The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503
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By Edward Gaylord Bourne 24 Oct, 2018
The important documents from Norse sources that may be classed as “Original Narratives of Early American History” are the Icelandic sagas (prose narratives) that tell of the voyages of Northmen to Vinland. There are two sagas that deal mainly wit ... Read more
The important documents from Norse sources that may be classed as “Original Narratives of Early American History” are the Icelandic sagas (prose narratives) that tell of the voyages of Northmen to Vinland. There are two sagas that deal mainly with these voyages, while in other Icelandic sagas and annals there are a number of references to Vinland and adjacent regions. These two sagas are the “Saga of Eric the Red” and another, which, for the lack of a better name, we may call the “Vinland History of the Flat Island Book,” but which might well bear the same name as the other. This last history is composed of two disjointed accounts found in a fine vellum manuscript known as the Flat Island Book (Flateyjar-bok), so-called because it was long owned by a family that lived on Flat Island in Broad Firth, on the northwestern coast of Iceland. Bishop Brynjolf, an enthusiastic collector, got possession of this vellum, “the most extensive and most perfect of Icelandic manuscripts,” and sent it, in 1662, with other vellums, as a gift to King Frederick III. of Denmark, where it still is one of the great treasures of the Royal Library Less
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  • 978-0543941268
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Edward Gaylord Bourne, Ph. D. was an American historian, born in Strykersville, New York, and educated at Yale graduating in 1883 with high honors. He taught at Adelbert College, Cleveland from 1888 -...
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