QUESTIONABLE MYTHS
"Since the Algonquin Indians were trading with the Norse Vinlanders for four centuries and more before Columbus this story possibly has some echoes of Norse mythology." (Burland, 1985, p.58)
Comment: Burland admitted rhat the Algonquin myth is similar to the Norse myth. He understood that cultural transfer takes time, so he mentioned "four and more centuries" of trading between the Algonquin and the Norse. Thus his need to explain the similarity of the myth forced him to the outer limits of conventional wisdom about trading between Algonquins and Norse. Conventional wisdom is that the Vikings, if they came at all, left America in c1015, never to return.
In 1985 no educated person risked their reputation to write that the Algonquins were descended from Norse.
