IV.

THULE = SCANDIA.

It has been seen that Pliny (Nat. Hist., iv. 16) apparently separates Norway from Thule; moreover, that Ptolemy (ii. 3) confirmed by Agatharcides and Stephanus Byzantinus (lib. i., in extremis), whilst pointing to North Britain and to Scandia, or Scandinavia, in his time held to be an island,[37] and little known to the civilised world, adds details which rather belong to Iceland. On the other hand, it is evident that during the later Roman empire, Thule was applied to Scandinavia.

Procopius, the Byzantine historian (nat. circ. A.D. 500), leaves no doubt upon this point. He devotes to it a considerable space (lib. ii., De Bello Gothico, c. 15), and his account will be little abridged. After relating how a party of Heruli, when conquered by the Longobardi, passed through the lands of the Slavini, the Varni (Οὐάρνοι, al. Harmi), and the Dani (Δάνοι, al. Dacæ), till they reached the ocean, he makes them take ship and settle at Thule:

“The island is ten times larger than Britain, and far to the north.[38] The greater part of it is desert. The inhabited region contains thirteen great peoples, each governed by its own king. A curious phenomenon is reported from that place: every year, about the summer solstice, the sun remains forty days above the horizon. Six months after this there is a night of forty days, a time of sorrow, when all intercourse and business are at an end. I (says Procopius) was greatly desirous of seeing this marvel for myself, but the opportunity was ever wanting. I therefore asked those who had been there how the sun rises and sets. They told me that for forty consecutive days, the sun lights the island; sometimes from the east, at other times from the west; but that when he returns to the same point where he appeared, a single day is counted. During the season of forty nights, time is measured by the moon. When thirty-five of these long and lasting nights have passed, some of the people ascend the highest mountains, and give warning to those below that after five days more they will see the sun. The Thulitæ rejoice over the good news, and celebrate in the dark a festival which in ceremony exceeds all their others. Although this happens every year, still it would appear the inhabitants apprehend a total desertion of the sun.

“Amongst the barbarian peoples of Thule, none are so savage as the Skithifini (Σκιθίφινοι, al. Scritifini). Like beasts,[39] they ignore clothes and shoes; they drink no wine, and they eat nothing which the earth grows. Both men and women, who will not take the trouble of cultivation, occupy themselves exclusively with hunting, and the forests and mountains supply them abundantly with game. They eat the flesh, and, being without flax and wool, they wear the skins, which they fasten with sinews, having no knowledge of sewing. Also, they do not bring up their offspring like other people. The children of the Thulitæ are fed upon the marrow of beasts, instead of being suckled by their mothers. When the woman has been delivered, she wraps her babe in a skin, secures it in another, places some brains in its mouth, and sets out with her man for the chase, in which both sexes equally excel. The Thulitæ adore several gods and demons, some of whom they believe to inhabit the sky, others the air; some are on the earth and in the sea, whilst others of the smaller kind, affect the rivers and springs. They often offer sacrifices and immolate all manner of victims, the most acceptable being the first man captured in war; he is sacrificed to Mars (Thor?), the most powerful of all their gods. On these occasions they do not simply slay the victim, they either hang him to a tree, or roll him over thorns, or put him to death in some other way, choosing the most cruel.

“Such are the customs of the _Thulitæ_, amongst whom are the Goths (Γαυτοί), a fecund people that gave land to the Herulian immigrants. The remnants of this race who lived amongst the Romans, after slaying their king, sent their chief worthies to the island of Thule, for the purpose of finding if any of the royal blood there remained. The deputies were successful, and chose out of many one who pleased them the most. But as he died on the way, they returned (to Thule) and brought with them one Todasius (Τοδάσιος, al. Datis); this man was accompanied by his brother named Aordus (Ἄορδς) and by two hundred youths of the island.”

This description of Thule is evidently great Scandinavia, not little Iceland. Hence Ortilius (Thesaurus sub voc.) D’Anville, who rejects Iceland; Farnaby, Schœnning (Von Nordich. Land in Neue Allg. Welt-Gesch, vol. xiii., p. 14, et seq.); Rudbeck, who understands Sweden; Murray (loc. cit.); Wedel (Alhandlung über die “Alt-Scandinavische Gesch.,” p. 32, et seq.); Schlözer (Allg. Nordisch. Gesch, pp. 14, 16), Parisot, and other geographers, have referred the descriptions of Procopius especially to the Norwegian canton still called “Tyle-mark,” or “Tile-mark.” Maltebrun (iii. 6) prefers Jutland, on the continent of Denmark, part of which, he hears, is still termed “Thy” or “Thy-land.” Calstron believed that all Scandinavia was meant. Celtes (Schardius, Basil ed., p. 59) makes Iceland “one of the isles of the ocean,” together with Scandia, Dania, Suecia, etc. Adelung (Mithridates) supports the claims of Norway. Others go as far as Lapland, and even Greenland has not been without claimants to the honour. Yet in the sixth century, Jornandes (De Origine Actuque Getarum Liber, p. 393, Basle edition of 1531), after mentioning the thirty-four Orcades, says, “Habet et in ultimo plagæ occidentalis aliam insulam nomine Thyle, de quâ Mantuanus, Italia, ‘tibi serviat ultima Thyle,’” and he carefully distinguishes it from the “ampla insula nomine Scanzia.”[40]