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The Last Kings of Norse America: Runestone Keys to a Lost Empire
These are the first words in a rigorous translation of the 1362 memorial poem inscribed on the Spirit Pond runestone, found on the coast of Maine in 1971. This translation climaxed a decade of histor ical investigations by authors Johnson and Westin in which they address a 450 year-gap in North American history between the 1492 voyage of Columbus and the Vinland voyages of Leif Eriksson and Thorfinn Karlsefni shortly after 1000 ad. After the Vinland voyages the Greenlanders developed a lucrative trade in North American furs, marketed in Norway and taxed by the king. But after 1300 a cooling climate caused the Green land merchants to migrate to North America and the trade died. To regain the trade and expand his empire, in 1356 King Magnus of Norway and Sweden sent his son, young King Haakon VI, on an expedition to North America with Commander Paul Knutson.
- GenresNonfiction
284 pages, Hardcover
First published March 28, 2012
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About the author
Robert G. Johnson
12 books1 followerLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 18, 2016
A few years ago, I studied the popular culture surrounding the narrative of the Kensington Runestone story for my masters thesis, so I am always curious to see what new ideas are being discussed about the stone. While I am still skeptical about its medieval origins, I feel it is an important artifact of Minnesota Euro-American culture in any case. I don’t feel that a medieval origin is impossible, but in spite of some thought provoking analysis, “The Last Kings of Norse America,” does not change my opinion that this is not probably not the case.
After an insightful and even handed forward by Marguerite Ragnow, the authors challenge the “conventional” history of North America by proposing a persistent Medieval Scandinavian presence in North America from the 1000s to the 1400s. While mentioning the discovery and excavation of L'Anse aux Meadows, the authors draw most of their conclusions from the Kensington Runestone (of course) and the lesser known Spirit Pond Runestone, another odd stone found decades later in Maine and also considered a hoax. This is an ambitious compilation of arguments, including a claim of the first correct translation of the Spirit Pond Runestone, though I am in no position to evaluate the accuracy of this claim.
Drawing much from the theories of Hjalmar Holand, the first major proponent of the Kensington Runestone, the authors expand analysis by exploring the politics of Scandinavian history in the fifteenth century, including a voyage by one Paul Knutson to Greenland. This feels like a refreshingly sober and plausible tale, compared to the conspiracy theories and wild assertions that have popped up around the runestone in recent years. While records do indicate an expedition took place, there is no other account of where it went or what it accomplished, so the bulk of the book is taken up by a boring account of what Knutson maybe did and takes as a given many things that are speculation at best, including “a well populated Medieval Norse settlement on Narragansett Bay,” the mythical Norumbega, here linked to the Newport Tower (of course). Also, the epic poem composed by a “skald” that the authors translated is lovely piece of writing, but has anyone else evaluated this translation?
The majority of the book explores the thoughts and feelings of the hypothetical members of this hypothetical expedition, including who they met on their trip and where they decided to stay. Our intrepid explorers travel from Norumbega to a place called Graenaveldi, encountering “Indians” and occasionally fighting them, as well as meeting other Norse settlers. It almost reads as though the authors were at first planning a novel, which does not make it very useful as even speculative history. About 25% fact and 75% speculation, the writing is extremely dry. It is too speculative to be a useful resource, and far too dry to by a very entertaining story, unfortunately. While the appendices to supply some interesting and useful information, it leaves me with more questions than answers.
After an insightful and even handed forward by Marguerite Ragnow, the authors challenge the “conventional” history of North America by proposing a persistent Medieval Scandinavian presence in North America from the 1000s to the 1400s. While mentioning the discovery and excavation of L'Anse aux Meadows, the authors draw most of their conclusions from the Kensington Runestone (of course) and the lesser known Spirit Pond Runestone, another odd stone found decades later in Maine and also considered a hoax. This is an ambitious compilation of arguments, including a claim of the first correct translation of the Spirit Pond Runestone, though I am in no position to evaluate the accuracy of this claim.
Drawing much from the theories of Hjalmar Holand, the first major proponent of the Kensington Runestone, the authors expand analysis by exploring the politics of Scandinavian history in the fifteenth century, including a voyage by one Paul Knutson to Greenland. This feels like a refreshingly sober and plausible tale, compared to the conspiracy theories and wild assertions that have popped up around the runestone in recent years. While records do indicate an expedition took place, there is no other account of where it went or what it accomplished, so the bulk of the book is taken up by a boring account of what Knutson maybe did and takes as a given many things that are speculation at best, including “a well populated Medieval Norse settlement on Narragansett Bay,” the mythical Norumbega, here linked to the Newport Tower (of course). Also, the epic poem composed by a “skald” that the authors translated is lovely piece of writing, but has anyone else evaluated this translation?
The majority of the book explores the thoughts and feelings of the hypothetical members of this hypothetical expedition, including who they met on their trip and where they decided to stay. Our intrepid explorers travel from Norumbega to a place called Graenaveldi, encountering “Indians” and occasionally fighting them, as well as meeting other Norse settlers. It almost reads as though the authors were at first planning a novel, which does not make it very useful as even speculative history. About 25% fact and 75% speculation, the writing is extremely dry. It is too speculative to be a useful resource, and far too dry to by a very entertaining story, unfortunately. While the appendices to supply some interesting and useful information, it leaves me with more questions than answers.
September 7, 2017
I found this book in the museum of Njal's Saga in Iceland. An interesting account on the Vikings presence in North America. The sub-title is "Runestone Keys to a Lost Empire" and it makes for exciting reading. The authors explore a possible 14th century visit to North America on behalf of the Norwegian king Magnus. He sent his son Haakon VI as leader of the expedition and Johnson and Westin investigate available manuscripts and rune stones to follow in their foot steps as far as possible.
It is a fantastically, exciting journey they take us on. They start with an historical background on the situation in Scandinavia, Iceland and Greenland. As everywhere there were political turmoil and fight for power. The Norwegian had early ties with North America and the fur trade, but due to circumstances the trade had ceased. Now was the time to try to establish this lucrative business again.
The authors base their book on earlier research but have made a lot of new research, including new translations of the rune stones. There are two stones that they analyse; The Kensington stone and the Spirit Pond stone.
The Spirit Pond stone was discovered in 1971 by Walter Elliott who were out looking for arrowheads. Instead he found a strange, flat stone with markings on it. Elliott was excited about his find and tried to get it acknowledged. It is still controversial and there are people on both sides of the coin; is it a hoax or is it real. It does not look like a traditional rune stone and this might be the reason why it is controversial.
The Kensington stone was found on a forty-foot-high hill in 1898 when farmer Olof Ohman and his son were out clearing land in Kensington, Minnesota. It also had markings on it. Although the discovery was documented in detail at the time, the finding of the stone has led to a bitter 100-year-long controversy.
From the existing 'evidence' Johnson and Westin has made new translations of the stones and looked into manuscripts that describe the travels taking place in the 1360s. They take us on an exciting tour into the wilderness, how the Vikings settle down and build a church in a spot that became their base. How they venture into the unknown nature, meet Indians and what they believe is earlier Norse people integrated into their new land. How they are exposed to violent storms, how many people die, how some are killed and much more that meet first explorers. The last we hear from them is the tale of the Kensington stone. This tour which never saw the men coming back was led by Paul Knutsson.
Left back at the east coast was King Haakon who had to sail back to Norway. He waited as long as he could, but the winter was no time to go sailing, so his entourage had to leave before Knutsson's return. Maybe to leave a note of what had happened when half of their crew died in a big storm, he asked his scribe to write a poem. That is the words on the Spirit Pond stone. It was obviously not meant to stand high like a usual rune stone, but to be kept as a memory to bring home. The big question is of course, why they did not bring it with them, but left it behind.
The end of the book contains appendixes with information on the research that has got into the translation and interpretation of the runes. It is quite fascinating and is done in a very academic way, as far as I can see. They give various interpretations and you can make up your own mind of what is correct. Fascinating reading as well.
If you are interested in the earlier visitors to America this is a great read. I feel I would like to further read about this time. One must admire these people who conquered nature with solid boats, I think, but much exposed to the weather and not knowing where to go. Especially on the American continent where Knutsson only had an old map and had to guess which way to go to come back to camp. It is so vividly described in the book that you are there with them.
Johnson and Westin have also looked at all sides of the case working with linguistics, studying Scandinavian history, knowledge of calligraphy. It has taken them several years to look into this part of the Scandinavian and American history. A great achievement
It is a fantastically, exciting journey they take us on. They start with an historical background on the situation in Scandinavia, Iceland and Greenland. As everywhere there were political turmoil and fight for power. The Norwegian had early ties with North America and the fur trade, but due to circumstances the trade had ceased. Now was the time to try to establish this lucrative business again.
The authors base their book on earlier research but have made a lot of new research, including new translations of the rune stones. There are two stones that they analyse; The Kensington stone and the Spirit Pond stone.
The Spirit Pond stone was discovered in 1971 by Walter Elliott who were out looking for arrowheads. Instead he found a strange, flat stone with markings on it. Elliott was excited about his find and tried to get it acknowledged. It is still controversial and there are people on both sides of the coin; is it a hoax or is it real. It does not look like a traditional rune stone and this might be the reason why it is controversial.
The Kensington stone was found on a forty-foot-high hill in 1898 when farmer Olof Ohman and his son were out clearing land in Kensington, Minnesota. It also had markings on it. Although the discovery was documented in detail at the time, the finding of the stone has led to a bitter 100-year-long controversy.
From the existing 'evidence' Johnson and Westin has made new translations of the stones and looked into manuscripts that describe the travels taking place in the 1360s. They take us on an exciting tour into the wilderness, how the Vikings settle down and build a church in a spot that became their base. How they venture into the unknown nature, meet Indians and what they believe is earlier Norse people integrated into their new land. How they are exposed to violent storms, how many people die, how some are killed and much more that meet first explorers. The last we hear from them is the tale of the Kensington stone. This tour which never saw the men coming back was led by Paul Knutsson.
Left back at the east coast was King Haakon who had to sail back to Norway. He waited as long as he could, but the winter was no time to go sailing, so his entourage had to leave before Knutsson's return. Maybe to leave a note of what had happened when half of their crew died in a big storm, he asked his scribe to write a poem. That is the words on the Spirit Pond stone. It was obviously not meant to stand high like a usual rune stone, but to be kept as a memory to bring home. The big question is of course, why they did not bring it with them, but left it behind.
The end of the book contains appendixes with information on the research that has got into the translation and interpretation of the runes. It is quite fascinating and is done in a very academic way, as far as I can see. They give various interpretations and you can make up your own mind of what is correct. Fascinating reading as well.
If you are interested in the earlier visitors to America this is a great read. I feel I would like to further read about this time. One must admire these people who conquered nature with solid boats, I think, but much exposed to the weather and not knowing where to go. Especially on the American continent where Knutsson only had an old map and had to guess which way to go to come back to camp. It is so vividly described in the book that you are there with them.
Johnson and Westin have also looked at all sides of the case working with linguistics, studying Scandinavian history, knowledge of calligraphy. It has taken them several years to look into this part of the Scandinavian and American history. A great achievement
June 3, 2017
3.5 interesting.
July 25, 2015
A great story, fiction for sure, but a plausible tie in the two great Runestone mysteries. I read it and say "Why not?"
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews