Apparently I got my wish about a human who knows some music, and Jane's skill with art and painting has been very useful. Many would take that as a reason to thank the local Gods, but I still don't believe in them or any other Gods. Jane seems to have found a new hobby to keep her busy as she excuse herself and disappears. Maybe I should try to make something piano like next year? I should make tuning forks etc, and in a few years there might be an expansion of the Academy for a music education, and other arts like a theatre program if I can find someone willing to teach acting. I assume there is some kind of actors down south, the question is: can I find someone that speak Norse, and is willing to move here and teach? Honestly, different types of art are a good thing to educate people in, as music and art are appreciated by all classes of society, and all cultures. Jane's willing to teach painting and sketching with ink or charcoal. I would need a sculpture artist too. I should encourage students to try different forms of art and crafts.

Caecilia really wants to hear more Midgård music, and promises to learn some songs, and adapt the lyrics for the language with my or Jane's help. It's cute how eagerly Iselin offers to play Midgård music for her, but Iselin loves my MP3 player.

I've got other things to focus on, but I notice the Risk board game. The glue for my Risk game map has dried, and I now have a game board. I'm quite pleased how it turned out. I used a wooden board that was actually meant for Jane's paintings, but she has many more, and we've already order more. Jane has also started trying to paint on canvas, and I'm seriously happy that Jane is here to introduce proper painted art. I have no real interest in it, and she is obviously so damn skilled and knowledgeable. It's also nice to see how eager Caecilia and Iselin is to learn. I accepted Jane's offer to decorate my Risk game board a bit when I explained it was a variant of Risk, which is a game she recognized. She understands why it is not a world map, and she can actually see herself joining a game as Risk is less nerdy than table top miniatures, although that seems fun to play. I pointed out that there is no person here who will disapprove if she plays nerdy games, it's completely in her head. But unfortunately; her head wins.

I have used the playing field's empty space to draw tables for the value of regions, what different cards give, the dice rules, etc, and Jane has added nice doodles and ornaments on its edges. The only thing I myself added to the decoration is the little Academy logo where the Academy roughly is on the map, but Jane drew a larger logo as part of the decoration.

I get pulled away as Asta has arrived, and I did say I had something important to show her today. I just showing her the globe without saying anything. Asta touch the globe, notices it rotate and starts looking closer at it, trying to figure out I want her to see. It dawns on her what it is when she sees Europe and the Nordic countries. She has learned to recognize those shapes from the maps, and she understands how to use a sextant. I just love to shock people with knowledge or technology. They sometimes get the most interesting faces and expressions. Asta just stares at the little Academy logo and needs some time to process what she sees, how small her world was before. She has calculated trigonometry etc to use the sextant, but again, knowing and really knowing are two different things. It just hasn't connected that the earth is round, and I tell her about gravity etc, and I use an oil lamp as a sun.

I let Asta have all the time she needs in front of the globe as we prepare other things like attaching a couple of flags and banners for the mansion and in the harbour.

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I pass the globe on my way to lunch, and Asta is still just sitting and studying the globe, but Alith has joined her and Asta explain things to her. I ask Asta not to discuss the globe with others outside my sambos. Alith is okay though, and Alith seems to have gained a lot of respect for the globe. Alith has apparently told Asta how I created an 'accurate' map of the small surroundings outside Skiringsalr without ever being there, and together with the other maps I made that seems to be correct, they don't doubt that the globe is correct, although I make sure they understand that it must be verified with voyages. Voyages that Asta is eager to make. The diameter and size of the globe are probably correct even if the land masses are not, because the time of day is the same, gravity is the same and the sextant works as it should.

The lure of good food can eventually tear Asta away from the globe, but while we eat she is distant and thoughtful. I believe I know what she really wants; to sail around the globe. When I ask Asta, she confirms that she not only wants that, but to explore everything. There is so much to see and experience, and she is absolutely right on that. So I tell her that in a few years there might be a larger ship equipped for long distance voyages, hopefully with at least another ship as company and safety, with the best I can equip the ships with in food storage and navigation aids. I also plan to work on a couple of solutions for the longitude problem and other things that are needed, and start this winter.

The first long-distance voyage will not go all the way around the world but will be done gradually for experience, test and create depots or check what is there, and the first voyage around the world will probably take two years since there will be a lot of stops along the way, and some exploration, but in the future she may be part of that voyage. And maybe be its Commander.

I think using the Clipper route is more efficient from a time and wind point of view, but not from an exploration point of view. Who knows? Here in Alfheimr, there may be a connection in Central America where the Atlantic and the Pacific connects, so South America doesn't need to be rounded. Or maybe the world is completely different outside the Nordics and Europe. Asta definitely has a new dream, and she is very willing to spend time this winter to map the night sky, and measure the angles between important stars. The collected data will be saved and marked down with angles between stars which we can then transform into a celestial sphere.

After lunch, Asta wants nothing more than to return to the globe, but I tell her that I think it's better she takes it with her to the ship and installs it in the corner in my cabin. It's supposed to stand there anyway. If she wants to study another globe, there is one in the library and I show her that I've made another. I also tell her that I have parts for a third, and if she wants to spend some time making it, she can have that one in her house, so she has something to study in her spare time - as long as she keeps it secret for the rest of the crew. And that Lifa swears to keep the globe a secret. They can cover it with a cloth when not in use. The one on the ship should also be covered.

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Asta might be small, but she sure as hell can give an intense hug. Kari pointedly coughs, which makes Asta embarrassed, but she stop hugging me and take a step back.

Maybe I should send an expedition to North America, and try to establish a trade route and colony there? If there isn't already peoples and nations there. It's very likely. There are problems here in the north with land and opportunities for the slowly growing population, though there is waste areas covered in forests that can be cut down. More farm land can be created especially in the inland, but for the people in 'Norway' there is limited options. It is after all why the Norwegian Vikings headed out across the sea.

After a first expedition to prove that the globe is correct and the land exists, and to try to find a place and possible contact with the indigenous people, it should be possible to send a larger colonization force of a hundred men and women with animals and livestock. As long as they try to establish good contact with a likely indigenous peoples by showing respect for both people and their different beliefs and cultures, it should succeed. Any colonization effort have to think about diseases, respecting cultural differences and try to be diplomatic etc.

Perhaps an introduction of horses, iron axes and knives could be a foundation for trade and successful exchange of skills? Maybe it cannot be applied here, but I know how important the Tomahawk became in Midgård, and that might make the indigenous people more positive if they don't already have good iron production. Maybe they're bad at building ships and the people here and change that. There should be something to establish trade, language and skill transfer. Knowing the local fauna and flora, food production, iron tools and salt will be so important for a colony.

If successful, the colonies will become their own small kingdoms, and I wouldn't be surprised if the colony start as a Viking 'nobility' but marriages to locals gradually change the population to a more mixed one, due to how the culture here is that slaves should be integrated in society no matter where they come from. Say what you want about the culture here, but they are really not that racist as in seeing other people as lesser beings. Probably because there is lots of different peoples and worlds according to their religion, and their Gods comes from other worlds. And they believe in all kinds of intelligent creatures and spirits in the mountains, woods and water. Sure, they look at that black woman in Borgarsandr with suspicion, but that because she might literally be from another world. If they meet a new culture while travelling here, well then they're elves. Like, duh.

There is a good chance that there will be exports of 'exotic' slaves back to the north and Europe, but as long as it doesn't negatively effect security there, it will probably happen. If there is people over there, they probably have some kind of slavery, and the buyers and sellers will just change a bit. Trade is more efficient if it takes place in both directions, but what is traded depends on what each side want, and what resources there are to sell.

I could actually sponsor an expedition to establish my own colony under my rule, and the beginning of a future mini-empire and colonial power. It would also be good for the Academy to have saved important information in several places. If there is more than one Academy, a more or less accidental fire wouldn't be devastating for information in saved books and documents. It would also be quite satisfying to be able to spread the Aesir belief and the culture from the north over large parts of the world before another part of this world do it, even though that belief and culture should have minor modifications.

As for the emigration part, I might make use the classic that those who want to travel there commit to paying for the journey afterwards, but to not to be greedy about it, or just think long-term and give people some land if they colonize. The goal isn't to make short-term profit. After only a few years, I should be able to send merchant ships with goods there and get something else back, and in the future even such things as perhaps crude oil. Island hopping between Kambsnes, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, New Foundland and the west coast of North America in the summer, and maybe the Azores, Bermuda, etc, in the winter.

At least in the beginning and for the first emigration steps, it may be best to send a small group when there is plenty of food available, which means just after the start of harvest, and the first settlers should focus on wintering and preparing for others, by felling logs for house and clear land and prepare for next year and that growing season. I should focus on slightly more southerly latitudes for a milder winter, but not too far south and have problems with drought. I just assume it will require a new shipload of food and supplies before the settlers get seeds in the ground and can start feeding themselves. Should they even have a chance to sow a harvest in the first autumn, the journey must go quick and they have to find open fields, and have time to plow and sow seeds while praying for good weather. They could live in tents until the seeds are in the ground, but some kind of pre-built hut with a stove would be good. Kind of like the Antarctic explorers built to overwinter before their try for the South pole. It just feels too much of a gamble, but if I improve efficiency in the agriculture here, it will also be easier to set up a colony.

It is a pity it probably won't happen in this future as colonization won't be a secret for hundreds of years, but I can almost visualize the vision of proud European explorers that reach land after a long perilous voyage across the sea;

"Land! Finally land! God have guided us to virgin land, where we can make a future for ourselves, plant crops, cultivate the land and create a new natio .... Norse ships?! Oh for fucks sake! Again?! They're fucking everywhere!"

When I tell my thoughts about colonization to Iselin, Caecilia and Jane, there are two completely different reactions. Iselin thinks about the future and thinks it is a great idea and can do everything so much better, and she would of course like to take a journey in the future just to see exotic lands, and Caecilia agrees. Jane just laughs and loves how much it will fuck it up for everyone else and differ between the history of Midgård, and suggests that 'we' should seize the best pieces first like the Bahamas, Bermuda and the whole Caribbean, followed by Hawaii, Maldives, New Zealand and more. We should raise rune stones or carve into rocks and basically in several languages say: "Welcome Losers! We were here first! Now piss off!"

Apart from the fact that I think that several places probably have people and nations, I think it is fun how all of a sudden Jane considered herself to be one of us, when she otherwise usually distances herself, and she completely blanks out when I ask if she means 'we' as in northerners, or 'we' as one of the islands residents. Iselin quickly adds: "... or 'we' as in one of Robert's women." Which makes me blank out. Jane just gives us a look, but say nothing as she leave. Iselin's wide grin and face says what she thinks the answer is, and considering how Caecilia giggles with her, Caecilia seems to agree.

I got work to do in the workshop.