In Northern Mists Volume I Part 27

[40] It has been supposed that these three stars were of the Little Bear, a and ? of Draco. The pole was at that time far from the present pole-star, and nearer to of the Little Bear.

[41] Both "gnomon" and "polus" are mentioned as early as Herodotus; and Athenaeus [v. 42] describes the polus in the library on board the s.h.i.+p "Hiero" which was built by Archimedes.

[42] It is not probable that Pytheas divided the earth's circ.u.mference into degrees. Even Eratosthenes (275-194 B.C.) still divided the circ.u.mference of the earth into sixty parts, each equal to 4200 stadia, and the division into degrees was first universally employed by Hipparchus. But Aristarchus of Samos, and perhaps even Thales, had already learnt that the sun's diameter was 2 360 or 720 times contained in the circle described by them. It is possible that they originally had this from the Chaldaeans.

[43] When it is brought forward as a proof of Pytheas having made such angle-measurements [cf. Mair, 1906, p. 28], that Hipparchus is said to have given the sun's height (in cubits) above the horizon at the winter solstice for three different places in north-west Europe [cf. Strabo, ii.

75], it must be remembered that if these alt.i.tudes were direct measurements by Pytheas himself, he must have been at each of these three places at the winter solstice, that is to say, in three different winters, where he found that in one place the sun stood six cubits, in another four cubits, and in the third less than three cubits above the horizon. This is improbable, and it is more reasonable to suppose that these alt.i.tudes are the result of calculations either by Pytheas himself or by Hipparchus from his data.

[44] In Diodorus it is called Orkan, but this may be the accusative of Orkas, as in later writers, also in Ptolemy (Mullenhoff, 1870, p. 377, thinks that Orkan is the real form), and from which the name Orcades has been formed for the group of islands immediately to the north. Orkneyar or Orkneys certainly comes from the same word, which must presumably be of Celtic origin. P. A. Munch [1852, pp. 44-46] thought that the name came from the Gaelic word "orc" for the grampus (the specific name of which in Latin was therefore "Delphinus orca," now called "Orca gladiator"). This species of whale is common on the coasts of Norway, the Shetlands and Orkneys, the Faeroes and farther west. It usually swims in schools, and is the great whale's deadliest enemy, attacking it in numbers and cutting blubber out of its sides. The Eskimo in Greenland a.s.sert that it is sometimes dangerous to kayaks; I myself have only once seen a grampus attack a boat; but in any case it is a species which easily draws attention to itself wherever it appears.

[45] Allowing for the greater bays, and putting a degree of lat.i.tude at 700 stadia, the sides of Great Britain are about 4000, 7800 and 12,000 stadia; altogether 23,800 stadia, or about 2375 miles.

[46] Strabo erred just as much on his side in making the circ.u.mference of Britain much too small.

[47] Cf. Hergt, 1893, p. 44. This hypothesis is supported by the round numbers which answer to 7-1/2, 15, and 20 days' sail.

[48] The Greeks divided the day into twelve hours at all times of the year; it was thus only at the equinoxes, when the day was really twelve hours long, that the hours were of the same length as ours. These are, therefore, called equinoctial hours.

[49] A similar statement in Cleomedes [i. 7], after Eratosthenes and Posidonius [i. 10], may also be derived from Pytheas: "the longest day in Britain has eighteen hours."

[50] If we a.s.sume that the length of the day was found by a theoretical calculation of the time between the rising and setting of the sun's centre above the horizon, without taking account of refraction, then a longest day of nineteen hours answers to 60 52' N. lat.; but if we suppose that the length of the day was found by direct observation and was calculated from the first appearance of the sun's limb in the morning until its final disappearance in the evening, then horizontal refraction will be of importance (besides having to take the sun's semi-diameter into account), and a longest day of nineteen hours then answers to 59 59' N. lat. Now the Shetland Isles lie between 59 51' and 60 51' N. lat.; while the northern point of the Orkneys lies in 59 23' N. lat., and has a longest day, theoretically of 18 hours 27 minutes, and actually of 18 hours 36 minutes. A longest day of 18 hours answers theoretically to 57 59', actually to fully 57 N. lat. Professor H. Geelmuyden has had the kindness to work out several of these calculations for me. Hipparchus said that at the winter solstice the sun attained to a height of less than three cubits above the horizon in the regions where the longest day was of nineteen hours. If we take one cubit as equal to two degrees these regions will then lie north of 60 N. lat.

[51] It may be possible, as many think, that it was the Shetlands that he called Orkan (or Orkas); but the more reliable of the known quotations from him seem rather to show that it was really the northernmost point of Britain, or the neighbouring Orkneys that were thus called by him, and have thenceforward been known by that name; while it is later authors who have extended the name also to Shetland. If this supposition be correct: that the islands north of Britain mentioned by Pliny [Nat. Hist. iv. 104]

are originally derived from Pytheas, which may be doubtful, and that Berricen (or Nerigon) is Mainland of Shetland, then Orkan cannot apply to these. But, as we shall see later, it is very doubtful what Pliny's islands may have been originally.

[52] Cf. Strabo [ii. 114] and Cleomedes [i. 7]. The Arctic Circle (or Circle of the Bear) was, as already mentioned, the circle round the celestial pole which formed the limit of the continuously visible (circ.u.mpolar) stars, and it had been given this name because in Asia Minor (and Greece) it ran through the Great Bear (Arctus). Its distance in degrees from the north celestial pole is equal to the lat.i.tude of the place of observation, and consequently increases as one goes farther north. At the polar circle, as mentioned above, it coincides with the Tropic of Cancer, and at the North Pole with the Equator. Cleomedes has also the remarkable statement that the lat.i.tude for a summer day of one month in length runs through Thule.

[53] It may be thought that Pytheas is merely relating a legend current among the barbarians that the sun went to its resting-place during the night, a myth which is moreover almost universal. But it seems more probable that as an astronomer he had something else in his mind. If he had had the two points accurately indicated to him, where the sun set and rose on the shortest night of the year, he must easily have been able, by measuring the angle between them, to ascertain how long the sun was down.

[54] These figures are kindly supplied by Professor H. Geelmuyden.

[55] According to existing MSS. of Solinus [c. 22] it was five days' sail to Thule from the Orcades, which must here be Shetland, and which are mentioned as the second station on the way to Thule; the Ebudes (Hebrides) were the first station. Mommsen [1895, p. 219] regards the pa.s.sage as corrupt, and considers it a later interpolation of between the 7th and 9th centuries.

[56] Cf. Brenner, 1877, pp. 32, 98.

[57] Cf. Keyser (1839), 1868, p. 92.

[58] If we were able to make out the etymological origin of the name Thule, it would perhaps give us some indication of where we ought to look for the country. But the various attempts that have been made to solve this riddle have been without success. It has been a.s.serted by several authors that it comes from an old Gothic word "tiele," or "tiule," which is said to mean limit [cf. Forbiger, 1842, iii. p. 312], or an Old Saxon word "thyle," "thul," "tell" (or "tell," "till," "tiul"), said to mean the same [cf. Markham, 1893, p. 519; and Callegari, 1904, p. 47]; but Professor Alf Torp, whom I have consulted, says that no such word can be found in either of these languages. The word has been further erroneously connected with the name Telemarken, which accordingly would mean borderland, but which in reality must be derived from the Norwegian word "tele," Old Norse "eli," frozen earth, and it is by no means impossible that Thule should be a Greek corruption of such a word. E. Benedikson has supposed that Thule might come from a Gallic word "houl," for sun [cf.

Callegari, 1904, p. 47], which with a preposition "de" (or other prefix) might have been thus corrupted in Greek; but Professor Torp informs me in a letter that no such Gallic word exists, though there is a Cymric "haul,"

"which in Gallic of that time must have sounded approximately 'havel,'"

and it "is quite impossible that a preposition or prefix 'de' could have coalesced with initial 'h' so as to result in anything like Thule." The Irish "temel" (Cymric "tywyll") for dark, which has also been tried [Keyser, 1839, p. 397; 1868, p. 166], or "tawel" for silent, still [Mullenhoff, 1870, i, p. 408], are of no more use, according to Torp, since both words at that time had "m," which has later become "w." The only Celtic root which in his opinion might be thought of is "'tel' (== raise, raise oneself), to which the Irish 'telach' and 'tulach' (== a height, mound); but this does not seem very appropriate. The Germanic form of this root is 'thel' (modification 'thul'); but in Germanic this is not applied to soil or land which rises. I cannot find anything else, either in Celtic or Germanic; it is thus impossible for me to decide to which of the languages the word may belong; I can only say that the Greek ? (th) rather points to Germanic. For no Celtic word begins with an aspirate, whereas Germanic, as you know, has trans.m.u.tation of consonants (Indo-germanic 't' to 'th,' etc.), and it is not impossible that this sound-change goes as far back as the time of Pytheas." Professor Torp has further drawn my attention to the fact that from the above-mentioned "thel," raise oneself, is formed the Old Norse "ollr," tree (cf. "oll"

== fir-tree), which in early times was "ull" as radical form. There might be a bare possibility of Thule being connected with this word.

If it should appear, as hinted here, that the word Thule is of Germanic origin, then the probability of the country lying outside the British Isles would be greatly strengthened; for Britain and the Scottish Islands were at that time not yet inhabited by a Germanic race, and the native Celts can only have known a Germanic name for a country from its own Germanic inhabitants. This land farther north must then be Norway.

It has been pointed out [cf. Cuno, 1871, i. p. 102; Mair, 1899, p. 15]

that the name Thule reminds one of "Tyle," the capital of the Celtic colony which was established in Thrace in the 3rd century B.C. But we know nothing of the origin of this latter name, and here again there is the difficulty that it begins with "t" and not "th."

It may be further mentioned that C. Hofmann [1865, p. 17] has suggested that Thule may come from such a name as "Thumla," which in the Upsala Edda [ii. 492] is the name of an unknown island, but which was also the name of an island at the mouth of the Gota river (cf. Thumlaheide in Hising). He thinks that a Greek could not p.r.o.nounce such a combination of sounds as "ml" (?), but would p.r.o.nounce it as "l" (?). The word would therefore become "Thula," or according to the usual form of the declension "Thule."

Meanwhile we know of no name resembling Thumla for any district which Pytheas could have reached from Britain.

[59] That Thule was Norway or Scandinavia was a.s.sumed as early as Procopius. In the last century this view was supported by Geijer, 1825; Sven Nilsson, 1837; R. Keyser, 1839; Petersen; H. J. Thue, 1843, and others. In recent years it has been especially maintained by Hergt, 1893.

[60] Mullenhoff's reasons for supposing that Thule cannot have been Norway are of little weight, and in part disclose an imperfect knowledge of the conditions. That Pytheas, if he came to Norway, must have found new species of animals and new races of men, especially the Lapps with their reindeer, which, according to Mullenhoff, he evidently did not find, is, for instance, an untenable a.s.sertion; for in the first place it is very uncertain whether the reindeer-Lapps had reached Norway so early as that time, since they appear to be a comparatively late immigration. In the second place, if they were really already living in Finmarken and the northern part of Helgeland (Halogaland), it is unreasonable to suppose that a seafarer who went along the coast as far as to the neighbourhood of the Arctic Circle should have met with these Lapps. Finally, it is impossible to take it for granted that Pytheas did not mention all the things that are not to be found in the chance quotations of later writers.

[61] The Arctic Circle at that time lay in 66 15' 20". If we put the horizontal refraction plus the sun's semi-diameter at 50' in round figures, then the upper edge of the sun would be visible at midnight at the summer solstice a little north of 65 25'.

[62] Cf. Markham, 1893. If the longest day of the year is given in the different authorities (Strabo, Geminus, etc.) at various places as seventeen, eighteen, nineteen hours, etc., after the statements of Pytheas, it must not, of course, be a.s.sumed that Pytheas was at each of these places precisely on Midsummer Day. It was only one of the Greek methods of indicating the lat.i.tude of places.

[63] The origin of this name for the northernmost or outer sea, which occurs in several authors, is somewhat uncertain. It is usually supposed [cf. Hergt, 1893, p. 71] that it comes from the Greek G.o.d "Cronos" (Latin "Saturn"). R. Keyser [1839, p. 396, 1868, p. 165] thought (after Toland in 1725) that it was of Celtic origin and cognate with the Welsh "croni," to collect together; "Muir-croinn" was supposed still to be Irish for the Polar Sea, and to have some such meaning as the curdled sea; but no such word is to be found in Irish or Old Irish [cf. Mullenhoff, 1870, p. 415].

[64] Hergt [1893, p. 71] lays stress on the use of "ultra" here and not "trans," and thinks that this does not indicate an immediate connection with Thule, but that we must rather suppose an intervening s.p.a.ce (?).

[65] Perhaps it is worth while to remark in this connection that on its second occurrence in the quotation the word is simply "lung" and not "sea-lung." If this is not to be looked upon merely as an abbreviation, it may indicate that the writer was really thinking of a bodily lung [cf.

Hergt, 1893, p. 74].

[66] It has occurred that drift-ice has been brought as far as the neighbourhood of Shetland by the East-Icelandic Polar current; but this is so entirely exceptional that it cannot be argued that Pytheas might have seen drift-ice there.

[67] It is difficult to understand how he was able to converse with the natives; but probably he took interpreters with him. In the south of England, for instance, he may have found people who had come in contact through the tin-trade with the Mediterranean peoples and understood their languages, and who could thus act as interpreters with the Celts. It would not be so easy with the Germanic people of Thule. But in Scotland he may have found Celts who understood the speech of Thule, and who could act as interpreters through the more southern Celtic people.

[68] It has already been mentioned that Avienus ascribes even to Himilco some similar ideas of the extreme parts of the ocean; and that Aristotle thought that the sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules was muddy and shallow and little stirred by the winds.

[69] According to a communication from Professor Moltke Moe.

[70] It has been supposed by some that this name, which may remind one of the "aestii" (Esthonians) mentioned by Tacitus, is really a clerical error for "Ostimii."

[71] The more usual spelling "Mentonomon" (after some MSS.) can hardly be right [cf. Detlefsen, 1904, p. 9]. The name may be connected with the Frisian "meden" (Old Frisian "mede" or "medu," English "meadow") for low-lying, swampy pasture, and in that case would suit the German North Sea coast well, between the Rhine and Sleswick-Holstein.

[72] The name may have some connection with those of Habel and Appeland among the Halligen Islands on the west coast of Sleswick [cf. Detlefsen, 1904, p. 60]. It also has some resemblance to "Sabalingii," which is given by Ptolemy as the name of a tribe in Jutland. The name Abalus (Greek, Abalos) has a remarkable likeness to Avalon (the apple-island) of Welsh folk-lore, and it is possibly originally the same word (?).

[73] As to what we know of the work of this important geographer see in particular Berger [1880].

[74] According to Eratosthenes' accurate calculation the Arctic Circle lay in 66 9' N. lat.

[75] Cf. Strabo, i. 63, ii. 114. More accurately it should be 37,400 stadia.

[76] Cf. Strabo, i. 5-6. Seleucus of Selucia on the Tigris lived in the middle of the 2nd century B.C., and was one of the few who (like Aristarchus of Samos, c. 260 B.C.) held the doctrine of the earth's rotation and movement round the sun.

[77] Herodotus [iv. 26] says of the Issedonians in Scythia that "when a man's father dies, all the relatives bring cattle; and when they have slain them as a sacrifice and cut the flesh in pieces, they also cut up their host's deceased father; then they mix all the flesh together and serve it for the meal; but the head they decorate with gold, after having taken the hair off and washed it; and afterwards they treat it as an idol and bring offerings to it every year." Such a cannibal custom, if it really existed, may have been connected with religious ideas. But Herodotus [i. 216] attributes to the Ma.s.sagetae the following still more horrible custom: "when a man grows very old, all his relatives a.s.semble and slay him, and together with him several kinds of cattle; then they boil the flesh and hold a banquet. This is accounted among them the happiest end."

[78] Cf. M. Schanz: "Geschichte der Romischen Literatur," ii. p. 241, 1899; in I. Muller: "Handb. Kla.s.s. Altert.-Wiss.," bd. viii. See also Mullenhoff, iv., 1900, p. 47.

[79] Cf. Detlefsen, 1897, p. 197; 1904, p. 45. By his voyage in 12 B.C.

with his fleet along the coast of the North Sea from the mouth of the Rhine and the Zuyder Zee to the mouth of the Ems, Drusus won fame as the first general who had sailed in the North Sea. The Romans, of course, were not great seafarers.

[80] The MSS. have "flamine" (winds); but it has been thought that "flumine" (streams) gives a better meaning [cf. Detlefsen, 1897, p. 198].

"Flamine" (winds) might, however, suit the ideas of the earth's limits (cf. the description of Himilco's voyage in Avienus, see above, p. 37).