VOYAGES IN THE POLAR SEA 



probably have learned from their nearest seafaring neighbors, 

 the Norwegians, who were masters at sea. 



It is remarkable that already as early as in Adam of Bremen 

 white bears (polar bears) are mentioned as occurring in Norway 

 (cf. Vol. I, pp. 191 f.). That this might be due to the connec- 

 tion with Iceland and Greenland, even at that time, is perhaps 

 possible, but not very probable, as these countries are mentioned 

 separately by Adam. The white bears in Norway may rather 

 point to a connection with the Polar Sea and to the Norwegians 

 having practised sealing there. 



It is perhaps due to the same connection of the Norwegians with the Polar 

 Sea that we find on the Italian Dalorto's map of 1325 (see next chapter) and 

 on several later maps the statement that there are white bears in northern 

 Norway. Probably polar bears' skins were brought to the south from Norway 

 as an article of commerce and the Norwegians may have obtained the skins 

 partly by their own hunting in the Polar Sea, partly by the trade with Green- 

 land, and partly, no doubt, by that with the peoples on the north coast of Rus- 

 ' sia. The Arab Ibn Sa'id (thirteenth century) mentions white bears in the 

 northern islands, among them the island of white falcons (i.e., Iceland). 

 " These bears' skins are soft, and they are brought to the Egyptian lands as 

 gifts." In the " Geographia Universalis " of the thirteenth century (see next 

 chapter) the white bears in Iceland are described. It was a common idea in 

 southern Europe in the Middle Ages that Greenland, and sometimes also Ice- 

 land (cf. Fra Mauro's map), lay to the north of Norway, or they were made 

 continuous with it, and even a part of it. 



The Venetian Querini, who was wrecked on Rost Island and traveled south 

 through Norway in 1432, says that he saw a perfectly white bear's skin at the 

 foot of the Metropolitan's chair in St. Olaf's Church at Trondhjem.i As 

 Greenland was under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Trondhjem, this 

 skin may have been a gift from pious Greenlanders, as perhaps were also the 

 Eskimo hide-canoes mentioned by Claudius Clavus (cf. p. 85). In Norse litera- 

 ture polar bears are always connected with Icelanders or Greenlanders, 

 who sometimes brought them alive as gifts to kings. 



We may thus conclude from what has been advanced 

 above that the hunting of whales, seals, and particularly 

 walrus was of great importance to the Norwegians in ancient 

 times, and for the sake of the last they certainly made extended 

 expeditions in the Arctic Ocean. It may therefore be difficult 

 to understand how it came about that this sea hunting declined 



1 Cf. A. Helland, Nordlands Amt, 1908, ii. p. 888. 



177 



