I’m reading a really good book right now. Why am I telling you?
Because, my brother says we are descendants of the Vikings.
Kon Tiki, by Thor Heyerdahl, was written in 1950. In 1947, Heyerdahl and 5 others built a raft out of Balsa wood and bamboo and floated/sailed from Peru to the South Pacific to prove his theory that the population of the South Pacific islands could have come from South America. But that’s not my point.
He suggests that there have been 2 significant migrations to the South Pacific. The first was by a Sun God, Kon Tiki, the son of the sun, in about 500 AD. These were tall, fair skinned, bearded people. According to island lore, these were the original immigrants to the islands. The second, in about 1100 AD, of a short, smooth faced, dark skinned people.
Thor and his buddies were from Scandinavia. Well, with a name like Thor, what would you expect? None of these guys were sailors, but obviously came from a strong maritime culture. Heyerdahl mentions early in the book his opinion that Vikings discovered the Americas.
Kon Tiki and his tribe were defeated in battle at Lake Titicaca, Peru (which I would have interpreted as shitty titi, but the Incas didn’t speak Spanglish). This band of Viking people vanished from Peru and showed up in the South Pacific. It was Heyerdahl’s theory that they got there by sea. He immediately eliminated walking and flying (and since the Star Ship Enterprise hadn’t been invented, teleportation wasn’t possible, yet). At the time, the only boats known to the Incas were off shore rafts with sails made of the locally plentiful Balsa tree. So, these modern Vikings set out to prove, and did, that it could be done.
Heyerdahl supports his theory by noting that the stone statues, notable for Easter Island but found through out the South Pacific, very closely resemble the stone statues in Peru. In addition, he notes that the sweet potato, from Peru, is found in the South Pacific and has the same name in both places.
So, my brother is right. Vikings did discover the rest of the world. All we have to do is get them from Solem, Minnesota circa 1000 AD to the Andes mountains in Peru circa 500 AD.
Your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave, sharing the knowledge.
Weary