Myths of the Rune Stone by David M Krueger

Author:David M Krueger
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Oh, Nd, Mo, Mn, Mi, Ne, Wi), Ks, Il, In, HIS036090 History / United States / State & Local / Midwest (ia, Sd
ISBN: 9781452945439
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Published: 2015-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

[I]t is reasonable to assume that they found a real pleasure in giving expression to their gratitude by creating, in this inviting spot, a semblance of the house of God in their homeland. And, as their priest stood before the altar arrayed in his full vestments, they must have sung their Te Deum Laudamus with more than customary fervor.67

In Holand’s account, his son Harold was the first to suggest this idea. Regardless of whose idea it was, it is certain that the priests would have been eager to embrace Holand’s imaginative projections. If Holand was correct, this site would be of enormous historical value to local Catholic leaders who sought to spread their religious influence in an area that was still a Protestant holdout. A local newspaper article later affirmed the religious significance of the site, describing it as “the first prepared place of Christian Worship in the New World,” and it was widely referred to as the “Viking Altar Rock.”68

A few years after Bishop Bartholome delivered his address at the dedication of the Our Lady of the Runestone shrine, two Catholic laypersons from Douglas County approached Bartholome about establishing a new parish near the village of Kensington to serve a small group of Catholics of Czech, German, and Irish descent. Bartholome supported this new parish as a “mission church” because he hoped to attract Catholics to a part of Douglas County heavily populated by Swedish and Norwegian Lutherans.69 Like Ireland in the early twentieth century, Bartholome saw an opportunity to use the Scandinavian symbol to convert Protestants to the Catholic religion of their Viking forebears. The choice of the name Our Lady of the Runestone originated with the bishop, and it is documented that he expressed interest in purchasing the site where the rune stone was unearthed on Ohman’s farm for the construction of the church.70 However, at the time, this land was not available, and the new church was constructed on a ten-acre parcel of land adjacent to the village of Kensington. The construction of the new church in Kensington was completed in 1964.

The founding of Our Lady of the Runestone parish inspired other Catholic enthusiasts to incorporate Catholic myth into the local landscape. In the summer of 1970 a Chokio, Minnesota, woman unearthed a mysterious-looking stone while tilling her garden. The stone was approximately five inches wide, seven inches long, and a little over an inch thick with markings on the surface. Suspecting it might be an important historical artifact, she contacted local historian and Viking enthusiast Marion Dahm, who recognized its markings to be runic letters. Dahm consulted a local priest, Father Nicholas Zimmer, and they both quickly concluded that this was an artifact of Catholic significance. Specifically, they believed that the stone was the same kind that a medieval Norse priest would use as a portable table for the Eucharist. They further postulated that this particular stone was used for the Catholic Mass at the Viking Altar Rock and it became known, henceforth, as the “Chokio Altar Stone.

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