Posted on 05/24/2005 9:45:19 PM PDT by FreeManWhoCan
The Knights Templars were disbanded as a legal order by papal decree. The Templars reportedly persisted (at a very low level, very discreetly) in Scotland because, due to an oversight by which the order to disband was never read in Scotland. :')
Nice post!
Ping.
There isn't any proof at all that Columbus had a map given to him.
He did, however, visit Iceland prior to his voyages, to scout for information about the landmasses rumored to exist across the Atlantic. The information existed there because the Vikings had already made the trip.
Among the items of solid proof is the Viking settlement remains on Newfoundland. That was discovered about forty years ago, and is one reason plenty of people are "buying the viking story".
Hey, that's where my family comes from!
One interpretation of the text has them entering the continent via Hudson Bay, proceeding up the Nelson River to Lake Winnipeg, camping for an extended period on an island in that lake (now Deer Island?, where associated artifacts have been unearthed), then making their way up the Red River of the North and one of its tributaries.
The adjacent area is extremely flat and poorly drained. They may well have floated all the way to the base of the hill on the Spring floods.
Pyngh.
:') C'mon, give us a sample of the dialect. ;')
An online buddy has a Scandinavian origin, and claimed that his family has medieval records from the far-flung, family-owned trade business (part of the Hanseatic League? I dunno). At its peak it was sailing the NE passage -- the Siberian coast of Asia -- then heading south through the Bering Strait, and trading with the eastern coast of Asia.
This trading would, it seems to me, have to have predated the early 14th century, when the Little Ice Age came down hard.
Their ocean-going boats could easily have made their way into Hudson's Bay, up the Nelson River to Lake Winnipeg (where several islands have reportedly yielded Viking-style artifacts), then up the Red River of the North and one of its tributaries into Western Minnesota.
The land between the Red River and Alexandria is very flat and poorly drained. It would have been essentially submerged during Spring floods and a boat could have been floated literally to the base of the hill.
The granite in the stone is said to be a match for rock found in the Canadian Shield, around Lake Winnipeg.
Net:net -- any Viking travellers didn't have to travel overland to get to what is now the hill outside Kensington.
I don't think that would have deterred colonists..
A run of bad luck for one exploring group would not be enough to blind them to the opportunity of such a vast new land..
Another problem that arose was the cooling off -- the Little Ice Age -- which led to the abandonment of the Greenland colonies.
This, I believe was the true cause of "abandonment" by the vikings as a settlement..
The subsequent bad weather for more than a century was probably a major factor..
It had probably become more and more difficult to make it to Greenland, much less Vinland, and there was nothing of value to haul on the return trip.. economics and weather..
Yes, I conjecture much the same in my #49..
Point being, they state they buried the stone on an island, suggesting they could have only gotten there by boat...
Secondly, spring flooding, without today's modern levees, would have spread for miles and miles in all directions..
As you (and I) have noted, the area in question is east of the headwaters for the Red River, and would have flooded as well from spring melt into the river basin..
All in all, very condusive to travel by boat or raft..
That run of bad luck wasn't luck at all -- it was a countryside filled with hostile, unknown people. Furthermore, the expedition was sent by the king of that time in an attempt to locate an earlier expedition which had not returned. The existence of and conduct of the second expedition (and the first, probably) wasn't disseminated by the media.
Also, the year of their return was at or near the beginning of a time of dynastic turmoil.
For the Templars an expedition to discover an optimal trade route free from enemies as well as to secure new lands for future colonization was the equivalent of the Quest for the Holy Grail. This quest was eventually inherited by later explorers seeking the Northwest Passage. For more info that could be seen as corraborating the newest K.R.S. findings have a look at: www.heartlandgrail.com
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