1.] 
THE OLDEST MAPS OF THE NORTH. 
51 
of the Mesen in the land of the Beormas.^ We learn from 
the narrative besides, that the northernmost part of Scandinavia 
was already, though sparsely, peopled by Lapps, whose mode of 
life did not differ much from that followed by their descendants, 
who live on the coast at the present day. 
The Scandinavian race first migrated to Finmark and settled 
there in the 13th century, and from that period there was 
naturally spread abroad in the northern countries a greater 
knowledge of those regions, which, however, was for a long time 
exceedingly incomplete, and even in certain respects less correct 
than Othere’s. The idea of the northernmost parts of Europe, 
which was current during the first half of the 16th century, is 
shown by lithographed copies of two maps of the north, one 
dated 1482, the other 1532,^ which are appended to this work. 
On the latter of these Greenland is still delineated as connected 
with Norway in the neighbourhood of Vardoehus. This map, 
however, is grounded, according to the statement of the author 
in the introduction, among other sources, on the statements of 
two archbishops of the diocese of Nidaro,^ to which Greenland 
and Finmark belonged, and from whose inhabited parts 
^ It ought to be remarked here that the distances which Othere in that 
case traversed every day, give a speed of sailing approximating to that 
which a common sailing vessel of the present day attains on an average. 
This circumstance, which on a cursory examination may appear somewhat 
strange, finds its explanation when we consider that Othere sailed only 
with a favourable wind, and, when the wind was unfavourable, lay still. 
It appears that he usually sailed 70' to 80' in twenty-four hours, or perhaps 
rather jper diem. 
2 The maps are taken from Ptolemmi Cosmograpliia latine reddita a Jac. 
Angelo, curam mapparum gerente Nicolao Donis Germano, Ulmce 1482, and 
from the above-quoted work of Jacobus Ziegler, printed in 1532. That 
portion of the latter which concerns the geography of Scandinavia is 
reprinted in Geografisha SeMionens Tidshrift^ B. I. Stockholm, 1878. 
^ These were the Dane, Erik Valkendortf, and the Norwegian, Olof Engel- 
brektsson. The Swedes, Johannes Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala, and Peder 
Maonsson, Bishop of Vesteraos, also gave Ziegler important information 
regarding ihe northern countries. 
E 2 
