In I898 , Olof Öhman , a Swedish immigrant populate in Minnesota , claimed to have found a huge 90 - kilogram ( 200 - Irish pound ) slab of stone , hidden in the ancestor of a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . The slab was covered in characters of therunic alphabetused by peoples of northerly Europe , Britain , Scandinavia , and Iceland before the 17thcentury . A translation of the runes tells the story of a group of Norse explorers in the expanse being attacked in 1362 .
" Eight Geats and twenty - two Norwegians on an geographic expedition journey from Vinland to the west , " atranslationof the dedication reads . " We had bivouac by two skerries one twenty-four hour period ’s journey north from this stone . We were [ out ] to fish one sidereal day . After we total home [ we ] find ten man reddish of blood and deadened . AVM ( Ave Virgo Maria ) save [ us ] from evil . [ We ] have ten men by the ocean to expect after our ships , fourteen solar day ’ travel from this island . [ In the ] class 1362 . "
Over the twelvemonth , people have believed this – and othersimilar " finds"in Oklahoma – to be evidence that Vikings made the journeying all the way to Minnesota . But though there is evidence that Vikings made it to the coast of North Americalong before Columbus , there is no grounds that they made their elbow room inland .
The runestone , like the others , is a hoax – or at least a forgery for other purposes afterward believed by someone else to be the material passel . The language on the stonesdoes not fitwith the language used in 1362 , and fits much well with a 19th - one C agreement of the language rather than the 14thcentury . The rune includedcharacters that had diedout centuries before 1392 , as well as type still in limited use in the 18th and 19thcenturies . Either this is a put-on ( which it is ) or we have ourselves a font of the only thing cooler than Vikings : sentence - travelingVikings .
Researchers conceive that Öhman learned how to create the runes from a Christian Bible calledThe Well - Informed Schoolmasterby Carl Rosander . A transcript was found in Öhman ’s possession , ratify and date March 2 , 1891 , eight years before the rune was " found " , as well as another book on runes . As well as a 19th - hundred intellect of runic letter , the hoax shows a nineteenth - hundred understanding of account and Native Americans .
" The broad and most obvious understanding for the durability of the Viking legend is that it claim tooth root in a Scandinavian community that was lofty of its heritage , " anthropologist Michael Michlovic wrote of the fraudulence in apaper . " One of its earliest expression portrays Scandinavian explorers struggling through the wild . One company is ambushed , pour down and scalped by Indians ; another party discovers the stiff and records the attack on the gemstone with a prayer for help . The linguistic communication used may be taken to reflect popular attitude about Indians and Norsemen . Indians are describe as savages , wild infidel , pillager , unfriendly , vengeful , wild nomads , wild beast , suspicious , and snakelike . The Norse are referred to as undaunted , brave , avant-garde , unfearing , and faithful . "
