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| Solan Gundersen |
One of the wonderful things about stamps and postcards is they introduce characters unknown to me and Norway's Christmas stamps of 2013 did just that. These were two of the inhabitants of the fictional Norwegian village of Flåklypa dreamed up by Kjell Aukrust.
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| The grumpy neighbour |
Norway Post showed the stamps and characters with an amusing post
here. They mention one of Kjell Aukrust's other characters in the introduction
"When Ludvig was featured on Norway Post’s Christmas stamps in 1988, Solan Gundersen was just a little jealous...". I don't have those stamps but here is Ludvig in the stamp catalogue
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| Ludvig with Ski Stick and Ludvig reading a letter |
and, as the entry says he is one of the most popular characters, featuring in many films such as 'Solan and Ludvig' when something important was missing at Christmas,
snow.
The next set of stamps are of characters well known all over the world their adventures having been translated into a hundred languages
Now you possibly may be wondering why Guernsey issued an Asterix set. The reason was the exciting discovery by a local diver of a Gallo-Roman ship in 1982 which had caught fire and sunk near St Peter Port harbour. Although the ship was Roman it was probably crewed by Gauls just like Asterix and his friends and built in roughly the same era the cartoon is set. Peter Rowlands (son of the Guernsey Maritime Trust's Geoff Rowlands) made this connection asking if this was Asterix's ship. Dr Margaret Rule (leading the excavation) said no, but the little adventurer would have known ships like it. The stamps issued in 1992 tell the story as if it were indeed one of Asterix's adventures (the preservation and display of the ship became Operation Asterix). There were stamps and a Prestige Booklet issued, the latter was in different languages and, as you see, the FDC sheet I happen to own is in German
16p - Building the ship Dogmatrix thinks it would be quicker with magic potion. 23p - Refused magic potion again Obelix sighs, loading the cargo 28p - Laden with wheat, tiles and pitch the ship sets sail for Guernsey
33p - Attacked and set alight, the pitch melts and the ship sinks quickly 39p - The crew and some cargo are saved. The ship settles slowly in the silt. The last pane alters with the language of the sheet and who Asterix shakes hands with.
4 comments:
I didn't know Flåklypa. You're right: we can learn a lot thanks to the stamps.
Asterix is a beloved character of mine. I think I've read all the books. Even some in Latin, when I was at the high school, but I didn't know about these stamps and the story behind. I've received an Asterix stamp some time ago that made me happy!
The Norwegian characters are a riot, and make for great stamps.
The story behind the Asterix Guernsey set is fascinating - and of course the stamps are a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing these.
I love those Norwegian stamps!
And the Asterix stamps of course, I had never seen these before. Very interesting, the story behind these, thank you for sharing!
I only have one Norwegian friend who sends me a letter each Christmas - unfortunately not the ones you've shown. Asterix is doing well this week and I like the Guernsey connection.
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