Homer's Odyssey or Odysseus Odyssey?

Part 1

Photo by Johannes Plenio

I am going to tell you a story.

What a crappy opening line is that. And no, I am not going to tell you a story. I am going to tell you “about” a story. And it ’s not even my story. It’s a story that was written down by a Greek called Homer, who according to Wikipedia, assumingly should have lived approximately 2800 years ago. You know! Nobody actually knows anything for sure when it comes to this story, except that everybody seems to know that everybody else’s opinion about it is wrong.

This Homer produced two books that still exists.

The first is "The Iliad" that describes a big war. "The War of Troy". This war is described quite realistically. It has very many details that could have happened in an actual war.

The second book is "The Odyssey". The Odyssey describes a voyage and follows one of the warlords' journeys back home after the war.

Homer

This story is full of mythical creatures, monsters, and gods, like a big fairytale. But it also contains names of places that are known from the Mediterranian. It also describes natural phenomenon and landscapes that actually exists around the world. This shows us that the creator of the story was not a bookworm sitting on his ass reading books, but someone that actually had been travelling. But not necessarily in the Mediterranian. Then there is also woven in small clues in the story. Clues that is connected to astrology.

The accepted "truth" builds on a theory that's much credited to Heinrich Schliemann. He claimed that the city of Troy was situated in Turkey on a place today known as Hisarlik. The Odyssey is believed to have been taking place around the Mediterranean.

It is believed that "The war of Troy" took place approximately 200 years before Homer wrote down the story. At this time there was a conflict in the region for the control of the waterways and trading-routes across the Mediterranean.

The Northern Theories

But there are other traditions telling a different and a much older story. One of these theories builds upon the work of Theophile Cailleux who discovered ancient war-dykes matching the description of the war-dykes described in the deference of Troy, thus war-dykes are located outside Cambridge in England. Cailleux published his findings one year before Heinrich Schliemann published his theory. This work by Cailleux is followed up by Iman Wilkens in he's book "Where Troy Ones Stood".

Then you have a second theory by Felice Vinci, an Italian nuclear engineer who became interested in the Odyssey and who wanted to document Odysseus traveling-route. He came to the conclusion that no sailor would be sailing the route described in the Odyssey. Passing the same landscape back and forth several times before getting to the destination did not make any sense to him. The landscape, the places did not fit any logical travelling route. He then argued that the names described might have been imported by waves of immigrants. Immigrants who also might have brought with them the story that Homer then wrote down. Felice places Troy in Finland and the Odyssey taking place from the Faroe Islands and along the Norwegian Coast.

Felice Vinci has published his theory in the book: The Baltic Origins of Homer’s Epic Tales

Then You have Morten Alexander Joramo, a Norwegian astrologist that combines Felice Vinci's theory with Iman Wilkens and Theophile Cailleux's Troy in England. He moves Vinci's Trinacria from the island Mosken in Lofoten to Trenyken, an island right outside my doorsteps. He also uses his knowledge in astrology to date the events to sometime before 2500 BC. but not as old as 3000 BC.

Morten Alexander Joramo has made two books about this: The Homer Code and The Lost Civilization of the North.

Then I have added my own twist to the story with a new location to the island Ogygia wich Felice and Morten places at Stora Dimun at the Faroe Islands. I believe the correct location would be at The Orkney Islands.

This you can read more about in my blog post about Ogygia or in my little eBook "Homer's small Odys-se(y)crets".

I use to lecture about this subjects during my guided boat trips. Then one day one of my passengers told me after finishing my lecture that he was a professor studying urban legends in folklore. He also said that "this is only all B.S. But it was a good story thou". My answer to this is "that a clock that has stopped is correct twice a day, and then its completely correct". Saying that the Trinacria described in the Odyssey is Sicily because it looks like a triangle on the map is just as much B.S. to me. Sailors more than three thousand years ago did not have any maps to look at. So why should they then call Sicily for Trinacria?

I won't say that this Northern Theory is "the full truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth". It is an alternative truth. It still has holes and gaps that need more documentation. But it is making more and more sense to me compered to the accepted Mediterranean theory.

So if you want to decide for yourself what you should believe to be the truth, or just want to read a good story, then check out my other blog posts, or sign up for my newsletters. I also would appreciate if you do some research and fills in some of the gaps in the story in the comment field below.

What do you think is the trough behind the story?