"Weird Steel Pasties"

From Dave "Three Percent Nordic" Brigham:

"Cold up there in that little skirt," one friend commented when I posted the photo below on Facebook a few months ago. "Brrr."

So who is this lady memorialized in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, along the Commonwealth Mall?

Wait, is that a Viking ship at the front of the monument? That's no lady...that's Leif Erikson!

"With that mini skirt, chainmail, and Wagner brassiere, more like Leif Eriksdottir!" commented another friend on Facebook, using the feminine form of Iceland surnames. "Leif Erikson was a Viking," said a third. "Why is he wearing a dress and those weird steel pasties?"

Good question. Check this short blog post to see how another sculptor imagined Leif looked (he was born in 980 A.D. so there are no photos to work from....).

This statue seems out of place not only aesthetically but geographically. Born in Iceland, Erikson (also spelled Eriksson or Ericson) is credited by some as being the first European to reach the New World, nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus. The crux of Leif Erikson’s fame is "the European discovery of the lands the Norse called Vínland (‘Wine Land’), on the eastern shores of North America - a landmass which was of course already inhabited," according to this Ancient History Encyclopedia article. But Erikson and his crew didn't sail into Boston Harbor; they landed in modern-day Canada.

So why was a statue -- one that makes the bold Viking man look like a bold Viking lady, perhaps -- placed in one of Boston's toniest neighborhoods more than 130 years ago?

The extremely talented artist, Anne Whitney, dedicated this monument in 1887. Born in Watertown, Mass., in 1821, she was quite progressive for her time. "She made works that explored her liberal views regarding abolition, women's rights, and other socials issues," per Wikipedia. "Many prominent and historical men and women are depicted in her sculptures, like Harriet Beecher Stowe. She portrayed women who lived ground-breaking lives as suffragists, professional artists, and non-traditional positions for women at the time."

Whitney had what was called a "Boston marriage," a term "for a long-term relationship between upper-class, educated women, which was generally accepted within the community," says Wikipedia. Perhaps this is why she sculpted Erikson with feminine qualities? Not likely. Her works include plenty of other male figures, who look like men (check her Wikipedia profile, and scroll down to "Monuments"). Her Erikson sculpture was commissioned by Eben Horsford, a professor and scientist known for reformulating baking powder. He is also known, most important to our interests, as a leading proponent of Viking exploration of North America, including the Greater Boston area.

I took photos and wrote about the Norumbega Tower he had built in the late 19th century in Weston, Mass. (see January 5, 2012, "Norumbega Point," from back in the early days of the blog when I sucked at writing headlines). It is at this spot, according to Horsford, where was located Norumbega, a Viking fort and city. As Wikipedia says, Horsford's "work received little support from mainstream historians and archeologists at the time, and even less today."

Maybe Ms. Whitney was making a statement with a feminine-looking statue of such a renowned macho man? I don't know.

For more supposed Viking-related history in New England, check out this 2013 Boston Globe article, which expands on Horsford's beliefs and inspirations for his theories, and discusses a tower in Newport, Rhode Island.