lokiblossom
Bronze Member
Impossible? Very little is impossible and this is not one of those things. Improbable? Given the amount of assumptions and leaps of logic necessary for this theory to work, I'd say yes, it's improbable.
A Norseman at the time would probably have shared that information in exchange for a gift or service. If the Templar asking was also a Norseman, it might have even been accurate information.
That having been said, it was a dangerous journey if the Sagas are to be believed and experienced captains were preferred. Simply knowing that there was something "over there," how long the trip would take under good conditions, and the best time of year to try to make it wouldn't be any guarantee of success.
I suppose that they could have hired such an experienced captain (who would want to bring his own crew, naturally) to help them make the journey, but now you have another big variable in the equation: can those Norse be trusted with this knowledge? (Answer: no, they can't.). So now you have to deal with them after you get to your destination, assuming that you make it.
But before you have to deal with your Norse crew, you'll certainly have to deal with the Skraelings - those lovable locals that the Norse had previously pissed off to the point of instigating all out warfare. That was three centuries earlier, which is a long time to a people that don't write things down. Would they still remember Europeans? How would they remember them? The Sagas were written a few centuries after the events they described happened based on oral histories and seem to have gotten the main points correct, particularly with regard to the New World. (More on that in a moment.). Is it unreasonable to think that the natives might remember Europeans as those sneaky, two-faced murderers that arrived as friends and then turned on them? It's hard to say, but it's a strong possibility. So now you have a fair chance of being greeted by unfriendly locals that hate Europeans. They won't be interested in talking, which is just as well; neither of you speak a common language anyway. Whatever you're planning on doing in the New World, you're going to be doing while being attacked by locals.
Many did not read the Sagas, or didn't believe them to be true.
I find it interesting that the Icelanders not only wrote about the New World, but also the people who went there, why they went there, and what they did while they were there, but that few outside of Iceland believed any of it until the archaeologists started digging things up. Such is the power of forensic evidence in context.
Hmm, I have heard this experience argument before. It should be remembered that Templar ships traded up and down the Atlantic coast from England to Spain and traveled throughout the Mediterranean and had been doing so for over 200 years. Also, don't forget that the Portuguese School of Navigation was founded by The then Grand Master of The Order of Christ, the actual remnants of the Knights Templars in Portugal.
If you don't think sailing the Med. counts as experience ask the Vikings of the newest mission to North America this year how they liked Lake Huron. I do not think they would have required a Viking Captain! This last Norse vessel to make the trip used the exact same routes with no required open water leg of over 250 miles, although taking shortcuts they did have a few much longer legs. They did have an escort vessel for emergency help of course, I'll give up that point. But they also began the trip in April, a very early time for the crossing, which they completed in what I believe to have been the short time of just over a month. I followed this whole voyage with much interest, also having a good friend on board for much of it. I visited the ship in Bay City, Michigan and also saw it in Frankfort, Michigan.
As for the Skraelings, how come Champlain didn't have any serious problems with the natives of Nova Scotia in Annapolis Basin?
And forensic evidence for the Sagas is my point entirely.
Cheers, Loki
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? 1602, "ROUGHLY", and in answer to the Church once again targeting the knights Templar in yet another inquitition, by which to frame them for heresy and thereby obtain the Knights land holdings and wealth. The Knights found that perhaps it was time for a little retribution to be paid back to the Church, They brought their combined ships and Harbored them, then, paying off the sentinels, entered the Vaults within the Catacombs beneath the Vatican, They raided and looted these vaults, loaded the loot upon their ships and set sail for the New World. 
