IN NORTHERN MISTS 



hunting was said to proceed in a curious fashion; the walruses, 

 which were very numerous, clambering up on to the mountain- 

 ridges and there perishing in great numbers.^ The Yugrians 

 and Karelians then collected the tusks on the shore. Is there 

 here some confusion with stories of the collection of mammoth 

 tusks? 



What was said earlier (p. 145) from an Arabian source 

 about steel blades being sold to the peoples on the coast of 

 the Polar Sea in North Russia seems to point to sea hunting 

 having been well developed in these regions as early as the 

 twelfth century; for otherwise steel for hunting appliances 

 could not have been a common article of commerce. 



That Norwegians and Russians often met in northern waters 

 may apparently be concluded from the words already quoted 

 from Erik Walkendorf, about 1520 (cf. p. 86), that fifteen 

 of the Skrselings did not venture to approach a Christian or 

 Ruten (i.e., Russian). As he places the land of the Skraslings 

 north-north-west of Finmark, this seems to be a legend that 

 is brought into connection with the Polar Sea. Of walrus 

 tusks he says that " these are costly and greatly prized among 

 the Russians." Unless this is taken from older literary 

 sources (?), one might suppose that it was information he 

 himself had obtained in Finmark, and it might then point 

 to the Norwegians having sold walrus tusks to the Russians. 



The fact that, as mentioned above, a Russian author of 

 the sixteenth century (Mikhow) uses the Norwegian name 

 "rosmar" seems also to point to Russian connection with 

 the Norwegians in the arctic fisheries. In addition to this, 

 the Russian word " morsh " for walrus is evidently the same 

 as the Lappish "morssa" (Finnish "mursu"), and may 

 originally be the same word as "rosmar" ("rosmhvalr"). 

 For it is striking that the same letters are present in " morsh " 

 or "morssa" as in " rosm(hvalr)," or in "rosmar"; there 



1 The idea may have arisen through a misunderstanding of stories that the 

 walruses often lie in great herds, close together, on the tops of skerries and 

 small islands, and are there speared in great numbers by the hunters. 



