A voyage to the north: Ohthere and Wulfstan tell King Alfred
- Written
- later ninth century, in King Alfred’s reign
- Place
- Wessex (King Alfred’s court)
- Language
- Old English (West Saxon)
- Kind of source
- travel account
- Reading time
- 6 minutes
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Intensity
- Low: hunting and slaves are mentioned only in passing, nothing graphic
Voyages and sea travelHow languages changeFood, farming and hungerWords and namesRulers and courts
Ohthere said that no one lived north of him. When the Permians told him stories about their land, he added that he did not know how much of it was true, because he had not seen it himself.
Ohthere was a Norseman from Halgoland, in the north of Norway. He came to the court of King Alfred of Wessex in the later ninth century and told the king about his home, his wealth and his voyage north. Wulfstan, a second traveler, gave an account of a voyage from Haethum to Truso on the Baltic. Both accounts survive because they were added to the Old English version of the Latin world history by Orosius, traditionally Alfred’s own, where they stand in the opening geography of the world (Book I, chapter 1). Henry Sweet, who printed them in 1894, called them Alfred’s own insertion and highly valuable for early English prose.
The accounts are reported speech. Most of Ohthere’s is told in the third person, “he said,” and Wulfstan’s turns into the first person, “on our port side,” partway through. Ohthere could report what he had sailed past and what he owned and was paid. He did not see the lands beyond, and he says so. The text keeps the difference between what he saw and what the Permians told him. Distances are counted in days of sailing and by which side of the ship the coast lay on.
Ohthere’s account is presented as what he told the king, and Wulfstan’s as what he said. The wording is that of Alfred’s Old English version, not theirs, and the text we have is a copy. Sweet followed the Lauderdale manuscript, which is contemporary, as far as it goes. Eight of its leaves were cut out, including most of this text, so he took the rest from the Cotton manuscript of the eleventh century.
Watch for how a traveler counts: sailing days, the wind that can be waited for, and the side of the ship. Watch, too, how wealth is counted in animals and in tribute paid in skins, feathers and rope.
The edited translation, in simplified modern English. Bracketed words were added for clarity; [...] marks a cut. Tap a note number to read the note. Point at or tap a phrase to see the original behind it. Phrase links checked in a separate review.
Ohthere told his lord, King Alfred, that he lived farther north than any other Norseman.
He said he lived in the northern part of the land, by the Western Sea.
He said, though, that the land stretches very far north from there. But it is all wasteland, except that here and there, in a few places, Finns camp,1 hunting through the winter and fishing by the sea over the summer.
He said that he once wanted to find out how far the land stretched due north, or whether anyone lived north of the wasteland.
Then he sailed due north along the coast. All the way he kept the wasteland on his starboard side2 and the open sea on his port side, for three days.
By then he was as far north as the whale hunters ever travel.
Then he kept going due north, getting as far as he could manage in the next three days of sailing.
The Permians3 had settled their land very well, but [his crew] did not dare to go onto it.
The Permians told him a great many tales, about their own country as well as the lands near them; but he could not tell how much was true, since he had not seen it himself.
The Finns, it seemed to him, and the Permians spoke almost the same language.
He went there chiefly, besides seeing the land, for the walruses,4 because they have very fine bone in their teeth. Some of those teeth they brought to the king. And their hide is very good for ship ropes.
This kind of whale is much smaller than other whales: it grows no longer than seven ells.5 Yet in his own country is the best whale hunting: those are forty-eight ells long, and the biggest fifty ells long. [...]
He was a very wealthy man in the kind of goods that their wealth consists of, that is, in wild animals.
He still had, when he went to see the king, tame animals that were not yet sold, six hundred of them.
These animals they call reindeer. Of these there were six decoy reindeer.6 These are very valuable among the Finns, because with them they catch the wild reindeer.
He was among the foremost men in the land. Yet he had no more than twenty cattle, twenty sheep and twenty pigs. And the little that he plowed, he plowed with horses.
But their income comes mostly from the tribute paid to them by the Finns.
The tribute is paid in animal skins, in bird feathers, in whale bone, and in ship ropes made of whale hide and of seal hide.
Each man pays according to his rank.
The highest-ranking man has to pay fifteen marten skins, five reindeer [skins], one bearskin, ten ambra of feathers,7 a coat of bearskin or otter skin, and two ship ropes. Each is to be sixty ells long; one is to be made of whale hide, the other of seal hide.
He said that the Norsemen’s land was very long and also very narrow.
Everything that can be grazed or plowed lies along the sea. And it is, though, here and there very rocky. And wild moors lie to the east and up above, alongside the settled land.
On the moors live Finns.
And the settled land is broadest in the east, and always the farther north, the narrower.
Ohthere said that the district was called Halgoland, where he lived.8
He said that no one lived north of him.
There is a port in the southern part of that land, which is called Sciringes heal.9
He said that a person could not sail there in a month, even if he camped at night and had a fair wind every day; and all that time he has to sail along the land.
And on the starboard side he first has Iraland,10 and then the islands that lie between Iraland and this land.
Then there is this land, until he reaches Sciringes heal, and the whole way, on the port side, is Norway.
South of Sciringes heal a very large sea flows far inland; it is wider than anyone can see across.
And Gotland is on the other side, opposite, and then Sillende.11
This sea runs many hundreds of miles inland.
And from Sciringes heal, he said, he sailed in five days to the port that is called Haethum.12 It stands between the Wends, the Saxons and the Angles, and belongs to Denmark.
When he sailed that way from Sciringes heal, he had Denmark on his port side and open sea on his starboard side for three days. And then, two days before he arrived at Haethum, he had, on his starboard side, Gotland and Sillende and many islands.
And he had, for those two days, on his port side the islands that belong to Denmark.
Wulfstan said that he set out from Haethum and that he was at Truso13 within seven days and nights, and that the ship ran under sail the whole way.
Weonodland was on his starboard side, and on his port side were Langaland, Læland, Falster and Sconeg;14 and all those lands are part of Denmark.
And then Burgenda land15 was on our port side, and they have a king of their own. [...]
And Weonodland was all the way on our starboard side, to the mouth of the Wisle. [...]
[...] And then the Wisle takes the Ilfing’s name away, and flows from the lake west and north into the sea; that is why it is called Wislemuða.16
Estland17 is very large, and there are very many towns there, and in each town there is a king.
And there is very much honey there, and fishing. The king and the richest men drink mare’s milk, and the poor and the slaves drink mead. [...]
And there is no ale brewed among the Ests, but there is mead in plenty.
[...] And even if someone set out two vessels full of ale or water, they [this clan] cause either one to be frozen over, whether it is summer or winter.18
Notes
- Finnas, “Finns.” Bosworth’s notes (1859) connect them with Lapland; the people are now called Sámi. The text says only that they hunt and fish here. back
- Stēorbord is the starboard, the right-hand side of a ship, and bæcbord the port, the left-hand side. Sweet’s glossary gives stēorbord as “starboard.” back
- Beormas: Sweet’s note glosses this as “Permians.” The text says only that they had settled their land well and told Ohthere many stories. back
- Horshwæl, “horse-whale,” is the walrus (Sweet’s glossary). Bosworth’s notes add that walrus tusks are ivory and that walrus hide was plaited into ship ropes. back
- Ęlna is the plural of eln, an ell, an old measure of length. The translation keeps the Old English unit. back
- Stælhrānas, here “decoy reindeer”: tame animals the Finns used to catch wild ones, as the next clause says. Sweet’s note says hrān comes from Old Norse and gives us “reindeer.” back
- Ambra, a plural form of amber, is “a certain measure,” Sweet’s glossary says. The text does not say how large it was. back
- Hālgoland, Ohthere’s home district; Sweet’s note gives it as Halogaland (Hålogaland), a name from Norway. back
- Scīringes hēal: Sweet’s note gives the Old Norse form as Skíringssalr. The text puts it in the south of the land, on the route to Haethum. back
- Īraland has not been satisfactorily identified, Sweet notes. Ireland can hardly be meant, still less Iceland; one scholar, Rieger, thinks the Shetlands. back
- Sweet thought Gotland here was Jutland and Sillende Holstein; these are his guesses, and later editors differ. back
- Hæþum: Sweet’s note identifies it with Heipabœr, now Schleswig. It is written æt Hæþum, “at Hæþum,” with an old extra æt, which Sweet also finds in the Chronicle. back
- Trūsō: Sweet’s note gives the later name as Drausen; that is his identification. back
- Weonoðland, “Wend-land.” Sweet’s notes give the islands as Langeland, Lolland and Falster, and Scónēg as Skåne (Schonen). back
- Burgenda land: Sweet’s note says Bornholm; the name means “land of the Burgundians.” back
- Sweet’s notes give Wīsle as the Vistula and Ilfing as the Elbing. back
- Estland, the land of the Estas, whom Sweet’s note glosses as “Esthonians.” The text itself puts Estland east of the mouth of the Wisle (Vistula), so they are not the people of modern Estonia. back
- The omitted sentences describe the Ests’ funeral customs and say that one clan among them could make cold (cyle). The Old English does not say how. back
Ohthęre sǣde his hlāforde, Ælfrede cyninge, þæt hē ealra Norðmǫnna norþmest būde.
Ohthere said to his lord, to Alfred the king, that he of all Northmen northmost lived.
Ohthere told his lord, King Alfred, that he lived farther north than any other Norseman.
Hē cwæð þæt hē būde on þǣm lande norþweardum wiþ þā Westsǽ.
He said that he lived in the land northwards by the West Sea.
He said he lived in the northern part of the land, by the Western Sea.
Hē sǣde þēah þæt þæt land sīe swīþe lang norþ þǫnan; ac hit is eal/ wēste, būton on fēawum stōwum styccemǣlum wīciað Finnas, on huntoðe on wintra, ǫnd on sumera on fiscaþe be þǣre sǽ.
He said, though, that that land is very long north from there; but it is all/ waste, except in a few places piecemeal dwell Finns, in hunting in winter, and in summer in fishing by the sea.
He said, though, that the land stretches very far north from there. But it is all wasteland, except that here and there, in a few places, Finns camp, hunting through the winter and fishing by the sea over the summer.
- Finnas, “Finns.” Bosworth’s notes (1859) connect them with Lapland; the people are now called Sámi. The text says only that they hunt and fish here.
Hē sǣde þæt hē æt sumum cirre wolde fandian hū lǫnge þæt land norþryhte lǣge, oþþe hwæðer ǣnig mǫnn be norðan þǣm wēstenne būde.
He said that he at a certain time wished to try how long that land north-straight lay, or whether any man to the north of the wasteland lived.
He said that he once wanted to find out how far the land stretched due north, or whether anyone lived north of the wasteland.
Þā fōr hē norþryhte be þǣm lande: lēt him ealne weg þæt wēste land on ðæt stēorbord, ǫnd þā wīdsǽ on ðæt bæcbord þrīe dagas.
Then went he north-straight by the land: let [= kept] to himself all the way the waste land on the starboard, and the wide sea on the larboard [= port] three days.
Then he sailed due north along the coast. All the way he kept the wasteland on his starboard side and the open sea on his port side, for three days.
- Stēorbord is the starboard, the right-hand side of a ship, and bæcbord the port, the left-hand side. Sweet’s glossary gives stēorbord as “starboard.”
Þā wæs hē swā feorr norþ swā þā hwælhuntan firrest faraþ.
Then was he so far north as the whale-hunters farthest travel.
By then he was as far north as the whale hunters ever travel.
Þā fōr hē þāgīet norþryhte swā feorr swā hē meahte on þǣm ōþrum þrim dagum gesiglan.
Then went he yet north-straight as far as he could in the other three days sail.
Then he kept going due north, getting as far as he could manage in the next three days of sailing.
Þā Beormas hæfdon swiþe wel gebúd hira land: ac hīe ne dorston þǣr on cuman.
The Permians had very well settled their land: but they not dared there on to come.
The Permians had settled their land very well, but [his crew] did not dare to go onto it.
- Beormas: Sweet’s note glosses this as “Permians.” The text says only that they had settled their land well and told Ohthere many stories.
Fela spella him sǣdon þā Beormas ǣgþer ge of hiera āgnum lande ge of þǣm landum þe ymb hīe ūtan wǣron; ac hē nyste hwæt þæs sōþes wæs, for þǣm hē hit self ne geseah.
Many tales to him told the Permians, both of their own land and of the lands that around them outside were; but he knew not what of the truth was, because he it himself not saw.
The Permians told him a great many tales, about their own country as well as the lands near them; but he could not tell how much was true, since he had not seen it himself.
Þā Finnas, him þuhte, ǫnd þā Beormas sprǣcon nēah ān geþēode.
The Finns, to him it seemed, and the Permians spoke nearly one language.
The Finns, it seemed to him, and the Permians spoke almost the same language.
Swīþost hē fōr ðider, tōēacan þæs landes scēawunge, for þǣm horshwælum, for ðǣm hīe habbað swīþe æþele bán on hiora tōþum; (þā tēð hīe brohton sume þǣm cyninge); ǫnd hiora hȳd bið swīðe gód tō sciprāpum.
Chiefly he went thither, besides the land's viewing, for the horse-whales, because they have very noble bone in their teeth; (those teeth they brought some to the king); and their hide is very good for ship-ropes.
He went there chiefly, besides seeing the land, for the walruses, because they have very fine bone in their teeth. Some of those teeth they brought to the king. And their hide is very good for ship ropes.
- Horshwæl, “horse-whale,” is the walrus (Sweet’s glossary). Bosworth’s notes add that walrus tusks are ivory and that walrus hide was plaited into ship ropes.
Se hwæl bið micle lǣssa þonne ōðre hwalas: ne bið hē lęngra ðonne syfan ęlna lang; ac on his āgnum lande is se bętsta hwælhuntað: þā bēoð eahta and fēowertiges ęlna lange, and þā mæstan, fiftiges ęlna lange;
The whale is much less than other whales: not is he longer than seven ells long; but in his own land is the best whale-hunting: those are eight and forty ells long, and the greatest, fifty ells long;
This kind of whale is much smaller than other whales: it grows no longer than seven ells. Yet in his own country is the best whale hunting: those are forty-eight ells long, and the biggest fifty ells long.
- Ęlna is the plural of eln, an ell, an old measure of length. The translation keeps the Old English unit.
Hē wæs swȳðe spēdig mann on þǣm æhtum þe heora spēda on bēoð, þæt is, on wildrum.
He was a very wealthy man in the possessions that their wealth in is, that is, in wild beasts.
He was a very wealthy man in the kind of goods that their wealth consists of, that is, in wild animals.
Hē hæfde þāgȳt, ðā hē þone cyningc sohte, tamra dēora unbebohtra syx hund.
He had yet, when he the king sought, of tame beasts unsold six hundred.
He still had, when he went to see the king, tame animals that were not yet sold, six hundred of them.
Þā dēor hī hātað ‘hrānas;’ þāra wǣron syx stælhrānas; ðā bēoð swȳðe dȳre mid Finnum, for ðǣm hȳ fōð þā wildan hrānas mid.
Those beasts they call 'reindeer'; of them were six decoy-reindeer; those are very dear among Finns, because they take the wild reindeer with them.
These animals they call reindeer. Of these there were six decoy reindeer. These are very valuable among the Finns, because with them they catch the wild reindeer.
- Stælhrānas, here “decoy reindeer”: tame animals the Finns used to catch wild ones, as the next clause says. Sweet’s note says hrān comes from Old Norse and gives us “reindeer.”
Hē wæs mid þǣm fyrstum mannum on þǣm lande: næfde hē þēah mā ðonne twentig hrȳðera, and twentig scēapa, and twentig swȳna; and þæt lȳtle þæt hē ęrede, hē ęrede mid horsan.
He was among the foremost men in the land: he had not, though, more than twenty cattle, and twenty sheep, and twenty swine; and the little that he plowed, he plowed with horses.
He was among the foremost men in the land. Yet he had no more than twenty cattle, twenty sheep and twenty pigs. And the little that he plowed, he plowed with horses.
Ac hyra ár is mǣst on þǣm gafole þe ðā Finnas him gyldað.
But their income is most in the tribute that the Finns to them pay.
But their income comes mostly from the tribute paid to them by the Finns.
Þæt gafol bið on dēora fellum, and on fugela feðerum, and hwales bāne, and on þǣm sciprāpum, þe bēoð of hwæles hȳde geworht, and of sēoles.
That tribute is in skins of beasts, and in feathers of birds, and whale's bone, and in the ship-ropes that are of whale's hide made, and of seal's.
The tribute is paid in animal skins, in bird feathers, in whale bone, and in ship ropes made of whale hide and of seal hide.
Æghwilc gylt be hys gebyrdum.
Each pays according to his birth.
Each man pays according to his rank.
Se byrdesta sceall gyldan fīftȳne mearðes fell, and fīf hrānes, and ān beren fel/, and tȳn ambra feðra, and berenne kyrtel oððe yterenne, and twēgen sciprāpas; ǣgþer sȳ syxtig ęlna lang, ōþer sȳ of hwæles hȳde geworht, ōþer of sioles.
The highest-born shall pay fifteen skins of marten, and five reindeer, and one bear fell/, and ten ambers of feathers, and a bear-skin coat or an otter one, and two ship-ropes; each be sixty ells long, one be of whale's hide made, one of seal's.
The highest-ranking man has to pay fifteen marten skins, five reindeer [skins], one bearskin, ten ambra of feathers, a coat of bearskin or otter skin, and two ship ropes. Each is to be sixty ells long; one is to be made of whale hide, the other of seal hide.
- Ambra, a plural form of amber, is “a certain measure,” Sweet’s glossary says. The text does not say how large it was.
Hē sǣde ðæt Norðmanna land wǣre swȳþe lang and swȳðe smæl.
He said that the Northmen's land was very long and very narrow.
He said that the Norsemen’s land was very long and also very narrow.
Eal/ þæt his man āðer oððe ęttan oððe ęrian mæg, þæt līð wið ðā sǽ; and þæt is þēah on sumum stōwum swȳðe clūdig; and licgað wilde mōras wið ēastan and wið uppon emnlange þǣm bȳnum lande.
All/ that one either graze or plow can, that lies by the sea; and that is, though, in some places very rocky; and lie wild moors to the east and up above alongside the cultivated land.
Everything that can be grazed or plowed lies along the sea. And it is, though, here and there very rocky. And wild moors lie to the east and up above, alongside the settled land.
On þǣm mōrum eardiað Finnas.
On the moors dwell Finns.
On the moors live Finns.
And þæt bȳne land is ēasteweard brādost, and symle swā norðor swā smælre.
And that cultivated land is eastwards broadest, and always the further north the narrower.
And the settled land is broadest in the east, and always the farther north, the narrower.
Ohthęre sǣde þæt sīo scīr hātte Hālgoland, þe hē on būde.
Ohthere said that the district was called Halgoland, which he in lived.
Ohthere said that the district was called Halgoland, where he lived.
- Hālgoland, Ohthere’s home district; Sweet’s note gives it as Halogaland (Hålogaland), a name from Norway.
Hē cwæð þæt nān mann ne būde be norðan him.
He said that no man not lived to the north of him.
He said that no one lived north of him.
Þonne is án port on sūðeweardum þǣm lande, þone man hæt/ Scīringes hēal.
Then is a port in the southern part of that land, which one calls/ Sciringes heal.
There is a port in the southern part of that land, which is called Sciringes heal.
- Scīringes hēal: Sweet’s note gives the Old Norse form as Skíringssalr. The text puts it in the south of the land, on the route to Haethum.
Þyder hē cwæð þæt man ne mihte geseglian on ānum mōnðe, gyf man on niht wīcode, and ælce dæge hæfde ambyrne wind; and ealle ðā hwīle hē sceal seglian be lande.
Thither he said that one not could sail in one month, if one at night camped, and each day had a favourable wind; and all the while he shall sail along the land.
He said that a person could not sail there in a month, even if he camped at night and had a fair wind every day; and all that time he has to sail along the land.
And on þæt stēorbord him bið ǣrest Īraland, and þonne ðā īgland þe synd betux Īralande and þissum lande.
And on the starboard to him is first Iraland, and then the islands that are between Iraland and this land.
And on the starboard side he first has Iraland, and then the islands that lie between Iraland and this land.
- Īraland has not been satisfactorily identified, Sweet notes. Ireland can hardly be meant, still less Iceland; one scholar, Rieger, thinks the Shetlands.
Þonne is þis land, oð hē cymð tō Scīrincges hēale, and ealne weg on þæt bæcbord Norðweg.
Then is this land, until he comes to Sciringes heal, and all the way on the port Norway.
Then there is this land, until he reaches Sciringes heal, and the whole way, on the port side, is Norway.
Wið sūðan þone Scīringes hēal fylð swȳðe mycel sǽ ūp inn on ðæt lǫnd; sēo is brādre þonne ǣnig mann ofer sēon mæge.
To the south of Sciringes heal flows a very great sea up in on the land; it is broader than any man across see can.
South of Sciringes heal a very large sea flows far inland; it is wider than anyone can see across.
And is Gotland on ōðre healfe ongēan, and siððan Sillęnde.
And is Gotland on the other side opposite, and then Sillende.
And Gotland is on the other side, opposite, and then Sillende.
- Sweet thought Gotland here was Jutland and Sillende Holstein; these are his guesses, and later editors differ.
Sēo sǽ līð mǣnig hund mīla ūp inn on þæt land.
That sea lies many hundred miles up in on the land.
This sea runs many hundreds of miles inland.
And of Scīringes hēale hē cwæð ðæt hē seglode on fīf dagan tō þǣm porte þe mǫn hæt/ æt Hæþum; se stęnt betuh Winedum, and Seaxum, and Angle, and hȳrð inn on Dęne.
And from Sciringes heal he said that he sailed in five days to the port that one calls/ at Haethum; it stands between Wends, and Saxons, and Angles, and belongs in to Danes.
And from Sciringes heal, he said, he sailed in five days to the port that is called Haethum. It stands between the Wends, the Saxons and the Angles, and belongs to Denmark.
- Hæþum: Sweet’s note identifies it with Heipabœr, now Schleswig. It is written æt Hæþum, “at Hæþum,” with an old extra æt, which Sweet also finds in the Chronicle.
Ðā hē þiderweard seglode fram Scīringeshēale, þā wæs him on þæt bæcbord Dęnamearc and on þæt stēorbord wīdsǽ þrȳ dagas; and þā, twēgen dagas ǣr hē tō Hæþum cōme, him wæs on þæt stēorbord Gotland, and Sillęnde, and īglanda fela.
When he thitherward sailed from Sciringes heal, then was to him on the port Denmark and on the starboard wide sea three days; and then, two days before he to Haethum came, to him was on the starboard Gotland, and Sillende, and islands many.
When he sailed that way from Sciringes heal, he had Denmark on his port side and open sea on his starboard side for three days. And then, two days before he arrived at Haethum, he had, on his starboard side, Gotland and Sillende and many islands.
And hym wæs ðā twēgen dagas on ðæt bæcbord ðā īgland þe inn on Dęnemearce hȳrað.
And to him was those two days on the port the islands that in in Denmark belong.
And he had, for those two days, on his port side the islands that belong to Denmark.
Wulfstān sǣde þæt hē gefóre of Hæðum, þæt hē wǣre on Trūsō on syfan dagum and nihtum, þæt þæt scip wæs ealne weg yrnende under segle.
Wulfstan said that he went from Haethum, that he was at Truso in seven days and nights, that the ship was all the way running under sail.
Wulfstan said that he set out from Haethum and that he was at Truso within seven days and nights, and that the ship ran under sail the whole way.
- Trūsō: Sweet’s note gives the later name as Drausen; that is his identification.
Weonoðland him wæs on stēorbord, and on bæcbord him wæs Langaland, and Lǽland, and Falster, and Scónēg; and þās land eall hȳrað tō Dęnemearcan.
Wendland to him was on the starboard, and on the port to him was Langeland, and Lolland, and Falster, and Scania; and those lands all belong to Denmark.
Weonodland was on his starboard side, and on his port side were Langaland, Læland, Falster and Sconeg; and all those lands are part of Denmark.
- Weonoðland, “Wend-land.” Sweet’s notes give the islands as Langeland, Lolland and Falster, and Scónēg as Skåne (Schonen).
And þonne Burgenda land wæs ūs on bæcbord, and þā habbað him sylfe cyning.
And then Burgundians' land was to us on the port, and they have for themselves a king.
And then Burgenda land was on our port side, and they have a king of their own.
- Burgenda land: Sweet’s note says Bornholm; the name means “land of the Burgundians.”
And Weonodland wæs ús ealne weg on stēorbord oð Wīslemūðan.
And Wendland was to us all the way on the starboard to the Vistula mouth.
And Weonodland was all the way on our starboard side, to the mouth of the Wisle.
And þonne benimð Wīsle Ilfing hire naman, and ligeð of þǣm męre west and norð on sǽ; for ðȳ hit man hæt/ Wīslemūða.
And then takes away the Vistula the Ilfing her name, and flows from the lake west and north into the sea; for that it one calls/ Vistula-mouth.
And then the Wisle takes the Ilfing’s name away, and flows from the lake west and north into the sea; that is why it is called Wislemuða.
- Sweet’s notes give Wīsle as the Vistula and Ilfing as the Elbing.
Þæt Estland is swȳðe mycel, and þǣr bið swȳðe manig burh, and on ælcere byrig bið cyningc.
That Estland is very great, and there is very many a town, and in each town is a king.
Estland is very large, and there are very many towns there, and in each town there is a king.
- Estland, the land of the Estas, whom Sweet’s note glosses as “Esthonians.” The text itself puts Estland east of the mouth of the Wisle (Vistula), so they are not the people of modern Estonia.
And þǣr bið swȳðe mycel hunig, and fiscnað; and se cyning and þā rīcostan męnn drincað mȳran meolc, and þā unspēdigan and þā þéowan drincað medo.
And there is very much honey, and fishing; and the king and the richest men drink mare's milk, and the unwealthy and the slaves drink mead.
And there is very much honey there, and fishing. The king and the richest men drink mare’s milk, and the poor and the slaves drink mead.
And ne bið ðǣr nǣnig ealo gebrowen mid Estum, ac þǣr bið medo genóh.
And not is there any ale brewed among Ests, but there is mead enough.
And there is no ale brewed among the Ests, but there is mead in plenty.
And þēah man āsętte twēgen fǣtels full ealað oððe wæteres, hȳ gedōð þæt ǣgþer bið ofer·froren, sam hit sȳ sumor sam winter.
And though one set two vessels full of ale or of water, they do that either is frozen over, whether it be summer or winter.
And even if someone set out two vessels full of ale or water, they [this clan] cause either one to be frozen over, whether it is summer or winter.
- The omitted sentences describe the Ests’ funeral customs and say that one clan among them could make cold (cyle). The Old English does not say how.
Who and what this source names, in the original. Each name links to every source in the library that mentions it. Not yet checked.
People
- Alfred the Great King of Wessex from 871 to 899, who held off the Danish invasions. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was first put together in his reign, about 890. Sections O01.
- Ohthere A Norseman from Halogaland in the far north of Norway who came to King Alfred's court in the later ninth century and told the king about his land, his wealth and his voyage north. Sections O01, O35.
- Wulfstan (traveler) A traveler whose account of a seven-day voyage from Hedeby to Truso on the Baltic was added, with Ohthere's, to King Alfred's Old English Orosius. Sections W1.
Peoples
- Beormas (Permians) A people of the far north who had settled their land well and told Ohthere many stories; Henry Sweet glossed their name as “Permians.” Sections O14, O16, O17.
- Sámi (Finnas) The people Ohthere called Finnas, who hunted and fished in the north of Norway and paid him tribute in skins, feathers, whalebone and ship ropes. They are now called Sámi. Sections O03, O17, O22, O24, O30.
Places
- Burgenda land (Bornholm) The Baltic island, “land of the Burgundians,” which Wulfstan passed; it had its own king. Sections W3.
- Denmark The kingdom of the Danes, at the mouth of the Baltic. Danish fleets raided England again and again around the year 1000. Sections O43, O44, O46, W2.
- Estland The land of the Ests, east of the mouth of the Vistula, with many towns, each with its king. They are not the people of modern Estonia. Sections W9.
- Halogaland (Hålogaland) Ohthere's home district in the north of Norway; he said no one lived north of him. Sections O35.
- Hedeby (æt Hæþum) A trading port at the base of the Jutland peninsula, which Henry Sweet identified with Schleswig. Ohthere sailed there from Sciringes heal, and Wulfstan sailed from there to Truso. Sections O43, O44, W1.
- Norway The long, narrow land of the Northmen along the sea, Norðweg in Old English, which Ohthere described to King Alfred. Sections O28, O40.
- Sciringes heal (Skíringssalr) The port in the south of Norway that Ohthere sailed to. Excavators identify it with the Viking-age town of Kaupang, founded about 800, which Ohthere visited about 890. Sections O37, O40, O43, O44.
- Truso A trading place on the Baltic near the mouth of the Vistula, where Wulfstan's voyage ended. Henry Sweet gives its later name as Drausen. Sections W1.
- Vistula The great river that flows north to the Baltic, Wisle in Old English, whose mouth marked the border of the Ests' land. Sections W5, W8.
Page images of the original object or of the printed edition, from the libraries and archives that hold them. The pages shown are copied here where the holder marks them public domain; titles link to the holder's own viewer. Click a page to see it full size.
An Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse, ed. Henry Sweet (Oxford, 1894)
Internet Archive. pp. 17–23 (image numbers n120–n126). Not in copyright, as the Internet Archive record states; published 1894.
The edition our text follows, read against these page images.
Difficulty: Moderate, short sentences, but many place names and ship's directions, which the notes explain.
Fits these units
- How English changed. How did English change between King Alfred's time and Shakespeare's?
- Everyday writing. What can ordinary texts, such as yearly records, recipes, farm verses and travelers' reports, tell us about daily life?
Key terms
- Norseman
- a man of the Norse peoples of Scandinavia; here, someone from Norway
- starboard
- the right-hand side of a ship, for someone facing the front
- port
- the left-hand side of a ship, for someone facing the front; also a harbor town
- walrus
- a large Arctic sea mammal with long tusks, related to seals
- tribute
- goods or money that one people must pay to another as a sign of being under its power
- ell
- an old measure of length; the text does not say how long
- mead
- an alcoholic drink made from honey and water
Questions
- Comprehension
What animals did Ohthere own, and where did most of his income come from?
- Analysis
Ohthere and Wulfstan describe where places are and how far away they lie. What do they use to measure and to give directions? Why might sailors describe a voyage this way?
- Analysis (reliability)
This account is what Ohthere told King Alfred, written down in the Old English version of Orosius and known to us from copies. Whose words are we reading? Which parts rest on what Ohthere saw himself, and which on what others told him?
- Connection
In A year in a sentence: entries from the Chronicle, the entry for 891 tells of three Irishmen who came to King Alfred in a boat with no one to row or steer it. Compare it with Ohthere's report. What does each tell us about the travelers and how they traveled? How is a short entry in a yearly record different from a traveler's account told at length?
Activity
Students choose three short sentences, such as "He said that no one lived north of him" (O36), and copy the Old English above our English. They draw a line from each Old English word to the modern word that matches it, and circle any word with no match. The class then discusses what changed most between Alfred's English and ours, the spelling, the words themselves, or the order of words.
A printable worksheet for this source · More on Hearth Learning
New translation from the Old English text of The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan in Henry Sweet, An Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894), pp. 17–23, read in the Internet Archive scan. About half of the passage is included, in 45 short units: Ohthere’s account of his home, his wealth and his voyage along the coast to Sciringes heal and Haethum, and part of Wulfstan’s voyage to Truso and what he says of Estland.
Left out: the sentence about killing sixty of the big whales in two days (he and five others); the leg east and south along the coast to the great river and the Terfinnas; the breadth of Norway; Sweoland, Cwenland and the raids between the Cwenas and the Norsemen; the sentence that the Angles lived in these lands before they came to Britain; Blekinge, Møre, Öland and Gotland; Witland, the Estmere and Truso; and the funeral customs of the Ests and the races for the dead man’s property, with the other passages on the dead. A cut inside a unit is marked [...]; gaps between units are not marked.
The edition prints some letters in italic where Sweet filled out an abbreviation (for example the last n of mǫnn); they are plain here. The slash printed after eal, hæt, fel and a few words is kept as printed; the page does not explain it. The edition’s footnote numbers and manuscript variants, its headings and notes are not copied. Sweet marks long vowels with a macron or an acute accent; both are kept as printed. The stray full stop before Wulfstān is left out.
Place names are the writer’s, with Sweet’s modern identifications in the footnotes. Words in brackets are ours. Bosworth’s 1859 English translation was seen in part (the first paragraphs and the walrus passage) while looking up his notes, before the literal draft was written; we ran the overlap check against it.
- Original
- Text as printed in the named edition or on the object, read from page images. Edition: An Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse, ed. Henry Sweet (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894), pp. 17–23. Digital copy: Internet Archive item anglosaxonreader00swee. The OCR text was too garbled to copy (it loses the length marks, ǫ, ę and tells þ and ð apart badly), so the Old English was typed from the page images, line by line, and each unit was checked against the images again. Sweet’s spelling, length marks (macron and acute), slashes and punctuation are kept; his italic supplied letters are plain.
- Transliterated
- Not needed: the original is in the Latin alphabet
- Close English
- Close translation drafted by Claude (Anthropic), kept as a working draft
- Simplified English
- Drafted by Claude (Anthropic) from the original and checked unit by unit against the original in a separate review, then compared with earlier translations and tested for borrowed wording.
- Editor’s review
- Not yet.
- Specialist review
- Not yet. Readings a specialist should confirm are listed for later review.
- Rights
- Original: public domain. Edition: being checked. Our translations and notes: CC BY-SA 4.0; credit “Hearth Library, hearthinteractive.com” with a link.
Sources for the notes
- Sweet, Henry, ed. An Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse, with Grammar, Metre, Notes and Glossary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894. Text pp. 17–23; notes on Ohthere and Wulfstan, pp. 206–207; glossary entries cited in the footnotes. Internet Archive anglosaxonreader00swee.
- Sweet, Henry, ed. King Alfred’s Orosius, Part I, Old-English Text and Latin Original. Early English Text Society, Original Series 79. London: Trübner, 1883. Pages 17–19, Ohthere’s account, read in the OCR text to compare readings. Internet Archive kingalfredsorosi79oros.
- Bosworth, Joseph, ed. and trans. King Alfred’s Anglo-Saxon Version of the Compendious History of the World by Orosius. London: Longman, 1859. The notes on the Finns, Cwenland and the horse-whale (walrus) to Book I, chapter 1; the English translation of the first paragraphs. Internet Archive kingalfredsangl01boswgoog.