Maps, Myths, and Men

The “Vinland Map” first surfaced on the antiquarian market in 1957 and the map’s authenticity has been hotly debated ever since in controversies ranging from the anomalous composition of the ink and the map’s lack of provenance to a plethora of historical and cartographical riddles. Maps, Myths, and Men is the first work to address the fuli range of this debate. Focusing closely on what the map in fact shows, the book offers a critique of the 1965 work The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation; scrutinizes the marketing strategies used in 1957; and covers many aspects of the map which demonstrate that the map is a modern fake, such as literary evidence and several scientific ink analyses performed between 1967 and 2002. It explains a number of the riddles and provides evidence for both the identity of the mapmaker and the source of the parchment used, and applies current knowledge of medleval Norse culture and exploration to counter widespread misinformation about Norse voyages to North America and about the Norse world picture.

Author Biography

Kirsten A. Seaver is an independent historian, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London, UK, a novelist, and a translator. She is the author of The Prozen Echo (Stanford, 1996).