norumbega/Paper.md

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title: Norumbega
author: Jacob Signorovitch
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In Weston, Massachusetts, across the Charles River from Brandeis University, an
unusual structure rises among the trees; a forty foot stone tower, complete with
spiral staircase and ramparts, weathered and stained with time, looking
distinctly out of place within earshot of I-95. The story of how it came to be
there involves Vikings, a baking soda magnate, the discovery of America, and, at
the center of it all, the city of Norumbega. As one explores the area, the name
comes up again and again: a map will tell you the structure's name is Norumbega
Tower, and running alongside is Norumbega Road. Further south, one finds a
Norumbega Park, and another road called Norumbega Court. This paper will explore
how one man in the late 19th century, Eben Norton Horsford, combined Norse saga
and a mythical Native American city into a theory for the original discovery of
America, what motivated him to do so, and what he left behind.

The myth of Norumbega originated in the 16th century, during the Age of
Exploration. It was variously a town, city, or country, somewhere along the
coast of New England, inhabited by amiable and civilized natives. First given
the name *Nurumberg* by Giacomo Gastaldi in a 1548 edition of Ptolemy's
Geography,[@KirsNor98, 34] the myth can be traced back to a conflation of two
separate accounts. The first is that of Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine
explorer under King Francis I of France.[@GreeneLife37, 4-7] He was one of the
first Europeans to explore the area around Narragansett Bay in 1524[@KirsNor98,
36, 39], and recounted his experiences in a letter to the king. He described a
pleasant harbor inhabited by friendly and civil natives.[@KirsNor98, 39] They
practiced "more systematic cultivation [of crops] than the other tribes," and
were "very like the manner of the ancients [i.e., antiquity]."[@KirsNor98, 39]
In the latter, Giovanni names the place *refugio*, "on account of its
beauty."[@KirsNor98, 39] Despite Narragansett Bay being quite far from where
Norumbega would eventually be described, the Penobscot Bay region of modern day
Maine, geographical ambiguity allowed his account to become "at the heart of the
Norumbega legend."[@KirsNor98, 39] Specifically, the mention of a "more
civilized" tribe of natives would become a core aspect of the mythical city in
all future renditions. The second account is that of Jean Alfonce de Saintonge,
pilot on Jacques Cartier's exploration of the Penobscot Bay area [@KirsNor98,
41]. Sailing up the Penobscot River, which he called the *Norenbègue*, he
described "a city called *Norombegue* with clever inhabitants [...] The people
use many words which sound like Latin and worship the sun, and they are fair
people and tall."[@KirsNor98, 41] These two accounts, Giovanni's *refugio* and
Saintonge's *Norombegue*, eventually merged into a single myth, canonized by
the cartographer Gastaldi, of an advanced Native American city more similar to
Europe than its neighbors.[@KirsNor98, 41]

Over the centuries to follow, more accurate maps were drawn revealing Norumbega
not as the advanced society it was believed but only "a settlement on the outer
Penobscot shore."[@KirsNor98, 55] Still, the myth lay dormant, disproven yet
still alluring. Enter Eben Norton Horsford, a chemist working in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. Best known for his invention of modern baking
powder,[@JackHors92, 343] he had long harbored in interest in history and
archaeology. He would collect fossils around his father's farm in Moscow (now
Leister), New York where he grew up,[@JackHors92, 340] and became interested in
learning the language of the Seneca Indians[@JackHors92, 340] to which his
father worked as a missionary.[@JackHors92, 103] Later, he would often visit
his wife's family estate on Shelter Island, New York.[@AdamsMemBiog08, 104]
There, he became interested in the island's history and "erected a monument to
the Quakers, who found shelter there from Puritan
persecution."[@AdamsMemBiog08, 104] This pattern of research and monument
building would be repeated several times throughout his life, including the
Norumbega Tower. Horsford's most famous accomplishment, and how he was able to
fund these projects, would come in 1856 with his invention of a revolutionary
new baking powder recipe without a fermentation step.[@JackHors92, 343] He
founded the Rumford Chemical Works, named after the Rumford Professorship
position he held at Harvard, which would make him a fortune.[@JackHors92, 343]
While in Cambridge, Horsford became very interested in the possibility of
Vikings in New England. This idea had some precedent;[@FlemPicHist95, 1079] in
1841, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote *The Skeleton in Armour*, a poem about a
Norse warrior whose body was discovered by Fall River,
Massachusetts.[@LongBall41, 29-41] But it was with Horsford the idea came to be
most associated.[@FlemPicHist95, 1080] In 1887,[@HorsDisc87, 10] Horsford wrote
the dedication for a large bronze statue of Erickson,[@GuttVal18, 86]
commending him for his early discovery of America. He doesn't stop just there,
though; he additionally asserts Leif sailed south after making the continent,
all the way to Cape Cod. He explains his reasoning:

> ...if you will be kind enough to hold up to your mind's eye, now for a
> moment, any familiar map of North America. Look at the east coast. From
> Greenland, along the line to the southwest, you will notice three projections
> into the sea. They are Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Cape Cod.[@HorsDisc87,
> 9]

He disregards Newfoundland as an option, saying "[it] is bold, rocky,
mountainous, of meagre vegetation, and with few beaches."[@HorsDisc87, 10]
Ironically, the best evidence archaeologists have now for the location of
Vinland is L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. How Horsford was recieved in the
moment, if those around him were surprised by this theory, is unclear. But his
theories would certainly see criticism from historians once published. One
contemporary historian, Justin Winsor, found issue with Horsford's theory that
Vikings had left a noticeable imprint on Native American language:

> Nothing could be slenderer than the alleged correspondences of languages, and
> we can see in Horsford's *Discovery of America by Northmen* to what a
> fanciful extent a confident enthusiasm can carry it.[@WinsNar89, 98-99]

Horsford begins his next book on the Vikings, *The Problem of the Northmen*, by
directly addressing Winsor's comment,[@HorsProb89, 1] demonstrating that he was
willing to openly spar with historians to defend his theory. Horsford's belief
and confidence that there were Nordic elements present in Native American
language may have been informed by his early years with the Seneca in New York.
Horsford then continues to present evidence for the location of Leif Erickson's
houses: "If anyone interested will walk from the junction of Elmwood Avenue
with Mt. Auburn Street [...] he will be at the site of the objects of interest
which had once been there, and which I had predicted might there be
found."[@HorsProb89, 14] Here Horsford was remarkably confident in his claims,
inviting his audience to see the evidence for themselves. He claims there are
"inequalities of the surface," which are "the remains of two long log houses,
and huts, or cots."[@HorsProb89, 14] He states they are arranged "'some nearer,
some farther from the water,' as the sagas say,"[@HorsProb89, 14] again using
the sagas as a primary source of proof for his theory. Outside of just
Horsford, there existed a wider movement around the promotion of Leif Erickson
at the time. Newspapers at the time rarely mention Leif without mention his
preceding Columbus,[^1] which may have been part of the widespread anti-Italian
sentiment. Several other proponents of Vikings in New England also believed
"the 'Aryan race,' in particular its 'Teutonic' [i.e., German] branch, was
superior to all others."[@FlemPicHist95, 1078] Horsford, however, seems to have
only been interested in Leif and never brings up racial superiority or a
disdain for Columbus. In fact, he states that Leif's prior discovery of America
"would dim, by the measure of the faintest Indian-summer haze only, the
transcendent glory of the life-work of Columbus."[@HorsDisc90, 16] So, while
some of the enthusiasm around Horsford's work may have been to diminish
Columbus as an expression of pro-Nordic anti-Italian sentiment, it seems the
man himself was more scientifically motivated.

It was at Shelter island when "a chance reference let fall by one of his
guests" would introduce Horsford to the legend of Norumbega.[@JackHors92, 344]
The term seems to have been widely known in New England at the time; both an
article from the Worcester Daily Spy in 1875 and one from the Vermont Phoenix
in 1894 mention Norumbega in passing, the reader assumed to be familiar.
Horsford, having grown up in New York, was only introduced to it after his
retirement and became deeply interested He read the accounts of Alafonce and
Verrazzano, and describes them in one of his books.[@HorsDisc90, 14] In this
same book, *Discovery of the Ancient City of Norumbega*, Horsford mentions the
existence of so many maps that prominently display Norumbega that "one could
not help thinking that they must have some foundation in truth; the alternative
[would have] involved too many conspirators, of different
nationalities."[@HorsDisc90, 13] How Horsford made the connection from
Norumbega to Leif Erickson is a little less clear, though it was most likely
etymological. We have seen already Horsford's early interest in Native American
language from his early years with the Seneca in New York, and it seems he
thought the name "Norumbega" peculiar. He describes how "many hundreds of years
ago the country we call Norway was called Norbegia or Norbega,"[@HorsDisc90,
19] and that in "the Algonquin family of languages, which prevailed throughout
New England, could not [...] utter the sound of *b* without prefixing to it the
sound of *m*."[@HorsDisc90, 18] Thus, he reasons, *Norumbega* is but a Native
American corruption of what the Vikings would have called Norway. Horsford uses
physical evidence to support his claim as well. He mentions several instances
where the first settlers of Massachusetts found natural dams or weirs, which
could be used for fishing (the fish would be stopped and collect before the
weir on their way upstream to spawn.)[@HorsDisc90, 33-34] He also describes
walls and other structures on the floor of Boston Harbor and Back Bay, evidence
of "the ancient seaport of Norumbega."[@HorsDisc90, 37] To Horsford, all this
evidence proved the existence of a great Viking fort of Norumbega, and
necessitated the construction of a monument. We have seen this pattern before;
once to the Quakers who found refuge on Shelter Island, and again in Boston to
Leif Erickson for discovering America. He justifies the monument in four
reasons:

> 1. It will commemorate the Discovery of Vinland and Norumbega in the
>    forty-third degree, and the identification of Norumbega with Norway, the
>    come country to which this region was once subject by right of discovery
>    and colonization.
> 2. It will invite criticism, and so sift out any errors of interpretation
>    into which, sharing the usual fortune of the pioneer, I may have been led.
> 3. It will encourage archæological investigation in a fascinating and almost
>    untrodden field, and be certain to contribute in the results of research
>    and exploration, both in the study and the field, to the historical
>    treasure of the Commonwealth.
> 4. It will help, by reason of its mere presence, and by virtue of the
>    veneration with which the Tower will in time come to be regarded, to bring
>    acquiescence in the fruit of investigation, and so allay the blind
>    scepticism, amounting practically to inverted ambition, that would deprive
>    Massachusetts of the glory of holding the Landfall of Leif Erickson, and
>    at the same time the seat of the earliest colony of Europeans in
>    America.[@HorsDisc90, 40]

These say much about the man Horsford was. As already seen from his comments on
Columbus, he was not motivated by dislike of the Italians; rather, he sought to
bring "the glory" of Leif's discovery to Massachusetts, his home for the
majority of his working life. Second, he is remarkably humble in his theories;
this is particularly evident in his second point, and to an extent the third.
He accepts that "the trustworthiness of my conclusions might be tested by the
spade,"[@HorsDisc90, 41] and that he had not been able to do much of his own
archaeology. Horsford did not build the tower to be himself remembered, rather
to inspire others to continue his work. Indeed, the plaque at the base of the
tower does not bear his name.

Eben Norton Horsford would die two years after *The Discovery* was published,
on January first, 1893.[@AdamsMemBiog08, 103] He believed himself a pioneer; at
the cutting edge of discovery, the first breakthrough in a movement that would
long outlive him. After his death, however, there seemed to be little interest
around his ideas. His biographers mostly gloss over the veracity of his
theories, focusing more on his achievements in chemistry, and his large and
generous donations to various colleges in the area.[@JackHors92, 345] The tower
remains. A century of wind and rain have made its words near impossible to
read, and trees now obscure it from the river.

[^1]: Springfield Weekly, 1893

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# References