Kensington Runestone Looking More Like a Fake

The Minneapolis/St Paul Star Tribune ^ | April 8, 2004 | Peg Meier

[quidnunc]

Scholars who believe the Kensington Runestone is a 19th-century prank — and not concrete evidence that Norsemen beat Columbus to America by 100-plus years — say they have found the smoking gun to prove it.

The latest in the century-old Minnesota controversy came in documents written in 1885 by an 18-year-old Swedish tailor named Edward Larsson. He sometimes wrote in runes — an ancient Scandinavian language that differs from the English alphabet. But Larsson's runes were not the usual runes used over the centuries.

The scholars contend that parts of his documents seem to be written in a secret runic alphabet used by tradesmen in Sweden in the late 1800s, rather like codes that tramps have used over time to leave secret messages for each other.

Swedish linguists happened upon Larsson's documents recently and found that his writing corresponds to pieces of the Kensington Runestone inscription. They say that the journeymen's code did not exist in medieval times, when the Kensington Runestone is purported to have been carved.

"My opinion is this once again nails down the case against the Kensington Runestone," said Michael Michlovic, professor of anthropology and chairman of the Department of Anthropology and Earth Science at Minnesota State University Moorhead.

"This new evidence is really devastating. It comes unexpectedly and from a collection of old letters that have nothing to do with the Kensington Runestone."

-snip-

[Fedora]

Bench press 100 tons . . . fooey!

Well, bench pressing 100 tons would impress me, at least :) His sparring partner Hercules is also listed as being able to bench 100 tons and he pressed Godzilla once--that was kinda impressive:

He lifted the Midgard Serpent! (And wrestled Eilli - Old Age - to a standstill.)

That he did! :) I think he did that in the comics, too, but I've never read the issue--for a while they had a series adapting the original Norse stories.

The sissified has nothing to do with strength and everything with behavior. It's the same thing the old Victorians did to the robust medieval customs - toned them down and prettied them up.

Yeah, the Victorians did that with the original fairy tales, too. Tolkien complained about Andrew Lang doing that to Grimm's fairy tales.

The old Thor is (as my grandmother used to say) somebody you could not POSSIBLY invite to dinner!)

Not unless you had a drinking cup filled with the ocean like the giant Utgard-Loki did, anyway! :) That was my favorite Thor story!

[T'wit]

I like Door County, at least when the weather is friendly. I love the bluebirds and cherry cider. But you can keep the fish boils. I can never figure whether they're a food item or a disease.

My family mostly hangs out in Oneida County now, on the Eagle River chain of lakes. It's beautiful.

[Fedora]

I like Door County, at least when the weather is friendly. I love the bluebirds and cherry cider. But you can keep the fish boils. I can never figure whether they're a food item or a disease.

LOL! The weather here is very unpredictable because of being between Green Bay and Lake Michigan--the wind shifts dramatically from time to time, it's gone from winter to spring and back several times already. I think I've seen one bluebird, but mostly cardinals where I am--and turkeys! There's at least 50+ turkeys in a field adjacent to the house, so they're always in the backyard. About a dozen deer run through here every so often, too. Great fishing on the stream up the road, also--trout and salmon run there, the trout are running right now.

I've actually never been to Oneida County, though I have known people from Minocqua and it sounds like a nice place.

[T'wit]

There is an area of Oneida and Vilas counties that is called "Lakeland" because it has the highest concentration of lakes in the state. The whole area is watershed -- so wet that the trick is finding a dry path for a road. Here lurks the mighty muskellunge, feeding on baby ducks, baby harp seals, and an occasional bambi. Bears are common, wolves moving back in (soon), and pretty soon we'll have moose (which are being stocked in Yooperland). Eagles are abundant but I don't recall ever seeing a turkey up there. We love our loons (one family in every lake). There are so many deer it's like living in a deer farm. They are not good citizens, especially on roads, especially in mating season.

I've been going up there all my life, I've lived there all year round, and I never get tired of it. It does get a tad chilly at times (and stays that way till July 17, the official day of summer).

[muawiyah]

That first colony of New Sweden was composed of just over 100 men. Over 90 of them are identified in the records as speaking "Finn". A half-dozen or so spoke "Swedish".

When the colony broke up and the Swedish officers went to a different employer, the Finn speakers moved on up into Pennsylvania and settled what became known as York (Yoik) county Pennsylvania.

In the course of time these Finn speaking people created 5 Saami settlements in PA, and 2 Saami settlements in Maryland just across the stateline. (NOTE: The "Finn" here refers to Saami, not Suomi. We can tell that because so many of them had Norse names, unlike Finns who do not generally have Norse names.)

So, even New Sweden wasn't all that Swedish, and in the end was abandoned by both Swedes and Saami.

The American version of Santa Claus starts here ~

[M Kehoe]

Ping.

Happy Easter.

5.56mm

[Bob Ireland]

***Happy Easter.***

Thanks, M...!!

I'm a bit skeptical about Vikings in Minnesota... you know - I'm sure - how hard it is to sail from the North Sea to Duluth; of course, once you clear all the locks, it becomes a piece of cake.

The other thing that makes me skeptical about this runic stone is the line that reads: VOTE FOR AL GORE... but one can never be sure...

Oh, happy Easter back at ya'! [and the gonzomatic!]

[Fedora]

Lakeland sounds like a great place!--I'll have to visit that area. Wolves have been moving in here, too, the past few months. I always wonder if we have bear around here, but haven't heard any reports. I think I've seen one eagle but I couldn't tell for sure from the distance I was. Besides the turkeys there's also a good number of pheasant here. I sometimes wonder if July 17 is the first day of spring in northern Wisconsin :)

[Ciexyz]

Info bump.

[rightofrush]

I've been away for awhile, and thanks for keeping in touch.
I've come across a very interesting book: "From the Ashes of Angels", by Andrew Collins, published by Bear & Co.
It is a book on paleo-anthropology, and gives a more reasonable interpertation of the Summerian texts than does Zecharia Sitchin (extra terestials maybe, not necessarily).
If you check it out, let me know what you think.

[rightofrush]

A well reasoned response. One can only hope that reason prevails.

[blam]

[rightofrush]

That's it. Why am I not surprised.

[rightofrush]

That's it. Why am I not surprised.

[T'wit]

>> I sometimes wonder if July 17 is the first day of spring in northern Wisconsin :)

"Up north" joke that summer is July 17th and wrecks the snowmobiling :-)

By all means, visit Oneida. Seems to me the prettiest part of the state, or one of them. The geography is distinct (at least to my eye) -- the gentlest of hills, shallow, sandy lakes. Water everywhere. There's a swamp between Three Lakes and Monaco. As nearly as I can dope it, the Eagle River and Wolf River both rise there, no more than a few miles apart. The former flows into the Wisconsin, and on to the Gulf of Mexico. The latter flows into the Fox and Green Bay, and thence to the Atlantic. Actually, it's a triple divide; some Lakeland waters flow into Lake Superior.

But, no pheasants :-)

[woofie]

I found one of those in my backyard

[gonzo]

What-the-hell am I doing on this thread? Everybody knows that there were Vikings in Minnesota! That's why they talk funny!

All this firepower and nobody to shoot, and Dave's changing his name. There must be an election or a Jesse around here someplace....................FRegards

[rogueleader]

I said the following. It is very conceivable that some or all of the Greenland settlers sailed into Hudson Bay, then to James Bay, then south through the Red River of the North, and finally took a turn on one of the tributaries to near what is today Alexandria, Minnesota

I finally looked at a map!

That should be: "sailed into Hudson Bay, then south through rivers to Lake Winnipeg, then south on the Red River of the North, and then east on some combination of rivers, streams, and lakes to what is now Alexandria, Minnesota."

That part of Minnesota is replete with lakes and rivers. It is quite conceivable that the water systems today are somewhat different from the way they were in 1362.

It is clear, though, that a group of Norsemen could have made it from Hudson Bay to the Alexandria area at that time through a combination of waterways, and perhaps a few brief portages.

What were they doing? Exploring, no doubt. Perhaps they meant to settle there, but ultimately were killed off by the "Skraelings."

[SunkenCiv]

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