In 2017, a windthrown tree on a property near Wawa, Ontario, uprooted and exposed a section of bedrock. Avelino Pablo Cruz, an agricultural crew supervisor working nearby, took a break and noticed strange markings carved into the newly exposed rock. He reported them to the landowner. It would be years before anyone understood what he had found.
The markings turned out to be 255 runic characters arranged in 15 lines — the longest runic inscription yet documented in North America and the only known runic inscription in the world reproducing the Lord’s Prayer. A second panel nearby depicts what appears to be a Scandinavian-style longship carrying 16 figures.
“This is a most intriguing monument evidencing an impressive effort, fascinating contents and well worth protecting, as well as to be known publicly,” wrote Henrik Williams, Professor of Runology at Uppsala University, in his report after examining the site in 2019.
Read More: Genetic Analysis of Viking Settlers Challenges Historical Saga
Why Ontario’s Wawa Runestone Is Not Viking
After Cruz reported the find, local historian Johanna Rowe notified the Ontario Centre for Archaeological Research and Education (OCARE), which brought in specialists to help investigate.
Williams spent several hours under a tarp in the dark, illuminating the carved rock with a flashlight and working through the characters one by one. The darkness helped bring out the detail of the carvings against the stone.
Because runes are often associated with Vikings, the Wawa inscription may sound at first like evidence of a Norse visit to Ontario. But Williams’ analysis pointed in a different direction. The inscription was not Viking Age, but a Modern Swedish version of the Lord’s Prayer, written in futhark characters, a runic script used in northern Europe and Scandinavia. Its wording appears to come from the same tradition as a runic version published by Swedish scholar Johannes Bureus in 1611, meaning the carving cannot be older than the 17th century.
That still left another possibility: Was the inscription a modern fake? Researchers considered that question from the beginning, but the Wawa carving does not appear to be a simple hoax. Although the text appears linked to Bureus’ version, it does not exactly match any known printed copy. One unusual runic ligature may also point to someone with real runological knowledge.
Tree-ring dating of a jack pine that had grown over part of the inscription shows the carvings predate 1990. Beyond that, the date remains uncertain, though Williams suggested the inscription may date to the 1800s.
The Scandinavian Workers Who May Have Left It Behind
Who carved it remains unknown, but one leading possibility points to Scandinavian workers employed at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s (HBC) Michipicoten post during the 1850s.
The HBC recruited dozens of Norwegians and Swedes during that decade, several of whom were stationed at Michipicoten. Post journals suggest they worshipped, worked, and ate together, and they would have known the nearby landscape, including a portage route that passed within several hundred yards of the runestone site.
They may also have had the tools and skills to carve it. A mason was employed at the post, and Swedish workers are recorded as partially building a chimney there in the mid-1850s.
Thousands of miles from home, carving a prayer in their own language and ancestral script may have been an act of devotion, homesickness, or identity.
The Mystery of the Buried Runestone
When Cruz found the inscription in 2017, much of it was covered by 4 inches to 6 inches of densely rooted soil. Because that soil was disturbed in a way that differed from the thinner soil elsewhere on the outcrop, researchers suspect someone may have deliberately covered the carving.
One possible moment was around 1859, when the HBC ended its Scandinavian recruitment campaign and sent most of its workers home. If the runestone had served as a place of worship or remembrance, covering it may have been a final gesture before they left it behind.
Read More: Mystery Solved for the Galloway Hoard Runes of the Viking Era
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
- This article references information from the Ontario Centre for Archaeological Research and Education: Wawa Runestone
- This article references information from the Ontario Centre for Archaeological Research and Education: Faith, Identity, and Stone: The Wawa Runestone (ClIe-3) and its Place in the Historical Landscape of Northern Ontario
- This article references information from the Ontario Centre for Archaeological Research and Education: The Wawa bedrock runic inscription in Ontario, Canada
