[350] Jens Lauritzön Wolf’s Norrigia Illustrata, 1651.
[351] Cf. John M. Kemble: The Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus, London, 1448, p. 198. Moltke Moe also called my attention to this remarkable passage.
[352] W. Mannhardt: Germanische Mythen, Berlin, 1858, pp. 460 f. Cf. “Vita Merlini,” the verses on the “Insula pomorum, qvæ Fortunata vocatur” (the apple-island which is called Fortunate) [San-Marte, 1853, pp. 299, 329]. “Avallon” has a remarkable resemblance in sound to Pytheas’s amber-island “Abalus” ([p. 70]).
[353] Since the above was printed in the Norwegian edition of this book, Professor Moltke Moe has called my attention to the fact that, according to Icelandic sources, the Icelandic chief Gellir Thorkelsson, grandfather of Are Frode, died at Roskilde, in Denmark, in 1073, after having been prostrated there for a long time. He was then on his way home from a pilgrimage to Rome. Adam’s book was written between 1072 and 1075, and he had received the statements about Wineland from Danes of rank. The coincidence here is so remarkable that there must probably be a connection. It is Gellir Thorkelsson’s son, Thorkel Gellisson, who is given as the authority for the first mention of Wineland in Icelandic literature, and according to Landnámabók he seems to have got his information from Ireland through other Icelanders.
[354] It is not, however, quite certain that “Vínland” (with a long “í”) was the original form of the name, though this is probable, as it occurs thus in the MSS. that have come down to us of the two oldest authorities: Adam of Bremen (“Winland”) and Are Frode’s Íslendingabók (“Vinland”). But it cannot be entirely ignored that in the oldest Icelandic MSS.—and the oldest authorities after Are and Adam—it is called: in Hauk’s Landnámabók “Vindland hit goða” (in the two passages where it is mentioned), in the Sturlubók “Irland et goda,” in the Kristni-saga (before 1245) probably “Vindland hit goða” [cf. F. Jónsson, Hauksbók, 1892, p. 141], and in the Grettis-saga (about 1290, but the MS. dates from the fifteenth century) Thorhall Gamlason, who sailed with Karlsevne, is called in one place a “Vindlendingr” and in another a “Viðlendingr.” It is striking that the name should so often be written incorrectly; there must have been some uncertainty in its interpretation. Another thing is that in none of these oldest sources is there any mention of wine, except in Adam of Bremen, who repeats Isidore, and after him it is only when we come to the Saga of Eric the Red that “Vinland” with its wine is met with. It might therefore be supposed that the name was originally something different. The Greenlanders might, for instance, have discovered a land with trees in the west and called it “Viðland” (== tree-land). Influenced by myths of the Irish “Great Land” (“Tír Mór”), this might become “Viðland” (== the great land, [p. 357]): but this again through the ideas of wine (from the Fortunate Isles), as in Adam of Bremen, might become “Vínland.” We have a parallel to such a change of sound in the conversion of “viðbein” (== collar-bone) into “vinbein.” A form like “Vindland” may have arisen through confusion of the two forms we have given, or again with the name of Vendland. A name compounded of the ancient word “vin” (== pasture) is scarcely credible, since the word went out of use before the eleventh century; besides, one would then have to expect the form “Vinjarland.” In Are Frode’s work, which we only know from late copies (of the seventeenth century), the original name might easily have been altered in agreement with later interpretation. But it is nevertheless most probable that “Vinland” was the original form, and that the variants are due to uncertainty. It may, however, well be supposed that there were two forms of the name, in the same way as, for instance, the “Draumkvæde” is also called the “Draug-kvæde”; or that several names may have fused to become one, similarity of sound and character being the deciding factor.
[355] Cf. Peder Claussön Friis, Storm’s edition, 1881, p. 298; A. Helland, Nordlands Amt, 1907, i. p. 59, ii. pp. 467 f. Yngvar Nielsen [1905] has remarked the resemblance between the epithet “hit Góða,” applied to Wineland, and the name Landegode in Norway; but following Peder Claussön he regards this as a tabu-name. K. Rygh [Norske Gaardnavne, xvi. Nordl. Amt, 1905, p. 201] thinks that P. Claussön’s explanation of the name of Jomfruland is right in all three cases, that “Norwegian seamen ‘from some superstition and fear’ did not call it by the name of Jomfruland, which was already common at that time, while under sail, until they had passed it.” “It is, or at any rate has been, a common superstition among sailors and fishermen that various things were not to be called by their usual names while they were at sea, presumably a relic of heathen belief in evil spirits, whose power it was hoped to avoid by not calling their attention by mentioning themselves or objects with which their evil designs were connected, while it was hoped to be able to conciliate them by using flattering names instead of the proper ones. The three islands are all so situated in the fairway that they must have been unusually dangerous for coasting traffic in former times.” Hans Ström in his Description of Söndmör [Sorö, 1766, ii. p. 441] thought, however, that “Landegod” in Sunnmör was so called because it was the first land one made after passing Stad; and “Svinö” he thought was so called because pigs were turned out there to feed, especially in former times (see below, [p. 378]); he gives in addition the name Storskjær for the island.
[356] V. Bérard’s explanation [1902, i. p. 579] that Phæacians (Φαιάκες) means Leucadians, the white people, and comes from the Semitic “Beakim” (from “b.e.q.” “to be white”) does not seem convincing. Professor A. Torp finds the explanation given above more probable.
[357] Cf. J. Grimm, D. M., ii. 1876, pp. 692 ff., iii. 1878, pp. 248 f.
[358] Cf. J. A. Friis: Ordbog for det lappiske Sprog, Christiania, 1887, p. 254; J. Qvigstad, 1893, p. 182; Moltke Moe’s communications in A. Helland: Finmarkens Amt, 1905, vol. ii. p. 261.
[359] Cf. Moltke Moe’s communications in A. Helland: Nordlands Amt, 1907, vol. ii. p. 430.