IN NORTHERN MISTS 



From Ottar's statement to King Alfred (cf. Vol. I, p. 172) 

 that ** in his own land [i.e., Norway] there is the best whaling. 

 They are forty-eight cubits long, and the largest are fifty cubits 

 long " — we may conclude that the Norwegians, and perhaps the 

 Lapps also, hunted the great whales as early as the ninth cen- 

 tury, and doubtless long before that time, while King Alfred 

 does not seem to have known of any such whaling being prac- 

 tised in England. 1 We are not told in what way the whale was 

 caught in those days, but from statements elsewhere it is prob- 

 able that the Norwegians had several methods of taking whales, 

 as is the case even to the present day in Norway: one way was 

 with the harpoon and harpoon-line in open waters, that is, with- 

 out cutting off the whale's escape with nets. 



The Arab cosmographer, Qazwini (of the thirteenth century), 

 quoting the Spanish-Arabic writer Omar al-*Udhri ^ (of the 

 eleventh century), says that the Norsemen in Irlanda (Ireland) 



"hunt young whales, and they are very great fish. They hunt their young 

 and eat them. ... Of the method of catching them, al-'Udhri relates that 

 the hunters collect in their ships. They have a great iron hook [i.e., harpoon] 

 with sharp teeth, and on the hook a strong ring, and in the ring a stout rope. 

 When they come to a young one, they clap their hands and make a noise. The 

 young one is amused by the clapping of hands and approaches the ship, de- 

 lighting therein. Thereupon one of the seamen approaches and scratches its 

 forehead, which the young one likes. Then he lays the hook to the middle of 

 its head, takes a heavy iron hammer and gives three blows with all his force 

 upon the hook. It does not heed the first blow, but with the second and third 

 it makes a great commotion, and sometimes it catches some part of the ship 

 with its tail, and knocks it to pieces, and it continues in violent agitation until 

 it is overcome by exhaustion. Then the crew of the ship draw it to shore with 

 their combined force. Sometimes the mother notices the movements of the 

 young one, and pursues them. Then they have a great quantity of crushed 



1 One might receive a different impression from Bede's statement that in 

 Britain "seals are frequently taken [' capiuntur '], and dolphins, as also whales 

 ['balenae'] [Eccles. hist. gent. Angl. i. c. i]. But it is uncertain whether this 

 refers to regular hunting of great whales with harpoons in the open sea, or 

 whether it does not rather refer to stranded whales, which must have been 

 of frequent occurrence in those days, to judge from the Norman and later 

 English regulations regarding them. 



2 He belonged to the South Arabian tribe 'Udhra, " die da sterben, wann 

 sie lieben." 



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