The Kensington Runestone

Record summary

The Kensington Runestone is a slab bearing alleged Scandinavian runes that was found by farmer Olof Öhman in Minnesota in 1898. If genuine, its text would suggest a fourteenth-century Norse expedition deep into North America; most specialists have judged it a modern forgery, although defenders continue to argue from geology, language, and rune forms. The case is useful for comparing epigraphy, provenance, Scandinavian-American identity, and public resistance to scholarly consensus. Verification requires examining the stone, inscriptional analysis, discovery history, and competing linguistic arguments.