Kensington Runestone

[Thor, God of Thunder]

The Kensington runestone is a roughly rectangular slab of greywacke covered in runes on its face and side. Its origin and meaning have been disputed ever since it was found in 1898 near Kensington, Minnesota. It suggests that Scandinavian explorers reached the middle of North America in the 14th century. However, its origin is uncertain.

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Name: Kensington Runestone
Rundata ID: None given
Country: USA
Region: Minnesota
City/Village: Originally Kensington, currently located at Alexandria, Minnesota
Produced: contested
Runemaster: contested
Text - Native:
Old Swedish : 8 göter ok 22 norrmen paa opthagelse farth fro winlanth of west Wi hathe läger weth 2 skylar en thags norder fro theno sten wi war ok fiske en thag äptir wi kom hem fan X man rothe af bloth og ded AVM frälse af illum.
Text - English:
8 Geats (South Swedes) and 22 Norwegians on acquisition venture from Vinland far to the west We had traps by 2 shelters one day's travel to the north from this stone We were fishing one day. After we came home found 10 men red with blood and dead AVM (Ave Maria) Deliver from evils.

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Swedish American farmer Olof Öhman said he found the stone while clearing his land of trees and stumps before plowing. It was reportedly on a small knoll or hillside, lying face down and buried in the root system of a tree believed to be at least ten years old. According to several witnesses, some of the roots were flattened and fit tightly around the stone. Öhman's ten-year-old son noticed some markings and the farmer later said he thought they'd found an "Indian almanac." The artifact is about 30 x 16 x 6 inches in size and weighs about 200 pounds (90 kg).

When Öhman discovered the stone, the journey of Leif Ericson to Vinland (North America) was being widely discussed and there was renewed interest in the Vikings throughout Scandinavia, stirred by the National Romanticism movement. Five years earlier a Danish archaeologist had proved it was possible to travel to North America in medieval ships. There was also some friction between Sweden and Norway due to the latter's recent independence: Some Norwegians claimed the stone was a Swedish hoax and there were similar Swedish accusations because the stone is inscribed with a reference to a joint expedition of Norwegians and Swedes at a time when they were both ruled by the same king.

Soon after it was found, the stone was displayed at a local bank (there is no evidence Öhman tried to make money from his find). An error-ridden copy of the inscription made its way to the Greek language department at the University of Minnesota, then to Olaus J. Breda, a professor of Scandinavian languages and literature there from 1884 to 1899, who showed little interest in the find and whose runic knowledge was later questioned by some researchers. Breda made a translation, declared it to be a forgery and forwarded copies to linguists in Scandinavia. Norwegian archaeologist Oluf Rygh also concluded the stone was a fraud (based on a letter from Breda, who never actually saw the stone), as did several other linguists. Archaeological evidence of Viking settlements in Canada wouldn't appear for another half a century and the idea of pre-Columbian Vikings wandering through Minnesota then seemed implausible to most academics.

By now the stone had been sent to Northwestern University in Chicago. With scholars either dismissing it as a prank or unable to identify a sustainable historical context it was returned to Öhman, who is said to have placed it face down near the door of his granary as a "stepping stone" which he also used for straightening out nails (years later his son said this was an "untruth" and that they had it set up in an adjacent shed). In 1907 the stone was purchased, reportedly for ten dollars, by Hjalmar Holand, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Holand created renewed public interest and further studies were made by geologist Newton Horace Winchell (Minnesota Historical Society) and linguist George Flom (Philological Society of the University of Illinois), who both published opinions in 1910.

According to Winchell, the poplar tree under which the stone was found had been destroyed but several nearby poplars of the same size were cut down and by counting their rings it was determined they were 40 years old. Since the surrounding county had not been settled until 1858 it seemed less likely the stone could be a forgery (if it had truly been found wrapped in the roots of a similar poplar tree). Winchell also concluded that the weathering of the stone indicated the inscription was roughly 500 years old. Meanwhile, Flom found a strong apparent divergence between the runes used in the Kensington inscription and those in use during the 14th century. Similarly, the linguistic forms didn't match surviving written examples from that era.

Most discussions over the Kensington Runestone's authenticity have been based on an apparent conflict between the linguistic and physical evidence. The Runestone's discovery by a Swedish farmer in Minnesota at a time when Viking history and Scandinavian culture were such popular and sometimes controversial topics casts a stark shadow of skepticism that has lingered for more than a hundred years.

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Sigillum ad causas for Magnus II of Sweden

In 1354 King Magnus Erikson of Sweden and Norway issued a letter of protection (or passport) to Paul Knutson for a voyage to the Norwegian dependency of Greenland. The Western Settlement of Greenland had been found abandoned (but for some cattle) a few years earlier and it was believed the population had rejected the Church (and its ownership of the local farms, which had been gradually acquired in payment of various fees), reverted to paganism and gone to what is now known as North America.

In 1887 historian Gustav Storm mentioned the journey, suggesting it returned in 1363 or 1364. This appears to be the first published work that documents a voyage to North America matching the date on the stone. It has since been confirmed by a 1577 letter from Gerard Mercator to John Dee, which excerpts an earlier work by Jacobus Cnoyen (now lost) describing a voyage beyond Greenland that returned with 8 men in 1364. Cnoyen also mentions that a priest accompanied the voyage and wrote an account of it in a book called the Inventio Fortunate which is cited in a number of medieval and Renaissance documents, although no copy remains. That Ivar Bardson had returned either in 1363 or early 1364 is documented from a Norwegian Diploma dated 25 June 1364 where 'Ivarus Barderij' is confirmed by Bishop Botolv in Stavanger to have delivered collected tithes.

The Inventio is cited on some 16th century maps as a source for their depiction of the Arctic. It is not known if the voyage went as far as Hudson Bay but some maps are claimed to have depicted the bay at least a century before its first known exploration and this reportedly influenced Columbus in planning his own voyage west across the Atlantic. So while a clever forger could have deduced the correct date to put on the Runestone from information available at the time of its discovery, an expedition does seem to have taken place as inscribed on the stone.

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The Traverse Gap in the valley carved out by the Glacial River Warren, separates the Arctic Ocean watershed from the Atlantic Ocean watershed

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Kensington in Minnesota.

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Other artifacts?

This waterway also contains alleged signs of Viking presence. At Cormorant Lake in Becker County, Minnesota there are three boulders with triangular holes which are claimed to be similar to those used for mooring boats along the coast of Norway during the 14th century. Holand found other triangular holes in rocks near where the stone was found. A 14th century Scandinavian firesteel was claimed to have been found between the Cormorant Lake and Kensington, where the Runestone was unearthed.

However, no Viking artifacts or non-Native American artifacts dating from the 14th century have been recovered under controlled, professionally conducted archaeological investigations and there remains a possibility they were brought by Europeans centuries later. Similarly, the dating of any Viking-like mooring holes cut into rocks in the region has been elusive.

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Debate

Holand took the stone to Europe and while newspapers in Minnesota carried articles hotly debating its authenticity the stone was quickly dismissed by Swedish linguists.

For the next 40 years Holand struggled to sway public and scholarly opinion about the Runestone, writing articles and several books. He achieved brief success in 1949 when the stone was put on display at the Smithsonian Institution and scholars such as William Thalbitzer and S. R. Hagen published papers supporting its authenticity. However, at nearly the same time published opinions by Scandinavian linguists Sven Jansson, Erik Moltke, Harry Anderson and K. M. Nielsen (along with a popular book by Erik Wahlgren) again threw the Runestone's authenticity into doubt.

Along with Wahlgren, historian Theodore Blegen flatly asserted Ohman had carved the artifact as a prank, possibly with help from others in the Kensington area. Further resolution seemed to come with the 1976 transcript of an audio tape made by Walter Gran several years earlier. In it, Gran said his father John confessed in 1927 that Ohman made the inscription. John Gran's story however was based on second-hand anecdotes he had heard about Ohman and although it was presented as a deathbed confession, Gran lived for several years afterwards saying nothing more about the stone. In 2005 supporters of the runestone's authenticity attempted to explain this with claims that Gran was motivated by jealousy over the attention Ohman had received.

The possibility of a Scandinavian provenance for the Runestone was renewed in 1982 when linguist Robert Hall of Cornell University published a book (and a follow up in 1994) questioning the methodology of its critics. He asserted that the odd philological problems in the Runestone could be the result of normal dialectic variances running out from standard Old Swedish at the time. Further, he contended that critics had failed to consider the physical evidence, which he found leaning heavily in favour of authenticity. Meanwhile in The Vikings and America (1986) former UCLA professor Erik Wahlgren wrote that the text bore linguistic abnormalities and spellings that suggested the runestone was a forge

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Richard Nielsen

In 1983, inspired by Hall, Richard Nielsen, a trained engineer and amateur language researcher from Houston, Texas) studied the Kensington Runestone's runology and linguistics, disputing several earlier claims of forgery. For example, the rune which had been interpreted as standing for the letter J (and according to critics, invented by the forger) could be interpreted as a rare form of the L rune found only in a few 14th century manuscripts.

Nielsen also noted that the dialect found on the Runestone was an a dialect unlike the far more common e dialect spoken by most Swedes including Ohman.[dubious — see talk page] This dialect was used primarily near the Bohuslän region, (at the time, known as Båhuslen region of southeast Norway, next to the border of Sweden and near a Danish area). According to Nielsen the language on the stone appears to combine dialectic forms from intersecting languages.[citation needed] This localisation of the dialect may be historically supported since king Magnus IV of Sweden, who sent the expedition, resided at Bohus Fortress and had been crowned king of both Sweden and Norway.

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The manuscript of the Codex Runicus contains 11 instances of the J rune, two of them appear on the last page of the manuscript, in the words for the oldest recorded melody in Scandinavia

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Physical analysis

In December 1998, just over a hundred years after the Kensington Runestone had been found, a detailed physical analysis was made for the first time since Winchell's report in 1910. This included photography with a reflected light microscope, core sampling and examination with a scanning electron microscope. In November 2000, geologist Scott F. Wolter presented preliminary findings suggesting the stone had undergone an in-the-ground weathering process that would have taken a minimum of 50-200 years.

For example, Wolter noted a complete loss of mica on the inscribed surface of the stone. Samples from slate gravestones in Maine dating back 200 years showed considerable pyrite degradation but not the complete absence seen on the runestone. Given that the gravestone samples were not subjected to the same conditions as the runestone, this comparison still suggests the runestone was buried long before the first permanent European settlement of the area in 1858.

Some critics have noted the surviving sharpness of the chisel work, asking how this could have endured centuries of freeze-thaw cycles and seepage. However, the back of the stone has crisply preserved glacial scratches that are thousands of years old. Other observers say the runes have weathered consistently with the rest of the stone.

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Linguistic and cultural context


In 2001 Nielsen published an article on the Scandinavian Studies website refuting claims the runes were Dalecarlian (a more modern form). He asserted that while some runes on the Kensington Runestone are similar to Dalecarlian runes, over half have no connection and can be explained by 14th-century usage.

In 2004, the Massey Twins (Dr. Keith Massey and Rev. Kevin Massey) claimed that an abbreviation technique used in the phrase AVM (Av[e] Maria) on the Kensington Stone is entirely Medieval in character and could not have been known to any potential forger at the time the artifact was discovered.

In The Kensington Runestone: Approaching a Research Question Holistically (2005) archeologist Alice Beck Kehoe alluded to reports of contact between native populations and outsiders prior to the time of the runestone, which tend to validate the possibility of a fourteenth century, northern European expedition. These include historical references to the "blond" Indians among the Mandan on the Upper Missouri River, signs of a tuberculosis epidemic among American Indians about 1000 A.D. and the Hochunk (Winnebago) story about an ancestral hero "Red Horn" and his encounter with "red-haired giants."

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Codex Runicus, a vellum manuscript from c. 1300 containing one of the oldest and best preserved texts of the Scanian Law, was written entirely in runes.

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Text

The inscription on the face (where a few words may be missing due to spalling and calcification of some of the stone) reads:

8 göter ok 22 norrmen paa opthagelse farth fro winlanth of west Wi hathe läger weth 2 skylar en thags norder fro theno sten wi war ok fiske en thag äptir wi kom hem fan X man rothe af bloth og ded AVM frälse af illum.

Translation: 8 Geats (South Swedes) and 22 Norwegians on acquisition venture from Vinland far to the west We had traps by 2 shelters one day's travel to the north from this stone We were fishing one day. After we came home found 10 men red with blood and dead AVM (Ave Maria) Deliver from evils.

The lateral (or side) text reads:

har X mans we hawet at se äptir wore skip 14 thag rise from theno odh Ar wars Herra 1362.

Translation: I have 10 men at the inland sea/lake to look after our ship 14 days travel from this wealth/property Year of our Lord 1362

The English translation is Nielsen's 2001 version. Typically, a modern Swede can barely make out the meaning. The AVM is historically consistent since any Scandinavian explorers would have been Catholic at that time. Earlier translations routinely interpreted skylar as skerries (or small, rocky islands) but Nielsen's research suggests this meaning is unlikely.

As an example of the linguistic discussion that has surrounded this text, the Swedish term opthagelse farth (journey of exploration), or updagelsfard as it often appears, is not known to have existed in Old Swedish, Old Danish, nor in Middle Dutch or Middle Low German during the 14th or 15th centuries. The correct contemporary and modern word would be upptäcktsfärd. However, in a conversation with Holand in 1911 the lexicographer of the Old Swedish Dictionary (Soderwall) noted that his work was limited mostly to surviving legal documents written in formal and stilted language and that the root word opdage could have been a borrowed Germanic term. Nonetheless, linguists skeptical of a Scandinavian provenance consider this word to be a neologism and note that late 19th century Norwegian historian Gustav Storm often used the term in a series of articles on Viking exploration published in a Norwegian newspaper and known to have been circulated in Minnesota.

Nielsen suggests that the Þ transliterated above as th or d could also be given a t sound, so for him the word translates as uptagelsfart (acquisition expedition), also an acceptable 14th-century expression. A problem with this suggestion is that in the rest of the text, the Thorn rune regularly corresponds to modern Scandinavian d-sounds and only occasionally to historical th-sounds while the T-rune is used for all other t-sounds.

Another characteristic pointed out by skeptics is the text's lack of cases. Norse had the four cases of modern German. They had disappeared from common speech by the 16th century but were still predominant in the 14th century (see Swedish language). Moreover the text does not use plural verb forms, which were also predominant in the 14th century but have disappeared from the modern languages. The examples are (plural forms in parenthesis) "wi war" (warum), "hathe" (hafðum), "[wi] fiske" (fiskum), "kom" (komum), "fann" (funnum) and "wi hathe" (havum). On the other hand, proponents of the stone's authenticity point to examples of these forms in 14th-century texts.

The inscription contains runic (or pentadic) numerals that have never been found on any other verified rune stone. Numbers were usually written as words with individual runes. For example, to write EINN (one) the runes E-I-N-N were used (not numerals) and the word EN (one) is in the Kensington inscription. Writing all the numbers out (such as thirteen hundred and sixty-two) would have severely cramped the available surface space, so the stone's author (whether a forger or 14th-century explorer) simplified things by using pentadic runes as numerals in the Arabic positional numbering system, which had appeared in Scandinavia by the 14th century.

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Edward Larsson's notes


Many runes in the inscription deviate from known 14th-century fuþark but in 2004 it was discovered that these appear along with pentadic runes in the 1885 notes of an 18-year-old journeyman tailor with an interest in folk music, Edward Larsson. A copy was published by the Institute for Dialectology, Onomastics and Folklore Research in Umeå, Sweden and while an accompanying article suggested the runes were a secret cipher used by the tailors guild, no usage of futharks by any 19th-century guild has been documented.

Without a source for Larsson's runerows (for example an ancient book or modern guild derivation) it is difficult to give their origin any particular date range. The runes could have been available for use by a 19th-century forger, but Larsson's notes eliminate any possibility that the unusual runes were made up on the spot by the stone's author.