ARAB GEOGRAPHERS 



knew the name o£ Finmark. But as Qazwini has such exag- 

 gerated ideas of the cold in Rum and in Ifranga, he may also 

 be credited with such a description of the regions on the 

 Baltic.^ No importance can be attached to the statement that 

 the bay proceeds from the northern ocean in a southerly 

 direction, as ideas of that kind were general. 



Mahmud ibn Mas 'ud 'ash-Shirazi (ob. 13 lo) has the following 

 about the northern regions.^ 



"Thus far as regards the islands: you may know that in that part [of the 

 sea] which goes into the north-western quarter [of the earth] and is connected 

 with the western ocean there are three, whereof the largest is the island 

 'Anglisi' [or 'Anglisei' Island, probably England], and the smallest the 

 island Irlanda. The most handsome of hunting-birds — those that are known 

 by the name of 'sunqur' [hunting falcons] — are only found on it [this island]. 

 The middlemost of them is the island of Orknia." Probably Ireland and Ice- 

 land are here thrown together under the name of Irlanda, as elsewhere falcons 

 are especially attributed to the latter. " The longest day reaches twenty hours 

 where the latitude is 63° [cf. Ptolemy, Vol. I, p. 117]. There is an island that 

 is called Tule. Of its inhabitants it is related that they live in heated bath- 

 rooms [literally, warm baths] on account of the severe cold that prevails 

 there. This is generally considered to be the extreme latitude of inhabited 

 land." It appears to be Norway that is here meant by Thule. 



Shirazi says that " the sea that among the ancients was called Maeotis is 

 now called the Varangians' Sea, and there are a tall, warlike people on its 

 shore. And after the ocean has gone past the Varangians' country in an east- 



originally ' *Verjangr ' (from * *Varianger ') ; thence arose ' *Verangr,' and by 

 progressive assimilation ' Varangr,' cf. the fjord-names Salangen (from Se- 

 langr), Gratangen (from Grytangr), Lavangen (from Lovangr) in the district 

 of Tromso. In old Danish assessment-rolls of the period before the Kalmar 

 war we find ' Waranger.' " The first syllable must then be the Old Norse 

 " ver " (gen. pi. " verja ") for " vaer," fishing-station, and the name would mean 

 " the fjord of fishing-stations " (" angr " = fjord). In Lappish the Varanger- 

 fjord is called " Varjagvuodna " (" vuodna " = fjord), which "presupposes a 

 Norwegian form ' *Varjang ' (' *Verjang '). The Lappish forms ' Varje- ' and 

 * Varja- ' are abbreviated from * Varjag.' This district of Varanger is called in 

 Lappish 'Varja' (gen. 'Varjag,' root 'Varjag'). Norwegian fjord-names in 

 '-angr' are transferred to Lappish with the termination '-ag'; only in more 

 recent loan-words do we find the termination * -angga ' or * -anggo,' as in 

 ' Pors-angga.' " O. Rygh thought that the first syllable in " Varanger " might 

 be the same as in " Vardo," Old Norse "Vargey"; but this may be more 

 doubtful. 



1 Cf. also Jordanes' description of the great cold in the Baltic (Vol. I, p. 131). 



2 Seippel, 1896, pp. 142, 145. 



211 



