Truth in Legends

Truth often blends with myth, as in the case of the supposed voyages of sixth-century Irish monk SAINT BRENDAN and an island known as ST. BRENDAN’S ISLE. Historical evidence indicates that, in the course of his sea pilgrimages, Brendan visited Wales on the British Isles, Brittany, in what is now northwestern France, and the Hebrides Islands west of Scotland. But, in some medieval literature, he is also purported to have visited an island somewhere in the Atlantic, hypothesized as Iceland, GREENLAND, the CANARY ISLANDS, the AZORES, the Madeira Islands,rift gold or the Bahama Islands. If Saint Brendan did in fact reach the Bahamas, he would have been the European discoverer of the Americas, even before the Vikings, a theory that, without any archaeological evidence, has to remain as myth as do theorized transatlantic voyages—by DRIFT VOYAGE—of other seagoing peoples of the Mediterranean region.

The writings describing Viking journeys at the turn of 11th century—the Saga of Eric the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders—regarding the travels of ERIC THE RED, LEIF ERICSSON, and other Norsemen, were long considered largely myth until archaeological evidence in Newfoundland indicated a Viking presence in North America. Both Irish and Viking accounts, mythical or not, reportedly influenced later explorers to look for lands across the Atlantic. A map, supposedly from the mid-15th century and found in 1957—the so-called VINLAND MAP—which cartographically confirmed the Norse voyages to North America, turned out to be a forgery—in effect a legendary map—but, because of the archaeological evidence, did not do anything to published in 1882.

KUPE, a 10th-century Polynesian, as legend has it, pursued the Squid King in the South Pacific Ocean, leading to the discovery of NEW ZEALAND. It is known that the Polynesians did in fact migrate to New Zealand and became ancestral to the Maori, another case of truth blending with myth. Venetian merchant MARCO POLO, who traveled extensively in the Far East in the late 13th century, described CIPANGU as an island containing palaces with roofs of gold and streets paved in marble, one of more than 7,000 islands in an archipelago in the Sea of China, off the Pacific coast of Asia. Two centuries later, both CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, an Italian sailing for Spain, and JOHN CABOT,rift gold an Italian sailing for England, sought this fabled island, thought to be a major source of spices, which has come to be associated most with Japan.

Another example of a legend with some truth is that of the Strait of Anian (see ANIAN, STRAIT OF), a mythical version of a NORTHWEST PASSAGE through North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Such a strait supposedly extended from the Atlantic coast somewhere north of Labrador to a more southerly latitude on the Pacific coast. Although a concept of the 15th century until late 18th century, its name was gleaned from the writings of Marco Polo, one of the texts that explorers studied in the hope of

finding a practical water route from Europe to Asia. No such waterway fitting that description was located, although, in 1903–06, Norwegian ROALD ENGELBREGT GRAVNING AMUNDSEN did navigate a water route in the Arctic Ocean north of North America. Unlike the legendary Strait of Anian, supposedly a year-round route, the real Northwest Passage proved impractical because of annual freezing.

Legends out of History

Theories surrounding the LOST COLONY—part of the story of the first attempt at an English colony as sponsored by SIR WALTER RALEIGH in the late 16th century—demonstrate how legends evolve out of historical fact. The story of the colonists and how they struggled to survive along the coast of what is now northeastern North Carolina is known up to the point that their leader JOHN WHITE departed for England in 1587. When he returned to the region three years later, there was no trace of the colonists—who included his daughter, Eleanor White Dare, and his granddaughter, Virginia Dare—other than the word “CROATOAN” written on a stockade post. Since no evidence has been found to prove or disprove speculation regarding what happened to them, various myths endure, such as that they became ancestral to certain area tribes, some of whom have non-Indian blood. Reports of blue-eyed or bearded Native Americans passed down over the years often were associated with the Lost Colonists. Much folklore and literature surrounds Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the America, one of the most fantastic fables of which is that she was transformed into a white doe.