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.
[Sidenote: King Alfred, 849-901]
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')."
[Illustration: Map of Northern Scandinavia and the White Sea]
[Sidenote: Ottar's voyage to the White Sea, ninth century]
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.
[Sidenote: Norwegian whaling]
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.).
[Sidenote: Ottar's voyage to South Norway and Sleswick]
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.
[Illustration: Anglo-Saxon Map of the World, "Cottoniana," perhaps of the
eleventh century (from K. Miller)]
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.
[Sidenote: "Meregarto," eleventh century]
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.
[Illustration: Europe on the Anglo-Saxon Map of the World, "Cottoniana"
(eleventh century ?)]
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.
[Sidenote: Adam of Bremen, about 1070]
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."
[Illustration: Adam of Bremen's geographical idea of the countries and
islands of the North, as represented by A. A. Björnbo (1910)]
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."
[Sidenote: The Land of Women]
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:
[Sidenote: Cynocephali]
"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]:
[Sidenote: Nortmanni or Hyperboreans]
"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."
[Illustration: Uniped (from the Hereford map)]
Adam relates much about these people, their customs, religion, and so
forth:
[Sidenote: Finns and Skridfinns]
[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.
[Illustration: Cannibals in Eastern Europe (from the Hereford map)]
[Sidenote: Nortmannia or Nordvegia]
[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."
[Illustration: Elles (elk) and Urus (aurochs) in Russia (from the Ebstorf
map, 1284)]
"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.
[Sidenote: The Western Ocean]
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:
[Sidenote: The Orkneys]
"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 ?]."...
[Sidenote: Thule or Iceland]
[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."
[Sidenote: Greenland]
[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.
[Sidenote: Hálogaland]
"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."
[Sidenote: Winland]
[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]
[Sidenote: Frisian expedition to the North Pole]
[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.
[Sidenote: Wineland]
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].
[Illustration: The so-called St. Severus version, of about 1050, of the
Beatus map (eighth century)]
[Sidenote: Conception of the earth and the ocean]
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.
[Illustration]