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As you start the interview about your latest book, Arturo Ortega Blake passionately tells about vikings: the group of warriors and sailors that spread through various countries of Europe (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland) and that had an impact around the world. The first time they were heard from was in 793, when they attacked a monastery in the northeast of England: on the island of Lindisfarne.
Thanks to their maritime knowledge, the vikings came to america centuries before Christopher Columbus. The story of those journeys is embodied in the novel entitled Leif Eriksson, the Vikings who discovered America in the 11th century.
Despite being classified as barbaric and bloody, Viking society was ahead of its time in terms of social organization. He was against monarchies, which is why they opted for a government without a king. Its highest authority was the Althing, a popular assembly made up of several members, where agreements were reached and decisions were made. To date, the Icelandic Althing, now known as the National Parliament, which is the oldest in the world.
The mujeres viking they had predominant roles, participated in the Althing and were warriors. The Vikings had established divorce and the equal division of the couple’s property.
Ortega Blake became enthusiastic about everything related to Viking culture and his arrival in America when he had the opportunity to study a master’s degree in the Netherlands. The atmosphere that prevailed around him was of people passionate about world history, who inspired him to find out about the hypothesis of vikings in the american continent.
The writer, Arturo Ortega Blake He is an economist, graduated from UNAM, where he has also been a professor, as well as at the Universidad Veracruzana. In addition to being the author of novels and essays, he developed professionally in the defunct Secretariat of Programming and Budget, during the six-year term of Ernesto Zedillo and also worked at the UN.
In 2006 he wrote Leif, Erik’s son, which can be considered a prequel to Leif Eriksson, the Vikings who discovered America in the 11th century.
There are several investigations in this regard. In 2019 the magazine Nature confirmed the speculation: the Vikings settled in northern Canada, although it is not known for how long. The objects belonging to the Viking culture were studied with the carbon 14 method to confirm that they are more than 1,000 years old.
For its part, Groningen University of the Netherlands shared the results of his research, published by National Geographic. In this study they explain that 471 years before the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the American continent, the Vikings already had a settlement in Canada, called L’Anse aux Meadows (translated as the cove of the jellyfish). The place was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Although it was discovered in 1960, it was in 2021 when they measured the carbon concentration in the wood with which the buildings of the settlement are made, which revealed that they date from 1021 AD Similarly, the cuts of the wood reveal the use of tools that the native Canadians did not possess.
The writer of Leif Eriksson, the Vikings who discovered America in the 11th century had access to Nordic sagas, first chronicles that were written on the trips from Europe to America. Originally embodied in goatskin and translated into several languages. There they mention Leif Eriksson, as the leader of the expedition.
Likewise, Ortega Blake obtained the writings of the Milanese friar Galvano Fiamma, who in the fourteenth century left testimony of lands beyond Greenland, which were not registered in Europe.
The novel developed by Arturo Ortega Blake, in addition to addressing the life and travels of the Vikings to North America, it also narrates what happened to the native Canadians simultaneously. According to his words, these original tribes were more developed than the Vikings, however they lacked knowledge of maritime navigation. Ortega Blake is a chronicler who recounts the events of both peoples at the same time, without distorting the story.
When the Vikings came to the Island of newfoundland, in Canada, was the meeting of two worlds, but not a colonization. They respected the native peoples and promoted trade between their lands. Lefi Eriksson He never killed anyone, unlike his father Erik the Red, that’s why there are many sculptures of him in Europe, the United States and Canada.
Ortega Blake chose to write a historical novel to make the facts more attractive: “If I wrote it chronologically it would not be so attractive. Welcome to history through a novel! ” Literary resources enrich the story, the reader feels the emotions and sees the landscapes.
The author shares a bit of his creative process for writing a book. The first thing he does is a guide with the main points to develop so that there are no inconsistencies. In that step define the beginning and the end; then develops the rest of the novel. During her research, she reads several books, underlines them, clips, annotates, and writes on paper; when he is convinced, he transcribes into a computer.
Leif Erikson, protagonist of this historical novel, was the first explorer to arrive in America, specifically to Newfoundland, Canada. He did it a long time before Christopher Columbus. Leif was probably born in 970 in Iceland. In the United States they commemorate their day on October 9.
itzayana.rios@eleconomista.mx
