Vikings in Australia! That’s a long way from home, isn’t it? Now we know that in addition to going to Iceland, Greenland, and North America, the Vikings sailed to Australia. University of Sydney archaeologists have uncovered a Viking settlement near Derby on the northwestern coast: Foundations, graves, implements, weapons, and human remains.
Imagine their encounters with the aboriginal people who might have spoken Wunambal, Worora, or Ngarinyin, languages highly different from medieval Norse dialects. Talk about the arrival of aliens from another world! They differed in many ways from the indigenous people, but the Viking penchant for travel was probably the chief difference. Place was for many Vikings a temporary lodging, a point from which to explore and raid. Loot seemed more important than land. In contrast, the animist Australians felt a special spiritual tie to the places of their births.
The visitors, the Vikings, left a millennium-old physical mark on the land that will change only slowly with geologic processes. The aboriginal people left a different kind of mark, a living tradition that seems to maintain the spirit of the place. In a yearly festival of dance and art, that spirit of place seems as durable as any stone tomb.
Imagine their encounters with the aboriginal people who might have spoken Wunambal, Worora, or Ngarinyin, languages highly different from medieval Norse dialects. Talk about the arrival of aliens from another world! They differed in many ways from the indigenous people, but the Viking penchant for travel was probably the chief difference. Place was for many Vikings a temporary lodging, a point from which to explore and raid. Loot seemed more important than land. In contrast, the animist Australians felt a special spiritual tie to the places of their births.
The visitors, the Vikings, left a millennium-old physical mark on the land that will change only slowly with geologic processes. The aboriginal people left a different kind of mark, a living tradition that seems to maintain the spirit of the place. In a yearly festival of dance and art, that spirit of place seems as durable as any stone tomb.
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