AtD, 128: "Adam of Bremen in the HISTORIA HAMMABURGENSIS ECCLESIAE" ...

[Dave Monroe]

On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 4:51 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen
<lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>
> ... has the "earliest mention of VINLAND"!
>
> http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Adam_of_Bremen

Adamus
Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum

http://hbar.phys.msu.ru/gorm/chrons/bremen.htm

Adamus Bremensis - Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum [1068-1081]

http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/04z/z_1068-1081__Adamus_Bremensis__Gesta_Hammaburgensis_Ecclesiae_Pontificum__LT.doc.html

Page 128 [AtD]

So relates Adam of Bremen in the Historia Hammaburgensis Ecclesiæ
The references to Adam of Bremen and Harald the Ruthless may be
"softer" than many appropriations of history in AtD. Or another way to
characterize them may be "bolder." Adam (d. ca. 1085) was a learned
churchman who wrote a history called Gesta hammaburgensis ecclesiae
pontificum (Acts of the Archbishops of the Hamburg Church) or Historia
ecclesiastica (Church History). In the fourth book, Descriptio
insularum aquilonum (Description of the Islands of the North), Adam
writes about the expedition mentioned in the text and another voyage
to the northern seas.

The indented paragraphs below are based on History of the Archbishops
of Hamburg-Bremen, translated by F.J. Tschan from the Historia and
published in 1959 by Columbia University Press. Extracts are
paraphrased except where identified by quotation marks.

    From Book IV, chapter xxxix (pp. 219-220 in Tschan): Past [i.e.,
north of?] Vinland there is no habitable land in the ocean, only
impassable ice and darkness. Frozen sea is encountered one day's sail
to the north. The Norwegian prince Harald took several ships to
explore the northern realm. Finally they saw the murky boundaries of
"a failing world." Harald turned around and did not fall into the
bottomless pit.

    From the next chapters, IV, xl-xli (220-221 in Tschan): A number
of ships sailed from the coast of Frisia, landing in Iceland and then
proceeding northward. Reaching the limits of the known islands, they
commended their fate to God and St. Willehad and continued into an
all-obscuring mist. They were picked up by a current of the
"fluctuating" ocean and whirled around a great chasm that sucks in the
sea and then vomits it forth again. Some ships were lost but others
saved themselves by rowing against the flow. The voyagers came to an
island encircled by high cliffs where men lived in underground caves.
They collected great treasure of gold and silver that lay in front of
the caves, then were chased from the island by giants with enormous
hounds. A safe return to Bremen ended the exploration.

What the mariners reported is some medium-scale phenomenon, big enough
to seize a ship. It might be a tidal or current vortex. In a footnote
to chapter xl, the translator says there is a big whirlpool (the Eis)
off the east coast of Greenland. The original Maelstrom (look further
down this page) is a zone of current shears and eddies off the west
coast of Norway. We might also suspect a violent tidal rush, as in the
Bay of Fundy. There are enough candidates out there to promote Adam's
version from fabulous to plausible, at any rate.

The key point, however, is that Ginnungagap and Harald's epiphany
about desire are not related by Adam but read/written into his
account.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_119-148#Page_128

Also some good stuff on Adam of Bremen:

"ADAM OF BREMEN, historian and geographer, was probably born in Upper Saxony
(at Meissen, according to one tradition) before 1045. ........the Historia
Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae, which he finished about 1075.  ...Here occurs the
earliest mention of Vinland, ... and to Finland, Thule or Iceland, Greenland
and the Polar seas which Harald Hardrada and the nobles of Frisia had
attempted to explore in Adam's own day (before 1066). "

Notice that Vin[e]land?

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0703&msg=116581