ELWYN B. ROBINSON DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
CHESTER FRITZ LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA 58202

KENSINGTON RUNE STONE COLLECTION

COLLECTION: OGL #1040 (addition)

DATES: 2003-2006

SIZE: .25 linear feet

INTRODUCTION

ACQUISITION: This addition to the Kensington Rune Stone Collection was deposited in the Orin G. Libby Manuscript Collection by Melbourne Christopher of Chevy Chase, Maryland, via Sally Nordlie of Grand Forks , North Dakota , on October 18, 2006 (Acc.#2006-2866). Additional newspaper clippings and journal articles were deposited by the staff of the Department of Special Collections.

ACCESS: Available for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Department of Special Collections.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

This addition to the Kensington Rune Stone Collection consists of a novel written by Melbourne Christopher called Lions of the Sea, and published in 2006. St. John Barrett is noted as the collaborative author.

Lions of the Sea is about the voyage of a Swedish landowner named Birger Ulfsson to find lost colonists for the King of Sweden. Ulfsson is given a map of the new world of Vinland by his mother and starts on his voyage. He and his men do not find the colonists in Vinland, Greenland or Nova Scotia so they continue south through Lake Winnipeg and the Red River. While exploring the surrounding area, Pall Knutsson, one of his men revolts and tries to kill Ulfsson but the plan backfired and he and ten other men were killed by a local tribe. The story of the massacre is told on the Kensington Runestone. On Ulfsson’s trip home he finds the lost colonists and is named Chancellor of the Realm for King Haakon of Sweden.

This addition also contains articles from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Grand Forks Herald, Journal of the West and a brochure from the museum in Alexandria, Minnesota. While the brochure is undated, the articles date from 2003-2005.

BOX AND FOLDER INVENTORY 

Box 2

Folder

49. Melbourne Christopher and St. John Barrett. Lions of the Sea . 2006
50. Peg Meier. “Farmer who found Runestone is not a fraud, family says.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, September 6, 2004
51. Rhonda Gilman. “The Kensington Runestone: A Century of Controversy.” Journal of the West, Summer 2005
52. Peg Meier. “Kensington Runestone looking more like a fake.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 8, 2004
53. Kensington Runestone Museum Brochure, undated
54. “Runestone heads to Sweden to be studied.” Grand Forks Herald , October 5, 2003

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