Mysterious runes were discovered in northern Canada. Now, we might finally know what they mean.

Back in 2018, a tree in northern Ontario, Canada fell over — in the process revealing a rock slab covered in mysterious runic texts.

Scientists were immediately baffled. What did the carving mean? How long did someone take to carve it? And why on Earth did anyone from ancient times live in northern Ontario? It’s miserable enough today with central heating!

Now, after seven years of research, those studying the runes have an answer, and it’s pretty weird. Basically, the symbols themselves are Nordic runes, containing an alphabet known as Futhark that had previously been used throughout Scandinavia. Carving it into the stone is presumed to have taken days or weeks, though why they did it is still uncertain.

Oh, right — what does the text mean, anyway?

Well, this is where things get a bit disappointing. It turns out that the text is merely the Lord’s Prayer in Swedish, and it wasn’t written in ancient times, but in the 1800s. Apparently the Hudson's Bay Company brought in a bunch of Swedish workers way back when, and one of the nerdier among them decided to spend his free time carving the Lord’s Prayer into a stone using ancient runic symbols.

That, or it was aliens. You decide!