[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.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.

Subscripted characters are indicated by X_{subscript}.

The original text contains a few æ ligatures with circumflex diacritical;

these are not represented in this text version.

Some of the Greek characters in the origianl text contain diacritical

markings that are not represented in this text version.