Paul
Warenfried, In His Historia Longobardorum, Lib.
I, cap.
7. and 10. makes
mention of a district, named Scorunga, in which the Winili, or Lombards
resided, for some time before they removed to Mairinga and from thence,
farther on to Gotland, Anthabet, Bethaib, and Purgendaid. This Scorunga was
not far from Gotland, and consequently in Sweden; and seems to have been
the district in which Sciringes-heal was situated. Add to this, that
Ohthere, after having described Sueoland, or Sweden, as being to the
southwards of his habitation, immediately says, "there is a port in this
southern land which is called Sciringes-heal." By this, he seems plainly to
indicate, that this place certainly was in Sweden; and all this will
appear, still more evidently, if we carefully follow the course of the
voyage which he describes. First of all, he has Scotland, called Iraland,
evidently by mistake, and the Orkney and Shetland islands, which lie
between Scotland and Halgoland, on his right hand; and the continent is
continually on his left hand, all the way, until he arrive at Sciringes-
heal. But farther, a large bay stretches to the northward, deep into the
country, along the coast of which he had been continually sailing; and this
bay commences quite to the southward of Sciringes-heal, and is so broad
that a man cannot see across, and Gotland is directly opposite to this
bay[2]. But the sea, which extended from Zeeland to this spot, goes many
hundred miles up into the country to the eastwards.
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. In order to get to Haethum, he left Gotland on the
right[3], and soon afterwards Zeeland likewise, together with the other
islands which had been the habitation of the Angles before they went to
England, while those which belonged to Denmark were on his left for two
days. Sciringes-heal, therefore, is consequently in Sweden, at the entrance
of the Gulf of Bothnia, which runs up into the land northwards, just on
that spot where the Baltic, after having passed Zeeland, spreads into a
wide gulf, extending several hundred miles into the land. Just in this
place I find the Svia-Sciaeren, or Swedish Scares, a cluster of little
islands, surrounded by rocks. Heal, in the northern languages, signifies a
port, as in such places a ship might be kept in safety. Sciringes-heal,
therefore, was "the harbour of the Scares," and was probably at the
entrance of the gulf of Bothnia, and consequently where Stockholm now is;
and the tract of land where these Scares lay, towards the sea, was the
Scarunga of Paul Warenfried.
The port of Hasthum has occasioned much difficulty to the commentators, as
well as that of Sciringes-heal; but all have agreed that it must be
Sleswic, as this latter is called Haitha by Ethelwerd the Anglo-Saxon.
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