Ohthere told his lord King Alfred, that he dwelt northmost of all the Northmen. He said that he dwelt in the land to the northward, along the West Sea; he said, however, that that land is very long north from thence, but it is all waste, except in a few places, where the Fins here and there dwell, for hunting in the winter, and in the summer for fishing in that sea. He said that he was desirous to try, once on a time, how far that country extended due north, or whether anyone lived to the north of the waste. He then went due north along the country, leaving all the way the waste land on the right, and the wide sea on the left, for three days: he was as far north as the whale-hunters go at the farthest. Then he proceeded in his course due north, as far as he could sail within another three days; then the land there inclined due east [the North Cape] or the sea into the land, he knew not which, but he knew that he there waited for a west wind, or a little north, and sailed thence eastward along that land as far as he could sail in four days; then he had to wait for a due north wind, because the land there inclined due south [the White Sea], or the sea in on that land, he knew not which; he then sailed thence along the coast due south, as far as he could sail in five days. There lay a great river [Dwina] up in that land; they then turned up in that river, because they durst not sail on by that river, on account of hostility, because all that country was inhabited on the other side of that river; he had not before met with any land that was inhabited since he came from his own home; but all the way he had waste land on his right, except fishermen, fowlers, and hunters, all of whom were Fins, and he had constantly a wide sea to the left. The Beormas had well cultivated their country, but they did not dare to enter it; and the Terfinna land was all waste, except where hunters, fishers, or fowlers had taken up their quarters.
The Beormas told him many particulars both of their own land, and of the other lands lying around them; but he knew not what was true, because he did not see it himself; it seemed to him that the Fins and the Beormas spoke nearly one language. He went thither chiefly, in addition to seeing the country, on account of the walruses, because they have very noble bones in their teeth; some of these teeth they brought to the king: and their hides are good for ship-ropes. This whale is much less than other whales, it being not longer than seven ells; but in his own country is the best whale-hunting, there they are eight-and-forty ells long, and most of them fifty ells long; of these he said that he and five others had killed sixty in two days. He was a very wealthy man in those possessions in which their wealth consists, that is in wild deer. He had, at the time he came to the king, six hundred unsold tame deer. These deer they call reindeer, of which there were six decoy reindeer, which are very valuable amongst the Fins, because they catch the wild reindeer with them.
He was one of the first men in that country, yet he had not more than twenty horned cattle, and twenty sheep, and twenty swine, and the little that he ploughed he ploughed with horses. But their wealth consists for the most part in the rent paid them by the Fins. That rent is in skins of animals, and birds’ feathers, and whalebone, and in ship-ropes made of whales’ hides, and of seals. Everyone pays according to his birth; the best-born, it is said, pay the skins of fifteen martens, and five reindeers’, and one bear’s-skin, ten ambers of feathers, a bear’s or otter’s skin kyrtle, and two ship-ropes, each sixty ells long, made either of whale-hide or of seal’s.
He said that the Northmen’s land was very long and very narrow; all that his man could either pasture or plough lies by the sea, though that is in some parts very rocky; and to the east are wild mountains, parallel to the cultivated land. The Fins inhabit these mountains, and the cultivated land is broadest to the eastward, and continually narrower the more north. To the east it may be sixty miles broad, or a little broader, and towards the middle thirty, or broader; and northward, he said, where it is narrowest, that it might be three miles broad to the mountain, and the mountain then is in some parts so broad that a man may pass over in two weeks, and in some parts so broad that a man may pass over in six days. Then along this land southwards, on the other side of the mountain, is Sweden, to that land northwards; and along that land northwards, Cwenland. The Cwenas sometimes make depredations on the Northmen over the mountains, and sometimes the Northmen on them; there are very large fresh meres amongst the mountains, and the Cwenas carry their ships over land into the meres, and thence make depredations on the Northmen; they have very little ships, and very light.
Ohthere said that the shire in which he dwelt is called Halgoland. He said that no one dwelt to the north of him; there is likewise a port to the south of that land, which is called Sciringes-heal; thither, he said, no one could sail in a month, if he landed at night, and every day had a fair wind; and all the while he would sail along the land, and on the starboard will first be Ireland, and then the islands which are between Ireland and this land. Then it is this land until he comes to Sciringes-heal, and all the way on the larboard, Norway. To the south of Sciringes-heal, a very great sea runs up into the land, which is broader than any one can see over; and Gotland is opposite on the other side, and then Seeland. This sea lies many miles up in that land. And from Sciringes-heal, he said that he sailed in five days, to that port which is called Æt-Hæthum [Sleswig], which is between the Wends, and Saxons, and Angles, and belongs to Denmark.
When he had sailed thitherward from Sciringes-heal, Denmark was on his left, and on his right a wide sea for three days, and two days before he came to Hæthum, he had on the right Gotland, Seeland, and many islands. In these lands the Angles dwelt before they came hither to this land. And then for two days he had on his left the islands which belong to Denmark.
EDWARD’S POLICY (907-925).
Source.—Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Translated by J. A. Giles. Bohn’s Library.
Anno 907.—This year Chester was repaired.
Anno 909.—This year Ethelfled built the fortress at Bromesberrow.