33

This text was originally that of a key-note speech for a seminar in Malta in2009 on the archaeology and ethnography of the Mediterranean and theRed Sea. The purpose was also to bring the Northern Europe perspectiveinto the sphere of this intellectual interaction.

Key words: ethnography; fishermen; mariners; taboo; Scandinavia; maritimefolklore; Odysseus; Sindbad the Sailor; ritual landscape; magic and ritual atsea.

IntroductionWhy were the stories of Odysseus in the Odyssey of Homer (approximately8th century B.C.) and Sindbad the Sailor in the Arabian Nights (undated,but certainly medieval in a European sense) interesting to listeners and re-aders? Why were Marco Polo’s related memoirs interesting? And why wasthe latter not believed? Perhaps unbelief, or a vibrant fringe of disbelief, waspart of the game? On reflection, answers to these questions reveal a verysimple but very important human attitude to the sea and the ocean seenfrom the land. It is so self-evident that we may have forgotten to apply it atall in our efforts to understand cognition in the past, its metaphors, sym-bols and feelings. Perhaps this is the fundamental reason that sailors’ andskippers’ stories are or have been so popular in all contexts. They tell usabout something that we do not know and, even better to the story-teller,something uncontrollable. If land is cosmos, ordered, the sea or the ocean ischaos, unordered. The sea is uncontrollable, as should be the stories toldabout it.

Thus there appears to be a dichotomy, a dualism or an opposition bet-ween sea and land. As I see it, this is shown in a number of ways in the fol-

Christer Westerdahl

Odysseus and Sindbad as metaphors: On some cross-disciplinary approaches to the lore of the seas

klore and the archaeology of the seas and their shores. The views expressedhere indicate that this dichotomy is more or less universal. I believe thatmost maritime story-tellers were conscious of the nature of magic and ritualat sea, and they would remind us of it in some subtle way that may not yethave been observed. I will look at one such case, in connection with theOdyssey. Perhaps this hypothesis may appear far-fetched, but it certainly hassome contextual support.

I have interviewed literally thousands of fishermen and other sea-farers indifferent parts of Scandinavia in order to find all kinds of archaeological re-mains, underwater or on shores. My approach was thus materialist andfunctionalist-based from the beginning, and this is where the concept ofthe maritime cultural landscape was born. In recent years the urge to widenthe perspective led me to think of an important immaterial aspect, that ofthe cognitive and ritual landscape.1

The recent ritual landscape of northern seasAccording to these observations, there had been a “cosmologically” basedopposition between sea and land in the past in most of Northern Europe.Only traces and fragments of it lingered on as I found when examining oraltraditions and attitudes to the sea in the 1970´s. But in my opinion a dualworld of this kind could very well have developed in the Mesolithic period.2

The basic criteria are as follows: most of the significant elements of landmust not be mentioned at sea with the same word or term as those used onland. Thus, their land versions, i.e. the normal ones, were strictly taboo.This concerned in particular females of any kind, land animals and certainbirds. Instead, another word, term or name should be used, a so-called noa-word or noa-name. While taboo derives from the Tonga islands the noa-concept is taken from Maori but the meaning of it is also known in otherlinguistic forms by way of anthropological studies from all over Polynesia.These noa occurrences could sometimes develop into metaphors, the coun-terparts of which were known as kennings in Old Norse poetry.3 For exam-ple, in everyday parlance at least during the 19th century in Norway thewind could still be called han beinlaus (the boneless one). The replacementof terms was so widespread that a specific sjömål (sea-language) appeared,4

that also included certain syntactic additions, such as reversals (antithetic

34

1 Westerdahl 2011, 2012a, 2012b, in print; on a specific ritual landscape first in Westerdahl 2002. 2 Westerdahl 2005, 2006a, 2006b, 2010a. 3 Fenton 1969. 4 In Shetland they would be called háfwords or luckywords: Jakobsen 1921, Lockwood 1955.

35

constructions). This “cosmology” was wide-ranging and the taboo couldconcern all senses. The colour representing land, i.e. black, was forbiddenat sea, hence priests in black robes were also taboo onboard vessels. It couldbe dangerous even to look at or rather to fix one´s gaze on a forbidden phe-nomenon of this kind, and although this sounds extreme, I have myself re-corded this feature in recent times at Lake Vänern, in southwest Sweden,and interestingly, in relation to the most important landmark, the hill Kin-nekulle.5

A more systematic list gives us a good guide to the wide categories of ta-boos.6 Above all, it was taboo to name or to take onboard females as well aschildren, the tools of the croft or small farm, and its products, such as but-ter. The boathouse was also taboo. Other examples included any kind ofland-living mammal, domesticated animals such as horse, cow, sheep, goat,pig, dog and not least any kind of clawed animal, like cats and wolves. Thisincluded wild animals such as bear, fox, hare, rabbit, otter, mouse and ratas well as the names of birds, not least those of birds of prey and carrion ea-ters – the cormorant, eagle, raven, crow (the latter two in particular, presu-mably because of their colour). The sophistication of these “prejudices”could be immense. For example it would be rather unwise to take onboardthe sea or the wind, so all normal names used for the sea or for the windsor for gales were also taboo onboard ship. The church and any name of di-vine association, like that of the devil, were also taboo, as were the namesof the authorities, the bailiff, the county sheriff and their secretaries. Thelast-mentioned could be called “wolves”, indicating that they were “wolveswalking on two legs”, a clear indication of a class-based social criticism ofland conditions.

The most important theory concerning the application of this kind of be-lief system was presented by the anthropologists Malinowski and RadcliffeBrown.7 This explanatory theory is known as the anxiety-ritual theory. Ac-cording to them there is a clear context of rituals in the feelings of the ma-riners towards their environment. The rituals on the dangerous open seawere much more intense than the inshore rituals in less dramatic surroun-dings. This is of course understandable – danger and insecurity lie at thecore:

5 Westerdahl 2003: 75, cf. generally on the lake also 2010b.6 On all kinds of fishing taboos: Solheim 1940. On maritime place names implying animals (ox, boar, hound):

Hovda 1941.7 Homans 1941.

“An interesting and crucial text is provided by fishing in the Trobriand Islands and its

magic. While in the villages on the inner Lagoon fishing is done in an easy and abso-

lutely reliable manner by the method of poisoning, yielding abundant results without

danger and uncertainty, there are on the shores of the open sea dangerous modes of

fishing and also certain types in which the yield varies greatly according to whether

shoals of fish appear or not. It is most significant that in the Lagoon fishing, where man

can rely completely upon his knowledge and skill, magic does not exist, while in the

open sea fishing, full of danger and uncertainty, there is extensive magical ritual to

secure safety and good results.”8

Functionalists like Malinowski and Radcliffe Brown were only interestedin the present where all cultural features have a function and, accordingly,taken to extremes, if you remove one (important) feature, the whole struc-ture may collapse. Svale Solheim, the Norwegian folklorist, who in 1940had contributed most to our knowledge of naming “prejudice” in the Norse(Scandinavian) world, outlined the same kind of explanation in his works.9

According to him the reason for the taboos on mentioning certain placenames were “purely practical considerations, according to the role that thesedifferent localities played for fishing and transport.”10 This is the functio-nalist view. Many have pursued this later in different guises.11 Very little re-flections on the historical “deep” dimension entered this picture of culture,which was natural at the time of its introduction as a reaction against someof the preceding excesses of historicism. In this case one could ask: wouldthe dangers have been felt less in the past, especially in the distant past? Itappears likely this was not the case, rather the opposite.

Although the dualism between sea and land generally concerns anythingthat exists, or is said or used on land, there are particular categories whichare more dangerous than others. These seem to have been thought of as in-carnations of land. Some categories are based on gender, but they appear rat-her flexible as to what represents what. To some extent their power couldbe measured by the relative numbers of different noa names applied.12 Thesecategories include the horse and a couple of larger land animals, either do-mesticated (boar, ox, dog) or wild (bear, wolf, stag, and possibly elk in the

36

8 Malinowski in Science, Religion and Reality p. 32, according to Homans 1941.9 Solheim 1940: 176, cf. p. 58.10 Solheim 1940: 173, translation by this author.11 E.g. Poogie and Gersuny 1972, Poogie, Pollnac and Gersuny 1976, Mullen 1978. Cf. also Clark 1982,

Poushinsky & Poushinsky 1973, Lummis 1983 , Martin 1981. 12 This varied greatly, partly according to the current land economy. In the Faroes there were at least 18 noa-

words or words only used at sea for a horse, the same for a pig (rather the boar), and 11 for sheep (rather the ram) (Lockwood 1955).

37

past). I believe that this could be an important hint when making assump-tions about corresponding categories in prehistory, e.g. the motives of rockcarvings 7000 BC-200 AD.

Wise words on the social and religious significance of animals to thehuman world were pronounced by Stanley Walens:13

“Wherever they appear, animal symbols are used to convey the deepest and most

abstruse dimensions of human existence. They are symbols of core values and cate-

gories, representations of the most fundamental ideas and images of a culture. As core

symbols, they are multivalent, complex, antinomic, used simultaneously to capture and

display many different images and meanings at many different levels. As core symbols,

they also serve to link other domains of symbolic discourse, creating juxtapositions and

contrasts of images from which people derive meaning and from which they generate

narrative forms. The natural realm of animals is an important part of the way in which

people project their knowledge and experience through symbolic discourse.”

An adult fisherman in the Norse world was supposed to remember taboonames of places or sites at sea and this remembrance has a very specific sig-nificance. These names were what are often called mnemotechnic pegs.14

These localities were and are still dangerous in some way or other. If thename was used by mistake in spite of the taboo, one had to be taken backand say or do something to avert the evil. The taboo acquires particularpower during the passage through an area where the taboos are valid, i.e. onboard the boat at sea. The boat deck thus becomes a liminal space, imme-diately on leaving the land. But even the transitory path to the boat fromland is an ambiguous passage, where all kinds of unlucky things can hap-pen. Thus, the entire borderland between sea and land appears to be a li-minal zone in the cosmological sense.

In historical times these taboo words, terms and the denoted persons,animals etc. could be used as what I have called liminal agents. They weretaboo, and accordingly dangerous. On the other hand they could appa-rently be used at sea with advantage, although only with strong reservations.However, the actions taken should always be intentional, not mistakes. Toensure this, a ritual behaviour was applied. A young novice fisherman wastaught conventions the hard way. This was part of the socialization process,to get admission to the group. He was accordingly tricked by his more ex-perienced elders into breaking the taboo. Normally this breach consisted13 Walens 1987. 14 Cf. Dundes 1961.

of saying the wrong name of a site. Immediately, danger had to be wardedoff, by different means, including saying something apotropaeic, like ‘cross’,‘cold iron’ etc. But more importantly, the novice had to pay or offer so-

38

Figure 1: Sketch by the author of the liminal relationship between sea and land, as studied in

Northern Europe. The opposites of each element work as strong magic on the other side. The

liminal zone is firstly the beach and, secondly, the area where you can still see the waters.

39

mething, such as a dram to his elders, at least in later days. This ceremonycould also end in a kind of sacrifice to the sea. Accordingly this is a cere-mony of initiation.

The main difference between these sites and those of sailors’ baptism des-cribed below is that they occur at localities directly situated on the sea rou-tes and sailing corridors: “We have here a certain guiding rule to chart theancient fairways along our coast”.15 The routes which were later used offi-cially for steamships ran in other waters and do not, according to Solheim,contain the same kind of references.

In a society where oral and tactile transfer of knowledge was the rule, thesites marked by taboos and their names functioned as cognitive or imma-terial sea marks. I have suggested that this idea worked even in prehistory.It appears to me to be the reasonable explanation for the location of suchsignificant ritual monuments at the shores, rock carvings during the Stoneand Bronze Ages, burial cairns during the Bronze and Iron Ages and stonemazes during medieval and early modern times. Among the dominant fi-gurative motives of rock carvings from the Stone Age and Bronze Age wefind the great land animals – elks and horses – and sea-related phenomenasuch as ships, halibuts and whales, the great sea mammals. If we want toapply this tendency to the recent past, an example can be found amongsites of a striking number of names alluding to horses, in my opinion re-minding us of the liminal character of this land animal.16

The fundamental function of these would be the reinforcement of magic.By way of these land-related pictures people may have been working strongmagic at sea, corresponding to sea-related pictures working strong magicon land. Thus when these figures metaphorically cross the border, if only bybeing named or depicted, they are transformed to liminal agents. I assumethat they were considered extremely dangerous, but with an intentional act,a ritual, they could be rendered helpful and advantageous. See Fig. 1.

15 Solheim 1940: 165. 16 However, many of these Hest/en names in Norway have been interpreted by linguists as a corruption ofNorse, Haest(en),’the highest’. This is reasonable if you can make accurate comparisons between some of themountains serving as landmarks in transit lines, although why the corruption has been directed precisely to-wards the concept of the horse in the first place has not been explained. The same function is apparent, in myopinion, in other places, where Hest/en is replaced by different and sometimes older designations for horses,i.e. (h)ross. There are also quite a number of names which do not conform to the presumed pattern, describingonly shallow skerries in the archipelagoes, where the grazing of horses, another possible alternative explanation,is not possible. The Horse-names are also known in locations other than high mountains in other parts of theNorse or Scandinavian world. Moreover, the horse metaphor has a particular position in international mari-time folklore, cf. esp. Beck 1973: 119ff. Other arguments on the horse as a liminal agent are presented e.g. inWesterdahl 2009.

40

The baptism of sailorsThis form of taboo ritual is in my opinion also the background for the bap-tism of sailors. The same kind of taboo was broken and another novice hadto ‘pay his footing’ (Danish and Norwegian hønse, German hänseln, Swe-dish sota etc.). The details are less clear since they have come down to usonly fragmentarily, but most of the Nordic sites where baptism took placewere surrounded by taboos and other magic notions. This applies to thetime before the ceremony was monopolized and rendered commonplace bybaptism at the line (the Equator). But obviously this ritual started alongthe coasts, perhaps primarily in Northern Europe where the sites of sailor´sbaptism are most common. Their locations mark stages, important points,during a journey, such as important promontories and islands like Kullen(Skåne), Lindesnes (The Naze) in Vest-Agder, Skagen (the Skaw) of Jut-land, Domesnäs (Kolkas rags) in Latvia etc. (see below).

Taboos concerning maritime magic were in force almost everywhere. So-metimes they are found in ingratiating names like the famous Bonden (siteof baptism), known in different languages as The Peasant, der Bauer, deBoer, the noa-name of Kullen in Skåne, South Sweden (fig. 3), as well as inother places, or the other recurring term Landet Gode or Landego (the goodland) with reversed position of the adjective, found in several places in Nor-way. There is the noa-name of Jomfruland (the land of the virgin) in southNorway, elements of which are also found elsewhere, and the related BlåJungfrun (the blue virgin), site of baptism and also a sacrificial place), anoa-name for Blåkulla (blue hill), recurring as the name of the meeting placeof witches, i.e. both these complexes referring to gender.17 In the first sec-tion we have already met the gender aspect in the prohibition of females on-board ships. We also have several Holmen Grå (gray holm) in a similarlyreversed order as Landet Gode/ Landego above, which refers to the liminalcolour between black and white, i.e. between land and sea, respectively. Theinitiation ceremony among fishermen thus became a rite of passage in adouble sense, also marking the differences in behaviour between what youdo and say if you are on land or on ship among sailors.

This complex of ideas is in later times mainly known as the “prejudices”of fishermen and sailors in all kinds of literature. This depends partly on thefragmented and humorous nature of recent evidence. In my view it was atone time rather a coherent system of beliefs. I strongly feel that this “cos-

17 Cf. gender-related name taboos Hovda 1941b and their relationship to fishing in Hovda 1948. The islandBlå Jungfrun is one of the textual test cases of magic at sea. It is mentioned as a sacrificial site at sea by OlausMagnus in 1555 Olaus Magnus: 1555 (and further, 1658, 1970, 1996-1998).

41

mology” as I have called it, is at times a question of social class. In fact Ithink this mechanism worked already in the stratified societies of the BronzeAge. A mutual mistrust has probably always existed between sea people andthe “landlubbers” in general but more specifically between sailors and fis-hermen and any authorities comfortably ensconced on land. This aspectwas emphasized strongly by Solheim in the case of recent centuries, butwould certainly have had precedents. There are age-old grievances behindthese attitudes: feudal oppression, the feeling of being marginal and expo-sed, the use by the authorities on land of the sea-farers as cannon-fodder inwar, and their abandonment by the same powers afterwards. There are sco-res of indications, but a very important indication is precisely our lack of

Figure 2: The main sites of documented sailor baptism in Europe. The framed area contains

the unusually dense sites of this map?, including Kullen at the Sound (derived from

Henningsen 1961).

42

knowledge of the exercise of magic. This was always kept secret to outsiders. An important element in fishermen’s magic are the stone mazes in the ar-

chipelagos of the North, primarily found in northern Sweden and Finland.We know very little about the use of coastal stone mazes in the north, amajor maritime monument type.18 Even the sons of the old fishermanknown to be the last to have practised his magic in such a maze at Kuggö-ren, Hälsingland, Sweden, in 1958, had no knowledge of his practice.19

Magic does not work in any case, if its function and its details are retold tostrangers or non-believers.

I suspect this is also partly an effect of a deeply rooted social attitude,perhaps even a disdain and a prejudice in reverse on the part of the obser-vers. The “prejudices” may sometimes have worked as a kind of internalcounter-ideology common to most fishermen. According to Turner´s termson ritual they would have expressed a form of “anti-structure”.20 They cer-tainly expressed a feeling of identity among observers in the same way asamong the sailors.

Ship owners and authorities tried to suppress the custom of baptism atsea, organized by the common sailors, but to no avail. This was indeed re-asonable since it was understood as a kind of relief from class distinctionsand oppression on deck, in this respect related as a ceremony to the Romansaturnalia. In fact, Henningsen suggests that the reason why there is nomention of the baptism of sailors in Europe (during the Middle Ages, theearliest mention only appearing in the later part of the 16th century) liessimply in the nature of the sparse material extant on the subject. The sai-lors kept it to themselves:

“Seamen were not very communicative about the custom, there may even have been

some sort of taboo about it (my italics), and no scholars before Worm (in Denmark) and

Rudbeck (in Sweden) considered it to be of any interest.”21

The sailor´s magic is secondary to that of fishermen, like most of their othercultural elements in past centuries. Fishermen were often recruited as com-mon sailors during part of their life-time. Their experience of handling boatswas too valuable for ship-owners to waste.

18 Westerdahl 2012b, and forthcoming.19 Kraft 1982: 98f.20 Turner 1969. 21 Henningsen 1961: 261. The scholars referred to represent the 17th century.

43

Only a Northern or Subarctic phenomenon?The mechanism of taboos is, of course, known in many places and variousenvironments. There are numerous references in many cultures to it as anexpression of particular hunting magic, directed towards animals of prey.The state of knowledge could lead us to believe that the subjects of magicand “prejudice” referred to were mainly a subarctic and circumpolar phe-nomenon.22

Certain elements of fishing magic have been recorded in different partsof the world, but seldom (perhaps never) as anything more than a curiosity.According to my information there is very little to indicate any clear con-ception of the opposition of land to sea in the Mediterranean. However, Ido not feel that this means that there was no such concept: it could havebeen overlooked, not documented, or affected by some kind of reluctanceto communicate it. After all, the generalized idea of a dichotomy betweensea and land has never been expressed by any northerners – it is a productof my analysis of what I understand as its tangible expressions.

My first argument concerns a category of primary ritual sites most oftenprovided with shrines or sanctuaries in the Mediterranean. As I pointed outabove, prominent land sites like promontories or islands were sites of thebaptism of sailors in early modern times. There are a few such known sitesof baptism in the Mediterranean as well, but the Scando-Baltic area is stud-ded with them (fig. 3). I could make additions to Henningsen’s painsta-king survey of records in 1961, but only by way of oral statements. Theseinclude a number of sites along the northern Swedish Norrland route, whichis not mentioned at all by Henningsen.23 I am sure that there are other sitesin Scandinavia which have been used in this connection.

Otherwise the sites registered by him in the north comprise the whole ofthe Scando-Baltic area, from North Cape and Nordkyn in northernmostNorway down to the entrances of the Baltic by way of the Kattegat wherewe first find the rock Buk van Raa (Dutch form) close to Bergen,24 the pro-montory Cape Lindesnes, the southernmost point of Norway, in English

22 Westerdahl 2010b.23 From the south, the islands Arholma, Örskär, Storjungfrun (a `virgin´ name, and formerly also called Helgön, `the holy island´), Agön, Bremön, Högbonden (cf. other Bonden- names), Ulvön (with the name ofthe wolf, normally taboo at sea) and another Bonden further north, the point/islet of Kuggören, the headlandBjuröklubb. Cf. also Westerdahl 2004: 131, footnote 9.25 On Buk van Raa, see Henningsen 1961 and also Hovda 1941a. I have discussed the sites of Lindesnes (theNaze), Kullen and Skagen (the Scaw) in Westerdahl 2004. I tried there to make a case for an origin of sailor`sbaptism up here, possibly in the 15th century. At present I feel no such origin can be detected. The awe inspired by such places and the concomitant rituals, whatever they were, must be much older. As such sailor´sbaptism is just one of a variety of rituals.

44

“The Naze”: the low and dangerous reef of Skagen, “The Skaw,” of Jutlandand the rocky promontory of Kullen, probably the most famous of themall.25 In the Baltic there are twenty-six or twenty-seven different sites, witha concentration in the low-lying but hilly confines of the Danish islandsand at the entrances of port cities, such as Hamburg, Travemünde/ Lübeck,Wismar, Warnemünde /Rostock and Wolgast. Others are at the rocky es-carpments of Stevns and Møn, southeast Denmark.

Opposite the last passage (south of the Öresund Sound) mentioned wefind Falsterbo in Skåne, Sweden with its feared but very low reefs; furtheron, the rocky island of Bornholm; opposite it, on the mainland, Revekol,a ridge with its summit 7 km inland in Pomerania, now in Poland; the rockof Utklippan in Blekinge, Sweden; the lighthouse Långe Jan on the sout-hernmost tip of Öland; Blå Jungfrun in Kalmarsund, which has been men-

Figure 3: Documented sites of sailor baptism in the Baltic and a tiny part of the North Sea

(derived from Henningsen 1961).

45

tioned before; the rock of Hoburgen, the southernmost point of Gotland;the limestone cliffs of the island Stora Karlsö at Gotland; Kolkas Rags (Do-mesnäs) at the entrance to the Bay of Riga, Latvia; the cliff at Ristna on Hi-umaa (Dagö) in Estonia; and, finally, the island of Hogland in the FinnishBay. There is thus a variety of locations, and most of them are conspicuousand dangerous points, rocks and islands. Some, however, only mark en-trances to towns founded in the Middle Ages. Several appear to have beentaken into use as points of baptism at a late stage, but as pointed out el-sewhere, there are few reliable sources. It is known that sailors chose a fewparticular points during a single journey, and thought of them as comb-ined, like Kullen (The Sound) and Hoburgen (Gotland) which were col-lectively known as Gubbarna, “the old men.” (Kullen on Fig. 3). Quite afew, but not all, display exceedingly rich oral traditions and beliefs which do

Figure 4: Engraving of the famous promontory of Kullen at the entrance from the north of theSound (Öresund), presently between Denmark and Sweden. This is also the main passagebetween the Baltic Sea proper and the inner parts of the North Sea (from the travel journal ofthe Dutchman Anthonis Goeteeris in 1619).

46

not necessarily relate to baptism at sea in any significant way. The placewhich was chosen for the ritual should be at sea but at definite points, e.g.a Dutch phrase of the 17th century recalls that Kullen was to be seen “at itsmost round shape”:26

Vor dem rund/Water im mund.

As Henningsen points out:27

“Nothing survives from the Middle Ages, in fact the first mention of hønse along

European coasts is some fifty years later than the oldest extant account of baptism at the

Line (the Equator). In spite of this it is inconceivable that the custom first originated

on the Equator and was subsequently brought to Europe. The most likely assumption

is that a footing was paid at the more obvious and conspicuous points in European

waters, which every sailor could see, long before it was at the Equator which was just

an abstract geographical feature, a line only visible on the map.”

The Ancient MediterraneanAmong the points of baptism known in the south, we find Constantinople,the Dardanelles, Cape Maleas, Messina, Barcelona, Gibraltar and CapeSpartel, in addition to sites in Western Europe: Cape St. Vincent, the Ber-lengas islet group in Portugal, Cape Finisterre in Galicia, Pointe du Raz,Arguenon, St. Malo and Raz Blanchart in France; in Britain: Dover, theScilly Islands, Land´s End and the Firth of Forth. Those are the places do-cumented in written sources. All of these conform in character to the sitesof the north: they are high, visible places, often with distinct shapes, whichmakes it easy to understand how they were individualized, personified ormade to belong to a group of sites revered under the same label. In theseWestern and Northern European groups we may discover that the namingindicates their particular cognitive significance, but little remains to enableus to refer to divine qualities.

Only on the Iberian peninsula does it seem possible to associate such lo-calities with Mediterranean religious practices of Classical Antiquity, in thiscase mainly Phoenician, or perhaps Greek (Melkart or Heracles). However,a Promontorium Herculis is mentioned somewhere in south-western Eng-

26 Henningsen, 1961: 167.27 Ibid., 201.

47

land: it would presumably be a case of interpretatio romana of an indigenousdivinity. Perhaps it referred to Hartland Point in Devon.28 Brian Cunliffementions the cliff castles or promontory forts of the Iron Age Atlantic sea-board, whose defensive character could be doubted. Instead he proposesthat the “main imperative” was to “create a defined enclave at the interfacebetween land and sea”. He assumes that this explanation “is given somesupport by the frequent references in classical sources to sacred capes and sa-cred headlands along the southern and western coasts of Iberia”. If so, theinterface at the shores and the islands contained liminal space.29

Both groups of sites mentioned in Scandinavia and the rest of Europealso conform in nature very neatly to the ritual sites of the Ancient Medi-terranean. The typically conspicuous landmarks would be promontories,and “these shrines not only continued the sailor’s link to their tutelary de-ities away from port, they also marked particularly dangerous areas, provi-ded a land-bearing to aid navigation from the water, or commemorated awrecked vessel”.30 There is thus a common character and very likely a com-mon background to be ascribed to shrines and to sites of baptism. To a cer-tain extent they are both located at the borders of what could be called“cognitive worlds”, the “inner seas” of the Mediterranean of Braudel,31 andwhat I have called traditional zones of transport geography, but mainly ex-cluding the river valleys.32 In fact, the main difference is that the shrinesare known under divine and thus personified disguise whereas the sites ofbaptism are not.

As far as I know, the best single coverage of these sites in the entire areaso far has been provided by Ellen Semple in her early article “The templedpromontories of the Mediterranean”33 (see fig. 5 and 6). Her starting point

28 Parker 2001: 35f. 29 Cunliffe 2001: 9f, 31. 30 Brody 1998: 41. On the function of promontories, also in Morton 2001. 31 Braudel 1986 (1949). I extracted from this work and my own evaluation of the Mediterranean: 1) the seaof the southern Iberian peninsula with present-day Morocco/ Maghreb, 2) the inner sea of western Spain withthe Balearic islands united in Roman times with the Rhone, 3) the inner sea triangle of western Italy, Sardinia,Corsica and the coast west of the maritime Alps, 4) the inner sea square formed by Roman Africa/ Tunisia,with Djerba, the Maltese islands, Sicily and the southern tip of Italy, 5) the Adriatic inner sea down to westernGreece, 6) The Aegean inner sea, and 7) the inner sea of the entire Eastern Mediterranean, sometimes including the Aegean. Other zones in Europe were also outlined early: Westerdahl 1995. Cf. also for anotherBraudelian view on the Mediterranean Horden and Purcell 2000. Cf also other Braudelian views on the Medi-terranean Horden and Purcell 2000 and Broodbank 2013.32 However, this is not quite true. At such a dangerous point as the rock of Lorelei in the Rhine arose a complex of beliefs comparable to those of the sea coasts and as early as the 17th century a Swedish author,Loccenius, refers to magic places along rivers, unfortunately in rather vague (Latin) terms. On the concept oftraditional zones of transport geography, see Westerdahl 1995.33 Semple 1927.

is the famed Cape Sounion (Sunium) in Attica. The cult at these sites isparticularly ascribed to Athene, Hera (Heraion) and the divine twins, Cas-tor and Pollux, prime protectors of ancient seamen. The promontory godsof course included Poseidon, but also the semi-god Achilles and his goddessmother Thetis, one of the Nereids: “The universal maritime activity of theMediterranean coast peoples, however, diverted other gods from their ori-ginal tasks to assist the struggling sailor”.34 In this context, Semple menti-ons Zevs Soter, Hermes, Astarte (Ishtar), the purely Phoenician Thanit andBaal-Melkart, normally identified with Herakles (Hercules) and others al-ready mentioned.

Some points were more devoted to tales of original heroes and legendaryfounders, e.g. Jason and Cadmus. Not only was the top sacred but also cavesat the base. Ruins of temples, burials and carvings are examples of man-made remains. A number of them must have had a cult that antedated clas-sical antiquity and its records of named divinities, and in several cases wehave already been informed of such a succession, e.g. to Apollo Branchidaeor Didymus at Miletos, to Artemis at Lindos, Rhodes. The fabulous hornof Eryx of western Sicily was another, later the abode of Our Lady and StellaMaris. But all three “Trinacrian corners” of Sicily were dangerous and werethe sites of famous temples. This succession of divinities represented at sucha spot could remind us of a process in the north where the old noa name

48

Figure 5: Promontories with temples in antiquity in the Mediterranean (derived from Sem-ple 1927).

34 Semple 1927: 365.

49

apparently becomes forbidden and replaced by another. Kullen in Skånewent from Skjold, now only found in the bay behind, Skälderviken,35 toBonden, Jomfruland in South Norway from Aurr to Landegode. It wouldbe curious if there are not other examples, as yet undetected. In the Crimea, we know of the sanctuary of Artemis at Partenium in thesouthwest. The Cape of Maleas on the Peloponnese is common to antiquityand to early modern times, not only in sailor´s baptism, but also in thesense of a point of no return in the adage of Greek sailors. Here were no lessthan four sanctuaries. That part of the Peloponnese contained two otherdangerous capes: Taenarum and Acritas. Headlands could also be sancti-fied by other means such as special tombs, in particular those of heroes orsemi-gods. The development of such interpretations usually followed seve-ral stages. But insofar as the coastline is concerned, a parallel liminal signi-ficance of the coastal cairns of the north should be noted as well.

Figure 6: Promotories with temples in antiquity in the Ægean (derived from Semple 1927).

35 Ljunggren 1943.

Semple documented the use of no less than 175 such sites in ancientsources.36 Most of the sites seem to contain archaeological remains, severalof which are quite well-known. There are certainly many more of themwhich were less known or simply omitted in classical sources. Most of themwould have been re-used in the medieval ritual landscape of the Mediter-ranean as chapel sites.

As Jamie Morton emphasizes,37 a large part of ancient Mediterranean se-afaring would have consisted in crossing large expanses of water betweencapes, which provided orientation points. Of course they were also dange-rous, not only as cliffs to founder on in unfavourable winds, but often ex-ceptionally so, since capes often mark a change in climatic conditions withconflicting winds, and expose seafarers to strong and sometimes fickle cur-rents, sometimes at the same time. In this way capes and reefs acquiredanother significant meaning: only by having passed them entirely were youreasonably safe. To sailors they would mark important stages of a journeyand so would, presumably afterwards, be provided with offerings to a deityassociated with the site as an expression of gratitude. But offerings and in-vocations could also be made at sea in advance of an unpredictable appro-ach. Aaron Brody refers especially to the Mediterranean, but his commentsreadily provide a generalisation about the kind of procedures involved atthe time: “Specific cultic practice varies among different seafaring societies,but usually involves some kind of sacrifice, offering, prayer, libation or vowat stages in the voyage which require sacred protection. This type of culticactivity when traversing a cultural or geographic threshold, or liminal zone,is common on land as well, as a type of rite of passage”.38

It is interesting to see that the noa-names of the north were only rigo-rously applied by sailors in the approach to such a spot, whereas a more re-laxed attitude prevailed while leaving it astern. This was retold, probably forthe first time, explicitly by the Norwegian parson and author Peder Claus-søn Friis39 in around 1600 on the island of Jomfruland (Virgin’s land) inTelemark, which had to be called Landet Gode or Landego, ‘The goodland’, an ingratiating term, that we have already seen recurring in severalplaces. The Swedish parson Olof Broman wrote a little more than 100 yearslater in about 1720 when rewriting his manuscript (since the first versionwas burned in the Russian raids on the Swedish coast in 1719) drawing on

50

36 Cf. also Wachsmuth 1967 and Rougé 1975 (1981). 37 Morton, 2001: 68, and passim. On the diachronic stages cf Broodbank 2013.38 Van Gennep 1960 (1909). Brody 1998: 74. 39 Claussøn Friis 1881: 297.

51

experience from his native Hälsingland, that “no such landmarks, islands,holms or beaches must be mentioned which are ahead, because then comesa contrary wind.”40

The offerings at European headlands mentioned in later times or the ac-tual sailor`s baptism may seem innocuous. Baptism took on an aura of amock trial with carnival features. There are no records of more sombre as-pects. But they may have existed once. In classical antiquity it seems to bewidely known that offerings of cattle and even of human beings could occur.

Many other authors have written about such places, e.g. the Maltese Is-lands, where some very impressive sites exist, the Ras Il-Wardija on Gozo(Fig. 7) and the Ras Ir-Raħeb on Malta.41 Nicholas Vella also presents thesites associated with Hermes in the entire Mediterranean.42 A discerningperspective on “the religion of mobility” and also “the religion of boundaryand belonging” is offered by Horden and Purcell.43 The background in spe-cialized seafarer religion among Canaanite and Phoenician seafarers is tre-ated exhaustively by Aaron Brody.44 A later article by that same author givesan overview of classical times.45

Rites of passage, is of course the common term for rituals of this kind.46 Thisapplies to most related ceremonies at capes and other places. Being in a borderarea (e.g. between traditional transport zones) sailors are in a liminal state, orpossibly in a transit phase between sea and land.47 One could at least also dis-cern a separation rite in line with the three phases of van Gennep. In the caseof sailors´ baptism it seems to be quite clear that this ceremony is at the sametime an initiation rite, of the same kind as those applied from the Middle Agesupon entry into a guild. This is the principal thought of Henningsen.48 Herethe initiation concerns the novices onboard, sometimes also the passengers. Ofcourse this need not have been a feature in the more distant past. But the cha-racter of rites of passage in the latter case should also influence our appreciationof the background to the sites of sailor´s baptism described by Henningsen.The rites of passage may have been transformed during the High Middle Agesinto rites of entry into “the seamen´s guild,” but at (partly) the same places.

40 Broman 1911-49: 858 (my translation). This is approximately the same as Claussøn Friis a hundred yearsearlier reported about the island of Jomfruland in S. Norway. Claussøn Friis 1881: 297. 41 Buhagiar 1988, Gambin 2003, Vella 2005. 42 Vella 2005.43 Horden and Purcell 2000: 438ff, 450 ff. 44 Brody 1998.45 Brody 2008.46 Van Gennep 1960 (1909).47 Van Ginkel 1987: 64.48 Henningsen 1961.

This simple comparison of the Scando-Baltic and the Mediterraneanareas regarding archaeological, historical and ethnographic sources suggestsa parallel cognitive attitude among sailors towards promontories, headlands,islands and spits, based on what I have called a “maritime cosmology.” Itsprincipal components are the dual structure sea and land, transferable toother dual oppositions and primary senses, such as those between genders,between life and death, between colours, and affecting even sounds andsmells.

The OdysseyThe Odyssey contains the famous stories of the Wandering Rocks, the Si-rens and Scylla and Charybdis. I believe these parts (below) of the Odysseyare actually about taboos in connection with dangerous passages along thecoast. If depleted of poetic language, the Odyssey may even describe theroute in a “practical” way. In a certain sense one could imagine the use oftransit lines between the rocks. The opposition of sea to land is obvious.But what is dangerous at sea is the land, not the sea itself. “Do not come too

52

Figure 7: The impressive promontory of Ras Il-Wardija on Gozo. Photo: author.

53

close to the rock” is the ever-lasting message. Of course this is easily under-standable to any sailor.

Circe mentions the Wandering Rocks, and the dangerous passage-way,which appears as another variant of the contrast:49

“On the one side there are beetling rocks, and against them the great wave roars of

dark-eyed Amphitrite. These, ye must know, are they the blessed gods call the Rocks

Wandering. By this way even winged things may never pass, nay not even the cowering

doves that bear ambrosia to father Zeus, but the sheer rock evermore takes away one

even of these, and the Father sends in another to make up the tale. Thereby no ship of

men ever escapes that comes thither, but the planks of ships and the bodies of men

confusedly are tossed by the waves of the sea and the storms of ruinous fire. One ship

only of all that fare by sea hath passed that way, even Argo, that is in all men´s minds,

on her voyage from Aetes. And even here the wave would lightly have cast there upon

the mighty rocks, but Hera sent her by for love of Jason.”

The first is the taboo of not hearing the Sirens. Only a hero like Odys-seus, almost a demi-god (heros), could be expected to withstand that sound.The lowly seaman cannot be trusted. Circe warns Odysseus on the Sirens:

“…To the Sirens first shalt thou come, who bewitch all men, whosoever shall come to

‘them. Whoso draws nigh them unwittingly and hears the sound of the Siren`s voice,

never doth he see wife or babes stand by him on his return, nor have they joy at his

coming; but the Sirens enchant him with their clear song, sitting in the meadow, and

all about is a great heap of bones of men corrupt in death, and round the bones the skin

is wasting. But do thou drive thy ship past, and knead honey-sweet wax, and anoint

therewith the ears of thy company, lest any of the rest hear the song; but if thou thyself

art minded to hear, let them bind thee in the swift ship hand and foot, upright in the

mast-stead, and from the mast let rope-ends be tied, that with delight thou mayest hear

the voice of the Sirens. And if thou shalt beseech they company and bid them to loose

thee, then let them bind thee with yet more bonds...”

The taboo referred to of not even seeing, or fixing one´s gaze on a dang-erous thing can be found in the last section of this part of the Odyssey.Only a god could stand the sight of Scylla:

49 The versions of the Odyssey are from The Odyssey of Homer, transl. S. H. Butcher and A. Lang, volume22, (NewYork: Harvard Classics, 1909) and, only used as a check, The Odyssey, trans. E.V. Rieu (Harmonds-worth: Penguin Classics 1969; first published1946).

“On the other part are two rocks, whereof the one reaches with sharp peak to the wide

heaven, and a dark cloud encompasses it; this never streams away, and there is no clear

air about the peak neither in summer nor in harvest tide. No mortal man may scale it

or set foot thereupon, not though he had twenty hands and feet. For the rock is

smooth, and sheer, as it were polished. And in the midst of the cliff is a dim cave

turned to Erebus, towards the place of darkness, whereby ye shall even steer your

hollow ship into that deep cave. And therein dwelleth Scylla, yelping terribly. Her voice

indeed is no greater than the voice of a new-born whelp, but a dreadful monster is she,

nor would any look on her gladly, not if it were a god that met her (my italics). Verily

she hath twelve feet all gandling down; and six necks exceeding long, and on each a

hideous head, and therein three rows of teeth set thick and close, full of black death. Up

to her middle is she sunk far down in the hollow cave, but forth she holds her heads

from the dreadful gulf, and there she fishes, swooping round the rock, for dolphins or

sea-dog, or whatso greater beast she may anywhere take, whereof the deep-voiced

Amphitrite feeds countless flocks. Thereby no sailor boast that they have fled un-

scathed ever with their ship for with each head she carries off a man, whom she hath

snatched from out the dark-prowed ship.

But that other cliff, Odysseus, thou shalt note, lying lower, hard by the first: thou

couldest send an arrow across. And thereon is a great fig-tree growing, in fullest leaf, and

beneath it mighty Charybdis sucks down black water, for thrice a day she spouts it

forth, and thrice a day she sucks it down in terrible wise. Never mayest thou be there

when she sucks the water, for none might save thee then from thy bane, not even the

Earth-Shaker! But take heed and swiftly drawing nigh to Scylla´s rock drive the ship

past, since of a truth it is far better to mourn six of thy company in the ship, than all

in the selfsame hour...”.

Odysseus asks whether it would not be possible to avoid both, but Circestresses that there is no way: “She is no mortal, but an immortal plague,dread, grievous and fierce, and not to be fought with; and against her thereis no defence; flight is the bravest way...”. At the end the crew is attackedby the monstrous Scylla who grasps six of the followers of Odysseus. Thesimile used is:

“Even as when a fisher on some headland lets down with a long rod his baits for a snare

to the little fishes below, casting into the depths the horn of an ox of the homestead, and

as he catches each flings it writhing ashore...”50

54

50 Translation of Butcher and Lang 1909: 169ff. Twelfth Song: 250.

55

The ox horn appears to be an unlikely (but not impossible) net-sinker.What is its meaning here? The fisherman is on a headland, possibly inten-tionally chosen in this context for its other magic qualities, and throws hishorn together with his bait. It is particularly noted in the poem that it is anox of the homestead, βοός κερας αγραύλοιο.51 Although this is a poetic epit-het, albeit an uncommon one, it seems to stress in a seemingly unnecessaryway the land origin of that horn (or is perhaps used only for the hexame-ter?). Could this mean that during at least a part of Greek prehistory the oxwas considered as a liminal agent in line with what has been sketched aboveregarding a prehistoric system of beliefs surrounding the border betweensea and land? We are familiar with the paramount role of the ox or bull asthe primary land animal, wild or tame, in archaeological and later ethno-graphic material. Perhaps the maritime “cosmology” that we know fromthe north existed in the Bronze Age or Early Iron Age Mediterranean aswell? On the other hand, the parallel is certainly not complete: the possi-bly ritual act is not carried out in a boat. Completeness should probablynot be expected: man himself could be considered to stand in a liminalspace, at the shore. However, I would like to put forward the notion thatthe maker of the epic wanted to indicate at the end in a delicate way thatthe preceding story of the monstrous sea creatures was an outflow of thedangerous relationship between sea and land. I also suggest that the term“on some headland” intentionally marks this space at a promontory. Is thisfar-fetched? I invoke the obvious allusions of this very delimited part of theepic.

A direct relation exists, in my opinion, with the shrines of promontoriesand capes above. Semple cannot avoid the following reflection on Odys-sean categories:

“Malign deities represented the terrors of dangerous headlands and were embodied in

the Scylla monster who destroyed ships in the whirlpool of the Straits of Messina: she

also occupied the Scyllaeum promontory of south-eastern Argolis, where the etesian

winds at midsummer swept around the end of this peninsula. Similar was the Italian

Circe who lured seamen to their destruction on the surf-beaten rocks of the Circaeum

promontory. Similar too were the Sirens, localized by legend on the rocky islets off the

Sorrento peninsula.”52

51 This is an uncommon word in Classical Greek: Αγραυλέω means “(to) live in the open”, cf. Liddell andScott 1901.52 Semple 1927: 366.

The later folklore of the oceanThe “normal” folklore of the High Seas is of an altogether different kind.Classical compendia on this type of lore are provided by Bassett and Sébil-lot.53 There are monsters and sea snakes. Some were certainly believed inand can be identified, even if considerably exaggerated, with living creatu-res such as the octopus, the whale, the shark, the sea tortoise etc. There aregnomes on board, such as the German Klabautermann. There is also a Fly-ing Dutchman.54 This folklore essentially belongs to the long sailing traderoutes on the open waters of the oceans and to European expansion in earlymodern times. It is well illustrated in pictures by a northerner, Olaus Mag-nus (actually writing in Rome), on his ethnographic map Carta Marina(1539) or as vignettes in his Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (Historyof the Northern Peoples) (1555; fig. 8). This author is also among the firstto mention the power of place names, sailor´s magic and sacrifices.55 Mostauthors mention and/or illustrate sea monsters well into the 18th century(Fig. 9). The open sea mythology is certainly interesting in its own right, re-flecting the societies left behind, on both the outward and homeward voy-ages, but is not compatible with the mainly coastal navigation that we havedealt with in the preceding text. There are indeed other important diffe-rences. In distant prehistory, the mythology is not even based on sails, buton rowing and paddling boats.

The “personalities” of Odysseus, Sindbad, theirghostwriters and their kindA social picture of people like Odysseus, an aristocrat, and Sindbad, a mer-chant, is hard to give or even to guess at, but without it source criticismcould fail utterly. The stories of Odysseus presumably come from their nar-ration among his peers at the hearth of a megaron palace, possibly at Ithaca.Gift-giving would have accompanied his return. Actual trading was, at leastofficially, probably below the rank of an aristocrat, as it was in later timesand in Classical Antiquity. The more accepted goods of exchange, like spoilsof war, were disposed of in other ways, through redistribution.

But there are also Persian or Arab merchants of the Indian Ocean, per-haps sometime in the 7th century AD who tell stories in the inns of Basra

56

53 Bassett 1971 (1885), Sébillot 1901, 1886. 54 Immortalized by the famous novel of this name by Frederick Maryatt (1839).55 Among others at the witches’ island Blå Jungfrun, of Kalmarsund, Sweden. Cf. a very important study forthe understanding of place names, taboo and magic, Sahlgren 1915, together with the same, 1918, both beingimportant analytical precursors of Solheim 1940; Modéer 1927.

57

(Balsora) of their marvellous experiences. In themselves, the stories are va-luable things to bring home, but this is clearly only an addition to the we-alth obtained on a prosperous journey. To give a realistic and believablepicture the stories also emphasize the dangers of shipwreck and even missi-ons that totally failed. These merchants had at least one thing in common:they or their ghost-writers were story-tellers.

Figure 8: Sea monster sinking a ship. Vignette of the ethnographer and archbishop OlausMagnus in this Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (Rome, 1555; Book 21, Chapter 7).

Figure 9: The great sea serpent as illustrated in The Natural History of Norway (London,1755) by the Danish-Norwegian bishop and writer Erik Pontoppidan (1698-1764). His book was originally written in Norwegian and translated to English by himself.

Profit could be many things. Odysseus is a crafty and devious Late BronzeAge fellow, maybe more so in the Iliad than in the Odyssey. Perhaps eth-noarchaeological fiction can give an answer? Late examples of story-tellermerchants are sometimes provided in the ethnographical literature. I havechosen a group in Melanesia, described by Thomas G. Harding.56

“More than any other group, the Siassis are dependent on trade for their livelihood.

Corresponding to their dependence on and preoccupation with trading are their

reputations as wily and sagacious traders, as tellers of tall tales, as brazen liars, cheats and

thieves. It would be off the mark, however, to compare the Siassi with the stereotype of

the Yankee trader. Typically, the Siassi trader is a genial conman – ‘a man belong grease

true’. He is the practising exponent of what is known in current American parlance as

the ‘soft sell’, but in a Melanesian setting.

As already mentioned, the visits of the Siassis are normally the occasion for festivities –

sometimes they are explicitly invited to come as performers – and it is this festive

milieu (a milieu of heightened sociability) that transactions take place. Their repu-

tations as storytellers and retailers of gossip are also significant, for this forms part of the

entertainment function. In exchange and in the preliminaries to exchange, the empha-

sis is personal. The Siassi seeks to create compassion for himself, to sell himself rather

than his wares. Further, he is endowed with trading magic, which endows his speech

with the power to engender boundless generosity in his trade-friend.”

Thus, finally, a possible personal visit to Odysseus and Sindbad, proba-bly suitable for the megaron as well as for the inns of Basra! But it was onlya very fragmented side-view of a sailor cosmology expressing the sea-to-land relationship. Sources are always a tricky matter.

ConclusionA summary of the experiences above would include key words such as placenames, taboos, sayings, formulas and ritual memorizing of known dangersat famously threatening passages along the coast. This is the scenic versionof the maritime cultural landscape. Tales were in all likelihood sometimesthe “epic” (narrative) form of such rituals, “rituals in retrospect (thus clou-ded to the listener)”. Some of the source material appears partly in livingoral and toponymic tradition and partly in myths. I suspect that is generallypart of maritime culture.

58

56 Harding 1967: 183. With thanks for the advice of Prof. Albert Ammermann, Colgate University, New York.

59

What is ultimately recounted is a flowery, scarcely recognizable version ofreality, thus a good story of the sea. What we have done here is to try to steerclear of our possible Scylla, i.e. only the functionalisms of an actual “place”(localized) or “space” and our likewise possible Charybdis, the purely sym-bolic or metaphoric style of interpretation.

SammendragÅ vite hvor alt land ligger er av altoppslukende interesse for en sjøfarer. Detbetyr fare. Denne faren er ritualisert og overført til en liminal sfære. Termenliminal kommer fra Latin limen, terskel, i genitiv liminis. Den innebærer of-test en grensesone mellom to verdener. I dette tilfellet innebærer den for-skjellig adferd i den ene og den andre verdenen, regulert av sosiale normer.Dramatiske landkonturer, som bratte nes («kapp»), blir særlig viktige idenne rituelle adferden.

Gjennom denne enkle sammenligningen mellom arkeologiske, historiske,litterære og etnografiske kilder foreslås en parallell kognitiv holdning tilfremstikkende nes, øyer og rev, basert på hva jeg har kalt en «maritim kos-mologi» i Skandinavia, Østersjøen og Middelhavet. Dennes hovedelementer de dualistiske strukturene hav og land, som kan overføres til andre opp-osisjoner som de mellom genus, mannlig og kvinnelig, mellom liv og dødmed mer.

Tempel og graver i den klassiske antikken, kapell og andre hellige sted isenere tid illustrerer disse ulike formene ved siden av historisk kjente stedder fiskeres riter fant sted. I Odysséen søker jeg å finne en beslektet limi-nalitet i farene i naturmytene om Sirenene, de vandrende klippene og Scyllaog Charybdis.

Annen såkalt normal folklore i åpent hav rettes snarere mot mytiske fe-nomen og farer som også ofte personifiseres. Tilnærmingen er dermed tverr-faglig og komparativ.

Teksten var opprinnelig et key-note foredrag ved et seminar i Malta i 2009som omhandlet arkeologi og etnografi i Middelhavet og Rødehavet. Inten-sjonen var også å bringe det nordeuropeiske perspektivet inn i denne sfæ-ren av faglig og intellektuell interaksjon.

60

ReferencesBassett, Fletcher S. 1971 [1885] Legends and Superstitions of the Sea and ofSailors in all lands and at all times. New York.

Beck, Horace 1973 Folklore & the Sea. Middletown, Connecticut.

Braudel, Ferdinand 1986 The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean Worldin the Age of Philip II, transl. Siân Reynolds, volumes I-II. Collins, Glasgow.First published in English 1972; first published in French, Paris 1949.

Brody, Aaron Jed 1998 “Each Man Cried out to his God. The SpecializedReligion of Canaanite and Phoenician Seafarers”, Harvard Semitic MuseumMonographs 58, Atlanta.

Brody, Aaron Jed 2008 “The specialized religions of ancient Mediterraneanseafarers”, Religion Compass, 2, 1-11.

Broman, Olof Joh. 1911-49 Glysisvallur och öfriga skrifter rörande Helsing-land utg. af Gestrike-Helsinge nation i Upsala genom (eds. Karl A. Hæger-mark and Anders Grape). Uppsala.

Broodbank, Cyprian 2013: The Making of the Middle Sea. A History of theMediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the ClassicalWorld. Thames & Hudson, London

Buhagiar, Mario1988 “Two archaeological sites – Ras Ir-Raħeb, Malta andRas Il-Wardija, Gozo”, Melita Historica 10.1, 69-87.

Clark, David 1982 Between Pulpit and Pew: Folk Religion in a NorthYorkshire Fishing Village, Cambridge.

Claussøn Friis, Peder 1881 «Norriges oc Omliggende Øers sandfærdige Be-scriffuelse», i G. Storm (ed.) Friis, Samlede Skrifter (collected works), Kris-tiania.

Cunliffe, Barry 2001 Facing the Ocean. The Atlantic and its Peoples 8000BC-AD 1500. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Dundes, Alan 1961 “Mnemonic Devices”, Midwest Folklore 11, 139-147.

61

Fenton, Alexander 1969 “The tabu language of the fishermen of Orkneyand Shetland”, Ethnologia Europaea 2-3, 118-122.

Gambin, Timothy 2003 “The harbours of ancient Gozo”, Malta Archaeo-logical Review 6, 21-27.

van Gennep, Arnold 1960 The rites of passage. Chicago. (French originalLes rites de passage, Paris 1909).

van Ginkel, Rob1987 “Pigs, priests and other puzzles. Fishermen´s taboosin anthropological perspective”, Ethnologia Europeaea 17.1, 57-68.

Harding, Thomas G. 1967 Voyagers of the Vitiaz Strait. A Study of a NewGuinea Trade System. University of Washington Press, Seattle/London.

Henningsen, Henning 1961 Crossing the Equator. Sailor´s Baptism and OtherInitiation Rites. Copenhagen.

Homans, George C.1941 “Anxiety and Ritual: The Theories of Malinow-ski and Radcliffe-Brown”, American Anthropologist New Ser. Vol 43, No 2,part 1, 164-172.

Horden, Peregrine and Nicholas Purcell 2000 The Corrupting Sea. A Studyof Mediterranean History. Blackwell, Oxford.

Hovda, Per 1941a “Okse, galt, hund og andre dyrenevne i skjernamn», Bergens museums årbok. Historisk-antikvarisk rekke nr. 7, Bergen.

Hovda, Per 1941b «Kjerring- i stadnamn frå sjøen», Maal og Minne,37-47.

Hovda, Per 1948 «Stadnamn og sjøfiske», Namn och Bygd, 50-66.

Jakobsen, Jakob 1921 Etymologisk ordbog over det norrøne sprog på Shetland.København.

Kraft, John 1982 “Labyrinter i magins tjänst”, in C. Westerdahl (ed.) Bott-nisk Kontakt Örnsköldsviks museum, Örnsköldsvik.

62

Liddell, H. G. and R. Scott 1901 Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford UniversityPress, Oxford.

Ljunggren, Karl Gustaf 1943 “Skälderviken och Kullen”, Namn och Bygd31, 150-160.

Lockwood, W. B. 1955 “Word taboo in the language of the Faroese fisher-men”, Transactions of the Philological Society 53, 1-24.

Lummis, T.1983 “Luck: Longshoremen, smacksmen and driftermen”, inP. Thompson, T. Wailey, and T. Lummis (eds.), Living the fishing. Rout-ledge & Kegan Paul, London.

Malinowski, Bronislaw 1925 “Magic, Science and Religion etc.”, in: J. Ne-edham (ed.), Science, Religion and Reality. Riddell Memorial Lectures. Lon-don.

Martin, A. 1981 The ring-net fishermen. John Donald, Edinburgh.

Modéer, Ivar 1927 «Blå Jungfrun i den litterära traditionen», Stranda (pu-blisher Stranda härads hembygdsförening), 16-38.

Morton, Jamie 2001 The Role of the Physical Environment in Ancient GreekSeafaring. E. J. Brill, Leiden.

Mullen, Patrick B. 1969 “The function of magic folk belief among Texas co-astal fishermen”. Journal of American Folklore 82, 214-225.

Mullen, Patrick B. 1978 I Heard the Old Fisherman Say. Diss, Austin &London.

Olaus Magnus 1555 (and further) Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus,Romae: Book 2, Chapter 23. Facsimile edition: Copenhagen, Rosenkilde &Bagger 1970, Romae. In recent English translation: A Description of the Nor-thern Peoples, ed. Peter Foote , volumes I-III London: Hakluyt Society,1996-1998; the earliest translation: A Compendious History of the Geoths,Swedes, Vandals and Other Northern Nations. London, 1658.

Parker, Anthony J. 2001 “Maritime Landscapes”, Landscapes, 22-41.

63

Poogie Jr, John J. and Carl Gersuny 1972 “Risk and Ritual: an Interpreta-tion of Fishermen´s Folklore in a New England Community”, AmericanJournal of Folklore 85, 66-72.

Poggie jr, John J., Richard B. Pollnac and Carl Gersuny 1976 “Risk as aBasis of Taboo among Fishermen in Southern New England”, Journal for theScientific Study of Religion 15, no 3, 257-262.

Poushinsky, J. M. and N. W. Poushinsky 1973 “Superstition and techno-logical change: An illustration”, Journal of American Folklore 86, 289-293.

Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. 1933 The Andaman Islanders. Cambridge Univer-sity Press, Cambridge.

Rougé, Jean 1975 (1981) La marine dans l´Antiquité. Vendome, PressesUniversitaries de France, Vendome. The English translation being Ships andFleets of the Ancient Mediterranean. Wesleyan University Press.

Sahlgren, Jöran 1915 “Blåkulla och blåkullafärderna. En språklig och myt-historisk undersökning”, Namn och Bygd 3, 100-161.

Sahlgren, Jöran 1915 “Förbjudna namn”, Namn och Bygd 6 1918, 1-40.

Sébillot, Paul 1886 Légendes, croyances et superstitions de la mer I-II. Paris.

Sébillot, Paul 1901 “Le folk-lore des pêcheurs”, Les littératures populaires detoutes les nations, volume 43, Paris.

Semple, Ellen 1927 “The Templed Promontories of the Ancient Mediter-ranean”, Geographical Review 17.3, 353-386.

Solheim, Svale 1940 Nemningsfordommer ved fiske. Det Norske VidenskapsAkademi, Oslo.

Turner, Victor 1969 The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Rout-ledge & Kegan Paul, London.

Vella, Nicholas C. 2005 “A maritime perspective: looking for Hermes in anancient seascape”, in J. Chrysostomides, Ch. Dendrinos and J. Harris (eds.),

64

The Greek Islands and the Sea. Proceedings of the First International Collo-quium held at The Hellenic Institute, Royal Holloway, University of Lon-don 21-22 September 2001, Prophyrogenitus, Camberley, 33-57.

Wachsmuth, D. 1967 ПОМПІМОΣ О ΔΑΙΜΏΝ. Untersuchung zu denantiken Sakralhandlungen bei Seereisen. Berlin.

Walens, Stanley 1987 “Animals”, in M. Eliade (ed.), Encyclopedia of ReligionI: 291. Macmillan, New York.

Westerdahl, Christer 1995 “Traditional zones of transport geography in re-lation to ship types”, in O. Olsen, J. Skamby Madsen and F. Rieck (eds.),Shipshape, Essays for Ole Crumlin Pedersen, Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde.

Westerdahl, Christer 2002 “The ritual landscape at sea”, in K. Krueger, C.O. Cederlund (eds.), Maritime Archäologie heute. Maritime ArchaeologyToday. Third International Marine Archaeological Conference of the BalticSea Area (2001), Rostock, 51-72.

Westerdahl, Christer 2003 Vänern. Landskap, människa, skepp. Båtdok-gruppen, Skärhamn. cf. 2010b.

Westerdahl, Christer 2004 “Lindesnes och sjömäns dopseder”, Agder His-torielag Årsskrift, 105-136.

Westerdahl, Christer 2005 “Seal on land, elk at sea. Notes on and applica-tions of the ritual landscape at the seaboard”, International Journal of Nau-tical Archaeology 34.1, 2-23.

Westerdahl, Christer 2006a “Maritime cosmology and archaeology”, Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv 28 (2005), 7-54.

Westerdahl, Christer 2006b “Maritim övertro. Ett kosmologiskt bidrag tillarkeologisk tolkning”, Viking LXIX, 9-44.

Westerdahl, Christer 2009 “The Horse as a Liminal Agent”, in A. Bliujienė(ed.), The Horse and Man in European Antiquity, Archaeologia Baltica 11,Klaipeda University Press, 314-327.

65

Westerdahl, Christer 2010a “Sea versus land. An Arctic and Subarctic ‘Cos-mology?”, in C. Westerdahl (ed.), A Circumpolar Reappraisal: The Legacy ofGutorm Gjessing (1906-1979), British Archaeological Reports /BAR/ Interna-tional Series 2154, Archaeopress, Oxford, 301-327.

Westerdahl, Christer 2010b “Lake Vänern. Reflections on Dynamic Cont-inuity and changing Shore-Lines”, Skyllis 10, Deguwa, 65-77.

Westerdahl. Christer 2011 “The Maritime Cultural Landscape”, In A. Cat-sambis, B. Ford and D. L. Hamilton (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Ma-ritime Archaeology, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 733-762.

Westerdahl, Christer 2012a “The Ritual Landscape of the Seaboard in His-torical Times: Island Chapels, Burial Sites and Stone Mazes- A ScandinavianExample. Part I: Chapels and Burial Sites”, Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv 342011, 259-370.

Westerdahl, Christer 2012b “Labyrinter som gengångare”, in N. Huldénand K. Westerlund (eds.), Bottnisk Kontakt XVII, Korpo Kulturgille, Åbo,149-167.

Westerdahl, Christer (in print) “The Ritual Landscape of the Seaboard inHistorical Times: Island Chapels, Burial Sites and Stone Mazes". A Scand-inavian Example. Part II. Ghosts, Currents and Winds. Island stone mazes(labyrinths)”, Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv 35.

66