The Contents and Map List have all been linked, so you can jump down to the page or map. Use your BACK button to return here. Everything in the book is not linked here, so be sure to scroll through the book and use these links as bookmarks or for quick reference.

Map List

Maps are in order as they appear in the book. Maps in purple are individual maps.

Maps in red groups are found on the same picture, you may need to scroll down a bit to see the one you want.

You can search the Internet to find the original maps sketched in this book, copies could not be attained until now.

They are all sketched from the originals found in libraries and books, all are accurate.

Map of the Earth drawn in 1571, the great Renaissance geographer Gerardus Mercator,

whose studies and works were an invaluable contribution to geography and the art of navigation. (Western Hemisphere)

Americae Sive Novi Orbis No Va Descriptio- Ortelius, Abraham, 1527-1598

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all who have participated in the making of it and have been staunch supporters of lifting the veil over the long hidden truths of Nova Scotia. It is dedicated to you, the reader, who it was written for.

And in memory of John Robert MacNeil, aka…John Bear, Manikean, Mooin and Manfred Icarus Kean “Chapbook Man” extraordinaire…for your tireless and generous effort in bringing the truth of Cape Breton's history to all of us with your book Basket Stories. For the love you had for your family and friends, for your belief in yourself enough to write down your revelations for others to learn from; and especially for your love of the Mi’Kmaq people and your diligence in showing us who they truly are. We all miss you JB, you will never be forgotten. Till we meet again here in the Kingdom of Heaven…

From life to life

we live and we die,

sharing a dirge

or a lullaby,

sharing an hour

or a whole lifetime,

leaving in old age

or in our prime.

We were brothers once,

sisters as well,

perhaps even lovers,

who can tell.

We were together then

for a moment or more.

We'll be together again,

of this I am sure.

And after the march

when we are laid to rest,

we'll plot our return

and do our best

to be lovers again

or brothers-in-arms,

or sisters or friends,

drinking love's charms.

-John Bear MacNeil-

The Secret City

By Joan Hope

Copyright © 2009 Lisa Stone. All Rights Reserved.

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The Library of Hope

Front Cover Painting Adaptation by John Bear MacNeil

Original Painting by Joan Hope

Foreword

When we first began to read about the Holy Grail mysteries several years ago we were intrigued the trail of the Grail was leading to Nova Scotia, Canada. With many of us being from Nova Scotia, it was all the more enthralling to learn, as many things being written about were in our own backyards to find. In our studies we learned of a possible castle in Nova Scotia, an ancient one, pre-Columbian, set in the highest hills in the middle of the west of the province. How could this be? Who discovered this castle and when?

We quickly learned that it was a woman who discovered this castle, a very intriguing woman, a woman that was being shunned because of it. Instantly, when we read that she was accused of being a witch and a threat to her neighbours, we knew she had uncovered a secret.

Not believing anything negative written about her character we sought her out. First finding out that she had written a book about digging up the castle called “A Castle in Nova Scotia” and it was being sold in the very town where she had found the castle, because many of the people in the town and the Nova Scotia government knew it to be true and promoted the finding in tourist publications for 11 years for people to come and see it. All of that changed though, and you’re about to find out why.

After reading the book and the amazing things she wrote, we tracked her down since she had moved from the town in 1990. Locating Joan and her husband we began to correspond and visit. A beautiful friendship and kinship began to unfold.

We were astonished to find out that Joan has written 5 books about her experiences and that they were extensive and other worldly. The truth was told to us, the truth of lies and betrayal, secrets and cover-ups, threats and injustices, but also of great hope, joy and glory to come. Without a second thought we took the reins, as Joan has been somewhat disabled in a car accident and is a shut in. Having travelled the world, she discovered the Castle over 30 years ago. She gave us access to all her data and permission to publish her books, which she has never stopped writing, never stopped investigating, to this day she goes on.

We are going to finish this Joan; it is our destiny to do so. We have our swords and our pens and the Angels who guide us. Tears of joy and hope are flowing now, as the truth sets us free. Thank you Joan and Ron…for everything you have done and sacrificed for the rest of us and the good of mankind.

With infinite love and gratitude,

Lisa, Deborah, John & everyone involved.

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake:

for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”

Matthew 5:10 (KJV)

Sebastian Munster, Western Hemisphere 1569 (circa)

Introduction

Legends concerning a place or places in North America called Norumbega have been extant ever since John Cabot reached our shores in 1497 and particularly since the colonization of New England was begun by the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620. By that time, however, the name had mysteriously disappeared from the map. How and why did this happen? Was Norumbega ever actually there at all? Argument for and against has persisted ever since, and with it the mystery and the myth -if such it was.

A glance at one of the mid-sixteenth century maps, such as those produced by Mercator, shows Norumbega to have been south of New France, roughly covering what are known today as the Maritime Provinces of Canada. New France is no myth: it later became Lower Canada and is now the Province of Quebec - with a few border adjustments. Yet the adjacent colony, often described in contemporary writings as "Norse" or "Norman" has mysteriously disappeared from history. This is all the more amazing when it is noted that part of today’s Quebec - notably The Gaspé and Anticosti Island - as well as part of Maine, was once within the borders of Norumbega.

Further examination of sixteenth-century maps reveals that there were in fact two Norumbegas (spelling varied in those days but they are easily identified). Apart from the territory of Norumbega there was also a city, shown as within its bounds to the south and described in contemporary writings as being a city of furs and gold about fifteen miles inland from the Bay of Many Islands. Several of the maps mark Norumbega City with a small sketch of a castle. But its exact location has always been a matter of dispute, particularly because of the inaccuracies and variations in the maps and to a lesser extent because of the complete omission of the peninsula now known as Nova Scotia. It should, however, be noted that the original Nova Scotia as designated after the King James Charter of 1621 comprised the entire territory of what had been Norumbega, including parts of Quebec and Maine.

By that time maps were more accurate and since the beginning of the century the missing peninsula had been appearing on them, marked as "Souriquois"- a French version of its actual name, Sudhrike - and later as "Acadya" on Champlain's map of 1613.

Here, then, we have the story of the disappearance of the territory of Norumbega, together with Sudhrike: after Champlain both were absorbed into New France and the name "Acadia" substituted for "Souriquois". But by the 1620s the entire territory of Norumbega and that of the attached peninsula had been taken out of New France to form New Scotland or, since the Charters of 1621 and 1625 were written in Latin, Nova Scotia.

But what of Norumbega City - the city of furs and gold? It had by then disappeared off the map altogether and has never been found since.

Hence the myth and the mystery.

Part 1

Chapter I

Norsemen, Vikings, Normans, Greenlanders, Vinlanders

The activities of the Norsemen, including their transatlantic voyages and exploration, have come down to us in both written records and sagas- verbal accounts which were eventually written down. Their traces have been left in the form of artifacts, foundations of buildings, legends, including those of native North Americans and descendants. The Norsemen were tall and fair or red-haired, and these characteristics may be found among people living in "Norse" or "Norman" areas - for instance, the Norman French are markedly taller than those living elsewhere in France. Even where few or no descendants are to be found, place-names indicate a Norse presence sometime in the past. Place-names ending, for instance, in -vik, -wyk, -wick and variants tell us of a creek originally named by Norsemen who actually called themselves the “Creek people” – Vikings. Similarly, we find names such as Bradford, Brador and even La Brador - all of which probably started out as "Broad-fjord" in Old Norse. The French wrote Brador as "Bras d’Or", and may have had a hand in putting the definite article before the name farther north, giving us Labrador, which in turn was picked up by the Portuguese as their own word, labrador leaving posterity with an anachronistic legend to puzzle over, about a farmer or farmers in a land where farming is impossible.

Some of the records and sagas that have come down to us include the Icelandingbok- The Book of the Icelanders. From this we learn, amongst other things, that “Eric the Red” was the name of a Breidafjord man…”who went to Greenland and founded a settlement there.” The Bradford, Brador or Bras d'Or referred to was in Iceland. The book of a settlement in Iceland itself is called Landnamabok. Norse settlement in Iceland is believed, to have started in 874: the Icelandic Parliament dates from 930 and is the oldest in Europe. The Norsemen were preceded in Iceland by Irish hermits, who had been there since the beginning of the same century.

Flateyjarbok includes Greenlandings Saga - the Greenlanders’ saga, which deals mostly with the activities of Erik the Red's family.

Eirika Saga Raude- Erik the Red's Saga- or Thorfinns Saga Karlsefnis (Thordsrsonar), was written for Icelanders, of whom Karlsefni was one, and so tends to concentrate more on him than on Erik, who had been forced to leave. Hauksbok also covers the story of Karlsefni, as written down by Hauk Erlandsson sometime before 1344 who claimed he had improved on the earlier versions.

Einers Thattr Sokkassenar or Greenlandings Thattr that tells the story of Einar Sokkesson of Greenland, one of Erik's descendants still living at Erik's home there.

There are others, such as the Greatest Saga and Olaf’s Saga, as well as Skalholtsbok where references to the lands across the Atlantic may be found, the last-named being another version of Karlsefni's story.

It now seems strange, in the light of the Ingstad discoveries at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, now an internationally-recognised historical site, that until recently all the accounts indicated above were dismissed by many as mere myth. Not that the Norsemen were alone: it now seems certain that the Irish crossed the Atlantic at least as early as the sixth century, and there is some evidence that the Libyans did so even earlier. In many early writings, stories of white-skinned inhabitants appear, again indicating earlier visitors from Europe or the Mediterranean. And in 1583, when Sir Humphrey Gilbert landed in Newfoundland, he found that the people were white.

In the 10th century Bjarni of Iceland lost his way when he sailed west and sighted the lands where Leif was later to follow. Another who also lost his way was Gudleif Gudlangson, who found a land inhabited by white men. But, being warned that they were Irish and could kill him, he left.

A land of white men is mentioned in Erik the Red's Saga as having been described by the native skraelings, who said they had seen them carrying poles with "rags" attached, and that they ware also dressed in white. From this description they would appear to have been monks, possibly Irish monks. The account of the Zeno voyages of 1398 includes a description of landing on the Island of Icaria, said to be inhabited by Irishman and ruled by a descendant of Icarus, son of Daedalus.

All indications are that, according to legend, many people crossed the Atlantic long before even Leif Erikson did so. There is no doubt that many "unofficial" crossings occurred - fishermen and others who were blown off-course and perhaps never returned.

It is, however, now a known fact that the Norsemen did so and that they built houses as described in the sagas, and certainly for a time settled at least at L'Anse aux Meadows.

Great sailors that they were, and explorers too, who can doubt that from that base and possibly others farther south, they explored the entire North American coast? Faint traces of them continue to re-appear: a coin found in Maine, a stone in Nova Scotia with an inscription said to be in runes; native legends of "round-eyed" men, a stone carving showing a marriage between one of them and a native girl; a statuette of a man in Norse-type clothing.

Is it likely that Vikings -creek people- would, have founded such an inland city? Or was it really a Micmac city, as some authorities have suggested? Could it have been a Norse city with Micmac inhabitants? That fifteenth-sixteenth century traders were bringing back furs from Greenland and North America is certainly indicated in contemporary portraits. It could have been, as suggested by con- temporary observers, a trading-post. Nobody really knows who set up the earliest trading-posts, or where. "Rich in furs and gold'' was the description accorded to Norumbega City. Are we to assume that gold was mined and traded there too? Were the inhabitants aware of its value? If not, the Norsemen certainly were: Viking gold is part of the European heritage and many examples of the gold ornaments they wore have been found and preserved.

Not all Norsemen built ships or sailed the high seas, nor even all Vikings: the average family lived inland, most being farmers. Even among the Vikings, most stayed by the creeks from which they took their name. Doubtless many were fishermen and worked from small boats in-shore. Vikings were not necessarily kings, as some people seem to have assumed, but it is true that some came from aristocratic families who later produced kings. These were those who organised expeditions and went to sea with fleets of ships. Not all were interested in conquests: many were merchants and explorers and have been referred to as merchant princes or sea-kings. Like their warrior compatriots, they bore the title jarl or earl. In those days the title jarl was synonymous with that of king. Jarls were more important than the earls we know from later times and were looked upon as kings, though in early times each was a king without a country. A jarl usually ruled over his community rather than over specific territory; yet all were, in one way or another, engaged in a search for territory. The reason for their plight will become evident later, when we consider how and why they came to Norway.

Norsemen were divided into three classes, with the jarl or Chieftain and his family at the top. He was an aristocrat, descended from a family who had been chosen centuries earlier as "best rulers". The word is derived from two Greek words having that meaning. These noble families had fair, yellow or reddish hair, rosy cheeks and keen eyes that were sometimes but not always blue. Apart from their prowess as seafarers, they were excellent equestrians and javelin-throwers, enjoyed games of chance- dice have been found among their artifacts - and could fence, swim and, if occasion arose, make war. Below the jarl came the karls or yeomen, farmers’ adept at breaking-in oxen, making ploughs, carts and other vehicles and implements, and at building-construction. They, too, tended to be fair, ruddy-complexioned and strong, but less tall; sometimes described as phlegmatic and happy with their lot, easily moved to laughter.

The third and lowest class was that of the thralls, who were virtually slaves. Broad-backed and strong, they were very different from the jarl and his yeomen, black-haired and swarthy of complexion with stubby fingers, and coarse features. To them was allotted all heavy work: loading and unloading ships, lifting and carrying, fence-building and maintenance, manure-collection and spreading, tending and controlling farm animals, including goats and pigs, digging peat and carting it from the bogs, stacking it for winter use. Their children helped with lighter but related tasks, such as goat-herding.

Whenever a jarl moved, he took all these men and their families and all the animals with him.

For over 350 years the jarls lived in this way, each a little king in his own right. Then in 872 one of them, Harald Fairhair, declared himself King of Norway, and everything changed. He was succeeded by Erik Bloodyaxe who killed four of his brothers and oppressed his people. They therefore sent for Hakon, who had been fostered in England by Athelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great, at which Erik Bloodyaxe knowing the people had turned against him, fled. Hakon arrived in Norway and began his rule In 945: he was their first Christian King. The bishops and priests upon whom he called to Christianise the country also came from England. In 995 a second Christian King was brought, this time from the Faroes - Olaf Trygvasson, the king who was soon to convert Leif Erikson to Christianity and to give him the task of Christianising Greenland in the face of his father's unshakable faith in the pagan pantheon and in Thor in particular. This pantheon was roughly equivalent to those of Greece and Rome, the names of the gods varying according to the nationality of the worshippers. Thor, the thunder-god, was the equivalent of Zeus or Jupiter. The Norse gods, however, were not immortal, and were menaced by evil in the form of the Giants and Loki; nor does Valhalla seem to have been derived from Greece or Rome.

Gothic tribes, Teutons in particular, were already in north-western Europe when the ancestors of the Norseman arrived there after the Fall of Rome; it was probably from there that they had acquired their pantheon, adding it to that of an older pagan religion. Although the newcomers brought their own men to their new home, they took others from the indigenous population, both serfs and thralls. Some of the thralls may have belonged to an earlier people, described by some authorities as having been originally a dwarf race.

The events after Harald Fairhair became king of Norway may be seen as a revolution, bringing Norway into line with its neighbours such as Denmark and Sweden. Its final phase was Christianisation.

The Norse jarls, who had long enjoyed their freedom and independence, naturally resented Harald's dominance and that of his successors. Some opposed the king or broke his laws, including Erik the Red's father, Thorvald, and as a result were exiled to Iceland; others fled there to take refuge. Eventually they established their own democratic parliamentary rule in the form of the All-Thing- democratic, that is to say, in the Greek sense: only the jarls and their families were involved.

Harald and his successors, however, regarded all Norse-occupied lands as coming under their jurisdiction. Erik the Red, who was to remain ardently attached to Thor for the rest of his life, was doubly resentful, longing even more for his old independence. He and his father, having come to Iceland among the later waves of immigration, had had a hard time finding land suitable for farming that was not already occupied. Then, no sooner had he settled on land of his own, then his thralls in the course of their work caused a land-slide, and this eventually involved him in a fight with a particularly nasty jarl known as Eyolf the Foul. Eyolf killed Erik's thralls, and in return was himself killed. But much to Erik's chagrin, the All-Thing refused to regard this as an act of self-defense, valuing the life of one jarl as above those of several mere slaves. Banished from Iceland for three years, Erik sailed west to Greenland and determined not only to establish himself there but, once his three years were up, to entice others to join him in colonisation. Icy and forbidding though he found most of Greenland to be, he embarked on his plan to promote it as a pleasant land, excellently-suited to settlement; that was why he called it Greenland.

It is claimed that Erik was the first real-estate promoter in history.

Essential to every jarl were his dais-posts: without them he could not sit on his little throne and hold court in the traditional kingly fashion. They also traditionally performed another essential function: when a jarl found new land on which to settle, he would determine the best place to build his new home by hurling the posts into the sea. The place where they were washed up was deemed to be the most propitious for him to start building. At one point during Erik's flight from his enemies after the land-slide, he was forced to lend his dais-posts to a neighbour for a while - then had to fight a minor war to get them back.

Cold though it was, even at that time when Greenland was going through one of its rare warmer periods, Erik found peace at his new home there at Brattahlid in Eriksfjord. He had been forced to leave his three young sons behind in Iceland with a foster-father, Tyrkir the German. At the end of the three years they joined Erik in his new land.

Erik the Red is believed to have lived from about 950 to about 1005, so would have been in his twenties when he came with his father to Iceland. Leif is believed to have been born to Erik and his wife Thorhild in 97l, so would have been little more than ten years old at the time he and his brothers, Thorstein and Thorvald, were taken to Greenland. He is believed to have died around 1025, leaving one son, Thorkel, born about 998.

These dates indicate that they lived at a time when other "creek-men" from lands like Denmark and Sweden, as well as from Norway, were engaged in what later became known as the Viking raids on the British Isles and Europe. Stories of the exploits of Vikings both Norse and Teutonic must have been told by the light of the flickering fire during the long winter evenings at Brattahlid. They date back to at least the 8th century -Beowulf's story, for instance, which deals with the royal families of Denmark, Sweden and South Sweden, then a separate country. The story would have been especially interesting to Erik, since one of the usurpers was an ancestor to his close associate, Thorfinn Karlsefni, who himself was trying to move west to Vinland and in the end succeeded in doing so.

Erik was particularly anxious, once Leif had found the new land and established houses there, to send one of his other sons out, who were more tolerant towards the old religion. Unfortunately both died: Thorvald because he foolishly alienated the indigenous "skraelings" or "shrieking men" as the Norsemen called them; and Thorstein while still in Greenland, of what must have been influenza. Leif, having become a Christian and converted his mother, amongst others, to that religion, was no longer trusted by Erik, and this may be why he gave support to Karlsefni's voyage west - he having also married Thorstein's widow, Gudrid. It seems that whatever Leif might have wished to do regarding Vinland, he was to do it alone. That he was still interested is indicated by his insistence that he would only lend his buildings to others. It is now believed that the place where Karlsefni temporarily settled – Straumfjord - was at what is now known as L'Anse aux Meadows, near the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. But Leif describes his landfall at the time of his voyage of discovery as being much farther south, where night and day were almost equal and the climate warm. It was from there that he returned as the wealthy "Leif the Lucky", towing a boat full of ''grapes" that had been found there, initially by Tyrkir. Nobody can believe that Leif’s cargo really consisted of grapes or any other fruit, which obviously would not have survived the voyage home. Nor would they have made him wealthy.

There was, however, something else in the new land that could have made him a rich man, and about which he would not have wished to talk: gold. This would have provided an added incentive for Leif to abandon war- torn Europe for a new life in the lands across the Atlantic.

So far, the kings of Norway had laid claim to every new land where Norsemen had settled - even Greenland, northern Scotland and the Hebrides. Leif must have been determined, and Karlsefni likewise, that this must never be the fate of Vinland.

Here, in his secret lands across the sea, we may discern the germ of what was to become Sudhrike- the Southern Domain, south, that is to say, of Greenland and possibly also of Mer Rika, the Kingdom of the Sea, from which the name "America" was, according to some Norwegian authorities, derived.

Early in the eleventh century, after the death of Erik, Leif’s descendants disappear from history. Not only did they have their secrets to keep, the ongoing wars and conquests were of more interest to historians. In 1014, the powerful Norse Earl of Orkney was defeated during a campaign against Ireland. Between 1014 and 1028 Danish Cnut subdued and ruled the northern part of England. Harald Hardradi, “Thunderbolt of the North" and a Norseman, took advantage of quarrels between later claimants and captured the land in 1066, only to be defeated by Harold Godwinson, who himself was then attacked, defeated and killed by former Norsemen who had taken part of France and crossed the Channel to take England. In Brittany, too, Norse invaders had been ruling for over a hundred years. Alan the Great, who died in 907, was the last Count (equivalent to Earl) of Brittany of that line, and the last to rule the entire country. He had no sons, but his grandson, Alan of the Twisted Beard, was, like Hakon, a foster-son of Athelstan, and ruled from 917-52, retrieving some of his country's lost territory. But the 11th century proved to be a troubled time for Brittany, too, and when the new line also died out, the country went through marriage to the Dukes of Normandy.

As it happened, however, not all the lines had died out.

A cadet line of this Norse-descended family was in England at the time, and as the FitzAlans was destined to provide a line of hereditary Stewards of Scotland who eventually would inherit the throne itself. Of these, another cadet line was destined to inherit the great wealth that had accrued to the descendants of Leif Erikson.

Through the Viking raids and related wars the descendants of the Old Norse aristocrats gained ascendancy in Europe. Their exploits continued to engage the attention of historians, who at the same time tended to ignore those of less belligerent men.

Erik's descendants had other ideas in mind by which they hoped to prosper and win their way through, without recourse to war. The fact that historians ignored them would work to their advantage.

Secrecy was the essence of it all.

Notes and Background to Chapter I

Dates: Many are approximate, especially those pertaining to Greenland, whose annals were lost. Some authorities place Leif Erikson’s voyage of discovery as late as the first decade of the llth century. But it was after his return that he was at Olaf’s court, and he died in 1000, having reigned since 995. The most likely date for Leif's Atlantic crossing would appear to be about 996.

Ships: The ships used by the Norse explorers have sometimes been described as long- ships - sleek, narrow and fast, with a single large, square sail, and bow and stern carved, to represent fierce animals and riding 15 feet above the water. These, however, were war-ships: they might be 70 feet long with a mast about 40 feet tall and 25 or 30 pairs of oarsmen, but they were only 16 feet in the beam. The knarr or ocean-going merchant ship, naturally had to carry trained men and arms in ease of attack, but it needed a crew of only 15-20 men and had oarsmen only at either end, 10 pairs in all. The knarr, like the smaller byrding and busse, was designed for cargo: broader, rounder, with a deeper draft and perhaps only 60 feet long. It was also slower, doing perhaps 4 knots, and more durable, and could sail into the wind or before it.

Clothing, Armour: Carvings, tapestries and other evidence suggest warm, practical every-day wear: skirts-like garments or trousers to the ankles, stout leather shoes, cape or cloak fastened with pin or brooch, conical leather cap. In severe weather, a hooded cloak might be worn. Contrary to popular belief, their warriors did not wear round helmets with horns on top. They carried light wattle shields, easy to transport, and if they wore helmets at all, they were plain and practical, with ear-shields and face-masks.

Norsemen and Normans: 898: Norseman Rolf or Rollo arrived in what was to become Normandy. 911, the province was ceded to him. His grandson became the first Duke.

All the great Norse families, whether settled in Norway, Denmark, Iceland or elsewhere, were part of a vast, inter-related family. Harald Fairhair was Thorfinn Karlsefni’s cousin. The Dukes of Normandy were cousins to the Earls of Scotland. All were descended from Ragnor Lodbrok, son of Sigurd, king of Denmark and descended from the Yngling Kings of Sweden. Leif Erikson was linked by marriage to this network through Thorfinn Karlsefni. There must have been many other connections that were not recorded.

Names: Every Norseman had a given name and a patronym: Leif, son of Erik, so Leif Erikson. The name applied to women: Thorhild daughter of Jorund Atlisson, so Thorhild Jorundsdottir. Many also had a nickname that became more important than his own patronym perhaps because it distinguished him from all others of the same name and patronym: Ragnar Lodbrok or Shaggy-breeches. It was from their nicknames as well as from their patronyms that surnames were later to develop which would distinguish one family from another. Natural children could take the same patronym as their half-brothers and sisters: Freydis Eriksdottir. Frey was the fertility-god, and the great Frey festival, during which young men choose temporary partners, was held every nine years. Paternity was known and children named accordingly.

The Norse Home: This was very simple, consisting of a long, narrow hall perhaps twelve feet wide, with a rough stone hearth in the middle, a hole in the roof for smoke to escape and the lateral walls lined with wooden benches which also served as beds. Here food was cooked, water being brought in from a nearby stream or spring. At some distance from the hall, a pit was dug and a privy constructed above. We know from the sagas that there was room for at least two inside. Building material were stone, sods and wood: stone and sod walls, wooden roofs. Thorhild, when she became a Christian, had her own stone church built, and its ruins remain. It is known as “Thiodhild’s church,” as she also changed her name, rejecting Thor in favour of God.

Background: England: 866: Invasion by Ragnar Lodbrok's sons, Halfdan, Ubbi and Ivar the Boneless: took York and much land; fear of Danish invasion followed.

871: approximately: Based in England, Ivar attacked Dublin and Ubbi invaded Anglia, while Halfdan ruled from his seat in London.

878: Cornish Celts defeated Norsemen in Devon, and Alfred the Great drove all "Danes", i.e. Vikings, out.

899: Death of Alfred the Great, England almost intact.

971: Death of Hakon the Good in battle. His son, Sigurd of Lade, then ruled Northern Norway, but Erik's widow and remaining sons took Middle Norway. Hakon of Lade succeeded in the North but had to flee from the tyrants of Middle Norway. Hakon of Lade had a son, Erik, and a nephew, Gold-Harald, who killed Harald Greycloak, son of Erik Bloodyaxe; but later, in civil war with his uncle, he lost and was hanged. Harald Blue-tooth of Denmark, with whom Hakon of Lade had taken refuge when he fled, joined Hakon of Lade in taking all Norway. Hakon became Earl of the West and North, while Harald Fairhair's great-grandson, Harald the Greenlander, ruled Southern Norway.

Russia: 862: State founded by Norse trader, Rurik: capital Novgorod.

Orkney: 911: First Earl, Sigurd, brother of Rognvald, whose son Rolf or Rollo founded Normandy in that year. His son, Halfdan, inherited but was killed by Rolfs brother "Peat" Einar, who became third Earl. Einar was a dark man, hence is nickname: his father, Rognvald, had married a slave-girl, believed to be Egyptian. These two were the progenitors also of the Earls of More and the later Dukes of Normandy. Scotland was sparsely populated, so when the Norsemen came they were not absorbed into the indigenous population as they were elsewhere. Sigurd, first Earl of Orkney formed an alliance with Thorstein the Red and his Mother, Aud or Unn the Deep-thinker, who came from the Hebrides.

The Hebrides, then known as Sudreyar - The Southern Isles: 705, 802, 806: Norsemen plundered Iona, centre of Celtic Christianity since 563, and invaded Skye. Ketil Flatnose was first ruler there, but the islands eventually came under Norway. His son was Bjorn the Easterner and his grandson, Ottar. Ottar’s daughter, Grelod married Thorfinn “Peat” Einarson, whose Father was Third Earl of Orkney.

845: Death of Thorgest, drowned by the local king.

853: Olaf the White of Dublin, descended from the Uplanders of Norway (as were the Earls of Orkney and the Dukes of Normandy) married Aud the Deep-thinker, daughter of Ketil Flatnose of the Hebrides. From Dublin, he and a Dane called Ivar attacked Scotland. Olaf was married three times, his third wife being daughter of Kenneth Macalpine, King of Scots 843-60, i.e. Kenneth I.

870: Birth of Kjartan, five generations after Olaf and Aud. During his reign Dublin was attacked by Norsemen from the Hebrides.

914: Rognavald, grandson if Ivar the Boneless, great-grandson of Ragnar Lodbrok, took Waterford. Strongholds in Ireland at the time were Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Cork and Limerick.

916: Sigtrygg re-took Dublin, which by that time the Norsemen had lost. He was brother to Rognavald.

The Irish called the Norsemen “the foreigners" naming them according to where they had established themselves: "The Dublin foreigners”, and so on. But Ireland was well populated and in the end the “foreigners” brought in by the conquering Earls were absorbed.

945: Olaf Sigtryggson, having attacked York and been driven off, took Dublin and established himself there. Olaf's wife was Gormlaith, sister of the King of Leinster.

999: Olaf's son, Sigtrygg Silkbeard, was defeated by Brian Born, King of Munster, with whom he then entered into an alliance.

1014: Leinster in rebellion against Sigtrygg Silkbeard, who went to Orkney to ask the Earl, Sigurd the Stout -a Norsemen large in every direction - to help. He then approached Brodir of the Isle of Man. With their assistance Brian Born was killed and the Norse alliance with Munster ended. The death of Sigurd the Stout was also reported, and Thorfinn the Mighty, his son, ruled until his death in 1064-65, aided by his brothers.

1034: Death of Sigtrygg Silkbeard of Dublin, who during his reign introduced coinage into Ireland for the first time.

900: Alan the Great ruling at about this time, last to do so over whole country.

917-52: Alan of the Twisted Beard, who became Duke in 937. Grandson of Alan the Great, he regained much lost territory. He was another foster-son of Athelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great.

Iceland: 870 or earlier; Discovered by Norsemen who tried to settle but it was too cold for their cattle, who died. They found Irish monks there.

874: First Norse settler, Ingolf Arnarson; threw his dais-posts into the sea and built where they washed up, according to custom. This became the site of the capital, Reykjavik. Original 400 families - Norse, Irish, Hebridean and mixed- are listed in Landnamabok. All-Thing and system of law were established; literature developed. Like all Norsemen, they were adaptable and open-minded; those who settled in Normandy displayed similar traits. The Norse families brought with them serfs who were not necessarily Norse: many were Celts. They had no kings: "We are all equal”. But 39 dominant families arose among them.

1000: Coming of Christianity: Saxon priest, Thangbrand, had arrived three years earlier and at first failed, but brought the people round by persuading a pagan priest, Thorgier, to speak in his favour. A vote was taken and Iceland adopted Christianity.

Customs: Wherever the Norsemen went, they adopted the customs and names of the indigenous people, and to a certain extent their dress.

Democracy: They brought with them their own culture, law & organisation - particularly democracy.

Sagas: Chronology, Sequence of Events

Greenlanders’ Saga was originally incorporated into The Great Saga of Olaf Trygvasson (d.1000) and copied into Flateyjarbok in late 14th C.

It is as was told by and for Christians, Erik the Red’s Saga & Derivatives: These tell the story from Icelanders’ viewpoint; written down about 300 years after the Greenlanders' Saga, does not mention Leif's visit to Thorgunna, says that Erik died before Christianity, describes Thorvald's fatal visit to Vinland as taking place as soon as Leif returned from there, followed by Thorstein's desire to go there and give him a Christian burial. Karlsefni’s voyage follows, then that of Freydis. No mention either of Leif's important visit to Olaf Trygvasson or his mission to Christianise Greenland, his mother's conversion, her church, or the estrangement between her and Erik. All these matters are dealt with in Erik's Sagas. Thorstein's abortive voyage, marriage and death preceding Thorvald’ s voyage, which, with that of Freydis, in this version takes place along with Karlsefni's expedition. Nobody now knows which sequence is correct.

Possible Sequence of Events:

950: Birth of Erik the Red in Jaedir district, Norway. In south-west.

963-4: Erik’s father, Thorvald, to Iceland with wife and family. Hornstrandir.

970(?): Erik’s marriage to Thorhild and move to set up own home, Vatnshorn.

971(?): Birth of Leif; later Thorstein, Thorvald (also Freydis).

981(?): Erik to Greenland for 3 years then brought family there.

985: Colonisation of Greenland; Bjarni Herjulfson blown west to new lands.

995: Olaf Trygvasson’s reign started in Norway.

996(?): Leif to Vinland (995-6?), rescuing Thorer on way back; wife Gudrid.

997: Leif’s visit to Olaf of Norway, visiting Thorgunna, Hebrides, on way.

998: Leif’s return to Greenland with priests & mission to Christianise.

999: Abortive voyage by Erik & Thorstein.

1000: Death of King Olaf. Thorgunna & Thorkel Leifsson to Iceland.

1000(?): Thorstein’s marriage to Thorer’s widow, Gudrid; to Western Settlement; death of Thorstein. Return of Gudrid to Brattahlid.

1003-4: Thorfinn Karlsefni’s marriage to Gudrid, followed by expedition to Vinland with Thorvald & Freydis; two winters there, birth of Snorri Thorfinnsson at Straumfjord; visits to other parts, including Hop; Death of Thorvald on Labrador coast at hands of natives.

1005(?): Karlsefni and family back to Greenland, but had not found Leif’s southern bay, site of the “grapes”. Death of Erik. (?)

1006(?): Freydis’s quarrels with male partners; their murders; her return to Greenland in shame.

All had failed to find Leif’s Vinland and the “grapes”.

Chapter II

The Nature, Customs and Origins of the Norsemen

The Dark Ages lasted approximately a thousand years, from the fall of the Roman Empire in the mid-fifth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century. Perhaps it is because it was during this period that the Norsemen arose that so little attention has been paid to their origins. We know that they "appeared" in about the eighth or ninth century, or at least they made their presence known at that time.

The Roman Empire collapsed between 410 when Rome was sacked by the Visigoths and 476, when the last emperor was deposed by Odoacer, a chieftain of the Heruli, who had allied themselves with the Goths. The period leading up to 476 had been one of chaos, the Eastern Empire having split from the West during the reign of Diocletian (283-305), resulting in the emergence of the Byzantine Empire based on Constantinople (formerly Byzantium, now Istanbul). This had weakened the Western Empire, which for centuries had been subject to attacks from “barbarian” or bearded tribes - the Romans being clean-shaven.

The Goths were Germanic and divided into the Western Goths or Visigoths and the Ostrogoths early in the fourth century. The Huns, who attacked them, were not - contrary to popular belief - Germans. They first made themselves known in northern central Asia in the third century B.C, as hordes of Asiatic warriors mounted on horses. After occupying China, they turned their attention to Europe via the Volga Valley. It was their attacks on the Ostrogoths and Visigoths that forced the German tribes to migrate and eventually to destroy the weakened Roman Empire. Atilla, based in Hungary, is the one whose name is best-remembered, perhaps because he penetrated to Gaul. But there he was defeated in 451 and the Huns were forced to withdraw after his death. Their name is perpetuated in that of Hungary, but the fate of these once-powerful tribes is unknown.

Into this chaos came the Norsemen, their origin unknown to the people among whom they settled - at first mainly the Germanic tribes of northwestern Europe, Cunningly, they merged into the indigenous population, adopting their names and customs, dressing similarly. The Germanic tribes in that area were apparently the Teutons and the Cimbri who had been defeated by the Romans in 102-101 B.C. Farther south were the Franks, the Vandals and other tribes, whom they would meet later. All were fierce fighters, and the Norsemen knew they must meet them on their own terms if they were to gain their respect. Only then could they introduce their culture and law, which at first they could practise only among themselves. Their long-time desire and ultimate aim was apparently to perpetuate their concept of democracy - something that was entirely new to north-western Europe.

The Norse jarls were literate at a time when most European kings were not: Alfred the Great was the first English king to learn to read and write. It is interesting that to this day Iceland, which is more "Norse" than Norway and whose language is nearer to Old Norse than any other, claims to be a nation of avid readers, with more books per 1,000 of population than in any other part of the world.

The Norsemen were brave, persistent and resourceful, unpretentious yet mindful of their heritage and worth; and they had a good sense of humour. With these characteristics and their ability to put up with Spartan conditions, they remained optimistic of their ultimate success.

They apparently did not tell others where they had come from, but among themselves told stories of the exploits of men like Pericles and Leonidas, and Alexander the Great, and of Pytheas, discoverer of Thule.

The "Viking" Norsemen were the first to arrive: coming by sea, they joined "creek-men" already there, adapting to their new home, dressing just like anyone else. But their ships must, from the outset, have caused comment for they were far superior to any locally-built vessels.

Unfortunately, the Viking raids caused later historians to regard, all Vikings as "northern sea robbers of the 8th to 10th centuries", although some dictionaries prefer "northern sea rovers". One dictionary derivation suggests that the word comes from Old English wic, meaning "camp", and thus "camp dwellers". That from the Old Norse would seem to be much more likely, but there does happen to be a Norse word vikingr, meaning "pirate". This was probably derived from the original word later.

Vikings were of varying national origin and fall into two classes: the marauders, either Visigoths or others who had adopted their war- like practices, and the seafarers - explorers, merchants and traders - who fought only if attacked.

The Teutons worshipped the god Woden, known in the north as Odin: he was the father of their pantheon, among his sons being Thor. His symbol was a raven, the bird that Leif Erikson is said to have displayed on his flag. Thor's symbol was a hammer, identifying him as the god of iron as well as of thunder, and he was also reputed to have a red beard. The Norsemen adopted all these Teutonic myths. Red beards were not uncommon among them, and this may have influenced them towards Thor; but Frey was also more important to them than to their neighbours.

The Norsemen differed from their neighbours in several other respects, particularly in not having a king, but dividing up their territory into many small states, each with its own elected assembly or Thing and its own elected jarl. This was the first time since Athens in classical times that this type of democracy had existed anywhere. The jarls formed what was virtually a nation of kings, each one equal to the next, without a central ruler. The main drawback about this system was that there was nobody to settle disputes between one jarl and the next, which led to much fighting among them that might otherwise have been avoided. Neither the serfs (called yeomen by some authorities, though it is doubtful whether any of them owned land) nor the thralls were allowed to vote at the Thing or to have any say in the way the state was run.

Education, although apparently not emphasised to a great extent in adult life, was regarded as important for Norse children - that is, for those of the ruling families. There were no schools; we hear little if anything of tutors; what were later to become the great universities were still at the monastic stage. Norsemen, whether merchants, traders or warriors, were busy people and it may be assumed that they sent their children away to foster-parents in order to solve their problems. Erik the Red, when forced to spend three years in unknown Greenland, conveniently left his children with their German foster-father, Tyrkir. But when they joined him in Greenland, Tyrkir came with them. In fact, he was not just caring for them, he was obviously educating them.

King Athelstan of England is said to have fostered many boys destined to become great rulers or efficient administrators. Hakon the Good and Alan of the Twisted Beard were only two examples. His court must have seemed almost like a school at times.

Perhaps most important of all, in this way the Norsemen, who had come to the north-west as strangers, were able to ensure that their children knew not only the culture of their forefathers, but that of their neighbouring countries and of the people among whom they were to live; and there is no doubt that the young boys were also taught the arts of war and conquest.

Fostering was a custom that was to persist for many centuries. It was not always evident: sometimes foster-sons were adopted and took the surnames of the families in which they were brought up. This was useful at times when it was necessary for a family to go into hiding. The true identity of such a child would become obvious only in that he would later inherit neither wealth nor title, even if he was the eldest. This was usually passed off by the adopting family as being a family tradition that the eldest should not inherit. In most cases, the real tradition was one of adoption or fostering which, in a trusted family, could take place generation after generation.

Chapter III

The Heruli: Identity & Movements West

In the chaotic years leading up to the final fall of Rome in 476, nobody gave much thought to the Heruli. They came into prominence at that time as the people who went to the aid of the Visigoths and toppled Emperor Romulus Augustus - their chieftain, Odoacer, then being proclaimed King of Italy, with his capital at Ravenna. But Emperor Zeno of the Eastern Empire sent Theodoric the Great of the Ostrogoths to deal with Odoacer. He won, and after making peace with him, he invited him to a banquet on March 15, 493, and had him assassinated. Odoacer is described as of German descent, born in about 435, son of Edice, chief of the Scyrri tribe. Apparently he did not inherit his father's title but instead became chief of the Heruli. The question arises as to whether he was actually a foster-son or adopted. For the Heruli were apparently not connected with the Scyrri or with any other Germanic or Gothic tribe.

One might have expected the Heruli to have tried to avenge their king’s death: instead, nothing happened, and they again disappeared from the pages of history.

This was not their first disappearance: it had all happened before, sometime after the break-up of the empire of Alexander the Great. They were not seen as important then, and such was the case again after 493. To ignore them was a mistake, but it was to work to their advantage.

There was, of course, no reason why anybody should have bean concerned with the Heruli after 493: despite Odoacer's spectacular performance in 476, he had since been defeated several times in battle by Theodoric, and then had foolishly allowed himself to be lured into a trap, where he died in ignominy.

The truth was, however, that the Heruli had other plans afoot. They had not forgotten Alexander or the Golden Age of Pericles. They knew their own Greek culture and traditions had survived in the Eastern Empire, where since Alexander's death in 323 B.C. they had made their home living in Scythia just north of the Black Sea. Until 476 they had been mercenaries in the Roman army, but in that year they had rebelled, joining the Visigoths and putting an end to Roman domination in the West. Although Odoacer himself remained in Italy as King until his death, it was noted that in 489 a people calling themselves Heruli or Eruli were living on friendly terms with the Goths just north of the Danube. They had elected a king whose name was Hrodulfr or Rudolph, the name being derived from ros, meaning red. Presumably he had red hair, though the word does have an alternative meaning, which is "praise". Theodoric is said, to have sent this king a horse.

Around the time of the murder of Odoacer, during the reign of Eastern Emperor Anastasius (491-518) they crossed the Danube and settled in Illyria (now Serbia, part of Yugoslavia). It was apparently after that move that they began their long overland journey north-westwards to a place they referred to as Thule.

Thule had been known to the Greeks and Romans since Pytheas of Massalia made his voyages there around 330-325 B.C. His home, Massalia - now known as Marseille - was then a Phocean Greek colony and its people came from around Thebes. Pytheas, an astronomer, geographer and traveller by profession, was the first man to use astronomical measurements to ascertain exactly where places were on the surface of the Earth: he was in fact the inventor of latitude. In Massalia, he built a tall steeple or gnomen and measured latitude by means of an imaginary line from the tip of the shadow to the top of the gnomen, and thus to the Sun. He was also, therefore, the inventor of the sundial: sundials are gnomens built to a smaller scale.

His calculations, which had to be made at the solstice for the length of the shadow to be right, were complicated, but were to prove helpful to him in his voyages. He sailed to Britain and a land called Belerion which was Cornwall, arriving there from the Continent in four days; later he reached Shetland. But it was Thule that impressed him more than any other land he had seen. It was within the Arctic Circle and he called it the Uttermost Land of the Midnight Sun, and the stories he told on his return ensured that "Ultima Thule” would become legendary. He noted that the people grew and ate oats and green vegetables, that they kept few animals and lacked "the finer fruits" such as were found in the Mediterranean area; and he found it strange that, because of the dampness and heavy showers, they had to do their threshing "in large buildings" - barns. He referred to something strange that was neither land nor water, on which no boat could sail and no man could walk; but it was the phenomenon of the midnight sun that amazed his listeners most.

Pytheas had discovered lands that were unknown to the people of the Mediterranean and southern Europe. Arguments immediately arose that were to persist for centuries afterwards. Some who heard his story disbelieved him; many disputes arose as to whether there really was land or sea where neither sailing nor walking was possible, and later writers on his discoveries tried to identify the phenomenon with polar drift-ice, while others suggested he had come to the edge of a peat-bog. Later, when others followed in his tracks, the argument arose as to whether Thule was an island, as he had described it, or part of Europe. This continues to this day, some claiming that Thule was Iceland, others that it was Norway.

The seafarers among the Heruli seem to have had no doubts as to the identity of the land they were seeking as their new base, which they called Thule: it was in Norway that they settled, and it was to Norway that they arranged to guide their people, whom they had left behind in Illyria. Thule soon became Northmannia; only later still did it become "Norguegia”.

The confusion over whether Thule was an island or not seems to be explained by the description of the land by the new arrivals as "the largest of all islands, ten times as large as Britain". Such a description would fit Scandinavia, which at the time they did not know was attached to the mainland. The Heruli left behind in Illyria, had at the time a king whose task was to lead them overland to Thule: his name was Ochon, possibly an earlier form of Hakon. During their journey across Europe, however, the chiefs who, according to their system of democracy, had voting-rights, decided by majority vote among themselves to try out the experiment of organising themselves without a king. Poor Ochon was therefore not only voted out, but executed. The experiment did not work: disagreements arose between the chiefs, resulting in fighting that might have prevented them from completing their journey. Fortunately they were able to see that their experiment had failed, and so they sent messengers ahead to Thule to warn the chiefs there of their plight and to request that a prince of royal blood be sent to be their new king. They arranged for him to be brought to them at Singidunum (now known as Belgrade), and the messengers duly started back with the prince who had been chosen. It is to be assumed that they ware travelling on horseback.

Unfortunately, due to some accident or illness, the prince died on the way, and the messengers had to go back to Thule to renew their request. This time, to ensure that at least one prince arrived safely, they brought back two, and with them two hundred men. Both arrived without mishap - one being Datios or Todasios, possibly the same as the Norse Tjodrik, and the other his brother Aordos, probably the same as Vard. They arrived at Singidunum to find an experimental ruler already in charge, a Herulian called Svartus who had been living with the Justinians at Byzantium. When he saw that the two princes were supported by two hundred strong men, he fled back to Byzantium alone. This brought the Heruli to the attention of the Justinians, who began to harass them, claiming that Svartus was their rightful king. But the Heruli moved on to the land of the Gepidae (later Siebenburger), also to the south, and thus were able to shake them off. Thence they continued northwards through lands occupied by various Slav tribes and eventually reached Jutland. Here they must have encountered Teutons but passed through these tribes and those of the Danes without engendering violence. Apparently ships were sent from Thule to enable them to complete their journey. It is uncertain how many there were, but a figure of 2,000 was estimated when they were in the Roman army under the Eunuch Narsus at the time when they were brought to Italy before the rebellion.

With them the Heruli brought their great Spring Festival, which later became the Spring Festival of the North and was held when the first rays of the sun appeared each year at the end of the arctic darkness.

Once the Heruli had arrived, the need for a king disappeared and they organised themselves into tribes. Contemporary writers mention varying numbers - 13 and 27. Almost immediately the Heruli - or Norsemen as they now were - started sailing southwards on voyages of exploration. This may have been happening long before the overlanders arrived, since the presence of at least some Heruli in the north-west was noted as early as the third century. They were probably few at that time.

From the beginning, the jarls set themselves up, each in his own territory. The original term was erilar, meaning in primitive Norse, "leader in war". Jarl was a later modification, from which the modern term earl evolved.

The Heruli who became the first Norsemen were tall, fair, inclined to be ruddy in complexion, and lightly-armed. They went into battle wearing a belted tunic of thick woollen cloth, and only leaders or proven warriors were allowed to carry a shield. None wore a helmet or any other armour.

In religion, they accepted the pantheon of the Goths and Danes, but at once relegated Woden to second place, giving precedence to Thor. They were known to have made sacrifices to their gods, but only of dead animals. They apparently found cannibalism being practised by some of the Gothic tribes, who sometimes ate the flesh of their elderly dead, believing that they would thus gain the strength and abilities of the elders whom they had lost. The Heruli wisely rejected this custom.

Among the Heruli, although not among the later Norsemen, a wife was expected to die with her husband and usually chose to hang herself near his grave. This custom may have been picked up during Alexander's Asian campaigns, during which he pushed eastwards to northern India. There it was traditional until recent times for a widow to throw herself on her husband's funeral pyre. Cremation on a funeral pyre was also the rule among the Norsemen at first, which may explain the absence of any skeletal remains in some Norse burial-sites, only the ashes having been buried. Christian burials later took the place of cremation, and the skeletons that have been found testify to the great height of the average Norseman, long thigh-bones being a characteristic.

Since the Greeks used to cremate their dead in classical times, it is not possible to make comparisons, although it is believed that many of them were tall. There is, however, one fact that definitely links the Norsemen to the Mediterranean, and that is their ships. Those being used by them in the tenth century were similar to the old Mediterranean type main mast: square sail, and rudder. The connection is inescapable. And once the south Europeans had made contact and begun to settle in what is now Norway, their ships became more and more numerous in northern waters. In the fifth century, those Heruli who had arrived and settled there were already sailing from Scandinavia, where not only merchant ships but long-ships were being built, enabling a certain amount of raiding to take place along the coasts of Gaul and Spain, and in 455 some of the Herulian ships from the north sailed into the Mediterranean and as far as Lucca in Italy. This type of ship remained in use for 1,100 years: the rigging and sail were the same and ten- and eight-oared ships, square-rigged, were the most common type in northern waters until the nineteenth century.

The kind of rudder used by the Norsemen was first seen in Egyptian ships, which had two big oars at first, one on either side, to act as rudders. These were later replaced by rudders, which were then also used by the Greeks: each ship had two rudders aft. It was apparently from this type of Mediterranean ship that the Norsemen developed their "Viking" ships, but these had a single rudder on the starboard side. This persisted until the nineteenth century, long after rudders elsewhere had been moved to the stern.

Both Greek and Egyptian ships of this type appear in contemporary rock carvings and on vases. The Norse seafarers could find their latitude but were unable to measure longitude. The instrument they used, which is referred to in the sagas, seems to have been similar to the Greek astrolabe that was used before 150 B.C. This had a carved wooden disc with "teeth" and a rotating straight edge, a pointer and a handle below. At the centre was a second pointer, vertical. With this the Greeks found the "azimuth" of a particular star: the arc it described as it moved across the sky. The Norsemen also sailed by the sun. Knowing either the latitude or the correct time of day, they could use the sun as a "compass”, though if it was cloudy they had to estimate the position of the sun. The sagas also mention "sun-stones": it is not clear what exactly they were - they do not appear to have been used by the Greeks or by later seafarers.

Notes and Background to Chapter III

Dates: More accurate at this time as Romans were keeping records. Papyrus, invented by the ancient Egyptians, had been available to both Greeks and Romans, and also parchment since the 2nd century B.C.

Heruli or Eruli: Probably an etymological connection between Heruli and jarl: erilar, "leader in war". Heruli were a nation of leaders, each of them claiming the right to set up his own small state. (Latin: herus, master.)

Greek Heritage: This was absorbed by Rome, and remained particularly strong in the Eastern Empire, so was not lost to the Heruli.

Knowledge of the earth at time of Heruli:

Oceanus: River believed to encircle disc of the world; everything believed to have arisen from it. Rumours of other lands within it to the west, beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar): Atlantis, Hesperides, Isles of the Blest; lands found by Pytheas and others, but all close by.

Oecumenae: Habitable world, at first lands around Mediterranean, later extended to include north and north-west. Originally conceived as a disc surrounded by Oceanus. Later concept of Outer Sea, called Atlantic in honour of Atlas, believed to hold the world up. In Homer’s time the Earth was seen as a hollow globe; disc of habitable world, Oceanus and, on the other side, Tartarus, with Hades just below the edge of Oceanus. Here ships could fall into the Abyss and fear of this held exploration back.

Spherical Earth: Concept of Pythagoras (508-/494 B.C.) - superseded "floating disc" concept of Anaximander of Miletus (640-548 B.C.).

Zones of Earth defined by Parmenides of Elea (fl. 460 B.C.) sphere with three uninhabitable belts and temperate zones between: one "scorched belt” (equator) and two cold belts beyond the temperate zone.

Flat Earth; Concept persisted side-by-side with Spherical Earth. Believers in flat-earth concept referred to Abyss as Ginningagap.

Trade with islands near Europe included tin from Britain and amber (hardened resin) found in North and Baltic Seas.

Eratosthenes: (approximately 275-194 B.C.) first geographer in scientific sense; used travels of Pytheas in his work, may have been born only 50 years later. Divided Earth into zones based on climate. Made first map of world with lines of latitude and meridians; first man to use such lines; first man to use fixed points. Fixed seven known points on meridian of Rhodes. Calculated circumference of world as 250,000 stadia, i.e. 25,000 miles - 3,400 miles above actual size. Saw Oecumenae as an island surrounded by Atlantic - tides there are proof of this; Caspian Sea "a bay". Believed it was possible to get to India via Iberia (Spain) by sailing "on the same latitude" west. First known mention of this.

Hipparchus and Posidonius were father and son, possessed of a boyish curiosity and a whimsical imagination. They were ardent supporters of Pytheas and may have been related: lack of surnames at the time makes it difficult to identify families. Hipparchus lived about 190-125 B.C. at Alexandria: an astronomer who used the travels of Pytheas in his work; doubted Eratosthenes' theory about Atlantic and tides, but did not refute it; introduced division of globe into degrees. He doggedly led pro-pytheans against anti-Pythean faction led by Polybius (about 204-127 B.C.), who labelled everything north of the Alps as "unknown" and never travelled. Hipparchus appears to have travelled, at least to Syria and Rhodes.

Posidonius (135 B.C. onwards) born Apamea, Syria; lived at Rhodes. Supported theory of sailing west to India, estimating distance as 7000 miles; believed known world an island; calculated circumference of world as 180,000 stadia (18,000 miles), making it too small. Ptolemy later adopted his erroneous calculations and so did Columbus when sailing west. Believed that sun hissed when it sank into surrounding ocean. Used experience of Pytheas in his travels, known to have gone to Cadiz to observe outer ocean. He connected tidal variations with the moon, probably first to do so.

Crates of Mallus: who lived about 150 B.C., made first terrestrial globe, on which Atlantic passed like a belt through 2 poles; 2nd belt was the so-called Equatorial Ocean, so land divided into 4 masses, only Europe inhabited. Was not a geographer but a grammarian; did not travel.

Strabo: Lived about 63 B.C. to 25 A.D., a non-travelling geographer, follower of Polybius; discredited Pytheas; theories not based on any known facts; thought Ireland was “on edge" of the world, said both Irish and Britons ate human flesh.

Mela (fl.43 A.D.), lived at Tingentera, Spain; writer, known for one book, De Chorographia; used Greek sources such as Herodotus and Eratosthenes; mentioned northern land called Germania where "might is right to such an extent that they are not even ashamed of robbery".

Seneca: Born in Spain and was writing about 37 A.D. Wrote of Albino-varus who lived at the time of Augustus Caesar and described expedition by Germanicus to North Sea, about 16 A.D.

Seleucus (fl. mid-2nd century B.C.), mentioned by Hipparchus. Believed Earth rotated around Sun, first man known to mention this; a Babylonian, from Selucium on the Tigris.

Aristarchus of Samos: lived about 260 B.C., said to have believed Earth rotated around Sun, but no written evidence.

Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.): Saw universe as hollow sphere rotating once in 24 hours. His work, Naturalis Historia, 37 books, dealt with what was known up to his time but added nothing to what Mela had stated in 43. A Cavalry Commander who lived in Germania 45-52. Earth centre of universe, stars forming hollow sphere. Referred to Cimbrian Promontory (Jutland) and "sea coast of Sleswick and Germany''. Also Scandinavia and other places.

Agricola (fl. 84 A.D.) sent fleet round Caledonia and proved Britain was an island; Orcades "discovered" and subdued; claimed he had seen Thule, but did not go far enough north for that.

Tacitus (fl.98 A.P.), author of Germania, concerned mainly with Sweden. Mentioned Oenland (Finland) and a "sluggish sea" in north –half frozen. Historian, ethnographer.

Marinus of Tyre (2nd century A.D.) revived theories of Eratosthenes 150 years after his time, and those of Hipparchus and Posidonius and Strabo. Attempted to list and describe every known place by latitude and longitude; perpetuated Posidonius's theories including calculations of Earth's circumference.

Ptolemy or Claudius Ptolemaeus (2nd century A.D.), contemporary with Marinus of Tyre, from whom he obtained details of Posidonius's calculations of circumference of Earth, writing about 150 A.D., revived ideas of Eratosthenes and summarised knowledge of Earth in the eight books of his Geographia. This high point in classical geographical knowledge would not be equalled for many centuries. He calculated degrees of longitude from "0" drawn west of the Fortunate Isles or Canaries. His map of known world was most accurate yet drawn. Like Agricola, he placed Thule south of the Arctic Circle; said its longest day was 20 hours.

Dark Ages: 2nd C. A.D. Christianity beginning to grow stronger and was to have inhibiting effect on study and exploration of Earth. Church began to set itself up as arbiter of truth, and its leaders began to lay down strict, arbitrary rules even as to map-making. They did not travel, and favoured earlier Greek ideas of flat Earth, ignoring later work, even evidence of travellers and geographers. The Dark Ages were about to begin, and even a thousand years later men like Marco Polo, who knew the truth, hardly dared to pass it on. Only when acquisitiveness overcame fears engendered by the Church was Magellan's voyage round the world in 1520 possible. All writers of the Dark Ages supported official theories.

When the Heruli sailed for the first time to Thule, classical knowledge was still thriving and it is to be supposed that they took some of it with them, even if only in the form of learning. They were still revisiting the Mediterranean and perhaps had access to the great Library at Alexandria. Most of this still existed in 512. But in 640 the city fell to the Arabs and the Library was burnt. Its loss ensured that the Dark Ages would close in.

Alexander had the habit of adopting and instructing his men to adopt the customs of the people he conquered. This made him a popular leader who, despite his youth - he started his reign at age 20, embarked on his conquests at 22 and was only 33 when he died - appreciated the attributes of many different peoples. The Heruli had not forgotten Alexander: Many claimed descent from him, all admired and revered him. As Norsemen they were still following his general rule: in the North they adopted and adapted Teutonic customs, while those who spread westwards "joined with the people of America" long before 1492, Columbus or Cabot. Others, penetrating southwards became Norman-French and spoke that language - which did not survive long as such in England, but merged with indigenous languages to create the English of Chaucer. Those who founded Russia pushed through to the East and even had harems. Wherever they went, they married local girls - even their leaders often did so, following the example of Alexander and Roxane; and they accepted the religion of the people with few modifications. Thus, when Christianity swept through Europe, they recognised the trend and quickly became converts, taking their people with them. These exiled Greeks had to use all their inherited skills to establish themselves again as leaders. Norse warriors' skill at building camps as they moved from place to place was comparable to that of the Romans: as Heruli serving in the Roman army they were well-practised.

Occupation as Traders

Norsemen maintained their trading connections with the East. This probably dated back to Alexander, who penetrated as far as India. Throughout the "Viking" age and beyond, the Norse merchants continued to import silks from Cathay (China), brocades, including Greek brocades, velvets, wines, including Arabian wines, pepper and other spices, silver from Arabia, glass from Persia, precious stones from India and elsewhere - and gold. The Norsemen were rich in gold, which could have come from Russia, though it is doubtful whether they actually obtained it from there.

How the Heruli Moved their People Overland

The early Norsemen were mobile: contemporaries observed that they had "no permanent homes". That was a longstanding tradition among the Heruli. There is no description of how they brought their people - women, children, babies being born along the way - across Europe during the years leading up to 512. A whole generation of children must have grown up as they travelled. Doubtless it was the presence of women and children that in part accounted for the slowness of their progress. It must be assumed that they were carried in carts along the rough roads that then existed. Delays in mountainous areas and when they got stuck or had to do repairs must have been frequent. That armies had in earlier times been using such carts or wagons - drawn either by oxen or by horses - is known from the writings of Herodotus, who lived about 484-525 B.C. and described the Persian army as being followed by carts in which they carried their concubines. Bas-reliefs from the days before Pericles (died 429 B.C.) depict this means of transport, the carts being cubical in shape.

The mobility of the Heruli is indicated in that some of them were back in Constantinople in 532, taking part along with a Christian sect in riots against Justinian and high taxation. The object was to depose him and put Hypatius on the throne, supported by his brother Pompey. These two were not Heruli but nephews of the former Emperor Anastasius, after whose death in 518 Justinian's father, Justin, had seized power. Their slogan was "Nika" - "Vanquish" - but the attempted coup failed and Justinian had the two brothers executed. The Heruli who took part in the "Nika Riots" are described as having come "from the distant Ocean", which in those days meant the Atlantic, beyond the Pillars of Hercules.

Thus the Heruli at different times attempted to take both the Western and the Eastern Empires by deposing their rulers.

Apparently not all the Heruli went to Thule: at the time of their arrival there in 512, others were reported to be still in service under Anastasius. Doubtless these formed the bulk of the troops taking part in the attempted coup of 532. Their fate after this failed is unknown. There is no record that they followed their compatriots to Thule.

The Significance of Herulian and Norse Mobility

This is something that is often underestimated, which has led historians and others to conclude that they at various times "disappeared", when what they actually did was to go into hiding or sail away to other lands, later to emerge under a different name. Their adaptability, their prowess as ship-builders and navigators, their pioneering spirit, their willingness to learn from those they met on the way or among whom they settled, their ability to make friends - these were among their attributes. In both the Old World and the New, they would prove advantageous.

Such attributes enabled the classical Greeks to "disappear", only to emerge as Norsemen centuries later. In the same way, the Greenland settlers would "disappear" - and be criticised for having done "nothing" about Vinland.

Chapter IV

Decline of the Greenland Settlements

There were two settlements in Greenland: the Eastern Settlement, where Erik the Red lived at Brattahlid, and the Western Settlement, mentioned in the sagas as the place where Thorstein Erikson died. Both are known to have continued to flourish during the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but after that they rapidly declined. Reports of them became briefer and briefer, and after 1410 petered out altogether. In recent times there has been much argument as to why the old settlements were abandoned. Some authorities have taken late thirteenth-century descriptions of icy conditions to indicate that there was no change in climate, since everything was "exactly as now". Others point to the fact that by the thirteenth century the change had already taken place: the warm period came to an end early in that century and conditions then gradually worsened. There is no doubt that in Erik's time conditions certainly were not "as now”. The climate was more like that of Norway: they had farms and kept cattle and horses. By the fourteenth century this had become impossible and there may have been actual shortages of food, since all would have had to be imported that had formerly been grown. A prolonged diet without cereals has been cited as a possible reason for the settlements to have died out.

There were other factors, but most of them appear to have been linked with the deterioration of the climate. "The rapid immigration of the Eskimos" was cited early in this century, when it was suggested that the remaining Norse settlers moved out as a result. It is more likely that they left and the Inuit stayed because the latter were better able to subsist in the icy conditions on a very limited meat diet.

Another factor was contact with Norway. In the early days this apparently had not been important: despite the insistence by various kings of Norway that they had jurisdiction over both Iceland and Greenland, the two countries maintained their freedom. Then in 1247 things began to change for Greenland; it became more dependent upon Norway, while Iceland rejected attempts by Norway to force it to end its system of small states and become part of the great Norwegian Sea Empire.

In 1261, Greenland at last submitted to Norway, and the Sea Empire then lasted and was at its zenith for a year. Then came the Battle of Largs in 1263, and King Hakon of Norway lost the Hebrides to Scotland and was himself killed. In 1266, after more fighting and the loss of Northern Scotland, the Treaty of Perth was signed. This marked the end of the Great Sea Empire, but Norway still had Greenland on its hands.

Greenland was now nothing but a liability: virtually all its supplies had to come from Norway, a long and costly voyage. It was for such reasons that Erik the Red's descendants had given it up. But where had they gone? One obvious solution to their woes would have been Leif's Vinland, a country somewhere to the south-west of Straumfjord where he had found the climate so mild and the land so productive.

In 1294 Norway declared Royal Privilege in all trade with countries under its jurisdiction, including Greenland. This meant that only the King could decide who should engage in it. In practice, he had the first choice and usually only his own ships took part in it. One ship, the Knorren, was chosen for the Greenland voyage, which was supposed to be made at regular intervals. But frequently the weather was so bad that the ship took over a year to get there. Sometimes it was wrecked and had to be replaced. Gradually the Norwegian ship began to sail to Greenland less and less often. By 1410 it had apparently stopped altogether.

In the fourteenth century Norway was, moreover, pre-occupied with other problems: trouble with the Hanseatic League, who finally in 1393 sacked Bergen; the Black Death which struck in 1349, the union with a much stronger Denmark in 1397, with Copenhagen as capital and Bergen demoted to the status of a port.

When writing of Greenland in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries sometime before 1637, Bishop Gilsli Oddson wrote, "The inhabitants of Greenland voluntarily forsook the true faith and religion of the Christians and after having abandoned all good morals and true virtues, turned to the people of America" (ad Americae populos se oonverterunt). The original Icelandic Annals, from which the quotation in Latin was taken, were contemporary with what was written in them, and this is therefore a very early mention of the land of America, pre-dating Columbus and Amerigo Vespuccio, after whose voyages to the Caribbean and the southern continent the New World was supposed to have been given its name. Unfortunately the original Annals no longer exist, having been destroyed by fire - or partly destroyed -in the l7th century. In that same century Gilsli wrote them all out again, and so it is his copy that still exists. Because of this, some authorities dismiss the matter of the early mention of "America" by stating that the source is "uncertain". It is unlikely however, that Gilsli would have added anything to the original.

The last known voyage to the Eastern Settlement took place in 1406, when Icelanders Thorstein Halmingesen, Snorre Thorvasen and Thorgrim Solvasen sailed there all in the same ship. In I408 an Icelander married in Greenland, but in 1410 all sailed for Norway.

From then onwards Greenland was sometimes mentioned, but nobody is recorded to have sailed there. Rumours were circulating that Didrik Pining and a man called Potharse were trading there from Iceland.

In 1476 Johannes Scolvus Polo ("the Pole") sailed beyond Norway, Greenland... under the very Arctic Circle, and arrived at the country of "Labrador and Estotiland" (meaning North America). Scolus or Scolvus was a Dane or one who travelled under that King; it is claimed by some that he was on the Pining-Potharse voyage. Estotiland is also mentioned in the Zeno letters, which concern a voyage supposed to have taken place in 1398.

The Zeno letters were not published by the family until 150 years later, for which reason some authorities do not accept them. But they are interesting not only on the New World but for Sir Nicolo Zeno’s account of Greenland. He mentions and shows on a map a monastery on the east coast well to the north of Iceland where the friars kept themselves and their church warm by means of boiling water from a hot spring. They also used the spring for cooking, and stones thrown up by the nearby volcano as building material. The local people regarded the friars as gods. The winter, according to Zeno, lasted for nine months, and apart from fish and wildfowl, the friars had to obtain provisions from Trondheim (the old Norwegian capital), for which they traded dried fish and furs.

Who founded the Monastery of St.Thomas in Greenland? And was there a connection with an earlier but more famous "Pole" than Scolvus - Marco Polo (1254-1324)? For it was he who visited the tomb and shrine of St. Thomas in south-east India - Madras - and took some of the red earth from there, reputed to have healing properties. Did he take this to Greenland to found the monastery there, dedicated to the same saint? He certainly knew of and had traveled in the far north: he describes the long twilight, the cold, the fur-traders, and a country called "Oroech", believed to be Norway. One of the birds he mentions is the gyrfalcon. This has interesting connections, but is not the bird found on his coat-of arms: this is the raven, Woden's bird, which also appeared on Leif Erikson's flag. It identifies Marco as of Norse descent, if not actually a descendant of Leif Erikson.

Such a relationship would certainly connect Marco Polo with Greenland and its monastery, but there is no mention in his writing. There exists, however, another work written, apparently anonymously, at the end of the thirteenth century, which means it is contemporary with Marco Polo's book on his travels. It deals with Ireland, Iceland and Greenland, but particularly the last-mentioned. These are lands not covered by Marco Polo in his Travels, and as the style and approach are similar, it is tempting to wonder if this is a supplementary work. It is called The King’s Mirror, and both the title and the form of the book are derived from books being at that time written in India (from which the Polo’s had just returned) for the education of princes. He may have written it for presentation to the King of Norway, who had recently added Greenland to his Empire. In it the sea-ice and its drift, the weather, the terrain, the animals (21 different whales, six kinds of seal, walruses) are described. His approach to the causes of volcanic action is that of a scientist, his description of the icy mountains and those who have climbed them, that of an explorer. He seems to have intimate knowledge of the land, as if it was his home. But although he tries to describe parts of it as pleasant, he admits that although the people have cattle and sheep, there is no grain and bread is unheard of in Greenland.

He does not mention St. Thomas Monastery, but he does appear to be familiar with its site and mentions hot springs. He also defers to the dark-ages Christian concept of the encircling ocean, and locates Greenland on the "extreme side" of the world, beyond which there is no other land. At that time it would have been regarded as heresy to suggest otherwise.

Whether or not this description is by Marco Polo, it helps to fill in a gap in the story of Greenland's decline.

Even so, Greenland seems to disappear from history after 1410: even the church records do not extend beyond that date. A bishop was appointed in 1411 and died in 1425, but may never have travelled there. After that, no more bishops were appointed.

It is recorded that an "Italian sailor", Cristofero Colombo, visited Iceland and "heard gossip" about another land to the west - Greenland. He apparently made no attempt to visit it. The year was 1477.

About 1541 a Dutch ship called at the Eastern Settlement and found it deserted except for one man, and he was lying dead, as if there had been nobody left to bury him. Nobody has been able to say how he came to be there so long after all but the Inuit (who lived to the north) had left. Pirates were known to be visiting: perhaps they left one of their victims there. He was dressed in cloth and sealskin, a hood on his head; his sheath-knife lay nearby, much rusted. This mysterious, unknown man was destined to go down in history as "the last Greenlander".

The Western Settlement had been abandoned two centuries earlier, in 1342 - the very year in which the Icelandic Annals had recorded that the Greenlanders had gone over to the people of America. Was this a co-incidence? Apparently they not only discontinued farming, but deserted the settlement in a great hurry, leaving homes, sheep and cattle behind. Another great mystery! 

In the Middle Ages, Greenland exported walrus-ivory, then used all over Europe; walrus-hide ropes, used in shipping; furs; whale products; an occasional polar bear, which, if bought for presentation to a king, commanded a fortune; and the white gyrfalcons mentioned by Marco Polo, which came from Baffin Island. These were caught for the King of Norway from 1261 onwards, and supplied to European, Asian and African rulers.

What, meanwhile, of the lives of Leif Erikson's descendants at Brattahlid? We know from the sagas that Thorkel went as a small child to Iceland, and that a year later, about 1001, his mother, Thorgunna (recognisable by both name and description) also visited Iceland and died there in an epidemic. The child was not with her then, and it must be assumed that he was with his grandparents at Brattahlid. Certainly, according to the Floamanna Saga, he was there as a young man, which would have been in the 1020s. The story is that he, his young wife and his thralls were all cast up on the east coast of Greenland, where his thralls rebelled and murdered his wife. The church records do not mention her death, but record that of Leif Erikson as having taken place in about 1025, and his burial in the churchyard of Thiodhild's church was recorded. Later, 144 skeletons were found there; nearly half the people died at about 35.

After Thorkel, at least two generations are missing, and then we come to Sokki Thorsson or Sokke Thorerson, about 1121, at the time of Bishop Erik Gnupson. He is described as a "man of high esteem all over the colonies" and is seen by historians as a descendant of Erik the Red. He also unaccountably, unless his father was a Vinlander, had an Algonquian name. The root is sokk, meaning "with strength", and although it does connect back to Old Norse, in that language the root is seig, strong. The only possible explanation for this is that the "disappeared" generations were in North America. He may even have been born there. He was described as "Law-man" and was obviously in charge at Brattahlid, though whether as Jarl or not does not seem clear. Was his father, Thorer, still alive? Had he passed on responsibility in his old age to his son? If he was no longer living, was there an elder brother across the Atlantic who was the real ruler? When we examine what was going on there at the time, we come upon some astounding facts.

Meanwhile, in Greenland the last known descendants of Erik the Red and Leif were living out their lives at Brattahlid. Sokki "summoned a general assembly of the people, where he spoke with authority", being "often elected to preside at public deliberations". Here we see democracy at work; if found wanting he could be voted out. He was, according to researchers "Lögmadhr" or law-maker, like "Erik, Leif Erikson, Thorkel... and the poet Helgius." According to the Saga of Einar Sokkeson in the Flateyjarbok, the assembly referred to took place in 1123, and he told the people that it was not becoming that a country as great and prosperous as Greenland should be without a bishop. Expounding on the virtues of the office, he ended by suggesting that the bishop needed a "fixed residence" and more support, and appealed to the people to contribute generously towards the establishment of a fully-endowed normal diocese in Greenland. To this the colonists readily agreed, and they set to work at once, starting by voting the bishop an annual income, which was to come from a small tithe to be levied on each estate. Indeed, so generously did Greenlanders endow their bishop that some were known to have given away almost all they had, and by Il6l Pope Alexander III was issuing letters of restraint, pointing out that "legitimate children" were being disinherited.

The full text of the deliberations in the "Greenland Thing" in 1123 were lost when the Annals disappeared, but it is known that this was the most prosperous time in Greenland’s history.

The new bishop, successor to Erik Gnupson, was called Arnaldr or Arnold, and it was Sokki's son Einar who was sent to Norway as ambassador to bring him to Greenland. A considerable delegation accompanied him, as well as presents for the prominent people of Norway – walrus teeth, furs, and a Greenland polar bear for the King, Sigurd the Crusader (Jerusalafare). In return, Sigurd showered Einar with honours and wished him well in his mission. Arnold was at first reluctant, not wishing to work so far from home and unsure of his own suitability for so heavy a task among people who might be violent. But the King reminded him that the heavier the task, the greater the reward hereafter, and at length he agreed to go.

He was soon to find his fears were justified; "The fierce Northmen of Greenland" had not yet "stripped themselves of the old man with his deeds" (a quotation from the New Testament) and they had "invaded" rather than been converted to the Christian religion. He noted the "broils and murders" of their earlier history and the revenue that flowed into the coffers of their rulers in the form of fines levied on "assassins".

Arnold chose Gardar at the end of the eastern arm of Einarsfjord in the Eastern Settlement for his home, and was the first bishop to raise the church there to the status of cathedral. Four years later, a ship which had started out for Greenland at the same time as Einar’s still had not arrived. That year a fisherman discovered a large ship apparently stranded, with tent and hut nearby. An axe was buried in a log and a dead man lay nearby; and soon they discovered that everybody who had been aboard the lost ship that had left Norway in 1125 had been murdered. Bishop Arnold gave the remains a Christian burial and according to law was awarded the ship and its cargo as a gift to the Church. When the news reached the dead owner's heir, his nephew, he laid claim to the ship and, being denied the claim and later defeated by the people at the Thing, vowed revenge. He damaged the disputed ship, then retired to the Western Settlement to confer with and seek support from other Norwegians there.

It was when a church was to be consecrated on Einarsfjord, at the county seat of Langanes, that the irate heir, whose name was Ozsur, saw his chance. Some of those present saw this as an opportunity for Ozsur to make peace with the bishop, and when he refused Einar and others guessed that he had not come as a friend and that lives were in danger, especially as Ozsur had arrived armed with an axe. After the Mass, Einar suddenly turned, seized another man's axe and followed Ozsur to the south side of the church where he was apparently hiding with a friend, and before he had a chance to defend himself, dealt him a fatal blow. Then he went to the house to take part in the feast.

Bishop Arnold chided Einar for his evil deed, but said he was to be excused, realising no doubt that Einar had probably saved his life.

Ozsur was given a Christian burial, but his friends demanded justice against Einar, and both parties had to appear before the general assembly over which old Sokki presided, trying to reach a compromise. He suggested a payment be made by Einar, his son, in compensation. The response was immediate; the furious Norwegians murdered Einar on the spot and a battle broke out in which many on both sides were killed. Finally, a body-count was done, which showed the Norwegians were still owed the death of one man if they were to get even. This time they accepted the money and were at last persuaded to leave Greenland never to return, though they did so with reluctance.

There is no information as to how Ozsur's uncle and his friends and crew died in the remote part of Greenland where their bodies were found. Since nobody lived nearby, it could have been that fighting broke out among them. The matter was apparently never investigated, and Ozsur seemed more worried about the ship and whatever goods were in it than about all the deaths.

Einar, the last of Erik the Red's known descendants to live at Brattahlid, has gone down in history as a violent man. He lived in violent times. Norse-style - Greek-style - democracy was failing.

The Church maintains that a Christian community remained in Greenland, although cut off, until the latter half of the fifteenth century. That almost takes us to the arrival of the expeditions from England, Portugal, Spain and Italy from the end of that century onwards, until recently regarded as first voyages of discovery.

It is quite possible that continued contact between the Old World and the New may not have been broken between 1410 and 1492: with better ships, the necessity for the Greenland link may by that time have been eliminated.

The discovery of the Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows in 1961 underlines and substantiates claims that Greenland was used from 1000 onwards as a link with the New World. This link was apparently not known to many - certainly not to those living in southern Europe. It is this limited knowledge of it, this well-kept Norse secret lasting nearly five hundred years, together with the attitude of the Church during that period, that seems to have led both historians and archaeologists to cling to their ideas concerning unsubstantiated legends, fertile imagination among those who actually knew, and an almost unimaginable number of hoaxes scattered all over the New World from the Arctic Ocean to the Straits of Magellan.

Notes and Background to Chapter IV

Dates: Mostly accurate, church records being available.

The two Settlements: Each consisted of a number of what might have been later called manors, each with its own lord, farms and people. Lords or chiefs were descended from Herulian chiefs who had first settled in Norway, and were entitled to vote at the Thing. In all cases when "the people" are mentioned, chiefs are meant. The Eastern Settlement was three times the size of the Western Settlement, and contained the administrative centre, and not only the Jarl's residence at Brattahlid but the Thing and the cathedral at Gardar.

Clothing: It has been recorded that during the entire period of the Greenland settlements, there was very little change in the clothing worn by the men: changing fashions in Europe were not reflected. A woman’s clothing, although it changed less than in other countries, tended to a certain extent to follow European fashions. These facts were noted at the time of the wedding between Thorstein Olafson and Sigrid Bjornsdottir in 1408.

Estotiland: by the end of the 14th century all mention of Vinland seems to have ceased, and the name Estotiland in various spellings had begun to appear. It is shown on many old maps as lying just south of Labrador, sometimes along the north shore of the St. Lawrence. Sometimes it replaces Labrador altogether. It has been suggested that it was mythical, the name being conveniently attached to those countries or territories whose names were for some reason omitted from the maps, either because they were unknown or because of instructions given by those who had commissioned the maps to be made. Although Labrador has been identified with Leif Erikson’s inhospitable Helluland (Flatstoneland), few travellers other than the Zeno brothers have mentioned Estotiland. Their description fits Nova Scotia, with which it has been identified by some authorities. That peninsula was invariably omitted altogether by early cartographers.

Rulers at Brattahlid: Complete list: Erik, Leif, Thorkel, Helgius, Thorer, Sokki, whose son Einer was killed before he could inherit, sometime before 1135. Bishop Arnold was at Gardar for 20 years after the death of Einar, resigning sometime before 1150. He never recovered from the loss of Einar, but lived on until 1187. No mention of any successor to Sokki. Cathedral at Gardar: Dedicated to St. Nicholas and said to have been a beautiful building. Its ruins cover an area 100 feet wide, 120 feet long.

Chaotic conditions: in time of Bishop Olaf,1246 onwards: "The rich gathered around themselves their beneficiaries and workmen whom they formed into daring bands and factions and under their protection they did with impunity defy the law and act as supreme lords... already a hundred years before this the supreme court of Greenland had been turned into a haunt of riot and murder... strife and sedition and the most unbridled licentiousness in their wake were making sad havoc of all laws human and divine," wrote Torfaens in his history of Norway. In 1247 the small states in both Greenland and Iceland were described by the Church as "all hostile".

A Possible Decision to disappear: Three sets of circumstances may have discouraged the rulers of Greenland. One was the Crusades, the first 1095-99 and the ninth 1271-2, and the rest at fairly regular intervals in between. The Norsemen in Greenland were not all or at all times strongly Christian, Leif's conversion notwithstanding.

They were interested in trade with the East, and that meant Moslems. Secondly, the custom of training nobles' sons as knights arose after the Norman Conquest of England, 1066. To have accepted such a way of life would have interfered with trade; nor would most Norsemen willingly have given up their ships in favour of horses: horses had their place, but ships were fundamental to their way of life. None fought more fiercely than the Norsemen, but it may have seemed to them that knights regarded fighting as a mere sport and that chivalry was no more than interest in another man's wife. A knight's life was circumscribed, with learning given almost no place. The Norsemen valued their freedom. The idea of knights on horseback apparently arose among the soldiers of William I and was reinforced by rules: page at age 7, squire at age l4, and knight in heavy armour on horseback at age 21. Among the deeds done under the guise of knighthood were the notorious acts of cruelty during the Crusades and by the Teutonic Knights in pagan Lithuania, where they hunted peasants for sport. Rape was not uncommon. The fierce Vikings would seem to have been almost tame by comparison.

Another reason for leaving may have been the onset of various diseases in Europe, particularly bubonic plague or "Black Death" which started after the end of the Crusades and reached Greenland in 1348.

Lastly, they were forced out of Greenland by the "Little Ice Age". As early as 1303 the Baltic had frozen over, and again in 1306 and 1307. The cold continued and was to last until 1700. Even in Iceland wheat would no longer grow, and in Scandinavia, with the shortened summer season, crops were limited. In 1315, ceaseless rain caused crop failures all over Europe and brought famine there. Dependent on imports from Norway, where food was now in short supply, Greenlanders could hardly be blamed for turning westwards.

In Vinland or Estotiland - in North America - there were no knights or large-scale wars and none of the dread diseases that ravaged Europe; and if they went far enough south, the climate was good.

"Scandinavian" colonists were reported early on at various places up and down the coasts of the New World, farther south than "the fortieth degree" and to the far north in quest of whales, walrus and bears, up to the seventy-third degree. Some of them may have been in fact Greenlanders.

Clues found in North America: Fair-haired "white Eskimos" were found living in Northern Canada in the 16th century; also in Northern Canada, under an old Thule Eskimo house, a wooden figurine was found in 1977: tall, in 14th century dress with liripipe cap and Christian cross, all as worn in Greenland in those days, the carving being just over two inches high. This is almost proof positive; other clues include fair Mandan Indians found by Lewis and Clark in 1803, whose way of life suggested earlier contact with Europeans; a stone, possibly runic, found in same state, North Dakota, by the French in 1738; taken to Paris; Kensington Stone, Minnesota, inscribed with details of visit in 1362 by 8 Goths and 22 Norwegians travelling west from Vinland; bronze coin found in Maine, 1961 - an 11th-century Norse penny; Greenland copper and bronze found in many old settlements from Baffin Bay to the far side of Hudson Bay; and examination of the mummies of the Incas (Kings) who ruled Peru from about the llth to the 16th century: they were found to have "Norse" characteristics: fair or red hair, tall stature.

Recently, at L'Anse aux Meadows, a kind of walnut-butternut was found at the same level below ground as Viking artifacts had been found. Such nuts have never grown north of New Brunswick - proof positive that the Norsemen did, as described in the sagas, make their way to a place or places to the south-west of Straumfjord, which they called Vinland The Good.

Chapter V

Out of the Dark Ages

Once the theories had been expounded and the facts established, there was never any doubt among the ancient Greeks that the Earth was round: Pythagoras (582-507 B.C. approximately) noted it. About 2150 years ago its circumference was measured for the first time by Eratosthenes by means of the shadow cast by his gnomen. He was about 3400 miles out, making it too large. Posidonius of Alexandria (d.51 B.C.), who bore the nickname "always second", re-calculated it and made it too small. Up to the second century A.D. - that is, for hundreds of years - these concepts were accepted, and at that time Ptolemy made his summary of knowledge and naturally included these facts. Why, then, did civilized man revert to what were in essence primitive ideas, having no scientific basis - ideas that must even have defied common sense?

The upsurge of Christianity has been blamed; and the subsequent blind adherence to the Bible, but there were other factors. Few men and women were literate at that period, and fewer still studied science; even if they were interested, opportunities were rare. The rise of Islam, the various attacks on the library at Alexandria and its final destruction also played their part. But perhaps most important of all was the lack of something we all take for granted now: paper. Few copies of any book could have been made in those days, even had they had some means of printing. That was why the burning of a single library could result in such a tremendous loss.

The lack of paper in Roman times was underlined when archaeologists were excavating the forts along Hadrian's Wall in England - built by the Romans to keep the Picts and Scots confined to the far north. In what seemed to be an ancient dump they found a number of rectangular pieces of cloth, all cut to a similar size, and were puzzled as to what purpose they had served. They proved to be the Roman version of toilet-paper.

At this time when Ptolemy wrote his summary, he also draws a map of the world as it was then known, that is to say Europe and the Mediterranean area. In the fifth century came the fall of the Roman Empire, at a time when Christianity was spreading and the Church becoming stronger. The old order had gone and the monasteries were beginning to become a refuge for learning. It was not long before learned men were virtually only to be found in monastic establishments. Thus the Church was able to keep a firm hold on thought and the concept of the world. As far back as the second century B.C. Seleucus had gone so far as to suggest that the Earth rotated around the Sun. But even as Ptolemy was producing his great work, the Church was beginning to grow strong enough to set itself up as the arbiter of truth and learning. Its leaders began to make arbitrary rules that limited almost every aspect of learning, tying everything to the Bible -or rather, to their interpretation of it. They took what was written there literally: thus the sky became a vault and, since the world was said to have four corners, it was taken to be flat and square. Some learned monk or other must one day have been wandering in the monastery grounds and noticed that these four comers were missing, for in the end the concept of a flat disc was accepted. Once they had agreed to return to the primitive ides of a flat Earth, all suggestions that it was a globe or rotated around the Sun came to be regarded as heresy: Ptolemy was discarded.

It was a monk, Cosmos Indicopleustes, who in the sixth century wrote Christian Topography. He had formerly been a merchant and had travelled. But, despite also living in Alexandria, still a centre of Greek classical learning, his twelve volumes made the world rectangular. Religious zeal - it could scarcely have been anything else - caused him to base his theory on the shape of the Jewish tabernacle. This made the Earth twice as long as it was broad, with a high mountain in the north which the sun disappeared and hid during winter.

Other monks contemporary with him were also producing books – some Useful, others confusing, all of necessity within the permitted bounds. One of them, Jordanes the Goth, wrote also under the name Adogit and described a land with forty days' daylight in summer and 40 days' night in winter - though in fact no place on earth has this. There is, however, in some parts, a forty-day winter, and it may be that, knowing this, he assumed that the daylight period in summer would be of the same length: in fact it is shorter.

Most monastic writers wisely kept to such subjects as history and biblical or church matters. Jordanes was safely able to write on the disc theory; King Alfred the Great wrote a survey of Germany and in the same century - the ninth - Hrabanus Maurus wrote his De Universo, which added nothing new.

Worst of all, by then for two hundred years the civilized world had had to endure the formalised "wheel" or "T" map advocated by Cosmos's contemporary, Isidorus. It was he who had drawn the first such map, with Jerusalem at its centre to please the authorities. The so-called "T" represented the oceans.

(Colour has been added to the map)

People accepted this map because they had no idea what was beyond the small town or village where they lived and, if they had seen a map at all, had not seen any other kind. The Norsemen had practical knowledge of what was beyond their shores, but were up against a wall of ignorance built and upheld by the Church. If they told anyone of their travels, they would not be believed. Four centuries later, Marco Polo would return from his travels to the Orient and elsewhere and would suffer the same fate.

The Norsemen, even those who had become Christians, were not disposed to hide or take refuge in monasteries. Not for them the protection of the Church: they valued their freedom too much and preferred to face up to the prospect of battle with the Gothic tribes. At least some of them knew of the ancient theories and discoveries concerning the universe and the Earth, and knew that the flat-earth theory was not only out-dated but incorrect.

That the Norsemen had the courage to hold out against the majority was doubtless to their advantage in war, but even more so in travel, trade and exploration. They made contact with the Gothic tribes from the first, and also with the Celts, who had been hiding mainly in Ireland, and among whom learning had persisted despite the political climate.

Now, for the Greenlanders, there were other peoples across the Atlantic with whom to establish relations, and there is no doubt that they did so in their own traditional manner. 

Of the various Norsemen who crossed the Atlantic just before or just after the year 1000, two are recorded as having built houses (budir -literally "booths") and as having lived in there while they were leaders of expeditions: Leif Erikson and Karlsefni. Karlsefni apparently stayed there for three summers and then returned home to Iceland. Leif had earlier stayed over for one winter. No mention is made anywhere that he or his heirs ever went back. But if they did, they would doubtless have settled among the indigenous people in much the same manner as they had done elsewhere.

Although much of the evidence that Leif Erikson's descendants settled in the New World is negative - they were not to be found anywhere else, or circumstantial - imprints of a Norse presence in the form of artifacts, "fair" native people, place-names, remains of buildings - there is positive proof that at least one of them had close connections there. Sokki Thorsson or Thorerson had an Algonquian name and was probably born there. We may therefore conclude that his father, Thorer, was living over there. If so, why then did Sokki return to Brattahlid? There can be only one reason! Helgius the poet must have failed to produce an heir.

Having established that at least Thorer and Sokki (as a child) lived in Vinland, we can guess what they would have done over there. Always supposing that Leif Erikson found gold, they would have attended to its mining and smelting; and they would have made friends with the native people.

They would have adopted the dress of their chiefs, they would have tried to fit in with their religion, they would have accepted honours from them, they would have continued to trade with them. For all this, they would have had to learn their language, and as a result whatever language was spoken would have emerged after a number of years altered, containing some Norse words perhaps, or ending up, as English did, modified to form a new language. Finally, if they stayed there long enough they would have looked among their leading families for brides for their sons; and doubtless they would also have made an attempt at some form of education for them.

By that time, they might also have established themselves as law-makers, in effect as a ruling family.

Such might have been the developments in Vinland or Estotiland during the remainder of the Dark Ages.

Now we have to look for evidence in North .America that this - or something like it - took place.

Meanwhile, it would be the fifteenth century before a man would be born in Europe who would have the courage to write that the Earth was a sphere with the planets revolving around the Sun. Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) was the name of the Polish monk who dared to write De Revolutionibus Coelestius. This work, which could only be published after his death, would mark the high point of the Renaissance in the mid-sixteenth century. Even so, when Galileo published his own similar findings ninety years later, he was thrown into jail by the Inquisition and forced to recant.

Small wonder that Leif Erikson's descendants were happy to take refuge in their trans-Atlantic domain.

Duration of Dark Ages: Roughly the 1,000 years between the 5th-century fall of the Roman Empire and the mid-15th century, when it ended in Florence, ushering in the Renaissance, which would last for about 200 years. In fact, the Dark Ages were foreshadowed as early as about the 3rd century with the decline in learning after the Church rejected Ptolemy's map; and learning was already beginning to re-assert itself in the 13th century, when the Polo brothers and their nephew Marco returned from their overland travels to the Orient to astonish the known civilized world and to bring us such benefits as coal, fireworks and ideas about such amenities as the Post Office and paper money.

5th to 11th century: See notes at end of Chapters III and I. The Dark Ages are often thought of as being a period when little of importance happened other than Charlemagne, the Norman Conquest of England (preceded by Alfred the Great) and the Crusades. In fact, it was a period when the Norsemen established themselves as rulers all over Europe and as world traders -no mean accomplishment when we remember that it was all done while learning was in limbo. Not that we should discount the monastic establishments altogether: they were later to give us our great universities and our leading hospitals. They also afforded an opportunity for women as well as men to attain greatness through learning and writing; and there were memorable Abbesses as well as great Priors. Great artists also left their work to posterity: their names may be forgotten, but their work is still with us in our churches and in the form of beautifully-illuminated texts.

llth to 15th century: The period usually referred to as the Middle Ages, during which the Crusades took place and the Norsemen, now firmly established as the aristocracy of Europe, consolidated their position. Great fortresses and castle were built for defence and as safe places for rulers to live. Romanesque or Norman architecture with its rounded arches and massive pillars, gave way to graceful Gothic forms in ecclesiastical architecture. Dante and Chaucer produced their great works of literature and other writers such and as Piers Plowman and the anonymous author of Everyman made their mark. Morality plays such as this were popular and acceptable to the Church. Boccaccio wrote his controversial Decameron in about 1350. Musicians occupied an important but lower place in society than they do today, and singing was mainly confined to the Church. Crafts of all kinds flourished, and artisans organised themselves into guilds, foreshadowing the end of the Feudal System, which had been based on the old Norse concept of serfs and thralls and dated back to classical Athens.

Some of the Greenlanders descended from Erik the Red and, the men they had brought with them as serfs and thralls, may have remained cut off from Europe - especially those who had settled across the Atlantic. But many being merchants and travellers both by sea and overland, experienced all that was going on in Europe at the time and brought back news of it as well as books and more mundane goods and chattels to their strongholds in Greenland and Estotiland. Vinland is barely mentioned at this time.

Marco Polo:(?1254/1324): With father Nicolo and uncle Maffeo, merchant in gold and precious stones and reputed to be Europe's first millionaire; world traveler; overland to China with father and uncle 1271-75; at Kublai Khan's court, became his agent; back to Venice 1295 to give first information direct from Orient. Of Norse descent; coat-of arms had "azure" or blue shield, signifying the sea and travel (it is often forgotten he was also a seafarer), with ravens, a Norse symbol.

Descendant of Andrea Polo from Constantinople, his grandfather, origin obscure. Had only daughters and collateral lines died out. Those who claim descent from Marco Polo state that he was a descendant of a long line of seafarers going back to Erik the Red and his son Leif. It is difficult to check this out: no written records; but circumstantial evidence is strong.

Picture shows Marco holding Norse
book with three ravens on the cover.

Dark Ages, in New World: Centre of civilization in Central America, not known by that name then: Olmecs, from which derived Toltecs 6th-8th C., and Aztecs, 12th C., who appeared in the north as Toltecs were weakening. All highly-civilized: mathematics, astronomy, metallurgy, advanced building methods; own calendar, writing; weaving; agriculture; sun-worship and human sacrifice, Maya civilization to south: Old Empire 317-987; New Empire 987-1697, fell to Spanish, as did Aztecs, 16th C. Invented calendar, hieroglyphic writing and were advanced in architecture before 317: massive buildings. These civilizations thought to have ancient connection with North Africa and Middle East.

Peru; Inca Empire from about 12th C. to 1533, the Spanish conquest. Operated without either money or guns; all citizens had a right to cultivate land and to own their share of gold, copper and other useful metals; they did not attach any extraordinary value to gold. Engineering, farming flourished.

Viracocha: A tall, pale-skinned seafarer who appeared from the sea to the east probably early in 12th C. and founded the Inca Empire in Peru; all subsequent Incas his descendants. Believed to be a Norseman, and may have called himself a "king" which the Peruvians pronounced "Inca". Viracocha is known to have moved off by sea westwards, and has been identified by some as Kon-Tiki. He is reported to have carried a cross when he came to Peru, and to have baptised people; he was hailed as a god. Kon-Tiki was the thunder-god. Polynesian legends support his trans-Pacific voyage.

Connection with Incas of Peru would have brought untold wealth to the family network by that time- loosely governing all of North America and its nomadic tribes who, as in Peru, lived without money or guns. North America was known as America - Kingdom of the Sea. South America, according to old maps, comprised Peru and a number of other separate countries. Land was not owned by individuals in the New World, although houses were: land was considered by the natives to be like the air and the sky - the property of God. Although inter-tribal wars inevitably occurred, acquisition of territory was not usually involved. In the light of what was going on elsewhere in the world at the time, Leif Erikson's descendants must have felt relieved.

Chapter VI

Vinland - Estotiland - But Where?

The Mediaeval "Vinland Map" of the world, dated 1440-1442, was lost until 1957. It had been part of a work called Speculum Historicale, which at first had been bound with a lesser work, Tartar Relation. When they were separated and re-bound, the map went with the lesser work and so was lost. Its re-discovery was hailed as a great find, for ever since the Norse sagas had been translated in the early nineteenth century; arguments had been going on as to whether they were true or only legends, and whether Vinland existed. But doubts still remained and in 1965 the map was re-examined at Yale and was finally agreed to be fraudulent, the amount of titanium found in the pigment being regarded as too high. Modern pigments contain more of this substance than was used in mediaeval times. So the conclusion in 1974 was that it was a 20th-century forgery.

But doubts still lingered, and in 1985 the map was re-examined and an X-ray photograph taken. This showed the true proportions of the elements. Nothing in it was found to be different from other ancient parchments from the Dead Sea scrolls onwards. The conclusion was that when it was examined earlier, a mistake had been made because the sample taken had more titanium in it than elsewhere on the map. The 1985 method covered one-third of the ink on the map. These findings are regarded as conclusive and, taken together with the discoveries at L'Anse aux Meadows, do much to confirm that Vinland actually was discovered by Leif Erikson. But on examining the sagas, we find much confusion as to the exact location of Leif’s land. Both Leif and, later, Karlsefni, found what was known then as a hop, or hope., a term applied to a land-locked harbour still in use when Pepys wrote his diaries in the latter half of the seventeenth century. Such a harbour was land-locked only at low tide, allowing ships a safe harbour until the tide rose again. It appears from the sagas that Leif went first to the northern Helluland, identified with Labrador, then to the wooded Markland farther south and finally farther south still to Vinland, where his hop was, and where he wintered over in the buildings he had erected.

Karlsefni later asked Leif if he could have his buildings when he sailed westwards, but Leif said he would only lend them, and told him what course to take. According to the Greenlanders’ saga, which downplays Karlsefni's activities, they sailed straight there, built a stockade around the buildings and stayed over two winters, during which time Snorri Thorfinnson was born to Karlsefni's wife Gudrid and they explored the land and shores nearby. At this place there were skraelings, something that Leif had not apparently encountered.

According to the Erik-based sagas, the place where Leif had sent Karlsefni was not Vinland. This seems to imply that Leif had actually built in more than one location and had sent Karlsefni to the "wrong" one, which is borne out by his subsequent searches for Vinland to the north, west and south of Straumfjord. On his way, he had sailed past Helluland and south to what he identified as "Markland", and had then come to the long "Wonderstrands" which have been identified as being farther south on the Labrador coast. Farther south still he came to a much-indented coast and an island at the mouth of a fjord, and that was where the currents were so strong that he called it Straumfjord. There, too, sailing into the fjord, he found the buildings Leif had erected there. He knew that this was not Vinland, and sent his man to search to the north and west, and himself searched to the south. On one of these trips he came upon what he called a hōp, which was similar in most respects to the safe harbour that Leif had discovered. But he found no houses there and had to build his own.

Leif had obviously not meant Karlsefni or anyone else to find his Vinland, and had only reluctantly directed him and others to his houses at Straumfjord - the L'Anse aux Meadows site as far as can be ascertained.

The discovery and identification of the Norse site there has led many people to imagine that this was Leif's Vinland. The sagas, however, make three points very clear: Leif did not wish anybody else to find the place he had called Vinland; Karlsefni's expedition (including those of Thorvald and Freydis) failed to find it, and Leif’s secret remained intact.

To this day, Vinland has not been found; in fact those who were looking for it in the nineteenth century were a good deal more certain as to its whereabouts than we are today; and all placed it on the North American coast far south of both Labrador and Newfoundland. This would appear to make sense, since the sagas are agreed that it was well to the south of Markland. But there are many inconsistencies, one of which is that the Gulf of St. Lawrence – shown on the Vineland map – is not described. Did Leif Erikson deliberately omit it? This is what the nineteenth-century researchers seem to have assumed. If they were working in the U.S., they placed Markland to the south of it and identified it with Nova Scotia. Then Vinland would be in New England. Until the discovery of L’Anse aux Meadows in the 1960’s, U.S. authorities continued to claim that it was “generally accepted” that Vineland was on the southern coast of New England. By the 1970’s they were referring to L’Anse aux Meadows as “a Viking settlement” whose presence confirms that the sagas passed down actual facts about the Norse discovery of America; but they do not go so far as to claim that the site is “Vinland”; nor do they mention any other possible location. So it would seem that although we now have what is either Straumfjord or another Norse site in the same latitude, Vinland remains as elusive as ever. Added to that, L’Anse aux Meadows does not seem to conform to any of the saga descriptions and could be a slightly later site. We have to bear in mind, however, that the sagas are not reliable sources, having been passed down verbally for three hundred years before anybody wrote them down. That should not detract from the importance of the L’Anse aux Meadows discovery, which has settled once and for all that the Norsemen were in North America five hundred years before Columbus sailed to the Caribbean and John Cabot to the North.

It does not, however, prove that it is the only such site. The search goes on.

Meanwhile, another group of researchers were, certainly until recently completely confident that they had found Vinland: it was, they said, identical with the province of Nova Scotia. References to this appeared in newspapers, magazines, tourist literature and books dealing with that part of Canada. Under the heading "First European woman reported in America", we have "Gudrid, wife of Thorfinn Karlsefni, Norse explorer and ship owner, is stated to have resided three years at Vinland (Nova Scotia) in 1009". The first prelate is also claimed: "Erik Gnupson appointed in 1112 Bishop of Iceland, Greenland and Vinland, visited colonists in Vinland (Nova Scotia) 1121." Equally confidently-published were accounts claiming that evidence of "Viking" occupation had been found near Tusket, Yarmouth County, where "depressions or cellars" had been found. But it was the "famous Yarmouth Stone" that was regarded as incontrovertible proof that Vinland and Nova Scotia were one and the same. It was found on the shore north of Yarmouth Harbour early in the nineteenth century, and runeologists were called in to examine what was engraved on it. The runes were translated as reading "Leif to Erik raises this (monument)" - the last word being implied. Other opinions were sought and this was confirmed, and so for 150 years the stone was carefully preserved, latterly in the Yarmouth Heritage Museum, where I myself examined it more than once. The date of its finding was given as 1812, the site as opposite the harbour. In 1977 the Yarmouth Museum did a broadcast on their runic stone, stating that although some suspected from the first that it was a hoax perpetrated by the finder (contrary to popular opinion, archaeological discovery is a risky business), the most likely explanation for the runes was "the Norse theory".

The latest on the Yarmouth Stone, according to a recent broadcast item, seems to be that runic scholars have declared it to be "nothing more than a freak of nature".

Doubtless other theories will soon be advanced. Meanwhile those who still believe that Nova Scotia may have been Leif's Vinland will probably persist, hoping that the once-revered Stone will not suffer the same fate as one found in the even more famous pit at Oak Island in Mahone Bay. Although it had an inscription on it now believed to have been genuine, its importance was not recognised and it got itself incorporated into somebody's fireplace and has not been seen since. This was a pity, for it seems that it was one of the most important clues as to the origin of the pit and the uses to which it was put.

Although the pit is believed to have been built at a much earlier date, one of the theories about it is that it was later used to store Inca gold. If the Norsemen in Atlantic Canada retained their contacts with those who became the Incas, this might well have been so. It could have been stored there to be drawn-upon later and taken to Europe by those of Leif's descendants who were engaged in the gold trade.

Meanwhile, those who write books and articles on Oak Island still mention Nova Scotia as the place which "many historians" believe was once called Wineland or Vinland. Others - though fewer in number - identify it with Estotiland, sometimes written as "Escociland", a name in which a number of people have detected echoes of Scotland.

The main source of the "Estotiland" theory is the Zeno brothers' letters, dated 1398 and discovered by later members of their family in the sixteenth century. That they were not published until 1558 has made them suspect in the opinion of some authorities. With the letters was a map that, if authentic, would have pre-dated the 1440 "Vinland map" by over forty years. The fact that the map has been found to be a tracing of one made in Germany much later has in no way detracted from the story of the Zeno expedition, which many regard as in essence true. In fact, the origin of the map is not important: no doubt the descendants included it in their book of the letters to help readers to get some idea of the route taken by the brothers. A few places, such as the Isle of Frisland which figures in the letters, were added. It is interesting that the German map was copied from an older one which perhaps the 1558 publishers found appropriate considering the letters had been written so long ago. It shows Greenland before it was iced up, which means it dates back to before the "little ice-age" that finally drove the Greenlanders out in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

The Zeno brothers had a prince called Zichmni with them when they made their voyage: he is variously described as a Scot, an earl of Norse descent, a native chief and a pirate prince. Many identify him with Henry Sinclair of the Orkneys. They were storm-tossed for eight days and first came to a port on the island of Icaria, but the inhabitants, reputed to be Irish, were so hostile that they did not dare disembark. After ten more days of bad weather, they reached Estotiland, of which they had heard in a story told by a stranded fisherman, who had said that the king there would not allow any shipwrecked sailors who were cast up there to leave, so he couldn’t go home. Estotiland was, according to this fisherman, a land of beautiful cities and much gold, ruled by a king of European descent who had an extensive library of books written in Latin, by that time only Antonio Zeno remained with the prince, Nicolo having died of exposure. Antonio's account of the topography of the land, and particularly of smoke seen rising and pitch found on fire at the bottom of a hill, has led historians to identify Estotiland with Nova Scotia, the pitch being in the Stellarton area. Other areas such as Pictou and Advocate Harbour have been identified, but unfortunately Antonio had no chance to see any of the fabulous cities or to meet the king, for at this point the prince sent him home along with part of the fleet and continued alone. Perhaps, if he really was Scottish, he was one of the few who were privileged to visit the king.

The letters report that the climate was warm and pleasant, and that fish abounded, as well as wild birds and their eggs. The exports are listed as gold, minerals and metals, and, to Greenland, brimstone, furs and pitch.

The "beloved" island of Frisland, south-east of Iceland, was favoured by the brothers as a burial-place. It is not there now and disappeared from the maps towards the end of the sixteenth century. It is generally believed to be mythical; but there is, just a possibility that it was volcanic, like Iceland, and really did disappear. Its significance as a burial-place is not clear: it is described as their "own land".

The north-eastern end of Estotiland somewhat resembles Cape Breton Island. There seems to be little doubt that Antonio Zeno was describing what is now Nova Scotia and might earlier have been Vinland; but if so, the change of name seems to need explanation. His connection with Scotland may have given Henry of Orkney privileges there because by that time the former Vinland already had a Scottish monarch. That Estotiland does not figure in Scottish history would not be unexpected if it was formerly the secret land called Vinland. But its name seems to tie it to Scotland, and at a time long before New Scotland or Nova Scotia had been thought of.

It is a historical fact that New Scotland was closely tied to the Stuart/Stewart monarchs. Their name was formerly FitzAlan and a cadet line became the MacAllans. In 1255 Co-Regent Alexander FitzAlan married Jean, the daughter of Lord Bute of the royal house of The Isles (Hebrides), the MacAllans were descended from that marriage. At some time the male line of Leif Erikson's family died out and the MacAllans, through a series of marriages, eventually inherited.

It may be that the king ruling Estotiland, formerly Vinland, at the end of the fourteenth century was a MacAllan - descended from Leif Erikson on a female line. That would have explained the name-change.

There would be others.

Notes on Chapter VI

The Vinland and Straumfjord Voyages: Vinland, by Leif Erikson, who built houses where there was a land-locked harbour (Norse: hop.); Straumfjord, by Thorfinn Karlsefni, who found houses Leif Erikson had built there and continued down the west coast of the same peninsula to a land-locked harbour he called Hop, but found no houses so he built his own.

Leif’s Voyage: Greenlanders Saga: (south-west from Markland) "they stand out to sea for two days' sailing before they saw land, and sailed for the land and reached an island that lay to the north off-shore, and climbed up on it...Then they went back to their ship and sailed into the sound that lay between the island and the ness that stretched northward from the land; they steered a westerly course around the ness. There was a wide shallow at the ebb and their ship stranded, but there was still a long reach of sea, to be seen, from the ship. But they had such curiosity to go ashore that they would not wait until the tide came up under their ship, and they ran ashore at a place where a river flowed out of a lake. And when the tide came up under their ship they took their boat and rowed to the ship and towed it up into the river, and then into the lake, and anchored there and took their sleeping-bags ashore and put up shelters there; made up their minds then to stay there over the winter, and built a large hall. There was no dearth of salmon either in the river or in the lake, and bigger than they had ever seen before. Living was good there, as it seemed to them, that they would need no fodder for cattle in winter, there was no frost in winter and the grass hardly withered. Days and nights were more of a length than in Greenland....."

Karlsefni's Voyage Greenlanders' Saga: "Karlsefni asked Leif for his buildings in Vinland, and he said he would lend his buildings but not give them. Then they stood their ship out to sea and reached Leif's buildings safe and sound, and took their sleeping-bags ashore. Right at hand for them was a big take of food, and good, for a red whale was stranded there...The livestock was brought ashore... Karlsefni had timber felled for a cargo, and the boards laid on rock to season. They made full use of the land's goods; whatever were there, grapes and all kinds of game and fish..." (After skraelings had come too engage in trade and had demanded weapons) "Karlsefni had a stout stockade raised around the buildings, and made it tight. At that time a son was born to Gudrid, Karlsefni's wife..." (This being the following summer. After another encounter with skraelings, during which they tried to steal weapons, resulting "in a fight in which many of them died), "Karlsefni stayed on for the whole winter. But in springtime Karlsefni declares that he will stay there no longer, and will go to Greenland. They get ready...They sail out to sea and brought their ship safe into Eriksfjord and were there over the winter."

Other Sources (based on old Erik the Red Saga, now lost): (Leif) "said he would lend the houses, but not give them. Then they stood out to sea and sailed to the Western Settlement and from thence to Bear Island. They soon reached the country Leif had found, called Helluland, and after that, Markland. Then they sailed southwards along the land and came to a cape beating into the wind and keeping the land to starboard. They rowed to the shore and found the keel of a ship, from which they named that headland Kialarness"; and they called the strands there Furdustrandr, because it took so long to sail past them. "Or Alternatively, "...Then they sailed south beyond Bear Island for two days, when they discovered land and rowed to it. They found there many great stones, some of which were so large that two men could lie on top of them, sole to sole. There were many arctic foxes there. They gave a name to this country and called it Helluland, from thence they sailed two days and bore away...towards the south-east until they reached a wooded country containing many animals. An island lay off to the south-east... and there they killed a bear so they called this Bjarney, and the wooded land there they called Markland. Then they sailed southward along this land and after two days they came to a cape and beat into the wind with the land to starboard. Here was a havenless coast with a long sandy beach and dunes. They rowed to the shore in boats and found upon a headland there a hill which resembled the keel of a ship...'” (This is a repetition of what Leif did according to the Greenlanders' Saga, when he named the lands but it gives the length of time taken. Greenlanders’ Saga does not give this, nor does it mention Furdustrandr; instead, they left Markland and sailed south-west.)

(Near Furdustrandr) "They came to a country indented with bays, and they sailed past the Furdustrandr and into a bay." (Karlsefni now sends a Scottish slave couple lent to him by Leif, to explore country to the south). "During their absence, Karlsefni and his party cast anchor, and when the Scots came back one of them carried a bunch of wine-berries and the other an ear of wild wheat...Then he and his party held on their way along a coast with many fjords. They took their ship into one of these fjords. There was an island to the south of it about which strong currents flowed, so they called it Straumey. There were so many eider ducks on the island that it was almost impossible to walk without breaking their eggs. They called the fjord into which they had sailed Straumfjord. They reached Leif's booths safe and sound...." (They spent the winter there but it proved to be a hard one, without much fish, and they were short of food. Then a whale appeared.) "...but no one could tell what kind of whale it was... When the cooks had prepared it the people ate of it and they were all sickened by it...Then the weather improved so that they could row out to go fishing.... Karlsefni cruised southwards off the coast...They journeyed a long time until they came at last to a river which flowed down from the land into a lake and thence into the sea. There were such great sandbars at the mouth of the river that it could only be entered at the height of flood tide. Karlsefni and his people sailed into the estuary and called the place Hop. They found wild wheat-fields on the low-lying land, and wherever there was woodland they found vines. Every brook was full of fish. They dug trenches on the tidal flats and when the tide fell there were flatfish in the trenches. There were a great number of wild animals of all kinds in the woods. They remained there for two weeks.... They had their livestock with them." (One morning skraelings appeared in skin-boats, came ashore, stared and then left). "Karlsefni and his men had erected their houses above the lake... They remained there all that winter. No snow came and their livestock found their own food..." (In the spring the skraelings came again, this time to do trade, and wanted to barter for weapons, but Karlsefni would not agree)... "Karlsefni built a strong stockade of posts around the house and put everything in readiness. “We had better take counsel”, said Karlsefni, "For I think they may call on us a third time with many men and not in peace.... “(So they prepared for battle, and after three weeks the skraelings came back and were defeated. After that winter they sailed from Straumfjord)…"...they had a southerly wind which took them to Markland and there they encountered skraelings" (and captured two boys who told them about their kings and said they were cave-dwellers, and that "on the other side" was a land where men dressed in white, and carried poles with rags attached). "And now they came to Greenland..."

The Work of Farley Mowat: Westviking, in which Leif Erikson is described as going south, passing Straumfjord and coming to Trinity Bay, building at Tickle Cove Bay; in which case, his Vinland, which Karlsefni never reached, would be the Avalon Peninsula. If his theory is correct, none of the explorers crossed the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which is not described as such. (However, if Leif left Markland and sailed in a south-westerly direction, he would have crossed it, but not knowing of the river, would have imagined it was a sea.) Karlsefni, on the other hand, is seen as sailing down the west coast of the Great Northern Peninsula to St. Paul's Bay, building his houses at Cow Head Harbour. No description of the building of Leif's houses at Straumfjord seems to exist. It may well be that none of the expeditions explored south of Newfoundland and therefore did not cross the Gulf of St. Lawrence at all.

Where Leif Erikson might have gone after leaving Markland: A southwesterly course as described could have taken him across the Gulf either to what is now Prince Edward Island or to some part of Nova Scotia - the Pictou area seems most likely, but he could have landed on Cape Breton Island. Or he might have skirted round it and found his land-locked harbour somewhere along the southern shore, possibly at La Have, whose name if translated back into Norse would be Hop. This is a gold-bearing area.

The Mysterious Houses at Straumfjord: Doubtless Leif Erikson didn't tell all, and neither do any of the sagas. Leif must have built two sets of houses and then sent Karlsefni to Straumfjord and not to Vinland. If Leif kept one secret - about the location of his other set of houses -he doubtless kept many more; that is, he must have visited many more places than he said he did. He must also have made later voyages which never went into any of the sagas, simply because he decided to say nothing about them. This would be consistent with the behaviour of a man who had discovered gold.

L'Anse aux Meadows: the original French was L’Anse au Meduse, which means Jellyfish Cove. The ruins were first noticed before the First World War by W.A. Munn of St. John’s. Various interested people worked on, trying to discover the significance of the site, until 1960 when Helge Ingstad came on the scene. He and his wife started to excavate the site in 1961, and in 1968 it was recognised for the first time as of historical value as a Norse site. The whole process had taken sixty years, and it would be another ten years before it would be internationally recognised.

The "cellars" at Tusket, N.S. do not appear to have been investigated.

Other possible Norse sites: Fort Point N.S. has been excavated and is believed to date back only to the l630s, when a French school was operated there for a few years. New Ross, N.S. has the foundations of buildings which could date back to early mediaeval or Norse times. A long narrow house once stood there.

Ferryland area, Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland: foundations of a similarly-proportioned house, not yet investigated.

Vinland: Appears on some early maps, at least one dated before 1492, either as an island or as a "promontory" arising from the bottom of the map as if attached to the mainland, and resembling Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula. This has led some people to place Vinland at that location, although the sagas indicate it is farther south. Most important is the map dated 1440-42, because it is the earliest. It shows Vinland as an island about three times the size of Greenland, elongated, with a river in its northern half running E.N.E. out of a vast lake and into the sea. It is easy to identify this feature with the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, although neither Newfoundland nor any other island is shown. The southern half is almost bisected by a long, wide gulf, which could be the Gulf of Mexico. Much of the land that we now know lies to the west is missing. East of Vinland stretch the Atlantic, the Old World and the Orient. Only the northern part of the Island is marked, in Latin, "Isle of Vinland". It is said to have been drawn by a monk in Basel, Switzerland, for Speculum Historicale and, having been lost, turned up in the U.S. in 1965. On it, Greenland appears as an island while on some later maps it is shown as a peninsula. Although not to scale, the "Vinland" map is surprisingly accurate for one drawn at a time when "T" maps were still the rule. When found, it caused great controversy, as much as anything because it pre-dated Columbus, whose reputation as the "first man" to get to "America" dies hard. It was condemned as a fake, especially after 1974, when all tests were said to have failed. But the recent X-rays have proved it genuine. The legend at the top has been translated to read, "Eric, legate of the Apostolic See and Bishop of Greenland and the neighbouring regions, arrived in this truly vast and rich land" (Vinland? America?) "in the name of almighty God in the last year of our most blessed father Pascal, remained a long time both summer and winter, and later returned to the winter of the east, to Greenland, and then proceeded in most humble obedience to his superiors." The Church apparently claimed that a Christian settlement remained in Greenland, but in isolation, still connected with Vinland, until the end of the fifteenth century, while the written records indicate that Bishop Jakob Peterson Treppe, appointed in 1411, died in 1425, after which no bishop or priest lived in Greenland, let alone visited Vinland. Bishop Eric Knupson visited his Vinland people in 1117, and apparently the "Vinland" map commemorates this.

Estotiland’s existence apparently overlapped that of Vinland, and is always shown on maps as being part of or just south of Labrador. The earliest mention of it appears to be by the Zeno brothers in 1398, when Vinland is not mentioned at all. This was at least 42 years before the "Vinland" map. The Zeno map shows the island of Icaria and part of Estotiland. It also appears on the map drawn after Drake's circumnavigation 1577-60, and on contemporary maps, and as late as the early 17th century. Samuel Purchas (1577-1626) mentions it in his Pilgrimages (1613), in which he deals with the Zeno voyages. The list of goods traded between Greenland and Estotiland, as given, does not make clear in which direction goods flowed, so that it appears that all, including pitch, came from Greenland. This is obviously incorrect. Also mentioned are the growing of grain and the making of beer in Estotiland.

None of the maps actually identify Estotiland with Vinland, although some place it south of Markland, in the position originally occupied by Vinland. The Zeno account has enabled researchers to identify it with Nova Scotia.

Estotiland’s Policy concerning Europeans stranded on its Shores: The King's policy was to help them in every way, to give food and shelter and to allow them to settle. But none was allowed to return to his own country for 5 years. Most lived out the rest of their lives there. The policy prevented men from returning to tell stories about gold and riches. It was a good one.

Chapter VII

Vinland – Sudhrike – Souriquois, and Norumbega

Accepted teaching of history is that the Norse settlements in North America "failed", and that Leif Erikson’s brilliant start came to nothing. This is clearly incorrect in the light of contemporary writing and maps, however inaccurately-drawn. The trans-Atlantic Norse settlements were known to other peoples than the Scandinavians: news had spread to Normandy and Venice and throughout Europe. Rumours of gold "over the ocean" were not likely to be ignored, and legends grew up early about "El Dorado" - a prince or chief who went about clothed entirely in gold, the Man of Gold. Others spoke of El Dorado "as a city of gold", and before long there were thought to be seven such cities. Mythical as well as actual lands, islands and cities across, or in the middle of, the Atlantic, had been talked of in Europe since classical times: Atlantis was legendary in Plato's time and Solon of Athens had first heard the story from the Egyptians about 550 B.C. Socrates said his great-grandfather had the original. It was supposed to have been submerged in an earthquake, leaving a sandbar difficult to navigate. But other such lands were supposed still to be there, no matter how ancient the legend and how many people had failed to find them. The Fortunate Isles or Isles of the Blest dated back to prehistoric times and in the end some people identified them with the Canaries: an 8th century map showed them there. "Brazil" and other such names were common in Ireland from earliest times, and later in Europe: it was supposed to be an island and identical with the Norse "Greater Ireland". Under either name, it was later identified with Newfoundland. Nobody could find the Isle of the Seven Cities, though Antillia was a popular candidate. The legend gained favour after the end of the 15th century. Not everyone agreed that the Seven Cities were on an island: some put them on the mainland as the Seven Cities of Cibola. Either way, they were supposed to have been founded at least six centuries earlier. It is easy to see why those coming later dismissed all such legends, including those of the Norse sagas, as figments of the collective imagination. Drogeo, variously spelt, was supposed to be a cannibal island near Vinland and was never identified, but Corvo - Crow Island - was found in the Azores. Then there was the Sunken Island of Buss, supposedly south-east of Frisland, which also has never been found. Islands of Demons or of Saints appear on various maps. None was ever found. But the Island of Good Fortune (not the same as Fortunate Isles) was placed by Hudson in 1612 just south of Labrador. This is where we find, on earlier maps, Vinland and occasionally Estotiland, though the latter at least is always seen as part of the mainland.

Of all these legendary places, the Seven Cities of Cibola became the most sought-after. Gold, it was said, was readily-available there. It was supposed to be somewhere in the south-west of the North American continent, and Spain found the rumours about the seven golden cities irresistible in the early sixteenth century. The search for El Dorado was on: it would lead to the Spanish Conquest. But the Seven Cities were never found and it is believed they were invented by some of the native tribes to mislead the Spaniards. Doubts have always lingered, of course: were they invented as a decoy for the real Seven Cities?

The New World had been opened up by men such as Columbus, Vespucci and Cabot - and by scores of anonymous sailors from ports such as Bristol, who claimed they'd got there first.

Estotiland would linger on for a while, but a new name was beginning to appear; Norumbega: a country of that name, and a city reputed to be rich in gold and furs. Few ever found that city. In the north it was as in the south: a decoy system was operating, whole islands and peninsulas were left off the maps commissioned by kings and others. Another new name was beginning to emerge: Sudhrike. But that country did not appear on any map. The French knew of it: they called it Souriquois.

Both Sudhrike and Norumbega were Norse-derived names and connected with Greenland, where now few if any Europeans lived. Sudhrike was the Southern Domain: Norumbega was its extensive northern territory, literally "northern settlement". The city of the same name was smaller such settlement. Most people looked for it within the territory of Norumbega, which stretched from the Gaspe down to Maine or, some believed, even farther south. Most failed. Those who succeeded discovered it was called "Northern Settlement" because it was north of the coast - not because it was within another northern settlement.

But where was it? Not in Maine nor even New Brunswick: people looked there, searched for years; nor could the New England enthusiasts be sure that any of the likely places was its site. In the end, one searcher built a tower to commemorate it in the location where he thought it ought to be.

Nobody thought to look in Sudhrike: that was one of the places not shown on any maps where Norumbega, in any of its various spellings, whether river, city or territory, was shown.

The French changed the name of Sudhrike or Souriquois to Acadia. Various explanations have been given for this, one of them being that when Giovanni Verrazano - an Italian in the service of the French king - landed in North America in 1524, he called that part Arcadia. In 1621 the former Sudhrike, together with the entire Norumbega territory, became New Scotland. In the eighteenth century, when three provinces were created out of it, the part that retained the name Nova Scotia was virtually what had been the peninsula once called Sudhrike - the same land having previously been identified as Estotiland, which used to be Vinland.

That understood it follows that Vinland, under whatever name, was known to at least a limited number of people in Europe without a break from the day its discovery was announced by Leif Erikson, until it became part of Canada in 1867.

Ramusio (1485-1557), a writer on explorations who also edited Marco Polo's Travels, knew of Norumbega, which he said was the "native" name, and Allefonsce, who came with Roberval in 1544, visited a city called "Norumbegue" and estimated the distance to the mouth of the river (on whose banks it stood) to be fifteen miles, the latitude at the estuary being under 43 degrees. It was a city of lofty towers and well-built houses.

The inhabitants he described as "a fine people who had furs and many animals" and wore "mantles of marten skins." Another writer, Thevet, who was there in 1556, claimed he had "discovered the Scandinavian stronghold" (of Norumbega city). Maps at the time frequently marked it with a tiny picture of a castle to indicate this.

Allefonsce, like many others, found traces of Christianity among the natives. This again links Norumbega city to Estotiland and Vinland, and its king with his vast library. But it is also recorded that the people were sun-worshippers - at the same time "handsome ", dressed in rich furs and were "nice people to deal with".

Marc Lescarbot, who was active in Acadia from 1599 (when it was still Souriquois or Sudhrike) to 1619, also attested to the people's friendliness towards the French and said they were Christians at heart and acted towards others as Christians were expected to do.

The natives to whom Lescarbot and others were referring were the Micmacs or the "people of the main land" (meaning "most important land" as distinct from mainland). Sudhrike was a "native" name for part of the old Greenland overseas empire - southern because it was south of Greenland. They apparently never called it Vinland or Estotiland. The name Norumbega probably dated back to the early days of colonisation too. There was also a Micmac name for La Have: it was "the place where men have long legs" - or Longshanks. The long legs were those of the towering Norsemen who built their first settlement there - led by Leif Erikson if the saga tale is correct.

At or near La Have there was a Micmac school in which native children were taught to read and write in their own language, a branch of Algonquian. When the French arrived early in the seventeenth century, they found that some of the Micmacs could write and were literate in their own language: their king had made education available to them. There is some reason to believe that the school operated by the French for about four years from 1632, was originally a native school, and that the fort there was of Norse origin. Part of the evidence may be found in the two charters of New Scotland - in 1621 under James VI of Scotland (James I of England) and in 1625 under Charles I. Listed there are such topographical features as "castles and fortalices", "towers" and manors. They are all gone now and some believe that they were never there in the first place and were only written into the charters in the hope that they would be built later. When Nova Scotia was given back to the French in 1632, the Scottish colonisation was said to have failed, therefore no castles, towers, forts or manors could have been built.

If Nova Scotia, on the other hand, was identical with Estotiland as it appears to have been, then under its king it would almost certainly have had buildings and fortifications such as those mentioned in the charters. The explanation for their complete disappearance will be found in the flattened ruins at places such as Fort Point, Tusket and New Ross - and doubtless elsewhere, awaiting discovery and investigation.

We needn't look far to discover who was the author of most of this demolition: in Oliver Cromwell's time, one of his supporters came from New England with an army bent on destruction. His name was Sedgwick; the year was 1654. The Stuarts - or FitzAlans - had been ruling England since 1603. Charles I had succeeded James I in 1625 and had been executed in l649: Cromwell and Parliament were at the peak of their power, supported by the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers who had started their colony in New England in 1620. To them, the Stuarts had long been seen as enemies and the reason why they had had to leave England. But there was another reason why Cromwell and Sedgwick would have wished to obliterate the strongholds of New Scotland: it had come into the hands of James I not only by agreement with the French but because the cadet FitzAlan line known as the MacAllans had inherited it during the previous century.

The MacAllans were, by the fifteenth century, related to Leif Erikson's family by marriage - a family that had died out in the male line. As a cadet FitzAlan line, descended from a younger son, they were not wealthy in their own right but had powerful family connections. Established in a rambling house in northern Portugal, they were respected as members of the nobility of Norman descent (through the old Counts of Brittany). Ferdinand, third son, was unlikely to inherit much from his father, and, like his ancestors, took to the sea. The Portuguese called him Magalhaes, and when eventually he sailed round the world for Spain in 1519-21 - the first man to do so officially - he would go down in history as Ferdinand Magellan. He was born in about 1480 and died at the hands of natives on an island in the Philippines.

At home he left a wife and two sons, born in 1518 and 1519: in 1517 he had married the wealthy, “comely”' heiress, Beatrix Barbosa, and she apparently brought him untold riches. Her eldest son, Roderick, soon inherited, for in 1522, when she heard of her husband's death, she too died and her third child with her. Her surviving sons were four and three years old respectively. History does not record what became of them, but their descendants appeared later on in Scotland. One of them, who signed the 1621 charter of New Scotland, was described on it as the King's cousin: at the time he was using the name Melrose - Earl of Melrose.

The disappearance of the two young Magellan boys after their mother's death was perhaps not so mysterious as it seemed: they were probably taken across the Atlantic to the land the eldest would one day inherit. That this was expected is evident from a portrait of the heir, painted in 1572, when he was 54 according to the inscription, which also identifies him as Robert Dudley. There is no resemblance between this latter-day Viking and the real Dudley, of whom other portraits exist for comparison. It was common during the civil wars of the seventeenth century for Royalist families, before they abandoned their homes or took refuge in the West Indies or some other overseas haven, to alter or paint false names on the family portraits they had to leave behind. This was probably an example. Be that as it may, it was not hard to identify the subject as one of Magellan's sons: so great is the resemblance that at first I thought it was a portrait of the circumnavigator himself. That he was the heir is indicated by the presence, in one corner, of a simple, mediaeval-style crown. That it is only hovering there and not yet on his head indicates that at the time he was not yet crowned.

"Age 54, 1572, Robert, Earl of Leicester", i.e. Robert Dudley.

Actually a portrait of Roderick MacAllan or Magellan (variously spelt), born 1518,

eldest son of Ferdinand Magellan and his wife Beatrix Barbosa.

He is wearing a fur mantle that probably came from the city of Norumbega.

Roderick had been born into troubled times for the nations across the Atlantic. Until the fifteenth century fear of Church disapproval and the (at the time) very real prospect of falling off the edge of the Earth into the Abyss had acted to the advantage of both the rulers and the peoples of the New World. Gunpowder and firearms had not reached them and, although minor and tribal wars occurred from time to time, the people of North America and of Vinland or Sudhrike and Norumbega in particular, by all accounts lived relatively peaceful, unhurried lives following their old traditions, hunting, gathering, moving on from time to time, always close to nature. They would have known nothing about Columbus or Cabot and the threat that existed from the 1490s onwards.

What had happened was that fear could no longer hold Europeans back: the Church was already being weakened by internal disputes and the dissidents were ready to bring about the Reformation. The ruling family in their Norumbega city fortress would have foreseen the tragic events that were to follow and there is no doubt that they were determined to prevent the disaster that loomed. It was no mere chance that the fabulously wealthy seafaring Barbosa family was in Spain, or the less spectacular Magellans hiding in rural Portugal. Nor was it coincidental that Magellan had a disagreement with the authorities in Portugal and offered his services instead to Spain. Doubtless he knew of the plans to send out Hernan Cortes across the Atlantic in search of the elusive Seven Cities of Cibola and gold. He may have hoped that his voyage would divert the attention of King Charles and cause him to hold off any assault on defenseless nations across the Atlantic. If so, his hopes were dashed: Spain carried out both projects in the same year, 1519, and by 1521 Magellan was dead and the Aztec Empire destroyed.

The gold, of course, was mainly in Peru, a comparatively highly-developed country by then, the result of brilliant Inca rule (which we now know was started by Norsemen), with everything owned by the state except houses and personal goods and the Inca himself responsible for the well-being of his people. Without money, they paid their taxes in labour, and when attacked by Francisco Pizarro in 1532 had well-run farms, fertilized and irrigated, well-built roads and bridges and thriving industries: textiles, metallurgy, and ceramics.

The effect of this tragic and wanton destruction of a well-run, happy and peaceful nation on the "Norman" rulers, as the natives now called them, in the northern kingdom must have been devastating. There is no doubt that it was mainly Inca gold rather than that mined nearby in limited amounts, that was the basis of their trade. Not only that, soon they would be over-run too. They, too, had no guns: the tribes could fight only with bows and arrows.

It was doubtless the threat that they knew was there that drove them to seek protection. Whether the French came in by invitation or by permission is not clear, but the creation of New Scotland was without doubt undertaken to ensure that the formerly defenceless country and its northern territory would have protection.

James VI had just inherited England. Roderick's successor, the Earl of Melrose, had inherited his wealth. The cousins hoped to pull through.

Sir William Alexander, later the Earl of Stirling, poet and courtier, was assigned to New Scotland as King's Lieutenant. Seven ships were sent over, as well as architects and builders, carpenters and engineers. Norumbega city was to be made even more beautiful, with buildings in the Palladian style below its shining, gold-roofed towers; and a fort was to be built.

The Scottish colony actually covered the old lands of Sudhrike and Norumbega, and with the foundation of New Scotland, both former names disappeared from the map.

In 1632 all was passed back to France and what had been New Scotland became part of New France, while the peninsula the French had called Acadie reverted to that name. Nobody at that time could have foreseen what was going to happen in 1654. That year marked the end of old Norumbega, the end of all that had been Sudhrike and the towered city of Norumbega, for nearly 700 years. The "Norman" rulers had gone.

Before 1000, Leif Erikson had seen the possibilities of his new land, his descendants had perhaps realised his dreams. We know they built and preserved at least one beautiful city.

That dream and all those of the Scots during the l620s died in 1654.

Vinland, Estotiland, Sudhrike, Souriquois, Acadia - all would be gone by 1713, and a new beginning would have to be made. That year saw the creation of Nova Scotia as we know it today.

Notes and Background to Chapter VII

Native Peoples: The sagas referred to skraelings: these were the people they met in both Newfoundland and Labrador. After 1492 they were all dubbed "Indians", because Columbus thought he'd reached what is now Indonesia. For that reason, the islands of the Caribbean were later called the West Indies. His mistake was perpetuated and for centuries the various tribes of the Americas were lumped together under this misnomer. In fact, there were many nations and many tribes. They were also often referred to as "natives", meaning "native peoples", which, although equally inexact, is at least not incorrect. The tribes to the south referred to the people of the far north as Eskimos, because they ate meat almost to the exclusion of anything else. The terms Innu, and Inuit are recent in the "white man's" vocabulary.

Micmac and Souriquois: The Micmac -people of the main land- lived not only in Sudhrike but in the territory of Norumbega. Those who lived in Sudhrike were referred to after the French came in the early 17th century as "Souriquois".

General Assembly: This was organised in "Norumbega" - presumably the city - on the lines of a Norse Thing, and the Souriquois chiefs were invited, as leading citizens, to take part. Each tribe had already chosen its Chief, and, unless he was incapacitated through age or sickness, he would be the one automatically chosen to attend. Each chief bore the title “Ricmanen", derived from the Norse rika menn, which some authorities have taken to mean "rich" man or men. In fact, it would appear to mean "ruling" rather than "rich", but such was the reputation of Norumbega City for its riches that the misconception remained.

Variations in the name of Norumbega: These include Nurumberg, Norombega Norombegue (Allefonsce), Norembega, Anoragua, Anorbagra, Arembi; and on some maps such names as Normanville appear.

Charlevoix (l682-176l), author of Histoire de la, Nouvelle France- a Jesuit traveller and historian - wrote that Norumbega was "long known as a beautiful and powerful province". It was often described as extending south to Florida, but this may have been because of the duplication of names along the east coast of North America by some cartographers, those south of Cape Cod being correct and the rest of the coast - that of Norumbega and Sudhrike - being otherwise devoid of names. Thus there was a second "Florida" near Cape Cod on some maps. Others have claimed that it extended across the entire continent to California, and, in the other direction, to Cape Breton, with Cape North marking its limit. Champlain in his earliest map, dated 1612, shows Norumbega, but his map of 1632 omits it. Both these maps show the peninsula of Acadia, Acadie or Nova Scotia. This is clear evidence that Sudhrike or Souriquois became Acadia during the first decade of the 17th century, and that this was the only alteration in nomenclature until 1621, the name of Norumbega persisting until then. The two territories then became New Scotland.

In 1629 it was recorded that the King, Queen and young prince of New Scotland visited London so that the king could "submit his kingdom" to Charles I. It has always been assumed that an "Indian Chief" was involved - he had an "Indian" name. He may, however, have actually been the "Norman" king of Sudhrike and Norumbega. Doubtless he was dressed in full Micmac ceremonial robes and feathers. But it must be remembered that wherever the Norsemen went, they adopted the clothing and many of the customs of the indigenous people. They also occasionally took their brides from among their chiefs' families. There is evidence of this in at least one stone carving where a "round-eyed" man (as the Norsemen were sometimes called,) was marrying an Aztec bride. We know she was Aztec because also shown is human sacrifice and the cutting-out of the man's heart -a custom Among the Aztecs on ceremonial occasions. There is no doubt that by 1629 the Norse descendants were no longer "Scandinavian". But, being seafarers, they often went outside their own country for brides, and when the male line died out, sought a nobleman of Norman descent from Europe as consort for the heiress. With the new main line may have come a new name for the country. It is not known exactly when the first "Norman" was brought into Vinland. The change to Estotiland is thought to have come with a Scottish connection of some sort. We do not know, indeed, how many times such a change occurred: what we do know is that Roderick MacAllan or Magellan was one example. It was after that time that the Micmacs began to refer to their ruler as "Norman". Long after 1629 they continued to speak of their Norman king. They believed that a tract of land was reserved for and, should he need it, a "palace" situated on a high point west of Halifax. This was probably a reference to the former castle at Norumbega city. The legend has persisted down to modern times. But there is no confusion now as to the identity of their monarch: it is the one reigning in London.

“Wandering” Ports and other Features: Duplications and misplacements by cartographers have confused researchers and others for centuries. Cities, capes, bays, islands and whole countries were affected, even at a time when they were making fairly accurate maps of the Old World. It has been suggested that they might have been involved in some conspiracy to "deceive their sovereigns". If so, then contemporary writers seemed to be involved too. How could a richly-endowed city such as Norumbega be placed now here, now there on the North American continent, attended, even, by other "wandering" topographical features? One conclusion was that Norumbega must be a myth.

The truth is that there was a city called Norumbega but it was not at any of the places marked or described. We have to conclude that there was indeed a conspiracy - perhaps in order to mislead such monarchs as those of Spain. Moreover, if Leif Erikson was loath to tell his brothers and a later king was keeping shipwrecked sailors there for 5 years in order to preserve the secret, it would follow that when maps came to be made, the same rules of secrecy were adhered to. The discrepancies and misplacements were there to deceive and mislead searchers for gold.

In the face of all this redundant cartographical information, it seems almost impossible that anybody would have been able to come up with a workable theory as to the location of Norumbega city, still less have been able to plot a course to the coast in its vicinity. Refugio, a port in the Bay of Many Islands, seems to have been the object of some searchers: Norumbega was just north of it up the river. Even if anybody did arrive at this spot along the uncharted south shore of, Acadia/Nova Scotia, with all its islands, hidden coves and dangerous rocks, it is still unlikely that he would ever have found the city. No road led to it, and the river was navigable only by canoe. Moreover, there were no lighthouses in those days to prevent shipwrecks.

Then, just to cause more confusion, it was left off Champlain’s map in 1632. But by that time it may have lost much of its importance: very little gold would be found in the vicinity in future, and the main source of gold for trading - the Incas - had been gone for a century. It continued as a fur-trading centre; but the gold trade moved elsewhere, and with it the merchants engaged in it.

Quotations concerning Norumbega: Allefonsce and Purchas:

Allefonsce: "Returning to Cape Ratz" (Race), which is on the open sea, I say that the Cape Ratz (Race) and the Cape of Breton and other ports in the open sea, which is also called Jehan along the east-northeast and west- southwest on the course eighty leagues. The said Cape Breton of the open sea is through forty-two degrees north latitude. Turning to the island of St. Jehan, which is called the Cape de Breton, and the many ports in the Mer Oceane which is above thirty-nine degrees of the height of the North Pole, I say that the Cape of Saint Jehan called Cape de Breton and the Cap de la Franciscane are northeast and southwest, and trending a quarter from east to west there are on the route a hundred and forty leagues, there make a cape called Cape de Norumbega…The said cape is in about forty-one degrees of latitude. The coast is throughout sandy and low, with no mountains, and along the coast there are many islands of sand, and a coast dangerous from banks and rocks…Beyond the Cap de Norombegue descends the river called Norombegue, about twenty-five leagues from the cape. The said river is large; it is more than forty degrees of latitude and maintains its largeness some thirty or forty leagues, and is salt (according to what they say who live in the town), and is all full of isles, which extend some ten or twelve leagues into the sea, and it is dangerous from rocks and swashings…. The said river is beyond forty-one degrees of latitude. Within the said fifteen leagues there is a city which is called Norombegue, and there is in it a fine people, and they have quantities of skins of all animals. The people wear cloaks of marten skins...The land of Norombegue is high and good. “(Date after 1543?)

Purchas on region of Port Royal: "The inhabitants of these parts were termed Souriquois. From them westward are the people called Etschemins, where the next port, after you are past the river of St .John, is St. Croix, where they erected a fort and wintered. Threescore leagues west from thence is the river Kinibeki, and from thence the land turneth north and south to Malabarre. Authors place in that former extension of land, betwixt east and west a great town and faire river called Norombega, by the savages called Agguncia... These French discoverers utterly deny this history, affirming that there are but cabans here and there, made with perkes and covered with barkes of trees or with skins... and both river and inhabited place is called Pemagoet, and there can be no great river (as they affirmed), because the Great River of Canada hath (like an insatiable merchant) engrossed all these water commodities, so that other streams are in manner but pedlers." (l613: French discoverers mentioned were "of de Mont's historiographers, Champlain, Lescarbot and Poitrincourt".)

It is easy to understand the problems of those who came on the scene later and hoped to find Norumbega!

The Travels of Andrew Thevet and David Ingram

Andrew Thevet was an explorer and writer who visited Norumbega in 1556 and gave the latitude as in the 43rd degree. He was first in the Sargossa Sea, which he accurately describes as being full of seaweed that made sailing there difficult. He also describes the coast of Norumbega territory between Cape "St. Jean (Double)" and another feature called Aiayascon at 42°14’, points between being Port de Refugio, Paradise, and Flora, but not Porte Reale as on some maps. This means "Port Royal" and on other maps appears in the bay into which the Norumbega River (often called Rio Grande) runs. It is marked on the map, with Ste. Marie near the estuary. This is not the Bay of St. Mary's mentioned by Ingram -the duplication is confusing (perhaps deliberately so).

David Ingram was a sailor who was left with others in North America by Sir John Hawkins in 1568 when he ran out of provisions. He wandered from Mexico to Norumbega, and describes it as being sixty leagues from Cape Breton (a league being three miles). The distance being 180 miles, the city would have to be in Nova Scotia - roughly at Halifax. Unfortunately, however, there are two areas called Cape Breton, one the southeastern tip of the main island, that is the Cape itself, often shown on a little island; the other Cape Breton Island or territory, often shown as part of the mainland. Measured from the near end of Cape Breton Island, a site on the Gold River would be 180 miles distant. Here he found a city three-quarters of a mile long, and thence he went to the Bay of St. Mary's - one of the earliest names to appear on the "transitional" maps around 1600, and shown in the same place as now, between Yarmouth and Digby Neck. A French ship happened to be there and took him to France. Back in England, his tale was written down by others, for he was illiterate.

People claiming to have visited Norumbega City:

1497: John Cabot, chart.

1500: Cosa, map with Cavo de Yngle Terra and Cape Britain to north.

1500: Corte Real named a place after himself in Norumbega (territory).

1507: Ruysch, found Rio Grande with islands at mouth.

1528: Ayllon, made governor of several provinces in Baccalaos region, which extended from mouth of St. Lawrence to latitude of Bermuda. One province was Aramba on the Gamas River; earliest year in which castles appeared on maps: city said to have been discovered by Miruelo, 1520.

1524: Verrazano visited and recorded Norse names on map.

1525: Gomez kidnapped some Norumbegans and took them home to Spain.

1539: Parmentir, recorded position of city/territory relative to C. Breton.

1542: Allefonsce returned 1543; mentioned latitude of city and river. (Cartier, misled by natives, found no city of furs and gold inland.)

1556: Thevet, mentioned latitude and wrote of city and fort of Norumbega and river of same name, called by some Rio Grande.

1556: Ramusio, detailed description of city, country, people, products.

1569: David Ingram, eleven years "before Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Man" was there, was at Norumbega and described it as a city three-quarters of a mile long.

?year: Captain Jenynges, "and his mate Smith", according to Hakluyt had told him of Spaniards driven on to the coast of Norumbega who had "lighted on a towne on a river's syde" which they said was about a quarter of a mile in length.

1580: John Walker, sent by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, visited north side of river on which a city was situated at nine leagues from the river's mouth; found a house in which there were three hundred hides, each 18 square feet in area.

1583: Bellinger, Hakluyt's friend, visited city of Norumbega, found it still to contain "eighty bark-covered houses," and noted extensive and varied commerce.

1604: Champlain was taken to a site said to be the remains of the city of Norumbega, "scattered remains" of cabins covered with bark; although the "natives" showed him these remains, Champlain doubted that "these scattered dwellings were the remains of the Norombegue described in the literature of geography as lying between the Kennebec and Cape Cod". He believed it was on the Penobscot River. It wasn't.

l880: Winthrop found a boulder dam and walls on the banks of the River Charles at Watertown and thought they might be the site of Norumbega; supported by E.N. Horsford, who built a commemorative tower and published books on Norumbega in the 1890s. It is evident from the experiences of the various visitors that there were attempts to mislead them, which Champlain suspected. Certainly from 1583 onwards, if not earlier, visitors were being shown what was a mere village or encampment. Small wonder that travellers came back with conflicting stories.

There seems to have been a tendency for those interested on both sides of the border to lay claim to Leif's landing-place, if not to the site of Norumbega. The latter can have been at only one place, but both sides are probably right about where Leif Erikson landed. It is hard to believe that Leif, Karlsefni and the other great Norse navigators, whose habit was to range far and wide, would suddenly have confined themselves either to New England or to Newfoundland. Still less would their successors have continued to do so for the five hundred years that elapsed between Leif Erikson and John Cabot.

Background: The 14th century had seen the removal of the Pope to Avignon (I309-1377); and rightly or wrongly, a growing distrust of Jews in business and their expulsion from England in 1290 (which would last until Cromwell's time); peasant uprisings in England and Europe, the Black Death, 1348, which had also reached Greenland; John Huss in Europe and John Wyclif in England, questioning papal authority and foreshadowing the Reformation; defeat of the Golden Horde by Russia, 1380; the last Crusade, with Turkish victory, and Turkish victories as far west as Serbia (Yugoslavia) and in 1397, contemporary with the Zeno brothers' visit to Estotiland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden were united under one king, while in 1399 Richard II of England was usurped and in Europe the 100 Years War (1338-1453) raged on.

The 15th century came in with the beginning of Henry IV’s reign in England, a revolt under Owen Glendower in Wales, and the death of Chaucer. Ten years later, in 1410, Poles and Lithuanians brought an end to the power of the Teutonic Knights, and in 1429-31 Joan of Arc saved Orleans and died for it; the 100 Years’ war ended with England’s defeat. In 1448 the Scandinavian countries split up again, but Estotiland was too far away for its rulers to be concerned. The activities of the Portuguese prince, Henry the Navigator, probably alarmed them more: he was sending his men into Africa, to look for slaves and, more important, to establish trade in gold. Turkey continued to advance and by taking Constantinople ended the Byzantine Empire and started their own Ottoman Empire. England was in turmoil 1455-1485 with the Wars of the Roses. Printing came into being in Europe in 1454 and would play its part in the Renaissance. Doubtless examples of the new printed books found their way to the King of Estotiland via his merchant fleet. Then in 1492 Spain sent Christopher Columbus to the Caribbean, and that was to be the beginning of the end for Estotiland. John Cabot was on its doorstep in 1497: he is believed to have “discovered” both Newfoundland and Cape Breton.

In 1500 Pedro Cabral from Portugal discovered Brazil, and another Portuguese, Gaspar Corte Real, was sent to the North and sighted what must have been Labrador. The New World was no longer a safe haven. But the rulers of Estotiland were in a strong position: they had untold wealth. The gold trade had brought them properties in other countries all over the world: they were well-established in Venice and Constantinople, all over Europe and in many parts of the world where no other European had been. They were in a strong position to monitor all that was going on - and to withhold gold from those they most feared. Spain and Portugal were high on their list for this, and perhaps that was why Henry the Navigator had sent men to Africa in search of gold.

Their major weakness was lack of a real army and total lack of a navy. Before long they would have to pay other kings to defend them.

In 1501 Corte Real was back with two ships, to capture two Micmacs and take them away as slaves. He didn't make it: the ship he was in sank.

In 1502 his brother Miguel repeated the operation with the same result. Ships were also arriving from Bristol and by 1502 they had reached Newfoundland and started fishing on its Banks.

In 1507 a German cartographer called Martin Waldseemuller made the first map with the two American continents on it, supposedly based on theory. He wondered what to call them, as some favoured Columbia. He is believed to have chosen "America" because of Amerigo Vespucci’s voyage to the southern continent. Perhaps; but the northern continent was already known as America, Kingdom of the Sea.

By 1512, the English were the main explorers in North America, and a year later the Pacific was "discovered" by a Spanish predator called Balbao. Leif Erikson's descendants had been familiar with it for five hundred years.

In 1524 Verrazano discovered a bay and counted five islands there. He found the port of Refugio and is believed himself to have given it that name. It was connected with the city of Norumbega, and afterwards people searched for it for over a hundred years.

Chapter VIII

Tactics - the Rulers as People - the End

With the fall of the Incas, the rulers of Estotiland began to look for a likely "horse" to back, in order that they could deal with the menace of Europe. One day in 1536 James V of Scotland was in France looking for a bride. He found one called Magdalene, and in her train was a young MacAllan courtier, his distant cousin, heir to all the riches of Estotiland and the world trade in gold. He called himself John de Hope, perhaps because of his descent from Leif Erikson. The young man went back to Scotland with King James, and that was the beginning of an alliance that would last into the nineteenth century, when the last Stuart heir on the male line died.

Next to inherit was the Earl of Melrose. Apparently neither Roderick MacAllan nor John de Hope actually inherited, being outlived by the then ruler of Estotiland, who appears to have been a Queen. Her portrait exists, wearing the simple mediaeval crown of the land. The supply of gold from Peru had long been cut off by that time, but such was the family's wealth from earlier centuries that they did not doubt they would pull through, and when James VI inherited England they had complete confidence in their ability to save their lands.

In the next generation came Francis Bacon and Inigo Jones, so-called. Inigo's birth in the parish of St. Bartholomew-the-less seems to have been fictitious: that church is the hospital chapel, formerly a monastery chapel. His entire early life is a mystery, but he may have been fostered by a family called Jones. One clue as to his real identity lies in a document recording his dispute with Ben Jonson when he wrote of him as "Vitruvius Hoop" (Hope). Another appears in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, written in honour of James's marriage to Anne of Denmark. Some of his characters, as in Macbeth, refer to those around James at the time, and Polonius may have been introduced to portray Jones because of a then known connection with Marco Polo, as well as his descent from Leif Erikson.

What were the rulers of Vinland-Estotiland-Sudhrike like as people? That they were shrewd has been noted from the sagas, and that shrewdness was noted again in the Earl of Melrose. But, wealthy though they ware, they were never pretentious and saw themselves as part of common humanity; they travelled rough, a fact that is not generally recognised, but was noted when the Polo brothers and Marco returned and even their own relatives couldn't recognise them until they slit the linings of their coats and revealed the jewels that came tumbling out. They were also somewhat whimsical: Marco Polo noted, on observing a rhinoceros, "There are numerous unicorns….altogether different from what we fancied". Well travelled though they were, they never lost that innocence, that closeness to nature.

A later member of the family, who under Charles II held the title of Lord St. John, appears in Pepys’ diary as "M. I'lmpertinent", a lawyer, traveller and merchant, and under that name a play by Shadwell was staged. As Woodcock, the character of Lord St. John is well-portrayed, except that it was his singing voice that was so famous, not violin-playing. Others wrote of him as a courtier engaged in the gold trade, but added that no matter what his disabilities as an old man (apparently he lived to a great age), his singing never ceased to charm. The extent of his charm as a man is seen in the play: above all, he was a man who loved the world and its people, a warm-hearted man. Such were many of the rulers of Estotiland.

Lord St. John used many names during his long life: no longer able to hide in the old castle or palace in faraway Norumbega city, he had been forced to pursue secrecy in other ways. When things became difficult, he took to his ships and sailed away. Many of the Royalists landed up in the West Indies in the mid-seventeenth century, founding a colony on the island of Barbados.

Succeeding generations also spent much time on their ships. In the late eighteenth century they expanded their activities to take in whaling on the Greenland run. This enabled them to visit their ancestors' old lands and perhaps to see what was left of such centres as Brattahlid and Norumbega city without arousing too much attention. Many worked on their fathers' ships as cabin-boys, later to captain their own ships. During the eighteenth century they were still carrying messages for and supplying small but valuable goods to European monarchs. Occasionally they took passengers. In the nineteenth century they were taking emigrants: one group disembarked on the east coast of Tasmania around 1828, and the story of how they got there may be read in their archives.

That ship - the "Mary" - continued on the high seas until 1894, and was the last of the fleet to go down. It was then almost exactly nine hundred years since Leif Erikson made his famous voyage and started it all.

The question that has to be asked is, did the experiment in Greek-style democracy started in Norway in 512 succeed? So little remains of it in what once were Sudhrike and Norumbega that failure is the first thing that comes to mind. Yet 500 years of peaceful rule and unprecedented prosperity cannot be ignored. Moreover, we have to look farther a field, to all the far corners of the world to which their ships sailed and their travellers penetrated, the picture is then quite different: they perhaps changed the world more than any other family. They brought not only gold and precious stones to Europe, but coal, the beginnings of a postal service and the idea of paper money. Tea and spices came at least in part through them, and such products as whalebone; they brought pasta to Italy. Palladian architecture - based on classical proportions - was disseminated by them, and their countries beautified: in the theatre they brought us the proscenium arch. They were active, too, in astronomy and other sciences.

More than a century after their beautiful city of Norumbega had disappeared, Thomas Jefferson wrote out his concept of the ideal, kingless democratic state, adapted from Greek-style democracy, and he and his contemporaries made their country beautiful with their buildings based on the Palladian style.

Part 2

Chapter IX

The Evidence of the Maps

The 1440 Vinland Map has now been proved authentic: re-examination in 1985 proved that nothing in it was chemically different from other ancient parchments, thus laying to rest all stories of fakes, forgeries and hoaxes.

Estotiland, although a later feature on ancient maps and charts, is still subject to some doubt. Clearly it was not situated in or just south of Labrador. As far as can be ascertained, it first appeared on the Zeno Chart in about 1398. This chart is highly inaccurate and many of the lands, even if they can be easily identified, appear to be misplaced. Greenland in particular, is wrongly-placed, but it seems that cartographers, perhaps because they were more familiar with that land, tried to relate the small parts of North America to it, and in doing so naturally placed Estotiland in Labrador. Drogeo, the land of cannibals, would then appear to be on the Gaspe Peninsula. None of this agrees with either the Zeno account or other early descriptions of North America. The description of Estotiland by the stranded fisherman fits what is now Nova Scotia, and so does that of the Zeno expedition. Nobody has described the Gaspe as being inhabited by cannibals, but both maps and descriptions place them in South America, north of the Amazon or along that river. I can discover no mention of cannibals anywhere in North America at any time. It is possible; therefore, that Estotiland may accurately be identified with Nova Scotia and Drogeo with northern South America. The fisherman had spent most of his 26 years sailing or otherwise travelling down the coast of North America, and would have had ample time and opportunity to reach South America.

A Scottish connection for Estotiland has been suggested. The initial "S" in Scotia was sometimes pronounced "ES" and written so, thus Escotia or Escocia. Apparently the two t's in Estotiland were interchangeable with c's.

In 1266 Norway lost the Hebrides and Northern Scotland to the Kingdom of Scotland, only Orkney and Shetland remaining under the Norwegian Crown. Northern Scotland has naturally tended to be populated by those of Norse descent. In the 14th century they had been under the Scottish Crown long enough to have wished to name their land across the Atlantic after their Scottish homeland, if they came from there. Although we cannot exactly trace the MacAllan connection generation by generation, we know that the clan had Hebridean connections and that by 1536 some of them were using the name of Hope or de Hope. The "Hope" (Norse hop) concerned was and still is on the north-west coast of Scotland in the Old Norwegian Sutherland (so-called because it was south of Norway). Up to the 19th century it was still in the hands of a John Hope, who used the moors for hunting. I visited the site of Hope, which now has very few houses and a ruined castle. It appears that the descendants of Leif Erikson once owned this outpost, which remained as an active community until 1792, when the "clearances" were done and villages razed in order to give the land over to sheep. The people who remain in the area were still talking of what happened at that time, and told me that the Earl who used to live in the castle had the roof taken off before he left in order to avoid paying taxes. The Lord John Hope who hunted there in the 19th century appears to have been the last of Leif Erikson’s descendants to live there, albeit temporarily during the season. His hunting-lodge on the moors was still there when I visited.

Whatever may have been the reason, it appears that by the 14th century the Vinlanders had decided to honour the Scottish king by changing the name of their land to something reminiscent of Scotland. The Micmacs, however, appear always to have called it Sudhrike - the Old Norse name for Southern Domain.

Sudhrike as a name for Vinland may have overlapped both Vinland and Estotiland, and appears to have been a description rather than an actual name, as was Norumbega, the "Northern Settlement".

Sudhrike and Norumbega have to be considered together, since only Norumbega appeared on the maps during the 16th century. With it, Estotiland continued to appear to the north, while the peninsula where it was actually situated was left off the maps altogether. It has to be remembered that cartographers only included on their maps what they were commissioned to indicate. They worked on data from others and most of them never visited the countries concerned, particularly those across the Atlantic. Sea charts, on the other hand, were made by those who visited the lands concerned, but were naturally very inaccurate.

It may seem strange that those involved did nothing to correct the erroneous placement of Estotiland in Labrador instead of as a peninsula attached to Norumbega. There can be only one explanation: desire for secrecy, which seems to have started with Leif Erikson himself. This is borne out by the stranded fisherman's account, according to which the King of Estotiland was adamant that nobody should return to Europe to tell where be had been and must therefore remain there for at least 5 years. Life expectancy was short then and most probably died before the time was up. Few if any returned to their homelands.

Further evidence of the desire for secrecy is seen in those maps where place-names along the shore leading up to Cape Breton are omitted and names of places farther south, or fictitious names, substituted.

Arcadia was a name first used by Giovanni Verrazano on his voyage in 1524. One theory is that he named it himself, after having read a book published around that time about a place called Arcadia. The original Arcadia was in ancient Greece, on the Peloponnesus, and was inhabited by a pastoral people whose way of life was later regarded as idyllic. It could be that the Norse-descended king then reigning in Sudhrike also found the Greek connection attractive and, indeed, it may have been he who, being of Greek descent, was first to use it. The Verrazano who made the map from data given by Giovanni was a cartographer who was not present on the voyage. The two were brothers: one worked from the other's charts, sketches and notes, and doubtless verbal descriptions were also taken into account. Some authorities have pointed to widely-varying descriptions by explorers, as well as to inaccurate sea-charts, as reasons for the mistakes made by cartographers. Champlain was both cartographer and explorer, and it was he who, on his maps, identified Arcadia or Acadia with Sudhrike. Although the suffix -acadie means "place" in the Micmac language, the true derivation of Acadia is from Verrazano's Arcadia. It was misplaced on the map made by the Verrazano brothers, but later moved farther north.

The Bay of Fundy: Many have expressed amazement that this spectacular bay was omitted from all the earlier maps, and it does seem strange that nobody apparently noticed, as anybody who sailed into it must have done, that its very high tides rush in suddenly as a tidal bore. But it follows that it could not be accurately placed on map, while the peninsula of Sudhrike or Acadia was not shown. Prior to 1603 it did not appear on any map, although if we look carefully we can see that its presence is suggested. It was Champlain again who finally produced maps that included it; in showing the missing peninsula, he was also able to indicate the large bay that separated it from the mainland, and to indicate some of its features for the first time.

For a similar reason Ile St. Jean (Prince Edward Island) was misplaced below Cape Breton on the maps.

The large river or bay or a combination of both, on which Norumbega city appears in so many maps, is given various names: Rio Grande, de Gamas, and de Muchos Yslas, de lago islas, or Norumbega River. But on one map instead of "Rio Grande" we see "Rio Fonde". From other maps we see that this is the river or inlet on which appears Norumbega city. Champlain failed to find the city in or near the Bay of Fundy, however, because seldom if ever had it been correctly-indicated on earlier maps, and the local Mic Macs were not disposed to help him and in fact misled him, showing him a group of tumbledown huts that he knew had never been a city of any kind, let alone Norumbega. Thus was the secrecy maintained.

Nevertheless, Champlain's were the first accurate maps of North America. By the mid-l8th century, all ships engaged in exploration carried cartographers, and from that time forth maps were accurate.

Unfortunately by then many of the old names had disappeared.

Evidence of very early Atlantic Voyages to other parts of the Americas: Henry the Navigator is known to have organised an expedition to Newfoundland and the Grand Banks, and thus the Portuguese discovered Cape Breton. Very early maps by them show this feature. According to one, the territory of "Bretonland" extended to include Maine and all the land to where New York now is. Their ships were fishing the Grand Banks before anybody else's. In 1521 a colony of Portuguese "Masterless Men" settled on Cape Breton Island, and subsequently the island became the haunt of pirates and wreckers some of whom were women. Descendants of these early Portuguese settlers may be found all the way down the coast from Newfoundland to Maine.

1513: The Piri Reis map was drawn; it is said to contain data from as far back as the year 700, and may be partly based on data from the Library of Alexandria. It was re-discovered in 1929 in Istanbul.

It contains knowledge not in the hands of the average cartographer of l6th-century Europe, such as how to determine longitude - not discovered or devised until the mid-l8th century -but is particularly interesting for the remarks written on it. I give examples below.

"There is a kind of red dye called vakami that you do not observe at first, because it is at a distance" (meaning it was worn by the people)... “The mountains contain rich ores... There some of the sheep have wool like silk.”

"This country is inhabited. The entire population goes naked." (Both in the Honduras area.)

"This region is known as the vilayet of Antilia" (apparently still on mainland) "It is on the side where the sun sets. They say there are some rich kinds of parrots, white, red, green and black. The people eat flesh of parrots and their headdress is made entirely of parrots' feathers. There is a stone here - it resembles black touchstone. The people use it as an axe: that is, it is very hard...."

"This map is drawn by Piri Ibn Haji Mehmed" (Reis was his title, meaning Chief or Admiral), "known as the nephew of Kemal Reis, in Gallipoli, in the month of Muharrem of the year 919" (that is, between the 9th March and the 9th April of the year 1513).

"These coasts are named the Shores of Antilia. They were discovered in the year 896 of the Arab calendar. But it is reported thus, that a Genoese infidel, his name was Colombo, discovered these places," (i.e. west of the Amazon, and the entire story of Columbus follows).

"In this century there is no map like this map in anyone's possession. The hand of this poor man has drawn it and now it is constructed, from about twenty charts and mappae mundi - there are charts drawn in the days of Alexander, Lord Of the Two Horns, which show the inhabited quarter of the world; the Arabs name these charts Jaferiye - from eight Jaferiyes of that kind and one Arabic map of Hind, and from the maps drawn by four Portuguese which show the countries of Hind, Sind and China geometrically drawn, and also from a map drawn by Colombo in the western region I have extracted it. By reducing all these maps to one scale this final form was arrived at. So that the present map is as correct and reliable for the Seven Seas as the map of these our countries is considered correct and reliable by seamen."

"It is related by Portuguese infidel" (i.e. Christian) "that in this spot night and day are at their shortest of two hours, at their longest of twenty-two hours. But the day is very warm, and in the night there is much dew." (Towards Cape Horn.)

"On the way to the vilayet of Hind a Portuguese ship encountered a contrary wind from the shore...After being driven by a storm in a southerly direction they saw a shore opposite them, they advanced towards it...They saw that these places are good anchorages. They threw anchor and went to the shore in boats. They saw people walking, all of them naked. But they shot arrows, their tips made of fish-bone. They stayed there eight days. They traded with these people by signs. That barge saw these lands and wrote about them...The aid barge without going to Hind, returned to Portugal where, upon arrival it gave information...They described these shores in detail. They have discovered them..." (Nearer the Horn.)

"And in this country it seems there are white-haired monsters" (drawn on map, dog-like?)..."and also six-horned oxen. The Portuguese infidels have written it in their maps." (Farther south still.)

"This country is a waste. Everything is in ruin and it is said that large snakes are found here. For this reason the Portuguese infidels did not land on these shores, and these are also said to be very hot," (though at about 70° s.)

"And these four ships are Portuguese... They travelled from the western land to the point of Abyssinia (Habesh) in order to reach India. They said towards Shuluk. The distance across this gulf is 4200 miles." (Off tropical Africa.)

"...on this shore a tower" (much of the text missing where map was once folded)" is however, in this climate gold... taking a rope... is said they measured..." (Gold Coast of Africa.)

“It is said that in ancient times a priest by the name of Sanvolrandan (Santo Brandon) travelled on the Seven Seas, so they say. The above-mentioned landed on this fish. They thought it dry land and lit a fire upon the fish, when the fish's neck began to burn it plunged into the sea, they re-embarked in their boats and fled to the ship. This event is not mentioned by the Portuguese infidels. It is taken from the ancient Mappae Mundi." (Islands marked San Salvador.)

"To these small islands they have given the name of Undizi Vergine. That is to say the Eleven Virgins." (Virgin Isles.)

"And this island they call the Island of Antilia. There are many monsters and parrots and much logwood. It is not inhabited." (On Equator.)

"This cargo was driven upon these shores by a storm and remained where it fell... Its name was Nicolo di Giuvan. On his map it is written that these rivers which can be seen have for the most part gold (in their beds). When the water had gone they collected much gold from the sand..." (In the Atlantic, just north of Equator.)

"The Portuguese infidels do not go west of here. All that side belongs entirely to Spain. They have made an agreement that (a line) two thousand miles to the western side of the Strait of Gibraltar should be taken as a boundary. The Portuguese do not cross that side but the Hind side and the southern side belong to the Portuguese."

"...And on this island there are oxen with one horn. For this reason they call this island Isle de Vacco which means Cow Island."

"This sea is called the Western Sea but the Frank sailors call it the Mare d'Espagne, which means the Sea of Spain. Up to now it was known by these names, but Colombo, who opened up the sea and made these islands known, and also the Portuguese who have opened up the region of Hind have agreed together to give this sea another name. They have given it the name of Ovo Sano (Oceano), that is to say, Sound Egg. It was thought before that the sea had no end or limit, that its other end was darkness. Now they have seen that this sea is girded by a coast, because it is like a lake, they have called it, Ovo Sano."

"These monsters are seven spans long. Between their eyes there is a distance of one span. But they are harmless souls." (In Atlantic, north of Cape Horn.)

The Piri Reis map was folded twice, and then tore along the folds, thus losing not only its entire eastern half, but a northern part that is also missing. All that has been found is the south-west portion. This fragment is very important: it indicates that the ancients were familiar with the entire world, including south and Central America, and also by implication North America.

Piri Reis makes it quite clear that Columbus did not discover, but only opened up the region.

Chapter X

The Evidence of Language and Legend

The inhabitants of Sudhrike wrote in a script very similar to the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and it has even been suggested that the two are related. Its existence was first noted by the missionaries in the 17th century, who observed their pupils making notes on birch bark in the form of signs. The French called the native people the Souriquois (from Sudhrike) but by the 18th century, when the English had taken over, they were known as the Micmacs. Pierre Maillard wrote down and published the symbols used, and 6l years later ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing was independently deciphered. Only later was it realised that similar symbols had similar meanings. Eugene Vitromile (1866) wrote of the Micmac system of writing and mentioned that their letters written on birch bark used to be "posted" - carried by the famous "Indian runners" - and that chiefs used to send out circulars.

The use of the symbols died out with the coming of the post-Columbian Colonisation, but the language remained and has proved to be connected not with the language of ancient Egypt but with ancient Norse and modern Norwegian. It emerges that Modern Norwegian and the Souriquois or Micmac language are both derived from ancient Norse.

A study in 1940 by a Norwegian, Reider T. Sherwin, underlines this connection. Not only the Micmacs, but all the other Algonquian tribes, spoke a language so derived. This means that the Norse linguistic influence extended from west of Lake Superior (the Cree) to the Atlantic coast, and from James Bay and Labrador in the north to North Carolina and Tennessee in the south.

The first name I noticed on the map of Nova Scotia which was said to be "Indian" but seemed to be "Scottish" was Antigonish. It seemed to link up with such names as Stockinish, Husinish and Brenish - all in the formerly Norse Hebrides. There are others: Scarinish and Treshnish. I found that the ending -ish in the English language comes from -isk in Norse, and the modern Norwegian word for "fish" is still "fisk". I could not, however, find any Norwegian place-names ending in –isk. This may be because the connection between Norway and northern Scotland was broken as long ago as the 15th century. It is interesting that at that time they were also very active in Greenland and Vinland. The Micmac language connection obviously dates back to those early days.

Conversely, I noticed many "Japanese" type place-names in western North America. There is also a difference in appearance among the peoples: they are "more European" in the eastern Algonquin areas. But the Shawnee, for example, had a trans-Atlantic tradition in their folklore and legends. During the early days of colonisation it was sometimes difficult to distinguish by physical appearance between some of the natives and the Europeans who had just arrived. The ''disappearance" of the Algonquian tribes seems to indicate that they merged into the society created by the newcomers, the absorption being almost imperceptible in some areas.

In view of the foregoing, I was certain that the linguistic connection must have been there in pre-Columbian days, if not at the present time. I hoped that some of the Old Norse had lingered on. The task of investigating the position, however, is highly specialized and would require, if not a Norwegian-born, one who had made study of that language and its origin from the Old Norse. The work of Reider T. Sherwin, a Norwegian living in the United States during the Second World War, gives in dictionary form the linguistic connections which I had felt certain must be there. He made his discovery and did his research in the years leading up to the publication of the first of his two volumes in 1940.

By the time he published his second volume; runic inscriptions had been found which helped to confirm his findings.

The Evidence in the Words: (See also Vocabulary at end of this section.)

Place-names bestowed by the Norsemen were descriptive of the location, as were those given by the native people. For example, Hackensack, formerly Hackinkeshacky, translates from both languages as "The place of the river’s hook-shaped outlet". Shippegan, from Norse Skipgang, "course for ship’s passage".

Ordinary words and phrases: Sherwin discovered that there were over a thousand: these "double translations" could not be mere coincidence.

Treble translations: Long before I read Sherwin's study, I had noticed that some Micmac roots appeared not only in Old Norse, but in modern English, the English word "acre" is an example. It is true that English received a heavy infiltration of Norse words during the Viking raids and occupation. The warrior Norsemen spread their language through Europe; the Norse explorers brought it to the indigenous peoples of North America.

Norumbega and Sudhrike: The Norse connection was noted as long ago as 1878 by E. Beauvais, who wrote a report on it, for the Congress of Americanism that year. He stated, of the Bay of Fundy, "The two banks had still in the sixteenth century Scandinavian names; the northern coast was called Norambegue or the Northland. The southern territory in Old Norse was called Sudhrike or Sourike...Lescargot (sic) and Father Biard have drawn the ethnic name Souriquois, also written Sourikois and Souricois" (Southland) from this name. He notes that it probably existed long ago.

Beauvais was not alone: others before and since have noted "the large number of root words identical with those of Indo-European languages in the various Algonquian dialects". Some suggested a continuous migration west from Europe going back to the Stone Age.

Similarities between Algonquian Dialects: Before 1851 it had already been recorded that the New England Algonquian dialects, especially on the coast, varied in much the same way, and to a similar extent, as English dialects. That the Algonquian language also had mixed roots was noted in that in the Narragansett tongue there were as many as six different words to describe the same thing, each one having arisen originally from a different dialect. A tendency to add one word to another, as in the German language, was also noted among some of the tribes.

This was not the language of "savages" as so often the colonists called them: those who studied the North American languages expressed amazement at how well- structured they were.

Thomas Jefferson was one of those who were engaged in such studies, but his notes came to a sad end, being lost in a fire. What was left was published in 1787. He, too, suggested common origins, but was already lamenting the demise of some of the indigenous languages.

Ethnic Origins: Traditions - and other Legends

Chippewa: Supposed to have originated in another country where the people were wicked, and to have crossed a great lake, shallow with many islands, where it was always winter, with ice and deep snow.

Shawnee: A foreign origin, or came from elsewhere by ship; used to perform sacrifices annually to commemorate safe arrival. Used iron tools.

Aztecs in Mexico: Montezuma told Cortez that as a king he was descended from the same stock as European monarchs: the Quetzalcoatl legend, according to which this pale-skinned hero was supposed to return. This led him to put too much trust in Cortez, which lost him his empire and his life.

This legend existed throughout Central and South America, and the Incas were defeated in the same way. The white hero for whom every nation was waiting was tall and bearded. We know that in Peru the first Inca, Viracocha, had this appearance, and that the Incas bore all the characteristics of the Norsemen. It is possible that other nations and tribes had, in the past, been visited and perhaps helped by the Norse explorers and merchants; they expected all the post- Columbian Europeans to be the same. The discovery of "fair Indians" by early colonists indicates that the "Indians" of the east were in part descended from the Norsemen. The name Sackmacken (...Prince...) is also the name of a prince in Iceland.

Ability to write English as well as their own language: Dr. Silas T. Rand noted in the 19th century that the Micmacs were being "downgraded", as they still had "a book" in their own language, which they could read, as well as being fluent in English. The book, written in hieroglyphics, was copied out by hand for distribution and "entered into some of the most elevated regions of knowledge and thought."

Norse myths in America: Coincidence between Norse myths and those of the Wabanaki or North-eastern Algonquins, to which the Micmacs belong, supports the theory of direct transmission.

The Hopi and the Legend of Erikanner in the South-west: The name "Hopi" may have a Norse connection, but although much has been written about them, there does not seem to be any obvious connection. Also in the Southwest, however, is the story of a hero called Erikannar. He was, according to legend, a very tall man who rescued his much smaller brother when he was captured by enemies. It dates back to the times when the village-dwelling tribes were establishing themselves. The Spanish later called them "pueblo Indians" for that reason. One of the oldest pueblos dates back to their early days, about 900A.D.

The Hopi, who are among these "pueblo" tribes, called their land Hopiland; their river was the Colorado. A Hopi pueblo, Hano, still exists where their language - of the Uto-Aztecan family - is still spoken.

There is also a legend that Erikanner used to clothe himself entirely in gold-another version of the EI Dorado legend.

Legends which drew Europeans to search for Riches:

The Fortunate Isles: Classical tradition dating back to ancient Greece, that there were "beyond the Pillars of Hercules", i.e. in or across the Atlantic, these islands. By Mediaeval times legends existed about several such lands. On maps, as well as in writing, appear also Brazil and St. Brendan's Isle, the latter because of his voyage in about 550. This was once believed to be a myth, but is now generally agreed to have taken place. Some cartographers placed the Fortunate Isles in the Canaries, but the idea that they were across the Atlantic persisted, and by 1500 others with such names as Isles of the Blest began to appear on maps of the New World. The Isles of the Blest were sometimes identified with the Fortunate Isles.

Antilia, Antillia and Salunga (spelling varying) were legendary lands which also appeared on maps, including one drawn by Andrea Benincasa as early as 1470 - either in mid-Atlantic or across it. Some maps identified Antillia with the Isle of the Seven Cities.

Cibola and the Seven Cities of Cibola apparently started their legendary life in rumours generated by the indigenous people, whose aim was to mislead - particularly to mislead the Spaniards, who quickly but erroneously identified Cibola with the Isle of the Seven Cities.

The Isle of the Seven Cities had long been the subject of legends about gold.

Quivera also apparently existed only in legends concocted by the indigenous people. There is a story of a man called "The Turk" who had been bribed by members of another tribe to lead the Spaniards away into what is now Kansas. Once they arrived at what was supposedly their destination, they knew they had been tricked, and it was "The Turk" who was attacked and killed and not the real perpetrators. Cartographers later moved Quivera to the north-west, nearer the coast, and people still believed the legend and continued to search for it and its supposed gold.

Among all the attractive legends grew up others about places to avoid, such as the mythical Isle of Demons and Verrazano's Land of the Bad People. Farther north than the other legendary islands, it was described as "all forests" with hostile people who made threatening gestures when explorers tried to land.

Naming of Labrador; The legend of the "labourer" or "farmer" dates back to a Portuguese explorer called John Fernandez, who is said to have had it named after himself. He was a farmer and small landowner who set out for the new land just after Cabot's voyage, in 1499. Apparently he never reached Labrador itself but landed up in Greenland. More than one place visited by Norsemen was named Breidh aar (Broad River) or Breidh fjord, and Labrador, as well as the so-called Bras d'Or lakes of Cape Breton, already bore that name long before the days of the Portuguese farmer. He probably simply added the definite article as a prefix.

The Legend of the Long-headed People; In the early days of North American exploration stories were told of a "long-headed race" of people - the Algonquins - and this apparently had a Norse connection. In 1607-8 Captain John Smith described them as "tall and straight" and "of a colour brown" but "born white". Their head-gear, he said, was similar to "that worn when the Norsemen discovered North America". They wore conical hats, and it may have been these which accounted for the "long-headed" appearance of the Algonquins.

The Legend of the King's Land and his Refuge in the Woods

This legend was told to me three times, twice by Micmacs and again by a long-established European-descended family. All lived along the South Shore of Nova Scotia. I have not been able to establish a definite connection between this refuge and "Refugio" (and variations) as marked on the maps, but if Rio Grande is the Bay of Fundy the two could coincide.

The first occasion was in 1970 when I was walking with others in the woods and we came upon a hunting camp belonging to an elderly Micmac. He was then about 82 years old and had built it at the age of fifteen. He told us that his land was part of a strip running right through Nova Scotia to Yarmouth, "Crown land that still belongs to the Queen and them" and that sometime in the past the Royal Family had reserved it as a refuge: "They were ready to bring the whole government here, civil service and so on,” to Nova Scotia. After the danger had passed, they "hung on to it," he said. I asked him when that was, but he seemed uncertain. "The Queen and them, or the King, whoever it was, had it in case they had to come and live here. It was a long time ago, before my time….perhaps before Napoleon. They reserved it ready." I asked him how he knew all this, and only when he replied did I come to know that he was a Micmac, for this tall man looked much the same as others of his age and was certainly, not "brown" but fair-skinned. He said, "My people were here when it happened. It was our land. We've lived here for hundreds of years without holding deeds. Those who buy can get only grant land – and their deeds are indefensible, useless and meaningless if the original deeds are found. The Royal Family had them and now they're lost. But they could turn up...."

I was puzzled by the story, and when I met another Micmac not long afterwards I mentioned it to him. He gave me a knowing look and said, "Yes, there was a king and he had the land for hunting. It reached from somewhere near Yarmouth to Lake Pockwock, and in the middle of the forest a house was built for him, a little palace in the woods. Our people have a right to live on that land... We can go into the woods and build our log cabins and nobody can stop us. We have the right by those old deeds." He had just built himself such a cabin. Like the older man, he was tall and slim, blue-eyed with fair hair; and he could walk through the woods without cracking a single twig underfoot, coming close to wild animals without disturbing them.

He told us the site of the king's refuge was on a hill fifteen miles inland, at the highest point west of Halifax.

The European-descended family said their ancestors had been brought to work on the "mansion" by agents of King James I of England in l623, and that it had been built on the site of an old castle that had fallen into disrepair. There was, they said, a city on that hill in those days, with a fine administrative building, and they had much to say about gold roofed towers and a 17th-century gold dome. We subsequently found the site and there were foundations on it that this family said tallied with what they knew of the castle and the mansion. For instance, the original well was still there, and the post-holes for the 17th-century building, which they had told us was a frame-house. It had apparently been built by the Scots in an attempt to restore the city to its former glory, but they had been forced to abandon the project and it had finally been razed by Sedgwick in 1654.

By that time the older Micmac had died, but we told the younger one and he came and examined the site and identified it as the one he had told us about. Nobody could tell us the name of the city that had once been there, but old gold-mines are nearby, and until the Second World War a fur-trading post of sorts was still there. It seemed very likely that we had found Norumbega city. Since Cartier and Champlain had failed to find it and the Scots had not publicized their activities in the 1620s, we were left with the impression that it had been known to them through some earlier connection, and were reminded of Estotiland and the fisherman's tale about the European king who ruled it.

Relevant Vocabulary:

Hoopaninak: Name of island at Flatlands, King's County, Long Island, in 1664, according to an old deed, "with the islands adjoining and at the same time by the Ocean Sea wholly enclosed" (History of Kings County: Stiles). A hop in Old Norse is a small landlocked bay connected at high tide with the sea; ey is island and akr land; thus Hop-eyn-in-ak(r). Such place-names indicate a Norse presence in the past.

Sokk: Root word meaning strongly, firmly, with strength, and its derivatives; links up with seig in Norse dialect, adjective meaning tough, stubborn, difficult; of cloth, firm, strong, long lasting; of people, strong, able to withstand age. Sokki Thorsson of Greenland in the 12th century bore the Algonquin version of the Norse name.

Ab: prefix, from (Rand). Ultimate origin Latin; found throughout Europe.

Abada: "I put aside" (e.g. food for others).

Af: same origin (Norwegian av German ab), of, off or from; prefix.

Aata: nonn, eating, dative aetu; food, meat.

Buua: (byy, bjoo, etc.) verb, to be.

Sip, sup: in compound words, to drink (Eliot), pertaining to water.

Minnehah-hah: waterfall on stream leading to Mississippi (Longfellow); watercourse, long valley, river basin (Old Norse). Haa, in compound words means in Norse loud, noisy, high (pitched); and haadh in Norse is a noun meaning mockery, derision, jeering, laughter: thus, loud-laughing chasm.

Brad or Brador, (Labrador): from Old Norse breidh, an adjective meaning broad, and aar, river, or fjord, inlet. Algonquian sipsar, river, is literally "drink- river".

Norridgewok: name of an Algonquin tribe; Noregr (genitive Noregs) means Norway or, as prefix, Norwegian in Old Norse. Noregs folk means "Norse people", and that was the name of the tribe in Old Norse.

Norridge- is pronounced exactly as Noregs is in Norway and as Norwich, county town of Norfolk, is in England.

Norumbega, formerly "a country, a city and a river", said first to have been noted by Verrazano in 1524. Nordham byggda in Old Norse: north colony or settlement.

Sudhrike: called Souriquois or Souricois: Nova Scotia, Canada - the Old Norse Sudhr rike, southern domain or kingdom, originally another name for or description on of Vinland, which is south of Greenland.

America: mer, open sea, usually in compound words (mar-salm, sea reed, Old Norse), and riiki or rike, rika, etc, power, right, rule, kingdom or domain in Old Norse; thus, mer rika, sea kingdom or Kingdom of the Sea (an expression still in use). In Norwegian, rike is generally written rige and means country or domain.

Erik: ey, island, and rike - "island ruler".

Reckawick, Mareckawick (treaty, 1645), Merreckawack (1649). Marechkawieck (all as referred to by the Dutch) are forms of a place-name at Brooklyn, New York, afterwards known as Wallabout Bay. The meaning, Norse-derived, is fence or fort, because there a chief built a fence around where he lived. It has been said, erroneously, that the name America arose here. Ren, a noun meaning man; rennawauk or rennawock, mankind; Old Norse, hreine, men, used in some compound words as hreina-folk , sincere or decent people (c.f. German Herrenvolk, used to indicate racial superiority in Hitler's time).

Micmac or Megumage: the main or most important land; megumagee, Makumagiou, countryside. Megin or megum means main or the most important part, and as a prefix, main- (Old Norse). Megum ake(r) the most important land or country.

Akr (Norwegian aker): Norse dialect aaker, aakr, used as suffix in old place-names in Norway; -aak, -ak: field, ground, place, district, land; -ohkeauke, -arke, land. Megin land; mainland, continent, mother-country. Norse prefix was megum- or megin -; -egr in Noregr from –akr, thus “Northland”.

Kebek: narrow place in river: kabak, kebeck, from Old Norse kaa, a verb meaning ensnare, inveigle, entrap, and bekk (Norwegian beek, English beck), brook or rill. In French, place-name Quebec, the narrows. The same word appears in place-names elsewhere.

Me, as a prefix. This usage was noted by early colonists, who thought the people had picked it up from English. It is, however, also used in Old Norse as mi-, with a possessive meaning, as in mi-dnukan, (my) covering, and clothing. Similarly in the Algonquian language, where the prefix is pronounced m’: mtokwon, attire, clothing. The form ne also appears: ne si, I say, from Norse mi si or mi sea. The Norwegian for say is segya.

There is evidence of triple descent from Old Norse, with Norway at the centre and on either side England (and to a certain extent other European countries) and North America. Icelandic is the nearest language to Old Norse still in existence.

The Drawl: Drawling speech is common to all Norse-derived languages: thus the English drawl, the Boston drawl and the Scandinavian drawl, where the tendency is for “o” and "ah"(aa) to become "aw". And so we have also the Algonquin drawl, in which "r" also changed - to "l". The early settlers at first took this to be a form of lisping and imagined they had picked it up from incoming children.

The Age of the Algonquin Language:

The link-up has been found to be between Algonquin and the Old Norse of Icelandic poetry - that used in Scandinavia 950-1150. After that, Norse divided into four dialects. As the sagas were written down so late, few works in the old poetic language remain. But there are enough for comparison to be made and the parallels are there, even as to the way sentences are constructed, the accented syllables and the changes going on in Old Norse during that period. It is interesting that that these links are with the actual language spoken at the time of Leif Erikson's discovery of Vinland.

Going back farther still, all the Norse-derived languages have a "Greek overlay", which has been noted by linguists. It was brought to Norway by the Heruli and moved west from there.

There was a direct connection between Norway, Iceland, Greenland and Vinland for at least three hundred years. After that, although the connection with Europe was still there, the Norse connection became more tenuous, Greenland having dropped out and broken the chain. All evidence seems to point to the fact that the ordinary Norsemen who settled in North America merged with the indigenous tribes.

This is particularly obvious in their place-names and language.

Chapter XI

Solid Evidence

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, if not earlier, solid evidence of a Norse presence in North America has continued to be discovered. But so strong was the belief that it was Columbus who "discovered" the Americas, that in every case not only was astonishment expressed but also doubt. The question was finally settled during the 1960s, when Helge Ingstad worked until 1968 excavating the site at L'Anse aux Meadows. Ten years later it was recognized as a National Historic Site and the official proclamation came two years after. Only then did the world at large begin to accept the fact that the Norsemen "got here first".

The discovery and excavation of L'Anse aux Meadows threw new light on all earlier discoveries in North America where a Norse connection had been suggested.

Other early Visitors and Settlers:

Traces of civilizations much earlier than that of the Norsemen have been found in North America, especially in the form of stones, carved stones, inscribed stones, stone circles and Ogham stones, which link the New world with the Old, and suggest a virtually continuous movement westwards. There is a legend that the Newport Tower, Rhode Island, was built by Welshmen who fled across the Atlantic in 1177 after the death of Prince Owen Gwynod. Fratricidal strife between his heirs led one, called Madoc, to take his followers across the ocean to seek new lands, and legends of Welsh-speaking "Indians" persist.

An Ogham Stone was reported found in Newfoundland in 1975 - Ogham being the type of script used by the early Irish, dating to the time when they were still Druids. Its presence has been used to support the belief that in about the year 550 St. Brendan sailed from Ireland to found a colony. (Ogham script on right.)

Stone Circles were centres of Druidic worship, and since more than one example has been found in North America, together with smaller stones used during their spring fertility rites, it has to be assumed that the Druids or early Celts preceded the Irish. Some of the stones bear inscriptions which link the stones to the Celts while they were still in Continental Europe, during the centuries immediately B.C. Wood ashes associated with such a stone in New Ross, N.S. have been carbon-dated at 1500 B.C.

The Oak Island Stone, taken from the so-called "money-pit" in the early 19th century and subsequently mislaid, bore an inscription (fortunately copied at the time the stone was found) which is said to have been Carthaginian - that is to say Phoenician. The Phoenicians migrated to the North African coast from Tyre in the 9th century B.C. and developed an extensive mercantile trade, with ships that sailed far and wide. Other stones bearing similar script have been found, including another, also on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, which has been linked to the Cypriots of about 350 B.C.

Massive stone buildings in Mexico and Central America are believed by some to have been built by descendants of peoples who earlier still disappeared from Middle Eastern areas - the Sumerians, for instance.

 Traces Left by or in Connection with the Norsemen:

The North Dakota Stone: This was found by the French in 1738 and taken to Paris. Unfortunately it has since been lost. The inscription was thought to have been in Norse runes.

The Yarmouth Stone: was found by Dr. Richard Fletcher opposite the harbour in 1812. The inscription was examined by various authorities at the time or soon after, and was said to be runic, reading "Leif to Erik raises this monument". According to another theory, the runes are Basque and if so would read, "The Basque people have subdued this land". Because of the difficulty in positively identifying the script used, there has always been some doubt as to the origin of this stone, but it could be proof of at least a visit to the south-west coast of Nova Scotia by the Norsemen.

Newport Tower, Rhode Island: has always fascinated archaeologists and historians. Because its pillars and arches suggest that Romanesque or Norman style, it has been said to have been built by Norsemen, but apparently it was in use during the 17th century by one Benedict Arnold, as a windmill. It has therefore been claimed that he built it at that time, but the Norse theory persists. One theory is that they built it as a fortified church, and measurements have been taken that indicate a Norse origin.

Fort Point La Have, Nova Scotia: is known as the site of a French school and fort dating back to l632. There is, however, reason to believe that there were older buildings on the site. Champlain, during his voyage in 1604 together with De Mont noted this as the first cape reached since leaving Le Havre in France, and is said to have given it its name. It is, however, worth noting that in the little sketch-map he made at the time, a building of considerable size appears which could have been the site of a Micmac school later to be adapted or rebuilt by the French. The name La Have is also a translation of the Norse word for a land-locked harbour, hop. The Micmacs called it Pijeluikak, apparently a reference to the "long joints" of the people living there - loosely translated, "Longshanks". This may have been a reference to the Norsemen, who could have used it as their capital or main port. It became the French capital of Acadia in I632, but in I635 Port Royal was built and both school and fort moved there. In 1654 rivalry between French factions resulted in an attack on La Have and a fire in which everything was destroyed, and the town had not recovered from that when Sedgwick's men attacked later the same year. In 1695 only 19 people remained at La Have. The sea was already eroding Fort Point and bit by bit over the years most of the ruins of the old fort were washed away. The ruins of the large French church remained into the 20th century, when they were bulldozed in an effort to tidy up the site. It has since been excavated and a number of French artifacts found. The church, until it was destroyed, was the oldest French church in Canada. There is not enough of the fort left to be able to guess at its age. All we know for certain is that there was already a port there when Champlain arrived.

The Ovens, Nova Scotia: is situated on the South Shore not far from the old capital of La Have. In l861 it became for a few years the scene of a minor gold rush, and from June until December the 82 shore claims yielded $120,000 worth of gold without aid of machinery, most of it being washed from the sands on the beach. Apparently little was found in the tunnels, pits and other workings. Up to that time, nobody had paid much attention to the site, traditionally known as The Ovens, the origin of the name lost in time. It has been suggested that the caves there resemble ovens: they were created long ago during some geological upheaval when, it seems, a mountain fell into the sea. The term "the ovens" is, however, one commonly applied to the furnaces used in the process of extracting a metal from the ore: smelting ovens. The presence of smelting ovens at the site during the time that the Norsemen were ruling – about 600 years- would account for the amount of gold on the shore and the lack of it in the immediate surroundings.

Byfield Stones, south of Newburyport, Massachusetts, on Parker River: Six runic inscriptions on large rocks, date deciphered as being November 20, 1009 – may indicate graves.

Castalian Springs, Sumner County, Tennessee, a tablet 19 x 15 inches, one inch thick, cut from local grey limestone with pictographs on both sides. On one are seven people and a ship of "Viking" type. The pictures seem to indicate a battle: one figure lies prone. The two sides differ in that the men on one have almond eyes while on the other their eyes are round - that is, they are European. Also on the stone is an apparent marriage ceremony between an almond-eyed woman and a round-eyed man, while nearby are signs of human sacrifice - the heart extracted, which was an Aztec practice. This stone is particularly interesting because it indicates marriage between a Norseman and an Aztec woman.

Heavener, E. Oklahoma: three runic inscriptions on stones found, one at Poteau, 10 miles to the north; one at Shawnee, 140 miles west and one at Tulsa. Dates were deciphered as November 11, 1012; December 25, 1015; December 30, 1022-23; November 11, 1017; December 2, 1022, and November 24, 1024.

The Kensington Stone, Minnesota: found in 1898 by a farmer, Olaf Ohman; inscription deciphered as "8 Goths and 22 Norwegians...Year 1362," who had travelled from Vinland. This seems to have been a stone left by the Knutson party as they came from Hudson Bay. Weapons from mediaeval Scandinavia have been found elsewhere in the same state.

Ontario; Norse-type weapons were found near Beardmore and have been dated as about the llth century.

West Virginia; two runic inscriptions on small tablets were found, each weighing only a few ounces. One is marked with combined Thor's hammer and Christian cross, the other with the cross. Both apparently from the same (Norse) period, but as they are small, could have been moved.

Norse copper Coin in Maine: found on the coast in 1961 but not identified as such until 1979, when a London coin expert dated it as having been minted between 1065 and 1080 and compared it to coins made for Olaf Kyrre, son of Harald Hardrada who was killed at Stamford Bridge in England in 1066. It was found by amateur archaeologists digging through a pre-Columbian rubbish-pit. Up to the time of identification, it had been thought to have been a 12th-century English coin. But the news about the recognition of L'Anse aux Meadows in 1978 prompted further examination, having been acknowledged as proof that the Norsemen really had crossed the Atlantic before Columbus. Furthermore, the coin is now regarded as proof that the Norsemen ranged much farther south than had been thought either likely or possible.

The Spirit Pond Stones, Maine: 1971 were found by a man looking for arrowheads. One is carved with a rough map of the coastline and islands labeled “Hoop, Vinland 1011.” An arrow points south and words flanking it have been read as instructions to sail in that direction for two days. The inscriptions on the other two stones were deciphered but appeared to have no meaning. There is a place called Mount Hope Bay between Rhode Island and Massachusetts that before the English came was known as Mont Haup. It is believed to be very like the place described by Leif Erikson, where they found the grapes.

The Baffin Island Figurine: was found in 1978. It is carved from wood, about 50 cm. high and identifiable as the work of native Inuit. Other such "dolls" have been found, but they are usually recognizable as representing native people. This one differs in that it has a long, hooded cloak coming down to the ankles, hemmed and slit at the front, with a cross on the chest as if worn on a chain. Other figurines are clothed in parkas and trousers, and this one clearly speaks of a visit to the area by Norsemen. Baffin Island would have been a likely stopping-place for them when the climate was warmer than it is now, i.e. up to the 14th century.

Ellesmere Island Chain Mail: reported in 1981. Links of chain mail and other Norse artifacts were found, proving that the Norsemen ranged much farther north than had previously been believed.

Copper from Greenland: copper and bronze have been found in old Inuit settlements from Baffin Bay to the far side of Hudson Bay in the form of various implements which were imported from Greenland. This would indicate that about 1,000 years ago the Norsemen were trading with the Inuit. A copper arrowhead found at a Micmac site on the south Shore of Nova Scotia by R. Harris was probably also made from the Greenland metal.

Viking-type Sword-tip: found 15 miles north of the South Shore of Nova Scotia in 1973, near the remains of the "king's refuge". It is of heavy iron, 10 cm. long and 2.8 cm. wide. What appears to be a piece of a later-type, narrower sword-blade was found in the same area. Gold dust; high concentrations, together with goldsmiths' clamps, were also found there. The authenticity of nearly all the artifacts and other Norse-related evidence has been and still is disputed. L'Anse aux Meadows is the exception: that evidence is incontrovertible.

Chapter XII

The Evidence of the Gold

When Leif Erikson returned to Greenland from his exploratory voyage to Vinland, he was given the nickname "Leif the Lucky". It has been supposed that this was simply because of the reward he received when he rescued Thorir and his company from shipwreck. But there was more behind his sudden wealth than that. Leif had found something else - something that caused his whole family to plan and sometimes take part in voyages west - and something that made him very reluctant to say very much about what he had found or to tell them where to look for more.

That something was gold, and Leif was not prepared to share it. Yet he was not unwilling to allow others to take the same chance as he had done.

History is almost silent on the question of Leif's gold - but not quite. Rumours leaked out, stranded fishermen brought back fantastic tales, and greed would do the rest - but not for several centuries. During the six hundred years or so between Leif's discovery and the Spanish conquistadors, the secret would be kept and one family - Leif's descendants - would become fabulously wealthy and well-known throughout the Old and the New Worlds. Such wealth cannot be hidden, though those who own it may try to hide, perhaps behind a simple life-style, perhaps by frequent change of identity and above all by means of travel and constant change of address. As seafarers and merchant princes, Leif and his descendants were in a strong position. Even after the destruction of Inca rule in Peru, even after the razing of Norumbega city more than a century later, it was never anticipated that the family’s wealth would run out. But it did.

Meanwhile, the movement of that wealth from generation to generation may be detected through the centuries. Leif's descendants were highly visible - something they could not avoid. But in trying to hide their true identity, the amount of their wealth and the source of it, a particular pattern was followed, so that it is possible to detect the movement of that wealth down the centuries. Leif was brought up by a foster-father: so were many of his descendants. More, they were often merged into their foster-families, given their name but yet not quite adopted. An eldest son who does not inherit but yet emerges with more wealth than those who do; a family who generation after generation "disinherits" the most prominent of its sons; men who suddenly appear from "nowhere" to take a prominent part close to the King in any country; prominent men with obscure childhoods; men who disappear mysteriously to "foreign parts" and never say where they have been; seafaring connections; double and triple identities: these are some of the clues.

Having identified a possible descendant, we are able to look for other clues; a Greenland connection, perhaps, or mention of wildlife indigenous to North America; trade in gold-related goods such as precious stones; the nature of a family's coat-of-arms. The shield usually tells a story.

The early generations were hard to pin down, but legends, such as those of El Dorado, the stranded fisherman's tale about Estotiland and tales of the Incas are enough to remind us that the family had lived on across the Atlantic.

Marco Polo (?I254-1324) traveller, seafarer, merchant in precious stones, interested in the gyrfalcon from Greenland and Baffin Island, and reputedly Europe's first millionaire, had a coat-of-arms with a blue shield representing the ocean, while the birds on it were graculi - ravens, the birds of the Norse god Odin. Leif Erikson is reputed to have had the same bird on his flag. His marriage did not take place in Venice - perhaps because his father, Nicolo, and grandfather, Andrea, were "of Constantinople".

Marco's wife bore him only three daughters; the last male descendant of his father Nicolo died in 1417. But the Polo’s were only one branch of the family: by their time other members across the Atlantic had apparently founded the Inca dynasty in Peru, and the male line continued there down to the Spanish conquest in 1533. A Spanish priest with Pizarro described the family as "very fair, with fair or red hair", while the people of Peru were dark. The examination of mummified bodies of Incas has since confirmed this description.

People called MacAllan or de Hope began to put in an appearance in Scotland with John de Hope in 1636 - just after the Spanish conquest of the Incas. Wealth had come to them through marriage, particularly the marriage of Ferdinand to Beatrix Barbosa. With it had come inheritance across the Atlantic. The de Hopes became the Hopes, joining many other families of the same name in both England and Scotland. Their coat-of-arms has a shield with "Field Azure, Chevron Or, between three Bezants Or", that is, it is blue and gold, the bezants being actually gold coins. It has been interpreted as meaning "Gold from over the ocean".

The Hopes brought to Scotland a merchant fleet and the gold trade, together with precious stones and other valuables. Later they would put at the Scottish king's disposal a potential new kingdom across the ocean in what they once called Vinland. In the Bay of Many Islands not far from the inland city of Norumbega were no fewer than 365 islands. That bay is now known as Mahone Bay, and among the islands is Oak Island, famed for its legends of buried treasure and Inca gold. If, as is believed, the pit was originally constructed by Phoenicians using Libyan script in about 800 B.C., it would appear that the Norsemen found it later. One theory is that after Pizarro visited Peru in 1527, the Inca gold was brought to Oak Island and buried there for safe-keeping, Pizarro being thereby deprived of his booty when he returned with his army in 1533.

Sir Francis Bacon: (1561-1626) was one of two young brothers sent to England from Scotland to be adopted into the family of Sir Nicholas Bacon, sheep reeve to the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk and Elizabeth I, first Lord Keeper. He and his elder brother (who died young) kept in touch with James VI of Scotland while Sir Francis was in English court circles. His name by birth is not known, and he was regarded as Sir Nicholas’s son by his second marriage. He had little to do with the Bacon sons by Sir Nicholas's first marriage and received no money from his estate. This puzzled many who regarded him as an actual rather than an adopted son, but he had means of his own. As might be expected, he rose much more quickly under James than under Elizabeth, and became a statesman as well as a philosopher. Much about him is typical of Leif Erikson's descendants, including his auburn hair and red beard, his love of learning and his interest in science. It may have been he, as well as Inigo Jones who was prototype for Shakespeare's character Polonius in Hamlet. The two were related - possibly half-brothers or cousins: little is known of the early years of either. He was interested in, if not familiar with, the New World and in The New Atlantis described a Utopia founded on scientific principles. In his other works, Sylva Sylvanum and Novum Organum, he described a pit and tunnel system said to have been used by the Chinese to store their ceramic treasures. The description also fits Oak Island, although there is no record that he ever visited it.

Thomas Hamilton, Earl of Melrose and First Earl of Haddington, Bacon's contemporary, was James VI’ s legal adviser in Scotland and worked closely with Bacon once James had succeeded Elizabeth I in 1603. Again, the two were related and shared such characteristics as auburn hair, obscure childhood and youth, love of learning and of travel - he was educated partly in France and partly in Italy. His extensive library was legendary and it is said that in his country mansion were carpets, tapestries and hangings that surpassed all others in Scotland, and that even the window- fastenings were of gold. Astute and shrewd, he yet had an ebullient sense of humour and loved to have his wife and daughters dressed in fine lace, embroidery and jewellery. The King acknowledged him as one of his cousins - meaning he was on a collateral line. He remained in office to the end of his life, assisted in his latter years by a brilliant young relative, Sir Thomas Hope, Knight Baronet of Nova Scotia.

The extent to which the MacAllans, as inheritors of Leif's wealth and connections, shared their gold is not known. By the seventeenth century they were not a family but a network of related families.

Inigo Jones (1573-1652) was another member of the clan, with the usual auburn hair and childhood and youth shrouded in mystery. He was said to have been born son of a draper, but if so he had little to do with the family, and it is more likely he was adopted or fostered by them. When asked about his youth, he would say it was spent "in foreign parts", and it is known that he was educated in Italy and spent many years in Venice. Evidence is to be found among the masques he created for the King that he was really the Viscount Haddington: he destroyed all records of the Haddington Masque for a marriage in 1608, and again for another marriage in l634. That his real name was Hoop (Hope) is revealed in the office-book of the Master of the Revels at the time of his quarrel with Ben Jonson over a representation of him under that name in his play, The Tale of the Tubb: the part was "wholly struck out...by the command of my Lorde Chamberlain: exceptions being taken against it by Inigo Jones, Surveyor of the King's Workes, as a personal injury unto him May 7 1633..." He had been at King James's and King Charles's court in London since about l603-4, except for the mysterious hiatus from 1620 to 1629 - though some authorities maintain he had only just returned in 1633. Those were the years of the Scottish activity in New Scotland. The "little palace" that was built at Norumbega city was in the Palladian style, typical of Inigo Jones's work. During that time, Charlesfort was founded- now known as Fort Anne.

It was in 1629 that the King of Nova Scotia travelled to London to "submit his kingdom" to Charles I and it was in 1632 that New Scotland was turned over to the French. It seems certain that from that time forth an arrangement existed between the wealthy MacAllans, their cousins the Stuart kings and the kings of France (from whose family Charles had chosen his Queen) for the protection of the vulnerable kingdom of Acadia or New Scotland. That Inigo Jones was intimately involved is revealed in his interest in the concept of Arcadia, if not as a beautiful land across the sea, then as an idyllic stage creation.

Nobody at that time thought that the arrangement could possibly fail or the gold become exhausted. Inigo Jones painting, by Sir Anthony Van Dyck

Sir Thomas Hope, born in 1601, whose long life spanned almost the entire 17th century, became a Knight-Baronet of Nova Scotia in 1628 while in his mid to late twenties, and a very young Lord Advocate of Scotland. Already well- travelled in both Europe and the New World, he was destined to live through the troubled years of the Civil Wars and Commonwealth rule under many names and identities and in many places. Wealthy though he was his entire life has been all but lost in obscurity. Yet, as we pick up his trail, he, too, emerges as a typical Leif Erikson descendant. Only after the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 does his interest in travel and gold become evident. Lord Oliver St. John, who supported Cromwell, is, according to Pepys’ diary, deprived of his title and it is passed to another - a colourful character now advancing in years, who calls himself "Monsieur L 'Impertinent" when enjoying life at large in London, and "Mr. Bovey" at court. Under that name he was introduced to Pepys at the New Tavern in Charing Cross as a "solicitor and lawyer and merchant all together, who hath travelled very much... the talk of their travels over the Alps is very fine." In the House of Lords, he had to be earnest in his attention to business, so in his private life preferred another identity. As the "battered court fop Bovey" (he had been thrown from his horse and his broken bones had not been set properly) he liked to relax and join in the endless battle of wits, the laughter and the joking that invariably went on around the Merry Monarch. He must have made his mark there, for well into the next century and long after his death such men as Dennis and Oldham were still writing of him: "You cannot forget what happened to that ugly Beau Bovey, in the time of Charles the Second"… "Gold to the loathsom'st object gives a grace, and sets it off, and makes ev'n Bovey please."

He was, they wrote, undoubtedly "battered" and "ugly", but they were full of praise for his singing voice - and his gold.

So "gold from over the ocean" was still very much in evidence then.

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Stuart Kings

Many may have wondered how Charles I managed so easily to become the owner of so many beautiful paintings and sculptures or to pay for the beautification of London that was going on during his reign with the aid of Inigo Jones and his Palladian concepts: Whitehall, Greenwich, new churches. The answer to these and many other questions is "gold from over the ocean". It was now being openly shared between the Stuart and MacAllan branches of the original FitzAlan family.

The Jacobite Campaigns: What had once been started had to be finished: the Stuarts and the Earls of Haddington were inextricably linked. For the Earls there was no escape: the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 had finally cut them off from their trans-Atlantic lands forever.

Long before that, the source of any new gold had disappeared, but what they had was still at their kings' disposal. They appear to have been confident that they would get at least Scotland back. The link with France - "the Auld Alliance" - was also still strong, though not so strong as once it had been.

The French Revolution probably proved to be the "last straw". The young Jacobite Earl of Haddington was there, bribing prison guards with his gold, helping to rescue aristocrats from the guillotine, his horses and fast ships always at their disposal. Some went into hiding on his ships for so long that they married and had their families on the high seas.

But that proved to be another lost cause.

The Day the Gold Ran Out

Suddenly one day all was gone: steam-ships were being built by or for rival merchant shippers, but for the first time in almost 900 years Leif Erikson's heirs were unable to play a leading role. His luck had at last run out. They closed their shipyards and had to watch as one by one their ships went down or became unseaworthy.

At that time there was still a small whaling fleet left, operating under another name. When that business fell off, they closed their wharves and sailed away in the only merchant ship they had left.

Their destination was Canada - the new name for the land where Leif Erikson had become "Leif the Lucky".

Appendix

Nineteenth Century Research

1010: Karlsefni to Vinland; explores for 3 summers. (Now dated 1004.)

1012: Karlsefni returns to Greenland. (Now believed earlier.)

1015: Freydis, Helgi and Finnboge sail to Vinland. (Ditto.)

1016: Freydis home. Karlsefni with wife Gudrid and son Snorri to Iceland.

1017: Karlsefni to Norway.  (All dates since revised.)

1018: Karlsefni to Iceland)

C.1025: Death of Leif Erikson at about 55; is buried in churchyard of Thiodhild’s church, Brattahlid. Number of skeletons found there: 144, nearly half having died at about 35.

1029: Gudleif Gudlangson sails from Dublin to west and southwest to a “great land” where he meets Bjorn Asbrandson, who had left Ireland in 999. “Great Ireland” the quest, said to lie “VI days’ sailing west of Ireland, though the actual distance to Newfoundland (generally believed to be “Greater Ireland”) is 1,050 miles, 7 days’ sailing.

1047: Trond Halfdanson flees from Norway, visits Vinland; shipwrecked on return and dies in Greenland; body taken back to Norway.

C.1075: Regarded as end of “Viking” period.

1112-14: Erik Gnupson consecrated Bishop of Greenland. Cathedral at Gardar probably built by him, 74 ft. by 26 ft. Parish churches: 12 in Eastern Settlement, 4 in Western Settlement. Convent of St. Benedict and Monastery of St. Olaf and St. Augustine in Eastern Settlement.

1117: Bishop Erik to Vinland, part of Greenland diocese. Returned.

1121: Icelandic Annals give this as date of Bishop Erik’s voyage. Could refer to a second voyage; or Annals could have been inaccurately copied out by Bishop Gilsli Oddson after fire, 17th C.

1122: Gardar Cathedral dedicated.

C.1123-25: Bishop Erik’s successor Arnold consecrated.

1150: Joannes Kukus consecrated as Bishop of Greenland; died 1187.

1170: Historia Norwegiae anonymously written about this date: "On the north side of the Greenlanders" (i.e. north of Eastern Settlement) "hunters have found some very small people whom they call Skraelings …They have no iron at all, and use walrus tusks for arrowheads and sharp stones for knives."

1188: Joannes II Smiril consecrated Bishop of Greenland; died 1209. Skeleton holding a bishop's crozier identified as his.

1200: Climate of Greenland a little colder; continued for 150 years.

1200: Believed date of first writing-down of Graenlandinga Saga, dealing with Leif Erikson’s Vinland voyage 1000. (Now believed earlier). Followed by Thorvald, Karlsefni and Freydis and companions. (Now thought to have been written down later but before Erik the Red’s and Kalsefni's Sagas, as original old Erik Saga lost.)

1206: Ides of February, letter of Pope Innocent III mentions bishopric of Greenland.

1212-30: Helgius Augmundi Bishop of Greenland.

1234: Nicolaus requests permission to substitute beer for sacramental wine as the latter almost unobtainable. Denied later.

1239: Bishop Nicolaus sails for Greenland.

1246: Olaf consecrated Bishop and sent to persuade Greenlanders to submit to Norwegian Crown.

1247: Bishop Olav arrives in Greenland.

1261: Greenland surrenders independence to Norway; led later to rule by Denmark (1397)

1262-64: Bishop Olav in Iceland.

1266 or 1267: Voyage made to Arctic under auspices of Bishop Olav.

1270: Priest retiring from Greenland describes Eskimos.

1271: Bishop Olav in Norway: later returns to Greenland.

1276: Letter written December 4th by Pope John XXI: "The diocese of Gardar is so far distant that one can scarcely make the voyage there and  return in less than 5 years... You have informed us of the exceeding territorial extent of the bishopric of the Kingdom of Norway...Furthermore that in certain parts of said Kingdom coined money is not in use, nor does corn grow, nor are other kinds of staple food produced but human life is sustained almost entirely on milk food and fish."

1279: On January 31, Pope Nicholas III, in letter to Archbishop of Nidaros (Trondheim), writes: "We gather that the island on which stands the city of Gardar" ("city" here means site of cathedral) "is seldom visited by ships, because of the ocean surrounding it." On June 9, the Pope in a letter noted; "Year after year wine and hosts" (wheaten bread) "have to be supplied to the priests in those regions where wheat and grapes do not grow."

1280: Death of Bishop Olav. Theodorus (Thord) Bokki elected Bishop of Greenland.

1282: Pope Martin IV writes March 4: "The tithe of Greenland is received entirely of cattle skins, the skins and tusks of seals, and whalebone."

1285: Icelanders find land "to the westward..."

1289: King Eric of Norway sends Rolf to Iceland to seek the "New-land". Bishop Theodorus arrives in Greenland. To Norway 1300.

1300: Rolf travels around in Iceland and summons men for a new-land voyage.

1314: Bishop Theodorus dies; Arnius is consecrated Bishop of Greenland.

1315: Bishop Arnius sails for Greenland.

1334: Believed to be the time by which Erik's Saga was written down. (The original, now lost.) Leif's voyage; then Karlsefni and all others.

1343: Death of Bishop Arnius; Joannes III, Skalle Eriksson, consecrated Bishop of Greenland, (1342: Greenlanders "joined with" America.)

1347: Greenland ship arrives in Iceland with 17 men; had been to Markland, "part of Vinland". Had been storm-ravaged, continued to Bergen.

1355: Paul Knutson Expedition sails to investigate conditions in Greenland, to "exterminate" Eskimos and to rescue lost colonists of Western Settlement, authorized by King Magnus of Norway etc. (Settlement abandoned.)

1362: After visiting Vinland and leaving 10 men with their ship in Hudson Bay, party of Norsemen ascends Nelson River and via Lake Winnipeg and Red River, reaches site of Kensington, Minn.

1363: Seven survivors leave Hudson Bay for Greenland.

1364: They pick up Ivar Bardson in Greenland and sail home.

1365: Alfus consecrated Bishop of Greenland.

1368: Bishop Alfus sets sail for Greenland. 

1371: Scottish fishermen arrive in Estotiland.

1376: One of the fishermen goes south to Drogio or Drogeo and spends 13 years among tribes along coast beyond there.

1376 or 1378: Death of Bishop Alfus; Greenland See vacant until 1386.

1379: Icelandic Annals state, "The Skraelings raided the Greenlanders, killing 18 men and carrying off 2 boys as slaves."

1380: Four ships reach Greenland, all at same time.

1385: Henricus appointed Bishop of Greenland. Scottish fishermen exploring Drogio. Cannibals.

1386: Bishop Henricus arrives at Gardar.

1388: Georgius appointed Bishop of Greenland by rival Pope. Scottish fisherman returns from Drogio to Estotiland.

1394: Bishop Henricus of Greenland ordered to be exchanged with Bishop John of Orkney.

1397: Fishermen return from Estotiland.

1398: Zeno voyage (Antonio Zeno), with Prince Zichmni or Zachmni, to Estotiland (identified as Nova Scotia).

1399: They return.

1401-6: Bishops of Greenland were Bertold, Peter II and Andus I.

1408: September 16, Thorstein Olafson and Sigrid Bjorndottir married in Evalsey Church (small fjord between Eriksfjord and Einarsfjord).

1409: Letter by Greenland priests said many attended this wedding.

1410: The Icelanders who attended the wedding sail back to Iceland.

1411: Jakob Peterson Treppe or Teppe appointed Bishop of Greenland, died 1425.

1425 onwards: Appointment of bishops continued and names entered in Vatican records, until death of last one, 1537. No bishop or priests actually resident in Greenland during these years.

1424: Claudius Olavus Swart, a Dane, visits Greenland.

1474: Pining and Potharse or Pothorst sail to Greenland for King of Denmark.

1427: Italian sailor, Cristoforo Colombo, visits Iceland and hears gossip of land to west.

Vinland as part of Africa:

Some contemporary records describe Vinland as part of Africa (perhaps to avoid being accused of heresy). Manuscript dated about 1300, based on 12th century source, states: "Vinland the Good, which some think goes out from Africa..." Helluland and Markland not seen as part of same land. Karlsefni mentioned.

Sudhrike: the Coming of the French

French colonisers claimed what is now Nova Scotia on the basis that John Cabot, who in 1497 had preceded them, had been merely searching for the North-west Passage.

1518: Baron de Lery, first colonist, was French; attempted to settle.

1535: Jacques Cartier: first actual colony established for France, but did not try to colonise Sudhrike.

1585: First English attempt to colonise - Sir Humphrey Gilbert investigated Newfoundland and claimed it for England.

1585: First English colony established when Sir Walter Raleigh and 100 men landed on Roanoke Island.

1604: Beginning of first durable French colony, Etchemins (in old Norumbega territory.)

1605: Crossed Bay of Fundy to Sudhrike or Souriquois; founded Port Royal.

1608: Quebec made capital of Canada (formerly New France).

1620: "Mayflower" set sail from Plymouth, England, to New England, where they founded first settlement of any size. Some had been out of England since 1609, living in Holland. Other English settlements were small, even the 1607 colony at Jamestown, Virginia.

1630: Boston made capital of New England.

Some relevant Facts:

1604: St. John River named by de Monts and party, who reached it on June 24, St. John the Baptist's Day. (Note: Name on maps 1497 onwards.)

1607: War between Souriquois (Micmacs) of Acadia (French name for former Souriquois or Sudhrike) and the Marmouchequois of the Cape Cod country (where Long Lamoka arrowhead in use - one found on South Shore of Nova Scotia in 1971, by R. Harris). Led by Mambertou, who moved in on Port Royal and was encamped there with about 400 fighting men. Set off from there in canoes and victorious over the enemy. But did not attack Port Royal: French did not interfere and were on good terms with them, and gained their respect.

1613: First mention of "La Have". Jesuits at Port Royal unhappy with Poutrincourt (sometimes written "Poitrinecourt") and his son, Biencourt, by that time in charge. They wanted more control. Their patron, Mme. de Gourcherville, sympathised, and on March 12 sent Saussaye in a ship full of stores from Honfleur to La Have, Acadia, where he arrived on the l6th. There he set up the arms of his patron to claim the port of La Have for her; thence to Port Royal to collect the Jesuits and take them south to Mt. Desert Island.

Virginia had divided into North and South in 1606, the north, extending to the 45th Parallel and administered by the London Company; and the south by the Plymouth Company. It was at this time that Jamestown was founded on the Powhaton River (renamed the James). None of the English knew anything about Souriquois or the French colony there, and had never heard of Acadia.

1613: Argall, having arrived in Jamestown in 1609, heard that there were Frenchmen on Mt. Desert Island and attacked, taking from them their King's Commission, and then asking Saussaye to produce it. When he failed, he was informed that he was a pirate. Argall took the priests to Jamestown and there they were imprisoned, then condemned to death by Governor Sir Thomas Dale. Argall, who had been interested only in pillage, was forced to reveal that he had their Royal Commission in order to save their lives. From Argall, Dale learnt of Acadia and the French settlement there, and decided to remove it. He sent a force under Argall, who went to the Laquille River (Allan’s River) and destroyed Port Royal. While those involved were trying to arrive at a treaty, the Micmacs offered to act as mediators. The result was that Argall left and the French dispersed, some to live with the Micmacs, others to Champlain’s settlement at Quebec. The French had been in Acadia for eight years, (it now reverted to the Micmacs.)

Right by Occupancy non-existent: At that time no European nation had any right to any part of North America by occupancy or domicile. This did not exist because neither the English nor the French king had involved himself. But before the London Company had been allowed to operate up to the 45th parallel, de Monts had been given permission by patent to occupy from the 40th to the 46th. This was how he was able to found Port Royal in l605.

1621: Eight years since the destruction of Port Royal the Scottish settlement was begun.

The name Acadia had many variations. In the Port Royal Commission it was referred to as Cadie; but it was also called Arcadia, Accadia and l’Acadie. (A Micmac suffix –acadie as in Shubenacadie has caused some confusion but has no connection with Acadia, whose history as a name can be traced back to Verrazano, 1524. The Micmac root is -akr, from Old Norse, meaning land, c.f. English acre.)

Nova Scotia: New Scotland - Nova Scotia in Latin - was now the name of the entire area (of what had been Sudhrike and Norumbega territory).

1622: Scottish emigrants left in 1622 and 1623 in spring, arriving at Cape Breton, and from there examined the coast of mainland Nova Scotia. Unfortunately they found hostile “Europeans” there, nationality not specified, but apparently not French. So in the end they returned. But they gave vivid descriptions of the climate, soil, hunting, fishing etc.

1624: Order of Knights-Baronets of Nova Scotia started, Scotland.

1627: Sir David Kirk, commonly described as "an extraordinary person", became a Knight-Baronet. Was actually a French Calvinist, born in Dieppe.

1628: He took Port Royal, which by that time the French had taken back from the English; took prisoners, including Claude de la Tour who was a French Protestant with extensive grants on the Saint John River and friendly towards the Scottish settlement. La Tour married a second wife, a maid of honour to the English Queen, and was also made a Knight-Baronet. However, he was thwarted in Nova Scotia by his own son. After his capture, he was taken by Kirk to Quebec, which Kirk intended to take in battle; but after a year La Tour managed to get back to Nova Scotia, and joined the Scots at Port Royal, which they had renamed Charlesfort.

1629: Kirk took Quebec as planned.

1632: Treaty of St. Germain: Charles I gave up his rights in Nova Scotia in favor of France, at the same time giving them back Quebec. All French colonies, including those in Cape Breton, were deemed to give the right to Louis XIII. But for this treaty, there was no reason why the Scottish colony should not have survived, for many Knights-Baronets were created. But in 1630, Sir William Alexander had given his grant of the whole of Nova Scotia to Claude de la Tour. This drastic action, and the fact that it was upheld by King Charles I, is explained in that although he was King of England, there were factions on both sides of the Atlantic who opposed him and were inimical to Scotland. Also in 1630 Winthrop and his Puritans had crossed the Atlantic in the "Arbella", intending to found a Puritan "Citty upon a Hill" in Nova Scotia, "the first place they sited". (It is interesting that the "city of gold and furs", Norumbega, was on a hill overlooking the river). Charles de la Tour, who already held a Baronetcy of Nova Scotia under Alexander, was named Lieut. General of Acadia; but Richelieu appointed his cousin, Isaac de Razilly, who went to the capital at La Have with 300 settlers.

Winthrop was by that time Governor of Massachusetts, and had lost interest in Acadia, having heard there were "no mines" (and no gold) there.

1635: Death of de Razilly. La Tour quarelled with his successor.

1635-1653: Skirmishes between La Tour and D'Aulney and with English from New England. Capital moved to Port Royal I635.

1653: D'Aulnay having been killed in a boating accident in 1650, La Tour married his widow.

1653-4: Robert Sedgwick’s campaign. Besieged La Tour's fort on Saint John River; to England, returned with 3 ships, empowered to attack French ships and settlements. Was to have gone first to Hudson River, but Dutch there made peace, so to Nova Scotia direct, as his second-in-command, son-in-law Leverett, had detected anti-English sentiment among Micmacs. Laid waste wherever he and his 170 men went: laid siege to La Tour's fort and captured Port Royal. After that, no mention of "castles and fortalices" in Nova Scotia.

1656: La Tour at last persuaded to surrender rights in return for payment of debts by Cromwell.

1666-7 : Anglo-French war, ending with Treaty of Breda, which gave Acadia back to France, Charles II having been restored to the throne in 1660.

Puritan colony in Massachusetts continued to take an interest in Nova Scotia, knowing that the French there were hopelessly outnumbered.

1713: Treaty of Utrecht: Nova Scotia became English; Queen Anne died the following year: end of Stuart dynasty; George I first Hanoverian.

1755: Expulsion of Acadians, who refused to take Oath of Allegiance.

Mirligueche or Merligash renamed Lunenburg: Before 1749 there were just 3 forts: Annapolis (formerly Port Royal), Piziquid (Port Edward) and Chignecto (Cumberland). All inland areas were still in the hands of mixed Acadians, Canadians and Micmacs. Halifax was founded in 1749, after which in 1753 Lunenburg was founded at the Micmac settlement of Merligash for German ("Dutch") settlers; then Lawrencetown, 1754. It was abandoned 1757, leaving Lunenburg the only settlement other than Halifax.

Extracts, from 1621 Nova Scotia Charter:

This gave the grant of the entire kingdom to Sir William Alexander and named it "New Scotland in America". Listed are "all mines, both the royal ones of gold and silver, and others of iron, lead, copper, tin, brass and other minerals, with the power of mining and causing to dig them from the earth, and of purifying and refining the same, and converting to his own use, or that of others as shall seem best.... reserving only to us and our successors a tenth part of the metal vulgarly known as ore of gold and silver which shall be hereafter dug or obtained from the land..."Also mentioned are pearl, and any other precious stones, quarries, forests..." and power "to set up states, free towns, free ports, ... and of...holding courts of justice...", as well as power of martial law. The Christian religion was to be established, and tax-free trade with Scotland was to be established, including military supplies, and "we have decreed and willed that the said Sir William may construct or cause to be built, one or more forts, fortresses, castles, strongholds, watch-towers, block-houses and other buildings with ports and naval stations, and also ships of war…", and people be brought in to work on these projects. - Gold, silver and all the other metals and minerals are listed several times, with the addition of steel, as well as fisheries, roads, machines, mills, coal, coal-pits, peat-mosses and turf-bogs. Witnesses are listed as "Our well-beloved cousins and councillors, James, Marquis of Hamilton, Earl of Arran and Cambridge and etc., Marshal of our Kingdom; Alexander, Earl of Dunfermline, Lord Fyvie and Urquhart etc, our Chancellor; Thomas, Earl of Melros, Lord Binning and Byres, our Secretary." Other witnesses were not identified as being related to the king.

It was in the 1625 charter that "castles and fortalices" and manors were listed as if already built.

(Sources: Gam's Series Episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae: Ratisbon, l873; Diplomatarium Norvegicaum; T.C. Haliburton on Early N.S. History; Sir William Alexander and American Colonisation, by Rev, E. Slafter, Prince Society, New York, 1873; Sir William Alexander and the Scottish Attempt to colonise Acadia, by Rev. George Patterson, D.D. (paper) 31st May, 1892; and others).

Viking Ship

 
Norse voyages not considered important until 19th C. First work on them done by Rafin: Antiquates Americanae, but sagas dismissed as myths until the end of the century. The Discoveries of the Norsemen in America, by Prof. Joseph Fischer, 1903, was based on records as well as on the sagas.

Epilogue

A few years after Confederation, a mysterious visitor appeared at Chester in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, armed with an ancient chart. He bought a small sloop and sailed out to investigate the Bay, making for a position thirty miles offshore. Local people observed him taking measurements there, checking his chart and then setting his course shore wards towards the northwest. This he repeated almost daily throughout one summer, and was back again next year to continue his searches. Observers expected him to land on Oak Island, but he apparently failed to find what he was looking for and finally left. He was well-dressed, handsome, and wore a broad-brimmed white hat, but would say nothing of his mission. When asked his name he said "Allen" - Captain Allen.

Did he mean MacAllan, perhaps? Nobody knows…

Selected Bibliography

-Norsemen Before Columbus, by J. and E. Tornoe: Unwin, London 1965

-The Norse Atlantic Saga, by Gwyn Jones: O. U. P. London 1964.

-In Northern Mists, I and II, by Fridtjof Nansen: Greenwood, 1910.

-Westward to Vinland, by Helge Ingstads: Harper, New York 1969.

-Westviking, by Farley Mowat: McClelland and Stewart, Toronto 1965.

-The Mystery of the Vikings in America, by Morton J. Golding: Lippincott, 1975.

-History of America Before Columbus, by P. de Roo: Lippincott, I900.

-Before Columbus, by Cyrus H. Gordon: Crown, 1971.

-The Viking and the Red Man, I and II, by Reider T. Sherwin: Funk & Wagnells, -New York 1940-1942.

-The Discovery of North America, by W. P. Cumming, R. A. Skelton, D. B. Quinn; -Harper and Rowe, New York 1975.

-North America from the earliest Discovery to first Settlements, the Norse Voyages - 1612, by David B. Quinn: Harper and Rowe, 1975.

-Legendary Islands of the Atlantic, by William H. Babcock: Books for Libraries, New York 1922/1975.

-Virginia Voyages from Hakluyt, Ed. D. B. Quinn, A.M. Quinn, O. U. P. 1973.

-The New Found Land of Stephen Parmenius, Ed. D. B. Quinn, N.M. Cheshire: U. of Toronto Press 1972.

-Sir William Alexander and American Colonisation, by Rev. E. Slafter; Prince Society, New York 1873.

-Sir William Alexander and the Scottish Attempt to colonise Acadia, paper by Rev. George Patterson, D. D. 31st May 1892.

-Local History, Atlantic Canada, by William B. Hamilton, Macmillan, 1974.

-Indian Tales, by Jaime DeAngulo: Ballantine, New York 1974.

-The Book of the Hopi, by Frank Waters: Viking Press, New York 1963.

-The Aztecs of Mexico, by G. C. Vaillant: Penguin, London 1950.

-The Aztecs, by Nigel Davies: Putnam, New York 1974.

-Money Pit, the mystery of Oak Island, by Rupert Furneaux: Collins, London, 1976.

-The Money Pit, by D'Arcy O'Connor: Cowie McCann, New York 1978.

-Novum Organum, by Sir Francis Bacon, ed. Joseph Davey, 1902.

-Golden Lads, by Daphne DuMaurier: Gollancz, London 1976.

-The Winding Stair, by Daphne DuMaurier; Gollancz, London 1976.

-The Book of Ser Marco Polo, by Sir Henry Yule: John Murray, London 1874.

-The Travels of Marco Polo the Venetian, ed. John Masefield: Dent, London 1874.

-The Travels of Marco Polo, tr. and ed. by Ronald Latham: Folio 1968.

-Easter Island, by Alfred Metraux: Andre Deutsh, London 1957.

-Magellan, by Ian Cameron: Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, London 1974.

-Magellan's Voyage, by Antonio Pigafetta, ed. R. A. Skelton, Folio 1975.

-The Sea Chart, by Derek Howse and Michael Sanderson: McGraw Hill, 1975.

-Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, by Charles W. Hapgood: Chilton, N.Y. 1966.

-Ancient Maps, by Douglas Gohm: Octopus, London 1972.

-Comparative Nomenclature used by early Cartographers: Crucial Maps, by W.F. Ganong. U. of Toronto 1964.

-The Defences of Norumbega, by Eben Norton Horsford: Houghton Mifflin, -Riverside Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1891.

-History of Scotland, by J.D. Mackie: Penguin, London 1974.

-Stuart Masques, by Allardyce Nicoll, New York 1963.

-Life of Inigo Jones, by Peter Cunningham, London 1863.

-Inigo Jones, Designs for Masques and Plays, by P. Simpson and C.F. Bell; New York 1966.

-The Renaissance, by Walter Pater, int. Kenneth Clark: Collins, London 1961.

-James I, by David Mathew: Bell, London. 1968.

-The Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. Richard Lord Braybrooke: Robinson, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. H. B. Wheatley. London, 1879.

-The Complete Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. Robert Latham, William Mathew.

-America B.C., by Barry Fell: Quadrangle, New York Times Book Co. 1976.

Map of the Earth drawn in 1571, the great Renaissance geographer Gerardus Mercator,

whose studies and works were an invaluable contribution to geography and the art of navigation. (Eastern Hemisphere)

 ISBN 978-0-9808858-0-4 

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