Fourth of July "Thunder Moon" & Lunar Eclipse

'How and When to See the ‘Thunder Moon Eclipse’ on July Fourth'


This weekend, a Thunder Moon Eclipse will be visible from North America.

Jamie Carter -  TravelAndLeisure.com - June 30, 2020


[Excerpt]

When is the Thunder Moon Eclipse?

There are two specific times to watch this month’s full moon at its best — moonrise and "maximum eclipse." If you want to watch the Thunder Moon appear on the eastern horizon — a dramatic sight indeed — take a look just after 8:23 p.m. EDT on July 4 if you're in New York, and look up in the minutes after 8:06 p.m. PDT that evening if you're in Los Angeles.

Next comes the eclipse, which is a global event taking 2 hours and 45 minutes. From New York, the best time to look will be 12:29 a.m. EDT on July 5, and the best time to look from Los Angeles will be 9:29 p.m. PDT on July 4.


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Note: Saturday's eclipse is a "penumbral lunar eclipse," not a total lunar eclipse. The next total lunar eclipse will occur on Wednesday, May 26, 2021


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Mysterious Runestones

[CoastToCoastAM.com]

Date: Saturday - July 4, 2020 Host Jimmy Church
Guests: Scott Wolter, Open Lines
 

Scott Wolter, author and host of America Unearthed and President of American Petrographic Services since 1990, will join host Jimmy Church (Twitter) to discuss his recent trip to Texas and a discovery of ancient stones that were discovered in a cave that is reported to be from 1501 with over 100 stone tablets with inscriptions and covered by a mysterious blue powder. The last hour will feature Open Lines.

Websites:

• kensingtonrunestone.com
• hookedx.com
• history.com/shows/america-unearthed
• scottwolteranswers.blogspot.com
• travelchannel.com/shows/america-unearthed

Books:

• The Kensington Rune Stone
• The Hooked X: Key to the Secret History of North America
• Cryptic Code: The Templars in America and the Origins of the Hooked X 

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Italy runestones and Langbarðaland

Guðlaug had the stones raised in memory of Holmi, her son. He died in Lombardy.

Guðlaug let ræisa stæina at Holma, sun sinn. Hann do a Langbarðalandi. 

-- Old Norse transcription of "U 141" runestone (see image)
 
Apparently his mother requested that two runestones be carved and erected in honor of her son who died while serving in the Byzantine "Varagian Guard."

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The Italy runestones with English translation
 
BirkaViking
 
The Italy runestones with English translation from the Scandinavian runic-text database.

The young men who applied for a position in the Varangian guard were not uncouth roughnecks, as in the traditional stereotype, but instead, it appears that they were usually fit and well-raised young warriors who were skilled in weapons. They were the kind of warriors who were welcome as the elite troops of the Byzantine Emperor, and who the rulers of Kievan Rus requested from Scandinavia when they were under threat.

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Italy runestones (Wikipedia)

The Italy Runestones are three or four Varangian Runestones from 11th-century Sweden that talk of warriors who died in Langbarðaland ("Land of the Lombards"), the Old Norse name for Italy. On these rune stones it is southern Italy that is referred to (Langobardia), but the Rundata project renders it rather anachronistically as Lombardy (see the translations of the individual stones, below).

The rune stones are engraved in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark, and two of them are found in Uppland and one or two in Södermanland.

Langbard duchies Spoleto and Benevento in blue

The memorials are probably raised in memory of members of the Varangian Guard, the elite guard of the Byzantine Emperor, and they probably died while fighting in southern Italy against the local Lombard principalities or the invading Normans. Many of their brothers-in-arms are remembered on the 28 Greece Runestones most of which are found in the same part of Sweden.

The young men who applied for a position in the Varangian guard were not uncouth roughnecks, as in the traditional stereotype, but instead, it appears that they were usually fit and well-raised young warriors who were skilled in weapons. They were the kind of warriors who were welcome as the elite troops of the Byzantine Emperor, and who the rulers of Kievan Rus' requested from Scandinavia when they were under threat. 


Interpretations

Johan Peringskiöld (d. 1720) considered the Fittja stone and the Djulefors stone to refer to the Lombard migration from Sweden, whereas Celsius (1727) interpreted them in a strikingly different manner. He noted that the name Longobardia was not applied to Italy until after the destruction of the Kingdom of the Lombards in 774. He claimed that the kingdom had been taken over by Varangians from Byzantium in the 11th and 12th centuries, and noted that in Barbarossa's campaign in Italy there were many Scandinavian warriors. The stones would have commemorated Swedish warriors who died in Barbarossa's war. This view was also espoused by Brocman (1762) who considered Holmi to have died in the 12th century for either the Byzantine Emperor or ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.

von Friesen (1913) noted that it is not Lombardy in northern Italy that is intended, but Langobardia in southern Italy, which was ruled by the Byzantine Emperor during the 11th century. The Greeks had to fight several battles against the Normans in southern Italy during the mid-11th century. It is likely that Holmi, who is mentioned on two stones, took part in these battles as a member of the Byzantine Emperor's elite unit, the Varangian Guard, since they use a name based on the Greek name for the region.

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It would be curious to know what contact may have occurred between the Vikings and the Langbard Kingdom, since the kingdom's demise and the start of what is considered the "Viking Age" were only a few years apart. It's also possible that, since these warriors probably died in Southern Italy, the location was in the southern Langobard duchies of Spoleto and Benevento. These two states continued on after Langbard was destroyed by Charlemagne. These Vikings likely had been Christianized by this time, as this was the on the verge of or past the point of the Viking Age. They had been brought into the Christian fold.

Inga raised this stone in memory of Óleifr, her son. He ploughed his stern to the east, and met his end in the land of the Lombards.

Inga ræisti stæin þannsi at Olæif sun sinn. Hann austarla arði barði ok a Langbarðalandi andaðis.

-- Old Norse transcription of "Sö 65" runestone (see image)

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Heavener Runestone

Heavener Runestone (Wikipedia)

The Heavener Runestone is an inscribed stone located in Heavener, Oklahoma. The land on which it sits is now a state park on Poteau Mountain, just outside the town limits. The origin of the stone's runic carvings is disputed.

News

The Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department announced in March 2011 that it would close the Heavener Runestone State Park on August 15 due to budget cuts. However, the City of Heavener agreed to assume ownership and operation of the 55-acre park beginning July 1, 2011.

Inscription

The inscription has been rejected by Scandinavian philologists and runologists, who consider it most likely modern (19th or early 20th century). The reading of the "Elder Futhark" style runes is probably "GNOMEDAL" (meaning "Gnome Valley", or perhaps a personal name "G. Nomedal").

The difficulty of using the Heavener Runestone to demonstrate Viking exploration of the area is that the Elder Futhark had become obsolete by the 8th century, long before the Viking expeditions to Greenland and Vinland. Also, only six of the eight characters are correct Elder Futhark runes. A transliteration would read "G [rough backwards N] O M E D A [backwards L]."

Alternative hypotheses

Amateur researcher Richard Nielsen proposed that a Viking explorer hastily reversed 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." Unfortunately, this explanation would require the Norse explorer to have known two extinct alphabets. Author Gloria Farley also attributes the inscription to wandering pre-Columbian Norsemen.

Cultural significance

*In 1991, Carl Albert State College in nearby Poteau changed its mascot to a Viking in the stone's honor.

*Don Coldsmith's 1995 novel Runestone, offers a speculative theory about how an 11th century Viking could have made his way to the area of Heavener.

Other local stones

Two other, much smaller inscribed stones have been found near Heavener. In the 1970s scholars translated these stones.

Heavener stone #2 is said to show 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.

Heavener stone #3 is said to show 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."

Ostara in Oklahoma - 2011

Here's a glimpse of an Asatru moot at Wister State Park in Oklahoma in celebration of the holiday known as Ostara. The event was hosted by the AFA Folkbuilders for Texas and Oklahoma, and drew together heathens from neighboring states, as well as California, Minnesota, and Florida. A highlight for all was a day trip to the mysterious Heavener Runestone. Enjoy!

For upcoming events in the Oklahoma/Texas region, write to the Tharps at asatru_of_enid@yahoo.com or the Floyds at jfloyd@runestone.org.

Video produced by the Asatru Folk Assembly: afa@runestone.org.

[www.runestone.org]

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Three other inscriptions in nearby eastern Oklahoma:

Poteau Runestone

Shawnee Runestone

Turkey Mountain inscriptions

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