The
Late Mr Murray Placed Sciringes-Heal At Skanor, In The Southern Extremity
Of Sweden; But I Cannot Think That
This place could be five days sail from
Haethum in Jutland, as it is expressly declared to have been by
Ohthere.
Langebeck is for carrying Sciringes-heal to Konga-hella, on the Guatelf,
near Marstrand; and insists, that the name, in Alfred's account of the
voyage, ought to have been written Cyninges-heal instead of Sciringes-heal.
If the word had only once occurred, I might have allowed Langebeck to be
right; but we meet with it five times in the space of a few lines, and
always without the slightest variation in orthography. 2dly, The voyage
from Halgoland to Konga-hella is not of sufficient extent to have employed
a month in the passage. 3dly, Konga-hella is too near Jutland to have
required five days for the voyage between it and Haethum.
Having demonstrated the insufficiency of these conjectures, we shall now
endeavour to point out where Sciringes-heal was really situated. Paul
Warenfried, in his Historia Longobardorum, Lib. i, cap. 7. and 10. makes
mention of a district, named Scorunga, in which the Winili, or Lombards
resided, for some time before they removed to Mairinga and from thence,
farther on to Gotland, Anthabet, Bethaib, and Purgendaid. This Scorunga was
not far from Gotland, and consequently in Sweden; and seems to have been
the district in which Sciringes-heal was situated. Add to this, that
Ohthere, after having described Sueoland, or Sweden, as being to the
southwards of his habitation, immediately says, "there is a port in this
southern land which is called Sciringes-heal." By this, he seems plainly to
indicate, that this place certainly was in Sweden; and all this will
appear, still more evidently, if we carefully follow the course of the
voyage which he describes. First of all, he has Scotland, called Iraland,
evidently by mistake, and the Orkney and Shetland islands, which lie
between Scotland and Halgoland, on his right hand; and the continent is
continually on his left hand, all the way, until he arrive at Sciringes-
heal. But farther, a large bay stretches to the northward, deep into the
country, along the coast of which he had been continually sailing; and this
bay commences quite to the southward of Sciringes-heal, and is so broad
that a man cannot see across, and Gotland is directly opposite to this
bay[2]. But the sea, which extended from Zeeland to this spot, goes many
hundred miles up into the country to the eastwards.
From Sciringes-heal, Ohthere could sail in five days to Haethum, which lies
between the Wends Saxons and Angles. Now, by this voyage, we are enabled to
determine, with still greater exactness, the situation of this place which
we are searching for. In order to get to Haethum, he left Gotland on the
right[3], and soon afterwards Zeeland likewise, together with the other
islands which had been the habitation of the Angles before they went to
England, while those which belonged to Denmark were on his left for two
days. Sciringes-heal, therefore, is consequently in Sweden, at the entrance
of the Gulf of Bothnia, which runs up into the land northwards, just on
that spot where the Baltic, after having passed Zeeland, spreads into a
wide gulf, extending several hundred miles into the land. Just in this
place I find the Svia-Sciaeren, or Swedish Scares, a cluster of little
islands, surrounded by rocks. Heal, in the northern languages, signifies a
port, as in such places a ship might be kept in safety. Sciringes-heal,
therefore, was "the harbour of the Scares," and was probably at the
entrance of the gulf of Bothnia, and consequently where Stockholm now is;
and the tract of land where these Scares lay, towards the sea, was the
Scarunga of Paul Warenfried.
The port of Hasthum has occasioned much difficulty to the commentators, as
well as that of Sciringes-heal; but all have agreed that it must be
Sleswic, as this latter is called Haitha by Ethelwerd the Anglo-Saxon. A
Norwegian poet gives it the name of Heythabae, others call it Heydaboe, and
Adam of Bremen Heidaba; and this, in their opinion, is precisely the same
with Haethum. It appears to me, however, that the difference between the
words Haethaby and Hasthum, are by no means so inconsiderable. And I think
the situation of Sleswic does not at all accord with the descriptions which
are given of Haethum by Ohthere and Wulfstan. Indeed, if Sleswic be
Haethum, I must confess, that I cannot in the least comprehend the course
of the voyages of these ancient navigators. Ohthere tells us, that in
sailing from Sciringes-heal to Haethum, he had Denmark to the left, and the
open sea, for the space of three days, to the right; but that, for two days
before he reached Haethum, he had Gotland and Zeeland to the right, and the
islands which belong to Denmark to the left. If he had gone to Sleswic, he
must have found all the Danish islands on his right hand, and not one
besides Femeren on his left. This being considered, I ask how it is
possible, consistent with his own description of the voyage, that the
situation of Sleswic can be made to correspond with Haethum? As, in the
district of Aarhuus in Jutland, there is an extensive track of land called
Alheide, which is in fact a heath, I shall take the liberty to suppose,
that the town, in the ninth century, lay higher up towards Al-heide, or
All-heath; for the town of Aar-huus is new, and its name signifies in
English Oar-house. The old town, therefore, may have been called
Al-haethum, or Haethum; so, that if Ohthere set out from Stockholm for this
place, Gotland was on his right hand[4], and so was Zealand. And as he
sailed between Zealand and Funen, or Fyen, all the Danish islands were on
his left hand, and he had the wide sea, that is, the Schager-rack, and
Cattegat to the right.
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