Sept. 8. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



179 



that is, from the beginning of the fifth century to 

 the end of the ninth. Alfred also wrote a minute 

 account of the voyage of Ohthere, a Norwegian, 

 from Halgoland, on the coast of Norway, into the 

 White Sea. This Norwegian was a man of great 

 wealth and influence, and such is the simplicity of 

 his narrative, that it bears the impress of truth. 

 It commences, — 



"Ohthere told his lord, King Alfred, that he dwelt 

 northniost of all the Northmen. He said, that, at a cer- 

 tain time, he wished to find out how far the land lay due 

 north, or whether any man dwelt north of him." 



For this purpose, and for the sake of taking the 

 walrus, he sailed northward on the coast of 

 Norway, and round the North Cape into the 

 White Sea. 



Mr. Hampson first called attention to Alfred's 

 description of Europe in " N. & Q.," Vol. i., 

 p. 257. ; and his notes are worthy of the author of 

 Medii yEvi Kalendarium. These were followed 

 by the equally learned notes of Mr. Singer, 

 wliose precision of detail proved that he had care- 

 fully studied all that continental scholars, as well 

 as our own, have written on the subject (Vol. i., 

 p. 313.). 



I have availed myself of the important aid of 

 these gentlemen, as well as of Dr. Bell, in my 

 notes to my forthcoming edition of Orosius. Dr. 

 Bell thinks that Ohthere's voyage was confined to 

 the Baltic, and Alfred's geography to the " valleys 

 of the Vistula (Wisle), the Oder, and the Elbe." 

 (Vol. i. p. 179.) Alfred, however, plainly states 

 that he referred to the whole of Germania, which 

 then extended from the Don on the east, to the 

 Rhine and the German Ocean on the west ; and 

 from the Danube on the south, to the White Sea 

 on the north. Nothing more need be said as to 

 the extent of Alfred's geography; but, to show that 

 Ohthere's first voyage was to the White Sea, re- 

 quires farther proof. I will be as brief as possible. 

 Ohthere was a plain honest man, anxious to 

 state nothing but that to which he could bear 

 personal testimony. It appears impossible for 

 any one to read his simple narrative without 

 being convinced that this daring Northman is 

 giving a detail of his voyage on the west and 

 north coast of Norway into the White Sea. Ice- 

 land had already been discovered by Gardar the 

 Dane in a.d. 860, and it was colonised by Ingolf, 

 a Norwegian, in 874. Greenland was discovered 

 in 877, and inhabited by Northmen soon after. 

 Accustomed as these Northmen were to the most 

 daring enterprises, it was not likely that Ohthere, 

 one of the most powerful, adventurous, bold, and 

 inquiring of them, should come to the renowned 

 King of England to relate the events of a common 

 voyage. Ohthere had made discoveries which he 

 communicated to the king, and Alfred thought 

 them of such importance that he wrote and in- 

 serted this detail of them in his Geographical and 

 No. 306.] 



Historical View of Europe. It has always been 

 considered an extraordinary voyage. On its 

 translation, and when first published by Hakluyt 

 in 1598, it was acknowledged, as every unpreju- 

 diced reader must now allow, that Ohthere 

 doubled the North Cape, and entered the White 

 Sea. 



" The voiage of Ohthere made to the north-east parts 

 beyond Norway, reported by himselfe vnto Alfred, the 

 famous King of England, about the yere 890." — Hak- 

 luyt's Principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques, and Dis- 

 coueries of the English Nation, ^c, p. 5., tbl., 2nd edit., 

 London, 1598. 



Again, a little below, Hakluyt says : 



" Wil it not, in all posteritie, be as great renowne vnto 

 our English Nation to haue bene the first discouerers of 

 a sea beyond the North Cape [neuer certainly knowen 

 before] and of a conuenient passage into the huge Em- 

 pire of Russia by the bay S. Nicolas and the riuer of 

 Duina '? " &c. — Ibid. p. 5. 



The subsequent editors and translators of Oh- 

 there's voyage are of the same opinion as Hak- 

 luyt : — Sir John Spelman and Oxonienses Alumni, 

 in 1678; Bussseus, in 1733; Langebek, In 1773; 

 Daines Barrington and J. R. Forster, in 1773 ; 

 Forster again in 1786, in his Hist, of Voyages 

 and Discove7-ies in the North; Ingram, in 1807. 

 Rask, in his notes to his Danish translation, pub- 

 lished in 1815, expressly says: 



" Ohthere was the first who undertook a voyage to 

 Beormia [Permial, or sailed round the North Cape and all 

 Lapland," &c. — Note k., pp. 352 — 355. 



Dahlmann, in 1822, states that Ohthere sailed 

 Into the White Sea. Mr. Thorpe comes to the 

 same conclusion in 1846. Malte-Brun, before 

 Rask, Dahlmann, and Thorpe, speaks in 1812 of 

 Ohthere's northern voyage from Halgoland in 

 Norway to the White Sea, and south to Sleswick ; 

 and also of Wulfstan's voyage from Sleswick to 

 Truso in Prussia. Through the liberality and 

 kindness of S. W. Singer, Esq., the reader is 

 presented with an extract on this subject from 

 Precis de la Geographic Universelle of the cele- 

 brated Malte-Brun : 



" Othere retra9ait ses voyages depuis le Hahgaland en 

 Norwfege, jusqu'^ la Barmie k Test de la Mer Blanche; 

 et, d'un autre cote, le long des cotes Norwegiennes et 

 Danoises par le sud, jusqu'& la ville de Hathum ou 

 Sleswick. L'autre relation ^tait celle d'un voj'age du 

 Danois Wulfstan, depuis Sleswick jusqu'k, Truso, ville de 

 commerce dans le pays d'Estiun ou la Prusse." — Tom. i. 

 liv, xvii. p. 382., Paris, 8vo., 1812. 



One particular reason for Ohthere's sailing 

 northward was to capture the walrus, which was, 

 and still is, to be found in abundance in the White 

 Sea about Archangel, and the coast of the country 

 of the Biarmians. This is additional evidence to 

 what has been advanced to prove that Ohthere 

 doubled the North Cape and entered the White 

 Sea ; that his first voyage was not into the Baltic, 



