The spae-woman,who was used for interpreting the Runes,calling up the spirits of the dead,and other assorted supernatural tasks.
She seems,however, to be of a different ethnic stock than the other vikings,both male and female.The dark lank hair, sallow complection,oily quality,and intense speech with a lilting accent.Lapp,Mongol,Eskimo?
Does anyone have anythought regarding this?
In Edison Marshall's novel that the movie is based on, she's a Laplander taken as a slave by the Vikings.
Sandpiper isn't a black man in the novel, nor does he appear so early in the story, but he is the one who provides the fish compass.
They did have a compass and not a magnetic one! They had a stick with a small wooden disc set near the top, a short section of the stick projected through it using the shadow cast by the projection they drew on the upper surface of the disc a line which followed the movement of the top of the shadow this gave a fixed sailing position [I not sure how it worked because I saw the program it was on years ago]Called a sun compass check out http://www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/articles/viking.html
The box, you opened it we came.
That 'compass' would obviously not work at night or in fog.
But it's just a movie, and much less historically convincing than the novel it's loosely based on, which itself took a fair few liberties with history.
In the book, they had a magnetic lode-stone compass.
dph
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