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"Then they had a comfortable lifestyle."
"Hudson found no sign of starvation or malnutrition among the Indians," Wednesday answered. Then he smiled slightly. "Interestingly, none of the early explorers ever reported seeing any indication of scalps, prisoners or slaves. We must assume such repugnant practices were introduced by foreigners from across the sea."
Pitt clasped his hands thoughtfully. "Did any of the early explorers mention any sign of previous contact with Europeans?"
"A few things were noted by Hudson and others. One was that there was no astonishment among the Indians, as you might expect at seeing strange vessels and white-skinned men with blond or red hair for the first time. One crewman of Verrazano's told of Indians wearing iron adornments that looked like old rusty knife blades. Another claimed he saw an iron axe hanging on the wall of an Indian house.
There was also a rumor of a crewman finding a concave iron vessel used as a bowl."
"A Viking helmet," Giordino mused.
Wednesday smiled patiently and continued. "It wasn't until the Dutch began to settle the valley by building a fort near present-day Albany in 1613, and they began to learn the tribal languages, that the legends of the past began to emerge."
"What did the legends reveal?"
"It's difficult to separate myth from fact," replied Wednesday. "The tales passed down through the centuries by spoken word were very vague, of course, with no evidence to support them. One that surfaced told of wild, bearded men with white skin and hard heads that gleamed in the sun, who arrived and built a settlement in the valley. When some went away for a long time-"
"Magnus Sigvatson and his hundred men who set off to explore the west," Kelly interrupted.
"Yes, I'm familiar with the rune stones your father discovered and their translations," said Wednesday, unruffled. "The story goes on to say that when the Indians, who saw no crime in theft, began stealing and slaughtering livestock that had been carried across the sea in the newcomers' boats, there was retaliation. The wild men with hair on the face, as they were called, retrieved the livestock and cut off the hands of the thieves. Unfortunately, one of the thieves was a local chief's son. The angered chief gathered other tribes in the valley. One tribe was the Munsee Lenape, or Delaware, who were culturally related to the Algonkian. The combined forces attacked the foreigners' settlement and destroyed it, slaughtering them all. One version suggests that a few of the women and children were carried off as slaves, but that practice did not come in until much later."
"It must have been a shock for Magnus and his men to return and find their friends and families dead."
Wednesday nodded. "We can only speculate. But now it was their turn. The legend describes a great battle with the wild men with shiny heads, who killed more than a thousand Indians before dying to the last man."
"Not a pretty story," murmured Kelly.
Wednesday held up his hands in an absent gesture. "Who can say whether it's true or not?"
"Seems odd that no trace of the settlement has been discovered," observed Pitt.
"The legend goes on to say the Indians, understandably in a crazed wrath, destroyed and burned every last vestige of the newcomers' settlement, leaving nothing standing aboveground for later archaeologists to study."
"Was there ever a reference to a cave?"
"The only mention I'm aware of is on one of the rune stones Dr. Egan found."
Pitt looked at Wednesday, saying nothing and waiting in expectation.
Wednesday took the clue. "There were, however, a few unexplained circumstances. For example, a significant transition occurred in the Hudson Valley beginning about 1000 A.D. The inhabitants suddenly discovered agriculture and began to grow their own vegetables. Farming became a source of sustenance, along with hunting, fishing and gathering. About this same time, they began to fortify their villages with rock and vertical logs reinforced with earth embankments. They also constructed oval longhouses with sleeping platforms set in the walls, something they had never done in earlier times."
"So what you are suggesting is that the Vikings showed them how to farm crops and build sturdy houses. And, after the great battle, the Indians began throwing up stockades for defense in case of another mass attack by foreigners."
"I'm a realist, Mr. Pitt," said Wednesday. "I'm not suggesting anything. What I've told you is ancient hearsay and supposition. Until absolute proof is found that goes beyond the inscriptions on the rune stones, whose authenticity is in doubt by most archaeologists, we can only accept the stories as legends and myths, nothing more."
"I believe my father found evidence of a Viking settlement," said Kelly quietly. "But he died before revealing his research, and we cannot find his notes or journals."
"I sincerely hope you're successful," said Wednesday honestly. "I would like nothing better than to believe the Hudson Valley was visited and settled six hundred years earlier than the Spanish and Dutch. It might be fun to rewrite the history books."
Pitt rose, leaned across the desk and shook Dr. Wednesday's hand. "Thank you, Doctor. We're grateful for your time."
"Not at all, I enjoyed it." He smiled at Kelly. "Please let me know if you turn up anything."
"There is one more question."
"Yes?"
"Did any other Viking artifacts ever turn up besides those mentioned by the early explorers?"
