MEDIEVAL NORSE SNAKES ON LAKE SUPERIOR...and a matching Native American Oral Coincidence?

Sometimes reading a new book will bring about nice surprises. Not many days ago, a member of this KRS Supporters Club recommended to the Group this book, seen below, by T. Reiersgord, and I decided to purchase it and read it, even though I had already determined that some of the author's opinions were badly askew, such as his take on what caused the "red with blood" scenerio at the Lake With Two Skerries.

But to start off, I should mention a "background article" I wrote on this subject about five years ago for the Norwegian American newspaper. In the article, I went into a lot of what I thought were meaningful details about this petroglyph seen here. The carving is located on the southern shore of Lake Superior, at Copper Harbor, Michigan. Both this photo and a photo of a nearby carved bear were taken for me several years ago by a friend (a boat captain) local to the Copper Harbor area.

Please concentrate for a moment on the two ends of the ship. You will see snakeheads--a very Norse thing. Here's the startling coincidence I would like you to see: carved wooden snakes on a sailing ship are also mentioned by Susan Windgrow, the aged Native American woman featured in Reiersgord's short chapter, below.

Make of it what you will, but it seems to come down to a question of how reliable oral tradition and information can be coming from various Native American sources from coast-to-coast, especially when dozens of generations have passed by.

But, somehow, this situation presented here seems like it could be more than just mere coincidence, when one considers where this woman's ancestors (those seeing the ship) may have come from...again, coincidentally, from about where the ship may have been left by the sea (Lake Superior) with ten men. Everything looks to be tied together with Norse snakes! How appropriate.

https://www.norwegianamerican.com/in-defense-of-the-kensington-runestone-waterways/

Please take a few moments to read the article in the Norwegian American, since it has much to do with the nice surprise I found in this book by Reiersgord. Suffice to say that a very short chapter in Reiersgord's book ended up injecting a nice so-called coincidence into my research, via a ninety year old interview with a ninety year old Native American woman, whose ancestors may have once lived in the western Lake Superior area, perhaps around 1362.

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THE SAUK LAKE ALTAR ROCK (Formerly Called The Viking Altar Rock)

The actor Peter Stormare (think "Fargo"), left, and myself visiting the Altar Rock in 2018 to film an episode for the new TV series "Secrets of the Viking Stone." It was shown in 2020 and this year, 2021. Photo taken by Elroy Balgaard. To begin what is known about the Sauk Lake Altar Rock, I would like to point out that this icon of medieval-era Minnesota history seems to be one of a trifecta of icons that all share at least two features; the Sauk Lake Altar Rock, the Kensington Runestone and the Newport Tower all appear to be connected in a medieval setting to Scandinavians and to the Catholic Church. In this sense, then, all three icons tend to lend support to one another's authenticity. Beyond this, I would like to point out that an earlier regional take on the Sauk Lake Altar Rock is now seen by most historians as ill advised...that being the notion that the Altar Rock was visited and it's four stoneholes made by the Sir Paul Knutson party of me...

NORWAY LAKE, MINNESOTA: A Medieval "Bardiche" and a Submerged Runestone?

Norway Lake in Minnesota is approximately 50 miles from the small town of Kensington, where the Kensington Runestone (self-dated to 1362) was discovered by an immigrant farmer named Olof Ohman in 1898. I was already aware of a medieval Scandinavian axe that was found in 1908 by a Norway Lake area fisherman named Ole Skaalerub (the axe is presently in a collection of iron weapons at Alexandria's Runestone Museum), but I didn't learn about a possible submerged runestone in the middle of Norway Lake until a few years later, when I came across a September/October 2012 article in the Atlantis Rising Magazine, entitled "Norsemen in Minnesota," with the subtitle " The Kensington Rune Stone Is Not The Only Evidence For A Prehistoric Viking Presence ." The magazine is now defunct, but I have included pertinent portions of the timeless and fascinating article in this presentation about a possible submerged runestone in Norway Lake: Excerpts from the ...

LOCATING THE SITE OF THE KENSINGTON RUNESTONE MASSACRE--Finding the Elusive "Lake With Two Skerries."

This posting is about solving a mystery. By putting many clues together, I believe I have discovered where the "Lake With Two Skerries" referred to in the inscription carved into the KRS is located. Much of the material contained in this blog presentation was provided to the Minnesota Historical Society a few short years ago, where it is presently archived within the KRS documentation holdings. Not by coincidence, I believe, a medieval Scandinavian battle axe was found in 1894 (four years before the KRS was unearthed), a foot and a half deep on the west bank of Davidson Lake, which is about one day's journey north from Runestone Hill. My belief is that the exact finding spot of the battle axe helps to verify--like a time capsule--where the KRS campsite was likely located by this lake with two small islands. In its inscription, the KRS indicates that a bloody massacre occurred where the men were camped by this lake. My purpose in this blog posting is to help c...

THE KENSINGTON RUNESTONE: Commentary and Speculation by Bob Voyles

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