VOYAGES IN THE POLAR SEA 



current at Sviatoi Nos or Straumneskinn, often spoken of in the 

 sagas, that Adam has made into the whirlpool. 



WHALING AND SEALING VOYAGES OF THE NORWEGIANS 

 IN THE POLAR SEA 



The skill of the Norwegians as fishermen, whalers, and 

 sealers, had, of course, a great deal to do with the development 

 of their seamanship and ability to travel and support themselves 

 along unknown and uninhabited shores. The accurate knowl- 

 edge of the many species of seals and whales shown in the 

 " King's Mirror," to which no_ 

 parallel is met with earlier in the 

 literature of the world, proves how 

 important the hunting of these 

 animals must have been; for 

 otherwise so much attention would 

 not have been paid to them.^ 

 When in speaking of the greater 

 whales a distinction is made be- 

 tween those that are shy and keep 

 away from the hunters, and those 

 that are tamer and easier to 

 approach, and when the longest of 

 all (" reySr ") is mentioned as 

 being specially tame and easily 

 caught, we can only regard this as showing that whaling 

 was also carried on in the open sea; that is, not in a merely 

 accidental fashion, as when the whales entered narrow fjords 

 where they could be intercepted, or when they ran aground. 



1 A peculiarity of the account in the " King's Mirror " is that whales, seals, 

 and walruses are mentioned only in the seas of Iceland and Greenland, and not 

 off Norway, although the Norwegian author must undoubtedly have heard of 

 most of them in his native land. In the same way the northern lights are only 

 spoken of as something peculiar to Greenland. Of the six species of seal that 

 are mentioned, one (" orknselr ") must be the gray seal, or " erkn " (Hali- 

 choerus gryphus), which is common on the coast of the northern half of Nor- 

 way, but is not found in Greenland. 



Cutting up a whale [from 

 an Icelandic MS. of the 

 fourteenth century of 

 Magnus Lanaboter's Ice- 

 landic Land Law] 



