Where does the name White Sea come from? Why is the sea called the sea? Why was the Black Sea called black?

Valeria Mikhailova about the Russian North

There is a simple way to learn more about life, and about God, about yourself: to see the mountains, the southern starry sky or the northern sea. And precisely the northern one. Without churchkhela, without groups in striped swimsuits - calm, cold and stern.

I saw it for the first time, this sea, on a hike, and it was White. By evening it became clear why this was so: in cloudy weather, closer to sunset or at dawn, the sky and sea become the same color, the horizon line “sinks” into the sea, and it is absolutely impossible to distinguish where the water ends and the sky begins! Everything is white, smooth, cooled milk.

But the point is not at all about “dairy products”. It’s about the feeling of infinity: you look at this vast, calm space... Silence rings in your ears, and the unusual question keeps spinning and spinning in your head: “How? Such power, such breadth - and all this for us?! Little people! In a city where almost everything is hand-made, you don’t feel that everything is created .

The White Sea is the warmest in the Arctic basin. Because it cuts deep into the land, and is connected to the harsh ocean near which it is located only by two straits through the Barents Sea. Legends are made about this place. Travelers love its islands very much. After all, here they touch the wild nature of the North. But why is the White Sea called White?

White Sea on the map of Europe

The salty reservoir is located in the north of the European region of the Russian Federation. In terms of surface area, this is one of the smallest seas washing the country. Only Azov is smaller.

There are many small islands in this huge body of water. The most popular and famous are Solovetsky. The water area consists of several parts:

• Pool (the deepest area of ​​the body of water);
• Gorlo (connects with the Barents Sea; the Pomors call this strait “Girlo”);
• Funnel;
• Onega Bay, Dvinskaya, Mezenskaya;
• Kandalaksha Bay.

The bottom relief of this beautiful place is very diverse and uneven. Thus, the “shallow” Throat interferes with water exchange with the Barents Sea. This fact, plus its partial polar position, has given this place the title of “warmest” in the Arctic.

On the one hand, the sea belongs to the Arctic Ocean basin, one of the most severe in terms of climate. On the other hand, it partially extends beyond the Arctic Circle and strongly cuts into the land. Therefore, this climate is characterized by marine and continental features, oceanic and continental.

The first mention of the White Pond dates back to the eleventh century. Of course, it wasn’t “White” then. The spacious banks along with the smooth surface of the water were widely used by Novgorodians for trade. The places here were rich in animals and fish, and therefore developed quickly.

One of the very first settlements on the coast was Kholmogory (fourteenth century). They became the number one Russian international seaport. Trade ships departed from Russia through this part of the World Ocean to Denmark.

In the mid-sixteenth century, a foreign ship arrived here for the first time. These were the British. Then they were looking for a northern route to India. Be that as it may, thanks to the commander of the ship, Europe learned more about the Russian North. Moreover, with this chance visit, trade between England and Russia began along the chosen waterway.

After the British there were the Dutch and other foreigners. The main Russian trade routes passed through the White Sea. When St. Petersburg was founded, the main waterways moved to the Baltic. And later, from the beginning of the twentieth century, most of the traffic was carried out through the Barents Sea.

Why did it happen? The White Sea is covered with ice for more than six months of the year. But this fact is not very convenient for trading. But let's get back to the title. It's time to find out more about the origin of the now familiar designation of a wide expanse of water.

About the origin of the toponym

Until the seventeenth century, the warm northern sea changed several names. It was

• Cold (still covered with ice for 6 months);
• Solovetsky (by the name of the islands);
• Northern (by location);
• Calm (what kind of storms are there if there is ice all around);
• White Bay (almost the entire surface of the reservoir is deepened into land).

In Scandinavian myths, the expanses of water were called Gandvik. At first, this term denoted the entire Arctic Ocean, including the seas of its basin. If you look at this name, the second part means “bay”, the first part means “monster”. It turns out to be “Bay of Monsters”.

Later, this area is designated on maps as Grandvicus sinus. It was the middle of the 16th century. But by its end there were two names: Russian - “White Sea” and Scandinavian - “Grandvicus sinus”. This is evidenced by Mercator's maps, where the northern water basin is marked “Bella more id est Album mare”. By the end of the seventeenth century, only the Russian name remained.

By the way, in myths there is also such a name as “Bay of Snakes”. There were no snakes in the salt water, of course. It owes this designation to its curved, serpentine shape.

Why "White"?

The color is widely used in various names given by the Russian people. The basis is taken not only by the direct meanings of the color itself (shades in the spectrum), but also by the semantic meanings, symbolic. Why is Red Square called Red Square? Where did the red corner come from in the house? For what reason did the girl and the fellow turn red?

And there is also the Red Sea. Plus Black, Yellow. And, of course, White.

Hypotheses for the appearance of the White Sea in the name familiar to contemporary people:

1. Because for more than half a year it is covered with dazzling white ice. To many researchers, this explanation seems the most likely. When you look at pictures taken from space, you see a bright serpentine strip of pure ice.

2. Because it reflects the northern white sky. The color of the water near the sea, freed from ice, also has a characteristic tint. And it doesn't matter what the weather is. The white tint remains.

3. Because the country of Hyperborea was once located on these lands. The famous mystical civilization (like Atlantis) existed “beyond the north wind” (“beyond Boreas”). Life here flourished. People died when they got tired of living. They knew neither strife nor illness. It was this polar civilization that ruled all nations. Even Atlantis was once its colony.

The semantic meaning of white is “divine”, “heavenly”, “spherical”. And prosperous Hyperborea, the “mother” of other mystical civilizations, was located on the territory of the modern White Sea. For this reason, the area acquired a name that indirectly asserts spiritual prosperity and divine purpose.

In searching for an answer to the question of why the sea is called that way, you can come across a lot of assumptions and hypotheses. Let's look at the most convincing of them. We will also try to answer the question of why the sea is called the sea and nothing else.

Why is a collection of salt water in a vast depression of land called a sea? Some sources claim that the word "sea" comes from the Proto-Slavic form *morje. The word itself originates from Israeli mythology and biblical stories, where it denoted not only part of the world's oceans, but also various other bodies of water. It is noteworthy that this word had another interpretation. The ancient Jews sometimes used it to designate all the world's evils.

Now let’s try to figure out why some seas have such unusual names and whether they are directly related to the color palette.

Why is the Black Sea called black?

There are several answers to this question. According to one theory, this sea got its name thanks to the Turks, who for a long time were unable to cross it in order to conquer the peoples inhabiting the coastal strip. It was then that they gave him the nickname “Kara-den-giz”, which means “inhospitable”, “unkind”. Well, black color, obviously, was associated with bad hospitality.

Sailors who sail on it say that it appears black during a storm. But in fairness, it is worth saying that this sea is stormy with a force above 6 points only 20 days a year, and the rest of the time it seems more azure than black.

There is a version that it got its name due to the silt washed ashore, but it is also more gray than black.

The version that seems more plausible is that the Black Sea got its name due to the fact that any object lowered to its bottom and removed from there after some time will be black, which it will acquire due to the accumulation of hydrogen sulfide at great depths. And who called the Black Sea black for the first time, history is silent.

Why is the Red Sea called red?

There are two main versions of the answer to this question. According to one, it appears red when a special kind of algae blooms. According to another version, it was first named so by travelers who saw coastal rocks reflected in its waters, colored red by sunset or sunrise.

It is noteworthy that this sea is not called red in the language of the peoples living on its shores. In this area it is more commonly called reed or reed because of the rapid growth of these plants in the vicinity of the Suez Canal.

Why is the Dead Sea called dead?

You are definitely not in danger of dying from swimming in the waters of the Dead Sea; rather, quite the contrary. The high concentration of beneficial salts in this sea has a pronounced healing and even rejuvenating effect on the human body.

But many other organisms cannot live in these waters, for which such a concentration of salts, which does not even allow the human body to sink to the bottom of this sea, is simply lethal. The density of the water in this sea is many times greater than the density of fresh water. It has also been noted that the oxygen content in the air in the Dead Sea region is 15% higher, and people sunbathing on its shores do not experience the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.

Why is the White Sea called white?

But we know the answer to the question of who first called the White Sea white, quite reliably. This name appears on the map of Peter Plaitsius, which was compiled at the end of the 16th century. The more common and most supported version of why the White Sea is called white is the version that the water in it really has a whitish tint, which does not change depending on weather conditions. It is believed that the sea acquires this shade due to the reflection of the white northern sky in it.

The White Sea is called white because it is covered with white ice and snow most of the year. Do you agree that this explanation seems logical? But a comparative analysis of maritime historical toponymy and a number of obvious facts from medieval Russian chronicles cast doubt on this explanation.

It is curious that in addition to the North Russian White Sea, there are other “White Seas” in the world. For example, words with the ancient root stem “Balt”: “Baltoji - Baltijas” and “Baltoji - Baltijas” - translated into Lithuanian and Latvian mean “White”. Lithuanians and Latvians translate the name Baltic Sea from their languages ​​as the White Sea. However, the international list of “White Seas” does not end there.

It is also curious that the southern Slavs, in particular the Bulgarians, today, like centuries ago, call the Greek Aegean Sea the White Sea. Consequently, the Slavic name White Sea arose not in the European north of Russia, but in the southern Bulgarian Mediterranean. Until now, none of the domestic scientists have expressed this version. For the first time in this article, the opinion is voiced that medieval Russian monks and pilgrims who went on long “walks” to Serbian and Bulgarian monasteries could have brought the name White Sea to Northern Russia from their travels.
As proof, three Russian chronicles can be cited, which record the fact that the name White Sea was used by the Bulgarians back in the Middle Ages. In the medieval travel diary of 1419-1422, called “Zosima’s Walk to Constantinople, Athos and Palestine,” the Russian pilgrim deacon Zosima left a note: “The king’s city stands on three corners, two walls are from the sea, and the third is from the West... In the first corner from the White Sea Studiysky Monastery.” The same text contains a clarification of which White Sea we are talking about: “And that one, the mouth, overlooking the great Poneta (Aegean - I.M.) Sea, which is called the White Sea, stands the city of Troy at the very mouth. Coming out to the Great Sea, go right to the Holy Mountain (Mount Athos - I.M.) and to Selun (the city of Thessaloniki - I.M.) and to the Amerian land (Peloponnese Peninsula - I.M.) and to Rome, on the left towards Jerusalem.”

Based on this text, we can conclude that the Aegean Sea is called the White Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea is called the Great Sea.

Another medieval source, “Barsanuphius’s Voyage to Egypt, Sinai and Palestine” 1461-1462, no longer calls the White Sea the Aegean Sea, but the entire Mediterranean Sea, which his predecessor Deacon Zosimas called the Great Sea. The Russian pilgrim Barsanuphius writes: “And the great river, the golden-streamed Nile, flows from the midday country at midnight into the White Sea.”
Four years after the “walking” of Barsanuphius, in 1465-1466, a trip to the Middle East was made by the clerk of the embassy order “guest Vasily”, who describes the Syrian city of Houzm (city of Homs - I.M.) “... and a lake near the city and a cave from where the serpent crawls out, and near that lake there is a mountain, and on the side of the country there is a mountain and the White Sea,” i.e. again the Mediterranean Sea is called the White Sea.

Renamed sea

Orthodox Russian monks, who mastered the Chud region of Zavolochye, actively transferred the tracing of Christian southern Mediterranean toponymy to the Russian North. This is evidenced, in particular, by such southern Christian names of the northern mountains as Mount Golgotha ​​on Solovki, Mount Sinai near the Pomeranian village of Letniy Navolok, and Mount Eleon near the village of Lopshengi.

Obviously, the southern name White Sea was also brought to the North by Solovetsky monks, who replaced the incomprehensible pagan names of Pomerania with Orthodox Slavic ones.

When the English cartographer Antony Jenkinson compiled the first map of the Muscovite state in 1562, the name of the White Sea was not yet on it.
The sea was first named White only on the map of Peter Plaitsius in 1592. It is no secret that initially it was not even considered a sea, but a large bay of the Arctic Ocean. This bay, which later became known as the White Sea, was called differently by different historical sources. But names with the toponymic base “Kanda” (in Scandinavian transcription – “Ganda” are of particular interest). Obviously, it is from this base that the ancient Scandinavian name for the Bay of Gandvik comes.

Kanda Bay

It is easy to notice that the well-known hydronyms of Pomorie - Kanda-guba, Kanda-vik (Gand-vik), Kandalaksha - consist of two parts. The sea bay is called “guba” in Pomeranian, “vik” in Scandinavian, and “laksha” in Karelian-Pomeranian dialects.

As you can see, all three of these multilingual names translated mean Kanda Bay. It is obvious that Kanda is an ancient, primary and therefore practically unchanged part in each of the three names mentioned. And the second part changed depending on the linguistic changes that took place over the last millennium among the indigenous White Sea population. I’ll immediately make a reservation that I consider any attempts to provide a translation of the toponymic substratum “Kanda” based on consonance with modern languages ​​to be erroneous. However, it is possible to mention versions of the origin of the name Kanda-laksha.

The first version claims that the name is borrowed from the ancient Germanic languages, where Cando means “monster” (“wolf”), and the toponym Kanda-vik (Gand-vik), accordingly, supposedly means “Monster Bay”. As you can see, this explanation is absolutely unintelligible and frivolous.
The second version derives the name Kanda-laksha from the Finnish words “kand” and “kantapää”, which means “heel”. The White Sea supposedly vaguely resembles a giant footprint made by a human foot, and Kandalaksha Bay can be imagined as its heel. In this case, the name "Kanda-laksha" means "Heel of the Bay". But this explanation also seems frivolous.

Kandalaksha River?

There is also a third hypothesis that is quite popular among researchers: the name supposedly comes from the name of the Kandalaksha river, which flows into Kandalaksha Bay on the western bank near the village of Fedoseevka on the Karelian coast of the Murmansk region. However, logic suggests that the Kandalaksha River was named after the sea bay, and not vice versa. In general, it is unlikely that a large sea bay could be named after a small river by the standards of the North, especially since it is not the only one in this place. If the river had originally been called Kanda, and not Kandalaksha, then the version would probably not have raised doubts. But on almost all medieval maps and right up to the 20th century, the river was called Kandalaksha!

Isn’t it more logical to assume that the nameless river was named after Kandalaksha Bay, or after the name of the settlement that bore the name of the bay? It is possible that, contrary to the standard ideas of scientists, maritime peoples who came to new lands from the sea could first give names to sea bays, and only then to the rivers that flowed into these bays. It is also worth emphasizing that the local name Kandalaksha Bay is a small sea bay inside the large oceanic bay of Kanda-laksha (Kanda-vika).

Kanda - ancient sea

It is curious that on the map of Willem Barents of 1598, and the map of Theodor de Bry of 1598, and the map of Gerhard Mercator (Gerard Kramer) of 1630, the largest White Sea cape Kanin-nos is called Kande-nos! And this cannot be an accident. The line connecting the extreme point of Kandina Nose and the extreme point of the Holy Nose on the opposite shore of the sea was actually the border and gateway to Kanda Bay (Gand-vik).

We can conclude that Kanda Bay (Kanda-laksha, Kanda-guba, Kanda-vik, Gand-vik) received its ancient name not from the Kandalaksha river, but from the name of Kanina-nos, which was originally called Kanda-nos. Of course, no one will be able to say what this name of the cape meant in ancient times. The peoples who left us his name have long since disappeared, and their languages ​​are lost forever. To the east of Norway, medieval cartographers indicated a large peninsula, whose outlines resembled Kanin, washed on all sides by a sea that resembles the White Sea. In particular, on the Italian map of 1534 by Benedetta Bordone and on the map by Sebastian Munster this sea is called Mare Congelato (Sea of ​​Conge-lato - I.M.), which is very consonant with the local Pomeranian name Candelaksha (Cande-laksha - I.M.) distorted by Europeans. ), i.e. in fact - the name of Kanda Bay.
It is curious that on the 16th century maps of William Borough, Anthony Jenkinson and Sebastian Munster in the area of ​​the Kanin Peninsula the name Condora is indicated. The location of the name in the area of ​​the modern Kaninskaya tundra suggests that Condora is the name Canda tundra distorted by European cartographers (Kaninskaya tundra - I.M.).]

Thus, based on the above facts, we can for the first time confidently say that the Slavic name White Sea is a direct borrowing and toponymic tracing from the South Slavic White Sea (i.e. the modern Mediterranean or Aegean - I.M.). Most likely, this name was brought to the northern land by the Solovetsky monks, who in the 15th - 16th centuries pursued a policy of intensive assimilation of the local population into Orthodox culture.

It is also obvious that previously the White Sea was considered by the local population not a sea, but a large oceanic bay and was designated by the ancient, still undiscovered word Kanda, which was preserved in the form of a toponymic substar in the names Kandalaksha and Gandvik.

We can only hope that in the future, inquisitive researchers of the toponymy of Pomerania will be able to discover new interesting facts that will confirm or refute the arguments presented here about the origin of the names mentioned.

White Sea. Search for Hyperborea

Ivan MOSEEV
Director of the REC “Pomeranian Institute of Indigenous and Minority Peoples of the North”
Northern Arctic Federal University (NAFU) named after M.V. Lomonosov