Post by Zadkiel on Jan 12, 2016 23:32:15 GMT
There should no longer be any doubt that Norse explorers visited America regularly from 999 on, when Bjarne Herjolfsson's ship was blown off course and ended up there by accident. Sometime after 1010, the Greenlanders then founded permanent colonies on the western side of the Atlantic and they soon got both churches, priests and bishops, which the Vatican had a good knowledge of. The only explanation for what happened to the entire population of Greenland that holds water is that the remaining inhabitants of first the Western Settlement and then the Eastern Settlement went to America and joined their fellow Norsemen in the colonies. But when nobody lived in Greenland any more, this also implied the end of regular contact with Europe, which meant that some settlers were scattered over a large area and absorbed into the native tribes. Others apparently managed to preserve parts of their culture, language and appearance until America was rediscovered around 1500 and they came in contact with European explorers, who both were amazed at how similar they were to Europeans; and sometimes even were able to communicate with them in English, Norse, Gaelic and Latin. This indicates that not only Norse expeditions, but also other peoples further south must have left representatives of their culture in America.
