my favorite song" go back , go back, go back and look at the bottom go back and look at the bottom."
new: dragons, bottom of page.
new: dragons, bottom of page.
its a movie give it 30 seconds.
ERICSSON, LEIF
"Leif" Ericsson Thorvaldson (also spelled Eriksson) the Lucky (980?-1020?) was a Viking (Norse) explorer who was possibly the first European to sail to North America. Leif sailed north from the southern tip of Greenland, then went south along the coast of Baffin Island down to Labrador, and then landed in what is now called Newfoundland (which he called Vinland). Ericsson sailed around the year 1000. Ericsson was born in Iceland and was one of the sons of the explorer Eric the Red. Ericsson was probably preceded to Vinland by the Icelandic explorer Bjarni Herjulfsson, who spotted the coast of North America in 985 or 986 when blown off course from Iceland to Greenland (but he did not go ashore). Hearing of Herjulfsson's discovery, Ericsson sailed for North America in the year 1000 with a crew of 35. He landed in what is probably southern Baffin Island (which he called Helluland, meaning the "land of the flat stone"). He then went on the what is now Labrador (which he called Markland, meaning "forest land"). In 1001 they reached Vinland (perhaps the southern tip of Newfoundland), where remains of an ancient Norse settlement have been found). Ericsson and his crew returned to Green land in the spring of 1002. Ericsson later inherited his father's position as leader of the Norse colony in Greenland.
Erik Thorvaldsson, best known as Erik the Red because of his red hair, was born in Joederen, Norway around 935, son of Thorvald Arvaldsson.
His father was exiled from Norway in 950 because he commited several killings. Because of his age, Erik left with his father for the coast of Iceland, where he grew up.
He then became a Norse Chieftain in his clan on the little island of Iceland. Erik the Red revealed many times through quarrels and life issues that he possessed a temperament that would lead to trouble. In 981, a serious quarrel erupted between Erik the Red-haired and his neighbours on Iceland. In the fight that followed, Erik was responsible for the death of two men. He was convicted of manslaughter, pronounced an outlaw, and exiled from Iceland for three years. To stay meant possible death as, once convicted, anyone on Iceland was allowed to legally kill him.
Desesperate, Erik decided to explore the West of Iceland, and in 982, along with his family, he discovered a beautyful and atractive land which he called Greenland, and settled in it. The Viking settlements in Greenland were established fjords of the southern and western coast. Erik named his settlement Brattahlid, which was located on the Ericsfjord. Erik the Red’s entire family lived in total seclusion, but they spent the three years in exile exploring the south and west coasts of Greenland.
In 985, Erik decides all the same to turn over to Iceland in order to make share his discovery, and convinced hundreds of others to join him in settling this new country. In 986, about 25 ships set sail with Erik the Red for Greenland. Only 14 ships survived the seas, but about 450 new colonists set foot ashore. Erik the Red continued to reside in the Eastern Settlement, his home, the village of Brattahlid, and here he raised his children and headed his family. He had two wives, Thorhild and Thorbjarga, and four sons, Freydis, Thorvald, Thorstein, and Leif Eriksson. Towards 995, Norway is converted to Christianism by King Olaf Trygvason, and Leif, After an adventurous trip to Norway and an eye opening experience, now "saved by Christ", returned to his father Erik and tried to convince him to accept Christianity. Erik refused , but was persuaded by his wife, Thorhild, to have a church built in their settlement, although he never visited the finished establishment.
He died in Brattahlid, in his residence of Greenland in the year 1001.
Leif Eriksson is said to have been the first European to discover North America.
* His place in the Barks/Rosa stories universe :
First, in Barks' "The Golden Helmet", his name is mentionned when Donald finds a map in Duckburg's museum showing the travels of the drakkar commanded by a Olaf the Blue. The director of the museum tells that according to a Norwegian legend, this Olaf the Blue discovered Greenland in 900, long before Eric the Red, and that he even moored in North America, in 901.
Then, in Rosa's "From Duckburg to Lillehammer", he is also mentionned when Huey tells, when they are in a trip to Norway for the Olympic games, that 1 000 years ago, Eric the Red and Olaf the Blue travelled here...
While Erik the Red is supposed to have really existed (even if some think it's still a legend), Olaf the Blue is a purely fictionnal character created by Barks. If he got his nickname after the color of his hair too, then he would have blue hair and beard :-)
In "Luck of the North" (Barks, 1949), a map is found by Donald in a viking ship which is said to have been used to find America before Colombus. It is not told who used the map. It could be Olaf the Blue, but more likely Leif Eriksson...
As a child, Erik left his native Norway for western Iceland with his father, Thorvald, who had been exiled for manslaughter. In the Scandinavian style of the time he was known as Erik Thorvaldson and in his youth was nicknamed Erik the Red. When Erik was similarly exiled from Iceland about 980, he decided to explore the land to the west (Greenland). That land, visible in distorted form because of the effect of looming (a type of mirage) from the mountaintops of western Iceland, lay across 175 miles (280 km) of water; it had been skirted by the Norwegian Gunnbjörn Ulfsson earlier in the 10th century. Erik sailed in 982 with his household and livestock but was unable to approach the coast because of drift ice. The party rounded the southern tip of Greenland and settled in an area near present Julianehåb (Qaqortoq). During the three-year period of Erik’s exile, the settlers encountered no other people, though they explored to the northwest, discovering Disko Island (now Qeqertarsuaq).
Erik returned to Iceland in 986. His descriptions of the territory, which he named Greenland, convinced many people anxious for more habitable land to join a return expedition. Of the 25 ships that sailed from Iceland, only 14 ships and 350 colonists are believed to have landed safely at an area later known as Eystribygdh (Eastern Colony). By the year 1000 there were an estimated 1,000 Scandinavian settlers in the colony, but an epidemic in 1002 considerably reduced the population. Erik’s colony, commemorated in the Icelandic Eiríks saga (“Saga of Erik”), gradually died out; but other Norse settlements in Greenland continued and maintained contact with Norway until the 15th century, when communications stopped for more than 100 years
DRAGONS IN HISTORY "The dragons of legend are strangely like actual creatures that have lived in the past. They are much like the great reptiles which inhabited the earth long before man is supposed to have appeared on earth. Dragons were generally evil and destructive. Every country had them in its mythology." (Knox, Wilson, "Dragon," The World Book Encyclopedia, vol. 5, 1973, p. 265)
Stories of dragons have been handed down for generations in many civilizations. No doubt many of these stories have been exaggerated through the years. But that does not mean they had no original basis in fact. Even some living lizards look like dragons and it is easy to see how a larger variety of such an animal could frighten a community. Have you ever seen an old dinosaur film where they used an iguana in a miniature town set to create the illusion of a great dragon?
In 2004 a fascinating dinosaur skull was donated to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis by three Sioux City, Iowa, residents who found it during a trip to the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota. The trio are still excavating the site, looking for more of the dinosaur's bones. Because of its dragon-like head, horns and teeth, the new species was dubbed Dracorex hogwartsia. This name honors the Harry Potter fictional works, which features the Hogwarts School and recently popularized dragons. The dinosaur's skull mixes spiky horns, bumps and a long muzzle. But unlike other members of the pachycephalosaur family, which have domed foreheads, this one is flat-headed. Consider some of the ancient stories of dragons, some fictional and some that might be authentic history of dinosaurs.
Dragons are featured in the ancient Gilgamesh Epic, a Sumerian story from about 3000 BC. (Kramer, Samuel, History Begins at Sumer, 1959, pp.170-81.) Daniel was said to kill a dragon in the apocryphal chapters of the Bible. After Alexander the Great invaded India he brought back reports of seeing a great hissing dragon living in a cave. Later Greek rulers supposedly brought dragons alive from Ethiopia. (Gould, Charles, Mythical Monsters, W.H. Allen & Co., London, 1886, pp. 382-383.) Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia ("Dinosaur" entry) explains that the historical references to dinosaur bones may extend as far back as the 5th century BC. In fact, some scholars think that the Greek historian Herodotus was referring to fossilized dinosaur skeletons and eggs when he described griffins guarding nests in central Asia. "Dragon bones" mentioned in a 3rd century AD text from China are thought to refer to bones of dinosaurs.
The Chinese have many stories of dragons. Some ornamental pictures of dragons are shaped remarkably like dinosaurs. Marco Polo wrote of his travels to the province of Karajan and reported on huge serpents, which at the fore part have two short legs, each with three claws. "The jaws are wide enough to swallow a man, the teeth are large and sharp, and their whole appearance is so formidable that neither man, nor any kind of animal can approach them without terror." (Polo, Marco, The Travels of Marco Polo, 1961, pp. 158-159.) Books even tell of Chinese families raising dragons to use their blood for medicines and highly prizing their eggs. (DeVisser, Marinus Willem, The Dragon in China & Japan, 1969.) To the right are pictures of fossilized Protoceratops dinosaur eggs (one is double-yoked) from China that are currently on display at Creation Evidence Museum. It is interesting that the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac are all animals--eleven of which are still alive today. But is the twelfth, the dragon merely a legend or is it based on a real animal-- the dinosaur? It doesn't seem logical that the ancient Chinese, when constructing their zodiac, would include one mythical animal with eleven real animals. "The interpretation of dinosaurs as dragons goes back more than two thousand years in Chinese culture. They were regarded as sacred, as a symbol of power..." (Zhiming, Doug, Dinosaurs From China, 1988, p. 9.) Shown here are dragons that were cast in red gold and embossed during the Tang Dynasty (618-906 AD). Notice the long neck and tail, the frills, and the lithe stance. Evolutionists have brought forward some bizarre theories for how such realistic depictions could have been made.
In medieval times, the Scandinavians described swimming dragons and the Vikings placed dragons on the front of their ships to scare off the sea monsters. The one pictured to the right is from approximately 1000 A.D. (From the book The Vikings, p.17.) Indeed Hans Egede, Missionary to Greenland, drew this sketch of the "sea monster" he saw off the coast of Greenland in 1734. Numerous such stories have been recorded from the age of sailing ships (1500-1900 A.D.). The familiar story of Beowulf and the legend of Saint George slaying a dragon, which are well-known in the annals of English literature, likely have some basis in fact. Indeed the "dragon" pictured to the left is the dinosaur Baryonyx, whose skeleton has been found in England. Dragons were even described in reputable zoological treatises published during the Middle Ages. For example, the great Swiss naturalist and medical doctor Konrad Gesner published a four-volume encyclopedia from 1516-1565 entitled Historiae Animalium. He mentioned dragons as "very rare but still living creatures." (p.224)
The city of Nerluc in France was renamed in honor of the killing of a "dragon" there. (Picture from Taylor, Paul, The Great Dinosaur Mystery, 1989, p. 40.) This animal was said to be bigger than an ox and had long, sharp, pointed horns on its head. Was this a surviving Triceratops? A famous naturalist of that era, Ulysses Aldrovandus, recorded the details of a peasant killing a small dragon along a farm road in northern Italy (May 13, 1572). He obtained the dragon carcass, thoroughly documented the encounter, and had it mounted and placed in a museum. (Aldrovandus, Ulysses, The Natural History of Serpents and Dragons, 1640, p.402.) A sketch of this dragon (on left) was included in Athanasius Kircher"s book Mundus Subterraneus written in 1678. The story is told of a tenth century Irishman who encountered a large clawed beast having "iron on its tail which pointed backwards." It had a head similar to a horse. It also had thick legs and strong claws. Could this be a remaining Stegosaurus? (Ham, K., The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved, p.33, 1999.)
Ancient explorers and historians, like Josephus, told of small flying reptiles in ancient Egypt and Arabia and described their predators, the ibis, stopping their invasion into Egypt. (Epstein, Perle S., Monsters: Their Histories, Homes, and Habits, 1973, p.43.) The well-respected Greek researcher Herodotus wrote: "There is a place in Arabia, situated very near the city of Buto, to which I went, on hearing of some winged serpents; and when I arrived there, I saw bones and spines of serpents, in such quantities as it would be impossible to describe. The form of the serpent is like that of the water-snake; but he has wings without feathers, and as like as possible to the wings of a bat." (Herodotus, Historiae, tr. Henry Clay, 1850, pp. 75-76.) John Goertzen noted the Egyptian representation of tail vanes with flying reptiles and concluded that they must have observed pterosaurs or they would not have known to sketch this leaf-shaped tail. He also matched a flying reptile, observed in Egypt and sketched by the outstanding Renaissance scientist Pierre Belon, with the Dimorphodon genus of pterosaur. (Goertzen, J.C., "Shadows of Rhamphorhynchoid Pterosaurs in Ancient Egypt and Nubia," Cryptozoology, Vol 13, 1998.)
In medieval times, scientifically minded authors produced volumes called "bestiaries," a compilation of known (and sometimes imaginary) animals accompanied by a moralizing explanation and fascinating pictures. One such volume is the Aberdeen Bestiary, written in the early 1500"s and preserved in the library of Henry VIII. Along with the newt, the salamander, and various kinds of snakes is the description and depiction of the dragon: "The dragon is bigger than all other snakes or all other living things on earth. For this reason, the Greeks call it dracon, from this is derived its Latin name draco. The dragon, it is said, is often drawn forth from caves into the open air, causing the air to become turbulent. The dragon has a crest, a small mouth, and narrow blow-holes through which it breathes and puts forth its tongue. Its strength lies not in its teeth but in its tail, and it kills with a blow rather than a bite. It is free from poison. They say that it does not need poison to kill things, because it kills anything around which it wraps its tail. From the dragon not even the elephant, with its huge size, is safe. For lurking on paths along which elephants are accustomed to pass, the dragon knots its tail around their legs and kills them by suffocation. Dragons are born in Ethiopia and India, where it is hot all year round."
Reliable witness reports of "flying dragons" (pterosaur-like creatures) in Europe are recorded around 1649. (Thorpe, B. Ed., The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, 1861, p.48.) "The woods around Penllyn Castle, Glamorgan, had the reputation of being frequented by winged serpents, and these were the terror of old and young alike. An aged inhabitant of Penllyn, who died a few years ago, said that in his boyhood the winged serpents were described as very beautiful. They were coiled when in repose, and "looked as if they were covered with jewels of all sorts. Some of them had crests sparkling with all the colours of the rainbow". When disturbed they glided swiftly, "sparkling all over," to their hiding places. When angry, they "flew over people's heads, with outspread wings, bright, and sometimes with eyes too, like the feathers in a peacock's tail". He said it was "no old story invented to frighten children", but a real fact. His father and uncle had killed some of them, for they were as bad as foxes for poultry. The old man attributed the extinction of the winged serpents to the fact that they were "terrors in the farmyards and coverts." (Trevelyan, Marie, 1909, Folk-Lore and Folk Stories of Wales, 1909.)
An example of an ancient dragon story is given to the right (click to enlarge and read some text.) The prolific 17th century writer Athanasius Kircher's record tells how the noble man, Christopher Schorerum, prefect of the entire territory, "wrote a true history summarizing there all, for by that way, he was able to confirm the truth of the things experienced, and indeed the things truly seen by the eye, written in his own words: "On a warm night in 1619, while contemplating the serenity of the heavens, I saw a shining dragon of great size in front of Mt. Pilatus, coming from the opposite side of the lake [or 'hollow'], a cave that is named Flue [Hogarth-near Lucerne] moving rapidly in an agitated way, seen flying across; It was of a large size, with a long tail, a long neck, a reptile's head, and ferocious gaping jaws. As it flew it was like iron struck in a forge when pressed together that scatters sparks. At first I thought it was a meteor from what I saw. But after I diligently observed it alone, I understood it was indeed a dragon from the motion of the limbs of the entire body." From the writings of a respected clergyman, in fact a dragon truely exists in nature it is amply established." (Kircher, Athanasius, Mundus Subterraneus, 1664, tr. by Hogarth, "Dragons," 1979, pp. 179-180.) Such bioluminescent nocturnal flying creatures are known in some regions still today. (See the Ropen page.) Might they not be the basis for the "fiery dragon" lore from ancient civilizations around the world?
"Among Serpents, we find some that are furnished with Wings. Herodotus who saw those Serpents, says they had great Resemblance to those which the Greeks and Latins call'd Hydra; their Wings are not compos'd of Feathers like the Wings of Birds, but rather like to those of Batts; they love sweet smells, and frequent such Trees as bear Spices. These were the fiery Serpents that made so great a Destruction in the Camp of Israel...The brazen Serpent was a Figure of the flying Serpent, Saraph, which Moses fixed upon an erected Pole: That there were such, is most evident. Herodotus who had seen of those Serpents, says they very much resembled those which the Greeks and Latins called Hydra: He went on purpose to the City of Brutus to see those flying Animals, that had been devour'd by the Ibidian Birds." (Owen, Charles, An Essay Towards a Natural History of Serpents, 1742, pp. 191-193.)
Evolutionary Zoologist Desmond Morris wrote, "In the world of fantastic animals, the dragon is unique. No other imaginary creature has appeared in such a rich variety of forms. It is as though there was once a whole family of different dragon species that really existed, before they mysteriously became extinct. Indeed, as recently as the seventeenth century, scholars wrote of dragons as though they were scientific fact, their anatomy and natural history being recorded in painstaking detail. The naturalist Edward Topsell, for instance, writing in 1608, considered them to be reptilian and closely related to serpents: 'There are divers sorts of Dragons, distinguished partlie by their Countries, partlie by their quantitie and magnitude, and partlie by the different forme of their externall partes.' Unlike Shakespeare, who spoke of 'the dragon more feared than seen,' Topsell was convinced that they had been observed by many people: 'Neither have we in Europe only heard of Dragons and never seen them, but also in our own country there have (by the testimony of sundry writers) divers been discovered and killed.'" (from the forward to Dr. Karl Shuker's Dragons: A Natural History, 1995.)
On April 26, 1890 the Tombstone Epitaph (a local Arizona newspaper) reported that two cowboys had discovered and shot down a creature - described as a "winged dragon" - which resembled a pterodactyl, only MUCH larger. The cowboys said its wingspan was 160 feet, and that its body was more than four feet wide and 92 feet long. The cowboys supposedly cut off the end of the wing to prove the existence of the creature. The paper's description of the animal fits the Quetzelcoatlus, whose fossils were found in Texas. (Gish, Dinosaurs by Design, 1992, p. 16.) Could this be thunderbird or Wakinyan, the jagged-winged, fierce-toothed flying creature of Sioux American Indian legend? This thunderbird supposedly lived in a cave on the top of the Olympic Mountains and feasted on seafood. Different from the eagle (Wanbli) or hawk (Cetan) the Wakinyan was said to be huge, carrying off children, and was named because of its association with thunder and lightning--supposedly being struck by lightning and seen to fall to the ground during a storm. (Geis, Darlene, Dinosaurs & Other Prehistoric Animals, 1959, p. 9.) It was further distinguished by its piercing cry and thunderous beating wings (Lame Deer's 1969 interview).
Evolutionist Adrienne Mayor spent considerable time researching the possibility that Native Americans dug up dinosaur fossils. But some of the reports she received make a lot more sense if these early Americans interacted with actual dinosaurs, not yet extinct. An old Assiniboine story tells of a war party that "traveled a long distance to unfamiliar lands and [saw] some large lizards. The warriors held a council and discussed what they knew about those strange creatures. They decided that those big lizards were bad medicine and should be left alone. However, one warrior who wanted more war honors said that he was not afraid of those animals and would kill one. He took his lance [a very old weapon used before horses] and charged one of the large lizard type animals and tried to kill it. But he had trouble sticking his lance in the creature's hide and during the battle he himself was killed and eaten." (Mayor, Fossil Legends of the First Americans, 2005, p. 294.) This story conjures up credible visions of the scaly hide of a great reptile, something Native Americans would not know from mere skeletons. It was once thought that Woolly Mammoths had flourished in North America prior to the arrival of humans. But the discovery of sites where many mammoths were killed and butchered has established the co-existence of men and mammoths. Perhaps similar evidence involving dinosaurs will be forthcoming.
The atheistic astronomer Carl Sagan once remarked: "The pervasiveness of dragon myths in the folk legends of many cultures is probably no accident" (Sagan, Carl, The Dragons of Eden, New York: Random House, 1977, p. 149). Indeed he felt compelled to address the similarity to the great reptiles of the Jurassic era and "explain them away." How could Sagan do this? Peter Dickinson stated, "Carl Sagan tried to account for the spread and consistency of dragon legends by saying that they are fossil memories of the time of the dinosaurs, come down to us through a general mammalian memory inherited from the early mammals, our ancestors, who had to compete with the great predatory lizards." (Dickinson, Peter, The Flight of Dragons, New York: Harper and Row, 1979, p. 127). Thus Carl Sagan believed that we evolved not merely our physical bodies, but also memories "uploaded" from our mammalian ancestors!
