Ever since the Kensington Runestone's discovery in 1898, people have been questioning its authenticity. This week, a book that solves the mystery once and for all will officially be released.
The Last Kings of Norse America – Runestone Keys to a Lost Empire (Beaver’s Pond Press, April 2012, $29.95), written by Robert G. Johnson of Minnetonka and his daughter, Janey Westin of Edina, will be officially released during a book launch party. Here are the details:
DATE & TIME: Thursday, May 10, 2012, beginning at 1 p.m.
LOCATION: Runestone Museum
206 Broadway Street
Alexandria, MN 56308
PHONE: 320-763-3160
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The book offers compelling evidence that the Norse discovered America well before Christopher Columbus did. The authors say the proof is written for all to see on the Kensington runestone, found in 1898 on uncleared land on a settler’s farm near Kensington, Minn., and on the Spirit Pond stone, discovered 73 years later on coastal Maine.
The authors are the first to fully translate both stones, and also connect them to a Norse expedition to North America documented by a 1354 Royal Proclamation. More details are in a press kit I'd be happy to provide for you.
Johnson is a professor at the University of Minnesota. Westin is a professional calligrapher who has pursued paleographic studies of medieval manuscripts.