Here is the story about how the stockfish export to Italy from the outermost island up north started in the 15th century (read my last two posts). The RIB driver who took us out in the waves, told the story:
In 1432, an Italian nobleman, merchant and sea captain was on the way from Crete to Amsterdam in his trade ship. In the Atlantic ocean, they lost the course in a bad storm. The ship got damaged and the crew had to go in the lifeboats.
Weeks later, the lifeboat with the captain drifted in between the skerries in the archipelago north of the Arctic circle. They stranded on a small uninhabited island. Two weeks later, local fishermen in small boats found them, after observing the smoke from the campfire.
The fishermen brought the captain and the remnants of his crew to their village nearby. The captain stayed for four months, to recover from his strenuous voyage. The local priest served as translator (this was before the reformation, and the Bible was in Latin). He befriended the locals, and learnt to eat their stockfish.
When the captain returned to Venice, he brought some stockfish with him. The Venetians liked the fish, and a trade route was quickly established, to ship fish to Venice from the island in the north. This story was transmitted orally from generation to generation, but on the mainland they believed it was just a legend. The captain had, however, written down his own version. His story had been forgotten, but in 1910 the manuscript was found in the Vatican library. The captains manuscript confirmed the oral transmittal.
Still today the entire stockfish production on the island goes to Italy.
How wonderful that the story was written down and generations later, it comes to light.
ReplyDeleteI love the tradition of storytelling and you do it so well on your blog.
ReplyDeleteMaybe like Alice's Restaurant you could add
"photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us." And that would make it complete..Sorry I just happen to be listening to this song...LOL!
Cool story. Fun to hear legend confirmed as real. And one has to wonder what secrets are stored in the Vatican library, for better or worse. There are section off limits to just about everyone but a few select people. Hmmmm... wonder if sections of some history books would need to be rewritten?
ReplyDeleteStephen Tremp
It's always fun to hear the legends and stories that the locals tell. The problem with oral transmittal is that the story often changes a little bit for each generation, and ends up with something quite unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteIt's really cool in this case, that the story that was told by the locals was confirmed by an independently written manuscript four centuries later.
If you wanna know more about this facinating island that I visited last week, follow this link >:)
There is an Award which you may or may not want to display waiting for you on my blog. It was given in all sincerity.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot, Reyna. I'm honored. Jumping over to your site to check it out >:)
ReplyDeleteFantastic story! There must be a story in there somewhere...
ReplyDeleteJudy