IN NORTHERN MISTS 



immediately afterwards in Hauk's Landnamabok under the 

 name of "the uninhabited parts of Greenland," one "doegr's" 

 sail north of Kolbeins-ey (see Vol. I, p. 286, Vol. II, p. 166). 



As has already been said, the Norwegians [cf. " Historia 

 Norvegiae " and the " King's Mirror " ] and Icelanders [cf. the 

 mediaeval Icelandic geography], thought that "land ex- 

 tended from Bjarmeland to the uninhabited parts in the 

 north, and as far as the beginning of Greenland," that is, 

 round the whole of the north of Hafsbotn. From several 

 legendary sagas of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries we 

 can see that Svalbard was, in fact, reckoned among these unin- 

 habited parts in the north, which were reached by sailing 

 past Halogaland and Finmark, and northward over Dumbshav 

 (see map, p. 34). 



Thus, in Samson Fagre's Saga (of about 1350) we read in 

 the thirteenth chapter, "On the situation of the northern 

 lands " : 



" Risaland lies east and north of the Baltic, and to the north-east of it lies 

 the land that is called Jotunheimar, and there dwell trolls and evil spirits, but 

 from thence until it meets the uninhabited parts of Greenland goes the land 

 that is called Svalbard; there dwell various peoples." [Gronl. hist. Mind., iii. 

 p. 524.] 



The outcome of what has been advanced above will be 

 briefly: there can be no doubt, from the positive statement in 

 the Icelandic annals and in the " Landnama," that the land of 

 Svalbard really was discovered, even though the date need 

 not be accurate; and it may further be regarded as probable 

 that this land was Spitzbergen. 



It may be supposed that it was discovered accidentally by 

 a ship on the way between Iceland and Norway, as stated in 

 the " Historia Norvegiae," being driven by storms to the north 

 of Hafsbotn; but the mention of the country in the Land- 

 namabok may indicate that the voyage was made more than 

 once, and that knowledge of the country cannot, in any case, 

 have been limited to an accidental discovery of this sort. 

 It is more probable that the Norwegians and Icelanders carried 

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