[35] The Menomini Indians, Fourteenth Ann. Rep. of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1892-1893. Washington, 1896, vol. i. pp. 127, ff.; cf. also “American Anthropologist,” vol. iii. pp. 134, f., Washington, 1890.
[36] “Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris,” 1905, No. 2, p. 319.
[37] Storm’s explanation [1887, pp. 68, ff.]: that it was Dicuil’s account of the discovery of Iceland by Irish monks (see vol. i. p. 164) which formed the basis of the myth of Hvítramanna-land, may appear very attractive and simple; but Storm does not seem to have noticed the connection that exists between the Irish mythical islands in the west and those of classical literature. When he points out the similarity between the six days’ voyage west of Ireland and Dicuil’s statement of six days’ voyage to Iceland (Thule) northward from Britain, it must be remembered that in Dicuil this is merely a quotation from Pliny, and, further, that the six days’ voyage has Britain and not Ireland for its starting-point. In the Saga of Eric the Red Wineland lies six “dœgr’s” sail from Greenland. Cf. that in Plutarch [“De facie in orbe Lunæ,” 941] Ogygia lies five days’ voyage west of Britain, and to the north-west of it are three islands, to which the voyage might thus be one of six days. Let us suppose, merely as an experiment, that Ogygia, the fertile vine-growing island of the “hulder” Calypso, was Wineland, then the other three islands to the north-west might be Hvítramanna-land, Markland and Helluland, which would fit in. The northernmost would then have to be the island on which the sleeping Cronos is imprisoned, with “many spirits about him as his companions and servants” (cf. vol. i. pp. 156, 182). Dr. Scisco [1908, pp. 379, ff., 515, ff.] and Professor H. Koht [1909, pp. 133, ff.] think that Are Mársson may have been baptized in Ireland and have been chief of a Christian tribe on its west coast, where Hvítramanna-land may have been a district inhabited by fair Norsemen.
[38] Since the above was printed in the Norwegian edition of this book, Professor Moltke Moe has found a “Tír na Fer Finn,” or the White Men’s Land, mentioned in Irish sagas of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The white men (fer finn) are evidently the same as the “Albati” (i.e., the baptized dressed in white). Tír na Fer Finn and Hvítramanna-land are consequently direct renderings of the “Terra Albatorum” (i.e., the land of the baptized dressed in white), which is mentioned in earlier Irish literature. The origin of the Icelandic legend about Hvítramanna-land seems thus to be quite clear.
[39] Hermits like this, covered with white hair, also occur outside Ireland. Three monks from Mesopotamia wished to journey to the place where heaven and earth meet, and after many adventures, which often resemble those of the Brandan legend, they came to a cave, where dwelt a holy man, Macarius, who was completely covered with snow-white hair, but the skin of his face was like that of a tortoise [cf. Schirmer, 1888, p. 42]. The last feature might recall an ape.
[40] The resemblance to the hairy women (great apes ?) that Hanno found on an island to the west of Africa and whose skin he brought to Carthage (cf. vol. i. p. 88) is doubtless only accidental. The hair-covered hermits may be connected with stories of hermits and the hairy wild man, “wilder Mann,” “Silvanus,” who, in the opinion of Moltke Moe, is the same that reappears in the Norwegian tale of “Villemand og Magnhild” (== der wilde Mann and Magdelin).
[41] White and snow-white women and maidens are, moreover, of common occurrence also in Germanic legends [cf. J. Grimm, 1876, ii. pp. 803, ff.]. Expressions like white or snow-white to depict the dazzling beauty of the female body also occur in Icelandic literature, just as the lily-white arms are already found in Homer. Cf. further such names as Snjófriðr, Snelaug, Schneewitchen (Snow-white), etc. [Cf. Moltke Moe’s communications in A. Helland, 1905, ii. pp. 641, f.]
[42] Before the convent on this island Brandan and his companions were met by the monks “with cross, and cloaks [white clothes ?], and hymns”; cf. the men in white clothes who cried aloud and carried poles in Eric the Red’s Saga. On the “Strong Men’s Island” they also sang psalms, and one generation wore white clothes.
[43] Cf. Dozy and de Goeje, 1866, p. 223, ff.; de Goeje, 1891, pp. 56, 59. Moltke Moe has called my attention to this resemblance.
[44] The stench may be connected with ideas like those in the “Meregarto,” the sailors stuck fast and rotted in the Liver-sea, see vol. i. p. 181.