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IN NORTHERN MISTS




[Illustration:

  "THE GOLDEN CLOUDS CURTAINED THE DEEP WHERE IT LAY,
  AND IT LOOKED LIKE AN EDEN AWAY, FAR AWAY"]




  IN NORTHERN MISTS

  ARCTIC EXPLORATION IN EARLY TIMES


  BY FRIDTJOF NANSEN
  G.C.V.O., D.Sc., D.C.L., Ph.D., PROFESSOR OF OCEANOGRAPHY
  IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHRISTIANIA, ETC.


  TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR G. CHATER

  ILLUSTRATED

  VOLUME ONE

  LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN: MCMXI




  PRINTED BY
  BALLANTYNE & COMPANY LTD
  AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS
  TAVISTOCK STREET COVENT GARDEN
  LONDON




PREFACE


This book owes its existence in the first instance to a rash promise made
some years ago to my friend Dr. J. Scott Keltie, of London, that I would
try, when time permitted, to contribute a volume on the history of arctic
voyages to his series of books on geographical exploration. The subject
was an attractive one; I thought I was fairly familiar with it, and did
not expect the book to take a very long time when once I made a start with
it. On account of other studies it was a long while before I could do
this; but when at last I seriously took the work in hand, the subject in
return monopolised my whole powers.

It appeared to me that the natural foundation for a history of arctic
voyages was in the first place to make clear the main features in the
development of knowledge of the North in early times. By tracing how ideas
of the Northern World, appearing first in a dim twilight, change from age
to age, how the old myths and creations of the imagination are constantly
recurring, sometimes in new shapes, and how new ones are added to them, we
have a curious insight into the working of the human mind in its endeavour
to subject to itself the world and the universe.

But as I went deeper into the subject I became aware that the task was far
greater than I had supposed: I found that much that had previously been
written about it was not to be depended upon; that frequently one author
had copied another, and that errors and opinions which had once gained
admission remained embedded in the literary tradition. What had to be done
was to confine one's self to the actual sources, and as far as possible to
build up independently the best possible structure from the very
foundation. But the more extensive my studies became, the more riddles I
perceived--riddle after riddle led to new riddles, and this drew me on
farther and farther.

On many points I arrived at views which to some extent conflicted with
those previously held. This made it necessary to give, not merely the bare
results, but also a great part of the investigations themselves. I have
followed the words of Niebuhr, which P. A. Munch took as a motto for "Det
norske Folks Historie":

"Ich werde suchen die Kritik der Geschichte nicht nach dunkeln Gefühlen,
sondern forschend, auszuführen, nicht ihre Resultate, welche nur blinde
Meinungen stiften, sondern die Untersuchungen selbst in ihrem ganzen
Umfange vortragen."

But in this way my book has become something quite different from what was
intended, and far larger. I have not reached the history of arctic voyages
proper.

Many may think that too much has been included here, and yet what it has
been possible to mention here is but an infinitesimal part of the mighty
labour in vanished times that makes up our knowledge of the North. The
majority of the voyages, and those the most important, on which the first
knowledge was based, have left no certain record; the greatest steps have
been taken by unknown pioneers, and if a halo has settled upon a name here
and there, it is the halo of legend.

My investigations have made it necessary to go through a great mass of
literature, for which I lacked, in part, the linguistic qualifications.
For the study of classical, and of mediæval Latin literature, I found in
Mr. Amund Sommerfeldt a most able assistant, and most of the translations
of Greek and Latin authors are due to him. By his sound and sober
criticism of the often difficult original texts he was of great help to
me.

In the study of Arabic literature Professor Alexander Seippel has afforded
me excellent help, combined with interest in the subject, and he has
translated for me the statements of Arab authors about the North.

In the preparation of this work, as so often before, I owe a deep debt of
gratitude to my old friend, Professor Moltke Moe. He has followed my
studies from the very beginning with an interest that was highly
stimulating; with his extensive knowledge in many fields bordering on
those studies he has helped me by word and deed, even more often than
appears in the course of the book. His intimate acquaintance with the
whole world of myth has been of great importance to the work in many ways;
I will mention in particular his large share in the attempt at unravelling
the difficult question of Wineland and the Wineland voyages. Here his
concurrence was the more valuable to me since at first he disagreed with
the conclusions and views at which I had arrived; but the constantly
increasing mass of evidence, which he himself helped in great measure to
collect, convinced him of their justice, and I have the hope that the
inquiry, particularly as regards this subject, will prove to be of value
to future historical research.

With his masterly knowledge and insight Professor Alf Torp has given me
sound support and advice, especially in difficult linguistic and
etymological questions. Many others, whose names are mentioned in the
course of the book, have also given me valuable assistance.

I owe special thanks to Dr. Axel Anthon Björnbo, Librarian of the Royal
Library of Copenhagen, for his willing collaboration, which has been of
great value to me. While these investigations of mine were in progress, he
has been occupied in the preparation of his exhaustive and excellent work
on the older cartography of Greenland. At his suggestion we have exchanged
our manuscripts, and have mutually criticised each other's views according
to our best ability; the book will show that this has been productive in
many ways. Dr. Björnbo has also assisted me in another way: I have, for
instance, obtained copies of several old maps through him. He has,
besides, sent me photographs of vignettes and marginal drawings from
ancient Icelandic and Norwegian MSS. in the Library of Copenhagen.

Mr. K. Eriksen has drawn the greater part of the reproductions of the
vignettes and the old maps; other illustrations are drawn by me. In the
reproduction of the maps it has been sought rather to bring before the
reader in a clear form the results to which my studies have led than to
produce detailed facsimiles of the originals.

In conclusion I wish to thank Mr. Arthur G. Chater for the careful and
intelligent way in which he has executed the English translation. In
reading the English proofs I have taken the opportunity of making a number
of corrections and additions to the original text.

FRIDTJOF NANSEN

Lysaker, August 1911




CONTENTS


  CHAP.                                                       PAGE

        INTRODUCTION                                             1

     I. ANTIQUITY, BEFORE PYTHEAS                                7

    II. PYTHEAS OF MASSALIA: THE VOYAGE TO THULE                43

   III. ANTIQUITY, AFTER PYTHEAS                                74

    IV. THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES                                  125

     V. THE AWAKENING OF MEDIÆVAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE NORTH       168

    VI. FINNS, SKRIDFINNS [LAPPS], AND THE FIRST SETTLEMENT
        OF SCANDINAVIA                                         203

   VII. THE VOYAGES OF THE NORSEMEN: DISCOVERY OF ICELAND
        AND GREENLAND                                          233

  VIII. VOYAGES TO THE UNINHABITED PARTS OF GREENLAND IN
        THE MIDDLE AGES                                        279

    IX. WINELAND THE GOOD, THE FORTUNATE ISLES, AND THE
        DISCOVERY OF AMERICA                                   312




[Illustration]


INTRODUCTION

                    "For my purpose holds
  To sail beyond the sunset and the baths
  Of all the Western stars until I die."
                              Tennyson, "Ulysses."


In the beginning the world appeared to mankind like a fairy tale;
everything that lay beyond the circle of familiar experience was a
shifting cloudland of the fancy, a playground for all the fabled beings of
mythology; but in the farthest distance, towards the west and north, was
the region of darkness and mists, where sea, land and sky were merged into
a congealed mass--and at the end of all gaped the immeasurable mouth of
the abyss, the awful void of space.

Out of this fairy world, in course of time, the calm and sober lines of
the northern landscape appeared. With unspeakable labour the eye of man
has forced its way gradually towards the north, over mountains and
forests, and tundra, onward through the mists along the vacant shores of
the polar sea--the vast stillness, where so much struggle and suffering,
so many bitter failures, so many proud victories, have vanished without a
trace, muffled beneath the mantle of snow.

When our thoughts go back through the ages in a waking dream, an endless
procession passes before us--like a single mighty epic of the human
mind's power of devotion to an idea, right or wrong--a procession of
struggling, frost-covered figures in heavy clothes, some erect and
powerful, others weak and bent so that they can scarcely drag themselves
along before the sledges, many of them emaciated and dying of hunger, cold
and scurvy; but all looking out before them towards the unknown, beyond
the sunset, where the goal of their struggle is to be found.

We see a Pytheas, intelligent and courageous, steering northward from the
Pillars of Hercules for the discovery of Britain and Northern Europe; we
see hardy Vikings, with an Ottar, a Leif Ericson at their head, sailing in
undecked boats across the ocean into ice and tempest and clearing the
mists from an unseen world; we see a Davis, a Baffin forcing their way to
the north-west and opening up new routes, while a Hudson, unconquered by
ice and winter, finds a lonely grave on a deserted shore, a victim of
shabby pilfering. We see the bright form of a Parry surpassing all as he
forces himself on; a Nordenskiöld, broad-shouldered and confident, leading
the way to new visions; a Toll mysteriously disappearing in the drifting
ice. We see men driven to despair, shooting and eating each other; but at
the same time we see noble figures, like a De Long, trying to save their
journals from destruction, until they sink and die.

Midway in the procession comes a long file of a hundred and thirty men
hauling heavy boats and sledges back to the south, but they are falling in
their tracks; one after another they lie there, marking the line of route
with their corpses--they are Franklin's men.

And now we come to the latest drama, the Greenlander Brönlund dragging
himself forward over the ice-fields through cold and winter darkness,
after the leader Mylius-Erichsen and his comrade, Hagen, have both
stiffened in the snow during the long and desperate journey. He reaches
the depot only to wait for death, knowing that the maps and observations
he has faithfully brought with him will be found and saved. He quietly
prepares himself for the silent guest, and writes in his journal in his
imperfect Danish:

    Perished,--79 Fjord, after attempt return over the inland ice, in
    November. I come here in waning moon and could not get farther for
    frost-bitten feet and darkness.

    The bodies of the others are in the middle of the fjord opposite the
    glacier (about 2-1/2 leagues).

    Hagen died November 15 and Mylius about 10 days after.

    JÖRGEN BRÖNLUND.

What a story in these few lines! Civilisation bows its head by the grave
of this Eskimo.

What were they seeking in the ice and cold? The Norseman who wrote the
"King's Mirror" gave the answer six hundred years ago: "If you wish to
know what men seek in this land, or why men journey thither in so great
danger of their lives, then it is the threefold nature of man which draws
him thither. One part of him is emulation and desire of fame, for it is
man's nature to go where there is likelihood of great danger, and to make
himself famous thereby. Another part is the desire of knowledge, for it is
man's nature to wish to know and see those parts of which he has heard,
and to find out whether they are as it was told him or not. The third part
is the desire of gain, seeing that men seek after riches in every place
where they learn that profit is to be had, even though there be great
danger in it."

The history of arctic discovery shows how the development of the human
race has always been borne along by great illusions. Just as Columbus's
discovery of the West Indies was due to a gross error of calculation, so
it was the fabled isle of Brazil that drew Cabot out on his voyage, when
he found North America. It was fantastic illusions of open polar seas and
of passages to the riches of Cathay beyond the ice that drove men back
there in spite of one failure after another; and little by little the
polar regions were explored. Every complete devotion to an idea yields
some profit, even though it be different from that which was expected.

But from first to last the history of polar exploration is a single mighty
manifestation of the power of the unknown over the mind of man, perhaps
greater and more evident here than in any other phase of human life.
Nowhere else have we won our way more slowly, nowhere else has every new
step cost so much trouble, so many privations and sufferings, and
certainly nowhere have the resulting discoveries promised fewer material
advantages--and nevertheless, new forces have always been found ready to
carry the attack farther, to stretch once more the limits of the world.

But if it has cost a struggle, it is not without its joys. Who can
describe his emotion when the last difficult ice-floe has been passed, and
the sea lies open before him, leading to new realms? Or when the mist
clears and mountain-summits shoot up, one behind another farther and
farther away, on which the eye of man has never rested, and in the
farthest distance peaks appear on the sea-horizon--on the sky above them a
yellowish white reflection of the snow-fields--where the imagination
pictures new continents?...

Ever since the Norsemen's earliest voyages arctic expeditions have
certainly brought material advantages to the human race, such as rich
fisheries, whaling and sealing, and so on; they have produced scientific
results in the knowledge of hitherto unknown regions and conditions; but
they have given us far more than this: they have tempered the human will
for the conquest of difficulties; they have furnished a school of
manliness and self-conquest in the midst of the slackness of varying ages,
and have held up noble ideals before the rising generation; they have fed
the imagination, have given fairy-tales to the child, and raised the
thoughts of its elders above their daily toil. Take arctic travel out of
our history, and will it not be poorer? Perhaps we have here the greatest
service it has done humanity.

We speak of the first discovery of the North--but how do we know when the
first man arrived in the northern regions of the earth? We know nothing
but the very last steps in the migrations of humanity. What a stretch of
time there must have been between the period of the Neanderthal man in
Europe and the first Pelasgians, or Iberians, or Celts, that we find there
in the neolithic age, in the earliest dawn of history. How infinitesimal
in comparison with this the whole of the recent period which we call
history becomes.

What took place in those long ages is still hidden from us. We only know
that ice-age followed ice-age, covering Northern Europe, and to some
extent Asia and North America as well, with vast glaciers which
obliterated all traces of early human habitation of those regions. Between
these ice-ages occurred warmer periods, when men once more made their way
northward, to be again driven out by the next advance of the ice-sheet.
There are many signs that the human northward migration after the last
ice-age, in any case in large districts of Europe, followed fairly close
upon the gradual shrinking of the boundary of the inland ice towards the
interior of Scandinavia, where the ice-sheath held out longest.

The primitive state--when men wandered about the forests and plains of the
warmer parts of the earth, living on what they found by chance--developed
by slow gradations in the direction of the first beginnings of culture; on
one side to roving hunters and fishers, on the other to agricultural
people with a more fixed habitation. The nomad with his herds forms a
later stage of civilisation.

The hunting stage of culture was imposed by necessity on the first
pioneers and inhabitants of the northernmost and least hospitable regions
of the earth. The northern lands must therefore have been first discovered
by roving fishermen who came northwards following the rivers and seashores
in their search for new fishing-grounds. It was the scouting eye of a
hunter that first saw a sea-beach in the dreamy light of a summer night,
and sought to penetrate the heavy gloom of the polar sea. And that
far-travelled hunter fell asleep in the snowdrift while the northern
lights played over him as a funeral fire, the first victim of the polar
night's iron