30 



Tilis was the state of knowledge about Greenland at the end 

 of the middle ages, at the dawn of the era of great discoveries. 

 By this time all connection between Greenland and the Scandi- 

 navian countries had probably been broken off, and the tradi- 

 tion about it was very vague. The name "Skrælings" does not 

 occur outside of the Icelandic-Norwegian saga literature*!. But 

 in foreign works of that period, the inhabitants of Greenland 

 are spoken of as pygmies or as pirates, and the reference is 

 undoubtedly to Eskimo immigrants. Just as it must be supposed 

 that the knowledge about Greenland and adjacent lands kept its 

 firmest hold on the memory in the northern countries, so it is 

 also probable that it was from there that it spread to the south, 

 where it left traces in the old maps and geographies. 



At all events, mediæval cartography shows one certain in- 

 stance of the direct influence exerted by northern tradition on 

 the cosmography of the period, as represented in the so-called 

 Ptolemaic maps and the old Italian Portulans. I refer to the 

 change which took place in the cosmographical representation 

 of the northernmost parts of the world, after Cardinal Filiaster 

 in Nancy had become acquainted with the Danish "mathematicus", 

 i.e. drawer of maps, Claudius С lav us (Niger). He had, 

 as it seems, been asked by the Danish king, Erik of Pome- 

 rania, to draw a map, and after that he traveled abroad**). Ac- 

 cording to G. Storm***), he is supposed to have made a stay in 

 Italy about 1425, and he may there have become acquainted 

 with the Ptolemaic maps, precious things, which were probably 

 not accessible in Denmark at that time. What Clavus knew 



*) The first lime it again turns up is on a map drawn by a Scandinavian 

 historian, Olaus Magnus (Historia de gentium septentrionalium varus 

 conditionibus. Basel 1.j67). Under Greenland is found the following 

 inscription: Hie habitant Pygmei vulgo Screlinger dicti (cf. Nordenskiöid: 

 Studier och forskninger. Stockholm 1884, p. 34 1Г). 

 **) E.Erslev: "Jylland". Copenhagen 1886, p. 136. 

 "•) In Ymer 1S91, cf. J. Fischer, u. s. p. 6G. 



