Premise of the book: Andrea di Robilant found a sixteenth century travel narrative of a fourteenth century journey by the Zen brothers to the North Atlantic. The map included was one of the first and best to show that region in its time. But the veracity of the map and narrative have been questioned during the following centuries, and di Robilant sets out to discover the truth and explore the areas that the Zen brothers explored.
Random Facts Learned by Reading This Book:
- The Faroe Islands are connected by ferries, helicopters, and deep sea tunnels, so that you can travel between them easily.
- The capital of the Faroes is Torshavn, named after the Norse god Thor.
- There is only one bookstore in the Faroe Islands - Jacobsens. It sells a lot of books in Faroese.
- (Have you ever seen pictures of the Faroe Islands? Oh, my goodness, I want to visit!)
- During World War II, the British navy hid a lot of its ships in the Shetland Islands. Italian prisoners of war were kept in the Shetlands. They starting a band, a theater, and a church.
- Ward Hill is the highest point in the Shetlands at 742 feet. Vikings would send smoke signals from it.
- Greenhouses in Iceland are heated by underground gases and hot water, so they can grow vegetables and fruit year-round - even bananas!
- Erik the Red named Greenland Greenland because he thought more people would be willing to move there, even though it's more ice than green. It's all in the marketing!
- Greenland voted to become independent from Denmark in 2008. Steps have been taken (including changing the official language to Greenlandic), but it is not yet fully independent. They currently depend on a substantial annual grant from Denmark
General thoughts on the book: This book was the perfect mix of history and travel narrative. It was informative and clearly written. And how often do you get to read a book about Greenland or the Faroe Islands? I really enjoyed this one!
RSS Feed
