Chapter IV: The Early Middle Ages (1)

Thus it came about that the geographical knowledge of later antiquity shows nothing but a gradual decline from the heights which the Greeks had early reached, and from which they had surveyed the earth, the universe and their problems with an intellectual superiority that inclines one to doubt the progress of mankind. The early Middle Ages show an even greater decline. Rome, in spite of all, had formed a sort of scientific centre, which was lost to Western Europe by the fall of the Roman Empire. To this must be added the introduction of Christianity, which, for a time at any rate, gave mankind new values in life, whereby the old ones came into disrepute. Knowledge of distant lands, or of the still more distant heavens, was looked upon as something like folly and madness. For all knowledge was to be found in the Bible, and it was especially commendable to reconcile all profane learning therewith. When, for instance, Isaiah says of the Lord that He "sitteth upon the circle of the earth" (i.e., the round disc of the earth), and "stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in" [xl. 22], and that He "spread forth the earth" [xlii. 5, xliv. 24], and when in the Book of Job [xxvi. 10] it is said that "He has compassed the waters with bounds, where light borders on darkness," such statements did not agree with the doctrine of the spherical form of the earth; this was therefore regarded with disfavour by the Church; the circular disc surrounded by Ocean, which was the idea of the childhood of Greece, was more suitable, and according to Ezekiel [v. 5-6] Jerusalem lay in the centre of this disc. It was inevitable that knowledge of the earth and of its farthest limits should be still more crippled in such an age, and this is especially true of knowledge of the North.

Those writers who in the early part of the Middle Ages occupied themselves with such worldly things as geography, confined themselves mostly to repeating, and in part further confusing, what Pliny and later Latin authors had said on the subject. The most widely read and most frequently copied were Solinus and Capella, also Macrobius and Orosius. This was the intellectual food which replaced the science of the Greeks. Truly the course of the human race has its alternations of heights and depths!

But even if the migrations had for a time interrupted peaceful trading intercourse with the North, they were also the means of new facts becoming known, and it was inevitable that in the long run these migrations, and subsequent contact with the northern peoples, should leave their mark on the science of geography. The knowledge of the North shown in the literature of the early Middle Ages is thus to be compared with two streams, often quite independent of one another; the one has its source in classical learning and becomes ever thinner and more turbid; the other is the fresh stream of new information from the North, which we find in a Cassiodorus or a Procopius. Sometimes these two streams flow together, as in an Adam of Bremen, and they may then form a mixture of like and unlike, in which it is often hopeless to find one's way.

[Sidenote: Cosmas Indicopleustes, 6th century]

It is true that some were found, even in the early Middle Ages, who maintained the doctrine of the earth's spherical form, whereas early Christian authors, such as Lactantius (ob. 330) and Severianus (ob. 407), had asserted that it was a disc; the latter also thought that the heaven was divided into two storeys, an upper and a lower, with the visible heaven as a division; the earth formed the floor of this celestial house. One ancient notion (in Empedocles, Leucippus, Democritus) was that this disc of the earth stood on a slant, increasing in height towards the north, which was partly covered by high mountains, the Rhipæan and Hyperborean ranges (as in Ptolemy's map). These childish ideas took their most remarkable shape in the "Christian Topography," in twelve books, of the Alexandrine monk, Cosmas Indicopleustes (sixth century). In his younger days he had travelled much as a merchant and seen many wonderful things, amongst others the wheel-ruts left by the Children of Israel during their wanderings in the wilderness. The Jews' tabernacle, he thought, was constructed on the same plan and in the same proportions as the world. Consequently the earth's disc had to be made four-cornered, with straight sides, and twice as long as it was broad. The ocean on the west formed a right angle with the ocean on the south. On the north was a high mountain; behind it the sun was hidden in its course during the night.[127] As the sun in winter traverses the sky in a lower orbit, it appears to us as though it receded behind the mountain near its foot, and it stays away longer than in summer, when it is higher. The whole vault of heaven was like a four-cornered box with a vaulted lid, which was divided by the firmament into two storeys. In the lower one were the earth, the sea, the sun, moon and stars; in the upper one the waters of the sky. The stars were carried round in circles by angels, whom God at the creation appointed to this heavy task. It was impossible for the earth to revolve, simply because its axle must be supported by something, and of what kind of material could it be made? He had nothing else worth mentioning to say about the North. But notions such as these had their influence on the earliest mediæval maps.

[Sidenote: Cassiodorus, 468-570 A.D.]

The first mediæval author who, so far as we know, definitely gave new information of value about the countries and peoples of the North, was the Roman senator and historian Cassiodorus (born at Scylaceum, it is supposed about 468), who was an eminent statesman under Theodoric, King of the Goths (493-526). After the victories of Belisarius in Italy, Cassiodorus retired into a monastery in southern Italy (Bruttium), which he himself had founded, and died there, perhaps 100 years old (about 570). He wrote several valuable works, amongst them, probably by order of Theodoric, one in twelve books on "The Origin and Deeds of the Goths," which was perhaps completed about 534. This work has unfortunately been lost, and we only know it through the Goth Jordanes, who has made excerpts from it. There is reason to believe [cf. Mommsen, 1882, Proœmium, p. xxxvii.] that Cassiodorus's knowledge of Gothic was defective, and that he has borrowed his information about the North, especially Scandinavia, from a contemporary, or perhaps somewhat older writer, Ablabius, who is referred to in Jordanes' book as "the distinguished author of a very trustworthy history of the Goths," but who is otherwise unknown. Through the Norwegian king Rodulf and his men (see below, under Jordanes), or other Northerners who visited Theodoric, and who were "mightier than all the Germans in courage and size of body," first-hand information was brought concerning the countries of the North, which Ablabius, who certainly knew Gothic, may have written down, and from him Cassiodorus has thus derived his statements, which again are taken from him by Jordanes. In addition to various classical authors, some Latin and some Greek, of whom Jordanes mentions many more than he has made use of, it is probable that Cassiodorus has also drawn upon the maps of Roman itineraries [cf. Mommsen, 1882, Proœmium, p. xxxi.], and perhaps also Greek maps.

[Sidenote: Jordanes, circa 552]

The Gothic monk (or priest) Jordanes lived in the sixth century, and wrote about 551 or 552 a book on "The Origin and Deeds of the Goths" ("De origine actibusque Getarum"), which for the most part is certainly a poor repetition of the substance of Cassiodorus's great work on the same subject; and in fact he tells us this himself, with the modest addition that "his breath is too weak to fill the trumpet of such a man's mighty speech." It is true that Jordanes asserts in his preface that he has only had the loan of the work to read for three days, for which reason he cannot give the words but only the sense, and thereto, he says, he has added what was suitable "from certain histories in the Greek [which he did not understand] and Latin tongues," and he has mixed it with his own words. But this is only said to hide his lack of originality; for the book evidently contains long literal excerpts from the work of Cassiodorus, while Jordanes' Latin becomes markedly worse when he tries to walk alone. Not even the preface to the work is original; this is copied from Rufinus's translation of Origines' commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.

Of the uttermost ocean we read in Jordanes:

"Not only has no one undertaken to describe the impenetrable uttermost
bounds of the ocean, but it has not even been vouchsafed to any one to
explore them, since it has been experienced that on account of the
resistance of the seaweed and because the winds cease to blow there,
the ocean is impenetrable and is known to none but Him who created
it." This conception has a striking resemblance to Avienus's "Ora
Maritima" (see above, pp. 37-40), and may very probably be derived
from it.

Of the western ocean he says, amongst other things:

"But it has also other islands farther out in the midst of its waves,
which are called the Balearic Isles, and another Mevania; likewise the
Orcades, thirty-three in number, and yet not all of them are
cultivated [inhabited]. It has also in its most western part another
island, called Thyle, of which the Mantuan [i.e., Virgil] says: 'May
the uttermost Thule be subject to thee.' This immense ocean has also
in its arctic, that is to say, northern, part, a great island called
Scandza, concerning which our narrative with God's help shall begin;
for the nation [the Goths] of whose origin you inquired, burst forth
like a swarm of bees from the lap of this island, and came to the land
of Europe."

After having spoken of Ptolemy's (also Mela's) mention of this island, which according to his version of the former had the shape of "a citron leaf, with curved edges and very long in proportion to its breadth" (this cannot be found in Ptolemy), and lay opposite the three mouths of the Vistula, he continues:

"This [island] consequently has on its east the greatest inland sea in
the world, from which the River Vagi discharges itself, as from a
belly, profusely into the Ocean.[128] On the western side it [the
island of Scandza] is surrounded by an immense ocean and on the north
it is bounded by the before-mentioned unnavigable enormous ocean, from
which an arm extends to form the Germanic Ocean ('Germanicum mare'),
by widening out a bay. There are said to be many more islands in it,
but they are small,[129] and when the wolves on account of the severe
cold cross over after the sea is frozen, they are reported to lose
their eyes, so that the country is not only inhospitable to men but
cruel to animals. But in the island of Scandza, of which we are
speaking, although there are many different peoples, Ptolemy
nevertheless only gives the names of seven of them. But the
honey-making swarms of bees are nowhere found on account of the too
severe cold. In its northern part live the people Adogit, who, it is
said, in the middle of the summer have continuous light for forty days
and nights, and likewise at the time of the winter solstice do not see
the light for the same number of days and nights; sorrow thus
alternating with joy, so are they unlike others in benevolence and
injury; and why? Because on the longer days they see the sun return to
the east along the edge of the axis [i.e., the edge of the pole, that
is to say, along the northern horizon], but on the shorter days it is
not thus seen with them, but in another way, because it passes through
the southern signs, and when the sun appears to us to rise from the
deep, with them it goes along the horizon. But there are other people
there, and they are called Screrefennæ, who do not seek a subsistence
in corn, but live on the flesh of wild beasts and the eggs of
birds,[130] and such an enormous number of eggs [lit., spawn] is laid
in the marshes that it serves both for the increase of their kind
[i.e., of the birds] and for a plentiful supply for the people."

[Sidenote: Screrefennæ or Skridfinns]

The "Screrefennæ" of Jordanes (in other MSS. "Crefenne," "Rerefennæ," etc.) are certainly a corruption of the same word as Procopius's "Scrithifini" (Skridfinns), and were a non-Germanic race inhabiting the northern regions (see later). The mention of these people, together with their neighbours the "Adogit," who had the midnight sun and a winter night of forty days (cf. also Procopius), shows without a doubt that Jordanes', or rather Cassiodorus's, authority had received fresh information from the most northern part of Scandinavia, possibly through the Norwegian king Rodulf and his men.

[Sidenote: Adogit]

The mysterious name "Adogit" is somewhat doubtful. P. A. Munch [1852, p. 93], and later also Müllenhoff [ii., 1887, p. 41], thought that it might be a corruption of Hálogi ("Háleygir," or Helgelanders) in northern Norway. Sophus Bugge [1907] does not regard this interpretation as possible, as this name cannot have had such a form at that time; he (and, as he informs us, Gustav Storm also independently) thinks that "adogit" is corrupted from "ādogii," i.e., "andogii," meaning inhabitants of And or Andö in Vesterålen.[131] The termination -ogii he takes to be a mediæval way of writing what was pronounced -oji, i.e., islanders.[132] But it should be remembered how much the name "Screrefennæ" has been corrupted, and that it is very possible that other names may have been so equally.

[Sidenote: Impossibility of forty days' daylight in summer and night in winter]

The statement that the Adogit had forty days' daylight in summer and a corresponding period of night in winter is, unfortunately, of no assistance in the form in which it is given for deciding the locality inhabited by them, for no such phenomenon occurs anywhere on the earth. If we suppose that the Adogit people themselves observed the rising and setting of the sun above a free horizon, then we must believe that they reckoned the unbroken summer day from the first to the last night on which the upper limb of the sun did not disappear below the edge of the sea. And they would have reckoned the unbroken winter night from the first day on which the sun's upper limb did not appear above the horizon at noon, until the first day when it again became visible.

If we reckon in this way, and take into account the horizontal refraction and the fact that the obliquity of the ecliptic about the year 500 was approximately 11' greater than now, we shall find that at that time the midnight sun was seen for forty days (i.e., from June 2 to July 12) in about 66° 54' N. lat., or in the neighbourhood of Kunna, south of Bodö; but at the same place more than half the sun's disc would be above the horizon at noon at the winter solstice; it was therefore not hidden for a single day, much less for forty days. But, on the other hand, it was not until 68° 51' N. lat., or about Harstad on Hinnö, that they had an unbroken winter night, without seeing the rim of the sun, for forty days (from December 2 to January 11); but there they had the midnight sun in summer for about sixty-three days. The fable of a summer day of the same length as the unbroken winter night cannot therefore have originated with the Northerners; it must have been evolved in an entirely theoretical way by astronomical speculations (in ignorance of refraction) which were a survival of Greek science, where the length of the northern summer day was always assumed to be equal to that of the winter night. But that information had been received at this time from the Northerners is probable, since the statement of a forty days' summer day and winter night is not found in any known author of earlier date,[133] and Jordanes' contemporary, Procopius, has an even more detailed statement, especially of this winter night (see later). The probability is that what the Northerners took particular notice of was the long night, during which, as Procopius also relates, they kept an accurate account of the days during which they had to do without the light of the sun, a time in which "they were very depressed, since they could not hold intercourse." This must also have been what they told to the Southerners, while they did not pay so much attention to the length of the summer day, when of course they would in any case have plenty of sunlight. We must therefore suppose that the latitude worked out according to the winter night of forty days is the correct one, and this gives us precisely Sophus Bugge's And--Andö, or, better still, Hinnö.

[Sidenote: Northern Tribal Names]

Jordanes counts about twenty-seven names of tribes or peoples in Sweden and Norway; a number of them are easily recognised, while others must be much corrupted and are difficult to interpret.[134] He mentions first the peoples of Sweden, then those of Norway. "Suehans" is certainly the Svear.

They, "like the Thuringians, have excellent horses. It is also they
who through their commercial intercourse with innumerable other
peoples send for the use of the Romans sappherine skins ('sappherinas
pelles'), which skins are celebrated for their blackness.[135] While
they live poorly they have the richest clothes."

We see then that at this time the fur trade with the North was well developed, as the amber trade was at a much earlier date. Adam of Bremen tells us of the "proud horses" of the Svear as though they were an article of export together with furs. In the Ynglinga Saga it is related [cf. Sophus Bugge, 1907, p. 99] that Adils, King of the Svear at Upsalir,

"was very fond of good horses, he had the best horses of that time."
He sent a stallion "to Hålogaland to Godgest the king; Godgest the
king rode it, and could not hold it, so he fell off and got his death;
this was in Ǫmd [Amd] in Hålogaland."

The original authority for the statement in Jordanes was probably King Rodulf, who perhaps came from the northern half of Norway, and it looks as though the Norwegians even at that time were acquainted with Swedish horses.

Jordanes further mentions five tribes who "dwell in a flat, fertile land [i.e., south Sweden], for which reason also they have to protect themselves against the attacks of other tribes ('gentium')." Among the tribes in Sweden are mentioned also the "Finnaithæ"--doubtless in Finn-heden or Finn-veden (that is, either Finn-heath or Finn-wood), whose name must be due to an aboriginal people called Finns--further, the "Gautigoth," generally taken for the West Göter, who were a specially "brave and warlike people," the "Ostrogothæ" [East Göter] and many more.

Then he crosses the Norwegian frontier and mentions

"The 'Raumarici'[of Romerike] and 'Ragnaricii' [of Ranrike or
Bohuslen], the very mild [peaceful] 'Finns' ('Finni mitissimi'), who
are milder than all the other inhabitants of Scandza;[136] further
their equals the 'Vinoviloth'; the 'Suetidi' are known among this
people ['hac gente' must doubtless mean the Scandinavians] as towering
above the rest in bodily height, and yet the 'Danes,' who are
descended from this very race [i.e., the Scandinavians ?] drove out
the 'Heruli' from their own home, who claimed the greatest fame [i.e.,
of being the foremost] among the peoples ['nationes'] of Scandia for
very great bodily size. Yet of the same height as these are also the
'Granii' [of Grenland, the coast-land of Bratsberg and Nedenes], the
'Augandzi' [people of Agder],[137] 'Eunix' [islanders, Holmryger in
the islands ?], 'Ætelrugi' [Ryger on the mainland in Ryfylke],
'Arochi' [== 'arothi,' i.e., Harudes, Horder of Hordaland], 'Ranii'
[in other MSS. 'Rannii' or 'Rami,' Sophus Bugge (1907) and A. Bugge
see in this a corruption of '*Raumi,' that is, people of Romsdal],
over whom not many years ago Roduulf was king, who, despising his own
kingdom, hastened to the arms of Theodoric king of the Goths, and
found what he had hankered after. These people fight with the
savageness of beasts, more mighty than the Germans in body and soul."

The small (?), "very mild" Finns must, from the order in which they are named, have lived in the forest districts--Solör, Eidskogen, and perhaps farther south--on the Swedish border. P. A. Munch [1852, p. 83] saw in their kinsmen the "Vinoviloth" the inhabitants of "Vingulmark" (properly "vingel-skog," thick, impenetrable forest), which was the forest country on Christiania fjord from Glommen to Lier. Müllenhoff agrees with this [ii., 1887, pp. 65 f.], but thinks that "-oth," the last part of the word, belongs to the next name, Suetidi, and that "Vinovil" may be a corruption of Vingvili or Vinguli (cf. Paulus Warnefridi's "Vinili" ?). But however this may be, we must regard this people and the foregoing as "Finnish" and as inhabiting forest districts, as hunters, as well as a third Finnish people, "Finnaithæ" in Småland. We shall return later to these "Finns" in Scandinavia. It has been thought that "Suetidi" may be from the same word as "Sviþjoð"; but as Jordanes has already mentioned the Svear ("Suehans"), and as the name occurs among the Norwegian tribes, and there is evidently a certain order in their enumeration, Müllenhoff may be right in seeing in it a corruption of a Norwegian tribal name. He thinks that "Othsuetidi" may be a corruption of "Æthsævii," i.e., "Eiðsivar" (cf. Eidsivathing), "Heiðsævir" or "Heiðnir" in Hedemarken, who were certainly a very tall people. The mention of the Norwegian warriors has a certain interest in that it is due to the Roman statesman Cassiodorus (or his authority), who glorified the Goths and had no special reason for praising the Northmen.[138] It shows that even at that time our northern ancestors were famed for courage and bodily size, and that too above all other Germanic peoples, who were highly esteemed by the Romans. It is not clear whether Rodulf was King of the "Ranii" (Raumer ?) alone, or of all the Norwegian tribes from Grenland to Romsdal. It may be supposed that he was a Norwegian chief who migrated south through Europe at the head of a band of warriors, composed of men from the tribes mentioned, and that finally on the Danube, hard pressed by other warlike people, he sought alliance and support from the mighty king of the Goths, Theodoric or Tjodrik (Dietrich of Berne). This may have been just before 489, when the latter made his expedition to Italy. Many circumstances combine to make such a hypothesis probable.[139]

We know that about 489 the Eruli were just north of the Danube, and were the Goths' nearest neighbours. Now, as we shall see later, Eruli was perhaps at first a common name for bands of northern warriors, and these Eruli on the Danube may therefore certainly have consisted to a greater or less extent of Norwegians. We know, further, that at this time there was a king of the Eruli to whom Theodoric sent as a gift a horse, sword and shield, thereby making him his foster-son [cf. Cassiodorus, Varia iii. 3, iv. 2]. Finally, we know from Procopius that the Eruli just at this time had a king, Rodulf, who fell in battle against the Langobards (about 493). When we compare this with what Jordanes says about the Norwegian king Rodulf, who hastened to Theodoric's arms and found there what he sought, it will be easy to conclude that this Norwegian chief is the same as the chief of Eruli here spoken of. Rodulf, or "Hrodulfr," is a known Norwegian name. "Rod-," or "Hrod," is the same as the modern Norwegian "ros" (i.e., praise), and means probably here renowned.

One is further inclined to believe that it was from this Rodulf or his men, of whom some may have come from And in Hålogaland, that Cassiodorus or his authority obtained the information about Scandinavia and northern Norway, which is also partly repeated in Procopius.

Sophus Bugge [cf. 1910, pp. 87 ff.; see also A. Bugge, 1906, pp. 35
f.] has suggested that the "Ráðulfr," who is mentioned in the runic
inscription on the celebrated Rök-stone in Östergötland (of about the
year 900), in which Theodoric ("Þiaurikr") is also mentioned, may be
the same Norwegian chief Rodulf who came to Theodoric and who fell in
battle with the Langobards. He even regards it as possible that it is
an echo of this battle which is found in the inscription, where it is
said that "twenty kings lie slain on the field"; in that case the
battle has been moved north from the Danube to "Siulunt" (i.e.,
Sealand). There are other circumstances which agree with this: it is
said of the Eruli that they had peace for three years before the
battle [cf. Procopius]; on the Rök-stone it is stated that the twenty
kings stayed in Siulunt four winters; the latter must have been
Norwegian warriors of different tribes: Ryger, Horder, and Heiner
(from Hedemarken), perhaps under a paramount king Ráðulfr, who settled
in Sealand--while the Eruli were bands of northern warriors, who under
a king Rodulf had established themselves on the north bank of the
Danube. Bugge's supposition may be uncertain, but if it be correct it
greatly strengthens the view (see p. 145) that the Eruli were largely
Norwegian warriors, since in that case the king of the Eruli, Rodulf
(== Ráðulfr), would have been in command of tribes for the most part
Norwegian: Ryger, Horder, and Heiner.

[Sidenote: Procopius, circa 552 A.D.]

The Byzantine historian Procopius, of Cæsarea (ob. after 562), became in 527 legal assistant, "assessor," to the general Belisarius, and accompanied him on his campaigns until 549, amongst others that against the Goths in Italy. In his work (in Greek) on the war against the Goths ("De bello Gothico," t. ii. c. 14 and 15), written about 552, he gives information about the North which is of great interest. He tells us of the warlike Germanic people, the Eruli, who from old time[140] were said to have lived on the north bank of the Danube, and who, with no better reason than that they had lived in peace for three whole years and were tired of it, attacked their neighbours the Langobards, but suffered a decisive defeat, and their king, Rodulf, fell in the battle (about 493).[141]

"They then hastily left their dwelling-places, and set out with their
women and children to wander through the whole country [Hungary] which
lies north of the Danube. When they came to the district where the
Rogians had formerly dwelt, who had joined the army of the Goths and
gone into Italy, they settled there; but as they were oppressed by
famine in that district, which had been laid waste, they soon
afterwards departed from it, and came near to the country of the
Gepidæ [Siebenbürgen]. The Gepidæ allowed them to establish themselves
and to become their neighbours, but began thereupon, without the
slightest cause, to commit the most revolting acts against them,
ravishing their women, robbing them of cattle and other goods, and
omitting no kind of injustice, and finally began an unjust war against
them." The Eruli then crossed the Danube to Illyria and settled
somewhere about what is now Servia under the eastern emperor
Anastasius (491-518). Some of the Eruli would not "cross the Danube,
but decided to establish themselves in the uttermost ends of the
inhabited world. Many chieftains of royal blood now undertaking their
leadership, they passed through all the tribes of the Slavs one after
another, went thence through a wide, uninhabited country, and came to
the so-called Varn. Beyond them they passed by the tribes of the Danes
[in Jutland], without the barbarians there using violence towards
them. When they thence came to the ocean [about the year 512] they
took ship, and landed on the island of Thule [i.e., Scandinavia] and
remained there. But Thule is beyond comparison the largest of all
islands; for it is more than ten times as large as Britain. But it
lies very far therefrom northwards. On this island the land is for the
most part uninhabited. But in the inhabited regions there are thirteen
populous tribes, each with a king. Every year an extraordinary thing
takes place; for the sun, about the time of the summer solstice, does
not set at all for forty days, but for the whole of this time remains
uninterruptedly visible above the earth. No less than six months
later, about the winter solstice, for forty days the sun is nowhere to
be seen on this island; but continual night is spread over it, and
therefore for the whole of that time the people are very depressed,
since they can hold no intercourse. It is true that I have not
succeeded, much as I should have wished it, in reaching this island
and witnessing what is here spoken of; but from those who have come
thence to us I have collected information of how they are able [to
count the days] when the sun neither rises nor sets at the times
referred to," etc. When, during the forty days that it is above the
horizon, the sun in its daily course returns "to that place where the
inhabitants first saw it rise, then according to their reckoning a day
and a night have passed. But when the period of night commences, they
find a measure by observation of the moon's path, according to which
they reckon the number of days. But when thirty-five days of the long
night are passed, certain people are sent up to the tops of mountains,
as is the custom with them, and when from thence they can see some
appearance of the sun, they send word to the inhabitants below that in
five days the sun will shine upon them. And the latter assemble and
celebrate, in the dark it is true, the feast of the glad tidings.
Among the people of Thule this is the greatest of all their festivals.
I believe that these islanders, although the same thing happens every
year with them, nevertheless are in a state of fear lest some time the
sun should be wholly lost to them.

"Among the barbarians inhabiting Thule, one people, who are called
Skridfinns [Scrithifini], live after the manner of beasts. They do not
wear clothes [i.e., of cloth] nor, when they walk, do they fasten
anything under their feet, [i.e., they do not wear shoes], they
neither drink wine nor eat anything from the land, because they
neither cultivate the land themselves nor do the women provide them
with anything from tilling it, but the men as well as the women occupy
themselves solely and continually in hunting; for the extraordinarily
great forests and mountains which rise in their country give them vast
quantities of game and other beasts. They always eat the flesh of the
animals they hunt and wear their skins, and they have no linen or
anything else that they can sew with. But they fasten the skins
together with the sinews of beasts, and thus cover their whole bodies.
The children even are not brought up among them as with other peoples;
for the Skridfinns' children do not take women's milk, nor do they
touch their mothers' breasts, but they are nourished solely with the
marrow of slain beasts. As soon therefore as a woman has given birth,
she winds the child in a skin, hangs it up in a tree, puts marrow into
its mouth, and goes off hunting; for they follow this occupation in
common with the men. Thus is the mode of life of these barbarians
arranged.

"Nearly all of the remaining inhabitants of Thule do not, however,
differ much from other peoples. They worship a number of gods and
higher powers in the heavens, the air, the earth and the sea, also
certain other higher beings which are thought to dwell in the waters
of springs and rivers. But they always slay all kinds of sacrifice and
offer dead sacrifices. And to them the best of all sacrifices is the
man they have taken prisoner by their arms. Him they sacrifice to the
god of war, because they consider him to be the greatest. But they do
not sacrifice him merely by using fire at the sacrifice; they also
hang him up in a tree, or throw him among thorns, and slay him by
other cruel modes of death. Such is the life of the inhabitants of
Thule, among whom the most numerous people are the Gauti (Göter), with
whom the immigrant Eruli settled."

[Sidenote: Erulian sources of Procopius]

[Sidenote: Common source of Procopius and Jordanes]

This description by Procopius of Thule (Scandinavia) and its people bears the stamp of a certain trustworthiness. If we ask whence he has derived his information, our thoughts are led at once to the Eruli, referred to by him in such detail, who in part were still the allies of the Eastern Empire, and of whom the emperor at Byzantium had a bodyguard in the sixth century. There were many of them in the army of the Eastern Empire both in Persia and in Italy; thus Procopius says that there were two thousand of them in the army under the eunuch Narses, which came to Italy to join Belisarius. Procopius thus had ample opportunity for obtaining first-hand information from these northern warriors, and his account of them shows that the Eruli south of the Danube kept up communication with their kinsmen in Scandinavia, for when they had killed their king "Ochon" without cause, since they wished to try being without a king, and had repented the experiment, they sent some of their foremost men to Thule to find a new king of the royal blood. They chose one and returned with him; but he died on the way when they had almost reached home, and they therefore turned again and went once more to Thule. This time they found another, "by name 'Datios' [or 'Todasios' == Tjodrik ?]. He was accompanied by his brother 'Aordos' [== Vard ?] and two hundred young men of the Eruli in Thule." Meanwhile, as they were so long absent, the Eruli of Singidunum (the modern Belgrade) had sent an embassy to the emperor Justinianus at Byzantium asking him to give them a chief. He sent, therefore, the Erulian "Svartuas" (== Svartugle, i.e., black owl ?), who had been living with him for a long time. But when Datios from Thule approached, all the Eruli went over to him by night, and Svartuas had to flee quite alone, and returned to Byzantium. The emperor now exerted all his power to reinstate him; "but the Eruli, who feared the power of the Romans, decided to migrate to the Gepidæ." This happened in Procopius's own time, and may therefore be regarded as trustworthy; it shows how easy communication must have been at that time between Scandinavia and the south, and also with Byzantium, so that Procopius may well have had his information by that channel. But he may also have received information from another quarter. His description of Thule shows such decided similarities with Jordanes' account of Scandza and its people that they point to some common source of knowledge, even though there are also dissimilarities. Among the latter it may be pointed out that Jordanes makes a distinction between Thule (north of Britain) and Scandza, while Procopius calls Scandinavia Thule, which, however, like Jordanes, he places to the north of Britain, and he does not mention Scandia. It may seem surprising that Jordanes' authority, Cassiodorus (or Ablabius ?), should have known Ptolemy better than the Greek Procopius. The explanation may be that when Procopius heard from the statements of the Eruli themselves that some of them had crossed the ocean from the land of the Danes (Jutland) to a great island in the north, he could not have supposed that this was Scandia, which on Ptolemy's map lay east of the Cimbrian peninsula and farther south than its northern point; it would seem much more probable that it was Thule, which, however, as he saw, must lie farther from Britain and be larger than it was shown on Ptolemy's map; for which reason Procopius expressly asserts that Thule was much larger than Britain and lay far to the north of it. As it was not Procopius's habit to make a show of unnecessary names, he keeps the well-known name of Thule and does not even mention Scandia. It may even be supposed that it was to west Norway itself, or the ancient Thule, that the Eruli sailed. If their king Rodulf was a Norwegian, as suggested above, this would be probable, as in that case many of themselves would have come from there too; besides which, we know of a people, the Harudes or Horder, who had formerly migrated by sea from Jutland to the west coast of Norway; there had therefore been an ancient connection, and perhaps, indeed, Horder from Norway and Harudes from Jutland may have been among Rodulf's men, and there may also have been Harudes among the Eruli whom the Danes, according to Jordanes, drove out of their home (in Jutland ?). There was also, from the very beginning of Norwegian history, much connection between Norway and Jutland.

Another disagreement between the descriptions of Procopius and Jordanes is that according to the former there were thirteen tribes, each with a king, in Thule, while Jordanes enumerates twice as many tribal names in Scandza, but of these perhaps several may have belonged to the same kingdom.[142]

A remarkable similarity between the two authors is the summer day forty days long and the equally long winter night among the people of Thule as with the Adogit, and the fact that in immediate connection therewith the Scrithifini and Screrefennæ, which must originally be the same name, are mentioned. The description in Procopius of festivals on the reappearance of the sun, etc., points certainly to information from the North; but, as already pointed out, the statement in this form, that the summer day was of the same length as the winter night, cannot be due to the Norsemen themselves; it is a literary invention, which points to a common literary origin; for it would be more than remarkable if it had arisen independently both with the authority of Procopius and with that of Jordanes. An even more striking indication in the same direction is the resemblance which we find in the order of the two descriptions of Thule and of Scandza. First comes the geographical description of the island, which in both is of very great size and lies far out in the northern ocean; then occurs the statement that in this great island are many tribes.[143] Next we have in both the curious fact that the summer day and the winter night both last for forty days. Then follows in both a more detailed statement of how the long summer day and winter night come about, and of how the sun behaves during its course, etc. Immediately after this comes the description of the Skridfinns, who have a bestial way of life, and do not live on corn, but on the flesh of wild beasts, etc., with an addition in Jordanes about fen-fowl's eggs (perhaps taken from Mela), while Procopius has a more detailed description of their mode of life, which reminds one somewhat of Tacitus. Finally, there is a reference to the Germanic people of Thule or Scandza; but while Procopius mentions their religious beliefs and human sacrifices, and only gives the name of the most numerous tribe, the Gauti, Jordanes has for the most part a rigmarole of names.

Even if the method of treating the material is thus very different in the two works, the order in which the material is arranged, and to some extent also the material itself, are in such complete agreement that there must be a historical connection, and undoubtedly a common literary source, through a greater or less number of intermediaries, is the basis of both descriptions. One might think of the unknown Ablabius, or perhaps of the unknown Gothic scholar Aithanarit, whom the Ravenna geographer mentions in connection with his reference to the Skridfinns, if indeed he did not live later than Procopius. It is striking also that the passage about Thule in Procopius gives rather the impression of having been inserted in the middle of his narrative about the Eruli, without any very intimate connection therewith, and it may therefore be for the most part taken from an earlier author, perhaps with alterations and additions by Procopius himself; but it is not his habit to inform us of his authorities.

[Sidenote: The Eruli are Norsemen]

Procopius's description of the Eruli is of great interest. It is a remarkable feature in the history of the world that at certain intervals, even from the earliest times, roving warrior peoples appear in Europe, coming from the unknown North, who for a time fill the world with dread, and then disappear again. One of these northern peoples was perhaps, as already mentioned, the "Cimmerians," who in the eighth century B.C. made an inroad into Asia Minor. Six hundred years later, in the second century B.C., bands of Cimbri and Teutones came down from northern Europe and were pressing towards Rome, till they were defeated by Marius and gradually disappeared. Five hundred years later still, in the third to the fifth centuries A.D., the Eruli come on the scene, and after they have disappeared come the Saxons and Danes, and then the Normans. We may perhaps suppose, to a certain extent at all events, that the races which formed these restless and adventurous bands were in part the same, and that it is the names that have changed. The Eruli are also mentioned by Jordanes and by many other authorities besides Procopius. Together with the Goths they played a part in the "Scythian" war in the third century, but afterwards disappear to the north of the Black Sea. They must have been the most migratory people of their time; we find them roaming over the whole of Europe, from Scandinavia on the north to Byzantium on the south, from the Black Sea on the east to Spain on the west; from the third to the fifth century we find Eruli from Scandinavia as pirates on the coasts of western Europe, and even in the Mediterranean itself, where in 455 they reached Lucca in Italy [cf. Zeuss, 1837, p. 477 f.; Müllenhoff, 1889, p. 19]. When we read in Procopius that some of the Eruli would not "cross the Danube, but determined to establish themselves in the uttermost ends of the world," this means, of course, that they had come from thence, and that rather than be subject to the Eastern Empire they would return home to Scandinavia. The name also frequently appears in its primitive Norse form, "erilaR," in Northern runic inscriptions.[144] Since "erilaR" (in Norwegian "jarl," in English "earl") means leader in war, and is not known in Scandinavia as the original name of a tribe which has given its name to any district in the North, we must suppose that it was more probably an appellative in use in the more southern parts of Europe for bands of northern warriors of one or more Scandinavian tribes [cf. P. A. Munch, 1852, p. 53]. They may have called themselves so; it was, in fact, characteristic of the Scandinavian warrior that he was not disposed to acknowledge any superior; they were all free men and chiefs in contradistinction to thralls. Gradually these bands in foreign countries may have coalesced into one nation [cf. A. Bugge, 1906, p. 32]. But as expeditions of Eruli are spoken of in such widely different parts of Europe, the name must, up to the end of the fifth century, have often been used for Norsemen in general, to distinguish them from the nations of Germany, like the designation Normans, and sometimes also Danes, in later times. That the latter was used as an appellative as early as the time of Procopius seems to result from his mentioning the tribes ("ethne") of the Danes in just the same way as he speaks of those of the Slavs. What is said about the Eruli suits the Scandinavians: they were very tall (cf. Jordanes, above, p. 136) and fair, were specially famed for their activity, and were lightly armed; they went into battle without helmet or coat of mail, protected only by a shield and a thick tunic, which they tucked up into a belt. Their thralls, indeed, had to fight without shields; but when they had shown their courage they were allowed to carry a shield [Procopius, De bello Pers., ii. 25]. "At that time," says Jordanes, "there was no nation that had not chosen the light-armed men of its army from among them. But if their activity had often helped them in other wars, they were vanquished by the slow steadiness of the Goths," and they had to submit to Hermanaric, King of the Goths by the Black Sea, the same who is called Jörmunrek in the Völsunga Saga. The people here described can scarcely have been typical dwellers in plains, who are usually slow and heavy; we should rather think of them as tough and active Scandinavian mountaineers, who by their hard life in the hills had become light of foot and practised in the use of their limbs; but who, on the other hand, had been ill-supplied with heavier weapons and had had scant opportunities of exercise as heavy-armed men, for which indeed they had no taste. This also explains their remarkable mobility. We are thus led once more to think of Norway as the possible home of some of the Eruli. To sum up, we find then that they had a king with the Norse name Rodulf, and there are many indications that he was the same as the Norwegian king Rodulf (from Romsdal ?) who came to Theodoric. They returned through Jutland and sailed thence to Thule, where they settled by the side of the Gauti, i.e., to the west of them in Norway, which from old time had had frequent communication with Jutland, from whence the Horder (and probably also the Ryger ?) had immigrated. They are described as having characteristics which are typical of mountaineers, but not of lowlanders. An Erulian name, "Aruth" (Αρουθ), mentioned by Procopius [De bello Goth., iv. 26], also points to Norway, since it appears to be the same as the Norwegian tribal name "Horder" ("*Haruðr," gen. "Haruþs," on the Rök-stone [cf. S. Bugge, 1910, p. 98], or "Arothi" in Jordanes).

Other Erulian names in Procopius may be common to the northern
Germanic languages. In the opinion of Professor Alf Torp it is
probable that "Visandos" is bison, "Aluith" is Alvid or Alvith
(all-knowing); in "Fanitheos" the first syllable may be "fan" or "fen"
(English, fen) and the second part "-theos" may be the Scandinavian
termination "-ther"; "Aordos" may be Vard. The King's name "Ochon"
seems to resemble the Norwegian Håkon; but the latter name cannot have
had such a form at that time, it must have been longer.

What Procopius tells us [De bello Goth., ii. 14] about the manners and customs of the Eruli agrees with what we know of the Norsemen generally. They worshipped many gods, whom they considered it their sacred duty to propitiate with human sacrifices. Aged and sick persons were obliged to ask their relatives to help them to get rid of life;[145] they were killed with a dagger by one who did not belong to the family, and were burnt on a great pile, after which the bones were collected and buried, as was the custom in western Norway amongst other places. "When an Erulian died, his wife, if she wished to show her virtue and leave a good name behind her, had to hang herself not long after with a rope by her husband's grave and thus make an end of herself. If she did not do this, she lost respect for the future, and was an offence to her husband's family. This custom was observed by the Eruli from old time." Their many gods and human sacrifices agree, as we see, with Procopius's description of the inhabitants of Thule, and with what we know of the Scandinavians from other quarters. As human sacrifices with most peoples were connected with banquets, at which slain enemies were eaten,[146] the assertion that our Germanic ancestors did not practise cannibalism rests upon uncertain ground. When, therefore, in finds of the Stone Age in Denmark, Sweden and Norway broken or scraped human bones occur, which point to cannibalism, it cannot be argued from this, as is done by Dr. A. M. Hansen [1907], that the finds belong to a non-Germanic people.

For the rest, Procopius paints the Eruli in crude colours; they are covetous, domineering and violent towards their fellow men, without being ashamed of it. They are addicted to the grossest debauchery, are the most wicked of men, and utterly depraved.

[Sidenote: Skridfinns]

The "Scrithifini" of Procopius (and Jordanes' corrupted form, "Screrefennæ" or "Scretefennæ") are undoubtedly a people of the same kind as Tacitus's "Fenni" (Ptolemy-Marinus's "Finni"); but they have here acquired the descriptive prefix "scrithi-," which is generally understood as the Norse "skriða" (== to slide, e.g., on the ice, to glide; cf. Swedish "skridsko," skate). The Norsemen must have characterised their Finnish (i.e., Lappish) neighbours on the north as sliding (walking) on ski ("skriða á skiðum"), to distinguish them from other peoples in the outlying districts whom they also called Finns. If this is so, it is the first time that a reference to ski-running is found in literature. There is, moreover, considerable similarity between Procopius's description of these hunters and Tacitus's account of the "Fenni," who must certainly also have lived in Scandinavia (see above, p. 113), and who may have been the same people. They have many peculiar characteristics in common, e.g., that both men and women go hunting; and the statement that while the mothers go hunting, the children, in Tacitus, are hidden in a shelter of boughs (i.e., a tent), and in Procopius are hung up in a tree (perhaps the Lapps' "komse," i.e., a cradle made of wood to hang up in the tent). Procopius himself probably did not know Tacitus's "Germania," but it is possible that his unknown authority did so, although this work was generally forgotten at that time. But even if the description of Procopius may thus be partly derived from Tacitus, in any case fresh information has been added, the name Skridfinns itself to begin with, and certain correct details, such as their fastening the skins together with the sinews of beasts. The fable that the children did not touch their mothers' breasts may (like the masculine occupation of the women) be due to legends about the Amazons, who were not brought up on their mothers' milk. That the children were given marrow instead may be due to the fact that this people of hunters, like the Lapps of the present day, ate much animal fat and marrow. The Eskimo often give their children raw blubber to chew.

[Sidenote: Isidorus Hispalensis, before 636 A.D.]

Thus while valuable information about the North is to be found in the early mediæval authors we have mentioned, this is not the case with the well-known Isidorus Hispalensis of Seville (ob. 636, as bishop of that city), who, however, exercised the greatest influence on the geographical ideas of the Middle Ages. His geographical knowledge was derived from late Latin authors, especially Orosius, Hieronymus and Solinus, and contributed nothing new of value. But as he was one of the most widely read authors of the early Middle Ages, he is of importance for having in that dark time continued the thread of the learning of antiquity, even though that thread was thin and weak. He was also to have an influence on cartography. With his fondness for bad etymological interpretations he derived the word "rotunditas," for the roundness of the earth, from "rota," wheel, and he taught that "the word 'orbis' is used on account of the roundness of the circumference, since it is like a wheel. For in every part the circumfluent ocean surrounds its borders in a circle." Hence the conception of the earth's disc as a wheel came to be general in the early Middle Ages, and hence the designation of wheel-maps. Isidore divided the earth's disc into three parts, Asia (including Paradise) at the top of the wheel-map, and Europe and Africa, also called Lybia, at the bottom; and the boundaries between these continents formed a =T= with the rivers Tanais and Nile horizontally at the top, and the Mediterranean ("Mare Magnum") below. Therefore maps of this type, which was maintained for a long time, are also called =T=-maps.[147] Otherwise Isidore declared clearly enough in favour of the spherical form of the earth.

[Sidenote: Bede, 673-735]