THE TRUE STATE OF ICELAND ad. 



1592. 



The foureteenth Section. 



There be seen sometimes neere unto Island huge Whales Munster. 

 hke unto mountains, which overturne ships, unlesse 

 they be terrified away with the sound of trumpets, 

 or beguiled with round and emptie vessels, which [I. 568.] 

 they delight to tosse up and downe. It sometimes 

 falleth out that Mariners thinking these Whales to 

 be Hands, and casting out ankers upon their backs, 

 are often in danger of drowning. They are called 

 in their tongue Trollwal Tuffelwalen, that is to say, 

 the devilish Whale. 



Like unto mountains. Loe here once againe (gentle 

 Reader) Munsters falsifying eccho, and (as the pro- 

 verbe saieth) his blind dreame. Such a false and sence- 

 lesse over-reaching doeth exceedingly disgrace an historie, 

 and that by so much the more, by how much the lesse 

 necessary it is. For to what purpose should an Historio- 

 grapher make leasings, if history be a report of plaine 

 trueth ? Why should he use such strange surmountings ? 

 What is it that he would perswade, or whither would 

 he ravish the Reader, if he propoundeth unto himselfe 

 nothing but the simple declaration of things } 



Poets and Painters had leave of old, 

 To feigne, to blaze, in all things to be bold. 

 But not Historiographers. 

 The backs of Whales which they thinke to be Hands. Certain letters 

 This fable, like all the rest, was bred of an old, ridiculous ^^^J^^ hBran- 

 and vaine tale, the credite and trueth whereor is not ^^^^^ ^^ 

 woorth a strawe. And it is this that foloweth, namely, preach Chris- 

 that the bishop of Breme (called by the ancient Norwaies tian faith in 

 Brandan, and by Kranzius, if I be not deceived, Alebran- ^^^ ^orth. 

 dus) in old time sent certaine Legates with a Coven 

 of Friers to preach and publish in the North the popish 

 faith, which was then thought to bee Christian : and 

 when they had spent a long journey in sailing towards 

 the North, they came unto an Hand, and there casting 



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