Vinland 1

On November 8, 1898, a Norwegian immigrant farmer, Olaf Ohman, unearthed a large stone block covered with runic writing while cutting down a tree on his land–or so the story goes. Ohman lived about 145 miles northwest of Minneapolis. This “Kensington Runestone” was translated most recently as follows:

We eight Goetalanders and twenty-two Northmen are on this acquisition expedition far west from Vinland. We had properties near two stone shelters one day’s march north from this stone. We went fishing one day. After we came home, I found ten men red with blood, dead. Ave Maria, save us from evil! I have ten men by the sea to look after our ships fourteen days’ travel from this site. Year of the Lord 1362.

Archaeologists have generally regarded the stone as a fake. Recently, however, Fate magazine hopefully announced “Kensington Runestone Proved Authentic” in an article based on the release of a new book by a long-time advocate for the stone’s veracity.

Let’s look, then, at the skeptics’ arguments first. Actually, there are two of them: the runes themselves and the suspicious timing of the discovery.

1. The timing. In 1893, thousands attended the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, marking the four-hundredth (plus 1) anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ first trip to the Western Hemisphere.

The fair’s Norwegian pavilion included a replica of the Gokstad ship, a 10th-century ship found buried near Oslo in 1880. It’s easy to see a message there. Norway was still in a political union with Sweden (dissolved in 1905), but as did other European countries, had its own flourishing romantic nationalist movement. Replicating the Gokstad ship also made the statement, “We Norse were the first to sail the Atlantic.”

The Norwegian explorer-scientist Fridtjof Nansen was one of many to pore over the ancient Grænlendinga Saga and Eirik’s Saga with their descriptions of voyages to North America around the year 1000. But despite the sagas’ evidence (and that of some medieval maps), Norse exploration beyond Greenland was not officially accepted until an archaeological dig in Newfoundland led to undeniable evidence of at least one small settlement–or seasonal work station, depending on the interpretation.

Likewise, the skeptics continue, Ohman’s “discovery” of the runestone was part of a typical American tale of immigrants negotiating their place in the new society, a manifestation of “Norwegian pride” more than a genuine artifact. And how coincidental that it closely followed the Columbian Exposition!

2. The skeptics’ second argument involves the runes themselves. Even in the 1890s, some Norwegians continued to use runic writing for short inscriptions, part of that “romantic nationalism,” perhaps. Ohman also had been trained as a stonemason and had come from an area of Norway (Hälsingland) where runes were used occasionally.

Most of the experts who examined the stone, however, found reasons–too complicated to summarize here–to argue that the language and runes used, while Norse, did not fit with other examples from the 1300s. Their conclusion was that the Kensington Runestone was a clever fake, a prank, and “a memorial to the creativity of Scandinavian immigrants,” to quote the editors of Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga.

More to come. Meanwhile, here is a Kensington Runestone links page.

Tags: Kensington runestone, Vinland

Pagan bloggy goodness

Stop what you are doing and check out the redesigned Wild Hunt Blog, complete with a new series of posts on contemporary Pagan music.

Tag: Pagan music

Beer and Vinland

I sat down last night with a plate of bread, King Oscar sardines and Rosenborg cheese, a couple of bottles of Carlsberg beer (Support Denmark!), and a copy of the Smithsonian’s illustrated anthology Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga.

It’s all for inspiration: I am working up to a series of posts on archaeology and ethnicity. But events of the last week threw me off course (more about that later, maybe), and so I am offering this post chiefly as a placeholder and to spur myself to start writing.

Meanwhile, if I kept up that hearty diet, I would be rotund. Lacking a longship to row in Northern mists, I had better go outside and shovel snow.

Tags: Norse, Vikings, Support Denmark

Brothers under the skin

Andrew Sullivan, high-profile political blogger, makes a point that few people would: the Muslims rampaging over those “evil cartoons” and some Christians have a strong family resemblence: “In the end, the real fundamentalists are on the same side.”

It’s the side that says religious “truth” is more important than your or my freedoms.

Consider, for instance, this Canadian Muslim leader’s attack on free speech.

And, Imam Syed Soharwardy, president of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, says he’s thankful the kinds of cruel caricatures of his faith’s Prophet Muhammad — which have now run in several European papers — would likely never be printed in this country.

It doesn’t say which Muslim country he comes from, but whichever one it is, I’m sure that its newspapers are under the government’s thumb. And he is happy that Canada is heading in the same direction! Can’t have any of this dangerous “freedom of the press” stuff! (Brad Hicks has the right idea.)

What can we Pagans do? Stay vigilant and Buy Danish. And toss some Norwegian sardine in the shopping cart too.

During the first week of my rhetoric class I point out that our Western version of rhetoric arose in the same cultural milieu that gave us an admittedly limited democracy–classical Athens. Once the concept had been given a name, it had a life. Classical Athens, I muse aloud, was a polytheistic society where there was no Holy Book to settle all disagreements; consequently, they had to be threshed out by the contending parties in court. I cannot imagine a monotheistic, theocratic society producing democracy as we uphold it.

UPDATE: Another Web site with “Buy Danish” suggestions.

Tags: Islam, Theocracy, Denmark, Norway

It’s your choice not to be addicted

The headline will make sense if you stop by the latest Carnival of the Etymologies.

I was glad to see that I remembered the orign of “forlorn hope” correctly. It’s a military term.

Tag: Etymology

Canadian Pagan Conference

The second annual Canadian National Pagan Conference will be held May 19-22 in Nova Scotia.

Organizers plan both academic and non-academic presentations, with the latter including

* How to deal with social workers.
* How to get charitable status.
* How to operate a “church”.
* Running charities and raising funds.
* How we operate Pagan stores, hold Pagan Pride Days and organize Pagan scout troops for our children.
* And other subjects YOU request!

Tags: Gaia Gathering, Canadian Paganism

“Free countries do not ban blasphemy”

Political blogger Andrew Sullivan has good things to say on the Danish cartoon controversy.

Militant Muslims (and the Saudi government) want Muslims to stop buying Danish products. The Religious Policeman (a Saudi Arab himself) sarcastically notes that the “Muslim Offense Level” has been raised.

It’s time to stop by the supermarket and buy some Danish cheese.

Despite what their government does, at least some Norwegians won’t roll over for Muslim theocrats. Or any theocrats. let’s hope.

UPDATE: Some European newspapers are republishing the “offensive” cartoons.

Mohammed Bechari, president of the National Federation of the Muslims of France, said his group would start legal proceedings against France Soir because of “these pictures that have disturbed us, and that are still hurting the feelings of 1.2 billion Muslims.”

Let’s see, that’s 1.2 billion times how many euros for hurt feelings? Should we be likewise suing everyone who makes green-faced witch Halloween cards? Or do we just laugh and buy some in a knowing and ironic way?

Tags: Islam, Theocracy

Ancestral faces

Compared to their 14th-16th century ancestors, today’s English have slightly different faces, reports the BBC, in one of those short pieces that raises more questions than it answers.

Modern people possess less prominent features but higher foreheads than our medieval ancestors.

Is it because back then they were rolling out of their pallets, downing a mug of “small beer” and chewing (with difficulty) some very hard bread before going out to work digging a field or sheering sheep, thus developing powerful jaws?

I find the “increase in mental capacity” argument to be a little weak, since I did not think there was a connection (within the normal human variation) between brain size and intelligence.

Medieval food was tougher and chewier, even for the rich. A recent article in Archaeology discussed the repair done to the Medici family crypt, which had been flooded in the 1966 overflow of the Arno River in Florence. A archaeologist who examined the teeth of Lorenzo de Medici, who must have lived as comfortable life as was possible in 15th-century Italy, said that from his dental wear, one would think he spent his life chewing sawdust.

Tags: Archaeology, Middle Ages