Navigation in the early medieval period seems at first glance to have been a primitive matter, but in fact steering by the stars, if not a science at the time, was no matter of chance. The skill of medieval navigators is apparent in drawings of the heavens that indicate the relative position of major constellations (which have not changed in thousands of years). And just as the heavens have remained constant, there have been few changes in oceans. Navigation in the medieval period has many points of connection to navigation in our own world. For example, the routes of ferries between England, Ireland, and the Continent today follow the same routes as the journeys we trace in this module. (You can obtain maps showing these routes from the British Consulate in Chicago.)
Navigation is especially timely in the 1990's, which saw, in 1992, the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Columbus's journey to the "New World." One on-going controversy regarding the Columbian voyages relates directly to the period we study in SEAFARER, and that is the early explorations of the Norsemen (Northmen), whose settlements in Newfoundland predate the voyages of Columbus by hundreds of years. Erik the Red colonized Greenland in 986 A.D., for example. If you want to pursue this controversy, you should consult the work Helge Ingstad, "The Discovery of a Norse Settlement in America" in Vikings in the West, Ed. Eleanor Guralnick (Chicago: Archaeological Institute of America, 1982).
Navigation opens up to some painful but important political issues. One is the idea of the "discovery" of new lands. Can we really say that the Norse sailors "discovered" Greenland or that Columbus "discovered" a new world? What about the people already living in these lands? For some stimulating and provocative discussion, see Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).
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