4 FARTHEST NORTH 



character. It was rather the necessity of discovering new 

 countries for the many restless beings that could find no 

 room in Norway. F'urthermore, they were stimulated by 

 a real interest for knowledge. Othar, who about 890 

 resided in Encrland at Alfred's Court, set out on an 

 errand of geographical investigation ; or, as he says him- 

 self, " he felt an inspiration and a desire to learn, to know, 

 and to demonstrate how far the land stretched towards 

 the north, and if there were any regions inhabited by 

 man northward beyond the desert waste." He lived in 

 the northernmost part of Helgeland, probably at Bjarkoi, 

 and sailed round the North Cape and eastward, even to 

 the White Sea. 



Adam of Bremen relates of Harald Hardrade, " the 

 experienced king of the Northmen," that he undertook a 

 voyage out into the sea towards the north and " explored 

 the expanse of the northern ocean with his ships, but 

 darkness spread over the verge where the world falls 

 away, and he put about barely in time to escape being 

 swallowed in the vast abyss." This was Ginnungagap, 

 the abyss at the world's end. How^ far he went no one 

 knows, but at all events he deserves recognition as one 

 of the first of the polar navigators that were animated 

 by pure love of knowledge. Naturally, these Northmen 

 were not free from the superstitious ideas about the 

 polar regions prevalent in their times. There, indeed, 

 they placed their Ginnungagap, their Nivlheim, Helheim, 

 and later on Trollebotn ; but even these mythical and 



