[v. 30.] “In the northern ocean itself, after the land of the Roxolani, is an island which is called Scanza, which is also called Old Scythia by most cosmographers. But in what manner the island of Scanza itself lies, we will with God’s help relate.”
He says, following Jordanes (see above, [p. 130]), that from this island other nations, amongst them the Goths and the Danes, besides the Gepidæ, migrated.
It will be seen that the Ravenna geographer’s statements about the Skridfinns, whose name is varied and corrupted even more than in Jordanes, bear a striking resemblance to those of Procopius, although he says he derived them from the Goth Aithanarit; if this is correct, then the latter must either have borrowed from Procopius, which is very probable, or he is older and was the common authority both of Procopius and the Ravenna geographer, and, if so, perhaps also of Cassiodorus (?).
Cynocephali on a peninsula north-east of Norway
(from the Hereford map)
Æthicus Istricus, seventh century (?)
An enigmatical work, probably dating from about the seventh century, which was much read in the Middle Ages, professes to be a Latin translation, by a certain Hieronymus, from a Christian book of travel by a Greek commonly called Æthicus Istricus.[148] He is said to have travelled before the fourth century. The translator asserts that Æthicus had related many fabulous things, which he has not repeated, as he wished to keep to the sure facts; but among them we find many remarkable pieces of information, as that Æthicus had seen with his own eyes on the north of the Caspian Sea the Amazons give the breast to Centaurs and Minotaurs, and when he was living in the town of Choolisma, built by Japhet’s son Magog, he saw the sea of bitumen which forms the mouth of Hell and from which the cement for Alexander’s wall of iron came. In Armenia he looked in vain for Noah’s ark; but he saw dragons, ostriches, griffins, and ants as large and ferocious as dogs. He also mentioned griffins and treasures of gold in the north between the Tanais and the northern ocean. “The Scythians, Griffins, Tracontians and Saxons built ships of wattles smeared over with pitch” (perhaps it is meant that they were also covered with hides). These ships were extraordinarily swift. Among the Scythians there was said to be an able craftsman and great teacher, Grifo, who built ships with prows in the northern ocean. He was like the griffins or the flying fabulous birds. Æthicus visited an island called Munitia north of Germania. There he found “Cenocephali” (dog-headed men). They were a hideous race. The Germanic peoples came to the island as merchants and called the people “Cananei.” They go with bare calves, smear their hair with oil or fat and smell foully. They lead a dirty life and feed on unclean animals, mice, moles, etc. They live in felt tents in the woods far away by fens and swampy places. They have a number of cattle, fowls and eggs.[149] They know no god and have no king. They use more tin than silver. One might be tempted to think that this fable of dog-headed people in the north had arisen from the word “Kvæn” (Finn), which to a Greek like Æthicus would sound like “cyon” (dog). The name “Cenocephali” may have been introduced in this way, while that of “Cananei” may have arisen by a sort of corrupt similarity of sound between Kvæn and the Old Testament people of Canaan. It might thus be Kvænland or Finland that is here spoken of. Their going with bare calves and living in felt tents may remind us of the Argippæi of Herodotus, who were bald (while in Mela they went bare-headed) and had felt tents in winter.
The Seven Sleepers in the Cave by the North Sea (from Olaus Magnus)
Paulus Warnefridi, 720-790