[213]. It is difficult to determine whether the author uses “places of torment” as a term for hell or for purgatory; it seems probable, however, that in this case hell is meant.
[214]. For the history of this theory see above, pp. [17]–[18].
[215]. The number of volcanoes in Iceland is variously given, but the more reliable authorities give 107.
[216]. The common belief of medieval scientists was that lightning was caused by the collision of clouds.
[217]. The belief that hell was a region of extreme cold as well as of heat was common in the middle ages. The author of the King’s Mirror probably derived his ideas of hell in part from the Old Norse version of the Elucidarium of Honorius of Autun. See Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed, 1857, 292.
[218]. Mineral springs yielding carbonated waters are found in Iceland, though they are not numerous. The Hiterdale spring is probably mythical. See Herrmann, Island, I, 66.
[219]. The belief that mermaids lived in the Arctic waters was one that was long held by European navigators. Henry Hudson reports that on his voyage into the Arctic in 1608 (June 15) some of his men saw a mermaid. “This morning one of our companie looking over boord saw a mermaid, and calling up some of the companie to see her, one more came up and by that time shee was come close to the ships side, looking earnestly on the men: a little after a sea came and overturned her: from the navill upward her backe and breasts were like a womans, as they say that saw her; her body as big as one of us; her skin very white, and long haire hanging downe behind of colour blacke: in her going downe they saw her tayle, which was like the tayle of a porposse and speckled like a macrell.” Asher, Henry Hudson, 28.
[220]. The Danish scientist I. Japetus S. Steenstrup has shown in his paper “Hvad er Kongespeilets Havgjerdinger?” that this phenomenon is produced by sea quakes. The three huge waves did not form a triangle as the author’s account would seem to imply; they were three successive waves rolling in toward the shore. Steenstrup argues chiefly from the behavior of sea quakes in modern times. Aarböger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 1871.
[221]. The settled portion of Greenland is in the southern part on the west coast. The author wishes to say that a ship sailing from Norway to Greenland must round Cape Farewell and proceed some distance up the west coast before trying to make land. For a discussion of the conditions of settlement in Greenland and the navigation of the waters about Greenland, see Hovgaard, The Voyages of the Norsemen to America, c. ii; Nansen, In Northern Mists, cc. vii, viii.
[222]. This is called haverkn in modern Norse and seems to be the same as the grey seal: Halichoerus gryphus. See Nansen, In Northern Mists, II. 155.