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Updated: June 27, 2025
Ohthere may have obtained some of his wealth by whale-fishing. He says that "in his own country is the best whale- hunting; they are eight-and-forty ells long, and the largest fifty ells long;" of these he said "that he was one of six who killed sixty in two days;" meaning, no doubt, that his vessel was one of six. He relates only what he saw.
This species of the whale is much smaller than the other kind, being seldom more than seven ells in length; while the other species is often forty-eight ells long, and sometimes even fifty. In this country was the best whale-fishing that Ohthere had ever seen, the whales being so numerous, that he was one of six who killed threescore in three days .
Ohthere told his lord King Alfred, that lie lived to the north of all the Nordmen or Norwegians; and that he dwelt in that land to the northward, opposite to the west sea; and that all the land to the north of that sea is waste and uninhabited except in a few places, to which the Finans or Fins repair in winter for hunting and fowling, and for fishing in the summer.
Neither his account nor that of Ohthere contradicts the opinion then held, that Scandinavia was a large island, and the Gulf of Bothnia or Cwaener Sea flowed into the North Sea. Translated in 1807 by the Rev. James Ingram, M.A., Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford. Now will we describe the geography of Europe, so far, at least, as our knowledge of it extends.
These three additions to "Orosius" the Description of Europe, the two voyages of Ohthere, and the voyage of Wulfstan may be considered Alfred's own works. The Description is the king's own account of Europe in his time, and the only authentic record of the Germanic nations, written by a contemporary, so early as the ninth century.
II. Voyages of Ohthere to the White Sea and the Baltic, in the Ninth Century III. Remarks on the situation of Sciringes-heal and Haethum, by J. R. Forster IV. Voyage of Wulfstein in the Baltic, as related to King Alfred IV . Voyage of Sighelm to India, in the reign of Alfred, King of V. Travels of John Erigena to Athens, in the Ninth-Century
Though Forster has inserted these Surfe in his map, somewhere about the duchy of Magdeburg, he gives no explanation or illustration of them in his numerous and learned notes on our royal geographer. Already explained to be Finland on the White sea. This is the same nation with the Finnas or Laplanders, mentioned in the voyage of Ohthere, so named because using scriden, schreiten, or snowshoes.
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.
Vet. Islandic. ap. Langebeck, II. 31. Forster, Hist. of Voy. and Disc. in the North, p. 50. Voyages of Ohthere to the White Sea and the Baltic, in the Ninth Century.
He also added the accounts of the voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan, the former of whom got round the north of Scandinavia and explored the White Sea. Wulfstan's voyage also was of importance. Both these men told Alfred their stories, and he incorporated them in the History.
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