Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags Íslendinga - 01.01.1962, Page 91

INVENTIO FORTUNATA
73
which booke is Inventio Fortunata
(aliter fortunae) qui liber incipit
a gradu 54. usque ad polum. Which
frier for sundry purposes after that
did five times passe from England
thither, and home againe.”28
It will not do to say that the five
further voyages the friar made
from England were only made to
Norway and that he made only one
voyage to the Arctic. He may, how-
ever, well have made six voyages to
Norway. On the other hand Ivar
Bardarson may have made five or
six tours of the northern islands
during his twenty years as adminis-
trator of the see of Gardar.
The fabulous nature of much of
Mercator’s summary of the Inveniio
does not, however, mean that it did
not contain a good deal of truth.
This is especially true of some of
the legends on the maps of Ruysch
and Mercator. These may be analys-
ed briefly.
Professor Taylor’s translation of
those on Ruysch’s map is as follows:
1. „We read in the book De In-
veniione Foriunaiae that beneath
the Arctic Pole there is a high rock
of magnetic stone 33 German miles
in circumference.
2. The indrawing sea surrounds
this (rock), flowing as if in a vessel
that lets water down a hole (i.e. a
funnel).
3. There are four surrounding is-
lands of which two are inhabited.
But they are bordered by huge
mountains twenty-four days journey
across, which forbid human habita-
tion.
4. Here the indrawing sea begins.
Here the ship’s compass does not
hold, nor can ships containing iron
turn back.”
1) . This high magnetic rock under
the Pole is almost unquestionably
the mountain south of Thule (the
Conical Rock) on the west coast of
Greenland. This mountain was well
known to the Icelanders in Green-
land and was named Himinrodafjall.
It is mentioned by name in Ivar
Bardarson’s Descripiion of Green-
land and Ivar says that no one can
sail farther than to it because of
the strong curents.29 The Green-
landers had no doubt long before
1360 noticed the deviation of the
compass in these regions.30
2) . This is the Mare Sugenum,
sugenum being derived from the
Icelandic word sog. The reference is
to the swift currents north of Baffin
Bay and possibly in Fury and
Hecla Strait.31
3) . What these four islands were
we can only guess. Probably the two
which were inhabited are Ellesmere
and Devon Island. The reference to
the huge mountains bordering them.
may be to the region between Mel-
ville Bay and Umanak Bay, but this
no doubt led both Ruysch and
Mercator astray.
4) . What spot this is intended to
indicate we cannot tell.
Ruysch’s map seems to be based
on two types of information, the
28. Hakluyt, Navigations, I. 303.
29. Grönlands historiske Mindesmærker, Copenhagen, 1838-1845, III, 259.
30. Dúason, Landkönnun, pp. 175-178.
31. Cf. ibid, pp. 174-175.