Background: For over eight hundred years, Scandinavians carved and erected stone monuments to their achievements, family members (dead and alive), property and beliefs. These “runestones” were erected between the 4th century AD and the end of the Viking Age in the 12th century AD.
That means most of these stones were carved about three hundred years before the Vikings arrived in Europe and Russia and approximately one hundred years after the traditional pagan Viking territories were Christianized.
Most of the runestones known to us today stand in Sweden (about 2,000), with others in Denmark (250), Norway (50), and the British Isles (40). There was even a runestone discovered on Berezan Island in the Dnieper River in Ukraine, which was an old trade route for the Swedish Vikings. Surprisingly, there are no known Viking Age runestones on Iceland. But this is where the mystery begins: The Kensington Runestone which was discovered in 1898 by a Swedish Farmer in Kensington, Minnesota (45* 48′ 46.17″N – 95* 40′ 01.53″). The stone is proof that Vikings had come to Minnesota — 130 years before Columbus left Spain.
The Kensington Stone History:
The Kensington stone has been the subject of controversy since its discovery in 1898 by Olof Ohman. It was found while clearing land for his farm; It was lying face down and was twisted around the roots of a 30-year-old aspen tree. The 30 by 16 inch slab was covered on the face, and one side had some sort of ancient writing on it’s side. It was a 202 pound: six inch thick greywacke sandstone. He was ridiculed and ignored by society to such an extent that one of his daughters committed suicide. But if that wasn’t enough; the group who actually responsible for the stone would cause even more controversy and mystery. The stone is believed to be a Land Claim of the Knights Templar which was erected in 1362. Which would be used later time by the Knights Templar in efforts to expand the Order.
A terrible copy of the engravings was sent to the University of Minnesota, where the translation was attempted by Olaus J. Breda. It took more than 100 years for scholars to correct the imperfect copy and to properly translate the text. The only reason is that some of the ancient text had died out in Scandinavia many centuries before 1362.
Correct Translation of the Stone?:
“Eight Gotlanders and 22 Norwegians on reclaiming/acquisition journey far west from Vinland. We had a camp by two shelters one day’s journey north from this stone. We were fishing one day.After we came home we found 10 men red with blood and death. Ave Maria. Save from evil.” Engraved on the side of the stone were the words, “There are 10 men by the sea to look after our ships 14 days journey from this island. Year 1362.”
Translation of the stone’s text
Though Breda was a professor of Scandinavian literature and languages, his knowledge was limited. Breda was backed up by Norway’s head archaeologist of the late 19th century, Oluf Rygh – he and his coworkers at Northwestern University at Evanston Illinois proclaimed that the whole translation of the rune stone was entirely based on wrong analysis of the copy.
While archaeologists and linguists were still insisting that the Kensington Stone was a fake. A geologist at the Minnesota Historical Society, Newton Horace Winchell, had taken a detailed physical examination of the stone for the very first time. He confirmed the engravings on the weathering stone, were around 500 years old. Winchell also concluded there was immense data supporting for the actual rune stone dating back to 1362.
The 1910 Study:
While archaeologists and linguists were still insisting that the Kensington Stone was a fake. Newton Horace Winchell: a geologist at the Minnesota Historical Society, had taken a detailed physical examination of the object for the very first time in 1910. The test he completed on the stone, supports Ohman’s version of the events.
Confirmed by the weathering stone, it was indicated the engravings were around 500 years old. Winchell also concluded there was immense support that the actual rune stone dated back to 1362.
His report in 1910 was hidden beneath the louder words of the skeptics against him. They had convinced most of the world that the Kensington Rune Stone was forged. But In 1911, Ohman sold the stone to the Minnesota Historical Society for $10.
For instance, they quoted the engraved text as it described the place of the rune stone to be located on an island, even though the item was discovered on a farm nowhere close to water.
It was not until 1937 when they stated doing hydrological studies for the state of Minnesota that it concluded that the area where the stone was discovered was flooded with lakes and streams during the 14th century, as well as the 500 years before that.
Dry conditions started to increase in the beginning of the 16th century, transfiguring the regional landscapes into marsh and swamps. It became a grand pasture by the time Olof Ohman settled there in the late 1800s. Neither he or anyone else knew at that time it was surrounded by water back in the year of 1362.
Investigators as well pointed out many triangular holes that were cut into the boulders. Evidently a very long time ago, along riverways going toward Ohman’s farm, the 14th-century seafarers were noted to favor triangular mooring holes. Not far north and 27 years before the Kensington Rune Stone was discovered, an old fire-steel identical to medieval Norse specimens at Oslo’s University Museum emerged from deep beneath the bank of the Red River near Climax, Minnesota.
More Scientific Testing 2000:
This prompted investigators to seek out professional assistance of their own in 2000. They chose to contact St. Paul American Petrographic Services.
This firm specialized in the analysis of the materials used to construct the stone. It was owned and operated by Scott F. Wolter, who is a certified geologist, university trained, who previously did not hear of the Kensington Rune Stone. He conducted the first detailed physical analysis since Winchell’s research 90 years before.
Wolter started using photography with a reflected light microscope. He would sample the core and examine it through a scanning electron microscope.
In the month of November, he presented his main discoveries. The artifact had signs of a subsurface erosion process that required a minimum of 200 years. In simplified terms, the Kensington Rune Stone was buried for around a century before Olof Ohman had dug it up.
Wolter’s end result was based on the full breakdown of mica crystals on the engraved surface of the stone. Compared to the gathered samples of slate gravestones from Maine, these show that biotite mica starts mechanically flaking off the surfaces after 197 years. Skeptics set out to fault his resolution by arguing that standards for mica degradation did not exist.
He started to examine each individual rune with a scanning electron microscope. This revealed many remarkable characteristics not seen to the naked eye.
The Dotted R:
He noticed an unseen series of dots carved inside three R-runes. This finding was very significant, for the reason that dotted runes only occur on the head stones of 14th century graves. They were located in church cemeteries on the island of Gotloand, which was off the coast of Sweden. The rune stone text goes back to the same century and references eight crewmen from Gotland.
The finding of a single runic letter “the dotted R” was not identified to scholars until 1935. It confirms beyond a doubt that the Scandinavian seafarers arrived in North America 130 years before Christopher Columbus had left Span in hunt of a new world.
This means the men who had left it were declaring for themselves what later turned into west central Minnesota. The inscription’s date of 1362, Wolter demonstrates, was in addition to the encoded in the runic text itself. The Arabic numerals were defenseless to alteration by interlopers.
After the carving, the stone was buried, a triangular formed hole was drilled into glacial boulders nearby. These were used to relocate the exact position of the buried stone.
Wolter decided to go further into his quest for information about the artifact to find the identity of the man who engraved the inscription – the Cistercian monk from Gotland mentioned in the runic text. The Cistercians lived under religious vows as Gnostic Christians.
The Knights Templar & Hooked X:
They were the founders of the Knight Templar and survived its destruction during the 14th century. They migrated from France to other places in Europe, including Gotland. Templars were still settlers of the island at the period of time the Kensington Rune Stone was carved. Wolter claimed the inscription included information that was related to who the party was, where their exact location was, why they were there, and when.
The key to unlocking this information was the mysterious hooked X that appears on the rune stone as well as other runic texts. The hooked X was a symbol that was important and likely made by the Cistercian monks. The X was a symbol of the balance and duality of woman and man, and heaven and earth.
The hook that is in the X symbolized the offspring or children, representing the continuance of the Goddess belief through common thought and bloodlines.
The Hooked X takes you on a journey from Minnesota to the New England Coast, where four more medieval rune stones were found. The trail then leads to a mysterious round stone tower in Rhode Island that could only have been constructed by a highly controversial group from Europe before the time of Christopher Columbus. The story that unfolds behind the Hooked X shatters many historical and religious paradigms and ultimately reveals the startling untold history of North America.
The Kensington inscription with the eight numbers (in bold) believed to be part of a “Ritual Code” is provided for reference: (Below is parts of an article by Scott F. Wolter, P.G.)
Face Side of stone:
1. 8 Götalanders and 22 Northmen on2. (this) acquisition journey/taking up land from
3. Vinland far to the west. We
4. had a camp by 2 shelters one5. day’s journey north from this stone.
6. We were fishing one day. After7. we came home we found 10 men red
8. from blood and death. AVM
9. Save from evil.
Split Side of stone:
10. There are 10 men by the inland sea to look
11. after our ships 14 days journey
12. from this hill. Year 1362
It appears the first eight numbers chronicled within the Kensington Rune Stone inscription are connected to the Masonic legend of Hiram Abiff; the Grand Architect who oversaw the construction of King Solomon’s Temple, and to the Select Master degree of Cryptic Council degree of York Rite Freemasonry.
In nearly every Catholic Church around the world the Crucifixion and Resurrection story of Jesus is told in images called the Stations of the Cross. It isn’t a coincidence the number of Stations of the Cross is 14. It appears what we now have is, 8 Götalanders (Deity) and 22 Northmen (paths that connect the ten spheres); … 2 shelters (Ahishar and Adoniram), and one day’s journey (Zerubbabel). If we add these numbers up, in sequence, as they appear on the stone we get, 8 + 22 + 2 = 32 + 1 =33.
Those numbers sequentially, follow the Select Master ritual perfectly, AND that those numbers add up to the same total of 33 as in the Kabbalah, simply cannot be a coincidence. A Masonic Brother reminded me about another connection to the numbers 8 and 22 that I had frankly, forgotten about. Here we have the number twenty-two having significance in not just ancient Egyptian mysticism, but as many scholars believe, these ideals were passed on into Hebrew mysticism where we find the same numbers being symbolically important in the Kabbalah. The numbers that appear on the Kensington Rune Stone imply the carver was deeply versed in symbolism, allegory, codes, and specific sacred numbers that appear to have been passed on as a continuous thread through mystical sects from ancient Egypt to the Hebrews, to the Cistercian’s/Knight Templar, and finally into Modern Freemasonry.
Conclusion:
There is so much more information I decided to cut the article here and then compose other articles with more information with different titles to properly document the different branches this investigation leads you. So we can at least say that the Kensington Stone is possibly the earliest evidence of a ‘group’ of that voyaged to America for the possible land claim of this area and that this stone was carved in an ancient text which little is still known to this day. A couple of tests have been completed on the stone and it provided credibility to its authenticity.
This mystery stone will always be a major factor in when and who voyaged to America much before what our modern history books like to claim which was done by Christopher Columbus. The Knights Templar was founded in 1119 and was active until about 1312. The earliest texts in 1390 mention the first Freemasons, and lastly the Illuminati was found in 1776. Now many believe the Knights Templar dissolved themselves into Freemasonry when King Philip had many of the order’s members in France arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and burned at the stake. What we can be certain that these mysterious ancient religions, texts, orders, or event has a major significance for our secret societies of today’s elite. Many in these orders have no clue of the true ‘secrets’ held within the society but you can be certain that they are keepers of hidden knowledge.