Viktor Rydberg [1886, pp. 318, 425, ff.] supposed Paulus’s description of the whirlpool to be derived from the Norse legends of the world’s well, “Hvergelmer”—which causes the tides by the water flowing up and down through its subterranean channels—and of the quern “Grotte” at the bottom of the sea, which forms whirlpools when the waters run down into the hole in the mill-stone.[153] But it is perhaps just as probable that it is the southern, originally classical ideas which have been localised in the Norse legends. As we have seen, we find in Virgil the same conception of a gulf in the sea which sucks the water into itself and sends it up again. Isidore says of the abyss (also repeated in Hrabanus Maurus):

“Abyssus is the impenetrable deep of the waters, or the caves of the hidden waters, from whence springs and rivers issue forth, but also those which run concealed beneath the ground. Therefore it is called Abyssus, for all streams return by hidden veins to their mother Abyssus.”

It is credible that ideas such as this may have originated, or at any rate coloured, the myth of “Hvergelmer” (i.e., the noisy or bubbling kettle). Isidore was early known in England, Ireland and Scandinavia. The whirlpool is also found among Orientals; thus Sindbad is drawn into it. Paulus’s mention of whirlpools not only in the North, and off the Hebrides, but also between Britain and Spain and in the Straits of Messina, does not show that he derived the legend solely from the North. Later, on the other hand, in Adam of Bremen, the whirlpool becomes more exclusively northern, and later still we shall get it even at the North Pole itself.

Paulus Warnefridi also mentions Greek fabulous people such as the Dog-heads (Cynocephali) and the Amazons in North Germania. He says that the Langobards fought with a people called “Assipitti,” who lived in “Mauringa,” and that they frightened them by saying that they had Cynocephali in their army, who drank human blood, their own if they could not get that of others. The Langobards were said to have been stopped by the Amazons at a river in Germany. The Langobard king, Lamissio, fought with the bravest of them, while he was swimming in the river, and slew her; and according to a prearranged agreement he thereby obtained for his people the right of crossing unhindered. Paulus regards the story as untrue, as the Amazons were supposed to have been destroyed long before; but he had nevertheless heard that there was a tribe of such women in the interior of Germany. The same idea of a female nation in Germany occurs again later in literature (cf. King Alfred’s “Mægða-land”).

Interpolation in Solinus, circa eighth century

It has already been mentioned ([p. 123]) that in the MSS. of Solinus of the ninth century and later there is found a mention of the Ebudes, the Orcades and Thule which in the opinion of Mommsen is a later addition; and as it is not found in Isidore Hispalensis, who made extensive use of Solinus, it must have been introduced after his time (seventh century), but before the ninth century, when it occurs in a MS. As the addition about Thule, so far as I can judge, must show that this country is regarded as Norway, and as there are many indications that it was made by an Irish monk, it is further probable that it belongs to the period before the Irish discovery of Iceland, which then, according to Dicuil’s book, became regarded as Thule. I think, therefore, we can place the addition at the beginning of the eighth century, and it will then be evidence of the knowledge of Norway which prevailed in the British Isles at that time. After having mentioned Britain and the neighbouring islands the account proceeds [Solinus, c. 22]:

“From the Caledonian Promontory it is two days’ sail for those who voyage to Tyle [Thule]. From thence begin the Ebudes islands [Hebrides], five in number [the five principal islands]. Their inhabitants live on fruits, fish and milk. Though there are many islands, they are all separated by narrow arms of the sea. They all together have but one king. The king owns nothing for himself alone, all is common property. Justice is imposed upon him by fixed laws, and lest he should be led away from the truth by covetousness, he learns righteousness by poverty, since he has no possessions; he is therefore supported by the people. No woman is given him in marriage, but he takes in turn her who pleases him at the moment. Thus he has neither the desire nor the hope of children. The second station for the voyager [to Thule] is provided by the Orcades. But the Orcades lie seven days’ and the same number of nights’ sail from the Ebudes, they are three in number [i.e., the three principal isles of the Shetlands]. They are uninhabited (‘vacant homines’). They have no woods, but are rough with reeds and grass, the rest is bare sandy beach and rocks. From the Orcades direct to Thule is five days’ and nights’ sail. But Thule is fertile and rich in late-ripening fruits. The inhabitants there live from the beginning of spring with their cattle, and feed on herbs and milk; the fruits of the trees they keep for winter. They have women in common, regular marriage is not known among them.”

This description cannot well be pure invention, and unless it may be thought to be transferred from another place, we must believe it to be derived from a distant knowledge of Norway. Their living with the cattle in spring is in accordance with this, but not their subsistence on the fruits of the trees. Here one would rather be led to think of the Hesperides and their golden apples, unless we are to suppose that they collected nuts and berries. That the inhabitants of Thule had women in common might be connected with the predilection of the Scandinavians for polygamy, of which we also hear from other sources; but this is uncertain. Even the Greeks and Romans saw in the absence of regular marriage a sign of barbarism, which brought man near to the beasts, and which they therefore attributed to people at the extreme limits of the earth; cf. Herodotus, and Strabo’s description of the Irish ([p. 81]). If the Caledonian Promontory means Scotland, it is surprising that it should be two days’ sail to the Hebrides, and that these were the first and the Orcades the second station on the way to Thule. We must then suppose that there has been a jumbling together of several authorities, which is not very probable if this is a later interpolation, since we must doubtless believe the interpolating copyist to have thought himself possessed of knowledge of these matters. If, however, we suppose him to have been an Irishman, and to have looked upon the voyage to Thule with Ireland as a starting-point, then it becomes more consistent. It is then two days’ sail from Ireland to the Hebrides, seven days thence to the Shetlands, and then five to Thule; that is, the whole voyage will last fourteen days; and this may be about right. It is undeniably somewhat surprising that there should be no inhabitants on the Orcades, or Shetland, at that time.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE FAROES AND ICELAND BY THE IRISH IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY

Dicuil, circa 825