****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Sometimes it takes an outsider thinking and reasoning independently of the established norm to take the bold step that allows for the exciting break-through to occur. This is what the book 'The Farfarers' represents: a bold, new reading of North Atlantic history. Author Farley Mowat is not trained as an archeologist or a historian but instead brings a boat-load of common-sense; a hands-on, decades-long study of this remote area; and an absolutely accomplished writing style to present an utterly logical history of a group that is always just one step ahead of the Vikings.Like so many others - myself included - Mr. Mowat became enthralled with the swashbuckling, murky stories of the Vikings crossing the stormy North Atlantic centuries before Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean. And it is here for anyone who cares to look - the strange, fleeting mentions of a shadowy group always a little further out than the Vikings. Some have claimed they were simply Irish monks seeking a secluded, ascetic, monastic experience free from the distractions and temptations of an evil world (and especially from the violent depradations of the Vikings) who were simply forced continually westward. But a small group of pious monks could never have made as much of an impact as what is found.Mr. Farley Mowat theorizes and presents his case that it was northern Picts (named in the book as Albans due to ancient historical references) pushed to desperate, heroic exploration by successive waves of invasions from Celts, Romans and then Vikings. ...Stone cairns scattered throughout the eastern North Atlantic area display strong similarity to stone cairns in the northern British Isles - and could not have been built by the Inuit peoples otherwise they would have been found throughout the entire Arctic region... Reports of boats and stone structures found by Vikings in areas where it is known that no Inuit lived at that time... And then the strange site selections made by the earliest Vikings in Iceland and Greenland when there were obviously much more hospitable sites available - unless they were already in use by another group unwilling to deal with the Vikings and their well-known reputation. The author does a stunningly admirable job utilizing logic to piece together these and other scattered bits of hard evidence.I daresay that this book will spark some future archeologists' curiosity enough that they will devote more serious study to this, and this is why 'The Farfarers' is such an important book. Add in Farley Mowat's exemplary writing skill and you have a ground-breaking work that reads like a novel. This is indeed an accomplishment.
