Where did Haakon get all that survival knowledge?

Just noticed something as an adult that never hit me when I watched this as a kid. How did Haakon already know how to start a fire with flint, build traps, etc. when he got to the island? His knowledge at that point would have been in farming and sailing, but not survival. Was it from the book that Mary gives him? Seems like that would be the gimmick by which he gains all that knowledge, as in other films like The Edge. But he just keeps reading that same quote about Xanadu over and over again, lol!