“Latris,” which lay at the mouth of Cylipenus, may be one of the Danish islands, and one may perhaps be reminded of Sealand with the ancient royal stronghold of “Lethra” or Leire, Old Norse “Hleidrar.” The bay of “Lagnus,”[109] which borders on the Cimbri, must then be taken as a new name for the Cattegat, while “Tastris” may be Skagen. According to the sources Pliny has borrowed from, we thus get the following names for the same parts: for the Baltic or parts thereof, “Amalcium” and “Cylipenus,” and perhaps in part “Codanus”; for the Cattegat, “Lagnus” and “Codanus”; for the Skagerak, “Morimarusa,” in part also “Codanus”; for south Sweden, “Scadinavia” and “Balcia”; for Jutland or Skagen, “Promunturium Cimbrorum” and “Tastris.” At any rate, this superfluity of names discloses increased communication, through many channels, with the North. Communication with the North is also to be deduced from Pliny’s mention [viii. c. 15, 39] of an animal called “achlis,” as a native of those countries.
It had “never been seen among us in Rome, though it had been described by many.” It resembles the elk [alcis], “but has no knee-joint, for which reason also it does not sleep lying down, but leaned against a tree, and if the tree be partly cut through as a trap, the animal, which otherwise is remarkably fleet, is caught. Its upper lip is very large, for which reason it goes backwards when grazing, so as not to get caught in it if it went forward.” It might be thought that this elk-like animal was a reindeer; but the mention of the long upper lip and the trees suits the elk better, and it may have been related of this animal that it was caught by means of traps in the forest. The fable that it slept leaning against a tree may be due to the similarity between the name “achlis” (which may be some corruption or other, perhaps of “alces”) and “acclinis” (== leaning on).
Finally, Pliny had a third source of knowledge about the North through Britain, which to him was a common name for all the islands in that ocean. Some of the statements from this quarter originated with Pytheas; but later information was added; Pliny himself mentions Agrippa as an authority. Among the British Isles he mentions [iv. 16, 103]: “40 ‘Orcades’ separated from each other by moderate distances, 7 ‘Acmodæ,’ and 30 ‘Hebudes.’” His 7 “Acmodæ” (which in some MSS. are also called “Hæcmodæ”) are, clearly enough, Mela’s 7 Hæmodæ, and probably the Shetland Islands, while the 30 “Hebudes” are the Hebrides, which are thus mentioned here for the first time in any known author.
After referring to a number of other British islands “and the ‘Glæsiæ,’ scattered in the Germanic Ocean, which the later Greeks call the ‘Electrides,’ because amber (electrum) is found in them,”[110] Pliny continues [iv. 16, 104]: “The most distant of all known islands is ‘Tyle’ (Thule), where at the summer solstice there is no night, and correspondingly no day at the winter solstice.”[111]... “Some authors mention yet more islands, ‘Scandia,’ ‘Dumna,’ ‘Bergos,’ and the largest of all, ‘Berricen,’ from which the voyage is made to Tyle. From Tyle it is one day’s sail to the curdled sea which some call ‘Cronium.’” We do not know from what authors Pliny can have taken these names, nor where the islands are to be looked for; but as Thule is mentioned, we must suppose that in any case some of them come originally from Pytheas. As Scandia comes first among these islands, one is led to think that Dumna and the two other enigmatical names are of Germanic origin. “Dumna” might then remind us of Scandinavian names such as Duney, Dönna (in Nordland), or the like; but it is more probable that it comes from the Celtic “dubno” or “dumno” (== deep), and may be the name of an island off Scotland. “Bergos” may remind us of the Old Norse word “bjarg” or “berg.”[112] It is not so easy with the strange name “Berricen,” which in some MSS. has the form “Verigon” or “Nerigon” (cf. above, [p. 58]). If the first reading is the correct one, it suggests an origin in an Old Norse “ber-ig” (“ber” == bear; the meaning would therefore be “bear-y,” full of bears), not an unsuitable name for southern Norway, whence the journey was made to Thule or northern Norway; but this is doubtful. If “Nerigon” is the correct reading, it will not be impossible, in the opinion of Professor Torp, that this, as Keyser supposed, may be the name Norway, which in Old Norse was called, by Danes for example, “*NorþravegaR” (like “AustravegaR” and “VestravegaR”). If any of the names of these islands are really Germanic, like Scandia, then they cannot, as some have thought, refer to islands off Scotland or to the Shetlands, as these were not yet inhabited by Norsemen. The islands in question must therefore be looked for in Norway. It is important that Scandia is mentioned first among them in connection with Britain, and that at the same time another is described as the largest of them all, and as lying on the way to Thule. This again points to communication by sea between the British Isles and Scandinavia, of which we found indications four hundred years earlier.
Agricola, 84 A.D.
In 84 A.D. Agricola, after his campaign against the Caledonians, sent his fleet round the northern point of Scotland, “whereby,” Tacitus[113] tells us, “it was proved that Britain is an island. At the same time the hitherto unknown islands which are called ‘Orcadas’ (the Orkneys) were discovered and subdued. Thule also could be descried in the distance; but the fleet had orders not to go farther, and winter was coming on. Moreover the water is thick and heavy to row in; it is said that even wind cannot stir it to much motion. The reason for this may be the absence of land and mountains, which otherwise would give the storms increased power, and that the enormous mass of continuous ocean is not easy to set in motion.” This Thule must have been Fair Island or the Shetland Isles, and this is the most northern point reached by the Romans, so far as is known. The idea of the heavy sea, which is not moved by the winds, is the same that we met with in early antiquity (see [pp. 40], [69]).
In the preceding summer some of Agricola’s soldiers—a cohort of Usippii, enlisted in Germania and brought to Britain—had mutinied, killed their centurion and seized three ships, whose captains they forced into obedience. “Two of them aroused their suspicions and were therefore killed; the third undertook the navigation,” and they circumnavigated Britain. “They were soon obliged to land to provide themselves with water and to plunder what they required; thereby they came into frequent conflict with the Britons, who defended their possessions; they were often victorious, but sometimes were worsted, and finally their need became so great that they took to eating the weakest; then they drew lots as to which should serve the others as food. Thus they came round Britain [i.e. round the north], were driven out of their course through incompetent navigation, and were made prisoners, some by the Frisians and some by the Suevi, who took them for pirates. Some of them came to the slave-markets and passed through various hands until they reached Roman Germania, becoming quite remarkable persons by being able to relate such marvellous adventures.”[114] It is possible that certain inaccurate statements may have found their way to Rome as the result of this voyage.
Tacitus, 98 A.D.
Cornelius Tacitus, who wrote his “Germania” in the year 98 A.D., was a historian and ethnographer, not a geographer. His celebrated work has not, therefore, much to say of the northern lands; he has not even a single name for them. On the other hand, he has some remarkable statements about the peoples, especially in Sweden, which show that since the time of Pliny fresh information about that part of the world must have reached Rome.
