Canada has been celebrating the discovery of Captain Sir John Franklin's ill-fated ship, the Erebus, since early September. Along with the Terror, captained by Francis Crozier, this ship carried Franklin and his crew on their fatal quest for the Northwest Passage, which lasted three years (1845-1848). For most of that time, Franklin was stranded, a …
Tag: arctic
Unicorn Horns: A Viking Con Job?
What if Vikings, whose settlements stretched across the northern medieval world, used legends of unicorns to swindle the kings of Europe out of their coffers, all the while skimping out on giving the proto-Inuits their fair share of the profits? I would like to informally propose that such a scheme was happening throughout much of …
King Arthur Conqueror of the Arctic? Historical Fantasy and Early British Imperialism
John Dee was Queen Elizabeth I's court astrologer, mathematician, and geographer--and he might have become the first lord of the North American territory we now call Canada. Dee is known as a "Renaissance man" for the breadth of his knowledge and for his tendency towards the occult. On a trip to the Continent, he supposedly …
“Ice Breaker”
Last Monday, the Fall edition of the McGill student literary journal STEPS was published, with my poem in it! . It's a reflection on arctic blizzards and hallucination--seeing things in randomness when there's no one else around to contradict you. . Bonus marks: Can you spot the allusions to Frankenstein and Don Quixote? If you …
Matthew Rettino 