[203]. Whale fishing is an ancient industry in Norway; it is mentioned as early as the ninth century in the writings of Alfred the Great. See Nansen, In Northern Mists, I, 172.
[204]. Probably the beluga, also called white whale. The other varieties named in this paragraph, excepting the beaked whale and the baleen whale seem not to have been identified with any known types of whales. It has been suggested that some of them may have been sharks. See Nansen, In Northern Mists, II, 243.
[205]. The editor of the Sorö edition identifies this with the nor-caper (Balæna glacialis), though he thinks it possible that the fin-fish (Balænoptera laticeps) may be meant (p. 125).
[206]. Balæna mysticetus; also called bowhead or Greenland whale.
[207]. It is possible that the basking sharks are meant rather than the Greenland sharks; they are larger than the Greenland sharks, but do not seem to be common in the Arctic waters.
[208]. The “horse whale” and the “red comb” have not been identified.
[209]. This is another name for the right whale described above; the author’s classification in this case must have been based on size only.
[210]. The author seems to believe that the whalebone rises from the lower jaw or the floor of the mouth; as a matter of fact it is fastened to the palate.
[211]. The kraken myth probably came to the North with the legend of St. Brendan, an Irish abbot, who was believed to have made a journey into the Atlantic about the middle of the sixth century. The oldest extant form of the legend, the Navigatio Brendani, dates from the eleventh century. For earlier versions of the myth see Nansen, In Northern Mists, II, 234.
[212]. Dialogorum Libri IV. Pope Gregory died in 604. The Icelandic version of Gregory’s Dialogues is published in Heilagra Manna Sögur, I.