comparatively fertile part of Norway is said to be in the east: the correction adopted in the text is obvious and necessary.--E.
Opposite to the south part of this country is Sueoland[12], or Sweden, on the other side of the moors, and opposite to its northern part is Cwenland. The Cwens sometimes pass the moors and mountains to invade and plunder the country of the Normans; who likewise sometimes retaliate, by crossing over to spoil their land. In these moors, there are some very large meres or lakes of fresh water, and the Cwenas[13] sometimes carry their small light ships over land into these lakes, and employ them to facilitate their depredations on the Nordmen. Ohthere says, that the shire or district which he inhabited is called Halgoland, and that there were no inhabitants beyond him to the north. There is likewise a port in the southern land, which is called Sciringes-heal[14], which no one could reach in a month's sailing, even with a fair wind, at least if he lay to at night. During this voyage, the navigator must sail near the land, or make a coasting voyage along the coast of Norway towards the south, having Iraland[15], and the islands which are between that country and Norway, on his right hand; for this country continues all the way on the left hand of the navigator, from Halgoland to Sciringes-heal. As he proceeds again to the northward, a great sea to the south of Sciringes-heal runs up into this land, and that sea is so wide, that a person cannot see across it. Gotland[16] is opposite on the other side, or right-hand; and afterwards the sea of Sillende[17] lies many miles up in that country.
[12] In former translations, this passage is: "opposite to this land, to the south, is Sueoland." The alteration in the text removes the ambiguity--E.
[13] Cwenland and the Cwenas appear to refer to Lapmark, and its inhabitants, the Finlanders.--Forst.
[14] See Sect. iii. p. 12, in which this place is supposed by Mr. J. R. Forster to have been where Stockholm now is.
[15] Iraland obviously here means Scotland, with the Faro, Shetland, and Orkney islands.--E.
[16] This is plainly the isle of Gothland.--E.
[17] Apparently the Baltic proper is here called the sea of Sillende, and may have been named from the isle of Zeeland. Yet in this passage it seems to refer to the gulf of Bothnia, as running far up into the country.--E.
Ohthere farther says, that he sailed in five days from Sciringes-heal to that port which is called Haethum [18], which lies between Winedum, Seaxun, and Anglen, and makes part of Dene. When he sailed to this place from Sciringes-heal, Dene, or Denmark, was on his left, and on his right was a wide sea for three days; as were also on his right, two days before he came to Haethum, Gotland, Sillende, and many other islands, which were inhabited by the Angles before they came to Britain; and during these two days, the islands belonging to Denmark were on his left hand.
[18] See Sect. iii. p. 14, in which Forster endeavours to fix this place at Aarhuus in Jutland.
SECTION III.
Remarks by J. M. Forster, respecting the situation of Sciringes-heal and Haethum[1].
[1] Forst. Voy. and Disc. 67.
The name of this place, Sciringes-heal, has given a great deal of trouble to former commentators on Alfred; viz. Sir John Spelman, Bussaeus, Somner, John Philip Murray, and Langebeck, who have all chosen spots totally different, in which to place Sciringes-heal. Spelman, and others, look for this place near Dantzic, where, in their opinion, the Scyres formerly resided. But, first, the spot where the Scyres lived, is by no means satisfactorily determined; and, next, it is evident that Ohthere went continually along the coast from Halgoland to Sciringes-heal, and that this coast was on his left-hand during the whole course of his navigation. The late Mr. Murray placed Sciringes-heal at Skanor, in the southern extremity of Sweden; but I cannot think that this place could be five days sail from Haethum in Jutland, as it is expressly declared to have been by Ohthere. Langebeck is for carrying Sciringes-heal to Konga-hella, on the Guatelf, near Marstrand; and insists, that the name, in Alfred's account of the voyage, ought to have been written Cyninges-heal instead of Sciringes-heal. If the word had only once occurred, I might have allowed Langebeck to be right; but we meet with it five times in the space of a few lines, and always without the slightest variation in orthography. 2dly, The voyage from Halgoland to Konga-hella is not of sufficient extent to have employed a month in the passage. 3dly, Konga-hella is too near Jutland to have required five days for the voyage between it and Haethum.
Having demonstrated the insufficiency of these conjectures, we shall now endeavour to point out where Sciringes-heal was really situated. Paul Warenfried, in his Historia Longobardorum, Lib. i, cap. 7. and 10. makes mention of a district, named Scorunga, in which the Winili, or Lombards resided, for some time before they removed to Mairinga and from thence, farther on to Gotland, Anthabet, Bethaib, and Purgendaid. This Scorunga was not far from Gotland, and consequently in Sweden; and seems to have been the district in which Sciringes-heal was situated. Add to this, that Ohthere, after having described Sueoland, or Sweden, as being to the southwards of his habitation, immediately says, "there is a port in this southern land which is called Sciringes-heal." By this, he seems plainly to indicate, that this place certainly was in Sweden; and all this will appear, still more evidently, if we carefully follow the course of the voyage which he describes. First of all, he has Scotland, called Iraland, evidently by mistake, and the Orkney and Shetland islands, which lie between Scotland and Halgoland, on his right hand; and the continent is continually on his left hand, all the way, until he arrive at Sciringes- heal. But farther, a large bay stretches to the northward, deep into the country, along the coast of which he had been continually sailing; and this bay commences quite to the southward of Sciringes-heal, and is so broad that a man cannot see across, and Gotland is directly opposite to this bay[2]. But the sea, which extended from Zeeland to this spot, goes many hundred miles up into the country to the eastwards.
[2] It appears to me, that the description given by Ohthere, implies, that Gotland was directly opposite to Sciringes-heal, or to the east. --E.
From Sciringes-heal, Ohthere could sail in five days to Haethum, which lies between the Wends Saxons and Angles. Now, by this voyage, we are enabled to determine, with still greater exactness, the situation of this place which we are searching for. In order to get to Haethum, he left Gotland on the right[3], and soon afterwards Zeeland likewise, together with the other islands which had been the habitation of the Angles before they went to England, while those which belonged to Denmark were on his left for two days. Sciringes-heal, therefore, is consequently in Sweden, at the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia, which runs up into the land northwards, just on that spot where the Baltic, after having passed Zeeland, spreads into a wide gulf, extending several hundred miles into the land. Just in this place I find the Svia-Sciaeren, or Swedish Scares, a cluster of little islands, surrounded by rocks. Heal, in the northern languages, signifies a port, as in such places a ship might be kept in safety. Sciringes-heal, therefore, was "the harbour of the Scares," and was probably at the entrance of the gulf of Bothnia, and consequently where Stockholm now is; and the tract of land where these Scares lay, towards the sea, was the Scarunga of Paul Warenfried.
[3] Not surely on going southwards, but after he had again turned to the northwards, after doubling the southern point of Sweden.--E.
The port of Hasthum has occasioned much difficulty to the commentators, as well as that of Sciringes-heal; but all have agreed that it must be Sleswic, as this latter is called Haitha by Ethelwerd the Anglo-Saxon. A Norwegian poet gives it the name of Heythabae, others call it Heydaboe, and Adam of Bremen Heidaba; and this, in their opinion, is precisely the same with Haethum. It appears to me, however, that the difference between the words Haethaby and Hasthum, are by no means so inconsiderable. And I think the situation
