• Full Title: Over The Edge Of The World : Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation Of The Globe
• Author: Laurence Bergreen
• Year: 2003
• Genre: History, Discovery
• Publisher: MJF Books
• ISBN 978-1-60671-312-9
• Wikipedia page
• Author’s Wikipedia Page

 

Summary

This book, as the subtitle suggests, relates the story of Ferdinand Magellan’s attempt to sail all the way around the world — for the first time in history. Of all the Age of Discovery explorers whose names were mentioned in my schooling, Magellan is one of a handful I remembered easily, yet I never knew very much about his actual voyage. This book filled in the gaps.

Since Magellan didn’t survive to tell the tale, and since various competing versions of events arrived in Spain within a few years’ span, it can be difficult to know exactly what occurred at various times during the expedition. One mutiny ship turned back and got to Spain first. Another was captured by Portuguese soldiers in the East. Two other ships were lost. Many of the men died en route. Only 18 of the original 237 men, and only one of five ships, survived the entire circumnavigation of the Earth. Only a few of the men kept journals or notes during the trip, and their accounts regularly contradict each other. Various inquests conducted by the Spanish government after the voyage heard a variety of versions of events. In this book, Laurence Bergreen makes a valiant attempt to sift through the versions and come up with a coherent narrative.

What is known for certain is that this voyage changed the world forever. It sits on the knife-edge between the Dark Ages and the Enlightenment. It decisively debunked a number of theories and legends about the Earth’s shape, size, and character.

 

What I Liked Least About It

The font. By far, the least enjoyable thing about this book was the pretend-to-be-old-fashioned typeface, with an even less legible old-timey font for the drop-caps that begin each section and another oddly unreadable typeface for the chapter titles. Is it a B or a D? J or Y? No one will ever know.

Secondly, the names of places and people. For example, I learned that Magellan wasn’t actually anyone’s name. The explorer in question was named “Fernão de Magalhães” and when he moved to Spain was called “Fernando de Magallanes”. At no point did the author explain why the man is known as “Ferdinand Magellan” today. (The answer is: blatant anglicization, like how we say “Moscow” despite the city’s name very obviously being Moskva.)

But Magellan has long been known in our language as “Magellan”, so that didn’t bother me as much as the place names. Because I was trying to follow the voyage using a modern map. For some points of interest, the author used modern names for places, or at least names that are still known: “South America”, for example, or “the Philippines”. But I know where those places are without looking at a map. It was the other places, the lesser known places, that I was looking for as I zoomed into my digital map while I read. Some of them were way off, to the point that I couldn’t find them.

There were also a few weird incongruities, similar to those I noted in my previous book, The Emperor Of All Maladies, in which the author says one thing but then almost immediately contradicts it, or at least leaves the reader wondering why the first thing was said. For example, if I told you: “Full of confidence, he hung his head and slunk into the room”, you would be confused about whether “he” was full of confidence or not. If I told you “she would come to regret this decision”, but then related stories about her life that never denote regret, you might question my abilities as a storyteller.

 

What I Liked Most About It

As with most history books, what I enjoyed most was the sheer amount of information contained here.

Bergreen’s narrative, despite my minor complaint above, is mostly gripping, fascinating, and — in places — mind-blowing. The story is easy enough to follow, but the circumstances are often difficult to imagine. No matter how much we study the past, and no matter how many movie depictions we see, I think it is near impossible for we 21st Century folk to imagine what life was like for these sailors and explorers, but Bergreen gets the reader as close as possible to that understanding.

 

Further Discussion

A couple of topics kept bursting into my head as I read. One is the sheer sense of ownership that the explorers inherently believed about everything they “discovered”. The child’s axiom “finders keepers, losers weepers” springs to mind, because Magellan and his men kept finding things and claiming ownership, despite pre-existing ownership by other people — people that history eventually declared to be “losers”. Today, this is unfathomable to me. I imagine setting off on a trek through nearby fields and pastures; at some point I will come across a house or automobile, and I could accurately say I “discovered” them, but I could never imagine assuming they belong to me just because I came across them. Especially if the current owner is standing there greeting me as I arrive.

Another impression leaking profusely through the pages is that of superiority, as expressed by the Europeans toward those who greeted them. At island after island and continent after continent, the Spanish-owned armada kept finding established civilization, centuries-old tradition, and heartfelt religion, but at almost every turn declared their own to be superior. In fact, it was more startling when they didn’t do this — there were a few occasions when Magellan and his men inexplicably treated a particular group as equals, trading with them, learning of their language, religion, and culture. They feasted with them, copulated with them, prayed with them, and even allied with them in local squabbles. But these were surprising exceptions.

 

Conclusion

I enjoyed the book overall, and would recommend it to anyone interested in the Age of Discovery. Just be prepared for the abnormal font, place names that don’t match what you can find on the internet, and occasional turns of phrase that don’t seem to match the narrative.

 

Note: A shorter version of this review is available on Goodreads, here.

 

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