DECLINE OF GREENLAND SETTLEMENTS 



it may therefore be supposed that a similar error is at the 

 base of this improbable statement; it is difficult to see what 

 value for mariners such a compass could have. But not- 

 withstanding Olaus Magnus's fantastic story, Pining and 

 Pothorst may really have been in Greenland. The former 

 must be the Norwegian nobleman Didrik Pining, who together 

 with Pothorst (" Pytchehorsius ") is said to have distin- 

 guished himself during the later years of Christiern I., " not 

 less as capable seamen than as matchless freebooters " 

 (piratse). He was much employed by Christiern I. and 

 King Hans, against the English and sometimes against the 

 Hanseatic League, and is mentioned by several historical 

 authorities.^ He seems also to have extended his activity 

 upon occasion to the Spaniards, Portuguese and Dutch, for 

 about 1484 he captured, off the English coast or off Brittany 

 and in the Spanish Sea, three Spanish or Portuguese ships, 

 and brought them to the king at Copenhagen. In a treaty 

 which was concluded in 1490 between King Hans and the 

 Dutch it is expressly stipulated that Didrik Pining and a 

 certain Busch were to be excluded from the place. Didrik 

 Pining is spoken of as lord over Iceland, or perhaps 

 over the eastern and southern part, in 1478; but on the 

 death of Christiern I. in 1481, another was appointed as 

 "hirdstjore" (or stadtholder), and it is stated in the letter 

 of appointment, issued by the council at Bergen in 148 1, 

 that Pining had " gone out of Iceland " ; but a few years 

 later he is again mentioned as hirdstjore there. When in 

 1487 King Hans took possession of Gotland, Pining accom- 

 panied him thither, doubtless as commander of the Danish- 

 Norwegian squadron ; he is called " Skipper Pining," which 

 corresponds to commodore or admiral in our time [cf. 

 Christiern I.'s "Skipper Clemens"]. In July, 1489, Didrik 

 Pining was among the Norwegian noblemen who paid homage 



1 Cf. L. Daae, 1882. Besides the authorities mentioned by Daae, see " Scrip- 

 tores rerum Danicarum," ii. 563, where " Puthorse " is mentioned as " pirata 

 Danicus " together with " Pynning." Cf. also Gronl. hist. Mind., iiL pp. 473 f. 



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