VOYAGES IN THE POLAR SEA 



Sea was early called " Hafsbotn," later " Trollebotten," and 

 the White Sea was given the name of " Gandvik," to which a 

 similar meaning is attributed, since it is supposed to be con- 

 nected with " gand " (the magic of the Lapps) ; but the name 

 evidently originated in a popular etymological corruption 

 of a Karelian name, KanSanlaski, as already shown (Vol. I, 

 pp. 218 f., note). 



Snorre Sturluson (ob. 1241) included in the Saga of St. Olaf 

 a legend from Nordland about an expedition to Bjarmeland, 

 supposed to have been undertaken in 1026 by Thore Hund, in 

 company with Karle and his brother Gunnstein from Haloga- 

 land, men of the king's bodyguard. The tale may be an 

 indication that at that time more peaceful relations had been 

 established between the Nordlanders and the Bjarmas. They 

 went in two vessels, Thore in a great longship with eighty men, 

 and the brothers in a smaller longship with about five-and- 

 twenty. When they came to Bjarmeland, they put in at the 

 market-town ; ^ the market began, and all those who had 

 wares to exchange received full value. Thore got a great 

 quantity of skins, squirrel, beaver, and sable. Karle also had 

 many wares with him, for which he bought large quantities 

 of furs. But when the market was concluded there, they 

 came down the river Vina; and then they declared the truce 

 with the people of the country at an end. When they were 

 out of the river, they held a council of war, and Thore proposed 

 that they should plunder a sanctuary of the Bjarmas' god 

 Jomale," with grave-mounds, which he knew to be in a 

 wood in that part of the country.^ They did so by night, 



1 This was the market-place on the bank of the Dvina, presumably the same 

 that the Russians afterwards called Kholmogori, and that lay a little higher up 

 the river than Archangel (founded in 1572). 



2 This is Karelian for heaven or the sky-god; the Kvasns (Finlanders) called 

 their god " Jumala," and the Finns (Lapps) theirs " Ibmel," which is the same 

 word. [Cf. G. Storm's translation of " Heimskringla," 1899, p. 322.] 



3 From the account it would look as though Thore Hund was already well 

 acquainted with the country. Even if the tale as a whole is not historical, a 

 feature like this may point to the Norwegians having been in the habit of 



