Did an Irish Monk 'Discover' America? | Hacker News Reader

Did an Irish Monk 'Discover' America?

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40 pointsptidhomme50 comments

I do recommend Tim Severin's book on his recreation of the alleged voyage, firstly for their attempts to use period correct construction techniques, and also how the boat itself handled in the Atlantic.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1088116.The_Brendan_Voya...

If you get a chance, the leather currach which Tim Severin built and sailed across the Atlantic is now on display and can be visited at the Irish Heritage Museum at Craggaunowen, Co. Clare. It's a remarkable vessel and hard to imagine a monk from the 5th century climbing aboard one and sailing across the Atlantic, although stranger things have happened.

Makes ya wonder how many monks climbed aboard such boats and failed to cross the Atlantic.

Especially since they did this in the 80s, the leather boat punctured, and they had to repair it while emptying the boat in frigid waters. Good times.

You mean, like a Brother Shamus?

For a good run-down of the various folks that may (or may not) have crossed the Atlantic, see Simon Winchester's book Atlantic (ISBN13: 9780061702587):

* http://www.simonwinchester.com/atlantic

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Winchester

For a more crackpot work, there's Boland's They all discovered America

https://archive.org/details/theyalldiscovere00bola

https://www.amazon.com/discovered-America-Charles-Michael-Bo...

What's odd about this conversation is that it's fairly undisputed that Far East Asian natives discovered America and settled it.

It was 16,000+ years ago, so calling them "Far East Asian naives" kinda undersells that the natives at the time were a completely different group than the ones we think of as current East Asian natives.

There's some evidence (linguistic and otherwise [1]) that the Ket people [2] of Siberia are a remnant of the peoples that populated the Americas.

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M0QnAqQUmw 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ket_people

There is evidence for trans Beringian trade and population mixing well into the 15th century: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tiny-blue-beads-eu...

> calling them "Far East Asian naives" kinda undersells

Fine. Far Northeastern Asian Upper Paleolithic Hunter Gatherers then.

I’m still not sure why we’re talking about ancient naïveté, I figure they didn’t know a lot of things back then.

Not really a different group. DNA evidence strongly supports the tie between modern Asian people and Native Americans.

It's hard to call it "discovered" when the landbridge was still there and they were hunter-gathers (although "settled" is accurate). "Migrated to" maybe?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beringia

The History Channel aired this documentary which summarizes multiple theories about the discovery of America, from either the Atlantic or Pacific. Ice age explorers, Vikings, Polynesians, etc., are all covered:

https://vimeo.com/288240659

There's a Donald Duck cartoon by Carl Barks called The Golden Helmet that deals with the discovery of America by the Vikings, and then Don Rosa made a follow up that brings up the Celtic theory, among others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Helmet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Charts_of_Columbus

Probably not, but this stuff is fascinating:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_co...

Well, there's the Duhare:

https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/irish-colony-sout...

Sorry, even if true there was also a different bunch of Celts around:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoc#Welsh_Indians

Even more fascinating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_metel#Compelling_eviden...

is this where tolkien got his inspiration for silmarillion? There too, earendil took a quest to find the lost paradise West over the ocean succeeding after many tribulations

According to Tolkien scholars: in part, yes. c.f. The Voyage of Earendel the Evening Star and The Notion Club Papers.

He wrote one of his best poems about St. Brendan: https://englewoodreview.org/poem-the-death-of-st-brendan-j-r...

Depends on your definition of "discovery". Christopher Columbus's trip to America changed the course of history. Any previous visits by the lost at sea sailors are not important.

Really, America was first "discovered" by the indigenous folks who lived here before any European

When European history writes about discovery it naturally means discovery by a European. If somebody in China or India did it how would it matter to Europeans?

History is always written from a perspective. If native Americans discovered Europe then whomever did so would have been recorded in their history. They would not go “ah but the Europeans where already there so let’s forget about this feat”

Oh, they are seriously important to me. Just so you cannot say Columbus was the first is very important. And to give you your dose of pride: yes, Columbus was very important in wiping out almost all indigenous people. Change of course of history my a__e.

I totally agree with you, "discovered" meanings are two:

- as the first people to ever see it (their aboriginal folks)

- Discover to the world by the Spaniard crew captained by Columbus/financed by the spanish monarchs.

Everything else is just trying to mess with history, and if even any contact was there stablished they even didn't know for sure what american land was, even Spain wasn't totally sure if it was an extension of Asia or something of its own until one of its cartographers, the italian Américo Vespucio, determined it must be a continent of its own.

Luckily not chinese otherwise USA may be in trouble. So far only claim Mexico.

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