Notes

An examination of Sherwin’s list of “p-k-” Algonquin words came down to “paka” as the word similar in sound to “pek” A good hypothesis may be that “pek” was originally “pakkis” because the Walam Olum word “pek” is used repeatedly in sentences about frozen water.

The “is” syllable may have been lost by historians who did not know about “striking ice.” The knowledge of “pakkis” would have been unimportant to the sixteen generations of Algonquin/Norse people who roamed the solid land of America.

Until a better explanation appears, “pek” will be deciphered to be the same as modern “pakkis.”

2* Note the distinct difference between the original English phrase and the decipherment via the Old Norse. The Old Norse words describe features of an open water marvel, which the pictograph appears to illustrate.

3* The Old Norse description in these two phrases, “Not compressed pack ice – banked, banked pack ice” is probably the best short description of an open water marvel, which has open water in the midst of thick ice.

In the same way, the white animal was certainly not a wolf. The name is closer to the names given to bears by the Cree and Algonquin tribes.

The variation of the original English words from the Algonquin/Old Norse meanings may be because the Historian and the Recorder did not fully resolve the meanings of the original sounds. They may not have known about open water marvels and “pek.”

They should have been able to recognize “ogima,” a well known Algonquin word, but perhaps the memorized sound had morphed and the word was used in association with birds and animals. They may have guessed that the “ouken” word was associated with the fish in the pictograph. The fish in the pictograph appears to be there to illustrate that the bears are sitting on a floating ice berg.

The survival of the original sounds and their correspondence to known Algonquin/Old Norse phrases is a testament to the honest effort of the Historian and Recorder to preserve the verbal history. Also it is a testament to Reider T. Sherwin who collected and correlated Algonquin/Old Norse sounds and meanings.

This verse about the open water marvel appears to be out of sequence. The verse fits better between “saved themselves and rested on the other side” (verse 10) and “moving down from the land of the snow (verse 11)” Somewhere in the memorizing generations the pictograph sticks for verses 11 and 12 may have been switched.