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Kensington Rune Stone Collection

Collection Overview

Title: Kensington Rune Stone Collection

ID: OGLMC/1040

Extent: 1.0 Linear Feet

Languages: English [eng], Norwegian [nor], Swedish [swe]

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.

Administrative Information

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

Box 1Add to your cart.
Folder 1: Rasmus B. Anderson. “Another View of the Kensington Rune Stone” The Wisconsin Magazine of History 3 (June 1920), 413-419.Add to your cart.
Folder 2: Johannes Bronsted. “Norsemen in North America before Columbus.” Smithsonian Institution. Annual Report. (1952-1953), 367-405.Add to your cart.
Folder 3: T.P. Christensen. “The Study of the Kensington Stone.” Annals of Iowa 3rd Series. 32 (April 1954), 297-301.Add to your cart.
Folder 4: Stefan Einarsson. “Review of the Kensington Stone, a study in pre-Columbian American History.” Speculum 8 (July 1933), 401-408.Add to your cart.
Folder 5: George T. Flom. The Kensington Rune Stone. Illinois State Historical Society Transactions 1910, 105-125.Add to your cart.
Folder 6: G.M. Gathorne-Hardy. “Alleged Norse Remains in America” Antiquity (December, 1932), 420-433.Add to your cart.
Folder 7: S.N. Hagan. “The Kensington Runic Inscription” Speculum 25 (July,1950), 321- 356.Add to your cart.
Folder 8: Thomas R. Henry. “The Riddle of the Kensington Stone.” Saturday Evening Post. 221, No. 8 (August 1948), 109-110.Add to your cart.
Folder 9: Hjalmar R. Holand. “The Climax Fire Steel.” Minnesota History 31 (December 1947), 417-430.Add to your cart.
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.Add to your cart.
Folder 11: Hjalmar R. Holand. “Concerning the Kensington Rune Stone” Minnesota History 17 (June 1936), 166-188.Add to your cart.
Folder 12: Hjalmar R. Holand. “An Explorers Stone Record which Antedates Columbus.” Harper's Weekly 53 (October, 1909), 15.Add to your cart.
Folder 13: Hjalmar R. Holand. “First Authoritive Investigation of Oldest Native document in America.” Journal of American History 4 (April 1910),165-184.Add to your cart.
Folder 14: Hjalmar R. Holand. “Further Discoveries Concerning the Kensington Rune Stone.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 3 (March 1920), 332-338.Add to your cart.
Folder 15: Hjalmar R. Holand. “The Goths in the Kensington Inscription.” Scandinavian Studies and Notes 6 (May 1921), 159-175.Add to your cart.
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.Add to your cart.
Folder 17: Hjalmar R. Holand. “The Kensington Rune Stone Abroad.” Records of the Past 10, Part 5 (Sept. - October 1911), 260-271.Add to your cart.
Folder 18: Hjalmar R. Holand. “The Kensington Rune Stone Abroad.” Records of the Past 10, Part 5 (Sept. - October 1911), 260-271.Add to your cart.
Folder 19: Hjalmar R. Holand. “The Origin of the Kensington Inscription.” Scandinavian Studies 23 (Feb. 1951), 23-30.Add to your cart.
Folder 20: Hjalmar R. Holand. “A Review of the Kensington Stone Research.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 36 (Summer 1953), 235-239, 273-276.Add to your cart.
Folder 21: Hjalmar R. Holand. “The Truth About the Kensington Stone.” Michigan History 31 (December 1947), 417-430.Add to your cart.
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.Add to your cart.
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.Add to your cart.
Folder 24: Constant Larson. “The Kensington Rune Stone” n.d. n.p.Add to your cart.
Folder 25: Laurence M. Larson. “The Kensington Rune Stone.” Minnesota History 17 (March 1936), 20-37.Add to your cart.
Folder 26: Laurence M. Larson. “The Kensington Rune Stone.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 4 (June 1921), 382-387.Add to your cart.
Folder 27: Erik Moltke. "The Ghost of the Kensington Stone." Scandinavian Studies 25 (Feb. 1953), 1-14.Add to your cart.
Folder 28: T.J. Oleson. "The Vikings in America, A Critical Bibliography of Works Since 1939." Canadian Historical Review 36 (June, 1955) 166-173.Add to your cart.
Folder 29: T.J. Oleson. "The Vikings in America." Canadian Historical Association. Report of Annual Meeting. 1954.Add to your cart.
Folder 30: Milo M. Quaife. "A Footnote on Fire Steels." Minnesota History 18 (March, 1937), 36-41.Add to your cart.
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.Add to your cart.
Folder 32: Milo M. Quaife. "The Kensington Myth Once More." Michigan History 31 (June, 1947), 129-161.Add to your cart.
Folder 33: Tryggvi J. Olseson. "The Vikings in America: A Critical Bibliography." Canadian Historical Review 36 (June, 1955), 166-173.Add to your cart.
Folder 34: C. Stewart Peterson. America's Rune Stone of A.D. 1362 Gains Favor. 1946.Add to your cart.
Folder 35: Francis J. Schaefer. "A Bibliography." Catholic Historical Review. 387-391.Add to your cart.
Folder 36: Francis J. Schaefer. “The Kensington Rune Stone.” Catholic Historical Review 6 (October, 1920), 330-334.Add to your cart.
Folder 37: H.A. Schwartz. “Who Discovered Black Heart Malleable.” Foundry 74 (May, 1946), 302-306.Add to your cart.
Folder 38: Lawrence D. Steefel. “The Kensington Rune Stone.” Minnesota Archaeologist 27 (1965), 97-115.Add to your cart.
Folder 39: William C. Thalbitzer. Two Runic Stones from Greenland and Minnesota. Washington: Smithsonian Institution 1951.Add to your cart.
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.Add to your cart.
Folder 41: William S. Wallace. “The Literature Relating to the Norse Voyages to America.” Canadian Historical Review 20 (March, 1939), 8-16.Add to your cart.
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.Add to your cart.
Folder 43: Charles C. Wilson. “A Lawyer's View of the Kensington Rune Stone.” Minnesota History Bulletin 2 (February, 1917), 13-19.Add to your cart.
Folder 44: Runestone souvenir from the Runestone Museum in Alexandria, Minnesota.Add to your cart.
Folder 45: Darrel Koehler. “The Kensington Stone.” Grand Forks Herald, August 26, 1992, page 1C.Add to your cart.
Folder 46: Associated Press article regarding a book which claims that the Kensington Runestone is authentic. Grand Forks Herald, 21 October 1995.Add to your cart.
Folder 47: Theodore Blegen, “Frederick J. Turner and the Kensington Puzzle.” Minnesota History, Winter 1964Add to your cart.
Folder 48: Minnesota Historical Society Oral History Interview Data Sheet for the Gran Tapes: 1967 and 1970Add to your cart.
Folder 49: Erik Wahlgren. “Reflections Around a Rune Stone.” Swedish Pioneer Historical Quarterly, January 1968Add to your cart.
Folder 50: Birgitta Wallace. “Some Points of Controversy,” in The Quest for America. Praeger Publishers, 1971Add to your cart.
Folder 51: “The Case of the Gran Tapes: Further Evidence on the Rune Stone Riddle.” Minnesota History, Winter 1976Add to your cart.
Folder 52: Stephen Williams. Selection from Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991Add to your cart.
Folder 53: Erik Drilen, “Maybe the Vikings Made it Norse America,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 24 May 1992Add to your cart.
Folder 54: Rolf Nilsestuen, “Evidence Shows Kensington Runestone is No Fake,” Minneapolis Star Tribune. 12 July 1992Add to your cart.
Folder 55: Minnesota Historical Society. Roots. “Vikings in Minnesota: A Controversial Legacy.” 1993Add to your cart.
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 1995Add to your cart.
Folder 57: Richard Nielsen. “Early Scandinavian Incursions into the Western States.” Journal of the West, January 2000Add to your cart.
Folder 58: Marc Stengel. “The Diffusionists Have Landed.” Atlantic Monthly, January 2000Add to your cart.
Folder 59: Michael Lemonick and Andrea Dorfman. “The Amazing Vikings.” Time, 8 May 2000Add to your cart.
Folder 60: Arne Brekke, “Heyerdahl: The Kensington Rune Stone is Genuine.” 14 November 2000Add to your cart.
Folder 61: Peg Meier. “Geologist Thinks Runestone not a Hoax.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 29 November 2000Add to your cart.
Folder 62: Handout from the Midwest Archaeology Conference, November 2000Add to your cart.
Folder 63: David Knutson. “Just How Old is the Kensington Runestone?” Grand Forks Herald, 10 December 2000Add to your cart.
Folder 64: Walter Gibbs. “Did the Vikings Stay: Vatican Files May Offer Clues.” New York Times, 19 December 2000Add to your cart.
Folder 65: Barry Hanson. “The Kensington Runestone: Physical Features, Past and Present.” Journal of the West, Winter 2001Add to your cart.
Folder 66: Michael Zalar. “16th Century Cartography, Plat Maps, and the Kensington Rune Stone.” Journal of the West, Winter 2001Add to your cart.
Folder 67: Peg Meier. “2nd Runestone a Hoax, Say Two Who Claim to Have Carved It.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 6 November 2001Add to your cart.
Folder 68: Minnesota Archaeological Society Newsletter, Fall 2002Add to your cart.
Folder 69: Chuck Haga. “This Time It’s True: Viking Artifacts in Minnesota.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 18 November 2002Add to your cart.
Folder 70: Peg Meier. “Smithsonian’s 2nd Opinion: Runestone is a Fake.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 30 November 2002Add to your cart.
Folder 71: Melbourne Christopher and St. John Barrett. Lions of the Sea . 2006Add to your cart.
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, 2004Add to your cart.
Folder 73: Rhonda Gilman. “The Kensington Runestone: A Century of Controversy.” Journal of the West, Summer 2005Add to your cart.
Folder 74: Peg Meier. “Kensington Runestone looking more like a fake.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 8, 2004Add to your cart.
Folder 75: Kensington Runestone Museum Brochure, undatedAdd to your cart.
Folder 76: “Runestone heads to Sweden to be studied.” Grand Forks Herald , October 5, 2003Add to your cart.
Folder 77: Grand Forks Herald Interview with Scott Wolter, a geologist who has written several books about the Kensington Rune Stone: January 13, 2007Add to your cart.
Folder 78: Scandinavian interview with Scott Wolter: Winter 20008Add to your cart.
Folder 79: Richard Nielsen,  "There is No Grail Code on the Kensington Rune Stone."  Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers." v27, 2009Add to your cart.
Folder 80: Henrik Williams and Richard Nielsen.  "The Stockholm Historical Museum Exhibition on the Kensington Rune Stone."Add to your cart.
Folder 81: "Comments on Scott Wolter's Report on the Kensington Stone, Dated 2003.10.18."  Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers. v. 27, 2009Add to your cart.
Folder 82: Richard Nielsen. "Answers for the Runestone Museum Information."  Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers."  v27, 2009Add to your cart.
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.Add to your cart.
Folder 84: "Olof Ohman (1854-1935)." Print out of Kensington Area Historical Society webpage. March 26, 2011Add to your cart.
Folder 85: Scott Wolter. "Peer Review of Richard Nielsen's 'Weathering Ground-line,' 'Grail Prayer,' and 'Dotted R' Papers in ESOP #27." May 21, 2010Add to your cart.
Folder 86: "Expert from Sweden Exposes Mystery of Minnesota's Runestone."  Aledo Times Record (Aledo, Illinois). September 28, 2010Add to your cart.
Folder 87: Lennart Regebro.  "The Kensington Runestone." Print-out from Regebro's blog. March 4, 2011Add to your cart.
Folder 88: "Edward Larsson's Rune Lists." Print-out from website.  Author unattributed.Add to your cart.
Folder 89: John D. Bengston.  The Kensington Rune Stone: A Study Guide, undatedAdd to your cart.
Folder 90: Kensington Rune Stone inscription translation - 2014, Professor Henrik Williams and Dr. Richard NielsenAdd to your cart.
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 2015Add to your cart.

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. 1983Add to your cart.
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.