IN NORTHERN MISTS 



at Copenhagen to the king's son, Christiem (II.), as heir 

 to the kingdom of Norway; and in August and September, 

 1490, he took part in the settlement of a suit concerning a 

 large inheritance at Bergen; but in two Icelandic laws or 

 edicts of that time, 1489 and 1490, the so-called " Fining's 

 Laws," he is described as " * hirdstjore ' over the whole of 

 Iceland," and a later chronicler speaks of him as one of the 

 most famous men in Iceland, and he says that "he was in 

 many ways a serviceable man and put many things right 

 that were wrong." It must be the same Didrik Pining who was 

 appointed in 1490 governor of Vardohus, and it may be sup- 

 posed that he was commander-in-chief on sea and land in north- 

 ern waters. 



We hear of Pining, and his associate Pothorst, in an old (Ice- 

 landic?) report which, together with Ivar Bardsson's descrip- 

 tion of Greenland, was found in an old book of accounts in the 

 Faroes, and which in an English translation was included 

 in " Purchas his Pilgrimes" [London, 1625, vol. iii.], where 

 we read : 



" Item, Punnus [corruption of Pinning] and Potharse, have inhabited Island 

 certayne yeeres, and sometimes have gone to Sea, and have had their trade in 

 Groneland. Also Punnus did give the Islanders their Lavi^es, and caused them 

 to bee written. Which Lav(res doe continue to this day in Island, and are 

 called by name Punnus Lawes." 



As this last statement agrees with the two " Pining's 

 Laws" mentioned above, there may also be some truth in 

 the voyages to Greenland. An unexpected confirmation of 

 this recently came to light in the discovery of a document by 

 Louis Bobe [1909] at Copenhagen; it is a letter, dated 

 March 3, 1551, from Burgomaster Carsten Grip, of Kiel, to 

 King Christiern III. Grip was, as we are told in the letter, the 

 king's commissioner for the purchase of books, paintings, 

 and the like. He tells the king that he has not found any 

 valuable books or suitable pictures, but sends him two maps 

 of the world, 



" from which your majesty may see that your majesty's land of Greenland ex- 

 126 



