and on the east Zealand, which is famed for its remarkable richness
in the necessaries of life. This latter island, being by far the most
delightful of all the provinces of our country, is held to occupy the
heart of Denmark, being divided by equal distances from the extreme
frontier; on its eastern side the sea breaks through and cuts off
the western side of Skaane; and this sea commonly yields each year an
abundant haul to the nets of the fishers. Indeed, the whole sound is apt
to be so thronged with fish that any craft which strikes on them is with
difficulty got off by hard rowing, and the prize is captured no longer
by tackle, but by simple use of the hands.

Moreover, Halland and Bleking, shooting forth from the mass of the
Skaane like two branches from a parent trunk, are linked to Gothland and
to Norway, though with wide deviations of course, and with various
gaps consisting of fjords. Now in Bleking is to be seen a rock which
travellers can visit, dotted with letters in a strange character. For
there stretches from the southern sea into the desert of Vaarnsland a
road of rock, contained between two lines a little way apart and very
prolonged, between which is visible in the midst a level space, graven
all over with characters made to be read. And though this lies so
unevenly as sometimes to break through the tops of the hills, sometimes
to pass along the valley bottoms, yet it can be discerned to preserve
continuous traces of the characters. Now Waldemar, well-starred son of
holy Canute, marvelled at these, and desired to know their purport, and
sent men to go along the rock and gather with close search the series of
the characters that were to be seen there; they were then to denote them
with certain marks, using letters of similar shape. These men could not
gather any sort of interpretation of them, because owing to the hollow
space of the graving being partly smeared up with mud and partly worn by
the feet of travellers in the trampling of the road, the long line that
had been drawn became blurred. Hence it is plain that crevices, even in
the solid rock, if long drenched with wet, become choked either by the
solid washings of dirt or the moistening drip of showers.

But since this country, by its closeness of language as much as of
position, includes Sweden and Norway, I will record their divisions and
their climates also as I have those of Denmark. These territories, lying
under the northern pole, and fac