Slovog the Orange History

The Beginning

Kuwohi [Cherokee], formerly Clingmans Dome — the horizon viewable south of Knoxville; possibly Slovogland. Wikimedia Commons.

Approximately AD 1000, Eriksson, the son of Erik the Red of Norway (c. AD 950-1000), who first established the Greenland colony via Iceland c. AD 985, led his seafaring Norsemen westward from his native Greenland across the uncharted, volatile North Atlantic. He eventually settled along the unknown land's northeastern fringes. These are the original Europeans to set foot on the continent. The Groenlendinga Saga claims he made three landfalls: At Helluland, "land of the flat stones," (possibly Labrador), Markland, "land of the forests," (possibly Newfoundland), and Vinland, "land of wine," somewhere south of Markland (even possibly a Smoky Mountain-area trailhead of what we know today to be Copperhead Road, Johnson County, Tennessee).

Scholars debate Vinland's location, yet remnants identified among a variety of spots both along the northern Atlantic coast as well as across southern Appalachia compel the harshest critic to pause (see The Find). Could it be? Unearthed jugs, yeast, and copper line traces discovered northeast of Knoxville in present-day Johnson County area offer unimpeachable evidence for enterprising oral historians up in the hollers there.

These vernacular volumes disclosed in the Carnicus Sagas promote emboldened, sometimes audacious claims of Slovogland, "land of rocky summit," first discovered by Erik's grandson, Slovog the Orange, the seventh son of Leif Eriksson. Viewable at the horizon south of Knoxville (possibly Kuwohi [Cherokee], formerly Clingman's Dome), Slovogland and its discovery remain a lost, oft-underappreciated chapter in North Atlantic human migration and settlement along the Great Appalachian Valley.

Slovogland. ©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated June 2025. May 2026.

Some History

Cumberland Gap — a passage used by Slovog/Reetnulov descendants including Daniel Boone (AD 1775) and Davy Crockett (born AD 1786). Wikimedia Commons.

The Great Indian Warpath, also known as the Great Indian War and Trading Path, or the Seneca Trail, was a network of ancient North American Indian routes with many branches. The Native American trail ran through the Great Appalachian Valley and the Appalachian Mountains through several states, including New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama (https://www.legendsofamerica.com/new-york/).

It had been a major north-south route of travel since prehistoric times, and parts of the trail are thought to have been used as long as 2,500 years ago when Indian traders from as far away as the Great Lakes, Rocky Mountains, and Mexico traveled parts of the trail. Ancient Slovogian Theorists argue Copperhead Road to be one trail spur along the route, a location known for potent distilled spirits.

In more recent history, various northeastern Indian tribes, including the Catawba, numerous Algonquian tribes, the Cherokee, and the Iroquois Confederacy, were known both to have traded and to have made war along the trail. Slovog chose rather to make love, he and his Lady Slovog giving birth to his seven sons along the way.

Thus, the first Europeans known to have used the trail system were Slovog the Orange and his sons, the seventh and infant during the end of the venture being Reetnulov the Strong (c. AD 1050-1135). Some 500 years following, Hernando de Soto and his band crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains in AD 1540 pursuing the Holy Grail and rumors of fabled golden cities. By the late AD 1600s, British colonists exercised sections of the trail for Indian trade.

The British traders' name for the route amalgamated names among the northeastern Algonquian tribes, "Mishimayagat" or "Great Trail," with that of the Shawnee and Delaware, "Athawominee" or "Path where they go armed." Later, both hunters and settlers traveled the trail to explore Kentucky and Tennessee, many Scots-Irish following the flowering Bellis perennis to the Knoxville area, ultimately leading to the first mass western migration in American history, settlers following the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap. Famous Slovog and Reetnulov Tennessee descendants passing through the gap include Daniel Boone in AD 1775 and Davy Crockett born AD 1786. Thus, Slovog's initial southern quest proved robust for ensuing generations.

What originally began as a system of footpaths branched off in several areas onto alternate routes, ultimately shifting west in some regions adjusting to pressure from British colonies. In the north, we find evidence from West Virginia to the Great Lakes, including the legend of Scandinavian exploration that lives on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee. The route was called the Seneca Trail and formed the boundary of the then frontier by the time of the French and Indian War (1756–1763). When King George III proclaimed in 1763, forbidding further settlement beyond the mountains and demanding the return of settlers who had already crossed the Alleghenies, many being Scots-Irish Slovogians, a line was designated roughly following the Seneca Trail, "Down the Field," as the unpopular edict was later satirized retroactively by Reetnulov's great, great grandchildren. Parts of the trail would later be blazed as other tracks, including the Great Valley Road, Kanawha Trail, Wilderness Road, Catawba Trail, Unicoi Trail, the Georgia Road, and Cumberland Avenue. All of these owe credit to the initial Great Indian Warpath, but it is Slovog who volunteered his is family in his dream for the Grail that marks the first Europeans to work and trade with the Indians along the Great Trail in pursuit of their new home, Slovogland in the New World.

Conspiracy?

A tightly held mystery shrouded in the University of Tennessee's Scarabbean Secret Senior Society traditions, Slovog the Orange, Reetnulov the Strong and the Lady Slovogs' exploits undoubtedly present a heterodox claim confounding conventional Appalachian historians. The proofs speak for themselves, so claim Ancient Slovogian Theorists. Evidence may be right under our noses, possibly intentionally concealed.

The Scarabbean Senior Society — University of Tennessee's secret organization of students and faculty, founded AD 1915. Author's collection.

The Scarabbean's AD 1915 founding hides behind the deceptive symbolism of the Egyptian scarab beetle, an image misdirection attempting to throw would-be Slovogian Amateur Enthusiasts (S.A.E.s) off the discovery trail of Knoxville-area Norse origins in substitution for the then-popular pursuit of and interest in Egyptology in long association with Masonic roots in early America.

The Rock celebrates 50 Years (courtesy of Knoxville News). Shields-Watkins Field / Neyland Stadium — site of the alleged 1966 re-excavation and subsequent concrete sarcophagus covering Slovog's 10th c. AD evidence.

First discovered and summarily recorded by the secret society members, the faded runes decoded within a large dolomite boulder (The Rock) were unwittingly unearthed on the University of Tennessee's campus by the Society in a mysterious burial ritual reported by Ancient Slovog researchers. Conventional theories support the society returning previously discovered Viking relics to their rumored subterranean cache near the Tennessee River for secure nondisclosure.

The Scarabbeans quickly moved to erase the unexpected ancient chiseled runic indentations. Fortunately, one set of rubbings initiated before the destructive surface sanding erasure purportedly escaped, remaining hidden from history but kept alive in local oral tradition. Freedom of Information Act requests submitted to the University's Antiquities Department perplex school administrators as the department feigns ignorance, repeatedly denying any knowledge of the runes' existence.

The symbols are rumored to be archived in the bowels of Knoxville's McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture. However, Society minutes discovered alongside the Carnicus Sagas secured within the plaster walls of the Longbranch Saloon before its destruction tell another story. The now-sequestered Hoskins Library vault houses the runes' message under the strictest secrecy according to Slovogian theorists. Guarded by gargoyles at the Gothic structure's south portal, the truth remains protected.

Public discussion of Slovog's regional written evidence emerged publicly some fifty years later with the AD 1966 re-excavation of The Rock during university construction, thus destroying the grass field playing surface of Shields-Watkins Field. In an attempt to conceal evidence, government officials under Scarabbean pressure decided to install a massive, 100-yard concrete sarcophagus enclosure and an Astro-Turf exterior to cover over the dig, sealing the alleged horde of Slovog's 10th c. AD evidence.

However, The Rock's true story could not be concealed. Disgraced Ex-Scarabbean member Gus Captain, Sr., father of the famed campus deli entrepreneur and late-night campus raconteur of Gus's Good Times Deli, reportedly stated that upon either his death or the sale of the 100,000th steamed sandwich, which ever event preceded, the truth of the runes and Slovog the Orange and Reetnulov the Strong would be exposed. Believing the announcement at the celebrated sandwich sale of the long-anticipated yelp of "mayonnaise/mustad!" from behind the counter to be a hoax, the Daily Beacon allegedly refused to publish the story in 1985 under Scarabbean pressure.

Loosely converted to a Roman script, the runes ᛖᚷᚾᚨᚱ ᛟᚷᛁ ᛒᛟᚷ (Elder Futhark) revealed simply, Egnar Ogi Bog. The meaning remains to be translated to the satisfaction of both advocates and skeptics alike.

The Plot Thickens

The Holy Grail depicted as a dish in which Christ's blood is collected. British Library.

L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland — Norse settlement dated to AD 1021. Wikimedia Commons.

Cumulative validation in the history of High Antiquity corroborates pre-Columbian North American exploration. The persuasive forensic data throws conventional history on its head in terms of long-term chronology. Today, we acknowledge assumptions. There is no unbroken chain of evidence from AD 1000 to today. Yet, the AD 1380 Zeno map chronicles a Venetian voyage to the European arctic waters, including Iceland and Greenland, the birthplace of Eriksson. The Zeno Brothers encountered the great islands free of ice. Additionally, the map potentially reveals present-day Nova Scotia. Could this ancient record have been known both to the Fourth Crusade, Eriksson, and Slovog alike? Oak Island advocates for concealing the historic remains of the Knights Templar in North America leave the possibility open. After all, Slovog was a Christian descendent of Eriksson, a Christian convert. Was Eriksson motivated by pursuing the Holy Grail? Did his abrupt departure from the Newfoundland settlements signal exasporation? Does Slovog's decision to remain and head south explain the Tennessee story?

There are those who seek to expose the prevailing and competing theories of much that the Sagas reveal about the Labrador coast. The theory of the Templar's Holy Grail transferred to North America for safe keeping adds intrigue to the theories. Does this explain motivation for Slovog's initial North American continental southern quest of the same, thus his reasoning not to leave with those of the Eriksson settlement who abandoned Newfoundland and sailed back to Europe? Was Eriksson disillusioned by his failure? These theorists surmise that, finding no Grail, Slovog, giving his all daily for his quest, headed down the field along the prehistoric Indian footpaths of the Appalachian Great Indian Warpath seeking a warmer climate and a permanent settlement for his host of volunteers.

Competing European Settlement Theories

At North Carolina's Cherokee County Historical Museum in Murphy, a talc and soapstone statue may depict the moon-eyed people. Terrisa Carringer/Courtesy Cherokee County Historical Museum.

Alternative narratives propose Eriksson's Viking southern descendants are rumored to be the mysterious remnant of 12th c. AD Welsh prince-turned-seafaring explorer Madoc. The Moon-Eyed People of pre-Cherokee Appalachia (c. AD 500-1500) are theorized to be stone wall builders of Ft. Mountain, Georgia. If the pale skinned, blue-eyed, nocturnal workers are the Welsh legacy, they would have made their way up the southeastern river systems.

While extraordinary, these potentially circa AD 500 people are not to be confused with those Vikings who were the first pagan-turned-Christian pioneers to establish a home among these New World surveyors with their stone building and ironworks, who launched from the north, alongside the Indigenous Dorset, the proto-Inuit Thules, predating the Beothuk.

Ancient Slovogian Theorists claim it is Eriksson and his forerunners who crossed the Great Water westward three centuries before the alleged Welsh exploration, island hopping from Iceland to Greenland, eventually settling the Labrador "Big Land." Battling south down the coast, happening upon the northern Appalachians, Slovog's people who remained behind the Eriksson party and eventually emerged, navigating the ancient mountain range and continuing south — predating the historic ancestral migratory trail known today as the Great Wagon Road (See Great Indian Warpath).

While Eriksson's Vikings launched deep inland from current-day Newfoundland following paths of both man and beast, they eventually abandoned their earthwork settlements. That history is settled. It was thus left to Slovog who forged his way in to the hallowed foothills of what would eventually become Tennessee, or ᛁᚱᛏᚾᚢᛟᚲ ᛖᚷᚾᚨᚱᛟ ᚷᛁᛒ (Elder Futhark), Yrtnuoc Egnaro Gib in Roman script, loosely translated "Vast space of the Orange."

Slovog the Orange as depicted by inmates of the South Central Correctional Facility, Clifton, TN.

More Contributing Evidence Moving Forward

Ruins of the Old Stone Fort walls. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/old-stone-fort-state-archaeological-park

East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Melungeon tradition corroborates local Scots-Irish oral historical folklore of the Moon-Eyed People providing compelling evidence that the first Cherokees came upon remnants of short, white, flat-faced, blue-eyed stone-building "Welsh Indians" as labeled by the early 19th c. AD overland expeditions of Lewis and Clark. While the famed explorers' encounters covered the Louisiana Territory to the west, the unmistakable henge cut stone arrangement of Old Stone Fort south of Nashville, TN joins the Ft. Mountain, Georgia discovery as an architectural anomaly distinctive from the indigenous earthwork mounds.

The Old Stone Fort construction points to British Isles and Frankish anthropological and archeological origins, pre-dating the Cherokee. Exact dates for the mysterious site vacillate heavily, but arguments for an inter-racial, pan-Atlantic social system confound Middle Tennessee historians, archeologists, linguists, and anthropologists alike. Their legendary formation as a distinct intermixed people group is rumored to be immortalized by the 1970's popular female vocalist Cher in her 1973 chart-topping single, Half-Breed.

Cher, Half Breed, MCA Records, 1973.

The Sagas record what some historians describe as "contact without consequence" as the Vikings' impact remained localized at the northeastern continental shore (OriginDecoder). The iron smelting furnace discovered in Newfoundland at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000 proves the community was European and not indigenous. Scandinavian long houses foundations and workshops prove the earliest European settlement. More, in AD 2021, researchers dated the settlement to the exact year AD 1021 based upon the AD 992 cosmic radioactive anomaly stamped into timber rings. The contemporary Sagas of the era thus seem to record real history, not fanciful tales.

The Norse taking timber and leaving North America, not colonizing or interbreeding with the indigenous people, is the accepted argument of the limited Viking impact on North America. Wood core samples of Greenland construction bear evidence of the Norse settlements built with North American Markland timber, thus providing evidence of commerce between the lands. As the Newfoundland outposts were ultimately abandoned for whatever reason, the colony foothold gradually closed, some argue coinciding with the Little Ice Age beginning AD 1400. Thus, all continental traces of the Greenland Norse vanished in a genetic dead end. So the conventional history goes.

There is one genetic mitochondrial shred of evidence discovered in Iceland human DNA samples that argues for an indigenous relative of the North American settlement to be traced to Europe. In AD 2010, geneticists sequenced the genome named C-1-E. It was of Native American origin. The line ran back 1000 years to the date of the Norse settlements. The theory is that a Native American woman made the journey eastward. There she had children. Their children had children. The ancestors inhabit Iceland today. Whomever she was, she has left a compelling mark some 600 years before Pocahontas's interaction with Chesapeake in AD 1607 and 700 years prior to Sacagawea, the Native American woman who assisted Lewis and Clark in the early 18th c. AD. At the very least, she is a contemporary, related story to the Lady Slovogs, if only indirectly.

The Norse were not a pure genetic tribe by any means. Their ancestry was pulled from across Europe and beyond given their raiding, trading, and settling. These were connected, mobile people who navigated both river systems and oceans of both Europe and the Mediterranean. North America was the last of their seafaring junkets. Therefore, real, sustained human contact happened for years. However, there is almost no Norse genetic evidence flowing into the Americas circa AD 1000. One woman's line was carried east. Iceland proves that. The reverse is not so easy to prove, the conventional histories claim.

Admittedly, the indigenous populations of North America do not expose a genetic marker for the Norse. Preservation of ancient human DNA in the harsh Newfoundland environment is highly suspect. There is much silence about the Greenland colony's forays into Newfoundland. The Sagas do mention continental violent resistance from the Skraelings, the indigenous tribes of the far northeast. The Sagas describe volatile relations between these people and the Norse, an argument supporting Eriksson's abandonment of the settlement, including his potential quest for the Grail, and the abrupt disappearance of the Norse.

Ancient Slovogian Theorists disagree. They demand there was continental intermingling between the two peoples. Reetnulov the Strong as progeniture of the Melungeons is their evidence, the product of his father Slovog the Orange and an unknown Cherokee circa AD 1050.

Conversely, could these unique early Tennessee peoples be the remnant of the famous twelve ships that left Wales two centuries prior to Columbus, the Moon-eyed people? We may never know. However, the contemporary John Lee Pettimore family claims ancestry to the Norse remnant who migrated the Appalachians south as encouraged by Slovog centuries before. This line of the narrative has the Pettimores preceding both the Welsh and Cherokee in the greater Smoky Mountains interior region, thus the insistence that the Appalachian Trail is the living legacy of the Norsemen's journey down the later settlers' path, the afore-mentioned Great Wagon Road. Therefore, Slovog's historicity offers valuable new revelation for early European incursions deep into the southeastern continent.

The Find

Ulfberht: unique swords with the inscription +VLFBERHT+ on the blade, dated between the 9th and 11th centuries.

Grand Bleu de Gascogne — essential French ancestor of the Bluetick Coonhound, the official Tennessee State Dog.

Amongst the famed Valhalla Dome excavations of Rich Mountain, North Carolina is rumored a mysterious burial chamber housing 9th c. AD Frankish sword remnants as well as canine skeletal shards of the Grand Bleu de Gascogne, an essential French ancestor of the Bluetick Coonhound, what later became the official Tennessee State Dog. Solutrean Theorists point to this Clovis People-era hound as proof of the fringe theoretical Paleolithic Atlantic ice-pack migration from Europe to North America. Slovog's corroborating evidence warrants new academic studies both in climate, DNA, and animal husbandry.

However, the weight of the findings proposes the Appalachian archeological gem is the smoking gun, or swing sword, for that matter, of the rumored Viking longboat journey west along the Nolichucky River toward the French Broad River, eventually landing at its convergence with the Holston River just east of Knoxville, as recorded in the Carnicus Sagas as "a hallowed hill," ᚺᛖᛚᚷᚢᚦ ᚺᛟᛚ (Elder Futhark).

Additionally, the hamlet of Heiskell, TN is not etymologically linked to "cauldron of the gods" as is typical in combining elements of askr meaning "ash tree" and ketill, "cauldron," but a combination of hailagr (Norse for holy) and skal (Norse for cup).

Thus, linguistic area evidence for Slovog's Holy Grail quest motivating his southern route seems plausible. Slovog's intercostal river landing would have occurred the third Saturday of October (between Haustmánuður and Gormánudur) ending the last of the Viking calendar summer months, roughly between the second and third harvest festivals. Many in the region believe their ancestors' daring historical trek inspired what would become the Vol Navy for nautical sporting revelers some nine centuries later.

Establishing a Home

Pre-Columbian Crucifix allegedly of Reetnulov the Strong's Knoxville Mission settlement, circa AD 1100.

Perspicaciously, Nordic early Christian relics radiocarbon dated to the 11th c. AD reveal early North American settlements unearthed during the construction of the Knoxville Fort Sanders neighborhood. Those persuaded by the legend of the Holy Grail's quest being renewed into Appalachia find conspicuous correlation to the early Masonic ties within the New World's construction, thus the Acacia House's mysterious beginnings in Knoxville not to be overshadowed by its inauspicious disappearance. An outgrowth of a Michigan-area Masonic affiliation, the mysterious Acacias exercised early North American stonework skill, but local remnants' authenticity lack signs of Masonic credibility.

Instead, what we find is attributed to the mission of Slovog's seventh son Reetnulov the Strong (AD 1050-1135), the seventh son of a seventh son (see Glossary). Fomer fan favorite University of Tennessee quarterback Condredge Holloway, AST, (AD 1971-1974) conspicuously wore number 7 in commemoration of the Slovog/Reetnulov mystical birth order and associated powers.

Ancient Slovogian Theorists suggest it was he, not the Acacias, who constructed both a chapel and earthwork fortifications amidst the hills overlooking the Tennessee River proposing a settlement for the security of female Vikings, Lady Slovogs. It is widely held that Reetnulov could be the prototype Melungeon ancestor given Slovog the Orange's second wife ᎩᎵᏍᏓᎩ ᎤᏍᏓᏩᏛᏍᏗ (Cherokee), his first Lady Slovog having died from a fall along the southern journey in the Mohawk Valley of present-day New York State.

Reetnulov's beacon fortification as seen from the south riverside below reflected the southern sun and shone brightly when illuminated, the central feature being a smaller, yet erect dolomite standing stone boulder revealing ᛊᛈᛖᛖ ᛊᛈᛁᚱᛖ (Elder Furthark), loosely translated Spee Spire). Unearthed north of the Slovog encampment near the former University of Tennessee's Panhellenic Building near the foundations of the Carousel Bar, the stone was host to rites of spring rituals at the spring equinox under the Lady Slovog's pagan-inspired seasonal celebration.

The Sunsphere, Knoxville — Scarabbeans lobbied the 1982 World's Fair to memorialize the controversially historic Spee Spire.

Some synchronistic spring rituals are common among the early Christians incorporating Easter celebrations among the newly baptized at the vernal equinox. Scarabbeans lobbied the World's Fair successfully to memorialize the controversially historic Spee Spire with the shrewdly rebranded spire as the Sun Sphere in AD 1982. Ancient Slovogian Theorists see the aggressive move by the secret society as haughty, a triumphal reminder of the smug narrative control keeping the truth hidden, making lite of the Theorist's historic Viking settlement claims.

Sophronia Strong Hall and Cafeteria, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn. — built upon foundations attributed to Reetnulov the Strong's chapel. CardCow.com.

Centuries later upon foundations of Reetnulov the Strong's chapel, direct descendent Benjamin Rush Strong had specified in his will a female dormitory be constructed on the site. Anthropologists and archeologists alike find the preference for safe housing the "girls on Rock Top" conspicuously aligned with the heroic effort of Strong's ancestors to maintain a lasting, regenerative colony.

Most notably, Cherokee oral tradition from Reetnulov's first mission reveals the reference of their first European contact to the Bear Cat Mink Orange Ladies ᎪᎳ ᎠᎩᏯ ᎤᎦᎶᎩ ᎠᎨᏯ (Cherokee), pronounced "gola agiya ugalogi ageya." Could this folklore have passed down to Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, the American country and bluegrass song writers behind "Rocky Top" written in 1967 and first recorded by the Osborne Brothers later that same year? Ancient Slovogian Theorists find the argument compelling. According to Ancient Slovogian Theorists, the coded language, "Once I had a girl on Rocky Top half bear, other half cat," references Melungeon ancestry of the Norse Viking-Cherokee union.

According to legend, Lady Slovogs punctuated the night with their exotic icy light blue eyes as domineering women, sure to offer a haunting sight to the indigenous first peoples, Cherokee, specifically. The Cherokee inhabited the southern Appalachian Valley, the Smoky Mountains in particular. They named the range Chaconnage, "place of blue smoke." We know today that there is no smoggy smoke, rather it is the compounds terpenes and isoprene released from the forest tree canopy, reacting both to sunlight and moisture. The microscopic particles emitted scatter blue light. The Cherokee understood this seemingly magical effect to signal that the forest was breathing. It was. Upon first encounter with the Lady Slovogs of blue eyes, emerging from the blue mist, the impact must have been otherworldly for the indigenous Appalachians.

A Lady Slovog draped in Ancient Slovog Tartan (recreation).

The recessive genetic trait of the light blue tint seen in both Viking eyes and Smoky Mountains mist is reflected in the blue detail of the Slovog tartan of ancient origins. Wild as minks, yet sweet as Vinland grapes, the Lady Slovogs worked tirelessly as torch bearers, ᏔᎵᏍᏆ ᎦᎸᏉ ᎤᏃᏗ ᎤᏍᏆᏂᎪᏗ ᎤᏙᏢᏒ (Cherokee) pronounced "taliswa galvquo unodi usquanigodi udotlvsv," roughly translated torch lantern light protectors for guidance, shadowing themselves while lighting the way for their descendants to follow.

Contemporary anthropological documentary consensus of the respected Raven Records Registry (see Glossary) brings to light tales of the successful Viking foray deep into the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains, understood to be the earliest European southernmost Greater Appalachian Valley settlement, Slovogland. Also migrations to the area centuries following must be considered.

News of Slovog's reported success made its way back east across the Great Water along the oral history ancestral trails finding robust soil amidst the imagination of those most independent within the British Isles some 700 years later. Protestants infected with William of Orange's AD 17th century challenge to Louis XIV's central authority aligned comparable sympathies, fueling the fierce sovereign spirit of the Scots-Irish who ultimately migrated to North America for religious freedoms in great numbers, emboldened by the Slovog and Reetnulov legends, entrenching themselves and their customs within the geographically remote Appalachian region.

Scots-Irish Slovogian Fanboy (recreation).

Planting the Trail

Bellis perennis — daisy of European species in the Asteraceae family; the archetypal species of daisy.

Marking their path for others to follow south along the Great Wagon Road in deliberate homage to Slovog's journey, and in preparation for the ensuing wave of William of Orange's enthusiastic Scots-Irish, the immigrating Highlanders seeded their footsteps with the first American planting of the Bellis perennis, the daisy of European species in the Asteraceae family, the archetypal species of daisy.

The legacy of these orange-centered, white petaled flowers are those now commonly found growing in abundance around Knoxville atop the central elevated geography to where the heart of University of Tennessee now stands upon a hallowed hill.

Could Slovog's example of robust homestead success fuel the fires of personal liberty found in the unique American Scots-Irish identity? It's difficult to refute.

The Desperate Cover-Up

Rumor of Slovog's archeological evidence covered by sinister motivations has advanced in the AD 21st Century's skeptical post-truth era. Conformation of both Slovog, Reetnulov, and Lady Slovogs being exposed within the academic community spread amongst established government officials with orders to maintain secrecy for fear of civil unrest.

The recent announcement of the University of Tennessee's riverfront construction with the Neyland Entertainment District alarms Ancient Slovogian Theorists, Scarabbeans, Congress, and the Antiquities community alike. Slovogians worry that the development endangers their Truther cause, the concealing from the deserving public ancient Norse foundations and associated buried artifacts. Scarabbeans are understood to demand assurances the relics remain concealed, buried forever under concrete and steel. Congress is silent save the efforts of United States Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee's 2nd congressional district who has been a consistent voice for full disclosure. However, the Antiquities community reportedly is experiencing a rift as momentum for revelation grows within the underground Truther movement.

Government officials and the business community alike seem to have the upper hand currently. The Neyland Entertainment District is set to begin demolition of a supposed Reetnulov outpost Summer of AD 2026.

Under the pretense of building an entertainment district lies a dark truth: bury the evidence Ancient Slovogian Theorists believe lies under the G10 parking lot. Similar to motivations behind pouring the concrete sarcophagus under the present grass of Shields-Watkins Field, this massive building effort threatens the future of unearthing remaining Slovogian confirmation.

The Conclusion

Slovog the Orange — the Power T Viking. Author's collection.

Whether you be a skeptic or a true believer, you have little option but to acknowledge Slovog the Orange's claim to the founding of Tennessee. His example emerges as the composite, unified symbol of the accumulated evidence pointing to the distant past's enterprising pioneers that the history books all too often dismiss if not intentionally avoid. The truth is he and his host of volunteers developed as conquerors of the land, giving their all for future generations to follow, establishing homes along the river shores into the East Tennessee valley, foundations for a country and a people that easily could not have been.

Slovog's blazing orange hair, his muscular prowess and fighting spirit, his indomitable drive to conquer… it's the thing of legend. Today, the Slovog family fame resonates with all brave souls who dare to overcome the odds, who dive deep into the human Saga we write daily, those who seek courage in life's grand arena amidst the fog and cynicism of the critics. Displaying strength and energy, justice and victory, preferring others over himself in pursuit of a better world, Slovog inspires us to become beacons of hope, shining bright among the hallowed hills of the expansive, orange-influenced landscape, known today as Tennessee.

Slovog the Orange — axe and shield character study. Author's collection.

Slovog the Orange character studies. Author's collection.

Slovog the Orange portly power studies. Author's collection.

ᛊᛚᛟᚢᛟᚷ ᚦᛖ ᛟᚱᚨᛜᛖ

Slovog the Orange in Elder Futhark runes

Slovog Bindrune

Latin stave  ·  Elder stave

Latin stave

Elder stave

ᚢ

Uruz
The Uruz rune symbolizes strength and vitality.
strength, energy

ᛏ

Tiwaz
The Tiwaz rune symbolizes justice and leadership.
justice, victory

Slovog Bindrune
Carved stone bindrune
reported from The Rock

Slovog Bindrune image reported from runes collected at The Rock.

Glossary (in progress)

Acacia House

Former dwelling of fraternal excellence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The unfortunate eviction by of the Acacia fraternity from its house at the corner of Melrose and Melrose Place—UT contended Acacia refused to fix the HVAC; Acacia resisted claiming UT was responsible and refused to fix it. A resolution resulted with the university stating the older former residences on Melrose and Lake Avenues were in generally poor repair. See https://volopedia

Ancient Slovogian Theorists (AST)

Historical coterie of Early American Scandinavian European ancestry truth-seekers who promote the narrative of Leif Eriksson's seventh son Slovog the Orange was the first European to settle Tennessee circa AD 1050.

Bellis perennis

daisy of European species in the Asteraceae family, the archetypal species of daisy.

Carnicus Sagas

See Raven Record Registry

Copperhead Road

A road near Mountain City, Tennessee. Also known as "Big Dry Run," a southern spur of the Great Indian Warpath. Also the Steve Earle song "Copperhead Road," the 11th official Tennessee State song, MCA Records, 1988.

Egnar Ogi Bog

The meaning remains to be translated to the satisfaction of both advocates and skeptics alike. Some theorize a rallying cry for solidarity among the settlers under threat. Others propose an identifying tribal yelp of the Eastern Tennessee settlers.

Gormánudur

First winter month in the Norse calendar

Grand Bleu de Gascogne

An essential French ancestor of the Bluetick Coonhound, what would become the official Tennessee State dog. Ancient Slovogian Theorists claim bone shards of the majestic beast carbon dated to c. AD 950 have been discovered at Valhalla Dome, North Carolina.

Great Indian Warpath

Also known as the Great Indian War and Trading Path, or the Seneca Trail, was a network of ancient Indian routes with many branches. The Native American trail ran through the Great Appalachian Valley and the Appalachian Mountains through several states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama. It had been a major north-south route of travel since prehistoric times, and parts of the trail are thought to have been used as long as 2,500 years ago when Indian traders from as far away as the Great Lakes, Rocky Mountains, and Mexico traveled parts of the trail.

Great Wagon Road

See Great Indian Warpath

Haustmánuður

Harvest month in the Norse calendar

Holy Grail

According to Christian legend, the Holy Grail is the cup from which Jesus Christ drank at the Last Supper, circa AD 30. The quest for the Holy Grail became the alleged principal search in antiquity by Leif Eriksson and his descendants including numerous Christian knights, advocates, and treasure hunters throughout history. See https://historyguild.org/

John Lee Pettimore

Popularly memorialized as fictional characters in the Steve Earle song "Copperhead Road," the 11th official Tennessee State song. However, he is claimed by Ancient Slovogian Theorists to be a real life descendent of the Leif Eriksson North American Viking Slovogland outpost, ultimately the product of a potential southern branch settlement of the Vinland vineyard efforts down the Great Indian Warpath. The Appalachian moonshine industry finds its roots in Slovog the Orange's enterprising distillation efforts perpetuated in secret family tradition among the Pettimores of Mountain City in Johnson County, TN. Discovering the Smoky Mountain climate and soil not able to sustain maize as a crop given the rocky dirt, the pivot to its distillation was necessary. Cherokee responses to the jugged product known as ᛗᛟᛟᚾᛊᚺᛁᚾᛖ (Elder Furthark), roughly translated "moonglow," were widely reported as socially disruptive. The commotion soon spread to all regional inhabitants imbibing in the distilled maize. Profits from the spirits' sales funded Reetnulov the Strong's colony in Knoxville, ultimately establishing a formula for the Pettimore family fortune.

Lady Slovogs

Female Vikings descendants from Leif Eriksson, Slovog the Orange, and Reetnulov the Strong. According to Ancient Slovogian Theorists, in successive generations, the Viking interbreeding with the Cherokee created a domineering female warrior class settling the Appalachians 500 years before Christopher Columbus reaching the Americas.

Melungeon

A term first appearing in print in the 19th century, used in Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina to describe people of mixed ancestry. Melungeons were considered by outsiders to have a mixture of European, Native American, and later African ancestry. Researchers have referred to Melungeons and similar groups as "tri-racial isolates," embedded in the hollers of Appalachia. Melungeons have faced discrimination, both legal and social, because they did not fit into America's historically accepted racial categories. Reetnulov the Strong is considered by Ancient Slovogoan Theorists to be the father of North American Melungeons, the product of a Slovog the Orange's second marriage resulting from a tryst with a Cherokee warrior who became his second wife along the southern journey down the Great Indian Warpath.

Moon-Eyed People

North American short, white, flat-faced, blue-eyed stone-building "Welsh Indians" as labeled by the early 19th c. AD overland expeditions of Lewis and Clark. Earliest possible evidence AD 500 in southern Appalachia.

Raven Records Registry

Also known as the Carnicus Sagas, these chronicles written in various voluminous volumes of Elder Furthark, Olde English, and Cherokee documenting Slovog the Orange, Reetnulov the Strong, Lady Slovogs and their shenanigans. Odin's ravens Huginn (meaning Thought) and Muninn (meaning Memory) provided worldly information for Odin, a legacy brought to Tennessee from Slovog the Orange circa AD 950. The Registry's legend gave impetus to a celebrated 20th c. record store on Cumberland Avenue in Knoxville. The destruction of the Longbranch Saloon and ensuing fortuitous discovery of the Registry hidden behind solid oak paneling brought the legend to reality, an historic event not dissimilar to the AD 1946 Dead Sea Scrolls' finding in the Holy Land. Ancient Slovogian Theorists insist the Scarabbean Secret Senior Society absconded with the Registry cache upon discovery.

Reetnulov the Strong

(circa AD 1050-1135) The seventh son of Slovog the Orange, grandson of Leif Eriksson. Built female regenerative colony in Ft. Sanders area, Knoxville, Tennessee. Second generation settler of Knoxville, TN. Reetnulov the Strong is considered by Ancient Slovogoan Theorists to be the father of North American Melungeons.

Scarabbean Secret Senior Society

A secret society of both students and faculty founded at the University of Tennessee in AD 1915.

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

In European folklore, the seventh son of a seventh son is believed to possess special powers. The seventh son must be preceded by six brothers, with no sisters born in between, and whose father is also such a seventh son. Such a child is said to be gifted with the power to heal diseases.

Some doctors in previous centuries even claim that one of their qualities that made them great healers was that they were the seventh son of a seventh son. In Ireland, the seventh son of a seventh son is also believed to have the power to foretell the future, in addition to his healing abilities. According to Ancient Slovogian Theorists, Slovog the Orange is the seventh son of Leif Eriksson. Reelnulov the Strong is the seventh son of Slovog.

Slovog the Orange

(AD 1050-unknown) The seventh son of Leif Eriksson, first Norse explorer to settle North America circa AD 1000. Founder of Slovogland where Knoxville, TN is situated today.

Slovogland

The southernmost valley of the Great Appalachian Valley along the Blue Ridge and Northern Highlands

Solutrean Theorists

Proponents of the Paleolithic Atlantic ice-pack human migration from Europe to North America

Spee Spire

Druid stone pillar buried beneath the foundations of Sophronia Strong Hall (now an academic science building) at the University of Tennessee. Legend has it the limestone obelisk representing the Shiva Lingam and the Stone of Destiny located in Ireland's Hill of Tara elicited outrage from the ghost of Sophronia Strong, mother of Benjamin Rush Strong whose will reflected from his mother the wishes of Reetnulov the Strong's desire to build a female-dedicated presence in what would become the Ft. Sanders neighborhood some 950 years prior. Origins expose the complexity of Reetnulov's syncretistic assimilation of pagan practices with his Christian faith. Desiring a regenerative colony of Lady Slovogs, Reetnulov erected the spire hedging his bets with the pre-Christian Gaelic Tuatha De' Danann, the supernaturally gifted people who brought bronze to Ireland, according to legend. The mother goddess Tara is featured among Cherokee legend of the Star Woman who fell from the heavens, mating with the human inhabitants giving the capacity for wisdom. This historical oddity reinforces Solutrean Theorists' Atlantic ice-pack migration theories. According to Ancient Slovogian Theorists, the Knoxville Sunsphere located in the city's World's Fair Park was devised by the University of Tennessee's Scarabbean Secret Senior Society as a masked memorial to the ancient Spee Spire, not in good faith the Theorists claim.

Tiwaz (ᛏ)

Tiwaz rune is the (17th) seventeenth rune in the Elder Futhark, an ancient runic alphabet from Northern Europe. This rune is also known under the name Tiw or Tyr and is associated with the god Tyr, a deity of warfare, justice, and law, and heroism in Norse culture. One of two Bindrunes found on The Rock, associated with Slovog the Orange.

Tiwaz rune meaning

In terms of its meanings and interpretations, Tiwaz can represent the following:

• Male nature: This rune signifies male aspects built on a warrior archetype. It frequently signifies a male – warrior who will go to his target till the very end, regardless of the obstacles and price it takes.
• Courage and Strength: Tiwaz signifies bravery and the ability to overcome challenges.
• Victory: Tiwaz represents strength, ambition, and the pursuit of goals. It can symbolize overcoming obstacles and achieving success.
• Justice and Law: Tiwaz is also connected to fairness, righteousness, and the upholding of the law. It can represent integrity and ethical conduct.
• Leadership: This rune is associated with leadership qualities, such as decisiveness, courage, and responsibility. It can symbolize taking charge and inspiring others.
• Honour: Tiwaz is linked to the qualities of a leader, encouraging responsibility, honor, integrity, and fairness in decision-making. It also represents the concept of living a life of purpose and meaning.
• Significance of Tyr god: This rune can be considered as a signification of Tyr god.

Tiwaz rune associations

Warrior, war, courage, honor, leadership, army, military, battle. (norsepath.org)

Uruz (ᚢ)

Uruz rune is the (2nd) the second rune in the Elder Futhark, an ancient runic alphabet from Northern Europe. This rune is associated with the aurochs, a wild ancestor of domestic cattle. It embodies themes of strength, health, and vitality. It is the second of two bindrunes associated with Slovog the Orange.

Uruz rune meaning

In terms of its meanings and interpretations, Uruz can represent the following:

• Strength and Power: Uruz signifies physical strength, endurance, and the primal force of nature. It represents powerful energies and the ability to overcome obstacles. It can also consider courage to face adversity.
• Health and Vitality: The rune is often connected to good health, vigor, and the natural processes of growth and renewal. It speaks of raw, untamed power, both within ourselves and in the natural world.
• Courage and Determination: Uruz encourages one to summon inner courage and determination when facing challenges or embarking on new endeavors.
• Transformation and Change: It can signify change, suggesting the necessity of transformation and personal growth, much like the ongoing cycle of life and death in nature. It can suggest a period of growth and metamorphosis, pushing through limitations to become something new.
• Instinct and Intuition: Uruz also taps into primal instincts and intuition, reminding individuals to trust their instincts when navigating through life's challenges. It can also represent the connection to our animalistic nature and the strength of the wild.

Uruz rune associations

Strength, Power, Super Power, Strong, Strengthening, Healthy, Beast, Wild Power, Raw Power Vitality, Wild Animal, Great, Pressure, Force. (norsepath.org)

Valhalla Dome

A peak in Bradshaw Township, Mitchell, North Carolina, elevation of 4,022 feet. Valhalla Dome is situated nearby to the hamlet Upper Poplar, as well as near Whitson, NC. Ancient Slovogian Theorists claim the area houses ancient Viking remnants.

Yrtnuoc Egnaro Gib

in Roman script, loosely translated "Vast space of the Orange."