IN NORTHERN MISTS 



sark,' which lies in the middle of the sea between Iceland and 

 Greenland " : 



" Upon it lived about the year of Our Lord 1494 two notorious pirates [pi- 

 rats], Pining and Pothorst, with their accomplices, as though in defiance and 

 contempt of all kingdoms and their forces, since, by the strict orders of the 

 Northern kings, they had been excluded from all human society and declared 

 outlaws for their exceedingly violent robberies and many cruel deeds against 

 all sailors they could lay hands on, whether near or far. . . . Upon the 

 top of this very high rock the said Pining and Pothorst have constructed a 

 compass out of a considerable circular space, with rings and lines formed of 

 lead; thereby it was made more convenient for them, when they were bent on 

 piracy, as they thus were informed in what direction they ought to put to sea 

 to seek considerable plunder." 



It may be the expression "piratae," which might be 

 used both of an ordinary pirate and of a privateer or free- 

 booter, which misled Olaus Magnus into constructing this 

 wonderful story. The mere fact that, both in his map of 

 1539 and in his work of 1555, he makes Hvitserk, which of 

 course was in Greenland, into a rocky island out at sea 

 between Greenland and Iceland, where no island is to be 

 found, is enough to shake one's belief in the trustworthiness 

 of this strange report. His incomprehensible story of the 

 compass constructed there does not make things any better. 

 G. Storm [1886, p. 395] thought it might have come about in 

 this way: that Olaus Magnus, who was no great sailor or 

 geographer, read on a chart a note about Fining's voyage to 

 Greenland, and saw in its proximity the name Hvitserk and 

 a compass-card in the middle of the sea; and then, without 

 understanding its real meaning, he made it an island and 

 gave it his own explanation. Bjombo and Petersen [1909, 

 pp. 250, 251] have, it is true, pointed out that something of 

 the same sort is told of the North Cape by Sivert Grubbe, 

 who accompanied Christiern IV. on his voyage to Finmark, 

 and who writes in his journal (in Latin) on May 12, 1599: 

 " We sailed past the North Cape. On the top of this moun- 

 tain is a compass cut into the rock." But as they " sailed 

 past," Grubbe cannot have been up and seen this compass; 

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