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“Columbus discovered America” is one of the blab-blabs of public school and even high school academic mouthing. He did no such thing. The American continent had been visited by Europeans hundreds of years before 1492, even discounting the general hypothesis that the North American Indian was of Asiatic stock.
The present work clearly sets forth, and most interestingly, the early visits by the Norseman. It only required the finding of an old tablet, now called the Kensington Stone, to light up the old, old question, and to fan the sparks into an attractive blaze. This is precisely what Mr. Holand has done in the present 354 octavo page historical review.
Here the palm of discovery, if such a word is appropriate, is given to the Vikings and to Erik Thorwaldsen the Red, as the one whose name has come down as the discoverer. After a tumultous and bloody youthful career he pushed westward from Iceland, found Greenland (982) and with the boat of Herjolfson (here spelled Herjulf Bardson) finally found either Labrador, Cape Cod or some points further south. Thus Erikson found Vinland where timber was more abundant than further north, a finding communicated to him by Herjolfson.
All of this is most carefully recorded and substantiated by the available records, not without certain controversial details. As a purely personal, and irrelevant touch, the name Herjolfson [Mr. Jolf's son] carries with it certain resemblances to that of the present reviewer and editor. The Jelliffes and Jollifies were originally Norman “Jolfs”. Hence, possibly, the exploring and adventurous spirit that has animated these pages now for some forty years.
There were many others, of course, and Mr. Holand's book takes us in and out, up and down, even as far west as Minnesota and the Kensington Stone.
It is a burly book, well told and fascinating to all at all intrigued by the early history of European civilization and culture transported to American shores.
Jelliffe