I asked Professor Konrad Nielsen what he thought about this, and whether he could imagine any Finnish-Ugrian origin of the word, or whether any similar word was known, for instance, in Samoyed. He considers that my assumption may "be quite well founded."[158] He has consulted Professor Setälä of Helsingfors about it, and the latter thinks that if the word was borrowed from Finnish into Russian, there is nothing to prevent its being connected with the Norse rosm(hvalr)--the latter would then, of course, be the primary form. Similar metatheses are found in other Norse loan-words in Finnish. Konrad Nielsen thinks that "the Lappish word is pretty certainly borrowed from Finnish, so that the idea of its Norse origin meets with no difficulty from that quarter." And as to the possible Russian origin of the word, he has spoken to the Slavic authority, Professor Mikkola, who informs him that in popular language the Russian word is only found in the most northern dialects, and there is no point of connection in other Slavic languages, so that he regards it as probable that it is not originally a Slavic word. No Finnish-Ugrian etymology for the word can, according to Konrad Nielsen, be put forward. "In Samoyed," he says, "the name for walrus is only known as far as Jura-Samoyed (the most western dialect of Samoyed) is concerned: 't'ewot'e,' 'tiut'ei.' I have compared this with the Lappish name for seal, 'dævok'--'davak'--'dævkka.' In this I see evidence that the Lapps (contrary to Wiklund's view) were acquainted with the Polar Sea and its animals before they came to Scandinavia." He also draws my attention to the fact that "the Finnish 'norsu' (in the older language also 'nursa'), 'elephant,' seems to be connected with 'mursu,' which is easily explained by the analogous use of walrus-tusks and elephant-tusks."
Professor Olaf Broch also considers my assumption probable, and has submitted the question of the etymology of the Russian "morsh" to Professor Berneker, who may doubtless be regarded as the first authority in questions of this kind. He replies that a "wild" etymologist might connect the word with a series of words in Slavic languages which express various movements; but the Russian word, being so definitely localised, must doubtless be derived from the North-Finnish linguistic region. Whether the Finnish "mursu," Lappish "moršša," "morša," can be referred to a metathesis of Old Norse rosmhvalr, Danish rosmer, etc., Professor Berneker is unable to determine. "But with loan-words all sorts of anomalies take place, and no rules can be laid down."