When he sailed to this place from
Sciringes-heal, Dene, or Denmark, was on his left, and on his right was a
wide sea for three days; as were also on his right, two days before he came
to Haethum, Gotland, Sillende, and many other islands, which were inhabited
by the Angles before they came to Britain; and during these two days, the
islands belonging to Denmark were on his left hand.
[1] Anglo-Saxon Version of Orosius, by Alfred the Great, translated by
Daines Barrington, p. 9. - Langebeck, Script. Dan. II. 106-118. -
Forster, Voy. and Disc. in the North, p. 53.
[2] Ohthere here calls the inhabitants of the desert Fins, and it would
appear that the Laplanders are actually Fins, or Finlanders; the name
of Laps or Laplanders being of modern origin, and the Danes and
Norwegians still call this country Finmark. - Forst
[3] In former translations of Alfred, this passage is rendered as follows:
"He was within three days sail of being as far north as the
whale-hunters ever go." This expression is vague and ambiguous, and
rather means that the residence from whence he set out was within
three days sail, &c.; whereas the next member of the same sentence
distinctly indicates a preceding three days sail, as in the adopted
translation.