Farfarers or The Alban Quest by Farley Mowat

[Exploriment]

Just finished reading this and thought members here might enjoy it. (Ran a search but couldn’t find any mention.)

It's called Farfarers over here, and The Alban Quest over in the UK.

Mowat posits the theory that Iceland, Greenland and Canada were discovered long before the Norse. The Albans, a culture who predate the Celts or the Picts, or the Angles or the Saxons, driven ever further north by successive waves of invasions, up into the islands off Scotland. When Viking raids begin striking at the British Isles they have nowhere left to flee. Being seafarers who had been chasing “valuta” or ivory for centuries they were already well aware of Iceland and Greenland as rich hunting grounds. Fleeing there, they settled Iceland. When the Vikings found them they of course did what they were wont to do - murder, pillage, rape and enslave. So they fled West again, this time to Greenland. When the Vikings found them there, they fled West once again, this time to Canada.

It is all very speculative of course, and many “proper” historians scoff at his notions. He stretches the evidence further than he likely should, and his work includes passages of overt fiction. But I have to say I found it a very engrossing narrative. History is written by the victors as they say, so it is not entirely inconceivable that it is different than it has been written

Fascinating read if you have any interest in British history, seafaring, exploration and alternative views of history.

 

[Tengu]

Farley Mowatt, have heard of him but cant think where.

 

[Toddy]

Fellow known for, "never letting the facts get in the way of the truth", though I'm inclined to think on it more as the truth never getting in the way of a good story.

cheers,
M

 

[Exploriment]

Oh his detractors do refer to him as Hardly Knowit.
But if you read this book as fiction set in a historical era, it makes for an interesting read.
If you read this book as potential alternate history, it makes for an interesting read.

Certainly there is a lot about the history of the British Isles in here that is more established as fact that is just plain interesting. Certainly there is a lot about Scotland and the islands off the north of it.

If someone is looking for something intriguing to read, go to the library and see if they have it. You can draw your own conclusions from it. Farley Mowat: Thought provoking amateur historian trying to delve into the dark recesses of time. Or. Farley Mowat: Wildly imaginative writer of fiction spinning a fanciful yarn.

All I can think after reading it is that if the British Isles are verdant, it must be due to the staggering numbers of people whose blood spilled out after a brutal death over the millenia.

 

[Toddy]

Oh without a doubt there were bloodshedding times, but on the whole the peoples of these islands get along peaceably enough through the millenia. Just the occasional bit of internectine battling and all that

The thing with story telling is though, that all those years of peace don't sound dramatic enough, or exciting enough, or shocking enough, to make a book sell.

I am minded of the comment of a very senior and highly regarded archaeologist when I admitted that I was good friends with re-enactors. I had said that it didn't appear that she thought much of them.
The lady replied, "It's not so much that I don't think much of them, but I don't think much of those who when they can find no proof, just make story up using fragments of reality to suit their tale. When they then preach those speculative tales as though they were true, they become the accepted 'truth'. Subsequently the honest truth has to counteract the tales, as well as present the reality of genuine research and the wider picture of the times."

Farley Mowat is reputedly a good story teller It's good faction.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Tengu]

Not so, and certainly not by the vikings.

look at places like mann, viking government but a pre viking language and culture.

 

[Laurentius]

The Vikings certainly were not the first to Iceland, they found Irish monks there.

 

[Toddy]

Tengu was that response to one of my comments or Exploriment's ?

That kind of thing is true elsewhere too though. Scotland's Gaelic has a P celtic grammar structure (Pictish) but a Q celtic vocabulary...... folks had to change the words but didn't change the way they thought, is the understanding.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Tengu]

Exploriments, Toddy

Or places like the Shetlands where the language certinly did change, but there are plenty of accounts of the Picts

According to the Sagas, yes the Monks did get to the Faroes and Iceland,..Didnt a recent Icelandic historian question this as he had no artifacts to hand???

A High proportion of the colonisers were Celts anyway.