Kensington Rune Stone

Author Theodore C. Blegen Minnesota Historical Society Press (September 15, 2008) Description “Few questions in American history,” writes Theodore C. Blegen, “have stirred so much curiosity or provoked such extended discussions as that of the authenticity of the runic inscription on a stone found near Kensington, Minnesota, in 1898.” Swedish-American farmer Olof Ohman discovered the stone clasped in the roots of an aspen tree on a knoll above the surrounding swamp. His young son was the first to notice the strange letters chiseled into the rock face. Since then historians, geologists and runic scholars have entered the debate over the age and meaning of these carvings. Are they genuine 14th-century runes, evidence of a pre-Columbian Viking expedition to North America, or are they a clever 19th-century hoax? In this classic volume, Blegen untangles the circumstances surrounding the unearthing of the Kensington Rune Stone. Marshalling letters, affidavits, newspaper accounts and invest