Half -Light over Cold Seas 77 



who originally migrated from central Asia about the beginning of 

 the Christian Era, bringing with them new gods and certain strange 

 customs. These Asiatics, Asia-men, Aesirmen, or Aesir, were polyga- 

 mous and they followed set rules about the division of their land and 

 property among their sons. 



They were so prolific, moreover, that in a few centuries there was 

 not enough land in the north for all the sons of these jar Is and petty 

 kings, and the young noblemen took to roving the sea. This was 

 called by them "viking," or "going a-viking," and became a national 

 habit which resulted in widespread conquests, eventually extending 

 from Scandinavia to Constantinople in the east, and to Canada in the 

 west. They even raided Morocco, and Norse freebooters interfered 

 in the affairs of every European country bordering a sea or pene- 

 trated by a river large enough to sail upon. 



About the year 890 a.d.. King Alfred of southern England, who 

 was a great scholar as well as a lawgiver and warrior, wrote A De- 

 scription of Europe, which was an Anglo-Saxon translation of a 

 Latin work by a Spanish presbyter named Paulus Orosius of Tarra- 

 gona, compiled in the early fifth century and entitled The Com- 

 pendious History of the World. To Orosius's work King Alfred 

 added any new knowledge that he could find about northern Europe, 

 all of which north of the Rhine and the Danube he called collectively 

 Germajiia. With this he included an account of the voyage of a 

 Norseman named Ohthere. This name is often spelled Octhere, 

 Othere, or Ottar, but these are inaccurate, for the name seems to be 

 derived from oht, meaning fear or dread, and here, an army. The 

 tale begins: "Ohthere told his Lord, King Alfred . . ." and this 

 seems to imply that Ohthere w^as actually employed by, subject to, 

 or at least allied with the Ensrlish kingr, although the latter was the 

 most stubborn foe the Norse ever encountered. It is even possible 

 that Ohthere actually made the voyage after consultation with King 

 Alfred, and that he returned to report as closely as possible what he 

 found. He certainly brought special gifts for the king and other 

 objects as material evidence of his statements. Ohthere was a noble- 

 man of Nordmanna, or Halgoland, which lay to the south of Sci- 

 ringes near the modern Koughille in northern Norway. The province 

 of Trondheim, or Drontheim, is today the northernmost in Norway, 

 and it is now divided into three provinces — Trondheim in the south, 



