King Gunther's voyage to Iceland

Date of Issue: September 06, 1924
Scott #: B72

This is a semi-postal stamp - a postage stamp issued to raise money for some purpose (such as a charitable cause) and thus sold over and above the cost of postage. The stamp shows two denominations separated by a plus sign. The purpose of surtax of this stamp was for child welfare.

This stamp is one of the six stamps of Nibelungen issue and these stamps are printed in two sizes.

Nibelungen Lied (Nibelungen - name of an ancient royal race which possessed a great treasure ; Lied - song or ballad), one of the world's greatest epics, made its appearance in the 12th or 13th Century, in South Germany.

King Gunther's voyage to Iceland is a chapter/ballad in this great epic.

The German Nibelungen and the corresponding Old Norse form Niflung (Niflungr) is the name in Germanic and Norse mythology of the royal family or lineage of the Burgundians who settled at Worms. The vast wealth of the Burgundians is often referred to as the Niblung or Niflung hoard. In some German texts Nibelung appears instead as one of the supposed original owners of that hoard, either the name of one of the kings of a people known as the Nibelungs, or in variant form Nybling, as the name of a dwarf.

Click here to know more about Nibelungen.

Source: Wikipedia and other websites.

Discovery of Vinland - 1000th Anniversary

Date of Issue: March 16, 2000
Scott #: 905a

Designs:
40k - Viking with shield, globe
50k - Viking ship sailing
75k - Viking ship at shore
90k - Viking without shield, globe

Vinland was the name given to an area of North America by the Norseman - Leif Eriksson, about the year A.D. 1001.

In 1960 archaeological evidence of the only known Norse settlement in North America (outside of Greenland) was found at L'Anse aux Meadows (see map)

There is a consensus among scholars that the Vikings did reach North America, approximately five centuries prior to the voyages of Christopher Columbus.

The name Vinland has been interpreted in two ways: traditionally as Vínland ("wine-land") and more recently as Vinland (meadow- or pasture-land).

The main source of information about the Viking voyages to Vinland is derived from two Icelandic sagas, The Saga of Eric the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders.

If interested in knowing more, click here.

Source: Wikipedia

John Wickliffe and Philip Laing

Date of Issue: February 23, 1948
Scott #: 269

This stamp was issued to commemorate centenary of settlement in the Otago Province.

The two ships - John Wickliffe and Philip Laing are the first to carry settlers from England to Otago Province in New Zealand in 1848. The picture used in the stamp is taken from an 1898 painting by Captain D O Robertson. The Philip Laing sails into Port Chalmers on 15 April 1848, joining the John Wickliffe, which had arrived on 23 March.

Greenpeace - 25th Anniversary - 1997

(click to view larger picture)

Date of Issue: March 06, 1997
Scott #: 4141, 4142, 4143, 4144
Souvenir Sheet: 4145

Thanks to blogger friend Mr. Kallai Ladislau, Romania for sending me these set of stamps and souvenir sheet with MV Greenpeace III in various views.

Greenpeace is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) for the protection and conservation of the environment. It has a worldwide presence with national and regional offices in over 40 countries, which are affiliated to the Amsterdam-based Greenpeace International.

Greenpeace, originally known as the Greenpeace Foundation, was founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1971.

In 1972 the yacht Vega, a 12.5-metre (41 ft) ketch owned by David McTaggart (an eventual spokesman for Greenpeace International), was renamed Greenpeace III and sailed in an anti-nuclear protest (banner 'stop nuke transport' can be seen in the souvenir sheet) into the exclusion zone at Mururoa in French Polynesia to attempt to disrupt French atmospheric nuclear testing. This voyage was sponsored and organised by the New Zealand branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. CNDNZ and the New Zealand Peace Media had been lobbying the New Zealand Government and the New Zealand public to place pressure on Britain and France to agree to enforce a nuclear test ban in the South Pacific since the mid 1950s.

Click here for complete details on Greenpeace organization and its campaigns.

Belgian Antarctic Expedition 1897 - 1899

(click to view larger image)

Date of Issue: August 18, 1997
Scott #: 4175E, F, G, H

Thanks to my blogger friend Kallai Ladislau (e-PhilEx) for sending me these set of stamps.

Belgica - Originally named "Patria" was obtained and re-named Belgica for the Belgian Antarctic Expedition led by Commandant Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery of the Belgian Navy. The main aim of the expedition was to find the position of the South Magnetic Pole. The expedition was intended to be summer only, returning before the Antarctic winter began.

The Belgica left Antwerp on August 16th 1897. She crossed the Antarctic Circle on the 15th of Feb 1898 off Palmer Land on the Antarctic Peninsula. The men of the Belgica made the first ever land excursions into Antarctica, spending a week ashore in an attempt to travel inland.

After more than a year trapped in the ice, the crew again supervised by Amundsen and Cook, sawed a channel through the ice over a period of weeks to free the ship which could then return to Belgium.

The persons depicted in the stamp are:
Emil Racovita - Biologist
Frederick A. Cook - Surgeon, anthropologist, and photographer
Roald Amundsen - 1st mate
Adrian de Gerlache - Commandant

Source: coolantarctica.com

Sofia (1883), Finland

Date of Issue: October 20, 2008

This is a Joint issue by Finland and Greenland Post to commemorate 125 years of Adolf Erik Nordenskiold's voyage with his research vessel - Sofia between Spitsbergen and Greenland.

A. E. Nordenskiold (1832 - 1901) was a Finnish geologist, mineralogist and arctic explorer. He is most remembered for the Vega expedition along the northern coast of Eurasia.

The A.E. Nordenskiöld Collection of maps is located at the University of Helsinki, and it is included in the Memory of the World Register of UNESCO.