In the 17th century, Basques visited Iceland searching for whales, after having been expelled from their traditional whaling grounds in what is now Canada. Three major results of their visits are known that still excite people in the Basque Country, Iceland and the rest of the world. First, the tragic massacre of dozens of Basque whalers after they lost their ship and livelihood in 1615, reported in detail by Jón Guðmundsson the Learned (Irujo Ametzaga & Miglio 2015), and instigated by the Danish King. Second, the contacts between Basques and Icelanders in what appears to be a pidgin (Bakker et al. 1991). Third, the existence of four Icelandic-Basque glossaries that were compiled by Icelanders. The recently discovered fourth list is clearly connected to magic and witchcraft (Etxepare & Miglio).
In Peter Bakker´s presentation, he will show that communication in 1613-1615 took place in Latin rather than Pidgin, making use of both linguistic evidence and remarks by contemporaries. The glossaries have been shown to be incompatible with this early date, and with Basque dialectology. Further he will discuss the discovery of the existence of the pidgin. The list was first published in 1937 by the Dutch scholar Nicolaas Deen and the pidgin sentences were first identified in the late 20th century. Bakker will discuss why it took so long, based on recent research on Deen and his life
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