Vikings of Salem, MA

A Furore Normannorum Libera Nos, Domine...

 

Vikings in Salem? Yes.
There is a reason why Salem State University's mascot is a Viking. Also a glacial erratic shaped like a head is called the Norseman Rock on Bakers Island. There was an Orkney prince who believed Salem was Vinland or maybe even Norumbega.

Prince Henry Sinclair sailed from Isle of Orkney with two Venitians and a cast of characters of Norwegian descent in a Knarr, a larger Viking Ship used by merchants, might of sailed into Salem harbor.  They were following ancient maps that described access to Vinland through a point marked by two islands in the harbor with two rivers heading inland. Some say he was dissuaded by life in Europe and he was looking for a Utopian (Translation in Latin as no where.) society he could find in Vinland.

He first lands on Oak Island off Nova Scotia. Some say the famous "Money Pit" was created by his band to hide treasures of the Templars. In March 1314 with their grand master executed by the French king the Templars went into hiding throughout Europe. It was said that the French respected the Old Alliance between them and Scotland and settled around what became the Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin. By June of that year they provide Robert the Bruce with the calvary to defeat England at Bannock Burn.

The Sinclair's were a Norman French family. In 911 Rollo a Norwegian war leader was forced by his Danish men to kiss the feet of Charles the Simple of France in Saint-Clair-sur-Epte which created the providence of Nomandy.  The first duke being Walderne Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, or the holy light of the well. At that time before the Battle of Hastings the Saint Clairs were dukes of Orkney. They would be later granted Roslin in 1068 by William the Conqueror. In 1390 Prince Henry would build Roslin Castle and Rosslyn Chapel. Eight years later he sails to find Vinland.

Oak Island was one of the first pairs of islands next to two rivers heading inland. Not convinced, he sails south. The next location he finds fitting the description was Salem, MA with the Two Misery Islands and the North and South Rivers.

Eben Norton Horsford took it seriously. He built a Norumbegga Tower on the Charles River, Erected the Leif Erickson Statue in Cambridge, and had a hand in the Viking ships on the Longfellow Bridge. He believed Naumkeag was an old Norse name for Salem.

So the story goes the group of Vikings sailed into Salem and ventured inland. Eventually arriving in Westford, MA. Here Sir James Gunn from a Viking pirate family that settled in Scotland dies. They created an effigy of him in a rock that you can still see next to a grammar school in Westford. He would become the Westford Knight.

Sinclair's adventure's might of even been chronicled by local Indian tribes. Glooscap a Mi'kmaq god might of been Sinclair. Mi'kmaq pronounced MicMac sounds Gaelic. When Leif Erickson and his group traveled over here they did notice some Natives to be taller, wear white robes like Irish monks, and speak a mixture of old Norse and Gaelic. Later Mi'kmaq would be called Red Vikings during the Taratine War because they attacked the coasts in fleets of boats. One battle happened in Naumkeag in 1622.

So did later day Vikings travel to New England in 1398, making two trips before Columbus sails the ocean blue? They even say Columbus was following old maps of Vinland too. Possibly given to him by Templars.

So who knows, they might of ! What do you think?