READERS COMMENTS on
FROZEN TRAIL to MERICA
Sept 2006,
Review by Jonathan Reynolds Cronin,
author of Yazoo, Mingo
In a bold tour de force of historical fiction, author Myron Paine leads the reader into the neglected area of early Nordic influence on people and places in Northeast America Working on the premise that fourteenth century problems of climate (global cooling) and political and ideological pressure drove some populations of Greenland across frozen wasteland to points as far south as the Canadian and United States Midwest and down to the Atlantic coast, Paine thru the introduction of likely characters ably demonstrates the trials and tribulations of the wanderers. The author fortifies his thesis with archeological evidence and historical references. A good read.
June 18, 2006
Hal Sherman
Englewood, Ohio
I read your book and had always felt the Walam Olum to be a true historical document and your story erases all my doubts. I had painted a scene depicting Dr. Ward receiving the painted sticks from the old Delaware record keeper. I have attached a photo of same.
June 8 2006
Larry Stroud,
Associate Editor, Batesville AR.
Larry Stroud is the associate editor of the Batesville Daily Guard, Batesville AR. He has a prolific listing, twenty pages long, of articles, opinions, and editorials. He can be reached at larrydstroud@yahoo.com.
His editorial, Names found to be Norse (1/1/04), was quickly spotted on the internet by Frode Omdahl, my Norwegian Collaborator. One thing led to another. Larry; an avid Ancient America reader, became the first person with extensive ancient American knowledge to read the Frozen Trail to Merica in final form. His comments follow:
Where did the vanished Greenlanders go?
The Delaware Indians'Walam Olum (picture sticks designed to help the holder remember a historical story) tells the tale.Some points to consider:
1. The coldest years of the Little Ice Age were from about 1285 to 1360, giving credence to Myron Paine's scenario in Frozen Trail to Merica.
2. The Greenlanders vanished between 1340-1410, fitting the time frame for Davis Strait to have frozen over during those coldest years.
3. Ten American tribes, the Delaware, Shawnee, Nanticoke, Conoy, Mahican, Cree, Ojibwa, Abenakis, Wapanaog, and Cheyenne all have traditions (oral histories) of their ancestors coming to Northeast America by crossing over a frozen, salty sea in the East.
4.The Delaware's form of history written in pictographs (the Walam Olum, with a memory versedesignated for each pictograph) includes the following:
Those of the north agreed
Those of the east agreed,
Over the waters
Over the frozen sea
They went to enjoy it (the new land)
On the wonderful slippery water
On the stone hard water, all went
Over the great tidal sea
On the puckered pack ice
I tell you it was a big mob
In the darkness,All in the darkness
To Akomen to the (west) In the darkness,
they walk and walk, All of them
Does this not sound like a migration over the frozen sea?
5. The Indian tribes of the northeast have many words that obviously stem from Old Norse words (See Reider T. Sherwin's volumes, "The Viking and the Red Man"), including many words with which we are familiar today.
Congratulations, Myron Paine! This must be how ithappened!
July 23, 2004
Peeples, John, Retired Engineer
It really is a very good story and I did enjoy reading it.
SUMMER 2003
Walls, Sandy and Sam,
avid historical fiction readers
I enjoyed your book. I feel I learned a lot about Greenland. It is better than a lot of books I have read. Sam liked it also.
May 11, 2003
Schoellner, Joan.
Editor, French Literature, Lexington, MA
" The foreword is very nice. I am impressed with the tremendous amount of research you have done! É Once I got into the story, I enjoyed reading it,
"I find the whole theory intriguing, and I had never heard about the Walam Olum before. Your story line, with the interspersing of the verses and the pictograms is very effective in conveying an extremely likely scenario.
"You write well. Your material is well researched and interest. The story line is good.
"Final thought. When you have finished this project, I bet in a simplified short version—it could make a good children's story.
Jan 22, 2003
Ompdahl, Frode,
Journalist, Norway
"This is good! É I can't wait to get the rest [of the chapters]. Éthe pieces fell in place and things just made sense. This is good!
"I am looking forward to get the whole book and translate it, and I promise you, no publisher in Norway will rest until at least one of them agrees to publish you story! You're a great writer!"
These comments were written after Frode had read three chapters by Jan. 22, 2003. Frode did translate the entire Novel in Norwegian. (This action may be one of those rare occurrences, where a book was mostly translated before it is completely written.) In the timely translation process, Frode became a collaborator.
FALL 2002
MORIGUCHI, Richard, Retired,
Japanese-American, Pleasant Hill, CA
'I think you did one heck of a job in preparing your manuscript. The plot was well conceived. I think you did a very good job of setting up the reader for the final push at the end. You described so many of the different situations as if you were there and reported what you saw and heard.
"Your research into the theory of the ice bridge is well analyzed. Also your logical conclusions are well placed."
