Secrets of the Viking Navigators

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 or just below the horizon.


He also includes other techniques including explanation of how techniques from the Starpath Emergency Navigation textbook might likely have been used in Viking times.


Leif Karlsen traveled worldwide to museums and other institutes demonstrating the sunstone;  he also navigated Viking replica ships along traditional Viking routes using the sunstone underway.


The first part of this book is a fictional account of a hypothetical voyage and its navigation based on the author’s extensive study of the Sagas, followed by the explanation of his modern discoveries of the likely method of the sunstone’s use and related navigational matters.


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.