What modern city/town is this? What state, even? It's not entirely clear.
Have an old Vincent Price movie where he goes and lives with the monks, gets into their inks and papers, inserts a document, makes a second copy for himself, leaves the monks and goes to America with this huge land claim and seeks out a girl to play the role of the Baroness claiming the land.
He eventually gets caught but it was a great scenario.
This stuff is always interesting but I think they do not put enough effort into mapping "techniques", identifying the author.
The town is Fall River Massachusetts. Curiously, if you read the account of Torvald's journies, there is a description of a battle that took place with indians (c1000?) inside a bay, where a river flowed to the west from east. This is a fair description of the Quequechan River that flows from the Watuppa Pond to Mount Hope Bay in Fall River. My memory is a bit shakey on the story.
The local legend is that this skeleton was the crewman, (or was it Torvold himself who was killed?) who was killed by the indians.
The folks at the historical society poopoo this notion, and assert that it was a local indian.
But there's the descriptions that repeatedly describe the remnant of red hair.
I have some information in my library...maybe a photo...and a couple old histories that mention the skeleton. I'll look around.
I suppose the key is identifying the "armor" to something similar.
I grew up in the area, and the Saga descriptions of Torvold really seem to have been describing this particular area....from Newport RI north to Mount Hope Bay from Narragansett Bay. Sure are a lot of wild grapes! Gorged on them as a kid!
There's a nifty site for NEARA that's worth looking at.
ANCIENT PEMAQUID AND THE SKELETON IN ARMOR
(Reprinted from the NEARA Journal Volume XXXII, No. 1 Summer 1998) W. MEAD STAPLER
But the most exciting discovery had been made the very day I arrived.
Indian brave wearing copper and brass sheet and tube as described by Gosnold in 1602 and Pring in 1603 as living near Cape Cod Bay and Buzzard’s Bay.
Just southwest of the foundation wall of the tavern, and at a level below the sill stones, were discovered two burials. The level indicated that they had been interred before the tavern was built. The first was the typical Indian flex burial with the body in the fetal position, with the head to the north and facing east. The remains were so decomposed that the surrounding earth had later to be solidified with a resin and removed as a block. The adjacent burial was in a much better state of preservation. It was at about the same level but lying straight out on its back with the head to the north in a Christian type burial. The head, face up, was resting on a sheet of copper which in turn appeared to be resting on a pillow of decomposed fur. Another copper sheet, which had originally been approximately 12 inches wide by 18 inches long and apparently lined with fur, extended from the shoulder to the groin. Just beneath the chin were five rolled copper tubes, neatly stacked, and strung on a continuous strip of braided leather. Each tube was approximately 10 inches long and 3/8 inch in diameter. This was apparently worn as one long continuous necklace of copper tubes, end to end. A small piece of leather, about 5 by 8 inches, was found on the left side of the body, partially beneath the breast sheet of copper, beneath which in turn were many small disintegrated bones.