Kensington Runestone and Its Literary Life

Abstract

The stone covered with runes was discovered in 1898 on the farm of a Swedish immigrant Olof Ohman near Kensington, MN. The inscription told of the Scandinavians' short stint in this land. One day some of them went fishing. When they returned, they found ten of their fellows massacred by the natives. The Runestone has led researchers on an exhaustive quest to explain how a runic artifact, dated 1362, could show up in North America. The Kensington Runestone is an important piece of American history and it has been a point of interest and pride, controversy and contention. The Runestone is considered a hoax by some scholars today, but it remains an important icon to Scandinavian-Americans. The Scandinavian immigrants knew Icelandic sagas about their Viking ancestors being in America in the Middle Ages; the Kensington Runestone for them was an authentic relic of Scandinavian travel in the New World over a century before Columbus. Currently this historic artifact has an important and persistent role in Scandinavian-American folk culture. For Scandinavian-Americans, that regard the Vikings as heroic explorers, the Kensington Runestone is closely tied to the national and cultural identity. The Runestone appears in literature: a Canadian writer Laura Salverson published in 1954 a historical novel “Immortal Rock” to bring to life the unknown page of North American history.

Keywords

• kensington runestone
• american literature
• immigration
• scandinavians
• laura salverson
• usa
• minnesota
• self-identity
• vikings
• nationalism