Re: The Vinland Map Find Or Fraud?

"Eric Stevens" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 12:17:53 -0000, "William Black"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> >
> >"hippo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> >news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >>
> >> "William Black" wrote in message
> >
> >> > There's no doubt that the 'Thorfin Karlstefni Saga' is
essentially a
> >true
> >> > story.
> >> >
> >> > The map doesn't actually matter.
> >> >
> >> > The only issue is 'is it a fake'.
> >> >
> >> > That's not actually a matter that anyone but the owner of the map
and
> >the
> >> > forger care about.
> >>
> >> The map is interesting in that it antedates the events of
Thorfinn's Saga
> >by
> >> more than four hundred years and shows that the lands beyond
Greenland
> >were
> >> not forgotten over the intervening centuries. -the Troll
> >
> >So what?
> >
> >We know that English fishermen were fishing off the Grand Banks
throughout
> >the medieval period,  there's even some sort of Papal order banning
landing
> >on the shore there.
> >
> >Everyone who cared knew there was something out there,  but nobody
had the
> >economic muscle to do anything about it until the late fifteenth
century.
>
>
> It's not that simple. The practical route to that part of the world
> was via the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland, which route the King of
> Norway banned to all unlicensed traffic sometime in the 14th century.
> Licesnses were not usually given to other than royal ships. Anyone
> caught in those waters without a license was liable to be treated as a
> pirate with the appropriate penalties. I believe there was some kind
> of a treaty about this between Norway and England of Henry V. In any
> case, the development of North America and its trade was effectively
> throttled.
>
>
>
>
> Eric Stevens

It's claimed that the Basques were fishing the Grand Banks around this
time, unlikely they would have used this route.

Hauksbok and Flateyjarbok,  tell the story of, Bjarne and Leif

 BJARNE HERJOLFSON (986 AD ), considering they were only going from
Iceland to Greenland and were driven by a storm to Newfoundland?, they
had enough stores to stay at sea for over a month without landing.
Bjarne sold his ship to Leif Ericsson for his voyage, it carried a crew
of 35.

The "Saga of Olaf Tryggvason" also interpolates Leif Ericsson's story,
Olaf's Long Serpent is the best recorded (war) ship of the sagas, it was
huge, possibly carrying 700 men.

I wouldn't discount that ships of this period were capable of fishing
off the Grand Banks without landing.

Jamie