who were appearing on the coast, plundering and burning, as the Saxons had done centuries before, reawakened an interest in geography and exploration. Alfred's anxiety to learn of distant countries led him to send for two hardy Danish sailors, Ohthere, or Oddr, and Wulfstan. The former was a nobleman of great wealth and power. He told the king that he lived farthest to the north of all Norsemen. "The land thence is very far to the north, but it is all waste. And on a certain time he wished to find how far to the north land lay. So he sailed north as far as whale hunters ever go and thence north again three days. Then the land bent east, and he sailed along it four days till the land bent south, and he sailed also to the south five days till he came to a great river, up which he dared not sail, for it was all inhabited."[1] On a second voyage he went to "Sciringesheal,"[2] and thence to Haddeby [in Schleswig]. On this voyage he passed Iceland on the right and then the islands which are between Iceland and Britain.
Wulfstan[3] said that he went from Haddeby to Trusö in seven days and nights, and that the ship was running all the way with sail. He had Weonodland (Mecklenburg and Pomerania) on the right, and Langland Falstey and Sconey (Skanör, S. Sweden) on his left. Then he passed Bornholm, the people of which had their own king, Bleking, Oland, and Gotland, which belonged to Sweden. Next he came to the land of the Wends and the great river Vistula, near which lies Witland of the Esthonians. He notes that the Vistula runs in the Frische Haff, and gives the dimensions of the latter correctly, showing clearly his personal knowledge. Esthonia
- ↑ Alfred's 'Orosius' (Bohn), 249. He evidently sailed into the White Sea and the mouth of the Dwina.
- ↑ Not certainly identified. Possibly Christiania.
- ↑ Bosworth, J., 'Alfred the Great's Description of Europe' (London, fol. 1855), pp. 18-24 of the translation.
early lines of navigation in the Mediterranean. Arculf was not certainly English; he was a bishop, and perhaps a French bishop. He visited Adamnan, Abbot of Iona (see p. 60), who wrote his travels. It appears that he was a pilgrim to the Holy Land. He sailed from Palestine—how he got there is not stated—to Alexandria, Crete, Constantinople, and thence by Sicily to Rome. Willibald, Bishop of Eichstadt, obiit 786, was a native of Hampshire, and father of S. Walpurgis. In 718 he travelled overland to Rome, and thence went to Palestine, voyaging in a ship from Gaëta to Naples, Reggio, Catania, Samos, and Ephesus. Thence he went on foot to Patera, where again he took ship for Miletus, Cyprus, and Tarsus. He proceeded to Palestine on foot, and returning embarked at Tyre, whence he sailed for Constantinople, Sicily, and Naples. No interesting details are given of the voyage, for which, see 'Early Travels in Palestine' (Bohn, 1847), pp. 13-22.
