Prince Madoc - New World - 12th Century?

"There really was a Welsh explorer named Prince Madoc (or Madog) who claimed to have navigated to the New World in the 12th century, though. If his story was true, he sailed along the east coast of North America somewhere, probably in present-day New Brunswick. (Some Mi'kmaq Indians think Prince Madoc may correspond to a historical figure in their oral histories, which would corroborate this account somewhat.) This obviously has nothing to do with the Mandans, who live in North Dakota (1500 miles from the east coast, for those not familiar with North American geography.) "

www.native-languages.org...

Recently I have been spending a lot of time, looking into this figure and this story. Does anyone know any more information about it? If he brought back artifacts, etc, which could prove he did in fact visit the Americas?

(I couldn't think of where else to post this, hope it is the right forum.)

I've heard of him, actually. Sifting fact from fiction is difficult (I'll get to the scholarly stuff in a bit) because he's supposed to simultaneously have founded towns/forts/etc in the West Indies, Alabama (Mobile -- along the Gulf coast), Florida, Georgia,
www.tylwythteg.com...

Clark County, Indiana, etc
www.cismall.com...

As the Wikipedia article says, there's probably some elements of truth amid the tangle of legends. But where the legend starts is another point of contention:
en.wikipedia.org...

Some sources have its earliest origin as the 1500's (written from oral tales) and others find it in the 6th century tales of King Arthur.

There's no hard evidence of artifacts. There are, apparently, some stone walls but those are undated (You can't date stone walls unless you find artifacts underneath them or within them)

Here's a nice readable (but scholarly) article on the American material in the Welsh national library. Madoc is mentioned a number of times:
www.microform.co.uk...

Enjoy!

[edit on 24-7-2005 by Byrd]