Note 207 — Chapter VI · THE FINDING OF STRANGE COASTS.
Reading edition
Footnote 207: "Helgir fiskar," i. e. "sacri pisces," id. p. 148. The Danish phrase is "helleflyndre," i. e. "holy flounder." The English halibut is hali = holy + but = flounder. This word but is classed as Middle English, but may still be heard in the north of England. The fish may have been so called "from being eaten particularly on holy days" (Century Dict. s.v.); or possibly from a pagan superstition that water abounding in flat fishes is especially safe for mariners (Pliny, Hist. Nat. ix. 70); or possibly from some lost folk-tale about St. Peter (Maurer, Isländische Volkssagen der Gegenwart, Leipsic, 1860, p. 195).[Back to Main Text]