The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1967, Síða 36

34
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Summer 1967
Knowledge of these explorations was
bound to come to the attention of
navigators and scholars in other coun-
tries. Indeed, we find the record of
this knowledge in the writings of
European scholars of that era, notably
Adam of Bremen, one of the most
distinguished scholars of Europe in the
eleventh century. In his book, publish-
ed in Latin between the years 1072
and 1076, he gives an account of the
discovery of Vinland as related to him
by the King of Denmark.
The settlements of Iceland and
Greenland depended on foreign trade,
manily with Norway and England, for
their existence. Sheepskins, hides, wool,
tallow, cheese, sulphur, and dried fish
were exchanged for timber, tar, flour,
honey, linens and metals. The luxury
items of this trade and commerce—in
those days—were white polar bears,
walrus tusks and the renowned fal-
cons, the hunting birds of royalty.
In the year 1396, the son of the Duke
of Burgundy was captured by the Sar-
acens. The Prince was held ransom for
twelve Greenland falcons and this
demand was duly met. This exchange
serves to corroborate the fact that the
trade routes to the far north were wide-
ly known.
Speoial mention should be made of
the “count poetry” and the language
of Iceland. During these early cen-
turies, learned men—especially the
Skaldic Poets—were invited to visit the
courts of many European countries.
These gifted men brought back im-
portant information from these foreign
lands regarding current events, much
of which was later incorporated in the
vast Saga literature of Iceland. This
ancient, classic language of Northern
Europe—Old Norse, preserved and
spoken in Iceland to this day—has a
close kinship with Anglo-Saxon which
forms the basis of the most forceful
and effective speech in modern Eng
lish. Icelandic is one of the required
subjects in advanced studies of Eng-
lish in Universities of Great Britain,
the older Universities of North Amer-
ica and in institutions of higher learn-
ing in other countries.
Trade and communication between
Iceland and Greenland with the rest
of Europe continued up ito, and be-
yond, the period of active exploration
and conquest of the New World by the
Spanish, Portuguese, English, French,
and Dutch navigators and explorers.
During -the years before and after
A.D. 1470, there was a determined ef-
fort by experienced and seasoned
navigators to explore the lands ithey
knew existed beyond the western hor-
izon. They were encouraged and sup-
ported by merchants of means and by
people in high authority.
On August 3rd, 1492, Christopher
Columbus sailed southwest from Palos,
Spain. He had carefully calculated the
latitude along which he intended to
travel. From his earlier experience as
a navigator, while exploring the west
coast of Africa, he knew that the pre-
vailing trade winds blew westward at
that time of the year. When he finally
re-set his course due west, after reach-
ing the Canary Islands, he fully expect-
ed to reach the shores of Asia.
Thirty-two days later, he and his
crew landed on the Island of San
Salvador in the Bahamas—the first
European to sail that broad southern
expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.
On some of the maps drawn in the
fifteenth century, Vinland was shown
as just another large island—“Vinlanda
Insula”—in the North Atlantic, over
twelve hundred miles north of the
Caribbean Islands discovered by Co-
lumbus.