Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
far eastern Asia. Its location would be included on almost all maps in the Western world for hundreds of
years to come. According to Isidore, there was only one problem in reaching paradise. God, as Genesis
clearly stated, had closed off all approach to Eden with a swordlike flame.
The search for Eden powered myths and legends that stayed alive for centuries. One of these was the
story of St. Brendan (circa 484-578), a sixth-century Irish monk who supposedly “discovered” America
nine hundred years before Columbus sailed. Inspired by a dream, Brendan set out to find paradise. With a
crew of sixty, he spent five years at sea, encountering strange beasts, including birds who told the saint that
they were fallen angels. And on a lonely rock in the midst of the ocean, Brendan found the solitary figure
of Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ. Finally, Brendan reached a beautiful island where he encountered
a holy man and a dead giant who came to life. This story, told as a combination of medieval legend and
fact, was kept alive for hundreds of years during which time Brendan's “Promised Land of the Saints”
was clearly marked on maps, including some that placed Brendan's paradise in the vicinity of where North
America was later discovered by European adventurers.
If Eden was truly in the East, as most men believed, the area held another place far more real and per-
haps even more meaningful for the medieval European Christian. In declaring the First Crusade in 1095 to
recapture the Holy Lands from the grasp of Islam, Pope Urban II reportedly said, “Jerusalem is the navel
of the world, a land which is more fruitful than any other, a land which is like another paradise of delights.”
The First Crusade, one in a series of wars launched to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims, succeeded in
capturing Jerusalem in July 1099. But that was pretty much the end of the crusaders' success. A short-lived
one it was at that, as Jerusalem was retaken by Saladin in 1187 (See Chapter 4, “World Battlefields That
Shaped History,” p. 184.) But the hopes of the European Christians were bolstered by word of a powerful
ally against the Islamic “hordes.” Around the time of the First Crusade, reports began to circulate of a great
Christian king in the East called Presbyter or “Prester” John. Supposedly descended from the three kings
of the Bethlehem story, Prester John had supposedly defeated the Persians in an epic battle and was head-
ing west to aid the crusaders. A few years later, a letter from this extraordinary eastern general-king came
forth. A complete fabrication, it nonetheless fed hopes that Prester John, like an avenging angel, would
come galloping out of the East to join forces with the European Christians in their quest to recapture the
Holy Land. The story of Prester John, like that of St. Brendan and other medieval myths, had a great shelf
life. Two hundred years later, Marco Polo even claimed that Prester John had once existed but was killed
in a great battle with Genghis Khan.
Despite its hopelessness, all this searching about for Prester John and warring to take Jerusalem had its
practical effects. Hunkered down in isolation since the fall of Rome and cowering under the impact of the
plague that struck Europe in the mid-fourteenth century, Europeans were finally getting out and seeing the
world. Many of their ideas remained stuck in a murky combination of faith and magic, but the door had
opened and allowed a crack of light from the East to shine through.
And the European quest to locate Eden remained real, right up to the time of Christopher Columbus,
who was convinced on his third voyage in 1498 that he had found paradise. His description of the earth
as pear-shaped came at a time when he reached the mouth of the Orinoco River (in modern Venezuela).
Columbus, possibly the son of a Jewish father, was an intensely pious man who took scripture seriously.
He believed that this rush of fresh water came from the four biblical rivers of paradise, and that the expanse
of land he saw was the earthly location of Eden. He added to his log, “I am convinced that it is the spot of
the earthly paradise whither no one can go but by God's permission.”
Who Invented the Compass?
