[10] It would appear, from the vast number killed,
that this successful
fishing must refer to the
morse or horse-whale, not to the ordinary
large whale.—E.
[11] In the original, the broad and comparatively
fertile part of Norway
is said to be in the east:
the correction adopted in the text
is obvious and necessary.—E.
[12] In former translations, this passage is:
“opposite to this land,
to the south, is Sueoland.”
The alteration in the text removes
the ambiguity—E.
[13] Cwenland and the Cwenas appear to refer to Lapmark,
and its
inhabitants, the Finlanders.—Forst.
[14] See Sect. iii. p. 12, in which this place is
supposed by Mr J. R.
Forster to have been where
Stockholm now is.
[15] Iraland obviously here means Scotland, with the
Faro, Shetland, and
Orkney islands.—E.
[16] This is plainly the isle of Gothland.—E.
[17] Apparently the Baltic proper is here called the
sea of Sillende, and
may have been named from the
isle of Zeeland. Yet in this passage it
seems to refer to the gulf
of Bothnia, as running far up into the
country.—E.
[18] See Sect. iii. p. 14, in which Forster endeavours
to fix this place at
Aarhuus in Jutland.
SECTION III.
Remarks by J. M. Forster, respecting the situation of Sciringes-heal and Haethum[1].
The name of this place, Sciringes-heal, has given a great deal of trouble to former commentators on Alfred; viz. Sir John Spelman, Bussaeus, Somner, John Philip Murray, and Langebeck, who have all chosen spots totally different, in which to place Sciringes-heal. Spelman, and others, look for this place near Dantzic, where, in their opinion, the Scyres formerly resided. But, first, the spot where the Scyres lived, is by no means satisfactorily determined; and, next, it is evident that Ohthere went continually along the coast from Halgoland to Sciringes-heal, and that this coast was on his left-hand during the whole course of his navigation. The late Mr Murray placed Sciringes-heal at Skanor, in the southern extremity of Sweden; but I cannot think that this place could be five days sail from Haethum in Jutland, as it is expressly declared to have been by Ohthere. Langebeck is for carrying Sciringes-heal to Konga-hella, on the Guatelf, near Marstrand; and insists, that the name, in Alfred’s account of the voyage, ought to have been written Cyninges-heal instead of Sciringes-heal. If the word had only once occurred, I might have allowed Langebeck to be right; but we meet with it five times in the space of a few lines, and always without the slightest variation in orthography. 2dly, The voyage from Halgoland to Konga-hella is not of sufficient extent to have employed a month in the passage. 3dly, Konga-hella is too near Jutland to have required five days for the voyage between it and Haethum.