{"id":21721,"date":"2023-01-28T00:01:48","date_gmt":"2023-01-28T08:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/?p=21721"},"modified":"2023-01-27T13:17:37","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T21:17:37","slug":"the-man-who-did-not-discover-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/the-man-who-did-not-discover-america\/","title":{"rendered":"The Man Who Did Not Discover America"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Bjarni Herjulfson could have become one of the most famous explorers in all of history, if only he would have gotten out of his own boat!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The year was 986 A.D.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Bjarni Herjulfson was actually lost at sea.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>On his way to Greenland, fierce autumn storms had buffeted his ship for several days.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Extremely high and powerful winds had blown him so far off course that he had no idea where he actually was.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Once the weather broke and cleared, he was relieved to see land.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>But this land looked totally unfamiliar.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It had no mountains or glaciers as had Greenland, only small hills and forests.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Bjarni didn\u2019t know it, but he had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and sailed to what is now known as Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">His crew begged him to land the ship.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>If only he had had the spirit of a Christopher Columbus, this might have been a defining moment in exploration history.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>But Bjarni was intent on going home,&#8230;not going down in history.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>So without even leaving his boat, he turned right around and headed back out to sea.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>He and his crew finally made it to Greenland a week later.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Destination found&#8230;Opportunity missed!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Years afterward, he told his tale of adventure to a friend, who decided to retrace Bjarni\u2019s course.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span><b>And so it was that Leif Eriksson staked his claim as the first European to walk on the American continent.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Bjarni went down in history as the man whose curiosity <b>did<\/b> <b>not<\/b> get the better of him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Not only did Leif Eriksson question Bjarni closely about his journey&#8211;he actually purchased Bjarni\u2019s ship and used it for his own trip.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">A book was written entitled \u201cFlateyjarbok, The Norse Saga,\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In this written record, the sea journeys of both Bjarni Herjulfson and Leif Eriksson are documented.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>This book was written in the 1300s.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It is based on manuscripts and oral histories that date back centuries earlier. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">An apt description of Bjarni Herjulfson\u2019s journey made by the Vikings and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>recorded in the Flateyjarbok<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>reads:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cMany thought he lacked curiosity and for this reason he was somewhat<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>slandered.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The difference between the great and the not-so-great is often times only the slightest of margins.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><b>Learn More, Know More, and Become More&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bjarni Herjulfson could have become one of the most famous explorers in all of history, if only he would have gotten out of his own boat! The year was 986 A.D.\u00a0 Bjarni Herjulfson was actually lost at sea.\u00a0 On his &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/the-man-who-did-not-discover-america\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-did-you-know"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21721"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21724,"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21721\/revisions\/21724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davesevern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}