[MR] On the track of a Norse explorer (no, not Eric or Leif)

[David Chessler]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17522834


A whole bunch of books and capsule reviews. One interesting one is:



Undiscovered Countries, Unexpected Voyagers

<http://www.npr.org>NPR.org, December 21, 2007 ·

Book Cover: 'Far Traveler'




The Far Traveler, by Nancy Marie Brown. Hardcover, 320 pages. List price: $25.

The subject of Nancy Marie Brown's book The Far 
Traveler is a Viking explorer who had just as 
much spirit and sense of adventure as Leif 
Ericsson or Eric the Red ­ but who was slighted 
in the sagas because she was a woman. Brown tells 
the story of Gudred, who, rather than staying 
home and making sails, traveled to Greenland, 
Iceland, Rome and Newfoundland 500 years before 
Columbus set sail. Eventually, Gudred settled in 
Iceland and became a nun. Minneapolis Star 
Tribune book editor Sally Williams says Brown has 
clearly taken a lot of joy in researching this. 
In 2005, she showed up in Iceland with a trowel 
to help unearth a Viking longhouse in which it 
was believed Gudred had lived. Her enthusiasm 
comes through in this book, with lessons about 
the sagas, a little bit of archaeological science 
and controversy, and wonderful tidbits of 
material about a vanished culture: what people 
wore and what they ate, what was in their garbage 
pile. Williams says it feels like a treasure 
hunt, like going along with Brown to Iceland, 
Greenland, Newfoundland. The author explored 
these places herself, and tried to find all the 
little calling cards her unsung heroine left behind.


--

Davitt il Bigollo da Pisa
Procurator parumper aurifex in Portus Liburni
Officina pro Moghul terra
Curalium quod Smaragdi ex Indicum quod Serenus