I.] THE OLDEST MAPS OF THE NORTH. 43 



he undertook a veritable voyage of discovery in order to explore 

 the unknown lands and sea lying to the north-east. This 

 voyage was also very rich in results, as in the course of it 

 the northernmost part of Europe was circumnavigated. Nor 

 perhaps is there any doubt that during this voyage Othere 

 penetrated as far as to the mouth of the Dwina or at least 

 of the Mesen in the land of the Beormas.^ We learn from 

 the narrative besides, that the northernmost part of Scandinavia 

 was already, though sparsely, peopled by Lapps, whose mode of 

 life did not differ much from tluit followed by their descendants, 

 who live on the coast at the present day. 



The Scandinavian race first migrated to Finmark and settled 

 there in the 13th century, and from that period there was 

 naturally spread abroad in the northern countries a greater 

 knowledge of those regions, which, however, was for a long time 

 exceedingly incomplete, and even in certain respects less correct 

 than Othere's. The idea of the northernmost parts of Europe, 

 which was current during the first half of the 16th century, is 

 shown by lithographed copies of two maps of the north, one 

 dated 1482, the other 1532,'^ which are appended to this work. 

 On the latter of these Greenland is still delineated as connected 

 with Norway in the neighbourhood of Vardoehus. Tliis map, 

 however, is grounded, according to the statement of the author 

 in the introduction, among other sources, on the statements of 

 two archbishops of the diocese of Nidaro,^ to which Greenland 

 and Finmark belonged, and from whose inhabited parts 

 expeditions were often undertaken both for trade and plunder, 

 by land and sea, as far away as to the land of the Beormas. It 

 is difficult to understand how with such maps of the distribution 

 of land in the north the thought of the north-east passage could 

 arise, if voices were not even then raised for an altogether 

 opposite view, grounded partly on a survival of the old idea, 



^ It ought to be remarked here that the distances which Othere in that 

 case traversed everj^ day, give a speed of saihng approximating to that 

 which a common saihng vessel of the present day attains on an average. 

 Tliis circumstance, which on a cursory examination may appear somewhat 

 strange, finds its explanation when we consider that Othere sailed only 

 with a favourable wind, and, when the wind was unfavourable, lay still. 

 It appears that he usually sailed 70' to 80' in twenty-four hours, or perhaps 

 rather 2)er diem. 



2 The maps are taken from Ptolemcei CoRmograplna latine reddita a Jac. 

 Angela, citram mapparum gerente Nicoluo Donu Germano, Ulmce 1482, and 

 from the above-quoted work of Jacobus Ziegler, printed in 1532. That 

 portion of the latter which concerns the geography of Scandinavia is 

 reprinted in Geografisha Seliionens Tidsbrift, B. I. Stockholm, 1878. 



3 These were the Dane, Erik Valkendorif, and the Norwegian, Olof Engel- 

 brektsson. The Swedes, Johannes INIagnus, Archbishop of Upsala, and Peder 

 Maonsson, Bishop of Vesteraos, also gave Ziegler important information 

 regarding the northern countries. 



