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Comment by red-indian | Hacker News Reader

I've always found it interesting that there was mail service between Greenland and Iceland at least up until 1424.

Not too long after that, in 1477, Columbus went to Galway Ireland to ask fishermen about routes across the northern sea. These fishermen routinely visited Iceland, and knew about Greenland. Columbus also inspected a boat on which a couple had arrived in Galway from beyond Iceland, likely Greenland, and either viewed the bodies of the couple or met with them depending on how you read his Latin.

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It's amazing that people in Iceland knew people in Greenland and people in Greenland almost definitely knew about North America, but somehow most people in Europe had no idea that North America existed.

People must have been so much more comfortable feeling vaguely curious, but not ever satisfying that curiousity.

Even if they were curious his would that be realized?

You couldn’t just book a ticket and hotel room.

It cost a lot of money so the only way to do it was via setting up a company to try and make profit on the endeavor. Only few people could manage that.

It’d be like asking years hence, the Americans had been to the moon, why wasn’t anyone else curious about the moon, why hadn’t others put people on the moon?

> It’d be like asking years hence, the Americans had been to the moon, why wasn’t anyone else curious about the moon, why hadn’t others put people on the moon?

I'm asking that question now. Even for Americans, the majority never had a moon landing in their lifetime. And with each passing day, it gets a little bit easier to believe the whole thing was a hoax. Hollywood can deepfake better moon footage than the historical record these days.

You can imagine that there were likely many curious people that died pursuing their curiosity.

I suspect the knowledge was restricted to the working classes. I suspect that the noble classes didn’t really care about how Norese Greenlanders got their lumber, or how North Europeans got the fish they traded with. They’d much rather know where the Chinese get their silk, where the South Asians get their spices, or where the West Africans get their gold from.

Since the resources coming from the North Atlantic were not that valuable, the knowledge of the lands and culture there stayed with the people who worked it.

But there's evidence that there was a substantial Greenland walrus-ivory trade in the 1300s.

"The high value that medieval Europe placed on walrus ivory would have provided plenty of incentive to pursue it in Greenland. Craftsmen used ivory in luxury ornaments and apparel, and in objects like the famous Lewis chess set, discovered in Scotland in 1831. In 1327, an 802-kilogram parcel of Greenland tusks was worth a small fortune—the equivalent of roughly 780 cows or 60 tons of dried fish...."

(2016: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/11/why-did-greenland-s-...)

True, but by the 1400s there was more plentiful ivory to be had from India and East Africa. On top of having to compete for market share with the east trade, the Norse also had to compete with the more technologically advanced Inuit for hunting grounds in west Greenland.

I’m guessing the European noble class didn’t really have to care about ivory from the North Atlantic when they knew they could have cheaper and more plentiful Ivory from the East.

As I recall from 1491, the fisherman had enough trade as far as New England (by the 1600's) that the Pilgrims found a translator who already spoke English.

They didn't dwell on that in American History class.

Are you implying something?

The translator actually had been enslaved by Europeans twice and knew English on account of having lived in England.

See https://www.biography.com/political-figure/squanto for verification.

How old ARE you?

I would love to have you come visit my castle in beautiful Eastern Europe. The vistas are wonderful, as are the tapestries.

We're having a bit of a wolf problem but as long as you travel during the day you should be fine.

Seriously though, it's a book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Banks_of_Newfoundland

I am imagining all these old salts in the pub rolling their eyes at the aristocratic "explorers"

Is the bit about Cabot saying that French and Portuguese fisherman started fishing there in earnest by 1502?

There is a book called "1491" by Charles C. Mann which the parent commenter is probably referring to.

Interesting tale about a Columbus voyage to Ireland. Have any info on that?

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