Description

Explores in depth how Greenland and its surroundings were inhabited for nearly 5 centuries by two Nordic colonies Vestribygd and Eystribygd

Shares extensive evidence from the stillliving indigenous oral tradition of the Far North as well as surviving sculptural art to show how the Vikings and the Inuit formed a harmonious community

Examines ancient maps and other cartography such as the 15thcentury Martin Behaim globe as well as explorers records of their voyages

Sharing his extensive and meticulous research Jacques Privat reveals that the Vikings were in Greenland its neighboring islands and the eastern shores of Canada long before Columbus He examines in depth how Greenland and its surroundings were inhabited for nearly five centuries by two Nordic colonies Vestribyg and Eystribyg which disappeared mysteriously one in 1342 and the other in the 16th century Drawing on the stillliving indigenous oral tradition of the Far North as well as surviving sculptural art carvings he shows how far from being constantly at odds with the native population the Norsemen and the Inuit formed a harmonious community He reveals how this friendly InuitViking relationship encouraged the Scandinavian settlers to forsake Christianity and return to their pagan roots

Working with ancient European maps and other cartography such as the 15thcentury Martin Behaim globe as well as explorers records of their voyages the author examines the English Irish German Danish Flemish and Portuguese presence in the Far North He explores how Portugal dominated many seas and produced the first correct cartography of Greenland as an island He also reveals how Portugal may have been behind the disappearance of the Vikings in Greenland by enslaving them for their European plantations

Dispelling once and for all the theories that the Inuit were responsible for the failure of the Scandinavian colonies of the Far North the author reveals how ultimately the Church opted to cut all ties with the settlementsrather than publicize that a formerly Christian people had become pagan again When the lands of the Far North were officially discovered after the Middle Ages the Norse colonies had vanished leaving behind only legends and mysterious ruins