Status
Available
Genres
Publication
Toronto : Key Porter Books, c1998.
Description
"Farley Mowat challenges the conventional notion that the Vikings were the first Europeans to reach North America. Mowat offers instead an unforgettable portrait of the Albans, a people originating from the island now known as Britain. Battered by repeated invasions from their aggressive neighbors--Celt, Roman, and Norse--the Albans boarded seaworthy, skin-covered boats and fled west. Their search for safety, and for the massive walrus herds on which their survival depended, took them first to Iceland, then to Greenland, and finally to the land now known as Newfoundland and Labrador."--P. [4] of cover.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Gaga112
Based on years of travel and writing about the Arctic north, Farley Mowat has come up with a plausible alternative history of the discovery and settlement of north eastern Canada. His arguments are well stated and illustrated, and he takes care to show the reader which statements are supposition on
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his part. I've always enjoyed Mowat's writings, and this book was no exception. Show Less
LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey
Interesting, with some new angles on things I knew about (like the Picts). But not really enjoyable to read - too dense and heavy, and the "story" interludes didn't help much. It took a long time to read, and I read a bunch of other books while I slogged through this one - the only way I could get
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through it. Oddly, as it got closer to the present day the evidence for his theory seemed to get thinner - they _could_ have known about Newfoundland so "I conclude that" they did. The archaeological digs, few as they were, were very interesting; if he'd managed to write the story from that angle, I'd probably have believed it more. But so many of the sites are not yet studied, or studied and declared Dorset or Inuit or whoever - Mowat tries to present this as stick-in-the-muds trying to ignore new evidence, but what he has is so thin the presentation doesn't really take (for me, anyway). Heyerdahl at least had an event - the reed ship voyage - to hang his theories on, which made Kon-Tiki an interesting read. Mowat has a few interesting small trips, but they're scattered both in time and through the book, and don't make a connected narrative. Interesting theories but not an interesting book. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Governor General's Literary Award (Finalist — 2001)