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Thursday, February 04, 2010
Vikings in Oklahoma: Norsemen and the Heavner Runestone
Vikings in Oklahoma: Norsemen and the Heavner Runestone
From Europe to America
The Vikings have landed in Oklahoma.
To be more specific, they have landed in Heavener, Oklahoma. We can only speculate as to why they came, but many archeologists agree that there were, in fact, Vikings in Oklahoma.
It has been proven that Vikings have visited North American several times in our past. According to Icelandic Sagas, around 985 A.D., Bjarni Herjolfsson, a Norse settler to Greenland, was blown off course and sighted a continent west of Greenland. His wild ride inspired other Vikings to search for this new land. Nearly fifteen years later, Leif Eriksson finally explored the new continent. For the next ten years, a great number of voyages were made to the new land, which the Norsemen called "Vinland." Archeologists have extensively explored and documented the Viking settlements in Greenland and others in North America.
Once established in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, these brave Vikings began to explore other parts of this vast new world. It is believed that one of these ships traveled south along the Atlantic coast, into the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi River and into the Arkansas River between 900 A.D. and 1000 A.D., although their exact route is still unknown.
One can almost imagine the Norseman's excitement as they paddled their longboats south into warmer climates, leaving behind the harsh conditions of frigid north. The lands around present day Oklahoma must have seemed like a great paradise, and could even be called the home of Idun, the Norse goddess of spring and immortal youth...
It has been proven that Vikings have visited North American several times in our past. According to Icelandic Sagas, around 985 A.D., Bjarni Herjolfsson, a Norse settler to Greenland, was blown off course and sighted a continent west of Greenland. His wild ride inspired other Vikings to search for this new land. Nearly fifteen years later, Leif Eriksson finally explored the new continent. For the next ten years, a great number of voyages were made to the new land, which the Norsemen called "Vinland." Archeologists have extensively explored and documented the Viking settlements in Greenland and others in North America.
Once established in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, these brave Vikings began to explore other parts of this vast new world. It is believed that one of these ships traveled south along the Atlantic coast, into the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi River and into the Arkansas River between 900 A.D. and 1000 A.D., although their exact route is still unknown.
One can almost imagine the Norseman's excitement as they paddled their longboats south into warmer climates, leaving behind the harsh conditions of frigid north. The lands around present day Oklahoma must have seemed like a great paradise, and could even be called the home of Idun, the Norse goddess of spring and immortal youth...
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