Kensington Rune Stone Collection
Collection Overview
Abstract
Collection of various materials, mainly magazine article and newspaper clippings, regarding the Rune Stone found near Kensington, Minnesota, in 1898
Scope and Contents of the Materials
The Kensington Rune Stone Collection consists of journal and magazine articles, newspaper clippings, publications, and oral history interviews.
Collection Historical Note
The Kensington Rune Stone was discovered three miles northeast of Kensington, Douglas County, Minnesota, in the fall of 1898. The Runestone remains controversial to this day.
The controversy centers on the interpretation of the inscription. Translated it reads:
(We are) 8 Goths and 22 Norwegians on (an) exploration-journey from Vinland over the West. We had camp by 2 skerries, one days-journey north from this stone. We were (out) and fished one day. After we come home (we) found 10 (of our) men red with blood and dead. AV(e) M(aria) Save us from evil. (We) have 10 of our party by the sea to look after our ship(s?) 14 days-journey from this island. Year 1362.
Proponents of the Kensington Rune Stone see it as an artifact of great historical significance, as it alleges Norse visits to America a century before the arrival of Columbus. The voyage would also have been 238 years after the last recorded Vinland voyage.
Opponents hold equally strong opinions. They argue it is absurd that thirty Vikings could, in fourteen days, penetrate from Vinland on the Atlantic coast as far west as Douglas County, Minnesota. They also contend that the inscription itself is much younger than the dates of the inscription.
The Kensington Rune Stone is on permanent display at the Runestone Museum in Alexandria, Minnesota.
Subject/Index Terms
Administrative Information
Repository: Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections
Access Restrictions: Open for examination according to the rules and regulations of the Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections.
Acquisition Method: The materials in the collection have been donated by various people over many years.
Separated Materials: Also included are two oral history interviews on audio cassette tapes from the Minnesota Historical Society. The tapes were separated and placed in the Audio Tape Collection. Tape 2050 is a 1967 interview with (Frank) Walter Gran and Josephine (Gran) Carson. Tape 2051 is a 1970 interview with Walter Gran alone. In the interviews, the Grans report that their father, John Gran, chiseled the stone as a hoax along with Olaf Ohman, on whose property the stone was found. The originals for both tapes are kept by the Minnesota Historical Society.
Related Publications: The Department of Special Collections also has numerous books regarding the Kensington Rune Stone. Please consult the library catalog to search for these titles.
Preferred Citation: (Description of Item). Kensington Rune Stone Collection. OGLMC 1040, Box #, Folder #. Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota.
Finding Aid Revision History: Finding aid added to Archon in October 2013.
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Box:
[Box 1],
[All]
- Box 1
- Folder 1: Rasmus B. Anderson. “Another View of the Kensington Rune Stone” The Wisconsin Magazine of History 3 (June 1920), 413-419.
- Folder 2: Johannes Bronsted. “Norsemen in North America before Columbus.” Smithsonian Institution. Annual Report. (1952-1953), 367-405.
- Folder 3: T.P. Christensen. “The Study of the Kensington Stone.” Annals of Iowa 3rd Series. 32 (April 1954), 297-301.
- Folder 4: Stefan Einarsson. “Review of the Kensington Stone, a study in pre-Columbian American History.” Speculum 8 (July 1933), 401-408.
- Folder 5: George T. Flom. The Kensington Rune Stone. Illinois State Historical Society Transactions 1910, 105-125.
- Folder 6: G.M. Gathorne-Hardy. “Alleged Norse Remains in America” Antiquity (December, 1932), 420-433.
- Folder 7: S.N. Hagan. “The Kensington Runic Inscription” Speculum 25 (July,1950), 321- 356.
- Folder 8: Thomas R. Henry. “The Riddle of the Kensington Stone.” Saturday Evening Post. 221, No. 8 (August 1948), 109-110.
- Folder 9: Hjalmar R. Holand. “The Climax Fire Steel.” Minnesota History 31 (December 1947), 417-430.
- Folder 10: Hjalmar R. Holand. “Comment by H.R. Holand on all of Mr. Larson's Article Except the Last Three Paragraphs.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 4 (June, 1921), 387-391.
- Folder 11: Hjalmar R. Holand. “Concerning the Kensington Rune Stone” Minnesota History 17 (June 1936), 166-188.
- Folder 12: Hjalmar R. Holand. “An Explorers Stone Record which Antedates Columbus.” Harper's Weekly 53 (October, 1909), 15.
- Folder 13: Hjalmar R. Holand. “First Authoritive Investigation of Oldest Native document in America.” Journal of American History 4 (April 1910),165-184.
- Folder 14: Hjalmar R. Holand. “Further Discoveries Concerning the Kensington Rune Stone.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 3 (March 1920), 332-338.
- Folder 15: Hjalmar R. Holand. “The Goths in the Kensington Inscription.” Scandinavian Studies and Notes 6 (May 1921), 159-175.
- Folder 16: Hjalmar R. Holand. “The Kensington Rune Stone, is it the oldest Native Document of American History?” Wisconsin Magazine of History 3 (December 1919), 153-183.
- Folder 17: Hjalmar R. Holand. “The Kensington Rune Stone Abroad.” Records of the Past 10, Part 5 (Sept. - October 1911), 260-271.
- Folder 18: Hjalmar R. Holand. “The Kensington Rune Stone Abroad.” Records of the Past 10, Part 5 (Sept. - October 1911), 260-271.
- Folder 19: Hjalmar R. Holand. “The Origin of the Kensington Inscription.” Scandinavian Studies 23 (Feb. 1951), 23-30.
- Folder 20: Hjalmar R. Holand. “A Review of the Kensington Stone Research.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 36 (Summer 1953), 235-239, 273-276.
- Folder 21: Hjalmar R. Holand. “The Truth About the Kensington Stone.” Michigan History 31 (December 1947), 417-430.
- Folder 22: Hjalmar R. Holand. “Are There English Words on the Kensington Rune Records of the Past 9 Part 5 (Sept. - October 1910), 240-245.
- Folder 23: "The Kensington Rune Stone. Preliminary Report to the Minnesota Historical Society by its Museum Committee." Minnesota Historical Society Collections 15 (St. Paul, 1915), 221-286.
- Folder 24: Constant Larson. “The Kensington Rune Stone” n.d. n.p.
- Folder 25: Laurence M. Larson. “The Kensington Rune Stone.” Minnesota History 17 (March 1936), 20-37.
- Folder 26: Laurence M. Larson. “The Kensington Rune Stone.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 4 (June 1921), 382-387.
- Folder 27: Erik Moltke. "The Ghost of the Kensington Stone." Scandinavian Studies 25 (Feb. 1953), 1-14.
- Folder 28: T.J. Oleson. "The Vikings in America, A Critical Bibliography of Works Since 1939." Canadian Historical Review 36 (June, 1955) 166-173.
- Folder 29: T.J. Oleson. "The Vikings in America." Canadian Historical Association. Report of Annual Meeting. 1954.
- Folder 30: Milo M. Quaife. "A Footnote on Fire Steels." Minnesota History 18 (March, 1937), 36-41.
- Folder 31: Milo M. Quaife. "The Myth of the Kensington Rune Stone: The Norse Discovery of Minnesota 1362." The New England Quarterly 7 (December, 1934), 613-645.
- Folder 32: Milo M. Quaife. "The Kensington Myth Once More." Michigan History 31 (June, 1947), 129-161.
- Folder 33: Tryggvi J. Olseson. "The Vikings in America: A Critical Bibliography." Canadian Historical Review 36 (June, 1955), 166-173.
- Folder 34: C. Stewart Peterson. America's Rune Stone of A.D. 1362 Gains Favor. 1946.
- Folder 35: Francis J. Schaefer. "A Bibliography." Catholic Historical Review. 387-391.
- Folder 36: Francis J. Schaefer. “The Kensington Rune Stone.” Catholic Historical Review 6 (October, 1920), 330-334.
- Folder 37: H.A. Schwartz. “Who Discovered Black Heart Malleable.” Foundry 74 (May, 1946), 302-306.
- Folder 38: Lawrence D. Steefel. “The Kensington Rune Stone.” Minnesota Archaeologist 27 (1965), 97-115.
- Folder 39: William C. Thalbitzer. Two Runic Stones from Greenland and Minnesota. Washington: Smithsonian Institution 1951.
- Folder 40: Warren Upham. “The Kensington Rune Stone, Its Discovery, Its Inscriptions and Opinions Concerning Them.” Records of the Past 9 (January-February, 1910) 3-7.
- Folder 41: William S. Wallace. “The Literature Relating to the Norse Voyages to America.” Canadian Historical Review 20 (March, 1939), 8-16.
- Folder 42: M.T.R. Washburn. “Were there Fourteenth Century Christian Europeans in the Land that Became the U.S.?” Journal of American History 26 (1932), 121-145.
- Folder 43: Charles C. Wilson. “A Lawyer's View of the Kensington Rune Stone.” Minnesota History Bulletin 2 (February, 1917), 13-19.
- Folder 44: Runestone souvenir from the Runestone Museum in Alexandria, Minnesota.
- Folder 45: Darrel Koehler. “The Kensington Stone.” Grand Forks Herald, August 26, 1992, page 1C.
- Folder 46: Associated Press article regarding a book which claims that the Kensington Runestone is authentic. Grand Forks Herald, 21 October 1995.
- Folder 47: Theodore Blegen, “Frederick J. Turner and the Kensington Puzzle.” Minnesota History, Winter 1964
- Folder 48: Minnesota Historical Society Oral History Interview Data Sheet for the Gran Tapes: 1967 and 1970
- Folder 49: Erik Wahlgren. “Reflections Around a Rune Stone.” Swedish Pioneer Historical Quarterly, January 1968
- Folder 50: Birgitta Wallace. “Some Points of Controversy,” in The Quest for America. Praeger Publishers, 1971
- Folder 51: “The Case of the Gran Tapes: Further Evidence on the Rune Stone Riddle.” Minnesota History, Winter 1976
- Folder 52: Stephen Williams. Selection from Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991
- Folder 53: Erik Drilen, “Maybe the Vikings Made it Norse America,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 24 May 1992
- Folder 54: Rolf Nilsestuen, “Evidence Shows Kensington Runestone is No Fake,” Minneapolis Star Tribune. 12 July 1992
- Folder 55: Minnesota Historical Society. Roots. “Vikings in Minnesota: A Controversial Legacy.” 1993
- Folder 56: Peg Meier. “Hoax or History?: The Kensington Rune Stone is Minnesota’s Contribution to the Bermuda Triangle of Artifacts Seeking the Stamp of Authenticity.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1 March 1995
- Folder 57: Richard Nielsen. “Early Scandinavian Incursions into the Western States.” Journal of the West, January 2000
- Folder 58: Marc Stengel. “The Diffusionists Have Landed.” Atlantic Monthly, January 2000
- Folder 59: Michael Lemonick and Andrea Dorfman. “The Amazing Vikings.” Time, 8 May 2000
- Folder 60: Arne Brekke, “Heyerdahl: The Kensington Rune Stone is Genuine.” 14 November 2000
- Folder 61: Peg Meier. “Geologist Thinks Runestone not a Hoax.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 29 November 2000
- Folder 62: Handout from the Midwest Archaeology Conference, November 2000
- Folder 63: David Knutson. “Just How Old is the Kensington Runestone?” Grand Forks Herald, 10 December 2000
- Folder 64: Walter Gibbs. “Did the Vikings Stay: Vatican Files May Offer Clues.” New York Times, 19 December 2000
- Folder 65: Barry Hanson. “The Kensington Runestone: Physical Features, Past and Present.” Journal of the West, Winter 2001
- Folder 66: Michael Zalar. “16th Century Cartography, Plat Maps, and the Kensington Rune Stone.” Journal of the West, Winter 2001
- Folder 67: Peg Meier. “2nd Runestone a Hoax, Say Two Who Claim to Have Carved It.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 6 November 2001
- Folder 68: Minnesota Archaeological Society Newsletter, Fall 2002
- Folder 69: Chuck Haga. “This Time It’s True: Viking Artifacts in Minnesota.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 18 November 2002
- Folder 70: Peg Meier. “Smithsonian’s 2nd Opinion: Runestone is a Fake.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 30 November 2002
- Folder 71: Melbourne Christopher and St. John Barrett. Lions of the Sea . 2006
- Lions of the Sea is a novel written by Melbourne Christopher and published in 2006. St. John Barrett is noted as the collaborative author. The novel tells about the voyage of a Swedish landowner named Birger Ulfsson to find lost colonists for the King of Sweden. Ulfsson is given a map of the new world of Vinland by his mother and starts on his voyage. He and his men do not find the colonists in Vinland, Greenland or Nova Scotia so they continue south through Lake Winnipeg and the Red River. While exploring the surrounding area, Pall Knutsson, one of his men revolts and tries to kill Ulfsson but the plan backfires, and Knutsson and ten other men are killed by a local tribe. The story of this massacre is told on the Kensington Runestone. On Ulfsson’s trip home he finds the lost colonists and is named Chancellor of the Realm for King Haakon of Sweden.
- Folder 72: Peg Meier. “Farmer who found Runestone is not a fraud, family says.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, September 6, 2004
- Folder 73: Rhonda Gilman. “The Kensington Runestone: A Century of Controversy.” Journal of the West, Summer 2005
- Folder 74: Peg Meier. “Kensington Runestone looking more like a fake.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 8, 2004
- Folder 75: Kensington Runestone Museum Brochure, undated
- Folder 76: “Runestone heads to Sweden to be studied.” Grand Forks Herald , October 5, 2003
- Folder 77: Grand Forks Herald Interview with Scott Wolter, a geologist who has written several books about the Kensington Rune Stone: January 13, 2007
- Folder 78: Scandinavian interview with Scott Wolter: Winter 20008
- Folder 79: Richard Nielsen, "There is No Grail Code on the Kensington Rune Stone." Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers." v27, 2009
- Folder 80: Henrik Williams and Richard Nielsen. "The Stockholm Historical Museum Exhibition on the Kensington Rune Stone."
- Folder 81: "Comments on Scott Wolter's Report on the Kensington Stone, Dated 2003.10.18." Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers. v. 27, 2009
- Folder 82: Richard Nielsen. "Answers for the Runestone Museum Information." Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers." v27, 2009
- Folder 83: Tryggve Skold, "Edward Larssons Alfabet" and "Edward Larssons Alfabet och Kensingtonstenes," Staffan Lundmark, "Skraddaren Edward Larsson, 1867-1950." Institute for Dialectology, Onomastics, and Folklore Research, Umea, Sweden, 2003.
- Folder 84: "Olof Ohman (1854-1935)." Print out of Kensington Area Historical Society webpage. March 26, 2011
- Folder 85: Scott Wolter. "Peer Review of Richard Nielsen's 'Weathering Ground-line,' 'Grail Prayer,' and 'Dotted R' Papers in ESOP #27." May 21, 2010
- Folder 86: "Expert from Sweden Exposes Mystery of Minnesota's Runestone." Aledo Times Record (Aledo, Illinois). September 28, 2010
- Folder 87: Lennart Regebro. "The Kensington Runestone." Print-out from Regebro's blog. March 4, 2011
- Folder 88: "Edward Larsson's Rune Lists." Print-out from website. Author unattributed.
- Folder 89: John D. Bengston. The Kensington Rune Stone: A Study Guide, undated
- Folder 90: Kensington Rune Stone inscription translation - 2014, Professor Henrik Williams and Dr. Richard Nielsen
- Folder includes information on Runverket in Sweden and the San Saga Project.
- Folder 91: Slides from a presentation on locating the site of the Kensington Rune Stone massacre by Bob Voyles, 2 May 2015
A PDF version of the presentation has been archived in Special Collections. The presentation was given to the Kensington Area Heritage Society.
Folder also contains an article by Voyles which appeared in the 11 March 2016 issue of the Norwegian American Weekly. The article is titled In defense of the Kensington Runestone: a code-stone.
- Folder 92: Joachim Frederick Weltzin. Saga of the Lost Brigade, ca. 1983
- Unpublished imaginative typescript by Weltzin about the purported expedition noted on the Kensington Rune Stone. Weltzin received a B.A. from UND in 1925, majoring in Scandinavian languages.
- Folder 1: Rasmus B. Anderson. “Another View of the Kensington Rune Stone” The Wisconsin Magazine of History 3 (June 1920), 413-419.
Browse by Box:
[Box 1],
[All]