The article can be found at http://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/strangephenomenonh.html
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This article from ‘Psychic Australia’ in March 1977 by Rex Gilroy claims that Norse/Scandinavian sailors visited the South Pacific and northern Australia. The article, ‘Vikings Visited Cairns’’, is now freely available online on the Mysterious Australia website. The article includes various arguments for a Norse presence in the south Pacific, including swastika symbols found in rock and wood art in Java, Cambodia, Malaya, and Vietnam, the shape of war canoes in Fiji, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Tonga, and the physical appearance of some of the native inhabitants of New Guinea. Similar arguments are then applied to northern Australia, augmented by a comparison between northern-Australian Aboriginal religious beliefs and those of the Norse, such as the existence of a rainbow bridge (Bifröst in Old Norse texts) in both cultures, and spirits, or Valkyries, carrying off the dead after a battle. Gilroy also considers rock art near Cairns, Queensland, to show warriors dressed as Vikings in horned helmets. The author’s belief that Vikings wore horned and winged helmets, both of which became popularly associated with Vikings through the costumes used in Richard Wagner’s (1813-1883) Ring Cycle operas (although there is evidence for the ceremonial use of horned helmets in pre-Viking age Scandinavia), and the confusion in calling Wotan/Oðin/Odin the thunder god instead of Þorr/Thor, allows for little confidence in the assertions of the article.
The article can be found at http://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/strangephenomenonh.html
For their website see http://valhallaicecream.com.au
]]>Valhalla Icecream is made in the Hobart suburb of Moonah. As seen on this advertising sign, the company’s logo features the side profile of the head of a Viking warrior on a red shield. The warrior wears a helmet with wings, a notion popular in the late 19th century before Vikings with horned helmets became more popular. In Old Norse (Viking) mythology Valhalla was a giant hall where chosen warriors who had died in battle went to join the Norse god Odin. The warriors were led to Valhalla by Valkyries.
For their website see http://valhallaicecream.com.au
Described on their website as ‘the largest Licensed Rugby Union Club in the world’ (http://www.vikings.com.au/OurClubs.aspx), the Vikings Group is an Australian club with a number of venues in New South Wales. Their logo features a side profile of a Viking warrior with long moustache wearing a horned helmet.
More on the group can be found at www.vikings.com.au