Did the Vikings influence Christopher Columbus?
But Columbus was less interested in rounding Africa to get to Asia than in crossing the Atlantic—west—for the same purpose. Like many of his contemporaries, not to mention the great thinkers of classical antiquity, he understood that the world was round (something every European university of his time taught, and every experienced seaman knew) and that, at least in theory, one could reach the East by sailing west.
That belief may have been significantly buoyed up during the winter of 1477, when a young Columbus possibly stayed at an Icelandic farm called Ingjaldshóll. If the Genoese sailor was there, he certainly learned of the great western voyages of men like Eric the Red and Eric’s son, Leif Erikson, and of their discoveries in Greenland and Vinland five centuries earlier. Modern scholarship casts some doubt on the idea that Columbus sailed to Iceland—a claim based on a single passage in the biography written by his son, Ferdinand. Still, many scholars, especially in Scandinavia, continue to argue that Columbus spent a winter in Iceland.
Another early video of mine sheds some light on the question of Viking inroads in America. Take a look.
Iceland: Who discovered America–Columbus? Vikings? The Irish?
Perhaps, then, knowledge of Viking voyages that took place hundreds of years before Columbus helped convince the young navigator that one could sail west and reach Asia.
Ingjaldshóll, Iceland – It was in this part of Iceland that Columbus may have spent a winter studying Viking sagas (photo: Pavel Svantner).
