IN NORTHERN MISTS 



seems more like a piece of land than a fish, and he does not 

 think there are more than two of them in the sea. This is 

 the same that the Norwegian fishermen now call the "krake," 

 and certainly also the same that appears in ancient Oriental 

 myths, and that is met with again in the Brandan legend as 

 the great whale that they take for an island and land on 



(cf. p. 234). In the Green- 

 land seas the " King's 

 Mirror" has two kinds of 

 trolls, " hafstrambr " (a 

 kind of merman), with a 

 body that was like a glacier 

 to look at, and " mar- 

 gygr" (^ mermaid), both 

 Marginal drawings in the Flateyjarbok of which are fully described. 

 (1387-1394) There is also mention in the 



Greenland seas of the strange and dangerous " sea-fences," 

 which are often spoken of in the sagas (and about which 

 there is a lay, the " HafgerSinga-drapa "). The author 

 does not quite know what to make of this marvel, for "it 

 looks as if all the storms and waves that there are in that 

 sea gather themselves together in three places, and become 

 three waves. They fence in the whole sea, so that men 

 cannot find a way out, and they are higher than great moun- 

 tains and like steep summits," etc. It is probable that the 

 belief in these sea-fences is derived from something that really 

 took place, perhaps most likely earthquake waves, or submarine 

 earthquakes, which may sometimes have occurred near volcanic 

 Iceland. But it is curious that in the " King's Mirror " these 

 waves are connected with Greenland. They might also be sup- 

 posed to be connected with the waves that are formed when ice- 

 bergs capsize. 



The principal countries described are Ireland, Iceland, and 

 Greenland; but it is characteristic of the author that, the 

 farther north he goes, away from regions commonly known, 

 the freer his account becomes from all kinds of fabulous 

 244 



