USA > Minnesota > Douglas County > History of Douglas and Grant counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume I > Part 10
USA > Minnesota > Grant County > History of Douglas and Grant counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume I > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
Again, it is quite likely that in pronunciation pa, the original word which became paa, was sounded so nearly like po that the unlettered scribe pre- ferred po to any other spelling. Further, as there was no rune character for aa, this sound was commonly expressed by the rune for o.
laeger. The original Norse form was legr, but in Swedish the e became ä, and under the influence of German contact the word took the form of laeger, or läger. It is assumed by the objectors that this final form was due to the sixteenth century and hence could not have been used in 1362; but Falk and Torp state that in Swedish-Danish the transition from e to ä took place about 1200 (Lydhistorie, Kristiania, 1898, page II, No. 2).
It is further objected to this word that in the sense here employed (camp) it was not employed in 1362, but meant burial place or lying together; yet Kalkar illustrates it in the sense used in the inscription, viz., "The angels of the Lord built their camp round about them: Herrins engel slaar lägre omkring thennom" (date of this writing, 1524?). This dictionary covers the period from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century.
dhag, opdagelse, l'inlandh, dhed, and other words in the inscription, are spelled with the rune character, called thorn. It is claimed that the more modern character for d had supplanted the "thorn" in 1362, and ought to have been used. The thorn was usually used at this time for both th and dh; but it appears that t was gradually supplanting th, and d was taking the place of dh. It is plain from all sides that the thorn, used exclusively on the inscription, was warrantable as a character either for that dental which was sounded th, or for that which was sounded by dh. At the same time, so far as we can learn, the distinct character for d had a recognized existence ; but whether there was any rule or regulated practice, in 1362, as to the use of it for d, we have been unable to find out. No one has referred to any regulated practice, and it seems to us that any criticism demanding the exclusive use of the character for d in 1362 where the inscription shows
104
DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
dh, should be supported by such a rule. There is not a word in the inscrip- tion which calls for the dental sound th, and it is hence plain that where the thorn sign is used it was intended to take the place of the sign for dh (or for d).
Further, while the character was used at the time, it occurs so rarely that it seems most runesmiths were ignorant of its existence or ignored it. For instance, it does not occur a single time in the twenty-six Swedish and Danish runic inscriptions from the middle period quoted by Vigfussen on pages 447-449 of his "Icelandic Reader and Grammar." The thorn however occurs 142 times in these same inscriptions. It appears also that there was great latitude in the use of this character, in that it not only commonly represented th and dh, but also frequently d, and even t. In · inscription No. 4, on page 448, we find ristu spelled with the "thorn" instead of the t. Therefore, while it might have been accessible in elementary text- books, the writer of the inscription has shown a close agreement even with written usage in Sweden in the middle ages, by using the "thorn" exclusively. Had f only been used, that character, as it seems to the committee, would have constituted a greater objection than the exclusive use of the "thorn."
hadhe, har, var, kom, and fan. These are unquestionably verb forms of the first plural, past tense (har is present), used by the rune-maker, and purporting to be from the date of 1362. The validity of these forms is questionable. It is evident that if fraudulent these abbreviated terms might be those which the inscriber of the stone would employ in the nineteenth century. The committee are of the opinion that if these five verb forms cannot be satisfactorily explained, the stone will be suspected as a forgery. They have therefore given particular attention to the question whether such abbreviations were warrantable in the year 1362.
The statement has been made already, in general terms, that this was a period in the history of the Danish-Swedish and Danish-Norse lan- guages when great confusion prevailed, because of a tendency toward the modern usages, and it would be possible to assign such verb changes to that general statement. The committee, however, have thought that, owing to the sweeping character of this difficulty, it would be well to disregard the general principle, and to find, if possible, examples in practice dating from the fourteenth century, of such verb changes as are here shown by the rune stone.
Dahlerup, commenting on this period, says: "Numerous verb forms, especially in documents showing Jutland influences, show that the speech undoubtedly in many parts [of the country ] had given up the logical use of the
IO5
DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
plural forms" (Det Danske Sprogs Historie, p. 33). As an example of this he quotes: "Alle fugle son hedder volucres pa Latin," "the faar," "the gik," "the kan," "I seer," etc. In all these illustrations we find singular verbs with plural subjects. We have other examples of this, as in a letter of 1340, which begins, "Allae men thettae bref ser eller hor" (Brandt's Läsebog, p. 79, line 1). Similarly a letter of 1329 begins, Allac maen thet- tae bref ser aeldaer horacr (ditto, 77, I). This shows at least that the old classic rule, that the inflectional ending of the verb must agree with its subject, was not maintained in the four-teenth century. The third per- son plural preterite for hafa is höfdu; but as early as 1200 we find Witherlax men hawdhe honum uraet giort" (Kong Knuts Viderlagsret in Brandt's Läsebog, p. 39, line 1). Gamle Kong Eriks Krönike, written about 1320, says, "The hado upötith therra maat" (Svenska Medeltidens Rim-Krönikor, G. E. Klemmings's edition, Stockholm, 1865, first part, line 1514; see also line 2581). Upsala Krönike, of the fourteenth century, reads, "hadae moss [plural] acdet opp oxen som var of osth giord (Hunde Kongen og Snio in Hallenberg, No. 51, also quoted in Brandt's Läsebog, p. 72, line I). In Mandevilles Reiser, of about 1400, we similarly find hadhe: "ikcae hadhae vy .frem kommit" (Brandt's Lasebog, 123, 10) ; "ta wy hadae gongit hoos tho milac," etc., (ditto, 122, 16). See also the frequent use of "the hade," they had, in Svenske Medeltidens Rim-Krönikor.
As to the form has, here used in place of the regular full inflectional haffvom, we find that in many, perhaps in most, writings of the fourteenth century, the termination of the first person plural, vom, had largely disap- peared. It is retained, however, in an important work dating from 1320, Gamle Eriks Krönike, where also nearly all the old endings are preserved. Instead of haffvom, we find the modern forms have or haver; but, according to Falk and Thorp, for a long time the v was elided in pronunciation, mak- ing ha and har, or was replaced, even in the fourteenth century, by u, the following e being dropped. Thus: "Iak haur of herrana hört" (Gamble Eriks Krönike, 1320, Klemming's ed., line 4404) ; "Thet haur konung Bierge giort" (ditto, line 4480). The rhythm also shows that it was pronounced as a single 'syllable. Similarly in a diploma of 1386 we read, "Wi have unt oc lathet wore kerae bymän (Brandt's Läsebog, p. 79, line 18). In a letter of Queen Margaret, of 1339, we read: "Meth al thene rät som han og honnes fathir ther til hawe haft og hawe." In the last two instances ut (or 7) is w, which also illustrates the confusion which has, in all modern languages, attended those half consonants. In the next, u is plainly and simply used for v. In a book of remedies, about 1360, we read "Wi haua
106
DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
nu talet ok sagt oc screwät thet som tharyekt ar" (Molbech's Ordbog, xlix) ; also, "Thom ther hauer howeth wärk," etc. (ditto, xlix).
Summarizing our inquiry on this word, we find:
(a) that the plural hafvom had been largely dropped in the four- teenth century ;
(b) that the singular for haver had largely superseded it;
(c) that according to Falk and Torp, eminent philologists, this v has long been dropped phonetically ;
(d) that haur, the immediate phonetic predecessor of har, occurs sporadi- cally in Gamle Eriks Krönike, the ablest literary work of the times, written in 1320.
If we add to this a probable advance in phonetic and grammatic develop- ment in the region of Gothland, there seems to be no longer remaining any valid objection to the use of the spelling seen on the stone.
It should further be borne in mind that the author of this inscription, if it be genuine, would be extremely unlikely to be an educated literary man, but rather a plain man of action. As such he would write as he spoke. On the contrary an impostor of today, trying to reproduce the language of an ancient period, could only be a philologist, and would try to follow the liter- ary usage of the time, instead of employing forms adapted to his own day. The apparently modern, but defensible, use of the word har, is therefore, in the opinion of this committee, good evidence of the phonetic authorship of the record in the fourteenth century.
var is the first person plural, used for the old and regular form varum. The discussion of har applies largely to this word. In the fourteenth century it was the common form. In the chronicle of the Danish kings, written about 1250 and 1300, we find the singular and plural forms struggling side by side. In line 12 we read, Hialti ok Birghi var i hans tima." while in line 15 we read, "Slenge ok l'ege varu i hans tima." After this time the singular var is dominant. Many illustrations could be given of plural subjects used with the singular var. Var is frequently seen in the form vare, as "tha varc wi acy fraelste aff helvedis nödh" (devotional poem from about 1425, Brandt's Läsebog, p. 262, 8).
kom is used for kommon, the plural ending, like others already dis- cussed, having dropped off in the period under discussion.
fan. This form, although we have no examples to quote, may be assumed to have been used for the old plural form, analogous to kom, var, and har.
dhedh (or dedh). The use of e for ac, in the fourteenth century, or vice versa, was frequent. Hence the uncritical maker of the inscription did not
107
DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
pass beyond the warrant of his time. The Danish dialect had ded in 1390. It is evident that the thorn must have been intended here to express the symbol dh (th as in this, and not th as in thistle), which in English found its equivalent in d, and in German in the word todt. The spelling of this word may have been influenced somewhat by a knowledge of the English pro- nunciation of the same word, and by the Danish ded.
from in its form is English. It is given, however, by Falk and Torp's Etymologisk Ordbog, as occurring sporadically in the old Swedish, meaning from. The easy phonetic substitution of o for long a or aa is so apparent in this word that it needs no effort at explanation. The letter m, however, is in this place quite antique, unless it is adopted directly from the English, and seems to furnish an argument for the authenticity of the stone rather than against it.
In the old Aurland's church in Sogn, Norway, completed in the Catholic time, about 1300, there was a pair of very small panes of glass. The two panes were a present to the church "from" so-and-so. When the church was razed, the panes were bought by an enlightened gentleman in the district, and they may be found safely treasured there yet.
The work entitled "Gamle Eriks Krönike" was the product of some writer living in that part of Sweden known as Vestgotland, written about 1320. This work contains a great many of the words of the inscription, used in the same meaning. This was perhaps the home of the Göter mentioned in the inscrip- tion.
This inquiry might be extended so as to include several other words that have been criticised, but as we have brought under review the chief of the objections from a linguistic point of view, we deem it unnecessary to go further into details.
From the examination of the language of the stone the committee think that they are warranted in making the following conclusions :
I. It cannot be the work of some unlettered amateur of the present day.
2. It is either the uncritical record of an exploration of the fourteenth century, or the fabrication of a consummate philologist familiar with the dialect of Vestgotland in the fourteenth century, which was essentially the Dalske dialect of Dalarne of the sixteenth century.
3. No expert philologist would make the blunder of writing ded for död. A modern philologist familiar with the evolution of ö from au would hardly make such an error, but such phonetic mistakes were common among the uncritical people of the fourteenth century.
108
DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
4. The peculiarity of spelling "and" as both ok and og is abhorrent to the scientific precision of a modern philologist, but was very natural in the fourteenth century, when the sounds of k, t, and p, were frequently confounded with those of g, d, and b.
5. The use of the phrase, "vi var ok fiske," belongs in the same class of colloquialisms as skullen for skule han, haden for havde han, etc. These phrases are all on the lips of the people in common speech, but no well- informed person would suffer them to appear in a serious narrative in writing. But in the fourteenth century, with its greater phonetic freedom, they were all common.
6. Several obsolete words, which were in use in the fourteenth cen- tury, such as laeger, rise, skjar, af illy, and from, as well as the peculiar numeral characters, strongly indicate that no modern impostor made the inscription, as the works of scholars proving that they were in use at that time have mainly been published since the stone was found.
7. The linguistic internal evidence of the genuineness of the stone coincide with and confirm the indications that come from the finding of the stone and its attendant condition.
8. The numeral which expresses the number of days' journey distant from the seashore is more probably meant for fourteen than forty-one.
COLLATERAL EVIDENCE.
Attention should be called again to the stone found by Verendrye and sent by him to Paris in 1734-40. The characters could not be read by any parties in Quebec, but were believed to be of Tartarean origin, there being then a belief entertained by many scholars and archeologists that America was peopled by Asiatics. The particulars of this finding, so far as they are known, are given by the Swedish botanist Kalm, who traveled in America in 1748-51.
Again, there was evidently European blood in the Mandan Indians. All travelers who visited them reported instances of light-colored hair and skin, and blue eyes. Catlin presumed that the party of Madoc, a Welsh prince, had reached them, and that their descendants would account for the remarkable physiognomy. It is doubtful, however, that the mixing of the dark Iberian complexion of the Welsh with that of the Indians would ever produce blue eyes, while it seems certain that the blond complexion of the Northmen of Europe would produce them.
These facts constitute an a priori affirmative case indicating that peo- ple from northern Europe mingled with the Mandan Indians.
109
DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE MUSEUM COMMITTEE.
The following resolutions, which were adopted unanimously by this committee April 21, 1910, are not expected to terminate the investigation. but to show the present belief of its members :
Resolved, That this committee renders a favorable opinion of the authen- ticity of the Kensington rune stone, provided, that the references to Scandi- navian literature given in this committee's written report and accompanying papers be verified by a competent specialist in the Scandinavian languages, to be selected by this committee, and that he approve the conclusions of this report.
Resolved, That this action of the committee be reported to the next meeting of the executive council, and that Mr. Holand be so informed.
E. C. MITCHELL, Chairman. F. J. SCHAEFER, O. D. WHEELER, N. H. WINCHELL, WARREN UPHAM, Secretary.
In the next monthly council meeting, May 9, 1910, this subject was introduced by Rev. Edward C. Mitchell, chairman of the committee, and large parts of this report were read by Professor Winchell, followed by his presentation, for the committee, of these resolutions. After much dis- cussion by the president and several members of the council and others of the society, the council voted that the report and resolutions of the museum committee be received and printed, with a statement that the council and society reserve their conclusion until more agreement of opinions for or against the rune inscription may be attained.
Subsequently, Professor Bothne, having been selected by the museum committee, in accordance with its resolutions, for verification of references and a statement of his opinion, sent to the committee the following letter :
The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, July 19, 1910.
Prof. N. H. Winchell,
Dear Sir: I am going away tomorrow, and cannot attend your meet- ing next Sunday. I have examined your report carefully, have visited Kensington and neighborhood, and have read most of the papers and articles relating to the rune stone.
110
DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
I have always believed with the great authorities of Norway and Sweden, Magnus Olsen, Moltke Moe. M. Hogstad, Bugge, Noreen, Schrick, Mon- telius, that the language is too modern, besides being faulty; and a more careful study of the words has not changed my opinion. In some places where the rune (thorn) is used, it is not used properly. But I shall not enter into details at this time.
That the Norwegians discovered Vinland is a fact. That they, in the fourteenth century, may have penetrated into the country as far as the present Kensington, is possible. But what has been testified to about the finding of the stone is not convincing, and I do not consider the Ken- sington stone authentic.
It seems to me that the stone should be brought to Norway to be examined by expert runologists, and, in my opinion, nothing else will dis- pose of the matter.
Yours respectfully, GISLE BOTHNE.
PROFESSOR FLOM'S INVESTIGATION.
Since the foregoing was written, a learned contribution has been made to the subject by an eminent philologist, Prof. George T. Flom, of the University of Illinois, who reaches an adverse decision. This was cour- teously furnished to the committee in manuscript, but has since been revised and published in June, 1910, by the Illinois Historical Society, entitled "The Kensington Rune Stone, a Modern Inscription from Douglas County, Minnesota." His objections can be classified as follows :
PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING.
I. hadhe. hafthe should have been used; that is, the disappearance of for v before a consonant had not yet taken place.
2. vedh should be vidh. The change to e begins about 1400. ve, in the third line from the end, is an attempt to use the modern Swedish-Nor- wegian ve.
3. fro should be fra, as fro and from never occur in Middle Swedish.
4. of cannot be compared with the sense "too," which would be beside the point ; and of vest is as impossible as "too west" in English.
III
DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
5. öh would have been in Middle Swedish, in the regular way, öö.
6. ahr. The same error occurs here in öh. These spellings belong to a much later time.
7. dhag, opdhagelse, landh, dhedh. There was no need for the Swedish scribe to employ the rune p for d, as well as for dh and th; for d then had its own symbol.
INFLEXIONS.
8. var, kom, fan, har. The transference of the singular form to the plural is comparatively recent.
9. man, as plural, is irregular.
10. vi hadhc. The modern scribe here employed his own speech, with an antiquarian effort shown in introducing h after the dental.
II. fra dheno sten should be fra pacssom sten (variant of pacmma sten) ; "later fra may also govern the accusative, which would give the form fra paenna sten."
12. at se aeptir vore skip should be, regularly, at se aeptir varom skipum. The rune stone's inscription is that of present speech, Norwegian rather than Swedish, except for the word acptir.
13. from dheno öh. öh is feminine in Old Swedish, and the feminine form of dheno should have been used, i. e., fra paenna o. (Compare fra dheno sten above.)
MEANING OF CERTAIN WORDS.
14. po, then just forming from upp a, up pa, could not be used in this way (i. e., with an activity), but only as a preposition meaning upon. The use here is modern (in Swedish comparatively recent).
15. opdhagelse must have dated from after the Reformation. It is Dutch, and its meaning as here employed is from High German entdecken.
16. laeger is a loan from the German. The Old Swedish word was laegher, which also was used differently.
17. rise should be in Old Swedish resa, which came into Swedish from German in the fifteenth century.
18. Two quotations are given, from the fourteenth century and the fifteenth century, to show how consistent the language was at that time. One is from Själinne Thröst, 1370, MS. 1430, the other from Margaret's Chronicle, late fifteenth century, MS. 1514-1525.
II2
DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
THE RUNES.
19. Examination shows that the runes employed are not those of the Mariaklagan, Middle Swedish of about 1400, which are the same as in theScan- ian Law (1300). The Kensington scribe therefore did not use the regular Norwegian and Middle Swedish runic alphabet, but employed characters either invented by himself or from some other dialect, "a different alphabet."
20. This paper shows use and knowledge of runes "until the last cen- tury." Hence there is some likelihood of someone having skill enough to write runes in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
21. It finds that the particular alphabet of the Kensington stone was in use in the sixteenth century in Elfdalen; and it infers that the sixteenth century is "modern," yet in important respects quite different. For instance, the thorn was used by the Kensington scribe for th, dh, and d, whereas at the date claimed for the stone d had its own character.
DISCUSSION OF THESE OBJECTIONS.
Most of these critical objections have been presented by others, and are referred to in the body of the foregoing report. There are 21 items, a's numbered, and they will be reviewed here in numerical order. Numbers 1, 3, 7, 8, 10, 14, 15, and 16, have been shown to be either invalid or at least of questionable character adverse to the records.
No. 2. ve is undoubtedly the phonetic for vedh, which is spelled in full (vedh) in the fourth line, but probably pronounced as spelled here (ve). If the rune scribe were perpetrating a fraudulent record of 1362, and was acquainted with the word vedh, he would scarcely introduce a modern spelling of that word (ve).
No. 4. The translation far to the westward is not required. The use of of for af is an instance of the phonetic confounding of a, aa, with o.
No. 5. öh. The difference in sound between this word and öö was so slight that the rune scribe was phonetically at liberty to use either.
No. 6. ahr. Dahlerup says that "as early as in Old Danish [ 1050-1350], the original long a had begun to approach the sound of aa" (Det Danske Sprogs Historie, p. 31). This increased length of sound was indicated also by the spelling ahr.
No. 9. man. The common form for the plural was menn, or man. The form here used is irregular for any date and can hardly be justified,
-
Bob-White. American Badger. Canadian Beaver.
Prairie Chicken. Deer. Red Fox, with Prairie Chicken.
II3
DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
although in Gamle Eriks Krönike (1320) is the expression "10,000 man them forslo" (Klemming's edition, 326).
No. 10. vi hadhe. If the faker scribe knew the antiquarian style, it is hard to explain why he used his own speech at all. (Compare No. 2.)
No. II. fra dheno sten. The error of not distinguishing the gender of nouns in the application of the demonstrative was, and is, common. The final letter (o) was frequently substituted for a; but as sten is masculine, this form of the adjective is quite allowable. The final letter o, being unac- cented, was frequently substituted for a, and vice versa.
No. 12. at se äptir vore skip. This illustrates the confusion of inflex- ional usage of the fourteenth century. According to Falk and Torp, about this period e was changed to ä in the word eptir and others in the Swedish language; but the change was not permanent, the letter e being restored, and a century later we find äptir, eptir, and äffthir, and eftir, used side by side (Svenska Medeltidens, Rim-Krönikor, third part). As the scribe employed äptir, it seems that, unless he was a learned linguist, he must have been contemporary with this temporary change.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.