The reproductions (pp. 248 and 251) will give an idea of the representation of the North on the two maps. As far as Ptolemy's map extended (cf. vol. i. pp. 118, f.), it will be seen that its coast-lines and islands are almost slavishly adhered to on both maps. To this the Nancy map adds a Scandinavia, with Iceland, the east coast of Greenland, and a northern land connection between the latter and Russia. On the later map Scandinavia has been given a somewhat altered form, and Greenland has a west coast. The Nancy map has few names, many more being mentioned in the text, especially in Denmark. Even as regards Denmark they are evidently to a great extent taken from an older itinerary like that of Bruges ["Itinéraire Brugeois," cf. Storm, 1891, p. 19]. Some of the names on the map, like "bergis," "nidrosia," etc., may be taken from older compass-charts; both texts have the northern form "Bergen." Headlands, bays and islands (on the coasts of Norway, Iceland and Greenland), for which he had no names (and which moreover are due to the free imagination of the draughtsman), have been designated in the Nancy text by Latin numerals ("Primum," "Secundum," etc.), or are simply named after each other (in Iceland), a sure sign that Clavus neither knew nor had heard anything about these coasts.
[Illustration: Copy, of about 1467, of Claudius Clavus's later map. The copy was executed by Nicolaus Germanus. Owing to the map being transferred to the latter's trapezoidal projection, with converging meridians, Greenland, for instance, has been given a very oblique appearance]
[Sidenote: Mystification in Clavus's geographical names]
On his later map Clavus has made up for the want of names in an astonishing way. On some of the coasts he has continued to use Latin numerals for bays, etc., but side by side with this on the shores of the Baltic and in Sweden he has used Danish numerals, such as, "Förste aa fluuii ostia" (First river, river-mouth), "Anden aa" (Second river) ..., etc. The southerners, who did not understand Danish, of course regarded these as names, and subjected them to all sorts of corruptions. Matters became worse when in Gotland and Norway he used as the names of headlands and rivers the words of a meaningless rigmarole: "Enarene," "apocane," "uithu," "wultu," "segh," "sarlecrogh," etc. (evidently corresponding to children's rigmaroles like "Anniken, fanniken, fiken, foken," etc.)[245] In Iceland he used the names of the runic characters for headlands and rivers; but most remarkable of all are his names in Greenland, alternately for headlands and the mouths of rivers(!). If, as shown by Björnbo and Petersen, these are read continuously from the most northern headland on the east coast round the south of the country, the following verse in the dialect of Funen is the result:
