Old English Poems: Translated into the Original Meter Together with Short Selections from Old English Prose
General
Old English Poems: Translated into the Original Meter Together with Short Selections from Old English Prose
English poetry -- Old English, ca. 450-1100 -- Modernized versions
Ohthere said that the place was called Halgoland, in _95_ which he dwelt.
He said that no man lived north of him. There is one port in the southern
part of the land which is called Sciringesheal. Thither he said that one
might not sail in one month, if he encamped by night and had good wind
all day; and all the while he should sail _100_ close to land. And on the
starboard he has first Ireland, and then the island that is between
Ireland and this land. Then he has this land till he comes to
Sciringesheal, and all the way he has Norway on the larboard. To the
south of Sciringesheal the sea comes far up into _105_ the land; the sea
is so broad that no man may see across. And Jutland is in the opposite
direction, and after that is Zealand. The sea runs many hundred miles up
in on that land.
And from Sciringesheal he said that he sailed in five _110_ days to that
port that is called Haddeby; it lies between the country of the Wends and
the Saxons and the Angles, and belongs to the Danes. When he sailed away
from Sciringesheal for three days, he had Denmark on the larboard and the
wide sea on his starboard; and then, _115_ two days before he reached
Haddeby, he had Jutland on his starboard and also Zealand and many
islands. In that land had dwelt the English before they came hither to
this land. And then for two days he had on his larboard the islands which
belong to Denmark.
100. _Ireland_: Iceland is probably meant.
Wulfstan's Voyage
_120_ Wulfstan said that he set out from Haddeby, and that he arrived
after seven days and nights at Truso, the ship being all the way under
full sail. He had Wendland (Mecklenburg and Pomerania) on the starboard,
and Langland, Laaland, Falster, and Sconey on _125_ the larboard; and all
these lands belong to Denmark. And then we had on our larboard the land
of the Burgundians (Bornholmians), and they have their own king. Beyond
the land of the Burgundians we had on our left those lands that were
first called Blekinge, and _130_ Meore, and Oland, and Gothland; these
lands belong to the Swedes. To the starboard we had all the way the
country of the Wends, as far as the mouth of the Vistula. The Vistula is
a very large river, and it separates Witland from Wendland; and Witland
belongs to the _135_ Esthonians. The Vistula flows out of Wendland, and
runs into the Frische Haff. The Frische Haff is about fifteen miles
broad. Then the Elbing empties into the Frische Haff, flowing from the
east out of the lake on the shore of which Truso stands; and there they
empty _140_ together into the Frische Haff, the Elbing from the east,
which flows out of Esthonia, and the Vistula from the south, out of
Wendland. The Vistula then gives its name to the Elbing, and runs out of
the mere west and north into the sea; hence it is called the mouth of the
_145_ Vistula.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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