THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN REVIEW 
43 
As Christian I died in 1481, the date on the Zerbst map, ea. 1476, 
receives interesting* confirmation. 
Dr. Fridtjof Nansen (In Northern Mists) and the late A. A. 
Bjornbo (Cartographia Groenlandica) took notice of this new evi¬ 
dence, but neither dared risk a conclusion that would associate Scolvus 
or Pining with the North American mainland. It remained for Dr. 
Sofus Larsen, librarian of the University of Copenhagen, to sort out 
the significant facts and to weave them together into a consistent nar¬ 
rative. His results were published in Aarboger for nor dish Oldkyn- 
dighed og Historie, 1919 (issued in 1920), under the somewhat color¬ 
less title, Danmark og Portugal i det 15de Aarhundrede. His more 
important conclusions are as follows: 
(1) The expedition that visited America in the days of Christian 
I has been noted by a series of writers, but they have all derived their 
information from a common source, a Portuguese narrative (no longer 
extant) which became current in Europe early in the sixteenth century. 
On this point Dr. Larsen’s argument seems conclusive. 
(2) This narrative was prepared by the elder Cortereal, one of 
two Portuguese who accompanied the Danish expedition. On this 
point the author has produced a very plausible though not wholly con¬ 
clusive argument. His contention is based on a statement by a some¬ 
what late Portuguese writer to the effect that Cortereal and his friend 
Plomem who had visited the Codfish country on the king’s orders were 
rewarded for their labors with official promotion in the Azores. Such 
rewards actually came to these men in 1474. Dr. Larsen argues, there¬ 
fore, that the date of the expedition must be placed not later than 1473. 
(3) If Cortereal and his associate saw the Codfish country the 
expedition must have touched the shores of Labrador and Newfound¬ 
land, for these were the regions known among the Portuguese by that 
name. 
(4) The expedition was commanded by Didrik Pining (whom 
we find holding an official position in Iceland in 1478). The pilot was 
a certain John surnamed Skolv or Skolp. The author finds that the 
term Skolp has been applied to the inhabitants of certain sections in 
northern Norway and he is therefore inclined to believe that John 
Scolvus was a sailor from the Norwegian Nordland. 
That a Norwegian expedition actually did sail into American 
waters in the days of Christian I, who was also king of Norway, seems 
beyond dispute. John Scolvus, the otherwise unknown Norwegian 
pilot, therefore deserves to be enrolled among the great navigators of 
the fifteenth century. 
It is also quite evident that the results of the expedition became 
known in Portugal perhaps not long after its return. The fact may not 
be significant, though it has a certain interest, but in 1477 an Italian 
navigator, Christopher Columbus, took up his residence in Portugal. 
