235 lines
15 KiB
Markdown
235 lines
15 KiB
Markdown
---
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- \usepackage{setspace}
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title: |
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\huge Eben Norton Horsford
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\huge and the Legend of Norumbega
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author: Jacob Signorovitch
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---
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\maketitle
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In Weston, Massachusetts, across the Charles River from Brandeis University, an
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unusual structure rises among the trees; a forty foot stone tower, complete
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with spiral staircase and ramparts, weathered and stained with time, looking
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distinctly out of place within earshot of I-95. The story of how it came to be
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there involves Vikings, a baking soda magnate, the discovery of America, and,
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at the center of it all, the Legend of Norumbega. As one explores the
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surrounding area, the name appears again and again: a map will tell you the
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structure's name is Norumbega Tower, and running alongside is Norumbega Road.
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Further south, one finds a Norumbega Park, and another road called Norumbega
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Court. This paper will explore how one man in the late nineteenth century, Eben
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Norton Horsford, combined Norse sagas and a New England *El Dorado* into a
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theory for the original discovery of America, what motivated him to do so, and
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the legacy he left behind.
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The Legend of Norumbega originated in the sixteenth century, during the Age of
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Exploration. To European explorers, it was variously a town, city, or country,
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somewhere along the coast of New England, inhabited by amiable and civilized
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natives. First given the name *Nurumberg* by Giacomo Gastaldi in a 1548 edition
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of Ptolemy's Geography,[@KirsNor98, 34] the myth can be traced back to a
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conflation of two separate accounts. The first is that of Giovanni da
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Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer under King Francis I of
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France. He was one of the first Europeans to explore the
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area around Narragansett Bay in 1524[@KirsNor98, 36, 39], and recounted his
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experiences in a letter to the king. He described a pleasant harbor inhabited
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by friendly and civil natives.[@KirsNor98, 39] They practiced "more systematic
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cultivation [of crops] than the other tribes," and were "very like the manner
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of the ancients [i.e., western antiquity]."[@KirsNor98, 39] In the letter,
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Verrazzano names the place *refugio*, "on account of its beauty."[@KirsNor98,
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39] Despite Narragansett Bay being quite far from where Norumbega would
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eventually be described, geographical ambiguity would allow his account to become
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"at the heart of the Norumbega legend."[@KirsNor98, 39] Specifically, the
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mention of a "more civilized" tribe of natives would continue to be a core aspect of
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the legend in all future renditions. The second account, which lends the
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myth its name and location, is that of Jean Alfonce de Saintonge, a pilot on
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Jacques Cartier's exploration of the Penobscot Bay area.[@KirsNor98, 41]
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Sailing up the Penobscot River, which he called the *Norenbègue*, he described
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"a city called *Norombegue* with clever inhabitants [...] The people use many
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words which sound like Latin and worship the sun, and they are fair people and
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tall."[@KirsNor98, 41] These two accounts, Varrazzano's *refugio* and
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Saintonge's *Norombegue*, eventually merged into a single myth, canonized by
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the cartographer Gastaldi, of an advanced Native American city which shared more in common with
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Europe than its neighbors.[@KirsNor98, 41]
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Over the centuries that followed, more accurate maps and exploration revealed Norumbega
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not as the advanced society it was believed to be but only "a settlement on the
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outer Penobscot shore."[@KirsNor98, 55] Still, the myth lay dormant, disproven
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yet still alluring. Enter Eben Norton Horsford, a mid-nineteenth century
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chemist working in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Best known for his invention of
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modern baking powder,[@JackHors92, 343] Horsford had long harbored an interest
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in history and archaeology. He collected fossils around his father's farm in
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Moscow (now Leister), New York where he grew up,[@JackHors92, 340] and became
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interested in learning the language of the Seneca Indians[@JackHors92, 340] to
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which his father worked as a missionary.[@JackHors92, 103] Later, he would
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often visit his wife's family estate on Shelter Island, New
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York,[@AdamsMemBiog08, 104] where he became interested in the island's history.
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He even "erected a monument to the Quakers, who found shelter there from
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Puritan persecution."[@AdamsMemBiog08, 104] This pattern of research and
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monument building would be repeated several times throughout Horsford's life,
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culminating in Norumbega Tower. Horsford's most famous accomplishment, and how
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he was able to fund these projects, would come in 1856 with his invention of a
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revolutionary new baking powder recipe without a fermentation
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step.[@JackHors92, 343] He founded the Rumford Chemical Works, named after a
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position he held at Harvard, which would make him a fortune.[@JackHors92, 343] While in Cambridge, Horsford became fascinated by
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the possibility of Vikings in New England. This idea had some
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precedent;[@FlemPicHist95, 1079] in 1841, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote *The
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Skeleton in Armour*, a poem interpreting a body discovered in
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Fall River, Massachusetts[^2] to be that of a Norse warrior.[@LongBall41, 29-41] But it was with Horsford the
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idea came to be most associated.[@FlemPicHist95, 1080] In 1887,[@HorsDisc87,
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10] Horsford wrote the dedication for a large bronze statue of
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the Viking Explorer Leif Erickson,[@GuttVal18, 86] commending him for his early discovery of America. On
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this point, modern scholars agree; archaeological evidence at L'Anse aux
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Meadows in Newfoundland constitutes a "pre-1492 presence of Europeans in the
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Americas."[@LedgeHorz19, 2] According to Icelandic sagas, it was here Erickson
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built the settlement of *Vinland*. Horsford, however, believed Erickson to have
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sailed far further south after making the continent, all the way down to Cape
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Cod. He defended his reasoning by referring to the sagas:
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> I might dwell at some length, if time would permit, upon other interesting
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> features of the relations of the Sagas:
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> 1. For example, one of very great significance is that of the extraordinary
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> height of the tide at high water [...] In the bottom of Massachusetts Bay,
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> as you know, the tides rise from ten to twelve feet, while south of Cape
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> Cod peninsula they rise but from three to five feet.
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> [...]
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> 5. Of the grapes which the German Tyrker, who was of Leifs crew, discovered,
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> and of which, as a native of a wine country, weary of his ship's rations,
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> he doubtless over-ate, there were then, as now, a plenty on the shores of
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> Massachusetts Bay and along the St. Lawrence. Jacques Cartier speaks of
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> them as early as 1535.
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Here, Horsford also mentions that he has read the accounts of Cartier; this may
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have helped him later make the connection between Vikings and Norumbega. But
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for now, he was only interested in Erickson. When he published the dedication,
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titled *The Discovery of America by Northmen*, his theories drew the ire of
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contemporary historians. Presumably, many were upset a professor of Chemistry
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thought himself more knowledgeable in their field than they were. One
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author, Justin Winsor, found issue with Horsford's theory that Vikings had left
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a noticeable imprint on Native American language:
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> Nothing could be slenderer than the alleged correspondences of languages, and
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> we can see in Horsford's *Discovery of America by Northmen* to what a
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> fanciful extent a confident enthusiasm can carry it.[@WinsNar89, 98-99]
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Horsford begins his next book on the Vikings, *The Problem of the Northmen*, by
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directly addressing Winsor's comment,[@HorsProb89, 1] demonstrating that he was
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willing to openly spar with historians to defend his theory. Horsford's belief
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and confidence that there were Nordic elements present in Native American
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language may have been informed by his early years with the Seneca in New York.
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Horsford then continues to present evidence for the location of Leif Erickson's
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houses: "If anyone interested will walk from the junction of Elmwood Avenue
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with Mt. Auburn Street [...] he will be at the site of the objects of interest
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which had once been there, and which I had predicted might there be
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found."[@HorsProb89, 14] Here Horsford was remarkably confident in his claims,
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inviting his audience to see the evidence for themselves. He claims there are
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"inequalities of the surface," which are "the remains of two long log houses,
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and huts, or cots."[@HorsProb89, 14] He states they are arranged "'some nearer,
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some farther from the water,' as the sagas say,"[@HorsProb89, 14] again drawing
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on the sagas as his primary source. Outside of just Horsford, there existed a
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wider movement around the promotion of Leif Erickson in the late nineteenth
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century. Newspapers at the time rarely mention Erickson without mentioning his
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preceding Columbus,[^1] which may have been part of a widespread anti-Italian
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and anti-Catholic sentiment. Several other proponents of Vikings in New England
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also believed "the 'Aryan race,' in particular its 'Teutonic' [i.e., German]
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branch, was superior to all others."[@FlemPicHist95, 1078] Horsford, however,
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seems to have only been interested in Erickson and never brings up racial
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superiority or a disdain for Columbus. In fact, he states that Erickson's prior
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discovery of America "would dim, by the measure of the faintest Indian-summer
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haze only, the transcendent glory of the life-work of Columbus."[@HorsDisc90,
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16] So, while some of the enthusiasm around Horsford's work may have been
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motivated by a desire to diminish Columbus as an expression of pro-Nordic
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anti-Italian sentiment, it seems the man himself was driven by his own
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curiosity in what he saw as little-researched historical possibility.
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It was during one of his visits to Shelter island when "a chance reference let
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fall by one of his guests" would introduce Horsford to the legend of
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Norumbega.[@JackHors92, 344] The term seems to have been widely known in New
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England at the time; both an article from the Worcester Daily Spy in 1875 and
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one from the Vermont Phoenix in 1894 mention Norumbega in passing, the reader
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assumed to be familiar. Horsford, having grown up in New York, was only
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introduced to the myth after his retirement and became energetically intrigued.
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He read the accounts of Alafonce and Verrazzano, and describes them in one of
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his books.[@HorsDisc90, 14] In this same book, *Discovery of the Ancient City
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of Norumbega*, Horsford mentions the existence of so many maps that prominently
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display Norumbega that "one could not help thinking that they must have some
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foundation in truth; the alternative [would have] involved too many
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conspirators, of different nationalities."[@HorsDisc90, 13] How Horsford made
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the connection from Norumbega to Leif Erickson is a little less clear, though
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it was most likely etymological. We have seen already Horsford's early interest
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in Native American language from his early years with the Seneca in New York,
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and it seems he thought the name "Norumbega" peculiar. He describes how "many
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hundreds of years ago the country we call Norway was called Norbegia or
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Norbega,"[@HorsDisc90, 19] and that in "the Algonquin family of languages,
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which prevailed throughout New England, could not [...] utter the sound of *b*
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without prefixing to it the sound of *m*."[@HorsDisc90, 18] Thus, he reasons,
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*Norumbega* is but a Native American corruption of what the Vikings would have
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called Norway. Horsford uses physical evidence to support his claim as well. He
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mentions several instances where the first settlers of Massachusetts found
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natural dams or weirs, which could be used for fishing (the fish would be
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stopped and collect before the weir on their way upstream to
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spawn).[@HorsDisc90, 33-34] He also describes walls and other structures on the
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floor of Boston Harbor and Back Bay, evidence of "the ancient seaport of
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Norumbega."[@HorsDisc90, 37] To Horsford, all this evidence proved the
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existence of a great Viking fort of Norumbega, and necessitated the
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construction of a monument. We have seen this pattern before; once to the
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Quakers who found refuge on Shelter Island, and again in Boston to Leif
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Erickson for discovering America. To justify the monument, he gave four
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reasons:
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> 1. It will commemorate the Discovery of Vinland and Norumbega in the
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> forty-third degree, and the identification of Norumbega with Norway, the
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> come country to which this region was once subject by right of discovery
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> and colonization.
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> 2. It will invite criticism, and so sift out any errors of interpretation
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> into which, sharing the usual fortune of the pioneer, I may have been led.
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> 3. It will encourage archæological investigation in a fascinating and almost
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> untrodden field, and be certain to contribute in the results of research
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> and exploration, both in the study and the field, to the historical
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> treasure of the Commonwealth.
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> 4. It will help, by reason of its mere presence, and by virtue of the
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> veneration with which the Tower will in time come to be regarded, to bring
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> acquiescence in the fruit of investigation, and so allay the blind
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> scepticism, amounting practically to inverted ambition, that would deprive
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> Massachusetts of the glory of holding the Landfall of Leif Erickson, and
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> at the same time the seat of the earliest colony of Europeans in
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> America.[@HorsDisc90, 40]
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These convictions say much about the man Horsford was. As already seen from his
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comments on Columbus, he was not motivated by dislike of the Italians; rather,
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he sought to bring "the glory" of Erickson's discovery to Massachusetts, his home
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for the majority of his working life. Second, he is remarkably humble in his
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theories; this is particularly evident in his second point, and to an extent
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the third. He accepts that "the trustworthiness of my conclusions
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might be tested by the spade,"[@HorsDisc90, 41] and that he had not been
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able to do much of his own archaeology. Horsford did not build the tower to be
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himself remembered, rather to inspire others to continue his work. Indeed, the
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plaque at the base of the tower does not bear his name.
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Eben Norton Horsford would die two years after *The Discovery* was published,
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on January first, 1893.[@AdamsMemBiog08, 103] He believed himself a pioneer; at
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the cutting edge of discovery, the first breakthrough in a movement that would
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long outlive him. After his death, however, there was little interest in
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furthering Horsford's ideas. His biographers mostly gloss over the veracity of
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his theories, focusing more on his considerable achievements in chemistry,
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large and generous donations to various colleges, and support for women's
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education.[@JackHors92, 345] The tower remains. Built to inspire an awe of
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history, it now draws confused second glances in the rear-view mirror. A
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century of wind and rain have washed out its words, and the trees it once
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dominated now cast it in shadow.
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[^1]: Springfield Weekly, 1893
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[^2]: Unfortunately the building the body had been stored in burned down, and
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so did not last long enough to be identified by modern
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science.[@HorsDisc87, 30]
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*.*](tower_old.jpg){width=80%}
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*.*](tower_new.jpg){width=80%}
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\pagebreak
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\singlespace
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# References
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