In Northern Mists Volume I Part 34

[330] L. Annaeus 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 a.s.suming 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 Praestegjaeld."

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 Smlenene. From this it looks as if the idea was widely spread in Norway.

[334] In Hauk's Landnamabok Vin(d)land is mentioned in one other pa.s.sage [cap. 175], in connection with Karlsevne, who is said to have discovered it; but nothing is said about this in the Sturlubok, 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 pa.s.ses 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 ?a??pt? == 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 "sid"--people, who are also invisible, and the women in "Tir 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 ("Tir 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 "Trag in-Chairn" (the strand of cairns) [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p.

271]. This might remind us of h.e.l.luland (?).

[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 pa.s.sage runs: "And they came to the valley of grapes, cut a branch with its cl.u.s.ter 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 Aelis of Louvain; cf. Gaston Paris: La Litterature Francaise 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, Snaebjorn Galti's and Rolf of Raudesand's voyage to the Gunnbjornskerries, Eric the Red's voyage with his father from Norway, and afterwards from Iceland, etc. Bjorn Breidvikingekjaempe was also obliged to leave Iceland on account of his illicit love for Snorre G.o.de'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 "scaltae," which in the "Navigatio Brandani" cover the low island, bare of trees, called the "Strong Men's Island" [Schroder, 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 "scaltae" 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 "scaltae" ("scaltis") is uncertain. Schroder 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 sh.e.l.ls.

[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 mediaeval maps was called "Isola dell' Inferno," is untenable, since the Phnicians'

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 cla.s.sical 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 Lauritzon Wolf's Norrigia Ill.u.s.trata, 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 pa.s.sage.

[352] W. Mannhardt: Germanische Mythen, Berlin, 1858, pp. 460 f. Cf. "Vita Merlini," the verses on the "Insula pomorum, qvae 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 Landnamabok he seems to have got his information from Ireland through other Icelanders.

[354] It is not, however, quite certain that "Vinland" (with a long "i") 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 islendingabok ("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 Landnamabok "Vindland hit goa" (in the two pa.s.sages where it is mentioned), in the Sturlubok "Irland et G.o.da," in the Kristni-saga (before 1245) probably "Vindland hit goa" [cf. F. Jonsson, Hauksbok, 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 "Vilendingr." 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 "Viland" (== tree-land). Influenced by myths of the Irish "Great Land" ("Tir Mor"), this might become "Viland" (== the great land, p. 357): but this again through the ideas of wine (from the Fortunate Isles), as in Adam of Bremen, might become "Vinland." We have a parallel to such a change of sound in the conversion of "vibein" (== 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 "Draumkvaede" is also called the "Draug-kvaede"; or that several names may have fused to become one, similarity of sound and character being the deciding factor.

[355] Cf. Peder Clausson Friis, Storm's edition, 1881, p. 298; A. h.e.l.land, Nordlands Amt, 1907, i. p. 59, ii. pp. 467 f. Yngvar Nielsen [1905] has remarked the resemblance between the epithet "hit Goa," applied to Wineland, and the name LandeG.o.de in Norway; but following Peder Clausson he regards this as a tabu-name. K. Rygh [Norske Gaardnavne, xvi. Nordl.

Amt, 1905, p. 201] thinks that P. Clausson's explanation of the name of Jomfruland is right in all three cases, that "Norwegian seamen 'from some superst.i.tion and fear' did not call it by the name of Jomfruland, which was already common at that time, while under sail, until they had pa.s.sed it." "It is, or at any rate has been, a common superst.i.tion 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 Strom in his Description of Sondmor [Soro, 1766, ii. p. 441] thought, however, that "LandeG.o.d" in Sunnmor was so called because it was the first land one made after pa.s.sing Stad; and "Svino" 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 Storskjaer for the island.

[356] V. Berard's explanation [1902, i. p. 579] that Phaeacians (Fa?a?e?) 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.

h.e.l.land: Finmarkens Amt, 1905, vol. ii. p. 261.

[359] Cf. Moltke Moe's communications in A. h.e.l.land: 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 Bjorno (Bjorno Lighthouse) near LandeG.o.de off Bodo, so is there mention of a Bjarn-ey near Markland on the way to "Vinland hit Goa." This may, of course, be purely a coincidence; but on the other hand there may be some connection.

[363] Cf. P. A. Save: 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 Svinoi is also a fairy island, as in Sunnmor and at Bronoi in Norway.

[367] This astonis.h.i.+ng etymological explanation of the ancient Phnician 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 Gaetulian 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 Hvitramanna-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. Sebillot, 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.