Viking / Norse Mythology As A Topic

Thanks Joshua,
good karma for you.

I have the Canada Legendary Creatures (1289 - 1292) thematic collection available for sale. Includes booklet, FDC and MNH block of four. Catalogues $15.........will sell for $10 delivered anywhere in Canada.

Includes Sasquatch, Kraken, Werewolf and Ogopogo.

Sweden's "Nordic Mythology - Mythical Places" souvenir sheet:

Here are images of Vikingar (Viking Life), a booklet of eight stamps engraved by Czselaw Slania and issued by Sweden on March 23, 1990, Scott Nos. 1801-1808, Facit Nos. 1609-1616.

- nethryk

Cover with English translation. Note the misspelling of "warfare" in the first paragraph!


Booklet pane.


Center four stamps: Out to sea (1802); The town (1803); At the helm (1806); Landing (1807).


Carved viking head & moulded dragon's head (1801); Booty- bishop's crozier & deer in gold thread (1804).


Religion: Fro Ingwe, god of fertility & silver crucifix (1804); Sword hilts (1808).

The Grottasöngr or the Song of Grótti is an Old Norse poem. Fenja and Menja were two slave girls descended from mountain giants who were forced to grind gold for the Danish King Frodi with the magical mill Grotte. One night the king was attacked by an army whose captain took Fenja, Menja and the mill Grotte as prisoners. Aboard his ship, the girls were forced to grind salt. The ship sank from the weight of all the salt, but Fenja and Menja continued to grind on the bottom of the sea. This is the reason for the saltiness of the sea.

Here is an image of a miniature sheet designed by Juha Pykäläinen depicting Fenja and Menja, offset, and issued by Åland on March 26, 2004, Scott No. 221, Facit No. 232.

- nethryk

Haven't seen this one listed yet.


Norway Mi 291 / Sc B31

Vendel Era Swedish booklet:

Speak softly...and carry a big axe.

Thorfinn Karlsefni, Icelandic explorer and first European colonist in America (circa 1010 AD), designed after a bronze statue (1920) by Icelandic sculptor Einar Jónsson (1874-1954), engraved and printed by Thomas De la Rue & Co., London, and issued by Iceland on June 30, 1939, Scott No. 229, Facit No. 260, plus a photo of the statue in Philadelphia.

- nethryk

Viking ship in a storm, frame designed by L. Hessheimer, printed by offset (Elbemuuhl, Vienna), and issued by Iceland on January 1, 1930, Scott No. 153, Facit No. 174.

- nethryk

The last must be a rare example of the longest commemoration. 1000 years when it is usually 50 or 100 or 400 years nowadays.

A cursory glance through the stamps of Germany, Greece and Italy (for starters) would pick up plenty of 1000 + year anniversaries, I should think. One example would be Italy 1937 2000th anniversary of the birth of Augustus the Great.

Don't know what a British poster stamp has to do with the Vikings, but life is full of such mysteries.

At the Helm - from the Vikingar series of Swedish Stamps

Here is an image of a stamp depicting Leif Ericsson's ship and the route of his voyage to America, engraved and printed by Thomas De La Rue & Co., Ltd, and issued by Iceland on April 30, 1939 to celebrate the Icelandic participation in the New York World's Fair, Scott No. 214, Facit No. 253.

- nethryk

I am new here, but I am sorting through the collection that I inherited and I came across this one. I do not know anything about it other than it was released before the end of WWII.



I believe there are more viking centric stamps in the collection, so if I find more I'll post them.