The Heavener Runestone is a runestone found in Heavener, Oklahoma. The stone is located on Poteau Mountain just outside the town's limits. There is much speculation as to the origin and meaning of the ancient stone's carvings, and there is such an attraction that a state park has been erected around the mysterious rock. In addition to the stone itself, the park offers Ouachita hiking trails, playground equipment, and a spectacular outlook over the Poteau River Valley. A rune stone Rune stones are somewhat flat standing stones with runic stone carvings from the Iron Age (Viking Age) and early middle ages found in most parts of Scandinavia. ... Heavener is a city located in Le Flore County, Oklahoma. ...

A photo of the Heavener Runestone labeled with the glyphs that appear on the stone. ...

Local tradition attributes the inscription to wandering pre-Columbian Norsemen - to the extent that in 1991, Carl Albert State College in nearby Poteau changed its mascot to the Vikings in the stone's honor. The difficulty facing those who would use the Heavener Runestone to demonstrate that Viking explorers pushed down the Atlantic Coast, through the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi River to the Arkansas River to the Poteau River to the ankle-depth watercourse at the site, is that only six of the eight characters are genuine Elder Futhark runes. A transliteration would read "G [not a rune] O M E D A [backwards L]". The first proposed explanation (Monge 1967) is that the letters represent an elaborate cryptogram, using three runic alphabets, that decodes to "November 11, 1012". In recent years, this theory has lost ground among local defenders in favor of the engineer Dr. Richard Nielson's 1986 proposal that the unknown Viking explorer hastily inverted the last letter and substituted a letter from the then-extinct Gothic alphabet in the second position. According to this interpretation, the inscription reads "GLOME DAL" - The Valley of Glome. A recent interpretation by Rev. Lee Woodward that the inscription is an elaborate cryptogram marking the final resting place of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle has yet to gain substantive support. The Vikings, or Norsemen, explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeast fringes of North America, beginning in the 10th century. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Carl Albert State College, commonly abbreviated as CASC, is a 2-year college located in southeastern Oklahoma. ... The term Viking is used to denote the explorers, traders and warriors who originated in Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Sweden and raided the coasts of the British Isles and other parts of Europe from the late 8th century to the 11th century. ... The Atlantic Ocean is Earths second-largest ocean, covering approximately one_fifth of its surface. ... Gulf of Mexico in 3D perspective. ... This article is about the river in the United States. ... Lower Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a tributary of the Mississippi which flows east and southeast through Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and the state of Arkansas. ... The Poteau River flows north for its entire route. ... The 24 runes of the Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) are the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Proto-Norse and other Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artefacts (jewellery... A cryptogram is a short piece of text encrypted with a simple substitution cipher in which each letter is replaced by a different letter. ... November 11 is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 50 days remaining. ... Events Mael Morda starts a rebellion against Brian Boru in Ireland, which would eventually end in 1014 at the Battle of Clontarf. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Representation of the Gothic alphabet surrounding its inventor Ulfilas The Gothic alphabet is an alphabetic writing system attributed to Wulfila used exclusively for writing the ancient Gothic language. ... Engraving of La Salle René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de LaSalle (November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687) was a French cleric and explorer. ...

The inscription has been rejected by Scandinavian philologists and runologists, who consider it to be modern (19th or 20th century). Runes in the Elder Futhark went out of use by around 800. The reading should probably be GNOMEDAL (with backward L), perhaps a Norwegian personal name "G. Numedal", or a made-up place-name "Gnome Dale". Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe named after the Scandinavian Peninsula. ... Philology is the study of ancient texts and languages. ... Runology is the study of the Runic alphabets and inscriptions. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... The 24 runes of the Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) are the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Proto-Norse and other Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artefacts (jewellery... Events December 25, Rome, coronation of Charles the Great (Charlemagne) as emperor by Pope Leo III. Celtic monks begin work on the Book of Kells on the Island of Iona. ...

Other stones

Oklahoma has other, lesser known, runestones besides the one near Heavener, by Robbers Cave State Park. There are actually three stones near Heavener, one near Poteau, one in Shawnee, and one in Turley, north of Tulsa. In fact, the Tulsa area is alleged to have 4 of these rune stones all with very similar characters, but one was destroyed in the ‘60s, and the specific location of the other two is unknown. In the 1970s scholars allegedly translated these stones. Downtown Tulsa Tulsa is the second-largest city in Oklahoma. ...

The Heavener #2 is said to be the letter "R" and a "bind rune". This would be in the Anglo-Saxon character set since in the Norwegian this might be an "M" and a small cross. In the Elder Futhark, this could be an "R"/"Z" or a "T". It has also been given as "25 December, 1015" in that same "Norse Code" as the Heavener dating system.

The Heavener #3 is said to be the letters "G", "R" and "T". This could be in the Anglo-Saxon character set since in the Norwegian set this might be an "M", a "T" and the small cross COULD be an "N". This was translated as "30 December, 1022".

The Poteau stone was transliterated "G-L-O-I-A-L-L-W", which would assign different values to several of the same characters. If the character values from "G-N-O-M-E-D-A-L" are used, it would be "G-N-?-?-E-A-?-?. Expanding that in the Anglo Saxon rune set yields "G-?N-NG-I-E-A-L-?W". In Norse it is "?-A-?-I-?-?-?-?", with a number of characters that don’t exist in the Norwegian runes. In the Elder Futhark, this is "G-?-?-I- E-A-L-?". It was also translated as "11 November, 1017".

The Shawnee transliteration, using the characters from ”G-N-O-M-E-D-A-L" should be "M-?-D-O-?" . In the Anglo Saxon Runes it’s "M-?E-?D-?O-?". In the Elder Futhark, this is "M-?-D-O-K". In the Norse dating code it’s supposed to be "24 November, 1024".

The Turley stone is not given any sort of translation, except by one researcher with the "Norse code" who says it means 22 December, 1022, which would mean that this translation shares no characters in common with Heavener #3, except perhaps the X. None of these characters appear in the Norwegian runes. In the Elder Futhar, only the X is present, as "G". In the Anglo Saxon characters, it’s "G-?-?-?-?-S-?".

See also

• Kensington Runestone