Gaul.

Cæsar's Gallic War and his invasion of Britain (55-45 B.C.) contributed
fresh information about these portions of Western Europe; but it cannot be
seen that they gave anything new about the North. Cæsar describes Britain
as a triangle. This is undoubtedly the same idea that we find in his
contemporary Diodorus Siculus, and is derived from Pytheas. Cæsar merely
gives different proportions between the sides from those of Diodorus. He
puts Hibernia to the west of Britain, not to the north like Strabo, and
makes its size about two-thirds of the latter, from which it is separated
by a strait of about the same breadth as that between Gaul and Britain.
Between Ireland (Hibernia) and Britain is an island, "Mona" (Anglesey),
and scattered about it many other islands. In some of them there was said
to be a month of unbroken night at the winter solstice; but of this Cæsar
was unable to obtain certain information. This must be an echo of the
tales about Thule, which he had got from older Greek or Roman authors.

Cæsar is a good example of the Romans' views of and sense for geography.
In spite of this military nation having extended their empire to the
bounds of the unknown in every direction, they never produced a scientific
geographer, nor did they send out anything that we should call a voyage of
exploration, as the Phœnicians, Carthaginians, and Greeks had done. They
were above all a practical people, with more sense for organisation than
for research and science, and in addition they lacked commercial interests
as compared with those other peoples. But during their long campaigns
under the Empire, and by their extensive communications with the most
distant regions, they brought together an abundance of geographical
information hitherto unknown to the classical world. It is natural that it
should have been a Greek who, in one of the most important geographical
works that have come down to us from ancient times, endeavoured to collect
a part of this information, together with the knowledge already acquired
by the Greeks, into a systematic statement.

This man was the famous geographer Strabo, a native of Asia Minor (about
63 B.C.-25 A.D.). But unfortunately this critic has nothing to tell us
about the North, and in his anxiety to avoid exaggeration he has, like
Polybius, been at great pains to discredit Pytheas, of whose statements he
will take no account; nor has he made use of the knowledge of the
northernmost regions which we see, from Pliny among others, that other
Greek authors possessed. He has not even made use of the geographical
knowledge which was gained in his own time during the Roman campaign in
Northern Germania under Augustus, if indeed he knew of it. To him the
Ister (Danube), the mountainous districts of the Hercynian Forest, and the
country as far as the Tyregetæ formed, roughly, the northern boundary of
the known world. He thinks it is only ignorance of the more distant
regions that has made people believe the fables "of the Rhipæan Mountains
and the Hyperboreans, as well as all that Pytheas of Massalia has invented
about the coast of the ocean, making use of his astronomical and
mathematical knowledge as a cloak." "Ierne" (Ireland) was placed by Strabo
out in the ocean to the north of Britain. He took it for the most northern
land, and thought that its latitude (which would have to be about 54° N.)
formed the boundary of the "œcumene."

    "For," he says [ii. 115], "living writers tell us of nothing beyond
    Ierne, which lies near to Britain on the north, and is inhabited by
    savages who live miserably on account of the cold." He says further
    [iv. 201] of this island at the end of the world: "of this we have
    nothing certain to relate, except that its inhabitants are even more
    savage than the Britons, as they are both cannibals and omnivorous [or
    grass-eaters ?], and consider it commendable to devour their deceased
    parents,[77] as well as openly to have commerce not only with other
    women, but also with their own mothers and sisters. But this we relate
    perhaps without sufficient authority; although cannibalism at least is
    said to be a Scythian custom, and the Celts, the Iberians, and other
    peoples are reported to have practised it under the stress of a
    siege."

Strabo evidently attributes to a cold climate a remarkable capacity for
brutalising people, and he considers that the reports of the still more
distant Thule must be even more uncertain.

The breadth of the "œcumene," from north to south, he made only 30,000
stadia, and thought that Eratosthenes, deceived by the fables of Pytheas,
had put the limit 8000 stadia (== 11° 26') too far north. Of the countries
beyond the Albis (Elbe), he says, nothing is known. Nevertheless he
mentions the Cimbri as dwelling on a peninsula by the northern ocean; but
he has no very clear idea of where this peninsula is.

    No one can believe, he thinks [vii. 292], that the reason for their
    wandering and piratical life was that they were driven out of their
    peninsula [which must be Jutland] by a great inundation, for they
    still have the same country as before, and it is ridiculous to suppose
    that they left it in anger at a natural and constant phenomenon, which
    occurs twice daily [i.e., the tides], etc. But it appears from
    Strabo's statements that there had been many reports of a great
    storm-flood in Denmark, which the Cimbri escaped from with difficulty.

    Of the customs of these people Strabo relates among other things that
    they were accompanied on their expeditions by priestesses with gray
    hair, white clothes, and bare feet. "They went with drawn swords to
    meet the captives in the camp, crowned them with garlands and led them
    to a sacrificial vessel of metal, holding twenty amphoræ [Roman cubic
    feet]. Here they had a ladder, upon which one of them mounted and,
    bent over the vessel, they cut the throat of the prisoner, who was
    held up. They made auguries from the blood running into the vessel;
    while others opened the corpse and inspected the entrails, prophesying
    victory for their army. And in battle they beat skins stretched upon
    the wicker-work of their chariots, making a hideous noise." This is
    one of the first descriptions of the customs of the warrior-hordes
    roving about Europe, who came in contact with the classical world from
    the unknown north, and who in later centuries were to come more
    frequently. But the description is certainly influenced by Greek
    ideas.

Strabo thought that besides the world known to the Greeks and Romans,
other continents or worlds, where other races of men dwelt, might be
discovered.

In a work called "Suasoriæ" (circa 37 A.D.) of the Spanish-born
rhetorician Seneca there are preserved fragments of a poem, written by
Albinovanus Pedo (in the time of Augustus), which described an expedition
of Germanicus in the North Sea. It has been thought that this may have
been the younger Germanicus's unfortunate campaign in 16 A.D., when he
sailed out from the Ems with a fleet of a thousand ships. This supposition
is strengthened by the fact that Tacitus mentions a cavalry leader,
Albinovanus Pedo, under the same commander in 15 A.D., and it is easy to
believe that he was the poet.[78] But as this unhappy fleet did not get
far from the coast, and the poem describes a voyage into unknown regions,
others have thought that it might be an expedition undertaken by Drusus,
the elder Germanicus, in some year between 12 and 9 B.C.[79] How this may
be is of less importance to us, as the poem does not mention any fresh
discoveries. It is interesting because it gives us a picture of the ideas
current at that time about the northern limits of the world. Where the
fragments commence, the travellers have long ago left daylight and the sun
behind them, and, having passed beyond the limits of the known world,
plunge boldly into the forbidden darkness towards the end of the western
world. There they believe that the sea, which beneath its sluggish
("pigris") waves is full of hideous monsters, savage whales ("pistris"),
and sea-hounds ("æquoreosque canes" == seals ?), rises and takes hold of
the ship--the noise itself increases the horror--and now they think the
ships will stick in the mud, and the fleet will remain there, deserted by
the winds[80] of the ocean--now that they themselves will be left there
helpless and be torn to pieces by the monsters of the deep. And the man
who stands high in the prow strives with his eyes to break through the
impenetrable air, but can see nothing, and relieves his oppression in the
following words: "Whither are we being carried? The day itself flees from
us, and uttermost nature closes in the deserted world with continual
darkness. Or are we sailing towards people on the other side, who dwell
under another heaven, and towards another unknown world?[81] The gods call
us back and forbid the eyes of mortals to see the boundary of things. Why
do we violate strange seas and sacred waters with our oars, disturbing the
peaceful habitations of the gods?"

This last conception is clearly derived from the "Isles of the Blest" of
the Greeks (originally of the Phœnicians), which were situated in the deep
currents of Oceanus and are already referred to in Hesiod.

Seneca, on the other hand, says of the outer limits of the world: "Thus is
nature, beyond all things is the ocean, beyond the ocean nothing" ("ita
est rerum natura, post omnia oceanus, post oceanum nihil"), and Pliny
speaks of the empty space ("inane") that puts an end to the voyage beyond
the ocean.

In the year 5 A.D. the emperor Augustus, in connection with Tiberius's
expedition to the Elbe, sent a Roman fleet from the Rhine along the coast
of Germania; it sailed northward by the land of the Cimbri (Jutland), past
its northern extremity (the Skaw), probably into the Cattegat, and perhaps
to the Danish islands. Augustus himself, in the Ancyra inscription, tells
us of the voyage of this fleet, and says that it came "even to the people
of the Cimbri, whither before that time no Roman had penetrated either by
land or sea,[82] and the Cimbri and the Charydes (Harudes, Horder), and
the Semnones, and other Germanic peoples in those districts sent
ambassadors to ask for my friendship and that of the Roman people."[83]
Velleius [ii. 106] also gives an account of this voyage, and Pliny [ii.
167] gives the following description of it: "The Northern Ocean has also
been in great part traversed; by the orders of the divine Augustus a fleet
sailed round Germania to the Cimbrian Cape, and saw therefrom a sea that
was immeasurable, or heard that it was so, and came to the Scythian region
and to places that were stiff [with cold] from too much moisture. It is
therefore very improbable that the seas can run short where there is such
superfluity of moisture." Müllenhoff thinks [iv., 1900, p. 45] that on
this voyage they saw the Norwegian mountains, the immense "Mons Sævo" (see
later under Pliny), rising out of the sea. This is not impossible, but we
read nothing about it; nor indeed is it very probable. On the other hand,
it is likely that the voyage resulted in fresh knowledge about the North,
and that at any rate some of the statements in Mela and Pliny may be
derived from this source.

The oldest known Latin geography, "De Chorographia," was written about 43
A.D. by an otherwise unknown Pomponius Mela, of Tingentera, in Spain.
With the strange mental poverty of Roman literature, Mela bases his work
chiefly on older Greek sources (e.g., Herodotus and Eratosthenes) which
are several centuries before his time; but in addition he gives much
information not found elsewhere. Whether this is also for the most part
taken from older writers it is impossible to say, as he nowhere gives his
authorities. His descriptions, especially those of more distant regions,
are sometimes made obscure and contradictory by his evidently having drawn
upon different sources without combining them into a whole.

He begins with these words of wisdom: "All this, whatever it is, to which
we give the name of universe and heaven, is one and includes itself and
everything in a circle ('ambitu'). In the middle of the universe floats
the earth, which is surrounded on all sides by sea, and is divided by it
from west to east [that is, by the equatorial sea, as in Crates of Mallus]
into two parts, which are called hemispheres." Whether one is to conclude
from this that the earth in his opinion was a sphere or a round disc, he
seems to leave the reader to determine. He divides the earth into the five
zones of Parmenides. The two temperate or habitable zones seem, according
to Mela, to coincide with the two masses of land, while the uninhabitable
ones, the torrid and the two frigid zones, are continuous sea. On the
southern continent dwell the Antichthons, who are unknown, on account of
the heat of the intervening region. On the northern one we dwell, and this
is what he proposes to describe.

Europe is bounded on the west by the Atlantic, and on the north by the
British Ocean. Asia has on the north the Scythian Ocean.

    [iii. c. 5.] In proof of the continuity of these oceans he appeals not
    only to the physicists and Homer, but also to Cornelius Nepos, "who is
    more modern and trustworthy," and who confirms it and "cites Quintus
    Metellus Celer as witness thereto, and says that he has narrated the
    following: When he was governing Gaul as proconsul the king of the
    Boti[84] gave him some Indians," who "by stress of storm had been
    carried away from Indian waters, and after having traversed all the
    space between, had finally reached the shores of Germania."

Mela has many ancient fables to tell of the peoples in the northern
districts of Germania, Sarmatia and Scythia, which last was his name for
what is now Russia and for the north of Asia. It appears that he too was
of the opinion that a cold climate develops savagery and cruelty.

    He says of Germania [iii. c. 3]: "The inhabitants are immense in soul
    and body; and besides their natural savagery they exercise both, their
    souls in warfare, their bodies by accustoming them to constant
    hardship, especially cold." "Might is right to such an extent that
    they are not even ashamed of robbery; only to their guests are they
    kind, and merciful towards suppliants." The people of Sarmatia were
    nomads. [iii. c. 4.] "They are alike warlike, free, unconstrained, and
    so savage and cruel that the women go to war together with the men. In
    order that they may be fitted thereto the right breast is burned off
    immediately after birth, whereby the hand which is drawn out [in
    drawing a bow] becomes adapted for shooting [by the breast not coming
    in the way or because the arm grew stronger] and the breast becomes
    manly.[85] To draw the bow, to ride and to hunt are employments for
    the young girls; when grown up it is their duty to fight the foe, so
    that it is held to be a shame not to have killed some one, and the
    punishment is that they are not allowed to marry."[86] It would appear
    that the northern countries, according to the view of Mela, had a
    tendency to "emancipate" women, even though he always regards it as a
    severe punishment for them to have to live as virgins.[86] Among the
    Xamati in his western Asia, at the mouth of the Tanais [i. c. 19],
    "the women engage in the same occupations as the men." "The men fight
    on foot and with arrows, the women on horseback, not using swords, but
    catching men in snares and killing them by dragging them along." Those
    who have not killed an enemy must live unmarried. Amongst other
    peoples the women do not confine themselves to this snaring of men;
    the Mæotides who dwell in the country of the Amazons are governed by
    women; and farthest north live the Amazons; but he does not tell us
    whether the latter could dispense with men altogether, and reproduce
    themselves like the women he tells us of on an island off the coast of
    Africa, who were hairy all over the body. "This is related by Hanno,
    and it seems worthy of credit, because he brought back the skin of
    some he had killed." [iii. c. 9.]

But this increasing savagery towards the north had a limit, as in the
early Greek idea, after which things became better again; for beyond the
country of the Amazons [i. c. 19] and other wild races, like the
Thyssagetæ and Turcæ who inhabited immense forests and lived by
hunting,[87] there extended, apparently towards the north-east (?), a
"great desert and rugged tract, full of mountains, as far as the
Aremphæans, who had very just customs and were looked upon as holy."[88]
"Beyond them rise the Rhipæan Mountains and behind them lies the region
that borders on the Ocean." In addition, the happy "Hyperboreans" dwelt in
the north. In his description of Scythia he says of them [iii. c. 5]:
"Then [i.e., after Sarmatia] come the neighbouring parts of Asia [or the
parts bordering on Asia ?]. Except where continual winter and unbearable
cold reigns, the Scythian people dwell there, almost all known by the name
of 'Belcæ' (?). On the shore of Asia come first the Hyperboreans, beyond
the north wind and the Rhipæan Mountains under the very pivot of the
stars" [i.e., the pole]. In their country the sun rose at the vernal
equinox and set at the autumnal equinox, so that they had six months day
and six months night. "This narrow [or holy ?] sunny land is in itself
fertile." He goes on to give a description of the happy life of the
Hyperboreans, taken from Greek sources.

On north-western Europe Mela has much information which is not met with in
earlier authors. The tin-islands, the Cassiterides, lay off the north-west
of Spain, where the "Celtici" lived [iii. c. 6]. "Beyond ('super')
Britain is Juverna [Ireland], nearly as large, with a climate unfavourable
to the ripening of corn, but with such excellent pastures that if the
cattle are allowed to graze for more than a small part of the day, they
burst in pieces. The inhabitants are rude and more ignorant than other
peoples of all kinds of virtue. Religion is altogether unknown to them."

"The Orcades are thirty in number, divided from each other by narrow
straits; the Hæmodæ seven, drawn towards Germany" ("septem Hæmodæ contra
Germaniam vectæ"). This is the first time, so far as is known, that these
two groups of islands are mentioned in literature. Diodorus, it is true,
had already spoken of "Orkan" or "Orkas," but not as a group of islands.
As this name is probably derived from Pytheas, it is likely that the
other, "Hæmodæ," is also his. Possibly the groups were re-discovered under
the emperor Claudius (about 43 A.D.) or more definite information may have
been received about them; but on the other hand, Mela says that the
knowledge of Britain that was acquired during this campaign would be
brought back by Claudius himself in his triumph. It will be most
reasonable to suppose that Mela's thirty Orcades are the Orkneys--the
number is approximately correct--and not the Orkneys and Shetlands
together. The seven Hæmodæ, on the other hand, must be the latter, and can
hardly be the Hebrides, as many would believe, since Mela mentions the
islands off the west coast of Europe in a definite order, and he names
first "Juverna," then the "Orcades," and next the "Hæmodæ," which are
"carried ('vectæ') towards Germany"[89] (cf. also Pliny later).

In his description of Germania [iii. c. 3] Mela says:

    "Beyond ('super') Albis is an immense bay, Codanus, full of many great
    and small islands. Here the sea which is received in the bosom of the
    shore is nowhere broad and nowhere like a sea, but as the waters
    everywhere flow between and often go over [i.e., over the tongues of
    land or shallows which connect the islands] it is split up into the
    appearance of rivers, which are undefined and widely separated; where
    the sea touches the shores [of the mainland], since it is held in by
    the shores of the islands which are not far from each other, and since
    nearly everywhere it is not large [i.e., broad], it runs in a narrow
    channel and like a strait ('fretum'), and turning with the shore it is
    curved like a long eyebrow. In this [sea] dwell the Cimbri and the
    Teutons, and beyond [the sea, or the Cimbri and Teutons ?] the extreme
    people of Germania, namely the Hermiones."

The meaning of this description, which seems to be as involved as the many
sounds he is talking about, must probably be that in the immense bay of
Codanus there are a number of islands with many narrow straits between
them, like rivers. Along the shore of the mainland there is formed, by the
almost continuous line of islands lying outside, a long curving strait,
which is nearly everywhere of the same narrowness. In this sea--that is to
say, on the peninsulas and islands in this bay--dwell the Cimbri and
Teutons, and farther away in Germania the Hermiones.

In his account of the islands along the coast of Europe, Mela says further
[iii. c. 6]:

    "In the bay which we have called Codanus is amongst the islands
    Codanovia, which is still inhabited by the Teutons, and it surpasses
    the others both in size and in fertility. The part which lies towards
    the Sarmatians seems sometimes to be islands and sometimes connected
    land, on account of the backward and forward flow of the sea, and
    because the interval which separates them is now covered by the waves,
    now bare. Upon these it is asserted that the Œneans dwell, who live
    entirely on the eggs of fen-fowl and on oats, the Hippopods with
    horses' feet, and the Sanalians, who have such long ears that they
    cover the whole body with them instead of clothes, since they
    otherwise go naked. For these things, besides what is told in fables,
    I find also authorities whom I think I may follow. Towards the coast
    of the Belgæ[90] lies Thule, famous in Greek poems and in our own;
    there the nights in any case are short, since the sun, when it has
    long been about to set, rises up; but in the winter the nights are
    dark as elsewhere.... But at the summer solstice there is no night at
    all, because the sun then is already clearer, and not only shows its
    reflection, but also the greater part of itself."

Thus we see here, as in so many of the classical authors, and later in
Pliny, old legends and more trustworthy information hopelessly mixed
together. The legends, whose Greek origin is disclosed by the form of the
names, may be old skippers' tales, or the romances of merchants who went
northward from the Black Sea, but they may also in part be derived from
Pytheas. A fable like that of the long-eared Sanali (otherwise called
Panoti) originally came from India and is later than his time. The
statement about the Œneæ, or, doubtless more correctly, Œonæ (i.e.,
egg-eaters), who live on eggs and oats, may, on the other hand, have
reached him from the north, where the eggs both of fen-fowl (plovers'
eggs, for example) and of sea-birds were eaten from time immemorial. Cæsar
had heard or read of people who lived on birds' eggs and fish on the
islands at the mouth of the Rhine, but he may indeed have derived his
knowledge from Greek sources [cf. Müllenhoff, i., 1870, p. 492].

What Mela says about Thule probably comes from Pytheas, as already
mentioned (p. 90), and it is very possible that the remarkable statements
about the immense bay of Codanus are likewise derived from him, although
they may also be ascribed to the circumnavigation of the Skaw under
Augustus, or to other voyages in these waters of which we have no
knowledge.

Whether Codanovia (which is not found in any other known author) is the
same name as the later Scadinavia in Pliny, must be regarded as uncertain.
It is the first time that such an island or that the bay of Codanus is
mentioned in literature. This "immense bay" must certainly be the Cattegat
with the southern part of the Baltic; and the numerous islands which close
it in to a curved strait or sound must be for the most part the Danish
islands and perhaps southern Sweden. Whence the name is derived we do not
know for certain.[91]

    Ptolemy mentions three peoples in southern Jutland, and calls the
    easternmost of them "Kobandoi." It is not likely that three peoples
    can have lived side by side in this narrowest part of the peninsula,
    and we must believe that some of them lived among the Danish islands,
    where Ptolemy does not give the name of any people. The "Kobandoi"
    would then be on the easternmost island, Sealand [cf. Much, 1893, pp.
    198 f.]. Now it will easily be supposed that "Codanus" and "Kobandoi"
    have some connection or other; the latter might be a corruption of the
    name of a people, "Kodanoi" or "Kodanioi." But as precisely these
    islands and the south of Sweden were inhabited by tribes of the
    Danes--of whom several are mentioned in literature: South Danes, North
    Danes, Sea Danes, Island Danes, etc.--it may be further supposed that
    "Kodanioi" is composed of "ko" or cow[92] and "Daner" (that is,
    Cow-Danes), and means a tribe of the latter who were remarkable for
    the number of their cows, which would be probable enough for a people
    in fertile Sealand (or in Skåne).[93] In this case "Codanus" must be
    derived from the name of this people, just as most of the names of
    seas and bays in these regions were taken from the names of peoples
    (e.g., "Oceanus Germanicus," "Mare Suebicum," "Sinus Venedicum,"
    "Quænsæ"). The name "Daner" is one of those names of peoples that are
    so ancient that their derivation must be obscure.[94] Procopius uses
    it as a common name for many nations ("ethne"), in the same way as he
    names the "ethne" of the Slavs (see later, p. 146). It is also used in
    the early Middle Ages as a common name for the people of the North,
    like Eruli, and later Normans. It is therefore natural that there
    should have been special names for the tribes, like Sea-Danes,
    Cow-Danes, etc. "Kodan-ovia" ("ovia," equivalent to Old High German
    "ouwa" or "ouwia") for island, Gothic "avi," Old Norse "ey" [cf.
    Grimm, 1888, p. 505], must be the island on which this tribe lived,
    and this might then be Sealand (though Skåne is also possible).

That the Cimbri lived in Codanus suits very well, as their home was
Jutland;[95] on the other hand, we know less about the country inhabited
by the Teutons. They must have been called in Germanic "*þeodonez" (Gothic
"*þiudans" means properly kings), and the name has been connected with
Old Norse "þiód," now Thy (Old Danish "Thythesyssel") with its capital
Thisted, and the island Thyholm, in north-western Jutland [cf. Much, 1893,
pp. 7 ff.; 1905, p. 100].

Whether the Vistula had its outlet into Codanus or farther east Mela does
not say, nor does he tell us whether Sarmatia was bounded by this gulf;
but this is not impossible, although Codanus is described at the end of
the chapter on Germania. Strangely enough, he says, according to the MSS.
[iii. c. 4], that "Sarmatia is separated from the following [i.e.,
Scythia] by the Vistula"; it would thus lie on the western side of the
river, which seems curious. It might be possible that the islands off the
coast of Sarmatia are among the many which lay in Codanus (?). As Sarmatia
lay to the east of Germania, these islands would in any case be as far
east as the Baltic, if not farther; but there is no ebb and flood there by
which the connecting land between them might be alternately covered and
left dry; on the other hand, the description suits the German North Sea
coast. Either Mela's authority has heard of the low-lying lands--the
Frische Nehrung and the Kurische Nehrung, for instance--off the coast of
the amber country, and has added the tidal phenomena from the North Sea
coast, or, what is more probable, the Frisian islands, for example, may by
a misunderstanding have been moved eastwards into Sarmatia, since older
writers, who as yet made no distinction between Germania, Sarmatia and
Scythia, described them as lying far east, off the Scythian coast (perhaps
taken from the voyage of Pytheas).[96]

The emperor Nero's (54-68 A.D.) love of show led, according to Pliny [Nat.
Hist., xxxvii. 45], to the amber coast of the Baltic becoming "first known
through a Roman knight, whom Julianus sent to purchase amber, when he was
to arrange a gladiatorial combat for the emperor Nero. This knight visited
the markets and the coasts and brought thence such a quantity that the
nets which were hung up to keep the wild beasts away from the imperial
tribune had a piece of amber in every mesh; indeed the weapons, the biers,
and the whole apparatus of a day's festival were heavy with amber. The
largest piece weighed thirteen pounds." This journey must have followed an
undoubtedly ancient trade-route from the Adriatic to Carnuntum (in
Pannonia), the modern Petronell on the Danube, where the latter is joined
by the March, and from whence Pliny expressly says that the distance was
600,000 paces to the amber coast, which agrees almost exactly with the
distance in a straight line to Samland. From Carnuntum the route lay along
the river March, thence overland to the upper Vistula, and so down this
river to Samland. It may easily be understood that much fresh knowledge
reached Rome as a result of this journey.

The elder Pliny's (23-79 A.D.) statements about the North, in his great
work "Naturalis Historia" (in thirty-seven books), are somewhat obscure
and confused, and so far are no advance upon Mela; but we remark
nevertheless that fresh knowledge has been acquired, and it is as though
we get a clearer vision of the new countries and seas through the northern
mists. He himself says, moreover, that he "has received information of
immense islands which have recently been discovered from Germania." His
work is in great part the fruit of an unusually extensive acquaintance
with older writers, mostly Greek, but also Latin. He repeats a good deal
of what Mela says, or draws from the same sources, probably Greek.

His information about the North must have been obtained, so far as I can
see, mainly in three different ways: (1) Directly through the Romans'
connection with Germania and through their expeditions to its northern
coasts (under Augustus and Nero, for example). Pliny himself lived in
Germania for several years (45-52 A.D.) as a Roman cavalry commander, and
may then have collected much information. (2) He has drawn extensively
from Greek sources, whose statements about the North may have come partly
by sea, chiefly through Pytheas (perhaps also through later trading
voyages); partly also by land, especially through commercial intercourse
between the Black Sea and the Baltic.[97] (3) Finally he received
information from Britain about the regions to the north. This may be
derived partly from Greek sources, partly also from later Roman connection
with Britain. Mela expressly says of this country that new facts will soon
be known about it, "for the greatest prince [the Emperor Claudius] is now
opening up this country, which has so long been closed ... he has striven
by war to obtain personal knowledge of these things, and will spread this
knowledge at his triumph." The information obtained by Pliny through these
different channels is often used by him uncritically, without remarking
that different statements apply to the same countries and seas.

His theory of the universe was the usual one, that the universe was a
hollow sphere which revolved in twenty-four hours with indescribable
rapidity. "Whether by the continual revolution of such a great mass there
is produced an immense noise, exceeding all powers of hearing, I am no
more able to assert than that the sound produced by the stars circulating
about one another and revolving in their orbits, is a lovely and
incredibly graceful harmony." The earth stood in the centre of the
universe and had the form of a sphere. The land was everywhere surrounded
by sea, which covers the greater part of the globe.

In his description of the North [iv. 12, 88 f.] Pliny begins at the east,
and relies here entirely on Greek authorities.

    Far north in Scythia, beyond the Arimaspians, "we come to the 'Ripæan'
    Mountains and to the district which on account of the ever-falling
    snow, resembling feathers, is called Pterophorus. This part of the
    world is accursed by nature and shrouded in thick darkness; it
    produces nothing else but frost and is the chilly hiding-place of the
    north wind. By these mountains and beyond the north wind dwells, if we
    are willing to believe it, a happy people, the Hyperboreans, who have
    long life and are famous for many marvels which border on the
    fabulous. There, it is said, are the pivots of the world, and the
    uttermost revolution of the constellations." The sun shines there for
    six months; but strangely enough it rises at the summer solstice and
    sets at the winter solstice, which shows Pliny's ignorance of
    astronomy. The climate is magnificent and without cold winds. As the
    sun shines for half the year, "the Hyperboreans sow in the morning,
    harvest at midday, gather the fruit from the trees at evening, and
    spend the night in caves. The existence of this people is not to be
    doubted, since so many authors tell us about them."

Having then mentioned several districts bordering on the Black Sea, Pliny
continues [iv. 13, 94 f.]:

    "We will now acquaint ourselves with the outer parts of Europe, and
    turn, after having gone over the Ripæan Mountains, towards the left to
    the coast of the northern ocean, until we arrive again at Gades. Along
    this line many nameless islands are recorded. Timæus mentions that
    among them there is one off Scythia called Baunonia, a day's sail
    distant, upon which the waves cast up amber in the spring. The
    remaining coasts are only known from doubtful rumours. Here is the
    northern ocean. Hecatæus calls it Amalcium, from the river
    Parapanisus[98] onwards and as far as it washes the coast of Scythia,
    which name [i.e., Amalcium] in the language of the natives means
    frozen.[99] Philemon[100] says that it was called by the Cimbri
    Morimarusa, that is, the dead sea; from thence and as far as the
    promontory Rusbeas, farther out, it is called Cronium. Xenophon of
    Lampsacus says that three days' sail from the Scythian coast is an
    island, Balcia, of enormous size; Pytheas calls it Basilia." He goes
    on to mention the Œonæ, Hippopods, and Long-eared men in almost the
    same terms as Mela.

This mention of lands and seas in the North is of great interest. But in
attempting to identify any of them in Pliny's description we must always
remember that to him and his Greek authorities, and to all writers even in
much later times, all land north of the coasts of Scythia, Sarmatia and
Germania was nothing but islands in the northern ocean. Further, it must
be remembered that the ancient Greeks did not know the name Germania,
which was not introduced until about 80 B.C. To them Scythia and Celtica
(Gaul) were conterminous, and their Scythian coast might therefore lie
either on the Baltic or the North Sea.

It has not been possible to decide where the name "Rusbeas" (called by
Solinus "Rubeas") comes from;[101] but it is best understood if we take it
to be southern Norway or Lindesnes. As the description begins at the east
on the Scythian coast, it follows that "Amalcium" is the Baltic as far as
the Danish islands and the land of the Cimbri. "Morimarusa,"[102] which
extends from Amalcium to Lindesnes, will be the Cattegat (in part, at any
rate) and the Skagerak. Cronium will be the North Sea and the Northern
Ocean beyond Lindesnes.[103] We must believe that Philemon has obtained
his information about the Cimbri (at the Skaw), about Morimarusa, and
about Rusbeas either from Pytheas--whose mention thereof we must then
suppose to have been accidentally omitted by other authors--or else from
later Greek merchants. In the same way Xenophon must have got his Balcia,
which is here named for the first time in literature. As these two Greek
authors (probably of about 100 B.C.) are expressly mentioned as
authorities, the statements cannot be derived from the circumnavigation of
the Skaw in the time of Augustus, nor from any other Roman expedition. It
is clear enough that Pliny himself did not know where Rusbeas and Balcia
were, but simply repeated uncritically what he had read. On the other
hand, he knew from another source that the sea he calls Cronium lay far
north of Britain, and must therefore be sought for to the north-west of
the Scythian coast.

Balcia must be looked for most probably in the Baltic. As already
mentioned (p. 72) it may be Jutland; but as it is described as an island
of immense size and three days' sail from the Scythian coast, it suits
southern Sweden better, although Pliny has also the name Scadinavia for
this from another source.

After these doubtful statements about the north coast of Scythia, taken
from Greek sources and interwoven with fables, Pliny reaches firmer ground
in Germania, when he continues [iv. 13, 96]:

    "We have more certain information concerning the Ingævones people who
    are the first [that is, the most north-eastern] in Germania. There is
    the immense mountain Sævo, not less than the Riphæan range, and it
    forms a vast bay which goes to the Cimbrian Promontory [i.e.,
    Jutland], which bay is called Codanus and is full of islands, amongst
    which the most celebrated is Scatinavia, of unknown size; a part of it
    is inhabited, as far as is known by the Hilleviones, in 500 cantons
    ('pagis'), who call it [i.e., the island] the second earth. Æningia is
    supposed to be not less in size. Some say that these regions extend as
    far as the Vistula and are inhabited by Sarmatians [i.e., probably
    Slavs], Venedi [Wends], Scirri, and Hirri; the bay is called
    Cylipenus, and at its mouth lies the island Latris. Not far from
    thence is another bay, Lagnus, which borders on the Cimbri. The
    Cimbrian Promontory runs far out into the sea and forms a peninsula
    called Tastris." Then follows a list of twenty-three islands which are
    clearly off the North Sea coast of Sleswick and Germany. Among them is
    one called by the soldiers "Glæsaria" on account of the amber
    ("glesum"),[104] but by the barbarians "Austeravia" [i.e., the eastern
    island], or "Actania."

Here are a number of new names and pieces of information. The form of some
of the names shows that here too Pliny has borrowed to some extent from
Greek authors; but his information must also partly be derived from Roman
sources, and from Germany itself. His "Codanus" must be the same as that
of Mela, and is the sea adjacent to the country of the Cimbri, which is
here for the first time clearly referred to as a promontory
(promunturium). It is the Cattegat, and, in part at any rate, the
Skagerak. The enormous mountain "Sævo" will then be most probably the
mountains of Scandinavia, especially southern Norway, which forms the bay
of Codanus in such a way that the latter is bounded on the other side by
the Cimbrian Promontory.[105] It will then be in the same mountainous
country that we should look for the promontory of Rusbeas (see above).

The name "Scatinavia" or "Scadinavia" (both spellings occur in the MSS. of
Pliny) is found here certainly for the first time; but, curiously enough,
we also find the name "Scandia" in Pliny; it is used of an island which is
mentioned as near Britain (see below, p. 106). "Scandia" has often been
taken for a shortened form of "Scadinavia"; but if we consider the
occurrence of both names in Pliny in conjunction with the fact that Mela
has not yet heard either, but has, on the other hand, a large island,
"Codanovia," in the bay of Codanus, then it may seem possible that
originally there were two entirely different names: "Codanovia," for
Sealand (and perhaps for south Sweden), and "*Skânovia" ("Skáney,"
latinised into "Scandia") for Skåne. By a confusion of these two the form
"Scadinavia" for south Sweden may have resulted in Pliny, instead of
Mela's "Codanovia," while at the same time he got the name "Scandia" from
another source. The latter is the only one used by Ptolemy both for south
Sweden and the Danish islands; he has four "Scandiæ," three smaller ones
and one very large one farther east, "Scandia" proper (see below, p. 119).
By further confusion of the two names, "Scadinavia" has become
"Scandinavia" in later copyists and authors.[106]

    In conflict with this is the hitherto accepted opinion among
    philologists that the name "Skåne" must be derived from "Scadinavia,"
    which would regularly become by contraction "*Skadney," and this by
    losing the "d" would become "Skáney." But this similarity may after
    all be accidental, and it is difficult to reconcile the hypothesis
    with the fact that the form "Scandia" (and not "*Skadnia") already
    appears in Pliny and later in Ptolemy. To this must be added that the
    form "*Skadney," or a similar one, is not known; the first time we
    find the word Skåne in literature is in the story of Wulfstan the Dane
    to King Alfred (about 890, see later), where it takes the form "Scôn
    eg," which is the same as "Skáney." "Skania," which is a latinised
    form of "Skáney," is found in a Papal letter of 950, and a Swedish
    runic inscription of about 1020 reads "ą Skąnu," which also is the
    same as "Skáney." It therefore appears probable that this is the
    original form, the same as the Norwegian name "Skáney," and that it
    has not resulted from a contraction of "Skadinavia." Professor Torp
    agrees that a form "*Skânovia" might possibly be the original.

What may be the meaning of the name "Hilleviones" in Scadinavia is
difficult to make out; it does not occur in any other writer, but is in
all likelihood a common term for all Scandinavians. One is reminded of the
"Hermiones" who occur in Mela in the same connection, but a little later
Pliny mentions these also. "Æningia," which is said to be no smaller than
Scadinavia, is a riddle. Could it be a corruption of a Halsingia or
Alsingia (the land of the Helsingers), a name for northern Sweden, which
thus lay farther off and was less known than Scadinavia?[107] When we read
that these regions were supposed to extend as far as the Vistula, this
might indicate a vague idea that Scadinavia and Æningia were connected
with the mainland, whereby a bay of the sea was formed, called
"Cylipenus,"[108] which will thus be yet another name for the Baltic,
taken from a new source; but the whole may be nothing more than an obscure
statement.

"Latris," which lay at the mouth of Cylipenus, may be one of the Danish
islands, and one may perhaps be reminded of Sealand with the ancient royal
stronghold of "Lethra" or Leire, Old Norse "Hleidrar." The bay of
"Lagnus,"[109] which borders on the Cimbri, must then be taken as a new
name for the Cattegat, while "Tastris" may be Skagen. According to the
sources Pliny has borrowed from, we thus get the following names for the
same parts: for the Baltic or parts thereof, "Amalcium" and "Cylipenus,"
and perhaps in part "Codanus"; for the Cattegat, "Lagnus" and "Codanus";
for the Skagerak, "Morimarusa," in part also "Codanus"; for south Sweden,
"Scadinavia" and "Balcia"; for Jutland or Skagen, "Promunturium Cimbrorum"
and "Tastris." At any rate, this superfluity of names discloses increased
communication, through many channels, with the North. Communication with
the North is also to be deduced from Pliny's mention [viii. c. 15, 39] of
an animal called "achlis," as a native of those countries.

    It had "never been seen among us in Rome, though it had been described
    by many." It resembles the elk [alcis], "but has no knee-joint, for
    which reason also it does not sleep lying down, but leaned against a
    tree, and if the tree be partly cut through as a trap, the animal,
    which otherwise is remarkably fleet, is caught. Its upper lip is very
    large, for which reason it goes backwards when grazing, so as not to
    get caught in it if it went forward." It might be thought that this
    elk-like animal was a reindeer; but the mention of the long upper lip
    and the trees suits the elk better, and it may have been related of
    this animal that it was caught by means of traps in the forest. The
    fable that it slept leaning against a tree may be due to the
    similarity between the name "achlis" (which may be some corruption or
    other, perhaps of "alces") and "acclinis" (== leaning on).

Finally, Pliny had a third source of knowledge about the North through
Britain, which to him was a common name for all the islands in that
ocean. Some of the statements from this quarter originated with Pytheas;
but later information was added; Pliny himself mentions Agrippa as an
authority. Among the British Isles he mentions [iv. 16, 103]: "40
'Orcades' separated from each other by moderate distances, 7 'Acmodæ,' and
30 'Hebudes.'" His 7 "Acmodæ" (which in some MSS. are also called
"Hæcmodæ") are, clearly enough, Mela's 7 Hæmodæ, and probably the Shetland
Islands, while the 30 "Hebudes" are the Hebrides, which are thus mentioned
here for the first time in any known author.

After referring to a number of other British islands "and the 'Glæsiæ,'
scattered in the Germanic Ocean, which the later Greeks call the
'Electrides,' because amber (electrum) is found in them,"[110] Pliny
continues [iv. 16, 104]: "The most distant of all known islands is 'Tyle'
(Thule), where at the summer solstice there is no night, and
correspondingly no day at the winter solstice."[111]... "Some authors
mention yet more islands, 'Scandia,' 'Dumna,' 'Bergos,' and the largest of
all, 'Berricen,' from which the voyage is made to Tyle. From Tyle it is
one day's sail to the curdled sea which some call 'Cronium.'" We do not
know from what authors Pliny can have taken these names, nor where the
islands are to be looked for; but as Thule is mentioned, we must suppose
that in any case some of them come originally from Pytheas. As Scandia
comes first among these islands, one is led to think that Dumna and the
two other enigmatical names are of Germanic origin. "Dumna" might then
remind us of Scandinavian names such as Duney, Dönna (in Nordland), or
the like; but it is more probable that it comes from the Celtic "dubno" or
"dumno" (== deep), and may be the name of an island off Scotland. "Bergos"
may remind us of the Old Norse word "bjarg" or "berg."[112] It is not so
easy with the strange name "Berricen," which in some MSS. has the form
"Verigon" or "Nerigon" (cf. above, p. 58). If the first reading is the
correct one, it suggests an origin in an Old Norse "ber-ig" ("ber" ==
bear; the meaning would therefore be "bear-y," full of bears), not an
unsuitable name for southern Norway, whence the journey was made to Thule
or northern Norway; but this is doubtful. If "Nerigon" is the correct
reading, it will not be impossible, in the opinion of Professor Torp, that
this, as Keyser supposed, may be the name Norway, which in Old Norse was
called, by Danes for example, "*NorþravegaR" (like "AustravegaR" and
"VestravegaR"). If any of the names of these islands are really Germanic,
like Scandia, then they cannot, as some have thought, refer to islands off
Scotland or to the Shetlands, as these were not yet inhabited by Norsemen.
The islands in question must therefore be looked for in Norway. It is
important that Scandia is mentioned first among them in connection with
Britain, and that at the same time another is described as the largest of
them all, and as lying on the way to Thule. This again points to
communication by sea between the British Isles and Scandinavia, of which
we found indications four hundred years earlier.

In 84 A.D. Agricola, after his campaign against the Caledonians, sent his
fleet round the northern point of Scotland, "whereby," Tacitus[113] tells
us, "it was proved that Britain is an island. At the same time the
hitherto unknown islands which are called 'Orcadas' (the Orkneys) were
discovered and subdued. Thule also could be descried in the distance; but
the fleet had orders not to go farther, and winter was coming on. Moreover
the water is thick and heavy to row in; it is said that even wind cannot
stir it to much motion. The reason for this may be the absence of land and
mountains, which otherwise would give the storms increased power, and that
the enormous mass of continuous ocean is not easy to set in motion." This
Thule must have been Fair Island or the Shetland Isles, and this is the
most northern point reached by the Romans, so far as is known. The idea of
the heavy sea, which is not moved by the winds, is the same that we met
with in early antiquity (see pp. 40, 69).

    In the preceding summer some of Agricola's soldiers--a cohort of
    Usippii, enlisted in Germania and brought to Britain--had mutinied,
    killed their centurion and seized three ships, whose captains they
    forced into obedience. "Two of them aroused their suspicions and were
    therefore killed; the third undertook the navigation," and they
    circumnavigated Britain. "They were soon obliged to land to provide
    themselves with water and to plunder what they required; thereby they
    came into frequent conflict with the Britons, who defended their
    possessions; they were often victorious, but sometimes were worsted,
    and finally their need became so great that they took to eating the
    weakest; then they drew lots as to which should serve the others as
    food. Thus they came round Britain [i.e. round the north], were driven
    out of their course through incompetent navigation, and were made
    prisoners, some by the Frisians and some by the Suevi, who took them
    for pirates. Some of them came to the slave-markets and passed through
    various hands until they reached Roman Germania, becoming quite
    remarkable persons by being able to relate such marvellous
    adventures."[114] It is possible that certain inaccurate statements
    may have found their way to Rome as the result of this voyage.

Cornelius Tacitus, who wrote his "Germania" in the year 98 A.D., was a
historian and ethnographer, not a geographer. His celebrated work has not,
therefore, much to say of the northern lands; he has not even a single
name for them. On the other hand, he has some remarkable statements about
the peoples, especially in Sweden, which show that since the time of Pliny
fresh information about that part of the world must have reached Rome.

Tacitus makes the "Suebi," or "Suevi," inhabit the greater part of Germany
as far as the frontier of the Slavs (Sarmatians) and Finns on the east
(and north ?). The name, which possibly means the "hovering" people and is
due to their roving existence, is perhaps rather to be regarded as a
common designation for various Germanic tribes. After them he called the
sea on the eastern coast of Germany, i.e., the Baltic, the Suebian Sea
("Suebicum mare"). On its right-hand (eastern) shore dwelt the "Æstii"
(i.e., Esthonians; perhaps from "aistan" == to honour, that is, the
honourable people [?]). "Their customs and dress are like those of the
Suevi, but their language more nearly resembles the British" (!). "The use
of iron is rare there, that of sticks [i.e., clubs, fustium] common. They
also explore the sea and collect amber in shallow places and on the shore
itself. But they do not understand its nature and origin, and it long lay
disregarded among things cast up by the sea, "until our luxury made it
esteemed." "They have no use for it,[115] they gather it in the rough,
bring it unwrought, and are surprised at the price they receive" [c. 45].
From this it may be concluded that there was constant trading
communication between the Mediterranean and the Baltic, and that Roman
merchants had probably penetrated thither.

"In the Ocean itself (ipso in Oceano) lie the communities of the Suiones,
a mighty people not only in men and arms, but also in ships." The Suiones,
who are first mentioned by Tacitus, are evidently of the same name as the
Svear (Old Norse "svíar," Anglo-Saxon "sveon") or Swedes.[116] Their ships
were remarkable for having a prow, "prora," at each end (i.e., they were
the same fore and aft); they had no sail, and the oars were not made fast
in a row, but were loose, so that they could row with them now on one
side, now on the other, "as on some rivers."[117] In other words, they had
open rowlocks, as in some of the river boats of that time, and as is
common in modern boats; the oars were not put out through holes as in the
Roman ships, and as in the Viking ships (the Gokstad and Oseberg ships).
The boat of the Iron Age which was dug up at Nydam had just such open
rowlocks.

The Suiones (unlike the other Germanic peoples) esteemed wealth, and
therefore they had only one lord; this lord governed with unlimited power,
so much so that arms were not distributed among the people, but were kept
locked up, and moreover in charge of a thrall,[118] because the sea
prevented sudden attacks of enemies, and armed idle hands (i.e., armed men
unemployed) are apt to commit rash deeds [c. 44].

The neighbours of the Suiones, probably on the north, are the "Sitones"
[c. 45], whom Tacitus also regards as Germanic. "They are like the Suiones
with one exception, that a woman reigns over them; so far have they
degenerated not only from liberty, but also from slavery. Here Suebia ends
(Hic Suebiæ finis)." Suebia was that part of Germany inhabited by the
Suevi. It looks as though Tacitus considered that courage and manliness
decreased the farther north one went. The Suiones allow themselves to be
bullied by an absolute king, who sets a thrall to guard their weapons, and
the Sitones are in a still worse plight, in allowing themselves to be
governed by a woman. The Sitones are not mentioned before or after this in
literature, and it seems as though the name must be due to some
misunderstanding.[119] It has been supposed that they were Finns
("Kvæns")[120] in northern Sweden, and their name may then have been taken
as the word for woman ("kvæn," or "kván," mostly in the sense of wife [cf.
English queen]), and from this the legend of womanly government may have
been formed[121] in the same way as Adam of Bremen later translates the
name Cvenland (Kvænland) by "Terra feminarum," and thus forms the myth of
the country of the Amazons. But this explanation of the statement of
Tacitus may be doubtful.[122] We have already seen that Mela mentions a
people in Scythia, the "Mæotides," who were governed by women, and, as we
have said, it would not have seemed unreasonable to him that the
government of women increased farther north.

Of the regions on the north Tacitus says: "North of the Suiones lies
another sluggish and almost motionless sea (mare pigrum ac prope
immotum); that this encircles and confines the earth's disc is rendered
probable by the fact that the last light of the setting sun continues
until the sun rises again, so clearly that the stars are paled thereby.
Popular belief also supposes that the sound of the sun emerging from the
ocean can be heard, and that the forms of the gods are seen and the rays
beaming from his head. There report rightly places the boundaries of
nature." As mentioned above (see p. 108), he thought that even to the
north of the Orkneys the sea was thick and sluggish.

Tacitus is the first author who mentions the Finns (Fenni), but whether
they are Lapps, Kvæns or another race cannot be determined. He says
himself: "I am in doubt whether to reckon the Peucini, Venedi and Fenni
among the Germans or Sarmatians (Slavs)." He speaks of the Fenni
apparently as dwelling far to the north-east, beyond the Peucini, or
Bastarnæ, from whom they are separated by forests and mountains, which the
latter overrun as robbers.

    "Among the Fenni amazing savagery and revolting poverty prevail. They
    have no weapons, no horses, no houses ['non penates,' perhaps rather,
    no homes];[123] their food is herbs, their clothing skins, their bed
    the ground. Their only hope is in their arrows, which from lack of
    iron they provide with heads of bone. Hunting supports both men and
    women; for the women usually accompany the men everywhere and take
    their share of the spoils. Their infants have no other protection from
    wild beasts and from the rain than a hiding-place of branches twisted
    together; thither the men return, it is the habitation of the aged.
    Nevertheless this seems to them a happier life than groaning over
    tilled fields, toiling in houses and being subject to hope and fear
    for their own and others' possessions. Without a care for men or gods
    they have attained the most difficult end, that of not even feeling
    the need of a wish. Beyond them all is fabulous, as that the
    'Hellusii' and 'Oxionæ' have human heads and faces, but the bodies and
    limbs of wild beasts, which I leave on one side as undecided."

These Fenni of Tacitus consequently live near the outer limits of the
world, where all begins to be fable. The name itself carries us to
northern Europe, or rather Scandinavia, for it was certainly only the
North Germans, especially the Scandinavians, who used the word as a name
for their non-Aryan neighbours. No doubt it appears from the description
that they lived in northern Russia, and were only separated from the
Peucini by forests and mountains; but, as was said above, Tacitus had
neither sense for nor interest in geography. If he heard of a savage and
barbarous Finn-people far in the North, and if it suited him on other
grounds to bring them in beyond the Peucini or Bastarnæ, but before the
Hellusii and Oxiones, who not only led the life of beasts, but even had
their bodies and limbs, then certainly no geographical difficulties would
stop him. It is of interest that these Fenni are described as a typical
race of hunters, using the bow as their special weapon. As Tacitus only
states that they had no horses, he had doubtless heard of no other
domestic animals amongst them. Consequently it is not likely that they
were reindeer-nomads. The interweaving of branches that the children were
hidden in, to which the men returned, and which was the dwelling of the
old men, must be the tent of the Finns, which was raised upon branches or
stakes. As early as Herodotus [iv. 23] we read of the Argippæans, who were
also Mongols, that "every man lived under a tree, over which in winter he
spread a white, thick covering of felt." It is clearly a tent that is
intended here also [cf. Müllenhoff, ii., 1887, pp. 40, 352]. The idea that
among the barbarians men and women frequently did the same work does not
seem to have been uncommon in antiquity, and it can scarcely have been
regarded as something peculiar to the Finns; in this connection it is no
doubt derived from the legends of the Amazons. Herodotus, and after him
Mela (see above, pp. 87 f.), describes such a similarity between men and
women among the Scythian people and the Sauromatians; and Diodorus [iv.
20, v. 39] says of the Ligurians that men and women shared the same hard
labour.

The so-called Dionysius Periegetes wrote in the time of the emperor
Hadrian (117-138 A.D.) a description of the earth in 1187 verses, which
perhaps on account of its simple brevity and metrical form was used in
schools and widely circulated [cf. K. Miller, vi., 1898, p. 95]. But
unfortunately the author has merely drawn from obsolete Greek sources,
such as Homer, Hecatæus, Eratosthenes and others, and has nothing new to
tell us. The whole continent was surrounded by ocean like an immense
island; it was not quite circular, but somewhat prolonged in the direction
of the sun's course (i.e., towards the east and west).

After Greek scientific geography had had its most fruitful life in the
period ending with Eratosthenes and Hipparchus it still sent out such
powerful shoots as the physical-mathematical geographer Posidonius and the
descriptive geographer Strabo; but after them a century and a half elapses
until we hear of its final brilliant revival in Marinus of Tyre and
Claudius Ptolemy, whose work was to exercise a decisive influence upon
geography thirteen centuries later.

Marinus's writings are lost, and we know nothing more of him than is told
us by his younger contemporary Ptolemy, who has relied upon him to a
considerable extent, and whose great forerunner he was. He must have lived
in the first half of the second century A.D. He made an exhaustive attempt
to describe every place on the earth according to its latitude and
longitude, and drew a map of the world on this principle. He also adopted
Posidonius's insufficient estimate of the earth's circumference (instead
of that of Eratosthenes), and his exaggerated extension of the "œcumene"
towards the east; and as this was passed on from him to Ptolemy he
exercised great influence upon Columbus, amongst others, who thus came to
estimate the distance around the globe to India at only half its real
length. In this way Marinus and Ptolemy are of importance in the discovery
not only of the West Indies, but also of North America by Cabot, and in
the earliest attempts to find a north-west passage to China. Thus
"accidental" mistakes may have far-reaching influence in history.

Claudius Ptolemæus marks to a certain extent the highest point of
classical geographical knowledge. He was perhaps born in Egypt about 100
A.D. He must have lived as an astronomer at Alexandria during the years
126 to 141, and perhaps longer; and he probably outlived the emperor
Antoninus Pius, who died in 161 A.D., but we do not know much more of him.
In his celebrated astronomical work, most generally known by its Arabic
title of "Almagest" (because it first reached mediæval western Europe in
an Arabic translation), he gave his well-known account of the universe and
of the movements of the heavenly bodies, which had such great influence in
the later Middle Ages, and on Columbus and the great discoveries. His
celebrated "Geography" in eight books (written about 150 A.D.) is, as he
himself tells us, for the most part founded upon the now lost work of
Marinus, and shows a great advance in geographical comprehension upon the
practical but unscientific Romans. With the scientific method of the
Greeks an attempt is here made to collect and co-ordinate the geographical
knowledge of the time into a tabulated survey, for the most part dry, of
countries, places and peoples, with a number of latitudes and longitudes,
mostly given by estimate. His information and names are in great part
taken from the so-called "Itineraries," which were tabular and consisted
chiefly of graphic routes for travellers with stopping-places and
distances, and which were due for the most part to military sources
(especially the Roman campaigns), and in a less degree to merchants and
sailors.

Cartographical representation was by him radically improved by the
introduction of correct projections, with converging meridians, of which a
commencement had already been made by Hipparchus. His atlas, which may
originally have been drawn by himself, or by another from the detailed
statements in his geography, gives us the only maps that have been
preserved from antiquity, and thus has a special interest.

As to the North, we find remarkably little that is new in Ptolemy, and on
many points he shows a retrogression even, as it seems, from Pytheas; but
the northern coast of Europe begins to take definite shape past the
Cimbrian Peninsula to the Baltic. His representation of Britain and
Ireland (Ivernia), which is based upon much new information,[124] was
certainly a great improvement on his predecessors, even though he gives
the northern part of Scotland (Caledonia) a strange deflection far to the
east, which was retained on later maps (in the fifteenth century). He
mentions five Ebudes (Hebrides) above Ivernia, and says further [ii. 3]:

    "The following islands lie near Albion off the Orcadian Cape; the
    island of Ocitis (32° 40' E. long., 60° 45' N. lat.), the island of
    Dumna (30° E. long., 61° N. lat.), north of them the Orcades, about
    thirty in number, of which the most central lies in 30° E. long., 61°
    40' N. lat. And far to the north of them Thule, the most western part
    of which lies in 29° E. long., 63° N. lat., the most eastern part in
    31° 40' E. long., 63° N. lat., the most northern in 30° 20' E. long.,
    63° 15' N. lat., the most southern in 30° 20' E. long., 62° 40' N.
    lat., and the central part in 30° 20' E. long., 63° N. lat."

Ptolemy calculates his degrees of longitude eastwards from a meridian 0
which he draws west of the Fortunate Isles (the Canaries), the most
western part of the earth. It will be seen that he gives Thule no very
great extent. His removing it from the Arctic Circle south to 63° is
doubtless due to the men of Agricola's fleet having thought they had
sighted Thule north of the Orkneys. In his eighth book [c. 3] he says:

    Thule has a longest day of twenty hours, and it is distant west from
    Alexandria two hours. Dumna has a longest day of nineteen hours, and
    is distant westward two hours.

It is evident that these "hours" are found by calculation, and are merely
a way of expressing degrees of latitude and longitude; they cannot
therefore be referred to any local observation of the length of the
longest day, etc. It is curious that Ptolemy only mentions Ebudes and
Orcades, and not the Shetland Isles; perhaps they are included among his
thirty Orcades.

He represents the Cimbrian Peninsula (Jutland) with remarkable
correctness, though making it lean too much towards the east, like
Scotland. Upon it "dwelt on the west the Sigulones, then the Sabalingii,
then the Cobandi, above them the Chali, and above these again and farther
west the Phundusii, and more to the east the Charudes [Harudes or Horder;
cf. p. 85], and to the north of all the Cimbri." It was suggested above
(p. 94) that possibly the name Cobandi might be connected with the Codanus
of Mela and Pliny. The Sabalingii, according to Much [1905, p. 11], may be
the same name as Pytheas's Abalos (cf. p. 70), which may have been written
Sabalos or Sabalia, and may have been inhabited by Aviones. To the north
of the Cimbrian Chersonese Ptolemy places three islands, the "Alociæ,"
which may be taken from the Halligen islands, properly "Hallagh" [cf.
Detlefsen, 1904, p. 61], off the coast of Sleswick.[125]

    To the east of the peninsula are the four so-called "Scandiæ," three
    small [the Danish islands], of which the central one lies in 41° 30'
    E. long., 58° N. lat.; but the largest and most eastern lies off the
    mouths of the Vistula; the westernmost part of this island lies in
    43° E. long., 58° N. lat., the easternmost in 46° E. long., 58° N.
    lat., the northernmost in 44° 30' E. long., 58° 30' N. lat., the
    southernmost in 45° E. long., 57° 40' N. lat. But this one [i.e.,
    south Scandinavia] is called in particular Scandia, and the western
    part of it is inhabited by the Chædini, the eastern by the Phavonæ and
    Phiresii, the northern by the Phinni, the southern by the Gutæ and
    Dauciones, and the central by the Levoni.

It will be seen that Scandia would not be much larger than Thule: 20'
longer from west to east, and only 10' longer from north to south.

The "Chædini" must be the Norwegian "Heiðnir" or "Heinir," whose name is
preserved in Heiðmǫrk, Hedemarken [cf. Zeuss, 1837, p. 159; Much, 1893, p.
188; Müllenhoff, 1900, p. 497]. This is the first time that an undoubtedly
Norwegian tribe is mentioned in known literature. "Phinni" (Finns) is only
found in one MS.; but as Jordanes (Cassiodorus) says that Ptolemy mentions
seven tribes in Scandia, it must have been found in ancient MSS. of his
work, and it occurs here for the first time as the name of a people in
Scandinavia. Ptolemy also mentions "Phinni" in another place as a people
in Sarmatia near the Vistula (together with Gythones or Goths); but these
must be connected with the "Fenni" of Tacitus, and doubtless also belong
originally to Scandinavia. The "Gutæ" must be the Gauter or Göter, unless
they are the Guter of Gotland (?). The "Dauciones," it has been supposed,
may possibly be the Danes, and the "Levoni" might perhaps be the
Hilleviones mentioned by Pliny, whose name does not otherwise occur. Thus
a knowledge of Scandinavia slowly dawns in history.

To the north of the known coasts and islands of Europe there lay,
according to Ptolemy and Marinus, a great continuous ocean, which was a
continuation of the Atlantic. On the extreme north-west was "the
Hyperborean Ocean, which was also called the Congealed (πεπηγος) or
'Cronius' or the Dead (νεκρος) Sea." North of Britain was the
Deucaledonian Ocean, and east of Britain the Germanic Ocean as far as the
eastern side of the Cimbrian Chersonese, that is, the North Sea and a part
of the Baltic. This was joined by the Sarmatian Ocean, with the Venedian
(i.e., Wendish) Gulf, from the mouths of the Vistula north-eastwards. The
Baltic was still merely an open bay of the great Northern Ocean. But
whether the latter extended farther to the east, round the north of the
œcumene, making it into an island, was unknown. Ptolemy and Marinus
therefore put the northern boundary of the known continent at the latitude
of Thule, and made this continent extend into the unknown on the
north-east and east; they thus furnish the latest development of the
doctrine that the œcumene was not an island in the universal ocean, since
they considered that guesses about the regions beyond the limits of the
really known were inadmissible, and no one had reached any coast in those
directions; for the Caspian Sea was closed and not connected with the
Northern Ocean. In the same way the extent of Africa towards the south was
uncertain, and they connected it possibly with south-eastern Asia, to the
south of the Indian Ocean, which thus also became enclosed.

Ptolemy wrote at a time when the Roman Empire was at its height, and he
had the advantage of being able, as a Greek, to combine the scientific
lore of the older Greek literature with the mass of information which must
inevitably have been collected from all parts of the world by the
extensive administration of this gigantic empire. His work, like that of
Marinus, was therefore a natural fruit which grew by the stream of time.
But the stream had just then reached a backwater; he belonged to a
languishing civilisation, and represents the last powerful shoot which
Greek science put forth. Some thirteen centuries were to elapse before, by
the changes of fate, his works at last made their mark in the development
of the world's civilisation. In the centuries that succeeded him the Roman
Empire went steadily backwards to its downfall, and literature degenerated
rapidly; it sank into compilation and repetition of older writers, without
spirit or originality. It is therefore not surprising that the literature
of later antiquity gives us nothing new about the North, although
communication therewith must certainly have increased.

The geographical author of antiquity most widely read in the Middle Ages
was C. Julius Solinus (third century A.D.), who for the most part repeated
passages from Pliny, with a marked predilection for the fabulous. All that
is to be found in the MSS. of his works about Thule, the Orcades and the
Hebudes, beyond what we read in Pliny, consists, in the opinion of Mommsen
[1895, p. 219], of later additions by a copyist (perhaps an Irish monk) of
between the seventh and ninth centuries, and as this has a certain
interest for our country it will be dealt with later under this period.

Rufus Festus Avienus lived in the latter half of the fourth century A.D.
and was proconsul in Africa in 366 and in Achæa in 372. His poem "Ora
Maritima" is mainly a translation of older Greek authors and, as mentioned
above (p. 37), is of interest from his having used an otherwise unknown
authority of very early origin. His second descriptive poem is a free
translation of Dionysius Periegetes.

Amongst other authors who in this period of literary degeneration compiled
geographical descriptions may be named: Ammianus Marcellinus (second half
of the fourth century) in his historical works, Macrobius[126] (circa 400
A.D.), the Spaniard Paulus Orosius, whose widely read historical work
(circa 418 A.D.) has a geographical chapter, Marcianus of Heraclea
(beginning of the fifth century), Julius Honorius (beginning of the fifth
century), Marcianus Capella (about 470 A.D.), Priscianus Cæsariensis
(about 500 A.D.) and others.

Their statements about the northern regions are repetitions of older
authors and contain nothing new.

Much of the geographical knowledge of that time was included in the
already mentioned (p. 116) "Itineraries," which were probably illustrated
with maps of the routes. Partial copies of one of them are preserved in
the so-called "Tabula Peutingeriana" [cf. K. Miller, vi. 1898, pp. 90
ff.], which came to be of importance in the Middle Ages.

Thus at the close of antiquity the lands and seas of the North still lie
in the mists of the unknown. Many indications point to constant
communication with the North, and now and again vague pieces of
information have reached the learned world. Occasionally, indeed, the
clouds lift a little, and we get a glimpse of great countries, a whole new
world in the North, but then they sink again and the vision fades like a
dream of fairyland. It seems as though no one felt scientifically impelled
to make an effort to clear up these obscure questions.

Then followed restless times, with roving warlike tribes in Central
Europe. The peaceful trading communication between the Mediterranean and
the northern coasts was broken off, and with it the fresh stream of
information which had begun to flow in from the North. And for a long time
men chewed the cud of the knowledge that had been collected in remote
antiquity. But Greek literature was more and more forgotten, and it was
especially the later Roman authors they lived on.

CHAPTER IV

THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES


Thus it came about that the geographical knowledge of later antiquity
shows nothing but a gradual decline from the heights which the Greeks had
early reached, and from which they had surveyed the earth, the universe
and their problems with an intellectual superiority that inclines one to
doubt the progress of mankind. The early Middle Ages show an even greater
decline. Rome, in spite of all, had formed a sort of scientific centre,
which was lost to Western Europe by the fall of the Roman Empire. To this
must be added the introduction of Christianity, which, for a time at any
rate, gave mankind new values in life, whereby the old ones came into
disrepute. Knowledge of distant lands, or of the still more distant
heavens, was looked upon as something like folly and madness. For all
knowledge was to be found in the Bible, and it was especially commendable
to reconcile all profane learning therewith. When, for instance, Isaiah
says of the Lord that He "sitteth upon the circle of the earth" (i.e.,
the round disc of the earth), and "stretcheth out the heavens as a
curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in" [xl. 22], and that
He "spread forth the earth" [xlii. 5, xliv. 24], and when in the Book of
Job [xxvi. 10] it is said that "He has compassed the waters with bounds,
where light borders on darkness," such statements did not agree with the
doctrine of the spherical form of the earth; this was therefore regarded
with disfavour by the Church; the circular disc surrounded by Ocean, which
was the idea of the childhood of Greece, was more suitable, and according
to Ezekiel [v. 5-6] Jerusalem lay in the centre of this disc. It was
inevitable that knowledge of the earth and of its farthest limits should
be still more crippled in such an age, and this is especially true of
knowledge of the North.

Those writers who in the early part of the Middle Ages occupied themselves
with such worldly things as geography, confined themselves mostly to
repeating, and in part further confusing, what Pliny and later Latin
authors had said on the subject. The most widely read and most frequently
copied were Solinus and Capella, also Macrobius and Orosius. This was the
intellectual food which replaced the science of the Greeks. Truly the
course of the human race has its alternations of heights and depths!

But even if the migrations had for a time interrupted peaceful trading
intercourse with the North, they were also the means of new facts becoming
known, and it was inevitable that in the long run these migrations, and
subsequent contact with the northern peoples, should leave their mark on
the science of geography. The knowledge of the North shown in the
literature of the early Middle Ages is thus to be compared with two
streams, often quite independent of one another; the one has its source in
classical learning and becomes ever thinner and more turbid; the other is
the fresh stream of new information from the North, which we find in a
Cassiodorus or a Procopius. Sometimes these two streams flow together, as
in an Adam of Bremen, and they may then form a mixture of like and unlike,
in which it is often hopeless to find one's way.

It is true that some were found, even in the early Middle Ages, who
maintained the doctrine of the earth's spherical form, whereas early
Christian authors, such as Lactantius (ob. 330) and Severianus (ob. 407),
had asserted that it was a disc; the latter also thought that the heaven
was divided into two storeys, an upper and a lower, with the visible
heaven as a division; the earth formed the floor of this celestial house.
One ancient notion (in Empedocles, Leucippus, Democritus) was that this
disc of the earth stood on a slant, increasing in height towards the
north, which was partly covered by high mountains, the Rhipæan and
Hyperborean ranges (as in Ptolemy's map). These childish ideas took their
most remarkable shape in the "Christian Topography," in twelve books, of
the Alexandrine monk, Cosmas Indicopleustes (sixth century). In his
younger days he had travelled much as a merchant and seen many wonderful
things, amongst others the wheel-ruts left by the Children of Israel
during their wanderings in the wilderness. The Jews' tabernacle, he
thought, was constructed on the same plan and in the same proportions as
the world. Consequently the earth's disc had to be made four-cornered,
with straight sides, and twice as long as it was broad. The ocean on the
west formed a right angle with the ocean on the south. On the north was a
high mountain; behind it the sun was hidden in its course during the
night.[127] As the sun in winter traverses the sky in a lower orbit, it
appears to us as though it receded behind the mountain near its foot, and
it stays away longer than in summer, when it is higher. The whole vault of
heaven was like a four-cornered box with a vaulted lid, which was divided
by the firmament into two storeys. In the lower one were the earth, the
sea, the sun, moon and stars; in the upper one the waters of the sky. The
stars were carried round in circles by angels, whom God at the creation
appointed to this heavy task. It was impossible for the earth to revolve,
simply because its axle must be supported by something, and of what kind
of material could it be made? He had nothing else worth mentioning to say
about the North. But notions such as these had their influence on the
earliest mediæval maps.

The first mediæval author who, so far as we know, definitely gave new
information of value about the countries and peoples of the North, was the
Roman senator and historian Cassiodorus (born at Scylaceum, it is supposed
about 468), who was an eminent statesman under Theodoric, King of the
Goths (493-526). After the victories of Belisarius in Italy, Cassiodorus
retired into a monastery in southern Italy (Bruttium), which he himself
had founded, and died there, perhaps 100 years old (about 570). He wrote
several valuable works, amongst them, probably by order of Theodoric, one
in twelve books on "The Origin and Deeds of the Goths," which was perhaps
completed about 534. This work has unfortunately been lost, and we only
know it through the Goth Jordanes, who has made excerpts from it. There is
reason to believe [cf. Mommsen, 1882, Proœmium, p. xxxvii.] that
Cassiodorus's knowledge of Gothic was defective, and that he has borrowed
his information about the North, especially Scandinavia, from a
contemporary, or perhaps somewhat older writer, Ablabius, who is referred
to in Jordanes' book as "the distinguished author of a very trustworthy
history of the Goths," but who is otherwise unknown. Through the Norwegian
king Rodulf and his men (see below, under Jordanes), or other Northerners
who visited Theodoric, and who were "mightier than all the Germans in
courage and size of body," first-hand information was brought concerning
the countries of the North, which Ablabius, who certainly knew Gothic, may
have written down, and from him Cassiodorus has thus derived his
statements, which again are taken from him by Jordanes. In addition to
various classical authors, some Latin and some Greek, of whom Jordanes
mentions many more than he has made use of, it is probable that
Cassiodorus has also drawn upon the maps of Roman itineraries [cf.
Mommsen, 1882, Proœmium, p. xxxi.], and perhaps also Greek maps.

The Gothic monk (or priest) Jordanes lived in the sixth century, and wrote
about 551 or 552 a book on "The Origin and Deeds of the Goths" ("De
origine actibusque Getarum"), which for the most part is certainly a poor
repetition of the substance of Cassiodorus's great work on the same
subject; and in fact he tells us this himself, with the modest addition
that "his breath is too weak to fill the trumpet of such a man's mighty
speech." It is true that Jordanes asserts in his preface that he has only
had the loan of the work to read for three days, for which reason he
cannot give the words but only the sense, and thereto, he says, he has
added what was suitable "from certain histories in the Greek [which he did
not understand] and Latin tongues," and he has mixed it with his own
words. But this is only said to hide his lack of originality; for the book
evidently contains long literal excerpts from the work of Cassiodorus,
while Jordanes' Latin becomes markedly worse when he tries to walk alone.
Not even the preface to the work is original; this is copied from
Rufinus's translation of Origines' commentary on the Epistle to the
Romans.

Of the uttermost ocean we read in Jordanes:

    "Not only has no one undertaken to describe the impenetrable uttermost
    bounds of the ocean, but it has not even been vouchsafed to any one to
    explore them, since it has been experienced that on account of the
    resistance of the seaweed and because the winds cease to blow there,
    the ocean is impenetrable and is known to none but Him who created
    it." This conception has a striking resemblance to Avienus's "Ora
    Maritima" (see above, pp. 37-40), and may very probably be derived
    from it.

Of the western ocean he says, amongst other things:

    "But it has also other islands farther out in the midst of its waves,
    which are called the Balearic Isles, and another Mevania; likewise the
    Orcades, thirty-three in number, and yet not all of them are
    cultivated [inhabited]. It has also in its most western part another
    island, called Thyle, of which the Mantuan [i.e., Virgil] says: 'May
    the uttermost Thule be subject to thee.' This immense ocean has also
    in its arctic, that is to say, northern, part, a great island called
    Scandza, concerning which our narrative with God's help shall begin;
    for the nation [the Goths] of whose origin you inquired, burst forth
    like a swarm of bees from the lap of this island, and came to the land
    of Europe."

After having spoken of Ptolemy's (also Mela's) mention of this island,
which according to his version of the former had the shape of "a citron
leaf, with curved edges and very long in proportion to its breadth" (this
cannot be found in Ptolemy), and lay opposite the three mouths of the
Vistula, he continues:

    "This [island] consequently has on its east the greatest inland sea in
    the world, from which the River Vagi discharges itself, as from a
    belly, profusely into the Ocean.[128] On the western side it [the
    island of Scandza] is surrounded by an immense ocean and on the north
    it is bounded by the before-mentioned unnavigable enormous ocean, from
    which an arm extends to form the Germanic Ocean ('Germanicum mare'),
    by widening out a bay. There are said to be many more islands in it,
    but they are small,[129] and when the wolves on account of the severe
    cold cross over after the sea is frozen, they are reported to lose
    their eyes, so that the country is not only inhospitable to men but
    cruel to animals. But in the island of Scandza, of which we are
    speaking, although there are many different peoples, Ptolemy
    nevertheless only gives the names of seven of them. But the
    honey-making swarms of bees are nowhere found on account of the too
    severe cold. In its northern part live the people Adogit, who, it is
    said, in the middle of the summer have continuous light for forty days
    and nights, and likewise at the time of the winter solstice do not see
    the light for the same number of days and nights; sorrow thus
    alternating with joy, so are they unlike others in benevolence and
    injury; and why? Because on the longer days they see the sun return to
    the east along the edge of the axis [i.e., the edge of the pole, that
    is to say, along the northern horizon], but on the shorter days it is
    not thus seen with them, but in another way, because it passes through
    the southern signs, and when the sun appears to us to rise from the
    deep, with them it goes along the horizon. But there are other people
    there, and they are called Screrefennæ, who do not seek a subsistence
    in corn, but live on the flesh of wild beasts and the eggs of
    birds,[130] and such an enormous number of eggs [lit., spawn] is laid
    in the marshes that it serves both for the increase of their kind
    [i.e., of the birds] and for a plentiful supply for the people."

The "Screrefennæ" of Jordanes (in other MSS. "Crefenne," "Rerefennæ,"
etc.) are certainly a corruption of the same word as Procopius's
"Scrithifini" (Skridfinns), and were a non-Germanic race inhabiting the
northern regions (see later). The mention of these people, together with
their neighbours the "Adogit," who had the midnight sun and a winter night
of forty days (cf. also Procopius), shows without a doubt that Jordanes',
or rather Cassiodorus's, authority had received fresh information from the
most northern part of Scandinavia, possibly through the Norwegian king
Rodulf and his men.

The mysterious name "Adogit" is somewhat doubtful. P. A. Munch [1852, p.
93], and later also Müllenhoff [ii., 1887, p. 41], thought that it might
be a corruption of Hálogi ("Háleygir," or Helgelanders) in northern
Norway. Sophus Bugge [1907] does not regard this interpretation as
possible, as this name cannot have had such a form at that time; he (and,
as he informs us, Gustav Storm also independently) thinks that "adogit" is
corrupted from "ādogii," i.e., "andogii," meaning inhabitants of And or
Andö in Vesterålen.[131] The termination -ogii he takes to be a mediæval
way of writing what was pronounced -oji, i.e., islanders.[132] But it
should be remembered how much the name "Screrefennæ" has been corrupted,
and that it is very possible that other names may have been so equally.

The statement that the Adogit had forty days' daylight in summer and a
corresponding period of night in winter is, unfortunately, of no
assistance in the form in which it is given for deciding the locality
inhabited by them, for no such phenomenon occurs anywhere on the earth. If
we suppose that the Adogit people themselves observed the rising and
setting of the sun above a free horizon, then we must believe that they
reckoned the unbroken summer day from the first to the last night on which
the upper limb of the sun did not disappear below the edge of the sea. And
they would have reckoned the unbroken winter night from the first day on
which the sun's upper limb did not appear above the horizon at noon, until
the first day when it again became visible.

If we reckon in this way, and take into account the horizontal refraction
and the fact that the obliquity of the ecliptic about the year 500 was
approximately 11' greater than now, we shall find that at that time the
midnight sun was seen for forty days (i.e., from June 2 to July 12) in
about 66° 54' N. lat., or in the neighbourhood of Kunna, south of Bodö;
but at the same place more than half the sun's disc would be above the
horizon at noon at the winter solstice; it was therefore not hidden for a
single day, much less for forty days. But, on the other hand, it was not
until 68° 51' N. lat., or about Harstad on Hinnö, that they had an
unbroken winter night, without seeing the rim of the sun, for forty days
(from December 2 to January 11); but there they had the midnight sun in
summer for about sixty-three days. The fable of a summer day of the same
length as the unbroken winter night cannot therefore have originated with
the Northerners; it must have been evolved in an entirely theoretical way
by astronomical speculations (in ignorance of refraction) which were a
survival of Greek science, where the length of the northern summer day was
always assumed to be equal to that of the winter night. But that
information had been received at this time from the Northerners is
probable, since the statement of a forty days' summer day and winter night
is not found in any known author of earlier date,[133] and Jordanes'
contemporary, Procopius, has an even more detailed statement, especially
of this winter night (see later). The probability is that what the
Northerners took particular notice of was the long night, during which, as
Procopius also relates, they kept an accurate account of the days during
which they had to do without the light of the sun, a time in which "they
were very depressed, since they could not hold intercourse." This must
also have been what they told to the Southerners, while they did not pay
so much attention to the length of the summer day, when of course they
would in any case have plenty of sunlight. We must therefore suppose that
the latitude worked out according to the winter night of forty days is the
correct one, and this gives us precisely Sophus Bugge's And--Andö, or,
better still, Hinnö.

Jordanes counts about twenty-seven names of tribes or peoples in Sweden
and Norway; a number of them are easily recognised, while others must be
much corrupted and are difficult to interpret.[134] He mentions first the
peoples of Sweden, then those of Norway. "Suehans" is certainly the
Svear.

    They, "like the Thuringians, have excellent horses. It is also they
    who through their commercial intercourse with innumerable other
    peoples send for the use of the Romans sappherine skins ('sappherinas
    pelles'), which skins are celebrated for their blackness.[135] While
    they live poorly they have the richest clothes."

We see then that at this time the fur trade with the North was well
developed, as the amber trade was at a much earlier date. Adam of Bremen
tells us of the "proud horses" of the Svear as though they were an article
of export together with furs. In the Ynglinga Saga it is related [cf.
Sophus Bugge, 1907, p. 99] that Adils, King of the Svear at Upsalir,

    "was very fond of good horses, he had the best horses of that time."
    He sent a stallion "to Hålogaland to Godgest the king; Godgest the
    king rode it, and could not hold it, so he fell off and got his death;
    this was in Ǫmd [Amd] in Hålogaland."

The original authority for the statement in Jordanes was probably King
Rodulf, who perhaps came from the northern half of Norway, and it looks as
though the Norwegians even at that time were acquainted with Swedish
horses.

Jordanes further mentions five tribes who "dwell in a flat, fertile land
[i.e., south Sweden], for which reason also they have to protect
themselves against the attacks of other tribes ('gentium')." Among the
tribes in Sweden are mentioned also the "Finnaithæ"--doubtless in
Finn-heden or Finn-veden (that is, either Finn-heath or Finn-wood), whose
name must be due to an aboriginal people called Finns--further, the
"Gautigoth," generally taken for the West Göter, who were a specially
"brave and warlike people," the "Ostrogothæ" [East Göter] and many more.

Then he crosses the Norwegian frontier and mentions

    "The 'Raumarici'[of Romerike] and 'Ragnaricii' [of Ranrike or
    Bohuslen], the very mild [peaceful] 'Finns' ('Finni mitissimi'), who
    are milder than all the other inhabitants of Scandza;[136] further
    their equals the 'Vinoviloth'; the 'Suetidi' are known among this
    people ['hac gente' must doubtless mean the Scandinavians] as towering
    above the rest in bodily height, and yet the 'Danes,' who are
    descended from this very race [i.e., the Scandinavians ?] drove out
    the 'Heruli' from their own home, who claimed the greatest fame [i.e.,
    of being the foremost] among the peoples ['nationes'] of Scandia for
    very great bodily size. Yet of the same height as these are also the
    'Granii' [of Grenland, the coast-land of Bratsberg and Nedenes], the
    'Augandzi' [people of Agder],[137] 'Eunix' [islanders, Holmryger in
    the islands ?], 'Ætelrugi' [Ryger on the mainland in Ryfylke],
    'Arochi' [== 'arothi,' i.e., Harudes, Horder of Hordaland], 'Ranii'
    [in other MSS. 'Rannii' or 'Rami,' Sophus Bugge (1907) and A. Bugge
    see in this a corruption of '*Raumi,' that is, people of Romsdal],
    over whom not many years ago Roduulf was king, who, despising his own
    kingdom, hastened to the arms of Theodoric king of the Goths, and
    found what he had hankered after. These people fight with the
    savageness of beasts, more mighty than the Germans in body and soul."

The small (?), "very mild" Finns must, from the order in which they are
named, have lived in the forest districts--Solör, Eidskogen, and perhaps
farther south--on the Swedish border. P. A. Munch [1852, p. 83] saw in
their kinsmen the "Vinoviloth" the inhabitants of "Vingulmark" (properly
"vingel-skog," thick, impenetrable forest), which was the forest country
on Christiania fjord from Glommen to Lier. Müllenhoff agrees with this
[ii., 1887, pp. 65 f.], but thinks that "-oth," the last part of the word,
belongs to the next name, Suetidi, and that "Vinovil" may be a corruption
of Vingvili or Vinguli (cf. Paulus Warnefridi's "Vinili" ?). But however
this may be, we must regard this people and the foregoing as "Finnish" and
as inhabiting forest districts, as hunters, as well as a third Finnish
people, "Finnaithæ" in Småland. We shall return later to these "Finns" in
Scandinavia. It has been thought that "Suetidi" may be from the same word
as "Sviþjoð"; but as Jordanes has already mentioned the Svear ("Suehans"),
and as the name occurs among the Norwegian tribes, and there is evidently
a certain order in their enumeration, Müllenhoff may be right in seeing in
it a corruption of a Norwegian tribal name. He thinks that "Othsuetidi"
may be a corruption of "Æthsævii," i.e., "Eiðsivar" (cf. Eidsivathing),
"Heiðsævir" or "Heiðnir" in Hedemarken, who were certainly a very tall
people. The mention of the Norwegian warriors has a certain interest in
that it is due to the Roman statesman Cassiodorus (or his authority), who
glorified the Goths and had no special reason for praising the
Northmen.[138] It shows that even at that time our northern ancestors were
famed for courage and bodily size, and that too above all other Germanic
peoples, who were highly esteemed by the Romans. It is not clear whether
Rodulf was King of the "Ranii" (Raumer ?) alone, or of all the Norwegian
tribes from Grenland to Romsdal. It may be supposed that he was a
Norwegian chief who migrated south through Europe at the head of a band of
warriors, composed of men from the tribes mentioned, and that finally on
the Danube, hard pressed by other warlike people, he sought alliance and
support from the mighty king of the Goths, Theodoric or Tjodrik (Dietrich
of Berne). This may have been just before 489, when the latter made his
expedition to Italy. Many circumstances combine to make such a hypothesis
probable.[139]

We know that about 489 the Eruli were just north of the Danube, and were
the Goths' nearest neighbours. Now, as we shall see later, Eruli was
perhaps at first a common name for bands of northern warriors, and these
Eruli on the Danube may therefore certainly have consisted to a greater
or less extent of Norwegians. We know, further, that at this time there
was a king of the Eruli to whom Theodoric sent as a gift a horse, sword
and shield, thereby making him his foster-son [cf. Cassiodorus, Varia iii.
3, iv. 2]. Finally, we know from Procopius that the Eruli just at this
time had a king, Rodulf, who fell in battle against the Langobards (about
493). When we compare this with what Jordanes says about the Norwegian
king Rodulf, who hastened to Theodoric's arms and found there what he
sought, it will be easy to conclude that this Norwegian chief is the same
as the chief of Eruli here spoken of. Rodulf, or "Hrodulfr," is a known
Norwegian name. "Rod-," or "Hrod," is the same as the modern Norwegian
"ros" (i.e., praise), and means probably here renowned.

One is further inclined to believe that it was from this Rodulf or his
men, of whom some may have come from And in Hålogaland, that Cassiodorus
or his authority obtained the information about Scandinavia and northern
Norway, which is also partly repeated in Procopius.

    Sophus Bugge [cf. 1910, pp. 87 ff.; see also A. Bugge, 1906, pp. 35
    f.] has suggested that the "Ráðulfr," who is mentioned in the runic
    inscription on the celebrated Rök-stone in Östergötland (of about the
    year 900), in which Theodoric ("Þiaurikr") is also mentioned, may be
    the same Norwegian chief Rodulf who came to Theodoric and who fell in
    battle with the Langobards. He even regards it as possible that it is
    an echo of this battle which is found in the inscription, where it is
    said that "twenty kings lie slain on the field"; in that case the
    battle has been moved north from the Danube to "Siulunt" (i.e.,
    Sealand). There are other circumstances which agree with this: it is
    said of the Eruli that they had peace for three years before the
    battle [cf. Procopius]; on the Rök-stone it is stated that the twenty
    kings stayed in Siulunt four winters; the latter must have been
    Norwegian warriors of different tribes: Ryger, Horder, and Heiner
    (from Hedemarken), perhaps under a paramount king Ráðulfr, who settled
    in Sealand--while the Eruli were bands of northern warriors, who under
    a king Rodulf had established themselves on the north bank of the
    Danube. Bugge's supposition may be uncertain, but if it be correct it
    greatly strengthens the view (see p. 145) that the Eruli were largely
    Norwegian warriors, since in that case the king of the Eruli, Rodulf
    (== Ráðulfr), would have been in command of tribes for the most part
    Norwegian: Ryger, Horder, and Heiner.

The Byzantine historian Procopius, of Cæsarea (ob. after 562), became in
527 legal assistant, "assessor," to the general Belisarius, and
accompanied him on his campaigns until 549, amongst others that against
the Goths in Italy. In his work (in Greek) on the war against the Goths
("De bello Gothico," t. ii. c. 14 and 15), written about 552, he gives
information about the North which is of great interest. He tells us of the
warlike Germanic people, the Eruli, who from old time[140] were said to
have lived on the north bank of the Danube, and who, with no better reason
than that they had lived in peace for three whole years and were tired of
it, attacked their neighbours the Langobards, but suffered a decisive
defeat, and their king, Rodulf, fell in the battle (about 493).[141]

    "They then hastily left their dwelling-places, and set out with their
    women and children to wander through the whole country [Hungary] which
    lies north of the Danube. When they came to the district where the
    Rogians had formerly dwelt, who had joined the army of the Goths and
    gone into Italy, they settled there; but as they were oppressed by
    famine in that district, which had been laid waste, they soon
    afterwards departed from it, and came near to the country of the
    Gepidæ [Siebenbürgen]. The Gepidæ allowed them to establish themselves
    and to become their neighbours, but began thereupon, without the
    slightest cause, to commit the most revolting acts against them,
    ravishing their women, robbing them of cattle and other goods, and
    omitting no kind of injustice, and finally began an unjust war against
    them." The Eruli then crossed the Danube to Illyria and settled
    somewhere about what is now Servia under the eastern emperor
    Anastasius (491-518). Some of the Eruli would not "cross the Danube,
    but decided to establish themselves in the uttermost ends of the
    inhabited world. Many chieftains of royal blood now undertaking their
    leadership, they passed through all the tribes of the Slavs one after
    another, went thence through a wide, uninhabited country, and came to
    the so-called Varn. Beyond them they passed by the tribes of the Danes
    [in Jutland], without the barbarians there using violence towards
    them. When they thence came to the ocean [about the year 512] they
    took ship, and landed on the island of Thule [i.e., Scandinavia] and
    remained there. But Thule is beyond comparison the largest of all
    islands; for it is more than ten times as large as Britain. But it
    lies very far therefrom northwards. On this island the land is for the
    most part uninhabited. But in the inhabited regions there are thirteen
    populous tribes, each with a king. Every year an extraordinary thing
    takes place; for the sun, about the time of the summer solstice, does
    not set at all for forty days, but for the whole of this time remains
    uninterruptedly visible above the earth. No less than six months
    later, about the winter solstice, for forty days the sun is nowhere to
    be seen on this island; but continual night is spread over it, and
    therefore for the whole of that time the people are very depressed,
    since they can hold no intercourse. It is true that I have not
    succeeded, much as I should have wished it, in reaching this island
    and witnessing what is here spoken of; but from those who have come
    thence to us I have collected information of how they are able [to
    count the days] when the sun neither rises nor sets at the times
    referred to," etc. When, during the forty days that it is above the
    horizon, the sun in its daily course returns "to that place where the
    inhabitants first saw it rise, then according to their reckoning a day
    and a night have passed. But when the period of night commences, they
    find a measure by observation of the moon's path, according to which
    they reckon the number of days. But when thirty-five days of the long
    night are passed, certain people are sent up to the tops of mountains,
    as is the custom with them, and when from thence they can see some
    appearance of the sun, they send word to the inhabitants below that in
    five days the sun will shine upon them. And the latter assemble and
    celebrate, in the dark it is true, the feast of the glad tidings.
    Among the people of Thule this is the greatest of all their festivals.
    I believe that these islanders, although the same thing happens every
    year with them, nevertheless are in a state of fear lest some time the
    sun should be wholly lost to them.

    "Among the barbarians inhabiting Thule, one people, who are called
    Skridfinns [Scrithifini], live after the manner of beasts. They do not
    wear clothes [i.e., of cloth] nor, when they walk, do they fasten
    anything under their feet, [i.e., they do not wear shoes], they
    neither drink wine nor eat anything from the land, because they
    neither cultivate the land themselves nor do the women provide them
    with anything from tilling it, but the men as well as the women occupy
    themselves solely and continually in hunting; for the extraordinarily
    great forests and mountains which rise in their country give them vast
    quantities of game and other beasts. They always eat the flesh of the
    animals they hunt and wear their skins, and they have no linen or
    anything else that they can sew with. But they fasten the skins
    together with the sinews of beasts, and thus cover their whole bodies.
    The children even are not brought up among them as with other peoples;
    for the Skridfinns' children do not take women's milk, nor do they
    touch their mothers' breasts, but they are nourished solely with the
    marrow of slain beasts. As soon therefore as a woman has given birth,
    she winds the child in a skin, hangs it up in a tree, puts marrow into
    its mouth, and goes off hunting; for they follow this occupation in
    common with the men. Thus is the mode of life of these barbarians
    arranged.

    "Nearly all of the remaining inhabitants of Thule do not, however,
    differ much from other peoples. They worship a number of gods and
    higher powers in the heavens, the air, the earth and the sea, also
    certain other higher beings which are thought to dwell in the waters
    of springs and rivers. But they always slay all kinds of sacrifice and
    offer dead sacrifices. And to them the best of all sacrifices is the
    man they have taken prisoner by their arms. Him they sacrifice to the
    god of war, because they consider him to be the greatest. But they do
    not sacrifice him merely by using fire at the sacrifice; they also
    hang him up in a tree, or throw him among thorns, and slay him by
    other cruel modes of death. Such is the life of the inhabitants of
    Thule, among whom the most numerous people are the Gauti (Göter), with
    whom the immigrant Eruli settled."

This description by Procopius of Thule (Scandinavia) and its people bears
the stamp of a certain trustworthiness. If we ask whence he has derived
his information, our thoughts are led at once to the Eruli, referred to by
him in such detail, who in part were still the allies of the Eastern
Empire, and of whom the emperor at Byzantium had a bodyguard in the sixth
century. There were many of them in the army of the Eastern Empire both in
Persia and in Italy; thus Procopius says that there were two thousand of
them in the army under the eunuch Narses, which came to Italy to join
Belisarius. Procopius thus had ample opportunity for obtaining first-hand
information from these northern warriors, and his account of them shows
that the Eruli south of the Danube kept up communication with their
kinsmen in Scandinavia, for when they had killed their king "Ochon"
without cause, since they wished to try being without a king, and had
repented the experiment, they sent some of their foremost men to Thule to
find a new king of the royal blood. They chose one and returned with him;
but he died on the way when they had almost reached home, and they
therefore turned again and went once more to Thule. This time they found
another, "by name 'Datios' [or 'Todasios' == Tjodrik ?]. He was
accompanied by his brother 'Aordos' [== Vard ?] and two hundred young men
of the Eruli in Thule." Meanwhile, as they were so long absent, the Eruli
of Singidunum (the modern Belgrade) had sent an embassy to the emperor
Justinianus at Byzantium asking him to give them a chief. He sent,
therefore, the Erulian "Svartuas" (== Svartugle, i.e., black owl ?), who
had been living with him for a long time. But when Datios from Thule
approached, all the Eruli went over to him by night, and Svartuas had to
flee quite alone, and returned to Byzantium. The emperor now exerted all
his power to reinstate him; "but the Eruli, who feared the power of the
Romans, decided to migrate to the Gepidæ." This happened in Procopius's
own time, and may therefore be regarded as trustworthy; it shows how easy
communication must have been at that time between Scandinavia and the
south, and also with Byzantium, so that Procopius may well have had his
information by that channel. But he may also have received information
from another quarter. His description of Thule shows such decided
similarities with Jordanes' account of Scandza and its people that they
point to some common source of knowledge, even though there are also
dissimilarities. Among the latter it may be pointed out that Jordanes
makes a distinction between Thule (north of Britain) and Scandza, while
Procopius calls Scandinavia Thule, which, however, like Jordanes, he
places to the north of Britain, and he does not mention Scandia. It may
seem surprising that Jordanes' authority, Cassiodorus (or Ablabius ?),
should have known Ptolemy better than the Greek Procopius. The explanation
may be that when Procopius heard from the statements of the Eruli
themselves that some of them had crossed the ocean from the land of the
Danes (Jutland) to a great island in the north, he could not have supposed
that this was Scandia, which on Ptolemy's map lay east of the Cimbrian
peninsula and farther south than its northern point; it would seem much
more probable that it was Thule, which, however, as he saw, must lie
farther from Britain and be larger than it was shown on Ptolemy's map; for
which reason Procopius expressly asserts that Thule was much larger than
Britain and lay far to the north of it. As it was not Procopius's habit
to make a show of unnecessary names, he keeps the well-known name of
Thule and does not even mention Scandia. It may even be supposed that it
was to west Norway itself, or the ancient Thule, that the Eruli sailed. If
their king Rodulf was a Norwegian, as suggested above, this would be
probable, as in that case many of themselves would have come from there
too; besides which, we know of a people, the Harudes or Horder, who had
formerly migrated by sea from Jutland to the west coast of Norway; there
had therefore been an ancient connection, and perhaps, indeed, Horder from
Norway and Harudes from Jutland may have been among Rodulf's men, and
there may also have been Harudes among the Eruli whom the Danes, according
to Jordanes, drove out of their home (in Jutland ?). There was also, from
the very beginning of Norwegian history, much connection between Norway
and Jutland.

Another disagreement between the descriptions of Procopius and Jordanes is
that according to the former there were thirteen tribes, each with a king,
in Thule, while Jordanes enumerates twice as many tribal names in Scandza,
but of these perhaps several may have belonged to the same kingdom.[142]

A remarkable similarity between the two authors is the summer day forty
days long and the equally long winter night among the people of Thule as
with the Adogit, and the fact that in immediate connection therewith the
Scrithifini and Screrefennæ, which must originally be the same name, are
mentioned. The description in Procopius of festivals on the reappearance
of the sun, etc., points certainly to information from the North; but, as
already pointed out, the statement in this form, that the summer day was
of the same length as the winter night, cannot be due to the Norsemen
themselves; it is a literary invention, which points to a common literary
origin; for it would be more than remarkable if it had arisen
independently both with the authority of Procopius and with that of
Jordanes. An even more striking indication in the same direction is the
resemblance which we find in the order of the two descriptions of Thule
and of Scandza. First comes the geographical description of the island,
which in both is of very great size and lies far out in the northern
ocean; then occurs the statement that in this great island are many
tribes.[143] Next we have in both the curious fact that the summer day and
the winter night both last for forty days. Then follows in both a more
detailed statement of how the long summer day and winter night come about,
and of how the sun behaves during its course, etc. Immediately after this
comes the description of the Skridfinns, who have a bestial way of life,
and do not live on corn, but on the flesh of wild beasts, etc., with an
addition in Jordanes about fen-fowl's eggs (perhaps taken from Mela),
while Procopius has a more detailed description of their mode of life,
which reminds one somewhat of Tacitus. Finally, there is a reference to
the Germanic people of Thule or Scandza; but while Procopius mentions
their religious beliefs and human sacrifices, and only gives the name of
the most numerous tribe, the Gauti, Jordanes has for the most part a
rigmarole of names.

Even if the method of treating the material is thus very different in the
two works, the order in which the material is arranged, and to some extent
also the material itself, are in such complete agreement that there must
be a historical connection, and undoubtedly a common literary source,
through a greater or less number of intermediaries, is the basis of both
descriptions. One might think of the unknown Ablabius, or perhaps of the
unknown Gothic scholar Aithanarit, whom the Ravenna geographer mentions in
connection with his reference to the Skridfinns, if indeed he did not live
later than Procopius. It is striking also that the passage about Thule in
Procopius gives rather the impression of having been inserted in the
middle of his narrative about the Eruli, without any very intimate
connection therewith, and it may therefore be for the most part taken from
an earlier author, perhaps with alterations and additions by Procopius
himself; but it is not his habit to inform us of his authorities.

Procopius's description of the Eruli is of great interest. It is a
remarkable feature in the history of the world that at certain intervals,
even from the earliest times, roving warrior peoples appear in Europe,
coming from the unknown North, who for a time fill the world with dread,
and then disappear again. One of these northern peoples was perhaps, as
already mentioned, the "Cimmerians," who in the eighth century B.C. made
an inroad into Asia Minor. Six hundred years later, in the second century
B.C., bands of Cimbri and Teutones came down from northern Europe and were
pressing towards Rome, till they were defeated by Marius and gradually
disappeared. Five hundred years later still, in the third to the fifth
centuries A.D., the Eruli come on the scene, and after they have
disappeared come the Saxons and Danes, and then the Normans. We may
perhaps suppose, to a certain extent at all events, that the races which
formed these restless and adventurous bands were in part the same, and
that it is the names that have changed. The Eruli are also mentioned by
Jordanes and by many other authorities besides Procopius. Together with
the Goths they played a part in the "Scythian" war in the third century,
but afterwards disappear to the north of the Black Sea. They must have
been the most migratory people of their time; we find them roaming over
the whole of Europe, from Scandinavia on the north to Byzantium on the
south, from the Black Sea on the east to Spain on the west; from the third
to the fifth century we find Eruli from Scandinavia as pirates on the
coasts of western Europe, and even in the Mediterranean itself, where in
455 they reached Lucca in Italy [cf. Zeuss, 1837, p. 477 f.; Müllenhoff,
1889, p. 19]. When we read in Procopius that some of the Eruli would not
"cross the Danube, but determined to establish themselves in the uttermost
ends of the world," this means, of course, that they had come from thence,
and that rather than be subject to the Eastern Empire they would return
home to Scandinavia. The name also frequently appears in its primitive
Norse form, "erilaR," in Northern runic inscriptions.[144] Since "erilaR"
(in Norwegian "jarl," in English "earl") means leader in war, and is not
known in Scandinavia as the original name of a tribe which has given its
name to any district in the North, we must suppose that it was more
probably an appellative in use in the more southern parts of Europe for
bands of northern warriors of one or more Scandinavian tribes [cf. P. A.
Munch, 1852, p. 53]. They may have called themselves so; it was, in fact,
characteristic of the Scandinavian warrior that he was not disposed to
acknowledge any superior; they were all free men and chiefs in
contradistinction to thralls. Gradually these bands in foreign countries
may have coalesced into one nation [cf. A. Bugge, 1906, p. 32]. But as
expeditions of Eruli are spoken of in such widely different parts of
Europe, the name must, up to the end of the fifth century, have often been
used for Norsemen in general, to distinguish them from the nations of
Germany, like the designation Normans, and sometimes also Danes, in later
times. That the latter was used as an appellative as early as the time of
Procopius seems to result from his mentioning the tribes ("ethne") of the
Danes in just the same way as he speaks of those of the Slavs. What is
said about the Eruli suits the Scandinavians: they were very tall (cf.
Jordanes, above, p. 136) and fair, were specially famed for their
activity, and were lightly armed; they went into battle without helmet or
coat of mail, protected only by a shield and a thick tunic, which they
tucked up into a belt. Their thralls, indeed, had to fight without
shields; but when they had shown their courage they were allowed to carry
a shield [Procopius, De bello Pers., ii. 25]. "At that time," says
Jordanes, "there was no nation that had not chosen the light-armed men of
its army from among them. But if their activity had often helped them in
other wars, they were vanquished by the slow steadiness of the Goths," and
they had to submit to Hermanaric, King of the Goths by the Black Sea, the
same who is called Jörmunrek in the Völsunga Saga. The people here
described can scarcely have been typical dwellers in plains, who are
usually slow and heavy; we should rather think of them as tough and active
Scandinavian mountaineers, who by their hard life in the hills had become
light of foot and practised in the use of their limbs; but who, on the
other hand, had been ill-supplied with heavier weapons and had had scant
opportunities of exercise as heavy-armed men, for which indeed they had no
taste. This also explains their remarkable mobility. We are thus led once
more to think of Norway as the possible home of some of the Eruli. To sum
up, we find then that they had a king with the Norse name Rodulf, and
there are many indications that he was the same as the Norwegian king
Rodulf (from Romsdal ?) who came to Theodoric. They returned through
Jutland and sailed thence to Thule, where they settled by the side of the
Gauti, i.e., to the west of them in Norway, which from old time had had
frequent communication with Jutland, from whence the Horder (and probably
also the Ryger ?) had immigrated. They are described as having
characteristics which are typical of mountaineers, but not of lowlanders.
An Erulian name, "Aruth" (Αρουθ), mentioned by Procopius [De bello Goth.,
iv. 26], also points to Norway, since it appears to be the same as the
Norwegian tribal name "Horder" ("*Haruðr," gen. "Haruþs," on the
Rök-stone [cf. S. Bugge, 1910, p. 98], or "Arothi" in Jordanes).

    Other Erulian names in Procopius may be common to the northern
    Germanic languages. In the opinion of Professor Alf Torp it is
    probable that "Visandos" is bison, "Aluith" is Alvid or Alvith
    (all-knowing); in "Fanitheos" the first syllable may be "fan" or "fen"
    (English, fen) and the second part "-theos" may be the Scandinavian
    termination "-ther"; "Aordos" may be Vard. The King's name "Ochon"
    seems to resemble the Norwegian Håkon; but the latter name cannot have
    had such a form at that time, it must have been longer.

What Procopius tells us [De bello Goth., ii. 14] about the manners and
customs of the Eruli agrees with what we know of the Norsemen generally.
They worshipped many gods, whom they considered it their sacred duty to
propitiate with human sacrifices. Aged and sick persons were obliged to
ask their relatives to help them to get rid of life;[145] they were killed
with a dagger by one who did not belong to the family, and were burnt on a
great pile, after which the bones were collected and buried, as was the
custom in western Norway amongst other places. "When an Erulian died, his
wife, if she wished to show her virtue and leave a good name behind her,
had to hang herself not long after with a rope by her husband's grave and
thus make an end of herself. If she did not do this, she lost respect for
the future, and was an offence to her husband's family. This custom was
observed by the Eruli from old time." Their many gods and human sacrifices
agree, as we see, with Procopius's description of the inhabitants of
Thule, and with what we know of the Scandinavians from other quarters. As
human sacrifices with most peoples were connected with banquets, at which
slain enemies were eaten,[146] the assertion that our Germanic ancestors
did not practise cannibalism rests upon uncertain ground. When, therefore,
in finds of the Stone Age in Denmark, Sweden and Norway broken or scraped
human bones occur, which point to cannibalism, it cannot be argued from
this, as is done by Dr. A. M. Hansen [1907], that the finds belong to a
non-Germanic people.

For the rest, Procopius paints the Eruli in crude colours; they are
covetous, domineering and violent towards their fellow men, without being
ashamed of it. They are addicted to the grossest debauchery, are the most
wicked of men, and utterly depraved.

The "Scrithifini" of Procopius (and Jordanes' corrupted form,
"Screrefennæ" or "Scretefennæ") are undoubtedly a people of the same kind
as Tacitus's "Fenni" (Ptolemy-Marinus's "Finni"); but they have here
acquired the descriptive prefix "scrithi-," which is generally understood
as the Norse "skriða" (== to slide, e.g., on the ice, to glide; cf.
Swedish "skridsko," skate). The Norsemen must have characterised their
Finnish (i.e., Lappish) neighbours on the north as sliding (walking) on
ski ("skriða á skiðum"), to distinguish them from other peoples in the
outlying districts whom they also called Finns. If this is so, it is the
first time that a reference to ski-running is found in literature. There
is, moreover, considerable similarity between Procopius's description of
these hunters and Tacitus's account of the "Fenni," who must certainly
also have lived in Scandinavia (see above, p. 113), and who may have been
the same people. They have many peculiar characteristics in common, e.g.,
that both men and women go hunting; and the statement that while the
mothers go hunting, the children, in Tacitus, are hidden in a shelter of
boughs (i.e., a tent), and in Procopius are hung up in a tree (perhaps
the Lapps' "komse," i.e., a cradle made of wood to hang up in the tent).
Procopius himself probably did not know Tacitus's "Germania," but it is
possible that his unknown authority did so, although this work was
generally forgotten at that time. But even if the description of Procopius
may thus be partly derived from Tacitus, in any case fresh information has
been added, the name Skridfinns itself to begin with, and certain correct
details, such as their fastening the skins together with the sinews of
beasts. The fable that the children did not touch their mothers' breasts
may (like the masculine occupation of the women) be due to legends about
the Amazons, who were not brought up on their mothers' milk. That the
children were given marrow instead may be due to the fact that this people
of hunters, like the Lapps of the present day, ate much animal fat and
marrow. The Eskimo often give their children raw blubber to chew.

Thus while valuable information about the North is to be found in the
early mediæval authors we have mentioned, this is not the case with the
well-known Isidorus Hispalensis of Seville (ob. 636, as bishop of that
city), who, however, exercised the greatest influence on the geographical
ideas of the Middle Ages. His geographical knowledge was derived from late
Latin authors, especially Orosius, Hieronymus and Solinus, and contributed
nothing new of value. But as he was one of the most widely read authors of
the early Middle Ages, he is of importance for having in that dark time
continued the thread of the learning of antiquity, even though that thread
was thin and weak. He was also to have an influence on cartography. With
his fondness for bad etymological interpretations he derived the word
"rotunditas," for the roundness of the earth, from "rota," wheel, and he
taught that "the word 'orbis' is used on account of the roundness of the
circumference, since it is like a wheel. For in every part the
circumfluent ocean surrounds its borders in a circle." Hence the
conception of the earth's disc as a wheel came to be general in the early
Middle Ages, and hence the designation of wheel-maps. Isidore divided the
earth's disc into three parts, Asia (including Paradise) at the top of the
wheel-map, and Europe and Africa, also called Lybia, at the bottom; and
the boundaries between these continents formed a =T= with the rivers
Tanais and Nile horizontally at the top, and the Mediterranean ("Mare
Magnum") below. Therefore maps of this type, which was maintained for a
long time, are also called =T=-maps.[147] Otherwise Isidore declared
clearly enough in favour of the spherical form of the earth.

The Anglo-Saxon monk and scholar, Beda Venerabilis (673-735), who in his
work "Liber de natura rerum" also mentions the countries of the earth, but
without making any fresh statement about the North, was strongly
influenced by Isidore. He asserts, however, the spherical form of the
earth in an intelligent way, giving, amongst other reasons, that of the
ancient Greeks, that earth and water are attracted towards a central
point. The form of a sphere was also the only one that would explain why
certain stars were visible in the north, but not in the south.

A few new facts about the North are to be found in the anonymous author
who wrote a cosmography at the close of the seventh century. As, according
to his own statement, he was born at Ravenna, he is usually known as the
Ravenna geographer, but otherwise nothing is known of him, except that he
was probably a priest. He bases his work on older authors; the Bible,
some Latin, some Greek, and some later writers; but he certainly had a
Roman itinerary map like the Tabula Peutingeriana. His statements about
the North are in part taken from Jordanes, but he also quotes three other
"Gothic scholars," who are otherwise entirely unknown. One of them,
Aithanarit (or Athanaric ?), is mentioned particularly in connection with
the Skridfinns. The other two, Eldevaldus (or Eldebald ?) and Marcomirus
(or Marcomeres ?), have also described western Europe; the latter is
specially used in the description of the countries of the Danes, Saxons
and Frisians.

    The Ravenna geographer regarded the earth's disc as approximately
    round, and surrounded by ocean, but the latter was not entirely
    continuous, for it did not extend behind India. It was true that some
    cosmographers had described it so, but no Christian ought to believe
    this, for Paradise was in the extreme East, near to India; and as the
    pollen is wafted by the breath of the wind from the male palm to the
    female near it, so does a beneficent perfume from Paradise blow upon
    the aromatic flowers of India. Some thought that the sun in its course
    returned to the east under the depths of ocean; but the Ravenna
    geographer agreed with those who said that the sun moved all night
    along paths which cannot be traced, behind lofty mountains, in the
    north beyond the ocean, and in the morning it came forth again from
    behind them.

    [iv. 12.] "In a line with Scythia and the coast of the ocean is the
    country which is said to be that of the 'Rerefeni' and 'Sirdifeni'
    ('Scirdifrini'). The people of this country, according to what the
    Gothic scholar Aithanarit says, dwell among the rocks of the
    mountains, and both men and women are said to live by hunting, and to
    be entirely unacquainted both with meat and wine. This land is said to
    be colder than all others. Farther on by the side of the Serdifenni on
    the coast of the ocean is the land which is called Dania; this land,
    as the above-mentioned Aithanaridus and Eldevaldus and Marcomirus, the
    Gothic scholars, say, produces people who are swifter than all
    others." [These must be the Eruli.] "This Dania is now called the land
    of the Nordomanni." This is the first time the name Norman is used, so
    far as is known.

    [v. 30.] "In the northern ocean itself, after the land of the
    Roxolani, is an island which is called Scanza, which is also called
    Old Scythia by most cosmographers. But in what manner the island of
    Scanza itself lies, we will with God's help relate."

He says, following Jordanes (see above, p. 130), that from this island
other nations, amongst them the Goths and the Danes, besides the Gepidæ,
migrated.

It will be seen that the Ravenna geographer's statements about the
Skridfinns, whose name is varied and corrupted even more than in Jordanes,
bear a striking resemblance to those of Procopius, although he says he
derived them from the Goth Aithanarit; if this is correct, then the latter
must either have borrowed from Procopius, which is very probable, or he is
older and was the common authority both of Procopius and the Ravenna
geographer, and, if so, perhaps also of Cassiodorus (?).

    An enigmatical work, probably dating from about the seventh century,
    which was much read in the Middle Ages, professes to be a Latin
    translation, by a certain Hieronymus, from a Christian book of travel
    by a Greek commonly called Æthicus Istricus.[148] He is said to have
    travelled before the fourth century. The translator asserts that
    Æthicus had related many fabulous things, which he has not repeated,
    as he wished to keep to the sure facts; but among them we find many
    remarkable pieces of information, as that Æthicus had seen with his
    own eyes on the north of the Caspian Sea the Amazons give the breast
    to Centaurs and Minotaurs, and when he was living in the town of
    Choolisma, built by Japhet's son Magog, he saw the sea of bitumen
    which forms the mouth of Hell and from which the cement for
    Alexander's wall of iron came. In Armenia he looked in vain for Noah's
    ark; but he saw dragons, ostriches, griffins, and ants as large and
    ferocious as dogs. He also mentioned griffins and treasures of gold in
    the north between the Tanais and the northern ocean. "The Scythians,
    Griffins, Tracontians and Saxons built ships of wattles smeared over
    with pitch" (perhaps it is meant that they were also covered with
    hides). These ships were extraordinarily swift. Among the Scythians
    there was said to be an able craftsman and great teacher, Grifo, who
    built ships with prows in the northern ocean. He was like the griffins
    or the flying fabulous birds. Æthicus visited an island called Munitia
    north of Germania. There he found "Cenocephali" (dog-headed men). They
    were a hideous race. The Germanic peoples came to the island as
    merchants and called the people "Cananei." They go with bare calves,
    smear their hair with oil or fat and smell foully. They lead a dirty
    life and feed on unclean animals, mice, moles, etc. They live in felt
    tents in the woods far away by fens and swampy places. They have a
    number of cattle, fowls and eggs.[149] They know no god and have no
    king. They use more tin than silver. One might be tempted to think
    that this fable of dog-headed people in the north had arisen from the
    word "Kvæn" (Finn), which to a Greek like Æthicus would sound like
    "cyon" (dog). The name "Cenocephali" may have been introduced in this
    way, while that of "Cananei" may have arisen by a sort of corrupt
    similarity of sound between Kvæn and the Old Testament people of
    Canaan. It might thus be Kvænland or Finland that is here spoken of.
    Their going with bare calves and living in felt tents may remind us of
    the Argippæi of Herodotus, who were bald (while in Mela they went
    bare-headed) and had felt tents in winter.

The Langobard author Paulus Warnefridi, also called Diaconus (about
720-790), gives for the most part more or less confused extracts from
earlier authors, but he seems besides to have obtained some new
information about the North. Just as the Goth Jordanes (or Cassiodorus, or
Ablabius) makes the Goths emigrate from Ptolemy's Scandza, so Paulus,
following earlier authors,[150] makes the Langobards proceed from Pliny's
island Scatinavia, far in the north. It looks as though at that time a
northern origin was held in high esteem. But Paulus describes the country,
from the statements of those who have seen it, as not "really lying in the
sea, but the waves wash the low shores." This points to a confusion here
with a district called Scatenauge by the Elbe, which in a somewhat later
MS. (about 807) of the Langobardic Law is mentioned as the home of the
Langobards [cf. Lönborg, 1897, p. 27]. Paulus further relates that on the
coast "north-west towards the uttermost boundaries of Germany" there lie
seven men asleep in a cave, for how long is uncertain. They resemble the
Romans in appearance, and both they and their clothes are unharmed, and
they are regarded by the inhabitants as holy. The legend of the Seven
Sleepers is already found in Gregory of Tours, who has it from Asia Minor,
where it arose in the third century and was located at Ephesus [cf. J.
Koch, 1883]. The legend was very common in Germania, and we find it again
later in tales of shipwreck on the coast of Greenland.[151]

    "Near to this place [i.e., the cave with the seven men] dwell the
    'Scritobini';[152] thus is this people called; they have snow even in
    summer time, and they eat nothing but the raw flesh of wild beasts, as
    they do not differ from the beasts themselves in intelligence, and
    they also make themselves clothes of their skins with the hair on.
    Their name is explained from the word 'to leap' in the foreign tongue
    [i.e., Germanic], for by leaping with a certain art they overtake the
    wild beasts with a piece of wood bent like a bow. Among them is an
    animal which is not much unlike a stag, and I have seen a dress made
    of the hide of this animal, just as if it was bristling with hairs,
    and it was made like a tunic and reached to the knees, as the
    above-mentioned Scritobini wear it, as I have told. In these parts, at
    the summer solstice, there is seen for several days, even at night,
    the clearest light, and they have there much more daylight than
    elsewhere, as on the other hand, about the winter solstice, even if
    there is daylight, the sun itself is not seen there, and the day is
    shorter than in any other place, the nights also are longer; for the
    farther one goes away from the sun, the nearer the sun appears to the
    earth [the horizon], and the shadows become longer."...

    "And not far from the shore which we before spoke of [by the cave] on
    the west, where the ocean extends without bounds, is that very deep
    abyss of the waters which we commonly call the ocean's navel. It is
    said twice a day to suck the waves into itself, and to spew them out
    again; as is proved to happen along all these coasts, where the waves
    rush in and go back again with fearful rapidity. Such a gulf or
    whirlpool is called by the poet Virgil Caribdis, and in his poem he
    says it is in the strait by Sicily, as he says:

        'Scilla lies on the right hand
        and the implacable Caribdis on the left.
        And three times it sucks the vast billows
        down into the abyss with the deep whirlpool
        of the gulf, and it sends them up again into the air,
        and the wave lashes the stars.'

    "By the whirlpool of which we have spoken it is asserted that ships
    are often drawn in with such rapidity that they seem to resemble the
    flight of arrows through the air; and sometimes they are lost in this
    gulf with a very frightful destruction. Often just as they are about
    to go under, they are brought back again by a sudden shock of the
    waves, and they are sent out again thence with the same rapidity with
    which they were drawn in. It is asserted that there is also another
    gulf of the same kind between Britain and the Gallician province"
    [i.e., northern Spain], whereupon there follows a description of the
    tides on the south coast of France and at the mouths of the rivers,
    after which there is a highly coloured account of the horrors of the
    Ebudes, where they can hear the noise of the waters rushing towards a
    similar Caribdis.

Paulus Warnefridi evidently had a very erroneous idea of ski-running,
which he made into a leaping instead of a gliding motion. He may have
imagined that they jumped about on pieces of wood bent like bows. That the
abyss of waters or navel of the sea is thought to be in the North may be
due to reports either of the current in the Pentland Firth or of the
Mosken-ström or the Salt-ström, which thus make their appearance here in
literature, and which were afterwards developed into the widespread ideas
of the Middle Ages about maelstroms and abysses in the sea, perhaps by
being connected with the ancient Greek conception of the uttermost abyss
(Tartarus, Anostus, Ginnungagap; see pp. 11, 12, 17), and as here with the
description of the current in the Straits of Messina.

Viktor Rydberg [1886, pp. 318, 425, ff.] supposed Paulus's description of
the whirlpool to be derived from the Norse legends of the world's well,
"Hvergelmer"--which causes the tides by the water flowing up and down
through its subterranean channels--and of the quern "Grotte" at the
bottom of the sea, which forms whirlpools when the waters run down into
the hole in the mill-stone.[153] But it is perhaps just as probable that
it is the southern, originally classical ideas which have been localised
in the Norse legends. As we have seen, we find in Virgil the same
conception of a gulf in the sea which sucks the water into itself and
sends it up again. Isidore says of the abyss (also repeated in Hrabanus
Maurus):

    "Abyssus is the impenetrable deep of the waters, or the caves of the
    hidden waters, from whence springs and rivers issue forth, but also
    those which run concealed beneath the ground. Therefore it is called
    Abyssus, for all streams return by hidden veins to their mother
    Abyssus."

It is credible that ideas such as this may have originated, or at any rate
coloured, the myth of "Hvergelmer" (i.e., the noisy or bubbling kettle).
Isidore was early known in England, Ireland and Scandinavia. The whirlpool
is also found among Orientals; thus Sindbad is drawn into it. Paulus's
mention of whirlpools not only in the North, and off the Hebrides, but
also between Britain and Spain and in the Straits of Messina, does not
show that he derived the legend solely from the North. Later, on the other
hand, in Adam of Bremen, the whirlpool becomes more exclusively northern,
and later still we shall get it even at the North Pole itself.

Paulus Warnefridi also mentions Greek fabulous people such as the
Dog-heads (Cynocephali) and the Amazons in North Germania. He says that
the Langobards fought with a people called "Assipitti," who lived in
"Mauringa," and that they frightened them by saying that they had
Cynocephali in their army, who drank human blood, their own if they could
not get that of others. The Langobards were said to have been stopped by
the Amazons at a river in Germany. The Langobard king, Lamissio, fought
with the bravest of them, while he was swimming in the river, and slew
her; and according to a prearranged agreement he thereby obtained for his
people the right of crossing unhindered. Paulus regards the story as
untrue, as the Amazons were supposed to have been destroyed long before;
but he had nevertheless heard that there was a tribe of such women in the
interior of Germany. The same idea of a female nation in Germany occurs
again later in literature (cf. King Alfred's "Mægða-land").

It has already been mentioned (p. 123) that in the MSS. of Solinus of the
ninth century and later there is found a mention of the Ebudes, the
Orcades and Thule which in the opinion of Mommsen is a later addition; and
as it is not found in Isidore Hispalensis, who made extensive use of
Solinus, it must have been introduced after his time (seventh century),
but before the ninth century, when it occurs in a MS. As the addition
about Thule, so far as I can judge, must show that this country is
regarded as Norway, and as there are many indications that it was made by
an Irish monk, it is further probable that it belongs to the period before
the Irish discovery of Iceland, which then, according to Dicuil's book,
became regarded as Thule. I think, therefore, we can place the addition at
the beginning of the eighth century, and it will then be evidence of the
knowledge of Norway which prevailed in the British Isles at that time.
After having mentioned Britain and the neighbouring islands the account
proceeds [Solinus, c. 22]:

    "From the Caledonian Promontory it is two days' sail for those who
    voyage to Tyle [Thule]. From thence begin the Ebudes islands
    [Hebrides], five in number [the five principal islands]. Their
    inhabitants live on fruits, fish and milk. Though there are many
    islands, they are all separated by narrow arms of the sea. They all
    together have but one king. The king owns nothing for himself alone,
    all is common property. Justice is imposed upon him by fixed laws, and
    lest he should be led away from the truth by covetousness, he learns
    righteousness by poverty, since he has no possessions; he is therefore
    supported by the people. No woman is given him in marriage, but he
    takes in turn her who pleases him at the moment. Thus he has neither
    the desire nor the hope of children. The second station for the
    voyager [to Thule] is provided by the Orcades. But the Orcades lie
    seven days' and the same number of nights' sail from the Ebudes, they
    are three in number [i.e., the three principal isles of the
    Shetlands]. They are uninhabited ('vacant homines'). They have no
    woods, but are rough with reeds and grass, the rest is bare sandy
    beach and rocks. From the Orcades direct to Thule is five days' and
    nights' sail. But Thule is fertile and rich in late-ripening fruits.
    The inhabitants there live from the beginning of spring with their
    cattle, and feed on herbs and milk; the fruits of the trees they keep
    for winter. They have women in common, regular marriage is not known
    among them."

This description cannot well be pure invention, and unless it may be
thought to be transferred from another place, we must believe it to be
derived from a distant knowledge of Norway. Their living with the cattle
in spring is in accordance with this, but not their subsistence on the
fruits of the trees. Here one would rather be led to think of the
Hesperides and their golden apples, unless we are to suppose that they
collected nuts and berries. That the inhabitants of Thule had women in
common might be connected with the predilection of the Scandinavians for
polygamy, of which we also hear from other sources; but this is uncertain.
Even the Greeks and Romans saw in the absence of regular marriage a sign
of barbarism, which brought man near to the beasts, and which they
therefore attributed to people at the extreme limits of the earth; cf.
Herodotus, and Strabo's description of the Irish (p. 81). If the
Caledonian Promontory means Scotland, it is surprising that it should be
two days' sail to the Hebrides, and that these were the first and the
Orcades the second station on the way to Thule. We must then suppose that
there has been a jumbling together of several authorities, which is not
very probable if this is a later interpolation, since we must doubtless
believe the interpolating copyist to have thought himself possessed of
knowledge of these matters. If, however, we suppose him to have been an
Irishman, and to have looked upon the voyage to Thule with Ireland as a
starting-point, then it becomes more consistent. It is then two days' sail
from Ireland to the Hebrides, seven days thence to the Shetlands, and then
five to Thule; that is, the whole voyage will last fourteen days; and
this may be about right. It is undeniably somewhat surprising that there
should be no inhabitants on the Orcades, or Shetland, at that time.


THE DISCOVERY OF THE FAROES AND ICELAND BY THE IRISH IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY

The earliest voyages northward to the Arctic Circle, of which there is
certain literary mention in the early Middle Ages, are the Irish monks'
expeditions across the sea in their small boats, whereby they discovered
the Faroes and Iceland, and, at all events for a time, lived there. Of
these the Irish monk Dicuil gave an account, as early as about the year
825, in his description of the earth, "De Mensura Orbis Terræ" [cf.
Letronne, 1814, pp. 38 f., 131 f.]. It is characteristic of the spiritual
tendency of that period of the Middle Ages that these remarkable voyages
were not, like other voyages of discovery, undertaken from love of gain,
thirst for adventure, or desire of knowledge, but chiefly from the wish to
find lonely places, where these anchorites might dwell in peace,
undisturbed by the turmoil and temptations of the world.[154] In this way
the unknown islands near the Arctic Ocean must have seemed to satisfy all
their requirements; but their joy was short-lived; the disturbers of the
North, the Vikings from Norway, soon came there also and drove them out or
oppressed them.

What Dicuil tells us of the Scandinavian North is chiefly derived from
Pliny, and contains nothing new. But of the unknown islands in the
northern ocean he writes [7, 3]:

    "There are many more islands in the ocean north of Britain, which can
    be reached from the northern British Isles in two days' and two
    nights' direct sailing with full sail and a favourable wind. A
    trustworthy priest ('presbyter religiosus') told me that he had sailed
    for two summer-days and an intervening night in a little boat with two
    thwarts [i.e., two pairs of oars],[155] and landed on one of these
    islands. These islands are for the most part small; nearly all are
    divided from one another by narrow sounds, and upon them anchorites,
    who proceeded from our Scotia [i.e., Ireland], have lived for about a
    hundred years ('in centum ferme annis'). But as since the beginning of
    the world they had always been deserted, so are they now by reason of
    the Northman pirates emptied of anchorites, but full of innumerable
    sheep and a great number of different kinds of sea-birds. We have
    never found these islands spoken of in the books of authors."

This description best suits the Faroes,[156] where, therefore, Irish monks
had previously lived, and from whence they had been driven out by
Norwegian seafarers, probably at the close of the eighth century. As,
however, Dicuil is so well aware of the islands being full of sheep, the
Irish may have continued to visit them occasionally, like the trustworthy
priest referred to, who sailed there in a boat with two thwarts. Dicuil's
statement that they were then "emptied of anchorites" must doubtless be
interpreted to mean that they were uninhabited; but this does not sound
very probable. Rather, there are many indications that the islands had an
original Celtic population, which continued to live there after the
settlement of the Norsemen.

    There are some Celtic place-names, such as "Dímon" (the islands "Stora
    Dímon" and "Litla Dímon," or "Dímun meiri" and "Dímun minni") from the
    Celtic "dimun" (== double neck, thus like Norwegian "Tviberg").[157]
    As such Celtic place-names cannot have been introduced later, the
    Norwegians must have got them from the Celts who were there before,
    and with whom they had intercourse. The language of the Faroes has
    also many loan-words from Celtic, mostly for agriculture and
    cattle-farming, and for the flora and fauna of the islands. These
    might be explained by many of the Norwegian settlers having previously
    lived in the Scottish islands or in Ireland, or having had frequent
    communication with those countries [cf. A. Bugge, 1905, p. 358]; but
    it seems more natural to suppose that the loan-words are derived from
    a primitive Celtic population. To this must be added that the people
    of the Southern Faroes are still dark, with dark eyes and black hair,
    and differ from the more Germanic type of the northern islands [cf. D.
    Bruun, 1902, p. 5]. The name "Færöene" (sheep-islands) shows that
    there probably were sheep before the Norsemen came, which so far
    agrees with Dicuil; these sheep must then have been introduced by the
    earlier Celts.

According to this it seems possible that the Irish monks came to the
islands not merely as anchorites, but also to spread Christianity among a
Celtic population. The Norwegians arrived later, took possession of the
islands, and oppressed the Celts.

But the bold Irish monks extended their voyages farther north. Dicuil has
also to tell us how they found Iceland, which he calls Thule, and lived
there. After having mentioned what Pliny, Solinus, Isidore (Hispalensis)
and Priscianus say about Thule (Thyle), he continues [7, 2, 6]:

    "It is now thirty years since certain priests, who had been on that
    island from the 1st of February to the 1st of August, told that not
    only at the time of the summer solstice, but also during the days
    before and after, the setting sun at evening conceals itself as it
    were behind a little mound, so that it does not grow dark even for
    the shortest space of time, but whatsoever work a man will do, even
    picking the lice out of his shirt (pediculos de camisia extrahere), he
    may do it just as though the sun were there, and if they had been upon
    the high mountains of the island perhaps the sun would never be
    concealed by them [i.e., the mountains]. In the middle of this very
    short time it is midnight in the middle of the earth, and on the other
    hand I suppose in the same way that at the winter solstice and for a
    few days on either side of it the dawn is seen for a very short time
    in Thule, when it is midday in the middle of the earth. Consequently I
    believe that they lie and are in error who wrote that there was a
    stiffened (concretum) sea around it [i.e., Thyle], and likewise those
    who said that there was continuous day without night from the vernal
    equinox till the autumnal equinox, and conversely continuous night
    from the autumnal equinox till the vernal, since those who sailed
    thither reached it in the natural time for great cold, and while they
    were there always had day and night alternately except at the time of
    the summer solstice; but a day's sail northward from it they found the
    frozen (congelatum) sea."

This description, written half a century before the Norwegians, according
to common belief, came to Iceland, shows that the country was known to the
Irish, at any rate before the close of the eighth century (thirty years
before Dicuil wrote in 825), and how much earlier we cannot say. With the
first-hand information he had received from people who had been there,
Dicuil may have blended ideas which he had obtained from his literary
studies. The sun hiding at night behind a little mound reminds us of the
older ideas that it went behind a mountain in the north (cf. Cosmas
Indicopleustes and the Ravenna geographer); but of course it may also be
due to local observation. The idea that the frozen sea ("congelatum mare")
had been found a day's sail north of this island is precisely the same as
in the Latin and Greek authors, where, according to Pytheas, the stiffened
sea ("concretum mare") or the sluggish sea ("pigrum") lay one day's sail
beyond Thule (cf. p. 65). But this does not exclude the possibility of the
Irish having come upon drift-ice north of Iceland; on the contrary, this
is very probable.

Dicuil's statement of the Irish discovery of Iceland is confirmed by the
Icelandic sagas. Are Frode (about 1130) relates that at the time the
Norwegian settlers first came to Iceland,

    "there were Christians here whom the Norwegians called 'papar'
    [priests]; but they afterwards went away, because they would not be
    here together with heathens, and they left behind them Irish books,
    bells and croziers, from which it could be concluded that they were
    Irishmen." In the Landnámabók, which gives the same statement from
    Are, it is added that "they were found east in Papey and in Papyli. It
    is also mentioned in English books that at that time there was sailing
    between the countries" [i.e., between Iceland and Britain].

In many other passages in the sagas we hear of them,[158] and the
Norwegian author Tjodrik Monk (about 1180) has a similar statement. Many
places in south Iceland, such as "Papafjörðr" with "Papos," and the island
of "Papey," still bear names derived from these first inhabitants. A
former name was "Pappyli," which is now no longer used. But besides these
place-names there are many others in Iceland which are either Celtic or
must be connected with the Celts. Thus, among the first that are mentioned
in the Landnámabók are "Minþakseyrr" and "Vestmanna-eyjar." "Minþak" is an
Irish word for a dough of meal and butter, and Westmen were the Irish. It
is true that in the Landnámabók [cf. F. Jónsson, 1900, pp. 7, 132, 265]
these names are placed in connection with the Irish thralls whom Hjorleif,
the associate of Ingolf, had brought with him, and who killed him; but, as
the more particular circumstances of the tale show, it is probable that it
is the place-names that are original, and that have given rise to the tale
of the thralls, and not the reverse. A. Bugge [1905, pp. 359 ff.] gives a
whole list of Icelandic place-names of Celtic origin, mostly derived from
personal names;[159] he endeavours to explain them as due to Celtic
influence, through Irish land-takers; but the most natural explanation is
certainly here as with the Faroes, that there was a primitive Celtic
population in Iceland, and not merely a few Irish monks, when the
Norwegians arrived; and that from these Celts the Icelanders are in part
descended, while they took their language from the ruling class, the
Norwegians, who also became superior in numbers. Future anthropological
investigations of the modern Icelanders may be able to throw light on
these questions. The original Celtic population may have been small and
dispersed, but may nevertheless have made it easier for the Norwegians to
settle there, as they did not come to a perfectly uncultivated country,
and to subdue men takes less time than to subdue Nature. As to how, and
how early, the Celts first came to Iceland, we know in the meantime
nothing.

Einhard (beginning of the ninth century), the biographer of Charlemagne,
speaks of the Baltic as a bay eastwards from the western ocean of unknown
length and nowhere broader than 100,000 paces (about ninety miles), and
mentions the peoples of those parts: "'Dani' and 'Sueones,' whom we call
'Nordmanni,'" live on the northern shore and on all the islands, while
Slavs and Esthonians and other peoples dwell on the southern shore. The
well-known German scholar, Hrabanus Maurus (circa 776-856), Archbishop of
Mayence (847-856), bases his encyclopædic work, "De Universo" (completed
in 847), in twenty-two books, chiefly upon Isidore, from whom he makes
large extracts, and has little to say about the North. Rimbertus (end of
the ninth century), on the other hand, in his biography of Ansgarius,
gives much information about Scandinavia and its people, while the nearly
contemporary Bavarian geographer ("geographus Bawarus") describes the
Slavonic peoples.


CHAPTER V

THE AWAKENING OF MEDIÆVAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE NORTH


KING ALFRED, OTTAR, ADAM OF BREMEN

In the ninth century the increasingly frequent Viking raids, Charlemagne's
wars and conquests in the North, and the labours of Christian
missionaries, brought about an increase of intercourse, both warlike and
peaceful, between southern Europe and the people of the Scandinavian
North. The latter had gradually come to play a certain part on the world's
stage, and their enterprises began to belong to history. Their countries
were thereby more or less incorporated into the known world. Now for the
first time the mists that had lain over the northern regions of Europe
began to lift, to such an extent that the geographical knowledge of the
Middle Ages became clearer, and reached farther than that of the Greeks a
thousand years earlier.

But while in the foregoing centuries the clouds had moved slowly, they
were now rapidly dispelled from large tracts of the northern lands and
seas. This was due in the first place to the voyages of the
Scandinavians, especially of the Norwegians. By their sober accounts of
what they had found they directed geographical science into new and
fruitful channels, and freed it little by little from the dead weight of
myths and superstitions which it had carried with it through the ages from
antiquity. We find the first decisive step in this direction in the
Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great of England (849-circa 901 A.D.).

King Alfred had Orosius's Latin history done into Anglo-Saxon, and himself
translated large portions of the work. By about 880 he was at peace with
the Danish Vikings, to whom he had been obliged to cede the north-eastern
half of England. He died about 901. His literary activity must no doubt
have fallen within the period between these dates. Finding the
geographical introduction to Orosius's work inadequate, especially as
regards northern Europe, he added what he had learnt from other sources.
Thus, from information probably obtained from Germans, he gives a survey
of Germany, which he makes extend northwards "to the sea which is called
'Cwên-sæ.'" What is meant by this is not quite clear; it might be the
Polar Sea or the White Sea; on the other hand, it may be the Baltic or the
Gulf of Bothnia; for the text does not make it certain whether King Alfred
regarded Scandinavia as a peninsula connected with the continent or not.
He speaks of countries and peoples on the "Ost-sæ",[160] and he mentions
amongst others the South Danes and North Danes both on the mainland
(Jutland) and the islands--both peoples with the Ost-sæ to the north of
them--further the "Osti" (probably the Esthonians, who also had this arm
of the sea, the Ost-sæ, to the north), Wends and Burgundians (Bornholmers
?), who "have the same arm of the sea to the west of them, and the
Sveones (Svear) to the north." "The Sveones have south of them the
Esthonian ['Osti'] arm of the sea, and east of them the Sermende
[Sarmatians ? or Russians ?]; and to the north, beyond the uninhabited
tracts ['wêstenni'], is 'Cwên-land'; and north-west of them are the
'Scride-Finnas,' and to the west the Norwegians ('Norðmenn')."

King Alfred's most important contribution to geographical knowledge of the
North is his remarkable account of what the Norwegian Ottar (or "Ohthere"
in the Anglo-Saxon text) told him about his voyage to the North. The brief
and straightforward narrative of this sober traveller forms in its
clearness and definiteness a refreshing contrast to the vague and confused
ideas of earlier times about the unknown northern regions. We see at once
that we are entering upon a new period.

    "Ottar told his lord, Alfred the king, that he dwelt farthest north of
    all the Norwegians.[161] He said that he dwelt on the northern side of
    the land by the 'West-sæ.' He said however that the land extends very
    far to the north from there; but that it is quite uninhabited
    ('weste'), except that in a few places the Finns[162] live, hunting
    in the winter and fishing in the sea in summer. He said that once he
    wished to find out how far the land extended due north, and whether
    any man lived north of the waste tracts. So he went due north[163]
    along the coast; the whole way he had the uninhabited land to
    starboard and the open sea to port for three days. Then he was as far
    north as the whalers go.[164] Then he went on due north as far as he
    could sail in the next three days. There the land turned due east, or
    the sea turned into the land,[165] he did not know which; but he knew
    that there he waited for a west wind, or with a little north in it,
    and sailed thence eastward, following the coast as far as he could
    sail in five days. Then he had to wait for a due north wind, because
    the land there turned due south, or the sea into the land, he did not
    know which.[166] Then he sailed thence due south along the coast, as
    far as he could sail in five days. There lay a great river going up
    into the land, so they turned up into the river, because they dared
    not sail past it for fear of trouble, since all the country was
    inhabited on the other side of the river. He had not met with
    inhabited country before, since he left his own home; but all the way
    there was waste land to starboard, except for fishermen, fowlers and
    hunters, and they were all Finns, and there was always sea to port.
    The land of the Beormas was well inhabited; but they [i.e., Ottar and
    his men] dared not land there; but the land of the Terfinnas was
    entirely waste, except where hunters or fishers or fowlers had their
    abode.

    "The Beormas told him many stories both about their own country and
    the countries that were about it, but he knew not what was true,
    because he had not seen it himself. The Finns and the Beormas, as it
    seemed to him, spoke almost the same language. He went thither chiefly
    to explore the country, and for the sake of the walruses, for they
    have much valuable bone in their tusks--some such tusks he brought to
    the king--and their hide is very good for ships' ropes. This whale is
    much smaller than other whales, not more than seven cubits long; but
    in his own country is the best whaling, there they are forty-eight
    cubits, and the largest fifty cubits long; of them ('þara'), said he,
    he with six others ('syxa sum') had killed sixty in two days."[167]

Since King Alfred, as has been said, must have written between 880 and
901, Ottar may have made his voyage about 870 to 890. This remarkable man,
who according to his own statement undertook his expedition principally
from desire of knowledge, is the second northern explorer of whom we have
definite information in history. The first was the Greek Pytheas, who went
about as far as the Arctic Circle. Some twelve hundred years later the
Norwegian Ottar continues the exploration farther north along the coasts
of Norway and sails right into the White Sea. He thereby determined the
extent of Scandinavia on the north, and is the first known discoverer of
the North Cape, the Polar Sea (or Barents Sea), and the White Sea; but he
did not know whether the latter was a bay of the ocean or not. It is
unlikely that Ottar was the first Norwegian to _discover_ the coasts along
which he sailed. It is true that the expressions "that he wished to find
out how far the land extended due north, or whether any man dwelt to the
north of the uninhabited tracts," might be taken to mean that this was
hitherto unknown to the Norwegians; but it should doubtless rather be
understood as a general indication of the object of the voyage: this was
of interest to King Alfred, but not whether it was absolutely the first
voyage of discovery in those regions. The names Terfinnas and Beormas are
given as something already known, and when Ottar reaches the latter he
understands at once that he ought not to proceed farther, for fear of
trouble; it may be supposed that he knew them by report as a warlike
people. A. Bugge [1908, p. 409] quotes K. Rygh to the effect that the
names of fjords in Finmark must be very ancient, e.g., those that end in
"-angr." This termination is not found in Iceland, and would consequently
be older than the Norwegian colonisation of that country; nor does "angr"
(== fjord) as an appellative occur in the Old Norse literary language. It
may therefore be possible that these names are older than Ottar. Bugge
also, from information given by Mr. Qvigstad, calls attention to the fact
that the Lapps call Magarö "Makaravjo," and a place on Kvalö (near
Hammerfest) "Rahkkeravjo." The latter part of these names must be the
primary Germanic word "awjô" for island or land near the shore. According
to this the Norsemen must have been as far north as this and have given
names to these places, while this form of the word was still in use, and
the Finns or Lapps have taken it from them.

The land of the Terfinnas, which was uninhabited, is the whole Kola
peninsula. Its name was "Ter" (or "Turja"), whence the designation
Ter-Finns. The common supposition that the river Ottar came to was the
Dvina cannot be reconciled with Ottar's narrative given above, which
expressly states that he followed the coast round the peninsula all the
way, "and there was always open sea to port."[168] He cannot, therefore,
have left the land and sailed straight across the White Sea; moreover he
could not be aware that there was land on the other side of this wide bay
of the ocean.[169] The river which "went up into the land" was
consequently on the Kola peninsula, and formed the boundary between the
unsettled land of the Terfinnas and that of the Beormas with fixed
habitation. The river may have been the Varzuga, although it is also
possible that Ottar sailed farther west along the southern coast of the
Kola peninsula, without this alteration of course appearing in Alfred's
description. He may then have gone as far as the Kandalaks.

What kind of people Ottar's Beormas[170] may have been is uncertain. We
only hear that they lived in the country on the other side of the river,
that their country was well settled (i.e., was permanently inhabited by an
agricultural population ?), that they were able to communicate with Ottar,
and that they spoke almost the same language as the Finns. The
description may suit the East Karelians, whom we find, at any rate
somewhat later, established on the south and west side of the White Sea,
as far north as the Kandalaks, perhaps also as far as the Varzuga. If this
is correct, we must suppose that Ottar's Finns and Terfinns spoke a
Finno-Ugrian language, very like Karelian. As Ottar knew the Finns well,
his statement about the language deserves consideration.

This view, that the Beormas were Karelians, agrees with Egil
Skallagrimsson's Saga, which doubtless was put into writing much later,
but which mentions Ottar's contemporary, Thorolf Kveldulfsson, and his
expeditions among the Finns or Lapps to collect the Finnish or Lappish
tribute (about 873 and 874). We read there: "East of Namdal lies Jemtland,
and then Helsingland, and then Kvænland, and then Finland, then
Kirjalaland. But Finmark lies above all these countries." Kirjalaland is
Karelia, which thus lies quite in the east upon the White Sea, and must be
Ottar's Bjarmeland (Beormaland). On his Finnish expedition of 874 Thorolf
came far to the east, and was then appealed to by the Kvæns for help
against the Kirjals (Karelians), who were ravaging Kvænland. He proceeded
northward against them and overcame them; returned to Kvænland, went
thence up into Finmark, and came down from the mountains in Vefsen. This
mention of the ravages of the Kirjals agrees with the impression of
Ottar's Beormas, who were so warlike that he dared not pass by their
country.

Ottar's account of himself was that

    "he was a very rich man in all classes of property of which their
    wealth [i.e., the wealth of those peoples] consists, that is, in wild
    beasts ('wildrum'). He had further, when he came to the king, six
    hundred tame, unsold animals. These animals they called reindeer.
    There were six decoy reindeer ('stæl hranas'), which are very dear
    among the Finns, for with them they catch the wild reindeer. He was
    among the principal men in that country [Hålogaland], although he had
    no more than twenty horned cattle, and twenty sheep, and twenty pigs;
    and the little ploughing he did was done with horses [i.e., not with
    oxen, as among the Anglo-Saxons]. But their largest revenue is the
    tribute paid them by the Finns; this tribute consists of pelts and
    birds' feathers [down] and whalebone [walrus tusks], and they gave
    ships' ropes made of whales' [walrus] hide, and of seals'. Each one
    pays according to his rank; the chiefs have to pay fifteen martens'
    skins, five reindeers' skins, one bear's skin, ten ankers of feathers,
    a kirtle of bear- or otter-skin, and two ships' ropes, each sixty
    cubits long, one made of whales' [i.e., walrus] hide, and the other of
    seals'."

This description gives a valuable picture of the state of society in
northernmost Norway at that time. Ottar's Finns had tame and half-tamed
reindeer, and their hunting even of such sea-beasts as walrus and seal was
sufficiently productive to enable them to pay a considerable tribute.
These early inhabitants of the most northerly regions of the old world
will be treated of later in a separate chapter.

Ottar's mention of walrus-hunting is of great interest, as showing that it
was regularly carried on both by Norwegians and Finns even at that time.
Of about the same period (about the year 900) is the well-known
Anglo-Saxon casket, called the Franks Casket, of which the greater part is
now in the British Museum, one side being in Florence. The casket, which
on account of its rich decoration is of great historical value, is made of
walrus ivory. It has been thought that it might be made of the tusks that
Ottar brought to King Alfred. If this was so, it is in any case improbable
that so costly a treasure should be worked in a material the value and
suitability of which were unknown. We must therefore suppose that walrus
ivory sometimes found its way at that time to this part of Europe, and it
could come from no other people but the Norwegians. They certainly carried
on walrus-hunting long before Ottar's time. This appears also from his
narrative, for men who were not well practised could not kill sixty of
these large animals in a couple of days, even if we are to suppose that
they were killed with lances on land where they lie in big herds. If these
sixty animals were really whales (i.e., small whales), and not walruses,
it is still more certain evidence of long practice. We see, too, that
walrus ivory and ships' ropes of walrus hide had become such valuable
objects of commerce as to be demanded in tribute. So difficult and
dangerous an occupation as this hunting, which requires an equipment of
special appliances, does not arise among any people in a short time,
especially at so remote a period of history, when all independent
development of a new civilisation, which could not come from outside,
proceeded very slowly. It is therefore an interesting question whether the
Norwegians developed this walrus-hunting themselves or learned it from an
earlier seafaring people of hunters, who in these northern regions must
consequently have been Ottar's Finns. To find an answer to this, it will
be necessary to review the whole difficult question of the Finns and Lapps
connectedly, which will be done in a later section.

The walrus, called in Norwegian "rosmal"[171] or "rosmål" (also "rosmar,"
and in Old Norse "rostungr"), is an arctic animal which keeps by
preference to those parts of the sea where there is drift-ice, at any rate
in winter. It is no longer found in Norway, but probably it visited the
coasts of Finmark not unfrequently in old times, to judge from place-names
such as "Rosmålvik" at Loppen, and "Rosmålen" by Hammerfest. Even in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries its visits to the northern coasts of
the country were frequent, perhaps annual [cf. Lillienskiold, 1698]. But
as these places were certainly the extreme limit of its distribution, it
can never have been very numerous here; like the herds of seals in our own
time, it must have appeared only for more or less short visits. Curiously
enough, so far as is known, walrus bones have not been observed in finds
below ground in the North, while bones of other arctic animals, such as
the ring-seal (Phoca fœtida), are found.

Since, therefore, the walrus cannot be supposed to have been common on the
northern coasts of Norway at any time during the historical period, and
since its hunting gave such valuable products, we must suppose that the
Norwegian walrus-hunters were not long in looking for better and surer
hunting-grounds eastward in the Polar Sea, where there is plenty of
walrus. It was there too that Ottar went, for this very reason (probably
because there was not enough walrus in his home waters) and, as he says,
to find out how far the land extended; but it is also probable that
walrus-hunters had been in these waters long before him. It is true that
the statement that after three days' sail from home he "was as far north
as the farthest point reached by whalers" ("þā hwælhuntan firrest farraþ")
might mean that walrus-hunting was not carried on farther east than Loppen
(where there is still a "Rosmålvik"), that is, if by these whalers is
meant walrus-hunters; but doubtless these expressions are not to be taken
so literally, and perhaps the meaning is rather that this was the usual
limit of their voyages. Unfortunately, we have no information as to
Ottar's own catch on the eastward voyage.

From Ottar's statement that "in his own country there is the best whaling,
they are forty-eight cubits long, and the largest are fifty cubits long,"
we must conclude that the Norwegians, and perhaps the Finns also, carried
on a regular whaling industry, with great whales as well as small (see
later, chap. xii.).

Of Ottar's statements about Norway we read further in King Alfred:

    "He said that Nordmanna-Land was very long and very narrow. All that
    is fitted either for grazing or ploughing lies on the sea, and that,
    however, is in some places very rocky, with wilderness [mountainous
    waste] rising above the cultivated land all along it. In the
    wilderness dwell the Finns. And the inhabited land is broadest
    eastward, and always narrower farther north. On the east it may be
    sixty leagues broad, or a little broader; and midway thirty or more,
    and on the north, he said, where it was narrowest, it may be three
    leagues to the waste land; and the wilderness in some places is so
    broad that it takes two weeks to cross it; and in others so broad that
    one can cross it in six days.

    "There is side by side with the land in the south, on the other side
    of the wilderness, Sveoland, extending northwards, and side by side
    with the land in the north, Cwêna-Land. The Cwênas sometimes make
    raids upon the Norsemen over the wilderness, sometimes the Norsemen
    upon them; and there are very great freshwater lakes in this
    wilderness; and the Cwênas carry their ships overland to these lakes,
    and from thence they harry the Norsemen. They have very small ships
    and very light.

    "Ottar said that the part of the country where he lived was called
    Halgoland [Hálogaland]. He said that no man [i.e., no Norseman] lived
    farther north than he. Then there is a harbour in the southern part of
    that country which men call 'Sciringes heale' [Skiringssal[172] in
    Vestfold]. Thither, said he, one could not sail in a month, anchoring
    at night, with a favourable wind every day; and all the while he must
    sail near the land: and to starboard of him would be first
    'Iraland,'[173] and then the islands which lie between Iraland and
    this country [Britain ?]. Afterwards there is this country [to
    starboard] until he comes to Sciringesheal; and all the way on the
    port side there is Norway (Norðweg).[174] South of Sciringesheal a
    very great sea [the Skagerak and Cattegat] goes up into the land; it
    is broader than any man can see across; and 'Gôtland' [Jutland] is on
    the opposite side, and then 'Sillęnde.'[175] This sea goes many
    hundred leagues up into the land.

    "And from Sciringesheal he said that it was five days' sail to the
    harbour which is called 'Hæðum' [Heidaby or Sleswick]; it lies between
    the Wends and the Saxons and the Angles, and belongs to the Danes.
    When he sailed thither from Sciringesheal, he had on the port side
    Denmark[176] [i.e., southern Sweden, which then belonged to Denmark],
    and on the starboard open sea for three days; and for the two days
    before he came to Heidaby he had to starboard Gôtland and Sillęnde,
    and many islands. In those countries dwelt the Angles before they came
    to this land. And for these two days he had on the port side the
    islands which belong to Denmark."

This account of Ottar's of his southward voyage is remarkable for the same
sober lucidity as his narrative of the White Sea expedition; and as, on
all the points where comparison is possible, it agrees well with other
independent statements, it furnishes strong evidence of his credibility.

Alfred next gives a description of Wulfstan's (== Ulfsten's) voyage from
Heidaby eastward through the southern Baltic to Prussia, with references
to Langeland, Laaland, Falster and Skåne ("Scónēg"), which all belonged to
Denmark and lay to port. After them came on the same side Bornholm
("Burgenda land"), which had its own king, then Blekinge, "Mēore," Öland
and Gotland, and these countries belonged to Sweden ("Swēom"). To
starboard he had the whole way Wendland ("Weonodland" == Mecklenburg and
Pomerania) as far as the mouths of the Vistula ("Wislemūðan"). Then
follows a description of "Estmęre" (Frisches Haff), Esthonia, which was
approximately East Prussia, and the Esthonians. Henceforward we can count
these parts of Europe as belonging to the known world.

In the old German poem "Meregarto," which is a sort of description of the
earth and probably dates from the latter half of the eleventh century
[Müllenhoff and Scherer, 1892, ii. p. 196], we find the following
remarkable statements about the "Liver sea" and about Iceland:[177]

  "There is a clotted sea in the western ocean.
  When the strong wind drives ships upon that course,
  Then the skilled seamen have no defence against it,
  But they must go into the very bosom of the sea.
  Alas! Alas!
  They never come out again.
  If God will not deliver them, they must rot there.

  I was in Utrecht as a fugitive.
  For we had two bishops, who did us much harm.
  Since I could not remain at home, I lived my life in exile.
  When I came to Utrecht, I found a good man,
  The very good Reginpreht, he delighted in doing all that was good.
  He was a wise man, so that he pleased God,
  A pious priest, of perfect goodness.
  He told me truly, as many more there [also said],
  He had sailed to Iceland--there he found much wealth--
  With meal and with wine and with alder-wood.
  This they buy for fires, for wood is dear with them.
  There is abundance of all that belongs to provisions and to sport
        [pleasure]
  Except that there the sun does not shine--they lack that delight--
  Thereby the ice there becomes so hard a crystal,
  That they make a fire above it, till the crystal glows.
  Therewith they cook their food, and warm their rooms.
  There a bundle of alder-wood is given [sold] for a penny."

We find in this poem the same idea of a curdled or clotted sea--here
probably in the north-west near Iceland--as appeared early among the
Greeks and Romans, perhaps even among the Carthaginians and Phœnicians
(see pp. 40, 66 f.).[178] It is possible that it may have found its way
into this poem by purely literary channels from classical authors; but the
description seems to bear traces of more life, and it rather points to a
legend which lived in popular tradition.

In this poem and in Adam of Bremen Iceland is mentioned for the first time
in literature,[179] in both works as a country that was known, but of
which strange things were told, which is natural enough, since it lay near
the borders of the unknown. The pious Reginbrecht may have travelled to
Iceland as a missionary or clerical emissary, which would not be
unnatural, as the country was under the archbishopric of Hamburg. On the
other hand, it is surprising that people as early as that time sailed
thither from Germany with meal, wine and wood. But as these articles must
have been precisely those which would be valuable in Iceland, with its
lack of corn and poverty in trees, it points to knowledge of the facts,
and does not seem improbable. That there should be great wealth there does
not agree with Adam's description, which tends in the contrary direction;
but as immediately afterwards abundance of provisions is spoken of, it is
probable that the rich fisheries were meant, and perhaps the breeding of
sheep, which was already developed at that time.

The strange idea that the ice becomes so hard that it can be made to glow,
which occurs again in another form in Adam of Bremen, is difficult to
understand. Can it have arisen, as Professor Torp has proposed to me, from
a misunderstanding of statements that the Icelanders heated stones for
their baths? In some parts of Norway red-hot stones are also used for
heating water for brewing and cooking [cf. A. Helland: Hedemarkens Amt].
Perhaps tales of their sometimes using melted ice for drinking water may
also have contributed to the legend (?). In any case, as Adam's account
shows still better, diverse statements about ice, fire (volcanoes), and
steam (boiling springs ?), etc., may have been confused to form these
legends about the ice in Iceland.

The first author after King Alfred to make valuable contributions to the
literature of the North is Adam of Bremen, who not only gives much
information about the Scandinavian North and its people, but mentions
Iceland, and for the first time in literature also Greenland and even
Wineland, as distant islands in the great ocean. Of the life of the
learned magister Adam we know little more than that he came to Bremen
about 1067 and became director of the cathedral school, and that he spent
some time at the court of the enlightened Danish king Svein Estridsson.
This king, who had spent twelve years campaigning in Sweden, "knew the
history of the barbarians by heart, as though it had been written down,"
and from him and his men Adam collected information about the countries
and peoples of the North. On his return to Bremen he wrote his well-known
history of the Church in the North under the archbishopric of Bremen and
Hamburg ("Gesta Hammaburgensis," etc.), which in great part seems to have
been completed before the death of Svein Estridsson in 1076. In the fourth
book of this work is a "description of the islands [i.e., countries and
islands] in the North" ("Descriptio insularum aquilonis"). Adam's most
important literary geographical sources seem to have been the following:
besides the Bible, Cicero and Sallust, he has used Orosius, Martianus
Capella, Solinus, Macrobius and Bede; he was also acquainted with Paulus
Warnefridi's history of the Langobards, and probably Hrabanus Maurus,
possibly also with some of Isidore. In the archiepiscopal archives he was
able to collect valuable materials from the missions to heathens in the
North, and to these was added the verbal information he had obtained at
the Danish court.

Adam's work has thus become one of the most important sources of the
oldest history of the North. It would carry us too far here to go into
this side of it, and we shall confine ourselves for the most part to his
geographical and ethnographical statements.

He describes Jutland, the Danish islands, and other countries and peoples
on the Baltic. This too he calls [iv. 10] the Baltic Sea, "because it
extends in the form of a belt ('baltei')[180] along through the Scythian
regions as far as 'Grecia' [here == Russia]. It is also called the
Barbarian or Scythian Sea." He quotes Einhard's description of the Baltic,
and regards it as a gulf ("sinus"), which, in the direction of west to
east, issues from the Western Ocean. The length of the gulf [eastwards]
was according to Einhard unknown. This, he says,

    "has recently been confirmed by the efforts of two brave men, namely
    Ganuz [also Ganund] Wolf, Earl (satrapæ) of the Danes, and Harald
    [Hardråde], King of the Norwegians, who, in order to explore the
    extent of this sea, made a long and toilsome voyage, perilous to those
    who accompanied them, from which they returned at length without
    having accomplished their object, and with double loss on account of
    storms and pirates. Nevertheless the Danes assert that the length of
    this sea (ponti) has frequently been explored and by many different
    travellers, and even that there are men who have sailed with a
    favourable wind from Denmark to Ostrogard in Ruzzia."

It therefore looks as if Adam had understood that Scandinavia was
connected with the continent, which also appears from his words [iv. 15]:

    "Those who are acquainted with these regions also declare that some
    have reached as far as Græcia [i.e., Russia] by land from Sueonia
    [Sweden]. But the barbarous people, who live in the intervening parts,
    are a hindrance to this journey, wherefore they rather attempt this
    dangerous route by sea."

But he nevertheless speaks of the countries of the North as islands, and
he seems to draw no sharp distinction between island and peninsula.
Kurland and Esthonia he seems to regard as true islands.

    The entrance to the Baltic, he says [iv. 11], "between Aalborg, a
    headland of Denmark [i.e., the Skaw], and the skerries of Nortmannia
    [Norway], is so narrow that boats easily sail across it in one night."

    There are in the Baltic [iv. 19] "many other islands, all full of
    savage barbarians, and therefore they are shunned by sailors. On the
    shores of the Baltic Sea the Amazons are also said to live in the
    country which is now called the Land of Women ('terra feminarum')."

This designation is a translation of the name "Kvænland," which was
thought to be formed of the Old Norse word for woman: "kvæn" or "kván"
(chiefly in the sense of wife; modern English "queen"); and it is very
possible that the name was really derived from this, and not from the
Finnish "Kainulaiset." We have seen that Alfred called it in Anglo-Saxon
"Cwên-Land" or "Cwêna-Land," which also means woman-land. Here it is
probably Southern Finland. Adam probably took the idea from earlier
authors.[181] To him this name is a realisation of the Greeks' Amazons,
who have been moved northward to the Gulf of Bothnia, just as the
Scandinavians become Hyperboreans. In this way ancient geographical myths
come to life again and acquire new local colour. Of these Amazons, he
says:

    "some assert that they conceive by drinking water. Others however say
    that they become pregnant through intercourse with seafaring
    merchants, or with their own prisoners, or with other monsters, which
    are not rare in those parts; and this appears to us more
    credible.[182] If their offspring are of the male sex, they are
    Cynocephali; but if of the female, beautiful women. These women live
    together and despise fellowship with men, whom indeed they repulse in
    manly fashion, if they come. Cynocephali are those who have their head
    in their breast; in Russia they are often to be seen as prisoners, and
    their speech is a mixture of talking and barking."

It has already been mentioned (p. 154) that the Greek writer Æthicus had
already placed the Cynocephali on an island north of Germania. The
revival of the Greek-Indian fable of dog-headed men seems, on the one
hand, to be due to Greeks who had understood the word "Kvæn" as Greek κυων
(dog), and either through Æthicus or some other channel the idea thus
formed must have reached Adam. On the other hand, the notion of them as
prisoners in Russia may be due to Germanic-speaking peoples, who
misinterpreted the national name "Huns," which was used both for Magyars
and Slavs, and have taken it to mean Hund (dog).[183] But Adam himself did
not understand the Greek name's meaning of dog-heads, and confuses it with
another fable of men with heads in their breasts [cf. Rymbegla, 1780, p.
350; Hauksbók, 1892, p. 167]. Of the Scandinavians Adam says [iv. 12]:

    "The Dani and Sueones and the other peoples beyond Dania are all
    called by the Frankish historians Normans ('Nortmanni'), whilst
    however the Romans similarly call them Hyperboreans, of whom Martianus
    Capella speaks with much praise."

It does not seem as though Adam made any distinction between the names
Norman and Norseman.

    [iv. 21.] "When one has passed beyond the islands of the Danes a new
    world opens in Sueonia [Sweden] and Nordmannia [Norway], which are two
    kingdoms of wide extent in the north, and hitherto almost unknown to
    our world. Of them the learned king of the Danes told me that
    Nordmannia can scarcely be traversed in a month, and Sueonia not
    easily in two. This, said he, I know from my own experience, since I
    have lately served for twelve years in war under King Jacob in those
    regions, which are both enclosed by high mountains, especially
    Nordmannia, which with its Alps encircles Sueonia."

Sweden he describes as a fertile land, rich in crops and honey, and
surpassing any other country in the rearing of cattle:

    "It is most favoured with rivers and forests, and the whole land is
    everywhere full of foreign [i.e., rare ?] merchandise." The Swedes
    were therefore well-to-do, but did not care for riches. "Only in
    connection with women they know no moderation. Each one according to
    his means has two, three or more at the same time; the rich and the
    chiefs have them without number. For they count also as legitimate the
    sons which are born of such a connection. But it is punished with
    death, if any one has had intercourse with another man's wife, or
    violated a virgin, or robbed another of his goods or done him wrong.
    Even if all the Hyperboreans are remarkable for hospitality, our
    Sueones are pre-eminent; with them it is worse than any disgrace to
    deny a wayfarer shelter," etc.

    [iv. 22.] "Many are the tribes of the Sueones; they are remarkable for
    strength and the use of arms, in war they excel equally on horseback
    and in ships."

Adam relates much about these people, their customs, religion, and so
forth:

    [iv. 24.] "Between Nordmannia and Sueonia dwell the Wermelani and
    Finnédi (or 'Finvedi') and others, who are now all Christians and
    belong to the church at Skara. In the borderland of the Sueones or
    Nordmanni on the north live the Scritefini, who are said to outrun the
    wild beasts in their running. Their greatest town ['civitas,' properly
    community] is Halsingland, to which Stenphi was first sent as bishop
    by the archbishop.... He converted many of the same people by his
    preaching." Helsingland was inhabited by Helsingers, who were
    certainly Germanic Scandinavians and not Skridfinns; but Adam seems to
    have thought that all the people of northern Sueonia or Suedia (he has
    both forms) belonged to the latter race.

    "On the east it [i.e., Sweden] touches the Riphæan Mountains, where
    there are immense waste tracts with very deep snow, where hordes of
    monstrous human beings further hinder the approach. There are the
    Amazons, there are the Cynocephali, and there the Cyclopes, who have
    one eye in their forehead. There are those whom Solinus calls
    'Ymantopodes' [one-footed men], who hop upon one leg, and those who
    delight in human flesh for food, and just as one avoids them, so is
    one rightly silent about them.[184] The very estimable king of the
    Danes told me that a people were wont to come down from the mountains
    into the plains; they were of moderate height, but the Swedes were
    scarcely a match for them on account of their strength and activity,
    and it is uncertain from whence they come. They come suddenly, he
    said, sometimes once a year or every third year, and if they are not
    resisted with all force they devastate the whole district, and go back
    again. Many other things are usually related, which I, since I study
    brevity, have omitted, so that they may tell them who assert that they
    have seen them."

It is probably the roving mountain Lapps that are here described.
Descending suddenly into the plains with their herds of reindeer, they
must then, as now, have done great damage to the peasants' crops and
pastures; and the peasants were certainly not content with killing the
reindeer, as they sometimes do still, but also attacked the Lapps
themselves. Although the latter are not a warlike people, they were forced
to defend themselves, and that the Swedes and Norwegians are scarcely a
match for them in strength and activity may be true even now.

    [iv. 30.] "Nortmannia [Norway], as it is the extreme province of the
    earth, may also be suitably placed last in our book. It is called by
    the people of the present day 'Norguegia' [or 'Nordvegia'] ... This
    kingdom extends to the extreme region of the North, whence it has its
    name." From "projecting headlands in the Baltic Sound it bends its
    back northwards, and after it has gone in a bow along the border of
    the foaming ocean, it finds its limit in the Riphean Mountains, where
    also the circle of the earth is tired and leaves off. Nortmannia is on
    account of its stony mountains or its immoderate cold the most
    unfertile of all regions, and only suited to rearing cattle. The
    cattle are kept a long time in the waste lands, after the manner of
    the Arabs. They live on their herds, using their milk for food and
    their wool for clothes. Thus the country rears very brave warriors,
    who, not being softened by any superfluity in the products of their
    country, more often attack others than are themselves disturbed. They
    live at peace with their neighbours, namely the Sveones, although they
    are sometimes raided, but not with impunity, by the Danes, who are
    equally poor. Consequently, forced by their lack of possessions, they
    wander over the whole world and by their piratical expeditions bring
    home the greater part of the wealth of the countries." But after their
    conversion to Christianity they improved, and they are "the most
    temperate of all men both in their diet and their morals." They are
    very pious, and the priests turn this to account and fleece them.
    "Thus the purity of morals is destroyed solely through the avarice of
    the clergy."

    "In many parts of Nordmannia and Suedia people even of the highest
    rank are herdsmen,[185] living in the style of the patriarchs and by
    the labour of their hands. But all who dwell in Norvegia are very
    Christian, with the exception of those who live farther north along
    the coast of the ocean [i.e., in Finmark]. It is said they are still
    so powerful in their arts of sorcery and incantations, that they claim
    to know what is done by every single person throughout the world. In
    addition to this they attract whales to the shore by loud mumbling of
    words, and many other things which are told in books of the sorcerers,
    and which are all easy for them by practice.[186] On the wildest alps
    of that part I heard that there are women with beards,[187] but the
    men who live in the forests [i.e., the waste tracts ?] seldom allow
    themselves to be seen. The latter use the skins of wild beasts for
    clothes, and when they speak to one another it is said to be more like
    gnashing of teeth than words, so that they can scarcely be understood
    by their neighbours.[188] The same mountainous tracts are called by
    the Roman authors the Riphean Mountains, which are terrible with
    eternal snow. The Scritefingi [Skridfinns] cannot live away from the
    cold of the snow, and they outrun the wild beasts in their chase
    across the very deep snowfields. In the same mountains there is so
    great abundance of wild animals that the greater part of the district
    lives on game alone. They catch there uri [== aurochs; perhaps rather
    'ursi' == bears ?], bubali [antelopes == reindeer ?], and elaces
    [elks] as in Sueonia; but in Sclavonia and Ruzzia bisons are taken;
    only Nortmannia however has black foxes and hares, and white martens
    and bears of the same colour, which live under water like uri
    (?),[189] but as many things here seem altogether different and
    unusual to our people, I will leave these and other things to be
    related at greater length by the inhabitants of that country."

Then follows a reference to Trondhjem and the ecclesiastical history of
the country, etc.

Of the Western Ocean, from which the Baltic issues, Adam says [iv. 10]
that it

    "seems to be that which the Romans called the British Ocean, whose
    immeasurable, fearful and dangerous breadth surrounds Britannia on the
    west ... washes the shores of the Frisians on the south ... towards
    the rising of the sun it has the Danes, the entrance to the Baltic
    Sea, and the Norsemen, who live beyond Dania; finally, on the north
    this ocean flows past the Orchades [i.e., the Shetlands, with perhaps
    the Orkneys], thence endlessly around the circle of the earth, having
    on the left Hybernia, the home of the Scots, which is now called
    Ireland, and on the right the skerries ('scopulos') of Nordmannia, and
    farther off the islands of Iceland and Greenland; there the ocean,
    which is called the dark ['caligans' == shrouded in darkness or mist],
    forms the boundary."

Later [iv. 34], after the description of Norway, he says of the same
ocean:

    "Beyond ('post') Nortmannia, which is the extreme province of the
    North, we find no human habitations, only the great ocean, infinite
    and fearful to behold, which encompasses the whole world. Immediately
    opposite to Nortmannia it has many islands which are not unknown and
    are now nearly all subject to the Norsemen, and which therefore cannot
    be passed by by us, since consequently they belong to the see of
    Hamburg. The first of them are the Orchades insulæ [the Shetlands and
    Orkneys], which the barbarians call Organas" ... and which lie
    "between Nordmannia and Britannia and Hibernia, and they look
    playfully and smilingly down upon the threats of the foaming ocean. It
    is said that one can sail to them in one day from the Norsemen's town
    of Trondhjem ('Trondemnis'). It is said likewise to be a similar
    distance from the Orchades both to Anglia [England] and to Scotia
    [Ireland ?]."...

    [iv. 35.] "The island of Thyle, which is separated from the others by
    an infinite distance, lies far out in the middle of the ocean and, as
    is said, is scarcely known. Both the Roman authors and the barbarians
    have much to say of it which is worth mentioning. They say that Thyle
    is the extreme island of all, where at the summer solstice, when the
    sun is passing through the sign of Cancer, there is no night, and
    correspondingly at the winter solstice no day. Some think that this is
    the case for six months at a time. Bede also says that the light
    summer nights in Britain indicate without doubt that, just as at the
    summer solstice they have there continuous day for six months, so it
    is nights at the winter solstice, when the sun is hidden. Pytheas of
    Massalia writes that this occurs in the island of Thyle, which lies
    six days' sail north of Britain, and it is this Thyle which is now
    called Iceland from the ice which there binds the sea. They report
    this remarkable thing about it, that this ice appears to be so black
    and dry that, on account of its age, it burns when it is kindled.[190]
    This island is immensely large, so that it contains many people who
    live solely upon the produce of their flocks and cover themselves with
    their wool. No corn grows there, and there is only very little
    timber,[191] for which reason the inhabitants are obliged to live in
    underground holes, and share their dwellings with their cattle. They
    thus lead a holy life in simplicity, as they do not strive after more
    than what nature gives; they can cheerfully say with the Apostle: 'if
    we have clothing and food, let us be content therewith!' for their
    mountains are to them in the stead of cities, and their springs serve
    them for pleasure. I regard this people as happy, whose poverty none
    covets, but happiest in that they have now all adopted Christianity.
    There is much that is excellent in their customs, especially their
    good disposition, whereby everything is shared, not only with the
    natives, but with strangers." After referring to their good treatment
    of their bishop, etc., he concludes: "Thus much I have been credibly
    informed of Iceland and extreme Thyle, but I pass over what is
    fabulous."

    [iv. 36.] "Furthermore there are many other islands in the great
    ocean, of which Greenland is not the least; it lies farther out in the
    ocean, opposite ('contra') the mountains of Suedia, or the Riphean
    range. To this island, it is said, one can sail from the shore of
    Nortmannia in five or seven days, as likewise to Iceland. The people
    there are blue ['cerulei,' bluish-green] from the salt water; and from
    this the region takes its name. They live in a similar fashion to the
    Icelanders, except that they are more cruel and trouble seafarers by
    predatory attacks. To them also, as is reported, Christianity has
    lately been wafted.

    "A third island is Halagland [Hálogaland], nearer to Nortmannia, in
    size not unlike the others.[192] This island in summer, about the
    summer solstice, sees the sun uninterruptedly above the earth for
    fourteen days, and in winter it has to be without the sun for a like
    number of days.[193] This is a marvel and a mystery to the barbarians,
    who do not know that the unequal length of days results from the
    approach and retreat of the sun. On account of the roundness of the
    earth ('rotunditas orbis terrarum') the sun must in one place approach
    and bring the day, and in another depart and leave the night. Thus
    when it ascends towards the summer solstice, it prolongs the days and
    shortens the nights for those in the north, but when it descends
    towards the winter solstice, it does the same for those in the
    southern hemisphere ('australibus').[194] Therefore the ignorant
    heathens call that land holy and blessed, which has such a marvel to
    exhibit to mortals. But the king of the Danes and many others have
    stated that this takes place there as well as in Suedia and Norvegia
    and the other islands which are there."

    [iv. 38.] "Moreover he mentioned yet another island, which had been
    discovered by many in that ocean, and which is called 'Winland,'
    because vines grow there of themselves and give the noblest wine. And
    that there is abundance of unsown corn we have obtained certain
    knowledge, not by fabulous supposition, but from trustworthy
    information of the Danes. (Beyond ('post') this island, he said, no
    habitable land is found in this ocean, but all that is more distant is
    full of intolerable ice and immense mist ['caligine,' possibly
    darkness caused by mist]. Of these things Marcianus has told us:
    'Beyond Thyle,' says he, 'one day's sail, the sea is stiffened.' This
    was recently proved by Harold, prince of the Nordmanni, most desirous
    of knowledge, who explored the breadth of the northern ocean with his
    ships, and when the boundaries of the vanishing earth were darkened
    before his face, he scarcely escaped the immense gulf of the abyss by
    turning back.)[195]

    [iv. 39.] "Archbishop Adalbert, of blessed memory, likewise told us
    that in his predecessor's days certain noblemen from Friesland,
    intending to plough the sea, set sail northwards, because people say
    there that due north of the mouth of the river Wirraha [Weser] no land
    is to be met with, but only an infinite ocean. They joined together to
    investigate this curious thing, and left the Frisian coast with
    cheerful song. Then they left Dania on one side, Britain on the other,
    and reached the Orkneys. When they had left these behind on the left,
    and had Nordmannia on the right, they reached after a long voyage the
    frozen Iceland. Ploughing the seas from this land towards the extreme
    axis of the north, after seeing behind them all the islands already
    mentioned, and confiding their lives and their boldness to Almighty
    God and the holy preacher Willehad, they suddenly glided into the
    misty darkness of the stiffened ocean, which can scarcely be
    penetrated by the eye. And behold! the stream of the unstable sea
    there ran back into one of its secret sources, drawing at a fearful
    speed the unhappy seamen, who had already given up hope and only
    thought of death, into that profound chaos (this is said to be the
    gulf of the abyss) in which it is said that all the back-currents of
    the sea, which seem to abate, are sucked up and vomited forth again,
    which latter is usually called flood-tide. While they were then
    calling upon God's mercy, that He might receive their souls, this
    backward-running stream of the sea caught some of their fellows'
    ships, but the rest were shot out by the issuing current far beyond
    the others. When they had thus by God's help been delivered from the
    imminent danger, which had been before their very eyes, they saved
    themselves upon the waves by rowing with all their strength.

    [iv. 40.] "And being now past the danger of darkness and the region of
    cold they landed unexpectedly upon an island, which was fortified like
    a town, with cliffs all about it. They landed there to see the place,
    and found people who at midday hid themselves in underground caves;
    before the doors of these lay an immense quantity of golden vessels
    and metal of the sort which is regarded by mortals as rare and
    precious; when therefore they had taken as much of the treasures as
    they could lift, the rowers hastened gladly back to their ships. Then
    suddenly they saw people of marvellous height coming behind them, whom
    we call Cyclopes, and before them ran dogs which surpassed the usual
    size of these animals. One of the men was caught, as these rushed
    forward, and in an instant he was torn to pieces before their eyes;
    but the rest were taken up into the ships and escaped the danger,
    although, as they related, the giants followed them with cries nearly
    into deep sea. With such a fate pursuing them, the Frisians came to
    Bremen, where they told the most reverend Alebrand everything in order
    as it happened, and made offerings to the gentle Christ and his
    preacher Willehad for their safe return."

As will be seen, Adam obtained from the people of Scandinavia much new
information and fresh ideas about the geography of the North, which add
considerably to the knowledge of former times; but unfortunately he
confuses this information with the legends and ancient classical notions
he has acquired from reading the learned authors of late Roman and early
mediæval times; and this confusion reaches its climax in the last tale,
which is chiefly of interest to the folk-lorist. The first part of it
(section 39) is made up from Paulus Warnefridi's description of the
earth's navel, to some extent with the same expressions (see above, p.
157); the second part (section 40) is based upon legends on the model of
the Odyssey, of which there were many in the Middle Ages. While his
description gives a fairly clear picture of his views regarding the
countries on the Baltic, it is difficult to get any definite idea of the
relative position of the more distant islands; but it is probable, as
proposed by Gustav Storm, that he imagined them as lying far in the north.

As Wineland is mentioned last, and as it is added that beyond this island
there is no habitable land in this ocean, but that all is full of ice and
mist, it might be thought that this is regarded as lying farthest out in a
northern direction. But this would not agree with Adam's earlier statement
[iv. 10], where Iceland and Greenland are given as the most distant
islands, and "there this ocean, which is called the dark one, forms the
boundary." The explanation must be that, as already remarked (p. 195), his
statement about the ocean beyond Wineland is probably a later addition,
though possibly by Adam himself. It is obviously inserted somewhat
disconnectedly, and perhaps has been put in the wrong place, and this is
also made probable by the quotation from Marcianus about Thyle, which has
nothing to do with Wineland, but refers on the contrary to Iceland (cf. p.
193).[196] Omitting this interpolation, the text says of the geographical
position merely that the King of the Danes also mentioned the island of
Wineland, as discovered by many in that ocean, i.e., the outer ocean, and
so far as this goes it might be imagined as lying anywhere. That no
importance is attached to the order in which the islands are named appears
also from the fact that Halagland is put after Iceland and Greenland,
although it is expressly stated that it lay nearer Norway. That Adam,
after having described the last-named country a long while before, here
gratuitously mentions Halagland (Hálogaland) as an island by itself[197]
together with Iceland and Greenland, shows how deficient his information
about the northernmost regions really was.

As will be further shown in the later chapter on Wineland, Adam's ideas of
that country, of the wine and the corn there, must be derived from
legends about the Fortunate Isles, which were called by the Norsemen
"Vínland hit Góða." This legend must have been current in the North at
that time, and possibly it may already have been connected with the
discovery of countries in the west. But it is, perhaps, not altogether
accidental that Wineland should be mentioned immediately after Halagland.
For as the latter name was regarded as meaning the Holy Land,[198] it may
be natural that Wineland or the Fortunate Isles, originally the Land of
the Blest, should be placed in its neighbourhood. To this the resemblance
in sound between Vinland and Finland (or, more correctly, Finmark, the
land of the Finns or Lapps) may, consciously or unconsciously, have
contributed; later in the Middle Ages these names were often confused and
interchanged.[199] Finns and Finland were sometimes spelt in German with a
V; and V and F were transposed in geographical names even outside Germany,
as when, in an Icelandic geographical tract attributed to Abbot Nikulás
Bergsson of Thverá (ob. 1159), Venice is transformed by popular etymology
to "Feneyjar" [cf. F. Jónsson, 1901, p. 948]. It is particularly
interesting that the Latin "vinum" (wine) became in Irish legendary poetry
"fín," and the vine was called "fíne," as in the poem of the Voyage of
Bran [Kuno Meyer, 1895, vol. i., pp. xvii., 9, 21].

It is not clear from Adam's description whether he altogether held the
conception of the earth, or rather the "œcumene," as a circular island or
disc divided into three, surrounded by the outer ocean (the Oceanus of the
Greeks, see p. 8), as represented on the wheel-maps of earlier times (cf.
p. 151, and the Beatus map); but his expression that the Western Ocean
extends northwards from the Orchades "infinitely around the circle of the
earth" ("infinites orbem terræ spaciis ambit") may point to this. It is
true that immediately afterwards he has an obscure statement that at
Greenland "ibi terminat oceanus qui dicitur caligans," which has usually
been translated as "there ends the ocean, which is called the dark one"
(?); but it is difficult to get any sense out of it. One explanation might
be that he imagined Greenland as lying out on the extreme edge of the
earth's disc, near the abyss, and that thus the ocean (which in that
region was called dark ?) ended here in that direction (i.e., in its
breadth), while in its length it extended farther continuously around "the
circle of the earth." This view would, no doubt, conflict with his
statement in another place that the earth was round, which can only be
understood as meaning that it had the form of a globe. But this last idea
he took from Bede, and he has scarcely assimilated it sufficiently for it
to permeate his views of the circle of the earth and the universal ocean,
as also appears from his mention of the gulf at its outer limit. If we had
been able to suppose that Adam really thought the Western Ocean on the
north flowed past the Orchades, and thence infinitely towards the west
around the globe of the earth (instead of the circle of the earth), this
would better suit the statement that Ireland lay to the left, Norway to
the right, and Iceland and Greenland farther out (also to the right ?).
This would agree with the statement that Norway was the extreme land on
the north, and that beyond it (i.e., farther north ?) there was no human
habitation, but only the infinite ocean which surrounds the whole world,
and in which opposite ("ex adverso") Norway lie many islands, etc.
According to this, these islands must be imagined as lying to the west,
and not to the north of Norway. But besides the fact that such a view of
the extent of the ocean towards the west would conflict with the
prevailing cartographical representation of that time, it is contradicted
by his assertion that Greenland lies farther out in the ocean (than
Iceland) and opposite the mountains of Suedia and the Riphean range, which
must be supposed to lie on the continent to the north-east of Norway; this
cannot very well be possible unless these islands are to be placed out in
the ocean farther north than Norway, and there is thus on this point a
difficult contradiction in Adam's work. The circumstance that Hálogaland
is spoken of as an island after Iceland and Greenland is also against the
probability that the ocean, in which these islands lay, was imagined to
extend infinitely towards the west; the direction is, in this manner,
given as northerly. The same thing appears from the description of the
voyage of the Frisian noblemen: when they steered northward with the
Orkneys to port and Norway to starboard they came to the frozen Iceland,
and when they proceeded thence towards the North Pole, they saw behind
them all the islands previously mentioned. Dr. A. A. Björnbo has suggested
to me that according to Adam's way of expressing himself "terminat" must
here mean "forms the boundary," whereby we get the translation given above
(p. 192), which seems to give better sense; but in any case Adam's
description of these regions is not quite clear.

We are told that Magister Adam obtained information about the countries
and peoples of the North from Svein Estridsson and his men; but as regards
Iceland he might also have had trustworthy information from the Archbishop
of Bremen, Adalbert, who had educated an Icelander, Isleif Gissursson, to
be bishop. The latter (who is also mentioned by Are Frode) might also have
told him about Greenland and Wineland; but Adam says distinctly that he
had been informed about the latter country and the wine and corn there,
which must have seemed very remarkable to him, if he imagined the country
to be in the north, by the Danish king, and that the information had been
confirmed by Danes. We shall return later to these countries, to Adam's
ideas of Wineland, and to the alleged polar expeditions of King Harold and
of the Frisian noblemen.

Just as these pages are going to press I have received from Dr. Axel
Anthon Björnbo his excellent essay on "Adam of Bremen's view of the North"
[1909]. By Dr. Björnbo's exhaustive researches the correctness of the
views just set forth seems to be confirmed on many points; but he gives a
far more complete picture of Adam's geographical ideas. The reasons
advanced by Dr. Björnbo for supposing that Adam imagined the ocean as
surrounding the earth's disc, with Iceland, Greenland, etc., in the north,
are of much interest. His map of the North according to Adam's description
is of great value, and gives a clear presentation of the main lines of
Adam's conceptions. With his kind permission it is reproduced here (p.
186). But, as will appear from my remarks above (pp. 197 f.), I am not
sure that one is justified in placing Winland so far north, in the
neighbourhood of the North Pole, as Dr. Björnbo has done in his map.
Possibly he has also put the other islands rather far north, and has
curved the north coast of Scandinavia somewhat too much in a westerly
direction.

Through Dr. Björnbo's book I have become acquainted with another recently
published work on Adam of Bremen by Hermann Krabbo [1909], of which I have
also been unable to make use; it also has a map, but not so complete a one
as Björnbo's as regards the northern regions.


CHAPTER VI

FINNS, SKRIDFINNS (LAPPS), AND THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF SCANDINAVIA


Before we proceed to the Norwegians' great contributions to the
exploration of the northern regions, we shall attempt to collect and
survey what is known, and what may possibly be concluded, about the most
northern people of Europe, the Finns, and the earliest settlement of
Scandinavia.

The Finns are mentioned, as we have seen (p. 113), for the first time in
literature by Tacitus, who calls them "Fenni," and describes them as
exclusively a people of hunters. Procopius does the same, but calls them
"Skridfinns," and removes their home to the northernmost Thule or
Scandinavia. Cassiodorus (Jordanes) also mentions the "Skridfinns" as
hunters in the same northern regions, but speaks moreover of "Finns" and
"Finaiti," and another people resembling the Finns ("Vinoviloth" ?)
farther south in Scandinavia. The Ravenna geographer also mentions the
"Skridfinns" (after Jordanes). Then comes Paulus Warnefridi, who speaks of
the ski-running of the Skridfinns, though indeed in a way which shows he
did not understand it very well, and mentions a deer of whose skin they
made themselves clothes, but does not say that this deer was domesticated.
Next King Alfred mentions "Skridfinns," "Finns," and "Ter-Finns," and in
the information he obtained from Ottar he speaks of the hunting, fishing
and whaling of the "Finns," and of their keeping reindeer in the north of
Norway. This description is in accordance with what we learn of the Lapps
from later history, with this difference only, that on account of the
killing-off of the game their hunting in recent times became of small
importance. Lastly we have Adam of Bremen's description of the Finns,
which contains nothing new of note. He mentions "Finnédi" or "Finvedi"
between Sweden and Norway (near Vermeland) and "Skridfinns" in northern
Scandinavia. Besides these he speaks of a small people who come down at
intervals, once a year or every three years, from the mountains, and who
are probably the Mountain Lapps with their reindeer. He mentions also a
people skilled in magic on the shores of the northern ocean [Finmark], and
skin-clad men in the forests of the north, who may be Fishing Lapps or
Forest Lapps. In connection with this we may also refer to the mention of
the Lapps in the "Historia Norvegiæ":

    Norway "is divided lengthways into three curved zones [i.e., parallel
    to the curved coast-line]: the first zone, which is very large and
    lies along the coast; the second, the inland zone, which is also
    called the mountain zone; the third, the forest zone, which is
    inhabited by Finns [Lapps], but is not ploughed." The Lapps, in the
    third zone, which was waste land, "were very skilled hunters, they
    roam about singly and are nomads, and they live in huts made of hides
    instead of houses. These houses they take on their shoulders, and they
    fasten smoothed pieces of wood [literally, balks, stakes] under their
    feet, which appliances they call 'ondrer,' and while the deer [i.e.,
    reindeer] gallop along carrying their wives and children over the deep
    snow and precipitous mountains, they dash on more swiftly than the
    birds. Their dwelling-place is uncertain [it changes] according as the
    quantity of game shows them a hunting-ground when it is needed."

From the earliest accounts referred to, especially from that of Adam of
Bremen, it looks as though there were Fishing Lapps and Reindeer Lapps in
northern Scandinavia in those remote times, as there are now, and they
were called Finns or Skridfinns; but besides these there were people who
were called Finns in southern Scandinavia, from whence they have since
disappeared. This has led to the hypothesis that the primitive population
in southern Scandinavia also was composed of the same Finns (Lapps) as are
now found in the northern part, to which they were compelled to retreat by
the later Germanic immigrants [cf. Geijer, 1825, pp. 411 ff.; Munch, 1852,
pp. 3 ff.; Sven Nilsson]. But for various reasons this hypothesis has had
to be abandoned, and the question has become difficult.

The word "Finn" as the name of a people does not occur, so far as is
known, outside Scandinavia. The only place farther south where there are
place-names which remind one of it is in Friesland, where we find a
Finsburg. The origin of the national name "Finn" is unknown. Some have
thought that it might be connected with the word "finna" (English, to
find), and that it means one who goes on foot.

Since in Swedish and Norwegian the name has come to be applied to two such
entirely different peoples as, in Norway, the Fishing Lapps and Reindeer
Lapps and, in Sweden, the people of Finland, we must suppose that in the
primitive Norse language it was a common designation for several
non-Germanic races, whom the later Germanic immigrants in south
Scandinavia drove into the wastes and forest tracts, where they lived by
hunting and fishing. This would provide a natural explanation of the
curious circumstance that Jordanes, as well as Adam of Bremen (later also
Saxo), mentions Finns, Finvedi, and other Finn-peoples in many parts of
south Scandinavia; in our saga literature there are also many references
to Finns far south. But the most decisive circumstance is, perhaps, that
the word Finn occurs in many place-names of south Scandinavia, from
Finnskog and Finnsjö in Uppland, and Finnheden or Finnveden in Småland, to
Finnö in the Bokn-fjord [cf. Müllenhoff, ii. 1887, p. 51; A. M. Hansen,
1907]. It may be quoted as a strong piece of evidence that a people called
Finns must have lived in old times in south Norway, that the oldest
Christian laws, of about 1150, for the most southern jurisdictions, the
Borgathing and Eidsivathing, visit with the severest penalty of the law
the crime of going to the Finns, or to Finmark, to have one's fortune told
[cf. A. M. Hansen, 1907, p. 79]. It may seem improbable that here (e.g.,
as far south as Bohuslen) this should have referred to Finns (Lapps) in
the north, in what is now called Finmark; and we should be rather inclined
to believe it to refer to the Finns (and Finnédi) mentioned by Jordanes
and Adam of Bremen nearer at hand, in the forest tracts between Norway and
Sweden, where we still have a Finnskog, which, however, is generally
connected with the later immigration of Kvæns or Finns from Finland (the
so-called wood-devils; compare also Finmarken between Lier and Modum). But
it might be thought that these Christian laws were compiled more or less
from laws enacted for northern Norway, and thus provisions of this kind,
which were only adapted for that part of the country, were included. And
it must be borne in mind that the northern Finns (Lapps) in particular had
an ancient reputation for proficiency in magic and soothsaying, and,
further, that Finmark in those times was often regarded as extending much
farther south than now, as far as Jemteland and Herjedalen.

It is difficult to decide with certainty what kind of people the "Finns"
who were found in many parts of south Scandinavia may have been. The
supposition that they were the same people as the Finns (Lapps) of our
time has had to be abandoned, as we have said, in the face of more recent
archæological, anthropological and historical-geographical researches.
Müllenhoff [ii. 1887, pp. 50 ff.] has proposed that the word "Finn" may
originally have been a Scandinavian common name for several peoples who
were diffused in south Scandinavia, but who in his opinion were
Ugro-Finnish, like the Kvæns, Lapps and others [cf. also Geijer, 1825, pp.
415 f.]. He even goes so far as to suppose that the very name of
Scandinavia may be due to them (like that of the ski-goddess "Skaði,"[200]
who was a Finn-woman, cf. p. 103). But it has not been possible to point
either to linguistic or anthropological traces of any early Finno-Ugrian
people in any part of south Scandinavia, and there are many indications
that the southern diffusion of the Mountain Finns (Reindeer Lapps) is
comparatively late.

Dr. A. M. Hansen, therefore, in his suggestive works, "Landnám" [1904] and
"Oldtidens Nordmænd" ["The Norsemen of Antiquity," 1907], has put forward
the hypothesis that the Finns of earliest history, whom he would include
under the common designation of "Skridfinns," were a non-Aryan people,
wholly distinct both from the Finno-Ugrian tribes and from the Aryan
Scandinavians, who formed the primitive population of northern Europe and
were related to the primitive peoples of southern Europe, the Pelasgians,
Etruscans, Basques and others. In Scandinavia they were forced northwards
by the Germanic tribes, and have now disappeared through being partly
absorbed in the latter. In the east and north-east they were displaced by
the Finno-Ugrian peoples who immigrated later. The last remnants of them
would be found in the Fishing Lapps of our time, and in the so-called
Yenisei Ostyaks of north-western Siberia. This bold hypothesis has the
disadvantage, amongst others, of forcing us to assume the existence of a
vanished people, who are otherwise entirely unknown. In the next place,
Dr. Hansen, in arbitrarily applying the name of Skridfinns to all the
"Finns" in Scandinavia, does not seem to have laid sufficient weight on
the difference which early writers make between Skridfinns in the north
and the other Finns farther south.

In earlier times there was a strong tendency, due to old Biblical notions,
to imagine all nations as immigrants to the regions where they are now
found. But when a zoologist finds a particular species or variety of
animal distributed over a limited area, he makes the most natural
assumption, that it has arisen through a local differentiation in that
region. The simplest plan must be to look upon human stocks and races in
the same way. When we have tried in Europe to distinguish between Celts,
Germans, Slavs, Ugro-Finns, etc., the most reasonable supposition will be
that these races have arisen through local "evolution," the home of their
differentiation being within the area in which we find them later. As such
centres of differentiation in Europe we might suppose: for the Celts,
western Central Europe; for the Germans, eastern Central Europe; for the
Slavs, Eastern Europe; for the Ugro-Finns, northern East Europe and
western Siberia, etc.

This is doubtless a linguistic division, but to a certain extent it
coincides with anthropological distinctions. Since the North was covered
with ice till a comparatively recent period, we cannot expect any local
differentiation of importance there since that time, but must suppose an
immigration to the north and to Scandinavia of already differentiated
races, from southern Europe. We may thus suppose that tribes belonging to
the parent-races of brachycephalic Celts and Slavs, and dolichocephalic
Germans, came in from the south and south-east, and Ugro-Finns and
Mongoloid tribes immigrated from the south-east and east. In this way we
may expect, at the commencement of the historical period, to find
Celto-Slavs and Germans in southern and central Scandinavia, and Mongoloid
and Finno-Ugrian people in the northernmost regions and towards the
north-east and east (Finland and North Russia). This agrees fairly well
with what is actually found. If we except the northernmost districts,
anthropological measurements (principally by Brigade-Surgeon Arbo) show
that the people of Norway are descended not only from the tall, fair, and
pronouncedly dolichocephalic Germanic race, but also from at least one
brachycephalic race, which was of smaller stature and dark-haired.[201]
Measurements in Sweden and Denmark show a similar state of things, but in
Denmark and the extreme south of Sweden the short-skulls are more numerous
than in the rest of Scandinavia. In order to explain these anthropological
conditions, we must either suppose that the various Germanic tribes which
have formed the people of Scandinavia were more or less mixed with
brachycephalic people, even before they immigrated,[202] in proportions
similar to those now obtaining, or that tribes immigrated to Scandinavia
belonging to at least two different races, one specially dolichocephalic
and one specially brachycephalic. The latter hypothesis will be, to a
certain extent at all events, the more natural, and as it is not probable
that the short-skulls arrived later than the long-skulled Germanic tribes,
it is most reasonable to suppose that there was at least one short-skulled
primitive people before they came. These primitive people were hunters and
fishermen, and must therefore in most districts have wandered over a wide
area to find what was necessary to support life. It was only the more
favourable conditions of life in certain districts--for instance, the
abundance of fish along the west coast of Norway--that allowed a denser
population with more permanent habitation. As the taller and stronger
Germanic tribes spread along the coasts, the older short-skulled hunters,
who may have been Celts,[203] were in most districts forced towards the
forest tracts of the interior, where there was abundance of game and fish.
In districts where they lived closer together and had more permanent
settlements, as on the west coast of Norway, they were not altogether
displaced. For this dark primitive people, who were shorter of stature
than themselves, and who hunted and fished in the outlying districts, the
Germanic tribes may, in one way or another, have found the common name of
"Finns," whether the people called themselves so or the name arose in some
other way.[204] When the Germanic people then came across another short,
dark-haired people of hunters and fishermen in the north, they applied the
name of "Finn" to them too, although they belonged to an entirely
different linguistic family, the Finno-Ugrian, and to an even more
different Mongoloid race. But to distinguish them from the southern Celtic
people of hunters, the northern were sometimes called "Skridfinns."
Gradually, as the southern Finns became absorbed into the Germanic
population and disappeared as a separate people, the name in Norway
remained attached to the other race and country (Finmark) in the north,
and in Sweden to the very different people and country (Finland) in the
north-east.

The southern Finns were an Aryan people, and as the Aryan languages at
that remote time, when they became detached from the more southern
short-skulls of Europe, the Celts and Slavs, did not vary very much, it
is easily explicable that scarcely a single ancient place-name can be
found in southern Norway which can be said with certainty to bear a
non-Germanic character. If, on the other hand, the southern Finns, who are
mentioned so late as far on in the Middle Ages, had been a Finno-Ugrian or
other non-Aryan people, it is incredible that we should not be able easily
to point to foreign elements in the place-names, which would be due to
their language.

Scandinavian finds of skulls of the Stone Age, and later, are so few and
so casual that we can conclude very little from them as regards the race
to which the primitive population belonged. Further, it must be remarked
that the early people of hunters, the short-skulled "Finns," must have
been very few in number, and have lived scattered about the country, in
contrast to the later Germanic tribes who had a fixed habitation. That
among the earliest skulls found there should only be a few short ones is,
therefore, what we should expect. It must also be remembered, of course,
that the proportion of skulls left by each people depends in a great
degree on its burial customs.

We now come to the northern Finns, of whom Ottar gives a sufficiently
detailed description to enable us to form a fairly accurate picture of
their culture. Since they were able to pay a heavy annual tribute in
walrus-tusks, ropes of walrus-hide and seal-hide, besides other skins and
products of fishery, we must conclude that they were skilled hunters and
fishermen even at sea, and such skill can only have been acquired through
the slow development and practice of a long period, unless they learned it
from the Norsemen. But on the other hand they also kept reindeer,
resembling in this the eastern reindeer nomads. These two ways of living
are so distinct that they can scarcely have been originally developed in
one and the same people, and we must therefore conclude that a concurrence
of several different cultures has here taken place.

Now as regards whaling and sealing, it is remarkable that along the whole
northern coast of Europe and Asia there is no trace of any other race of
seafaring hunters. Not until we come to the Chukches, near Bering Strait,
do we find a sea-fishery culture, but this is borrowed from the Eskimo
farther east, and originally came from the American side of Bering Strait.
In Novaya Zemlya, it is true, there is a small tribe of Samoyeds who live
by hunting both on sea and land, and who do not keep reindeer, but on the
other hand use dogs for sleighing; but their sea-hunting is primitive,
like the more casual sealing and walrus-hunting I have seen practised by
the reindeer Samoyeds along the shores of the Kara Sea, with firearms, but
without special appliances and with extremely clumsy boats. It is
difficult to see in this the remains of an older, highly developed people
of hunters.

This sealing culture which was found in Ottar's time in northernmost
Norway and on the Murman coast cannot, therefore, have come from the east
along the coast of Siberia, but must have been a local development,
perhaps arising from the amalgamation of the original hunting culture of
these "Finns" with a higher European culture from the south.

It fortunately happens that at Kjelmö, on the southern side of the
Varanger Fjord, a rich find of implements has been made, which must belong
to the very same people of "Finns" who, as Ottar says, lived here and
there along the coast (of Finmark and Terfinna Land) as hunters, fishermen
and fowlers. Dr. O. Solberg in particular has in the last few years made
valuable excavations on this island.[205] The many objects found lay
evenly distributed in strata, the thickness of which shows that they must
be the result of many centuries of accumulation. Solberg refers them to
the period between the seventh and about the eleventh centuries.

In North Varanger many heathen graves containing implements have been
found. By the help of the latter Solberg has been able to show that the
graves are partly of the same age and partly of a somewhat later time than
the Kjelmö find, and certainly belong to the same people. By comparing
these various finds we can form a picture of this people's culture and its
associations.

In addition to a number of bones of fish, birds and mammals, the Kjelmö
find contains a variety of implements, mostly made of reindeer-horn and
bone, which have been remarkably well preserved in the lime-charged sand,
while on the other hand the iron, with few exceptions, has rusted entirely
away. There are also many fragments of pottery, baked at an open fire and
made of clay found on the island. These hunters and fishermen, therefore,
understood the art of the potter as well as that of the smith, and thus
the culture of this northern district on the shores of the Polar Sea was
not on such a very low level. But it was not of independent growth; the
pottery shows a connection with that of the older Iron Age in south
Scandinavia; while on the other hand a couple of bronze objects,
especially the small figure of a bear, found in a grave in North Varanger,
are typically representative of the early part of the Permian Iron Age in
eastern Russia (from the eighth century). Many other objects found in the
graves also point to connection with the south-east, partly with Russia or
Ottar's Beormaland, and perhaps with Finland; while on the other side
there may have been communication westwards and south-westwards (Ottar's
route) with Norway. Solberg has found marks of ownership on the Kjelmö
implements which he shows to have much resemblance to those still in use
among the Skolte-Lapps.[206] But the use of owner's marks was an ancient
and universal custom among the Germanic peoples, and the Finns probably
derived it from them. The owner's marks found by Solberg bear a
resemblance to many ancient Germanic ones [cf. Hofmeyer, 1870; Michelsen,
1853], and seem rather to point to cultural connection with the Norsemen.

Among the implements of reindeer-horn and bone in the Kjelmö find there
are especially many fish-hooks, which show that fishing played an
important part in the life of these people on the island, probably mostly
in the summer months. Possibly there are also some stone sinkers which
would show that they had nets. There are also fish-spears of
reindeer-horn, which were used for salmon-fishing in the rivers. Further,
there is a quantity of arrow-heads; but of special interest to us are a
number of harpoon-points of various form, which doubtless do not show so
highly developed a sealing culture as that of the Eskimo, but which are
nevertheless quite ingenious and bear witness to much connection with the
sea. It is worth mentioning that, while some of these harpoon-points
(Figs. 2 and 3 above) resemble old, primitive Eskimo forms, which are
found in Greenland, another still more primitive form (Fig. 1 above) bears
a striking resemblance to harpoon-points of bone which are in use, amongst
other places, in Tierra del Fuego, and which are also known from the Stone
Age in Europe. This proves how the same implements may be developed quite
independently in different places.

It is curious that among the same people such different forms of
harpoon-points should be found, from the most primitive to more ingenious
ones. This may tend to show that their sealing culture was not so old as
to have acquired fixed and definite forms like that of the Eskimo.

It is remarkable that by far the greater number of harpoon-points were
made entirely of reindeer-horn, without any iron tip. Only on two of them
(see Fig. 2, p. 214) are there marks of such a tip, which was let in round
the fore-end, but which has rusted completely away. There is nowhere a
sign of the use of any blade of iron (or stone), such as is used by the
Eskimo. All these harpoon-points were made fast to a thong by deep notches
at the base, or by a hole; and they have either a tang at the base which
was stuck into a hole in the end of the harpoon-shaft, or else they have a
hole or a groove at the base, which was surrounded by an iron ring, and
into which a tang at the end of the shaft was inserted. As no piece of
reindeer-horn or bone has been found which might serve as a tang for
fixing the harpoon-points, it is possible that these were fastened
directly on to the wooden shaft. With the help of the thong, which was
probably made tightly fast (on a catch ?) to the upper part of the shaft,
the point was held in its place. But when the harpoon was cast into the
animal, the point remained fixed in its flesh and came away from the
shaft, which became loose, and the animal was caught by the thong, the end
of which was either made fast to the boat or held by the hunter; for it is
improbable that it was made fast to a buoy or bladder, which is an
invention peculiar to the Eskimo. All the harpoons found at Kjelmö are
remarkably small, and cannot have been used for any animal larger than a
seal. Among the objects found there is only one piece cut off a
walrus-tusk, and none of the implements were made of this material,
except, perhaps, one arrow-head. The explanation of this cannot be merely
that the walrus was not common in the neighbourhood of Kjelmö; it shows
rather that these Finns did not practise walrus-hunting at all; for if
they had done so, we should expect their weapons and implements to be
made to a large extent of walrus-tusk, which has advantages over
reindeer-horn.

Whether the harpoons, which we know to have been used later by the
Norsemen, resembled those from Kjelmö, and whether they learned the use of
them from the Finns, or the Finns had them from the Norsemen, are points
on which it is difficult to form an opinion. Nothing has been found which
might afford us information as to the kind of boats these northern sealers
used. It is possible that they were light wooden boats, somewhat like the
Lapps' river-boats, and that they used paddles. Nor do the Kjelmö finds
tell us whether these people kept tame reindeer. It is true that bones of
dogs have been found, like the modern Lapp-hound; but whether they were
used for herding reindeer cannot be determined, nor can they have been
common on the island, since otherwise the animal bones would have shown
marks of having been gnawed by dogs.

The masses of bones found show that the people lived on fish to a great
extent, many kinds of birds, among them the great auk (Alca impennis),
reindeer, fjord-seal (Phoca vitulina), the saddleback seal (Ph.
grœnlandica), grey-seal (Halichœrus grypus),[207] porpoise, beaver, etc.

It will be seen that everything we learn from this find agrees in a
remarkable way with the statements of Ottar, with the single exception
that there are no indications of walrus-hunting, beyond the one piece of
tusk mentioned.[208]

As has been said, this sealing of the Finns must be regarded as a locally
developed culture, which was not diffused farther east than Ter or the
Kola peninsula. But with their reindeer-keeping the opposite is the case;
this has its greatest predominance in Asia and north-eastern Europe, and
is specially associated with the Samoyeds. It seems, therefore, most
probable that it was brought to north Scandinavia from the east.

If, then, Ottar's description of his Finns' and Terfinns' diffusion
towards the east (as well as the description in Egil's Saga) tallies
almost exactly with the diffusion of the Fishing Lapps and Reindeer Lapps
of our time, and if what he tells us of the Finns' manner of life agrees
in all essentials with what we know of the life of the Lapps long after
that time, down to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, then this in
itself points to Ottar's "Finns" having been essentially the same people
as the present-day Lapps. But to this may be added the statement of Ottar,
who must have known the Finns and their language well: that they and the
Beormas spoke approximately the same language. Since, then, the Lapps of
our time--who live in the same district as Ottar's Finns--and the East
Karelians--who live in the same district, on the western side of the White
Sea, as Ottar's Beormas--speak closely related languages, and since,
further, the Karelians are a people with fixed habitation like the
Beormas, then it will be more natural to suppose that they are the same
two peoples who lived in these districts at that early time, instead of
proposing, like Dr. A. M. Hansen, to replace them both by an unknown
people, who spoke an unknown language.[209]

The correctness of this hypothesis is also supported, as we have seen, by
the rich Kjelmö find, which shows that in Ottar's time there was in the
Varanger Fjord a well-developed sealing culture, to which we know no
parallel from finds farther south, and which both in date and
characteristics is distinct from the Arctic Stone Age. Through grave-finds
in North Varanger, belonging to later centuries, we have, as Solberg shows
[1909], a possible transition from the Kjelmö culture to that of the Lapps
of our own time, and there is thus a connected sequence.

In old heathen burial-places on the islands of Sjåholmen and Sandholmen,
in the Varanger Fjord, Herr Nordvi found a number of skulls and portions
of skeletons, which probably belonged to the same people as the dwellers
on Kjelmö. Some of these skulls are in the collection of the Anatomical
Institute at Christiania, and have been described by Professor J. Heiberg
[1878]. They are brachycephalic with a cephalic index between 82 and 85;
one was mesocephalic with an index of 78. Dr. O. Solberg has also found a
few such skulls. Time has not permitted me to subject these heathen
skulls at the Anatomical Institute to a detailed examination; I have only
made a purely preliminary comparison between them and half a dozen skulls
of modern Reindeer Lapps and Skolte-Lapps, and found that in certain
features they differ somewhat from the latter. Doubtless the Lapps and
Skolte-Lapps of our time are very mixed, partly with the Finns (Kvæns) and
partly with Norwegians and others; but the typical Reindeer Lapp skulls
are nevertheless quite characteristic, and as they are somewhat more
brachycephalic than the skulls from the heathen graves, it is difficult to
suppose that this is due to any such recent mixture of race. As possible
differences the following may be noted: the heathen skulls as compared
with the Reindeer Lapp skulls are not quite so typically brachycephalic;
seen from the side they are somewhat lower (i.e., the length-height index
is less, according to Heiberg's measurements it would be about as 77 to
86); the forehead recedes somewhat more from the brow-ridges, which are
more prominent than in the typical Reindeer Lapp skulls. The Skolte-Lapp
skulls examined were of more mixed race, and were more mesocephalic; but
they bore most resemblance to the Reindeer Lapp skulls, although some of
them also showed a transition to the heathen skulls. According to this it
does not look as though the heathens to whom these graves belonged can be
accepted offhand as the ancestors of our Reindeer Lapps. They may have
been an earlier, kindred race who, to judge by Ottar's statements, spoke a
similar language, closely related to Karelian. The Reindeer Lapps must in
that case have immigrated later.

It remains to examine what place-names can tell us. It is remarkable, as
Qvigstad [1893, p. 56 f.] has pointed out, that while the Lapps have
genuine Lappish names for the inner fjord coasts--e.g., Varanger, Tana,
Lakse, Porsanger, and Alten fjords--all their place-names for the outer
sea-coasts, even in Finmark, are of Norwegian origin, if we except the
names of a few large islands, such as "Sallam," for Sörö in West Finmark
and for Skogerö in Varanger, and "Sievjo," for Seiland in West Finmark. It
would therefore seem as though the Norwegians arrived on the outer coasts
before either the Fishing Lapps or Reindeer Lapps, while the latter came
first to the inner fjord coasts. This conclusion may be supported by the
fact that the Lapps' names for sea-fish and sea-birds are throughout
loan-words from Norwegian, as also are their words for appliances
belonging to modern boats and sailing, which may indicate that they
learned fishing and navigation from the Norwegians. Their name for walrus
has probably also originally come from Norwegian, but on the other hand,
the names of river fish, and their numerous names for seals, are as a rule
genuine Lappish [Qvigstad, 1893, p. 67]. This conclusion, however, does
not agree with Ottar's description, which distinctly says that "Finns,"
who were hunters and fishermen, lived scattered along the coasts of
Finmark and the Kola peninsula, while the Norwegians (i.e., Norwegian
chiefs) did not live farther north than himself, and did not practise
whaling farther north than, probably, about Loppen. Dr. Hansen therefore
thought to find in this a support for his theory, that the "Finns" of that
time, whom he called Skridfinns, were a non-Aryan primitive people
entirely distinct from the Reindeer Lapps of our day. But this bold
hypothesis is little adapted to solve the difficulties with which we are
here confronted. Thus, in order to explain the Lappish loan-words from
Norwegian, one is obliged to assume that these Skridfinnish ancestors of
the Fishing Lapps first lost their own language and their own place-names
and words for the implements they used and the animals they hunted, etc.,
and adopted the Norwegian language entirely; and then again lost this
language and adopted that of the later immigrant Reindeer Lapps, who
chiefly lived in the mountainous districts of the interior. At this later
change of language, however, they retained a number of Norwegian words,
especially those used in navigation and place-names; but strangely enough
they acquired new, genuinely Lappish names for certain large islands, and
moreover they adopted the many names for seals, which were the most
important object of their fishery, from the nomadic Reindeer Lapps, who
previously had known nothing about such things. The question arises of
itself: but if these Skridfinns were capable of undergoing all these
remarkable linguistic revolutions, why may they not just as well have
begun by speaking a language resembling Lappish, and gradually adopted
their loan-words and place-names from Norwegian? This will be a simpler
explanation. Nor, as we have seen, is Dr. Hansen's assumption probable,
that the Beormas also belonged to these same Skridfinns, and spoke their
language, while they were not replaced by the Karelians until later;[210]
but still less so is the hypothesis which is thereby forced upon us, that
the Reindeer Lapps came as reindeer nomads from the district east of the
White Sea, and learned their language, allied to Karelian, through coming
in contact with the Karelians on their journey westward round the south of
the White Sea. This contact cannot have lasted very long, as the country
on the south side of the White Sea is not particularly favourable to
reindeer nomads. And if in so short a time they lost their old language
and adopted an entirely new one, it will seem strange that they have been
able to keep this new language comparatively unchanged through their later
contact with the Norwegians, to whom moreover they were in a position of
subjection. In any case it must be considerably less improbable that an
original people of hunters, established in Finmark, who from the beginning
spoke Karelian-Lappish, should have adopted loan-words and place-names
from the later immigrant and settled Norwegians, to whom they were
subject, and who were skilled sailors with better seagoing boats. In more
or less adopting the Norwegians' methods of navigation and fishery, with
better appliances, they also acquired many loan-words from them. But on
the whole we must not attach too much weight to such linguistic evidence,
when we see that the Lapps have such a great quantity of loan-words from
other languages.

To sum up what has been said here, the following explanation may be the
most natural: in prehistoric times the coasts and inland districts of
north Scandinavia and the Kola peninsula were inhabited by a wandering
people of hunters, who belonged to the same race or family as the Fishing
and Reindeer Lapps, and who were thus related to the Samoyeds farther
east; but through long contact with the Karelians on the White Sea and
with the Kvæns they had acquired a Karelian-Finnish language. Their
language, however, as Konrad Nielsen has shown, contains also many words
which resemble Samoyed, whether this be due to original kinship or to
later influence. These people were called by the Norsemen Finns, or, to
distinguish them from the other sort of Finns farther south, Skridfinns,
because they were in the habit of travelling on ski in the winter. People
of this race of hunters learned the domestication of reindeer from contact
with reindeer nomads, the Samoyeds, farther east. Most of them continued
their life of hunting, sealing and fishing, but adopted reindeer-keeping
to some extent as an auxiliary means of subsistence. The Eskimo are a good
example of how, in northern regions, a wandering people of hunters may
have a fairly uniform culture and language throughout a much greater
extent of territory than is here in question; for they have essentially
the same culture and language from west of Bering Strait to the east coast
of Greenland. A tribe related to these hunter Finns, who spoke very nearly
the same language but lived farther east, where there was certainly
hunting to be had on land but little at sea, gradually became transformed
entirely into reindeer nomads, and diffused themselves at a comparatively
late period over the mountainous tracts westward, and along the Kjölen
range southward. As the Norsemen pressed northward along the coast of
Nordland they encountered the hunter Finns or Fishing Lapps. Through this
contact with a higher culture these Lapps learned much, but on the other
hand the Norsemen learned something from their sealing and hunting
culture, which was well adapted to these surroundings. Thus a higher
development of sea-hunting arose. Originally the Lapps had a light boat,
the planks of which were fastened together with osiers, with a paddle,
which was well adapted to sea-fishing, and for which they still have a
genuine Lappish word in their language. From the Norsemen they learned to
build larger boats and to use sails, whence most of their words for the
new kind of navigation were Norse loan-words. We see from Peder Claussön
Friis's description that in the sixteenth century the Fishing Lapps even
"had much profit of their shipbuilding, since they are good carpenters,
and build all the sloops and ships for the northward voyage themselves at
their own cost and to a considerable amount.... They also build many
boats...." In other words, we see that they had completely adopted the
Norwegians' boat- and ship-building, and with it the words connected
therewith. In the same way they certainly acquired better appliances for
sea-fishing than those they originally had; consequently in this too they
learned of the Norwegians, and it was therefore natural that they
gradually adopted Norse names for sea-fish too, even if they had names for
them before; besides which they were always selling this fish to the
Norwegians. It was otherwise, however, with sealing, which had previously
been their chief employment on the sea. In this they were superior to the
Norsemen, as the implements of the Kjelmö find show, and here the Norsemen
became their pupils. For this reason then they kept their own names for
seal, and the many genuine Lappish words they have for them prove that
this was an important part of their original culture. If we should imagine
that the Lappish language came in at a comparatively late period with the
Reindeer Lapps, as Dr. Hansen thinks, we should be faced by incomparably
greater difficulties in explaining how they acquired these many genuine
Lappish words for seal, than would confront us in explaining how they got
loan-words for reindeer-keeping from the Norwegians, or how the original
Fishing Lapps took Norse loan-words for sea-fishing and the use of boats.
And now as regards place-names, it is not improbable that these were
determined for later times principally by the permanent settlements of the
Norsemen, along the outer sea-coast, and not by the scattered Finns
(Lapps), who led a wandering life as hunters and fishermen, and who no
doubt were driven out by the Norsemen. If we suppose that these Finns were
kept away from a place, a fishing-centre or a district, by the Norwegian
settlement, it would only require the passing of one or two generations
for them to forget their old place-names, and in future they would use
those of the Norwegians settled there. But that they once had names of
their own is shown by the genuine Lappish names for some of the larger
islands. Within the fjords, where the Norwegians were late in establishing
themselves, and where the Finns (Lapps) could live with less interference,
it was different, and there they kept their own names.

We do not seem therefore to have any information or fact which is capable
of disproving the unbroken connection between Ottar's Finns, along the
coasts of Finmark and Ter, and the Fishing Lapps of our time, although the
latter at present consist to a large extent of impoverished Reindeer
Lapps, especially in West Finmark. The original culture of the Fishing
Lapps and the distinction between it and that of the Reindeer Lapps who
immigrated later have been preserved to recent times in their broader
features. It is true that the Fishing Lapp no longer keeps reindeer; he
only has a poor cow or a few sheep to milk [cf. A. Helland, 1905, p.
147]; but amongst other descriptions we see from that of the Italian
Francesco Negri of his travels in Norway in 1664-5 [L. Daae, 1888, p. 143]
that the Fishing Lapps of Nordland and Finmark still kept reindeer in the
latter part of the seventeenth century. He says of the Finns [i.e.,
Fishing Lapps] in Finmark that

    "they live either along the coast or in the forests of the interior.
    They are, like their neighbours the Lapps, small in stature, and they
    resemble them in face, clothing, customs and language. The only way in
    which they differ from the Lapps is, that the latter are nomads, while
    the Finns of this part have fixed dwellings. They possess only a few
    reindeer and a little cattle. They are also called Sea Lapps, while
    the other nomads are called Mountain Lapps...."

This distinction between Finns (i.e., Fishing Lapps) and Lapps (i.e.,
Reindeer Lapps) seems to have been common. Thus in the royal decree of
September 27, 1726, both Finns and Lapps are mentioned, and in mediæval
maps of the fifteenth century, beginning with that of Claudius Clavus, of
about 1426, we find on the Arctic Ocean in north-east Sweden "Findhlappi,"
and farther north "Wildhlappelandi," and in later Clavus maps
[Nordenskiöld, 1889, Pl. xxx.] we find to the north-east of Norway a
"Finlappelanth," and farther north an extensive "Pillappelanth," sometimes
also "Phillappelanth," besides a "Finlanth" in the east. Pillappelanth is
the same as Claudius Clavus's "Wildlappenland."[211] This word may be
thought to have arisen through a misunderstanding of the word "Fjeldlap"
(Mountain Lapp), which Clavus may have seen written as Viellappen and
taken to mean Wild Lapp (he calls them "Wildlappmanni"). But, as Mr.
Qvigstad has pointed out to me, the name "Wild Lapps" for Mountain
(Reindeer) Lapps is also found in Russian. Giles Fletcher (English
Ambassador to Russia in 1588) writes:[212]

    "The Russe divideth the whole nation of the Lappes into two sortes.
    The one they call 'Nowremanskoy Lapary,' that is, the Norvegian
    Lappes.... The other that have no religion at all but live as bruite
    and heathenish people, without God in the worlde they cal 'Dikoy
    Lapary,' or the wilde Lappes."

There is, however, a possibility that this Russian name may have come from
the maps or in a literary way. In any case we have as early as the
fifteenth century a distinction between Finnlapps (i.e., Fishing Lapps)
and Mountain Lapps or Wild Lapps, besides Finns in Finland; but this shows
at the same time that they must have been nearly akin, since both are
called Lapps.

Of great interest is Peder Claussön Friis's description of the Lapps,
which is derived from the Helgelander, Judge Jon Simonssön (ob. 1575). He
draws a distinction between "Sea Finns," who live on the fjords, and
"Lappe-Finns" or "Mountain Finns," "who roam about the great mountains,"

    "and both sorts are also called 'Gann-Finns' on account of the magic
    they use, which they call 'Gan.'" "The Finns [i.e., Lapps] are a thin
    and skinny folk, and yet much stronger than other men, as can be
    proved by their bows, which a Norse Man cannot draw half so far as the
    Finns can. They are very black and brown on their bodies, and are
    hasty and evil-tempered folk, as though they had the nature of bears."

    "The Sea Finns dwell always on Fjords, where there is sufficient fir
    and spruce, so that they may have firing and timber to build ships of,
    and they live in small houses or huts, of which the half is in the
    ground, albeit some have fine houses and rooms.... They also row out
    to fish like other Northern sailors, and sell their fish to the
    merchants, who come there, for they do not sail to Bergen, and they
    are not fond of going where there are many people, nor do people wish
    to have them there, and they apply themselves greatly to shooting seal
    and porpoise, that they may get their oil, for every Finn must have a
    quart of oil to drink at every meal...."

    "They keep many tame reindeer, from which they have milk, butter, and
    cheese ... they also keep goats, but no sheep.

    "They shoot both elks and stags and hinds, but for the most part
    reindeer, which are there in abundance; and when one of them will
    shoot reindeer, he holds his bow and arrow between the horns of a tame
    reindeer, and shoots thus one after another, for it is a foolish beast
    that cannot take care of itself."

    "The Finns are remarkably good archers, but only with handbows, for
    which they have good sharp arrows, for they are themselves smiths, and
    they shoot so keenly with the same bows that they can shoot with them
    great bears and reindeer and what they will. Moreover they can shoot
    so straight that it is a marvel, and they hold it a shame at any time
    to miss their mark, and they accustom themselves to it from childhood,
    so that the young Finn may not have his breakfast until he has shot
    three times in succession through a hole made by an auger.

    "They are called Gann-Finns for the witchcraft they use, which they
    call 'Gann,' and thence the sea or great fjord which is between Russia
    and Finmark, and stretches to Karelestrand, is called Gandvig.

    "They are small people and are very hairy on their bodies, and have a
    bear's nature...."

    "The Sea Finns can for the most part speak the Norse language, but not
    very well.... And they have also their own language which they use
    among themselves and with the Lapps, which Norse Men cannot
    understand, and it is said that they have more languages than one; of
    their languages they have however another to use among themselves
    which some[213] can understand, so it is certain that they have nine
    languages, all of which they use among themselves."[214]

    "Of the Mountain Finns the same is to be understood as has now been
    noted of the Sea Finns; the others [i.e., the former] are small, hairy
    folk and evil, they have no houses and do not dwell in any place, but
    move from one place to another, where they may find some game to
    shoot.[215] They do not eat bread, nor do the Sea Finns either.... And
    he [the Mountain Finn] has tame reindeer and a sledge, which is like a
    low boat with a keel upon it...."

From this description it appears with all desirable clearness that, on the
one hand, there was no noticeable external difference in the sixteenth
century between the small Fishing Lapps and the small Reindeer Lapps, and
on the other there was no essential difference between the Lapps of that
time and the Finns described by Ottar--we even find the decoy reindeer
still used in the sixteenth century; further, that the Lapps were
unusually skilful hunters and archers, for which they were also praised
by earlier authorities (we read in many places of Finn-bows, Finn-arrows,
etc. Some thought that the man who at the battle of Svolder shot and hit
Einar Tambarskelve's bow so that it broke, was a Lapp). We see too that
the Reindeer Lapp was not exclusively a reindeer nomad, but practised
hunting to such an extent that he moved about for the sake of game, and it
even looks as if this was his chief means of livelihood, which is
therefore mentioned first. That the reindeer-keeping mentioned by Ottar
should have been so essentially different from that of the present day, as
A. M. Hansen asserts, is difficult to see. That the decoy reindeer which
Ottar tells us were used for catching wild reindeer, and which were so
valuable, are no longer to be found in our day is a matter of course,
simply because the wild reindeer in northern Scandinavia has practically
disappeared from the districts frequented by the Lapps with their tame
reindeer. Furthermore, with the introduction of firearms decoy reindeer
became less necessary for getting within range of the wild ones; but we
see that they were still used in the sixteenth century, when the Lapps
continued to shoot with the bow. So long as there was abundance of game,
before the introduction of the rifle, the Reindeer Lapp also lived, as we
have seen, to a large extent by hunting; but then he was not able to look
after large herds of reindeer. It is therefore probable that a herd of 600
deer, as mentioned by Ottar, must then have been regarded as constituting
wealth, although to the Reindeer Lapps of the present day, who live
exclusively by keeping reindeer, it would be nothing very great.[216]

Those of the modern Lapps whose manner of life most reminds us of Ottar's
"Finns" are perhaps the so-called Skolte-Lapps on the south side of the
Varanger Fjord. Helland [1905, p. 157] says of them: "They have few
reindeer and keep them not so much for their flesh and milk as for
transport. Their principal means of subsistence is salmon and trout
fishing in the river, and a little sea-fishing in the fjord on Norwegian
ground. They are also hunters."

We must suppose that the "Finns" who according to Ottar, or to Alfred's
version of him, paid tribute in walrus-hide ropes, etc., lived by the sea
and engaged in sealing and walrus-hunting, and in any case they cannot
have kept reindeer except as a subsidiary means of subsistence, like the
Fishing Lapps in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. But Alfred's
expressions do not exclude the possibility of there having been amongst
the "Finns" some who were reindeer nomads like the Reindeer Lapps of our
time. That they already existed at that time and somewhat later seems to
result from the statements in the sagas of the sheriffs of Hâlogaland
(e.g., Thorulf Kveldulfsson), who in order to collect the "Finn" tribute
travelled into the interior and up into the mountains. It cannot have been
only wandering hunters who paid this tribute, and they must certainly also
have had herds of reindeer.

That the Lapps have degenerated greatly as hunters and sealers in the last
few centuries, and that the Fishing Lapps no longer enjoy anything like
the same prosperity as they did in Ottar's time, and even as late as the
seventeenth century, is easily explained. For on the one hand the game
both in the sea and on land has decreased to such an extent that it can no
longer support any one, and on the other it is a well-known fact that a
people originally of hunters loses its skill in the chase to a
considerable extent through closer contact with European civilisation,
while at the same time it becomes impoverished. How this comes about may
be accurately observed among the Eskimo of Greenland in our time. So long
as the Lapps were heathens, as in Peder Claussön Friis's time, and were
still without firearms and, what is perhaps equally important, without
fire-water, and not burdened with schooling and book-learning, they
retained their old hunting culture and their hereditary skill in sealing
and hunting; but with the new culture and its claims, the new objects,
demands and temptations of life, their old accomplishments suffered more
or less; nor were they any longer held in such high esteem that the Lapp
child had to shoot three times running through an auger-hole before he
might have his breakfast. And just as the Eskimo of the west coast of
Greenland have been obliged to take more and more to fishing and
bird-catching, which were looked down upon by the old harpooners, so have
our Fishing Lapps become more and more exclusively fishermen.



CHAPTER VII

THE VOYAGES OF THE NORSEMEN: DISCOVERY OF ICELAND AND GREENLAND


SHIPBUILDING

The discovery of the Faroes and Iceland by the Celts and the Irish monks,
and their settlement there, give evidence of a high degree of intrepidity;
since their fragile boats were not adapted to long voyages in the open
sea, to say nothing of carrying cargoes and keeping up any regular
communication. Nor did they, in fact, make any further progress; and
neither the Irish nor the Celts of the British Isles as a whole ever
became a seafaring people. It was the Scandinavians, and especially the
Norwegians, who were the pioneers at sea; who developed an improved style
of shipbuilding, and who, with their comparatively good and seaworthy
craft, were soon to traverse all the northern waters and open up a
prospect into a new world, whereby the geographical ideas of the times
should undergo a complete transformation. It has been asserted that the
Phœnicians in their day ventured out into the open ocean far from land;
but this lacks proof and is improbable. The Norwegians are the first
people in history who definitely abandoned the coast-sailing universally
practised before their time, and who took navigation away from the coasts
and out on to the ocean. From them other people have since learnt.

First they crossed the North Sea and sailed constantly to Shetland, the
Orkneys, North Britain and Ireland; then to the Faroes, Iceland and
Greenland, and at last they steered straight across the Atlantic itself,
and thereby discovered North America. We do not know how early the passage
of the North Sea originated; but probably, as we have seen, it was before
the time of Pytheas and much earlier than usually supposed. J. E. Sars
[1877, i. (2nd ed.), p. 191] concluded on other grounds that it was at a
very remote period, and long before the Viking age.

The beginning of the more important Viking expeditions is usually referred
to the end of the eighth century, or, indeed, to a particular year, 793.
But we may conclude from historical sources[217] that as early as the
sixth century Viking voyages certainly took place over the North Sea from
Denmark to the land of the Franks, and doubtless also to southern
Britain,[218] and perhaps by the beginning of the seventh century the
Norwegians had established themselves in Shetland and even plundered the
Hebrides and the north-west of Ireland (in 612).[219] We know further from
historical sources that as early as the third century and until the close
of the fifth century the roving Eruli sailed from Scandinavia, sometimes
in company with Saxon pirates, over the seas of Western Europe, ravaging
the coasts of Gaul and Spain, and indeed penetrating in 455 into the
Mediterranean as far as Lucca in Italy.[220] From these historical facts
we are able to conclude that long before that time there had been
intercommunication by sea between the countries of Northern Europe.
Scandinavia, and especially Norway, was in those days very sparsely
inhabited, and all development of culture that was not due to direct
influence from without must have taken place with extreme slowness at such
an early period of history, even where intercourse was more active than in
the North. As we are not acquainted with any other European people who at
that time possessed anything like the necessary skill in navigation to
have been the instructors of the Scandinavians, we are forced to suppose
that it was after centuries of gradual training and development in
seamanship that the latter attained the superiority at sea which they held
at the beginning of the Viking age, when they took large fleets over the
North Sea and the Arctic Ocean as though these were their home waters.
When we further consider how, since that time, the type of ships, rigging
and sails has persisted almost without a change for eleven hundred years,
to the ten-oared and eight-oared boats of our own day--which until a few
years ago were the almost universal form of boat in the whole of northern
Norway--it will appear improbable that the type of ship and the
corresponding skill in seamanship required a much shorter time for their
development.[221]

The first literary mention of the Scandinavians' boats occurs in Tacitus,
who speaks of the fleets and rowing-boats without sails of the Suiones
(see above, p. 110). But long before that time we find ships commonly
represented on the rock-carvings which are especially frequent in Bohuslen
and in the districts east of Christiania Fjord. If these were naturalistic
representations they would give us valuable information about the form and
size of the ships of those remote times. But the distinct and
characteristic features which are common to all these pictures of ships,
from Bohuslen to as far north as Beitstaden, show them to be conventional
figures, and we cannot therefore draw any certain conclusions from them
with regard to the appearance of the ships.

    Dr. Andr. M. Hansen [1908], with his usual imaginativeness, has
    pointed out the resemblance between the rock-carvings and the
    vase-paintings of the Dipylon period in Attica, and thinks there is a
    direct connection between them. It appears highly probable that the
    style of the rock-carvings is not a wholly native northern art, but is
    due more or less to influence from the countries of the Mediterranean
    or the East, in the same way as we have seen that the burial customs
    (dolmens, chambered barrows, etc.) came from these. Dr. Hansen has,
    however, exaggerated the resemblance between the Dipylon art and the
    rock-carvings; many of the resemblances are clearly due to the fact
    that the same subjects are represented (e.g., spear-throwing,
    fighting with raised weapons, rowers, horsemen, chariots, etc.); it
    may also be mentioned that such signs as the wheel or the solar symbol
    (the eye) are common to wide regions of culture. On the other hand,
    there are differences in other important features; thus, the mode of
    representing human beings is not the same, as asserted by Hansen; the
    characteristic "Egyptian" style of the men depicted in the Dipylon
    art, with broad, rectangular shoulders and narrow waists, is just what
    one does not find in the rock-carvings, where on the contrary men are
    depicted in the more naturalistic style which one recognises among
    many other peoples in a savage state of culture. Hansen also lays
    stress upon resemblances to figures from Italy. But what most
    interests us here is the number of representations of ships in the
    rock-carvings, which for the most part show a remarkable uniformity as
    regards their essential features, while they differ from all pictures
    of ships, not only in the art of the Dipylon and of the Mediterranean
    generally, but also in that of Egypt and Assyria-Babylonia. The boats
    or ships depicted in the rock-carvings are so strange-looking that
    doubts have been expressed whether they are boats or ships at all, or
    whether it is not something else that is intended, sledges, for
    instance. There is no indication of the oars, which are so
    characteristic of all delineations of ships in Greece, Italy, Egypt
    and Assyria; nor is there any certain indication of sails or rudders,
    which are also characteristic of southern art. Moreover, the lowest
    line, which should answer to the keel, is often separated at both ends
    from the upper line, which should be the top strake. On the other hand
    the numerous figures in the "boats" can with difficulty be regarded as
    anything but men, and most probably rowers, sometimes as many as fifty
    in number, besides the unmistakable figures of men standing, some of
    them armed; and it must be added that if these pictures represented
    nothing but sledges, it is inconceivable that there should never be
    any indication of draught animals. But one remarkable point about
    these numerous carvings is the typical form both of the prow and of
    the stern-post. With comparatively few exceptions the prow has two
    turned-up beaks, which are difficult to understand. It has been
    attempted to explain one of these as an imitation of the rams of Greek
    and Phœnician warships; but in that case it ought to be directed
    forward and not bent up. The shape of the stern-post is also curious:
    for what one must regard as the keel of the ship has in all these
    representations a blunt after end, curiously like a sledge-runner;
    while the upper line of the ship, which should correspond to the top
    strake, is bent upward and frequently somewhat forward, in a more or
    less even curve, sometimes ending in a two- or three-leaved ornament,
    somewhat like the stern-post of Egyptian ships (see p. 23). This mode
    of delineation became so uniformly fixed that besides occurring in
    almost all the rock-carvings it appears again in an even more
    carefully executed form in the knives of the later Bronze Age. Such a
    type of ship, with a keel ending bluntly aft, is not known in ancient
    times in Europe, either in the Mediterranean or in the North.[222]
    Egyptian, Assyro-Phœnician, Greek and Roman representations of ships
    (see pp. 7, 23, 35, 48, 241, 242), all show a keel which bends up to
    form a continuously curved stern-post; and both the Nydam boat from
    Sleswick (p. 110) and the Norwegian Viking ships that have been
    discovered agree in having a similar turned-up stern-post, which forms
    a continuous curve from the keel itself (pp. 246, 247); it is the same
    with delineations of the later Iron Age (p. 243). Even Tacitus
    expressly says that the ships of the Suiones were alike fore and aft.
    The only similar stern-posts to be found are possibly the abruptly
    ending ones of the ship and boats on the grave-stone from Novilara in
    Italy; but here the prows are quite unlike those of the rock-carvings.

    As therefore this representation of the ship's stern-post does not
    correspond to any known type of ancient boat or ship, as it is also
    difficult to understand how the people of the rock-carvings came to
    represent a boat with two upturned prows, and as further there is a
    striking similarity between the lowest line of the keel and a
    sledge-runner, one might be tempted to believe that by an association
    of ideas these delineations have become a combination of ship and
    sledge. These rock-carvings may originally have been connected with
    burials, and the ship, which was to bear the dead, may have been
    imagined as gliding on the water, on ice, or through the air, to the
    realms of the departed, and thus unconsciously the keel may have been
    given the form of a runner. It may be mentioned as a parallel that in
    the "kennings" of the far later poetry of the Skalds a ship is called,
    for instance, the "ski" of the sea, or, vice versa, a ski or sledge
    may be called the ship of the snow. The sledge was moreover the
    earliest form of contrivance for transport. In this connection there
    may also be a certain interest in the fact that in Egypt the mummies
    of royal personages were borne to the grave in funereal boats upon
    sledges. That the rock-carvings were originally associated with
    burials may also be indicated by the fact that the carved stones of
    the Iron Age, which in a way took the place of the rock-carvings,
    frequently represent the dead in boats on their way to the underworld
    or the world beyond the grave (see illustration, p. 243). That ships
    played a prominent part in connection with the dead appears also from
    the remarkable burial-places formed by stones set up in the form of a
    ship, the so-called ship-settings, in Sweden and the Baltic provinces,
    as well as in Denmark and North Germany. These belong to the early
    Iron Age. The usual burial in a ship covered by a mound, in the later
    Iron Age, is well known. We seem thus to be able to trace a certain
    continuity in these customs. A certain continuity even in the
    representation of ships may also be indicated by the striking
    resemblance that exists between the two- or three-leaved, lily-like
    prow ornament on the rock-carvings, on the knives of the later Bronze
    Age, on the grave-stone of Novilara, and on such late representations
    as some of the ships of the Bayeux tapestry. The upturned prows of the
    ships of the rock-carvings also frequently end in spirals like the
    stern-post on the stone at Stenkyrka in Gotland (p. 243), and both
    prows and stern on other stones of the later Iron Age from Gotland.

All are agreed in referring the rock-carvings to the Bronze Age; but while
O. Montelius, for example, puts certain of them as early as between 1450
and 1250 B.C., A. M. Hansen has sought to bring them down to as late as
500 B.C. In any case they belong to a period that is long anterior to the
beginning of history in the North. From whence and by what route this art
came it is difficult to say. Along the same line of coasts by which the
megalithic graves, dolmens and chambered barrows made their way from the
Mediterranean to the North (see p. 22) rock-carvings are also to be found
scattered through North Africa, Italy (the Alps), Southern France, Spain,
Portugal, Brittany, England, Ireland and Scotland. It may be reasonable to
suppose that this practice of engraving figures on stone came first from
Egypt at the close of the Stone Age; but the rock-carvings of the west
coast of Europe and of the British Isles are distinct in their whole
character from those of Scandinavia, and do not contain representations of
ships[223] and men, which are such prominent features of the latter; but
common to both are the characteristic cup-markings, besides the wheel, or
solar signs (with a cross), foot-soles, and also spirals. There may thus
be a connection, but we must suppose that the rock-carvings underwent an
independent development in Scandinavia (like the Bronze Age culture as a
whole)--if it could not be explained by an eastern communication with the
south through Russia, which however is not probable--and as the
representation of ships came to be so common, we must conclude it to be
here connected with a people of strong seafaring tendencies. Since the
ships depicted on the rock-carvings cannot, so far as we know at present,
have been direct imitations of delineations of ships derived from
abroad--even though they may be connected with forms of religion and
burial customs that were more or less imported--we are, as yet at least,
bound to believe that the people who made the rock-carvings had boats or
ships which furnished the models for their conventional representations.
And when we see that these people went to work to engrave on the rocks
pictures of ships which are fifteen feet in length, and have as many as
fifty rowers,[224] we are bound to believe that in any case they were able
to imagine ships of this size. It is also remarkable that rock-carvings
are most numerous precisely in those districts, Viken and Bohuslen, where
we may expect that the seamanship of the Scandinavians first attained a
higher degree of perfection if it was first imported from the south-east.
With this would also agree Professor Montelius's theory: that at a very
much earlier time, about the close of the Stone Age, direct communication
already existed between the west coast of Sweden and Britain, which he
concludes from remarkable points of correspondence in stone cists with a
hole at the end, and other features.

It is difficult to say how the Scandinavians at the outset arrived at
their boats and ships, such as we know them from the boats found at Nydam
in Sleswick and the Viking ships discovered in Norwegian burial-mounds.
They are of the same type that in Norway, in the districts of Sunnmör and
Nordland, has persisted to our time, and they show a mastery both in their
lines and in their workmanship that must have required a long period for
its development. From the accounts of many contemporaries, as well as from
archæological finds, we know that even so late as the first and second
centuries A.D. large canoes, made of dug-out tree trunks, were in common
use on the north coast of Germany between the Elbe and the Rhine, and
there can be no doubt that this was the original form of boat in the north
and west of Central Europe. In England similar canoes made of the dug-out
trunks of oaks have been found with a length of as much as forty-eight
feet; they have also been found in Scotland, in Bremen and in
Sleswick-Holstein (in many cases over thirty-eight feet long), with holes
for oars. It is related of the Saxons north of the Elbe, who at an early
period made piratical raids on coasts to the south of them, that they
sailed in small boats made of wicker-work, with an oaken keel and covered
with hides. Besides these they clearly had dug-out canoes; but in the
third century A.D. it is recorded that they built ships on the Roman
model. The only people north of the Mediterranean of whom we know with
certainty that they had their own well-developed methods of shipbuilding
are, as already mentioned (p. 39), the Veneti at the mouth of the Loire,
whose powerful and seaworthy ships of oak are described by Cæsar. That the
Scandinavians should have derived their methods from them cannot be
regarded as probable, unless it can be proved that the intervening peoples
possessed something more than primitive canoes and coracles. We must
therefore believe, either that the Scandinavians developed their methods
of shipbuilding quite independently, or that they had communication with
the Mediterranean by some other route than the sea. Now in many important
features there is such a great resemblance between the Norwegian Viking
ships and pictorial representations of Greek ships, and of even earlier
Egyptian and Assyrian ships, that it is difficult to avoid the conclusion
that some connection must have existed. For instance, the resemblance
between the strikingly lofty prows and stern-posts, sometimes bent back,
with characteristic ornamentation, and animal heads, which are already to
be found in Egyptian and Assyrian representations, cannot be explained
offhand as coincidences occurring in types independently developed. They
are decorations, and cannot have contributed to the seaworthiness of the
boats or had any practical purpose, unless the animal heads were intended
to frighten enemies (?). It is true that lofty and remarkable prows are to
be found in boats from such a widely separated region of culture as
Polynesia; but in the first place it is not impossible that here too there
may be a distant connection with the Orient, and in the second, the
Mediterranean and Scandinavian forms of ship are so characteristic,
compared with those of other parts of the world, that we necessarily place
them apart as belonging to a distinct sphere of culture. Another
characteristic of these boats and ships is the oars with rowlocks (open or
closed), instead of paddles. The rudder of the Viking ship (see
illustrations, pp. 246, 247, 248, 250) is also in appearance and mode of
use so remarkably like the Egyptian rudder of as early as circa 1600 B.C.
(see illustrations, pp. 7, 23), and the Greek (p. 48),[225] that it is not
easy to believe that this, together with all the other resemblances, were
independent discoveries of the North. The square sail and mast of the
Scandinavian boat also closely resemble those of Egyptian, Phœnician,
Greek and Italian ships as depicted.

It may be supposed that the communication which originally produced these
resemblances did not take place by the sea-route, round the coasts of
western Europe, but overland between the Black Sea and the Baltic. It is
thus possible that the Scandinavian type of boat first began to be
developed in the closed waters of the Baltic. It is here too that the
boats of the Scandinavians (Suiones) are first mentioned in literature by
Tacitus, and it is here that the earliest known boats of Scandinavian type
have been found; these are the three remarkable boats of about the third
century A.D. which were discovered at Nydam, near Flensburg. The best
preserved of them (p. 110) is of oak, about seventy-eight feet long, with
fourteen oars on each side, and it carried a crew of about forty men. The
boats terminated in exactly the same way fore and aft, agreeing with what
Tacitus says of the boats of the Suiones; and they could be rowed in both
directions. They had rowlocks with oar-grummets like those in use on the
west coast and in the northern part of Norway. There is no indication of
the boats having had masts and sails, which also agrees with Tacitus.
There can be no doubt that we have here the typical Scandinavian form of
boat, with such fine lines and such excellent workmanship that it can only
be due to an ancient culture the development of which had extended over
many centuries.

From the Baltic this form of boat may have spread to Norway, where it
gradually attained its greatest perfection; and it is worth remarking that
in that very district where the Baltic type of boat derived from the
south-east reached a coast with superior harbours, richer fisheries, and
better opportunities for longer sea voyages, namely, in Bohuslen and
Viken, we find also the greater number of rock-carvings with
representations of ships. It is moreover a question whether the very name
of "Vikings" is not connected with this district, and did not originally
mean men from Viken, Vikværings; as they were specially prominent, the
name finally became a common designation for all Scandinavians, as had
formerly been the case with the names Eruli, Saxons, Danes.[226] In the
course of their voyages towards the south-west the Scandinavians may also
have met very early with ships from the Mediterranean, which, for
instance, were engaged in the tin trade with the south of England, or may
even have reached the amber coast, and thus fresh influence from the
Mediterranean may have been added. When we see how in the fifth century
roving Eruli reached as far as Italy in their ships, this will not appear
impossible; and if there is any contrivance that we should expect to show
a certain community of character over a wide area, it is surely the ship
or boat.

Tacitus says that the fleets of the Suiones consisted of row-boats without
sails. It is difficult to contest the accuracy of so definite a statement,
especially as it is supported by the Nydam find, and by the circumstance
that the Anglo-Saxons appear to have crossed the sea to Britain in nothing
but row-boats; but Tacitus is speaking of warships in particular, and it
is impossible that sails should not have been known and used in
Scandinavia, and especially in Norway, at that time. There are possibly
indications of sails even in the rock-carvings (see the first example in
illustration, p. 236), and in the ornaments on the knives of the Bronze
Age (see illustration, p. 238). In the case of a people whose lot it was
to live to so great an extent on and by the sea, it is scarcely to be
supposed that any very long time should elapse before they thought of
making use of the wind, even if they did not originally derive the
invention of sails from the Mediterranean.

Just as the Phœnicians and the Greeks had swift-sailing longships for war
and piracy, and other, broader sailing-ships for trade (see p. 48), so
also did the Scandinavians gradually develop two kinds of craft: the swift
longships, and the broader and heavier trading-vessels, called "bosses"
and "knars."

But even if northern shipbuilding exhibits a connection with that of the
Mediterranean, and thus was no more spontaneous in its growth than any
other form of culture in the world, the type of ship produced by the
Scandinavians was nevertheless undoubtedly superior to all that had
preceded it, just as they themselves were incontestably the most skilful
seamen of their time. The perfection and refinement of form, with fine
lines, which we find in the three preserved boats from Nydam, and in the
three ships of the beginning of the Viking age, or about the year 800,
give evidence in each case of centuries of culture in this province; and
when we see the richness of workmanship expended on the Oseberg ship and
all the utensils that were found with it, we understand that it was no
upstart race that produced all this, but a people that may well have
sailed the North Sea even a thousand years earlier, in the time of
Pytheas.

The immigration to Norway of many tribes may itself have taken place by
sea. Thus the Horder and Ryger are certainly the same tribes as the
"Harudes" (the "Charudes" of the emperor Augustus and of Ptolemy),
dwelling in Jutland and on the Rhine (cf. Cæsar), and the "Rugii" west of
the Vistula on the south coast of the Baltic (from whom possibly Rügen
takes its name).[227] They came by the sea route to western Norway
straight from Jutland and North Germany, and there must thus have been
communication between these countries at that time; but how early we do
not know; it may have been at the beginning of our era, and it may have
been earlier.[228] But the fact that whole tribes were able to make so
long a migration by sea indicates in any case a high development of
navigation, and again it is on the Baltic that we first find it.

The shipbuilding and seamanship of the Norwegians mark a new epoch in the
history both of navigation and discovery, and with their voyages the
knowledge of northern lands and waters was at once completely changed. As
previously pointed out (p. 170), we notice this change of period already
in Ottar's communications to King Alfred, but their explorations of land
and sea begin more particularly with the colonisation of Iceland, which
in its turn became the starting-point for expeditions farther west.

We find accounts of these voyages of discovery in the old writings and
sagas, a large part of which was put into writing in Iceland. A sombre
undercurrent runs through these narratives of voyages in unknown seas;
even though they may be partly legendary, they nevertheless bear witness
in their terseness to the silent struggle of hardy men with ice, storms,
cold and want, in the light summer and long, dark winter of the North.

They had neither compass, nor astronomical instruments, nor any of the
appliances of our time for finding their position at sea; they could only
sail by the sun, moon and stars, and it seems incomprehensible how for
days and weeks, when these were invisible, they were able to find their
course through fog and bad weather; but they found it, and the open craft
of the Norwegian Vikings, with their square sails, fared north and west
over the whole ocean, from Novaya Zemlya and Spitsbergen to Greenland,
Baffin's Bay, Newfoundland and North America, and over these lands and
seas the Norsemen extended their dominion. It was not till five hundred
years later that the ships of other nations were to make their way to the
same regions.

The lodestone, or compass, did not reach the Norwegians till the
thirteenth century.[229] As to what means they had before that time for
finding their course at sea, Norse-Icelandic literature contains extremely
scanty statements. We see that to them, as to the Phœnicians before them,
the pole-star was the lodestar, and that they sometimes used
birds--ravens--to find out the direction of land; but we also hear that
when they met with fog or cloudy weather they drifted without knowing
where they were, and sometimes went in the opposite direction to that they
expected, as in Thorstein Ericson's attempt to make Wineland from
Greenland, where they arrived off Iceland instead of off America. Even
when after a long period of dull weather they saw the sun again, it could
not help them to determine their direction at all accurately, unless they
knew the approximate time of day; but their sense of time was certainly
far keener than ours, which has been blunted by the use of clocks. Several
accounts show that on land the Scandinavians knew how to observe the sun
accurately, in what quarter and at what time it set, how long the day or
the night lasted at the summer or winter solstice, etc. From this they
formed an idea of their northern latitude. Amongst other works a treatise
of the close of the thirteenth century or later included in the fourth
part of the collection "Rymbegla" [1780, pp. 472 ff.] shows that they may
even have understood how to take primitive measurements of the sun's
altitude at noon with a kind of quadrant. But they can scarcely have been
able to take observations of this kind on board ship during their long
voyages in early times, and they still less understood how to compute the
latitude from such measurements except perhaps at the equinoxes and
solstices. It is true that from the narrative, to be mentioned later, of a
voyage in the north of Baffin's Bay, about 1267, it appears that at sea
also they attempted to get an idea of the sun's altitude by observing
where the shadow of the gunwale, on the side nearest the sun, fell on a
man lying athwartships when the sun was in the south. With all its
imperfection this shows that at least they observed the sun's
altitude.[230] In order to form some idea of their western or eastern
longitude they cannot have had any other means than reckoning; and so long
as the sun and stars were visible, and they knew in what direction they
were sailing, they undoubtedly had great skill in reckoning this. In thick
weather they could still manage so long as the wind held unaltered; but
they could not know when it changed; they were then obliged to judge from
such signs as birds, of what country they were, and in what direction they
flew; we hear occasionally that they had birds from Ireland, or from
Iceland, and so on. The difference in the fauna of birds might give them
information. In their sailing directions it is also stated that they
observed the whale; thus in the Landnámabók (Hauksbók) we read that when
sailing from Norway to Greenland one should keep far enough to the south
of Iceland to have birds and whales from thence. This is more difficult to
understand, as the whale is not confined to the land, and the same whales
are found in various parts of the northern seas. But drift-ice or
ice-bergs, if they met them, might serve to show their direction, as might
occasionally driftwood or floating seaweed. The colour of the sea may
certainly have been of importance to such keen observers, even though we
hear nothing of it; it cannot have escaped them, for instance, that the
water of the Gulf Stream was of a purer blue than the rather
greenish-brown water of the coastal current near Norway and in the North
Sea, or in the East Iceland Polar Current; the difference between the
water of the East Greenland Polar Current and in the Atlantic is also
striking. It may likewise be supposed that men who were dependent to such
a degree on observing every sign may have remarked the distribution in the
ocean of so striking a creature as the great red jelly-fish. If so, it may
often have given them valuable information of their approximate position.
They used the lead, as appears, amongst other authorities, from the
"Historia Norwegiæ," where we read that Ingolf and Hjorleif found Iceland
"by probing the waves with the lead."

But that it was not always easy to find their course is shown, amongst
other instances, by the account of Eric the Red's settlement in Greenland,
when twenty-five ships left Iceland, but only fourteen are said to have
arrived. Here, as elsewhere, it was the more capable commanders who came
through.


THE NORWEGIAN SETTLEMENT IN ICELAND

The island of Iceland is mentioned, as we have seen, for the first time in
literature by Dicuil, in 825, who calls it Thyle and speaks of its
discovery by the Irish. As he says nothing about "Nortmannic" pirates
having arrived there, whereas he mentions their having expelled the Irish
monks from the Faroes, we may conclude that the Norsemen had not yet
reached Iceland at that time. The first certain mention of the name
Iceland is in the German poem "Meregarto" (see p. 181),[231] and in Adam
of Bremen, where we find the first description of the island derived from
a Scandinavian source (see p. 193).

Narratives of its discovery by the Norsemen and of their first settlement
there are to be found in Norse-Icelandic literature; but they were written
down 250 or 300 years after the events. These narratives of the first
discoverers mentioned by name and their deeds, which were handed down by
tradition for so long a time, can therefore scarcely be regarded as more
than legendary; nevertheless they may give us a picture in broad outlines
of how voyages of discovery were accomplished in those times.

As the Norwegians visited the Scottish islands and Ireland many centuries
before they discovered Iceland, it is highly probable that they had
information from the Irish of this great island to the north-west; if so,
it was natural that they should afterwards search for it, although
according to most Norse-Icelandic accounts it is said to have been found
accidentally by mariners driven out of their course.

According to the sagas a Norwegian Viking, Grim Kamban, had established
himself in the Faroes (about 800 A.D.) and had expelled thence the Irish
priests; but possibly there was a Celtic population, at any rate in the
southern islands (cf. p. 164). After that time there was comparatively
active communication between the islands and Norway, and it was on the way
to the Faroes or to the Scottish islands that certain voyagers were said
to have been driven northward by a storm to the great unknown island. The
earliest and, without comparison, the most trustworthy authority, Are
Frode,[232] gives in his "Íslendingabók" (of about 1120-1130) no
information of any such discovery, and this fact does not tend to
strengthen one's belief in it. Are tells us briefly and plainly:

    "Iceland was first settled from Norway in the days of Harold Fairhair,
    the son of Halfdan the Black; it was at that time--according to Teit,
    Bishop Isleif's son, my foster-brother, the wisest man I have known,
    and Thorkel Gellisson, my uncle, whose memory was long, and Thorid,
    Snorre Gode's daughter, who was both exceeding wise and truthful--when
    Ivar, Ragnar Lodbrok's son, caused St. Edmund, the king of the Angles
    [i.e., the English king], to be slain. And that was 870 winters after
    the birth of Christ, as it is written in his saga. Ingolf hight the
    Norseman of whom it is truthfully related that he first fared thence
    [from Norway] to Iceland, when Harold Fairhair was sixteen winters
    old, and for the second time a few winters later; he settled south in
    Reykjarvik; the place is called Ingolfshövde; Minthakseyre, where he
    first came to land, but Ingolfsfell, west of Ölfosså, of which he
    afterwards possessed himself. At that time Iceland was clothed with
    forest [i.e., birch forest] from the mountains to the strand. There
    were Christian men here, whom the Norsemen called 'Papar' ..." and who
    were Irish, as already mentioned, pp. 165 f. "And then there was great
    resort of men hither from Norway, until King Harold forbade it, since
    he thought that the land [i.e., Norway] would be deserted," etc.

We may certainly assume that this description of Are's is at least as
trustworthy as the later statements on the same subject; but as Are
probably also wrote a larger Íslendingabók, which is now lost, there is a
possibility that he there related the discovery of Iceland in greater
detail, and that the later authors have drawn from it.

The next written account of the discovery of Iceland is found in the
"Historia de Antiquitate regum Norwagiensium"[233] of the Norwegian monk
Tjodrik (written about 1180), where we read:

    "In Harold's ninth year--some think in his tenth--certain merchants
    sailed to the islands which we call 'Phariæ' ['Færeyjar' == the
    Faroes]; there they were attacked by tempest and wearied long and
    sore, until at last they were driven by the sea to a far distant land,
    which some think to have been the island of Thule; but I cannot either
    confirm or deny this, as I do not know the true state of the matter.
    They landed and wandered far and wide; but although they climbed
    mountains, they nowhere found trace of human habitation. When they
    returned to Norway they told of the country they had found and by
    their praises incited many to seek it. Among them especially a chief
    named Ingolf, from the district that is called Hordaland; he made
    ready a ship, associated with himself his brother-in-law Hjorleif and
    many others, and sought and found the country we speak of, and began
    to settle it together with his companions, about the tenth year of
    Harold's reign. This was the beginning of the settlement of that
    country which we now call Iceland--unless we take into account that
    certain persons, very few in number, from Ireland (that is, little
    Britain) are believed to have been there in older times, to judge from
    certain books and other articles that were found after them.
    Nevertheless two others preceded Ingolf in this matter; the first was
    named Garðar, after whom the land was at first called Garðarsholmr,
    the second was named Floki. But what I have related may suffice
    concerning this matter."

It is probable that Tjodrik Monk was acquainted with Are Frode's
Íslendingabók, or at least had sources connected with it. In the "Historia
Norwegiæ" by an unknown Norwegian author (written according to G. Storm
about 1180-1190, but probably later, in the thirteenth century)[234] we
read of the discovery of Iceland [Storm, 1880, p. 92]:

    "Next, to the west, comes the great island which by the Italians is
    called Ultima Tile; but now it is inhabited by a considerable
    multitude, while formerly it was waste land, and unknown to men, until
    the time of Harold Fairhair. Then certain Norsemen, namely Ingolf and
    Hjorleif, fled thither from their native land, being guilty of
    homicide, with their wives and children, and resorted to this island,
    which was first discovered by Gardar and afterwards by another (?),
    and found it at last, by probing the waves with the lead."

In Sturla's Landnámabók, called the Sturlubók, of about 1250, we find
almost the same story of the first discovery as in Tjodrik Monk. It runs:

    "Thus it is related that men were to go from Norway to the
    Faroes--some mention Naddodd the Viking among them--but were driven
    westward in the ocean and there found a great land. They went up a
    high mountain in the East-fjords and looked around them, whether they
    could see smoke or any sign that the land was inhabited, and they saw
    nothing. They returned in the autumn to the Faroes. And as they sailed
    from the land, much snow fell upon the mountains, and therefore they
    called the land Snowland. They praised the land much. It is now called
    Reydarfjeld in the East-fjords, where they landed, so said the priest
    Sæmund the Learned. There was a man named Gardar Svavarsson, of
    Swedish kin, and he went forth to seek Snowland, by the advice of his
    mother, who had second sight. He reached land east of East Horn, where
    there was then a harbour. Gardar sailed around the country and proved
    that it was an island. He wintered in the north at Husavik in
    Skialfanda and there built a house. In the spring, when he was ready
    for sea, a man in a boat, whose name was Nattfari, was driven away
    from him, and a thrall and a bondwoman. He afterwards dwelt at the
    place called Natfaravik. Gardar then went to Norway and praised the
    land much. He was the father of Uni, the father of Hroar Tungugodi.
    After that the land was called Gardarsholm, and there was then forest
    between the mountains and the strand."

    In Hauk's Landnámabók (of the beginning of the fourteenth century)
    Gardar's voyage is mentioned as the first, and Naddodd's as the
    second, and it is said of Gardar that he was "son of Svavar the Swede;
    he owned lands in Sealand, but was born in Sweden. He went to the
    Southern isles [Hebrides] to fetch her father's inheritance for his
    wife. But as he was sailing through Pettlands firth [Pentland, between
    Orkney and Shetland] a storm drove him back, and he drifted westward
    in the ocean, etc." The Sturlubók was doubtless written some fifty
    years before Hauk's Landnámabók, and was the authority for the latter
    and for the lost Landnámabók of Styrmir enn froði[235] (ob. 1245); but
    as the copy that has come down to us of the Sturlubók is later (about
    1400), many have thought that on this point the Hauksbók is more to be
    relied upon, and have therefore held that according to the oldest
    Icelandic tradition the Swedish-born Dane Gardar was the first
    Scandinavian discoverer of Iceland. Support for this view has also
    been found in the fact that in another passage of the Sturlubók we
    read: "Uni, son of Gardar who first found Iceland." It has therefore
    been held that it was not till after 1300 that a transposition was
    made in the order of Gardar's and Naddodd's voyages at the beginning
    of the book [cf. F. Jônsson, 1900, p. xxx.]. But this assertion may be
    doubtful; it seems rather as though the Icelandic tradition itself was
    uncertain on this point. We have seen above that the Norwegian work
    "Historia Norwegiæ" mentions Gardar as the first; while the yet
    earlier Tjodrik Monk [1177-1180] has a tale of a first accidental
    voyage to Iceland, which is the same, in parts word for word, as the
    stories of both the Sturlubók and the Hauksbók of Naddodd's voyage,
    only that Tjodrik mentions no name in connection with it. He certainly
    says later that Gardar and Floki went there before Ingolf; but this
    must mean that all three came after the first-mentioned nameless
    voyage. If we compare with this the vague expression of the Sturlubók
    that "some mention Naddodd the Viking" in connection with that first
    accidental voyage, the logical conclusion must be that there was an
    old tradition that some one, whose identity is uncertain, had been
    long ago driven by weather to this Snowland, in the same way as there
    was a tradition in Iceland that Gunnbjörn had been driven long ago to
    Gunnbjörnskerries, before Greenland was discovered by Eric the Red.
    Some have then connected this first storm-driven mariner with a
    Norwegian Viking-name, Naddodd. Thus are legends formed. But the first
    man to circumnavigate the country and to become more closely
    acquainted with it was, according to the tradition, Gardar, whose name
    was more certainly known; for which reason he was also readily named
    as the first discoverer of the country (just as Eric the Red and not
    Gunnbjörn was named as the discoverer of Greenland). Hauk Erlendsson
    then, in agreement with this, amended the Landnámabók by placing
    Gardar's voyage first, while at the same time he made the mention of
    Naddodd more precise, which was necessary, since his was to be a later
    and therefore equally well-known voyage. He also gives Naddodd's kin,
    which is not alluded to in the Sturlubók. This hypothesis is
    strengthened by the latter's vague expression, above referred to,
    about Naddodd, and by the fact that only Gardar's and Floki's names
    are mentioned by Tjodrik Monk, and only Gardar and another (Floki ?)
    in the "Historia Norwegiæ." If Naddodd's voyage had come after
    Gardar's, and consequently was equally well known, it would be strange
    that it should not be mentioned together with his and with the third
    voyage that succeeded them. But the whole question is of little
    importance, since, as we have said, these narratives must be regarded
    as mere legends.

The third voyage, according to both the Hauksbók and Sturlubók, was made
by a great Viking named Floki Vilgerdarson. He fitted out in Rogaland to
seek Gardarsholm (or Snowland). He took with him three ravens which

    "were to show him the way, since seafaring men had no 'leidarstein'
    [lodestone, magnetic needle] at that time in the North...." "He came
    first to Hjaltland [Shetland] and lay in Floka-bay. There Geirhild,
    his daughter, was drowned in Geirhilds-lake." "Floki then sailed to
    the Faroes, and there gave his [other] daughter in marriage. From her
    is come Trond in Gata. Thence he sailed out to sea with the three
    ravens.... And when he let loose the first it flew back astern [i.e.,
    towards the Faroes]. The second flew up into the air and back to the
    ship. The third flew forward over the prow, where they found the land.
    They came to it on the east at Horn. They then sailed along the south
    of the land. But when they were sailing to the west of Reykjanes and
    the fjord opened up, so that they saw Snæfellsnes, Faxi [a man on
    board] said, 'This must be a great land that we have found; here are
    great waterfalls.' This is since called Faxa-os. Floki and his men
    sailed west over Breidafjord, and took land there which is called
    Vatsfjord, by Bardastrond. The fjord was quite full of fish, and on
    account of the fishing they did not get in hay, and all their cattle
    died during the winter. The spring was a cold one. Then Floki went
    northward on the mountain and saw a fjord full of sea-ice. Therefore
    they called the country Iceland.... In the summer they sailed to
    Norway. Floki spoke very unfavourably of the country. But Herjolf said
    both good and evil of the country. But Thorolf said that butter
    dripped from every blade of grass in the country they had found;
    therefore he was called Thorolf Smör [Butter]."

These three voyages of discovery are supposed to have taken place about
860-870. A few years after that time began the permanent settlement of the
country by Norwegians; according to the chronicles this was initiated by
Ingolf Arnarson with his establishment at Reykjarvik (about the year 874),
which is mentioned as early as Are Frode (see above, p. 253), and this
establishment may be more historical. Harold Fairhair's conquest of the
whole of Norway, of which he made one kingdom, and his hard-handed
procedure may have been partly responsible for the emigration of
Norwegians to the poorer island of Iceland; many of the chiefs preferred
to live a harder life there than to remain at home under Harold's
dominion. A larger part of the settlers, and among them many of the best,
had first emigrated from Norway to the Scottish isles and to Ireland, but
on account of troubles moved once more to Iceland.[236] As has been
suggested already (p. 167), there was probably, besides the Irish priests,
some Celtic population before the Norwegians arrived, which gave Celtic
names to various places in the country. The omission of any mention of
these Celts, with the exception of the "Papar," in the Landnáma is no more
surprising than the strange silence about the primitive people of
Greenland, whom we now know with certainty to have been in the country
when the Icelanders came thither.


THE DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF GREENLAND BY THE NORWEGIANS

The earliest mention of Greenland known in literature is that found in
Adam of Bremen (see above, p. 194). It was written about a hundred years
after the probable settlement of the country, and shows that at least the
name had reached Denmark at that time. In another passage of his work Adam
says that "emissaries from Iceland, Greenland and the Orkneys" came to
Archbishop Adalbert of Bremen "with requests that he would send preachers
to them."

The oldest Icelandic account of the discovery of Greenland, and of the
people settling there, is found in Are Frode's Íslendingabók (c. 1130). He
had it from his uncle, Thorkel Gellisson, who had been in Greenland and
had conversed with a man who himself had accompanied Eric the Red
thither. Thorkel lived in the second half of the eleventh century, and
"remembered far back." Are's statements have thus a good authority, and
they may be regarded as fairly trustworthy, at all events in their main
outlines; for the events were no more remote than a couple of generations,
and accounts of them may still have been extant in Iceland. Unfortunately
the records that have come down to us, from the hand of Are himself, are
very brief. He says:

    "The land which is called Greenland was discovered and settled from
    Iceland. Eirik Raude [Eric the Red] was the name of a man from
    Breidafjord, who sailed thither from hence and there took land at the
    place which is since called Eiriksfjord. He gave the land a name and
    called it Greenland, and said that having a good name would entice men
    to go thither. They found there dwelling-sites of men, both in the
    east and the west of the country, and fragments of boats
    ('keiplabrot') and stone implements, so that one may judge from this
    that the same sort of people had been there as inhabited Wineland,
    whom the Greenlanders[237] call Skrælings.[238] Now this, when he
    betook himself to settling the country, was fourteen or fifteen
    winters before Christianity came here to Iceland,[239] according to
    what Thorkel Gellisson was told in Greenland by one who himself
    accompanied Eric the Red thither."

It is strange that we only hear of traces left by the primitive people of
Greenland, the Skrælings or Eskimo. This looks as though Eric the Red did
not come across the people themselves, though this seems improbable. We
shall return to this later, in a special chapter on them.

It is probable that in other works, which are now lost, Are Frode wrote in
greater detail of the discovery of Greenland and its first settlement by
the Icelanders, and that later authors, whose works are known to us, have
drawn upon him; for where they speak of other events that are mentioned in
Are's Íslendingabók, the same expressions are often used, almost word for
word. The oldest of the later accounts known to us, which give a more
complete narrative of the discovery of Greenland, were written between
1200 and 1305. The Landnámabók may be specially mentioned; upon this is
based the Saga of Eric the Red (also called Thorfinn Karlsevne's Saga),
written, according to the opinion of G. Storm, between the years 1270 and
1300, while Finnur Jónsson [1901] assigns it to the first half of the
thirteenth century. By collating these various accounts we can form a
picture of what took place; even though we must suppose that traditions
which have been handed down orally for so long must in course of time have
been considerably transformed--especially where they cannot have been
based on well-known geographical conditions--and that they have received
many a feature from other traditions, or from pure legend.

Many accounts, both in Hauk's Landnámabók and in the Sturlubók, and in
other sagas, mention that Greenland was first discovered by the Norwegian
Gunnbjörn, son of Ulf Kråka, shortly after the settlement of Iceland. On a
voyage to Iceland, presumably about the year 900, he was carried out of
his course to the west, and saw there a great country, and found certain
islands or skerries, which were afterwards called "Gunnbjörnskerries."
These must have been off Greenland, most probably near Cape Farewell; but
if it was late in the summer, in August or September, when there is little
ice along the east coast, he may even have come close to the land farther
north, and there found islands, at Angmagsalik, for instance. It is,
however, of no great importance where it was; for when he saw that it was
not Iceland that he had made, but a less hospitable country which did not
look inviting for winter quarters, he probably sailed again at once, in
order to reach his destination before the ice and the late season stopped
him, without spending time in exploring the country. Whether Gunnbjörn
established himself in Iceland we do not know; but it is recorded that his
brother, Grimkell, took land at Snæfellsnes and was among the first
settlers, and his sons, Gunnstein and Halldor, took land in the north-west
on Isafjord.

Various later writers have interpreted this to mean that Gunnbjörnskerries
lay to the west of Iceland, and far from the great land that Gunnbjörn
saw; but the earliest notices (in the Hauksbók and Sturlubók) do not
warrant such a view. It has even been suggested as possible that
Gunnbjörnskerries lay in the ocean between Iceland and Greenland, but
were destroyed later by a volcanic outbreak. In the Dutchman Ruysch's
map of 1508 an island is marked in this ocean, with the note that: "This
island was totally consumed in the year 1456 A.D."[240] It is
inconceivable that such an island midway in the course between Iceland and
Greenland should have entirely escaped mention in the oldest accounts of
the voyages of Eric the Red and later settlers in Greenland, to say
nothing of the circumstance that it would certainly have been mentioned in
the ancient sailing-directions (e.g., in the Hauksbók and Sturlubók) for
the voyage from Iceland to Greenland. Nor are there any known banks in
this part of the ocean which might indicate that such an island had
existed. It is in itself not the least unlikely that Gunnbjörn reached
some islands of the Greenland coast, and that these in later tradition
received the name of Gunnbjörnskerries.

That they were gradually transferred by tradition to a place where islands
were no longer to be met with, or which in any case was unapproachable on
account of ice, appears from the description of Greenland ascribed to Ivar
Bárdsson (probably written in the fifteenth century), where we read:[241]

    "Item from Snæfellsnes in Iceland, which is shortest to Greenland, two
    days' and two nights' sail, due west is the course, and there lie
    Gunnbjörnskerries right in mid-channel between Greenland and Iceland.
    This was the old course, but now ice has come from the gulf of the sea
    to the north-east ['landnorden botnen'] so near to the said skerries,
    that none without danger to life can sail the old course, and be heard
    of again."

Later in the same statement we read:

    "Item when one sails from Iceland, one must take his course from
    Snæfellsnes ... and then sail due west one day and one night, very
    slightly to the south-west[242] to avoid the before-mentioned ice
    which lies off Gunnbjörnskerries, and then one day and one night due
    north-west, and thus he will come straight on the said highland Hvarf
    in Greenland."

This description need not be taken to indicate that the Gunnbjörnskerries
were supposed to lie in the midst of the sea between Iceland and
Greenland; some place on the east coast of Greenland (e.g., at
Angmagsalik) may rather be intended, which was sighted on the voyage
between Iceland and the Eastern Settlement (taking "Greenland" to mean
only the settled districts of the country). The direction "due west,
etc.," for the voyage to the Eastern Settlement is too westerly, unless it
was a course by compass, which, although possible, is hardly probable. But
as we shall see later there is much that is untrustworthy in the
description attributed to Ivar Bárdsson.

A later tradition of Gunnbjörn's voyage also deserves mention; it is found
in the "Annals of Greenland" of the already mentioned Björn Jónsson of
Skardsá (1574-1656), which he compiled from older Icelandic sources, with
corrections and "improvements" of his own. He says there ("Grönl. hist.
Mind.," i. p. 88) that the reason why Eric the Red

    "sailed to Greenland was no other than this, that it was in the memory
    of old people that Gunnbjörn, Ulf Kråka's son, was thought to have
    seen a glacier in the western ocean ('til annars jökulsins i
    vestrhafnu'), but Snæfells-glacier here, when he was carried westward
    on the sea, after he sailed from the Gunnbjörn's islands. Iceland was
    then entirely unsettled, and newly discovered by Gardar, who sailed
    around the country from ness to ness ('nesjastefnu'), and called it
    Gardarsholm. But this Gunnbjörn, who came next after him, he sailed
    round much farther out ('djúpara'), but kept land in sight, therefore
    he called the islands skerries in contradistinction to the holm [i.e.,
    Gardarsholm]; but many histories have since called these islands land,
    sometimes large islands."

This last statement is in any case an explanatory "improvement" by Björn
Jónsson himself, and doubtless this is also true of the rest. According to
this the Gunnbjörnskerries lay even within sight of Iceland. In this
connection it is worth remarking that his contemporary Arngrim Jónsson
imagines ("Specim. Island.," p. 34) the Gunnbjörnskerries as a little
uninhabited island north of Iceland. This would agree best with the little
Meven-klint, which lies by itself in the Polar Sea fifty-six nautical
miles north of land, and perhaps it is not wholly impossible that it was
rumours of this in later times that gave rise to the ideas of the
Gunnbjörnskerries, which however by confusion were transferred westward.

It was long before any attempt was made, according to the narratives, to
search for the land discovered by Gunnbjörn. In Hauk's Landnámabók [c.
122] we read:

    "Snæbjörn [Galti, Holmsteinsson] owned a ship in Grimså-os, and Rolf
    of Raudesand bought a half-share in it.[243] They had twelve men each.
    With Snæbjörn were Thorkel and Sumarlide, sons of Thorgeir Raud, son
    of Einar of Stafholt. Snæbjörn also took with him Thorodd of Thingnes,
    his foster-father, and his wife, and Rolf took with him Styrbjörn, who
    quoth thus after his dream:

        'The bane I see
        of both of us,
        all dolefully
        north-west in the sea,
        frost and cold,
        all kinds of anguish;
        from such I foresee
        the slaying of Snæbjörn.'

    "They went to seek for Gunnbjörnskerries, and found land. Snæbjörn
    would not let any one land at night. Styrbjörn went from the ship and
    found a purse of money in a grave-mound ['kuml,' a cairn over a
    grave], and hid it. Snæbjörn struck at him with an axe, and the purse
    fell. They built a house, and covered it all over with snow ['ok lagdi
    hann i fonn']. Thorkel Raudsson found that there was water on the fork
    that stuck out at the aperture of the hut. That was in the month of
    Goe.[244] Then they dug themselves out. Snæbjörn made ready the ship.
    Of his people Thorodd and his wife stayed in the house; and of Rolf's
    Styrbjörn and others, and the rest went hunting. Styrbjörn slew
    Thorodd, and both he and Rolf slew Snæbjörn. Raud's sons and all the
    others took oaths [i.e., oaths of fidelity] to save their lives. They
    came to Hálogaland, and went thence to Iceland, and arrived at
    Vadil." There both Rolf and Styrbjörn met their death.

It is possible that this strange fragmentary tale points back to an actual
attempt at settlement in Greenland, due to Snæbjörn and Rolf having to
leave Iceland on account of homicide. The attempt may have been abandoned
on account of dissensions, or because the country was too inhospitable.
From the genealogical information the voyage may possibly be placed a
little earlier than Eric the Red's first voyage to Greenland [cf. K.
Maurer, 1874, p. 204]. Whereabouts in Greenland they landed and spent the
winter is not stated; but the fact that the snow first began to thaw in
the month of "Goe" would point to a cold climate, and this agrees best
with the east coast of Greenland. But the story is so obscure that it is
difficult to form any clear opinion as to its general credibility; the
grave-mound and the purse of money must in any case have come from
elsewhere. The circumstance that on their return they sailed first to
Norway and thence to Iceland may be derived from a later time, when there
was no direct communication between Greenland and Iceland, but the
communication with Greenland took place by way of Norway.

The greatest and most important name connected with the discovery of
Greenland is without comparison that of Eirik Raude (Erik the Red). The
description of this remarkable man (in the Landnáma and in the Saga of
Eric the Red) forms a good picture; warlike and hard as the fiercest
Viking, but at the same time with the superior ability of the born
explorer and leader to plan great enterprises, and to carry them out in
spite of all difficulties. He was a leader of men. He was born in Norway
(circa 950); but on account of homicide he and his father Thorvald left
Jæderen and went to Iceland about 970. They took land on the Horn-strands,
east of Horn (Cape North). There Thorvald died. Eric then married
Tjodhild, whose mother, Thorbjörg Knarrar-bringa (i.e., ship's breast),
lived in Haukadal. Eric therefore moved south and cleared land in Haukadal
(inland of Hvamsfjord, north of Snæfellsnes) and lived at Eirikstad by
Vatshorn. Eric quarrelled with his neighbours and killed several of them.
He was therefore condemned to leave Haukadal. He took land on Brokö and
Öksnö, islands outside Hvamsfjord; but after fresh conflicts and slaughter
he and his men were declared outlaws for three years, at the Thorsnes
thing, about 980. Eric then fitted out his ship, and a friend concealed
him, while his enemies went all round the islands looking for him.

    "He told them [i.e., his friends] that he meant to seek the land that
    Gunnbjörn, Ulf Kråka's son, saw when he was driven west of Iceland and
    found Gunnbjörnskerries. He said he would come back for his friends,
    if he found the land. Eric put to sea from Snæfells-glacier;[245] he
    arrived off Mid-glacier, at the place called Bláserk. [Thence he went
    south, to see whether the land was habitable.] He sailed westward
    round Hvarf [west of Cape Farewell] and spent the first winter in
    Eiriksey near [the middle of] the Eastern Settlement. Next spring he
    went to Eiriksfjord [the modern Tunugdliarfik, due north of
    Julianehaab; see map, p. 265] and gave names to many places. The
    second winter he was at Eiriksholms by Hvarfsgnipa [Hvarf Point]; but
    the third summer he went right north to Snæfell[246] and into
    Ravnsfjord.[247] Then he thought he had come farther into the land
    than the head of Eiriksfjord. He then turned back, and was the third
    winter in Eiriksey off the mouth of Eiriksfjord. The following summer
    he went to Iceland, to Breidafjord. He passed that winter at Holmlåt
    with Ingolf. In the spring they fought with Thorgest [Eric's former
    enemy], and Eric was beaten. After that they were reconciled. That
    summer Eric went to settle the land that he had found, and he called
    it Greenland; because, said he, men would be more willing to go
    thither if it had a good name."

    "[Eric settled at Brattalid in Eiriksfjord.] Then Are Thorgilsson says
    that that summer twenty-five ships sailed to Greenland from
    Borgarfjord and Breidafjord; but only fourteen came there--some were
    driven back, others were lost. This was sixteen winters before
    Christianity was made law in Iceland."[248] This would therefore be
    about 984.

Eric the Red's first voyage to Greenland is one of the most remarkable in
the history of arctic expeditions, both in itself, on account of the
masterly ability it shows, and for the vast consequences it was to have.
With the scanty means of equipment and provisioning available at that time
in the open Viking ships,[249] it was no child's play to set out for an
unknown arctic land beyond the ice, and to stay there three years.
Perhaps, of course, he did it from necessity; but he not only came through
it alive--he employed the three years in exploring the country, from Hvarf
right up to north of Davis Strait, and from the outermost belt of skerries
to the head of the long fjords. This was more than 500 years before the
Portuguese came to the country, and exactly 600 before John Davis thought
himself the discoverer of this coast.

But not only does Eric seem to have been pre-eminent, first as a fighter
and then as a discoverer; as the leader of the colony founded by him in
Greenland he must also have had great capabilities; he got people to
emigrate thither, and looked after them well; and he was regarded as a
matter of course as the leading man and chief of the new free state, whom
every one visited first on arrival. His successors, who resided at the
chief's seat of Brattalid, were the first family of the country.

Immigration to Greenland must according to the saga have gone on rapidly;
for in the year 1000 there were already so many inhabitants that Olaf
Tryggvason thought it worth while to make efforts to Christianise them,
and sent a priest there with Eric's son Leif. Eric's wife, Tjodhild, at
once received the faith; but the old man himself did not like the new
doctrine, and found it difficult to give up his own. Tjodhild built a
church at some distance from the houses; "there she made her prayers, and
those men who accepted Christianity, but they were the most. She would not
live with Eric, after she had taken the faith; but to him this was very
displeasing." In Snorre's Heimskringla we read that men called Leif "the
Lucky [see Chap. ix.]; but Eric, his father, thought that one thing
balanced the other, that Leif had saved the shipwrecked crew and that he
had brought the hypocrite ['skæmannin'] to Greenland, that is, the
priest."

The Norsemen established themselves in two districts of Greenland. One of
these was the "Eastern Settlement" [Österbygden], so called because it lay
farthest to the south-east on the west coast, between the southern point,
Hvarf, and about 61° N. lat. It corresponds to the modern Julianehaab
District. It was the most thickly populated, and it was here that
Eiriksfjord and Brattalid lay. In the whole "Settlement" there are said to
have been 190 homesteads ["Grönl. hist. Mind.," iii. p. 228]. Ruins of
these have been found in at least 150 places [cf. D. Bruun, 1896; G. Holm,
1883].

The other district, the "Western Settlement" [Vesterbygden], lay farther
north-west between 63° and 66-1/2° (see map, p. 266), for the most part in
the modern Godthaab District, and its population was densest in
Ameralik-fjord and Godthaabsfjord. There are said to have been ninety
homesteads in this settlement. Many ruins of Norsemen's stone houses are
still found in both districts, and they show with certainty where the
settlements were and what was their extent.

On the east coast of Greenland, which is closed by drift-ice for the
greater part of the year, the Norsemen had no permanent settlement, and it
was only exceptionally that they were able to land there, or they were
sometimes wrecked in the drift-ice off the coast and had to take refuge
ashore. Several places are, however, mentioned along the southern part of
the east coast, where people from the Eastern Settlement probably went
hunting in the summer.

The population of the two settlements in Greenland can scarcely have been
large at any time; perhaps at its highest a couple of thousand altogether.
If we take it that there were 280 homesteads, and on an average seven
persons in each, which is a high estimate, then the total will not be more
than 1960. But the long distances caused the building, after the
introduction of Christianity, of a comparatively large number of churches,
namely, twelve in the Eastern Settlement (where the ruins of only five
have been found) and four in the Western Settlement, besides which a
monastery and a nunnery are mentioned in the Eastern Settlement. About
1110 Greenland became an independent bishopric, although it is said in the
"King's Mirror" that

    "if it lay nearer to other lands it would be reckoned for a third part
    of a bishopric. But now the people there have nevertheless a bishop
    of their own; for there is no other way, since the distance between
    them and other people is so great."

The chief's house Garðar in Einarsfjord (Igaliko) became the episcopal
residence. There is a fairly complete record of the bishops of Greenland
down to the end of the fourteenth century. During the succeeding century
and even until 1530 a number of bishops of Greenland are also mentioned,
who were appointed, but never went to Greenland.

Even if the conditions of life in the Greenland settlements were not
luxurious, they were nevertheless not so hard as to prevent the
development of an independent art of poetry. Sophus Bugge points out in
"Norrœn Fornkvædi" [Christiania, 1867, p. 433] that the "Atlamál en
grœnlenzku" of the Edda is, as its title shows, from Greenland, and was
most probably composed there. Finnur Jónsson [1894, i. pp. 66, 68 ff.;
1897, pp. 40 ff.] would even refer four or five other Edda-lays to
Greenland, namely: "Oddrúnargrátr," "Goðrúnarhvot," "Sigurðarkviða en
skamma," "Helgakviða Hundingsbana," perhaps also "Helreið Brynhildar." As
regards the two last-named, the assumption is certainly too doubtful, but
in the case of the other three it is possible. The "Norðrsetu-drápa," to
be mentioned later (p. 298), was composed in Greenland; and the so-called
"Hafgerðinga-drápa" may be derived thence; in the Landnámabók, where one
or two fragments of it are reproduced, it is said to have been composed by
a "Christian man (monk ?) from the Southern isles" (Hebrides), on the way
thither. The fragments of lays on Furðustrandir and Wineland, which are
given in the Saga of Eric the Red, may possibly also be from Greenland.
The fact that the "Snorra-Edda" gives a particular kind of metre, called
"Grönlenzkr háttr,"[250] agrees with the view that Greenland had an
independent art of poetry.

The Greenland lays like the Atlamál are perhaps not equal to the best
Norse skald-poetry; but there runs through them a weird, gloomy note
that bears witness of the wild nature and the surroundings in which they
were composed.

Within the fjords of both the ancient Greenland settlements many ruins of
former habitations have been found (see maps, pp. 265, 266, 271); most of
these are found in the Eastern Settlement or Julianehaab District [cf.
especially D. Bruun, 1896; also G. Holm, 1883]. In a single homestead as
many as a score of scattered houses have been found; among them was a
dwelling-house, and around it byres and stables for cattle, horses, sheep
and goats, with adjoining hay-barns, or else open hay-fences (round stone
walls within which the hay was stacked and covered with turf), besides
larders, drying-houses, pens for sheep, fenced fields, etc. There were
also fenced outlying hayfields with barns and with summer byres for sheep
and goats, for they had even mountain pastures and hayfields. Near the
shore are found sheds, possibly for gear for boats, sealing and fishing,
but, on the other hand, there are no actual boathouses. Ruins of several
churches (five in the Eastern Settlement) have also been found. The
dwelling-houses were built of stone and turf, like the Icelandic
farmhouses; in exceptional cases clay was also used, while the outhouses
were mostly built with dry stone walls. For the timber work of the roofs
drift-wood must have been usually employed. The winter byres were of
course made weatherproof. The size of the byres shows that the numbers of
their stock were not inconsiderable, mostly sheep and goats; only where
the level lands near the fjords offered specially good pasture was there
any great number of horned cattle. Everywhere in the neighbourhood of the
ruins stone traps are found which show that the Greenlanders occupied
themselves in trapping foxes; a few large traps have been thought to have
been intended for wolves (?), which are now no longer to be found in
southern Greenland. Near the main buildings are found great refuse heaps
("kitchen middens"), which give us much information as to the life they
led and what they lived on. Great quantities of bones taken from five
different sites in the Eastern Settlement (among them the probable sites
of Brattalid and Gardar) have been examined by the Danish zoologist,
Herluf Winge [cf. D. Bruun, 1896, pp. 434 ff.]. The great predominance of
bones of domestic animals, especially oxen and goats, and of seals,
especially the Greenland seal or saddle-back (Phoca grœnlandica), and the
bladder-nose or crested seal (Cystophora cristata), show that
cattle-rearing and seal-hunting were the Greenlanders' chief means of
subsistence; and the latter especially must have provided the greater part
of their flesh food, since as a rule the bones of seals are the most
numerous. Curiously enough, few fish-bones have been found. As we know
with certainty that the Greenlanders were much occupied in fishing, this
absence now is accounted for by fish-bones and other offal of fish being
used for fodder for cattle in winter. Various reindeer bones show that
this animal was also found in ancient times in the Eastern Settlement,
where it is now extinct. Besides these, bones of a single polar bear and
of a few walrus have been found, which show that these animals were
caught, though in small numbers; a few bones of whale have also been
found. There are, strangely enough, comparatively few bones of birds. The
bones of horses that have been found belong to a small race and the cattle
were of small size and horned.

In the otherwise very legendary tale, in the Saga of the Foster Brothers
(beginning of the thirteenth century), of Thormod Kolbrunarskald's voyage
to Greenland and sojourn there, to avenge the death of his friend
Thorgeir, we get here and there sidelights on the daily life of the
country, which agree well with the information afforded by the remains. We
hear that they often went to sea after seals, that they had harpoons for
seals ("selskutill"), that they cooked the flesh of seals, etc. From the
"King's Mirror" (circa 1250) we get a good glimpse of the conditions of
life in Greenland in those days:

    "But in Greenland, as you probably know, everything that comes from
    other lands is dear there; for the country lies so distant from other
    lands that men seldom visit it. And everything they require to assist
    the country, they must buy from elsewhere, both iron (and tar) and
    likewise everything for building houses. But these things are brought
    thence in exchange for goods: buckskin and ox-hides, and sealskin and
    walrus-rope and walrus-ivory." "But since you asked whether there was
    any raising of crops or not, I believe that country is little assisted
    thereby. Nevertheless there are men--and they are those who are known
    as the noblest and richest--who make essay to sow; but nevertheless
    the great multitude in that country does not know what bread is, and
    never even saw bread."...

    "Few are the people in that land, for little of it is thawed so much
    as to be habitable.... But when you ask what they live on in that
    country, since they have no corn, then [you must know] that men live
    on more things than bread alone. Thus it is said that there is good
    pasture and great and good homesteads in Greenland; for people there
    have much cattle and sheep, and there is much making of butter and
    cheese. The people live much on this, and also on flesh and all kinds
    of game, the flesh of reindeer, whale, seal and bear; on this they
    maintain themselves in that country."

We see clearly enough from this how the Greenlanders of the old
settlements on the one hand were dependent on imports from Europe, and on
the other subsisted largely by hunting and fishing. It appears also from a
papal bull of 1282 that the Greenland tithes were paid in ox-hides,
seal-skins and walrus-ivory.

It has been asserted that Greenland at that time possessed a more
favourable climate, with less ice both on land and sea than at present;
but, amongst other things, the excellent description in the "King's
Mirror," to be mentioned directly, shows clearly enough that such was not
the case. Many will therefore ask what it was that could attract the
Icelanders thither. But to one who knows both countries it will not be so
surprising; in many ways South Greenland appeals more to a Norwegian than
Iceland. It lies in about the same latitude as Bergen and Christiania, and
the beautiful fjords with a number of islands outside, where there are
good channels for sailing and harbours everywhere, make it altogether like
the coast of Norway, and different from the more exposed coasts of
Iceland. Inside the fjords the summer is quite as warm and inviting as in
Iceland; it is true that there is drift-ice outside in early summer, but
that brings good seal-hunting. There was, besides this, walrus-hunting and
whaling, reindeer-hunting, fishing in the sea and in the rivers, fowling,
etc. When we add good pasturage on the shores of the fjords, it will be
understood that it was comparatively easy to support life.

The grass still grows luxuriantly around the ruins on the Greenland
fjords, and might even to-day support the herds of many a homestead.

CHAPTER VIII

VOYAGES TO THE UNINHABITED PARTS OF GREENLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES


THE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND

The sagas give us scanty information about the east coast of
Greenland--commonly called, in Iceland, the uninhabited regions
("ubygder") of Greenland. The drift-ice renders this coast inaccessible by
sea for the greater part of the year, and it was only very rarely that any
one landed there, and then in most cases through an accident. As a rule
sailors tried as far as possible to keep clear of the East Greenland ice,
and did not come inshore until they were well past Hvarf, as appears from
the ancient sailing-directions for this voyage. The "King's Mirror" (circa
1250) also shows us clearly enough that the old Norsemen had a shrewd
understanding of the ice conditions off these uninhabited regions. It
says:

    "Now in that same sea [i.e., the Greenland sea] there are yet many
    more marvels, even though they cannot be accounted for witchcraft
    ('skrimslum'). So soon as the greater part of the sea has been
    traversed, there is found such a mass of ice as I know not the like of
    anywhere else in the world. This ice [i.e., the ice-floes] is some of
    it as flat as if it had frozen on the sea itself, four or five cubits
    thick, and lies so far from land [i.e., from the east coast of
    Greenland] that men may have four or five days' journey across the
    ice [to land]. But this ice lies off the land rather to the north-east
    ('landnorðr') or north than to the south, south-west, or west; and
    therefore any one wishing to make the land should sail round it [i.e.,
    round Cape Farewell] in a south-westerly and westerly direction, until
    he is past the danger of [encountering] all this ice, and then sail
    thence to land. But it has constantly happened that men have tried to
    make the land too soon, and so have been involved in these ice-floes;
    and some have perished in them; but others again have got out, and we
    have seen some of these and heard their tales and reports. But one
    course was adopted by all who have found themselves involved in this
    ice-drift ['ísavök' or 'ísaválkit'], that is, they have taken their
    small boats and drawn them up on to the ice with them, and have thus
    made for land, but their ship and all their other goods have been left
    behind and lost; and some of them have passed four or five days on the
    ice before they reached land, and some even longer. These ice-floes
    are strange in their nature; sometimes they lie as still as might be
    expected, separated by creeks or large fjords; but sometimes they move
    with as great rapidity as a ship with a fair wind, and when once they
    are under way they travel against the wind as often as with it. There
    are indeed some masses of ice in that sea of another shape, which the
    Greenlanders call 'falljökla.' Their appearance is that of a high
    mountain rising out of the sea, and they do not unite themselves to
    other masses of ice, but keep apart."

This striking description of the ice in the polar current shows that
sailors were sometimes wrecked in it, and reached land on the east coast
of Greenland.

The story of Snæbjörn Hólmsteinsson and his companions, who may have
reached East Greenland (?), has been given above (p. 264).

An early voyage,[251] which is said to have been made along this coast, is
described in the "Floamanna-saga." The Icelandic chief, Thorgils
Orrabeinsfostre, is said to have left Iceland about the year 1001, with
his wife, children, friends and thralls--some thirty persons in all--and
his cattle, to join his friend, Eric the Red, who had invited him to
Greenland. During the autumn they were wrecked on the east coast; and it
was not till four years later, during which time they lived by whaling,
sealing and fishing, and after adventures of many kinds, that Thorgils
arrived at the Eastern Settlement. The saga is of late date, perhaps about
1400; it is full of marvels and not very credible. But the description of
the country, with glaciers coming down to the sea, and ice lying off the
shore for the greater part of the year, cannot have been invented without
some knowledge of the east coast of Greenland; for the inhabited west
coast is entirely different. The narrative of Thorgils' expedition may
therefore have a historical kernel [cf. Nansen, 1890, p. 253; Engl. ed. i.
275]; and moreover it gives a graphic description of the difficulties and
dangers that shipwrecked voyagers have to overcome in arctic waters; but
at the same time it is gratuitously full of superstitions and dreams and
the like, besides other improbabilities: such as the incident of the
travellers suffering such extremities of thirst that they were ready to
drink sea-water (with urine) to preserve their lives,[252] while rowing
along a coast with ice and snow on every hand, where there cannot have
been any lack of drinking water. Thorgils, or the man to whom in the first
place the narrative may be due, may have been wrecked in the autumn on the
east coast of Greenland, near Angmagsalik, or a little to the south of it,
and may then have had a hard struggle before he reached Cape Farewell
along the shore, inside the ice; but that it should have taken four years
is improbable; I have myself in the same way rowed in a boat the greater
part of the same distance along this coast in twelve days. It is hardly
possible that the voyagers should have lost their ship much to the north
of Angmagsalik, as the ice lies off the coast there usually the whole year
round; nor is it credible that they should have arrived far north near
Scoresby Sound, north of 70° N. lat., where the approach is easier; for
they had no business to be there, if they were making for the Eastern
Settlement.

In the Icelandic Annals there are frequent mentions of voyagers to
Greenland being shipwrecked, and most of these cases doubtless occurred
off East Greenland. In the sagas there are many narratives of such wrecks,
or of people who have come to grief on this coast.

In Björn Jónsson's version of the somewhat extravagant saga of Lik-Lodin
we read:[253]

    "Formerly most ships were always wrecked in this ice from the Northern
    bays, as is related at length in the Tosta þáttr; for 'Lika-Loðinn'
    had his nickname from this, that in summer he often ransacked the
    northern uninhabited regions and brought to church the corpses of men
    that he found in caves, whither they had come from the ice or from
    shipwreck; and by them there often lay carved runes about all the
    circumstances of their misfortunes and sufferings."

The Northern bays here must mean "Hafsbotn," or the Polar Sea to the north
of Norway and Iceland; the ice will then be that which thence drifts
southward along the east coast of Greenland. According to another ancient
MS. of the Tosta-þáttr,[254] Lik-Lodin had his name (which means
"Corpse-Lodin") "because he had brought the bodies of Finn Fegin and his
crew from Finn's booths, east of the glaciers in Greenland." This also
shows that the east coast is referred to; it is said to have happened a
few years before Harold Hardråda's fall in 1066.

In the Flateyjarbók's narrative of Einar Sokkason, who sailed from
Greenland to Norway in 1123 to bring a bishop to the country, it is
said[255] that he was accompanied on his return from Norway by a certain
Arnbjörn Austman (i.e., man from the east, from Norway) and several
Norwegians on another ship, who wished to settle in Greenland; but they
were lost on the voyage. Some years later, about 1129, they were found
dead on the east coast of Greenland, near the Hvitserk glacier, by a
Greenlander, Sigurd Njálsson. "He often went seal-hunting in the autumn to
the uninhabited regions [i.e., on the east coast]; he was a great seaman;
they were fifteen altogether. In the summer they came to the Hvitserk
glacier." They found there some human fire-places, and farther on, inside
a fjord, they found a great ship, lying on and by the mouth of a stream,
and a hut and a tent, and there were corpses lying in the tent, and some
more lay on the ground outside. It was Arnbjörn and his men, who had
stayed there.

In Gudmund Arason's Saga and in the Icelandic Annals [Storm, 1888, pp.
22, 120, 121, 180, 181, 324, 477] it is related that in 1189 the ship
"Stangarfoli," with the priest Ingimund Thorgeirsson and others on
board--on the way from Bergen to Iceland--was driven westwards to the
uninhabited regions of Greenland, and every man perished,

    "but it was known by the finding of their ship and seven men in a cave
    in the uninhabited regions fourteen winters[256] later; there were
    Ingimund the priest, he was whole and uncorrupted, and so were his
    clothes; but six skeletons lay there by his side, and wax,[257] and
    runes telling how they lost their lives. And men thought this a great
    sign of how God approved of Ingimund the priest's conduct that he
    should have lain out so long with whole body and unhurt." [Cf. "Grönl.
    hist. Mind.," ii. p. 754; Biskupa Sögur, 1858, i. p. 435].

We see that the legend of the Seven Sleepers, perhaps from Paulus
Warnefridi (see above, p. 156), has been borrowed; but here it is only one
of the seven who is holy and unhurt. The shipwreck itself may nevertheless
be historical.[258] The craft was doubtless lost on the southern east
coast of Greenland, near Cape Farewell, which part was commonly
frequented, and where the remains were found.

It is also related in Gudmund Arason's Saga that, some time before this,
another ship was lost in the uninhabited regions of Greenland, with the
priest Ingimund's brother, Einar Thorgeirsson, on board; but the crew
quarrelled over the food. Einar escaped with two others and made for the
settlement (i.e., the Eastern Settlement) across the glaciers (i.e., the
inland ice). There they lost their lives, when only a day's journey from
the settlement, and they were found one or two winters [i.e., years ?]
later (Einar's body was then whole and unhurt). The shipwreck may
consequently be supposed to have taken place on the southernmost part of
the east coast.

In the Icelandic Annals it is mentioned (in various MSS.) that a new land
was discovered west of Iceland in 1285. A MS. of annals, of about 1306
(written, that is, about twenty years after the event), says that in 1285:
"fandz land vestr undan Islande" (a land was found to the west of
Iceland). A later MS. (of about 1360) says of the same discovery: "Funduz
Duneyiar" (the Down Islands were found). In another old MS. of annals
there is an addition by a later hand: "fundu Helga synir nyia land
Adalbrandr ok Þorvalldr" (Helge's sons Adalbrand and Thorvald found the
new land). Finally we read in a late copy of an old MS. of annals: "Helga
synir sigldu i Grœnlandz obygðir"[259] (Helge's sons sailed to the
uninhabited regions of Greenland). According to this last statement, this
would refer to the discovery of land on the east coast of Greenland, west
of Iceland.[260] It may have been at Angmagsalik or farther south on the
east coast that Helge's sons--two Icelandic priests--landed.[261] In the
late summer this part is usually free from ice. From other Icelandic
notices it may be concluded that they returned to Iceland the same autumn.
We see that some years later the Norwegian king Eric attempted to get
together an expedition to this new land under the so-called Landa-Rolf,
who was sent to Iceland for the purpose in 1289. In 1290 Rolf went about
Iceland, inviting people to join the Newland expedition; but it is
uncertain whether it ever came to anything, and in 1295 Landa-Rolf died.
All this points to the east coast of Greenland having been little known at
that time, otherwise a landing there could not be spoken of as the
discovery of a new land; and it is not easy to see why the king should
send Rolf to Iceland to get up an expedition to a country which, as they
must have been aware, was closed by ice for the greater part of the year.
As to the situation on this coast of islands to which the name of Down
Islands might be appropriate, I shall not venture to offer an opinion.

In the introduction to Hauk's Landnámabók we read: "en dœgr sigling er til
vbygda a Grœnalandi or Kolbeins ey i norðr" (it is a day's sail to the
uninhabited regions of Greenland northward from Kolbein's island).
Kolbein's island is the little Mevenklint, out at sea to the north of
Grim's island and 56 nautical miles (100 kilometres) north of Iceland. The
uninhabited regions here referred to are most probably East Greenland at
about 69° N. lat. (Egede Land), which lies to the north-west (to the north
there is no land, unless the magnetic north is meant). But it is scarcely
credible that the Icelanders ever reached land on this part of the coast,
which is nearly always closed by ice. It may be supposed that they often
sailed along the edge of the ice when seal-hunting, as the bladder-nose is
abundant there in summer; they may then have seen the land inside, and so
knew of it, without having reached it. In this way the statement as to the
distance may have originated, and the day's sail may mean to the edge of
the ice, whence the land is visible.

    According to statements in the fourth part of the "Rymbegla" [1780, p.
    482], a "dœgr's" sail (dœgr == half a day of twenty-four hours) was
    equivalent to a distance of two degrees of latitude. But even if we
    accept this large estimate, it will not suffice for the distance
    between Mevenklint and the coast of Greenland to the north-west of it,
    which is about equal to three degrees of latitude (180 geographical
    miles).

It has been assumed that the Icelanders and Norwegians were acquainted
with the east coast of Greenland north of 70° N. lat., and visited it for
hunting seals, etc. But in order to reach it, it is nearly always
necessary to sail through ice, and during the greater part of the summer
one has to go as far north as Jan Mayen, or farther, to find the ice
sufficiently open to allow one to reach the land. It is a somewhat tricky
piece of sailing, which requires an intimate knowledge of the ice
conditions; and it is not to be expected that any one should have acquired
it without having frequently been among the ice with a definite purpose.
That storm-driven vessels should have been accidentally cast ashore on
this coast is unlikely; as a rule they would be stopped by the ice before
they came so far. We may doubtless believe that the Norwegians and
Icelanders sailed over the whole Arctic Ocean, along the edge of the ice,
when hunting seals and the valuable walrus; but that on their sealing
expeditions they should have made a practice of penetrating far into the
ice is not credible, since their clinker-built craft were not adapted to
sailing among ice; nor have we any information that would point to this.
It is nevertheless not entirely impossible that they should have reached
the northern east coast, since it may be comparatively free from ice in
late summer and autumn. There would be plenty of seals, and especially of
walrus, and on land there were reindeer and musk ox, which latter,
however, is nowhere mentioned in Norse literature.

The old sea-route, the so-called "Eiriks-stefna," from Iceland to
Greenland (i.e., the Greenland Settlements) went westward from Snæfellsnes
until one sighted the glaciers of Greenland, when one steered south-west
along the drift-ice until well past Hvarf, etc. This is the route that
Eric followed, according to the oldest accounts in the Landnáma, when he
sailed to Greenland, and the glacier he first sighted in Greenland is
there called "Miðjǫkull" (see above, p. 267). This name (the middle
glacier) shows that two other glaciers must have been known, one to the
north and one to the south, as indeed is explained in a far later work,
the so-called "Gripla" (date uncertain, copied in the seventeenth century
by Björn Jónsson), where we read:[262]

    "From Bjarmeland [i.e., northern Russia] uninhabited regions lie
    northward as far as that which is called Greenland. But there are bays
    (botnar gánga þar fyrir) and the land turns towards the south-west;
    there are glaciers and fjords, and islands lying off the glaciers; as
    far as [or rather, beyond] the first glacier they have not explored;
    to the second is a journey of half a month, to the third a week's; it
    is nearest the settlement; it is called Hvitserk; there the land turns
    to the north; but he who would not miss the settlement, let him steer
    to the south-west" [that is, to get round and clear of the drift-ice
    that lies off Cape Farewell].

Not taking the distances into account, a sail of half a month and of a
week, this is an admirable description of East Greenland from about 69° N.
lat. southwards. By "glaciers" is obviously meant parts of the inland ice,
which is the most noticeable feature of this coast, and which could not
easily be omitted in a description of it. When we read that there are
glaciers and fjords, and that islands lie off the glaciers, then every one
who is familiar with this part of Greenland must be reminded of what
catches the eye at the first sight of this coast from the sea: the dark
stretches of land, not covered by snow, and the islands, lying in front of
the vast white sheath of the inland ice, which is indented by bays and
fjords. The three glaciers mentioned cannot, in my opinion, be three
separate mountain summits covered with snow or ice, as has frequently been
supposed. There is such a number of high summits in this country that,
although I have sailed along the greater part of it, I am unable to name
three as specially prominent. If one has seen from the sea the white
snow-sheet of Vatnajökel in Iceland (compare also, on a smaller scale, the
Hardangerjökel and others in Norway), then perhaps it will be easier to
understand what the ancient Icelanders meant by their three glaciers on
the east coast of Greenland, where the mass of glacier has a still
mightier and more striking effect. Now, on that part of it which they and
the Greenlanders knew, or had seen from the sea--and which extends towards
the south-west (as we read) from about 70° N. lat.[263]--there are
precisely three tracts where the inland ice covers the whole country and
reaches to the very shore, so that the glacier surface is visible from the
sea, and forms the one conspicuous feature that must strike every one who
sails along the outer edge of the ice (or drifts in the ice, as I have
twice done). The northernmost tract is to the north of 67° N. lat. (see
map, p. 259); there the inland ice covers the coast down to the sea
itself. This was the "northern glacier," which no one was able to
approach on account of the drift-ice, but which was only seen from a great
distance. It was not until a few years ago that Captain Amdrup succeeded
in travelling along this part of the country in boats, inshore of the ice.

The second tract is the coast by Pikiutdlek and Umivik, south of
Angmagsalik, between Sermilik-fjord (65° 36' N. lat.) and Cape Mösting
(63° 40' N. lat.), where the inland ice covers the whole coast land, and
only a few mountain summits, or "Nunataks," rise up, and bare, scattered
islands and tongues of land lie in front. This was the "Miðjǫkull" (middle
glacier), which was the first land made in sailing west from Snæfellsnes,
and which was a good and unmistakable sea-mark. In some MSS. it is called
"hinn mikla Jǫkull" (the great glacier). There the sea is often
comparatively free of ice in August and September, but we may be sure that
the voyagers to Greenland did not as a rule try to land there; in the
words of Ivar Bárdsson's directions, they were to "take their course from
Snæfellsnes and sail due west for a day and a night, but then to steer to
the south-west, in order to avoid the above-mentioned ice" (cf. above, p.
262).

The third tract is the coast south of Tingmiarmiut and Mogens Heinesen's
Fjord (62° 20' N. lat.), where again the inland ice is predominant, and
the only conspicuous feature that is first seen from the sea. This was the
third or "southern glacier"; it lay nearest to Hvarf and was the sure
sea-mark before rounding the southern end of the country. It appears to me
that in this way we have a natural explanation of what these disputed
glaciers were. Between them lay long stretches of mountainous coast.
Northward from Cape Farewell to the "southern glacier" are high mountains,
so that one does not see the even expanse of the inland ice from the sea.
North of the "southern glacier" is the fjord-indented mountainous country
about Tingmiarmiut, Umanak and Skjoldungen, and so northward as far as
Cape Mösting; there the mighty white line of the inland ice is wholly
concealed behind a wall of lofty peaks. On the north side of the
"Miðjǫkull" again is the mountain country about Angmagsalik, from
Sermilik-fjord north-eastwards, with a high range of mountains, so that
neither is the inland ice seen from the sea there. The most conspicuous
summit of this range is Ingolf's Fjeld.

Thus, according to my view, the statements as to the glaciers on the east
coast of Greenland are easily explained. It is a different matter when we
come to the two names "Bláserkr" and "Hvítserkr," which, in later times
especially, were those most frequently used. They have often been confused
and interchanged, and while "Bláserkr" is found in the oldest authorities,
the name "Hvítserkr" becomes more and more common in later writers. More
recent authors have frequently regarded them as standing in a certain
opposition to each other, one meaning a dark glacier or summit, and the
other a white one, which may indeed seem natural. But it is striking that,
while "Bláserkr" alone is mentioned in the oldest authorities, such as the
Landnáma (and the Saga of Eric the Red, in the Hauksbók), it soon
disappears almost entirely from literature, and is replaced by
"Hvítserkr," which is first mentioned in MSS. of the fourteenth century
and later; and in the fifteenth century MS. (A.M. 557, qv.) of the Saga of
Eric the Red (as in other late extracts from the same saga) we find
"Hvítserkr" instead of "Bláserkr."[264] I have not found the two names
used contemporaneously in any Icelandic MS.; it is either one or the
other, and nowhere are both names found as designating two separate places
on the coast of Greenland. It may therefore be somewhat rash to assume, as
has been done hitherto, that they were two "mountains," one of them lying
a certain distance to the north on the east coast of Greenland, and the
other near Cape Farewell. The view that they were mountains is not a new
one. In Ivar Bárdsson's description Hvítserk is called "a high mountain"
near Hvarf; while Björn Jónsson of Skardsá says that it is a "fuglabiarg i
landnordurhafi" (i.e., a fowling cliff in the Polar Sea).


From the meaning of the names--the dark ("blá") sark and the white
sark--we should be inclined to think that they were applied to
snow-fields, or glaciers, like, for instance, such names as Snehætta and
Lodalskåpa in Norway. But another possibility is that it was the _form_ of
the sark that was thought of, and that the names were applied to mountain
summits; in a similar way "stakk" (stack, or gown) is used for peaks in
Norway (cf. Lövstakken near Bergen); and in Shetland corresponding names
are known for high cliffs on the sea: Blostakk (== Blástakkr), Grostakk
(== Grástakkr), Kwitastakk (== Hvíti stakkr), Gronastakk and Gronistakk
(== Grœni stakkr, cliffs with grass-grown tops), etc. [cf. J. Jakobsen,
1901, p. 151].

In the Landnámabók (both Hauksbók and Sturlubók) we read: "Eirekr sigldi
vndan Snæfells nese. En hann kom utan at Midiokli þar sem Bláserkr
heitir." (Eric sailed from Snæfellsnes, and made the Mid-Glacier at a
place called Blue-Sark.) In Eric the Red's Saga this has been altered to
"hann kom utan at jǫkli þeím er Bláserkr heitir." (He made the glacier
that is called Blue-Sark.) It is obvious that the Landnáma text is the
more original, and thus two explanations are possible: either Bláserkr is
a part of the glacier, or it is a dark mountain seen on this part of the
coast. I cannot remember any place where the inland ice of this district,
seen at a distance from the drift-ice, had a perceptibly darker colour;
its effect is everywhere a brilliant white. On approaching an ice-glacier,
as, for instance, the Colberger Heide (64° N. lat., cf. Nansen, 1890, p.
370; Engl. ed., i. 423), it may appear somewhat darker and of a bluish
tinge; but this can never have been a recognisable landmark at any
distance. One is therefore tempted to believe that Bláserkr was a black,
bare mountain-peak. But the peaks that show up along the edge of the
"Miðjǫkull" (between Sermilik and Cape Mösting) are all comparatively low;
the mountain-summit Kiatak, near Umivik [see Nansen, 1890, pp. 370, 374,
444; Engl. ed., i. 423, 429, ii. 13], answers best as regards shape, and
is conspicuous enough, but it is only 2450 feet high. It is possible that
Bláserkr did not lie in Miðjǫkull itself, but was the lofty Ingolf's
Fjeld (7300 feet high), which is the first mountain one sees far out at
sea, on approaching East Greenland from Iceland; and it is seen to the
north in sailing past Cape Dan and in towards Miðjǫkull. It may then have
been confused with the latter in later times. But this supposition is
doubtful. The most natural way for the Icelanders when making for
Greenland must in any case have been first to make the edge of the ice,
west-north-west from Snæfellsnes, when they sighted Ingolf's Fjeld (or
Bláserkr ?); then they followed the ice west or west-south-west, and came
straight in to Miðjǫkull, at about 65° N. lat., or the same latitude as
Snæfellsnes. Here the edge of the ice turns southward, following the land,
and the course has to be altered in order to sail past the southern
glacier and round Hvarf. This agrees well with most descriptions of the
voyage, and among them the most trustworthy. But the names have often been
confused; Hvítserk and Bláserk especially have been interchanged;[265] and
this is not surprising, since the men who wrote in Iceland in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were themselves unacquainted with these
waters.

The name "Hvítserkr" would appear most appropriate to a glacier, and in
reviewing the various contexts in which it is mentioned in the narratives,
my impression is rather that in later times it was often used as a name
for the inland ice itself on the east and south coasts of Greenland; and
as, on the voyage to the Eastern Settlement, the inland ice was most seen
on the southern part of the east coast, which was also resorted to for
seal-hunting, the name Hvítserk became especially applied to the southern
glacier, as in the tale of Einar Sokkason (see above, p. 283); but it
might also be the mid-glacier. This view is supported by, for instance,
the so-called Walkendorff addition to Ivar Bárdsson's description, where
the following passage occurs about the voyage from Iceland to Greenland
["Grönl. hist. Mind.," iii. p. 491]:

    "Item when one is south of Breedefjord in Iceland, then he must steer
    westward until he sees Hvidserch in Greenland, and then steer
    south-west, until the above mentioned Hvidserch is to the north of
    him; thus may one with God's help freely seek Greenland, without much
    danger from ice, and with God's help find Eric's fjord."

It is clearly enough the inland ice itself, the most prominent feature on
the east coast, that is here called Hvidserch. It is first seen at
Miðjǫkull, in coming westwards from Iceland; and one has the inland ice
(ice-blink) on the north when about to round Cape Farewell. No single
mountain can possibly fit this description; but this does not exclude the
possibility of others having erroneously connected the name with such a
mountain, in the same way as Danish sailors of recent times have applied
it to a lofty island, "Dadloodit," in the southernmost part of Greenland
["Grönl. hist. Mind.," i. p. 453]. The fact that Hvítserk in Ivar
Bárdsson's description is called "a high mountain," which is seen one day
before reaching Hvarf, must be due to a similar misunderstanding. As
Bláserk, although originally it may have been a mountain, was confounded
with the Mid-Glacier, it is comprehensible that the name Bláserk should be
gradually superseded by Hvítserk.

In one or two passages of the old narratives it is related that when one
was half-way between Iceland and Greenland one could see at the same time,
in clear weather, Snæfells glacier in Iceland and Bláserk (or
Hvítserk)[266] in Greenland. According to my experience this is not
possible, even if we call in the aid of a powerful refraction, or even
mirage; but, on the other hand, one can see the reflections of the land or
the ice on the sky, and when sailing (along the edge of the ice) eastwards
or westwards, one can very well see the top of the Snæfells glacier and
the top of Ingolf's Fjeld on the same day.

The Icelandic accounts mention several places in East Greenland, such as
"Kross-eyjar," "Finnsbuðir," "Berufjord" ("bera" == she-bear), and the
fjord "Öllum-Lengri." Frequent expeditions for seal-hunting were made to
these places from the Eastern Settlement, and they must have lain near it,
just north of Cape Farewell.


VOYAGES TO THE NORTHERN WEST COAST OF GREENLAND, NORÐRSETUR, AND BAFFIN'S
BAY IN THE MIDDLE AGES

To the north of the northernmost inhabited fjords of the Western
Settlement lay the uninhabited regions. Thither the Greenlanders resorted
every summer for seal-hunting; there lay what they called the "Norðrsetur"
("seta" == place of residence; the northern stations or fishing-places),
and it is doubtless partly to these districts that reference is made in
Eric the Red's Saga, where it is said of Thorhall the Hunter that "he had
long been with Eric hunting in summer," and that "he had a wide
acquaintance with the uninhabited regions." We have no information as to
how far north the longest expeditions of the Greenlanders extended, but we
know that they reached the neighbourhood of the modern Upernivik; for,
twenty-eight miles to the north-west of it--on a little island called
Kingigtorsuak, in 72° 55' N. lat.--three cairns are said to have been
found early in the nineteenth century (before 1824); and in one of them a
small runic stone, with the inscription: "Erling Sigvathsson, Bjarne
Thordarson, and Endride Oddson on the Sunday before 'gagndag' [i.e., April
25] erected these cairns and cleared ..."[267] Then follow six secret
runes, which it was formerly sought to interpret, erroneously, as a date,
1135. Professor L. F. Läffler has explained them as meaning ice;[268] it
would then read "and cleared away ice." Judging from the language, the
inscription would be of the fourteenth century;[269] Professor Magnus
Olsen (in a letter to me) thinks it might date from about 1300, or perhaps
a little later. Why the cairns were built seems mysterious. It is possible
that they were sea-marks for fishing-grounds; but it is not likely that
the Greenlanders were in the habit of going so far north. One would be
more inclined to think they were set up as a monument of a remarkable
expedition, which had penetrated to regions previously unknown; but why
build more than one cairn? Was there one for each man? The most remarkable
thing is that the cairns are stated to have been set up in April, when the
sea in that locality is covered with ice. The three men must either have
wintered there in the north, which seems the more probable alternative;
they may then have been starving, and the object of the cairns was to call
the attention of possible future travellers to their bodies--or they may
have come the same spring over the ice from the south, and in that case
they most probably travelled with Eskimo dog-sledges, and were on a
hunting expedition, perhaps for bears. But they cannot have travelled
northwards from the Eastern or Western Settlement the same spring. In any
case they may have been in company with Eskimo, whom we know to have lived
on Disco Bay, and probably also farther south at that time. From them the
Norsemen may have learnt to hunt on the ice, by which they were able to
support themselves in the north during the winter.

The earliest mention of hunting expeditions to the northern west coast of
Greenland is found in the "Historia Norwegiæ" (thirteenth century), where
it is said that hunters "to the north" (of the Greenlanders) come across
"certain small people whom they call Skrælings" (see later, chapter x.).

There are few references to the "Norðrsetur" in the literature that has
been preserved. A lay on the subject, "Norðrsetudrápa," was known in the
Middle Ages, written by an otherwise unknown skald, Sveinn. Only a few
short fragments of it are known from "Skálda," Snorra-Edda [cf. "Grönl.
hist. Mind.," iii. pp. 235 ff.]. It is wild and gloomy, and speaks of the
ugly sons of Fornjót [the storms] who were the first to drift [i.e., with
snow], and of Ægi's storm-loving daughters [the waves], who wove and drew
tight the hard sea-spray, fed by the frost from the mountains.

Reference is also made to these hunting expeditions to the north in
"Skáld-Helga Rimur," where we read ["Grönl. hist. Mind.," ii. p. 492]:

  "Gumnar fóru i Greipar norðr
  Grönlands var þar bygðar sporðr.
  virðar áttu viða hvar
  veiðiskapar at leita þar.

  Skeggi enn prúði skip sitt bjó,
  skútunni rendi norðr um sjó,
  höldum ekki hafit vannst,
  hvarf i burtu, en aldri fannst."[270]


  Men went north to Greipar,
  There was the end of Greenland's habitations.
  Men might there far and wide
  Seek for hunting.

  Skegge the Stately fitted out his ship,
  With his vessel he sailed north in the sea,
  By the men the sea was not conquered,
    They were lost, and never found.

It appears from Håkon Håkonsson's Saga that the Norðrsetur were a
well-known part of Greenland; for we read of the submission of the
Greenlanders to the Norwegian Crown that they promised

    "to pay the king fines for all manslaughter, whether of Norsemen or
    Greenlanders, and whether they were killed in the settlements or in
    Norðrsetur, and in all the district to the north under the star [i.e.,
    the pole-star] the king should have his weregild" ["Grönl. hist.
    Mind.," ii. p. 779].

In Björn Jónsson's "Grönlands Annaler" (cf. above, p. 263) these
expeditions to the Norðrsetur are mentioned in more detail, as well as a
remarkable voyage to the north in 1267 ["Grönl. hist. Mind.," iii. pp. 238
ff.]. We there read:

    "All the great franklins of Greenland had large ships and vessels
    built to send to the 'Norðrsetur' for seal-hunting, with all kinds of
    sealing gear ('veiðiskap') and cut-up wood ('telgðum viðum'); and
    sometimes they themselves accompanied the expeditions--as is related
    at length in the tales, both in the Skáld-Helga saga and in that of
    Thordis; there most of what they took was seal-oil, for all
    seal-hunting was better there than at home in the settlements; melted
    seal-fat was poured into sacks of hide [literally boats of hide], and
    hung up against the wind on boards, till it thickened, then it was
    prepared as it should be. The Norðrsetu-men had their booths or houses
    ('skála') both in Greipar and in Króksfjarðarheiðr
    [Kroksfjords-heath]. Driftwood is found there, but no growing trees.
    This northern end of Greenland is most liable to take up all the wood
    and other drift that comes from the bays of Markland...."

In an extract which follows: "On the voyage northward to the uninhabited
regions" (probably from a different and later source) we read:

    "The Greenlanders are constantly obliged to make voyages to the
    uninhabited regions in the northern land's end or point, both for the
    sake of wood [i.e., driftwood] and sealing; it is called Greipar and
    Króksfjarðarheiðr; it is a great and long sea voyage thither;[271] as
    the Skáld-Helga saga clearly bears witness, where it is said of it:

    "'Garpar kvomu i Greypar norðr. The men came to Greipar in the north,
    Grönlands er þar bryggju sporðr.'[272] There is the bridge-spur (end)
    of Greenland.

    "Sometimes this sealing season ('vertið') of theirs in Greipar or
    Króksfjardarheidr is called Norðrseta."

According to this description we must look for Nordrsetur, with Greipar
and Króksfjardarheidr, to the north of the northern extremity of the
Western Settlement, which from other descriptions must have been at
Straumsfjord, about 66-1/2° N. lat. (see map, p. 266). There in the north,
then, there was said to be driftwood, and plenty of seals. The latter
circumstance is especially suited to the districts about Holstensborg and
northward to Egedes Minde (i.e., between 66° and 68-1/2° N. lat.), and
further to Disco Bay and Vaigat (see map, p. 259). Besides abundance of
seals there was also good walrus-hunting, and this was valuable on account
of the tusks and hide, which were Greenland's chief articles of export
[cf. for instance, "The King's Mirror," above, p. 277]. There was also
narwhale, the tusk or spear of which was even more valuable than walrus
tusks. "Greipar"[273] may have been near Holstensborg, about 67° N. lat.
"Króksfjarðarheiðr" may have been at Disco Bay or Vaigat.[274] It also
agrees with this that the northern point of Greenland ("þessi norðskagi
Grœnlands") was in Norðrsetur, and that "Greipar" was at the land's end
("bygðar sporðr") of Greenland. For what the Greenlanders generally
understood by Greenland was the Eastern and Western Settlements, and the
broad extent of coast lying to the north of them, which was not covered by
the inland ice, and which reached to Disco Bay. It was the part where
human habitation was possible, and where there was no inland ice; it was
therefore natural for them to call Greipar the northern end of the
country.

    In an old chorography, copied by Björn Jónsson under the name of
    "Gronlandiæ vetus chorographia"[275] (in his "Grönlands Annaler"),
    there is mention of the Western Settlement and of the districts to the
    north of it. After naming the fjords in the Eastern Settlement it
    proceeds: "Then it is six days' rowing, six men in a six-oared boat,
    to the Western Settlement (then the fjords are enumerated),[276] then
    from this Western Settlement to Lysefjord it is six days' rowing,
    thence six days' rowing to Karlsbuða [Karl's booths], then three days'
    rowing to Biarneyiar [Bear-islands or island], twelve days' rowing
    around ... ey,[277] Eisunes, Ædanes in the north. Thus it is reckoned
    that there are 190 dwellings [estates] in the Eastern Settlement, and
    90 in the Western." This description is obscure on many points. From
    other ancient authorities it appears that Lysefjord was the
    southernmost fjord in the Western Settlement [now Fiskerfjord, cf. G.
    Storm, 1887, p. 35; F. Jónsson, 1899, p. 315], but how in that case
    there could be six days' rowing from this Western Settlement to
    Lysefjord seems incomprehensible. It might be supposed that it is the
    distance from the southern extremity of the Western Settlement that is
    intended, and thus the passage has been translated in "Grönl. hist.
    Mind.," iii. p. 229; but then it is strange that in the original MS.
    the fjords of the settlement should have been enumerated before the
    distance to the first fjord was given. If this, however, be correct,
    it would then have been twelve days' rowing from the northernmost
    fjord in the Eastern Settlement to Lysefjord in the Western. This
    might perhaps agree with Ivar Bárdsson's description of Greenland,
    where it is stated that "from the Eastern Settlement to the Western
    Settlement is twelve sea-leagues, and all uninhabited." These twelve
    sea-leagues may be the above-mentioned twelve days' rowing, repeated
    in this form. It was a good two hundred nautical miles (forty ancient
    sea-leagues) from the northernmost fjord of the Eastern Settlement to
    the interior of Lysefjord. With twelve days' rowing, this would be at
    the rate of eighteen miles a day; but if we allow for their keeping
    the winding course inside the islands, it will be considerably longer.
    If we put a day's rowing from Lysefjord northward at, say, twenty
    nautical miles, then "Karlsbuðir" would lie in about 65°, and
    "Biarneyiar" in about 66°; but there is then a difficulty about this
    island, together with Eisunes and Ædanes, which it is said to have
    taken twelve days to row round. On the other hand, it is a good two
    hundred miles round Disco Island, so that this might correspond to
    twelve days' rowing at eighteen miles a day. And if this island is
    intended, then either the number of days' rowing northward along the
    coast must be increased, or the starting-point was not the Lysefjord
    (Fiskerfjord) that lay on the extreme south of the Western Settlement.
    But the description is altogether too uncertain to admit of any
    definite conclusion. It is not mentioned whether the northern
    localities, Karlsbuðir and farther north, were included in Nordrsetur,
    but it seems probable that they were.

In this connection the statement in Ivar Bárdsson's description must also
be borne in mind:

    "Item there lies in the north, farther from the Western Settlement, a
    great mountain that is called Himinraðzfjall,[278] and farther than to
    this mountain must no man sail, if he would preserve his life from the
    many whirlpools which there lie round all the ocean."

It is true that Ivar's description as a whole does not seem to be very
trustworthy as regards details, nor do the whirlpools here spoken of tend
to inspire confidence, suggesting as they do that it was near the earth's
limit, where the ocean ends in one or more vast abysses; but it is
nevertheless possible that the mountain in question may have been an
actual landmark in the extreme north, on that part of the west coast of
Greenland to which voyages were habitually made, and in that case it must
have been situated in "Nordrsetur."

    Mention may also be made of a puzzling scholium to Adam of Bremen's
    work [cf. Lappenberg, 1838, pp. 851 f.]; it was added at a late
    period, ostensibly from "Danish fragments," but the form of the names
    betrays a Norse origin, and we must suppose that it is derived from
    ancient Norwegian or Icelandic sources. The following is a translation
    of the Latin text:

    "From Norway to Iceland is fourteen dozen leagues ('duodene leucarum')
    across the sea (or XIII. dozen sea-leagues, that is, 168
    leagues).[279] From Iceland as far as the green land ('terram
    viridem') Gronlandt is about fourteen dozen ('duodenæ'). There is a
    promontory and it is called 'Huerff' [i.e., Hvarf], and there snow
    lies continually and it is called 'Hwideserck.' From 'Hwideserck' as
    far as 'Sunderbondt' is ten dozen leagues ('duodenæ leucarum'); from
    'Sunderbondt' as far as 'Norderbondt' is eleven dozen leagues (d. l.).
    From 'Nordbundt' to 'Hunenrioth' is seventeen dozen leagues, and here
    men resort in order to kill white bears and 'Tauwallen'" ["tandhvaler"
    (?)--"tusk-whales"--i.e., walrus and narwhale (?)].[280]

    This passage is difficult to understand. "Sunderbondt" and
    "Norderbondt" are probably to be regarded as translations of the
    Norwegian "Syd-botten" and "Nord-botten." The latter might be the
    Polar Sea, or "Hafsbotn," north of Iceland and Norway; on Claudius
    Clavus's map this is called "Nordhindh Bondh" (Nancy map) and
    "Nordenbodhn" (Vienna text).[281] But in that case we should have to
    suppose that the distances referred to a voyage from Norway to
    Iceland, from thence to Hvarf and Hvitserk, and then back again
    northward along the east coast of Greenland. It seems more probable
    that the direction of the voyage was supposed to be continued round
    Hvarf and up along the west coast; but where "Sunderbondt" and
    "Norderbondt" are to be looked for on that coast is difficult to say;
    the names would most naturally apply to two fjords or bays, and in
    some way or other these might be connected with the Eastern and
    Western Settlements; "Norderbondt" might, for instance, have come to
    mean the largest fjord, Godthaabs-fjord, in the Western Settlement.
    Since "hún" in Old Norse means a bear-cub or young bear, one might be
    inclined to connect "Hunenrioth" with Bjarn-eyar, where perhaps bears
    were hunted; but in that case "-rioth" must be taken to be the Old
    Norse "hrjotr" (growl, roar), which would be an unlikely name for
    islands or lands. It is more reasonable to suppose that it means the
    same as the above-mentioned mountain "Himinrað," from Ivar Bárdsson's
    description. It might then be probable that this was called "Himinroð"
    (i.e., flushing of the sky, sun-gold, from the root-form "rioða") a
    natural name for a high mountain;[282] by an error in writing or
    reading this might easily become "Hunenrioth," as it might also become
    "Himinrað." Thus it is possibly a mountain in Nordrsetur (see above).
    But in any case the distances are impossible as they stand, and until
    more light has been thrown upon this scholium, we cannot attach much
    importance to it.

For many reasons it is unreasonable to look for "Greipar" and
"Króksfjardarheidr" so far north as Smith Sound or Jones Sound (or
Lancaster Sound), as, amongst others in recent times, Professor A. Bugge
[1898] and Captain G. Isachsen [1907] have done:[283]

(1) In the first place this would assume that the Greenlanders on their
Nordrsetu expeditions sailed right across the ice-blocked and difficult
Baffin's Bay and Melville Bay every summer, and back again in the autumn,
in their small clinker-built vessels, which were not suited for sailing
among the ice. We are told indeed (see above, p. 299) that the franklins
had large ships and vessels for this voyage; but this was written in
Iceland by men who were not themselves acquainted with the conditions in
Greenland, and the statement doubtless means no more than that these
vessels, or rather boats, were large in comparison to the small boats
(perhaps for the most part boats of hides) which they usually employed in
their home fisheries. Timber for shipbuilding was not easy to obtain in
Greenland. Drift-wood would not go very far in building boats, to say
nothing of larger vessels, and they must have depended on an occasional
cargo of timber from Norway, or perhaps what they could themselves fetch
from Markland. They could hardly have got the material for building
vessels suited for sailing through the ice of Baffin's Bay in this way.
Moreover, we know from several sources that there was great scarcity of
rivets and iron nails in Greenland; so that vessels were largely built
with wooden nails. In 1189 a Greenlander, Asmund Kastanrasti, came with
twelve others from Kross-eyjar in Greenland to Iceland "in a ship that was
fastened together with wooden nails alone, save that it was also bound
with thongs.... He had also been in Finnsbuðir." He did not sail from
Iceland till the following year, and was then shipwrecked.[284] This ship
must have been one of the largest and best they had in Greenland. It is
therefore impossible that they should have been able to keep up any
constant communication with the countries on the north side of Baffin's
Bay.

(2) Then comes the question: what reason would they have had for exposing
themselves to the many dangers involved in the long northward voyage
through the ice? Their purpose may have been chiefly to kill seals and
collect driftwood. But where there is much ice for the greater part of the
year, the driftwood is prevented from being thrown up on shore; and it is
the fact that in Baffin's Bay there is unusually little of it, so that the
Eskimo of Cape York and Smith Sound are barely able to get enough wood for
making weapons and implements. In addition to the ice the reason for this
is that no current of importance bearing driftwood reaches the north of
Baffin's Bay. Consequently, this again is conclusive proof that the
Nordrsetur of the descriptions is not to be looked for there, nor was
sealing particularly good; they had better sealing-grounds in the
districts about Holstensborg, Egedes Minde and Disco Bay.[285]

Everything points to the Nordrsetur having been situated in the districts
either in or to the south of Disco Bay,[286] which must have been a
natural hunting-ground for the Greenlanders, just as the Norwegians sail
long distances to Lofoten for fishing. Moreover, one of the objects of the
voyages to Nordrsetur was to collect driftwood; now the driftwood comes
with the Polar Current round Cape Farewell and is thrown up on shore along
the whole of the west coast northward as far as this current washes the
land--that is to say, about as far north as Disco Bay. In the south of
Greenland, the ancient Eastern Settlement, there is drift-ice for part of
the year, and not so much driftwood comes ashore as farther north, in the
ancient Western Settlement (especially the Godthaab district) and to the
north of it. Besides, in the settlements there were many to find it and
utilise it, while in the uninhabited regions there were only the Eskimo,
of whom perhaps there were as yet few south of 68° N. lat. On their way to
and from the Nordrsetur, therefore, the Greenlanders travelled along the
shore and collected driftwood wherever they found it. In Iceland this was
misunderstood in the sense that driftwood was supposed to be washed ashore
chiefly in Nordrsetur; and they believed it to come from Markland, perhaps
because the Greenlanders sometimes went there for timber, and it was thus
regarded by them as a country rich in trees. It is, however, also possible
that the name Markland, i.e., woodland, itself may have created this
conception. In reality most of the driftwood comes from Siberia, which was
unknown to them, and it is brought with the drift-ice over the Polar Sea
and southward along the east coast of Greenland.

The following is the account of the voyage of about 1267, given by Björn
Jónsson (taken, according to his statement, from the Hauksbók, where it is
no longer to be found):

    "That summer [i.e., 1266] when Arnold the priest went from Greenland,
    and they were stranded in Iceland at Hitarnes, pieces of wood were
    found out at sea, which had been cut with hatchets and adzes
    ('þexlum'), and among them one in which wedges of tusk and bone were
    imbedded.[287] The same summer men came from Nordrsetur, who had gone
    farther north than had been heard of before. They saw no
    dwelling-places of Skrælings, except in Króksfjardarheidr, and
    therefore it is thought that they [i.e., the Skrælings] must there
    have the shortest way to travel, wherever they come from.... After
    this [the following year ?] the priests sent a ship northward to find
    out what the country was like to the north of the farthest point they
    had previously reached; and they sailed out from Króksfjardarheidr,
    until the land sank below the horizon ('lægði'). After this they met
    with a southerly gale and thick weather ('myrkri'), and they had to
    stand off [i.e., to the north]. But when the storm passed over ('i
    rauf') and it cleared ('lysti'), they saw many islands and all kinds
    of game, both seals and whales [i.e., walrus ?], and a great number of
    bears. They came right into the gulf [i.e., Baffin's Bay] and all the
    land [i.e., all the land not covered by ice] then sank below the
    horizon, the land on the south and the glaciers ('jökla'); but there
    was also glacier ('jökull') to the south of them as far as they could
    see;[288] they found there some ancient dwelling-places of Skrælings
    ('Skrælingja vistir fornligar'), but they could not land on account of
    the bears. Then they went back for three 'dœgr,' and they found there
    some dwelling-places of Skrælings ('nökkra Skrælingja vistir') when
    they landed on some islands south of Snæfell. Then they went south to
    Króksfjardarheidr, one long day's rowing, on St. James's day [July
    25]; it was then freezing there at night, but the sun shone both
    night and day, and, when it was in the south, was only so high that if
    a man lay athwartships in a six-oared boat, the shadow of the gunwale
    nearest the sun fell upon his face; but at midnight it was as high as
    it is at home in the settlement when it is in the north-west. Then
    they returned home to Gardar" [in the Eastern Settlement].

Björn Jónsson says that this account of the voyage was written by Halldor,
a priest of Greenland (who did not himself take part in the expedition,
but had only heard of it), to Arnold, the priest of Greenland who was
stranded in Iceland in 1266. It was then rewritten in Iceland (or Norway
?), perhaps by one of the copyists of the Hauksbók, who was unacquainted
with the conditions in Greenland; and afterwards it was again copied, and
perhaps "improved," at least once (by Björn Jónsson himself).
Unfortunately, the leaves of the Hauksbók which must have contained this
narrative have been lost. There is therefore a possibility that errors and
misunderstandings may have crept in, and such an absurdity as that "they
could not land on account of the bears" (though they nevertheless saw
ancient Eskimo dwellings!) shows clearly enough that the narrative is not
to be regarded as trustworthy in its details; but there is no reason to
doubt that the voyage was really made, and it must have extended far north
in Baffin's Bay. It cannot have taken place in the same year (1266) in
which the men spoken of came from Norðrsetur, but at the earliest in the
following year (1267).

We may probably regard as one of the objects of the expedition the
investigation of the northward extension of the Eskimo. The voyagers
sailed out through Vaigat (Króksfjord), in about 70-1/2° N. lat.; they met
with a southerly gale and thick weather, and were obliged to keep along
the coast; the south wind, which follows the line of the coast, also swept
the ice northwards, and in open sea they came far north in the Polar Sea;
but, if the statements are exact, they cannot have gone farther than a
point from which they were able to return to Króksfjardarheidr in four
days' sailing and rowing.[289] If we allow at the outside that in the
three days they sailed on an average one degree, or sixty nautical miles,
a day, which is a good deal along a coast, and if we put a good day's
rowing at forty miles, we shall get a total of 220 miles; or, if they
started from the northern end of Vaigat in 70-1/2°, they may have been as
far north as 74° N. lat., or about Melville Bay. In any case there can be
no question of their having been much farther north. Here the land is low,
and the inland ice ("jökull") comes right down to the sea, with bare
islands outside (see map, p. 259). Here they found old traces of Eskimo.
Then they returned south to Vaigat, but on the way thither they found
Eskimo dwellings (that is, in this case tents) on some islands at which
they put in.[290] It may be objected to this explanation that it does not
agree with the statement as to the sun's altitude. But here there must be
a misunderstanding or obscurity in the transmission of the text.
Króksfjardarheidr is always mentioned elsewhere as a particularly
well-known place in Nordrsetur, to which the Greenlanders resorted every
summer for seal-hunting, and it is far from likely that the statements as
to the midnight sun being visible, as to the frosts at night, and the
detailed information as to the sun's altitude (in a description otherwise
so concise), referred to so generally familiar a part of the country. It
is obvious that it must refer to the unknown regions, where they were
farthest north; but we thus lose the information as to the date on which
the sun's altitude was observed; it must in any case have been four days
before St. James's day, and it may have been more. Moreover, the
information given is of no use for working out the latitude. The
measurement of the shadow on a man lying athwartships does not help us
much, as the height of the gunwale above the man's position is not given.
The statement as to the sun's altitude at midnight might be of more value;
but whether "at home in the settlement" means the Western Settlement, or
whether it does not rather mean Gardar (in the Eastern Settlement) to
which they "returned home," we do not now know for certain, nor do we know
on what day it was that the sun was at an equal altitude in the
north-west. If St. James's day (July 25) is meant, then it is unfortunate
that the sun would not be visible above the horizon at Gardar when it was
in the north-west. According to the Julian Calendar, which was then in
use, July 25 fell seven or eight days later than now. If Midsummer Day is
intended, of which, however, there is no mention in the text, then the sun
would be about 3° 41' above the horizon in the north-west at Gardar. If it
is meant that on July 20 the sun was at this altitude, then the latitude
would be 74° 34' N. [cf. H. Geelmuyden, 1883a, p. 178]. But all this is
uncertain. We only know that the travellers saw the sun above the horizon
at midnight. If we suppose that at least the whole of the sun's disc was
above the horizon, and that it was St. James's day, then they must at any
rate have been north of 71° 48' N. lat. (as the sun's declination was
about 17° 54' on July 25 in the thirteenth century).[291] If the date was
earlier, then they may have been farther south.


CHAPTER IX

WINELAND THE GOOD, THE FORTUNATE ISLES, AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

Icelandic literature contains many remarkable statements about countries
to the south-west or south of the Greenland settlements. They are called:
"Helluland" (i.e., slate- or stone-land), "Markland" (i.e., wood-land),
"Furðustrandir" (i.e., marvel-strands), and "Vínland" (also written
"Vindland" or "Vinland"). Yet another, which lay to the west of Ireland,
was called "Hvítramanna-land" (i.e., the white men's land). Even if
certain of these countries are legendary, as will presently be shown, it
must be regarded as a fact that in any case the Greenlanders and
Icelanders reached some of them, which lay on the north-eastern coast of
America; and they thus discovered the continent of North America, besides
Greenland, about five hundred years before Cabot (and Columbus).

While Helluland, Markland and Furðustrandir are first mentioned in
authorities of the thirteenth century, "Vinland" occurs already in Adam of
Bremen, about 1070 (see above, pp. 195 ff.). Afterwards the name occurs in
Icelandic literature: first in Are Frode's "Islendingabók," about 1130,
where we are only told that in Greenland traces were found of the same
kind of people as "inhabited Wineland" ("Vínland hefer bygt"; see above,
p. 260); it is next mentioned together with Hvítramanna-land in the
"Landnámabók," where it may have been taken from Are Frode, as the
latter's uncle, Thorkel Gellisson, is given as the authority. It has been
thought that the original statement was contained in a lost work of Are's;
in any case it must belong to the period before his death in 1148. We are
only told that Hvítramanna-land lay to the west in the ocean near
Vin(d)land; but the passage is important, because, as will be discussed
later, it clearly shows that the statements about Wineland in the oldest
Icelandic authorities were derived from Ireland. The next mention of
Wineland is in "Kristni-saga" (before 1245) and "Heimskringla," where it
is only said that Leif the Lucky found Wineland the Good. It should be
remarked that while thus in the oldest authorities Wineland is only
mentioned casually and in passing, it is not until we come to the Saga of
Eric the Red, of the thirteenth century, and the Flateyjarbók's
"Grönlendinga-þáttr," of the fourteenth, that we find any description of
the country, and of voyages to it and to Helluland and Markland. But two
verses, reproduced in the first of these sagas, are certainly considerably
older than the saga itself; and they speak of the country where there was
wine to drink instead of water, and of Furðustrandir where they boil
whales' flesh.

    It may be added that in the "Eyrbyggja-saga" (of about 1250) it is
    said that "Snorre went with Karlsevne to Wineland the Good, and when
    they fought with the Skrælings there in Wineland, Snorre's son
    Thorbrand fell in the fight." In the "Grettis-saga" (about 1290),
    Thorhall Gamlason, one of those who took part in this expedition, is
    called "Vindlendingr" or "Viðlendingr" (which should doubtless be
    "Vinlendingr" in each case). If we add to this that in the Icelandic
    geography which is known from various MSS. of the fourteenth and
    fifteenth centuries, but which is attributed in part (although hardly
    the section about Greenland, Wineland, etc.) to Abbot Nikulás Bergsson
    of Thverá (ob. 1159), Helluland, Markland and Vinland are mentioned as
    lying to the south of Greenland (see later), then we shall have given
    all the certain ancient authorities in which Wineland occurs [cf. G.
    Storm, 1887, pp. 10 ff.]; but possibly the runic stone from Ringerike
    is to be added (see later).

Before I recapitulate the most important features of these voyages, as
they are described more particularly in the Saga of Eric the Red, I must
premise that I look upon the narratives somewhat in the light of
historical romances, founded upon legend and more or less uncertain
traditions. Gustav Storm in his critical review of the Wineland voyages
[1887] has separated the older authorities, which he regarded as
altogether trustworthy, from the later narratives in the Flateyjarbók's
"Grönlendinga-þáttr," which he thought were to be rejected. The last-named
was written about 1387, while Eric the Red's Saga, which we are to regard
as trustworthy, must according to Storm have been written between 1270 and
1300.[292] The accounts of the discovery of Wineland and of the voyages
thither are very conflicting in these two authorities; while the latter
has only two voyages (after the discovery), the former has divided them
into five; while one mentions Leif Ericson as the discoverer of the
country, the other gives Bjarne Herjulfsson, and so on. We are led to ask
whether it is reasonable to suppose that the traditions should have been
handed down by word of mouth in such a remarkably unaltered and
uncorrupted state during the first 250 or 300 years, when they have been
transformed and confused to such an extent scarcely a hundred years later.
This must rather prove that there was no fixed tradition, but that the
tales became split up into more and more varying forms. Perhaps it will be
answered that the Saga of Eric the Red was composed in the golden age of
saga-writing, whereas the Flateyjarbók belongs to the period of
decline.[293] But it cannot be psychologically probable that human nature
in Iceland should suddenly have undergone so great a change, that while
the saga-tellers of the fourteenth century were disposed to invent
romances, they should not have had any tendency thereto throughout the
three preceding centuries. It is particularly natural that many
alterations and additions should be made when, as here, the narratives are
concerned with distant waters which lay so far out of the ordinary course
of voyages, and which for a long time had ceased to be known in Iceland
when the sagas were put into writing. Features belonging to the
description of other quarters of the globe were also inserted. Tales which
in this way live in oral tradition and gradually develop into sagas,
without any written word to support them, and to some extent even without
any known localities to which they can be attached, are to be regarded as
living organisms dependent on accidental influence, which absorb into
themselves any suitable material as they may find it; a resemblance of
name between persons may thus contribute, or a similarity of situations,
or events which bear the same foreign stamp. The narratives of the
Wineland voyages exhibit, as we shall see, sure traces of influences of
this kind.

In the year 999, according to the saga, Leif, the son of Eric the Red,
sailed from Greenland to Norway. This is the first time we hear of so long
a sea-voyage being attempted,[294] and it shows in any case that this long
passage was not unknown to the Icelanders and Norwegians. Formerly the
passage to Greenland had been by way of Iceland, thence to the east coast
of Greenland, southwards along the coast, and round Hvarf. But capable
seamen like the intrepid Leif thought they could avoid so many changes of
course and arrive in Norway by sailing due east from the southern point of
Greenland. Thereby Leif Ericson becomes the personification of the first
ocean-voyager in history, who deliberately and with a settled plan steered
straight across the open Atlantic, without seeking to avail himself of
harbours on the way. It also appears clearly enough from the sailing
directions for navigation of northern waters, which have come down to us,
that voyages were made across the ocean direct from Norway to Greenland.
It must be remembered that the compass was unknown, and that all the ships
of that time were without fixed decks. This was an exploit equal to the
greatest in history; it is the beginning of ocean voyages.

Leif's plan of reaching Norway direct was not wholly successful according
to the saga; he was driven out of his course to the Hebrides. They stayed
there till late in the summer, waiting for a fair wind. Leif there fell in
love with a woman of high lineage, Thorgunna. When he sailed she begged to
be allowed to go with him; but Leif answered that he would not carry off a
woman of her lineage in a strange country, when he had so few men with
him. It was of no avail that she told him she was with child, and the
child was his. He gave her a gold ring, a Greenland mantle of frieze, and
a belt of walrus ivory, and sailed away from the Hebrides with his men and
arrived in Norway in the autumn (999). Leif became Olaf Tryggvason's man,
and spent the winter at Nidaros. He adopted Christianity and promised the
king to try to introduce the faith into Greenland. For this purpose he was
given a priest when he sailed. In the spring, as soon as he was ready, he
set out again to sail straight across the Atlantic to Greenland. It has
undoubtedly been thought that he chose the course between the Faroes (61°
50' N. lat.) and Shetland (60° 50' N. lat.) to reach Cape Farewell, and
afterwards this became the usual course for the voyage from Norway to
Greenland. But he was driven out of his course, and

    "for a long time drifted about in the sea, and came upon countries of
    which before he had no suspicion. There were self-sown wheat-fields,
    and vines grew there; there were also the trees that are called
    'masur' ('mǫsurr'),[295] and of all these they had some specimens
    (some trees so large that they were laid in houses" [i.e., used as
    house-beams]).

This land was "Vínland hit Góða." As it was assumed that the wild vine
(Vitis vulpina) grew in America as far north as 45° N. lat. and along the
east coast, the historians have thought to find in this a proof that Leif
Ericson must have been on the coast of America south of this latitude;
but, as we shall see later, these features--the self-sown wheat-fields,
the vines and the lofty trees--are probably borrowed from elsewhere.

    "On his homeward voyage Leif found some men on a wreck, and took them
    home with him and gave them all shelter for the winter. He showed so
    much nobility and goodness, he introduced Christianity into the
    country, and he rescued the men; he was then called 'Leifr hinn
    Heppni' [the Lucky]. Leif came to land in Eric's fjord, and went home
    to Brattalid; there they received him well." This was the same autumn
    [1000].

So concise is the narrative of the voyage by which the first discovery of
America by Europeans is said to have been made.[296]

Curiously enough, the saga tells us nothing more of Leif as a sailor. He
appears after this to have lived in peace in Greenland, and he took over
Brattalid after his father's death. On the other hand, we hear that his
brother Thorstein made an attempt to find Wineland, which Leif had
discovered. After Leif's return home "there was much talk that they ought
to seek the land that Leif had found. The leader was Thorstein Ericson, a
good man, and wise, and friendly." We hear earlier in the saga, where
Leif's voyage to Norway is related, that both of Eric's sons "were capable
men; Thorstein was at home with his father, and there was not a man in
Greenland who was thought to be so manly as he." We hear nothing about
Leif's taking part in the new voyage; it looks as if it had been
Thorstein's turn to go abroad. But

    "Eric was asked, and they trusted in his good fortune and foresight
    being greatest. He was against it, but did not say no, as his friends
    exhorted him so to it. They therefore fitted out the ship which
    Thorbjörn [Vivilsson] had brought out to Greenland;[297] and twenty
    men were chosen for it; they took little goods with them, but more
    arms and provisions. The morning that Eric left home, he took a little
    chest, and therein was gold and silver; he hid this property and then
    went on his way; but when he had gone a little distance he fell from
    his horse, broke his ribs and hurt his shoulder, and said, 'Ah yes!'
    After this accident he sent word to his wife that she should take up
    the property that he had hidden; he had now, said he, been punished
    for hiding it. Then they sailed out of Eric's fjord with gladness, and
    thought well of their prospects. They drifted about the sea for a long
    time and did not arrive where they desired. They came in sight of
    Iceland, and they had also birds from Ireland; their ship was carried
    eastwards over the ocean. They came back in the autumn and were then
    weary and very worn. And they came in the late autumn to Eric's fjord.
    Then said Eric: 'In the summer we sailed from the fjords more
    light-hearted than we now are, and yet we now have good reason to be
    so.' Thorstein said: 'It would be a worthy deed to take charge of the
    men who are homeless, and to provide them with lodging.' Eric
    answered: 'Thy words shall be followed.' All those who had no other
    place of abode were now allowed to accompany Eric and Thorstein.
    Afterwards they took land and went home."

In the autumn (1001) Thorstein celebrated his marriage with Thorbjörm
Vivilsson's daughter Gudrid, at Brattalid, and it "went off well." They
afterwards went home to Thorstein's property on the Lysefjord, which was
the southernmost fjord in the Western Settlement; probably that which is
now called Fiskerfjord (near Fiskernes) in about 63° N. lat. There
Thorstein died during the winter of an illness (scurvy ?) which put an end
to many on the property, and Gudrid next summer returned to Eric, who
received her well. Her father died also, and she inherited all his
property.

That autumn (1002) Thorfinn Karlsevne came from Iceland to Eric's fjord in
Greenland, with one ship and forty men. He was on a trading voyage, and
was looked upon as a skilful sailor and merchant, was of good family and
rich in goods. Together with him was Snorre Thorbrandsson. Another ship,
with Bjarne Grimolfsson and Thorhall Gamlason and a crew likewise of forty
men, had accompanied them from Iceland.

    "Eric rode to the ships, and others of the men of the country, and
    there was a friendly agreement between them. The captains bade Eric
    take what he wished of the cargo. But Eric in return showed great
    generosity, in that he invited both these crews home to spend the
    winter at Brattalid. This the merchants accepted and went with Eric."

    "The merchants were well content in Eric's house that winter, but when
    Yule was drawing nigh, Eric began to be less cheerful than was his
    wont." When Karlsevne asked: "Is there anything that oppresses thee,
    Eric?" and tried to find out the reason of his being so dispirited, it
    came out that it was because he had nothing for the Yule-brew; and it
    would be said that his guests had never had a worse Yule than with
    him. Karlsevne thought there was no difficulty about that; they had
    malt, and meal, and corn in the ships, and thereof, said he, "thou
    shalt have all thou desirest, and make such a feast as thy generosity
    demands." Eric accepted this. "The Yule banquet was prepared, and it
    was so magnificent that men thought they had scarcely ever seen so
    fine a feast."

Even if the tale is unhistorical, it gives a glimpse of the life and the
hard conditions in Greenland; they only had grain occasionally when a ship
arrived; for the most part they lived on what they caught, and when that
failed, as we are told was the case in 999, there was famine. But to be
without the Yule-brew was a misfortune to an Icelander; nevertheless we
learn from the Foster-brothers' Saga that "Yule-drink was rare in
Greenland," and that a man might become famous by holding a feast, as did
Thorkel, the grandson of Eric the Red, in 1026.

After Yule, Karlsevne was married to Eric's daughter-in-law, Gudrid.

    "The feast was then prolonged, and the marriage was celebrated. There
    was great merry-making at Brattalid that winter; there was much
    playing at draughts, and making mirth with tales and much else to
    divert the company."

There was a good deal of talk about going to look for Wineland the Good,
and it was said that it might be a fertile country. The result was that
Karlsevne and Snorre got their ship ready to search for Wineland in the
summer. Bjarne and Thorhall also joined the expedition with their ship and
the crew that had accompanied them. Besides these, there came on a third
ship a man named Thorvard--married to Eric the Red's illegitimate daughter
Freydis, who also went--and Thorhall, nicknamed Veidemand (the Hunter).

    "He had been on hunting expeditions with Eric for many summers and was
    a man of many crafts. Thorhall was a big man, dark and troll-like; he
    was well on in years, obstinate, silent and reserved in everyday life,
    but crafty and slanderous, ever rejoicing in evil. He had had little
    to do with the faith since it came to Greenland. Thorhall had little
    friendship for his fellow men, yet Eric had long associated with him.
    He was in the same ship with Thorvald and Thorvard, because he had
    wide knowledge of the uninhabited regions. They had the ship that
    Thorbjörn [Vivilsson] had brought out to Greenland [and that Thorstein
    Ericson had used for his unlucky voyage two years before]. Most of
    those on board that ship were Greenlanders. On their ships there were
    altogether forty men over a hundred."[298]

Eric the Red and Leif were doubtless supposed to have assisted both
actively and with advice during the fitting-out, even though they would
not take part in the voyage. It is mentioned later that they gave
Karlsevne two Scottish runners that Leif had received from King Olaf
Tryggvason.

The three ships sailed first "to the Western Settlement and thence to
Bjarneyjar" (the Bear Islands).[299] The most natural explanation of the
saga making them begin their expedition by sailing in this direction (to
the north-west and north)--whereas the land they were in search of lay to
the south-west or south--may be that the Icelandic saga-writer (of the
thirteenth century), ignorant of the geography of Greenland, assumed that
the Western Settlement must lie due west of the Eastern; and as the
voyagers were to look for countries in the south-west, he has made them
begin by proceeding to the farthest point he had heard of on this coast,
Bjarneyjar, so that they might have a prospect of better luck than
Thorstein, who had sailed out from Eric's fjord. When it is said that
Thorhall the Hunter accompanied Eric's son and son-in-law because of his
wide knowledge of the uninhabited regions, it must be the regions beyond
the Western Settlement that are meant, and the saga-writer must have
thought that these extended westward or in the direction of the new
countries. It must also be remembered that in the spring and early summer
there is frequently drift-ice off the Eastern Settlement, from Cape
Farewell for a good way north-westward along the coast. The course would
then naturally lie to the north-west of this ice--that is, towards the
Western Settlement. But it may also be supposed that they had to begin by
going northward to get seals and provision themselves with food and oil
(fuel), which might be necessary for a long and unknown voyage. This
explanation is, however, less probable.

From Bjarneyjar they put to sea with a north wind. They were at sea,
according to the saga, for two "dœgr."[300]

    "There they found land, and rowed along it in boats, and examined the
    country, and found there [on the shore] many flat stones so large
    that two men might easily lie stretched upon them sole to sole. There
    were many white foxes there.[301] They gave the land a name and called
    it 'Helluland.'"

It may be the coast of Labrador that is here intended, and not Baffin
Land, since the statement that they sailed thither with a north wind must
doubtless imply that the coast lay more or less in a southerly and not in
a westerly direction from Bjarneyjar. From Helluland

    "they sailed for two 'dœgr' towards the south-east and south, and then
    a land lay before them, and upon it were great forests and many
    beasts. An island lay to the south-east off the land, and there they
    found a polar bear,[302] and they called the island 'Bjarney'; but the
    country they called 'Markland' [i.e., Wood-land] on account of the
    forest."

The name Markland suits Newfoundland best; it had forests down to the
sea-shore when it was rediscovered about 1500, and even later.

When they had once more sailed for

    "two 'dœgr' they sighted land and sailed under the land. There was a
    promontory where they first came. They cruised along the shore, which
    they kept to starboard [i.e., to the west]. It was without harbours
    and there were long strands and stretches of sand. They went ashore in
    boats, and found there on the promontory a ship's keel, and called it
    'Kjalarnes' [i.e., Keel-ness]; they also gave the strands a name and
    called them 'Furðustrandir' [i.e., the marvel-strands or the
    wonderful, strange strands], because it took a long time to sail past
    them."[303]

This may apply, as Storm points out, to the eastern side of Cape Breton
Island; but in that case they must have steered west-south-west from the
south-eastern promontory of Markland (Newfoundland). Kjalarnes must then
be Cape Breton itself. That they should have found a ship's keel there
sounds strange; if this is not an invention we must suppose that it was
driven ashore from a wreck; no doubt it happened often enough that vessels
were lost on the voyage to Greenland. When Eric, according to the
Landnámabók, sailed with twenty-five ships, many of them were lost.
Wreckage would be carried by the currents from Greenland into the Labrador
current, and by this southward past Markland. But it is more probable that
the origin of the name was entirely different; that, for example, the
promontory had the shape of a ship's keel, and that the account of the
keel found has been developed much later.[304] This is confirmed by the
fact that the "Grönlendinga-þáttr" gives a wholly different explanation of
the name from that in Eric's Saga.

    South of Furðustrandir "the land was indented by bays ('vágskorit'),
    and they steered the ships into a bay." Here they landed the two Scots
    (the man "Haki" and the woman "Hekja") whom Karlsevne had received
    from Leif and Eric, and who ran faster than deer. They "bade them run
    southward and examine the condition of the country, and return before
    three 'dœgr' were past. They had such garments as they called 'kiafal'
    [or 'biafal']; it was made so that there was a hood above, and it
    [i.e., 'the kiafal'] was open at the sides, and without sleeves, and
    caught up between the legs, fastened there with a button and a loop;
    otherwise they were bare. They cast anchor and lay there a while; and
    when three days were past they came running down from the land, and
    one of them had grapes in his hand, the other self-sown wheat.
    Karlsevne said that they seemed to have found a fertile country."

They then sailed on until they came to a fjord, into which they steered
the ships.

    "There was an island outside, and round the island strong currents.
    They called it 'Straumsey.' There were so many birds there that one
    could hardly put one's foot between the eggs. They held on up the
    fjord, and called it 'Straumsfjord,' and unloaded the ships and
    established themselves there. They had with them all kinds of cattle,
    and sought to make use of the land. There were mountains there, and
    fair was the prospect. They did nothing else but search out the land.
    There was much grass. They stayed there the winter, and it was very
    long; but they had not taken thought of anything, and were short of
    food, and their catch decreased. Then they went out to the island,
    expecting that there they might find some fishing or something might
    drift up [i.e., a whale be driven ashore ?]. There was, however,
    little to be caught for food, but their cattle throve there. Then they
    made vows to God that He might send them something to eat; but no
    answer came so quickly as they had hoped." The heathen Thorhall the
    Hunter then disappeared for three "dœgr," and doubtless held secret
    conjurations with the red-bearded One (i.e., Thor). A little later a
    whale was driven ashore, and they ate of it, but were all sick. When
    they found out how things were with Thorhall and Thor, "they cast it
    out over the cliff and prayed to God for mercy. They then made a catch
    of fish, and there was no lack of food. In the spring [1004] they
    entered Straumsfjord and had catches from both lands [i.e., both sides
    of the fjord], hunting on the mainland, eggs on the island, and fish
    in the sea."

This description gives a good insight both into the Norsemen's manner of
equipping themselves for voyages to unknown countries, and into their
superstition.

It looks as if a dissension now arose between the wayward Thorhall the
Hunter and the rest, since he wanted to look for Wineland to the north of
Furðustrandir, beyond Kjalarnes.

    "But Karlsevne wished to go south along the coast and eastward. He
    thought the land became broader the farther south it bore;[305] but
    it seemed to him most expedient to try both ways" [i.e., both south
    and north].

Thorhall then parted from them; but there were no more than nine men in
his company. Perhaps they were desirous of going home; for from an old
lay, which the saga attributes to Thorhall, it appears that he was
discontented with the whole stay there: he abuses the country, where the
warriors had promised him the best of drinks, but where wine never touched
his lips, and he had to take a bucket himself and fetch water to drink.
And before they hoisted sail Thorhall quoth this lay:

        "Let us go homeward,
        where we shall find fellow-countrymen:
        let us with our ship seek
        the broad ways of the sea,
        while the hopeful
        warriors (those who praise
        the land) on Furðustrandir
        stay and boil whales' flesh."

    "Then they parted [from Karlsevne, who had accompanied them out] and
    sailed north of Furðustrandir and Kjalarnes, and then tried to beat
    westward. Then the westerly storm caught them and they drifted to
    Ireland, and there they were made slaves and ill-treated. There
    Thorhall lost his life, as merchants have reported."

The last statement shows that according to Icelandic geographical ideas
the country round Kjalarnes lay directly opposite Ireland and in the same
latitude.

Karlsevne, with Snorre, Bjarne, and the rest, left Straumsfjord and sailed
southward along the coast [1004].

    "They sailed a long time and until they came to a river, which flowed
    down from the interior into a lake and thence into the sea. There were
    great sandbanks before the mouth of the river, and it could only be
    entered at high water. Karlsevne and his people then sailed to the
    mouth of the river and called the country 'Hóp' [i.e., a small closed
    bay]. There they found self-sown wheat-fields, where the land was
    low, but vines wherever they saw heights ('en vínviðr allt þar sem
    holta kendi'). Every beck ('lökr') was full of fish. They dug trenches
    on the shore below high-water mark, and when the tide went out there
    were halibuts in the trenches. In the forest there was a great
    quantity of beasts of all kinds. They were there half a month amusing
    themselves, and suspecting nothing. They had their cattle with them.
    But early one morning, when they looked about them, they saw nine
    hide-boats ('huðkeipa'), and wooden poles were being waved on the
    ships [i.e., the hide-boats], and they made a noise like
    threshing-flails and went the way of the sun. Karlsevne's men took
    this to be a token of peace and bore a white shield towards them. Then
    the strangers rowed towards them, and wondered, and came ashore. They
    were small [or black ?][306] men, and ugly, and they had ugly hair on
    their heads; their eyes were big, and they were broad across the
    cheeks. And they stayed there awhile, and wondered, then rowed away
    and went south of the headland."

This then would be the description of the first meeting in history between
Europeans and the natives of America. With all its brevity it gives an
excellent picture; but whether we can accept it is doubtful. As we shall
see later, the Norsemen probably did meet with Indians; but the
description of the latter's appearance must necessarily have been coloured
more and more by greater familiarity with the Skrælings of Greenland when
the sagas were put into writing. The big eyes will not suit either of
them, and are rather to be regarded as an attribute of trolls and
underground beings; gnomes and old fairy men have big, watery eyes. The
ugly hair is also an attribute of the underground beings.

    "Karlsevne and his men had built their houses above the lake, some
    nearer, some farther off. Now they stayed there that winter. No snow
    fell at all, and all the cattle were out at pasture. But when spring
    came they saw early one morning a number of hide-boats rowing from the
    south past the headland, so many that it seemed as if the sea had been
    sown with coal in front of the bay, and they waved wooden poles on
    every boat. Then they set up shields and held a market, and the people
    wanted most to buy red cloth; they also wanted to buy swords and
    spears, but this was forbidden by Karlsevne and Snorre." The
    Skrælings[307] gave them untanned skins in exchange for the cloth, and
    trade was proceeding briskly, until "an ox, which Karlsevne had, ran
    out of the wood and began to bellow. The Skrælings were scared and ran
    to their boats (keipana) and rowed south along the shore. After that
    they did not see them for three weeks. But when that time was past,
    they saw a great multitude of Skræling boats coming from the south, as
    though driven on by a stream. Then all the wooden poles were waved
    against the sun ('rangsölis,' wither-shins), and all the Skrælings
    howled loudly. Then Karlsevne and his men took red shields and bore
    them towards them. The Skrælings leapt from their boats and then they
    made towards each other and fought; there was a hot exchange of
    missiles. The Skrælings also had catapults ('valslongur'). Karlsevne
    and his men saw that the Skrælings hoisted up on a pole a great ball
    ('knottr') about as large as a sheep's paunch, and seeming blue[308]
    in colour, and slung it from the pole up on to the land over
    Karlsevne's people, and it made an ugly noise when it came down. At
    this great terror smote Karlsevne and his people, so that they had no
    thought but of getting away and up the river, for it seemed to them
    that the Skrælings were assailing them on all sides; and they did not
    halt until they had reached certain crags. There they made a stout
    resistance. Freydis came out and saw that they were giving way. She
    cried out: 'Wherefore do ye run away from such wretches, ye gallant
    men? I thought it likely that ye could slaughter them like cattle, and
    had I but arms I believe I should fight better than any of you.' None
    heeded what she said. Freydis tried to go with them, but she fell
    behind, for she was with child. She nevertheless followed them into
    the wood, but the Skrælings came after her. She found before her a
    dead man, Thorbrand Snorrason, and a flat stone ('hellustein') was
    fixed in the head of him. His sword lay unsheathed by him, and she
    took it up to defend herself with it. Then the Skrælings came at her.
    She takes her breasts out of her sark and whets the sword on them. At
    that the Skrælings are afraid and run away back to their boats, and go
    off. Karlsevne and his men meet her and praise her happy device. Two
    men of Karlsevne's fell, and four of the Skrælings; but nevertheless
    Karlsevne had suffered defeat. They now go to their houses, bind up
    their wounds, and consider what swarm of people it was that came
    against them from the land. It seemed to them now that there could
    have been no more than those who came from the boats, and that the
    other people must have been glamour. The Skrælings also found a dead
    man, and an axe lay beside him; one of them took up the axe and struck
    at a tree, and so one after another, and it seemed to delight them
    that it bit so well. Then one took and smote a stone with it; but when
    the axe broke, he thought it was of no use, if it did not stand
    against stone, and he cast it from him."

    "Karlsevne and his men now thought they could see that although the
    land was fertile, they would always have trouble and disquiet with the
    people who dwelt there before. Then they prepared to set out, and
    intended to go to their own country. They sailed northward and found
    five Skrælings sleeping in fur jerkins ('skinnhjúpum'), and they had
    with them kegs with deer's marrow mixed with blood. They thought they
    could understand that they were outlaws; they killed them. Then they
    found a headland and a multitude of deer, and the headland looked like
    a crust of dried dung, from the deer lying there at night. Now they
    came back to Straumsfjord, and there was abundance of everything. It
    is reported by some that Bjarne and Gudrid remained behind there, and
    a hundred men with them, and did not go farther; but they say that
    Karlsevne and Snorre went southward with forty men and were no longer
    at Hóp than barely two months, and came back the same summer."

Karlsevne went with one ship to search for Thorhall the Hunter. He sailed
to the north of Kjalarnes, westwards, and south along the shore (Storm
thought on the eastern side of Cape Breton Island to the northern side of
Nova Scotia), and they found a river running from east to west into the
sea.

    Here Thorvald Ericson was shot one morning from the shore with an
    arrow which they thought came from a Uniped [legendary creature with
    one foot] whom they pursued but did not catch. The arrow struck
    Thorvald in the small intestines. He drew it out, saying: "There is
    fat in the bowels; a good land have we found, but it is doubtful
    whether we shall enjoy it." Thorvald died of this wound a little
    later. "They then sailed away northward again and thought they sighted
    'Einfötinga-land' [the Land of Unipeds]. They would no longer risk the
    lives of their men," and "they went back and stayed in Straumsfjord
    the third winter. Then the men became very weary [so that they fell
    into disagreement]; those who were wifeless quarrelled with those who
    had wives."[309]

The fourth summer [1006] they sailed from Wineland with a south wind and
came to Markland.

    There they found five Skrælings, and caught of them two boys, while
    the grown-up ones, a bearded man and two women, "escaped and sank into
    the earth. The boys they took with them and taught them their
    language, and they were baptized. They called their mother 'Vætilldi'
    and their father 'Vægi.' They said that kings governed in
    Skrælinga-land; one of them was called 'Avalldamon,' the other
    'Valldidida.' They said that there were no houses, and the people lay
    in rock-shelters or caves. They said there was another great country
    over against their country, and men went about there in white clothing
    and cried aloud, and carried poles before them, to which strips were
    fastened. This is thought to be 'Hvitramanna-land' [i.e., the white
    men's land] or Great-Ireland." Then Karlsevne and his men came to
    Greenland and stayed the winter with Eric the Red [1006-1007].

    "But Bjarne Grimolfsson [on the other ship] was carried out into the
    Irish Ocean [the Atlantic between Markland and Ireland] and they came
    into the maggot-sea ('maðk-sjá'); they did not know of it until the
    ship was worm-eaten under them," and ready to sink. "They had a
    long-boat ('eptirbát') that was coated with seal-tar, and men say that
    the sea-maggot will not eat wood that is coated with seal-tar." "But
    when they tried it, the boat would not hold more than half the ship's
    company." They all wanted to go in it; but Bjarne then proposed that
    they should decide who should go in the boat by casting lots and not
    by precedence, and this was agreed to. The lots fell so that Bjarne
    was amongst those who were to go in the boat. "When they were in it, a
    young Icelander, who had accompanied Bjarne from home, said: 'Dost
    thou think, Bjarne, to part from me here?' Bjarne answers: 'So it must
    be.' He says: 'This was not thy promise when I came with thee from
    Iceland....' Bjarne answers: 'Nor shall it be so; go thou in the boat,
    but I must go in the ship, since I see that thy life is so dear to
    thee.' Bjarne then went on board the ship, and this man in the boat,
    and they kept on their course until they came to Dyflinar [Dublin] in
    Ireland, and there told this tale. But most men believe that Bjarne
    and his companions lost their lives in the maggot-sea, since they were
    not heard of again."

Thorfinn Karlsevne returned in the following summer (1007) to Iceland with
Gudrid and their son Snorre, who was born at Straumsfjord in Wineland the
first winter they were there. Karlsevne afterwards lived in Iceland.

If we now review critically the Saga of Eric the Red and the whole of this
tale of Karlsevne's voyage, together with the other accounts of Wineland
voyages, we shall find one feature after another that is legendary or that
must have been borrowed from elsewhere. If we examine first of all the
relation of the various authorities to the events they narrate, we must be
struck by the fact that in the oldest authorities, such as the Landnáma,
Eric the Red has only two sons, Leif and Thorstein, whereas in Eric's
Saga and in the "Grönlendinga-þáttr," for the sake of the trilogy of
legend, he has begotten three sons, besides an illegitimate daughter. In
the oldest MS., Hauk's Landnámabók, Leif is only mentioned in one place,
and nothing more is said of him than that he was Eric's son and inherited
Brattalid from his father; he is not given the nickname "heppni" (the
lucky), and it is not mentioned that he had discovered Wineland, nor that
he had introduced Christianity. In the Sturlubók he is again mentioned in
one place as the son of Tjodhild and Eric, and there has the nickname "en
hepni"; but neither is there here any mention of the discovery of Wineland
or the introduction of Christianity [cf. Landnámabók, ed. F. Jónsson,
1900, pp. 35, 156, 165]. As this passage is not found in Hauk's Landnáma,
it may be an addition in the later MS., which was wanting in the original
Landnámabók. In the great saga of St. Olaf[310] (chapter 70)--where King
Olaf asks the Icelander Thorarinn Nevjolfsson to take the blind king Rörek
to Greenland to "Leif Ericson"--the latter again is not called the Lucky,
nor is Wineland or its discovery mentioned. This saga was written,
according to the editors, about 1230. As neither this nickname nor the
tales of Leif's discovery of Wineland are found earlier than in the
Kristni-saga and Heimskringla, it looks as if these features did not
appear till later. There is a similar state of things with regard to the
mention of Thorfinn Karlsevne; only in one passage in Hauk's Landnáma is
it mentioned that he found "Vin(d)land hit Góða"; but as this does not
occur in the Sturlubók, it may be an addition due to Hauk Erlendsson, who
regarded Thorfinn as his ancestor. The silence of the oldest authorities
on the voyages to Wineland becomes still more striking when we compare
with it the fact that the Landnámabók contains statements (with careful
citation of authorities, showing that they are derived from Are Frode
himself) about Are Mársson, his voyage to Hvítramanna-land, and his stay
there, which have generally been regarded as far less authentic than the
tales of the Wineland voyages. If Are Mársson's voyage is a myth, then one
would be still more inclined to regard the latter as such. The objection
that it would have been beside the plan of the brief and concise earlier
works (Íslendingabók and Landnámabók) to include these things, scarcely
holds good. If Are has room in the Íslendingabók for a comparatively
detailed account of the discovery, naming and natives of Greenland, and
further for a description of the introduction of Christianity into
Iceland; if the Landnámabók also gives details, derived, as we have said,
from him, of Are Mársson's voyage to Hvítramanna-land, then it is
difficult to understand why neither Are Frode nor the authors of the
Landnámabók, when mentioning Eric the Red and Leif, should have found room
for a line about Leif's having discovered Wineland and Christianised
Greenland--two not unimportant pieces of information--if they had known of
it. At any rate, the Christianising of Greenland must have been of
interest to the priest Are and to the priest-taught authors of
Landnámabók. This silence is therefore suspicious.

The personal names in the Saga of Eric the Red are also striking. With the
exception of Eric himself, his wife Tjodhild and his son Leif, and a few
other names in the first part, which is taken almost in its entirety from
the Landnámabók, almost all the names belonging to this saga are connected
with those of heathen gods, especially Thor. Eric has got a third son,
Thorvald, who is not mentioned in Landnáma, besides his daughter Freydis,
and his son-in-law Thorvard. The name Freydis is only known from this one
woman in the whole of Icelandic literature, and several names in Norse
literature compounded of Frey- seem, according to Lind,[311] to belong to
myths (e.g., Freygarðr, Freysteinn and Freybjǫrn). Other names connected
with the Wineland voyages in this saga are: Thor-björn Vivilsson (his
brother was named Thor-geir and his daughter's foster-father Orm
Thor-geirsson) came to Thor-kjell of Herjolfsnes, where the prophetess was
called Thor-björg. Leif's woman in the Hebrides was called Thor-gunna, and
their illegitimate son Thor-gils. Thor-stein Ericson had a property
together with another Thor-stein in Lysefjord.[312] We have further
Thor-finn Karlsevne (son of Thord and Thor-unn), Snorre Thor-brandsson,
Thor-hall Gamlason, Thor-hall Veidemand (who also had dealings with the
red-bearded Thor), and Thor-brand Snorrason who was killed. An exception,
besides Bjarne Grimolfsson (and the runners Haki and Hekja; see below), is
Thorfinn Karlsevne's wife Guðriðr,[313] daughter of Thorbjörn Vivilsson,
and mother of Snorre. But perhaps one can guess why she is given this name
if one reads through the description of the remarkable scene of
soothsaying--at Thorkjell's house on Herjolfsnes--between the fair Gudrid,
who sang with such a beautiful voice, and the heathen sorceress Thorbjörg,
where the former as a Christian woman refuses to sing the heathen charms
"Varðlokur," as the sorceress asks her to do. These numerous
Thor-names--with the two women's names, the powerful Freydis and the fair
Gudrid--which are attributed to a time when heathendom and Christianity
were struggling for the mastery (cf. the tale of Thorhall the Hunter and
the whale), have in themselves an air of myth and invention. To this must
be added mythical descriptions like those of the prophetess of
Herjolfsnes, the ghosts at Lysefjord the winter Thorstein Ericson died,
and others.

The Saga of Eric the Red tells of two voyages in search of Wineland, after
Leif's accidental discovery of the country. The first is Thorstein
Ericson's unfortunate expedition, when they did not find the favoured
Wineland, but were driven eastward into the ocean towards Iceland and
Ireland. In the Irish tale of Brandan ("Imram Brenaind," of the eleventh
century), Brandan first makes an unsuccessful voyage to find the promised
land, and arrives, it seems, most probably in the east of the ocean,
somewhere about Brittany (cf. Vita S. Brandani; and Machutus's voyage);
but he then makes a fresh voyage in which he finally reaches the land he
is in search of [cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 135 ff.]. This similarity with the
Irish legend is doubtless not very great, but perhaps it deserves to be
included with many others to be mentioned later.

If we now pass to the tale itself of Karlsevne's voyage, we have already
seen (p. 321) that its beginning with the journey to the Western
Settlement is doubtful; next, the feature of his sailing to three
different countries in turn (Helluland, Markland and Furðustrandir), with
the same number of days' sail between each, must be taken directly from
the fairy tales.[314] Such a voyage is in itself improbable; in the saga
the countries are evidently imagined as islands or peninsulas, but nothing
corresponding to this is to be found on the coast of America. It is
inconceivable that a discoverer of Labrador and of the coast to the south
of it should have divided this into several countries; it was not till
long after the rediscovery of Newfoundland and Labrador that the sound
between them was found. If we suppose that Karlsevne was making southward
and came first to Labrador (== Helluland ?), with a coast extending
south-eastward, it is against common sense that he should voluntarily
have lost sight of this coast and put to sea again in an easterly
direction, and then sight fresh land to the south of him two days later;
on the other hand, this is the usual mode of presentment in fairy tales
and myth. But let us suppose now that he did nevertheless arrive in this
way at Newfoundland (== Markland ?), and then again put to sea instead of
following the coast, how could he know that this time instead of sailing
eastward he was to take a westward course? But this he must have done, for
otherwise he could not have reached Cape Breton or Nova Scotia; and he
must have got there, if we are to make anything out of the story. The
distances given, of two "dœgr's" sail to each of the countries, as
remarked on p. 322, are also foreign to reality.[315] This part of the
description has therefore an altogether artificial look. It reminds one
forcibly of many of the old Irish legendary tales of wonderful voyages; in
particular the commencement of one of the oldest and most important may be
mentioned: "Imram Maelduin" (the tale of Maelduin's voyage), which is
known in MSS. of the end of the eleventh century and later, but which was
probably to a great extent first written down in the seventh, or at the
latest in the eighth century [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 289].

    When Maelduin and his companions put to sea from Ireland in a coracle
    with three hides (while Karlsevne has three ships), they came first to
    two small islands (while Karlsevne came to Bjarneyjar). After this for
    three days and three nights the Irishmen came upon no land; "on the
    morning of the third day" they heard the waves breaking on a beach,
    but when daylight came and they approached the land, swarms of ants,
    as large as foals, came down to the beach and showed a desire to eat
    them and the boat (these are the gold-digging ants of Indo-Greek
    legend). This land is the parallel to Helluland, where there were a
    number of arctic foxes (cf. the description of the arrival there, p.
    323).--After having fled thence for three days and three nights, the
    Irishmen heard "on the morning of the third day" the waves breaking on
    a beach, and when daylight came they saw a great, lofty island with
    terraces around it and rows of trees, on which there were many large
    birds; they ate their fill of these and took some of them in the boat.
    This island might correspond to the wooded Markland, with its many
    animals, where Karlsevne and his people killed a bear.--After another
    three days and three nights at sea, the Irish voyagers "on the morning
    of the fourth day" saw a great sandy island; on approaching the shore
    they saw there a fabulous beast like a horse with dog's paws and
    claws. For fear of the beast they rowed away without landing. This
    great sandy island may be compared with Furðustrandir, where there
    were no harbours and it was difficult to land.--The Irishmen then
    travelled "for a long time" before they came to a large, flat island,
    where two men landed to examine the island, which they found to be
    large and broad, and they saw marks of horses' hoofs as large as a
    ship's sail, and nutshells as large as "cōedi" (a measure of capacity
    ?), and traces of many human beings. This bears a resemblance to
    Karlsevne's having "a long way" to sail along Furðustrandir before he
    came to a bay, where the two Scots went ashore to examine the country,
    were absent three days, and found grapes and wheat.--After that the
    Irishmen travelled for a week, in hunger and thirst, until they came
    to a great, lofty island, with a great house on the beach, with two
    doors, "one towards the plain on the island and one towards the sea";
    and through the latter the waves of the sea threw salmon into the
    middle of the house. They found decorated couches and crystal goblets
    with good drink in the house, but no human being, and they took meat
    and drink and thanked God. Karlsevne proceeded from the bay and came
    to Straumsey, which was thick with birds and eggs, and to
    Straumsfjord, where they established themselves (i.e., built houses).
    And there were mountains and a fair prospect and high grass; and they
    had catches from two sides, "hunting on the land, and eggs and fish
    from the sea"; and where, to begin with, they did nothing but make
    themselves acquainted with the land.--From the island with the house
    Maelduin and his men travelled about "for a long time," hungry and
    without food, until they found an island which was encompassed by a
    great cliff ("alt mor impi"). There was a very thin and tall tree
    there; Maelduin caught a branch of it in his hand as they passed by;
    for three days and three nights the branch was in his hand, while the
    boat was sailing past the cliff, and on the third day there were three
    apples at the end of the branch (cf. Karlsevne's runners who returned
    after three days with grapes and wheat in their hands), on which they
    lived for forty days. Karlsevne and his men suffered great want during
    the winter at Straumsfjord; and from that place, where they lived on
    land in houses, they sailed "for a long time" before they came to the
    country with the self-sown wheat and vines, where there were great
    sandbanks off the mouth of the river, so that they had a difficulty in
    landing.

It is striking that in the voyage of Maelduin, the distance is only given
as three days' and three nights' sail in the case of the three first
passages to the three successive islands, after the first two small
islands, while between the later islands we are told that they sailed "a
long way," "for a week," "for a long time," etc.; just as in the Saga of
Eric the Red, where, after Bjarneyjar, they sail for two "dœgr" to each of
the three lands in turn, and then they had "a long way" to sail along
Furðustrandir, to a bay, after which "they went on their way" to
Straumsfjord, and thence they went "for a long time" to Wineland, etc. I
do not venture to assert that there was a direct connection between the
two productions, for that there are perhaps too many dissimilarities; but
they seem in any case to have their roots in one and the same cycle of
ideas, and the original legend certainly reached Iceland in the shape of
oral narrative.

    The number three plays an important part in Eric's Saga. Three voyages
    are made to or in search of Wineland, Karlsevne has three ships, three
    countries are visited in turn, three winters are spent away (as with
    Eric the Red on his first voyage to Greenland, but there this was due
    to his exile), they meet with the Skrælings three times, three men
    fall (two in the fight with the Skrælings, and afterwards Thorvald
    Ericson)--just as Maelduin (and also Brandan) loses three men--the
    expedition finally resolves itself into three separate homeward
    voyages, Thorhall the Hunter's, Karlsevne's and Bjarne Grimolfsson's,
    etc. etc.[316] In the Irish legends and tales, e.g., those of Maelduin
    or of the Ua Corra, the repetition of the number three is even more
    conspicuous.

    We may regard it as another feature of fairy tale that Eric the Red
    has three sons who set out one after another, first Leif, then
    Thorstein, and lastly Thorvald, who finds the land and takes part in
    the attempt to settle it. But this feature is not conspicuous enough
    to allow of our attaching much importance to it, especially as here it
    is the first son who is the lucky one, while it is not so in fairy
    tale.

In Leif's voyage in the "Grönlendinga-þáttr" (which voyage partly
corresponds to Karlsevne's), when they came to a country south-west of
Markland, they landed on an island, to the north of the country,

    "looked around them in fair weather, and found that there was dew on
    the grass, and it happened that they touched the grass with their
    hands and put them in their mouths, and they thought they had never
    tasted anything so sweet as it was."

This reminds one forcibly of Moses' manna in the wilderness, which
appeared like dew [Exodus xvi. 14]. In the Old Norwegian free rendering of
the Old Testament, called "Stjórn,"[317] of about 1300, therefore much
earlier than the "Grönlendinga-þáttr," the account of this says that dew
came from heaven round the whole camp, "it stuck like slime on the hands
as soon as they touched it" ... "they found that it was sweet as honey in
taste...." But here again we come in contact with Irish legendary ideas.
In the tale of the Navigation of the Sons of Ua Corra (of the twelfth
century) the voyagers come to an island with a beautiful and wonderful
plain covered with trees, full of honey, and a grass-green glade in the
middle with a glorious lake of agreeable taste. Later on they come to
another marvellous island, with splendid green grass, and honeydew lay on
the grass [cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 194, 195].

The name "Furðustrandir" (marvel-strands), as we shall see later (p. 357),
may come from the "Tírib Ingnad" (lands of marvel) and "Trág Mór" (great
strand) of Irish legend, far in the western ocean.

When Karlsevne arrived off Furðustrandir he sent out his two Scottish
runners, the man "Haki" and the woman "Hekja," and told them to run
southwards and examine the condition of the country and come back in three
days. This is evidently another legendary trait; and equally so the
circumstance that King Olaf had given these runners to Leif and told him
"to make use of them if he had need of speed, for they were swifter than
deer." We know of many such features in fairy tale and myth. Then, after
the traditional three days, the man and woman come running from the
interior of the country, one with grapes, the other with self-sown wheat
in their hands. We are tempted to think of the spies Moses sent into
Canaan, with orders to spy out the land, whether it was fat or lean, and
who came back with a vine-branch and a cluster of grapes, which they had
cut in the vale of Eshcol (i.e., the vale of grapes).[318]

But there are other remarkable points about this legend. Professor Moltke
Moe has called my attention to a striking resemblance between it and the
legends of the two runners or spies who accompanied Sinclair's march
through Norway in 1612. They are called "wind-runners" or "bloodhounds,"
or again "weather-calves" or "wind-calves"; others called them "Wild
Turks."

    "They were ugly folk enough. Sinklar used them to run before and
    search out news; in the evening they came back with their reports.
    They were swifter in running than the stag; it is said that the flesh
    was cut out of their thighs and the thick of their calves. It is also
    said that they could follow men's tracks."[319]

    We are told elsewhere that "these 'Ver-Kalvann' ('wind-calves') were
    more active than farm-dogs, swift as lightning, and did not look like
    folk. The flesh was cut out of the thick of their calves, their thighs
    and buttocks; their nostrils were also slit up. People thought this
    was done to them to make them so much lighter to run around, and every
    one was more frightened of them than of the Scots themselves. They
    could get the scent of folk a long way off and could kill a man before
    he could blow his nose: they dashed up the back and broke the necks of
    folk."[320]

The trait that the wind-runners "did not look like folk" is expressed in
another form in H. P. S. Krag's notes; he thinks that they

    "were nothing else but Sinclair's bloodhounds, which we may assume
    both from the description and from its being related of the one that
    was shot at Ödegaard that it ran about the field and barked."

Something similar also occurs about the runners in Wineland in a late form
of the legend of Karlsevne's voyage, where we read that

    "he sailed from Greenland south-westward until the condition of the
    country got better and better; he found and visited many places that
    have never been found since; he found also some Skrælings; these
    people are called in some books Lapps. In one place he got two
    creatures ('skepnur') more like apes than men, whom he called Hake and
    Hekja; they ran as fast as greyhounds and had few clothes." [MS. A.
    M., old no. 77oc, new no. 1892, 3; cf. Rafn: "Antiquitates Americanæ,"
    1837, p. 196.]

It may be mentioned in addition that in the Flateyjarbók's saga of the
Wineland voyages no runners appear, but on the other hand, in the tale of
Leif's voyage, which has features in common with Karlsevne's, there is a
"Southman" ("suðrmaðr," most frequently used of Germans)[321] of the name
of "Tyrker," who was the first to find the wild vine in the woods (like
Karlsevne's runners) and intoxicated himself by eating the grapes.[322] As
Moltke Moe observes, there is a remarkable resemblance between the rare
name Tyrker and the fact that Sinclair's runners were called Wild Turks.

Both in the legend of Karlsevne and in that of Sinclair the two runners
are connected with Scots or Scotland. One is therefore inclined to suppose
that some piece of Celtic folklore is the common source of both. Now there
is a Scottish mythical creature called a "water-calf"; and the
unintelligible Norwegian name "weather-calf" or "wind-calf" ("veirkalv")
may well be thought a corruption of this. It is true that this creature
inhabits lakes, but it also goes upon dry land, and has fabulous speed and
the power of scenting things far off. It can also transform itself into
different shapes, but always preserves something of its animal form.

That the runners in Eric's Saga have become a man and woman may be due to
a natural connection with Thor's swift-footed companions, Tjalve and
Röskva. But there seems here to be another possible connection, which
Moltke Moe has suggested to me. The strange garment they wore is called in
one MS. "kiafal" and in another "biafal." No word completely corresponding
to this is known in Celtic; but there is a modern Irish word "cabhail"
(pronounced "caval" == "a body of a shirt"), which shows so much
similarity both in meaning and sound that there seems undoubtedly to be a
connection here. That "caval," corrupted to "kiafal" (through the
influence of similar-sounding names ?), has been transformed into "biafal"
may be due to the influence of the Norse "bjalfi" or "bjalbi" (== a fur
garment without sleeves). As their costume plays such an important part in
the description of the runners, and special stress is laid upon the Celtic
word for it, it is probable that this word was originally used as a name
for the runners themselves--in legend and epic poetry there are many
examples of people being named from their dress. But gradually the Celtic
word used as a name has been replaced by the corresponding Old Norse
"hakull" (or "hokull" == sleeveless cloak open at the sides; cf.
"messe-hagel," chasuble) and its feminine derivative "hekla" (==
sleeveless cloak, with or without a hood). The use of these two words of
masculine and feminine gender may be due to conceptions of them as man and
woman, derived from Tjalve and Röskva. In course of time it was natural
that a personal name formed from the costume, like Hakull, should easily
be replaced by a real man's name of similar sound, like "Haki," specially
known in legend and epic poetry as a name of sea-kings, berserkers and
troll-children. Then "Hekja" was derived from "Haki," in the same way as
"Hekla" from "Hakull." Hekja as a name is not met with elsewhere.[323]

That the whole of this story of the runners in the Saga of Eric the Red
has been borrowed from elsewhere appears also from its being badly fitted
in; for the narrative of the saga continues without taking any notice of
the finding of the sure tokens of Wineland: the self-sown wheat and the
vine; and in the following spring there is even a dispute as to the
direction in which the country is to be sought. Furthermore, after the
discoveries of the runners Karlsevne continues to sail southward, at
first, the same autumn, to Straumsfjord, and then still farther south the
following summer, before he arrives at the country of the wheat and grapes
that the runners had reached in a day and a half in a roadless land.

The description of the stay in Straumsfjord also contains purely mythical
features, such as Thorhall the Hunter's being absent for the stereotyped
three days ("dœgr"), and having, when they find him, practised magic arts
with the Red-Beard (Thor), as the result of which a whale is driven ashore
(see p. 325). There is further a striking resemblance between the
description of Thorhall's state when found and that of Tyrker after he had
eaten the grapes. When, in Eric's Saga, they sought and found Thorhall on
a steep mountain crag,

    "he lay gazing up into the air with wide-open mouth and nostrils,
    scratching and pinching himself and muttering something. They asked
    why he lay there. He answered that that did not concern anybody, and
    told them not to meddle with it; he had for the most part lived so,
    said he, that they had no need to trouble about him. They asked him to
    come home with them, and he did so."

In the Flateyjarbók's "Grönlendinga-þáttr" Tyrker was lost in the woods,
and when Leif and his men went in search and found him again, he too
behaved strangely.

    "First he spoke for a long time in 'þýrsku,' and rolled his eyes many
    ways and twisted his mouth; but they could not make out what he said.
    After a while he said in Norse: I did not go much farther, and yet I
    have a new discovery to tell of; I have found vines and grapes
    ('vínvið ok vínber')."

This shows how features taken from legends originally altogether different
are mingled together in these sagas, in order to fill out the description;
and it shows too how the same tale may take entirely different forms. Of
Tyrker we hear further that "he was 'brattleitr' (with a flat face and
abrupt forehead), had fugitive eyes, was freckled ('smáskitligr') in the
face, small of stature and puny, but skilful in all kinds of dexterity."
Thorhall, on the other hand, "was tall of stature, dark and troll-like,"
etc. (see p. 320), but he was also master of many crafts, was well
acquainted with the uninhabited regions, and altogether had qualities
different from most people. Both had long been with Eric the Red. There
can scarcely be a doubt that these two legendary figures, perhaps
originally derived from wholly different spheres, have been blended
together.

The whale that is driven ashore and that they feed on resembles the great
fish that is cast ashore and that the Irish saint Brandan and his
companions live on in the tale of his wonderful voyage (see below). This
resemblance is confirmed by the statement in the Icelandic story that no
one knew what kind of whale it was, not even Karlsevne, who had great
experience of whales. There are, of course, no whales on the north-eastern
coast of America that are not also found on the coasts of Greenland and
Iceland; the incident therefore appears fictitious. The great whale in the
legend of Brandan, on the other hand, is a fabulous monster. There is this
distinction, it is true, that Karlsevne's people fall ill from eating the
whale,[324] while it saves the lives of the Irish voyagers; but in both
cases it is driven ashore after God, or a god, has been invoked in their
need, and disappears again immediately (in the tale of Brandan it is
devoured by wild beasts; in the saga it is thrown over the cliff). This
difference can easily be explained by the whale in the Norse story having
been sent by a heathen god, so that it was sacrilege to eat of it. In the
tale of Brandan the whale is perhaps derived from Oriental legends [cf. De
Goeje, 1891, p. 63]; it may, however, be a common northern feature.

When it is stated of Straumsfjord that there were places where eggs could
be gathered, and of Straumsey that "there were so many birds that one
could scarcely put one's foot down between the eggs," this is evidently an
entirely northern feature, brought in to decorate the tale, and brought in
so infelicitously that they are made to find all this mass of eggs there
in the _autumn_ (!) when they arrive. If Straumsfjord was in Nova Scotia
there could not be eider-ducks nor gulls either[325] in sufficient number
to form breeding-grounds of importance, and among sea-birds one would be
more inclined to think of terns, as Professor R. Collett has suggested to
me. As the coast is not described as one with steep cliffs, and there is
mention of stepping between the eggs, auks, guillemots and similar
sea-birds are out of the question, even if they occurred so far south.


But then comes the most important part of the saga, the description of the
country itself, where grew self-sown fields of wheat, and vines on the
hills, where no snow fell and the cattle were out the whole winter, where
the streams and the sea teemed with fish and the woods were full of deer.

Isidore says [in the "Etymologiarum," xiv. 6, 8] of the Fortunate Isles:

    "The Insulæ Fortunatæ denote by their name that they produce all good
    things, as though fortunate ('felices') and blessed with fertility of
    vegetation. For of their own nature they are rich in valuable fruits
    ('poma,' literally tree-fruit or apples). The mountain-ridges are
    clothed with self-grown ('fortuites') vines, and cornfields ('messis'
    == that which is to be cut) and vegetables are common as grass [i.e.,
    grow wild like grass, are self-sown]; thence comes the error of the
    heathen, and that profane poetry regarded them as Paradise. They lie
    in the ocean on the left side of Mauritania [Morocco] nearest to the
    setting sun, and they are divided from one another by sea that lies
    between." He also mentions the Gorgades, and the Hesperides.

These ideas of the Fortunate Isles were widely current in the Middle Ages.
In the English work, "Polychronicon," by Ranulph Higden, of the fourteenth
century, Isidore's description took the following form:

    "A good climate have the Insulæ Fortunatæ that lie in the western
    ocean, which were regarded by the heathen as Paradise by reason of the
    fertility of the soil and of the temperate climate. For there the
    mountain ridges are clothed with self-grown vines, and cornfields and
    vegetables are common as grass [i.e., grow wild]. Consequently they
    are called on account of the rich vegetation 'Fortunatæ,' that is to
    say, 'felices' [happy, fertile], for there are trees that grow as high
    as 140 feet...."

The resemblance between this description and that of Wineland is so close
that it cannot be explained away as fortuitous; the most prominent
features are common to both: the self-sown cornfields, the self-grown
vines on the hills, and the lofty trees (cf. Pliny, below, p. 348), which
are already present in the narrative of Leif's voyage (see above, p. 317).
If we go back to antiquity and examine the general ideas of the Fortunate
Land or the Fortunate Isles out in the ocean in the west, we find yet more
points of resemblance. Diodorus [v. 19, 20] describes a land opposite
Africa, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, as fertile and mountainous,
but also to a large extent flat. (Wineland also had hills and lowlands.)
It invites to amusements and delights.[326] The mountainous country has
thick forests and all kinds of fruitful trees, and many streams; there is
excellent hunting with game of all sorts, big and small, and the sea is
full of fish (precisely as Wineland). Moreover, the air is extremely mild
(as in Wineland), and there is plenty of fruit the whole year round, etc.
The land was not known in former times, but some Phœnicians on a voyage
along the African coast were overtaken by a storm, were driven about the
ocean for many days, until they came thither (like Leif).

It is said of Wineland, in the Saga of Eric the Red, that "no snow at all
fell there, and the cattle were out (in winter) and fed themselves," and
in the Flateyjarbók we read that "there was no frost in the winter, and
the grass withered little." These, we see, are pure impossibilities. As
early as the Odyssey [iv. 566] it is said of the Elysian Fields in the
west on the borders of the earth:

  "There is never snow, never winter nor storm, nor streaming rain,
  But Ocean ever sends forth the light breath of the west wind
  To bring refreshment to men."

In the early civilisation of Babylon and Egypt this fortunate land seems
to have been imagined as lying in the direction of the rising sun; but the
ideas are always the same. An ancient Egyptian myth puts "Aalu" or "Hotep"
(== place of food, land of eating), which is the abode of bliss and
fortune, far in the east, where light conquers darkness.

    "Both texts and pictures bear witness to the beauty which pervades
    this abode of life; it was a Paradise as splendid as could be
    imagined, 'the store-house of the great god'; where 'the corn grows
    seven cubits high.' It was a land of eternal life; there, according to
    the oldest Egyptian texts, the god of light, and with him the
    departed, acquire strength to renew themselves and to arise from the
    dead."[327]

In the same colours as these the Odyssey describes many fortunate lands
and islands, such as the nymph Calypso's beautiful island Ogygia, far in
the west of the ocean; and again "Scheria's delightful island" [vii. 79
ff.], where the Phæacians, "a people as happy as gods," dwell "far away
amid the splashing waves of the ocean," where the mild west wind, both
winter and summer, ever causes the fruit-trees and vines to blossom and
bear fruit, and where all kinds of herbs grow all the year round (remark
the similarity with Isidore's description). The fortunate isle of Syria,
far in the western ocean, is also mentioned [xv. 402],

  "North of Ortygia, towards the region where the sun sets;
  Rich in oxen and sheep, and clothed with vines and wheat,"

where the people live free from want and sickness. These are the same
ideas which were afterwards transferred to the legend of the Hyperboreans
(cf. pp. 15 ff.).[328] It is natural that among the Greeks wine and the
vine took a prominent place in these descriptions. In post-Homeric times
the "Isles of the Blest" (Μακαρων νησοι) are described by Hesiod (and
subsequently by Pindar) as lying in the western ocean--

    "there they live free from care in the Isles of the Blest, by the
    deep-flowing Ocean, the fortunate heroes to whom the earth gives
    honey-sweet fruits three times a year."

It is these ideas--perhaps originally derived from the Orient--that have
developed into the Insulæ Fortunatæ.

These islands are described by many writers of later antiquity. Pliny says
[Nat. Hist., vi. 32 (37)] that according to some authors there lie to the
west of Africa

    "the Fortunate Isles and many others, whose number and distance are
    likewise given by Sebosus. According to him the distance of the island
    of Junonia from Gades is 750,000 paces; it is an equal distance from
    this island westward to Pluvialia and Capraria. In Pluvialia there is
    said to be no water but that which the rain brings. 250,000 paces
    south-west of it and over against the left side of Mauritania
    [Morocco] lie the Fortunate Isles, of which one is called Invallis on
    account of its elevated form, the other Planaria on account of its
    flatness. Invallis has a circumference of 300,000 paces, and the trees
    on it are said to attain a height of 140 feet."

But as usual Pliny uncritically confuses statements from various sources,
and he here adds information collected by the African king Juba about the
Fortunate Isles. According to this they were six in number: Ombrios, two
islands of Junonia, besides Capraria, Nivaria, and Canaria, so called from
the many large dogs there, of which two were brought to Juba. Solinus
mentions in one place [c. 23, 10] that there are three Fortunatæ Insulæ,
but in another place [c. 56] he gives Juba's statement from Pliny. That
these islands were located to the west of Africa is certainly due to the
Phœnicians' and Carthaginians' knowledge of the Canary Islands, and
Ptolemy also places them here (see above, p. 117). Strabo [i. 3] thinks
that the Isles of the Blest lay west of the extremity of Maurusia
(Morocco), in the region where the ends of Maurusia and Iberia meet. Their
name shows that they lie near to the holy region (i.e., the Elysian
Fields).

In his biography of the eminent Roman general Sertorius ("imperator" in
Spain for several years, died in 72 B.C.), Plutarch also mentions the
Isles of the Blest. He tells us that when Sertorius landed as an exile on
the south-west coast of Spain (Andalusia),

    "he found there some sailors newly arrived from the Atlantic Isles.
    These are two in number, separated only by a narrow strait, and they
    are 10,000 stadia (1000 geographical miles) from the African coast.
    They are called the 'Isles of the Blest.' Rain seldom falls there, and
    when it does so, it is in moderation; but they usually have mild
    winds, which spread such abundance of dew that the soil is not only
    good for sowing and planting, but produces of itself the most
    excellent fruit, and in such abundance that the inhabitants have
    nothing else to do but to abandon themselves to the enjoyment of
    repose. The air is always fresh and wholesome, through the favourable
    temperature of the seasons and their imperceptible transition.... So
    that it is generally assumed, even among the barbarians, that these
    are the Elysian Fields and the habitations of the blest, which Homer
    has described with all the magic of poetry. When Sertorius heard of
    these marvels he had a strong desire to settle in these islands, where
    he might live in perfect peace and far from the evils of tyranny and
    war."

But this remarkable man soon had fresh warlike under-takings to think
about, so that he never went there. It appears too from the fragments that
have come down to us of Sallust's Histories[329] that Sertorius did not
visit these islands, but only wished to do so. In fragment 102 we read:

    "It is related that he undertook a voyage far out into the ocean," and
    Maurenbrecher adds that a scholium to Horace [Epod. 16, 42] says: "The
    ocean wherein are the Insulæ Fortunatæ, to which Sallust in his
    Histories says that Sertorius wished to retire when he had been
    vanquished."

But in L. Annæus Florus, who lived under Hadrian (117-138 A.D.), we read
[iii. 22]:[330]

    "An exile and a wanderer on account of his banishment, this man [i.e.,
    Sertorius] of the greatest but most fatal qualities filled seas and
    lands with his misfortunes: now in Africa, now in the Balearic Isles
    he sought fortune, was sent out into the ocean and reached the
    Fortunate Isles: finally he raised Spain to conflict."

It thus appears that by Florus's time the idea had shaped itself that
Sertorius really had sought and found these islands; which, besides, in
part at all events, were thought to be the same as those said to have been
already discovered by the Carthaginian Hanno on the west coast of Africa
about 500 B.C.

Of great interest is the description which Horace gives in his Epodes
[xvi. 39 ff.] of the Fortunate Isles in the ocean, though he does not
mention them by name. He exhorts the Romans, who were suffering from the
civil wars, to abandon the coast of Italy (the Etruscan coast) and sail
thither, away from all their miseries. Lord Lytton[331] gave the following
metrical translation of the poem:

  Ye in whom manhood lives, cease woman wailings,
  Wing the sail far beyond Etruscan shores.
  Lo! where awaits an all-circumfluent ocean--
  Fields, the Blest Fields we seek, the Golden Isles
  Where teems a land that never knows the ploughshare--
  Where, never needing pruner, laughs the vine--
  Where the dusk fig adorns the stem it springs from,
  And the glad olive ne'er its pledge belies--
  There from the creviced ilex wells the honey;
  There, down the hillside bounding light, the rills
  Dance with free foot, whose fall is heard in music;
  There, without call, the she-goat yields her milk,
  And back to browse, with unexhausted udders,
  Wanders the friendly flock; no hungry bear
  Growls round the sheepfold in the starry gloaming,
  Nor high with rippling vipers heaves the soil.
  These, and yet more of marvel, shall we witness,
  We, for felicity reserved; how ne'er
  Dark Eurus sweeps the fields with flooding rain-storm,
  Nor rich seeds parch within the sweltering glebe.
  Either extreme the King of Heaven has tempered.
  Thither ne'er rowed the oar of Argonaut,
  The impure Colchian never there had footing.
  There Sidon's trader brought no lust of gain;
  No weary toil there anchored with Ulysses;
  Sickness is known not; on the tender lamb
  No ray falls baneful from one star in heaven.
  When Jove's decree alloyed the golden age,
  He kept these shores for one pure race secreted;
  For all beside the golden age grew brass
  Till the last centuries hardened to the iron,
  Whence to the pure in heart a glad escape,
  By favour of my prophet-strain is given.

Rendered into prose, Horace's poem will run somewhat as follows:

    "Ye who have manliness, away with effeminate grief, and fly beyond the
    Etruscan shore. There awaits us the all-circumfluent ocean: Let us
    steer towards fields, happy fields and rich islands, _where the
    untilled earth gives corn every year, and the vine uncut_ [i.e.,
    unpruned, growing wild] _continually flourishes_, and the
    never-failing branch of the olive-tree blossoms forth, and the fig
    adorns its tree, honey flows from the hollow ilex, the light stream
    bounds down from the high mountain on murmuring foot," etc.

We thus find here in Horace precisely the same ideas of the Elysian Fields
or the Fortunate Isles that occur later in Isidore and in the saga's
description of the fortunate Wineland; especially striking are the
expressions about the corn that each year grows wild (on the unploughed
earth) and the wild vine which continually yields fruit (blossoms,
"floret").

    These myths of the Fortunate Isles--originally derived from
    conceptions of the happy existence of the elect after death (in the
    Elysian Fields), for which reason they were called by the Greeks the
    Isles of the Blest--have also, of course, been blended with Indian
    myths of "Uttara Kuru." Among the Greeks they were sometimes the
    subject of humorous productions; several such of the fifth century
    B.C. are preserved in Athenæus. Thus Teleclides says: "Mortals live
    there peacefully and free from fear and sickness, and all that they
    need offers itself spontaneously. The gutter flows with wine, wheat
    and barley bread fight before the mouths of the people for the favour
    of being swallowed, the fish come into the house, offer themselves and
    serve themselves up, a stream of soup bears warm pieces of meat on its
    waves," etc. Cf. also Lucian's description of the Isle of the Blest in
    Vera Historia (second century A.D.): "The vines bear fruit twelve
    times a year ... instead of wheat the ears put forth little loaves
    like sponges," etc. [Wieland, 1789, iv. p. 196].

    In the Middle Ages the tale of the land of desire was widespread: in
    Spain it took the name of "Tierra del Pipiripáo" or "Dorado" (the land
    of gold), or again "La Isla de Jauja," said to have been discovered by
    the ship of General Don Fernando. In it are costly foods, rich stuffs
    and cloths in the fields and on the trees, lakes and rivers of Malmsey
    and other wines, springs of brandy, pools of lemonade, a mountain of
    cheese, another of snow, which cools one in summer and warms in
    winter, etc. In the Germanic countries this took the form of the
    legend of Schlaraffenland.[332] This mythical country has in Norway
    become "Fyldeholmen" (i.e., the island of drinking),[333] which shows
    that to the Norwegians of later days wine or spirits were the most
    important feature in the description of the land of desire, as the
    wine was to the ancient Norsemen in the conception of Wineland.

To sum up, it appears to me clear that the saga's description of Wineland
must in its essential features be derived from the myth of the Insulæ
Fortunatæ. The representations of it might be taken directly from Isidore,
who was much read in the Middle Ages, certainly in Iceland (where a
partial translation of his work was made) and in Norway (he is often
quoted in the "King's Mirror"), or orally from other old authorities, who
gave still more detailed descriptions of these islands. But the difficulty
is that the name of Wineland, connected with the ideas of the self-grown
vine and the unsown wheat, is already found in Adam of Bremen (circa 1070,
see above, pp. 195 ff.). We might therefore suppose that it was his
mention of the country which formed the basis of the Icelandic
representation of it, although his fourth book (the description of the
isles of the North) seems otherwise to have been little known in the North
at that time; but here again the difficulty presents itself that the later
description, that of the saga, is more developed and includes several
features which agree with the classical conceptions, but which are not yet
found in Adam of Bremen. I think therefore that the matter may stand thus,
that "Vínland hit Góða" was the Norsemen's name for "Insulæ Fortunatæ,"
and was in a way a translation thereof; and oral tales about the
country--based on Isidore and later on other sources as well--may have
formed the foundation of the statements both in Adam and in Icelandic
literature. In the latter, then, an ever-increasing number of features
from the classical conceptions have crystallised upon the nucleus, when
once it was formed, especially through the clerical, classically educated
saga-writers.

As Norway, and still more Iceland (cf. pp. 167, 258), were closely
connected in ancient days with Ireland, and as Norse literature in many
ways shows traces of Irish influence, one is disposed to think that the
ideas of Wineland may first have reached Iceland from that quarter. This
exactly agrees with what was said at the beginning of this chapter, that
the statements (in the Landnámabók) from the oldest Icelandic source, Are
Frode, point directly to Ireland as the birthplace of the first reports of
Wineland. We read in the Landnámabók:

    "Hvítramanna-land, which some call 'Irland hit Mikla' [Ireland the
    Great], lies westward in the ocean near Wineland (Vindland) the Good.
    It is reckoned six 'dœgr's' sail from Ireland."

Nothing more is said about Wineland.[334] As it is added that Are
Mársson's voyage to Hvítramanna-land

    "was first related by Ravn 'Hlymreks-farer,' who had long been at
    Limerick in Ireland,"

we see that Ravn, who was an Icelandic sailor of the beginning of the
eleventh century, must have heard of both Hvítramanna-land and Wineland in
Ireland, since otherwise he could not have known that one lay near the
other.[335] But as Hvítramanna-land or "Great Ireland" is an Irish
mythical country (see later), it becomes probable that Wineland the Good,
at any rate in this connection, was one likewise. The old Irish legends
mention many such fortunate islands in the western ocean, which have
similar names, and which to a large extent are derived from the classical
myths of the Elysian Fields and the Insulæ Fortunatæ. Voyages to them form
prominent features of most of the Irish tales and legends. In the heathen
tale of the Voyage of Bran ("Echtra Brain maic Febail," preserved in
fifteenth and fourteenth century copies of a work of the eleventh century,
but perhaps originally written down in the seventh century)[336] there are
descriptions of: "Emain" or "Tír na-m-Ban" (the land of women), with
thousands of amorous women and maidens, and "without care, without death,
without any sickness or infirmity" (where Bran and his men live
sumptuously each with his woman);[337] "Aircthech" (== the beautiful
land); "Ciuin" (== the mild land), with riches and treasures of all
colours, where one listens to lovely music, and drinks the most delicious
wine; "Mag Mon" (== the plain of sports); "Imchiuin" (== the very mild
land); "Mag Mell" (== the happy plain, the Elysium of the Irish), which
is described as lying beneath the sea, where without sin, without crime,
men and loving women sit under a bush at the finest sports, with the
noblest wine, where there is a splendid wood with flowers and fruits and
golden leaves, and the true scent of the vine; there is also "Inis Subai"
(the isle of gladness), where all the people do nothing but laugh.[338] It
is said in the same tale that "there are thrice fifty distant islands in
the ocean to the west of us, each of them twice or thrice as large as
Erin."

That western happy lands in the Irish legends (even in the Christian
"Imram Maelduin") should often be depicted as the Land of Women ("Tír
na-m-Ban") or Land of Virgins ("Tír na-n-Ingen"), with amorously longing
women, might be thought to have some connection with Mahomet's Paradise
and the Houris; but the erotically sensuous element is everywhere so
prominent in mediæval Irish literature that this feature may be a genuine
Irish one.[339] It must, by the way, be this "Tír na-n-Ingen" that we
meet with again in the Faroese lay "Gongu-Rólv's kvæði," where the giant
from Trollebotten carries Rolv to "Möyaland" (cf. Småmöyaland); there Rolv
slept three nights with the fair "Lindin mjá" (== the slender lime-tree,
i.e., maid), and on the third night she lost her virginity. But the other
maidens all want to see him, they all want to torment him, some want to
throw him into the sea,

  "Summar vildu hann á gálgan föra    Some would carry him to the gallows,
  summar ríva hans hár,               some would tear his hair,
  uttan frúgvin Lindin mjá,           except the damsel Lindin the slender,
  hon fellir fyri hann tár."          she shed tears for him.

She sends for the bird "Skúgv," which carries him on its back for seven
days and six nights across the sea to the highest mountain in Trondhjem.
[Cf. Hammershaimb, 1855, pp. 138 ff.]

The "Promised Land" ("Tír Tairngiri") with the "Happy Plain" ("Mag
Mell")[340] became in the Christian Irish legends the earthly Paradise,
"Terra Repromissionis Sanctorum" (the land of promise of the saints).
Other names for the happy land or happy isles in the west are: "Hy
Breasail" (== the fortunate isle), "Tír na-m-Beo" (== the land of the
living), "Tír na-n-Óg" (== the land of youth), "Tír na-m-Buadha" (== the
land of virtues), "Hy na-Beatha" (== the isle of life). The happy isle of
"Hy Breasail," which was thought to be inhabited by living people, was
also frequently called the "Great Land" (which when translated into Old
Norse might become "Víðland"); just as the "Land of the Living," where
there were only enticing women and maidens, and neither death nor sin nor
offence, was called the "Great Strand" ("Trág Mór").[341] There is also
mention of "Tír n-Ingnad" (land of marvels) and "Tírib Ingnad" (lands of
marvels). This Irish series of names and conceptions for the same
wonderful land (or strand) may well be thought to have been the origin of
the name "Furðustrandir."[342] The Irish often imagined their Promised
Land, with "Mag Mell" and also the land of women, as the sunken land
under the sea (cf. p. 355), and called it "Tír fo-Thuin" (== the land
under the wave).

It is not surprising that a name like "Vínland hit Góða" should have
developed from such a world of ideas as this. But Moltke Moe has drawn my
attention to yet another remarkable agreement, in the Grape-Island
("Insula Uvarum"), one of the fortunate isles visited by the Irish saint
Brandan. In the Latin "Navigatio Sancti Brandani"--a description of
Brandan's seven years' sea voyage in search of the "Promised Land"--it is
related that one day a mighty bird came flying to Brandan and the brethren
who were with him in the coracle; it had a branch in its beak with a bunch
of grapes of unexampled size and redness[343] [cf. Numbers xiii. 23],[344]
and it dropped the branch into the lap of the man of God. The grapes were
as large as apples, and they lived on them for twelve days.

    "Three days afterwards they reached the island; it was covered with
    the thickest forests of vines, which bore grapes with such incredible
    fertility that all the trees were bent to the earth; all with the same
    fruit and the same colour; not a tree was unfruitful, and there were
    none found there of any other sort."

Then this man of God goes ashore and explores the island, while the
brethren wait in the boat (like Karlsevne and his men waiting for the
runners), until he comes back to them bringing samples of the fruits of
the island (as the runners brought with them samples of the products of
Wineland). He says: "Come ashore and set up the tent, and regale
yourselves with the excellent fruits of this land, which the Lord has
shown us." For forty days they lived well on the grapes, and when they
left they loaded the boat with as many of them as it would hold, exactly
like Leif in the "Grönlendinga-þáttr," who loaded the ship's boat with
grapes when they left Wineland; and like Thorvald at the same place, who
collected grapes and vines for a cargo [cf. "Grönl. hist. Mind.," i. pp.
222, 230].

The fortunate island on which the monk Mernoc lived (at the beginning of
the "Navigatio") was called "Insula Deliciosa." The great river that
Brandan found in the Terra Repromissionis, and that ran through the middle
of the island, may be compared to the stream that Karlsevne found at Hóp
in Wineland, which fell into a lake and thence into the sea, and where
they entered the mouth of the river. But the river which divided the Terra
Repromissionis, and which Brandan could not cross, was evidently
originally the river of death, Styx or Acheron in Greek mythology
("Gjǫll" in Norse mythology). One might be tempted to suppose that, in
the same way as the whole description of Wineland has been dechristianised
from the Terra Repromissionis, the realistic, and therefore often
rationalising, Icelanders have transformed the river in the Promised Land,
the ancient river of death, into the stream at Hóp.

Other passages also of the descriptions of the Wineland voyages present
similarities with Brandan's voyage; and similar resemblances are found
with other Irish legends, so many, in fact, that they cannot be explained
as coincidences. The "Navigatio Sancti Brandani" was written in the
eleventh century, or in any case before 1100[345] (but parts of the legend
of Brandan may belong to the seventh and eighth centuries). The work was
widely diffused in Europe in the twelfth century, and was also well known
in Iceland; we still possess an Old Norse translation of parts of it in
the "Heilagra Manna sǫgur" [edited by Unger, Christiania, 1877, i.].
Through oral narratives the mythical features which are included in this
legend have evidently helped to form the tradition of the Wineland
voyages.

In the tale of the voyage of Maelduin and his companions ("Imram
Maelduin," see above, p. 336),[346] it is related that they came to an
island where there were many trees, like willow or hazel, with wonderful
fruit like apples, or wine-fruit, with a thick, large shell; its juice had
so intoxicating an effect that Maelduin slept for a day and a night after
having drunk it; and when he awoke, he told his companions to collect as
much as they could of it, for the world had never produced anything so
lovely. They then filled all their vessels with the juice, which they
pressed out of the fruit, and left the island. They mixed the juice with
water to mitigate its intoxicating and soporific effect, as it was so
powerful.[347] This reminds us of Tyrker in the "Grönlendinga-þáttr," who
gets drunk from eating the grapes he found.[348]

    Wine is, moreover, a prominent feature in many of the Irish legends of
    sea-voyages. The voyagers often find intoxicating drinks, which make
    them sleep for several days, and they are often tormented by burning
    thirst and come to islands with springs that give a marvellously
    quickening drink. In the tale of the voyage of the three sons of Ua
    Corra (twelfth century ?) they arrive at an island where a stream of
    wine flows through a forest of oaks, which glitters enticingly with
    juicy fruits. They ate of the apples, drank a little of the stream of
    wine, and were immediately satisfied and felt neither wounds nor
    sickness any more. In the tale of Maelduin there is an island with
    soil as white as a feather and with a spring which on Wednesdays and
    Fridays gives whey or water, on Sundays and the days of martyrs good
    milk, but on the days of the Apostles, of Mary and of John the
    Baptist, and on the great festivals it gives ale and wine [cf. Zimmer,
    1889, pp. 163, 189].

    Brandan's Grape-island, Maelduin who intoxicates himself by eating the
    wine-fruit, and the stream of wine flowing through the oak forest, all
    bear a remarkable resemblance to what the Greek sophist and satirist
    Lucian (second century A.D.) relates in his fables in the "Vera
    Historia" about the seafarers who came to a lofty wooded island. As
    they wandered through the woods they came to a river, which instead of
    water ran with wine, like Chios wine. In many places it was broad and
    deep enough to be navigable, and it had its source in many great
    vines, which hung full of grapes. In the river were fish of the colour
    and taste of wine. They swallowed some so greedily that they became
    thoroughly intoxicated. But afterwards they had the idea of mixing
    these wine-fish with water-fish, whereby they lost the too-powerful
    taste of wine and were a good dish. After wading through the river of
    wine they came upon some remarkable vines, the upper part of which
    were like well-developed women down to the belt. Their fingers ran out
    into twigs full of grapes, their heads were covered with
    vine-branches, leaves and grapes, instead of hair. "The ladies kissed
    us on the mouth," says Lucian, "but those who were kissed became drunk
    on the spot and reeled. Only their fruit they would not allow us to
    take, and they cried out in pain if we plucked a grape or two off
    them. On the other hand, some of them showed a desire to pair with us,
    but two of my companions who complied with them had to pay dearly for
    it; for ... they grew together with them in such a way that they
    became one stem with common roots." After this strange experience the
    voyagers filled their empty barrels partly with ordinary water, partly
    with wine from the river, and on the following morning they left the
    island. In the Isle of the Blest, at which they afterwards arrived,
    there were, in addition to many rivers of water, of honey, of
    sweet-scented essences and of oil, seven rivers of milk and eight of
    wine. We even find a parallel in Lucian to Maelduin's white island
    with the springs of milk and wine, as the travellers come to a sea of
    milk, where there was a great island of cheese, covered with vines
    full of grapes; but these yielded milk instead of wine [cf. Wieland,
    1789, iv. pp. 150 ff., 188 f., 196]. A direct literary connection
    between Lucian and the Irish myths can hardly be probable, as he is
    not thought to have been known in Western Europe before the fourteenth
    century; but he was much read in Eastern Europe, and oral tales
    founded on his stories may have reached the Irish. The resemblances
    are so pronounced and so numerous that it does not seem very probable
    that they should be wholly accidental. Such an oral connection might,
    for instance, have been brought about by the Scandinavians, who had
    much intercourse with Miklagard (Byzantium), or by the Arabs, who in
    fact preserved a great part of Greek literature, and who were in
    constant communication both with Celts and with Scandinavians.

That a mythical island like the Isle of Grapes--or perhaps others as well,
such as the "Insula Deliciosa"--might be the origin of the "Vinland hit
Góða" of the Icelanders, to which one sailed from Greenland (and of Adam
of Bremen's Winland), appears natural also from the fact that many of the
islands and tracts that are mentioned in the "Navigatio," and that for the
most part are also mentioned in the older tale of Maelduin, are
undoubtedly connected with northern and western waters. That this must be
so is easily understood when one considers the voyages of Irish monks to
the Faroes and Iceland. The Sheep Island, which was full of sheep, and
where Brandan obtained his paschal lamb, must be the Faroes, where the
sheep are mentioned even by Dicuil (see p. 163), just as the island with
the many birds also reminds us of Dicuil's account of these islands; the
island on the borders of Hell, whose steep cliffs were black as coal,
where one of Brandan's monks, when he set foot ashore, was instantly
seized and burnt by demons, and which at their departure they saw covered
with fire and flames, may have some connection with Iceland.[349] But it
also bears some resemblance to the Hell Island that Lucian's voyagers
come to, surrounded by steep cliffs, where there were stinking fumes of
asphalt, sulphur, pitch, and roasted human beings. When Brandan arrives at
the curdled sea ("mare quasi coagulatum"), and has to sail through
darkness before he comes to the Land of Happiness, or when we hear of a
thick fog like a wall about the kingdom of Manannan, we again think of the
northern regions where the Liver Sea lay, and where Adam of Bremen had his
dark or mist-filled sea.

    While thus many features connect the legend of Brandan with northern
    waters, it has, on the other hand--like many other Irish myths--its
    roots far down in the mythical conceptions of the classics. Above all,
    Brandan's Paradise or "Promised Land of the Saints," Terra
    Repromissionis Sanctorum, is nothing but the Greeks' Isles of the
    Blest, blended with ideas from the Bible. As shown by Zimmer [1889,
    pp. 328 ff.], the Imram Maelduin (which to a large extent forms the
    foundation of the Navigatio St. Brandani) and other Irish tales of
    sea-voyages have great similarity to Virgil's Æneid, and are composed
    on its model. We have already said that Brandan's Grape-island may
    have some connection with Lucian. From him is possibly also derived
    Brandan's great whale, "Iasconicus," on whose back they live and
    celebrate Easter. But similar big fishes are known from old Indian
    legends, from the legends about Alexander, etc. It may also be
    mentioned that in the Breton legend corresponding to Brandan's, that
    of St. Machutus (written down by Bili, deacon at Aleth, ninth
    century), the latter and Brandan came to an island where they find the
    dead giant "Mildu," whom Machutus awakens and baptizes and who, wading
    through the sea, tries to draw their ship to the Paradise-island of
    "Yma," which he says is surrounded by a wall of shining gold, like a
    mirror, without any visible entrance. But a storm raises the sea and
    bursts the cable by which he is towing them. Humboldt already saw in
    this giant the god Cronos, who, according to Plutarch, lay sleeping on
    an island in the Cronian Sea to the north-west of Ogygia, which lay
    five days' voyage to the west of Britain (see above, p. 156). It is
    probably the same giant who in the tale of Brandan written in Irish
    ("Imram Brenaind") has become a beautiful maiden, whiter than snow or
    sea-spray; but a hundred feet high, nine feet across between the
    breasts, and with a middle finger seven feet long. She is lying
    lifeless, killed by a spear through the shoulder; but Brandan awakens
    and baptizes her. She belongs to the sea-people, who are awaiting
    redemption. As, in answer to Brandan's question, she prefers going
    straight to heaven to living, she dies again immediately without a
    sigh after taking the sacrament [cf. Schirmer, 1888, pp. 30, 72;
    Zimmer, 1889, p. 136; De Goeje, 1891, p. 69]. This maiden is evidently
    connected with the supernaturally beautiful, big, and white king's
    daughter from the Land of Virgins ("Tír na-n-Ingen") who seeks the
    protection of Finn MacCumaill, and who is also pierced by a spear [cf.
    Zimmer, 1889, pp. 269, 325]. Thus do mythical beings transform
    themselves till they become unrecognisable. The same woman is found
    again in Iceland as late as the seventeenth century.[350]

    In many of its features the Brandan legend, or similar Irish legends,
    may be shown to have had influence on Norse literature. The theft of
    the neck-chain (or bridle ?) by one of the brethren, who comes to
    grief thereby, in the Navigatio and in other Irish tales, is found
    again, as Moltke Moe points out to me, in the story of Thorkel Adelfar
    in Saxo Grammaticus, as a theft of jewels and of a cloak, through
    which the thieves also come to grief. The great fish (whale)
    "Iasconicus," of which Brandan relates that it tries in vain to bite
    its own tail, is evidently the Midgardsworm of Norse literature. In
    the same way the little, apparently innocent, but supernatural cat in
    the "Imram Maelduin" which suddenly destroys the man who steals the
    neck-chain may be connected with the cat that Thor tries to lift in
    Utgard. It is doubtless the same little cat that three young priests
    took with them on their voyage in another Irish legend [in the Book of
    Leinster, of the beginning of the twelfth century]. In the "Imram
    Brenaind" this little cat they took with them has grown into a monkey
    as large as a young ox, which swims after Brandan's boat and wants to
    swallow it [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 139]. Again, quite recently Von Sydow
    [1910, pp. 65 ff.] has shown that the Snorra-Edda's myth of Thor's
    journey to Utgard is based on Irish myths and tales.

Legends of a happy land or an island far over the sea towards the sunset
were evidently widely diffused in Northern Europe in those days, outside
Ireland. In Anglo-Saxon literature there is a dialogue between Adrianus
and Ritheus (probably of the tenth century), where we read:

    "Tell me where the sun shines at night."... "I tell you in three
    places: first in the belly of the whale that is called 'Leuiathan';
    and the second season it shines in Hell; and the third season it
    shines upon the island that is called 'Glið,' and there the souls of
    holy men repose till doomsday."[351]

This Glið (i.e., the glittering land) is evidently the Land of the Blest,
Brandan's Terra Repromissionis, that lies in dazzling sunshine, after one
has passed through darkness and mist; but whether the myth reached the
Anglo-Saxons from the Irish seems doubtful.

Pseudo-Gildas's description (twelfth century) of the isle of "Avallon"
(the apple-island of Welsh myth) is also of interest; it is connected with
exactly the same ideas as the Irish happy isles:

    "A remarkable island is surrounded by the ocean, full of all good
    things; no thief, no robber, no enemy pursues one there; no violence,
    no winter, no summer rages immoderately; peace, concord, spring last
    eternally, neither flower nor lily is wanting, nor rose nor violet;
    the apple-tree bears flowers and fruit on the selfsame branch; there
    without stain youths dwell with their maidens, there is no old age and
    no oppressive sickness, no sorrow, all is full of joy."[352]

It results, then, from what has here been quoted, that a Grape-island
("Insula Uvarum") makes its appearance in Irish literature in the eleventh
century, at about the same time when Adam of Bremen mentions, from Danish
informants, an island called "Winland." Of the same century again is the
Norwegian runic stone from Hönen in Ringerike, on which, as we shall see
later, Wineland is possibly mentioned (?) From the form of the runes, S.
Bugge ascribes it to the first half of the eleventh century, hardly older,
though it may be later. "Insula Uvarum" translated into the Old Norse
language could not very well become anything but Vínland (or Víney), since
Vínberjarey or Vínberjarland would not sound well. We thus have the
remarkable circumstance that an island with the same name and the same
properties makes its appearance almost simultaneously in Ireland and in
Denmark (and possibly also in Norway). That these Wine-islands or
Winelands should have originated entirely independently of one another, in
countries which had such close intellectual connection, would be a
coincidence of the kind that one cannot very well assume, since it must be
regarded as more probable that there was a connection. But Brandan's
Grape-island can scarcely be derived from a Wineland discovered by the
Norsemen, since, as has been mentioned, the wine and wine-fruit play such
a prominent part in the older Irish legends, and the ancient tale of Bran
("Echtra Brain") describes the Irish Elysium ("Mag Mell") as a land with
magnificent woods and the true scent of the vine, etc. (see p. 355). In
the next place, as has been mentioned, Brandan's Grape-island bears a
resemblance to Lucian's Grape-island; but as Lucian's descriptions seem
also to have influenced, among others, the tale of the intoxicating
wine-fruit in the "Imram Maelduin," it looks as though Lucian's stories
had reached Ireland (e.g., by Scandinavian travellers or through Arabs ?)
long before the Navigatio Brandani was written. As thus the Irish
wine-island cannot well be due to a Norse discovery, it becomes probable
that Adam's name Winland (as well as the possible Norwegian name) was
originally derived from Ireland, and that it reached the northern
countries orally. If the Danes did not get the name from the Norwegians
they may have brought it themselves, as they also had direct communication
with Ireland.[353] This conclusion, that the name of Wineland came from
Ireland, is again strengthened from an entirely different quarter, namely,
the Landnámabók, where it is said that Great-Ireland lay near Wineland. As
suggested on p. 354, this shows that the Icelanders must have heard both
lands spoken of in Ireland. As Ravn Hlymreks-farer is given as the
original authority, and after him Thorfinn, earl of Orkney (ob. circa
1064), this may have been at the beginning of the eleventh century; but as
the statement came finally from Thorkel Gellisson (and consequently was
written down by Are Frode) it may also have been in the second half of
that century. In this way we seem to have a natural explanation of the
simultaneous appearance of the name in the North.[354]

As the statement in the Landnáma is due to Thorkel Gellisson, it is
doubtless most probable that the Wineland that is mentioned for the first
time in Icelandic literature in a gloss in Are Frode's Íslendingabók also
has Thorkel (who is mentioned immediately afterwards) for its authority
(cf. p. 258), although the sentence might be by Are himself. Thorkel may
have heard of this Wineland in Greenland; but it is more likely to be the
country he heard of in connection with the mythical Hvítramanna-land from
Ireland, and he may have heard that there were said to dwell there wights
(or trolls) that were called Skrælings. Two possibilities suggest
themselves: either this Wineland with its Skrælings was nothing but the
well-known mythical land with its mythical people, which required no
further description. It cannot be objected that the sober, critical Are
would not have mentioned a mythical country in this way; for, if he was
capable of believing in a Hvítramanna-land, he could also believe in such
a Wineland. Or, on the other hand, it was a land which had actually been
discovered and to which the name of the mythical country had been
transferred. The latter hypothesis might be strengthened by other things
that point to the Greenlanders having really found land in the west. But,
on the other hand, if a country actually discovered is meant, it is
curious that neither Are nor the Landnáma makes any mention of the
discovery, whereas the discovery of Greenland is related at some length,
and also that of Hvítramanna-land. Again, when Eric the Red came to
Greenland, such a land had in any case not been discovered, so that it
could not have been he who named the Eskimo after the inhabitants of that
land, whereas Are might readily suppose that he had taken the name of
Skrælings from the people of the mythical country; thus Are's words, as
they now stand, would have a clearer meaning.

It may also be worth mentioning that in the only passage of the Sturlubók
where Wineland is alluded to, it is called "Irland et Goda." This has
generally been regarded as a copyist's error; but that it was due to
misreading of an indistinctly written "Vinland" is not likely; it might
rather be due to a careless repetition, since "Irland et Mikla" is
mentioned just before. This is most probable. It may, however, be supposed
that it is not an error, and that just as the latter is an alternative
name for Hvítramanna-land, so "Irland et Góða" may be a corresponding
alternative name for Wineland, which was situated near it. We should thus
again be led to Ireland as the home of the name. In any case the
uncertainty which prevails in the versions of the name of Wineland given
in the oldest authorities is striking (as discussed in the last note).
Nothing of the same sort occurs in the transmission of other geographical
names, and a form such as Vindland in Hauk's Landnáma cannot be explained
as merely a copyist's error. Again, Eric's Saga in the Hauksbók has the
name correctly, although this saga as well as the Landnáma was to a great
extent copied by Hauk Erlendsson himself. This may point to the form
Vindland having occurred in the original from which the Landnáma was
copied. This discloses uncertainty in the very reading of the name, and it
seems also to point to its having been a mythical country and not the name
of a known land that had been discovered.

To any one who is familiar with Norse place-names, the addition "hit góða"
to Wineland must appear foreign and unusual. It is otherwise only known in
the northern countries from the name "Landegode" (originally "Landit
Góða") on the coast of Norway, for an island west of Bodö. The same name
was also used (and is still used in Stad and Herö) for Svinöi, a little
island off Sunnmör, and for Jomfruland (south of Langesund). It has been
generally taken for a so-called tabu-name;[355] but the explanation
suggested to me by Moltke Moe seems more probable, that it was a
designation of fairylands, which lay out in the ocean, and which were
thought to sink into the sea as one approached them. The above-mentioned
Norwegian islands would quite answer to such conceptions, especially when
they loom up and seem larger, and all three islands were formerly
fairylands ("huldrelande"). The original germ of the belief in fairies
("huldrer") is the worship of the departed. "Hulder" means "hidden" (i.e.,
the hidden people). Fairylands are therefore the islands of the hidden, or
of the departed, and these again are the Fortunate Isles or the Isles of
the Blest. A parallel to this is that "Hades" in Greek means the
invisible. And, as we have seen (p. 356), the nymph Calypso (== the hidden
one) answers to our "hulder." When Bran, in the Irish legend alluded to,
meets on the sea Manannán mac Lir (i.e., son of the Sea), king of the
sea-people, lord of the land of the dead, he tells Bran that without being
able to see it he is sailing over Mag Mell (the happy plain), where happy
people are sitting drinking wine, and where there is a splendid forest
with vines, etc.; and the Irish happy land "Tír fo-Thuin" is, as we have
said (p. 358), the land under the wave. The lands or islands of the
departed in course of time became the habitations of the invisible ones
(spirits), of those who possess more than human wisdom, and have a
specially favourable lot; by this means the idea of a fortunate land with
favoured conditions, far surpassing the ordinary lot of men, became more
and more emphasised. This development may be followed both with regard to
classical ideas of the Fortunate Islands and to Norse conceptions of
fairylands.

That the Greeks connected the happy land with the hidden people who move
upon the sea may perhaps be concluded even from the Odyssey's description
of the Phæacians, who dwelt in the happy land, the glorious Scheria, far
in the western ocean (see above, p. 347). That they may be compared with
our fairies ("huldrefolk") appears perhaps from the name itself, which may
come from φαιος (== dark) and mean "dark man," "the hidden man" [cf.
Welcker, 1833, p. 231].[356] They sail at night, always shrouded in clouds
and darkness, in boats as swift "as wings and the thoughts of men" [Od.
vii. 35 f.]. The "huldrefolk" also travel by night (cf. p. 378). In
Ireland and in Iceland the way to fairyland is through darkness and mist,
or sea or water [cf. Gröndal, 1863, pp. 25, 38]; and it is the same in
Nordland. A blending of the fairies ("síd"-people) and the inhabitants of
the happy land or promised land is particularly observable in the Irish
legends [cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 276 f.]. The people of the "síd" dwell
partly in grave-mounds (and are thus like our "haugebonde," or mound-elf),
they may also live in happy lands far west in the sea or under the sea,
and are thus sea-elves, but on the whole they most resemble our
"huldrefolk." The "síd"-woman entices men like our "hulder"; in the tale
of "Condla Ruad" [Connla the Fair; cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 262] she comes
from the Land of the Living ("Tír na-m-Beó"), far across the sea, and
entices Connla to go with her in a glass boat to the "Great Strand," where
there only were women and maidens. This Irish paradise of women out in the
ocean has, as we have said (p. 355), much in common with the German
Venusberg, and with the invisible country of our "huldrefolk." But the
"huldrefolk" dwell now in mountains and woods, now on islands in the sea
or under the sea. As will be seen, the ideas of the Fortunate Isles or of
the Promised Land and those of fairyland thus often coincide. It may be
added that among many peoples the souls of the dead are carried across the
sea in a boat or ship to a land in the west.

    This is evidently connected with the river of death, Styx, Acheron or
    Cocytus, of the Greeks, over which Charon ferried the souls to the
    lower regions in a narrow two-oared boat. Procopius [De bello Goth.,
    iv. 20] relates that according to legends he himself heard from the
    natives, all the souls of the departed are carried every night at
    midnight from the coast of Germania to the island of Brittia (i.e.,
    Britain) which lies over against the mouth of the Rhine between
    Britannia (i.e., Brittany) and Thule (Scandinavia). He whose turn it
    is among the dwellers on the coast to be ferryman hears at midnight a
    knocking at his door and a muffled voice. He goes down to the beach,
    sees there an empty, strange boat, into which he gets and begins to
    row. He then notices that the boat is filled so that the gunwale is
    only a finger's breadth above the water, but he sees nothing. As soon
    as he arrives at the opposite shore, he notices that the boat is
    suddenly emptied, but still he sees no one, and only hears a voice
    announcing the names and rank of the arrivals. The invisible souls,
    who always move in silence, answer to the elves.

    In many ways the connection between the dead and the sea is apparent.
    Balder's body was laid in a ship on which a pyre was kindled, and it
    was abandoned to the currents of the sea. The body of the hero Scild
    in the lay of Beowulf was borne upon a ship, which was carried away by
    the sea, no one knows whither. Fiosi in Njál's Saga has himself
    carried on board a ship and abandoned to the sea, and afterwards the
    ship is not heard of again, etc.[357]

That the fairylands should be called "Landit Góða" may be due to their
exceeding fertility (cf. the huldreland's waving cornfields); but it may
also, as Moltke Moe has pointed out, have a natural connection with the
tendency the Germanic peoples in ancient times seem to have had of
attaching the idea of "good" to the fairies and the dead. In Nordland the
"huldrefolk" are called "godvetter" ("good wights") [cf. I. Aasen]; this
among the Lapps has become "gúvitter," "gufihter," "gufittarak," etc., as
a name for supernatural beings underground or in the sea;[358] the Swedes
in North Sweden use the word "goveiter." The mound-elf ("haugebonden"),
Old Norse "haugbui" (the dweller in the mound), who was the ancestor of
the clan, or the representative of the departed generations, is called in
Nordland "godbonden."[359]

    The underground people are called in Iceland "ljúflingar," in German
    "die guten Leute," in English-speaking Ireland, Scotland and the Isle
    of Man "the good people," "good neighbours," or "the men of
    peace."[360] In Highland Gaelic they are called "daoine sith," in
    Welsh "dynion mad." In Swedish and Danish we have the designation
    "nisse god-dreng" ("nisse good boy") or "goda-nisse," in Norwegian
    "go-granne" ("good neighbour"); (in Danish also "kære granne," "dear
    neighbour"); in German "Guter (or lieber) Nachbar," or "Gutgesell" is
    used of a goblin; in Thuringia "Gütchen," "Gütel"; in the Netherlands
    "goede Kind," and in England "Robin Goodfellow."

That the epithet "good" applied to supernatural beings, especially
underground ones, is so widely spread, even among the Lapps, shows it to
have been common early in the Middle Ages.

    It is of minor interest in this connection to inquire what the origin
    of the epithet may have been. We might suppose that it was the thought
    of the departed as the happy, blest people; but on the other hand it
    may have been fear; it may have been sought to conciliate them by
    giving them pet-names, for the same reason that thunder is called in
    Swedish "gobon" (godbonden), "gofar," "gogubben," "gomor," "goa" (goa
    går),[361] which is also Norwegian.

"Hit góða" is the altogether good, the perfect, therefore the fortunate
land. When the legend of the "Insulæ Fortunatæ" and of the Irish happy
lands--one of which was the sunken fairyland "Tír fo-Thuin," the land
under-wave--reached the North, it was quite natural that the Northerners
should translate the name by one well known to them, "Landit Góða"
(fairyland, the land of the unseen); indeed, the name of Insulæ Fortunatæ
could not well have been translated in any other way. But as wine was so
conspicuous a feature in the description of this southern land of myth,
both in Isidore and among the Irish, and as wine more than any other
feature was symbolical of the idea of happiness, it is natural, as we have
seen, that the Northerners came very soon to call this country, like
Brandan's Grape-island, "Vínland"; thus "Vínland hit Góða" may have arisen
by a combination of "Vínland" and "Landit góða," to distinguish it from
the native "Landit Góða," the fairyland of the Norwegians. A combination
of "hit góða" with a proper name is otherwise unknown, and thus points to
"Landit Góða" as the original form.[362]

    Moltke Moe has given me an example from Gotland of a fairyland having
    received a laudatory name answering to Wineland, in that the popular
    fairyland "Sjóhaj" or "Flåjgland," out at sea, is called
    Smörland.[363] Sjóhaj is a mirage on the sea; and "Flåjgland" comes
    from "fljuga," to fly, i.e., that which drifts about, floating land.
    It now only means looming, but it may originally have been fairyland,
    and it is evident that it is here described as particularly fertile.
    With "Smörland" may be compared Norwegian place-names compounded with
    "smör": "Smörtue," "Smörberg," "Smörklepp." O. Rygh includes these
    among "Laudatory names ... which accentuate good qualities of the
    property or of the place."[364] Similarly in the place-names of
    Shetland: "Smerrin" (== "smjǫr-vin," fat, fertile pasture),
    "Smernadal" (== "smjǫr-vinjar-dalr," valley with fat pasture), "de
    Smerr-meadow" (== originally: "smjor-eng" or "smjǫr-vin"), "de
    Smerwel-park" (probably == "smjor-vollr"), "de Smorli" (probably ==
    "smjor-hlið"). J. Jakobsen [1902, p. 166] says that "'smer(r)' (Old
    Norse 'smjǫr' or 'smœr,' Norwegian 'smör,' butter) means here
    fertility, good pasture, in the same way as in Norwegian names of
    which the first syllable is 'smör.'" With this may be compared the
    fact that even in early times the word "smör" was used to denote a fat
    land, as when Thorolf in the saga said that "it dripped butter from
    every blade of grass in the land they had found" (i.e., Iceland, see
    above, p. 257, cf. also "smjǫr-tisdagr" == "Fat Tuesday," "Mardi
    gras"). That the fairylands were connected with fertility appears
    also from a Northern legend. Nordfuglöi, to the north of Karlsöi, was
    once a troll-island, hidden under the sea and invisible to men, thus a
    "huldre" island. But then certain troll-hags betook themselves to
    towing it to land; a Lapp hag who happened to cast her eye through the
    door-opening saw them come rowing with the island, so that the spray
    dashed over it, and cried: "Oh, what a good 'food-land' we have now
    got!" And thereupon the island stopped at the mouth of the sea, where
    it now is.[365] The fertility of fairyland is doubtless also expressed
    in the incident of the sow that finds it (see later), usually having a
    litter there. Its fertility appears again, perhaps, in H. Ström's
    [1766, p. 436] mention of "Buskholm" (i.e., Bush-island) in Herö
    (Sunnmör), which was inhabited by underground beings and protected,
    therefore wholly overgrown with trees and bushes. The Icelandic
    elfland "is delightful, covered with beautiful forests and sweet
    smelling flowers" [cf. Gröndal, 1863, p. 25], and the Irish is the
    same.

    Legends of islands and countries that disappeared or moved, like the
    fairylands, are widely diffused. To begin with, the Delos (cf. δηλοω,
    become visible) of the Greeks floated about in the sea for a long
    time, as described by Callimachus [v.]; now the island was found, now
    it was away again, until it was fixed among the Cyclades. Ireland,
    which also at a very early time was the holy island (cf. p. 38),
    floated about in the sea at the time of the Flood. Lucas Debes [1673,
    pp. 19 ff.] relates that "at various times a floating island is said
    to have been seen" among the Faroes; but no one can reach it. "The
    inhabitants also tell a fable of Svinöe,[366] how that in the
    beginning it was a floating island: and they think that if one could
    come to this island, which is often seen, and throw steel upon it, it
    would stand still.... Many things are related of such floating
    islands, and some think that they exist in nature." Debes does not
    believe it. "If this was not described of the properties of various
    islands, I should say that it was icebergs, which come floating from
    Greenland: and if that be not so, then I firmly believe that it is
    phantoms and witchcraft of the Devil, who in himself is a thousandfold
    craftsman." Erich Pontoppidan [1753, ii. p. 346] defends the devil and
    protests against this view of Debes, that it is "phantasmata and
    sorcery of the devil," and says: "But as, according to the wholesome
    rule, we ought to give the Devil his due, I think that the devil who
    in haste makes floating islands is none other than that Kraken, which
    some seamen also call 'Söe-Draulen,' that is, the sea troll."

    Of Svinöi in the Faroes precisely the same legend exists as of similar
    islands in Norway (see p. 378), that they came "up," or became
    visible, through a sow upon which steel had been bound [cf.
    Hammershaimb, 1891, p. 362].

    In many places there are such disappearing islands. Honorius
    Augustodunensis makes some remarkable statements in his work "De
    imagine mundi" [i. 36], of about 1125. After mentioning the Balearic
    Isles and the Gorgades, he says: "By the side of them [lie] the
    Hesperides, so called from the town of Hesperia. There is abundance of
    sheep with white wool, which is excellent for dyeing purple. Therefore
    the legend says that these islands have golden apples ('mala'). For
    'miclon' [error for 'malon'] means sheep in Greek.[367] To these
    islands belonged the great island which according to the tale of Plato
    sank with its inhabitants, and which exceeded Africa and Europe in
    extent, where the curdled sea ('Concretum Mare') now is.... There lies
    also in the Ocean an island which is called the Lost ('Perdita'); in
    charm and all kinds of fertility it far surpasses every other land,
    but it is unknown to men. Now and again it may be found by chance; but
    if one seeks for it, it cannot be found, and therefore it is called
    'the Lost.' Men say that it was this island that Brandanus came to."
    It is of special interest that thus as early as that time a
    disappearing island occurred near the Fortunate Isles.

    Columbus says in his diary that the inhabitants of Ferro and Gomera
    (Canary Isles) assert that every year they see land to the west.
    Afterwards expeditions were even sent out to search for it. The
    Dutchman Van Linschoten speaks in 1589 of this beautiful lost land
    under the name of "San Borondon" (St. Brandan), a hundred leagues to
    the west of the Canaries. Its inhabitants are said to be Christians,
    but it is not known of what nation they are, or what language they
    speak;[368] the Spaniards of the Canaries have made many vain attempts
    to find it. The same island, which sometimes shows itself near the
    Canaries, but withdraws when one tries to approach it, still lives in
    Spanish folk-lore under the name of "San Morondon."[369]

    On the coast of the English Channel sailors have stories of floating
    islands, which many of them have seen with their own eyes. They always
    fly before ships, and one can never land there. They are drawn along
    by the devil, who compels the souls of drowned men who have deserved
    Hell and are damned, to stay there till the Day of Judgment. On some
    of them the roar of a terrible beast is heard; and sailors look upon
    the meeting with such an island as a sinister warning.[370]

    Curiously enough, there is said to be a myth of "a floating island"
    among the Iroquois Indians. In their mythology the earth is due to the
    Indian ruler of a great island which floats in space, and where there
    is eternal peace. In its abundance there are no burdens to bear, in
    its fertility all want is for ever precluded. Death never comes to its
    eternal quietude--and no desire, no sorrow, no pain disturbs its
    peace.[371] These ideas remind one strikingly of the Isles of the
    Blest, and are probably derived from European influence in recent
    times. Again, at Boston, in America, there is found a myth of an
    enchanted green land out in the sea to the east; it flies when one
    approaches, and no white man can reach this island, which is called
    "the island that flies." An Indian, the last of his tribe, saw it a
    few times before his death, and set out in his canoe to row, as he
    said, to the isle of happy spirits. He disappeared in a storm the like
    of which had never been known, and after this the enchanted island was
    never seen again [cf. Sébillot, 1886, p. 349].

    Even the Chinese have legends of the Isles of the Blest, which lie 700
    miles from the Celestial Kingdom out in the Yellow Sea, and gleam in
    everlasting beauty, everlasting spring and everlasting gladness. The
    wizard Sun-Tshe is said once to have extorted from a good spirit the
    secret of their situation, and revealed the great mystery to the
    emperor Tshe-Huan-Ti (219 B.C.). Then the noblest youths and the most
    beautiful maidens of the Celestial Kingdom set out to search for
    Paradise, and lo! it suddenly rose above the distant horizon, wrapped
    in roseate glow. But a terrible storm drove the longing voyagers away
    with cruel violence, and since then no human eye has seen the Isles of
    the Blest [after Paul d'Enjoy, in "La Revue"].[372]

    This is the same conception of the floating mirage that we meet with
    again in the Norse term "Villuland" (from "villa" == illusion, mirage,
    glamour), which is found, for instance, in Björn Jónsson of Skardsá
    applied to the fabulous country of Frisland (south of Iceland); it is
    called in one MS. "Villi-Skotland," which is probably the mythical
    "Irland it Mikla" (Great-Ireland), since the Irish were called Scots.
    Are Mársson, according to the Landnáma, reached this "Villuland" and
    stayed there. It is remarkable that his mother Katla, according to the
    Icelandic legend in the poem "Kǫtlu-draumr" (Katla's dream), was
    stolen by an elf-man, who kept her for four nights.[373] It may be
    this circumstance that led to its being Are who found the elf-country
    to the west of Ireland, although it is true that according to the
    Kǫtlu-draumr it was his one-year-older brother Kar who was the
    offspring of the four nights; but the elf-man had asked that his son
    should be called Are.

    There are many such fairylands along the coast of Norway, which used
    to rise up from the sea at night, but sank in the daytime.[374] If one
    could bring fire or steel upon them, then the spell was broken and
    they remained up; but the huldrefolk avenged themselves on the person
    who did this, and he was turned to stone; therefore it was usually
    accomplished by domestic animals which swam across to these islands.
    Many of them have come up in this way, and for this reason they
    frequently bear the names of animals. The most probable explanation is
    doubtless that they were originally given the names of animals from a
    similarity in shape, or some other reason; and the myth is a later
    interpretation of the name. It was often a pig, preferably a sow, that
    had acquired the habit of swimming over to the fairyland, and it
    frequently had litters there; the people of the farm, who noticed that
    it occasionally stayed away, bound steel upon it, and the island was
    hindered from sinking; "therefore such fairy islands are often called
    Svinöi." In this way Svinöi in Brönöi (in Nordland, Norway) came up,
    as well as Svinöi in the Faroes, and doubtless it was the same with
    Svinöi or Landegode in Sunnmör. It was also through a sow that Tautra,
    in Trondhjemsfjord, was raised, besides Jomfruland, and the
    north-western part of Andöi (in Vesterålen). Nay, even Oland in
    Limfjord (Jutland) became visible through a sow with steel bound on
    it, which had a litter. Other islands, like Vega and Sölen, were
    raised by a horse or an ox, etc. Gotland was also a fairyland, but it
    stayed up through a man bringing fire to it.[375] Some fairy islands
    lie so far out at sea that no domestic animal has been able to swim
    over to them, and therefore they have not yet come up; such are
    Utröst, west of Lofoten, Sandflesa, west of Trænen, Utvega, west of
    Vega, Hillerei-öi, and Ytter-Sklinna, in Nordre Trondhjems Amt, and
    hidden fairylands off Utsire, off Lister, and to the south-west of
    Jomfruland.[376]

    It is interesting that the notion of a sow being the cause of people
    coming into possession of fertile islands can also be illustrated from
    mediæval England. William of Malmesbury relates in his "De antiquitate
    Glastoniensis ecclesiæ" [cap. 1 and 2], which belongs to the twelfth
    century before 1143, that Glasteing "... went in search of his sow as
    far as Wellis, and followed her from Wellis by a difficult and boggy
    path, that is called 'Sugewege,' that is to say, 'the sow's way'; at
    last he found her occupied in suckling her young beneath the
    apple-tree beside the church of which we are speaking; from this are
    derived the names that have come down to our time, that the apples of
    this tree are called 'ealdcyrcenes epple,' that is to say, 'the apples
    of the old church,' and the sow 'ealdcyrce suge.' While other sows
    have four feet, this one, strangely enough, has eight. This Glasteing,
    then, who came to this island and saw that it was flowing with all
    good things, brought all his family and established himself there and
    dwelt there all his life. This place is said to be populated from his
    offspring and the race that sprang from him. This is taken from the
    ancient writings of the Britons.

    "Of various names for this island. This island, then, was first called
    by the Britons 'Ynisgwtrin'; later, when the Angles subdued the
    island, the name was translated into their language as 'Glastynbury'
    or Glasteing's town, he of whom we have been speaking. The island also
    bears the famous name of 'Avallonia.' The origin of this word is the
    following: as we have related, Glasteing found his sow under an
    apple-tree by the old church; therefore he called ... the island in
    his language 'Avallonia,' that is 'The isle of apples' (for 'avalla'
    in British means 'poma' in Latin).... Or else the island has its name
    from a certain Avalloc, who is said to have dwelt here with his
    daughters on account of the solitude of the place."[377]

    This Somerset sow with its young and with eight legs, like Sleipner,
    must be Norse. The Norse myth of the sow must have found a favourable
    soil among the Celts, as according to the ideas of Celtic mythology
    the pig was a sacred animal in the religion of the Druids, specially
    connected with Ceridwen, the goddess of the lower world. The Celts
    must have heard of the pig that by the help of steel causes fairylands
    to remain visible; but regarded this as being connected with the
    animal's sacred properties. It cannot have been an originally Celtic
    conception, otherwise we should meet with it in other Celtic legends.
    Moreover the island in this case is not invisible, nor has the sow any
    steel upon her; these are features that have been lost in
    transmission. On the other hand the incident of the sow becoming
    pregnant in the newly found land has been preserved.

    In the ocean to the west of Ireland there lay, as already mentioned
    (p. 354), many enchanted islands. They are in part derived from
    classical and oriental myths; but the native fairies (the síd-people)
    and fairylands have been introduced here also (p. 371). Even in the
    lakes of Ireland there are hidden islands, marvellously fertile with
    beautiful flowers.[378] Giraldus Cambrensis (twelfth century) says
    that on clear days an island appeared to the west of Ireland, but
    vanished when people approached it. At last some came within bowshot,
    and one of the sailors shot a red-hot arrow on to it, and the island
    then remained fixed. The happy island "O'Brasil" ("Hy-Breasail," see
    p. 357) west of Ireland appears above the sea once in every seventh
    year--"on the edge of the azure sea ..." and it would stay up if any
    one could cast fire upon it.[379]

It is no doubt possible that myths of "villulands" or "huldrelands" far
away in the sea may have arisen in various places independently of one
another;[380] they may easily be suggested by mirage or other natural
phenomena, and ideas about happiness are universal among men. But through
many of these myths may be traced features so similar that we can discern
a connection with certainty and can draw conclusions as to a common origin
of the same conceptions.

That Leif of all others, the discoverer of the fortunate land, should have
received the unusual surname of "hinn Heppni" (the Lucky) is also
striking. There is only one other man in the sagas who is called thus:
Hǫgni hinn Heppni, and he belongs to the period of the Iceland
land-taking, but is only mentioned in a pedigree. Just as according to
ancient Greek ideas and in the oldest Irish legends it was only vouchsafed
to the chosen of the gods or of fortune to reach Elysium or the isle of
the happy ones, so Leif, who according to tradition was the apostle of
Christianity in Greenland, must have been regarded by the Christians of
Iceland as the favourite of God or of destiny, to whom it was ordained to
see the land of fortune. It is just this idea of the chosen of fate that
lies in the words "happ" and "heppinn." That the name has such an origin
is also rendered probable by the fact that the saga-tellers were evidently
not clear as to the reason of Leif's being so called, and it is sometimes
represented as due to his having saved the shipwrecked crew (cf. pp. 270,
317), which is meaningless, since in that case it would be the rescued and
not Leif who were lucky, and moreover rescue of shipwrecked sailors must
have been an everyday affair. The saga-writers therefore knew that Leif
had this surname, but the reason for it had in course of time been
forgotten.

An interesting parallel to "Leifr hinn Heppni" has been brought to my
notice by Moltke Moe in the Nordland "Lykk-Anders," the name of the lucky
brother who came to the fairyland Sandflesa, off Trænen in Helgeland.[381]
It is important that this epithet of Lucky is thus only known in Norway in
connection with fairyland.[382] That the underground people, "huldrefolk,"
bring luck appears also in other superstitions.[383] He who is born with
the cap of victory (Glückshaube, -helm, sigurkull, holyhow), which often
seems to have the same effect as the fairy hat, is predestined to fortune
and prosperity, like a Sunday child.

Another possible parallel to the lucky name is the monk "Felix" (i.e.,
happy, corresponding to "heppinn") who occurs in widely diffused mediæval
legends. He has a foretaste of the joys of heaven through hearing a bird
of paradise; he thinks that only a few hours have passed, from morning to
midday, while he is listening to it in rapture, though in reality a
hundred years have gone by.[384] Moltke Moe considers it probable that in
this case the name Felix may be due to a Germanic conception of the lucky
one.

    Moltke Moe sees another parallel--a literary one, to be sure--to Leif
    the Lucky and Lykk-Anders in the Olaf Ásteson of the "Draumkvæde"
    (Dream-Lay) which he explains as "Ástsonr" == the son of love, God's
    beloved son. He is so called because he is so beloved that God has
    given him a glimpse of the future, so that he sees behind the gate of
    death.[385]

All this, therefore, points in the same direction.

Even Adam of Bremen's brief mention of Wineland (cf. pp. 195, 197) bears
evident traces of being untrustworthy; thus he says that the self-grown
vines in Wineland "give the noblest wine." Even if wine could be produced
from the small wild grapes, it would scarcely be noble, and who should
have made it? It is not very likely that the Icelanders and Greenlanders
who discovered the country had any idea of making wine. If we except this
fable of the wine, and the name itself, which seems to be derived from
Ireland (cf. p. 366), but may have been confused with the name of
Finland[386] (cf. p. 198), then Adam's statements about Wineland
correspond entirely to Isidore's description of the Insulæ Fortunatæ, and
contain nothing new. Adam's statement that the island was discovered by
many ("multis") does not agree with the Saga of Eric the Red, which only
knows of two voyages thither, but agrees better with its being a
well-known mythical country, to which many mythical voyages had been made,
or with its being Finmark.[386] Although it may be uncertain whether Adam
thought the ice- and mist-filled sea lay beyond Wineland (cf. p. 199),
this bears a remarkable resemblance to similar Arab myths of islands that
lay near the "Dark Sea" in the west (cf. chapter xiii.); while in any case
it shows how myth is introduced into his description of distant regions,
and there also he places the mythical abyss of the sea. If one reads
through the conclusion of his account (pp. 192 ff.), it will be seen how
he takes pains to get a gradual increase of the fabulous: first Iceland
with the black inflammable ice and the "simple" communistic inhabitants;
then, opposite to the mountains of Svedia, Greenland, with predatory
inhabitants who turn blue-green in the face from the sea-water; then
Halagland, which is made into an island in the ocean, and which is called
holy on account of the midnight sun, of which he gives erroneous
information taken from older authors (cf. p. 194, note 2); then Wineland
(the Fortunate Isles), with Isidore's self-grown vines and unsown corn;
and then finally he reaches the highest pitch (unless in Harold's voyage
to the abyss of the sea) in the tale of the Frisian noblemen's voyage to
the North Pole, which does not contain a feature that is not borrowed from
fables and myths (cf. chapter xii.); now this expedition started from
Bremen, where he lived; and he mentions two archbishops as his authorities
for it. When we find that all these statements about the northern islands
and countries, both before and after the mention of Wineland, are more or
less fables or plagiarisms; when we further see what he was capable of
relating about countries that lay nearer, and about which he might easily
have obtained information--for instance, his Land of Women on the Baltic,
to which he transfers the Amazons and Cynocephali of the Greeks (cf. p.
187), and his Wizzi or Albanians or Alanians (sic) with battle-array of
dogs (!) in Russia [iv. 19][387]--is it credible that what he says about
the most distant country, Wineland, should form the only exception in this
concatenation of fable and reminiscence, and suddenly be genuine and not
borrowed from Isidore, to whom it bears such a striking resemblance? It
must be more probable that he had heard a name, Wineland, perhaps confused
with Finland, and in the belief that this meant the land of wine, he
then, quite in harmony with what he has done in other places (cf.
Kvænland), transferred thereto Isidore's description of the "Insulæ
Fortunatæ."

When therefore Norsemen (like a Leif Ericson) really found new countries
in the west, precisely in the quarter where the mythical "Vínland hit
Góða" (or "Insulæ Fortunatæ") should be according to Irish legend, this
was simply a proof that the country did exist; and the tales and ideas
about it were transferred to the newly discovered land.


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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Hecatæus of Miletus (549-after 486 B.C.) was the best-known geographer
of the Ionian school. He made a map of the world, and summarised the
contemporary Greek ideas of geography.

[2] Cf. Kretschmer, 1892, pp. 41-42.

[3] Berger, 1894, p. 13.

[4] Men like Empedocles, Leucippus, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, and even
Herodotus entertained the naive view that the earth was a disc.

[5] Cf. Kretschmer, 1892, p. 99; Berger ii., 1889, p. 36.

[6] Cf. Theopompus (about 340 B.C.) in Ælian, "Varia," iii. c. 18.

[7] The celebrated physician Hippocrates (470-364 B.C.) makes Scythia
extend on the north to the Rhipæan Mountains, which stretch far enough to
be just below the Great Bear. From them comes the north wind, which
therefore does not blow farther north, so that there must be a milder
climate where the Hyperboreans dwell. The Rhipæan Mountains had become
altogether mythical, but seem often to have been connected with the Ural
and placed north of Scythia; sometimes also they were connected with the
Alps, or with the mountains farther east.

[8] The Cimmerians of the Odyssey (xi. 14) are undoubtedly the same as the
historical Cimmerians of the districts north of the Black Sea, who made
several inroads into Asia Minor in the eighth century, and whose name was
long preserved in the Cimmerian Bosphorus. Cf. Niese, 1882, p. 224, and K.
Kretschmer, 1892, p. 7. W. Christ [1866, pp. 131-132] connects the name
with the Cimbri of Jutland, whose name is alleged to have been somewhat
modified under the influence of the Phœnician "kamar," dark, which may be
doubtful; but Posidonius seems to have been the first to take Cimmerii and
Cimbri for the same name [cf. Strabo, vii. 293], and there is nothing
improbable in the supposition that the wandering Cimbri may have reached
the Black Sea and been the same people as the Cimmerians, who were
remarkable just in the same way for their migrations. Similarly, we find
the Goths both on the shores of the Baltic and by the Black Sea, where we
first meet with them in literature.

[9] O. Helm of Danzig has shown by chemical analysis that the amber of the
Mycenæ beads contains 8 per cent. of succinic acid, and is thus similar to
that found on the Baltic and the North Sea, and unlike all known amber
from districts farther south, Sicily, Upper Italy or elsewhere. Cf.
Schuchhardt, 1890, p. 223, f., and Kretschmer, 1892, p. 10.

[10] "The Times" of Sept. 28, 1909, pp. 9-10. A. W. Brögger [1909, p. 239]
mentions a find from a grave at Corinth of six necklaces of amber, of the
neolithic period, which is preserved in the Museum für Völkerkunde at
Berlin. Brögger informs me that nothing has been published about this
find, which was bought in 1877 from Prof. Aus'm Weerth of Kessenich, near
Bonn. Prof. Schaafhausen briefly mentioned it at the congress at Stockholm
in 1874 [Congrès internat. d'anthrop. et d'archéol. de Stockholm, Compte
rendu, 1874, ii. p. 816]. Assuming that this is Baltic or North Sea amber,
it points to an intercourse of even far greater antiquity, which is also
probable.

[11] Strabo, vii. 295.

[12] Damastes of Sigeum (about 450 B.C., and contemporary with Herodotus)
says that "beyond the Scythians dwell the Issedonians, beyond these again
the Arimaspians, and beyond them are the Rhipæan Mountains, from which the
north wind blows, and which are never free from snow. On the other side of
the mountains are the Hyperboreans who spread down to the sea."

[13] Since the form of the sphere was the most perfect according to the
opinion of the Pythagoreans.

[14] It was, moreover, a common belief in mediæval times that people who
were connected with the other world could not be killed by iron.

[15] "Hyperboreans" are first mentioned in certain poems doubtfully
attributed to Hesiod, but which can scarcely be later than the 7th century
B.C. The full development of the myth is first found in Pindar (about 470
B.C.); but his Hyperboreans cannot be considered as dwelling especially in
the north; their home, to which "the strange path could be found neither
by sea nor by land," lay rather beyond the sea in the far west, and
thither came Perseus borne by wings on his way to Medusa.

[16] This idea can be traced back to Delphi, where any one who had
incurred the god's displeasure was thrown from a cliff. Something similar
happened at the annual festivals of Apollo at Leucas, where he who was
chosen as a victim to ward off evil threw himself from the Leucadian rock
into the sea. It is true that all sorts of feathers and birds were
fastened to the victims to act as a parachute, and after their fall they
were rescued by boats and taken beyond the frontier, as bearers of a
curse. According to some it was the priests themselves who made this leap.

Among the Germanic peoples, if we may believe "Gautrek's Saga" [cf. J.
Grimm, 1854, p. 486; Ranisch, 1900, p. lxxvii. f.], there existed the
custom that the elders of the tribe, when tired of life, used to cast
themselves down from a high crag, called "ætternis stapi" (the tribal
cliff), so as to die without sickness and go to Odin. As a reward for
faithful service the head of the house took his thrall with him in the
leap, so that he too might come thither. After Skapnartungr had divided
the inheritance, he and his wife were conducted to the cliff by their
children, and they went joyfully to Odin. This reminds one strongly of the
happy Hyperboreans. Thietmar of Merseburg (about A.D. 1000) has a similar
legend about the tribal cliff. It is probable that the Germanic peoples in
very early times, like other peoples--the Eskimo, for example--may have
had the custom of taking the lives of the old and useless, or that these
may have taken their own lives, by throwing themselves into the sea, for
instance, as occurs among the Eskimo. On the other hand, it seems very
doubtful that there should have been such tribal cliffs; and it is more
probable that this legend is of literary origin and derived from the
cliffs of Delphi and Leucas, which through the Hyperborean legend came
down to the Roman authors Mela and Pliny, and from them was handed on to
the writers of the Middle Ages and to the scribe of the "Gautrek Saga." It
has been thought that many such "ätte-stupar" can be pointed out in
southern Sweden, but they seem all to be of recent date, and may have been
suggested by this saga.

[17] These may be the architectonical figures on the roof of the temple of
Delphi, transferred to the North together with the Hyperboreans. At Delphi
they were no doubt regarded as guardians of the temple's treasures.

[18] This idea has been explained as being derived from stories of people
dressed in breeches of goats' skin.

[19] Strabo [iii. 147] and Diodorus [v. 38], following Posidonius, mention
these three districts as the places where tin was found.

[20] In the three districts named tin oxide (SnO_{2}) occurs in lodes in
the solid rock, as well as (sometimes in conjunction with gold and silver)
in the gravel or sand of streams, and it was certainly in the latter form
that tin was first extracted, after its discovery by some accident or
other.

[21] It is possible, of course, that the first bronze, like silk, may have
reached the people of the Orient and Egypt from China, without their
knowing from whence it was originally derived. Bronze articles have been
found at Troy which may indicate a connection with China, and it has even
been asserted that Chinese characters have been found there [cf.
Schliemann, 1881, p. 519]. Tin is also known to occur in Persia, but it
has not been ascertained that it was worked there in ancient times. Strabo
[xv. 724] says, however, that the Drangæ in Drangiana, near the Indus,
"suffer from want of wine, but tin occurs with them." Tin is found in the
Fichtelgebirge, and it has been thought possible to identify prehistoric
tin-mines there [cf. O. Schrader, 1901, article "Zinn"].

[22] The Phœnicians' "Tarsis" (or Tarshish), rich in silver, called by the
Greeks "Tartessos," was on the south-west coast of Spain between the
Pillars of Hercules and the Guadiana. About 1100 B.C. Tyre established
there the colony "Gadir" (i.e., "fortress"), called by the Greeks
"Gadeira," and by the Romans "Gades" (now Cadiz).

[23] Cf. S. Reinach, 1892, p. 277. In Breton tin is called "sten," a name
which is certainly not borrowed from the Latin "stannum," as Reinach
thinks; according to the above-quoted opinion of Professor Torp we must
believe that the borrowing has been in the opposite direction.

[24] The explanation of this statement may be that Crassus sailed to the
Cassiterides from the mouth of the Garonne, up which river the route ran
to Narbo. What is alluded to here would then be the sea-passage from the
Garonne.

[25] Pliny [xxxiv. 162] mentions the tinning of copper objects as a
Gaulish invention.

[26] Strabo's repeated statement [ii. 120 and 175] that the Cassiterides
lay north of the land of the Artabri [north-west Spain] also points
decisively to Brittany. The idea must be derived from Eratosthenes, who
borrowed from Pytheas, and the latter placed Cabæum, the promontory of
Brittany, farther west than Cape Finisterre. Diodorus [v. 38] says that
the islands lay opposite Iberia in the Ocean. That they are always
mentioned in connection with the Artabri or north-west Spain shows that
the voyage to them was made from that country.

[27] Georg Mair [1899, p. 20, f.] has allowed himself to be led astray by
Sven Nilsson's fanciful pictures [1862, 1865] into regarding it as a
historical fact that the Phœnicians had permanent colonies in Skane and
regular communication with Scandinavia, even so far north as the Lofoten
isles, whose rich fisheries are supposed to have attracted them.

[28] In a translation of the cuneiform inscription on the obelisk of the
Assyrian king Asurnasirabal (885-860 B.C.) the Assyriologist J. Oppert has
the following remarkable passage, which is taken as referring to this
king's great predecessor Tiglath Pileser I., of about 1100 B.C.: "In the
seas of the trade-winds his fleets fished for pearls, in the seas where
the pole-star stands in the zenith they fished for the saffron which
attracts." [Cf. Schweiger-Lerchenfeld, 1898, p. 141.] Oppert has since
altered the latter part of his translation to "fished for that which looks
like copper." Both interpretations might mean amber, and if the
translation were correct this inscription would furnish a remarkable piece
of evidence for direct communication between Assyria and the Baltic as
early as the ninth century B.C., and in that case we might suppose it
established by means of the Phœnicians. But unfortunately another eminent
Assyriologist, Professor Schrader, has disputed the correctness of the
translation given above, which he thinks is the result of a false reading
of the inscription. According to Schrader there is no mention of pearls,
or amber, or fleets, or pole-star, or zenith; the whole refers merely to
this ancient king's hunting in the mountains of Assyria which took place
"in the days when the star Sukud shone, gleaming like bronze." [Cf.
Verhandl. d. Berliner Gesellsch. f. Anthrop. Ethnol. u. Urgesch, 1885, pp.
65, 66, 306, 372; and Mair, 1903, p. 47.] The last interpretation is
undeniably more probable than the first, and it may well be thought that
the bronze-coloured star which shone may have been Venus.

[29] That amber may have followed this route in early times is made
probable by the finds of ornaments of amber in graves of the Bronze Age
(Halstatt period) in the Caucasus, at Koban and Samthavro.

[30] Franz Mathias [1902, p. 73] draws attention to the statement of Von
Alten ["Die Bohlwege im Gebiet der Ems und Weser," p. 40 and Pl. V.; this
paper has not been accessible to me] that in 1818 there was found a piece
of amber with a Phœnician inscription on one of the oldest and
deepest-lying bog causeways ("Moorbrücken") on the prehistoric trade-route
from the district of the Weser and Ems to the Rhine. As one would expect
amber to be carried from the countries in the north-east towards the
south, and not in the reverse direction, this find, if properly
authenticated, might show that there were Phœnicians on the coast to the
north. But the piece, if it be Phœnician, may also have come from the
south by chance.

[31] See on this subject specially Müllenhoff, 1870, i. pp. 73-203. Also
W. Christ, 1866; Marx, 1895; G. Mair, 1899; and others.

[32] This epithet, which constantly recurs when Ireland is mentioned, may
perhaps in ancient times be due to the resemblance between the Greek words
"hieros" (holy) and "Hierne" (Ireland), which latter may be derived from
the native name of the island, "Erin." In later times, of course, it is
due to Ireland's early conversion to Christianity and its monastic system.

[33] In spite of Müllenhoff's contrary view [1870, p. 92], it does not
appear to me altogether impossible that it may have arisen through a
corruption of the name of the people whom Pytheas calls "Ostimians" or
"Ostimnians," and which in some manuscripts of Strabo [iv. 195] also takes
the forms "Osismians" [cf. also Mela, iii. 2, 7; Pliny, iv. 32; Ptolemy,
ii. 8, 5; Orosius, 6, 8] and "Ostidamnians" [i. 64], and who lived in
Brittany.

[34] In Cæsar's description [B.G., iii. 13] of the ships of the Veneti it
is also stated that "the keels were somewhat flatter than in our ships,
whereby they were better able to cope with the shallows and the falling
tides."

[35] It has been alleged as a proof that the Phœnicians really knew of the
Sargasso Sea that Sargasso weed is mentioned by Theophrastus ["Historia
Plantarum," iv. 6, 4], but I have not been able to find anything of the
sort in this author; nor can I find any statement in Aristotle [Miral.
Auscult.] which can be thus interpreted, as some have thought.

[36] Lycaon was the father of Callisto, and the latter became a she-bear
and was placed among the stars as the constellation of the Great Bear. At
the axis of Lycaon means, therefore, in the north.

[37] As to Pytheas, see in particular: Müllenhoff, 1870, pp. 211 f.;
Berger, iii., 1891, pp. 1 f.; Hergt, 1893; Markham, 1893; Ahlenius, 1894;
Matthias, 1901; Kähler, 1903; Detlefsen, 1904; Callegari, 1904; Mair,
1906.

[38] The principal authorities on Pytheas are: Strabo (1st century A.D.),
who did not know his original works, but quotes for the most part from
Polybius (2nd century B.C.), who was very hostile to Pytheas, and from
Erastosthenes, Hipparchus, and Timæus. Pliny has derived much information
from Pytheas, though he does not know him directly, but chiefly through
Timæus, Isidorus of Charax, who again knew him through Erastosthenes, &c.
Diodorus Siculus (1st century B.C.) knows him chiefly through Timæus.
Geminus of Rhodes (1st century B.C.), who has a quotation from him,
possibly knew his original work, "On the Ocean," but he may have quoted
from Crates of Mallus. Solinus (3rd century A.D.), who has much
information about Pytheas, knows him chiefly through Pliny and Timæus.
Further second-hand quotations and pieces of information derived from
Pytheas occur in Pomponius Mela (1st century A.D.), Cleomedes (2nd century
A.D.), Ptolemy (3rd century A.D.), Agathemerus (3rd century A.D.),
scholiasts on Apollonius of Rhodes, Ammianus Marcellinus (4th century
A.D.), Orosius (5th century A.D.), Isidorus Hispaliensis (7th century
A.D.), and others.

[39] A "gnomon" was the pillar or projection which cast the shadow on the
various Greek forms of sun-dial. In the case mentioned above the gnomon
was a vertical column raised on a plane. By measuring the length of the
shadow at the solstice, Pytheas found that it was 41-4/5 : 120 or 209/600
the height of the column. According to that the altitude of the sun was
70° 47' 50". From this must be deducted the obliquity of the ecliptic,
which was at that time 23° 44' 40", and the semi-diameter of the sun
(16'), as the shadow is not determined by the sun's centre but by its
upper edge, besides the refraction, which however is unimportant. When the
equatorial altitude thus arrived at is deducted from 90°, we get the
latitude of Massalia as 43° 13' N. The new observatory of Marseilles is at
43° 18' 19"; but it lies some distance to the north of the ancient city,
where Pytheas's gnomon probably stood in the market-place. It will be seen
that this is an accuracy of measurement which was not surpassed until very
much later times.

[40] It has been supposed that these three stars were β of the Little
Bear, α and κ of Draco. The pole was at that time far from the present
pole-star, and nearer to β of the Little Bear.

[41] Both "gnomon" and "polus" are mentioned as early as Herodotus; and
Athenæus [v. 42] describes the polus in the library on board the ship
"Hiero" which was built by Archimedes.

[42] It is not probable that Pytheas divided the earth's circumference
into degrees. Even Eratosthenes (275-194 B.C.) still divided the
circumference of the earth into sixty parts, each equal to 4200 stadia,
and the division into degrees was first universally employed by
Hipparchus. But Aristarchus of Samos, and perhaps even Thales, had already
learnt that the sun's diameter was 2 × 360 or 720 times contained in the
circle described by them. It is possible that they originally had this
from the Chaldæans.

[43] When it is brought forward as a proof of Pytheas having made such
angle-measurements [cf. Mair, 1906, p. 28], that Hipparchus is said to
have given the sun's height (in cubits) above the horizon at the winter
solstice for three different places in north-west Europe [cf. Strabo, ii.
75], it must be remembered that if these altitudes were direct
measurements by Pytheas himself, he must have been at each of these three
places at the winter solstice, that is to say, in three different winters,
where he found that in one place the sun stood six cubits, in another four
cubits, and in the third less than three cubits above the horizon. This is
improbable, and it is more reasonable to suppose that these altitudes are
the result of calculations either by Pytheas himself or by Hipparchus from
his data.

[44] In Diodorus it is called Orkan, but this may be the accusative of
Orkas, as in later writers, also in Ptolemy (Müllenhoff, 1870, p. 377,
thinks that Orkan is the real form), and from which the name Orcades has
been formed for the group of islands immediately to the north. Orkneyar or
Orkneys certainly comes from the same word, which must presumably be of
Celtic origin. P. A. Munch [1852, pp. 44-46] thought that the name came
from the Gaelic word "orc" for the grampus (the specific name of which in
Latin was therefore "Delphinus orca," now called "Orca gladiator"). This
species of whale is common on the coasts of Norway, the Shetlands and
Orkneys, the Færoes and farther west. It usually swims in schools, and is
the great whale's deadliest enemy, attacking it in numbers and cutting
blubber out of its sides. The Eskimo in Greenland assert that it is
sometimes dangerous to kayaks; I myself have only once seen a grampus
attack a boat; but in any case it is a species which easily draws
attention to itself wherever it appears.

[45] Allowing for the greater bays, and putting a degree of latitude at
700 stadia, the sides of Great Britain are about 4000, 7800 and 12,000
stadia; altogether 23,800 stadia, or about 2375 miles.

[46] Strabo erred just as much on his side in making the circumference of
Britain much too small.

[47] Cf. Hergt, 1893, p. 44. This hypothesis is supported by the round
numbers which answer to 7-1/2, 15, and 20 days' sail.

[48] The Greeks divided the day into twelve hours at all times of the
year; it was thus only at the equinoxes, when the day was really twelve
hours long, that the hours were of the same length as ours. These are,
therefore, called equinoctial hours.

[49] A similar statement in Cleomedes [i. 7], after Eratosthenes and
Posidonius [i. 10], may also be derived from Pytheas: "the longest day in
Britain has eighteen hours."

[50] If we assume that the length of the day was found by a theoretical
calculation of the time between the rising and setting of the sun's centre
above the horizon, without taking account of refraction, then a longest
day of nineteen hours answers to 60° 52' N. lat.; but if we suppose that
the length of the day was found by direct observation and was calculated
from the first appearance of the sun's limb in the morning until its final
disappearance in the evening, then horizontal refraction will be of
importance (besides having to take the sun's semi-diameter into account),
and a longest day of nineteen hours then answers to 59° 59' N. lat. Now
the Shetland Isles lie between 59° 51' and 60° 51' N. lat.; while the
northern point of the Orkneys lies in 59° 23' N. lat., and has a longest
day, theoretically of 18 hours 27 minutes, and actually of 18 hours 36
minutes. A longest day of 18 hours answers theoretically to 57° 59',
actually to fully 57° N. lat. Professor H. Geelmuyden has had the kindness
to work out several of these calculations for me. Hipparchus said that at
the winter solstice the sun attained to a height of less than three cubits
above the horizon in the regions where the longest day was of nineteen
hours. If we take one cubit as equal to two degrees these regions will
then lie north of 60° N. lat.

[51] It may be possible, as many think, that it was the Shetlands that he
called Orkan (or Orkas); but the more reliable of the known quotations
from him seem rather to show that it was really the northernmost point of
Britain, or the neighbouring Orkneys that were thus called by him, and
have thenceforward been known by that name; while it is later authors who
have extended the name also to Shetland. If this supposition be correct:
that the islands north of Britain mentioned by Pliny [Nat. Hist. iv. 104]
are originally derived from Pytheas, which may be doubtful, and that
Berricen (or Nerigon) is Mainland of Shetland, then Orkan cannot apply to
these. But, as we shall see later, it is very doubtful what Pliny's
islands may have been originally.

[52] Cf. Strabo [ii. 114] and Cleomedes [i. 7]. The Arctic Circle (or
Circle of the Bear) was, as already mentioned, the circle round the
celestial pole which formed the limit of the continuously visible
(circumpolar) stars, and it had been given this name because in Asia Minor
(and Greece) it ran through the Great Bear (Arctus). Its distance in
degrees from the north celestial pole is equal to the latitude of the
place of observation, and consequently increases as one goes farther
north. At the polar circle, as mentioned above, it coincides with the
Tropic of Cancer, and at the North Pole with the Equator. Cleomedes has
also the remarkable statement that the latitude for a summer day of one
month in length runs through Thule.

[53] It may be thought that Pytheas is merely relating a legend current
among the barbarians that the sun went to its resting-place during the
night, a myth which is moreover almost universal. But it seems more
probable that as an astronomer he had something else in his mind. If he
had had the two points accurately indicated to him, where the sun set and
rose on the shortest night of the year, he must easily have been able, by
measuring the angle between them, to ascertain how long the sun was down.

[54] These figures are kindly supplied by Professor H. Geelmuyden.

[55] According to existing MSS. of Solinus [c. 22] it was five days' sail
to Thule from the Orcades, which must here be Shetland, and which are
mentioned as the second station on the way to Thule; the Ebudes (Hebrides)
were the first station. Mommsen [1895, p. 219] regards the passage as
corrupt, and considers it a later interpolation of between the 7th and 9th
centuries.

[56] Cf. Brenner, 1877, pp. 32, 98.

[57] Cf. Keyser (1839), 1868, p. 92.

[58] If we were able to make out the etymological origin of the name
Thule, it would perhaps give us some indication of where we ought to look
for the country. But the various attempts that have been made to solve
this riddle have been without success. It has been asserted by several
authors that it comes from an old Gothic word "tiele," or "tiule," which
is said to mean limit [cf. Forbiger, 1842, iii. p. 312], or an Old Saxon
word "thyle," "thul," "tell" (or "tell," "till," "tiul"), said to mean the
same [cf. Markham, 1893, p. 519; and Callegari, 1904, p. 47]; but
Professor Alf Torp, whom I have consulted, says that no such word can be
found in either of these languages. The word has been further erroneously
connected with the name Telemarken, which accordingly would mean
borderland, but which in reality must be derived from the Norwegian word
"tele," Old Norse "þeli," frozen earth, and it is by no means impossible
that Thule should be a Greek corruption of such a word. E. Benedikson has
supposed that Thule might come from a Gallic word "houl," for sun [cf.
Callegari, 1904, p. 47], which with a preposition "de" (or other prefix)
might have been thus corrupted in Greek; but Professor Torp informs me in
a letter that no such Gallic word exists, though there is a Cymric "haul,"
"which in Gallic of that time must have sounded approximately 'hâvel,'"
and it "is quite impossible that a preposition or prefix 'de' could have
coalesced with initial 'h' so as to result in anything like Thule." The
Irish "temel" (Cymric "tywyll") for dark, which has also been tried
[Keyser, 1839, p. 397; 1868, p. 166], or "tawel" for silent, still
[Müllenhoff, 1870, i, p. 408], are of no more use, according to Torp,
since both words at that time had "m," which has later become "w." The
only Celtic root which in his opinion might be thought of is "'tel' (==
raise, raise oneself), to which the Irish 'telach' and 'tulach' (== a
height, mound); but this does not seem very appropriate. The Germanic form
of this root is 'thel' (modification 'thul'); but in Germanic this is not
applied to soil or land which rises. I cannot find anything else, either
in Celtic or Germanic; it is thus impossible for me to decide to which of
the languages the word may belong; I can only say that the Greek θ (th)
rather points to Germanic. For no Celtic word begins with an aspirate,
whereas Germanic, as you know, has transmutation of consonants
(Indo-germanic 't' to 'th,' etc.), and it is not impossible that this
sound-change goes as far back as the time of Pytheas." Professor Torp has
further drawn my attention to the fact that from the above-mentioned
"thel," raise oneself, is formed the Old Norse "þollr," tree (cf. "þǫll"
== fir-tree), which in early times was "þull" as radical form. There might
be a bare possibility of Thule being connected with this word.

If it should appear, as hinted here, that the word Thule is of Germanic
origin, then the probability of the country lying outside the British
Isles would be greatly strengthened; for Britain and the Scottish Islands
were at that time not yet inhabited by a Germanic race, and the native
Celts can only have known a Germanic name for a country from its own
Germanic inhabitants. This land farther north must then be Norway.

It has been pointed out [cf. Cuno, 1871, i. p. 102; Mair, 1899, p. 15]
that the name Thule reminds one of "Tyle," the capital of the Celtic
colony which was established in Thrace in the 3rd century B.C. But we know
nothing of the origin of this latter name, and here again there is the
difficulty that it begins with "t" and not "th."

It may be further mentioned that C. Hofmann [1865, p. 17] has suggested
that Thule may come from such a name as "Thumla," which in the Upsala Edda
[ii. 492] is the name of an unknown island, but which was also the name of
an island at the mouth of the Göta river (cf. Thumlaheide in Hising). He
thinks that a Greek could not pronounce such a combination of sounds as
"ml" (μλ), but would pronounce it as "l" (λ). The word would therefore
become "Thula," or according to the usual form of the declension "Thule."
Meanwhile we know of no name resembling Thumla for any district which
Pytheas could have reached from Britain.

[59] That Thule was Norway or Scandinavia was assumed as early as
Procopius. In the last century this view was supported by Geijer, 1825;
Sven Nilsson, 1837; R. Keyser, 1839; Petersen; H. J. Thue, 1843, and
others. In recent years it has been especially maintained by Hergt, 1893.

[60] Müllenhoff's reasons for supposing that Thule cannot have been Norway
are of little weight, and in part disclose an imperfect knowledge of the
conditions. That Pytheas, if he came to Norway, must have found new
species of animals and new races of men, especially the Lapps with their
reindeer, which, according to Müllenhoff, he evidently did not find, is,
for instance, an untenable assertion; for in the first place it is very
uncertain whether the reindeer-Lapps had reached Norway so early as that
time, since they appear to be a comparatively late immigration. In the
second place, if they were really already living in Finmarken and the
northern part of Helgeland (Hálogaland), it is unreasonable to suppose
that a seafarer who went along the coast as far as to the neighbourhood of
the Arctic Circle should have met with these Lapps. Finally, it is
impossible to take it for granted that Pytheas did not mention all the
things that are not to be found in the chance quotations of later writers.

[61] The Arctic Circle at that time lay in 66° 15' 20". If we put the
horizontal refraction plus the sun's semi-diameter at 50' in round
figures, then the upper edge of the sun would be visible at midnight at
the summer solstice a little north of 65° 25'.

[62] Cf. Markham, 1893. If the longest day of the year is given in the
different authorities (Strabo, Geminus, etc.) at various places as
seventeen, eighteen, nineteen hours, etc., after the statements of
Pytheas, it must not, of course, be assumed that Pytheas was at each of
these places precisely on Midsummer Day. It was only one of the Greek
methods of indicating the latitude of places.

[63] The origin of this name for the northernmost or outer sea, which
occurs in several authors, is somewhat uncertain. It is usually supposed
[cf. Hergt, 1893, p. 71] that it comes from the Greek god "Cronos" (Latin
"Saturn"). R. Keyser [1839, p. 396, 1868, p. 165] thought (after Toland in
1725) that it was of Celtic origin and cognate with the Welsh "croni," to
collect together; "Muir-croinn" was supposed still to be Irish for the
Polar Sea, and to have some such meaning as the curdled sea; but no such
word is to be found in Irish or Old Irish [cf. Müllenhoff, 1870, p. 415].

[64] Hergt [1893, p. 71] lays stress on the use of "ultra" here and not
"trans," and thinks that this does not indicate an immediate connection
with Thule, but that we must rather suppose an intervening space (?).

[65] Perhaps it is worth while to remark in this connection that on its
second occurrence in the quotation the word is simply "lung" and not
"sea-lung." If this is not to be looked upon merely as an abbreviation, it
may indicate that the writer was really thinking of a bodily lung [cf.
Hergt, 1893, p. 74].

[66] It has occurred that drift-ice has been brought as far as the
neighbourhood of Shetland by the East-Icelandic Polar current; but this is
so entirely exceptional that it cannot be argued that Pytheas might have
seen drift-ice there.

[67] It is difficult to understand how he was able to converse with the
natives; but probably he took interpreters with him. In the south of
England, for instance, he may have found people who had come in contact
through the tin-trade with the Mediterranean peoples and understood their
languages, and who could thus act as interpreters with the Celts. It would
not be so easy with the Germanic people of Thule. But in Scotland he may
have found Celts who understood the speech of Thule, and who could act as
interpreters through the more southern Celtic people.

[68] It has already been mentioned that Avienus ascribes even to Himilco
some similar ideas of the extreme parts of the ocean; and that Aristotle
thought that the sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules was muddy and shallow
and little stirred by the winds.

[69] According to a communication from Professor Moltke Moe.

[70] It has been supposed by some that this name, which may remind one of
the "Æstii" (Esthonians) mentioned by Tacitus, is really a clerical error
for "Ostimii."

[71] The more usual spelling "Mentonomon" (after some MSS.) can hardly be
right [cf. Detlefsen, 1904, p. 9]. The name may be connected with the
Frisian "meden" (Old Frisian "mede" or "medu," English "meadow") for
low-lying, swampy pasture, and in that case would suit the German North
Sea coast well, between the Rhine and Sleswick-Holstein.

[72] The name may have some connection with those of Habel and Appeland
among the Halligen Islands on the west coast of Sleswick [cf. Detlefsen,
1904, p. 60]. It also has some resemblance to "Sabalingii," which is given
by Ptolemy as the name of a tribe in Jutland. The name Abalus (Greek,
Abalos) has a remarkable likeness to Avalon (the apple-island) of Welsh
folk-lore, and it is possibly originally the same word (?).

[73] As to what we know of the work of this important geographer see in
particular Berger [1880].

[74] According to Eratosthenes' accurate calculation the Arctic Circle lay
in 66° 9' N. lat.

[75] Cf. Strabo, i. 63, ii. 114. More accurately it should be 37,400
stadia.

[76] Cf. Strabo, i. 5-6. Seleucus of Selucia on the Tigris lived in the
middle of the 2nd century B.C., and was one of the few who (like
Aristarchus of Samos, c. 260 B.C.) held the doctrine of the earth's
rotation and movement round the sun.

[77] Herodotus [iv. 26] says of the Issedonians in Scythia that "when a
man's father dies, all the relatives bring cattle; and when they have
slain them as a sacrifice and cut the flesh in pieces, they also cut up
their host's deceased father; then they mix all the flesh together and
serve it for the meal; but the head they decorate with gold, after having
taken the hair off and washed it; and afterwards they treat it as an idol
and bring offerings to it every year." Such a cannibal custom, if it
really existed, may have been connected with religious ideas. But
Herodotus [i. 216] attributes to the Massagetæ the following still more
horrible custom: "when a man grows very old, all his relatives assemble
and slay him, and together with him several kinds of cattle; then they
boil the flesh and hold a banquet. This is accounted among them the
happiest end."

[78] Cf. M. Schanz: "Geschichte der Römischen Literatur," ii. p. 241,
1899; in I. Müller: "Handb. Klass. Altert.-Wiss.," bd. viii. See also
Müllenhoff, iv., 1900, p. 47.

[79] Cf. Detlefsen, 1897, p. 197; 1904, p. 45. By his voyage in 12 B.C.
with his fleet along the coast of the North Sea from the mouth of the
Rhine and the Zuyder Zee to the mouth of the Ems, Drusus won fame as the
first general who had sailed in the North Sea. The Romans, of course, were
not great seafarers.

[80] The MSS. have "flamine" (winds); but it has been thought that
"flumine" (streams) gives a better meaning [cf. Detlefsen, 1897, p. 198].
"Flamine" (winds) might, however, suit the ideas of the earth's limits
(cf. the description of Himilco's voyage in Avienus, see above, p. 37).

[81] The text has here "alium liberis (or 'libris') intactum quærimus
orbem," which might be: "towards another world untouched by books," that
is, of which no book has said anything. As such an expression is quite at
variance with the generally pompous style of the poem, Detlefsen [1897, p.
200, 1904, p. 47] has thought that "libris" here was "libra" == "libella,"
that is, the level used by builders, with two legs and a plumb hanging in
the middle, and the meaning would then be that this part of the earth's
circumference was not touched by the plumb of the level, but that the
latter was obliquely inclined over the abyss at the end of the world. This
explanation seems to make Pedo's poem even more artificial than it is, and
Detlefsen appears to think [1897, p. 200] that the builder's level is used
to find perpendicular lines, instead of horizontal. It is probable,
however, that such an idea of a gulf or abyss at the end of the world was
current at that time, as it was much later (cf. Adam of Bremen, and also
the Ginnungagap of the Norsemen), even if it does not appear in this poem.
It might be thought that "libris" was here used in the sense of
sounding-lead, so that the meaning would be, "untouched by soundings," in
other words, a sea where no soundings had been made; but this meaning of
"libris" would be unusual, and besides one would then expect some word for
sea, and not "orbem."

[82] I cannot, with Detlefsen [1904, p. 48], find anything in this
expression to show that Augustus gives the Greeks the credit for having
penetrated beyond the Cimbrian Cape earlier.

[83] Cf. Müllenhoff, ii., 1887, p. 285, and iv., 1900, p. 45; Holz, 1894,
p. 23; Detlefsen, 1904, p. 47.

[84] K. Miller [vi., 1898, p. 105] proposes to read "Gotorum rex" (the
king of the Goths) instead of the "Botorum rex" of the MSS. The last name
is otherwise unknown, and has also been read "Boiorum." Pliny, who has the
same story almost word for word [Nat. Hist., ii. c. 67, 170] says that the
same Celer had the Indians from the king of the Suevi.

[85] This was a common idea among the Greeks about the Amazons [cf.
Hippocrates, Περι αερων, etc., c. 17; Strabo, xi. 504; Diodorus, ii. 45];
it has even been sought to derive the name itself from this, since "mazos"
(μαζος) means breast, and "a" (α) is the negative particle; this would
therefore be "without breasts." But other explanations of the origin of
the name have been given, e.g., that they were not suckled at the breast.
It is possible that the name meant something quite different, but that
owing to its resemblance to the Greek word for breast it gave rise to the
legend, and not vice versa. In Latin the Amazons were sometimes called
"Unimammia" (one-breasted), but in Greek art they were always represented
with well-developed breasts. Hippocrates says that the right breasts of
the Scythian women were burned off by the mother with a special bronze
instrument, while the girls were quite small, because "then the breast
ceased to grow, and all force and development were transmitted to the
right shoulder and the arm."

[86] Cf. Herodotus, iv. cc. 116, 117.

[87] Cf. Herodotus, iv. c. 22.

[88] These are Herodotus's "Argippæi" or "Argimpæi" [iv. c. 23], who lived
in tents of felt in winter. They were bald, whereas those of Mela go
bare-headed.

[89] To understand [like K. Miller, vi., 1898, p. 105] "vectæ" as the name
of an island ("Vectis" == the Isle of Wight) seems in itself somewhat
improbable, and is moreover excluded by Mela's rhetorical style, which
demands a clause following Hæmodæ to balance that attached to Orcades just
before.

[90] These "Belgæ" are, of course, the same as the "Belcæ" already
mentioned by Mela as the Scythian people in the northernmost part of
Scythia (see above, p. 89). What people is meant is uncertain.

[91] Sophus Bugge [1904, pp. 156 f.] thinks that Codanus may come from an
Old Norse word "Kōð," which meant a shallow fjord or a shallow place in
the water (equivalent to old Indian "gādhá-m") and which according to him
is akin to the root "Kað" in some Norwegian place-names. "Codanus sinus"
("Kōda," accus. "Kōdan") is then the shallow sea, or Cattegat, especially
near the Belts. "Codan-ovia" is the island in "Kōdan." Müllenhoff [1887,
ii. p. 284] and Much [1893, p. 207] have connected "Codanus" with Old High
German "quoden" (== femina, interior pars coxæ) from the same root as the
Anglo-Saxon "codd" (== serpent, sack, bag), Middle Low German "koder" (==
belly, abdomen), Old Norse "koðri" (== scrotum). It would then mean a
sack-inlet or sack-bay, equal to the Frisian "Jâde," or else a narrower
inlet to an extended bay of the sea (the Baltic ?). The explanation does
not seem quite natural. R. Keyser [1868, p. 82] derives the name from
"Godanus," i.e., the Gothic, although the Goths at that time were usually
called "Gutones" by the Romans. Ahlenius's suggestion [1900, p. 24] that
Codanus might be an old copyist's error for "Toutonos" (Teutons), because
one MS. reads Thodanus, does not sound probable. Detlefsen [1904, p. 31]
thinks that the name Codanus is preserved in Katte(n)-gat, which would
mean the inlet (gat) to Codanus, which would then come to include the
whole of the Baltic. If Bugge's explanation given above is correct, it
might however mean the shallow gat or inlet.

[92] Professor Alf Torp calls my attention to R. Much's [1895, p. 37]
explanation of "Kobandoi" as a Germanic "*Kōwandōz," a derivation from the
word cow. This should therefore be divided "Kōw-and-," where "and" is a
suffix, and the meaning would be a cow-people.

[93] I have proposed this explanation to Professor Alf Torp; he finds that
it "might indeed be possible, but not altogether probable."

[94] It has been sought to derive "Daner" from an original Germanic word,
equivalent to Anglo-Saxon "denu" (Gothic "*danei") and "dene" for dale,
and its meaning has been thought to be "dwellers in dales or lowlands"
[cf. Much, 1895, p. 40; S. Bugge, 1890, p. 236].

[95] That they lived in the sea or bay must, of course, mean that they
lived on islands; and the northern part of Jutland, north of the Limfiord,
was probably looked upon as an island; but the Cimbrian Promontory is not
mentioned; it occurs first in Pliny. The Germanic form of the name,
"himbrōz," perhaps still survives in the Danish district of Himmerland,
the old Himbersyssel, with the town of Aalborg [cf. Much, 1905, p. 100].

[96] There is a resemblance of name which may be more than accidental
between Mela's "Œneæ," or Pliny's "Œonæ," and Tacitus's "Aviones"
["Germania," c. 40], who lived on the islands of North Frisia and the
neighbouring coast. "Aviones" evidently comes from a Germanic "*awjonez,"
Gothic "*aujans," Old High German "ouwon" (cf. Old Norse "ey," Old High
German "ouwa" for island), which means islanders. In the Anglo-Saxon poem
"Widsid" they are called "eowe" or "eowan" [cf. Grimm, 1880, p. 330 (472),
Much, 1893, p. 195; 1905, p. 101]. It is possible that the Greeks, on
hearing the Germanic name, connected it with the Greek word "Œonæ" (==
egg-eaters), and thereby the whole idea of egg-eating may have arisen,
without anything having been related about it.

[97] To this it might be objected that he ought in that case to have
obtained much information also about the interior of Scythia and Sarmatia;
but in the first place this is not certain, as the special goal of the
merchants was the amber countries, and they would therefore keep to the
known routes and travel rapidly through--and in the second, Pliny actually
mentions a good many tribes in the interior. He says, it is true [iv. 26,
91], of Agrippa's estimate of the size of Sarmatia and Scythia, that he
considers such estimates too uncertain in these parts of the earth; but to
conclude from this, as Detlefsen [1904, p. 34] has done, that Pliny's
Greek authorities cannot have received their information by the land
route, seems to me unreasonable, since Pliny perhaps did not even know how
his authorities had obtained their knowledge.

[98] This river is not mentioned elsewhere and must be invented, Hecatæus
of Abdera (circa 300 B.C.) having imagined that it rose in mountains of
this name in the interior of Asia and fell into the northern ocean.

[99] This is certainly wrong. The name "Amalcium" cannot come from any
northern language, but must come from the Greek "malkios" (μαλκιος), which
means "stiffening," "freezing"; "a" must here be an emphatic particle.

[100] This Greek is given as an authority in several passages of Pliny; he
is also mentioned by Ptolemy, but is not otherwise known. He may have
lived about 100 B.C. [cf. Detlefsen, 1904, pp. 23-25].

[101] On account of the syllable "rus," which is found in Phœnician names
(e.g., Rusazus, Ruscino, Ruspino) and which means headland, cape, it has
been sought to derive it from the Semitic; but Detlefsen [1904, p. 24]
thinks it more reasonable to suppose it Germanic. Not the smallest trace
of Phœnician names has been found in the north. R. Keyser [1868, p. 165]
thinks the name, which he reads "Rubeas," "is without doubt the Welsh
'rhybyz'" (rhybudd == sign, warning); but the word cannot have had this
form in Pliny's time.

[102] The name may be either Celtic or Old Germanic. In Celtic "mori,"
Irish "muir," Cymric "môr," is sea; but R. Much [1893, p. 220] thinks that
Germanic "mari" and Gothic "marei" (German "Meer," Latin "mare") may also
have been pronounced formerly with "o." "Marusa" is related to Irish
"marb," Cymric "marw" for dead; but according to Much it may be of
Germanic origin and have had the form "*marusaz" (cf. "*marwaz") with the
meaning of motionless, lifeless. "Morimarusa" would thus be the
"motionless sea," which reminds one of Pytheas's kindred ideas of the
sluggish, congealed sea ("mare pigrum, prope immotum mare"). If the name
is of Germanic origin, this does not debar its being derived from Pytheas
(and taken from him by Philemon); he may have got it from Norway. If
Rusbeas is southern Norway, this would point in the same direction. But it
is doubtless more reasonable to suppose that the name is derived from the
Cimbri, who are mentioned in connection with it, while Pliny does not
mention any people in Norway.

[103] Hergt [1893, p. 40] thinks that "Morimarusa" would be the Baltic
(and the Cattegat), which was called dead because it had no tides and was
frozen in winter. "Rusbeas" would thus be the point of the Skaw. In this
way he has two names for the Baltic, and two, if not three, for the Skaw.
This interpretation seems to be even less consistent than that given
above. Pliny in another passage mentions (see pp. 65, 106) that the sea
called "Cronium" was a day's sail beyond Thule, which lay to the north of
Britain and within the Arctic Circle. This in itself makes it difficult
for Cronium to begin at Lindesnes, but if it has to begin at Skagen, and
thus be the Skagerak, it becomes still worse.

[104] This must come from an Old Germanic word "*glez," Anglo-Saxon
"glær," for amber. It is the same word as the Norwegian "glas" or Danish
"glar," which has come to mean glass.

[105] The origin of the name "Sævo" cannot be determined with certainty.
Forbiger [1848, iii. p. 237] thinks it is Kjölen, and asserts that it is a
Norwegian name which is still found in the form of "Seve," ridge; but no
such name is known in Norway. It seems possible that the name may be
connected with the Gothic "saivs" for sea (cf. Old Norse "sær"); but it
may also be supposed to have arisen from a corruption of "svevus"; in any
case it was so regarded in the Middle Ages. Solinus says [c. 20, 1],
following Pliny, that "Mons Sævo ... forms the commencement of Germany,"
but Isidore Hispalensis says that "Suevus Mons" forms the north-east
boundary of Germany, and on the Hereford Map (about 1280) a mountain
chain, "Mons Sueuus," runs in north-east Germany to a bay of the sea
called "Sinus Germanicus," which may be the Baltic. On the Ebstorf map
(1284) "Mons Suevus" has followed the Suevi southwards to Swabia. It is
also possible that Ptolemy's mountain chain "Syēba" (Συηβα, vi. c. 14) in
northernmost Asia (62° N. lat.) has something to do with Pliny's "Sævo."
There has been much guessing as to where the latter is to be sought: some
[cf. Detlefsen, 1904, p. 28] think it was Kjölen, although it is quite
incomprehensible how this far northern range could be connected with
Codanus; others [cf. Lönborg, 1897, p. 20] that it was in Mecklenburg or
Pomerania or even in Jutland [Geijer, 1825, p. 77], where no mountain is
to be found, least of all an immense one ("inmensus"). Pliny's words could
be most simply connected with the Norwegian mountains [cf. Holz, 1894, p.
25]. It may indeed be supposed, as Müllenhoff [iv., 1900, p. 600] thinks,
that the men of Augustus's fleet, in 5 A.D., may have seen in the Cattegat
or heard of the "Sea-mountains" of the Scandinavian (or rather, Swedish)
coast, "*Saivabergo" or "*Saivagabërgia," which rose up over the sea, and
the same of which became in Latin "Mons Sævo"; but perhaps it is just as
reasonable to suppose that the information may be derived from the Germans
of Jutland, who had communication with Norway and knew its high
mountainous country, and that therefore it did not originate with the low
west coast of Sweden.

[106] One might be tempted to connect the name "Scadinavia" with the old
Norse goddess Skade or Skaði, who was of Finnish race; she was
black-haired, lived in the mountains in the interior of the country, and
was amongst other things the goddess of ski-running. The name Scadinavia
would then be of Finnish origin. This derivation has also been put forward
[cf. Müllenhoff, ii., 1887, pp. 55 f., 357 f.]. The termination "avi,"
"avia," must then be the same as "ovia" (see p. 94). This explanation
would take for granted an original non-Germanic, so-called "Finnish"
population in south Sweden (which does not appear impossible; see below);
but it will then be difficult to explain why the name should have survived
only in the most southern part, Skåne. Sophus Bugge [1896, p. 424] thought
that "Scadinavia" (later "Scadanavia") is related to the common Norwegian
place-name "Skǫðvin" or Sköien ("vin" == pasture) and may come from a lost
Old Norse word "*skaða" (old Slavonic "skotŭ") for cattle. "Skǫðvin" would
then be cattle-pasture. From "*skaða" the word "*skaðanaz" may be
regularly derived, with the meaning of herdsman; and "Skadan-avia" or
"Skadinavia" will be herdsman's pastures, since the termination "avia" may
have the same meaning as the German "Au" or "Aue" (good pasture, meadow).
The Old Norse "Skáney" ("Skáni," now "Skåne") would then come from
Skaðney, where the "ð" has been dropped as in many similar instances.
Bugge himself afterwards [1904, p. 156] rejected this explanation and
derived "Scadinavia" from the same word as "Codanus" (see p. 93), taking
it to mean the island or coast-land by "Kōdan," which has had a prefixed
"s," while the long "o" has been changed into short "a." This explanation
may be very doubtful. In many parts of Norway a name "Skåney" is known,
which comes from "skán" (meaning crust), and it may therefore not be
improbable that the Swedish "Skáney" or Skåne is the same name.

[107] Ahlenius [1900, p. 31] has tried to explain the name as a copyist's
error for "Æstingia," which he connects with the "Æstii" (Esthonians) of
Tacitus; but the people would then have been called Æstingii rather than
Æstii. One might then be more inclined to think of Jordanes' "Astingi" or
"Hazdingi," the same as the Old Norse Haddingjar (Hallinger).

[108] R. Keyser [1868, p. 89] explains the name as the same as in the Old
Norse name for a people, "Kylpingar," in northern Russia, neighbours of
the Finns. He thinks that there may have been an Old Norse name
"Kylpinga-botn" for the Baltic; but it is not likely that this word
Kylpingar existed at that time.

[109] Keyser [1868, p. 80] derives the word from Gothic "lagus"
(corresponding to Old Norse "logr") for sea.

[110] The same islands which are here spoken of as British, have been
previously referred to (see above, p. 101) by Pliny as Germanic, or rather
as a single island with the name "Glæsaria." This is another proof of how
he draws directly from various sources without even taking the trouble to
harmonise the statements. In this case he has probably found the islands
mentioned in connection with facts about Britain, or a journey to that
country. And it may be supposed that the original source is Pytheas.

[111] In his ignorance of astronomy Pliny adds that "this is said to
continue alternately for six months."

[112] Some MSS. read "Vergos."

[113] Tacitus, "Agricola," c. 10; see also c. 38. Cf. also Bunbury, 1883,
ii. p. 342.

[114] Tacitus, "Agricola," c. 28.

[115] Here Tacitus is mistaken, as amber was extensively employed for
amulets and ornaments even in the Stone Age (see above, p. 32).

[116] Much [1905, p. 133] connects the name with "ge-swio" == "related by
marriage." It may be just as reasonable to suppose that the name means
"burners" ("svier"), since they cleared the land by setting fire to the
forests [cf. Müllenhoff, iv., 1900, p. 499].

[117] Cf. Müllenhoff, iv., 1900, p. 502.

[118] This might be thought to show that arms of metal, especially of
iron, were still rarities in Scandinavia, which only rich and powerful
chiefs could obtain, and this might agree with the statement about the
esteem in which wealth was held among this particular people. But perhaps
the more probable explanation is that the idea may have arisen through
foreign merchants (South Germans or Romans) having been present at the
great annual "things" and fairs at some well-known temple, e.g., Upsala
[cf. Müllenhoff, 1900, p. 503], where for the sake of peace and on account
of the sacredness of the spot it was forbidden to carry arms, and where
arms were therefore left in a special "weapon-house," like those which
were later attached to churches in Norway, and there guarded by a thrall.
The foreigners may have seen this without understanding its meaning, and
Tacitus may have given his own explanation.

[119] The name "Sitones" reminds one forcibly of the "Sidones" mentioned
by Strabo and Ptolemy [cf. Geijer, 1825, p. 82]; but the difficulty is
that Strabo includes the latter among the Bastarni, with the Peucini who
lived on the north and east of the Carpathians and therefore far to the
south of the Baltic [cf. Ahlenius, 1900, p. 36]. Ptolemy's "Sidones" also
lived in the neighbourhood of the Carpathians, and to the north of them.
But it is nevertheless possible that Tacitus may have heard a similar word
and confused it with this name, or he may have heard a story of a reigning
woman or queen among Strabo's Sidones, somewhere north of the Carpathians,
and thought that anything so unheard of could only be found in the
farthest north. It is also to be noted that Tacitus himself mentions
"Peucini" or "Bastarnæ" as neighbours of the "Fenni" (Finns), and
therefore inhabiting some distant tract bordering on the unknown in the
north-east; on the other hand he does not mention the Sidones in this
connection, though they are spoken of in conjunction with the Bastarnæ
both by Strabo before him and by Ptolemy after him. Add to this the
similarity of names between Sitones and Suiones, and it seems likely that
he thought they must be near one another. Müllenhoff [ii., 1887, p. 9]
supposes that the word "Sitones" may have been an appellative which has
been mistaken for the name of a people, and he connects it with Gothic
"*sitans," Old Norse "*setar," from the same root as the Norwegian "sitte"
(to sit, occupy). If this is correct we might suppose it to be used in the
sense of colonists (cf. Norwegian "opsitter"). Much [1905, p. 31] suggests
that perhaps it may be derived from Old Norse "siða" == to practise
witchcraft (cf. "seid"), and mean sorcerers. On the "Sidones" cf. Much,
1893, pp. 135, 187, 188; Müllenhoff, 1887, pp. 109, 325.

[120] Wiklund [1895, pp. 103-117] thinks that the "Kvæns" in north Sweden
were not Finns, but colonists from Svearike (middle Sweden).

[121] Cf. Zeuss, 1837, p. 157; Müllenhoff, ii., 1887, p. 10.

[122] Cf. Lönborg, 1897, p. 136; Ahlenius, 1900, p. 37.

[123] Cf. Baumstark, 1880, p. 329; Müllenhoff, iv., 1900, p. 516.

[124] Many of his place-names in Ireland especially point to frequent
communication, probably due to trade, between this island and the
continent, perhaps with Gaul.

[125] Much [1895, a, p. 34] thinks that the "Alociæ" may have been some
small rocky islands which have now disappeared. Upon them he supposes
there may have been colonies of auks, which have given them their name, as
in Gothic, for instance, they may have been called "*alakô." The
hypothesis is improbable; even if any such rocky islets had been washed
away by the sea they must have left behind submerged rocks, and none such
are known in the sea off Jutland.

[126] Macrobius's division of the earth into zones after Parmenides with
an equatorial ocean like Mela, in graphic representation, had great
influence during the Middle Ages.

[127] Similar conceptions are to be found in Avienus ("Ora Maritima," vv.,
644-663), and are derived from ancient Greek geographers (Anaximenes, cf.
Müllenhoff, i., 1870, p. 77).

[128] This description would best suit the Baltic (and the Belts) as
forming the eastern side of Scandza; but the term inland sea ("lacus")
does not agree well with Scandza being an island and lying just opposite
the Vistula, which "with its three mouths discharged itself into the
Ocean"; and in the rear of the Vidivarii at the mouths of the Vistula
"dwelt likewise on the Ocean the Æstii, that very peace-loving people" [v.
36, cf. Tacitus]. Besides which Jordanes' Germanic Ocean may be the
Baltic, although his very obscure description may equally well suit the
North Sea, or both together. The supposition that the great inland sea and
the River Vagi might be Lake Ladoga and the Neva [cf. Geijer, 1825, p.
100] or Lake Vener and the Göta River [cf. Lönborg, 1897, p. 25, and
Ahlenius, 1900, p. 44] does not agree with the description of Jordanes,
which distinctly asserts that it lay on the east side of Scandza in
contradistinction to the immense ocean on the west and north. The fact
must be that Jordanes had very obscure ideas on this point, and this has
made his description confusing.

[129] These small islands have been taken to be the Danish islands [cf.
Ahlenius, 1900, p. 43]; but as we hear in immediate connection with them
of severe cold and of the wolves losing their eyes on crossing the frozen
sea ("congelato mari"), our thoughts are led farther north and we would be
inclined to take them for the Åland islands.

[130] This reminds us of Mela's statement respecting the Œneans, who lived
on fen-fowl's eggs (see above, pp. 91, 95).

[131] And or Amd was used formerly not only for the island of And (Andö),
but for a great part of Vesterålen and Hinnö.

[132] I will mention as yet another possibility a corruption of Ptolemy's
islands, the "Alociæ," which lay at the extreme north of his map, north of
the Cimbrian Chersonese and farther north than the island of Scandia (see
above, pp. 119 f.). A Greek capital lambda, Λ, may easily be mistaken for
a capital delta, Δ, especially in maps, and in such corrupted form may
have been transferred to Roman maps, and thence have been used for the
name of a people who were said to live specially far north. Läffler [1894,
p. 4] thinks that "Adogit" was a Lappish people, and that the name
certainly cannot be of Scandinavian-Germanic origin, but he does not say
why.

[133] Cleomedes says that the summer day in Thule lasted a month, while
the astronomically ignorant Pliny puts it at six months.

[134] As to these tribal names see especially Läffler [1894, 1907] and
Sophus Bugge [1907], besides P. A. Munch [1852], Müllenhoff [1887], and
others.

[135] The origin of the word "sappherinas" is uncertain. Lönborg [1897, p.
26] proposes that it may have meant deep sapphire blue, and have been used
of the skins of blue foxes. Probably it is rather a northern word, not
Germanic, but either Slavonic or Finnish (?).

[136] Müllenhoff, Mommsen, Läffler, and others think that the "mitiores"
(milder) of the MSS. may be an error for "minores" (smaller), which gives
better sense, in contradistinction to the "Suetidi" who come just after
and were taller than all the rest. Sophus Bugge proposes that "mitissimi"
and "mitiores" may be errors for "minutissime" and "minutiores," and that
it should therefore be translated "the very small Finns who are smaller
than all the other, etc." [cf. also A. Bugge, 1906, p. 18]; but the
necessity for so great a change is doubtful [cf. Läffler, 1907, p. 109].

[137] S. Bugge thought [1907, p. 101] at one time that these might be
people of Gond or Gand, i.e., Höiland, south of Stavanger, but afterwards
changed this view [cf. 1910, p. 97].

[138] Jordanes, who was a Goth, had even less reason for glorifying the
Northmen at the expense of the Germans or Goths.

[139] Cf. Mommsen, 1882, p. 154; A. Bugge, 1906, pp. 21, 33 f.

[140] This is certainly incorrect; probably they came from the north and
established themselves near the Danube in the neighbourhood of the
Langobards.

[141] Paulus Warnefridi gives a mythical account of the cause of the war
and of the battle and death of king Rodulf [Bethmann and Waitz, 1878, pp.
57 ff.]; the fight and king Rodulf are also referred to in the "Origo
Gentes Langobardorum" (of about 807). In both these works it is stated
that it was the Langobards (and not the Eruli) who had lived in this
country (by the Danube ?) in peace for three years.

[142] It is probable that the mention of the tribes in Jordanes is taken
from two different sources; for he begins by saying that Ptolemy only has
the names of seven, without mentioning any of these, and later on he gives
a whole series of others, which may have been added from another author
who supplemented the one from whom the mention of Ptolemy is taken.

[143] Jordanes here repeats Ptolemy, from whom the name of Scandza, ==
Scandia, is taken (and the statement as to the shape of the island ?),
while Procopius has nothing about it.

[144] The name appears in the runic inscriptions to be often a designation
of the author of the inscription. Sophus Bugge thought that the Eruli had
obtained their knowledge of runes from the Goths, and that they kept them
a secret (this reappears in the word "run" itself, which means secret),
especially in the leading families, who turned them to account. During
their centuries of roving life they carried the knowledge of runes with
them to various parts of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In this way the
uniformity of language in the inscriptions from widely separated places
may also be explained.

[145] It appears to have been a general custom among the Germans to put
old people to death (cf. p. 18). Herodotus [i. 216] relates of the
Massagetæ, who may have been a Germanic tribe, that "when any one has
grown very old all his relatives come together and slaughter him, and with
him other small cattle; they then cook the flesh and hold a banquet. This
is considered by them the happiest end. But they do not eat one who dies
of sickness, but bury him underground, and lament that he did not live to
be slaughtered."

[146] This widespread form of anthropophagy is due to the superstition
that by eating something of another, beast or man, or particular parts,
e.g., the heart (cf. Sigurd Favnesbane), one acquired the peculiar
properties of the other, such as strength, courage, goodness, etc. It is
thus a similar idea to that in the Christian sacrament.

[147] They were also called =O T= maps; =O T= being the initials of Orbis
Terrarum.

[148] Cf. Wuttke, 1854.

[149] The text has "ovium" (== sheep), but this is doubtless a copyist's
error for "ovum" (== egg). This may remind us of the Œonæ of Mela and
Pliny, who lived on the eggs of fen-fowl (see above, p. 92).

[150] Cf. the "Origo Gentis Langobardorum" (of the second half of the
seventh century), where the "Winnilians," who were later called
Langobards, live originally on an island called "Scadanan," or in another
MS. "Scadan." The latter name, with the addition of a Germanic word for
meadow or island, might become Scadanau, Scadanauge, or Scadanovia. Cf.
also Fredegar Scholasticus's abbreviated history after Gregory of Tours,
where it is related that the Langobards originated in "Schatanavia," or in
one MS. "Schatanagia."

[151] It is difficult to understand how Paulus has managed to transfer the
legend to the North. It might be thought that the idea, which already
appears in Herodotus, that the people of the North sleep for the six
winter months (see p. 20), is connected with it. Plutarch ["De defectu
oraculorum," c. 18] relates that in the ocean beyond Britain there was
according to the statement of Demetrius an island "where Cronos was
imprisoned and guarded, while he slept, by Briareus. For sleep had been
used as a bond, and there were many spirits about him as companions and
servants." According to another passage in Plutarch ["De facie in orbe
Lunæ," 941] this island was north-west of the isle of Ogygia, which was
five days' sail west of Britain. It is possible that this myth of the
sleeping Cronos has also helped to locate the legend of the Seven Sleepers
on the north-west coast of Europe. Viktor Rydberg [1886, i. pp. 529 ff.]
thought that the legend and its localisation in the North might be
connected with Mimer's seven sons, who in the Vǫlospǫ's description (st.
45) of Ragnarok were to spring up at the sound of the horn Gjallar, after
having lain asleep for long ages. But this interpretation of the strophe:
"Leika Mims synir" is improbable.

[152] In other MSS. Scridowinni and Scritofinni, etc.

[153] According to the "Grottasǫngr," Mysing carried off the quern and the
two female thralls, Fenja and Menja, on his ship and bade them grind salt,
and they ground until the ship sank (according to some MSS. it was in the
Pentland Firth), and there was afterwards a whirlpool in the sea, where
the water falls into the hole in the quern. Thus the sea became salt. This
is the same legend which is repeated in the tale of the mill which grinds
at the bottom of the sea.

[154] As will be mentioned later, the islands were possibly inhabited by
Celts before the arrival of the monks. In that case the latter must
doubtless have visited them with the additional object of spreading
Christianity.

[155] It has also been translated: "two rows of oars," which is
improbable.

[156] Some writers have thought that they might be the Shetlands; but this
seems less probable.

[157] Cf. A. Bugge, 1905, pp. 55 f. Several names of fishing-banks, which
A. Bugge gives from Dr. Jakobsen, are also of interest. Off Sandey is a
fishing-bank called "Knokkur" (or "á Knokki"), and one of the same name
lies west of Syd-Straumsey. West of Sudrey is a fishing-place called
"Knokkarnir." The fishing-banks are called after the landmarks; "cnoc" is
Celtic for hill, and must have been the name of the heights that formed
landmarks for the fishing-places in question; on land these names have
given way to more modern Norse ones, but have held their own out to sea.
A. Bugge thinks that the Celtic place-names may be due to Norwegians who
before they came to the Faroes had lived with Irish-speaking people in the
Scottish islands or in Ireland; but it nevertheless seems very improbable
that they should have used a foreign language to give names to their new
home. A more natural explanation is that they had the names from the
earlier Celtic inhabitants, whether these were only the Irish monks, or
whether there were others. Names of islands and hills are usually among
the most ancient of place-names.

[158] Cf. Landnáma, Prologue. Further on in the Landnáma places are
frequently mentioned where priests had formerly lived, and where in
consequence heathens dared not settle.

[159] It is explicable that places and estates may be called after the
personal names of Irish land-takers; but it is more difficult to
understand how the Norwegians should have come by Celtic names, derived
from appellatives, for mountains, fjords, and rivers--which are everywhere
among the earliest of place-names--if the Celts had not been there before
they came. Among such place-names of Celtic origin, or which indicate a
Celtic population, may be mentioned: "Dímunarvág, Dimunar-klakkar" (an
inlet and two rocky islets in Breidifjord); "Dímon," in many places as the
name of a ridge, a mountain, and an islet; "Katanes"; "Katadalr";
"Kúðafljót," the name of a confluence of several rivers into a large piece
of water, in Vester-Skaftarfells district, from Irish "cud" (== head).
"Minþakseyrr" is mentioned above. Further, there are many names after
Irishmen: a river "Irá," two places "Iragerði," a channel into Hvammsfjord
"Irska leið," "Irsku búðir," a hill "Irski hóll," besides
"Vestmanna-eyjar," etc.

[160] The "Ost-sæ" is the southern and western part of the Baltic with the
Cattegat and a part of the Skagerak, as distinguished from the sea to the
west of Jutland (the land of the South Danes), which is "the arm of the
sea which lies round the country of Britain." The sea west of Norway he
also calls the "West-sæ." As the Ost-sæ is called an arm of the sea, it
might be urged that King Alfred therefore regarded Scandinavia as a
peninsula; but we see that he also calls the sea round Britain, which he
knew better, an arm of the sea.

[161] In another passage somewhat later he says that "no men [i.e.,
Norsemen, Norwegian chiefs] lived to the north of him." This may have been
somewhere about Malangen or Senjen, which archæological remains show to
have formed the approximate northern boundary of fixed Norwegian
habitation at that time. Norwegians may have lived here and there farther
north to about Loppen [cf. A. Bugge, 1908, pp. 407 ff.]; but Ottar
doubtless means that no nobles or people of importance lived to the north
of him.

[162] It may be explained that the Lapps are called "Finns," both in Old
Norse and modern Norwegian. As it is not absolutely certain to what race
these ancient "Finns" belonged, it has been thought best to retain Ottar's
name for them here.

[163] It is clear Ottar reckoned north and south according to the
direction of the land, and not according to the meridian; this is a common
habit among coast-dwellers who live on a coast that lies approximately
north and south. Ottar's north is consequently nearly north-east.

[164] This would be, according to the number of days' sail given, about
midway between Malangen and the North Cape, that is, about Loppen.

[165] That is to say, made a bay of the sea into the land. Ottar has now
reached the North Cape.

[166] This was at the entrance to the White Sea, near Sviatoi Nos, or a
little farther south-east. If Ottar took as much as six days on the voyage
from Malangen to the North Cape, but only four from the North Cape to the
entrance to the White Sea, which is nearly double the distance, this may
possibly be explained by his sailing the first part within the skerries,
among islands, thus making the distance longer and stopping oftener, while
on the latter part of the voyage, where there are no islands, he may have
sailed much faster with open sea and a favourable wind, and have had less
temptation to stop.

[167] The most reasonable way of reading this last much-contested
statement is to take "of them" as referring to the walruses, which were
seven cubits long, and to understand the sentence about the Norwegian
whales, which are larger, as an inserted parenthesis [cf. Japetus
Steenstrup, 1889]; for it is impossible that six men could kill sixty
large whales in two days, and the sobriety of Ottar's narrative makes it
very improbable that he made boasts of this sort. King Alfred evidently
did not grasp the essential difference between walrus and whale. Another
explanation might be that these sixty were a school of a smaller species
of whale, which were caught by nets in a fjord, so that King Alfred has
only confused their size with that of the larger whales of which he had
also heard Ottar speak. An attempt has been made to save the sense by
proposing that instead of "with six others" we should read "with six
harpoons" ("syx asum") or "with six ships" ("syx ascum"); but even if such
an emendation were permissible, it does not make the statement more
credible. What should Ottar do with sixty large whales, even if he could
catch them? It must have been the blubber and the flesh that he wanted,
but he and his men could not deal with that quantity of blubber and flesh
in weeks, to say nothing of two days. Even a large whaling station at the
present time, with machinery and a large staff of workmen, would have all
it could do to deal with sixty large whales ("forty-eight" or "fifty"
cubits long) before they became putrid, if they were all caught in two
days.

[168] Cf. G. Storm, 1894, p. 95. S. E. Lönborg's reasons [1897, p. 37] for
rejecting Storm's view and maintaining the Dvina as the river in question
have little weight. Lönborg examines the statements of direction, south,
north, etc., as though King Alfred and Ottar had had a map and a modern
compass before them during the description. He has not remarked that Ottar
has merely confined himself to the chief points of the compass, north,
east, and south, and that he has not even halved them; how otherwise
should we explain, for instance, that he sailed "due north along the
coast" from Senjen to the North Cape? This course is no less incorrect
than his sailing due south, for example, from Sviatoi Nos to the Varzuga.
To one sailing along a coast, especially if it is unknown, the
circumstance that one is following the land is far more important than the
alterations of course that one makes owing to the sinuosities of the
coast. The statement that they had the uninhabited land to starboard all
the way is consequently not to be got over.

[169] His own words, that he did not know whether the land (at Sviatoi
Nos) turned towards the south, or whether the sea made a bay into the
land, show also that Ottar cannot have sailed across the White Sea and
discovered the land on the other side.

[170] Alfred's word "Beormas" is perhaps linguistically of the same origin
as "Perm" or "Perem," which the Russians, at any rate in later times,
apply to another Finno-Ugrian people, the Permians, of Kama in north
Russia [cf. Storm, 1894, p. 96].

[171] "Rosmal" comes from Old Norse "rosm-hvalr"--horse-whale, of the same
meaning therefore as "hval-ross."

[172] Sciringesheal had a king's house and a well-known temple; it may
have been situated on the Viksfjord, east of Larvik, where the name
Kaupang (i.e., "kjöpstad" == market town) still preserves its memory [cf.
Munch, 1852, pp. 377, 380]. Possibly the name may be connected with the
Germanic tribe of "Skirer," who are mentioned on the shores of the Baltic,
near the Ruger (or Ryger). Connected with Sciringesheal was a kingdom in
South Jutland, with the port of "Sliesthorp" (mentioned by Einhard about
804), "Sliaswic" [Ansgarii Vita, c. 24] or "Slesvik," also called
"Heidaby." It is possible that Sciringesheal may have been originally
founded by Skirer who had immigrated from South Jutland (?). Another
hypothesis has been put forward by S. A. Sörensen, who thinks that
Sciringesheal may be a translation into Norse of "baptisterium" ("skíra"
== to baptize); and that the place was situated near Sandefjord. In that
case we should look for a church rather than a heathen temple, and we
should have to suppose that attempts had been made to introduce
Christianity even before Ottar's time.

[173] Dr. Ingram, in 1807, and Rask [1815, p. 48] propose to read
"Isaland" (i.e., Iceland, which was discovered by the Norsemen just at
this time), but this does not improve the sense. Besides which, the form
"Isaland" for Iceland is not known, and it would mean the land of "ices"
and not of ice. That the true Ireland should be intended would seem to
betray greater geographical ignorance than we are disposed to attribute to
Ottar or Alfred. Alfred himself mentions "Ibernia" or "Igbernia" (i.e.,
Ireland) as lying west of Britain, and says that "we call it Scotland." He
does not use the name Ireland elsewhere; but here he is quoting Ottar, and
the latter may possibly have meant Scotland (?) [cf. Langebek, Porthan and
Forster], which was colonised by Irishmen, although it would then be
difficult to understand the reference which follows to islands lying
"between Iraland and this country" (i.e., Britain). Meanwhile it must be
remembered that it was not unusual at that time to place Ireland to the
north of Britain (cf. later Adam of Bremen), and there may here be a
confusion of this sort. The simplest supposition would be to take
"Iraland" for Shetland; but it is difficult to understand how the islands
could have received such a designation.

[174] So far as I can discover this is the first time this name for Norway
occurs in literature. Lönborg [1897, p. 142] is consequently incorrect in
saying that the name "Norvegia" first occurs in the eleventh century.

[175] Einhard calls it "Sinlendi," and it was a part of South Jutland or
Sleswick [cf. Munch, 1852, p. 378].

[176] "Dęnemearc" is mentioned by Alfred for the first time in literature.

[177] Professor Alf Torp has kindly given me a [Norwegian] translation of
the poem.

[178] It may be of interest in this connection to remind the reader that
Plutarch ["De facie in orbe Lunæ," 941] mentions that the island of Ogygia
lay five days' sail west of Britain, and that upon one of the islands in
the north-west lay Cronos imprisoned (cf. above, p. 156), for which reason
the sea was called Cronium. According to the statements of the barbarians
"the great continent [i.e., that which lies beyond the ocean, cf. above,
p. 16] by which the great ocean is enclosed in a circle" lies nearer to
these islands, "but from Ogygia it is about five thousand stadia when one
travels with rowing-boats; for the sea is heavy to pass through, and muddy
on account of the many currents; but the great land sends out the streams
and they stir up the mud, and the sea is heavy and earthy, for which
reason it is held to be curdled." These are similar conceptions to those
we have already found in Aristotle's Meteorologica (cf. above, p. 41), and
Plutarch is also inclined to place this sluggish sea towards the
north-west. Moreover, it seems as though the ancients imagined the
stiffened sea (usually in connection with darkness) everywhere on the
outer limits of the world. Curtius (of the time of Augustus) in a speech
makes Alexander's soldiers (when they try to force him to turn back) use
such expressions as that this leads to nowhere, all was covered with
darkness and a motionless sea, and dying Nature disappears. Similar
conceptions of a curdled and stinking sea and an ocean of darkness near
the outer limits of the world are also found in Arabic literature [cf.
Edrisi, 1154 A.D.].

[179] On maps the name possibly appears earlier. On an English map of the
world (Cottoniana), possibly of the close of the tenth century (992-994),
there is an "Island" (see p. 183); but the possibility is not excluded
that the existing copy of this map may be later, and may have taken some
names from Adam of Bremen [cf. K. Miller, iii. 1895, p. 37].

[180] This name appears here for the first time in literature (cf.
"Balcia" in Pliny, pp. 71, 99, above). It has also been sought to derive
it from the Old Prussian (Lettish and Lithuanian) "baltas," white; it
would then mean the white sea, and the name would be due to the sandy
coasts of the south-east [cf. Schafarik, Slav. Alt., i. pp. 451 ff.].

[181] We may compare with this the tale of the Arab author Qazwînî, of the
thirteenth century [cf. G. Jacob, 1896, pp. 9, 37]: "The City of Women is
a great city with a wide territory on an island in the western ocean.
At-Tartûshî says: its inhabitants are women, over whom men have no
authority. They ride horses, and themselves wage war. They show great
bravery in conflict. They have also slaves. Every slave in turn visits his
mistress at night, remains with her all night, rises at dawn, and goes out
secretly at daybreak. If then one of them gives birth to a boy she kills
him on the spot; but if a girl she lets her live. At-Tartûshî says: the
City of Women is a fact of which there is no doubt." This, as we see, is
an adaptation of the Greek legend of the Amazons, and of the Scythian
women who had children by their slaves [cf. Herodotus, vi. 1]. As a
similar story of the City of Women, "west of the Russians," is attributed
to the Jew Ibrâhîm ibn Ja'qûb (of the tenth century), which he says he had
from the emperor Otto (the Great), it probably dates from the tenth
century. Jacob thinks the legend here was due to the name of Magdeburg,
which was translated "civitas virginum"; but as the women lived in an
island in the ocean it is more probable that it may be derived from
Kvænland. Similar legends seem to have been common in the Middle Ages, and
occur in many authors. (Cf. Paulus Warnefridi, above, p. 160). Isidore is
said to have made Sweden the original home of the Amazons.

[182] Cf. Plutarch, Thes. 26; Strabo, xi. 504; and others.

[183] Adam's statement (immediately afterwards in the same section) that
the land of the Alani or Wizzi was defended by an army of dogs, must be
due to a similar misinterpretation of the name "Huns."

[184] This passage is undoubtedly taken from Solinus, and we see how
Magister Adam confuses together what he has heard and what he finds in
classical authors.

[185] It seems very probable, as Mr. F. Schiern [1873, s. 13] suggests,
that this conception of even the noblest men (nobilissimi homines) being
herdsmen may be due to a misunderstanding of the old Norse word
"fehirðir," which might mean herdsman, but was also the usual word for
treasurer, especially the king's treasurer.

[186] This description refers, probably, to the Lapps and their magic
arts.

[187] This must be another misunderstanding of tales about Kvæns, whom
Adam took for women.

[188] These skin-clad hunters, who spoke a language unintelligible to the
Norwegians, were certainly Lapps.

[189] It might be thought that "uri" was here a corruption for "lutræ"
(otters); but as "uri" is found in two passages without making sense in
its proper meaning, aurochs, it may also be supposed that it is here used
as a name for walrus, as proposed by A. M. Hansen; and then the last
sentence will be quite simple, that the white bear lives under water like
the walrus. The confusion may have arisen through a belief that the tusks
of the walrus were aurochs' horns. The horns in the picture of the "Urus"
on the Ebstorf map (1284) are very like walrus tusks. But it is striking
that the common land bear is not mentioned, while the white bear is spoken
of. As the latter seldom comes to Finmark, its mention points to the
Norwegians having hunted it in the Polar Sea; if it be not due to the
connection of Norway with Iceland and Greenland, but as these lands are
mentioned separately this seems less probable.

[190] This idea may possibly be due on the one hand to the mist, which may
have been regarded as brought about by heat; for in a scholium (possibly
by Adam himself, or not much later) we read: "By Iceland is the Ice Sea,
and it is boiling and shrouded in mist ('caligans')." On the other hand it
may be due to statements about volcanoes and boiling springs which have
been confused with it. The black colour and dryness of the ice may be due
to confusion with lava or with floating pumice-stone in the sea, and
statements about the lignite of Iceland ("surtarbrand") may also have
given rise to this idea [cf. Baumgartner, 1902, p. 503]. Lönborg's
suggestion [1897, p. 165] that it may be due to driftwood is less
probable. Compare also the idea in the "Meregarto" (above, p. 181) of the
ice as hard as crystal, which is heated. In two MSS. of Solinus, of which
the oldest is of the twelfth century [cf. Mommsen's edition of Solinus,
1895, pp. xxxiv., xxxvii., 236; Lappenberg, 1838, pp. 887 f.], there is an
addition about the northern islands in which we read of Iceland: "Yslande.
The sea-ice on this island ignites itself on collision, and when it is
ignited it burns like wood. These people also are good Christians, but in
winter they dare not leave their underground holes on account of the
terrible cold. For if they go out they are smitten by such severe cold
that they lose their colour like lepers and swell up. If by chance they
blow their nose, it comes off and they throw it away with what they have
blown out." This passage cannot be derived from Adam of Bremen (nor has it
any resemblance to the Meregarto); it may indicate that similar ideas of
the ice of Iceland were current at that time. Saxo's remarkable allusion
to this ice (in the introduction to his work) also shows that it was
connected with much superstition.

[191] The woods consisted then as now solely of birch-trees, which were
however larger at that time.

[192] In a scholium, possibly by Adam himself, there is this correction:
"According to what others report, Halagland is the extreme part of Norway,
which borders on the Skridfinns and is inaccessible by reason of the
forbidding mountains and the harshness of the cold."

[193] This statement that the summer day and the winter night were of the
same length cannot here, any more than in Jordanes and Procopius, be due
to direct observation on the part of Northerners, but must be an echo of
classical astronomical speculations (cf. above, pp. 134, 144). It is
strange, too, that while in Jordanes (and Procopius) the length of the
summer day and winter night was forty days (among the "Adogit" in
Hálogaland), it is here given as fourteen days in Hálogaland. Possibly the
number fourteen may be due to a confusion or a copyist's error for forty.

[194] Probably Adam has taken this explanation from Bede [cf. Kohlmann,
1908, pp. 45 ff.].

[195] This passage, from "Beyond this island," is not found in all the
MSS., whence Lappenberg [1876, p. xvii.] thinks it is a later
addition--but by Adam himself, as the style resembles his. To this latter
reason it may be objected that when Adam mentions Harold Hardråde earlier
in his work, he is disposed to disparage him, which is not the case here.
But since he does not disparage him either in his mention of the Baltic
voyage (see p. 185), this is of little importance.

[196] While this sheet is in the press I happen to see that the same
opinion has been advanced, almost in the same words, by Sven Lönborg
[1897, p. 168].

[197] Adam's idea of Hálogaland (Halagland) as an island may be due to its
similarity of sound to the "Heiligland" (Heligoland) mentioned by him. As
one of these lands was an island it must have been easy to suppose that
the other was one also. The interpretation of the name as meaning holy may
come from the same source. Heiligland was regarded as holy on account of
the monastery established there. A corresponding name, "Eyin Helga," is
applied in the sagas to two islands: Helgeö in Mjösen, and the well-known
Iona in the Hebrides [Magnus Barfot's Saga, cap. 10]. The latter was holy
on account of Columcille's church.

[198] See note 2, p. 197.

[199] Adam did not apparently know the name "Finn," he only mentions
Finnédi and Scritefini. It might then seem natural that he should intermix
the names Vinland and Finland, and believing that this Fin- or Vin- had
something to do with Wine, he may have applied to this land Isidore's
description of the Fortunate Isles, in a similar manner as he applied the
Greek story about the Amazons to Kvænland with the Cynocephali, etc.

[200] S. Bugge has since maintained the probability that the name "Skaði"
is of Germanic origin.

[201] We shall not here enter into the difficult question of the blond
short-skulls, as it has no bearing on our argument.

[202] It might, for instance, be supposed that the Ryger and Horder, who
came from north-eastern Germania, were already mixed with short-skulled
Slavs before their immigration to western Norway.

[203] Among the known brachycephalic peoples of Europe we have the Celts
and the western Slavs, Poles, Czecks, etc. These are linguistically far
apart, but it is a question whether the brachycephalic element in both is
not originally the same. It must be borne in mind that, at the remote
period of which we are now speaking, the linguistic difference between
them was certainly small, and for that matter it is of little importance
from which of them the first immigration into Scandinavia came.

[204] As Professor Alf Torp has pointed out to me, the word "Fin" must, on
account of the Germanic mutation of sounds, be expected to have sounded
something like "Pen" at that remote time. "Pen" in Celtic means head, and
it is not altogether impossible that such a word might have been
transformed into a national name.

[205] Cf. O. Solberg, 1909. The particulars here given of this remarkable
find are for the most part taken from Solberg's interesting paper, the
proofs of which he has allowed me to see. He has also been kind enough to
give me an opportunity of examining the objects.

[206] Lapps belonging to the Greek Church, who live in a Russian enclave
on the Pasvik, Varanger Fjord. (Tr.)

[207] Curiously enough, no bones of the great bearded seal (Phoca barbata)
are mentioned; but its absence may perhaps be accidental.

[208] In a grave in North Varanger some fragments were found, probably of
walrus-tusk [cf. Solberg, 1909, p. 93].

[209] Professor G. Storm [1894, s. 97] and others have thought that the
Karelian-Finnish name "Kantalaksi" ("Kandalaks") and "Kantalahti" for the
north-western bay of the White Sea, and the town at its inner end, may be
a corrupted translation of the Norwegian name "Gandvik" for the White Sea,
as "kanta" ("kanda") might be the Finnish-Karelian pronunciation of the
Norwegian "gand," and the Finnish-Karelian "lahti" or "laksi" has the same
meaning as the Norwegian "vik" (bay). Dr. Hansen, considering this
explanation probable, takes it as proof that the Karelians must have come
to the region later than the Norwegians, and later than the Beormas of
Ottar's time. But if the Karelians had immigrated thither after the
Norwegians had given it this name, it would be equally incomprehensible
that they should not have taken their place-names from the settled Beormas
instead of from the casually visiting Norwegians. Storm's explanation of
the name "Kandalaks" is, however, in my opinion highly improbable; the
casually visiting Norwegians cannot possibly have given the settled
Beormas or Karelians the name of their own home. It is then, according to
my view, much more probable that the Norwegian "Gandvik" is some kind of
"popular etymological" translation of "Kantalaksi," which must then be a
name of Finnish-Karelian origin. I have asked Professor Konrad Nielsen, of
Christiania, about this, and he has also discussed the question with
Professor E. Setälä, and Professor Wichmann, of Helsingfors. All three are
of my opinion. The meaning of "Kantalaksi" (or "Kannanlaksi," from an
older word "Kanðanlaksi," where the first part is genitive) seems to
Nielsen to be quite certain: "kanta" (genitive, "kannan") is heel, basis.
The name should, according to Setälä, be translated, "the broad bay." The
Norwegians must consequently have corrupted the first part of the name in
a "popular etymological" manner to their "gand" (which means sorcery), and
the latter part of the name they have translated by "vik" (bay). The name
"Gandvik" may already have been known in Norway in the tenth century, as
it is mentioned by the heathen skald, Eilif Gudrunsson, in Thorsdrápa.
This seems to prove that the Beormas of the tenth century (and then
evidently also of Ottar's time) were Karelians, using the Karelian name
"Kantalaksi" for the White Sea. This name consequently leads to
conclusions contrary to those of Dr. Hansen, and it goes against the
correctness of his views.

[210] Dr. Hansen seeks to explain the difficulty that the Beormas near the
Dvina, according to the name of the goddess "Jomale" in the tale of Tore
Hund's journey to Beormaland, must have spoken Karelian, by supposing that
the Beormas on the Dvina and those on the Gulf of Kandalaks were two
entirely different peoples, although in the old narratives no support for
such an assertion is to be found. Besides, we have above found evidence
that the Beormas at Kandalaks also spoke Karelian, because this name is a
Karelian word, which was used already in the tenth century.

[211] Cf. Björnbo and Petersen, 1904, p. 178. In Michel Beheim's travels
in Norway in 1450 "Wild lapen" are also mentioned, cf. Vangensten, 1908,
pp. 17, 30 f.

[212] Hakluyt: "The Principal Navigations, etc." (1903), iii. p. 404.

[213] Gustav Storm [1881, p. 407] altered "some" to "none," evidently
thinking it would make better sense of this obscure passage; following him
therefore Magnus Olsen, J. Qvigstad and A. M. Hansen have recently
discussed the passage as though it read: "which none can understand." It
appears to me that "which some [i.e., a few] can understand" gives clearer
sense.

[214] This passage seems somewhat confused and it is difficult to find a
logical connection in it. The first part is simple; most of the Sea Finns
(Fishing Lapps) speak Norwegian, but badly. Among themselves and with the
Mountain Finns (Reindeer Lapps) they do not use this, but their own
language. The language of the latter people must consequently have been
the same, unless we are to make the improbable assumption that the Fishing
Lapps had a language different from that of the Reindeer Lapps, which the
latter however had learned, although they are still in our time very bad
linguists, and speak imperfect Norwegian. So far there cannot be much
doubt of the meaning, but it is different when we come to the statement
that they had more languages than one, and that of "their languages they
have however another to use among themselves." It seems to me that the
certain examples mentioned by Qvigstad [1909] of the Lapps having been in
the habit of inventing jargons at the beginning of the eighteenth century
give a natural explanation of this passage [cf. also Magnus Olsen, 1909].
A. M. Hansen's interpretation [1907 and 1909], that the original
mother-tongue of the Fishing Lapps (called by him "Skridfinnish"), which
was quite different from that which they spoke with the Reindeer Lapps, is
here meant, cannot be reconciled with the words of the text, for in that
case they must have had two mother-tongues; it is expressly said that the
second language was "their own," which they spoke among themselves; if it
was only the language of the Reindeer Lapps, then it was precisely _not_
their own, nor would they have any reason to speak it among themselves. I
understand the passage thus: "of their [own] language they have also
another [i.e., another form, variant, or jargon] to use among themselves,
which [only] some [of them] can understand." But how it should result from
this that "it is certain that they have nine languages" is difficult to
explain; for even if we assume with Hansen that nine is an error for
three, it does not improve matters; for in any case they did not use all
three languages, including Norwegian, "among themselves." It is probable
enough, as indeed both Hansen and Magnus Olsen have assumed, that there is
a reference here to the magic arts of the Lapps; and we must then suppose
that this mention of the nine languages was an expression commonly
understood at the time, which did not require further explanation, to be
compared with the nine tongue-roots of the poisonous serpent [cf. M.
Olsen, 1909, p. 91]. Nine was a sacred number in heathen times, cf. Adam
of Bremen's tale of the festivals of the gods every ninth year at Upsala,
where nine males of every living thing were offered, etc. Thietmar of
Merseburg mentions the sacrificial festival which was held every ninth
year at midwinter at Leire, etc.

[215] Remark the resemblance between this passage and the mention of the
Lapps in the "Historia Norvegiæ" (above, p. 204).

[216] Ottar's statement that he owned 600 reindeer is, as pointed out by
O. Solberg [1909, p. 127], evidence against the correctness of A. M.
Hansen's assumption that the Finns mentioned by Ottar had learned to keep
reindeer by imitating the Norwegian's cattle-keeping, and that they kept
their reindeer on the mountain pastures in summer, but collected them
together for driving home in winter; it would have been a difficult matter
to manage several hundred reindeer in this fashion, unless they were
divided up into so many small herds that we cannot suppose them all to
have been the property of one man. Large herds of many deer must have been
half wild and have been kept in a similar way to the Reindeer Lapps'
reindeer now.

[217] Gregory of Tours; "Gesta Francorum"; the Anglo-Saxon poems "Beowulf"
and "Wîdsîð," etc.

[218] Zeuss, 1837, p. 501; Müllenhoff, 1889, pp. 18 f., 95 f.; A. Bugge,
1905, pp. 10 f.

[219] Cf. H. Zimmer [1891, 1893, p. 223] and A. Bugge [1905, pp. 11 f.].
In a life of St. Gildas, on an island off the Welsh coast ["Vita Gildæ,
auctore Carodoco Lancarbanensi," p. 109], we read that he was plundered by
pirates from the Orcades islands, who must be supposed to have been
Norwegian Vikings. This is said to have taken place in the sixth century,
but the MS. dates from the twelfth. The island of Sark, east of Guernsey,
was laid waste by the Normans, according to the "Miracula Sancti
Maglorii," cap. 5. [A. de la Borderie, "Histoire de Bretagne," Critique
des Sources, iii. 13, p. 236.] This part of the "Miracula" was composed,
according to Borderie, before 851; but even in the saint's lifetime (sixth
century) the "Miracula" places an attack by the "Normans" (cap. 2). It has
been suggested [cf. Vogel, "Die Normannen und das Fränkische Reich," 1896,
p. 353] that this might refer to Saxon pirates; but doubtless incorrectly.

[220] Cf. Zeuss, 1837, pp. 477 f.; Müllenhoff, 1889, p. 19.

[221] What an enormous time such a development requires is demonstrated by
the history of the rudder. The most ancient Egyptian boats were evidently
steered by two big oars aft, one on each side. These oars were later, in
Egyptian and Greek ships, transformed into two rudders or rudder oars, one
on each side aft (see illustrations, pp. 7, 23, 35, 48). On the Viking
ships we find only one of these rudders on the starboard side, but fixed
exactly in the same way. Then at last, towards the end of the Middle Ages,
the rudder was moved to the stern-post. But the rudder of the boats of
Northern Norway has still a "styrvold" (instead of an ordinary tiller),
which is a remnant of the rudder of the Viking ships.

[222] The types of Scandinavian craft it most reminds one of are the fjord
and Nordland "jagt," in western and northern Norway, and the "pram," which
is now in use in south-eastern Norway. It is conceivable that it
represents an ancient boat type resembling the form of the "jagt."

[223] Professor Gustafson informed me that in the summer of 1909 he saw in
a megalithic grave in Ireland a representation of a ship, which might have
some resemblance to a Scandinavian rock-carving; but he regarded this as
very uncertain.

[224] Professor G. Gustafson has in recent years examined and figured many
Norwegian rock-carvings for the University of Christiania. The
illustration reproduced here (p. 237) is from a photograph which he has
kindly communicated to me.

[225] The Viking ships had, however, only one rudder on the starboard
side, while the ancient Egyptian, Phœnician and Greek ships had two
rudders, one on each side.

[226] But "Viking" is also explained as derived from a Celtic word, and is
said to mean warrior [cf. A. Bugge].

[227] Cf. P. A. Munch, i., 1852; Müllenhoff, ii., 1887, p. 66; iv., 1900,
pp. 121, 467, 493, etc.; Much, 1905, pp. 124, 135; Magnus Olsen, 1905, p.
22; A. Bugge, 1906, p. 20.

[228] H. Koht [1908] has suggested the possibility that the name
"Hålöiger" (Háleygir) from Hålogaland (Northern Norway) may be the same as
the Vandal tribe Lugii, which about the year 100 inhabited the region
between the upper course of the Elbe and Oder. With the prefix "há" they
are distinguished as the high Lugii. Moltke Moe thinks that "Hallinger" or
"Haddingjar" may come from another Vandal tribe, the "Hasdingi" (Gothic
"Hazdiggôs"), which had its name from the Gothic "*hazds," long hair [cf.
Müllenhoff, iv., 1900, p. 487; Much, 1905, p. 127]. It may also be
possible that the name of Skiringssal in Vestfold was connected with the
Sciri in eastern Germany [cf. Munch, 1852].

[229] O. Irgens [1904] thinks the Norwegians may have had the compass very
early (lodestone on a straw or a strip of wood floating on water in a
bowl), perhaps even in the eleventh century; indeed, he considers it not
impossible that the lodestone may have been brought to the North even much
earlier than this by Arab traders. But the expression often used in the
sagas that they drifted about the sea in thick and hazy weather (without
seeing the heavenly bodies), and did not know where they were, seems to
contradict this.

[230] O. Irgens [1904] has suggested the possibility that they might
measure the length of the shadow of the gunwale by marks on the thwart,
and determine when the boat lay on an even keel by a bowl of water, and
that thus they might obtain a not untrustworthy measurement of the sun's
altitude even at sea. He further supposed that the Norwegians might have
become acquainted with the hour-glass from Southern Europe or from the
plundering of monasteries, and that thus they were able to measure the
length of the day approximately at sea. But no statements are known that
could prove this.

[231] Presuming that King Alfred's "Iraland" is not an error for "Isaland"
and does not mean Iceland (see p. 179).

[232] The priest Ari Thorgilsson, commonly called Ari hinn Fróði or Are
Frode (i.e., the learned), lived from 1068 to 1148.

[233] G. Storm, "Monumenta Historica Norvegiæ," 1880, pp. 8 f.

[234] R. Meissner [1902, pp. 43 f.] thinks it was written between 1260 and
1264.

[235] The original Landnámabók, which was the source of both Styrmir's and
Sturle's versions, must have been written at the beginning of the
thirteenth century.

[236] Cf. Vigfússon, 1856, i. p. 186; P. A. Munch, 1860; J. E. Sars, 1877,
i. p. 213; A. Bugge 1905, pp. 377 ff. Finnur Jónsson, 1894, ii. p. 188, is
against this view.

[237] Thus the Norsemen settled in Greenland are always described in the
Icelandic sagas, while the Eskimo are called Skrælings.

[238] Opinions have been divided as to the origin of this name; but there
can be no doubt that the word is Germanic, and is the same as the modern
Norwegian word "skrælling," which denotes a poor, weak, puny creature.

[239] This took place, according to Are Frode's own statements, in the
year 1000.

[240] It seems possible that this note may refer to an island which
appeared in 1422 south-west of Reykjarnes, and later again disappeared
[cf. Th. Thoroddsen, 1897, i. pp. 89 f.].

[241] See "Grönlands historiske Mindesmærker," iii. p. 250; F. Jónsson,
1899, p. 322.

[242] Instead of the words "very slightly ..." some MSS. have: "but then
steer south-west."

[243] Both Snæbjörn and Rolf had to fly from Iceland for homicide. Rolf
and Styrbjörn fell in blood-feud when they returned.

[244] Goe began about February 21. What is here related would thus show
that it was not till after that time that mild weather began, so that the
snow melted and there was water on the stick that stuck out through the
aperture.

[245] It was, perhaps, not altogether by chance that Eric was supposed to
have sailed west from this point, as Gunnbjörn's brother, Grimkell, lived
on the outer side of Snæfellsnes; and it may have been on a voyage thither
that Gunnbjörn was thought to have been driven westward [cf. Reeves, 1895,
p. 166].

[246] Snæfell lay far north on the west coast of Greenland. A Snæfell far
north is also mentioned in connection with the Nordrsetu voyages (see
later); it lay north of Króksfjardarheidr; but whether it is the same as
that here mentioned is uncertain.

[247] In the Eastern Settlement there was a Ravnsfjord (Hrafnsfjörðr),
which is probably the same as that intended here, as it is compared with
Eiriksfjord.

[248] The above is for the most part a translation from Hauk's
Landnámabók.

[249] We know little of how the ancient Scandinavians were able to provide
themselves on their long voyages with food that would keep; they used salt
meat, and it is probable that when they were laid up for the winter they
often died of scurvy, as indeed is indicated by the narratives. Meat and
fish they could doubtless often obtain fresh by hunting and fishing; for
grain products they were in a worse position; these can never have been
abundant in Iceland, and they certainly had no opportunity of carrying a
large provision with them; but as a rule they can scarcely have got on
altogether without hydro-carbons, which are considered necessary for the
healthy nourishment of a European. Milk may have afforded a sufficient
compensation, and in fact we see that they usually took cattle with them.
In the narrative of Ravna-Floki's voyage to Iceland it is expressly said
that the cattle died during the winter (see above, p. 257), and it must
have been for this reason that they thought they must go home again the
next summer, which shows how important it was. Probably Eric also took
cattle with him on his first voyage to Greenland, and thus he was obliged
before all to find a more permanent place of abode on the shores of the
fjords where there was grazing for the cattle; but it is likely that he
lived principally by sealing and fishing. In that case he must have been a
very capable fisherman.

[250] Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, i. pp. 686, 688, Hafniæ, 1848.

[251] If the Gunnbjörnskerries lay on the east coast, then Gunnbjörn
Ulfsson was the first to reach it; but, as has been pointed out above (p.
261), they are more likely to have been near Cape Farewell, assuming the
voyage to be historical.

[252] This incident is obviously connected with Irish legends, with which
that same saga shows other points of resemblance. We read in the
Floamanna-saga [cf. "Grönl. hist. Mind.," ii. p. 118]: "They were then
much exhausted by thirst; but water was nowhere in the neighbourhood. Then
said Starkad: I have heard it said that when their lives were at stake men
have mingled sea-water and urine. They then took the baler, ... made this
mixture, and asked Thorgils for leave to drink it. He said it might indeed
be excused, but would not either forbid it or permit it. But as they were
about to drink, Thorgils ordered them to give him the baler, saying that
he wished to say a spell over their drink [or: speak over the bowl]. He
received it and said: Thou most foul beast, that delayest our voyage, thou
shalt not be the cause that I or others drink our own evacuation! At that
moment a bird, resembling a young auk, flew away from the boat, screaming.
Thorgils thereupon emptied the baler overboard. They then row on and see
running water, and take of it what they want; and it was late in the day.
This bird flew northwards from the boat. Thorgils said: Late has this bird
left us, and I would that it may take all the devilry with it; but we must
rejoice that it did not accomplish its desire."

In Brandan's first voyage, in the Irish tale, "Betha Brenainn," etc., or
"Imram Brenaind" (of about the twelfth century; cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 137,
319), the seafarers one day suffered such thirst that they were near to
death. They then saw glorious jets of water falling from a cliff. His
companions asked Brandan whether they might drink of the water. He advised
them first to say a blessing over it; but when this was done, the jets
stopped running, and they saw the devil, who was letting the water out of
himself, and killing those who drank of it. The sea closed over the devil,
in order that thenceforth he might do no more evil to any one. The
similarities are striking: both are perishing of thirst and about to drink
urine, the Icelanders their own, the Irish the devil's. They ask their
leaders--the Icelanders Thorgils, the Irish Brandan--whether they may
drink it. In both cases the leaders require a prayer to be said over it.
Thereupon in both cases they see the devil: the Icelanders in the form of
a bird that screams and finally leaves them to trouble them no more, and
the Irish in the form of the devil himself, who is passing water, and
disappears into the sea to do no more evil. The Icelandic tale is to some
extent disconnected and incomprehensible, but is explained by being
compared with the Irish; one thus sees how there may originally have been
a connection between the bird (the Evil One) and the drink, which is
otherwise obscure. The Icelandic account may have arisen by a distortion
and adaptation, due to oral transmission, of the Irish legend.

[253] Cf. "Grönl. hist. Mind.," ii. p. 656.

[254] Cf. "Grönl. hist. Mind.," ii. p. 662.

[255] _Ibid._ pp. 684 ff.

[256] According to the "Islandske Annaler" [pp. 121, 181, 477] it was in
1200, therefore eleven years later, not fourteen; it is there related
merely that Ingimund the priest was found uncorrupted in the uninhabited
region, but the other six are not mentioned.

[257] I.e., wax tablets to write on.

[258] The Arab Qazwînî (thirteenth century) tells a story, after Omar al
'Udhri (eleventh century), of a cave in the west where lie four dead men
uncorrupted [cf. G. Jacob, 1892, p. 168].

[259] Cf. "Islandske Annaler," edited by G. Storm, 1888, pp. 50, 70, 142,
196, 337, 383.

[260] Cf. G. Storm's arguments to this effect, 1888a, pp. 263 ff.; 1887,
pp. 71 f.

[261] It is true that in Bishop Gissur Einarsson's (bishop from 1541 to
1548) copy-book there is an addition to the ancient sailing directions for
Greenland that "experienced men have said that one must sail south-west to
New Land (Nyaland) from the Krysuvik mountains" (on the Reykjanes
peninsula) [see "Grönl. hist. Mind.," iii. p. 215; and G. Storm, "Hist.
Tidskr.," 1888, p. 264]; but it is impossible to attach much weight to a
statement of direction in a tradition 260 years old; it may easily have
been altered or "improved" by later misconceptions.

[262] "Grönl. hist. Mind.," iii. pp. 222-224.

[263] As we have said, they can scarcely have known anything of the coast
to the north of this, which runs in a more northerly direction.

[264] Cf. G. Storm, 1891, p. 71; "Grönl. hist. Mind.," i. p. 361.

[265] The mathematician and cosmographer Jacob Ziegler (ob. 1549) in his
work "Scondia" (printed at Strasburg, 1536) placed the promontory of
Hvítserk ("Hvetsarg promontorium") in 67° N. lat. [cf. "Grönl. hist.
Mind.," iii. pp. 500, 503]. This may be the usual confusion with Bláserk.
It happens to be by no means ill suited to Ingolf's Fjeld, which lies in
66° 25' N. lat.

[266] In the Walkendorff additions to Ivar Bárdsson's description of
Greenland it is called Hvítserk, which may be a confusion with Bláserk;
the passage continues: "And it is credibly reported that it is not thirty
sea-leagues to land, in whichever direction one would go, whether to
Greenland or to Iceland" [see "Grönl. hist. Mind.," iii. p. 491]. The
distance here given is remarkably correct. In Björn Jónsson's "Grönlands
Annaler" (written before 1646) it is related that "Sira Einar Snorrason,"
priest of Stadarstad, near Snæfellsnes (he became priest there in 1502),
owned a large twelve-oared boat, which, with a cargo of dried cod, was
carried away from Öndverdarnes (the western point of Snæfellsnes) "and
drifted out to sea, so that they saw both the glaciers, as Gunnbjörn had
done formerly, both Snæfells glacier and Bláserk in Greenland; they had
thus come near to Eric's course ('Eiriksstefnu')" ["Grönl. hist. Mind.,"
i. p. 123]. Here, then, we have the same idea that both glaciers can be
seen simultaneously, as is also found in Björn's work with reference to
Gunnbjörn Ulfsson's voyage (see above, p. 263).

[267] Cf. "Grönl. hist. Mind.," iii. p. 843. Captain Graah brought the
stone to Denmark in 1824.

[268] In a paper read before the Archæological Society at Stockholm, March
13, 1905. Cf. "Svenska Dagbladet," March 14, 1905. I owe this reference to
Professor Magnus Olsen.

[269] Cf. A. Bugge, 1898, p. 506. By a printer's error, seventeenth
century is given instead of fourteenth.

[270] See also the 5th and 6th cantos of the same poem, "Grönl. hist.
Mind.," ii. pp. 522 ff., for the voyage to Greipar and its being the
resort of outlaws.

[271] Captain Isachsen [1907] has attached much weight to this expression
(which he translates from "Grönl. hist. Mind." by "long and dangerous
sea-route"; but the original is "mikit og lángt sjóleiði") in order to
prove that the Nordrsetur must lie far north. But it is seen from the text
itself that this idea of a long sea voyage is taken from the Skáld-Helga
lay (where also similar expressions are used), which is of late origin,
and consequently an untrustworthy base for such conclusions. Moreover,
according to the lay itself, Skald-Helge belonged probably to the Eastern
Settlement, and thence to Holstensborg, 67° N. lat., was a long voyage.

[272] This is obviously an error for "bygðar sporðr" (end of the inhabited
country), as in the "Skáld-Helga Rimur" (see above, p. 298).

[273] "Greipar," plural of "Greip," would mean literally the grip or
interval between the fingers, but it may also be used of mountain ravines.
The name seems to point to a particularly rugged or fjord-indented coast,
and would be appropriate to the whole country north of Straumsfjord, for
instance about Holstensborg, in about 67°.

[274] "Króksfjarðar-heiðr" would literally mean the flat, waste mountain
tract ("heiðr") by the crooked fjord, Kroksfjord. The latter name would be
very appropriate to Disco Bay and Vaigat. The flat plateaux of basalt,
which form Disco on one side, and the Nugsuak Peninsula on the other side
of Vaigat, might be called "heiðr."

[275] Cf. "Grönl. hist. Mind.," iii. p. 226; F. Jónsson, 1899, p. 319.

[276] Perhaps these names of fjords were so indistinct in the original MS.
that Björn Jónsson could not read them, and therefore inserted these words
(cf. "Grönl. hist. Mind.," iii. p. 233).

[277] The name of this island is left blank, and was doubtless illegible
in the original.

[278] So the mountain is called in an Icelandic translation, and this form
may be nearest to the name in the original Norwegian text. In the various
Danish MSS. the mountain is called "Hemeuell Radszfielt" (oldest MS.),
"Hammelrads Fjeld," "Himmelradsfjeld," etc. In a MS. which is otherwise
considered trustworthy, it is called "Hemelrachs Fjeld," and this has been
frequently supposed to mean the heaven-reaching mountain [cf. "Grönl.
hist. Mind.," iii. p. 259]. As will be mentioned later, the real name of
the mountain was possibly "Himinroð" (flushing of the sky), or perhaps
"Himinrǫð" (wall of heaven, i.e., wall reaching towards heaven).

[279] The words in parenthesis are in German, and are certainly an
explanation added later. XIII. is evidently an error for XIIII.

[280] It is also possible that it means whales from which "tauer" or ropes
are obtained, i.e., the walrus; the ropes of walrus-hide being so very
valuable.

[281] One might then suppose that "Hunenrioth" was connected with the
Norwegian word "hun" for a giant (sometimes used in our day for the Evil
One). The name might then be applied to the mythical Risaland or
Jotunheim, in the Polar Sea, north-east of Greenland; but it would then be
difficult to explain the meaning of the latter part of the name, -rioth.

[282] Professor Moltke Moe has suggested to me this explanation of the
name. One might also suppose it to mean the western land of sunset, that
is, America, but it would be unlike the Scandinavians to use such a name
for a country. There is a possibility that it was connected with "rǫð"
(gen. "raðar," a ridge of land) and meant the ridge or wall of heaven,
i.e., reaching toward heaven. It is, perhaps, less probable that "-rioth"
or "-rað" came from a word of two syllables like "roða" (a rod, later a
cross, Anglo-Saxon "rod," modern English "rood") or the poetical word
"róði" (wind, storm). In O. Rygh: "Norske Gaardnavne," xvi. Nordlands Amt
[ed. K. Rygh, 1905, p. 334], there is the name of an estate "Himmelstein"
(in Busknes), which in 1567 was written "Himmelstand," "Himmelstaa" [from
1610 on == "sten"]. K. Rygh remarks of this: "Himmel occurs occasionally
in names of mountains: thus, a little farther north we have the lofty
Himmeltinder on the border of Busknes and Borge. One is disposed to regard
this name as similar to the Danish Himmelbjerg, meaning a very high
mountain...." Professor Torp has mentioned to me the similarity of name
with the giant Hymer's ox "Himinhrjotr" in the Snorra-Edda; but it is
difficult to think that a mountain should have been called after the
proper name of an animal.

[283] Rafn, in "Grönl. hist. Mind.," iii. pp. 881-885, commits the
absurdity of separating these two places by the whole of Baffin's Bay, in
spite of their being mentioned together in the old accounts under the
common designation of "Nordrsetur." He puts "Greipar" in about 67° N.
lat., but makes Króksfjardarheidr into Lancaster Sound, 74° N. lat., on
the other side of the ice-blocked Baffin's Bay.

[284] Cf. "Islandske Annaler," ed. Storm, p. 120, etc.; "Grönl. hist.
Mind.," ii. pp. 754, 762. As is pointed out by Finnur Jónsson [1893, p.
539], most of the coffins found in graves in Greenland are fastened
together with wooden nails. We are also told how all the iron spikes and
nails were carefully taken out of a stranded Norwegian ship (about 1129).

[285] Since this chapter was written a few years ago, an excellent
treatise by O. Solberg on the Greenland Eskimo in prehistoric times has
appeared [1907]. The author has here reached conclusions similar to the
above as regards the northward extension of the Nordrsetu voyages; but he
proposes to place Kroksfjord south of Disco Bay, since he does not think
the Greenlanders came across the Eskimo who lived there. I do not consider
this view justified; on the contrary, it seems to me probable (as will be
mentioned later) that the Greenlanders had intercourse with the Eskimo.

[286] Otto Sverdrup found on two small islands in Jones Sound several
groups of three stones, evidently set up by human hands as shelters for
sitting eider-ducks, similar to those with which he was acquainted in the
north of Norway. Whether these stone shelters were very ancient could not
be determined. Captain Isachsen [1907] thinks they may be due to the
ancient Scandinavians of the Greenland settlements, and sees in them
possible evidence of Jones Sound having been Kroksfjord. But too much
importance must not be attached to this: no other sign of Europeans having
stayed in Jones Sound was discovered, whereas there were many signs of
Eskimo. Unless we are to believe that the latter set up the stones for
some purpose or other, it is just as likely that they may have been placed
there by chance hunters in recent times as that they were due to the
ancient Norsemen.

[287] As these pieces of driftwood must have been carried by the East
Greenland Polar Current, this seems to show that there were already Eskimo
on the east coast of Greenland at that time. As they are spoken of as
something remarkable, the pieces, with wedges of tusk and bone, cannot
have been due to Norsemen, either in Greenland or Iceland. Their being
shaped with "hatchets" or "adzes" (i.e., Eskimo tools) was looked upon as
strange.

[288] This passage seems obscure, and there may be some error or
misunderstanding on the part of the various copyists. But as it now
stands, it may be best taken to mean that all known land and all the known
glaciers had disappeared beneath the horizon; but that the "jökull" (i.e.,
snow-field or inland ice) which they saw to landward extended southward
along the coast as far as they could see. The expression "to the south of
them" is not, of course, to be interpreted as meaning due south of the
spot where they were, but rather as southward along the coast, from the
part off which they lay; this is confirmed by the addition "as far as they
could see," which can only refer to a coast along which they were looking
southward.

[289] The text has three "dœgr" (and one long day's rowing), that is,
three times twelve hours; but in this case it seems most natural to
suppose that days are meant, and that they put in to shore at night.

[290] The text says that these islands were to the south of "Snæfell"; but
where this was we do not know. In the Saga of Eric the Red we read that in
the third summer Eric (see above, p. 267) "went as far north as 'Snæfell'
and into 'Hrafns-fjord.'" Whether this was the same Snæfell is uncertain,
but quite possible; while Hrafns-fjord (Ravnsfjord) is most probably to be
regarded as the Hrafnsfjord that lay in the Eastern Settlement, near
Hvarf.

[291] Cf. "Grönl. hist. Mind.," iii. p. 885.

[292] Finnur Jónsson [1901, ii. p. 648] thinks it was written about 1200.

[293] Gudbrand Vigfusson [1878, i. pp. lix. f.] thinks that Eric the Red's
Saga and the Flateyjarbók's "Grönlendinga-þáttr" are derived, in complete
independence of one another, from oral traditions, which were different in
the west, at Breidafjord, where the former was written, and in the north,
from whence the latter is derived.

[294] We cannot here take any account of Rolf Raudesand's having come to
Norway on his return from Greenland (see p. 264); for even if this were
historical, which is doubtful, and even if it be referred to a date
anterior to Leif's voyage, which is not certain either, he was driven
there accidentally instead of to Iceland.

[295] "M surr" (properly "valbirch") was probably a veined tree, like
"valbjerk," which was regarded as valuable material. "Valbjerk" is birch
grown in a special way so that it becomes twisted and gnarled in
structure. It is still much used in Norway, e.g., for knife-handles.

[296] I do not mention here the fourteenth-century tale (in the
Flateyjarbók) of Bjarne Herjulfsson's discovery of Wineland as early as
985, since, as G. Storm has shown, this account hardly represents the
tradition which in earlier times was most current in Iceland.

[297] Thorbjörn Vivilsson came from Iceland to Greenland in 999, the same
summer that Leif sailed to Norway. His daughter was Gudrid, afterwards
married to Thorstein Ericson. The exact statement as to which ship was
used on this occasion, and as to those which were used later on Thorfinn
Karlsevne's expedition, shows how few ships there were in Greenland (and
Iceland), and in what esteem the men were held who owned them. The Saga of
Eric the Red seems to assume that Leif's ship was no longer very fit for
sea after his last voyage, as we hear no more about it. This may perhaps
be regarded as the reason for his not going again, if indeed there be any
other reason than the patchwork character of the saga. In the
Flateyjarbók, on the other hand, we are told that it was Leif's ship, and
not Thorbjörn Vivilsson's, that was used first by Thorvald and afterwards
by Thorstein.

[298] If the "great hundred" is meant, this will be 160 men.

[299] From the context it would seem probable that these islands, or this
island (?), lay in the Western Settlement. If they had been near
Lysefjord, Karlsevne, as Storm points out, might be supposed to go there
first because his wife, Gudrid, had inherited property there from
Thorstein, and there might be much to fetch thence. But the name
Bjarneyjar itself points rather to some place farther north, since the
southern part of the Western Settlement (the Godthaab district) must have
been then, as now, that part of the coast where bears were scarcest. In
Björn Jónsson's "Gronlandiæ vetus Chorographia" a "Biarney" (or "-eyiar")
is mentioned, to which it was twelve days' rowing from Lysefjord [cf.
above, p. 301], and as they are the only islands (or island ?) of this
name mentioned on the west coast of Greenland, there is much in favour of
their being the place here alluded to.

[300] "Dœgr" was half a twenty-four hours' day [cf. Rymbegla]; but whether
twelve hours or twenty-four, the distance, like those given later, is
impossible. They cannot have sailed from Greenland to Labrador, or even if
it was Baffin Land they made, in two days of twelve hours, and scarcely in
two of twenty-four. According to the MS. in the Hauksbók "they sailed
thence [i.e., from Bjarneyjar] two half-days [i.e., twenty-four hours in
all] to the south. Then they sighted land." It might be supposed that this
should be taken to mean that the difference in latitude between this land
and their starting-point was equivalent to two half-days' sail. It is true
that we read in the "Rymbegla" [1780, p. 482] there are two dozen
sea-leagues, or two degrees of latitude, in a "'dœgr's' sailing," and two
"dœgr" would therefore be four degrees; but when we see later that from
this first land they found to Markland (Newfoundland ?) was also only two
half-days' sail, then these distances become altogether impossible [cf. G.
Storm, 1888, pp. 32-34; Reeves, 1895, p. 173]. Reeves proposes that "tvau"
might be an error for "siau" (i.e., seven; but in the MS. of the Hauksbók
we have "two" in numerals: II). It is probable that this repetition of the
same distance, two "dœgr's" sail, in the case of each of the three new
countries, has nothing to do with reality; it reminds us so much of the
stereotyped legendary style that we are inclined to believe it to be
borrowed from this. Storm thinks that as Iceland was supposed to lie in
the same latitude as the Western Settlement, and Wineland in the same
latitude as Ireland, there would naturally be the same distance between
the Western Settlement and Wineland as between Iceland and Ireland, and
the latter was put at five (or three ?) "dœgr." However, it is not five,
but six "dœgr" between Bjarneyjar and Furðustrandir, according to the Saga
of Eric the Red [cf. Storm's ed., 1891, p. 32]. In the copy in the
Hauksbók, it is true, the distance is given as two "dœgr" between
Bjarneyjar and Helluland, two "dœgr" between this and Markland, and
"thence they sailed south along the coast a long way and came to a
promontory ..."; but this circumstance, that the distance is not given the
third time, again inclines one to think of the fairy-tale, and here again
there is no statement that the distance was five "dœgr" from the Western
Settlement to Kjalarnes.

[301] The arctic fox is common in Labrador, but also in the northern
peninsula of Newfoundland.

[302] Polar bears come on the drift-ice to the north and east coasts of
Newfoundland, but not farther south.

[303] The name comes from "furða." (warning, marvel, terror); "furðu"
(gen. sing.) placed before adjectives and adverbs has the meaning of
extremely ("furðu góðr" == extremely good). As "Furðustjarna" (the
wonder-star) surpassed the others in size and brilliance, these strands
may be supposed to surpass others in length, and thus to be endless; but
it is doubtless more likely that it means marvel-strands, where there were
marvels and wonderful things. In Örskog, Sunnmöre, Norway, there is a
place-name "Fúrstranda" (with long, closed "u"). K. Rygh [Norske
Gaardnavne, xiii., 1908, p. 155] remarks: "The first syllable must be the
tree-name "fura" [fir], though the pronunciation with a long, closed 'u'
is strange...."

[304] In the Faroes (Kodlafjord in Straumsey) there is a "Kjal(ar)nes,"
the origin of which is attributed to a man's name: "Kjölur á Nesi" [J.
Jakobsen, 1898, p. 147]; but it is more probable that the name of the ness
is the original one, and that the legend of Kjölur is later. As to
place-names ending in "-nes," O. Rygh [Norske Gaardnavne, Forord og
Indledning, 1898, p. 68] says: "Frequently the first part of the name is a
word signifying natural conditions on or about the promontory.... Very
often the first part has reference to the form of the promontory, its
outline, greater or less height, length, etc.... Personal names are not
usual in these combinations." In Norway names beginning with "Kjöl-"
("-nes," "-berg," "-stad," "-set," etc.) are very common; they may either
come from the man's name "Þjóðlfr" (which now often has the sound of
"Kjölv," "Kjöl," or "Kjöle"), or from the Old Norse poetical word "kjóll,"
m., "ship," or from "kjǫlr" (gen. "kjalar"), "keel of a vessel, and hence,
mountain-ridge" [cf. O. Rygh, Norske Gaardnavne, i., 1897, p. 269; iv. 2,
ed. A. Kjær, 1902, p. 57; vi. ed. A. Kjær, p. 237; xiii. ed. K. Rygh,
1908, p. 344]. Our Kjalarnes above must undoubtedly be derived from the
last. In Tanen, east of Berlevåg, there is a "Kjölnes"; in Iceland, just
north of Reykjavik, outside Faxafjord, there is a "Kjalarnes."

[305] This idea, that the land became broader towards the south, and the
coast there turned eastward, must be the same that we meet with again in
Icelandic geographies of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, where
Wineland is thought to be connected with Africa (see later).

[306] "Svart" (i.e., black-haired and black-eyed) is the reading of
Hauksbók, but the other MS. has "small."

[307] The word "Skrælingar" here occurs for the first time in this saga,
and seems to be used as a familiar designation for the natives, which did
not require further explanation; of this more later.

[308] Blue (blá) perhaps means rather dark or black in colour (cf.
"Blue-men" for negroes), and is often used of something uncanny or
troll-like.

[309] Nothing of the kind is related in the "Grönlendinga-þáttr"; where,
however, we are told of the first winter of Karlsevne's voyage that the
cattle pastured upon the land, "but the males ('graðfe') soon became
difficult to manage and troublesome."

[310] Ed. by P. Munch and C. R. Unger, Christiania, 1853, p. 75.

[311] E. H. Lind: Norsk-Isländska dopnamn, p. 283. I owe it to Moltke Moe
that my attention was drawn to this feature of the numerous heathen names.

[312] His wife is called "Sigríðr," which is thus an exception; but in the
Grönlendinga-þáttr she is called "Grímhildr," so that her name is
uncertain. There is also mentioned a thrall "Garði," but being a thrall
perhaps he could not have the name of a god.

[313] It is very curious that in the chapter-heading in the Hauksbók she
is called "Þuriðr," but in the text "Guðriðr" [cf. Storm, 1891, p. 23;
"Grönl. hist. Mind.," i. p. 392].

[314] It is perhaps more than a coincidence that in the classical legends
there were three groups of islands, the Gorgades, the Hesperides and the
Insulæ Fortunatæ, to the west of Africa. Marcianus Capella says that it
was two days' sail to the Gorgades, then came the Hesperides, and besides
the Insulæ Fortunatæ. Pliny also has two days to the Gorgades; beyond them
there were two Hesperides; he mentions also that it was two days' sail to
the Hesperian Æthiopians, etc. In the Flateyjarbók's description of Bjarne
Herjolfsson's voyage, which is still more purely fairy-tale, he sails for
two days from the first land he found (== Wineland) to the second (==
Markland), then three days to the third (== Helluland) and finally four
days to Greenland.

[315] If we assume that a "dœgr's" sailing is equal to two degrees of
latitude or 120 nautical miles (twenty-four ancient sea-leagues), then, as
shown on the map above, it will be about _four_ dœgr's sail from Greenland
to the nearest part of Labrador (not _two_). From Bjarneyjar to Markland
should be _four_ dœgr according to the saga; but the map shows that it is
between _eight_ and _ten_ dœgr from the Western Settlement along the coast
of Labrador to Newfoundland. On the other hand, between Newfoundland and
Cape Breton _two_ dœgr's sail will suit better.

[316] One must, of course, be cautious of seeing myth in all such
trilogies. As warning examples may be mentioned, that the Norwegians
settled in Hjaltland (Shetland), Orkney, and the Suderöer (Hebrides); they
discover the Faroes, thence Iceland, and then Greenland, in the same way
as they are said from the last-named to have discovered Helluland,
Markland and Wineland. On the east coast of Greenland there were three
glaciers, etc. But in Eric's Saga the triads are so numerous and sometimes
so peculiar, and the saga proves to be made up to such an extent of loans,
that one is disposed to regard the number three as derived from mythical
poetry.

[317] Cf. Unger's edition, Christiania, 1862, p. 292.

[318] Cf. also Joshua's two spies, who by the advice of Rahab the harlot
concealed themselves in the mountains for three days, after which they
descended and came to Joshua.

[319] Cf. Andreas Austlid: "Sinklar-soga," p. 21 (Oslo, 1899). H. P. S.
Krag: "Sagn samlede i Gudbrandsdalen on slaget ved Kringlen den 26de
august 1612," p. 19 (Kristiania, 1838).

[320] Ivar Kleiven: "I gamle Daagaa, Forteljingo og Bygda-Minne fraa
Vaagaa," p. 63 (Kristiania, 1907).

[321] We are told that he talked in "þýrsku." Similarity of sound may here
raise the question whether he was not originally supposed to be a Turk
(cf. the Wild Turks above), to which the name itself would point.

[322] It is noteworthy that we are told of this Tyrker that he was
"brattleitr" (i.e. with a flat, abrupt face); this is the only passage in
Old Norse literature where this rare expression is used. The only context
in which Moltke Moe has found it used in our time is in connection with
the tale of the youngest son (Askeladden) in Sætersdal [cf. also H. Ross],
where it is said that "Oskefis was also brasslaitte" (Ross thinks it means
here "stiff in his bearing, full of self-esteem, self-sufficient"). Can it
be merely a coincidence that this rare word is used of none other than the
fairy-tale hero who is favoured by fortune, and of the lucky finder of the
wild grapes, by eating which he intoxicates himself?

[323] Professor Moltke Moe has called my attention to resemblances to
these runners in the Welsh tale of "Kulhwch and Olwen." In this there
occur two swift-footed knights, and Queen Gwenhwyvar's two servants
(Yskyrdav and Yscudydd) "as swift as thought," and finally Arthur's
wonderfully swift hound "Cavall" (in older MSS. "Cabal") [cf. Heyman,
"Mabinogion," 1906, pp. 80, 82, 101, 103; J. Loth, "Les Mabinogion," i.
and ii.]. Of Tjalve it is related in the Snorra-Edda that he was
"fóthvatastr" (the swiftest), and in Utgard he ran a race with thought
(Hugi). This trait is Irish, as will be shown by Von Sydow [1910]. It
resembles the two servants ("swift as thought") in the Welsh legend. The
runners in the Saga of Eric the Red are also Celtic, and this in itself
points to a connection.

[324] In the "Grönlendinga-þáttr" the whale they found was both large and
good; they cut it in pieces, and "they had no lack of food."

[325] According to information given by Professor R. Collett, the Larus
argentatus is the only species of gull that occurs in Nova Scotia in
sufficiently large numbers to make it seem probable that it might breed
extensively on an island. Can it be possible that these close-lying eggs
are derived from the white and red "scaltæ" (?) which covered the
Anchorites' Isle in the Navigatio Brandani (see below, p. 360)?

[326] Cf. Karlsevne's people, who on arrival rested for half a month and
amused themselves.

[327] W. Brede Kristensen: "Een of twe boomen in het Paradijsverhaal."
Theologisch Tijdschrift, 1908, p. 218.

[328] Of less importance in this connection is the question how far these
names of islands in the Odyssey were originally connected with islands in
the Mediterranean [cf. V. Bérard, 1902, i.]; in the description in the
poem they have in any case become wholly mythical.

[329] C. Sallusti Crispi Historiarum Reliquiæ. Ed. Bertoldus
Maurenbrecher, Lipsiæ, 1891, pp. 43 f.

[330] L. Annæus Florus, Epitome rerum Romanum, ex editione J. Fr. Fischeri
Londini, 1822. Vol. i. pp. 278 f.

[331] Lytton: The Odes and Epodes of Horace. London, 1869.

[332] Cf. Johannes Peschel, 1878. Moltke Moe has called my attention to
this essay, but, as he says, Peschel is certainly wrong in assuming that
ancient notions like that of Schlaraffenland are the originals from which
the ideas of the happy abodes of the departed, the Isles of the Blest (the
Elysian Fields), have been developed. The reverse is, of course, the case.

[333] Cf. J. N. Wilse: "Beskrivelse over Spydeberg Præstegjæld."
Christiania, 1779-1780. In the appended Norwegian vocabulary, p. xiii.:
Fyldeholmen == Schlarafenland. I. Aasen [1873] has "Fylleholm" in the
phrase "go to Fylleholm" (== go on a drinking bout), from Sogn, and other
places. This may be derived from the same mythical country. H. Ross [1895]
gives "Fylleholm" from Smålenene. From this it looks as if the idea was
widely spread in Norway.

[334] In Hauk's Landnámabók Vin(d)land is mentioned in one other passage
[cap. 175], in connection with Karlsevne, who is said to have discovered
it; but nothing is said about this in the Sturlubók, and it may be a later
addition (cf. p. 331).

[335] Ravn told the story to Thorfinn, Earl of Orkney (ob. circa 1064),
who in turn told it to some Icelanders, and from them it reached Thorkel
Gellisson, Are Frode's uncle.

[336] Cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 257, 261; Kuno Meyer, 1895, i.

[337] This is evidently the land that in the Christian Breton legend of
St. Machutus (ninth century) has become the paradisiacal island of "Yma,"
inhabited by heavenly angels.

[338] In the Christian Irish legend "Imram Maelduin," the voyagers arrive
at two islands, that of the lamenting people with complaining voices, and
that of the laughing people. The same two islands are mentioned in the
Navigation of the Sons of O'Corry, "Imram Curaig Ua Corra" [cf. Zimmer,
1889, pp. 160, 171, 188, 189]. They are evidently connected with Greek
conceptions, as we find them in Theopompus, of the rivers Hedone and Lype
in the distant land of Meropis (see above, p. 17; cf. also the springs of
voluptuousness and laughter in Lucian's Isle of Bliss in the Vera
Historia). There may further be a connection with the island of the
lamenting people in the statement of Saxo Grammaticus, in the introduction
to his Danish history, that it was thought that in the noise of the
drift-ice against the coast of Iceland the lamenting voices of lost souls
could be heard, condemned to expiate their sins in that bitter cold.

[339] These Irish ideas of a happy land of women have, it may be remarked,
many points of resemblance with our Norwegian belief in fairies ("hulder")
and with the German Venusberg myth, since the "hulder," like Frau Venus,
originally Frau Holle or Holda [cf. J. Grimm, 1876, ii. p. 780], kidnaps
and seduces men, and keeps them with her for a long time; but the sensual
element is more subdued and less prominent in the Germanic myths. It may
seem probable that the Irish land of women also has some connection with
the amorous, beautiful-haired nymph Calypso's island of Ogygia, far off in
the sea, in the Odyssey [v. 135 ff.; vii. 254 ff.]. Just as the men in the
Irish legends neither grow older nor die when they come to the land of
women, and as the queen of the country will not let the men go again (cf.
Maelduin), so Calypso wished to keep her Odysseus, and to make him "an
immortal man, ever young to eternity." In a similar way the men who come
to the "hulder" in the mountain do not grow old, and they seem to have
even greater difficulty in getting out again than kidnapped women. (It is
a common feature that they do not grow older, or that a long time passes
without their noticing it in the intoxication of pleasure. Lucian also
relates that those who come to his Isle of Bliss grow no older than they
are when they come.) Odysseus longs for his home, like one of Bran's men
(and like Maelduin's men, the kidnapped men in the German myths, etc.),
and at last receives permission to go, like Bran. Calypso means "the
hidden one" (from καλυπτω == hide by enveloping) and thus answers to our
"hulder" (== the hidden one, cf. "hulda," something which covers,
conceals, envelops), and the German Frau Holle or Holda (== "hulder").
They are precisely the same beings as the Irish "síd"--people, who are
also invisible, and the women in "Tír na-m-Ban," the island in or under
the sea precisely like our "huldreland" (see later).

It may further be supposed that there is some connection between the ideas
which appear in certain Irish legends of the land of virgins--where there
are no men, and the virgins have to go to the neighbouring land of men
("Tír na-Fer") to be married [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 269]--and the
conceptions of Sena, the Celtic island of priestesses or women, off the
coast of Brittany, where according to Dionysius Periegetes there were
Bacchantes who held nightly orgies, but where no men might come, and the
women therefore (like the Amazons) had to visit the men on the
neighbouring coast, and return after having had intercourse with them.
Similar ideas of islands with women and men separated occur already in old
Indian legends.

[340] Cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 287; Whitley Stokes, Revue Celtique, xv. Paris
1894, pp. 437 f.; F. Lot, Romania, xxvii. 1898, p. 559.

[341] Cf. "Lageniensis," 1870, p. 116; Zimmer, 1889, pp. 263, 279.

[342] It is stated in an Irish legend that the hero Ciaban went as an
exile to "Trág in-Chairn" (the strand of cairns) [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p.
271]. This might remind us of Helluland (?).

[343] In the tale of Maelduin's voyage, which is older than the
"Navigatio" (see above, p. 336), there occurs a similar mighty bird
bringing a branch with fruit like grapes, possessing marvellous
properties; but there is no grape-island [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 169].

[344] In the Latin translation of the Bible in use at that time, the
Vulgate [Num. xiii. 24 f.], the passage runs: "And they came to the valley
of grapes, cut a branch with its cluster of grapes, and two men carried it
upon a staff. They also took away pomegranates and figs from this place,
which is called Nehel-escol, that is, the valley of grapes, because the
children of Israel brought grapes from thence."

[345] In France a poem on Brandan of as early as 1125, founded on the
"Navigatio," is known, dedicated to Queen Aélis of Louvain; cf. Gaston
Paris: La Littérature Française en Moyen Age, Paris, 1888, p. 214.

[346] The Irish made a distinction in their tales of voyages between
"Imram," which was a voluntary journey, and "Longes," which was an
involuntary one, usually due to banishment. In Icelandic literature there
seems to be no such distinction, but the voyages are often due to outlawry
for manslaughter or some other reason; cf. Ganger-Rolf's voyage, Ingolf's
and Hjorleif's voyage to Iceland, Snæbjörn Galti's and Rolf of Raudesand's
voyage to the Gunnbjörnskerries, Eric the Red's voyage with his father
from Norway, and afterwards from Iceland, etc. Björn Breidvikingekjæmpe
was also obliged to leave Iceland on account of his illicit love for
Snorre Gode's sister. This agreement may, of course, be accidental, but
together with the many other resemblances between Irish and Icelandic
literature, it may nevertheless be worth mentioning.

[347] Cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 168; Joyce, 1879, p. 156.

[348] To these wine-fruits in the "Imram Maelduin" correspond, perhaps,
the white and purple-red "scaltæ," which in the "Navigatio Brandani" cover
the low island, bare of trees, called the "Strong Men's Island" [Schröder,
1871, p. 24]. Brandan pressed one of the red ones, "as large as a ball,"
and got a pound of juice, on which he and his brethren lived for twelve
days. It might be supposed that these white and red "scaltæ" from the flat
ocean-island were connected with Lucian's water-fishes (which seem to have
been white) and wine-fishes (which had the purple colour of wine) (see
above). The meaning of "scaltæ" ("scaltis") is uncertain. Schröder says
"sea-snails"; Professor Alf Torp thinks it may be a Celtic word, and
mentions as a possibility "scalt" (== "cleft"). In that case it might be a
mussel, which is "cleft" in two shells.

[349] D'Avezac's hypothesis [1845, p. 9] that it might be an echo of
Teneriffe [cf. also De Goeje, 1891, p. 61], which in mediæval maps was
called "Isola dell' Inferno," is untenable, since the Phœnicians'
knowledge of the Canaries had long been forgotten at that time, and it was
only after their rediscovery by the Italians, about 1300, that Teneriffe
was called on the Medici map of 1351 "Isola dell' Inferno." In classical
literature there is no indication that any of the Canaries was regarded as
volcanic; on the contrary, Pliny's "Nivaria" (i.e., the snow-island) seems
to be Teneriffe with snow on the summit.

[350] Jens Lauritzön Wolf's Norrigia Illustrata, 1651.

[351] Cf. John M. Kemble: The Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus, London,
1448, p. 198. Moltke Moe also called my attention to this remarkable
passage.

[352] W. Mannhardt: Germanische Mythen, Berlin, 1858, pp. 460 f. Cf. "Vita
Merlini," the verses on the "Insula pomorum, qvæ Fortunata vocatur" (the
apple-island which is called Fortunate) [San-Marte, 1853, pp. 299, 329].
"Avallon" has a remarkable resemblance in sound to Pytheas's amber-island
"Abalus" (p. 70).

[353] Since the above was printed in the Norwegian edition of this book,
Professor Moltke Moe has called my attention to the fact that, according
to Icelandic sources, the Icelandic chief Gellir Thorkelsson, grandfather
of Are Frode, died at Roskilde, in Denmark, in 1073, after having been
prostrated there for a long time. He was then on his way home from a
pilgrimage to Rome. Adam's book was written between 1072 and 1075, and he
had received the statements about Wineland from Danes of rank. The
coincidence here is so remarkable that there must probably be a
connection. It is Gellir Thorkelsson's son, Thorkel Gellisson, who is
given as the authority for the first mention of Wineland in Icelandic
literature, and according to Landnámabók he seems to have got his
information from Ireland through other Icelanders.

[354] It is not, however, quite certain that "Vínland" (with a long "í")
was the original form of the name, though this is probable, as it occurs
thus in the MSS. that have come down to us of the two oldest authorities:
Adam of Bremen ("Winland") and Are Frode's Íslendingabók ("Vinland"). But
it cannot be entirely ignored that in the oldest Icelandic MSS.--and the
oldest authorities after Are and Adam--it is called: in Hauk's Landnámabók
"Vindland hit goða" (in the two passages where it is mentioned), in the
Sturlubók "Irland et goda," in the Kristni-saga (before 1245) probably
"Vindland hit goða" [cf. F. Jónsson, Hauksbók, 1892, p. 141], and in the
Grettis-saga (about 1290, but the MS. dates from the fifteenth century)
Thorhall Gamlason, who sailed with Karlsevne, is called in one place a
"Vindlendingr" and in another a "Viðlendingr." It is striking that the
name should so often be written incorrectly; there must have been some
uncertainty in its interpretation. Another thing is that in none of these
oldest sources is there any mention of wine, except in Adam of Bremen, who
repeats Isidore, and after him it is only when we come to the Saga of Eric
the Red that "Vinland" with its wine is met with. It might therefore be
supposed that the name was originally something different. The
Greenlanders might, for instance, have discovered a land with trees in the
west and called it "Viðland" (== tree-land). Influenced by myths of the
Irish "Great Land" ("Tír Mór"), this might become "Viðland" (== the great
land, p. 357): but this again through the ideas of wine (from the
Fortunate Isles), as in Adam of Bremen, might become "Vínland." We have a
parallel to such a change of sound in the conversion of "viðbein" (==
collar-bone) into "vinbein." A form like "Vindland" may have arisen
through confusion of the two forms we have given, or again with the name
of Vendland. A name compounded of the ancient word "vin" (== pasture) is
scarcely credible, since the word went out of use before the eleventh
century; besides, one would then have to expect the form "Vinjarland." In
Are Frode's work, which we only know from late copies (of the seventeenth
century), the original name might easily have been altered in agreement
with later interpretation. But it is nevertheless most probable that
"Vinland" was the original form, and that the variants are due to
uncertainty. It may, however, well be supposed that there were two forms
of the name, in the same way as, for instance, the "Draumkvæde" is also
called the "Draug-kvæde"; or that several names may have fused to become
one, similarity of sound and character being the deciding factor.

[355] Cf. Peder Claussön Friis, Storm's edition, 1881, p. 298; A. Helland,
Nordlands Amt, 1907, i. p. 59, ii. pp. 467 f. Yngvar Nielsen [1905] has
remarked the resemblance between the epithet "hit Góða," applied to
Wineland, and the name Landegode in Norway; but following Peder Claussön
he regards this as a tabu-name. K. Rygh [Norske Gaardnavne, xvi. Nordl.
Amt, 1905, p. 201] thinks that P. Claussön's explanation of the name of
Jomfruland is right in all three cases, that "Norwegian seamen 'from some
superstition and fear' did not call it by the name of Jomfruland, which
was already common at that time, while under sail, until they had passed
it." "It is, or at any rate has been, a common superstition among sailors
and fishermen that various things were not to be called by their usual
names while they were at sea, presumably a relic of heathen belief in evil
spirits, whose power it was hoped to avoid by not calling their attention
by mentioning themselves or objects with which their evil designs were
connected, while it was hoped to be able to conciliate them by using
flattering names instead of the proper ones. The three islands are all so
situated in the fairway that they must have been unusually dangerous for
coasting traffic in former times." Hans Ström in his Description of
Söndmör [Sorö, 1766, ii. p. 441] thought, however, that "Landegod" in
Sunnmör was so called because it was the first land one made after passing
Stad; and "Svinö" he thought was so called because pigs were turned out
there to feed, especially in former times (see below, p. 378); he gives in
addition the name Storskjær for the island.

[356] V. Bérard's explanation [1902, i. p. 579] that Phæacians (Φαιακες)
means Leucadians, the white people, and comes from the Semitic "Beakim"
(from "b.e.q." "to be white") does not seem convincing. Professor A. Torp
finds the explanation given above more probable.

[357] Cf. J. Grimm, D. M., ii. 1876, pp. 692 ff., iii. 1878, pp. 248 f.

[358] Cf. J. A. Friis: Ordbog for det lappiske Sprog, Christiania, 1887,
p. 254; J. Qvigstad, 1893, p. 182; Moltke Moe's communications in A.
Helland: Finmarkens Amt, 1905, vol. ii. p. 261.

[359] Cf. Moltke Moe's communications in A. Helland: Nordlands Amt, 1907,
vol. ii. p. 430.

[360] Cf. W. Grimm, Kleinere Schriften, i. p. 468.

[361] Rietz: Svensk Dialekt-Lexikon, 1867.

[362] It may also be worth mentioning that just as there is a Björnö
(Björnö Lighthouse) near Landegode off Bodö, so is there mention of a
Bjarn-ey near Markland on the way to "Vinland hit Góða." This may, of
course, be purely a coincidence; but on the other hand there may be some
connection.

[363] Cf. P. A. Säve: Hafvets och Fiskarens Sagor, spridda drag ur
Gotlands Odlingssaga och Strandallmogens Lif. Visby, 1880.

[364] Norske Gaardnavne. Forord og Indledning. 1898, p. 39.

[365] O. Nicolayssen: Fra Nordlands Fortid. Kristiania, 1889, pp. 30 ff.

[366] Remark that thus in the Faroes Svinöi is also a fairy island, as in
Sunnmör and at Brönöi in Norway.

[367] This astonishing etymological explanation of the ancient Phœnician
legendary islands of the Hesperides is evidently due to a confusion of
Brandan's sheep-island with Pliny's statements [Nat. Hist., vi. 36] about
the purple islands off Africa (near the Hesperides) which King Juba was
said to have discovered, and where he learned dyeing with Gætulian purple.
The idea that the sunken land Atlantis was where the "Concretum Mare" now
is may be connected with the Greek myth which appears in Plutarch (see
above, pp. 156 and 182) of Cronos lying imprisoned in sleep on an island
in the north-west in the Cronian Sea (== "Mare Concretum"), where also the
great continent was, and where the sea was heavy and thick.

[368] This is the same myth as that of Hvítramanna-land in the Eyrbyggja
Saga; see later.

[369] Cf. A. Guichot y Sierra, 1884, i. p. 296; Dumont d'Urville: Voyage
autour du monde, i. p. 27. The same idea that the island withdraws when
one tries to approach it appears also in Lucian's description (in the Vera
Historia) of the Isle of Dreams.

[370] Cf. P. Sébillot, 1886, p. 348.

[371] Cf. Harriet Maxwell Converse: Iroquois Myths and Legends. Education
Department Bulletin, No. 437, Albany, N.Y., December 1908, pp. 31 f.

[372] My attention has been drawn to this by Mr. Gunnar Olsen. Similar
myths are found in Japan [cf. D. Brauns, Japanische Märchen und Sagen,
1885, pp. 146 ff.].

[373] Grönl. hist. Mind., i. pp. 144 f., 157 ff.

[374] This belongs to the same cycle of ideas as that of the dead rising
from their graves or from the lower regions at night, but being obliged to
go down again at dawn, or of trolls having to conceal themselves before
the sun rises. In the same way, too, the fallen Helge Hundingsbane comes
to Sigrun and sleeps with her in the mound; but when the flush of day
comes he has to ride back to the west of "Vindhjelms" bridge, before
Salgovne awakes. It has been pointed out above (p. 371) that the Phæacians
of the Odyssey sail at night.

[375] According to the "Guta-saga" of the thirteenth century.

[376] Cf. Moltke Moe's communications in A. Helland, Nordlands Amt, 1907,
ii. pp. 512 ff. In Brinck's Descriptio Loufodiæ [1676, p. ii] it is stated
that the mythical land of Utröst in Nordland was called "Huldeland."

[377] Cf. F. Lot, "Romania," 1898, p. 530. Moltke Moe has also
communicated to me this curious tale.

[378] Cf. P. Crofton Croker, 1828, ii. p. 259 f.

[379] Cf. "Lageniensis," 1870, pp. 114 ff., 294; Joyce, 1879, p. 408. V.
Bérard [1902, i. p. 286] explains the Roman name "Ispania" (Spain) as
coming from a Semitic (Phœnician) root "sapan" (== hide, cover) denoting
"the isle of the hidden one," which he thinks originally meant Calypso's
isle; this he seeks to locate on the African coast near Gibraltar. The
explanation seems very doubtful; but if there be anything in it, it is
remarkable that Spain, the land rich in silver and gold, should have a
name that recalls the huldre-lands (lands of the hidden ones).

[380] Cf. E. B. Tylor: Primitive Culture, 1891, ii. pp. 63 ff.

[381] Asbjörnsen: Huldre-Eventyr og Folke-Sagn, 3rd ed., pp. 343 ff.;
"Tufte-folket på Sandflæsen." Cf. also Moltke Moe's note in A. Helland:
Nordlands Amt, i. pp. 519 f.

[382] The name of "Lycko-Pär" in Sweden for one who "has luck" [Th.
Hielmqvist, Fornamn och Familjenamn med sekundär användning i Nysvenskan,
Lund, 1903, p. 267] has come from the Danish "Lykke-Per," which is a
purely literary production, and does not concern us here.

[383] In Norway the "nisse" brings luck. "Lycko-nisse" in Småland (Sweden)
is a "luck-bringing brownie. Also used occasionally of little friendly
children" [Th. Hielmqvist, 1903, p. 224].

[384] Cf. Moltke Moe's communications in A. Helland: Nordlands Amt, 1907,
ii. pp. 596 f.

[385] Conceptions of a somewhat similar nature appear in the legends of
Arthur, where only the pure, or innocent, are permitted to see the Holy
Grail.

[386] The names Finmark (the land of the Finns or Lapps) and Finland were
often confused in the Middle Ages (cf. Geographia Universalis, Eulogium,
Polychronicon, Edrisi), and the latter again with Wineland (cf. Ordericus
Vitalis, Polychronicon). It should be remarked that Adam does not know the
name "Finn," but only "Finnédi" and "Scritefini."

[387] It must be remembered that Kvænland (Woman-land), like Norway and
"the island of Halagland" (!), were neighbouring countries to Sweden,
where King Svein had lived for twelve years, the same who is supposed to
have told Adam so much about the countries of the North; and between
Sweden and Russia (Gardarike) there was also active communication at that
time.


  IN NORTHERN MISTS

  ARCTIC EXPLORATION IN EARLY TIMES

  BY FRIDTJOF NANSEN
  G.C.V.O., D.Sc., D.C.L., Ph.D.,
  PROFESSOR OF OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE
  UNIVERSITY OF CHRISTIANIA, ETC.


  TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR G. CHATER

  ILLUSTRATED

  VOLUME TWO

  LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN: MCMXI




  PRINTED BY
  BALLANTYNE & COMPANY LTD
  AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS
  TAVISTOCK STREET COVENT GARDEN
  LONDON


CHAPTER IX

[continued]

WINELAND THE GOOD, THE FORTUNATE ISLES, AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA


A confirmation of the identity of Wineland and the Insulæ Fortunatæ, which
in classical legend lay to the west of Africa, occurs in the Icelandic
geography (in MSS. of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries) which may
partly be the work of Abbot Nikulás of Thverá (ob. 1159) (although perhaps
not the part here quoted), where we read:

    "South of Greenland is 'Helluland,' next to it is 'Markland,' and then
    it is not far to 'Vínland hit Góða,' which some think to be connected
    with Africa (and if this be so, then the outer ocean [i.e., the ocean
    surrounding the disc of the earth] most fall in between Vinland and
    Markland)."[1]

This idea of the connection with Africa seems to have been general in
Iceland; it may appear surprising, but, as will be seen, it finds its
natural explanation in the manner here stated. It also appears in Norway.
Besides a reference in the "King's Mirror," the following passage in the
"Historia Norwegiæ" relating to Greenland is of particular importance:

    "This country was discovered and settled by the Telensians [i.e., the
    Icelanders] and strengthened with the Catholic faith; it forms the end
    of Europe towards the west, nearly touches the African Islands
    ('Africanas insulas'), where the returning ocean overflows" [i.e.,
    falls in].

It is clear that "Africanæ Insulæ" is here used directly as a name instead
of Wineland, in connection with Markland and Helluland, as in the
Icelandic geography. But the African Islands (i.e., originally the Canary
Islands) were in fact the Insulæ Fortunatæ, in connection with the
Gorgades and the Hesperides; and thus we have here a direct proof that
they were looked upon as the same.

    G. Storm [1890] and A. A. Björnbo [1909, pp. 229, ff.] have sought to
    explain the connection of Wineland with Africa as an attempt on the
    part of the Icelandic geographers to unite new discoveries of western
    lands with the classical-mediæval conceptions of the continents as a
    continuous disc of earth with an outer surrounding ocean. But even if
    such "learned" ideas prevailed in Iceland and Norway (cf. the "King's
    Mirror"), it would nevertheless be unnatural to unite Africa and
    Wineland, which lay near Hvítramanna-land, six days' sail _west_ of
    Ireland, unless there were other grounds for doing so. Although
    agreeing on the main point, Dr. Björnbo maintains (in a letter to me)
    that the Icelanders may have got their continental conception from
    Isidore himself, who asserted the dogma of the threefold division of
    the continental circle; and the question whether Wineland was African
    or not depended upon whether it came south or north of the line
    running east and west through the Mediterranean. But the same Isidore
    also described the Insulæ Fortunatæ and other countries as islands in
    the Ocean, and his dogma could not thus have hindered Wineland from
    being regarded as an island like other islands (cf. Adam of Bremen's
    islands), but why then precisely African? Besides, the Icelandic
    geography and the Historia Norwegiæ represent two different
    conceptions, one as a continent, the other as islands. It cannot,
    therefore, have been Isidore's continental dogma that caused them both
    to assume the country to be _African_. It seems to me that no other
    explanation is here possible than that given above.

It might be objected to the view that "Vínland hit Góða" originally meant
"Insulæ Fortunatæ," that several sorts of wild grape are found on the east
coast of North America; it might therefore be believed that the
Greenlanders really went so far and discovered these. Storm, indeed,
assumed that the wild vine grew on the outer east coast of Nova Scotia;
but he is unable to adduce any certain direct evidence of this, although
he gives [1887, p. 48] a statement of the Frenchman Nicolas Denys in 1672,
which points to the wild vine having grown in the interior of the
country.[2] He also mentions several statements of recent date that
wild-growing vines of one kind or another have been observed near
Annapolis and in the interior of the country, but none on the south-east
coast. Professor N. Wille informs me that in the latest survey of the
flora of North America Vitis vulpina is specified as occurring in Nova
Scotia; but nothing is said as to locality. The American botanist, M. L.
Fernald [1910, pp. 19, f.], on the other hand, thinks that the wild vine
(Vitis vulpina) is not certainly known to the east of the valley of the
St. John in New Brunswick (see map, vol. i. p. 335), where it is rare and
only found in the interior. From this we may conclude that even if it
should really be found on the outer south-east coast of Nova Scotia, it
must have been very rare there, and could not possibly have been a
conspicuous feature which might have been especially mentioned along with
the wheat. But even if we might assume that the saga was borne out to this
extent, it would be one of those accidental coincidences which often
occur. It must, of course, be admitted to be a strange chance that the
world of classical legend should have fertile lands or islands far in the
western ocean, and that Isidore should describe the self-grown vine and
the unsown cornfields in these Fortunate Isles, and that long afterwards
fertile lands and islands, where wild vines and various kinds of wild corn
grew, should be discovered in the same quarter. Since we have the choice,
it may be more reasonable to assume that the Icelanders got their wine
from Isidore, or from the same vats that he drew his from, than that they
fetched it from America. Again, even if the Greenlanders and Icelanders
had found some berries on creepers in the woods--is it likely that they
would have known them to be grapes? They cannot be expected to have had
any acquaintance with the latter.[3] The author of the
"Grönlendinga-þáttr" in the Flateyjarbók is so entirely ignorant of these
things that he makes grapes grow in the winter and spring (like the fruits
all the year round on the trees in the myth of the fortunate land in the
west), and makes Leif's companion Tyrker intoxicate himself by eating
grapes (like the Irishmen in the Irish legends), and finally makes Leif
cut down vine-trees ("vínvið") and fell trees to load his ship, and at
last fill the long-boat with grapes (as in the Irish legends); in the
voyage of Thorvald Ericson they also collect grapes and vine-trees for a
cargo, and Karlsevne took home with him "many costly things: vine-trees,
grapes and furs." It is scarcely likely that seafaring Greenlanders about
380 years earlier had any better idea of the vine than this saga-writer,
and we hear nothing in Eric's Saga about Leif or his companions having
ever been in southern Europe. No doubt it is for this very reason that the
"Grönlendinga-þáttr" makes a "southman," Tyrker, find the grapes.

Wheat is not a wild cereal native to America. It has therefore been
supposed that the "self-sown wheat-fields" of Wineland might have been the
American cereal maize. As this proved to be untenable, Professor
Schübeler[4] proposed that it might have been the "wild rice," also called
"water oats" (Zizania aquatica), an aquatic plant that grows by rivers and
lakes in North America. But apart from the fact that the plant grows in
the water and has little resemblance to wheat, although the ripe ear is
said to be like a wheat-ear, there is the difficulty that it is
essentially an inland plant, which is not known in Nova Scotia. "Though it
occurs locally in a few New England rivers, it attains its easternmost
known limit in the lower reaches of the St. John in New Brunswick, being
apparently unknown in Nova Scotia" [Fernald, 1910, p. 26]. For proving
that Wineland was Nova Scotia it is therefore of even less use than the
wine.

It results in consequence that the attempts made hitherto to bring the
natural conditions of the east coast of North America into agreement with
the saga's description of Wineland[5] have not been able to afford any
natural explanation of the striking juxtaposition of the two leading
features of the latter, the wild vine and the self-sown wheat, which are
identical with the two leading features in the description of the Insulæ
Fortunatæ. If it were permissible to prove in this way that the ancient
Norsemen reached the east coast of North America, then it might be
concluded with almost equal right that the Greeks and Romans of antiquity
were there; for they already had the same two features in their
descriptions of the fortunate isles in the west. It should be remembered
that wheat was not a commonly known cereal in the North, where it was not
cultivated, and it would hardly be natural for the Icelanders to use that
particular name for a wild species of corn. Both wheat and grapes or vines
were to them foreign ideas, and the remarkable juxtaposition of these very
two words shows that they came together from southern Europe, where, as
has been said, we find them in Isidore, and where wine and wheat were
important commercial products which one often finds mentioned together

If we now proceed further in the description of the Wineland voyages in
the Saga of Eric the Red, we come to the encounters with the Skrælings.
These encounters are, of course, three in number: first they come to see,
then to trade, and then to fight; this again recalls the fairy-tale. The
narrative itself of the battle with the Skrælings has borrowed features.
The Skrælings' catapults make one think of the civilised countries of
Europe, where catapults (i.e., engines for throwing stones, mangonels)
and Greek fire (?) were in use.[6]

    Catapults, which are also mentioned in the "King's Mirror," had a long
    beam or lever-arm, at the outer end of which was a bowl or sling,
    wherein was laid a heavy round stone, or more rarely a barrel of
    combustible material or the like [cf. O. Blom, 1867, pp. 103, f.]. In
    the "King's Mirror" it is also stated that mineral coal ("jarðkol")
    and sulphur were thrown; the stones for casting were also made of
    baked clay with pebbles in it. When these clay balls were slung out
    and fell, they burst in pieces, so that the enemy had nothing to throw
    back. The great black ball, which is compared to a sheep's paunch, and
    which made such an ugly sound (report ?) when it fell that it
    frightened the Greenlanders, also reminds one strongly on the
    "herbrestr" (war-crash, report) which Laurentius Kálfsson's saga [cap.
    8 in "Biskupa Sögur," i. 1858, p. 798] relates that Þrándr Fisiler,[7]
    from Flanders, produced at the court of Eric Magnusson in Bergen, at
    Christmas 1294. It "gives such a loud report that few men can bear to
    hear it; women who are with child and hear the crash are prematurely
    delivered, and men fall from their seats on to the floor, or have
    various fits. Thránd told Laurentius to put his fingers in his ears
    when the crash came.... Thránd showed Laurentius what was necessary to
    produce the crash, and there are four things: fire, brimstone,
    parchment and tow.[8] Men often have recourse in battle to such a
    war-crash, so that those who do not know it may take to flight."
    Laurentius was a priest, afterwards bishop (1323-30) in Iceland; the
    saga was probably written about 1350 by his friend and confidant, the
    priest Einar Hafliðason. It seems as though we have here precisely the
    same notions as appear in the description of the fight with the
    Skrælings. It is true that this visit of Thránd to Bergen would be
    later than the Saga of Eric the Red is generally assumed to have been
    written; but this may have been about 1300. Besides, there is no
    reason why the story of the "herbrestr" should not have found its way
    to Iceland earlier.[9] In any case this part of the tale of the
    Wineland voyages has quite a European air.

For the rest, this feature too seems to have a connection with the
"Navigatio Brandani." It is there related that they approach an island of
smiths, where the inhabitants are filled with fire and darkness. Brandan
was afraid of the island; one of the inhabitants came out of his house "as
though on an errand of necessity"; the brethren want to sail away and
escape, but

    "the said barbarian runs down to the beach bearing a long pair of
    tongs in his hand with a fiery mass in a skin[10] of immense size and
    heat; he instantly throws it after the servants of Christ, but it did
    not injure them, it went over them about a stadium farther off, but
    when it fell into the sea, the water began to boil as though a
    fire-spouting mountain were there, and smoke arose from the sea as
    fire from a baker's oven." The other inhabitants then rush out and
    throw their masses of fire, but Brendan and the brethren escape
    [Schröder, 1871, p. 28].

In the narrative of Maelduin's voyage a similar story is told of the smith
who with a pair of tongs throws a fiery mass over the boat, so that the
sea boils, but he does not hit them, as they hastily fly out into the open
sea [cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 163, 329]. The resemblances to Karlsevne and
his people flying with all speed before the black ball of the Skrælings,
like a sheep's paunch, which is flung over them from a pole and makes an
ugly noise when it falls, is obvious; but at the same time it looks as
though this incident of the Irish myth--which is an echo of the classical
Cyclopes of the Æneid and Odyssey (cf. Polyphemus and the Cyclopes), and
the great stones that were thrown at Odysseus--had been "modernised" by
the saga-writer, who has transferred mediæval European catapults and
explosives to the Indians.

The curious expression--used when the Skrælings come in the spring for the
second time to Karlsevne's settlement--that they came rowing in a
multitude of hide canoes, "as many as though [the sea] had been sown with
coal before the Hóp" [i.e., the bay], seems to find its explanation in
some tale like that of the "Imram Brenaind" [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 138],
where Brandan and his companions come to a small deserted land, and the
harbour they entered was immediately filled with "demons in the form of
pygmies and dwarfs, who were as black as coal."

The "hellustein" (flat stone) which lay fixed in the skull of the fallen
Thorbrand Snorrason is a curious missile, and reminds one of trolls (cf.
Arab myth, chapter xiii.). Features such as that of the Skrælings being
supposed to know that white shields meant peace and red ones war have an
altogether European effect.[11]

Another purely legendary feature in the description of the fight is that
of Freydis frightening the Skrælings by taking her breasts out of her sark
and whetting the sword on them ("ok slettir á sverdit"). As it stands in
the saga this incident is not very comprehensible, and appears to have
been borrowed from elsewhere. Possibly, as Moltke Moe thinks, it may be
connected in some way with the legend of the wood-nymph with the long
breasts who was pursued by the hunter. The mention of Unipeds and
"Einfötinga-land" shows that classical myths have also been adopted. The
idea was, moreover, widely current in the Middle Ages. Thus in the
so-called Nancy map of Claudius Clavus (of about 1426) we find "unipedes
maritimi" in the extreme north-east of Greenland. In the "Heimslýsing" in
the Hauksbók [F. Jónsson, 1892, p. 166] and in the "Rymbegla" [1780]
"Einfötingar" are mentioned with a foot "so large that they shade
themselves from the sun with it while asleep" (cf. also Adam of Bremen,
vol. i. p. 189). But in the Saga of Eric the Red the incident of the
Uniped and the pursuit of him are described as realistically as the
encounters with the Skrælings. Einfötinga-land is also mentioned in the
same manner as Skrælinga-land in its vicinity.

In reading the Icelandic sagas and narratives about Wineland and Greenland
one cannot avoid being struck by the remarkable, semi-mythical way in
which the natives, the Skrælings, are always spoken of;[12] even Are
Frode's mention of them appears strange. Through finding the connection
between Wineland the Good and the Fortunate Isles, and between the latter
again and the lands of the departed, the "huldrelands," fairylands, and
the lands of the Irish "síd," I arrived at the kindred idea that perhaps
Skræling was originally a name for those gnomes or brownies or mythical
beings, and that it was these that Are Frode meant by the people who "were
inhabiting Wineland"--and further, that when the Icelanders in Greenland
found a strange, small, foreign-looking people, with hide canoes and
implements of stone, bone and wood, which also looked strange to them,
they naturally regarded them as these same Skrælings; and then they may
afterwards have found similar people (Eskimo, and perhaps Indians) on the
coast of America. It agrees with the view of the Skrælings as a small
people that elves and brownies in Norway were small, often only two or
three feet high, and that the underground or huldre-folk in Skåne were
called "Pysslingar" (dwarfs). This idea that the Skræling was originally
a brownie was strengthened by the discovery of the above-mentioned
probable connection between many features in the description of the
Skrælings' appearance in Wineland and the demons, like pygmies and dwarfs,
that Brandan meets with in a land in the sea (see p. 10), and the smiths
(or Cyclopes) in another island who throw masses of fire at Brandon and
Maelduin (see p. 9). That Unipeds and Skrælings are both mentioned as
equally real inhabitants of the new countries, and that a Uniped even
kills Thorvald Ericson near Wineland, and is pursued, points in the same
direction.

I then asked Professor Alf Torp whether he knew of anything that might
confirm such an interpretation of the word Skræling; he at once mentioned
the German word "walt-schreckel" for a wood-troll, and afterwards wrote to
me as follows:

    "The word I spoke about is found in modern German dialects:
    'schrähelein' 'ein zauberisches Wesen, Wichtlein'; cf. Middle High
    German 'walt-schreckel,' which is translated by 'faunus.' This
    'schrähelein' (from the Upper Palatinate) agrees entirely both in form
    and meaning with 'skrælingr': the only difference is that one has the
    diminutive termination '*-ilîn' (primary form '* skrahilîn'), the
    other the diminutive termination '-iling' (primary form '*
    skrahiling'). The primary meaning was doubtless 'shrunken figure,
    dwarf.' From a synonymous verbal root come the synonymous M.H.G. words
    'schraz' and 'schrate,'[13] 'Waldteufel, Kobold.' This seems greatly
    to strengthen your interpretation of 'skrælingr' as 'brownie' or the
    like. Now, of course, 'skræling' means 'puny person' or the like, but
    it is to be remarked that we do not find that meaning in the ancient
    language."

It seems to me that this communication is of great importance. It is
striking that the word Skræling is never used in the whole of Old Norse
literature as a term of reproach or to denote a wretched man, and there
must have been plenty of opportunity for this if it had been a word of
common application with its present meaning, and not a special designation
for brownies. It only occurs there as applied to the Skrælings of
Wineland, Markland and Greenland. Again, the Skrælings in Greenland are
called "troll" or "trollkonur" in the Icelandic narratives, and in the
descriptions of the Wineland voyages demoniacal properties are attributed
to them as to the underground folk. In the fight with the Skrælings they
frightened Karlsevne and his people not only with the great magic
ball,[14] but also by glamour. And in the "Grönlendinga-þattr" it is
related that when the Skrælings came for the second time to trade with
Karlsevne,

    "his wife Gudrid was sitting within the door by the cradle of her son
    Snorre, and there walked in a woman in a black gown, rather low in
    stature, and she had a band on her head, and light-brown hair, was
    pale and big-eyed, so that no one had seen such big eyes in any human
    head. She went up to where Gudrid sat, and said: What is thy name?
    says she. My name is Gudrid, and what is thy name? My name is Gudrid,
    says she. Then Gudrid, the mistress of the house, stretched out her
    hand to her, and she sat down beside her; but then it happened at the
    same time that Gudrid heard a great crash ['brest mikinn,' cf. the
    noise or crash of the great ball in the Saga of Eric the Red] and that
    the woman disappeared, and at the same moment a Skræling was slain by
    one of Karlsevne's servants, because he had tried to take their
    weapons, and they [the Skrælings] went away as quickly as possible;
    but they left their clothes and wares behind them. No one had seen
    this woman but Gudrid."[15]

This phantasmal Gudrid is obviously a gnome or underground woman; and as
she makes both her appearance and disappearance together with the
Skrælings it is reasonable to suppose that they too were of the same kind,
like the illusions in the battle with the Skrælings. It is further to be
remarked that she is short, and has extraordinarily large eyes, exactly as
is said of the Skrælings and of huldre- and troll-folk (cf. vol. i. p.
327), and also of pygmies.

On account of the identity of name one might perhaps be tempted to think
that it was Gudrid's "fylgja" (fetch) coming to warn her. But she does
nothing of the kind in the saga, nor was there any reason for it, as the
Skrælings came to trade with peaceful intentions, and fled as soon as
there was disagreement. But the story is obscure and confused, and it is
probable that this is a borrowed incident, and that something of the
meaning or connection has dropped out in the transfer. Another remarkable
feature (which Moltke Moe has pointed out to me) is that while in Eric's
Saga Karlsevne pays for the Skrælings' furs and red cloth, in the
"Grönlendinga-þáttr" he makes "the women carry out milk-food ('búnyt') to
them" (it was placed outside the house or even outside the fence), "and as
soon as the Skrælings saw milk-food they would buy that and nothing else."
Now the natives of America cannot possibly have known milk-food; but on
the other hand it happens to be a characteristic of the underground folk
that they are fond of milk and porridge (cream-porridge), which is put out
for the mound-elves and the "nisse." Another underground feature comes out
in the incident of the five Skrælings in Markland, three of whom "escaped
and sank into the earth" ("ok sukku i jorð niðr"). Possibly the statement
that the people in Markland "lived in rock-shelters and caves" may have a
similar connection.

As the Skrælings of Greenland were dark, it was quite natural that they
should become trolls, and not elves, which were fair.

It may also be supposed that the troll-like nature of the Skrælings is
shown in the curious circumstance that Are Frode, speaking of them in
Greenland, only mentions dwelling-places and remains of boats and stone
implements that they had left behind (see vol. i. p. 260), as a sign that
they had been both in the east and west of the country, while the people
themselves are never mentioned; this is like troll-folk, who leave their
traces without being seen themselves. One might suppose that such a mode
of expression agreed best with the current Icelandic view of them as
trolls. In a similar way it might be related of the first discoverer of an
earlier Norway, inhabited only by supernatural beings, that he found
traces both in the east and the west of the land which showed that the
kind of folk ("þjóð") had been there that inhabit Risaland, and that the
Norwegians call giants. In this way possibly this passage in Are may be
understood (but cf. p. 77); it might be objected that this expression: who
"inhabited Wineland" ("hefer bygt") does not suggest troll-folk, but real
human beings; if, however, the existence of these troll-folk is supported
by the actual finding of natives, in any case in Greenland (and doubtless
also in Markland), then such an expression cannot appear unreasonable.
Besides, there would be a general tendency on the part of the
rationalising Icelanders, with their pronounced sense of realistic
description, to make these trolls or brownies or "demons" into living
human beings in Wineland, while the designation of troll still persisted
for a long time in Greenland, side by side with Skræling--as a name
approximately synonymous therewith. The realistic description of the
Uniped affords a parallel to this. One is inclined to think that the
Skrælings of the saga have come about through a combination of the
original mythical creatures (like the síd-people in the Irish happy lands)
to whom at first the name belonged with the Eskimo that the Icelanders
found in Greenland, and perhaps the Eskimo and Indians that they found on
the north-east coast of North America. It is, as in fact Moltke Moe has
maintained in his lectures, by the fusing of materials taken from the
world of myth and from reality that the human imagination is rendered
most fertile and creative in the formation of legend. The points of
departure may often be pure accidents, resemblances of one kind or
another, which have a fructifying effect.

That the Skrælings, from being originally living natives, should later
have become trolls or brownies, is an idea that Storm among others seems
to have entertained (cf. note, p. 11); but this would be the reverse of
what usually happens. That the Eskimo should have made a strange and
supernatural impression on the superstitious Norsemen when they first met
them is natural, and so it is that this impression should have persisted
so long, until it gradually wore off through more intimate acquaintance
with them in Greenland; but the contrary, that the supernatural ideas
about them should only have developed gradually, although they were
constantly meeting them, is incredible.

In Scandinavian literature also we find mythical ideas attached to the
Skrælings of Greenland. In the Norwegian "Historia Norwegiæ" (thirteenth
century) it is said that when "they are struck with weapons while alive,
their wounds are white and do not bleed, but when they are dead the blood
scarcely stops running." The Dane Claudius Clavus (fifteenth century)
relates that there were pygmies in Greenland two feet high (like our elves
and brownies), and the same is reported in a letter to Pope Nicholas V.
(circa 1450), with the addition that they hide themselves in the caves of
the country like ants (see next chapter); that is, like underground
beings, although this trait may well be derived from knowledge of the
Eskimo. Mythical tales about the Greenland Eskimo also appear in Olaus
Magnus, and in Jacob Ziegler's Scondia (sixteenth century) [cf. Grönl.
hist. Mind., iii. pp. 465, 501].

A little touch like that of Thorvald Ericson drawing the Uniped's arrow
out of his intestines and saying: "There is fat in the bowels, a good land
have we found..." shows how the saga-writer embroidered his romance:
Thorvald was the son of a chief and naturally required a more honourable
death than other men. The Fosterbrothers' Saga and Snorre have the same
thing about Thormod Kolbrunarskald at the battle of Stiklestad, when he
drew out the arrow and said, "Well hath the king nourished us, there is
still fat about the roots of my heart." But of course there had to be a
slight difference; while Thormod receives the arrow in the roots of his
heart and has been well treated by the king, Thorvald gets it in his small
intestines and has been well nourished by the country. Similar features
are found in other Icelandic sagas.

It is a characteristic point that both in the "Navigatio Brandani" and in
the "Imram Maelduin" three of the companions perish, or disappear, either
through demons or mythical beings. With this the circumstance that in
Karlsevne's voyage three of his companions fall, two by the Skrælings and
one by a Uniped, seems to correspond. We may also compare the incident in
the "Imram Brenaind" where Brandan and his companions come to a large,
lofty and beautiful island, where there are dwarfs ("luchrupán") like
monkeys, who instantly fill the beach and want to swallow them, and devour
one of the men (the "crosan") (cf. the circumstance that in the fight with
the Skrælings two men fell, of whom only one is mentioned by name).

When it is related first that Karlsevne found five Skrælings asleep near
Wineland, whom they took for exiles (!) and therefore slew, and that in
the following year they again found five Skrælings, of whom, however, they
only took two boys, while the others escaped, we may probably regard these
as two variants of the same story. This feature also has an air of being
borrowed in its dubious form, especially in the former passage; but I have
not yet discovered from whence it may be derived.

    In the "Grönlendinga-þáttr" there is yet another variant. There
    Thorvald Ericson and his men see three hide-boats on the beach, and
    three men under each. "Then they divided their people, and took them
    all except one who got away with his boat. They killed the eight...."
    This is altogether improbable. Since one man could run away with his
    boat, the hide-boats must be supposed to be kayaks, and the men
    Eskimo; but in that case only one man would have been lying under
    each; if they were larger boats (women's boats ?) it would be unlike
    the Eskimo for three men to lie under each, and in any case one man
    could not run away with a boat.

The tale of the kidnapped Skræling children also shows incidents and ideas
from wholly different quarters that have been introduced into this saga.
That the grown-up Skræling was bearded ("skeggjaðr") agrees, of course,
neither with Eskimo nor Indians, but it agrees very well with trolls,
brownies and pygmies, and also with the hermits of the Irish legends who
were heavily clothed with hair. That this man, with the two women who
escaped, "sank down into the earth" has already been mentioned as an
underground feature. That the Skrælings of Markland had no houses, but
lived in caves, does not sound any more probable; unless indeed this
feature is taken from underground gnomes, it may come from the hermits in
Irish legends. Thus the holy Paulus [Schröder, 1871, p. 32] dwelt in a
cave and was covered with snow-white hair and beard (cf. the bearded
Skræling), whom Brandan met on an island a little while before he came to
the Terra Repromissionis (cf. the circumstance that Markland lay a little
to the north of Wineland). The myth of Hvítramanna-land is derived from
Ireland, and has of course nothing to do with the Skræling boys. Storm, it
is true, thought they might have told of a great country (Canada or New
Brunswick) with inhabitants in the west, which later became the Irish
mythical land; but this too is not very credible. The names they gave are
obviously not to be relied on: they may be later inventions, from which no
conclusion at all can be drawn as to the language of the Skrælings, as has
been attempted by earlier inquirers.[16] The two kings' names,
"Avalldamon" and "Avalldidida" (or "Valldidida"), which are attributed to
them, may be supposed to be connected with "Ívaldr" or "Ívaldi." He was of
elfin race, was the father of Idun, who guarded the apples of
rejuvenation, and his sons, "Ívalda synir," were the elves who made the
hair for Sif, the spear Gungner for Odin, and Skiðblaðnir for Frey. In
Bede he is called "Hewald," and in the Anglo-Saxon translation
"Heávold."[17] The name "Vætilldi" (nom. "Vætilldr" ?) of the mother of
the Skræling boys recalls Norse names; it might be a combination of "vætr"
or "vættr" (gnome, sprite, cf. modern Norwegian "vætt," a female sprite)
and "-hildr" (acc., dat. "-hildi"); the word is also written in some MSS.
"Vætthildi," "Vetthildi," "Vethildi," "Veinhildi."


The last tale of Bjarne Grimolfsson who got into the maggot-sea
("maðk-sjár") bears a stamp of travellers' tales as marked as those of the
Liver-sea. But even this feature seems to have prototypes in the Irish
legends; it resembles the incident in the tale of the voyage of the three
sons of Ua Corra (twelfth century ?), where the sea-monsters gnaw away the
second hide from under the boat (which originally had three hides) [cf.
Zimmer, 1889, pp. 193, 199].

       *       *       *       *       *
It will therefore be seen that the whole narrative of the Wineland
voyages is a mosaic of one feature after another gathered from east and
west. Is there, then, anything left that may be genuine? To this it may be
answered that even if the romance of the voyages be for the most part
invented--to some extent perhaps from ancient lays--the chief persons
themselves may be more or less historical. It is nevertheless curious that
it should be reserved to father and son first to discover and settle
Greenland, and then accidentally to discover Wineland. That to Leif, the
young leader, should further be attributed the introduction of
Christianity, and that he should thus represent the new faith in
opposition to his father, the old leader, who represented heathendom, may
also seem a remarkable coincidence, but it may find an explanation in the
probability of a new faith being introduced by men of influence, and just
as in Norway it was done by kings, so in Greenland it was naturally the
work of the future chief of the free state. Although it is strange that
such a circumstance should not be mentioned when Leif's name occurs in the
oldest authorities ("Landnáma"), this may thus appear probable. On the
other hand, no such explanation can be found for the circumstance that he
of all others should accidentally discover America. It would be somewhat
different if, as in the "Grönlendinga-þáttr," Leif had of set purpose gone
out to find new land, like his father. It is also curious that in the saga
we hear no more either of Leif or his ship on the new voyages, after his
accidental discovery, while it is another, Karlsevne, who becomes the
hero. It looks as though the tale of Leif had been inserted without proper
connection. In the "Grönlendinga-þáttr," too, this discovery is attributed
to another man, Bjarne Herjolfsson, which shows that the tradition about
Leif was not firmly rooted. It may be supposed that there was a tradition
in Iceland of the discovery of new land to the south-west of Greenland,
and this became connected with the legends of the fortunate "Wineland the
Good." Popular belief then searched for a name with which to connect the
discovery, and as it could not take that of the discoverer of Greenland
itself, the aged Eric who was established at Brattalid, it occurred to
many to take that of his son; whilst others chose another. It is doubtless
not impossible that Leif was the man; but what is suggested above, coupled
with so much else that is legendary in connection with the voyages of him
and the others, does not strengthen the probability of it.

But however this may be, it may in any case be regarded as certain that
the Greenlanders discovered the American continent, even though we are
without any means of determining how far south they may have penetrated.
The statements as to the length of the shortest day in Wineland, which are
given in the Flateyjarbók's "Grönlendinga-þáttr," are scarcely to be more
depended upon than other statements in this romantic tale.

Incidents such as the bartering for skins with the Wineland Skrælings, and
the combat with unfortunate results, seem to refer to something that
actually took place; they cannot easily be explained from the legends of
the Fortunate Isles, nor can representations of fighting in which the
Norsemen were worsted be derived from Greenland. They must rather be due
to encounters with Indians; for it is incredible that the Greenlanders or
Icelanders should have described in this way fights with the unwarlike
Eskimo, or at all events with the Greenland Eskimo, who, even if they had
been of a warlike disposition, cannot have had any practice in the art of
war. This in itself shows that the Greenlanders must have reached America,
and come in contact with the natives there.

The very mention of the countries to the south-west: first the treeless
and rocky Helluland (Labrador ?), then the wooded Markland (Newfoundland
?) farther south, and then the fertile Wineland south of that, may also
point to local knowledge. It must be admitted that this could be explained
away as having been put together from the general experience that
countries in the north are treeless, but become more fertile as one
proceeds southward; but the names Helluland and especially Markland have
in themselves an appearance of genuineness, as also has Kjalarnes. The
different saga-writers, in the Saga of Eric the Red and in the
Flateyjarbók's "Grönlendinga-þáttr," give different explanations of the
reason for the name of Kjalarnes, which shows that the name is an old one
and that the explanations have been invented later (cf. vol. i. p. 324). A
point which agrees remarkably well with the trend of the Labrador coast
and may point to a certain knowledge of it, is that Karlsevne steers well
to the south-east from Helluland; but this may possibly be connected with
the idea mentioned later in the saga, that Wineland became broader towards
the south, and the coast turned eastwards, which was evidently due to the
assumption that it was connected with Africa (cf. vol i. p. 326).

The oldest and most original part of Eric's Saga, as of most other sagas,
is probably the lays. Of special interest are the lays attributed to
Thorhall the Hunter; they give an impression of genuineness and do not
harmonise well with the prose text, which was evidently composed much
later. One of the lays, which describes the poet's disappointment at not
getting wine to drink in the new country instead of water, shows that a
notion was current that wine was abundant there, and this notion must have
come from the myth of the Fortunate Land or Wineland; for, if we confine
ourselves to this one saga, the notion cannot have been derived from the
single earlier voyage thither that is there mentioned--namely, Leif's:
during his short visit he cannot possibly have had time to make wine, even
if he had known how to do so. The lay seems therefore to show that men had
really reached a country which was taken to be the "Wineland," or
Fortunate Isles, of legend, but which turned out not to answer to the
ideas which had been formed of it. The second lay attributed to Thorhall
(see vol. i. p. 326) may also point to the country they had arrived at not
being so excessively rich, for they had to cook whales' flesh on
Furðustrandir (and consequently were obliged to support themselves by
whaling). This gives us an altogether more sober picture than the prose
version of the saga; the latter, moreover, says nothing of whales except
the one that made them ill and was thrown out.

The surest historical evidence that voyages were made to America from
Greenland is the chance statement, referred to later, in the Icelandic
Annals: that in 1347 a ship from Greenland bound for Markland was driven
by storms to Iceland. This reveals the fact that, occasionally at any
rate, this voyage was made; and if the sagas about the Wineland voyages
must be regarded as romances, or as a kind of legendary poetry--which
therefore made no attempt whatever to give a historical exposition of the
communication with the countries to the south-west--then many more voyages
may have been made thither than the sagas had use for. A prominent feature
of the different tales is that of the Greenlanders bringing timber from
thence; this appears already in the story of Leif's discovery of the
country--he found various kinds of trees and "mǫsurr," and brought them
home with him--and still more in the tales of the Flateyjarbók, where on
each voyage it is expressly stated that they felled timber to load their
ships, as though that were their chief object. In the Icelandic geography
mentioned on p. 1, there is an addition, probably of late date:

    "... It is said that Thorfinn Karlsevne felled wood [in Markland ?]
    for a 'húsa-snotra,' and then went on to seek for Wineland the Good,
    and arrived where this land was thought to be, but was not able to
    explore it, and did not settle there ..."[19]

In the Flateyjarbók's "Grönlendinga-þáttr" it is stated that Karlsevne, in
Wineland, cut down timber to load his ship, and that he had a
"húsa-snotra" of "masur" from Wineland. Both accounts show how highly
timber was prized in Greenland and Iceland. It is likely enough that this
was so, since they had no timber in Greenland but driftwood, dwarf birch
and osiers. But in order to find timber the Greenlanders need have gone no
farther south than Markland (Newfoundland ?); and this name (perhaps also
Helluland) may therefore have the surest historical foundation.

If Adam of Bremen (circa 1070) mentions no more than Wineland, this is
doubtless because he has only heard of that legendary country; the belief
in its existence may already have been confirmed in his time by the
discovery of new lands. More remarkable is the statement of the sober Are
Frode (circa 1130) as to the Skrælings who "inhabited Wineland" ("Vínland
hefer bygt"). This looks as if Wineland was familiar to him; it may be the
mythical name that has passed into a common designation for the countries
discovered in the south-west (cf. vol. i. pp. 368, 384). But there is also
a possibility that only the mythical country is in question, and that, as
suggested above (vol. i. p. 368; vol. ii. p. 16), its inhabitants are
merely the Skrælings of myths, since this mythical land and its
inhabitants were the best known and most talked of. If this be so, it does
not exclude the possibility of Are's having heard of other, less well
known, but actually discovered countries in the south-west, which he does
not mention. To make use of a parallel, let us suppose that Utröst with
its fairy people was better known in Nordland than the islands to the
north with their semi-mythical Lapps. If then we had read of a discovery
of Finmark that traces had been found there of the same kind of folk
("þjóð") who inhabit Utröst, then we should no more be able from this to
conclude that Utröst was a real land than that Vesterålen and Senjen, for
instance, had not been discovered. It must be remembered that it does not
appear with certainty from Are's words where he got his Wineland from (cf.
vol. i. p. 367).

Another document of a wholly different nature, wherein possibly the name
of Wineland is mentioned, has been found--namely, the runic stone of
Hönen.

On the estate of Hönen, in Ringerike, there was found at the beginning of
last century a runic stone, which was still from to be seen there in 1823,
when the inscription was copied. Afterwards the stone disappeared.[20] The
drawing made in 1823 is now only known from a somewhat indistinct copy;
but from this Sophus Bugge [1902] has attempted to make out the runic
inscription, and he reads it thus:

  "Ut ok vítt ok þurfa
  þerru ok áts
  Vínlandi á ísa
  í úbygð at kómu;
  auð má illt vega,
  [at] döyi ár."

In prose this verse may, according to Bugge, be rendered somewhat as
follows:

    "They came out [into the ocean] and over wide expanses ('vîtt'), and
    needing ('þurfa') cloth to dry themselves on ('þerru') and food
    ('áts'), away towards Wineland, up into the ice in the uninhabited
    country. Evil can take away luck, so that one dies early."

Bugge regards this reading of this somewhat difficult inscription as
doubtful; but if it is correct, this verse may be part of an inscription
cut upon one or more stones in memory of a young man (or perhaps several)
from Ringerike, who took part in an expedition by sea. According to his
explanation, they were then driven far out into the ocean in the direction
of Wineland, and were lost, perhaps in the ice on the east coast of
Greenland (which in the sagas is generally called the uninhabited country,
"ubygð"); they abandoned their ship and had to take to the drift-ice. He
(or they) to whom the inscription refers thereby met his death at an early
age, while at any rate some one must have made his way back and brought
the tale of the voyage. Probably there was a commencement of the
inscription, now lost, giving the name of the young man, who must
certainly have been of good birth; for otherwise, as Bugge points out, a
memorial with an inscription in verse would hardly have been raised to
him. He or his family belonged to Ringerike, and to the neighbourhood in
which the stone was put up.

The form of the runes makes it probable, according to Bugge, that the
inscription dates from the eleventh century, and perhaps from the period
between 1000 and 1050; scarcely before that, though it may be later. The
inscription would thus acquire a value as possibly the earliest document
in which Wineland is mentioned. What kind of expedition the inscription
records we cannot tell; there is nothing to show that it was a real
Wineland voyage; the words seem rather to point to their having been
driven against their will out to sea in the direction of "Wineland,"
whether we are to regard this as the Wineland of myth or as a historical
country; it might well be used figuratively in an epitaph to describe more
graphically how far they went from the beaten track. It may equally well
have been on a voyage to Ireland, the Faroes, Iceland, or merely to the
north of Norway that the disaster occurred, and they were driven by
storms to the Greenland ice; but since it cannot be denied that, as the
verse has been translated, the expressions appear somewhat unnatural, it
is difficult to form any opinion as to this.[21]

If this runic inscription from Ringerike has been correctly copied and
interpreted--which, as has been said, is uncertain--then this and Adam of
Bremen's information from Denmark would show that Wineland was known and
discussed in various parts of the North in the eleventh century, long
before Icelandic literature began to be put into writing. But strangely
enough, in the Norwegian thirteenth-century work, "Historia Norwegiæ," no
mention is made of Wineland, although in other respects the author has
made extensive use of Adam of Bremen's work; he merely states that
Greenland approaches the African Islands, by which, as pointed out above
(p. 1), he shows clearly enough that Wineland was regarded as belonging to
the African Islands, or Insulæ Fortunatæ. The "King's Mirror,"[22] which
gives a detailed description of Greenland, does not mention Wineland,
although the author evidently held the view that Greenland approached the
universal continent (i.e., Africa) on the south. The knowledge of it must
soon have been forgotten in Norway, or it was regarded as a mythical
country, while the tradition persisted longer in Iceland.

The last time we meet with the name of Wineland in connection with a
voyage is in the "Islandske Annaler,"[23] where it is related in the year
1121 that "Eirikr, bishop of Greenland [also called Eirikr Upsi], went out
to seek (leita) Wineland." But we are not told anything more of this
expedition. The use of "leita" shows that Wineland was not a known
country, it can only apply to lands about which legends or reports are
current; just in the same way Gardar in the Sturlubók "went to seek ('fór
at leita') Snælandz" on the advice of his mother, who had second sight
(vol. i. p. 255), or Ravna-Floki "fór at leita Gardarshólms" (vol. i. p.
257), and Eric the Red "ætlaði at leita lands þess" which Gunnbjörn had
seen, etc. (vol. i. p. 267). As soon as the way was known, it was no
longer necessary to "leita" countries. If the voyage is historical, it may
have been to seek for the mythical country, the happy Wineland that Bishop
Eric set out, as St. Brandan in the legend sought for the Promised Land,
and as, 359 years later, the city of Bristol actually sent men out to look
for the happy isle of Brazil; but as the coast of America seems to have
been known, it may apply to a country there, of which reports had come,
and to which the name of the mythical country had been transferred. As
Eric is called a bishop, it has been thought that this was a missionary
voyage, which met with disaster [cf. Y. Nielsen, 1905, p. 8]; but who was
there to be converted in an unknown land, for which one had first to
"seek"? It would have to be the unknown Skrælings; but is this really
likely, when we hear of no mission to the Skrælings of Greenland? There
must have been enough of the latter to convert for the time being, if it
had been thought worth the trouble. Nor do we know much more about this
Eric Upsi.[24] Probably he was the same man who is called in the
Landnámabók "Eirikr Gnupssonr Grönlendinga-byskup." It is possible that
the see of Greenland was founded as early as 1110,[25] and that Eric was
the first bishop of Greenland, and went out there in 1112,[26] but he
cannot have been solemnly consecrated at Lund, like later bishops after
1124. It is possible that Eric was lost, for we hear no more of him, and
in 1122 and 1123 the Greenlanders made efforts to obtain a new bishop, who
was consecrated at Lund in 1124; but it is curious that nothing is then
said about any earlier bishop; moreover, the entry in the annals about
Eric dates at the earliest from the thirteenth century.

    Some years ago it was asserted that a stone with a runic inscription
    had been found in Minnesota, the so-called Kensington stone. On this
    is narrated a journey of eight Swedes and twenty-two Norwegians from
    Wineland as far as the country west of the Great Lakes. But by its
    runes and its linguistic form this inscription betrays itself clearly
    enough as a modern forgery, which has no interest for us here [cf. H.
    Gjessing, 1909; K. Hoegh, 1909; H. R. Roland, 1909; O. J. Breda,
    1910].

The name of Wineland occurs extremely rarely in mediæval literature and on
maps outside Iceland, and as a rule it is confused with Finland, as
already mentioned (vol. i. p. 198), or again with Vindland (Vendland).
Ordericus Vitalis (1141) gives "The Orkneys and Finland, together with
Iceland and Greenland" as islands under the king of Norway.[27] As the
passage seems to be connected with Adam of Bremen, who also erroneously
mentions these islands and Wineland as subject to the Norwegians (see vol.
i. p. 192), this Finland may be Wineland. It was pointed out in vol i. p.
198, that the Latin "vinum" was translated into Irish as "fín." Ordericus
(1075-1143), who lived in England until his tenth year, and wrote in an
abbey in Normandy, may well have had communication with Irishmen. In
Ranulph Higden's "Polychronicon" (circa 1350) the following are described
as islands in the outer ocean (surrounding the disc of the earth): first
the "Insulæ Fortunatæ" (see vol i. p. 346), immediately afterwards "Dacia"
(== Denmark), and to the _west_ of this island "Wyntlandia," besides
"Islandia," which has Norway to the south and the Polar Sea to the north,
"Tile" (Thule) the extreme island on the north-west, and "Noruegia"
(Norway). As this "Wyntlandia," which in the various editions of Higden's
map is called Witland, Wintlandia, Wineland, etc., is placed out in the
ocean on the west, it is possibly connected with the old Wineland which
was an oceanic island; but as it is mentioned together with Dacia, it may
also be confused with Vindland (Vendland),[28] and the circumstance that
the inhabitants are supposed to have sold winds to sailors who came to
them may have contributed to this. This may be connected with what Mela
[iii. 6] says about the island of Sena in the British Sea, off Brittany
(see vol. i. p. 29), where the nine priestesses of the oracle of the
Gaulish deity

    "set seas and winds in motion through their incantations, change
    themselves into what animal they please, cure sickness ... know the
    future and foretell it, but they only assist those sailors who come to
    ask counsel of them."

But the wind-selling wizards of the Polychronicon have also evidently been
confused with the Finns (Lapps) of Finmark, whom Adam of Bremen had
already described as particularly skilled in magic. The Polychronicon is a
free revision of an earlier English work, the "Geographia Universalis," of
the thirteenth century. In this "Winlandia" (or "Wynlandia") and its
inhabitants, who sell winds, are described at greater length; it is there
placed on the continent on the sea-coast and borders on the mountains of
Norway on the east.[29] It is therefore Finland, or perhaps rather the
country of the Lapp wizards, Finmark. Thus through similarity of sound
three countries may have been confused in the Polychronicon: Wineland,
Vindland, and Finland (Finmark). Evidently the "Vinland" to be found on
the continent in the map of the world in the "Rudimentum Novitiorum" of
Lübeck (1475) refers to Finland, and likewise the "Vinlandia" mentioned in
a Lübeck MS. of 1486-1488, which is an extensive island reaching as far as
Livonia.[30] Whether we regard Wineland as merely a mythical country, or
as a country actually discovered to which the name of the mythical land
was transferred, this limited dissemination of it in literature and on
maps is striking. It shows that knowledge of the myth, or of the country
with the mythical name, belonged to older times, was not very widely
spread outside the Scandinavian countries and Ireland, and was afterwards
forgotten, in spite of the frequent communication that existed between the
intellectual world of the North and that of the South [cf. Jos. Fischer,
1902, pp. 106, ff.].

While probably the name of Hvítramanna-land is still preserved in the
fairy-tale of Hvittenland, it is possibly the name of Wineland that has
been preserved in that "Vinland" which is mentioned in the Faroese lay of
"Finnur hinn Fríði";[31] but if so, it is the only known instance of its
occurrence in popular poetry. The Norwegian jarl's son, Finnur hinn Fríði
(Finn the Fair), courts Ingebjörg, the daughter of an Irish king; she is
beautiful as the sun, and the colour of her maiden cheeks is like blood
dropped upon snow.[32] She makes answer: "Hadst thou slain the Wine-kings,
then shouldst thou wed me." To Wineland is a far voyage, with currents and
mighty billows. But Finn begs his brother, Halfdan, to go with him over
the Wineland sea. They hoist their silken sail, and never lower it till
they arrive at Wineland. There they found the three Wine-kings. Thorstein,
the first, came on a black horse, but Finn tore him off at the navel; the
second, Ivint, also came on a black horse. But the third transformed
himself into a flying dragon; arrows flew from each of his feathers, and
he killed many of their men. The worst was that he shot venom from his
mouth under Finn's coat of mail, who, though he could not be killed by
arms, had to die. He then drew a golden ring from his arm and sent it by
Halfdan to Ingebjörg, bidding her live happily. But Halfdan sprang into
the air, seized the third Wine-king, and tore him off at the navel.
Halfdan sailed back to Ireland, brought Ingebjörg these tidings and the
ring, and slept three nights with her, but on the fourth she dies of
grief, since she can love no chieftain after Finn. Halfdan had a castle
built for himself and passed his years in Ireland, but all his days he
mourned for his brother. Although the whole of this legend seems to have
no connection with what we know about Wineland, it is most probable that
it is the same name, but that--like the tale itself of the Irish king's
daughter whose cheek was as blood upon snow--it came from Ireland. The
name may thus be a last echo of the Irish mythical ideas from which the
Wineland of the Icelanders arose.


Curiously enough Helluland is the only one of the names of the western
lands that has been widely adopted in Icelandic fairy-tales and legendary
sagas. It has to some extent become a complete fairyland, with trolls and
giants, and it is located in various places, usually far north, even to
the north of Greenland, and sometimes on its north-east coast. In this
fairyland was the fjord "Skuggi" (shadow); it is mentioned in Örvarodds
Saga (circa 1300), where the hero departs to seek his enemy, the wizard
Ǫgmund, in Helluland, and again in Bárðarsaga Snæfellsáss (fifteenth
century), in the "Þáttr" of Gunnari Keldugnúpsfífl, in the Hálfdanarsaga
Brönufóstra, in the Saga of Hálfdani Eysteinssyni, and in Gest Bárdsson's
Saga.[33]

In the geography which under the name of "Gripla" was included in Björn
Jónsson's "Grönland's Annaler," it is said of the countries opposite
Greenland:

    "Furðustrandir is the name of a land, where is severe frost, so that
    it is not habitable, so far as people know; south of it is Helluland,
    which is called Skrælingja-land; thence it is a short distance to
    Wineland the Good, which some people think goes out from Africa...."

With this may be compared another MS. of the seventeenth century, where we
read:

    "West of the great ocean from Spain, which some call Ginnungagap, and
    which goes between lands, there is first towards the north Wineland
    the Good, next to it is called Markland farther north, thereafter are
    the wastes [i.e., the wastes of Helluland] where Skrælings live, then
    there are still more wastes to Greenland." [Cf. Grönl. hist. Mind.,
    iii. pp. 224, 227.]

From this it looks as if Helluland was regarded as inhabited by Skrælings,
which agrees with the reality, if it is Labrador. But these MSS. belong
to the seventeenth century, and may be influenced by the geographical
knowledge of later times. In Gripla there is evident confusion, as
Furðustrandir has been confounded with Helluland, and the latter with
Markland[34].

No record is found of any voyage to Wineland after 1121; but on the other
hand there is mention more than two hundred years later of the voyage,
referred to above, to Markland from Greenland in 1347. Of this we read in
the Icelandic Annals (Skálholts-Annals) for that year: "Then came also
[i.e., besides ships from Norway already mentioned] a ship from Greenland,
smaller in size than the small vessels that trade to Iceland. It came to
Outer Straumfjord [on the south side of Snæfellsnes]; it was without an
anchor. There were seventeen men on board [in the Flatey-annals there are
eighteen men], and they had sailed to Markland, but afterwards [i.e., on
the homeward voyage to Greenland] were driven hither."

As the Skálholts-Annals were written not many years after this (perhaps
about 1362), it must be regarded as quite certain that this ship had been
to Markland; but on the homeward voyage, perhaps while she lay at anchor,
was overtaken by a storm, so that the cable had to be cut, and was driven
out to sea past Cape Farewell right across to the west coast of Iceland.
It is not likely that they sailed so far as Markland simply to fish, which
they might have done off Greenland; the object was rather to fetch timber
or wood for fashioning implements, which was valuable in treeless
Greenland; the driftwood which came on the East Greenland current did not
go very far. It is true that they could not carry much timber on their
small vessel; but they had to make the best of the craft they possessed,
and they could always carry a sufficient supply of the more valuable woods
for the manufacture of tools, weapons and appliances. They must for
instance have had great difficulty in obtaining wood for making bows;
driftwood was of little use for this.

But if this voyage took place in 1347, and we only hear of it through the
accident of the vessel getting out of her course and being driven to
Iceland, we may be sure that there were many more like it; only that these
were not the expeditions of men of rank, which attracted attention, but
everyday voyages for the support of life, like the sealing expeditions to
Nordrsetur, and when nothing particular happened to these vessels, such as
being driven to Iceland, we hear nothing about them. We must therefore
suppose that, even if they had to give up the idea of forming settlements
in the west, the Greenlanders occasionally visited Markland (Newfoundland
or the southernmost part of Labrador ?), perhaps chiefly to obtain wood of
different kinds.

In the so-called Greenland Annals, put together from old sources by Björn
Jónsson of Skardsá (beginning of the seventeenth century), it is said of
the districts on the west coast of Greenland, to the north of the Western
Settlement, that they "take up trees and all the drift that comes from the
bays of Markland" (cf. vol i. p. 299). This shows that it was customary to
regard Markland as the region from which wood was to be obtained. The name
itself (== woodland) may have contributed to this view; but the fact that
it survived long after all mention of Wineland had ceased may probably be
due to communication with the country having been kept up in later times,
and to this name being the really historical one on the coast of America.

According to the Icelandic Annals the voyagers from Markland who came to
Iceland in 1347, proceeded in the following year (1348) to Norway. This
was no doubt with the idea of getting back to Greenland, as there was no
sailing to that country from Iceland, and they would not trust their
vessel on another ocean voyage. But in Norway, where they arrived at
Bergen, they had a long while to wait. "Knarren," the royal trading ship,
seems to have been the only vessel that kept up communication with
Greenland at that time. We know that "Knarren" returned to Bergen in 1346,
and did not sail again until 1355. From a royal letter of 1354, which has
been preserved, it appears that extraordinary preparations were made for
the fitting-out and manning of this expedition, to prevent Christianity in
Greenland from "falling away." Perhaps the presence in Norway of these
Markland voyagers from Greenland had something to do with the awakening of
interest in that distant country, and perhaps it is not altogether
impossible that the intention was not only to secure and strengthen the
possessions in Greenland, but also to explore the fertile countries
farther west. It cannot be remarked, however, that it brought about any
change in the fading knowledge of these valuable regions, and we hear no
more of them until their rediscovery at the close of the fifteenth
century.

Ebbe Hertzberg, Keeper of the Public Records of Norway, has shown [1904,
pp. 210, ff.] that there is a remarkable and interesting similarity
between the game of lacrosse, which is played by the Indians of the
north-east of North America, and the ancient Norse game, "knattleikr"
(i.e., ball-game), so far as we know it from the sagas. It was greatly in
favour in Iceland. If Hertzberg is right in his supposition that the
Indians may have got this game from the Norsemen, this would lend strong
support to the view that the latter had considerable intercourse with
America and its natives.

    According to Hertzberg's acute interpretation of the accounts of
    "knattleikr" in the various sagas, it was played on a large level
    piece of ground ("leikvǫllr," i.e., playing-ground), or on the ice,
    usually by many players. These were divided into two sides, in such a
    way that those most nearly equal in strength on each side were paired
    as opponents and stood near to each other, and the two teams were thus
    spread in pairs over the whole ground. Each player had a club with
    which he either struck or caught and "carried" the ball. The club had
    a hollow or a net in which the ball could be caught and lie. When the
    ball was set going, the game was for the one who was nearest to seize
    or catch it, preferably with his club, and to run off with it and try
    to "carry it out," i.e., past a goal or mark; but in this his
    particular opponent tried to hinder him with all his strength and
    agility. The other players might not interfere directly in the
    struggle of the two opponents for the ball. If the one who had the
    ball was so hard pressed by his opponent that he had to give it up, he
    tried to throw it to one of his own side, who then again had to reckon
    with his own opponent in his attempt to "carry it out." This game was
    much played by the Icelanders; it was apt to be rough, and men were
    often disabled, or even killed, by their opponents.

    Hertzberg shows how the Canadian Indians' game of lacrosse, which has
    become the national game of Canada, completely resembles in all
    essentials this peculiar Norse ball-game from Iceland. The game of
    lacrosse is, as Professor Y. Nielsen has pointed out [1905], more
    widely diffused among the Indian tribes of North America than
    Hertzberg was aware. Dr. William James Hoffman[35] has described it
    among the Menomini Indians in Wisconsin, the Ojibwa tribe in northern
    Minnesota, the Dakota Indians on the upper Missouri, and among the
    Chactas, Chickasaws and kindred tribes farther south. Hoffmann also
    mentions that opponents are picked and that the game is played in
    pairs [1896, i. p. 132]. Among the Ojibwas, he says, the player who is
    carrying the ball is often placed hors de combat by a blow on the arm
    or leg; serious injuries only occur when the stakes are high, or when
    there is enmity between some of the players. Among the more southern
    tribes, on the other hand, the game is much more violent, the crosse
    is longer, made of hickory, and it is often sought to disable the
    runner. This, then, is even more like the Icelandic game.

Hoffmann thinks that the game is undoubtedly derived from one of the
eastern Algonkin tribes, possibly in the valley of the St. Lawrence.
Thence it reached the Huron Iroquois, and later it spread farther south to
the Cherokees, etc. In a similar way it was carried westwards and adopted
by many tribes. This then points to its having originated in just those
districts where one would have expected it to come from, if it was brought
by the Norsemen, as Hertzberg thinks. That the game is so widely diffused
in America and has become so much a part of the Indians' life, even of
their religious life, shows that it is very ancient there, and this too
supports Hertzberg's assumption that it is derived from the Norsemen. It
is true that Eug. Beauvois[36] has pointed out the possibility of the game
having been introduced into Canada by people from Normandy after the
sixteenth century; but before such an objection could carry weight, it
would have to be made probable that the characteristic Norse game was
really played in Normandy; but this is not known. In support of
Hertzberg's view it may also be adduced--a point that he himself has not
noticed--that the Icelanders appear to have introduced the same ball-game
to another American people with whom they came in touch, namely, the
Eskimo of Greenland. Hans Egede [1741, p. 93] says:

    "Playing ball is their most usual game, especially by moonlight, and
    they have two ways of playing: When they have divided themselves into
    two sides, one throws the ball to another who is on his own side.
    Those of the other side must endeavour to get the ball from them, and
    thus it goes on alternately among them...." (The other way of playing
    mentioned by Egede is more like football.)

This description, together with Egede's drawing, from which it appears,
amongst other things, that the opponents are arranged in pairs, seems to
show that the Eskimo game was very like the Icelanders' "knattleikr" and
the Indians' "lacrosse"; but with the difference that according to Egede's
account the Eskimo did not use any club or crosse; moreover, from Egede's
drawing it looks as if both men and women took part, as with certain
Indian tribes. That there is a connection here appears natural. The most
probable explanation may be that the Eskimo as well as the Indians got
this ball-game from the Norsemen. That the Eskimo should have learnt it
from the whalers after the rediscovery of Greenland in the sixteenth
century is unlikely, as also that it should have come to the Indians from
the Eskimo round the north of Baffin Bay and through Baffin Land and
Labrador; nor is it any more likely that the Icelanders should have learnt
it of the Eskimo in Greenland, who again had it from America.

It is in itself a strange thing that the discovery of a country like North
America, with conditions so much more favourable than Greenland and
Iceland, should not have led to a permanent settlement. But there are
many, and in my judgment sufficient, reasons which explain this. We must
remember that such an outpost of civilisation as Greenland offered poor
opportunities for the equipment of such settlements; the settlers would
have to be prepared for continual conflicts with the Indians, who with
their warlike capacity and their numbers might easily be more than a
match for a handful of Greenlanders, even though the latter had some
advantage in their weapons of iron--and of these too the Greenlanders
never had a very good supply, as appears from several narratives. There
would also be need of ships, which were costly and difficult to procure in
Greenland; the few that were there certainly had enough to do, and could
hardly manage more than an occasional trip to Markland for timber.
Moreover, as the Greenland settlements themselves and their oversea
communications declined after the close of the thirteenth century, so also
of course did their communication with America decrease, until it finally
ceased altogether.

       *       *       *       *       *

It would thus appear, from all that has been put forward in this chapter,
that Wineland the Good was originally a mythical country, closely
connected with the happy lands of Irish myths and legends--which had their
first source in the Greek Elysium and Isles of the Blest, in Oriental
sailors' myths, and an admixture of Biblical conceptions. The description
of the country has acquired important features from Isidore's account of
the Insulæ Fortunatæ and from older classical literature. This mythical
country is to be compared with "Hvítramanna-land" (the white men's land),
"which some call Ireland the Great ('Irland hit Mikla')." Of this the
Landnáma tells us (cf. vol i. p. 353) that it lay near Wineland, in the
west of the ocean, six "dœgr's" sail west of Ireland (according to the
Eyrbyggja Saga it lay to the south-west); the Icelandic chief Are Mársson
was driven there by storms, was not allowed to depart, but was baptized
there and held in great esteem. Furthermore, the same land is mentioned in
the Saga of Eric the Red as lying opposite Markland (cf. vol. i. p. 330).
Finally, in the Eyrbyggja Saga there is a tale of a voyage (see later)
which evidently had the same country as its object, though it is not
mentioned by name. Since Thorkel Gellisson is given as the authority for
the story in the Landnáma, the legend may have reached Iceland about the
close of the eleventh century.

This Irish land may also be derived from an adaptation of the ancients'
myth of the western Isles of the Blest,[37] and it evidently corresponds
to one of the mythical countries of the Christianised Irish legends. It
bears great resemblance in particular to "the Island of Strong Men"
("Insula Virorum Fortium") in the Navigatio Brandani, which is also called
there "the Isle of Anchorites" [Schröder, 1871, pp. 24, 17]. Three
generations dwelt there: the first generation, the children, had clothes
white as driven snow, the second of the colour of hyacinth, and the third
of Dalmatian purple. The name itself, which in Old Norse would become
"Starkramanna-land," shows much similarity of formation; besides which it
is the Isle of Anchorites that is in question, and one of the three
generations wears white garments; we are thus not far from the formation
of a name "Hvítramanna-land." There is yet another point of agreement, in
that, just as Are Mársson was not allowed to leave Hvítramanna-land, so
one of Brandan's companions had to stay behind on the Isle of Anchorites.
It may also be supposed that the name of the White Men's Land is connected
with the White Christ and with the white garments of the baptized; the
circumstance of Are Mársson being baptized there points in the same
direction.[38] But to this it may be added that various myths and legends
show it to have been a common idea among the Irish that aged hermits and
holy men were white. The old man who welcomes Brendan to the promised land
in the "Imram Brenaind" [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 139; Schirmer, 1888, p. 34]
has no clothes, but his body is covered with dazzling white feathers, like
a dove or a gull, and angelic is the speech of his lips. In the Latin
account of Brandan's life ("Vita sancti Brandani") the man is called
Paulus, he is again without clothes, but his body is covered with white
hair,[39] and in both tales the man came from Ireland [cf. Schirmer, 1888,
p. 40]. The cave-dweller Paulus on an island in the Navigatio Brandani
[Schröder, 1871, p. 32] is without clothes, but wholly covered by the hair
of his head, his beard and other hair down to the feet, and they were
white as snow on account of his great age. It is evident that the
whiteness is often attributed, as in the last instance, to age; but it is
also the heavenly colour, and the white clothing of hair (or feathers)
may also have some connection with the white lamb in the Revelation. In
the tale of Maelduin's voyage, which is older than those of Brandan's,
Maelduin meets in two places, on a sheep-island and on a rock in the sea,
with hermits wholly covered with the white hair of their bodies--they too
were both Irish--and on two other islands, the soil of one of which was as
white as a feather, he meets with men whose only clothing was the hair of
their bodies[40] [cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 162, 163, 169, 172, 178]. In the
Navigatio Brandan also meets on the island of Alibius an aged man with
hair of the colour of snow and with shining countenance. (Cf. Christ
revealing himself among the seven candlesticks to John on the isle of
Patmos: "His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow;
and his eyes were as a flame of fire" [Rev. i. 14].)

    Among the Irish the white colour again forms a conspicuous feature in
    the description of persons, especially supernatural beings, in ancient
    non-Christian legends and myths. The name of their national hero Finn
    means white. To Finn Mac Cumaill there comes in the legend a king's
    daughter of unearthly size and beauty, "Bebend" (the white woman),
    from the Land of Virgins ("Tír na-n-Ingen") in the west of the sea,
    and she has marvellously beautiful white hair [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p.
    269]. The corresponding maiden of the sea-people, in the "Imram
    Brenaind," whom Brandan finds, is also whiter than snow or sea-spray
    (see vol. i. p. 363). The physician Libra at the court of Manannán,
    king of the Promised Land, has three daughters with white hair. When
    Midir, the king of the síd (fairies), is trying to entice away Etáin,
    queen of the high-king of Ireland, he says: "Oh, white woman, wilt
    thou go with me to the land of marvels?... thy body has the white
    colour of snow to the very top," etc. etc.[41] [cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp.
    273, 279]. A corresponding idea to that of the Irish síd-people,
    especially the women, being white, is perhaps that of the Norse elves
    being thought light (cf. "lysalver," light-elves), or even white. The
    elf-maiden in Sweden is slender as a lily and white as snow, and elves
    in Denmark may also be snow-white (cf. also the fact that elves are
    described as white nymphs, "albæ nymphæ").

It seems natural that these ideas--of whiteness as specially beautiful,
and mostly applied to the "síd" or elves, to the garments of baptism, and
to holy men and hermits--led to a name which, in conformity with the
Strong Men's Island of the Navigatio, would become the White Men's Land,
for the mythical western land oversea, where Are Mársson was baptized, but
which he could not leave again, and where, according to the Eyrbyggja
Saga, the language resembled Irish. This, then, is precisely the "Isle of
Anchorites." The country may have originated through a contact of ideas
from the religious world and the profane, original conceptions from the
latter having become Christianised. Doubtless the white garments, which
were connected with the other world, and which became the heavenly raiment
of the Christians, have also played a part. In Plato a white-clad woman
(i.e., one from the other world) comes to Socrates in a dream and
announces to him that in three days he is to depart. During the
transfiguration on the mountain Jesus' face "did shine as the sun, and his
raiment was white as the light" [Matt. xvii. 2], or "his raiment became
shining, exceeding white as snow" [Mark ix. 3]. On the basis of this
Christian conception the image of the world beyond the grave has taken the
form of a fair, shining land, as in the immense literature of visions; and
thus too in the Floamanna Saga [Grönl. hist. Mind., ii. p. 103], where
Thorgils's wife Thorey sees in a dream a "fair country with shining white
men" ("menn bjarta"), and Thorgils interprets it to mean "another world"
where "good awaits her" and "holy men would help her."

There is further a possibility that some of the conceptions attached to
Hvítramanna-land may be connected with ancient Celtic tales which in
antiquity were associated with the Cassiterides (in Celtic Brittany); in
any case there is a remarkable similarity between the mention in Eric the
Red's Saga of men who went about in white clothes, carried poles before
them, and cried aloud (see vol. i. p. 330), and Strabo's description (see
vol. i. p. 27) of the men in the Cassiterides in black cloaks with kirtles
reaching to the feet, who wander about with staves, like the Furies in
tragedy. That Strabo should see a resemblance to the Eumenides (Furies)
and therefore make his men black, while the Northern author has the
Christian ideas and in agreement with the name of Hvítramanna-land gives
them white clothes, need not surprise us. Even if Storm [1887] is correct
in his supposition that the white men's banners, or "poles to which strips
were attached" (see vol. i. p. 330), are connected with ecclesiastical
processions, this may be a later popular modification, just as the white
hermits out in the ocean may be a modification of pre-Christian, or at any
rate non-religious, conceptions in Ireland.

    Reference has been made (p. 32) to the resemblance between the
    accounts of the inhabitants of Wyntlandia (== Wineland), who were
    versed in magic, and of the Celtic priestesses in the island of Sena
    off Brittany. One might be tempted to think that here again there is
    some connection or other between these Breton priestesses and, on the
    one hand the Irishmen in Hvítramanna-land, on the other the men of the
    Cassiterides (near Sena) who were like the Furies. Dionysius
    Periegetes [510; cum Eustath. 1] relates that on this island of Sena
    women crowned with ivy conducted nocturnal bacchanals, with shrieks
    and violent noise (cf. the men in white clothes in Hvítramanna-land,
    who carried poles and cried aloud). No male person might set foot on
    the island, but the women went over to the men on the mainland, and
    returned after having had intercourse with them (cf. vol. i. p. 356).
    Exactly the same thing is related by Strabo [iv. 198] of the Samnite
    women on a little island in the sea, not far from the mouth of the
    Liger (Loire); inspired by Bacchus they honour that god in mysteries
    and other unusually holy actions. The druids had their sanctuaries on
    islands, and Mona (Anglesey) was their headquarters. Tacitus [Ann.
    xiv. 30] tells of their fanatical women who, in white clothes
    (grave-clothes), with dishevelled hair and flaming torches, conducted
    themselves altogether like Furies on the arrival of the Romans.

The circumstance of Hvítramanna-land being, according to the Eyrbyggja
Saga, a forbidden land may correspond to that of men being prohibited from
setting foot on the priestesses' island, or again to the way to the
Cassiterides being kept secret and to the precautions taken to prevent
people from reaching them (cf. vol. i. p. 27). Something similar, it may
be added, is told of the rich, fertile island which the Carthaginians
discovered in the west of the ocean, and which, under pain of death, they
forbade others to visit [Aristotle, Mir. Auscult., c. 85; cf. also
Diodorus, v. 20]. That in late classical times there was a confusion
between the Cassiterides and the mythical isles in the west appears
further from Pliny's saying [Hist. Nat., iv. 36] that the Cassiterides
were also called "Fortunatæ," and from Dionysius Periegetes making tin,
the product of the Cassiterides, come from the Hesperides.

It was mentioned above (vol. i. p. 357) that the name of the promised
land, "the Land of Marvels," was also called in Irish legend the "Great
Strand" ("Trág Mór"), or the "Great Land" ("Tír Mór"); "two or three times
as large as Ireland" (vol. i. p. 355). It does not seem unlikely that the
Icelanders, hearing from Ireland of this great land, should come to call
it "Irland hit Mikla" (Ireland the Great); and this seems to be a more
natural explanation than Storm's [1887, p. 65] interpretation of the name
as meaning "the Irish colony," like "Magna Græcia" (the Greek colony in
Italy) and "Svíþjód it Mikla" (the Swedish colony in Russia, the name of
which may however have been derived from the name of the latter: "Scythia
Magna"); on the other hand, he gives an obvious parallel in "Great Han,"
the mythical land in the Great Ocean beyond China (Han).

In the Eyrbyggja Saga we read of Björn Asbrandsson, called
Breidvikinge-kjæmpe, and his exploits. He bore illicit love to Snorre
Gode's sister, Thurid of Fróðá, the wife of Thorodd, and had by her an
illegitimate son, Kjartan. Finally he had to leave Iceland on account of
this love; but his ship was not ready till late in the autumn. They put to
sea with a north-east wind, which held for a long time that autumn.
Afterwards the ship was not heard of for many a day.

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

It is clear that Björn Breidvikinge-kjæmpe here is the same as Are Mársson
in the Landnáma, who was also driven by storms to Hvítramanna-land, had to
stay there all his life, and according to the report of Thorfinn earl of
Orkney (ob. circa 1064) had been recognised (by travellers like Gudleif
?), and was much honoured there. This incident of the travellers coming to
an unknown island and there finding a man who has been absent a long while
has parallels in many Irish legends. Thus it may be mentioned that
Brandan, in the Navigatio, comes to the convent-island of Alibius, with
the twenty-four Irish monks of old days, and meets there the old
white-haired man who was prior of the convent and had been there for
eighty years, but who does not tell his name. Brandan asks leave to sail
on, but this is not permitted until they have celebrated Christmas there
[Schröder, 1871, pp. 15, ff].[42]

The resemblance between the two names "Guð-Leifr" (Gudleif == God-Leif)
and "Leifr hinn Heppni" (Leif the Lucky) also deserves notice, as perhaps
it is not merely accidental. One sails during the last years of St. Olaf
from Ireland to Iceland and is carried south-westwards to
Hvítramanna-land; the other sails during the last years of Olaf Tryggvason
from Norway to Greenland and is carried south-westwards to Wineland the
Good.

    It might also be thought to be more than a mere coincidence that,
    while Leif Ericson is given the surname of "hinn heppni," a closely
    related surname is mentioned in connection with Gudleif in the
    Eyrbyggja Saga, where he is called "Guðleifr Guðlaugsson hins auðga"
    (i.e., son of Gudlaug the rich). In the one case, of course, it is the
    man himself, in the other the father, who bears the surname. "Auðigr"
    means rich, but originally it had the meaning of lucky, and the rich
    man is he who has luck with him (cf. further "auðna" == luck,
    "auðnu-maðr" == favourite of fortune). Gudleif Gudlaugsson also occurs
    in the Landnámabók, but this surname is not mentioned, nor is anything
    said about this voyage, in exactly the same way as Leif Ericson is
    named there, but without a surname and without any mention of a voyage
    or a discovery; in both cases this is an addition that occurs in later
    sagas. In spite of the difference alluded to, one may suspect that
    there is here some connection or other. Possibly it might be that, as
    Guðriðr is the Christian woman among all the names beginning with
    Thor- and Freyðis, so the name of Guðleifr, which was placed in
    association with the Christian Hvítramanna-land, was used because it
    had a more religious stamp than "happ" and "heppen," which in any case
    are as nearly allied to popular belief as to religiosity, and which
    were associated with the non-Christian Wineland.

The following tale in Edrisi, the Arabic geographer, whose work dates from
1154, bears considerable resemblance to the remarkable story of Gudleif's
voyage.[43]

    Eight "adventurers" from Lisbon built a merchant ship and set out with
    the first east wind to explore the farthest limits of the ocean. They
    sailed for about eleven days [westwards] and came to a sea with stiff
    (thick) waves [the Liver-sea] and a horrible stench,[44] with many
    shallows and little light (cf. precisely similar conceptions, vol. i.
    pp. 38, 68, 181, 182, note 1). Afraid of perishing there, they sailed
    southward for twelve days and reached the Sheep-island ("Djazîrato
    'l-Ghanam"), with innumerable flocks of sheep and no human beings (cf.
    Dicuil's account of the Faroes, and Brandan's Sheep-island, vol. i.
    pp. 163, 362). They sailed on for twelve days more towards the south
    and found at last an inhabited and cultivated island. On approaching
    this they were soon surrounded by boats, taken prisoners, and brought
    to a town on the coast. They finally took up their abode in a house,
    where they saw men of tall stature and red complexion, with little
    hair on their faces, and wearing their hair long (not curled), and
    women of rare beauty. Here they were kept prisoners for three days. On
    the fourth day a man came who spoke to them in Arabic and asked them
    who they were, why they had come, and what country they came from.
    They related to him their adventures. He gave them good hopes, and
    told them that he was the king's interpreter. On the following day
    they were brought before the king, who asked them the same questions
    through the interpreter. On their replying that they had set out with
    the object of exploring the wonders of the ocean and finding out its
    limits, the king began to laugh and told the interpreter to explain
    that his father had once ordered one of his slaves to set out upon
    that ocean; this man had traversed its breadth for a month, until the
    light of heaven failed them and they were obliged to renounce this
    vain undertaking. The king further caused the interpreter to assure
    the adventurers of his benevolent intentions. They then returned to
    prison and remained there until a west wind came. Then they were
    blindfolded and taken across the sea in a boat for about three days
    and three nights to a land where they were left on the shore with
    their hands tied behind their backs. They stayed there till sunrise in
    a pitiable state, for the cords were very tight and caused them great
    discomfort. Then they heard voices, and upon their cries of distress
    the natives, who were Berbers, came and released them. They had
    arrived on the west coast of Africa, and were told that it was two
    months' journey to their native land.

As points of similarity to Gudleif's voyage it may be pointed out that the
Portuguese sail for thirty-five days altogether, to the west and
afterwards to the south, and arrive at a country which thus lies
south-south-west. Gudleif is carried before a north-east wind towards the
south-west and reaches land after a long time. Both the Portuguese and the
Icelanders are taken prisoners shortly after arrival; the former are
surrounded by boats, the latter by hundreds of men. The Portuguese saw
red-complexioned men of tall stature with long hair, the Icelanders saw a
tall, stately man with white hair coming on horseback. They had to wait
awhile before they were addressed in a language they could understand; the
Portuguese being first spoken to by an interpreter in Arabic[45] who gave
them good hopes, and afterwards brought them before the king, who assured
them of his benevolent intentions; while the Icelanders were sent for by
the great chief, who, when they came before him, spoke to them in Norse
and was friendly towards them, and after long deliberations spoke to them
again, and gave them leave to depart. The Portuguese had to wait in prison
for a west wind before they could get away; the Icelanders had to wait for
a favourable wind, which was again a west wind. The Portuguese were led
away blindfold, obviously in order that they should not find their way
back; when the Icelanders left it was enjoined upon them never to return.
The Portuguese came to the west coast of Africa, from whence they
afterwards had to sail northward to Lisbon; the Icelanders arrived in
Ireland, and sailed thence the next summer northward to Iceland. It seems
reasonable to suppose that there is some connection between the two tales;
the same myth may in part form the foundation of both, and this again may
be allied to the myth alluded to above of the Carthaginians' discovery of
a fertile island out in the ocean to the west of Africa. But there are
also striking resemblances between Edrisi's tale and the description in
the Odyssey of Odysseus's visit to the Phæacians in the western isle of
Scheria. On his arrival there Athene warns Odysseus to be careful, as this
people is not inclined to tolerate foreigners, and no other men come to
them. Odysseus is brought before the king, Alcinous, who receives him in
friendly fashion, and tells him that no Phæacian shall "hold him back by
force," and Odysseus relates his many adventures. Finally the Phæacians
convey him while asleep across the sea in a boat, carry him ashore at
dawn, and go away before he awakes [Od. xiii. 79, ff.]; this corresponds
to the Portuguese being taken blindfold across the sea and left bound on
the shore, until they are released at sunrise. The promise of the
Phæacians, after Poseidon's revenge for their helping Odysseus, never
again to assist any seafarer that might come to them, may bear some
resemblance to the incident of Björn Breidvikinge-kjæmpe trying to prevent
Icelanders from seeking a land which "would show little mercy to
foreigners."

Moreover, the tales, both of Gudleif's voyage and of Edrisi's Portuguese
adventurers, resemble ancient Irish myths.

    In the "Imram Snedgusa acus meic Riagla" [of the tenth or close of the
    ninth century, cf. Zimmer, 1889, pp. 213, f., 216], the men of Ross
    slay King Fiacha Mac Domnaill for his intolerable tyranny. As a
    punishment, sixty couples of the guilty were sent out to sea, and
    their judgment and fate left to God. The two monks, Snedgus and Mac
    Riagail, afterwards set out on a voluntary pilgrimage on the
    ocean--while the sixty couples went involuntarily--and, after having
    visited many islands,[46] reached in their boat a land in which there
    were generations of Irish, and they met women who sang to them and
    brought them to the king's house (cf. Odysseus's meeting first with
    the women in the Phæacians' land, and their showing him the way to the
    palace of Alcinous). The king received them well and inquired from
    whence they came. "We are Irish," they replied, "and we belong to the
    companions of Columcille." Then he asked: "How goes it in Ireland, and
    how many of Domnaill's sons are alive?" They answered: "Three Mac
    Domnaills are alive, and Fiacha Mac Domnaill fell by the men of Ross,
    and for that deed sixty couples of them were sent out to sea." "That
    is a true tale of yours; I am he who killed the King of Tara's son
    [i.e., Fiacha], and we are those who were sent out to sea. This
    commends itself to us, for we will be here till the Judgment [i.e.,
    the day of judgment] comes, and we are glad to be here without sin,
    without evil, without our sinful desires. The island we live on is
    good, for on it are Elijah and Enoch, and noble is the dwelling of
    Elijah...."

The similarity to the meeting of Gudleif and the Icelanders with the
likewise exiled great man and chief, who did not give his name but hinted
at his identity, is evident. If we suppose that the island Gudleif reached
was originally the white men's, or the holy (baptized) men's land, then it
may be possible that the great man's words to Gudleif about there being
men on the island who were greater ("ríkari") than he is connected with
the mention of Elijah and Enoch.

Thus we see a connection between Gudleif's voyage (and the exiled
Breidvikinge-kjæmpe on the unknown island) and Irish myths and legends,
the Arabic tale, and finally the Odyssey. What the mutual relationship
may be between Edrisi's tale and the Irish legends is to us of minor
importance. As the Norse Vikings had much communication with the Spanish
peninsula[47] it might be supposed that the Norse tale, derived from Irish
myths, had reached Portugal; but as the Arabic tale has several
similarities to the voyages of Brandan and Maelduin, and to Dicuil's
account of the Faroes (with their sheep and birds), which are not found in
the Norse narrative, it is more probable that the incidents in the
experiences of the Portuguese adventurers are derived directly from
Ireland, which also had close connection with the Spanish Peninsula,
chiefly through Norse ships and merchants. We must in any case suppose
that the Icelandic tale of Gudleif's voyage came from Ireland; but it may
have acquired additional colour from northern legends.

    There is a Swedish tale of some sailors from Getinge who were driven
    by storms over the sea to an unknown island; surrounded by darkness
    they went ashore and saw a fire, and before it lay an uncommonly tall
    man, who was blind; another equally big stood beside him and raked in
    the fire with an iron rod. The old blind man gets up and asks the
    strangers where they come from. They answer from Halland, from Getinge
    parish. Whereupon the blind man asks: "Is the white woman still
    alive?" They answered yes, though they did not know what he meant.
    Again he asks: "Is my goat-house still standing?" They again answered
    yes, though ignorant of what he meant. He then said: "I could not keep
    my goat-house in peace because of the church that was built in that
    place. If you would reach home safely, I give you two conditions."
    They promised to accept these, and the blind old man continued: "Take
    this belt of silver, and when you come home, buckle it on the white
    woman; and place this box on the altar in my goat-house." When the
    sailors were safely come home, the belt was buckled on a birch-tree,
    which immediately shot up into the air, and the box was placed on a
    mound, which immediately burst into flame. But from the church being
    built where the blind man had his goat-house the place was called
    Getinge [in J. Grimm, ii. 1876, p. 798, after Bexell's "Halland,"
    Göteborg, 1818, ii. p. 301]. Similar tales are known from other
    localities in Sweden and Norway. The old blind man is a heathen giant
    driven out by the Christian church or by the image of Mary (the white
    woman); sometimes again he is a heathen exile.

Here we have undeniable parallels to the storm-driven Icelanders' meeting
with the exiled Breidvikinge-kjæmpe, who asks after his native place and
his woman, Thurid,[48] and who also sends two gifts home, though with very
different feelings and objects. It may be supposed that the
Swedish-Norwegian tale is derived from ancient myths, and the Icelandic
narrative may have borrowed features, not, of course, from this very tale,
but from myths of the same type.

       *       *       *       *       *

Remarkable points of resemblance both to the voyages of the Irish (Bran's
voyage) to the Fortunate Isles in the west, and to those of Gudleif and of
the eight Portuguese (in Edrisi), are found in a Japanese tale of the
fortunate isles of "Horaisan," to which Moltke Moe has called my
attention.[49]

    This happy land lies far away in the sea towards the east; there on
    the mountain Fusan grows a splendid tree which is sometimes seen in
    the distance over the horizon; all vegetation is verdant and flowering
    in eternal spring, which keeps the air mild and the sky blue; the
    passing of time is unnoticed, and death never finds the way thither,
    there is no pain, no suffering, only peace and happiness. Once on a
    time Jofuku, body physician to a cruel emperor of China, put to sea
    on the pretext of looking for this country and seeking for his master
    the plant of immortality which grows on Fusan, the highest mountain
    there. He came first to Japan; but went farther and farther out into
    the ocean until he really reached Horaisan; there he enjoyed complete
    happiness, and never thought of returning to prolong his tyrant's
    life.

    The old Japanese wise man, Vasobiove, who had withdrawn from the world
    and passed his days in contemplative peace, was one day out fishing by
    himself (to avoid many trivial visits), when he was driven out to sea
    by a violent storm; he then rowed about the sea, keeping himself alive
    by fishing. After three months he came to the "muddy sea," which
    nearly cost him his life, as there were no fish there. But after a
    desperate struggle, and finally twelve hours' hard rowing, he reached
    the shore of Horaisan. There he was met by an old man whom he
    understood, for he spoke Chinese. This was Jofuku, who received
    Vasobiove in friendly fashion and told him his story. Vasobiove was
    overjoyed on hearing where he was. He stayed there for a couple of
    hundred years, but did not know how long it was; for where all is
    alike, where there is neither birth nor death, no one heeds the
    passing of time. With dancing and music, in conversation with wise and
    brilliant men, in the society of beautiful and amiable ladies, he
    passed his days.

    But at last Vasobiove grew tired of this sweet existence and longed
    for death. It was hopeless, for here he could not die, nor could he
    take his own life, there were no poisons, no lethal weapons; if he
    threw himself over a precipice or ran his head against a sharp rock,
    it was like a fall on to soft cushions, and if he threw himself into
    the sea, it supported him like a cork. Finally he tamed a gigantic
    stork, and on its back he at last returned to Japan,[50] after the
    stork had carried him through many strange countries, of which the
    most remarkable was that of the Giants, who are immensely superior to
    human beings in everything. Whereas Vasobiove was accustomed to
    admiration wherever he propounded his philosophical views and systems,
    he left that country in humiliation; for the Giants said they had no
    need of all that, and declared Vasobiove's whole philosophy to be the
    immature cries of distress of the children of men.

A connection between the intellectual world of China and Japan and that of
Europe in the Middle Ages may well be supposed to have been brought about
by the Arabs, who penetrated as far as China on their trading voyages, and
who, on the other hand, had close communication with Western Europe.
Furthermore, it must be remembered how many of our mythical conceptions
and tales are more or less connected with India, just as many of the
Arabian tales evidently had their birthplace there [cf. E. Rohde, 1900,
pp. 191, ff.]; while on the other side there was, of course, a close
connection between India and the intellectual world of China and Japan, as
shown by the spread of Buddhism. A transference of the same myths both
eastward to Japan and westward to Europe is thus highly probable, whether
these myths originated in Europe or in India and the East. It is striking,
too, that even a secondary feature such as the curdled, dead sea (cf.
"Morimarusa," see vol. i. p. 99; the stinking sea in Edrisi, vol. ii. p.
51) is met with again here as the "muddy sea" without fish (cf.
resemblances to Arab ideas, chapter xiii.).

       *       *       *       *       *

If we now look back upon all the problems it has been sought to solve in
this chapter, the impression may be a somewhat heterogeneous and negative
one; the majority will doubtless be struck at the outset by the
multiplicity of the paths, and by the intercrossing due to this
multiplicity. But if we force our way through the network of by-paths and
follow up the essential leading lines, it appears to me that there is
established a firm and powerful series of conclusions, which it will not
be easy to shake. The most important steps in this series are:

(1) The oldest authority,[51] Adam of Bremen's work, in which Wineland is
mentioned, is untrustworthy, and, with the exception of the name and of
the fable of wine being produced there, contains nothing beyond what is
found in Isidore.

(2) The oldest Icelandic authorities that mention the name of "Vinland,"
or in the Landnáma "Vindland hit Góða," say nothing about its discovery or
about the wine there; on the other hand, Are Frode mentions the Skrælings
(who must originally have been regarded as a fairy people). The name of
Leif Ericson is mentioned, unconnected with Wineland or its discovery.

(3) It is not till well on in the thirteenth century that Leif's surname
of Heppni, his discovery of Wineland ("Vinland" or "Vindland"), and his
Christianising of Greenland are mentioned (in the Kristni-saga and
Heimskringla), but still there is nothing about wine.

(4) It is not till the close of the thirteenth century that any
information occurs as to what and where Wineland was, with statements as
to the wine and wheat there, and a description of voyages thither (in the
Saga of Eric the Red). But still the accounts omit to inform us who gave
the name and why.

(5) The second and later principal narrative of voyages to Wineland (the
Flateyjarbók's Grönlendinga-þáttr) gives a very different account of the
discovery, by another, and likewise of the later voyages thither.

(6) The first of the two sagas, and the one which is regarded as more to
be relied on, contains scarcely a single feature that is not wholly or in
part mythical or borrowed from elsewhere; both sagas have an air of
romance.

(7) Even among the Greeks of antiquity we find myths of fortunate isles
far in the western ocean, with the two characteristic features of
Wineland, the wine and the wheat.

(8) The most significant features in the description of these Fortunate
Isles or Isles of the Blest in late classical times and in Isidore are the
self-grown or wild-growing vine (on the heights) and the wild-growing
(uncultivated, self-sown or unsown) corn or wheat or even cornfields
(Isidore). In addition there were lofty trees (Pliny) and mild winters.
Thus a complete correspondence with the saga's description of Wineland.

(9) The various attempts that have been made to bring the natural
conditions of the North American coast into agreement with the saga's
description of Wineland are more or less artificial, and no natural
explanation has been offered of how the two ideas of wine and wheat, both
foreign to the Northerners, could have become the distinguishing marks of
the country.

(10) In Ireland long before the eleventh century there were many myths and
legends of happy lands far out in the ocean to the west; and in the
description of these wine and the vine form conspicuous features.

(11) From the eleventh century onward, in Ireland and in the North, we
meet with a Grape-island or a Wineland, which it seems most reasonable to
suppose the same.

(12) From the Landnámabók it may be naturally concluded that in the
eleventh century the Icelanders had heard of Wineland, together with
Hvítramanna-land, in Ireland.

(13) Thorkel Gellisson, from whom this information is derived, probably
also furnished Are Frode with his statement in the Islendingabók about
Wineland; this is therefore probably the same Irish land.

(14) The Irish happy lands peopled by the síd correspond to the Norwegian
huldrelands out in the sea to the west, and the Icelandic elf-lands.

(15) Since the huldre- and síd-people and the elves are originally the
dead, and since the Isles of the Blest or the Fortunate Isles of antiquity
were the habitations of the happy dead, these islands also correspond to
the Irish síd-people's happy lands, and to the Norwegian huldrelands and
the Icelandic elf-lands.

(16) The additional name of "hit Góða" for the happy Wineland and the name
"Landit Góða" for huldrelands in Norway correspond directly to the name of
"Insulæ Fortunatæ," which in itself could not very well take any other
Norse form. And as in addition the huldrelands were imagined as specially
good and fertile, and the underground, huldre- and síd-people or elves are
called the "good people," and are everywhere in different countries
associated with the idea of "good," this gives a natural explanation of
both the Norse names.

(17) The name "Vinland hit Góða" has a foreign effect in Norse
nomenclature; it must be a hybrid of Norse and foreign nomenclature,
through "Vinland" being combined with "Landit Góða," which probably
originated in a translation of "Insulæ Fortunatæ."

(18) The probability of the name of Skrælings for the inhabitants of
Wineland having originally meant brownies or trolls--that is, small
huldre-folk, elves or pygmies--entirely agrees with the view that Wineland
was originally the fairy country, the Fortunate Isles in the west of the
ocean.

(19) The statement of the Icelandic geography, that in the opinion of some
Wineland the Good was connected with Africa, and the fact that the
Norwegian work, Historia Norwegiæ, calls Wineland (with Markland and
Helluland) the African Islands, are direct evidence that the Norse
Wineland was the Insulæ Fortunatæ, which together with the Gorgades and
the Hesperides were precisely the African Islands.

(20) Even though the Saga of Eric the Red and the Grönlendinga-þáttr
contain nothing which we can regard as certain information as to the
discovery of America by the Greenlanders, we yet find there and elsewhere
many features which show that they must have reached the coast of America,
the most decisive amongst them being the chance mention of the voyagers
from Markland in 1347. To this may be added Hertzberg's demonstration of
the adoption of the Icelandic game of "knattleikr" by the Indians. The
name of the mythical land may then have been transferred to the country
that was discovered.

(21) Hvítramanna-land is a mythical land similar to the wine-island of the
Irish, modified in accordance with Christian ideas, especially perhaps
those of the white garments of the baptized--as in the Navigatio Brandani
in reference to the Isle of Anchorites or the "Strong Men's Isle" (==
Starkra-manna-land)--and of the white hermits.

(22) Finally, among the most different people on earth, from the ancient
Greeks to the Icelanders, Chinese and Japanese, we meet with similar myths
about countries out in the ocean and voyages to them, which, whether they
be connected with one another or not, show the common tendency of humanity
to adopt ideas and tales of this kind.

       *       *       *       *       *

But even if we are obliged to abandon the Saga of Eric the Red[52] and the
other descriptions of these voyages as historical documents, this is
compensated by the increase in our admiration for the extraordinary powers
of realistic description in Icelandic literature. In reading Eric's Saga
one cannot help being struck by the way in which many of the events are so
described, often in a few words, that the whole thing is before one's eyes
and it is difficult to believe that it has not actually occurred. This is
just the same quality that characterises our Norwegian fairy-tales: all
that is supernatural is made so natural and realistic that it is brought
straight before one. The Icelanders created the realistic novel; and at a
time when the prose style of Europe was still in its infancy their prose
narrative often reaches the summit of clear simplicity. In part this may
doubtless be explained by their not being merely authors, but men of
action; their presentment acquired the stamp of real life and the brevity
that belongs to the narrator of things seen. And to this, of course, must
be added the fact that as a rule the tales were sifted and abridged by
generations of oral transmission. In later times this style became
corrupted by European influence.

       *       *       *       *       *

After I had given, on October 7, 1910, the outlines of this examination of
the sagas of the Wineland voyages before the Scientific Society of
Christiania, attention was called in Sweden, by Professor F. Läffler, to
the fact that the Swedish philologist, Professor Sven Söderberg, whose
early death in 1901 is much to be regretted, had announced views about
Wineland similar to those at which I have arrived. The manuscript of a
lecture that he delivered on the subject at Lund in May 1898, but which
was never printed, was then found, and has been published in the
"Sydsvenska Dagbladet Snällposten" for October 30, 1910. As I have thus
become acquainted with this interesting inquiry too late to be able to
include it in my examination, I think it right to mention it here.

Professor Söderberg thinks, as I do, that there can be no doubt about the
Norsemen having discovered a part of North America; but he looks upon the
tales of the wine and everything connected therewith as later inventions.
He maintains that the name of "Vinland" originally meant grass-land or
pasture-land (from the old Norse word "vin" == pasture), therefore
something similar to the meaning of Greenland, and that it may have been
the name of a country discovered in the west. Curiously enough, I took at
first the same view, and thought too that Adam of Bremen might have
misunderstood such a word, just as Söderberg thinks; but I allowed myself
to be convinced by the linguistic objection that the word "vin" (pasture)
seems to have gone out of use before the eleventh century (cf. vol. i. p.
367). However, Söderberg's reasons for supposing that the word was still
in use appear to have weight; and he also makes it probable that the name
formed thereby might be Vinland and not Vinjarland. (In support of this
Mr. A. Kiær gave me as an example the Norwegian name Vinås.) Professor
Söderberg then thinks that Adam of Bremen heard this name in Denmark, and,
misinterpreting it as a foreigner to mean the land of wine, himself
invented the explanation of the country's being so called. Söderberg gives
several striking examples to show how this kind of "etymologising" was
just in Adam's spirit (e.g., Sconia or Skåne is derived from Old German
"sconi" or "schön"; Greenland comes from the inhabitants being
bluish-green in the face, etc.). An example from a country lying near
Denmark, which appears to me even more striking than those given by
Söderberg, is Adam's explanation of Kvænland as the Land of Women (cf.
vol. i. pp. 186, f., 383), the Wizzi as white people, or Albanians, the
Huns as dogs, etc. Söderberg has difficulty in explaining the statement
about the unsown corn in Wineland; but if he had noticed Isidore's
description of the Insulæ Fortunatæ with the self-grown vine and the
wild-growing corn, he would have found a perfectly natural explanation of
this also. If Adam had misunderstood a "Vinland" (== grass-land), and then
perhaps Finland (Finmark, cf. vol i. p. 382), as meaning the land of wine,
it would be just in his spirit to transfer thither Isidore's description
of the Insulæ Fortunatæ; a parallel case is that in interpreting Kvænland
as Womanland he transfers thither the myth of the Amazons and its fables,
and this in spite of its being a country on the Baltic about which it must
have been comparatively easy for him to obtain information. In the same
way he transfers to the "island" of Halagland, mentioned immediately
before Wineland, an erroneous account of the midnight sun and the winter
night taken from older writers (cf. vol. i. p. 194, note 2). But one
reason for thinking that "Vinland" really meant the land of wine as early
as that time is the circumstance put forward above (vol. i. p. 365), that
at about the same time there occurs a Grape-island in the Navigatio
Brandani.

Professor Söderberg then goes through the Icelandic accounts of Wineland,
and points out, in the same way as has been done in this chapter, that the
oldest authorities have nothing remarkable to report about the country,
and do not mention wine there, and he rightly lays stress on this being
particularly significant in the case of Snorre Sturlason,

    "knowing as we do how prone Snorre is to digress from his proper
    subject, when he has anything really interesting to communicate. The
    reason must be that he did not know anything particularly remarkable
    about Wineland; and without doubt this is due to his not having known
    Adam of Bremen. It has, in fact, been shown that Snorre has not a
    single statement from Adam."

Later, Söderberg thinks, Adam of Bremen's fourth book became known in
Iceland, and on the foundation of that the tale of Leif's discovery of the
country with the wine and corn arose, and the later sagas developed,
especially that of Thorfinn Karlsevne's voyage, which he thinks in the
main "rests on a truthful foundation," though he points out that a
particular feature like that of the two Scottish runners must be "pure
invention, or rather ... borrowed from another saga." If Professor
Söderberg had remarked how most of the incidents in this saga are
spurious, he would have found even stronger support for his views in this
fact.


CHAPTER X

ESKIMO AND SKRÆLING

Of all the races of the earth that of the Eskimo is the one that has
established itself farthest north. His world is that of sea-ice and cold,
for which nature had not intended human beings. In his slow, stubborn
fight against the powers of winter he has learnt better than any other how
to turn these to account, and in these regions, along the ice-bound
shores, he developed his peculiar culture, with its ingenious appliances,
long before the beginning of history. As men of the white race pushed
northward to the "highest latitudes" they found traces of this remarkable
people, who had already been there in times long past; and it is only in
the last few decades that any one has succeeded in penetrating farther
north than the Eskimo, partly by learning from him or enlisting his help.
In these regions, which are his own, his culture was superior to that of
the white race, and from no other people has the arctic navigator learnt
so much.

The north coast of America and the islands to the north of it, from Bering
Strait to the east coast of Greenland, is the territory of the Eskimo.
The map (below) shows his present distribution and the districts where
older traces of him have been found. Within these limits the Eskimo must
have developed into what they now are. In their anthropological
race-characteristics, in their sealing- and whaling-culture, and in their
language they are very different from all other known peoples, both in
America and Asia, and we must suppose that for long ages, ever since they
began to fit themselves for their life along the frozen shores, they have
lived apart, separated from others, perhaps for a long time as a small
tribe. They all belong to the same race; the cerebral formation, for
instance, of all real Eskimo from Alaska to Greenland is remarkably
homogeneous; but in the far west they may have been mixed with Indians and
others, and in Greenland they are now mixed with Europeans. They are
pronouncedly dolichocephalic; but have short, broad faces, and by their
features and appearance are easily distinguished from other neighbouring
peoples. Small, slanting eyes; the nose small and flat, narrow between the
eyes and broad below; cheeks broad, prominent and round; the forehead
narrowing comparatively above; the lower part of the face broad and
powerful; black, straight hair. The colour of the skin is a pale brown.
The Eskimo are not, as is often supposed, a small people on an average;
they are rather of middle height, often powerful, and sometimes quite
tall, although they are a good deal shorter, and weaker in appearance,
than average Scandinavians. In appearance, and perhaps also in language,
they come nearest to some of the North American Indian tribes.

From whence they originally came, and where they developed into Eskimo, is
uncertain. The central point of the Eskimo culture is their seal-hunting,
especially with the harpoon, sometimes from the kayak in open water and
sometimes from the ice. We cannot believe that this sealing, especially
with the kayak, was first developed in the central part of the regions
they now inhabit; there the conditions of life would have been too severe,
and they would not have been able to support themselves until their
sealing-culture had attained a certain development. Just as in Europe we
met with the "Finnish" sea-fishing on a coast that was connected with
milder coasts farther south, where seamanship was able first to develop,
so we must expect that the Eskimo culture began on coasts with similar
conditions, and these must be looked for either in Labrador or on Bering
Strait.

As the coasts of Labrador and Hudson Bay are ice-bound for a great part of
the year, it is not likely that traffic by sea began there at any very
early time; and consequently no particularly favourable conditions existed
there for an early development of seamanship. Nor is this the case to any
great extent on the east coast of North America farther south, which, with
the exception of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, has little protection from the
sea, and offers few facilities for coastal traffic.[53] Nor has it
produced any other maritime people or any similar fishing-culture. Again,
if the Eskimo culture had arisen there, it would be impossible to
understand how they learned to use dogs as draught-animals. It is
otherwise on the northern west coast of North America, which is indented
by fjords and has many outlying islands, with protected channels between
them and the land. Here seamanship might be naturally developed and form
the necessary basis for a higher sealing-culture like that of the Eskimo.
In addition there is abundance of marine animals which afforded excellent
conditions for hunting. Here too we have many different peoples with
maritime habits: on the one side the Eskimo northwards along the coast of
Alaska; on the other side the Aleutians on the islands extending out to
sea, besides Indian tribes along the coast of southern Alaska and British
Columbia. Until, therefore, research has produced sufficient evidence for
a different view, it must seem most natural that in these favourable
regions with a rich supply of marine animals of all kinds we must look for
the cradle of the culture that was to render the Eskimo capable of
distributing themselves over the whole Arctic world of America. To this
must be added that in these regions, by intercourse with people on the
Asiatic side of Bering Strait, the seafaring Eskimo may have learnt the
use of the dog as a draught-animal, which is an Asiatic, and not an
American invention, and which is also of great importance to the whole
life and distribution of the Eskimo in the ice-bound regions. We cannot
here pursue further the inquiry into the still open question of the origin
of the Eskimo and the development of their culture.[54]

One might get the impression from the map, which shows where older traces
of the Eskimo have been found, that they were more numerous and more
widely distributed in former times. This is probably a mistake. They are
hunters and fishermen who are entirely dependent on the supply of game,
and who therefore frequently become nomadic and search for fishing-grounds
where they think the prospects are good. Sometimes they settle in a good
district for a considerable time, and then they may move again; but
sometimes, if exceptionally severe winters chance to come, they may
succumb to famine or scurvy. But everywhere they leave behind them their
peculiar sites of houses and tents and other traces, and thus these must
always be found over larger areas than are actually inhabited by the
Eskimo themselves. It might be objected that on the American Arctic
Islands they no longer live so far north as older traces of them are
found; thus Sverdrup found many relics of Eskimo in the new countries
discovered by him, especially along the sound by Axel Heiberg Land. But
these people may, for instance, have migrated eastward to Greenland. If we
suppose the reverse to be the case, that the most northerly Eskimo tribe
now known, on Smith Sound, had moved westward to Sverdrup's new islands or
to the Parry Islands, then we should have found numerous traces of them in
the districts about Smith Sound and Cape York, and might thus have
concluded that the Eskimo were formerly more widely distributed towards
the north-east.

How early the Eskimo appeared, and came to the most northern regions, we
have as yet no means of determining. All we can say is that, as they are
so distinct in physical structure, language and culture from all other
known races of men, with the exception of the Aleutians, we must assume
that they have lived for a very long period in the northern regions apart
from other peoples. It would be of special interest here if we could form
any opinion as to the date of their immigration into Greenland. It has
become almost a historical dogma that this immigration on a larger scale
did not take place until long after the Norwegian Icelanders had settled
in the country, and that it was chiefly the hordes of Eskimo coming from
the north that put an end, first to the Western Settlement, and then to
the Eastern. But this is in every respect misleading, and conflicts with
what may be concluded with certainty from several facts; moreover, the
whole Eskimo way of life and dependence on sealing and fishing forbids
their migration in hordes; they must travel in small scattered groups in
order to find enough game to support themselves and their families, and
are obliged to make frequent halts for sealing. They will therefore never
be able to undertake any migration on a large scale.

There can be no doubt that the Eskimo arrived in Greenland ages before the
Norwegian Icelanders. The rich finds referred to, amongst others, by Dr.
H. Rink [1857, vol. ii.], of Eskimo whaling and sealing weapons and
implements of stone from deep deposits in North Greenland show that the
Eskimo were living there far back in prehistoric times.[55] They must
originally have come by the route to the north of Baffin Bay across Smith
Sound, and must have had at the time of their first immigration much the
same culture in the main as now, since otherwise they would not have been
able to support themselves in these northern regions.[56] Their means of
transport were the kayak and the women's boat in open water, and the
dog-sledge on the ice. Their whaling and sealing were conducted in kayaks
in summer, but with dog-sledges in winter, when they hunted the seal at
its breathing-holes in the ice, the walrus, narwhale and white whale in
the open leads, and pursued the bear with their dogs. In winter they
usually keep to one place, living in houses of stone, or snow, but in
summer they wander about with their boats and tents of hides to the best
places for kayak fishing. In this way they came southward from Smith Sound
along the west coast of Greenland to the districts about Umanak-fjord,
Disco Bay, and south to the present Holstensborg (the tract between 72°
and 68° N. lat.). Here they found an excellent supply of seal, walrus,
small-whale and fish, there was catching from kayaks in summer and on the
ice in winter; altogether rarely favourable conditions for their
accustomed life, and it is therefore natural that they settled here in
large numbers.[57] Some went farther south along the coast; but they no
longer found there the same conditions of life as before, the ice was for
the most part absent, the walrus became rare, seal-hunting became more
difficult in the open sea, and winter fishing from the kayak was not very
safe. Southern Greenland therefore had no great attraction, so long as
there was room enough farther north. When they came round Cape Farewell to
the east coast they found the conditions more what they were used to,
although the sealing and whaling were not so good as on the northern west
coast.

    It has been assumed by several inquirers that the Eskimo immigrated to
    Greenland by two routes. One branch is supposed to have come southward
    along the west coast from Smith Sound, as suggested above, while the
    other branch went northward from Smith Sound and Kane Basin along the
    coast, where relics of Eskimo are found as far north as 82° N. lat.
    They thus gradually worked their way round the north of Greenland and
    turned southward again along the east coast. The Eskimo who formerly
    lived on the northern east coast, and whom Clavering found there in
    1823, are supposed to have come by that route and possibly also the
    tribe that still lives at Angmagsalik. But in the opinion of some they
    may have travelled farther south, right round Cape Farewell, and have
    populated the south-west coast as far north as Ny-Herrnhut by
    Godthaab. The Dane Schultz-Lorentzen [1904, p. 289][58] thinks that
    support may be found for this theory of the southern immigration from
    the east coast in the sharp line of demarcation that exists between
    the dialect spoken by the Eskimo in Godthaab and northward along the
    whole west coast, and that spoken to the south and on the east coast;
    furthermore, there are other points of difference: in the build and
    fitting together of the kayaks, in the use of partitions between the
    family compartments on the couches in houses and tents, etc. Although
    in an earlier work [1891, pp. 8, f.; Engl. ed. pp. 12, ff.] I put
    forward reasons that are opposed to such an immigration round the
    north of Greenland, I must admit that there is much in favour of the
    Eskimo who formerly lived on the northern east coast having come that
    way; on the other hand, it does not appear to me very likely that this
    should have been the case with the Eskimo of the southern east coast
    and of the west coast. The difference alluded to, at Godthaab, may be
    accounted for by a later immigration from the north to the northern
    west coast, which did not come any farther south than this. That the
    boundary-line between the two kinds of Eskimo should be so sharp just
    between Ny-Herrnhut and Godthaab, which lie close together on the same
    peninsula, is easily explained by the fact of the former settlement
    having always belonged to the recently abandoned German Moravian
    mission, while the latter was the seat of Egede's and the later Danish
    mission. There is always the essential objection to be made against
    the Eskimo having migrated to the southern east coast round the north
    of Greenland, that the conditions of life for Eskimo, who live
    principally by sealing and whaling, were poor on the north coast of
    Greenland, where there are no seals worth mentioning and few bears;
    and they can scarcely have got enough musk-oxen to support themselves.
    Their diffusion to the east coast could not have gone on rapidly. In
    the ice-bound regions they may have forgotten the use of the kayak, as
    the Eskimo of Smith Sound had done until thirty years ago, when they
    became acquainted with it again through a chance immigration from the
    west. In any case their practice in building and using kayaks must
    have greatly fallen off. But when the Eskimo came southward on the
    east coast they again had use for both the kayak for sealing and the
    women's boat for travelling, and it is scarcely likely that the craft
    they produced after such a break in the development should be so near
    to the women's boats and handsome kayaks of the northern west coast as
    we now find them; unless, indeed, we are to suppose that they improved
    them again through contact with the Eskimo of the northern west coast,
    but in that case the whole theory appears somewhat strained.

We will now look at what the known historical authorities have to tell us
about the Eskimo in Greenland during the early days of the Norse
settlement. I have already stated (pp. 12, ff.) that the Norse name
"Skræling" for Eskimo must originally have been used as a designation of
fairies or mythical creatures. Furthermore, there is much that would imply
that when the Icelanders first met with the Eskimo in Greenland they
looked upon them as fairies; they therefore called them "trolls," an
ancient common name for various sorts of supernatural beings. This view
persisted more or less in after times. Every European who has suddenly
encountered Eskimo in the ice-covered wastes of Greenland, without ever
having seen them before, will easily understand that they must have made
such an impression on people who had the slightest tendency to
superstition. The mighty natural surroundings, with huge glaciers,
floating icebergs and drifting ice-floes, all on a vaster scale than
anything they had seen before, might in themselves furnish additional food
for superstition. Such an idea must from the very beginning have
influenced the relations between the Norsemen and the natives, and is
capable of explaining much that is curious in the mention of them, or
rather the lack of mention of them, in the sagas, since they were
supernatural beings of whom it was best to say nothing.

In connection with what has been said earlier (pp. 12, ff.) as to the
Skrælings being regarded as fairies (of whom the name was originally
used), it may be adduced that, as Storm pointed out, the word was always
translated in Latin by "Pygmæi" in the Middle Ages (cf. above, p. 12). But
the Pygmies were precisely "short, undergrown people of supernatural
aspect"--that is, like fairies--and the Middle Ages inherited the belief
in them from the Greeks and Romans, and, as Moltke Moe has pointed out,
the northern Pygmies (Βόρειοι Πυγμαῖοι) were already spoken of in
classical times as inhabiting the regions about Thule. But authors like
Apollodorus and Strabo denied their existence, and consigned them,
together with Dog-headed, One-eyed, One-footed, Mouthless, and other
similar beings, to the ranks of fabulous creatures in which classical
tradition was so rich. Through St. Augustine the enumeration of these
creatures reached Isidore; and from him the knowledge of the Pygmies was
disseminated over the whole of mediæval Europe--partly in the same sense,
that of a more or less fabulous people from the uttermost parts of the
earth; and partly in the sense of a fairy people [cf. the demons in the
form of Pygmies in the "Imram Brenaind," see above, p. 10]. Supported by
popular belief in various countries, the latter meaning soon became
general. Of this Moltke Moe gives a remarkable example from the Welshman
Walter Mapes (latter half of the twelfth century), who in his curious
collection of anecdotes, etc. (called "De nugis curialium"), has a tale
of a prehistoric king of the Britons called Herla.[59]

    To him came a fairy- or elf-king, "rex pygmæorum," with a huge head,
    thick hair and big eyes; the pygmy-king foretells to King Herla
    something that is to happen, and when this is fulfilled King Herla
    promises as a mark of gratitude to be present at his wedding. The
    moment the pygmy-king turns his back he vanishes. Herla comes to the
    wedding of the fairy-king. Entering a vast cave he comes through
    darkness to the banqueting-hall inside the mountain, lighted by a
    multitude of lamps, where he is splendidly entertained. When he
    returns, believing he has been away for three days, he discovers that
    he has been absent for several hundred years.

This is a typical elf-myth, with many of the features characteristic of
elves and fairies: the low stature, the big, hairy head with large eyes,
the gift of prophecy, and the power of making themselves invisible in an
instant, their dwelling in caves and mountains far from the light of day,
the way thither through darkness and mist, the rapid disappearance of time
in the fairy world, etc. But we recognise most of these, and even more
fairy features, precisely in the Icelandic descriptions of the Skrælings
in Wineland, Markland and Greenland, as appears from what is said about
them on pp. 12, ff.; and when, for instance, ugly hair ("ilt hár") and big
eyes are expressly attributed to the Skrælings, this applies neither to
Indians nor Eskimo, but it applies exactly to fairies. Further, we may
point to the Skrælings of Markland being governed by kings (cf. p. 20),
which again does not apply either to Indians or to Eskimo, while the elves
and huldre-folk have kings. It was mentioned earlier (p. 20) that the name
"Vætilldi" or "Vethilldi" may be Vætthildr, compounded of the word "vættr"
or "vettr" (fairy).

Everything points in the same direction, that the Skrælings of Wineland,
Markland and Greenland were regarded as a kind of fairy people. Nor can
this surprise us when we consider that even the Lapps of Finmark, who
lived so near to and were so well known by the Norwegians, were regarded
as a half-supernatural people, and had various magical properties
attributed to them.

From the statement quoted earlier from Are Frode's Íslendingabók (circa
1130) it appears that the Skrælings, or Eskimo, had been in South
Greenland before Eric the Red and his men, and that the latter found
dwelling-sites and other traces of them, from which they could tell that
the same kind of people had been there who "inhabited Wineland and whom
the Greenlanders call Skrælings ('Vinland hefer bygt oc Grönlendingar
calla Scrælinga')." These words of Are have generally been understood to
imply that he did not know of any meeting of Norsemen and Skrælings in
Greenland, but only in Wineland, and that consequently it must have been
after his time that the Norsemen encountered the Eskimo in Greenland. I am
unable to read Are's meaning in this way. He uses the present tense:
"calla," and what one "calls Skrælings" must presumably be a people one
knows, and not one that one's ancestors had met with more than a hundred
years ago. In that case we should rather expect it to be those ancestors
who "called" them by this nickname.[60] I have already suggested (p. 16)
the possibility of a connection between this statement and the view of the
Skrælings as trolls; but we have besides a remarkable parallel to Are's
whole account of the first coming of the Icelanders to Greenland and the
natives there in his account of the Norwegians' first settlement of
Iceland, where he says that there were Christian men before they came,
"whom the Norwegians call ('calla') Papar" (i.e., priests). They left
behind them traces "from which it could be seen that they were Irish men."
From these words it might be concluded, with as much justification as from
the statement about the traces of Skrælings, that the newcomers did not
come in contact with the earlier people; but in the latter case this is
incredible, and moreover conflicts with Are's own words in the passages
immediately preceding, according to which the Christians left _after_ the
heathen Norsemen arrived. Three kinds of traces are mentioned in each
case: the Papar left Irish books, bells and croziers; the Skrælings left
dwelling-places, fragments of boats, and stone implements. This may have
somewhat the look of a turn of style in the sober Are, who thought it of
more value to lay stress on visible signs of this kind than to give a
possibly less trustworthy statement about the people themselves. We must
also bear in mind how terse and condensed the form of the Íslendingabók
is. I therefore read Are's words as though he meant to say something like
the following: "As early as Eric's first voyage to Greenland they found at
once dwelling-places both in the Eastern and Western Settlements, and
fragments of boats, and stone implements, so that from this it can be seen
that over the whole of that region there had been present the same kind of
people who also live in Wineland, and who are the same as those the
Greenlanders call Skrælings." Nothing is said about the waste districts of
Greenland, where the Skrælings especially lived, and it is only in passing
that Wineland is mentioned in this one passage. Are's Íslendingabók cannot
therefore be used as evidence that the Norsemen had not yet met with the
Skrælings of Greenland in Are's time. As he expressly says that they found
"manna vistir bæþe austr oc vestr á lande" (human dwelling-places both
east and west in the land--i.e., both in the Eastern and Western
Settlements), this, too, shows that the stay of the Eskimo in south
Greenland cannot have been merely a short and cursory summer visit; but
there must have been many of them who stayed there a long time, for
otherwise they would hardly have left remains so conspicuous and
distributed over so wide an area as to be mentioned with such emphasis as
this.

    That Eskimo were living on the south coast of Greenland when the
    Icelanders arrived there may also possibly be concluded from the
    mention, in the list of fjords of the Eastern Settlement in Björn
    Jónsson's "Vetus chorographia," of an "Ütibliks fjord" [Grönl. hist.
    Mind., iii. p. 228; F. Jónsson, 1899, p. 319], which does not sound
    Norwegian and may recall the Eskimo "Itiblik," a tongue of land. As
    Finnur Jónsson [1899, p. 276] points out, the name of the fjord in
    Arngrim Jónsson's copy of the same list is "Makleiksfjörðr," and both
    names may be misreadings of a man's name ending in "-leikr," from
    which the fjord was called (in the same way as Eiriks-fjörðr, etc.);
    but as "Ütiblik" has such a pronounced Eskimo sound, it appears to me
    more probable that "Makleik-" may have arisen through a misreading of
    this name, which was incomprehensible to Arngrim Jónsson and may have
    been indistinctly written, rather than that both names should be
    corruptions, of what? In that case it would afford strong evidence,
    not only that there were Eskimo in the Eastern Settlement when the
    Icelanders established themselves there, but also that they had
    intercourse with them.

The "Historia Norwegiæ" (thirteenth century) shows that a hundred years
later the Skrælings of Greenland were known in Norway, and perhaps it is
because they there seemed stranger that the Norwegian author mentions
them. He says [Storm, 1880, pp. 76, 205]:

    "On the other side of the Greenlanders towards the north [i.e., on the
    northern west coast of Greenland] there have been found by hunters
    certain small people whom they call Skrælings; when these are struck
    while alive by weapons, their wounds turn white without blood, but
    when they are dead the blood scarcely stops running. But they have a
    complete lack of the metal iron; they use the tusks of marine animals
    ['dentibus cetimes,' here walrus and narwhale tusks] for missiles and
    sharp stones for knives."

The curiously correct mention of the Skrælings' weapons must be derived
from a well-informed source, and the statement established the fact that
the Norsemen met with the Eskimo of Greenland at any rate in the
thirteenth century, while at the same time it may imply that at that time
the Skrælings were not generally seen in the settlements of Greenland. The
statement as to their wounds, although connected with myth, may further
point to there having been conflicts between them and the Norse hunters,
who in Viking fashion dealt with them with a heavy hand; but at the same
time it discloses the view of the Skrælings as troll-like beings (see p.
17).

A valuable piece of evidence of the Norsemen having early had intercourse
with the Skrælings in Greenland is a little carved walrus, of
walrus-ivory, which was found during excavations on the site of a house in
Bergen, and which appears to be of Eskimo workmanship.[61] Unfortunately
the age of the find has not been determined, nor has it been recorded at
what depth it lay; but as it was amongst the deepest finds "right down in
the very foundations," and so far as can be made out from the description
much deeper than "a burnt layer, which lay under the remains of the fire
of 1413," this walrus may be of the twelfth, or at the latest of the
thirteenth, century. It might, no doubt, have been accidentally found by
Greenlanders in a grave or dwelling-site of Skrælings, and afterwards
accidentally found on the site of this house in Bergen; but this is
assuming a good many accidents, and it is most natural to suppose that the
Greenlanders obtained it from the Skrælings themselves, and that it is
thus an evidence of intercourse with the latter at that time.

It is striking that the Skrælings are scarcely ever mentioned in the
descriptions of the Norsemen in Greenland in the Icelandic saga
literature, and that it is only in one or two places that Greenland
Skrælings are mentioned in passing in Icelandic narratives; but at the
same time there are detailed descriptions of both peaceful and warlike
encounters with the Skrælings in Wineland, and also in Markland (see vol.
i. pp. 327, ff.). This is like what we found in Are Frode. The explanation
must be that, while the saga-teller could bring out the distant Skrælings
of Wineland in large bodies and as dangerous opponents, quite worthy of
mention even for nobles, the harmless and timorous Skrælings of Greenland
were too well known to be used as interesting material; they were met with
in small, scattered bands, and could be maltreated without any particular
danger. They belonged to the commonplace, and commonplace was what a
saga-writer had to avoid above all; it is for the same reason that we
scarcely hear anything about the Greenlanders' and other Norsemen's
whaling and sealing and their expeditions for this purpose (e.g., to
Nordrsetur); only here and there a few words are let fall about these
things, which to us would be of so much greater value than all the tales
of fighting and slaughter. But as regards the Skrælings of Greenland there
was the additional circumstance that they were heathens; consequently
intercourse with them was forbidden by the laws of the Church, and it was
therefore best to say nothing about it. Besides, they were always regarded
in Iceland as fairies or trolls, and, as we have said, their name was
translated by "pygmæi," and it has been the same with them as with
huldre-folk and goblins, who as a rule are not mentioned in the sagas
either in Iceland or Norway, though of course they were believed in, and
there can have been no lack of "authentic" stories about them. In several
passages of Icelandic literature the Skrælings are alluded to as trolls;
to kill them was perhaps meritorious, but it was nothing to boast about.
In the Floamanna-saga it is related that Thorgils Orrabeinsfostre, on his
wonderful voyage along the east coast of Greenland, one morning saw a
large sea-monster stranded in a creek, and two troll-hags (in
skin-kirtles) were tying up big bundles of it; he rushed up, and as one of
them was lifting her bundle he cut off her hand so that her burden fell,
and she ran away. They may be regarded as Eskimo. It is true that this
saga is so full of marvels and inventions (cf. vol. i. p. 281) that we
cannot attribute much historical value to it, but it shows nevertheless
the way in which they were looked upon. In another passage of this
description Thorgils saw two "women," which must mean the same. It is
stated that "they vanished in an instant" ("þær hurfu skjótt"), just like
the underground beings. In the description of the voyage of Björn
Einarsson Jorsalafarer (given in Björn Jónsson's Annals of Greenland) it
is related that when in 1385 the same Björn (together with three other
vessels) on his way to Iceland was driven out of his course to Greenland,
and had to stay there till 1387, he rescued on a skerry two "trolls," a
young brother and sister, who stayed with him the whole time [Grönl. hist.
Mind., iii. p. 438]. These, then, were Skrælings in the Eastern
Settlement; but the designation troll is here used as a matter of course,
although nothing troll-like is related of them.

    It may further be mentioned that in legendary tales and in many of the
    fanciful sagas we hear of trolls in Greenland, who may originally have
    been derived from the Skrælings, but who have acquired more of the
    troll- or giant-nature of fairy-tale. In the tale of the shipwreck of
    the Icelandic chief Björn Thorleifsson and his wife on the coast of
    Greenland,[62] the two were saved by a troll man and a hag who each
    took one of them in panniers on their shoulders and carried them to
    the homestead enclosure at Gardar. In the "Þáttr af Jökli Búasyni"
    Jökul is wrecked in the fjord "Öllum Lengri" on the east coast of
    Greenland, which was peopled by trolls and giants, and where a
    friendly troll woman helps him to slay King Skrámr, etc. [Grönl. hist.
    Mind., iii. p. 521]. It will be seen that here there is nothing left
    of the Skrælings' nature, but the usual Norse ideas of trolls and
    giants predominate.

    The most important records of Skrælings in Greenland in older times,
    in addition to the works named above and the Íslendingabók, are: the
    "Icelandic Annals," where they are mentioned in one year, 1379,
    besides the allusion to the voyage from Nordrsetur in 1267 (cf. vol.
    i. p. 308), Ivar Bárdsson's description of Greenland [Grönl. hist.
    Mind., iii. p. 259], and finally Gisle Oddsson's Annals, where they
    are called "the people of America" [Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 459;
    G. Storm, 1890a, p. 355].

As the Norsemen, at all events during early days in Greenland, were to a
great extent dependent on keeping cattle, as they had been in Iceland,
they must have stayed a good deal at their homesteads within the fjords;
while the Eskimo, being engaged in fishing and sealing, kept to the outer
coast. And even if the latter, after the arrival of the Icelanders in the
country, had lived scattered along the southern part of the coast, there
may thus have been little contact between them and the Norsemen.

From the statements cited earlier (vol. i. pp. 308, f.) about the
Nordrsetur expeditions we may conclude that the Greenlanders came across
Skrælings in those northern districts. It is true that the expression
"Skrælingja vistir" has usually been interpreted as Skræling sites or
abandoned dwelling-places; but in this account a distinction is made
between "Skrælingja vistir" and "Skrælingja vistir fornligar." The latter
are old dwelling-places that have been abandoned, while the former must be
dwelling-places still in use. In the account of the voyage to the north,
about 1267, we read that at the farthest north there were found some old
Skræling dwelling-places ("vistir fornligar"), while farther south, on
some islands, were found some "Skrælingja vistir"--that is, inhabited
ones. In agreement with this it is also stated of the men who came from
the north in 1266 that

    "they saw no 'Skrælingja vistir' except in [i.e., farther north than
    in] Kroksfjardarheidr, and therefore it is thought that they [the
    Skrælings] must by that way have the shortest distance to travel
    wherever they come from. From this one can hear [adds Björn Jónsson]
    how carefully the Greenlanders took note of the Skrælings' places of
    abode at that time."

It is clear enough that this refers to dwelling-places in use and not to
old sites, for this is absolutely proved by the expression that "they have
the shortest distance to travel..."; and we thus see that the Skrælings
were found in and in the neighbourhood of Kroksfjord,[63] but on the other
hand not in the extreme north, where only old sites left by them were
found;[64] and from this the conclusion was drawn that they could not
come from the north, but by the route through Kroksfjord, wherever their
original home may have been. As they cannot well have come from inland,
nor from out at sea either, this statement may give one the impression of
something semi-supernatural. It is significant that the Skrælings
themselves are not spoken of here either; this may be due to the fact that
there was nothing remarkable in meeting with them; what, on the other
hand, was interesting was their distribution in the unknown regions
farther north.

It was remarked in an earlier chapter (vol. i. p. 297) that the runic
stone, found north of Upernivik, shows that Norsemen were there in the
month of April, perhaps about 1300, and possibly it may also point to
intercourse with the Eskimo. It was further mentioned (vol. i. p. 308)
that the finding in 1266 "out at sea" of pieces of driftwood shaped with
"small axes" (stone axes ?) and adzes (i.e., the Eskimo form of axe), and
with wedges of bone imbedded in them, shows that there were Eskimo on the
east coast of Greenland at that time. It is true that nothing is said as
to what part of the sea the driftwood was found in; but from the context
it must have been between the west coast of Greenland and Iceland; so that
in any case it was within the region of the East Greenland current, and it
cannot very well be supposed that these pieces of driftwood came from
anywhere but the east coast of Greenland, unless indeed they should have
come all the way from Bering Strait or Alaska. The way in which they are
spoken of shows that they were regarded as something out of the common,
which was not due to Norsemen.

The brevity of Icelandic literature in all that concerns the Skrælings is
again striking when we compare it with the information about the Eskimo
that appears in the maps and literature of Europe in the fifteenth
century. Claudius Clavus in his description of the North (before the
middle of the fifteenth century) speaks of Pygmies ("Pigmei") in the
country to the north-east of Greenland; they were one cubit high, and had
boats of hide, both short and long (i.e., kayaks and women's boats), some
of which were hanging in the cathedral at Trondhjem (see further on this
subject under the mention of Claudius Clavus). He further speaks of "the
infidel Karelians," who "constantly descend upon Greenland in great
armies."[65] The name may be derived, as shown by Björnbo and Petersen,
from the Karelians to the north-east of Norway on older maps and have been
transferred to the west, and it may then perhaps also have been confused
with the name of Skræling.

    Michel Beheim, who travelled in Norway in 1450, gives in his poem
    about the journey [Vangensten, 1908, p. 18] a mythical description of
    the Skrælings ("schrelinge"), who are only three "spans" high, but are
    nevertheless dangerous opponents both on sea and land. They live in
    caves which they dig out in the mountains, make ships of hides, eat
    raw meat and raw fish, and drink blood with it. This points to his
    having found in Norway ideas about the Skrælings as supernatural
    beings of a similar kind to those already mentioned.

    In a letter to Pope Nicholas V. (1447-1455) it is related [cf. G.
    Storm, 1899]: "And when one travels west [from Norway] towards the
    mountains of this country [Greenland], there dwell there Pygmies in
    the shape of little men, only a cubit high. When they see human beings
    they collect and hide themselves in the caves of the country like a
    swarm of ants. One cannot conquer them; for they do not wait until
    they are attacked. They live on raw meat and boiled fish." This
    resembles what is said about the Pygmies in Clavus, but as additional
    information is given here, it is probable that both Clavus and the
    author of this letter, and perhaps also Beheim, have derived their
    statements from older sources, perhaps of the fourteenth century,
    which either were Norwegian or had obtained information from Norway.
    The description of the Pygmies and how they fly on the approach of
    strangers points to knowledge of the Eskimo and their habits. The idea
    about caves is, perhaps, more likely to be connected with pixies and
    fairies, who lived in mounds and caves (cf. pp. 15, 76); but reports
    of the half-underground Eskimo houses may also have had something to
    do with it. It is possible that the common source may be the lost work
    of the English author Nicholas of Lynn, who travelled in Norway in the
    fourteenth century (cf. chapter xii. on Martin Behaim's globe).

    Archbishop Erik Walkendorf (in his description of Finmark of about
    1520) has a similar allusion to the Eskimo, which may well have the
    same origin. He transfers them to the north-north-west of Finmark,
    like the Pygmies on Claudius Clavus' map. He says: "Finmark has on its
    north-north-west a people of short and small stature, namely a cubit
    and a half, who are commonly called 'Skrælinger'; they are an
    unwarlike people, for fifteen of them do not dare to approach one
    Christian or Russian either for combat or parley. They live in
    underground houses, so that one can neither examine them nor capture
    them. They worship gods" [Walkendorf, 1902, p. 12].[66]

We thus see that while Icelandic literature, subsequent to Are Frode,
affords scarcely any information about the Greenland Skrælings themselves,
it is a Norwegian author, as early as the thirteenth century, who makes
the first statements about them and their culture; and a Danish author of
the fifteenth century, whose statements may originally have been derived
from Norway (like those in the letter to the Pope and in Walkendorf),
mentions no other inhabitants of Greenland but the Eskimo (Pygmies and
Karelians);[67] but they are still referred to as semi-mythical and
troll-like beings.

The explanation must doubtless be sought in a fundamental difference in
the point of view. To the Icelandic authors, brought up as they were in
saga-writing (and for the most part priests), the life and struggles of
their ancestors in Greenland were the only important thing, while
ethnographical interest in the primitive people of the country, the
heathen, troll-like Skrælings, was foreign to them. To this must be added
the reasons already pointed out (p. 81). In Norway, on the other hand,
kinship with the Icelandic Norsemen in Greenland was more distant, and
interest in the strange, outlandish Skrælings was correspondingly greater.
Here also different intellectual associations, and intercourse with a
variety of nationalities, caused on the whole a greater awakening of the
ethnographical sense.

A remarkable exception is the "King's Mirror" (circa 1250), which makes no
mention of the Skrælings, although a good deal of space is devoted to
Greenland and the Greenlanders. But this, as it happens, throws light upon
the curious silence on the Skrælings in Icelandic literature. From the
"Historia Norwegiæ," which seems to have been written approximately at the
same time as or soon after the "King's Mirror" (perhaps between 1260 and
1264), it appears, as we have said, that the Greenland Skrælings were
known in Norway at that time; and in that case it is incredible that the
well-informed author of the "King's Mirror," who shows such intimate
knowledge of conditions in Greenland, should not have heard of them. If
he, nevertheless, does not allude to them, it appears that this must be
for a similar reason to that which caused them to be so little mentioned
in Icelandic literature. That the Skrælings should have been spoken of in
a missing portion of the "King's Mirror," which perhaps was never finished
by the author, is improbable, as the account of Greenland and its natural
conditions seems to be concluded.[68]

Concerning the "King's Mirror" as a whole one ought to be cautious in
drawing conclusions from its silence on various subjects; from its
mentioning whales in the Iceland sea and seals in Greenland but not in
Norway one might conclude that neither whale nor seal occurred in Norway;
and the same is the case with the aurora borealis, which is only mentioned
in Greenland.

If we attempt to sum up what we may conclude from the historical sources
as to the Eskimo or Skrælings of Greenland during the first centuries of
the Norse settlement there, something like the following is the result:
When Eric the Red arrived in Greenland he found everywhere along the west
coast traces left by the Skrælings, but whether and to what extent he met
with the people themselves we do not hear. The probability is that the
primitive people retired from those parts of the coast, the Eastern and
Western Settlements, where the warlike and violent Norsemen established
themselves; while they continued to live in the "wastes" to the north. The
Historia Norwegiæ (besides the accounts of the voyages to the north from
Nordrsetur in 1266 and 1267) shows that the Norsemen met with them there,
but at the same time speaks of immediate fighting. The mythical tale of
Thorgils Orrabeinsfostre (p. 81) also points in the latter direction, as
does the myth in Eric the Red's Saga of the Greenlanders in Markland
stealing Skræling children. We have further the stories in Claudius Clavus
and Olaus Magnus of hide-boats and Eskimo (Pygmies) that were captured at
sea. This points to the Norsemen of that early time having looked upon the
Skrælings as legitimate spoil, wherever they met them. Doubtless upon
occasion the latter may have offered resistance or taken revenge, as may
be shown by the statement in the Icelandic Annals of the "harrying" in
1379; but as a rule they certainly fled, as is their usual habit. I have
myself seen on the east coast of Greenland how the Eskimo take to their
heels and leave their dwellings on the unexpected appearance of strangers,
and this has been the common experience of other travellers in former and
recent times. It is not likely that the ancient Norsemen, when they came
upon a dwelling-place thus suddenly abandoned, had any hesitation about
appropriating whatever might be useful to them; unless indeed a
superstitious fear of these heathen "trolls" restrained them from doing
so. It is therefore natural that the Skrælings avoided that part of
Greenland where the Norsemen lived in large numbers. But where they came
in contact we may suppose that friendly relations sometimes arose between
Eskimo and European at that time, as has been the case since; nor can the
Norsemen of those days have been so inhuman as to make this impossible;
and gradually as time went by the relations between them probably became
altogether changed, as will be discussed in the next chapter, particularly
when imports from outside ceased and the Norsemen were reduced to living
wholly on the products of the country; they then had much to learn from
the Eskimo culture, which in these surroundings was superior.

In course of time the Eskimo of North Greenland grew in numbers, partly by
natural increase--which may have been constant there, where their catches
were assured for the greater part of the year, and they were free from
famine and ravaging diseases--and partly perhaps through a fresh gradual
immigration from the north. They therefore slowly spread farther to the
south, and gradually the whole of the southern west coast received a
denser Eskimo population, probably after the Norsemen of the Western and
Eastern Settlements had declined in prosperity and numbers, so that they
no longer appeared so formidable, and at the same time they undoubtedly
behaved in a more peaceful and friendly fashion, in proportion as their
communication with Europe fell off, and their imaginary superiority to the
Skrælings proved to be more and more illusory.

We have still to speak of the Skrælings whom the Greenlanders, according
to the sagas, are said to have met with in Wineland. G. Storm [1887]
maintained that they must have been Indians, which of course seems natural
if we suppose, with him, that the Greenlanders reached southern Nova
Scotia; but in recent years several authors have endeavoured to show that
they were nevertheless Eskimo.[69] From what has been made out above as to
the romantic character of these sagas it may seem a waste of time to
discuss a question like this, since we have nothing certain to go by;
especially when, as already mentioned, the name of Skræling may originally
have been used of the pixies who were thought to dwell in the Irish
fairyland, the land of the "síd," which was called Wineland. But even if
this origin of the name be correct, it does not prevent later encounters
with the natives of America (besides those of Greenland) having
contributed to make the Skrælings of Wineland more realistic, and given
them features belonging to actual experience.

    The description of them in these "romance-sagas" may thus be
    considered of value, in so far as it may represent the common
    impression of the natives of the western countries, with whom the
    Greenlanders may have had more intercourse than appears from these
    tales; but even so we cannot in any case draw any conclusions from it
    with regard to the distribution of Indians or Eskimo on the east coast
    of America at that period. If it could really be established, as it
    cannot, that the Wineland Skrælings of the saga were Eskimo, then this
    alone would lead to the conclusion that the Greenlanders on their
    voyages had not been so far south as Nova Scotia, but at the farthest
    had probably reached the north of Newfoundland. If the authors
    mentioned have thought themselves justified in concluding that the
    Greenlanders found Eskimo in Nova Scotia, because the natives of
    Wineland are called Skrælings and are consequently assumed to be the
    same people with the some culture as those in Greenland, they cannot
    have been fully alive to the difficulty involved in its being
    impossible for the Skrælings of Nova Scotia, with its entirely
    different natural conditions, to have had the same arctic whaling and
    sealing culture as the Skrælings of Greenland, even if they belonged
    to the same race. For we should then have to believe that they had
    reached Nova Scotia from the north with their culture, which was
    adapted for arctic conditions. They would have to have dislodged the
    tribes of Indians who inhabited these southern regions before their
    arrival, although they possessed a culture which under the local
    conditions was inferior, and were doubtless also inferior in warlike
    qualities. In addition, these Eskimo with their Eskimo culture in Nova
    Scotia must have completely disappeared again before the country was
    rediscovered 500 years later, when it was solely inhabited by Indian
    tribes. We are asked to accept these various improbabilities chiefly
    because the word "Skræling"--which, it most be remembered, was not
    originally an ethnographical name, but meant dwarf or pixy--is used of
    the people both in Wineland and Greenland, because the word
    "keiplabrot" is used by Are Frode (see vol. i. p. 260), and because in
    two passages of Eric the Red's Saga, written down about 300 years
    after the "events," the word "huðkeipr" is used of the Skrælings'
    boats in Wineland, while in four passages they are called "skip"
    (i.e., vessel), and in another merely "keipana." It appears to me that
    this is attributing to the ancient Icelanders an ethnographical
    interest which Icelandic literature proves to have been just what they
    lacked (see above, pp. 80, ff.). In any case there is no justification
    for regarding these tardily recorded traditions as ethnographical
    essays, every word of which has a scientific meaning; and for that
    they contain far too many obviously mythical features. It is not
    apparent that any of the authors mentioned has decided of what kind of
    hide the Skrælings in southern Nova Scotia, or even farther south
    ("where no snow fell"), should have made their hide-boats.

    Opportunities of supporting themselves by sealing cannot have existed
    on these Southern coasts. The species of seal which form the Eskimo's
    indispensable condition of life farther north are no longer found. The
    only species of seal which occurs frequently on the coast of Nova
    Scotia is, as Professor Robert Collett informs me, the grey seal
    (Halichœrus grypus), which is also found on the coast of Norway and is
    caught, amongst other places, on the Fro Islands. But this seal cannot
    have been present in sufficiently large numbers in southern Nova
    Scotia or farther south to fulfil the requirements of the ordinary
    Eskimo sealing culture. They must therefore have adopted hunting on
    land as their chief means of subsistence, like the Indians; but what
    then becomes of the similarity in culture between the Skrælings of
    Greenland and Wineland, which is just what should distinguish them
    from the Indians? The very foundation of the theory thus disappears.
    Professor Y. Nielsen [1905, pp. 32, f.] maintains that the Skrælings
    of Nova Scotia need only have had "transport boats" or "women's boats"
    of hides, and that "what is there related of them does not even
    contain a hint that they might have used kayaks." This makes the
    theory even more improbable. If these Skrælings were without kayaks,
    which are and must be the very first condition of Eskimo sealing
    culture on an open sea-coast, then they cannot have had seal-skins for
    women's boats or clothes or tents either. They must then have covered
    these boats with the hides of land animals; but what? True, it is
    known that certain Indian tribes used to cover their canoes with
    double buffalo hides, a fact which the authors mentioned cannot have
    remarked, since they regard hide-boats as decisive evidence of Eskimo
    culture; moreover, the Irish still cover their coracles with ox-hides;
    but neither buffaloes nor oxen were to be found in Nova Scotia; are
    we, then, to suppose that the natives used deer-skin? The whole line
    of argument than leads us from one improbability to another, as we
    might expect, seeing it is built up on so flimsy a foundation.

    The Greenlanders may well have called the Indians' birch-bark canoes
    "keipr" or "keipull" (a little boat); but it is still more probable
    that as the details of the tradition became gradually obliterated in
    course of time, the designation of the Skræling boat came to be that
    which was used for the only boats known in later times to be peculiar
    to the Skrælings, namely, the hide-boats of Greenland. In addition to
    this, hide-boats were also known from Ireland, while the making of
    boats of birch-bark was altogether strange to the Icelanders. Besides,
    if we are to attach so much importance to a single word, "huðkeipr,"
    which plays no part in the narrative, what are we to do with the
    Skrælings' catapults ("valslǫngur") and their black balls which made
    such a hideous noise that they put to flight Karlsevne and his
    men?--these are really important features of the description, to say
    nothing of the glamour. If these, like many other incidents of the
    saga, are taken from altogether different quarters of the world, it is
    scarcely unreasonable to suppose that a word like "huðkeipr" is
    borrowed from Greenland and from Irish legend.

    The names which according to the saga were communicated by the two
    Skræling children captured in Markland, and which are supposed to have
    lived in oral tradition for over 250 years, have no greater claim to
    serious consideration. Everything else that these children are said to
    have related is demonstrably incorrect; the tale of Hvítramanna-land
    is a myth from Ireland (cf. pp. 42, ff.); the statement attributed to
    them that in their country people lived in caves is improbable and
    obviously derived from elsewhere (cf. p. 19);[70] is it, then, likely
    that the names attributed to them should be any more genuine? W.
    Thalbitzer [1905, pp. 190, ff.] explains these names as misunderstood
    Eskimo sentences, and supposes them to mean: _Vætilldi_, "but do wait
    a moment"; _Vægi_, "wait a moment"; _Avalldamon_, "towards the
    uttermost"; _Avaldidida_, "the uttermost, do you mean?" As we are told
    that the two Skræling boys learned Icelandic, Thalbitzer must suppose
    the men to have misinterpreted these sentences as names during the
    homeward voyage from Markland to Greenland, and then he must make the
    Skrælings die shortly afterwards, before the misunderstanding could be
    explained. After that these meaningless names must have lived in
    practically unaltered form in oral tradition for several hundred
    years, until they were put into writing at the close of the thirteenth
    century. It appears to me that such explanations of the words as are
    attempted on p. 20 have a greater show of probability. In addition, as
    pointed out in the same place, the "bearded" Skræling and their
    "sinking into the earth" are mythical features which are associated
    with these Skrælings.

    While the points that have been mentioned are incapable of proving
    anything about Eskimo, there are other features in the saga's
    description of the Skrælings of Wineland which would rather lead us to
    think of the Indians: that they should attack so suddenly in large
    numbers without any cause being mentioned seems altogether unlike the
    Eskimo, but would apply better to warlike Indians. We are told that
    the Skrælings attacked with loud cries; this is usual in Indian
    warfare, but seems less like the Eskimo. During the fight with the
    Skrælings Thorbrand Snorrason was found dead with a "hellustein" in
    his head. Whether this means a flat stone or a stone axe (as Storm has
    translated it [1887, 1899]), it is in any case not a typical Eskimo
    weapon; while a stone axe used as a missile might be Indian. But, as
    stated above, there is too much romance and myth about the whole tale
    of the Wineland voyages to allow of any certain value being attached
    to such details. I have already (p. 23) maintained that the
    description of hostilities with the natives, in which the Greenlanders
    were worsted, cannot be derived from Greenland, but may be due to
    something actually experienced. In that case this, too, points rather
    to the Indians.[71]

    William Thalbitzer [1904, pp. 20, f.] has adduced, as a possible
    evidence of the more southerly extension of the Eskimo in former
    times, the fact that the name "Nipisiguit," of a little river in New
    Brunswick (46° 40' N. lat.), bears a strong resemblance to the Eskimo
    place-name "Nepisät" in Greenland, and he also mentions another
    place-name, "Tadoussak," which has a very Eskimo look. But in order to
    form any opinion we should have to know the language of the extinct
    Indian tribes of these parts, as well as the original forms of the
    names given. They are now only known from certain old maps; but we
    cannot tell how they got on to those maps.

The Eskimo are one of the few races of hunters on the earth who with their
peculiar culture have still been able to hold their own fairly well in
spite of contact with European civilisation; the reason for this is partly
that they live so far out of the way that the contact has been more or
less cursory, partly also, as far as Greenland is concerned, that they
have been treated with more or less care, and it has been sought to
protect them against harmful European influences. In spite of this it has
not been possible to prevent their declining and becoming more and more
impoverished. The increase of their population in recent years might
doubtless give a contrary impression; but here other factors have to be
reckoned with. When the Eskimo first came in contact with European
culture, it was, as will be shown in the next chapter, their own culture
which in these surroundings gained the upper hand as soon as communication
with Europe was cut off. This would happen again if European and Eskimo
could be left to themselves, entirely cut off from the outer world. But as
this is impossible, the Eskimo culture is doomed to succumb slowly to our
trivial, all-conquering European civilisation.


CHAPTER XI

THE DECLINE OF THE NORSE SETTLEMENTS IN GREENLAND

The Eastern and Western Settlements in Greenland seem, as we have said, to
have grown rapidly immediately after the discovery of the country and the
first settlement there. Their flourishing period was in the eleventh,
twelfth, and part of the thirteenth centuries; but in the fourteenth they
seem to have declined rapidly; notices of them become briefer and briefer,
until they cease altogether after 1410, and in the course of the following
hundred years the Norse population seems to have disappeared entirely. The
causes of this decline were many.[72] It has been thought that it was
chiefly due to an immigration into Greenland on a large scale of Eskimo,
who gradually overpowered and exterminated the Norsemen; but, as will be
shown later, there is no ground for believing this; even if hostile
encounters took place between them, these cannot have been of great
importance.

In the first place the decline must be attributed to changes in the
relations with Norway. From the "King's Mirror" (cf. vol. i. p. 277),
amongst other authorities, we see that the Greenlanders doubtless had to
manage to some extent without such European wares as flour and bread; they
lived mainly by sealing and fishing, and also by keeping cattle, which
gave them milk and cheese. But there were many necessary things, such as
iron for implements and weapons, and to some extent even wood[73] for
larger boats and ships, which had to be obtained from Europe, besides the
encouragement and support which were afforded in many ways by
communication with the outer world. This was not of small moment to people
who lived in isolation under such hard conditions, at the extreme limit at
which a European culture was possible; it wanted little to turn the scale.
It is therefore easy to understand that as soon as communication with the
mother country declined, the conditions of life in Greenland became so
unattractive that those who had the chance removed elsewhere, and
doubtless in most cases to Norway.

But at the same time there was certainly a physiological factor involved.
For the healthy nourishment of a European cereals (hydro-carbons) are
necessary, and there can be no doubt that a prolonged exclusive diet of
meat and fat will in the case of most Europeans reduce the vital force,
and not least the powers of reproduction. This agrees with my own
experience and observation under various conditions, as, for instance,
during ten consecutive months' exclusive diet of meat and fat. It is also
confirmed by physiological experiments on omnivorous animals. The
Greenlanders were reduced to living by sealing, fishing, and keeping
cattle; milk, with its sugar of milk, was their chief substitute for the
hydro-carbons in cereals; besides this, they no doubt collected
crowberries, angelica and other vegetables; but even during the short
summer this cannot have been sufficient to counterbalance the want of
flour. It is therefore probable that their powers of reproduction
underwent a marked decrease, and they became a people of small fecundity.
The Eskimo have had thousands of years for adapting themselves through
natural selection to their monotonous flesh-diet, since those among them
who were best fitted for it had the better chance of producing offspring;
there is certainly a great difference between individuals in this respect;
some of us are by nature more vegetarian, while others are more
carnivorous. It is therefore natural that the present-day Eskimo should be
better suited for this diet; but it is none the less striking that the
rate of productiveness among them is also low.

As, then, the Greenlanders' communications with Norway fell off more and
more, their imports of corn and flour finally ceased altogether. Their
cattle-keeping must then have declined as well, since they would have
little opportunity of renewing their stock or getting other kinds of
supplies, when bad years intervened and the greater part of the stock had
to be slaughtered or died of hunger. Consequently the people became still
more dependent on sealing; and thereby the cattle must have been
neglected. In this way their diet would become even less varied, since
milk would be lacking, and their reproduction would be further restricted.
Add to this that their average proficiency in sealing, at first in any
case, was doubtless not to be compared with that of the Eskimo, and that
they were without salt for preserving their catch, which therefore had to
be dried or frozen. They were thus not able to lay up a large provision,
and were always more and more dependent on occasional catches. It is easy
to understand that their power of resistance was not great, when bad
seasons for sealing occurred, or when they were ravaged by disease, and it
is not surprising if the population decreased.

The cessation of the communication of Greenland with Iceland and Norway
came about in the following way: between 1247 and 1261, during the reign
of Håkon Håkonsson, Greenland voluntarily became subject to the Norwegian
crown, whilst before this it had been a free State like Iceland. In 1294,
trade with the tributary countries of Norway, Greenland among them, was
declared a sort of royal monopoly or privilege, which the king could farm
out to Norwegian subjects. The result of this was that only the king's
ships--and of these there was as a rule only one, called "Knarren," for
the Greenland traffic--were permitted to sail there for the purposes of
trade,[74] and this was the beginning of the end. Even before that time
communication with Greenland was rare. Thus we read in the "King's Mirror"
that people seldom went there. But now, when the royal trading ship was
practically the only one that made the voyage, things were to be much
worse. Frequently several years were occupied on one trip. As some time
elapsed also between each voyage, it will be understood that, at the best,
the communication was not lively. But when it occasionally happened that
"Knarren" was wrecked, things were still worse. That the communication may
have been defective as early as the beginning of the fourteenth century is
seen from a letter from Bishop Arne, of Bergen, to Bishop Tord in
Greenland, of June 22, 1308, wherein it is taken for granted that the
death of King Eric nine years before, in 1299, was not yet known in
Greenland. In the middle of the fourteenth century, for instance,
"Knarren" returned to Bergen in 1346 safe and sound and with a very great
quantity of goods; but perhaps did not sail again until 1355, and we hear
nothing of her return before 1363 (?). In 1366 we hear that "Knarren" was
again fitted out; but she was wrecked north of Bergen in the following
year, probably on the outward voyage. In the year following a new trading
ship must actually have arrived with the new bishop, Alf; but it is stated
that Greenland had then been without a bishop for nineteen years. In 1369
the Greenland ship seems again to have been sunk off Norway.[75]

It looks as if these voyages of "Knarren" became rarer and rarer, until at
the beginning of the fifteenth century (1410) they presumably ceased
altogether; in any case, we hear no more of them. Even though the
Greenland traffic may have paid, it cost money to fit out "Knarren," and
when there was so much doing in other quarters, it was not always easy to
procure the necessary funds. Another reason for the decline was the
growing influence and power of the Hanseatic League over trade and
navigation in Norway. Together with the Victualien Brethren and the
adherents of the captive King Albrekt of Sweden, the Leaguers took and
sacked Bergen in 1393. In 1428 the town was again taken by the Hanseatic
League. It may easily be understood that events of this kind had a
disturbing and perhaps entirely paralysing effect on the Greenland
traffic, which had its headquarters in this town. Moreover, Norway had
before this been much weakened by the Black Death, which visited the
country in 1349. It raged with special virulence in Bergen; but there is
no notice of the disease having spread to Greenland; perhaps that country
was spared through "Knarren" not having sailed there before 1355, and
probably no other ship having made the voyage in the interval. In 1392
there was again a severe pestilence throughout Norway, and many people
died. In that year too a great many ships were wrecked. There were thus a
number of misfortunes at that time, and the people of Norway had enough to
occupy them in their own affairs. Another circumstance unfavourable to the
communication with Greenland was the union of Norway with Denmark, and for
a time with Sweden. The seat of government was thereby removed to
Copenhagen, and interest in Norway, and especially in its so-called
tributary countries, was further greatly diminished by the larger claims
of Denmark and Sweden.

It is reasonable to suppose that under such conditions the settlements in
Greenland, which were almost entirely cut off, must have decayed;
comparatively few, perhaps, were able to get a passage, and left the
country by degrees; but the people declined in numbers; they adopted an
entirely Eskimo mode of living, and mixed with the Eskimo, who perhaps at
the same time spread southwards in greater numbers along the west coast of
Greenland. It was remarked in the last chapter that the Norsemen, when
they arrived in the country, evidently looked down upon the stone-age,
troll-like Skrælings, whom they could hunt and ill-use with impunity; with
their iron weapons, their warlike propensities, and their larger vessels,
they may perhaps have been able to maintain this imaginary superiority in
the early days, so long as they still had some kind of supplies from
abroad. But it is obvious that these relations must have been
fundamentally changed when this communication gradually ceased, and they
were reduced, without any support from Europe, to make the best of the
country's resources; then the real superiority of the Eskimo in these
surroundings asserted its full rights, and the Greenlanders had to begin
to look upon them in a very different light. It is therefore perfectly
natural that from this very fourteenth century a fundamental change in the
relations between Norsemen and Skrælings set in. And that such was the
case seems to result in many ways from the meagre information we possess.

In the Annals of Bishop Gisle Oddsson, written in Iceland in Latin before
1637, we read under the year 1342 [G. Storm, 1890a, pp. 355, f.; Grönl.
hist. Mind., iii. p. 459]:

    "The inhabitants of Greenland voluntarily forsook the true faith and
    the religion of the Christians, and after having abandoned all good
    morals and true virtues turned to the people of America ('ad Americæ
    populos se converterunt'); some also think that Greenland lies very
    near to the western lands of the world. From this it came about that
    the Christians began to refrain from the voyage to Greenland."

It is not known from whence Gisle Oddsson took this statement. As the
expression "the people of America" ("Americæ populi") is a curious one,
and as the statements in the bishop's annals following that quoted above
are entirely myths and inventions taken from Lyschander's "Grönlands
Chronica" (but originally derived from Saxo and Adam of Bremen), Storm
regarded the whole account as spurious and lacking any mediæval authority.
Interpreting, curiously enough, "ad Americæ populos se converterunt" to
mean that the Greenlanders had emigrated to America, Storm supposes that
this may be a hypothesis "formed to explain the disappearance from
Greenland of the old Norwegian-Icelandic colony." But the meaning of the
passage can scarcely be interpreted otherwise than as translated above,
that the Greenlanders had forsaken Christianity, given up good morals and
virtues, and had been converted to the belief and customs of the American
people (i.e., the Skrælings). The people of America must be a strained
expression the bishop has used to denote the heathen Skrælings (who
inhabited Greenland and the American lands) in contradistinction to the
Christian Europeans. Greenland was frequently regarded in Iceland in those
times as a part of America (cf. the map, p. 7). Hans Egede, for example,
thought the natives of Greenland were "Americans." In other words, the
statement simply means that in 1342 a report came that the Greenlanders
were associating amicably with the heathen Skrælings (which was forbidden
by the ecclesiastical law of that time), and had begun to adopt their mode
of life; which, in fact, is extremely probable.

The question is, then, from whence Gisle Oddsson may have derived this,
which is not known from any other source. Storm thought it out of the
question that it was taken from Lyschander (from whom the same annals
have borrowed so much else); but we cannot be so sure of this. After
having related the volcanic eruption and disasters in Iceland in 1340
(also recorded by Gisle Oddsson), Lyschander continues:

  "Norway and Sweden and Greenland also
  They were hereafter well able to perceive
  That such things boded ill to them.
  These kingdoms they came into the hands of the Dane,
  And Greenland went astray on the strand,
  Not long after these times."

Whatever may be meant by this strained, obscure expression about Greenland
(is "strand" a misprint for "stand"--"went astray in its condition" ?), it
might at any rate be interpreted to mean that its inhabitants had been
converted (gone astray) to a heathen religion (the people of America);
"not long after these times" (i.e., after 1340) may thus have been made
into 1342. But the mention of a definite date--which, it may be remarked,
would suit very well for the time when the Greenlanders passed into Eskimo
in larger numbers, at any rate in the Western Settlement (cf. Ivar
Bárdsson's description, see below, p. 108)--may possibly indicate that
some ancient authority or other is really the foundation for the
statement, and perhaps also for the lines quoted from Lyschander. Finn
Magnussen [Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 459] thinks that Gisle Oddsson may
have derived much information from the archives and library of Skálholdt
cathedral, which was burnt in 1630.

Whether genuine or not, this statement may correctly describe the fate of
the Greenland settlements. Deserted by the mother country, and left to
their own resources, the Greenlanders were forced to adopt the Eskimo mode
of life, and became absorbed in them. This took place first in the more
northerly and more thinly populated Western Settlement, and later in the
Eastern Settlement as well. The Eskimo with their kayaks and their sealing
appliances were the superiors of the Greenlanders in sealing (as appears
from the account of Björn Jorsalafarer), and their mode of life was
better suited to the conditions of Greenland; it is therefore incredible
that their culture should not gain the upper hand in an encounter, under
conditions otherwise equal, with that of Europeans, even though there were
certain things that they might learn of the Europeans, especially the use
of iron.[76] Furthermore, the Greenlanders' stock of cattle, goats and
sheep had, as we have seen (p. 97), greatly declined owing to the long
severance from Europe, and for this reason also they were obliged to adopt
more of the Eskimo way of life. But then their places of residence within
the fjords, far from the sealing-grounds, were no longer advantageous, and
by degrees they entirely adopted the Eskimo's more migratory life along
the outer coast. Then, again, the Eskimo women were probably no less
attractive to the Northerners of that time than they are to those of the
present day, and thus much mixture of blood gradually resulted. The
children came to speak the Eskimo language, and took at once to a wholly
Eskimo way of life, just as at the present day the children of Danes and
Eskimo in Greenland do. As the Norsemen at that time must also have been
very inferior to the Eskimo in numbers, they must by degrees have become
Eskimo both physically and mentally; and when the country was rediscovered
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there were only Eskimo there,
while all traces of the Norwegian-Greenland culture seemed to have
disappeared.


Let us suppose that we could repeat the experiment and plant a number of
European sealers in Baffin Land, for instance, with their women, together
with a greater number of Eskimo, and then cut off all communication with
the civilised world. Can we have any doubt as to the kind of culture we
should find there if we could come back after two hundred years? All the
inhabitants would be Eskimo, and we should find few traces of European
culture.

It would doubtless seem reasonable to expect that the descendants of the
ancient Norsemen of Greenland and of the Eskimo with whom they became
absorbed should have shown signs in their external appearance of this
descent, when discovered in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but
unfortunately we have no descriptions of them from that time which allow
of any conclusions being drawn on the subject. It is true that Hans Egede
says [1741, p. 66] that the Eskimo of Greenland "have broad faces and
thick lips, are flat-nosed and of a brownish complexion; though some of
them are quite handsome and white"; but nothing definite can be concluded
from this, and in the period after Egede's arrival the natives on the west
coast became so mixed that it is now hopeless to look for any of the
original race. It is, however, remarkable that Graah found in 1829-1831
Eskimo on the east coast of Greenland, many of whom struck him as
resembling Scandinavians in appearance--a fact which he sought to explain
by European sailors having perhaps been wrecked there.

But if it is now difficult to prove in this way the partially Norse
descent of the natives on the southern west coast of Greenland, it is to
be expected that there should be many vestiges in their myths and
fairy-tales which would give evidence of this. And this is precisely what
we find. In an earlier work [1891, pp. 207, ff.; Engl. ed., pp. 248, ff.]
I think I have pointed out numerous features in their tales that bear a
resemblance to the Norse mythical world, and that must have been derived
from thence; and many more might be adduced. The similarities are
sufficiently numerous to bear witness to a quite intimate intellectual
contact, and are in full agreement with what we should expect. But it may
seem strange that their religious ideas did not show more Christian
influence, especially when we see that even so late as 1407 Christianity
was powerful enough in the Eastern Settlement for a man to be burnt for
having seduced another's wife by witchcraft. There are, however, many
features in their conceptions of another world, of which Egede speaks,
which appear to be necessarily of Christian origin; we must suppose, too,
that Christian education was at a very low ebb in Greenland at the close
of the fourteenth century, and soon ceased altogether.

Only a few words in the language of the Greenland Eskimo on the southern
west coast have been shown to be of Norse origin. Hans Egede himself
pointed out the following: "kona" (== wife, Old Norse kona), "sava" or
"savak" (== sheep, O.N. sauðr, gen. sauða), "nisa" or "nisak" (==
porpoise, O.N. hnísa), "kuanek" (== angelica, O.N. hvǫnn, plur. hvannir).
Some of these words recur in Labrador Eskimo, but may have been introduced
by the Moravian missionaries from Greenland. We may also mention the name
the Eskimo of southern Greenland apply to themselves, "karālek" or
"kalālek," which may come from the word Skræling (which in Eskimo would
become "sakalālek"). This, as the Eskimo told Egede, was the name the
ancient Norsemen had called them by; otherwise the Eskimo call themselves
"inuit" (== human beings); and curiously enough "kalālek" is not used by
the Eskimo of northern Greenland; on the other hand, it is known to the
Labrador Eskimo, but may have been brought by the missionaries, although
the latter asserted that it was known when they came. It is perhaps of
more importance that, according to H. Rink, a similar word ("kallaluik,"
"katlalik" or "kallaaluch," for chief or shaman) occurs in the dialects of
Alaska.

Through all the notices of Greenland and its condition, especially those
from religious sources, there runs after the fourteenth century a cry of
apostasy, which is ominous of this mixture of the Norsemen with the
Skrælings: we see it in the doubtful statement from 1342 about their
conversion to "the people of America"; a little later, according to Ivar
Bárdsson's account (see p. 108), the heathen Skrælings were predominant in
the Western Settlement; furthermore, the trading ship was fitted out in
1355 to prevent the "falling away" of Christianity [Grönl. hist. Mind.,
iii. p. 122]; Björn Einarsson's account (see below, p. 112) concludes with
the statement that when he was there (1386) "the bishop of Gardar was
lately dead, and an old priest ... performed all the episcopal
ordinations" [Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 438]; after that time no bishop
came to Greenland; and finally the papal letter of 1492-93 describes the
Greenlanders as a people abandoned by bishop and priest, for which reason
most of them had fallen from the Christian faith, although they still
preserved a memory of the Christian church service (see later).[77] This
may all point in the same direction: that the Norsemen in Greenland
became more and more absorbed by the Eskimo.

Of course there may have been occasional hostile encounters between the
Eskimo and Norsemen in Greenland, especially as the latter, as pointed out
in the last chapter, must frequently have acted with a heavy hand when
they had the power. But that the Eskimo should have carried on a regular
war of extermination, which resulted in the complete destruction first of
the Western and then of the Eastern Settlement, as has been generally
assumed until quite recently--this is incredible to any one who knows the
Eskimo and considers what their conditions of life were. Where should they
have developed this warlike propensity which was afterwards foreign to
them, and where should they have had training in the art of war? This idea
of the destruction of the settlements by hostilities is the result mainly
of three statements about Greenland, of which one is very improbable and
on many points impossible, another deals possibly with an actual attack,
and the third is demonstrably false. We must here examine these notices a
little more closely.

In 1341 Bishop Hákon of Bergen sent a priest, Ivar Bárdsson, to Greenland.
He was for a number of years steward of the bishop's residence at Gardar,
and is said also to have visited the Western Settlement. We do not know
for certain how long he was in Greenland, but in 1364 he again appears in
Norway [cf. G. Storm, 1887, p. 74]. There exists in Danish a description
of the fjords, more especially of the Eastern Settlement, which, according
to its own words, must to a great extent be derived from oral
communications of this Ivar (see below). These must originally have been
taken down by another Norwegian, in Norwegian, and were thence translated
into Danish [cf. F. Jónsson, 1899, p. 279]. There is thus a double
possibility that the third-hand version we possess may contain many errors
and misconceptions, of which, in fact, it bears evident marks. After
speaking of the fjords in the Eastern Settlement, it says of the Western
Settlement and of the journey thither:[78]

    "Item from the Eastern Settlement to the Western is a dozen
    sea-leagues and all is uninhabited, and there in the Western
    Settlement stands a great church which is called Stensness Church;
    this church was for a time a cathedral and the see of a bishop.[79]
    Now the Skrælings possess the whole Western Settlement; there are
    indeed horses, goats, cattle and sheep, all wild, and no people either
    Christian or heathen.

    "Item all this that is said above was told us by Iffuer bort [or
    Bardsen], a Greenlander, who was steward of the bishop's residence at
    Gardum in Greenland for many years, that he had seen all this and he
    was one of those who were chosen by the 'lagmand' to go to the Western
    Settlement against the Skrælings to expel the Skrælings from the
    Western Settlement, and when they came there they found no man, either
    Christian or heathen, but some wild cattle and sheep, and ate of the
    wild cattle, and took as much as the ships could carry and sailed with
    it home [i.e., to the Eastern Settlement], and the said Iffuer was
    among them.

    "Item there lies in the north, farther than the Western Settlement, a
    great mountain which is called 'Hemelrachs felld' [or 'Himinraðz
    fjall,' cf. vol. i. p. 302], and farther than to this mountain must no
    man sail, if he would preserve his life from the many whirlpools which
    there lie round the whole sea."

Strangely enough no author has expressed a doubt of the credibility of
this description, although as usually interpreted it contains an
impossibility, which must strike any one on a closer examination. It is
still commonly interpreted as though Ivar Bárdsson had found the whole
Western Settlement destroyed by Eskimo.[80] But if this was so, how could
he have found there wild cattle, sheep, horses and goats? The whole
Western Settlement must then have been destroyed the summer that he was
there; for the wild cattle could not possibly have supported themselves
through the winter in Greenland; evidently the author, who was
unacquainted with the conditions in Greenland, did not think of this.
Besides, can any one who knows the Eskimo imagine that they slaughtered
the men, but not the cattle? This represented food to them, and that is
what they would first have turned their attention to. It is not stated
which fjord of the Western Settlement it was that Ivar visited; but in any
case it is hardly to be supposed that it was all the fjords, which thus
would all have been destroyed at the same time. The conclusion that Ivar
found the whole Western Settlement laid waste is therefore in any case
unfounded; it can at the most have been one fjord, or perhaps only one
homestead (?). If there should really be some historical foundation for
the description of Ivar Bárdsson's voyage, then it may perhaps be
interpreted in an altogether different way. The people of the Western
Settlement, where the conditions for keeping cattle were far less
favourable than farther south in the Eastern Settlement, undoubtedly
became earlier absorbed among the Eskimo and went over to their mode of
living. This may also be what is alluded to in the perhaps approximately
contemporary statement of 1342, already quoted (p. 101), which says that
the Greenlanders "turned to the people of America." It is possible that it
was just this same state of things that was the cause of Ivar's being sent
to expel the Skrælings from the Western Settlement. When he arrived in the
summer at the fjord which he possibly visited, the people may therefore,
in Eskimo fashion, have been absent on sealing expeditions somewhere out
on the sea-coast and living in tents, while the cattle were turned out at
pasture round the homesteads.[81] This would explain how they came to be
found alive. The men of the Eastern Settlement then, with or against their
better conscience, stole and carried off the property of the half-Eskimo
men of the Western Settlement during their absence, and when the latter
returned they found their homesteads plundered, not by Eskimo but by
Greenlanders. But it is perhaps very questionable whether the whole
account of this voyage is particularly historical. The statement about the
whirlpools, for one thing, is mythical, pointing to an idea that this was
near the end of the earth, and in the description immediately following
like and unlike are mixed together in a way that is calculated to arouse
doubt. We read thus:

    "Item in Greenland there are silver-mines [which are not found there],
    white bears having red spots on the head [sic!].... Item in Greenland
    great tempests never come. Item snow falls much in Greenland, it is
    not so cold there as in Iceland and Norway, there grows on high
    mountains and down below fruit as large as some apples and good to
    eat, the best wheat that can be grows there."[82]

As will be seen, one absurdity succeeds another. It may be objected that
as it is not stated that this last paragraph is due to Ivar the
Greenlander, it may have been added later; but it contains an admixture of
statements that must come from Greenland--e.g., about the white bears,
whales' tusks (i.e., of walrus or narwhale), walrus hides, soapstone
(steatite), of which they make pots, and large vessels; it is also stated
that "there are many reindeer," and it seems probable that it is all
derived from the same untrustworthy source.

To what has here been said some will object that, even if this description
ascribed to Ivar Bárdsson bears evident marks of being inexact, it shows
at any rate that in Norway, when it was taken down, the view prevailed
that the Western Settlement had been destroyed by an attack of the
Skrælings. But nothing of the kind is really stated in the account (cf.
above, p. 108, note 3); and the possibly contemporary statement (of 1342
?) which has already been given (p. 100) shows that in Iceland, at any
rate in the seventeenth century, the contrary view prevailed, unless
indeed we are to explain this statement as having arisen through a
misunderstanding of Lyschander.

Under the year 1379 the so-called "Gottskalks Annáll" (of the second half
of the sixteenth century) has a statement which cannot be regarded as
certain, as it is not found in the other Icelandic annals, but which may
have been taken from older sources. It reads [G. Storm's edition of
Islandske Annaler, 1888, p. 364]:

    "The Skrælings harried the Greenlanders and killed of them eighteen
    men and took two boys and made slaves of them."

It is possible that this may have some historical foundation, and in that
case it doubtless refers to some collision or attack, perhaps at sea, in
which the Eskimo were superior and the Greenlanders were defeated, which
latter circumstance is the reason of our hearing something about it; in
the contrary case it would not have been reported. That the Eskimo took
two boys is conceivable if they were quite young, so that they could be
trained for sealing; they would thus provide an increase of the capital of
the community. It is not unlikely that rumours of some such collisions as
this may have contributed to form the ideas prevalent in Norway as to the
formidable character of the Skrælings,[83] while at the same time there
existed ideas of their flying from Europeans, which appear in the reports
of the Pygmies (cf. the letter to the Pope, about 1450, and Walkendorf,
above, p. 86). Whether the encounter referred to took place in the Western
or in the Eastern Settlement (or perhaps in Nordrsetur ?) we do not know.
If we are to place any reliance on Ivar Bárdsson's description, we must
suppose that the Western Settlement and its fate were little known at that
time. But that friendly relations between the Greenlanders and the Eskimo
may have prevailed also in the Eastern Settlement later than this seems to
result from the account of the widely travelled Icelander Björn Einarsson
Jorsalafarer's stay in Greenland from 1385 to 1387. On a voyage to Iceland
in 1385 he was in distress, and was driven out of his course to the
Eastern Settlement with four ships, which all arrived safe and well in
Iceland in 1387.[84] It seems that there was a difficulty in feeding all
these crews, but Björn is said to have had the district of Eric's fjord
handed over to him while he was there (?), and received as a contribution
130 fore-quarters of sheep (?). There is also related a fable that on his
coming there and going down to the sea to look for seals he happened to
witness a combat between a polar bear and a walrus, "who always fight when
they meet,[85] and he afterwards killed them both."

    "Then Björn the franklin found maintenance for his people through one
    of the largest rorquals being driven ashore, with a marked harpoon
    belonging to Olaf of Isafjord in Iceland, and finally it was also of
    importance that he came to the assistance of two trolls [i.e.,
    Eskimo], a young brother and sister, on a tidal skerry [i.e., one that
    was under water at high tide]. They swore fidelity to him, and from
    that time he never was short of food; for they were skilled in all
    kinds of hunting, whatever he wished or needed. What the troll girl
    liked best was when Solveig, the mistress of the house, allowed her to
    carry and play with her boy who had lately been born. She also wanted
    to have a linen hood like the mistress, but made it for herself of
    whale's guts. They killed themselves, and threw themselves into the
    sea from the cliffs after the ships, when they were not allowed to
    sail with the franklin Björn, their beloved master, to Iceland."

The description of Björn Einarsson's voyage is full of extravagances and
anything but trustworthy; but his stay in Greenland with the four ships is
certainly historical; and the description of the two young Eskimo has many
features so typical of the Eskimo--such as the girl's fondness for
children, her making a hood of whale's guts, and their superior skill in
sealing--that they show without doubt that at that time there was
intercourse with the Eskimo in the Eastern Settlement.

From an existing royal document of 1389 it appears that, when Björn and
his companions came from Iceland to Bergen in 1388, they were prosecuted
for illegal trading with Greenland, which was a royal monopoly; but they
were acquitted, since they had been driven there in great distress and
were obliged to trade in order to obtain food [Grönl. hist. Mind., iii.
pp. 139, f.].

A document to which much weight has been attached is a papal letter which
has been preserved, from Nicholas V. in 1448 to the two bishops of
Iceland. It is there said of Greenland, amongst other things [Grönl. hist.
Mind., iii. p. 170]:

    "From the neighbouring coasts of the heathens the barbarians came
    thirty years ago with a fleet, attacked the people living there [in
    Greenland] with a cruel assault, and so destroyed the land of their
    fathers and the sacred edifices with fire and sword that only nine
    parish churches were left in the whole island [Greenland], and these
    are said to be the most remote, which they could not reach on account
    of the steep mountains. They carried the miserable inhabitants of both
    sexes as prisoners to their own country, especially those whom they
    regarded as strong and capable of bearing constant burdens of slavery,
    as was fitting for their tyranny. But since, as the same complaint
    adds,[86] in the course of time most of them have returned from the
    said imprisonment to their own homes, and have here and there repaired
    the ruins of their dwellings, they long to establish and extend divine
    service again, as far as possible...." Then follows a lengthy
    discourse on their religious needs, and what might be done to relieve
    them, without costing the rich Papacy anything.

As the barbarians here must undoubtedly mean the Eskimo, it has been
regarded as a historical fact that the latter about 1418 made a
devastating attack on the Eastern Settlement, and this document has thus
lent weighty support to the general opinion that the Greenland settlements
perished as the result of an Eskimo war of extermination. But the letter
itself shows such obvious ignorance of conditions in Greenland, especially
with regard to the Eskimo, that there must be some doubt about the
complaint on which it is based. To begin with, it is in itself unlikely
that the peaceful and unwarlike Eskimo, who can have had no practice in
warfare, since they had previously had no one to fight with, except
walruses and bears, should have come with a "fleet" and made an organised
attack in large masses, and destroyed people and houses and churches in
the Eastern Settlement. Even if they might have been provoked to
resistance or even revenge by ill-usage on the part of the Greenlanders,
or perhaps have coveted their iron implements, it is an impossibility that
they should have organised themselves for a campaign. But it is added that
they carried off the inhabitants of both sexes to use them as slaves; for
what work?--in sealing they were themselves superior, in preparing skins
and food their women were superior; and other work they had none. To a
Greenland Eskimo it would be an utterly absurd idea to feed unnecessary
slaves, and it betrays itself as of wholly European origin. The statement
that after the incursion only nine parish churches were left also betrays
ignorance; as pointed out by Storm, there were never more than twelve,
even in the flourishing period of the Settlement, and by about 1418 there
were certainly not nine in all. Furthermore, the letter is not addressed
to the two bishops really officiating in Iceland, but to the two
impostors, the German Marcellus and his confederate Mathæus, who by means
of false representations had induced Pope Nicholas V. to consecrate them
bishops of Iceland [cf. G. Storm, 1892, p. 399]. The probability is that
the two impostors themselves composed the complaint from Greenland which
was the cause of the papal letter, and which thus did not reach the Pope
until thirty years after the alleged incursion; their object must have
been to obtain further advantages. The papal document of 1448 must
therefore be entirely discarded as historical evidence so far as its
statements about Greenland are concerned.

Consequently the only possibly historical statement left to us, to prove
that the Eskimo took the offensive, is that of their "harrying" in 1379;
but from this we can doubtless only conclude that at the most there was a
collision between Eskimo and Greenlanders. It has also been adduced that
the Eskimo of Greenland have a few legends of fighting with the ancient
Norsemen, and one which tells how the last of the Norsemen was slain. It
must, however, be remembered that these legends were taken down in the
last century, when the Eskimo had again been in contact with Europeans for
several hundred years, and when Norwegians and Danes had been living in
the country for over a hundred years. Some of the legends certainly refer
to recent collisions with Europeans, and it is not easy to say what value
can be attached to the others as evidence of an extermination of the last
Norsemen. It is also to be remarked that the Norsemen, or Long-Beards, are
not spoken of with ill-will in these legends, but rather with sympathy,
which is difficult to understand if there had been such hatred as would
account for a war of extermination. Add to this that the particular
encounter which led to the last Long-Beard being pursued and slain arose,
according to the tale, quite accidentally, which is difficult to imagine
if it was the conclusion of a lengthy war of extermination, in which
homestead after homestead and district after district had been harried and
laid waste. The legends of the Eskimo cannot therefore be cited as
evidence of the probability of any such war.

It has been said that even if such warlike proceedings would be entirely
incompatible with the present nature, disposition and way of thinking of
the Greenland Eskimo, it may formerly have been otherwise. But in any
case no long time can have elapsed between the alleged final overthrow of
the Eastern Settlement, perhaps about 1500, and the rediscovery of
Greenland in the sixteenth century. It is not likely that the Eskimo
should have so completely changed their nature in the few intervening
years; those whom the discoverers then found seem, from the accounts, to
have strikingly resembled those we find later. And if one reads Hans
Egede's description of the Eskimo among whom he lived and worked, it
appears absolutely impossible that the same people two hundred years
earlier should have waged a cruel war of extermination against the last of
the Norsemen.

There is, it is true, a possibility, as Dr. Björnbo has pointed out to me,
that the mixture of race which gradually took place between Eskimo and
Norsemen may for a time have produced a mixed type, which possessed a more
quarrelsome disposition than the pure Eskimo, and may have inherited the
not very peaceful habits of the Norsemen, and that in this way, for
instance, a possible attack in 1379 may be explained. But this can only
have been the case at the beginning of the period of intermixture, and the
type must have changed again in proportion as the Eskimo element in race
and culture became preponderant.[87]

The allusion to the Pygmies of Greenland in the letter to Nicholas V.,
quoted above (p. 86), gives us the Eskimo as we are accustomed to see
them; and the description of these small men, a cubit high, who fly in a
body at the sight of strangers, gives a surer and truer picture of the
Skrælings than when they are represented as warlike and dangerous
barbarians. The statements about the Pygmies in Claudius Clavus also
enable us to see how the Norsemen sometimes treated the Eskimo, when they
caught them

    "at sea in a hide-boat, which now hangs in the cathedral at Trondhjem;
    there is also a long boat of hides [i.e., a women's boat] which was
    also once taken with such Pygmies in it."

But that these little Pygmies, a cubit high, were regarded as formidable
warriors, engaged in exterminating the Norsemen, is difficult to
believe,[88] even though Michel Beheim attributes warlike qualities to
them (cf. p. 85). Walkendorf, who had so carefully collected all
traditions about Greenland, describes (circa 1520) the Skrælings as an
"unwarlike" and harmless people (see above, p. 86). It is impossible to
reconcile this with a tradition of a war of extermination.

There are therefore good grounds for supposing that Arne Magnussen was
approximately correct when he said in 1691 [Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p.
138]:

    "It is probable that owing to the daily increase of the ice and its
    drifting down from the Pole, it thus befell Greenland, and the
    Christian inhabitants either died of hunger or were constrained to
    practise the same Vitæ genus as the savages, and thus degenerated into
    their nature."

In the year 1406 the Icelanders Thorstein Helmingsson, Snorre Thorvason
and Thorgrim Solvason, in one ship, were driven out of their course to
Greenland. "They sailed out from Norway, and were making for Iceland. They
stayed there [in Greenland] four winters" [cf. Islandske Annaler, ed.
Storm, 1888, p. 288]. While they were there, in the following year [1407]

    "a man named Kolgrim was burnt in Greenland for that he lay with
    Thorgrim Solvason's wife, who was the daughter of a 'lagmand' of high
    standing in Iceland. This man got her consent by black art; he was
    therefore burnt according to sentence; nor was the woman ever after
    in her right mind, and died a little later."

In 1408 one of the Icelanders married in Greenland, which is of interest
from the fact that several documents bearing witness to the marriage are
extant. In 1410 "Thorstein Helmingsson and Thorgrim Solvason and Snorre
Thorvason and the rest of their crew sailed to Norway." Whether this was
in their own ship we do not know; but as they sailed to Norway and not to
Iceland it is doubtless most probable that their ship was destroyed and
that they had to wait these four years for a passage to Norway. In
1411[89] a small vessel was wrecked on the coast of Iceland; on board her
came Snorre Thorvason from Norway. His wife, Gudrun, had during his
absence married another man in 1410. She "now rode to meet him. He
received her kindly." "Snorre took his wife to him again, but they only
lived a little while together before he died, and she then married Gisle
[the other man] again."

This is the last certain information we have of any voyage to the ancient
settlements of Greenland. After that time all notices cease. As Holberg
says [Danm. Hist., i. 531], after the time of Queen Margaret the
succeeding kings had so much to do that they had no time to think of old
Greenland.[90]

In 1431 King Eric of Pomerania complained to the English king, Henry VI.,
of the illegal trading which the English had carried on for the previous
twenty years (that is, since 1411) with "Norway's Lands and Islands":
Iceland, Greenland, the Faroes, Shetland, the Orkneys, Helgeland and
Finmark; and of the acts of violence and piratical incursions, with fire
and rapine, that they had committed in this period, by which they had
carried off many ships laden with fish and other goods, and many people
had perished.[91] As early as 1413 King Eric's ambassador to the English
king, Henry V., had made a strong protest against all foreign and
unprivileged trade with these countries. On Christmas Eve, 1432, a treaty
was signed between the two kings, whereby Henry VI. engaged himself to
make good all the damage the English had caused to King Eric's subjects in
the said countries, and all the people who during those twenty years had
been violently carried off were, by the direction of the English king,
wherever they might be found in his dominions, to receive payment for
their services and to return freely to their native places. Further, the
old prohibition of trading with the Norwegian tributary lands was renewed.
The same prohibition was renewed and enforced on the English side by Henry
VI. in 1444, and by a new treaty between him and Christiern I., concluded
at Copenhagen, July 17, 1449; but this was only to remain in force till
Michaelmas 1451. After that time the English merchants, some of whom no
doubt were Norwegians established at Bristol, seem to have seized upon
nearly the whole of the trade with Iceland, and often conducted themselves
with violence there. But in 1490 this trade was made free on certain
conditions.

These negotiations give us an insight into the state of things in Northern
waters at that time. At the same time there were difficulties with the
Hanseatic League, which tried to seize upon all trade.

Among these so-called Norwegian tributary countries was Greenland, which
is mentioned with the others in the complaint of 1431; but whether this
means that the English extended their trading voyages, which frequently
became piratical expeditions, so far, we do not know; in any case it is
not impossible, although of course the voyage to Iceland with its rich
fisheries was much more important. We know that this was carried on from
Bristol in particular, where, as has been said, many Norwegians were
established.

The statements about Greenland contained in the papal letter of 1448 were,
as we have seen, false. Perhaps not very much more weight is to be
attached to the story, in Peyrere's "Relation du Groënland" (Paris, 1647),
of Oluf Worm of Copenhagen having found in an old Danish MS. a statement
that about 1484 there were more than forty experienced men living at
Bergen, who were in the habit of sailing to Greenland every year and
bringing home valuable goods; but as they would not sell their wares to
the Hanse merchants, the latter revenged themselves by inviting them to a
supper and killing them all at night. This then was said to be the end of
the Greenland voyage, which had to cease thenceforward, because no one
knew the course any more [cf. Grönl hist. Mind., iii. pp. 471, f.]. The
story as given here is in many respects improbable; but even if the forty
or more men and the annual voyage are exaggerations, there are other
indications that about that time there may have been some sort of
communication with Greenland or the countries to the west of it, as will
be mentioned later. The royal monopoly of the Iceland trade was no longer
in force, and the same may have applied to Greenland. It is then
conceivable that merchants may have gone there; and if their trading
prospered they had every reason to keep it as secret as possible, lest
others should interfere with their livelihood. This would explain why such
voyages are not mentioned by historical authorities. Just then, too, was
an uneasy time, with a sort of war of privateers between England and
Denmark-Norway, which was not concluded until the provisional peace of
1490; there were thus many pirates and privateers in Northern waters, who
may well have extended their activity upon occasion to the remote and
unprotected Greenland, where they could plunder with even greater
impunity than in Iceland, and perhaps they increased the ruin of the
settlements there.

Of great interest is a letter from Pope Alexander VI.[92] of the first
year of his papacy, 1492-1493, which was written in consequence of a
Benedictine monk named Mathias having applied to the Pope to be appointed
bishop of Greenland, and declared himself willing to go there personally
as a missionary to convert the apostates. The letter runs:

    "As we are informed, the church at Gade [i.e., Gardar] lies at the
    world's end in the land of Greenland, where the people, for want of
    bread, wine and oil, live on dried fish and milk; and therefore, as
    well as by reason of the extreme rarity of the voyages that have taken
    place to the said land, for which the severe freezing of the waters is
    alleged as the cause, it is believed that for eighty years no ship has
    landed there; and if such voyages should take place, it is thought
    that in any case it could only be in the month of August, when the
    same ice is dissolved; and for this reason it is said that for eighty
    years or thereabouts no bishop or priest has resided at that church.
    Therefore, and because there are no Catholic priests, it has befallen
    that most of the parishioners, who formerly were Catholics, have (oh,
    how sorrowful!) renounced the holy sacrament of baptism received from
    them; and that the inhabitants of that land have nothing else to
    remind them of the Christian religion than a corporale [altar-cloth]
    which is exhibited once a year, and whereon the body of Christ was
    consecrated a hundred years ago by the last priest who was there." For
    this reason, "to provide them with a fitting shepherd," Pope
    Alexander's predecessor, Innocent VIII., had appointed the Benedictine
    monk Mathias bishop of Gade [Gardar], and he "with much godly zeal
    made ready to bring the minds of the infidels and apostates back to
    the way of eternal salvation and to root out such errors," etc. Then
    follow exhortations to the Curia, the chancellors, and all the
    religious scriveners under pain of excommunication to let the said
    Mathias, on account of his poverty, escape all expenses and
    perquisites connected with the appointment and correspondence, etc.

The statements in the letter agree remarkably well with what we gather
from other historical sources. In 1410--that is, eighty-two years before
the date of the letter--the last ship of which we have any notice arrived
in Norway from Greenland (see above, p. 118). This agrees with the
statement in the letter that no ship had been there for eighty years. In
1377 the last officiating bishop of Gardar died, and six years later the
news reached Norway, that is, 109 years before the date of the letter.
This agrees with what is said about the altar-cloth being used a hundred
years before by the last priest ("ultimo sacerdote," perhaps meaning here
bishop ?) at the administration of the sacrament. The assertion that it
was not until August that Greenland became free of ice and that voyages
could be made thither also shows a certain local knowledge; for it was not
till late in the summer, usually August, that "Knarren" was accustomed to
sail from Bergen to Greenland.

Whether news had recently arrived from Greenland at the time the letter
was written does not appear from the words of the letter, and cannot, in
my opinion, be inferred therefrom, though Storm [1892, p. 401] thought it
could. The only thing which might point to this is the story of the
altar-cloth being exhibited once a year; but this, of course, may be a
tradition which goes back to the last ship, eighty years before.

Meanwhile we meet with obscure information in other quarters about a
possible communication with Greenland at that time. In a map of Iceland,
printed in Paris in 1548 by Hieronymus Gourmont,[93] a rocky island is
marked to the north-west of Iceland, with a compass-card and a Latin
inscription. This, as A. A. Björnbo has pointed out,[94] is of interest;
it reads in translation:

    "The lofty mountain called Witsarc, on the summit of which a sea-mark
    was set up by the two pirates (piratis), Pinnigt and Pothorst, to warn
    seamen against Greenland."


The map is a modified copy of Olaus Magnus's well-known large chart of
1539, on which the island with the compass-card is found, but not the
inscription.

It is possibly a fuller version or adaptation of the substance of this
inscription, or of the source from which it is taken, that is met with
again in Olaus Magnus's work on the Northern peoples, of 1555, where he
says of "the lofty mountain 'Huitsark,' which lies in the middle of the
sea between Iceland and Greenland":

    "Upon it lived about the year of Our Lord 1494 two notorious pirates
    (piratæ), Pining and Pothorst, with their accomplices, as though in
    defiance and contempt of all kingdoms and their forces, since, by the
    strict orders of the Northern kings, they had been excluded from all
    human society and declared outlaws for their exceedingly violent
    robberies and many cruel deeds against all sailors they could lay
    hands on, whether near or far."... "Upon the top of this very high
    rock the said Pining and Pothorst have constructed a compass out of a
    considerable circular space, with rings and lines formed of lead;
    thereby it was made more convenient for them, when they were bent on
    piracy, as they thus were informed in what direction they ought to put
    to sea to seek considerable plunder."

It may be the expression "piratæ," which might be used both of an ordinary
pirate and of a privateer or freebooter, which misled Olaus Magnus into
constructing this wonderful story. The mere fact that, both in his map of
1539 and in his work of 1555, he makes Hvitserk, which of course was in
Greenland, into a rocky island out at sea between Greenland and Iceland,
where no island is to be found, is enough to shake one's belief in the
trustworthiness of this strange report. His incomprehensible story of the
compass constructed there does not make things any better. G. Storm [1886,
p. 395] thought it might have come about in this way: that Olaus Magnus,
who was no great sailor or geographer, read on a chart a note about
Pining's voyage to Greenland, and saw in its proximity the name Hvitserk
and a compass-card in the middle of the sea; and then, without
understanding its real meaning, he made it an island and gave it his own
explanation. Björnbo and Petersen [1909, pp. 250, 251] have, it is true,
pointed out that something of the same sort is told of the North Cape by
Sivert Grubbe, who accompanied Christian IV. on his voyage to Finmark, and
who writes in his journal (in Latin) on May 12, 1599: "We sailed past the
North Cape. On the top of this mountain is a compass cut into the rock."
But as they "sailed past," Grubbe cannot have been up and seen this
compass; it may therefore be supposed that a similar error is at the base
of this improbable statement; it is difficult to see what value for
mariners such a compass could have. But notwithstanding Olaus Magnus's
fantastic story, Pining and Pothorst may really have been in Greenland.
The former must be the Norwegian nobleman Didrik Pining, who together with
Pothorst ("Pytchehorsius") is said to have distinguished himself during
the later years of Christiern I., "not less as capable seamen than as
matchless freebooters" (piratæ). He was much employed by Christiern I. and
King Hans against the English and sometimes against the Hanseatic League,
and is mentioned by several historical authorities.[95] He seems also to
have extended his activity upon occasion to the Spaniards, Portuguese and
Dutch, for about 1484 he captured, off the English coast or off Brittany
and in the Spanish Sea, three Spanish or Portuguese ships, and brought
them to the king at Copenhagen. In a treaty which was concluded in 1490
between King Hans and the Dutch it is expressly stipulated that Didrik
Pinning and a certain Busch were to be excluded from the peace. Didrik
Pining is spoken of as lord over Iceland, or perhaps over the eastern and
southern part, in 1478; but on the death of Christiern I. in 1481, another
was appointed as "hirdstjore" (or stadtholder), and it is stated in the
letter of appointment, issued by the council at Bergen in 1481, that
Pining had "gone out of Iceland"; but a few years later he is again
mentioned as hirdstjore there. When in 1487 King Hans took possession of
Gotland, Pining accompanied him thither, doubtless as commander of the
Danish-Norwegian squadron; he is called "Skipper Pining," which
corresponds to commodore or admiral in our time (cf. Christiern I.'s
"Skipper Clemens"). In July 1489 Didrik Pining was among the Norwegian
noblemen who paid homage at Copenhagen to the king's son, Christiern
(II.) as heir to the kingdom of Norway; and in August and September 1490
he took part in the settlement of a suit concerning a large inheritance at
Bergen; but in two Icelandic laws or edicts of that time, 1489 and 1490,
the so-called "Pining's Laws," he is described as "'hirdstjore' over the
whole of Iceland," and a later chronicler speaks of him as one of the most
famous men in Iceland, and he says that "he was in many ways a serviceable
man and put many things right that were wrong." It must be the same Didrik
Pining who was appointed in 1490 governor of Vardöhus, and it may be
supposed that he was commander-in-chief on sea and land in northern
waters.

We hear of Pining, and his associate Pothorst, in an old (Icelandic ?)
report which, together with Ivar Bárdsson's description of Greenland, was
found in an old book of accounts in the Faroes, and which in an English
translation was included in "Purchas his Pilgrimes" (London, 1625, vol.
iii.), where we read:

    "Item, Punnus [corruption of Pinning] and Potharse, have inhabited
    Island certayne yeeres, and sometimes have gone to Sea, and have had
    their trade in Groneland. Also Punnus did give the Islanders their
    Lawes, and caused them to bee written. Which Lawes doe continue to
    this day in Island, and are called by name Punnus Lawes."

As this last statement agrees with the two "Pining's Laws" mentioned
above, there may also be some truth in the voyages to Greenland. An
unexpected confirmation of this recently came to light in the discovery of
a document by Louis Bobé [1909] at Copenhagen; it is a letter, dated March
3, 1551, from Burgomaster Carsten Grip, of Kiel, to King Christiern III.
Grip was, as we are told in the letter, the king's commissioner for the
purchase of books, paintings, and the like. He tells the king that he has
not found any valuable books or suitable pictures, but sends him two maps
of the world,

    "from which your majesty may see that your majesty's land of
    Greenland extends on both maps towards the new world and the islands
    which the Portuguese and Spaniards have discovered, so that these
    countries may be reached overland from Greenland. Likewise that they
    may be reached overland from Lampeland [i.e., Lapland], from the
    castle of Vardöhus, etc.[96] This year there is also published at
    Paris in France a map of your majesty's land of Iceland and of the
    wonders there to be seen and heard of; it is there remarked that
    Iceland is twice as large as Sicily, and that the two skippers
    ['sceppere,' i.e., commodores or admirals] Pyningk and Poidthorsth,
    who were sent out by your majesty's royal grandfather, King Christiern
    the First, at the request of his majesty of Portugal, with certain
    ships to explore new countries and islands in the north, have raised
    on the rock Wydthszerck [Hvitserk], lying off Greenland and towards
    Sniefeldsiekel in Iceland on the sea, a great sea-mark on account of
    the Greenland pirates, who with many small ships without keels
    ('szunder bodem') fall in large numbers upon other ships," etc.

It seems, as Dr. Björnbo has suggested,[97] that the Paris map here spoken
of may be Gourmont's of 1548, mentioned above. But Grip's letter contains
information about the despatch of the expedition and about the Eskimo
kayaks, which cannot be taken from the inscription attached to Hvitserk on
that map. The statement about the Eskimo (the Greenland pirates) recalls
what Ziegler says in his work "Scondia" (1532) of the inhabitants of
Greenland, that "they use light boats of hide, safe in tossing on the sea
and among rocks; and thus propelling themselves they fall upon other
ships" [Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 499]. It also has some resemblance to
what Olaus Magnus says in his later work of 1555 of the Greenland
"pirates, who employ hide-boats and an unfair mode of seamanship, since
they do not attack the upper parts of merchant ships, but seek to destroy
them by boring through the hull from outside, down by the keel," etc.
These statements may be derived from mythical accounts of the Greenland
Eskimo, which have come down by some channel we do not know of. Something
of the sort may have appeared on some now lost map, from which Grip may
have taken it; but his statement as to the two skippers having been sent
out by Christiern I. shows that in any case there was in his day a
tradition of the voyage of Pining and Pothorst. We must therefore assume
that they were despatched on a voyage of discovery by Christiern I. (some
time before 1481, when he died), probably at the request of the well-known
King Alfonso V. of Portugal (1438-1481). As Hvitserk must be on the coast
of Greenland, they seem, in agreement with the other sober statement in
Purchas, to have really reached Greenland, perhaps more than once, and to
have traded by barter with the natives, which may have ended, as it
frequently did later, in skirmishes brought about by the encroachments of
the Europeans. This last possibility would explain Grip's statement about
the Greenland pirates attacking in many small ships without keels, as also
the mythical statements of Ziegler and Olaus Magnus. Nor is it impossible
that Pining may have set up some sea-mark or other there. All this sounds
more probable than Olaus Magnus's wonderful story. But nevertheless it
does not appear to me that the authorities now known justify us in
altogether rejecting the latter and the date 1494. As there is mention in
1491 of a new "hirdstjore" in Iceland, we must suppose that Pining was
either dead or had left the island; if we compare with this the fact that
Pining was excluded from the peace that King Hans concluded in 1490 with
the Dutch, and thus in a way became an outlaw to the latter, and that in
the same year a provisional peace was made with the king of England, by
which, of course, all privateering against English subjects on the part of
Norwegians and Danes was strictly forbidden, we may possibly perceive a
connection. Pining and Pothorst were not able to break themselves of old
habits, and thus had both the English king and their own, besides the
Dutchmen, against them, and were compelled to fly the country as outlaws.
This would also agree with Olaus Magnus's words, that they were outlawed
by the strict edict of the northern kings ("aquilonarium regum severissimo
edicto"). It may be supposed that, like the outlawed Eric the Red 500
years before, they took refuge in distant Greenland, which they already
knew. But finally they may have come to grief; for among the many
"pirates" who "met with a miserable death, being either slain by their
friends or hanged on the gallows or drowned in the waves of the sea,"
Paulus Eliæ mentions "Pyning" and "Pwthorss."[98]

We have yet to mention certain obscure statements about another Northern
sailor of this time, Johannes Scolvus (Jón Skolv ?).[99] The Spanish
author Francesco Lopez de Gomara, who was a priest in Seville about 1550,
and published his "Historia de las Indias" (i.e., America) in 1553, says
there of "la Tierra de Labrador":

    "Hither also came men from Norway with the pilot ['piloto,' i.e.,
    navigator] Joan Scoluo, and Englishmen with Sebastian Gaboto."

As, according to Storm's showing [1886, p. 392], Gomara met Olaus Magnus
"in Bologna and Venice" (perhaps about 1548), and says himself that the
latter had given him much information about Northern waters and the
sea-route from Norway, the statement about Scolvus may also be due to him.

An English State document--probably of 1575, and written on the occasion
of the preparations for Frobisher's first voyage (1576)--gives a brief
survey of earlier attempts to find the North-West Passage,[100] and
mentions among others Scolvus. This the historians who have written about
him have not noticed. After stating that Sebastian [should be John]
Cabotte was sent out by King Henry VII. of England in 1496 [should be
1497] to find the passage from the North Sea [i.e., the Atlantic Ocean] to
the South Sea [i.e., the Pacific], and that "one Gaspar Cortesreales, a
pilot of Portingale," had visited these islands on the north coast of
North America in 1500, the document continues:

    "But to find oute the passage oute of the North Sea into the Southe we
    must sayle to the 60 degree, that is, from 66 unto 68. And this
    passage is called the Narowe Sea or Streicte of the three Brethren
    [i.e., the three brothers Corte-Real]; in which passage, at no tyme in
    the yere, is ise wonte to be found. The cause is the swifte ronnyng
    downe of sea into sea. In the north side of this passage, John Scolus,
    a pilot of Denmerke, was in anno 1476."

Then follows a story of a Spaniard who in 1541 is said to have been on the
south side of this passage with a troop of soldiers, and to have found
there some ships that had come thither with goods from Cataya (China).
Complete impossibilities, like this last story, are thus blended together
with statements that have a sure historical foundation, like the voyage of
Gaspar Corte-Real. As the statement about Scolus or Scolvus contains
things that are not found in Gomara, it seems to be derived from another
source; the date in particular is remarkable. That Scolus is a pilot from
Denmark, while the pilot Scolvus in Gomara came from Norway, is perhaps
immaterial, as of course Norway and Denmark were under a common king, who
resided in Denmark.

On an English map of 1582 (after Frobisher's voyages), which is attributed
to Michael Lok, there is a country to the north-west of Greenland, upon
which is written: "Jac. Scolvus Groetland." As the name is here written
Jac. Scolvus, it is not likely that it can be derived from the document we
have quoted of 1575. The corresponding country on Mercator's map of 1569
is inscribed: "Groclant, insula cuius incole Suedi sunt origine" (island
whose inhabitants are Swedes by descent). It may seem as if this
inscription also was connected with Scolvus, and we thus get the third
Scandinavian country as his native land; but this word "Suedi" may be
derived from Olaus Magnus, who happens to have often used it in the sense
of Scandinavians--i.e., Swedes and Norwegians.

In 1597 the Dutchman Cornelius Wytfliet in his description of America
("Continens Indica") states that its northern part was first discovered by
"Frislandish" fishermen [i.e., from the imaginary Frisland of the Zeno
map], and subsequently further explored about 1390 during the voyage of
the brothers Zeno (which is fictitious).

    "But [he continues] the honour of its second discovery fell to the
    Pole Johannes Scoluus (Johannes Scoluus Polonus), who in the year
    1476--eighty-six years after its first discovery--sailed beyond
    Norway, Greenland, Frisland, penetrated the Northern Strait, under the
    very Arctic Circle, and arrived at the country of Labrador and
    Estotiland."

Estotiland is another fictitious country on the notorious Zeno map (a
fabrication from several earlier maps). Apart from this introduction of
the Zeno voyage the statement contains nothing that has not already
appeared in Gomara and in the English document of 1575, with the exception
that Scolvus is called a Pole (Polonus), but this, as pointed out by Storm
[1886, p. 399], must be due to a misreading of "Polonus" for
"piloto."[101] As Norway is named first among the countries beyond which
the voyage extended, it may have started from thence in Wytfliet's
authority.[102]

On the L'Ecuy globe, of the sixteenth century, there is written in Latin
between 70° and 80° N. lat. and in long. 320°:[103] "These are the people
to whom the Dane Johannes Scovvus penetrated in the year 1476." The
description of Scolvus as a Dane may indicate the same source as the
English mention of him in 1576.[104]

Finally it may be mentioned that Georg Horn in his work "Ulysses
peregrinans" (Louvain, 1671), after speaking of voyages of the Icelanders
(Thylenses) to "Frisland or Finmark" (sic!), to Iceland, Greenland,
Scotland, and Gotland under "auspiciis Margaretæ Semiramis Dan., Sued.,
Norv.," and then of the voyages of the Zenos in the year 1390, says:

    "Joh. Scolnus Polonus discovered under the auspices of Christian I.,
    King of the Danes, the Anian-strait and the country Laboratoris in the
    year 1476."

The Anian-strait was the mythical strait between Asia and north-western
America, which was talked about and which appeared upon maps more than a
hundred years before Bering Strait was discovered by the Russian Deshenev
in 1648. But the name may sometimes have been extended to the whole of the
strait, called above, p. 130, the Strait of the Three Brethren, which was
assumed to go north of America to the Pacific. What is new in Horn's
statement is that the voyage is said to have been made under the auspices
of Christiern I.; it may be supposed that he knew enough of the history of
Denmark to draw this conclusion from the date 1476.

This is what is known from old sources about this Scolvus and his voyage.
It must be remembered that the name of Labrador (in various forms) was
used on the maps of the sixteenth century both for Greenland and Labrador,
and was originally the name of the former. It is therefore most probable
that the statements about Scolvus's voyage referred in the first instance
to Greenland, which in the first part of the sixteenth century was known
as Labrador.

To sum up what has been said above, we have, on the one hand, statements,
from wholly different sources, of one or more voyages to Greenland under
the leadership of Pining and Pothorst, in the time of Christiern I.--i.e.,
before 1481; on the other hand, we have statements, probably from several,
but at least from two sources independent of each other, about a voyage,
also to Greenland, with the pilot Johannes Scolvus, from Denmark or more
probably from Norway, in the time of Christiern I., and this is even
referred to a particular year, 1476. One is therefore led to conclude, as
G. Storm has already done, that we are here concerned with the same voyage
or voyages to Greenland, which were made under the leadership of the two
"skippers" and freebooters Pining and Pothorst, with Johannes Scolvus (Jón
Skolvsson ?) as pilot or navigator. In some authorities of Scandinavian
origin the voyage was connected with the names of the real leaders, while
in Southern authorities it was connected with that of the pilot or
navigator, in the same way as, for instance, the name of William Barentsz
was associated with the voyages in which he took part, instead of those of
Hemkerck and the other leaders. There seem thus to be sufficiently good
historical documents in support of at least one expedition having reached
Greenland in the latter part of the sixteenth century, possibly sent out
by Christiern I. in 1476, and perhaps there were more. Possibly it was
rumours of this new communication with Greenland that awoke a desire in
the monk Mathias to go there as bishop.

But then we hear no more of it. For a while longer bishops continued to be
appointed to Greenland, a land which was no longer known to any one, and
to these bishops least of all. Thus ends the history of the old Greenland
settlements. Notices of them become rarer and rarer, with long
intermissions, until after this time they cease altogether, and we know no
more of the fate of the old Norsemen there.

  "The standing-stone on the mound bears no mark,
        and Saga has forgotten what she knew."


CHAPTER XII

EXPEDITIONS OF THE NORWEGIANS TO THE WHITE SEA, VOYAGES IN THE POLAR SEA,
WHALING AND SEALING


EXPEDITIONS TO THE WHITE SEA

Even if Ottar was perhaps not the first Norwegian to reach the White Sea,
his voyage is in any case a remarkable exploring expedition, whereby both
the North Cape and the White Sea became known, even in the literature of
Europe, nearly seven hundred years before Richard Chancellor reached the
Dvina in the ship "Edward Buonaventura" in 1553, from which time the
discovery of this sea has usually been reckoned.

In Ottar's time, or soon after, the Norwegian king asserted his
sovereignty over all the Lapps as far as the White Sea, and in the
Historia Norwegiæ it is said that Hálogaland reached to Bjarmeland. The
headland Vegistafr is mentioned in the Historia Norwegiæ, in the laws, and
elsewhere, as the boundary of the kingdom of Norway towards the Bjarmas
(Beormas). This may have been on the south side of the Kola peninsula by
the river Varzuga, already mentioned, or by the river Umba (see the map,
vol. i. p. 170).[105] After Ottar's time the Norwegians more frequently
undertook expeditions, doubtless for the most part of a military
character, to the White Sea and Bjarmeland. We hear about several of them
in the sagas.

Eric Blood-Axe marched northward, about 920, into Finmark and as far as
Bjarmeland, and there fought a great battle and gained the victory. His
son, Harold Gråfeld, went northward to Bjarmeland one summer about 965
with his army, and there ravaged the country and had a great fight with
the Bjarmas on "Vinu bakka" [i.e., the river bank of the Dvina (Vina)], in
which King Harold was victorious and slew many men; and then laid the
country waste far and wide, and took a vast amount of plunder. Of this
Glumr Geirason speaks:

  "Eastward the bold-spoken king
  intrepidly stained his sword red,
  north of the burning town;
  there I saw the Bjarmas run.
  For the master of the body-guard good spear-weather
  was given on this journey,
  on Vina's bank; the fame
  of a young noble travelled far."

At that time, then, the Norwegians must have reached the Dvina and
discovered the east side of the White Sea, which was still unknown to
Ottar. They had thus proved it to be a gulf of the sea. The Bjarmas
probably lived along the whole of its south side as far as the Dvina, and
the name of "Bjarmeland" was now extended to the east side also, and thus
became the designation of the country round the White Sea. As a people of
strange race of whom they knew little, the Norwegians regarded the Lapps
as skilled in magic; but it was natural that the still less known and more
distant Bjarmas gradually acquired an even greater reputation for magic,
and in these regions stories of trolls and giants were located. The Polar
Sea was early called "Hafsbotn," later "Trollebotten," and the White Sea
was given the name of "Gandvik," to which a similar meaning is attributed,
since it is supposed to be connected with "gand" (the magic of the Lapps);
but the name evidently originated in a popular-etymological corruption of
a Karelian name, Kanðanlaksi, as already shown (vol. i. pp. 218, f.,
note).

Snorre Sturlason (ob. 1241) included in the Saga of St. Olaf a legend from
Nordland about an expedition to Bjarmeland, supposed to have been
undertaken in 1026 by Thore Hund, in company with Karle and his brother
Gunnstein from Hálogaland, men of the king's bodyguard. The tale may be an
indication that at that time more peaceful relations had been established
between the Nordlanders and the Bjarmas. They went in two vessels, Thore
in a great longship with eighty men, and the brothers in a smaller
longship with about five-and-twenty. When they came to Bjarmeland, they
put in at the market-town;[106] the market began, and all those who had
wares to exchange received full value. Thore got a great quantity of
skins, squirrel, beaver and sable. Karle also had many wares with him, for
which he bought large quantities of furs. But when the market was
concluded there, they came down the river Vina; and then they declared the
truce with the people of the country at an end. When they were out of the
river, they held a council of war, and Thore proposed that they should
plunder a sanctuary of the Bjarmas' god Jomale,[107] with grave mounds,
which he knew to be in a wood in that part of the country.[108] They did
so by night, found much silver and gold, and when the Bjarmas pursued
them, they escaped through Thore's magical arts, which made them
invisible. Both ships then sailed back over Gandvik. As the nights were
still light they sailed day and night until one evening they lay to off
some islands, took their sails down and anchored to wait for the tide to
go down, since there was a strong tide-rip (whirlpool) in front of them
("rǫst mikil var fyrir þeir"). This was probably off "Sviatoi Nos" (the
sacred promontory), where Russian authorities speak of a strong current
and whirlpool. Here there was a dispute between the brothers and Thore,
who demanded the booty as a recompense for their having escaped without
loss of life owing to his magical arts. But when the tide turned, the
brothers hoisted sail and went on, and Thore followed. When they came to
land at "Geirsver" (Gjesvær, a fishing station on the north-west side of
Magerö)--where we are told that there was "the first quay as one sails
from the north" (i.e., east from Bjarmeland)--the quarrel began again, and
Thore suddenly ran his spear through Karle, so that he died on the spot;
Gunnstein escaped with difficulty in the smaller and lighter vessel; but
was pursued by Thore, and finally had to land and take to flight with all
his men at Lenvik, near Malangen fjord, leaving his ship and cargo.

Even if this expedition is not historical, the description of the voyage
and the mention of place-names along the route nevertheless show that
these regions were well known to Snorre's informants; and journeys between
Norway and Bjarmeland cannot have been uncommon in Snorre's time or before
it. Many things show that the communication with Gandvik and Bjarmeland
continued through the whole of the Middle Ages, and was sometimes of a
peaceful, sometimes of a warlike character; but of the later voyages only
three are, in fact, mentioned in Norwegian authorities: one of them was
undertaken by the king's son Håkon Magnusson about 1090; of this
expedition little is known. In Håkon Håkonsson's time we have an
account[109] of another expedition to Bjarmeland in the year 1217, in
which took part Ǫgmund of Spånheim from Hardanger, Svein Sigurdsson from
Sogn, Andres of Sjomæling from Nordmör, all on one ship, and Helge
Bograngsson and his men from Hálogaland, on another. Svein and Andres
went home with their ship the same autumn; but Ǫgmund proceeded southward
through Russia to the Suzdal kingdom in East Russia, on a tributary of the
Volga. Helge Bograngsson and his Nordlanders stayed the winter in
Bjarmeland; but he came in conflict with the Bjarmas and was killed. After
this Ǫgmund did not venture to return that way, but went on through Russia
to the sea (i.e., the Black Sea) and thence to the Holy Land. He came
safely home to Norway after many years.

When the rumour of what had happened to Helge and his men reached home, a
punitive expedition was decided on. The king's officers in Nordland,
Andres Skjaldarbrand and Ivar Utvik, placed themselves at the head of it;
and they came to Bjarmeland with four ships in the year 1222, and
accomplished their purpose; "they wrought great havoc in plunder and
slaughter and obtained much booty in furs and burnt silver." But on the
homeward voyage Ivar's ship was lost in the whirlpool at "Straumneskinn,"
and only Ivar and one other escaped. "Straumneskinn" is probably Sviatoi
Nos (see p. 138).

This is the last Norwegian expedition to Bjarmeland of which Norwegian
accounts are known; but that the White Sea traffic continued, though it
was never very active, may be concluded from other sources. The name of
the Bjarmas themselves disappears after the middle of the thirteenth
century, when it is related that a number of Bjarmas fled before the
"Mongols" and received permission from King Håkon to live in Malangen
fjord. After that time in the districts near the Dvina we only hear of
Karelians and their masters the Russians of Novgorod.

That there was considerable navigation, probably combined with piratical
incursions, between the north of Norway and the countries to the east, may
also appear from a provision of the older Gulathings Law, where in cap.
315, in a codex of 1200-1250, we find:

    "The inhabitants of Hálogaland are to fit out thirteen twenty-seated
    and one thirty-seated ship in the southern half, but six in the
    northern half; since they [i.e., the inhabitants of the northern half]
    have to keep guard on the east."

This keeping guard might, it is true, refer to Kvæns in Finmark, but it
seems rather to point to ships coming from the east. In the negotiations
of 1251, between the Grand Duke of Novgorod (Alexander Nevsky) and Håkon
Håkonsson, there is express mention of disturbances from the east in
Finmark, and after that time we hear more frequently of hostile incursions
of Karelians and Russians in Finmark; they may have come by land, but
occasionally also by sea.

A treaty of 1326 between Norway and Novgorod shows that Norwegian
merchants traded with the people of Novgorod on the White Sea. The
erection of the fortress of Vardöhus, as early as 1307, also shows the
importance attached to these eastern communications, and the fortress
certainly afforded them a fixed point of support. Thus about 1550 we see
that "Vardöhus weight" (mark and pound) had penetrated into northern
Russia and was generally used in the North Russian fish and oil trade. The
Norwegians chiefly bought furs in Bjarmeland, but what they exported
thither is not mentioned in the Norwegian notices; it may even at that
time have been to some extent fish, which in later times was the most
important article of export to North Russia from the north of Norway.

As G. Storm [1894, p. 100] has pointed out, the Russian chronicles tell of
many hostile expeditions by sea between Norway and the White Sea in the
fifteenth century. In 1412 the inhabitants of "Savolotchie" (the countries
on the Dvina) made a campaign against the Norwegians. A complaint from
Norway of 1420 shows that the attack was directed against northern
Hálogaland, without informing us whether it was made by land or by sea.
Some years later, in 1419, the Norwegians made a campaign of reprisal and
came

    "with an army of 500 men in trading-vessels and sloops and ravaged the
    Karelian district about the Varzuga [on the Kola peninsula on the
    north side of the White Sea] and many parishes in Savolotchie [on the
    Dvina], amongst others St. Nikolai [at the mouth of the Dvina], Kigö
    and Kiarö [in the Gulf of Onega], and others. They burned three
    churches and cut down Christians and monks, but the Savolotchians sank
    two Norwegian sloops, and the rest fled across the sea."[110] "In 1444
    the Karelians went with an army against the Norwegians, and fought
    with them, and in 1445 the Norwegians came with an army to the Dvina,
    ravaged Nenoksa [in the gulf off the mouth of the Dvina] with fire and
    sword, killed some and carried off others as prisoners; but the
    inhabitants on the Dvina hastened after them, cut down their 'voivods'
    [leaders, chiefs] Ivar and Peter, and captured forty men who were sent
    to Novgorod."[110]

This will be sufficient to show that the White Sea voyage remained
familiar in Norway. This communication increased about the beginning of
the sixteenth century, and this had a decisive influence on the so-called
rediscovery of the White Sea by the English.

In reading Otter's narrative and the earliest Norse accounts of voyages to
Bjarmeland it must strike us that the Bjarmas we hear about seem to have
possessed a surprisingly high degree of culture. As Professor Olaf Broch
has also pointed out to me, this may be an indication that a comparatively
active communication had existed long before that time along the Dvina and
the Volga between the people of the White Sea and those on the Caspian and
the Black Sea (by transport from the Volga to the Don). In those early
times, before the Russians had yet established themselves in the territory
of the upper Volga, this communication may have passed to the east of the
Slavs through Finnish-speaking peoples the whole way from the lower Volga
and the Finnish Bulgarians (cf. the Mordvin tribes of to-day).

It appears to me that various statements in Arabic literature may indicate
such a connection.[111] The Arabs received information about northern
regions through their commercial communications with the Mohammedan
Finnish nation of the Bulgarians, whose capital Bulgar lay on the
Volga[112] (near to the present town of Kazan), and was a meeting-place
for traders coming up the river from the south and coming down the river
from the north. Special interest attaches to the mention of the mysterious
people "Wîsu," far in the north. This is evidently the same name as the
Russian Ves[113] for the Finnish people who, according to Nestor[114]
(beginning of the twelfth century), lived by Lake Byelo-ozero (the white
lake) in 859 A.D. They are mentioned together with Tchuds, Slavs, Merians
and Krivitches, and were doubtless the most northerly of them, possibly
spreading northwards towards the White Sea. They are probably the same
people that Adam of Bremen [iv., c. 14, 19] calls "Wizzi" (see vol. i. p.
383; vol. ii. p. 64), and possibly those Jordanes calls
"Vasinabroncæ,"[115] who together with "Merens" (Merians ?) and "Mordens"
(Mordvins ?) were subdued by Ermanrik, king of the Goths. But the Arabic
Wîsu seems sometimes to have been a common name for all Finnish (and even
Samoyed) tribes in North Russia and on the coast of the Polar Sea.

According to Jaqût,[116] Ahmad Ibn Fadhlân (about 922 A.D.)[117] stated in
his work that

    "the King of the Bulgarians had told him that behind his country, at a
    distance of three months' journey, there lived a people called Wîsu,
    among whom the nights [in summer] were not even one hour long." Once
    the king is said to have written to this people, and in their answer
    it was stated that the people "Yâǵûǵ and Mâǵûǵ [on the Ob ?] lived
    over three months' journey distant from them [i.e., the Wîsu] and that
    they were separated from them by the sea" (?). The Yâǵûǵ and Mâǵûǵ
    lived on the great fish that were cast ashore. The same is told by
    Dimashqî (ob. 1327) about the Yâǵûǵ and Mâǵûǵ, and by Qazwînî
    (thirteenth century) about the people "Yura" on the Pechora.

Jaqût (ob. 1229) in his geographical lexicon[118] has an article on

    "'Wîsu' situated beyond Bulgar. Between it and Bulgar is three months'
    journey. The night is there so short that one is not aware of any
    darkness, and at another time of year, again, it is so long that one
    sees no daylight." In his article on "Itil" Jaqût says: "Upon it [the
    river Itil or Volga] traders travel as far as 'Vîsu'[119] and bring
    [thence] great quantities of furs, such as beaver, sable and
    squirrel."

Al-Qazwînî (ob. 1283) says:[120]

    "The beaver is a land- and water-animal, which dwells in the great
    rivers in the land of 'Isu' [i.e., Wîsu, cf. al-Bîrûnî], and builds a
    home on the bank of a river." He further relates that "the inhabitants
    of 'Wîsu' never visit the land of the Bulgarians, since when they come
    thither the air changes and cold sets in--even if it be in the middle
    of summer--so that all their crops are ruined. The Bulgarians know
    this, and therefore do not permit them to come to their country."
    Qazwînî also gives the information that "Wîsu" is three months'
    journey beyond Bulgar, and continues: "The Bulgarians take their wares
    thither for trade. Each one lays his wares, which he furnishes with a
    mark, in a certain spot and leaves them there. Then he comes back and
    finds a commodity, of which he can make use in his own country, laid
    by the side of them. If he is satisfied with this, he takes what is
    offered in exchange, and leaves his wares behind; if he is not, he
    takes his own away again. In this way buyer and seller never see one
    another. This is also the proceeding, as we have related, in the
    southern lands, in the land of the blacks." The same story of dumb
    trading with a people in the north is met with again in Abu'lfeda (ob.
    1321) and Ibn Batûta (cf. also Michel Beheim, later, p. 270).

Ibn Batûta (1302-1377) has no name for this people, any more than
Abu'lfeda; but he calls their country "the Land of Darkness," and has an
interesting description of the journey thither.[121]

    He himself, he says, wished to go there from Bulgar, but gave it up,
    as little benefit was to be expected of it. "That land lies 40 days'
    journey from Bulgar, and the journey is only made in small cars[122]
    drawn by dogs. For this desert has a frozen surface, upon which
    neither men nor horses can get foothold, but dogs can, as they have
    claws. This journey is only undertaken by rich merchants, each taking
    with him about a hundred carriages [sledges ?], provided with
    sufficient food, drink and wood; for in that country there is found
    neither trees, nor stones nor soil. As a guide through this land they
    have a dog which has already made the journey several times, and it is
    so highly prized that they pay as much as a thousand dinars [gold
    pieces] for one. This dog is harnessed with three others by the neck
    to a car [sledge ?], so that it goes as the leader and the others
    follow it. When it stops, the others do the same.... When the
    travellers have accomplished forty days' journey through the desert,
    they stop in the Land of Darkness, leave their wares there, and
    withdraw to their quarters. Next morning they go back to the same spot
    ..." and then follows a description of the dumb barter, like that in
    Qazwînî. They receive sable, squirrel and ermine in exchange for their
    goods. "Those who go thither do not know with whom they trade, whether
    they be spirits or men; they see no one."[123]

Of special interest for our subject is the following statement in Abû
Hâmid (1080-1169 or 1170) which may point to the peoples on the shores of
the Polar Sea having obtained steel for their harpoons and sealing weapons
from Persia:

    "The traders travel from Bulgâr to one of the lands of the infidels
    which is called Îsû [Wîsu], from which the beaver comes. They take
    swords thither which they buy in Âdherbeiǵân [Persia], unpolished
    blades. They pour water often over these, so that when the blades are
    hung up by a cord and struck, they ring.... And that is as they ought
    to be. They buy beavers' skins with these blades. The inhabitants of
    Îsû go with these swords to a land near the darkness and lying on the
    Dark Sea [the northern Atlantic or the Polar Sea] and sell these
    swords for sables' skins. They [i.e., the inhabitants of that country]
    again take some of these blades and cast them into the Dark Sea. Then
    Allâh lets a fish as big as a mountain come up to them, etc. They cut
    up its flesh for days and months, and sometimes fill 100,000 houses
    with it," etc. [Cf. Jacob, 1891, p. 76; 1891a, p. 29; Mehren, 1857,
    pp. 169, f.]

It is not credible that the swords which rang in this way were harpoons,
as Jacob thinks. We must rather suppose that they were rough
("unpolished") steel blades, which were used for making harpoons and
lances (for walrus-hunting and whaling). The blades having water poured
over them must doubtless mean the tempering of the steel, through which,
when it was afterwards hung up by a cord, it came to give the true ring.
Although Abû Hâmid is no trustworthy writer, it seems that there must be
some reality at the base of this statement; and we here have information
about some of the wares that the traders carried to Wîsu, and that were
derived from their commercial intercourse with Arabs and Jews. The people
to whom the inhabitants of Wîsu or Vesses took the steel blades must have
been fishermen on the shore of the Polar Sea, who carried on seal- and
walrus-hunting, and perhaps also whaling, and this is what is referred to
by the fish that Allâh sends up. They may have been Samoyeds (on the
Pechora), Karelians, Tver-Finns, and even Norwegians. It might be objected
that sables cannot be supposed to have been obtained from the last-named;
but this is doubtless not to be taken too literally. Ibn Ruste (circa 912
A.D.) thus says that the Rûs (Scandinavians, usually Swedes) had no other
occupation but trading in sables, squirrel and other furs, which they sold
to any one who would buy them.

It seems to result from what may be trustworthy in these statements that
there was fairly active commercial intercourse from Bulgar with the Vesses
and with the peoples on the White Sea, and perhaps in districts near the
Polar Sea. A shortest night of one hour would take us to a little north of
the mouth of the Dvina. In the land of the Vesses by Lake Byelo-ozero
there was an easy way across from the Volga's tributary Syexna to Lake
Kubenskoye, which has a connection with the Dvina; and there was also
transit to the river Onega. There was thus easy communication along the
great rivers; but besides this the traders seem also to have travelled
overland with dogs; this was probably when going north to Yugria and the
country of the Pechora, in the same way as traders in our time generally
go there with reindeer. The trade in furs was then, as in antiquity, the
powerful incentive; it was that too which chiefly attracted the Norwegians
to Bjarmeland.

It is not likely that the Arabs themselves reached North Russia; one would
suppose rather that travelling Jews assisted as middlemen in the trade
with these regions. But the finding of Arab coins on the Pechora would
point to Arab trade having penetrated through intermediaries to the shores
of the Polar Sea.[124]


THE POLAR EXPEDITION OF THE FRISIAN NOBLES AND KING HAROLD'S VOYAGE TO THE
WHIRLPOOL

Among mediæval voyages to the North there remain yet to be mentioned
Harold Hardråde's expedition[125] and the voyage of the Frisian nobles,
related by Adam of Bremen in the descriptions already given (vol. i. pp.
195, f.). That the latter voyage must be an invention, and cannot contain
much of historical value, is obvious (cf. vol. i. p. 196). The whole
description of the abyss or maelstrom is taken from Paulus Warnefridi (as
will be seen by a comparison of the descriptions on pp. 157 and 195, vol.
i.); the Cyclopes of marvellous stature, as well as the treasures of gold
that they guard, are originally derived from classical literature,
although Adam may have taken them from earlier mediæval authors, and
Northern ideas about the giants in the north in Jotunheim may have helped
to localise the story.[126] The great darkness, the stiffened sea, chaos
and the gulf of the abyss at the uttermost end of the world or of the
ocean are all classical conceptions, and the description itself of the
dangers of the voyage, of the darkness that could scarcely be penetrated
by the eyes, etc., is just what we find in classical literature, and in
many points bears great resemblance to the poem of Albinovanus Pedo, for
example (see vol. i. p. 82). It is possible, of course, that there may be
thus much historical truth in the story, that some Frisian nobles made a
voyage to the Orkneys or perhaps to Iceland, but even this is doubtful,
and the rest is demonstrably invention. In spite of this Master Adam
asserts that Archbishop Adalbert in person had told him all this, and that
it happened in the days of his predecessor, Archbishop Alebrand, who had
the story from the travellers' own lips; for they returned to Bremen and
brought thank-offerings to Christ and to their saint "Willehad" for their
safety. One might suppose that these nobles themselves had invented the
story and told it to the archbishop;[127] but it does not seem likely that
they were acquainted with Paulus Warnefridi's description of the
maelstrom, and the Cyclopes with their treasures in the north seem also to
be learned embroidery; they might have heard oral tales about them, but in
any case we may doubtless suppose that the story has been much "improved"
by Adam. There is a mediæval folk-song about the dangers of sailors at sea
which may also be supposed to have contributed to the description.

Be that as it may, this story must weaken our confidence in Adam's
credibility, or rather in his critical sense. If his narrative of a voyage
which started from his own adopted town of Bremen not long before his time
is so untrustworthy, what are we to think of his statement about the
experienced Norwegian king Harold's expedition to explore the extent of
the ocean? No doubt it may appear as though he had his information about
this voyage from the Danish king Svein, who is mentioned as his authority
for the statements immediately preceding, and so far this information
might have a good source; but it has received precisely the same
decoration as the other voyage, with the mist or darkness that shuts out
the uttermost end of the world, and the vast gulf of the abyss which was
narrowly escaped. This is certainly of older origin, and he has not even
given himself the trouble to make a little alteration in the dangers of
the two stories. Another thing that weakens our confidence in his
statements is his saying that the Danish king had told him that all the
sea beyond the island of Winland was filled with intolerable ice and
immeasurable darkness. It may doubtless be supposed that classical
conceptions had even at that time created superstitions of this kind in
the North, and thus King Svein may have told him this; but it must be more
probable that all these ancient book-learned ideas are due, not to the
unlearned and travelled monarch, but to the well-read magister, who
moreover himself quotes in the same connection Marcianus's words about the
congealed sea beyond Thule.

It would be entirely in Adam's vein if some accidental resemblance or
association had given him an opportunity of making use in this way of
ideas he had from his learned reading, just as the name of Kvænland gave
him the chance of bringing in the myths of the Amazons, Cynocephali, etc.
(cf. vol. i. p. 383). It was pointed out earlier (vol. i. pp. 195, 197)
that the statements about the sea "beyond this island" and about Harold's
voyage are possibly a later addition by Adam himself, which has been
inserted in the wrong place; "this island" might then mean Thyle (Iceland)
and not Winland. Whether we regard the latter as a newly discovered
country in America or as the Insulæ Fortunatæ, it is difficult to
understand why precisely the sea on the other side of this island should
be particularly associated with the ancient conceptions of the dark or
misty, and the congealed or ice-filled sea; ice and darkness are nowhere
connected in this way with Wineland in later authorities. It is true that
in Arabian myth there are islands in the west near the Sea of Darkness
(cf. chapter xiii.) and that the Promised Land in Irish myth is surrounded
by darkness (== fog) like the Norwegian huldrelands and the Icelandic
elflands; but if Adam got his ideas in this way, it would only show more
conclusively how mythical his narrative is. If Adam confused the names of
Vinland and Finland (i.e., Finmark) (cf. vol. i. pp. 198, 382; vol. ii. p.
31), it would also be natural for him to imagine that beyond it were ice
and darkness.

The view has been held that the whirlpool in which King Harold and the
Frisian nobles were nearly drawn down was of Scandinavian or Germanic
origin [cf. S. Lönborg, 1897, pp. 173, f.]. It seems undoubtedly to
correspond to the Norse "Ginnungagap" [cf. G. Storm, 1890, pp. 340, ff.];
but it is a question how early this idea arose. I have already (vol. i.
pp. 11, 12, 17) pointed out the probable connection between it and the
Greek Tartaros (and Anostos) or Chaos, and have shown (vol. i. pp. 158,
f.) that Paulus Warnefridi took his whirlpool from this source, and called
it Chaos. But now it is evident, as we have seen, that Adam took his
description of the whirlpool from Paulus, and thus we have the full
connection. It may also be mentioned as curious that Lucian in his Vera
Historia tells of just such an abyss:

    "We sailed through a crystal-clear, transparent water until we were
    obliged to stop before a great cleft in the sea.... Our ship was near
    being drawn down into this abyss, if we had not taken in the sails in
    time. As we then put our heads out and looked down, we saw a depth of
    a thousand stadia, before which our minds and senses stood still...."
    Finally with great difficulty they rowed across a bridge of water that
    stretched over the abyss [Wieland, 1789, iv. p. 222].

    With this may be compared that in the Irish legend (Imram Maelduin)
    Maelduin and his companions came to a sea like green glass, so clear
    that the sun and the green sand of the sea were visible through it.
    Thence they came to another sea which was like fog (clouds), and it
    seemed to them that it could hardly support them or their boat; they
    saw in the sea beneath them people adorned with jewels and a
    delightful land, etc.; but when they also saw down below a huge
    monster which devoured a whole ox, they were seized with fear and
    trembling, for they thought they would not be able to get across this
    sea without falling through to the bottom, because it was as thin as
    cloud; but they came over it with great danger [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p.
    164].

Although, as already mentioned (vol. i. p. 362), Lucian does not seem to
have been read in western Europe before the fourteenth century, I cannot
get away from the impression that in some oral way or other (cf. vol. i.
pp. 362, f.) there must be a connection between the Irish tale (written
down long before Adam of Bremen's work) and the above-mentioned fable (as
well as many others) which Lucian reproduces, whether the connection be
with Lucian himself or with the authors he parodies. But then it will not
be rash to conclude further that there may also be a connection between
the cleft in the sea or profound abyss of Lucian or of Greek fable, from
which mariners escaped with difficulty, and Adam's whirlpool, which King
Harold avoided by turning back.

But it is also conceivable that the various currents in northern waters
may have furnished food for these constantly recurring ideas about
maelstroms and whirlpools. Such maelstroms appear also in Irish legends.
In the "Imram Brenaind" [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 134] it is related that:

    One day the voyagers saw on the ocean deep, dark currents [whirlpools]
    and their ships seemed to be drawn into them with the force of the
    storm. In this great danger all eyes were turned upon Brandan. He
    spoke to the sea, saying that it should be satisfied with drowning him
    alone, but spare his comrades. Thereupon the sea became calm, and the
    rushing of the whirlpool ceased immediately; from that time until now
    it has done no harm to others.

The Historia Norwegiæ places "Charybdis, Scylla, and unavoidable
whirlpools" in the north in "Hafsbotn" (cf. later). This must have been a
general idea in Norway; for about one hundred years later, in 1360, the
Englishman, Nicholas of Lynn, who travelled in Norway in the middle of the
fourteenth century, wrote his lost work, "Inventio Fortunata," on the
northern countries and their whirlpools from 53° to the North Pole; but
unfortunately we do not know its contents.[128] The conceptions of these
whirlpools may doubtless be connected with reports of dangerous currents
in the north. The Moskenström by the Lofoten Islands may in particular
have given rise to much superstition at an early time. In winter with a
westerly wind it runs at a rate of as much as six miles an hour, and with
a rising tide it may be altogether impassable. It may set up a high
topping sea, which breaks over the whole current so that it can be heard
three or four miles off.[129] In later times there are terrifying
descriptions of this dangerous current. Thus Olaus Magnus (1555) says that
between Roest and Lofoten

    "is so great an abyss, or rather Charybdis, that it suddenly swamps
    and swallows up in an instant those mariners who incautiously
    approach" (see the illustration, vol. i. p. 158).... "Pieces of
    wreckage are very seldom thrown up again, and if they come to light,
    the hard material shows such signs of wear and chafing through being
    dashed against the rocks, that it looks as if it were covered with
    rough wool." And the natural force here manifested exceeds all that is
    related of Charybdis in Sicily and other wonders.

The Englishman, Anthony Jenkinson, who made a voyage to the White Sea in
1557, writes of it:[130]

    "Note that there is between the said Rost Islands & Lofoot, a whirle
    poole called Malestrand, which from halfe ebbe untill halfe flood,
    maketh such a terrible noise, that it shaketh the ringes in the doores
    of the inhabitants houses of the sayd Islands tenne miles off. Also if
    there commeth any Whale within the current of the same, they make a
    pitifull crie. Moreover, if great trees be caried into it by force of
    streams, and after with the ebbe be cast out againe, the ends and
    boughs of them have bene so beaten, that they are like the stalkes of
    hempe that is bruised."

Schönnerböl in 1591 gives a more detailed description of the current, in
which the same things are reported

    of the iron ring "in the house door ... it is shaken hither and
    thither by the rushing of the current"; of the whale, who when "he
    cannot go forward on account of the strong stream, gives a great cry,
    as it were a great ox, and then he is gone..."; and, finally, of great
    trees, spruce or fir, which disappear in this current, and when at
    last they come up again, "then all the boughs, all the roots and all
    the bark is torn off, and it is shaped as though it had been cut with
    a sharp axe." He says that "many people are of the opinion that there
    is a whirlpool in this current or immediately outside it"; and "when
    the stream is strongest, one can see the sun and the sky through the
    waves, since they go as high as other high mountains."[131]

Peder Claussön Friis gives a similarly exaggerated description of the
current (circa 1613), sometimes using the same expressions as the authors
quoted. The resemblance between these various descriptions is so great
that it cannot easily be explained merely by their reporting the same oral
tradition; what they have in common must rather be derived from an older
written source (Nicholas of Lynn ?), which again has adopted ancient
mythical conceptions. It is strange how few more recent ideas have been
added even in Schönneböl, who was sheriff of Lofoten and Vesterålen for at
least twenty years (from 1570), and must have had plenty of opportunity
for gathering information on the spot; but it is the usual experience that
everything that could be got from old books was preferred. That stories of
the Moskenström may have been known in Adam of Bremen's time is highly
probable, perhaps even Paulus Warnefridi had heard of it (cf. vol. i. p.
158).

When we have shorn Adam's tale of all borrowed features, is there enough
left to make it possible that the Norwegian king Harold undertook a voyage
out into the ocean? It is not easy to form a definite opinion on this, but
the probability must be that King Svein or the Danes told some such story,
which was then adorned by Master Adam. As the voyage was supposed to have
taken place recently, it must be Harold Hardråde who was intended,
otherwise one might be led to think of Harold Gråfeld's celebrated voyage
to Bjarmeland.[132] What the object may have been, and what direction the
voyage took, we do not know. As Adam says it was to explore "the breadth
of the northern ocean" ("latitudinem septentrionalis oceani"), one must
suppose that in his opinion it set out from Norway northward or
north-westward over the ocean towards its uttermost limit, since according
to the maps and ideas of that time he imagined the ocean as surrounding
the disc of the earth like a ribbon (see vol. i. p. 199), and he may then
have sailed across this to find out its extent.[133] But it is quite
possible, as P. A. Munch [1852, ii. pp. 269, ff.] suggested, that Master
Adam may have heard something about a northward voyage undertaken by
Harold, during which he had been exposed to some danger in the Saltström
or the Moskenström;[134] or if it was a voyage to Bjarmeland (Harold
Gråfeld's ?) that he heard of, then it might be the current at Sviatoi
Nos or Straumneskinn, often spoken of in the sagas, that Adam has made
into the whirlpool.


WHALING AND SEALING VOYAGES OF THE NORWEGIANS IN THE POLAR SEA

The skill of the Norwegians as fishermen, whalers and sealers had, of
course, a great deal to do with the development of their seamanship and
ability to travel and support themselves along unknown and uninhabited
shores. The accurate knowledge of the many species of seals and whales
shown in the "King's Mirror," to which no parallel is met with earlier in
the literature of the world, proves how important the hunting of these
animals must have been; for otherwise so much attention would not have
been paid to them.[135] When in speaking of the greater whales a
distinction is made between those that are shy and keep away from the
hunters, and those that are tamer and easier to approach, and when the
longest of all ("reyðr") is mentioned as being specially tame and easily
caught, we can only regard this as showing that whaling was also carried
on in the open sea; that is, not in a merely accidental fashion, as when
the whales entered narrow fjords where they could be intercepted, or when
they ran aground.

From Ottar's statement to King Alfred (cf. vol. i. p. 172)--that "in his
own land [i.e., Norway] there is the best whaling. They are forty-eight
cubits long, and the largest are fifty cubits long"--we may conclude that
the Norwegians, and perhaps the Lapps also, hunted the great whales as
early as the ninth century, and doubtless long before that time, while
King Alfred does not seem to have known of any such whaling being
practised in England.[136] We are not told in what way the whale was
caught in those days, but from statements elsewhere it is probable that
the Norwegians had several methods of taking whales, as is the case even
to the present day in Norway: one way was with the harpoon and
harpoon-line in open waters, that is, without cutting off the whale's
escape with nets.

The Arab cosmographer, Qazwînî (of the thirteenth century), quoting the
Spanish-Arabic writer Omar al-'Udhrî[137] (of the eleventh century), says
that the Norsemen in Irlânda (Ireland).

    "hunt young whales, and they are very great fish. They hunt their
    young and eat them.... Of the method of catching them al-'Udhrî
    relates that the hunters collect in their ships. They have a great
    iron hook [i.e., harpoon] with sharp teeth, and on the hook a strong
    ring, and in the ring a stout rope. When they come to a young one,
    they clap their hands and make a noise. The young one is amused by the
    clapping of hands and approaches the ship, delighting therein.
    Thereupon one of the seamen approaches and scratches its forehead,
    which the young one likes. Then he lays the hook to the middle of its
    head, takes a heavy iron hammer and gives three blows with all his
    force upon the hook. It does not heed the first blow, but with the
    second and third it makes a great commotion, and sometimes it catches
    some part of the ship with its tail, and knocks it to pieces, and it
    continues in violent agitation until it is overcome by exhaustion.
    Then the crew of the ship draw it to shore with their combined force.
    Sometimes the mother notices the movements of the young one, and
    pursues them. Then they have a great quantity of crushed onions in
    readiness, and throw it into the water. When the whale perceives the
    smell of the onions it finds it detestable, turns round and retreats.
    Then they cut the flesh of the young one in pieces and salt it.[138]
    And its flesh is white as snow, and its skin black as ink."[139]

This is, clearly enough, a layman's naive description of whaling with
harpoon and harpoon-line in open waters, a method which had therefore
already been introduced into Ireland by the Norwegians at that time. It
may consequently be regarded as certain that the Norwegians were
acquainted with harpooning. That this was very usual appears also from the
"King's Mirror" and the ancient Norwegian laws, where whaling and
whale-harpoons ("skutill") are often mentioned.

On the west coast of Norway, in the neighbourhood of Bergen, there is
still practised to-day another method of catching whales which must be
very ancient. When the great whales enter certain fjords which have a
narrow inlet, their escape is cut off by nets, and they are shot with
poisoned arrows from bows which entirely resemble the crossbows of the
Middle Ages. The arrows used are old and rusty, and convey bacteria from
one whale to another. When the whale has been hit by these arrows it is
rapidly weakened from blood-poisoning, so that it may easily be harpooned
and then killed by lances, after which it is cut up and divided among the
inhabitants of the fjord, according to ancient, unwritten rules. In spite
of the blood-poisoning, the whale's flesh and blubber are eaten, and are
regarded as very valuable provisions. I have myself often taken part in
this kind of whaling. Possibly Peder Claussön Friis [cf. Storm, 1881, p.
70] refers to a similar method of whaling when he says that

    "in ancient times many expedients or methods were used for catching
    whales, which ... on account of men's unskilfulness have fallen out of
    use."

They had "a spear with sharp irons, so that it could not be pulled out
again." This was hurled into the whale, which died in a short time, or
became so weakened that it could be drawn to land;

    "which whales were then cut up and divided among those who had shot,
    and him who owned the land, or him who had first found the whale
    driven in, according to the provisions of the law."

We must suppose that this iron was poisoned with bacteria from former
whales, in a similar way to the arrows mentioned above, whereby the
animal's wound was infected. However, Peder Claussön's description of the
hunt is evidently taken in great measure from older literary sources,
since similar descriptions are found as early as in Albertus Magnus (ob.
1280) [De animalibus, xxiv. 651], and in Vincent of Beauvais [Speculum
universalis, i. 1272]. In all three authors the whale dives after being
struck, and tosses about on the bottom or rubs itself against it, thereby
driving the spear farther in; but in Peder Claussön it does so in order to
"get rid of the shot," while in Albertus it is on account of salt water
getting into the wound, and in Vincentius the salt water penetrates and
kills the wounded whale. As the descriptions of Albertus and Vincentius
evidently refer to ordinary harpoon-whaling, it may be doubtful whether
Peder Claussön's statement really relates to a method of catching
different from the usual one with harpoon and line, although one is
disposed to believe that it does. He also mentions in the same place other
whales that they could "pursue with boats and drive into bays and small
fjords, and kill them there with hand-shot and bow-shot." This may be
supposed to refer to a method similar to that mentioned above, with
poisoned arrows; but, on the other hand, it may relate to a third method
of taking small whales, which was certainly practised from very early
times in Norway, and which consists in schools of small whales being
driven into bays and inlets, where they are intercepted with nets and
driven ashore.

The method of whaling with poisoned arrows or throwing-spears must, as has
been said, be very ancient. Whether it was invented by the Norwegians
themselves, or whether they did not rather learn it from the older
hunter-people of Norway, the "Finns," is difficult to determine. Nor do we
know how ancient whaling in general may be in the North; it may date from
early times, though Ottar's mention of it is the earliest known in
literature.

It is evident that a high development of seamanship, skill in hunting, and
resourcefulness were required before men could venture to encounter the
great whales of the ocean in open fight with free sea-room, where the
whale was not crippled by having run aground or into narrow fjords with no
outlet. This whaling in the open sea demanded the invention of special
appliances, of which the harpoon with its line was of special importance.
It may be possible, though it is not certain, that the Norwegians were the
first Europeans to practise this kind of whaling, and as, from numerous
documents, we may conclude that whaling was actively carried on by the
Normans in Normandy as early as the tenth and eleventh centuries, one is
inclined to suppose that it was the Normans who first introduced the
method of harpoon and line there,[140] and then passed it on to the
Basques. But we ought not to lose sight of the fact that there are other
possibilities, since the harpoon was probably known to and used on smaller
marine animals by the neolithic people of Europe, and the taking of larger
fish with harpoon and line was known in the Mediterranean in
antiquity,[141] as appears, for instance, from Polybius's description of
the catching of swordfish at Scyllæum (on the Straits of Messina), which
is reproduced in Strabo, i. 24:

    "A common look-out man goes at their head, while they collect in many
    two-oared boats to lie in wait for the fish; two in each boat. One of
    them rows, the other stands in the bow with a spear, while the
    look-out man gives warning of the appearance of the fish; for the
    animal swims with a third of its body above water. As soon as the boat
    has reached the fish, the spearman pierces it by hand, and immediately
    draws the spear out of its body again, with the exception of the
    point; for this is provided with barbs, and is purposely attached
    loosely to the shaft, and has a long line fastened to it. This is paid
    out after the wounded fish, until it is tired by floundering and
    attempts at flight; then it is drawn to land, or taken into the boat
    if it is not very large." No better description of harpoon-fishing is
    to be found in the Middle Ages. The dolphin was to the Greeks
    Poseidon's beast, and they did not take it; but from Oppian's account
    we see that the barbarian fishermen on the coast of Thrace had no such
    scruples, but caught dolphins with harpoons to which a long line was
    attached [cf. Noël, 1815, p. 42].

If the Iberian people of the western Mediterranean practised this kind of
fishing, the Basques may also have been acquainted with it. But if they
used the harpoon on swordfish and small whales, the further step to using
it for the Biscay whale was not insuperable to these hardy seamen, and
they may thus have themselves developed their methods of whaling without
having learnt from the Normans, even if no evidence is forthcoming of
their having been acquainted with whaling so early as the latter.[142] It
may also be supposed that the Norsemen in the beginning, far back in grey
antiquity, took their harpoon-fishing from the south, just as they
obtained the form of their craft to some extent from the Mediterranean.

Thus, although we cannot regard it as certain that the Norwegians
introduced the knowledge of whaling with the harpoon and line in Normandy,
it is in any case probable that they were particularly active in
practising and developing this method, and we may conclude that they must
have been acquainted with whaling before they came there, since we see
that the whalers of Normandy bore the Scandinavian name of
"walmanni."[143] If they had learnt their whaling in the foreign land, it
goes without saying that they would also have taken the name from thence,
and it is extremely improbable that they should have acquired a
Scandinavian designation for an occupation the knowledge of which they
had not brought with them from their native land.

The Normans also took with them the knowledge of whaling as far as the
Mediterranean. In Guillelmus Appulus's description (of about 1099-1111) of
the Norman conquest of southern Italy it is related[144] that when Robert
Guiscard comes to the town of Regina in Calabria he hears

    "the rumour that there is a fish not for from the town in the waves of
    the Adriatic, a great one with an immense body, of an incredible
    aspect, which the people of Italy had not seen before. The winds of
    spring, on account of the fresh water, had driven it thither. It was
    captured by the ingenuity of the leader [i.e., Robert] by means of
    various arts. It swam into a net made of fine ropes, and when it was
    completely entangled in the nets with the heavy iron, it dived down to
    the depths of the sea, but at last it was hit by the seamen in various
    projecting places, and with much pains dragged ashore. There the
    people look at it as a strange monster. Then it is out in pieces by
    order of the leader. Thereof he obtains for himself and his men much
    food, and also for the people who dwelt on the coasts of Calabria. And
    the Apulian people also have a share of it."

It looks as though the author's view was that the whale was caught with
nets and killed by the throwing of lances, which is not impossible; but it
may also be supposed that the poetical description is somewhat misleading,
and that the "nets with the heavy iron" were the harpoon with its line
(?).

It may be regarded as doubtful whether the harpooning of great whales in
open waters was ever so actively carried on and brought to such perfection
during the Middle Ages in Norway, Iceland and Greenland as was evidently
the case in Normandy and especially among the Basques, from whom later
the English and the Dutch learned it. As in those days there was abundance
of whales to be caught on the Norwegian coast (the nord-caper was then
numerous there), this kind of whaling would not tempt the Norwegians to
seek better hunting-grounds along other coasts in northern waters. On the
other hand, it is evident that practice in whaling must have been of great
importance to them, wherever they settled in these regions.

Albertus Magnus (ob. 1280), who gives a detailed description of the
harpoon and of whaling (cf. above, p. 158), has also the following
description of walrus-hunting:

    "Those whales which have bristles, and others, have very long
    tusks,[145] and by them they hang themselves up on stones and rocks
    when they sleep. Then the fisherman approaches, and tears away as much
    as he can of the skin from the blubber by the tail, and makes fast a
    strong rope to the skin he has loosened, and he binds the ropes fast
    to rings fixed in the rocks or to very strong posts or trees. Then he
    throws large stones at the fish and wakes it. When the fish is awake
    and wants to go back [into the sea], it pulls its skin off from the
    tail along the back and head, and leaves it behind there. And
    afterwards it is caught not far from the spot, when it has exhausted
    its strength, as it floats bloodless upon the sea, or lies half-dead
    on the shore."

He also tells us that walrus-rope[146] was commonly sold at the fair at
Cologne, which shows that walrus-hunting must have acquired great
importance at that time. It can only have been carried on by the
Norwegians (and Icelanders ?), the Finns or Lapps, the peoples of the
north coast of Russia, and the Greenlanders. It is unlikely that the ropes
were brought all the way from Russia by land to Cologne; they must rather
have come from Norway. The Norwegians obtained a certain quantity of
walrus-rope ("svarðreip") through the trade with Greenland, and perhaps
with North Russia, but they probably got most from their own hunting in
northern waters. The quantity of walrus they could kill in Finmark would
not be sufficient to satisfy the demand, and, as suggested earlier (vol.
i. p. 177), they must certainly have sought fresh hunting-grounds, above
all eastwards in the Polar Sea.

Norse-Icelandic literature does not tell us that the Norwegians in their
voyages to Bjarmeland went any farther east than "Gandvik" (the White Sea)
and the Dvina. But it is to be noted that the sagas as a rule only mention
the expeditions of chiefs, with warlike exploits, fighting and slaughter
of one kind or another; while peaceful trading voyages, which were
certainly numerous, are not spoken of, nor walrus-hunting and hunting
expeditions in general, since such occupations were not usually followed
by chiefs. We cannot therefore expect to find anything in the sagas about
countries or waters where there were no people, and where only hunting was
carried on.

From Ottar, however, who was not a saga-writer, we learn that
walrus-hunting was practised, and doubtless very perseveringly, in the
ninth century (vol. i. p. 176), and that even at that time he went in
pursuit of it as far as the White Sea. It is thus extremely improbable
that such hardy hunters should have stopped there, and not continued to
move eastward, where there was such valuable prey to be secured. We must
suppose that at least they reached the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, where
there were walrus and seal in abundance. That such was the case is just as
probable as the reverse is improbable, and as it is improbable that
expeditions of this kind should have found mention in the sagas. That the
Norwegians knew Novaya Zemlya may perhaps be concluded from the mediæval
Icelandic geography (cf. vol. i. p. 313; vol. ii. p. 1), according to
which the land extended northward from Bjarmeland round the north of
Hafsbotn (the Polar Sea) as far as Greenland, making the latter continuous
with Europe (cf. the map, p. 2). The knowledge that the west coast of
Novaya Zemlya extended northwards into the unknown may have given rise to
such an idea. It was general in Scandinavia and Iceland in the latter part
of the Middle Ages, whilst Adam of Bremen speaks of Greenland as an
island, like Iceland and other islands in the northern ocean. The
discovery of "Svalbard" (Spitzbergen ?) in 1194 may, as we shall see
directly, have lent support to the belief in this connection by land.

Saxo Grammaticus in his Danish history, of the beginning of the thirteenth
century, also has mythical tales of voyages to Bjarmeland. Amongst others
the legendary king Gorm and Thorkel Adelfar on a mythical voyage to the
north and east came first to Hálogaland, then to "Hither Bjarmeland,"
which had steep shores and much cattle, and then to a land with continual
cold and heavy snow, without any warmth of summer, rich in impenetrable
forests, which was without produce of the fields, full of beasts unknown
elsewhere, and where many rivers rushed through rocky beds. This land was
"Farther Bjarmeland."[147] If we except the forests this description suits
Novaya Zemlya better than the Kola peninsula; but it is extremely doubtful
whether any real knowledge of these regions lies at the root of Saxo's
mythical tales, in which, for instance, the travellers come to the river
of death and the land of the dead. The designation Farther Bjarmeland may
nevertheless point to a land having been known beyond the often-mentioned
Bjarmeland.

In the old legendary sagas there is frequent mention of "the Farther
Bjarmeland," which lay to the north or north-east of the real Bjarmeland
(Permia), and where there was a people of gigantic size and immense
riches. This fabulous country may, it is true, be entirely mythical,
perhaps originally derived from ancient Greek myths; but on the other hand
it may be the knowledge of Novaya Zemlya that has influenced the formation
of the myths about it. However this may be, we may be sure that the
voyages of the Norwegian hunters in those days extended into the eastern
Polar Sea far beyond the limits of Ottar's voyage, and much farther than
the chance mentions in the sagas of more or less warlike expeditions of
chiefs to the White Sea would indicate.

A notice that is extant relating to the year 1194 shows better than
anything else that the Norwegians probably made extensive voyages in the
Polar Sea, and the mention of it is purely fortuitous. In the "Islandske
Annaler" (in six different MSS.) it is briefly stated of the year 1194:
"Svalbarðs fundr" or "Svalbarði fundinn" (Svalbard was discovered); but
that is all we are told; surely no great geographical discovery has ever
been more briefly recorded in literature. Svalbarði means the cold edge or
side, and must here mean the cold coast. In the introduction to the
Landnámabók we read about this land:

    "From Reykjanes on the south side of Iceland it is five [in Hauk's
    Landnáma three] dœgr's sea [i.e., sail] to Jolldulaup in Ireland to
    the south, but from Langanes on the north side of Iceland it is four
    dœgr's sea to Svalbard on the north in Hafsbotn,[148] but it is one
    dœgr's sail to the uninhabited parts of Greenland from Kolbeins-ey in
    the north."

As will be seen, Svalbard is spoken of, here and in the Annals, as a land
that is known. It is also mentioned in Icelandic legendary sagas of the
later Middle Ages.

The Historia Norwegiæ says of a country in the north:[149]

    "But in the north on the other side of Norway towards the east there
    extend various peoples who are in the toils of heathendom (ah, how
    sad), namely the Kiriali and Kwæni, horned Finns[150] and both
    Bjarmas. But what people dwell beyond these we do not know for
    certain, though when some sailors were trying to sail back from
    Iceland to Norway, and were driven by contrary winds to the northern
    regions, they landed at last between the Greenlanders and the Bjarmas,
    where they asserted that they had found people of extraordinary size
    and the Land of Virgins ('virginum terram'), who are said to conceive
    when they taste water. But Greenland is separated from these by
    ice-clad skerries ('scopulis')."

And in a later passage we read:

    "The fourth part [of Norway] is Halogia, whose inhabitants live in
    great measure with the Finns [Lapps], and trade with them; this land
    forms the boundary of Norway on the north as far as the place called
    Wegestaf, which divides it from Bjarmeland ('Biarmonia'); there is the
    very deep and northerly gulf which has in it Charybdis, Scylla, and
    unavoidable whirlpools; there are also ice-covered promontories which
    plunge into the sea immense masses of ice that have been increased by
    heaving floods and are frozen together by the winter cold; with these
    traders often collide against their will, when making for Greenland,
    and thus they suffer shipwreck and run into danger."

It may seem probable that this description of a country in the north
referred to Svalbard; and the naive allusion to glacier-ice plunging from
the land is most likely to be derived from voyagers to the Polar Sea; for
it seems less probable that it should be merely information about
Greenland transferred to the North. Storm, it is true, dated the Historia
Norwegiæ between 1180 and 1190, that is, before the discovery of Svalbard
according to the Annals; but later writers place it in the thirteenth
century, even as late as 1260 (see vol. i. p. 255). The ideas of the
people of great size and of the Land of Virgins are obviously taken from
Adam of Bremen, and may be a literary ornament.

There have been different opinions as to what country Svalbard was. Many
have thought that it might be the northern east coast of Greenland; Jan
Mayen has also been mentioned; while others, like S. Thorlacius, a hundred
years ago (1808), supposed that it was "the Siberian coasts of the Arctic
Ocean, lying to the east of Permia (Bjarmeland), that the ancient Norsemen
included under the name of Svalbard, i.e., the cold coast." Gustav Storm
[1890, p. 344] maintained that Svalbard in all probability must be
Spitzbergen,[151] and many reasons point to the correctness of this
supposition.

No certain conclusion can be drawn about Svalbard from the passage quoted
from the Landnámabók. "On the north in Hafsbotn" must mean in some
northerly direction; for it is only the chief points of the compass,
north, south and west, that are mentioned, and no intermediate points;
for one course alone, from Bergen to Hvarf in Greenland, the direction
"due west" is given, which must be true west.[152] Langanes is said to lie
on the north side of Iceland instead of on the north-east, from Reykjanes
to Ireland the course was south, instead of south-east, etc. The points of
the compass are evidently used in the same way as is still common in
Norway; "in the north of the valley" may be used even if the valley bends
almost to the west. The Landnáma's statement (Sturlubók) that it is four
"dœgr's sea" from Snæfellsnes "west" to Greenland (i.e., Hvarf) then
agrees entirely with the common mode of expression that I have found among
the arctic sailors of our day in Denmark Strait, where they never talk of
anything but sailing east or west along the edge of the ice, even though
it is north-east and south-west; we sail westward from Færder to
Christianssand, or we travel south from Christiania to Christianssand.
Consequently "on the north in Hafsbotn" means the same as when we say
north in Finmark (cf. Ottar's directions, vol. i p. 171), or even north in
the White Sea, and speak of sailing north to Jan Mayen. As Langanes in
particular, the north-east point of Iceland, is mentioned as the
starting-point, we should be inclined to think that Svalbard was supposed
to lie in a north-easterly direction; it is true that the course to
Ireland is calculated from Reykjanes and not from the south-east point of
Iceland; but this may be because the voyage was mostly made from the west
country.

The distances given in these sailing directions in the Landnámabók are
even less accurate than the points of the compass. From Stad in Norway to
the east coast of Iceland is said to be seven "dœgr's" sail, while from
Snæfellsnes to Hvarf is four "dœgr," from Reykjanes to Ireland three or
five "dœgr," from Langanes to Svalbard four "dœgr," and from Kolbeins-ey
to the uninhabited parts of Greenland one "dœgr." The actual distances
are, however, approximately: from Norway to Iceland 548 nautical miles,
from Snæfellsnes to Hvarf 692, from Reykjanes to Ireland 712, from
Langanes to Spitzbergen 840 (from Langanes to Jan Mayen 288), and from
Mevenklint to the east coast of Greenland 184 nautical miles. It is
hopeless to look for any system in this; the distances from Iceland to
Greenland and from Iceland to Ireland are given as being much less (4/7
and 3/7 or 5/7) than the distance from Norway to Iceland, whereas in
reality they are considerably more. In the fourth part of the "Rymbegla"
[1780, p. 482] a "dœgr's" sail is given as equal to two degrees of
latitude, that is, 120 nautical miles (or twenty-four of the old Norwegian
sea-leagues), but according to the measurements given there would be 80
nautical miles in a "dœgr's" sail between Norway and Iceland, 172 between
Iceland and Greenland, and 236 (or 144) between Iceland and Ireland. These
measurements of distance are therefore far too uncertain to be of any use
in finding Svalbard. According to the scale in the "Rymbegla" it would be
two and a half "dœgr" to Jan Mayen, and seven "dœgr" to Spitzbergen from
Langanes.[153]

The old Norwegians imagined Hafsbotn [or Trollabotn][154] as the end
("botn") of the ocean to the north of Norway and north-east of Greenland,
as far as one could sail to the north in the Polar Sea. But Svalbard lay
according to the Landnámabók in the north of Hafsbotn; and if one tries to
sail northward in summer-time, either from Langanes, the north-east point
of Iceland, or from Norway, endeavouring to keep clear of the ice, it will
be difficult to avoid making Spitzbergen. If one followed the edge of the
ice northwards from Iceland in July, it would infallibly bring one there.
Such a voyage would correspond to the sailing directions from Snæfellsnes
when they steered west to the edge of the ice off Greenland, and then
followed it south-westwards round Hvarf. On the other hand, it would be
impossible to arrive at the northern east coast of Greenland without
venturing far into the ice, and it is not likely that the ancient Norsemen
would have done this unless they knew that there was land on the inside
and consequently hunting-grounds (cf. vol. i. p. 286). No doubt one might
make Jan Mayen; but it is difficult to suppose that this little island
should have been given such a name, which is only suited to the coast of a
larger country. The conclusion that Svalbard was not the northern east
coast of Greenland seems also justified from the latter being mentioned
immediately afterwards in Hauk's Landnámabók under the name of "the
uninhabited parts of Greenland," one "dœgr's" sail north of Kolbeins-ey
(see vol i. p. 286; vol. ii. p. 166).

As has already been said, the Norwegians (cf. Historia Norwegiæ and the
"King's Mirror") and Icelanders (cf. the mediæval Icelandic geography)
thought that "land extended from Bjarmeland to the uninhabited parts in
the north, and as far as the beginning of Greenland," that is, round the
whole of the north of Hafsbotn. From several legendary sagas of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries we can see that Svalbard was in fact
reckoned among these uninhabited parts in the north, which were reached by
sailing past Hálogaland and Finmark, and northward over Dumbshav (see map,
p. 34).

Thus, in Samson Fagre's Saga [of about 1350] we read in the thirteenth
chapter, "On the situation of the northern lands":

    "Risaland lies east and north of the Baltic, and to the north-east of
    it lies the land that is called Jotunheimar, and there dwell trolls
    and evil spirits, but from thence until it meets the uninhabited parts
    of Greenland goes the land that is called Svalbard; there dwell
    various peoples." [Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 524.]

The outcome of what has been advanced above will be briefly: there can be
no doubt, from the sober statement in the Icelandic Annals and in the
Landnáma, that the land of Svalbard really was discovered, even though the
date need not be accurate; and it may further be regarded as probable that
this land was Spitzbergen.

It may be supposed that it was discovered accidentally by a ship on the
way between Iceland and Norway, as stated in the Historia Norwegiæ, being
driven by storms to the north of Hafsbotn; but the mention of the country
in the Landnámabók may indicate that the voyage was made more than once,
and that knowledge of the country cannot in any case have been limited to
an accidental discovery of this sort. It is more probable that the
Norwegians and Icelanders carried on seal- and walrus-hunting northwards
along the edge of the ice in the Polar Sea, and in that case it was
unavoidable that they should arrive at Svalbard or Spitzbergen. And when
it was once discovered they must often have resorted to it; for the
valuable walrus was at that time very plentiful there.

As we nowhere find mention of these sealing expeditions of the Norwegians
in the Polar Sea, except in Ottar's narrative, it may be difficult to show
certain evidence of their having taken place; but the Russians'
seal-hunting in the Polar Sea, of which we hear as early as the sixteenth
century, can in my opinion scarcely be explained in any other way than as
a continuation in the main of the Norwegians' sealing. When the English,
and later the Dutch, came to the Murman coast and the coasts eastwards as
far as the Pechora, Vaigach and Novaya Zemlya, they found fleets of
Russian smacks engaged in fishing and walrus-hunting; most of them were
from the Murman coast, some from the White Sea, and a few from the
Pechora. Stephen Burrough thus found in June 1556 no less than thirty
smacks in the Kola fjord, which had come sailing down the river, on their
way to fishing- and sealing-grounds to the east. These smacks sailed well
with the wind free, could also be rowed with twenty oars, and had each a
crew of twenty-four men.

Pistorius[155] refers to Andrei Mikhow as saying that the "Juctri"
(Yugrians in the Pechora district) and "Coreli" (Karelian) on the coast of
the Polar Sea hunted seals and whales, of whose skins they made ropes,
purses, and ...? ("redas, bursas et coletas"), and used the blubber (for
lighting ?) and sold it. They also hunted walrus (called by Mikhow by its
Norwegian name "rosmar"),[156] the tusks of which they sold to the
Russians. The latter kept a certain quantity for their own use, and sent
the rest to Tartary and Turkey. The hunting was said to proceed in a
curious fashion; the walruses, which were very numerous, clambering up on
to the mountain-ridges and there perishing in great numbers.[157] The
Yugrians and Karelians then collected the tusks on the shore. Is there
here some confusion with stories of the collection of mammoth tusks?

What was said earlier (p. 145) from an Arabian source about steel blades
being sold to the peoples on the coast of the Polar Sea in North Russia
seems to point to sea-hunting having been well developed in these regions
as early as the twelfth century; for otherwise steel for hunting
appliances could not have been a common article of commerce.

That Norwegians and Russians often met in northern waters may apparently
be concluded from the words already quoted from Erik Walkendorf, about
1520 (cf. p. 86), that fifteen of the Skrælings did not venture to
approach a Christian or Ruten (i.e., Russian). As he places the land of
the Skrælings north-north-west of Finmark, this seems to be a legend that
is brought into connection with the Polar Sea. Of walrus-tusks he says
that "these are costly and greatly prized among the Russians." Unless this
is taken from older literary sources (?), one might suppose that it was
information he himself had obtained in Finmark, and it might then point to
the Norwegians having sold walrus-tusks to the Russians.

The fact that, as mentioned above, a Russian author of the sixteenth
century (Mikhow) uses the Norwegian name "rosmar" seems also to point to
Russian connection with the Norwegians in the arctic fisheries. In
addition to this, the Russian word "morsh" for walrus is evidently the
same as the Lappish "moršša" (Finnish "mursu"), and may originally be the
same word as "rosmar" ("rosmhvalr"). For it is striking that the same
letters are present in "morsh" or "moršša" as in "rosm(hvalr)," or in
"rosmar"; there is only a transference of consonants, which is often met
with in borrowed words in different languages.

    I asked Professor Konrad Nielsen what he thought about this, and
    whether he could imagine any Finnish-Ugrian origin of the word, or
    whether any similar word was known, for instance, in Samoyed. He
    considers that my assumption may "be quite well founded."[158] He has
    consulted Professor Setälä of Helsingfors about it, and the latter
    thinks that if the word was borrowed from Finnish into Russian, there
    is nothing to prevent its being connected with the Norse
    rosm(hvalr)--the latter would then, of course, be the primary form.
    Similar metatheses are found in other Norse loan-words in Finnish.
    Konrad Nielsen thinks that "the Lappish word is pretty certainly
    borrowed from Finnish, so that the idea of its Norse origin meets with
    no difficulty from that quarter." And as to the possible Russian
    origin of the word, he has spoken to the Slavic authority, Professor
    Mikkola, who informs him that in popular language the Russian word is
    only found in the most northern dialects, and there is no point of
    connection in other Slavic languages, so that he regards it as
    probable that it is not originally a Slavic word. No Finnish-Ugrian
    etymology for the word can, according to Konrad Nielsen, be put
    forward. "In Samoyed," he says, "the name for walrus is only known as
    far as Jura-Samoyed (the most western dialect of Samoyed) is
    concerned: 't'ewot'e,' 'tiut'ei.' I have compared this with the
    Lappish name for seal, 'dævok'--'davak'--'dævkka.' In this I see
    evidence that the Lapps (contrary to Wiklund's view) were acquainted
    with the Polar Sea and its animals before they came to Scandinavia."
    He also draws my attention to the fact that "the Finnish 'norsu' (in
    the older language also 'nursa'), 'elephant,' seems to be connected
    with 'mursu,' which is easily explained by the analogous use of
    walrus-tusks and elephant-tusks."

    Professor Olaf Broch also considers my assumption probable, and has
    submitted the question of the etymology of the Russian "morsh" to
    Professor Berneker, who may doubtless be regarded as the first
    authority in questions of this kind. He replies that a "wild"
    etymologist might connect the word with a series of words in Slavic
    languages which express various movements; but the Russian word,
    being so definitely localised, must doubtless be derived from the
    North-Finnish linguistic region. Whether the Finnish "mursu," Lappish
    "moršša," "morša," can be referred to a metathesis of Old Norse
    rosmhvalr, Danish rosmer, etc., Professor Berneker is unable to
    determine. "But with loan-words all sorts of anomalies take place, and
    no rules can be laid down."

If we compare these various utterances of such eminent authorities, it
appears to me that there are paramount reasons for regarding the
Russian-Finnish name for walrus as of Norse origin. But in that case it
also becomes probable that the Norwegians were the pioneers in
walrus-hunting along the coasts of the Polar Sea, and that both the
Finnish peoples and the Russians learned from them.

It will doubtless be difficult to find a natural explanation of the
peoples on the northern coasts of Russia having from the first developed
their arctic sea-hunting with large craft, unless we suppose that they
learned it from the Norwegians, and that it is thus a continuation of the
methods of the latter. It should also be remembered that the Kola
peninsula as far as the White Sea itself was reckoned a tributary country
of Norway (cf. p. 135), and that the name of the Murman coast means simply
the Norwegians' coast. None of the peoples on the north coast of Russia
can have been a seafaring people very far back, as is shown by their boats
and appliances; and it is difficult to believe that they should have been
able to develop independently a system of navigation on a coast presenting
such unfavourable conditions; no doubt they could have done so with small
boats, originally river-boats,[159] but not with larger craft; this they
must most probably have learned from their nearest seafaring neighbours,
the Norwegians, who were masters at sea.

It is remarkable that already as early as in Adam of Bremen white bears
(polar bears) are mentioned as occurring in Norway (cf. vol. i. pp. 191,
f.). That this might be due to the connection with Iceland and Greenland,
even at that time, is perhaps possible, but not very probable, as these
countries are mentioned separately by Adam. The white bears in Norway may
rather point to a connection with the Polar Sea and to the Norwegians
having practised sealing there.

    It is perhaps due to the same connection of the Norwegians with the
    Polar Sea that we find on the Italian Dalorto's map of 1325 (see next
    chapter) and on several later maps the statement that there are white
    bears in northern Norway. Probably polar bears' skins were brought to
    the south from Norway as an article of commerce and the Norwegians may
    have obtained the skins partly by their own hunting in the Polar Sea,
    partly by the trade with Greenland, and partly, no doubt, by that with
    the peoples on the north coast of Russia. The Arab Ibn Sa'id
    (thirteenth century) mentions white bears in the northern islands,
    amongst them the island of white falcons (i.e., Iceland). "These
    bears' skins are soft, and they are brought to the Egyptian lands as
    gifts." In the "Geographia Universalis" of the thirteenth century (see
    next chapter) the white bears in Iceland are described. It was a
    common idea in southern Europe in the Middle Ages that Greenland, and
    sometimes also Iceland (cf. Fra Mauro's map), lay to the north of
    Norway, or they were made continuous with it, and even a part of it.

    The Venetian Querini, who was wrecked on Röst Island and travelled
    south through Norway in 1432, says that he saw a perfectly white
    bear's skin at the foot of the Metropolitan's chair in St. Olaf's
    Church at Trondhjem.[160] As Greenland was under the jurisdiction of
    the Archbishop of Trondhjem, this skin may have been a gift from pious
    Greenlanders, as perhaps were also the Eskimo hide-canoes mentioned by
    Claudius Clavus (cf. p. 85). In Norse literature polar bears are
    always connected with Icelanders or Greenlanders, who sometimes
    brought them alive as gifts to kings.


We may thus conclude from what has been advanced above that the hunting of
whales, seals, and particularly walrus was of great importance to the
Norwegians in ancient times, and for the sake of the last they certainly
made extended expeditions in the Arctic Ocean. It may therefore be
difficult to understand how it came about that this sea-hunting declined
to such an extent in more recent times that we hear nothing about the
Norwegians' hunting in the Polar Sea, while in the sixteenth century
fleets from the northern coasts of Russia were engaged in fishing and
walrus-hunting; and Peder Claussön Friis is able to say of whaling in
Norway (about 1613):

    "In old time many expedients or methods were used in these lands
    [i.e., Norway] for catching whales ... but on account of men's
    unskilfulness they have fallen out of use, so that they now have no
    means of hunting the whale unless he drifts ashore to them."

This seems to show that the Norwegians' whaling in open sea had really
gone out of practice, for otherwise this author must have known of it; on
the other hand, whale-hunting in the fjords, which were closed by nets,
has continued to our time. Walrus-hunting (as well as sealing) appears to
have been still carried on in Finmark in Peder Claussön Friis's time.

    His description of the animal and its hunting is in part accompanied
    by stories similar to those in Olaus Magnus and Albertus Magnus (see
    p. 163), and he mentions the great strength of walrus-hide ropes, and
    their use "for clappers in hanging bells, item for shore-ropes and
    other ropes, and for the screws on the quay at Bergen, with which the
    dried fish is screwed into barrels, and for such other uses as no
    hawser or cable can so well serve for." This shows that these ropes
    must have been widely employed and that there must have been
    considerable hunting of walrus. According to an order of Christian
    IV., dated from Bergenhus Castle, July 6, 1622, fifteen walrus-hides
    were to be bought yearly for the King's service,[161] and from K.
    Leem's description it seems that walrus was still hunted in Finmark in
    his time (1767). He says too [1767, p. 302] that "even the Sea-Lapps
    of the Varanger-Fiord formerly practised whaling, using for that
    purpose appliances invented and made by themselves." To this is added
    in a note by Gunnerus: "The same thing may also be said in our time of
    the Lapps in Schjerv-island and of a few peasants in Nordland,
    especially in Ofoten."

But in none of these accounts is there any hint that the Norwegians
carried on their hunting beyond the limits of the country, as Ottar did in
the ninth century.

The decline of this productive hunting may have come about through the
concurrence of many circumstances. Hostile relations with the Karelians
and Russians on the east may have had some influence on it; as the latter
in increasing numbers took up the same hunting in their smacks, the
eastward waters may have become unsafe for the Norwegians, who, though
superior in seamanship, were inferior in numbers. But a more important
factor was the rapid growth of the fisheries on the home coasts in Finmark
after the fourteenth century, which may have claimed all available hands,
leaving none over for fishing in more distant waters. Besides which the
influence of the Hanseatic League no doubt contributed; then, as later,
they learned to prefer the valuable trade in dried fish to fitting out
vessels for the more uncertain and dangerous hunting in the Polar Sea,
which they knew nothing about. Finally came the royal edict of April 1562,
which enforced Bergen's monopoly in the trade with Finmark, whereby the
dead hand was laid upon this part of the country, as formerly upon
Greenland. In those days a corresponding displacement of the arctic
fisheries must have taken place from Norway to north Russia, as in the
last century again a displacement took place in the contrary direction,
when the Russian hunting in the Arctic Ocean and Spitzbergen ceased and
the Norwegians again became the only hunters in these waters.

It was a concatenation of unfortunate accidents that produced the gradual
decline of the voyages of the Norwegians and of their unrestricted command
of all northern waters from the White Sea, and probably also Novaya Zemlya
and Spitzbergen, over all the northern islands, Shetland, the Orkneys (to
some extent the Hebrides, Man and Ireland), the Faroes, Iceland, and as
far as Greenland, and probably also for a time the north-east coast of
America. Unfavourable political conditions had a great deal to do with
this, not the least of them being the long union with Denmark, with the
removal of the seat of government to Copenhagen, which was extremely
unfavourable to the interests of Norwegian commerce. To this was added the
growing power of the Hanseatic League in Norway, the effect of which was
as demoralising to all activity in the country as it was paralysing to our
navigation. But not the least destructive were the royal monopolies of
trade with the so-called tributary countries of the kingdom; like all
State monopolies, they laid their dead hand upon all private enterprise.
In this way the Norwegian command of northern waters received its
death-blow; while the mercantile fleets of other nations, especially the
English, came to the fore, to a large extent by making use of Norwegian
seamanship and enterprise; thus the English seaport of Bristol seems to
have had many Norwegians among its citizens, who certainly found there
better conditions to work under than at home.

The mass of knowledge the Norwegians had acquired about the northern
regions, before their time entirely unknown, was to a great extent
forgotten again; and at the close of the Middle Ages all that remained was
the communication with Iceland and the knowledge of the neighbouring seas,
besides the continuance of the connection between the White Sea and
Norway; while the voyage to Greenland, to say nothing of America, was
forgotten, at any rate by the mass of the people.

The development of humanity often proceeds with a strangely lavish waste
of forces. How many needless plans and unsuccessful voyages, how much toil
and how many human lives would not a knowledge of the Norwegians'
extensive discoveries have been able to save in succeeding ages? How very
different, too, might have been the development of many things, if by the
chances of an unlucky destiny the decline of Norwegian navigation had not
come just at a time when maritime enterprise received such a powerful
impetus among more southern nations, especially the Portuguese, then the
Spaniards, later the French, the English and the Dutch. By their great
discoveries it was these nations who introduced a new era in the history
of navigation, and also in that of polar voyages. But if Norwegian
seamanship had still been at its height at that time, then certainly the
Scandinavians of Greenland would once more have sought the already
discovered countries on the west and south-west, and the Greenland
settlements might then have formed an important base for new undertakings,
whereby a new period of prosperity for Norwegian navigation and Norwegian
enterprise might have been introduced. This was not to be; it was only
reserved for the Norwegians to be the people who showed the way to the
other nations out from the coasts and over the great oceans.


CHAPTER XIII

THE NORTH IN MAPS AND GEOGRAPHICAL WORKS OF THE MIDDLE AGES


At the beginning of the Middle Ages and down to the fifteenth century the
cartography of the Greeks, which had reached its summit in the work of
Ptolemy, was entirely unknown in Europe; while the early Greek conceptions
(those of the Ionian school) of the disc of the earth or "œcumene" as a
circle (called by the Romans "orbis terrarum," the circle of the earth)
round the Mediterranean--and externally surrounded by the universal
ocean--had persisted through the late Latin authors, and probably also
through Roman maps. At the same time Parmenides' doctrine of zones (cf.
vol. i. pp. 12, 123) remained prevalent owing to its enunciation by
Macrobius, and maps exhibiting this doctrine were common until the
sixteenth century. These two conceptions became the foundation of the
learned view and representation of the world, and consequently also of the
North, throughout the greater part of the Middle Ages. It was the age of
speculation, not of observation. The Scandinavians were the first
innovators in geography, by going straight to nature as it is, unfettered
by dogmas. The Italian and Catalan sailors followed later with their
portulans (sailing-books) and compass-charts.

We find what is perhaps the oldest known Christian map of the world (cf.
vol. i. p. 126) in the "Christian Topography" of Cosmas
Indicopleustes.[162] An attempt is made to combine the Roman classical
view of the world, as lands grouped round the Mediterranean, with Cosmas's
pious conception of it as formed on the same rectangular plan as the Jews'
tabernacle. A map of the world of somewhat similar form is found in a MS.
(by Orosius and Julius Honorius) of the eighth century, preserved in the
library at Albi in Languedoc. But these attempts must be regarded as
accidental. Typical of that time were the so-called wheel- or T-maps, the
shape of which was due especially to Isidore Hispaliensis (cf. vol. i. pp.
151, ff.). The circular Roman maps of the world seem already to have had a
tendency to a tripartition of the world: Europe, Asia and Africa. Sallust
(in the "Bellum Jugurtinum") indicates something of the sort, and
Orosius's geographical system seems to be founded upon a map of this
kind. In St. Augustine we first find the division of the T-map clearly
expressed. This dogmatic-schematic form was fixed by Isidore, according to
whom the round disc of the earth surrounded by the outer ocean was to be
compared to a wheel (or an O), divided into three by a T.[163] Mechanical
map-forms after this prescription (cf. vol. i. pp. 125, 150) were common
during the whole of the first part of the Middle Ages until the fourteenth
century; indeed they circulated and exercised influence far into the
sixteenth; but sometimes, in accordance with the four corners of the earth
in the Bible, the maps were given a square form instead of a round. In
spite of the fact that most authors, among them Isidore himself, expressly
declare that the earth had the form of a globe, this does not seem to have
been anything more than a purely theoretical doctrine, for in
cartographical representations, through the whole of the Middle Ages to
about the close of the fifteenth century, there is never any hint of
projection, or of any difficulty in transferring the spherical surface of
the earth to a plane, which had been so clearly present to the minds of
the Greeks.

The wheel-maps were, as we have said, from the first purely formal; but by
degrees an attempt was made to bring into the scheme real geographical
information, although the endeavour to approach reality in the
representation is scarcely to be traced. To this type of map belongs the
so-called Beatus map, which the Spanish monk Beatus (ob. 798) added to his
commentary on the Apocalypse, and which was reproduced in very varying
forms, ten of which have been preserved. The original map, which is not
known, was probably round, but in the reproductions the circle of the
earth is sometimes more or less round (as in the illustration, p. 184),
sometimes oblong (cf. vol. i. p. 199), and sometimes four-sided with
rounded corners [cf. K. Miller, ii., 1895]. Jerusalem was frequently
placed in the centre of the wheel-maps, Paradise (often with Adam and Eve
at the time of the Fall, or with the four rivers of Paradise) in the
extreme east of Asia, which is at the top of the map, and the
Mediterranean (Mare magnum), which forms the stem of the T, pointing down
(cf. vol. i. p. 150). The cross-stroke of the T was formed by the rivers
Tanais (with the Black Sea) and Nile. In the band of ocean surrounding the
disc of the earth the oceanic islands were distributed more or less
according to taste, and as there happened to be room. Thus in the version
of the Beatus map here given, from Osma in Spain (of 1203), Scandinavia
appears as an island ("Scada insula") by the North Pole, as in the Ravenna
geographer (cf. the map, vol. i. p. 152), and the "Orcades" (the Orkneys)
and "Gorgades" (the fabulous islands of the Greeks to the west of Africa)
are placed on the north-east of Asia. The so-called Sallust-maps, drawn up
from Sallust's description of the world in the Bellum Jugurtinum [cf. K.
Miller, iii., 1895, pp. 110, ff.], were another type of very formal
wheel-maps that were still current in the fourteenth century.

But by degrees many changes were introduced into the strict scheme. The
outer coast-line of the continents was in parts indented by bays and
prolonged into peninsulas, and the islands were given a less formal shape.
Such attempts appear, for instance, in Heinrich of Mainz's map, which is
taken to have been drawn in 1110 [cf. K. Miller, iii., 1895, p. 22], and
the closely related "Hereford map" of about 1280 by Richard de Holdingham
[cf. K. Miller, iv., 1896; Jomard, 1855]. Some resemblance to these maps
is shown by the "Psalter" map in London, of the second half of the
thirteenth century, and the closely related "Ebstorf" map of 1284 [cf. K.
Miller, iii. pp. 37, ff.; iv. p. 3; v.]; and it is quite possible that
they may all be derived from the same original source; there is in
particular a great resemblance in their representation of Britain and
Ireland. On the first three of these maps Scandinavia or Norway ("Noreya"
or "Norwegia") forms a peninsula with gulfs on the north and south sides.
On Heinrich's map there is beyond this an island or peninsula, called
"Ganzmir," a name which occurs again on the Hereford map (cf. vol. i. p.
157); Miller explains it as a corruption of Canzia, Scanzia (Scandinavia).
On the "Lambert" map in the Ghent codex of before 1125 [cf. K. Miller,
iii., 1895, p. 45], "Scanzia," also with the name "Norwegia," is
represented as a peninsula with narrow gulfs running up into the continent
on each side. "Island" (or "Ysland") appears on Heinrich's and the
Hereford maps as an island near Norway. On the Ebstorf map "Scandinavia
insula" and "Norwegia" are also shown as islands. Many fabulous countries,
such as "Iperboria" (the land of the Hyperboreans), "Arumphei" (on the
Psalter map, i.e., the land of the Aremphæans, cf. vol. i. p. 88), etc.,
appear as peninsulas or islands in the northern regions on several of
these maps; on the other hand, neither Greenland nor Wineland occurs on
any of them.

Ranulph Higden's map of the world, which accompanied his already mentioned
work, "Polychronicon" (of the first part of the fourteenth century), is
more fettered by the scheme of the wheel-maps in the form of the outer
coast-line and of the islands. He took his vows in 1299, was a monk of St.
Werburg's Abbey at Chester, and died at a great age in 1363. Various
reproductions of his map are known, but they display little sense of
realistic representation. "Scandinavia" is placed in Asia on the Black
Sea, together with the Amazons and Massagetæ, and to the north of it
"Gothia" (Sweden ?). Islands in the ocean off the coast of northern Europe
are called "Norwegia," "Islandia," "Witland" (or "Wineland," etc.), with
"gens ydolatra," "Tile" (Thule) and "Dacia" (Denmark) with "gens
bellicosa" somewhere near the North Pole. In spite of this representation
on the map, the Polychronicon (cf. above, p. 31) contains various
statements about the North, which may point to a certain communication
with it, or may be echoes of Northern writers. Higden to a large extent
copied an earlier work, the "Geographia Universalis," a sort of
geographical lexicon by an unknown author of the thirteenth century,[164]
which is for the most part based on earlier writers, especially Isidore.
Both works are practically untouched by the knowledge of the North that
had already appeared in King Alfred and in Adam of Bremen, and show how
much ignorance could still prevail in learned quarters on many points
connected with these regions. The "Geographia" speaks of "Gothia," or
lower Scythia, as a province of Europe, but obviously confuses Sweden (the
land of the Götar) and Eastern Germania (the land of the Goths). Norway
("Norwegia") was very large, far in the north, almost surrounded by the
ocean; it bordered on the land of the Goths (Götar), and was separated
from Gothia (Sweden) on the south and east by the river Albia (the Göta
river). The inhabitants live by fishing and hunting more than by bread;
crops are few on account of the severity of the cold. There are many wild
beasts, such as white bears, etc. There are springs that turn hides, wood,
etc., into stone; there is midnight sun and corresponding winter darkness.
Corn, wine and oil are wanting, unless imported. The inhabitants are tall,
powerful and handsome, and are great pirates. "Dacia"[165] was divided
into many islands and provinces bordering on Germania. Its inhabitants
were descended from the Goths (Götar ? cf. Jordanes, vol. i. p. 135), were
numerous and finely grown, wild and warlike, etc. "Svecia" (the land of
the Svear) is also mentioned. That part of it which lay between the
kingdoms of the Danes and of the Norwegians was called Gothia. Svecia had
the Baltic Sea on the east and the British Ocean on the west, the
mountains and people of Norway on the north, and the Danes on the south.
They had rich pastures, metals and silver mines. The people were very
strong and warlike, they once ruled over the greater part of Asia and
Europe.

    "'Winlandia' is a country along the mountains of Norway on the east,
    extending on the shore of the ocean; it is not very fertile except in
    grass and forest; the people are barbarously savage and ugly, and
    practise magical arts, therefore they offer for sale and sell wind to
    those who sail along their coasts, or who are becalmed among them.
    They make balls of thread and tie various knots on them, and tell
    them to untie three or more knots of the ball, according to the
    strength of wind that is desired. By making magic with these [the
    knots] through their heathen practices, they set the demons in motion,
    and raise a greater or less wind, according as they loosen more or
    fewer knots in the thread, and sometimes they bring about such a wind
    that the unfortunate ones who place reliance on such things perish by
    a righteous judgment."

It is possible that the name "Winlandia" itself is a confusion of Finland
(i.e., the land of the Finns [Lapps], Finmark) with Vinland (cf. above, p.
31); although the description of the country must refer to the former. It
may be supposed that a misunderstanding of the name was the origin of the
myth of selling wind being connected with it. The idea persisted, and the
same myth is given so late as by Knud Leem [1767, p. 3] from an anonymous
book of travels in northern Norway.

Of Iceland the "Geographia" says:

    "'Yselandia' is the uttermost part of Europe beyond Norway on the
    north.... Its more distant parts are continually under ice by the
    shore of the ocean on the north, where the sea freezes to ice in the
    terrible cold. On the east it has Upper Scythia, on the south Norway,
    on the west the Hibernian Ocean.... It is called Yselandia as the land
    of ice, because it is said that there the mountains freeze together to
    the hardness of ice. Crystals are found there. In that region are also
    found many great and wild white bears, that break the ice in pieces
    with their claws and make large holes, through which they plunge down
    into the water and take fish under the ice. They draw them up through
    the said holes, and carry them to the shore, and live on them. The
    land is unfertile in crops except in a few places.... Therefore the
    people live for the most part on fish and hunting and meat. Sheep
    cannot live there on account of the cold, and therefore the
    inhabitants protect themselves against the cold and cover their bodies
    with the skins of the wild beasts they take in hunting.... The people
    are very stout, powerful, and very white ('alba')."

In Higden's Polychronicon Gothia is also spoken of as lower Scythia, but
among the provinces of Asia, although it is said that it lies in Europe;
it has on the north Dacia and the Northern Ocean. But the geographical
confusion in this work is greater; as already mentioned (p. 31), the
countries of the Scandinavians are described together with the Insulæ
Fortunatæ, Wyntlandia, etc., as islands in the outer ocean. The
disagreement between Higden's text and his map gives us an insight into
how little weight was attached at that time to the relation between maps
and reality; they are for the most part merely graphic schemes. Probably
Higden's map was partly copied from an older one, and the desirability of
bringing it into better agreement with his text did not occur to him.

The so-called "Anglo-Saxon mappamundi" or "Cottoniana" (reproduced vol. i.
pp. 180, 183), which is in the British Museum, occupies a position of its
own among early mediæval maps. Its age is uncertain; it may at the
earliest date from the close of the tenth century, but possibly it is as
late as the twelfth [cf. K. Miller, iii., 1895, p. 31]. It exhibits no
agreement with the text of Priscian (Latin translation of Dionysius
Periegetes, see vol. i. p. 114), to which it is appended. Many of the
names might rather be derived from Orosius, there is also great
resemblance to Mela (cf. vol. i. pp. 85, ff.), and in some ways to the
mediæval maps already mentioned, although the representation of the North
is different. Probably an older, perhaps Roman (?) map formed the basis of
it. Name-forms like Island, Norweci[166] (Norwegia), Sleswic, Sclavi, may
remind us of Adam of Bremen, but they may also be older. This map is
doubtless less formal than the pronounced wheel-map type, but it does not
bear a much greater resemblance to reality, although the form of Britain,
for instance, may show an effort in that direction. The peninsula which
has been given the name of Norweci (Norway) has most resemblance to
Jutland, and the name seems to have been misplaced. No doubt it ought
rather to have been attached to the long island lying to the north, which
has been given the names Scridefinnas and Island. The representation has
great resemblance to Edrisi's map (cf. p. 203), where Denmark forms a
similar peninsula, and Norway a similar long island, with two smaller
islands to the east of Denmark, which is also alike. The "Orcades Insule"
are given a wide extension on the Cottoniana map, and Tyle (Thule) lies to
the north-west of Britain, as it should do according to Orosius. This map
does not therefore indicate, any more than the others, any particular
increase of knowledge of the North, and compared with King Alfred's work
it is still far behind in the dark ages.

The zone-maps, already alluded to, which are derived from Macrobius (cf.
vol. i. p. 123), gave a formal representation of the earth of a peculiar
kind, which was common throughout the whole of the Middle Ages; they may
be regarded as mathematical geography more than anything else. The earth
is divided in purely formal fashion into five zones, two of which are
habitable: our temperate zone and the unknown temperate zone of the
antipodes (in the southern hemisphere); and three uninhabitable: the
torrid zone with the equatorial ocean, and the two frigid zones, north and
south. These conceptions also reached the North at an early time, and are
mentioned in the "King's Mirror," amongst other works, although its author
thought that the inhabited part of Greenland really lay in the frigid
zone. A zone-map from Iceland is also known of the thirteenth century.
Another of the fourteenth century and a kind of wheel-map of the twelfth
century, but with geographical names only without coast-lines, are also
found in Icelandic MSS., besides a small wheel- and T-map.[167] Otherwise
it is not known that maps were drawn in the North during the Middle Ages.
A purely formal wheel- and T-map is known from Lund before 1159 [see
Björnbo, 1909, p. 189]. Another Danish wheel-map of the sixteenth century
is known [see Björnbo, 1909, p. 192], and Björnbo reproduces [1909, pp.
193, ff.] two wheel-maps of 1486 from Lübeck, belonging to Professor
Wieser, where the lands and islands of the North are drawn as round discs
(with names) in the outer universal ocean.


THE ARAB GEOGRAPHERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

If we turn now from the intellectual darkness of Christian Western Europe
in the early Middle Ages to contemporary Arabic literature, it is as
though we entered a new world; not least is this shown in geographical
science, where the authors follow quite different methods. Through their
contact with the intellectual world of Greece in the Orient, the Arabs
kept alive the Greek tradition; they had translations in their own
language of Euclid, Archimedes, Aristotle, the now lost work of Marinus of
Tyre, and others, and of special importance to their geographical
knowledge was their acquaintance with Ptolemy's astronomy and geography,
which had been forgotten in Europe, and which first became known there
through the Arabs (cf. vol. i. p. 116). They were also acquainted with
Greek cartography. To this education in Greek views and interests was
added the fact that they had better opportunities than any other nation of
collecting geographical knowledge; through their extensive conquests and
through their trade they reached China on the east--where for a
considerable time their merchants had fixed colonies, first in Canton (in
the eighth century), and later, in the ninth century, even in Khânfu (near
Shanghai)[168]--and the western coasts of Europe and Africa on the west,
the Sudan and Somaliland (and even Madagascar) on the south, and North
Russia on the north. In spite of the religious fanaticism which in the
seventh century made them an irresistible nation of conquerors, they had
civilisation enough to remember that "the ink of science is worth more
than the blood of martyrs," and there flourished among them a remarkably
copious literature, with an endless variety of works, from the ninth
century through the whole of the Middle Ages.

Although the Arabs never attained the Greeks' capacity for scientific
thinking, their literature nevertheless reveals an intellectual
refinement which, with the dark Middle Ages of Europe as a background, has
an almost dazzling effect. The Arab geographers have a special gift for
collecting concrete information about countries and conditions, about
peoples' habits and customs, and in this they may serve as models; on the
other hand sober criticism is not their strong side, and they had a
pronounced taste for the marvellous; if classical writers, and still more
the learned men of the European Middle Ages, had blended together
trustworthy information and fabulous myth more or less uncritically, the
Arabs did so to an even greater degree, and we often find in them a truly
oriental splendour in the mythical; thus it must not surprise us to hear
of whales two hundred fathoms long and snakes that swallow elephants in
the same author (Ibn Khordâḏbah) who says that the earth is round like a
sphere, and that all bodies are stable on its surface because the air
attracts their lighter parts [thus we have the buoyancy of the air], while
the earth attracts towards its centre their heavy parts in the same way as
the magnet influences iron [a perfectly clear description of gravitation].

Chiefly on account of the language the new fund of geographical knowledge,
which, together with much that is mythical, is contained in the rich
literature of the Arabs, did not attain any great importance in mediæval
Europe; on the other hand the Arabs exercised more influence through the
geographical myths and tales which they brought orally from the East to
Europe, and, as we have seen, the world of Irish myth, amongst others, was
influenced thereby.

The ideas of the Arabs about the North are, in most cases, very hazy.
Putting aside the partly mythical conceptions that they had derived from
the Greeks (especially Ptolemy), they obtained their information about it
chiefly in two ways: (1) by their commercial intercourse in the east with
Russia--chiefly over the Caspian Sea with the towns of Itil and
Bulgar[169] on the Volga--they received information about the districts
in the north of Russia, and also about the Scandinavians, commonly called
Rûs, sometimes also Warank. (2) Through their possessions in the western
Mediterranean, especially in Spain, they came in contact with the northern
peoples of Western Europe, the Scandinavian Vikings ("Maǵûs") in
particular, and in that way acquired information.

"Maǵûs"[170] means in the west the same northern people, the
Scandinavians, whom in the east the Arabs called Rûs or Warangs, which
word they may have got from the Greek "Varangoi" (Βάραγγοι) and the
Russian "Varyag."

All that the Arab authors of the _oldest_ period have about the North, and
that is not taken from the Greeks, they got through their commercial
connections with Russia; but it is not until the ninth century and later
that anything worth mentioning appears, and even in the tenth and eleventh
centuries their ideas on the subject are very much tinged with myth.
Professor Alexander Seippel in his work "Rerum Normannicarum fontes
Arabici" [1896], printed in Arabic, has collected the most important
statements about the North in mediæval Arabic literature, and has been
good enough to translate parts of these, which I give in the following
pages. I have also made some additions from other sources. In an earlier
chapter (pp. 143, ff.) several Arabic authors have already been quoted on
the connection with Northern Russia.

The imperfection of Arabic script and its common omission of vowels easily
give rise to all kinds of corruptions and misunderstandings; this is
especially fatal to the reproduction of foreign words and geographical
names, which explains the great uncertainty that prevails in their
interpretation.

In the oldest Arab writers, of the ninth century and later, there is
little or no knowledge of the North. We are only told in some of their
works that furs come from there, and that the ocean in the north is
entirely unknown. Abu'l-Qâsim Ibn Khordâḏbah (ob. 912), a Persian by
descent and the Caliph's postmaster in Media, thus relates in his "book
of routes and provinces" (completed about 885):[171]

    "As concerns the sea that is behind [i.e., to the north of] the Slavs,
    and whereon the town of Tulia [i.e., Thule] lies, no ship travels upon
    it, nor any boat, nor does anything come from thence. In like manner
    none travels upon the sea wherein lie the Fortunate Isles, and from
    thence nothing comes, and it is also in the west." "The Russians,[172]
    who belong to the race of the Slavs [i.e., Slavs and Germans], travel
    from the farthest regions of the land of the Slavs to the shore of the
    Mediterranean (Sea of Rum), and there sell skins of beaver and fox, as
    well as swords" (?).

The Russian merchants also descended the Volga to the Caspian Sea, and
their goods were sometimes carried on camels to Bagdad.[173]


There was no great change in knowledge of the North in the succeeding
centuries. Ibn al-Faqîh, about 900 A.D., has nothing to say about the
North. He mentions in the seventh climate women who "cut off one of their
breasts and burn it at an early age so that it may not grow big,"[174] and
he says that Tulia (Thule) is an island in the seventh sea between Rumia
(Rome) and Kharizm (Khwarizm in Turkestan), "and there no ship ever puts
in." Ibn al-Bahlûl, about 910 A.D., gives information after Ptolemy about
the latitudes of the northern regions and mentions two islands of Amazons,
one with men and one with women, in the extreme northern ocean [Seippel,
1896]. Qodâma Ibn Ǵafar (ob. 948 or 949 A.D.) says of the encircling ocean
(the Oceanus of the Greeks) in which the British Isles lie that

    "it is impossible to penetrate very far into this ocean, the ships
    cannot get any farther there; no one knows the real state of this
    ocean." [Cf. De Goeje in Ibn Khordâdhbeh, 1889, p. 174.]

Abû 'Alî Ahmad Ibn Ruste, about 912 A.D., says of the Russians ("Rûs,"
that is, Scandinavians, usually Swedes) that they live on an island, which
is surrounded by a sea, is three days' journey (about seventy-five miles)
long, and is covered with forest and bogs; it is unhealthy and saturated
to such a degree that the soil quakes where one sets foot on it. They come
in ships to the land of the Slavs and attack them, etc. They have neither
fixed property, nor towns, nor agriculture; their only means of support is
the trade in sable, squirrel and other skins, which they sell to any one
who will buy them. They are tall, of handsome appearance, and courageous,
etc.[175] Probably there is here a confusion of various statements; the
ideas about the unhealthy bog-lands are doubtless connected with northern
Russia, and the trade in sables can scarcely be referred to the Swedes on
the Baltic.[176]

The well-known historian, traveller and geographer, Abu'l Hasan 'Alî
al-Mas'ûdî (ob. 956), in his book (allegorically entitled "Gold-washings
and Diamond-mines") repeats certain Arab astronomers who say

    "that at the end of the inhabited world in the north there is a great
    sea, of which part lies under the north pole, and that in the vicinity
    of it there is a town [or land] which is called Tulia, beyond which no
    inhabited country is found." He mentions two rivers in Siberia: "the
    black and the white Irtish; both are considerable, and they surpass in
    length the Tigris and Euphrates; the distance between their two mouths
    is about ten days. On their banks the Turkish tribes Kaimâk and Ghuzz
    have their camps winter and summer."

He also states that the black fox's skin, which is the most valuable of
all, comes from the country of the Burtâsians (a Finnish people in
Russia, Mordvins ?), and is only found there and in the neighbouring
districts. Skins of red and white foxes are mentioned from the same
locality, and he gives an account of the extensive trade in furs, whereby
these skins are brought to the land of the Franks and Andalusia [i.e.,
Spain], and also to North Africa, "so that many think they come from
Andalusia and the parts of the land of the Franks and of the Slavs that
border upon it."[177] He also has a statement to the effect that before
the year 300 of the Hegira [i.e., 912 A.D.] ships with thousands of men
had landed in Spain and ravaged the country.

    "The inhabitants asserted that these enemies were heathens, who made
    an inroad every two hundred years, and penetrated into the
    Mediterranean by another strait than that whereon the copper
    lighthouse stands [i.e., the Straits of Gibraltar]. But I believe
    (though Allah alone knows the truth) that they come by a strait
    [canal] which is connected with Mæotis [the Sea of Azov] and Pontus
    [the Black Sea], and that they are Russians [i.e., Scandinavians] ...
    for these are the only people who sail on these seas which are
    connected with the ocean."[178]

This is evidently the ancient belief that the Black Sea was connected
through Mæotis with the Baltic.

The celebrated astronomer and mathematician, Abu-r-Raihân Muhammad
al-Bîrûnî (973-1038, wrote in 1030),[179] a Persian by birth, is of
interest to us as the first Arabic author who uses the name "Warank"[180]
for Scandinavian, and mentions the Varangians' Sea or Baltic.

    In his text-book of the elements of astronomy he says that from "the
    Encircling Ocean" [the Oceanus of the Greeks], out into which one
    never sails, but only along the coast, "there proceeds a great bay to
    the north of the Slavs, extending to the vicinity of the land of the
    Mohammedan Bulgarians [on the Volga]. It is known by the name of the
    Varangians' Sea ('Baḥr Warank'), and they [the Varangians] are a
    people[181] on its coast. Then it bends to the east in rear of them,
    and between its shore and the uttermost lands of the Turks [i.e., in
    East Asia] there are countries and mountains unknown, desert,
    untrodden."

Al-Bîrûnî also has a very primitive map of the world as a round disc in
the ocean, indented by five bays, of which the Varangians' Sea is one [cf.
Seippel, 1896, Pl. I]. The peoples who are beyond the seventh climate,
that is, in the northernmost regions, are few, says he, "such as the Îsû
[i.e., Wîsû], and the Warank, and the Yura [Yugrians] and the like."

The Arabs of the West came in contact with the North through the Norman
Vikings, whom they called Maǵûs (cf. p. 55), and who in the ninth century
and later made several predatory expeditions to the Spanish Peninsula.
Their first attack on the Moorish kingdom in Spain seems to have taken
place in 844, when, amongst other things, they took and sacked Seville.
After that expedition, an Arab writer tells us, friendly relations were
established between the sultan of Spain, 'Abd ar-Raḥmân II., and "the king
of the Maǵûs," and, according to an account in Abu'l-Khațțâb 'Omar Ibn
Diḥya[183] (ob. circa 1235), the former is even said to have sent an
ambassador, al-Ġazâl, to the latter's country. Ibn Diḥya says that he took
the account from an author named Tammâm Ibn 'Alqama (ob. 896), who again
is said to have had it from al-Ġazâl's own mouth. It is obviously
untrustworthy, but may possibly have a historical kernel. The king of the
Maǵûs had first sent an ambassador to 'Abd ar-Raḥmân to sue for peace (?);
and al-Ġazâl accompanied him home again, in a well-appointed ship of his
own, to bring the answer and a present. They arrived first at an island on
the borders of the land of the Maǵûs people.[184] From thence they went to
the king, who lived on a great island in the ocean, where there were
streams of water and gardens. It was three days' journey or 300 [Arab]
miles from the continent.

    "There was an innumerable multitude of the Maǵûs, and in the vicinity
    were many other islands, great and small, all inhabited by Maǵûs, and
    the part of the continent that lies near them also belongs to them,
    for a distance of many days' journey. They were then heathens (Maǵûs);
    now they are Christians, for they have abandoned their old religion of
    fire-worship,[185] only the inhabitants of certain islands have
    retained it. There the people still marry their mothers or sisters,
    and other abominations are also committed there [cf. Strabo on the
    Irish, vol. i. p. 81]. With these the others are in a state of war,
    and they carry them away into slavery."

This mention of many islands with the same people as those established on
the continent may suit the island kingdom of Denmark; but Ireland, with
the Isle of Man, the Scottish islands, etc., lies nearer, and moreover
agrees better with the 300 miles from the continent.

We are next told of their reception at the court of the king and of their
stay there, and especially how the handsome and wily Moorish ambassador
paid court in prose and verse to the queen,[186] who was very compliant.
When Ibn 'Alqama asked al-Ġazâl whether she was really so beautiful as he
had given her to understand, that prudent diplomatist answered:
"Certainly, she was not so bad; but to tell the truth, I had use for
her...." When he was afraid his daily visits might attract attention, she
laughed and said:

    "Jealousy is not among our customs. With us the women do not stay with
    their husbands longer than they like; and when their consorts cease to
    please them, they leave them." With this may be compared the statement
    for which Qazwînî gives aț-Țartûshi (tenth century) as authority, that
    in Sleswick the women separate from their husbands when they please
    [cf. G. Jacob, 1876, p. 34].

After an absence of twenty months, al-Ġazâl returned to the capital of the
sultan 'Abd ar-Raḥmân. In the excellence of its realistic description and
the introduction of direct speeches this tale bears a remarkable
resemblance to the peculiar method of narration of the Icelandic sagas.

The best known of the western Arab geographers is Abû 'Abdallâh Muḥammad
al-Idrîsî (commonly called Edrisi), who gives beyond comparison the most
information about the North. He is said to have been born in Sebta (Ceuta)
about 1099 A.D., to have studied in Cordova, and to have made extensive
voyages in Spain, to the shores of France, and even of England, to Morocco
and Asia Minor. It is certain that in the latter part of his life he
resided for a considerable time at the court of the Norman king of Sicily,
Roger II., which during the Crusades was a meeting-place of Normans,
Greeks and Franks. According to Edrisi's account, Roger collected through
interpreters geographical information from all travellers, caused a map to
be drawn on which every place was marked, and had a silver planisphere
made, weighing 450 Roman pounds, upon which were engraved the seven
climates of the earth, with their countries, rivers, bays, etc.[187]
Edrisi wrote for him his description of the earth in Arabic, which was
completed in 1154, and was accompanied by seventy maps and a map of the
world. Following the Greek model, the inhabited world, which was situated
in the northern hemisphere, was divided into seven climates, extending to
64° N. lat.; farther north all was uninhabited on account of the cold and
snow. Edrisi describes in his great work the countries of the earth in
these climates, which again are divided each into ten sections, so that
the book contains in all seventy sections.[188]

On the outside of all is the Dark Sea [i.e., Oceanus, the uttermost
encircling ocean], which thus forms the limit of the world, and no one
knows what is beyond it. After describing Angiltâra [England] with its
towns, Edrisi continues:

    "Between the end of Sqôsia [Scotland], a desert island [i.e.,
    peninsula],[189] and the end of the island of Irlânda is reckoned two
    days' sail to the west. Ireland is a very large island. Between its
    upper [i.e., southern, as the maps of the Arabs had the south at the
    top] end and Brittany is reckoned three and a half days' sail. From
    the end of England to the island of Wales (?)[190] one day. From the
    end of Sqôsia to the island of Islânda two-thirds of a day's sail in a
    northern direction. From the end of Islânda to the great island of
    Irlânda one day. From the end of Islânda eastward to the island of
    Norwâga [Norway] twelve miles (?).[191] Iceland extends 400 miles in
    length and 150 in breadth."

Dânâmarkha is described as an island, round in shape and with a sandy
soil; on the map it is connected with the continent by a narrow isthmus.
There are "four chief towns, many inhabitants, villages, well protected
and well populated ports surrounded by walls." The following towns are
named: "Alsia" [Als ?], "Tordîra" or "Tondîra" [Tönder], "Haun"
[Copenhagen], "Horsnes" [Horsens], "Lundûna" [Lund], "Slisbûlî" [Sliaswiq
?]. From "Wendilskâda," written "Wadî Lesqâda" [Vendelskagen], it is a
half-day's sail to the island of "Norwâġa" [Norway]. An island to the east
of Denmark and near Lund is called on the map "Derlânem" [Bornholm ?].

On the continent to the south of Denmark is the coast of "Polônia"
[Poland], and to the east of it, also on the continent, is "Zwâda"
[Sweden], and a town "Gûta" [Götaland], also "Landsu(d)den" [in Finland].
We have further the river "Qutelw" [the Göta river], on which is the town
of "Siqtun." There is also "Qîmia" [Kemi ?]. Farther east is "bilâd
Finmark" [the district of Finmark],[192] where we still find the river
Qutelw with the town of "Abûda" [Åbo ?] inland, and "Qalmâr" on the coast
near another outlet of the Göta river. These two towns are

    "large but ill populated, and their inhabitants are sunk in poverty;
    they scarcely find the necessary means of living. It rains there
    almost continually.... The King of Finmark has possessions in the
    island of Norwâġa."

Next on the east comes the land of "Tabast" [Tavast] with "'Daġwâda' [Dagö
?], a large and populous town on the sea." In the land of Tabast

    "are many castles and villages, but few towns. The cold is more severe
    than in Finmark, and frost and rain scarcely leave them for a moment."

Farther east Esthonia and the land of the heathen are also mentioned.

    "As regards the great island of Norwâġa [Norway], it is for the most
    part desert. It is a large country which has two promontories, of
    which the left-hand one approaches the island of Dânâmarkha, and lies
    opposite to the harbour that is called Wendilskâda, and between them
    the passage is short, about half a day's sail; the other approaches
    the great coast of Finmark. On this island [Norwâġa] are three
    inhabited towns,[193] of which two are in the part that turns towards
    Finmark, the third in the part that approaches Dânâmarkha. These towns
    have all the same appearance, those who visit them are few, and
    provisions are scarce on account of the frequent rain and continual
    wet. They sow [corn] but reap it green, whereupon they dry it in
    houses that are warmed, because the sun so seldom shines with them. On
    this island there are trees so great of girth as are not often found
    in other parts. It is said that there are some wild people living in
    the desert regions, who have their heads set immediately upon their
    shoulders and no neck at all. They resort to trees, and make their
    houses in their interiors and dwell in them. They support themselves
    on acorns and chestnuts. Finally there is found there a large number
    of the animal called beaver; but it is smaller than the beaver [that
    comes] from the mouth of Russia" [i.e., no doubt, from the mouths of
    the Russian rivers].

    "In the Dark Sea [i.e., the outer encircling ocean] there are a number
    of desert islands. There are, however, two which bear the name of the
    Islands of the Heathen Amazons. The western one is inhabited solely by
    men; there is no woman on it. The other is inhabited solely by women,
    and there is no man among them. Every year at the coming of spring the
    men travel in boats to the other isle, live with the women, pass a
    month or thereabouts there, and then return to their own island, where
    they remain until the next year, when each one goes to find his woman
    again, and thus it is every year. This custom is well known and
    established. The nearest point opposite to these islands is the town
    of Anhô (?). One can also go thither from Qalmâr and from Daġwâda
    [Dagö ?], but the approach is difficult, and it is seldom that any one
    arrives there, on account of the frequency of fog and the deep
    darkness that prevails on this sea."

Edrisi says that there are many inhabited and uninhabited islands in the
Dark Sea to the west of Africa and Europe; indeed, according to Ptolemy
"this ocean contained 27,000 islands." He mentions some of them. There is
an island called "Sâra," near the Dark Sea.

    "It is related that Ḏu'l-Qarnain (Alexander the Great ?) landed there
    before the deep darkness had covered the surface of the sea, and spent
    a night there, and that the inhabitants of the island attacked him and
    his companions with stones and wounded many of them [cf. the
    Skrælings' attack in Eric the Red's Saga, and the island of smiths in
    the Navigatio Brandani, vol. i. p. 328; vol. ii. p. 9]. Another island
    in the same sea is called the Isle of Female Devils ('ǵazîrat
    as-sa'âlî'), whose inhabitants resemble women more than men; their
    eyeteeth protrude, their eyes flash like lightning, their cheeks are
    like burnt wood; they speak an incomprehensible language and wage war
    with the monsters of the ocean...."

He also mentions the Isle of Illusion ("ǵazîrat khusrân" == "Villuland,"
cf. vol. i. p. 377), of great extent, inhabited by men of brown colour,
small stature, and with long beards reaching to their knees; they have a
large (broad)[194] face and long ears [cf. the ideas of the Pygmies,
dwarfs, underground people and brownies], they live on plants that the
earth produces of itself. There was a further large island "al-Ġaur," with
abundance of grass and plants of all kinds, where wild asses and oxen with
unusually long horns lived in the thickets. There was the Isle of
Lamentation ("ǵazîrat al-mustashkîn"), which was inhabited, and had
mountains, rivers, many trees, fruits and tilled fields; but where there
was a terrible dragon, of which Alexander freed the inhabitants. On the
island of "Kalhân" in the same sea the inhabitants have the form of men
but animal heads; another island was called the Isle of the Two Heathen
Brothers, who practised piracy and were changed into two rocks. He also
names the Island of Sheep and "Râka," which is the Island of Birds (cf.
pp. 51, 55).

    "To the islands in this sea belongs also the island of 'Shâsland'
    [presumably Shetland, perhaps confused with Iceland], the length of
    which is fifteen days' journey, and the breadth ten. It had three
    towns, large and populous; ships put in and stayed there to buy ambra
    (amber ?) and stones of various colours; but the majority of the
    inhabitants perished in dissensions and civil war which took place in
    the country. Many of them removed to the coast of the European
    continent, where large numbers of this people still live...."

What is here said about this island is approximately the same as Edrisi
elsewhere states about the island of Scotland, following the "Book of
Wonders," which is attributed to Mas'ûdî.

It will be seen that he has a very heterogeneous mixture of islands in
this western ocean. Some of them, like the Island of Sheep and that of
Birds, as already suggested (p. 55), probably came from Ireland, and this
whole archipelago is evidently related to the numerous islands of Irish
legend, and points to an ancient connection, which may have consisted in
reciprocal influence; while many of these conceptions travelled from the
east through the Arabs to western Europe and Ireland, the Arabs again may
have received ideas from the Irish and from western Europe and carried
them to the east. Thus Edrisi relates that, according to the author
[Mas'ûdî] of the "Book of Wonders," the king of France sent a ship (which
never returned) to find the island of Râkâ; we may therefore conclude that
the Arabs had this myth from Europe. That many of these islands are
inhabited by demons and little people, who resemble the northern brownies
and the Skrælings, is interesting, and shows that whether the myths came
from the Irish to the Arabs or vice versa, there were in this mythical
world various similar peoples who may have helped to form the epic
conceptions of the Skrælings of Wineland (cf. pp. 12, 75).

Edrisi's map of the world is to a great extent an imitation of Ptolemy's,
but shows much deviation, which may resemble the conceptions of Mela, for
instance. It might seem possible that Edrisi was acquainted with some
Roman map or other. In his representation of the west and north coast of
Europe, for instance, there are also remarkable resemblances to the
so-called Anglo-Saxon map of the world (cf. vol. i. p. 183; vol. ii. p.
192); this may point to both being derived from some older source, perhaps
a Roman map (?).[195]

Abu'l-Hasan 'Alî Ibn Sa'îd (1214 or 1218-1274 or 1286) says (in his book:
"The extent of the earth in its length and breadth")[196] of Denmark (the
name of which he corrupts to "Ḥarmûsa") that from thence are obtained true
falcons (for hunting):

    "Around it are small islands where the falcons are found. To the west
    lies the island of white falcons, its length from west to east is
    about seven days and its breadth about four days, and from it and from
    the small northern islands are obtained the white falcons, which are
    brought from here to the Sultan of Egypt, who pays from his treasury
    1000 dinars for them, and if the falcon arrives dead the reward is 500
    dinars. And in their country is the white bear, which goes out into
    the sea and swims and catches fish, and these falcons seize what is
    left over by it, or what it has let alone. And on this they live,
    since there are no [other] flying creatures there on account of the
    severity of the frost. The skin of these bears is soft, and it is
    brought to the Egyptian lands as a gift."

He speaks of the women's island and the men's island which are separated
by a strait ten miles across, over which the men row once a year and stay
each with his woman for one month. If the child is a boy, she brings it up
until it reaches maturity, and then sends it to the men's island; the
girls stay on the women's island.

    "To the east of these two islands is the great Saqlab island [i.e. the
    Slavs' island, which is Edrisi's Norwâġa], behind which there is
    nothing inhabited in the ocean either on the east or north, and its
    length is about 700 miles, and its width in the middle about 330
    miles." Then he says a good deal about the inhabitants, amongst other
    things that they are still heathens and worship fire, and on account
    of the severity of the cold do not regard anything as of greater
    utility than it. This is evidently the same error as in Ibn Diḥya, due
    to the designation of "Maǵûs" (== Magian) for heathen (cf. p. 201).

Zakarîyâ Ibn Muḥammad al-Qazwînî (ob. 1283) has in his cosmography[197]
several statements about the North, some of which have already been
referred to (vol. i. pp. 187, 284; vol. ii. p. 144). Of the northern
winter he has very exaggerated ideas. Even of the land of "Rûm" [the
Roman, especially the Eastern Roman Empire; in a wider sense the countries
of Central Europe] he says that winter there has become a proverb, so that
a poet says of it:

    "Winter in Rûm is an affliction, a punishment and a plague; during it
    the air becomes condensed and the ground petrified; it makes faces to
    fade, eyes to weep, noses to run and change colour; it causes the skin
    to crack and kills many beasts. Its earth is like flashing bottles,
    its air like stinging wasps; its night rids the dog of his whimpering,
    the lion of his roar, the birds of their twittering and the water of
    its murmur, and the biting cold makes people long for the fires of
    Hell."

    He says of the people of Rûm [i.e., the Germanic peoples of Central
    Europe] that "their complexion is for the most part fair on account of
    the cold and the northern situation, and their hair red; they have
    hardy bodies, and for the most part are given to cheerfulness and
    jocularity, wherefore the astronomers place them under the influence
    of the planet Venus."

Of the cold in "Ifranǵa" [the land of the Franks, Western Europe] he says
that it

    "is quite terrible, and the air there is thick on account of the
    excessive cold."[198]

    "'Burǵân' [or 'Bergân,' as the first vowel is doubtful] is a land
    which lies far in the north. The day there becomes as short as four
    hours and the night as long as twenty hours, and vice versa [cf.
    Ptolemy on Thule, vol. i. p. 117]. The inhabitants are heathens
    ['Maǵûs'] and worshippers of idols. They make war on the Slavs. They
    resemble in most things the Franks [West Europeans]. They have a good
    understanding of all kinds of handicraft and ships."

Professor Seippel considers it not impossible that there may here be a
corruption of the Arabic Nurmân [== Normans] to Burǵân, and to a layman
this looks probable. In any case Burǵân cannot here, as elsewhere in Arab
authors, be Bulgar [the Bulgarians]; on the other hand it might be the
Norwegian town of Bergen. In any case the description seems to suit the
Norwegians best, and the mention of Ptolemy's latitude for Thule (the
longest night of twenty hours) also points to this. That they are said to
be heathens is due again to the name "Maǵûs" (cf. pp. 201, 209).

Qazwînî also[199] tells us that

    "Warank is a district on the border of the northern sea. For from the
    ocean in the north a bay goes in a southerly direction, and the
    district which lies on the shore of this bay, and from which the bay
    has its name, is called Warank. It is the uttermost region on the
    north. The cold there is excessive, the air thick, and the snow
    continuous. [This region] is not suited either for plants or animals.
    Seldom does any one come there, because of the cold and darkness and
    snow. But Allâh knows best [what is the truth of the matter]."

As mentioned above (p. 199), elsewhere in Arab writers the Varangians' Sea
undoubtedly meant the Baltic; but here, as is also suggested by Professor
Seippel, one might be tempted to think that it is Varanger or the
Varanger-fjord in Finmark that is intended.[200] It may also be recalled
that Edrisi already knew the name of Finmark. But as Qazwînî has such
exaggerated ideas of the cold in Rûm and in Ifranǵa, he may also be
credited with such a description of the regions on the Baltic.[201] No
importance can be attached to the statement that the bay proceeds from the
northern ocean in a southerly direction, as ideas of that kind were
general.

Mahmûd ibn Mas ûd 'ash-Shîrâzî (ob. 1310) has the following about the
northern regions:[202]

    "Thus far as regards the islands: you may know that in that part [of
    the sea] which goes into the north-western quarter [of the earth] and
    is connected with the western ocean there are three, whereof the
    largest is the island 'Anglîsî' [or 'Anglisei' (-island), probably
    England], and the smallest the island Irlânda. The most handsome of
    hunting-birds--those that are known by the name of 'sunqur'
    [hunting-falcons]--are only found on it [this island]. The middlemost
    of them is the island of Orknia." Probably Ireland and Iceland are
    here thrown together under the name of Irlânda, as elsewhere falcons
    are especially attributed to the latter. "The longest day reaches
    twenty hours where the latitude is 63° [cf. Ptolemy, vol. i. p. 117].
    There is an island that is called Tûlê. Of its inhabitants it is
    related that they live in heated bathrooms [literally, warm baths] on
    account of the severe cold that prevails there. This is generally
    considered to be the extreme latitude of inhabited land." It appears
    to be Norway that is here meant by Thule.

    Shîrazî says that "the sea that among the ancients was called Mæotis
    is now called the Varangians' Sea, and these are a tall, warlike
    people on its shore. And after the ocean has gone past the Varangians'
    country in an easterly direction it extends behind the land of the
    Turks, past mountains which no one traverses and lands where no one
    dwells, to the uttermost regions of the land of the Chinese, and
    because these are also uninhabited, and because it is impossible to
    sail any farther upon it [the ocean], we know nothing of its
    connection with the eastern ocean."

Shams ad-dîn Abû 'Abdallâh Muḥammad ad-Dimashqî (1256-1327) in his
cosmography has little of interest about the North, and his ideas on the
subject are obscure.

    "The habitable part of the earth extends as far as 66-5/12°;[203] the
    regions beyond, up to 90°, are desert and uninhabited; no known
    animals are found there on account of the great quantity of snow and
    the thick darkness, and the too great distance from the sun.... It is
    the climate of darkness." It lies in the middle of the seventh
    climate, which surrounds it as a circular belt, and "around it the
    vault of heaven turns like the stone in a mill."

    "The sea beyond the deserts of the Qipdjaks [southern Russia,
    Turkestan and western Siberia] in latitude 63° has a length of eight
    days' journey, with a breadth varying to as little as three. In this
    sea there is a great island [probably Scandinavia], inhabited by
    people of tall stature, with fair complexions, fair hair and blue
    eyes, who scarcely understand human speech.[204] It is called the
    Frozen Sea because in winter it freezes entirely, and because it is
    surrounded by mountains of ice. These are formed when the wind in
    winter breaks the waves upon the shore; as they freeze they are cast
    upon the icy edges, which grow in layers little by little, until they
    form heights with separate summits, and walls that surround
    them."[205]

He has besides various strange fables about the northern regions and the
fabulous creatures there. Of the sea to the north of Britain he says that
its coasts

    "turn in a north-westerly direction, and there is the great bay that
    is called the Varangians' Sea, and the Varangians are an inarticulate
    people who scarcely understand human speech, and they are the best of
    the Slavs, and this arm of the sea is the Sea of Darkness in the
    north."

Afterwards the coasts extend farther still to the north and west, and lose
themselves in the climate of Darkness, and no one knows what is there.

Of the whales he says that in the Black Sea a kind of whale is often seen
which the ignorant assert to have been carried by angels alive into Hell,
to be used for various punishments, while others think it keeps at the
bottom of the sea and lives on fish;

    "then Allâh sends to it a cloud and angels, who lift it up out of the
    sea and cast it upon the shore for food for Yâǵûǵ and Mâǵûǵ. The
    whales are very large in the Mediterranean, in the Caspian Sea(!) and
    in the Varangians' Sea(!), as also off the coasts of Spain in the
    Atlantic Ocean."

There is preserved an "abstract of wonders" (oldest MS. of 1484),[206] by
an unknown Arab author, which gives a picture of the Arabs' mythical ideas
in the tenth century. It also tells of islands in the west, which are of
interest to us on account of their resemblance to many of the mediæval
mythical conceptions of Western Europe.

    "In the great ocean is an island which is visible at sea at some
    distance, but if one tries to approach it, it withdraws and
    disappears. If one returns to the place one started from, it is seen
    again as before. It is said that upon this island is a tree that
    sprouts at sunrise, and grows as long as the sun is ascending; after
    midday it decreases, and disappears at sunset. Sailors assert that in
    this sea there is a little fish called 'shâkil,' and that those who
    carry it upon them can discover and reach the island without its
    concealing itself. This is truly a strange and wonderful thing."

    This is evidently the same myth as that of the Lost Isle, already
    referred to (Perdita, cf. vol. i. p. 376), and of the Norwegian
    huldrelands, etc. It also bears resemblance to legends from China and
    Japan. The tree is the sun-tree of the Indian legends, which was
    already introduced into the earliest versions of the Alexander romance
    (Pseudo-Callisthenes, circa 200 A.D.), and which is met with again in
    the fairy-tales and mythical conceptions of many peoples.[207]
    Possibly it is this same tree that grows on the mountain Fusan in the
    Japanese happy land Horaisan, and which is sometimes seen over the sea
    horizon (see p. 56).

    "The island of 'as-Sayyâra.' There are sailors who assert that they
    have often seen it, but they have not stayed there. It is a
    mountainous and cultivated island, which drifts towards the east when
    a west wind is blowing, and vice versa. The stone that forms this
    island is very light.... A man is there able to carry a large mass of
    rock." This floating island resembles those met with in tales from the
    Faroes and elsewhere (cf. vol. i. pp. 375, f.). Even Pliny [Nat.
    Hist., ii. c. 95] has statements about floating islands, and Las
    Casas, in 1552-61 [Historias de las Indias in "Documentos ineditos,"
    lxii. p. 99], says that in the story of St. Brandan many such islands
    (?) are spoken of in the sea round the Cape Verde Islands and the
    Azores, and he asserts that "the same is mentioned in the book of
    'Inventio fortunata,'" that is, by Nicholas of Lynn [cf. de Costa,
    1880, p. 185].

    "'The Island of Women.' This is an island that lies on the borders of
    the Chinese Sea. It is related that it is inhabited only by women, who
    become pregnant by the wind, and who bear only female children; it is
    also said that they become pregnant by a tree, of which they eat the
    fruit.[208] They feed on gold, which with them grows in canes like
    bamboo." This myth, as will be seen, resembles Adam of Bremen's tale
    of the land of women, Kvænland (vol. i. p. 186). Myths of women's
    islands are, moreover, very widespread; they are found in various
    forms in classical authors (p. 47), in Arab writers (cf. above, pp.
    197, 206), in Indian legends, among the Irish (vol. i. pp. 354, 357),
    among the Chinese, etc. It is partly the Amazon idea that appears
    here, partly the happy land desired by men.

Through an apparently small thing the Arabs possibly exercised more than
in anything else a transforming influence upon the navigation, geography
and cartography of Europe; for it was probably they who first brought to
Europe the knowledge of the magnetic needle as a guide. We know that the
Chinese were acquainted with it, at any rate in the second century A.D.,
and used it for a kind of compass for overland journeys. Whether they also
used it at sea we do not know, but it may readily be supposed that they
did. That the Arabs through their direct commercial intercourse with the
Chinese became acquainted with this discovery at an early date seems
probable; but curiously enough we hear nothing of it in Arabic literature
before the thirteenth century. As the Arabs and Turks after that date used
the Italian word "bossolo" for compass (bussol), it has been thought that
they may have derived their knowledge of it, not from China, but from
Italy; but it seems more reasonable to suppose that, while they had their
first knowledge of the magnetic needle from China, they obtained an
improved form of the compass from Italy, and with it the Italian word.


COMPASS-CHARTS

We do not know how early the magnetic needle's property of pointing to the
north became known in Europe and used for finding the way at sea. The
first mention of it is found at the close of the twelfth century in the
works of the Englishman Alexander Neckam, professor in Paris about
1180-1190, and of the troubadour Guyot de Provins from Languedoc. The
latter, in a satirical poem of about 1190, wishes the Pope would imitate
the immutable trustworthiness of the polar star by showing the steadiness
of the heavenly guide; for sailors come and go by this star, which they
are always able to find, even in fog and darkness, by a needle rubbed with
the ugly brown lodestone; stuck in a straw and laid upon water, the needle
points unfailingly to the north star. As late as in 1258 Dante's teacher,
Brunetto Latini, saw as a curiosity in the possession of Roger Bacon at
Oxford a large and ugly lodestone, which was able to confer on an iron
needle the mysterious power of pointing to the star; but he thinks that it
cannot be of any use, for ship-masters would not steer by it, nor would
sailors venture to sea with an instrument which was so like an invention
of the devil. As always when the progress of humanity is at stake,
orthodoxy and religious prejudice raises its head. It is certain that the
use of the compass-needle must have been known in the Mediterranean at the
beginning of the thirteenth century, and probably even in the twelfth. It
has been alleged that the compass was known long before that time, even in
the eleventh and tenth centuries; but no proof of this has been found, and
it does not appear very probable.[209] How early the compass, or
lodestone, was known in the North is uncertain. We only know that when
the Hauksbók was written, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, it
was at any rate known in Iceland (cf. vol. i. p. 248); but it may of
course have been known before that time, and it does not appear that any
long time elapsed between the instrument's being known in the
Mediterranean and its reaching the Scandinavians.

When the compass came into general use on Italian ships in the thirteenth
century, it naturally led to the development of an entirely new type of
map, the Italian sea-charts or compass-charts, which were to be of
fundamental importance to all future cartography. The mediæval maps of the
world already mentioned were learned representations which were of no
practical use to the navigator. The Greeks had drawn land-maps which were
also of no great use at sea, and we do not know that they had sea-charts.
On the other hand sailing-books ("peripli"), which gave directions for
coasting voyages, were in use far back in antiquity. In the Middle Ages
sailing-books, called "portolani," which gave information about harbours,
distances, etc., were an important aid to the navigator, especially in the
Mediterranean. It was the Italians before all others who at that period
developed navigation. When coasting was to some extent replaced by sailing
in open sea, after the compass came into use, sea-charts became a
necessary adjunct to the written sailing-books or portolani. How early
they began to be developed is unknown; we only know that charts were in
use on Italian ships in the latter half of the thirteenth century;[210]
and we must suppose that they were employed long before that time.
Whether, as some have maintained, there was a connection between these
charts and the maps of the Greeks is doubtful, though there may indeed
have been an indirect connection through the Arabs, among whom Edrisi, for
instance, seems perhaps to have exercised some influence. But in any case
it is certain that the Italians of the Middle Ages were not acquainted
with Greek cartography, and this may in a way be regarded as an advantage;
for they were thus obliged to invent their own mode of representation. For
Greek thought the chief thing was to find the best expression for the
system of the world and the "œcumene," to solve problems such as the
reduction of a spherical to a plane surface by projection, etc.; while the
sense of accurate detail was less prominent. The Italian sailor and
cartographer went straight to nature, unhindered by theory, and to him it
appeared a matter of course to set down on the map coasts and islands as
accurately as possible according to the course sailed and the distance,
without reflecting that sea and land form a spherical surface.

The Italian sea-charts seem especially to have been developed in the
republics of northern Italy, Genoa and Pisa, and to some extent Venice.
Later the Catalans of the Balearic Isles and of Spain (Barcelona and
Valencia) also learned the art, probably from Genoa. The charts have been
justly admired for their correct and detailed representation of the coasts
known to the Italians and the seamen of the Mediterranean; the world had
never before produced any parallel to such a representation. It shows that
the sailors of that time were masters in the use of their compass,[211]
and in making up their reckoning. The remarkable thing is that the first
known compass-charts, of the beginning of the fourteenth century, were
already of so perfect a form that there was little to add to or improve in
them in later times. It looks as though this type of chart suddenly sprang
forth in full perfection, like Athene from the brain of Zeus, without our
knowing of any forerunner; it held the field with its representation of
the coasts of the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, and Western Europe almost
unaltered through three centuries. There is something puzzling in that. We
must suppose in any case that these charts were developed through many
smaller special charts throughout the whole of the thirteenth century, but
even that seems a short period for the development of a representation so
complete as this, which thenceforward became almost stereotyped. It is
principally the coasts that are represented, with many names, while inland
there are comparatively few, which of course is natural in sea-charts.

As Italian trade did not extend farther north than Flanders and England
(from whence came wool), it is also characteristic of the compass-charts
that their detailed representation of the coast extends to the south of
England and to Sluis in Flanders, and to the mouth of the Scheldt. Farther
than this the Italian ships did not sail; beyond this boundary began the
commercial domain of the Hanseatic League. The delineation on the
compass-charts of the greater part of Ireland, northern England, Scotland,
the north coast of Germany, Denmark, the Baltic and Scandinavia has an
entirely different character from that of the more southern coasts. The
coast-lines are there evidently drawn in a formal way, and more or less
hypothetically; the names (chiefly those of a few ports, bishops' sees and
islands) are also strikingly few. It is clearly seen that these coasts
cannot have been drawn from actual compass courses and reckonings; they
are sketches based on second- or third-hand information. For this reason
too the shape of the northern countries may be subject to considerable
variation in the different types of compass-charts.

We know little of the sources from which they may have obtained their
delineation of the North; probably they were many and of different kinds.
A glance at the maps reproduced (pp. 226, 232) will convince one that
their image of the North differed greatly from that which we find on the
wheel-maps, and from that which was probably shown on the maps of
antiquity. It is a decisive step in the direction of reality, although the
representation is still imperfect. In a whole series of these charts the
image of the North shows certain typical features. The coast of Germany
and Jutland goes due north from Flanders, thus coming much too near
Britain, and the North Sea becomes nothing but a narrow strait. Even on
the earliest charts (Dalorto's chart, p. 226) the shape of Jutland is
quite good. Norway, the coasts of which are indicated by chains of
mountains, is placed fairly correctly in relation to Jutland, but is put
too far to the west and too near to England. It is also made too broad.
The Skagerak appears more or less correctly, but the Danish islands,
including Sealand, usually as a round island, are placed in the Cattegat
to the north-east of Jutland. This greatly distorts the picture. Sweden is
much too small, and is given too little extension to the south; the Baltic
has a curious form: it extends far to the east and has a remarkable
narrowing in the middle, through the German coast making a great bend to
the north towards Sweden. Gotland lies in the great widening of its inner
portion. The Gulf of Bothnia seems to be unknown. The islands to the north
of Scotland: Shetland (usually called "scetiland," "sialanda" or
"stillanda"), the Orkneys, and often Caithness as an island, come to the
west of Norway, frequently placed in a somewhat arbitrary fashion, and in
the wrong order. "Tille" (Thule), the round island off the north-east
coast of Scotland, is a characteristic feature on many compass-charts. Its
origin is uncertain, but possibly it may be connected with the Romans
having thought they had seen Thule to the north of the Orkneys (?) (cf.
vol. i. p. 107). The names in the North are in the main the same on most
of the compass-charts,[212] and one cartographer has copied another; by
this means also many palæographic errors have been introduced, which are
afterwards repeated. As an example: the Baltic is originally called "mar
allemania," this is read by Catalan draughtsmen as "mar de lamanya," also
written "de lamãya," and thus we get "mar de la maya" (cf. pp. 231, 233).
Another example: Bergen is originally called "bergis" (cf. p. 221), a
draughtsman corrupts this to "bregis," and that becomes the name of the
town in later charts (cf. p. 232). Whence these names first came we do not
know; partly, no doubt, from sailors, and partly from literary sources.
The latter must be true of names in the interior. There are also various
legends or inscriptions on these charts, e.g., in Norway, in Sweden, in
the Baltic, on the islands in the Northern Ocean, and in Iceland. Many of
these legends can be certainly proved to have a literary origin. Some of
them (e.g., that attached to Norway) may be derived in part from the
Geographia Universalis. Others are connected with such authors as Giraldus
Cambrensis, Higden, and others. Certain resemblances to Arabic writers,
especially Edrisi, might also be pointed out; but it is uncertain whether
these are not due in part to their being derived from a common source.

The first known compass-chart, the so-called "Carte Pisane," of about
1300,[213] goes no farther north than to the coast of Flanders and
southern England. But the compass-chart[214] drawn by the Genoese priest
Giovanni da Carignano (ob. 1344), evidently a little after 1300, already
gives a delineation of Great Britain, Ireland, the Orkneys and
Scandinavia, with the Baltic. That these regions are only represented
hypothetically, and do not belong to the compass-chart proper, is also
indicated by their partly lying outside the network of compass-lines. It
is in the main a land map, with many names in the interior of the
continents, but the delineation of the known coasts (to the south of
Flanders) is evidently taken from the sea-charts. The representation of
the British Isles and of the North reminds one a good deal of the
Cottoniana map (cf. vol. i. p. 183), and of Edrisi's representation (cf.
p. 203);[215] as an example: it is difficult to suppose that the western
inclination of Scotland should have come about independently on each of
the three maps. There is also considerable resemblance to Edrisi in the
names on other parts of the chart; but Carignano has no hint of Edrisi's
"Island," nor of the Cottoniana's island of Tylen (Thule). Whether his
Scandinavia is a peninsula, as usually asserted, and not rather a long
island, as on the two maps in question, is uncertain, since the
delineation has suffered a good deal and is indistinct in the inner part
of the Baltic. To judge from a photograph of the chart [Ongania, Pl. III.]
it appears to me most probable that it was an island, which then has
considerable resemblance to the island of Norwâġa [Norway] in Edrisi.
Names that are legible on this island or peninsula are: "noruegia,"
"finonia" [Finmark or Finland], "suetia"; also "bergis" [Bergen],
"tromberg" [Tönsberg], "uamerlant" [Vermeland], "scarsa" [Skara on Lake
Vener], "kundgelf" [Kungelf], "scania" [Skåne], "lendes" [Lund], "stocol"
[Stockholm], etc. On the two islands in the Baltic there are "scamor"
[i.e., "scanior" ? Skanör] and "gothlanda" [Gotland]. Many of these names
appear here for the first time in any known authority. Carignano may have
taken them from older unknown maps, but he may also in some way or other
have received information from the North; possibly, for instance, he may
have had the names of ports, etc., from sailors. His representation of the
western part of Scandinavia, with three long peninsulas (cf. Saxo), is
curious; of these the eastern, with "scania," might be south Sweden with
Skåne; the central one with "tromberg" [Tönsberg] might be Vestfold and
Grenmar, and the western with Bergen might be western Norway. The smaller
peninsula to the north might be Tröndelagen [the district of Trondhjem]
(cf. also Historia Norwegiæ, below, p. 235).

Between the years 1318 and 1321 the Venetian Marino Sanudo wrote a work,
"Liber secretorum fidelium crucis" (the Book of Secrets for Believers in
the Cross), to rouse enthusiasm for a new crusade, and himself presented a
copy of it with a dedication to the Pope at Avignon, which is probably one
of the two now preserved at the Vatican. The work is accompanied by
several charts which must have been drawn by the well-known cartographer
Pietro Vesconte in 1320, since an atlas bearing his name has been found in
the Vatican with charts that completely correspond.[216] Among them is a
circular map of the world of the wheel type, but on which the forms of the
coasts from the compass-charts are introduced. Scandinavia is there
represented as a peninsula with a mountain chain (Kjölen ?) along the
middle (see map, p. 223), and the names "Gotilandia," "Dacia," "Suetia,"
"Noruega" may be read. On the continent is written "Guenden [Kvænland, or
else == "Suenden" == Sweden ?] vel Gotia"; and on the coast to the north
of the peninsula is "Liuonia" and to the south of it "Frixia" [Friesland].
As Kretschmer has shown, Scandinavia was originally drawn (in both
atlases) as an island, but was afterwards connected with the continent by
a narrow isthmus. This representation of Scandinavia as a peninsula
resembles that on many of the wheel-maps mentioned above (see pp. 185,
ff.). It also bears a strong resemblance to the view of Saxo (beginning of
the thirteenth century), who says:[217]

    "Moreover the upper arm of the ocean [i.e., the southern arm, the
    Baltic, as the south is supposed to be at the top of the map], which
    cuts through and past Dania, washes the south coast of Gothia
    [Götaland, i.e., Sweden] with a bay of fair size; but the lower
    [northern] branch, which goes past the north coast of Gothia and
    Noruagia, turns towards the east with a considerable widening, and is
    bounded by a curved coast. This end of the sea was called by our
    ancient primæval inhabitants Gandvicus. Between this bay and the
    southern sea lies a little piece of continent, which looks out upon
    the seas washing it on both sides. If nature had not set this space as
    a limit to the two almost united streams, the arms of the sea would
    have met one another, and made Suetia and Noruagia into an island."

It seems not improbable that the delineation on Vesconte's map may have a
connection with this description; it has also very nearly the same forms
of names. The regions far in the north and east on his map are pure fancy,
and the "rifei montes" are still found there.

Eight other MSS. (in various libraries) of Sanudo's work are known,
accompanied by maps, and six of them have the circular mappamundi; but the
reproductions differ considerably one from another, especially in the
representation of the northern coast of Europe.[218] The mappamundi in the
MS. in Queen Christina's collection in the Vatican (Codex Reginensis,
548), and the exactly similar map in the MS. at Oxford, have a remarkably
good delineation of the Scandinavian Peninsula (see map, p. 224), with the
names "Suetia" [Svealand], "Gotia" [Götaland], and "Scania" on the east,
"Noruegia" on the west, "Finlandia" and "Alandia" [Åland, or perhaps
Hallandia ?] in the extreme north-east. On the continent is written
"Kareli infideles," "Estonia," "Liuonia," etc. In the Baltic are two
islands, "Gotlandia" in the middle, and "Ossilia" [Ösel] farthest in. The
shape of Jutland [with the names "Dacia" and "Jutia"], the direction of
the coast of northern Europe and the Baltic, with Scandinavia parallel to
it, remind one a good deal of Edrisi's map, of the Cottoniana and also of
Carignano's map. Evidently there is here new information which Vesconte
did not possess when he drew the map previously mentioned; the correct
placing of the names in Sweden and Norway is especially striking. These
names, as also "Jutia," occur in Saxo in approximately the same forms (cf.
also Historia Norwegiæ). Marino Sanudo, according to his own statement,
had himself sailed from Venice to Flanders, and had also travelled in
Holstein and Slavonia. He was thus able to collect geographical
information, and, as suggested by Björnbo [1909, pp. 211, f.], may have
received communications from North German priests whose picture of the
North had been formed by the study of Adam of Bremen and Saxo; but there
does not appear to me to be any necessity for such a hypothesis, he may
just as well have received direct information from people who knew the
localities, while doubtless the names are to a great extent literary. If
we suppose that it was Pietro Vesconte who drew all the maps, he may have
derived his information about the North through Sanudo himself; but in
that case it would be strange that he did not use it for his first map.
We must therefore suppose that it was after this that their real
collaboration began.

But here we come upon another difficulty, and this is the third entirely
different form of the delineation of the North that is found in the
corresponding mappamundi in the MS. of Sanudo at Paris. There the
Scandinavian Peninsula is divided in an unaccountable way into several
islands, the largest of which bears the name "scania de regno dacie" or
"scãdinaua." To the north of it is a long island, "gotlandia," which has
been read by some "yrlandia" or "yslandia," and made into Iceland [as in
Thoroddsen, i., 1897, p. 84]. "Noruegia" is written outside the border of
the map to the north of Jutland [called "dacia"], and the name "prouincia
noruicie" is placed on the west coast of Jutland, which has been given a
fantastic extension towards the north with many bays. An island in the
ocean to the north of Russia ["rutenia"] is marked "kareli infideles." The
whole of this representation is in complete disagreement with the other
Sanudo maps, and it is difficult to understand that Vesconte can have also
drawn this one, although in other respects it may bear much resemblance to
the rest from his hand. One might be inclined to think that some other man
had tinkered at this part of the map, introducing ideas which he entirely
misunderstood.

    A remarkable thing about it is that it is, perhaps, the first that has
    a legend about the North. For on the large island in the Baltic (?) we
    read: "In hoc mari est maxima copia aletiorum" [in this sea is the
    greatest abundance of herrings ?]. In the opinion of Björnbo this may
    allude to the herring fishery in the Sound.[219]

The type which is first known from Angellino Dalorto's map of 1325 (or
1330 ?), and from that of 1339 signed Angellino Dulcert, which is
undoubtedly by the same man, was of fundamental importance to the
representation of the North on the Catalan compass-charts. It has been
thought that he belonged to a well-known Genoese family named Dalorto, and
that the first map was drawn in Italy, while the latter was certainly
drawn in Majorca, either by a copyist who corrupted the name of Dalorto to
Dulcert, or by himself, who in that case must be supposed to have given
his name a more Catalan sound on settling in Majorca. But in any case
these maps had Italian models; this appears clearly in the form of the
names [cf. Kretschmer, 1909, pp. 118, f.].

The two maps are much alike. The oldest, of 1325 (1330 ?),[220] gives a
more complete representation of the North and of the Baltic than any
earlier map known (see illustration). In its names it shows a connection
both with Carignano's map and with Marino Sanudo, but new names and fresh
information have been added, the delineation of Great Britain and Ireland
is more correct, and there is also a more reasonable representation of
Scandinavia and of the extent of the Baltic than on Carignano's map.
Amongst new names in the North may be mentioned "trunde" [Trondhjem, cf.
"Throndemia" in the Historia Norwegiæ], and "alogia" for a town on the
west side of Norway; this is evidently Halogia [Hálogaland], a form of the
name which was used, for instance, in the Historia Norwegiæ and by Saxo.
Another name in the far north, and again at the south-western extremity of
Norway, is "alolandia" (see illustration, p. 226). One might suppose that
the form of the name and its assignment to these two places are due to a
confusion of the name Hálogaland with Hallandia (in Saxo) and "alandia" on
the Sanudo-Vesconte map (see p. 224).

It will be seen that Norway, which is represented as a pronouncedly
mountainous country,[221] has on this map been given a great increase of
breadth, so that its west coast is brought to the same longitude as the
west coast of Great Britain. In the legends attached to Norway we read
that from its deserts are brought "birds called gilfalcos" (hunting
falcons), and in the extreme north is the inscription:

    "Here the people live by hunting the beasts of the forest, and also on
    fish, on account of the price of corn which is very dear. Here are
    white bears and many animals."

The substance of this may be derived in the main from the Geographia
Universalis (cf. pp. 189, f.; see also p. 177). Islands in the ocean to
the west of Norway are: farthest north, "Insula ornaya" [the Orkneys];
farther south, "sialand" [Shetland, "Insula scetiland" on the map of 1339,
and "silland" or "stillanda" on later maps]. The resemblance to
"shâsland," the name of an island in Edrisi (cf. above, p. 207), is great,
but it cannot be supposed that we have here a corruption of Iceland. At
the north-eastern corner of Scotland is the round island, "Insula tille"
(cf. p. 219).

In the ocean to the west of Ireland we find for the first time on this map
an island called "Insula de montonis siue de brazile." This island is met
with again on later compass-charts under the name of "brazil" as late as
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.[222] It is evidently the Irish
fortunate isle "Hy Breasail," afterwards called "O'Brazil," that has found
its way on to this map, or probably on to the unknown older sources from
which it is drawn. On this and the oldest of the later maps the island has
a strikingly round form, often divided by a channel.

    The Irish myth of Hy Breasail, or Bresail,[223] the island out in the
    Atlantic (cf. vol. i. p. 357), is evidently very ancient; the island
    is one of the many happy lands like "Tír Tairngiri" [the promised
    land]. In the opinion of Moltke Moe and Alf Torp the name may come
    from the Irish "bress" [good fortune, prosperity], and would thus be
    absolutely the same as the Insulæ Fortunatæ. The Italians may easily
    have become acquainted with this myth through the Irish monasteries in
    North Italy, unless indeed they had it through their sailors, and in
    this way the island came upon the map. The form "brazil" may have
    arisen through the cartographer connecting the name with the valuable
    brazil-wood, used for dyeing. The channel dividing the island of
    Brazil on the maps may be the river which in the legend of Brandan ran
    through the island called "Terra Repromissionis," and which Brandan
    (in the Navigatio) was not able to cross. It is probably the river of
    death (Styx), and possibly the same that became the river at Hop in
    the Icelandic saga of Wineland (see vol. i. p. 359). We thus find here
    again a possible connection, and this strengthens the probability that
    Brazil was the Promised Land of the Irish, which on the other hand
    helped to form Wineland.

    On later compass-charts several isles of Brazil came into existence.
    As early as in the Medici Atlas (1351) an "Insula de brazi" appears
    farther south in the ocean, to the west of Spain, and on the Pizigano
    map (1367) and the Soleri map (1385) there is to the west of Brittany
    yet a third "brazir," afterwards commonly called "de manj," or
    "maidas," etc.[224] The name "Insula de montonis" is difficult to
    understand. If we may believe it to be an error for "moltonis" (or
    perhaps "moutonis," a latinisation of the French "mouton" ?), it might
    mean the sheep island of the Navigatio Brandani, which was originally
    Dicuil's Faroes (cf. vol. i. p. 362). Thus this name also carries us
    to Ireland.[225]

    At the same time another Irish mythical conception has found its way
    on to the map of 1325, and faithfully attends the isle of "Brazil" on
    its progress through all the compass-charts of later times; this is
    the fortunate lake, "lacus fortunatus," with its islands, "insulle
    sc̄i lacaris" [Lough Carra or Lough Corrib ?], which were so numerous
    that there was said later to be one for every day of the year. On
    Perrinus Vesconte's map of 1327 the same lake with its many islands is
    found, and as far as I can read the greatly reduced reproduction in
    Nordenskiöld's Periplus (Pl. VII.) the words are: "gulfo de issolle
    CCCLVIII.[226] beate et fortunate" (the gulf of the 358 blessed and
    happy islands), as also found on some later maps.[227] I have not had
    an opportunity of examining the map of the British Isles in the same
    draughtsman's atlas of 1321, to see whether this happy lake and the
    isle of Brazil are given there; the gulf with the 358 islands is
    stated to be on Vesconte-Sanudo maps [cf. Harrisse, 1892, pp. 57, f.],
    which I have also had no opportunity of consulting.

Angellino Dulcert's (Dalorto's) map of 1339[228] differs somewhat from the
map of 1325 (1330 ?) in its delineation of the North, in that Norway is
given a narrower and more rectangular form, with only those four headlands
on the south side which are largest on the map of 1325, while the country
with the smaller headlands to the west of these is cut away, whereby the
narrower shape is brought about.[229]

Dalorto's maps of 1325 and 1339 furnish the prototype for the
representation of the North in later compass-charts; and this persists
without important alteration until well into the fifteenth century. But
while later Italian charts (cf. Pizigano's of 1367) more closely resemble
the Italian Dalorto map of 1325, the Majorca map of 1339 represents the
type of the later Catalan charts. In the one preserved at Modena, and
dating from about 1350,[230] the Catalan compass-chart is combined with
the representation of the world of the wheel-maps. We find the picture of
the North to be the same in all its main outlines; but here a new feature
is added, in that Iceland appears as a group of eight islands in the far
north-west, out on the margin of the map, with the note: "questas illes
son appellades islandes" (these islands are called Icelands). The
southernmost island is called "islanda," the others have incomprehensible
names ("donbert," "tranes," "tales," "brons," "bres," "mmau...," "bilanj"
[?]); but the name of Greenland is not found. In the ocean to the north of
Norway there is "Mare putritum congelatum" [the putrid, frozen sea]. This
is evidently the idea of the stinking Liver Sea (as in Arab myths, cf. p.
51), combined with that of the frozen sea. On the approximately
contemporary Catalan compass-chart (see the reproduction, pp. 232-233),
preserved in the National Library at Florence (called No. 16), we find the
same group of islands called "Island," with a long inscription (see p.
232; cf. also Björnbo and Petersen, 1908, p. 16), which is partly
illegible, but wherein it is stated that "the islands are very large,"
that "the people are handsome, tall and fair, the country is very cold,"
etc. The name of Greenland does not occur on this chart either.[231]

The same type of Catalan charts includes Charles V.'s well-known
mappamundi, or "Catalan Atlas," of 1375, as well as Mecia de
Viladeste's chart of 1413,[232] and many others.[233]

We find a different representation of the North, especially of the
Scandinavian Peninsula, in the anonymous atlas of 1351, preserved at
Florence and commonly called the "Medicean Marine Atlas,"[234] which is an
Italian, probably a Genoese, work. The North is here represented on a map
of the world and on a map of Europe (reproduced pp. 236, 260). The
representation to a great extent resembles the Dalorto type. Its division
of western Scandinavia into three great promontories no doubt recalls the
Carignano map to such an extent that one may suppose it to have been
influenced by some Italian source of that map; but in the names it shows
more resemblance to the Dalorto maps: the delineation of the Baltic and of
the peninsula corresponding to Skåne is practically the same, it perhaps
resembles in particular the Modena map and the anonymous map at Florence
(cf. pp. 232, 233). Jutland, on the other hand, has been greatly prolonged
and given a different shape. The three great tongues of land in Norway,
with a smaller one on the east near Denmark, may correspond to the four
headlands on the south coast of Norway on the Dalorto maps (cf. especially
that of 1339). Through these being considerably increased in size, and the
bays between them being enlarged, the west coast of Norway has been moved
even farther to the west than on the map of 1325, and has been given a
somewhat more westerly longitude than Ireland. On the map of Europe "C.
trobs" ["capitolum tronberg" ? i.e., Tönsberg] is written on the first bay
[like "trunberg" on the Dalorto map], "c. bergis" ["capitolum bergis,"
i.e., the see of Bergen] and "c. trons" (?) [the see of Trondhjem] on each
of the two other bays. Finally, "alogia," which on the Dalorto map is
marked as a town on the northern west coast of Norway, to the north of
Nidroxia [Nidaros], has followed the west coast and is placed on the
westernmost tongue of land. How the whole of this delineation came about
is difficult to say. One might be tempted to think that it was through a
misunderstanding of a description of Norway, like that we find in the
Historia Norwegiæ, where the country is described as divided into four
parts, the first being the land on the eastern bay near Denmark, the
second "Gulacia" [Gulathing], the third "Throndemia," the fourth
"Halogia."[235] The map of the world in the Medici atlas is drawn in the
same way as the compass-charts. It has no names of towns in Scandinavia,
and the westernmost tongue of land is without a name (see the
reproduction). On the other hand, the name "alolanda" occurs inland in
eastern Norway, and is there obviously a corruption of "Hallandia" (cf. p.
227). This mappamundi is interesting from the fact that it makes the
land-masses of the continent extend without a limit on the north, whereas
Africa is terminated by a peninsula on the south.

The map of the Venetian Francesco Pizigano, of 1367, resembles Dalorto's
of 1325 in its delineation of the North; the south side of Norway has
somewhat the same rounded form with seven headlands, and "Alogia" is a
town on the west coast.


VIEWS OF THE NORTH AMONG THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

It has been already pointed out that, while the oldest northern authority,
Adam of Bremen, regarded the countries of the North, outside Scandinavia,
as islands in the ocean surrounding the earth's disc (in agreement with
the learned view and with the wheel-maps), the Scandinavians, unfettered
by learned ideas, assumed that Greenland was connected with the continent,
for the reason, amongst others, that, as the author of the "King's Mirror"
expresses it, continental animals such as the hare, wolf and reindeer
could not otherwise have got there. But, as we have seen, this land
communication could only be supposed to exist on the far side of Gandvik
(the White Sea) and the Bjarmeland (Northern Russia) that they knew, and
to go round the north of the sea that lay to the north of Norway. Thus the
sea came to be called Hafsbotn (i.e., the bay or gulf of the ocean). We
find the clearest expression of this view in the Icelandic geography
already referred to, which may in part be attributed to Abbot Nikulás
Bergsson of Thverá[236] (cf. vol. i. p. 313; vol. ii. pp. 1, 172), and
where we read:

    "Nearest Denmark is lesser Sweden [so called to distinguish it from
    'Sviþjóð it Mikla,' Russia], there is Öland, then Gotland, then
    Helsingeland, then Vermeland, then two Kvænlands, and they are north
    of Bjarmeland. From Bjarmeland uninhabited country extends northward
    as far as Greenland. South of Greenland is Helluland," etc. [cf. the
    continuation, above, p. 1]. In a variant of this geography in an older
    MS. we read: "North of Saxland is Denmark. Through Denmark the sea
    goes into 'Austrveg' [the countries on the Baltic]. Sweden lies east
    of Denmark, but Norway on the north. To the north of Norway is
    Finmark. From thence the land turns towards the north-east, and then
    to the east before one comes to Bjarmeland. This is tributary to the
    Garda-king [the king of Gardarike]. From Bjarmeland the land stretches
    to the uninhabited parts of the north, until Greenland begins. To the
    south of Greenland lies Helluland," etc.

We have yet a third, later and more detailed variant in the so-called
"Gripla," given in vol. i. p. 288.

The belief in this land connection with Greenland may have originated in,
or at any rate have been considerably strengthened by, the discovery of
countries such as Novaya Zemlya, Svalbard (Spitzbergen ?), and the
northern uninhabited parts of the east coast of Greenland[237] (cf. above,
pp. 165, ff.). In addition to this, those sailing the Polar Sea came
across pack-ice wherever they went in a northerly direction, closing in
the sea and making it like a gulf, and it must therefore have been natural
to believe in a continuous coast which connected the countries behind the
ice, and which held this fast. The belief in a land connection seems to
have been so ingrained that it can scarcely have rested on nothing but
theoretical speculations, but must rather have been supported by tangible
proofs of this kind.

It was to be expected that the countries on the north of Hafsbotn should
become fairylands in popular belief, Jotunheimr and Risaland, inhabited by
giants. Even Saxo (beginning of the thirteenth century) says that to the
north of Norway

    "lies a land, the name and position of which are unknown, without
    human civilisation, but rich in people of monstrous strangeness. It is
    separated from Norway, which lies opposite, by a mighty arm of the
    sea. As the navigation there is very unsafe, few of those who have
    ventured thither have had a fortunate return."

As it can hardly be the Christian settlements in Greenland that Saxo
refers to as a land without human civilisation, we must doubtless suppose
that his land in the north is a confusion of the eastern uninhabited
tracts of Greenland with Jotunheimr, as in Icelandic ideas. For Adam of
Bremen already had giants (Cyclopes) on an island in the north, and we
have seen that there were similar conceptions in the Historia Norwegiæ
(cf. p. 167).

A mediæval Icelandic tale [inserted in Björn Jónsson's Greenland Annals]
says of Halli Geit that

    "he alone succeeded in coming by land on foot over mountains and
    glaciers and all the wastes, and past all the gulfs of the sea to
    Gandvik and then to Norway. He led with him a goat, and lived on its
    milk; he often found valleys and narrow openings between the glaciers,
    so that the goat could feed either on grass or in the woods."

Ideas of this kind led to the view held by some that there was land as far
as the North Pole, which appears in an Icelandic tract, included in the
"Rymbegla" [1780, p. 466]. Of a bad Latin verse, there reproduced, it is
said:

    "Some will understand this to mean that he [i.e., the poet] says that
    land lies under 'leidarstjarna' [the pole star], and that the shores
    there prevent the ring of the ocean from joining [i.e., around the
    disc of the earth]; with this certain ancient legends agree, which
    show that one can go, or that men have gone, on foot from Greenland to
    Norway."

But the mediæval learned idea of the Outer Ocean surrounding the whole
disc of earth also asserts itself in the North, and appears in Snorre's
Heimskringla and in the "King's Mirror," amongst other works. This ocean
went outside Greenland, which was connected with Europe, and made the
former into a peninsula. In the work already referred to, "Gripla" (only
known in a late MS. in Björn Jónsson of Skardsá, first half of the
seventeenth century), we read, in continuation of the passage already
quoted (p. 35): "Between Wineland and Greenland is Ginnungagap, it
proceeds from the sea that is called 'Mare oceanum,' which surrounds the
whole world." Since Wineland [i.e., the Insulæ Fortunatæ], as already
stated (pp. 1, ff.), was by some, evidently through a misunderstanding,
made continuous with Africa,[238] it is clear that the Outer Ocean must be
supposed to go completely round both Greenland and Wineland (cf. the
illustration, p. 2). Thus it was also natural to suppose that there was an
opening somewhere between these two countries, through which the Outer
Ocean was connected with the inner, known ocean between Norway, Greenland,
etc.[239]

At least as old as the Norsemen's conceptions of countries beyond the
ocean in the North was probably the idea of the great abyss, Ginnungagap,
which there forms the boundary of the ocean and of the world, and which
must be derived from the Tartarus and Chaos of the Greeks (cf. p. 150).
When the Polar Sea (Hafsbotn) was closed by the land connection between
Bjarmeland and Greenland, it was natural that those who tried to form a
consistent view of the world could no longer find a place for the abyss in
that direction; and G. Storm [1890] is certainly right in thinking that it
was for this reason that Ginnungagap was located in the passage between
Greenland and Wineland; since, no doubt, the idea was that this "gap" in
some way or other was connected with the void Outer Ocean. But this view
is first found in the very late copy (seventeenth century) of "Gripla,"
and of the somewhat older map of Gudbrand Torlaksson [Torlacius] of 1606
[Torfæus, 1706; Pl. I., p. 21], where "Ginnunga Gap" is marked as the name
of the strait between Greenland and America. What Ginnungagap really was
seems never to have been quite clear, different people having no doubt had
different ideas about it; but when, as here, it is used as the name of a
strait through which the Outer Ocean enters, it cannot any longer be an
abyss; at the most it may have been a maelstrom or whirlpool, which,
indeed, is suggested by the whirlpool on Jón Gudmundsson's map (cf. p.
34). But even this interpretation of the name became effaced, and in
another MS. of the seventeenth century (see p. 35) it is simply used as a
name for the great ocean to the west of Spain (that is, the Atlantic).

On the other hand we have seen (pp. 150, ff.) that ideas of whirlpools in
the northern seas appear to have been widely spread in the Middle Ages.
There is a possibility, as already hinted (vol. i. p. 303), that when in
Ivar Bárdsson's description of the northern west coast of Greenland "the
many whirlpools that there lie all over the sea" are spoken of, it was
thought that here was the boundary of the ocean and of the world, and that
it was formed by the many whirlpools, or abysses in the sea. In that case
these cannot be regarded merely as maelstroms like the Moskenström, but
more like the true Ginnungagap. But this is extremely uncertain; it may
again have been one of those embellishments which were often used in
speaking of the most distant regions.

Saxo Grammaticus (first part of the thirteenth century) in the preface to
his Danish history gives geographical information about Scandinavia and
Iceland, to which we have already referred several times. He does not
mention Greenland. He says himself that he has made use of Icelandic
literature to a large extent; but he has also mingled with it a good deal
of mythical material from elsewhere.

Beyond comparison the most important geographical writer of the mediæval
North, and at the same time one of the first in the whole of mediæval
Europe, was the unknown author who wrote the "King's Mirror,"[240]
probably about the middle of the thirteenth century.[241] If one turns
from contemporary or earlier European geographical literature, with all
its superstition and obscurity, to this masterly work, the difference is
very striking. Even at the first appearance of the Scandinavians in
literature, in Ottar's straightforward and natural narrative of his voyage
to King Alfred, the numerous trustworthy statements about previously
unknown regions are a prominent feature, and give proof of a sober faculty
of observation, altogether different from what one usually meets with in
mediæval literature. This is the case to an even greater degree in the
"King's Mirror," and the difference between what is there stated about the
North and what we find less than two hundred years earlier in Adam of
Bremen is obvious. Apart from the fact that the whole method of
presentation is inspired by superior intelligence, it shows an insight and
a faculty of observation which are uncommon, especially at that period;
and in many points this remarkable man was evidently centuries before his
time. Although well acquainted with much of the earlier mediæval
literature, he has liberated himself to a surprising extent from its
fabulous conceptions. We hear nothing of the many fabulous peoples, who
were still common amongst much later authors, nor about whirlpools, nor
the curdled and dark sea, but instead we have fresh and copious
information about the northern regions, and it comes with a clearness like
that which already struck us in Ottar. We have a remarkably good
description of the sea-ice, its drift, etc. (cf. vol. i. pp. 279, f.); we
have also a description of the animal world of the northern seas to which
there is no parallel in the earlier literature of the world (cf. pp. 155,
ff.). No less than twenty-one different whales are referred to fully. If
we make allowance for three of them being probably sharks, and for two
being perhaps alternative names for the same whale, the total corresponds
to the number of species that are known in northern waters. Six seals are
described, which corresponds to the number of species living on the coasts
of Norway and Greenland. Besides these the walrus ["rostung"] is very well
described. But even the author of the "King's Mirror" could not altogether
avoid the supernatural in treating of the sea. He describes in the seas of
Iceland the enormous monster "hafgufa," which seems more like a piece of
land than a fish, and he does not think there are more than two of them in
the sea. This is the same that the Norwegian fishermen now call the krake,
and certainly also the same that appears in ancient oriental myths, and
that is met with again in the Brandan legend as the great whale that they
take for an island and land on (cf. p. 234). In the Greenland seas the
"King's Mirror" has two kinds of trolls, "hafstrambr" [a kind of merman],
with a body that was like a glacier to look at, and "margygr" [a mermaid],
both of which are fully described. There is also mention in the Greenland
seas of the strange and dangerous "sea-fences," which are often spoken of
in the sagas [and about which there is a lay, the "hafgerðinga-drápa"].
The author does not quite know what to make of this marvel, for "it looks
as if all the storms and waves that there are in that sea gather
themselves together in three places, and become three waves. They fence in
the whole sea, so that men cannot find a way out, and they are higher than
great mountains and like steep summits," etc. It is probable that the
belief in these sea-fences is derived from something that really took
place, perhaps most likely earthquake-waves, or submarine earthquakes,
which may sometimes have occurred near volcanic Iceland. But it is curious
that in the "King's Mirror" these waves are connected with Greenland. They
might also be supposed to be connected with the waves that are formed when
icebergs capsize.

The principal countries described are Ireland, Iceland and Greenland; but
it is characteristic of the author that the farther north he goes, away
from regions commonly known, the freer his account becomes from all kinds
of fabulous additions. In Ireland he is still held fast by the
superstition of the period, and especially by the priests' fables about
themselves and their holy men, and by the English author Giraldus
Cambrensis.[242] In Iceland, as a rule, he is free of this troublesome
ballast, and gives valuable information about the glaciers of Iceland,
glacier-falls, boiling springs, etc. In his opinion the cold climate of
Iceland is due to the vicinity of Greenland, which sends out great cold
owing to its being above all other lands covered with ice; for this reason
Iceland has so much ice on its mountains. Although he thinks it possible
that its volcanoes are due to the fires of Hell, and that it is thus the
actual place of torment, and that Hell is therefore not in Sicily, as his
holiness Pope Gregory had supposed, he nevertheless has another and more
reasonable explanation of the origin of earthquakes and volcanoes. They
may be due to hollow passages and cavities in the foundations of the land,
which by the force either of the wind or of the roaring sea may become so
full of wind that they cannot stand the pressure, and thus violent
earthquakes may arise. From the violent conflict which the air produces
underground, the great fire may be kindled which breaks out in different
parts of the country. It must not be thought certain that this is exactly
how it takes place, but one ought rather to lay such things together to
form the explanation that seems more conceivable, for

    "we see that from force ['afli'] all fire comes. When hard stone and
    hard iron are brought together with a blow, fire comes from the iron
    and from the force with which they are struck together. You may also
    rub pieces of wood together until fire comes from the labour that they
    have. It is also constantly happening that two winds arise from
    different quarters, one against the other, and if they meet in the air
    there is a hard shock, and this shock gives off a great fire, which
    spreads far in the air," etc.

This idea of a connection between labour (friction) and force (motion),
and this explanation of the possible origin of volcanoes are surprising in
the thirteenth century, and seem to bring the author centuries in advance
of his time; we here have germs of the theory of the conservation of
energy.

His statements about Greenland are remarkable for their sober
trustworthiness. He gives the first description of its inland ice:

    "But since you asked whether the land is thawed or not, or whether it
    is covered with ice like the sea, you must know that there are small
    portions of the land which are thawed, but all the rest is covered
    with ice, and the people do not know whether the country is large or
    small, since all the mountains and valleys are covered with ice, so
    that no one can find his way in. But in reality it must be that there
    is a way, either in those valleys that lie between the mountains, or
    along the shores, so that animals can find a way, for otherwise
    animals cannot come there from other countries, unless they find a way
    through the ice and find the land thawed. But men have often tried to
    go up the country, upon the highest mountains in various places, to
    look around them, to see whether they could find any part that was
    thawed and habitable, but they have not found any such, except where
    people are now living, and that is but little along the shore itself."

This, as we see, is an extremely happy description of the mighty
ice-sheet. He also describes the climate of the country, both the fine
weather that often occurs in summer, and its usually inclement character,
which causes so small a proportion of the country to be habitable.

    "The land is cold, and the glacier [i.e., the great ice or inland ice]
    has this nature, that he sends out cold gusts which drive away the
    showers from his face, and he usually keeps his head bare. But often
    his near neighbours have to suffer for it, in that all other lands
    which lie in his neighbourhood get much bad weather from him, and all
    the cold blasts that he throws off fall upon them."

Though in simple and everyday words, this really expresses the idea that
Greenland and the neighbouring regions are disproportionately cold, and
that, in part at any rate, this is due to the glaciers of Greenland, which
have a refrigerating effect (as an anticyclonic pole of maximum cold).
This is to a certain degree correct. In crossing Greenland in 1888 we
found that a pole of cold [anticyclone] lies over the inland ice, which
gives off cold air. Scientific greatness does not always depend on
erudition or acute learned combinations; it is just as often the result of
a sound common-sense.

The allusion in the "King's Mirror" to the Norse inhabitants of Greenland
and their life has already been quoted in part (vol. i. p. 277); curiously
enough the Skrælings are not mentioned. The author gives a graphic
description of the aurora borealis, and attempts to explain its cause. As
already noted (p. 155), it is curious that he should speak of it as
something peculiar to Greenland, when he must of course have known it well
enough in Norway.

The cosmography of the "King's Mirror" is based on older mediæval writers,
especially Isidore. The spherical form of the earth and the course of the
sun are mentioned, as is Macrobius's doctrine of zones. In the frigid
zones the cold has attracted to itself such power that the waters throw
off their nature and are changed to ice, and all the land and sea is
covered with ice. They are usually uninhabitable, but nevertheless the
author considers that Greenland lies in the north frigid zone. He thinks
that "it is mainland, and connected with other mainland," as already
mentioned, because it has a number of terrestrial animals that are not
often found on islands. It

    "lies on the extreme side of the world on the north, and he does not
    think there is land outside 'Heimskringla' [the circle of the world,
    'orbis terrarum'] beyond Greenland, only the great ocean which runs
    round the world; and it is said by men who are wise that the strait
    through which the empty ocean flows comes in by Greenland, and into
    the gap between the lands ('landa-klofi'), and thereafter with fjords
    and gulfs it divides all countries, where it runs into Heimskringla."

This is, as we see, the same idea as already (p. 240) referred to, that
the Outer Ocean runs in through a sound between Greenland and another
continent to the south, evidently Wineland, which is thus here again
regarded as part of Africa (cf. p. 1).

It is moreover striking that neither Wineland, Markland, nor Helluland is
mentioned in the "King's Mirror," and Bjarmeland, Svalbard, etc., are also
omitted. Thus it does not give any complete description of the northern
lands, but it must be remembered that what we know of the work is only a
fragment, and perhaps it was never completed.

CLAUDIUS CLAVUS

The credit of having introduced the name of Greenland, with the ancient
Norsemen's geographical ideas about the extreme North, into cartography
belongs, so far as is known, to the Dane Claudius Claussön Swart, usually
called in Latin Claudius Clavus (sometimes also Nicolaus Niger). He was
born in Funen, travelled about Europe, and, as shown by Storm [1891, pp.
17, f.], was probably the "Nicolaus Gothus" who is mentioned at Rome in
January 1424, and who is reported to have there given out that he had seen
a copy of Livy in the monastery of Sorö, near Roskilde (which was probably
a romance on his part). We are told that he was a man of acute
intelligence, but a rover and unsteady. His subsequent history is unknown.
As a supplement to Ptolemy's Geography, which just at that time (1409) was
becoming known in Western Europe in a Latin translation, he made, probably
in Italy, two maps of the North, with accompanying descriptions. The maps
must have been drawn either by himself or with his help. They are the
first maps known in Western Europe which are furnished, after the model of
Ptolemy (or Marinus), with lines of latitude and longitude,[243] and they
thus mark the beginning of a more scientific cartography and geography in
Western Europe.[244]

His first map (the Nancy map) must have been drawn between the years 1413
and 1427, probably between 1424 and 1427; but it can never have been
widely known, as it has exercised no noticeable influence on the
cartography of the succeeding period. The French cardinal Filastre (ob.
1428), who was staying in Rome in 1427, became acquainted with it there,
and made a reduced copy of it, which, together with a copy of the
accompanying text, he had bound up with his copy of the Latin translation
of Ptolemy's Geography with maps. This work was not rediscovered at Nancy
until 1835, when it was published; the map is therefore usually called the
Nancy map. Clavus's second map, which seems to have been drawn later than
that just mentioned, has on the other hand had considerable influence on
the cartographical representation of the northern regions through a period
of two centuries.

A copy of the later map was first brought to light by Nordenskiöld at
Warsaw in 1889 [1889, p. xxx.]; since then several copies have been
rescued from oblivion, while the text accompanying the map was
accidentally discovered in 1900 by Dr. A. A. Björnbo in a mediæval MS. at
Vienna [Björnbo and Petersen, 1904]. The original map is lost; but except
as regards details of no great consequence there can now be no doubt as to
what it was like.

The reproductions (pp. 248 and 251) will give an idea of the
representation of the North on the two maps. As far as Ptolemy's map
extended (cf. vol. i. pp. 118, f.), it will be seen that its coast-lines
and islands are almost slavishly adhered to on both maps. To this the
Nancy map adds a Scandinavia, with Iceland, the east coast of Greenland,
and a northern land connection between the latter and Russia. On the later
map Scandinavia has been given a somewhat altered form, and Greenland has
a west coast. The Nancy map has few names, many more being mentioned in
the text, especially in Denmark. Even as regards Denmark they are
evidently to a great extent taken from an older itinerary like that of
Bruges ["Itinéraire Brugeois," cf. Storm, 1891, p. 19]. Some of the names
on the map, like "bergis," "nidrosia," etc., may be taken from older
compass-charts; both texts have the northern form "Bergen." Headlands,
bays and islands (on the coasts of Norway, Iceland and Greenland), for
which he had no names (and which moreover are due to the free
imagination of the draughtsman), have been designated in the Nancy text
by Latin numerals ("Primum," "Secundum," etc.), or are simply named after
each other (in Iceland), a sure sign that Clavus neither knew nor had
heard anything about these coasts.

On his later map Clavus has made up for the want of names in an
astonishing way. On some of the coasts he has continued to use Latin
numerals for bays, etc., but side by side with this on the shores of the
Baltic and in Sweden he has used Danish numerals, such as, "Förste aa
fluuii ostia" (First river, river-mouth), "Anden aa" (Second river) ...,
etc. The southerners, who did not understand Danish, of course regarded
these as names, and subjected them to all sorts of corruptions. Matters
became worse when in Gotland and Norway he used as the names of headlands
and rivers the words of a meaningless rigmarole: "Enarene," "apocane,"
"uithu," "wultu," "segh," "sarlecrogh," etc. (evidently corresponding to
children's rigmaroles like "Anniken, fanniken, fiken, foken," etc.)[245]
In Iceland he used the names of the runic characters for headlands and
rivers; but most remarkable of all are his names in Greenland, alternately
for headlands and the mouths of rivers(!). If, as shown by Björnbo and
Petersen, these are read continuously from the most northern headland on
the east coast round the south of the country, the following verse in the
dialect of Funen is the result:

  "Thær boer eeynh manh secundum [== ij ?][246] eyn Gronelandsz aa,
      ooc Spieldebedh mundhe hanyd heyde;
      meer hawer han aff nidefildh,
      een hanh hawer flesk hinth feyde.
      Nordh um driuer sandhin naa new new."

      (There lives a man (in ?) a Greenland river,
      and Spieldebedh is his name;
      he has more vermin (?)
      than he has fat bacon, etc.)

The verse, as pointed out by Axel Olrik, is evidently an imitation or
travesty of the folk-songs, and, as Karl Aubert has shown,[247] its
prototype must certainly have been the first verse of the same folk-song
that is now known in Sweden by the name of "Kung Speleman":

      "Dher bodde een kjempe vid Helsingborg,
      Kung Speleman månde han heta,
      Visst hade han mera boda sölf,
      Än andra flesket dhet feta.
  Uren drifver noran, och hafvet sunnan för noran."

      (There lived a giant by Helsingborg,
      King Fiddler was his name.
      Sure he had greater store of silver
      Than others of fat bacon, etc.)

This method of fabricating geographical names adopted by Clavus recalls
the designation of the notes in the mediæval scale, for which the words of
a Latin hymn were used, and it seems likely that this is what he has
imitated. But his mystification, with all these strange names which no one
in Southern Europe understood, and which in course of time underwent many
corruptions, has caused a good deal of trouble; many intelligent men have
racked their brains to discover learned etymological interpretations of
their origin, until Björnbo's lucky find of the later text of Clavus
solved the riddle.

Björnbo and Petersen, who by their valuable work on Claudius Clavus with a
reproduction of this text have the credit of throwing light on the
relation between his first and second maps, have put forward the view that
Clavus must have made his first map (the Nancy map) with its Latin text in
Italy; but curiously enough they think he entirely rejected the Italian
compass-charts as unsuitable for the representation of the North, and
constructed his delineation of the northern regions independently of them,
as an addition to Ptolemy's coast-lines, simply from information he had
derived from northern sources. After this we are to suppose that, in order
to extend his geographical knowledge, he went back to Denmark; and since
the authors place reliance on Clavus's assertion (in his later text) that
he had seen the places himself, they even credit him with having made a
voyage of geographical exploration, first to Norway (Trondhjem) and then
to Greenland. And then he is supposed to have drawn his later map, and
written the text for it (in Latin), in the North.

I have come to an entirely different conclusion. His older map must be
based, in my opinion, not only on Ptolemy, but to a great extent on
Italian maps. His later map and text, I consider, show beyond doubt that
he cannot have been either in Norway or Greenland, and I cannot find a
single statement in the Vienna text, or any coast-line in his later map,
which shows that he was outside Italy in the period between the two works.
Doubtless the delineation of Denmark, especially Sealand, is more detailed
in the second map; but the additions do not disclose any more local
knowledge than might be attributed to Clavus as a native of Funen before
his first map was drawn, even though he had not then ventured to change
the form of Ptolemy's Scandia, which to him, of course, became Sealand.
After this first attempt, however, he may have gained courage to launch
out further with his knowledge. He may also have discovered a few fresh
pieces of information, in the papal archives, for instance. Besides this,
he may, of course, have received oral communications from people from the
northern countries; but even of this I am unable to find sure signs. In
consideration of the imaginative tendencies shown by Clavus in his
distribution of names, and to some extent in the coast-lines on his map,
which perhaps may also have asserted themselves in his statement that he
had seen a complete MS. of Livy in Sorö monastery,[248] we shall scarcely
be insulting him if we believe his statements (in two passages of the
Vienna text) that he himself had seen Pygmies from a land in the North,
and Karelians in Greenland, to be rhetorical phrases, calculated to
strengthen the reader's confidence, and to mean at the outside that he had
seen something about these people in older authorities.

After having heard my reasons, Björnbo and Petersen have in all essentials
come round to my views. In particular they agree with me that Clavus
cannot have been in Greenland, but that the delineation of that country on
his later map is based on the Medicean map of the world, which will be
mentioned later. I therefore consider it superfluous to combat any further
here the reasons given in their work for their former view.

Claudius Clavus's task must have been to supplement the newly discovered
atlas of Ptolemy by what he knew of the North; and to this end his maps
were drawn, either by himself or by a professional draughtsman in Italy
from his instructions. The text was prepared after each of the maps, as a
description of it; and the latitudes and longitudes are taken from the map
[cf. Björnbo and Petersen, 1904, p. 130]. With the superstitious respect
of the period for older learned authorities in general, and for Ptolemy in
particular, he did not venture to alter the latter's coast-lines or
latitudes as far as they extended; even in the Danish islands he has done
so with hesitation, thus Sealand in his first sketch [the Nancy map] has
still the same form as Scandia in Ptolemy, etc. He then added to the
latter's coast-lines what he knew or could get together from other
quarters.

His first map [the Nancy map] may presuppose the following sources,
besides Ptolemy's various maps of Northern Europe; Pietro Vesconte's
mappamundi (circa 1320) in Marino Sanudo's work,[249] and the anonymous
mappamundi, now preserved in the so-called Medicean Marine Atlas, of
1351, at Florence.[250] In addition to these, either the Bruges itinerary
itself [Itinéraire Brugeois, cf. Storm, 1891, p. 19], or one of its
earlier sources. Possibly he also had, in part at all events, a tract [in
Icelandic ?] that is included in the fourth part of the "Rymbegla" [1780];
that he also knew of the Icelandic sailing directions, as assumed by
Björnbo and Petersen, I regard as less certain, although not impossible;
perhaps it would be safer to suppose that he may have seen some statements
from Ivan Bárdsson's description of Greenland, in an itinerary, for
instance. I have not been able to find any certain indication of his
having been acquainted with the Icelandic geography mentioned on p. 237;
perhaps he may rather have known of the land connection between Greenland
and Russia from some tale or other, or from a legendary saga;[251] from
the same source (or from Ivar Bárdsson's description ?) may also be
derived the name Nordbotn (cf. p. 171, note 1), which is not known in the
Icelandic geography, but which seems most probably to be a legendary form.
Certain names, such as those of the bishops' sees in Norway and Iceland,
Clavus may easily have found in the papal archives in Rome.

In the first place, exactly following Ptolemy, the draughtsman has marked
Ireland with the islands around it and six Hebrides to the north-east,
Scotland with the island of Dumna and the archipelago "Orcadia" to the
north (the island of Ocitis a little farther east), and the south coast of
Thule farther north; next Jutland with its small islands round about, and
with the large island of Scandia, which, of course, became Sealand (he has
added Funen and a number of other islands); finally the coast of Germany
and Sarmatia eastwards to 63° N. lat., and with the same number of
river-mouths as in Ptolemy. As this coast does not extend nearly so far to
the east as does the Baltic on the compass-charts, it resulted that
Clavus's Baltic became much shorter than that of the charts, and its shape
had to be altered to suit Ptolemy's coast-line. Then, at its northern end,
the draughtsman has placed possibly Pietro Vesconte's Scandinavian
peninsula, going out towards the west (see the two maps, pp. 223, 224);
but as he saw Norway on the compass-charts extending west as far as to the
north of Scotland, where on Ptolemy's map he found Thule, it was natural
that he should take the latter to be the southern point of Norway, and he
was obliged to move Vesconte's peninsula farther to the west. Its south
coast may have been drawn with the Medici map, or a similar one, as model.
As the southern coast of the Baltic was moved far to the south, after
Ptolemy, and Jutland was given a different and smaller form than on the
Medici map, besides a marked inclination to the east, and as Skåne had to
be near Sealand (Scandia), the draughtsman was obliged to move the
peninsula corresponding to Skåne about five degrees to the south. The
south coast of the peninsula on the north of Scotland on the Medici map
(see pp. 236, 260) corresponded very nearly to the south coast of Thule
(with an east-south-easterly direction) on Ptolemy's map; it lay in an
almost corresponding latitude, but on account of the puzzling prolongation
of Scotland to the east on Ptolemy's map, it had to be moved a good
fifteen degrees of longitude to the east. Thule was thus united to
Norway[252] and its south coast was given exactly the same shape as the
south coast of the peninsula in question, with three arched bays (the
broadest on the east) and a projecting point towards the south-east. The
coast between this promontory and Skåne may then have been drawn with the
same number of four large bays as on the Medici map: a deeper one farthest
west, then a broad peninsula, next two wide, open bays, with a narrow
peninsula between them, and finally a smaller bay opposite Sealand. The
"Halandi" of the Nancy map is thus brought to the corresponding place with
the "Alolanda" of the Medici map (p. 236).[253]

Thus far it may be fairly easy to compare the maps; but then Norway
according to most of the compass-charts ought not to have any considerable
farther extension to the west, while on the other hand Northern ideas
demanded a Greenland in the far west, as well as a land in the north
between that and Russia. With the latter the westernmost tongue of land in
Norway on the Medicean mappamundi[254] agrees remarkably well. The
southern point of Clavus's Greenland has also the same length in
proportion to the west coast of Ireland, and about the same breadth, as on
this map. There was also an extensive mass of land in the north. According
to various representations, such as those of Vesconte's mappamundi, Saxo's
description (cf. p. 223), and others, there should be a gulf on the north
side of the Scandinavian Peninsula. According to representations like that
of the Lambert map at Ghent (cf. p. 188), this arm of the sea had the same
form as that on the south side of Scandinavia, and there should only be a
narrow isthmus between these two arms of the sea, connecting the peninsula
with the mainland (cf. Saxo). On the Nancy map, too, the north coast of
Scandinavia is drawn almost exactly like the south coast, with the same
number of promontories and bays, which correspond very nearly even in
their shape. In this way Clavus's "Nordhindh Bondh" [Norðrbotn], also
called "Tenebrosum mare" [i.e., the dark sea] or "Quietum mare" [the
motionless sea], may have originated. This remarkable bay is connected on
his map with the Baltic by a canal (which is also mentioned in the Vienna
text). By this means Scandinavia really becomes an island. Clavus cannot
have acquired such an idea from any known source, although, as already
mentioned, Saxo says that it is nearly an island (p. 223); but similar
conceptions seem to have arisen in Italy (cf. above on Pietro Vesconte's
mappamundi, p. 223).

The south coast of Norway [with "Stauanger"] and the southern point of
Greenland retained on Clavus's map the same relation of latitude, a
difference of 1-1/2°, as the corresponding localities on the Medici map,
with very nearly the same degrees of latitude as on the latter, if we
there employ a scale of latitude calculated upon this map's representation
of Spain (the Straits of Gibraltar) and France (Brittany), and use
Ptolemy's latitudes for these countries. This has been done in the
reproduction of the Medicean mappamundi on p. 236.[255] The scale of
longitude is calculated in the same proportion to the latitude as in
Ptolemy. In some tract like that included in the fourth part of the
"Rymbegla" [1780, p. 466] Clavus may have found that Bergen lay in
latitude 60° and so placed the town on the west coast of Norway in this
latitude according to his own scale (on the right-hand side of the Nancy
map, see p. 474). In relation to the south coast of Norway Bergen was thus
brought 3/4° farther south than "c. bergis" on the Medici map (above).
Calculated according to Ptolemy's scale of latitude (on the left-hand side
of the Nancy map), Bergen was consequently placed in Clavus's text in 64°,
while the southern point of Greenland is placed in 63° 15',[256] a
difference in latitude of 45' (in the Vienna text the difference is 35'),
while in reality it is 38'; a remarkable accidental agreement. According
to Clavus's own scale of latitude on the right-hand side of the Nancy map,
we get the following latitudes: Bergen 60°, the southern point of
Greenland 59° 15', Stavanger 58° 30'. In reality the latitudes of these
places are: 60° 24', 59° 46', and 58° 58'. This agreement is remarkable,
as a displacement of the scale of latitude half a degree to the north on
the Nancy map would give very nearly correct latitudes.[257] The mutual
relation between the latitudes of the three places may, as we have seen,
be explained from the Medici map, but hardly from a possible acquaintance
with the Icelandic sailing directions; for according to these Bergen and
the southern point of Greenland would be placed in the same latitude,
since we are told that from Bergen the course was "due west to Hvarf in
Greenland."[258] The Medici map may also give a natural explanation of
places like Bergen and the southern point of Greenland having been given
by Clavus a latitude so much too northerly (even in the Nancy map), and of
the southern point of Greenland having only half a degree more westerly
longitude than the west coast of Ireland.[259]

Iceland lay, according to the Bruges itinerary, midway between Norway and
Greenland, precisely as on the Nancy map. Between Norway and Iceland,
according to the same itinerary, lay "Fareö" [Færö], and the fabulous
island "Femöe," "where only women are born and never men."

After speaking of the "third headland" in 71° on the east coast of
Greenland, the Nancy text goes on:

    "But from this headland an immense country extends eastward as far as
    Russia. And in its [i.e., the country's] northern parts dwell the
    infidel Karelians ('Careli infideles'), whose territory ('regio')
    extends to the north pole ('sub polo septentrionalis') towards the
    Seres[260] of the east, wherefore the pole ['polus' == the arctic
    circle ?], which to us is in the north, is to them in the south in
    66°."

It is probable, as suggested by Björnbo and Petersen, that these "Careli
infideles" are identical with those who are found almost in the same
place, in the ocean to the north of Norway, on one of the maps in Marino
Sanudo's work (in the Paris MS., see above, p. 225), and who on other maps
belonging to that work are placed on the mainland to the north-east of
Scandinavia. As pointed out by Storm, "Kareli" are also mentioned
together with Greenland and "Mare Gronlandicum" in the Bruges itinerary.

Björnbo and Petersen maintain that Claudius Clavus has here consciously
put forward a new and revolutionary view which was a complete break with
the cosmogony of the whole of the Middle Ages, since according to the
latter the disc of the earth was entirely surrounded by sea to the south
of the North Pole, as represented on the wheel-maps. I think this is
attributing to Clavus rather too much original thought, of which his maps
and text do not otherwise give evidence. It is, of course, correct that
the idea of land, and inhabited land, too, at the North Pole, or to the
north of the Arctic Circle, did not agree with the general learned
conception of the Middle Ages; but the same idea had already been clearly
enough expressed in Norwegian-Icelandic literature. Even the Historia
Norwegiæ has inhabited land beyond the sea in the north, and the Icelandic
legendary sagas and Saxo have it too. In addition to these, the tract
included in the "Rymbegla" says distinctly (see above, p. 239) that this
land in the opinion of some lies under the pole-star (cf. Clavus's
expression: "sub polo septentrionalis"). The fact that the continent on
the Medicean map of the world extended boundlessly on the north into the
unknown (whereas Africa ended in a peninsula on the south) must have
confirmed Clavus in the view that the land reached to the pole. To this
was added, what perhaps weighed most with him, the fact that such a view
did not conflict with Ptolemy, whose continent also had no limit on the
north.

On the connecting land in the north is written, on the Nancy map:
"Unipedes maritimi," "Pigmei maritimi," "Griffonii regio vastissima," and
"Wildhlappelandi." As these names are not mentioned in Clavus's text, it
is uncertain whether the fabulous creatures may not be to some extent
additions for which he is not responsible.

After the map was drawn, with its bays and headlands, and the coast of
Scandinavia provided with a suitable number of islands, Claudius Clavus
set himself to describe it; where he had no names from earlier sources, he
numbered the headlands, bays and islands, "Primum," "Secundum," etc.

A remarkable thing about the Nancy map is that it has two divisions of
latitude: one according to Ptolemy on the left-hand side of the map, and
another according to Clavus himself, on a scale four degrees lower, on the
right-hand side. According to the latter, Roskilde would have a longest
day of seventeen hours (through a transposition the Nancy map gives
seventeen hours thirty minutes), which, as pointed out by Björnbo [1910,
p. 96], exactly agrees with what Clavus may have learnt from a Roskilde
calendar ("Liber daticus Roskildensis") of 1274. Björnbo has also remarked
that Bergen is given a remarkably correct latitude, 60° (the correct one
is 60° 24'), and thinks it possible that there may have been a Bergen
calendar which Clavus has used. But a more likely source, unnoticed by
Björnbo, is to be found, as mentioned on p. 260, in the "Rymbegla" tract,
where the latitude of Bergen is given as 60°. It is true that the same
tract gives the latitude of Trondhjem (Nidaros) as 64°, which does not
agree with the Nancy map, where there is a difference of only 2° between
Bergis and Nidrosia. Even though it is probable that Clavus was acquainted
with some such tract, with which his statement as to land at the North
Pole also agrees, it may have been a somewhat different version from that
which found its way into the "Rymbegla," and perhaps the latitude of
Trondhjem was not mentioned there. On the other hand, he may have found,
there or elsewhere, the latitude of Stavanger given, 1-1/2° farther south
than Bergen (?).

If we assume that Clavus, even in the construction of his first map, made
use of the Medicean map of the world, and that his Greenland is the most
westerly peninsula of the latter's Norway, it will seem strange that he
did not also draw the west coast of that peninsula, which would naturally
become the west coast of Greenland. It is true that the Nancy map is only
a copy, but as the west coast of Greenland is not mentioned in the copy
of Clavus's text either, we are bound to believe that he did not include
it. The margin on the western side of Clavus's first map was evidently
determined by that of Ptolemy's map of the British Isles, and follows
precisely the same meridian. Thus there was no room for the Medici map's
peninsula corresponding to Clavus's Greenland. As already stated, it is
difficult to get away from the belief that the Medici map was used for the
east coast of Greenland, the south coast of Norway, etc.; the resemblances
are too great, and otherwise inexplicable (cf. p. 261, note 3).

After the first map was drawn, Clavus may have made further cartographical
studies in Italy, and may thus have become acquainted with other
compass-charts, especially those of the Dalorto type. At the same time he
may have obtained a new and more accurate determination of the latitude of
Trondhjem, probably by the length of its longest day. As Trondhjem was an
archbishopric, it is not unlikely that he found such a piece of
information in the papal archives at Rome. He may then naturally have
wished to bring his map more into agreement with his new knowledge, and
this may have led to his later map, which is now known to us through
several somewhat varying copies. To this he then wrote a new text (the
Vienna text), which in all important points resembles the former, but has
various additions and alterations. The later map has not the double scale
of latitude on any of the copies known, but curiously enough only
Ptolemy's degrees. Besides a more accurate delineation of Jutland and the
Danish islands, especially Sealand, Bornholm and Gotland are drawn in
closer resemblance to the Medici map; the south coast of Scandinavia has
been altered to agree more with compass-charts of the Catalan type. In
particular the south coast of Norway has been given the four
characteristic promontories (as on the Dalorto map of 1339, and on the
Modena map, etc.; cf. the reproductions, pp. 226, 231), and Bergen
("Bergis") has been placed at the head of the westernmost of the three
bays thus formed, which is also a peculiarity of the maps of this type
(the Catalan chart of 1375 has five promontories with four bays, cf.
Nordenskiöld, 1896, Pl. XI.). The other two diocesan towns, Stavanger and
Hamar, are placed at the heads of the other two bays to the east, and
Stavanger has thus lost the remarkably correct position in relation to
Bergen and the south point of Greenland which it had on the older map.
Trondhjem has been placed at the extremity of the westernmost promontory,
possibly because there had been found a more correct determination of the
latitude of the town, which was to be fitted into Ptolemy's graduation;
thereby the shape of Norway has become still narrower and farther removed
from reality.

From the "lac scarsa" (Lake Skara, i.e., Vener) with its river is derived
the great lake "Vona" (Vener) in the centre of Scandinavia on all the
copies of Clavus's later map, from which the river "Vona" (also mentioned
in the Vienna text) runs into the deep bay by "Aslo" (Oslo) and the island
of "Tunsberg." A connection, especially with Dalorto's map of 1339, seems
again to be implied by Clavus's statement in the Vienna text that on
Lister Ness "white falcons are caught" ("Liste promontorium, ubi capiuntur
falcones albi"). On Dalorto's map there is a picture of a white falcon on
the headland to the west of that which Clavus has made into Lister, and
the words "hic sunt girfalcos" (here are hunting falcons). That Clavus has
moved the hawks to a headland farther east is of small importance. Either
he may have taken his hawks from Dalorto's or a similar map, or else they
are derived from an older common source.

Through the alteration of the south coast of Norway, it became necessary
to separate it from Thule, which again became an island as originally in
Ptolemy; but on the copies of the map it has in addition the name
"Bellandiar," which may be a corruption of Hetlandia (Shetland). The
north-west coast of Norway has also been given a form which agrees better
with the compass-charts, although it has a much more east-north-easterly
direction than even on the Modena map; but this was, of course, necessary
to make room for the sea "Nordhenbodnen" (Nordbotn). That the
compass-charts might lead to something resembling Clavus's last form of
Scandinavia, and especially of the south coast of Norway, is shown by the
map of Europe in Andrea Bianco's atlas of 1436, which must have been drawn
without knowledge of Clavus's work. If on this map we move the coast of
the Baltic farther south and Skåne also, which would be necessitated by a
better knowledge of Denmark (and by the alteration of the map following
Ptolemy), and draw the coast-line of Norway towards the east-north-east
from the south-western promontory (instead of making it go in a northerly
direction), we shall get a Scandinavia of very similar type to that in
Clavus's later map.

Björnbo and Petersen have maintained in their monograph that Clavus must
have been in Norway before he drew this map, and that amongst other things
his remarkably correct latitude for Trondhjem must be due to his own
observation of the length of the day at the summer solstice. Storm [1889,
p. 140] seems also to have supposed that Clavus may really have been in
Norway. To me it appears that his map and text are conclusive evidence
against his ever having been there; for a man who had sailed to Trondhjem
along the coast of Norway could not possibly have produced a
cartographical representation of the country so entirely at variance with
reality as Clavus has done, however ignorant we may suppose him. The fact
in itself that "Trunthheim" (Trondhjem) or "Nedrosia" is placed at the
extremity of the south side of the south-western promontory of the
country is extraordinary. If he had come there asleep he could not have
got any such idea; and for a man who had sailed in through the long
channel of the Trondhjem fjord up to the town it is incredible. It is
equally incredible that a man who had sailed along the coast from
Stavanger and Bergen to Trondhjem could place the latter town in a
latitude 10' to the south of Bergen, and only 10' to the north of
Stavanger. We are not justified in attributing to Clavus such an entire
lack of power of observation, especially if we are to suppose him capable
of determining with remarkable accuracy the length of the longest day at
Trondhjem. That Trondhjem is placed to the west of Bergen and Stavanger,
that the Dovrefjeld is called a high promontory, while on the Nancy map it
was inland, that Hamar ("Amerensis") is put on the sea-coast, etc., all
shows the same want of knowledge of the country and its configuration. The
names he may have taken from an itinerary or other sources, and, as
already suggested, it is not unlikely that he may have found in the papal
archives a fairly correct statement of the latitude (or length of the
longest day) of Trondhjem, which was an archbishop's see. That the towns
he gives are just those that are the heads of dioceses is perhaps an
indication of a connection with the Vatican.

Clavus tells us further that

    "Norway has eighteen islands, which in winter are always connected
    with the mainland, and are seldom separated from it, unless the summer
    is very warm," and that "'Tyle' [Thule] is a part of Norway and is not
    reckoned as an island, although it is separated from the land by a
    channel or strait, for the ice connects it with the land for eight or
    nine months, and therefore it is reckoned as mainland. The same
    applies to the sea 'Nordhinbodnen' [Nordbotn], which separates
    'Wildlappenland' from 'Vermenlandh'[261] and 'Findland' by a long
    strait, since the countries are united by almost eternal ice."

This discloses an extraordinary lack of knowledge of Northern conditions.
Such a connection of the islands with the mainland by ice occurs, of
course, nowhere on the whole outer coast of Norway from Færder to the
Murman Coast. On the other hand, the Gulf of Bothnia and the Åland
archipelago are frozen over for a long time in winter, and it might be
supposed that Clavus had heard reports of this. But I have not been able
to discover any source from which he may have derived these fables. Most
probably they are embellishments of the same kind as the eighteen islands
of Norway, that form an arbitrary decoration of the coast-line of his map,
a circumstance which does not hinder him from describing them as real.
Clavus has used the ice as a transition between the representation of his
older map, where Thule was part of the mainland, and that of the later
one, where it was made into an island.

At the northernmost limit of Norway, between two places called "Ynesegh"
and "Mestebrodh," Clavus connected the Polar Sea ("Nordhinbodhn") by a
narrow channel with the Gotland Sea [the Baltic], and a little farther
north, in 67°, he says that

    "the uttermost limit is marked with a crucifix, so that Christians
    shall not venture without the king's permission to penetrate farther,
    even with a great company." "And from this place westwards over a very
    great extent of land dwell first Wildlappmanni [Wild Lapps, i.e.,
    Mountain Lapps, Reindeer Lapps ? cf. vol. i. p. 227], people leading a
    perfectly savage life and covered with hair, as they are depicted; and
    they pay yearly tribute to the king. And after them, farther to the
    west, are the little Pygmies, a cubit high, whom I have seen after
    they were taken at sea in a little hide-boat, which is now hanging in
    the cathedral at Nidaros; there is likewise a long vessel of hides,
    which was also once taken with such Pygmies in it."

Two things are to be remarked about this assertion that he himself had
seen these Pygmies (one might suppose in Norway): (1) if he had really
seen a captive Eskimo brought to Norway (by whom ?), he could hardly have
been ignorant that this remarkable native was from Greenland, and not from
a fabulous northern land. And (2), how could he then give their height as
no more than a cubit, like the Pygmies of myth? It appears to me that in
one's zeal to defend Clavus, one would thus have to attribute to him two
serious falsehoods, instead of a more innocent rhetorical phrase about
having seen this, that, and the other.

Clavus's statement about the Pygmies' small hide-boats, and the long
hide-boat, that hung in Trondhjem cathedral, is, however, of great
interest from the fact that this is the first mention in literature of the
two forms of Eskimo boat: the kayak and the women's boat ("umiak").
Perhaps he got this from the same unknown source (in the Vatican ?) in
which he found the statement of the latitude of Trondhjem (?). In the fact
that the Wild Lapps are mentioned first, and after them the Pygmies,
Clavus's text again bears a great resemblance to the anonymous letter to
Pope Nicholas V. (of about 1450). In the northernmost regions (to the
north-west of Norway) this letter mentions [cf. Storm, 1899, p. 9]

    "the forests of Gronolonde, where there are monsters of human aspect
    who have hairy limbs, and who are called wild men."... "And as one
    goes west towards the mountains of these countries, there dwell
    Pygmies," etc. (cf. above, p. 86).

Michael Beheim also mentions "Wild lapen," who live in the forests to the
north of Norway, and who carry on a dumb barter of furs with the
merchants, like that described by the Arab authors as taking place in the
country north of Wîsu (cf. p. 144), and he goes on to speak of the
Skrælings, three spans high, etc. (cf. above, p. 85). Beheim's statement
differs from Clavus's text, and this again from the letter to Nicholas V.,
so that one cannot be derived from the other. It is therefore most
probable, as suggested already (p. 86), that they have all drawn from some
older source, and it may be supposed that this was Nicholas of Lynn. We
have seen that there are other points in Clavus that lead one's thoughts
in the same direction.

Clavus proceeds:

    "The peninsula of the island of Greenland stretches down from land on
    the north which is inaccessible or unknown on account of ice.
    Nevertheless, as I have seen, the infidel Karelians daily come to
    Greenland in great armies (bands of warriors, 'cum copioso exercitu'),
    and that without doubt from the other side of the North Pole.
    Therefore the ocean does not wash the limit of the continent under the
    Pole [Arctic Circle ?] itself, as all ancient authors have asserted;
    and therefore the noble English knight, John Mandevil, did not lie
    when he said that he had sailed from the Indian Seres [i.e., China ?]
    to an island in Norway."

If we compare this with the "Rymbegla" tract already mentioned [1780, p.
466], we see that these are much the same ideas as there expressed. We
read there

    "that it is the report of the same men that the sea is full of eternal
    ice to the north of us and under the pole star, where the arms of the
    Outer Ocean meet...."

When it is there stated that

    "those shores [under the pole star] hinder the ring of the ocean from
    coming together [i.e., round the earth]" ... and "that one can go on
    foot ... from Greenland to Norway" [cf. above, p. 239],

this is evidently something similar to what Clavus says; but the latter's
words as to the voyage which he attributes to Mandeville from the Indian
Seres to Norway being more probable because there is land at the North
Pole are somewhat incomprehensible.

    John Mandeville's book about a voyage through many lands to the far
    east and China dates from between 1357 and 1371, and is put together
    from various accounts of voyages, with the addition of all kinds of
    fables. Mandeville does not himself claim to have made any such voyage
    from China to Norway; on the other hand, he has much to say, in
    chapter xvii., about the possibility of sailing round the world, which
    he declares to be practicable, and if ships were sent out to explore
    the world, one could sail round the world, both above and below. He
    says that when he was young he heard of a man who set out from England
    to explore the world, and who went past India and the islands beyond
    it where there are more than five thousand islands, and so far did he
    travel over sea and land that he finally came to an island where he
    heard them calling to the ox at the plough in his own language, as
    they did in his own country. This island afterwards proved to be in
    Norway.[262]

Clavus's assertion that he himself saw ("ut uidi") Karelians in Greenland
is impossible. As it is expressly stated that there was land at the North
Pole, and as it is not mentioned that these Karelians had hide-boats like
the Pygmies, the meaning must be that their armies came marching by the
land route, which, of course, is an impossibility, which, if he had been
in Greenland, would make him a worse romancer than if we suppose his "ut
uidi" to mean that he had seen something of the sort stated in a
narrative; but even this may be doubtful. In the Bruges itinerary [cf.
Storm, 1891, p. 20] or some similar older authority, which we know he may
have used, he may have seen "Kareli" beyond Greenland spoken of as "in
truth a populus monstrosus." We have already said that on the maps
accompanying Marino Sanudo's work he may have seen "Kareli infideles"
marked on the mainland to the north-east of Norway, or even on an island
out in the northern sea, and he would then naturally have connected the
Karelians of the itinerary with these Karelians north of Norway. If we add
to this that on the Medicean map of the world he saw the mass of the
continent extending from Scandinavia and the peninsula corresponding to
Greenland, northwards into the unknown, and that in the "Rymbegla" tract
he saw mention of land at the North Pole--then, indeed, his whole
statement seems to admit of a perfectly natural explanation.

His lack of knowledge of the conditions in Greenland appears again in his
speaking of Pygmies and Karelians as two different peoples, one apparently
on the sea, and the other marching in armies on land; and in his
mentioning hide-boats as something peculiar to the former in the fabulous
northern country, while he does not say that the Karelians in Greenland
had boats or went to sea. If he had only spoken to people who had been in
Greenland, he could hardly have avoided hearing of the Skrælings who come
to meet every traveller in their hide-boats.

It is an important difference between Clavus's first and second maps (and
also between his first and second texts) that on the latter Greenland is
given a west coast. Its form bears an altogether striking resemblance to
the west coast of the corresponding peninsula on the Medicean mappamundi,
so that there can be no doubt that this coast is copied from it.[263]
This is notably the case if we confine ourselves to Björnbo and Petersen's
reconstruction of the coast after the text of Clavus, from which it
appears plainly enough that there are the same number of bays as on the
Medici map; they are closest together near the southern point of the
country; then come two larger bays to the north, then a very broad bay,
longer than the two others together, and then a straighter coast-line to
the north of that (cf. p. 236). The east coast of Greenland has in part
been provided with corresponding bays, although this coast is almost
straight on the Medici map; but this answers to the north coast of
Scandinavia on the Nancy map having very nearly the same indentations as
the south coast. In taking the Medici map as the foundation of Clavus's
Greenland coast we also have a natural explanation of the relation between
his distribution of names on the east coast and the west. In his later
text it is striking that his description of the east coast of Greenland
does not reach farther than to his "Thær promontorium" in 65° 35', while
the description of the west coast goes as far north as 72°. This might
seem to be connected with real local knowledge, since the latitude 65° 35'
on the east coast agrees in a remarkable way with the latitude of Cape
Dan, 65° 32', where the coast turns in a more northerly direction. To the
north of this the coast is usually blocked with ice, and this place has
therefore frequently been given as the northern limit of the known east
coast, and probably it was there that the Icelanders first arrived off the
land on their voyage westward to the Greenland settlements. But this is
one of those accidental coincidences that sometimes occur, and that warn
us to be careful not to draw too many conclusions from evidence of this
nature.[264] We find the explanation in the Medici map (p. 236), where the
east coast of the peninsula corresponding to Greenland does not go farther
north than to about the same latitude as the promontory on the south side
of the broad bay already referred to on the west coast, which promontory
Clavus calls "Hynth" ["Hyrch"]; it lies in 65° 40'. As Clavus's coast from
this point of the east coast northward had no map to depend on, he did not
venture to go farther in his description this time, though in the Nancy
text he goes to 71° with his northernmost cape.

The Medicean map of the world gives us at the same time a simple
explanation of Clavus's designations for the two most northerly points on
the west coast of Greenland. If we confine ourselves to the scale of
latitude for the Medici map, which, as stated above (p. 259), we have
found by using Ptolemy's latitudes for more southern places on the map
(Gibraltar and Brittany), and which is inserted in the left-hand margin of
the reproduction, p. 236, we shall find the following: just at the spot of
which Clavus declares: "New, the uttermost limit of the land which we know
on this side, lies in 70° 10',"[265] the heavy colouring of the land on
the Medici map comes to an end (judging from the photograph in Ongania,
Pl. V.). Farther to the north extends the coast of the lightly coloured
mass of land; but just at this point, in 72°, where Clavus has his
"ultimus locus uisibilis" [last point visible][266] this coast-line
disappears into the oblique frame which cuts off the upper left-hand
corner of the map. The agreement is here so exact and so complete that it
would be difficult to find any way out of it.

Björnbo and Petersen have asserted that Iceland, on the later map and in
the Vienna text, has been given a position more in agreement with the
sailing directions than on the Nancy map. I cannot see the necessity for
this supposition, as it has almost exactly the same position in relation
to the southern point of Greenland and to Norway in both works; the chief
difference is merely that the longitude of all three countries is made 3°
farther east in the later work (and the latitude of the southern points of
Iceland and Greenland is put somewhat farther south), and that the east
coast of Greenland has a more oblique north-eastward direction than the
corresponding north-east coast on the Medici map, with the direction of
which the Nancy map agrees fairly well. In this way it is brought nearer
to Iceland; but that this should be due to a knowledge of the sailing
directions seems very uncertain, and is not disclosed, so far as I can
see, elsewhere in the later work. The only things I have found which might
possibly point to northern authorities having been consulted since the
production of the Nancy work, are the accurate latitude of Trondhjem,
already referred to, and the island of "Byörnö" between Iceland and
Greenland. The latter might be the Gunnbjörnskerries (or Gunnbjarnar-eyar)
mentioned, amongst other places, in Ivar Bárdsson's description of
Greenland; but the abbreviation of the name is curious. Perhaps the island
may be due to some oral communication, or an erroneous recollection of
something the author may have heard of in Denmark in his youth.

On the whole we shall be compelled after all to detract considerably from
Claudius Clavus's reputation as a Northern traveller and cartographer. His
journey did not extend farther north than the Danish islands, and perhaps
Skåne. On the other hand, he was in Italy, where he drew his maps or had
them drawn, and where he also found his most important authorities. His
chief merit as a cartographer is that he is the first we know of to have
adopted Ptolemy's methods, and that he gave the name of Greenland to the
westernmost tongue of land in Norway on the Medicean mappamundi, and
altered this a good deal with the help of other compass-charts and
Vesconte's mappamundi, to make it agree better with the ideas of the North
which he may have acquired to some extent in his youth through legendary
tales, and later through Saxo and other writers.

Claudius Clavus's later map of the North exercised for a long period a
decisive influence on the representation of Scandinavia and to some extent
of Greenland. This was chiefly due to the two well-known cartographers,
Nicolaus Germanus and Henricus Martellus.[267] The former must have become
acquainted with Clavus's map soon after 1460, and included copies of it in
the splendid MSS. of Ptolemy's Geography which proceeded from his workshop
at Florence. In these copies, of which several are known (cf. p. 251), he
has redrawn Clavus's map in the trapezoidal projection invented by
himself, whereby his Greenland has been given a more oblique position than
the Greenland of the original map and the corresponding peninsula on the
Medici map. He also introduced this Greenland into his map of the world
[cf. J. Fischer, 1902, Pl. I., III.; Björnbo, 1910, p. 136]; but, in order
to make it agree better with the learned mediæval view of the earth's disc
surrounded by ocean, he surrounded it by sea on the north, so that it came
to form a long and narrow tongue of land projecting from northern Russia,
instead of the northern mass of land extending to the North Pole according
to Clavus. But this long peninsula does not seem to have entirely
satisfied this priest's erudite ideas of the continent, and on later maps
(which were printed after his death in the Ulm editions of Ptolemy of 1482
and 1486) he shortened it so much that it became a rounded peninsula to
the north of Norway, with the name "Engronelant,"[268] and at the same
time he moved Iceland out into the ocean to the north-west. This
apparently quite arbitrary alteration may perhaps be due to a desire to
bring the map as far as possible into agreement with the learned dogma of
the continent [cf. Björnbo, 1910, pp. 141, ff.]; but older conceptions of
Greenland may also have contributed towards it [cf. J. Fischer, 1902, pp.
87, ff.]. We have already seen that Adam of Bremen regarded Greenland as
an island "farther out in the ocean opposite the mountains of Suedia" (see
vol i. p. 194), and in his additions to the copy of Ptolemy, Cardinal
Filastre (before 1427) states that Greenland lay to the north of Norway;
we find the same view in the letter of 1448 from Pope Nicholas V. (see
above, p. 113).[269] It is also somewhat remarkable that on the Genoese
mappamundi of 1447 (or 1457) there occurs a peninsula north of Scandinavia
just at the place where Clavus's Greenland should begin (see p. 287).[270]
On Fra Mauro's mappamundi (1457-59) there are several peninsulas to the
north of Scandinavia, some of which proceed from Russia (see p. 285).

The cartographer Henricus Martellus, who succeeded Nicolaus Germanus,
again adopted Clavus's form of Greenland, wholly or in part, on his maps
dating from about 1490.

In this way there arose on the maps of the close of the Middle Ages two
types of the North: one with Greenland in a comparatively correct position
to the west of Iceland, though far too near Europe and connected
therewith, and another type with "Engronelant" as a peninsula to the north
of Norway. The latter remained for a long time the usual one in all
editions of Ptolemy, in other cartographical works and on many globes.
After the rediscovery of Greenland we even get sometimes two delineations
of this country on the same map, one to the north of Norway and the other
in its right place in the west.

Greenland seems to have been given a wholly different form on a Catalan
compass-chart from Majorca, of the close of the fifteenth century, where
in the Atlantic to the west of Ireland and south-west of Iceland
["Fixlanda"] there is an island called "Illa verde" [the green isle]. It
seems, as assumed by Storm [1893, p. 81], that the name must be a
translation of Greenland, which is called in the Historia Norwegiæ
"Viridis terra." The representation of Iceland ["Fixlanda"] on this map is
incomparably better than on all earlier maps, and gives proof of new
information having come from thence. As the place-names point to an
English source, it is possible that the cartographer may have received
information from Bristol, which city was engaged in the Iceland trade and
fisheries, and his island, "Illa verde," may be due to an echo of reports
about the forgotten Greenland in the west. It is worth remarking that the
island is connected with the Irish mythical "Illa de brazil," which lay to
the west of Ireland and which appears in this map twice over in its
typical round form (cf. above, p. 228).[271] If we remember that this
happy isle is in reality the Insulæ Fortunatæ, and that in the Historia
Norwegiæ (see above, p. 1) it is said that Greenland ["Viridis terra"]
nearly touches the African Islands (i.e., Insulæ Fortunatæ), then we
possibly have an explanation of this juxtaposition. But as it is said in
the same passage that Greenland forms the western end of Europe, we cannot
suppose that the cartographer was acquainted with this work. The
probability is, no doubt, that Greenland [Illa verde] together with Brazil
or the Insulæ Fortunatæ had become transformed into mythical islands out
in the ocean.

On another compass-chart, bound up in a Paris MS. of Ptolemy of the latter
part of the fifteenth century, a similar island (or peninsula ?), with the
same round island to the south of it, is seen to project southwards from
the northern border of the chart out into the Atlantic, and a little
farther east than the Insulæ Fortunatæ. On the island is written: "Insula
uiridis, de qua fit mentio in geographia" [the green island, of which
mention is made in the geography].[272] We do not know what geographical
work may here be meant; Björnbo suggests that it might be the lost work of
Nicholas of Lynn, who again may have used the Historia Norwegiæ. It is
striking that the island, besides being connected with a round island like
Brazil, but without a name, is placed on this map near the Insulæ
Fortunatæ.

This "green island," which thus is probably a remnant of old Greenland,
occurs again in various forms and in various places on many
sixteenth-century maps.

It is not surprising that information about the northern lands made its
appearance also on the maps of this time, as we know that the North was
visited more frequently, and sometimes by eminent southerners, from the
year 1248, when the well-known Matthew Paris, who, amongst other things,
drew a map of England remarkable for his time, visited Norway. Rather is
it strange that the direct knowledge thus obtained did not leave more
definite traces. Early in the fifteenth century (some year between 1397
and 1448) a Byzantine, Cananos Lascaris, travelled in the North and wrote
about it (in Greek). He mentions amongst other things that in Bergen, the
capital of Norway ("Bergen Vagen"), money was not used in trading [this
must have been due to scarcity of coin]; but in Stockolmo, the capital of
Sweden, they had money of alloyed silver. Bergen had a month of daylight
from June 24 to July 25. He also says that he himself went to the land of
the Ichthyophagi (fish-eaters), "Islanta," from "Inglenia," and stayed
there for twenty-four days. The people were strong and powerfully built,
they lived only on fish, and they had a summer day of six months [cf.
Lampros, 1881].

It would take us too far here to attempt a mention of all the
fifteenth-century maps which have a different representation of the North;
but perhaps some of the mappemundi in wheel-form, which were still current
at this time, ought to be referred to. We saw that on Vesconte's map of
the world accompanying Marino Sanudo's work the coast-lines of the
compass-charts in the Mediterranean, etc., had already been introduced. On
the Modena map (p. 231) this has also been carried out as regards the
North. In the fifteenth century we have various wheel-maps, of which some
seem to be more antiquated. Lo Bianco's round mappamundi, in his atlas of
1436, is connected with the compass-charts of that time. Johannes
Leardus's round mappamundi, in many editions of 1448 and earlier,[273]
likewise shows a strong affinity to the compass-charts, although there is
little detail in the delineation of the North. The same is the case with
the anonymous round mappamundi in a codex in the Library of St. Mark at
Venice [cf. Kretschmer, 1892, atlas, Pl. III., No. 13], but this map has
also points of similarity to Vesconte's mappamundi in Sanudo's work, and,
amongst other things, it has the same mountain-chain along the north coast
of the continent, and the same form of the Baltic.

The round mappamundi in a MS. of Mela of 1417 at Rheims[274] is, on the
whole, of a very antiquated type, but its image of the North seems more
modern, and it has the same mountain-chain along the north coast of the
continent as Vesconte's map. The "Sallust" map at Geneva, of about 1450,
is also antiquated, but its Baltic resembles the compass-charts, and the
two mountain ridges, one along the north coast of the continent, the other
parallel with it in the interior, strongly recall Vesconte's map of the
world. On the other hand, the connection by water between the Baltic and
Mæotis (the Sea of Azov) is evidently derived from an earlier age (cf. p.
199). Out in the ocean to the north-west and west of Norway lie four
islands. Björnbo supposes [1910, p. 75] that the two more northerly of
these may correspond to Adam of Bremen's Greenland and Wineland, but this
must be very uncertain.[275]

A curious delineation of the North is found on the round mappamundi which
was drawn at Constance in 1448 by the Benedictine monk Andreas Walsperger
of Salzburg [cf. Kretschmer, 1891a]. The map is in most respects imperfect
and antiquated, but shows also more recent, particularly German,
influence.

    The Mediterranean and the Baltic are disproportionately large, and the
    mass of land between them has been contracted. There are many mediæval
    mythical conceptions, and items showing possible influence by Adam of
    Bremen [cf. Miller, iii. 1895, p. 147]. Thus in northern Asia we have
    "Cenocephali" and Cannibals ["Andropophagi"], bearded women, Gog,
    Magog, etc. In Norway we read: "Here demons often show themselves in
    human shape and render service to men, and they are called trolls."
    Claudius Clavus also speaks of trolls in Norway. In the northern ocean
    to the north-west of Norway is written: "In this great sea there is no
    sailing on account of magnets." This is evidently the widely
    distributed mediæval myth of the magnet-rock, which attracted all
    ships with iron in them; in Germany it occurs in the legend of Duke
    Ernst's wanderings in the Liver Sea, and it is doubtless derived from
    the Arabian Nights. On the mainland to the north-east of Norway we
    read that "here under the North Pole the land is uninhabitable on
    account of the excessive cold which produces a condition of continual
    frost...." In the extreme north of the ocean, near the Pole, is
    written: "Hell is in the heart or belly of the earth according to the
    opinion of the learned."

    "Palus meotidis" [the Sea of Azov] is marked as a lake due east of the
    Baltic. Along the north coast of Europe (and Norway) is indicated a
    ridge of mountains, somewhat similar to that in the Sanudo-Vesconte
    maps of the world. The delineation of Denmark ("dacia," with
    "koppenhan" and "londoma," i.e., Lund), the straight south coast of
    the Baltic, and a long-shaped island called "Suecia" (with "Stocholm"
    and "ipsala") on the north, remind us a good deal of Edrisi's map (p.
    203), and also somewhat of the Cottoniana (vol. i. p. 183). To the
    north of the island of Suecia "the very great kingdom of Norway
    ['Norwegie']" projects to the west as a long peninsula bounding the
    Baltic, with "brondolch" [Bornholm ?] and "nydrosia metropolis" [the
    capital Nidaros] as towns on its south coast, and with the land of
    "Yslandia" [Iceland] and the town of "Pergen" [Bergen] on its extreme
    promontory.
Another peculiar type of the round mappamundi is the so-called Borgia map
of the fifteenth century (after 1410). Its representation of Europe, with
the Mediterranean on the southern side of the earth's disc, is very
imperfect and far removed from reality. The same is the case with its
delineation of the North, but curiously enough its Scandinavia, which is
different from that of the compass-charts, and in which Skåne forms a
peninsula on the south, to the east of Denmark, has a greater resemblance
to reality than that of other maps of this time. This map, too, has a
chain of mountains along the north coast of the continent, as in the
Vesconte maps [see Nordenskiöld, 1897, Pl. XXXIX.].

The best known fifteenth-century map of the world is that of Fra Mauro
(1457-59), which is also drawn in wheel-form and is preserved at Venice.
The coast-lines are taken to a great extent from the compass-charts, but a
great deal of new matter has been added. As regards Norway, this consists
of information from Querini's voyage in 1432, as well as from other
sources which are unknown to us; this is indicated by, amongst other
things, an inscription on the sea to the north of Russia ["Permia"], which
relates that a short time before two Catalan ships had sailed thither [cf.
Vangensten, 1910]. On this map the Scandinavian Peninsula has been given a
more reasonable extension to the north; but the west coast is very
imaginatively supplied with peninsulas and islands, while the ocean
outside is full of fabulous islands and contains many legends.

    Denmark ["Datia"] has been made into an island (which is also called
    "Isola islandia"), and the Baltic ["Sinus germanicus"] has been
    widened into an inland sea with islands. In its northern part is a
    note that on this sea the use of the compass is unknown [cf.
    Vangensten, 1910]. Could this inscription be due to a misunderstanding
    like that on the Walsperger map in the ocean to the north-west of
    Norway, that it could not be navigated on account of magnets (cf. p.
    283)? There is no hint of the name of Greenland on this map; on the
    other hand, Iceland appears in three or four different places: besides
    Denmark, as mentioned above, there is in northern Norway or Finland a
    peninsula named "Islant," "where wicked people dwell, who are not
    Christians"; also a large island, "Ixilandia," north-west of Ireland,
    and finally an intricate peninsula in the middle of Norway called
    "Isola di giaza" [i.e., the island of ice]. On the north of Norway or
    Finland a peninsula projects into the Polar Sea with the name of
    "Scandinabia." The map does not contribute anything new of importance
    about the North, but points to a few fresh pieces of information about
    Norway, which are not to be traced in the older compass-charts; thus
    Bergen comes nearly in its right place on the west coast, and
    Marstrand appears to the east of Christiania fjord.

A picture of the North of a wholly different type is given on the
elliptical Genoese mappamundi [of 1447 or 1457], which is still more
fantastic than any of those hitherto mentioned. The Scandinavian Peninsula
has a very long extension to the west, and ends in a promontory projecting
northwards. To the north of this Scandinavia there is another fantastic
peninsula where Lelewel thinks he can read the name "Grinland," which is
probably due to a misunderstanding, since, as pointed out by Björnbo
[1910, p. 80], the name cannot be seen on the much-damaged original, or on
Ongania's photographic reproduction [Fischer-Ongania, Pl. X.]. Many
imaginary islands are scattered about in the sea round these peninsulas.


Towards the close of the fifteenth century the discovery was made of
representing the surface of the earth, with land and sea, on globes. It
was evidently the efforts of Toscanelli that led to the general adoption
of this mode of representation, which had been used by the Greeks at an
early time (cf. vol. i. p. 78); in 1474 he announced that his idea of the
western route to India could best be shown on a sphere. Columbus seems to
have taken a globe with him on his voyage of 1492, according to his own
words in the ship's log. The oldest known terrestrial globe that is
preserved was made in 1492 by the German Martin Behaim (born at Nuremberg
in 1459).[276] He spent much time in Portugal, and also in the Azores,
after making a distinguished marriage with a native of those islands, a
sister-in-law of Gaspar Corte-Real's sister. But it was during a visit to
his native town (1490-93) that he constructed his globe. The sources of
Behaim's representation of the North were principally Nicolaus Germanus's
mappamundi in the Ulm editions of Ptolemy, of 1482 and 1486, where
Greenland is placed to the north of Norway, and Marco Polo's travels,
which speak of the northern regions of Asia. Besides these a name like
"tlant Venmarck" (the land of Finmark), for instance, points to a use of
the same older authority as in the anonymous letter to Pope Nicholas V.,
of about 1450, where in the existing French translation there is mention
of "lieux champestres de Venmarche" [the plains of Finmark].[277] Thus we
are here again led to the lost work of Nicholas of Lynn, "Inventio
fortunata" (1360), as the possible source. That it really was this work
that was used seems also to result from the fact that the countries about
the North Pole on Behaim's globe bear a remarkable resemblance to Ruysch's
map of 1508, where this note is given at the North Pole:

    "In the book 'De Inventione fortunata' it may be read that there is
    high mountain of magnetic stone, 33 German miles in circumference.
    This is surrounded by the flowing 'mare sugenum,' which pours out
    water like a vessel through openings below. Around it are four
    islands, of which two are inhabited. Extensive desolate mountains
    surround these islands for 24 days' journey, where there is no human
    habitation."

What is new in Behaim's picture of the North is chiefly this circle of
land and islands around the North Pole, which he evidently took from
Nicholas of Lynn, and which is not represented on any older map known to
us. It consists of a continuous mass of land proceeding from his
Greenland-Lapland to the north of Scandinavia, and extending eastward
nearly to the opposite side of the Pole, where the Arctic Ocean ("das
gefroren mer septentrional") to the north of the continent becomes an
enclosed sea. On the other side of the Pole are two large islands and a
number of smaller ones. On one of the large islands is a picture of an
archer in a long dress attacking a polar bear (which may be connected with
myths about Amazons ?), and on the other side is written: "Hie fecht man
weisen valken" [here they catch white falcons]. It might be supposed that
this was derived from statements about Scandinavia or Iceland (cf. e.g.,
the legends of the compass-charts); but, as assumed by Ravenstein [1908,
p. 92] and Björnbo [1910, p. 156], it is more likely to come from Marco
Polo's travels, where the Arctic coast of Siberia is spoken of. The many
correct names, in a German form, in Martin Behaim's Scandinavian North
point to the possibility of his also having received oral information,
though they may equally well be derived from older German maps.

Almost contemporary with Behaim's globe is the so-called Laon globe of
1493, which was accidentally discovered in a curiosity shop at Laon some
years ago. It gives a wholly different representation of the North, more
in agreement with the usual maps of the world of the Nicolaus Germanus
type, with sea at the pole round the north of the continent, which
terminates approximately at the Arctic Circle. The Scandinavian Peninsula
(called "Norvegia") has a form somewhat resembling this type; but to the
north of it "Gronlandia" appears as an island, with a land called Livonia
projecting northward on the east, and two islands, Yslandia and Tile, on
the west. Nothing is known of the origin of the Laon globe, or of the
sources of its representation of the North.

Such were the geographical ideas of the North at the close of the Middle
Ages, when the period of the great discoveries was at hand; they were
vague and obscure, and the mists had settled once more over large regions
which had been formerly known; but out in the mists lay mythical islands
and countries in the north and west.


CHAPTER XIV

JOHN CABOT AND THE ENGLISH DISCOVERY OF NORTH AMERICA

Over the cloud-bridge of illusion lies the path of human progress. The
greatest achievements in history have been brought about more by the aid
of ideas than of truth. Religious illusions have ennobled the rude masses
and raised them to higher forms of society; in the domain of science
intuition and hypothesis have led to fresh victories, as also in
geographical exploration; there too illusions, like a fata Morgana, have
impelled men forward to great discoveries.

It is true that Columbus's plan was based on the correct idea that the
world was round; but if he had known the real distance of India--if he had
not been fettered by the ancient dogmas of the Greeks about the great
extension of the continent to the east, and their low estimate of the
earth's circumference, which made India appear so enticingly near--if he
had not believed in myths of lands in the west--he certainly would never
have been the discoverer of a new world.

The people of the Middle Ages lived, as we have seen, to a great extent
on remnants of the geographical knowledge and conceptions of the Greeks.
It was the age of superstition and speculation; with the exception of the
Norsemen and the Arabs, and in some degree also the Irish monks, there was
during the earlier part of this period no enterprise that broke through
the bounds of the known, except in the mythical world of fancy. It was not
until the Crusades that the horizon began to be widened. The eastern trade
of the Italian republics and the development of capable Italian seamen
were of great significance. At an early date they made discoveries along
the west coast of Africa. Of even greater importance was it that the
Portuguese learned seamanship from them, and no doubt from the Arabs as
well, and displayed great enterprise on the ocean along the shores of
Africa, finding groups of islands in the west, and finally the Azores in
1427; but these must have been discovered earlier, since similar islands
occur on Italian maps of the fourteenth century (cf. the Catalan Atlas of
1375).

When Ptolemy's work, and through it the geography of the Greeks, became
known in Western Europe at the beginning of the fifteenth century, it
created a greater stir in the learned world than even the discovery of
America did later; the circle of geographical ideas was greatly changed,
and the world was regarded with new eyes as a sphere. The doctrine of the
possibility of circumnavigating the earth was especially framed and
scientifically established by the celebrated astronomer Toscanelli of
Florence. But this was not a new doctrine; for the Greeks, Eratosthenes
and Posidonius, for example (cf. vol. i. pp. 77, 79), had already
announced it clearly enough, and even in the Middle Ages it was not
forgotten. We saw that Mandeville, the writer of fabulous narratives,
fully understood the possibility of sailing round the globe, and related
ancient tales about such a voyage (cf. p. 271). But at the close of the
fifteenth century the idea was seriously taken up by two men of action,
both Genoese. One of them was Columbus, the other Cabot. Whether the
latter had already conceived the idea before the first voyage of Columbus
we do not know for certain, but it is not improbable; the thought was
latent in the age, and many must have come near it. Another force
impelling men to the western voyage, and perhaps as powerful a one as
these scientific speculations, was the belief in the mythical world of
enticing islands that lay out in the ocean to the west of Europe and
Africa; the Isles of the Blest of the Greeks and the Atlantis of Plato,
conceptions, originally derived from the East, which were still alive,
though in other forms. There lay Antillia, the Isle of the Seven Cities,
mythical islands of the Arabs, and the Irish legendary world, Brandan's
isles and many others; some of them had had a part in creating the Norse
idea of Wineland and the White Men's Land; now they were given a fresh
lease of life, and power over the imagination of Western Europe. Possibly
in connection with echoes of tales of the Norsemen's discoveries--coming
from Iceland to Bristol, and thence to the continent--these mythical
islands helped to form a widespread belief in countries in the far west
across the ocean. The fact that the Portuguese, as has been said, really
found islands, the Azores, out in the Atlantic in 1427, also contributed
to establish this belief. From these islands many expeditions set out in
the course of the fifteenth century to search for new lands farther
west.[278]

From the beginning of the fifteenth century Bristol was in frequent
communication with Iceland, both for the fishery and for trade. As already
pointed out, this was certainly due in no small degree to the number of
Norwegians who had settled in the town. Sailors and merchants returning
from voyages to Iceland doubtless brought thence many tales of marvels and
of unknown islands and countries out in the ocean; legends of the
Icelanders' voyages to Greenland and Wineland may have served to entertain
the winter evenings in Bristol.[279] It was therefore surely not an
accident that attempts to find land in the west should originate
precisely in this enterprising sea-port.

On the maps of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there lay out in the
ocean to the west of Ireland the Isle of Brazil (cf. p. 228). It was the
Irish fortunate isle Hy Breasail, of which it is sung:

  "On the ocean that hollows the rocks where ye dwell,
  A shadowy land has appeared, as they tell;
  Men thought it a region of sunshine and rest,
  And they called it O'Brazil--the isle of the blest.

  From year unto year, on the ocean's blue rim,
  The beautiful spectre showed lovely and dim;
  The golden clouds curtained the deep where it lay,
  And it looked like an Eden, away, far away."
                                    [Gerald Griffin.]

We have seen that on certain maps this round fabled isle was brought into
connection with an "Insula verde," probably Greenland, and this conception
of the latter probably came from Iceland by way of England. We do not know
what myths were associated with Brazil at that time; but the belief in it
was so much alive that ships were sent out from Bristol to search for the
island. A contemporary account of such an attempt made in 1480 has come
down to us:[280]

    "On the 15th of July [25th of July N.S.] ships ... [belonging to ?]
    ... and John Jay junior, of 80 tons burthen, sailed out of the port of
    Bristol [to navigate] as far as the island of Brazil ["insulam de
    Brasylle"] on the west side of Ireland, ploughing the seas by ... and
    ... Thlyde [Thomas Lyde or Lloyd ?] is the most expert seaman in the
    whole of England, and on the 18th of September [27th of September
    N.S.] the news reached Bristol that after having sailed the seas for
    about 9 months they had not discovered the island, but on account of
    storms had returned to the port ... in Ireland to allow the ships and
    men to rest."

Parts of the MS. being illegible, it does not appear whether John Jay,
junior, was one of the leaders of the expedition or (as Harrisse thinks)
one of the owners of the ships, but in any case we must suppose that the
Thomas Lyde mentioned above was the actual leader or navigator. The "nine
months" ("9 menses") must either be a clerical error for two months or for
nine weeks, either of which would fit the dates given, while nine months
is meaningless. This must at any rate have been a serious attempt to find
lands in the west, twelve years before Columbus's discovery of the West
Indies; and this was not the last attempt made from Bristol to find this
happy land, for in 1497 Ayala, the Spanish Minister in London, writes:

    "For the last seven years the Bristol people have equipped every year
    two, three, or four caravels to go in search of the islands of Brazil
    and of the Seven Cities,[281] following the imagination of this
    Genoese."

"This Genoese" is Giovanni Caboto, or John Cabot, as he was called in
England. We find only a few casual statements about this man, who was to
give England the right of discovery to a new continent, and who, together
with his fellow townsman, Columbus, forms the great turning-point in the
history of discovery; for the most part an impenetrable obscurity rests
upon his life and activity.[282] As he is often called, e.g., in letters
from the contemporary Spanish Ambassadors in London, "this Genoese," or "a
Genoese like Columbus," we must suppose that he was born in Genoa; but
from existing State documents of the republic of Venice it appears that
Joanni Caboto obtained his freedom in Venice on March 28, 1476, after
having lived there fifteen years, which was the legal period necessary to
enable a foreigner to become a citizen of the republic.[283] From the
statements of contemporaries we must conclude that John Cabot was a
capable seaman and navigator, with a good knowledge of charts and
cartography; he also constructed a globe to illustrate his voyages. This
is no more than was to be expected of a Genoese, trained in the Venetian
school, which at that time was the foremost in seamanship. It may,
therefore, be regarded as probable that John Cabot was familiar with the
leading ideas of the geographical world of his time. Thus, while still
living at Venice, he may have heard of the idea of reaching Eastern Asia
by sailing to the west, which was put forward, notably by Toscanelli, as
early as 1474, and in this way it is possible that, independently of
Columbus, he may have thought of accomplishing this voyage to the fabulous
riches of the East by a shorter route than that which the Portuguese
sought to the south of Africa. In support of this it may be mentioned that
in 1497 he himself told the Minister of Milan in London, Raimondo di
Soncino, that

    "he had once been at Mecca, whither spices were brought by caravans
    from distant lands, and that those who brought them, when asked where
    the said spices grew, answered that they did not know, but that other
    caravans came to their home with this merchandise from more distant
    lands, and these [other caravans] again say that it is brought to them
    from other regions situated far away." Soncino adds that "Cabot
    reasons thus--that if the eastern people tell those in the south that
    these things come from places far distant from them, and so on from
    hand to hand, then, granting the earth to be round, the last people
    must obtain them in the north-west; and he says it in such a way that,
    as it does not cost me more than it costs, I too believe it...."[284]

It is not improbable that Cabot may have thought that as, on account of
the spherical form of the earth, the circumference of the lines of
latitude decreases towards the north, the shortest way over the western
ocean to the east coast of Asia must lie along the northern latitudes (cf.
Posidonius, vol. i. p. 79). But we cannot lose sight of the fact that
Cabot did not advance this until long after the first voyage of Columbus,
and it is, therefore, uncertain whether the idea occurred to him before or
after that time. When this journey to Mecca took place we do not know.

Pedro de Ayala, the Spanish Minister in London, says in a letter to
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, in 1498, that Cabot is "another Genoese
like Columbus, who has been in Seville and Lisbon, endeavouring to obtain
help for this discovery" [i.e., of land in the west]. The question is
whether this "who" refers to Columbus or Cabot. The latter appears more
likely, as it seems superfluous for the Minister to inform Ferdinand and
Isabella that Columbus had been in Seville. But here again we do not learn
when Cabot may have made this journey to Spain and Portugal, whether
before or after Columbus's voyage in 1492. In any case it may point to his
having been occupied for a long time with plans of this sort.

Nor do we know when John Cabot came to England; but perhaps it was about
1490 that he settled in Bristol. If he really came there with ideas of
making for Asia across the western ocean, he certainly found a favourable
soil for such plans in the port which had already sent out ships in 1480
to look for the island of Brazil. But it is also very possible that these
plans occurred to him after he had heard of this expedition, and had
become familiar at first hand with the ideas of western lands which
dominated the minds of the sailors of Western Europe (Englishmen and
Portuguese) of that time. With the many fresh arguments he brought with
him from Italy and the Mediterranean countries, it cannot have been
difficult for him to induce the merchants of Bristol to make fresh
attempts to find these countries in the west or north-west; and, to judge
from Ayala's letter of 1497 about the expeditions sent out annually for
the previous seven years, he seems to have been persistent.

We do not know whether Cabot himself took part in the attempts made after
1490. None of them seems to have met with any success before 1497, for
otherwise it would have been mentioned. But it was while the people of
Bristol were occupied with such enterprises that Cabot's great
fellow-countryman, Columbus, made his remarkable voyage across the ocean
farther to the south, in 1492, and found a new world, which he took to be
India. With that came the awakening with which the time was pregnant. The
news of the achievement, which fired all the adventurers of Europe, must
soon have reached Bristol, and put new life and a wider purpose into the
old plans.[285] That Cabot now became the soul of these plans is clear
enough from all the facts, and we see from existing public documents that
at the beginning of 1496 he was making special efforts to get an important
expedition sent out, and was applying to the King of England for
protection and letters patent to assure to himself and his three sons,
Lewis, Sebastian and Sancto, the profit of the discoveries he expected to
make on this expedition, which was to consist of five ships.

The letters patent were accorded on March 5 (14th N.S.), 1496,[286] and
give Cabot and his sons the right under the English flag

    "to sail in all parts, regions and bays of the sea, in the east, west
    and north, with five ships or vessels of whatever burthen or kind, and
    with as many men as they wished to take with them, at their own
    expense, and to find, discover and investigate whatever islands,
    countries, regions or provinces belonging to heathens or infidels, in
    whatsoever part of the world they might be, which before that time
    were unknown to all Christians." They also had the right as vassals or
    governors of the King of England, to take possession of whatsoever
    towns, camps or islands they might discover and be in a position to
    capture and occupy. They were to give the king a fifth part of all
    merchandise, profits, etc., of this voyage or of each voyage, as often
    as they came to Bristol, to which port alone they were bound to
    return. They were exempted from all duty on goods they might bring
    from newly discovered lands, and were given a monopoly of all trade
    and traffic with them. Furthermore, all English subjects, both by land
    and sea, were ordered to afford the said John, his sons, heirs and
    assigns, good assistance, "both in fitting-out their ships or vessels,
    and in supplying them with provisions which were paid for with their
    own money."

As the south is not mentioned among the regions which might be explored,
and as the new countries might not be known to Christians, it is clear
that Cabot is here enjoined not to frequent those waters where the
Spaniards and Portuguese had just made their most important discoveries,
and thus run the risk of bringing England into conflict with the Spanish
or Portuguese Crown.

As the letters patent bear the same date (March 5) and are to some extent
couched in the same terms as Cabot's petition, they must have been granted
as the result of previous negotiation and agreement between Cabot and the
King, and must therefore contain Cabot's plans for the new voyage, which
were thus already formed in March 1496, when he had doubtless made at all
events some preparations for the expedition.

That Cabot's plans had been spoken of at the English Court as early as
January of that year appears from an existing letter from Ferdinand and
Isabella of Spain to the Spanish Ambassador in England, Dr. Ruy Gonzales
de Puebla. The letter is dated March 28 (April 6, N.S.), 1496, and is an
answer to a letter, now lost, of January 21 (30, N.S.) from the
Ambassador. The answer is as follows:

    "You write that one like Columbus has come to propose to the King of
    England another enterprise like that of the Indies, without prejudice
    to Spain or Portugal. He has full liberty. But we believe that this
    enterprise was put in the way of the King of England by the King of
    France in order to divert him from other business. Take care that the
    King of England be not deceived in this or any other matter. The
    French will try as much as they can to lead him into such enterprises;
    but they are very uncertain undertakings, and are not to be commenced
    for the moment. Moreover they cannot be put into execution without
    prejudice to us and to the King of Portugal."[287]

It will be understood from this that Cabot's plans had attracted attention
in London, and that great importance was attached to them; consequently
they must have been discussed for some time before the granting of letters
patent. For this reason also, we must suppose that Cabot was prepared for
his expedition in March 1496. It seems therefore unlikely that this was
the expedition which did not leave until the year following that in which
he applied for the letters patent, all the more so as the expedition of
1497 consisted of only one ship.[288] If we may interpret Ayala's words
of 1498 literally, that Bristol had sent out ships yearly for the seven
previous years to search for the island of Brazil, etc., then we must
suppose that Cabot actually set out in 1496 with the projected expedition
of five ships, but for some reason or other turned back without having
accomplished his object. After having been unfortunate in so large an
undertaking, Cabot may have found it less easy to enlist support for a
fresh attempt in 1497, and was thus obliged to content himself with one
small ship and a scanty crew (eighteen men).[289] It may also be supposed
that as the earlier expeditions consisting of several ships had failed to
find the land they were looking for, Cabot as a practical seaman wished to
make a pioneer expedition with a small swift-sailing craft and a picked
crew, before again embarking on a large and costly undertaking. He was
more independent, and could sail farther and more rapidly to the west,
than when he was tied by having to keep a fleet of several ships together.

Cabot's sons, who are mentioned in the letters patent, may have taken part
in the voyage of 1496; on the other hand, it is less probable that they
were among the eighteen men in 1497.[290] It is true that his son
Sebastian claimed to have been present as one of the leaders of the
expedition, but he also claimed to have made the voyage alone, so that no
weight can be attached to his words. In any case, he must have been very
young at that time, and he cannot have played any important part. Nor is
a word said about him in a single one of the letters from contemporary
foreign ambassadors in London, and in Pasqualigo's letter of August 23,
1497, we are told of John Cabot after his return that "in the meantime
[i.e., until his next voyage] he is staying with his Venetian wife and his
sons in Bristol." This does not seem to show that any of the sons had been
with him; and the protest of the Wardens of the Drapers' Company of London
(see later) against Sebastian as a navigator points in the same direction.

Not a line have we from Cabot's own hand either about this important
voyage of 1497 or any other. We hear that he made maps of his discoveries;
but these too have been lost, like so many other maps that must have been
drawn during this period before 1500.[291] We can, therefore, only draw
our conclusions from the statements of others, some contemporary and some
later.

The most important documents giving trustworthy information about John
Cabot's voyage in 1497 are the following:

(1) The three letters from his two compatriots in London: one from the
Venetian, Lorenzo Pasqualigo, to his two brothers in Venice, dated August
23 (September 1, N.S.), 1497; and two letters from the Milanese Minister,
Raimondo di Soncino, to the Duke of Milan, dated August 24 (September 2,
N.S.) and December 18 (27), 1497.

(2) An entry in the accounts of the King of England's privy purse, from
which we see that Cabot was back in London by August 10 (19, N.S.), 1497.

(3) The map of the world, drawn in 1500, by the well-known Spanish pilot,
Juan de la Cosa.

(4) A Bristol chronicle by Maurice Toby, written in 1565, but from older
sources.

Besides these may be mentioned a legend on the map of the world of 1544
which, according to what is written on it, was the work of Sebastian
Cabot. But even if this be correct, the legend is of no great value, as he
cannot be regarded as a trustworthy authority.[292]

Lorenzo Pasqualigo writes on August 23 (September 1, N.S.), 1497, to his
two brothers in Venice, amongst other things:

    "Our Venetian, who set out with a little ship from Bristol to find new
    islands, has returned, and says that he has discovered 700 leagues
    [Italian nautical leagues] away the mainland of the kingdom of the
    Great Khan ('Gran Cam') [China], and that he sailed 300 leagues along
    its coast and landed, but saw no people; but he brought here to the
    King some snares that were set up to catch game, and a needle for
    making nets, and he found some trees with cuts in them, from which he
    concluded that there were inhabitants. Being in doubt he returned to
    the ship,[293] and was three months on the voyage, and this is
    certain; and on the way back he saw two islands on the right hand, but
    would not land so as not to lose time, as he was short of provisions.
    He says that the tides are sluggish and do not run as here [i.e., in
    England]. The King has promised him next time ten ships fitted out
    according to his desires, and has given him as many prisoners to take
    with him as he has asked, except those who are in prison for high
    treason; and he has given him money to enjoy himself with in the
    meantime, and now he is with his Venetian wife and his sons at
    Bristol. His name is Zuam Talbot [sic, for Cabot], and he is called
    the Grand Admiral and great honour is shown him, and he goes dressed
    in silk and the Englishmen run after him like madmen, but he will have
    nothing to do with any of them, and so [do] many of our vagabonds. The
    discoverer of these things has planted on the soil he has found the
    banner of England and that of St. Mark, as he is a Venetian; so that
    our flag has been hoisted far away" [cf. Harrisse, 1882, p. 322].

The Minister, Raimondo di Soncino, writes on August 24 (September 2,
N.S.), 1497, to the Duke of Milan, amongst other things:

    "Some months ago ('sono mesi passate') his majesty the King [of
    England] sent out a Venetian who is a good sailor, and has much
    ability in finding islands, and he has returned safely and has
    discovered two very large and fertile islands, and found as it seems
    the seven cities[294] 400 leagues to the west of the island of
    England. His majesty the King here will on the first opportunity send
    him with fifteen or twenty ships..." [cf. Harrisse, 1882, p. 323].

On December 18 (27), 1497, Soncino again writes to the Duke more fully
about Cabot's voyage:

    "Perhaps amongst Your Excellency's many occupations it may not be
    unwelcome to hear how this Majesty has acquired a part of Asia without
    drawing his sword. In this kingdom is a Venetian called Messer Zoanne
    Caboto, of gentle bearing, very skilful in navigation, who, seeing
    that the most serene Kings, first of Portugal and then of Spain, had
    taken possession of unknown islands, proposed to himself to make a
    similar acquisition for the said Majesty. After having obtained the
    royal privilege, which assured to him the use of the dominions he
    might discover, while the Crown retained the sovereignty over them, he
    gave himself into the hands of fortune with a small ship and eighteen
    men, and sailed from Bristol, a port on the west of this kingdom; and
    after passing Ireland farther west, and then steering to the north, he
    began to sail towards the eastern regions [i.e., westwards to the
    lands of the Orient, thus making for the east coast of Asia], leaving
    (after some days) the pole-star on his right hand; and after a good
    deal of wandering ('havendo assai errato') he finally came to the land
    ('terra ferma'), where he raised the royal banner and took possession
    of the country for this Highness, and after having taken some tokens
    [of his discovery] he returned. As the said Messer Zoanne [John] is a
    foreigner and poor, he would not be believed, if his crew, who are
    nearly all English and belong to Bristol, had not confirmed the truth
    of what he said. This Messer Zoanne has the description of the world
    on a chart, and also on a solid sphere which he has made, showing on
    it where he has been; and in travelling towards the East he went as
    far as to the land of the Tanais [i.e., Asia], and they say that the
    country there is excellent and temperate, and expect that brazil-wood
    (il brasilio) and silk[295] grow there, and they declare that this sea
    is full of fish which can be caught not only with the seine, but also
    with a dip-net [or bow-net ?], to which is fastened a stone to sink it
    in the water, and this I have heard related by the said Messer Zoanne.
    And the said Englishmen, his companions, say that they took so many
    fish that this kingdom will no longer have any need of Iceland, from
    which country there is a very great trade in the fish they call
    stockfish. But Messer Zoanne has set his mind on higher things, and
    thinks of sailing from the place he has occupied, keeping along the
    coast farther to the east, until he arrives opposite to an island
    called Cipango [i.e., Japan], lying in the equinoctial region, where
    he thinks that all the spices of the world, as well as jewels, are to
    be found." Then follows the reference to his visit to Mecca, already
    cited (p. 296). The letter continues: "And what is more, this Majesty,
    who is prudent and not prodigal, has such confidence in him on account
    of what he has accomplished, that he gives him a very good subsidy, as
    Messer Zoanne himself tells me. And it is said that his Majesty will
    shortly fit out some ships for him, and will give him all the
    criminals to go out to this land and form a colony, so that they hope
    to establish in London an even greater emporium of spices than that at
    Alexandria. The principals in this enterprise belong to Bristol; they
    are great sailors, and now that they know where to go, they say that
    the voyage thither will not take more than fifteen days, if they have
    a favourable wind on leaving Ireland. I have also spoken with a
    Burgundian of Messer Zoanne's company, who confirms all this, and who
    wishes to return thither, because the Admiral (for this is the title
    they give Messer Zoanne) has given him an island; and he has given
    another to his barber [surgeon ?] from Castione,[296] a Genoese, and
    both consider themselves counts, nor do they reckon Monsignor the
    Admiral for less than a prince. I believe some poor Italian monks who
    have been promised bishoprics will also go on this voyage. And if I
    had made friends with the Admiral when he was about to sail, I should
    at least have got an archbishopric; but I thought the benefits that
    Your Excellency has reserved for me were more certain..." [cf.
    Harrisse, 1882, pp. 324, ff.].

As confirming and to some extent supplementing what is said in these
letters, we have various statements in the letters of the two Spanish
Ambassadors about the voyage in the following year (see later); they both
say that the newly discovered country lay not more than four hundred
Spanish leagues distant.

In Maurice Toby's Bristol chronicle of 1565, we read of the year 1497:

    "This year, on St. John the Baptist's day, the land of America was
    found by the merchants of Bristowe in a shippe of Bristowe called the
    'Mathew,' the which said shippe departed from the port of Bristowe the
    second day of May, and came home again the 6th of August next
    following."[297]

Of course this chronicle was written long after the voyage took place; but
it is extremely probable that it was taken from older sources; for it
agrees in every way (both as to the length of the voyage and the time of
the return) with the contemporary statements of the Italian Ministers,
with whose letters the author of the chronicle cannot possibly have been
acquainted. I can, therefore, see no reason why this statement should not
be correct. But the most important authorities are the letters referred
to.

If we compare all this we shall get a fairly complete idea of the voyage
of 1497. After sailing round the south of Ireland, probably in the middle
of May according to our calendar, Cabot would at first have held a
somewhat northerly course. If this is correct, he may have done so for
several reasons: unfavourable winds, which in May are prevalent from the
south-west; the idea that great-circle sailing would prove the shortest
way;[298] fear of encroaching on the waters of the Spaniards and
Portuguese to the south; finally, perhaps, an idea that the course to Asia
was shorter in northern latitudes (?). But we cannot tell what reasons
decided him, nor whether he steered very far to the north at all; for it
must be remembered that in speaking to a foreign Minister he may have had
good reason for making his course appear somewhat northerly, lest it might
be said that the lands he had arrived at were those discovered by the
Spaniards. In any case, it was not long before he made for the west as
rapidly as possible towards his goal, and we cannot, therefore, suppose
that he went very far north. And it is expressly stated in Soncino's first
letter that the lands lay to the west of England, and in the letters of
the Spanish Ambassadors in the following year we read that, after having
seen the direction taken by Cabot, they thought that the land he had found
was that belonging to Spain, or was "at the end of that land." This again
does not point to any northerly course.

Many writers have thought that from Soncino's statements about the courses
a conclusion might be drawn as to where on the American coast Cabot made
the land; but this is impossible. In the first place Soncino's words are
anything but definite; besides which, of course, Cabot could not steer in
a straight line across the Atlantic, but with the frequent contrary winds
of May and June was obliged to shape many courses, and often had to beat;
in fact, we are told as much in Soncino's words, "havendo assai errato."
Every one who has had experience of the navigation of sailing ships knows
how difficult it is under such conditions to make way in the precise
direction one wishes, however good one's reckoning may be; currents and
lee-way set one far out of the reckoned course, and on a voyage so long as
across the Atlantic the lee-way may be considerable. Whether Cabot was
able to correct his reckoning by the aid of astronomical observations
(with a Jacob's staff or an astrolabe) we do not know, but we hear nothing
of latitudes, so that it is not very probable (cf. also Columbus's gross
error in latitude). Especially during the first part of the voyage
currents and prevailing winds may have set Cabot to the north-east; but he
may also have encountered, particularly during the latter part of the
voyage in June, heavy north-westerly gales which set him still farther to
the south, and he may thus have had a southerly lee-way. In addition, as
Dawson has so strongly insisted, the error of the compass must have set
him to the south. Whether Cabot was aware of the error, and remarked its
variation during the westward voyage, we do not know; it is possible,
since we know that Columbus remarked this variation during his first
voyage; but in any case, Cabot doubtless paid as little attention to it as
Columbus in his navigation. Unfortunately we do not know the amount of the
error at that time, but by examining the relation between the true
direction of the coast-lines and those we find on the most trustworthy
compass-charts (especially the Cantino chart) of a little later than 1500
(which are drawn in ignorance of the error), I have attempted to
reconstruct the distribution of the error in the Atlantic Ocean at that
time (cf. chart below); of course, this is purely hypothetical. According
to this, during Cabot's voyage westwards the error would have varied from
about 6° east at Bristol to about 30° west off the coast of America. If we
suppose that he was able to follow a magnetic western course the whole way
from the south coast of Ireland, then he must have passed quite to the
south of Cape Race in Newfoundland. But we are told that he first held
somewhat to the north, though we do not know how much, and, on the other
hand, his lee-way may have set him at least as far to the south. The
assertion that the course mentioned by Soncino must have brought Cabot to
land in Labrador or Newfoundland is thus untenable. Nor does it agree with
Soncino's allusion to the country as excellent and temperate, and one
where dye-wood and silk might be expected to grow. If this be explained
away as due to the usual propensity of discoverers at that time to exhibit
the newly found countries in the most favourable light, which is very
possible, it is not so easy to explain why we do not hear a word about
their having encountered ice on the voyage. If on his western voyage Cabot
came to Labrador or the north-east coast of Newfoundland some time in
June, it is improbable that he should not have seen icebergs, and it is
equally unlikely that the Italian Ministers should not have mentioned
this, which to them would be a great curiosity, if they had heard of it;
we see, too, that later, in descriptions of Sebastian Cabot's alleged
voyage, the ice is mentioned above all else. Even if John Cabot might
have kept quiet about the ice, lest it should cool the hopes raised by
his narrative, it is not likely that his crew would have done so, if they
had met with it. But although other statements of the crew are reported,
we do not hear a single word about ice, nor even of icebergs, which are
common enough on the Newfoundland Banks at that time of the year, and
would be an entirely new experience even to Bristol sailors who were
accustomed to the voyage to Iceland. From this we must suppose that in the
course of his beating to the west Cabot was set so far to the south of the
Newfoundland Banks that he did not encounter icebergs, and that he first
made land somewhere farther west.[299]

According to the Bristol chronicle already quoted (Toby, 1565), and
according to a legend on the map of 1544, which is ascribed to the
collaboration of Sebastian Cabot, it was on St. John's Day (July 3, N.S.)
that the first land was discovered. In spite of Harrisse's objections[300]
it does not appear to me unlikely that this may be correct. If he sailed
on May 2 (11), he was fifty-three days at sea. Supposing that he landed at
Cape Breton, the distance in a straight line on the course indicated is
about 2200 nautical miles. Consequently he would have made an average of
forty-two miles a day in the desired direction. This is doubtless not very
fast sailing, but agrees with just what we should expect, since he often
had to beat, and "wandered a good deal," in the words of Soncino.

For determining the question, what part of North America it was that Cabot
discovered, it appears to me there is no trustworthy document but La
Cosa's map of the world of 1500.[301] The Basque cartographer, Juan de la
Cosa, who owned and navigated Columbus's ship in 1492, and who was
afterwards entrusted with many public undertakings, enjoyed a reputation
in Spain as a map-maker and sailor. He was commissioned by the Spanish
Crown to produce a map of the world, and we must suppose that for this
work he was provided with all the maps and geographical information that
were available in Spain. From a letter of July 25, 1498, to Ferdinand and
Isabella of Spain, from Ayala, the Spanish Minister in London, we know
that the latter had obtained a copy of "the chart or mapa mundi" that John
Cabot had made in order to set forth his discoveries of 1497; and there
can be no doubt that a copy of this was also sent to Spain, as Ayala says
he believes their Majesties already had the map. It may, therefore, be
regarded as a matter of course that La Cosa was in possession of this map
when, less than two years later, he was about to make his own, and that it
is from this source and no other that he derived his information about the
English discoveries. We do not know of any other map being sent from
England to Spain during these two years, and there is no ground whatever
for assuming that La Cosa's information may be derived from Cabot's voyage
of 1498, which in any case must have been a failure.

For the understanding of La Cosa's map it must be remarked first of all
that it is a compass-chart, and that it takes no notice of the magnetic
variation on the American coast. This explains the fact that, for
instance, lines of coast which in reality run from west to south-west, are
made to appear on the chart as running from west to east. Furthermore, the
latitude of the coast of North America is made too northerly, through
coasts which, for instance, lie magnetic west of Ireland, being placed on
the chart true west of it. In this way Cape Breton (or Cape Race in
Newfoundland ?) can be brought to about the same latitude as the south of
Ireland, whereas in reality it lies nearly 5° farther south.

The coast marked with five English flags is, of course, the land
discovered by Cabot. That La Cosa had a map of this district is further
shown by the details, which distinguish it from his delineation of the
remainder of the North American coast, but which give it a resemblance to
that part of South America which is marked with Spanish flags and of which
he had a map. Curiously enough only part of the English district has
names; we must suppose that this is the coast that Cabot is said to have
sailed along. La Cosa's representation of the rest of the North American
coast is doubtless guesswork, although it has features which bear a
remarkable resemblance to reality; but it is not altogether impossible
that he may have had oral or written reports of later voyages (?), which
are unknown to us.

La Cosa's map is in complete agreement with the statements in the letters
of Pasqualigo, Soncino, and the two Spanish Ambassadors. Soncino says that
the country lies four hundred Italian leagues to the west of England,
while both Puebla and Ayala say that they believe the distance to be no
more than four hundred Spanish leagues. On the other hand, according to
Pasqualigo, Cabot said that at a distance of seven hundred Italian leagues
he had discovered the mainland of the kingdom of the Great Khan, and that
he had sailed [i.e., after having sailed ?] three hundred leagues along
the coast. It has been thought that there is here a disagreement between
the four hundred leagues of the three first-named and the seven hundred of
Pasqualigo, but if we interpret it, in what must be the most reasonable
way, as meaning that the distance of seven hundred leagues does not refer
to the nearest land, but to the most distant, where Cabot thought that he
had at last come within the boundaries of the kingdom of the Great Khan
(China) and did not venture to go farther, then we have complete
agreement, since the three hundred leagues he must first have sailed along
the coast must be deducted in order to get the distance from England to
the nearest land. The length of a Venetian "lega," or a Spanish "legua,"
cannot be precisely determined. If we assume [cf. Kretschmer, 1909, pp.
63, ff.] that between 20 and 17-1/2 went to a degree of latitude, each
league would correspond to between 3 and 3.43 geographical miles
(minutes), or between 5.6 and 6.3 kilometres. According to the former
estimate (three miles), four hundred leagues will be about equal to 1200
miles, and seven hundred leagues to about 2100 miles.[302] The first
distance is, at any rate, a good deal too small, while the second is too
great. This may easily be explained by Cabot, or his crew, having
naturally wished to make the voyage to the newly discovered country appear
as little deterrent as possible, and, therefore, having underestimated the
distance, while, desiring to make the country itself as large as possible,
they greatly over-estimated the length of their sail along the coast. That
the voyagers really supposed the distance to the newly discovered land to
be four hundred leagues from Ireland agrees also with Soncino's statement
that the Bristol sailors thought the voyage would not occupy more than
fifteen days from Ireland.

La Cosa's map is drawn as an equidistant compass-chart, and we can
therefore make ourselves a scale of miles by using the distance between
the Equator and the Tropic. In this way we find that the easternmost
headland, "Cauo de Ynglaterra" (Cape England), on the coast discovered by
Cabot lies four hundred leagues from Ireland, while the distance from it
to the most western headland with a name, "Cauo descubierto" (the
discovered cape), is about three hundred leagues.[303] Furthermore this
coast lies on the map due west of Bristol and southern England, as it
should according to Soncino's first letter.

There is thus full agreement between this map and all the contemporary
information we have of the voyage, and there is no room for doubt that its
names represent John Cabot's discoveries of 1497, which thus extended from
Cauo de Ynglaterra on the east (with two islands, Y. verde and S. Grigor,
to the east of it) to Cauo descubierto on the west. But it seems to me
that this tract must be either the south coast of Newfoundland or the
south-east coast of Nova Scotia, and Cauo de Ynglaterra must be either
Cape Race or Cape Breton; the latter is more probable;[304] this also
agrees best with all the documents we possess and involves fewest
difficulties. It might then seem probable that Cabot first arrived off the
land at Cauo de Ynglaterra or Cape Breton,[305] and that he sailed
westward (magnetic) from there to explore the newly discovered country.
The main direction of the coast of Nova Scotia is about W.S.W., and if we
suppose that the compass error at Cape Breton was then about 28° W., which
I have found in another way[306] (cf. above, p. 308; it is now 25° W.),
this will mean that the coast extended a little to the north of west by
compass, which exactly agrees with La Cosa's map. On account of contrary
winds, and of the care necessary in sailing along an unknown coast, the
voyage may have proceeded slowly, and Cabot greatly over-estimated his
distances, which is not an uncommon thing with explorers in unknown
waters, ever since the days of Pytheas. Finally, about three hundred miles
on, Cabot came to the south-western point of Nova Scotia, which at first
he must have taken for the end of the land. But as he certainly would be
bent upon deciding this, he may have continued to sail across the mouth of
the Bay of Fundy until he again sighted land, the fertile coast of smiling
Maine, stretching westward as far as the eye could reach, and he would
then have thought that he had surely arrived at the coast of the mainland
of the vast kingdom of the Great Khan. Here it must have been that he
landed, as related by Pasqualigo and Soncino,[307] and saw signs of
inhabitants, but met with none. He may, of course, have landed earlier at
Cape Breton or in Nova Scotia without finding trace of inhabitants, and
said nothing about it; for he was not looking for an uninhabited country,
but the wealthy Eastern Asia. It may also very well be the spot where he
first found signs of men that is called Cauo descubierto; for it is
striking that on La Cosa's map this name is not placed on any projecting
headland of the coast, but in front of a comparatively deep gulf, which in
that case might be the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. And it is in the sea to
the west of this bay, across which Cabot sailed, that La Cosa has placed
his "mar descubierta por jnglese" (sea discovered by the English). La
Cosa's "mar" will then be probably the whole gulf between Cape Sable and
Cape Cod.[308]

Cabot now thought he had found what he so eagerly sought. He was not
provisioned for any long stay, and with his small crew he could not expose
himself to possible attacks of the inhabitants of the country.
Consequently he had good reason for turning back. To provide himself with
the necessary water, and perhaps wood, for the homeward voyage would not
take long. Food was a greater difficulty, and we are told that he was so
short of it that on the way back he would not stop at new islands; it is
true that we hear of abundance of fish, but this cannot have been
sufficient. He then returned to Cauo de Ynglaterra, and thence homewards
as quickly as possible.[309] The distance from Cape Breton past the
southern point of Nova Scotia to the coast of Maine is 420 geographical
miles. There and back, with a cruise in the open sea towards Cape Cod, it
might be 1200 miles. If we suppose Cabot to have taken twenty days to do
it, including the time occupied in going ashore, this will be sixty miles
a day, which may seem a good deal; but if on the way back he had a
favourable wind and was able to sail a somewhat straight course, it is
possible; and, in that case, he may have been back at Cape Breton or Cauo
de Ynglaterra about July 14 (23), and then have laid his course for home
east by compass out to sea. This course took him off Newfoundland, and he
had the island of Grand Miquelon, with Burin Peninsula to the east of it
["S. Grigor" on La Cosa's map ?], in sight on his starboard bow, or on his
right hand, as Pasqualigo says. As he was afraid of more land in that
direction, which would be awkward to come near, especially when sailing at
night, he bore off to the south-east, where he knew from the outward
voyage that there was open water. After a time, thinking himself safe, he
again set his course east by compass, but then had fresh land, Avalon
Peninsula, ahead or on his starboard bow, and again had to bear off. He
took this for another large island ["Y. verde"], but would not land, both
on account of shortness of provisions, and because he wanted to be home as
soon as possible with the news of his discovery, and to prepare a larger
expedition to take possession of the new country.[310] To be quite sure of
encountering no more land, Cabot may then have borne off well to the
south-east, thus reaching the Newfoundland Banks on the south, and keeping
quite clear of the icebergs which are found farther north. For his eastern
voyage he was well served by the wind, since nearly all the winds in this
part of the Atlantic are between south and west or north-west in July and
the beginning of August. He was further helped by the current to some
extent, and may, therefore, very easily have made the homeward voyage in
twenty-three days, and sailed back into the port of Bristol about the 6th
(15th) of August, 1497. That Cabot cannot have taken much more than twenty
days on the return voyage also appears from the statement already quoted
of the Bristol sailors, that they could make the voyage in fifteen
days.[311]

The view of John Cabot's voyage of 1497 set forth above agrees also with
the map of the world of 1544, which is attributed to the collaboration of
Sebastian Cabot, but which the latter in any case cannot have seen or
corrected after it was engraved, probably in the Netherlands, and by an
engraver who did not understand Spanish, the language of the map [cf.
Harrisse, 1892, 1896; Dawson, 1894]. Its delineation of the northern east
coast of North America is for the most part borrowed from the
representation on French maps of Cartier's discoveries in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence (cf. Deslien's map of 1541). Cape Breton is called "Prima tierra
vista," and in the inscription referring to the northern part of the
American coast,[312] the import of which must apparently be derived from
Sebastian Cabot, we read:

    "This land was discovered by Joan Caboto Veneciano and Sebastian
    Caboto his son in the year 1494 [sic] after the birth of our saviour
    Jesus Christ, the 24th of June in the morning; to which they gave the
    name 'Prima Tierra Vista,' and to a large island which is near the
    said land they gave the name of St. John, because it was discovered
    the same day" [i.e., St. John's Day].[313]

The remainder of this legend--that the natives wear the skins of animals,
that the country is unfertile, that there are many white bears, vast
quantities of fish, mostly called bacallaos, etc. etc.--cannot refer, as
Harrisse appears to think, to this land (Cape Breton) which was first
discovered, but to the northern regions of the new continent as a whole.
It is characteristic of this map, as of the earlier French ones, that
Newfoundland is cut up into a number of small islands. If the view is
correct that Y. Verde and S. Grigor on La Cosa's map are also parts of
Newfoundland, it may explain the fact of Sebastian Cabot having no
difficulty in bringing this map, or his father's, into agreement with the
French ones, since he must have thought that a number of "islands,"
discovered later, had been added.

No island of St. John is to be found on La Cosa's map, but there is a Cauo
S. Johan not far from Cauo de Ynglaterra and close to the island that is
called Illa de la trinidat. That the name is attached to a cape instead of
to an island may be due to a transposition in the course of repeated
copyings. On the Portuguese map of Pedro Reinel, of the beginning of the
sixteenth century (that is, only a few years after 1497), Cape Breton is
marked without a name, but an island lies off it, called "Sam Johã" [St.
John]; on Maggiolo's map of 1527 there is "C. de bertonz," with an island,
"Ja de S. Ioan," in the same place; and on Michael Lok's map, in Hakluyt's
"Divers Voyages," 1582, we have "C. Breton" with the island of "S. Johan,"
lying off it, and on Cape Breton Island (or Nova Scotia), called
Norombega, is written "J. Cabot, 1497" (see p. 323). There seems thus to
have been a definite tradition that it was here that John Cabot made the
land, and St. John may then be the little Scatari Island which lies on the
outside of Cape Breton Island [cf. Dawson, 1897, pp. 210, ff.]. That the
"I. de S. Juan" on the map of 1544 lies on the inside of "Prima tierra
vista" and answers to the Magdalen Islands is of minor importance; we do
not even know whether Sebastian Cabot can be made responsible for it, as
it may be due to a confusion on the part of the draughtsman. More
importance must be attached on this point to the agreement between the
earlier maps of 1500, 1527, and that of Reinel (compared with Lok's map in
Hakluyt), than to the map of 1544.[314]

John Cabot returned to Bristol at the beginning of August, probably about
the 6th (15th, N.S.). He naturally hastened to London to tell the King of
his discovery, and we know that he must have been there on the 10th (20th)
August, for there is an entry in the accounts of the King's privy purse:

    "10 August, 1497. To hym that found the new isle, £10."

This cannot be called an exaggerated regal payment for discovering a new
continent, even though £10 in the money of that time corresponds to about
£120 now. Later in the same autumn Cabot was granted a pension from the
King of £20 a year.

Meanwhile, as the letters already quoted show, his discovery attracted
much attention in England, and gave rise to great expectations.

What Cabot accomplished by his voyage of 1497 was in the first place to
prove the existence of a great country beyond the ocean to the west of
Ireland, which country he himself assumed to belong to Asia and to be part
of China. Besides this he discovered great quantities of fish off the
newly discovered coast; a discovery which was soon to create a great
fishery, carried on by several nations, off Newfoundland, and one which
surpassed the Iceland fishery, hitherto the most important. But John Cabot
evidently had little idea of the importance of this last discovery. He
had, as Soncino says, "set his mind on higher things," for he thought that
by following the coast of the mainland farther to the west he would be
able to reach the wealthy Cipango (Japan) and the Spice Islands in the
equatorial regions.

Here we have in brief the plan of his next voyage. Cabot himself had
great expectations and saw a brilliant future before him, when he would
rule as a prince over newly conquered kingdoms which he would make subject
to the English Crown. And, as we have seen, he was liberal in distributing
islands to his barber, to a Burgundian, etc.

At the beginning of 1498 Cabot obtained new letters patent, dated February
3, in the thirteenth year of Henry VII.'s reign.[315] These letters are in
John Cabot's name alone (his sons are not mentioned this time).

    They give him the right of taking at his pleasure six English ships in
    any English port, of 200 tons or under, with their necessary
    equipment, "and theym convey and lede to the Londe and Iles of late
    founde by the seid John in oure name and by oure commaundemente, payng
    for theym and every of theym as and if we should in or for our owen
    cause paye and noon otherwise." And the said John might further "take
    and receyve into the seid shippes and every of theym all suche
    maisters maryners pages and our subjects, as of their owen free wille
    woll goo and passe with hym in the same shippes to the seid Londe or
    Iles," etc. etc.

It thus seems as if this not very prodigal king had on second thoughts
considerably reduced his first plan of sending a fleet of ten, fifteen or
twenty ships with all the prisoners of the realm.

The most important documents on this voyage are:

(1) Two contemporary letters, written before the return of the expedition,
by the older Spanish Ambassador in London, Ruy Gonzales de Puebla, and the
younger contemporary Spanish Minister in London, Pedro de Ayala, to
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. The latter's is dated July 23 (August 3,
N.S.), 1498; the former's is undated, but of about the same time.

(2) A narrative in the so-called "Cottonian Chronicle"[316] (the contents
of which are the same as in Robert Fabyan's Chronicle) undoubtedly refers
to this voyage of 1498 and not, as many have assumed, to the voyage of
1497. It appears to be a contemporary notice of 1498, written before the
return of the expedition.

These documents contain all that we know with certainty about John Cabot's
voyage of 1498.

The Spanish Ambassador, Ruy Gonzales de Puebla, writes in 1498 to
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain (probably in July):

    "The King of England sent five armed ships with another Genoese like
    Columbus to search for the island of Brasil and others near it,[317]
    and they were provisioned for a year. It is said that they will return
    in September. Seeing the route they take to reach it, it is what Your
    Highnesses possess. The King has spoken to me at various times about
    it, he hopes to derive great advantage from it. I believe that it is
    not more than 400 leagues distant from here" [cf. Harrisse, 1882, p.
    328].

Pedro de Ayala writes, July 25, 1498:

    "I believe Your Highnesses have heard how the King of England has
    fitted out a fleet to discover certain islands and mainland that
    certain persons, who sailed out of Bristol last year, have assured him
    they have found. I have seen the chart that the discoverer has drawn,
    who is another Genoese like Columbus, who has been in Seville and
    Lisbon to try to find some one to help him in this enterprise. The
    people of Bristol have sent out yearly for the last seven years a
    fleet of two, three or four caravels to search for the island of
    Brasil and the Seven Cities, following the fancy of this Genoese. The
    King has determined to send out an expedition because he is certain
    that they found land last year. One of the ships, on which a certain
    Fray Buil sailed, recently came into port in Ireland with great
    difficulty, the ship being wrecked.

    "The Genoese continued his voyage. After having seen the course he has
    taken and the length of the route, I find that the land they have
    found or are looking for is that which Your Highnesses possess,
    because it is at the end of that which belongs to Your Highnesses
    according to the convention with Portugal. It is hoped that they will
    return in September. I will let Your Highnesses know of it. The King
    of England has spoken to me at various times about it; he hopes[318]
    to derive great advantage from it. I believe the distance is not more
    than 400 leagues. I told him I believed the lands that had been found
    belonged to Your Highnesses, and I have given him a reason for it, but
    he would not hear of it. As I believe Your Highnesses are now
    acquainted with everything, as well as with the chart or mapa mundi
    that he [i.e., this Genoese] has drawn, I do not send it yet, though
    I have it here, and it seems to me very false to give out that it is
    not the islands in question."

According to the Cottonian Chronicle, the King

    "at the besy request and supplicacion of a Straunger venisian [i.e.,
    John Cabot], ... caused to manne a ship ... for to seche an Iland
    wheryn the said Straunger surmysed to be grete commodities,"[319] and
    it was accompanied by three or four other ships of Bristol, "the said
    Straunger" [i.e., Cabot] being leader of this "Flete, wheryn dyuers
    merchauntes as well of London as Bristowe aventured goodes and sleight
    merchaundises, which departed from the West Cuntrey in the begynnyng
    of Somer, but to this present moneth came nevir Knowlege of their
    exployt."[320]

Hakluyt, in "Divers Voyages" (1582) [cf. Hakluyt, 1850, p. 23], has a
rather fuller version of this account, quoted from Robert Fabyan, where we
read that the ships from Bristol were

    "fraught with sleight and grosse merchandizes as course cloth, Caps,
    laces, points, and other trifles, and so departed from Bristowe in the
    beginning of May: of whom in this Maior's time returned no
    tidings."[321]

"This Mayor" would be William Purchas, who was Lord Mayor of London until
October 28 (November 6, N.S.), 1498. Thus, if this is correct, the
expedition had not yet returned in the late autumn.

The information contained in Ayala's letter, that one of Cabot's ships had
put in to Ireland, is the last certain intelligence we have of this
expedition, which was looked forward to with such great hopes. John Cabot
now disappears completely and unaccountably from history, and his
discovery, which the year before had attracted so much attention, seems to
have been more or less forgotten in the succeeding years, and is never
referred to in the later letters of the Spanish Ambassadors in London. It
may, therefore, seem reasonable to suppose that the expedition disappeared
without leaving a trace. The probability of this is confirmed by the fact
that two years and a half later, in March 1501, Henry VII. again granted
letters patent, for the discovery of lands, to three merchants of Bristol
and three Portuguese, without mentioning Cabot; it is merely stated that
all former privileges of a similar kind were cancelled. But according to
some old account books from Bristol, found at Westminster Abbey, John
Cabot's royal pension of £20 a year was paid as late as the administrative
year beginning September 29, 1498. This, as Harrisse and others think,
shows that Cabot returned from the voyage and was still alive in that
year. But this seems to be uncertain evidence. The money need not have
been paid to him personally; it may have been paid to his wife or his sons
or other representatives during his absence on the voyage, and we cannot
conclude anything certain from it. As the pension is not entered in the
following years, it seems rather to show that Cabot was really lost, and
the money was only paid during the first year of his absence.

It has been supposed that the following is another proof of the
participators in the voyage of 1498 having returned: the accounts of Henry
VII.'s privy purse for 1498 show that on March 22 and April 1 the King
advanced money (sums of £20, £3, and 40s. 5d., in all about £650 in the
money of the present day) to Launcelot Thirkill (who seems to have had a
ship of his own), Thomas Bradley and John Carter, who were all going to
"the new Isle." Probably these men may have fitted out their own ships to
accompany Cabot's expedition; but we do not know whether they sailed. This
is probably the same Launcelot Thirkill who, according to an old
document, was in London on June 6, 1501, when he and three others whose
names are given (perhaps his sureties) were "bounden in ij obligations to
pay" £20 to the King before next Whitsuntide. Possibly it was this loan
received from the King for the voyage, which he then had to repay. If he
really started, it may be supposed that his ship was the one that put back
to Ireland; and this document is therefore no certain proof of any of the
other four ships having ever returned. For that matter they may all have
been lost in the same gale. But in the year 1501 the ship that returned
from Gaspar Corte-Real's expedition is reported to have brought back to
Lisbon a broken gilt sword of Italian workmanship from the east coast of
North America; and it is also stated that two Venetian silver rings had
been seen on a native boy from that country. It has been assumed that
these objects may have belonged to some of the participators in John
Cabot's expedition of 1498, which in that case must have reached America,
and there met with some disaster.

It is difficult to say more of this voyage. That John Cabot should have
returned after having reached America, and after having sailed a greater
or less distance along the coast without finding the riches he was in
search of, appears to me unlikely. Such an assumption would provide no
explanation of the complete silence about him. As the foreign Ministers
had followed this expedition with so much attention, we might surely
expect them to say something about its having disappointed the great
expectations that were formed of it; and in any case it was unlikely that
the whole should be buried in complete silence, which, on the other hand,
is easily comprehensible if nothing more was heard of the expedition,
since it may all have been forgotten for other things which claimed
attention. Thus the story of Giovanni Caboto, the discoverer of the North
American continent, ends, as it began, in obscurity. He was too early with
his discovery. England had not yet developed her trade and navigation
sufficiently to be able to follow it up and avail herself of it; this was
not to come until about eighty years later.

But John Cabot's discovery was not altogether unheeded in the years that
followed; it was considered of sufficient importance for his son,
Sebastian Cabot, by appropriating the honour of it, to acquire much fame
and reputation in his day as a great discoverer and geographer. But
whether he ever made discoveries on the east coast of North America is
very doubtful; indeed, it is not even certain that he ever undertook a
voyage to these regions. There can be no doubt that he himself asserted he
had done so repeatedly and to different men, though his various
utterances, so far as we know them, agree imperfectly. We see, too, that
as early as 1512 he had the reputation of being acquainted with
north-western waters, since he obtained an appointment in the service of
King Ferdinand of Aragon on account of the remarkable knowledge he claimed
to possess of "la navigacion á los Bacallaos" (the voyage to Newfoundland)
[cf. Harrisse, 1892, p. 20]. But Sebastian Cabot seems, on the whole, to
have been one of those men who are more efficient in words than deeds. It
was the habit of the time to be not too scrupulous about the truth, if one
had any advantage to gain from the contrary, and Sebastian was evidently
no better than his age. If his utterances are correctly reported, he
endeavoured, when his father had long been dead and forgotten, to claim
for himself the honour of his voyages, in which he succeeded so well that
for many centuries he, and not his father, was regarded as the discoverer
of the continent of America. In the legend on the map of the world of
1544, it is true, he was modest enough to share the honour with his
father, and this legend is at the same time the only evidence which might
point to Sebastian as having been present on that occasion; but, as we
have already seen, no great importance can be attached to it, and it is
not confirmed by contemporary statements about the voyage. His assertion
that he had been in north-western waters is in direct conflict with
statements in the protest made on March 11, 1521, by the Wardens of the
Drapers' Company of London against King Henry VIII.'s attempt to obtain
contributions towards an expedition to "the newe found Iland" (the coast
of North America) in 1521 under the command of Sebastian Cabot. The
protest says:

    "... And we thynk it were to sore aventʳ to joperd V shipps wᵗ men and
    goods vnto the said Iland vppon the singuler trust of one man callyd
    as we vnderstond Sebastyan, whiche Sebastyan as we here say was neuʳ
    in that land hym self, all if he maks reports of many things as he
    hath hard his Father and other men speke in tymes past," etc.

This statement is clear enough, and, coming as it does from men who were
acquainted with his father's services, it cannot be disregarded. It is
also confirmed by a remarkable statement in Peter Martyr's narrative (in
1515) of an alleged voyage of Sebastian Cabot (see later), which
concludes:

    "Some of the Spaniards deny that Cabot [i.e., Sebastian] was the first
    discoverer of the land of Bacallaos, and assert that he had not sailed
    so far to the west."

This might point to his really having made a voyage, but, in the opinion
of the Spaniards, never having reached the coast of North America.

The immediate consequence of John Cabot's discovery of the continent of
North America was probably that the practical merchants of Bristol, who
were accustomed to fishing ventures in Iceland, at once sent out vessels
to take advantage of the great abundance of fish that John Cabot had found
in 1497 and that had evidently made so deep an impression on his crew that
they told every one about it. But the English fishermen were soon
followed, and, indeed, outstripped, by Portuguese, Basque and French
(chiefly Breton) fishermen, and thus arose the famous Newfoundland
fisheries. The cause of the fishermen of Portugal and other countries
having followed so soon was doubtless the discovery of Newfoundland by the
Portuguese Corte-Real on his voyages of 1500 and 1501 (see next chapter).

But of the development of this fishery we hear little or nothing in
literature; just as in the Icelandic literature of earlier times these
fishing expeditions of ordinary seamen are passed over; in the first
place, they were not "notable" travellers, and in the second, men of that
class in all ages have preferred to avoid advertising their discoveries
for fear of competition.

From various documents and statements we may conclude that fresh
expeditions were sent out from Bristol in 1501 and the following years;
but these were Anglo-Portuguese undertakings and may have been occasioned,
at any rate in part, by the discoveries of the Portuguese, although, of
course, the knowledge of Cabot's voyage may have had some
significance.[322]

On March 19 (28), 1501, Henry VII. issued letters patent to Richard Warde,
Thomas Ashehurst and John Thomas, merchants of Bristol, who were in
partnership in the enterprise with three Portuguese from the Azores, John
and Francis Fernandus [i.e., João and Francisco Fernandez] and John
Gunsolus [João Gonzales ?].[323] They were given the right for ten years
"to explore all Islands, Countries, Regions, and Provinces whatever, in
the Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern Seas, heretofore unknown to
Christians," and all former privileges of this kind, granted to "any
foreigner or foreigners," were expressly cancelled. This last provision
must refer to the letters patent granted to Cabot in 1496 and 1498.

That this new expedition from Bristol really took place and returned
before January 1502, seems to result from the accounts of Henry VII.'s
privy purse, where on January 7, 1502, there is an entry: "To men of
Bristoll that found Thisle £5."[324] In 1502 there was possibly a new
expedition, as in the same accounts there is an entry of September [24],
1502: "To the merchants of Bristoll that have bene in the Newfounde Lande,
£20."[324] According to a document of December 6, 1503, Henry VII. further
granted on September 26, 1502, to the two Portuguese, ffranceys ffernandus
[Francisco Fernandez] and John Guidisalvus [Gonzales ?] a yearly pension
of ten pounds each, for the service they had done to the King's "singler
pleasur as capitaignes unto the new founde lande."

Hakluyt states (1582) in "Divers Voyages" [1850, p. 23], after Robert
Fabyan's Chronicle, that in the seventeenth year of the reign of Henry
VII. [i.e., August 22, 1501, to August 21, 1502][325]

    "were brought unto the king three men, taken in the new founde Iland,
    that before I [i.e., Fabyan ?] spake of in William Purchas time, being
    Maior.[326] These were clothed in beastes skinnes, and ate rawe
    fleshe, and spake such speech that no man coulde understand them, and
    in their demeanour like to bruite beastes, whom the king kept a time
    after. Of the which vpon two yeeres past after I [i.e., Fabyan] saw
    two apparelled after the maner of Englishmen, in Westminster pallace,
    which at that time I coulde not discerne from Englishemen, till I was
    learned what they were. But as for speech, I heard none of them vtter
    one worde."[327]

These natives must have been brought back from the expedition of 1501 or
from that of 1502 (if the latter returned before August 21 ?). They were
most likely Eskimo, since Indians with their darker skin could scarcely
have looked like Englishmen. It might even be supposed that they came from
Greenland, and were descendants of the Norsemen there, in which case their
resemblance to Englishmen is most naturally explained.

On December 9 (18), 1502, Henry VII. again granted letters patent to
Thomas Ashehurst, Joam Gonzales, Francisco Fernandes and Hugh Elliott for
a voyage of discovery to parts not hitherto found by English subjects.
That this projected expedition took place in 1503 is possibly shown by an
entry in the accounts of the King's privy purse: "1503, Nov. 17. To one
that brought hawkes from the Newfounded Island. 1.L." [cf. Harrisse, 1882,
p. 270].

It seems that it must be the same voyage to the north-west that is
mentioned by Robert Thorne of Bristol in his letter of 1527 to Henry
VIII.'s Ambassador in Spain. Thorne was then living in Seville, and was
interested in Indian enterprises. He tries to induce Henry VIII. to send
an expedition to the Indies by way of the Polar Sea, and sends with his
project a rough copy he has had made of a Spanish mappamundi. He says that
he has inherited the "inclination or desire of this discoverie" from his

    "father, which with another marchant of Bristow named Hugh Eliot, were
    the discoverers of the New found lands, of the which there is no
    doubt, (as nowe plainely appeareth) if the mariners would then have
    bene ruled, and followed their Pilots minde, the lands of the West
    Indies (from whence all the gold commeth) had bene ours. For all is
    one coast, as by the Carde appeareth, and is aforesayd."

On the map the northern east coast of America extends uninterruptedly to
the north (see the reproduction), and upon it is written: "the new land
called laboratorum," and along the coast there is: "the land that was
first discovered by the English." It might appear as though it was really
the present Labrador that was then discovered; but this is hardly the
case; what we see on the map is probably Greenland,[328] which is here
moved over to America as on other Spanish maps, and the east coast of
which is given a northerly direction as on Ruysch's map of 1508.

It is possible that another expedition set out in 1504; for in the
accounts of the King's privy purse we find an entry on April 8, 1504, of
£2 "to a preste that goeth to the new Islande." We see thus that there is
a probability of many expeditions having left England for the west and
north-west at this time, and that thus Greenland, Newfoundland, and
doubtless also Labrador had been reached by the English; and this would
explain their being recorded on Spanish maps as discoverers of the
northern part of the east coast of America. But we have no further
information about these voyages.

Just as we have seen that the note on Robert Thorne's map of 1527 (that
the English had discovered the northern part of the east coast of America)
must probably refer to the expedition of 1501 or to one in the following
year, so it is doubtless discoveries of the same voyages that are alluded
to on Maggiolo's compass-chart of 1511 (see reproduction, p. 359), where a
peninsula to the north of Labrador is marked as "Terra de los Ingres" [the
land of the English]. On later maps, such as Verrazano's of 1529, Ribero's
of 1529 (see reproduction, p. 357), the Wolfenbüttel map of 1530, and
others, Labrador is marked as having been discovered by the English,
sometimes, indeed, with the addition that they came from Bristol. As
already mentioned, no hint is to be found in trustworthy documents of
Sebastian Cabot's having taken part in these expeditions or having been in
any way connected with them, and there is therefore no ground for assuming
this. And the remarkable thing is that even his father's name is not
mentioned in connection with them, though it was so few years since he had
sailed from the same port.

We find, however, in various works of the sixteenth century records of
voyages to northern or north-western waters, supposed to have been made by
Sebastian Cabot; which may be due, directly or indirectly, to himself.
Formerly there was a tendency to connect these statements with John
Cabot's voyages of 1497 and 1498 [cf. Harrisse], but this assumption seems
to have little probability. G. P. Winship [1899, pp. 204, ff.], on the
other hand, has pointed out with good reason that according to Sebastian
Cabot's own words the voyage was undertaken by himself in the years
1508-9; but even this appears to me uncertain; in any case I doubt that he
reached America.

We hear of a voyage to the north-west said to have been undertaken by
Sebastian Cabot from Peter Martyr (in his Decades, 1516), from the
Venetian Minister to Spain, Contarini, especially in a report to the
Venetian Senate in 1536, from Ramusio (1550-1554 and 1556), from Gomara
(1553), and from Antonio Galvano (1563).[329]

We may expect the most trustworthy of these authorities to be Peter
Martyr, who was the oldest, and who knew Sebastian Cabot personally; but
certain main features of the voyage are to some extent common to all the
accounts. If we compare these, the voyage is said to have taken place
somewhat in the following manner: the expedition, consisting of two ships
with three hundred men,[330] was according to Peter Martyr fitted out at
Sebastian's own cost, but according to Ramusio it was sent out by the
King. They sailed so far to the north (according to Gomara, even in the
direction of Iceland) that in the month of July they found enormous masses
of ice floating on the sea; daylight was almost continuous, and the land
was in places free of ice which had melted away. According to the various
accounts Cabot is said to have reached 55°, 56°, 58°, or 60°.[331]

    According to Galvano they first "sighted land in 45° N. lat. and then
    sailed straight to the north until they came to 60° N. lat., where the
    day is eighteen hours long [sic], and the night is very clear and
    light. There they found the air cold and great islands of ice
    [icebergs ?] but no bottom with soundings of seventy, eighty, or one
    hundred fathoms,[332] but they found much ice which terrified them."

When, according to Peter Martyr, their hopes of making their way to the
west in these northern latitudes were thus annihilated by the ice, they
sailed back to the south and south-west along the North American coast, as
far as the latitude of Gibraltar, 36° (according to Peter Martyr), or to
38° (according to Gomara and Galvano), while according to Ramusio's
anonymous informant they sailed as far as Florida.[333] From thence the
expedition returned to England.

With regard to the date of this voyage, we are told in the continuation of
Peter Martyr's Decades [Dec. vii], written in 1524 (published 1530), that
"Bacchalaos [i.e., Newfoundland, or the northern east coast of America]
was discovered from England by Cabot sixteen years ago." According to
this the voyage took place in 1508. In Contarini's report of 1536 [cf.
Winship, 1900, p. 36] it is said of Sebastian Cabot's voyage that on his
return he "found the King dead, and his son cared little for such an
enterprise." As Henry VII. died on April 21, 1509, it would be during the
autumn of that year that Cabot returned; but then he must have sailed
before April, which is unlikely, at any rate if it is a question of a
voyage up into the ice to the north or north-west, such as is described.
That he should have sailed in the previous year and not returned until
after the King's death is still more improbable.

These accounts contain so many improbabilities, and to some extent
impossibilities, that it is on the whole extremely doubtful whether
Sebastian Cabot ever made such a voyage to the north-west. That he did so
is contradicted in the first place by the already quoted protest against
Sebastian of the Wardens of the Drapers' Company, which was issued in the
name of the various Livery Companies of London, and which is of great
significance, as it was written so soon after the events are supposed to
have taken place that they must have been in the memory of most people;
and it must have been easy for the King to inquire into the justification
of the protest (cf. above, p. 330).

The map of 1544, which is attributed to the collaboration of Sebastian
Cabot, may also point to his having never sailed along the northern part
of the coast of America, since, according to the custom of that time, the
coast of Labrador is made to run to the east and north-east. This agrees
with the statement of Ramusio's anonymous informant, that Sebastian had to
turn back because in 56° N. lat. he found the land turning eastward
(Galvano says the same). This is evidently derived from the study of maps.
As such a delineation of the coast had not yet occurred on maps of Peter
Martyr's time, it is natural that this reason for turning back is also
absent from his account.

In addition to all this, there are in the various accounts several
statements which we must suppose to be really derived from Sebastian
Cabot, but which are evidently untruthful. Thus Ramusio's anonymous guest
attributes to Sebastian the words that his father was dead when the news
of the discovery of Columbus reached England, and that it was then
Sebastian conceived the plan of his voyage which he submitted to the King.
That, as stated by Peter Martyr, he should have fitted out two ships with
crews of three hundred men at his own expense, is extremely improbable. He
is also reported to have told Peter Martyr that he

    "called these countries Baccallaos, because in the seas about there he
    found such great quantities of certain large fish--which might be
    compared to tunny [in size], and were thus called by the
    inhabitants--that sometimes they stopped his ships."

These are nothing but impossibilities. In the first place, _he_ never gave
the name of Bacallaos; in the second, the inhabitants cannot have called
the fish so, if by inhabitants is meant the native savages. These
statements are, therefore, of the same kind as that of the masses of fish
stopping the ships. Peter Martyr further relates that he said of these
regions that

    "he also found people in these parts, clad in skins of animals, yet
    not without the use of reason." He says also that "there are a great
    number of bears in these parts, which are in the habit of eating fish;
    for, plunging into the water where they see quantities of these fish,
    they fasten their claws into their scales, and thus draw them to land
    and eat them, so that (as he says) the bears are not troublesome to
    men, when they have eaten their fill of fish. He declares also that in
    many places of these regions he saw great quantities of copper among
    the inhabitants."

The statement about the bears may come from older literary sources, and
resembles a similar statement in the Geographia Universalis (see above, p.
191). That the inhabitants have copper and are clad in skins may be
derived from reports of the various voyages.

From what we have been able to conclude as to Sebastian Cabot's character,
it seems reasonable to suppose that, in consequence of his position as
Pilot Major in Spain, he was acquainted with the various maps and
accounts of voyages in western and north-western waters, and that from
this knowledge he constructed the whole story of his alleged voyage; he
was then incautious enough to magnify his exploits to such an extent that
he made the whole story improbable; for his claim was nothing less than
that he had first discovered land as far north as between 55° and 60°,
that is to say, to about Hudson Strait, and then sailed along and
discovered the whole coast of North America to about 36° N. lat., that is,
to Cape Hatteras or Florida; in other words, a voyage of discovery to
which we have no parallel in history, and it is truly remarkable that we
should have had no certain information about it, while we have so much
about other expeditions which step by step discovered the various parts of
this same extent of coast.

Sebastian Cabot seems to have laid claim to having made yet another voyage
in north-western waters, unless, indeed, it is the same one again with
variations. In the third volume of his "Navigationi et Viaggi," etc.,
published at Venice 1556, Ramusio says (writing in Venice, June 1553) that

    "Sebastian Gabotto, our Venetian, a man of great experience, etc.,
    wrote to me many years ago." Sebastian is said to have sailed "along
    and beyond the land of New France, at the charges of Henry VII., King
    of England. He told me that after having sailed a long time west by
    north [ponente e quarta di Maestro] beyond these islands, lying along
    the said land, as far as to sixty-seven and a half degrees under our
    pole [i.e., the North Pole], and on June 11th [20th] finding the sea
    still open and without any kind of impediment, he thought surely by
    that way to be able to sail at once to Cataio Orientale [China], if
    the mutiny [malignità] of the master and mariners had not compelled
    him to return."[334]

As will be seen, this statement is altogether different from those
previously mentioned; but such assertions as that Cabot had got so far to
the north-west by June 11, and found the sea free of ice in 67-1/2° N.
lat., are not of a kind to strengthen our confidence. It might seem to be
the same voyage that is referred to in a statement of Richard Eden, which
he may have had from Sebastian Cabot himself. In the dedication (written
in June 1553) of Eden's translation of the fifth part of Sebastian
Munster's "Cosmographia" we read that

    "Kinge Henry the viij. about the same yere [i.e., the eighth year] of
    his raygne, furnished and sent forth certen shippes vnder the
    gouernaunce of Sebastian Cabot yet liuing, and one Syr Thomas Perte,
    whose faynt heart was the cause that that viage toke none effect; yf
    (I say) such manly courage whereof we haue spoken, had not at that
    tyme bene wanting, it myghte happelye haue comen to passe, that that
    riche treasurye called Perularia, (which is now in Spayne in the citie
    of Ciuile, and so named, for that in it is kepte the infinite ryches
    brought thither from the newe found land of Peru) myght longe since
    haue bene in the town of London."[335]

As Peru is mentioned, it might doubtless appear as though a voyage to
South America were in question; but we often see that the western
countries beyond the sea were spoken of as a continuous possession (cf.
Robert Thorne's letter, above, p. 334), and it may therefore refer to the
same alleged expedition as is spoken of by Ramusio; for both Ramusio and
Eden have evidently the same statements from Sebastian Cabot, and the
latter can hardly have spoken of two expeditions which were both
unsuccessful merely because his companions failed him.

If this is correct, the voyage took place in the eighth year of Henry
VIII.'s reign, i.e., April 16, 1516, to April 15, 1517[336]; but, as
Harrisse contends, it is very doubtful whether the voyage was made at all.
It is true that a poem of Henry VIII.'s time also speaks of an English
expedition which may have taken place at this time, and which failed on
account of the cowardice of the crew. Robert Thorne, too, as we have seen
(p. 335), tells of a voyage made by his father and Hugh Eliot, on which
the sailors would not "follow their pilot's mind." It may, indeed, have
occurred on several voyages that the crews refused to proceed farther, and
for that matter these statements need not refer to the same voyage; but at
the same time it is by no means incredible that Sebastian Cabot may have
heard of such an expedition, and, when it was more appropriate than the
ice, used it as an explanation of his not having discovered the north-west
passage to China. We know that Sebastian Cabot was in the service of Spain
(and appointed "Pilot Major") in 1515, and that he was occupied with plans
of a voyage to the north-west for the King of Spain; for Peter Martyr
writes of him in that year that he was impatiently looking forward to
March 1516, when he had been promised a fleet with which to complete his
discoveries [cf. Winship, 1900, p. 71]. As Ferdinand of Aragon died on
January 23, 1516, nothing came of this voyage, and as we hear nothing of
Sebastian Cabot before February 5, 1518, when he was appointed Pilot Major
by Charles V., it is not impossible that in the meantime he may have been
in England, and have taken part in an English expedition; but no record of
his having come to England is extant, and it would hardly agree with the
protest against him of the Drapers' Company a few years later.

There may yet be mentioned the attempts made by Henry VIII. in 1521 to
prepare an expedition to north-western waters under the command of
Sebastian Cabot, chiefly at the expense of the merchants of London, which,
however, evoked a powerful protest against Sebastian on the part of these
merchants (see above, p. 330). It is true that, upon pressure from the
King, they afterwards declared themselves willing to give a smaller sum,
but the expedition never came to anything. Sebastian Cabot was at that
time, as he had been since 1512, in the service of Spain, and he remained
so until in 1547 he again took up his abode in England and entered the
service of the English King. In December 1522 Sebastian Cabot informed the
Venetian Minister in Spain, Contarini, that he had been in England three
years before [i.e., in 1519], and that the Cardinal there [i.e., Wolsey,
who was trying on behalf of Henry VIII. to get together the expedition of
1521] had endeavoured to persuade him to undertake the command of a fleet
which was almost ready [sic!], for the discovery of new lands; but he had
replied that, as he was in the service of Spain, he must first obtain the
permission of the Emperor; and that he had then written to the Emperor,
requesting him not to grant such permission, but to recall him. This
Sebastian asserted that he had done on account of his desire of serving
his own city of Venice; for in 1522 and later he was carrying on
treacherous intrigues with Contarini to enter the Venetian service,
presumably with the hope of a high salary. Thus, wherever we are able to
check Sebastian Cabot's utterances, they prove to be extremely
untrustworthy.

Even, if, therefore, there was no lack of attempts after 1500 to follow up
John Cabot's great and important discoveries in the west, it is
nevertheless surprising how little persistence seems to have been shown.
The love of discovery and adventure which had been so prominent a feature
of the Northern Viking nature had not yet awakened in earnest among the
English people. England's mercantile marine was at that time still
comparatively unimportant, it had not the strength for such great
enterprises or for colonisation. The earliest voyages were mainly the work
of a foreigner, an Italian, and the later ones were in part undertaken by
Portuguese; they did not grow naturally from the English people
themselves. Cabot's plan was like an exotic flower springing up in
immature soil, and more than half a century before its time. Another
factor was doubtless the disappointment of the King and of the merchants;
they had ventured their money in fitting out ships in the hope of
immediate profit. What they were looking for was the way to the rich East
of Asia, where mountains of spices lay ready to hand, and gold and
precious stones in heaps, only waiting to be picked up. What they found
was nothing but new, unknown countries on the ocean, inhabited by
wandering tribes of hunters, countries the opening up of which demanded
much time and labour. All this had scarcely more than a geographical
interest for the time being, and for that they cared little.


CHAPTER XV

THE PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTH-WEST


VOYAGES OF THE BROTHERS CORTE-REAL

The Portuguese, who in the fifteenth century were the most enterprising of
seafaring peoples as regards discoveries, had, as already stated, made
various attempts to find new countries out in the ocean to the west of the
Azores, from which islands the majority of the expeditions proceeded. It
was therefore to be expected that the important discoveries of Columbus
should encourage them to fresh attempts of this kind; it was also natural
that such enterprises should originate especially in the Azores. From what
has been stated above (p. 128), it appears that the King of Portugal
(Alfonso V.) induced Christiern I. to send out expeditions (Pining and
Pothorst) to search for new islands and lands in the North. It seems
probable that the King of Portugal was informed of the results of these
expeditions, and that in this way the Portuguese may have known of the
existence of Greenland or of countries in the north-west. In the same way,
as we have seen (p. 132, note 2), the fact that the earliest literary
allusions to Scolvus seem to be derived from Portugal may be explained.

Possible Portuguese enterprises in the western regions were barred by the
claim of the Spanish Crown to the dominion over all lands to the west of a
certain boundary, and in the final treaty of Tordecillas, June 7, 1404,
between Portugal and Spain, this boundary was fixed by the Pope at 370
leagues (about 1200 geographical miles) to the west of the Cape Verde
Islands, and it was to follow the meridian from pole to pole. All that lay
to the west of this meridian was to belong to Spain, while Portugal had
the right to take advantage of all lands to the east. Thereby the
Portuguese were debarred from the search for India and China to the west.
These enterprising seafarers must therefore have had every reason to find
out whether there were any countries on their side of the boundary-line,
and it may be supposed that their attention would naturally be drawn in
the direction of the north-western lands (Greenland) of which they had
already heard.

And, in fact, such voyages were undertaken from Portugal (and the Azores
?) about 1500; but the accounts of them are meagre and casual, and have
been interpreted in very different ways.

In order to enable one to form as unbiased a view as possible of these
voyages, it will be necessary to begin by reviewing the most important
contemporary documents which may contain statements of value; and
afterwards to summarise what may be concluded from these documents.

On October 28, 1499, King Manuel of Portugal issued at Lisbon to João
Fernandez letters patent (preserved in the Portuguese State archives,
Torre do Tombo) for discoveries, evidently in the north-west, in which it
is said:

    "We [the King] make known to all who may see this our letter, that
    Joham Fernamdez [now written João Fernandez] domiciled in our island
    of Terceira [Azores] has told us that he, in God's and our service,
    will work and travel and try to discover certain islands of [for ?]
    our conquest at his own cost, and we, seeing his good will and
    purpose, promise him and hereby give him de facto--in addition to
    taking him into our service--the mark of our favour and the privilege
    of Governor over every island or islands, both inhabited and
    uninhabited, that he may discover and find for the first time, and
    this with such revenues [taxes], dignities, profits and interests as
    we have given to the Governors of the islands of Madeira and others,
    and for this observance and our remembrance we command that this
    letter be given him, signed by us and sealed with our attached
    seal."[337]

On May 12, 1500, King Manuel granted to Gaspar Corte-Real letters patent,
as follows:

    "We [i.e., the King] make known to all who may see this deed of gift,
    that forasmuch as Caspar Cortereall, a nobleman of our household, has
    in times past made great endeavours at his own charges for ships and
    men, employing his own fortune and at his personal danger, to search
    for and discover and find certain islands and mainland, and in future
    will still continue to carry this into effect, and in this way will do
    all that he can to find the said islands and lands, and bearing in
    mind how much he deserves honour and favour and promotion in our
    service, to our honour, and to the extension of our realms and
    dominions through such islands and lands being discovered and found by
    our natives [i.e., Portuguese], and through the said Gaspar
    Corte-Reall thus performing so much labour, and exposing himself to so
    great danger; we are therefore pleased to decree that, if he discovers
    and finds any island, or islands, or mainland, he be granted by our
    own consent and royal and absolute power, the concession and gift,
    with the privilege of Governor and its attendant rights, etc. ... over
    whatsoever islands or mainland he may thus find and discover, etc. ...
    and we decree that he and his heirs in our name and in the name of our
    successors shall hold and govern those lands or islands, which are
    thus found, freely and without any restriction, as has been said....
    The said Caspar Cortereall and his heirs shall have one quarter free
    of all that they can thus obtain [i.e., realise] in the said islands
    and lands at what time soever..." [Cf. Harrisse, 1883, pp. 196, f.].

An order is preserved dated April 15, 1501, from King Manuel to the master
of the bake-house at the city gate of La Cruz to deliver biscuits to
Gaspar Corte-Real, and further, a receipt of April 21, 1501, for the
biscuits, signed by Gaspar Corte-Real himself, proving that the latter was
in Portugal on that date.[338]

Pietro Pasqualigo, the Venetian Minister at Lisbon, wrote as follows to
the Council at Venice on October 18, 1501:

    "On the 9th of this month there arrived here one of the two caravels
    which the said King's majesty sent last year to discover lands in the
    direction of the northern regions (verso le parte de tramontana), and
    they have brought seven men, women, and children from the country
    discovered, which is in the north-west and west, 1800 miglia distant
    from here. These men resemble gypsies in appearance, build, and
    stature. They have their faces marked in different places, some with
    more, others with fewer figures. They are clad in the skins of various
    animals, but chiefly of otter; their speech is entirely different from
    any other that has ever been heard in this kingdom, and no one
    understands it. Their limbs are very shapely, and they have very
    gentle faces, but their manners and gestures are bestial, and like
    those of savage men. The crew of the caravel believe that the land
    alluded to is mainland, and that it is joined to the other land which
    was discovered last year in the north by the other caravels belonging
    to this majesty, but they were unable to reach it, for the sea was
    frozen over with the great masses of snow, so that it rose up like
    land. They also thought that it was connected with the Andilii
    [Antilles], which were discovered by the sovereign of Spain, and with
    the land of Papaga [Brazil], newly found by a ship belonging to this
    king, on her way to Calcutta. The grounds for this belief are, in the
    first place, that after having sailed along the coast of the said land
    for a distance of six hundred miglia and more, they found no end to
    it; and further because they say they found many very great rivers
    which there fell into the sea. The second caravel, that of the
    commander (caravella capitania), is expected from day to day, and from
    it the nature and condition of the aforesaid land will be clearly
    understood, since it went farther along the coast in order to discover
    as much of it as possible. This royal majesty has been much rejoiced
    by this news, for he thinks that this land will be very profitable for
    his affairs in many respects, but especially because it is so near to
    this kingdom that it will be easy to obtain in a short time a very
    great quantity of timber for making ships' masts and yards of, and to
    get a sufficient supply of male slaves for all kinds of labour, for
    they say that that country has many inhabitants, and is full of
    pine-trees and other excellent wood. The news in question has rejoiced
    his majesty so much that he has given orders that the ships are to
    sail to the said place, and for the increase of his Indian fleet, in
    order to conquer it more quickly, as soon as it is discovered; for it
    seems that God is with his majesty in his undertakings, and brings all
    his plans to accomplishment." [Cf. Harrisse, 1883, pp. 209, ff.].

On October 19, 1501, Pietro Pasqualigo writes to his brothers at Venice:

    "On the 8th of this month there arrived here one of the two caravels
    which this most serene majesty sent last year to discover lands in the
    north under Captain Gaspar Corterat [sic]; and they state that they
    found land two thousand miglia from here between north-west and west,
    which before was not known to any one; along the coast of this land
    they sailed perhaps six hundred or seven hundred miglia without
    finding an end to it; therefore they believe that it is a continent
    which is continuous with another land that was discovered last year in
    the north [by some other caravels], which caravels could not reach the
    end of it, because the sea was frozen and there was an infinite
    quantity of snow. They believed it also on account of the great number
    of rivers that they found there, and that certainly would not be so
    numerous or so large on an island. They say that this land has many
    inhabitants, and that their houses are made of great wooden poles,
    which are covered on the outside with skins of fish [i.e., seals ?].
    They have brought seven men, women, and children from thence and fifty
    more are coming in another caravel, which is hourly expected. These
    are of similar colour, build, stature, and appearance to gypsies, clad
    in skins of various animals, but mostly otter; in the summer they turn
    the skin in, in winter the reverse. And these skins are not sewed
    together in any way, and not prepared, but they are thrown over the
    shoulders and arms just as they are taken off the animals. The loins
    are fastened together with strings made of very strong fish sinews.
    Although they seem to be savages, they are modest and gentle, but
    their arms, legs, and shoulders are indescribably well shaped; they
    have the face marked [tattooed] in the Indian fashion, some with six,
    some with eight, and some with no figures [lines ?]. They speak, but
    are understood by no one; I believe they have been addressed in every
    possible language. In their country they have no iron, but make knives
    of certain stones, and spearheads in the same way. They have brought
    from thence a fragment of a broken gilt sword, which was certainly
    made in Italy. A boy among them wore in his ears two silver rings,
    which seem without doubt to have been made in Venice. This induced me
    to believe that it is a continent, for it is not a place to which
    ships can ever have gone without anything having been heard of
    them.[339] They have a very great quantity of salmon, herring, cod,
    and similar fish. They have also great abundance of trees, and above
    all of pine-trees for making ships' masts and yards of. For this
    reason it is that this most serene King thinks he will derive the
    greatest profit from the said land, not only on account of the trees
    for shipbuilding, of which there is much need, but also on account of
    the men, who are excellent labourers, and the best slaves that have
    hitherto been obtained; this seems to me to be a thing worth giving
    information about, and if I hear anything more when the commander's
    caravel (caravella capitania) arrives, I will also communicate it."
    [Cf. Harrisse, 1883, pp. 211, f.].

Alberto Cantino, Minister at Lisbon of Duke Ercule d'Este of Ferrara,
wrote to the Duke as follows, on October 17, 1501:

    "It is already nine months since this most serene King sent two
    well-equipped ships to the northern regions (alle parte de tramontana)
    with the object of finding out whether it was possible to discover
    lands and islands in those parts; and now on the 11th of this month
    one of these ships has safely returned with a cargo, and brought
    people and news, which I have thought it my duty to communicate to
    Your Excellency, and thus I write here below accurately and clearly
    all that the captain [of the ship] reported to the King in my
    presence. First he stated that after leaving the port of Lisbon they
    sailed for four months at a stretch always with the same wind, and
    towards the same pole, and in all that time they never saw anything.
    When they had entered the fifth month and still wished to proceed,
    they say that they encountered immense masses of snow frozen together,
    floating on the sea and moving under the influence of the waves. On
    the top of these [ice-masses] clear fresh water was formed by the
    power of the sun, and ran down through little channels hollowed out by
    itself, wearing away the foot [of the ice] where it fell. As the ships
    were already in want of water they approached in boats, and took as
    much as they required; and for fear of staying in that place on
    account of the danger, they were about to turn back, but impelled by
    hope they consulted as to what they could best do, and determined to
    proceed for a few days yet, and they resumed their voyage. On the
    second day they found the sea frozen, and being obliged to abandon
    their purpose, they began to steer to the north-west and west, and
    they continued on this course for three months, always with fair
    weather. And on the first day of the fourth month they sighted between
    these two points of the compass a very great land, which they
    approached with the greatest joy; and many great rivers of fresh water
    ran through this region into the sea, and on one of them they
    travelled for a legha [== about three geographical miles] inland; and
    when they went ashore they found a quantity of beautiful and varied
    fruits, and trees, and pines of remarkable height and size, that
    would be too large for the masts of the largest ship that sails the
    sea. Here is no corn of any kind, but the people of the country live,
    they say, on nothing but fishing and hunting animals, of which the
    country has abundance. There are very large stags [i.e., caribou,
    Canadian reindeer] with long hair, whose skin they use for clothes and
    for making houses and boats; there are also wolves, foxes, tigers
    [lynxes ?], and sables. They declare, what seems strange to me, that
    there are as many pelerine falcons as there are sparrows in our
    country; and I have seen them, and they are very handsome. Of the men
    and women of that place they took about fifty by force, and have
    brought them to the King; I have seen, touched, and examined them. To
    begin with their size, I may say that they are a little bigger than
    our countrymen, with well-proportioned and shapely limbs, while their
    hair is long according to our custom, and hangs in curly ringlets, and
    they have their faces marked with large figures like those of the
    Indians. Their eyes have a shade of green, and, when they look at you,
    give the whole face a very wild aspect. Their speech is not to be
    understood, but it is without harshness, rather is it human. Their
    conduct and manners are very gentle, they laugh a good deal, and show
    much cheerfulness; and this is enough about the men. The women have
    small breasts and a very beautiful figure, and have a very attractive
    face; their colour may more nearly be described as white than
    anything else, but that of the males is a good deal darker.
    Altogether, if it were not for the wild look of the men, it seems to
    me that they are quite like us in everything else. All parts of the
    body are naked, with the exception of the loins, which are kept
    covered with the skin of the aforesaid stag. They have no weapons, nor
    iron, but all the work they produce is done with a very hard and sharp
    stone, and there is nothing so hard that they cannot cut it with this.
    This ship came thence in one month, and they say that it is 2800
    miglia [miles] distant; the other consort has decided to sail along
    this coast far enough to determine whether it is an island or
    mainland, and thus the King is awaiting the arrival of this [the
    consort] and the others [i.e., his companions] with much impatience,
    and when they have come, if they communicate anything worthy of Your
    Excellency's attention, I shall immediately inform you of it..." [cf.
    Harrisse, 1883, pp. 204, ff.].

At the request of the Duke of Ferrara Cantino had a map made at Lisbon,
chiefly for the purpose of representing the Portuguese discoveries, and
sent it to the Duke in 1502. In a letter to the Duke, dated November 19,
1502, he mentions having already sent it. This map, commonly called the
Cantino map, and now preserved at Modena, gives a remarkably good
representation of southern Greenland, which is called "A ponta de [asia]"
[i.e., a point of Asia]. On its east coast are two Portuguese flags to
show that it is a Portuguese discovery, one flag somewhat to the north of
the Arctic Circle, the other a little to the west of the southern point,
and this coast bears the following legend:

    "This country, which was discovered by the command of the most highly
    renowned prince Dom Manuel, King of Portugal, is a point of Asia (esta
    a ponta d'asia). Those who made the discovery did not land but saw the
    land, and could see nothing but precipitous mountains. Therefore it is
    assumed, according to the opinion of the cosmographers, to be a point
    of Asia."

To the west of Greenland on the same map a country is marked, called
"Terra del Rey de portuguall" (the Land of the King of Portugal); it
answers approximately to Newfoundland, possibly with the southern part of
Labrador (?). The north and south ends are marked with two Portuguese
flags, and the country bears the following legend:

    "This land was discovered by command of the most exalted and most
    renowned royal prince Dom Manuel, King of Portugal; Gaspar de
    Corte-Real, a nobleman of the said King's household, discovered it,
    and when he had discovered it, he sent [to Portugal] a ship with men
    and women taken in the said land, and he stayed behind with the other
    ship, and never returned, and it is believed that he perished, and
    there are many masts [i.e., trees for masts]."

On January 15, 1502,[340] King Manuel gave Gaspar's brother, Miguel
Corte-Real, fresh letters patent as follows:

    "We make known to all who may see this letter that Miguell Cortereall,
    a nobleman of our household and our head doorkeeper [chamberlain ?],
    now tells us that, seeing how Gaspar Cortereall, his brother, long ago
    sailed from this city with three ships to discover new land, of which
    he had already found a part, and seeing that after a lapse of time two
    of the said ships returned to the said city [Lisbon], and five months
    have elapsed without his coming,[341] he wishes to go in search of
    him, and that he, the said miguell corte-reall, had many outlays and
    expenses of his own in the said voyage of discovery, as well as in the
    said ships, which his said brother fitted out the first time for that
    purpose [i.e., for the first voyage], when he found the said land, and
    likewise for the second [i.e., the second voyage], wherefore the said
    gaspar cortereall in consideration of this promised to share with him
    the said land which he thus discovered and ... which we had granted
    and given to him by our deed of gift, for which the said gaspar
    cortereall asked us before his departure, etc." Therefore Miguel
    claimed his share of the lands discovered by his brother, which he
    obtained from the King by these letters patent, as well as the right
    to all new islands and lands he might discover that year (1502),
    besides that which his brother had found.[342]

Two legends on the anonymous Portuguese chart of about 1520 are also of
interest.[343] On the land "Do Lavrador" [i.e., Greenland] is written:

    "This land the Portuguese saw, but did not enter."

On Newfoundland, called "Bacalnaos," is written:

    "To this land came first Gaspar Corte Regalis, a Portuguese, and he
    carried away from thence wild men and white bears. There is great
    abundance of animals, birds, and fish. In the following year he
    suffered shipwreck there, and did not return, and his brother,
    Micaele, met with the same fate in the next year."

In addition to this may also be mentioned the various maps of Portuguese
origin of 1502 or soon after, especially the Italian mappamundi, the
so-called King map of about 1502 (p. 373), which must be a copy of a
Portuguese map, where Newfoundland is called Terra Corte Real.

Besides these documents contemporary with the voyages, or of the years
immediately succeeding, there are also several much later notices of them
in Gomara (1552), Ramusio (1556), Antonio Galvano (1563) and Damiam de
Goes (1566), but as these were written so long after, we will leave them
on one side for the present.

When we endeavour to form an opinion as to the Portuguese voyages of
these years on the basis of the oldest documents, the first thing that
must strike us is that there are indications of several voyages, and of
the discovery of two wholly different countries, which must undoubtedly be
Greenland and Newfoundland. As it is expressly stated on the Cantino map,
on the Portuguese chart of about 1520, and in many other places, that
Newfoundland was discovered by Gaspar Corte-Real, while his name is not
mentioned in a single place in these documents in connection with
Greenland (or Labrador), and as Pasqualigo's letter to the Council of
Venice expressly says that that land was seen the previous year (1500) by
"the other caravels [l'altre caravelle] belonging to this majesty,"[344]
the logical conclusion must be that it was not Gaspar Corte-Real who saw
Greenland in the year 1500, but some other Portuguese. It may be in
agreement with this that on the King map (of about 1502) Newfoundland is
called Terra Cortereal (see p. 373), while the island which clearly
answers to Greenland is called Terra Laboratoris. One might be tempted to
suppose that both lands were named after their discoverers, one, that is,
after Corte-Real, the other after a man who is described as "laborator."
The generally accepted view that it was Gaspar Corte-Real who saw
Greenland on his voyage of 1500 is thus unsupported by the above-mentioned
documents.

On the other hand, we seem to be able to conclude from the royal letters
patent to Miguel Corte-Real that Gaspar made two voyages, one in 1500, and
another in 1501, and that it was the same country (i.e., Newfoundland)
that he visited on both occasions. This is also confirmed by the legend on
the Portuguese chart of about 1520. If it was not he who on the first
voyage, in 1500, saw Greenland without being able to approach it, we must
conclude that yet another expedition, on which Greenland was sighted, left
Portugal in the year 1500. One is then inclined to suppose that this was
commanded by the same João Fernandez, to whom the King gave letters patent
as early as October 1499. This supposition becomes still more probable
when we take it in conjunction with what has already been said as to the
possible origin of the name of Labrador (see p. 331). We must suppose that
this is the same man from the Azores who, under the name of John
Fernandus, took part in the Bristol enterprise of 1501, and who is further
mentioned in documents of as early as 1492, together with another man from
the Azores, Pero de Barcellos, and is described as a "llavorador." These
men would already at that time have been engaged in making discoveries at
sea.

If we compare the legend attached to Labrador (Greenland) on Diego
Ribero's Spanish map of 1529 with the corresponding legend on the
anonymous Portuguese chart of about 1520 this will also confirm our
supposition. While on the latter we read that "the Portuguese saw the
land, but did not enter it," Ribero's map has: "this land was discovered
by the English, but there is nothing in it that is worth having." As this
part of Ribero's map is evidently a copy of the Portuguese maps, we may
conclude Ribero's alteration of the legend to mean that doubtless the land
was first sighted by the Portuguese, but that it was the English who first
succeeded in landing there, and in this way were its real discoverers. If
we add to this the statement on the sixteenth-century Portuguese chart
preserved at Wolfenbüttel, that the land was discovered by Englishmen from
Bristol, and that the man who first gave news of it was a "labrador" from
the Azores, then everything seems to be in agreement.

We may hence suppose the connection to be somewhat as follows: having
obtained his letters patent in October 1499, João Fernandez fitted out
his expedition, and sailed in the spring of 1500; he arrived off the east
coast of Greenland and sailed along it, but the ice prevented him from
landing. We have no information at all as to where else he may have been
on this voyage. But having returned to Portugal, perhaps after a
comparatively unsuccessful expedition, and finding furthermore that the
King had issued letters patent to Gaspar Corte-Real, whose voyage had been
more successful, Fernandez may have despaired of finding support for fresh
enterprises in Portugal, and have turned at once to Bristol, where he took
part in getting together an Anglo-Portuguese undertaking, and was thus the
"llavorador" who first brought news of Greenland.

It must, of course, be admitted that the hypothesis here put forward of
the voyage and discovery of João Fernandez is no more than a guess; but it
seems more consistent than any of the explanations hitherto offered, and,
as far as I can see, it does not conflict on any point with what
contemporary documents have to tell us. It may be supposed that here, as
so frequently has happened, the name of the discoverer, João Fernandez,
has been more or less forgotten. His memory has perhaps only been
preserved in the name Labrador itself--originally applied to Greenland,
but afterwards transferred to the American continent[345]--whilst all the
Portuguese discoveries in the north have been associated in later history
with the other seafarer, Gaspar Corte-Real, who was of noble family and
belonged to the King's household, and who came from the same island of the
Azores, Terceira.

Gaspar Corte-Real belonged to a noble Portuguese family from Algarve and
was born about 1450. He was the third and youngest son of João Vaz
Corte-Real, who for twenty-two years, since 1474, had had a "capitanerie"
as Governor of the Azores--first at Angra in the island of Terceira, later
in São Jorge--and died in 1496.[346] Gaspar probably spent a part of his
youth in the Azores, which were altogether "a hot-house of all kinds of
ideas of maritime discovery"; he certainly became familiar at an early age
with narratives of the numerous earlier attempts, and with the many plans
of new ocean voyages which were discussed by the adventurous sailors of
those islands. As already mentioned, the German, Martin Behaim, was also
living in the Azores (cf. p. 287).

From the letters patent of May 1500, we see that Gaspar Corte-Real had at
his own expense been trying even before that time to discover countries in
the ocean, but as no more is said about it, the attempt was doubtless
unsuccessful. It was pointed out above that from the King's letters
patent to his brother Miguel it looks as though Gaspar had made two
voyages to the land he had discovered, which is also confirmed by the
legend referred to on the anonymous Portuguese chart of about 1520. On the
other hand, nothing is said about this voyage in the letters of the two
Italian Ministers, nor on the Cantino map. It may seem natural to conclude
that Gaspar, after having obtained his letters patent in May 1500, set out
on an expedition, the expenses of which were defrayed by himself and his
brother Miguel in partnership (cf. the letters patent to the latter).

On his first voyage of 1500 Gaspar had already discovered a part of
Newfoundland; but we know nothing of what else he may have accomplished on
this expedition. He must have returned to Lisbon by the same autumn.

Encouraged by his success he then set out again with a larger expedition
in 1501, after April 21, at which date he was still in Lisbon. This time
the expenses were again borne by himself and his brother Miguel in
partnership. According to the King's letters patent of January 1502, he
had three ships on this voyage, of which two returned. This does not agree
with the letters of the two Italian Ministers, which distinctly say that
he left with two ships. But these letters, it is true, do not mutually
agree in their statements as to the ship that had returned: Pasqualigo
says that the ship arrived at Lisbon on October 9 in one of his letters,
on the 8th in the other, and that it brought seven natives; while Cantino
says that the ship arrived on October 11 and brought fifty natives to the
King. As Pasqualigo says that the other ship was expected daily with fifty
natives, it has been thought (cf. Harrisse) that this was the ship
referred to by Cantino; but in that case it is puzzling that two Ministers
in the same city should have heard of two different ships, and that they
should both be ignorant of more than one ship having arrived, although
there was an interval of no more than two or three days between each
ship's arrival, and they are both writing a week after that time. Besides,
both mention that the second ship, and only one, is expected, and
Pasqualigo calls it the commander's caravel (caravella capitania). We may
readily suppose that it is the arrival of the same ship that is alluded to
by the two Ministers (no importance need be attached to the discrepancy of
dates, since we see that Pasqualigo alters the date of his ship's arrival
from one letter to the other). They may both have heard of fifty natives
having been captured, of which they had seen some (seven, for instance);
but while Cantino understood that the whole fifty had arrived, Pasqualigo
thought that only the seven he had seen had come, while the other fifty
were expected on the next ship. Considerable weight must be attached to
the fact that in the legend on the Cantino map, which must evidently have
been drawn from Portuguese documents, only one ship is mentioned as having
returned. The chief difficulty is that this is in direct conflict with the
King's later letters patent to Miguel. We should then have to suppose that
the statement in this document as to three ships having sailed and two
returned is due to a clerical error or a lapse of memory, which may seem
surprising. But the question is, after all, of minor importance. The main
point is that Gaspar Corte-Real's ship never returned.

In estimating the degree of trustworthiness or accuracy to be attributed
to Pasqualigo's and Cantino's statements about the voyage, it must be
remembered that they are both only repeating what they have heard said on
the subject in a language not their own, and that when the letters were
written they had probably seen no chart of the voyage or of the new
discoveries. Cantino says that he was present when the captain of the ship
gave his account to the King, and that he is writing down everything that
was then said; so that perhaps he had only heard the narrative once, and
without a chart, which easily explains his obvious errors; it is no
difficult matter to fall into gross errors and misunderstandings in
reproducing the account of a voyage which one hears in this way told even
in one's own language. Pasqualigo does not tell us how he had heard about
the voyage, but it may have been on the same occasion. The letters of the
two Italians reproducing the Portuguese narrative cannot therefore be
treated as exact historical documents, every detail of which is correct.

Cantino says in his letter (of October 1501) that Gaspar Corte-Real had
sailed nine months before, that is, in January 1501. Pasqualigo says that
he left in the previous year, which agrees with Cantino, since the civil
year at that time began on March 25. But the existing receipt of April 21,
1501, from Gaspar Corte-Real proves with certainty that the two Italians
were mistaken on this point. It may be supposed that they regarded the
expeditions of the two consecutive years as a connected voyage (?), but
even this will not agree with Cantino's nine months. According to
Cantino's letter, Corte-Real on leaving Portugal held a northerly course
("towards the pole" are the words), and Pasqualigo says something of the
same kind; but this is scarcely to be taken literally, for otherwise we
should have to suppose that from Portugal he sailed northward towards
Iceland; besides which, Pasqualigo says in both his letters that the land
discovered was between north-west and west. Cantino's statement about the
ice might give us firm ground for determining Corte-Real's route; if it
were not unfortunately the case that there are here two possibilities, and
that Cantino's words do not agree well with either of them. The
description of the ice points most probably to Corte-Real's having first
met with icebergs; he may have come upon these in the sea off the southern
end of Greenland, and as in continuing his course he found the "sea
frozen," he may have reached the edge of the ice-floes. As nothing is said
about land, we must suppose that he did not sight Greenland. It is a more
difficult matter when, by changing his course to the north-west and west,
he finally in this direction sighted land, which according to the
description, and the Cantino map, must have been Newfoundland. To arrive
there from the Greenland ice he would have had to steer about
west-south-west by compass, and in fact Newfoundland (Terra del Rey de
portuguall) lies approximately in this direction in relation to the
southern point of Greenland on the Cantino map. But it may be, of course,
that Cantino's statement of the direction is due to a
misunderstanding;[347] he may have heard that the newly found land lay to
the north-west and west from Lisbon, as Pasqualigo says.

Another possibility is that it was on the Newfoundland Banks that
Corte-Real met with icebergs; but in that case he must have held a very
westerly course, almost west-north-west, all the way from Lisbon, and
there would then be little meaning in the statement that he altered his
course to north-west and west to avoid the ice, even if we take into
account the possibility of the variation of the compass having been 20°
greater on the Newfoundland Banks than at Lisbon. Another difficulty is
that on the Newfoundland Banks he would hardly have found "the sea
frozen," if by this ice-floes are meant; for that he would have had to be
(in June ?) farther to the north-west in the Labrador Current. In neither
case would he have been very far from land, so that the times mentioned,
three months with a favourable wind from the ice to land, and four months
from Lisbon, are out of proportion.[348]

Thus Cantino's words cannot be brought into agreement with facts; but at
the same time many things point to its having been the Greenland ice that
Corte-Real first met with in 1501. Doubtless it might be objected that he
is said in the previous year to have already found part of Newfoundland,
and in that case he would be likely to make straight for it again; but
Pasqualigo's letter gives one the impression that Gaspar Corte-Real may
have been interested in finding out whether the land he had found was
mainland and continuous with the country (Greenland) which in the previous
year (1500) had been seen by the other caravels (João Fernandez ?), and
thus it may have been natural that he should first steer in that
direction, but he was then forced by the ice westward towards the land he
himself had discovered.

That it was really Newfoundland, and not the coast of Labrador farther
north, that Corte-Real arrived at, appears plainly enough from the maps
(the Cantino map, the King map, etc.), and may also be concluded from the
descriptions in the letters of Pasqualigo and Cantino. We read, amongst
other things, that many great rivers ran through that country into the
sea. The east coast of Labrador has no rivers of importance, with the
exception of Hamilton River; but the entrance to this is by a long
estuary, Hamilton Inlet and Lake Melville, up which they would hardly have
sailed. On the other hand, there are in Newfoundland several considerable
rivers falling into the sea on the east coast, up the mouths of which
Gaspar Corte-Real might have sailed. The allusion to the country as
fertile, with trees and forests of pines of remarkable height and size,
and to there being abundance of timber for masts, etc., also agrees best
with Newfoundland. In addition, the coast-line of the country, both on the
Cantino map and on later Portuguese maps, agrees remarkably well with the
coast-line along the east and north-east sides of Newfoundland.

The statement in Pasqualigo's letter of October 18, that they sailed
"along the coast of the said land for a distance of six hundred miglia and
more," which agrees with the extent of the coast on the Cantino map, must
be an exaggeration. It is a common error to exaggerate the distance during
a voyage along a coast so indented as that of Newfoundland, where
Corte-Real may perhaps have sailed in and out of bays and inlets.

As already stated, Gaspar Corte-Real's voyages are mentioned in several
works of the sixteenth century, but as these were written so long after
the events took place, no particular importance can be attached to them in
cases where they conflict with the earlier documents. The allusions to
Gaspar Corte-Real in the Spanish author Gomara and the Italian Ramusio
seem for the most part to be derived from Pietro Pasqualigo's letter of
October 19, 1501, to his brothers at Venice, which was published for the
first time as early as 1507. The Portuguese Antonio Galvano says in his
"Tratado" (1563) that Gaspar Corte-Real sailed in 1500

    "from the island of Terceira with two ships, fitted out at his own
    expense, and travelled to the region that is in the fiftieth degree of
    latitude, a land which is now called by his name. He returned safely
    to Lisbon; but when he again set out, his ship was lost, and the other
    ship returned to Portugal."

This, it will be seen, agrees remarkably well with the conclusions we
arrived at above; but as Galvano spent the greater part of his life in the
East Indies, and only came home to end his days in a hospital at Lisbon,
no great importance can be attached to his statements [cf. Harrisse, 1900,
p. 35], except in so far as they reproduce a Portuguese tradition.

Damiam de Goes, in his "Chronica do Felicissimo Rei dom Emanuel" (Lisbon,
1566), has a more detailed account of Gaspar Corte-Real's voyage of 1500,
and of the land he visited. He says:

    "He sailed from the port of Lisbon at the beginning of summer, 1500.
    On this voyage he discovered in a northerly direction a land which was
    very cold, and with great forests, as all those [countries] are that
    lie in that quarter. He gave it the name of Terra verde [i.e., green
    land]. The people are very barbaric and wild, almost like those of
    Sancta Cruz [i.e., Brazil], except that they are at first white, but
    become so weather-beaten from the cold that they lose their whiteness
    with age and become almost dark brown. They are of middle height, very
    active, and great archers, using sticks hardened in the fire for
    throwing-spears, with which they make as good casts as though they had
    points of good steel. They clothe themselves in the skins of beasts,
    of which there is abundance in that country. They live in caves, and
    in huts, and they have no laws. They have great belief in omens; they
    have marriage, and are very jealous of their wives, in which they
    resemble the Lapps, who also live in the north from 70° to 85°....
    After he [Gaspar Corte-Real] had discovered this land, and sailed
    along a great part of its coast, he returned to this kingdom. As he
    greatly desired to discover more of this province, and to become
    better acquainted with its advantages, he set out again immediately in
    the year 1501 on May 15 from Lisbon; but it is not known what happened
    to him on this voyage, for he was never seen again, nor did there come
    any news of him" [Cf. Harrisse, 1883, p. 233].

The last statement, that Corte-Real disappeared without any more being
heard of him, shows that De Goes was not well informed, in spite of his
being chief custodian (Guarda m'or) of the Torre do Tombo, where the State
archives were kept at Lisbon. His whole account may therefore be of
doubtful value as a historical document. His description of the newly
discovered land and of the inhabitants may be derived from other
statements, or from literary sources, and is of the same kind as we often
meet with in accounts of natives in the authorities of that time. It
appears that the cold country, Terra verde, with great forests and wild,
barbaric people, must be the Greenland (Gronolondes) that is referred to
in the anonymous letter of about 1450 to Pope Nicholas V.[349] Most of
what is said about these natives would apparently suit the Eskimo quite as
well as the Indians, but as we do not know from whence the whole is
derived, it is not easy to form an opinion as to which people is really
referred to in the description. The remarkable statement that the natives
are at first white, but turn brown through the cold, will hardly suit the
Indians, but might apply to the Eskimo, who at an early age have a very
fair skin, perhaps quite as light as the Portuguese.

What is said of the natives in the letters of Pasqualigo and Cantino seems
on the whole to suit the Eskimo better than the Indians; typical Eskimo
features are: that they had boats covered with hides (it is true that
Cantino says stags' hides, i.e., reindeer hides, but this must be a
misunderstanding);[350] also houses (i.e., tents) of long poles covered
with fish skin (i.e., sealskin); that the colour of their skin was rather
white than anything else, that they laughed a good deal and showed much
cheerfulness. It may seem somewhat surprising that the Eskimo should be "a
little bigger than our countrymen" (i.e., the Italians), but, in the first
place, it may have been particularly good specimens of the race that were
exhibited, and in the next place the Eskimo are a race of medium stature,
and, perhaps, on an average, quite as tall as Italians and Portuguese.
That they were naked with the exception of a piece of skin round the loins
answers to the indoor custom of the Eskimo. Pasqualigo's description: that
they were clothed in the skins of various animals, mostly otter, and that
the skins were unprepared and not sewed together, but thrown over the
shoulders and arms as they were taken from the animals, conflicts with the
words of Cantino, and is, no doubt, due to a misunderstanding; it does not
sound probable. If it is correct, Pasqualigo and Cantino must have seen
different natives.

It is probable that there were Eskimo in the north-east of Newfoundland at
that time, and that the natives may have been brought from thence or from
southern Labrador.

Of all known maps the Cantino map undoubtedly gives the most complete and
trustworthy representation of the Portuguese discoveries of 1500 and 1501
in the north-west; we know, too, that it was executed with an eye to
these, at Lisbon, and immediately after the return thither of those who
had taken part in the later voyage. We may consequently suppose that the
cartographer availed himself of the sources then at his disposal. He may
either himself have had access to log-books, with courses and distances,
and to the original sketch-charts of the voyages, or he may have used
charts that were drawn from these sources. But he used in addition maps
and authorities of a more learned kind, as appears, for instance, in the
legend attached to Greenland, where he speaks of the opinion of
cosmographers, and says that this country is a point of Asia. It is clear,
as pointed out by Björnbo [1910, p. 167], that Greenland was connected on
the map with Scandinavia, which is called "Parte de assia," but the upper
edge of the map has been cut off, so that this land connection is
lost,[351] as is the last part (asia) of the inscription on Greenland. The
basis of this idea of a land connection must have been a map of Clavus's
later type; while the delineation of Greenland itself is evidently new. In
fact, it is here placed for the first time very nearly at a correct
distance from Europe, and with Iceland in a relatively correct position;
and in addition to this it has been given a remarkably good form. If we
assume that the variation of the compass was unknown, and that the coasts
were laid down according to the courses sailed by compass as though they
were true, then the southern point of Greenland comes just where it
should, if the variation during the voyage from Lisbon averaged 11° west.
The Portuguese flags on the coast indicate that the Portuguese sailed
along the east coast of Greenland from north of the Arctic Circle of the
map to past Cape Farewell (without landing, according to what the legend
says), and its direction on the map is explained by a variation of about
14° west. The remarkably good representation of Greenland with the
characteristic form of the west coast cannot possibly be derived from the
Clavus maps, where Greenland is a narrow tongue of land with its east and
west coasts running very nearly parallel. The west coast has been given a
form approximately as though it were laid down from courses sailed with a
variation increasing towards the north-west from 20° to nearly 30° (cf. p.
371). It is also characteristic that while the east coast is without
islands, a belt of skerries is shown on the north along the west coast. It
may seem a bold assumption to attribute this to pure chance and the
caprice of the draughtsman, even though it may be pointed out that he has
given the west coast of Norway a similar curved form with a belt of
skerries outside (as on the Oliveriana map, p. 375). If the cartographer
was acquainted with the representation of Greenland on the Clavus maps,
the probability becomes still greater that he had definite authority for
his west coast, since it differs from that of the Clavus maps. It is true
that the Portuguese flags on the map and the statement in the legend that
the Portuguese did not land on the coast do not seem to point to their
having sailed any considerable distance to the north along the west coast,
for otherwise there would doubtless be mention of this; but there may have
been lost authorities for the Cantino map, which were based upon voyages
unknown to us, as well as to the cartographer.[352]

If we may suppose that the lighter tone of the sea off the east coast of
Greenland and over to Norway (on the original map) represents ice-floes,
then this again gives evidence of a knowledge of these northern waters
which we cannot assume to have been derived merely from Portuguese voyages
on which the east coast of Greenland was sighted; it must have had other
sources, unknown to us.

There can be no doubt that the "Terra del Rey de portuguall" of the
Cantino map is the east coast of Newfoundland, which, through the
variation of the compass being disregarded, is given a northerly
direction. If we draw the east coast of Newfoundland from Cape Race to
Cape Bauld on approximately the same scale as that of the Cantino map, and
turn the meridian to the west as far as the variation may have been at
that time (about 20° at Cape Race, and 4° or 5° more at Belle Isle
Strait), we shall have a map (see p. 364) the coast-line of which bears so
great a resemblance to that of the Cantino map that it is almost too good
to believe it not to be in part accidental (the Newfoundland coast on
Reinel's map is also very nearly the same as that of the Cantino map). The
resemblance is so thorough that we might even think it possible to
recognise the various bays and headlands; but perhaps a part of the
southern coast of Labrador has been included in the Cantino map. According
to the scale attached to the map, in which each division represents fifty
miglia, the distance between the south-eastern point of the country and
the northern Portuguese flag is seven hundred miglia, which thus
corresponds to the six hundred or seven hundred miglia that Pasqualigo
says the Portuguese sailed along the coast. If we divide the map into
degrees according to the distance between the tropic and the Arctic
Circle, the extent of the country will be about eleven degrees of
latitude. On Reinel's map the length of Newfoundland from north to south
is between ten and eleven degrees of latitude. The distance from Cape Race
to Belle Isle Strait corresponds in reality to about 5-1/2°, that is,
fairly near the half.

Both Greenland and Newfoundland lie too far north on the Cantino map. The
southern point of Greenland lies in about 62° 20' N. lat., instead of 59°
46', while Cape Race, the south-eastern point of Newfoundland, lies in
about 50° N. lat., instead of 46° 40'. It is unnecessary to assume that
the too northerly latitude of Greenland is derived from the Clavus map,
where its southern point lies in 62° 40' N. lat., since a natural
explanation of the position both of this point and of Cape Race is
provided by the way in which the Cantino map is drawn. It is, in fact, an
equidistant compass-chart, which takes no account of the surface of the
earth being spherical and not a plane, and on which the courses sailed
have been laid down according to the points of the compass, presumably in
ignorance of the variation of the needle. If we try to draw a map of the
same coasts in the same fashion, using the correct distances, and taking
the courses as starting from Lisbon, and the variation to be distributed
approximately as given on p. 308,[353] we shall then get a map in its
main outlines as here represented. The southern point of Greenland comes
in about 62° 20', or the same as on the Cantino map, and Cape Race comes
still farther to the north than on it. The distance from Lisbon to
Greenland is almost exactly the same on both maps, and this seems to point
to remarkable capabilities of sailing by log and compass, while, on the
other hand, astronomical observations were probably not used. The distance
between Lisbon and Newfoundland (Terra del Rey de portuguall) is on the
Cantino map a little longer than reality,[354] and the southern end of the
latter is brought so far to the south that it would correspond to an
average variation of about 4° west, instead of 10°, during the voyage from
Lisbon. Newfoundland accordingly comes farther west in relation to
Greenland, and its southern end farther south than it should do on a map
constructed like this one. But we do not know whether the course from
which the position of Newfoundland is laid down was taken as going
directly to that country from Lisbon; perhaps, for instance, it went first
up into the ice off Greenland, and in that case a greater error is
natural. If we lay down the West Indian islands (and Florida) on our
sketch-map according to the same method, we shall get them in a similar
position to that of the Cantino map, except that there they have a far too
northerly latitude, and the distance from Lisbon is much too great; but
this is due to the Spanish maps which served as authorities; for we know
that even Columbus was guilty of gross errors in his determination of
latitude,[355] and on La Cosa's map they lie for the most part to the
north of the tropic.

The representation of the Portuguese discoveries in the north-west
evidently varied a good deal even on early maps, and sometimes diverged
considerably from the Cantino map; Greenland especially was given various
forms, while Newfoundland was more uniform in the different types of map.
This, again, strengthens the supposition that these countries were
discovered on various voyages, and not by the same man.


Thus, on the so-called King map--an Italian mappamundi of about 1502,
which was probably taken from Portuguese sources--Newfoundland, called
Terra Cortereal, lies in about the same place and has the same form as on
the Cantino map (its southern point is called capo raso), while Greenland,
called Terra Laboratoris, lies farther south than on the Cantino map and
has become a long island, the south-east coast of which should doubtless
correspond to the east coast of Greenland on the Cantino map, but has a
very different direction and form, and has in addition many islands to the
south of it. A similar, but still more varied, representation is found on
another Italian mappamundi, the so-called "Kunstmann, No. 2." If Greenland
and Newfoundland were both discovered by Gaspar Corte-Real and on the same
voyage, and if these discoveries formed the basis both of the Cantino map
and of the prototype of the King map, then it would be incomprehensible
how the representation of one of these countries should vary so much, and
not that of the other.[356]

The so-called Oliveriana map, an anonymous Italian compass-chart of a
little later than 1503, shows more resemblance to the representation of
Greenland on the Cantino map; but here that of Newfoundland is very
different from what we find on the other maps, as its east coast is
remarkably short and the south coast extends a long way to the west, in
the same direction as the coast discovered by the English on La Cosa's map
of 1500;[357] but the names have no resemblance to those of that map,
unless the island "Groga Y" should be La Cosa's "S. Grigor" (?), which
however lies farther east, while the island corresponding to "Groga" is
called by La Cosa "I. de la trinidat." "Cauo del marco" might also remind
us of the Venetian Cabot. Dr. Björnbo thinks, as mentioned above (p. 369),
that the prototype of the Greenland on the Oliveriana map was Gaspar
Corte-Real's own admiral's chart of his voyage of 1500. It seems to me
possible that Björnbo may be right, in so far as the representation may be
derived from the Portuguese expedition which sighted Greenland in 1500;
but, from what has been advanced above, this was not commanded by
Corte-Real, but more probably by João Fernandez. As the Newfoundland of
the map has so little resemblance to reality and to the usual Portuguese
representations [cf. also Björnbo, 1910, p. 315], it is improbable that
the prototype of the map was due to Gaspar Corte-Real. Moreover one cannot
imagine that mythical islands such as "Insula de labrador," "Insula
stille," etc., were drawn by him; in such a case they would have to be
explained as later additions from another source.

We saw from the letters of the two Italian Ministers that King Manuel was
very well satisfied with the discoveries of Gaspar Corte-Real, and
expected great advantages therefrom, both on account of the trees for
masts and of the slaves, etc.; he therefore awaited his return with
impatience. But he waited in vain. Gaspar Corte-Real never returned.
Whether he fell fighting with the natives on an unknown coast, or whether
he plunged into the mists and ice of the unknown north, there to find a
cold grave, or was lost in a storm on the homeward voyage across the
Atlantic, will never be revealed.

As he did not return, his brother, Miguel Corte-Real, fitted out a new
expedition in the hope, on the one hand of going to help his brother, and
on the other of making fresh discoveries. On January (?) 15, 1502 (or 1503
?), he obtained letters patent from King Manuel (see p. 353). On May 10,
according to Damiam de Goes, he sailed from Lisbon with two ships, and
nothing more was heard of him. Antonio Galvano, on the other hand, says
that he had three ships, and that these arrived in Newfoundland (Terra de
Corte-Real), but there separated and went into different inlets

    "with the arrangement that they should all meet again on August 20th.
    The two other ships did so, and when they saw that Miguel Corte-Real's
    ship did not come at the appointed time, nor for some time after that,
    they returned to Portugal, and never since was any more news heard of
    him, nor did any other memory of him remain; but the country is called
    to this day the Land of the Corte-Reals."[358]

    "The King felt deeply the loss of the two brothers, and, moved by his
    royal and compassionate feeling, he caused in the year 1503[359] two
    ships to be fitted out to go and search for them. But it could never
    be discovered how either the one or the other (of the brothers) was
    lost."

If this account of Galvano's is correct, then the last relief expedition
returned without having accomplished its purpose. As to what discoveries
it may have made, we hear nothing, nor do we see any trace of them on the
maps, unless, indeed, the hint of an extension of Newfoundland to the
north on the so-called Pilestrina map of about 1511 (see p. 377) may be
due to this expedition or to the ship that returned from Miguel
Corte-Real's voyage of 1502. On Pedro Reinel's map (p. 321) there is
marked a land answering to Cape Breton, with a coast extending westward
from it. It is possible that this may be derived from these expeditions,
and in the same way all the Portuguese names along Newfoundland, the
coast-line of which must be taken from the same source as the Cantino map.
It is, however, more probable that the names are due to Portuguese
fishermen; though there is also a possibility that Reinel's additions may
be referred to the Anglo-Portuguese expeditions from Bristol in 1501 and
the following years. His island, Sam Joha [St. John], points, as has been
said (p. 321), to a possible connection with John Cabot's discoveries.

When neither of the brothers returned, the eldest brother, Vasqueanes
Corte-Real--who held very high positions both at the King's Court and as
Governor of the islands of São Jorge and Terceira in the Azores--wished
"to fit out ships at his own expense in order to go out and search for
them. But when he asked the King to excuse his absence, his Majesty could
not consent to his going further in the matter, and insisted that it was
useless, and that all had been done that could be done" (De Goes). Thus
the spirit of the capable and enterprising Portuguese for further
exploration in these difficult northern waters seems to have become
cooled, and we do not hear much more of official expeditions despatched
from Portugal to find other new countries in that quarter. Meanwhile
Newfoundland (Terra de Corte-Real) continued through the whole of the
sixteenth century to be regarded as a province under the Portuguese Crown,
and the post of its Governor, with special privileges, was hereditary in
the family of Corte-Real, until Manuel Corte-Real II., the last of the
male line, fell fighting by the side of King Sebastian, in the fatal
battle of Kas-rel-Kebir in 1578.[360]

The Portuguese seem for a long time to have kept up the connection with
Newfoundland, more especially in order to avail themselves of the rich
fisheries that had been discovered there. But of this it is only by the
merest accident that history has anything to relate. It appears as though
this fishery became active immediately after Corte-Real's discovery; for
we see that as early as 1506 King Manuel gave orders that the fishermen on
their return from Newfoundland to Portugal were to pay one-tenth of the
proceeds in duties [cf. Kunstmann, 1859, p. 69].


CONCLUSION


If we would discover how a watercourse is formed, from the very first
bog-streams up in the mountain, we must follow a multitude of tiny rills,
receiving one fresh stream after another from every side, running together
into burns, which grow and grow and form little rivers, till we come to
the end of the wooded hillside and are suddenly face to face with the
great river in the valley below.

A similar task confronts him who endeavours to explore the first trickling
rivulets of human knowledge; he must trace all the minute, uncertain,
often elusive beginnings, follow the diversity of tributaries from all
parts of the earth, and show how the mass of knowledge increases
constantly from age to age, sometimes reposing in long stretches of dead
water, half choked with peat and rushes, at other times plunging onward in
foaming rapids. And then he too is rewarded; the stream grows broader and
broader, until he stands beside the navigable river.

But a simile never covers the whole case. The latter task is rendered not
only wider, but incomparably more difficult, by the fact that the brooks
and rivers whose course is to be followed are even more intricate and
scarcely ever flow in an open stream. True knowledge is so seldom
undiluted; as a rule it is suffused with myths and dogmatic conceptions,
often to such a degree that it becomes entirely lost, and something new
seems to have arisen in its place.

For one thing, man's power of grasping reality varies greatly; in
primitive man it is clouded to a degree which we modern human beings can
hardly understand. He is as yet incapable of distinguishing between idea
and reality, between belief and knowledge, between what he has seen and
experienced and the explanation he has provided for his experience.

But even with those who have long outgrown the primitive point of view
imagination steps in, supplying detail and explanation wherever our
information fails us and our knowledge falls short; it spreads its haze
over the first uncertain outlines of perception, and the distant contours
are sometimes wholly lost in the mists of legend.

This is a universal experience in the history of intellectual life. In the
domain to which this work is devoted, it makes itself felt with perhaps
more than its usual force.

The inquiry embraces long periods. In all times and countries we have seen
the known world lose itself in the fogs of cloudland--never uniformly, it
is true, but in constantly changing proportions. Here and there we have a
glimpse, now and again a vision over wider regions; and then the driving
mists once more shut out our view. Therefore all that human courage and
desire of knowledge have wrested in the course of long ages from this
cloudland remains vague, uncertain, full of riddles. But for this very
reason it is all the more alluring.

We saw that to the eyes of the oldest civilisation in history and down
through the whole of antiquity, the North lay for the most part concealed
in the twilight of legend and myth; here and there genuine information
finds its way into literature, but is again effaced. At the beginning of
the Middle Ages the dark curtain thickens.

Again there is a glimmer of light, first from the intermingling of nations
at the time of the migrations, then from new trading voyages and
intercourse, until the great change is brought about by the Norsemen, who
with their remarkable power of expansion overran western and southern
Europe and penetrated the vast unknown solitudes in the North, found
their way to the White Sea, discovered the wide Polar Sea and its shores,
colonised the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland, and were the first
discoverers of the Atlantic Ocean and of North America.

As early as in the writings of King Alfred and Adam of Bremen the
Norsemen's initiatory knowledge of this new northern world made its way
into European literature.

No doubt the mists closed again, much of the knowledge gained was
forgotten even by the Norsemen themselves, and in the latter part of the
Middle Ages it is mostly mythical echoes of this knowledge that are to be
traced in the literature of Europe and that have left their mark on its
maps. None the less were the discoveries of the Norsemen the great
dividing line. For the first time explorers had set out with conscious
purpose from the known world, over the surrounding seas, and had found
lands on the other side. By their voyages they taught the sailors of
Europe the possibility of traversing the ocean. When this first step had
been taken the further development came about of itself.

It was in the Norsemen's school that the sailors of England had their
earliest training, especially through the traffic with Iceland; and even
the distant Portuguese, the great discoverers of the age of transition,
received impulses from them.

Through all that is uncertain, and often apparently fortuitous and
chequered, we can discern a line, leading towards the new age, that of the
great discoveries, when we emerge from the dusk of the Middle Ages into
fuller daylight. Of the new voyages we have, as a rule, accounts at first
hand, less and less shrouded in mediævalism and mist. From this time the
real history of polar exploration begins.

Cabot had then rediscovered the mainland of North America, Corte-Real had
reached Newfoundland, the Portuguese and the English were pushing
northward to Greenland and the ice. And this brings in the great
transformation of ideas about the Northern World.

It is true that as yet we have not passed the northern limits of our
forefathers' voyages; and that views of the arctic regions are still
obscure and vague. While some imagine a continent at the pole, others are
for a wreath of islands around it with dangerous currents between them,
and others again reckon upon an open polar sea. There is obscurity enough.
But new problems are beginning to shape themselves.

When it became apparent to the seamen of Europe that the new countries of
the West were not Asia, but part of a new continent, the idea suggested
itself of seeking a way round the north--as also round the south--of this
continent, in order to reach the coveted sources of wealth, India and
China: the problem of the North-West Passage was presented--a continuation
on a grand scale of the routes opened up by the Norsemen towards the
north-west.

But equally present was the thought that perhaps there was another and
shorter way round the north of the old world; and the problem of the
North-East Passage arose. The working out of this problem was simply a
continuation of the north-eastern voyages of the Norwegians to the White
Sea.

In this way were born the two great illusions, which for centuries held
the minds of explorers spellbound. They could never be of value as
trade-routes, these difficult passages through the ice. They were to be no
more than visions, but visions of greater worth than real knowledge; they
lured discoverers farther and farther into the unknown world of ice; foot
by foot, step by step, it was explored; man's comprehension of the earth
became extended and corrected; and the sea-power and imperial dominion of
England drew its vigour from these dreams.

What a vast amount of labour lies sunk in man's knowledge of the earth,
especially in those remote ages when development proceeded at such an
immeasurably slower pace, and when man's resources were so infinitely
poorer. By the most manifold and various ways the will and intelligence of
man achieve their object. The attraction of long voyages must often
enough have been the hope of finding riches and favoured lands, but deeper
still lay the imperious desire of getting to know our own earth. To riches
men have seldom attained, to the Fortunate Isles never; but through all we
have won knowledge.

The great Alexander, the conquering king, held sway over the greater part
of the world of his day; the bright young lord of the world remained the
ideal for a thousand years, the hero above all others. But human thought,
restless and knowing no bounds, found even his limits too narrow. He grew
and grew to superhuman dimensions, became the son of a god, the child of
fortune, who in popular belief held sway from the Pillars of Hercules, the
earth's western boundary, to the trees of the sun and moon at the world's
end in the east; to whom nothing seemed impossible; who descended to the
bottom of the sea in a glass bell to explore the secrets of the ocean;
who, borne by tamed eagles, tried to reach heaven, and who was fabled by
Mohammedans and Christians to have even attempted to scale the walls of
Paradise itself--there to be checked for the first time: "Thus far and no
farther." No man that is born of woman may attain to the land of heart's
desire.

The myth of Alexander is an image of the human spirit itself, seeking
without intermission, never confined by any bounds, eternally striving
towards height after height, deep after deep, ever onward, onward,
onward....

The world of the spirit knows neither space nor time.


FINIS


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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. pp. 216, 220; G. Storm, 1888, p. 12. The
latter part (in parenthesis) does not occur in the oldest MS.

[2] Storm thinks that Sir William Alexander's "red wineberries" from the
south-east coast of Nova Scotia (in 1624) would be grapes, but this is
uncertain.

[3] "Vínber" (grapes) are mentioned in the whole of Old Norse literature
only in the translation of the Bible called "Stjórn," in the
"Grönlendinga-þáttr," and in a letter (Dipl. Norv.) where they are
mentioned as raisins or dried grapes. In addition, "vínberjakǫngull" (a
bunch of grapes) occurs in the Saga of Eric the Red.

[4] Schübeler, Christiania Videnskabs-Selskabs Forhandlinger for 1858, pp.
21, ff.; Viridarium Norvegium, i. pp. 253, f.

[5] It should be mentioned that the American botanist, M. L. Fernald, has
recently [1910] made an attempt to locate the Icelanders' Wineland the
Good in southern Labrador, explaining the "vínber" of the Icelandic sagas
as a sort of currant or as whortleberry, the self-sown wheat as the
Icelanders' lyme-grass (Elymus arenarius), and the "másurr" as "valbirch."
By assuming "vinber" to be whortleberries he even thinks he can explain
how it was that Leif in the "Grönlendinga-Þáttr" was able to fill the ship
with "grapes" in the spring (and what of the vine-trees that he cut down
to load his ship, were they whortleberry-bushes?). Apart from the
surprising circumstance of the Icelanders having called a country Wineland
the Good because whortleberries grew there, the explanation is
inadmissible on the ground that whortleberries were never called "vinber"
(wineberries) in Old Norse or Icelandic. Currants have in more recent
times been called "vinbær" in Norway and Iceland, but were not known there
before the close of the Middle Ages. In ancient times the Norse people did
not know how to make wine from any berry but the black crowberry; but
there are plenty of these in Greenland, and it was not necessary to travel
to Labrador to collect them. Fernald does not seem to have remarked that
the sagas most frequently use the expression "vínviðr," or else "vínviðr"
and "vínber" together, and this can only mean vines and grapes. His
explanation of the self-sown wheat-fields does not seem any happier. That
the Icelanders should have reported these as something so remarkable in
Wineland is not likely, if it was nothing but the lyme-grass with which
they were familiar in Iceland. On the other hand, it is possible that the
"másurr" of the sagas only meant valbirch. But apart from this, how can
the sagas' description of Wineland--where no snow fell, where there was
hardly any frost, the grass scarcely withered, and the cattle were out the
whole winter--be applied to Labrador? Or where are Markland or Helluland
to be looked for, or Furðustrandir and Kjalarnes? Nor do we gain any more
connection in the voyage as a whole. It will therefore be seen that, even
if Professor Fernald had been right in his interpretation of the three
words above mentioned, this would not help us much; and when we find that
these very features of the vine and the wheat are derived from classical
myths, such attempts at explanation become of minor interest.

[6] Professor Alexander Bugge has pointed out to me that Schoolcraft
[1851, i. p. 85, pl. 15] mentions a tradition among the Algonkin Indians
that they had used as a weapon of war in ancient times a great round
stone, which was sewed into a piece of raw hide and fastened thereby to
the end of a long wooden shaft. The resemblance between such a weapon with
a shaft for throwing and the Skrælings' black ball is distant; but it is
not impossible that ancient reports of something of the sort may have
formed the nucleus upon which the "modernised" description of the saga has
crystallised; although the whole thing is uncertain. This Algonkin
tradition has a certain similarity with some Greenland Eskimo fairy-tales
[cf. Rink, 1866, p. 139].

[7] As arquebuses or guns had not yet been invented at that time, this
strange name may, as proposed by Moltke Moe, come from "fusillus" or
"fugillus" (an implement for striking fire) and mean "he who makes fire,"
"the fire-striker."

[8] Evidently saltpetre has been forgotten here, and so we have gunpowder,
which thus must have been already employed in war at that time, and
perhaps long before.

[9] Moltke Moe has found a curious resemblance to the description of the
"herbrestr" given above in the Welsh tale of Kulhwch and Olwen [Heyman:
Mabinogion, p. 78], where there is a description of a war-cry so loud that
"all women who are with child fall into sickness, and the others are
smitten with disease, so that the milk dries up in their breasts." But
this "herbrestr" may also be compared with the "vábrestr" spoken of in the
Fosterbrothers' Saga [Grönl. hist. Mind., ii. pp. 334, 412], which M.
Hægstad and A. Torp [Gamalnorsk Ordbog] translate by "crash announcing
disaster or great news" [cf. I. Aasen, "vederbrest"]. Fritzner translates
it by "sudden crash causing surprise and terror," and K. Maurer by
"Schadenknall." It would therefore seem to be something supernatural that
causes fear [cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., ii. p. 198]. The "Grönlandske
historiske Mindesmærker" mention in the same connection "isbrestr" or
"jökulbrestr" in Iceland. I have myself had good opportunities of studying
that kind of report in glaciers, and my opinion is that it comes from a
starting of the glacier, or through the latter skrinking from changes of
temperature; similar reports, but less loud, are heard in the ice on lakes
and fjords. Burgomaster H. Berner tells me that the small boys of
Krödsherred make what they call "kolabrest," by heating charcoal on a flat
stone and throwing water upon it while simultaneously striking the embers
with the back of an axe, which produces a sharp report.

[10] Scorium (slag) is also used in mediæval Latin for "corium," animal's
skin, hide.

[11] The poles that are swung the way of the sun or against it seem
incomprehensible, and something of the meaning must have been lost in the
transference of this incident from the tale from which it was borrowed. It
may be derived from the kayak paddles of the Greenland Eskimo, which at a
distance look like poles being swung, with or against the sun according to
the side they are seen from. It may be mentioned that in the oldest MS. of
Eric the Red's Saga, in the Hauksbók, the reading is not "trjánum" as in
the later MS., but "triom" and "trionum." Now "triónum" or "trjónum" might
mean either poles or snouts, and one would then be led to think of the
Indians' animal masks, or again, of the trolls' long snouts or animal
trunks, which we find again in fossil forms in the fairy-tales, and even
in games that are still preserved in Gudbrandsdal, under the name of
"trono" (the regular Gudbrandsdal phonetic development of Old Norse
"trjóna"), where people cover their heads with an animal's skin and put on
a long troll's snout with two wooden jaws. But that snouts were waved with
or against the sun does not give any better meaning; there may be some
confusion here.

[12] It is worth remarking that Gustav Storm, although he did not doubt
that the Skrælings of Wineland were really the natives, seems nevertheless
to have been on the track of the same idea as is here put forward, when he
says in his valuable work on the Wineland voyages [1887, p. 57, note 1]:
"It should be remarked, however, that this inquiry [into 'the nationality
of the American Skrælings'] is rendered difficult by the fact that in the
old narratives the Skrælings are everywhere enveloped, wholly or in part,
by a mythical tinge; thus even here [in the Saga of Eric the Red] they are
on the way to becoming trolls, which they really become in the later
sagas. No doubt it is learned myths of the outskirts of the inhabited
world that have here been at work." In a later work [1890a, p. 357] he
says that it is "certain enough that in the Middle Ages the Scandinavians
knew no other people in Greenland and the American countries lying to the
south of it than 'Skrælings,' who were not accounted real human beings and
whose name was always translated into Latin as 'Pygmæi.'" If Storm had
remarked the connection between the classical and Irish legends and the
ideas about Wineland, the further step of regarding the Skrælings as
originally mythical beings would have been natural.

[13] This is the same word as the Old Norse "skratti" or "skrati" for
troll (poet.) or wizard. "Skræa," "sickly shrunken and bony person," in
modern Norwegian, from north-west Telemarken [H. Ross], is evidently the
same word as Skræling; cf. also "skræaleg" and "skræleg"; further,
"Skreda" (Skreeaa), "sickly, feeble person, poor wretch," from outer
Nordmör [H. Ross].

[14] It is, perhaps, of importance, as Professor Torp has mentioned to me,
that the word "blá" is more often used than "svart" (black), when speaking
of trolls and magic, as an uncanny colour. This may have been a common
Germanic trait; cf. Rolf Blue-beard.

[15] Grönl. hist. Mind., i. p. 242; G. Storm, 1891, p. 68.

[16] W. Thalbitzer's attempt [1905, pp. 190, ff.] to explain the words,
not as originally names, but as accidental, misunderstood Eskimo
sentences, which are supposed to have survived orally for over 250 years,
does not appear probable (see next chapter).

[17] Moltke Moe has called my attention to the possibility of a connection
between "Avalldamon" and the Welsh myth of the isle of "Avallon" (the isle
of apple-trees; cf. vol. i. pp. 365, 379), to which Morgan le Fay carried
King Arthur. It is also possible that it may be connected with "dæmon" and
"vald" (== power, might). The possibility suggested above seems, however,
to be nearer the mark.

The Skrælings of Markland having kings agrees, of course, neither with
Indians nor Eskimo, who no more had kings than the Greenlanders and
Icelanders themselves. On the other hand, it exactly fits elves and
gnomes. The Ekeberg king and other mountain kings are well known in
Norway. The elves of Iceland had a king who was subject to the superior
elf-king in Norway. The síd-people in Ireland, the pygmies and gnomes in
other lands (such as Wales) also have kings. This feature again points,
therefore, in the direction of the fairy-nature of the Skrælings, like the
name "Vætthildr."

[18] It might be objected that when it is so distinctly stated that "it
was there more equinoctial [i.e., the day and night were more nearly equal
in length] than in Greenland or Iceland, the sun there had 'eykt' position
and 'dagmål' position [i.e., was visible between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.] on the
shortest day" [cf. Gr. h. Mind., i. p. 218; G. Storm, 1891, p. 58; 1887,
pp. 1, ff.], this shows that the Greenlanders were actually there and made
this observation. In support of this view it might also be urged that it
was not so very long (about forty years) before the Flateyjarbók was
written that the ship from Markland (see later) arrived at Iceland in
1347, and through the men on board her the Icelanders might have got such
information as to the length of days. This can hardly be altogether
denied; but it would have been about Markland rather than Wineland that
they would have heard, and Markland is only once mentioned in passing in
the "Grönlendinga-þáttr." Moreover, it was common in ancient times to
denote the latitude by the length of the longest or shortest day (cf. vol.
i. pp. 52, 64), and the latter in particular must have been natural to
Northerners (cf. vol. i. p. 133). The passage quoted above would thus be a
general indication that Wineland lay in a latitude so much to the south of
Greenland as its shortest day was longer; they had no other means of
expressing this in a saga, nor had they perhaps any other means of
describing the length of the day than that here used. It appears from the
Saga of Eric the Red that Kjalarnes was reckoned to be in the same
latitude as Ireland (see vol. i. p. 326); as a consequence of this we
might expect that Wineland would lie in a more southern latitude than the
south of Ireland, the latitude of which (i.e., the length of the shortest
day) was certainly well known in Iceland. If, therefore, in a tale of the
fourteenth century, the position of Wineland is to be described, it is
natural that its shortest day should be given a length which according to
Professor H. Geelmuyden [see G. Storm, 1886, p. 128; 1887, p. 6] would
correspond to 49° 55' N. lat. or south of it; in other words, the latitude
of France, and that was precisely the land that the Icelanders knew as the
home of wine, and that they would therefore naturally use in the
indication of a Wineland.

[19] Cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 220; Storm, 1887, p. 12.
"Húsa-snotra" is explained as a vane or similar decoration on the gable of
a house or a ship's stern [cf. V. Guðmundsson, 1889, pp. 158, ff.]. The
statement given above shows that a "húsa-snotra" was something to which
great importance was attached, otherwise attention would not have been
called to it in this way. And in the "Grönlendinga-Þáttr" [Gr. hist.
Mind., i. p. 254] we read that Karlsevne, when he was in Norway, would not
sell his "húsa-snotra" (made of "mausurr" from Wineland) to the German
from Bremen, until the latter offered him half a mark of gold for it. One
might suppose that this ornament (vane-staff) on the prow of a ship or the
gable of a house was connected with religious or superstitious ideas of
some kind, like the posts of the high seat within the house, or the
totem-poles of the North American Indians, which stood before the house.

[20] On the initiative of Professors Sophus Bugge and Gustav Storm, a
thorough examination of the spot was made in 1901, the first-named being
himself present; but the stone was not to be found.

[21] I cannot accept the conjectures that Professor Yngvar Nielsen thinks
may be based upon this inscription [1905].

[22] It is true that only a portion of this work has been preserved, and
that Wineland may have been mentioned in the part that has not come down
to us (if indeed the work was ever finished); but this is not likely.

[23] Cf. Storm's edition, 1888, pp. 19, 59, 112, 252, 320, 473.

[24] "Upsi" (or "ufsi") would mean "big coalfish" or "coalfish."

[25] It has been generally considered that it was not until 1124, when
Bishop Arnaldr was consecrated at Lund. In any case this is the first
ordination of which we have any information.

[26] Cf. G. Storm, 1887, p. 26; Reeves, 1895, p. 82.

[27] Cf. Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Eccles., iii. 1, x. c. 5; Grönl. hist.
Mind., iii. p. 428; Rafn, 1837, pp. 337, 460, ff.; A. A. Björnbo, 1909, p.
206.

[28] In a similar fashion Torfæus [1705] confused Vinland and Vindland.

[29] Cf. Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, etc. Rerum Britanicarum Medii Ævi
Scriptores, London, 1865, i. p. 322; Eulogium Historiarum, etc. Rer. Brit.
Script., 1860, ii. pp. 78, f.; W. Wackernagel, 1844, pp. 494, f.

[30] Cf. Nordenskiöld, 1889, p. 3; A. A. Björnbo, 1909, pp. 197, 205, 240.

[31] Cf. Hammershaimb, 1855, pp. 105, ff.; Rafn, Antiqu. Americ., pp. 330,
ff.

[32] This image of blood upon snow is taken from Irish mediæval texts, as
Moltke Moe informs me.

[33] Cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. pp. 516, ff.; Storm, 1887, pp. 37, ff.

[34] G. Storm [1890, P. 347] thinks that something is omitted in Gripla
and that it should read: "suðr frá er Helluland, þá er Markland, þat er
kallat Skrælingaland" (to the South is Helluland, then there is Markland,
which is called Skrælingaland). But this seems doubtful; it would not in
any case explain why Furðustrandir is placed to the north of Helluland.
When Storm alleges as a reason that Helluland is never mentioned as a
place of human habitation, but only for trolls (in the later legendary
sagas), he forgets that the Skrælings were trolls, or, as he himself puts
it elsewhere [1890a, p. 357], that the Skrælings were not accounted "true
human beings."

[35] The Menomini Indians, Fourteenth Ann. Rep. of the Bureau of
Ethnology, 1892-1893. Washington, 1896, vol. i. pp. 127, ff.; cf. also
"American Anthropologist," vol. iii. pp. 134, f., Washington, 1890.

[36] "Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris," 1905, No. 2, p.
319.

[37] Storm's explanation [1887, pp. 68, ff.]: that it was Dicuil's account
of the discovery of Iceland by Irish monks (see vol. i. p. 164) which
formed the basis of the myth of Hvítramanna-land, may appear very
attractive and simple; but Storm does not seem to have noticed the
connection that exists between the Irish mythical islands in the west and
those of classical literature. When he points out the similarity between
the six days' voyage west of Ireland and Dicuil's statement of six days'
voyage to Iceland (Thule) northward from Britain, it must be remembered
that in Dicuil this is merely a quotation from Pliny, and, further, that
the six days' voyage has Britain and not Ireland for its starting-point.
In the Saga of Eric the Red Wineland lies six "dœgr's" sail from
Greenland. Cf. that in Plutarch ["De facie in orbe Lunæ," 941] Ogygia lies
five days' voyage west of Britain, and to the north-west of it are three
islands, to which the voyage might thus be one of six days. Let us
suppose, merely as an experiment, that Ogygia, the fertile vine-growing
island of the "hulder" Calypso, was Wineland, then the other three islands
to the north-west might be Hvítramanna-land, Markland and Helluland, which
would fit in. The northernmost would then have to be the island on which
the sleeping Cronos is imprisoned, with "many spirits about him as his
companions and servants" (cf. vol. i. pp. 156, 182). Dr. Scisco [1908, pp.
379, ff., 515, ff.] and Professor H. Koht [1909, pp. 133, ff.] think that
Are Mársson may have been baptized in Ireland and have been chief of a
Christian tribe on its west coast, where Hvítramanna-land may have been a
district inhabited by fair Norsemen.

[38] Since the above was printed in the Norwegian edition of this book,
Professor Moltke Moe has found a "Tír na Fer Finn," or the White Men's
Land, mentioned in Irish sagas of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
The white men (fer finn) are evidently the same as the "Albati" (i.e., the
baptized dressed in white). Tír na Fer Finn and Hvítramanna-land are
consequently direct renderings of the "Terra Albatorum" (i.e., the land of
the baptized dressed in white), which is mentioned in earlier Irish
literature. The origin of the Icelandic legend about Hvítramanna-land
seems thus to be quite clear.

[39] Hermits like this, covered with white hair, also occur outside
Ireland. Three monks from Mesopotamia wished to journey to the place where
heaven and earth meet, and after many adventures, which often resemble
those of the Brandan legend, they came to a cave, where dwelt a holy man,
Macarius, who was completely covered with snow-white hair, but the skin of
his face was like that of a tortoise [cf. Schirmer, 1888, p. 42]. The last
feature might recall an ape.

[40] The resemblance to the hairy women (great apes ?) that Hanno found on
an island to the west of Africa and whose skin he brought to Carthage (cf.
vol. i. p. 88) is doubtless only accidental. The hair-covered hermits may
be connected with stories of hermits and the hairy wild man, "wilder
Mann," "Silvanus," who, in the opinion of Moltke Moe, is the same that
reappears in the Norwegian tale of "Villemand og Magnhild" (== der wilde
Mann and Magdelin).

[41] White and snow-white women and maidens are, moreover, of common
occurrence also in Germanic legends [cf. J. Grimm, 1876, ii. pp. 803,
ff.]. Expressions like white or snow-white to depict the dazzling beauty
of the female body also occur in Icelandic literature, just as the
lily-white arms are already found in Homer. Cf. further such names as
Snjófriðr, Snelaug, Schneewitchen (Snow-white), etc. [Cf. Moltke Moe's
communications in A. Helland, 1905, ii. pp. 641, f.]

[42] Before the convent on this island Brandan and his companions were met
by the monks "with cross, and cloaks [white clothes ?], and hymns"; cf.
the men in white clothes who cried aloud and carried poles in Eric the
Red's Saga. On the "Strong Men's Island" they also sang psalms, and one
generation wore white clothes.

[43] Cf. Dozy and de Goeje, 1866, p. 223, ff.; de Goeje, 1891, pp. 56, 59.
Moltke Moe has called my attention to this resemblance.

[44] The stench may be connected with ideas like those in the "Meregarto,"
the sailors stuck fast and rotted in the Liver-sea, see vol. i. p. 181.

[45] As Portugal was at that time under the Moors, Arabic must be regarded
as these men's mother-tongue.

[46] They first drifted to the north-west in the outer ocean, and after
three days suffered intolerable thirst; but Christ took pity on them and
brought them to a current which tasted like tepid milk. Zimmer's
explanation [1889, p. 216] of this current as the Gulf Stream to the west
of the Hebrides is due to modern maps, and is an example of how even the
most acute of book-learned inquirers may be led astray by formal
representations. That the Irish should have possessed such comprehensive
oceanographical knowledge as to regard this ocean-drift as a definitely
limited current is not likely, and still less that they should have
regarded it as so much warmer than the water inshore as to be compared to
tepid milk. The difference in temperature on the surface is in summer
(August) approximately nil, and in spring and autumn perhaps three or four
degrees; and of course the Irish had no thermometers. Last summer I
investigated this very part of the ocean without finding any conspicuous
difference. The feature may be derived from Lucian's Vera Historia, where
the travellers come to a sea of milk [Wieland, 1789, iv. p. 188].

[47] It is doubtless due to this communication that an unknown Arabic
author (of the twelfth century) relates that the "Fortunate Isles" lie to
the north of Cadiz, and that thence come the northern Vikings ("Maǵûs"),
who are Christians. "The first of these islands is Britain, which lies in
the midst of the ocean, at a great distance to the north of Spain. Neither
mountains nor rivers are found there; its inhabitants are compelled to
resort to rain-water both for drinking and for watering the ground"
[Fabricius, 1897, p. 157]. It is clear that there is here a confusion of
rumours of islands in the north--of which Britain was the best known,
whence the Vikings were supposed to come--with Pliny's Fortunate Isles:
"Planaria" (without mountains) and "Pluvialia" (where the inhabitants had
only rain-water). That the Orkneys in particular should have been
intended, as suggested by R. Dozy [Recherches sur l'Espagne, ii. pp. 317,
ff.] and Paul Riant [Expéditions et Pèlerinages des Scandinaves en Terre
Sainte, Paris, 1865, p. 236] is not very probable. We might equally well
suppose it to be Ireland, which through Norse sailors ("Ostmen") and
merchants had communication with the Spaniards from the ninth till as late
as the fourteenth century [cf. A. Bugge, 1900, pp. 1, f.]. The Arabic name
"Maǵûs" for the Norman Vikings comes from the Greek μάγος; (Magian,
fire-worshipper), and originally meant heathens in general.

[48] In one of his lays Björn Breidvikinge-kjæmpe also, as it happens,
speaks of Thurid as the snow-white ("fannhvít") woman.

[49] See D. Brauns: Japanische Märchen und Sagan. Leipzig, 1885, p. 146,
ff.

[50] Cf. the resemblance to the second voyage of Sindbad, to the tales in
Abû Hâmid, Qaswînî, Pseudo-Callisthenes' romance of Alexander, Indian
tales, etc. [cf. E. Rohde, 1900, p. 192].

[51] The Ringerike runic stone is not given here, as its mention of
Wineland is uncertain.

[52] It should be remarked that the beginning of this saga, dealing with
the discovery of Greenland by Eric the Red, is taken straight out of the
Landnámabók, and is thus much older.

[53] It would be otherwise on the west coast of Greenland, with its
excellent belt of skerries; but as the Eskimo could not reach this coast
without having developed, at least in part, their peculiar maritime
culture, it is, of course, out of the question that this can have been
their cradle.

[54] Cf. on this subject H. Rink [1871, 1887, 1891]; F. Boas [1901]; cf.
also H. P. Steensby [1905], Axel Hamberg [1907] and others. These authors
hold various views as to the origin of the Eskimo, which, however, are all
different from that set forth here. While Rink thought the Eskimo came
from Alaska and first developed their sea-fishing on the rivers of Alaska,
Boas thinks they come from the west coast of Hudson Bay, and Steensby that
they developed on the central north coasts of Canada. Since the above was
written W. Thalbitzer has also dealt with the question [1908-1910].

[55] This has been definitely and finally proved by the researches of Dr.
O. Solberg [1907], referred to in vol. i. (p. 306). It results from these
that the oldest stone implements of the Eskimo from the districts round
Disco Bay must be of very great age--far older, indeed, than I was
formerly [1891, pp. 6, f.; Engl. ed., pp. 8, ff.] inclined to suppose. It
results also from Solberg's researches that, while the Eskimo occupied the
districts from Umanak-fjord southward to Egedesminde and Holstensborg
(from 71° to 68° N. lat.) during long prehistoric periods, they do not
appear to have settled in the more southern part of Greenland until much
later. As will be pointed out later (p. 83), it was especially in the
districts around Kroksfjarðarheidr that according to the historical
authorities the Skrælings were to be found. Since we may assume, as shown
in vol. i. p. 301, that this was Disco Bay, the conclusion from historical
sources agrees remarkably well with the archæological finds.

[56] Solberg, however, in the researches referred to, has been able to
show some development in Eskimo sealing appliances in the course of the
period since their first arrival in Greenland, but perhaps chiefly after
they had come in contact with the Norsemen and learnt the use of iron.

[57] As will be seen (cf. p. 72), this agrees surprisingly well with the
conclusions which Dr. Solberg has reached in another way in the work
already mentioned [1907], which was published since the above was written.

[58] Cf. also William Thalbitzer's valuable work on the Eskimo language
[1904].

[59] Cf. Gualteri Mapes, De nugis curialium. Ed. by Thomas Wright, 1850,
pp. 14, ff.

[60] If it was the tradition of Karlsevne's encounter with the Skrælings
that was referred to, then of course neither he nor the greater part of
his men were Greenlanders, but Icelanders, so that it might equally well
have been said that the Icelanders called them Skrælings.

[61] Cf. Christian Koren-Wiberg: "Bidrag til Bergens Kulturhistorie,"
Bergen, 1908, pp. 151, f. I owe it to Professor A. Bugge that my attention
was drawn to this interesting find.

[62] Jón Egilsson's continuation of Húngurvaka, Grönl. hist. Mind., iii.
p. 469.

[63] It is striking how accurately this agrees with what we have arrived
at in an entirely different way with regard to the places inhabited by the
Eskimo in ancient times (see p. 73).

[64] From this it cannot, of course, be concluded that they were not
living there too at that time; it only shows that the voyagers did not
meet with them in the most northerly regions, although they saw empty
sites. As the Eskimo leave their winter houses in the spring and lead a
wandering life in tents, this need not surprise us.

[65] Cf. Björnbo and Petersen, 1904, pp. 179, 236.

[66] Jacob Ziegler (circa 1532), who probably made use of statements from
Walkendorf, confuses the Norsemen and Eskimo in Greenland together into
one people, who breed cattle, have two episcopal churches, etc.; but "on
account of the distance and the difficulty of the voyage the people have
almost reverted to heathendom, and are ... especially addicted to the arts
of magic, like the Lapps...." They use light boats of hides, with which
they attack other ships [cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 499].

[67] In the account attributed to Ivar Bárdsson, first written down in
Norway, the Skrælings also receive a good deal of attention.

[68] William Thalbitzer, the authority on the Eskimo, has lately [1909, p.
14] adduced the silence of the "King's Mirror" and of the Icelandic Annals
on the subject of the Skrælings of Greenland as evidence that the Norsemen
had not met with them on their northern expeditions to Nordrsetur; but
what has been brought forward above shows that nothing of the kind can be
concluded from the silence of the "King's Mirror" (which, moreover, says
nothing about the Nordrsetur expeditions); and why in particular the
Icelandic Annals should allude to the Skrælings in Greenland seems
difficult to understand. This is no evidence, especially as we see that
the Skrælings are mentioned in other contemporary authorities, such as the
Historia Norwegiæ, Ivar Bárdsson's description, the account of the voyages
in 1266 and 1267, etc. Besides, in the last authority it is expressly
stated that there were Skrælings in Nordrsetur (Kroksfjardarheidr, cf. p.
83).

[69] E. Beauvois, 1904, 1905; Y. Nielsen, 1904, 1905; W. Thalbitzer, 1904,
1905.

[70] As so much weight has been attached to single words in order to prove
the similarity of culture between the Skrælings in Wineland and Markland
and those in Greenland, it is strange that no notice has been taken of
points of difference such as this, that the Skrælings in Markland are said
to dwell in caves, while the Greenlanders must have known, at any rate
from the dwelling-sites they had found, that the Skrælings in Greenland
lived in houses and tents.

[71] If we might suppose (which is not probable) that the missile
mentioned on p. 7, note, from a myth of the Algonkin Indians has any
connection with the Skrælings' black ball which frightened Karlsevne's
people, this would be another feature pointing to knowledge of the
Indians. Hertzberg's demonstration that the Indian game of lacrosse is
probably the Norse "knattleikr" (pp. 38, ff.) may point in the same
direction; for it seems less probable that the transmission, if it
occurred, should have been brought about by the Eskimo.

[72] That it was due to changes in the climate, as some have thought, is
not the case. The ancient descriptions of the voyage thither and of the
drift-ice (cf. for instance, the "King's Mirror," vol. i. p. 279) show
exactly the same conditions as now.

[73] The driftwood that was washed ashore along the coasts could not
possibly suffice for shipbuilding; but they doubtless obtained timber also
from Markland (cf. pp. 25, 37).

[74] Existing royal documents show that the prohibition of trade with
these tributary countries was again strictly enforced by Magnus Smek in
1348, and by Eric of Pomerania in 1425.

[75] Cf. Islandske Annaler, ed. by Storm, 1888, p. 228.

[76] It is shown by Solberg's [1907] researches that they did so.

[77] As stated on p. 86, Jacob Ziegler (circa 1532) also says that the
people of Greenland "have almost lapsed to heathendom," etc. Although
mythical, this shows a similar tradition.

[78] Cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 258; F. Jónsson, 1899, p. 328.

[79] This seems very doubtful, as it is not known that a bishop ever
resided in the Western Settlement.

[80] It is true that this is not stated in the narrative; it is only said
that the Skrælings possessed the whole Western Settlement, and that Ivar
and his companions found no people there, either Christian or heathen, but
only wild cattle; and it may, of course, be doubtful whether the meaning
was that the whole settlement had been destroyed by a predatory incursion.

[81] This explanation offers, of course, the difficulty that it would not
be applicable to dairy cattle; but in this way of life the settlers may
have had to give up milking.

[82] These last ideas may well be supposed to have originated in a
confusion with the tales about Wineland.

[83] We find conceptions of the Skrælings as dangerous opponents or
assailants in Michel Beheim in 1450 [Vangensten, 1908, p. 18], Paulus
Jovius in 1534, Jacob Ziegler in 1532, Olaus Magnus in 1555, and others.
But it is evident that these conceptions are to a great extent due to myth
and superstition.

[84] Cf. Islandske Annaler, ed. by Storm [1888], pp. 365, f., 414, f.
Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. pp. 135, ff., 436, ff.

[85] According to my experience the bear avoids the walrus, and I have
never seen a sign of their fighting on land or on the ice.

[86] A complaint previously sent to the Pope, which, however, was false,
as will be shown later.

[87] Mention should be made of two other factors, which Dr. Björnbo has
suggested to me. It is possible that while the majority of the Norsemen
were compelled more and more to adopt the Eskimo mode of life in order to
support themselves, some more strong-minded individuals among them, and a
few zealous priests, may have resisted stubbornly, and this may have led
to fighting such as is spoken of in the legends. Nor must it be forgotten
that the relentlessness of the Eskimo is usually accentuated when dealing
with individuals who are only a burden to the community without benefiting
it; and no doubt some among the Norsemen may have been reduced to such a
position after the cessation of imports from abroad, since they were
inferior to the Eskimo in skill as fishermen and sealers.

[88] It is true that Clavus mentions the warrior hosts of the infidel
Karelians in Greenland; but this is evidently myth or invention (cf.
chapter xiii.).

[89] According to another authority it was not till 1413. In any case it
looks as if travelling took a good time in those days.

[90] As evidence of the state of things it may be mentioned that we read
in the Icelandic Annals [Storm, 1888, p. 290] under 1412: "No tidings came
from Norway to Iceland. The queen, Lady Margaret, died...." When
communication even with Iceland had fallen off to this extent, we can
understand its having ceased altogether with Greenland.

[91] Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. pp. 160, ff.

[92] See G. Storm, 1892, pp. 399-401. The letter was discovered some years
ago in the papal archives by a priest from Dalmatia, Dr. Jelič. Cf. also
Jos. Fischer, 1902, p. 49.

[93] Published by J. Metelka [1895].

[94] A. A. Björnbo, Berlingske Tidende, 1909; Björnbo and Petersen, 1909,
p. 249.

[95] Cf. L. Daae, 1882. Besides the authorities mentioned by Daae, See
"Scriptores rerum Danicarum," ii. 563, where "Puthorse" is mentioned as
"pirata Danicus" together with "Pynning." Cf. also Grönl. hist. Mind.,
iii. pp. 473, ff.

[96] This was the usual representation at that time; cf. Ziegler's map of
1532.

[97] A. A. Björnbo, Berlingske Tidende, Copenhagen, July 17, 1909; Björnbo
and Petersen, 1909, p. 249.

[98] Monumenta Historiæ Danicæ, ed. Holger Rördam, i. Copenhagen, 1873, p.
28; L. Daae, 1882.

[99] Cf. G. Storm [1886]. B. T. de Costa [1880, p. 170] points out that
Hakluyt says that the voyage of this navigator is mentioned by Gemma
Frisius and Girava. Gemma Frisius published amongst other works a revised
edition of Petrus Apianus's "Cosmographicus Liber" in 1529. Girava
published in 1553 "Dos Libros de Cosmographia," Milan, 1556. I have not
had an opportunity of referring to these authorities; the former, if this
be correct, may have given information about Scolvus earlier than Gomara.
De Costa also says that on the Rouen globe [i.e., the L'Ecuy globe, see p.
131] in Paris, of about 1540, there is an inscription near the north-west
coast of Greenland stating that Skolnus [Scolvus] reached that point in
1476.

[100] Cf. R. Collinson, 1867, pp. 3, f.

[101] Lelewel's conjecture [1852, iv. p. 106, note 50, 52] that Scolvus's
name was Scolnus and that he came from a little Polish inland town near
the frontier of East Prussia, is, as shown by Storm [1886, p. 400],
improbable.

[102] Storm [1886, p. 399] thought that Wytfliet might have borrowed from
Gomara, and himself invented and added the date 1476, in order to
disparage the Spaniards and Portuguese as discoverers; but Storm was not
aware that this date, as we have seen, is mentioned in an earlier English
source.

[103] Cf. Harrisse, 1892, pp. 286, ff., 658. The inscription reads: "Quii
populi ad quos Johannes Scovvus danus pervenit. Ann. 1476."

[104] Just as the above is at press, I have received a sheet of Dr.
Björnbo's new work [1910, pp. 256, ff.], from which it appears that the
inscription mentioned above is already found on Gemma Frisius's globe
engraved by Gerard Mercator, probably 1536-1537 (found at Zerbst, and
reproduced for the first time in Björnbo's work). The inscription is
placed on the polar continent, to the north-west of Greenland, and reads:
"Quij populi ad quos Jōēs Scoluss danus peruenit circa annum 1476."
Björnbo translates it: "Quij, the people to whom the Dane Johannes
Scolvuss (Scolwssen ?) penetrated about the year 1476." (The
interpretation of the word "Quij" as the name of a people may be probable,
especially as the same word occurs, as pointed out by Björnbo, as the name
of a people on Vopell's map of the world of 1445.) This is therefore the
oldest notice of Scolvus's voyage at present known, and it may seem
possible, though not very probable, that he reached a land to the west of
Greenland. The L'Ecuy or Rouen globe (of copper) is evidently a copy of
the Frisius-Mercator globe, and has the same inscriptions. It may be to
the same source (or to a contemporary work of Gemma Frisius) that Hakluyt
referred (cf. above, p. 129, note 2), and several statements in the
English document of about 1575 (p. 129) seem also to be derived from it.
As Gomara calls Joan Scolvo "piloto," which is not on the globe (but on
the other hand is found in the English document!), and as, further, he has
not the dates, he may possibly have had a somewhat different authority. It
is interesting to note, as shown by Björnbo, that the Frisius-Mercator
globe seems to betray Portuguese associations, and thus its information
about Scolvus may also have come from Portugal.

[105] G. Storm [Mon. hist. Norw., 1880, p. 78] thought that "Vegistafr"
might be "Sviatoi Nos" at the entrance to Gandvik (the White Sea).

[106] This was the market-place on the bank of the Dvina, presumably the
same that the Russians afterwards called Kholmogori, and that lay a little
higher up the river than Archangel (founded in 1572).

[107] This is Karelian for heaven or the sky-god; the Kvæns (Finlanders)
called their god "Jumala," and the Finns (Lapps) theirs "Ibmel," which is
the same word. [Cf. G. Storm's translation of Heimskringla, 1899, p. 322.]

[108] From the account it would look as though Thore Hund was already well
acquainted with the country. Even if the tale as a whole is not
historical, a feature like this may point to the Norwegians having been in
the habit of visiting Bjarmeland, and therefore looking upon it as natural
that a man like Thore knew the country.

[109] Håkon Håkonsson's Saga in Fornmanna-sögur, ix. p. 319.

[110] The Russian chronicles in translation, "Suomi" for 1848.

[111] Professor Alexander Seippel has given me valuable help in the
translation of the Arabic authors.

[112] The Volga was often called Itil after the town of that name, but was
later named after Bulgar (Bolgar == Volga).

[113] Cf. Frähn, 1823, p. 218.

[114] Chronica Nestoris, ed. Fr. Miklosisch, Vindobonæ, 1860, pp. 9, f.;
Nestors russiske Krönike, overs, og forkl. af C. W. Smith, Copenhagen,
1869, p. 29.

[115] Cf. T. Mommsen, 1882, pp. 88, 166.

[116] Jaqut, 1866, i. p. 113; cf. also Mehren, 1857, p. 171.

[117] Ibn Fadhlân's mission as ambassador from the Caliph al-Muktadir
billâh of Bagdad to Bulgar took place, according to his own statements,
reproduced by Jaqût (ob. 1229), in the years 921 and 922 A.D. Ibn Fadhlân,
like Jaqût, was a Greek by birth.

[118] Jaqut, 1866, iv. p. 944; i. p. 113.

[119] This agrees with reality. Along the Volga one can reach the land of
the Vesses on Lake Byelo-ozero.

[120] Al-Qazwînî, 1848, ii. p. 416.

[121] Ibn Batûta, Voyages, etc., par Defrémery et Sanguinetti, ii. pp.
399, ff.

[122] This is doubtless an expression for a conveyance of some kind, which
must here have been a sledge.

[123] Cf. Frähn, 1823, pp. 230, ff.

[124] Cf. Peschel, 2nd ed., 1877, p. 107. There has also been found a
metal mirror with an Arabic inscription of the tenth or eleventh century
at Samarovo in the land of the Ostyaks, where the Irtysh and the Ob join.

[125] Cf. on this subject G. Storm, 1890, pp. 340, ff.; A. A. Björnbo,
1909, pp. 234, ff.

[126] Saxo also has conceptions of half-awake or half-dead ("semineces")
giants in the underworld in the north as guardians of treasures (cf.
Gorm's and Thorkel's voyage). Moltke Moe thinks they may be derived from
ancient notions of the giants as the evil dead, who guard treasures.

[127] Kohl [1869, pp. 11, ff.] supposes that they may have carried on
piracy, and invented their story to explain to the bishop how they had
come by the booty they brought home and how they had lost their
companions, who may have been killed in fighting.

[128] Giraldus Cambrensis also mentions the dangerous whirlpool north of
the Hebrides.

[129] Cf. Amund Helland, Lofoten og Vesteraalen. Norges geologiske
Undersögelse. No. 23. Christiania, 1897, p. 106.

[130] Hakluyt: Principal Navigations, Glasgow, 1903, ii. p. 415.

[131] Cf. Storm, 1895, pp. 190, f.

[132] It is not impossible that it was of this Norwegian king Harold's
voyage that Adam heard from the Danes; in that case he may readily be
supposed to have made a mistake and connected it with the King Harold who
was then living, to whom he also attributes a voyage in the Baltic; it is
a common experience that many similar incidents in which different persons
were engaged collect about one of them. The circumstance that Harold is
here mentioned without any term of abuse, with which Adam is elsewhere in
the habit of accompanying any mention of him, is perhaps, as already said
(vol. i. p. 195, note), of no particular significance. Harold Gråfeld was
much in Denmark, and reports of his expedition to Bjarmeland may well have
lived there, as in Iceland. If it is this to which Adam's words refer,
this would also explain the curious silence of the Icelandic authorities
about Harold Hardråde's alleged voyage in the Arctic Ocean.

[133] Professor Yngvar Nielsen [1904, 1905] thinks that Adam's description
cannot be explained otherwise than as referring to a voyage to the west,
and probably a Wineland voyage. The Icelandic historian Tormodus Torfæus
regarded it in the same way two hundred years ago. Professor Nielsen even
thinks he can point to the Newfoundland Banks with their "surf caused by
the current" (?) as a probable place where King Harold turned back to
avoid the gulf of the abyss. I will not here dwell on the improbability of
so daring a man as Harold, whom we are to suppose to have sailed across
the Atlantic in search of Wineland, being frightened by a tide-race (of
which he knew worse at home) on the Newfoundland Banks, so as to believe
that he was near the abyss ("Ginnungagap"), and therefore making the long
voyage home again without having accomplished his purpose, without having
reached land, and without having renewed his supplies--of fresh water, for
instance. I can only see that all this is pure guesswork without any solid
foundation and far beyond the limits of all reasonable possibility. But in
addition, as Dr. A. A. Björnbo [1909, pp. 121, 234, ff.] has clearly
shown, the whole of this view becomes untenable if we pay attention to the
universal cartographical representation of that time, by which Adam of
Bremen was obviously also bound, and in particular it is impossible to
conclude from his words that Harold's voyage should have been made to the
_west_.

[134] Suhm (Historie af Danmark, 1790) was the first to think that the
gulf of the abyss was the maelstrom by Mosken.

[135] A peculiarity of the account in the "King's Mirror" is that whales,
seals and walruses are mentioned only in the seas of Iceland and
Greenland, and not off Norway, although the Norwegian author most
undoubtedly have heard of most of them in his native land. In the same way
the northern lights are only spoken of as something peculiar to Greenland.
Of the six species of seal that are mentioned, one ("örknselr") must be
the grey seal or "erkn" (Halichoerus grypus), which is common on the coast
of the northern half of Norway, but is not found in Greenland.

[136] One might receive a different impression from Bede's Statement that
in Britain "seals are frequently taken ('capiuntur'), and dolphins, as
also whales ('balenæ')" [Eccles. hist. gent. Angl. i. c. 1]. But it is
uncertain whether this refers to regular hunting of great whales with
harpoons in the open sea, or whether it does not rather refer to stranded
whales, which must have been of frequent occurrence in those days, to
judge from the Norman and later English regulations regarding them.

[137] He belonged to the South Arabian tribe 'Udhra, "die da sterben, wann
sie lieben."

[138] This is exactly what is still done with the whale on the west coast
of Norway.

[139] Cf. G. Jacob, 1896, pp. 23, ff.

[140] Louis the Gentle confirms a division of the property of the abbey of
St. Dionysius, which the abbot Hilduien had made in 832 [cf. Bouquet,
Historiens de France, vi. p. 580]. He says in this document that "we give
them this property ... on the other side of Sequana the chapel of St.
Audoenus for repairing and clearing fishing nets ... in Campiniago two
houses for fish ... the water and fish in Tellis ... and Gabaregium in
Bagasinum with all the manorial rights and lands attached, of which part
lies in the parish of Constantinus [Coutances] for taking large fish
('crassus piscis')." It is probable that "crassus piscis" means Biscayan
whale (Balœna Biscayensis or glacialis), which at that time was common on
these shores. In that case the people of Côtantin would have carried on
whaling as early as the beginning of the ninth century, but of their
methods we can form no conclusions.

[141] It is possible that the peoples on the shores of the Indian Ocean
(and Red Sea) even in early antiquity caught whales and ate whales' flesh
[cf. Noel, 1815, p. 23]. Strabo [xv. 725, f.; xvi. 767, 773] tells of the
great numbers of whales, 23 fathoms long, that Nearchus is said to have
seen in this ocean, and says that the Ichthyophagi (fish-eaters) used
whales' bones for beams and rafters in their huts. Strabo thinks [i. 24]
that the mention of the monster Scylla (who catches dolphins, seals, etc.)
in the Odyssey [xii. 95, ff.] would point to large marine animals having
been taken in ancient times; but all this may be very doubtful.

[142] Cf. M. P. Fischer, 1872, pp. 3, ff. In 1202 the merchants of Bayonne
bound themselves to pay King John Lackland ten pounds sterling a year for
permission to catch whales between St. Michael's Mount (in Normandy) and a
place called Dortemue [cf. Delisle, 1849, p. 131]. This may point to a
connection in the whale-fishery between the south of France and Normandy.

[143] Cf. Johannes Steenstrup, 1876, vol. i. p. 188. Professor Steenstrup
puts forward the view that it was the Danes who developed this whaling in
Normandy. This is scarcely possible. There cannot be much doubt that it
was the comparatively valuable Biscay whale or nord-caper that was the
chief object of the active whaling on the coast of Normandy, and that was
specially called "crassus piscis"; for it was precisely this species of
whale which then at certain times of the year appeared in great numbers
along the whole French coast, and which the Basques also pursued so
actively along the shores of the Bay of Biscay, Brittany and Normandy. The
name "crassus piscis" (i.e., the thick or fat fish) would also exactly
describe this species, which is remarkable beyond all other whales that
occur on the coasts of France for its striking breadth and bulk in
proportion to its length, which is about fifty feet. This whale was more
valuable than the other great whales that occurred along these coasts, and
was in addition much easier to catch. But this species certainly never
regularly frequented the shallow Danish waters, any more than other great
whales that might be an object of hunting. There is, therefore, scarcely a
possibility that Danish Vikings should have brought with them from their
native land any experience in hunting great whales. If we may assume that
the Normans were already acquainted with the hunting of great whales
before they came to Normandy, then it may have been Norwegians who
possessed this experience, which, in fact, agrees with the statement of
Qazwînî (see above).

[144] Muratori: Script. rer. Ital., v. p. 265. Cf. also Joh. Steenstrup,
1876, i. p. 188.

[145] The text has "culmi" (literally, straw), which gives no sense. We
must suppose that something has been omitted in the MS. of Albertus that
was used in the printed edition; or else he has taken the description from
an older source, which had it correctly, and from which later authors have
taken the same expression; for otherwise it is difficult to understand
their using it in a reasonable way. Erik Walkendorf (circa 1520) says of
the walrus in Finmark: "They have a stiff and bristly beard as long as the
palm of a hand, as thick as a straw ('crassitudine magni culmi'), they
have rough bristly ('hirsuta') skin, two fingers thick, which has an
incredible strength and firmness"; but he says nothing about the method of
catching them [Walkendorf, 1902, p. 12]. Olaus Magnus [I, xxi. c. 25] says
that walruses ("morsi" or "rosmari") appear on the northern coast of
Norway. "They have a head like an ox, have rough (bristly, 'hirsutam')
skin, and hair as thick as straw ('culmos') or the stalks of corn
('calamos frumenti') which stands in all directions. They heave themselves
up by their tusks to the tops of rocks as with ladders, in order to eat
the grass bedewed with fresh water, and roll themselves back into the sea,
unless in the meantime they are overcome by very deep sleep and remain
hanging." Then follows the same story of catching them as in Albertus
Magnus. This is done, he says, chiefly for the sake of the tusks, "which
were highly prized by the Scythians, Rutens and Tartars," etc. "This is
witnessed also by Miechouita." This description of Olaus is evidently put
together from older statements which we find in Albertus Magnus, in
Walkendorf, and in Russian sources, of which he himself quotes Mikhow (who
is also mentioned in Pistorius; see below).

[146] This was very valuable on account of its strength, and was much used
for ships' cables, mooring-hawsers, and many other purposes.

[147] Saxo, viii. 287, f.; ed. by H. Jantzen, 1900, pp. 447, ff.; ed. by
P. Herrmann, 1901, pp. 385, ff.

[148] In the description of Greenland attributed to Ivar Bárdsson we read:
"Item from Langanes, which lies uppermost (or northernmost) in Iceland by
the aforesaid Hornns it is two days' and two nights' sail to Sualberde in
haffsbaane (or haffsbotnen)." [F. Jónsson, 1899, p. 323.]

[149] Monumenta hist. Norv., ed. G. Storm, 1880, pp. 74. f., 79.

[150] In the "Rymbegla" [1780, p. 350] is mentioned, together with other
fabulous beings in this part of the world, "the people called
'Hornfinnar,' they have in their foreheads a horn bent downwards, and they
are cannibals."

[151] Cf. also A. Bugge, 1898, p. 499; G. Isachsen, 1907.

[152] True north of Langanes there is no land: Jan Mayen lies nearest,
N.N.E., and Greenland W.N.W. As the "leidar-stein" (compass) was known in
Iceland when Hauk's Landnámabók was written (cf. vol. i. p. 248), magnetic
directions might be meant here, and the variation of the compass may at
that time have been great enough to make Greenland lie north (magnetic) of
Langanes. In that case it is perhaps strange that Langanes should be
mentioned as the starting-point, and not some place that lay nearer; but
it might be supposed that this was because one had first to sail far to
the east to avoid the ice, when making for the northern east coast of
Greenland. A large eastern variation would also agree with Jolldulaup in
Ireland lying south of Reykjanes, the uninhabited parts of Greenland lying
north of Kolbeins-ey (Mevenklint, see vol. i. p. 286), and the statement
in the Sturlubók that from Snæfellsnes it was "four 'dœgr's' sea west to
Greenland" [i.e., Hvarf]. But it does not agree with this that from Bergen
(or Hennö) the course was "due west" to Hvarf in Greenland; and still less
does it agree with its being, according to the Sturlubók, "seven 'dœgr's'
sail west from Stad in Norway to Horn in East Iceland." If these are
courses by compass, we must then suppose a large _eastern_ variation
between Norway and Iceland, which indeed is not impossible, but which will
not accord with a large _western_ variation between Reykjanes and Ireland.
The probability is, therefore, that magnetic courses are not intended.

[153] As already mentioned, a "dœgr" was half a day of twenty-four hours,
and a "dœgr's" sail is thus the distance sailed in a day or in a night.
One might, perhaps, be tempted to think that here, where it is a question
of sailing over the open sea, and where it would therefore be impossible
to anchor for the night, as on the coast, a "dœgr's" sail might mean the
distance covered in the whole twenty-four hours [cf. G. Isachsen, 1907];
but it appears from a passage in St. Olaf's Saga (in "Heimskringla"),
amongst others, that this was not the usual way of reckoning; for we read
there (cap. 125) that Thorarinn Nevjolfsson sailed in eight "dœgr" from
Möre in Norway to Eyrar in south-western Iceland. Thorarinn went straight
to the Althing and there said that "he had parted from King Olaf four
nights before...." The eight "dœgr" mean, therefore, four days' and four
nights' sailing. Precisely the same thing appears from the sailing
directions given above (p. 166) from Ivor Bárdsson's description, where
four "dœgr's" sea is taken as two days' and two nights' sail.

[154] Sometimes also called Nordbotn (cf. vol. i, pp. 262, 303), perhaps
mostly in fairy-tales. This form of the name is still extant in a
fairy-tale from Fyresdal and Eidsborg about "Riketor Kræmar" [H. Ross in
"Dölen," 1869, vii. No. 23].

[155] Pistorius, Polonicæ historiæ corpus, 1582, i. 150. I have not had an
opportunity of consulting this work. We saw above (p. 163, note) that
Olaus Magnus also quotes Mikhow.

[156] Cf. Noël, 1815, p. 215.

[157] The idea may have arisen through a misunderstanding of stories that
the walruses often lie in great herds, close together, on the tops of
skerries and small islands, and are there speared in great numbers by the
hunters.

[158] He calls my attention to two papers by Professor Sophus Bugge [in
"Romania," iii. 1874, p. 157, and iv. 1875, p. 363], in which the
etymology of the French word "morse" is discussed. Bugge first seeks to
explain the word (precisely as above) as a metathesis for "rosme," from
the Danish "rosmer" == Old Norwegian "rosmáll," "rosmhvalr." In the second
paper he withdraws this explanation, and says that V. Thomsen has pointed
out to him the identity of "morse" with the Russian "morsh," Polish
"mors," Czeckish "mrž," Finnish "mursu," Lappish "morš." The word would
"according to V. Thomsen be rather of Slavic (cf. 'more,' sea ?) than of
Finnish origin." After what has been advanced above, this last conclusion
may be somewhat improbable. Professor Nielsen also refers to Matzenauer,
Cizi slova, p. 257, which I have not had an opportunity of consulting.

[159] Professor Olaf Broch has described to me the peculiar river-boat
that is used far and wide in North Russia, and that is evidently a very
old type of boat. Broch saw it on the Súkhona, a tributary of the Dvina.
The bottom of the boat is a dug-out tree-trunk of considerable size, which
can only be found farther up the country. By heating the wood the sides
are given the desired shape, and to the dug-out foundation is fastened a
board on each side; Broch did not remember whether it was sewed or nailed
on. The boat is thus a transitional form between the dug-out canoe and the
clinker-built boat. This type of boat may also have reached the shore of
the Polar Sea; but there cannot have been timber for building it there.

[160] Cf. A. Helland, Nordlands Amt, 1908, ii. p. 888.

[161] Cf. K. Leem, 1767, p. 216.

[162] The Florentine MS. of it dates from the ninth century.

[163] For this reason they were also called OT-maps, which corresponded to
the initial letters of "orbis terrarum."

[164] The work is preserved in the British Museum in a MS. of the
fourteenth century, which unfortunately has not been published. The
geographical descriptions in the Eulogium Historiarum of about 1360 (vol.
ii. Rerum Britann. Medii Ævi Script., London, 1860, cf. the introduction
by F. S. Hayden) may be taken from this work. It is evidently a MS. of the
same "Geographia" that W. Wackernagel found in the library at Berne, and
of which he published extracts relating to the North [1844]. It is
probably the same "Geographia Universalis," again, that is published in
Bartholomæus Anglicus: De proprietatibus rerum, and in Rudimenta
Novitiorum, Lübeck, circa 1475.

[165] The name of "Dacia" for Denmark, which frequently occurs on maps of
the Middle Ages, arose through a confusion of the name of the Roman
province on the Danube with "Dania."

[166] "Nero," which appears before this word on the map (see vol. i. p.
183), is crossed out, and was evidently an error.

[167] Cf. Rafn, Antiquités Russes, ii. pp. 390, ff., Pl. IV.; K. Miller,
iii., 1895, p. 125.

[168] Cf. M. de Goeje in the "Livre des Merveilles de l'Inde," ed. by v.
d. Lith and Devic, Leiden, 1883-86, p. 295.

[169] Bulgar was the capital of the country of the Mohammedan Bulgarians.
These were a Finnish people. From Bulgar or Bolgar comes the name Volga.

[170] For the origin of the name, see p. 55, note.

[171] Cf. Ibn Khordâdhbeh, 1889, pp. xx., 67, 88, 115; 1865, pp. 214, 235,
264.

[172] "Rûs" was the name of the Scandinavians (mostly Swedes) in Russia
who founded the Russian empire ("Gardarike" or "Sviþjoð hit mikla").

[173] Among the four wonders of the world Ibn Khordâḏbah mentions "a
bronze horseman in Spain [cf. the Pillars of Hercules], who with
outstretched arm seems to say: Behind me there is no longer any beaten
track, he who ventures farther is swallowed up by ants." So De Goeje
translates it. It might seem to be connected with the swarms of ants that
came down to the shore and wanted to eat the men and their boat on the
first larger island out in the ocean that Maelduin arrived at in the Irish
legend (cf. vol. i. p. 336); but Professor Seippel thinks it possible that
the original reading was "is swallowed up in sand" (and not by ants).

[174] This comes very near to Hippocrates' words about the Amazons, that
the mothers burn away the right breast of their girl children, "thereby
the breast ceases to grow and all the strength and fullness goes over to
the right shoulder and arm" (cf. also vol. i. p. 87).

[175] Cf. V. Thomsen, 1882, p. 34.

[176] As to the trade in furs, etc., see above, pp. 144, f.

[177] Seippel, 1896; cf. Maçoudi, 1861, p. 275; 1896, pp. 92, f.; 1861, p.
213.

[178] Maçoudi, 1861, pp. 364, f.

[179] Seippel, 1896, pp. 42, 43.

[180] In the Russian chronicles the word is "Varyag" (plur. "Varyazi"),
and the Baltic is called "Varyaž'skoye More" (the Varægian Sea). It is the
same word as Varæger, Varanger, or Væringer (in Greek Varangoi) for the
originally Scandinavian life-guards in Constantinople. The Greek princess
Anna Comnena (circa 1100), celebrated for her learning, speaks of the
"Varangians from Thule" as the "axe-bearing barbarians." In a Greek work
of the eleventh century, by an unknown author, it is said of Harold
Hardråde that "he was the son of the king of 'Varangia' (Βαραγγία)." The
word is evidently from a Scandinavian root; but its etymology can hardly
be regarded as certain. It was probably used originally by the Russians in
Gardarike of their kindred Scandinavians, especially the Swedes on the
Baltic [cf. Vilhelm Thomsen, 1882, pp. 93, ff.].

[181] The Persian version and as-Shîrâzî add "tall, warlike."

[182] The Christian Jew Assaf Hebræus's cosmography, of the eleventh
century, was probably written in Arabic, but is only known in a Latin and
a Hebrew translation [cf. Ad. Neubauer, in "Orient und Occident," ed. Th.
Benfey, ii., Göttingen, 1864, pp. 657, ff.]. He mentions beyond "Scochia"
[Scotland] the land of "Norbe" [Norway] with an archbishopric and ten
bishoprics. In these northern lands, and particularly in Ireland, there
are no snakes. Many other countries and islands are beyond Britain and the
land of "Norve" [Norway], but the island of "Tille" [Thule] is the most
distant, far away in the northern seas, and has the longest day, etc.
There is the stiffened, viscous sea. Next the Hebrides ("Budis") are
mentioned, where the inhabitants have no corn, but live on fish and milk
(cf. vol. i. p. 160), and the Orcades, where there dwell naked people
("gens nuda," instead of "vacant homines," see vol. i. p. 161).

[183] Cf. R. Dozy, 1881, pp. 267, ff.

[184] This island may have been Noirmoutier, in the country of the Normans
of the Loire (according to A. Bugge).

[185] It is the name "Maǵûs," from the Greek Μάγος (Magian,
fire-worshipper, cf. p. 55), that led the author into this error. Maǵûs
was used collectively of heathens in general, but especially of the Norse
Vikings [cf. Dozy, 1881, ii. p. 271].

[186] Her name may be read "Bud" (Bodhild ?), or--according to Seippel's
showing--with a trifling correction, "Aud."

[187] Probably this was made from Edrisi's design and corresponded to the
map of the world in his work. Khalîl aṣ-Ṣafadî (born circa 1296) also
relates that Roger and Edrisi sent out trustworthy men with draughtsmen to
the east, west, south and north, to draw from nature and describe
everything remarkable; and their information was then included in Edrisi's
work. If this is true (which is probably doubtful), these would be real
geographical expeditions that were sent out.

[188] Cf. Jaubert's translation [Edrisi, 1836], where, however, the
geographical names must be used with caution. See also Dozy and De Goeje
[Edrisi, 1866].

[189] The Arabs have the same word for island and peninsula.

[190] Professor Seippel considers this the probable interpretation of the
name, and not "the island of the Danes," as in Jaubert.

[191] Edrisi reckoned a degree at the equator as 100 Arabic miles,
according to which his mile would be fully a kilometre. According to other
Arab geographers the degree at the equator has been reckoned as 66-2/3
Arabic miles, in which case the mile would be about 1.7 km., or nearly a
statute mile.

[192] This name is doubtless a confusion of Finmark and Finland.

[193] Of the names of these towns given on the map there can, according to
Seippel's interpretation, be read with certainty "Oslô" and probably
"Trônâ" [Trondheim]. The third name is difficult to determine.

[194] This may be the same idea that we meet with again in the description
of the Skrælings in Eric the Red's Saga, where we are told that they were
"breiðir i kinnum."

[195] As, amongst others, the name "Norveci" is misplaced (in Jutland) in
the Cottoniana map (cf. p. 192), one might almost be tempted to suppose
that the cartographer had made use of Edrisi's map without understanding
the Arabic names; but this would assume so late a date for the Cottoniana
map that it is scarcely probable.

[196] Cf. Seippel, 1896, pp. 138, ff.

[197] Al-Qazwînî, 1848, ii. pp. 356, 334, 412.

[198] Jacob, 1896, pp. 11, f.

[199] Seippel, 1896, p. 44.

[200] It might seem tempting to suppose that the some "Varanger" is
connected with "Warank"; but this can hardly be the case. Mr. J. Qvigstad
informs me that in his view the name of the fjord must be Norwegian, "and
was originally '*Verjangr' (from '*Varianger'); thence arose '*Verangr,'
and by progressive assimilation 'Varangr,' cf. the fjord-names Salangen
(from Selangr), Gratangen (from Grytangr), Lavangen (from Lovangr) in the
district of Tromsö. In old Danish assessment rolls of the period before
the Kalmar war we find 'Waranger.'" The first syllable must then be the
Old Norse "ver" (gen. pl. "verja") for "vær," fishing-station, and the
name would mean "the fjord of fishing-stations" ("angr" == fjord). In
Lappish the Varanger fjord is called "Varjagvuödna" ("vuödna" == fjord),
which "presupposes a Norwegian form '*Varjang' ('*Verjang'). The Lappish
forms 'Varje-' and 'Varja-' are abbreviated from 'Varjag.' The district of
Varanger is called in Lappish 'Varja' (gen. 'Varjag,' root 'Varjag').
Norwegian fjord-names in '-angr' are transferred to Lappish with the
termination '-ag'; only in more recent loan-words do we find the
termination '-aηgga' or '-aηggo,' as in 'Pors-aηgga.'" O. Rygh thought
that the first syllable in "Varanger" might be the same as in "Vardö," Old
Norse "Vargey"; but this may be more doubtful.

[201] Cf. also Jordanes' description of the great cold in the Baltic (vol.
i. p. 131).

[202] Seippel, 1896, pp. 142, 45.

[203] In another passage [c. i. 3] he says that "the habitable part
extends ... towards the north as far as 63° or 66-1/6°, where at the
summer solstice the day attains a length of twenty hours" [cf. Ptolemy,
vol. i. p. 117]. But he nevertheless thinks (like the Greeks) that at the
north pole the day was six months and the night equally long.

[204] An expression from the Koran, which is used of barbarous peoples
(Gog and Magog) who do not understand the speech of civilised men.

[205] Cf. A. F. Mehren, 1874, pp. 19, 158, f., 21, 193.

[206] C. de Vaux, 1898, pp. 69, f.

[207] Cf. Moltke Moe, "Maal og Minne," Christiania, 1909, pp. 9, ff.

[208] The same ideas also occur in European fairy-tales and generally in
the world of mediæval conceptions.

[209] Cf. K. Kretschmer, 1909, pp. 67, ff.; Beazley, iii. 1906, p. 511. It
has been asserted that the compass was discovered at Amalfi. This is not
very probable, but it seems that an important improvement of the compass
may have been made there about the year 1300.

[210] Cf. D'Avezac: Coup d'œil historique sur la projection des cartes
géographiques. Paris, 1863, p. 37; Th. Fischer, 1886, pp. 78, f.

[211] How early the error of the compass became known is uncertain. Even
if it was known, it seems that at any rate no attention was paid to it at
first; and thus the coast-lines were laid down on the charts according to
the magnetic courses and not the true ones. Later on a constant error was
assumed and the compass was corrected in agreement therewith; but the
correction differed somewhat in the various towns where compasses were
made.

[212] Björnbo and Petersen [1908, tab. 1, pp. 14, ff.] give a comparison
of these names from the most important compass-charts.

[213] Reproduced by Jomard, 1879; Nordenskiöld, 1897, p. 25.

[214] Reproduced by Th. Fischer-Ongania, 1887, Pl. III. [cf. pp. 117,
ff.]; Nordenskiöld, 1897, Pl. V. Cf. Björnbo, 1909, pp. 212, f.; Hamy,
1889, pp. 350, f.

[215] That, on the other hand, it should be directly connected with
Ptolemy's representation, as alleged by Hamy [1889, p. 350], is difficult
to understand [cf. Björnbo, 1909, p. 213]; but an indirect influence,
e.g., through Edrisi's map, is possible.

[216] Cf. K. Kretschmer, 1891, pp. 352, ff. Vesconte was a Genoese, but
resided for a long time at Venice.

[217] Cf. Saxo, ed. H. Jnsen, 1900, pp. 13, ff.; ed. P. Hermann, 1901, p.
12.

[218] On Marino Sanudo and Pietro Vesconte's maps cf. Hamy, 1889, pp. 349,
f., and Pl. VII.; Nordenskiöld, 1889, p. 51; 1897, pp. 17, 56, ff.;
Kretschmer, 1909, pp. 113, ff.; Björnbo, 1909, pp. 210, f.; Björnbo, 1910,
pp. 120, 122, f.; K. Miller, iii. 1895, pp. 132, ff.

[219] K. Miller [iii., 1895, p. 134] reads "alcuorum" instead of
"aletiorum," which would make it "the greatest abundance of flying
creatures" [i.e., birds, which would also be appropriate to the North].
But Miller's reading is evidently wrong, from what Björnbo has seen on the
original.

[220] Cf. A. Magnaghi, 1898. The date is somewhat indistinct on the map,
and it is uncertain whether it is MCCCXXV. or MCCCXXX.

[221] The dark shading along the coast and across the country represents
mountain chains.

[222] As late as in Jeffery's atlas, 1776, it is pointed out that this
island is very doubtful, but, according to Kretschmer [1892, p. 221], a
rock 6 degrees west of the southern point of Ireland still bears the name
Brazil Rock on the charts of the British Admiralty (?).

[223] Cf. "Lageniensis," 1870, pp. 114, ff.; Liebrecht, 1872, p. 201;
Moltke Moe in A. Helland, 1908, ii. p. 516.

[224] Kunstmann [1859, pp. 7, ff.] thought that the names of the more
southerly islands might be derived from that of the red dye-wood "brasile"
or "bresil," which afterwards gave its name to Brazil. He [1859, pp. 35,
f., 41], and after him G. Storm [1887], were therefore misled into the
belief that the island to the west of Ireland had also got its name from
the same dye-wood; neither of them can have known of the Irish myth about
this island. Both connect the appearance of the island on the Pizigano map
(1367) with the arrival of the Greenland sailors from Markland in Norway
in 1348, not being aware that the island is found on earlier maps. Storm
went so far as to suppose that the word "brazil" might have become a term
for a wooded island in general, and might thus be an echo of the Norse
name Markland (wood-land). J. Fischer [1902, p. 110] has again fallen into
the same error, but has remarked that the name was already found on
Dalorto's map of 1339. Kretschmer [1892, pp. 214, ff.] has devoted a
chapter to the island of "Brazil," but abandons the attempt to find the
origin of the name and of the island, regarding the derivation from the
name of the dye-wood as improbable. Hamy [1889, p. 361], however, noticed
the connection of the island with the Irish myth of "O'Brazil."

[225] Buache read the inscription on the northernmost isle of Brazil on
the Pizigano map as "ysola de Mayotas seu de Bracir," while Jomard makes
it "n̊ cotus sur de Bracir." Kretschmer [1892, p. 219] has examined the
map, but can read neither one nor the other, as the text is indistinct. On
the other hand, he points out that on Graciosus Benincasa's map of 1482
the same island has a clearly legible "montorio" (on a map of 1574 "mons
orius" is found), which he is equally unable to explain. It may be added
that on an anonymous compass-chart of 1384 [Nordenskiöld, 1897, Pl. XV.] a
corresponding island is marked "monte orius," on Benincasa's map of 1457
"montorius," and on Calapoda's map of 1552 "montoriu" [Nordenskiöld, 1897,
Pl. XXXIII., XXVI.]. This is evidently our "montonis" on Dalorto's map of
1325 appearing again.

[226] The number with the preceding words is also evidently given in the
line below.

[227] Cf. Th. Fischer, 1886, pp. 42; Hamy, 1889, p. 366; Magnaghi, 1899,
p. 2. I have not been able to find this legend on Dalorto's map of 1339
(in the reproduction in Nordenskiöld's Periplus, Pl. VIII.), where
Magnaghi asserts that it is to be found.

[228] Cf. Hamy, 1888, 1903; Nordenskiöld, 1897, Pl. VIII.; Kretschmer,
1909, p. 188.

[229] This is the same form as on the later maps, pp. 231, 232, 233.

[230] For a description and reproduction of the Modena chart, see
Kretschmer, 1897; Pullè and Longhena, 1907.

[231] In the reproduction, pp. 232-233, "gronlandia" is given in the
inscription in the Baltic, taken from the reading of Björnbo and Petersen
[1908, p. 16]. Mr. O. Vangensten has examined the original at Florence and
found that this is a misreading, the correct one being "gotlandia."

[232] On this chart there is a picture in the Northern Ocean to the west
of Norway of a ship with her anchor out by the side of a whale, with the
following explanation [cf. Björnbo, 1910, p. 121]: "This sea is called
'mar bocceano,' and therein are found great fish, which sailors take to be
small islands and take up their quarters on these fish, and the sailors
land on these islands and make fires, and cause such heat that the fish
feels it and sets itself in motion, and they have no time to get on board
and are lost; and those who know this, land on the said fish, and there
make thongs of its back and make fast the head of the ship's anchor, and
in this way they flay the skin off it, whereof they make saraianes [ropes
?] for their ships, and of this skin are made good coverings for
haystacks."

We have here a combination of two mythical features. One is the great fish
of the Navigatio Brandani, on which they land and make a fire to cook
lamb's flesh, when the fish begins to move, and the brethren rush to the
ship, into which they are taken by Brandan, while the island disappears
and they can still see the fire they have made two leagues away. Brandan
told them that this was the largest of all the fish in the sea; it always
tries to reach its tail with its head [like the Midgards-worm, cf. vol. i.
p. 364] and its name is Iasconicus. The same myth is referred to in an
Anglo-Saxon poem [Codex Exoniensis, ed. Benj. Thorpe, London, 1842, pp.
360, ff.] on the great whale Fastitocalon, where ships cast anchor and the
sailors go ashore and make fires, upon which the whale dives down with
ship and crew. The idea of such a fish resembling an island is also found
in the northern myth of the havguva (cf. the "King's Mirror"), or krake,
and is doubtless derived from the East. Tales of landing on an apparent
island which suddenly turns out to be a fish are found in Sindbad's first
voyage, in Qazwînî (where the fish is an enormous turtle), and even in
Pseudo-Callisthenes in the second century [iii. 17, cf. E. Rohde, 1900, p.
192].

The second feature of flaying the skin is evidently the same as already
found in Albertus Magnus (ob. 1280), and must be referred to fabulous
ideas about the hunting of walrus, which was also called whale (see above,
p. 163). That walrus-hide was used for ships' ropes is, of course, well
known, but that it should be also used for coverings of haystacks is not
likely, as it was certainly far too valuable for that.

[233] Cf. also the anonymous Catalan chart in the Biblioteca Nazionale at
Naples, reproduced in Björnbo and Petersen, 1908, Pl. I.

[234] Cf. Nordenskiöld, 1897, pp. 21, 58, Pl. X.; Hamy, 1889, pp. 414, f.;
Fischer-Ongania, Pl. V.

[235] Cf. Mon. Hist. Norv., ed. Storm, 1880, p. 77. The circumstance that
on one of the Sanudo maps (p. 224) Norway is divided into four peninsulas
may be connected with a similar conception.

[236] Cf. Finnur Jónsson [1901, ii. p. 948], who thinks that the part
dealing with the northern regions is not due to Nikulás. The hypothesis
put forward by Storm, in Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. 219, that it was Abbot
Nikolas of Thingeyre, appears less probable.

[237] If the old fishermen of the Polar Sea landed on any of these
countries (Novaya Zemlya, Spitzbergen), they would there have found
reindeer, which would again have strengthened their belief in the
connection by land.

[238] The reason for this might be supposed to be the very name of
Wineland, formed in a similar way to Greenland and Iceland, instead of
Vin-ey (Wine island). A "land," if one knew no better, would be more
likely to be connected with the continent; whereas, if it had been called
"ey," it would have continued to be an island, as indeed it is in the
Historia Norwegiæ (cf. p. 1).

[239] Storm [1890; 1892, pp. 78, ff.] and Björnbo [1909, pp. 229, ff.;
1910, pp. 82, ff.] have put forward views about these ideas of the
Scandinavians which differ somewhat from those here given (cf. above, p.
2), but in the main we are in agreement. I do not think Dr. Björnbo can be
altogether right in supposing that the Icelanders and Norwegians connected
Greenland with Bjarmeland, and Wineland with Africa, because the learned
views of the Middle Ages made this necessary; for this view of the world
also acknowledged islands in the ocean (cf. Adam of Bremen), perhaps
indeed more readily than it acknowledged peninsulas (cf. the wheel-maps).
But perhaps, after Greenland and Wineland had been connected with the
continents on other grounds, the prevailing learned view of the world
demanded that the Outer Ocean should be placed outside these countries, so
that they became peninsulas. But we have seen that side by side with this,
other views were also held (cf., for instance, the Rymbegla and the
Medicean mappamundi, pp. 236, 239).

[240] The name of the work ("Konungs-Skuggsjá" or "Speculum Regale") had
its prototype in the names of those books which were written in India for
the education of princes, and which were called Princes' Mirrors. In
imitation of these, "mirror" (speculum) was used as the title of works of
various kinds in mediæval Europe.

[241] Various guesses have been made as to who the author may have been
and when the work was written. It appears to me that there is much to be
said for the opinion put forward by A. V. Heffermehl [1904], that the
author may have been the priest Ivor Bodde, Håkon Håkonsson's
foster-father. In that case the work must have been written somewhat
earlier than commonly supposed [Storm put it between 1250 and 1260], and
it appears that Heffermehl has given good reasons for assuming that it may
have been written several years before 1250. Considerable weight as
regards the determination of its date must be attached to the circumstance
that, in the opinion of Professor Marius Hægstad, a vellum sheet preserved
at Copenhagen (new royal collection, No. 235g) has linguistic forms which
must place it certainly before 1250, and the vellum must have belonged to
a copy of an older MS. On the other hand, Professor Moltke Moe has pointed
out in his lectures that the quotations in the "King's Mirror" from the
book of the Marvels of India, from Prester John's letter, are derived from
a version of the latter which, as shown by Zarncke, is not known before
about 1300. Moltke Moe therefore supposes that the "King's Mirror," in the
form we know it, may be a later and incomplete adaptation of the original
work. The latter may have been written by Ivar Bodde in his old age
between 1230 and 1240.

[242] If Professor Moltke Moe's view is correct, that the "King's Mirror,"
in the form which we know, is a later adaptation (cf. p. 242, note 2), it
may be supposed that the section on Ireland was inserted by the adapter.
Presumably a thorough examination of the linguistic forms would determine
whether this is probable.

[243] The famous Roger Bacon is said to have already made an attempt,
before Ptolemy's Geography was known, to draw a map according to
mathematical determinations of locality; but the map is lost [Roger Bacon,
Opus majus, fol. 186-189]. The title of Nicholas of Lynn's book is said to
have been: "Inventio fortunate qui liber incipet a gradu 54, usque ad
polum" (i.e., which book begins [in its description] at 54° [and goes] as
far as the pole) [cf. Hakluyt, Princ. Nav., 1903, p. 303]. This may show
that degrees were already in use at that time (1360) for geographical
description.

[244] On Claudius Clavus see in particular Storm's work of fundamental
importance [1880-1891], and the valuable monograph by Björnbo and Petersen
[1904, 1909], also A. A. Björnbo [1910]. Cf. further Nordenskiöld [1897,
pp. 86, ff.], v. Wieser [Peterm. Mitteilungen, xlv. 1899, pp. 119, ff.],
Jos. Fischer [1902, cap. 5], and others.

[245] Cf. Axel Olrik, "Danske Studier," 1904, p. 215.

[246] This "secundum" in the MS. must doubtless have been inserted by a
copyist. Björnbo and Petersen think the original had "ij," which the
copyist took for a Roman numeral and replaced by "secundum." As it might
seem strange that the man lived "'in' a river of Greenland," Axel Olrik
thought that the word might have been "wit" (by, or near); but then it
becomes more difficult to understand how and why the word should have been
replaced by "secundum," unless the copyist had some knowledge of Danish.

[247] "Danske Studier," 1907, p. 228.

[248] Many vain searches were afterwards made (in 1451 and 1461) in the
monastery of Sorö for this MS. of Livy, and there may therefore be grounds
for doubting the statement to be true [cf. Björnbo and Petersen, 1909, pp.
197, f.].

[249] Cf. the maps on pp. 223, 224. As we certainly do not know nearly all
the maps that were in use at that time, I regard it as probable that
Claudius or his draughtsman had older maps, now lost, of this or a similar
type, which resemble the Nancy map even more closely than these two known
maps. But of course it is wiser to confine ourselves as far as possible to
those we know.

[250] Storm [1891, p. 16] was the first to hold that Clavus made use of
Italian compass-charts as his model for the delineation of the south coast
of Scandinavia, and that he also took names from them. Björnbo and
Petersen have rejected this view, as the names in Clavus's text are
principally taken from other sources, and the Baltic has been given quite
a different shape. But the necessity of this change seems to have escaped
them, as it was caused by Clavus retaining Ptolemy's outline for the South
coast of the Baltic.

[251] If we assume that the names "Wildhlappelandi," "Pigmei," etc., on
the Nancy map are due to Clavus himself, he may have had some authority
like that of the anonymous letter to Pope Nicholas V. (of about 1450),
which Michel Beheim may also have used (see later). From this source he
may have obtained the information about the land connection between the
land to the north-east of Norway and Greenland. As will be mentioned later
(p. 270), it is possible that this source was Nicholas of Lynn.

[252] Storm [1891, p. 15] also maintains that on the Nancy map Thule has
been incorporated with Norway, but Björnbo and Petersen [1904, p. 194;
1909, p. 158] think that this must be regarded as "one of the unfortunate
results of his desire to reduce all Clavus's contributions to a single
one"; why, we are not told. According to my view there can be no doubt
that Storm is right. Clavus has made the south coast of Thule into the
southernmost coast of Norway, with its south-eastern point due north of
the island of Ocitis, and its south-western point north of the west side
of Orcadia, exactly as on Ptolemy's map. In addition, this coast has the
same latitude and longitude as the South coast of Ptolemy's Thule.

[253] Of course there is always the possibility that Clavus may have had
maps of the Medici type which resembled the Nancy map even more closely
than that with which we are acquainted.

[254] On this map the tongue of land in question is nameless, while on the
map of Europe in the Medicean Atlas it is given the name of "alogia,"
which shows it to have been regarded as a part of Norway (see the
reproduction, p. 260).

[255] As there is considerable difference between the coast-lines of
Europe on Ptolemy's maps and those on the Medici maps, one's scale of
latitude will vary according to the points one may choose for determining
it. The points here given were the first I tried, and as the resulting
scale seems to agree remarkably well with Clavus's later map I have kept
to it, although of course Clavus may have proceeded in a somewhat
different way in determining the scale on his map; in particular he seems
on the older map to have arranged it so that the parallel for 63° passed
through the southernmost part of Norway, corresponding to Ptolemy's Thule.
In order better to agree with this (cf. the left-hand scale of latitude of
the Nancy map) the degrees of latitude on the map above ought therefore to
be increased half a degree, and on the map, p. 236, nearly a degree.

[256] On the Nancy map the southern point of Greenland lies in 63° 30';
but as we do not know how accurately this copy reproduces Clavus's
original map, it is safer to confine ourselves to Clavus's text.

[257] Gerard Mercator writes that according to a tradition an English monk
and mathematician from Oxford [i.e., Nicholas of Lynn] had been in Norway
and in the islands of the north, and had described all these places and
determined their latitude by the astrolabe [cf. Hakluyt, Principal
Navigations, 1903, p. 301]. It is therefore possible that Clavus may have
obtained the latitudes of some places, such as Stavanger and Bergen, from
his work; but in any case he cannot have got the latitude of the southern
point of Greenland from it. Moreover, if he had had such accurate
information to depend on, it would be difficult to understand why he
retained the incorrect latitudes which he obtained by introducing those of
Ptolemy on the Medici map; in his later map, indeed, he has used nothing
else.

[258] Cf. Sturlubók and Ivan Bárdsson's description of Greenland. In
Hauk's Landnáma we read that it was from Hernum (that is, north of Bergen)
that they sailed west to Hvarf. According to this, then, the southern
point of Greenland would be brought even farther north than Bergen.

[259] Although Dr. Björnbo now admits that the Medici map must have been
used for Clavus's later map, he is still in doubt as to this being the
case with the older one (the original of the Nancy map); he is inclined to
think that this map may have been constructed from Northern sources,
sailing directions, etc. But there appear to me to be too many striking
agreements between the Medici map and the Nancy map for such an assumption
to be probable; and the following may be given as instances: the number of
bays between Skåne and the south coast of Norway, with the deepest bay on
the west; the resemblance between the south coast of Norway with its three
bays on the Nancy map and the south coast of the corresponding peninsula
to the north of Scotland on the Medici map; the high latitude of this
south coast on both maps; the agreement in latitude between the southern
point of Greenland and that of "alogia" in the Medici map; the remarkable
similarity in the relation between the longitudes of these two southern
points and the west coast of Ireland on both maps; the mutual relation in
latitude between the southern point of Greenland and the south coast of
Norway (with Stavanger); the far too northerly latitude of all these
places; the east coast of Greenland having the same main direction as the
east coast of the corresponding peninsula on the Medici map, etc. To these
may be added the similarity in the way the coast-lines are drawn, with
round bays. Each of these points of agreement may no doubt be explained,
as Björnbo suggests, as a coincidence and as having arisen in another way;
but when there are so many of them it must be admitted that a connection
is more natural.

[260] "Serica" on Ptolemy's map of the world lies in the extreme
north-east of Asia, and is most likely China.

[261] It seems possible, as Mr. O. Vangensten has suggested to me, that
this name may here be due to a confusion of Vermeland with Bjarmeland.
Peder Claussön Friis [Storm, 1881, p. 219] says that Greenland extends
round the north of the "Norwegian Sea" "eastward to Biarmeland or
Bermeland."

[262] Cf. Mandeville, 1883, pp. 180, 182, 183, f. Mandeville also says
that in the opinion of the old wise astronomers the circumference of the
world was 20,425 English miles; but he himself maintains that it is 31,500
miles.

[263] That the delineation of this coast is not based upon personal
examination, either by Clavus himself or by any possible informant, is
also shown by the fact that the coast has not a single real name. Even if
we suppose that Clavus, or his possible informant, during the voyage along
this coast, had been so unfortunate as not to meet with a single one of
the Norse inhabitants who might have communicated names, we cannot very
well assume that the crew of the ship on which the voyage was made were
totally unacquainted with Greenland; they must certainly have had plenty
of names and sea-marks.

[264] It must be remembered that Clavus's latitudes are throughout too
high; his south point of Greenland lies about three degrees too far north,
in 62° 40' instead of 59° 46'. If we carry this reduction to the most
northerly point he describes on the east coast, this will lie in about 62°
30' instead of 65° 35', and thus the coincidence with Cape Dan disappears.
His description of the east coast of Greenland in the Nancy map is quite
different.

[265] Such an inscription as this is quite in the style of Clavus's great
prototype, Ptolemy, in whom we often find: "this is the end of the coast
of the known land."

[266] It is worth remarking that Clavus puts his last point visible no
less than 1° 50' (that is, 110 nautical miles) to the north of the limit
of the known land. If a statement like this was calculated to be taken as
derived from local knowledge, it would not in any case disclose much
nautical experience.

[267] On the influence of these men on the cartographical representation
of the North, see in particular J. Fischer, 1902.

[268] As shown by Björnbo and Petersen, this is evidently Clavus's name
"Eyn Gronelandz aa" for a river on the east coast of Greenland, which was
misunderstood on Clavus's map and made the name of the country, assisted
perhaps by the resemblance in sound with the name Engromelandi (for
Ångermanland), which Clavus has on the north side of Scandinavia (p. 248).
This resemblance of sound may also have had something to do with the
removal of Greenland to the north of Norway.

[269] Cf. Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. p. 168. Björnbo [1910, p. 79] by a slip
quotes the letter to Pope Nicholas V. of about the same date, instead of
that given above.

[270] According to Lelewel [Epilogue, Pl. 6] this peninsula bears the name
of "Grinland," but this cannot be seen on the somewhat indistinct original
[cf. Björnbo, 1910, p. 80; Ongania, Pl. X.].

[271] Storm [1893], and following him J. Fischer [1902, pp. 99, ff.],
erroneously regard this island of Brazil as Markland (see above, p. 229).

[272] See J. Fischer, 1902, p. 99. Cf. also Björnbo, 1910, pp. 125, ff.,
who gives a drawing of the map.

[273] Two editions are reproduced in Nordenskiöld [1897, p. 61] and
Ongania [Pl. XIV.].

[274] Reproduced by Nordenskiöld [1897, p. 5] and Lelewel [1851, Pl.
XXXIII.]; Miller, 1895, iii. p. 138.

[275] Björnbo, by the way, only speaks of two islands, whereas in
Lelewel's reproduction there are four islands, which is no doubt correct.
It seems, too, as though all four could be faintly distinguished in
Björnbo's photographic reproduction [1910, p. 74].

[276] As to Behaim, see in particular Ravenstein, 1908.

[277] Cf. Storm, 1899, p. 5.

[278] Cf. Harrisse, 1892, pp. 655, ff.

[279] As is well known, the possibility has been suggested that during his
visit to Iceland in 1477 Columbus may have heard of the Norsemen's voyages
to Greenland, Markland and Wineland, and that this may have given him the
idea of his plan. Storm has pointed out, convincingly it seems to me, the
untenability of the latter supposition. But it appears to me that he has
overlooked the possibility of Columbus having heard tales of these voyages
in Bristol, or, still more probably, on a Bristol vessel. As, of course,
he must have been able to make himself understood among the other sailors
on board, it would be unlikely that he should not have heard such tales,
if they were known to his ship-mates.

[280] Willelmus Botoner, alias de Worcester (1415-1484). MS. in Corpus
Christi College, Cambridge, No. 210; printed in "Itineraria Symonis
Simeonis et Willelmi de Worcestre," ed. J. Nasmyth, Cambridge, 1778, pp.
223, 267. Cf. H. Harrisse, 1892, p. 659; Kretschmer, 1892, p. 219.

[281] The Island of the Seven Cities was a fabulous island out in the
Atlantic which is frequently alluded to in the latter part of the Middle
Ages.

[282] As to John Cabot and his voyages, see in particular Henry Harrisse
[1882, 1892, 1896, 1900], F. Tarducci [1892, 1894], Sir Clements R.
Markham [1893, 1897], Samuel Edward Dawson [1894, 1896, 1897], C. R.
Beazley [1898], G. Parker Winship [1899, 1900]. Harrisse amongst recent
authors has the special merit of having collected and arranged all the
authorities on John and Sebastian Cabot. Unfortunately I am unable to
follow him in his conclusions from these authorities as to the voyages of
John and Sebastian. It seems to me that, like most other writers, he pays
too much attention to later statements, derived directly or indirectly
from Sebastian Cabot, while he places too little reliance on what, in my
opinion, may be concluded with tolerable certainty from contemporary
sources. Sebastian Cabot's statements on various occasions, so far as we
know them, prove to be mutually conflicting, and it looks as if this wily
man seldom expressed himself without some arrière-pensée or other, which
was more to his own advantage than to that of the truth. My views of John
Cabot's voyage of 1497 on several points agree more nearly with those of
S. E. Dawson, and for later voyages with those of G. Parker Winship.

[283] Cf. Harrisse, 1896, pp. 1, ff.

[284] Cf. Harrisse, 1882, p. 325.

[285] The Minister Raimondo di Soncino says in his letter of December 18,
1497, to the Duke of Milan, that Cabot, "after having seen that the Kings
of Spain and Portugal had acquired unknown islands, had proposed to obtain
a similar acquisition for the King of England." It cannot be concluded
from this that it was not till then that Cabot formed his plans, though
probably it was at that time that he first entered into negotiations with
the King of England. It is in the same letter that Soncino tells of
Cabot's speculations on seeing caravans arriving at Mecca from the far
east with spices, etc. His son, Sebastian Cabot, who evidently on several
occasions made it appear as though he himself and not his father had
discovered the American continent, is reported (according to the statement
of the anonymous guest in Ramusio, see below) to have said that he [i.e.,
Sebastian] got the idea of his expedition after having heard of the
discovery of Columbus, which was a common subject of conversation at the
court of Henry VII. But even if Sebastian's words are correctly reported,
which is doubtful, he must demonstrably have been lying, and therefore no
weight can be attached to his statement; if he could sacrifice his father
to his personal advantage, then no doubt, if he profited by it, he could
also sacrifice his birthright in the plan to the advantage of Spain, in
the service of which country he then was. Furthermore, Ayala's letter,
quoted above, points to John Cabot having got expeditions sent out from
Bristol as early as 1491 to look for land in the west, and besides this we
know of such an expedition in 1480.

[286] They are dated March 5, in the eleventh year of the reign of Henry
VII. The eleventh year of Henry VII. was from August 22, 1495, to August
21, 1496.

[287] Cf. Harrisse, 1882, p. 315.

[288] It has been suggested that Cabot set out in 1496 and did not return
till August 1497 [cf. Church, 1897], but this cannot be reconciled with
the statements in the letters of Soncino and Pasqualigo that the
expedition had only lasted a few months.

[289] According to Soncino's letter of December 18, 1497, Cabot was a poor
man. In addition to this he was a foreigner, and as such was scarcely
looked upon with favour; but on the other hand, the reputation of Italian
sailors was great at that time, and he may therefore have been respected
for his knowledge of seamanship and cartography, which was not possessed
by the sailors of Bristol.

[290] The only ones of these named in the authorities (Soncino's letter,
December 18, 1497) are Cabot's Italian barber (surgeon ?) from Castione,
and a man from Burgundy.

[291] Between 1493 and 1500 at least thirty expeditions went in search of
the coast of America. These were all certainly provided with charts, and
some of them also produced maps of their discoveries, but not one of these
has been preserved. [Cf. Harrisse, 1900, p. 14.]

[292] No importance can be attached in this connection to any of the
statements derived at second or third hand from Sebastian Cabot and
communicated by Contarini, Peter Martyr, Ramusio, and others. So far as
they are worthy of credence, they must refer to one or more later voyages.
The statement in the Cottonian Chronicle and in the Fabyan Chronicle
refers to the voyage of 1498.

[293] Harrisse's reproduction of the letter [1882, p. 322] reads: "Vene in
nave per dubito ..."; while Tarducci [1892, p. 350] gives: "Vene in mare
per dubito ...", where "mare" is perhaps a misprint for "nave" (?) In any
case the meaning must be that Cabot turned back and would not go farther
into the country for fear of being attacked by the inhabitants, which
might easily have been dangerous for him with his small crew.

[294] That is, the mystical "Island of the Seven Cities" out in the
Atlantic.

[295] It is interesting that here we find attributed to the newly
discovered country the two features, dye-wood and silk, which were the
most costly treasures characteristic of the land that was sought, exactly
in the same way as the Norsemen attributed to their Wineland the Good the
two features, wine and cornfields (wheat), which were characteristic of
the Fortunate Isles. Thus history repeats itself.

[296] Probably Castiglione, near Chivari, by Genoa.

[297] Cf. Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Edinburgh, 1875, iv. p. 350;
and G. P. Winship, 1900, p. 99.

[298] It is by no means improbable that Cabot, who was an expert
navigator, knew that great-circle sailing gave the shorter course. For
instance, he might easily have seen this from a globe, and we are told
that he himself made a globe to illustrate his voyage (cf. p. 304).

[299] It must also be remembered that on the Newfoundland Banks and off
the coast of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia fogs are extremely prevalent (in
places over 50 per cent. of the days) at the time of year here in
question, so that their first sight of land might be accidental.

[300] Harrisse [1896, pp. 63, ff.] does not seem to have remarked that
Cabot must necessarily have been longer on the westward voyage, when he
had the prevailing winds against him, than on the homeward voyage, when
the wind conditions were favourable.

[301] No particular weight, it is true, can be attached to the map of 1544
which is attributed to Sebastian Cabot, or which was at any rate
influenced by him, as the statements of this man can never be depended
upon. At the same time, the information given on this map to the effect
that Cabot first reached land at Cape Breton agrees in a remarkable way
with La Cosa's map, as we shall see directly.

[302] The distance from Ireland to Newfoundland is fully 1600 geographical
miles, and to Cape Breton about 1900; but reckoned from Bristol it will be
about 280 miles more.

[303] To be perfectly accurate, the distance on La Cosa's map between
Ireland and Cauo de Ynglaterra is 1290 geographical miles; between Bristol
and the same cape 1620 miles; while the distance between Cauo de
Ynglaterra and the name of Cauo descubierto is 1080 miles. If we reckon
17-1/2 leagues to a degree, these distances correspond respectively to
376, 472 and 315 leagues; while 20 leagues to a degree give 430, 540 and
360 leagues. As the name of Cauo descubierto stands out in the sea to the
west of the cape it belongs to, the distance will be less, very nearly 300
leagues. Along the upper margin of the map a scale is provided, each
division of which, according to the usual practice, corresponds to 50
miglia. This gives us the distance from Ireland to Cauo de Ynglaterra as
1425 miglia, and from the latter to the name of Cauo descubierto 1200.
Reckoning 4 miglia to a legua, these distances will be 356 and 300
leagues.

[304] I here disregard altogether the common assertions that Cabot arrived
on the east coast of Newfoundland (at Cape Bonavista, or to the north of
it), or even on the coast of Labrador. This cannot possibly be reconciled
with La Cosa's map, nor does it agree with the accounts of Pasqualigo and
Soncino, nor, again, with the information on the map of 1544 (by Sebastian
Cabot ?), if we are to attach any weight to this. Other trustworthy
documents are unknown. No importance can be attributed to the evidence of
Cabot's having arrived in Labrador in 1497 which Harrisse (1896, pp. 78,
ff.) thinks may be seen in the circumstance that the English discoveries
are placed in the northernmost part of the east coast of North America
(between 56° and 60°) on the official Spanish maps of the first half of
the sixteenth century; this does not by any means counterbalance La Cosa's
map, which speaks plainly enough. Even if Sebastian Cabot had the
superintendence of these later maps, this proves little or nothing. If it
was to his interest not to offend the Spaniards by emphasising his
father's discoveries, he would scarcely have hesitated to omit them, or
allow them to be moved to the north. For on these very maps (e.g.,
Ribero's of 1529) it is claimed that the whole coast to the south-west of
Newfoundland ("Tiera nova de Cortereal") was discovered by Spaniards
(Gomez and Ayllon). But in addition to this, in so far as any importance
can be attributed to the inscriptions attached to "Labrador" on the
Spanish maps, they evidently, like others of the statements attributed to
Sebastian Cabot, do not refer to Cabot's discoveries of 1497, which are
found on La Cosa's map, but to discoveries made on later English voyages
from Bristol, on which ice was met with. If the map of 1544 can be
attributed to the collaboration of Sebastian Cabot, it further shows
clearly enough that he had no knowledge of the northern part of the east
coast of America, since he makes it extend to the east and north-east,
which is due to Greenland (Labrador) being included in it. The map is a
plagiarism of an earlier French one. Harrisse's view results in complete
embarrassment in the interpretation of La Cosa's map [cf. 1900, p. 21],
and he is obliged to abandon the attempt to make anything of it, since, of
course, it contradicts all he thinks may be concluded from the much later
Spanish maps. Moreover, since Harrisse insists so strongly on the
importance of the northerly latitudes of the English discoveries on these
maps (and on La Cosa's) as a proof of their being on the coast of
Labrador, it should be pointed out that the latitudes of Newfoundland, for
instance, and Greenland, to say nothing of the West Indian islands, vary
on the maps; this shows that no weight can be attached to evidence of this
kind.

[305] It has been maintained that "Cauo descubierto" must denote the land
he first sighted; but the name only means "discovered cape," and says
nothing as to its being discovered first or last. There may indeed have
been more about it on Cabot's original map, and it happens that on La
Cosa's map there is a hole in the parchment just after this name. That it
should be the same cape that on "Sebastian Cabot's" map of 1544 is called
"Prima tierra vista" is not likely, as this lies at the extreme east of
the promontory of Cape Breton.

[306] For determining this I have to some extent relied on later maps,
chiefly the Cantino map, where the direction of the north-eastern coast of
Newfoundland gives a magnetic error of between 31° and 38°, and the
direction between Cape Farewell and Cape Race gives an error of 28°, which
is certainly somewhat too high.

[307] To this it might be objected that he says "the tides are sluggish,
and do not run" as in England ("le aque e stanche e non han corso come
qui"). The tide is considerable inside the Bay of Fundy, but on the coast
of Maine and in the outer waters of Nova Scotia it is slight in comparison
with the tide Cabot was acquainted with in the Bristol Channel.

[308] It must always be remembered that La Cosa did not have Cabot's
original chart, on which the coast and the Bay of Fundy may have been
represented more in accordance with reality.

[309] La Cosa's map may point to his having made a cruise in the open sea
westward from Cauo descubierto before turning, and having seen the coast
extending on, until in the far west it turned southward towards a
headland, perhaps Cape Cod, where La Cosa put his westernmost flag. But
this seems doubtful, and is only guessing.

[310] That the distance between these islands and Cauo de Ynglaterra is
less than half what it ought to be on La Cosa's map cannot be considered
of decisive importance, since, as we have seen, the distances on this map
are in general not to be relied on. The name "S. Grigor" must certainly be
due to the Englishmen, while "Y. verde" may be due to Cabot or to La Cosa,
and may be the same name as is found on compass-charts of the fifteenth
century (cf. above, p. 279). La Cosa or Cabot may have taken these two
islands to be the same as "Illa verde" and "Illa brazil" on these older
charts, and while one of the islands has been given a new name perhaps
because there were other islands with the name of Brazil (?), or because
this island was nameless on some of the compass-charts; see above, p. 281,
the other has been allowed to retain the old name, which was originally a
translation of Greenland. This old land of the Norsemen is here brought
far to the south, and reduced to a very modest size, being confused with
peninsulas of Newfoundland.

[311] As evidence that a homeward voyage of twenty-three days would not be
unusually fast sailing for that time, it may be mentioned for comparison
that Cartier, in June and July 1536, took nineteen days from Cape Race to
St. Malo. Champlain made the same voyage in 1603 in eighteen days, and in
1607 he took twenty-seven days from Canso, near Cape Breton, to St. Malo.

[312] Cf. Dawson, 1897, pp. 209, ff.

[313] Hakluyt [Principal Navigations, London, 1589] gives a corresponding
inscription from the copy of this map which at that time was in the
queen's private gallery at Westminster; it was engraved in London in 1549
by the well-known Clement Adams. As in 1549 Sebastian Cabot held a high
position with the King of England as adviser on all maritime matters, and
especially as cartographer, we must suppose that he was consulted in the
publication of so important a map, especially as it was attributed to
himself. We may therefore assume that the inscription was revised by
Sebastian Cabot. Hakluyt mentions this legend on Clement Adams's map for
the first time in 1584 [cf. Winship, 1900, p. 56] and then says, as in the
first edition of Principal Navigations, that the date of the discovery was
1494; but in the 1600 edition of Principal Navigations he corrected it to
1497, for what reason is uncertain [cf. Taducci, 1892, p. 47; Harrisse,
1892, 1896; Winship, 1900, pp. 20, f.]. How the certainly erroneous date
1494 got on to the map of 1544 is unknown; it may be supposed that
MCCCCXCIIII is an error of reading or writing for MCCCCXCVII, the two
strokes of V being taken to be divided: II [cf. Harrisse, 1896, p. 61].

[314] Another possible explanation is that Cauo de Ynglaterra, Cabot's
most eastern point of the country, was Cape Race in Newfoundland, in spite
of Sebastian Cabot's having placed it at Cape Breton. As has been said, it
is very doubtful whether Sebastian Cabot was with his father in 1497,
though on the other hand he probably knew his father's map, and in 1544
had a copy of it, or at any rate of La Cosa's. Then he saw the French maps
representing Cartier's discoveries, e.g., Deslien's map of 1541; and it
was a question of identifying his father's discoveries with this map. It
would then be perfectly natural to assume that C. de Ynglaterra answered
to Cape Breton, which looked like the easternmost point of the mainland in
that region, while farther east there was a group of islands which might
well answer to S. Grigor and Y. Verde on La Cosa's map. Perhaps he also
had a note to the effect that it was on St. John's day that the first land
was sighted. On his father's map he found an island of St. John off this
promontory, or he knew it from the tradition of Reinel's and later maps,
and so placed his "Prima tierra vista" at Cape Breton. If the view that C.
de Ynglaterra is Cape Race be regarded as correct, it might be assumed
that Cauo descubierto was really the place where Cabot first made the
land, perhaps in the neighbourhood of Cape Breton, and that from thence he
sailed eastward, the supposed 300 leagues, along the south coast of
Newfoundland. The two islands he discovered to starboard might then be
Grand Miquelon and St. Pierre, though this is not very probable, and he
would then have sailed between them and the land. But in that case we have
a difficulty with the two islands, S. Grigor and Y. Verde, which must then
lie east of Cape Race, where no islands exist. That they were icebergs
taken for islands is not very likely. It is more probable that, as already
suggested, they are the ghosts of the "Illa Verde" and "Illa de Brasil" of
earlier compass-charts (of the fifteenth century; see above, pp. 279,
318). But the whole of this explanation seems rather artificial, and the
even coast of La Cosa's map is difficult to reconcile with the extremely
uneven coast-line we should get between Cape Breton Island and Cape Race.
There is the further difficulty, if La Cosa's coast was the south coast of
Newfoundland, that we should have to assume that John Cabot was aware of
the variation of the compass, and allowed for it on his chart.

[315] This would be, according to the reckoning of that time, February 3,
1497, since the civil year began on March 25; in New Style it will
therefore be February 12, 1498.

[316] The MS. is preserved in the British Museum. Cf. G. P. Winship, 1900,
p. 47.

[317] The text has "vicinidades," but Desimoni [1881, Pref. p. 15]
supposes it to be a misreading for "septe citades," i.e., "the Seven
Cities."

[318] "Spero" is obviously a slip of the pen for "spera."

[319] Harrisse's contention [1896, pp. 129, ff.], that this expression,
"surmysed to be grete commodities," points to the chronicler here having
introduced statements about the first voyage, in 1497, is hardly well
founded. For Cabot discovered, according to the statements, no commodities
(except fish) in 1497; on the other hand, he supposed that by penetrating
farther to the west along the coast he would reach these treasures.

[320] Cf. G. P. Winship, 1900, p. 47. In the Cottonian Chronicle this
account is given under the thirteenth year of Henry VII.'s reign, which
lasted from August 22, 1497, to August 21, 1498. This has led some to
think it referred to the voyage of 1497, but that is impossible, as, of
course, Cabot had returned before the thirteenth year of Henry's reign
began.

[321] In the note preceding this statement taken from Fabyan, Hakluyt has
made Sebastian Cabot leader of the expedition; but there is nothing to
this effect in the text.

[322] It was suggested above that the Burgundian who took part in Cabot's
voyage in 1497 may have been from the Azores. It might be supposed that he
also accompanied João Fernandez or Corte-Real in 1500, and now took part
with Fernandez in the English undertaking, and in this way we should get a
connection; but all this is mere guessing.

[323] Possibly the first-named Portuguese was the origin of the name of
"Labrador." On a Portuguese map of the sixteenth century, preserved at
Wolfenbüttel, it is stated that the country of Labrador was "discovered by
Englishmen from the town of Bristol, and as he who first gave the
information was a 'labrador' [i.e., labourer] from the Azores, they gave
it that name" [cf. Harrisse, 1892, p. 580; 1900, p. 40]. Ernesto do Canto
[Archivo dos Açores, xii. 1894] points out that in documents of as early
as 1492 there is mention of a João Fernandez who is described as
"llavorador," and who was engaged with another (Pero de Barcellos) in
making discoveries at sea. "Llavorador" did not mean merely a common
labourer, but one who tilled the ground, an agriculturist, landowner. We
are then tempted to suppose that, as Do Canto assumes, this João Fernandez
llavorador is John Fernandus, who is mentioned in the letters patent of
1501. The name of Labrador first appears on Portuguese maps (cf. the King
map of about 1502), and is there used of Greenland. It may there be due to
this João Fernandez (llavorador), who, perhaps, returned to Portugal in
1502, as he is no longer mentioned in the letters patent of December 1502
[cf. Harrisse, 1900, p. 40, ff.; Björnbo, 1910, p. 174]. Possibly he may
have accompanied Corte-Real in 1500, or himself made a voyage in that year
(see next chapter), before he came to Bristol; of that we know nothing,
but in that case the name refers to some such Portuguese voyage, on which
we know that Greenland was sighted in 1500, though the voyagers were
unable to reach the coast (see next chapter). It may then be supposed that
the English expedition from Bristol in 1501, in which João Fernandez took
part, did reach the coast of Greenland, and therefore on later maps the
discovery was attributed to the English, who not only saw the coast, but
also landed on it. The Spanish cosmographer Alonso de Santa Cruz (born
1506) says: "It was called the land of Labrador because it was mentioned
and indicated by a 'labrador' from the Azores to the King of England, when
he sent on a voyage of discovery Antonio [sic] Gabot, the English pilot
and father of Sebastian Gabot, who is now Pilot Major (piloto mayor) to
Your Majesty" [cf. Harrisse, 1896, p. 80]. As this was written so long
after, and in Spain, it is not surprising that Cabot's voyage of 1497 has
been confused with the voyage of 1501, especially as it was not to the
interest of Sebastian, who was still in Spain at that time, to correct
this. The statement agrees, moreover, with the legend on the Portuguese
map at Wolfenbüttel.

[324] Cf. Harrisse, 1896, p. 147.

[325] In the repetition of the same statement (from Fabyan) in Stow's
Chronicle the eighteenth year is given as the date, i.e., August 22, 1502,
to August 21, 1503; but it is doubtful which is correct; it appears to me
that the text itself must be more original in Hakluyt; but the date occurs
in the heading added by himself.

[326] The most natural explanation of this seems to me to be that Fabyan,
whom Hakluyt quotes, thought that these savages were taken on the same
island [i.e., North America] that John Cabot had discovered [in 1497]; of
whose expedition in 1498 he had said that it had not returned during the
mayoralty of William Purchas, see above, p. 326. That Hakluyt also
interpreted Fabyan's words thus seems to result from the fact that in his
later repetition of this, in "Principal Navigations," in 1589 and
1599-1600, he has altered the heading, making it the fourteenth (instead
of the seventeenth) year of Henry VII. [i.e., August 22, 1498-August 21,
1499] when the three savages were brought to him. Hakluyt must then have
misunderstood it to mean that they were taken on the voyage of 1498.

[327] In Hakluyt's heading to this statement we are told that it was
Sebastian Cabot who brought these savages; but his name is not mentioned
in the text itself, which appears to be more genuine than the heading, and
there is no ground for supposing that Sebastian took part in either of
these expeditions of 1501 or 1502; in any case he was not the leader. In
Stow's version [Winship, 1900, p. 95] Sebastian Gabato is introduced into
the text as he who had taken the three men; but, as suggested above,
Stow's text seems less original than Hakluyt's. It is probable that both
Stow and Hakluyt may have started from the assumption that it was
Sebastian Cabot who made the voyage, and, therefore, that they
thoughtlessly introduced his name [cf. Harrisse, 1896, pp. 142, ff.]; on
the other hand it appears to me doubtful that his name should already have
occurred in Fabyan in this connection.

[328] Greenland is represented on the map conformably to the type that was
introduced on some mappemundi after Clavus's map (cf. p. 278).

[329] As to the works of these authors, see Winship [1900]. Markham [1893]
reproduces them (except Contarini's report of 1536) in translations,
which, however, must be used with some caution.

[330] These two ships and the three hundred men occur in Peter Martyr and
Contarini, as well as in Gomara and Galvano; while Ramusio only has two
ships and says nothing about the crews.

[331] In Peter Martyr's original account no latitude is given.

[332] The meaning must be that these islands of ice were aground, but that
nevertheless a line of one hundred fathoms did not reach the bottom. The
ice must consequently have been over one hundred fathoms thick, which, of
course, was a remarkable discovery at that time.

[333] This was the name at that time (1550) for the whole south-eastern
part of the present United States.

[334] Cf. Winship, 1900, p. 89. Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1576 repeats the
same statement almost word for word, saying that he has taken it from
maps, on which Sebastian Cabot had described "from personal experience"
the north-west passage to China [cf. Winship, 1900, pp. 17, 52; Kohl,
1869, p. 217].

[335] Cf. Harrisse, 1896, pp. 159, ff.; Winship, 1900, p. 44.

[336] We must then suppose that "Henry VII." in Ramusio is an error for
"Henry VIII."

[337] Cf. Harrisse, 1883, p. 44.

[338] Cf. Harrisse, 1883, Supplement post scriptum, pp. 6, ff.

[339] As remarked above (p. 328), it is possible that these objects
belonged to John Cabot's unfortunate expedition of 1498.

[340] The document, as reproduced, has 1502. As the civil year at that
time began on March 25, the date given would correspond to January 24,
1503, according to our calendar. But, according to the tradition given in
later accounts, Miguel Corte-Real sailed in 1502, the year after his
brother (cf. the legend on the Portuguese chart of about 1520, p. 354).
Either we must suppose that the year or month in the document is an error,
or the tradition is incorrect.

[341] These five months are a little difficult to understand. Either they
must be reckoned from his departure--if we put that in May 1501, five
months will take us to October 1501, but then the other ship had returned
(see pp. 347, ff.)--or they must be reckoned from the return of the "two
ships" (in October), but that takes us to March 1502. Thus neither gives
good sense. Most likely, as in the case of the three ships instead of two,
it is an error in the document.

[342] Cf. Harrisse, 1883, p. 214.

[343] Cf. Kohl, 1869, p. 179, Pl. X.; Kretschmer, 1892, Pl. XII.; Björnbo,
1910, p. 212.

[344] It might be objected that Gaspar Corte-Real's name is not mentioned
in the whole letter, and that he might thus have also been in command of
these "other caravels"; but in Pasqualigo's letter to his brothers
Gaspar's name is mentioned, and there too the meaning does not seem to be
that he was connected with the discovery in the previous year of the
country which could not be approached because of ice; but nothing definite
can be concluded on this point from the two letters.

[345] The connection with the latter is evidently brought about by the
south coast of the insular Greenland (Terra Laboratoris)--which we meet
with first on the King map (p. 373), and which was given a broad form like
that of the Greenland coast on the Oliveriana map (p. 375), but even
broader--being transferred westward towards America, to the north of the
coast of Corte-Real or Newfoundland, as we find it on the anonymous
Portuguese chart of about 1520 (p. 354) and on Reinel's map (p. 321).
Maggiolo's map (see above) forms a transitional type between these maps
and the Oliveriana. Greenland (Labrador) was later made continuous with
Newfoundland (cf. Ribero's map of 1529, p. 357), and remained so on maps
for a long time (see the map of 1544, p. 320).

[346] The expedition attributed to João Vaz Corte-Real, on which he is
said to have discovered Newfoundland as early as 1464 or 1474, is
unhistorical, and is a comparatively late invention which is first found
in the Portuguese author, Dr. Gaspar Fructuoso, in his "Saudades da Terra"
[vi. c. 9], written about 1590 [cf. Harrisse, 1883, pp. 26, ff.]. Father
Antonio Cordeyro (Historia Insulana, Lisbon, 1717) says that the discovery
was made in company with Alvaro Martins Homen.

[347] It may also be supposed that from the ice off the south-west of
Greenland Corte-Real steered north-west and west, and met with the ice in
the Labrador Current, and was then obliged to turn southwards along the
edge of the ice until he sighted land.

[348] These times given by Cantino for the voyage are, of course,
improbable; if we might suppose that he meant weeks instead of months, it
would agree with the time naturally occupied on such a voyage. If we add
his one month for the homeward voyage to the seven months given above, and
if another month be reckoned for the stay in the country, we shall have
his nine months for the whole voyage.

[349] That the Eskimo lived in caves in the mountains or underground was a
not uncommon idea even in later times; see, for instance, Wilhelmi:
Island, Hvitramannaland, Grönland und Finland, 1842, p. 172.

[350] We do not know that the Indians of Newfoundland had hide-boats; but
it is not impossible.

[351] This land connection is found on the Canerio map of 1502-1507, which
is of the same type as the Cantino map and is an Italian copy, either of
the Cantino map itself or of a similar Portuguese map of 1501 or 1502 [cf.
Björnbo, 1910, p. 167].

[352] Since I contended, in a preliminary sketch of this chapter, which
Dr. A. A. Björnbo read, that the representation of Greenland on the
Cantino map was most probably based on a voyage along the west coast as
well as the east, Dr. Björnbo [1910a, pp. 313, ff.; 1910, pp. 176, ff.]
has examined the delineation of Greenland on the Oliveriana map, and found
that it represents discoveries made during a cruise, not only along the
east coast, but also along a part of the south-west coast, and he sees in
this a partial confirmation of my contention. He thinks it was during
Corte-Real's voyage of 1500 that this cruise was made, and even supposes
that the prototype of the Oliveriana map was Corte-Real's admiral's chart
itself; but this I regard as very doubtful, as will appear from what I
have said above regarding the discoveries of 1500. Björnbo thinks that an
original map like the Oliveriana map is sufficient to explain the form of
the west coast of Greenland on the Cantino map, while the more northern
portion has been given a direction in accordance with the Clavus maps. I
have admitted to Björnbo the possibility of such an explanation. But the
more I look at it, the more doubtful it seems; for the form of the west
coast on the Cantino map has, in fact, not the least resemblance to that
of the Clavus maps; indeed, the very direction is different, more
northerly and more like the real direction, when allowance is made for the
probable variation. It appears to me, therefore, that we cannot assume
offhand that the Clavus maps could lead to a representation like that of
the Cantino map.

[353] Owing to the compass error varying in the course of the voyage, the
courses sailed will be more nearly parts of a great circle.

[354] According to the scale of the Cantino map this distance is about
2250 miglia, but according to Pasqualigo's letters it should be 1800 or
2000, and according to Cantino's letter 2800 miglia.

[355] This is not the place to discuss what is represented by the coast of
the mainland to the west of Cuba on the Cantino map, whether the east
coast of Asia, taken from Toscanelli's mappamundi (or a source like
Behaim's globe), or real discoveries on the coast of North America made by
unknown expeditions (?). In any case this coast has nothing to do with
Gaspar Corte-Real, and Sir Clements Markham [1893, pp. xlix, ff.] is
evidently wrong in thinking that this discoverer on his last voyage (in
1501) may have sailed along this coast.

[356] Yet a third type of representation of Greenland may be said to be
found on the so-called Pilestrina map (p. 377), perhaps of 1511 [cf.
Björnbo, 1910, p. 210], where Greenland forms a peninsula (from a mass of
land on the north) as on the Cantino map, but much broader still. On the
south-eastern promontory of Greenland is here written: "C[auo] de mirame
et lexame" (i.e., Cape "look at me but don't touch me"), which may be
connected with the Portuguese voyage of 1500, when the explorers saw the
coast but could not approach it on account of ice. Finally, I may mention
the type of the Reinel map (see p. 321), where Greenland in the form of a
broad land has been transferred to the coast of America. On all these maps
with their changing representation of Greenland, Newfoundland has
approximately the same form and position.

[357] Cf. Harrisse, 1900, pp. 54, f.

[358] That Miguel Corte-Real really reached Newfoundland seems also to
result from the legend quoted above from the chart of about 1520, since he
would hardly be named on this coast unless there were grounds for
supposing that he arrived there; but this again must point to some of the
expedition having returned.

[359] If Miguel Corte-Real set out in 1503, and not in 1502 (cf. p. 353,
note 1), it must have been in 1504 that the King despatched these fresh
ships.

[360] It is reported that in 1574 Vasqueanes Corte-Real IV., father of
this Manuel, undertook an expedition to Labrador to find the North-West
Passage.