Ottar

Ottar ( Norwegian Ottar fra Hålogaland , Old English Ōhthere ) was a merchant from Hålogaland . In 890 he met King Alfred the Great of Wessex on one of his trips . At that time he had the Historiae adversum Paganos of Orosius translated into Old English . The problem arose here that Orosius began his work in the 5th century with a description of the known world, but did not describe Europe north of the Alps. Ottar's reports were included in the translation.

Introductory lines to Ottar's reports in Old English

Ottar presented himself to the king as a rich man who lived further north than all Northmen , according to the prevailing opinion in the southern area of Troms . He owned semi-wild reindeer , including six so-called decoy reindeer, extremely valuable tame animals among the Sami with which wild and semi-wild reindeer are attracted, twenty sheep and twenty pigs. His wealth consisted of the luxury goods fur and walrus tooth , which he actively looked out for on his travels, and had arisen from trading connections with the Sami. The listeners of his reports noticed that this so rich man had very little land in relation to his disposal, he only reported on a bit of field that he plowed with a horse.

Itinerary Ottars from Hålogaland

According to his description, Norðmanna land is a long narrow area by the sea. All populated parts of the country are on the coast. Further to the east is the Sami region (finnas) . The further north you go, the narrower the populated land becomes. In the southeast it is about 60 old English miles , about 90 km, deep, in the middle 30 miles, in the north in some places only up to 3 miles narrow before you get into the mountains.

The aforementioned finnas went hunting in winter and fished in summer and owed tribute to Ottar. The tribute, in turn, was based on social status. So the chief had to bring fifteen marten skins , five reindeer skins , one bear skin , ten hand-made bird feathers, a jacket made of bear or otter skin and two 60 ells long ropes made of walrus or seal skin .

He also reported on his expedition around the Kola peninsula into the White Sea, presumably as far as the area of ​​today's Arkhangelsk . There lived a people whom he called Bjarmer and whom he said spoke a language similar to the Sami.

At the southern end of Norway he described a trading town, here called Sciringesheal ( Skiringssal , later called Kaupang, in Vestfold ). It took Ottar a month to get there when the wind was good and he wasn't sailing at night. He always had the Norðvegen on port side .

Ottar's description is the first known written source in which the terms " Norway " (Norðweg) and " Denmark " (Denamearc) are used.

See also

• Wulfstan of Haithabu
• Bjarmaland

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Knut Helle: Grunntrekk i norsk historie . Universitetsforlaget Oslo, 1991, p. 20 (Norwegian).
2. ↑ "Swiþost he for ðyder, to-eacan þæs landes sceawunge. for þæm hors-hwælum. forðæm hie habbað swyþe æþele ban on hyra toþum. ”(Thorpe, p. 248) Ger .: In addition to (general) exploration of the country, he preferably drove the horse whales [= walruses] because of there [= Bjarmaland]. For they [the walruses] have very noble bones by their teeth.
3. ↑ "Ac hit is eall weste buton on feawum stowum sticcemælum wiciað finnas. on huntaðe on wintra. ⁊ [= and] on sumera on fiscoðe be þære sæ:. “(Thorpe, p. 248) German: Despite [the previously mentioned vastness of the country] it is quite desolate [and deserted], except for a few places - here and because [scattered] - [where] Finns [= Sami tribes] live hunting in winter and fishing in the sea in summer.
4. ↑ Knut Helle: Grunntrekk i norsk historie . Universitetsforlaget Oslo, 1991, p. 21 (Norwegian).
5. ^ B. Thorpe: The Life of Alfred the Great. Translated from the German of Dr. R. Pauli. To Which Is Appended Alfred's Anglo-Saxon Version of Orosius . Bell, 1900, p. 253 (English).

literature

Wikisource: The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan  - Sources and full texts (English)

• Knut Helle: Grunntrekk i norsk historie . Universitetsforlaget Oslo, 1991, p. 19-21 (Norwegian).
• B. Thorpe: The Life of Alfred the Great. Translated from the German of Dr. R. Pauli. To Which Is Appended Alfred's Anglo-Saxon Version of Orosius . Bell, 1900, p. 248–253 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search - parallel display in Old English and translation into modern English; the edition uses the (rune) characters of the Anglo-Saxon script for f, r, s, w and th as well as the Tironic Et .).
• Ohthere's First Voyage. Retrieved September 1, 2010 (English, excerpt from the original text with English translation). 
• Janet Bately, Anton Englert (Ed.): Ohthere's Voyages. A late 9th-century account of voyages along the coast of Norway and Denmark and its cultural context. Maritime culture of the North, Volume 1, Roskilde 2007, ISBN 978-87-85180-47-6 .