IN NORTHERN MISTS 



evidently had their birthplace there [cf. E. Rohde, 1900, 

 pp. 191 £.] ; while on the other side there was, of course, a 

 close connection between India and the intellectual world of 

 China and Japan, as shown by the spread of Buddhism. 

 A transference of the same myths both eastward to Japan 

 and westward to Europe is thus highly probable, whether 

 these myths originated in Europe or in India and the East. 

 It is striking, too, that even a secondary feature such as the 

 curdled, dead sea (cf. " Morimarusa," see Vol. I, p. 99 ; the stink- 

 ing sea in Edrisi, Vol. II, p. 57) is met with again here as the 

 "muddy sea" without fish (cf. resemblances to Arab ideas, 

 chapter xiii). 



If we now look back upon all the problems it has been sought 

 to solve in this chapter, the impression may be a somewhat 

 heterogeneous and negative one; the majority will doubt- 

 less be struck at the outset by the multiplicity of the paths, and 

 by the intercrossing due to this multiplicity. But if we force 

 our way through the network of by-paths and follow up the 

 essential leading lines, it appears to me that there is es- 

 tablished a firm and powerful series of conclusions, which 

 it will not be easy to shake. The most important steps in this 

 series are: 



(i) The oldest authority,^ Adam of Bremen's work, in 

 which Wineland is mentioned, is untrustworthy, and, with 

 the exception of the name and of the fable of wine being 

 produced there, contains nothing beyond what is found in 

 Isidore. 



(2) The oldest Icelandic authorities that mention the name 

 of " Vinland," or in the " Landnama," " Vindland hit G66a," 

 say nothing about its discovery or about the wine there; on 

 the other hand, Are Erode mentions the Skraelings (who must 

 originally have been regarded as a fairy people). The name 



iThe Ringerike runic stone is not given here, as its mention of Wineland 

 is uncertain. 



58 



