This short blog essay is intended to be some of my personal speculations about the plausibility of long ago interest in Norse land claims emanating from the landscape of "medieval Minnesota." I'm referring to visiting Norwegians or Scandinavians who might have once been interested in gaining ownership over a desired stretch of territory deep within what is now inner-America...and well before the time of Columbus. I hope to explain to readers why anyone might possibly have been interested in claiming land in faraway Minnesota during medieval times. We do know that Erik Gnupsson, Bishop of Greenland and Vinland, disappeared in AD 1121 while looking for Vinland. I speculate that the lucrative fur trade and emerging Christianity are what prompted the Bishop's search. But enough about America's medieval East Coast
I will compare and contrast two already-conceived land claim speculations: The "Kensington Runestone land claim theory" is quite well known, certainly more so than my own "Norse Code-stone land claim theory," recently seen on Peter Stormare's new TV show, Secrets of the Viking Stone. (An update about that is at the end of this essay.) I have researched historical events such as medieval climate change and disease across Europe. Suffice to say that I have tried to ferret-out the merits and flaws relating to these two land claim theories being considered.
I believe there is ample evidence to show that adventurous Norsemen came to what is now Minnesota from two different directions--and likely during multiple explorations lasting at least a few hundred years. We can recognize the petroglyph of a Norse vessel at Copper Harbor, Michigan, with Norse snakeheads adorning each end. To me, this petroglyph represents medieval Norsemen coming to Minnesota through the Great Lakes. Conversely, I think there are sufficient evidences to show that Norsemen also came down waterways into Minnesota from Hudson Bay. So...where do these two waterways from the east and the north dwindle down and meet? The answer is: basically, in the area where Lake Traverse and Big Stone Lake meet.
Just across the border, in South Dakota, is the Whetstone River. For speculative purposes, this little river might represent the upper beginnings of the Minnesota River. Along its course is a multiplicity of Norse evidences, including many genuine medieval Norse stoneholes in rocks and a few Norse petroglyphs. The best petroglyph example is a deeply carved and greatly aged image of a Norse drinking vessel chiseled into a rock near Milbank, South Dakota. A Scandinavian table knife is carved into a rock close by.
What these collective evidences in one geographical neighborhood reveal to me is that medieval Norse visitors to Minnesota were especially interested in this one specific location...which just happens to be a spot where a huge waterway circle, looping down through America, was completed, or connected. It is my view that later explorations involved spreading out away from this waterways merging area. For example, by following the Minnesota River southeastwardly to the Chippewa River and then paddling north, a party of Norsemen would end up within just a few miles of Runestone Hill, where the Kensington Runestone was discovered in 1898.
The KRS is self-dated to 1362. Because I think it took an extended period of time to explore the region where the aforementioned waterway circle was completed, I'm speculating that the Whetstone River evidences and the nearby Norse Code-stone site likely date back a few hundred years earlier than the KRS site--perhaps as early as the 12th century. In effect, I believe that these indications of Norse exploration could date back to the time of the Crusades--a period of history already over by the time the KRS was carved. In fact, the climate was already beginning to cool by the time the KRS was erected on Runestone Hill. Disease had just hit and Europe was suddenly depopulated. By contrast, the climate was still nice and warm at the end of the Viking Age (roughly AD 1100), and populations across Scandinavia were high, two factors which likely made attempts at faraway land claiming more appealing than a few hundred years later.
Here's another way of assessing the situation. The Vikings colonized Greenland during the medieval warm period, but then left during the beginning of the little ice age--roughly around the time of the KRS. The Black Death originated in China and spread along the trade routes until it hit Europe between 1347 - 1351. Scandinavia was hit in 1350--again, not long before the KRS was carved. One estimate is that a total of about 25 million people in Europe died, about 30% of the population. So, in my view, the timeframe of disease and depopulation does away with the concept of long distance land claiming at the time of the KRS. By contrast, earlier population densities during a warm period may have encouraged the idea of long distance land claims.
Though I believe wholeheartedly that the KRS is authentic, so far I have not seen much relevance to the notion of a land claim connection to the KRS and the Chippewa River. However, there does appear to be some connection of relevance to the next river over, just west a short distance from the Chippewa River. This watercourse--the Pomme de Terre River--happens to reach the farthest north of any rivers discharging into the Minnesota River. Therefore, a land claim might be maximized by the increased area of watershed. Again, it is near Appleton, Minnesota and the Norse Code-stone site that the Pomme de Terre River empties into the Minnesota River.
I have tried to find some good reason to think that the KRS may have been involved in a land claim, but I have found nothing. In fact, evidence appears to indicate that the stone was likely originally erected--not purposely buried. For one thing, it was found buried only several inches deep, according to an early drawing by one of the Ohman boys. And the stoneholes around Runestone Hill may have been connected to another, perhaps earlier, expedition. Maybe other Norsemen camped at Runestone Hill because of the location's defensive nature, what seemed like an appropriate distance away from the river highway, the Chippewa River. It could be that the KRS party figured Norsemen might return to Runestone Hill and find the runestone.
In summation, though there appears to be inadequate good reasoning for believing the KRS was involved in a medieval long-distance land claim, there does seem to be sufficient good reasoning for thinking a party of Norsemen may have attempted a long-distance land claim via the Norse Code-stone. Again, the Code-stone was apparently purposely situated to mark the discharge of the Pomme de Terre River.
I encourage readers of this essay to read about the Norse Code-stone and see photos of the site in another commentary about it at this website. A search of my name, Robert Voyles, at Alexandria's Echo Press and at the Norwegian American will also result in more commentaries and photos from me, all related to the Kensington Runestone in some way. I always welcome questions and comments. My email is whitefox3@comcast.net.
Norse Code-stone update: Though Peter Stormare was gracious in being willing to foot the cost of a professional dig during the 2018 filming of Secrets of the Viking Stone, neither the Minnesota State Archaeologist nor the Minnesota Historical Society were willing to help the process along. In fact, the decision to allow for a dig or not on State of Minnesota property was handed down to the DNR, and they deemed the site as being too prairie-sensitive to allow for even a small dig...keeping in mind that the precise spot to probe has already been determined. But, to State authorities, the idea of Norsemen arriving in Minnesota before the French is moronic--something to be unconcerned about, to make fun of, even. And so, whatever it is that sets off my ferrous-only metal detector at the Code-stone site must still wait to be discovered....
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