{"id":143,"date":"2006-01-29T03:53:41","date_gmt":"2006-01-29T08:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=143"},"modified":"2018-08-24T03:57:52","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T07:57:52","slug":"14591-%c2%a0%c2%a0-farley-mowat-the-farfarers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=143","title":{"rendered":"14591. (Farley Mowat) The Farfarers"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is Far\u00adley Mowat\u2019s odd book about a pos\u00adsi\u00adble pre-viking Euro\u00adpean pres\u00adence in the Cana\u00addi\u00adan Arctic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mowat is very care\u00adful to warn the read\u00ader that he is engag\u00ading in a kind of spec\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtive archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy. He even inter\u00adspers\u00ades the text with lit\u00adtle pas\u00adsages of adven\u00adture fic\u00adtion. But it is also clear that he has con\u00advinced him\u00adself pret\u00adty thor\u00adough\u00adly that his spec\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtions cor\u00adre\u00adspond to what actu\u00adal\u00adly hap\u00adpened. And the result is, of course, one of those books where a chap\u00adter begins with the asser\u00adtion that some\u00adthing might have hap\u00adpened , which by the end of the chap\u00adter has been grad\u00adu\u00adal\u00adly trans\u00adformed into what cer\u00adtain\u00adly did hap\u00adpen , and then becomes the premise for the next chap\u00adter, which begins with if that hap\u00adpened, then this might have hap\u00adpened , and so on. Grad\u00adu\u00adal\u00adly, a huge sequence of sup\u00adpo\u00adsi\u00adtions begins to have the appear\u00adance of a frame\u00adwork of sol\u00adid evi\u00addence, when it is most clear\u00adly not.<\/span><\/p>\n

What he begins with is some\u00adthing which is ver\u00adi\u00adfi\u00adably true. The east\u00adern Arc\u00adtic of Cana\u00adda is lit\u00adtered with odd ruins and mega\u00adlith\u00adic struc\u00adtures that can not be eas\u00adi\u00adly attrib\u00aduted to the Inu\u00adit, or to the ear\u00adli\u00ader Dorset or Thule cul\u00adtures. Nor do they appear to be built by the Norse. They are def\u00adi\u00adnite\u00adly very old. The most inter\u00adest\u00ading con\u00adcen\u00adtra\u00adtions are on the west\u00adern shore of Unga\u00adva bay, and in a bay imme\u00addi\u00adate\u00adly south of the spec\u00adtac\u00adu\u00adlar Torn\u00adgat range, in Labrador.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mowat attrib\u00adut\u00ades these struc\u00adtures to a pre-indo-Euro\u00adpean peo\u00adple of Europe whom he calls the Alba. He takes his cue from the fact that, scat\u00adtered across Eura\u00adsia, in an arc from Per\u00adsia through the Balka\u00adns and West\u00adern Europe, one finds places and peo\u00adple named \u201calb\u201d, \u201calbi\u201d or \u201calba\u201d. There are indeed sev\u00ader\u00adal \u201cAlba\u00adnias\u201d, includ\u00ading, of course, \u201cAlbion\u201d. And it is clear that there was a non-Indo-Euro\u00adpean peo\u00adple in pre\u00adhis\u00adtoric Britain. The Celtic tribes seem to have begun to enter the British Isles some\u00adtime dur\u00ading the first mil\u00adle\u00adni\u00adum BC<\/span>. They may have been pre\u00adced\u00aded by some lost, ear\u00adli\u00ader wave of Indo-Euro\u00adpean speak\u00aders, or they may have been the first wave of IE<\/span>. We sim\u00adply don\u2019t know.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addi\u00adtion to this, there are lots of pecu\u00adliar incon\u00adsis\u00adten\u00adcies and clues in the Sagas that sug\u00adgest that the Norse were pre\u00adced\u00aded by oth\u00ader peo\u00adple to Ice\u00adland, Green\u00adland and even pos\u00adsi\u00adbly Vin\u00adland \u2014 and not just a few eccen\u00adtric Irish monks. I have noticed a num\u00adber of these incon\u00adsis\u00adten\u00adcies myself, and so have many oth\u00ader peo\u00adple. There is not just the vague tra\u00addi\u00adtion of the Irish epics. When the Norse come to Ice\u00adland, for instance, their behav\u00adiour (avoid\u00ading the best lands and set\u00adting up for\u00adti\u00adfied posi\u00adtions on high\u00adly defen\u00adsi\u00adble, but oth\u00ader\u00adwise inap\u00adpro\u00adpri\u00adate places), did not make any sense if they had only a hand\u00adful iso\u00adlat\u00aded monks to deal with. This odd behav\u00adiour is repeat\u00aded in the Green\u00adland, Mark\u00adland, and Vin\u00adland voyages.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, out of these intrigu\u00ading and per\u00adfect\u00adly sol\u00adid facts, Mowat weaves a great romance, a sto\u00adry that would be delight\u00adful if true, and is cer\u00adtain\u00adly pos\u00adsi\u00adble, but is not even close to being demon\u00adstrat\u00aded. His sto\u00adry goes thus: Ancient Britain is inhab\u00adit\u00aded by a pre-Indo-Euro\u00adpean cul\u00adture which is part of one great eth\u00adnic fam\u00adi\u00adly, whom he calls the Alba. From the Basque Pyra\u00adnees to the Shet\u00adlands and Orkneys, the Alba have a cul\u00adtur\u00adal con\u00adtin\u00adu\u00adum of mega\u00adlith\u00adic famers, fish\u00ader\u00admen, sea\u00adfar\u00aders and traders. The Celtic and Ger\u00adman\u00adic inva\u00adsions sweep over much of these, but Scot\u00adland and the out\u00ader islands, as well as south\u00adwest\u00adern France and the Basque coun\u00adtry remain non-IE well into his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal times. The Armor\u00adi\u00adcans are the great hold\u00adouts of the non-IE tra\u00addi\u00adtion, and when the Romans con\u00adquer Gaul, they flee. Since they are fab\u00adu\u00adlous sea-traders, they sail to Scot\u00adland, sup\u00adpos\u00aded\u00adly because Scot\u00adland still con\u00adtains oth\u00ader Alba-type peo\u00adple. These new arrivals in Scot\u00adland assume the name of one promi\u00adnent Armor\u00adi\u00adcan tribe, the Pic\u00adtones, and are the Picts of Scot\u00adtish his\u00adto\u00adry. The Picts even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly fuse with the Alba, and become pow\u00ader\u00adful in the far\u00adfar\u00ading trade in arc\u00adtic goods \u2014 espe\u00adcial\u00adly the immense\u00adly valu\u00adable prod\u00aducts of the wal\u00adrus, whose ivory is worth as much as gold, whose blub\u00adber can be boiled down into the strate\u00adgi\u00adcal\u00adly use\u00adful tar that works as well as any mod\u00adern chem\u00adi\u00adcal sealant, and whose leather can be made into cables, shields, and ship hulls. The trade in these arc\u00adtic goods is already ancient, as is tes\u00adti\u00adfied in the nar\u00adra\u00adtive of the Greek explor\u00ader Pythias.<\/span><\/p>\n

The raid\u00ading and con\u00adquests of the Celts and Vikings dri\u00adves the Alba \/Picts fur\u00adther and fur\u00adther out\u00adward. First to Ice\u00adland, then to Green\u00adland, then into the Cana\u00addi\u00adan Arc\u00adtic, where the wealth of wal\u00adrus and oth\u00ader arc\u00adtic fau\u00adna keeps them busy. It is these non-Indo-Euro\u00adpean Alba who are respon\u00adsi\u00adble for the strange mega\u00adliths, boat-shaped house foun\u00adda\u00adtions, and odd tow\u00aders scat\u00adtered in the Cana\u00addi\u00adan Arc\u00adtic. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, wher\u00adev\u00ader these peace\u00adful and pro\u00adduc\u00adtive sea-traders and crofters go, they are chased down and rout\u00aded out by nasty, war\u00adlike, slave-trad\u00ading Vikings. Mowat, who long ago wrote the defin\u00adi\u00adtive book on the Norse voy\u00adages to the New World, now has a dim view of their morals. They are def\u00adi\u00adnite\u00adly the vil\u00adlains in the nar\u00adra\u00adtive, and Mowat is far too famil\u00adiar with the blood\u00adthirsty Sagas to be much impressed by recent revi\u00adsion\u00adist attempts to recast them into the role of peace\u00adful farmers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, I real\u00adly enjoyed this fan\u00adci\u00adful \u201crecon\u00adstruc\u00adtion\u201d. I would dear\u00adly love it to be true, because it would be just plain fun. There is a mys\u00adtery to be solved in Canada\u2019s Arc\u00adtic his\u00adto\u00adry, and this would be a dandy solu\u00adtion. But any way you look at it, Mowat\u2019 tale is just that\u2026. a tale. It\u2019s some\u00adthing that could have hap\u00adpened, and might have hap\u00adpened, but it is a long way away from being some\u00adthing that we can claim even prob\u00ada\u00adbly happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since much of Mowat\u2019s mate\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal sound\u00aded very plau\u00adsi\u00adble, I decid\u00aded to poke around a bit in the areas that are the far\u00adthest removed from his mate\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal evi\u00addence, and far\u00adthest removed from his exper\u00adtise. I decid\u00aded to check his asser\u00adtion that the Picts were a non-Indo-Euro\u00adpean peo\u00adple direct\u00adly relat\u00aded to the Basques.<\/span><\/p>\n

Imme\u00addi\u00adate\u00adly, I could see prob\u00adlems with this. Cae\u00adsar, in his com\u00admen\u00adtaries, divides Gaul into three parts, assert\u00ading that the south\u00adwest\u00adern Aqui\u00adtani are cul\u00adtur\u00adal\u00adly and lin\u00adguis\u00adti\u00adcal\u00adly very dif\u00adfer\u00adent from the oth\u00ader (Celtic) tribes of Gaul. Now, the resem\u00adblance of the Aqui\u00adtani to the near\u00adby Basques is quite obvi\u00adous. We have per\u00adhaps a hun\u00addred words of the Aqui\u00adtan\u00adian lan\u00adguage, includ\u00ading place names, rela\u00adtion\u00adal terms, and per\u00adson\u00adal names. Most of them can eas\u00adi\u00adly be matched up to ele\u00adments in mod\u00adern Basque.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, Mowat cites cer\u00adtain place names in Scot\u00adland, the Orkneys and Shet\u00adlands, and says they are non-Indo-Euro\u00adpean. He also believes the Picts of Scot\u00adland are non-IE, and that they are close rel\u00ada\u00adtives of the Aqui\u00adtani. Through\u00adout the book, he assumes that any of the Armor\u00adi\u00adcan tribes are close to, part of, or iden\u00adti\u00adcal to the Basque-relat\u00aded Aqui\u00adtani. He nev\u00ader ques\u00adtions this iden\u00adti\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion of the Picts. So I took all the enig\u00admat\u00adic place names in Scot\u00adland that he men\u00adtions, and looked for resem\u00adblances to Basque place-name ele\u00adments. I found nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

I then cre\u00adat\u00aded a list of key topo\u00adgraph\u00adi\u00adcal name ele\u00adments \u2014 moun\u00adtain, hill, riv\u00ader, sea, lake, white, black, high, low, for\u00adest, fort, rock, etc\u2026 the sort of things that invari\u00adably shows up in the names of per\u00adma\u00adnent fea\u00adtures of land\u00adscapes, and hang on through many pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion and lan\u00adguage changes. I looked up all the Basque (and, where pos\u00adsi\u00adble, Aqui\u00adtan\u00adian) ver\u00adsions of these words. I took each one of these and searched through a mas\u00adsive data\u00adbase of place names in Scot\u00adland. I found only one case of a resem\u00adblance. One hill in south\u00adern Scot\u00adland sound\u00aded like it could be relat\u00aded to a pro\u00adto-Basque word ele\u00adment that means \u201chill\u201d. How\u00adev\u00ader, there was an equal\u00adly valid Indo-Euro\u00adpean expla\u00adna\u00adtion for this one case. Now, Scot\u00adland is sup\u00adpos\u00aded\u00adly filled with Pic\u00adtish and\/or pre-Indo-Euro\u00adpean name ele\u00adments. If the Scot\u00adtish non-IE lay\u00ader was direct\u00adly relat\u00aded to the Aqui\u00adtani \/Basque lan\u00adguages, then numer\u00adous resem\u00adblances should have popped up in this exer\u00adcise. They did\u00adn\u2019t. Many very com\u00admon name com\u00adpo\u00adnents in Scot\u00adland have been clear\u00adly iden\u00adti\u00adfied as of Pic\u00adtish ori\u00adgin. \u201cAber-\u201d, \u201cLhan-\u201d, \u201cPit-\u201d or \u201cFin-\u201d indi\u00adcate regions inhab\u00adit\u00aded by Picts in the past (for exam\u00adple: Aberdeen, Lhan\u00adbryde, Pitmed\u00adden, Pit\u00adto\u00addrie, Find\u00adochty, etc). I looked for any sign of these ele\u00adments in Basque, or in the sur\u00adviv\u00ading Aqui\u00adtan\u00adian vocab\u00adu\u00adlary. I also tried all of the names in the Pic\u00adtish King List. Noth\u00ading. Zip. Nada. These Pic\u00adtish terms don\u2019t even look remote\u00adly con\u00adnect\u00aded to any\u00adthing Basque or Aqui\u00adtan\u00adian. For that mat\u00adter, the ele\u00adment \u201cAlb\u201d or \u201cAlba\u201d, which is the cor\u00adner\u00adstone of Mowat\u2019s pan-pre-IE uni\u00adverse, does\u00adn\u2019t show up any\u00adwhere in Basque except in a word mean\u00ading \u201cheat\u201d (as in an ani\u00admal being in heat, an unlike\u00adly com\u00adpo\u00adnent of a uni\u00adver\u00adsal eth\u00adnic or land\u00adscape term).<\/span><\/p>\n

What Mowat does\u00adn\u2019t men\u00adtion is that most schol\u00adars don\u2019t believe that the Picts were non-IE speak\u00aders. Most of the Pic\u00adtish names can be fair\u00adly eas\u00adi\u00adly con\u00adnect\u00aded to the Bry\u00adthon\u00adic, or \u201cP\u2011Celtic\u201d branch of Celtic Lan\u00adguages. There are a minor\u00adi\u00adty of names that may be pre-IE. Those names could eas\u00adi\u00adly be there sim\u00adply because they pre\u00addate the arrival of the Picts. It is pos\u00adsi\u00adble that the Picts are some\u00adhow con\u00adnect\u00aded to the Armor\u00adi\u00adcan tribe of Pic\u00adtones, but the Pic\u00adtones were in mod\u00adern Poitou, nor Armor\u00adi\u00adca or Aquitaine, and most ancient writ\u00aders firm\u00adly iden\u00adti\u00adfy them as a Celtic tribe. The cen\u00adter of their trib\u00adal ter\u00adri\u00adto\u00adry was well inland, and not a coastal city of intre\u00adpid sailors.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is not absolute\u00adly essen\u00adtial for Mowat\u2019s mys\u00adte\u00adri\u00adous vis\u00adi\u00adtors to the Cana\u00addi\u00adan Arc\u00adtic to have been non-Indo-Euro\u00adpean speak\u00aders, or for them to have been relat\u00aded to Picts, Pic\u00adtones, Armor\u00adi\u00adcans, or Basques. It is sim\u00adply part of the romance he builds, and I find it rather sus\u00adpi\u00adcious that he made so lit\u00adtle effort to exam\u00adine the lin\u00adguis\u00adtic data behind it.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is Far\u00adley Mowat\u2019s odd book about a pos\u00adsi\u00adble pre-viking Euro\u00adpean pres\u00adence in the Cana\u00addi\u00adan Arc\u00adtic. Mowat is very care\u00adful to warn the read\u00ader that he is engag\u00ading in a kind of spec\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtive archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy. He even inter\u00adspers\u00ades the text with little \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bu-reading-2006"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9834,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/9834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}