Norse America : the story of a founding myth / Gordon Campbell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Campbell, Gordon, 1944- author.

Contributor:

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vikings--North America.

Vikings.

Explorers--North Atlantic Region--History.

Explorers.

Explorers--Scandinavia--History.

Discoveries in geography.

History.

North America--History.

North America.

North America--Discovery and exploration--History.

Iceland--Discovery and exploration--History.

Iceland.

Scandinavia.

North Atlantic Region.

Genre:

Informational works.

Physical Description:

xviii, 247 pages : illustrations, facsimiles, maps ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Story of a founding myth

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2021.

Summary:

The story of the Vikings in North America as both fact and fiction, from the westward expansion of the Norse across the North Atlantic in the tenth and eleventh centuries to the myths and fabrications about their presence there that have developed in recent centuries. Tracking the saga of the Norse across the North Atlantic to America, Norse America sets the record straight about the idea that the Vikings 'discovered' America. The journey described is a continuum, with evidence-based history and archaeology at one end, and fake history and outright fraud at the other. In between there lies a huge expanse of uncertainty: sagas that may contain shards of truth, characters that may be partly historical, real archaeology that may be interpreted through the fictions of saga, and fragmentary evidence open to responsible and irresponsible interpretation. Norse America is a book that tells two stories. The first is the westward expansion of the Norse across the North Atlantic in the tenth and eleventh centuries, ending (but not culminating) in a fleeting and ill-documented presence on the shores of the North American mainland. The second is the appropriation and enhancement of the westward narrative by Canadians and Americans who want America to have had white North European origins, who therefore want the Vikings to have 'discovered' America, and who in the advancement of that thesis have been willing to twist and manufacture evidence in support of claims grounded in an ideology of racial superiority.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Discovering America

2. Sagas and Chronicles

3. Maps

4. Iceland and the Discovery of Greenland

5. Norse Greenland

6. LAnse aux Meadows

7. The Limits of the Norse Presence in North America

8. American Runestones

9. The Kensington Runestone

10. Understanding Norse America.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-230) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9780198861553

0198861559

OCLC:

1233306429

Publisher Number:

99989037679