WHY Would Norsemen Come to Minnesota in 1362?

Pages 141 and 142 of this great book by my friend, Alice Beck Kehoe, are presented here to hopefully help researchers and readers who may be trying to understand just WHY Norsemen would come to Minnesota in 1362. In these selected two pages, climate, disease and various powers of the times are looked at by Kehoe as factors influencing the flow of Norse travel and trade, to Vinland and beyond.

In the 1350s, Hanseatic merchants went about setting up a kontor, or trading office, in Bryggen (now Bergen). These German merchants established themselves as a permanent colony attached to this new German office. In short order, the Hanseatic League supplanted the Norwegians in the most important markets.

Would this be cause enough for wanting to come to the interior of future America...that is, to perhaps prospect for new fur-trading opportunities?

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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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