Conjectures as to the Derivation of “Estotiland”
Evidently this map-maker attributed the name Estotiland to the Norsemen of Greenland on the faith of the fisherman’s story, for no other Scandinavians can be supposed to have fastened a name on the region in question. But, barring the last syllable, which is a common affix, the name has an Italian sound rather than Scandinavian. “East-out-land” has been suggested as a derivation, but why in this instance should either Norse or Italian borrow an English name? Another suggestion requires the use of the first three syllables of the motto “esto fidelis usque ad mortem” making up “Estofi,” with the appendant “land.” But there seems no historic link of positive connection, and the letter “f” would not readily change into “t.” Perhaps “Escotiland” or “Escociland” (Scotland) is a more likely conjecture (first made by Beauvois[220]), since “c” often resembles “t” in older forms of handwriting and might readily be misunderstood. The name may have been applied in the same spirit which has long affixed “Scotia” (Nova Scotia) to a lower part of the same Atlantic coast. That the name was ever really thus applied by the Norsemen seems very unlikely; but Nicolò Zeno may have used it to help out his fisherman’s yarn as readily as he certainly adapted “King Daedalus of Scotland” to help out his more mythical account of Icaria. Or “Estotiland” may be a modification of Estilanda or Esthlanda, a form sometimes taken by Shetland, for example on the map of Prunes, 1553[221] ([Fig. 12]). In casting about for a name, it would be an economy of effort on the part of Zeno or the fisherman to utilize one that was familiar. But I do not know that this derivation from Estiland has ever before been suggested.