File talk:Ottars reise.jpg

What to do with this map?

With all due respect I regard this map as hopelessly simplistic and over-precise, and therefore highly misleading. As I write, it is used to illustrate Ohthere of Hålogaland's travels in articles on 19 Wikipedias, where in many cases it is also used in multiple articles. I have created an alternative map (File:Ohthere of Hålogaland's travels.jpg) that I hope is more useful, since it follows more honestly both Ohthere's recorded account and more recent historiography.

The problems with the present map, to my mind, are as follows:

• Ohthere's home is marked on the map, whereas this remains unidentified other than having been somewhere in Hålogaland, so the map is over-precise.
• "Bjarmland" is indicated as being on the eastern side of the White Sea, whereas there are also arguments for its having been on the western side, so the map is over-precise.
• The map includes "Skiringssal" in Ohthere's travels, whereas Ohthere's account, in Old English, mentions "Sciringes heal": there is good reason to believe that the two may not have been the same, when careful attention is paid to both the detail of Ohthere's account and the linguistic issues raised by such an equation, so the map is over-precise.
• The map has Ohthere's travels end in London, England, whereas we are only told that Ohthere gave his account to King Alfred of Wessex – we are not told where Alfred was at the time, and a unified "England" did not as yet exist.
• Usage of the tags "Norge", "Sverige" and "Danmark" is also questionable, for example because, as I understand it, the Danish kingdom at the time of Ohthere's travels included part of the Scandinavian peninsula.
• The use of arrows to indicate "routes" belies the geographical vagueness of Ohthere's account, with the single exception of Hedeby.

If accepted, these points taken together indicate only the most superficial, simplistic relationship between the present map and what we know of Ohthere's travels: you may wish to compare what I've written here with the current state of the relevant article on English Wikipedia, which I'll say now is mostly my own work, warts and all. Any constructive comments welcome! Nortonius (talk) 09:50, 1 May 2015 (UTC) (the link to the "current state of the relevant article" has been updated since this comment was first posted. Nortonius (talk) 14:44, 5 May 2015 (UTC))

I have now started raising this issue on Talk pages for all articles where this map is used. Nortonius (talk) 15:57, 2 May 2015 (UTC)

Completed. Nortonius (talk) 17:27, 2 May 2015 (UTC)