Legendary Viking Sunstones Did Exist: Viking Sagas Were More Truthful Than We Realized

AncientPages.com | September 15, 2023 | Featured Stories, News, Vikings

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - Modern navigation instruments were unknown to Vikings, and they relied on own senses, celestial bodies, birds, swells, whales, chants, and rhymes to navigate the seas and discover new land.

They even took advantage of the wind and the stars as clues to make their navigation easier.

Viking sagas handed down orally from generation to generation may have been more credible sources of this kind of navigation than we earlier realized. The success of the voyage depended on several factors.

In their study, researchers analyzed as many as one thousand conceivable “three-week-long Viking voyages along the latitude 60°21'55" N from Norway to Greenland with changing cloudiness at summer solstice and spring equinox.”

When the sun was hidden by clouds or thick fog, the navigators had to determine first the position of the invisible sun, and it was performed by means of skylight polarization and sunstone (e.g. calcite, cordierite, or tourmaline) crystals functioning as linear polarizers.

Despite this important study, Viking navigation from Norway to America in the northern latitudes still remains a mystery for physicists, historians, and archaeologists. Crystal "sunstones" could have helped Viking sailors to navigate even when clouds or fog hid the sun and hindered long-distance sea voyages. One ancient travelogue can be found in the medieval Norse manuscript ’Hauksbók’. Various landmarks like trees, buildings, islands, hills, and more were often given place names based on their special characteristics. These names helped the Vikings navigate their way to their destination.

It is not known whether the Vikings really used the method, but if they did, they could navigate their ships precisely and with success.

More:
https://www.ancientpages.com/2023/09/15/legendary-viking-sunstones-exist-viking-sagas-truthful-realized/