The foreigners may have seen this without understanding its meaning, and Tacitus may have given his own explanation.
[119] The name "Sitones" reminds one forcibly of the "Sidones" mentioned by Strabo and Ptolemy [cf. Geijer, 1825, p. 82]; but the difficulty is that Strabo includes the latter among the Bastarni, with the Peucini who lived on the north and east of the Carpathians and therefore far to the south of the Baltic [cf. Ahlenius, 1900, p. 36]. Ptolemy's "Sidones" also lived in the neighbourhood of the Carpathians, and to the north of them.
But it is nevertheless possible that Tacitus may have heard a similar word and confused it with this name, or he may have heard a story of a reigning woman or queen among Strabo's Sidones, somewhere north of the Carpathians, and thought that anything so unheard of could only be found in the farthest north. It is also to be noted that Tacitus himself mentions "Peucini" or "Bastarnae" as neighbours of the "Fenni" (Finns), and therefore inhabiting some distant tract bordering on the unknown in the north-east; on the other hand he does not mention the Sidones in this connection, though they are spoken of in conjunction with the Bastarnae both by Strabo before him and by Ptolemy after him. Add to this the similarity of names between Sitones and Suiones, and it seems likely that he thought they must be near one another. Mullenhoff [ii., 1887, p. 9]
supposes that the word "Sitones" may have been an appellative which has been mistaken for the name of a people, and he connects it with Gothic "*sitans," Old Norse "*setar," from the same root as the Norwegian "sitte"
(to sit, occupy). If this is correct we might suppose it to be used in the sense of colonists (cf. Norwegian "opsitter"). Much [1905, p. 31] suggests that perhaps it may be derived from Old Norse "sia" == to practise witchcraft (cf. "seid"), and mean sorcerers. On the "Sidones" cf. Much, 1893, pp. 135, 187, 188; Mullenhoff, 1887, pp. 109, 325.
[120] Wiklund [1895, pp. 103-117] thinks that the "Kvaens" in north Sweden were not Finns, but colonists from Svearike (middle Sweden).
[121] Cf. Zeuss, 1837, p. 157; Mullenhoff, ii., 1887, p. 10.
[122] Cf. Lonborg, 1897, p. 136; Ahlenius, 1900, p. 37.
[123] Cf. Baumstark, 1880, p. 329; Mullenhoff, iv., 1900, p. 516.
[124] Many of his place-names in Ireland especially point to frequent communication, probably due to trade, between this island and the continent, perhaps with Gaul.
[125] Much [1895, a, p. 34] thinks that the "Alociae" may have been some small rocky islands which have now disappeared. Upon them he supposes there may have been colonies of auks, which have given them their name, as in Gothic, for instance, they may have been called "*alako." The hypothesis is improbable; even if any such rocky islets had been washed away by the sea they must have left behind submerged rocks, and none such are known in the sea off Jutland.
[126] Macrobius's division of the earth into zones after Parmenides with an equatorial ocean like Mela, in graphic representation, had great influence during the Middle Ages.
[127] Similar conceptions are to be found in Avienus ("Ora Maritima," vv., 644-663), and are derived from ancient Greek geographers (Anaximenes, cf.
Mullenhoff, i., 1870, p. 77).
[128] This description would best suit the Baltic (and the Belts) as forming the eastern side of Scandza; but the term inland sea ("lacus") does not agree well with Scandza being an island and lying just opposite the Vistula, which "with its three mouths discharged itself into the Ocean"; and in the rear of the Vidivarii at the mouths of the Vistula "dwelt likewise on the Ocean the aestii, that very peace-loving people" [v.
36, cf. Tacitus]. Besides which Jordanes' Germanic Ocean may be the Baltic, although his very obscure description may equally well suit the North Sea, or both together. The supposition that the great inland sea and the River Vagi might be Lake Ladoga and the Neva [cf. Geijer, 1825, p.
100] or Lake Vener and the Gota River [cf. Lonborg, 1897, p. 25, and Ahlenius, 1900, p. 44] does not agree with the description of Jordanes, which distinctly asserts that it lay on the east side of Scandza in contradistinction to the immense ocean on the west and north. The fact must be that Jordanes had very obscure ideas on this point, and this has made his description confusing.
[129] These small islands have been taken to be the Danish islands [cf.
Ahlenius, 1900, p. 43]; but as we hear in immediate connection with them of severe cold and of the wolves losing their eyes on crossing the frozen sea ("congelato mari"), our thoughts are led farther north and we would be inclined to take them for the land islands.
[130] This reminds us of Mela's statement respecting the neans, who lived on fen-fowl's eggs (see above, pp. 91, 95).
[131] And or Amd was used formerly not only for the island of And (Ando), but for a great part of Vesterlen and Hinno.
[132] I will mention as yet another possibility a corruption of Ptolemy's islands, the "Alociae," which lay at the extreme north of his map, north of the Cimbrian Chersonese and farther north than the island of Scandia (see above, pp. 119 f.). A Greek capital lambda, ?, may easily be mistaken for a capital delta, ?, especially in maps, and in such corrupted form may have been transferred to Roman maps, and thence have been used for the name of a people who were said to live specially far north. Laffler [1894, p. 4] thinks that "Adogit" was a Lappish people, and that the name certainly cannot be of Scandinavian-Germanic origin, but he does not say why.
[133] Cleomedes says that the summer day in Thule lasted a month, while the astronomically ignorant Pliny puts it at six months.
[134] As to these tribal names see especially Laffler [1894, 1907] and Sophus Bugge [1907], besides P. A. Munch [1852], Mullenhoff [1887], and others.
[135] The origin of the word "sappherinas" is uncertain. Lonborg [1897, p.
26] proposes that it may have meant deep sapphire blue, and have been used of the skins of blue foxes. Probably it is rather a northern word, not Germanic, but either Slavonic or Finnish (?).
[136] Mullenhoff, Mommsen, Laffler, and others think that the "mitiores"
(milder) of the MSS. may be an error for "minores" (smaller), which gives better sense, in contradistinction to the "Suetidi" who come just after and were taller than all the rest. Sophus Bugge proposes that "mitissimi"
and "mitiores" may be errors for "minutissime" and "minutiores," and that it should therefore be translated "the very small Finns who are smaller than all the other, etc." [cf. also A. Bugge, 1906, p. 18]; but the necessity for so great a change is doubtful [cf. Laffler, 1907, p. 109].
[137] S. Bugge thought [1907, p. 101] at one time that these might be people of Gond or Gand, i.e., Hoiland, south of Stavanger, but afterwards changed this view [cf. 1910, p. 97].
[138] Jordanes, who was a Goth, had even less reason for glorifying the Northmen at the expense of the Germans or Goths.
[139] Cf. Mommsen, 1882, p. 154; A. Bugge, 1906, pp. 21, 33 f.
[140] This is certainly incorrect; probably they came from the north and established themselves near the Danube in the neighbourhood of the Langobards.
[141] Paulus Warnefridi gives a mythical account of the cause of the war and of the battle and death of king Rodulf [Bethmann and Waitz, 1878, pp.
57 ff.]; the fight and king Rodulf are also referred to in the "Origo Gentes Langobardorum" (of about 807). In both these works it is stated that it was the Langobards (and not the Eruli) who had lived in this country (by the Danube ?) in peace for three years.
[142] It is probable that the mention of the tribes in Jordanes is taken from two different sources; for he begins by saying that Ptolemy only has the names of seven, without mentioning any of these, and later on he gives a whole series of others, which may have been added from another author who supplemented the one from whom the mention of Ptolemy is taken.
[143] Jordanes here repeats Ptolemy, from whom the name of Scandza, == Scandia, is taken (and the statement as to the shape of the island ?), while Procopius has nothing about it.
[144] The name appears in the runic inscriptions to be often a designation of the author of the inscription. Sophus Bugge thought that the Eruli had obtained their knowledge of runes from the Goths, and that they kept them a secret (this reappears in the word "run" itself, which means secret), especially in the leading families, who turned them to account. During their centuries of roving life they carried the knowledge of runes with them to various parts of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In this way the uniformity of language in the inscriptions from widely separated places may also be explained.
[145] It appears to have been a general custom among the Germans to put old people to death (cf. p. 18). Herodotus [i. 216] relates of the Massagetae, who may have been a Germanic tribe, that "when any one has grown very old all his relatives come together and slaughter him, and with him other small cattle; they then cook the flesh and hold a banquet. This is considered by them the happiest end. But they do not eat one who dies of sickness, but bury him underground, and lament that he did not live to be slaughtered."
[146] This widespread form of anthropophagy is due to the superstition that by eating something of another, beast or man, or particular parts, e.g., the heart (cf. Sigurd Favnesbane), one acquired the peculiar properties of the other, such as strength, courage, goodness, etc. It is thus a similar idea to that in the Christian sacrament.
[147] They were also called =O T= maps; =O T= being the initials of Orbis Terrarum.
[148] Cf. Wuttke, 1854.
[149] The text has "ovium" (== sheep), but this is doubtless a copyist's error for "ovum" (== egg). This may remind us of the onae of Mela and Pliny, who lived on the eggs of fen-fowl (see above, p. 92).
[150] Cf. the "Origo Gentis Langobardorum" (of the second half of the seventh century), where the "Winnilians," who were later called Langobards, live originally on an island called "Scadanan," or in another MS. "Scadan." The latter name, with the addition of a Germanic word for meadow or island, might become Scadanau, Scadanauge, or Scadanovia. Cf.
also Fredegar Scholasticus's abbreviated history after Gregory of Tours, where it is related that the Langobards originated in "Schatanavia," or in one MS. "Schatanagia."
[151] It is difficult to understand how Paulus has managed to transfer the legend to the North. It might be thought that the idea, which already appears in Herodotus, that the people of the North sleep for the six winter months (see p. 20), is connected with it. Plutarch ["De defectu oraculorum," c. 18] relates that in the ocean beyond Britain there was according to the statement of Demetrius an island "where Cronos was imprisoned and guarded, while he slept, by Briareus. For sleep had been used as a bond, and there were many spirits about him as companions and servants." According to another passage in Plutarch ["De facie in orbe Lunae," 941] this island was north-west of the isle of Ogygia, which was five days' sail west of Britain. It is possible that this myth of the sleeping Cronos has also helped to locate the legend of the Seven Sleepers on the north-west coast of Europe. Viktor Rydberg [1886, i. pp. 529 ff.]
thought that the legend and its localisation in the North might be connected with Mimer's seven sons, who in the Volospo's description (st.
45) of Ragnarok were to spring up at the sound of the horn Gjallar, after having lain asleep for long ages. But this interpretation of the strophe: "Leika Mims synir" is improbable.
[152] In other MSS. Scridowinni and Scritofinni, etc.
[153] According to the "Grottasongr," Mysing carried off the quern and the two female thralls, Fenja and Menja, on his ship and bade them grind salt, and they ground until the ship sank (according to some MSS. it was in the Pentland Firth), and there was afterwards a whirlpool in the sea, where the water falls into the hole in the quern. Thus the sea became salt. This is the same legend which is repeated in the tale of the mill which grinds at the bottom of the sea.
[154] As will be mentioned later, the islands were possibly inhabited by Celts before the arrival of the monks. In that case the latter must doubtless have visited them with the additional object of spreading Christianity.
[155] It has also been translated: "two rows of oars," which is improbable.
[156] Some writers have thought that they might be the Shetlands; but this seems less probable.
[157] Cf. A. Bugge, 1905, pp. 55 f. Several names of fishing-banks, which A. Bugge gives from Dr. Jakobsen, are also of interest. Off Sandey is a fishing-bank called "Knokkur" (or "a Knokki"), and one of the same name lies west of Syd-Straumsey. West of Sudrey is a fishing-place called "Knokkarnir." The fishing-banks are called after the landmarks; "cnoc" is Celtic for hill, and must have been the name of the heights that formed landmarks for the fishing-places in question; on land these names have given way to more modern Norse ones, but have held their own out to sea.
A. Bugge thinks that the Celtic place-names may be due to Norwegians who before they came to the Faroes had lived with Irish-speaking people in the Scottish islands or in Ireland; but it nevertheless seems very improbable that they should have used a foreign language to give names to their new home. A more natural explanation is that they had the names from the earlier Celtic inhabitants, whether these were only the Irish monks, or whether there were others. Names of islands and hills are usually among the most ancient of place-names.
[158] Cf. Landnama, Prologue. Further on in the Landnama places are frequently mentioned where priests had formerly lived, and where in consequence heathens dared not settle.
[159] It is explicable that places and estates may be called after the personal names of Irish land-takers; but it is more difficult to understand how the Norwegians should have come by Celtic names, derived from appellatives, for mountains, fjords, and rivers--which are everywhere among the earliest of place-names--if the Celts had not been there before they came. Among such place-names of Celtic origin, or which indicate a Celtic population, may be mentioned: "Dimunarvag, Dimunar-klakkar" (an inlet and two rocky islets in Breidifjord); "Dimon," in many places as the name of a ridge, a mountain, and an islet; "Katanes"; "Katadalr"; "Kuafljot," the name of a confluence of several rivers into a large piece of water, in Vester-Skaftarfells district, from Irish "cud" (== head).
"Minakseyrr" is mentioned above. Further, there are many names after Irishmen: a river "Ira," two places "Irageri," a channel into Hvammsfjord "Irska lei," "Irsku buir," a hill "Irski holl," besides "Vestmanna-eyjar," etc.