I recently purchased a copy of Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga (Fitzhugh, William H and Elisabeth Ward, ed. Washington and London, Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000) a companion volume to the exhibit of the same name. Chapter 29 of the book, "Stumbles and Pitfalls in the Search for Viking America" (by Brigitta Lindroth Wallace and William Fitzhugh) contains a three page article on the Kensington Runestone.
I examined this section of the book, and found it contained at least 37 errors in those three pages. I limited this to errors of fact, where the statements made in the article do not agree with the published material on the runestone. Other subjective statements made in the piece may not be entirely truthful, but stand beyond the purpose of my review.
I prepared a letter containing a fully referenced analysis of the 37 errors, and FAXed it to Elisabeth Ward on May 18, 2000. The following is a copy of that letter in three parts.
Cover letter to the Smithsonian
Analysis of the Smithsonian article - a numbered list of the errors in the article.
UPDATE 1 as of Mar 30, 2001 concering the major points 18 and 19 of Wallace's rebuttal in depth
UPDATE 2 as of Sept 1, 2001 covering the 1st 17 points of Wallace's rebuttal
Brigitta Lindroth Wallace, one of the authors of the chapter, has published other pieces critical of the stone. I include the following link to an earlier review I did of one of her articles which should further reveal how poor her research has been on the subject.
Brigitta Wallace: Old Northwest Article
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