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"Peter Alaca" <P.Alaca@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4482aa03$0$15623$dbd45001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> celia wrote:
news:1149403035.749618.217130@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> > Alan Crozier wrote:
> >>
> >> Landnámabók, the book of the settlement of Iceland, mentions a
place
> >> called Hvítramannaland "Land of the White Men" which some call
> >> Írland it mikla "Great Ireland" somewhere in the west, near Vinland
> >> the Good. It was supposedly visited in 983 by Ari Másson, who was
> >> baptized there. It was six days' sail west of Iceland. It is also
> >> mentioned in a Saga of St Olof and elsewhere. Nobody knows what it
> >> refers to. Some say it is a phantom island, others says it was a
> >> part of North America settled by Irish monks.
> >>
> >> On the map by Clavus there is an island north of Ireland, east of
> >> Greenland and west of Norway which is labelled Island, obviously
> >> "Iceland". Inger reads that as Irland and identifies it as Great
> >> Ireland or Hvítramannaland.
> >>
> >> If this identification is correct, it means that Clavus left
Iceland
> >> out of his map and put a legendary island there instead, but still
> >> called it Iceland.
> >>
> >> Does that clarify things?
> >>
> >> Alan
> >>
> > Well it feeds the imagination.
> > 'Phantom islands' sound worth exploring.
> > Apparently St. Ursula did while sailing around with
> > eleven thousand virgins.
> > I tried to find out more and the number of virgins diminished
> > to eleven - not such an impressive venture
>
> But still enough to justify a Norse discovery of the Virgin Islands.
If not Norse, then at least Scandinavian. Some of the Virgin Islands
were Danish colonies, albeit slightly later: St. Thomas, St. John, and
St. Croix. St. Thomas was colonized in 1672, St. John in 1718. St. Croix
was purchased from France in 1733. All three islands were sold to the
U.S.A. in 1916 and handed over in 1917.
Alan
--
Alan Crozier
Lund
Sweden
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