NORSEMEN IN NORTH AMERICA— BR0NDSTED 397 



the inscription may agree with West Scandinavian, there are definite 

 traits which show that it must be East Scandinavian. 



Both Erik Moltke and Harry Andersen in their opinions (Danske 

 Studier, 1949-50) deny that the Kensington inscription is genuine, 

 Moltke with runological, Andersen with philological arguments. 

 Moltke points out that it makes use of characters (a, o, and especially 

 j) which did not make their appearance until after the year 1500, 

 and in his "Efterskrift" (loc. cit., p. 51 et seq.) mentions the runic doc- 

 ument, referred to by J. A. Holvik (Concordian, No. 10, 1949) , which 

 is held to be nothing less than a draft of the inscription. 



Whereas archeology to my mind fails to tell us anything positive 

 for or against, some of the philological arguments against the genuine- 

 ness of the inscription — especially the word opdagelsefcBrd and the 

 use of the ^-rune — must weigh heavily in the balance. Though I hesi- 

 tate to say this is evidence of the modern origin of the inscription, the 

 doubts of its genuineness expressed by most expert philologists are so 

 strong that for the present we must reject the Kensington stone from 

 the source material of research. As matters stand, one cannot recon- 

 struct American pre-Columbian history on the evidence of this stone.^ 



OTHER INSCRIPTIONS 



I have submitted to Erik Moltke photographs or drawings of some 

 other inscriptions or inscriptionlike phenomena from North America, 

 namely the following (see list in Aarb0ger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed 

 og Historic, 1950, p. 92 et seq.) : 



Bourne, Mass., stone. Marthas "Vineyard, Mass., stone. 



Byfield, Mass., rock. Merrimac River, Mass., fragment of 

 Clay Ferry, Mass., stone. stone pipe. 



Deer Lake, western Ontario, stone. New Jersey, N. J., stone hammer. 



Dighton Roclc, R. I., rock (see above, Newport Tower, R. I., small stone. 



p. 390). No Man's Land, Mass., rock, modern. 



Ellsworth, Maine, slate knife. Northmen's Rock, R. I., stone. 



Grave Creek and Braxton, W. Va., two Sebec, Maine, stone. 



small stone tablets, Tiverton, R. I., rock. 



Hampton Beach, N. H., stone. Topham Beach, Maine, stone. 



Horsford, Mass., stone. Tool Whittier Rock, Mass., stone. 



Manana Rock, Maine, rock. Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, stone. 



Mr. Moltke's opinion of them is as follows (extract from letter of 

 August 15, 1949) : 



An examination of the inscriptions handed to me gives the result that the only 

 ones in which there is any question of runes are the Kensington stone and the 



" In the Washington Post, January 28, 1954, I find the following statement : "Proof that 

 the Kensington Rune Stone is a hoax was claimed today by Dr. Erik Wahlgren, associate 

 professor of Scandinavian and German at the University of California at Los Angeles. . . . 

 Dr. Wahlgren said he recently traced errors in the inscription directly to an old encyclo- 

 pedia found on the Ohman farm. He added that he had established that all materials, 

 ■including the stone, necessary to the Inscription were obtainable at the Ohman home." 



