|
A number thought the world was flat, yes - for instance, as mentioned, the Norsemen ('vikings'). Cosmological maps of Midgard, the land humans dwell in, depict a serpent encircling it and causing oceanic disturbances.
It's hard to tell who thought the world was flat and who didn't back in the day - even if the scholastic folk thought it was round, the village folk may have had entirely different views, and vice versa. Village folk are terrible about writing their thoughts down, alas!
The Columbus sailor thing, off the edge of the earth and whatnot, is pretty much false. If you've ever sailed on a ship with sails, and seen another one, things happen kind of slowly, but for sure what you notice as you come up on another ship is that you can see their sails long before their hull, which pretty much solidifies a round earth belief.
__________________
The phrase "we (I) (you) simply must---" designates something that need not be done. "That goes without saying" is a red warning. "Of course" means you had best check it yourself. These small-change cliches and others like them, when read correctly, are reliable channel markers.
|