Wulfstan of Haithabu

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Wulfstan , also called Wulfstan von Haithabu , (* before 880) was an Anglo-Saxon traveler and trader in the late 9th century. His travelogues, along with those of another traveler, Ottar , are preserved in Alfred the Great's translation of Paulus Orosius ' Historiae .

According to this report, Wulfstan undertook a sea voyage through the Danish straits to "Haedum" ( Haithabu ) around the year 880 and further along the southern Baltic coast to the Truso trading post .

Truso owned a port on the Ilfing , which was near Elbing, which was founded about 350 years later in what was later to be East Prussia and what is now Poland , near Danzig .

On his journey Wulfstan met many people, including Danes, and he is considered the first to write the word "Denmark".

A book of Barrington's translation from Anglo-Saxon to English contained a map with descriptions of the peoples Wulfstan named. This map, created by the researcher and traveler Johann Reinhold Forster , was issued by Barrington as his work after Forster left England. In 1784 Forster published his book History of the Discoveries and Shipping in the North , in which he a. a. describes his translations, research and his original map.

literature

  • Niels Lund and others: Ottar og Wulfstan. To rejsebeskrivelser fra vikingetiden. Roskilde 1983.
  • Karl Baumann: The Prussians. A friendly people between the Vistula and Memel. Rautenberg, Leer 1991, ISBN 3-7921-0480-6 .
  • Anton Englert, Athena Trakadas (ed.): Wulfstan's Voyage. The Baltic Sea region in the early Viking Age as seen from shipboard. Maritime Culture of the North, Volume 2, Roskilde 2009, ISBN 978-87-85180-56-8 .