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I've always found it interesting that there was mail service between Greenland and Iceland at least up until 1424. Not too long after that, in 1477, Columbus w
by red-indian 7y ago
I've always found it interesting that there was mail service between Greenland and Iceland at least up until 1424.
Not too long after that, in 1477, Columbus went to Galway Ireland to ask fishermen about routes across the northern sea. These fishermen routinely visited Iceland, and knew about Greenland. Columbus also inspected a boat on which a couple had arrived in Galway from beyond Iceland, likely Greenland, and either viewed the bodies of the couple or met with them depending on how you read his Latin.
- hinkley 7y agoAs I recall from 1491, the fisherman had enough trade as far as New England (by the 1600's) that the Pilgrims found a translator who already spoke English. They didn't dwell on that in American History class.
- jacoblsievers 7y agoAre you implying something?
- btilly 7y agoThe translator actually had been enslaved by Europeans twice and knew English on account of having lived in England. See https://www.biography.com/political-figure/squanto https://www.biography.com/political-figure/squanto for verification.
- detritus 7y agoHow old ARE you?
- hinkley 7y agoI would love to have you come visit my castle in beautiful Eastern Europe. The vistas are wonderful, as are the tapestries. We're having a bit of a wolf problem but as long as you travel during the day you should be fine. Seriously though, it's a book.
- ahi 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Banks_of_Newfoundland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Banks_of_Newfoundland I am imagining all these old salts in the pub rolling their eyes at the aristocratic "explorers"
- hinkley 7y agoIs the bit about Cabot saying that French and Portuguese fisherman started fishing there in earnest by 1502?
- japaget 7y agoThere is a book called "1491" by Charles C. Mann which the parent commenter is probably referring to.
- sambroner 7y agoIt's amazing that people in Iceland knew people in Greenland and people in Greenland almost definitely knew about North America, but somehow most people in Europe had no idea that North America existed. People must have been so much more comfortable feeling vaguely curious, but not ever satisfying that curiousity.
- mc32 7y agoEven if they were curious his would that be realized? You couldn’t just book a ticket and hotel room. It cost a lot of money so the only way to do it was via setting up a company to try and make profit on the endeavor. Only few people could manage that. It’d be like asking years hence, the Americans had been to the moon, why wasn’t anyone else curious about the moon, why hadn’t others put people on the moon?
- labster 7y ago> It’d be like asking years hence, the Americans had been to the moon, why wasn’t anyone else curious about the moon, why hadn’t others put people on the moon? I'm asking that question now. Even for Americans, the majority never had a moon landing in their lifetime. And with each passing day, it gets a little bit easier to believe the whole thing was a hoax. Hollywood can deepfake better moon footage than the historical record these days.
- dantillberg 7y agoYou can imagine that there were likely many curious people that died pursuing their curiosity.
- runarberg 7y agoI suspect the knowledge was restricted to the working classes. I suspect that the noble classes didn’t really care about how Norese Greenlanders got their lumber, or how North Europeans got the fish they traded with. They’d much rather know where the Chinese get their silk, where the South Asians get their spices, or where the West Africans get their gold from. Since the resources coming from the North Atlantic were not that valuable, the knowledge of the lands and culture there stayed with the people who worked it.
- spanxx 7y agoInteresting tale about a Columbus voyage to Ireland. Have any info on that?