A Viking Voyage

The ability of the Vikings or other people from Europe, Asia, or Scandinavia to sail across the Atlantic Ocean and settle in North America has always been called into question. But the Draken has now proved naysayers wrong!

Many people are of the thought that there is no way a wooden boat of this size and build could make it across such a vast body of water. And while the crew of the Draken did use modern navigational equipment, the boat was quite sea-worthy, sailing from Norway to Iceland, on to Greenland and then to Canada and the U.S. I am hoping that another journey such as this is tried using only the navigational devices which the Vikings had.

Click Here to go to the Draken's website.

It's in the Blood

Hemochromatosis is also known as iron overload disorder. It's a genetic mutation which causes the body to absorb too much iron from a person's diet. The iron is stored in the body's tissues, joints, and
organs (heart, liver, skin). This blood disorder afflicts people of European origin - most specifically Northern European origins. If left untreated, the excess iron will damage organs and lead to death.

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The mutation is believed to have originated because of an iron poor diet. If iron is hard to come by, then a body will eventually create a way to glean more iron from the food which is consumed or a way to absorb and store excess iron. Iron is a necessary component for life - aiding in metabolism and oxygen transport.

A common phrase for this disorder is "Celtic Curse" because the majority of the people suffering (see dna chart here!) from it are of Celtic origins. But the disorder goes much further then just Ireland and Great Britain. The Celtic Curse is also common among the people from the countries bordering the oceans and seas by the British Isles. This finding has led some researchers to believe the mutation disorder originated within the Viking communities of Scandinavia. But as more and more research is done, the true origins may be discovered further to the southeast.

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Because iron is magnetic, could the excess iron in the body or even the tendency to retain more iron give a person a greater ability to navigate the seas or voyage across a wilderness using the Earth's magnetic field? Much like a flock of birds is able to find their way across an ocean during migration. Did this genetic mutation give the Viking and Celtic explorers an edge when it came to locating new lands and then returning home? Did these people have some sort of internal compass unbeknownst to them?

Would this excess iron also give these cultures an edge when it came to interacting with the Earth's geomagnetic fields of energy? Making them better dowsers? 

For more information about hemochromatosis and its genetic origins, see the links below!

http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/hereditary-hemochromatosis

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/the-iron-in-our-blood-that-keeps-and-kills-us/266936/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3142605/

http://www.hemochromatosisdna.com/about-the-disease/viking-ancestry#.VpK9vPkrLIU

http://genefacts.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=159%3Ahereditary-hemochromatosis&catid=111%3Ahemochromatosis&limitstart=5

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000292970763170X