The Kingigtorssuaq Runestone – Philippe de Felice

The Viking settlements in Greenland and North America (Vinland) are one of the greatest stories of human exploration. In c. 1250 CE, several Norse Greenlanders hunting in the high arctic buried a runestone in a cairn they built on the remote island of Kingigtorssuaq, (Eastern Greenland).

What these hunters were doing so far north of inhabitable land and how they survived such harsh conditions remains a mystery. Philippe de Felice surveys some of the latest Viking archaeology and proposes a startling solution to the mystery of the Kingigtorssuaq Runestone.

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Philippe de Felice Bio

Philippe de Felice is of Swiss origins and was born in Zurich in 1954. He received a cosmopolitan education in Swiss, French and English schools, and then studied at Florence University and Oriel College Oxford (where he graduated with First Class Honours in History and French in 1976). He later qualified as a Barrister and followed a career in international law, working on aid projects for the United Nations, on EU affairs for the Commission and the UK government, and most recently in private practice.

He has travelled widely in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

He now lives in London with his wife and three children. Entertaining Mona Lisa is his first collection of stories. He is currently working on a novel and a series of studies on how humans have chosen to express themselves throughout the ages, from prehistoric caves to the internet era.