CLAUDIUS CLAVUS 



mainland by ice occurs, of course, nowhere on the whole outer 

 coast of Norway from Fasrder to the Murman coast. On the 

 other hand, the Gulf of Bothnia and the Aland archipelago are 

 frozen over for a long time in winter, and it might be 

 supposed that Clavus had heard reports of this. But I have 

 not been able to discover any source from which he may have 

 derived these fables. Most probably they are embellishments 

 of the same kind as the eighteen islands of Norway, that 

 form an arbitrary decoration of the coast-line of his map, 

 a circumstance which does not hinder him from describing 

 them as real. Clavus has used the ice as a transition be- 

 tween the representation of his older map, where Thule was part 

 of the mainland, and that of the later one, where it was made 

 into an island. 



At the northernmost limit of Norway, between two places 

 called Ynesegh and Mestebrodh, Clavus connected the Polar Sea 

 (Nordhinbodhn) by a narrow channel with the Gotland Sea 

 (the Baltic), and a little farther north, in 67°, he says 

 that 



"the uttermost limit is marked with a crucifix, so that Christians shall not 

 venture without the king's permission to penetrate farther, even with a great 

 company. And from this place westward over a very great extent of land 

 dwell first Wildlappmanni [Wild Lapps, Le., Mountain Lapps, Reindeer 

 Lapps(?) cf. Vol. I, p. 227], people leading a perfectly savage life and covered 

 with hair, as they are depicted; and they pay yearly tribute to the king. And 

 after them, farther to the west, are the little Pygmies, a cubit high, whom I 

 have seen after they were taken at sea in a little hide-boat, which is now 

 hanging in the cathedral at Nidaros; there is likewise a long vessel of hides, 

 which was also once taken with such Pygmies in it." 



Two things are to be remarked about this assertion that he 

 himself had seen these Pygmies (one might suppose in Norway) : 

 (i) if he had really seen a captive Eskimo brought to Nor- 

 way (by whom?), he could hardly have been ignorant that this 

 remarkable native was from Greenland, and not from a fabu- 

 lous northern land. And (2), how could he then give their 

 height as no more than a cubit, like the Pygmies of myth? It 

 appears to me that in one's zeal to defend Clavus, one would 



269 



