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Maelstrom [geography][Norse]

Maelstrom*1 [E.]; Moskenstraumen [Norw.];
umbilicus maris "Navel of the Sea", vorago "abyss, whirlpool", vertigo "whirling around" (Paul the deacon 8c.) [L.]; vorago abyssi "whirlipool of the abyss" (Adam of Bremen 11c.) [L.];
caribdis, charibdes "Charybdis" (Olaus Magnus 1539); [L.], Malestrand (Hakluyt 1589 [1560]); [Du.], Malestrand (Mercator 1595); [Du.], *2 malstrøm (Debes 1673); [Dan.],
[* Usage not attested in Old Norse. OED gives etymology as Du. maelstom now maalstroom whirpool f. malen to ground, also to whirl round + stroom stream]

    The ocean whirlpool resulting from the sinking of the ⇒Grotti mill is likely to be a reference to the mælstrom off the coast of Norway in the Arctic Circle; also called the Moskenstraum.

"Hic est horrenda caribdis"
— from Olaus Magnus, Carta Marina (1539)
(Reprint:Uppsala 1986)

    Expositions on the maelstrom in the Arctic as recorded by medieval geographers is treated extensively by Viktor Rydberg, and the reader is refered to it for substantive discussion.
    Here I will maintain focus on the vocabulary for "whirlpool" used in the geographical treatises (usually in Latin), bearing in mind that no Latin cognate of "maelstrom" (e.g. molo + fluvium) is recorded in textual use before ca. 1600*1. And yet "maelstrom" is being used without compunction by the English translators of these Latin works.

*1 According to the OED, the earliest use of Mælstrom is in Dutch maps, e.g. Mercator's Atlas (1595). although the form Malestrand is found in Hakluyt's voyage (1589), but dating to ca. 1560 shortly after the voyager Anthony Jenkinson made the trip: Ch. 77 "..there is between the said Rost Islands and Lofoot, a whirle poole called Malestrand." The earliest instance of the Danish form malstrøm is in , Lucas Jacobsen Debes' Færoæ et Færoa reserata (1673) [Englished by John Stephen, 1676]; (Other forms: Sw. malström, Færoic mal(n)streymar)

*2 There is also the Topographia hibernica of Giraldus Cambrensis (1146-1220), and " his description of the northern whirlpool is cited by Mercator," (source: "The Mythic Geography of the Northern Polar Regions:Inventio fortunata and Buddhist Cosmology", Chet Van Duzer, pdf)

§ Paulus Diaconus (c.720-799?),

    Paul the deacon *1 in the 8th century wrote on Scandinavia, specifically about a region populated by peoples called the Scritobini (Scridefinni, Finns, Lapp) who chased the "animal not very unlike a stag" (the reindeer, acc. to Waitz). "And not far from this shore", he says, there is a deep whirpool (vorago [L.] or vertigo [L.]) known by the name "the navel of the sea" (umbilicus maris [L.]).


*1 Paulus Warnefridi [~Warnefridua] [Paulus Diaconus] (c.720-799?), Historia Langobardorum. Waitz, Georg, 1813-1886, ed. Pauli Historia langobardorum. In usum scholarum ex Monumentis Germaniae historicis recusa. (Hannoverae, impensis bibliopoli Hahniani, 1878.)
= History of the Langobards, Book 1, Chapter V-VI by Paul the Deacon, tr. Foulke, William Dudley, 1848-1935., (Philadelphia : Dept. of History, University of Pennsylvania ; New York : sold by Longmans, Green, 1907. [reprint 1974]) (xlii, 437 p.)

§ Adam von Bremen Gesta Hammaburgensis (ca. 1080)

    Adam of Bremen *1 (11th century) also provides an account he heard from Adalbert:

Adalbertus, in diebus antedecessoris sui quosdam nobiles de Fresia viros causa pervagandi maris in boream vela tetendisse , eo quod ab incolis eius populi dicitur ab ostio Wirrahae fluminis directo cursu in aquilonem nullam terram occurrere praeter infinitum occeanum.
:
[..relinquentes .. Daniam, .. Britanniam, pervenerunt ad Orchadas. cum Nordmanniam in dextris haberent. . Island collegerunt.]
[..Deo et sancto confessori Willehado suam commendantes viam ..]
:
..subito collapsi sunt in illam tenebrosam rigentis occeani caliginem, quae vix oculis penetrari valeret. Et ecce instabilis occeani euripus ad initia quaedam fontis sui archana recurrens, infelices nautas iam desperatos, immo de morte sola cogitantes, vehementissimo impetu traxit ad chaos [hanc dicunt esse voraginem abyssi -] illud profundum, in quo fama est omnes recursus maris, qui decrescere videntur, absorberi et denuo revomi, quod fluctuatio crescens dici solet..
Adabert told me, in the days of his predecessor, certain noble-men of Frisia sailed out to explore the outstreched seas in the north, and from their homeland on the mouth of the river the Wirrahe [the Weser] [they decided to] direct their course northwards, because the people were saying there occured no land past the endless ocean.
:
:
[They left Denmark, passed Britain, came to the Orkneys; passing Norway on the right, landed on Iceland.]
[They allowed God and St. Willehad to command their way.]
:
:
.. and were descended upon by a dark and numbing ocean fog, which the eyes could scarcely penetrate. And behold, the uncalm ocean channel had openings which were fountains reverting mysteriously into itself. The luckless mariners despaired, nay, thought only of death, as this most impetuous assault was dragging them towards chaos [that is to say, the whirlpool of the abyss] which was deep -- legend goes that everything in the sea reverted there, and it would seem to wind down, absorbing and regurgitating, as how its surging fluctuations has usually been told.
— tr. mine*2, 2a.

    The Frisians made it ashore by relying on oars, and come to a subterranean cave where men(giants) lurked. The Frisians plunder the treasures and tried to make a clean getaway, but the giants (Cyclops) came after them, and the giant dog in the posse ripped one of the mariners to pieces. The rest, however, made it back to the ship.
    "The sleeping giants" tale*3 is also told by Paul the Deacon in the chapter preceding his mention of the Finns and the whirpool.

*1 "Descriptio insularum aquilonis" in Adam von Bremen / Adam Bremensis (11th cent.), Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum.
*1a Book Four, History of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen tr. Tschan, Francis Joseph, 1881-1947. (New York : Columbia University Press, 1959, [revised 2002])(xlvi, 253 p.)
*1b Rydberg cites this book (Book 4) referring to it as De situ Daniæ and quotes a piece of it ("Et ecce instabilis..") in his Ch. 59
*2 Tschan's translation (Book Four, pp.220-221) is based on "codices of the A, C2 and B classes, and differs slightly with the Latin text found online. Tschan's text corresponding to the passage was found posted at [MapHist]
Archbishop Adalbert of blessed memory likewise told us that in the days of his predecessor certain noble men of Frisia spread sail to the north for the purpose of ranging through the sea, because the inhabitants claimed that by a direct course toward the north from the mouth of the Weser River one meets with no land but only that sea called the Libersee. . .

*2a cf. Viktor Rydberg, TM, Ch. 48, "Middle Age Sagas (cont). A Frisian Saga in Adam of Bremen".

*3 Also discussed at length by Rydberg.

§ Olaus Magnus (16th c.),

    Olaus Magnus (1490-1557), Archbishop of Uppsala, published the Carta Marina (1539) *1, which, as evident from its full title, is a pictorial map of the Scandinavia and the North Sea region, describing many wonderous things (esp. sea creatures).

    One of the marvels is the whirlpool he has drawn amidst the islands of "Rost", "Lofot", and "Vast", and labels "Hic est horrenda caribdis" "This is the horrible Charybdis." (You can confirm this for yourself on the magnifiable online map at U. Minn., Bell Lib.: it is under Section B)
Over on the legend (left bottom corner), the description given (for the item Section B - F") is "charibdes plures & horrende", suggesting that it is a sort of "Charybdis-plus", that is, a whirpool of greater might than the Sicilian Charybdis*2.


*1 Carta marina et descriptio septemtrionalivm terrarvm ac mirabilivm rervm in eis contentarvm / diligentissime elaborata anno D¯ni 1539 [‰p‘è]"A Marine map and Description of the Northern Lands and of their Marvels, most carefully drawn up at Venice in the year 1539" [Reprint: Uppsala universitetsbibliotek, 1986] zoomable map @ Bell Library, University of Minnesota

*1a The Northern Lights Route site carries pertinent articles in English (The maelstrom page, Olaus Magnus page.)

*2 Scylla and Charybdis are, in Greco-Roman myth, two female sea-monsters thought to cause whirlpools, and thus share something with the Fenja and Menja lore of the Norsemen.

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