Source: http://www.barnesreview.org/html/jan2010lead_127.html
Title:
Kensington Rune Stone Decoded: Vikings, Templars & Goths in America in 1362?
By: Frank Joseph
Kensington Rune Stone Decoded: Vikings, Templars & Goths in America in 1362?
WHEN A SIMPLE IMMIGRANT FARMER discovered what seemed to be an ancient stone with “Vikingstyle” runes inscribed on it in Minnesota, people said he was crazy or lying. But more than 100 years later, additional discoveries have proved the stele was indeed the real McCoy, although left there by Knights Templar of the Middle Ages rather than Thor-worshipping Norsemen.
BY FRANK JOSEPH
Very few books are truly capable of rewriting history, but The Hooked X: Key to the Secret History of North America, by Scott F. Wolter, is certainly one of them. Although the author of this new Revisionist book, who is well known to longtime readers of TBR, is a professional geologist and not a historian, the discoveries made by Wolter in recent years and described in Hooked X are powerful enough to compel a fundamental rethinking of our view of the American past.
The centerpiece of his revelations is that controversial, even contentious artifact known as the Kensington Rune Stone [see TBR, March/April 2002—Ed.].
For those who are unfamiliar with it, this is a 200-pound greywacke sandstone stele found by Swedish immigrant farmer, Olof Ohman, while clearing his land in the largely rural township of Solem, Douglas County, Minnesota, during September 1898. Lying face down and entwined in the roots of a stunted, 30-year-old aspen, the 30-by-16-by-six-inch slab was covered on its face and one side with some sort of runic writing. Ohman brought it to the nearest town, Kensington, where his find was displayed at the local bank.
A badly flawed copy of the inscription was forwarded to the University of Minnesota, where a translation was attempted by Olaus J. Breda. It would take more than another 100 years for scholars, correcting for the imperfect copy, to properly translate the text. The front face reads, “Eight Gotlanders and 22 Norwegians on (this) reclaiming/acquisition journey far west from Vinland. We had a camp by two (shelters?) one day’s journey north from this stone. We were fishing one day. After we came home we found 10 men red with blood and death. Ave Maria. Save from evil.”
Inscribed on the side of the stone are the words, “There are 10 men by the sea to look after our ships 14 days journey from this island. Year 1362.”
PROFESSIONALS JUMP TO DEBUNK ARTIFACT
Although a professor of Scandinavian languages and literature, Breda’s runic knowledge was limited. He hastily proclaimed Ohman’s discovery a transparent hoax. Breda was supported by Norway’s leading archeologist of the late 19th century, Oluf Rygh, and his colleagues at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois.