The Discovery
To those of you who know Runic lore this story will have a familiar ring.
I did not set out to become a Runemaster, the rune stones came to me.
On a full moon’s tide night, unknown to the presenter or me at the time, they where presented to me and that’s when this whole thing began.
She simply said ‘you should have these’ and that was that.
I am degreed in Psychology with all it’s scientific disciplines of ‘scientific observation’ and rules of discerning fact from fiction. This is very important when you work in therapy with people who aren’t sure what is fact and fiction.
I am a product of the education system we had in America in the later half of the 1960s and first part of the 1970s. This report can be looked upon as payback to my nation for what the leaders of our country did back then when they cast the seeds of knowledge into the populace. WE walked on the Moon people, we can be great again.
Part of the thinking that went into making this discovery came from the management classes I took during that time with their concepts of disciplining the mind to be able to form a hypothesis about an unknown and then either prove or disprove the theory to arrive at a workable truth based on facts, cause and effect in a situation. This is a very powerful concept in problem solving for Commerce.
Also the concept of high play and low play. Low play is when you sit down to a game of cards or Dice. High play is when you work with an unknown, like the solution to a business problem. It is a way of working with the information that keeps the flow of ideas open and without prejudice until the proper time.
Becoming involved with these rune stones caused me to look out and see the Kensington Runestone. To be curious about the message that was written their. Using the thinking I described above I applied myself to researching the inscription. This lead to discoveries about runic in general. It’s changing use over time being one. If my dictionary can be used to decipher other runic expressions then it would be the equivalent to the Rosetta stone for runic. A great boon to Scandinavian archeology in general.
The world was first informed of the Kensington Runestone in 1898. It is a Viking artifact that was found near the town of Kensington Minnesota which has given it it's name. There has been much speculation about whether the stone is genuine or fake. The controversy continues up to this day.
My initial approach to studying this inscription was through the runic Alphabet known as Futhark. The theory I proposed was to put the use of the alphabet into the proper time context since over time the runic alphabet 'Futhark' had experienced modification going from an ideogram expression to an alphabetical construction as it was influenced by the European societies the Norsemen came into contact with.
In 1362, the date given by the carvers of the stone, Runic had already experienced the transition into alphabet form. However it was still used by the carvers in the original ideogram format with an over lay of the alphabet incarnation. The result being that there are 2 stories in this inscription. One read from left to right and crudely decipherable in Norwegian alphabet form and the other read from right to left and articulately decipherable in the ancient ideogram format.
Prior to my efforts no one had tried to read it using the ancient ideogram format. Part of the problem with understanding the inscription is that it contains symbols not found anywhere else in the runic world.
The key symbol in unlocking an understanding of what the inscription says in an ideogram format is Fehu the symbol for possessions. The author of the stone uses it in a reverse and forward positioning giving him the ability to express gain or loss of possessions. This use does not appear anywhere else in the runic world.
He modifies a few other of the Futhark symbols as well like the rune Elhaz meaning ‘defense’ either earthly or spiritual and modifies it to be able to express successful or unsuccessful earthly defense.
Thanks to the work of researchers who have gone before me. Hjalmar R. Holand, Alf Monge and O.G. Landsverk, to name a few. I was able to tie this story back to European records and give names to the essential characters. Harrek, Tollik and Sir Paul Knutson.
You don’t have to take my word for any of the facts. They are all supported by prior, credentialed, published researchers. Like the history show ‘Connections’ I simply bring the facts together.
Once I knew I had found something I spent 2 months painstakingly going over the inscription to be sure I recorded the inscription as the original author ‘Harrek’ had expressed it. I used scientific observation principles meaning that everything I say can be independently verified by a third party. Nothing in the scientific part of my report is hearsay.
Author: Mark E. Johnson