Vestvågøy
Theme - 14
Ohthere's Voyage
(From: Johansen
and Roesdahl (eds), Borg in Lofoten: A
chieftain's farm in North Norway, 2003,
Appendix 1, Translated by C.E.
Fell)
The account of Ohthere's voyage, written around
890 AD, is one of the most exciting contemporary
sources for Viking Age Scandinavia. It tells of the
life, economy and travels of a north Norwegian
chieftain and is, therefore, of particular interest
in any interpretation of Borg.
The account was taken down in Old English at the
court of King Alfred of Wessex and was included in
the king's translation from the Latin of the
Spanish churchman Orosius' classic work
Historiarum adversum Paganos Libri Septem
(Seven Books of History against the Pagans), which
was originally composed in the fifth century.
The account is published here in extenso
as translated by Christine E Fell, with the kind
permission of the executor of her academic estate.
It was first published in Lund, N. (ed.): Two
Voyagers at the Court of King Alfred, York
1984. This volume also includes an important
chapter by Fell: 'Some Questions of Language'
(pp.56-63), where the presence of an interrogator
is stressed and the meaning of certain Old English
words is discussed, including the problems of
translation of certain words used to describe north
Scandinavian fauna (e.g. walrus and reindeer),
which were unknown in England and for which there
were no words in contemporary English. (Else
Roesdahl)
Ohthere told his lord, King Alfred, that he
lived the furthest north of all Norwegians. He said
that he lived in the north of Norway on the coast
of the Atlantic. He also said that the land extends
very far north beyond that point, but it is all
uninhabited, except for a few places here and there
where the Finnas have their camps, hunting in
winter, and in summer fishing in the sea.
He told how he once wished to find out how far
the land extended due north, or whether anyone
lived to the north of the unpopulated area. He went
due north along the coast, keeping the uninhabited
land to starboard and the open sea to port
continuously for three days. He was then as far
north as the whale hunters go at their furthest. He
then continued due north as far as he could reach
in the second three days. There the land turned due
east, or the sea penetrated the land he did not
know which - but he knew that he waited there for a
west-north-west wind, and then sailed east along
the coast as far as he could sail in four days.
There he had to wait for a due northern wind,
because there the land turned due south, or the sea
penetrated the land he did not know which. Then
from there he sailed due south along the coast as
far as he could sail in five days. A great river
went up into the land there. They turned up into
the river, not daring to sail beyond it without
permission, since the land on the far side of the
river was fully settled. He had not previously come
across any settled district since he left his own
home, but had, the whole way, land to starboard
that was uninhabited apart from fishers and
bird-catchers and hunters, and they were all
Finnas. To port he always had the open sea. The
Beormas had extensive settlements in their country
but the Norwegians did not dare to venture there.
But the land of the Terfinnas was totally
uninhabited except where hunters made camp, or
fishermen or bird-catchers.
The Beormas told him many stories both about
their own country and about the lands which
surrounded them, but he did not know how much of it
was true because he had not seen it for himself. It
seemed to him that the Finnas and the Beormas spoke
almost the same language. His main reason for going
there, apart from exploring the land, was for the
walruses, because they have very fine ivory in
their tusks - they brought some of these tusks to
the king - and their hide is very good for
ship-ropes. This whale [i.e. walrus] is
much smaller than other whales; it is no more than
seven ells long. The best whale-hunting is in his
own country; those are forty-eight ells long, the
biggest fifty ells long; of these he said that he,
one of six, killed sixty in two days.
He was a very rich man in those possessions
which their riches consist of, that is in wild
deer. He had still, when he came to see the king,
six hundred unsold tame deer. These deer they call
'reindeer'. Six of these were decoy-reindeer. These
are very valuable among the Finnas because they use
them to catch the wild reindeer. He was among the
chief men in that country, but he had not more than
twenty cattle, twenty sheep and twenty pigs, and
the little that he ploughed he ploughed with
horses. Their wealth, however, is mostly in the
tribute which the Finnas pay them. That tribute
consists of the skins of beasts, the feathers of
birds, whale-bone, and ship-ropes made from
whale-hide and sealskin. Each pays according to his
rank. The highest in rank has to pay fifteen marten
skins, five reindeer skins, one bear skin and ten
measures of feathers, and a jacket of bearskin or
otterskin and two ship-ropes. Each of these must be
sixty ells long, one made from whale-hide the other
from seal.
He said that the land of the Norwegians is very
long and narrow. All of it that can be used for
grazing or ploughing lies along the coast and even
that is in some places very rocky. Wild mountains
lie to the east, above and alongside the cultivated
land. In these mountains live the Finnas. The
cultivated land is broadest in the south, and the
further north it goes the narrower it becomes. In
the south it is perhaps sixty miles broad or a
little broader; and in the middle, thirty or
broader; and to the north, he said, where it is
narrowest, it might be three miles across to the
mountains. The mountains beyond are in some places
of a width that takes two weeks to cross, in others
of a width that can be crossed in six days.
Beyond the mountains Sweden borders the southern
part of the land as far as the north, and the
country of the Cwenas borders the land in the
north. Sometimes the Cwenas make raids on the
Norwegians across the mountains, and sometimes the
Norwegians make raids on them. There are very large
fresh-water lakes throughout these mountains, and
the Cwenas carry their boats overland onto the
lakes and from there make raids on the Norwegians.
They have very small, very light boats.
Ohthere said that the district where he lived is
called Halgoland. He said no-one lived to the north
of him. In the south part of Norway there is a
trading-town which is called Sciringes Heal. He
said that a man could scarcely sail there in a
month, assuming he made camp at night, and each day
had a favourable wind. He would sail by the coast
the whole way. To starboard is first of all Iraland
and then those islands which are between Iraland
and this land, and then this land until he comes to
Sciringes heal, and Norway is on the port side the
whole way. To the south of Sciringes Heal a great
sea penetrates the land; it is too wide to see
across. Jutland is on the far side and after that
Sillende. This sea flows into the land for many
hundred miles.
From Sciringes heal he said that he sailed in
five days to the trading-town called Hedeby, which
is situated among Wends, Saxons and Angles and
belongs to the Danes. When he sailed there from
Sciringes Heal he had Denmark to port and the open
sea to starboard for three days. Then two days
before he arrived at Hedeby he had Jutland and
Sillende and many islands to starboard. The Angles
lived in these districts before they came to this
land. On the port side he had, for two days, those
islands which belong to Denmark.
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