and, that part of the Norwegian coast
which lies between 65 deg. and 66 deg. N.L. Othere, who appears to have
travelled far and wide, came in one of his excursions to the court of
the famous English king, Alfred the Great. In presence of this king he
gave, in a simple, graphic style, a sketch of a voyage which he had
undertaken from his home in Norway towards the north and east. The
narrative has been preserved by its having been incorporated, along with
an account of the travels of another Norseman, Wulfstan, to the southern
part of the Baltic, in the first chapter of Alfred's Anglo-Saxon
reproduction of the history of PAULUS OROSIUS: _De Miseria Mundi_.[22]
This work has since been the subject of translation and exposition by a
great number of learned men, among whom may be named here the
Scandinavians, H.G. PORTHAN of Abo, RASMUS RASK and C-CHR. RAFN of
Copenhagen.

Regarding Othere's relations to King Alfred statements differ. Some
inquirers suppose that he was only on a visit at the court of the
king, others that he had been sent out by King Alfred on voyages of
discovery, and finally, others say that he was a prisoner of war,
who incidentally narrated his experience of foreign lands. Othere's
account of his travels runs as follows:--

"Othere told his lord, King Alfred, that he dwelt
northmost of all the Northmen. He said that he dwelt in
the land to the northward, along the West-Sea; he said,
however, that that land is very long north from thence,
but it is all waste, except in a few places where the Fins
at times dwell, hunting in the winter, and in the summer
fishing in that sea. He said that he was desirous to try,
once on a time, how far that country extended due north,
or whether any one lived to the north of the waste. He
then went due north along the country, leaving all the way
the waste land on the right, and the wide sea on the left.
After three days he was as far north as the whale-hunters
go at the farthest. Then he proceeded in his course due
north, as far as he could sail within another three days;
then the land there inclined due east, or the sea into the
land, he knew not which; but he knew that he waited there
for a west wind or a little north, and sailed thence
eastward along that land as far as he could sail in four
days. Then he had to wait for a due north wind because the
land inclined there due south, or the