#tim severin

You may, anon friendo! Today You Learned about author and explorer Tim Severin!

He was a British guy, wrote some books (I didn't actually like the novel of his that I read that much). But! What makes him interesting and worthy of a Fun Fact is that he decided it'd be cool to try to copy historical travels and voyages. You know, for funzies!

So! While he was an undiegrad, he and his friends decided to take motorcycles along the path (or as close to it as they could get) that Marco Polo took on his famous travels. They didn't make it without a hitch--they got in jail at one point, and then had to quit because the Chinese wouldn't let them past the border. But they did it!

Other trips they've taken and tried to emulate:

-As I've mentioned before, if Saint Brendan actually reached America (probably not), he decided to take that trip using technology available at Brendan's time.

-Commissioning the construction of a medieval Arabic ship, and navigating by the stars to try to re-do the voyages of Sinbad from Arabian Nights.

-Traveling by horseback from Belgium to Jerusalem, following the paths of Crusaders during the First Crusade.

-Following the path of the Pequod from Moby-Dick.

-Tried to copy Jason and the Argonauts, with an actual Bronze Age galley, going along the path the ancient Greeks believed that he would have taken.

-Using that same ship, going along the path that people think Odysseus would have taken in The Odyssey!

-Trying to see if it was possible to reach America on a bamboo raft from China, as people sometimes claim that the ancient Chinese scholar Hsu Fu, achieved reading the account of his legendary voyage today.

And more! He also wrote books on a lot of these journeys to say what happened on those trips.

Now you might be saying, "Jurakan, a lot of these are mythical voyages; they didn't happen, or are so poorly accounted we can't say that they happened." And that's true! Severin's point, though, was to prove whether or not they might have happened. No, I don't think Saint Brendan reached America, as some claim; but it's really cool to learn that it's actually technically possible that he might have if he'd put his mind to it.

Diary of a Pilgrimage by Jerome K. Jerome - I loved Three Men in a Boat so much I added everything Jerome wrote to my TBR in one go.

The Sinbad Voyage by Tim Severin - I read a couple Tim Severin books when I was a preteen and loved the combination of travel and mythology. Again, added the rest of his books to my TBR as soon as I found out about them—and one day, I swear I'll even read them!

Thanks for asking!

More non-fiction today! I read The Ulysses Voyage by Tim Severin shortly after I first read the Odyssey in high school, I think, and would definitely recommend it as a companion read. It’s kind of in the vein of Kon-Tiki—a guy builds an ancient boat, gets a crew together, and sails around testing a theory. In this case, it’s an ancient Greek boat and the theory’s that Odysseus didn’t sail around the whole of the Mediterranean on his way home, just the Aegean.

Like Kon-Tiki I think you should probably grain-of-salt the evidence because Severin’s no academic and it’s been 30 years, but I certainly find the ideas compelling and it’s great travel writing. Severin describes the islands he reaches, the water he’s sailing, and the myths he’s following beautifully and with a touch of humour, and the islands? I’m surprised at how well his path matches to Odysseus’s, even for the impossible-sounding ones.

Plus, you know, there are storms and navigation problems and general adventurous goodness.

Today’s music at least has “island” in the title:

Uitgelezen ‘Wapenbroeders’ van Tim Severin. In dit tweede deel van de Viking-trilogie wordt het verhaal van Thorgils op indrukwekkende wijze voortgezet. De auteur weeft opnieuw een spannend historisch epos vol Noorse mythes, politieke intriges en persoonlijke vetes.

We schrijven Londen, 1019. Thorgils is ternauwernood ontsnapt aan de macht van de Katholieke Kerk en raakt verstrikt in een riskante verhouding met Aelfgifu, de vrouw van koning Knut de Grote. Wat begint als een hartstochtelijke affaire, groeit uit tot een relatie met verstrekkende gevolgen.

Wanneer Thorgils moet vluchten, sluit hij zich aan bij Grettir, een onstuimige outlaw met wie hij een onverwachte, maar hechte band opbouwt. Nadat Grettir vermoord wordt trekt Thorgil door het ruige noorden en langs oude handelsroutes, richting het legendarische Miklagard—het huidige Constantinopel. Onderweg komt Thorgils oog in oog te staan met valsemunters, slavenhandelaren en premiejagers, en moet hij alle middelen inzetten om zich staande te houden.

Vanishing Primitive Man by British author Tim Severin, an historian and explorer who has received the Royal Geographic Society's Gold Medal, is the 9th volume in the Search series of histories of exploration and adventure travel, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press.

This was originally published in 1973 by American Heritage Publishing.

This volume is a bit of a departure from the usual famous explorer and trade route histories, instead focusing on the prehistorical migrations, early modern encounters with, and current societal situation (circa the 1970s) of ten surviving indigenous cultures with Stone Age roots, including the Aborigines of Australia, the Ainu of Japan, the Inuit of Canada and Greenland, the Sami of Lappland, the Xavante of Brazil, and several others, introduced with a foreword by noted anthropologist Colin M. Turnbull, known for his work among the pygmy tribes of Zaire and consultant for this book, and a list of further recommended reading.

Offered worldwide, available at Amazon.