Adam's work has thus become one of the most important sources of the oldest history of the North. It would carry us too far here to go into this side of it, and we shall confine ourselves for the most part to his geographical and ethnographical statements.
He describes Jutland, the Danish islands, and other countries and peoples on the Baltic. This too he calls [iv. 10] the Baltic Sea, "because it extends in the form of a belt ('baltei')[180] along through the Scythian regions as far as 'Grecia' [here == Russia]. It is also called the Barbarian or Scythian Sea." He quotes Einhard's description of the Baltic, and regards it as a gulf ("sinus"), which, in the direction of west to east, issues from the Western Ocean. The length of the gulf [eastwards] was according to Einhard unknown. This, he says,
"has recently been confirmed by the efforts of two brave men, namely Ganuz [also Ganund] Wolf, Earl (satrapæ) of the Danes, and Harald [Hardråde], King of the Norwegians, who, in order to explore the extent of this sea, made a long and toilsome voyage, perilous to those who accompanied them, from which they returned at length without having accomplished their object, and with double loss on account of storms and pirates. Nevertheless the Danes assert that the length of this sea (ponti) has frequently been explored and by many different travellers, and even that there are men who have sailed with a favourable wind from Denmark to Ostrogard in Ruzzia."
It therefore looks as if Adam had understood that Scandinavia was connected with the continent, which also appears from his words [iv. 15]:
"Those who are acquainted with these regions also declare that some have reached as far as Græcia [i.e., Russia] by land from Sueonia [Sweden]. But the barbarous people, who live in the intervening parts, are a hindrance to this journey, wherefore they rather attempt this dangerous route by sea."
[Illustration: Adam of Bremen's geographical idea of the countries and islands of the North, as represented by A. A. Björnbo (1910)]
But he nevertheless speaks of the countries of the North as islands, and he seems to draw no sharp distinction between island and peninsula. Kurland and Esthonia he seems to regard as true islands.