[132] I will mention as yet another possibility a corruption of Ptolemy’s islands, the “Alociæ,” 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, Λ, may easily be mistaken for a capital delta, Δ, 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. Läffler [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 Läffler [1894, 1907] and Sophus Bugge [1907], besides P. A. Munch [1852], Müllenhoff [1887], and others.
[135] The origin of the word “sappherinas” is uncertain. Lönborg [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] Müllenhoff, Mommsen, Läffler, 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. Läffler, 1907, p. 109].
[137] S. Bugge thought [1907, p. 101] at one time that these might be people of Gond or Gand, i.e., Höiland, 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.