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The stamp shows a map similar to a woodcut
map by Sebastian Münster, with Viking routes from Norway and
Ireland to the Faroe Islands and Iceland. The one south from Norway
along the coast of Europe marks the raids on the Netherlands and
France from ca. 790 to 912. By 825 Vikings had reached the Faroe
Islands which the colonized by 850. From there they went south to
establish three Norse colonies in Ireland, and east to Iceland early
in the ninth century.
The stamp pictures a
Viking ship, a map of the Atlantic with the presumed route of Leifr
Eriksson to the North American continent in 1002 and 1008. Leifr and
his brother Thorvald who accompanied him were the sons of Eric the Red
of Norway who settled Iceland about 978-982, and then went on to
Greenland in 985.
The stamp was issued April 30, 1934 to mark the New
York World's Fair in 1939. It was overprinted 1940 on
April 30, 1940.
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