POTUS TRUMP AIMS TO ACQUIRE GREENLAND FOR HEMISPHERE DEFENSE. 3/4: American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed into the Lands and Imaginations of America by Martyn Whittock (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.6 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2025
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/American-Vikings-Sailed-Imaginations-America/dp/1639365354
The geographical reach of the Norse was extraordinary. For centuries medieval sagas, first recorded in Iceland, claimed that Vikings reached North America around the year 1000. This book explores that claim, separating fact from fiction and myth from mischief, to assess the enduring legacy of this claim in America. The search for “American Vikings” connects a vast range of different areas; from the latest archaeological evidence for their actual settlement in North America to the myth-making of nineteenth-century Scandinavian pioneers in the Midwest; and from ancient adventurers to the political ideologies in the twenty-first century. It is a journey from the high seas of a millennium ago to the swirling waters and dark undercurrents of the online world of today.
1906 ONLY HORSE GREENLAND
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Batchel with Martin Whittick. His new book is American Vikings, how the North sailed into the lands and imaginations of America. |
| 0:07.5 | The books to depend upon are Eric the Red Saga in the 13th century and Saga of Greenlanders in the 14th century. |
| 0:14.5 | And boy, are they dramatic. Martin, is this wonderful to speak of the drama presented. |
| 0:21.5 | Men and women, a Lady Macbeth figure, you've mentioned, her Freitas, daughter of Eric the Red. |
| 0:27.4 | And then the men come and go, but there are not enough women for them, more tension. |
| 0:33.5 | They are looking, however, always for new lands. |
| 0:37.1 | They're looking for timber that goes back to Greenland because timber is in short supply in Greenland. |
| 0:42.9 | And we come to a place that has been identified over these last two centuries as a possible outpost, a base for Leif Erikson and his crew. Lons Almeadow. Where is that, Martin? |
| 0:59.3 | Lons Omeadow is in Newfoundland, in northern Newfoundland, and excavations there in the 1960s |
| 1:05.8 | have revealed clear, definite proof of Norse presence in North America. Four complexes of halls and buildings were found there. |
| 1:16.8 | Some ironworking was going on there as well. The style of the buildings are clearly similar to those in Iceland, Greenland and Norway. |
| 1:25.0 | Wood was cut by metal axes, which are clearly European axes, of a type |
| 1:29.5 | that were not used by Native Americans. Some of the very small number of personal finds there, |
| 1:36.9 | striker lights and some jewellery, clearly point to Norse origins. as recently as 2021, |
| 1:45.0 | dendro chronological research there showed that wood was cut there in the year 1021. |
| 1:55.0 | So exactly 1,000 years after the wood was cut in 1021, we were able to date it to that year. We know that in 1021, |
| 2:06.3 | and before that probably as well, probably for a little time afterwards, there were Vikings, |
| 2:11.0 | there were Norse at Lentormado in northern Newfoundland, but it wasn't Vinland. They must have |
| 2:16.7 | gone further on from that because |
| 2:18.3 | we find some wood there that's not native to Newfoundland. We find white walnuts, butternuts found |
| 2:26.4 | there, which do not grow in Newfoundland, which means they must have gone further to the south, |
| 2:31.9 | and that takes us to the search for the |
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