The Viking Battle Ship

The Viking Battle Ship

Viking, vikings, armour, Brisbane, Brisbane Courier, church, clothing, fete, fête, St. Paul’s church, parade, QLD, Queensland, recreation, saga, sword, swords, battle, battles, ships, ship, weapons, weapon, weaponry

An article on page 4 of the Brisbane Courier newspaper on July 10, 1908. The article is about the decision to make a Viking battleship (in other articles about the event it is referred to as a Viking Dragon Ship) the centre-piece of a church fête. The decision was made by the workers of St. Paul’s church, Leichhardt Street, in Brisbane. The article notes that as Vikings collected ransom from those whom they raided, the ‘modern imitators of that great race of people’ would also demand ransom, but it would be used for a good cause. Entertainment at the fête included sagas, which were perhaps excerpts from sagas about the Vikings written in Iceland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It is also reported that there was a street parade the night before the fête which featured a band of modern Vikings led by a Jarl (Old Norse for Earl) wearing ‘skyrtas and kyrtils [Old Norse for shirts and tunic/gowns], and ring armour, and armed with swords and battle axes’. The use of Viking terminology is an unusual feature of this article.

Anon.

National Library of Australia

Brisbane Courier

10 July 1908

No Copyright

Newspaper Article; PDF

English

Newspaper Article; PDF