146 THE KING'S MIRROR 



that there is never an interval when the land or the sea 

 is not covered with ice, except that occasionally an open- 

 ing appears here and there in the ice field; but this is 

 due to the stirring of the sea and not to the heat. 



Now since the land is constantly frozen over in both 

 winter and summer, I wish to ask you to tell me exactly 

 how the climate is in Greenland: whether there is any 

 warmth or fair sunshine as in other lands, or if the 

 weather is always unpleasant, and whether that is what 

 causes the excessive ice and frost. I should like to have 

 you clear this matter up for me along with those things 

 that I asked about earlier in our conversation, and what 

 that thing is which the Greenlanders call the northern 

 lights.* All these questions I should like to have you 

 answer, and also this, in what part of the world you be- 

 lieve that country to be located: whether it lies some- 

 where on the edge of the world or about some large bend 

 in the ocean like other extensive lands, seeing that you 

 think it is joined to other mainlands. 



Father. The matters about which you have now in- 

 quired I cannot wholly clear up for you, inasmuch as I 

 have not yet found any one who has knowledge of the 

 entire " home-circle " f and its dimensions and who has 

 explored the whole earth on all its sides, or the nature of 

 the lands and the landmarks located there. If I had ever 



* We should infer from the form of this question and from the later discussion 

 of the northern lights that this phenomenon was not prominent in Norway 

 in the thirteenth century. There seem to be periods when these " lights " are 

 less in evidence than at other times. But it should also be noted that the au- 

 thor discusses whales in connection with Greenland and Iceland only, though 

 it is extremely likely that whales were not unknown on the shores of Norway. 

 t The " home-circle " (kringla heimsins) was the Old Norse translation for 

 the Latin orbis terrae, orb of the earth. 



