Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags Íslendinga - 01.01.1962, Page 92

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TÍMARIT ÞJÓÐRÆKNISFÉLAGS ÍSLENDINGA
traditional European classical inter-
pretation which had little basis in
reality and the Norse one, which
while erroneous, corresponded much
more to reality. His four islands
e.g. are simply clustered around the
Pole and bear no relation, not even
in the names, to reality.
Mercator’s legends are also clus-
tered on four islands around the
Pole and surrounded by the famous
mountains.
„1. This channel has five mouths
(entries) and because of its narrow
swift current it never freezes.
2. Here live pygmies, at most 4
feet tall, who are like those in
Greenland called Scraelings.
3. This channel is entered by 3
mouths and remains frozen for three
months every year. It is 37 leagues
long.
4. This island is the best and
healthiest of the whole north.
5. The Ocean rushes in between
these islands by 19 mouths and
makes 4 channels by which it is in-
cessantly carried northwards & there
disappears into the bowels of the
earth.”
1 The first legend probably again
refers to the sea north of Baffin Bay.
2) The second with its mention of
the Skraelings could refer to Baffin
Island, North Greenland or Elles-
mere Island, but, as is the case with
all the legends, whatever truth it
contains was one well known to the
Greenlanders and through them to
the outside world long before 1360.
3) This may again refer to the
sea north of Baffin Bay but we
can only conjecture with very little
consequence.
4) Which island is the best and
healthiest can again only be a mat-
ter of speculation. It may be south
Greenland, it might be Labrador,
or it might refer to Vinland, pro-
vided it was not located in New-
foundland as some say today.
5) The reference to 19 mouths re-
minds one of the reference to 18
or 19 islands on various variants of
the map of the northern regions by
Claudius Clavus Swart and other
sources.32 This is a reference to the
islands of the Canadian Arctic,
variously referred to as the islands
of Iceland, the African islands, the
Falcon islands, etc.33 Martin Behaim
shows 19 islands around the Pole—•
one of which is adorned with a
figure in a very full dress shooting
a Polar Bear.34 This is obviously
Greenland. The other very large
island is probably Baffin Island. The
shape of Greenland corresponds
rather closely to its actual shape.
But Behaim, like Ruysch in his map,
is clearly drawing on two sources—
a traditional one and one based on
information from Greenland itself-
His map seems superior to those of
both Ruysch and Mercator.
As to the four channels men-
tioned here and in Mercator’s letter,
there can be little doubt that they
are the following: The westernmost
one is Hudson Strait and the fair
32. Cf. A. A. Bjömbo and Carl S. Petersen, Fynboen Claudius Claussön Swart,
Copenhagen, 1907, p. 144; Dúason, Landkönnun, pp. 313-314.
33. Cf. Loc. cit.
34. E. G. Ravenstein, Martin Behaim, London, 1908.