CITY HALL OF NEWPORT

CITY COUNCIL
37 BROADWAY
RHODE ISLAND 02840
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Oslo: June 25, 2010

Subject: How the Viking Tower in TouroPark originated.

I am writing your office as an American with special interest in

the discovery of North America. This summer I visited Ll anse of
Meadows on NewFoundLand to get an "on the ground " feeling for the
site selected by the viking Leif Erikson in 998. As You know
Canada spent a considerable amount of money recreating longhouses
next to the actual place where foundations were investigated by
archaeologists and as well on an orientation centre for tourists.
The place is now under UNESCO protection.
What I learned there I hoped to bring with me when I planned my
tour to Rhode Island where a stone structure of unknown origin
seemed to point to viking activities as well, at least in name,
although to a much later age. If the norr0n\norse vikings had
really been there they must have spent a considerable time close
to the site, the Touro Park, and they would have come by ships.
The time of Leif's discovery was nearly 500 years before Columbus
discovered the "West Indies", .the islands which in fact had no
connection with India in the Far East as Columbus believed to his
death, but were the several islands in the Caribean. Columbus
never set his feet on North America's soil ! Yet the City of
Newport has accepted to put a full size bronce statue of Columbus
on the main highway Memorial Blvd. intersection with Bellevue Ave.
only a short distance from Touro Park. The inscription reads:
"Discoverer of America" -.
On the west side of the Tower, 14 feet above ground, the two
visitors L0vfald and Bj0rndal in 1946 discovered runelike letters
on a rock in the wall. If interpreted by the method of Monge after
the Vatican calendar of Gardar for Greenland the date is Dec. 10,
1116. That, according to a note on the upper left hand corner of
the Vinland Map, is the first visit of bishop Henricus Gnupsson
Upsi of Greenland to Vinland. According to the sagaes\historybooks
kept in Iceland Henricus again visited Vinland in 1123. Since he
was a misionary bishop and Greenland not at the time was part of
the Norwegian kingdom, not before 1261, his voyages must have been
of serious importance, like consecrating a church for a Catholic
community. The only such found in America is the Tower which has
strong resemblance to the octahedral structure put up in Jerusalem
and in Bethlehem by the mother Helena of roman emperor Constantine
in 340 over the grave and birthplace of Christ. Later churches in
Europe added similar freestanding birth- and baptizing structures.
With time the octahedral chapels were incorporated in the church
structures where bapizing took place meaning a recreation to the
faith in Christ.
Thus, a true copy, today the only one, of the birthstructure in
Bethlehem was built in Bologna, Italy, by the pope of Rome, in the
monastery of St.Stephan and part of the St.Sebastian church. I
have been there and measured the octahedral sizes. The Tower would
neatly fit into that structure ! The pope built it in order to
show the cruzading people, who never got transport from Italy to
The Holy Land, what they would have seen had they come across.
Now, back to the Vinland Map, which today is kept by Yale
University in Connecticut, the year 1116 is not stated explitly
but accordingly, in latin : "By the will of God, after a long
voyage from the island of Greenland southward towards the
westermost parts of the ocean ------ Henricus (Erik), apostolic
legat\(deputy) and bishop of Greenland and surrounding areas,
arrived in this truly enormous and much rich country in the name
of the Allmighty God, in the last year of our holy father
(pope)Pascalis(IIj-(1116), where he remained a long time Summer as
well as Winter and returned later in northeasterly direction
towards Greenland according to the will of his superiors." We also
know, according to the Vatican calendar, that the next bishop to
Greenland was Arnold of Hamar (city just north of Oslo) in 1124 -
and appointed there by king Sigurd Jorsalafarer of Norway.
However, as You may have wondered, how could the poor people of
Greenland, who never built viking ships - for trade or viking
puposes - afford an expedition all the way to far off Rhode
Island. They would have to rely on a huge ship and the resources
of royal dimensions. That king would be Sigurd Jorsalafarer who
was well known in Greenland and who had visited The Holy Land in
the period 110S-1110, shortly after the 1st crusade, where he had
taken the last stronghold of the muslims, the fortress of Sidon.
He had offered it as a gift to the king Baldwin of Jerusalem and
received rich compensations as he left for Constantinopel on his
return voyage. To this day he is remembered by the citizens of
Sidon by a plaque on the City Hall there !
Arriving in Norway he learned that his brother, 0ystein, in the
meantime had ruled Norway skillfully and added a large part of
Sweden without war and built 5 churches for the catholic main
church in Rome. The two brothers now ruled Norway together 0ystein
the northern part and Sigurd the southern. The northern part
 3

already had an octaheral wooden church for Olav the Holy who fell
in battle for the catholic cause on Stiklestad in 1030. He had
been declared "Holy" by the Vatican. That church would later
(1152) be replaced by a cathedral in stone where the chapels were
octahedral in form. At the time it was the largest in Scandinavia.
Sigurd had made several promises to the king of Jerusalem to
further the interests of the Mother church on his return that
would bind the support of Norway. Sigurd established a castelle-
church to his new city of Konghelle north og G0teborg where he
also had valuable icons installed. He also arranged for the 10%
introduction of a Vatican levy on all trade in Norway. But it
became an obsession with him that he never seemed to receive the
same famous acclaim from Rome as his brother had. However, the
opportunity to change this arrived with a letter from the fameous
abbot Peter of the french monastery in Cluny. He challenged Sigurd
to continue his efforts for the interest of the Mother church as
eagerly as his early services for the church had been. Now his
brother had died in 1123 and Sigurd was the sole king of all of
Norway. Sigurd accepted the challenge of Peter and decided on a
project to spread the words of catholicism as far west (Vinland)
as the church had reached to the east (China). He would evidently
bring the words of Christ to the Indians in the New World !
What else but a Stone Tower to baptize "Skrellinger" - and located
at the same lattitude as Rome ca 42 degrees ! When he had Gnupsson
to leave Greenland he at the same time ordered the Hamar bishop to
Gardar. He arranged for transportation possibly in the same huge
ship as his brother had built after the model of Ormen Lange. He
would have provided both manpower and stores for the long voyage
West - to Rhode Island ! Sigurd died in 1130. We do not know if he
or the Vatican received any return message from Newport as to the
success of his efforts - which then remained unmentioned in the
Sagas.
However, the results of Sigurd's possible efforts may have been
the facts of the Tower, a true Viking Tower as it is still called.
It has many technical details similar to the churches in Gardar
(Herjulfsnes) on Greenland. Such details may also be compared to
stone structures in Norway and elsewhere. It is claimed that
Norway imported stone masons from Ireland and Scotland as early as
the Hall built in Bergen and the cathedral in Trondheim and
possibly to the Maria church in Oslo.
Later the situation in Norway became one of Civil war as the Law
of the Land allowed every offspring of kings to gather "Flokker"
or groups of royal supporters to pretenders for kingship. Both
Greenland and Vinland took second place as every fractions in
society fought for their local interests as they had in the past
before Harald Harfagre. The power struggle was now only checked by
the church which continued to support their priests and build new
churches. Thus the cathedral of Trondheim came into being in 1152.
From what I have now oriented Your office about has also been
discussed locally with Newport's valued new representative who has
offered his private initiative to support the community of Newport
his name is Jim Egan located on Mill street close to the Tower. He
still adheres to the English version of the origin of the Tower
but I believe that should rather apply to a real mill on the
Island of Conanicut where an HOld windmill H is located to the
north by my National Geografic map.
Let me finally mention my own observations about findings Hon the
ground H regarding the Tower. It is said that the granite rock used
in some places of the arches are not found locally on the Rhode
Island. However, when i made a study of the beach along the Cliff
Walk, in close vicinity of the Tower, I saw two large seams of
granite on some tilted skerries only ca. 200 yards from the
entrance. I made photoes of these as included with this letter.
From this I also looked closer at the terrain north of the First
beach and Memorial Blvd. The Easton's beach and the lake behind
resembles so much the Espaves and Lanse aux Meadows at NewFound-
Land that further investigation for a possible viking settlement
ought to be undertaken. The only difference is the lack of a
freshwater creek. Has an estuary from the lake been changed by the
later Memorial highway ? If so was any remnants of early settle-
ments found ? I kindly ask for Your comments on possible postholes
and peat foundations for longhouses just north of the highway.
My last surprise was the mention of a HNewport wineyardH on a city
map. I hurried to a local store just across the street from Hotel
Viking and found to my pleasure the only local wine was the
Greenvale produced only 6 miles from downtown ! I strongly
recalled Verrezanos report about his visit to Newport in 1525
where he mentioned the exceptional H_ wine produced by the indians
in a european manner. H He wondered as well from where they might
have learned the process ! He even writes about the way the
indians sang a Hthanks for food H song which he wrote down
phonetically as to the refrain :H - affligu hafr wir etingu " !
Translated from old norse it meant: richly have we been fed. He
also commented on their abilities to build in local stone -. But
back to the wine. The winery had a history back to 1586 it said on
the bottle. Is it possible that the traditionth was even older - and
learned by munks from overseas around the 12 century ?

Sincerely,

rnt Holmboe KIa lipanveien 77. 1475 Finstad. Norway.

cc.Pictures of 1. Tower rock runes. 2. Granite seams from Newport.

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