Ohthere from Hålogaland

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Ohthere from Hålogaland (Norwegian: Ottar fra Hålogaland) was a Viking adventurer from Hålogaland. Around 890 he traveled to England, and Alfred the Great had his tales written down.

Ohthere told that he lived farthest to the north of all the Norwegians. He told about his travels to the Bjarmaland (White Sea), and south to England, accurately describing the entire Norwegian coast. He told about the Sámi and the Swedes; and possibly also the Finns - but in that age the term Finn referred to both the Sámi and the people today known as Finns. Ohthere also talks about a mysterious people called Bjarms that spoke a language related to that of the "Finns" and lived in the eastern White Sea region. This has been seen by some as a reference to Old Permic culture.

Ohthere's story is the earliest known written source using the term Norwegians (Norðmonna, genitive).

Ohthere lived in Troms, probably somewhere just north of Harstad, maybe on Senja (today's Lenvik is seen as most probable) or slightly further north (Kvaløya or Karlsøy). According to Ohthere, his residence was the northest of all Norwegians, and only Sami people lived further north.

References

• Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Reader (Many editions from the Clarendon Press) contains an excerpt of Alfred's account of Ottar's travels.
• Ohthere's story in Old English Orosius Original text and its English translation.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Wednesday February 20, 2008 at 05:08:34 PST (GMT -0800)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation