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One historically-relevant point – do you know why the Minnesota team took the name “Vikings”? Doesn't that seem odd?
The team was officially named the Minnesota Vikings on September 27, 1960; the name is partly meant to reflect Minnesota's place as a center of Scandinavian American culture.
From Wikipedia.
Yes, the Scandanavian heritage of the area is probably one of the reasons for the name (though it seems like there were more Germans than Scandanavians who settled in the area). I bet that another reason for the “Vikings” team name is because of the Kensington Runestone, an inscribed tablet unearthed in 1898 in Minnesota and claimed to be from Vikings in the area from the 14th century. However, the tablet has also been described as a fake.http://www.alexandriamn.org/index.php/community/history_page/the_runestone_timeline/
Was looked at some Viking geneology and just discovered this mythological lineage:Odin
> Thor
> FavreKinda thought that was interesting. ;D.... However, the tablet has also been described as a fake.
Recent History channel show indicates evidence that it may not be a hoax.
So you had already known about it from the History Channel? I read in that link I posted that there were people who still support its authenticity, but it seemed to me like it was an issue that was in the realm of the Davinci Code or National Treasure conspiracies. Maybe I'm wrong about that. But wouldn't it be pretty shocking if it were confirmed that Vikings traveled all the way to the Midwestern U.S. some 100 years before Columbus arrived? Wouldn't it be examined by more serious scholars if the evidence was there?
Early in my teaching career I had a lesson that used the story as an example as how our hypothesis must change as we get newer evidence. Several times the new evidence was so far from conventional wisdom or was misinterpreted which lead investigators astray. As you say serious scholars should be looking, but most really don't want to appear fools for chasing this one.Several points in the HC program were approached very scientifically by a geologist to confirm the age of the stone (weather for age of runes and root patterns for burial duration). Just too many things to totally discount it as far as I can see. 'nother one of those things I'd like to hope are really true just because it is such a cool story. At least Ohman wasn't trying to get on a reality show... when they told him it was fake he just shrugged, then went back to the farm and the stone became a stepping stone in the barnyard, so the story goes. :-
I'v heard that early Viking settlements happened in an area called L'Anse aux Meadows in what is now the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Did they send some scouts to Minnesota initiating some ritual games such games of chance in which each player has one or more cards printed with differently numbered squares on which to place markers when the respective numbers are drawn and announced by a caller. The first player to mark a complete row of numbers is the winner. ? ???
No, according to most of the stories the expd. was sent to contact a “lost” colony… hadn't reported back or had left Christianity (depends on the version). Sent by King Magnus Eriksson of Sweden and Norway and commanded by a law officer named Paul Knutsson. The order may or may not have been carried out. We are left hanging, as in the case of the Vivaldi Bros. ???
This reminds me about 1421: The Year China Discovered America, a book written by retired submarine commander and amateur historian Gavin Menzies. 😛
