[195] As, amongst others, the name “Norveci” is misplaced (in Jutland) in the Cottoniana map (cf. [p. 192]), one might almost be tempted to suppose that the cartographer had made use of Edrisi’s map without understanding the Arabic names; but this would assume so late a date for the Cottoniana map that it is scarcely probable.
[196] Cf. Seippel, 1896, pp. 138, ff.
[197] Al-Qazwînî, 1848, ii. pp. 356, 334, 412.
[198] Jacob, 1896, pp. 11, f.
[199] Seippel, 1896, p. 44.
[200] It might seem tempting to suppose that the some “Varanger” is connected with “Warank”; but this can hardly be the case. Mr. J. Qvigstad informs me that in his view the name of the fjord must be Norwegian, “and was originally ‘*Verjangr’ (from ‘*Varianger’); thence arose ‘*Verangr,’ and by progressive assimilation ‘Varangr,’ cf. the fjord-names Salangen (from Selangr), Gratangen (from Grytangr), Lavangen (from Lovangr) in the district of Tromsö. In old Danish assessment rolls of the period before the Kalmar war we find ‘Waranger.’” The first syllable must then be the Old Norse “ver” (gen. pl. “verja”) for “vær,” fishing-station, and the name would mean “the fjord of fishing-stations” (“angr” == fjord). In Lappish the Varanger fjord is called “Varjagvuödna” (“vuödna” == fjord), which “presupposes a Norwegian form ‘*Varjang’ (‘*Verjang’). The Lappish forms ‘Varje-’ and ‘Varja-’ are abbreviated from ‘Varjag.’ The district of Varanger is called in Lappish ‘Varja’ (gen. ‘Varjag,’ root ‘Varjag’). Norwegian fjord-names in ‘-angr’ are transferred to Lappish with the termination ‘-ag’; only in more recent loan-words do we find the termination ‘-aηgga’ or ‘-aηggo,’ as in ‘Pors-aηgga.’” O. Rygh thought that the first syllable in “Varanger” might be the same as in “Vardö,” Old Norse “Vargey”; but this may be more doubtful.
[201] Cf. also Jordanes’ description of the great cold in the Baltic (vol. i. p. 131).
[202] Seippel, 1896, pp. 142, 45.
[203] In another passage [c. i. 3] he says that “the habitable part extends ... towards the north as far as 63° or 66⅙°, where at the summer solstice the day attains a length of twenty hours” [cf. Ptolemy, vol. i. p. 117]. But he nevertheless thinks (like the Greeks) that at the north pole the day was six months and the night equally long.
[204] An expression from the Koran, which is used of barbarous peoples (Gog and Magog) who do not understand the speech of civilised men.