In 1932, the Australian army started an offensive against a horde of itinerant emus. The Australian Emu War would be chalked down as a victory for the emus.

In Indian mythology, the god Indra rescues the world by killing an evil serpent with a thunderbolt. In Norse mythology, Thor famously slays the serpent Jörmungandr with thunder. This similarity is one tantalizing clue to the fact that the mythologies and languages of Europe and India share a common source—a lost culture about which we know little, but owe much.

Ivar the Boneless is a legendary figure from the Norse sagas, apparently inspired by a real Viking who led a brutal army into England in 865 AD.