The World is Round

Dear Zanzibar,

Pray forgive this intrusion into your studies, but my extensive time at sea has had such a profound impact on my world view that I must needs unload the burden of these startling discoveries lest my heart burst from my chest in anxious wonder! You, being from a part of the world so alien to us Northerners that even the stars pattern themselves in homage to gods unknown to us - you, so far from home that your soul must be overwhelmed with longing - you, who speak of the wondrous herbal treasures and strange, spicy foods of your homeland ... well, I just knew you'd be interested in what I had to say.

I will not quibble with you, Zanzibar, but I shall be as direct and forthcoming as you have always known me to be, and all I ask is that you consider my plan in all its daring and audacity and vision.

For the world is round, Zanzibar, round! It is a great ball that hangs in the heavens, and so certain I am of my hypothesis that I am willing to embark on the greatest of voyages to prove it, and what is more, I shall want to take you with me!

Yes, Zanzibar, you understand the implications, don't you? I say again that the world is round and though you traveled over mountains and desert and gods know what to reach our frosted lands, I have every reason to believe that your return could be a direct dash across the Western sea, a voyage of mere weeks instead of months! No Egyptians or Romans or Greeks to quibble with over safe passage, no highway robbers to protect yourself against, no silk road to traverse in turtle-paced caravans, none of these! No, your homeland lies SouthWest, my good man. Like an arrow, we shall draw from the port of Bordeaux and loose ourselves into the sea, straight and sure and swift to your home, making landfall on your shores with no stops in between.

I reckon the circumference of this great ball on which we live and die to be some 6000 leagues, and our journey no more than 1/4 of this distance, perhaps 4500 miles as the crow flies or the Aelfbane sales. Though a Teleport can land you on your home soil in the blink of an eye, only the mundane arts of modern travel could open our two lands to the most profitable and profound of trade routes! We shall render the Silk Road obsolete and open a dialogue between East and West that shall forever tilt the balance of power in our favour! We will be lords among lords, kings of the mercantile world! No challenge will ever be beyond our power again! And we must do it quickly, before some filthy Norse dog, filled with low cunning and malice as they ever are, stumbles upon my discovery through no more effort than sheer luck!

Your safe passage would come at the lowest of costs - to act as ambassador to your great merchants and find equitable and profitable trade opportunities for our two lands. With determined effort, we could begin this voyage no later than next Spring! Your home is just beyond the sunset, Zanzibar! Do you wish to be the first to circle the world? I eagerly await your response.

Yours in Earnest
Captain Fjord

dictated to and scribed by his humble servant Bobbers on June 23, In the 8th year of our Independence.