In May 2019, a teacher and her 12yo students decided to decipher a mix of Swedish and runic scribble found on a wall of an old farm labourer's lodging at the Ersk-Mats-farm in Hassela, Hälsingland, Sweden. It took them ten minutes and turned out be foul language aimed at the farm owner. The runes used also turned out to be identical to those used on the Kensington stone (a unique variant of the Hälsinge runes.) Similar runes are found on several neighbouring farms in the area, all dating from 1870-1877. Olof Öhman was born in this area and later emigrated to America.
Might wanna mention that Olof Öhman didn't emigrate to just anywhere in America: He emigrated to Minnesota, and was the one guy that "discovered" the Kensington stone. Coincidence? :)
@@asdf3568 Look. I am Swedish and have studied runology at the Uppsala University. No one believes the Kensington rune stone is authentic except Americans. No one. The professors here in Scandinavia only mention this stone if they are talking about falsifications. It being authentic or not isn't even a discussion here. I am not relying on Jackson Crawford, although I fully agree with him.
@@alexs5744 To clarify, I never said all Americans believe it is real, only that the only people beliving it is real are American. I'm exaggerating of course, but it's probably not far from reality. And it makes sense of course. A real runestone found in the US would have been sensational and of course a very cool thing for everyone in Minnesota since it would add so much to the history of the area they live in. But this is the whole point here: so many people _want_ it to be true that they cherry-pick information that confirm it. But if you actually look at what scholars and runeologists say that have studied this stone from all perspectives, the consensus is so clear that the stone was a fake.
@@whocareswho Nonsense. It says "Uff da!" Looks to me like the guy spoke mostly Swedish with some Norwegian and a dab of English, but was not a good speller in any language.
$20 hell, you gotta pay at least $60 bucks to get into Silver Dollar City (Branson Missouri) to see the cave around here, I used to work in that cave as a photographer, ot was cool but got depressing after a while. Was hangover as hell once and puked in front of an entire tour of tourists, super punk rock. Caves are cool but I would suggest getting into geology first so you can nerd out more so its more enjoyable.
There is an episode of a swedish public radio show dedicated to the runes from Ersk-Matsgården (a farmstead) in Hälsingland and the similarities with the Kensington runes . Mr Olof Öhman who found the stone in 1898 lived, before he left for Minnesota, just 50 Km from the site they explored in the show. Mr. Öhman is my prime suspect! :-)
@@kristofers1139 I'm Swedish myself, I just noticed the similarity between the way the word for island was spelled on the stone and Mr Öhman's name. It might even be intentional, a signature of sorts.
As a Minnesotan who loves Runes and studying Old Norse, I visited the Kensington Runestone while I was in high school. I was very aware that the runes didn’t make sense and there were many rumors of it being a fake. However, after visiting it and going to the museum, it was so convincing that I began to question my own knowledge of runes. However, after going back home and continuing research, I was very reassured in knowing that I was right and that the runestone is a fake. As much as I’d love to think that Vikings made it to Minnesota... it’s too good to be true. At least their descendants did... just like my family and I 😉 Thank you for making a video about this. I’m glad a very credible and knowledgeable source like you could talk about this topic. Dr. Jackson Crawford you’ve truly been a blessing in my life with all your free content. You’ve enabled me to dig further and further into my passion of learning Old Norse and studying runes, etc. Thank you so much.
I have seen the Kensington Runestone in Alexandria, too. Wish it was the real deal and solid evidence of Viking exploration here. My ancestors also braved the open sea to come here and start anew, just in more recent times.
I'm from Västra Götaland in Sweden. There is a lot of archeological remains from the Viking age around here. There is even older historical remains from the Bronze age in the area where I live.
As a Swede, I could tell immediately that the language on the Kensington stone was way too modern for 1362. I can't read runes so I read the transliteration of the Kensington stone, and while I can actually understand a fair bit of Old Swedish without major effort, it's usually not *THIS* easy. I didn't even have to think about any of the words, because they were so close to modern Swedish. Also, the Swedish word for oppdagelseferd/opdagelsefärd would be "upptäcktsfärd". You are correct in that a cognate doesn't exist in Swedish, but we do have the word "uppdaga" which does translate to discover, i.e. it's synonymous with "upptäcka".
The Kensington Runestone has only been examined by geologists twice, once in 1909 and 2000. Both examinations prove the carvings are weathered hundreds of years beyond the founding of America. Unlike all you "rune experts", who immediately blow it off because it doesn't fit what you know, Peter Stormare is examining everything about it from the day it was found. Numerous affidavits signed by neighboring farmers testify to the runes being seen on the stone immediately after being unearthed. The letter written to the science museum after its first examination stating it was 100% authentic was shown
@@davyhorn532 Peter Stormare is an actor whereas Dr. Jackson Crawford is an expert. If you watch the video you would immediately come to the conclusion is a fake and Scott Wolter is a fraud.
This is a wonderful, extensive discussion of the Kensington stone! Thank you SO MUCH for all the time you spent on this topic and presenting it to us on UA-cam! Much appreciated by all!
Concise, clear, and devastating. I'd always hoped in the back of my mind that the Kensington Runestone was real, but your arguments have demolished that possibility completely. This is a beautiful analysis, however much it crushes my fantasy. I do still hold out some slight hope for Bigfoot though.
As a Minnesotan historian and up-and-coming graduate student, I appreciate your work in linguistics and Middle Ages scholarship. We need more folks like you reaching out to the public. I never paid any attention to the Kensington Runestone until I watched a breakdown of the evidence on the Minnesota archaeology UA-cam channel. That led me here.
Yeah, reminds me a little of Dalarunor from Elfdalen. They were used until the 20’th century and still around 2000 people speak elfdalian which other Swedes can’t understand.
Linguistics and geology aside, the rune would have us believe that after the fishing party returned and found their comrades dead, they stuck around long enough to cut a slab off of a local boulder and carve this message on it. Yet they placed no grave markers. If anybody ever looked for graves in the vicinity, I have never heard about it. Ought to be plenty of metal in a grave from that era.
I'm from Oklahoma, where a number of "runestones" have also been found. As a kid I thought that these things were so cool- I mean, VIKINGS! You didn't get much cooler than that, especially in Oklahoma. It's made me sad as these things have been debunked, but as I have grown older I've also found out that there are plenty of "real" mysteries out there.
Excellent analysis. The line with "ve havet" is indeed used in modern Swedish dialects, particulary in götamål in Västergötland and even in Östergötland. If I were to say that i'm at the sea, I would litterally say exactly that I am: "ve havet". Not vid havet, not ved havet. /former swedish sailor
To me, this sounds like someone who did not know much about languages at all (especially scandinavian ones) and was trying to be expecially clever by mixing Swedish and Norwegian, because he thought that that would creat something that sounds more like Old Norse, because it sounds like that to him. It just shows that people who think themselves to be especially clever usually aren't - in the contrary.
The thing I love about your channel is that it's everything I thought the History Channel was when I was younger. I'll keep watching your videos and buying your books until you start making reality TV
I learned about the Kensington runestone today. Was hoping that someone could show the full text of it, and I am very happy to see that none other than you had done this. It has been very entertaining, and man oh man, while I knew that the Kensington Runestone was utter bunk, this was worse than I expected. Love your channel, love your videos.
DR Crawford, thank you for this video, very informative. I have a question about what has been called the ‘hooked X’. If you are familiar with this, could you maybe give your opinion of it, and what it may mean? Thank you.
The stone is clearly written by a Swede from either Dalarna or Hälsingland in the 19th century, counties in Sweden where runes were used until the early 20th century. How can I tell? I can actually understand the text without problem. I cannot do that from old Swedish text like the Västgötalagen written in 1381 about the same time the Kensington runes is supposed to be from.
Doc, as a Newfoundlander I have to say this. I have made it a point up to now to not correct people on their pronunciation of of my home island's name because in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter, but I figure that you as a linguist would appreciate it: the last A in the word is pronounced normally, as you would normally on "land" even though the ou in "found" is shortened to a simple u sound. It would look like new-fund-land not new-fund-lund. Thanks for the cool video always love your stuff.
Even if I live for the most of my time in MN, I actually didn’t know about the runestone until my 20s? I still haven’t seen it. Thank you for this analysis. For the heck of it I want to go see it. Come to MN anyways, like see the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead, MN.
Kat Smith The Hjemkomst Center is definitely a place to go not only for the ship, but also for the Stave church! I went to see a Swedish professor from Uppsala University, Henrik Williams, who studied the Kensington Runestone and discussed it here in the cities at the ASI. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of runes by date and which group of people who used them!
I descend my lower-'h's and round my lower-'d's very similarly. When you were developing your personal handwriting, did you emulate anyone in particular?
Regarding the word "opdagelsefärd", we do have a swedish word for it: "upptäcksfärd". Just wanted to let you know :) And the dialect he would have spoken is Hälsingemål. We tend to skip plural and just go with the singular form, I think it's beacause we speak faster that way and we usually don't speak the whole word either. Like when I say the word "varsågod" (you're welcome) it usually just sounds like "rsego" A man asked me once if I was speaking Norwegian because we usually change the letter "a" or "o" to "e" at the end of words, for exampel: prater = pratar (speak), lamper = lampor (lamps), tavler = tavlor (paintings), so that might be the reason it's a bit similar to Norwegian as well. Love your videos!
Jackson, can I ask, why not also put up the Runic Norse text also ? That is the original form on the stone, not how it is in this video, it makes it sound like the original is written in the way in this video.
Uppdagelsefärd gives two hits on Google and four on Duckduckgo, all about the Kensington stone, but it is still understandable as a compound word even if it has never been used. Sounds like the kind of words one would expect Åke Ohlmarks to have used in his writings.
You know it’s not fake, because a swede would never mention norwegians in a message like this. Also If a swede, against all odds, would bother to carve in stone that there where norwegians on the expedition, he would never say they where more numerous than the swedes😄.
You have effectively dismantled my younger fascination with the Kensington Runestone. I saw that “holy grail in America” documentary a long time ago as a kid, and they had me going. Thank you for busting that myth for me.
This was very interesting to me as my Dad's family grew up in Kensington and knew the Ohman family. My grandparents lived there until they passed away. Thank you for detailing this topic as well as you have.
This video is definitely in the running for one of the funniest on this channel. Such a detailed, well informed, and scathing take down. Like Content Cop, but Jackson Crawford style 😄!
I kinda really wanted this to be true because the thought of Vikings making it that far west us fascinating and it would give some truth behind my favorite nfl team the Minnesota Vikings I’m also from Minnesota.
There was a rune stone found in Oklahoma. The story pointed out this stone as a possibility connection? Yes it's a neat idea of only it where true! Thanks for all you do
Good luck with that... I believe that they are part of the secret that the Smithsonian is still hiding... Scott Wolker was the only person that spoke about them when he had his show back around 2010... In mid season "the unknown last episode" of the last 15 minutes he spoke about them while being unnerved by something... He really didn't say what any of the ruins had on them... The show was cancelled right after that... Scott Wolker has been smeared everywhere, by so many since then... Many people are finding out that something happened in the 1700's and the history we were taught is a huge lie...
Thanks for putting this to rest with the most compelling analysis that I could find online. Ironic that YT is the means of conveyance, as articles found online are contradicting. That says something about the changing landscape of research and academia (about time). Please take on the Noman's stone in MA; it continues to be debated, although the numerals seem to say hoax, as I imagine is the case.
Loving the distinctly informative way you convey your knowledge !! Especially, from an academic perspective. Thank you so much . Really , nothing less than spectacular way of helping others to truly Absorb it all . I actually understand your videos !!! 😂
Already the use of "po" shows that it's quite modern Scandinavian. As I have understood it, the Swedish word "på" comes from the common combination "upp å" (up on/upon) which has by time been thought to be "upp på". In Elfdalian the word used is still "o" or "å" with a nasal pronounciation.
How about the carvings in stone at the northern tip of Upper Michigan. It show's a picture of a single square sail ship. This carving is very simuler to one carved in Sweden/Norway area during the 12th century.
My greatgrandfather was fascinated by runes and he's left several runestones scattered in the woods he owned. We as a family know of some of them, but the rumor is that there are more. Some even say it's created as a "treasure" hunt where one stone will give clues to where to find another. I've always wondered what will happen if someone outside of the family finds one.
The Swedish word 'upptäcktsfärd' has the same meaning as the norwegian 'oppdagelsesferd', although different but related etymology. If you look at the parts of the words the norwegian word means essentially to take something up into the day, while the swedish means to take something up from under cover. The logic is similar. The Norwegian oppdage partially borrowed it's meaning from the german word entdecken, which is etymologically releated to the Swedish 'upptäcka'. 'färd' and 'ferd' are of course just different spellings of the same word. So I think upptäcktsfärd would be a pretty good word to use in the translation, seeing as the meaning is identical and the etymology is partially related.
"Upptäcktsresa" would be an older and more suitable Swedish word. They are to some extent interchangeable, but "upptäcktsfärd" is more often used for an smaller excursion in the nearby surroundings, usually made by children. "Upptäcka" originally ment "to undress" (Bible, 1541). The meaning changed from uncover to discover during the 1700's. That's when it was combined with "resa" (travel). The compound noun "upptäcktsfärd" doesn't show up until the early 1800's. The "-färd", Old N. -ferð (journey) ending makes it seem older than it actually is. The Norwegian "oppdage" (figure out, discover, reveal a secret) does exist in Swedish as "uppdaga" (prep. upp = up, daga = dawning). The meaning is however more narrow, as it's only referring to the revelation of a secret. It has never been used for feats of exploration.
Very interesting stuff, Doc. Would you ever (or have you already and I've missed it) do a video where you actually show how you'd translate a real runestone?
I'm just at the part of the video where you compare your handwriting the the calligraphy from the declaration of independence, and you highlight how your handwriting is affected by your study of Old Norse. Something similar happened to me when I studied Attic Greek. I had to had write so much of my homework that my English handwriting started looking like my Greek handwriting which mimicked the typed Greek font face. "V" looked like nu "d" looked like delta, and so forth.
Funny being Swede and Göte, I feel I know nothing about my own language. And so much has change during the times, it is really hard for me at least to understand old norse or old Swedish.
Thanks for this video. I assume that it probably gets tiresome, having people constantly asking about this stone, but providing a strong detailed case is very helpful and unfortunately necessary. Too many people are seduced by the possibilities of an alleged mystery to the point of ignoring the trained experts. There is a reason the professionals are considered experts and anyone who wants to allege a revolutionary find/idea needs to show strong proof. Professional historians love to argue evidence and propose new theories but the standards of proof have evolved to try and ensure such new historical ideas and theory are well founded.
Thank you. As a Minnesotan who grew up with this charming local piece of mythical history, I've thirsted for a depth of explanation of its fakery like this for oh, about 40 years.
Opdagelseferd = upptäcksfärd? Swedish has the word "uppdagas" or "uppdagelse" for stuff that is exposed and "brought into the light". But a "exploration jurney" is "upptäcksfärd"... "Opdagelsefärd" could be dialect but I highly doubt it. The person that owned the land where the Kensington stone was found was from "Hassela" in north "Hälsingland". Not only have they found runes with the same charateristics as the one on the Kensingtonstone in that very area (perhaps even the house he lived in) but the dialect also swaps "a" in endings to "e", so words like "göter" makes perfect sense. The dialect also frequently drop the plural on the adjectivs ("vi är hungrig" instead of "vi är hungriga"), just like on the Kensington stone. The word "mans" is used at least locally, in the idionom "lite till mans" (meaning "we all"). It is highly likely that "ve" was used in the dialect as it uses "e" extensivly. On top of that is the area has had several waves of migrants from Norway (specifically Tröndelag) over the history and the dialects share several features not only with East Norse (Sveamál) but also West Norse (the use of -ånger for fjords for example, or rafn for raven). So if we just asume that the stone was writen by the landowner himself it all make perfect sense - even without the backstory of the man (in which case it makes even more sense as he wanted to fool "know-it-all" scholars). And yes: during the 1300s people would still identify themselves as "Götar". If they would have added "väst" and "öst" before or not I would let be unsaid though. The regional identities were strong for a very long time and still today some regions put their ancient regional identity before the national identity.
Having grown up in Alexandria, Mn were the runestone now resides I can say that the true believers that I knew as a child still would not be convinced. Though I had my doubts about its authenticity I appreciate this finally laying them all to rest though this is mildly disappointing.
Ten years ago, when I was working in a small bookstore in northern Minnesota, a gentleman came in and asked if we had any books about the Kensington Runestone. I answered, “Oh, I thought that was a hoax.” He said “Actually I wrote the book that proved it wasn’t a hoax.” Oops. Of course, he was pitching his book, which he wanted us to carry in the store. We declined.
The lack of dative is even more revealing than the lack of plural forms (and even in the unlikely event that plural forms were dropped in the 14th century, the shortened "har" form is also unlikely, that is, without a middle -v-). The dative seems to refuse to die in several Norwegian dialects, whilst I would say that the plural verb forms are dead today except amongst dialect purists. The plural forms were archaic already in the 19th century though they remained in writing. As for the numerals, it's not unthinkable that it could be an innovation of a 14th century writer, though unlikely. It's not impossible that Scandinavians (or Scandinavian Greenlanders) travelled deep into the interior of America, but they certainly didn't make this stone.
I remember this being brought up as a classic example of a hoax in 8th grade history class in Sweden. Little bit surprised to find out there's some sort of debate still going on, and that it's kept in a museum. Now since we're talking stone carving, how about a video on the gutasaga and the related picture stones from Gotland?
Since the geological analysis shows that the stone had at least been under that tree for a couple of decades, questions remain unanswered: Who made the inscriptions and why?
Thank you. I'm a skeptic by nature, but I really wanted to believe this one. I've heard about the grammatical problems, but never had them laid out so clearly.
I've been taught to consider the Kensington Stone to be fake. I did find it peculiar that you never mentioned anything about the Gute language of Gotland. Are some of the features of the Kensington stone present in runes from Gotland as more modern scholars say?
It would be neat to see a Dr. Jackson Crawford forgery :P I imagine he'd place it high up on a Colorado mountain, just to screw with people. And it would end with a "LOL TROLLED YOU NOOBS"
42 minutes - AWESOME!!! - 42 minutes at 4:00 am, oh! (yes AM, now Thursday here in New Zealand) - I'm an extreme night owl but I seriously need to get some sleep - really looking forward to this - (oh and really lovely handwriting btw) (oh and while not my first movie, my sister took me Aliens - I was 15 - hadn't seen the first one - had no idea it was a horror movie (which I hate) was absolutely *terrified* - did have to look up at the sky and consciously remind myself they weren't real when I walked out) ( you expect me to _resist_ starting to watch this... not a chance, but seriously need sleep... night/morning)
Can you explain fourteenth century examples in churches in southwestern France that are nearly identical in style? For example Norse of the period writing in a Latin form due to the conversion to Christianity? Just wondering what the difference is between said examples? (There are a few good examples that use the hooked x as well of the exact period in Europe.) Medieval graffiti of the period to a bum like me seems awfully similar. Maybe it's just me. Also interesting to note pretty much everyone wrote in some wacky form in that period in all sorts of mixed up language combinations. Again. Maybe just me. I'm not convinced in the approach given the period to debunk the stone in this manner. People are not going to all have excellent grammer etc.
_“Lmao, this is tight”_
-Neil Armstrong
One small step for a man, one giant leap for memekind.
A channel that deserves way more than 100k.
Sadly the more subscribers will include more Trolls.
@@badgerpa9 Trolling comments or trolling ancient history?
@@DW-nb2zc Just Trolls.
In May 2019, a teacher and her 12yo students decided to decipher a mix of Swedish and runic scribble found on a wall of an old farm labourer's lodging at the Ersk-Mats-farm in Hassela, Hälsingland, Sweden. It took them ten minutes and turned out be foul language aimed at the farm owner. The runes used also turned out to be identical to those used on the Kensington stone (a unique variant of the Hälsinge runes.) Similar runes are found on several neighbouring farms in the area, all dating from 1870-1877. Olof Öhman was born in this area and later emigrated to America.
Might wanna mention that Olof Öhman didn't emigrate to just anywhere in America: He emigrated to Minnesota, and was the one guy that "discovered" the Kensington stone. Coincidence? :)
@@asdf3568 Are you trying to tell me the Kensington rune stone is authentic? Because it is not.
@@asdf3568 Look. I am Swedish and have studied runology at the Uppsala University. No one believes the Kensington rune stone is authentic except Americans. No one. The professors here in Scandinavia only mention this stone if they are talking about falsifications. It being authentic or not isn't even a discussion here. I am not relying on Jackson Crawford, although I fully agree with him.
@@jockeberg4089 I’m an American and not once I’ve ever thought the stone was real.
@@alexs5744 To clarify, I never said all Americans believe it is real, only that the only people beliving it is real are American. I'm exaggerating of course, but it's probably not far from reality.
And it makes sense of course. A real runestone found in the US would have been sensational and of course a very cool thing for everyone in Minnesota since it would add so much to the history of the area they live in. But this is the whole point here: so many people _want_ it to be true that they cherry-pick information that confirm it. But if you actually look at what scholars and runeologists say that have studied this stone from all perspectives, the consensus is so clear that the stone was a fake.
"OK... why.... would they.... be... in Minnesota?" A different way of saying "LOL WTF"
Incidentally, they just found another rune stone there that said "LOL WTF?".
They probably knew we were going to need a stronger offensive line if we’re ever going to beat the Green Bay Packers.
@@whocareswho Nonsense. It says "Uff da!"
Looks to me like the guy spoke mostly Swedish with some Norwegian and a dab of English, but was not a good speller in any language.
Because the waterways from Canada come down into Minnesota.
@Antifederalist That's a completely different pre-Columbian contact theory.
There's some great life advice in this video. If someone wants to charge you 20 dollars for entering a cave, DONT. ENTER. THE. CAVE.
Man, Carlsbad caverns are worth it ;)
$20 hell, you gotta pay at least $60 bucks to get into Silver Dollar City (Branson Missouri) to see the cave around here, I used to work in that cave as a photographer, ot was cool but got depressing after a while. Was hangover as hell once and puked in front of an entire tour of tourists, super punk rock.
Caves are cool but I would suggest getting into geology first so you can nerd out more so its more enjoyable.
UNDERRATED ADVICE
At least use protection right?
There is an episode of a swedish public radio show dedicated to the runes from Ersk-Matsgården (a farmstead) in Hälsingland and the similarities with the Kensington runes . Mr Olof Öhman who found the stone in 1898 lived, before he left for Minnesota, just 50 Km from the site they explored in the show. Mr. Öhman is my prime suspect! :-)
Hmmm. The plöt thickens...
Öh-man? Hmmm...
@@hazenoki628 Literally means "Island man" in Swedish, with an "h" thrown in as well.
@@hazenoki628 The man that found the stone; Olof Ohman, it's Öhman in Swedish.
@@kristofers1139 I'm Swedish myself, I just noticed the similarity between the way the word for island was spelled on the stone and Mr Öhman's name. It might even be intentional, a signature of sorts.
You set an amazing bar for other historians like myself. Seriously incredible work.
As a Minnesotan who loves Runes and studying Old Norse, I visited the Kensington Runestone while I was in high school. I was very aware that the runes didn’t make sense and there were many rumors of it being a fake. However, after visiting it and going to the museum, it was so convincing that I began to question my own knowledge of runes. However, after going back home and continuing research, I was very reassured in knowing that I was right and that the runestone is a fake. As much as I’d love to think that Vikings made it to Minnesota... it’s too good to be true. At least their descendants did... just like my family and I 😉
Thank you for making a video about this. I’m glad a very credible and knowledgeable source like you could talk about this topic.
Dr. Jackson Crawford you’ve truly been a blessing in my life with all your free content. You’ve enabled me to dig further and further into my passion of learning Old Norse and studying runes, etc. Thank you so much.
I have seen the Kensington Runestone in Alexandria, too. Wish it was the real deal and solid evidence of Viking exploration here. My ancestors also braved the open sea to come here and start anew, just in more recent times.
I think you mean their descendants, not their ancestors.
The Infidel yes, I can trace my lineage back to the Viking Age
Ian Langsev Hej från Sverige!
@@Martha_thl It is NOT a fake...... Look at the work of Scott Wolter
I'm from Västra Götaland in Sweden. There is a lot of archeological remains from the Viking age around here. There is even older historical remains from the Bronze age in the area where I live.
Like it is all over Scandinavia.
What it is say?
Awesome.
As a Swede, I could tell immediately that the language on the Kensington stone was way too modern for 1362. I can't read runes so I read the transliteration of the Kensington stone, and while I can actually understand a fair bit of Old Swedish without major effort, it's usually not *THIS* easy. I didn't even have to think about any of the words, because they were so close to modern Swedish.
Also, the Swedish word for oppdagelseferd/opdagelsefärd would be "upptäcktsfärd". You are correct in that a cognate doesn't exist in Swedish, but we do have the word "uppdaga" which does translate to discover, i.e. it's synonymous with "upptäcka".
You know it could happen to be Norwegian
The Kensington Runestone has only been examined by geologists twice, once in 1909 and 2000. Both examinations prove the carvings are weathered hundreds of years beyond the founding of America. Unlike all you "rune experts", who immediately blow it off because it doesn't fit what you know, Peter Stormare is examining everything about it from the day it was found. Numerous affidavits signed by neighboring farmers testify to the runes being seen on the stone immediately after being unearthed. The letter written to the science museum after its first examination stating it was 100% authentic was shown
@@davyhorn532 Peter Stormare is an actor whereas Dr. Jackson Crawford is an expert. If you watch the video you would immediately come to the conclusion is a fake and Scott Wolter is a fraud.
Opdage is discover in danish. Still as opdagelsesresje in its proper danish form. Still hella clumsy. I suspect some anglicism< Voyage of Dicovery.
@@davyhorn532 I don't know how to break this to you Davy but sometimes people lie about things for attention
“Is STILL a better attempt...”
LMFAO 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👍👍
This is a wonderful, extensive discussion of the Kensington stone! Thank you SO MUCH for all the time you spent on this topic and presenting it to us on UA-cam! Much appreciated by all!
Concise, clear, and devastating. I'd always hoped in the back of my mind that the Kensington Runestone was real, but your arguments have demolished that possibility completely. This is a beautiful analysis, however much it crushes my fantasy. I do still hold out some slight hope for Bigfoot though.
Well shoot, man--of course Bigfoot is real!!!
But Bigfoot has not left any runestones at all!
@@pattheplanter of course not; they'd be in Bigfootese, anyway!
According to Haunted Woods. Bigfoot throws stones...
As a Minnesotan historian and up-and-coming graduate student, I appreciate your work in linguistics and Middle Ages scholarship. We need more folks like you reaching out to the public.
I never paid any attention to the Kensington Runestone until I watched a breakdown of the evidence on the Minnesota archaeology UA-cam channel. That led me here.
Yeah, reminds me a little of Dalarunor from Elfdalen. They were used until the 20’th century and still around 2000 people speak elfdalian which other Swedes can’t understand.
Linguistics and geology aside, the rune would have us believe that after the fishing party returned and found their comrades dead, they stuck around long enough to cut a slab off of a local boulder and carve this message on it. Yet they placed no grave markers. If anybody ever looked for graves in the vicinity, I have never heard about it. Ought to be plenty of metal in a grave from that era.
I'm from Oklahoma, where a number of "runestones" have also been found. As a kid I thought that these things were so cool- I mean, VIKINGS! You didn't get much cooler than that, especially in Oklahoma. It's made me sad as these things have been debunked, but as I have grown older I've also found out that there are plenty of "real" mysteries out there.
Excellent analysis. The line with "ve havet" is indeed used in modern Swedish dialects, particulary in götamål in Västergötland and even in Östergötland. If I were to say that i'm at the sea, I would litterally say exactly that I am: "ve havet". Not vid havet, not ved havet. /former swedish sailor
To me, this sounds like someone who did not know much about languages at all (especially scandinavian ones) and was trying to be expecially clever by mixing Swedish and Norwegian, because he thought that that would creat something that sounds more like Old Norse, because it sounds like that to him. It just shows that people who think themselves to be especially clever usually aren't - in the contrary.
I burst out in laughter when you said “[...] why would it be in Minnesota?”
The thing I love about your channel is that it's everything I thought the History Channel was when I was younger. I'll keep watching your videos and buying your books until you start making reality TV
"Cue the Red tailed Hawk scream... LOL!!!!
Whomst'd've'l'i'ya'i'n't made'th'st thi'st stone? XD
Kevin Hansson *madethst
@@mohawkcub Ah yes'est. How's've could i'eth fortgoten'es't'ed
This made me laugh way harder than it should
I learned about the Kensington runestone today. Was hoping that someone could show the full text of it, and I am very happy to see that none other than you had done this. It has been very entertaining, and man oh man, while I knew that the Kensington Runestone was utter bunk, this was worse than I expected. Love your channel, love your videos.
Always welcome in MN...thank you for your linguistic clarification.
DR Crawford, thank you for this video, very informative. I have a question about what has been called the ‘hooked X’. If you are familiar with this, could you maybe give your opinion of it, and what it may mean? Thank you.
the swipe at the end was weird, please visit northern MN, Voyageurs NP, BWCA, Lake Superior, etc., it's so beautiful
He had written words appear on screen while he said it saying he was joking.
Have you discussed the heavener runestone? I tried finding a video on it but was unable to.
Thank you for clearing this up.
The stone is clearly written by a Swede from either Dalarna or Hälsingland in the 19th century, counties in Sweden where runes were used until the early 20th century. How can I tell? I can actually understand the text without problem. I cannot do that from old Swedish text like the Västgötalagen written in 1381 about the same time the Kensington runes is supposed to be from.
Loved the very thorough analysis even if I would never venture to try it on my own.
Doc, as a Newfoundlander I have to say this. I have made it a point up to now to not correct people on their pronunciation of of my home island's name because in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter, but I figure that you as a linguist would appreciate it: the last A in the word is pronounced normally, as you would normally on "land" even though the ou in "found" is shortened to a simple u sound. It would look like new-fund-land not new-fund-lund. Thanks for the cool video always love your stuff.
damn, this is top-tier content. thank you so much for your work!
Excellent analysis, thank you. If I were you I would photocopy a $20 bill for the guy who is charging to see his "runes".
Thanks to you Dr Crawford, when I finally get around to making my own fake runestone it's gonna be fkn perfect
Even if I live for the most of my time in MN, I actually didn’t know about the runestone until my 20s? I still haven’t seen it. Thank you for this analysis. For the heck of it I want to go see it.
Come to MN anyways, like see the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead, MN.
Kat Smith I second that
Kat Smith The Hjemkomst Center is definitely a place to go not only for the ship, but also for the Stave church!
I went to see a Swedish professor from Uppsala University, Henrik Williams, who studied the Kensington Runestone and discussed it here in the cities at the ASI. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of runes by date and which group of people who used them!
Your handwriting is beatiful, oh my lord, I'd watch a video just on that!
I descend my lower-'h's and round my lower-'d's very similarly. When you were developing your personal handwriting, did you emulate anyone in particular?
11:37 funniest analogy ive ever read, i love this channel!
Good content and channel. Thank you
Regarding the word "opdagelsefärd", we do have a swedish word for it: "upptäcksfärd".
Just wanted to let you know :)
And the dialect he would have spoken is Hälsingemål. We tend to skip plural and just go with the singular form, I think it's beacause we speak faster that way and we usually don't speak the whole word either. Like when I say the word "varsågod" (you're welcome) it usually just sounds like "rsego"
A man asked me once if I was speaking Norwegian because we usually change the letter "a" or "o" to "e" at the end of words, for exampel: prater = pratar (speak), lamper = lampor (lamps), tavler = tavlor (paintings), so that might be the reason it's a bit similar to Norwegian as well.
Love your videos!
Jackson, can I ask, why not also put up the Runic Norse text also ? That is the original form on the stone, not how it is in this video, it makes it sound like the original is written in the way in this video.
The break down of why this was wack was very interesting.
Uppdagelsefärd gives two hits on Google and four on Duckduckgo, all about the Kensington stone, but it is still understandable as a compound word even if it has never been used.
Sounds like the kind of words one would expect Åke Ohlmarks to have used in his writings.
You know it’s not fake, because a swede would never mention norwegians in a message like this. Also If a swede, against all odds, would bother to carve in stone that there where norwegians on the expedition, he would never say they where more numerous than the swedes😄.
I didnt even know about this until it was teased yesterday in patreon. Read trough it, but not too deep, was really interested in this video!
Amazing content thank you.
Just a question here! Has a comparison also been made in Old Danish from the purported era too with the wording on the Kensington Runestones?
You have effectively dismantled my younger fascination with the Kensington Runestone. I saw that “holy grail in America” documentary a long time ago as a kid, and they had me going. Thank you for busting that myth for me.
Fascinating. Thank you for sharing your expertise. Has this been shared and published within the scientific community?
What is your opinion of the Maine Penny?
This was very interesting to me as my Dad's family grew up in Kensington and knew the Ohman family. My grandparents lived there until they passed away. Thank you for detailing this topic as well as you have.
Starting off with the handwriting comparison was a great introduction for a layperson like.me.
A swedish norwegian merger dialect
... you mean like minnesota scandinavians would speak???
Thank you
This video is definitely in the running for one of the funniest on this channel. Such a detailed, well informed, and scathing take down. Like Content Cop, but Jackson Crawford style 😄!
I kinda really wanted this to be true because the thought of Vikings making it that far west us fascinating and it would give some truth behind my favorite nfl team the Minnesota Vikings I’m also from Minnesota.
At 2:08, "Independence Day"? The first movie I snuck into when I was 8 or 9 was "The Graduate"! 🙂
There was a rune stone found in Oklahoma. The story pointed out this stone as a possibility connection? Yes it's a neat idea of only it where true! Thanks for all you do
As a few others have asked, I'd love to see a video about the rune stones here in Oklahoma.
Good luck with that... I believe that they are part of the secret that the Smithsonian is still hiding...
Scott Wolker was the only person that spoke about them when he had his show back around 2010...
In mid season "the unknown last episode" of the last 15 minutes he spoke about them while being unnerved by something...
He really didn't say what any of the ruins had on them...
The show was cancelled right after that...
Scott Wolker has been smeared everywhere, by so many since then...
Many people are finding out that something happened in the 1700's and the history we were taught is a huge lie...
They are modern fakes. Forget them as anything but a testimony to what modern people do and why.
Thanks for putting this to rest with the most compelling analysis that I could find online. Ironic that YT is the means of conveyance, as articles found online are contradicting. That says something about the changing landscape of research and academia (about time). Please take on the Noman's stone in MA; it continues to be debated, although the numerals seem to say hoax, as I imagine is the case.
Minnesota has many lakes and some good snow mobile trails. A great reason for the "Vikings" to go there, lol.
OMG! That's totally lit!
Loving the distinctly informative way you convey your knowledge !! Especially, from an academic perspective. Thank you so much . Really , nothing less than spectacular way of helping others to truly Absorb it all . I actually understand your videos !!! 😂
I'm from Minnesota and as far as I'm concerned, you're welcome any time! But then, I appreciate science and scholarship!
Good analysis
Thanks!
Already the use of "po" shows that it's quite modern Scandinavian. As I have understood it, the Swedish word "på" comes from the common combination "upp å" (up on/upon) which has by time been thought to be "upp på". In Elfdalian the word used is still "o" or "å" with a nasal pronounciation.
What about the scanning electron analysis of the rune stone?
What about it?
How about the carvings in stone at the northern tip of Upper Michigan. It show's a picture of a single square sail ship. This carving is very simuler to one carved in Sweden/Norway area during the 12th century.
My greatgrandfather was fascinated by runes and he's left several runestones scattered in the woods he owned. We as a family know of some of them, but the rumor is that there are more. Some even say it's created as a "treasure" hunt where one stone will give clues to where to find another. I've always wondered what will happen if someone outside of the family finds one.
The Swedish word 'upptäcktsfärd' has the same meaning as the norwegian 'oppdagelsesferd', although different but related etymology. If you look at the parts of the words the norwegian word means essentially to take something up into the day, while the swedish means to take something up from under cover. The logic is similar. The Norwegian oppdage partially borrowed it's meaning from the german word entdecken, which is etymologically releated to the Swedish 'upptäcka'. 'färd' and 'ferd' are of course just different spellings of the same word.
So I think upptäcktsfärd would be a pretty good word to use in the translation, seeing as the meaning is identical and the etymology is partially related.
In addition, Uppdagelse and Uppdaga are actual swedish words.
"Upptäcktsresa" would be an older and more suitable Swedish word. They are to some extent interchangeable, but "upptäcktsfärd" is more often used for an smaller excursion in the nearby surroundings, usually made by children. "Upptäcka" originally ment "to undress" (Bible, 1541). The meaning changed from uncover to discover during the 1700's. That's when it was combined with "resa" (travel). The compound noun "upptäcktsfärd" doesn't show up until the early 1800's. The "-färd", Old N. -ferð (journey) ending makes it seem older than it actually is. The Norwegian "oppdage" (figure out, discover, reveal a secret) does exist in Swedish as "uppdaga" (prep. upp = up, daga = dawning). The meaning is however more narrow, as it's only referring to the revelation of a secret. It has never been used for feats of exploration.
I think Norwegian "oppdagelse" is a Danish borrowing, certainly common in the 19th century, but I doubt it even existed in Danish in the 14th century.
Very interesting stuff, Doc. Would you ever (or have you already and I've missed it) do a video where you actually show how you'd translate a real runestone?
I think this last half of the "Writing Old Norse in Runes" video may be what you're looking for: ua-cam.com/video/X7Z65582ex4/v-deo.html
@@stellanathaniel3198 I'll have a look at that. Thank you very much, friend!
I'm just at the part of the video where you compare your handwriting the the calligraphy from the declaration of independence, and you highlight how your handwriting is affected by your study of Old Norse.
Something similar happened to me when I studied Attic Greek. I had to had write so much of my homework that my English handwriting started looking like my Greek handwriting which mimicked the typed Greek font face. "V" looked like nu "d" looked like delta, and so forth.
Funny being Swede and Göte, I feel I know nothing about my own language. And so much has change during the times, it is really hard for me at least to understand old norse or old Swedish.
Thanks for this video. I assume that it probably gets tiresome, having people constantly asking about this stone, but providing a strong detailed case is very helpful and unfortunately necessary. Too many people are seduced by the possibilities of an alleged mystery to the point of ignoring the trained experts. There is a reason the professionals are considered experts and anyone who wants to allege a revolutionary find/idea needs to show strong proof. Professional historians love to argue evidence and propose new theories but the standards of proof have evolved to try and ensure such new historical ideas and theory are well founded.
what about the Heavener Rune wall ?
Thank you. As a Minnesotan who grew up with this charming local piece of mythical history, I've thirsted for a depth of explanation of its fakery like this for oh, about 40 years.
Opdagelseferd = upptäcksfärd? Swedish has the word "uppdagas" or "uppdagelse" for stuff that is exposed and "brought into the light". But a "exploration jurney" is "upptäcksfärd"... "Opdagelsefärd" could be dialect but I highly doubt it.
The person that owned the land where the Kensington stone was found was from "Hassela" in north "Hälsingland". Not only have they found runes with the same charateristics as the one on the Kensingtonstone in that very area (perhaps even the house he lived in) but the dialect also swaps "a" in endings to "e", so words like "göter" makes perfect sense. The dialect also frequently drop the plural on the adjectivs ("vi är hungrig" instead of "vi är hungriga"), just like on the Kensington stone. The word "mans" is used at least locally, in the idionom "lite till mans" (meaning "we all"). It is highly likely that "ve" was used in the dialect as it uses "e" extensivly. On top of that is the area has had several waves of migrants from Norway (specifically Tröndelag) over the history and the dialects share several features not only with East Norse (Sveamál) but also West Norse (the use of -ånger for fjords for example, or rafn for raven).
So if we just asume that the stone was writen by the landowner himself it all make perfect sense - even without the backstory of the man (in which case it makes even more sense as he wanted to fool "know-it-all" scholars).
And yes: during the 1300s people would still identify themselves as "Götar". If they would have added "väst" and "öst" before or not I would let be unsaid though. The regional identities were strong for a very long time and still today some regions put their ancient regional identity before the national identity.
I just saw your comedy piece about said rune stone.
Having grown up in Alexandria, Mn were the runestone now resides I can say that the true believers that I knew as a child still would not be convinced. Though I had my doubts about its authenticity I appreciate this finally laying them all to rest though this is mildly disappointing.
Any opinion on the Heavener & Poteau, Oklahoma runes?
Ten years ago, when I was working in a small bookstore in northern Minnesota, a gentleman came in and asked if we had any books about the Kensington Runestone. I answered, “Oh, I thought that was a hoax.” He said “Actually I wrote the book that proved it wasn’t a hoax.” Oops. Of course, he was pitching his book, which he wanted us to carry in the store. We declined.
I am curious what your thoughts on the Rhode Island Runes
my great grandfather met olof ohlman and his impression was that he was not sophisticated enough to perpetrate such a hoax
I never used the runestone for my hypothesis, but dang make it hard for those of us who believe Sinclair came here.
As a Dane i enjoyed this very much. Og jeg tror på din teori.
The lack of dative is even more revealing than the lack of plural forms (and even in the unlikely event that plural forms were dropped in the 14th century, the shortened "har" form is also unlikely, that is, without a middle -v-). The dative seems to refuse to die in several Norwegian dialects, whilst I would say that the plural verb forms are dead today except amongst dialect purists. The plural forms were archaic already in the 19th century though they remained in writing. As for the numerals, it's not unthinkable that it could be an innovation of a 14th century writer, though unlikely.
It's not impossible that Scandinavians (or Scandinavian Greenlanders) travelled deep into the interior of America, but they certainly didn't make this stone.
I'd totally paypal you 20$ for some fresh Colorado cave runes. :P
I remember this being brought up as a classic example of a hoax in 8th grade history class in Sweden.
Little bit surprised to find out there's some sort of debate still going on, and that it's kept in a museum.
Now since we're talking stone carving, how about a video on the gutasaga and the related picture stones from Gotland?
Was there perhaps any overlap with modern Danish?
Since the geological analysis shows that the stone had at least been under that tree for a couple of decades, questions remain unanswered: Who made the inscriptions and why?
Thank you. I'm a skeptic by nature, but I really wanted to believe this one. I've heard about the grammatical problems, but never had them laid out so clearly.
I've been taught to consider the Kensington Stone to be fake. I did find it peculiar that you never mentioned anything about the Gute language of Gotland. Are some of the features of the Kensington stone present in runes from Gotland as more modern scholars say?
It would be neat to see a Dr. Jackson Crawford forgery :P I imagine he'd place it high up on a Colorado mountain, just to screw with people. And it would end with a "LOL TROLLED YOU NOOBS"
That and a picture of the Runestone, with the good Doctor's red ink all over it. "F. Please see me after class"
When are you gonna do a video about the rök runestone?
Just the fact that some random Swede in Minnesota "dug" this up, makes it way less easy to believe.
42 minutes - AWESOME!!! - 42 minutes at 4:00 am, oh! (yes AM, now Thursday here in New Zealand) - I'm an extreme night owl but I seriously need to get some sleep - really looking forward to this - (oh and really lovely handwriting btw) (oh and while not my first movie, my sister took me Aliens - I was 15 - hadn't seen the first one - had no idea it was a horror movie (which I hate) was absolutely *terrified* - did have to look up at the sky and consciously remind myself they weren't real when I walked out) ( you expect me to _resist_ starting to watch this... not a chance, but seriously need sleep... night/morning)
17:43 As a Quebecer this made me laugh
What's the city he's referencing? I don't know enough French to figure out the sounds he quacked into the microphone...
@@AlecStory he said "crisement" (a quebec french swear) and then the city of Quebec.
Can you explain fourteenth century examples in churches in southwestern France that are nearly identical in style? For example Norse of the period writing in a Latin form due to the conversion to Christianity? Just wondering what the difference is between said examples? (There are a few good examples that use the hooked x as well of the exact period in Europe.) Medieval graffiti of the period to a bum like me seems awfully similar. Maybe it's just me. Also interesting to note pretty much everyone wrote in some wacky form in that period in all sorts of mixed up language combinations. Again. Maybe just me. I'm not convinced in the approach given the period to debunk the stone in this manner. People are not going to all have excellent grammer etc.