Did the Scandinavians beat Columbus to America twice?

Yahoo! News - AFP ^ | 10.22.03

[finnsheep]

I'm doing the norse_course@yahoogroups.com. I wonder how many Scandinavian imigrants would have been able to write runes. There are a lot of runestones online if you do a google search. Almost all are commemorating the death of someone.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Its my high school football coach...

[RipSawyer]

My first wife (RIP) grew up around Heavener and Poteau, I took her back there to visit and we went and saw the Runestone together. She said most of the local people have no interest and she had never seen it before. If it is for real then my ancestors must have traveled extensively in the New World, Oklahoma is a long way from the East coast!

[Charles Henrickson]

My great grandfather, Gustavis Adolphis Svenson, arrived from Vastervik, Sweden in 1902. The immigration authorities changed his name to Gus Swanson. . . .

Min farfar kom från Bohuslän, Sverige, i 1902. De ändrade hans namn från "Karl Henriksson" till "Charles Henrickson," och jag är uppkallad efter honom.

[Charles Henrickson]

If this is a fake, that would rune it for me.

[Gwaihir]

Anyone know whatever happened to the Granby Idol?

[Uff Da]

is there a Norwegian ping list? Uff da!

Are you asking me??? If there isn't, there ought to be one!

[Erasmus]

Eight Geats (southern Swedes) and 22 Norwegians [...]

My Grampa Hans (who came over from Stavanger about 1909) would have loved this.

Especially the part about what they called the southern Swedes.

~<]B^)

[BSunday]

Did the Scandinavians beat Columbus to America twice?

Don't Care. I still get the day off.

[Dave Elias]

But Columbus never set foot in America! He landed in the Carribean island archepelago not the continental mainland.

[Treebeard]

There is controversy over what the runes mean. Some say it's old Norse alphabet (a really old version), with the date of 1012, written in a cipher. Others say that if you transpose two of the letters, you get "GLOMEDAL" or Glome's Valley" or "Eat at Glome's" or something like that. Then there's a guy who says everyone else is wrong, it's an encoded message by one of LaSalle's expedition members.

You're right, there is not much interest among the locals, most of whom think 'academia' is a nut that goes in cookies. Poor Vikings, God knows how they got to Heavener, because you almost have to intend to get there to get there.

[VU4G10]

[blam]

It would break my heart to find out that the rune stones are fake. This woman, Gloria Farley, did a lot of good, honest work in this area. She was also a close friend and associate of Dr Barry Fell.

[farmfriend]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
List for articles regarding early civilizations , life of all forms, - dinosaurs - etc.

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For real time political chat - Free Republic Radio chat room
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[farmfriend]

We got a new Swede that is coming into the Radio FreeRepublic chat room. 20 year old university kid. Wooley.

[Travis McGee]

It is one of my long-time goals to eventually write a Gary Jennings-scale epic novel about the Vikings in America.

I can't decide if I will write it as a "lost expedition" narrative, or an alternative history. If I go the alternative history route, I'll have the expedition land on "fertile soil" south of New York, landing in the middle of Indian wars so that they are well-received as new allies bringing iron and horses, similar to the Spanish conquistadors' experience 500 years later.

Just imagine if North America had been settled by Vikings beginning in AD 1000! How does that sound for an epic novel!

[RightWhale]

I always wondered how anybody could consider Columbus, or anybody else

This is not a problem. The people here did not know they were in the future America or New World. Did they refer to themselves as Native Americans or American Indians or in any way indicate they knew what this land was to become? America therefore did not exist except in fable until Columbus discovered it.

[twigs]

I believe that a number of different people, including Europeans and Africans, maybe Arabs too, got here before Columbus. The date of his voyage, coming so soon after the invention of the printing press, made the critical difference in him getting the credit. He got the word out.

[farmfriend]

Let me know when it comes out. I'd love to read it.

[Marysecretary]

My dad didn't get here until 1917! Go Norway!