Kat,
Did you actually read "Searching for Welsh Indians" by Andrew Prescott? Only the first 2 pages had anything to do with the Madoc myth and the last 24 pages started rambling about a masonic myth connected to the Stewart Kings. At the mention of masons my eyes glazed over and I just scanned through the last to see if he ever got back to the supposed subject of the paper.

It seems that several British historians have raised very serious questions as to whether Prince Madoc ever existed, let alone left Wales with 10 ship loads of colonists bound for the Americas in 1170AD. It may well be that Madoc is nothing more than a myth but that still does not explain the notation on Pineda's 1513 map "Tierra de los Gales".

I have been wondering if in the period of 1000-1500AD if the language spoken by the Irish and the Welsh would have been similar or at least close enough that a Spaniard would have referred to either as "Gales".

Any language experts watching this thread?

The reason I bring this up is the mention in two of the Norse Sagas of an Icelander named Ari Marson found living in a colony of "Irish speakers" somewhere on the North American coast sometime shortly after 1000AD.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2005 09:07PM by AWSX.