Myths of the Rune Stone : Viking martyrs and the birthplace of America

225 Pages·2015·10.6 MB·English

by  Krueger

yths of the une Stone
M R
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Myths of the
une tone
R S
Viking Martyrs and the
Birthplace of America
DaviD M. Krueger
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
Portions of chapter 5 were previously published in David Krueger, “Vikings
Read with Blood and Dead: Viking Martyrs and the Conquest of the American
frontier,” Claremont Journal of Religion (January 2012): 159– 74.
Copyright 2015 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechani-
cal, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission
of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 third Avenue south, suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401– 2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Krueger, David M.
Myths of the Rune stone : Viking martyrs and the birthplace of America /
David M. Krueger.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
IsBN 978-0-8166-9691-8 (hc)
IsBN 978-0-8166-9696-3 (pb)
1. Kensington Rune stone. 2. Vikings—Minnesota—Legends. 3. Civil
religion—Minnesota—history. 4. Community life—Minnesota—history.
5. Group identity—Minnesota—history. 6. Indians of North America—
Minnesota—history. 7. Minnesota—Race relations—history. 8. Civil
religion—United states. 9. Legends—Political aspects—United states.
10. ethnicity—Political aspects—United states. I. title.
e105.K78 2015
305.8009776—dc23 2015013268
Printed in the United states of America on acid- free paper
the University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and employer.
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
this book is dedicated to
ohn C. Raines
J
professor, activist, mentor, friend
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contents
Preface ix
Introduction: A holy Mission to Minnesota 1
1. Westward from Vinland: An Immigrant saga 15
by hjalmar holand
2. Knutson’s Last stand: fabricating the 41
first White Martyrs of the American West
3. In Defense of Main street: the Kensington Rune stone 69
as a Midwestern Plymouth Rock
4. our Lady of the Runestone and America’s Baptism 93
with Catholic Blood
5. Immortal Rock: Cold War Religion, Centennials, 119
and the Return of the skrælings
Conclusion: the enduring Legacy of American Viking Myths 151
Acknowledgments 157
Notes 161
Bibliography 197
Index 209
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preface
farm kids have a special relationship with land and place. I grew up just
a few miles from Alexandria, Minnesota. encircling my childhood home
are endless acres of corn and wheat fields lined by stands of oak and
maple trees. As a child, I spent many summer days stacking hay bales
on wagons pulled by my dad’s old oliver tractor. on sundays, my dad
and I used to walk through the surrounding fields and woods and he
would tell me stories about the hard work that went into tending the
land. he told me how his dad had cleared hundreds of trees to make
way for farming when he bought the land back in 1915. In the basement
of our house, he showed me the yellowed paper deed that contained the
record of who had owned the land over the years. At the top of the deed
is the record of the first official exchange of land on october 1, 1867.
It shifted ownership from the United states General Land office to a
homesteader named John Beaver.
Locals have long been interested in the history of the region prior
to white settlement in the mid- nineteenth century, but their curiosity
typically had little to do with the earlier inhabitants who were known
to have traversed these lands, including the Dakota, the ojibwe, and
the Winnebago. Alexandria, Minnesota, declares itself the birthplace of
America— at least that is what it says on the shield of the twenty- eight-
foot- tall Viking statue that greets tourists as they come into town. the
audacious claim is supported by a swedish immigrant’s discovery in 1898
of a stone tablet with runic letters and the date 1362. By the 1960s, the
artifact was widely embraced as proof that Vikings had visited what was
to become Minnesota long before the voyages of Christopher Columbus.
By the 1970s and 1980s, when I grew up, confidence in the rune
stone as an authentic medieval artifact had waned, but many continued
to advocate it as a symbol of scandinavian pride. Most of my ancestors
hail from sweden and the culinary delicacies of lefse (a potato- based