NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Viking sun compass artifact and Viking sun stones.
From: Wolfgang K�berer
Date: 2009 Jun 7, 18:23 +0200
From: Wolfgang K�berer
Date: 2009 Jun 7, 18:23 +0200
The Viking "sun compass" and their "sun stone" are 2 more myths that seem to be able to live forever. The Viking sun compass and especially the artifact found by Vebaek in Greenland, which Soren Thirslund claims as proof for the use of such an instrument in Viking navigation have been the subject of a prolonged discussion in the "Discovery list" ten years ago. It showed that the properties which Soren Thirslund claimed for the alleged "sun compass" just did not sqaure with the physical properties of the object itself. You should be able to find a compilation of the discussion on the net looking for "sun ray disk". The "sun compass" and the "sun stone" have also been dealt with extensively by Uwe Schnall in his "Navigation der Wikinger" (1975), in my opinion still the best treatment of the subject because he does not phantasize about what the vikings may have had and to what use strange objects may have been put by them but analyzes in detail the written documents, the sagas. And his conclusion may be disappointing, but it is convincing if you care to read his book: there is no indication that any of these "instruments" were ever used by the vikings at sea. But we've been through this before: see [NavList 3336] Wolfgang --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc To post, email NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
