Secrets of the Viking Navigators: How the Vikings Used their Amazing Sunstones and Other Techniques to Cross the Open Ocean

Author: Leif K. Karlsen
ISBN 9780914025610
Paperback, 208 pages, 6" x 9"
Starpath Publications

Most navigators have heard of Viking sunstones, but few realize they are more than legend. Leif Karlsen has brought them to life. He shows us how they work—now, and a thousand years ago—and what it was that led the Viking navigators to develop this unique tool for finding the direction to the sun, even when the sun is obscured by clouds or fog.

Also includes other techniques including explanation of how techiques from our Emergency Navigation book might likely have been used in Viking times.

Starpath School of Navigation is proud to have taken a small part in the research used in this book, and to have had the pleasure of the author's friendship for many years. A remembrance of the author.

An excellent web page about Viking Navigation, sun stones and related gems, and this book in particular by Elise Skalwold, Gemological Curator, Cornell University. See also her technical note on how the crystals work.

The historical and scientific significance of Leif's work and this book in particular is described in a short article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.