THE KING'S MIRROR 137 



tail and fins. It is said to have this in common with the 

 one mentioned before, that it rarely appears except be- 

 fore violent storms. Its behavior is often somewhat like 

 this: it will plunge into the waves and will always re- 

 appear with fish in its hands; if it then turns toward the 

 ship, playing with the fishes or throwing them at the 

 ship, the men have fears that they will suffer great loss 

 of life. The monster is described as having a large and 

 terrifying face, a sloping forehead and wide brows, a 

 large mouth and wrinkled cheeks. But if it eats the 

 fishes or throws them into the sea away from the ship, 

 the crews have good hopes that their lives will be spared, 

 even though they should meet severe storms. 



Now there is still another marvel in the seas of Green- 

 land, the facts of which I do not know precisely. It is 

 called " sea hedges," * and it has the appearance as if 

 all the waves and tempests of the ocean have been col- 

 lected into three heaps, out of which three billows are 

 formed. These hedge in the entire sea, so that no open- 

 ing can be seen anywhere; they are higher than lofty 

 mountains and resemble steep, overhanging cliffs. In a 

 few cases only have the men been known to escape who 

 were upon the seas when such a thing occurred. But the 

 stories of these happenings must have arisen from the 

 fact that God has always preserved some of those who 

 have been placed in these perils, and their accounts have 

 afterwards spread abroad, passing from man to man. It 



* The Danish scientist I. Japetus S. Steenstrup has shown in his paper " Hvad 

 er Kongespeilets Havgjerdinger ? " that this phenomenon is produced by sea 

 quakes. The three huge waves did not form a triangle as the author's account 

 would seem to imply; they were three successive waves rolling in toward the 

 shore. Steenstrup argues chiefly from the behavior of sea quakes in modern 

 times. Aarboger for nor disk Oldkyndighed og Historic, 1871. 



