IN NORTHERN MISTS 



correspond to Adam of Bremen's Greenland and Wineland, but 

 this must be very uncertain.^ 



A curious delineation of the North is found on the round 

 mappamundi which was drawn at Constance in 1448 by 

 the Benedictine monk, Andreas Walsperger, of Salzburg [cf. 

 Kretschmer, 1891]. The map is in most respects imperfect and 

 antiquated, but shows also more recent, particularly German, 

 influence. 



The Mediterranean and the Baltic are disproportionately large, and the mass 

 of land between them has been contracted. There are many mediaeval myth- 

 ical conceptions, and items showing possible influence by Adam of Bremen [cf. 

 Miller, iii. 1895, p. 147]. Thus in northern Asia we have Cenocephali and Can- 

 nibals (Andropophagi), bearded women, Gog, Magog, etc. In Norway we 

 read, " Here demons often show themselves in human shape and render serv- 

 ice to men, and they are called trolls." Claudius Clavus also speaks of trolls 

 in Norway. In the northern ocean to the north-west of Norway is written, 

 " In this great sea there is no sailing on account of magnets." This is evi- 

 dently the widely distributed mediaeval myth of the magnet-rock, which at- 

 tracted all ships with iron in them; in Germany it occurs in the legend of 

 Duke Ernst's wanderings in the Liver Sea, and it is doubtless derived from 

 the Arabian Nights. On the mainland, to the north-east of Norway, we read 

 that " here under the North Pole the land is uninhabitable on account of the 

 excessive cold which produces a condition of continual frost. . . ." In the 

 extreme north of the ocean, near the Pole, is written, " Hell is in the heart or 

 belly of the earth, according to the opinion of the learned." 



" Palus meotidis " (the Sea of Azov) is marked as a lake due east of the 

 Baltic. Along the north coast of Europe (and Norway) is indicated a ridge 

 of mountains, somewhat similar to that in the Sanudo-Vesconte maps of the 

 world. The delineation of Denmark (" dacia," with " koppenhan " and " lon- 

 doma," i.e., Lund), the straight south coast of the Baltic, and a long-shaped 

 island called " Suecia " (with " stocholm " and " ipsala ") on the north, remind 

 us a good deal of Edrisi's map (p. 203), and also somewhat of the Cottoniana 

 (Vol. I, p. 183). To the north of the island of Suecia " the very great king- 

 dom of Norway " (Norwegie) projects to the west as a long peninsula bound- 

 ing the Baltic, with " brondolch " (Bomholm?) and " nydrosia metropolis" 

 [the capital Nidaros] as towns on its south coast, and with the land of 

 "yslandia" (Iceland) and the town of "pergen" (Bergen) on its extreme 

 promontory. 



Another peculiar t5^e of the round mappamundi is the 

 so-called Borgia map of the fifteenth century (after 141 o). 



1 Bjornbo, by the way, only speaks of two islands, whereas in Lelewel's 

 reproduction there are four islands, which is no doubt correct. It seems, too, 

 as though all four could be faintly distinguished in Bjornbo's photographic 

 reproduction [1910, p. 74]. 

 284 



