THE KING'S MIRROR 101 



little abou\ Ireland, Iceland, and Greenland Jand all the > 

 wonders of those lands, such as fire and strange bodies 

 of water, or the various kinds of fish and the monsters 

 that dash about in the ocean, or the boundless ice both 

 in the sea and on the land, or what the Greenlanders 

 call the " northern lights," or the " sea-hedges " that 

 are found in the waters of Greenland. 



Father. I am not much disposed to discuss the won- 

 ders that exist among us here in the North, though my 

 reason may be rather trivial : many a man is inclined to 

 be suspicious and think everything fiction that he has 

 not seen with his own eyes; and therefore I do not like 

 to discuss such topics, if my statements are to be called 

 fabrications later on, even though I know them to be 

 true beyond doubt, inasmuch as I have seen some of 

 these things with mine own eyes and have had daily 

 opportunity to inquire about the others from men whom 

 we know to be trustworthy and who have actually seen 

 and examined them, and therefore know them to be 

 genuine beyond question. My reason for bringing up 

 this objection is that a little book has recently come into 

 our country, which is said to have been written in India 

 and recounts the wonders of that country. The book 

 states that it was sent to Emmanuel, emperor of the 

 Greeks.* Now it is the belief of most men who have 



* Manuel I, Comnenus, 1143-1180. The " little book " is thought to have 

 been one of the many forms of the legend of Prester John, a fabulous Chris- 

 tian ruler of India of whom much was heard in the middle ages. About 1165 

 a letter from the " Presbyter Johannes " addressed to the emperor Manuel 

 Comnenus was circulated through Europe and later found its way into the 

 North. In the extant copies of this letter many marvels are told, though the 

 wonder mentioned in the Speculum Regale does not appear. See Zarncke, Der 

 Priester Johannes, 83-98. 



