[175] Cf. V. Thomsen, 1882, p. 34.
[176] As to the trade in furs, etc., see above, [pp. 144, f.]
[177] Seippel, 1896; cf. Maçoudi, 1861, p. 275; 1896, pp. 92, f.; 1861, p. 213.
[178] Maçoudi, 1861, pp. 364, f.
[179] Seippel, 1896, pp. 42, 43.
[180] In the Russian chronicles the word is “Varyag” (plur. “Varyazi”), and the Baltic is called “Varyaž’skoye More” (the Varægian Sea). It is the same word as Varæger, Varanger, or Væringer (in Greek Varangoi) for the originally Scandinavian life-guards in Constantinople. The Greek princess Anna Comnena (circa 1100), celebrated for her learning, speaks of the “Varangians from Thule” as the “axe-bearing barbarians.” In a Greek work of the eleventh century, by an unknown author, it is said of Harold Hardråde that “he was the son of the king of ‘Varangia’ (Βαραγγία).” The word is evidently from a Scandinavian root; but its etymology can hardly be regarded as certain. It was probably used originally by the Russians in Gardarike of their kindred Scandinavians, especially the Swedes on the Baltic [cf. Vilhelm Thomsen, 1882, pp. 93, ff.].
[181] The Persian version and as-Shîrâzî add “tall, warlike.”
[182] The Christian Jew Assaf Hebræus’s cosmography, of the eleventh century, was probably written in Arabic, but is only known in a Latin and a Hebrew translation [cf. Ad. Neubauer, in “Orient und Occident,” ed. Th. Benfey, ii., Göttingen, 1864, pp. 657, ff.]. He mentions beyond “Scochia” [Scotland] the land of “Norbe” [Norway] with an archbishopric and ten bishoprics. In these northern lands, and particularly in Ireland, there are no snakes. Many other countries and islands are beyond Britain and the land of “Norve” [Norway], but the island of “Tille” [Thule] is the most distant, far away in the northern seas, and has the longest day, etc. There is the stiffened, viscous sea. Next the Hebrides (“Budis”) are mentioned, where the inhabitants have no corn, but live on fish and milk (cf. vol. i. p. 160), and the Orcades, where there dwell naked people (“gens nuda,” instead of “vacant homines,” see vol. i. p. 161).
[183] Cf. R. Dozy, 1881, pp. 267, ff.
[184] This island may have been Noirmoutier, in the country of the Normans of the Loire (according to A. Bugge).