Kensington Runestone

The so-called Runestone Kensington in 1898, presented by Olof Ohman from Kensington, Minnesota, United States to the public. Ohman had the stone allegedly found during Excavation of an aspen in the root system. The pseudo- runic inscription intended to represent the legacy of America Greenland expedition of Grænlendingar from the 14th century. After matching view of leading experts is a modern forgery

Stone and inscription

» 8 Göter [ Gauts, that is, Sweden ] and 22 Norwegians on a voyage of discovery from Vinland westward. We had camp at 2 skerries one day's journey north from this stone. We were one day while fishing. - After we came home, found [ we ] 10 men red with blood and dead AVM, deliver [ us ] from [ the ] evil "!

Standing on the narrow edge side:

» Have 10 men by the sea to see by 14 days' journey from this island by our ships. [ The ] year [ is ] 1362. "

Hjalmar Rued Holand

Hjalmar Rued Holand (1872-1963) was a young American of Norwegian descent, who was enthusiastic about the thesis of the discovery of America by the Grænlendingar. The Stone of Kensington he regarded as proof of his theory and as a final testimony of the missing Swedish-Norwegian Knudson Expedition ( 1355-1364 ). He bought the stone in 1907 and published the first complete translation of the runic text. It was he who led the sworn testimony of the Finder. He got an opinion on the age of the aspen, on the degree of weathering of the stone and the inscription. Fifty years Holand defended the authenticity of the stone of Kensington, and he also found other scholars who supported him there. Today, however, prevails in the professional world agreed that the stone is a clumsy forgery, created to demonstrate the discovery of America by Scandinavians.

Sometimes put forward hypotheses that claim the contrary and even want to establish a relationship with the Knights Templar belong to the realm of pseudoscience.

Proof of forgery

Breakfast came to doubt the authenticity of the stone. Historian threw for example, one that described by the inscription scenery was completely implausible: Age Scandinavians who discover the midst of a foreign country that many of their companions have been killed, had certainly had other worries than consuming to carve runes into a stone.

Pundits were also soon believe that the text a crude mixture of Scandinavian languages ​​and English was written by someone who has no knowledge of Old Norse language. However, Olof Ohman had a Swedish handbook entitled " The knowledgeable schoolmaster ". In this book, the technique of Runenritzung was described, and here also the Lord's Prayer found with the line " and deliver us from evil" in the exact form that can be found on the stone of Kensington. It is also remarkable is the consistent disregard Norse vocabulary, syntax, grammar, and the runic forms. In addition, can be found on genuine runes no calendar year in numerals, but regnal years, and numbers are written as words. Therefore, " all Scandinavian Runologen and experts identified the Kensington Runestone as a forgery in the history of Scandinavian linguistics " have now.