Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I am editor Candice Gipson, joined as always by staff
Speaker 1: writer Joshua M clark. Hiere, josh, what's on your mind?
Speaker 1: But burning questions? Do you have for me today? Well?
Speaker 1: You know, um, let me give a little leading. First
Speaker 1: of all, you don't pressure me here, Sorry about that.
Speaker 1: I'd like to get to the point. I know you do.
Speaker 1: I know you do. I loved to meander and say
Speaker 1: a lot. Have you noticed I don't know if you've noticed.
Speaker 1: I like to say indeed, yes, I like to say agreed,
Speaker 1: aren't we special? Well, anyway, as you know, I wrote
Speaker 1: How Cannibalism Works recently, and one of the points in
Speaker 1: the article was about Columbus saying that he'd, you know,
Speaker 1: come across cannibals well, when he made a land in
Speaker 1: in the Caribbean, um, and he met some a wax
Speaker 1: speaking people and supposedly another tribe that may or may
Speaker 1: not have actually existed. The Caribs were um cannibals supposedly right, um.
Speaker 1: And the whole thing kind of reminded me of this.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of irked. Let me. Just put it this way,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of irked that we have Columbus Day, that
Speaker 1: this one person is celebrated for discovering America when actually,
Speaker 1: you know, Columbus may have been the first European to
Speaker 1: come across America, but clearly there were people already living there,
Speaker 1: at least the aarra Wax, if not more people, and
Speaker 1: there were more people. Do you know about the Clovis people? Oh?
Speaker 1: You do? Huh? I do. Supposedly they took a land
Speaker 1: bridge and meandered all the way down from up in
Speaker 1: the Alaska region, Is that right? Yeah, that's well, that's
Speaker 1: one theory. They may have also come from South America
Speaker 1: and gone north. We're not entirely certain. But we do
Speaker 1: know is that you know these that humans have been
Speaker 1: in North America at least for eleven thousand, five hundred years,
Speaker 1: if not, if not longer. And being a very empirical people,
Speaker 1: we expect that the scholars and scientists and anthropologists who
Speaker 1: purport these theories of America's first discover what have you,
Speaker 1: produce tangible evidence of their presence. And that's one of
Speaker 1: the things that UM elevates. The Clovis and the fact
Speaker 1: that they could have been the first Americans. And that's
Speaker 1: that they left behind little arrowheads. Know that they were there.
Speaker 1: That's how they're that's how they're known. And they can
Speaker 1: just pop up out of nowhere and then disappear out
Speaker 1: of nowhere. There their arrowheads turned up in the fossil
Speaker 1: record and then disappear again. Um. And they're very mysterious.
Speaker 1: But there, I guess we know that Clovis were the
Speaker 1: first people, but which way they came from is in dispute.
Speaker 1: So you know there were already American Indians here when
Speaker 1: when Columbus arrived? Um? And I think the thing that
Speaker 1: that excites my ires that you know, people say Columbus
Speaker 1: discovered America when actually Columbus may have been the first
Speaker 1: European to come across the New World, but even then
Speaker 1: he was only the first European to go to Central America.
Speaker 1: When you're talking North America, you have to say that
Speaker 1: it was Cabodo, an Italian explorer, who actually was the
Speaker 1: first European to make land in North America. Did you
Speaker 1: know that you did? Okay, so you could say it
Speaker 1: was Cabodo who was the first European to discover North America.
Speaker 1: But that's wrong as well. Actually, the first Europeans to
Speaker 1: discover North America were the Vikings. Did you know that?
Speaker 1: Is that fact? That's a fact, isn't it. I don't
Speaker 1: know that. I entirely agree with you. Oh yeah, well
Speaker 1: who was here before the Vikings? Then? Actually, Josh, some
Speaker 1: scholars believe that there was a seafaring monk from Ireland
Speaker 1: who made it before the Vikings. I'm not sure that
Speaker 1: your Viking theory is all that fact to all. Well, okay,
Speaker 1: the Vikings left evidence behind um at a place in
Speaker 1: uh in Canada, and I think Nova scotiould call what
Speaker 1: lawnzo meadow. I think your your French accent is much
Speaker 1: better than mine, right, is that right? Yeah? Okay? Good? Um?
Speaker 1: And that was about one thousand C right. So when
Speaker 1: would this monk have come. He supposedly came in the
Speaker 1: sixth century, and he was a rather ambitious monk. His
Speaker 1: name was St. Brendan, and he decided one day that
Speaker 1: he was going to go fine the Promised Land, the
Speaker 1: sort of exciting special place that monks knew existed, and
Speaker 1: his paradise on Earth. And um, after seven years he
Speaker 1: found it. He found this land of it was vastly
Speaker 1: full of landforms and gems and fruits. There were rivers
Speaker 1: and volcanoes, and it was such a massive piece of
Speaker 1: land that after walking across it for forty days, they
Speaker 1: still weren't the other end of it yet. Okay, So,
Speaker 1: but I mean this could have been anywhere, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it could have, except that marine biologist in the nineteen
Speaker 1: eighties found petroglyphs in West Virginia. The head Oh, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: they're rock carvings. He found these rock carvings inscribed with
Speaker 1: a type of ancient Irish writing, and when he translated it,
Speaker 1: according to his interpretation, it was a story as an activity.
Speaker 1: What I know, I know. So who else but a
Speaker 1: seafaring Irish monk, deeply penitent and religious would have carved
Speaker 1: into a rock the story of the Nativity. Okay, so
Speaker 1: then that's it. That's the Irish monk beat the vikings
Speaker 1: when it wasn't everybody know this well, because a lot
Speaker 1: of people are unsure if the accounts are really true.
Speaker 1: He wrote a book, He wrote a treaty about his travels.
Speaker 1: The Irish Monk did the travels of St. Brendan. And
Speaker 1: when people rediscovered this book and the ninth century, they
Speaker 1: thought quite frankly, it was sort of faction. You know.
Speaker 1: There were stuff that was pretty straightforward, like the river
Speaker 1: is this long and wide according to my eyes, But
Speaker 1: there were other more fantastical detail like, um, he delivered
Speaker 1: communion on the back of a whale. Yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: it could happen. Yeah, if the whale was very willing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the well would have had to holl Is pretty still
Speaker 1: for communion. But because it was so deeply infused with
Speaker 1: biblical references and allegories, people were less inclined to believe it,
Speaker 1: because again, it wasn't just empirical data. It told the
Speaker 1: story of a religious experience. But as far as the
Speaker 1: Vikings being in America, first, apparently there were reports that
Speaker 1: when American Indians saw the Vikings it was sort of
Speaker 1: old hat did down. They're like, yes, you're white. We
Speaker 1: have seen people if you're kind before and must have
Speaker 1: been the Irish. Apparently these people could speak languages. It
Speaker 1: sounded pretty similar to Irish. We would the Vikings have
Speaker 1: recognized the Irish language? They would have. They certainly would
Speaker 1: have because they lived in close proximity to the Irish
Speaker 1: precisely precisely, but where a lot of people take real
Speaker 1: issue with. The story is not necessarily about religion at
Speaker 1: about technology. They asked, how could an Irish monk have
Speaker 1: built seacraft that would have withstood the rough waters of
Speaker 1: the seas to make it all the way to North America.
Speaker 1: The Vikings were, you know, the earliest explorers. By all accounts,
Speaker 1: they had like shipbuilding down and as far as I know,
Speaker 1: nobody really had an ocean going vessel up to that
Speaker 1: point before the Vikings. So, I mean, how could an
Speaker 1: Irish monk have gotten to North America. It's a pretty
Speaker 1: long voyage, right it is. And not to confuse the
Speaker 1: matter too much, I was sort of reminded of an
Speaker 1: argument and another article that I researched and wrote about
Speaker 1: the Easter Islanders. And these were essentially Polynesians who fashioned
Speaker 1: very simple, dugout wooden boats. And there are two theories
Speaker 1: behind the Easter Islanders. Either they came from the tip
Speaker 1: of South America or they came from Micronesia to settle
Speaker 1: Easter Island. Either way, it's a really, really long way away.
Speaker 1: If they came from the tip of South America, we're
Speaker 1: talking approximately two thousand, two d ninety miles. They came
Speaker 1: from Polynesia. We're talking about a thousand miles and this
Speaker 1: was about two centuries before St. Brendan. So again I
Speaker 1: don't know if this is a relevant point or not,
Speaker 1: because it's not as though the Easter Islanders would have
Speaker 1: been in touch with them. They weren't exactly pen pals,
Speaker 1: but people were thinking up seafaring technology. What's more, when
Speaker 1: they traveled, it was during the midst of what was
Speaker 1: an Elmino like weather pattern, so they weren't, you know,
Speaker 1: sailing the Placid seas. They were up against really rough
Speaker 1: winds and rainstorm and St. Brendan ship would have been
Speaker 1: a little bit more complex, supposedly was you know, it
Speaker 1: was a wooden frame that it was covered in ox
Speaker 1: hide and waterproofed with tar, so it would have been
Speaker 1: a little bit more stable than these people sea craft.
Speaker 1: And then there was a guy back in six to
Speaker 1: Severn who decided he was going to try to recreate
Speaker 1: the journey to see if a would be done in
Speaker 1: a very primitive seacraft. Did he make it? He did?
Speaker 1: He did. He did in the same kind of boat
Speaker 1: that St. Brendan supposedly, so it is theoretically possible that
Speaker 1: an Irish monk did make it to America. It certainly is.
Speaker 1: That is fascinating. I know, I know, and I have
Speaker 1: one more fascinating tidbid for you. What tell me? To
Speaker 1: be honest? I don't know how do you see this is?
Speaker 1: But I'm part Irish. Um, I'm no second cousin to
Speaker 1: Roma Downey, but my grandmother's maiden name was O'Brien, and
Speaker 1: I have a fiery temper to prove it well. At
Speaker 1: least do you answer whether or not it was the
Speaker 1: Vikings who were the first to discover America. First European
Speaker 1: said is so thanks for that? You are very welcome,
Speaker 1: And if you want to clear it up even more,
Speaker 1: you can read was an Irish monk the first European
Speaker 1: to find America? On how stuff works dot com for
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it
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