[102] The name may be either Celtic or Old Germanic. In Celtic “mori,” Irish “muir,” Cymric “môr,” is sea; but R. Much [1893, p. 220] thinks that Germanic “mari” and Gothic “marei” (German “Meer,” Latin “mare”) may also have been pronounced formerly with “o.” “Marusa” is related to Irish “marb,” Cymric “marw” for dead; but according to Much it may be of Germanic origin and have had the form “*marusaz” (cf. “*marwaz”) with the meaning of motionless, lifeless. “Morimarusa” would thus be the “motionless sea,” which reminds one of Pytheas’s kindred ideas of the sluggish, congealed sea (“mare pigrum, prope immotum mare”). If the name is of Germanic origin, this does not debar its being derived from Pytheas (and taken from him by Philemon); he may have got it from Norway. If Rusbeas is southern Norway, this would point in the same direction. But it is doubtless more reasonable to suppose that the name is derived from the Cimbri, who are mentioned in connection with it, while Pliny does not mention any people in Norway.
[103] Hergt [1893, p. 40] thinks that “Morimarusa” would be the Baltic (and the Cattegat), which was called dead because it had no tides and was frozen in winter. “Rusbeas” would thus be the point of the Skaw. In this way he has two names for the Baltic, and two, if not three, for the Skaw. This interpretation seems to be even less consistent than that given above. Pliny in another passage mentions ([see pp. 65], [106]) that the sea called “Cronium” was a day’s sail beyond Thule, which lay to the north of Britain and within the Arctic Circle. This in itself makes it difficult for Cronium to begin at Lindesnes, but if it has to begin at Skagen, and thus be the Skagerak, it becomes still worse.
[104] This must come from an Old Germanic word “*glez,” Anglo-Saxon “glær,” for amber. It is the same word as the Norwegian “glas” or Danish “glar,” which has come to mean glass.
[105] The origin of the name “Sævo” cannot be determined with certainty. Forbiger [1848, iii. p. 237] thinks it is Kjölen, and asserts that it is a Norwegian name which is still found in the form of “Seve,” ridge; but no such name is known in Norway. It seems possible that the name may be connected with the Gothic “saivs” for sea (cf. Old Norse “sær”); but it may also be supposed to have arisen from a corruption of “svevus”; in any case it was so regarded in the Middle Ages. Solinus says [c. 20, 1], following Pliny, that “Mons Sævo ... forms the commencement of Germany,” but Isidore Hispalensis says that “Suevus Mons” forms the north-east boundary of Germany, and on the Hereford Map (about 1280) a mountain chain, “Mons Sueuus,” runs in north-east Germany to a bay of the sea called “Sinus Germanicus,” which may be the Baltic. On the Ebstorf map (1284) “Mons Suevus” has followed the Suevi southwards to Swabia. It is also possible that Ptolemy’s mountain chain “Syēba” (Σύηβα, vi. c. 14) in northernmost Asia (62° N. lat.) has something to do with Pliny’s “Sævo.” There has been much guessing as to where the latter is to be sought: some [cf. Detlefsen, 1904, p. 28] think it was Kjölen, although it is quite incomprehensible how this far northern range could be connected with Codanus; others [cf. Lönborg, 1897, p. 20] that it was in Mecklenburg or Pomerania or even in Jutland [Geijer, 1825, p. 77], where no mountain is to be found, least of all an immense one (“inmensus”). Pliny’s words could be most simply connected with the Norwegian mountains [cf. Holz, 1894, p. 25]. It may indeed be supposed, as Müllenhoff [iv., 1900, p. 600] thinks, that the men of Augustus’s fleet, in 5 A.D., may have seen in the Cattegat or heard of the “Sea-mountains” of the Scandinavian (or rather, Swedish) coast, “*Saivabergo” or “*Saivagabërgia,” which rose up over the sea, and the same of which became in Latin “Mons Sævo”; but perhaps it is just as reasonable to suppose that the information may be derived from the Germans of Jutland, who had communication with Norway and knew its high mountainous country, and that therefore it did not originate with the low west coast of Sweden.
[106] One might be tempted to connect the name “Scadinavia” with the old Norse goddess Skade or Skaði, who was of Finnish race; she was black-haired, lived in the mountains in the interior of the country, and was amongst other things the goddess of ski-running. The name Scadinavia would then be of Finnish origin. This derivation has also been put forward [cf. Müllenhoff, ii., 1887, pp. 55 f., 357 f.]. The termination “avi,” “avia,” must then be the same as “ovia” (see [p. 94]). This explanation would take for granted an original non-Germanic, so-called “Finnish” population in south Sweden (which does not appear impossible; see below); but it will then be difficult to explain why the name should have survived only in the most southern part, Skåne. Sophus Bugge [1896, p. 424] thought that “Scadinavia” (later “Scadanavia”) is related to the common Norwegian place-name “Skǫðvin” or Sköien (“vin” == pasture) and may come from a lost Old Norse word “*skaða” (old Slavonic “skotŭ”) for cattle. “Skǫðvin” would then be cattle-pasture. From “*skaða” the word “*skaðanaz” may be regularly derived, with the meaning of herdsman; and “Skadan-avia” or “Skadinavia” will be herdsman’s pastures, since the termination “avia” may have the same meaning as the German “Au” or “Aue” (good pasture, meadow). The Old Norse “Skáney” (“Skáni,” now “Skåne”) would then come from Skaðney, where the “ð” has been dropped as in many similar instances. Bugge himself afterwards [1904, p. 156] rejected this explanation and derived “Scadinavia” from the same word as “Codanus” (see [p. 93]), taking it to mean the island or coast-land by “Kōdan,” which has had a prefixed “s,” while the long “o” has been changed into short “a.” This explanation may be very doubtful. In many parts of Norway a name “Skåney” is known, which comes from “skán” (meaning crust), and it may therefore not be improbable that the Swedish “Skáney” or Skåne is the same name.
[107] Ahlenius [1900, p. 31] has tried to explain the name as a copyist’s error for “Æstingia,” which he connects with the “Æstii” (Esthonians) of Tacitus; but the people would then have been called Æstingii rather than Æstii. One might then be more inclined to think of Jordanes’ “Astingi” or “Hazdingi,” the same as the Old Norse Haddingjar (Hallinger).
[108] R. Keyser [1868, p. 89] explains the name as the same as in the Old Norse name for a people, “Kylpingar,” in northern Russia, neighbours of the Finns. He thinks that there may have been an Old Norse name “Kylpinga-botn” for the Baltic; but it is not likely that this word Kylpingar existed at that time.
[109] Keyser [1868, p. 80] derives the word from Gothic “lagus” (corresponding to Old Norse “logr”) for sea.
[110] The same islands which are here spoken of as British, have been previously referred to (see above, [p. 101]) by Pliny as Germanic, or rather as a single island with the name “Glæsaria.” This is another proof of how he draws directly from various sources without even taking the trouble to harmonise the statements. In this case he has probably found the islands mentioned in connection with facts about Britain, or a journey to that country. And it may be supposed that the original source is Pytheas.
[111] In his ignorance of astronomy Pliny adds that “this is said to continue alternately for six months.”