Word: runic
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Enthusiastic believers in Viking lore have no trouble accepting the Kensington stone. Allegedly found near Kensington, Minn, by Farmer Olof Ohman in 1898, the stone, inscribed in runic characters, tells of a band of Norsemen who wandered to Minnesota in 1362 and presumably died there of Indian-trouble.* Last week Professor (of Germanic languages) Erik Wahlgren of U.C.L.A. pooh-poohed the petrophiles. He had positive proof, he said, that the stone was faked by the late Farmer Ohman...
Chief champion of the Kensington stone is Hjalmar Holand, 81, of Ephraim, Wis., who has made a career out of writing and lecturing about it. His principal argument: Farmer Ohman was too unlettered (six weeks of schooling) to fake the runic inscription, and he had no books to help him. Skeptical scholars have pointed to many oddities in the stone's language, but this pale, negative tactic has not laid the ghosts of the Minnesota Vikings. Both popular and learned belief in it is still strong. Professor Wahlgren felt that positive action was needed...
...word for ship, for instance, generally had the ending "um" in the 14th century. The encyclopedia said that this ending was dropped in late runic times, but it did not say how late. So Ohman dropped it, though it really persisted for about 200 years after 1362. The encyclopedia also said that the letter "h" was used in late runic writing. Again, it did not say how late. So Ohman used "h" 200 years "too soon...
...last week one Danish expert on old runic inscriptions announced that the Kensington Stone may be genuine, after all. In a lengthy report released by the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. William Thalbitzer admitted with true scientific caution: "I cannot but waver in my doubt . . . the inscription may be authentic...