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For teaching purposes; Quote cited references when available Ancient Emigrations To America |
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OTTAR
FROM Hålogaland RECOUNTS A VOYAGE TO
THE WHITE SEA AROUND 880 AD (Contact) "Ohthere told
his lord, King Alfred, that he lived farthest to the north of all the
Norwegians. He said that he lived by
the western sea in the north part of the land. However, that the land extends very much further north; but it
is all waste, except that Lapps camp in a few places here and there, hunting
in winter and fishing in the sea in summer.
On one occasion he wished to find out how far that land extended due
north, or whether anyone lived north of the waste. So he traveled close to the land, due north; he left the waste
land on the starboard and the open sea on the port all the way for three days
to be as far north as the whale-hunters ever travel. He traveled still due north as far as he could sail for
the next three days. The land turned
due east, or the sea in on the land, he did not know which. He knew only that there he waited for a
wind from the west and a little from the north, and then sailed east, close
to the land, for as far as he could sail in four days. He had to wait there for a wind directly
from the north, for at that point the land turned due south , or the sea in
on the land, he did not know which. From there he sailed due south, close to
the land, for as far as he could sail in five days. There a great river extended up into the land, which they
turned up into because they dare not sail beyond the river for fear of
hostility, as on the other side of the river the land was all inhabited. Previously he had not met with any inhabited land since he
left his own home. But to the
starboard there was wasteland all the way, except for fishers and fowlers and
hunters, and they were all Lapps, and there was always open sea on his port.
The Permians had cultivated their land very well; but they dare not put in
there. The land of the Terfinns was
all waste, except where hunters or fishers or fowlers lived. The Permians told him many stories both of
their own land and of the lands that were round about them; but he did not
know what the truth of it was, since he did not see it for himself. The Lapps and the Permians, it seemed to
him, spoke almost the same language. He traveled there chiefly, in addition to observing the
land, for the walruses, because they have very fine bone in their teeth (they
brought some of those teeth to the king), and their hides are very good for
ship's ropes. This whale is much
smaller than other whales: it is no longer than seven ells long. But the best whale hunting is in his own
land where they are forty-eight ells long, and the largest fifty ells
long. He said that he once slew sixty
of those in two days. He was a very
wealthy man in that property in which their wealth consists, that is, in wild
animals. When he visited the king he
still had six hundred tame animals unbought.
They call those 'reindeer of which six were decoy reindeer. They are very valuable among the Lapps
because with them they capture the wild reindeer. He was among the most
prosperous men in the land.
Nevertheless, he had no more than twenty cattle, twenty sheep and
twenty swine. The little that he
ploughed, he ploughed with horses.
Their income is mainly in the tribute that the Lapps pay them. That tribute consists in animal skins,
bird feathers, whalebone and in ship's ropes made from the hide of whales and
seals. Each one pays according to his
rank. The noblest must pay fifteen
marten skins, and five reindeer, and one bear skin, and ten ambers of feathers,
and a bear, or otter-skin coat, and two ship's ropes, both to be sixty ells
long, one to be made of whale's hide, the other of seal's. He said that the land of the Norwegians was very long and
very narrow. All that they can either
graze or plough lies by the sea; and even that is very rocky in some places. To the east, and alongside the cultivated
land, lie wild mountains. In those
mountains live Lapps. The cultivated
land is broadest to the south, and increasingly narrower the further north. To the south it may be sixty miles broad,
or a little broader; and in the middle thirty or broader;, while to the north
where it was narrowest, it might be three miles broad to the mountains. The mountains in some places are as broad
as one might cross in two weeks, and in some places as broad as one might
cross in six days. Then alongside
that land to the south, on the other side of the mountains, is the land of
the Swedes, extending northwards.
Alongside that land to the north is the land of the Finns. Sometimes the Finns make war on the
Norwegians across the mountains; sometimes the Norwegians on them. There are very large freshwater lakes
throughout the mountains; and the Finns carry their boats overland to the
lakes, and make war on the Norwegians from there. They have very small and very light boats. Ohthere said that the district in which he
lived was called Halogaland, and no one lived to the north of him. In the south of the land there is a
trading-town, which they call Sciringesheal.
He said that a man could sail there in a month if he camped at night
and had a favorable wind every day.
But all the time he must sail close to the land. On the starboard appears first Ireland,
and then the islands which are between Ireland and this country, which
continues until he comes to Sciringesheal and Norway all the way on the port
side. To the south of Sciringesheal a
very great sea extends up into the land; it is broader than any man can see
across. And Jutland is opposite on
one side, and then Zealand. The sea extends many hundred miles up into the
land. And from Sciringesheal, he said that he sailed in five
days to the trading-town that they call Hedeby, which stands between the
Wends and the Saxons and the Angles, and belongs to the Danes. When he sailed there from Sciringesheal,
Denmark was to the port and open sea to the starboard for three days. For two days before he came to Hedeby
there lay to his starboard, Jutland, and Zealand and many islands. The Angles
dwelt in those lands before they came here to this country. And for those two days there lay to his
port those islands which belong to Denmark." |