Terra Feminarum

Terra feminarum ("Women's Land") is a name for an area in Medieval Northern Europe that appears in Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church) by Adam of Bremen 1075 AD.

"Woman Land", terra feminarum, appears four times in various chapters of Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church) by Adam of Bremen in 1075 AD.

There is also "scholia 119" that is marked as an amendment to IV 19. The scholias are not written by Adam himself, but by later copyists.

Adam had spent some time at the court of the Danish king Svend Estridson where he may have gathered information on northern people and events from various persons and now lost documents.

Adam's information on Woman Land probably originated from a German bishop Adalvard the Younger (as hinted by IV 19's amendment scholia 119) who had been a bishop in Skara and spent time in Norway in the court of king Harald Hårdråde, most probably in the then-capital Trondheim. This would also explain Adam's detailed knowledge about certain parts of Norway, since he mentions Trondheim (Trondemnis) several times (Gesta III 59, IV 16, 32, 33, 34) and even Hålogaland (Halagland) from northern Norway (IV 37). Sami people (Scritefinnis, Scritefingi) are also mentioned several times (IV 24, 25, 31) and usually at the same time when he discusses Norwegians.

It must also be noted that Woman Land and Sami people are discussed altogether separately in Gesta.

The text gives no apparent reason for the name in its literal meaning. Adam and his colleagues themselves seem to have thought the name to derive from the legendary Amazons taken from classical Greek mythology. This is clearly said in the text itself to be their own thinking, even though Adam later in his publication seems to forget that and presents it as a common rumor originating from bishop Adalvard.

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