Hi,
Just wanted to ask, how is Vinland handled in Ars Magica? According to Art & Academe, it's impossible to travel across the Atlantic, but by 1001 AD, Vikings had already settled the North-Eastern Coast of America. The explorer, Leif Erikson, named the land Vinland (translatet Land of Wine).
In Ars Magica, did they really find America? Or something else? How does this fit with the Mythic Paradigm?
Cheers,
Eirik
As Vinland is even described by Adam of Bremen in the Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church) -Chapter 38 mentions Vinland- completed in 1075/1076, Characters should be able to travel there using the northern road. However, following a narration they might end up in Faery.
Concerning AA we agreed that in our Saga mundane things work as we know them in modern times BUT any magic emulates the laws given in AA as magi think this is the truce. Applying this on your question, the answer would be: One can travell to Vinland by boat but LoH does not work neither to get there nor to get back from it.
Slight correction here; A&A does not make it impossible to cross the Atlantic. It makes the Meridian a dangerous thing to cross, but not impossible. There is also a suggestion that crossing the equator and/or meridian might take you into the earthly locale of one of the sublunar realms, but this is not set in stone.
Mark
So what would Vinland be like in Ars Magica? Say someone got there (and Leif did), what would be a good way to make it mythic? Maybe it's a Faerie Regio or even Arcadia itself?
Using RoP: Faerie (I finally got it, yay!) could the journey to Vinland be the basis of an Elysium adventure, maybe? Or isn't it famous enough?
Any suggestions 
Eirik
It doesn't have to be famous to be an Elysian path, just a story. You might find that the more famous a story, the harder it is to change.
The original journey to Vinland sounds like an adventure into Arcadia, although perhaps edited to remove some of the more fantastical elements (see equivalent journeys to 'India' / Prester John / de Mandeville, or even some of the Norse romances to Russia or Finland like Arrow-Odd's Saga).
Maybe Leif did not actually cross the Meridian, but instead it acted like a Threshold (the mother of all Thresholds!) and the ship slipped into the Faerie Realm. I would have imagined, given Leif's expectations, to have heard more mythological elements in his story if he had gone to Faerie however.
Leif comes back from Vinland, tells his story, which then allows others to make the same trip; but this time going to Elysium rather than Arcadia. Alternatively, if you decide that the antichthonal region is the Faerie Realm, perhaps everyone going there goes to Arcadia and has an adventure of their own.
Mark