Did the Irish reach North America in the sixth century?

hi everyone i hope you're all well now the question of who got to america first is something that fascinates loads of people to be honest i've never really been particularly bothered about it but it fascinates loads of people and there are all sorts of theories about ancient civilizations that supposedly made their way to america long before christopher columbus now it's it's known historically that the vikings definitely did get to north america before columbus however there are many people who believe that the irish also got there before even the vikings so in this video we're going to take a look at three pieces of evidence that they did so the first piece of evidence comes from from viking literature the second piece of evidence comes from irish literature and the third piece of evidence comes from modern archaeology so the evidence from viking or scandinavian literature is that in the scandinavian accounts of the vikings of their settlement in what we now know is north america they describe the fact that they encountered irish monks irish monks who were already there so you'd think that well you know that's that's definite evidence then that the irish were there if the vikings themselves described the fact they met irish monks there when they arrived well then that's that's good that's great that proves it but apparently that's not good enough some people but that is one piece of evidence from the vikings own literature however there's also evidence from irish literature and also we've got to consider the fact that this these viking accounts don't tell us when the irish got there but irish literature may well tell us the answer to that so there's a famous religious leader a religious figure from ireland in the sixth century called brendan known as saint brendan now this person brendan he was said to have engaged on a journey of voyage to a distant land a kind of semi-mythical promised land so in this account called the voyage of saint brendan the the description of the journey from ireland to this promised land is fairly detailed which is very helpful because it means we can see how well it connects with the actual route from ireland to north america now if you were to sail from ireland to north america it would not be logical to just go straight from ireland across the atlantic directly west it's much more logical to go island hopping basically so you've got above the british isles you've got the pharaoh islands and then you go in well in a westerly direction and you get to iceland and then you keep going west and you get to greenland and then you keep going west and you get to north america so rather than making one big long journey across the open sea you can make a series of relatively small journeys from island to ireland until you get to north america so it's not actually that big of a deal obviously it's impressive but it's not actually that remarkable to think that the irish could have got that just like how the vikings got there by by taking a similar route obviously from an even further starting point so how well does this description in the voyage of saint brendan match the actual journey from islands to north america well the first significant place that brendan reaches on his journey is a place called the paradise of birds so this this was a place an island where there was said to have been loads and loads of birds living it was said to have been really densely inhabited by birds it's the paradise of birds now if you go to the faroe islands above the british isles then you find that they are in fact incredibly densely populated by birds incredibly densely populated by birds so that matches the fact that brendan's first stop was the paradise of birds then afterwards as he continues on his journey brendan reaches an island where there are said to be these these demonic blacksmiths that hurl flaming rocks at brendan and his companions in the sea so it's a very kind of fiery place now how does that match the next stop on the journey the real journey from islands to north america well from the pharaoh islands the next significant place is iceland now iceland of course has volcanoes on it it also has nearby undersea volcanoes as well that also erupt volcanic material out in into the open so either one of us the the uh the volcanoes in the sea or the volcanoes on the island itself could be the origin of this idea of these demonic hellish creatures hurling flaming rocks into the sea then after after that island the next significant place that brendan gets to is uh well he encounters a region where there are towers of crystal in the sea now what might they be well as you go from iceland and continue west you get to greenland now greenland of course is covered in ice and icebergs regularly break off the coast and float out into the sea now i'm sure you'll agree an iceberg could well be considered by someone who'd never seen one before to be a tower of crystal so the fact that after this kind of demonic uh island brendan gets to this region of towers of crystal that's a good match for iceland and then greenland or the coast of greenland where you've got these icebergs coming off and then after that brendan reaches the promised land this this lush green paradise and that description matches very well with the description of north america made by the the people who found it along with christopher columbus in that era when the first settlers got there they described it as being base basically a lush green paradise so that description fits as well and just to confirm that this isn't something that seems to work when you look at it on a map but actually breaks down when you're actually there a an explorer called tim severin engaged on this journey himself using an authentically constructed irish courag just like the ones they had in the 6th century and he went on this journey himself in this authentic irish boat and he found that as he was engaging on this journey the experience that he had and as he went past each location it was just like the description in the voyage of saint brendan so this apparent match that you can lay out on a map it does actually work when you're there when you're actually engaging this journey it really does fit so that's the second piece of evidence now the third piece of evidence is something that was found very recently you may have seen if you're interested in this kind of stuff you may have seen a few weeks ago maybe it was a month or two ago now on on the news there were articles about how archaeologists had discovered evidence apparently definitive evidence that the pharaoh islands have been inhabited since about 500. so previously it was believed that they were first inhabited when the vikings came along in the 9th century but actually it's now known that they were first inhabited in the 6th century now that of course matches the era of brendan the 6th century so this confirms that someone got there in the sixth century now i think it would be quite a remarkable coincidence if there's this story about brendan engaging on a voyage away from ireland which clearly at least the beginning clearly matches a journey to the pharah the pharaoh islands with the paradise of birds and then archaeology proves that someone already did get to the pharaoh islands in the sixth century that would be quite a coincidence if they're not connected so i think the evidence clearly indicates that that brendan's journey really was a journey from ireland to the pharaoh islands and then regarding the the next locations like um like iceland well apparently the particular type of evidence that was found on the pharaoh islands is something that may well be on these other locations in the north atlantic sea but it just hasn't been discerned yet but apparently it could well be there already i'll post a link in the description to the article which discusses this it's it's very very interesting to read about the specific way in which the archaeologists were able to discern uh that that these islands had been inhabited in the sixth century so in summary then from viking literature from irish literature and from modern archaeological research i think there's a very good case to be made that the irish really did reach north america in the 6th century

Channel: Caleb Howells

Views: 15,250

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Id: geq6YCBZl60

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 09 2022