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قراءة كتاب In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times (Volume 2 of 2)
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In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times (Volume 2 of 2)
IN NORTHERN MISTS
IN NORTHERN MISTS
ARCTIC EXPLORATION IN EARLY TIMES
BY FRIDTJOF NANSEN
G.C.V.O., D.Sc., D.C.L., Ph.D., PROFESSOR OF OCEANOGRAPHY
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHRISTIANIA, ETC.
TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR G. CHATER
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME TWO
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN: MCMXI
PRINTED BY
BALLANTYNE & COMPANY LTD
AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS
TAVISTOCK STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON
CONTENTS
| CHAP. | PAGE | |
| IX. | [CONTINUED] WINELAND THE GOOD, THE FORTUNATE ISLES, AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA | 1 |
| X. | ESKIMO AND SKRÆLING | 66 |
| XI. | THE DECLINE OF THE NORSE SETTLEMENTS IN GREENLAND | 95 |
| XII. | EXPEDITIONS OF THE NORWEGIANS TO THE WHITE SEA, VOYAGES IN THE POLAR SEA, WHALING AND SEALING | 135 |
| XIII. | THE NORTH IN MAPS AND GEOGRAPHICAL WORKS OF THE MIDDLE AGES | 182 |
| XIV. | JOHN CABOT AND THE ENGLISH DISCOVERY OF NORTH AMERICA | 291 |
| XV. | THE PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTH-WEST | 345 |
| CONCLUSION | 379 | |
| LIST OF THE MORE IMPORTANT WORKS REFERRED TO | 384 | |
| INDEX | 397 |
From an Icelandic MS., fourteenth century
CHAPTER IX
[continued]
WINELAND THE GOOD, THE FORTUNATE ISLES, AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
A confirmation of the identity of Wineland and the Insulæ Fortunatæ, which in classical legend lay to the west of Africa, occurs in the Icelandic geography (in MSS. of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries) which may partly be the work of Abbot Nikulás of Thverá (ob. 1159) (although perhaps not the part here quoted), where we read:
“South of Greenland is ‘Helluland,’ next to it is ‘Markland,’ and then it is not far to ‘Vínland hit Góða,’ which some think to be connected with Africa (and if this be so, then the outer ocean [i.e., the ocean surrounding the disc of the earth] most fall in between Vinland and Markland).”[1]
This idea of the connection with Africa seems to have been general in Iceland; it may appear surprising, but, as will be seen, it finds its natural explanation in the manner here stated. It also appears in Norway. Besides a reference in the “King’s Mirror,” the following passage in the “Historia Norwegiæ” relating to Greenland is of particular importance:
“This country was discovered and settled by the Telensians [i.e., the Icelanders] and strengthened with the Catholic faith; it forms the end of Europe towards the west, nearly touches the African Islands (‘Africanas insulas’), where the returning ocean overflows” [i.e., falls in].
It is clear that “Africanæ Insulæ” is here used directly as a name instead of Wineland, in connection with Markland and Helluland, as in the Icelandic geography. But the African Islands (i.e., originally the Canary Islands) were in fact the Insulæ Fortunatæ, in connection with the Gorgades and the Hesperides; and thus we have here a direct proof that they were looked upon as the same.
The conception of the northern and western
lands and islands in Norse literature.
G. Storm [1890] and A. A. Björnbo [1909, pp. 229, ff.] have sought to explain the connection of