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://crimsoncog.wix.com/crimson-cog
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The Crimson Cog are a historical re-enactment group in New South Wales. They focus on the Hanseatic League in the years 1250-1300, particularly the city of Lübeck in northern Germany. The Hanseatic League were a confederation of merchant guilds and towns who dominated trade in the Baltic and North Seas from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. The Cog was a cargo ship used by the League.
For their website see http://crimsoncog.wix.com/crimson-cog
The article is available
at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-18/viking-ship-spotted-off-nt/4266796
‘Viking ship spotted off remote NT island’ appeared on the online version of ABC News on September 18, 2012. The replica Viking ship was seen off the coast of Elcho
Island in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. The ship was sailed by a crew of six Russians from Europe and was heading for a museum in Sydney. The Viking longship
is often referred to as a dragon ship due to the carved figure-head on the bow, as seen in the photograph of the replica by Tim Wethers.
The article is available
at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-18/viking-ship-spotted-off-nt/4266796
For more information see http://catalogue.statelibrary.tas.gov.au/item/?id=682142
]]>This pear case label for Viking Brand Fancy Grade Pears is approximately A4-size. It probably dates from 1938 or 1939 (see link below). Viking Brand were exported by W.H. Ikin & Son in Hobart and the produce was from Tasmania. The advert depicts a Viking dragon boat with both oars and sail being used. The boat also has round shields along its side, as is historically attested from the tenth-century Gokstad ship found in 1880 and now housed in the Viking Ship Museum near Oslo, Norway. The advertisement also proudly states that the pears are ‘Empire Produce’.
For more information see http://catalogue.statelibrary.tas.gov.au/item/?id=682142